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    1CELITAR¥ PPINIOJST IN INDIA. Fob severa...

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    India 4ndt^I)G)Tjbie Gqvern^ Thi; Necess...

    purely fenciful . The legislature would not listen a moment to so strange a scheme as that of putting the sceptral mace of Akbae and the IkTahrattas into the lands of a child from " Windsor ¦ , Castle . ' The transfoxxnatioa might ornament a pantomime , but is not to be noticed serioiislljv Aid . elective franchise for the Mohammedians , pindoos , anil other native races , may be among the possibilities of the future ; but the principle now to be established is that of undivided and

    irresistible - British supremacy . To localize the government in all reapecW would be siioply impracticable , so long as India is ; a dependency of Great Britain . It has not , like the ^^ stralian coipnies , a powerful body of English residents , ntingling with a few scattered ^ ori ginal tribes ; the central authority springs from England , aud must be metropolitan . To ; abolish the East India Company would benpthing more than to render necessary a government for India in another form ;; the suggestion is only negative , and means nothing unless in conjunction

    with a positive project ; such a project is the nmon of an Indian State Secretariat witli a Iiegislatiye CauncU . ^ We wish to be iinderstpod as not submitting any programme , still less as opposing any change , however comp rehensive . It is todspbn to do more than inspect the administrative models submitted . Perhaps , indeed , it isVnot top late to say that the existingmachinery might not have brpkeri down- so irretrievably had the rig ; ht men been employed to .. vTOri ' " it ..-. ; ,..: ; The' Board of Control itself has never had a fair ferial . The JPresiidents have seldom or never been , efficient

    statesmen , arid they have deteriorated , under successive administrations , until the dynasty has dwindled into thepersonof Mr ^ ViiiNbif Smith . Without defending the cumbrous and complicated Apparatusof pur Indian go-Terhmeiit , we dp not hesitate to say that tlie honest selection of the best xiien to jfijl the highest posts inight have reserved the East India Company and the Board of Gontrol for a long career pf success and reputation . Still , under the most favourable influences ^ the organizatibtt must , in times of pressure or peril ,

    have proved inefficient . As modified by the Act of 1853 , the double system was one of anomalous and '' -conflicting jurisdictions : the Board of Control , the Court of Directors , the CJoverrior-Q-eiieral , the Supreme Council , the Presidencies , with their Executive Councils , the British Courts of Law , the Company ' s Courts , the Native Courts , remained , and the one could scarcely avoid being occasionally entangled among the others . The system is one of complication where simplicity is

    required , of delay where despatch is essential , of extravagance where every interest of the Indian Empire demands economy . It leaves unsettled a hundred embarrassments , deeply affecting the welfare and loyalty of the people -r-tenure of land , Zemindars , the village system , ryotwarry , the employment of the natives , the administration of the army—indeed , almost every question in which the permanent interests of India are really involved . Now , those difficulties will not be removed simply by abolishing the double government . The Indian system must be penetrated

    with ' reform , and these must be carried out by experienced men . As to a single government , the principle may be carried too far . In constitutional countries , all government must be carried on , to a certain extent , by means of a double machinery . Every department in England has ita ministerial heads and its permanent heads , This must be the case , also , in . any new Indian branch of the administration ; the essential point is to have a government at one with itself , of harmonious jurisdiction , of direct action , of experience , under constitutional checks , and

    composed ¦'¦ pf men selected for their merit . We inightestablish considerable unity without establishirig an effective ^^ might , for example , remove the entire mass of our actual machiaery , create a Secretary of State for India , with four Under-Seeretaries , render every xiivU servant in pur Indian dependericies responsible to hinij and find ourselves in a worse predicament than formerly . If the Cabinet is to have discretionarypower and uncontrolled patronage together , such an

    innovation would be , ; riofc an Indian Reform , but a national uangeii . Some limit must be put to the prerogative ; of the Minister in : this respect . Si ^ posing the young de-. partment to be honest , however , it xnight not be capable . The office , of course , would be ministerial ^ a ^ id allowing for certain possible contingencies , India ; iftight pass into three sets of hands within a year . Whence are these ; Secretaries of State to come , who , at a day ' s notice ^ are to begin administering

    the affairs of ' a hundred and fifty millions of Asiatics ? It may b 6 retorted that we could not have a less coinpeteiit functionary vested with the pbwers of peace or ';• war than Mr ; Veknon" Smith , but the Court of Directors act as a check iippn liini , and although thfey Cannot cancel iris ; appoint * menis , he' is u . nable ; "to vetoi their distnisr sals . Wemust imagine Mr ; SJirT ? H uncontrolled before ^ realizihg a : cbiieeption of that to jwhich British India might be subjected -were ; thei scheme of a Secretary ; of

    State , pure and simple , ^ proved by Parliament ; As a ; riile ^ of course , this Minister would be a man of ^ high rankj or influeafcial family connexions . If lie were he could afford to stand alone ; if his name were S JtitH : he might give LoroV IjAnsdo 1 ^!* e as bis . reference . ; Our present system supplies no guarantee-r-ripfc even the slightest- — that such ia Minister Would be better qualified to govern i India thail to sort letters at the Ppst-office : The transaction is avowedly one pf personal or- "political convenience . Certain chiefs are waiited in . the Cabinet

    others can be s pared ; ^ oe the superfluities goes to Dublin , another to GalcuttaV The Admiralty ^ being already promised , a Xprkshire laioidlord heads i the Board of Coiifcrbl j the statesman with an eye to tlie Foreign pffi . ee is ^^ soothed by being made Chancellor of the Exchequer . This we must tolerate , we suppose . There appears no help for it . A Peer admitted ^ some lnonths ago , before a Committee of the House of Commons , that no person below a certain rank was considered qualified to sit at a ' council-table among noble lords . He would not cPmmand sufficient

    respect , perhaps , then , the grand Indian post must bo abandoned to the governing classes , to be filled , as chance determines , by a doctrinaire or a dumriiy ; l ) ufc the Board for India ? No reform will be worth acceptance that does not seat . at this Board men like the LA"WBENCEsi and we much doubt whether fewer than twenty or thirty meihbers would adequately represent the growing interests of the empire . Such a deliberative Goxincil would act as a check upon corrupt jpatronage , as well as xippiv empirical legisla tion j but now that public opinion has adopted

    India , there will remain no reason why any important measure should ever be decreed without the direct intervention of Parliament . The subject is intricate , but not a mystery . A few years will familiarize it to the thinking classes of the nation , and it will become a topic of the hustings . The legislature , it is said , will not listen to Indian debates . But the Legislaturemust listen . Gentlemen who vote the welfare of so vast a proportion of the British dominions a bore , will find it necessary to dissemble their sense of fatigue , or to seek social honours elsewhere .

    The Cabinet had not come to iny decision wifeh respect to the futiire goverriinent 61 India when the announcement appeared that the ; double ^ government was to be abolished . Wp detect in this circumstance aabtherprppi of the kinid and mode of influence brought to bear on the Premier by certain of his colleagues . ¥ e werei-warranted , asith ' e QuEiJir ' s Speech shows , in denying that the attempt sneer down K ^ Mjebston ' s views . \ And now , it is plain : that the Government has no accredited organ in the Press . '¦ "¦ •¦¦ ¦' ¦ . ¦; ... l .. ¦ ¦ Vs VV- ' ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ V '¦ V : v . '

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    1celitar¥ Ppiniojst In India. Fob Severa...

    1 CELITAR ¥ PPINIOJST IN INDIA . Fob several months , ; probably , the work of Indian DKefpriners will consist chiefly in the collection , scrutiny , and arrangement pf evidence : There is one ppiiit which it ; will be difficult to establish j udicially— --the amount of blame attributable to the & oyeiphinent of India , on account of the warninga it received before the Sepoy rebellion broke put , and its neglect after the first mutinies had

    denipnstrated , even to the dullest eyey the debauched state of the Bengal army . -The wliole pressure of Qoverriment influence \ vill be exerted to keep bad ? the testimpiiy in siapporfe of the charges brought , especially against tord Caitstino . Our ; readers will remember : ; wh ' at ^ 0 pseVcbarges are , as urg ^^ by theV Leader .. If th € > y forget them , ' the Times ^ of Thursday last will refresh their , memories ; : The counts of the same

    indictmen ^ , which the Timis had ; been siipposed t © treat with scorn , are i Jthere ¦; enumerated , and nothing is offered beyond an apolPgiy , aiid an attempt to show thiat , if Xibrd Caititing ; was blind , every ; one else was blind also / Now , tliis is not true . J ? oic years the Indian Government had been Tvarned

    tptjpt ^ e ^ precautionsiaga . iiist a mutiny of the Sepoys . The whole of this evidence may not yefc , have beeii published ; but it implicates the departnieiits in India as -vveli as at home , and vve ^ are ndwint pbssessipnl of private dpcuinents whicTi esfcablisli the fact that officers of high ^ ran k have ^ been threatened withdismissal from theservice for

    agitating questions concerning the spirit aud organization of the native army . Jliuch has lately been writtea on the policy of Lord CANNiNa in endeavouring to place Europeans and natives upon an exa , ct level , notwithstanding a thousand natural and acquired distinctions . The system was not originated by him , but it was he who carried it to its extreme limits even before the rebellion "broke outy and he \ vaa emphatically told that his acts endangered the empire . We will not go further , at

    present , into these charges ; our immediate object is to set forth the views held among some of tlie principal military authorities in India in connexion -with the mutiny ; the writer of the passages wo quote is an officer of very high rank , of conspicuous services , and of indisputable reputation , who long ago pointed out to the responsible rulers that they were digging an abyss , in which tlie Bengal army would be eueulphed . The points we of

    select will give ai ^ idea the sort , of correspondence passing between officers in com-Dict ? id cf 'divisions and brigades , while members of the Cabinet at home , instructed from Calcutta , were assuring Parliament that uo one was to be blamed for the Bengal mutiny-. We say nothing of the opinions expressed j they are , at all events , the opinions of men who are officially presumed to admire the energy and wisdom of fche Council at Calcutta : — " In Bengal , for twenty years past , to my knowledge , and for hovr much longer I know not , the whole European" mind has boon sedulously engaged in a upecles of deception , in concealing faults instead of remedying them . The practice ia perfectly Aaiatio and perfectly ua-Engllah .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 5, 1857, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05121857/page/13/