The Sun.
London, England, 1858-06-25 00:00:00

Pably to adercss the house— if at any time they obtained
the simplicity which he arged for with regard to the
Government at home, what change.. would it ho desir-
able to make in the Government in belie ? And he wool I
make one observation at this p tint, that in all the state-
ments and arguments which he hoped to use he b-gged
the house to believe that he uscd them with the greatest
Possible deference, with the feelirg that this was a ques-
tion upon which no man was at ail entitled to dogma-
tise, that it was a vast question which they all looked at
a 8 one they were scarcely carahle cf handling and deter-
mining. (Cheers.) He submitted his views to the hou,e
because he had considered the subject more or less for
Many years, and be believed be was ac,uated by the
simple and honest desire of contributing something to
the information and knowledge of Parliament with re-
gard to its duty upon this question. (Cheers ) What was
it they had to complain of in India ? What was that
the people of India, if they spoke by his mouth, had to
complain of ? They would tell the house that, as a rule,
throughout all the presidencies, and throughout those
Presidencies most which had longest been under British
rule, the cultivators of the soil, the great body of the
Population of India, were in a condition cf greaa im-
Poverishment, of great dejection, and of great suffering.
altar ) He had brought to the house the report of the
committee which he obtained 10 years ago, upon which
eat sever,l members of the Court of Directors, and they
ail aereed to report as much as lie had now statz-d to
the house—the report being confined chiefly to the pre-
sidencies of Bombay and Madras. If he were now cute
Mitting the case of the population of India he would
say that the taxes of India were more onerous and
oppressive than the taxes of any other country in
the world. He thought he could demonstrate that
Proposition to the house. He would show that indus-
try was neglec'ed to a greater extent probably than has
the case in any other country in the world which bad
been for any length of time under what was termed a
eiv lised and Christian Government. (Herr, bean) Be
Would be able to show from the notes and memoranda of
eminent men in India, of the Governor of Bengal, Mr.
tfalliday, that there was not and never bad been in any
country pretending to be civilised a condition of things to
be compared with that which existed under the police
administration of the province of Bengal. (Hear.) With
regard to the courts of justice he might say the same
ing. He could quote pas=ages from books written in
favour of the Company with all the bias which the
Strongest friends of the Company could have, in which
.t„,he writers declared that, precisely in proportion as
-ninglish courts of justice had extended, had perjury and
all the evils which perjury introduced into the adminis-
tration of justice prevailed throughout the presidencies of
Indic (Hear.) With regard to public works, if he were
'Peaking for the natives of India be would state this fact,
that in a single English county there were more roads—
More travelable roads—than were to be found in the
Whole of India ; and he would say also that the single
Cy of Manchester, in the supply of its inhabitants with
the single article of water, had spent a larger sum of
money than the East India Company bad spent in the
)14 years from 1834 to 1848 in public works of every
,_ind throughout the whole of its vast dominions. (Cheers.)
-tte would say the real activity of the Indian Govern.
went had been an activity of conquest and annexation—
(hear)—of conquest and annexation which after a time
had led to a fearful csva,trt phi', which had enforced on
the house attention to the question of India, which but
for that catastrophe he feared the house would not have
given it. (Cheers.) If there were another charge to be
made against the past Government of India it would be
With regard to the state of its finances. Where was
there a bad government whose finances were in good
°tier ? Where was there a reallygood government whose
'lettuces were in bad order? Was there a better test in
the long run of the condition of a people and the merits
of a government than the state of the finances ? And
Yet not in our own time, but going back through all the
?ages of "Mill," or any other history of India. they
had
the normal condition of the finances of India '
thatbean that of deficit and bankruptcy. He maintained
'Oat if that were so the Government was a bad Govern-
'tient. It had cost more to govern India than the Go-
tenement bad been able to extract from the population I
of India. The Government had not been scrupulous as
e the amount of taxes or the mode in which they were
levied ; but still, to carry en the government of India
ii°norciing to the system which had heretofore prevailed,
more had been required than the Government could ex•
tract by any system of taxation known to them from
tihe population over which they ruled. It cost more
4111 30,000,000/. a-year to govern India, and the gross
revenue being somewhere about 30 000,000/., and there
Ting a deficit, the deficit had to be made up by loans.
te Government obtained all they could from the popu-
'Ltion. It was not enough, and they had to borrow from
he population and from Europeans at a high rate of in-
"'test to make np the sum which was found to be neces-
!Sty. Tkey had a debt of 60,000,0001. It was conti-
'Lnally increasing. They always had a loan open, and
While their debt was increasing their credit had been
hailing., because they had not treated their creditors very
e°nourably on one or two occasions, and chiefly, of
con se, on account of the calamities which had recently
t'Ppened in India. There was one point with regard'
° taxation which he wished to explain to the house, and
a hoped that, in the reforms to which the noble lord
Was looking forward, it would not be overlooked. He
h'd Paid that the gross revenue was 30,000,0001. Ex-
of the opium revenue, which was not, strictly
:Peaking, and hardly at all, a tax upon the people, be
2'pt down the taxation of the country at something like
4,0 000,006/. Honourable gentlemen must not compare
44.000,000/. taxation in India with 60,000,0001. in Eng-
-11144(- They must bear in mind that in India they con4d
er v''re 12 days' labour of a man tor the same sum in
or gold which they had to pay for one day's labour of
.It2nan in England; that if, for example, these 25,000,0001.
ere expended in purchasing labour, it would pur-
"se twelve times as much in India as in England
that was to say, that the 25,000,000/. would purchase
4 many days' lab Our in India an 300,000,0001. would
rsitchase in England. [An Hon. Member.—How much
4 the labour worth ?] That was precisely what he was
'3liing to. If the labour of a man was only worth 2:1.
hsy, they could not expect as much revenue from him
if it were 2s. a-day. That was jnet the point to which
It wished the hon. gentleman would turn his attention.
W'Y had in England a population which, for the sake
argument, he would call 30,000,000. They had in
1,10144 a population of 150,000,000. Therefore, the
population of India was five times as great as the popu-
itlon of England. They raised 60,000,0001. taxation in
w4,glancl. They raised in India, arguing by the value
*Labour taxation, equivalent to 300,000,0001., which
tee five times the English revenue. A man might say
htaxation in India and England appeared about the
tiler and no great injury was done. But it must be
orae in mind that in England they bad an incalculable
h
4,°wer of steam, of machinery, of modes of transit, roads,
railways, and everything which capital and
b(nan invention could bring to help the industry of the
P:IA; while in India there was nettling of the kind.
kear.) In India there was scarcely a decent road, the
ere were not bridged, there were comparatively no
takh-engints, and none of those aids to industry that
et us at every step when travelling Great Britain
titlki Ireland. Suppose steam-engines, ,machinery, and
des of transit abolished iu England, how much re
frot'ee would the Chaecelloz ,'f the Exchequer obtain
k, CI the people of England ? Instead of 60,000,0001.
t,Y„'ar, would he get 10,000,000/. ? He doubted it very
t,,"ch• If the house would follow out the argu-
the4tr they would come to the conclusion that the taxes of
the People of India were oppressive to the last degree, and
at the Government which had thus taxed them could be
i'!,brated no longer, and must promptly be put as end
abt once arid for ever. He wished to say something
of the maener in which thc,o great exoeuses were
'ecfred. The extravagance of the Ea,t India G.,vern-
trf±
wee; notorious to all. 'bade there never was
to under the sun that been paid at so high a
t'e as the exclusive civil service of the East ledia
,?elnany. Clergymen apd uniss,'„onaries could be got to
wout to India La- a moierate sum—private soldiers and
ti'ccers of the army went out for a moderate reinuntra-
e.,--naerchants were content to live in the cities of
11-"ia for a percentage not greatly exceeding toe ordime y
bttlofits of commerce. Bat the civil service, because it was
11414'd Up with those who were raised by it, and who
peensed the patronage, received a rate of payment
t, 'eh would be incredible if they did not know it to be
I.,°°, and which, knowing it to be true, they must adroit
h~imonstrous. The East Indian Government scattered
arks about at Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Agra, La-
4e,a and half-a dozen ether cities, which were up to the
etit of those of the Prime Minister and Secretaries of
44.. • ,
e this country. These salaries were framed upon
4'17 theory that India was a mine of ueexplored weelth,
tivit'ugh no one had found it so but the members of the
poll service of the East India Company. (Hear ) The
ot4lea of the Governmeet wan at the bottom of the con•
deficit. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had twice
ly`ttered dsat expenditure depended upon policy. That
thaa true in India as in England, and it was the policy
li,,att,had been pursued there which rendered the revenue
table to this constantly recurring deficit. He Lad come
el, the conclusion, which many hon, members probably
tta4ted with him, that the edifice we hal reared in India
Vet too vast, There were few teen now, and least ef all
IC'e connected with the East India C empacy, whr,look-
htg back to the policy that had been pursued, would not
11 >willing to admit that it had not be- n jedicious but
batt",ardous—that territories had been annexed that bad
4,414 been left independent, and that wars had been un-
tit.`aken which were as needless as they were altogether
LtJnetifiable. (Hear.) The immense empire that had
I,44:conquered was too vast for management, its base
t 0 i;'fl decay, and during the last 12 months it appeared
ktrhe tottering to its fall. Who or what was the in-
tt,"nlent the Cabinet, the Government, or the per-
-11, -by whom this evil policy was carried on ?
%,° greatest officer in India was the Governor•
tiei,ll,'ral. He was tine rub r of about one-fifth,
L'ait!ly more than one-eix:,h, of the human race. The
t.rkrore of France and RWEIa were but the goveraor-
dlit°vinees core.pared with the power, the dignity, and
high estate et. the Governor-General of India. Now•
liej this officer almost no real control was exercised.
ft," were to appeal to the two hon. gentlemen who had
(I'l,o(ittently addressed the house during these debates
Ely °nel Sykes and Mr. Willoughby), they would probe,
oft "mit that the GoVernor-Geocral of India was an
eer-
tn of such high po-ition that scarcely any centrof
he exerciseder him, either in India or Ere laud
Ile" the case of the Marquis of Dalhousie for example.
riot about to wake an attack upon him, for the
PI5:1')11 was too solemn for personal controvereies. But
41,1"4ercation of Sattara, of the Puejab, of Nagpore
net °f Oude occurred under his rule. (gear.) lie would
sir into the rase of Sitters, but one of the most wag-
elo'cleht piieees that India ever produced sulk-red and
artthtnoet unjustly in exile, either through the mistakes
evec Crimes of the Government of India. This, how-
was not done under the Government of Lord Dal-
eta As to ;Ile annexation of Nagpore, the !lease
hadillever heard any thing sbuut it to that hour, There
%..ft 0" no message from the Crown or statement of the
tkileut relative to that animation. Hen. members