The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-09-30
END OF THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BY
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

society, and the religion Of the rest. Yet
these things pass as everyday occurrences, and
We are chidden, not without reason, for the
small interest they seem to excite "What
nextf" is always the question; and, 10 that
forward spirit to which the Roman poet as.
cribed the achievements of bis countrymen.
I'VE think nought done while aught remains to
DO" In the very words Of Hotspur, we have
found it easy to
" Dive into The bottom of the deep
Where fathom line could never .ouch The ground
And puck up drowned honor by the locks
And with equal facility we have broken down
that wall of ages which shut up the Oldest ma.
ton in the world from the rest of the human
species. Yet these are events that look to- the
future, and no man can tell what is comprised
III them A - 4=ss
This day will have place in chronol6gies
tor another great event bat one which might
have almost slipped from notice, fer it looks to
the past. To-day the East India Company
CEASES to hold place among States and sover.
signifies. Like the many Princes whom it has
deposed from power, and left in the enjoyment
OF revenues and titles, it has long been depriv-
ed OF actual dominion. The compApy has been
only name and an income or only adding to
those what India herself supplied TO her con.
querors-the modest offices of information and
advice. But, as the Great Mogul no longer
exists, even In name, the East India Company
has now wholly ceased from political existence
fhis day Qaeen Victoria becomes the Sever
e'gn OF India without any fiction or tradition of
the past coming between her and her just titles
just, and long upjustly withheld, they undoubt-
eddy are, for 1t is, III fact the British Parliament
and people that have always ruled India They
have supplied the policy, the men, ihe money,
the system, and ali that makes empire. With.
out the sinew and bone of those classes from
which our army has been recruited; without
the enterprise and couEage of cur young cadets ;
without our education and our natural sagacity /;
without our ertiowing capital, the wisdom OF
our rulers, and those institutions which give all
men among us the hopes and means to rise,
the East India Company would have been ut.
terly powerless. Yet there is also power in e
name. The company has found power in a
name, and the name of Queen Victoria will
now be tower of strength.
The changes that embcdy this alteration of
title are not without force. To-day, all the civil
officers of the Company become her Majesty q
servants; the military and naval force of the
Company secome the Indian army and navy.
Henceforth war will be declared peace con
tracted, and treaties made, in her name. In
her name laws will be made and administered,
debts contracted, public works done, and all
that makes up the Government of people.
We have long ceased to value empty titles, and
the scorn which attaches TO historical shadows
extends even to names of real signiGcaEee. We
smile when we read on the coinage Of George
Ill, that he Was King of France, and on that
OF Loas XVI, that he was also King of Ma
varre. The pretensioDs to the sovereignty OF
Jerusalem, Cyprus, and other extinct thrones.
still kept up by some Italian mints, only amuse
children. In our national Indifference to such
bsubles, We have allowed no trace of our Ina
mense colonies and dependencies to appear on
any coin for home circulation. Yet it surely
is q great and real acquisition of power and non.
or that Queen Victoria returns home from Ger.
many as much the Empress of India as Fran.
cls Joseph Is Monarch of the Austrian E npire.
lie East Is the region OF great empires, and
the nature Of the people, az well as the physi
cal peculiarities OF the continent, are favorable
TO rapid conquest and acquisition. Ideas con.
quer and govern there as well as armies and
warriors. But the story of the East India
Company is the strangest of them all In little
more than century and half, it has won and
attached to its rule a greater area, and several
times the number of people, than ever fell be-
fore to any coLqueror or family of conquerors:
China is no exception. There a vast multitude
only changed their dynasty, scarcely conscious
OF conquest or of policy. And this has
been done by means unknown before. The
founder of the Persian dynasty, it was said, was
the father of his people; his successor was a
soldier, and he that followed trader. In those
days the institutions of peace came the last.
In our times, a small company OF merchants
set up factory On the banks of the Hooghly,
and within the lifetime of two men who might
have talked with one another they Rave annex.
ed and brought to the gates of that factory at
least seventh part of the whole human
species. Natural obstacles alone have checked
their progress. But for the mountainous de-
files of Cabul, the triple range of the Hipalsyas,
sandy deserts, and seas, they would have
pushed in all directions still further
Now, it cannot be denied that in India, as
elsewhere, there have always been those who
have hailed conquest, who have talked of &C
QUESTIONS without scruple, because without per
sonal responsibility, and who have lent q ready
hand to intrigues and researches that had only
one view. Blu. as little can it be denied that
India has thrown itself into our hande, and that
it would be impossible for any civilized Power
to have eyer 80 small footing in that PENN.
sua without the same result, so long as it was
safe from any civilized rival Talk as By
ISLANDERS or advocates will, it was absolutely
impossible for such States and Governments as
Dude, for example, to remain independent on
the frontier of a moral, righteous, ard well or
dered Power. We need not resume that cues
ton, or even suppose it 10 be question still The
relation of the superior to the inferior in euch
case must be one OF control apd respoU sblity and
the only real question is the political arrange.
ment best adapted to carry out these conditions.
Such States have fallen, ss they must fall, al d
the British power has risen, as it could only
arise. 1t has been the soul OF order contendng
with chaos one of them must yield happily,
order has prevailed.
The career of the East India Company dates
from an epoch when the settlement of our Con
stituton, the restriction of the preroga!ive, the
establishment, of religious liberty, and the ban
ishment of a dynasty incurably hostile to these
changes, excited the alarm of all Europe, part
ly for their own sake, partly for our own. The
history of England, it is sometimes said,
ceases to lie interesting after the expulsion
of the Stuarts and the settlement Of the sue
cession by act of Parliament. But it is
since that date that it has become the history
OF the world. We may read but little of it, bat
its facts ever before us in the reduction and
in the popping of continents and the establish
ment of our name on every ocean and every
shore. India itself forms pre- digious episode |
hat outshines all the older achievements of our |
race. All that We gained and lost in France, |
ali our still more bootle s. enterprises in earlier
or later days, even cur conauests and iosses in |
The New World, fell far short of the dominion |
won BY the superhumsn valor and consummste |
policy in far distant Asia. 1t is impossible not
% regard 80 great a prize and so valuable an
inheritance without some misgiving as to its
security; nor can that misgivlng be removed |
By any change Of hands, or neEe, or node of |
administration. The greater the stake, the |
greater the anxiety. SO We join very heartily
u the good wishes and the prayers with which
he East India Company resigns the sovereign