, 1855-12-07

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From the National lntelligencer.
British Affairs in India.
The news which reaches us from a still
further eastern portion of the globe is moi
of so pleasing a nature. The accounts from
British India are unsatisfactory. A kind
of revolt has broken out in a remote prov.
ince (Rajmahal) among race of noun.
taineers, who share neither European civil.
ization nor Hindoo cowardice, and who are
therefore awkward customers to deal with.
But there is, in our mind, much more i'm
portant news from India, revealing far more
distinctly than agreeably what is the actual
condition of the people of that country and
the nature Of the mis-government by which
they are oppressed. This information is
contained in document called the Report
of the commissioners appointed to inquire
into the alleged cases Of torture in the Mad
ras Presidency" Nothing can be. so val
liable as a good business document to ena-
bic US to know and understand the real life
and condition Of a people. Everybody
knows the leading facts and features Of the
British system" Of Indian Government /;
but yet that torture, bodily torture, should
form part of it appears almost incredible.
To suppose that, in the middle Of the nine
teenth century, officers of the British Gov
ernment should wiring revenue and tribute
from the natives of India by the inAiction
of torture taxes credulity to the utmost
There were doubts upon the subject in In
dia, and to solve these doubts commission
was appointed in September, 1854, and
hence the revelations now before the pub
lie. The commissioners went to work in
very practical manner. Circulars were sent
to all parts Of India inviting complaint and
inquiry. In three months nearly two thou
sand complaints were laid before them (;
abundant materials certainly for at least a
partial knowledge Of the subject. AS far
as relates 70 one part Of the inquiry, that
Of the use Of torture in criminal cases, it
seems that the custom has been known to
exist, talked about, indeed every thing but
suppressed. from old times. Ten orders
were issued by one court on the subject be-
tween 1906 and the date of this report, all
forbidding what Sir Thomas Munro, in
1881, called "ireguLarities," viz: beating,
kicking, and various other cruel operations.
at was all the fault Of the native charac-
ter" said one official ''it was ancient, and
the people took to it naturally" said an
other. All the ten orders failed to produce
the abolition of these abuses. What no
Englshman in England could do to dog
or a goose with impunity, an Englishman's
agent, armed with official position, if not
authority, does daily in India to man and
woman. Torture in criminal cases was
practised in England in James First's time
and is still known in Greece and Turkey /;
but this does not whit excuse its being
practised in India in 1855, under the Gov
ernment of EnglishmeH and under the pro-
lection Of British laws and the shadow of
the British Constitution. But worse re-
mains behindz-tOrtNfe employed in tAe raising
of rerenNe On this point, too, there is q
lamentable plenty Of evidence, and evidence
moreover that it has been part of the reg
ular system Of money-raising for long
time. We find it alluded to in 1918 and
1920, not to go back to Burke's luminous
and terrible account of Debi-Sing. In 1887
revenue officers used to extort rent due''
by applying an instrument called kittie ;
"a very simple machine, consisting Of two
sticks tied together at one end, Betsoesa
t0hiol The fingers are PLACED as in a lemon
squeszer" But perhaps all this is abolished
since 1887. BY uo means. The commits
sioners found on inquiry in some districts
"astonishment expressed that the preva-
lence of torture should ever have been
called in question" Yet English men and
women read "Uncle Toms Cabin" and re-
proach Americans with the cruelty Of lie.
gree, who never think upon or take any
blame for the mean and hellish infections
suffered by thousands Of East Indians of
the hands Of village tyrants in British pay
These are not the times when the Brit.
ish people can afford to lose any national
honor or to risk any power in any part oi
the world. No doubt the Hindoos are q
feeble, languid, degraded race, and possibly
have been so for centuries but the moral
conduct of Englshmen towards them should
be regulated, not by their standard, but by
that of England. 1t cannot be worth the
while Of the vice-regalr Government of In
dia, to say nothing of the controlling pow.
er at home, for the sake of the extra amount
of rupees which can be wrung from these
poor wretches, to initiate the fiscal policy