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

THE INDIAN QUESTION.

(From. the nines.)
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 ou Tuesday even-
ing now enables us to infer more particular] y the
course to be pursued. The President of the Boardof Control, said his lordship, would on Friday
next develope the Ministerial resolutions, and, in
making statement, " would of course give his
reasons for proposing to legislate on the subject at
the present moment." What these reasons may 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 administration 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, iu short, they are proposing to
sacrifice the future prospects of India and its popu-
lation to the a,ssmned exigencies of a present con-
juncture, it needs no peculiar gift of prophecy to
Toretell-the- receptten of-their measure- •
Tho 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 pre-sent 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 know 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
Governnient 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
becoming poorer still. Taxation has been
}Tailed 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 aro 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 for
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
have the best presumptive capacity for Indian
administration, his promptitude and skill will
reflect the highest credit on himself and his col-
leagues • but if ho proposes to legislate partially or
prematurely on this b important subject,: out of a
portunity, he
~sill infallibly commit the
Govern-
mentous proceeding.
to a very danger
mere reluctance to wait for the information or op-

( 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
to act. A public meet-
•review in the House of Lords ; and the strange
confederacy of gentlemen holding the most opposite
ePatrolufenounce the Government
y probable event of its failing
sentiments, who call themselves the Indian Reform
Society,imnega
sisu troe abirene
talassembledesohpigrh
to approve itself to the zealous loyalty of Mr.
Lucas and Mr. Moore to the calm impartiality of
Mr. Lewin, an 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-