The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-08-28 00:00:00

BRITISH INDIA

-GREAT . MEETING IN MAN.:
CHESTER.

(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.)
One of the largest, and at the same time most respectable
meetings ever held in Manchester, took place on Wednescle/
night in the Corn Exchange, Hanging Ditch, for the pur-:
pose of considering the propriety of forming a society to be
called the Northern Central British India Society for Or
purpose of improving the condition of the natives of Bride?
India by procuring an alteration of their condition as regards
the land tenures, the mode of collecting the revenue, fit•
The boroughreeve, John Brooks, Esq., presided, and among
the leading gentlemen present were Daniel O'Connell, Esq.'
M.P. ' • Jos. Brotherton, Esq. M.P. ; Sir Thos. Potter ;
Joseph Pease, sen., Esq., Darlington ; George Thnnipsoe,
Esq. ; Charles Lennox Remond, a gentleman of colour,
deputy from the Anti- Slavery Society of Pennsylvania ; &c. Scc•
The first resolution was moved by GEORGE HADFIELD,,
Esq.—" That contemplating the awful importance of the
duty imposed on the t-overnment and people of England to
consult the interests and remedy the political evils of the null'
titudinous inhabitants of British India, more than one how
dred million of whom are subjected to British dominion, we
anxiously and earnestly desire to rouse public attention W.
the manifold and aggravated grievances which were near,
sarily concomitant with and resulted from the present system
of landed tenures and revenues prevalent in our East Indiell
territories ; and that we are convinced if the people of Eng'
land can be brought to learn and fully comprehend the
heinous evils resulting from the operation of the present elir,
tens, they will be anxiously desirous that those evils she':
cease, and a paternal government be immediately substituted
in place of the existing tyranny." (Applause.)

This motion was seconded by Alderm—an CAL-ENDER

GEORGE THOMPSON, Esq., then rose and supported the,
motion in a speech of great length, in which he read most 01
the documentary evidence which has from time to time been
laid before the public on the present state of India and its
mode of government, and contended that the' improvement
sought to be effected by this society in the land tenures, &e.:
would lead to the cultivation of sugar more extensively, and
especially of cotton, and this by its reflex power would ope'
rate upon, and indeed was the only practical mode of briur
ing to an end the slave trade of the United States ;
on the other hand, it would be the means of throwing opal
to this county an immense field for our manufactures. kle
entered into a great many details of the injurious operation
of the land tenures in India, and of the mode adopted by the
Indian government to collect its revenues. He gas!
the India Board credit for being anxious to turn to ad"
vantage the opportunity which presented itself of makingi.
that country a cotton-growing country, but denied OP
such an alteration had taken place in their land tenure',
and the operation of their other laws as would render tbvt
",
practical to any extent—the distrust occasioned by the hither!:
tyrannical conduct of exacting taxes from them being like',
also to prove for a time a serious obstacle. He said that tb
slave-owners of America, however, already began to read in 11
the downfall of their present system, and he exhorted the
meeting to support the object of the British India Society 011
the ground of justice to men, who. were as much their fellow-I
subjects as the inhabitants of Middlesex—on the ground 0'
humanity, on the ground of religion, and on the ground where
no other ground would avail, even of self-interest.

ABsALOM WATKIN, Esq., moved the next resolution'
which was to the effect that the redress of the evils now pre'
valent in India, existing as they did in a country of the great'
est extent and fertility, whose soil was capable of supplYing
most of the demands for tropical produce, and whose inhabi-
tants, under an improved system of government, would be
consumers to an indefinite extent of British manufacturOt
would greatly augment the resources of commerce, and pro'
mote the comforts of the industrious population of that coup'
try M.
r. JOHN Bamirr, of Rochdale, seconded the resolution;
which was supported in a long speech by Mr. Remond, and
adopted.
Jos. PEASE, sen., Esq., of Darlington, moved the appoin'
ment of a committee, to carry into effect the spirit of the re'
solutions, and DAVID HOLT, Esq., seconded the motion. ,
DANIEL O'COYNELL, Esq., then came forward amidst
great cheering, and spoke at great length on the evils which,
he said; at present Ain cte d India, including the salt mono'
poly, the forced growth of the poppy, and the mode of 101'
ing rent upon land, not at a fixed rate, but according to oe'
price. The East India Company, he said, denied that th
is
land was their's : they said to the tenants, " The estate s
your's ; the only thing we lay claim to is to lay what rent We
please upon it.' (Laughter.) He then proceeded to trace
the present system of government in the frequent famines
which had visited that country since the East India Coot'
pany held it—in 1762, in 1764, in 1770, in 1782, in 1793, in
1803 and 1804, in 1820 and 1821, in 1823, in 1833 and 1831'
in 1835 and 1836, and in 1839—famines which swept off mu'
titudes of inhabitants. In describing the results of that gi);
verument as he had done (said Mr. O'Connell), you wool';
suppose I was drawing upon my imagination—you wont!:
imagine these frightful facts were something to be attribute;,,
to the goules, and ogres, and vampires, and the foul spin 't
of fable. Oh, no ! this is the result of British governraeu
—this is the glorious East India triumph. You have your
heroes of one scene or other; you have their feats blazon
in history ; your magazines and newspapers have told you
their great battles; how that 'Wellington or some great ant
dier or other has rushed to the field, and obtained a victor 9,;
They have taken care to tell you that • they take care to to
p
you of their victories; their glories; ;hey recite their feasts„;
but they forget to tell you of their famines—they forget
tell you of their crimes, of the insecurity of property,_,, 81'4
of the consequent destruction of life. (Applause.) WP',
if the East India Company were to come to-morrow and aar;
" We desire to slaughter 500,000 inhabitants of India--1,
wish to cut their throats," would you not be ready to ItsA,
for a commission of lunacy against them ? They do not O.5Pc
us to let them slaughter these people with the sword, b 9
don't they do the same thing when they ask us to stand
and see them starve by hundreds of thousands ?
hear, and applause.)
f•
The thanks of the meeting were afterwards moved to
O'Connell, and carried amid great applause, and this Or
eluded the proceedines.

It is enacted by the County Constabulary AmendniePtf
Act, that all horses or carriages employed in the service°
the county police shall be exempted from toll.