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Leader (1850-1860), 19th February 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 244, Untitled Article

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    • INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS.
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      Untitled Article

      LORD STANLEY'S SPEECH . Dn Monday night Lord Stanley made a most important statement on what is called the financial position of India , but which is in reality a declaration of the policy of the Government and the administration of India , and which will be read with gratification by the friends of progress . The speech , unfortunately , from the want of conversance of the reporters with the details , is published with many inaccuracies . The subjects it deals with are numerous and weighty , and we can only touch on some of those which are of greatest interest from our special view . The basis of Lord Stanley ' s system of finance is founded on the fact that at the time of the . outbreak of the mutiny , the equilibrium between income and expenditure was nearly restored , and he expects therefore , oil the establishment of a regular s } r stem of administration , and by taking measures for promoting the progress of the country , to bring the income and expenditure within bounds , and he proposes to meet the temporary deficit by a loan . Still looking to the fact that in Bengal the land revenue is inelastic , and that the opium monopoly is an uncertain reliance , Lord Stanley keeps in view the imposition gradually and steadily of new taxes , the produce of which may be assisted by the development of the country . It may be seen that Bengal will be subjected to a new fiscal system , for Lord Stanley maintains the land settlement , but he proposes , with a view to promote English colonisation and progress , to sell the waste lands in fee simple as in the other colonies , and , what is of no less importance , to enfranchise the Zemindarial tenures , so as to make them freehold . Thus the English and native freeholders will be left open to the action of the usual fiscal expe-: dients , and these must ultimately result in a considerable reA enue ; . for Lord Stanley shbws by its commercial statistics that theproduce of India is as rapidly , increasing as that of the most progressive countries in Europe . He referred , in support of this , to the facts , that in the last twenty years the imports of India were at the beginning 43 , 500 , 000 ^ , and at the last return 112 , 700 , 000 / . ; that the exports have advanced from 62 , 230 , 000 Z . to 112 , 700 , 000 / . ; the tonnage entered and cleared from 10 , 700 , 000 tons , to 19 , 000 , 000 tons ; and that the average yearly export of cotton to this country has increased from 77 , 000 , 000 lbs . to 172 , 000 , 000 lbs . We have found it difficult however to follow the detailed figures , as in some cases five yearly terms have beexi taken , and in others the average of five yearly terms , and in one case the absolute yearly returns . Lord Stanley dwelt very strenuously on the effect that public improvements are likely to have on India . Thus , in speaking of the land revenue , he said it must be considered as comparatively inelastic , except there may arise an increase of English territoi'y , a cause of increase which has been most active in times past , or where land , hitherto waste , may be brought into cultivation ; and that increase , he affirmed , is likely to take place to a considerable extent in proportion as the railways and other means of communication shall open iip the country to individual enterprise . It is obvious that several of the lines traversing the Dekkan through wild countries will be the means of extending cultivation and extending revenue . He laid sirens , too , upon the value of improving the communication between the two , countries by telegraph , and referred to the lied Sea telegraph and that by the Euphrates . We wish . ho could have said something about improving and cheapening the communication by steamer between England and India . It is to be hoped the Great Eastern may be- able to help in some respect in showing the way to improvement . It is strange , considering the resistance of the Indian authorities here to railway extension—a resistance which still prevails—to fine ) . Lord Stanley using the progress of railways as a chief argument for his confidence in the future of India ; and yet the whole length of line that ho is able to boast of as open is oxijy 559 miles , and there is only under construction about 2 , 823 , miles , making , as ho said , fivo or six miles in construction for one open , anil which it will tnko several years to effect .

      This , after all , was a weak point in lus case , for if railways are so valuable 3 , 400 miles is xjuite inadequate to provide proper accommodation for the vast extent of India . If we imagine the London and North Western , the Great Western , the Great Northern , and thi-ee or four other railways as providing the whole railway accommodation for these islands—France , Spain , Italy , Switzerland , Belgium , Holland , Denmark , and Germany—it may give us some notion of the inadequacy of the length of line the Government has provided for India , and which some people object to extend by a single mile till these few lines are opened . Lord Stanley was very distinct in his avowal that the liabilities under the railway guarantees cannot be considered as burthens on the Government of India . Setting aside the enormous benefit that must eventually accrue to Government from the opening up of the country , which these railways will effect , he believed that the arrangements made in connexion with them can but result beneficially ; and here he appealed to the opinion of the great founder of Indian railways , Sir Macdonald Stephcnsori , whose energy , talent , and unquestionable ability , he said , give weight to the opinions expressed by him , that the Government will not in any case be called upon to pay the interest ; for his estimate shows that the profits on these lines will exceed 5 per cent . —Sir Macdonald Stephenson , be it remembered , to wliom the Government refuse to pay his annuity , although the shareholders of East Indian Railway are willing . Lord Stanley cautioned the House that , however favourable the traffic may-be , on the whole , that the lines at pi-esent are far from complete . . Of other works he was able to say but little ; for there are Only the harbours of the Mutlah and Kurrachee , and the -Madras irrigation works . There was one project mentioned by Lord Stanley , in which we are far- from having confidence . While he shows a natural distrust for the - . military , system of employing uneducated officers as engineers , and which the brilliant . example of a . man of genius like Sir Proby Cautley cannot redeem , he purposes to substitute for an open body of practising civil engnieers , a corps of officers like , those of the Ponts et Chaussees . True it is Lord Stanley proposes to draft these from among civil engineers , practically educated in this country before they leave ; but any system of men left practically irresponsible and free from competition will never work well . Of whatever class the men may be in the beginning , they will soon cease to exert themselves , and the public works of India will be always backward , and far behind those of the general body of practising engineers . What India wants is free enterprise , and not doctrinairism or any kind of red tapism , from which it has already too much suffered . In connexion with this plan there is a hint likewise unfavorable , that the system is to be carried out , of the substitution of cheap native agency in the government of India for the comparatively costly agency of Englishmen . In this development of the policy of the old civil Indians , Lord Stanley-shone least , and ho will need the pressm e of public opinion to enable him to carry out an enlightened and effective policy . Lord . Stanley , offered an argument in behalf of the covenanted rate of salary , and appealed to . the paucity of medical candidates as one proof that moderately paid Europeans cannot be got for India ; and , as another pi'oof ' , to the salaries paid in the engineering establishment by the railway companies . Now , it is notorious over India that the rate of remuneration for all civil employment of Europeans is declining , and never was so moderate ; and that the railway companies arc paying generally very moderate rates , Thus wo shall in a short time find the Government diminishing tho number of English employes , whilst private establishments , or even natives , are increasing thorn . While a ooffeoiplanter finds it worth while to omploy an English superintendent , or foreman , at 1 QOl . a year , and can get such in abundance ,, the . Government cannot find Europeans for its service . Our comment on this fallacy is , that India wants for its government more Europeans , and that they must be had .

      Another declaration of the results of old Indian policy , which was not heard in the House without creating a great sensation , was , that notwithstanding the increase of English troops , from 45 , 522 to 91 , 580 , the number of native troops a d been allowed to increase from 232 , 254 to 243 , 961 . This mig ht well be received with indignation , but we fear there is a determination to keep up that system of jobbery , the native arrny , with lieutenants and captains paid as lieutenant-colonels and colonels . The English army is now required to watch the legions of Sepoys , Sikhs , and other suspicious characters , instead of these being disbanded , and an English army ' being maintained in the hills . We believe that the whole of the kill stations of India , at this present moment , even-with all the new cantonments , have not ' barracks for ¦ 10 , 000 . English , and that several of them , for want of railway communication , can only be . used as distant reserved depots . The true source of economy in expenditure is to be sought by placing the English soldiery in the hills , where they can be maintained on home pay , and thus the whole 91 , 580 English soldiers now in the country might be maintained for the same price formerly paid for the 45 , 522 , and the whole ' ' body of the native recruits for rebellion be forthwith disbanded . No task can be more difficult than that now imposed on Lord Stanley , of governing in India with the clog of a body of men who insist on impeding the policy of progress , and carrying , out the condemned policy which has retarded the welfare of India and subjected it to civil wai-. Lord Stanley has , however , announced such ' reforms : in the land system of India as will greatly promote English settlement , and thereby effectually dispose of the obstructive policy and its adherents ,-rentier the ' native army less dangerous and insure its suppressionj and provide for the restriction of the native officials and the suppression - of their corruptions , extortions , and tortures . This Lord Stanley , some years hence , will have the proud satisfaction of knowing he has effected . THE MADRAS RAILWAY . The report of the Madras Railway Company , presented at the meeting yesterday , is a document most important as to the progress of India , and every paragraph of which demands attention . One announcement is , that a considerable addition has . been made to the company ' s engineering staff , and that on the other hand arrangements have been made to substitute natives for Englishmen in minor posts , which has been gradually carried out , as the nativos get trained . The results are favourable , as the work is done as cheaply , and with equal efficiency as before , or even greater . This will be done with advantage in . many cases , obtaining assistants usod to the country and preferable to low class Eng lish oi dissolute and unruly habits . The surveys and the extension of such of the line as is open have proceeded slowly and steadily ' It will be remembered that not far from Madras the line forks , one trunk proceeding north-west , and the other south-west . In this latter direction the line is now open as far as Goriatfcum , J » miles , and active measures are in progress for ^ tue simultaneous opening of the lino ua far ns Salem , being a distance of 200 miles from Madras . J- «» s is however delayed for some months , us groat difficulties have been found jn tho works on the Palar river , between Goriattum and VnnioiuuaUy . The progress of this line is of groat importance for the military arrangements of tho Mauras presidency , and , for the promotion of Lnglisn settlement , as it is tho main routo to the up lands of the interior . The lino throughout its longtn skirts tho fine coffee district of Mysoru , nntl two healthy European settlements on tho ^ hovaroys and tho Noilgherrios , and runsolosoto thol umeyB . Tho opening to Salem will be in fiiot an opening to tho Shcvaroys , and indood tho railway w already open half way to tho Sh . evnr oya ana to Bangalore , making those districts m ore uocoasiwo to Er iglish invalids and troops . ' Jinngnloro , on the table land of Mysoro , is well known us o » J of tho healthiest stations of Madras , and aroat exertions are being used by tho Madras Kiuiway

      India And Indian Progress.

      INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS .

      Untitled Article

      244 THE LEADER . [ No . 465 , Februaby 19 , 1859 . - ¦¦ ¦¦ ' ' ¦ ' ' ¦ * ' ' " * ' ' - ' ' " ' ' ¦ —

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 19, 1859, page 244, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2282/page/20/