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

had indeed heard from India that the dresses and ward-
rob( s of the belies of the Court had been exposed to sale,
like a ankrup• 'is stock, in the Saberdashere' shops of
Ca'cutta—a thing ireely to incense and horrify the peo-
ple of India who witnessed it. Take, again, the case of
the Burmese war. The Governor. General entered into
it, and annezed the province of Pegu, and to this day
there had been no treaty with toe Kirg of Burmalo It
that ca.e bad been brought before the house, it was im-
possible that the war with Burmah could have been en-
tered upon. He did not believe that there was one man
in England who, knowing the facts, would say that this
war was just or necessary in any sense. (Hear.) The
Governor-General of India had an army of 300,000 men
under his command ; he was a long way from home ;
he was himself highly connected with the governing
classes at home. There were certain reasons that made
war palatable to large clas;es, and he was so powerful
that he entered into these great operations almost un-
controlled by the opini. n of the Parliament and people
of England. He might commit any amount of blunders
er crimes against the moral law, and he would still re-
main loaded with dignities and curtain of pensions. Did
it not become the power of that house to examine nar-
rowly the foundation of the misfortunes and disc races of
the grave catastrophe which had just occurred? The
place f the Governor-General was too high- -his power
was too great —and he believed that this particular office
and officer were very much responsible—of come under
the Government at home—for the misfortunes that had
takes place. Only think of a Governor-General of India
writing to a❑ Indian prince, the ruler over many mil-
lions of men in the heart, of India.—" Remember, you
are but as the dust under my feet." Passages like these
were left out of despatches. It would not do for the
Parliament tf England to know that their officer ad-
dressed language 1 e this t a native prince. (Hear.) The
lac:, was that a Governor-General o (India, unless be was
such a man as was not found more than once in a cen-
tury, was very liable to have his head turned, and to
form ambitious views, which were mainly to be gratified
by succiastul wars and the annexation of province after
provi .ce during the period of his rule. The services
were always ready to h hip him in these plans. He was
not sure that the President of the Board of Control
could not give evidence on this subject, for he had heard
something of what had happened when the noble lord
was in India. When the Burmese war broke out the
noble lord could no doubt tell the house that, without
inquiring into the quarrel or its causes, the press of
Loire, which was devoted to the services, and the ser-
vices themselves, broke out into universal approbation
of the course taken by the Governor-General. Justice
to Pega and the millions of taxes to be raised for the
support of the war were forgotten, and nothing but
visions of more territory and better patronage floated
before the eyes of the English in India. He con-
tended that the power of the Governor-General was
too great and the office too high to ae held by the subject
of any Power whatever, and especially by any subject of
the Queen of Eugneed. He should prepose, if he were
in a position to offer a scheme in the shape of a b'll to
the house as an indispensible preliminary to the sound
government of India in future, such as would be credit-
ale!e to Parliament and advantageous to the people of
India, that the office of Governor-General should be abo-
lished. (Hear.) Perhaps some gentlemen thought this a
very unreasonable proposition. Many people thought
it unreasonable in 1853 when it was proposed to abolish
the East India Company ; but ❑ow Parliament and the
country believed it to be highly reasonable and proper
(hear)—and he was not aura that he could not bring be-
fore the house reasons to convince them that the aboli-
tion of the office of Governor-General was one of the
most sensible and one of the most Conservative proposals
ever brought forward in connexion with the government
of India. (Hear.) He believed the duties of the Governor-
General were far greater than any human being could
adequately fulfil. He had a power omnipotent to crush
anything that wits good. If he so wished he could over-
bear and overrule whatever was proposed for the wel-
fare of India, while, as to doing anything that was good,
he could show that with regard to the vast countries over
which he ruled he was powe►less to affect anything that
those countries really required. (Hear.) The hou. gen-
tleman behind him (Col. Sykes) told them there were 20
nations in India, and that there were 20 languages. Did
it ever happen before that any one man governed 20 na-
tions, speaking 20 different languages, and bound them
up togetherin one great compact empire.
[An Hon. MEMBER here made an observation.]
Has hon. friend mentioned somegreat Parthe n monarch.
No !doubt there had been men strong in atm and in
bead, and of stare resolution, who had kept great
empires together during their lives ; but as strew as they
went the way of all flesh, and descended, like the
meanest of their subjects, into the tomb, the provinces
they had ruled were divided into i:umer•ons petty States
and their great empires vanished. (Hear, hear.) He
would ask the noble lord below him (Lord J. Russell)
and the noble lord the member for Tiverton (the noble
lord the member for King's Lynn had not as yet expe-
rience on that point) whether, when they came to appoint
a Governor-General of India, they did not find it one of
the most serious and difficult duties they could be called
on to perform. (Hear, hear.) He did not know at this
moment, and he never did know, a man who was com-
petent to govern India—(hear, hear)—and if any man
said he was competent, he set himself up at a much
higher value than those who were acquainted with him
were likely to do. (A laugh.) Let the house look at
the making of the laws for 20 nations speaking 20 lan-
guages. Look at the regulations of the police for 20
nations speaking 20 languages, (Hear.) Look at the
question of public works as it affected 20 nations speak-
ing 20 languages, where tbere was no municipal tamer
and no combinations of any kind, such rev facilitated the
construe ior of public works in this country. (Hear.)
Inevitably all those duties that devolved on every good
Government must necessarily be neglected by the Go-
vernor-General of India, however wise, capable, and
honest he might be in the performance of his duties, be-
cause the duties they laid upon him were such as no
man now living or who ever lived could properly sus-
tain. (Hear, hear.) It might be asked what he would
substitute for the Governor-Generalship. Now, he did
not propose to abolish the office of Governor-General of.
India this session. (A laugh.) He was not proposing
any clause in the bill, and if he were to propose one to
carry out the idea he had now expressed, he might be
answered by the argument that a great part of the popu-
lation of India was in a state of anarchy, and that it
would be most Inconvenient, if not dangerous, to abolish
the office of Governor-General at such a time. (Hear.)
He did not mean to propose such a thing now, but he
took that opportunity of stating his views, in the hope
that when they came to 1863 they might perhaps be
able to consider the question more in the light in which
he was endeavouring to present it to the House.
(Hear, hear.) He would propose that, instead of hav-
ing a Governor-General of an Indian empire, they should
have neither the one nor the other. (Hear, hear, and a
laugh.) He would propose that they should have presi-
dencies, aid not an empire. (Hear.) like were a Minis-
ter—which the house would admit was a bold figure of
speech—(a laugb)—and if the house were to agree with
him—which was also a rather es•ential point—he would
propose to have five presidencies in India, and he would
have the governments of those presidencies perfectly
equal in rank acid in salary. The capitals of those presi-
dencies would be Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Agra, and
Lahore. He would take Madras as an illustration. Ma-
dras had a population of some 20,000,000. They all knew
its position on the map, and that it had the advantage of
being more compact, geographically speaking, than the
other presidencies. It had a Governor and a Council. He
would give to its Governor and a Council still, but would
confine all their duties to the Presidency of Madras, and
he would treat it just as if Madras was the only portion
of India count cted with this country. Ho would have its
ficanco, its taxation, its justice, and its police depart-
ments, as well as its public works and military depart-
ments, precisely the 6.41110 a, if it were a State having no
connection with any other pert of India, and re cognised
only as a dependency of this country. (Hear.) He would
propose that the government of every presidency should
correspond with the Secretary for India in England, and
that there should be telegraphic communications between
all the presidencies in India, as he hoped before long to
see a t clegraph'c cominunica' ion between the office of the
noble lord (Lord Stanley) and every presidency over
which he presided. (Hear, bear.) He would no doubt
be tol I that there were inauperaele difficulties to such
an arrangement, and he would be sure to hoar of the
urili•ary difficulty Now, he did not profess to be an
authority on military affairs, but be knew that mili-
tary men often made great mistaken. He would have
the army divided, eaci presidency having its oven
army, just as now, care being taken to have them
kept the. inct, and ho saw no danger of any confusion
or misulderstandieg, when an emergency arose, of
having them all brought together to carry out the views
of the Government. There was one difficulty which it was
important to bear in mind, and that was with regard to
the councils in India. He thought every governor of a
presidency should have an assistant council, but chtfer-
ently constituted from what they now wi re. He would
have an open council. The noble 1 rd the member f•et
London used some expressions the other night which he
interpreted to mean that it was necessary to maintain in
all its exclusiveness the system of the civil service in
India. In that Ire entirely diff:red from the noble lord.
(Lord J. Russell here indicated dissent.) The noble lord
corrected bins in that statement, and therefore he must
have been mistaken. What they wanted was to make
the Governments Of each of rbe Presidencies Govern-
ments for the peopleof the Presidency ;.net Governments
for the civil servants of the Crown, but for the non- fficial
mercantile classes from England who settle there, and
for the 20,000,000 of i.slices. (Hear, hear.) He should
propose to do that which was done with great advantage
in Ceylon. He had received a letter from an officer
who had been in the service of the East India. Com-
pany, and who told bins iu that letter a fact which grati
tied him vcri much. Ile raid :

"At a public dinner at Colombo, in 1835, to the Gover-
nor, Sir Wilmot Llortou, at which I was present, the best
speech of the evunieg was made by an Adyaar, a native
nobleman of Candy, ;:n1 a member of Council. It was re-
markable for its appropriate expression, its sound sense,
end the deli berati, n :In] ease that marked the utterance of
his feelings. There was no repetition or useless phraseology
or flattery, and it was admitted by all who heard him to be
the soundest and neatest speech of the night."
This was at Ceylon. It was not, of course, always the
best man who could mike the best speech; but if what
he had rood coull be said of a native of Ceylon, it
could be said of thousands in India. They need not
go beyond the walls of that house to find a head bronzed
by au Indian Elio equal to the ablest heads of those
who adorned its benches. (Hear, hear.) And in every
vat of India they all knew that it was an insult to the
people of India to say that it was not the same. There
were thousands and scores of thousauds of persons in India
who were competent to take any position to which the
Government might choose to advance them. (Hear, hear.)
If the governor of each presidency were to have in his
council some of the officials of his Government, some of
the non-official Europeans resident in the presidency, and
two or three at least of thu intelligent natives of the pre-
sidency in whom the people would have some confidence,
they would base beau that which would IN a inestimable