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\Z' ¦ ¦:¦ ¦ ' :¦ ' : INDIA AM) 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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I LOKD STANLEY , AND EAST INDIAN I - FINANCE . ' I Lord St \ ts £ et had one night for himself and one for i his opponents ; and having delivered a speech which I was successful with the public , he was equally I successful in undergoing the ordeal of the ex-Indian ministers—Sir Chas . . Wood . ana Vernon Smith . Public works may be called the key to- Lord Stanley ' s financial policy , and it is a Jcey' the public will entrust to him ; it is the master key of the \ complications of the Indian situation , and must not be recklessly thrown away .. Sir Chas . Wood began with a-sneering hint , that some discrepancy may occur in the calculations from taking the rupee t 2 s . to the £ instead of at Is . lQ £ d ., whereas , the sooner the rupee is taken at 2 s ., or one-tenth , the sooner will one mystery of Indian finance be got ridof ; and if the rupee be really assinirlated to the florin , instead of various other changes being made in it from time to tinie r so much tlic better . Sir Charles after paying some compliment to Lord Stanley on liis statement , paid but a poor comp . liment to himself , by affirming that Lord Stanley ' s account of the public works was not so full as it might have been , nor yet very satisfactory ; and we agree with' him , for we should have been better pleased had Lord Stanley been able to give a statement of a large number of public works ; there are : railways for instance . Sir Chas . Wood coolly said that when he became connected 'with the India Board , one of the first things he , did was to urge the completion of the great lines ivith the greatest possible rapidity , and the result that Lord Stanley finds after a year . of- officeis , that only 550 miles are open in all India—not length enough in the whole to communicate from Calcutta to the nearest presidency ; and this Sir Chas . Wood calls urging on the great lines with the greatest possible rapidity . There was no mutiny in Madras or Bombay , and yet fifteen years after railways were planned for India we have just 559 miles . How could Lord Stanley give a more satisfactory account of what Sir Chas . Wood and Mr . Vernon Smith had done ? Had 5 , 000 miles been opened , aa they _ might have been , Lord Stanley ' s statement might indeed have been satisfactory . Ttie tenure of land question— -ono of the most vital points in Lord Stanley ' s statement—rwas ingeniously treated by the groat Whig minister . He professed to understand that Lord Stanley held out that very little could be done by the Government aa to the title of now lands or of old lands ; whereas Lord Stanley proposes to give a freehold title to the Government waste lands , and to enfranchise the zemiridarial lands—objects resisted by the Whigs and the mandarins for years . Of all the lands of India open for occupation and improvement , Sir Charles- Wood ' s information was only able to point out to him the SuiKlerbunds , to which he stated with candid truth that he was not quite sure any great munber of English settlers would be induced to tako up their abode in the Sunderbunds , which ho believed ato now principally in the occupation of tigers . We believe with him ; but neither Lord Stanley nor anybody else proposed to induce any conside ' rablo " number of English settlors to take up their abode in the pcatiferous Sunderbunds ; but Lord Stimloy had full right to refer to the great undertaking ' which Sir Charles Wood neglected—the opening of the port of the Mutlnh , ami the 'formation of a branch rnij-¦ Wfi y , which , besides conferring the greatest benefit «» the city of Calcutta , may be a stop towards exertions lor reclaiming the Sundoi-buiuls . Lord Stanley has , however , held out groat oncouragomont fur English settlers to tako up tlioir abode in the health y Iu'IIb , ' by granting a free tenure of land , and by giving them the protection of Knglish troops . There is good scope , too , tiav extending « ne public domain by extinguishing the squatting wUoB of several of the savage tribos in the hill
regions , as the squatting titles of the Indians in Canada , of KafTres in Africa , and of Maoris in New Zealand , have been compensated ^ and provided for . There is no reason the condition of the poorer hill tribes of India should not be raised by the infhience of English capital and civilisation . It was quite-within keeping for such a man to deprecate Lord Stanley ' s view of giving the aid of the credit of this country to the Indian exchequer . The United States federal treasury has , by means of the public funds , paid off -most'of its public obligations ; and as new territory is acquired , so are new resources obtained to meet further obligations ; and so have California , Oregon , W ashington , Texas , IS cw Mexico , and . Arizonaafforded , and still afford , ' fresh supplies for the federal government . The English Government , under the policy inaxigurated by the' Whigs * have " iven away the public funds of Canada , South Africa , and all Australia ; and with the same profligacy , and the same mint of principle , they propose to abandon the increasing resources of India . Let the guarantee of the empire be given for India , and the sale of-the-waste . 'lands and the enfranchisement of the old tenures will provide abundant fundsi not only for the-liquidation ' of-the Indian old debt , but of all sums raised for jiublic improvements , and of providing a lai-ge sum for the reduction of the National Debt here . The present upset price of wild land in India , d epressed as are prices in that country , is 6 s . per acre , whereas in the United States it is only 5 s ., and in Canada 2 s . 6 d . In a few years with the progress ' of railways 1 -and water communication , there will not be an aci'e of wild land in India worth less than a pound , or ten rupees ,, oi * of cultivated land worth less for enfranchisement than five pounds , or fif ty rupees . The policy of Lord Stanley will raise the Value of all the property in India , as wages and prices are rising throughput ; and it only remains for a liberal and judicious administration to secure a fan * share of the proceeds for our own taxpayers , who have had for so many years to bear the brunt of'the expenditure of the empire . Why , we should like to ask , are the proceeds of the land revenues of British Columbia to be diverted from the taxpayers here , and go to the . English and American squatters there , when the price of the lands of California goes not to the sqttlers and squatters in California , but in relief of the American taxpayers in the mass ? We want an imperial policy for India and for England , and there is now some chance of our getting it . There is one measxiro of itself which will go a great way towards increasing the value of land in India , and that is the amalgamation of the Sudder Court with the Supreme Court , or , in fact , the suppression of the former , for which Lord Stanley has taken some proceedings . He said , with great impressiveuess , that to lose the opportunity which the present occasion offers would be a great mistake . We are glad to learn thnt all proceedings with regard to the Code or Black Act are to bo suspended for the present , in order to facilitate the arrangement for the extension p f the supreme courts , and avc hope tUe Code . will be suspended altogether . AVliat is to prevent the judges of the supreme courts going on circuit by the . Ganges , as far as Allahabad , and hy the railway to'JDclhi ; . by steamboat to Daoca , ivnu right up the Burhampooter ; by railway to l ' uomin and to Sulein , and ultimately throughout the . J ) ekkan . With the present station judges ttdminiHtcrjng the law" in civil cases , and with English justices of peace throughout the country , every English settlor ought to bo able to obtain the administration of English law , and thus gradually the natives would be prepared for the like privilege and redeemed from the oppression of the " native scoundrels , " to whose demerits full testimony was given . The now presidencies , or sub-presidencies , ought tp luvvq supremo courts \ the salaries of * the head civilians as commissioners should be paid as to lieutenant-governors , so as to extend local government $ and the subordinate civilians should bo abolished , and their galariaa employed to pay four or five Englishmen . There will be no
difficulty in getting young men to take subordinate offices at moderate salaries in India , when private enterprise is thrown open to them , and those whe have brains can promote themselves . Three 6 j four hundred a year is ; quite enough for a subordinate in India , as so many officers in the arm } can bear testimony , and there is no need to paj suckling lawyers , or untrained laymen more foi officiating as police magistrates and in other junioi local employments . The police must be extended under English superintendence , and when this is done , the ° wa . ste land sold , and the settled lane enfranchised , the : police must be paid partly out o : the county rate as here , and partly out of the general taxes . Many of the local charges no-w borne by the' general revenue will hereafter be paid out of the . ' local taxes , and the duties be more efficientlv discharged . There ' is one 'means of reducing the charges ol the English army greatly , and that is , to carry oui the plan in Sir- "John . Login ' s -memorandum , - ol enlisting men in England for short service in the hill cantonments , giving them Engh ' sh pay , and ' leaving'them , after five or seven years , to settle down as civilians . Sir Charles Trevelyan , the ne ^ v Governor of Madras , has read this memorandum , and he can readily apply the system in the Neil--gherries , the Slievaroys , and the Pulneys , in whicl 5 , 000 short-service men . could be cantoned , and where they would , at the end of their term , constitute a strong militia . !• 1 There were some persons to be found m the House of Commons who , in their desire to injure the Administration by a side wind , advocated the mandarin system of the Government carrying out public works themselves , instead of guaranteeing them . As the Government of India have not got engineers enough for " essential purposes ., and have to employ sergeants , corporals , and pi-ivates , they arc in no condition to undertake or carry on public works . The grand system of public works for India is that which has made England and the United States—private enterprise .
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THE BOMBAY MAILS . The llipon arrived at Southampton this ( Friday ) morning , bringing these mails . She left Alexandria on the 1 lth inst . ; Malta , 15 th ; and Gibraltar , 20 th . The Ripon brirtgs 69 passengers , , £ 1 , 210 in specie , 1 , 648 bales of silk , and 12 cases of shawls , &c . She spoke the Sultan , steamer , on the 21 st , off Mafra , and Ceylon , on the 23 rd , off Cape Finesterre . —The Spanish schooner Francoli put into Gibraltar on the 13 th , with damage ? from collision with an unknown baric , off Marbella , on the previous day . One man hurt by the collision . —Her Majesty ' s troopship Perseverance , from Portsmouth , arrived at Gibraltar on the night of ' the 1 . 2 th , and proceeded to Malta oh the evening of the 14 th .
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NOTES UPON INDIA . It lias been heard with very much rogrct that the committee on English settlement in India propose to bring the committee to a close by Easter , although there are a groat-many subjects still to be investigated , und numerous witnesses in this country ana on their way from India anxious to bo examined ; but the proceedings of tliis committee depend , to a groat extent , on the extension of English influence and civilisation in India , and the wolfare of the settlers now there and about to proceed thither ; and after the success which' lias attended the formation of fc / us committee , it is deeply to bo regretted thattho committee should be brought to n close to suit tho convenience of individual mombora , « n < -l grutity tue sinister wishes of opponents . . A letter from Assam in tho Indian Mail gives a vory ftivournblu agcount of tho profits ot teagrowing in Asanni and Coolicor . Iho general estimate is 30 per coirt . at tho end of the iourtli year . Tho eorruapondont thinks that with a first capital of 1 , 500 / ., a sharp hand would do well , and look forward to going homo at tho ond of seven years , but ho must bo prepared to rough it in the general way of colonial lJl ' u . The receipts from the Government electric telegraph establishment in November wore 2 , 400 / . for private messages , the calculated value ot Govommonfc messages being 4 , 000 / .
\Z' ¦ ¦:¦ ¦ ' :¦ ' : India Am) Indian Progress.
\ Z ' ¦ ¦ : ¦ ¦ ' : ¦ ' : INDIA AM ) INDIAN PROGRESS .
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P ^; ^ ¦ ;¦ : ^' - r ; - - ^ ' " ' ¦ : ¦ : . ; v v T ^ ¦ ' i ^ n 4 fifi , February 26 , 1859 . 1 THE LEADEE , 2 ? £ ¦ iii ^ mmm ***—~—~—~ ————L-L-IIEJM- """ " *?^ '" ™~*~**~""""^ J * ° ** m— ""—^ mmm ^ ^ - ' . ' "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 26, 1859, page 279, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2283/page/23/
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