The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-12 00:00:00

Mr. HADFIELD said that he hoped the militia esti-
mates would not b 3 brought on at that late hour.
SIR CHARLES NAPIER ANDTIIE EAST INDIA.

DIRECTORS.

Mr. 11. A. BRUCE rose to call the attention of the
house to a statement contained in a return on tenures of
land in India male by the East Indian Directors on the
18th of June last. It would be recollected, he said, that
on a recent occasion the important subject of the growth
of cotton in India was brought before the house, and that,
in order to elucidate and illustrate it, the hon. member for
Dumfries moved for a return on tenures of land is India.
That return was prepared in the East, India-house, and
contained much interesting information is a small space ;
but, unfortunately, instead of being confined to tenures of
land, it referred to a matter utterly irrelevant, far the
purpose apparently of reviving what he bad hoped were
forgotten calumnies against the late Sir Charles Napier.
Th• statements of which ho complained were to the effect
that Sir Charles Napier, while Governor of Scinde, sold
the grain to the people at famine prices, and by artificial
means raised' the market, in order that he might obtain
high prices from the commissariat. The meaning of those
statements was, that Sir Charles Napier, having conquered
S dude, and being desirous to enhance the value of his
conquest, forced the people and the commissariat to pay
exorbitant prices for the grain which constituted the
revenue of the country. The charge first appeared in the
newspapers, but subsequently it was repeated in a more
regular form. Sir C. Napier said so long as the imputa-
tion was confined to the newspapers he could afford to
laugh at it; but afterwards, when it was made in other
quarters, ho took steps to inquire into its origin, and
fouud, through the mistake of a clerk in Calcutta sending
him a wrong letter, that a secret note, to be registered
against him at Calcutta, had been sent from Bombay. Had
it not been for the clerk's mistake that secret charge would
have been found in the archives of the India G.wernment,
and would have served as the basis of many bitter attacks
upon him. That secret despatch made the same charge as
was now contained in the 'return before Parliament,
when Sir C. Napier was dead and unable to defend
himself. He (Hr. Bruce) hal moved for a despatch
from Sir Charles Napier in reply to that charge, and
he was then told by the hon. member for Guildford
(Hr. Mangles) that the charge was copied from a Bom-
bay return. That had been answered by Sir Charles
Napier, but now that reply could not he found. He
did not doubt the good faith of the India Board, but cer-
tainly there must be something wrong elsewhere --in Bom-
bay if the answer was not forwarded to this country, or
here if, being received, it had been thrown aside and lost,
while every charge against Sir C. Napier was carefully
preserved and duly ticketed. (Hear.) The charge in ques-
tion having been used by one of Sir C. Napier's bitterest
enemies, perhaps the house would permit him (Hr. Bruce)
to quote a high authority in justification of the gallant
general's conduct while in Scinde. Mr. Pringle, a civilian,
succeeded Sir C. Napier in the government of Scinde, and
in October, 1847, that gentleman reported to the Govern-
ment of Bombay that—
" Moderation, simplicity, and equity have taken the
place of rapacity, complexity, and oppression ; and al-
though there may be still much room for improvement, I
am inclined to think the progress hitherto would bear a
very favourable comparison with that of most provinces
which bad been for the same time under our rule, and re-
flects much credit on the officers to whom it is due."
Hr. Pringle, in another part of the same report., said,—
" I hope it will not be considered in excess of my pro-
vince if, in concluding this report on the civil administra-
tion as I have found it to exist, I take occasion to express
the sense with which my inquiries have impressed me of
the wisdom, energy, and ability with which it has been
organised and directed by his Excellency the late Geyer-
nor, Sir Charles Napier, under circumstances of consider-
able novelty and difficulty."
Two years afterwards, when Sir C. Napier was appointed
to the command of the army of India, Mr. Pringle wrote
to him in May, 1849,
" On your fitness for the military command there is but
one opinion ; but I speak as one who has had more than
ordinary means of forming a judgment, when I say that
your aid will be found not less valuable in the civil go-
vernment, if your colleagues be wise enough to avail them
selves of it ; and I can wish nothing better for the in-
terests of our newly acquired provinces in the Punjab than
that they may have the benefit of the same strong and j eet
government which was so successfully applied to the in-
troduction of order here."
The charge which had been made was ono that affected
Sir C. Napier's character in the 'highest degree, and it
was not possible that Mr. Pringle, after two years' expe-
rience iu Scinde, would have written in such terms had
there been any foundation for it. Mr. Pringle was suc-
ceeded by Mr. Frei., who stated that, high as he estimated
Sir C. Napier's military qualities, he ranked his abilities
for civil government still higher. The same gentleman
also spoke in the highest terms of the humanity, tender-
ness, and sense of justice which distinguished a nature
which all knew to be somewhat rude and irritable. That
he (Mr. Bruce) was justified in adopting the present course
was proved by the fact that in a pamphlet recently pub-
lished by Dr. Buist that gentleman referred to the Par-
liamentary return, and added :
" It shows that not only may we have war and conquest
in India prosecuted against all authority, but we may have
couked accounts, gr sin raised by monopoly to famine
prices, transit duties under the most obnoxious form of
taxation, without any one having the power to punish or
prevent it."
Fortunately there happened to be in this country a gen-
tleman who served with Sir C. Napier, as collector—Col.
Rathbone—who had made the following statement :
" Under the rule of Sir C. Napier the Government share
of the produce was taken in kind, and was stored in the
Government granaries, as had been the case for ages previ-
ously in &dude, and as had been the case till comparatively
lately in some of the provinces of Bombay itself. The
mode of realising the price was by public sale, but the grain
was not sold at artificially high or famine prices, as the
return made by the India-house untruly avert, nor was
the market interfered with by the grain being drawn
from the stores by the Commissariat at a nominal price.
When grain was drawn by the Commissariat from Govern-
ment stores it was charged for, not at nominal rates, but
at the rates of the day as indicated by the price current
of the place where it was drawn. The Government
was debited in the military department and credited
in the revenue department, as happens daily in Eng-
land and in every other well-regulated State where trans-
fers of the kind take place between different depart-
ments under the Crown. The Commissariat accounts
of the period must be in existence, as must also the price
currents of the several military stations at Scinde at which
such transfers took place. A refe, once to these will show
that the imputation contained in the return on the go-
vernment of the late Sir C. Napier in Scinde as to this
point has no foundation whatever."
Nothing could be more explicit than that statement, and
yet he had been told by the hon. member for Guildford
that it was upon Colonel Rathbone's evidence he relied to
support the charge against Sir C. Napier. The statement
of Colonel Rathbone which was referred to stated that
" the collector was in the position of a wholesale corn mer-
chant, and acted precisely as one in the trade would do."
That was quite true, but the revenue was raised by Sir C.
Napier only in the same manner in which it had been pre-
viously levied. He introduced great improvements, but
it was his duty, corn being the revenue of the country, to
sell it at the highest price that could be obtained for it. In
that particular year, however, there was from several
causes great pressure upon the population of the province,
and Sir C. Napier did all in his power to alleviate their
sufferings by sweeping away all monopoly and permitting
the introduction of corn at a nominal rate of duty. Scindo
was the only province of India where no duty on salt was
imposed.
Mr. WILLOUGHBY was not presser's(' to enter into
this subject, and regretted that the Chairman of the East
India Company was not in his place. The words of the
minute to which the lion. member referred were taken ver-
batim from the annual report of the Bombay Government
in 1855. Sir C. Napier was not responsible for the system
which he found in force in connection with the revenue,
though he might he for the way in which the revenue was
afterwards realised. In connection with the subject he
would read an extract from the minute of Sir G. Clerk,
dated April 24, 1818, which appeared in a voluminous
blue-book on the affairs of Scinde, published in 1851, in
order to show the evils that existed : -
" The Government share of grain having been realised
and stored, the collector brings forward or withholds por-
tions of the stock in hand, according to the temper of the
market, prospects of the season, &c. Should the number
of troops in the district render it probable that the demand
will be largo, or should appearances tend to show that the
succeeding crop will be short, he withholds; and when the
scarcity does come his grain is issued in quantities so small
as to prevent any fall from a glut in the market. If his
information loads him to suppose that the existing prices
will remain stationary or decrease he sells."
Then came the words quoted by the hon. member, as used
by Captain Rathbone :
" ' The collector is in the position of a wholesale corn-
merchant, and acts precisely as ot:e of the trade would.'
The opposite statement shows the extent to which whole-
sale prices varied under this system, even in the same year
and in the same collectorate."
General CODRINGTON said the house had heard the
charges against Sir Charles Napier, and he would be glad
to see the answer to them. (Hear, hear.) The hon. mem-
ber who had just spoken had repeated the charges ; and it
was but fair to the memory of Sir Charles Napier that his
answer should be produced. (Hear, bear.)
Mr. ROEBUCK, in order that the house might know
the real value of the statement which had been read to it,
begged to read this following note which his kon. friend
the member for Merthyr Tydvill had received from Colonel
Rathbono
- "My dear Mr. Bruce,--I have just received your note,
in which you inform me that Mr. Mangles intends to
justify the statement as to the sale of grain to the Commis-
sariat at fictitious prices, by the authority of Sir George
Clerk, who, he says, quotes me as his authority.
"In reply, I would merely observe that he no donbt has
the authority of Sir George Clerk for the statement, be-
cause it forms one of the charges ag .inst the Scinde Go-
vernment, contained in that tissue of falsehoods called Sir
George Clerk's Scinde Minute ; but which, in fact, was
drawn up for his signature by his then revenue secretary,
Mr. Goldsmidt.
" But, though Sir George has been thus unhappily made
to father official falsehoods, I am sure ho is quite incapable
of giving birth to any, and therefore it is impossible that
he could have given roe as his authority for so gross a mis-
statement."
(hear.) He agreed with what had fallen from the gallant
general. The memory of Sir C, Napier was a thing that
belonged to the British people, and they ought not to allow
his reputation to he frittered away by the base calumnies
of base people. (Hear.) There were always a cot of ver-
min ready to prey on the memories of great mon. (Hear.)
If ever there was a man who did great service to his coun-
try and who exhibited a spirit of gentleness, and power,
and humanity, and wisdom, that went almost before his
time, that man was Sir C. Napier. (Hear.) He fought
the battles of Englend against greater odds than ever bad
been found even in India, and by his ?masterly movements
and his great skill as a general he won for himself and for
e 1 's
tice
us a renown till then unknown. (Hear.) The country he
and paying
humanity. him
a ha
river, paying
he governed with the skill with which he had
gaiiieti it; and when ho left that country the peop:e looked
on their conqueror as a friend, and attended him down the
he had, by his capacity and couraee, wrung from them
)
their country and conferred it on England, yet, notwith-
standing what he had done, so thoroughly were they per-
suaded of his justice and liumenity, that they attended
him down the river, and bade him a farewell such as men
only pay to their great benefactors, showing that Sir C.
Napier's capacity 119 a ruler was as great as he had shown
in the character of a soldier. (Hear.) We now know the
full value of Sir 0. Napier. He asked any man to read
his life as drawn by his brother, and, looking at what had
just occurred, to say whether it did not almost seem as if
he possessed the gift of prophecy. (Hear.) Every word
he had told them with reference to India had been ful-
filled, and had his warnings been attended to it would not
have fallen to the lot of the Chairman of the East India
Company to say that what had happened Lai come like a