The Express.
London, England, 1858-02-25 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

&ries: iums toward@ the Allure Gorernment of I,,Jia.
By Ihr P.itt MAILTINEAU. Baith, Eldrr, and

1858.

Such an incredible quantity. of trash has been
written about the Indian mtrtny and the " Indian
sperst.....i" generally, during the last six or seven
.oaths, that it is panelling in the extreme to alight
upon a work I:te thi!i, which, al:hmoh not the
growth of arrest experience and inquiry in India, is
wanting in none of the advantages derirable from
then a‘vidents. We mar say moat truthfully of these
"Suggestions," that whilst we have never seen a
work, not written by one of Indian antecedents or
tniard in the theory and practice of In-
diet government front early youth, with so
cktr an impression of all the essentialities
of the gnat question now agitating the public mind,
we know many who, baring spent all their lives in
Ind a considrr themselves especially qualified to
instinct the community, but who in comparison with
thu thoughtful and sagacious writer of this volume
are little better than sounding brass or a tinkling
cymbal. These are the genuine, honest utterances
of a char. sound understanding an understanding
▪ übectued 1.4 e enfeebled by party prejudice or
parsoisl aeltis.hners. For our own parte, we wonder
how au y reasonable being can dissent from the pixmo-
'llion thus laid down in the very first page of the
work :

If we take time to collo, t, and teases from, all procurable
kaawledg• on the subject of India, we may make arrange-
Meta for which tho whole world will be the helm. If we
artily decide that India shall be • crown colony, ruled di-
rectly sad entirely from Engles& according to existing
British notions and habits of colonial government, we shall
lure India, speedily, diwracefully. and so disastroasly that
the .teat will be ate of the moat conspicuous calamities be
the history of nations. If it is true that this it the alts,-
nstitu ',gore us, every man's duty is plain—to start himself
to avert a hasty decinion, first, and to proms a who GM
lalirWAZds.

The next important proposition is equally unde-
niable. We have insiated upon it ourselves, in another
department of this j
ournal ; but however obvious it
may be, it has really impressed itself on the minds of
a comparatively few people, and, unfortunately, upon
the anderstandinp of a comparatively small portion
of our legislators :
F.'r the lett time we have to decide on a method of go-
venuoir a vent territory and population without aid from
Lellet or anaiogy. Been if wa made no change at sU in
p7ratus of goverment. it would be a new departure,
Wow It would be a choice—a deliberate adoption of a
salsas of rale : and to such a choice there is so parallel in
If Wilkey. nor perhaps in any other. Our gnat privilege
an • essinn la, that oar British institutions have groan up,
astemilly and inevitably, from our character and our eircum-
nlnnins together. No man, or body of men, ever invented, or
sern foresaw, our cot statut'on as we are Bring under it now.
It appears that there are constitution-mongers in
the present House of Commsns who think it as easy
pet_rike off a new form of government for a hun-
and and fifty millions of people, of different colours
and different creeds, as to write an order for the
strangers' gollery, or draw a cheque on their
bankers. The idea suggested by the question,
" Have you ever done such • thing before?" is
sotoe:hing quite new to the majority of those who
hate voted in favour of what is called the " elimi-
nation" of the East India Company from our future
schemes of government, and have believed at the sass
eit time that they were really doing only • • small
thing. The " small thing" is a total departure all
those principles and rules of action which vs
hitherto enabled us to maintain this mighty anomaly
of our Anglo-Indian government. We are proposing
henceforth to govern India not for the sake of the
Indians, but fur the sake of • parliamentary melo-
rity. Conk' any more vital troth than the following
be enunciated ?

Already the patina prefers the company's gessrals to the
th this , and as other drpirtments t r ,ervie• are kid epee
se view, the sapedmity wilt everywhere appear on the woe
✓d
latvrtaat as this is, there tea consideration (hefare
leasbi apm) which is mire toil:, that India has long
boa, led nowt", governed on behalf al the Indiana; whereas,
bon the hour when so-r•lled p:rha-aentary government
eiseid be ineaseted, that situ could never move be steadily
Mtliblabeed sad Waned. No pest he .1 -risen will asset that
dt thald ; for the sandy saaintetuince rich an aim can be
belied Le only team a epeeist essouaii. n (trader whatever
Mao) of los of special and rare knowkige, Qualified far
*dr lath Ilya fifseints of such a as no Roan can pick
up pinliamat, or attain snywbre ia a 'vireo. When we
mose be nie ledn kr the lodine, we lova India; and to vest
re wets of ladle in the Ilona Civords sod our eivii de-
la is hood over ladle sad the Indians to parties
sharneisaistio It is to regard all public ear-
eke se a pateimeay et ash Ara.

Hare is as enlargement of the same idea :
Oa this head the pals& are provide l with a notion and •
lash. They see that wherever the of, We of the imperial
sad these et the empany come lab comparison,
" of the Whir is oonspeceoua sad augnestion-
ellial.Cricatigsairs military affirms. or Quesa's (deem
well ennead to taffies warfare under the temmay's
amaagemem e. haw maimed, where're tried, eammisse es
MOW as the hies et the other class have bees beam.
sib. TM pee* eat Iffighoad have loss opportmily of haw-
ffig how Or a gnaw earitreat prevails in the civil service ;
hal k Is at least as *ld ne to all who have rwitreeed into
the Maim= offices af the Iwo governments. it Is Mwerslly
anders'ood that =Wag, to live way of tronsection al beiu-
Wets that era maws with the aribievameate is
street, sad la most of the all:es la WM, which
ere held duly respmeible to the central anther*: whams,
we an in the habit of hearing • good deal of the
wastes, and feeling smelting of the miallertuwaTrti,
ear home wholeirovatiou. The natural Infaremmi that la
W highest office, as In both class*. of subordinate tmeetlem
a ampules of the company would answer better this sent
pointed by by the imperial government. All eyes lam et thie
moment to Sir John Lawrence ea the right mum. Whether
he be to or not, the general desire should operate as a=
anannance, to elect anunpopalar oat. if
to, neither royalty, administration, nor ar wouldieesseiu
venters to psa upae y ordinary home-trod 164 as
the ruler of a hoadred Ml.lllollllof mss, rbile there an Alien-
Indiana is east. net who are familiar with the country end
the people, and have proved that they MU administer the one
end rule the other.
Here is another important " Suggestion "—a sug-
gestion which derives additional force from the
accident of the crisis into which the-country has__ just
been thrown by a parliamentary majority. What
is such a crisis to the East India Company ? Dom
it affect—has it ever affected the policy of that body?
Tidy, indeed, says Harriet Martineau:
Through whole centuries of irregular changes and fre-
leant perturbations which Englishmen could control and
overrule at ho ue, but which marls terrible epee if the tate-
rub of oar colones, the government of India has been
stable, consistent, as immutable in the eyes of its Indira
subjects as • god rating from a steadfast throne. In so
peonliar • case, this has been an inestimable blessing. Its
oorporste character, and successions of various men, bare re-
deemed its rule from the curse of deep...lots—the power of
sett-will; while Its independence of the p Xrice of the day
hem protected its docniuitm from the rusintfold mischiefs of
r.iky chnime—mitechies which we admit to be evils at
though we prefer them 1,. the twits of say other
"M em. To Ilindoetan the non-political character of the
company hae been
maintained • Thal matter, Our rale there
each not have tree if the aa•horltles at the India
Beam had been chimed as often as the Ministry, and at the
same tiros with the ins and outs of the Prnident of the
Board in Cannon-row. But the benefit by also been great
to °avulses at home, though wri ma only new be begisning
to aaderstatad the greatness of it. While select to • *m-
ensal sense of nightmare ender our painful auto to get the
W 414114 business dome by groups of offi:ele who alwaya awl
Devereardy tv.,gin in en Incompetent mnditios, sad tumidly
go oat of Aloe or i hinge their font Hen as soon as they be-
come qua to their work, so that the c-induct of public
bwiasse ie a perpetual irritation to middle-elm people who,
la their private affairs, are scouetomed to efficient porton:D-
awn it has been a real timieg to have one public body in
the midst of as which did work effectively, as far as it un-
dertook to work at all. No doubt, it was often jealous in
Na tamper sad restrictive in its policy, and repressive and
mamma. to ramie adventurous mm; bat whatever it under-
lie:li le de was dime la en orderly, preatpt, liberal manner,
an with a eseeinnens forte which would have been imps-
sible If It bed bees hapticated with the Ministers of the day.
Rehm we 'hash MLA an institution as this we are bound
to Macon that the gummiest at India Is secured, as core-
taffy se Iskiterto, from Ging affected by party changes ; bat
ffir hem each • rameation being a feature of the Mini-
M eial pmenal, the plan actually ie to trine India within
OM may sphere of fine ow ion. to eic!ueiso from which she
"Ma bur "ids" .8 • dependen7 of England. English-
imma may now show that they value a blessing before they
ire it.
These are truths worth pondering at the present
moment. There are others equally weighty in this
admirable volume of " Suggestions." Some weeks
must necessarily intervene before the Indian ques-
tion. in all its length and breadth, is again dirkured
by Parliament. We mold hardly suggest any more
adrantsgeous preparation for the discussion than the
study of the many great truths contained in this volume. To some of these we elan probably have
occasion to make incidental referent* in the router
of the eager and protracted coutroversy which Is
looming in the distance. Meanwhile, we cordially
recommend all who archoecetly in search of the truth
not only to peruse but to re-peruse theme pages, and
to take to heart, earnestly and iaelfaceably, the
" Suggestions" which they contain.