The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-13 00:00:00

ought to be put down for ever. But the Court of Directors
had sounded the alarm, and had sail that the present was
not the time for a change. But ho said that now was the
proper time, and that every hour of delay was pregnant
with misfortune to the empire. So long as what had been
called the mutiny, but what be called the insurrection,
continued, the very cause existed why they should put an
end to the present system at once. The Minister ought to
bo able to take daily and hourly counsel on this grave sub-
ject. Then he fully agreed with those who said that it would
have a great influence on the natives to have the govern-
ment directly under the Crown. The native princes would
feel exalted when they had the dignity of making treaties,
not with a joint-stock company, but with the Sovereign of
England. He knew, for example, that natives looked to
au appeal to the Queen in Council, not as a mere trial of a
legal question in a court of justice, but rather as a proceed-
big which brought them directly under the surveillance of
the Crown. Again, lately they had seen a prince come over
to this country and offer his little girl to the Queen to be
made a Christian, as the greatest offering he could make to
his Sovereign. The declaration that this intermediate
power—the Company—which stood between the natives of
India and the Crown, had ceased to exist would be received
with delight in that country. He had intended to call at-
tention to a document put into the hands of members in
conjunction with the petition, but would not do so now,
because it would not be convenient to enter into details.
He would be prepared to discuss any question of detail,
and to show that the men who could write such a docu-
ment, whatever might be their ability, were not fit to be
entrusted with the administration of the government of
India unless they werebrought under the direct moral infi
ence of the people and Parliament of thie country. The ryots
of India were assessed to the last farthing. (Oh.) Well,
of course ho did not mesa to say their last farthing liter-
ally : but, having left the cultivator just enough for main-
tenance, everything else was taken from him which con-
stituted property in this kingdom. The Punjaub was
taxed only to the extent of one-fifth, but what was the
measure of taxation upon the rust of India ? Why, he be-
lieved in some parts of India it was as much as two-fifths,
whilst in olisrs it was ev,n r.s much as tier ,e-fifrhs of the
gross receipts of the land. And the consequence of the
low taxation of the Punjaub was no doubt its tranquillity.
The expense of the government of the Punjaub exceeded
its revenue, and nearly all the expenditure was defrayed
out of the revenues of the rest of India. He asserted the
cultivators of the soil had been in some instances reduced
to the most dreadful suffering and distress. Ho had been
informed that they had been even reduced to eat the soil
which they tilled, from starvation. (Laughter.) He did
not mean to say this was a normal state of existence, but ho
believed very great suffering had occurred, and that many
of the people of India had died of famine. He could not
give the bill his unqualified adherence in all its details, but
supported the general principles of the measure. Ho would,
for instance, be sorry to accept the arrangement made for
the patronage of India. He must say he di 1 not think the
Court of Directors entitled to any great consideration ;
for though they had at their disposal some 400 cadetship
yearly—(no, no)—yes, but such had certainly been the
case in former years, sometimes more than 400, sometimes
less ; yet in the distribution of that patronage they had
never, as a body, appropriated a single cadetship in the
discharge of a public duty, or on the ground of public ser-
vice. (Oh, oh, and hear.) Yes, he re-asserted his former
observation and defied contradiction, speaking of the di
rectors as a public body. It was well known how the
widows of officers who had died in the service canvassed
directors from house to house, and were not always suc-
cessful even in seeing the great man, far less so in the ob-
ject of their solicitation. He wished, instead of the bill
giving patronage to the Council in the manner it did, it
laid down how much should be given to the Indian army,
and how much to the Council. There were other details
into which he would not now enter. Generally speaking,
he gave his cordial assent to the measure of Government,
and believed it would bo found equally conducive as for-
mer measures which Parliament had passed to the welfare
of the people of India, and that by means of it the British
rule in that country would enter into a now career of use-
fulness. (Hear.)
Sir J. ELPHINSTONE intended to oppose the bill upon
two grounds; first, because the proposed council for India
must in the end become the political partisans of the Go-
vernment of the day; and, secondly, for the much stronger
reason that the present was not the time for the intro-
duction of such a measure. Ho happened to have some
knowledge of Ceylon, end he could inform the hence that
while the East India Company wore considering the desi-
rability of removing import duties, the Government in
Ceylon were imposing a duty of 24 per cent. The moment
the Government took India into their own hands, from
that moment India would deteriorate. The noble lord
had talked about our having governed India for 200 years,
sleet we had acquired no loss than three-fifths of India
since the year 181 a. He felt assured that the present bill
could not be adopted in its present shape. He trusted
that the men who had so ably governed India would have
a fair hearing on the second reading of the bill.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER geld that
the hon. member who moved the amendment to the bill
laid much stress upon the petition so ably drawn up by
the East India Company, and referred to the Company as
having laid the foundation of the annexation of the Indian
territory to the British dominions. Ho agreed with the
hon. gentleman who last addressed the house that the
petition recited a great deal that was creditable to the Com-
pany, but a public document of that kind ought not to be
merely good in composition, and eloquent, .but it ought
to be based upon fact, and close and cogent reason. There
were two assumptions which wore put forward in that
document. One of them, that this country owed to
the East India Company the vast territory of India ; and
the other assumption, that the East India Company's
Government was the best Government that the world ever
experienced. Now, allow him to examine how far those
two assumptions could be established. !With regard to the
assertion that this country was indebted to the East India
Government for the territory of India, he would stop to
inquire how far that was made out. and whether India,
bad all the value attributed to it. The East India Com-
pany were bound to show, if they could, that this country
was benefited by the acquisition of the East India terri-
tory. Ho fully admitted that the Government of the East
India Company had been just, and he was not detracting
from the policy of maintaining the Indian empire ; but he
would say that those persons who said that this country
was under a deep debt to the East India Company wero
bound to show that it was of enormous advantage to this
country, He wholly disputed the doctrine that it was
owing to the policy of the East India Company that India
was annexed. Every person who was acquainted with
is story would conceive with him that it had been the policy
of the directors in this country that all wars and territo-
rial annexations in India should be avoided. That was a
policy of the East India directors. When they were a mere
trading company they held that policy ; and it was by the
energyof such men asClive, and the rapacity of such mm we
Warren Hastings that their Indian empire was carried.
The Indian Government and the management of affairs in
India, were placed in the hands of the company's servants,
and these servants were insubordinate, mutinous, rapa-
cious, and unjust. They were called upon to make remit-
tances home by the directors, and what was the way they
did it ? By plundering the people ? (Hear, hear.) The
directors always sail—be just, avoid war, avoid annexa-
tion— but don't forget to send us money home. (Laughter.)
i:y the voyage by the Cape of Good Hope, four or five
mouths or more were occupied in the passage from Eng-
land, and the opportunity for insubordination and rapa-
city was favourable to the company's own servants. He
maintained that the annexations of territory were made in
the face of the orders against such a proceeding, issued by
the directors not to annex territory. Parties who went
out formerly as governor-generals returned abounding in
wealth. Clive and Warren Hastings acted upon that
policy. One p ,rty was made the subject of Parliamentary
attacks of a very severe kind, which were persevered in
earnestly until he put an end to his own life. Those were
some of the effects of the founder of their Indian empire,
as he was called. Well, then, lot them take Warren
Hastings. They knew the rapacity for which he was dis-
tinguished. They knew that this house voted that he be
recalled. They knew that the company and directors sent
for him, and that the Secretary of State sent orders for his
return home, which he disobeyed. They knew that when
a few years afterwards, he returned, he was made the sub-
ject of an impeachment, charging him with a degree of ra-
pacity that bad never been surpassed. Not one great man
of the day, not even Mr. Burke nor Mr. Foes, ventured to
throw his shield over him. By common consent he was
condemned. (Hear.) Therefore it was quite a mistake
to say that by the policy of the Indian directors the terri-
tory of India cline to the Crown of this country. The
annexation of India carne into the hands of this country
by the insubordination and mutinous conduct of the ser-
vants of the East India Company. That was the stato of
things by which the government of India passed out of the
hands of the company in 1751, and a series of governors
wore appointed under the political influence of the execu-
tive Government. Now, the Governor-General of whom
it might be said that laths became really annexed to this
country was Lord Wellesley. He went out to India. and,
by the system which he introduced, ho succeeded in ren-
dering India of more value to this country than it ever was
before. By that system the accession of territory became
great and complete, and the Indian army and all great
Indian political interests were brought under the rule of
the sovereignty of this country. He concurred in the
policy of the East India Directors at borne, and if their
policy had been carried out the country would not now be
in the unfortunate condition which was so much to be
deplored. He said that in fairness, but he felt that it was
to the good qualities which distinguished Englishmen
wherever they were placed that they owed their Indian
empire. It was by the subsequent policy of their Gover-
nor-Generals that their territorial accessions in India were
to be attributed. Ho disputed entirely that portion of
the petition which said that they owed their Indian
empire to the policy of the East India Company. He
now came to another point in the petition, for which
credit was taken. The petitioners say, " they feel assured
that the more attentively their government of India is
considered, the more light would be thrown upon India,
and the more evident would become the fairness of the
manner in which the company administered the govern-
ment." Now, looking at that, he thought the character'
which the East India Company bestowed upon themselves
was not very modest. The East India Company was said
to have originated the power of this country in India ;
but the power in India was consolidated in the reign of
William 111., and it was not until the battle of Plassy
that the company could be said to have any power in that
country, when they carried Douinier. It was after that
that the Government of India began to make claims upon
thorn for a share in the territorial accession; and the
company proposed a compromise with the Government,
offering to pty them a sum of money instead of that
which was proposed by Lord Cave—that the Crown
should take possession of those territorial accessions.
That was not acted upon by the Government, :mud the
compromise was entered into for the payment of the sum
of money. That state of things continued for a few years,
until until the abuses attracted the notice of England,
1
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But oven that was not found satisfactory, and committees
of that house were appointed and long reports presented
to Parliament from time to time, which might be found
in four folio volumes—(a laugh)—compared with which
their modern blue books were Puny I,oductiou,, After