The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-09 00:00:00

THE

INDIA,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—As I have had experience of the newspaper
press both in India and England, my countrymen
will perhaps receive with indulgence a few obser-
vations which I shall submit to them on the subject.
When Lord William Bentinok took charge of the
government of India, public discussion had been
entirely stifled by the severe measures which had
been taken against the press during his predecessor's
administration. This stagnation was first inter-
rupted by a notice issued by Lord William, inviting
suggestions from any quarter for the improvement
of public measures and the development of the re-
sources of the country ; and upon this followed a
remarkable series of letters in the newspapers by
the late Hon. Frederick Shore, in which every sub-
ject of public interest was discussed with entire
freedom and with no ordinary severity. I well re-
member the feeling of strangeness and surprise with
which the "notice" was regarded, so inconsistent
was it with the preceding state of things; and, as
for Mr. Shore's letters, as one surpassed another in
audacious exposure of the faults of our system, peo•
pie wondered that he was not visited with some
signal mark of the displeasure of the Government.
Other writers followed, and Lord William gave his
countenance and assistance by furnishing valuable
information from authentic public sources. The
experiment was fairly worked oat during his time,
and what Lord Metcalfe did was only to give legal
sanction to it. It was no slight guarantee for the
propriety of the change that it was the joint work
of an English statesman remarkable for public
spirit and breadth of view, and an Indian states-
man who was unsurpassed for varied experience of
the country, and for the sober, common-sense, con-
servative manner in which he dealt with the sub-
jects which came before him.
After this came two notifications of opposite
tenour in the Calcutta Gazette. The first was issued
by Lord Auckland for the purpose of revoking an
order which had been passed in 1826, prohibiting
public servants from being connected with news-
papers as editors or proprietors :
" NOTIFICATION.
" Political Department, June 28, 1841.
" With reference to a notification from the General
Department of the 11th of May, 1826, the Governor-
General in Council is pleased to notify that, by Para-
graph 3 of a letter of the Hon. the Court of Directors in
the Political Department, dated April 21 (No. 9 of 1841),
the existing prohibition against the connexion of their
servants with the public newspapers has been revoked,
subject to the restraints imposed upon military officers
by the rules of the service.
" By order of the Right Hon. the Governor-General
of India in Council,
"T. H. MADDOCK, Secretary to Government."
The second was issued by Lord Ellenborough
NOTIFICATION.
" Fort William, Foreign Department, Aug. 30, 1843.
" Some misconception appearing to exist with respect
to the power which officers of both services have over
the documents and papers which come into their poises.
sion officially, the Governor-General in Council deems
it expedient to notify that such documents and papers
are in no case to be made public or communicated to in-
dividuals without the previous consent of the Govern-
ment, Ito which alone they belong.
"The officer in possession oe such documents and
papers can only legitimately use them for the furtherance
of the public service in the discharge of his official duty,
and it is to be understood that the same rule which ap-
plies to documents and papers applies to information of
which officers may become possessed officially.
" By order of the Right Hon. the Governor-General
of India in Council,
"J. THOMASON, Secretary to the Government
of India."
Public officers were thus effectually prevented
from assisting in the discussions which had pre-
viously taken place in the newspapers upon every
subject of public interest, for their means of doing
so were entirely dependent upon information ac-
quired in the manner contemplated in this notice--
that is, in the discharge of their duties as public
officers. No prosecution has been instituted by the
Government of India against the press, either for
sedition or for any other offence, since it was
liberated by Lord Metcalfe ; and the newspapers in
the native languages have been so completely
neglected that, except through some rare accident,
their contents have been entirely unknown.*
Freedom of the press in British India is inevit-
able. We could not hold the country with advan-
tage either to ourselves or to the natives, even if
we could hold it at all, unless Englishmen not in
the service of the Government went thither in con-
siderable numbers to trade and exercise their pro-
fessions ; and Englishmen are not disposed to em-
bark their fortunes in a country in which they are
debarred from the free expression of their opinions.
They can bear the suspension of their Parliamen-
tary privileges, but the freedom of discussion
through the press is as necessary to them as the air
they breathe. It is a habit which they cannot cast
off, and it is felt by them to be a practical means of
influencing public measures which goes a great way
towards supplying the place even of a free Parlia-
ment. The newspaper press of the British depen-
dencies is dovetailed with the British press. Thal
affairs of India are discussed with the utmost free-
dom in this country, and it would be intolerable if
Englishmen in India were not permitted to see
what is said &posit them and their affairs at home.
The native Akhbars, answering to the "News-
letters" which preceded the establishment of the
newspaper prose in England, also have an import-
ant bearing upon the subject. Akhbarnuvees, or
newswriters, exercise their profession in the great
Indian cities, and regularly supply their employers
with information of what is passing, and with com-
ments upon it. There were 20 or 30 at Delhi,t and
even the Residency Akhbarnuvee seasoned his daily
gazette with caustic remarks upon the proceedings of
the authorities. Besides thisare the "Bazar Letters,"
and their offspring the Bazar reports, making to-
gether a popular system of intelligence, which is
not to bi despised. The manner in which the Bazar
reports often anticipate the English news is a mat-
ter of observation to this day. This native system
can neither be suspended nor held in check; and
our choice, therefore, is really between a newspaper
press on the English footing, which may be made
amenable to law and is likely gradually to improve,
and a native machinery, which mu't always be
conducted by a very inferior set of people acting
under no sort of responsibility. The great im-
provements which have been made in the Indian
post-office arrangements of late years, and the re-
duction of the rates of postage, have given increased
facilities to the conveyance of native intelligence.
The freedom of the press in British India is also,
on the whole, highly beneficial. In the absence of
a Representative Assembly, for which India is at
present totally unfit, there is no other medium
through which abuses cin be brought to light and
the sense of the community be taken on matters of
general interest. There cannot be a greater evil
than that public officers should be exempted from
the control of public opinion. In Lord William
Bentinck's, Lord Metcalfe's, and Lord Auckland's
time the press was held in wholesome respect by
the public functionaries, even at the most remote
stations, and it acted as a sort of moral preven-
tive police, furnishing in a fair degree, in reference
to the whole governing body, an answer to the
question " Quis custodiet ipsos custodes ?"
The influence of the newspaper press in dif-
fusing
useful information and inculcating correct
views was still more remarkable, and it may safely
be said that there was not a single good public mea-
sure which was not powerfully aided by it. As re-
gards the native press, some newspapers were con-
ducted in a creditable manner in the English lan-
guage by and for the natives who had received an
English education ; others were published in the
native languagespy the missionaries ; and it must
not be supposed that the remainder, which were
written by natives in the native languages, did
nothing but preach sedition. Their standard both
of intelligence and morality was, no doubt, below
that of the English newspapers ; but they opened
the minds of the natives to an interest in gene-
ral topics, and taught them to think, from which
everything else might be expected to follow.
But it is alleged that there is no public in India
to be guided and instructed by a free press ; that
the European press i.e in the hands of a single class,
which has interests at variance with the rest of the
community ; that this class habitually misrepre-
sents the measures of the Government, which is
withheld from the possibility of defence ; that a
free press and the dominion of strangers are in-
compatible, because it must always be the first
duty of a prees to deliver the country from a fo-
reign yoke ; and that free discussion is especially
in reference
to be dreaded
to the native army, be-
cause an army precedes the rest of the people in
the power of combined am while it lags behind
them in general education action while
is snlantelligence.
The European society in
but it is
extremely influential. It is thegovei:ttile governing y , and, whether the rulers of a countrya
10,000,000, it is of the highest consequence that
r
they should take a correct view of its interests and
of their own in connection with it. The abolition of
the transit duties and the moderate 30 yea's' settle-
ment of the land revenue of the North-Western
Provinces were greatly promoted by the public dis-
eussion of those subjects in Lord William Bentinck's
time; but freedom of trade and security of property
were not the worse for having been obtained by an
appeal to a few score of public officers who had been
taught the true principles of jurisprudence and poli-

* Fora more detaile.l account of the reeent history of
the Indian press see Sir Charles TJ evelyan's examination
en that subject before the Indian Committee of the House
of Lords, J tine 21, 1853. Q, 6.650 to 6,669.
The intelligence 3f the fall of Delhi received by last
mail came from the Delhi Akhbaurvees of the Jeypoor
Durba.

tical economy under Makintosh and Malthus. The
Europeans are separated by wide intervals, but they
are united by a common interest and a common in-
telligence ; and a free press is the only institution
whereby each person can bring his information and
reason into the common stock, so that, according to
the Cornish motto, it may be "one and all," each
for all and all for each. This was felt so strongly in
the good days of the press is India that we used to
call it the "Parliament of the Press," because,
although the machinery was different, the substan-
tial benefits of a Parliament were in a great degree
obtained. The Europeans, however, will now become
much more numerous. The re-establishment of tran-
quillity will be followed by an extensive resort of
persons of the professional and commercial classes
to India ; and, as the measures in progress for
the improvement of the army open its ranks to
better educated and more intelligent men, the
greatly increased European force will furnish a
good proportion of aspirants for the profits and
honours of civil life. Lastly, if we turn to the
natives, we find a public of 200,000,000 to be
guided and instructed by a free press. They will
be operated upon slowly by it, but the lever is too
powerful to be neglected by those who desire the
elevation of this great people.
It is true that the newspaper press at the Indian
Presidencies is for the most part in the hands of the
class which has always advocated one administra-
tion of criminal justice (if it could be so called) fur
Europeans and another for natives, and now urges
the introduction of the English language and Eng-
lish lawyers into all the Indian courts, and the for-
mation of a Legislative Assembly, in which the
English only would be represented ; and that fre-
quent depreciation of the Government and its offi-
cers is one of the means used to this end. It is also
true that the Government abstains from defending
itself by the ordinary and legitimate means of ex-
planation and argument.
This was not always so. During the long honey-
moon of the Indian press under Bentinck, Metcalfe,
and Auckland, the Government steadily held its
own. In knowledge of the country, habit of Eng-
lish composition, and identification of their inte-
rests with those of the natives, the officers of the
Government were as ten to one to the rest of the
European community, and they easily maintained
the field against all corners. Hard hits were occa-
sionally exchanged, but it was a fair game, and both
parties rejoiced in the wholesome exercise. The Go-
vernment maintained a dignified neutrality, and,
although full advantage was taken of the mariner in
which public questions of all kinds were prepared
and worked out by the press before a decision was
taken upon them, there was no disposition either
to yield to dictation or to be provoked to violence.
This state of things continued until the evil times
which commenced with the Affghan war. Lord
Ellen borough's general order, and the disposition
which was shown to place a strict interpretation
upon it, effectually restrained the pens of the Com-
pany's servants, and the press at the Presidencies
was left in the hands of the class of English society
above described.
From the king to the coalheaver we all want
looking after. It is not good for any of us to be
left to our own devices. The consequences that
would ensue if the high Tories or ultra-Radicals had
entirely their own way in England give only a faint
idea of the state of things in Bengal. The shep-
herds stood aloof while the British lion ranged at
pleasure over the pastare. But although silent,
the shepherds were not indifferent. They were filled
with indignation, and were only watching an oppor-
tunity iof rendering the lion harmless. But, to
drop metaphor, if the ultra-English party bad their
own way, an oligarchy would be established in
India, compared with which the domination of the
Normans in England and of the Orangemen in Ire-
land was child's play, and quick and terrible would
be the reaction. The interests of this class, there-
fore, are not really at variance with those ef the rest
of the community; but it is hard for individuals to
resist the temptation of present power and present
gain, and shortsighte d views are acted upon. On
the other hand, the position of the Government is
most unfortunate. " One story is good till another
is told ;" but in this case not one, but thousands of
stories are told for a series of years together with
the tame bia, the same colouring, the same aim
against the Government. It is useless to say,
" Thrice is he armed who has his quarrel just."
No Government could stand such pounding and
kicking, and bedaubing, and besmearing as this for
a period as long as the memory of middle-aged
men can go back. People in general—and espe-
cially our Indian fellow-subjects, who have no no-
tion of possessing power without exercising it—do
not believe in such superhuman meekness. The
Government of India, therefore, truly says
that it is brought into contempt. hy it submits
to be pilloried in this manner I never could dis-
cover. The only intelligible reason I have ever
heard is that, being respon.ible, not to the smolt
European community of Calcutta, but to the Court
of Directors and to the Government and Parliament
of England, they cannot deliver themselves on the
spot. But if reasons are good for passing important
public measures, surely they Will bear being men-
tioned iu the country which is primarily and
chiefly
affected by them. If the opposition of the local
English community is annoying and damaeing, it
is worth while to nentralise it, or at least to temper
it and hold it in check, by furnishing explaua ions
which are likely to he assented to by every impar-
tial person. Great disquiet was caused in Raj-
pootana by a paragraph which went the round of
the newspapers, tnat it was intended to annex the
Rajpoot States. If this had been contradicted, and
the reasons had been explained which must always
make it our policy to protect the independence of
these states, our Rajpoot friends would have been
relieved from their fears, and new motives would
have be ,n suggested to them for remaining steady
to their allegiance. As the newspaper press at the
Presidencies is rarely conducted by persons who
have had practical experience in the interior of
India, its faults are owing in a greater degree than is
generally supposed to ignorance of facts and uncon-
scioilsll4SS of the mischievous tendency of much that
is put forth witii an air of authority. The conduc-
tors of the Anglo-Indian press would be grateful for
correct information. They must feel that it would
increase their useful, and therefore just, influence.
The institution of the Baitish Indian free press
ought either to be accepted, with its appropriate
compensations and safeguards, or to be rejected; but
of late years neither one thing nor the other has
been done. Persons commonly argue this question
as if there were no alternative between a licentious
free press, and a press bound hand and foot at the
feet of the authorities, and made to speak only what
they desire, and the consequence is, that after a
long course of neglect of the proper diet and treat-
ment, fever has supervened, and severe remedies
have been applied.
But there is a golden mean in this as in other
things. Besides unrestricted license and the absence
of all freedom, there is a third condition, which is
a well regulated freedom. The expedient dear to
the ordinary official mind is the establishment of a
semi-official newspaper—a Government organ, as it
is usually called. This was tried in the early dark
period of the Anglo-Indian press, when a paper
called the John Bull was set up to defend Lord
Amherst's Government. The commonest knowledge
of human nature ought to have prevented this
mistake. the other game-chickens fell upon the
Government fighting-cock, and there was no peace
till he was deprived of his official coaracter. Reason
and experience recommend a return to the practice
of the statesman who founded the Indian free
press, which was to have no favourites among the
local newspapers, and to permit everybody who had
anything to say to write to them. If this course
were consistently followed, there would rarely be
any occasion for the Government to defend itself,
every topic would have its objectors and defenders,
and as the Government would not necessarily be in
a state of antagonism with any class, there would
be no heat except whet would naturally arise out
of the subjects of discussion. Sedition ought,
of course, to be severely punished, and the knife
has been so near cur thi oats that no difficulty
is to be expected in obtaining convictions.
The native press will require more particular
attention; and we mast not a second time
utterly neglect it through a long series of
years, and then come dawn upon it in great
wrath because it bad indulged in the license per-
mitted to it. Every copy of every native newspaper
should be examined by officers appointed for the
purpose ; and while friendly advice and warning
should not be spared in reference to errors of iguo,
ranee or inadvertence, deliberate attempts to pro-
mote disaffection ought to be subjected to due pro-
cess of law. It may, however, be hoped that, now
that the conscientious Christian people of this coun-
try have become aware of the existence of such a
field of influence as the native newspaper press,
they will apply the superior moans at their disposal
to the cultivation of it, so that it may produce
something better in future than an abundant crop
of noxious weeds.
The next standing objection is that a free press
and the dominion of strangers are incompatible,
because it must always be the duty of a free press
to deliver the country from a foreign yoke. I meet
this by a direct "neg atur." The first duty of a
free press is
promote the public good, and if
this can be worked out best. under the protection
of a foreign Governmetnht;„
in this
that
tGis the duty of the press
to support and assist Government. If here
had been a free press
the Romans, the " Groans of the at the t,i,tnthat
f
famous petition wherein they besoughtthe Empero
ex
r
not to withdraw his legions, would have found
pression in it. Our ancestors did not more sin-
cerely deprecate the removal of that Power under
the shadow of which they were learning to take

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