The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-04 00:00:00

IDOLATRY IN INDIA.

Sir R. INGLIS rose to put sonic questions to the
Right Hon. President of the Board of Control, relative
to the connexion which existed between the East India
Compaoy and the idolatrous practices in India. The
House was aware that Weal he had a'ked the question
last year, that the Right Ilenourable Gentleman
had referred him to certain extracts from a
despatch of Lord Auckland, partly public and
party private, in which it was state d that the
system worked weil, and that the objects in view were
advancing sloe ly and steadily. Now, although the
Right Hon. Gentleman said he could lay ell the docu-
ments connected with the subject on the table, he had
only given extracts from that despatch.—(Cries of
" Que,tion.") He wished to know whether the Right
Hon. Gentleman would lay the whole of that despatch
on the table he having only made extracts from it
Next, whether upon any authority, %eh, ther public or
private, the Right Hon. Gentleman could state upon
his own respousibdity that the system had worked
well in British India or any of its dependencies?
The next question which ho 1+ i 6 bed to propose was,
whether the Right Hon. Baronet felt himself at liberty
to state to the House if any of the grievances under
which British soldiers is India laboured, lied been re-
moved. If he could not state that, as he feared he
could rot state anything s.i.fs'actorily on the subject,
whether he had any objection to state that he would take
care that those grievances of her Majesty's subjects in
India, to which he (Sir R. H. Inglis) referred, would
cease on the Ist of January, or at any other definite
period.
Sir J. C. HOBHOUSE said that, with respect to
the quotations which he made in July last, he had no
objection to place them before the House. He had
said that those documents were partly of a private, and
partly of a public, nature. Ore of the letters which
he (Sir J. C. liobhous') bad received on the sub-
J• et, WEB a private letter from Lord Auckland.
Before replying to the questions of his Hon. Friend, he
would beg to state that he believed that those papers
or elileh he End moved at 'he c'ose et last SP!sicn,
oldfurni,l. his Hee. Air fetich niere awple
iutormetion thee L' at pc".3,,ut poecessed on this most
delicate question. These papers were not printed before
the close of last Session ; the Order bad not been re-

nowed during the present Session ; and consequently
they had not been presented to the House. It was
his intention that night to move to renew that Order
and in add:t.on to move for the production of other
papers which he thought would wove satisfactory
to his Honourable Friend. With respect to the
urther question of his Honourable Friend, whether,
he thought that hail anything had been done respecting
the settlement of this unfortunate question, for so he
thought he was et titled to call it, he had the satisfac-
tion of stating that he thought much had been done to-
wards the settlement of it. What had been done in
the Presidency of Bengal had been, in Lis cpinion,
with one exception, entirely satisfactory ; and when
he looked t r ad a, had been done with regard to one
pilgrim tax, and with regard to the Juggernaut tax, he
thought that much had been done. He should also
lay before the House despatches from the Government
of Bombay to the Government of India, stating the
steps which they hail adopted for carrying out the
orders of Lord Cricklend, which he thought would
prove satisfactory to his Honourable Friend.—(Hear.)
'firm was one exception, which was, the President
of Madras. He would. confess to his Hon. Fri.nd he
had been disappointed by what had taken place in the
Presidency at Madras. When he had last addressed
the House on this subject, he had stated that he had
received despatches frem the Govern-General of !lois,
stating that he was in hopes that measures could bu
adopted for carrying ieto effect his orders on this subject
in the Presideue.7's of 13ornbey and Madras. As he had
before stated, those orders had been carried into tff et
in the Presidency of Bombay. But his Honour-
able Friend would find in the despatches a state-
ment• that the propositions which had been made by
the Government of Madras to the Government of India,
for carrying into effect the orders of the Government of
India were unsatisfactory, and that the Government
of India, he was happy to state to his Hen. Friend,
had issued such orders as would have the effect of pre-
venting the Government of Madrass being any ionger
behind hand in carrying into effect orders of the
Government of India and the desire of the British Parlia-
ment. It was his duty at the same time, in defence of his
Noble Friend Lord Elphinstone and his Council, to
state that he believed what had been done by them
was owing to a misunderstanding of the instructions
from the Beard of Directors and the Government at
home. But the Government had since given instructions
so distinct that there could be no room or excuse
for further mistake ; and tl e Governor of Madras would
in future act in conformity with the regulations passed
for the guidance of the other presidencies.—(Hear,
hear.) He had now answered the quesions of the
Hon. Gentleman relating to the three presidencies.
With respect to the other matter put to him,
namely, ;he attendance of the troops at the re-
ligious service of the Hitloos, he begged to refer
the Hon. Gentleman to the dispatch of 1833, in
which it was most pointedly laid down that the
troops were not in any way to be compelled to attend
at any festival which was not consonant with the
principles of the Christian rd gion—(Hear)—and that
no Mahome.lan should be compelled to attend at Hindoo
religious ceremonies, and no 'Undo° at Mahommedan
worship.—( Hear, hear.) His Hon. Friend had asked
him whether that regulation had been carried into effect
in India. Now he could only that he was not aware
that it had been violated. He had before hint a letter,
statir g that the troops had attended at a Hindoo
festival, and had done honour to the ceremonies under
pretence r f attending as an escort to the Prince.
He was not aware that this was the case. He had
certainly not made any inquiry, but no complaint had
been made to him. He could state, however, that if
such a case were brought under the notice of the
Court of Directors they would do everything in
their power to prevent its recurrence ; and
more than that, if they had reason to believe
that their wishes were cot attended to, or their
orders not properly obeyed, then they would take the
earliest opportunity of sending out such instructi ns
as would nut a stop to pract:ces so objectionable. Of
course, a great distinction must be taken between the
attendance of troops at public processions, and their
forming a guard of honour and going into the temples.
He had inquired whether there had been any additional
information lately from India upon the subject,
but bad ascertained that there was not. He believed
there was no case in which compulsory attendance
was resorted to, and although some disturbance had
taken place at Madras between a troop of native infant, y
and cavalry, he had not been able to ascertain its cause.
He should, however, feel it his duty to make further
inquiries.