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 HAS 
 
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 WORSE GOVERNED BY ITS NATIVE PRINCES 
 
 THAN 
 
 OUR INDIAN TEREITOEIES BY LEADENHALL 
 
 STREET ? 
 
 By MALCOLM LEWIN, Esq. 
 
 LATE SECOND JUDGE OF THE SUDDR COURT OF MADRAS 
 
 " The moderation of England is not unlike the ambition of other 
 Nations." Duke of Wellington. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JAMES KIDGWAY, No. 169, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1867. 
 Vrice One Shilling. 
 
LONDON: 
 PRINTED BY T. BRETTELL, RUPERT STREEt, HAYMARKET. 
 
X) S H'i 
 0^ LU 
 
 This inquiry addressed to Oude, as the last of 
 our Indian annexations, discloses but little to dis- 
 tinguish it from other annexations, except in 
 the magnitude of the gain, and the amount of 
 the hypocrisy employed to cover the spoliation. 
 Whether considered as a measure of political 
 expediency or as one founded on the koli/ object 
 of interference for the benefit of the people, in 
 either case a justification will be sought in vain. 
 On examining the grounds on which we have de- 
 prived the ancient sovereigns of India of their 
 thrones and territory, we find the motive in all 
 cases the same. Lust of revenue and extension 
 of empire, are the only influences visible in our 
 proceedings. 
 
 My purpose on this occasion is to compare the 
 condition of Oude in its police and revenue 
 administration with that of the territories under 
 the sway of Leadenhall Street, and to point to the 
 grounds on which the East India Company 
 attempt to justify the seizure — leaving it to the 
 
 503 
 
more curious to satisfy themselves as to the results 
 of our alliance with other native states, such as 
 Mysoor, Hyderabad, Nagpoor, Surat, Sattarah, 
 &c., and then to inquire whether the territories of 
 OuDE at the present time present a worse political 
 condition than our own. Lord Dalhousie describes 
 the kingdom of Oude, as " one of the most fertile 
 '• regions of the globe ;" on another occasion he 
 speaks of it as " well cultivated, and its soil richer 
 " than any I have seen in any of our own dis- 
 '• tricts." General Low, a late British resident 
 at the Court of Oude, speaks of " the immense 
 " profit that will be acquired from the possession 
 " of the Oude territories." Mill, in his history of 
 India, states that " the revenue of Oude before 
 " its connection with the English, exceeded three 
 " millions sterling, that subsequently it did not 
 " exceed half that sum, and in subsequent years 
 " fell far below it." 
 
 Whether the value of Oude was the motive of 
 the spoliation or otherwise, its wealth was an 
 object of sufficient importance to stimulate the 
 ambition of a Governor-General of the present 
 day, as it did the cupidity of a more celebrated 
 Viceroy, about a century ago. When contrasting 
 the past with the present treatment of Oude by 
 the Indian Government, General Low observes, 
 " For my own part although our earlier con- 
 " nection with Oude affairs in the unreformed 
 " times of Warren Hastings, suggests more than 
 
" one salient point for an Englishman to grieve 
 " over, I believe that our later Protectorate has 
 " been still more culpable." 
 
 The revenues of Oude, from the earliest period 
 of our alliance with it, have been the milch-cow 
 of our Indian Empire. A threat to take possession 
 of the country has always been found capable of 
 extorting the sums required for the exigencies of 
 the Indian Government, whether for war or for 
 patronage. Our exactions have exhausted its re- 
 sources, our subsidiary forces have maintained 
 the king in his misrule against his own subjects, 
 and turning his army into a sans culotte rabble ; 
 have brought the finest district in the world into 
 a state of poverty and depression, only to be 
 amended by casting off a parasitical protection, as 
 fatal to the country as it has been to our own 
 national character. 
 
 A late Governor-General, Lord William Bentinck, 
 speaking of the loans received from the King of 
 Oude, calls them " unwilling contributions ex- 
 " tor ted by fear of our power." Of our subsidiary 
 forces, the Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie, re- 
 marks, — " were it not for the constant presence of 
 " British troops at Lucknow, the people of Oude 
 " would speedily work their own deliverance, and 
 " would impose on their ruler that effectual check 
 " of general revolt by which Eastern rulers are 
 " best controlled." It is not necessary to multiply 
 authorities in proof of the value acquired by the 
 
seizure of Oude, — as well might the value of a 
 purse of gold be made a question by a robber ; the 
 difference between the two is that the acquisition 
 of the gold, though unlawful, is not associated 
 with the hypocritical pretence of conferring benefits, 
 — in this respect the robber takes higher ground 
 than the Indian Viceroy, — he has but one crime to 
 atone for. 
 
 Our views of humanity towards the Natives of 
 India seldom find expression; but when there is 
 something to be gained by them, we then assume 
 the character of the qui tdm informer, who pleads 
 for the interests of others, while intent only on 
 securing his own. 
 
 The alliance of the British Government with 
 Oude, dates so far back as a century ago. Oude 
 has ever since had a subsidiary force, officered by 
 Englishmen, and a British Minister has resided at 
 the Court of the Sovereign, who, " by treaty, was 
 " bound to govern according to his advice." The 
 police and revenue administration of the country 
 has, for the most part, been conducted by ofiicers 
 chosen by the Indian Government from the civil 
 and military services of the East India Company, 
 and the country has practically been under our own 
 management ; so that if its condition be such as to 
 furnish a plea for its seizure, the blame belongs to 
 the Indian Government and its agents, and to them 
 alone. 
 
 Of the results of our connection with Oude, the 
 
(Jourt of Directors observe in their dispatch to the 
 Government of India, dated 1st October, 1828, 
 " Had it not been for our connection with Oude, 
 " although misrule might have attained as great a 
 " height, it would not have been of equal duration. 
 " It is the British Government that, by a systematic 
 " suppression of all attempts at resistance, has 
 " prolonged, to the present time, a state of dis- 
 " organisation, which can nowhere attain per- 
 " manence, except where the shortsightedness and 
 " rapacity of a semi-barbarous government is 
 " armed with the military strength of a civilised 
 " one." Lord William Bentinck ascribed the 
 misrule of Oude " to the system under which there 
 " is a pageant king, and a British resident clothed 
 " with a degree of state equal to that of royalty 
 " itself, acting the part rather of a schoolmaster 
 " and dictator than of the minister of a friendly 
 " power, exercising a jurisdiction totally incom- 
 " patible with the royal dignity and authority. He 
 " thought it would be more for the comfort of the 
 " Sovereign, for the advantage of good government, 
 " and for the interests of both, that the Sovereign 
 " should be relieved from this more than king." Is 
 it surprising that a country under such conditions 
 should be mis-governed ? that its king, instead of 
 being the energetic ruler of his people, shoidd 
 cast off a governing power which he could not 
 exercise without bringing himself into collision 
 with the Viceroy appointed by the Governor- 
 
8 
 
 General to rule over him ? That, failing in the 
 real attributes of kingly power, and surrounded by 
 temptation, he should devote himself to other and 
 less dignified pursuits 1 
 
 Warren Hastings, speaking of our conduct in 
 OuDE, remarks, " the numbers, influence, and 
 " enormous amount of the salaries, pensions, and 
 " emoluments of the Company's service, civil and 
 " military, in the Vizier's service, have become 
 " an intolerable burthen upon the revenue and 
 " authority of his Excellency, and exposed us to 
 " the envy and resentment of the whole country, 
 " by excluding the native servants and adherents 
 " of the Vizier from the rewards of their services 
 " and attachment." One object has guided the 
 Indian Government in its alliance with the native 
 states of India, holding that steadily in view, each 
 state has gradually declined, each has sooner or 
 later furnished a pretext for its own extinction. 
 Few native states have escaped our grasp, and 
 these few are marked out for destruction. Ex- 
 perience abundantly proves that the best ordered 
 are insecure, where anything is to be gained by 
 taking possession of them. 
 
 It is remarkable that whenever the Indian 
 treasury has been low, the wrongs of Oude have 
 been more prominent than at other times, we have 
 then put forth our pious aspirations for the welfare 
 of the people — it was the piety of the highwayman, 
 which commencing with " Your money or your 
 
" life," ceased as soon as the demand was satisfied 
 — the people whose name was invoked for the occa- 
 sion were then left to their fate. Lord Hastings, 
 when Governor-General, adverting to the low ebb 
 of the Indian treasury, during the Mahrattah war, 
 says, " The treasuries of the three presidencies 
 " were in so unfurnished a condition, that the 
 " sufficiency of funds in them to meet any un- 
 " usual charges, and many menaced us, excited 
 " considerable uneasiness. At that period the 
 " low credit of the bonds which had at different 
 " times been issued, as the securities for monies 
 " borrowed, made eventual recurrence to a loan 
 " seriously discouraging in contemplation. Luckily 
 " I was on such frank terms with the Nabob, as 
 " that I could frankly explain to him my circum- 
 " stances, so that the Honourable Company was 
 " accommodated with above two and a half mil- 
 " lions sterling, on my simple receipt." 
 
 The circumstance we are here called upon to 
 remark is that while we were incessantly re- 
 proaching the Nawaub with his lavish expenditure 
 in luxury, " with the effects of an expensive 
 " government, the oppression and misery of his 
 " people," complaining of the wretched condition 
 of his unpaid army, and threatening him with the 
 loss of his kingdom, we should not have scrupled 
 so late as the year 1842 to borrow large sums of 
 money from him. Li a letter dated 21st January, 
 1842, the British resident, Colonel Low, states. 
 
10 
 
 adverting to the exaggerated rumours of our 
 reverses in Affghanistan, and of their supposed 
 effects, such rumours rendering it desirable to 
 shew to the native community, that the confi- 
 dence of the OuDE government in our stability 
 remains unabated, I thought it desirable to 
 make use of my personal influence with the 
 King of OuDE to induce him to lend a consider- 
 able sum of money to the Government of India. 
 I explained to his Majesty, and stated to him 
 frankly, that there was a temporary difficulty in 
 procuring supplies, and I said he could not in 
 any way evince his good will and gratitude to 
 the British Government more appropriately than 
 by subscribing largely to the loan now open. 
 Nothing could be more satisfactory than the 
 way in which the king received this intimation 
 of my wishes. He declared in an earnest and 
 cordial manner, that it gave him great pleasure 
 to carry m^y wishes into effect, and that he was 
 at all times ready to do so, that he would wil- 
 lingly subscribe all the money he could possibly 
 spare, without the least delay ; adding, that in 
 two or three days he would send to my treasury 
 at least ten lacs of rupees, which sum was some 
 days after made up to fourteen lacs." The total 
 sum lent by the Nawaub to the British Govern- 
 ment in 1842, to relieve it from the pressure of 
 the Affghan war, was forty-six lacs of rupees. 
 Our alliance with the Princes of Oude has for a 
 
11 
 
 series of years been little more than a series of 
 extortion; when weak we have soothed them, when 
 power was in our hands we have threatened, keeping 
 always in view the fate of the victim, until circum- 
 stances should concur to favour the opportunity. 
 This opportunity did at length arrive, that too within 
 a few years of the loan just referred to. Lord Dal- 
 housie, writing on the 21st November, 1854, says : 
 " The occurrence of successive wars and an un- 
 " feigned reluctance to have recourse to extreme 
 " measures, have concurred to induce the Govern- 
 " ment of India to take no action on the warning 
 " given to the King seven years ago. I would 
 " now instruct the resident Colonel Outram to 
 " apply himself on his arrival at Lucknow, to an 
 " inquiry into the present state of the country." 
 The pear was now ripe ; India was quiet — there 
 was no Mahratta confederacy — no Aifghan war — 
 no Seikh war to oppose our plucking it. We had 
 no longer an object to serve by conciliation — we 
 could count upon our power — the victim was 
 within our grasp. We had hitherto been satisfied 
 with the goose's egg, the time was come to seize 
 the goose itself. Setting out with a foregone con- 
 clusion, a report was called for to justify it. In 
 reply to the requisition Colonel Outram informed 
 the Governor-General,' — " I am of course entirely 
 " dependent for any information, on what I find in 
 " the Residency Records." It was impossible the 
 Resident should furnish any thing in justification of 
 
12 
 
 the measure, that was not ah^ady in the hands of the 
 Governor-General ; the mquiry ordered was a mere 
 mockery, an attempt to cover a deliberate act of 
 spoliation, and to throw the onus of it on a man of 
 character who, newly appointed to the office, 
 was without the means of judging where he was 
 called upon to decide the fate of a kingdom. 
 
 The historian Mill informs us, that during many 
 
 years " unjustifiable extortions, to the extent of 
 
 thirty-four lacs per annum, had been practised 
 
 on that independent Prince." Bishop Heber 
 
 says, " The King lent the British Government all 
 
 ■ that would have enabled him to ease the people 
 
 of their burdens ; " referring to another loan he 
 
 emarks — " Of the two millions which his father 
 
 had left, the King had lent one to Lord Hastings 
 
 to carry on the Nepaul war. For this he was to 
 
 ' receive interest, but unfortunately for him he 
 
 ' accepted instead of all payment a grant of fresh 
 
 • territory under the Himalaya mountains, which 
 ' is unproductive, being either a savage wilderness 
 ' or occupied by a race of mountaineers, who pay 
 
 • no taxes without being compelled to do so, and 
 
 • he had not the means of compelling them." It 
 would seem a strange policy to make over to the 
 King of OuDE the distant territory of another, 
 while we were ever reproaching him with being 
 unable to manage his own. 
 
 With the constantly recurring demands of the 
 Indian Government on the Oude treasury, it is 
 
13 
 
 not surprising that the revenues of the country 
 should be found insufficient to meet the ordinary 
 charges of Government— that the King should be 
 unable to defray the expenses of his army— that 
 under the confused and vacillating system of 
 internal administration established by us, crimes 
 should go unpunished and unrepressed— and lastly, 
 that those results should display themselves which 
 naturally arose out of the vicious system we had 
 devised and forced upon the King, as the certain 
 means of his destruction. It still remains to be 
 seen whether Oude was worse governed by the 
 Nawaub than our own territories by Leadenhall 
 Street. 
 
 Had the misrule of Oude produced the fruits 
 ascribed to it, we should hear of the emigration of 
 the inhabitants, which is expressly denied— we 
 should hear of robberies and murder, of torture, 
 and other crimes transcending the number to be 
 met with in other parts of India. So far from this 
 being the case, we find the magistrates of Jounpore 
 and Gorukpore, Major Troup, commanding the 
 2nd regiment of Oude Light Infantry, Captain 
 Bunbury and others, bearing favourable testimony 
 to the state of the police of Oude. In his minute 
 of the 15th August, 1855, General Low states, 
 " In all those measures which relate exclusively to 
 
 the interest of the paramount state, such as 
 " searching for and giving up criminals, who have 
 
 escaped into Oude, from our provinces, supplying 
 
u 
 
 <i 
 
 <c 
 
 *' our troops when marching through Oude, pro- 
 " tecting our mails, &c., the Government of Oude 
 '* has always been and is up to this day unusually 
 " attentive and efficient. I can further truly re- 
 " mark that the Kings of Oude have co-operated 
 " most actively and efficiently with us in capturing 
 " Thugs and Dacoits. I may as well here mention 
 " the fact that during the Nepaul war, the King 
 " of Oude lent us free of all cost 300 elephants ; 
 the aid thus obtained, for conveying our artillery, 
 ammunition, and tents, &c., in our mountain 
 warfare, was of immense value to us, and of a 
 " kind which it was totally out of our power to 
 " obtain in any other manner, or from any other 
 " quarter." The wonder is that General Low 
 should have consented to the destruction of such 
 an ally, that in common with the seventeen direc- 
 tors who protested against the seizure of Sattarah, 
 he should not have thrown his shield over the 
 man, who alone of all the princes of India had 
 stood by us in times of peril — that under the 
 treaty of 1837, made with the King, he should 
 not have preferred to see his country put into com- 
 mission. But this would have interfered with the 
 plan of immediate annexation; the treaty was 
 therefore annulled, a fact of which the King was 
 not apprized until the day had arrived when it 
 should be made known to him that his kingdom 
 had departed from him. The Government of India 
 is despotic, and it was perhaps a safer card for 
 
15 
 
 Leadenhall Street, to yield to the ambition of an 
 all-powerful Governor-General, than to stand in 
 the way of the openly-avowed policy of his ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 Amidst the many vices imputed to the Oude 
 Government, we find no testimony that in the 
 collection of its revenues and in the detection of 
 crime torture was systematic and habitual ; nor 
 is there anything in proof that a greater amount 
 of crime is to be found in Oude than in the 
 East India Company's territories ; nor is it alleged 
 that more crimes pass undetected and unpunished. 
 In the eloquent, if not very judicious, speech lately 
 addressed to the Students of Hayleybury, by the 
 Chairman of the East India Company, Colonel Sykes, 
 confines the blame of the practice of torture in 
 Madras to the Native ofiicials, and assumes it to 
 have existed unknown to their European superiors, 
 this too in the teeth of the testimony borne by the 
 European Civil Service, who, when called upon, 
 avowed their knowledge of the practice, many of 
 them declaring it a necessary means of revenue and 
 successful judicial inquiry. It may be regretted 
 that Colonel Sykes, who had done so much for the 
 natives of India in his judicial statistics, was un- 
 mindful of the proverb, — " qttod factu foedum est, 
 " idem est et dictu turpe,'' and that he should have 
 needlessly introduced to public notice a subject 
 as odious to English ears as it is discreditable to 
 his own body. The administration of justice is 
 
16 
 
 nowhere alleged to be worse in Oude than it is 
 shewn by Mr. Haliday, the Deputy-Governor of 
 Bengal, in his recent minute, to be within our own 
 districts, and it would not be possible, in the most 
 barbarous country in the world, to discover any- 
 thing more atrocious as a system than is laid open in 
 the recent Keport of the Commissioners, appointed 
 by order of Parliament, to inquire into the practice 
 of torture in the territories of Madras. Mr. H aliday 
 shew^s that in our own districts of Bengal, the ad- 
 ministration of justice is a mere farce and delusion. 
 He says, — " The village police are in a permanent 
 " state of starvation ; they are all thieves and 
 " robbers of necessity, or leagued with thieves and 
 " robbers, in so much that, when any one is robbed 
 " in a village, it is most probable that the first 
 " one suspected will be the village watchman ; " 
 in another place he remarks, — " Our criminal 
 " judicature does not command the confidence of 
 " the people, — the administration of justice is 
 " considered little better than a lottery." The 
 Madras Commissioners shew that the police and 
 robbers of the country make common cause, that 
 neither life nor property are secure, that torture is 
 part of the system of Government, know^n and 
 acknowledged as a necessary engine in revenue 
 and police operations, and as regular and habitual 
 in the public service, as any other part of its 
 duties. 
 
 If for permitting a condition of things less 
 
17 
 
 vicious than this under his government, if for 
 carrying out a system of administration untainted 
 by such atrocities, the Nawaub of Oude is deprived 
 of his country, how much more is that penalty 
 called for in the case of the Directors of the East 
 India Company, who though appealed to and 
 warned to set their house in order, turned a deaf 
 ear to all remonstrance, and neglected to repair the 
 most flagrant evils of their administration. The 
 existence of systematic torture by their servants, 
 and the corrupt state of their police, were brought 
 to their notice by their provincial judges, in their 
 Circuit Reports, and especially in a Report of the 
 second Judge of the Centre Division, dated the 
 28th of September, 1840. The means of amend- 
 ment were then pointed out, and fifteen years 
 after were adopted without acknowledgment. The 
 dispatch of the Court of Directors to the Madras 
 Government, dated the 12th September, 1855, is 
 the mere echo of the Report of their Circuit Judge, 
 dated 28th September, 1840. The remedies sug- 
 gested were left untried at the time, and would 
 have been left unnoticed to the present day, but 
 for the demands of Parliament, who forced the 
 exposure on the Directors of the Company. With 
 unlimited means of good government in their 
 hands, — with means unfettered for enlarging the 
 resources of the country, and adding to its wealth, — 
 what measure of improvement is traceable to them ? 
 What have they done in arts, in science, in com- 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 merce? What in education ] Have they not set 
 their faces against all change, whether it denoted 
 improvement or otherwise "? 
 
 It is sufficient that it was change to assure their 
 condemnation ; few have ventured to expose the 
 vices of their administration, as few to suggest 
 remedies. The Report of 1840, already referred 
 to, would have been deemed a hopeless and profit- 
 less task by its author, had there not been a 
 Sullivan and Elphinstone at the seat of Govern- 
 ment to assure it a liberal reception. 
 
 Although the spoliation of Oude has little more 
 importance, abstractedly, than a similar act of 
 injustice towards any other native prince, as the 
 last act against a native state of magnitude and 
 influence, it carries with it a peculiar interest, now 
 that the course of Eussia is towards the East. 
 Though we may have little cause to fear the result 
 of Russia's efi'orts, on the stability of our Indian 
 Empire, we shall never secure the fruits of peace 
 so long as our policy alienates the afi'ections of the 
 people, and makes them ever ready to open their 
 arms to the invader. Our Indian Empire has not 
 a friend left among the native princes once in 
 alliance with it, — discontent is rife everywhere, — 
 princes, nobles, and people, would, one and all, hail 
 the advent of Russia, or of any other powerful 
 state, as a saviour. With such thoughts upper- 
 most in the minds of the people, it is as impossible 
 that the country should ever be free from agitation 
 
19 
 
 and war's alarms, as that there should be a sense 
 of security compatible with improvement. We 
 may be able to repel the invader, but the measures 
 necessary for the purpose might be of a magnitude 
 sufficient to exhaust our revenues. 
 
 The genius of our rule in India has been ably 
 and aptly described in the letter of a native 
 gentleman, recently addressed to me from Madras. 
 He remarks, "It is right that I should refer to 
 " the general feelings of the natives, in conse- 
 " quence of the late supersessions regarding the 
 " adoption of heirs, and the dispossessing of the 
 " Zemindars, whose property is immediately 
 " bought up by the Government, by a mere 
 " nominal payment, which bad feeling will cer- 
 " tainly be increased, if the succession to the 
 " Nawaubship of the Carnatic is set aside, in 
 " defiance of the many treaties with the Company, 
 " guaranteeing its continuance in the family of the 
 " present claimant. The kingdom of Tanjore has 
 " just been seized in consequence of the death of 
 " the Eajah, about twenty-two days after that of 
 " the Nawaub. Oude, Hyderabad, and Travancore 
 " are threatened with the earliest convenient 
 " absorption, and the princes and nobility of the 
 " country are in a fair way of general extinction, 
 " till India will have no more than two classes, — 
 " the English Government and the ryots." These 
 sentiments pervade all India under British rule. 
 The lands alluded to were sold for arrears of 
 
20 
 
 revenue. Since the dispossession of the Zemindars, 
 measures have been taken at the instance of the 
 Home Authorities to reduce the land assessment 
 to the extent of thirty per cent. The necessity of 
 lowering the assessment had been often pointed 
 out, but an arrear of revenue was the only legal 
 means of depriving the Zemindar of his estate. 
 
 If it were possible to hold India against the good 
 will of the people, to make permanent an empire 
 whose foundation was the degradation of all classes 
 of the inhabitants, then might our rule in India be 
 secure. We have degraded the princes and nobles 
 of the country, we have denied to the people rights 
 and privileges which have been accorded by every 
 conqueror in every part of the globe. It remains 
 to be seen whether an ever-changing small body of 
 Englishmen, scattered over the country with re- 
 ligious views and social habits in antagonism with 
 the people, is capable of gaining a hold on their 
 affections and of filling the vacuum created by the 
 extinction of their natural superiors — the lords of 
 the soil. 
 
 In spite of the systematic efforts of Leadenhall 
 Street, to check the spread of knowledge in India, 
 the distinction between a conquest made by Hussia 
 and a conquest made by England is not unknown, 
 and were the opportunity to present itself, the 
 people would not shew themselves unmindful of it. 
 The " divide et impera'' principle which raised our 
 empire can no longer serve us ; in place of it we 
 
21 
 
 have a bond of union, cemented by a common 
 interest in our destruction. Every native prince 
 has been weighed in the balance, and is well aware 
 that sooner or later the lot will be drawn " serins 
 " ocius sors exitura^'' which humbles him before 
 his people, and forces him, as an outcast, from the 
 inheritance of his ancestors. 
 
 Malte Brun, speaking of the conduct of Russia 
 to her conquered subjects, remarks, " Le Gouverne- 
 " ment Russe respecte avec une politique eclairee, 
 " tons les droits acquis, tons les privileges, de pro- 
 " vinces, de villes, de classes. Les seuls change- 
 " mens que les peuples conquis epreuvent sent 
 '• favorables a la liberte personelle, industrielle, et 
 " religieuse." The converse proposition describes 
 the genius of Leadenhall Street. Unlike Eussia 
 in her conquests, the Government of Leadenhall 
 Street has ever been opposed to colonization. 
 Grasping everything for itself, it has excluded 
 British labour and capital from India, the one lest 
 it should bring our countrymen into intercourse 
 with the inhabitants, the other lest it should open 
 out a field of commerce to the world. 
 
 Leaving to the natives nothing of the fruit but 
 the husk, it has shut them out from ail but the 
 lowest ofiices in the state, and declaring the habits 
 of the people, fixed and immutable, has opposed 
 itself to education, rightly judging that an empire 
 such as theirs could only subsist on ignorance. As 
 the result of an administration two hundred years 
 
22 
 
 old, we have the mass of the people in abject 
 ignorance and in abject poverty. Excessive taxa- 
 tion has absorbed the capital of the country, so 
 that even the small property of the peasantry, the 
 jewels and personal ornaments of their females, 
 have vanished at the call of the tax-gatherer. 
 
 The first insight acquired by the people of 
 England into the East India Company's rule, was 
 at the renewal of the Charter, in the year 1813. 
 Great attempts were then made to baffle inquiry, 
 and the means resorted to were in part successful. 
 The year 1832 was the next important era of 
 inquiry, and from this period it may be dated that 
 the eyes of the people of England were opened to 
 the wants of India, and that they saw in her a 
 nation worn down by the oppression of her rulers. 
 The last ten years have been actively employed in 
 measures of improvement, and more has been done 
 in this brief interval, in contrast with the past, 
 than in the half century which preceded them. The 
 Act recently passed for the Government of India, 
 which makes the Directors tenants at will, instead 
 of leaseholders for a term of twenty years, provides 
 a potent check against jobbery and misrule, and 
 the appointment to the body of the Directors, by 
 the Crown, shews that Parliament is fully alive to 
 their short comings. The closer subjection of the 
 Indian Governments to the paramount power, in 
 place of continuing them under the authority of a 
 body of merchants, bankers, lawyers, and non- 
 
23 
 
 descripts, will aid in reconciling the people of 
 India to a foreign rule, hitherto neither intelligible 
 as a government, nor capable in any case of 
 affording the means of redress. It remains but to 
 return the very meagre authority still left in the 
 Court of Directors to the more efficient hands of 
 the British Government, the only source of im- 
 provement, and the only barrier against Indian 
 misrule. Even under the old regime the power 
 of the Court of Directors was in subserviency to 
 the Board of Control. So much so that Lord 
 Ellenborough, as President, arrogated to himself 
 the entire jurisdiction of the Indian Government, 
 " I know when I was at the Board of Control, I 
 " conducted the Government, there is no doubt 
 " about that ; " the Court of Directors are else- 
 where described as " the mere cloak of the irre- 
 " sponsible despotism of the minister, as a source 
 " of injury to India and of danger to England." 
 By the new regime the Court of Directors have 
 lost one of the main attributes of government, viz. 
 — the power of appointing their own servants, so 
 that no one can enter their Civil, Military, and 
 Medical Services without first passing an exami- 
 nation by Commissioners appointed by the Crown ; 
 nor can they appoint their own Law Officer, nor 
 the members of Council of the local governments, 
 without the consent of the Crown, which possesses 
 authority to dismiss at its pleasure any one of their 
 servants. Of the Court of Proprietors little need 
 
24 
 
 be said; let them reflect on the men they have 
 chosen to govern India, — on the motive of their 
 votes, — shall two such bodies be preserved 1 Never 
 have two bodies so completely worked out their 
 own destruction ! Never have two bodies more 
 justly merited the fate that awaits them. 
 
 The East India Company's charter of 1832, 
 provides a sum of £.5000 to be expended on 
 education in the territories, under the Madras 
 Presidency ; of this amount, about £.3000 per 
 annum have been recently expended in a collegiate 
 school at Madras, which has given education to 
 160 pupils out of a population of twenty-two 
 millions; the residue of the grant has been un- 
 employed. In an interval of about the same dura- 
 tion, the Court of Directors expended out of the 
 revenues of India a sum of £.53,000 in providing 
 banquets for themselves and their supporters. If 
 we except the Collegiate Institution at Madras, 
 there is not a Government school over all the 
 140,000 square miles comprising the Madras ter- 
 ritories. 
 
 Acting on the policy announced by Lord Dal- 
 housie a few months after his arrival in India, 
 that " it is not possible for any one to dispute the 
 " policy of taking advantage of any just oppor- 
 " tunity for consolidating the territories that 
 " already belong to us, by taking possession of 
 " states that may lapse in the midst of them." 
 The dominions of the Rajah of Travancore come 
 
25 
 
 next in the order of absorption. Looking at the 
 past it is not more easy to decide in what consists 
 a " just opportunity " than to describe the features 
 of a state that has " lapsed." Taking a practical 
 view of the question, we may assume that any state 
 has lapsed when it is thought an advantage that it 
 should fall into the hands of the Governor-General ; 
 an argument that might well be applied to the 
 case of the wretched creature, whom in virtue of 
 a bill of sale by a late Viceroy Lord Hardinge, 
 we placed on the throne of Cachmere, and have 
 since supported in his excesses. Is it only with 
 allies such as Goolab Sing that the English Govern- 
 ment finds sympathy 1 
 
 The condition of the Travancore state presents a 
 favourable contrast with our own territories. Its 
 sovereign, an enlightened Hindoo, has established 
 schools throughout his dominions, and evinces his 
 religious toleration by permitting the bible to be 
 read in them. His courts of justice, modelled on 
 those of the East India Company, are well ordered, 
 the land assessment of his country is moderate, and 
 his people are happy. In spite of a subsidiary 
 force and other subsidies paid to the British 
 Government, his treasury is well stocked — what 
 more heinous crime in the eyes of an Indian 
 Government 1 
 
 The groundless pleas which have been urged 
 for seizing the states of the native princes of India, 
 have suggested a parallel to the press of India, 
 
 c 
 
26 
 
 which has not inaptly been applied by it to the 
 <;ase of the King of Oude. " Thy country is 
 " surpassing rich, thy father was a knave, thy 
 " sister a harlot, thy mother a Cyprian, and thyself 
 " a good-natured fool, is it surprising that under 
 " the circumstances I killed thee 1" Those of our 
 Indian moralists who have paraded before the 
 public the diaries of the fallen prince, and felt a 
 blush of shame steal over them when luxuriating 
 on the malicious and prurient tales of his de- 
 baucheries, would do well to peruse the domestic 
 annals of other sovereigns, and in candour then 
 ask themselves, whether among the princes of 
 India is to be found a lower standard of morals 
 than is on record against the kings and queens of 
 Europe — " Facile est opprimere innocentem.'' 
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY T. BRETTELL, RUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET. 
 
t.OAN DEPT 
 
 On ._^ 
 Renewed book 
 
 <^ilU%\%oo 
 
 
PAMPHLET BINDER 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 Stockton, Calif. 
 
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