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TISTDIA, AND INDIAN PROGRESS.
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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.
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Tistdia, And Indian Progress.
TISTDIA , AND INDIAN PROGRESS .
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THE DAY OF SMAIX THINGS . There is one hope which seems among Anglo-Indians to survive all facts . It is impossible , it is thought , that the apparent condition of affairs can be real , that a government composed of Englishmen , however hampered by circumstances , can be so helpless , so devoid of ability as is represented . Those ¦ who entertain this soothing belief know little of past history or existing fact . There are times in the history of every nation -when mental power seems to collapse , when small men creep to the top , when all broad plans are pronounced wild , when baby innovations and petty reforms occupy the little energy remaining . There is a " universal . deadness Such condition of affairs
in the public mind . " a existed in . England from 1730 to 1750 , in France , despite the activity of thought , for the first fifteen years of Louis XVI ., and in the petty States of Germany at the present hour . It is dominant in India now . A recent traveller in the North-West tells us that nothing strikes him like the marvellous decline in public spirit , the utter apathy of all classes except as to salary . Commissioners hear of improvements with a shrug . It would take two years to obtain a common official sanction . Magistrates smile resignedly at crime . Between Imperial legislation and the regulations the commandments are suspended . « Officers will scarcely discuss reorganisation . What is the use when if a reform even comes it will be sent back , like the medical warrant ,
for reconsideration . The welling out of money never ceases . The local authorities will not stop it . If they suggest retrenchments they are told " not to raise questions of general policy . " If they want economv , or offer to ^ dispense with levies , or sowars , or any " of the tribe of quasi-military locusts who are eating up all the land , they are considered theorists . They , therefore , as the alternative , sit , repeat Talleyrand ' s axiom about zeal , and confine energy to the expectation of a change . ¦ All the while the routine of life goes on . Nobody can get an answer about reorganization , but an order with the
selecting some forty officers to go home Europeans is signed with marvellous rapidity . No soldier can get his status fixed , but week by week native officers are rewarded with badges , decorations , prizes , all demanding minute official study . There is no broad plan of economy , but in BomBay . Lord Elphinstone finds the energy to order all waste envelopes to be pulped and sold . In Bengal the Government of India inquires if it be not possible for the University Examiners , who sit for entire days , to dispense with tiffin , in the state of . the finances . In Madras Sir Charles Trevelyan writes a minute on the cost of sacramental bread and wine ,
and reports that an allowance of Rs . 2 a month ought to be amply sufficient , as port at Rs . 25 a dozen is quite good enough . A ranting . congregation , preached to from a tub and collected in a barn , would disdain the meannesses [ to which the intellectual red-tapist can descend . The condition of the North-West urgently dpmands legislative reforms . They cannot be obtained , but a trumpery bill about native holidays can be passed at once . A reform in the Legislature is impossible , but a report on the Standing Orders , meaning nothing , Can be prepared with marvellous promptitude and ease . It is the day of small things . Strong men are hunting gnats . Wise men are trying plans for killing fleas scientifically after they are caught . The mass arc sitting open-mouthed , expecting , but with- no hope , criticising , but with no energy , the action of rulers as torpid as themselves . Only the Stato car does not stop , and that is because it is rolling down an inclined plane . —Friend of India .
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" HEDGING » REWARDED . Amongst the characters of notoriety during tho rebellion was a Mahomedan deputy-collector of Agra , named Mahomed Mobeen . Tho outcry against him was very general , and it was supposed by a multitude of persons resident on the spot that ho , having acted with sufficient duplicity to blind the eyoe of tho civilians to whom ho was immediately subject , was not only at heart n rebel , but an activo partisan of our enemies both at Agra and in Rohilcund . Tho military authorities wcro clear as to tho man ' s guilt , and there Is every reason to believe Would liave hangod him forthwith , but that a p owerful sot of olvlllans got him safe into their hands , hold a mild Investigation of thoir own , and pronounced him innocent . Still he was not set entirely free , but liis patrons scoured for him the handsome subsistence allowance of Rs . 260 per mensem .
and kept him under nominal surveillance . Numbers of the Christian community , notwithstanding , believed in the guilt of Mobeen , and one allegation made against him was everywhere received as undeniably true , which was , that he justified the murder of our women and children at other stations , of which accounts were constantly reaching Agra , by quoting a couplet from Sadi , to the effect that when you kill the snake you should also destroy its brood if you wish to be safe . Even some civilians , not , however , included in the number of the patrons of Mobeen , charged him with distinct acts of disr loyalty . We believe we are justified in naming Mr . Raikes and Mr . Wylly , and probably also Mr . Vansittart , as amongst those of the Covenanted
Service , who throughout maintained that he was guilty , and even penned charges against him . But the secret trial disappointed all expectations , and people could only wonder in what way the acquittal had been brought about . They had further to wonder that an innocent and injured individual , who enjoyed such distinguished patronage , and who was even considered meritorious in active loyalty , should not be openly declared to have been acquitted , set free and restored to his post of deputy-collector of the Agra district . He remained , indeed , under a cloud for months and months , until the whole of this part of the country was restored to thorough order , until the proclamation had issued of the Queen ' s assumption of the Government of India , and until the declaration of the tranquillisation of Oude had announced the final destruction of organised opposition , without his friends finding fit opportunity to bring him
forth to the light as that loyal servant of the State whom they would delight to honour . For all his good deeds in the middle of 1857 no reward other than the secret allowance of Rs . 250 per mensem is bestowed on him till the middle of 1859 . But at length some measure of justice is done to him—not the full measure , or a very different final order would have been issued for execution—for the Government , in a quiet way , altogether suited to the prudent , unobtrusive character of the vindicating trial , have now ( or rather as far back as May last ) reviewed the proceedings , not only to confirm the acquittal on five distinct charges of rebellion * but to discover that justice ( to quote the words of the Lieut .-Governor , —" that justice to _ this native gentleman will , in his opinion , be satisfied by reinstating him in his post and allowances from the date of the issue of this despatch . "
So far we have no fault whatever to find with his honour ' s view of the case , as it was placed on record before him ; and whether such notoriety was given to the preparation for trial , and such proceedings were taken to collect evidence as would have ensured a real ascertainment of facts , it is not our present purpose to discuss ; but we must protest against the wrong done to " this native gentleman " by a further order which the Government has seen fit to pass . That second order directs that " Mahomed Mobeen , deputy collector of Agra , be employed in some station away from his home , and not at Agra . " should Mahomed
Why ' this condition ? Why Mobeen be shut out from further distinction in the place in which his good conduct was so conspicuous ?—why should it be left for tho world to suppose that some degree of distrust does still attach to him—why should not injured iunocence be placed where its vindication would be most triumphantly displayed—why should the authorities act as if they were themselves afraid to court public opinion on the case ? This treatment is obviously unjustifiable towards a man " who is declared by the highest authority to have rendered ( during the rebellion ) ?• really useful services to the State , " and whose influence ( among tho rebels ') caused tho Gwalior contingent to refrain from murdering their officers and to escort some of them safely into Agra , "
and who also " saved Christians and their families . " We call upon Mr . Reado and all the mpmbers of tho Committee of Investigation , and upon the Lieut .-Govornor who has confirmed ttye verdict of that committee , to repent of the gross injustico they have done this most loyal Mahomedan gentleman , this most faithful subject and sorvant of her most gracious Majesty , and to reward him commensuratoly with his deserts . Let him have ample encouragement to act again tho part he acted before —when tho next and approaching opportunity offers . A jagheer , a titlo , and restoration to his post at Agra , with charge of tho district treasury , which will givo him free access to the fort daily , aro tho smallest benefits that ought to bo conferred upon him !—Delhi Gazette .
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LATEST INDIAN INTELLIGENCE .
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Tun Calcutta mail of August 22 nd has arrived ; the journals are ohlefly occupied with remarks upon the Chinese news . Tho unoxpootod intelligonco of the British disaster at the mouth of tho Pciho , and tho prospect which it renders certain of a third
China war on a much greater scale than its prcdcr cessors , has given a new colour to the difficulty caused by the discharge of so many of the local European force . The moment that the news reached Calcutta , the universal feeling of the press and the public was , that the discharged men should at once be offered double bounty to volunteer for a campaign in China , and that a large force of Sikhs should also be sent . It was felt that not only had India an opportunity of repaying to the China force for its services in ls 35 but
the debt she owes it r ,-S , that two difficulties , the one immediate and the other anticipated , would thus be lessened or removed . Were the Europeans who have taken their discharge employed in this service a large body of trained and acclimated soldiers could within one or two months be thrown upon the coast of China in the very transports engaged to carry them to England . They would retrieve their character as loyal and disciplined men , and the Govern or-General , as well as the home government , would be able to recede with safety from a position , taken up too hastily .
The following is from Cawnpore , dated the 9 th August : — " The discharged men are beginning to leave here for Calcutta ; about sixty artillerymen went down yesterday , and the cavalry are to go down about the 15 th . About 550 men of the 1 st Cavalry are going , only 150 having elected to remain . Many of the men have learnt to ride very well . Two captains and four subalterns of the 1 st Cavalry are going home with their men . The cold season of of that of 1857 with
i 859 will be the exact reverse regard to the movement of troops . In 1857 the European troops'were being pushed up country as fast as dawk garrees , ' vans , and bullock train wagons could convey them . This year they are being moved down coup try in about equal numbers , and as rapidly . Truly -India is of all countries the one in which it is most impossible to reckon upon what a day may bring forth . The Government are quite right to move the men down while the rivers are high . The in steamers
saving will be immense by their going during the rains . By October next it is expected that Oude will be totally disarmed . Not a fort will remain amid its jungles , save forty-four retained for public purposes . So thoroughly has the work been carried but that a percentage of 19 J arras for a . dults capable of bearing them iin Oude has been taken or surrendered . In Delhi ' the percentage was little above 8 for the 2 f millions of population . Besides the arms taken from villages by the various military columns which
passed through the country in the course of the campaign , the new military police , which has proved itself most effective * has taken about a million and a half arms of all kinds . About 1 , 100 Sepoys and 5 , 618 leave men have surrendered . The Legislative Council have extended the time for the operation of the Disarming Act , and that relating to foreigners resident in India , both of which were on the point of expiry , for a longer period . The former will probably be made permanent , when it is re-considered at the end of the vear . Until tho whole of India is
effectually disarmed , and the use of fire-arms especially is forgotten , our power will be threatened , and the civilisation we introduce insecure . But with a Government such as the present this is too much to hope for . A large native army has sprung up more dangerous than the one it has superseded ; side by side with it is a large body of police , military and otherwise ; the discipline is if possible worse , and tho expense greater than before ; a corresponding Europoan force is required to watch tlio native ; the courts are not reformed ; the regulations aro again imposed in the north-west ; officials have lost heart , and we are not drifting but being anven to tho second mutiny by tho man who was unequal to the first ; , and who squanders the grandest opportunities for the re-construction of an empire that history records .
. There are still scattered bodies of rebels in motion . They are cut up wherever they aro found , but this is very difficult ! They are wary and acuw , have good information of our movements , and are supported by our very good friends , the Ncpaulose , and Igss onoiilv by other natives . There uro here and there ^ oviJon&s of tho action of the disaffected , nrincimilly Mahometans , but nothing which can excite any apprehension under reasonable government It is again assorted that Nana Sahib has been ' endeavouring to treat on the ground of some territory being given up to him . II true , this is characteristic of the native character , and oi the utter inability of our present ruler to comprehend
or to copo with it . - At a meeting of tho shareholders of tho North Western Bank of India , hold an tho 29 th July , some shareholders holding numerous proxies forced tho directors rohioUntly , and against the wishes of those prosont , to go into tho Court for the affairs of tho bank to bo wound up by tho official assignee . TUB TR . ADH Off INDIA . In spite of . ttdmlnlstrativo and financial imbooUit 7 .
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No . 497 . O ^ . l . 18 59 . 1 THE LEADER . 1103
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 1, 1859, page 1103, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2314/page/11/
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