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638 THE IEADEE, [No. 432, July 3, 1858.
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NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. No notice cau...
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K-* s ~ V ^ / : -*- SATURDAY, JULY 3, 18...
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There is nothing so revoluticmary, becau...
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THE LATEST GOYEB.TSMENT OF INDIA BILL. P...
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THE ACCOMMODATION" BILL SYSTEM. Iv.vre m...
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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Transcript
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
638 The Ieadee, [No. 432, July 3, 1858.
638 THE IEADEE , [ No . 432 , July 3 , 1858 .
Notices To Correspondents. No Notice Cau...
NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS . No notice cau betaken of anonymous correspondence . Whatever is i iifcended fo f insertion must beauthenticatetl by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication , but asa ^ uaranteeof his good faith . Ifcis 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 quiteiudopendent of therneritsof t lie communication . Wooannot undertake to Teturnrejected communications .
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K- * s ~ V ^ / : - * - SATURDAY , JULY 3 , 1858 . ¦
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There Is Nothing So Revoluticmary, Becau...
There is nothing so revoluticmary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the scram to keenthmgs fixed -when all the world is by thevery law of its oreationin . eternal progress . —Db . A . & stold .
The Latest Goyeb.Tsment Of India Bill. P...
THE LATEST GOYEB . TSMENT OF INDIA BILL . PabxUlMENt , says the Times , is ready to take the third India Bill shorn of all peculiarities and reduced to a neutral colour ;" the hill is nearly of the right hue , and after the infusion of the thirty or forty amendments prepared by Iiord Stahxky , will no doubt be accented . The ffovernmerit of UUU . UU wo OViUClJtV 1 ^* XUC gUVCiJllllCJJ . lJ \ Ol
India 78-111 pass from the hands of the India Company into those of the Crown . "With what likelihood of advantage to India ? The change will carry ^ with it at least the promise of a better rule than the one superseded . One sentence in Mr . Brioht ' s late speech represents in brief the shortcomings of the present government of India : " In a single English county / ' lie said , " there were more roads—more travelable roads—than were to
be found in the whole of India ; and the city of Manchester , in the supply of its inhabitants with the single article of water , had spent a larger sum of money than the East India Company had spent in the fourteen years from 1634 i to 1848 in public works of every kind throughout the whole of its vast dominions . * ' This simple fact points to the grand evil under which India has remained undeveloped and unsecured up to the present time ; the end of the
Company ' s government haa been to draw the utmost rupee from the natives , to the enrichment of the proprietors of East India Stock , and to the exclusion of every influence that could by any possibility trench upon their monopoly . The Imperial Government can have no such sordid views , no such barbarous prejudices , to pervert and to restrict ifc , and it will , therefore , carry with it the possibilities and at least the promise of a better rule .
No doubt the new constitution offered by the present Ministry has been framed as much to conciliate diverse and contending opinions in the House of Commons as to provide a government for India equal to the vastnefls and responsibility of the duties to be undertaken by it ; but whatever the scheme of Indian government offered , and however perfected in theory , its practice must be to a great extent experimental .
Mr . Bright predicts that in five years from the pasBing of the present bill a new constitution will have to be framed for India , and it is probable that—excepting the limit which ho puts to tho duration of the new form of government—Iris prediction will bo verified . In such an event , there are many suggestions in tho plan laid down by himself thnt may be practically adopted , that of the division of India into live Presidencies especially , though with a modified action ae regards the total
iudopendence oi each . He would , in setting up these independent Presidencies , do away with the Governor-General in India , and with the Imperial form of government : but the advantages of the closest possible connexion through the government with the country in which we have so much at stake are too evident for such a change to be accepted by the English people ; and the plan of administration through a Governor-General is upon the whole found to work well in India , the difficulties all springing from the action of tire home-machinery .
But , assuming that the scheme of government now proposed is to be carried into practice , and that in the course of a few years it will be set aside , such a result will have been arrived at by a proceas not wholly objectionable , namely , that of new practical experience , —for the past experiences of Indian government afford little aid , except in the way of warning , to the formation of a thoroughly efficient system of government . Imperfect as the new machinery may be found to be , its action will be under the cognizance of this country , which has awaked
to a lively interest in the condition and progress of that magnificent possession , the full value of which it has hitherto carelessly overlooked , or falsely estimated . Under this healthy surveillance , however faulty or impracticable the new form of government may prove on trial , whatever is wanted in the "way of remedy will . be speedily forthcoming and readily applied , for all , or nearly all the impediments thrown in the way of reformation by the secret system of the Company's government will be done away by the constitution now offered .
It may be true , as the Times says , that " the anticipation that the bill will be passed in its present form is founded on a recollection of the Thames , on a reference to the almanack , 'dr on other considerations wholly unconnected with the state of India , " but the result , however imperfect , will be again , a long step in the direction of a natural and
efficient government for India . No one believes that the present measure can be final ; but it is a necessary measure , inasmuch as no possible good is to bo obtained by delaying the transfer of the government of India from hands which the country lms decided are riot trustworthy to those in which it has more confidence . But while the
country insists upon this change , it is taking upon itself , or ' rather rebinding itself , to discharge an anxious duty : it must keep a never-sleeping eye upon the working of every part of the machinery of the government which it is obliged to accept at the outset in default of better ; it must compel those whom it entrusts with the conduct of that machinery to master its complications , to keep it in thorough working order , and to be ready with will and hand to apply whatever repairs
it may need , or whatever improvements will better it . It must see that justice—not weighed wholly by tho scales here used—is done to India , as well as to the right of the dominant race . It must not only subdue the rebellious spirit which is now abroad , hut it must make its power respected for what it is worth , as a means of permanently improving the condition of tho populations of India , giving them their share iu
the products of their own country , and teaching them how to develop its resources , mental as well as material . If tho people of England will faithfully discharge tlieso duties , it is really of 110 great consequence what are the motives of Ministers in concocting their present Indian Bill . The right form of government for India will bo reached through experience , unporvcrtcd by selfishness , nnd to tho acquirement of this experience public
opinion must guide the way . Xhe government of India must not be a question of Ministries ,- —England , and not merely her politicians , in office , must govern India if India is to be well governed and worth the cost and anxiety of governing .
The Accommodation" Bill System. Iv.Vre M...
THE ACCOMMODATION" BILL SYSTEM . Iv . vre may rely upon the somewhat hazy report of the remarks attributed to the Attorney-General on . Friday last . Government is about to dabble with the question of accommodation bills . The Lord Chancellor , we are told , has inserted in a bill he is about to introduce into the House of Peers , " provisio ns by wliich any trader who is a party to the negotiation of accommodation bills , unless thes e bills bear their real character upon them , will be liable to punishment ; " such punishment , it is understood , being the withholding , in case of the trader ' s bankruptcy , of the usual certificate , and the refusal of a legal discharge from his liabilities .
SSovr we irankly coniess to a wholesome horror founded on past experience , of Government legislation or interference at all iu purely commercial matters , and we have that objection largely strengthened when legislation in . this direction proceeds from what we hope we may be excused from terming the Lawyerisra of the Legislature , Certainly , were legislation , inevitable with respect to accommodation bills , probably we could hardly entrust the question to more experienced hands than those of Lord Chelmsford , unless we except his judicial brother , Lord Cockburn . But
this queskon being one of wide and deep importance , vitally affecting every branch and operation of trade and commerce , it ought to be meddled with by no inexperienced or theoretical hand . Let us recollect for a moment tlie fabulous amount of commercial transactions represented by bills of exchange . Let us call to mind the indispensable and universal character of this kind of commercial facility and the dead lock into which almost every department of commerce would be brought were unwise , crude , or meddling regulations ana restrictions attempted ou the part of Government . Aud yet , what else cau be inferred from the words of the Attorney-General ,
than that some such dangerous meddling is to be forthwith attempted ? Bills of exchange are to " bear their real character upon them . " How is this to be effected ? Where is the line to be drawn between bills which are practicall y " accommodation bills , " but which are as legitimate representations of ordinary , and established commercial , transactions as bills drawn against shipments of produce or for the balance of account sales of manufactured goods and consignin cuts . Assume a case for the purpose of illustration . Suppose the Right Hon . the Earl of Hancock took it into his aristocratic head to invite a
wealthy young greenhorn just about to emancipate himself from the trammels of guardianship , and having the prospect of a large accumulation of Three per Cents , during his minority , down to some quiet suburban hotel—at Richmona , for instance—tlierc to take a t 6 te-a-te"te dinner ; and then , by the united aid of champagne , cards , and dice , the aristocrat cased the plebeian of his Three per Cents ., with a bill for the difference . v In what way must the " real character' * of the bill be made to appear on the face of the document . Or suppose another bill was given for a turf bet , made oy a turf black-leg with a wealthy " outsider , " where the horse was previously " made safe , " by turfites , who had placed their money in that quarter ,, what must the bill show on its face in ordor that its true character may be determined ?
But apart from such instances of bills of a mom p rivate nature , what would be the confusion mado by faulty or incomplete legislation amongst bills of a commercial character P Wo need not multiply instances of difficulties tliat would occur ; scores will present themselves to the imagination of every 0110 with the slightest practical knowledge of the Bill of Exchange system . But , it may be asked , are we to allow such llagrant commercial frauds as
were disclosed in the case of Montcith ' s and other accommodation-bill houses that collapsod during the late financial crisis , to escape without comment or punishment ? Certainly not ; hut then , we siiy wo object , to reach such cuscs through tho peddling aud tinkering agency of Government intedorencc . Look , wo say , to good Bankruptcy Laws for live remedy . Confusca and iucomplete as these laws arc , they would , we believe , bo found nearly auflicieut if put into action judiciously and consistently .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 3, 1858, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03071858/page/14/
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