Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1883-05-02

this end we avail ourselves of the Of
fetal papers collected and commented
upon by Sir Richard Temple, who is
qualified by experience to speak with
authority upon questions relating to
the government of India.
1t cannot be said that the theory of
local administration or even the cleo
tive principle is absolutely new in
British India; the innovation consists
in the magnitude of the scale on
which these doctrines are TO be appli-
cd. Besides the eight provincial
Governments, there have for many
years existed local Boards, CORES
ponding in some respects to the French
Councils General. Within districts
about as large as French departments,
such Borads had charge of roads and
communications, of primary and mid
dle-class education, of sanitary and
medical work, and of the police.
These Councils were made up partly
of European officials, partly of ma
tives; the latter, however, not being
elected, but appointed by the British
authorities, took little interest in their
functions, and felt no sense of ac-
countability. On the other hand, the
elective principle has for some time
been in force in Calcutta and Bonn
bay, and has been cautiously extend
ed to some other large towns. All the
municipal affairs of the two great
cities named are managed by corpora
tons consisting chiefly of members
elected by ratepayers.
The great reform introduced by
Lord Ripon may be examined from
two points of view, for it offers large
measure of local autonomy both to
the urban and the rural population
of British India. The control over
municipal concerns now enjoyed by
the ratepayers of a few cities will,
under the orders of May, 1882, be
conferred on all the towns, large and
small, some 1000 in number, and
comprehending nearly twenty million
inhabitants. This part of the problem
will be more easily solved, for there
is no difficulty in defining the qualif-
cations requisite for voting in munich
palities. They who already pay taxes
for municipal purposes will be made
electors, and their representative will
direct the expenditure of the sums
turned into the town treasury.
The bestowal of selfgovernment on
the one hundred and eighty millions
that compose the rural population is
a much less facile undertaking. Lord
Ripon begins by breaking up the pres
ent districts into much smaller SUBJ
corresponding to French
cantons, each of them, however, com
prising several villages. The men,
bers of the Board of control of the |
local concerns Of each administrative
unit are to be chosen by election, but
the qualifications of voters and all
matters pertaining to the electoral
machinery are to be determined by the |
provincial Governments. 1t is proba-
bic that the conditions of the fran
chise will greatly vary in different
parts of India, owing to differences in
social structure, and especially in the
tenure of land. In many provinces,
for instance, the system of peasant
proprietorship prevails, and here the
right to vote will be attached to the
ownership of land. Elsewhere, and
particularly in Bengal and Oudh,
where large part of the soil is in
the hands of great proprietors, it is
deemed indispensable to intrust the
suffrage to all tenants posed of occu-
pancy rights which insure them
against eviction without cause pro-
nounced sufficient by court of JUS
tice.
On the whole, the number of rural
cultivators who will exercise the local
franchise under Lord Ripon's pro-
gram will be very large, and it is not
that the immediate results
of the experiment will be encouraging.
Wise lawgivers do not anticipate re-
viving in twelvemonth, habits of
local self.help and self-control which
for thousands of years have fallen in
to desuetude throughout the greater
part of India. The Calcutta Govern
ment avows frankly, in an official
paper on the subject, that it is not
primarily with view to improvement
in administration that the new meas
ure is put toward. The object is de-
clared to be the furtherance of popu-
lar and political education, the foster
ing of an independent political life,
which, though it may at first disclose
some shortcomings in comparison with
the autocratic system, carries with it