The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-04 00:00:00

-natives wished to be rid of it, and they would
not cultivate it unless they were obliged to do so,
but the collectors had orders to force them to
cultivate it, and in case a native received an ad-
vance of money from the company, and refused to culti-
vate opium, he was punished. The cultivation of opium
was forbidden to every one, except those whom the East
It:4la Company employed; and after it had been raised,
▪ t was purchased by the Company from the grower at
on e-fifth of its real legitimate price in the market. It
'lv, as then brought to the Company's detAls, where an en-
-1 anted price was put upon it; and filially, it was dis-
P etched to the coast of China, where smugglers were
InPloyed for the purpose of running it ashore. And
▪ what was the result? The monopoly wits the cause of
scarcity; scarcity promoted competition; and the Chi-
nese were beginning to grow opium for themselves, in
Spite of their laws, which pronounced its cultivation to
be illegal. So that what happened to the salt mono-
poly was about to happen to the opium monopoly. Nor
should it be forgotten that both these monopolies of salt
and opium were maintained at present in spite of an ex-
re" engagement that they should be abolished. When
" was proposed to introduce into the East India Com-
P,,seY's Bill of 1833 two clauses, which would have had
Charles
effect of putting an end to these monopolies, Mr.
per
Grant stated to the Honourable Member who
i;"'"ed the insertion of the clauses, that the Go-
:raiment—both that at home and in India—had
';',,°fe shoo the determination that the taxes on opium and
E-Tvs,t uld he removed. That was in 1833; and on the
of July, 1840, Lord Sandon put a question to the
'gut
9_ontrol,
son. Baronet the President of the Board of
which was answered by the Hon. Baronet the
:1 etn,Per for Honiton (Sir J. W. Hogg), as a director of
the East India Company. The question was, whether
8 directors of that company had taken any steps to
ietatrste themselves from the manufacture of opium in
al:dis? The answer returned was, that there had been
1- Yet no instructions sent out to India of the nature el-
uded t
s; -os but that the whole question was under the
'thea"limis consideration of the Court of Directors. Why,
very reason fur extending the term of the Com-
pany's
charter to twenty years was for the express pur-
rosse of enabling the Company to remove the monopolies;
riu yet the salt monopoly, the opium monopoly, the to-
el,lZ,? to the
short, every monopoly continued to
b the present moment, except those which had
,fleee abolished by the inevitable laws of freedom.-
-N4'ear, hear.) The tobacco monopoly was so completely
• iteh e hands of the East India Company, that they were
to specify what districts should grow tocacco in a
Year, and they compelled the unfortunate natives to
a 5155 tobacco at a price named by themselves. And
rafter the price had been fixed and enhanced, the to-
bacco produced was so bad that, unless steeped in
liquid ammonia, nobody would purchase it, except
the natives, who bad no choice, and the soldiers, who
bad no money. With regard to the minor monopolies,
it was customary to put them up to sale, and the pur-
chaser, having paid the stipulated price, was entitled to
collect the police of the district in which the monopoly
Wll5 held, and to perambulate it in quest of contraband
stores. He could even enter into private houses at the
head of his force, and make a search for bees-wax,
honey, or any of the other articles included in the class
of minor monopolies for which he had paid the purchase
money. Such were the sources of the revenue of British
India in the raising of which nine-tenths of the popula-
tion were annually cold up, and which never exceeded in
amount 20,000,0001., notwithstanding the enormous in-
crease of our territories from time to time. And yet
these territories, when smaller in extent, and not sub-
jected to monopolies and import duties, had yielded un-
ifier former dynasties a revenue never less than
:30,000,000/. per annum. If these things were true,
ought they not to be corrected? and if they were not true
what possible objection could the court of directors have
to an inquiry into the whole subject? It was not his in-
tention toenter at length into this question further than;to
make this remark. In the changes which have taken place
in the machinery for the collection of taxes since we
became seised of the soil of India, we have the key to
the great decline of that country. For what had been
Tthe secret of those changes ? Had they not all tended
towards transferring the villages, the provinces, and the
States from the natives and proprietors themselves to the
hands of foreigners—raw, inexperienced boys—brought
np in England, for the most part at an exclusive college,
where they were taught to consider themselves superior,
t only to the natives whom they were to rule, but even
to the servants of the company under whom they were
; o.set Into their hands the whole power was given.
Ise natives were as fit to manage their own affairs as any
'other
People. Was any one of them who had ever visited
this country not fit to compete with the Company's ser-
_ante, even in the highest offices? Yet it was only to
the lowest offices that the Company ever appointed them.
Well, then, should we, without inquiry, without the ap-
r'ihtnsent of a Commission to visit India (for he be-
vetl that no inquiry could ever avail to effect any re-
cress for local grievances without a Commission being
"EU out to the spot and armed with full Parliamentary
tainelhhritY)—was it right, he asked, without investiga-
hiji, to re-consign the Government of India
le the hands of the East India Company? But
1,6 weuld not confine the Commission to the subjects he
ad already mentioned; becauseaif there was one griev-
iltiee which more than another had claims upon English-
for redress, it was a corrupt administration of jus-
• ' Some years ago a Commission was appointed to
India
the conflicting elements of what was called law in
eaddia into a code. The result of that Commission (which
10 eethe assistance of an eminent lawyer, with a salary of
01. a year) was the preparation of certain documents
jes• 7(1 a penal code; but that collection of papers her Ma.-
easa'Y, Government has laid upon the shelf. A further
10751 Mission had also been appointed, for the purpose of
imieKing the law equal for men of all religions and of every
in r. The result of that appointment appeared only
last e shape of those remarkable Acts of Council passed
this Year'
but which he was aware had been disallowed
Actjeal4„., by the Board of Control, called the " Black
Moe; „ -131 it the Indian Government had found the
Mee nf-°hvenient mode of establishing the equality of
the f„,,every colour before the law, not by elevating
derr„ran to the position of the Englishman, but by
IVTag the Eoglisman to the level of the Indian.
ass it reteiced that the " Black Acts" had been disallowed;
was
a remarkable fact that nothing had been
4131e0 to
rafter supply the place of those enactments ; and
the frightful years of reform administration in India,
abuses so ably denounced in Sir James
ant's masterly speech remained still unredressed.
The administration of justice was still a mockery; trial
vyinrY had no existence; and the publicity of the pro-
eeedings of the courts of justice was denied. One re-
markable instance of how justice was administered, was
the
had
of a native contractor for the Government who
a brought an action for an enormous amount against
thea o
East-India Company, but the Company brought, not
cross-action, but a criminal prosecution against their
ontractor in one of their own courts, where no trial by
.Jury and no publicity were allowed, for the alleged for-
gery of documents. On this charge the man was now
In custody, and before his own action against the Com-
pany could be brought on, there was little doubt he
would be convicted and condemned. He (Mr. Anstey)
Wished to have an inquiry instituted as to what the na-
tives thought of such a system, and whether it was
Popular in India; for he believed that neither the plan-
ters nor the natives of India could be more incompetent
for the administration of government than the East
India Company had shown themselves. Another head
of his proposed inquiry into the system of the Indian
Government should be its foreign department.
The House had a right to know what the natives
thought of the policy of the Government in this parti-
unler—what they thought of such dispatches as that of
Lord Dalhousie refusing to be bound by the Company's
treaties with the native states, or to recognise their laws
,?r their institutions regulating the right of succession
- the adoption of an heir where a prince had no regu-
lar lineal descendant. This native custom had been
violated in the celebrated Sattara case, and other fie-
Rvent instances; and he wished to ascertain from the
• Sovereigns of the native states of India what they
.nought of their own rights in this matter. He should
"ae to know from the natives under our rule whether
they still •
continued so much impressed with our good
faith and our scrupulous observance of treaty obligations
al they were in the days of Lord Amherst. The last
3,(1,4!i1e who had visited our shores had told us that the
1 security for attachment to our power in the hearts
of the millions of India, was their confidence that we at
"Ist respected justice and the claims of solemn obliga-
tions. But what was the course of the Indian Govern-
tent? Any act of aggression, however flagrant or ini-
quitous, insured impunity from the Court of Directors
et it only met this one condition—that it increased the
revenues of the company, and added to its territory—
that it helped to keep up the dividend of 10i per cent.
guaranteed to the proprietors of East India Stock.
Another branch of the inquiry under the head of the
foreign department related to those wars, those mon-
strous, secret, and aggressive wars, which England, for
the first time in her history, had engaged in since 1833.
The war in Affghanistan was one of these instances; and
the Act of 1833 had an express clause conveying extra-
ordinary powers to she Board of Control on matters of
this nature. The secret committee of the Coln t of Di-
rectors had lent themselves as an instrument for promot-
ing these schemes of aggressive conquest. He rejoiced
„,,saYs however, that the price of their subservience to
"eleh the Court of Directors had looked had never been
realised by them. The expenses of the war had fallen
wisabnedd
Wtohkwr
ttenthoe
iken their finances; they amounted to forty-four mil-
lions in 1848, and since that date there had been no ae-
ZoUnt of them. Now he (Mr. Anstey)
e feelings of India on these transactions,
e!' were regarded by the native population as redounding
to
Theeur national character for honour and probity or not,
of servants of the Company themselves had disapprovd
`; proceedings. Sir George Wade appeared, from
the official papers, to have been in favour of the Affghan
lore but he (Mr. Anstey) could show that he was all
rortT.inst it, and would pledge himself to prove his
The consiCeratious to which he (Mr. Anstey)
humane
as yet adverted were chiefly those of justice and
131thitY• He knew that there were minds which
werehet capable of being moved by such considerations
att:eProsching political subjects. To such he begged
ion (although he was almost ashamed to reduce the
440_111-
:tion to such miserable dimensions) to the analysis by
ec:eNtontgomery Martin, of the customs, and other ac-
tiaaliet,of a public nature, laid before Parliament, from
141." It was demonstrate d in a most masterly manner
L'4B, and had never been contradicted, that under the
esent
s system of administration in India, under the
leslet(o)lEr_eve,nue alone, 20,423,901/. sterling was annually
which, if on the price of only eight commodities,
plied
to It India only had justice done her, would be sup-
wereus from her territories. These eight articles
floc. sugar, cotton, silk, rum, coffee, tobacco, linseed, and
Andqi, he had also read to the court of proprietors,
ti,,,4,;e.73:contradietion, a statement showing that the na-
fiseet 3 I"dia, i/ they were enabled by the Company's
gamic R Ysi-e' to c in,urne only one-tenth per head of the
br, Y of British mantactures consumed by each mem-
etar negro population in the West Indies, that
It" Su annual export trade of 72 millions Merl-

ing. That was an estimate of the price' which the Bri-
tish people annually paid for not coercing the Government
to do justice to their fellow-subjects in India. By the Act
of 1833 a compromise was effected between the two govern-
ing bodies of India. It gave the Court of Directors absolute
power within the Indian territory, and the Board of
Control was expressly prohibited from meddling with
the internal regulation of India. But the Board of Con-
trol received such extraordinary powers that Mr. Hope
M'Kenzie and Sir Charles Cochrane had retired from it
with disgust. In fact it could not be called a board. He
called it a commission, the whole of the powers being
virtually absorbed by the president. That was the na-
ture of the compromise effected by the Bill which the
louse, in 1833, so hastily and improvidently passed.
Tee patronage of India was divided between the Presi-
dent of the Board of Control and the secret committee
of the Court of Directors, and, in fact, nobody in the
world exercised such powers as the Hon. Member for
Honiton had done in India, and Lord Broughton had at
home. Well, then, he asked the House whether they
would not institute an inquiry before they renewed such
a compromise? He thought the time had come when
the Government should retain the patronage of India in
its own hands; and they might safely take steps to alto-
ltsh, the Court of Directors and the Board of Control. The
East India Company were originally a corporation or
merchants, having exclusive privileges of trading; but
now circumstances had greatly altered, and there existed
no monopolies in the trade with India but one. The
Hon. Member concluded by moving as above.
Mr. SCHOLEFIELD seconded the motion.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL thought the House was
hardly in a state to enter into a discussion of all the
various measures on which the Hon. and Deemed Gen-
tleman had touched, or into the whole question of the
government of India. It appeared to him that the
Hon. Gentleman had mistaken the position of the Go-
vernment and the House on this subject. A Noble
Friend of his had already stated that it was not the in-
tention of the Government to move for a Committee in
the present year to consider this important subject,
adding that every information that could be procured
would be laid before the House previously to the re-
newal of the Act of 1833. His Noble Friend did not
say, and it certainly was not the intention of the Go-
vernment to say, that when that information was ready,
the House, if it thought fit, should not appoint, as on
former occasions, a Select Committee, which might
inquire into the whole of this subject before
the Act was renewed. His Noble Friend said that
the Government had no such alterations as were pro-
posed in 1812 and 1833, of such vast magnitude that
they themselves should think it necessary to appoint a
Committee with the view of considering those altera-
tions; but that if the House, previously to the settlement
of this great question for another term of years, should
think fit not only to have opinions before them, but to
refer those opinions to a Committee, and institute an
inquiry into the mode of governing India, there would
certainly be no objection on the part of the Government
to such an inquiry. The Hon. Gentleman had gone into
an immense detail of various measures relating to the
finance, law, and government of India; he had made
many statements and proposals, which on a review of
them would be found to relate, in many cases, to ar-
rangements that had been abandoned and were now ob-
solete, to exclusions that no longer existed, and to re-
forms which had been already carried into execution.—
(Hear, hear.) Of course it was not desirable that there
should be a debate in that House respecting all those
various subjects without more information being laid be-
fore them than they now possessed. But the Hon. Gen-
tleman said that the best mode of obtaining that infor-
mation was to send out a Commission to India, in order
to inquire on the spot into all those topics. Now, he
entirely differed from the Honourable and Learned
Gentleman on that point. He believed that to send out
such a Commission would be the worst step the Crown
could adopt, or which that House could advise the Crown
to adopt, previously to the renewal of the Act of
Charter. With regard to the present Government of
India, the Hon. Gentleman himself had stated nothing
to show either that Lord Dalhousie was incompetent to
conduct it, or that any measures had been already taken
which the Government considered to be doubtful, or fit
subjects of inquiry. But he was sure that if, setting
aside the authority of the Government of India, they
were to send out a set of Commissioners there, who
were to make inquiry into all these things—who were to
set out with an announcement—for that would be the
effect of it—that the salt monopoly, that the laws re-
lating to opium and tobacco, and in short all branches of
finance, law, and government were about to be changed
owing to the report of those Commissioners—they would
only produce great excitement throuuhout India, and
would for the time destroy all authority in that country.
He owned he thought it would be far better, if the House
should think fit to make inquiries, that they should take
place, as on previous occasions, before a Committee of
that House, and that, at all events, the House should not
assent to the proposal to pray her Majesty to appoint a
Commission to go to India. A question of much less
compass than the present, relating to the growth of cot-
ton in India, was under the consideration of the House
no longer ago than last year. The House did not think
proper to adopt the proposal then made; but if there
were objections even to that proposition, there were ten-
fold greater objections to such a motion as had just been
made. The Hon. Gentleman, in the last place, as an
encouragement to appoint such a Commission, said that
they might govern India without the Court of Directors,
without the Court of Proprietors, and without the Board
of Control; he meant, therefore, to propose some en-
tirely new Government for India. Now, be contended
that that was not a question which should be submitted
to any Commission—
Mr. ANSTET—On the contrary, I did not propose
anything of the kind.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL—WeII, that was a question
which they could not now consider, but when it came
duly before the House, and Parliament was called upon
to legislate in respect to the renewal of the Act now ex-
isting, under which India was governed, it would be
competent for the Honourable and Learned Gentleman
to propose a substitute for the present system. As far
as his own belief went, he thought that whatever might
have been the case in former times, the government of
India was now an enlightened government. As far as
he was acquainted with their proceedings, he regarded
the Court of Directors as a body of very able and expe-
rienced men; and for his part he should not approve that
change in the mode of governing India which the Hon.
and Learned Gentleman proposed. In the present state
of the House it was not fit to adopt such a proposition,
and he certainly could not on the part of the Government
give his assent to it.
Mr. HUME was very much obliged to the Hon. and
Learned Gentleman for bringing forward the subject,
though he did not agree with him on many of the points
touched upon. He should be the last man to propose
to govern India without the Court of Directors, or some
other competent authority. Undoubtedly he should say
that the greatest errors since the last charter had been
committed by the Board of Control. He was decidedly
of opinion that an inquiry should take place. When
the last renewal was made in 1833 a very important and
extensive inquiry took place into the various depart-
ments of the subject, which were all examined with great
attention, and the evidence of men of the first talents
and experience was taken. By the arrangement then
made the Company ceased to be traders, and on that
ground alone he thought an inquiry was needed, in order
that the consequences of the change should be ascer-
tained. In the courts of justice he believed great im-
provements had been made, but there was room for
more. He should, however, certainly not recommend
a Commission to proceed to,lndia. He believed that
some of the ablest men among the servants of the East
India Company were now in England, and from them
they might obtain information concerning the presi-
dencies of the utmost importance.' There was only one
department for information as to which it was necessary
to proceed to India; he meant the relations between the
Company and the native princes. A great number of
treaties regulating those relations existed, and it was of
great importance that we should not lose the character
we bad hitherto held in India as faithful observers of
compacts; but be was afraid this was gradually happen-
ing. Acts of injustice had been perpetrated which had
made a very bad impression on the natives of India. An
instance of this was the deprivation of the right vested
in Indian princes of appointing their own heirs, in de-
fault of relatives, to succeed them. He could not think
it either wise or just in Lord Dalhousie to have made
such an unprincipled regulation, for so he must call it
it being contrary to all treaties, and that merely for the,
purpose of taking possession of Seaters. There were
other points on which the opinion of a committee would
be useful; for instance, whether the practice of allowing
a Governor-General to proceed to the bill country for a
stay of six or eight months in the year, remaining
isolated
.during all that time and remote from the
seat of Government, was a wise one or not. He cer-
tainly thought objection could not fairly be made to
functionaries filling offices of great labour and responsi-
bility availing themselves of an interval of repose in
order to shake off the lassitude induced by the climate
of India and to recruit their energies. But, in the pre-
sent year, he understood that Lord Dalhousie had pro-
ceeded into the mountains, on the way to China—he did
not know how far off—but at an immense distance. He
saw by a paper which had been put into his hands that
the very moving of the Governor-General required
eleven thousand coolies, who were brought from eighty
miles distance, in order to provide means of transport.
And for what object ? To remove Lord Dalhousie so
far from the seat of his government. Why, that was a
number sufficient to employ at making a military road
from Kurnaul to the Punjaub, an improvement which
was almost indispensable. It was not on the ground of
expense merely that he objected to this, but because
Lord Dalhousie was thereby removed from the neigh-
bourhood of functionaries filling highly important
offices, with whom he should be in communication.
The Commander-in-Chief, too, was said to be follow-
lug the example. He bad great doubt whether it was
selves
tr
foto°
fail IBot
the
sbctaheyne iert
oofootffihwechieror swat duties.shua swltyhoe
hereto
eearbwshaeasnl tf thea t by
Gee m-
aor:
In saying this, he 'did not wish to offer any opinion or
to cast bleat!, he merely mentioned them as matters de-
serving serious consideration. Many matters enume-
rated by the Hon.res! ?Ate ntlem
circumstances.a Gentleman had not T
hmuchere waspractical
tr..
bearing on p
Montgomery
Martin's theory, for example, which would
not bear a moments examination. He wanted to know
how far the Board of Control really acted as a check on
the proceedings of the Indian Government, which was
the purpose of its creation? The system which bad
existed was enough to ruin any country. There was the
Affghan war, which had been be gun, conducted, and
closed, without the knowledge of the Court of Directors,
who were required to pay 12,900 000/. sterling, though
they knew nothing about it until after all the mischief
bad been done. Then there was the Burmese war,
welch entailed a debt of 9,000,000/. on the Company,
owing to au improper and incompetent person being
sent out. The secret committee, consisting of three of
the directors, might at any time send out orders to corn_
;nonce a war, which would be carried on at the cost and