Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 23rd October 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1136

Page 1136
Page 24
24 of 32

On this page

  • Departments (1)
    • INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS.
  • Text (4)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Untitled Article

      LAND TENURES AND THE . COTTON ASSOCIATION . The Cotton Supply Association continues firm in its Indian agitation , and the Reporter follows up the subject . India they know is that country which can afford us a competent supply , for it has been too truly said , " that there is more cotton wool yearly wasted in India for want of means to bring it to the market than there is raised in the United States . " India has the advantage over the United States of cheap and intelligent free labour ; she has the disadvantages of disgraceful land tenures and of most serious deficiencies of

      transport . Did the cotton lands of India possess the deep-water rivers of the eastern coast , or the many arms of the Mississippi , bearing steamboats or deep flats throughout their course , the export of India would be otherwise than it is . There is water , however , in India in abundance ; let this be applied to irrigation and to navigation , and railways , giving the advantage of quick access , be opened throughout the country , and the vast resources of India , not only in cotton but other productions of the land , will be made , manifest . The defective land tenures , however , cripple at every

      stage the application of labour and capital , for the element of uncertainty , one of the fatal influences which affect the free operations of capital , is purposely maintained by the Government . In vain the aid of our most eminent economists and staticians is enlisted to prove that the money levy is a rent , and not a tax ; in vain are we called upon to admit the benefit of the rent of land belonging to the community maintaining the expenses of the Government without taxation , when we see and know that by the administration of the land revenue the condition of the population is one of misery , and the lot of the capitalist loss and disappointment . There is the less need to define the distinctions between rent and land tax , and to defend the possessions of the land

      revenues by the Government , when no one desires to dispossess the Government of the revenues , but to assure and fix the demands of the Government , and to assure and determine the position of the tenant and cultivator of the soil . The theory of the land revenue of India , as simply laid down by economists , or discussed at the Statistical Society , is admirable ; the application presents some of the worst features of the land tenures of Ireland before the Land Court was established , of the serfdom lately existing in Eastern Europe , and of the Exchequer system of England during the middle ages . The efforts of the Indian administrators , like those of the French administrators in the old regime , have tended only to regulate the corojes and gabelles , and do not abolish them or substitute other

      institutions . The Reporter reviews the condition , and brings before us a system which , admirable in the pages of the Economist , becomes in practice a system of oppression . The Reporter alludes to the present mode of deriving the public revenue in many collcctorates from an assessment of eacli cultivated field , collected by a countless swarm of agents , to whom is delegated the task of exacting the utmost amount of profit on the produce , with extraordinary powers of enforcing payment , and perpetuating from year to year the grossest abuses and injustice . So long

      summons fee is levied on every petty arrear of poorrate and the many rates which bring the taxgatherers in contact with the rich man ' s servants and the poor man ' s wife . There is the fear , if not the realftv , that rich tax-collectors and brokers tamper with the women in some cases of distress , and complaints , founded or unfounded , are constantly made before the magistrates . 1 ho slightest consideration , the least local experience , must

      teach us that men of low caste and low . minds will practise oppression if they can , and can be hardly restrained from taking the pettiest fees and bribes . Transfer the legion of these functionaries to India , and what would be their exploits with no European superintendence , and with a police of thieves and thieves' accomplices ? The result would , perhaps , be little different from that now realised .- we do not like to say it would be better , for we are not satisfied it might not be worse .

      The whole of our American provinces , now States , had the system of quit rents and tenures of the manor of East Greenwich and other feudal institutions , but they have been emancipated , and all land is held in fee simple and readily transferable . In Canada , our great drawback to progress was the seignorial system and the quit rents . These have been commuted or abolished , and Canada advances . In Nova Scotia , New Brunswick , and Prince Edward ' s Island , the quit rent system has been stayed .

      In New South Wales it was the foundation of all tenures , and has been acknowledged to be an obstacle to progress , and exists no more . The Jieporter supports these arguments , and urges--the plan of commuting the land-tax by purchase , at say twenty years' purchase , which is countenanced by the economists . It was brought forward last year by a younger member of the body , Mr . Hendriks , and ' is allowed to gain currency . We are very much inclined to believe that at least twenty-five years' purchase could be raised for land rent , and , possibly , thirty years . - . . „ " ¦ , in and

      The division of the Zemindarces Bengal a commutation of Zemindarial rights by a Land Court , having the" functions of the Encumbered Estates Courts of Ireland and the West Indies , and of the Copyhold Commission in England , is another necessary measure for creating a class of freehold tenants , but which is not , however , mentioned by the Reporter , although the desirability of making the ryot a landowner is advocated . The Reporter points out that the capital realised by the Government from the proposed sale of landtax could be applied to the reduction of the public debt , and a portion of it made available for the extension of that class of works upon which heretofore such enormous profits have been realised , works

      alike beneficial to the Government and the people . We hope that not only will this be done , but measures be taken for applying a part of the sum to the reduction of the public debt of England . In the United States the federal Government retaining the property in the lands has received enormous sums for the redemption of the public debt , and for general purposes . In England , wo have squandered the public lands of Canada and Australia , and given them to the local legislature . In India , although enfranchisement and land sale at a pound an acre would bring many hundred millions of revenue , it is to be hoped we shall not pursue the same policy . At all events , with Lord Stanley and the new Government , the old tenures must bo amended , and in the unsettled and now regulation districts the free tenures be oxtendod ,

      as these agents can call upon each cultivator , bribery will be practised and torture perpetrated ; and as the best intentions of the Government have been frustrated , so will they be henceforth . It is in vain to think of bolstering up this system by talking of distraints on crops for rent in England , or of levies on goods for rates and taxes , for suoh allusions only enforce the necessity for our abolition of the system . With all the checks that in our advanced system of organisation wo can employ , we kuow that the broker and the

      broker ' s man , the man in possession , the sheriff ' s officer , the tithe prootor , the Irish agent and his drivers , will perpetrate on our poorer population great oppressions , and the records of our police * courts furnish evidence enough of the efforts , mado to * punish the oppressors . Wo know that under the noses of our magistrates , lawyer olorks of sessions levy on a shilling fine twolvo or fourteen shillings , and that in some boroughs , by connivance between the collector and the clerk , a two-shilling

      Untitled Article

      say that while Mr . Yule establishes all that is required in . a forest inhabited by savages , the Legislative Council announces itself incompetent to bestow the requisite protection on the thirty millions of Bengal . By abolishing -written pleadings , a heavy blow is giv . en to perjury and litigation , and by abolishing arrest for debt and protecting the homestead from restraint , the usurer is kept at bay . In the last ten years , the agitation of the Friend of India has prompted the amendment of the law as to pleadings in the Punjab , Saugor , Nagpore , Berar , and Assam , but the Regulation provinces are left the victims of the old abuses . The use of the English language , instead of Persian , Hinclostanee , and other foreign forms in the law-courts , is , however , one essential step in reform .

      A bill is making its way through the Legislative Council for levying rates and municipal taxes in Se ' , which will procure further funds for local improvements . The Friend of India advocates a general law for native princes , sweeping away at once , with their consent , all the subsidy treaties , which fetter the princes as much as they embarrass us , and substituting in their place a single imperial law , a golden bull of the empire . In this they are to recognise themselves , and be recognised by us , a 3 feudatories of the empire . They will be left with full powej of legislation and administration , under certain limits , -within which they could act without the consent of the" Government of India . A provision would be made for an independent judiciary for English citizens , and no laws affecting trade should be nmdo without the consent of the Governor-General . Their

      privileges would be lineal , and could descend only to men born of their own house . In return they would be relieved at once from all espionage and all interference , and be guaranteed their domains , under every possible contingency , save the single one of treason . If that ,-exempt from the . Resident , they stretched their authority beyond the limits allowed by the great agreement , the appeal would be to the Governor-General , who could enforce his decree as readily and as swiftly as at present . In the course of nature , as the reigning houses die off , their net ' s would escheat . There would , of course , be * . provision acknowledging the disposition of the Government to grant higher titles to well-deserving princes , and there should be a power to authorise princes so disposed to dispose of their fiefs to the imperial Government .

      The Cotton Supply Association have held an influential meeting at Glasgow , Mr . Robert Dulglish , M . P ., in the chair , when a number of subscribers was obtained , who promised to contribute 450 / . a , year for five years . Miss Burdctt Coutts has given another donation , which amounts to 200 / . The Association have under consideration the formation of Cotton Associations in India . The Secretary , Mr . G . R . Way wood , has ha d some correspondence with tho Bombay Examiner and lime ? , defending the Association a to the co ndition of the cotton seed sent to Bombay , and which was too lute for the March season . He likewise expresses Ins

      sympathy with the Western India Canal Irrigation Company , which has been stopped since 1855 , because the Supreme Government refuses to give any answer whatever , as also with the case of tnc Guzerat merchants who cannot obtain a cotton shipping Government in tho Gulf of Cambay , any more than the Bombay people can a tide basin lor cotton boats , though both ore willing to pay tnc charges . , Tea planting continues to attract more and nioro notice in India . A writer in tho Ddhi Gazette . ff -f .. the most favourable experience of it . Speaking oi Simla , tho Dohrah Dhoon , Gnrhwal , and Kumaon—¦ and the same applies to Darjecling , Assam , and oiuer districts—he says it is quite certuin that Mjy . . ™ who can command 2000 / . may iret up a very tnrivinj , handsome

      NOTE 3 ON INDIAN PROGRESS . Mk , Yuxp has just carried out in the Southal code groat improvements which tho Supremo Government have not yet allowed to Bengal . Native perjurore , native pleaders , native court officials , or amlah , nnd native usurers are guarded against . Tho plaint , tho evidence , and the decree are to be written down briefly by the judge himself in English , and tho English decree is tho only legal record of the case . Tho judgment will bo explained vqrbtilly to the native , but he must have tho docree translated for himself . Thus , tho great safeguard of justice advocated by Mr . Warden before tho Colonisation Committee , and by others at various times , is obtained by the savage Soutlmls . Well may tho Friend of India

      plantation , which will soon make him a return , for there is no mystery in tho business , jh j"o intervals of his occupation the settler may enjoy fishing , shooting , visiting , and scenery in a liouuny and delightful country . . nnn / The Bombay oil-seed trade increased from 240 , uuu < in 1850 , to 360 , 000 / . in 1807 . ,. mnrio The Chamber of Compnoroo of salt proprietors of Cheshire and Worcestershire have mei iorialisod Lord Stanley for a readjustment oi i » o salt duties and an extension of . tho * " « " ¦" salt trade , pointing to the fact of tho creation of a salt trade of 100 , 000 tons to the port ^ .-oj Calcutta since 1846 , when trade was opened , anu they therefore pray that facilities for landing « U " may bo provided at all tho Indian ports tt » at uu uutta .

      Untitled Article

      11 O ; THE LEADER . [ No . 448 , October 23 , 1858 ¦ Hop ^ .- . ¦ . ^^ - ———¦ ¦—— . ^—^— ^—— -- ' ' ~

      India And Indian Progress.

      INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 23, 1858, page 1136, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2265/page/24/