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I^DIA, AND " - - INDIAN PROGRESS.
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- . - » ¦ " LORD STANLEY AND THE INDIAN ADMINISTRATION . If a man of high aspirations and philanthropic disposition were left free to choose that political position which offered the most effective career for good , then putting aside principalities and kingdoms , the American Presidency , the French Emperorship , or that of Russia , as not affording the direct and certain action of the measures he might devise , doubtless he would demand the adminisistration of the Indies , where nearly two hundred millions of the human race are awaiting
for advancement to a higher condition of political and social pi-ogress . There is hot certainly in this country a dignity which has attached to it so much real power , —the Viceroy of Ireland is a pageant , the Colonial Secretary is limited by the Parliamentary Governments of the several colonies , the First Lord of the Admiralty shares his departments -with his brother lords , the Secretary at War is tightly bound down by the Treasury , the Minister for Foreign Affairs has to contend with jealous and tricky rivals abroad , but the President of the Indian Council has a
real power of initiation and of execution , with armies at his ¦ command , emperors and kings for his subjects or captives , peace or war in the ink of his pen , and broad dominions at his forfeiture or disposal for punishment or reward . Such is the imperial prerogative which , under the new law , the . Minister for India now has , arid a man of the noblest ambition might well contend for its exercise . Lord Stanley was esteemed most fortunate in tlie first possession of this vast power , but such are the vicissitudes of political life , that already in the first bloom of his
wellearned honours , the office passes from him , and is given as a prize to another , whether ever to resume it , who knows ? for in this lottery , of which the earliest prize has been so great , the chances are many . A long opposition may alter every combination ; some other leader may demand the wished-for office on the attainment of the premiership , overcome all other aspirings of ambition , or , quick and sudden aa are changes , again in a short while power may flow back to its former channels , the offices resume theix' former occupants , and the period of interregnum be forgotten as not even one of transition . Still this is a time for
farewell to those who have earned our good wishes ) , whatever their hopos and whatever their fortunes may be , and Lord Stanley has earned the good wishes even of opponents . Jealously watched i » a career beset with difficulties , how ill has party warfare been able to find weapons in Lord Stanley ' s conduct : a hope that personal differences with the Governor-General of another
party might be handled so as to create partisan mistrust has been blighted by the di s cretion and honest co-operation of both ; an attempt to twist the dispatch of artillery to India n " s a fault , when it was an . act of foresight ; and an . insinuation that Lord Stanley U-as not overeomo at once tho life-long and inherited difficulties of India finance : such is the chronicle . Tho attempt to fasten those charges on Lord ( Stanley , in tho bitterness of party warfare , has boon little successful , because his conduct of a most difficult administration has gained fur him tho public esteem and regard . Honourably an
peop treasury . If there has not yet been time for the full effect to be felt of Lord Stanley ' s measures for the development of the resources of India and for the restoration of its finances , embarrassed by unsound administration arid the fearful crisis of" the revolt , at least he will leave the treasury with no resource diminished , with new resources added , and with large economies in . operation ; and in the course of a few years the progress of these measures alonewill ensure the stability of the Indian exchequer . He has had the boldness to raise loans at home to give India the benefit of the English market , and to impose more taxes in India , but the prejudices
of Indian statesmanship afford no willing or ready aid to the prosecution of these measures . Lord Stanley has been more restrained by these circumstances than by the state of the finances , and has been impeded in his endeavours to promote those measures of enterprise which are indispensable to Create and supply resources for India . In giving way to the demands of his council , lie has still managed to provide for the extension of the public works of India . As they have affirmed that the completion of the presidential system pf railways is an indispensable experiment to ascertain , whether railways ¦' will ¦ pay-in . India as they have done in every part of the world , he has urged tlie immediate completion of the works ; but he has further countenanced the extension of the
Calcutta system , the opening of the Mutlah , the communications with Darjeeling , the formation of railways in Oude , and the increase of river navigation throughout- 'the north . A bold indication of l > id policy is the grant of a guarantee to the Madras Irrigation Company as an . encouragement to this class of enterprise and to cotton cultivation . The arrangement made with tlie Madras Government for freer action in matters of local improvement and of public works , is the example of a decentralising policy in India , and of the establishment of local and effiqicnt government , in which he has confirmed the Punjab sub-presidency , and on a like model has reorganised the North-west Provinces .
In the reconatitution of the army on a It-uropeaii basis , and the encouragement of colonisation , lie has again had to yield to the expression of offioijil opinion ; but though he has been unable to carryout these two great measures , he has not abandoned th e , as their opponents have required . By sanctioning the resumption of Mr . Ewart ' s Colonisation Committee , a degree of attention lias been obtained for the lull regions and settlementsof India which secures their advancement . Month after month new ranges are explored , towns and villages founded , and plantations extended ; so that the foundations of English colonies extend throughout India . By the appointment of tliu of
Indian Army Commission , tlie supporters aa organisation of native rebels for the purposes of patronage , and at the cost of revolt , have had to record their opinions , and the evidence is against a native army ; so that , although the question maybe paltered with for a time , yet the progress ofiliu police system , and tlie determination of the English people , will ultimately bring the matter to a satisfactory adjustment . The nomination of the Army Sanitary Commission is another great mensure working to the same result in another wny ; fbr the evidence will h ! i 6 w that the health of the Europeans can only bo effectively inuintainod in the hills , and henco tho extension of the hill cantonments will bo stimulated and colonisation encouraged . Thus , whether Lord Stanley liinibvlf take t ! huri ? o of the rcoiiircd u >« iinuren , or do not ,
TKTOa f hn f ~ o Q If no flQCITl TY \ Atfl lf" . ff nl . Trii'Mll . tiACi iirnt */) was the task he assumed , its difficulties were great ; for though the prerogatives of his new office were high , he was placed at the head of two offices , -which had been in the habit of checking each other and of indulging feelings of rivalry ; and his first council was to include riien of deeprooted prej udice and jealous feelings—some the representatives of the unwillingly-deposed Corn .-pany , some the oracles of Indian cliques , stiff in oriental notions , and ignorant of western policy . The powers of passive resistance in this mass was great , and the power of obstructiveness greater ; and to their influence were his measures to be
delivered ; while in India the change of name in administration , and the abolition of ancient castes and oligarchical pretensions , threatened him with a civil rebellion . The conciliation of such discordant elements an older statesman and one of higher political experience might have feared to undertake , and failed to carry out , but the transition from double to single government has been so successfully effected , tnat already we have at home and in India a homogeneous government in vigorous operation . Such arrangements as these test the prudence and the temper of a statesman ; and , above all , test what is weakest in a young man , the knowledge of men . Men high in office , and accustomed to the despotism of . their bureau , and
the tirne-honoured indulgences of an official clique , had to be put in new posts without wounding their self-love , or inciting a spirit of resistance in the performance of duties , entrusted to them from their knowledge of detail and their long-practised experience . Thus the whole office was amalgam mated without one resignation from discontent , then or since , and with the loss » of no man of eminence , except Mr . John Stuart Mill , whose long term of official life then claimed its period of repose . There are probably few inen but Lord Stanley , -who could have effected this happy feat , for blander men . might have wanted-the firmness to determine when to insist and when not to intermeddle , and wanted the nobler courtesy of demeanour which acknowledges claims as of rijjht
instead of depreciating them by affected condescension . There has been a frankness about Lord Stanley in conceding or withholding , which lias bee n equally successful with those deputations or individuals who have had business to transact with him , and which has tended much to maintain public confidence in the department during a time of difficulty and trial . Results such as these will give self-satisfaction to Lord Stanley , and will be of benefit to his successor ; but they will in a short time seem so much a matter of course that any merit which belongs to them will soon be forgotten . There are , however , acts of Lord Stanley during his brief administration which will be of longer memory ;
and yet , on this simple pei'sonal conduct of his office so nmuh has really depended . In appreciation of the services of the great benefactors of their country who have suppressed the late revolt , Lord Stanley has exerted himself to obtain honourable mentibn and the accustomed public rewards . His appointments have conferred nonour on himself by their discrimination of merit and utter disregard of family or party considerations . Tho nominations to his council and his government , of such men ns Sir John Lawrence , Sir Charles Trovelyan , Sir Pi-oby Cautley , Sir Henry ltawlinson , and others of eminence , have given confidence to tho public , and will produce lasting benefits to India and England .
These , too , will bo forgotten , for the men will die—and national gratitude has but a narrow momory—but India will long continue to remind the metropolitan country of what Lord Stanley has done . There is one measure alpne which it has been truly said will make Lord Stanley ' s name remomberod , and that is , the enfranchisement of the soil of India , by allowing in Bengal the zemindarinl tenure to be commuted , and a fee-simple title to ho obtained to tho waste lands of tho mountain and
he has effectually provided for their prosecution . Much that has hero been rcJerrod to in not hilly realised , because it * rculwutiun is now in progMMW and must bo the result o /' yc : ur »; but Lord Stanley has already enrolled hi . s namo among tho benefactors of ' Jmliu , with Wollonley , Hasting * , Hentinck , Palhounio , the Luwruiioeu , and Hint iIIuhtrioua baud of whom we dnro only to refer to HOintr , fur it ouro-lu so many ; and Lord Stanley Iiuh this singular glory , ( hat ) io i » tho first of tho administrator * in England who lias given hiinneU ii name in India bosido wieh 111 e . 11 . By him sue .-li i / lory niUHt bo ontcomed n noble reward , , nn < l
tho plain . These necessary concessions have boon long resisted by Indian statesmen , and ivo nt homo can scarcely conceive tho prejudice raised against thorn . They , however , constitute one foundation for the . regeneration of India , by giving its pooplo what in agos they Imvo never had , a c . ortijm ana not a procuriouH property in its soil , and 11 security for tho application of capital to ha improvement . Alroiuly this haw communicated an energy to operations , which will speedily bo felt in the
ndviuieotill hough his tenure of ofhoo linn be . on Hooting , tor yearn and years ho will have tVie hoarliblt witmfaction of wooing the fruition of'mouwtruH by whicli ho , hart hnatonod the progronn ami secured tho wl'I flirt , ' of tho many millions of India .
I^Dia, And " - - Indian Progress.
I ^ DIA , AND " - - INDIAN PROGRESS .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 18, 1859, page 741, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2299/page/9/
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