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

" NOTIFICATION.

" Political Department, June 28., 1841.
" With reference to a notification from the General
Department of the 11th of May, 1326, 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. 0 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servants with the public newspapers has been revoked,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 Ellenberough

" 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 posses-
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, to which alone they belong.
" The officer in possession of 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 Guyernor-General
of India is 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. The
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 abort them and their affairs at home.
The native Akhbars, answering to the " News-
letters" which preceded the establishment of the
newspaper press 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 3U at Delhi,t and
even the Residency Alehlearnuvee seasoned his daily
gazette with caustic remarks upon the proceedings of
the authorities. Besides this are the " Bazar Let ters,"
and their offspring the Bazar reports, making to-
gether a popular system of intelligence, which is
not to be 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 must 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.
Tb• 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 can 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 eustodes ?"
The influence of the newspaper pram 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 languages3by the missionaries ; and it must
not be supposed that the remainder, which were
written by natives in the native languages, did
northing 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 is 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
compress and thepatible, dominion of strangers are in-
because it must always be the first
duty ee a dress to deliver the country from a fo-
rcsign yoke • and that free discussion is especially
to be dreaded in reference to the native army, be-
cause an army precedes the rest of the people in
the power of combined a cic'entiawihaitleelli-
t lags behind
them in general education
gence.
The European society in Luba is small, itd is
governing
extremely influential. It is the
and, whether the rule; sof a country are lt .
,000 Yor'
10,000,000, it is of the highest consequence that
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 y( a s' settle-
ment of the land revenue of the North-Western
Provinces were greatly promoted by the pub' ic dis-
cussion of those subjects in Lord Wiliam 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 poll-
-

on* For a more detailed account of the regent history of
e Indian press see Sir Charles Trevelyan's examination
that subject before the Indian Committee of the House
04 Lords, June 21, 1853. Q, 6,550 to 6,669.
t The intelligence of the fall of Delhi received by last
hail came from the Dolhi Akhbeurrees of the JoYPo"
Durba.