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      872 The Leader. [No. 440, August 28,1858...

      872 THE LEADER . [ No . 440 , August 28 , 1858 .

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      literntnrL

      ¦ ——? :— ' ' . Critics Are Not The Legis...

      ¦ ——? : — ' ' . Critics are not the legislators , "but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—thej- interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Revieto .

      ¦ _? Private Journal Oj Tpie Marquis Of ...

      ¦ _? PRIVATE JOURNAL OJ TPIE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS . The Private Journal of the Marquess of Hastings , K . Gf . Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief in India Edited by his Daughter , the Marchioness of Bute . In Two Volumes . Saunders and Otley . "Francis , Earl of Moira , afterwards created Marquis of Hastings , is a great name even among the great names of the liistory of British India .

      Appointed chiefly for Iris soldierly qualities by the very party whom he had be

      —unusually 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 , intlie hope that things would just outlast the tenure of his power . It was based oh principles . It had an idea . It recognised other forces than fcayonets and artillery . It attributed a just value to opinion , ev < sn in the minds of half barbarous rapes . Troubles unparalleled , even in Indian hj » tory , fierce struggles for our very footing upon ^ Indian ground , insuiTection , anarchy , and financial embarrassment , delayed for a -while the

      practical exposition of liis views ; but they were never lost sight of . He had determined to raise the character of the English masters of that great continent ; to convince his subjects of our honesty and justice , and of the beneficial effects that might be expected from , our rule . Such a policj , Ave regret to say , little suited the views or tastes of many Englishmen who had gone out to the East witk the remembrance of what things had been . The ^ 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 be 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 he swept away by the first great storm that should unexpectedly arise . Lord Moira felt this . He has been charged with -vanity , with ambition , with tlie desire to leave behind him the memory of a brilliant career ; but such charges suggest tlieir own refutation . Pew men escape

      similar accusations who arc possessed of honest purpose and menial 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 Cornmander-in-Chief , with the salary of one office only , and over the whole of Britisli India lie was as , even in these days of steam and telegraphs and overland routes no Britisli Governor-General of India will probably be , practically omnipotent . But no enemy ever has accused him of having abused these powers . Indian morality had indeed not yet attained that nigh standard by which an . attempt to put an end

      to war by bribing the Nepnulese commander would appear , even to a mind so frank and honest as that of Lord Moira , anything but a fair stratagem : but "SV ^ Iwnwett uncorruptible . In the unfortunate affair with Palmer and fco , and the N izam , in which nis baste to defend a relative ut \ d other unfortunate circumstances tnightrhave appeared to involve him . the Governor-General ' s known character was his best shield . INo historian has hesitated to acquit him on that point . What he gained by his longlnd arduous government was patent to the world . The grants ot the East India Company to himself and His family were the ungrudged reward of his aervides . The rest was beyond the power of Leadenhall-street to . bestow—the title to a good name .

      These two volumes introduce us to little of the 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

      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 , their 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 iijdeed 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 circumstances

      day to have their recollection of revived , and to have many matters explained which they would be likely 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 cannot be better exemplified than by the following passage . The evil which it . points oat unfortunately survived the writer ' s administration : — February , 1816 . —Our ordinances in tins 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 long 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 , while they correct one evil , institute many sources of oppression . When we invested the zemindars with the proprietary which they were 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 foT sale , the residue of its produce ( after Government should have paid itself ) being restored to the zemindar . This was evidently framed upon a contemplation of the confined zemindarrics near Calcutta . A detect ion of the mischief of this practice was one of the advantages arising from my tour up the countrv . Manv 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 frorri coming forward ; bankers are threatened if they attempt to nid 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 eyes , a forged accusation of some criminal procedure is made to the 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 rot be for many weeks . In the meantime the sale is despatched . I communicated my remarks on this evil , but . the correctives vere 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 iirrcar of 700 rupees . The magistrate luckSljheard of ir , and stopped the procedure by paying the etim for tlic zemindar . Wo shall , now put effectual guards against the abuse . This passage , it will be observed , does not touch the views of the writer on the merits of the permanent sctttlcmcnt ; but we find these recorded

      elsewhere . In no point does the force of prejudice and of prevalent ideas appear more strongly than in the remarks of the journalist oiv this important subject . It was flic fashion then , as it still is , with Indian officials , to decry the work of Lord Coniwullis ; to treat remediable or incidental defects in that system as radical or essential to it ; and to attribute evils beyond the power of any kind of settlement to remove as springing directly from it . This cannot be more forcibly shown than by the following passage on the permanent settlement : —

      Much oversight wjiB committed in thnt arrangement , which ( us it wae managed ) was more specious than really beneficial . It wna assumed that the zemindar *) were tlio real landowners , and that , commanding as such tlio attachment of the peasantry , they would ensure tlio adherence of tho latter to our Government if their own interest in the land were secured from prccatlousness or extortion . On this principle , the proprietary right of tho zemindar to the tract under hi » management v / a » declared , subject to his paying In perpetuity to Government a quit-rent , settled generally by the rate at which he wat actually assessed . " Where tho payment yrna heavy , it was aupposed the zemindar would Indemtiiry hlmaelf by an improved cultivation or by bringing into

      tillage the waste lands thrown in without charge m 7 n the allotment assigned him . It was forgotten tfiuhe zemindar was not the cultivator , and no protection w »! given to the ryot , the real tiller ( perhaps the rea ? ^ prietor ) of the soil , against the oppressive exactions of tT zemindar , whose actual dependent he was madebv tlii settlement . In fact , the zemindar was originally nothing more than the contractor -with the native government for the rent of a certain district . He resembled tlII middle-man in Ireland . The indolence of admiiiistra tions would render this contract generally hereditary In many cases the contract was in some old family dos " T ^ J ™ ™?^«^™^ ou £ l rt

      ^^^ thence exercising considerable influence over them ' w in many other instances tlie rum of respected stocks had caused their place to be occupied by upstart adventurer * hateful to the people , and hating them in return . In either supposition , where the rent demanded of the seniindar was high , he looked to discharge it as well as to provide fur 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 engnge in such- a speculation when he -was " at the mercy of the zemindar 5 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 docs not appear to liaye occurred to Lord Hastings that the very same criticism must be applicable to England , and to almost all but Oriental countries . Ifc was in the belief , that-the European system of landlord and tenant worked well , and that the Eastern system of a Government hmdlord , confounding tax mid 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 liis famous settlement .

      All European ' writers / agree that ryot rents . ' are more hopelessly destructive of the property and progress of the people than any other form of the relation of landlord and tenant . The notion tluittlie cultivator requires -protection , from the zemindar , any . more than the English farmer from his landlord , rests on no good foundation . The zemindar can no more ' squeeze the ryot than any oilier party in a free contract , lie must be subject to tlic competition of other landlords equally anxious to procure good tenants . He . must have the same motive for

      advancing money— -if . lie has any to advance—to his tenants whicli other capitalists have ; and if Iris power to sublet and give his tenant sure possession were perfect—which , it unfortunately is not—he would have precisely the same interest in granting leases which an English landlord has , for without some such protection , the tenant will not cultivate well , and if he cannot cult ivutc well , he cannot pay rent . Tlie simple principles of free trade , with as

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

      The Journal" contains but few indications the perilous character of the times—our disasters in the war with Ncpaul , our dangers from the rising hopes of the native princes , from the unchecked marauding of Pinclarrecs and Pathans , and irom ft discontent , only too well founded , at our rule Such ns it does contain arc fragmentary , mid require an elucidation which the fair and noble editor has not given us . AVc rogrct ibis , because it will prevent the " Journal" being us useful as it mig ht , be . The troubles of that period , instructive as they arc at the present time , arc too remotu to bo mquireii [ nin Uv ovprv roiuliT A vrw slifrht skdcli WOllltt

      have given him a key , and . remedial this delect ; but . Ilio Marchioness of Bute has done nothing out send the manuscript to the printer , with a prelaw whose bad taste and absurd magniloquence mo much to be regretted .

      The Indian Rebellion. Eight Mouths' Camj...

      THE INDIAN REBELLION . Eight Mouths' Camjmign rif / uimt the Btvynl Sepoy Army . Hy Col . George Jlonrehicr , C . B ., ltengnl Horso Artillery , late Commanding No . 17 Light Field Unitary . Smith , Kldcr , < m < l Co . Personal Adventures dur ' mq the Indian Jtebellwn . » y William Edwards , Esq ., Judge or Uennrcs , nnd »» Magistrate and Collector of Budnan , in Hohilcuna . Smith , Elder , on « l Co . While from day to any the publishers announce new works bearing upon Indian affairs , and particM-

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1858, page 872, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_28081858/page/16/