The Express.
London, England, 1861-04-20 00:00:00

Hioa WATIOII AT UNIIMW.IIIIIIIDSIL.

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LONDON, RAIIIIIDAT, APRIL 20.

Ir is not often that we And ourselves able to
advocate Sir CsiRLEe WOOD'S Indian measures ;
bet we sinearely hope the /louse of Commons will
support him just now in upholding the policy
traced out in his despatch of the Bth inst., concern-
ing the cultivation of Indigo, and the relations of
the Planters and Hyots. Fur many years the
Planters have been carrying on their business
relying on • system as rotten as that of an Irish
landlord of the olden time, with an estate covered
with conacre tenants, a system of unequal contracts,
voluntary it may be in their small beginnings,bert
impossible of fulfilment by the weaker party, and
ever tending to his ruin. The two cases have this
in common, that both landlord and planter were
encouraged to persist in • system which everybody
saw must break down, by the belief that in the
worst case the law would prove • reliable engine
to enforce their claims. In this country, whore all
the mutual relations of the active classes of society
are ever tending to take the form of mere
contracts for the exchange of services or com-
modities for money, we allow enormous power to
creditors, as our county courts and the
prisons which receive their victims bear wit-
ness. Yet even an unreformed parliament would
make haste to relax the severity of the law if it
appeared that the industrious population of a
whole district were menaced with imprisonment
by the tallymen. The circumstances under which
indigo has hitherto been cultivated in Bengal were
placed before the House of Commons last night
by Mr. Layean, upon the authority of published
evidence, and we strew* recommend our readers
to conquer the repugnance with which Indian topics
are too generally regarded, and to read his speech.
The hon. gentleman said that the cultivation of
indigo was worked upon a system of advances.
Many of these advances were made several years
ago, during the lives of the grandfathers of the
present ryuta, very few having been made of late
years. The result of this system is to cause the
ryot to become a mere slave, attached to the
soil, and completely at the mercy of the planter,
and the system of lawlessness which had resulted,
had never been equalled in any civilized country
in the world. The planters want a law made
at Calcutta which will enable them to treat as ai-
spinals and visit with three menthe' imprisonment
those ryots who fail to keep the contracts
formed under this tremendous pressure. Apart
from all those circumstances in the evidence given
before the Indigo Commission which are so well
calculated to arouse indignation, the fact is we
cannot afford to practise upon the population of
any part of India the severity which the plantets
invoke. This is to some extent • British
taxpayer's question. The quietest population
in the world may be goaded into rebellion
by an attempt to employ our political superiority
oppressively for the peculiar commercial and social
advantage of our countrymen who go to India to
trade. Moreover it is not necessary. In the
despatch already referred to, Sir CHARLES WOOD
says :—" There is evidence on record, given by
" men of intelligence and experience, to show
" that, if fairly treated, the ryot will readily ac:
"up to his agreement, and that, in regard to
" indigo, it is the unpro6tableness of the contract
" which has led to evasion on the part of the
" ryot." The whole of the despatch abounds with
sound reasoning. The true remedy fur the mis-
chief, Sir CHAILLZI Woos observes in another
place, "is not to be found in • resort to legisla-
" tire measures, which, by making the ryot
" criminally punishable for the breach of a civil
" contract, may operate unfairly towards any
" other creditors who may have claims upon him.
" It is rather to be found in dealing fairly by
" his, and in making him feel that a violation or
" evasion of his contract will involve the loss
" of what is advantageous to himself."

TN' attendance of the Tiverton Volunteers at
Lord l'Auearorrox's re-election was an occurrence

to which no one can desire to attach exaggerated
importance. It originated in the best feeling ;it
was simply a compliment, one not too high to be
paid to a veteran statesman, and was accepted
as simply as it was offered. Nevertheless, General
Pam. did right to mention it in the House of Com-
mons last night, in order that it may not become
a misleading example. What volunteers may
do in Tiverton they may do in London, and
petting aside the extreme case supposed by
General Psict, that of a colonel becoming a can.
didate for the suffrages of the fathers and brothers
of his own men, perhaps of the men themselves—
it is plainly not desirable that candidates should
be escorted to the hustings of Marylebone or
Lambeth by partisans in grey or green. This is
just one of those matters which Lord PALIIIM
nox's good sense was sure to put right ; and •
circular from the War-office will inform command-
Mg °Moms of volunteer corps of their duty in
respect of political alesiins.

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