The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-23 00:00:00

[PRICE SD.

THE INDIAN CHARTER.

A meeting of the' bankers, merchants, and manufac-
turers of Manchester was convened in the Town-hallyes-
terday, upon a requisition to the Mayor, "to consider
what suggestions" that " community ought to make to
the Government, or to Parliament, for the better deve-
lopment of the resources of British India, and the con-
sequent amelioration in the condition of the people."
Mr. Barnes, the Mayor, presided. There was a large
attendance of the more influential commercial men pre-
sent.

The MAYOR opened the business.
Mr. T. BAZLEY, President of the Manchester Chamber
of Commerce, in moving the first resolution, said, that
to the mercantile and manufacturing community, of
which Manchester was the centre, the wellbeing of the
British East Indies must be a subject of very deep in-
terest ; and in the enlightened British opinion of that
subject was involved the question whether, in the pages
of history, we should be branded as having oppressed
and degraded 150,000,000 of fellow-subjects, or as having
earned undying fame for giving to the greatest colony
that ever existed good and wise government, European
civilisation, progress, and commerce, and the great
truths and principles of our common Christianity. By a
singular coincidence, about three centuries ago the peo-
ple of this country were entertaining important projects
connected with those industrial energies which were then
being developed, for they were, on the one hand, open-
ing the field of New America, and, on the other, the far-
famed treasures of the East were tempting our young
merchants. In the case of the United States of
America, we saw what wonderful progress • had been
made ; a vast territory had been subjugated, and
industrious people reigned paramount, and we found
there intelligence, comfort, and prosperity associ-
ated. America was at the present time the in-
fant representative of this old and glorious coun-
try, speaking our own language, and essentially, having
adopted our ova-institutions, it had become an example
-hr the 'world: But if we turned to the Dirlish -East
Indies we should find that company of merchants were
permitted to enjoy a monopoly of the trade of that great
country ; under that monopoly Europeans were not per-
mitted to settle in the country, progress was impeded,
and at the present time there was merely a handful of
Europeans on that great continent of India. The
British name was not held there in that respect that it
ought to be, and we had not raised there a monument of
progress that was either useful to the East Indies or
honourable to ourselves. On every hand the existing
state of the East Indies was admitted to be unsatisfac-
tory, but by common consent universal 'attention seemed
now to be bestowed upon that vast dominion. Lord
Ellenborough, in speaking of the condition of India in
the House of Lords, the other evening, stated that he
passed in a march through the upper provinces of India
the vestiges of ancient palaces, roads, works, temples,
and mosques, and all the records of good government by
which we had been preceded, and he felt humiliated that
we were exhibiting ourselves under circumstances of
disparagement as greatly inferior to a nobler nation to
which we had succeeded. The directors of the Man-
chester Commercial Association and the Manchester
Chamber of Commerce, without entering on the direct
political condition of India, had agreed to recommend a
petition, which embraced, in their opinion, the econo-
mical wants of the East Indies ; and he rose for the pur-
pose of moving—

" That the petition now read be adopted by this meet-
in ; that it be engrossed and presented forthwith to both
Houses of Parliament ; that the petition to the House of
Commons be intrusted to the Right Hon. T. M. Gibson for
presentation, and that John Bright, Esq., be requested to
support the same ; and that the Right Hon. the Earl of
Ellenborough be requested to present the petition to the
House of Peers."

Mr. J. A. TURNER, chairman of the Commercial Asso-
ciation, seconded the motion. It was not his intention
to dwell upon the past history of British India, or he
might make out a black catalogue of errors, and, not
among the least, point to the long and unnecessary wars
carried on at a great expenditure of money, which might
have been more beneficially given to develope the re-
sources of that great country. He might say much of
the system of patronage carried out, and the distribution
of the revenues derived from that country, leaving little
to the country itself that had furnished the revenues ;
but he did not know that it would be so profitable to look
back to past misgovernment as it would be to endeavour
to enlist their sympathies with the two commercial cham-
bers, whose object now was to seek an improvement in
the future. (Hear, hear.) The interests of this commu-
nity, and those of the people of India, though they had
long been widely different, could be, and ought to be,
made quite identical. Lord J. Russell, on the 11th of
March, in answer to a question from one of the members
for Manchester, with respect to the government of India,
said it was the intention of the Government to introduce
in the course of the present session of Parliament such
a measure as they thought would prove best for the wel-
fare and happiness of India ; and they hoped to form
such a measure, and produce it in time to give ample
opportunity for discussion. Now he (Mr. Turner) was
willing to hope that the members of the present Govern-
ment of India had great information of what was proper
for the future government of India ; but, inasmuch as
committees of both Houses of Parliament had been for
some time sitting, and as they had made as yet but little
progress in acquiring information to legislate upon, it
would be well if some little delay could be had before
any measure was brought in by the Government —(hear,
hear)—because, though he believed they had derived
much knowledge from officials formerly employed in
India, they possessed but little through the committees
as to the wishes and necessities of commercial

Legislation. He contended that it was right that a full
inquiry should be made, and that, as we had corn-
.

mated errors in the past, we should endeavour to avoid
similar errors for the future. He thought there might be
an assembly more competent than that which represented
the elite of the commercial community of Manchester to

give an opinion on a question like this, as to what were
the modes which should be adopted to carry on the rule
over a community probably of more than 100,000,000 of
people in India ; but he did not think there was any
body of men more capable of treating it as a commercial
question, and speaking of the requirements of commerce
from India, or what could be supplied in return ; nor
did he think any body of men were more competent to
say how the trade of India might be developed. We go-
verned upwards of 100,000,000 of people there, and our

exports only amounted to 10 per cent. of the whole ex-
ports of this country. He believed if the whole of the

resources of India were developed we might nearly de-
rive as much cotton as would keep double the number
of mills we now had running, while the production of a
large portion of these mills might be sent back and dia-

posed of, to the comfort and advantage both of the peo-
ple of India and of this country. How this could best
be done they had endeavoured to point out in thi peti-
tion ; and first they had directed attention to the re-
moval of all obstacles to the cultivation of the soil. Then
it was said that the Government ought to expend a por-
tion of the money derived from the country in the im-
provement of roads ; and certainly they ought, for mil-
lions were received from the country, and were spent
upon military works and in paying immense salaries to
the servants of the company, and it was because of those
large salaries that such immense patronage went on. He
said these were very small requirements, that a few mil-
lions should be spent for the benefit of those from whose
pockets these revenues were taken.
The resolution was carried.

Mr. H. ASHWORTH, of Bolton, moved the second reso-
lution :
" That the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and the
Manchester Commercial Association be requested to trans-
mit copies of the petition to the various commercial and
manufacturing bodies of the United Kingdom, requesting
their co-operation, and inviting them to appoint deputies,
to meet in London, to wait upon the President of the
Board of Control for the purpose of conveying to him the
sentiments expressed in this petition, and also to induce
influential members of Parliament to give practical effect
to these requirements and suggestions, as well as to carry
out in detail the objects of the presentmeeting."
The meeting was aware that our exports to America
amounted to 14,800,0001. a year, while our exports to
India amounted to 8,000,0001. a year. Now, these two
items were the largest items of our exports to any coun-
try ; but when we came to consider the quality of these
exports there was something in relation to this part of
the country to which he wished to call attention. To
America we exported largely of almost every kind of
manufacture ;to India little besides cotton goods. Of
the 14,800,0001. of exports sent to America, but
4,000,0001. were cotton goods ; but of the 8,000,0001.

to India, 6,000,0001., or thereabouts, were cotton goods.
Therefore our market with India had more to do with

this community than any foreign market ; but our ex-
ports to India consisted not of the finished articles re-
quired for other markets. There were 2,870,000,000
yards of calico of the poorest kinds made, and from the
poorness of the people of India's wants we might form
an opinion of the poverty of the people, for the total of
our exports amounted but to two yards of calico per an-
num to each inhabitant. The people of America re-
quired not only calico, but woollens, silks, linens, hard-
ware, and hundreds of other articles, amounting to 12s.
per head; while our exports to the West Indies amounted
to 14s. per head on the population. The exports to
India, on the contrary, were equal to about 10d We
had, therefore, an interest in pressing this question. upon
the Government. At present he would impress it
upon
mills,t the consideration
wherew ae theo of gentlemenmarketto
ewhoom come
fromer were
tort
buildingleir pi
reoow.
duce if not to be found in India ? It had been calculated
that the prosperity at hom43oha,oo ionicreased our home
.
trade in the last year by 8,00
Mr. MlLcorm Ross seconded the resSotleurtliinogn:
could not expect this to continue. but we
Mr. JUST thought the question was whether they
should go for a renewal of the charter at all. ar, hear.) They had been instrumentaldownth
that
de-
stroying one great monopoly, and he thought has-in taeay
chartered body would be g
erec ti a monopoly at variance
with the interests of this
countryn and of India. (AP"
plause.)
Mr. BRIGHT, M.P., came forward amid cheering, and
said—We are here as citizens of this eat country ; but
we are here, too, as persons intimate 7 connected with
the great manufacture carried on in this district ; and
I
think we might very well afford, if the meeting had been
held later on in the day, to have spent a much longer
time in considering this very important question ; for I