The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-18 00:00:00

INDIA REFORM.

A public meetiag was held last evening at St. Martin's
Hall, to consider the condition of India and the work-
ing of the "double Government." Lord Bury, M.P.,
was in the chair. There were present Mr. Roebuck,
M.P., Mr. Otway, Mr. Mead, Mr. Morris, Mr. E.
Jones, &c. There was by no means a full attendance in
the body of the room.
The CHAIRMAN stated the object for which the meet-
ing had been convened, and observed that the recent
mutinies in India were not the immediate cause of call-
ing the present meetiag on the subject of the govern.
went of India, as the question had been agitated for
years. In the House of Commons Mr. Kinnaird had
moved for an inquiry into the subject of landed tenures,
and Sir E. Perry bad brought forward fiscal questions
relating to India, while in the House of Lord 3 Lord
Albemarle had moved for an inquiry into the system of
torture practised in that country. The subject, there-
fore, of the government of India was not new to the
people of this country.

Mr. ROEBUCK then came forward to move the first
resolution. He said—My Lord Bury, we have met here
for a very important purpose. Other countries have
been pleased to devolve the government of their affairs
either to one man or to a few men, bat to Englishmen it
has seemed fit that they should take the government of
their own affairs into their own hands; and, although we
do devolve the power of the Government to a certain
number of persons, who meet in c rtain houses in West-
minster, yet it does happen that the people of this coun-
try do take upon themselves to express their own opinion
and to inform their representatives what those opinions
ale. We are now doing what I have just described. We
are about to tell the governing classes of this country
what the people of England think about the Qovernment-
of India. We are met for that purpose, and I think we
are engaged in an important task. I have therefore
considered it my duty to come among you on the present
occasion. Although it happens that I am one of those
who meet in that celebrated house in Westminster,
yet I do believe there are occasions when it behoves the
people of this country to speak out, for there is something
in the atmosphere of that house which every now and
then deadens all English feeling, and requires the voice
and hearts of the people to inspire those who sit there
with the feelings of Englishmen. I believe that at this
moment there is abroad a feeling in England with regard
to India which has never been equalled since England
was England. We have acquired a dominion there such
as the world never has seen. Even Rome in her palmiest
days possessed not an empire equal to ours. That em-
i ire has been attained by the hardihood, the sagacity,
and the great qualities of the people of England. - We
owe it not to any of the di,tinguislied classes. The clerk
from the desk, the great Clive, was the founder of the
empire of England in India. The population of that em-
pii e, according to the la-it accounts, amounts to about
200 millions of inhabitants, all of whom are under our
rule. Of the wealth of that country I will not now speak.
But having acquired dominion over such an empire, it
becomes our duty to exercise that dominion upon prin-
ciples of fairness to those millions whom we have subju-
gated. We came to their shores a trading company, and
we pretended to enter into a mere trading correspond-
ence with them. But it has so happened that freen that
time to this eve have been an aggressive people. We have
however, whatever, the means, acquired dominion in
India. For the happiness of the great mass of the people
I believe that that dominion provides in a far greater de•
gree than their own native Governments. For the tunes
Of the governed the Government of India by England is
a blessing ; hut, though it be a blessing, still I believe
our power has been acquired by unjust means. In ac-
knowledging that, as I at once do, I also acknowledge
that upon the people of England there weighs a great
responsibility. It is our duty now, having acquired
possession of that country, so to govern it that in the
eyes,of God and man we may stand justified as its rulers.
But it must be confessed that from the time of our
first acquisition to the present moment great faults have
been committed in the. government of that country, and
great injustice has been inflicted upon its inhabitants.
Let me, however, distinguish. The great mass of the
inhabitants of India have derived vast benefit from the
government of England ; but there is a governing class,
and they have been bowed down by the superior power
of England. They are are our enemies, and wilt be our
enemies to the last. This governing class, if left to them-
selves would be the curse of the great body of the people.
We stand in the position of these governing classes, and
we have to distinguish ourselves from them, and by the
qualities of our rule to justify our dominion. How, then,
have we acted'! For many long years the East India
Company was a trading body. It then pleased Mr. Pitt,
who was the great political opponent of Mr. Fox, to
bring in his India Bill. Mr. Fax had endeavoured to
make the Government of India a Parliamentary Govern-
ment. There was then ruling a man called George 111.,
and ho hated Parliamentary dominion, and believed that
if India was given up to Parliamentary rule he Ovould be
the 141avo of Parliament. In conjunction, therefore, with
Mr. Pitt, he cajoled the people of England into believing
that Mr. Fox intended great injury to him. Mr. Fox
was accordingly turned out, and Mr. Pitt then brought
in his India Bill ; and what did he propose Mr. Pitt
was an acute and quick-witted man, and, having got the
directors of the East India Company.to aid him in dis-
charging Mr. Fox, he turned round upon his associates
and made in reality a Parliamentary Government of
India ; but he made it so in such a fashion as to do away
with all possible chance of any good arising therefrom.
He made it in the form of which the resolution speaks.
He formed what is called the double Government. The
Court of Directors down in Leadenhall-street were to be
controlled by a board meeting in Cannon-row. At the
head of that board is the president thereof. He is them'
ruler of India. He'can do exactly as he pleases. The Court
of Directors are bound to obey him, and they do obey
hint. But then they play that game which children de-
scribe as "It is no child of mine." If anything happens
amiss, the Board of Control says —" I am not answerable
—acd the Court of Directors say—" We are not answer-
able"—and the Governor-Generalof India says—" I am
not answerable." So that by dividing the responsibility,
and at the same time concentrating the power, the Pre-
sident of the Board of Control becomes the irresponsible
pass°d ithe hcaetn istuirse aopf° this is whichm meeting. twine wish
g. Wb ey our
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oel
be
governed well the Government must be
responsible, and tor that reason I mean to propose—first,
that the Board of Directors be entirely done away with.
go one step further, and destroy the Control.
(Hear.) If we accomplish that goodoßbjoeacrtdwoefwil
In the place of these I would erect a single man, and I
would call him " the Secretary of State for India," and
then
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for which all legislation for. India is concerned. The first
is the establishing of a machinery in England by which to
c feelingr e n tot atemo
among
the
peopleresponsibility
of
England here—the "getting toi not
uponup of
thea
n
tguorve° governing
gs
bnoodyf ar
ther d ai
For
y. that
inquiry.
and I was going to say for ever. Bet there is a further
ulvo ptior4poo. deo the
it
aLte once,
object—namely, to frame resolutions embodying prin-
ciples by which India should be governed, and framing a
machinery in India by which these resolutions may be
carried into effect. In order to begin these legislative
improvements we must do away with the Court of Direc-
tors and the Board or Control. Having done that, and
having created a Secretary of State for India, the House
of Commons will then be bound to inquire into the best
way of governing that country. That brings me to the
question, namely, on what principles ought we to base
our Indian Government, and brwhat machinery can we
carry those principles into effect. Having got a Secre-
tary of State for India, we should have a Government in
India. I would propose for the three Presidencies—
Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, that there should be three
governors as at present, but that all the Presidencies
should be governed by a municipal body, so that English
men in India should govern themselves as far as the
condition of the country would permit ; for the condition
of India as compared with all other colonies is peculiar.
All other colonies are formed by Englishmen. They go
out from this country and carry with them the feelings,
the language, the customs, the character, and the capaci
ties of Englishmen. The beat thing you can do for a
colony so formed is to allow it to govern itself. In fact,
they carry out a little England. The colony grows up
and becomes a great community, and it is best governed
by being self-governed. But India is a very different
thing. We go there as conquerors. We find a race
differing from ourselves in language, in religion, in arts,
in everything. There is an actual type of the character
of the Indian to be seen in the tiger—the soft, velvetty
paw, the beautiful line of grace in all its movements; but
death lurks under that paw ; cruelty such as the heart
can hardly conceive dwells in that breast. (Hear.) I
ask you, all of you who have read of the deeds of the
last two months, whether your hearts have not con-
tracted, your cheek tarried pale, and your breath gone
away at the horrors perpetrated upon your countrymen
and countrywomen ? Hear) Do you believe that
Englishmen in the wildest fury that belong to such men
could have done such deeds I Oh, ne I (Cheers.) I
cannot believe that there is a man in England that would
have perpetrated any one of the horrors that-I have read
of. (He ir.) But I was feebly describing the difference
between the character of the Hindoo and an English-
man. Englishmen can govern themselves ; Hindoos
cannot. Having acquired dominion of Hindostan, the
government of that country devolves upon England, and
England alone, and not upon the people of Hindostan.
If you were to treat them as you would Englishman, it
you were to give them institutions of self-government, and
then leave them to theraselues, there would be intermin-
.able anarchy, confusion, and horror. England must, then
govern India, and must establish there English ideas and
English principles. Having, then, to govern India with
English feelings, the question is by what machinery shall
we govern them so as to do it with justice to the natives.
The first thing is that there must be perfect liberty as
regards religion. I don't mean that you are to foster
the prejudices, the ignorances, and the abominations of
the Mechem religion. No such thing. But I would
allow every man to follow the light of that reason which
God
has given him. You have to seta good example by
your enlightened religious principles, and having esta-
blished perfect freedom on that point I would require
you to make the religion of the government of India the