The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

TIMES. -It is loudly proclaimed by our Continental
critics that the power of Britain now gravitates to-
wards Calcutta. The remark probably expresses
nothing more than a little annoyance at our retire-
ment from those quarrels in which they would fain
have had us intervene ; yet it is true that we now di-
vert to our Indian empire the flower and strength of
the British army, If, however, we ask whether the
English public takes a more lively interest in India
than formerly, or whether Indian politics are of a
character to command even its unwilling attention,
a negative answer, we suspect, must be returned to
both inquiries. Englishmen have, unfortunately,
not yet learnt to look at India as they should do,
nor is the Indian Government at present engaged
in any transactions of an unusually impressive
nature. The truth is, and we are happy to tell it,
that our policy in the East has not become more
aggressive or arbitrary with the growth of our power.
We have greater strength than ever, but we are
less disposed to exert it. We do not want any war,
notwithstanding our irresistible army ; nor have we
any desire for territorial acquisitions, though large
provinces of India are still in native hands. The
questions now occupying the attention of Indian
rulers bear a strong resemblance to the questions
under discussion at home. Finance, cotton, public
works, the laws governing the relations of master
and servant, coal deposits, and tenant-right—these
are the subjects which engage the authorities of
India in the year 1866. Uppermost at the present
minute in Indian politics are the affairs of Oude, and
very characteristic of modern days is the aspect
which they assume. Possibly, persons now living
may remember when the affairs of Oude turned upon
the wrongs of the Begums, and it is barely half a
century since the kingdom of Oude was to the In-
dian Government what Hungary was once to the
nations of Europe—a barrier and bulwark against
aggressors beyond. In those days we were in mor-
tal fear of the Mahrattas, and we strengthened and
encouraged the independent State of Oude for the
protection of our North-Western frontier. We
now turn the Punjab to a similar purpose, the
Mahrattas havihg been suppressed and forgotten,
and the Affghans being the people regarded as
troublesome. But in the interval between those
times and these the kingdom of Oude has passed
through various phases of fortune, till at length it
was merged in our own dominions, and now Sir
John Lawrence has been quietly engaged in inves-
tigating and determining the conflicting claims of
landlord and tenant in that province of the British
Empire. The affairs of Oude, in fact, might
almost be described like the affairs of Ireland.
Our correspondence from India has recently re-
ported in some detail the settlement of this intri-
cate land question, and though, like all Indian
topics, it is obscured by the use of Indian phrases,
the points at issue were simple and natural. In
India the Sovereign is supreme landlord, and
the chief reliance of the Eastern Exchequer is on
the revenue from land. But under the Sove-
reign are several tenures, the most debatable
of which is that of the actual cultivator of the soil.
Had the cultivator any rights beyond such as were
created by his agreement with his landlord ? Was
he a tenant at will, or did his position approximate
to that of a copyholder ? Such were the questions
which, well known and long discussed in India, gene-
rally pressed urgently for decision and settlement in
the province of Oude. The first part of the process
consisted in impartial investigation, and the inqui-
ries instituted by commissioners on the spot resulted
in the conclusion that, as a rule, a tenant in the
province of Oude was possessed of no rights of occu-
pancy maintainable against the will of his landlord.
This decision was all the more remarkable because

' it was in opposition to the theoretical views of the
commissioners. There are in India two schools of
, doctrine on this point, and it was very well known
that the Governor-General himself, as well as those
by whom he was assisted iu the case, belonged to
the school which regarded tenant-right as the old
law of the country. Theorists of this party believed
that independent rights originally vested in the occu-
pant of the land all over India, though the proofs or
traditions of the custom might have been obliterated
by generations of war, oppression, or anarchy. No
inquiry, however, could confirm the truth of this
theory as applied to Oude, and Sir John Lawrence,
therefore, who would willingly have recognised the
rights of the peasant as inherently existing, was com-
pelled to establish them, as far as he could, by a
fresh title, derived from compromise and adjustment.
We should find it difficult to carry the English
reader with us through the details of this intricate
settlement, and we must content ourselves, there-
fore, with saying that the great landlords of the pro-
vince who hold immediately under the Sovereign
were induced to make concessions by concessions on
the part of Government; that certain classes of
tenants who already enjoyed beneficial terms by
favour have now these terms confirmed as rights;
and that a prospect is opened of a gradual enfran-
chisement of tenures through private contract, to
be facilitated by Government, between sub-
tenants and landlords. The most important feature
of the case is that it is deemed generally satisfac-
tory. A deputation of the great landlords of the
province waited upon Sir John Lawrence at Simla,
and conveyed to him the assent and agreement of
the whole body to the new settlement. Of the actual
character of this arrangement we need only say that
the future extension of the principle is thought to
be inevitable, were it only that the rest of India
may be raised to the level of Oude. Not the least
curious feature in these transactions is that they
should have been concluded at a remote spot in the
Himalayan mountains, 1,000 miles from Calcutta,
on territory which belonged to native chieftains only
20 years ago. The fact is that when foreigners re-
present us as absorbed in Calcutta they are speak-
ing the language of a past generation. The seat of
Government has not actually been removed from
Fort William, though more than one proposal has
been made for the transfer, but in the hot months
of the year, when the city of Calcutta is about the
least habitable spot in the world, the Governor-
General now retreats systematically to Simla. For
this practice there is ample justification in the de-
mands of health, but, apart from this consideration
it is by no means desirable that the Government of
India should be exhibited as stationary in Lower
Bengal. The true requirements of the case were
shown when it was even argued that Calcutta
should give place to Lahore. It was at Lahore or
Agra, in the Punjab or the North-Western Pro-
vinces, that the old Sovereigns of India resided, and
such a position is almost as desirable to us as it was
to them. But the climate of Calcutta would of
itself be sufficient to decide such a question in days
when the value of health is better understood. It
is simply a fact that the work of administration
can be better done, and done more quickly, at
Simla than at Calcutta ; and if this relief were not
practised, the only result would be the desertion of
Calcutta altogether for a more central and salubri-
ous spot. From Simla the Governor-General can
now survey our most exposed frontier—if, indeed,
that term can be applied to a frontier which we are
at length beginning to think not insecure; and
from Simla he will presently descend to Agra to
repeat the festival which a short time since was
exhibited at Lahore, and to receive, as his Sove-
reign's representative, the homage of native Princes
who no longer distrust our rule. There may be
nothing very striking in such policy as this, but
it promises better, we venture to think, both for
India and England, than a policy characterised by
restless intervention or perilous expeditions based
upon chimerical alarms.
`` THE EXAMINER " ON RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.
—The closing scene of the late meeting upon the
report of the committee of investigation into the
management of the London, Chatham, and Dover
line was almost pathetic. The chairman and vice-
chairman spoke at once truthfully and mournfully.
They said that, unused to accounts, they had ac-
cepted as just all that was submitted to them by
the Secretary and other officers, that the dis-
closure of mystified accounts and suppressed
facts astonished them as much as it did the
shareholders, that they lamented deeply the posi-
tion of the concern, and, conscious of their unfit-
ness, were anxious to resign, if by so doing they
would promote the good of the company. It is
impossible to doubt the good faith in which this
utterance was made by each of the noble lords. The
fruit of their being found deficient as directors is not
with them so much as with those who placed them
in office, in compliance with the bad custom of seek-
ing to have a few titled men ready to be primed with
speeches to be let off at general meetings, when it is
vainly hoped that dissentient shareholders will be

awed into silence by their titles and social rank.
But how is it that not a syllable of explanation was
heard from the mute colleagues of the two noble
lords ? Why was there not a word from the ex-
directors, who surely were not absent, who ought to
have stood beside the table of their former fellows
in prosperity, now that adversity had overtaken
them ; men whom they had left possibly under
the guidance of an instinct such as rats are said to
exhibit when their bark is in danger of sinking.
The question has been asked, and as yet remains un-
answered, what have the auditors been doing ? One
was a professional accountant. He, at any rate, can
not plead ignorance of the mysteries of £s. d. Per-
haps some explanation will yet be given. It is im-
portant to know how much of the shareholders'
money has, in the aggregate, been paid to brokers
and financial agents for raising ready money to keep
the works going. A large sum appears in one item,
although it is by no means all. To whom has this
been paid ? A correspondent asks whether any of
it,
and if so, how much, has reached a broker who
is closely related to one of the auditors ? But the
most important question remains. How best can
mismanagement, such as has befallen this company,
be averted from other companies, many of whom
have had to sustain the odium of similar, but none
of equal exposure? The government of joint-stock
c ompaniesby means of directors has been tried, and
in a majority of instances it has been weighed in the
balance and found wanting. Many pamphlets have
been written, and various propositions made to im-
prove, and some wholly to supersede, the present
constitution of the board room. Manypersons whose
remoteness or other engagements prevent them from
attending general meetings and looking after their
own concerns, almost necessarily leave the manage-
ment to a board of many men of varied and some-
times discordant views. Some few are able adminis-
trators, some do the work with interested motives,
some merely think of petty patronage and their
weekly guineas ; all are entirely irresponsible.
Surely it would be better to place the management
in the hands of one strictly responsible person,
or, according to the length of line, in the hands of
three. Let them be the best men that can be
found for this very important office, after diligent
search and every practicable assurance obtained
of ability and integrity ; and let the engagement
be at a liberal salary, to which would be added
an augmentation running both in rise and fall
pari passu with the dividend. A solid and effective
security should be demanded in an adequate amount
for due and faithful performance of duty; and the
manager should be rigidly and minutely responsible
to the biennial or special meetings of shareholders.
the directors, who are recognised in the several acts
of Parliament, might then be reduced to the mini-
mum in number, and subside into the character of
a committee of shareholders, who should once a
month meet to watch proceedings, of which they
must be fully informed, and to ask for and to re-
ceive explanations from the management. Their
powers of interference should, however, be limited
to that of calling together a special general meeting
of shareholders, if, in their judgment, the interests
of the company would be compromised b 3 awaiting
the next half-yearly assemblage. As to audit, a
matter of vital importance, let one man be appointed
by the shareholders, who shall hold office for two
years only, and shall be empowered to call in the
aid of a professed public accountant to assist him.
Let the Board of Trade nominate a second auditor;
he also to be changed at a short interval of time,
so that neither one nor the other should come under
the blandishments of the management, which has
hitherto not unfrequently contrived that things
should be " made pleasant," and auditors become
merely the influential colleagues of the directors.
The interference of the Board of Trade might have
the very desirable effect of producing a uniform and
plainly intelligible form of accounts; so that railway
proprietors could, in the printed statements, make
comparison of the several items in different com-
panies, to the advantage of all.
THE CIVIL SERVICE GAZETTE.—By the retirement of
Captain Whitty from the chief control of the Irish convict
prisons, which, we regret to hear, is necessitated by ill
health, the Government loses an officer of great practical
experience and rare merit. Some ten years ago the late
Sir Joshua Jebb bore public testimony to the fact that no
one in the kingdom, from his wide range of duty and close
study of the subject of prison discipline, was possessed of
such sound qualifications for arriving at a just opinion
upon any matter connected therewith as Captain Whitty.
He possessed a practical acquaintance which is the lot of
few men who are appointed to direct or inspect, with all
the details of every deparment of the prison service, and
was chosen by the Board of English Directors in 1848 as
the first governor of Portland Public Works Prison, the
entire management of which he most successfully organised.
Afterwards, while for many years director on the English
Board, ho had the constant and supreme supervision of
5,000 convicts, and was for long the mainstay of Sir Joshua
Jobb; but evidently differing in some particulars from the
system as pursued in England, he eventually transferred
his services to Ireland, and for some years has ably filled
the post of head of the convict department vacated by Sir
Walter Crofton. Without underrating Sir Joshua J ebb's
good intentions or Sir Walter Crofton's better principles
of convict management, it was undoubtedly to such thor-
oughly practical men as Capt. Knight and Capt. Whitty
that the true success of the various reformations in the
system is mainly to be attributed. Theoretical views,
however good, require shape and consistency, which can-
not be brought out by a prentice hand, but first in Capt.
Knight and subsequently in Capt. Whitty, Sir Walter
Crofton was happy enough to obtain the assistance of
coadjutors of surpassing administrative ability. Captain
Knight succeeded Capt. Whitty as governor of Portland,
then opened the new prison at Portsmouth, and eventually
became a commissioner of inquiry into the state of Irish
prisons, and one of their first directors ; and Capt. Whitty,
after holding a similar position at the English Board, fol-
lowed his successor in the Portland governorship to the
Hibernian directorship. He has now most ably adminis-
tered that department for many years, and was for some
time subsequent to Sir Walter Crofton's retirement left
single-handed, which was too much even for his vast
powers, those who knew him best being ever ready to tes-
tify to his immense capability for official work, and his un-
tiring zeal. What might have been the reason for the Irish
Government crippling the Convict Board in its activity

is impossible to say, but being originally constituted three
in number, with one as a chairman, it certainly underwent
a gradual dissolution or melting process. First, Mr. Len-
taigne, the junior director, was appointed Inspector of Irish
Gaols, and then when Sir Walter Crofton left, no chair-
man was appointed, and no fresh appointment made. At
length, when the Royal Commission on Penal Servitude
and Transportation came into existence, the matter was
brought under their consideration, and they reported
against this overburdening of the energies of one man in
the following words :—" It is bad economy not to have
sufficient strength in a penal establishment to admit of the
effective discharge of their irksome duties by the officers
without an undue strain upon their minds and bodies. The
office of one of the directors of Irish Convict Prisons has
recently been abolished, and there is, too, now only ono
director. This reduction appears, from the evidence of
Captain Whitty, to have been inexpedient, and we consider
that the Irish Board ought to be placed in the same posi-
tion as it was before Sir William Crofton's retirement."
We trust that when the Government comes to assign to
Captain Whitty his pension they will not overlook the
fact of their having so far oversaddled him, we fear, to the
injury of his health. The willing public servant, like the
willing horse, is too often made a convenience of, and
worked to death. As the present vacancy affords so good
an opportunity of reconstituting the Board of Directors
it is to be hoped that it will not be lost sight of, for the
present government of the department—or rather its
arrangement—before Capt. Whitty's resignation was any-
thing but satisfactory or calculated to work well. Two
equally responsible officials form a most inconvenient head-
ship to a department, and if they don't pull well together,
there being no supremacy in either, matters are likely to
result either in a state of apathy or disturbance. A casting
vote consolidates and strengthens, and under a triumvirate
authority cannot well be questioned. At the time that the
number of directors were reduced, two inspectorships were
founded as a sort of make-weight. The gentlemen holding
those offices merely act as superintending governors, and
occasionally take charge of the prisons when the governors
are absent on leave, but they possess none of the superior
powers of the director, and it is generally felt that their
mission, whatever it may have been intended for, has
proved a complete failure. A. good governor cannot need
more than a good director paying frequent visits, to sanc-
tion or improve his work ; but this system of having two
classes of superintending officials, one with no more power
than the governors themselves, is purposeless and irksome.
To weaken the sense of responsibility of the regular and
resident head of a large establishment is by no means the
best method to improve his efficiency; and we think it is
too little calculated how great an effect a certain amount
of faith and confidence possesses in the strengthening of
official power and self-dependence. If the English gover-
nors of convict prisons can be trusted without this inter-
mediate class of officials constantly watching their admini-
stration of prison matters, which are as well understood by
them as the inspectors, we should think that equal confi-
dence might be reposed in the Irish governors. At all
events, the true balance of power is not much prompted
by this singular fancy for two officials of every kind. That
number may have been very appropriate to Noah's Ark in
virtue of the difference of sexes, but we see no purpose

that it is likely to serve in consolidating the power of a
department, and if the Irish Government is wise it will
take this opportunity of returning to the original and

practical constitution of tho Board of Directors of Convict

Prisons.

REPRESENTATION OF WEST GLO UCESTERSIIIRE.-
The appointment of Mr. Roll, one of the members for
West Gloucestershire, to the Solicitor-Generalship, renders
an election imminent, and it is announced that Sir G. Jen-
kinson, who, it will be remembered, contested North Wilts
unsuccessfully, is to be the Conservative candidate.