The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-24 00:00:00

With regard to the civil service generally, the course of
the Government was beyond all controversy right. The
civil service of India was different from all others. In
other places if you got an incompetent civil servant, an-
other might assist him in his duty, but in India there
was an enormous amount of individual responsibility
thrown on every servant of the Company. A collector
sent to any district might not only collect the reve-
nue, but also inflict misery on thousands of human
beings. The most sacred duty of Government. therefore, was
not merely to get persons of average ability for these situa-
tions, but to get the very best men that could be found,
and not to sacrifice the interests of the country to friends,
relatives, or political connexions. (Hear, hear.) He (Mr.
Lowe) had heard in another place, a noble lord with in-.
finite eloquence and ignorance plead the cause of ignorance.
The noble lord had stigmatised the proposed public exami-
nations as the greatest absurdity that could be devised,
and said that a deeply-learned man was of all others the
most unfit for the business of the world. That was cer-
tainly not the experience of that house, as they found that
the men who were the leaders of party, and who influenced,
the destiny of nations, were also those who had most dis-
tinguished themselves at the universities. (Hear, hear.)
It was all very well to talk of the system of .cramming.
He knew something of that system. (A laugh.) There
was no doubt a great deal too much cramming at our uni-
versities, but the reason was that the examinations fell
into the hands of the same class of men, and sometimes
the same men who had prepared the pupils. There was a
sort of oral tradition handed down which was not to be
found in the books, and which formed the staple of most
examinations. A number of curious pOints were handed
down, in the same way that problems wore called by the
name of the man in Cambridge who had invented them, a
sort of disciplina arcani ; indeed, he was happy to think
that many dodges of that kind of his own invention were
still cherished at Cambridge with his name attached.
(Loud laughter.) That was a very bad system, but it need
not necessarily occur, since the examination would be car-
ried on by competent men, and not on any narrow or pe-
dantic system. (Hear, hear.) But the intellectuality of
Indian servants was important for another reason. No-
thing was more distressing in the evidence than the testi-
mony borne to the decline of friendly feeling between the
Europeans and natives. Now what he was going to say
might appear far fetched to the house, but he believed that
there was a close connection between the intellectual and
moral faculties in the human mind, and that ignorance and
stupidity were often the causes of ill-treatment of inferiors.
The ignorant man looked down upon the person of another
race ; but the man of intellect looked upon him as an object
of curiosity and of sympathy, a thing •to be studied and '
appreciated ; and, in this point of view, the advantage of
intellectual cultivation was, in his opinion, important. He
had now gone through as much of the noble lord's speech
as appeared to him to bear on the bill, but had avoided
that larger portion which, in his opinion. had nothing to
do with it. He knew, however, enough of mercantile
affairs to tell the noble lord that freights to Madras were
much nearer 70s. than 7s.
Lord STANLEY said he had spoken of a particular case,
and not of the general rule. He had mentioned a par-
ticular cargo having gone out at that rate.
Mr. LOWE said, returning to the, bill, that he thought
he had shown there was no case for delay, and without
saying the bill was good or bad, he contended that the
subject was one the house ought to entertain, and which
might be very well disposed of in the present session.
They should look at the question as it was likely to affect
the people of India. Even if the Ministerial bill were not
now brought forward, the.people in India would act on
the presumption that its provisions would •be carried
out, and the effect on the company would be most in-
jurious, leaving them as it were half condemned, and
restrained from doing many useful things which they
would be otherwise inclined to do. (Hear, hear.) There
were, many important reforms, such as the regulation of
furlough and the changes in the judicial system, which the
company might enter upon at once if they were not hung
up and paralysed by the delay of legislation. Education
also would be paralysed, and Haileybury would not know
what was to be its future system of management. Whe-
ther the government was to be double or single, it was
time the question were decided ; and therefore he trusted
the house would not accede to the amendment of the noble
lord.

Mr. PHINN said that the hon. and learned member for
Kidderminster had endeavoured to persuade the house
that the amendment of the noble lord was inopportune
and unjustifiable, but he had failed to discuss the pro-
visions of the bill, to enforce its utility, or to offer any in-
ducements to the house to adopt the plan of the Govern-
ment. (Hear.) It was remarked of the Whigs that they
never carried out, when in power, the principles which
they advocated when in opposition; and the present mea-
ltime was an instance of that peculiarity. In 1783 Mr. Fox
had laid down the principle that in monarchical govern-
meats all power should emanate from the monarch, con-
stitutionally advised. The principle had worked gloriously
for England, and was it to be borne that in India the cold
shade of a company was to interpose between the monarch
and the subject? (Hear, hoar.) It was said that we were
a practical people, and judged measures by their results;
but he would ask what good was to be expected from this
bill, which was nothing but a series of half measures, just
neither to the company nor to the people of England. Now
half measures were particularly unsuited to the case of
India. A great authority, Mr. Burke, had laid it down
that for the government of that country a whole system
must be devised, and that anything short of that would
be injurious both to this country and the colony. Lord
Ellenborongh, another great authority, said that legisla-
tion for India. should be final, and that the question should
be taken up by a strong Government, and decided in a per-
manent manner. His hon. and learned friend who had
last spoken advocated the bill on the ground that to give
the company another lease, would be only to insure re-
newed agitation at its termination, and in the same breath
he praised the bill as giving the opportunity of alteration
if it did not work well, Now, his (Mr. Phinu's) objection
to the bill was that it would leave an opening for constant
agitation. He should have preferred giving the company
a renewal for a certain number of years, and in the mean-
time a permanent and well-considered measure might be
prepared. He quite agreed with the hon. baronet the
member for Honiton that could it be shown that the com-
pany's was the best government for India it would be the
duty of that house to maintain it ; but ho thought them
bound to show not only that it was good, but that it was
the best that could be devised for the purpose. In form
he considered the government of the company the most
repulsive imaginable, a mere plutocracy ; and after all the
panegyrics they had heard of its sympathy with the peo-
ple of India, he thought it would be ridiculous to urge
that the welfare of that people was the first object of
government. To judge of the result of the system,
let them see what was the constitution of the govern-
ment. Any person holding a certain amount of stock
might vote for the election of the persons who had the
greatest share in the administration of Indian affairs.
Now, this person did not purchase stock out of
sympathy for the people of India, but looked to
the ordinary amount of interest plus the amount
of patronage to be obtained from the Board of
Directors. (Hear.) On this subject he might quote from
the Calcutta Review, an authority, the authenticity of
which had been acknowledged by the hon. baronet the
member for Honiton. (The hon. member here read an ex-
tract from the Review, to the effect that East India pro-
prietors had adopted a plan of clubbieg their votes for the
purpose of influencing elections, with an understanding
amongst themselves to take the patronage in turn as it
might suit the ages or views of their relatives.) The bill,
to be sure, permitted the company to make bye laws to
remedy this evil, but why was not the duty of making
these laws made imperative ? They had already received
permission to employ natives in places of trust, and the
world knew what had been the result. It was perfectly
well known that directors went into office with their pa-
tronage mortgaged for years to come, and surely in the case
of a system so opposed to all theory and principle, a 'won-
derful ,success in practice should be adduced to overcome
objections to the principle. He would turn, then, briefly
to the results of the government of India, and take the
best test of a people's prosperity—that of the powers of
consumption—from the tables that had been furnished by
the directors themselves. In that article of first necessity,
salt, he found the consumption in Bengal to be in '39, '4O,
16,194,188 rupees (value), in 1819-50 it was 16,107,384
rupees, being an actual diminution in ten years. It might
have increased as alleged, in the north-western provinces,
but he wanted to know whether the accounts did not in-
clude our recent acquisitions in the Punjaub, and the'other
annexations in the north-western provinces. Another
point urged in favour of the company, was that except in
the case of the land tax which was rent, taxation was un-
known, but Colonel Sykes admitted that in Calcutta the
salt tax amounted to 4 per cent. on the labourer's income,
and in Benares to 3 per cent. Then they had the tax toe
spirits, and a tax upon going into courts of law thai'
amounted to 25 per cent. on the sum recovered. They had
been told that the imports and exports of India had nearly
doubled, but they had not told of a great monopoly de-
stroyed, or the newly-created trade with Australia and
China, or of the opium trade, which so much influenced
the imports, by increasing the means of purchase. The
increase in the production and export of opium had been
remarkable. In proportion as they found opium exported
would they find that the imports increased. But their
trade in opium was in a very precarious condition. No
doubt it might be said that he was foreseeing danger that
might never arise, but when they were speaking of the
prosperity of a country, and basing arguments upon it,
these considerations were of importance. They had heard
a great deal about the increase of British shipping, but be
ventured to say that. if they took into consideration the
number of markets which had been opened, that increase
did not indicate an increase in the prosperity of the natives
of India. He did not wish to urge against the company that
it had uniformly pursued a system of bad government. He
should refrain from entering into the various merits of the
zeinindar, the village, and the ryot systems. He thought
that the company, for their own purposes, had adopted
the best land systems in India they could. It was their
interest to do so, but he had looked carefully into the sub-
ject, and he could not see why one system should have
been preferred to rentither by the company, and he gave
the company no credit for the merits, and no discredit
for the demerits, of the different systems. He believed
the system of the north western provinces had operated
very well, and it might have been better if that system
could have been adopted elsewhere ; but he would not dis-
cuss that subject. Nor would he discuss the judicial
system, but he would call the attention of the house to the
fact, that there had been taxes laid on judicial processes in
India which would have been intolerable in any other coun-
try, and as compared with England were enormous, and
which were based on the most vicious principle, because
they were levied on the sum at stake between the parties.
slut there was not the excuse that the company had found
this system in existence. His hon. friend the member for
cial administration
pointed out the great difficulty in the judi-
istration in India. The other day two judges
were removed in India on the ground of indebtedness, in
consequence of which their independence was affected.
They confessed it, but justified it by saying that indebted-
ness was the norm
India ; that the "condition of the judicial service in
Government know their situation when
they were elevated bench ; and they therefore con-
sidered the conduct the
harsh and oppressive,
aid he believed the wgrounne.wspaper press of India sup-
ported them on that
prepodrtiolulen, with regard to public
works, and the small
pubaf the revenue of India
which had been applied to
respect
wit7orks. Contrast their
administration in that
that of the native
oeftthe times of the
princes. He did not mean to go bahciti
early governors of India, who certainly
, and atestecl. their
gation and edifices which still existed, works for
Were told
told
magnificence and care for their subjects. They
the other day by the hon. member for limiter
works were for particular purposes, and that when. the these
made a progress, as in Russia, works were executed. `T...11
had not so read the history of India. Kaye had not so
read it. Mountstuart Elphinstone had not
of those
read it, nor
had Thornton or Mill. He believed some
histo-
rians had suggested that theory, but they had rejected it.
They had the relics of those great works. The canal which
now supplied the city of Delhi
.with water was 300 to 400
years old, and it was re-opened in recent years after having
been silted up. Then look at what had been done by some
of the native princes of this day. Take for instance, the
great work of the Rajah of Ahaniadapoor, a canal which j