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Leader (1850-1860), 3rd April 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 322, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      NOTICES TO COBJ&ESPONBENTS . Crvis BOMAirtrs . — "We have to thank our correspondent for Ms letter and the accompanying Essay . We shall pay particular attention to Iboth . "We shall be further obliged if our correspondent will permit us to retain the volume until the end of next week , when it shall be returned torhis private address . Mb . Jambs Grant ' s letter has been received , and engages our consideration . No notice can be taken of anonymous correspondence Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication . but as a guarantee of his good faith . Itis impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed , owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted , it is frequently from reasons quiteindependent of themeritsof the communication . ? - i y - -

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      Untitled Article

      LORD ELLENBOROUGH'S INDIAN JUGGLE . The Apocalypse has burst upon this generation . Lord EiiiEiTBOBOTrGH is The Coming Man , and his India Bill is the Asian Mystery , a concentric Chinese ivory ball , carved from the tusk of a tame elephant , a complex wonder to captivate the pruriency of curious eyes , a symmetrical mechanism -with invisible joints , a polished , carved , convoluted globe , tossed in the air by a juggler -who has studied magic and manipulation on the banks of the Ganges . With this measure in our hands we are savages anatomizing a watch . It is easy to separate the parts ; but , when once the screws , cogs , axles , and spiral springs have been disturbed , all the Queen ' s Parliament will never put them together again . Politicians who put their trust in the Bill must not examine it too closely , otherwise they will detect the kaleidoscopic secret ; they will learn how all this brilliance is produced by a few bits of transparency shaken together and harmonized by an optical illusion . Never was so composite a project submitted to a practical Legislature ; it is a cabinet of curiosities from all the disorders of political architecture—the Greek , the Roman , the Venetian , the styles of Lottis XIV . and Napoleon "—a supreme minister at home , a viceroy in India , nine nominated and nine elected members . The Coming Man has had his beau moment , and this is what he has made of it . The bill is , generally , an imposture . It provides for everything except the better government of India , It establishes an invisible despotism under the mask of an elective franchise . It creates a council of nullities whose Qnl y office would be to screen the Minister . It erects a home government to fetter the local authorities with whom the real responsibilities of Indian administration lie . It leaves totally unsettled every great question arising out of the recent mutiny . It destroys what worked well under the late system , and substitutes nothing better . To state the matter fairly , we will admit that it is a more plausible measure than Lord Pai « meksxom ' s . It professes to provide for the representation of various important interests in the home goy . eiwmwtLofJfadia . ^ Ik ^ a more popular consultative body . But Lord PaIiBOBSXON ' b Council , although unnecessarily restricted , was more in . the nature of a Council of State than Lord El : lis : nbobotjoh'b , being qualified not only to deliberate but to advise independently and with an initiative . Lord pAifMBBBTOirs Councillors acted with the President , Lord

      Eillenboeotjgh ' s President acts above the Councillors . Lord Pasmebstow ' s were nominees and their nomination rested upon the responsibility of the Cabinet . Lord Eixenboeotigh ' s are to be partly sanctioned in the first instance , by Parliament , and partly elected by the Leadenhall-street proprietary and five great towns of the United Kingdom . Wow , this elective scheme is singularly specious but it is founded upon a radical fallacy . The constituencies elect the House of Commons , and the House of Commons is responsible for governing all parts of the empire , east or west . To Parliament , and to Parliament alone , as representative of the country , the administrators of India should be responsible . If London , Livjerpool , Birmingham , Dublin , and Belfast desire to lay the basis of good government in British India , they will instruct their members to act in the Imperial Legislature , and at this point their direct functions naturally and constitutionally cease . It is quite unnecessary to vest them with powers to seat the most opulent and liberal of old Indians in one of Lord EiiI / enbobottgh ' s six committees , with none but consultative [ 'functions , and with no responsibility beyond that of hanging an occasional protest round the neck of the Minister . The very constitution of the Council renders it impossible that any independent man will ever belong to it . The seats and the salaries , in fact , would be distributed among solemnly garrulous individualities content to be shelved upon an eminence of foolscap and green baize . But it is of comparatively little importance what form is assumed by the Home Government of India , so long as it is single , represents the interests affected , and is subject to the absolute control of parliamentary and public opinion . Neither lord Palme us ton ' s bill nor Lord Elxenboboitgh's secures this object ; but both are still more objectionable in that they leave to chance the local administration of our * Indian empire . That empire must be practically governed within its own geographical limits , and not by a Council telegraphing from London . A Minister or a Board at home despatching messages to the Governor-General at Calcutta , never will or can maintain more than a general superintendence of policy , acting as the link between the Crown , as the dominant power , and the real Government of India in India itself . A Council of eighteen , if carefull y selected , might lay before the Minister q precis of information upon every important Indian subject , and in the last resort appeal to the public in support of their views . But beyond this , what could they do ? Lord Ellenjborouoh ' s bill creates a fiction in the imperial metropolis , and provides literally nothing for India . What are to be the functions , powers , and responsibilities of the Governor-General , the local Governors , and the ordinary Civil Administration under the new system ? What is to be the organization of the Army ? It may be objected that these questions do not fall within the cognizance of Parliament , but constitute the main details to be dealt with by the new Minister and his Council . That , we insist , is the danger of the EllennoROU an Bill . If the essential problems connected with the civil and military administration of India be not disposed of before full powers 4 iPfi ^ cooferrpd ,-upoii-a . supr . cmpJ ' uiactipnaryJiu . London , with prodigious self-confidence , and a perilous faculty ot iuvention , wo warn the public that the acquiescence of Parliament will throw into Lord Ellenuoiiouou ' s hands the despotic sway of the East—a sway which , if arbitrarily or unwisely exorcised , may ruin our Indian empire before n single point can be again raisou for discussion in the Legis- ¦

      , , . loture . Let us have some guarantee , some , binding provisions , some declared course of imperial policy . Has the rebellion tau » hfc . us only that we should confide unlimited , discretion over immense establishments , and a most delicate institutional machinery to ; the'dithyrambic Hero of Somna ' th ? ' Firstly , with reference to the positioo of our future governors-general . Under the double government the powers of this officer , although not perhaps greater than his situation warranted , were , in fact , far greater than they seemed . If the President of the Board of Control issued instructions not approved by the Directors , it was easy for the Board to transmit a parallel statement of their views , and of their trust in the independent and salutary discretion of the Governor-General . If , again , the Directors persuaded the Minister at Cannon-row to an unwilling assent , what so obvious on the part of Mr . Veknon Smith or Lord Ripon as to intimate his objections privately ? In either case , the Governor-General would have the support of one authority at home , and practice amply proved that a resolute administrator would frequently ignore and even diametrically oppose an order from . London . Under the proposed bill , however , the President and the Board would be united ; the new Minister would be a despot in the chair of the Board of Directors ; and the Governor-General would be liable to immediate dismissal for any act of disobedience . The question is , shall the Governor-General be a mere agent , or an administrator responsible for his policy ? If he be subordinate , if he have no power todeviate from a line marked by the President at home , he must manifestly be relieved of all responsibility . In that case , Lord Canning would resume his old position as Postmaster-General at Calcutta instead of St . Martin ' s-le-Grand , for he would be no more than a receiver of letters on her Majesty ' s service from England , and a distributor of letters on her Majesty's service to the Indian provinces . All this is left open by Lord Ellenboeottgii ' s Bill , and not a word is necessary to show that it would be easier for the new system than for the old toruin the British-Indian Empire . The grand duty of the Crown Minister and his Council should be to filtrate the details of Indian questions and place the result clearly before Parliament and the Cabinet at home , and to appoint the best men as civil and military chiefs in India . The Legislature will inevitably fail if it provides only for a readjustment of the Indian machinery at home . It accredits a great proconsul to Calcutta , and is it to dissolve the existing relations between him and the authorities in London without defining his future position , his powers , or his ' responsibilities in the local government of an empire almost as large and quite as various in condition , creed , and race , as the old continent of Europe , and separated from England by halt tuo circumference of the globe ? We may bite the chains of nature , but they bind us still . The truth is , that India will not bo yoked to a telegraphic wire . Wo cannot centralize its administration in London . AVo cannot even centralize it at Calcutta . If questions of peace and war , of general finance , ana the appointments of able governors-general JUiO-g&CSiyttorg ^^ prerogative of the President ancHiis Lcfimou , the selection of efficient local administrators , commanders , and councillors , tho management of relations with native Courts , and tho general maintenance of free communication ana public works should form tho principal buuineas of the Govornor-General . Lot him endeavour to centralize dotnils , and ho uncior-

      Untitled Article

      qoo THE LEADER . [ Ko . 419 , a ..

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      Untitled Article

      There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keepthings fixedwhenallthe world is by thevery law of its creationineternal progress . —Db-Abnoid

      Untitled Article

      \ ^ \ / » SATURDAY , APRIL 3 , 1858 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 3, 1858, page 322, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2237/page/10/