The true Democrat., 1856-04-08

considerations which will be felt and approved of by the American people.
 From the Albany Atlas and Argus. Use of the Torture in India-Eow
 the English Government Collects it's Rents and Taxes
 h June, 1854, member of Parliament from Newcastle brought before the attention of the House of Commons the crueltes which were exercised in that body to enforce the collection of the government revenues. He distinctly charged that torture of various kinds, but all degrading painful, and sometimes fatal, were used by the immediate representatives of the British government, in the Madras Presidency, and that all endeavors of the native citizens to procure redress through the courts had failed.
 The charge was denied, was even secuted and mock ed at by the representatives of the India interests ill the House. and by those who had been connected with its administration, and the president of the board of control challenged in vestigation. It is possible that their ignorance was not feigned; and that the English govern- ment was as little instructed or affairs m h. dia as in the Crimea, and that the lCCa 9o vernors were as reml5s and negligent as to the scenes of suffering about as the Generals III camp. One of the members ot the commons stated, that on applying at the India office ln London for copies oi the rules regulating the tenure of lands he was told that 1t was imp0ss- ble to procure thcm--that no copies had ever been sent to Engla1ld. Ignorance and indfer- ence seem To q aractcrsc the whole action of the government.
 X commission was instituted, which after few weeks of enquiry, which overwhelmed 1t with revolhng proofs, made its report. The land in the Madras Presidency is held by the government as landlord on terms agreed upon by each tenant without intermediate a9elcy. The collt tctior of the rent IS wholly m the hands 0i the government, and Is conducted cX- cusively by its officers and the responsibility IS solely with it. The collectors and sub-collec tors are often Europeans, sometimes natives. Testimony of these and Of the cIergymen, phy sicidns, magistrates and army officers shows the terrible nature of the methods employed to eX tort the miserable pittance ot revenue from the wretched peasautry ln a report which seeks to pallate the grosser atrocity o! the case it is suggested that the native collectors "give pre- cedence to their own illicit demands" and hav- ing collected these, employ the machinery of torture to eXtort the government dues from the exhausted people.
 But eveu in this there is a silent complicity on the part of the government. The native officials, said Mir. panby Seymour are "yery much underpad," and it seemed therefore, to be acknowled yed by the government of India, like that of Russia that C Hale pscalati0n wls aHoscuJle" A little pecuiatlon, but at what price! The country is actually depopulated under the inlliction. The rich Armenals are driven off. The native merchants bankrupt,
 By su0tertuges like this, and by accepting the testimony ol the ignorance of tue Eur ,pean officials of these mjsdougs, the commissioners undertake to eXonerate them from direct com plicity iu these eXtortion,; but this apology is ref :ted by the fact that the courts and ma5is- tracy have so constantly refused all redress, when these crimes have been brought before them, that the conviction Is general thai there is no justice to be hoped for in dispute be- tween the peasant and the government cOileC- tor. The attempts of the officials too, by de- nialS and misdrector, to blind the commission to the extent and even to the existence of these practices, is an evidence of culpabIity. They denied the lact--pyotested that they had never heard of it-and yet
 Ncverthele less, few weeks of the very sim pleSt inqury,-a few queries addressed to the local functionaries,-a brief notification circu cuated throughout the villages, suthced to bring out the fact, that, except the authorities III (IucSlIUl tiGEc was udulN Il SOUl I'll lllNllt who was not thoroughly cognizant of the exis- tence of these practices. Que of the officers ex presses his 'astonshment that the prevalence of torture should ever have been caledi in question: and the commissioners themselves report that no impartial mind could arrive at any other con clusion,
 How are we to account for this singular con- trast between official darkness and unofficial notoriety? Surely the government entrusted with the charge of untold millions of a race so utterly helpless and unfrier ded, has need of more perspicuitv than such contrast would appear to imply"
 The question of land tenures in India, has itself apart from all its incidents of oppression, been a matter of great complaint. The land revenue is the principal source of income to the East India company; and out of 926,OOO,OOO of all kinds of taxes, 915,OOO,OOO are derived from this source. To collect this, the govern ment acted as landlords to the whole territory, | placing money rent upon every field within the vast dominions.' This system introduced the agency of the state to an extent that had no parallel in the history of the world. Dis tricts of 1000 square miles, and in some in stances of 13, 900 square miles, were placed un- der single collector, with few English assis- tants, who made tours through the districts, ascertaining or attempting to ascertain how much land each individual cultlvator intended to bring into cultivation, and watching and checking the produce of the soil under every variety of season, and of clmate' Such a thing as private property ln land was un- known.
 The rate of assessment was so high as to drive the people from them and to leave them waste. One third of the best land was thus laid waste c c1;o l. ...I.: If the tenants attempted any improvement such as sinking wells, planting orchards etc, the assessment was increased The Madras dis trct, on the line of the railroad, was desert Not one- tenth of the ancient water-works were kept in repair. "The native population of h. dia,' said Mir. Blackett in the House of Con- mons, " had been reduced to almost a state of beggary under this state of things;;'' and he called upon the House to consider the immense power which could be exercised by collector and his assistants upon a population of oOOOO or 1OOOOO-a vast proportion of whom were trembling upon the verge which separated des- ttution from absolute starvation. The holder of land had to pay two-thirds of the gross pro- duce to government If the people would not take land under such circumstances they were compelled to. There was no farmer in Eng land that did not care more for his stock than the East India company did for these human beings intrusted to their charge
 As to the character of the violence and cru city resorted to, nothing in the annals of the Spanish 1nquisition can approach them, either in the grossness of the suffering inflicted or the devilish refinement of the torture. We quote from the Edinburgh Review description of these:-
 "The tortures which the commissioners find to have been employed are of various kinds and of different degrees of severity. Some of them are SO light as to amount to little more