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Leader (1850-1860), 28th August 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 22

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      Notes On The Evidence Given Before Mr. E...

      sue the Government , but this right or privilege is , it seems , to be taken away from us . What next ? and next ? and next ? I dare not speak of it . It requires no ghost to come from the grave to tell us the result . . . 1 ' nfn . st conclude by summing up with a view of the immediate evils / we Uave to complain of : —That the Government deprives the people of their land ; that it interferes . willi their religion ; places over natives European . officers . incompetent from age aud experience to do the work assigned to them / ' & c .

      By these means the natives of India , in the opinion of Mr . Warden , have been brought to change their opinion of the justice of the British Government . Mr . Wari ^ could speak only of Bombay , where his experience was ; but in Bengal , in 1827 , a commission was issued similar to the Enam Commission , under what were called the resumption laws , for the purpose of inquiring : into the title under which

      any lands were held free from the land-tax , and resuming' the lands . The late Chairman of the Court was one of the hottest supporters of this inquisition ; it was absolutely illegal from beginning to end , for the time of prescription had expired , and the Xegislature of that day had not the astuteness to |> ass a law to alter the time of prescription ., and being : essentially iinj ust , it made Government unpppular with all classes .

      2 . The Infiteence which is used by the native officers of the courts over the European magistrates Mini Judges , —has been a subject of much discussion . Mr . Warden was asked his opinion . It is penal ( he says ) in Bombay for a sherishtadar ( record keeper ) to abuse hii influence , which is a presumption he has some influence , and " my opinion is , that a sherishtadar has more or less influence in all cases . " On one occasion when complaint was made of influence of this kind having been used , * I remember ( says Mr . Warden ) I said oft the bench that . I thought every British officer in Iadia vras

      more under the influence of his immediate subordinate than vanity would always admit ; my having said this raised a storm against me ; however ( adds he ) , I never knew anybody but gen ^ tlemen in the civil service deny it . AIL military men . with , whom I have ever conversed Have acknowledged and felt it ; but many persons in the civil service have said , they did not think it existed . 3 ? or myself , I have no doubt of it . " This , we may remark , is a very decisive corroboration of the independent settlers who were examined , aad all of whom stated to the same effect . ?*

      3 . The estimation in which the Queen ' s Courts ( the Supreme Courts ) are held by the natives . —When the Queen's system of justice is adopted , whether a judge is acute or stupid , he is , at all events , always known to be exercising his own judgment . He is known not to be de-pendent upon his subordinate officer for his opinions . The people feel satisfied that the case is brought Koine to the judge , and that the judge gives an independent judgment . The case does not come home to the minds of the Company ' s judges in the same way as it does to the Queen's judges . The Queen ' s judges and the Company ' s judges belong to the same class of life

      both are governed by precisely the same code of morality ; they are of equally high principles of honour , morality , and justice . But the Queen ' s judges have the advantage , which the Company's ludges have not , of having had a legaL education . The objection to the latter is , that they are ignorant of the principles of jurisprudence , and that they ought to have a legal training . " Every daf of my life » said Mr . Warden , " I have felt the want of a JfKal education . We struggle hard and do our best , but I think we are very inferior as judges to the gentlemen who have had a legal education . " ^ 4 . As to the introduction of the English language wrfo the Country Courts , —Mr . Warden says that from what he has Been at Bombay , he is not of

      opinion that it would be at all distasteful to the mtives for Enghah judges to administer the law through the medium of their own language . It is so administered in Bombay , where there is a constant influx of natives from the interior of the country , and they have never manifested any objection to the use of the English language . $ Of the increased employment of interpreters . Mr . Warden is of opinion that the expense under this head would bo counterbalanced by the diminution of expenses for other officers who would no longer be required , and that the educational estatmshments of India would supply a sufficient numfcer of interpreters . We must here pause for the present .

      878 The Leader. [No. 440, Attgtjst 28, 1...

      878 THE LEADER . [ No . 440 , Attgtjst 28 , 1858 .

      Mr. Ewart's Committee On Indian Colonisa...

      MR . EWART'S COMMITTEE ON INDIAN COLONISATION AND SETTLEMENT . Abstract of Evidence given by J . Warden , Esq ., a retired Judge and Member of Council of the Bombay Presidency . ¦ £ Says : He was upwards of thirty-three years in the Civil Service of India , in . the Bombay Presidency ; left in 1854 , and was thea Senior Member of Council , Chief Judge of the Suddur Court , and President of the Board of Education , in which last capacity he succeeded Sir E . Perry . During the greatest part of his service lie was in the Deccan , but has been in all parts and in a great

      variety of employments , and he bad travelled through the Deccan with Mr . Elphinstone . In those parts in which he had been employed , the climate is sufficiently good for Europeans to colonise as overseers , capitalists , and bailiffs ( manual labour being out of the question , both on . account of the climate and the wages of native labour ); and the race of Europeans might be continued in India , if the children were brought up in tho hills , in which there would be no difficulty . On the eastern side of the Mahableshwur hills in the Deccan they could reside all the year round . At Poonah there is a large military

      cantonment of cavalry and foot , and the soldiers look as healthy as they do at a review in Hyde Park , and exposure to the sun did not appear to do them any harm . The soldiers ' wives do not look so healthy as the men , but that maybe accounted for by the miserable huts in which , they live . Inquiries have been made by Government as to what places are healthy and suitable as depots for soldiers . In the north of Guzerat there is a place called Aboo , and between Poonah and Bombay there id a hill called Malheran , to the foot of which the railway goes , and the electric telegraph is carried to the top of it . .. . ' ¦ ¦ . - ¦ " . ¦ : ¦"•' ., ' . , y ; ' . ' . ¦ ' ¦ . : ¦ . /' : ' [ ¦

      The witness was asked on what security he considered the English power rests in India . He replied ; . On what , has been called the Government of Opinion , which the Duke of Wellington on one occasion defined as the opinion of our power and bur justice ; that is truly wliat is meant by the Government of Opinion in India , on which our empire rests . With regard to the opinion of our power , it was first shaken after the Affghan disasters , when the natives for the first time discovered that they could demolish a European regiment and thrust back an array , as they , in fact , did . The opinion of our justice was at its height when Lord Hastings was Governor-General , with Lord

      M « toalfo ao hie chief secretary . There was Sir John Malcolm there , the ; greatest friend the natives ever had , who was watching their rights and usages in the centre of India ; there was Sir ThonYas Munro , at Madras ; arid there was Mr . Elphinstone at Bombay . With such functionaries as those at the head of the Presidencies , there was never any fear of our being unjust or ungenerous to the natives . In speaking of justice the idea of generosity is combined in my mind . During the last eighteen years the native opinion of our gene-, rosity has very much altered . The measures which have been taken by the Government with respect to them has very much shaken their faith in the generosity of the British Government .

      As to the System of Law in Bombay . —It is called the Elphinstone Code , which is a code formed by a committee of gentlemen during Mr . Elphinstone ' s administration , and which was revised word for word l > y himself . That code is extremely simple and clear , and answered all practical purposes , but it was latterly encumbered with a number of supplementary regulations which deformed its beauty . All the great principles of it were based on the principles which prevail in this country . The code contained the following general regulation : — " The rule to be observed in tho trial of suits shall be Act 3 of Parliament and regulations of Government applicable to the case ; in the absence of such nets and regulations , the usage of the country in which the suit arose ; if none such appears , tho law of the defendant ; and in the absence of specific law and usages , justice , equity , and good conscience alone . "

      As to thm Enam Commission . — . Witness says , that having been employed under tho commissioner in the Deccan , in the original settlement of the country , he became more or less aware of the principles on which the settlement of the country was originally made , and has observed some changes that have taken place since that time . When Mr . Klphinstcmo took charge of the administration of the country , he issued a proclamation to the people , declaring tho principles on which tho country -would be settled . That was in February , IS 18 , and it promised that private rights should be treated with generosity .

      With BRsrncT to tub Enam Commission . —Tho JBncim Commission has not attracted all tho notico that it sliould have done in this country . Mr . Elphlnstono ' a rule respecting enams , as far as I remombor , was , that any man who had official possession of an ennm , that is , whose enam was found recorded in the Polshwnh ' s records , and also actual possession , got his onnrn confirmed to him 5 if , on tho other hand , 1 t wbb found that he had not official or actual possession , then his enam was taken away from him . This wu tho state of affairs

      ; Enam Commission went * great deal farther , it disturbed Mr . El phinstone ' s 12 L meat , and not only so , but it deprived the Peishwnh ' s s , It jects of their rights in respect to their lands , which til subjects of other parts of the Bombay PrcSSJZ had . The Enam Commission has not received aff 7 i attention that it ought to have received in this count ™ - as an obstacle to colonisation . Were I goinffasaBrit ; -T » settler to undertake the cultivation of cotton in the Peisbwah ' s dominions , I should seek enam land and with my knowledge of the Enam Commission I siiould find that an obstruction to my settlement

      Enam Commissionbut the at that time . Some time afterwards it was di « o « "" , that terv or twelve villages which , accoSinf ^ S Peishwah ' s records , should have been resumed hla ! been resumed ; according to the records thev »« . < state of resumption when we took the country r a speaking now altogether from memory ; it £ ' A" ™* vered that a memorandum which bad 1 been sent < the commissioner ' s office to resume those lands liJ » l ° m been carried into effect , and these TinSS ^ "SK taken possession of by the British GoveWent " i rightly so . Thi , wasfl believe , the foundaS " of ? h

      Notes On Indian Progress. The Red Sea Te...

      NOTES ON INDIAN PROGRESS . The Red Sea telegraph has now the march of events to help it . The successful operation of the Atlantic line was a very favourable step , but what has done more for it than anything is the receipt in Europe of news through Russia from Pekin fourteen days later than the mail through Egypt . For anything that is known , as the rimes says , the Russians are stealthily pushing telegraph lines through their own dominions , and our merchants may find themselves superseded in the markets by the better-informed Russians , and their satellites the Greeks . The sooner the extension from . Aden is provide ! for thft better , or if a line is granted from , Kurrachee to the Persian Gulf , the public yrill be none the worse satisfied . . Mri ; W . P . Andrew has published another pamphlet urging this . . Telegraph wire has been sent in large quantities to Bareilly , so as to establish the lines throughout Rolulcuml . . ¦ - . ¦ •¦ . '¦ ' .. ¦ ' . ¦/¦ "'¦ ¦'¦' _ ' . ' " ¦ :.. ' . ' ¦ . From Indore -yvo learn that the Deputy Superintendent of Telegraphs has opened a line from Indore to Bisura , but beyond that place it is expected tlie wire will not be extended this season . A very strong representation has been made to the Government by the local authorities in favour of the line of the ^ Northern Bengal Railway from Calcutta to the sanatorium of Darjeeling . Captain O'Oonncll hns buen employed \> y- the Madras Government in investigating the plan for railway inclines up the Coonoor Ghaut . The connexion between Madras and the sanatoria in the Nielgherries is of the greatest importance , and it is a matter of gratification to find th » Madras Government turning attention to it . Tho Bombay . Government , as wo have observed elsewhere , have already provided access to the sanatorium of . Malheran , which they have brought within three hours of Bombay , and the connexion with the Poona district will within ft few months be complete by means of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway . . We are sorry to learn that an carthslip delayed the Great Indian Peninsular Railway traffic for a few days before it was effectually repaired . A steamer is to be again put on between Tuticoriii and the Malabar coast and Colombo . The agent of the Oriental Inland Steam Company in the Punjaub has given notice not only that tlie steam trains will ply on the Indus in January next , but that the coiiipnny are prepared to work on the Sutloj and Jhelum should suflieient inducement be offered . Messrs . Poole and Bennett are organising a fleet of ten cargo boats from Calcutta to the North-West . Thero is a sad want of steamers and railways . At Ncemuch the new barracks nrc comp leted , and above a thousand men are regularly at work on the other buildings . The public works at Lucknow arc proceeding ropidlyr thanks to Colonel Abbott nnd "Mr . Montgomery . According to the Englishman , tho Government has fully determined that , when tho rains are over , Calcutta ,. Barrackporo , Hazaroebagh , licrhamporc , Pinnpore , Darjecling , and Dacca are to receive English garrisons . Not one of these places is suited for an English garrison , except DurJeeHng , and all of thorn want ruihvay access . A line has boon granted part way to Docca . Tho Government have made admission to the benelit of the uncovenantoil furlough rules to civil engineers ami overseers , dependent on their relinquialnnent of the ftl * vantage of a free passage homo . Capt . II . Ilandloy has been appointed Lloyd's Surveyor at Calcutta . An important discovery has been made in i- owcl ' Scindo of n quarry of lithographic limestone , which wot good colour , and takes transfer readily . Hitherto Indian Btones have not been ablo to compete with ( iennnn atones . One want is silicious sand to rub tlie facea o tho stones ; Bombay is supplied from Kurraclico ana "Vingorln . . Dr . Whottall has boon appointed Secretary of two Agrl-Horticultural Sooiety of Lahore .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1858, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28081858/page/22/