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Leader (1850-1860), 7th August 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 783

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      The Civil Service Oe India. The Familiar...

      a term whicli we have heard objected to as vulgar vit uperation ; but oar readers wilL see that there is essential truth in . tlie term ; it expresses a fact of great importance , -which fact is founded on a law , and for those who-wish the fact and law to be rightly appreciated as well as known , there is no other equally significant designation . It is this monopoly which has made the patronage of the East India Directors so valuable . The Civil Service is a charmed circle , with its appanages and arkhts , and is liable to no intrusion ; whose good things no others can .. ever share ; and the only complaint ever heard in the circle is only of more or less favouritism in the distribution , among the privileged themselves , of those good things .

      Oar readers wilL readily believe that such , a monopoly as this inust , from its nature , in time become a great political evil ; and that time is the . present . It has been found most inconveniently to tie up tlie hands of the chiefs of administration . Unmistakable proofs could he collected of their sense of it as an evil . Tor instance , only a few months ago , Mr . Halliday , the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal—a man invested by liis office with the government of forty millions of peopleselected for one of the highest judicial appomtnoents a man -whose life bad been passed in judicial office , and who had proved his qualifications . The

      nomination was disallowed by the Court of Directors because the office was a privileged one , and the nominee did not beloag to the privileged class . Mr . Halliday must have known the rule . Why , then , did he-make a futile atid abortive nomination ? He has at least disci-edited the rule with us , whatever may have been his intention . On the disallowance it became necessary to place ou that high seat of justice one of the privileged class , and the member selected was one \ yho had been recently refused , on the ground of an inferior reputation for ability and talent . Lord Dalhousie also was believed to have wished , on more occasions than one , to get rid of the rule .

      "We have said , also , that it affects salaries ; making them absurdly unequal . Tor every effect there must be a cause . That there are glaring , monstrous inequalities in Indian salaries is notorious beyond question . But take the ease which we have just mentioned , of the judge ( for such he was ) who vyas prevented taking the promotion - \ rhich Mr . Halliday assigned to him , because he was not

      a privileged person . The office which he held as an unprivileged person had a salary of under 1000 / . per annum ; the office which he was not permitted to hold for want of privilege , had a salary of nearly 5000 / . per annum . This case also illustrates our remaining proposition , that the division of offices is affected by the classification which recognises as a " Civil Service" only one class , section , or caste of public servants .

      Au X E A D E Term Whicli Have Heard To V...

      No . 437 , A . U & UST 7 , 185 SJ THE X E A D E It . 783

      Mr. Ewart's Committee On Tub Colonisatio...

      MR . EWART'S COMMITTEE ON TUB COLONISATION AND SETTLEMENT OF EUROPEANS IN INDIA . In our last notice of the valuable evidence given before tin ' s committee , we dwelt emphatically ou " the slate necessity" pis a medical witness justly designated it ) of having sanitary stations in the hills for the constant location of large reliefs from our European troops in India . The same evidence further proves that there arc places fit for such stations in every part of India—north and south , cast and west—and , consequently , that this " state necessity" may be amply provided for , if the Government be brought properly to appreciate it . We will now turn to another branch of the

      inquiry , " How lias it happened that so fovy Europeans are to the present , day settled in the interior of India P" Several European settlers , chiefly from Bengal , were called , and examined on this question . The first of these was Mr . Theobald , who appeared as the agent of the class . The question put to him and his answer were as follow : —¦ You have mentioned that thoro is only a small number of Europeans scttlod in the interior : how do you nccount for that fact ?—I bolievo it is owing to a great

      variety of causes , some of which operate in one part , and fiirtno in another part , and some in nil parts of India . Iho people who go to India arc capitalists , and of the zniddlo classes , and they require to bo tolerably secure in their persona and property . In aouio parts the ) ' oannot € © t a footing nt all ns cnpituliats , in consequence of the land rovenuo system in those purts ; the land revenue system In other parts does not exclude thorn ; but where , as in Lower JBougul , tho laud revenue system is wore favourable for capitalists , ftiul where , consequently ,

      Europeans have settled , their position is one of danger and difficulty ; danger to their capital from many faults in the revenue system , which still admits of their settlement ; and danger both to tlieir persons and property in consequence of tlie bad state of the local administrations generally . Another cause is the want of proper laws , among others , a lexlocitor Euro jeans and East Indians ; and I must add to those causes th & constant apprehension in which , for many years past , they have been kept , of in

      being put a worse condition by the repeated proposal of measures , such as the late Affray Bill , such as the Black Acts , and such as many parts of Mr . Macaulay ' s Pvtial Code , which I think would be much reprobated by all classes in England ; and our position is often made very disagreeable by the conduct of the ruling branch of the civil service towards us . And lastly , there is the want of intercommunications , such as roads , railroads , & c , and the want of imjrovenieats to facilitate travel and traffic .

      It must be obvious to every reader that this statement was a prepared one ; and is marked with , a degree of gravity and deliberation which are veil calculated to ^ Uxlhe attention ; and if the sequence of causes which it presents is observed , its comprehensiveness is impressive and striking . In import , it is undoubtedly an indictment of the past Indian administration ; and in that respect it may be regarded under the twofold aspect of facts to be proved and of impressions and opinions . "We will deal presently with the facts , but must first remark

      that the European settlers generally appear to liold the same opinions . Not a single one could be brought by cross-examination to repudiate or ' modify Mr . Theobald ' s statement . If or the first time , then , we have in this evidence something like public opinion ; and we ask , how can the Governor-General ) or any local Governor , be politically strong , with a _ high-spirited body of his own countrymen so decidedly averse to the established policy and system of the Government ? It appears to us , from this point of view alone , that some great changes are wanted , and are indispensable in our Indian policy and administration .

      Let us turn our attention now to the facts . The one great fundamental fact to be explained being the extreme paucity of European settlers , a series o £ facts are alleged to account for that one . We will eliminate them from the general statement . Fact No . 1 . That in some parts Europeans cannot get a footing at all as capitalists iu Consequence of 'the laud revenue system . . . How , it is clear that in India , Europeans are not wanted , and cannot exist at all , as mere labourers , and , therefore , to say that they cannot get a footing as capitalists is equivalent to saving they are wholly ¦ precluded from settling .

      JLhe parts referred to in . this allegation are Bombay and . Madras , two countries , each Targe enough for a separate kingdom ; and tlie fact is that there are no European settlers in them , or they arc so insignificantly few as not worth mentioning . This brings us , then , to fact No . 2 : That Europeans are prevented from settling in . those parts by the land revenue svstcni . The system referred to is known by the name of the RyotAvarce settlement , and is entirely of British origin . The East India

      Company has always assumed , wherever it has conquered , the claim of tlie native sovereign to be the lord paramount of the soil . Under this system , it appears to be the immediate proprietor of the soil ; and , in that capacity , is entitled to receive the rent from the actual cultivators , bo their holdings great or ever so small * To carry out this relation , it divides the country into counties ( we will call them ); in each comity it places one Collectoru European—and under him it employs an agency ( which is entirely native ) for the purpose of registering the peasants , measuring their holdings , valuing their lands , and collecting tlie rents . There are counties as bier as Yorkshire , with a , tenantry tct are counties as big as Yorkshirewith a tenantry to

      , be numbered by hundreds of thousands , and a native revenue police consist ing of many thousands . Now , we may safely leave the result of such a system to our reader ' s imagination , if the subject is new to him , and if lie knovs what Ireland was thirty years ago , it will very much help him to a just conception . But the Madras Torture Report , which bus brought to light aoine of its features , is generally known ; ana all we weed add for our present purpose is , that tins system , according to the cviuoncc , prevents Europeans from settling wherever it prevails . First , it oilers no kind of proprietary interest which is suitable for them . They require landed property to give thorn a position and influence . And , secondly , it . has pauperised tlie rural population , nnd the state of tho population is an obstruction to them . It must be confessed , that this state of things

      raises a very difficult problem for tlie new Government . It strikes us as not very dissimilar from what existed in Ireland . There is a similarly pauperised tenantry , the same want of capital , the satne absence of farmers on a large scale ; the rapacious middlemen appear not in that character but in the native agency employed , by the Government , and the one collector—imbecile a-iid helple

      ss , to arrest tbe evil and to plant the seeds of & new prosperity— -may not inaptly be compared to the old Irish proprietor ,-with , his debts , pride , and embarrassments . There was , undoubtedly , the hand of Providence in the Irish regeneration ; but , undoubtedly , also , it was essentially assisted by political wisdom . For the latter we may Jind hope through the recent change ; and though the problem , is a difficult one , we cannot despair eveii of India . ii regeneration .

      Made^S Railway. Railways In India Begin ...

      MADE ^ S RAILWAY . Railways in India begin to show marked progress , although , that progress is far too slovr for her wants . The Madras Kail way is now opened for nearly a hundred , miles , winch , enables it to be useful , and that is something after themany years of probation under the experimental system . " We may remind our readers that it is now abo-ve twelve years since the Madras Railway waa planned by the late Mr . Heath , one of the most zealous friends of India . Heath was one . of - that distinguished , body , the Madras Civil Service , and baing iu office ia Coimbatere , lie took active measures in the beginning of this century for the promotion of the cotton cultivation , ia which lie received the support of tlie G-overnment . la the course of his active career , his attention "was turnftd to the rich iron ores of Southern India , and lie likewise induced , the Government to take measures for extending their manufacture . It is indeed half a century ago since Heath laid the groundwork of those measures , still of slow progress , for the establishment of the Indian iron manufacture , aad the present Indian Iron Company is in possession of the -works founded through Heath's recommendations by the Madras Government . Heath was not content with projecting : he devoted his time and his scientific powers to the establishment of the undertaking , and finding that the persons employed in India , and the English ironmasters consulted , did not succeed in the process of smelting , he applied himself to the task , and came home to England to prosecute his researches . He

      not only succeeded in making Indian smelting practicable , l > y determining the right mode of treating , the ores , but unfortunately for him ho discovered an important improvement in the manufacture of cast steel , and became one of the greatest national benefactors , and a man of ruined fortunes , for the steel manufacturers 'who adopted his process combined against him , and he lad to sustain a litigation in defence of his patent rights , which is an opprobium to that branch of the administration oE the law , for his own discoveries were allowed to be played off against himself , the judges divided into factions , aud though his representatives are still before the courts , Heath himself died long since broken-hearted . In his later years the Madras Railway was one o £ the undertakings on which his energies were employed .

      The Madras Kail way was as urgently called for iu 1348 . as in 1858 , but it has never yet met with that full measure of Government support that it deserves , for although it has a Government guarantee , its operations are not sufficiently extended to enable it to embrace tbe large district -which it traverses , and its traffic arrangements have beon seriously impeded by Government interference . Nevertheless , the energetic efforts off its directors have surmounted many obstacles , and it is beginning a career of success . Sinco the « nd of 1857 fifteen miles more have been opened for traffic , so that the continuous lino from Madras to Goriattum ia

      ninetyseven miles , and the consequence i » the goods traffic now begins to come on the line , although not to the full extent , as produce brought within such a distance of Madr . us is apt to bo continued in tho hands of tho same carriers . The goods traffic in tho laat half-yours of 1856 and 1857 were severally 15 , 720 tons and 19 , 780 tons , and the receipts 3835 / . und GG 72 J . ; but the quarters ending 31 st March , 1857 and 1858 , were severally 5322 tons and 0157 tons , and tho receipts 1694 ? . and 3019 ? Upon these figures tho opening to Goriattum will exorciso a further favourable influence . At tho two periods tho mileage was 05 miles and 81 miles .

      Wo are glad to learn that tho opening of tho line from coast to coast will now bo effected by tho 1 st May , 18 GO , tho works having been delay od by tho bridges and tho bursting of aomo tanks on tho liuu between MTudras and Arcet . In consequence of the latter casualty a better provision haa beou mndo , by increasing the culvorta and bridges , for carrying oflT land floods . Among tho important meusures which tho directors have under tlioir consideration nro-tho moans of improving tlio harbour of Ueypoorand forming a junction with tho i >» rt of Cochin . Tlio railway companies will be tho means of . doing for India what tho Go-vernmont hat

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 7, 1858, page 783, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_07081858/page/23/