The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-06 00:00:00

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THE SUN.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1861.

The subject of Lord SHAFTESBURY'S long and
able speech last night is one which will interest
great numbers, and ought to interest all of us.
India, though so discreditably treated as a bore by
our House of Commons, is a country for which the
House of Commons is daily becoming more and
more directly responsible. It is not a savage dis-
trict of Central Africa, where philanthropists are
the only Englishmen who have any interest in the
condition of the people—it is not even a " Savoy
and Nice," where our interest is little more than
that of a noble and inextinguishable English sen-
timent—lndia is a country which we govern, in the
name of the QUEEN, through two despots, a resi-
dent one at Calcutta, and another sitting in the
British House of Commons, as member for Halifax.
Two Autocrats, more or less directly dependent on
the English Parliament, have the welfare of India in
their hands. We say so advisedly, because it is
notorious that India, of all countries in the world,
is one which looks to its Government to lead, guide,
and control everything; and, what is worse, to
originate everything. That this is so, is very much
our own doing. The natives may be, and are, little
competent for self-government, but we have never
allowed them to govern themselves. We found them
ready to exchange their Mahommedan masters for
us, and either through native princes, or directly,
we have governed them in oriental fashion. We
have issued our edicts, and they have submitted to
them as to the decrees of fate. Hence it is trifling
to think of achieving anything important in India
without our two Viceroys bestirring them.
selves to attain it. And Sir CHARLES WOOD
and Lord CANNING, or any other of our
lords who is sent there at the cost of
125,000 a-year to that country, are not likely to
rouse themselves beyond routine, unless public
opinion be strong enough here to compel them to
action.

We . are, therefore, much indebted to Lord
SHAFTESBURY for moving on the subject of Indian
canals, irrigation, roads and railways last night. It
was said, and truly, that he had not undertaken
the part of Indian Chancellor of the Exchequer,
that he had not indicated whence the funds were to
come, which should be applied, promptly, tounder-
takings confessedly enormously profitable to the
Indian Exchequer. This is perhaps hardly fair. It
scarcely falls within the province of a Peer ; and it
is perhaps enough for him in this stage, to have
studied the subject as he has done, and to present a
strong case, so strong as to make the " will," which
in this country at least, always finds the "way."
Many of the documents quoted by Lord SHAFTES-
BURY are, of course, familiar enough to those who
have taken an interest in Indian progress, but he
has done the good service of combining the pith of
them all within the compass of one very readable
speech, and thus of presenting to the British public
the strong case which exists for immediate action,
in a form in which they can easily receive it. He
will not, we trust, let it drop. It is only by per-
severing in making the country acquainted with
what is done, in contrast with what might be done
so profitably, and at the same time with so much good
statesmanship and benevolence, that we shall over-
come the inertness of our Indian officials both there I

and here.
We have ourselves before pressed on public atten-
tion the immense value, of canals, irrigation and
cheap railways in India. We confess we were, after
hearing what had to be said against them, convinced
of the general soundness of Sir A. COTTON'S views.
While high speed railways were in course of construc-
tion, at a large cost, and slow rate, India might see
whole districts decimated by famine, and but a
small ex en t of country could be Connected with the
coast. But tanks and cam,is would at once begin
to fertilise, to creat.e produce, and to
bear it away
to tha coast; and would, together with cheap
though slow railways—like those which paid so
well in America--so enrich vast districts, that, as
time permitted, high speed railways could easily
bn substituted for those which were but railway
pioneers. Facts have strikingly confirmed Sir At

COTTON'S views. The profit to the Indian revenue
itself, after enriching thousands of natives half
starved before, is almost fabulous; yet it is undis-
puted and indisputable, the revenue actually paid
by the districts irrigated and furnished with
canals according to his plan, being more than
doubled; and that solely from the effect of the
irrigating and navigable canals. The system
actually adopted, that of railways of the expensive
English kind, costing not less than £lO,OOO or
£12,000 a mile, have paid, better even than could
have been expeeted ; but, while a hundred miles of
these was making, five times the number of miles
might have been opened on the low speed plan,
would have paid equally well, would by this time
have connected the cotton districts with the coast ;
and it is not too much to say that at this very
moment the four or five millions of Manchester
might have looked with perfect confidence to
India for the supply which is likely to fail
them from America. Nor must we forget that
the advantage would have been reciprocal,
that Manchester would have sent back along these
same railways her manufactured goods in return.
It seemed to be assumed that to accept Lord
SHAFTESBURY'S proposal of an address to the
Queen would have been a kind of tacit censure on
the Government, for neglecting the extension of
such works as irrigation and internal navigation.
That was not his lordship's intention, and the pro-
posal was withdrawn, but we may hope his lord-
ship's address to the House of Lords will answer
almost as good a purpose. The one thing needful
is to get the public mind at home impressed with
the conviction that something must be done. The
arguments are principally two. Certain and enor-
mous profit ; certain salvation of our subjects from
famine. One fact in illustration of each is as good as a
hundred, and a hundred might be given. In regard to
profit, the revenue from two districts, in all respects
relating to this subject as alike as possible—Cut-
tack and Tanjore, is in the former case £85,000 ; in
the latter £470,000. Land in Cuttack is worth 30s.
en acre; in Tanjore it is worth £5. Cuttack, with
by far the better supply, naturally, of water, has had
in twenty-three years three famines, four droughts,
seven inundations. The aggregate excess of revenue
from Tanjore over that of Cuttack has been
£6,970,000 ! And this Government revenue, be it
remembered, only represents an immensely larger
amount of profit to the natives.
With regard to the deliverance from famine, it
is hardly necessary to adduce further illustration
than the one just mentioned ; we may add, how-
ever, the Ganges Canal. It has been left imper-
fect ; the distributing channels have not been con-
nected with it—yet, in the present famine, we are
told that " its beneficial effects could not be over-
rated ;" that but for it "broad lands, now covered
with wheat and other cereals, would have had no
crop." And, in figures, Capt. TURNBULL calculates
that through it 339,243,8401b5. of grain have been
supplied in this disastrous season, equivalent to the
support of 644,718 men for a year ! The fodder
produced by it at the same time saved the cattle,
and the Government itself saved about £200,000 of
revenue.

One thing is, hower, wanted : something like
good government and security for the investment
of capital. The traditional exclusive government
of the company must be got rid of. The Civil
Service of India hates European " interlopers," as
they haughtily term them. They resist in all pos-
sible ways the acquisition of land in fee simple
by Englishmen ; they resist, that is, the grand con-
dition of the most effective cultivation of the
country, and of inducing capital to flow to India.
All this must be changed. We must have justice
in India as accessible as in England, and not
only the abolition of the company, but of its bane-
ful traditions.

Shall the fate which not so very long since befell
Savoy and Nice be allowed also to befall the neutral
provinces of Switzerland ? That in a few words
was the purport of the inquiry addressed last even-
ing in the course of an exceedingly able speech by
the hon. member for Bridgewater to her Britannic
MAJESTY'S Government. The integrity of the
dominions subject to the head of the House of Savoy
was guaranteed to the princes of that dynasty by
the Treaty of 1815. So in likewise did that Treaty
of Vienna guarantee to Switzerland the indepen-
dence and integrity of what are called the neutral
provinces as well as the independence and integrity
of the integral portions of the Swiss Confederation.
But the Treaty of 1815, the Treaty of Vienna—
torn originally by the swordpoints of the Northern
Emperors, by those of the Austrian KAISER and
the Russian AUTOCRAT—has been rent asunder by
the more audacious sword of the Conqueror of
Magenta and Solferino. It is now little better, we
all know, than so much waste paper—and, for any
value that it has for the preservation of what is
called the Balance of Power in Europe, it might as
lief long since have been sent to the butter-shop or
the trunkmakers. Savoy and Nice—we are refer-
ring of course to an event which we are aware is as
much a thing of the past as though it were divided
from us by a dozen centuries, and yet an occurrence
in itself so recent as an outrage upon public opinion,
that it almost seems as though it had taken place
but yesterday—Savoy and Nice every one remem-
bers
to have been cleverly hocuspocused from the
possession of VICTOR EMMANUEL into that of his
Imperial Ally, his generous and magnanimous
Ally, NAPOLEON 111. The neutral provinces of
Switzerland may follow—probably will follow in
1 the natural course of things—are absolutely certain
tpotoTllEow, as the simple development of the BONA-
An
aPt°?lieYls%ift nnot
ob
Annexation—vieue---; Unless ! "Unless"
—Wh
half-a-dozen words—En Unless, simply, in
gland sees that it does
not ! That is the only remaining guarantee
for the maintenance of the integrity of
vindication of
Switzerland for the
this fully
ptrhoe.
threatened independence of
the neutral
It is because he recognises
vinces.
and absolutely, that Mr. KINGLARE recalls the
attention of the House of Commons to it ; and,
while doing so, endeavours to elicit as plain an
explanation as our mysterious habit of diplomatic
reticence will permit
from the responsible
Imnember
of her MAJESTY'S present Government.
obe-
dience to this earnest entreaty, to this almost
solemn adjuration from the hon.member for
Bridgewater, who was supported in his appeal by
the equally earnest, though less solemn, arguments
of the hon. baronet the member for Tamworth—
Lord Joim RUSSELL expressed his opinion frankly
enough, it must be acknowledged, to the House
of Commons yesterday, when referring to the pre-
tent situation and future prospects of the Swiss
Confederation. Frankly enough, we again confess
—hut hardly, after all, satisfactorily ! One remark
of Mr. KING LAKE'S, however, should certainly be
borne in recollection before we go any further into
the consideratiou of this matter—in reference,
that is, to the " securing of the neutrality and inde-
pendence of the Swiss Confederation," as (we might
almost say) promised in Her Most Gracious
MAJESTY'S Speech from the Throne at the com-
ment of the present session of Parliament. It should
be especially borne in mind, then, with how much
reason the member for Bridgewater thus described
L the course, nowadays, pursurd by the reigning Eat-