The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-01 00:00:00

LORD. STA NTRY- ON- INDIA.-
'IIIP most liberal and enlightened member of Lord
Derby's Administration has
,just delivered a - brief
but pregnant address, - which shows that he is
thoroughly penetrated by the true principles that
should guide him in the arduous and responsible
office he has undertaken. Lod
the ~
Fishmongers' Hall banquet, at
beikte
f_h
compressed
and we are quite ready to indulge the hope—that
the transfer which has taken place of the Indian
Government, from. .the East India Company to the
Executive of this country, may on the whole be
.productive of benefit to India. As our readers are
aware, we opposail that change, especially -in the
form under which it was at first proposed to the "
consideration of the Legislature. In the progress
..of the measure through Parliament it experienced
many important..rnodifications ; and we are quite
free to admitthaLifthetime had indeed come when
transfer of power from the hands w:iich had so
long wisely and successfully d it, could no
longer be postponed, that transfer, in the shaiie it
;finally assumed, was effected in the mannvtleast
liable to serious objection. Every iiew scheme of
government depends mainly for its success on the .
mode in which it is worked, and none whowitnessed
the ability with which Lord Stanley conducted the
measure in its final stages through Parliament, or
have marked the fairness and discrimination which
have characterised the subsequent appointments to
the Council, can refuse to acknowledge that the ad-
ministration of Indian affairs can hardly be in
better and safer hands than those of the present
Secretary. The address to which we now draw
attention will tend to confirm the favourable im-
pressions so generally entertained of Lord Stanley's
eminent fitness for his difficult and responsible post.
While expressing the hope, in which we cordially
concur, that the change of system may tend
to a larger introduction into India of Euro-
pean energy, enterprise, and thought, Lord Stan-
ley does not conceal from himself the in-
creased responsibilities which are thus thrown
upon the Government of this country. "We have
to guard against a double danger. We have to pro-
tect India from the fluctuations of Parliamentary
politics, and to protect England from the more in-
direct and remote, but perhaps not less real, risk
which may arise from the connection of its Execu-
tive with an Executive which is nece' sarily des-
potic." Those are wise and well-weighed words ;
it would not be easy to describe in language more
terse and comprehensive the true nature of the
double difficulty which arises from the assumption
by the British Crown of the single government of
India. It is the difficulty which has been repeatedly
pointed out in these columns, and against which we
rather indulge the hope then entertain the convic-
tion, that the firmness of Government and the wis-
dom of Parliament will be found adequate to prevail.
Those who consider the amount of power now
vested in the Secretary for India, will find it difficult
to regard with equanimity those possible conse-
quences of the parliamenta7 conlict of parties
which might transfer in a mom. nt the supreme
control over Indian affairs from the capable hands
of Lord Stanley to the incapable hands of a Vernon
Smith. It is probably, however, not too much to
hope, even from the most reckless of governments,
that their chiefs will in future show sonic adequate
sense of the great importance of rightly filling the
arduous post of Secretary for India. It it is to take
the rank which from its difficulty and responsibility
it ought henceforth to assume in the official hier-
archy, it will generally..be regarded as a worthy
prize of the highest mn.a aerial ambition, the test
and reward of. the most consummate capacity fbr
serving the Stilts..
It is onl' in his correct AppreciaCo of th©
mid dangers likely to arise in this coun-
try from the working of the new system, that the
young Secretary for India evinces his perfect com-
prehension of the true relative position of Englund
and her great dependency. His rems ks upon
the effects likely to be produced in India by those
mistaken efforts to do good which have been
in some quarters so inconsiderately urged on
Government, are by no means the least statesman-
like portion of his address. These observations are
so well expressed—they are so highly deserving of
attention in themselves—so doubly deserving of at-
tention as coming from the Indian Minister—that
it would be unpardonable not to give them all the
prominence in our power. Lord Stanley, after ex-
pressing what we trust is a well-grounded hope
that the exasperation of feeling which prevailed in
this country against the natives of India is in
course of gradual extinction with the cause to
which it owed its origin, proceeded in the follow-
ing strain of wise and elevated liberality :
I think, however, we should remember that it is
not only from ill will or ill feelings on our part,
but also from uninformed and misdirected efforts
for doing good, that our influence and Government
in India have been exposed to Caa;er. (Hear,
hear.) 'We do, I believe, regard—and undoul t xlly we
.ought to regard—the natives of India as persons towards
whom it is our duty to feel good will, and fa. whose welfare
it is our duty to labour ; but that is not enough.
It is not enough t' regard them as objects upon.
whom our benevolence may be exercised, or as persons upon
whom it is in our power to operate important changes for
good. 'We must to ,k upon them also as men with whom,
and not against whom, wi have to wor'i—as men with feel-
ings of their o • n—;hear, hear)—as men who, although
politically subject to us, have a sense of their own rights
and a respect for their own independence—(hear, hear)—and
as men who will be apt to be all the more tenacious of their
intellectual independence and national customs because
of the political subjection in which they arc held. (Hear.)
There can be no doubt that the position of a conquering
and • governing race confers many advantages as regards'
the influence which may be exercised over a conquered
people ; but that position carries with it this disadvantage
—that a conquering race almost inevitably. displays a
certain sense of superiority—a certain arrogance, if that be
not too harsh a word to use—a certain disregard of the
feelings of others, which, not being placed under such
circumstances, it is hardly possible for us to under-
stand. Ido not hesitate to say that, unless we keep
within proper bounds our feeling of national superiority,
unless we remember carefully, and even jealously, to
respect the feelings, a ‘.(l oven the prejudices of those
with whom we have to deal—above all, if we attempt
to introduce the fi r.e and influence of Government
into that which ought to be matter of private conviction
between man and his own conscience, or if we are even sus-
pected, upon plausible grounds, of attempting or intending
it, our endeavours at improvement will be thrown back in
our face as insults, and we shall end by doing more harm
than good." (Hear, hear.)
These are the sentiments of a true Statesman and
an enlightened Christian. There can be no greater
mistake than that of confounding the ancient and
corrupt semi-civilisation of India with the • gross and
simple savagery of African, or Australian, or Poly-
nesian aboi igin FS. The profound and dreamy idealism
of Hindoo philosophy—the immemorial fixity of
Hindoo usages, the impure but imposing ceremonial
of Hindoo superstition, which pervades life from the
cradle to the grave—these things are not to be
ignored, but to be deeply meditated by the
dominant nation to whose destiny it has fallen to
rule over the millions of India. It is not with
simple natures, or unfurnished minds, that the
European Government of India or the Christian
Missionaries of India have to deal. In many a
broad province of that vast region there are still
to be found fierce and intractabl souls, reluctantly
succumbing to an inevitable yoke •, everywhere
there is to be . encountered great subtlety of dis-
putation ; an ardent attachment to ancient insti-
tutions ; a bigoted and intense devotion to a religion
which not only affects to teach the mysteries of
Thnogony and the ceremonies of worship, but pre,
scribes the bounds of society and regulates the
forms of life. Among such a people as this
the arrogance of a dominant race, if imported
into missionary effort, must necessarily produce
effects the most disastrous. Lord Stanley has
touched upon a truth of universal history when he
reminds us that races held in political subjection
are on that very account all the more tenacious:.of
their intellectual independence and national customs:
The fear that the •political subjection in which we
hold India was about to be organised in an uni-
versal ascendancy over the opinions, the modes of
belief, and the social habits of our Asiatic subjects—
this, more than any other single cause, was really at
the root of what we may now venture to call the
late insurrection. It is on all grounds a matter of
public
c congratulation
task o thatf
inaugurating the Minister
th e to whom
sy
whom
is entrusted s 7
tnn. of Indian government should have had the
statesmanlike boldness, explicitly to insist upon
the duty of respecting not only the feelings but even
the prejudices of those whom it is our high destiny
to rule, and to utter a solemn warning against any
attempt "to introduce the force and influence of
Government into that which ought to be matter of
private
conviction between man and h's own con-
science: raiND.lily News. - - - -