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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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CLERKS , FOOLSCAP , AND GOVERJSrOKS . Perhaps the very worst enemies of the Indian civil service are its friends , for , instead of vindicating its character , they asperse it by attributing to it illiberal and unnational principles ; and instead of enfranchising it from those letters which now impede its more : effective action , they provide for keeping on these and laying on more . With the civil service we embrace the uncovenanted , because it is exposed to most of the disadvantages and disabilities of the great service , for by this , time reams of foolscap and successive Government Gazettes are devoted to its regulations .
It is supposed the civil service govern India , and the English public desire they should do so , but in reality they are prevented from governing India , except so far as the enemies of . red tape from time to time succeed and emancipate some province or newly acquired district , for a time , frc-in clerkism . Two centuries ago the Hon . East India Company sent out young lads as clerks to India , or apprentices as they would be called in that day , and the worthy gentlemen at the India House who have succeeded , generation after generation , to the headship of the firm , have never been able to realise the idea that the young men have got out of their
time ; There is a wholesome system of discipline maintained , which , though it neither provides Bridew : ell nor the cage of -Little Ease under Guildhall , savours of their spirit . The officials have , it is true , been deprived of the valued titles of clerks , factors , and traders , though they retain that of writers . ; but clerks they remain . The Indian service was , it is true , beyond the eyes of the head partners , and in so far gave way to license , but the home establishment was kept strictly to the counter , and clerks they are to . this day .. It is one great expectation we have of the new Government , that we shall obtain a real administration
for India , whereas imder the old system , -a man so illustrious as John Stuart Mill , had no real responsibility , and little direct power ; and we do not speak of JVIill because he has a public reputation as a writer , nor solely because the class of writings by which he is best known belong to the highest science of statesmanship , but because that men , who had , we believed , never been in India , was thoroughly and fully acquainted with it , and was well qualified to be one of its administrators .
It was , one of the defects of the old system that man who returned from India in the prhheoflifb were lost to its service , when they were in the place . where the most effectual aid could be ministcrod to its needs . There was , we own , the lottery of a seat in the direction , but what a lottery was that ! First , the candidate must be a Scotchman , or connected with the mercantile clique , and then he must wait long enough , as long as Mr . Prinsep did , before ; after successive applications , he could obtain a vacant . directorship . When be had g ot it , he had pomp and' patronage enough , mid considerable obstructive power , but little effective power of doing good . The patronage alone , and the claims pi the proprietors of past India stock wore enough to keeQ him employed , but he hnd the prospect of the chairs before him , and the natural impulse of getting a seat in Parliament , to defend the interests of the proprietors and the character of Jus colleagues . Thus with paper and red tape in Indify and the Board of Control nfc home , twenty yeara of a long life would pass by without a man of noble aspirations sue * ceeding in doing as much good as he had done in his own coUcctorato in India . His individuality was swamped without his obtaining collective pdwer . ' It was not every man who could or would omjnge in this lottory , with a bavonotcy as Us thH » ty thousand-pound prjzo , and , therefore , returned civilians and military lost all connexion with India except from frequent applications to the directors and the House to obtain oadotshipa and writerslups for their sons , and staff' appointtrients and leaves of absence for them and their sons-in-law . Srieh a man as Sir O . E . Trovolyan sought employment , ' and got it in the Imperial
Treasury ; and great as have been his services , we cannot ' help thinking that at the India House lie ought to have done still more ; but it was better as it stands , for we have had his services , and he has won the Governorship of Madras ; but at the India House he would have been buried with John Stuart Mill and other bright spirits . The system of clerkism at the India House has not only kept out competent men , but it has reacted to keep India in trammels . If a direct correspondence could have been maintained between a responsible officer in India and a responsible officer at home the harm would not have been great ; but
the Government trusted no one , and in -India we have seen the combined evils of military , excise , and mercantile red-tapeism . There are many tilings absolutely necessary for general discipline in an army , which are formal except in reference to ultimate ends or great emergencies , but when applied to other services can hardly be ' said ' -to-be , . purely formal , but positively mischievous . Thus a . variety of military regulations are parodied in the civil and inicoveuanted services , and a gazette is employed for their promulgation , in which furloughs and temporary leaves o / absence figure for the edification of the public This is not so bad in essence as it is in spirit , because it shows the spirit which domirnates . A man niay be nominally the head of two
millions of subjects , or he may be really the governor of a large population in the I ' unjaub , but in the hour of his . might and his triumph , the slave of the amlah stands at his ear , to proclaim that he is only a clerk , and to put pen and paper in his hand for some office form . Luckily in England we have got rid of this , in-. a great degree , although the . trammels of the Inland Revenue press tightly , but there is the member of Parliament patron to ask a question in the House of Commons , if John Smith were immolated at the sln-ine of the demon of red tape . Real discipline is not favoured by such appeals , but the Indian services will gain in the first instance by such a resource in some of the perils of officialism .
We have lately illustrated a few cases of the official system in India , which show to some degree its incidence on its members , and the member of council is as much subject to it , as the poor engine-driver or stoker , who is not a member of the uncoveiianted service . We recorded that a strike had been brought about on the East Indian railway by the Government refusing to allow the Railway Directors to , employ their own money in paying the monthly wages until the payment had been authenticated by the officers of Government in Calcutta , as if such supervision wore any effective check . The Government must , however ,
make assurance doubly sure , waste the time of their officers , and impede the public business . Of all things wages paid at a distance are most difficult to supervise , they can only be audited , and must be checked in lump by the results , and not in details . Any head of a largo establishment here knows that with the greatest care'he cannot check quarter days and overtime , and that he must leave this to his foremen , relying upon their capacity ancl integrity . The authorities . at Calcutta ore , however , imbecile enough to attempt this ; and their and
railway companies , superintendents , engineers well know that their connexion with the Government ia not a pleasing one , ami that they are put to the greatest trouble and inconvenience by the- meddling of the officials , ftp injurious fa this , that some of the guaranteed companies are almost in doubt wliothoi' they would not be better off without a guarantee and freed from the burden of the Government interference ; and the moment any line pays , thei'e will be a likelihood of its enfranchising itself from the trammels so opposed . The interference is as much like that of the French Ponts ot Chavsstes and police as can will bo .
Another example , forwavdod by a Into mail , was an order , in which the name of Lord Stanley was freely used , cautioning the civil engineers and other professional mon in the servioo of tho Government against giving information to projectors of railways , irrigation works , nnd other public improvements—< a proclamation especially offenaivo and impolitic .
When Parliament meets a copy of this ordinance may very properly be asked for . A born official , who has gone through Haileybury and < rot his writership , who-. goes to India as a boy , wilf-make but light of schoolboy regulations ; an officer who escapes from the major and his regiment to a- ' . wellpaid staff appointment , never thinks of the departmental regulations as offensive to his personal dignity , or oppressive : he has been too -well trained in ascetic submission to care ibr anything short of the cat-o * -nine-tails ; but an independent professional man , chosen for his attainments and ability , who has perhaps , worked out at home a
large section of a railway , and had hundreds of men under his control , is by no means pleased to find that impertinent dictation can be tendered to him , and that he is restrained even from ¦ resenting it . While India wants the- - free ' action- of Englishmen it is limited to the partial efforts of clerks , subalterns , and schoolboys . Members , of Council and collectors are not compelled to wear shells-jackets , and parade like schoolboys , but many is the personal restraint approaching to degradation to wl-ijeli the administrative code condoms them-.. Individual responsibility , must be enforced in India by allowing greater scope ' -for-exertion , not by imposing irreater restrictions .
This is ' one aspect under which the improvement of India is to be regarded . There inu . st be greater independence of action at homo and abroad , centralisation must be lessened , local » ovemiuent strengthened . There must be fewer collectors and magistrates , there- , must- be more governors and commissioners . At home there ; must be ministers instead of clerks- ^— -men who can he -made responsible by Parliament and public opinion , and can enjoy the honour as well as the bl .-Uue of their administration . There must be levycr officials in India , more jvrofessionnl men employed , and-more unpaid maxristrates and f u-iictioiuiries , so as to culdreadful
tivate a spirit of independence . This is a thought for . the old school , but it is the only way . in which the millions of India can , by our meiuis , be brought under ' the inilueuce of good government . It is not very pleasurable to . consider that one of the statesmen who received the thanks of Parliament—Mr . Frere—did not cvon bold the rank of lieutenant-governor--of the province which ho ruled , but , under the anomalous title of Chief Commissioner of Scinde , was brought within the category of those to whom tho thanks of lite nnlion -could be personally oilered . It was but . a short time ago that Sir John Lawrence held as moan a title .
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NOTES ON INDIAN PROGRESS . , It is a significant sign- of tho growth of English population in India Hint tho address present » l to Sir John Lawrence on his dcpartui-c , by tho hnffiw / j residents , - was signed l > r 282 members ot tne civu and imcovennnted ' service , by 471 military , naval , and medical officers , lfl clergymen nnd missionaries , and 83 gentlemen not connected with I no < lO ™ " : ment . It shows , too , how small Ifl Hie clement Jnst referred to .
In consequence of ( ho Luwivnco Aflyhmi nt Sftnnwur having been tnkon under the care ot the V » ° - vornment , we aro glnd to loam tlmt another is to do founded atMiirrco . in the I ' unjnub . by «^< - " . ; "g of tho Lawrence A sy 1 inn . Atier npprofinut inff . jjw . to tho erection of a monument in St . 1 mil »> - *" r " drnl , tho balance , amounting to about 4 , <><> 0 / . in j « hands of tho Punjnub Coinmittoo , mid ( J . 0 O 0 / . ot tno Calcutta Committee including i > < m { - u' " \ u « m \ Canning , the Viceroy , is to bo applied to bu \ M «» " » endow an Asylum nt Murreo . An eligible « tllo [ b to bo Reeured in tlmt town , and an institution toi nny children of soldiers to bo ' first built . . Iu consoquonc 9 of t-lio N «> rth-We » lorn Hmilc \ m ing withdrawn its branch from Mussoorlo , tho Delhi HunK
will supply its iilaco . , ,, „„ i m . i At jUtf oollng , on February 28 th , tho won lie iwg changed , With lTigh winds , hull , rain , nnu 1 o n « H » of snow on the neighbouring IiIIIh . c 'V iw . k « ibr woll had paid a visit to inspect tho now »»™ '" ' $ European troops on the Wncliul . A . "lltlvM" about Bhoofan is building a tomplo flir Jiw 1 > ° 2 PL ° OS fifty yards from tho walla of tho ol . urj-h . / J "™^ tea companies have boon formed . Tho dm « ' J ° now vory regular , which is of importance to j »> wk »
India And Indian Progress.
INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS .
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536 THE LEADEB . [ No . 474 , Apbil 23 . 185 Q .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 23, 1859, page 536, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2291/page/24/
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