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    1122 THE X E A D¦ 3B B. [No, 4^8 , Octob...

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    LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, &c.

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    TOPICS . FOR INDIAN STATESMEN. Topics fo...

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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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    1122 The X E A D¦ 3b B. [No, 4^8 , Octob...

    1122 THE X E A D ¦ 3 B B . [ No , 4 ^ 8 , October 23 , 1858 .

    Literature, Science, Art, &C.

    LITERATURE , SCIENCE , ART , & c .

    Topics . For Indian Statesmen. Topics Fo...

    TOPICS . FOR INDIAN STATESMEN . Topics for Indian Statesmen . By Joliri Bruce Norton , Esq ., Barrister-at-Law , Madras ; author of " The Rebellion in India , " " Madras , " & c . Edited by G . K . Norton , Esq . Kichardson Brothers . The author of this work is by profession a Baiv rister , and is , we find on reference to the Law List , of some seventeen years' standing . He was responsible editor during the ¦ stirring limes from ] Soi to 1 S 5 G of the Madras Alkenaum , one of the papers sometimes instanced as the respectable exceptions to the run o £ Indian journalism which Lord Harris , it will be remembered , characterised as on 1 he

    whole " disloyal in tone , tin-English in spirit , and wanting in principle . " Mr . Norton was invited to assume the editorial office as being a . well-known Madias reformer , and round him during the period of his connexion with the Athe > i < zum , which , it should be stated , was a labour of love , he claims to have acquired , in . addition to all he had before , a very deep acquaintance with the affairs , condition , and prospects of India . When we consider the notorious propensity of Anglo-Indians for public writins , we can hardl y doubt that the

    worktable of a Madras editor , well-known to be a spirited man and a staunch reformer , must have been a storehouse of very tempting information from all sorts and conditions of men , or that the editor . himself may , if so inclined , have _ beenfar better informed upon many public affairs in his own presidency , at all events , than the general run of officials . Let us note for such of our ' readers as may probably not purchase or have time to study so large a volume , the leading " Topics" JNtr . Norton has treated . .

    They are : WThe character and cause of the rebellion . Was the Government forewarned ? Did they take proper steps to meet it . How shall we treat the rebels ? Who is to pay the cost ? What is required for the military protection of India ? What shall be the form of the Home Government of India ? Centralisation . How can the constitution of the Local Governments be improved ? Is the legislative Council properly constituted ? Shall we pursue' annexation ? Land Tenure . Sh a 11 we redeem the land tax ? Why have not British capital and enterprise invested themselves in-India ? Can they be induced to do so ? Do our law courts

    require reform ? Is the police to be reorganised ? What shall be the future condition of the Indian press ? Should our future policy in India be retrogressive , stationary , or progressive ? Aud , herein , of stoppage of public works ; demeanour towards the natives . Education . Proselytism . It is clearly impossible , within the space allotted to us , to condense the arguments or even summarise the conclusions of the author upon topics so fertile as 'the least penetrating will admit the above to be . We must plead to both author and reader

    that we far better serve thorn by t | ie abovo condensed table of contents , than by a few isolated extracts or somo bald comments of our own . It may nevertheless be interesting to mention j \ 1 i \ Norton ' s opinion , that the revolt clearly partook of a national , not alone a military character , as being strongly in opposition to that of at least one other able writer , who Would allow it the latter only . The cause of the ill feeling against us was our neglect of oui ' duties to our Indian subjects ; and , of the outbreak , our disregard of ample notice we received .

    Year after year , remonstrance , warning , evidence , argument , entreaty was poured out before the English nation , whose lethargy was as that of the sovon sleepers . Nothing short of the grand crash with which the East India Company ' s system , has at last exploded could oxcito attention and sympathy towards India , or teach uh that wo cannot accept only tho profits aiul pleasures of government to the neglect of its chief obligations . Upon Lord Canning he bears hard , but if his dates arc correct , not too hard , for his slot , 11 in admitting or grappling with the rebellion whon it became a fact , though he holds him as a now man to ' Indian life , loss inoxcuaablo for the disregard with wliioh ho was- inducod by supcroilious counsellers to treat all prodiqtions of evil . But our author has over a phial of coucentratod wrath in ¦ stoi ; o for tho Civil Sorvioo , as may bo soon iu tho concluding linos of tho following passage : — "WUut torrents of blood might have been saved had other counsels prevailed ; had wo had nn UUonborough ,

    or even Lord Dalhousic , and a Napier to grapple with events , it boots not now to consider . . Whatever nii ^ ht have been , we have to deal with what is . The important question which we must now ask ourselves is ,. whether men who so trifled with the rebellion at its commencement are fit instruments to be trusted ' with the regeneration of India When order is restored ? A dispassionate judgment must pronounce that they are not . Lord Cunning himself has shown no spark of

    prescience or genius . He has acted just as . might be expected from a man of the most ordinary capacity . The highest praise we can award him is , what was used by Lord Eldon to his father as a sneer , that' he is "a respectable gentleman . " But it is not to such that the destinies of India are to be trusted . As for the civilian Government , whose eyes were shut to what was coming , and who refused to see it when it came , the blood of the murdered cries out against them ; on their heads bo the sin .

    " We have escaped , " again says Mr . Norton , " a national revolution by almost a miracle , " " Our own right hands , under Providence , deserve ^ the first place in . the catalogue of the causes of our safety ; but next , certainly , is the singular coincidence that in two of the'most important and vital points of the empire the reins of government were held by educated men . '' " It has been argued that as Nana Sahib , the atrocious soul of the revolt , was a highly educated native aud the type of what is called " young Bengal , " we should be very careful how we encourage tho spread ol education . But tho author agrees with Mr .

    I-Ialliuay , the Iaeutcnant-. Govcrnor oi ' bcaigal , that , in the first place , the Naua , though he has a smattering of English , is , as to education , in its only . 'valuable '' -signification ,, as uuinstructed as the lowest mutineer ; and , in the second , that to the European sympathies and training in various branches of useful knowledge , imdcr English superintendence , of Jung Bahadoor of Ncpaul , of llplkar , of Seindiah , and of Solar Jung , the young minister of Hyderabad , we owe a large measure-of our safety . With regard to our present duties , Mr .

    Norton is an earnest defender , of Lord Canning ' s cleinency , though he deems his celebrated order to have been loosely worded , and incautiously made a public document instead of a private circular . He divides the rebels into four classes . To the Sepoys and the native officials , who had received our pay , and enjoyed the sunshine of our favour and then turned against us he would show no mercy . To Uic rajahs and nobles , many of whom liavchad fair cause of complaint , he would accord separate investigation , and the populace he could scarcely treat too leniently .

    The author has luminous views on the subject of revenue . The question' must soon arise how an enormous revenue is to be raised to liquidate our past losses and to bear heavy future military outlay —in fact , who is to pay for tho rebellion . Tbcninount has not been ascertained '; it can scarcely be approximately guessed at . it has graduitlly amounted from three millions to ten ; and of course every day adds vastly to the cost . Tho bent of public inclination for England- —as , indeed , is only natural—has been to cast this burden upon India . Enyland would fain escape tho loan slio sees looming in the distance ; and if India only could be made to pay there can ba little doubt but that

    she would be made . Numerous suggestions with this view have been made . Tax the countries where rebellion has broken out , suy somo ; tax tho merchants , tax the EnglL-ih in India , levy a poll or property tax , tax anybody , everybody , soy others . Ropleniah tho exchequer by tho uedk . vh'tiO 2 J , off Tins land-tax says my namesako , tho lato Advocate-General of Madras . Why not sell Bangui ? says tho " Friend of India , " in italics . Mulct the owners of India stock , the fault is theirs , somehow or other , and at all events mako the people of India pay . As to those who have rubullod , it is a just punishmont ; as to thoso who have not , it is only fair they should poy for tlioir protection .

    We havo recited this list of suggestions , for it is , indeed , a highly important topic , that wo may draw attention to JSIr . Norton ' s reply to ono and all of thorn , and if possible provoke a reply to his own rcoipe by ventilating it . Somo of these proposals ho doplaros to bo simply impoBHlbllitlos ; some as impolitic ns others arc hnponaibliif The redemption of land-tax would bo tho roadlest , but tho sum of 8 * 20 , 000 , 000 / . which It would place in tho public treasury would bo a temptation , ho says—and wo are disposed to agree with him- —to public profligacy . Tho nuzzcrana , or flno on porpetual successions to froehold Hefa , is the system which Mr . Norton , 'with Lord

    Jlotcalfe and Sir John Malcolm , the originator of the proposal , all believe to be a righteous form of taxation , and a lucrative one . He sees , he says , no other way in ¦ which taxes may be imposed at present . It is fancied that the Hativeshave vast hoards of hidden wealth , and that they may be forced to disgorge it . But it is the old story " of the traveller and the sun and the wind . We may induce native capital to uncloak , itself by those gentle and wise suasions which inspire confidence , not by blustering and brute force .

    In the inquiry as to the military protection of India , Mr . INorton enumerates the vast questions which must arise in connexion with the necessary reconstruction of the Bengal A . rniy mid the future condition of our whole Indian military resources . They arc numerous indeed . He pretends to no peculiar wisdom and no inspiration , but only to state boldly -what many a fettered man may hardly have dared to think , much less to express , and what the plain sense of every unprofessional observer inclines him to believe . lie considers that to play oil' the mutual hatred of Sikhs , Ghoorkas ,

    and Bengalees , and so to seek an homogeneous army , would be dangerous ; for we shall thus , as we should in . the selection of low-caste men , only be training up a more formidable foe for sooner or" later contest with ourselves .- He is , of course , for an immense addition to our European force , and for the reduction of na native clement to the lowest practicable amount . He would arrange our troops so that , by means of railways ' and telegraphs , they might be massed at will ; he would have civil duties discharged by a police

    force , that now employ a large number of regular soldiers ; and , above all , he avouM encourage iho employment of Eurasians in the army and other situations . This race , whose claims of blood aud religion we have heretofore strangely and cruelly disregarded , would make more reliable public scrvaults ' , either civil or military , than any pure Hindoos , and would far better than the latter repay us for the hyper-indulgent ibmlJiHg- we have lavished " upon the Sepoys of Oude . Aina

    Into the mysteries of the Ryotwnrrec , nec , Zemindarce-svstcins we cannot hero follow our learned friend , though we have been well pleased with his admirable essay on the land tenure of India . Let us note our impression , e » i passant ,, that no sweeping oil' of the old systems can for a moment be conteinplaled , but that with him we conceive the posiliou of the Aladrasscc ryot can at least be modified . This portion of the work . we leave with regret . So we do the paper upon Indian law-courts and their abuses , which essav touches also upon the native ideas of the saleabilitv of justice , tho remarks upon

    Prosclytism , and those upon Press . Gagging , wjjicn arc written with the sagacity of a lawyer , and the esprit de corps of a ei-dacanl , or , for all we kao \ v , a present editor . We havo , wo believe , said enough , to prove the interest we have taken in their perusal , and the anxiety we feel for their popularisation . Mr . Norton is evidently a inuii of the world , ot large experience and great common , sense . Me has a-lu -Hko habit of refusing to taku things tor

    wyer granted , to make whole admissions upon partial promises , or to concede anything upon c . v partt statements . He has , wo imagine , a keen nmt mrsighted perception of jobbery , uncl ft terncr-liKo fancy for probing it to the bottom when ho " « s once got scout of it . Wo can rcm % brhevo him when he says , in his 19 th " Topic : "— . I do not say that I'did my spiriting ovor-genti } , lor I am not aware that I over spared any j » or > nau «

    deserving exposure . We cun ' ulso bolievo the following statement : —¦ During tho timo I wrote Lord Unrein assured mo tiiai ho was fully aware of tho ability nnd utility oi me journal . I hud Lord Dolhuuslo ' d testimony to iho same oilect convoyed to mo by hid prlvato secretary . v « olllclnl in tho Hoard of Control informed mo tuat tuo Athcnwitm was doing good yeoman servioo in oppos » b oontrnllsatlon and annexation . From iho fnU" ~ Reform Association tho aamo anauranoo roaoheu iuo » Uattering attestation to tho h | gu ¦ character oi uw journal was-l > orl » o by tho caiJtiMnjipmry \> wsn ol inuia . Every ' essay in tho book bol ' oro us shows that its author is a man of nouiiion and varied knowlcugj , anddeop , earncat conviction . Ii . aftor tho long partial bondngo of such a spirit in tho fcttojs ox the editorinl ^ wo , " its owner , now'dooa court ioy n while the full liberty of publicity , revelling aua

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 23, 1858, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23101858/page/10/