The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JUNE 4, 1853.

prey ; all property was confiscated ; no one could invite '
another to his house without the permission of the rajah.
The people everywhere were exposed to plunder and out-
rage." This was the state of things during the latter
part of the dynasty of the Great Mogul—a period which
has been so frequently quoted as that in which Hindoostan
was peaceful and prosperous, and from which it has fallen
into a state of degradation ever since it came under our
withering sway. The state of things became still worse
under Nadir Shah, who, like a consuming fire, overspread
the face of the whole country ; and if there could be a
more unhappy state than under Nadir Shah, India expe-
rienced it when, after his departure, she fell into the power
of the Mahrattas, whose only object was rapine and plun-
der, and in the pursuit of these objects they committed
enormities that one shudders to think of. The whole
population of conquered towns was massacred. Delhi
was on three different occasions seized by them, and given
up to plunder, and on the third occasion all who were not
able to escape were massacred. The last storming of the
city occurred in 1707. (Hear, hear.) But then we are
told that justice is badly administered. Here again we
are compared, to our sad disadvantage, with the adminis-
tration of justice in the native states. Well, I will read
my honourable friends an extract from a native newspaper
published at Delhi, on this point :—" Let us give a spe-
cimen of what the English really do for this country. In
former times, under our vaunted ancient kings, there were
many places in this very city (Delhi) where a poor man
could not venture, after sunset, without the chance of
having his turban stolen off his head, and now a weak old
' man may pass in safety over that same ground, with a bag
containing 1,000 rupees in his hand. The roads through
the wilderness were so unsafe in former days that no one
dared to travel without an armed guard, and robberies in
the jungle were of constant occurrence. Now the lone-
liest traveller knows no fear. We often hear the praises
of this king, or that wuzeer, who, perhaps, built a paltry
seraj, or laid a dawk to Cabool to provide himself with
musk melons ; but who does not know that our govern-
ment by the construction of good roads, has placed the
luxuries of distant places within the reach of the poorest
people ? Then, as to the adminstration of the laws. Un-
der the native rulers of old, justice was put up for sale,
and this is now unblushingly done in the independent na-
tive states ; while, under the British rule, rich and poor,
black and white, Christian, Hindoo, and Mussulmen, all
alike obtain equal justice. The Kings and Rajahs of old
defied all religions as they sat on the judgment seat;
whereas the British study the religious scruples of every
suitor, consulting the Mooftees when Mussulmen are con-
cerned, and the Pundits in the case of Hindoos, and they
do their best to discourage litigation, by promoting the
adjudication of cases in Panchayet." Upon the same sub-
ject we examined Sir George Clerk :—Sir George Clerk
says—" On the decline of the Mahomedan Empire, every
village found it necessary to repair the defences which had
existed, or to erect new ones, if they had none before.
All Upper India was covered with bands of horsemen—
Sikhs, dashing at everything, and the inhabitants only re-
pelled them by erecting little citadels in the middle of the
villages, with watchmen aloft, on a high look-out. The
bricks which formed those redoubts are all taken for the
houses of ,the cultivators ; there are no such defences now
to be seen in the British provinces." Now, I ask if all
this speaks of the deterioration of the country under the
British rule in the opinion of the natives ? My hon. friend
may, from his knowledge of the subject, be better informed
than the natives themselves, but he will forgive me for
saying that I believe the testimony" of this native editor
rather than any information that may exist in Europe. It
is stated by several natives, and confirmed by the testimony
of the resident, which I saw the the other day, that in the
state of Oude violence [and rapine have risen to such an
extent that capitalists dare not quit their houses till they.
have provided themselves with an escort from the Rajah.
And be it remembered that this is the state into which the
people in our districts are represented as flying, in order
to escape our rule. There was certainly some curious evi-
dence given with respect to that last assertion ; for it was
represented to us that the people fled to avoid living under
English law, and to avoid the necessity under which they
found themselves to commit perjury in consequence of
having to put a stamp to their receipts. So long as they
were allowed to write out their receipts on unstamped
paper, they were under no temptation to commit perjury,
but the moment they were obliged to use a stamp the
temptation became irresistible. That is certainly a very
curious fact. We have often had one small state, the state
of Rampore, quoted to us as one where the condition of
the natives is better than under British rule. Now it hap-
pens that the present rajah before he succeeded to the
throne had been a district collector in the company's ser-
vice, so that ne learned the principles of administering the
affairs of his state with justice and moderation from the
very parties,whom ho is said to shame by his example. I
have no reason to think that the works which are some-
times quoted, and that on high authority too, as having
been liberally and generously built by native princes, are
at all superior to, or even to be compared with, those that
have been executed under our rule. No person is better
• acquainted with the ancient history of India, or with the
character of the works that have been executed in Up-
per India, both in the present and in former ages, than Sir
Henry Elliott, and he says that to the north-western pro-
vinces at least cannot be applied the taunt that we have
done-nothing that can be compared with. the Mahratta,
princes in the formation of roads, bridges, and tanks.
Even in the seat and centre of their dominion there are
now hundreds of miles of good district roads where none
ever existed before ; besides 400 miles of a trunk road of a
better character than any that exists in Europe, and to
which the Emperors—never in the slightest degree con-
tributed. Instead of wasting the supply of water on the
frivolities of fountains, wo contrive-with it to fertilise
whole provinces ; the scientific survey of the north-western
provinces alone is sufficient to proclaim the superiority of
our sway, where every field is entered, and every man is
entitled to claim his own property. When I read these
things, 'I am at a loss to account for the assertions so reck-
lessly made, even by some of those who are acquainted
with the subject, that we have disgracefully neglected our
possessions in India. (Cheers.) Not many' years ago there
was an odious system of transit duties between one district
and another, so that there was, upon an average, a custom-
house every eight miles, where all articles of. merchandise
,paid a new impost. They are now entirely abolished.
Sir It. INGLIS : How long ?
Sir C. WOOD—They have been abolished at different
periods in different presidencies. At Madras, which was
one of the worst, they were abolished in 1843, which
caused the revenue to fall from 36 to 18 lees of rupees. I
say, then, I see no evidence to lead me to suppose that the
condition of the people of India is not so good now as it
was when they were under the rule of their native princes.
If hon. gentlemen will turn to a book, not of very recent
datlb—l refer to " Bishop Heber s Tour in India"—they
will find accounts of the condition of the people which lead
unavoidably to the inference that they were then in a state
of high prosperity. Want of time alone prevents me from
quoting instances, but I would rather refer to a more recent
publication, because it states the condition of the people
in a portion of India which is under the ryotwar system—
a system that the house is aware has been strongly im-
pugned as degrading to the people. It is a publication by
the collector at Salem, Mr. Black. He says :—" Agricul-
tural labour can readily be obtained for ls. 3d. a week, the
articles of daily consumption being cheap in the extreme.
The Government demand for an acre of dry land, 25.8 d.,
scarcely exceeds what a common labourer can earn in
a fortnight, about which amount of labour will find
him with an ample supply of salt for the whole
year. The signs of improvement cannot be mistaken.
When the people throw down the walls of their
villages and towns—when the cottage shines out among
the distant fields; when the children drive the cattle
to pasture, and troops of women pass fearlessly along
the public roads, seeking the neighbouring markets,
these, surely, are different times to those that saw
the ryot go to the plough with his spear or his
matchlock in his hand; when the trade of the country
carried on bulloiks, straggled from village to village,
guarded over by armed men, and the merchants feared to
engage in cultivation, because such gains could not be hid
with sufficient ease. The greatly increased fertility of the
soil, the increasing traffic, the improved bazaars, the value
that land, even under the present system, is everywhere
acquiring, all show clearly that capital is accumulating,
and that the condition of the people is better than it was."
It may be said that these statements refer only to particular
districts, though I know no reason for supposing that they
are not fair specimens of the state of things now existing all
over India. Still more convincing is the proof that arises
from the increasing power of the people, not only over ar-
ticles of production, but also over articles of consumption.
With regard to articles of production, I see that the average
exportations of sugar and molasses during the ten years
' ending in 1842 was 444,000 cwt., while the average exporta-
tions during the ten years since that time has been 1,339,000
cwt. The exportation of rum during the first period was
233,000 gallons, during the latter 600,000 gallons ; coffee at
the former period 2,358,0001b5., during the latter 3,256,000
lbs. • cotton in the first period 58,000,0001b5., in the latter
68,6913,0001b5. So with regard to their powers of consump-
tion. The value of the cotton piece goods—and this is some
• comfort for the Manchester cotton-spinner—imported into
Calcutta in 1833-34 was 700,000/. ; in 1850-51 it was
2,950,0001. Surely this power of consumption must tell
upon the condition of the people. And then take the whole
of the exports and imports through'tho whole of India. The
value of the whole imports in 1834-35 was 7,993,000/. ; in
1839-40 17,334,0001., being an increase of 140 per cent.
The exports were in -1834-35 4,761,0001.; in 1839-40
10,300,0001., being an increase of 112 per cent. (Hear.)
Now, with all our boasted increase in trade and com-
merce, still the increase in the value of our exports for the
same periods is not 112, but 66 per cent., or exactly
one half ; so that the improvement in India, as measured
by exports, goes on in a double ratio of increase to the im-
provement of this country. Can there be a doubt, after
this increase, that the condition of India has not deterio-
rated under . our rule—can we hesitate to believe, both
from_ the increased power of production, and from the in-
dustry of the people, that better proof cannot be afforded
of the improvement in the condition of the people. There
are few other topics which, if I were not admonished by
the clock, I feel anxious to mention. (Hear, hear.) I have
already refeired to the trigonometrical survey of the coun-
try, which promises to be of vast importanc
of eleectric . We
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great satisfaction to read the accounts which have been
transmitted home of the attention that has been paid to
the improvement of the condition of the people in the
matter of vaccination and in schools—points of this kind
which in other countries are left to the care of individuals,
but which in. India, above all countries, it is necessary
should be done by the Government. I said befoie that many
things had been left undone that ought to have been done,
peninsula withand many things have been incompletely done which might
have been perfected • but this credit at least is duo to the
Indian Government, that those administrators who have
most devoted themselves to the condition of the people have
been most supported by ' the Government at home, who
have invariably urged them to persevere in their course—
who have sanctioned the
encouraged and cheered them by their approbation. I will expense incurred, and who have
only add here the opinion of of ono of the ablest of our mo-
dern historians, who has written an account of the affairs of
India—Mr. Kaye, in his " History of the wars of Affghan-
istan"—who concludes his review of what has been done of
late years by saying that while he admits much has been
omitted, and that in many cases more might have been done
still more goods things have been done in India, more
earnest, serious, and• enlightened legislation has been passed
since 1833 than in the whole of the two centuries and a
~carter of British connexion with India. Well, I am
a' raid I have :wearied tbe house with this account ; but I
felt it fair to the Indian authorities at home that I should,
slate the result of their administration during the last 20
years, as I felt that we might be misled by the misrepresenta-
tions, which have been industriously circulated on this sub-
ject, and which in some quarters have met with a belief to
which they are not fairly entitled, if I did not put before
the house what I believe to be a true and faithful picture
of the state of India during the last twenty years. I am
needy to admit it does not follow that because all these
great improvements have taken place, that therefore the
government of India either at home or in India, is the best
that can be devised. 'But I say that if we are to test the go-
vernment of India by the results of its administration, there
i 8 no greund whereupon to condemn it as inefficacious, in.