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    782 THE LE A 3) 33 B.__ [go. 437, August...

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    I N DIA,

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    THE BED SEA TBLEGHA"?H. We are almost as...

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    THE CIVIL SERVICE OF INDIA. The familiar...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    782 The Le A 3) 33 B.__ [Go. 437, August...

    782 THE LE A 3 ) 33 B . __ [ go . 437 , August 7 , 1858 .

    I N Dia,

    I N DIA ,

    The Bed Sea Tblegha"?H. We Are Almost As...

    THE BED SEA TBLEGHA" ? H . We are almost as much ashamed as rejoiced to announca that the Red Sea telegraph is to be proceeded with . When the telegraph ought already to be open , and to have done much of its work , tben does the Government , driven oh by th « public voice , afford , the necessary encouragement for this enterprise . None , we believe , but members of the Government , doubt that a telegraph to India is a necessary part of the machinery of our governmental system , for there is a strange sluggishness , which oppresses Government functionaries and frightens

    them from , following on the full tide of enterprise . The Government adopted steamers only when the commercial marine no longer left it even the chance of experiment . They adopted iron after every one else had been confirmed in its use , and they hesitated and threatened its abandonment , on the ground of its behaviour under shot , when its employment was fully established . The screw found its last supporters in the Government offices . So , too , England was covered with telegraphs before the Admiralty gave up the semaphores , and the submarine lines were laid without Government help . A . foreigner , who knew nothing of England , would have expected

    that the Post-office would be found conducting the telegraphs . Luckily , although the Post-office is one of our best public establishments , and is , thanks to the exertions of Rowland Hill and able assistants , a model for the world , telegraphs have in this country been left to private enterprise , or most places would have no telegraphs yet . Fifty years after Trevithick gave the great impulse to the railway aystem , and-thirty after George Stephenson established it by practical example , Government is trying its hand at a parcels post , and contending with railway companies about the means of conducting it , and which can be only effected by stripping ' the railr ¦ way companies of a large revenue they have created .

    When Sir Macdonald Stephenson began his successful career in the establishment of Indian railways , he only contemplated the connexion of the system with England by an overland railway and by a telegraph . It was he who laid the foundation of the route tfarough Asia Minor , and devoted several years to the necessary negotiations , when it was taken out of his hands by intrigue . Happily he directed bis attention to the Bed Sea route , and having received the support of many public men and leading capitalists , he applied to tbe Government for their countenance and support . It might have been thought that tha recommendations of such a man would

    have been at once adopted , but all that was accorded to his public services was the ear of th « Government , and the barren profession of a favourable opinion . The Indian mutiny broke out , and he then the more firmly pressed the undertaking on the Government , They ¦ were obliged to promise him something , very little in fact , and left him and his company to carry on a kind of paper war with the Euphrates Valley Company without even effective political support . Thus the endeavours of Sir Macdonald and his . co-directors proved abortive , and the shares not having been taken up by the public , the undertaking 1 was suspended for a time , and was considered dead , and it would have been so ha '*

    at not been for the energetic men concerned in its management , for they paused not in their agitation , and they have now obtained a guaranteo on a large amount of capital . This guarantee only amounts to four and a half per lent ., and is no such liberal measure of public patronage after all , but as Government securities float at three and a half per oent ,. the Treasury consider they have made a . great concession , and as the public leave this four and * half per cent , as a stand-by , and really look to the

    eight or ten per cent , paid by other telegraph companies for their real return , the capital will be secured , though exposed to th « hazard of a double defeat , for had the market this w <» k proved heavy , had any bad report been circulated from the Continent , or had a leading partisan been attacked with colic , Console might have gone down half per cent ., and the company been defeated fo obtaining it * capital , and the Government been defeated in a financial arrangement , such being the rleks of the policy of the Treasury , waich halts short of liberal encouragement .

    The concession of this guarantee Is a great triumph to the promoters of the undertaking , liut it Is a serious reflection on the late and present administrations that it should have b « eu so long delayed . India it now pro-Tided with main lines of telegraph , communicating with the presidencies and leading stations , and had there been a junction at Bombay or Kurrachee before the revolt , that disastrous occurrence would have been stripped « f many of its terrors . It would hovo been known in India that at once succour was demanded from homo , it would hav « been announced that Buccour was already on its way , and many a sinking heart would have been

    strengthened for the brief struggle of holding our own till reinforcements arrived . How much the policy o { the Government would have been strengthened has been matter of comment over and over again , but it has not been so strongly impressed upon the public mind how much the superior , but still subordinate , functionaries of the Government in the outstations would have been brought to a feeling of confidence and unanimity , knowing that the home and supTeme Governments were acting in harmony . We believe , too , the telegraph to England would have had a fearful effect on the native princes , who have already felt -what a mastery of resources the local telegraphs give to the Government , arid who would ha ^ ve known

    that the mighty powers above the supreme Government , to whom appeal is made , \ pere ready on summons to pour forth the treasures with , whicht India is yearly glutted , to reinforce the ships and steamers , and to augment the European soldiery . We doubt not that many a hapless man , who 13 now attainted or in danger of forfeiture , would not have wavered in his allegiance . The want , too , of this instantaneous means of doing more than communicating disasters , for it announces the progress of fleets and the march of armies , must have materially aggravated the perils of the struggle . Within three days after Cawnpore it would lave been

    known in Delhi itself that a large force of European artillery was within two months' reach , and that European armies would within three months reach the spot . Six weeks or two months saved in preparation would have been a powerful help to our efficiency in acquiring our means of repression , but double that time saved in announcing that fleets and armies , artillery , engineers , cavalry , and infantry were in movement , would have stricken with awe many a mutineer . The moral elements of warfare are in the hands of great statesmen as powerful as the material instruments , and by a Napoleon are wielded with equal effect .

    To treat this undertaking in reference to its political services is , however , after all , not to do full justice to it ; for if in an emergency like the present its services are invaluable , yet such emergencies pass away , and the ordinary avocations of Government do not " become of greater moment than those of the merchant . It matters little whether one thousand sabres or one thousand bales of cotton are ordered by telegraph ; whether X . Y ., B . C . S ., is ordered out , whether Dowl is to be cared for , "br Messrs . Smith , Brown , and Robinson send

    for an extra clerk ; but the demands of commerce on the telegraph are greater than those of the Government . In peace or war , however , the telegraph has always its work and a constant source of income . It is easy to see , that at the worst , the Government will always cover its guarantee , for it has business enough to pay the required income to the telegraph company ; but in effect the result of the operations will be to give the Government telegraphic communications much cheaper than , it could by its own exertions obtain it .

    The income must , however , be enormous , because the commerce of India and China ia enormous . The silk trade alone , to take an example , can bear a large toll , for the moment the crop fails in Europe numerous ord « rs will be sent out for purchase , and the Eastern silk be delivered before the nest year ' s European sillc can come in . Now operations are disturbed , because when the failure of the European crop has been announced , the news is three months reaching China and the silks four months corning back , and they reach England , perhaps , at the moment when a heavy sillc crop has been announced in Lombardy and its supplies are coming in , and thereby a glut , or fear of a glut , is created , pri « es go down , and an individual firmj as many did in th ese

    late operations , loses a hundred thousand pounds , for silk was bought in China at higher prices tlinu ruled here . Then there is cotton ; the Indian export of cotton is to a great degree a season export dependent on a short crop jn the United States , and when there is a heavy crop in the United States Indian cotton shipments run great risk of bringing a loss to the sluppors . The telegraph will set this right , and cotton will bo slipped from Bombay and placed here before even the prospects of the next year ' s crop in the States can bo known or can touch the market . In the sugar operations consequent upon short crops and increased consumptionthe

    , telegraph would have given greater safety in his operations to the East Indian merchant . Wools , hemp , rice , oil-seeds , and all articles of produce dependent on the prices of other markets can be moro safely speculated in with the telegraph , for the merchant here can advise his house or agent in the East to what price he can go in liis purchases , and bo prow the local markets ae to work down the local stocks and increase th © shipments . Great as have been the effects of the telegraph on European ami American commerce , they are aa yet not fully known , nor will they be folt till tlio Red Sea telegraph or the Atlantic telegraph are in operation .

    Tho value of the telegraph in the export trade i » no loss , for it anounces two critical dates of tho market , glut and defloloncy , and allows tho merchant to act accordingly . In narrow markets glut ia qulclsly followed by short stocks , and there are particular articles that are always subject to vicissitudes . Thcro is a further contingency affecting tho merchant . He may bo running Bhort of a particular article , of which ho has a rognlar

    consumption m his own connexion , and the xesuU " * be , he may be obliged Jo try for supplies from som * firm , or he may be unable to obtain them , while hw legraph , he would get aid in several ways- he ' m" V * know when to calculate on liis own supplies tw « ?• on which he depended had put into the Cape in Qitr P that a bargain had been made by the home corSS dents of his neighbours' firms , or that supplies had h ordered for him from some neighbouring port , and S already shipped , and on thear way . This is but a small portion of the business of a M graph company , for the personal communications wS afford a considerable revenue but in fact , there as no doubt in the mind of any practical man that with nrn dent management the income of the Free Telcn-inK Company must far exceed tlie Guarantee &

    The Civil Service Of India. The Familiar...

    THE CIVIL SERVICE OF INDIA . The familiar term of "the Civil Service" appears to be of such simple significance that it mi ^ ht- be supposed it would in all places mean the sametliinc Iii England it means the general body of public * servants , of all ranks and conditions , who are employed in tlie various civil departments of Governmerit ; and the only public servants not included are those ( like , for example , Cabinet Ministers ) whose employment is casual . It includes all ranks as , for example , the . fudges of tlie County Courts and the Judges of Westminster Hall , the Governmerit secretaries and head clerks of the great political departments , and equally the clerks of every grade below them . The Civil Service has a certain unity aud homogeneity , thus defined . We place before our readers this familiar description for the purpose of remarking that it does not apply to the Indian " Civil Service" according to the Indian use of the term . Tlie Indian Civil Service is a part , not the whole ; and there is no term . that we arc aware of in '" use in India to designate the whole . The general body of Indian civil officials ; indeed , is spoken of in England as the Civil Service ; and journals , such as the .. Civil .. Service Gazette , report appointments indiscriminately in every , branch , in the same "words ; but this requires correction . The term " the Civil Service- " in India , belongs to a section numerically small , and whose more spe ^

    cific designation is the covenanted civil servants of Government ; iu fact the term lias been , by a sort of arrogation , applied exclusively to one section , and so they arc the Civil Service , par excellence , and all other public servants must be content with their names of office { e . g . Moonsiff , Suddcr Ameen , & c , as the case may be ) , or \ o be " uncovenanted" servants . We have given this explanation of the term as a necessary introduction to the explanation of the peculiar institution . The world at large , and unprejudiced and uninitiated persons , will at once perceive liow arbitrary is the classification wliich arrogates to a part a name which , in its legitimate sense , belongs to the whole . But in this arrogation there is much more than a mere name . Assumed as a distinction , it is

    used as a title ; and so it comes to denote an aristocracy of public servants . This , be it observed , is no imputation of ours ; it is the view which the members of this class take of their order and of themselves . Moreover , it has important practical consequences ; it affects intercourse , manners , conversation , and official deportment and administration . Many persons probably may think this an exaggeration . Well , we will admit that there arc many exceptions ; we allude to the men of sterling worth whom no system or institution can spoil ; but , on the other hand , there are many more who

    delight in these personal pretensions ; who regard them as tho essential support of their importance ; Jo whom they are vital principles ; and who insist on reaping the proper fruits from them . Some of those fruits may easily be imagined . We will only give a short instance—tho disparagement , for example , of native rank ; a very great rnja ! i must be , comparatively , a very small man in the presence of the official ; and tho native habit ci iawuing and dissembling must bo called into oxcrcisc to please that exalted cluss of public servants . Wo have , however , still to point out several

    imnr » vf , nnt r > rmsftniif > iir » ps nf flu ' s np . milinr nlnssificaportant consequences of this peculiar classification of publio civil servants . It affects salaries , malcmg them absurdly unequal . It nll ' octs also the division of employments , and their distribution . We will begin with their distribution . This class has its privileged offices ; in other words , thcro are certain odices wliich belong to tins class by exclusive right , and whioli , therefore , cannot legally be conferred on other persons . From this circumstance of privilege , this nranch of the public service has been called a monopoly service—"

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 7, 1858, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07081858/page/22/