The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-08 00:00:00

[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.]

Either Sir CHARLES WOOD and the House of
Commons have carried a most unrighteous Bill
for India, or Mr. CARDWELL and his Amalgama-
tion Committee suggest a most unrighteous enact-
ment for Railway Companies. The general ability
of the Committee's report is confessed, it is worthy
to rank with the very able one made to the
American Congress which it quotes with approba-
tion ; but there is one resolution which stands
pre-eminent for good or evil amongst the practical
ones,—we mean the 9th. It enacts—
" That every Board of Directors should be required to
register with the railway department, some one person,
to whom should be delegated the chief authority over all
the external discipline of the company and its servants ;
also for every part of the line, some person should be
registered as resident engineer; and for every portion of
the locomotive stock some person as locomotive engineer."
Now we are not about at present to discuss
these resolutions as to their practicability ; but
one thing seems to be universally acknow-
ledged, that the principle of the one just recited
is thoroughly sound. That principle is responsi-
bility. It is desired that if accidents occur by
carelessness or mismanagement, those who have
charge of the legal inquiry may know whose
guilt or innocence is to be inquired into ; who
ought to be brought to trial when there is suspi-
cion of misconduct ; and who ought to bear the
penalty if misconduct be proved. It is desired
that one official shall not have power to shuffle
his delinquencies off to a second, and he to a
third, and all to the want of due concert
between them, and so forth, till the public
and juries are left standing aghast at some
palpable and avoidable error, for which, how-
ever, no one is responsible. Such is the
object of the resolution, and we have not yet
heard that it is objected to by Railway Boards.
If carried, the result must be that a class of first-
rate superintendents will be created ; since not
only would Boards refuse to entrust such a charge
to any ordinary man, but hardly any oae without
competent knowledge, dares expose himself to the
hazard of being found guilty of mismanagement in
his department, after a " dreadful railway acci-
de t." Now, all this is held to be excellent
policy in regard to the safety and welfare of the
one or two hundred Englishmen who suffer yearly
more or less by railway accidents. A most in-
telligent and competent Committee of the House of
Commons says the very best thing we can think of,
the only thing we can formally propose is the re-
sponsibility of some individual in each department
where causes of accident arise. The Committee
thinks that details may be nearly all confided
safely to the hands of the persons who will have to
bear all the consequences of their failure, and who
is equally sure to find his services abundantly de-
manded and remunerated if he be specially suc-
cessful. There can be no doubt of the thorough
soundness of the principle. The American Com-
mittee appealed to it. Mr. CARDWELL'S Com-
mittee does the same ; nay, every merchant,
banker, or manufacturer, every intelligent person,
in short, who has more to do than his own eyes
can watch over, is constantly acting on this
principle.
Why, then, have the House of Commons so
completely thrown it overboard in regard to India?
Why, if good as the maximum of protection for
a few hundreds of railway travellers, is it worth-
less for the protection of 150 millions of our
Indian fellow-subjects ? Mr. CARDWELL'S 9th
Resolution is the model on which it might be un-
dertaken to legislate, with universal approbation,
for India ; but it is on that account the severest
condemnation of Sir CHAS. WOOD'S perpetuation
of mystery and irresponsibility in Indian affairs.
So long as that country remains a dependency of
England, and so long as it is incapable of enjoy-
ing Representative Assemblies of its own, the one
thing needed is the clear responsibilty of its chief
officials to the British Houses of Parliament.
Only suppose that, as for the three chief depart-
ments of railway working, so for the principal
departments of Indian management, some
one individual were to be held respon-
sible ; were open to the interrogatories of Mr.
BRIGHT, Mr. PHILLIMORE, and Mr. BLACKETT,
were liable to have a Parliamentary Committee
sitting upon their conduct, and to have a Blue
Book and report published for Indian Reformers
and newspaper editors to wade into with no par-
ticular prepossessions in favour of officials ; as-
suredly, in that case, questions of internal improve-
ments and external wars, of the administration of
justice and the collection of revenue, of education
also, and employment of natives, would soon all
of them put on a very different face. Their pre-
sent one would not be long presentable to the pub-
lic. There would be some one to blush, some one,
if things went too far, or wrongs remained too
long unredressed, to bear a heavier penalty than
b:ushing. Grievous it is to think that, for
the present, this cannot be done. "It is too
late in the session." Not too late to fix
Sir CHARLES WOOD'S salary at 5,000/. a-year,
but much too late to fix him with responsi-
bility. He will still fight from behind the shield
of the Honourable Member for Honiton, and the
Honourable Member will shelter himself behind
the Double Government and the Crown nominees.
The Board of Directors and the Board of Control,
Sir CHARLES WOOD and Sir JAMES HOGG, will Con-
tinue their open and secret correspondence and
conferences. No one will be bound to answer for
anything; officials will enjoy their salaries, and
directors their patronage ; but India will be
mulcted with wasted millions, and harassed with
every species of mal-administration, while Presi-
dents, Secretaries, and Chairmen of Directors will
he enabled to say, " It is no doing, or no fault,
of mine."

Hardly has this undeserving bill escaped from
the Commons, when the clouds begin to thicken.
Indian natives, convened in public meeting by
the Sheriff, condemn the precipitancy of our legis-
lation. They reiterate, and thereby authorise, all
the complaints of the Indian Reformers thus far ;
and they show happily that India begins to be
aware that its demands, duly, temperately, and
manfully expressed, will be welcomed by a large
and effective party in the House of COmmons.
Our Cabinet may be assured that it will not find
it easy long to work their bill in quiet. When
India is fully aware that peaceful discussion is a
mighty power with our Legislature, there will
likely enough be plenty of it. Then follows Mr.
COBDEN'S vigorous pamphlet on the Burmese War,
eliciting from their own Blue Books the irre-
futable facts which convict the authors of the
war of as gross abuse of their veiled and
irresponsibleal authority, as the entire press has
already convicted tneo
ad
ptahoei
tchief
Iconductors
syo ft toh ec
owuanrt,
e
outdeplorable the Hon
ino• these on Mr. COBDEN'S motion respect-
. annexation
of Pegu ; but no count out
can bury in oblivion
the disgraceful facts which
he has disinterred and placed in daylight ; nor
can any plausibilities of Sir CHARLES WOOD—no,
nor even the eloquence of
a
MAomilar--alter
the :plain fact, that we owe the Burmese war to
Double Government and di •
vided authority. That
twos hundred thousand po cis
lin a month, even-=j
tually to come on British. shoulders, and the