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Leader (1850-1860), 28th August 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 16, WJ2 THE LEADER. [No. 440, August? 28, 18...

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      Wj2 The Leader. [No. 440, August? 28, 18...

      WJ 2 THE LEADER . [ No . 440 , August ? 28 , 185 ft

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      Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...

      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police cf literature . They dp not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce . them . —Edinburg h Review .

      Pbivate Journal Of The Marquis Of Hastin...

      PBIVATE JOURNAL OF THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS . Tke Private Journal of die Margvess of Hastings , K . G ., Gotrerncr ^ GeneraJ and Cotnmander-in- Chief in India . Edited by his Daughter , the Marchioness of Bute . In Two Volumes . Saunders and Otley . Fbancis , Earl of Moira , afterwards created Marquis of Hastings , is a great name even among the gieat aaities of the Tnstory of British India . Appointed chiefly for his soldierly qualities by the Very party whom he had been all his life opposing , tie people of India soon learnt that their new ruler

      was not merely a soldier . Before the day had arrived for the first exercise of his enormous power he had taken a comprehensive survey of the field of Indian affairs , and hud determined his general scheme of policy . Whatever that policy may have been , and there were few acts of liis government —imnstiaUy long as it was—which were not subjected to fierce criticism , it had at all events one great merit . It was no hand-to-mouth system ; no staving off of the deluge , in the hope that things would Jost outlast the tenure of his power . It was based on principles . It had an idea . It recognised other

      forces than bayonets and artillery . It attributed » just value to opinion , eveu in the minds of half barbarous ; races . Troubles unparalleled , even in Indian history , fiercestruggles for our very footing Upon Indian , ground , insuTrection , anaarchy , and financial embarrassment , delayed for a while the practical exposition of his views ; but they were never lost sight of . He * ' had determined to raise tie character of the English masters of that great continent ; to convince his subjects of our honesty and justice , aud of the beneficial effects tliat might be expected from our rule . Such a policy , we . regret to say , little suited the views or tastes of

      many Englishmen who had gone out to the East with the remembrance of what tilings bad been . Tue s days of rapine and fraud , and shameless corruption , Were still ' too near for all to believe that they were at an end , or to be satisfied with the better reign . Never yet since the first days of our rule had the sword rested in the scabbard " but Government cannot always he at war . It was time to look to the consolidation of our power ; it was time to settle its foundations deep in the interests of the races under our government or protection , or prepare to be swept away by the first great storm that should unexpectedly arise . Lord Moira felt this . He lias been charged with vanity , with ambition , with the desire to leave behind him the

      memory of a . brilliant career ; but such charges suggest their own refutation . 3 ? ew men escape similar accusations who are possessed of honest purpose and mental energy—of the courage to think and to act for themselves . His powers for evil as well as good were such as few men could be prudently entrusted with . By his own solicitation he was constituted both Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief , with the salary of one office only , and over the whole of British India lie was as , even in these days of steam and telegraphs and overland . routes no British Governor-General of India will

      probably be , practically omnipotent . But no enemy tevejr has accused him of having abused these powers . Indian morality Ifad indeed not yet attained that high standard by which an attempt to put an end to war by bribing the Nepaulesc commander would appear , even to a mind so frank and honest as that , » fr Lord Moira , anything but a fair stratagem : but ae f as himself uncorruptible . In the unfortunate aflair with Palmer and Co . and the Nizam , in which his haste to defend a relative and other unfortunate

      circumstances might have appeared to involve him , the Governor-General ' s known character was his beat shield . No historian has hesitated to acquit him on that point . What he gained by his long and arduous government was patent to the world . The grants of the East India Company to himself and hie family were the ungrudged reward of his services . ¦ r Xhe rest was beyond the power of Leadcnharll-street to bestow—the title to a good name . These two volumes introduce us to little of the

      his Governor-Generalship ; but , even as far as they extend , they note little but his travels in the country and his observations upon the people , tlicir manners , customs , and religion , although his interviews with native princes and others are recorded in sufficient detail to show the spirit of his rule . The book is indeed clearly what it professes to be— -a journal undertaken for the sake only of the children who accompanied him , in the hope that it would be " both gratifying and useful to them in a future

      day to bave their recollection of circumstances revived , and to have many matters explained which they would be likel y to have comprehended but imperfectly . " Indeed , the long withholding- of the manuscript by the survivors of these children is a sufficient evidence that it had been always considered of a private character , which fact would probably have still prevented its publication but for the public interest in India now awakened , and the increased desire for such information as can be drawn from the writings of our great Indian

      statesmen . . ? . The quick eye of the new Governor-General for a political error canuot be better exemplified than by-the . following passage . The evil which , it points out unfortunately survived the writer ' s administration : — February , 1816 . —Our ordinances in this country have been generally instigated by some casual occurrence . In other countries , laws are only recognitions '¦ and enforcements of settled opinions of the community , and as these opinions are the result of Ions observation and practical experience , there is little danger that an edict founded

      on them should be inconvenient to society . From the want of a comprehensive view in our system , many of our regulations , > vbnle they correct one evil , institute many sources of oppression . When we invested the zemindars with tl > e proprietary right in the lands of which they ivere before the superintendents , it became necessary to secure to Government the regular payment of the ' rent reserved for the State : ; and for this purpose the law was established that , in the event of arrears to Government , the whole estate should be put up for sale , the residue of it 3 produce ( nftpr Government should have paid itself ) being restored to the zemindar . This was

      evidently framed upon a contemplation of the confined zemindarries near Calcutta . A detection of the mischief of this , practice was one of the advantages arising from my tour up the country . " Many of the zemindarries are of such extent that there can scarcely be any competition of bidders for them ; but what is" still more material , the native officers round the collector form such combinations-that purchasers are intimidated from coming forward ; bankers are threatened if they attempt to aid the defaulter : and the estate is sold to one of the

      gang-for perhaps a tenth of its value . If any man be suspected of endeavouring to get at the collector in order to open his eye ? , a forged accusation of some criminal procedure is made to tlic magistrate against him , and is supported by perjured testimony . The individual is instantly imprisoned , and lies there till his turn for examination comes on the file , which may not be for many weeks . In the meantime the sale is despatched . I communicated my remarks on this evil , but the correctives were insufficient . Attention is called anew to the

      case of a singular circumstance . Through a strange want of consideration in the collector , a frontier zemindarry , of at least twenty miles square , was advertised for sale for an . nrrcar of 700 rupees . The magistrate luckily heard of it , and stopped the procedure by paying the sum for the zemindar . Wo shull now put effectual guards against the abuse . This passage , it will be observed , docs not touch the views of the writer on the merits of the permanent setttlemcut ; hut we find these recorded elsewhere . In no point docs the force of prejudice aud of nrovaleut ideas nnnenr morn strnnfrfv lltaii in where . In no point docs the force of prejudice aud of prevalent ideas appear more stronglthan in

      y the remarks of the journalist on this important subject . It was the fashion then , ns it still is , with Indian officials , to decry the work of Lord Coriiwullis ; to treat remediable or- incidental defects in that * system as radical or essential to it ; mid to attribute evils beyond the power of any kind of settlement to remove as springing directly from it . This cannot be more forcibly shown thuu by the following passage on the permanent settlement : — Much oversight was committed in tluit arrangement , which ( as it was managed ) was more specious than really beneficial . It was assumed that the zemindars were the

      real landowners , and that , commanding ns such the attachment of the peasantry , they would ensure the adherence of tho latter to our Government if their own Interest in the land were secured from prccariousness or extortion . On this principle , tho proprietary right of the zemindar to the tract under his management was declared , subject to his paying in perpetuity to Government a quit-rent , settled generally by tho rate ut which h <* was actually accessed . "Where the payment wna heavy , it was supposed the zemindar would indemnify himself by an improved cultivation or by bringing into

      tillage the waste lands thrown in without charee i ^ the allotment assigned him . It was forgotten that « T zemindar was not the cultivator , and no protection ^ given to the ryot , the real tiller ( perhaps the rea ? ™? praetor ) of the soil , against the oppressive exactions of Jh » zemindar , whose actual dependent he was madebv ths settlement . In fact , the zemindar was originally nothin g more than the contractor with the native mverrimSf for the rent of a certain district . He resembled th middle-man in Ireland . The indolence of administra tions would render this contract generall y hereditary * In many cases the contract was ia some old family voC sessing the habitual of their nei

      reverence ghbours and thence exercising considerable influence over them ' but in many other instances the ruin of respected stocks had caused their place to be occupied by upstart adventurers hateful to the people , and liating them in return In either supposition , where the rent demanded of the semindar was high , he looked to discharge it as well as to provide for his own maintenance by squeezing the ryot . He never felt an urgency for advancing money to bring the waste land into cultivation ; the ryot could not engage in such a speculation -when he was at the mercy of the zemindar ; therefore little of the ground which was waste has been brought into tillage where the permanent settlement exists .

      The merest novice in political philosophy would we should think , have no difficulty in answering these objections . "Whether good or bad , it does rot appear to have occurred to Lord Hustings that the very same criticism must l ) e applicable to England , and to almost , all but Oriental countries , ft was in the belief that the European systcnvof landlord and tenant worked Well , and that the Eastern . system ' of a Government landlord , confounding tax and rent , and giving the cultivator no proprietary right , or any power to acquire a proprietary right , in the soil , was most pernicious in its effects , that Lord Cornwallis devised his famous , settlement .

      All European writers agree that ryot rents are more hopelessly destructive of the property aud progress of the people than any other toriiiof thc ^ elation of landlord -and tenant . The not ion that the cultivator requires protection from the zemindar , anymore than the English farmer from his landlord , rests on no good foundation . The zemindar can no more squeeze the ryot than any other party ma free contract . He must be subject to the ¦¦ competition , of cither- landlords equally anxious to procure good tenants . He must-have the same motive for

      advancing money— -if he has any to advance—to las tenants which other capitalists have ; and Lf his power to sublet and give his tenant sura possession were perfect—which it unfortunately is not—he would have precisely the same interest in granting leases which an English-landlord has , for vilhout some such protection , the tenant will not cultivate well , and if he cannot cultivate well , lie cannot pay rent . The simple principles of free trade , with as

      little as possible of State interference , arc as applicable to India as to England . It is , we are convinced , not in the abandonment , but in tho extension and perfecting of the system of private landlords , protected by a fixed tax from the arbitrary exactions , or even ( he -well-intentioned intermeddling of the state , that , we must look . fov improvement hi Indian agriculture and commerce , and the general condition of the people .

      The " Journal" contains but few indications of the perilous cliaracter of tlie times—our disasters in the war with Nepaul , our dangers from the rising hopes of the native princes , from the unchecked marauding of -Pindarrccs and Pathnns , and from a discontent , only too well founded , at our rule . Such as it does contain are fragmentary , and require an elucidation ' which the fail * and noble editor has

      not given us . "We regret this , because it will provent the " Journal" being as useful as it might be . The troubles of that period , instructive , as they arc at . the present time , are too remote to be inquired into by every reader . A very slight sketch would have given him a key , and remedied this delect ; but tlio Marchioness of Unto has done nothing nut sciul the manuscript to the printer , with a preface whose bud taste and absurd magniloquence ia" 0 much to be regretted .

      'political or even of the military history of the Government of Lord Hastings . They break off in 1818 , and comprise but one half of the period of

      The Indian Rebellion. Eight Mouths* Camp...

      THE INDIAN REBELLION . Eight Mouths * Campaign oyiiimt tke Iienrjul Sepoy Armfr Hy Col . George Itourehier , O . H ., Heiiffnl Horso Artillery , lute Commanding No . 17 Light Field »»' tery . Smith , Elder , and Co . Perfonal Adventures during the Indian Itebeflion . *>? William Kdwards , Esq ., Judge of lknurcs , and <« ° Magistrate and Collector of Budnon , in Kohilcuna-Smith , Elder , and Co . While from day to day tho publishers announce new works bearing upon Indian affairs , and partial-

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1858, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28081858/page/16/