The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-14 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT,

HOUSE OF LORDS—(YESTERDAY.)
THE INDIA BILL.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH rose to move for
correspondence between the President of the Board of
Control and the Court of Directors on the subject of the
measure to be proposed for the future Government of
India. The noble earl said that in the early part of the
year he had expressed an opinion that it would not be
expedient to legislate for India this year, since sufficient
information was not yet obtained for the purpose, yet,
owing to the particular bearing of the present state of
affairs in the east of Europe, or our position as an
Asiatic power, he had come to the conclusion that we
ought to set our house in order, and he was therefore
disposed to acquiesce in the expediency of immediate
legislation. The measure, however, of her Majesty's
Government was more calculated to continue agitation in
India, instead of allaying it. It was a measure which con-
tained two experiments—one upon the Court, and the
other upon the persons to be sent out to India. The
experiment upon the Court was one partaking of an
Asiatic character—it was an experiment of mutilation.
Certainly, in the East, mutilation was usually performed
by the public executioner, but this mutilation
was to be performed by the parties themselves.
He certainly did not approve of this proposed
measure, because the rules which the Government had
drawn were such as would exclude from the Court of
Directors those very persons most likely to be useful.
He believed that, if adopted, it would cause so many
abuses as would lead to the very speedy downfall of the
Court of Directors, and the whole power would be thrown
into the hands of her Majesty's Government at once. He
thought the first thing to be done was to reform the consti-
tuency, for at present out of 1750 constituents only 200
had ever been in India. He would propose that all per-
sons in the civil and military service, all colonels on
furlough, ought to have the power of voting in elections
for directors. He believed that there ought to be in each
court a representative of each of the armies. He re-
gretted that no step had been taken to put an end to
the system of double Government—the most irrational
system of Government which the world had ever seen—
more irrational even than the government of the "Grand
Llama ;" for although that was a "sham," like the
Indian government, yet it was supported by the "pres-
tige" of religion, while the latter was supported only by the
"prestige" of clinging to the bad habits of make-shifts until
they broke down. It was necessary to consider the
effect the alteration of the constitution of the Court of
Directors would have on the distribution of patronage.
It was proposed that admission into the civil service
and the scientific branches of the army should hereafter
be thrown open to competition ; that candidates should
be examined, and the best of them admitted into
Addiscombe and Haileybury, and that those persons
alone should fill offices in the civil service and the sci-
entific branches of the army. He was not aware whe-
ther the Government had considered 'one necessary
consequence of this alteration—a most important one,
and affecting the whole social system of India. It
altogether dissevered the civil service from the Court
of Directors. That service had always been filled by
the sons and relatives and connexions of directors,
who were the constant objects of their care, and they
preserved a sort of ideal superiority over the military, a
superiority which he (Lord Ellenborough) did not think
they necessarily possessed. That system was altogether
practically removed, and all the favour which had been
hitherto shown to the civil service would hereafter be
shown to the officers of the regular army, where only
would be found the sons, relatives, and connections of
directors. This would materially affect the social posi-
tion of persons in the Indian service. He did not de-
precate it, but he thought it right to mention that it
would cause a great social revolution. It was proposed
that persons desiring to become officers in the scientific
branches of the army should go through an examination
before admission, and not be appointed by favour.
With regard to the scientific branches of the army,
and especially the artillery, it was unimproveable. He
really did not see how it was to be improved. Every
military man who knew anything of the matter declared
that the artillery was as good, if not superior, to any in
the world, and it owed that superiority, not only to the
scientific acquirements of those who belonged to it, but
to the tone which they gave to it by being gentlemen.
The same could be said of the engineers, and no exception
could be taken to that branch. With regard to the civil
service he would say (though, personally, he had no
particular reason for being satisfied with it) that those
employed in it were also gentlemen, and he did not see
by the process of the proposed examination that better
men would be got. Nothing was so important as the
preservation of the tone which was given to both ser-
vices, and everything should be done to raise and ele-
vate that tone, than which nothing would more tend to
the preservation of our influence in India ; and some-
thing could be done in that way by sending out persons
of higher connections here, and giving those who served
in India a higher position when they returned to
England. As regarded the army that would give
a greater security against mutiny and insubordina-
tion. Look back to the time when the officers of
the Indian army were not gentlemen, but collected from
the refuse of this country ; there were constant mutinies
and charges of insubordination against men 'calling
themselves officers. You did not see that now, for al-
though there were some exceptions in the cases of some
who had been tried by courts-martial, the officers of the
Indian army were in general gentlemen in every sense
of the word. With regard to the improvement of the
civil service, lie saw as much room for improvement as
he did last year, when he deprecated the exclusion of the
members of the aristocracy from that service. He,
however, saw some means for getting such persons
into the service by competition. He believed that
their lordships' sons and relatives were as equal to
enter on that competition as any one, and he saw
with pain that part of the speech of the Minister
for India which stated that as much encouragement
was to be given to the son of a horse-dealers as to any
one else. Nothing could be more offensive to the people
of India than such a course ; and it was not in India
that you could safely introduce the manners of the
stableyard. But it was said that all candidates were to
be admitted by merit. Now what was the merit of
" cramming ?" (Hear, hear.) Real knowledge was not
obtained by cramming ; even the horse-dealer would
not feed his horses on that plan—and was it not by that
system that a man's mind was to be fed, and he himself
fitted for the performance of his duties ? Unlearned in-
competence was a bad thing, but learned incompetence
was worse, because it was accompanied by self-sufficiency.
(Hear, hear.) In his experience he had observed that
in public life the most useless person, and in private so-
ciety the greatest bore, was an over-educated meddler.
(A laugh.) And it was proposed to inundate India with
them. It was not to qualities such as that but to cha-
racter that the people of India looked • it was not what
was crammed into a man in schools that gave him in-
fluence, but knowledge of the world, and readiness and
aptitude for his duties. There was to be no competition
after a man got to India, but he was left in the same
position as he now was, and could only rise by seni-
ority. So that he who was not fit to be an attorney's
clerk might rise to be a judge, and one who was not fit
to keep the accounts of a little shop might become a
collector. A man who was first in the examination at
Addiscombe or Haileybury might be practically inferior
to many whom he beat there ; and it was not at that
period of his life, but at a later time, that he would indi-
cate his capabilities. The adoption of this plan would be
falling into a great and serious error. Look how it would
work against the officers of the army. They were, he was
sorry to say, poor men. They had, to be sure, handsome
pay, but things which were luxuries in England, were
necessaries in India, and their expenses were great ;
while many of them had poor relatives in England ;
and nothing could exceed the kindness and generosity
they displayed towards them. The result was, that
they were poor men, and though they did manage to
send their children to England to be educated, it was
only done by great self-denial, and it would be im-
possible for them to give their sons the education in
" cramming " schools, which would be necessary
to get them into Addiscombe and Haileybury, and
that only for the chance of their being able to enter the
civil service and the scientific branches of the army.
So that practically it would be excluding all the
sons of the officers of, the regular army. They
would have little chance of obtaining appointments
from the directors. The six appointed by the Crown
would generally have belonged to the civil service.
having little connection with the army, and would have
their own friends to serve, while as to the elective part
of the court it would lose character every day, would
become the nominees of City houses, be a mere jobbery,
and they would care nothing for the officers of the Indian
army, since they would know nothing about India. It
would therefore be absolutely necessary, unless there was
such an extension of the constituency as he (Lord Ellen-
borough) proposed, so as to get Indian officers and
members of the civil service to elect the directors, to sot
aside a certain proportion of cadetships and writerships
to be given away by the court itself, not by individual
members of it, but subject to the approval of the Presi-
dent of the Board of Control. He should suggest that
six of each class of appointments should be so disposed
of at the periods when the batches of cadetships were
distributed. He would have those given away on the
same plan as good services of those employed were noted
down. If that plan was pursued, the President of the
Board of Control would have an opportunity of judging
of the claims of those whose sons and relatives were to
have those appointments. There was one advantage de-
rivable from that part of the proposition of the Govern-
ment, which, as it were, held the axe continually over
the head of the East India Company, and by which it
was provided that there was nothing to prevent Par-
liament from snaking any alteration in the system
whenever they chose. That would prevent there being
any material difficulty in the adoption of his plan.
(Hear.) He admitted that it was desirable to infuse
new blood into the Indian service, and he did not
wish it to become hereditary ; but at the same
time it was essential that in the case of a portion
of those who had served best in India, their sons should
run the same career as themselves. (Hear, hear.) He
rejoiced to say that he had now nearly passed through
that portion of the subject which involved amend-
ment in this country, and he now came to that which in-
volved alterations in India itself. Ho saw no objection
to the formation in this country of a legislative commis-
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