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When Mr . Hume sat down , Mr . Macattlay rose , and commenced his speech with the words" I shall vote for the second reading of the bill . " The bill for India ought to make alterations , yet not be final : such a bill is the Government Bill . Many parts of this bill , considered by some important , are really unimportant . The change in the home government is not the most important point connected with India ; but from most men India-house politics hide Indian politics . People who know nothing about ryotwar or zemindar , know how to ask again and again for Director ' s votes , for writerships , and cadetships . The double government at home has been censured ; but you must have a double government , for English Ministers have gone out , and will " go out" on questions unconnected with India . You must give the Minister at the Board of Control a permanent body to advise him . Thus , you must always have divided responsibilit y , whether your Council is nominated by the Crown , or elected by the Directors . You cannot have a better council than the present . But , in truth , India must be governed in India , not here : while the extent of ocean and continent exists between Calcutta and
. London , it must be so . There are six weeks between the places . Instructions delayed so long cannot be applicate when they arrive . The business of the home government is rather to judge what is past , than to give positive instructions for the future . Such is the case at present . All the important steps of Indian government were taken in India ; almost all were disapproved of . But the Directors said , " you have done wrong ; but what is done is done , though it should be undone . " In the education of the natives—in the abolition of the transit duties—in giving liberty of printing , in establishing a uniform coinage , the Indian authorities acted without instructions from home , and were reprimanded for their acts ; yet the acts were unaltered .
The most important point of all is the character and spirit of the civil service of India . Six incompetent directors would cause less evil than one incompetent collector . A collector is the depositary of great power . He has often a district as large as a province of Ireland—with a million of human beings for population . In all that district there is not a single but in which the difference between a bad and a good collector will not be felt . You may read the character of the collector in the garb of the people , in the appearance of the houses . If they have a bad , or incapable , or haughty collector in a district , the country looks desolate . The private ornaments of the women , in which the peasantry lay up their wealth , and which they greatly prize , aro taken to market ; they are sold . Many even overcome the fondness which the natives bornand rush
have for the village wherein they are , they to emigration . They emigrate by thousands , the villages are left desolate , jungle encroaches upon the ground , and wild beasts make it then * retreat . But then you have a change from a bad collector to a good collector ; and mark the result . The folds are cleared , the jungle removed , the tigers destroyed ; you immediately witness the houses rising again , and the village population coming back . Therefore we should raise the character of the civil service , and destroy the pernicious system of patronage that has prevailed and will prevail without some alteration . " Every steamer that comes from the Red Sea will bring some adventurer , who will be the bearer of some letter from some powerful quarter , all pressing for employment ; and thus on these persons , so recommended , the Governor-OJenoral will have it in his power to distribute residences ,
seats at the revenue board , places of four , five , and six thousand a year . Men like these , without the least knowledge of the character of tho natives , without any more acquaintance with tho language than is sufficient to call for another bottle of pale ale , or to tell the servant to pull the punkah faster , will bo sent to great situations at Gwafior , at Katmandoo , or to bo the ruler of Mysore , which is not inferior to Scotland in extent , and the whole population of which will bo made subject to his absolute power . In what way will you check thorn P Will you , tho House of Commons , check them ? Have you been so wonderfully , so completely successful in extirpating nepotism and jobbing at your own door r Have you removed such abuses oven in Whitehall and Somerset TTn .. Kn that vou feol confident you can establish that purity not know
in countries the very situation of which you do tho very namoa of which you cannot pronounce i > ( Cheers . ) This is what you aro called on to undertake . I behove lirmly this House , instead of preserving India from that taintf will very Boon be tainted . I believe before very long when a son or brother , for example , ot Home active member of this House is sent to Calcutta , carrying with him some strong letter of recommendation , that letter will , Trel y be Jf bill of exchange drawn on the revenue * of India for valuo received in parliamentary support in this
To prevent those things , tho Civil Service must be " close . " It should consul entirely of nicked men , <> t Buperior men , taken from the youth o England . It is proposed now to establish competition for offices ; let us r ive it a fair trial . Lord Stanley ' s approval of that principle might have been expected from a young man of Ins snirit ability , and recent oxporionco of acutoinical compot . W - but Lord Kll « nborough M objection too w Nur-Prising Ho Booms to think that a man distinguishedm academical competition , must bo a pedant n »< unfit for E ^ i ^^^^^ f ^ rr "»¦ - ' s ^ s ' s ' - tt&rsft = '"" "trv ^^ = i ^ . i . r t =: x g < TlZ and iTond not . t op there to Lord Derby anH ondlool- ind l Chancellor of the Exchequer my right . !»> " " " .. , yH boon the ensn that men 5 £ W ^^ 2 «^^ -- SL-sj rrLtsxrvLr w « r ™ »*** ... » m
man at Westminster , and Melcalfe the ablest civil servant in India the first at Eton ? The most brilliant and remarkable man at Eton , the best man in the aristocracy sent to India , Lord Wellesley , was also most distinguished at Oxford . " Even Lord Ellenborough himself won a prize at Cambridge for a poem of very fioratian spirit and versification . The most eminent judges of the land have won the highest honours in College . It cannot have been accident that these men kept the start which they began in life . Then are we justified in refusing to India the advantage of such a test ? " I am aware many very able and judicious men , who are strongly of opinion , as strongly as myself , that it is important there should be an intellectual test for the admission of candidates to the Indian service , are yet of opinion that this ought to be managed , not by competition ,
but by having an examination of a high standard , and rejecting every one who cannot reach it . All my experience and observation leads me to believe this is a complete mistake . I have known that when a public servant is under the painful necessity of pronouncing a young man , on his examination , unfit for the public service , the young man declares that he will exert himself—that there is nothing he will not do to give satisfaction ; the father comes with tears in his eyes ; the mother writes most pathetic and heart-breaking letters ; and I have seen men often yield to solicitations of the kind . Under the system of competition , a parent cannot say ' the other boy beat my son , but please say my son beat the other boy ; ' and in that way the system of competition keeps the standard high , while the other system tends constantly to bring it lower and lower . "
You want superior men for India . There is not one of the 800 whom you appoint to whom may not be entrusted the happiness of millions of human beings . Look , for instance , at the judicial service . That is the weak point of Indian administration . All the evidence that we have before us shows that , though there are undoubtedly many able men in the judicial department , yet that in general to that department all the men who are deficient in ability and in energy have been sent . I do not blame the Indian Government for having taken this course , for , shocking as it may sound in the ears of Englishmen to say that the collection of taxes is of more importance than the administration of justice , yet , practically , the happiness of India depends far more on the abilities of a collector than on
the abilities of a judge . What is the remedy for all this ? Surely not , as has been proposed by one honourable gentleman , to strengthen the judicial department at the expense of the revenue department . Surely not , as was proposed by another honourable member , to pour out upon India scores of barristers from the back rows of the Queen ' s Bench . The real remedy is to raise the general standard of the service , and to take such measures as that it shall be in the highest degree improbable that any man who is really incapable—who is decidedly below par—should find his way into the service at all . One word more . It seems to me that this plan will afford the very best means that can be imagined for effecting an object of which much has been said , which I have frequently desired—I mean tho admission of the
natives of India to a share in the higher orders of the civil service . ( Cheers . ) Legally they are eligible for these offices ; practically none have been admitted . It is my belief that there is not at the present moment in India one individual whom it would have been a kindness to the native population to place in the civil service . I can conceive nothing more important to the people of India than to put natives , properly qualified , into the civil service ; but what becomes of tho advantage , if the native , becauso ho is a native , is to be looked down upon by all his European colleagues ? But of all things I can conceive nothing more injudicious than what is suggested by tho hon . member for Montrose , that before wo have admitted any natives to tho civil service at all , before a native has acted
even as an assistant-collector or an assistant-judge , wo should take some native and make him a member of tho council . Under the system now proposed by the Government , it will depend on the natives themselves , and on them alone , at what timo they shall enter into tho civil service . As soon as any young native of distinguished parts shall , b y tho cultivation of English literature , have enabled himself to becomevictorious in tho competition with European candidates , lie will then , in tho most honourable manner , as n matter of right , and not as an eleemosynarv donation , obtain access to tho civil service . ( Cheers . ) Then it will bo impossible for his European fellows to look down upon him ; ho will enter on tho service on equal tcrmH with ,
thorn , in tho best and most honourablo manner ; and in this way , and this way alone , can the object bo attained in a manner perfectly satisfactory . Lord Ellenborough lias expressed the opinion that by encouraging the natives to the study of the arts and the literature of Europe , wo aro preparing tho way for the utter destruction of our rule in India . This ia rather a singular inconsistency . How is it that tho noble lord should think so slightly of classical education when given to Europeans , and nhouhl anticipate such different oftects from it wlion given to Hindoos ? Ho says that classical education given to an Englishman makes him a twaddler , and unlit for uctivo life ; but give it to the Hindoos , nn < l such is itH stimulating effect , that the
power of Great Britain in that country , backed by an army of 200 , 000 men , will crumble into dust before their rising " onorgios . I really cannot explain how it is that knowledge , which in power in one race , should be absoluto impotence in another . I can onl y miy for myself , that I entirely concur in the opinion that wo ought not to seek to Hecuro or prolong our dominion by attempting to exclude the natives of that country from a share in its government , or by attempting to discourago them from entering into competition with Europeans for tho prizes of literature ) and knowledge . And I never will consent to keep thorn ignorant in order to keou them manageablo , or to govern them in ignorance in order to govern them long . ( Loud cheers . ) Mr . 13 jjACKETT declared himaolC opposed to u doublo
government , as a despotism without its power and energy , and as having all the feebleness and vacillation of the representative system , without the redeeming spirit of popular government . The changes proposed in this obnoxious system were ineffective , for one reason , among others , that they imposed no check upon the Board of Control , and did not provide for the position of India being brought periodically before Parliament . Lord Jocelyn supported the second reading of the bill , because he was in favour of immediate legislation-He hoped , however , that its objectionable qualities would be remedied in committee .
Mr . Otwat supported the amendment , on the ground that the claims of India had not been sufficiently investigated , and that the bill was altogether inefficient to meet the evils nlready ascertained , which he described in vigorous and indignant terms . Mr . Adderley gave his support to the amendment , and suggested that some words might be added with advantage , by which a continuance bill might be included in its objects . Mr . Mangles broke a silence which lie said he had
preserved for twelve years , and placed the House in possession of his views upon the subject of India . These were , in effect , that lie approved of a double government , and of the existing system generally , as modified by the bill , to which he gave his cordial support . On the motion of Mr . F . Viluers , the debate was then adjourned .
INSPECTION OF NUNNERIES . The bill " for the recovery of personal liberty in certain . cases , " was discussed on Wednesday at a morning sitting . The second reading of the bill was moved by Sir Robert Inglis , who guarded himself against saying a single word of acrimony on the subject of the Catholic Church , confining himself merely to saying that abuses might possibly exist in religious establishments which might call for the intervention of the law . Among the 3000 inhabitants of religious houses , there might be many who pine to return to the world they have renounced—not for its sins , and vanities , and allurements , but for those kindly domestic affections blighted in their confinement . A writ of habeas
corpus did not meet those cases , fbr that required the personal assurance that the particular individual required to be released was unwarrantably retained in confinement , or the statement that the party applying for the writ believed that the party confined was confined against their will . But communication to obtain this knowledge was , in the case of nuns , physically impossible . Under the proposed bill , a writ would be issued , the nun would be brought before a judge , and would be asked whether she remained in the convent of her own free will . If she replied in the affirmative , she would be allowed to return at once ; but if only one in one hundred wished to be released , there wero grounds for the interference of the law . The removal of nuns from one convent to another was also an evil
to be prevented . The Opposition to the bill took the shape of an amendment put forward by the Liberal-Conservative party , as an evasion of the question at issue . It was in the form of an amendment referring the bill and the consideration of its necessity to a select committee . Mr . Pjiinn moved this amendment , in a speech expressing much objection to tho animus of the proposed bill . " It begins , " giiid he , " witli a falso recital , and terminates with a provision which must be considered
destructive of the first principle- of the English law , — namely , that ' every mail ' s house is his cu-stle . ' " Tho writ of habeas corpus was not surrounded with tho difficulties stated by Sir l&obcrt Inglis ; the writ could be issued on the court being informed by the person in confinement , or —murk the words—by " any person on his behalf "—that ho or she was improperly detained . Why , if this wero not the case , Government might plunge a man into a dungeon and detain him there against his will , because none of his friends could communicate with him . The institution of tho Sisters
of Mercy ut Dovoiiport was , m fact , much more obnoxious to the public than any Koniim Catholic establish merit ., and this bill was u dexterous move to divert , attention from the treachery within the Church . It was not likely that nuns in a convent ; would keep among them tin unwilling inmate—a continual soro to them—a disagreeable member of a limited community . Then arose this question—was it desirable that souio restriction should bo imposed on tho acquirement of property by tlio inmates of such establishments ? H © whs inclined to say that when they hud a person taking the conventual vow at an early age , and when that vow involved tho transfer of tho property of such ] M ) rHon to tho institution , tho Houso was entitled to a « k that hoiiio such protection should bo oust round Much n person on entering' a convent as was coat round
Untitled Article
June 25 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 6 °
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 25, 1853, page 603, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1992/page/3/
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