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sutt , " without a morsel of bread or a drop of water , until nature gives way , and the witness attests whatever he is bid . Or a third will be plunged knee-deep into putrid ordure , and there held bound night and day until the desired object be attained . Sometimes , instead of torture , recourse is had to bribery , and-r—however incredible it may sound to ISnglisn ears—men have been , induced by the promise of a hundred rupees ( 10 Z . ) , to declare themselves guilty of a murder they never
committed . It is true they are assured that their life is in no danger , aud when , they discover their peril it is too late to break through the mesh , thai ; has been woven , around them . Por ordinary witnesses are always procurable at exceedingly low rates—one rupee , or two shillings , per head being considered a handsome remuneration for an easy day ' s work . And perjury , never at any time viewed with much horror , is now held of small account since the substitution of a
simple declaration , in place of the more binding attestation of the Koran or the waters of the Ganges . But , it may be asked , whence comes this so great desire on the part of the police to obtain a conviction ? Our answer may be briefly given . If any delay takes p lace in discovering the perpetrators of a en me , the chief police-officer of the district is warned that , if he do not apprehend the offenders within a certain period , he will be dismissed
from his post . With this threat impending over his nead , it is not surprising that he should endeavour , by fair means or foul , to implicate some poor wretch , no matter how innocent . Besides , the inadequate salaries paid to the police render them peculiarly liable to corruption , and Orientals , in general , may be accused of having an itching
palm . Thus , perhaps , the principal landholder , or other great man , in the neighbourhood , bears a grudge ^ against some poor villager or peasant . . A crime is reported at the police-station : sons of Belial come forward to bear witness against Naboth : he is seized and tortured till he confess ; and the puzzled though doubting magistrate has oftentimes no alternative but to convict . Justice is
both a rare and a costly commodity in the £ ast . Witnesses are brought up by scores , and the longest purse has the best chance of a favourable verqiet . This is no new state of things of which we speal * It has long been notorious that our entire system was defective—that the police were corrupt and inefficient , the native i "Officials and magistrates open to bribery and intimidation , the mode of procedure in our courts tedious , expensive , and unsatisfactory , and that the European judges were incompetent to unravel the web of Asiatic fraud and chicanery . But no steps have been taken to act upon this knowledge . And it will ever
be a stigma on the East India Company that , / finder their sway ,. hardly a single improvejnent has been introduced into their adminis-, tration except under tho influence of public i ppuiiou at home . How long this state of political coma is to bo endured we will not .. take upon ourselves to determine ; but we ; 'believe that no permanent amelioration can , ibe expected until tho Government of India 'be aseumed by the Crown .
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PBOGRKSS OF RUSSIAN POLICE IN | ,,,,. . CENTRAL ASIA . . \ . . ' , ( 9 KCOWD ABTXCI-rc . ) r It is a common remark that Afghanistan forms , as v , } t wqr f neutral ground occupied by the vedettes of ' BjkSBip and England . The importance of mainifcunfag friendly relations with that country has » i < Qtog > t ) e « n appreciated by both those Powers ; but
for many years past the influence of the Russians —owing to their proximity and their "brutal insolence—has been decidedly predominant . From the reign of Peter I ., the hereditary policy of the Czars—working by force and fraud , and directed by an irresponsible despotic chief— -has been gradually and irresistibly extending both their moTal and their material power to the southward and eastward . The interposition of the Ottoman Empire tended to conceal for a time from Europe the Muscovite encroachments in Central Asia , and it is only of late years that we have discovered the full extent of the danger that menaces our ascendancy in the East- When the curtain was first drawn aside , the peril appeared all the more- imminent and terrible from our
previous ignorance of its existence . In India , especially , a panic seized all ranks and classes of Europeans , and , perhaps , no one was more ser iously alarmed than the Governor- General and his immediate advisers . No doubt , the Russophobia at that conjuncture assumed dimensions out of all proportion to the real magnitude of the danger . But that there were sufficient grounds for considerable anxiety and uneasiness , may be easily shown by a hasty review of our relations with Persia during the last fifty years . It was at the close of the eighteenth century that the Government of India first felt the necessity of holding political communications with the Court of Teheran . The Marquis of Wellesley verysoon after his arrival in the East became aware of
the danger that menaced our north-west frontier through the ambition of Shah Zeman , the ruler of the Afghans . It was notorious that Sultan Tippoo was endeavouring to form an offensive and defensive alliance with the Sikhs , and it had also transpired that Wuzeer AH , of Oude , had tempted Shah Zeman with an immense sum of money to invade the British territories . Under these circumstances , Lord Wellesley deemed it expedient to effect a diversion by raising up an enemy to the Afghan prince . The opportunity was , besides , favourable ; for Futteh Ah Shah had already conceived the design of annexing the principalities of
Candahar and Herat to the kingdom of Persia . His lordship accordingly instructed Mehdi Ali Khan , a naturalised Persian nobleman , at that time the Company ' s agent at Bushire , to take such measures as might induce the Shah-in-Shah to keep the Afghans in check , but not to urge him to overt acts of hostility . To effect this purpose the Khan was authorised to expend annually two or three lakhs of rupees , to gain the gobdwill and support of the Shah * s chief advisers . Futteh Ali , indeed , needed no great persuasion to adopt a course he had previously marked out for himself , and in 1799 and the following year he twice invaded Khorassan , thus compelling Shah Zeman to defter for a time his projected descent
upon Hindostan . On his Majesty ' s return to Teheran in the autumn of 1800 , he accorded a gracious reception to the British Mission under Captain , afterwards Sir John , Malcolm , who was empowered to conclude a treaty with the Shah for the more immediate object of counteracting French influence . Napoleon ' s brilliant campaign in E > ypt had inspired the Oriental nations with a high reverence for his name and the power of his people , and in an equal proportion had filled the Indian Government with anxiety and dismay . It seemed no such very arduous undertaking for an enterprising general and an enthusiastic soldiery to force their way to the Persian Gulf , and thence to invade our Indian territories both by
sea nnd land . This catastrophe might , indeed , be partially averted by cherishing hostilities between Persia and the Afghans , but it would be rendered almost impossible were the French utterly excluded from the former country . The propositions submitted to the Shah with this view havo been justly characterised as " an eternal disgrace to our Indian diplomacy . " They provided , that " should an army of the French nation , actuated by design nnd deceit , attempt to settle , with a view of establishing themselves on any of
the islands or shores of Persia , a conjoint force shall be appointed by the two high contracting parties to act in co-oporution for their expulsion and extirpation , and to destroy and put an end to the foundation of their treason ; and if any of the great men of the French , nation ox press a wish or desire to obtain a place of residence , or dwelling , in any of the islands or shores of tho kingdom of Persia , that they may raiae . the standard of abode or settlement , leave for their residing in such a place shalrnot be granted . " The governors
of provinces were further to be instructed to " expel and extirpate the French , and never allow them to obtain a footing in any place ; " and fully empowered "to disgrace and slay the intruders . " According to M . Langles , the British Mission signally failed in this respect . " Leurs propositiovs ridicules et meme injuriettses"he says , "furent rejetees avec indignation par le Shahet parses mivistres . ' " Captain Malcolm , however / declares that this statement is " exactly opposed to the truth , * ' and
plumes himself upon the success that attended h s negotiations . But there is every reason to believe that this treaty was , at least , never ratified , for it is excluded from the Persian State Papers laid before the House of Commons ; and in 1806 Governor Duncan stated his impression that its final ratification was not to take place until the arrival of Haji Khalil at Calcutta—an event that never occurred , as we shall presently have to relate .
Orientals are chiefly assailable through fear or cupidity . Captain Malcolm chose the latter alternative , and lavished such vast sums of money that the Persians imagined he -was promised a per centage on whatever he expended . His prodigality gave rise to most exaggerated notions respecting the wealth of the British nation , and materially impeded the labours of his successors , who were wisely forbidden to follow such a sillyand extravagant precedent- But Eastern etiquette required that such magnificence should be responded to with similar ostentation . The Shah , however , was by no means disposed to disburse his own treasures in this fruitless manner . He
therefore commanded a rich Ispahan merchant , named Haji Khalil , to proceed upon this mission at his own expense . On the arrival of this personage at Bombay a guard of Sepoys was appointed as his Escort , but unhappily an affray took place between the soldiers and some of the ambassador ' s suite , in which the unfortunate Haji accidentally lost his life . Great was the trepidation of the Supreme Council on receiving intelligence of this untoward event , but the Persian Government readily accepted the explanations that were offeredbacked as they were by most liberal
, pensions , granted to the relatives of the deceased ; and a writer in the Calcutta Review reports a saying attributed to the minister o € Shiraz , that " the English might kill ten ambassadors , if they paid for them at the same rate . " The affU r would , no doubt , nev e * again have been heard of , had not the Haji ' s nephew subsequently sought and obtained the Shah ' s permission to proceed to Bombay to recover the property left there by his uncle ; he was at the same time instructed to solicit the aid of the Indian Government m checkin <* the encroachments of Russia . Unfortunately
the envoy was a better trader than diplomatist , and used much greater exertions to obtain an indemnity for his losses than to advance the political interests with which he was intrusted . His arrogance and presumption effectually thwarted the wishes of the Shah , though it is scarcely probable that any other agent would have fared better at that particular juncture , for he reached Calcutta shortly after the death of Lord Cornwallis , during the provisional government of Sir G . Barlow . This was in 1806 , at which period little apprehension was entertained with respect to Rujssin , Although there lacked not sufficient grounds for a
strong distrust . So far back as the reign of Peter I ., the Persians in an evil hour besought the aid of their Muscovite Neighbours against' the revolted Lesghis . The Czar required but little pressing , and , for the first time in history , the Russian armies encamped on the shores of tho Caspian . Under Catherine II . a Frenchman , M . de St . Genie , drew up a plan for the invasion of Hindostan , hy way of Bokhara and Cashmere , which was laid before the Empress by Prince Nassau Siegen , and has ever since been brooded over by the successive rulers of the Russian empire . It is indeed strange that the . insidious Muscovite
and aggressive character oi P y » v should so long have been viewed with secure apathy . Two years previous to Captain Malcolm « mission , the Emperor Pau had * ng « g « d lo sen 50 , 000 men from the Volga to co-operate _ with 35 , 000 French soldiers , to be d « pHtohed from tho Rhine , in invading . Hindostan and ^ ovjrthrojmg Britiah ascendancy in f £ *^ % h £ ? l ? r \ X&iA and palpable proof of Kussia su » ^^^ agfimndisement was aUordea " ^ X ^ i ^ b ^
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Jm fHB lEABJBB , ^ 745
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 4, 1855, page 745, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2101/page/13/
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