Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-10 00:00:00

THE CONDITION OF INDIA.

MEETING OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

The members of the Chamber of Commerce were invited
to meet yesterday, to hear some statements relative to the
condition of India, from Mr. John Freeman, a gentleman
connected 'with India, and resident for many years in that
country. There was but a thin attendance. The chair was
taken at one o'clock, by Mr. John Torr, president of the
Chamber. Among the other gentlemen present were
P. Messrs. William Brown,- M., Christopher Bushell, J.
T. Denson, C. E. Rawlins, F. Boult, Corballe, &c.
The CHAIRMAN briefly introduced Mr. Freeman as a
gentleman who, from his long residences in India, and
thorough knowledge of its affairs, was eminently qualified
to afford the Chamber some valuable information upon
the subject.
Mr. FezeneN commenced his observations by re-
marking that he presumed the greatest anxiety of his
hearers at present would be as to the probability of
India being severed from, the British Crown, in
consequence of the rebellion now going on. Pointing
out upon the map the comparatively small portion of
the uorth-west of the Bengal provinces, to which the
rebellion is csnfined, he declared that she did not think
there was the slighest cause whatever for any apprehension
as to the ultimate result of the rebellion, so far as British
connexion with India was concerned. He had not the
slightest doubt that the rebellion, if it was not actually put
down at present, would very shortly be so, and that there
need be no apprehension whatever as to the result of the
means taken to suppress it. He then pointed out the
gradual increase is import auce of the imports and exports
of India, which in the year 1855-6,. reached the value of
124 crores of rupees, or 124 millions of English money.
He showed by statistics taken from a circular published
by Mr. George Brown, of the firm of Jardine, Skinner
and *Co, of Calcutta, that the amount had been gradually
and steadily increasing since 1837. The subjects to which
he especialy desired to draw attention were the cause,
which principally operated to check the results of British
energy and capital from having their due effect
in developing the resources of India. In the
first instance he referred to the insecurity of
the tenure of land. He was the first British-born
subject who, after the renewal of the company's charter
in 1834, purchased an estate, sold for arrears of revenue by
the company. Up to that time lito British subject could
hold land oat of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. His
estate was about 300 miles train Calcutta, and the Ganges
ran through it. An estate in India di i not, like an Eng-
lish estate, consist of 3,000 or 4,000 acres of land. The
estate he purchased consisted of 34 villages, and the chief
village c tntained 1,800 souls, the estate covering about
75,000 acres of land. He petitioned the company to send
down an agent to show him the limits of the estate he bad
purchased, but although he offered to pay all the expense
himself, they refused to do so. When he endeavoured to
collect in his revenues, he found that the old proprietors
were still collecting them ; and not only was his authority
set at defiance, but ha waecharged before a magistrate
with having gone about sacking the villages with a
strong fore', although he declared that he had
not stirred from his hut. Here he gave a very
amusing account of the manner in which, while endea-
vouring to collect his revenue, he was treated as a culprit
before the magistrates, and when he had after much diffi-
culty disproved the charees, and showed his title to the
property, he was not allowed to prosecute his accusers
for perjury. By the law releting to land, if the revenue to
the company was not paid by sunset upon a certain day,
the estate was sequestered and sold. The under tenant-,
among whom such estates were usually divided, had no
security whatever; for if, after they had paid for their land,
the head proprietor did not pay up the revenues to the
company, the whole estate was sold. and the under tenants
lost their holdings. How, then, he asked, was it possible
to expect that British capital would be largely inv-sted in
land? Then came the inaptitude and inefficiency of the
civil service for putting in force the laws, bad as they
were, and the inefficacy of the police and administration of
justice. Mr. Freeman detailed instances occurring
to himself to show how utterly inefficient was
the legal administration to protect indigo and other
planters from the rapacity and violence of native extor-
tioners and plunderers, and how British subjects were
forced to have recourse to arms in their own defence. The
manner in which judges, magistrates, and assistant magis-
trates were appointed he also condemned in the strongest
terms. The Company did not look to whether a man was
competent to be a magistrate. B)s just out of colleee,
who had had no training suitable for the purpose, were
sometimes entrusted with the administration of justice to
a million of people. Any man was good enough to be a
judge or a magistrate. Their best men the flempany
app.-Anted collectors, because their abilities were greater to
contend against the tights of those who might Oppose the
collection of the revenues. He knew men in India who
admitted their own incompetence to sit upon the bench,
but the Company did not discharge their civil servants for
such incapacity. There was a judge at Hooghly, who
was allowed to remain for years upon the bench. Although
he begged and prayed the Government himself to remove
him —so much did he feel his incapacity to administer
justice; and it was only when the British-born
subjects petitioned that he got an agency down in the
country. and another judge was appointed. Mr. Freeman
painted to the in lifference and want of known:Age evinced
by the government, in reftrence to the present awful
occasion. Delhi was the greatest arsenal of India. At the
time when the insurrectiou took place, there were 1,300
pieces of artillery there, independent of the cannons upon
the ramparts. In Delhi there was not one single European
soldier, although in February or March, when the first
regiment was disarmed at Birrackpora, there was full
warning given, and the government subsequently received
warning from many sonrc,s, military and civil, that some-
thing was wrong, something feverish was underneath.
Why, at the first warning, was not even one European
regiment sent into Delhi? If there had been one European
regiment, or even .500 European soldiers there, Delhi
would never have answered the purposes of the insurgents
and traitors. It had become a second Sebastopol by the
negligence of the government, in allowing a city of that
imeortante, to remain wholly unguarded by British
troops. Mr. Vernon Smith stated in the House of
Commons that the ream' of this was the unhealthy climate
of Delhi. Why. then, hive made it a groat military
depot? Bat he (Slr. Freeman) denied that Delhi was
more unhealthy than any other parts of India. Mr. Free-
mad then proceeded to se yak of what are known as the
" Black Acts," by which Bri ish s objects in India are
virtu fly deprived of the right of trial by jury, and handed
over to the tender mercies of native judges. From the
operation of these acts, all the Company's officers, civil and
military, were excluded, which he declared of itself
sufficiently stamped their character, for if the acts were
good enough for a British merchant—a Rothschild or a
Baring—why should a mat, because he happened to be
servant of the Company, be exempted from their op 'ration ?
Ha declared the introduction of these acts an attempt to
drive the British settler out of India altogether, because
British settlers were energetic and enterprising men—
because since they had got the liberty of the press they
were apt to expose the acts of the Government,
and the Company's system was so bad that it would
not bear God's daylight. In 1849, when the
Black Acts were introduced, there was a meeting held at
Calcutta of British merchants and residents, and such an
influential movement was made against them, that they
were shelved from that Cm: until last win'er. An attempt
was then made to introduce them again, and an equally
important meeting was held to protest against them, and
all the shops ware closed in Calcutta. Mr. Freeman laid
before the meeting newsmen containing reports of the
proceedings which took place at the meeting, and called
especisl a tention to the speech of Sir Arthur Buller, in
the Legislative Council, in opposidon to the acts. ids.
Freeman proceeded to remark, that if the East India
Company had done one twentieth part as much for India
as Manchester and Livereo )1 had done, they would not
have had so much reason to complain. Since the Company
had been out of the silk market, the country had
produced ten times as much silk as before. At
one time they paid an agent £B,OOO a year for
purchasing cocoons, and be paid such a price for
them that no one else could go near him, thus
tieing a ruinous business for the Company, as they must
have soon discovered if they had balanced their books.
What did India require ? She required radical reform in
her administration, radical reform in the constitution of
her governmeut, and full encouragement for the British
settlers. They should look to India not only for the
present day, but for the future, when Canada and New
South Wales would probably be separated from England.
He pointed out the vast advantages which India possessed
as 'a consuming and a producing country. Daring the
Russian war, jute, hemp, even tallow, were sent from
India. He recollected when not fifty tons of sugar were
brought from India, and he had seen 100,000 tons shipped
from Calcutta. Tea was beiog cu tivated largely. bilk
and linseed were increasing in the same way. The
peculiarity of India was, that she was capable of
producing any crop called for, and in any quantity,
Lie exhibited specimens of cottea from 'lndia. and
promised every facility for the growing of any quantity
of seed Manchester and Liverpool might send cut.
What we required was that the Queen's Government
should be proclaimed in India in preference
to the East India Company's. The company's authority
was so looked up to in India, that when the Queen's effigy
was stamped upon the coins, the ignorant natives thought
it was the company's wife. (Laughter.) Mr Freeman
explained that one of the main
.objects of his mission to
England, was to urge petitions to parliament that the
sovrnrsout.of India should be in the name of the British