The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-02 00:00:00

LON DON, Ti URSDA_Y EVENING, JUNE 2, 1853.

INDIAN MISGOVERNMEFT exposed in the
lii.tory of Sir C. :Nap!, r's Ailminlstration of &hide. I vol.
Svo., with Illustrations. Price ISs.

London : Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly.

" THE PRESS."—On Saturday, the 4th June,
No. V., price 6d , of " THE PRESS," the new weekly
Conservative paper. Published every Saturday. Wee, No. lie,
Strand. Money orders for subscriptions to be made payable to Mr.
Alfred lye.

"THE WINNER OF THE DERBY."

WEATHER unusually fine drew thousands to
the "Downs," and every 'rode of conveyance was adopted
by visitors anxious to witness the results of the race, through clouds
of dust, which the Roman poet inriti.ons when referring to the
famous Olympic. classes had t, pass, but never was the contest
of Dress so plainly decided, and that which looked elegant and felt
comfortable secured the pa'm. Th's, r, on a'l previous occasions,
was universany awarded to the pre Motions of E. 11f OSES and SON.
The fact is, the mate' iris n which the SUMMER DRESS is made
are such as dust and sunbeams never &lenge, and the cut and style
of the Garments meet with (qua( approbation amongst all daises,
from the nobleman to the hid u-trions mechanic. Predictions rela-
tive to the winner of the "Dc-b)" have, on slum occasions, proved
fallacious, but "West Aust-elan" v.T9 generrlly considered the
favourite by all parties. Emblems illustrate business, and names
interpret commercial transactions; but in no case could this be so
applicable as to the Business of E. MOSES and Sort, always victorious
in the race of commerce in this country, winning public approbation
by first-rate Dress at every season of the year, tek'ng the start in
every new style, and me'ntairrng through the COURSE of the seasons,
and turtling the STAKES in the pubic favour by Oving them a large
per centage in the price of every ar'is'e of Dress, to measure or
ready-made. Also in Hats. Caps, Hosiery, Boots and Shoes, &c.,
&c„ and at the same time winning as, triumphantly to Australia,
both West and South, by Cnfantic transactions with every class of
Emigrants, who find their Clothing and Outfits more suitable for
their purpose as " Gold-tUggers," Fr•mers, or any other profession.
" The Winner of the Derby," then, is the Business of E. MOSES
and Sort ; but the profits arising train the victory are distributed
amongst the patrons of E. 11103 ES and Some Establishment and its
Branches, by the superior quality and very low price of every
article in Summer Attire, and Outfits for Emigrants to all climates.

HOSPITAL FOR CONSUMPTION AND DISEASES OF THE
CIIEST.—The twelfth anniversary of the Hospital for
Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, was celebrated
yesterday by a public dinner at Willis's Rooms, King-
street, St. James's-square. The Marquis of Westminster
presided on the occasion, and was supported by Lord
Feversham, Lord Dynevor. the Rev. Sir H. Foulis,
Bart. ; Mr. E. Warner, M.P. ; Colonel Whichcote, the
Rev. Mr. W. Bowyer, the Rev. R. Montgomery, &c.
The company consisted altogether of about 80 gentle.
men. It appeared from the report of the committee o
management, that 443 in-patients had been admitted
into the hospital during the past year. Of that number
292 had been discharged relieved ; 61 had died in the
hospital, and 90 remained in the wards. The number
of out-patients of the hospital during the last year hAd
been 3,671. The total number of persons relieved since
the opening of the new building stood thus :—ln-pa-
tients, 2,445 ; out-patients, 21,441 ; total, 23,886. In
the course of the evening lists of subscriptions were read
amounting to nearly 2,0001. The proceedings were
enlivened by the performance of select pieces of vocal
and instrumental music. Mr. Toole discharged the duty
of toast-master throughout the evening with his usual
efficiency.
HOPE—BEFORE AND AFTER MARRIAGE.—Boys and
galls fall in love. The boy is all attention and devo-
tion, and the gall is all smiles, and airs, and graces,
and pretty little winnin' ways, and they bill and coo,
and get married because they hope. Well, what do
they hope? Oh, they hope they will love all the days
of their lives, and they hope their lives will be ever
so long just to love each other ; its such a sweet thing
to love. Well, they hope a great deal more I guess.
The boy hopes arter he's married his wife will smile as
sweet as ever and twice as often, and be just as neat and
twice as neater, her hair lookin' like part of the head, se
tight, and bright, and glossy, and parted on the tep
like a path in the forest. Poor fellow, he aint
spoony at all. Is he ? And he hopes that her
temper will be as gentle and as meek and as mild as
ever ;in fact, no temper at all—all amiability—an
angel in petticoats. Well, she hopes every minute
he has to spare he will fly to her on the wings of love
m ighhert, hbuurtt
billhis
Funleggs,s
bauitntsyfast enough,
to
leaveher—andandnervuenrnin'
and coo for ever, and will let her will be his law ;
sartainly wont want her to wait on him, but for
him to tend on her, the devoted critter, like a heavenly
ministering white he-nigger. Well, don't they hope
they may get all this ? And do they ? Jist go into
any house you like, and the last two that talks is
these ha.sibeen lovers. His dress is on tidy, and he
smokes a short black pipe (be didn't even smoke a
never saw
rsbefore he was married), and the ashes get on his
waistcoat • but who cares ? it's only his wife to see
it- and he kinder guesses he sees wrinkles, where lie
areas
downa a
sw ' e
ifmh
little, just
a s breakfast
jeru,e
a saotknlafi
at
tl
little,ee, r
mw stockingdtrhoewneater
art
toaei nrl
heela,ci lreits a;;wn and
andnu dlddr
she
hbes
be
lookin' she
and
nldi t thl ee
lmoreets better.her
g o
little angel ! but it'st oHebeneldsyi ue
because
lateu se ewithdh e shehod cries,
a h efriends,tande-
ache. The dashing young alonegent ; a
le
stingy too, lately. He sais houmsaknn has'
co
e eepin gots
costs too
much, rips out an ugly word every now and then,
she never heerd afore ; but she hopes—what does the
poor dupe hope ? Why,l
?isantdhastheuglolyokws
iotrdoust‘ dianmt,h"etdhiaettihoneaursyes,
asnodofteshne
she hopes he aint swearin' ;
but it sounds amazin' like it--that's a fact
lWathelayt
finds "dam" means the "mother of a colt." Well, she
hopes to be a mother herself some day, poor critter ! So
her hope has ended in her findin' a mare's nest at last:—
Sant Slick's Wise Saws.

THE INDIAN QUESTION.

(Prom the Times.)
To-morrow evening a declaration will be made,
on the part of the Ministry, respecting the mea-
sures to be proposed for the future government of
India. This much Was already known from the
formal notification on the subject, but the language
employed by Lord John Russell on Tuesday even-
ing now enables us to infer more particularly the
course to be pursued. The President of the Board
of Control, said his lordship, would on Friday
next develope the Ministerial resolutions, and, in
making his statement, " would of course give his
reasons for proposing to legislate on the subject at
the present moment." What these reasons law be
we do not pretend to conjecture, but we are pro-
foundly convinced that one reason only for such a
proceeding will be satisfactory to the country—and
that is the competence of Government to propose
such a scheme as is required. Nobody can deny
that the sooner India is put under a good system
of administratioil, the better, and if the difficulties
of the question have so far vanished that Govern-
ment is prepared, without further delay, to pro-
duce a complete, sufficient, and acceptable consti-
tution for our Indian empire, the fact will redound
largely to their credit. If, however, they have
been induced by any solicitations or apprehensions
to precipitate the solution of a problem imperfectly
understood ; if they are intending to legislate, not
because they feel themselves qualified to legislate,
but because they conceive legislation should not be
suspended ; if, in short, they are proposing to
sacrifice the future prospects Of India and its popu-
lation to the assumed.exigencies of a present con-
juncture, it needs no peculiar gift of prophecy to
foretell the reception of their measure.
The people of this country are now thoroughly
acquainted with the true position of the question,
and alive to its importance. They may not be yet
competent to enter into details, but they know the
leading facts of the case, and are conscious of their
own responsibilities. They know that the Govern-
ment of India, as at present constituted, comes to
a natural and pre-appointed termination in the
course of next year. They know that there was
once an East India Company, but that the vested

interests of this company- in India were all liberally
considered and satisfied long ago. They knout that
since 1833 the Government of India has been ad-

ministered by the Court of East India Directors,
not in any right or by any title of their own, but
as trustees for the Crown, and under the Crown's
control. They know that this trust is on the point
of expiring, and that there exists not the smallest
obligation on the Legislature to renew it, except
such as may be derived from its ascertainable ex-
cellence in answering the ends of all government,
the happiness, prosperity, and contentment of the
country governed.
For the last twelvemonth public attention has
been directed to a critical examination of these
results, and what has been discovered? The sub-
stantial failure of the experiment. We are not pro-
posing to lay all the sufferings of India to the
constitution or conduct of its administration ; but
there are certain facts in the character of the
Government and the position of the governed so
plainly connected with each other that it is impos-
sible to overlook or misunderstand them. India is
miserably poor. It is quite true that it was always
a poor country, according to correct ideas of na-
tional wealth, but it is now poorer than ever, and
is becoming poorer still. Taxation has been
Itshed to its utmost limit of productiveness, and
indeed beyond ; yet of all the revenue so collected
such a pittance only can be spared for the wants of
the country itself, that agriculture languishes, in-
ternal communications fail, and the population is
periodically exposed to the miseries of famines,
which the outlay of a few thousand pounds would
have prevented. While such is the absolute impo-
tence of the Indian Exchequer, look at the enor-
mous extravagance of the Indian Government !
Every department is maintained and salaried in
duplicate ; the single object of the system being to
preserve the Imperial Ministry from temptations to
dishonesty—its single result to obstruct all govern-
ment whatever. In India there is an empty Trea-
sury, an annual deficit, and a miserable population ;
at home there is no security for administrative
competence, and no responsibility for maladminis-
tration.

While all this is perfectly understood a moral
has been duly drawn from events actually now
transpiring. We have a Burmese war upon our
hands. We have plunged into the centre of a bar-
barous empire, and are, perhaps, at this moment in
(
full march for Ava, with the declared obligation
of keeping in perpetuity every mile of territory
we traverse. We have done this while the Exche-
quer of Calcutta is failing, and while the two
chief sources of Indian revenue are threatened,
one with diminution, and the other possibly with
extinction. The salt and opium duties are the
Customs and Excise of India. The former are re-
ported as falling off ; the latter have depended
upon two strange coditions—that opium-eating in
China should be widely practised, and strictly for-
bidden. The revolution in that country has al-
ready deranged the commercial relations on which
we relied. The home production of opium is to
be legalised, and what the Chinese can grow for
themselves they will not import from Hindostan.
Undoubtedly, this event is not chargeable upon
the Indian Government, but its consequences are.
It is through our system of administration that
these opium duties have become indispensable ;
and for this administration who is to account ?
Who, at this moment, for instance, is fairly re-
sponsible to Parliament for the Burmese war ? Is
it Lord Dalhousie ? He is under the orders of the
Secret Committee, which is under the orders of
the Board of Control. Is it the Board of Control ?
The Board is represented by the President, and
the President has been changed three times
over during the last two years. In the conglo-
meration of officials constituting this complex
Government, nobody can tell whether this or
that individual is an autocrat or a dummy—
whether he is doing everything or does nothing.
Chance, not rule, determines their spheres of ac-
tion, while the country remains totally in the dark.
The actual Governor of India may be
a powerful
Chairman of the Court of Directors, or an influ-
ential Deputy-Chairman, or an experienced mem-
ber of the Secret Committee, or the President of the
Board of Control, or the President's adviser. Each
of these may be active or inactive, sharp or som-
nolent, bustling or bilious ; and the real control of
Indian affairs may reside anywhere or nowhere.
There is no British Minister substantially respon-
sible to the British Parliament for the good govern-
ment of 100,000,000 British subjects.
This is the system of administration—exemplified
in things actually around us,
in mismanaged
finances, unimproved resources, and consequent
embarrassments—that the country desires to see
terminated at this, the preappointed period foi
reconsidering our Indian policy. If Sir Charles
Wood can bring in a bill which will give India one
good government instead of two bad ones, each
making the other worse,—if he can establish
a direct responsibility to parliament in place of
a political screen, behind which any follies can
be committed with impunity,—if he can provide
the Indian Minister with such assessors as shall
havetishtebiesont,
his presumptivecapacity for Indian
administration, promptitude and skill. will
legislate partially
leagues ; but if he proposes tosubject, out
or
prematurely on this important._ . of a
reflect the highest credit on himself and his col-
leagues
fallibly commit the Govern-
ment he will in
to a very dangerous proceeding.
mere reluctance to wait for the information or op-
portunity,

(Prom the Morning Chronicle.)
It will have been seen, from Lord John Russell's
statement on Tuesday evening, that the Govern-
ment persevere in their determination to declare
their Indian policy to-morrow ; and they are
assured beforehand of ready, if not hearty, criti-
cism. On Monday next, if Lord Ellenborough
persists in the intention which he announced a
week ago, the ministerial plan will be subjected to
review in the House of Lords ; and the strange
confederacy of gentlemen holding the most opposite
sentiments, who call themselves the Indian Reform
Society, are also preparing to act. A public meet-
ing is to be assembled to denounce the Government
measure, in the highly probable event of its failing
to approve itself to the zealous loyalty of Mr.
Lucas and Mr. Moore, to the calm impartiality of
Mr. Lewin, and to the profound knowledge of other
members of a committee which has been judiciously
selected with a view, not to the redress of
grievances, but to the representation of every class
of malcontents who are dissatisfied with English
institutions in any part of the world. Nothing will
be easier than to collect an audience who will listen
with complacency to declamations simultaneously
directed against the malversations of the company,
the interference of the Crown, the exclusion
of the natives from high office, and the tyranny
which they exercise in subordinate employments ;
nor will a promiscuous assemblage inquire too
accurately whether any plan which may be sug-

Bested is either consistent with itself or compatible
with the maintenance of English dominion in
India. The publications of the Iteforni Society
afford little clue to the opinions or intentions of
the leaders in the movement. Mr. Dickinson, the
secretary, in his able and vigorous pamphlet, at-
tacks all portions of the existing system indiscri-
minately ; while a tract, composed partly of a long
extract from Mill's history, and partly of an argu-
ment to the same effect by Mr. Sullivan, is de-
voted to a denunciation of the absolute power
claimed, and occasionally exercised, by the Board
of Control.

Lord Ellenborough knows his own meaning
thoroughly, and .makes the intelligible proposal
that the Court of Directors should be abolished,
and that all power should be concentrated in the
hands of the Ministers of the Crown. On the
other hand, it is possible that some persons might
be disposed to undo the legislation of 1784 and.
1788, aid to restore to the Company the manage-
ment of affairs for which its representatives are
likely to possess special qualifications. Such a
project, however, is not worth discussing, for the
simple reason that, under present circumstances,
no political party would support it. But,
apart from these two systems, or sonic union of
the principles which they embody, there is no
other alternative remaining. Either the Crown,
or some independent authority, or a combination
of both, must form the Home Administration of
India. It is not necessary, however, that, where
two elements of power exist, they should be so ar-
ranged as to counteract each other. Singleness of
purpose and action is not incompatibreN-illi-alarge
and composite basis of authority ; and even if Can-
non-row and Leadenhall-street were both main-
tained, their relations might be amended and sim-
plified. It is certain that the direct power of the
Crown cannot, by indefinite extension, be made
effective for the regeneration of our Eastern empire.
It is strange that those who are most clamorous for
the responsibility of the Indian Administration to
Parliament should fail to perceive that it already
exists in theory, and that it has been inoperative
solely in consequence of the indifference of both
houses to Indian affairs. Until the recent agitation
commenced, Lord Ellenborough always failed to
obtain a hearing for his powerful denunciations of
the company and of the Court of Directors ; nor was
any general feeling of indignation excited when a
minister, of little weight or reputation, avowed, in
a tone of levity rather than of candour, his own
responsibility—and, by implication, the responsi-
bility of Parliament—for the most deplorable crime
and folly perpetrated by England during the pre-
sent generation.
If it is proper and constitutional that the Crown
should control all Indian policy, it is far more im-
portant that a share of the administrative authority
should be in the hands of persons possessing special
qualifications, and exclusively devoted to the
interests of the empire which they are to govern.
Almost all the shortcomings imputed to the English
Government originate, so far as they are real, in
insufficient information. The most familiar, and
at the same time the most serious, of all Indian
grievances arises from the errors committed in the
settlement of the land revenue. The Zemindary
system established in Bengal, and in three districts
of Madras, appears in general to have worked.
badly ; and it was undoubtedly founded on a mis-
apprehension of the true character of the local
chiefs. The ryotwar arrangement, on the other
hand, which prevails through the greater part of
Madras and Bombay, is based on an error in judg-
ment of a precisely opposite character. Lord
Cornwallis treated the Zemindar as if he had been
an English landlord—Sir Thomas Munro con-
sidered that the ryot held immediately of the
Government. In neither case was there any other
desire on the part of the rulers of India than
to do justice to private interests without endan-
gering the public revenue. If both systems
have failed —as the Madras petitioners, with
much show of reason, allege—it is certainly not
rational to infer that future settlements ought to
be made by an ill-informed Parliament in England,
acting in accordance with a wholly uninstructed
public opinion. Politicians who wish to legislate
at home for the details of our Eastern Administra-
tion will do well to observe the difficulties which
appear on the face of every proposal for change. It
is urged in the Madras petition that the English
collectors exercise an insufficient control over their
native subordinates—the telisildars and therista-
, dars. Yet the same document contains the most
earnest demands for a reduction in the number of
those English officials who alone, it would seem,
according to the former allegation, afford a check
on the fraud and oppression incidental to the col-
lection of the revenue.

Those who have formed their notions of Indian
affairs from the pamphlets and declamations which
have abounded for the last four months, will do
well to inquire whether experienced Anglo-Indians
are the complacent optimists who aro popularly
supposed to be leagued together in defence of exist-
ing abuses. The evidence given before the Com-
mittees by some of the most eminent civilians
will show that the largest and most liberal views
of improvement are quite as compatible with accu-
rate knowledge as with querulous ignorance and
presumption. There are no warmer advocates of
the promotion of natives to a higher rank in the
service than some of those able administrators who
have spent their lives amongst them. The abuses
connected with the land revenue aro most fully
illustrated by men who have not only witnessed
their operation, but have studied the various alter-
native experiments which have been tried in other
portions of our Eastern Empire. It is for the
Legislature to facilitate every improvement which
can be devised either in the judicial or in the
financial system of India ; but the direct in-
terference of Parliament in the settlement of
questions of practical administration would be
equivalent to a determination that no advantage
should be derived from any additional knowledge
which may hereafter be acquired. Sir George
Clerk thinks the ryotwar the worst of several bad
methods of collecting the Government revenue ;
but he points out the difficulty of substituting a
different arrangement in districts where there are
neither Zemindars to become answerable for the
tax, nor any elective system by which villages
could choose their own representatives. Not de-
spairing of improvement, however, lie recommends
that various new experiments should be tried in
various provinces. A special Act of Parliament to
regulate the land revenue would effectually pre-
vent the ultimate establishment of some satisfactory
system, which has not as yet been even discovered.
All arguments on points of detail come round
to the same result—that India requires a strong
and a well-informed Government, and not detailed
legislation from England. The first step towards
the correction of abuses is to secure the best ad-
ministrative organisation at home ; and this is
the task which the Ministry propose to un-
dertake. No impartial mind can believe that
native evidence as to the state of India could
throw any useful light on the question of the con-
struction
of the new governing body at home. A
thousand additional complaints of the want of
tanks, roads, and bridges would only illustrate
the necessity of organising a system by which the
revenue should be economised and profitably ex-
pended. The crude suggestion which has been
made, that a fixed percentage of the public income
should be appropriated to works of improvement,
is a specimen of the rapidity with which irrespon-
sible projectors arrive at positive conclusions.
The Government, on the other hand, who are '
blamed for precipitation, because they decline to
throw the Indian system into the crucible, proceed
with comparative caution. It is not probable that
the Ministers have made up their minds as to the
claims of Zemindars, or as to the disputed merits
of Punchayets ; but, conducting their delibera-
tions more gradually than their opponents, they
have arrived at the preliminary conclusion that the
first want of India is a vigorous and intelligent
Government.

THE LIVEPOOL ELECTION COMMITTEE.—SIIICIDE OF
ONE OF THE WITNESSES.—Yesterday Mr. Kibblewhite,
the summoning officer of Christ Church, Blackfriars,
sent information to Mr. Carter, the Surrey coroner, that
one of the witnesses summoned before the committee of
the house respectingthe Liverpool election had destroyed
his life. It appears that two of the electors, one named
Thomas Parkinson and the other (his cousin) Joesph
Parkinson, took lodgings for the time they were engaged
to attend the committee, in Brunswick-street, Black-
friars-road. On Tuesday morning Thomas Parkinson
proceeded to' the water-closet in the yard, where he
managed to pass a black silk handkerchief through '
hole in the door, and then suspended himself to the
same. He was quickly discovered, but instead of the
inmates of the house at once cutting him down, they
sent to the police-station for assistance. Police constable
23 Lat once attended and cut him down. Mr. Bolton, '
surgeon, of Cross-street, promptly arrived, opened the
jugular vein in the arm; but only a few drops of blood
flowed, and ho pronounced life to be quite extinct.
There is no doubt that if the deceased had been cut
down when he was first discovered, his life would have
been saved. Ho is stated to be a widower, and about
40 years of age. It is expected that the inquest will be
held to•morroW.(Friday).