The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-24 00:00:00

had cost a million sterling, and contrast that with the
279,009/. spent by the company over a period of years.
It was of no use to say that they had been prevented by
wars They boasted of their public roads, and instanced
the road from Calcutta to the frontier, but the natives
looked upon that as a great military road, and not made
for the people. But there was one subject which had not
bean touched upon, and that was the condition of the bulk
of the people of India. The notion of a native ( f India in
this country was a half-dressed savage, with a little cotton
round his loins, labouring for his bread in the broiling sun ;
but the people forgot that they had here the debris of a
,great monarchy, that they hadfort eif subjects people who
had wrestled with them for empire t aristocracies, who
had ruled the country, and'great s who had adniinis-
tered, provinces before we took posses- in of them. The peo-
ple in Scinde, in the Punjaub, and in the annexed districts,
felt that theywere condemned to a life ofinactivity infavour
of a body of 'men who, as Burke said, had no connexion
with the country, and went there merely to make their for-
tunes. Look at the way in which they had dealt with the In-
dian princes. They had a number of associated and subsidiary
princes who had treaties with them ; and if they differed
with them on the subject of these treaties, to whom could
they have recourse ? If the princes came to England, and
applied at the India House, they were referred to the Pre-
sident of the Board of Control, and if they applied to him
they were referred to the Governor-General of India. He
thought if there was a tribunal of arbitration under the
authority of the sovereign of this country, the natives
would gladly pay implicit obedience to it. Why, from the
first night of this discussion there had been in this house
great Parsee merchants, who had come to this country for
Justice which had been denied them in India, and there
had been the Vakeel of the Rajah of Sattarah, who com-
plained that his principality had been taken from him by
injustice, and that he could gain no redress. (Hear.) Did
they think that these things did not sink deep into the
minds of the people of India? His hon. friend the member
for Kidderminster alluded to the events which were taking
place in Eastern Europe. There were possible contingen-
cies which would vibrate through the whole of India. It
might be that a change of government at Constantinople
might strangely affect the whole Mussnlman population of
the world, and if the Indian people found that their native
princes had justice denied them, that their nobles were
deprived of their privileges, and that they themselves
were oppressed, the consequences' might be dangerous.
It appeared to him that by the omission in the bill to pro-
vide, that fair scope should be given 'to the abilities of the
natives they had omitted to do that by which alone they
could depend on their fidelity and count on their attach-
ment. To give fair scope to the abilities of the natives
had been recommended by Sir Thomas Munro, by Mr.
Elphinstone and others who were competent to give their
advice as to their Indian Government. Mr. Elphinstone
said—" We must not conceal from ourselves the causes
which have combined to exclude the natives from any
share in the administration of India. It is an overween-
ing sense of our own superiority, a love of power, and an
interests
are which I deem groundless, that, as their
are advanced, those of European agents will be dete-
riorated. But, if lam right in believing, as I conscien-
tiously do, that unless they are treated with more con-
fidence, elevated by more distinction, and admitted to
higher employment, we cannot hope to preserve for any
long period our dominions in this country ; no feelings or
considerations should be allowed to oppose their gradual
progress to every civil function and employ. By raising
the most active and eminent of the natives of India in
their own estimation and that of others, we shall reconcile
them, and, through them, the population at large, to a
government which, daring to confide in its own justice and
wisdom, casts off the common, narrow, and depressing
rules of foreign conquerors." Then Sir Thos. Munro said
—" Under a native government, independent of the mutual
adaptation of the institutions and the people, there is a
connected chain throughout the society, and a free commu-
nication between the different parts. Notwithstanding the
distinctions of caste there is no country where men rise
with more ease from the lowest rank to the highest. The
first nabob of Oude was a petty merchant, the first
peishwah a village accountant. The ancestors of Holkar
were goatherds, and those of Scindiah slaves. All these,
and many other instances, took place within the last cen-
tury. Promotions from among the common people to all
the ranks of civil and military employment short of sove-
reignty are of daily occurrence under native states ; and
this keeps up the spirit of the people, and, in that respect,
partially supplies the place of popular institutions. • The
free intercourse of different ranks also keeps up a sort of
circulation and diffusion of such knowledge and such senti-
ment as exist in the society. Under us, on the contrary,
the community is divided into two perfectly distinct and
definite bodies, of which the one is torpid and inactive,
while all the power seems concentrated in theother." Now
these were not the opinions of Young India, notthe opinions
of theorists, but of the best servants of the company, who,
he was afraid they were the exception, had made it their
business to become acquainted with the wants and feelings
of the natives. In looking at the state of the people of In-
dia they found them excluded from the higher grades of
civil employment, and that they could not rise in the army
beyond the rank of captain, while beardless youths were
put over them. He was not fond of quoting classic autho-
rities, but there was a passage which was put into the
mouth of one of the great orators at Rome, complaining of
the narrow spirit of the oligarchy there, which was appli-
cable to the state of things in India : " Nam postquam
respublica in paucorum potentium jus abque ditionem con-
cessit semper illis reges tetrarchie vectigales esse populi
uationes stipendia pendere ; ceteri omnes strenui boni
nobiles atque ignobiles vulgus fuimus sine gratis sine
auctoritate his obnoxii quibus si respublica valeret
formidini essemus. Itaque omnis potentia bones divitiae
apud illos sunt ant übi ibi volunt nobis religuerunt pericula
repulses judicia egestatem." To appreciate fully the feel-
ings of the natives, they must remember that the natives
constantly saw young Europeans promoted to higher rank
than they could •themselves hope to attain in the longest
life. Was this-ersatisfatt.t.n.of things? They were
told in one breath that this bill gave the company no defi-
nite lease of power, and on the other hand that it was a
settlement, and that it would stop agitation. He said this
bill invited agitation in India and in England. With re-
gard to the alteration in the direction, he thought the di-
rectors and the President of the Board of Control ought to
be brought face to face, and be one consultive body, and if
the president overruled their decisions the subject should
be brought before Parliament. He did not approve of the
system of ballotting out the directors who were to retire.
They might lose all the brain by that systein. The ballot
was no respecter of persons, and they might through it lose
men like the hon. members for Honiton and Guildford.
The persons nominated by the crown must have served 10
years in India. Why, this would exclude the Governors-
General, the Commanders of the Forces, every man
who had been goVernor of an inferior presidency, and
the legal members of the legislative council. He trusted
if the house rejected the motion of the noble lord, it would
reject the motion.for the second reading of the bill. IL
thought that the bill which they should pass would pre-
vide that in future the administration should be carried
on in the name of the crown, and that in future the '
people of India should know they were the subjects of
the crown, and that the army and navy of India should
know they wore serving the crown, and that they were
invested with all the state authority and influence of
the crown. Her Majesty had recently added to her ac-
quisitions that illustrious jewel which once adorned
the crown of the greatest potentate in India. He hoped
that her possession of that jewel would be a pledge to the
people of India that in future their prosperity would be
promoted, their comforts provided for, their advancement
secured, not by a company which had interposed between
them and the crown, but by the weight and authority and
influence of her ajesty and her successors, who, he
trusted, would long reign over that great dependency as
sovereigns of the people of India. (Cheers.)
Sir R. INGLIS said he objected both to the bill and to
the amendment, and had no reason, ,therefore, to expect
sympathy from either side of the house. This was not the
only instance in which the attention given by the house
was in inverse ratio to the importance of the subject. It
was a matter of history that even in the days of Burke
India was the dinner bell of the House of Commons. There
were but five members on the opposition side of the house
when the noble lord moved his amendment, and only one
cheer was given on that side of the house, while only seven
cheers were given on the other side. Ho. (Sir R. Inglis)
objected to the indefiniteness of the period for the dura-
tion of this bill. He could not understand how a house
which was so jealous of the influence of Government that
it would not tolerate a third Secretary of State on its
benches, should yet be ready to transfer to the Minister of
the day the patronage of India—a patronage so vast that
the whole of that at present in the hands of Government
was but a mere fraction compared with it. (Hear, hear.)
He must say, too, that after having heard the President
of the Board of Control in one of the longest speeches ever
delivered in the house, panegyrise the administration of
the East India Company, he was much surprised that the
right hon. baronet during the last half hour of his address
should have proposed a measure to destroy that machinery
on the working of which he had commented with so much
satisfaction. But the motion of the noble lord was still
more objectionable; for though there was no "public" in
India, it was impossible to doubt that whenever there was
a free press and the means of representing public opinion,
much agitation would be carried on during the whole du-
ration of the continuing act which the noble lord had pro-
posed. India was pre-eminently an empire of opinion. It
had been formed and consolidated by the superiority of
the Anglo-Saxon race in intellect, in arms, and in moral
character; and he viewed with alarm the effect which two
or three years of agitation must have upon the confidence
of the natives irr the general superiority of our institutions
—(hear, hear)—the manifestoes of the gentlemen who met
in Charles-street and of the Manchester school were suffi-
cient demonstration that delay was unnecessary. Those
gentlemen declared that sufficient evidence had been taken
to justify them in condemning the present system ; but if
that was so, there was also evidence enough already taken
to justify other persons in coming to an opposite conclu-
sion. He could refer to the testimony of at least twenty
witnesses to disprove the assertion of the Manchester school,
that " the people of India had been left in a condition of
misery disgraceful to their rulers." He had recently re-
ceived a letter from a missionary in the Punjaub, who de-
scribed the exertions of both the civil and military authori-
ties as most praiseworthy ; and the condition of the people,
under the protection and justice of British rule, is most
gratifying ; in fact, said the writer, " the work of gene-
rations had been done in the Punjaub in a few years."
(Cheers.) Re-echoing the sentiments of this missionary,
the hon baronet expressed a hope that more would be done
for the spiritual good of the natives. When they heard
of a bishopric which extended 2,000 miles from the north-
west to the south-east, he felt sure that they would agree
the task was too much for any one man, though he felt
bound to pay the warmest tribute to the 17 years' labours
of Bishop Wilson. (Hear.) He did not wish to do any-
thing against idolatry, but he wished to do nothing for it ;
and above all, to prevent that support being given to it
which resulted from the confiscation of a man's goods if he
were converted to the Christian faith. (Hear, hear.) It
had been argued that the position of the Indian question
was different now from what it was in 1833. That he de-
nied. The only difference was, that in 1833 the China
trade, which had up to that time been exclusively in the
hands of the company, had been thrown open. He should
certainly oppose the amendment, but he trusted that the
bill would be greatly improved in committee, particularly
in severing the connection of the Government with the
patronage of the company, in maintaining the present
number of the directors, and other particulars. In this
hope he should support the second reading.
Mr. H. J. BAILLIE said it was impossible to overrate
the importance of the question the house was called upon
to decide, or the interest which it had excited in the public
mind ; and he trusted that they would therefore approach
it without reference to party feelings. (Cheers) He
would not enter into the controversy which had raged so
fiercely on both sides respecting the past administration' of
the East India Company—which, on the one hand, had
been, •
12.,auted by the President of the Board of Control in
ane_h g.lPwing colours ; but which had been denounced as
:IrcLuelln;al:w.y. the honourable member for Manchester. The
"uu waSs that the right hon. gentleman had carefully
omitted all the evils of the present system, and that the
house haaricl, as carefully suppressed all its good. The
ja.thittihn, 1833raimis ver/rlzzotanf
India.
edihznglehsehbailid