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INDIA 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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India And Indian Progress.
INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS .
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PUBLIC . WORKS IN INDIA . Although we have spoken -with satisfaction of Lord Stanley ' 3 statement , it lias not been from personal gratification , but after fair , impartial consideration of the measures proposed by him , and with full reservation of many points in which we have disagreed from him . It will however be seen that the policy advocated , almost singly , by the Leader , agrees in the main with that how announced by the President of the Council , and which is in course of being carried out in India . At the time we took up the cause of Indian progress , not only had it no exponent , but then , as now , the
organs of the Indian officials were opposed to it ; and although their party is a failing one they still maintain their opinions . The Saturday Review , the organ of a strong body in the India House , has lately taken a very moderate course , and shows signs of adhering to Lord Stanley ; but in a new periodical , called theUiiivet-stil Review , the standard of opposition is again raised . True it is , the party no longer governs India , and has lost the power of initiating measures , but it still possesses that of obstruction , and it means to do all it can to impede
the progress of the new administration . The fate of the East India Company is beyond redemption , but the old policy of narrow monopoly is pursed , and its partisans view with bitter and envious feeling the development of the new system which they had vainly hoped would have been nothing more than a fresh edition of the stereotype forms . Thus / they look with pain on the : comparison which cannot fail to be instituted between the results of the two systems , and they earnestly endeavour to dwarf and warp the new to the dimensions of the old
clerks . Who are the men now governing our frontier , from Caehar right round to the Punjab , under the name of commissioners or superintendents , but the non-elect ? There are some nice staff appointments—there are some nice jobs in the Indian armies , but there is not a man of energy and ability in its ranks who does not know that the resources of India are cramped for want of the mental and moral means of promoting their development . Hence military and medical officers have been found demanding and supporting railways , works of irrigation , canals , tea and coffee plantations , steamboats , and mines ; pointing out the countries available for settlement , and urging upon the Home and Indian Governments plan after plan for the regeneration of India .
To attain this development of India , whether for military or civil purposes , public works must be carried oiit and the means of transport provided . Whether it be a bale of cotton or a battalion of infantry , the work to be performed is the same . The mandarins have kept India without roads ,, because they found it without roads , ! . and profess that roads are unnecessary in a level country in the dry season , and incapable of being rendered usefiil in the rainy season . Thus a ; bale of cotton , which is cheaply grown , and of which the sale price at Manchester is high , cannot profitably be raised , because the cost of transport
from India to England is so enormous ; yet a halfpenny a pound is a handsome sea-freight , and another halfpenny would pay for a thousand miles of land carriage ; while it costs more in India to carry a bale of cotton a hundred miles than it does in the United States to carry it a thousand . When the revolt broke out , the means of transport from Calcutta to tlie north-west were not equal to those of England in the wars of the Roses . There , was only one road in India , and bullock trains , as used in Spain , afforded the main transport , officers being posted on in small squads . The thousand miles of railway which ought to have been opened would ,
one . . ¦ - .. : ¦ . . , „ ¦ ¦ - , ¦ ¦ ¦ , . The present , therefore , is a period when any well r meaning- Government deserves support , for the efforts of the opposing party are strong . It is this party which arrpgates to itself whatever of glory belongs to the administration of India , while that is really due to a few me % who either were never members of the mandarin hierarchy , pr who had emancipated themselves from its shackles . What was there in common between the heaven born and Wellesley , Wellington , Cornwallis , Munro , Bentinck , Napier , arid Dalhousie ? and how little claim has it to demand the enumeration of Clive , Warren
in four-and-twenty hours , have placed troops ; guns , and equipage in the heart of India . The energies of an English regiment are now dissipated in wasteful marches , with an army of camp followers— -moving with less expedition than Edward I . in Ms border wars . In another country the improvement of the roads would be the first remedy ; but in India railways are the best resource , because they facilitate the making of roads . The population of India ia vast , but the supply of effective labour is limited in many districts 5 and there are at this time vast regions suffering from the want of labourers , notwithstanding the advance
Hastings , Outram , the Lawrences , or Trevelyan , among its members P Among the greatest administrators in India we find the despised , soldiers of the Company's service , some non-Indians of the Queen ' s service , some belonging to the still lower rank of the medical profession , some belonging to the quasi pariahs of the uncovenanted , some to the class styled " interlopers . " The real Indians have all the best berths—but have they all the best men ? Certainly not ; and at this mpment , in the real government of India , they have but a small share , and jn the future they will have less , for they will sink to the rank of Treasury clerks ,
wages . How can this be otherwise ? Ten miles a day is a high rate for the movement of a coolie , for though he may descend winding streams with ease , in a boat , he cannot ascend them with rapidity , for there are no towing paths ; and in transporting labourers a thousand miles ( which is considered but a short distance in India ) , three or four months will be consumed , Thus the resources of the country are wasted , the populous districts suffer from want pf encouragement and from the low rate of remuneration for labour , as Ireland formerly did . The thinly-peopled districts are insufficiently sup-E Hed with laborers , and a large portion of the popuition is rendered profitless while on the way to
omwhue the governors of India , instead of being taken from the caste of the heaven-born sons of Scotch directors , ^ vill be selected from the great joaen of the empire , or from those who will be raised to that supremacy . The temptation is very great to some of the old military to join the ranks of the privileged , and claim the mysterious right of being exclusive authorities upon India ; but the old prejudice of the mandarin class exercises its fatal influence , and many a soldier bethinks himself of the time he spent in the cold shade— -hpw his fellows , with the rank pf lieutenants pr majors , are gpverning
kingpipy ment . Look , top , at the condition pf a large part of the agricultural population , employed in sowing or harvesting part of the year , and for the remainder wandering about the country with their beasts pf burthen as brinjarvies . When a largo part of the population is omployed in carrying , a cpuntry is commonly in a low condition , for production is diminished , and the fruits of the soil , and labour of the men and animals are spent on the operations of transport . Thus , neither is the carrying * well dpno , nor ltf husbandry well tended . It is not an ecpnomy pf tine xneans of production which is . effected by employing the spare time of men and animals in transport , but a positive discouragement of industry . Many a time ia the brinjarry detained by weather abroad , and his boasts are dying on the road , when ho ought to bo at home
doma and principalities , recognised wi , th scant courtesy as officials of the Government of Indialiable to be stripped pf their authority , superseded by civil servants , and sent buck to serve as subalterns ( as poor Hodson wns ) , or , if more fortunate , to come home like Edwards , to be dipped in the ¦ waters of popularity , and rendered invulnerable against presidency cliques . Look at the career of Outram ; look at Havelook , with the reputation of a ^ general , for years left without scope for his abilities , while the progress of India is cramped because a few civilians jdraw immense salaries , and do not object to performing the duties of mere
attending to the cultivation of the soil . Economy is however effected , when , as in England or in the Netherlands , the spare , time of the husbandman ' s men , beasts ^ and wagons is employed in furnishing local transport , and produces food for the carriers . If India is to be well governed she must have railways . Troops should be able to reach every part of tlie country by one forced march at the end of a railway journey , and though one day ' s forced march can be made , be it remembered that two become difficult , and three impossible , for the speed is already slackened , and the best part of the
regiment left behind . With railways penetrating the country there would be no post out of reach of the hill garrisons , and the native police , well administered by English officers and Serjeants , could hold good on any occasion till the arrival of a hill detachment . With railways the police will be kept well inspected arid efficient . With railways the officers administering .. . 'the- government will reach every part of the country , and bring a con > stant inspection to view its condition ; whereas how ther e is 110 governor who can know fairly the state of the whole of his province . :
To supply these requisites , what are called thd grand trunk lines of railway are utterly inadequate . In Bengal they are not enough when helped by the increased supply of steamers on . the river and the transport on the Great Trunk road ; but in the DeTckan , where such aids do not exist and railways would afford the most ' efficient means of transport the railways must' be carried out to English or American , extent , and at the earliest possible date , before adequate accommodation can be obtained . In England a railway is ballasted from a district 200 mites west , coaled from 250 miles north s its rails brought from 450 miles north-West , and its cno-ines made 250 miles north- west ; the stone comes from 500 miles north , and the sleepers , if not
sea-borne ., are brought as far . In India , more particularly in Bengal , materials have to be carried as far , and from want of the means of transport , railway works -are now delayed . The site of the railway may afford neither stone , lime * nor fuel ; sand is brought fi * om forests hundreds of miles away , and stone cannot be used , for it is beyond transport . At this time the forests of the Himalayas and Terai are being cut by English contractors , to afford timber for the distant railways . The labourers have to be collected and trained , and , as new works arise , they must be removed to the scene of employment . Thus railways enable- railways to be made , as they assist the construction of other public -works , and they are , in this day , the first instruments of industrial progress , to say nothing
more . The Indian Government must give guarantees for a time ,, because it has let slip the golden occasipn for doing without guarantees ; but under liberal and judicious management , substitutes lor imperial guarantees may be provided . The cities of India should be allowed to guarantee public works , as those of France and Canada and also 1 the Irish bavoniea have been permitted to do . J- « ey should be allowed to subscribe shares and debentures . The Government of India should make advances of loans , as the Government did of tox * chequer Bill loans to Iceland , to encourage entertin
prise there . Wherever a railway passes ougu waste laud , it should receive a grant of the alternate sections , on the American system , ^ ^ JJy it passes tlirough zemindary or pthor settled l « na , it should be allpwed to take a portion of tuo increased value of the land created by the nylwny . The smullimport duties on railway materials shouiu bo abolished , every burthen be removed , and every encouragement bo afforded , and in a fow years no guarantee from the general Government wouia w . required .
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NOTES ON INDIAN PROGRESS . Tiro Indian community have aoow , with en . tiBftaotion , that the direction of our diplomatic relations wug Persia h » 8 been placed in the department « ^ ° ij Stanley . It was time something " ™ ion and Persia lms » been long neglected , and Vnnoh 1 anu Unnnim intrigue . have had fuU » copo . The Ifrenw
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31 & " THE XtAPER . [ No 467 r March 5 , 1859 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 5, 1859, page 312, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2284/page/24/
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