The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-25 00:00:00

present civil service of India. Some of the dearest and
most valued friends I have in the world belong to that
service, and for the general spirit and character of that
service I feel the greatest respect and affection. I think
it wonderful that a body of men not picked or chosen, but
taken merely at random— appointed because one is the son
of a director, because another is the nephew of a director,
because another is related to some person who has been,
perhaps, of great service to a President of the Board of
Control at a contested election—(a laugh)—l think it won-
derful that men selected purely and avowedly on grounds
of a personal nature should have conducted themselves as
they have done, and have discharged duties of great diffi-
culty with so much success. It is, I think, a thing glorious
to our country that 800 men taken in that way—at random
—from among the gentlemen of England, should have con-
ducted themselves in general with such distinguished abi-
lity and probity. That, however, is no reason for not mak-
ing the service better, if we can do so, and it is impossible
to deny that we have proofs that the service is not entirely
free from defects. How, indeed, could it be otherwise ?
You must necessarily have a certain number of inferior
men in a service formed in such a manner—in a ser-
vice consisting of 800 men, not selected on the ground of
ability. Among any 800 gentlemen whom you might select
at random there would be a certain number of men of every
superior
_powers ; the great majority might be not very
much above, nor very much below, the average of ability;
but there must necessarily be, in every body of 800 men,
not selected by some test of ability, a considerable number
—say a tenth, or, if you please, a twentieth—who fall de-
cidedly below the average of ability. Now, you can do
very well with this. You don't want all the clerks in the
War-office, or the Treasury, to be superior men. There is
plenty of routine business to be done in those offices which
a man of no great ability can transact. The men of small
ability do that routine business ; the men of great ability
rise in position. But the case is different in the Indian
service. You have there 800 men charged with the hap-
piness of 120,000,000 of people. There is not a single one
of those men upon whose capacity the happiness of a very
large number of human beings may not, in any situation,
depend. It is utterly impossible that one-tenth part or
one-twentieth part of that service can consist of incapable
men without causing great suffering to thousands of indi-
viduals ; and here, I believe, we find the real explanation
of that which has appeared to me, from all I have been
able to learn, the most defective point of our system in In-
dia. I quite agree with the noble lord who moved the
amendment as to the evils of the judicial system in India.
(Hear, hear.) All the evidence leads me to that conclusion;
but permit me to say that this is no novelty. Those evils
was distinctly predicted before the bill of 1833 passed. I
heard them predicted myself. It was said by a very able
man :—" Your opening the China trade will, in one sense,
inflict great evils upon the people of India, unless you alter
the mode in which the patronage is dispensed. While
patronage is exercised as it is exercised, there will always
be a certain number of incapable men in the service. At
present they are sent into the trade ; your able men aro
left for judicial, revenue, and political positions. If you
abolish the trade you will still have the same proportion of
incapacity in the service, but there will no longer be com-
mercial affairs to which you can appoint these men of small
ability, and you will send them to the judicial department."
The prophecy has been strictly realised, for the to judicial
department they have gone. (Hear, hear.) The evidence
before us leaves no doubt that though there are very emi-
nently able and useful men—as able and useful as any which
the service comprises—in the judicial department, yet that
in general it is to that department that men deficient in
ability and energy are sent ; and I do not blame those who
have taken this course; for, shocking as it sounds in the ear
of an Englishman to say that the collection of taxes is more
important than the administration of justice, yet practically
I do believe that the happiness of the people of a district in
India depends more upon the ability of the revenue collec-
tor than oven upon the ability of the judge. (Hear.) Now,
what is the remedy for this ? Not, I think—as some
would propose—to strengthen the judicial department at
the expense of the revenue department,—not, in my
opinion, to pour out upon India—as has been suggested—
some scores of barristers from the back rows of the Court
of Queen's Bench, and to give them office as Indian judges.
The true remedy is to raise the general character of the
service—(cheers)—and to take such measures that it may
be the highest degree improbable that any men who aro
really incapable—any men who are below par—will find
their way into that service at all. (Hear, hear.) I believe
that the plan proposed by her Majesty's Government will
accomplish this end, and it is on that ground chiefly that
I give it my most sincere and cordial support. Ono word
more. It seems to me that this plan provides the best
means that can be imagined for effecting an object upon
which much has been said, and which I admit to be desir-
able—the gradual admission of natives to a share in the
higher offices of the Government. (Hear.) Legally, they
are now admissible ; practically, none have been admitted.
I do not blame those who do not admit them, for it is my
belief that there is not in India a young native whom it
would be a kindness to the native population to place, at
the present moment, in your civil service. I can conceive
nothing more unfortunate for the people of India than that
you should put into the civil service a native, because he
is a native, if he is to be the last man in that service,—a
man decidedly inferior in attainments to all the other
members of that service, and who would be looked down
upon by his European colleagues. Above all, I cannot
conceive anything more pernicious than the suggestion
which has been made, that before you admit any native to
the service at all—before any native has been even an assis-
tant collector or a judge, you should take some sis.tirs eud
appoint him a memhsn- rriscst, or all propositions,
won" seem to me least likely to promote the real benefit
of the people of India. -Under the proposed system, it
would depend on the natives themselves, and upon them
alone, at what time they should enter into the civil service.
As soon as any young native of distinguished parts should,
by the cultivation of English literature, have enabled him-
self to be victorious in competition over European candi-
dates, be would, in the most honourable manner, by con-
quest, as a matter of right, and not as a mereeleemosynary
donation, obtain access to the service. (Hear, hear.) It
would then be utterly impossible for his Europeon fellows
to look down upon him ; he would enter the service in the
best and most honourable way ; and I believe that in
this mode, and. in this mode alone, can the object which so
many friends of the native population have in view be at-
tained in a manner at all satisfactory. I differ, lam well
aware, as to the effect of the admission of natives to such
situations, from a noble lord (the Earl of Ellenborough),
whom I mentioned a short time ago. That noble lord is
of opinion, not only that we ought to exclude natives from
office, but that even by encouraging them to study the
arts and learning of Europe we are preparing the way for
the utter destruction of our power in India. I must leave
it to the noble lord to explain what seems to me a rather
singular inconsistency in his opinion. lam at a loss to
understand how, while utterly contemning education when
it is given to Europeans, he should regard it with dread
when it is given to natives. This training, we are told,
when given to a European, makes him a bookworm, a
twaddler, unfit for active life; but give the same education
to the Hindoo, and he is to acquire such an accession of
intellect that an established government, 150,000 soldiers,
and the whole army and navy of England are to go down
before its irresistible power. Ido not pretend to explain
how the knowledge which is power in one race can be ab-
solutely impotent in another ; but I can only say, for my-
self, with regard to this question, that, in my opinion, we
shall not secure or prolong our ,dominion in India by
attempting to exclude the natives of that country from a
share in its government, or by attempting to discourage
their study of western learning ; and I will only say,
further, that, however that may be, I will never consent
to keep them ignorant in order to keep them manageable,
or to govern them in ignorance in order to govern them
long. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. BLACKETT differed from Mr. Macaulay on the
subject of the double government, which was the principle
of the bill, and which, as the spring and fountain of the
Indian administration, affected all its results. He con-
sented to judge the existing system by its results, which
would discover, he said, that it possessed all the vices both
of a despotism and of a representative government, with-
out the advantages of either. All the shortcomings of the
existing system, he contended, could be repaired only by
concentrating the home government, subjecting it to the
utmost amount of responsibility in England. The changes
in the double 'government left it as before, so far as re-
garded responsibility. The check of an independent Court
of Directors was pro tanto, an advantage; but the bill
stripped the Court of all its prerogatives, and transferred
them to the President of the Board of Control. He should
support the amendment.

Lord JOCELYN differed with pain from Lord Stanley,
against whose proposition he felt compelled to vote. He
considered that we had sufficient evidence to frame a go-
vernment for India, and he could not agree that delay was
a matter of no importance. Although he did not believe
that it would endanger our rule in India, or encourage in-
surrection, he believed that it would weaken and paralyse
the Government at home and abroad ; that it would teach
the people of India to expect far more than they were likely
to gain, and that disappointment would create discontent.
He, therefore, thought that Parliament was bound to
legislate now ; and, with respect to the bill before the
house, he concurred in its principle, though he dissented
from some of its provisions. He defended the government
of India in the matter of the land assessment. The judicial
department he thought one of the great blots of that go-
vernment. Less had also been laid out upon education
than should have been ; but the Government had not neg-
lected this object. The sum expended upon public works
had been comparatively small ; but millions had been
wasted in unjust and unprovoked wars, for which the
Board of Control was to blame ; and he was not prepared,
therefore, to concede to the Adninistration of the day that
authority in India which had.produced such unfavourable
results in our colonies. Being friendly to a double system
of government for India, he, nevertheless, was sensible of
the defects of the present mode of electing the directors ;
but he could not approve of the change which the bill pro-
posed to make in the constitution of the Court. He dis-
approved likewise of the mode in which it was intended to
deal with the patronage ; a portion of the military ap-
pointments, he agreed with Lord Stanley, should be given
to the servants of the East India Company.
Mr. OTWAY insisted that before Parliament legislated
upon this subject it was expedient that the wants and the
views of the natives of India should be ascertained. He
read descriptions of their wretched condition, and of the
cruelty and oppression to which they were said to be sub-
jected. He dwelt upon the alleged abuses in the adminis-
tration of justice in India, and the neglect of works of
public utility and necessity, and he complained of the in-
justice of imposing an irresponsible bureaucracy upon the
people of India. He should vote for the amendment.
Mr. ADDERLEY likewise supported the amendment,
which supposed, he said, necessarily that a continuance
bill should be passed to give time for the preparation of a
better measure than that before the house, which was al-
most universally disapproved. Mr. Macaulay, by confining
its defence to one clause of the bill, shirking all its great
principles, had virtually condemned the remainder. The
want of information could not be more clearly shown than
by the bill itself. Its avowed object was to secure the in-
dependence, by making it a one-third nominated council.
In order to obviate misapprehension, he recommended the
addition to the amendment of the words, " that it is ex-
pedient to continue the present act for two years."

Mr. MANGLES defended the Indian Government,
which, he maintained, in spite of excusable omissions and
shortcomings, was the best Government of a great depend-
ency the world ever saw. It was important that somebody
should be interposed between the local administration of
India and the Ministers of the Crown, with whom, how-
ever, resided the sole power of peace and war, for the ex-
ercise of which they were responsible. He then replied to
various statements made in the course of the debate with
reference to-the land revenue, the Indian debt and finan-
ces, public works, and the alleged nepotism of the direc-
tors.

Mr. F. VILLIERS moved that the debate be adjourned.
Lord J. RUSSELL expressed a hope that the discussion
would be brought to a close on Monday.
Mr. BRIGHT observed, that those who opposed the
measure were not responsible for its unnecessary introduc-
tion. For his part, he would not be sorry if the debate
were to terminate on Monday, but he could not undertake
that it would be so.
The debate was then adjourned to Monday.