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dfecided , and then when and where it is to degenerate . In the beginning we must carefully discriminate as to the various classes of settlers we send to India ; 1 here are the Englishmen of England , of the lowlands of Scotland , of north-east Scotland , and of the families scattered in Ireland ; there are Welsh ; and there are the Irish of Ireland , of the highlands of Scotland , of the reimpprtation of north Scotland into Ulster , and those born of Irish parents , immigrants in England and the lowlands . Araoti the upper and middle classes , the English and Celtic families are to some degree
inter-To maintain a mixed race under the like conditions of uniformity would be almost impossiblemathematically and physiologically , quite impossible —for , though races pay have intercourse and produce offspring * there is no evidence that mixed races can be permanently maintained , but , on the contrary , the strongest evidence that they must be brought back to one of the original stocks , or perish . As a matter of favourite theory , it being assumed that the English are a mixed race , and by some analogy with mixed races of sheep and horses , smA iipav varieties of flowers and fruit , it being
supposed that mixture is absolutely essential to produce a superior race , the law is laid down that -the English being a superior race , they can only have been produced by mixture . This self-assertion does not , however , bear the test of evidence , for the other nations of Europe—the French , the Spaniards , the Italians , the Hollanders , the Portuguese , the Danes , the Swedes , the Germans—cannot so easily be brought to this category of mixture , and , indeed , the whole hypothesis is altogether inconsistent . According to popular notitins some ethnological compound has by a wonderful chance been hit upon in these islands , which makes the English the first race in the world ; but we are likewise to believe that this wonderful compound does not answer when transplanted to the Western World or to India ,
where in climates equally temperate and under the like circumstances it altogether fails to ensure permanent ethnological perfection ^ The English elements of the race have been transplanted from the Continent to Britain , so have the Celtic elements , and , for anything we know , have passed from Asia even ; and yet they tell us that to get back to Asia and India involves the doom of degenerac y * and a removal of twelve hundred miles westward produces the like , consequences ! The more we reflect on such phantasies , the less satisfied we must become , but some who have a political object to serve have very ready faith and very zealous propagandism .
mixed , though not to the extent supposed , but among the bulk of the population the separation of the races is better established . Thus in England , for instance , the Irish colonies remain as distinct from the surrounding population as the Patsec colonies do in India . Not only do the Irish immigrants live in distinct commiinities or rookeries , bat intermarriage with the English is checked by mutual repulsion . On the one side there is a disposition of the Irish to marry in their own communities , and on the other , a great indisposition of
the Erglish to intermarry . The English mechanic who marries an Irishwoman will have the reproach " Irish" cast on her and on his children and grandchildren , nor does the beauty of the handsomer races among the Irish population compensate for disaigjreeable differences of habits and religion . An Englishwoman has little inducement to marry an Irishman , as well from the like causes as because his position and earnings are inferior . Thus the Irish born in England are thrown back on the rookery , as a Jew in Italy-on the Ghetta , and their names and Roman Catholic associations tend to
mark them out for separation . It is from the community generally that the mass of emigrants will be taken , and then we _ obtain , as in America or ^ Australia , a distinct classification _ oC English and Irish emigrants , the mixed families counting for little as against the defined masses . The argument of degeneracy . and extinction will , it is to be presumed , apply equally to the two races , but as the English race contributes the greater and more important body of emigrants , it will be more convenient to consider the case of the English alone . .
In order that the English in India should degenerate from a given standard , it is requisite that that standard should be defined and admitted . If the English in England are really a mixed race equivalent to the coloured races in the United States , the mettees in South America ^ the halfcastes or the Portuguese in India , then they can only be admitted to have characteristics fluctuating as the constituent races predominate or decline . Coloured races , for instance , become more or less black , but if the English be a true race , then their characteristics will be permanent .
The student who examines the ancient sculptures and paintings of men in the buildings of India , Assyria , or Egypt , is at once impressed by one fact , the resemblance between the features there represented and those of existing populations ; that is , in other words , though the consequence is not so readily admitted , the identity and permanence of ethnological distinction of the ancient and modern individual of the same race : —this such of us
as cannot go to India can witness in the East " India Museum or the British Museum , where we have records of some two thousand and three thousand years , recording the unaltered features of many great and well-known races ,., as well . of IndQr European , as of Jew , Arab , Nubian , and negro . If these characteristics have borne the test of so many centuries , we may believe they will continue immutable for centuries to come .
If the English race be fluctuating , it will not have these conditions ; but tlren we cannot test the English as wo we do the N ubian , the negro , or the J ) pw . We have no records of thirty centuries j but we have still records available ; for if we examine the earliest portraits of masses of Englishmen , we shall find no material difference of features from those of the present day , however dress and fashion ¦ -- —» nmy' ^ iiry »« T ^^ Let ^ u 8 T-take-tl » G-rmeni-oiv-. woinon
jKMzaoelira time , tor instance , in a picture gallery or N flollection of engravings , and they present us with countenances thoroughly English . If we examine contemporary French portraits , we find features thoroughly French ; nnd we hqyo like evidence as to the Italians , the Spaniards , and the JDiUch . So step by step , in the seventeenth , eighteenth , and nineteenth centuries , we obtain the like evidence of an English raee with durable characteristics .
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laboured greatly and without achieving the desired success . We might refer to undertakings of moral 01 social improvement instead of industrial , but the lattei may be more easily discussed , and as we gave tea as an example on one side , so we may . speak of cotton and iron on the other . So far as will is concerned , or so far as effort can be made , the Indian Government has made great exertions to extend the cotton cultivation , and some progress has been made , but the full measure of success has been by no means obtained , because the Government is not strong enough of itself . To give full scope to the cotton cultivation such changes must be made in the
administration of India as the various authorities are unwilling to institute for the mere promotion of cotton growth ; and then a degree of practical European co-operation is required , which no Government can furnis h , because a Government cannot furnish private enterprise even though it could find a large number of Europeans and if the Government could export superintendents and machinists , it could not export English merchants , nor an English community . The cotton supply associations instituted at Manchester will become an instrument for supporting very powerfully the exertions of the Govern * ment . There may be some subordinate officials , or some abid Indians like Colonel Sykes , who may choose to
represent that nothing ought to be done for cotton-grop ing , or that more than enough has been done , but from Lord Stanley downwards there are too many men in the Government of India connected with the Lancashire interests to admit of the least hesitation in adopting every reasonable and practicable measure for achieving an object of common interesttoIndia and England : and though a severance of interests is now attempted to be set up by the ultra Indians , who say India alone is to be looked to , such a community of interests has now been established that the whole empire , and the
consideration of mutual advantage , must be legislated for . India is to be legislated for' on Cape interests in the matter of horses , on Mauritius interests in the matter of coolies , and on Australian interests in the matter of sugar , for with the progress India has made under our Government there is hardly one of our possessions to which a large trade with India is not carried on , and it is by : the expansion of these relations , by the increase of the exports of India , by the increase of her imports , and by the interchange of articles of necessity and enjoyment , that to some extent the improvement in the social condition of the native population is to be pro .
THE COTTON MOVEMENT . Among the influences operating to produce a state of transition in India , the change of government fro hi double to single is not the only one of importance . There are many others , concurrent or subsidiary , which are effectively and uniformly at work towards bringing that vast domain more under the control of home opinion . Among these influences may be enumerated the societies engaged in agitation , which are now acquiring greater prominence and a character of permanency in England and India , and constituting a powerful organisation . We can readily bring to mind the British India Society , the Indian Reform League , the Indigo Planters Society , the Society for Promoting English
Settlement and English Progress in India , the Cotton Association , and in the list the Missionary Societies ought to be included , which are now raising special funds for propagandist and educational purposes . Many societies established for home objects are turning their attention to India , and we believe we may include , the Decimal Association , who have among their objects a uniformity of the florin and the rupee . The British and Foreign Slavery Society have long kept their eye on India , and for what we know the Vote by Ballot Society may seek it as a field for agitation . Add to all the
societies , India and China commercial associations and chambers of commerce , including the Joint Salt Committee , and a large amount of associative power is brought to bear oh the Home Government , and directly or indirectly on the Supremo and Local governments , of India . The Indian Railway and other improvement companies have the same tendency ; they are apt to bring to a corporate influence to affect the Government , and by enlisting large numbers of shareholders , who acquire an interest in Indian matters , the field of agitation is extended . „ . _
of What some will regret others will cheerfully hail , and , however abundant the interference of some of these societies may be , on the whole they will greatly ( strengthen the Government of India Whoever reads the famous apology of the Company will aee in that measure how , with the beat will and the most enlightened pplicy , the supreme Government has been able to . dQ-vcr . y ^ Uttlo . fQi-JLndia ^ niUiajZ ^ -Uvfe ^' , flflL w iflfo of the great reforms , social , economical , and financial , been carried in defiance of
that have been effected , have strong opposition , the Government being always in advance of native opinion , and yet not always so strongly supported at horn * , or so . sufficiently provided with resources / as to be able to accomplish their desires to the full . Many great industrial measures have been accomplished , and among those that have been successful we may name the tea cultivation , which is really a result of Government car © and labour ; but , on th © other hand , there are many measures for which the Government lias
moted . The Cotton Supply Association includes in its organisation the firms which are the consumers of cotton , and others by which the trade in the raw and manufactured material is carried on . It has received considerable funds and the co-operation of many patriotic individuals . Of individual contributions we may particularise those of Miss Burdett Coutts , who gave 200 / . and a subscription of 100 / . for five years , and of Messrs . T . and R . Baines of 100 / . for five years . It is Observable as a feature in this institution that the bulk of its subscriptions are contributed for five years , so that its operations have in so far a basis of solidity . They will not fall to the ground in a year or two , but will be continued over such a period that either all legitimate prospector success will have been exhausted , or such success will
have been obtained , as will justify further exertions being made . The arrangement is a sagacious one and gives practical weight to the Association . No minister will treat it with contempt in the hope that the excitement of the moment will pass away , but that like many similar spcieties , springing up in the seal of the day , u will fall under the neglect and coolness of a public no longer excited . . - .. The objects of the Association embrace a wide new , for they include the promotion of the growth of cotton in all parts of the world . But practically tins field u much narrowed , for with the United States and the o a cot ton-grow ing countries they can do nothing , ana m many of the new countries their exertions can pr ° «" little fruit . Thus , without originally intending it , }«
in effect arriving > 'St such a conclusion ^ it » s •^ o « V" * promoting the growth of cotton in India , rhe > opera lions for promoting cotton-growing in liflst ana >»»¦ Africa aro most interesting , and it is to be expected per manent good will bo effected by the distribution of seea , by the supply of gins , and by making the prouuw known in the borne market / yet the nortP" *" members of the Association , and the most * ° »* ° " » porters of the cotton movement outside its »«*" ' " men as Mr . J . B . Smith , M . I ' ., for instance , have a ^ rived at the cpnviction that greater results are to w tained from one hundred and eighty millions of pool in India than from the desultory and "ncer ? in c n ,,, th « of barbarous chiefs ^ ^ "f barbarous tribes . In W ' . axpSfCSt colon ^ has ' by'th < i " exer £ iol ^ o ^ the . « ovoriw » TObeen largely extended of late years , but it wiu i long period before Africa , East , West , or Soum ,
raise the like amount of produce . AflBOCifttlon will To India , therefore , the funds of the Association be largely applied and its exertions m «» njjr diroaI 0 " ' this upon the principles laW down by'Mr . J .- »• in In Ms paper on cotton wad before the Society of at the last session , and carried out by him In «»¦«« Th 0 tlon of witnesses before Mr . Ewart ' s Committee . Association sco that to have cotton-growing t » o ™
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1008 THE LEADER . [ Ho . 444 , September 25 , 1858 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 25, 1858, page 1008, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2261/page/24/
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