TOPICS 
 
 FOR 
 
 INDIAN STATESMEN. 
 
TOPICS 
 
 FOB 
 
 INDIAN STATESMEN. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN BEUCE NOETON, Esq., 
 
 BARRISTER-AT-LAW, MADRAS, 
 AUTHOR OF "THE REBELLION IN INDIA," "MADRAS," ETC. 
 
 EDITED BY G. R. NOETON, Esq. 
 
 LONDON : 
 RICHARDSON BROTHERS, 23, CORNHILL. 
 
 1858. 
 
 '"^. 
 
 
ftth. wmNAnoMjk Ai^LA(lMlK 
 

 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 CHAPTER I. Introduction 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. Topics 1st, 2nd. I. What is the character of 
 
 the Rebellion ? — II. What is its cause ? 5- 
 
 CHAPTER III. Topics 3rd— 6th. III. How shall we treat 
 I the Rebels ? — IV. Had the Supreme Government warning 
 of the coming danger ? — V. Were all practicable measures 
 taken to meet the crisis ? — ^VI. Who is to pay the cost of 
 the Rebellion ? 60 
 
 3HAPTER IV. Topic 7th. VII. What is required for the 
 military protection of India ? 87 
 
 CHAPTER V. Topic 8th. VIII. What shall be the form of 
 the Home Government of India ? 114 
 
 fJHAPTER VI. Topics 9th— 11th. IX. Shall we continue 
 our policy of centralization ? — X. How can we improve the 
 constitution of the local Governments ? — XI. Is the Legis- 
 lative Council properly constituted ? 127 
 
 CHAPTER VII. Topic 12th. XII. Shall we continue our 
 annexation policy ? 1st, as to Princes — 2nd, as to Zemin- 
 dars — 3rd, as to Enamdars 156 
 
 pHAPTER VIII. Topics 13th, 14th. XIII. What is re- 
 quired to improve the tenure of land? — XIV. Shall we 
 redeem the land-tax ? 178 
 
 MG4058G 
 
^ I CONTENTS. 
 
 I'AOK 
 
 rllAPTER IX. Topics 15th, 16th. XV. Why have not 
 British capital and enterprise invested themselves in India ? 
 — XVI. Can they be induced to do so ? 2 18 
 
 CHAPTER X. Tones 17th, 18th. XVII. Do our Law 
 Courts require reform? — XVIII. Is the Police to be re- 
 organized ? 281 
 
 CHAPTER XI. Topic 19th. XIX. What shall be the future 
 
 condition of the Indian Press ? 323 
 
 CHAPTER XII. Topic 20th. XX. Should our future policy 
 in India be retrogressive, stationary, or progressive ? And, 
 herein, of stoppage of Public Works ; demeanour towards 
 the natives. Education. Proselytism 349 
 
 APPENDIX 387 
 
 Appendix A 395 
 
 Appendix B. — ^No. 1 399 
 
 Appendix B. — No. 2 400 
 
 Appendix C 404 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 152, line 1, for " in the Civil Service," read " not in the Civil Service.'' 
 Page 281, line 20, for " attempted," read " successful." 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In editing this book it is my desire to take on myself 
 the responsibility of any errors that may have occurred. 
 I feel the very great disadvantage my brother labours 
 under in being unable to see his work through the 
 press ; many additional illustrative facts which he has 
 sent to me have arrived too late for insertion, and in 
 any case where doubt has arisen it has been impossible 
 to refer to him. For many years Mr. Norton has 
 been endeavouring to rouse, in the words of Lord 
 William Bentinck, " the shameful apathy and indif- 
 ference of England to the concerns of India." Hoping 
 against hope, he has continued to write with this 
 object. His last book, the " Kebellion in India," has 
 never yet been answered, and why ? Because it is 
 unanswerable. It has suited those who are interested 
 in keeping India in its present state of darkness to 
 ignore that book. It appears to me that every pur- 
 pose for which Mr. Norton wrote the " Eebellion in 
 India" has been achieved ; it was in advance of public 
 opinion, which is now in accordance with his views. 
 
niEFACE. 
 
 both with regard to the double Government and the 
 annexation policy ; and with respect to the injustice of 
 the seizure of Oude, Government has endorsed his 
 opinion in the famous Despatch of Lord Ellenborough. 
 When Mr. Norton wrote the present work, the now 
 defunct East India Company was only moribund ; I 
 have in every case allowed the name to stand. It 
 may serve as a warning, lest nomine mutato the same 
 state of things be allowed to continue. 
 
 I think it right that I should state that in what is 
 said of the future Home Government of India, the 
 Author had only in contemplation the first India Bill, 
 Lord Palmerston's ; he could never surmise that, as 
 by the wave of an enchanter's wand, the Court of 
 Directors, with but slight alteration, would re-appear as 
 the Council for India. 
 
 In conclusion, I wish to state that the book is J 
 entirely free from political bias, Mr. Norton has no 
 party feelings. Party is not his guide, but Justice. 
 
 Kensington Gore, 
 
 1st September^ 1858. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 During the whole course of the rebellion I have collected 
 copious notes illustrative of its progress, with the intention 
 of publishing a second edition of the work which I put forth 
 at its commencement. At the time I wrote, but few of the 
 multitudinous facts, which have subsequently established the 
 positions I ' tlien ventured to lay down, had occurred ; and 
 more than one of my critics has taken fair exception to the 
 apparently scanty materials on which I based my conclusion — 
 that the present crisis is not one of mere mutiny. But mere ' 
 self-justification would not, in my humble judgment, be a 
 sufficient plea for appearing again before the public. I am 
 willing to leave to the events themselves, and to public opinion, 
 the vindication of the correctness of the views which I formed 
 rather early than hastily ; contenting myself with this declara- 
 tion, that I have seen no reason to alter, retract, or modify a -1 ^ 
 word of what I have written : nor have I met with a refutation 
 of any of the facts or arguments on which I based my proposi- 
 tions. Among the chief of these was this, that we should err 
 in regarding the present outbreak as a purely military revolt; ^ 
 although it was to be expected that the most strenuous efforts 
 would be made by those interested, to maintain that such was 
 its character ; also that it behoved us at such a crisis to take a , ' 
 review oi'all the elements of disaffection which might be lurking ^ 
 among the natives of India. Since then I have seen myself held 
 up* as the leader of a party which declares that the condition 
 
 * " Bombay Times." 
 
I of tlie people is such, tliut tliere ougJd to be a national revolution, 
 even if there is not ; and wliicli persuades itself, in spite of facts, 
 that there is such a revolution.* A candid perusal of my pages 
 will show that this is mere distorted exaggeration. With the 
 whole of the Madras Presidency tranquil, and the whole of 
 Bombay nearly so ; with the facts before me that out of some 
 two hundred millions, probably not more than one million has 
 risen in arms against us, I was not likely to fall into such an 
 error, or to make any such statement. On the other hand, it is, 
 I think, equally preposterous to limit the outbreak, either as to 
 
 (its origin or its character, to a mere military mutiny. We are 
 still much in the dark as to the secret history of the rebellion ; 
 and the nation will probably not be satisfied without a thoroughly 
 searching investigation, carried on by the most able andinde- 
 vJ pendent Commission it can appoint rf but much light has doubt- 
 f^ 1^1 ess been cast upon the subject by what we have ourselves 
 witnessed, altogether independent of official information. View- 
 ing the matter by such lights as we at present possess, the truth 
 stands out indisputably clear, that an nexatio n is at the^pttctta 
 I / of the rebellion ; and that large and..important classes, other 
 ^^N[ than the military, have participated in the insurrection. 
 / At the same time it is not my intention now to enter upon a 
 consideration of the full proofs of these assertions. The " Times " 
 has said, with a strange mixture of truth and fallacy, that there 
 is no use in looking back, and that our cares must be concen- 
 trated on the future of India. When I wrote, it would have 
 been manifestly impertinent to have entered upon a long disqui- 
 sition of the wants of India and the remedies requisite for her 
 condition. The very existence of our continued supremacy was 
 
 > 
 
 h 
 
 * Put in other words, the argument stands just aa rationally thus. This is purely 
 a military mutiny. If so, the villagers ought not to take any part in it ; therefore, 
 they do not. 
 
 f The Court of Directors has already ordered the Governor-General to appoint a 
 Commission for this purpose. But it is evident that any Commission appointed by 
 the Supreme Government must of necessity be a mere blind ; any inquiry which they 
 may make, a mere sham inquiry. They have a particular theory to support, namely, 
 that we have been suffering from a military-mutiny, not a rebellion. They have their 
 measures to justify, and their policy to prove correct. Any persons whom they may 
 appoint must almost certainly be their own servants, certainly open to the gravest 
 suspicion. The judgment is scarcely likely toTe deemed satisfactory when the 
 accused select their own judges, and these judges from their own subordinates. 
 
then questionable ; and all men's tlioughts were absorbed by the 
 paramount interest of passing events. The eyes of the whole 
 nation were straining into the far east, bent upon the progress of 
 their countrymen ; there was no sympathy, no patience for any 
 matter not intimately connected with their condition, their suf- 
 ferings, their heroism, their triumphs. To have craved a hearing 
 at such a season for proposals of future reform, would have been 
 impertinent folly ; and, therefore, while lending my best aid to 
 defeat the object of Lord Canning's Gagging Act, and striving 
 to call the attention of the public to the true bearings of the 
 crisis, I contented myself with such a hurried and brief sketch 
 of the measures requisite for the regeneration of India, that even 
 a friendly critic* has misunderstood my views, which, however, 
 may be summed up in the single word — Justice. 
 
 Now, however, times are altered. The suppression of rebel- 
 lion and restoration of order are a mere question of time ; the 
 representatives of the nation are about to deliberate on the 
 future of India ; and I conceive that one who has enjoyed the 
 opportunities which I have, and gathered carefully the experience 
 of sixteen years of active life in India, may usefully state his 
 convictions, and pour forth his knowledge for the benefit of those, 
 who, without similar advantages, will have to consider what the 
 future policy of England towards India, and what the future 
 government of India, shall be. 
 
 The greater portion of this present book will therefore be 
 devoted to such topics ; although I cannot admit the soundness 
 of that advice which bids us not look back at all. How we are 
 indeed to look forward with any prospect of utility or success, 
 unless we first of all thoroughly understand the past ; how we 
 can safely apply a remedy unless we are first certain what is the 
 evil ; why in this particular instance we should voluntarily reject 
 the teachings of history, I cannot understand. We cannot have 
 too accurate a comprehension of the limits and character of the 
 whole rebellion : for if, as it has been persistently asserted, it is 
 really a pure military mutiny, and nothing more, the measures 
 to be adopted are abundantly clear, simple, and easy. If it w^ere 
 a national rebellion, in the sense of a general simultaneous rising 
 of the entire population between the Himalayas and Cape 
 
 * "Athenaeum," London. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 Comorin, remedy 1111*12,11 1 he hopeless; but fortunately it is not 
 tlint, tliough it might h;uc been. If it be a rebellion commenced 
 iiuK'i'd by the soldiery in fact, but the result of premeditation 
 •And secret conspiracy among men of the higher classes, who 
 used the sepoys as mere tools — and if large bodies of the people 
 have risen against us, — then we may argue such a condition 
 among them, and such latent general disaffection,* as requires 
 the most delicate handling on the part of our statesmen and 
 politicians. 
 
 That this last will be found to be the true character of the 
 rebellion, I entertain not the slightest doubt; the proofs, indeed, 
 all tend one way, however selfish interest, influence, and igno- 
 rance may struggle to conceal the fact, and divert attention to 
 other directions. If we impose upon ourselves in this particular, 
 or if we suffer ourselves to be imposed upon, the results may 
 be most calamitous both for England and India ; and I would, 
 therefore, without attempting any detail, beg to point to some 
 of the more prominent facts, which will be suggestive enough for 
 those who choose to follow up the inquiry for themselves. And 
 this leads me directly to my first topic, which cannot be altogether 
 passed over, although it deals with the past, and my principal 
 concern is with the future.f 
 
 * See L. Reid, Esq., House of Lords' Report, Question 2700. 
 
 t I shall have to quote largely from Indian journals of acknowledged reputation 
 in this country; and I crave an attentive perusal of these extracts, for I can assure 
 my readers that the selections 'vvill amply repay their perusal. I know that it is a very 
 common practice to jkjp such passages, and pass on to the original matter. The 
 journals in question, too, may be but little known, or not known to the English 
 public; but a little reflection will convince those who wish to master Indian topics, 
 that they can scarcely go to a better source than the respectable journals of India, 
 whose editors devote their entire time to the task of collecting trustworthy materials, 
 digesting voluminous records, and placing valuable information before their subscribers'" 
 in a readable shape. Depend upon it, that Indian journals are safer guides on Indian 
 subjects than even the most brilliant of the home press. I might, at a very little 
 outlay of time and labour, have presented all those valuable contributions in the shape 
 of original matter. But whatever others may do, I cannot bring myself to filch or suck 
 the brains of other men without acknowledgment; and as my object is to open up 
 sources of information and reflection, I trust a too common prejudice will not operate 
 to prevent the perusal of quoted as well as original matter. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Topic 1st. 
 
 I. What is the character of the Rebellion ? II. What is its cause f 
 
 These two questions are intimately connected; for unless the 
 rebellion was, in its origin, a mere military mutiny, which 
 assumed a totally different character as the infection spread and 
 its dimensions grew beyond the control of the mutineers, it is 
 obvious that the character of the rebellion has been determined, 
 and may be judged of by its cause. Those who assert that the 
 outbreak is purely a miljtary mutiny are bound to establish two 
 points. They must shew that it is confined to the sepoys, for 
 only they can be mutineers ; and they must assign some satisfac- 
 tory reason for the sepoys suddenly rushing into mutiny. 
 
 It may be said, and that plausibly, that the panic into which 
 the sepoys were thrown by the fear of losing their caste and their 
 religion, by being compelled to bite the obnoxious cartridges, 
 affords such reason — that the sepoy is the creature of impulse, 
 ignorant to a degree, and a mere unreasoning child on such 
 matters. The mutiny at Yellqre may be quoted ; and it may be 
 argued that the merest trifles, a change of an article of dress or 
 the like, has heretofore proved sufficient to kindle the suspicions 
 of native soldiery, and to hurry them into mutiny. I am very 
 far from saying that this plea of the cartridge was a mere pre- 
 text, so far as the sepoys were concerned, in the first instance. 
 I think it must be admitted that a real hond-Jide alarm was 
 excited in the mind of the sepoys, both Hindoo and Mussulman, 
 by their belief that the new cartridges were compounded of the 
 fat of pigs and bullocks. But this will not account for the con- 
 duct of those sepoys who mutinied at a period long subsequent 
 to the outbreak of the rebellion, at isolated stations, after the 
 
i 
 
 6 
 
 proclamation of tlie (to vcrimK-iif ; after tlic n^pcntrd assurances 
 of their ofHcers ; after the fact that the men Avcrc permitted to 
 make up their own eartritlges; after tlic Avithdrawal or non-issue 
 of tlie articles objected to; and after nnitlny had become hopeless 
 from the success of Britisli arms. The question still remains, 
 by whom was this cry against the cartridges first raised ; was it 
 a mere accidental circumstance, or was it not a cry pitched on 
 with tlie most consummate craft by conspirators, in whose hands 
 the sepoys were mere tools and puppets?"" " 
 
 Now the trial of the King of Delhi has disclosed the existence 
 of a conspiracy long previous to the first outbreak of the rebellion. 
 We find him not only in communication with numerous rajahs 
 and chiefs, but actually sending emissaries to the Shah of Persia 
 during the late Persian war, to obtain his aid towards the extir- 
 pation of the English. The Delhi proclamations, we know, were 
 sent to Oude, and the puppet boy-king of Lucknow affected to 
 act as the appointee of the great Mogul at Delhi. I will not 
 press hard upon a fallen man, or assert that the King of Oude 
 is implicated in the conspiracy, though we know that he was 
 arrested suddenly in Calcutta, has been a close prisoner ever 
 since, and it is asserted on good authority that the Government 
 is in possession of convincing evidence of his complicity. But 
 every man is presumed innocent until he is proved guilty ; and 
 I will not follow the example of a pamphleteer who has sketched 
 out the whole plot of the conspiracy in the minutest detail, and 
 shewn what share of territory each conspirator was to obtain, 
 dow^n even to the division of Calcutta itself. It is quite certain 
 that the sepoy regiments quartered in Delhi had, previous to the 
 commencement of the Delhi mutinies, a good mutual under- 
 standing with the troops at Meerut ; * for when the troopers 
 from that station galloped into the city of Delhi, the infantry at 
 once opened out so as to expose their officers to the fire of the 
 cavalry, who rode up and pistolled them one by one. The 
 whole then proceeded to the palace, they paid their allegiance to 
 the king, attacked the arsenal, murdered the Europeans, and 
 seized the city. The whole work was far too systematically done 
 
 * It is surmised that the native officers from Delhi who went to Meerut to sit on 
 the court martiaLof-the cavalry trooi)ers, there entered into the arrangements for the 
 outbreak with the Meerut troops. 
 
J 
 
 to permit of the supposition that it was the result of mere 
 momentary impulse. An entire regiment does not so give up its 
 officers to murder. 
 
 Previous to the outbreak, as well as subsequently, bands of * 
 fakeers^r holy mendicants had been wandering over the countryo 
 They had been in some instances detected in tampering with the 
 sepoys of the armies of Madras and Bombay. Whether the pas- 
 sage of the chupatties was a signal connected with the rebellion / 
 or not, I will not take upon myself to affirm, for I have not seen 
 any sufficient evidence on the point;* but, independently of 
 that, the facts point to but one explanation of the cartridge-cry, 
 namely, that it did not originate with the sepoys, but was 
 selected with consummate tact and skill by those, who, behind 
 the curtain, were casting about for a motive which should 
 deeply stir both the Mussulman and Hindoo ranks of the Bengal 
 army. 
 
 The outbreak at Meerut, caused as it was by the severity, and 
 rendered successful by the imbecility, of the military authorities, 
 was nevertheless a providential circumstance for us. The shell 
 burst too soon. The plot was not quite ripe in all its parts. / 
 Could it have been kept without explosion until the Mohur rum, * * 
 I doubt whether there would have been a European left alive in 
 India to tell the tale of the revolution. That is the festival 
 when fanaticism is most widely and most easily excited; the 
 Hindoo Dusserah falls about the same time, and it is reported 
 that this was the season fixed upon for the fulfilment of that ) 
 prophecy respecting the termination of the British Raj, which j 
 was so well calculated to bring about its own verification. 
 
 The greased cartridge-cry was the spark which fired the train; ^ 
 but the train had been most carefully laid. And if this does not 
 
 * The witness, Tut Mull, produced on the trial of the King of Delhi, so late as 
 February 4th of this year, could give no explanation of this mysterious signal. He 
 deposes as follows : — " I had heard the story of the circulation of chupatties through- i 
 out the country. I do not know what the signification of the chupatties was. I 
 have never heard of any precedence among either Hindoo or Mussulman for such a 
 deed. There were various meanings assigned by popular voice to the circumstance ; 
 some said they implied tampering with the religion of the people ; some that it pre- 
 dicted that Government intended to interfere with their food. I do not know why 
 such meanings were attached to the fact, but I know that they all htul for their f 
 object poisoning the minds of the i)eo])le against the Government.'" 
 
 H 
 
8 
 
 uHord us a sufUcRMit solution of iIr' uiystcry wliicli tliose who 
 maintain tlio pure uiilitarv iir.iliuy llu'ory liave to fatlioni, most 
 assuredly ^^■o may look in \ ain lor ollu r causes of discontent in 
 t';;' ranks ol'ilic lH'n<j,'al army, such a^ would serve to account for 
 mutiny on their parts at this ])arti('nlar time. The moment had 
 not arrived, though it must have arrived sooner or later, when 
 an armj^, constituted like that of Bengal, was prepared to preci- 
 pitate itself headlong into that death-struggle for dominion with 
 its sovereign, which marks the history of all prostorian bands. 
 On the contrary, of all conditions and classes of men in India, 
 the Bengal army had the least cause to complain; they had few 
 burthens to bear ; no grievances without a remedy. They felt 
 not the grinding of eitlier the revenue or the judicial systems. 
 Their lives and property were safe from the robber and the 
 police ; they were petted and pampered to the top of their bent;* 
 discipline sat easy upon them ; their pay was regular and ample. 
 They could save while serving, and their retiring pensions were 
 secure. Their officers were proud of them, and kind to them ; 
 . indeed the men knew that they were masters of the situation, 
 
 "-' Centralization had deprived the commanding officer of his imme- 
 diate authority ; his representations met with but little favor at 
 liead-quarters ; laxity of discipline was winked at, because it was 
 useless to report it; petty demands were conceded to for the 
 same reason. The sepoys' comforts were signally cared for. 
 Compared with those who remained tillers of the earth, from 
 f\ which class they themselves chiefly sprung, they were as porce- 
 lain to clay ; their lot was indeed every way enviable, and a 
 subject of self-congratulation. 
 
 The fact is, they were acted upon from without, not from 
 
 #v^ within; and though the rebellion began with the mutiny of a 
 
 * " Qui Hi," indisputably a Bengal officer of great experience and observation, 
 remarks, that a great deal of nonsense has been talked about the pampering of the 
 Bengal army. That they have not been spared from arduous duty ; that the field of 
 their duties has been vastly increased by the progress of annexation is unquestionably 
 true. But the encouragement offered in every direction to the prejii'dices of caste ; 
 and the tmckling to the impression on the sepoys' minds, that on all questions con- 
 nected with this, head-quarters Avould yield to them ; the disposition of officers to hush 
 up matters; and the diminution of regimental officers' authority by that system of 
 centralisation, which made the commanding officer powerless, and encouraged the 
 men to slight his authority, may, I think, be most justly characterized as pampering. 
 
few regiments, it was not a case of spontaneous combustion on 
 the part of the army ; but the army had been tampered with, — ^ 
 and was the first weapon turned against us by those who were 
 prepared to take themselves an active part m the attack, if 
 success seemed hopeful, and the first attempt was not forthwith 
 crushed. 
 
 If the true origin of the rebellion is not to be found in the 
 pure military mutiny theory, still less sustainable is the assertion 
 
 that the insurrection in its career has embraced none but military ^ 
 
 classes, and that the people have taken no part whatever in its 
 horrors and its crimes. To refute this sweeping statement, it 
 would suffice to point to Oude. That is now the focus of rebel- 
 lion, to which, as to a common centre, all the flames of insurrec- 
 tion are drawn. It has been asserted that the people of Oude 
 are longing for our return. The testimony of an eye-witness — 
 my friend, the late Lieutenant Crump, of the Madras Artillery, / 
 the writer of the admirable letters which appeared in the " Satur- 
 day Review" — tells a totally different tale. He speaks of the whole / 
 population being up in arms; every village fortified and loop-Z^^v 
 holed ; every man's hand against us.* The significant fact that, 
 
 * The following is from Lieut. Crump's description of the fight at Unao : — " On 
 the 29th the advance towards Lucknow began in earnest. The force moved off at 
 daylight, with the knowledge that they might expect to meet with opposition at a 
 village called Unao, three or four miles on ahead, said to be occupied by some men 
 and guns; hence, no one was surprised when, on nearing the place, three guns 
 opened on us. Two of our field-pieces moved forward, and soon silenced their fire; i, 
 but, as the troops moved on, a line of white puffs of smoke from the orchard and 
 garden walls surrounding the place gave evidence that the matchlock men meant to 
 shew fight. On this the skirmishers dashed forward, and soon drove them out of 
 their orchards into the village; but when our men attempted to follow up their , 
 success, and clear the village, they were met by an opposition which fairly astonished 
 the English soldiers. « 
 
 " These mud-walled villages of Oude, and their fighting inhabitants, are among the \ 
 most peculiar features of the country. Every hamlet is at chronic feud with its 
 neighbours, and all of them look upon open rebellion against the farmer of their 
 taxes as a sacred duty. The consequence is, that a century of practical experience 
 in the art of self-defence has converted these villages into almost impregnable forti-, -^^ 
 fications, and the villagers themselves into probably the best garrison troops in the t 
 world. A hundred Oude men will flee from ten on the open plain, but place ten 
 of the same behind a loop-holed mud wall, and they will hold their own against a 
 hundred, nor think it much to do. Such was the case now in the petty village of 
 _lInao. Our troops were in the place, and all round it, yet they could do compara- 
 tively nothing, and were dropping fast under the bullets of their unseen foes. 
 
10 
 
 out of the 40,000 men who sat down to besiege Sir Henry 
 Lawrence at Lucknow, 20,000 went away to sow their fields, 
 shews that not soldiery alone were leagued against us, even at 
 that early period. The two retreats of Havelock ; his close 
 beleaguernient after he had relieved the glorious garrison who 
 had contended for eighty-seven days against artillery within fifty 
 yards, and riflemen within ten; the murderous contest of Sir 
 Colin Campbell when he relieved Havelock, and when 2,000 of, 
 i the enemy were slain, in hand-to-hand conflict, in a single court- 
 ^ yard ; the isolation of Sir James Outram in the Alumbagh ; the 
 forced retreat of Sir Colin Campbell before superior numbers ; 
 the preparations which he made for his final spring upon 
 Lucknow, when four armies were launched simultaneously 
 against Oude; the state of fortification of the capital, where 
 . every street was barricaded, and fresh earthworks of Cyclopean 
 jf proportions attested the intention of the insurgents to die fighting 
 at their posts ; — all these facts unmistakeably prove that so far 
 as Oude, at least, is concerned, we have to deal with a thoroughly 
 national rebellion. " " 
 
 •^^ But it may be said that the case of Oude is special ; that the 
 V people of Oude have a grievance, and a peculiar cause of their 
 / own to fight for ; and that their condition proves nothing with 
 regard to the feelings of the population of other parts of India. 
 Passing by the damning admission that the Oudites have a cause 
 of quarrel, which they are prepared to fight for to the death, I 
 w^ill make those who differ from me a present of Oude ; let it be 
 an exceptional case, and let us confine our attention to those 
 other portions of India over which the rebellion has swept. Is 
 it true that there also the outbreak has been a pure military 
 mutiny; that the people have taken no share in the insur- 
 rection ? 
 
 Here again I will make a present of all the budmashes of the 
 
 cities, all the released felons and convicts from the gaols, all the 
 
 ^ scum which ever rises to the top of the cauldron when the broth 
 
 is made sufficiently thick and slab. Such deductions being 
 
 made, how stands the matter ? 
 
 Thrice did a portion of the best regiment in the field charge a mud-walled enclosure 
 containing a number of men, and thrice were they driven back with heavy loss of 
 oificers and men." 
 
11 
 
 In dealing with this, it is impossible for me to give all, or even 
 a tithe of the small but significant facts which the progress of 
 the rebellion and the detailed account of personal narratives 
 furnish. I have kept a copious register of such extracts, it is 
 true, which any body may see ; but I am compelled to point 
 rather to large classes of facts than to individual events ; and I 
 must be content with suggestively enumerating the chief topics of 
 evidence, which the reader can verify for himself. 
 
 In the first place, let me call attention to the extent of territory 
 over which the struggle has rolled. Let the map be consulted 
 for ascertaining how vast is the area, how many places and tracts 
 of country are involved, where no sepoy regiments have been 
 present Next, let the reader reflect upon the significance of the 
 numerous accounts in which he is told of burning villages, against 
 the wholesale destruction of which and their inhabitants Lord 
 Canning was forced to issue to the civil authorities that proclama- 
 tion which has called down upon him so much unjustifiable 
 censure for misplaced clemency. Let the reader recollect the 
 innumerable accounts of contention with matchlock men, and 
 spear or how-men. In all such cases he may rest assured that 
 our opponents were not mutineers, who are armed with our per- 
 cussion muskets, and have no villages to burn. Then let him 
 recal to mind the various published histories of European fugi- 
 tives, in which the conduct of the country-people towards them 
 is set forth. Here and there a friendly village is approached ; a 
 nabob or ranee protects and conceals the hunted European ; but 
 the general run of the story is the reverse of all this. The fugi- 
 tives are plundered and ill-treated ; they have to hide in jungles, 
 and keep away from the high-roads ; they dare not approach the 
 villages, even for water; they are threatened and thrust forth; 
 they can procure neither food nor carriage ; they exhaust their 
 resources in bribes, or are openly plundered. True, this strange 
 intermingling of friendly and unfriendly populations, in close 
 proximity, argues a very low state of civilization. It recalls to 
 mind the accounts which we read of travels in the interior of 
 Africa, but it forcibly reveals the real state of feeling of the 
 people towards us ; on which farther light is thrown by the sin- 
 gular account of the state of public feeling in Rhotuck, as we read 
 it in the official despatches from Delhi. There the ubiquitous 
 
V 
 
 12 
 
 Ilodson founcl two parties or factions, — the Englisli and the Anti- 
 English ; and I should not be surprised if a similar state of divi- 
 sion were hereafter to be found largely prevalent in other towns 
 and districts. Captain Gowan's singular narrative of his con- 
 cealment in Rohilcund points to the same difference of sympathy. 
 Captain Scott's interesting history of the fugitives' escape from 
 Nawgong* shews that the whole district through which he passed 
 was against us. " We all found," says he, " the villagers in the 
 British territory mostly hostile." Next, let the reader remem- 
 ber the multitude of names of petty rajahs, with their followers, 
 whom our forces have everywhere encountered. These are not 
 mutineers ; and, in all these cases, the rabble represent, indeed 
 consist of, the entire population of the petty noble's dominions. 
 After this, it will be well to reflect on the specific instances in 
 which our own public native servants, revenue and judicial, have 
 taken an active part against us. In some instances, not only 
 have they fallen away from their allegiance, but have headed and 
 urged on massacres and other atrocities. Such, for instance, are 
 the cases of the murder of Mr. Tucker, the judge, by his own 
 judicial subordinate; the trial and execution of the civilians at 
 Bareilly; and the massacre of our helpless women by Hydost 
 Ally, when his master, less cruel than himself, would fain have 
 shewn them mercy. 
 
 When we come to select specific instances, the only difficulty 
 consists in making a fitting choice from the abundance of our 
 materials; and I must draw upon each man's recollection of 
 what he has read, to a great extent ; since it would fill an entire 
 volume were I to descend into minute particulars. I must con- 
 tent myself with selecting some of those more general accounts 
 which have appeared in the public prints, w^hich forci ly por- 
 tray, not so much individual adventure, as the state of feeling 
 and the true condition of things over entire districts swept by the 
 rebellion, or within the influence of its contagion. 
 
 If this be simply a military mutiny, how comes it that nowhere 
 the civil officers of Government have been able to organize the 
 people for resistance, even after the tide of fortune had turned in 
 our favor, and when the natives were encouraged by the pre- 
 
 * " Further Papers (No. 4.) relative to the Mutinies, &c.," p. 121. 
 
13 
 
 sence of our troops ? * If there be such instances, we should cer- 
 tainly have heard of them ; for the Supreme Government is not 
 slow to exalt the services of its civil servants, or to make the 
 most of even professions of loyalty emanating from any body of 
 the natives. Do not let it be supposed that I seek to cast any 
 slur upon the civilians. They have, during this crisis, displayed 
 a personal courage and devotion equal to that of our noble 
 soldiers. We find them charging the enemy as volunteers; 
 showing the way through streets full of rebels ; giving the mili- 
 tary the benefit of their knowledge of the country; their services 
 acknowledged gratefully by general officers in public despatches. 
 The wonderful defence of the house of Arrah by Wake and his 
 companions has only been outmarvelled by the defence of the 
 entrenchment at Lucknow.f But in all these cases we must, for 
 our purpose, be careful to distinguish between individual prowess 
 and the successful exertion of the public magistrate; between 
 the gallant acts of self-defence and the force of the majesty of 
 Civil Government organizing the people against rebels and 
 mutineers. 
 
 Who, then, have joined the mutineers, admitting that our own 
 army was the first to rise, as, indeed, was to be expected ? 
 
 The petty rajahs and zemindars, who have been dispossessed by 
 us by escheats, resumptions — confiscation under whatever name it 
 lurks. The "Friend of India," on the 2nd of July, 1857, wrote 
 as follows : — " No idea can be formed as yet of the utter state of 
 disorganization which prevails in the upper provinces. Trade 
 is wholly destroyed ; the public highways were here overrun by 
 thieves; the dispossessed zemindars in nearly all the villages 
 have emerged into daylight and ousted their successors ; scores 
 of petty rajahs have proclaimed their independence, and make 
 up for defects of title by their ceaseless activity in the work of 
 robbery and murder." 
 
 On the 13th of February last, Mr. Harrington introduced a 
 
 * Mr. Gubbins for a length of time preserved tranquillity at Benares by his personal 
 influence and force of character ; and Mr. Allan Hume, at a late period of the 
 struggle, actually organized a force with which he successfully encountered the rebels. 
 These are the only instances I know of, in which the civil power has been able to 
 cope with the rebellion. 
 
 t See General Inglis's despatch. 
 
4. 
 
 14 
 
 Bill into the Legislative Council to facilitate the recovery of land 
 wrongfully taken in the North-West Provinces. In his speech, 
 explanatory of his Bill, the hon. gentleman mentioned that these 
 resumptions had been made by the old proprietors, sometimes 
 violently, under the foolish impression that our rule was drawing 
 to a close ; and, in order to indicate the extent to which these 
 resumptions had taken place, he stated that in one zillah, through 
 which he had lately passed, nearly one-half of the estates had 
 si changed hands. It is a significant fact, that these old proprietors 
 appear to have been generally received without opposition by the 
 cultivators; rebels themselves, they were not opposed by the 
 people ; what is the only inference that can be drawn ? 
 
 All the journals contain the following advertisement recorded 
 by the Government, and a further notice warns the public against 
 purchasing certain specified Government promissory notes of the 
 aggregate value of £260,000, the property of" Narrain Rao and 
 Madho Rao, adopted sons of the late Benaik Rao, of Lirwee in 
 the Kirnee district, who are in open rebellion against the State." 
 
 NOTICE. 
 
 The public are hereby cautioned against purchasing any 
 Government promissory notes, standing in the names of or 
 belonging to the undermentioned individuals, who are or have 
 been in open rebellion against the State : — 
 
 Nana Dhundoo Punt, of Bithoor. 
 
 Hickmutoola, Deputy-collector of Futtehpore. 
 
 Bukht Bulee, Rajah of Shahgurh. 
 
 Luchmee Baee, Ranee of Jhansi. 
 
 Khan Bahadoor Khan, of Rohilcund. 
 
 Kooer Sing, of Jugdeespoor. 
 
 Abdooor Ruhman Khan, Chief of Jhujjur. 
 
 Toola Ram, an Aheer Chief. 
 
 Futtee Bahadoor, alias Rajah Nusrut Jung. 
 
 Banee Madhoo. 
 
 Rajah Maun Sing. 
 
 Hunwunt Sing. 
 
 Bishonant Buxah. 
 
15 
 
 Silllnant Bunus, of Baishpare. 
 
 Bijee Bahadoor and his Kariddaz. 
 
 Fyzabad Moulvee. 
 
 Goolab Sinor. 
 
 Alooddeen. 
 
 Dowlat Sing Thakoor, of Rogoogurh. 
 
 Saudut Khan, Leader of Hoolkar's mutinous troops. 
 
 Adit Mahomed Khan, of Ambapanee. 
 
 Ranee Jeejee Baee. 
 
 Begum Zeenut Muhal. 
 
 Sadut Khan, Nawab of Bhopaul. 
 
 Nawab of Bulmugurh. 
 
 Rajah of Mynpoorie. 
 
 Sobharam Kanth, inhabitant of Barrilly. 
 
 TuiFuzul Hossein Khan, Nawab of Furruckabad. 
 
 Warls Mahomed Khan, of Bhopaul. 
 
 Rajah Murdun Sing, Rajah of Bampoor Chundeyree. 
 
 Wabedad Khan, of Rohilcund. 
 
 Nawab Ali Bahadoor, Nawab of Banda. 
 
 Ummer Sing, Kooer Sing's brother. 
 
 Summund Khan, father-in-law of Abdoor Ruhman Klian. 
 
 Rajah Jyloll Sing, of Oudh. 
 
 Rughooberdoyal Sing. 
 
 Burjee's Kude, illegitimate son of the King of Oudh. 
 
 Ramadhun, Rajah Maun Sing's brother. 
 
 Banee Madho Buxsh. 
 
 Singram Sing's son, of Allahabad. 
 
 Honeyman Bunus, of Daneepare. 
 
 Ramdyal. 
 
 Rajah Madhoo Sing, of Amithee. 
 
 Mendee Haussein. 
 
 Thakoor of Ahwa in Marwar. 
 
 Shoajaut Khan Pindaree. 
 
 Fazil Mahomed Khan, of Bhisla, brother of Adit Mahomed 
 
 Khan, of Ambapanee. 
 Kooer Bhowanee Sing, eldest son of the Chief of Nursingpore. 
 Bheo Rao Bhanslah. 
 Nawab Wulayet Ali Khan. 
 
i 
 
 ^ 
 
 IG 
 
 1 [(^cni Sinii;. 
 
 MahiiuHl Ilo-.-cin, Niizlm of Goruckpore. 
 
 Epmum) Dhiimmoni), 
 Accountant- General to the Government of India. 
 Fort William, Loan-office, 
 the 2nd February, 1858. 
 
 And the subsequent Gazettes give further lists of chiefs, some of 
 thoni ladies, whose property in the funds is forfeited by their 
 participation in the rebellion. All these parties owe their promi- 
 nence to the fact that they are the owners of Government bonds ; 
 a circumstance which, but for some paramount motive, might 
 have guaranteed their fidelity. How many rajahs, ranees, zemin- 
 dars, and the like, also, who have not any Government bonds, are 
 implicated in the revolt, the Gazette does not disclose; but it may 
 be inferred, from a consideration of the fact, that even those who 
 had so much at stake were constrained by an influence, superior 
 to that of their own pecuniary interest, to take up arms 
 against us. 
 
 The late Mr. Colvin prepared a proclamation, declaring the 
 whole of the North- West Provinces in a state of open rebellion. 
 This document was speedily withdrawn. Subsequently, on the 
 17 th of May, martial law was proclaimed in the North- West. 
 
 The Parliamentary Paper, No. 144, (11th Dec. 1857,) con- 
 taining Lord Canning's defence of his Indian policy, gives a 
 graphic description of the condition of the country, the wholesale 
 massacre of villagers and the burning of villages, which compelled 
 Lord Canning to issue his much-canvassed " clemency order " of 
 the 31st of July, 1857. 
 
 Let us now peruse the testimony of various witnesses of 
 different classes and characters. First, let Dr. Duff be called 
 into court. He is every way an unexceptionable witness. He 
 has extensive means of information; his intelligence is un- 
 questionable; he is not connected with the press; he has no 
 prejudices against the Government ; he has no motive for 
 over-colouring or distorting facts. In a letter addressed 
 to Dr. Tweedie, which was published in the " Witness. " 
 Dr. Duff says: — 
 
 " An intestine war is raging with fearful virulence among the 
 
17 
 
 natives themselves, in the North- West and Central India 
 Provinces. The strong arm of authority and restraint being 
 removed, all the elements of wildest disorder are let loose. A 
 terrible work of plunder and devastations seems everywhere to 
 be carried on. While the great bulk of the mutinous sepoys are 
 congregated in armies-^— here standing a siege, there carrying on 
 another, and elsewhere fighting pitched battles with our British 
 generals and soldiers — numbers of them, with twenty or thirty 
 thousand criminals liberated from jail, and myriads more of 
 habitual and reputed thieves and villains are scouring the country 
 in all directions. While many of the populace in cities, and of / 
 the common ryots or agricultural population, are passive and Y 
 apathetic — scarcely knowing, and not at all caring, who their 
 supreme rulers may be, so long as their immemorial habits, }/ 
 maimers, customs, and usages are not violently interfered with — | 
 it cannot be doubted tliat numbers of both classes are disaffected i 
 or actively hostile to the British and their Government, A 
 gentleman of long experience in Tirhoot writes : — ^ There is a 
 strong sympathy with the mutineers throughout the country, 
 every success or fresh rising of the mutineers was marked here 
 with a look of satisfaction. Not one among the numerous 
 zemindars with whom I have conversations either expresses 
 sympathy for the Government or will give a single hint as to the , 
 reason of the risings, although I am perfectly convinced that all N 
 the better informed ones were perfectly aware of what was to / 
 happen!' An intelligent gentleman at Agra, writing of the 
 state of things when the British were obliged to abandon the 
 city, and retire into the fort, says — ^ The populace was all in 
 arms, and there was nothing but plundering, bloodshed, and 
 burning and destroying bungalows and public offices. In 
 plundering, most of the Hindoostanees (i. e. up-country Hindoos) 
 joined the Mohammedans. The Mohammedans to a man are j"^ 
 against the British Government and three-fourths of the \ 
 Hindoostanees.' In narratives that are constantly reaching us \ 
 from individuals that have escaped, we read that, amid occasional 
 and solitary acts of kindness, they were most frequently mocked, 
 abused, insulted, and illtreated by the villagers, even when 
 already stripped of everything, so as to offer no temptation to 
 acts of personal violence. Even poor harmless females — scorched 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 and ])listored by exposure to a burning sun, half dead from 
 
 hunger and fatigue, aye, and half distracted from being suddenly 
 
 made childless and husbandless — have often met with little mercy 
 
 / at the hands of villagers. In many places, too, from lust of 
 
 plunder, villagers are up in arms against villagers ; while the 
 
 native police, instead of attempting to maintain or establish order, 
 
 are everywhere swelling the host of ruffians that are bent on 
 
 pillage. While many rajahs and zemindars have hitherto 
 
 remained ostensibly faithful to the British Crown, others have 
 
 f been set up as chiefsby the mutineers, or have raised the 
 
 ' standard of their own independence, or have proclaimed allegiance 
 
 A to the recently installed sovereign of Delhi. In Oude many of 
 
 J^ the chiefs are in open rebellion. The Ranee of Jhansi, after 
 
 aiding in the massacre of all the British there, has raised a body 
 
 of 14,000 men, with twenty guns. The Jaloun chief has raised 
 
 a body of about 12,000. Rover Singh of Shahabad, between 
 
 the Soane and Benares, has a vast body of rebel followers — 
 
 variously estimated from 20,000 to 40,000 — now hanging 
 
 threateningly over Mirzapore, one of the grandest emporiums of 
 
 ,' trade in the North- West, and where the British are now shut up 
 
 / within an intrenchment. The chief of Secundra Rao, with a 
 
 body of cavalry and infantry, has taken possession of Coel and 
 
 jAllyghur, between Agra and Delhi,^ and proclaimed himself 
 
 Suhadar, or governor, for the King of Delhi, of all the country 
 
 between these towns and Allahabad, that is the whole country 
 
 between the Jumma and Ganges — collecting the revenue due to 
 
 our Government, and exercising other prerogatives of royalty! 
 
 " From these and other facts of a similar kind — some of them 
 formerly mentioned — how utterly erroneous and misleading must 
 appear some of the representations in home journals, from the 
 * Times ' downwards ! What becomes of the oft reiterated 
 assertion — *It is a military revolt and nothing more?' or of the 
 assertion — * The Bengal army has ceased to exist,' when, though 
 it has ceased to exist as our army, it continues in reality to exist 
 as our deadliest enemy ? or of such declarations as these — ' The 
 entire non- military population, from Cape Comorin to the 
 Himalayas, have stood aloof from the movement,' — ' Not a man 
 has stirred, — ^the chiefs of Upper India vie with each other in 
 tendering to Government their assurances of support and 
 
 rs^ 
 
 (^^ A 
 
19 
 
 attachment?' Unqualified statements of this description — so 
 violently wide of the truth — cannot fail to prove mischievous by 
 
 j lulling the rulers and people of Great Britain into a false security, 
 
 j and a security as fatal as it is false. 
 
 I " And if such be the disorganised, unsettled, lawless condition of 
 the North- West now — when the country is, for the most part, 
 impassable, from the plains being turned into marshes, and the 
 loamy soil into yielding softness like that of the quicksand — 
 when the driest summer brooks are swollen into torrents, and 
 the larger streams into mighty rushing outspreading floods — 
 what, unless God in mercy interpose for our deliverance, may 
 we not expect to be the possible state of things two or three 
 months hence, when the country will be completely dried up, and 
 its now saturated soil turned into an iron pavement — when the 
 torrents will entirely disappear, and the mightiest rivers be all 
 but lost in their own sands — when the present outstanding crops 
 shall be cut, gathered in, and safely garnered, and the seeds of 
 the next spring harvest fairly committed to the bosom of the 
 
 ^^rth— when the whole military, and demi-military population of 
 the North- West will thus be set free to buckle on their armour, 
 and go forth, like their renowned ancestors in days of old, on . 
 
 expeditions of plunder, conflagration, murder, and kingdom- ' \ I 
 
 I taking, \ 
 
 I " I do not write thus as an alarmist Far from it. For my 
 own trust in the Lord has never wavered ; nor my confidence 
 that, after humbling us with deserved judgments. He will arise 
 and scatter His and our enemies. But I do write to warn the 
 ignorant, at home and elsewhere, against possible dangers, 
 difficulties, and delays in the re-establishment of peace, order, 
 and tranquillity, which, not anticipated, or seasonably provided 
 for, might excite, in the event of disappointment, unreasonable 
 apprehension and alarm." 
 
 This witness is too valuable to be lost sight of, and accordingly 
 this is his further testimony. 
 
 The following extract from a letter from the Rev. Dr. Duff, of 
 the Free Church of Scotland, Calcutta, has appeared in a London 
 journal : — 
 
 " That in different places intelligent zemindars and rajahs, 
 who came to know our power and resources, have continued as 
 
 c 2 
 
7 
 
 20 
 
 yet faithful in their allcgiancG, is a matter for congratulation. 
 But that in many j^hices zemindars and rajalis have scornfully 
 thrown off all allegiance, and are up in arms^proclaiming their 
 own independence, and committing depredations on their neigli- 
 bours in all directions, — is now beyond all question. In this way 
 
 . we have now a King of Rohilcund, a King of Shahabad, with 
 many others. In other cases, such as the town and district of 
 / Gorruckpore, recently abandoned by the British authorities, a 
 Mahommedan chief has been set up as Nazim or Governor, in 
 the name of the recently installed Emperor of Delhi. As regards 
 the feelings of the great masses of the people towards the British 
 Government, the most contradictory statements have been put 
 forth. Extremes will be found wrong. That there ever was 
 anything like affection or loyal attachment, in any true sense of 
 
 / these terms, on the part of any considerable portion of the native 
 
 / population towards the British power, is what no one who really 
 j knows them could honestly aver. Individual natives have become 
 
 I attached to individual Britons. But such isolated facts can prove 
 nothing as to the feelings generally prevalent with respect to the 
 British and their power. . . After escaping from the mur- 
 derous hands of mutineers, British ladies and gentlemen have, in 
 particular instances, experienced kindness at the hands of the 
 
 I common villagers; but in far the greater number of instances 
 ^ they have experienced quite the reverse. On this account they 
 have been constantly compelled to shun the villages altogether, 
 |jr and betake themselves to jungles and pathless forests, exposed to 
 the attacks of beasts of prey, and to manifold privations, the 
 narration of which makes one almost shudder. And among the 
 murders ever and anon reported in our public journals, how often 
 do we find this entry opposite a name, « killed by the villagers ! ' 
 One of a volunteer expedition, which lately went out into the 
 district of Meerut, writes that it was ' evident as they went along 
 that the whole country was up,' — adding, 'that on reaching 
 Rerote, which city was considered friendly to us, they were at 
 once received with a friendly salute of thirty matchlocks in their 
 faces ! ' Authentic notifications of a somewhat similar kind have 
 also reached us from other places. A medical gentleman, who 
 has recently published an elaborate account of the escape of 
 himself, with other gentlemen, ladies, and children — amounting 
 
21 
 
 all to tweiitjj-seven in number — from Angur, in Central India, "^'■■ 
 testifies that every villager was uncivil, and that the smile of 
 respectful submission v^^ith which the European officer was worit 
 to be greeted, was displayed by an angry scowl and haughty air \ 
 towards the despicable Feringheej whose rajo (or reign) was at ' 
 an end.' Throughout their twelve days' wanderings, they con- 
 tinued to encounter the most terrible hardships and dangers from 
 the hatred, incivility, and contempt of the villagers. This very 
 day, in one of our public journals, a gentleman, long resident in 
 the interior, thus writes : — ' I have lost all my property ; but my 
 principal object is to impress upon my countrymen (to convince 
 the Government of this truth seems hopeless) the utter and most ' 
 virulent hatred the natives have evinced throughout this out- 
 break, both to our Government and Europeans generally. In ' 
 every instance where troops have mutinied, they have been \ 
 joined by the inhabitants, not only of the bazar, but of the towns 
 and villages adjacent, who not only assisted the sepoys in burning, 
 looting (plundering), and destroying Government property, and 
 that of the European settlers, and all Christians, and in killing 
 any of them they could, but, after the departure of the mutineers, 
 continued the devastation, and completed it. I am a very long 
 resident in this country, and, having been in a position to hear 
 the true sentiments of the natives (who neither feared me nor j 
 required anything from me) towards our Government and our- 
 selves ; I have been long aware of their hatred towards both, and 
 that opportunity alone was wanted to display it as they have now 
 done ; andf where it has not been shown, rest assured it is only 
 from fear or interest, and when they did not recognize opportwiity J' ) 
 Now, in the face of these, and scores of other substantially 
 similar statements from all parts of the North- West and Central .-^ 
 India, what becomes of the lullaby declarations of those who 
 would fain persuade the British public that nowhere among the ~*" 
 general civic or rural population of India does there exist any 
 feeling of ill-will, or discontent, or disaffection, towards the 
 British or their Government ? All such unqualified declarations 
 I do most solemnly regard as a gigantic (I do not say wilful) 
 imposition on the British people — an imposition which, if not 
 timously exposed or abandoned, is sure to prove as fatal to the 
 re-establishme]it and perpetuity of British supremacy as it is iia 
 
I 
 
 i 
 
 22 
 
 itself gigantic. If the seeds of a deadly disease are lurking, 
 though it may be but partially developed, in the very vitals of 
 the constitution, and if the existence of these, in spite of obvious 
 symptoms and warnings, bo deliberately ignored, what can we 
 exixjct, except that, one day or other, they will break forth into 
 a niging virulence, which all the art of the most skilful physician 
 can neither mitigate nor arrest ? " 
 
 And again, Dr. Duff, in another letter published in the 
 " Witness,'* says: — 
 
 " It is the fact, that it is not a mere * military revolt,' but a 
 rebellion — a revolution — which alone can account for the little 
 progress hitherto made in extinguishing it, and, at the same 
 time, precludes any reasonable hope of its early complete sup- 
 pression. That it is a rebellion, and a rebellion, too, of no 
 recent or mushroom growth, every fresh revelation tends more 
 and^more to confirm. And a rebellion long and deliberately 
 concocted — a rebellion which has been able to array the Hindoo 
 and Mahommedan in an unnatural confederacy — a rebellion 
 which is now manifestly nurtured and sustained by the whole 
 population of Oude, and, directly or indirectly, sympathised 
 with and assisted by well nigh half that of the neighbouring 
 provinces — is not to be put down by a few victories over 
 Timtinous sepoys, however decisive or brilliant. 
 
 " To earn for the present revolt the designation of ' rebellion,' 
 it is surely not necessary that the entire mass of the people 
 should have risen in active hostility against us. We talk of 
 the rebellion of * forty-five' in our own land, though only a 
 section of the general population actually took up arms — 
 known, however, to be sympathised with by numbers of par- 
 tisans throughout the land. And is not the sway of the rebels 
 at this moment vastly firmer and more extensive in Northern 
 and Central India, than ever was that of Prince Charles and 
 his followers throughout the British Isles ? 
 
 " That there is, even in Northern and Central India, an 
 ordinarily quiet, simple, and industrious race, who, if let alone, 
 would live on, under any paramount power, in profoundest 
 apathy and unconcern, is what I have heretofore again and 
 again asserted. But, from the first, it was strangely forgotten 
 by many of our officials and leaders of public opinion, at home 
 
23 
 
 and abroad, that, tliroui;hout our Northern and Central pro- 
 vhiccs, there are whole tribes of banditti, professional robbers 
 and murderers — hosts of ^ budmashes, ' ever ready for any 
 work of violence and rapine — endless discontented chiefs, with 
 crowds of retainers, the descendants of marauders who, in 
 their day, founded petty thrones and principalities — and that 
 all of these, together with the multitudinous armed populace, 
 long kept in check or under repression by the strong hand of 
 a righteous Government, the mutiny at once released and 
 turned adrift, as surging elements of mischief, to scour and 
 scourge a desolated land. 
 
 " Even by those who were not altogether incognisant of the 
 peculiar constitution of native society, it has been strangely 
 forgotten how vast a proportion of the general population in 
 Northern and Central India consist of those very elements of 
 mischief which have now been let loose, free to follow their 
 predatory instincts, and issue forth to mingle in the sanguinary 
 fray. Aye, and it has been strangely overlooked how, in such 
 a general melee of anarchy, the active or passive sympathies of 
 numbers of the ordinary peaceable and industrious population 
 must of necessity be excited in favour of the rebels, and 
 against us — leading them readily to supply the former with 
 provisions and information, while provisions are reluctantly 
 doled out to us, and useful information never — thus greatly 
 augmenting our difficulty in defeating their desperate enter- 
 prises, and rendering the task of quelling rebellion a far more 
 formidable one than the persevering assertors of a mere military 
 revolt can be prepared to anticipate. 
 
 " That there is a ' military revolt ' is, alas ! far too conspi- 
 cuously written in characters' of fire and blood through all the 
 military stations of Northern and Central India. But, what all 
 the friends and advocates of right measures for the restoration of 
 settled peace and order must persist in reiterating is, that it is 
 more than a mere ^ military mutiny ' — that, from the very outset, 
 it has been gradually assuming more and more the character of 
 a ^ rebellion ' — a rebellion, on the part of vast multitudes beyond 
 the sepoy army, against British supremacy and sovereignty — and 
 that our real contest never was wholly, and now less than ever, 
 with nuitinous sepoys. Had we only sepoys for our foes, the 
 
24 
 
 ^ counti'y iniglit soon be pacified. But, Iiuving far worse enemies 
 
 than the sei)oys to overcome — even anarchy or utter lawlessness, 
 
 the extinction of rule and authority, tlie dissolution of organised 
 
 society, and the hereditary tuste for war and rapine, on the part 
 
 of milHons, which has been .evoked and exasperated by a very 
 
 / pK'thora of indulgence — we may expect the patience, the disin- 
 
 I terestedness, and the energy of Christian principle to be taxed to 
 
 ^ the uttermost before the tremendous conflict shall issue in a solid 
 
 and satisfactory peace. 
 
 " The representation now given I do believe to be, in its lead- 
 ing features, the only true one. And if men were seriously to 
 reflect, it is the only one that can adequately account for the 
 phenomena of the unparalleled struggle which has been carried 
 on for months past Never has the enemy been met without 
 being routed, scattered, and his guns taken ; but though con- 
 \ stantly beaten, he ever more rallies^ and appears again ready for 
 J a fresh encounter. No sooner is one city taken, or another re- 
 lieved, than some other one is threatened. No sooner is one 
 district pronounced safe, through the influx of British troops, 
 y- than another is disturbed and convulsed. No sooner is a high- 
 way re-opened between places of importance, than it is again 
 . closed, and all communication, for a season, cut off. No sooner 
 are the mutineers and rebels scoured out of one locality than 
 they re-appear, with double or treble force, in another. No 
 ' sooner does a moveable column force its way through hostile 
 ranks, than these re-occupy the territory behind it. All gaps in 
 the numbers of the foe seem to be instantaneously filled up ; and 
 no permanent clearance or impression appears anywhere to be 
 made. The passage of our brave little armies through these 
 swarming myriads, instead of leaving the deep traces of a mighty 
 / ploughshare through a roughened field, seems more to resemble 
 [^ that of the eagle through the elastic air, or a stately vessel 
 through the unfurrowed ocean. 
 
 " Surely facts like these ought at length to open the eyes of 
 incredulous politicians and dreamy speculators, to the dire reality 
 of the condition of things with which we have to deal, and the 
 prodigious magnitude of the task of subjugation and reconstruc- 
 tion that lies before us. I say not this under the influence of any 
 dej)ression but rather of buoyant hopefulness. Believing as I 
 
25 
 
 liave always done, that the God of Providence has given India to 
 Britain for the accomplishment of the noblest, divinest ends — 
 believing that the present calamities are righteous judgments on 
 account of our culpable negligence in fulfilling the glorious trust 
 committed to us — believing at the same time that our nation, 
 with all its shortcomings, had enough of Christian principle to 
 cause it, under the breath of Jehovah's Spirit, to awake, arise, 
 kiss the rod, repent, and return to* God in the path of appointed 
 duty — I never for a moment doubted our ultimate success in re- 
 establishing the British power, on a grander and firmer pedestal 
 than ever, throughout these vast dominions. Even during those 
 awful nights of panic-terror, when looking at the radiance of the 
 setting sun, one did not know but its morning beams might be 
 reflected from his dishonored blood, the uppermost assurance in 
 my own mind was, that were Calcutta, the most conspicuous 
 monument of the ascendancy of Great Britain in the East, burnt 
 to the ground, and her sons and daughters buried amid its glaring 
 ashes, such a catastrophe would only cause a mightier vibration 
 to thrill through the heart of the British people, and rouse them 
 to exertions for the reconquest and evangelization of India, such 
 as the world never witnessed before." 
 
 The next witnesses are of a different country ; they are 
 natives themselves, and they describe the scenes which they ac- 
 tually saw in the country they passed through. The narrative is 
 that of certain Hindoo ladies who proceeded up the Ganges on yf^ i 
 a pilgrimage, and whose graphic account bears, on every line of / 
 it, the stamp of truth. • '^^ 
 
 Banks of the Jumna. — " A few months ago, sometime before 
 the breaking out of the mutiny at Meerut and Delhi, a number 
 of persons, chiefly Bengalee women of respectables families of { 
 this town, started on a pilgrimage to the shrines of Muttra and 
 Brindabun in three boats. They arrived at Allahabad without 
 meeting with any impediment or obstacle some days before the first 
 of Joistee last, on which date they left that place and entered the 
 Jumna. The mutiny of the 3rd cavalry at Meerut, and of the 
 regiments at Delhi, had then taken place, but they heard at 
 Allahabad nothing of the affair, beyond that some disturbances 
 had occurred at those places. Proceeding up the Jumna for 
 several days, they arrived at Humeerpore, the head-quarters of 
 
.J 
 
 w 
 
 7^ 
 
 the district, the aiitliorities of which informed them of the dangers 
 of tlio trip up the river; but on their persisting to proceed, 
 allowoil tlieni four guards to accompany them to the end of their 
 jurisdiction, strictly enjoining them on no account to cross the 
 river, but always to keep along the Humeerpore bank of it. 
 They got up with safety as fai* as Michreepore, where tlic guards 
 left them, repeating to them the injunctions they had already 
 received. From this latter place, they proceeded up to a place 
 callcHl Simarah, a few miles above Calpee, without much serious 
 opposition, as the country was then comparatively peaceable. 
 This last-mentioned village stands on the banks of the river, to 
 which they had been proliibited to go ; but the boatmen, fancying 
 that the navigation along it was comparatively easier, impru- 
 dently crossed over, and moved the boats, — the number of which 
 had increased to eight since they left Allahabad, — on an adjoining 
 chur, for the purpose of cooking their food. They had not, how- 
 ever, been long here, before they could see a party of four or 
 five hundred ruffians, mostly villagers, armed with swords, 
 lateeSy and muskets too, descending down the shore with an 
 intention, which they had no difficulty to conjecture. Fortu- 
 nately, however, as the alarm had been given in time, they 
 hastily got upon the boats any how they could, before the rascals 
 could arrive on the spot and seize the boats. The river at this 
 place being very narrow, the shouting and yelling of these 
 desperadoes, furious at losing their prey, brought out masses of 
 villagers on the other bank, to which the boatmen and the 
 trembling, weak, and helpless pilgrims, were invited to come 
 over, with offers of assistance and protection. But no sooner 
 had they gone there, than they found that these men were not a 
 whit better than the fellows on the other bank; for their hea(i_ 
 man told them in plain words that if they wished to be saved 
 from being plundered and dishonored, they must immediately 
 pay down to him and his followers a handsome sum of money as 
 the price of his protection. Under these difficult and dangerous 
 circumstances they handed him six hundred rupees, upon which 
 he agreed to follow them with his men along the shore down to 
 Calpee, where they were assured they would find protection from 
 the zemindar, who had declared himself the rajah of the district. 
 They were told, besides, that the voyage further up was very 
 
27 
 
 dangerous, and that no less than twenty-nine boats, all filled 
 with pilgrims like themselves, had been some days before plun- 
 dered at Etawah. Accordingly the boats began to ply down, 
 the head man and his men accompanying them along the bank ; 
 but what was their surprise when they saw fresh bodies of men 
 appearing on both banks, shouting to them in the most abusive 
 and threatening language to lagow the boats; the head man, 
 however, be it said to his honor, still remained their friend, and 
 but for him they had certainly been lost ; for he told the boatmen 
 to disregard their threats and use their utmost exertions to carry 
 down the boats, till they reached Calpee, while he with his men 
 employed some means to slacken the pursuit of those who were 
 most furious for the prey. This, however, had the most fo rtu- 
 nate effect of raising an altercation between the two parties, 
 which enabled the fugitives to reach Calpee without further 
 molestation. One fact ought to be stated here very distinctly, 
 that among the ruffians who had pursued them, setting all law at 
 defiance, there was perhaps not one mutinous soldier, but that 
 they were all villagers and people living along the banks of the 
 river. This proves very clearly, notwithstanding anything that 
 may be said to the contrary, that whole villages, at least in that 
 part of the North- West, have turned rebellious, and done their 
 best to disorganize the country. These men, it can scarcely be 
 denied, have done their best to overturn the authority of Govern- 
 ment, and have in most cases cheerfully obeyed the authority of 
 any rebel zemindar, who had power or influence enough to pro- 
 claim himself rajah. 
 
 a Arriving at last at Calpee, vainly hoping to see the end of 
 their troubles, the fugitives were immediately surrounded by 
 bodies of bravoes, calling themselves the rajah's men, who came 
 ostensibly with the purpose of protecting them, but really to see 
 what they could get. Here they were detained for nearly two 
 months, during which time, though they were not much molested, 
 they had the mortification of being spectators of many an atro- 
 cious act, the principal of which was the cold-blooded assassination 
 of an European gentleman and his lady. When the fugitives 
 arrived at Calpee, they were still living, but only a few days 
 after their arrival, when it is said a body of mutinous soldiers 
 arrived at the place, those two helpless persons were murdered 
 
28 
 
 under tinuinstancos too revolting to allow for description being 
 given. Suffice it to say, that under the heat of a burning sun, 
 both the gentleman and his wife were made to run like horses up 
 and down, till out of mere exhaustion they fell down half dead, 
 when a number of the bloody miscreants hacked them to pieces 
 with swords. The bodies were then thrown down the river like 
 the carcase of an animal. It is unnecessary to state, that while 
 this is being written, the writer is fervently praying to God that 
 the Government may soon be enabled to take the most terrible 
 vengeance, — a vengeance, the remembrance of which may last 
 for centuries in the villages and hamlets of the North- West At 
 Cidpee, too, the fugitives learnt with what feelings of hatred the 
 l)eople looked upon the English, and the desire prevalent among 
 ^ 1 / them of exterminating the whites.* One of them who had impru- 
 *-»^ '* dently said that he could speak English, was brought to a serious 
 scrape, out of which he was extricated with no little difficulty. 
 They had with them several English books, which the boys used 
 to read, and English shoes for their use, all of which they threw 
 down in tlie water. The self-styled Rajah of Calpee, they also 
 learnt, had given orders in the bazaar to sell Company's pice, 
 which they call lad sliahee, at thirty-two gundahs for the rupee, 
 that is to say, at half their value, and the old copper coins of the 
 place, which they call balushahee, at ten gundahs for the rupee ; 
 a rate which they never had. At Calpee the fugitives were 
 joined by six of the twenty-nine plundered boats already spoken 
 of, which had proceeded as far as Etawah. From the people in 
 them they heard most horrid tales. All the fourteen boats were 
 then allowed to leave on the 1st August last, not before they had 
 been searched, on the payment of a fine of twelve rupees for each 
 of the first eight boats, and six rupees for each of the other six. 
 
 * To show the real state of the country, I extract the following from the * Friend 
 of India.' " On the 24th March the Governor-General opened the railway as far as 
 Futtelipore. The line, it is said, will soon be complete as far as Cawiigpre; the line 
 nearly" all the way proceeds through what may not inaptly he termed an engmy^-^- 
 country. It has been found necessary to burn the villages on their side of the line, 
 ( and to post troops at every station. The first station was protected by a guard com- 
 ' posed of the remnant ottTie r2th N. I., at the second were two troops of Brazer's 
 
 horse, and at the third some Madras troops Avith two guns. The affair^ went off" very 
 well ; the guard at the several stations prevented the rebels from attempting to 
 carry off the Governor-General or obstructing the line.'''' 
 
29 
 
 As the river had t]um risen, tliey descended very swiftly down, 
 without daring to stop anywhere, and notwithstanding the danger 
 of the navigation in the Jumna, the boats were rowed even 
 during the night. When they arrived at Humeerpore, they saw 
 the bungalows of the Europeans looted and burnt, and the place 
 in a state of complete disorganization. Further down Humeer- 
 pore, at a place called Churkha Murka, the villagers fired on 
 them from both sides, and even pursued them to some distance 
 on their heavy boats called kacJiovah. It was not, however, 
 before they arrived at Allahabad, that they considered themselves 
 out of all danger. The party has recently returned to town, 
 having paid nearly one thousand rupees to different persons, as 
 the price of their protection, as already stated." * 
 
 The following is the account of the condition of the country 
 round Futtyghur, given by Ishuree Doss, a native Christian w^ho 
 escaped the tnassacre : — 
 
 " After the missionaries and other Europeans left the station, 
 things grew worse in the zillah of Furruckabad. The civil 
 officers, notwithstanding their most strenuous efforts for the 
 preservation of order, lost all power of ruling out in the district. 
 Police stations and tuhseeldarees began to be attacked by in- 
 surgents passing on the Grand Trunk Road, as well as by 
 dacoits. The latter now lifted up their heads, and thought the 
 time for them to work had arrived. Nothing was heard during 
 the night but noise of firearms, insomuch that the very jackals 
 ceased barking through fear. Our place, on account of the tent 
 manufactory, was in great danger from dacoits ; swords and fire- 
 arms were, therefore, procured, and all the men were obliged to 
 keep up in arms the whole night, and though very few in number 
 compared with the adverse population of the surrounding country, 
 and the extent of the premises to be guarded, were indeed suc- 
 cessful in keeping them at bay. Throughout the country, 
 zemindars and others rose up against each other to settle or 
 rather to avenge old differences that existed between them, and 
 disorder and anarchy reigned supreme." 
 
 In another account, a native lady, on a journey, had to disburse 
 180,000 rupees in bribes to marauders, who beset her path in 
 different places, in order to be allowed to pursue her journey. 
 
 * " Hurkani," October 12th. 
 
"^^^""^^ 30 
 
 Tlic next is an Americaji, who thus details to the American 
 people his opuiion as to the character of the outbreak : — 
 
 " It does not yet appear that the fall of Delhi has produced 
 any very peaceful results among the natives of India. The 
 rebellion is not checketl, nor is the war ended. The greater part 
 oF the rebel garrison of Delhi has fled hito the province of Oude, 
 which will now probably be the great battle ground of the 
 rebellion. Already a large body of armed rebels is collected 
 there, and it is rumoiu'cd in Bombay that they have succeeded in 
 shutting up General Outram and General Havelock in Lucknow, 
 thus cutting off their anticipated return to Cawnpore with the 
 relieved garrison of the Residency. Lucknow is yet to become 
 a second Delhi of the war. 
 
 " To those whose eyes are not bleared by English prejudices, 
 it is evident that this formidable rebellion is a natural sequence 
 of the annexation of Oude by the East India Company. And 
 there are English presses in India bold enough and candid enough 
 to assert this opinion, in spite of the Governor-General's gag 
 law. The true history of that annexation is yet to be written. 
 The Oude Blue Book, which has been presented to Parliament, 
 is Lord Dalhousie's special plea in justification of the robbery. 
 Many of its statements are absolutely false, and its argument 
 may be considered a disgrace to the public morality of England. 
 But it is, of course, the only account of the transaction which 
 the East India Company and Parhament will consider authentic 
 It is generally true that the British rule in India has never taken 
 any hold on the affections of the people, and nowhere is this 
 truth more apparent than in the province of Oude. The 
 Oudeans, who are, more than any other nationality in India, a 
 warlike people, hate the English Government with a determina- 
 tion which has been conspicuously displayed by the massacres at 
 \» Cawnpore and Futteyghur, and by the long, desperate siege of 
 ^^•.' the British Residency at Lucknow. When, in February, 1855, 
 jj>-^ ^ the late King of Oude was ordered to abdicate his throne and his 
 kingdom to the East India Company, and General Outram at 
 Lucknow, with 13,000 English troops near by, stood ready to 
 enforce the order, all the Hindoo and Mahommedan troops in 
 the king's army bound themselves by an oath to defend their 
 sovereign and their country with their lives; and the British 
 
'-^V^t^-^Su/ 
 
 31 
 
 sepoys, who were drafted on the Oude frontier, pledged them- ^ 
 selves to one another not to fire a shot upon their relatives in the 
 king's service, should the king resist the annexation, and thus * 
 precipitate a war with the East India Company. The rajahs and | 
 zemindars of Oude also sent word to the king (during the three / 
 days which General Outram allowed him to consider the East I 
 India Company's command to surrender) that if he would give \ 
 them authority they would raise an army of 100,000 men, with | 
 1,000 pieces of artillery, to resist the Company's attempt at 
 annexation. But the king, filled with grief, considered that 
 it would be useless to resist the rapacity of the East India 
 Company. He disarmed his troops, dismounted his guns, and 
 published to his subjects a proclamation of his intentions to 
 surrender his throne and his kingdom. When, on the third day 
 (February 7, 1856), General Outram visited the palace at 
 Lucknow to learn whether the king would comply with the 
 * Honourable Company's' commands, he found the sentries on 
 duty armed only with sticks. The king had surrendered; and 
 immediately General Outram issued a proclamation, which Lord 
 Dalhousie had prepared for him at Calcutta, declaring that * the / 
 government of the territories of Oude is hereafter vested exclu- 
 sively and for ever in the Honourable East India Company.' 
 But when the Company began to organize the territories, all 
 those who had been officers of Government under the deposed 
 king refused to enter the new service. The soldiers of the dis- 
 banded army of the king refused to enter the new regiments 
 which the Company raised, although every power of persuasion u ♦ 
 and intimidation was tried to bring them into the new ranks. ^ 5^ 
 These and singular facts and incidents of that ^ annexation' have 
 never been published that I know of — for the Oude Blue Book 
 would be no place for them, but I recite them to you, at this 
 time, because they possess a fresh interest when considered in 
 connection with the events now transpiring in Upper India. The 
 present rebellion in Oude is eminently a national rebellion. The I /^- ^. 
 sepoys, the budmashes, the ryots, the zemindars, are all in arms ; 
 for their national grievances. Even the massacre at Cawnpore, * 
 perpetrated by Oude sepoys, may be considered as a retaliatiQii 
 for gross indignities thrust upon the ladies of the royal family of 
 Oude by the British commissioner a little more than a year ago. ; ^ 
 
32 
 
 ^ You will find, on page 291 of the Oiide Blue Book, a statement 
 
 of General Outnun, that he offered as a bribe to the queen- 
 
 / mother an annual stipend of one lac of rupees, if she would 
 
 \/ persuade the king to sign the treaty of abdication. The queen- 
 
 i \ motlicr re£u.8fidt„ After the annexation was formally accomplished, 
 
 7 "''"ana all the pr^erty of the deposed king and his family had been 
 
 / ♦■Confiscated — including his palaces, parks, menageries, furniture, 
 
 ^'^''^'^^pfate, jewellery, wardrobes, carriages, museum, and library con- 
 
 tuitiing 200,000 volumes of rare books and valuable manuscripts; 
 
 and after his armoury, his valuable stud of Arabian and Persian 
 
 horses, his dogs, camels, and elephants had been sold in auction 
 
 at Lucknow, the commissioner turned his attention to the ladies 
 
 of tlie royal household, who yet remained in the palace of Chuttur 
 
 Muuzul. The queen-mother has made a deposition that on the 
 
 23rd of August, 1856, all the ladies of the king's household were, 
 
 -v^- in spite of their protest and humble petition, forcibly ejected 
 
 / from the palace at Lucknow, and their personal effects thrown 
 
 after them into the street, by officers acting under the direction 
 
 of the British commissioner ; and also that a sum of money, left 
 
 ■■' by the king for their support, was taken in possession and 
 
 f \ retained by the British authorities. Do not these facts throw 
 
 light upon some of the dark incidents of this rebellion ? With 
 
 this conviction it is that I have been induced to occupy so much 
 
 of your attention. 
 
 " We have had here in Bombay a slight touch of the rebellion 
 since I last wrote you. A native officer in the Marine Battalion, 
 ( and a sepoy of the 10th Native Infantry, have been blown from 
 a gun. The court-martial in the case met at Fort George on 
 ^ the 13th inst,, and, that you may know how these things are 
 done, I will give you an account of the proceedings. The charge 
 ,_ against these two rebels was in these words : — ' For having, on or 
 5^ / /about the night of the 3rd of October, 1857, attended a seditious 
 meeting, held in a house in a part of the town of Bombay, called 
 Sonapore, and at that meeting they, the said drill havildar Synd 
 Hoossein and private Mungul Guddrea, made use of highly 
 mutinous and seditious language, evincing a traitorous disposition 
 towards the Government, tending to promote rebellion against 
 the State, and to subvert the authority of the British Govern- 
 ment.' Under this charge the culprits were found guilty on the 
 
 i 
 
^^^^-^\ 
 
 15th inst., wlien the court * sentenced them to suffer death by ^ 
 SeTng blown away from the muzzle of a cannon,' and this sen- - 
 tence was executed the day before yesterday, in presence of all 
 the troops in Bombay." 
 
 Lastly, the Supreme Government thus characterizes the rebel- 
 lion in their " Narrative of Events," on September 12, 1857: — * 
 
 "^ In consequence of tlie gejieral nature of the rebellion and the 
 impossibility of identifying the majority of the rebels, or of 
 bringing their crime home to them, the magistrate recommended 
 the wholesale burning and destruction of all villages proved to 
 have sent men to take active part in the rebellion^ 
 
 So much for the character of the rebellion, f 
 
 It remains to say a few words about its cause. Here again 
 Oude stares us in the face. Its present condition is a pregnant 
 fact. It is the rallying point and final standing-place of the 
 rebels ; it is the representative of the principle which the rebel- 
 lion embodies, a protest against the wicked and foolish policy of 
 aggression and spoliation euphemized as annexation. It was this 
 which lit the fire and banded together so many of the rajali^ and 
 nobles against us. They saw the shadow of events coming 
 swiftly and inevitably on themselves. Their only hope was to 
 anticipate the action of British policy, before, in the terse 
 language of Runjeet Singh, the map should all "lal hoga:" 
 (become red). Hence the conspiracy, and the determination, 
 while it was yet time, to refer the continuance of their rights to 
 that ultimate arbitrement of States — open war. 
 
 * See Note, " The Governor-General to the Court of Directors, Fort William, 
 September 23, 1857" (Public, No. 111.) Par. 26 in Parliamentary Return, "Further 
 Papers relative to the Mutinies m the East Indies" (No. 5j. 
 
 t Dr. Buist thus recants his opinions : — " As it has all along been maintained that 
 the recent r^ellion has been nothing more than a mutiny of the Bengal army, it may 
 not be amiss to take a glance at our position as we now stand, with a view of 
 determining who have actually shared in the rising, and of foraiing some estimate of 
 the amount of work still to be performed before India can be re-conquered and tran- 
 quillized. We confess we were long of those who took the exclusively mutiny view of 
 the question, but further lights have ^gJVjae^ upon us since then, and shown that, 
 though the rising of the army was an essential portion of the great plot for the subver- 
 sion of the British empire in the East, it was after all but a portion of the jjlot. The 
 disclosures on the trial of the King of Delhi plainly show that for a long period of 
 years there tvas a deeply laid plan for the restoration of the Mogul empire, in the 
 execution of which every Hindoo or Mahomedan was to lend his aid, each expecting 
 in turn to regain the position and influence he had lost through British supremacy." 
 
 D 
 
^ij:^'^^"'' 34 
 
 _ The King of Delhi, as was natural, appears from the revela- 
 tions of his late trial, to have been the head of the conspiracy. 
 This may be thought by some to argue an origin of the rebellion 
 not immediately connected with annexation, and especially with 
 the annexation of Oude. But the King of Delhi knew well that 
 his tenure of royalty was most precarious. Seven years before, 
 at the commencement of Lord Dalhousie's reign, his enforced 
 abdication had been deliberated and determined on by the English 
 Government ; it is true that Lord Dalhousie did not deprive the 
 heir apparent of his dignity, nor compel him to submit to terms, 
 whereby, on his succession, he " should leave the palace of the 
 Kootah, and that he should, as king, receive the Governor- 
 General on terms of perfect equality. " But the intended 
 measure was perfectly w^ell known, and commented on with suffi- 
 cient publicity at the time. When Peer Ali, the head of the 
 intended revolution at Patna was detected, " his correspondence 
 proved him to have been in communication with Mussee Owl 
 Yuman, of Cawnpore, ever since the annexation of Oude, and 
 showed that a secret conspiracy had existed for some time in 
 Patna, carried on under instructions from the North- West, for 
 some great ulterior purpose." * 
 
 Two other facts speak volumes. Nana Sahib, at the date of 
 the annexation of Oude, had £500,000 in tbe Company's funds. 
 He had from that time been selling out gradually until but 
 £30,000 stood in his name when he attacked the entrenchment 
 at Cawnpore. When he sent by Mrs. Greenway to Sir Hugh 
 Wheeler to offer terms of surrender, he expressly exempted from 
 his affected clemency all those who had anything to do with Lord 
 Dalhousie's government. The proclamation of Khan Bahadoor 
 Khan, the retired principal Sudder Ameen of Bareilly, who set 
 himself up as nabob of that place, was put in evidence on the 
 trial of the King of Delhi. It throws much light upon the 
 causes of the rebellion. It appeals to the religious fears of the 
 populace ; the motive of the writer is thus pithily detailed : — 
 
 " They have further forbidden that any adopted children shall 
 succeed to the titles of the rajahs of the land, while in our 
 shastres it is so written, that ten kinds of successors are allowed. 
 
 * Parliamentary Paper, No. 6 (p. 4), Further Papers on the Mutiny. 
 
35 
 
 " In this manner will they eventually deprive you of all 
 your possessions, as they have done those of Nagpore and 
 Oude." 
 
 So far as I am personally concerned, I confess it is immaterial 
 v^hether the responsibility of late events be fixed on the right 
 shoulders or not : the adjustment of praise and blame will be 
 settled by the historian and posterity, with an impartiality of 
 which contemporary spectators are perhaps incapable. But it is 
 to be observed that this is no question of parliamentary impeach- 
 ment, no affair of pains and penalties, or criminal indictment ; 
 not even one of vote of censure ; for it must be confessed that 
 one ministry has been just as remiss as another in respect to 
 India. Lord Derby and Mr. D'Israeli cannot point to any change 
 of policy during their administration which evinced deeper intel- 
 ligence, and a more lively conception of the condition of India, 
 than that either of their predecessors or successors. But one of 
 the gravest lessons ever read in history lies open before us, 
 and it behoves us to read it right. We may depend on this, 
 too, that, after peace is restored, we shall have as difficult a 
 task before us as ever nation proposed to itself. Indeed the 
 conquest of the future will, I fear, be even more difficult than 
 that of the past. Everything depends upon the steps which we 
 may take. A single false step may be our ruin. We have the 
 confidence of vast masses to restore ; as Mr. Lowe says, we cannot 
 play the part of Jack the Giant Killer, and go quietly to break- y 
 fast as soon as the foe is laid low. We must gird up our loiiis to 
 a Herculean task ; prudence in our eyes, firmness in our feet, 
 justice in our right hands; with these we must walk right 
 onward. And unless we ascertain these two points, first the real / 
 ^rigin of the crash, in which the " traditionary policy " has 
 exploded ; secondly, that we have the " right men in the right 
 places," we shall fail. Let us then, as briefly as may be, consider - 
 the causes of the rebellion. 
 
 What a variety of reasons has been assigned for the outbreak ! 
 With some it has been purely a Mahomedan conspiracy, being 
 planned for placing the great Mogul upon the throne of Delhi ; 
 the Hindoos have been their puppets and their dupes, soon to be 
 their victims and slaves. But the Mahomedans are but a small 
 portion of the Bengal army, and a small portion of the popula- ' /" 
 
 D 2 ^ 
 
/ 
 
 36 
 
 tion.* Mr. Samuels, the commissioner of Patna, indignantly 
 
 repudiates this charge against the Mahomedans. He shows that 
 
 the great Mussulman population of Patna and lower Bengal, 
 
 which was left quite unprotected, are peaceable and loyal.f 
 
 Others say it is the handywork of the crafty Brahmins, who see 
 
 their sway slipping from them by the spread of education, and 
 
 that they have made one last stand in favour of caste. Thus 
 
 European Hterature and science have led to our calamity ; and 
 
 thus an arijument is found against the further extension of know- 
 to o 
 
 ledge by those whose policy is j\ti()i:rc'ssi\e. Some see in the 
 rebellion the special finger of an oil'ended God, angry at our not 
 having used sufficiently our opportunities of spreading Chris- 
 tianity. Others regard it as immediately springing from our 
 tampering too freely with the religion of the natives. We have, 
 say these, to thank the missionaries. Suffice it to point out here 
 the irreconcilable opposition of these two theories ; tolerance and 
 intolerance cannot both be guilty; their further consideration 
 will fall under a separate topic. Some, without a tittle of 
 evidence, have attributed our misfortunes to Russian intrigue. 
 It has been traced to the " peculiar idiosyncrasy" of the natives, 
 which tends to a sort of spontaneous combustion, without any 
 assignable cause whatever. A small class has still faith in the 
 Bengal sepoy. Colonel Sykes believes that the murders and the 
 other horrors attributed to the " poor sepoy" will turn out to be 
 the work of Mussulmen, budmashes, and released prisoners. But ] 
 the so-termed. " mild Hindoo " is one of the most cruel cold- '■ 
 blooded of animals, as his conduct towards his own countrymen, 
 on dacoitees and other thuggeries, shows. 
 
 The sacrifice of poor young Macgregor by the Hindoos of the 
 50th regiment to the goddess Deva, before encountering the 28th 
 
 * At the Court of Inquiry held on the 34th Bengal N. I., the Colonel stated that 
 the Mussulmen of the corps were very angry at what the Hindoos had done. Captain 
 Aubert, when asked, — " Does the feeling of distrust embrace men of all castes?" 
 j-eplied, " No, it extends to the Brahmins only ;" and all the officers of the regiment 
 declared, that while they had no reliance in the Hindoos, their confidence in the 
 Sheiks and Mussulmen remained unshaken. 
 
 + Mr. Samuels' statements respecting the loyalty of the Mussulman population, 
 must, however, be taken with some reserve. He is writing up a favorite theory ; and 
 the Parliamentary Paper, No. 5, (Further Papers relative to the Mutinies in the 
 East Indies) shows that there had been a Mussulman conspiracy to murder the Euro- 
 peans, previous to Mr. Samuel's taking up his appointment in Patna. 
 
37 
 
 Madras native infantry, is sufficient to controvert this theory. 
 One old general writes to the papers ; after the whole army, with 
 the exception of some isolated regiments, had ceased to be, 
 stating liis faith in their loyalty, and fortifying his faith by citing 
 instances of military devotion and loyalty from the annals of the 
 last oentury; and Sir William Gomm cannot "divine" what 
 has made the "miserable men"' revolt. A feeble cry was 
 attempted to be raised against the Indian press, which many 
 would gladly have made the responsible cause of mutiny ; but 
 the audacity of this falsehood was too palpable, and the assertion 
 itself too ridiculous, to receive even amomentary assent ; and 
 those who had sought to raise the cry were only too willing to 
 preserve the safeguard of their own obscurity. One gentleman 
 traced the origin of the insurrection to revenge for insults offered 
 to the native womgji. Nothing, in short, was too absurd for 
 speculation and hap-hazard random assertion. 
 
 The diversity of views entertained by those members of the 
 Court of Directors who have addressed public meetings or 
 written to the newspapers, is singular in the extreme. No two 
 seem to think alike. Colonel Sykes and Mr. Mangles are utterly 
 antagonistic. Mr. Willoughby contents himself with determi- 
 ning a great many points which are not the cause of the revolt, 
 but does not inform us what is. The boasted " experience " of the 
 India House, so necessary for the instruction of the Board of Con- 
 trol, is here manifestly at fault,— and if this be a specimen of the 
 light the Directors throw upon questions in general, certainly there 
 is not here the proverbial amount of safety in the multitude of the 
 counsellors. It would be asking too much of poor human nature 
 to expect those gentlemen to write their own condemnation ; and 
 it is not surprising, therefore, to find that they avert their eyes 
 from the annexation policy which is straight before them, and 
 that all such journals and periodicals as they can influence, start, 
 like shy horses, when they come across this unpleasant object. 
 But events beyond their control have unmistakeably pointed out 
 the truth ; and the squabble now is to see how responsibility can 
 be most plausibly shaken off — whether the Board of Control or 
 the India House must bear the blame. Let them settle that 
 among themselves. The material point for consideration is not 
 whom we shall blame, but what is the real origin of the rebel- 
 
38 
 
 lion ; for our object is not tlie punishment of the authors of a 
 mistaken policy, but the recognition of sources of peril to be 
 avoided for the future. It is for this purpose that I have endea- 
 voured distinctly to state the immediate cause of the rebellion. 
 When that rebellion was once a-foot, there was no doubt plenty 
 of materials ready for its spread. These some may regard as so I 
 many causes of the rebellion. I am disposed to consider them 
 rather as so many conditions favorable to its development and 
 success. Thus, for instance, the lax state of discipline in the 
 Bengal army was not the cause of its mutinying ; but the condition 
 which made mutiny not only a possibility, but a very probable 
 contingency. Thus, too, there are various other circumstances 
 to which the same remark is applicable. I will briefly enumerate 
 them. 
 
 In the first place, no one who knows India will deny that 
 there exists in the hearts of the natives a veneration for the old 
 " Raj," however correct may be the comparison we so continually 
 institute between the comparative merits of English and Native 
 rule. Sir Charles Napier saw clearly enough the standing 
 menace afforded to English supremacy by the presence of the 
 Mogul dynasty at Delhi. " The Delhi king," he writes, " is a 
 mere effigy, yet he forms a moral rallying point around which 
 gathers the dreams of discontented princes, feeding upon 
 prophecies. Such prophecies and traditions as those about Delhi 
 oftentimes work out their own fulfilment. In the present case 
 they are only rendered dangerous by the existence of the 
 phantom king whom we there maintain at a vast expense." 2nd. 
 There existed a wide-spread belief in the fulfilment of a prophecy 
 that in this very year the British Empire would terminate in the 
 East, and the old Mogul dynasty resume its sway over all India. 
 3rd. There was the expectation of higher pay and grants of land 
 lavishly promised to all sepoys who would join the king of 
 Delhi. 4th. The rumours of plunder obtained by the sack of 
 public treasures, and the robbery of the private property of 
 murdered Europeans ; for, according to the Eastern proverb, 
 " the sword ever goes with the pot." 5th. There was the hope 
 of dominjon, and license such as the army had never enjoyed 
 under British rule ; for it is to be remembered that the interval 
 is wide between lax discipline and military license. 6th. There 
 
39 
 
 was the utter ignorance of the vast resources and actual power 
 of England, which led the plotters to imagine that by the 
 extermination of the handful of Europeans in India, they had 
 effectually up-rooted us from India. 7th. The paucity of 
 European troops, accidentally prevailing at the moment, no doubt 
 was a powerful argument with those who urged the opportunity 
 as ripe for a rising. 8th. There was the natural antagonism of 
 race; and so far as the Mussulman portion of the army is 
 ""concerned, the religious fanaticism of extermination arrayed 
 against us ; and the feelings of consanguinity and nationality on 
 which I have before observed. 9th. The contagious effect of 
 example on large bodies. 
 
 But, as I have stated in " The Rebellion in India," we should 
 be guilty of a grevious error were we to endeavour to confine 
 the origin of the rebellion to any one cause. Various causes 
 combine to produce every political event ; and without wishing 
 to assert that our policy of annexation is the ordy cause, I feel 
 fortified in re-asserting now what I did not hesitate to assert at 
 the very commencement of the rebellion, that its immediate, 
 cause was the long pursuit of that mistaken policy, till it 
 culminated on the spoliation of the kingdom of Oude. The 
 falsehood of the plea on which we thrust ourselves upon the 
 people of Oude, namely, that they were suffering from a rule 
 from which it was expedient, nay indispensable, that we should 
 relieve them, has been indisputably proved by the whole nation 
 rising as one man to resist our rule as soon as we had imposed it 
 on them. The exaggerated and ex-parte reports, on the faith of 
 which we professed to base our interference, have been charac- 
 terized by Mr. Halliday, the lieutenant-governor of Bengal,* 
 as exhibiting nothing which has not its parallel in our own 
 
 * " The administration of justice," he writes, " is nowhere alleged to be worse in 
 Oude than it is within our own districts ; and it could not be possible, in the most 
 barbarous country in the world, to discover anything more atrocious as a system than 
 is laid ojjen in the recent report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the 
 practice of torture in the territories of Madras." 
 
 That the people of Oude are no worse than their neighbours is shown by Mr. 
 Lushington, who, in his evidence before the Lords' Committee, (21st April, 1853, 
 Q,. 4464) states as follows: — "In illustration of the trustworthiness of evidence, 
 it has been frequently observed by officers whose districts lie on one side of the 
 Ganges river, whilst the territory of Oude is on the other, that in Oude they speak 
 more truth nuio than they do in the Company''s pr.oviiices.'''' 
 
40 
 
 torritories, while for all that is evil in that kingdom we have 
 ourselves only too much to answer for.* 
 
 The real character of tlie annexation policy was but little 
 known in Encjland. It flattered the vanity of our nation to behold 
 kingdom after kingdom falling with the rapidity and facility of 
 children's houses of cards. There seemed something almost akin 
 to fate in the deaths of one potentate after another without 
 natural heirs. The apparent submission, if not clieerfulness, 
 with which the people of vast districts accepted the substitution 
 of English for native rule, utterly deceived those who, without 
 practical experience of India, thought about the matter at all. 
 Admiration was excited towards the great man whose hand had 
 spread tlie dominion of England over so extensive territories, 
 and such various races, with an ease, a determination, and a 
 success, which seemed to argue the presence of the loftiest 
 
 • There is a curious testimony to this effect recorded by Mr. R. Martens Bird, 
 before the House of Commons' Committee, 2nd June, 1853. 
 
 Q, 5626. " On one occasion I had been encamped on the banks of the Gogi-a 
 while Wansacting my business in Goruckpore, and I saw signs of smoke arising in 
 various directions on the opposite shore. I sent to enquire what was the matter, and 
 I found that one of the tasildars of the King of Oude was passing through the district, 
 burning tlie villages, and seizing and imprisoning the people, because they did not pay 
 him the revenue he demanded ; and as soon as they found that I was making enquiry 
 I Wiis told that a number of the principal zemindars of Oude had come into Goruck- 
 pore, and that, if I liked, some of them would come and speak to me. While this 
 w.Ts going on I received a letter from the commanding officer of the English detach- 
 ment, who had been sent upon the most painful duty of supporting the Nabob's troops 
 in these violences of theirs ; he said that the Oude authority had applied to him to 
 request me to seize all those zemindars and to send them over. They came to me 
 and said, * We have done nothing wrong ; we can show you our papers ; it was fixed 
 at the beginning of the year that we were to pay such a sum for this year's revenue, 
 (the revenue is always fixed there year by year,) and now there happens to be a fine 
 crop they are asking half as much again ; and it is because we will not pay that 
 we are treated in this manner, so we hope that you will not send us over, or that if 
 you send us that you will send some one whom you can trust to see what is done.' I 
 said, ' I shall not send you ; they have no right to demand of me to send you ; I 
 have nothing to do with it,' They then said, ' How very ill, in reality, you English 
 treat us.' I said, ' What do you mean ? I have not treated you ill that I am aware 
 of.' * No,' he said, ' if you take us under your own management, and manage as 
 you manage the district of Goruckpore, we should be perfectly satisfied and hapi>y ; 
 or if you would let us alone and let us manage our own affairs we should be perfectly 
 satisfied and happy. We are quite equal to deal with this Mahomedan Prince ; we 
 can protect our own rights ; but when you send out a detachment of troops to aid 
 him and support him, they are allowed to do what they please with us, and then we 
 
/ 41 
 
 qualities of statesmanship. The numbers whom the great increase 
 of patronage, consequent upon each annexation, enabled the 
 Governor-General to provide for, rendered the measure necessa- 
 rily popular in India,* where the recipients of finely paid appoint- 
 ments and almost' unlimited power, sang the poeans of the blood- 
 less and pacific conquest. These feelings were reflected at home, 
 where numerous families were gratified at finding what a hand- 
 some provision had been made for their friends and relatives. 
 The blessings which English Government would confer upon the 
 people, its superior quality to native rule, and the apathetic in- 
 difference with which its substitution for the old regime was 
 received, were all, through a thousand different channels, per- 
 meating the entire society of England. And to rivet the fasci- 
 
 consider that we owe many of the evils we suffer to you in supporting them in such 
 injustice." 
 
 And this is singularly corroborated by the Directors themselves : — In their despatch 
 of October 1st, 1828, I find them saying relative to the misrule in Oude, " We should 
 delude ourselves were we to suppose, that for the state of things thus depicted the 
 British Government is in no degree responsible, or that any one is more nearly con- 
 cerned than Government in its being promptly and efficaciously remedied. Had it 
 not been for our connection with Oude, although misrule might have attained to as 
 great a height, ii would not have been of equal duration. The subversion of the 
 government by which it was produced or tolerated, and the substitution of a more 
 vigorous and probably more moderate rule, would have been the speedy result. 
 
 " It is the British Government, ivhich, by a systematic suppression of all kinds 
 of resistance, has prolonged to the present time a state of organization, which can 
 nowhere attain prominence, except where the shortsightedness and rapacity of a 
 semi-barbarous government is armed ivith the military strength of a civilized one.'''' 
 
 * The following scheme of an establishment, taken from the Governor-Generara 
 proclamation on the annexation of Nagpore, will serve to show the nature and extent 
 of patronage arising from each act of annexation : — 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 One Commissioner, at a salary of 60,000 jjer annum. 
 
 Two Deputies, each at 1 ,500 per mensem. 
 
 One Personal Assistant to Commissioner 900 „ „ 
 
 Two Deputy Commissioners, 1st Class, each 1,200 „ „ 
 
 Two Do. Do. 2nd do. do 1,000 „ „ 
 
 Two Assistant Do. 1 st do. do 700 „ „ 
 
 Two Do. Do. 2nd do. do 600 „ „ 
 
 Three Do. Do. do 500 „ „ 
 
 Nine extra Assistants do 500 „ „ 
 
 One Do 300 „ 
 
 One Do. 250 „ „ 
 
 Three Do. each 150 „ „ 
 
 One Police Serjeant 500 „ „ 
 
42 
 
 nation in which all classes were enchained, it was authoritatively 
 shown, by official reports and returns, that this policy, so bene- 
 ficial to the people, was actually effected at a vast saving to the 
 
 4^ State. "Annexation pays," was the catch-word; and it was 
 everywhere taken up and repeated by an audience only too pre- 
 disposed by its wishes to credulity. True, there were not a few 
 who ominously shook their heads at the exceeding folly of our 
 proceedings. Great names were cited against this policy of 
 annexation. The authorities whom I have collected in " The 
 Rebellion in India " formed a formidable phalanx ; the voices of 
 many experienced men, especially that of the late Mr. John 
 Sullivan, whose posthumous letter* ^sounds like a voice from the 
 tomb, were raised in vain warning and protest. It was shown 
 to demonstration that annexation did not pay, but was effected only 
 at a positive and heavy loss. The whole course of the financial 
 
 ^v results of Indian annexation, from the inauguration of that policy 
 down to the present day, was traced in figures which have never 
 been found incorrect f The juggle by which our Indian accounts 
 plausibly presented a balance-sheet in our favour was exposed 
 over and over again. It was shown that any bankrupt concern 
 which had any assets at all — the Surrey Zoological Gardens, or 
 the London and Eastern Bank, for instance — might be made to 
 ajipear paying by following the precedent of Indian financial 
 statements ; the principle of which consisted in taking credit for 
 all returns, and sinking all expenditure, or charging it to other 
 
 And the following scale of establishment for Oude has appeared in print, and I 
 believe is acc\irate. I have no official statement to refer to : that in the Oude Blue 
 Book was only provisional : — Rupees. 
 
 One Chief Commissioner 5,000 per mensem. 
 
 One Financial Do. 4,000 
 
 One Judicial Do. 4 000 
 
 Four Local Commissioners, answering to Magistrates and Col- 
 lectors, each 3,000 
 
 Eight Deputy Commissioners, each 1,500 
 
 Ten others, each 1,000 „ „ 
 
 Covenanted Assistants 3,000 „ 
 
 ♦ See " Daily News," 7th November, 1857. 
 
 t See the petition of Mr. Hume and other proprietors of India Stock presented to 
 Parliament, and published in the Appendix to the Parliamentary Reports for 1852-53. 
 It will- also be found set out in the " Rebellion in India," p. 159. • ""■ '"" 
 
m< K^^^ 
 
 43 
 
 accounts.* The impolicy of depriving the entire native popula- 
 tion of all stages for their restless ambition, and reducing all to 
 the dull dead level of peon and pauper, was significantly pointed 
 out. Tlie boasted superiority of English to native governm. ;nt, 
 and especially the preference of the people themselves for the 
 former, vs^ere seriously questioned ; above all, it was insisted on 
 higher grounds, that the injustice of our course was so flagrant, 
 our disregard of the most solemn treaties so wicked, our wriggles 
 to slide through or over them so mean, our breaches of faith so 
 palpable and dishonest, that not only our national character was 
 lowered and dishonored, but that it was impossible our wickedness 
 should ever prosper : that we could not trample as a nation, any 
 more than as individuals, upon God's universal moral laws with 
 impunity : that somewhere, in some way, and at some time, 
 sooner or later, though man might not be able to predict either 
 the precise moment, or mode, or place, we should inevitably find 
 time bring about its own revenges ; and that if we sowed the 
 storm, we must expect ito reap the whirlwind, f Some few saw 
 yet more clearly, and ventured to foretell with singular sagacity 
 both the character and the direction of that punishment which 
 they declared could not be far distant ; for they saw in the calm 
 of Oude but the stillness of deep waters, and the ominous lull 
 
 * Thus, Madras garrisons Cuttack, Nagpore, Straits, Sholapore, and Pegu, at a 
 cost of £1,225,759 per annum, not one fraction of which is charged against any of 
 these States! see " The Rebellion in India," p. 167. In the "Punjab Commis- 
 sioner's Report, " there is a clear admission that the Punjab does not jiay its 
 expenses^ " The pay of our army," it is there written, " has been estimated to be 
 equal to 165 lakhs, or to £1,650,000. The expenditure of the various civil establish- 
 ments, the commissariat, the executive departments, and the various works in 
 progress, is probably equal to another million, so that, really, double the revenues 
 are at present spent on the country. " Another specimen of this system of 
 account keeping may be found in the evidence of Mr. Prideaux before the 
 Pari. Com. Com., 30th May, 1853, 5238-43. 
 
 t See a remarkable passage in Mr. John Dickinson's pamphlet on Bureaucratic 
 Government in India : — " Meanwhile the natives have a stereotyped expression 
 for their communication with us, which gives us a false confidence. We 
 tread on ice, and forget the current of passion flowing beneath, which imperils our 
 footing. The natives seem what they know we expect them to appear, and we do 
 not see their real feelings : we know not how hot the stove may be under its polished 
 surface. For the fire is not out, we are obliged to keep it up by our native army, 
 which may blaze into a conflagration, and burn the empire. There may be some 
 Procida, matchless in diplomatic art and tenacity of purpose, who will travel for 
 years to knit enemies against us ; who will mine the ground under our feet, and lay 
 
tliat precedes the burst of our tropical monsoon. But either they 
 were not listened to, or they were scolt'ed at. They were vision- 
 aries ; they were cowards ; they were incendiaries ; they were 
 factious ; England, despite of them, should ride on in her glory ; 
 and all the nations of India, doomed by their own innate weakness, 
 should fall one after another under our sway,, without a sign of 
 opposition or a breath of murmur. Thus, for the season at least, 
 the policy of annexation was irresistible. The Governor-General, 
 like a huge boa-constrictor, woke up from time to time, to swal- 
 low some unfortunate potentate, as the repletion from the last 
 meal subsided, and gave rise to a fresh craving for renewed 
 absorption and deglutition. 
 
 But at last the policy was brought to the touchstone. Hitherto 
 we had only annexed the kingdoms of " titular" princes — mere 
 sliadows without substance; if, indeed, the kingdom of Nagpore, 
 with its formidable neighbourhood to the Nizam of Hyderabad, 
 be not a perilous exception. The little state of Sattarah, the 
 still smaller state of Jhansi, were incapable of resistance. In 
 the Carnatic and Tanjore the royal families had, for half a 
 century, been little more than splendid pensioners and state 
 prisoners, without a foot of territory. The whole of the Carnatic, 
 and the garden of the South, Tanjore, since the year 1800, have 
 been mere ordinary collectorates, administered by the civil service 
 precisely in the same manner as all other districts. Our success 
 and impimity impelled us ever forward. We flew at higher 
 game, and the robbery of the kingdom of Oude was definitively 
 decided on. When we declared that the treaties made with 
 pageant princes were no longer binding, our "allies" were forced 
 to submit. No other course was open to them. There was no 
 tribunal to which they could resort. The appeal to arnis, that 
 *' ultima ratio regum" for settling disputed constructions of 
 treaties, was obviously impossible where the one party had 
 
 the train of combustibles : there may be some outrage, which will suddenly raise a 
 cry, terrible as that which broke forth when the bells of Moureale were sounding to 
 vespers, a cry of * Death to the Englishmen ! ' There may be some conspiracy, of 
 which, as at Vellore, we have not even a susjiicion, until the native regiments open 
 their fire on our barracks : and, as a merchant who is obliged to throw all his treasure 
 overboard to save the ship, a storm may arise in India which will cost us more to 
 maintain our power than all we have gained, or can ever hope to gain, by our confis- 
 cation." — (Page 115, Government of India under a Bureaucracy.) 
 
45 
 
 neither men nor money, and the other was supreme in power 
 and resources. When we sold at public auction the jewels and 
 clothes of the Ranees of Nagpore, we, no doubt, covered ourselves 
 with shame in the eyes of every native in India. A friend of 
 mine in the Mysore commiiision chanced to be present at that 
 sale. He informs me that when the ladies' wearing apparel was 
 put up, crowds of natives left the place, with their hands before 
 their mouths, crying, " Appah! Appah!" an exclamation of sor- 
 row and surprise. The fatuity of such meanness is indeed in- 
 conceivable. Better far would it have been to have thrown the 
 whole of the jewels and tlie clothes into the Ganges, if they were 
 not to be restored to their owners. But so it was; and the 
 pettiness of our conduct on that occasion probably damaged us 
 more in native estimation than our wickedness, which had, at any 
 rate, the charm of a certain bad boldness; and, perhaps, our 
 subjects had begun to look upon the painless extinction of old 
 dynasties as the work of " kismut" or the irresistible decree of 
 fate. But when we struck down Oude, with its armed inha- 
 bitants, turbulent among themselves, but rude chivalrous war- 
 riors, ready to avenge insult and resist injury ; fanatics hating 
 the Kaffir, and ready to die for their religion ; when in our pride 
 we slighted the fact that this Oude was the repertory and officina 
 of our Bengal army, we at once brought the annexation policy to 
 a crisis. In the first blush of the affair, it seemed to us that our 
 attack was crowned with the most perfect success. The people 
 made no movement; the king, indeed, positively forbad resistance, 
 and counselled submission. The passive silence of the people 
 was mistaken for acquiescence. The sullen nature of their mood 
 was overlooked. It was the stupor of astonishment which kept 
 them dumb. Our " establishment" entered upon their new 
 duties with the most perfect complacency. They took up their 
 abode in the dwellings of the old nobles with as much noncha- 
 lance as a man exhibits when he hangs up his hat in a furnished 
 London lodging. They commenced at once upon that peculiar 
 civilian hobby, " revision of the assessment ; " the wily, pliant 
 native cringed and dissimulated before them; the well-known 
 flood of intrigue, corruption, jobbery, spread over the land. 
 Money was to be made by the native -agency out of this settle- 
 ment, just as it had been made by similar instruments in Munro's 
 
46 
 
 time; and this system — cut and dried — of civilian administration, 
 which outroots the whole families, ruins the nobility, and aims at 
 the elevation of the masses aJone, was brought at once into full 
 play, to the dismay of those who had anything to lose, and to the 
 unsettlement of the minds of all.* So besotted, however, were 
 we by our own arrogance, that even such warnings as were given 
 we disregarded. When an official in Oude was vaunting the 
 tranquillity attending our accession to the kingdom, " Wait till 
 the hot weather," was the reply of the native, " and see where 
 you will be then." Major Bird publicly stated at Manchester 
 that the Bengal sepoys quartered in Oude had offered, at the 
 very moment of annexation, to join tho king's forces in resisting 
 
 * Revimon of assessment means raising the rent in every possible case ; and that 
 this was done in Oude is proved by the statement which appeared in the Calcutta 
 papers at an advanced period of the rebellion, that the thakoors, during the insurrec- 
 tion of Lucknow, offered us their military services if they might have their lands at 
 their old rates. The following letter, which ajipe: jed in the " Englishman," will 
 shew the state of confusion into which everything was thrown, the blunders we 
 committed, and the angry feelings we engendered : — 
 
 " The Oude Settlement. — The natives of Oudo believed in Lord Dalhousie's 
 proclamation offering to respect the people's rights, and to shew favour and considera- 
 tion to the servants of the late Government and to all zemindars in general, if they 
 should assist the British power in effecting the change of governments with order and 
 tranquillity. The people in general, and the servants of the king in particular, 
 fill filled all that was required of them by this proclamation: they gave over their 
 country to an old friendly power with a new face, without a struggle, and without an 
 attempt to disturb the general tranquillity of the country, and openly met the de- 
 mands of the revenue officer without resistance or a tdngle murmur. In one short 
 year the British rule was as firmly established as if Oude were one of the oldest 
 British provinces of Hindostan. For this voluntary act of reconciliation and sub- 
 mission of the people, let us see what degree of faith has been kept by the British 
 officials in Oude, according to the offer made on the DrJhousie proclamation. After 
 the first revenue year of the British era in Oude, the British commissioner in Oude 
 made summary settlements of the land revenue — it was called summary, as there was 
 no time to inquire into the rights of contending claimants, and it was necessary for 
 purposes of revenue to go through the settlement at once. The principle then laid 
 down by the genius of a Dalhousie was not to disturb any party in possession, but to 
 take the revenue engagements from the party possessed, leaving it to a future day to 
 inquire into, or to recognize officially, the proprietary rights of parties, whether in 
 possession or not in possession, when the necessary mutations would be properly 
 effected. The equity and justice of such a rule was apparent, and could never be too 
 highly applauded, whether considered as a political or really financial measure. 
 Jackson's administration in Oude has been marked with the violation of the British 
 faith, with respect to the rights to landed property which have been peculiar to Oude;, 
 and the chief commissioner, in giving effect to his arbitrary and imijolitic decrees with 
 
71, 
 
 47 M^i 
 
 the Government; and on the 4th of December, 1856, there 
 appeared in the " Central Star," one of the Calcutta journals, a 
 most remarkable letter from Oude, which, however, excited no 
 attention, plainly as it indicated what was coming. The fol- 
 lowing is an extract from this important communication: — 
 
 " How longj may I ask, do you fancy will the peace of Oude • 
 last? Take my word for it — not long. A storm is brewing, 
 which when it comes will certainly sweep us off from the face of 
 the province, like so much chaff. The landed proprietors, who , 
 are the greatest sufferers by the annexation, are not suffering \ 
 their misfortunes in idleness, though in apparent quietness. They f 
 could at a beckon muster thousands of staunch followers, who, 
 
 respect to the settlement recently concluded, has fallen into the still greater error of 
 entrusting the execution of his decrees into the hands of inexperienced men, who 
 have committed the more serious error of turning men out of property whose posses- 
 sion to the same has dated from generations past ; and in those instances where length 
 of time could not be pleaded as a title, still the consent of the real zemindars has 
 been given to the continuance of the possession of those found in possession, but 
 without avail. The settlement officer has pulled down the proclamations of the 7th - ^I- 
 of February, guaranteeing to the people all existing rights, and has torn out of the 
 Blue Book the rule of conduct which enjoined them to respect the rights of possession, 
 as the best prima-facie title to the government revenue engagements, till a better 
 proprietary right could be proved by a regular judicial investigation. The ephemeral 
 popularity intended to be gained by this questionable bait thrown out to the agricul- 
 tural masses, by turning out the leading men of the country (men noted for their 
 wealth "and influence over their own communities) from their estates, long possessed 
 by them through several changes of government and for successive generations, and 
 giving those estates to village occupants whose heritable and transferable rights had 
 long been o1)literated, or, if still existing, these could hardly be said to be decided 
 fairly or justly without the trial of a strict judicial investigation. Nevertheless, the 
 Oude settlement officer has taken the ipse dixit of such occupants of the soil to be ^ 
 judicial evidence against the proprietors in possession ; the latter have been turned out, 
 and the former have been put, to all intents and purposes, into the proprietary posses- 
 sion of those estates, the justification being, that the ordera of Government are such . 
 ' that you shall deal with no one but village occupants.'' ' By this injunction we are 
 not bound to respect the rights of possession,* say the settlement officers; and by this 
 arbitrary decree of Mr. Commissioner Jackson, a revolution has taken place in the 
 laws of property in Oude that could not have been effected by the commotion of a 
 civil war. It is not with any desire to cast odium on the administration of Lord 
 Canning, whose character among all classes of the people, whether of Oude or our 
 own provinces, for moderation and justice is highly appreciated, and to whose deci- 
 sions people seeking redress directly from his lordship look up to with esteem and 
 admiration ; but as this political blunder in Oude, in estranging properties from people i 
 who have held the prima-facie rights to them, without the pretext of a judicial or ' 
 impartial inquiry into the nature of the proprietary rights of one party or the other. 
 
48 
 
 by the spoliation of their masters, have been sent roving about 
 the country, — rife for any mischief. The continued want of 
 decision and unanimity amongst themselves of our authorities 
 tends more than any thing else to unsettle the minds of the 
 people, and create distrust in and discontent with our measures. 
 The lato sinnniary settlement, the more enlightened portion of 
 them look upon as a perfect farce, made the more ridiculous by 
 the ignorance of their parts displayed by the actors. In some 
 instances the assessment has been laid on intolerably heavily; in 
 others, so lightly that it is hardly felt ; all owing to a want of 
 knowledge of the true, or nearly true state of affairs in the settle- 
 ment officer, and the cupidity and rascality of the Umlah, at 
 
 may lead to causes affecting the tranquillity of a whole, or a iiortion even of a pro- 
 vince, public commentary need not be despised by the head of the Government, as 
 the writer can have no motive to mislead or to create alai-m where there are no existing 
 causes for it : l)ut that there is cause for alarm in the wrongful mutations made in the 
 most arbiti-ary manner by the settlement officers of Oude, any one acquainted with 
 the feelings of the people and the condition of the country would hardly attempt to 
 gainsay. It is not impossible that Lord Canning may have before him at the present 
 day appeals of parties aggrieved by these acts of the settlement officer. It will not 
 meet the demands of justice to shelve these appeals on the mere caprice of a secre- 
 tary, however high the character for intelligence, experience, and integrity of such an 
 officer may be; or there is always a tendency in his estimation of a fact to side with 
 the acts of the members of a service in which conventional ties breed sympathies, and 
 where a wrong act may meet with a justification sooner than "an exposure. The 
 question regarding the blunders and injustice done in these Oude settlements is simple 
 and short ; and if the aid of any colleague were required, that colleague should be the 
 law member of the Council; it will be left for him to say whether the Government of 
 India, in giving to the people of Oude a foreign administration, could disturb the 
 rights of parties in actual possession of estates without a judicial inquiry: — Firet, 
 proving a wrong possession or a defective right, would any other process short of a 
 judicial inquiry justify the acts of dispossession. It would be illiberal as it is unjust 
 to eml)arrass these simple questions by any political considerations, or to raise a defence 
 of the dubious policy aimed at for gaining a short-lived popularity with indigent 
 masses, and making enemies of the wealthy and influential, who are always in the 
 days of trouble the staunchest and best friends of order and good government. If his 
 lordship were to decide the appeals that the people of Oude have sent before him by 
 the dictates of his own conscience and judgment, there would be a chance of justice 
 being done to the people, and the public mind would be relieved of the great excite- 
 ment that now exists in Oude. By these illegal dispossessions an insurrectionary 
 feeling is fiist taking hold of the agricultural masses in our own older provinces; a new 
 acquired country like Oude is but too likely to catch the infection, and our position 
 would indeed be one of difficulty. All this might be averted by the act alone of 
 Lord Canning. Let him do justice to the landed aristocracy, whatever that class of 
 people may be called by the hureavcracy of Indian secretaries of Oude." 
 
49 
 
 f^ 
 
 / 
 
 whose mercy tilings were more frequently left than to the consi- 
 deration of the officers, — and behold the result ! — universal dis- 
 satisfaction and discontent. Three years were allowed to roll 
 over our heads after the subjugation of the Punjab, when the 
 spirit of insurrection kindled itself throughout its length and 
 breadth ; the equity of our measures towards that country was \ 
 never questioned — was not questionable — yet they were for a ' 
 long time bitterly distasteful to the population ; what then must i? 
 be the feelings of the population of Oude, when the work of 
 annexation, unlike that of the Punjab, has not been brought on 
 by an act of their own, but cruelly forced on them by a stronger 
 power ! Depend upon it, not so long a time as three years will be 
 allowed to run its course before the sparks fly about, — unless, 
 indeed, the fire which is now smouldering amongst the ruins of 
 their hearths and houses is quenched in time. For an ocular 
 demonstration of the state of their feelings, all one has to do is to 
 visit on a Friday the religious shrines in Lucknow and the 
 interior, where may be seen myriads of all classes and creeds 
 prostrating themselves and praying, with eyes suffused with 
 tears, for relief from the present thraldom, and a restoration of \ 
 the former state of things, however bad they may have been." \ 
 As the drama of rebellion developed itself, it became more and i 
 more apparent that our seizure of Oude was the immediate excit- 
 ing cause.* The first startling piece of intelligence which crept ' 
 
 * I would here call attention to a most remarkable piece of testimony corroborative 
 of my views and statements. It is a paper from Shaik Hedazut AH, subadar and 
 sirdar bahadoor of the Bengal Sikh Police Battalion, a translation of which appeared 
 in the " Times" of the 1st April. After enumerating many pre-existing causes dis- . , 
 posing the sepoys to revolt, such as their fears for religion, caste, &c., their chronic "/ '" 
 state of insubordination for the last sixteen years, the impunity of their various 
 breaches of discipline, and the like, he proceeds most distinctly to state that the 
 annexation of Oude was the immediate cause of the rebellion. I will use his 
 own words : — 
 
 " In 1856 the British Government annexed the kingdom of Oude. At the time 
 of annexation it was the talk of the whole of Hindostan that the British Government 
 had promised the ruler of Oude (I believe there was a treaty to the same effect) that ^ 
 the kingdom of Oude should never be taken by the English, because in former times 
 the Kings of Oude had rendered valuable assistance to the British Government. 
 
 *' When the Government of India issued the proclamation of the annexation 
 throughout Oude, the King of Oude also issued a proclamation that on no account 
 should any of his subjects resist the British authorities, and that when the British 
 troops entered his territory all assistance in the shape of provisions should be afforded. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 out was the officially recordeil fact in the Oude Blue Book, that 
 Oude was the chief enlisting ground of the I^engal army ; that 
 out of some 80,000 men composing that force, 40,000 were 
 drawn from Oude; that these men, through their connections, 
 represented some 400,000 of the population of Oude. That 
 
 The sirdars of Oude and the army of the king obeyed his order. The people of 
 Hindustan likewise sjiid, ' The country of Oude belongs to the kuig, and whether he 
 has done well or ill as regards his own government, he has not injured or broken faith 
 with the English in any way ; if the Biitish Government dethrones a king who has 
 ever been so taithful to them, what independent nawab or rajah is safe?' For the 
 above-mentioned reasons, every sirdar who had anything to lose began to fear and 
 suspect the British Government; but they felt that they were helpless, having no 
 army with which to resist, and so they remained quiet, waiting for a favourable 
 opportunity to rise. 
 
 " The feeling of the people of Oude became known to me in the following 
 manner: — I was proceeding to join the Sikh regiment Captain Rattray was raising in 
 the Punjab, and arrived at Cawnpore on the 14th March, 1856. On that day the 
 Nawab of Oude also reached Cawnpore on the way to Calcutta. I remained at 
 Cawnpore six days, and had frequent interviews with the king's vakeels, courtiers, and 
 servants. No one but his own people ever saw the king. The principal people of 
 Cawnpore, and many of the native officers and sepoys from the regiment stationed at 
 Cawnpore, had interviews with the vakeels and servants of the king. They were all 
 of opinion that the Government had acted unjustly in annexing the country of Oude, 
 and they all sympathized with the king and his sirdars. 
 
 " The vakeel, or minister, of the Bithoor chief (the Nana Sahib, who is so well 
 known for his perfidy and cmelty) was present, and said how disi)leased and angry 
 his master was with the British for annexing Oude. 
 
 " The serai in which I had taken up my temporary abode became so full Avith the 
 king's people and their visitors that I was compelled to leave it. I went and lived 
 with Shaik Raheem, a subadar in the 2nd Company of the 1st Native Infantry. I 
 learnt from this officer that the sepoys of his regiment were all indignant at the King 
 of Oude being dispossessed of his kingdom, and talked openly among themselves as to 
 the little faith that could be placed in the English after their treatment of the king, 
 who, himself and his progenitors, had been so faithful to them. A few days after this 
 I proceeded and joined rny "hew corps at Lahore, and returned with it to Bengal. 
 
 *' On the march down I learnt that the native infantry regiments at Barrackpore 
 were beginning to show symptoms of mutiny, so from time to time I learnt all I 
 could of their proceedings, which I duly reported to the commanding officer of 
 my regiment. 
 
 " I have no hesitation in asserting that the rebdjjgjj .iifst commenced in Calcxitta, 
 when the King of Oude was either a prisoner or under surveillance. 
 
 " The reason for the mutiny breaking out at Cawnpore is this, as stated above. 
 The King of Oude reached Cawnpore in December, 1856, and stayed there twelve 
 or fifteen days, and the inhabitants of Cawni/ore'and the sepoys had many opportu- 
 nities of planning mutiny and rebellion. The annexation of Oude, in addition to 
 their other imaginary grievances, caused a universal disaffection throughout the army, 
 and from that time it determined upon mutinying." -— -— ^ ,.-^.~^--.«. 
 
0^^ 
 
 51 
 
 every family in Oude among the agricultural and manufacturing , , 
 classes had, at least, one member in the Bengal army; that 
 thither the time-expired and pensioned sepoy retired to pass his 
 old age ; that the entire population was warlike in the extreme. 
 Soon came the first rumblings of the approaching earthquake. / 
 That gallant soldier and able man. Sir Henry Lawrence, sought Z^ 
 to allay the rising storm by acts of severe example on the one hand, 
 and rewards of honour and words of lofty assurance on the other. 
 The wisdom of that speech was questioned at the time ; it is not 
 for me to speak aught but good of that gallant gentleman now .a. 
 that he is no more. Then came the tidings that he scarce could 
 hold his own ; then, with communications interrupted, we heard 
 by a stray messenger that the little camp was beleagured by 
 multitudes, who swarmed about the devoted band with the perti- 
 nacity of Azt^s, — although the full heroism of that most wonder- 
 ful defence was not surmised until Brigadier Inglis had chroni- 
 cled them in words worthy of the deeds ; next we learnt that 
 20,000 men of the besieging force had left /or tlie cultivation o^ 
 their fields, whereby we were assured that this was no mere mili 
 tary mutiny, but an insurrection of the people.* Then came the 
 twice repeated efforts of Havelock to relieve the garrison, and we 
 heard of every village made a part of defence, every house a 
 fortification, every male capable of bearing arms opposed to 
 our passage.! Similar bulletins were published by Sir Colin 
 Campbell on his advance. All these facts indisputably prove, 
 that so far as Oude is concerned, we have to contend with a 
 national revolt; and it is abundantly clear that the national 
 revolt of this kingdom is solely attributable to annexation ; so 
 clear, indeed, that those very London journals which first scoffed 
 the idea, are now solely occupied, according to their respective 
 
 * We hear occasionally that revenue is being collected, and that there will be no 
 material deficit after all. The object of these statements is, of course, to create a 
 belief that the people at large have been peaceably cultivating their lands, and there- 
 fore not engaged in rebellion. The statements require verification. The extent of 
 land to which they are applicable must be established ; and even if the re- 
 ports should turn out correct, they prove little ; for the native knows that if he does 
 j not till the ground this year, he must starve next. Just so we see 20,000 Oudeites 
 j| leaving Lucknow to sow their landsp'A^hiTe the'Test prosecute the siege, and this is 
 precisely the condition of things which Strabo recounts, even in "Kirtime. 
 
 t See the admiral^le letters of Lieutenant Crump of the Madras artillery, pub- 
 lished in the " Saturday Review." >..-> 
 
 \:""^" E 2 
 
 -^. 
 
 A 
 
 ^ 
 
52 
 
 politics, in abusing the Court of Directors or the Board of 
 Conti-ol as tlie authors of the policy ; so that those whom they 
 support may be exonerated from the responsibility of what it is 
 vain any longer to deny. 
 
 To these we must add Sir Henry Lawrence's own warning in 
 the pages of the Calcutta Review. 
 
 But it may be said the general quiet of the people of Lower 
 Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, surely argues contentment with 
 our rule on their parts. This I am by no means prepared to 
 allow. What is the condition of the people may be best gathered 
 by a perusal of the Bengal Missionaries' Petition, Mr. Halliday's 
 Minute .on the Police, the Madras Torture Report, and other 
 papers of the like nature — among which I would mention my 
 own exposition of the condition of Madras; and I say it is 
 impossible, while life and property are no better secured, while 
 the administration of justice is such a miserable misnomer, and 
 vthe people are ground down by oppressive revenue ," systems^' 
 chat there can be any content or affection towards us at heart. 
 It is true we have secured them against the incursions of the 
 Mahratta and the Pindarree: no " chout" is now paid, no " wulsa" 
 sets forth on its melancholy pilgrimage; but this security has 
 been purchased at a heav^j)rice, and the gang robber and the 
 policeman still infest the country. Everywhere tlie dispossessed 
 enamdar, the ruined zemindar, the pensioned rajah, nurse a 
 sullen and natural, if not a just vengeance against us, and it 
 cannot but be that there are many elements of disaffection abroad 
 among the population. We may, perchance, be referred to the 
 loyal addresses of the natives as a proof of their staunchness. 
 But I put little or no faith in these demonstrations. The few 
 educated natives probably wish us well, sincerely and at heart; the 
 wealthy merchants and bankers at the Presidency capitals and in 
 the chief marts of trade, dread the prospect of having to open 
 their coffers to supply the wants of less scrupulous rulers than 
 ourselves. I see a few natives here and there have offered us 
 their hollow and cheap lip-service, but where have they stood 
 fonvard with their persons and their purses to help us at our 
 extremity ? What instance is there of the Bengalee, who 
 insulted the English inhabitants of Calcutta as a " faction " in a 
 memorial, for which Lord Canning thought it not unbecoming to 
 
53 
 
 record his cordial thanks, having lifted a little finger in our 
 behalf? Thej have shared m no peril; they have volunteered 
 no services; they have not lent us their cattle without an 
 Impressment Act: and expressions of loyalty after the fall of 
 Delhi may be as good policy as they are racy of expression. 
 But the truth is that these memorials and addresses are the 
 merest shams conceivable. We have seen a good many in the 
 Presidency of Madras^ and a little probing would, doubtless, 
 show that they were got up by the native revenue and judicial 
 servants. Madura sent up its address to Lord Harris, but 
 furnished a fitting commentary in a dastardly attack made shortly 
 after on two harmless photographers, who were abused by a mob 
 as English printers. The tax-collector of Rajahmundry, in 
 forwarding the address from that district, thought it necessary to 
 state his belief that it was purely spontaneous. A defence before 
 any accusation is made is proverbially suspicious. I happened to 
 be in Cuddapah, retained on a criminal trial, at the time that the 
 " loyal address " from the inhabitants of Cuddapah appeared in the 
 ''Fort St. George Gazette." I took the trouble, being on the spot, 
 to make some inquiries touching this document. It bore forty 
 signatures. Cuddapah is the most populous district in the Presi- 
 dency of Madras. The population numbers 1,451,921. None of 
 the indigo growers or other large landholders about the place had 
 ever heard of it. It bore the names of the collector's sheristadar, 
 and a few of his cutcherry officers ; but none of the judge's 
 I native servants had signed it, because the judge was not on 
 speaking terms with the collector. The rest of the names were 
 I mere " Ramasaumies " without any village additi.:)n, so that it 
 I was impossible to trace or verify them. They were, doubtless, 
 I either foro;eries or the sio;natures of the subordinates and 
 j creatures of the collector's sheristadar. It may be good policy 
 to parade these affairs in the " Gazette," and for the Governor to 
 ! graciously acknowledge them ; but in this instance " forty 
 ! thieves" may, literally, be said to have stood for the whole 
 ij population of Cuddapah. The Calcutta Baboos petition purports 
 I to be signed by a rajah who, it is said, was dead some months 
 \ previously. The " Times " seeks to give it respectability by 
 I asserting that the Rajah of Burdwan signed it. He did no such 
 tiling. He signed a petition of a very diiferent tone and temper, 
 
54 
 
 and the absence of his signature at once stamps the Baboo 
 petition with suspicion. There are also certain general con- 
 siderations connected with this subject which ought not to be 
 overlooked. 
 
 The condition of social or political science is at present ruder 
 and cruder tlian that of any other science. The little progress 
 that lias been made in it is principally empirical, and we 
 have but few foundations for laying down any satisfactory 
 generalizations; but little as we know we certainly are not 
 waiTanted in any a priori expectation that the people of India 
 would regard us with esteem. Passive obedience indeed may be 
 deemed the natural growth of Asiatic masses. But there has 
 been no attempt on our part to introduce such a system of 
 training as was the vital principle of the ancient civil and military 
 politics; indeed the attempt would have been impracticable. 
 Nor was there any possibility of a spontaneous loyalty springing 
 up in regard to us. Loyalty must connect itself with some 
 notion of divine or unavoidable superiority ; with ancient laws or 
 liberties, or with political freedom. It needs no argument to 
 show that our Government has not exhibited itself in any of 
 these relations to the people of India. Lastly, there is not that 
 principle of cohesion which would make the conquerors and the 
 conquered acknowledge a common nationality; such as Rome 
 succeeded in establishing throughout her provinces — to such an 
 extent, I believe, that all her dependencies, with the exception of 
 England, spoke the Latm tongue, on the ruins of which are built 
 the French, the Italian, the Spanish, and Portuguese. 
 
 We have escaped a national revolution by almost a miracle,^ 
 The greatest foes we have now to contend with are the ignorance 
 of the people and our own ignorance of them ; and if we will now 
 amuse our o\\ti vanity by listening to the charming of those who 
 would fain persuade us that the tranquillity of the people at large 
 is a proof of their affection, we shall have thrown away such a 
 warmng as, perhaps, may never be vouchsafed to us again; and 
 because we will not ascertain the real feelings of the people, we 
 shall pursue a line of policy calculated to cause hereafter another 
 and a general rising. Let the tranquillity of Oude stand forth as 
 a sign of the little trust that can be placed in appearances when 
 we are dealing with Asiatics with arms in their hands and 
 
55 
 
 ill tlieir hearts. We owe our own safety to a 
 few very remarkable circumstances. First and foremost is 
 our bulldog courage. Had the people of any other nation 
 than England been masters of India and taken in the same 
 state of unpreparedness as we were at the outbreak of the 
 rebellion, it is not vanity to assert that they would have been 
 swept off the face of the earth. I speak not of individual acts 
 of heroism, though, in truth;, the conduct of every man lind 
 woman, under the most trying emergencies, has been heroic ; for 
 other nations would, doubtless, have shown many equally 
 splendid examples of passive fortitude or active daring, but of . 
 
 that abiding sen^e of duty, so peculiarly English; arising superior /%4 
 to all other considerations, and constraining men to do each his | ^ *- 
 best until he coiKjucred or died at his post. Hence the secret of 7 
 our holding our own before Delhi, in Lucknow, and in Wake's "^ 
 house at Arrah, against the most tremendous odds ; hence the 
 feeling which grew with experience, that we could not be con- 
 quered; hence every peaceful citizen started at once into the 
 voluntary soldier ; hence the overthrow and despair of our 
 enemies, who now ask themselves what chance they can have 
 against our vastly increased forces if they could not prevail 
 against our small and scattered handsful ; hence the pause of 
 those not yet implicated to commit themselves openly to rebellion; 
 hence the late loyal addresses of the natives, who hasten to 
 proclaim their allegiance when they see which way the wind 
 blows. 
 
 Our own right hands, under Providexice, deserve the first place ''' 
 in the catalogue of the causes of our safety ; but next, certainly, 
 is the singular concidence tliat in two of the most important and 
 vital points of the empire the reins of Government w^ere held by 
 educated men. In Nepaul, Jung Bahadoor was supreme. He 
 was TKorougliTy educated in the resources and real power of 
 England. His visit to England had taught him not to measure 
 our strength by the visible display of the few soldiers who 
 garrisoned India; he knew well what vast power we should 
 throw into the contest; he could scarcely have guessed the 
 tardy fashion in which reinforcements were to be forwarded ; 
 and he proffered his aid at an early period of the struggle. 
 Would only that a thoroughly mistaken apprehension of the 
 
56 
 
 real magnitude of the crisis had not rejected his invaluable 
 assistance ! Let us conceive wliat might have been tlie result 
 if Nepaul had been governed by a fanatic ignorant Mussul- 
 man, and the Goorkas had swept down upon us from their 
 hills when we were besieged before Delhi, and re-acted on a 
 smaller scale the tactics of the Crimea. So again it chanced that 
 in Hyderabad the young minister. Solar Jung, is thoroughly 
 English in his ideas and predelictions. Fortunately for us the 
 old Nizam died just before the mutinies, so that we reaped no 
 inconsiderable credit from our volimtary recognition of his 
 successor. Had this event happened a few months later, no 
 power on earth would have persuaded the people of Hyderabad, 
 the most turbulent and formidable body in the Presidency of 
 Madras, that our abstinence from our ordinary annexation 
 policy was not extorted from our fears. Even as It Is, Hyderabad 
 has been a constant subject of uneas}'- apprehension ; and it is not 
 too much to say, that nothing but the English feeling of Solar 
 Jung has prevented an outbreak in that city. It is well known 
 that treasonable correspondence was carried on between the 
 ^ people of the city and the troops of the cantonment. Tl:e 
 Resident actually warned a cavalry regiment on parade that he 
 knew of their disloyalty ; an attack was made upon the Residency, 
 though weak and ill organized, and Solar Jung has exposed 
 himself not only to much suspicion and hatred among the Hyder^-- 
 abad population, but has succeeded In keeping down insurrection 
 at great personal risk. Had Hyderabad gone it is impossible to 
 say what might have been the consequences. The discovery of 
 f ^ the plot at Nagpore at the eleventh hour, shows how ripe the 
 , ij neighbouring state was for revolt. It is well known that the 
 Mussulmen of Triplicane were only waiting the signal of a rising 
 at Hyderabad to put their hands to the harvest ; and there is 
 not a military man with whom I have conversed on the subject, 
 who has not expressed a decided opinion that if Hyderabad had 
 risen we could not have escaped insurrection at Kurnoul, 
 / Nagpore, Bellary, Cuddapah, Bangalore, Madras, Trichinopoly, 
 }■■ and other cities ; while it is scarcely possible that the Bombay 
 Presidency, so much more uneasy as it has proved itself than 
 Madras, could have escaped the spread of such contagion. 
 . Holkar, educated by Sir Robert Hamilton, has stood staunch ; 
 
57 
 
 Scindia had reformed his courts of justice, and introduced 
 extensive reforms into his territories and government ;"* and it 
 will be curious to inquire into the character of the other rajahs 
 who have stood bj us. One man or rather monster may suggest 
 himself as a contradiction of the truth of this theory. N^Eja„,^_^ 
 Sahib has been spoken of as an educated man; and some 
 "^journals have even held him up as the embodiment and type of 
 what it is the fashion to call young Bengal ; arguing, that if he 
 be the result of education, policy should teach us to enlighten 
 no more natives. But it is a mistake to regard Nana Sahib as 
 an educated man. True he has a smattering of English, but I 
 hear that he is so ignorant of even our language that he could 
 not converse with his guests save through an interpreter; and 
 as to education, in its only valuable signification, he is as 
 uninstructed as the lowest mutineer. He knows nothing of 
 European literature, science, or morality ; and is, to all intents 
 and purpose, an ignorant uneducated native, f 
 
 Let us acknowledge with thankfulness the debt we owe to the 
 
 * The follomng extract is taken from the " Athenaeum " of the 2nd June, 1857,;zr- 
 " The Maharajah Scindia, we learn from the " Mofussilite," has instituted great 
 reforms. His dewan has comjiiled a civil and criminal code, the system of farming 
 the revenue has been abolished, village leasehold settlements on terms more favorable | 
 to the ryots than exist in our own provinces have been made, a sudder court has been 
 established, and various grades of moongigfe have been constituted. To add to this 
 goodly catalogue, it may be mentioned that the revenuLC e^ldbjits a substantial surplus, / 
 that schools T^ve been established, roads and bridges made, and transit duties , 
 abolished. The Maharajah also possesses an admirably drilled and disciplined force 
 of regulars of all arms ; a portion of this force is now in Agra, attesting, as our con- 
 temporary truly observes, alike to Scindia's military talents and his friendly confidence 
 in the British Government." 
 
 f Since the writing of these lines, Mr. Halliday, the lieutenant-governor of Bengal, 
 addressing an audience at Calcutta, thus corroborates what I have said : — 
 
 " It is to ignorance, not to the presence, of education, that we owe, if not the 
 rebellion itself, certainly the dark and dismal horrors which have distinguished it. 
 Those who have imbibed the greatest share of English idea§, and, knowledge have 
 taken the least part in the recent troubles and atrocities ; the best educated have been \ 
 universally the best affected ; and I know scarcely one well authenticated instance of l 
 a really educated native — I will not say joining, but even sympathising, with the ' 
 rebels. When I say this some of you will probably think of the Nana, but the 
 c<ise of the Nana is no exception. It has been said, and quoted over and over again, 
 that that execrable and atrocious miscreant is a man of English education. But I < 
 
 am informed that he has merely a small smattering of English education, and that he 
 cannot, in any one sense of the word, be called an educated man. The cause of 
 education has much suffered by this mistake committed in respect to the Nana." 
 
'i 
 
 58 
 
 educated natives ; and regard this little known fact which I have 
 explained, as one of the marvellous circumstances in our favour, 
 which look as though they had been pre-ordained to prevent our 
 utter extermination ; so that while we have been cruelly aroused 
 to the true character of our own position in India, and awakened 
 to the perception of our duties as the governing power, we are 
 still preserved for the purpose of discharging those duties. We 
 are far more necessary just now to the natives of India than 
 they are to us. England would indubitably sink in the scale of 
 European nations to a second-rate power if she were to lose 
 India; but if India were to lose England, eye hath not seen, 
 heart hath not conceived the horrors that would be in store for 
 this unhappy land. The present struggle has not brought 
 forward a single man of mark, not even a commander of ordinary 
 capacity.* There does not exist among the whole people the 
 man now alive who could re-organize the Government if we 
 were expelled to-morrow. 
 
 ^ Every man's hand would be against his neighbour ; each petty 
 rajah would be at feud with the other; the people would be 
 the universal sufferers. Soon religious differences would arise 
 between the Mahomedans and the Hindoos, for the latter could 
 not now tamely submit to the domination of the former. The 
 banker and the merchant, in fact every man with even the 
 appearance of wealth, would be the special mark for plunder and 
 torture ; indeed, the description of what has occurred even among 
 tlie rebels themselves, and in the territories which have felt their 
 presence, gives us a sufficiently significant glimpse of what would 
 happen had they prevailed in the extermination of the British ; 
 though the extortions, the murders, and wanton crimes which the 
 natives have committed upon each other in the course of the 
 rebellion, afford but a very faint sample of what must have 
 universally happened had any new " Raj " been established. 
 
 It would seem as though the destinies of both nations, so 
 much in want of each other, required such a shock as that we 
 have just felt to rouse us to a sense of our duties, and secure their 
 fulfilment Year after year remonstrance, warning, evidence, 
 
 * I have seen Nana Sahib spoken of as a commander of consummate military tact, 
 but the grounds for such an assertion are not set forth. Koer Sing is probably the 
 al)lcst man among them. - ="»► 
 
59 
 
 argument, entreaty, was poured out before the English nation, 
 whose letliargy was as that of the seven sleepers. Nothing short 
 of the grand crash with which the East India Company's system 
 has at last exploded could excite attention and sympathy towards 
 India, or teach us that we cannot accept only the profits and 
 pleasures of government to the neglect of its chief obligations. ^ 
 God knows we have been bitterly punished for our listlessness f>J 
 and remissness. But the thunderstorm clears the atmosphere. ^ 
 May we have learnt wisdom from our sufferings ; and henceforth, 
 while we sternly exact the full rights of Government, earnestly 
 and conscientiously apply ourselves to the faithful fulfilment of 
 its duties ! ^- — - -— • 
 
 ^ 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Topics 3rd — 6th. 
 
 ///. How shall we treat the Rebels ? — IV. Had the Supreme 
 Government warning of the coming danger ? — V. Were all 
 practicable measures taken to meet the crisis ? — VL Who is 
 to pay the cost of the Rebellion ? 
 
 There are several topics of some importance which it is well 
 to dispose of before we proceed further. The first is, what shall 
 be our treatment of those who have risen against us, after 
 victory shall have placed them in our power? This question 
 has in a great measure already solved itself, and the work of 
 punishment and retribution will probably be complete before 
 Parliament could interfere, even if it were disposed to do so. 
 There has been an insane cry for vengeance raised in England, 
 and by some journals in India, especially the " Friend of India " 
 and the " Lahore Chronicle." The pulpit was in some instances 
 made the vehicle of most unchristian denunciation, and most 
 uncharitable advice. The wildest propositions were launched 
 by public speakers, and Mr. Bernal Osborne and other orators 
 spoke soberly of sowing Delhi with salt. Mr. Colvin's pro- 
 clamation and Lord Canning's " Clemency Order " excited 
 great indignation. Nothing short of exterminatioiTwas thought 
 sufficient amende for the atrocities of the sepoys ; a natural 
 though unreasoning anger was raised at the cruel murders of our 
 women and children. Even Lord Shaftesbury demanded an eye 
 for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Fire and sword must desolate 
 the homes of such wretches; the survivors must pass under the 
 yoke. It would be an easy task, were it not beside my purpose, 
 to cite historical passages which would show that horrors of equal 
 magnitude have accompanied revolutionary movements since the 
 world began. Rape and child-murder are no new crimes, nor 
 is this the first time we have heard of infants being tossed up 
 
f ^- 
 
 61 
 
 and caught on the points of bayonets and pikes. The massacre 
 of Glencoe, the horrors of the Irish outbreak, the sack of Mag- 
 degburgh, the great French Revolution, the cruelties to the 
 Albigenses, and fifty other historical recollections, at once suggest 
 the a-priori probability that such demi-savages as the Hindoos 
 would accompany their attacks with atrocious cruelty. Our sea- 
 fenced island home is so isolated from all practical experience of 
 the horrors of popular commotions, that the novelty of cruelties 
 and indignities perpetrated on the persons of our own citizens 
 breaks upon us with all the more startling effect, and excites the 
 keener indignation. Subsequent accounts^ however, seem to 
 qualify some of the worst stories at first rife ; at any rate, so far 
 as to bid us suspend our judgment, and demand further enquiry. 
 Extermination, not dishonour, seems to have been the main object 
 of our enemies. But I am not disposed to undergo the risk of 
 being mistaken for an apologist of the sepoys. Our men, 
 women, and children have been inhumanly butchered ; whether 
 nameless injuries have, in addition, been inflicted on them previous 
 to the fatal stroke, may require clearing up hereafter ; but death^ 
 is the fitting penalty of simple murder ; we can inflict no woi 
 penalty, even when murder has been accompanied by the most 
 revolting circumstances of cruelty. 
 
 The " Morning Star " in England, the " Athenaeum " in India, 
 from the outset, steadily and humanely opposed the cry which 
 was raised for vengeance ; and I do believe that calmer reflection 
 has caused many to feel shame for their first out-pouring of blind 
 and universal wrath. Indophilus has shown that Mr. Colvin's 
 proclamation was not only justifiable, but in conformity with 
 established precedents. Having regard to the time when it 
 appeared, it was not only justifiable, but politic. Those who 
 were on the point of becoming mutineers had^'aT'^ocM^ penitentice 
 afforded to them ; they were plainly warned that such as did not 
 avail themselves of it would find no mercy. Lord Canning's 
 "Clemency Order"* appears to nie' to have been right in 
 principle, though it was most infelicitously worded; and the 
 blunder in this particular instance some may think consisted in 
 publishing the order, instead of sending it in the shape of private 
 
 * 31st July, 1857. 
 
62 
 
 instructions to tlie authorities whom it concerned. * It was 
 addressed, be it remembered, exclusively to the civil officers of 
 government. It did not in any way profess to interfere with 
 
 X / ' military action ; or to hamper the authority of the generals in 
 
 ^' the field. One of its consequences might possibly lead to 
 
 embarrassment, inasmuch as guards might be called for to take 
 
 charge of prisoners, whose trial, or enquiry respecting whom, 
 
 J was pending ; but there had been, as was well known, indiscri- 
 
 • s • minate slaughter, entire villages given over to fire and sw*ord in 
 
 ^ j the Nortli-West; f a sepoy deserter who could prove that he had 
 . I saved an officer, or not participated in the rebellion, was rather 
 
 y>l deserving of reward than to be strung up like a dog ; and the 
 Governor-General might well have addressed a caution to the 
 magistracy in a private circular, though the time was ill-chosen 
 for such a public manifesto as was then put forward, with its 
 vague expressions of men " who had no heart in the mutiny," 
 severity " after the requisite impressions " made, &c., and its 
 liabiHty to be mistaken for an act of sympathy rather than 
 justice. 
 
 But, after all, I believe that the quarrel with regard to the 
 proper treatment of the rebels is rather one of words than any- 
 thing else among thinking men ; that all desire pretty much the 
 same thing in fact. The nation, drunk with fury, is now return- 
 ing to its sober senses. The " Times," which denounced Lord 
 Canning's " Clemency Order " in no measured terms, now praises 
 him for its wisdom. It is retribution, not retaliation; punishment, 
 not revenge, we aim at. Only I say while that punishment is 
 stern, let it be no more than just. We may, if we please, make 
 
 • Lord Canning, in his remarks on the Calcutta petition, states that the order was 
 jjublished without authority in a Calcutta paper: and that it was sent in the ordinary 
 course round to the authorities. Without approving this particular document, I 
 think that the principle it was meant to uphold could not have been too widely made 
 known. In proportion to its publicity would be its effect upon the native mind. See 
 j)aper No. 73, on the motion of Sir H Verney, H. of Com. 12th Feb., 1858, p. 8, 
 note (30). • 
 
 t See Parlt. Paper No. 144, 11th Dec, J 857, and paragraphs 11, 12 of Lord 
 Canning's order of the 31st July. The 11th paragraph is as follows : — "Another 
 point to be noticed in connection with this subject is the general burning of villages ^ 
 which the Governor-General in Council has reason to fear may have Been'cafneSTtoo 
 far by some of the civil officers employed in restoring order." — ' . """ 
 
63 
 
 a solitude, and call it peace ; but if we sweep off the inhabitants 
 from the face of the land, without reference to their guilt or 
 innocence, we shall inflict a wound on India which years will not 
 heal ; and the true statesman will look at least as much to the 
 future as to the preseSt. England need be under no alarm that 
 full retribution will not be dealt out. Already for every one of j 
 our countrymen who has fallen, a hundred native lives have paid ^ 
 the penalty ; and before order is restored, a hecatomb of victims ^ 
 will be offered up. The butcher's bill will be long enough in 
 all conscience to satisfy the cravings of the most blood-thirsty. 
 By all means let England unmistakeably convince Asia that our 
 citizens cannot be slaughtered without punishment swift, sure, 
 and deadly overtaking the perpetrators ; all those who think with 
 me demand that the innocent be not confounded with the guilty, 
 especially that the misguided people be not indiscriminately ^ 
 butchered. 
 
 The culpability of those in arms against us is of various 
 shades. We must not lose sight of the important fact that there > 
 are, at least, four classes with whom we have to deal, and whose 
 cases widely differ from each other. There are first the sepoys £ 
 who owed us their allegiance, and received our pay. Secondly, 
 there are the rajahs and nobles who have taken the field against 
 us. Thirdly, there are the people who have followed the ^- 
 standards of their feudal chiefs, or have risen in insurrection in 
 various parts of the country. Fourthly, there are our own 
 native civil servants who have been untrue to their salt, and in 
 some cases headed the murderers of their employers. The sepoys 
 have forfeited their lives by a double crime. Death is the penalty 
 of mutiny alone ; they have added cold-blooded murder to their 
 offence. No quarter should be given them in battle ; the fewer 
 prisoners we encumber ourselves with the better. Tlie terrible 
 contest under the gateway at Lucknow, where 2,000 fell before 
 the British bayonet, is the best fashion of disposing of those who 
 meet us in the battle field. We cannot afford to take prisoners. 
 They have set their lives upon the cast; let them stand the 
 hazard of the die. So of those who desert, or who are brought 
 in after the contest is over, let one and all meet their just, 
 deserts. There may be isolated cases here and there, where 
 mercy may be not misplaced ; but short need be the shrieving of 
 
64 
 
 the majority.* Too signal an example cannot be made of tlie 
 villains among the native civil servants w^ho have been faithless 
 to their trustf The people at large, ignorant, and perhaps, in 
 many cases, constrained or misled into rising against us, are 
 leo-itiinate objects of clemency. For them punishment should 
 be the exception not the rule; only such being selected for 
 example as can be proved to have been free agents and con- 
 spicuous in action themselves, or in exciting their fellow subjects. 
 The treatment of the captive rajahs requires delicate handling. 
 Lord Macaulay's course is just and politic in the extreme. 
 
 " The rule," he vrrites, " by which a prince ought after 
 rebellion to be guided in selecting the rebels for punishment, is 
 perfectly obvious. The ringleaders, the men of rank, fortune, 
 and education, whose powers and whose artifices have led the 
 multitude into error, are the proper objects of severity. The 
 deluded populace, when once the slaughter on the field of battle 
 is over, can scarcely be treated too leniently." 
 
 But among the rajahs each case should be carefully investigated, 
 and dealt with according to its special circumstances. The 
 Rajah of Bublubhghur was lately tried by court martial, and 
 suffered the extreme penalty of death, notwithstanding he had 
 saved the lives of three Europeans; and was constrained, by his 
 contiguity to Delhi, to temporize after the city had been seized 
 by the rebels, and the whole country, save that little spot on 
 which arose the tents of our force, was in their power. No 
 proof was adduced that the rajah had taken part in the conspiracy 
 before the outbreak; and these were distinguishing facts which 
 would have justified a more lenient sentence than that of death. 
 Indeed the policy of this extreme punishment is most mistaken. 
 It leaves others, in arms against us, no hope but in despair. 
 They will argue that it is better to fight it out with harness on 
 
 * A storj' is told of the summary proceedings of court-martials in the rebellious 
 districts. A smooth-shaved quiet-looking villager (apparently) is brought in and put 
 at the bar. On a sudden an otficer smartly cries " attention." If the prisoner draws 
 himself up, lets his arms fall down, •• the hands extended, with the little fingers against 
 the place where the seam ought to be," no further proof is required. The sepoy 
 stands confeased, and he is hanged incontinently. 
 
 t Such are Achmet Ootah Khan, deputy magistrate at Futtepore, who murdered 
 _Mr. Tucker, the Judge; and Khan Bahadoor, of Bareilly, who tried and executed 
 Mr. Raikes and other Europeans. 
 
65 
 
 their backs like men, than die like dogs if they surrender. A 
 regiment of mutineers the other day came down to the river on 
 the Oude side, and commenced firing on our men. They said 
 they would come over to us en masse, but that they knew they 
 would all be hvmg if they did. If the plea of having saved the 
 lives of Europeans could not avail the Rajah of Bublubhghur, 
 what have those to expect who cannot urge similar claims to 
 mercy? And what is the use of sparing the European prisoners 
 still in the power of the enemy, if one and the same fate awaits 
 all — those who have spared, and those who have spared not? 
 Maun Singh, the great zemindar of Oude, has saved the lives of 
 some foi'ty ETuropeans; he has, apparently, been coerced into 
 opposition ; he has obeyed Outram's direction to retire to his own 
 place and remain quiet ; what shall be his lot when he surrenders 
 or is taken ? We have guaranteed the life of that arch traitor 
 the King of Delhi, who should have been hanged over his own 
 gate as high as Haman. It was a mistake which saved 
 the old villain in the first instance; but our word once pledged 
 must be henceforth kept at any sacrifice. If we exhaust 
 civilized punishment on the persons of those who have not 
 reached the extremity of guilt, what margin do we leave for 
 Nana Sahib? 
 
 " Crimes," writes Burke, " are the acts of individuals, and not 
 of denominations; and arbitrarily to class men under general des- 
 criptions, in order to proscribe and punish them in the lump for : 
 a presumed delinquency, of which, perhaps, but a part, perhaps ] 
 none at all, are guilty, is indeed a compendious method, and 
 saves a world of trouble about proof ; but such a method, instead 
 of being law, is an act of unnatural rebellion against the legal 
 dominion of reason and justice, and this error in any constitution 
 that entertains it, at one time or other, will certainly bring us 
 into ruin." 
 
 I need not pursue this subject further. Enough has 
 been suggested. Let us only remember that we cannot 
 inflict wholesale vengeance on India without seriously 
 wounding the life-springs of our own dominion. Never was 
 there a case in which it was more true that mercy blessetli 
 twice. 
 
A 
 
 (, 
 
 m 
 
 Anotlicr topic, on which a few words will not be thrown away, 
 is tlie question whether the Indian Government had a warning of 
 what was coming ; and whether all practicable measures were 
 taken for meeting the crisis. 
 
 As to tlie first of these matters, if we may trust the 
 evidence on the King of Delhi's trial, Mr. Colvin had ample 
 notice of what was aTbout to happen ; and we have heard it 
 repeatedly asserted here that the Government had been warned 
 in time. Certainly, the fact which came out on the King of 
 Delhi's trial looks very like it. The singular letter which 
 appeared in the " Central Star," so far back as the end of 1856, 
 was patent to the world as well as to the Government. A great 
 mass of controversial writing has appeared in the London 
 journals on this topic. The " Times " asserts, as it were 
 apologetically, that the Indian Government is so constituted that 
 it could not expect to be furnished with any intelligence, and 
 ; possesses no means of its own for detecting conspiracies among 
 its subjects. If this be true a more damning sentence was never 
 written, for it conclusively shows the inefficient character of our 
 Indian rule. The fact is that there never was a country in the 
 world which presented equal facilities for espionage. A cat 
 ought not to be able to creep from one village to another without 
 its being known, if the village police had been properly consti- 
 tuted and cared for. What are we to think of that Government 
 which with a great conspiracy concocting under its very nose, 
 embracing many potentates and nobles, ramifying through an 
 entire army, and sending forth its emissaries in a thousand 
 directions, nevertheless had no single clue to the plot ; had not 
 a spy or any means of procuring intelligence itself, while not one 
 of the vast numbers implicated would betray his trust? The 
 thing appears impossible, and the truth should be diligently 
 searched out, so that the public may see plainly whether warnings 
 were given and neglected; or if the Government be of the 
 helpless imbecility assigned to it by its apologists and supporters. 
 Now the evidence of Sir Theophilus Metcalfe on the King 
 of Delhi's trial shows that the proclamation purporting to 
 come from the King of Persia was posted up on the walls of 
 the Jumna Musjeed, " a short time before the outbreak at 
 
67 
 
 Delhi,"* and " that an attempt to overthrow the British Govern- / 
 ment was known to be in contemplation long before the first act j 
 commenced." And yet Delhi was left without a European soldier, 
 and the Government slept on without a thought for the morrow. 
 The passage of the chupatties attracted little attention, and 
 every sign seems to have been neglected. It is said that no one 
 had any reason to expect a mutiny. The various generals who 
 had given evidence before the Parliamentary Committees, with 
 the exception of Lord Melville, had spoken highly of the Bengal 
 army. Even Sir Charles Napier had not taken that opportunity 
 of repeating the warnings he had so often before given respecting 
 the condition of that army and the insecurity of our position in I 
 India. Lord Dalhousie had declared, on relinquishing his / 
 government, that, looking around the whole political horizon, he ' 
 saw no cause to apprehend danger from any quarter ; he left the 
 empire at peace within and without No one, it is said, was 
 aware of what was coming upon us ; we are all " prophets after 
 the fact ;" no one had any idea of the real extent of our danger. 
 It may be very true that no one had stood forward to prophecy 
 the exact hour, or place, or form, in which insurrection would 
 appear. In that sense Voltaire's sneer is well founded. Pre- 
 diction in politics is mere charlatanism or folly ; all that the most 
 far-seeing can accomplish is to point out the tendency of certain 
 measures, and to warn that if they are persevered in certain 
 results are, sooner or later, inevitable. Sixty years ago the 
 Abbe Raynal foresaw what was coming. More than thirty years 
 ago Lord Brougham pointed out the necessary consequences of 
 our Indian policy. The late Sir Robert Peel was not less clear- 
 sighted. From that day to the date of outbreak, Indian 
 statesmen, one after another, had cautioned us concerning the ^ 
 elements of peril which environed us. (I have collected their 
 words in my former w^ork.) The annexation of Oude was 
 causing unmistakeable rumblings, the forerunners of approaching 
 earthquake. Conflagrations in cantonments, the Persian procla- 
 mations in Delhi, the letter from Oude, the positive information 
 conveyed to Mr. Colvin, the very well-known fact, according to 
 
 * The King of Persia himself confirais this. " I fomented rebellion," says he 
 " so long as the English were at war with me, but desisted as soon as there was peace 
 between us." 
 
 F 2 
 
 \ 
 
68 
 
 Sir Theoplnlus Metcalfe, that an attempt was about to be made 
 to overtlirow the British Raj, the threats used by the Oudians of 
 rising in the hot weather, were all direct indications which should 
 liave put a wise Government on its guard while it was yet time. 
 Mr. Gleig, several years back, had shown the condition of the 
 Indian Army. Dr. Buist, just returned from England, asserts 
 that if the archives of the directors be searched there will be 
 found " a cart-load of warnings." 
 
 Independent of actual warnings which the Supreme Govern- 
 ment and its officers received, it cannot be doubted that when 
 the first signs of the coming storm actually appeared, they were 
 altogether misread. The extent of the danger was altogether 
 under-rated, and those steps which might, perhaps, have pre- 
 vented, for the present, such a struggle as we are engaged in, and 
 must, at any rate, have saved many valuable lives and vast 
 property, were not taken till it was too late, and the sack of 
 treasuries, the wholesale murders of Europeans, the conflagration 
 of cantonments, the seizure of Delhi, the open defection of our 
 native servants, the insurrection of rajahs and nobles, the rising 
 of the villagers, rendered it impossible any longer to deny the 
 existence of a most formidable crisis, to ignore its proportions, 
 or put off any practicable preparation for meeting it. The 
 facts lie in a small compass. They are familiar to the public. It 
 is easy to form a judgment upon them. The whole history 
 of- the revolt may be studied elsewhere. I shall do little 
 more than bring together the dates, and leave them to speak for 
 themselves. 
 
 On the 22nd of January, 1857, Captain Wright, of the 70th 
 Bengal native infantry, informed Major Bontien, commanding 
 the depot of musketry at Dum Dum, of the unpleasant feeling 
 among the sepoys in respect to the cartridges. 
 
 On the following day Major Bontien forwarded this report to 
 the station staff-adjutant. 
 
 General Hearsay, without a moment's delay, communicated 
 the information, of the alarming nature of which he, at any rate, 
 was fully aware, to the deputy adjutant-general. 
 
 Three days were consumed in official communication between 
 the latter officer and the military secretary of Government. 
 
 On the 27 th, the military secretary replied, that Government 
 
69 
 
 approved General Hearsay's suggestions, and desired they might 
 be carried out. On the night of the 24th, the telegraph-office jj^ 
 was burnt down ; a most significant fact ; after that, incendiarism 
 was of almost nightly occurrence, but the matters were never 
 traced. 
 
 On the 28th, General Hearsay again addressed the Govern- 
 ment. He stated, that the idea of forcible conversion was so ^ 
 rooted in the minds of the sepoys, " that it would be both idle 
 and unwise even to attempt its removal." 
 
 On the 11th February, General Hearsay again wrote, that /.aA 
 they had been dwelling at Barrackpore " on a mine ready for 
 explosion." Other signs were not wanting. On the 10th of ; 
 February, a native officer gave information of a midnight meeting 
 of the men, whose faces were concealed in their cloths, who 
 asked him to join them in a rising that night On the 12th, | rt 
 General Hearsay wrote that a native doctor had heard a sepoy ""^ 
 of the 2nd grenadiers tell another that a native messenger had 
 been sent by his regiment to Dinapore and to the 19th at Ber- 
 hampore, to ask if they would join in a mutiny. The Supreme 
 Government sent the Oriental to Rangoon to bring up the 84th ; 
 they arrived on the 19th of February, and were stationed at 
 Chinsurah. There was only one wing of a European regiment 
 in Calcutta ; yet so vacillating was the Government, so little did 
 it understand or appreciate the peril, that the Oriental, thought 
 to be in the Madras roads, was telegraphed for to convey the 
 84th back to Burmah, and but for the fortunate accident which 
 had already despatched her to Rangoon, back the 84th would 
 have gone I 
 
 On the night of the 26th February, the 19th regiment rose at 
 Berhampore, broke open the bells of arms, seized their muskets, 
 and assembled on parade. On the same day, a detachment of the 
 63rd Bengal native infantry, part of the Santhal field-force, 
 refused to accept their furloughs, because the Barrackpore 
 regiments would not accept theirs. This mutiny took place at 
 Sownee. General Hearsay recommended their dismissal. The 
 Governor-General, nevertheless, pardoned them, as he thought it 
 would " be sound policy to pass over the offence." It was deter- 
 mined to make an example of the 19th. They were ordered 
 down to Barrackpore. Time pressed with the conspirators. On 
 
70 
 
 tlie 29th March, Mungiil Pandy, of the 34th, fired at Lieutenant 
 Baugh, the adjutant, at Barrackpore ; the regiment remained 
 passive spectators. General Hearsay personally put down the 
 mutiny. On the following evening, the 19th arrived. On the 
 3Jst of March, they were disbanded. A letter, calling upon the 
 men at the musketry depot at Sealkote to imitate their brethren 
 at Barrackpore, was discovered. 
 
 ^ On the 8th of April, Mungul Pandy was executed; on the 21st 
 of April, the jemadar of the guard, who refused to succour the 
 adjutant, Lieut Baugh, was executed. It took Government 
 five weeks to decide what course it should take with respect to 
 the mutinous 34th regiment It was not till the 6th of May that 
 they were disbanded ; and at that time this was no punishment ; 
 it was a facilitation of the mutineers' designs. It enabled them 
 to march to Delhi or to Lucknow. It freed them from all neces- 
 sity of throwing off their allegiance. It covered the country 
 with men who spread everywhere disaffection as they went 
 
 ' along, by representing themselves as martyrs for their religion. 
 
 ^ So little downhearted were they, that those who had been allowed 
 to retain their kilmarnocks, actually trampled them under foot 
 before crossing the river ! Almost the entire regiment was found 
 against us at Bithoor on the 16th of August Up to this point it 
 is clear that the Calcutta Government were entirely at sea as to 
 the true nature of the crisis, and thought that the disturbances 
 were but the result of a passing discontent, which might be dissi- 
 pited by a little solemn talking, and, on the whole, leniency ; for 
 on the 8th of April, the Court of Directors in England, in reply 
 to the Supreme Government's despatch of the 28th of January, 
 express their satisfaction at the intelligence conveyed in that 
 letter, that the " sepoys appeared perfectly satisfied that there 
 existed no intention of interfering with their caste." With the 
 exception of sending for the 84th from Burmah (and twice 
 ordering them back), the Government had, up to the 6th of May, 
 sent for no troops to the Colonies ; made no urgent representation 
 to the Home Government of the instant necessity of sending out 
 the largest possible number of troops. In point of fact, tlie 
 Government could make no such representation, for they were 
 themselves in the profoundest sleep, and had not the faintest con- 
 ception of the real danger which was threatening the Empire. 
 
71 
 
 Lord Canning may be pardoned for this. He was new to the 
 country ; his official career in England had been confined to the 
 Post-office ; he had been assured by the experienced Lord Dal- 
 housie that there was no reason to apprehend danger ; he must 
 necessarily have been entirely in the hands of his Indian advisers. 
 He had come out as a fair-weather governor, whose course, 
 it was fondly believed, would be all plain easy sailing. He 
 would probably never have accepted the appointment had he, in 
 the remotest degree, foreseen a tithe of the troubles through 
 which he would be called to steer; certainly the offer would 
 never have been made him. His commander-in-chief had little 
 more Indian experience than himself. The Governor-General's 
 was not one of those eagle glances, those master-minds which 
 discern, as it were intuitively, all the bearings of an event at the 
 instant of its occurrence. He was the son, it is true, of a great 
 father; but Phaeton, the son of Phoebus, could not drive the 
 chariot of the sun! Lord Canning is fairly entitled to our pity. 
 His Indian advisers, civil and military, who were too ignorant, 
 or too stupid, or too vain-glorious, to read aright the writing on 
 the wall, must bear the withering responsibility of the weak and 
 vacillating policy of the Calcutta Council.* 
 
 * The fault of the graphic Red Pamphlets is, that they give the idea of a regular 
 settled and debated policy among the civilian heads of the Calcutta Government, — • 
 men well aware of the danger, its character, its magnitude, and the true means of 
 subduing it, to risk the Empire itself, provided they could maintain the character and 
 interests of their own exclusive order. But it is impossible to believe this. Hanging 
 would be too good for them, if it were true. They drifted into their errors. Their 
 habits of thought, their prejudices, their predilections, their incredulity, rendered them 
 the easy victims of the most gross delusion. They could not be brought, — they could 
 not bring themselves to believe, that so " paternal a despotism " as that of the East 
 India Company could have created disobedient or disaffected children ; this was a 
 military mutiny in the outset; as each regiment broke out, it was still only a partial, 
 though larger defection of the Bengal army. There was a most unfounded ridiculous 
 idea afloat among the sepoys, sufficient indeed to account for their conduct, but which 
 must surely be dissipated by the assurances of the Government. They could not be- 
 lieve that there existed sufficient cause for any conspiracy among the princes and 
 nobility; " annexation" was the cry of a few editors and other ill-informed disaffected 
 persons of no account. The people were happy, flourishing, and contented; and so 
 they hoped against hope; gaping for what the morrow should bring, without taking 
 any precaution against its perils. 
 
 *' As the fool thinketh 
 So the bell chinketh." 
 The tocsin of rebellion sounded to their ears but as the contemptible squeak of the 
 
i 
 
 72 
 
 During the month of April, Benares was alarmed by flying 
 rumours of intended risings among tlie sepoys. At many of the 
 stations in the North-West incendiarism was at work. Fires 
 broke out at Delhi, Jullundur, Meerut, Umballah, and Dinapore. 
 The public journals were filled with exhortations and warnings, 
 to which the authorities turned a deaf ear. The disaffection was 
 evidently spreading far and fast. A jemadar of the 70th was 
 sentenced by a court-martial of native officers, his co-conspira- 
 tors, to dismissal for inciting his men to revolt. He owed 4000 
 rupees, from which his sentence released him. In the words of 
 the author of the " Red Pamphlet," the effect upon the sepoys 
 was disastrous. ." This," they said, " the only punishment for 
 mutiny! They are afraid of us ; we can do what we like I " 
 
 May was ushered in by the first scenes of the tremendous 
 drama of rebellion which is not yet played out ; on the 2nd, the 
 7th Oude infantry mutinied near Lucknow ; on the 3rd, a letter 
 was intercepted from the 7th to the 48th N. I. in the Lucknow 
 cantonment. " We are ready," it ran, " to obey the orders of 
 our brothers of the 48th in the matter of the cartridges, and to 
 resist, either actively or passively." Sir Henry Lawrence acted 
 with the promptitude of his character. On the 9th came the 
 tragedy at Meerut; on the 11th Delhi was seized; on the 11th 
 and 12th, Mr. Colvin telegraphed the news to Calcutta ; on the 
 14th and 15th, he put the Governor-General in full possession of 
 all that had occurred; on May 16th, there was an outbreak at 
 Ferozepore ; on the 16th, the Governor-General authorized com- 
 manding officers to appoint courts-martial; on the 17th, the 
 Lieutenant-Governor of Agra proclaimed martial law in the 
 North- West Provinces; on the 16th, too, the sappers mutinied 
 at Meerut. 
 
 Was the Government now awake to the magnitude of the 
 crisis ? On the 16th, Lord Canning sent to Moulmein and Madras 
 for troops, and shortly after to Ceylon and Singapore ; but the 
 
 penny trumpet of a partial nniutmy. They leant upon a theory which flattered their 
 self-esteem, till it was too late, and unfortunately they were presided over by a man 
 of merely moderate parts, — new to the country, and of such weakness of character as to 
 be incapable of putting them at once aside, and striking out an independent line of 
 action equal to the emergency. Thus it was that " too late" was the characteristic 
 of each and every of the half-measures taken by the Government from time to time. 
 
73 
 
 credit of tins movement is due to Sir Henry Lawrence, who tele- 
 graphed this advice to Calcutta on the 16th; on the 17th, Lord 
 Elphinstone offered to despatch a swift steamer from Bombay, in 
 hope of overtaking the mail which had left by the 13th; the 
 Governor -General declined this offer; he was not, he said, 
 desirous of sending to England by an earlier opportunity than the 
 Calcutta mail of the I8th May. On the 19th he wrote perhaps 
 the most astounding despatch on record, when the emergency of 
 the circumstances under which it was written is remembered. 
 Instead of a short sharp notification that India was in flames, and 
 an imperative call upon the Home Government to send out, via 
 Egypt, every available man, the Governor-General sat down, 
 with the coolness of Nero fiddling while Rome was burning, to 
 discuss with the Court of Directors the expediency of adding 
 three European regiments to the strength of the Bengal army ! , 
 And he points out that this would be actually cheaper than re- i 
 placing the six native regiments which had mutinied, as if this 
 was a moment to haggle about pence ! The simple fact, which ^ 
 cannot be gainsaid, is this : every statesman, from the date of 
 our supremacy in India down to the present day, has known and / ^ 
 admitted that our greatest danger lay in the defection of our *^- 
 native army. Here were the most unmistakeable symptoms, 
 which he who ran might read. Were they read ? Were they 
 grappled with? Let three months of tampering with danger 
 reply. 
 
 What was the character of Lord Canning's despatches and 
 private letters to the Board of Control may be best judged of by 
 Mr. Vernon Smith's assuring the anxious Parliament that Delhi 
 would be easily and speedily surrounded, and that he regretted 
 the mail had not been delayed a couple of days longer at 
 Calcutta, in order that he might have had the pleasure of being 
 able to announce the termination of the mutiny. Meanwhile 
 every conceivable step was taken by the Government in India to 
 extenuate the character and dimensions of the revolt. The 
 Government bulletins reiterated the assurance that the natives 
 were " with us to a man," till the villagers, having cut the tele- ^ 
 graph wires, took the surest means of refuting that calumny. 
 Nay, the Government would not even admit that the whole of 
 the army was mutinously affected. Was there not the Bombay 
 
74 
 
 army — the Madras army? and the wliole of the Bengal army 
 had not yet declared for rebellion ; it was impolitic and unwise, 
 therefore, to impute to the many the faults of the comparatively 
 few. Troops, it is true, were sent for from Madras, the Mauri- 
 tius, and elsewhere, just as a man sends for the engine if his 
 kitchen-flue smoke more than ordinarily, though he has no belief 
 that his whole house is on fire. Lord Canning has received 
 great praise at the hands of his noble panegyrists for his conduct 
 of the rebellion. Among his other acts, this sending for troops 
 has been paraded, but with as much propriety as we should 
 praise a man for sending a message for the police when his 
 house was surrounded by an infuriated mob, bent upon taking 
 his life and destroying his property. The Governor-General 
 still steadily refused to avail himself of all the means of assist- 
 ance ofi:ered him. It was not till the 12th of June that the 
 citizens of Calcutta were permitted to volunteer. On the 20th 
 ^^y of May, the Calcutta Trades' Association offered the services 
 ' of the Calcutta citizens to Government. Lord Canning declined 
 the offer, and took occasion to rebuke them for their assump- 
 tion of universal disaffection among the sepoy ranks. He wrote 
 as follows : — 
 
 " The Governor-General in Council is sorry to see that, in the 
 letter of the secretary of the Association, it is assumed that dis- 
 r ^ affection has been evinced by the sepoy regiments throughout 
 / India. His lordship in Council would greatly regret that such 
 / an impression should go abroad. Not only is it certain to lead to 
 ' exaggerated fears among the civil population of the country at 
 large, but, without speaking of the armies of Madras and Bom- 
 bay, it is not just as regards the army of Bengal. There are in 
 the army of this Presidency many soldiers and many regiments 
 who have stood firm against evil example and wicked counsels, 
 and who at the moment are giving unquestionable proof of their 
 attachment to the Government, and of their abhorrence of the 
 atrocious crimes which have lately been perpetrated in the 
 North- West Provinces." 
 
 On the 25th, Lord Canning assured the British Indian Asso- 
 ciation that he " confidently expected that in a few days the 
 mutiny would be entirely suspended." On the 23rd of May, the 
 French inhabitants tendered their services. On the 25th, Lord 
 
75 
 
 Canning, in declining their offer, stated that " the mischief 
 caused by a passing and groundless panic has already sub- \( 
 sided 1 1 1 " The offer of Jung Bahadoor to take the field with ^ 
 his Ghoorkas was declined. Into the further progress of the • 
 rebellion it is unnecessary for me to enter; nor need I shew 
 what tardy, half-and-half measures were taken for the sup- 
 pression of the mutinies, and the succour of our countrymen 
 in the various cities in the North- West and elsewhere. The 
 facts which I have brought together afford sufficient mate- 
 rials for determining the question, whether the Indian Govern- 
 ment was aware of the nature of the crisis, and whether they 
 met it with becoming energy. Assuming that there were no 
 previous symptoms of the impending crisis, we find that between / n 
 the 22nd of January — the date of the first overt act — up to the 
 16th of May (three whole months, every day of which was 
 worth a subsidy), when Lord Canning sent to the Mauritius and 
 elsewhere, not an application had been made anywhere for troops, 
 with the exception of the order to Burmah to send up the 84th 
 regiment, twice ordered back again,— sucli was the blindness and /A 
 the confidence of the Calcutta Government! Up to the 11th of 
 May, when Delhi was seized, not a European had been thrown / 
 into that city, with its arsenal, the centre of Mussulman con- / P 
 spiracy, and the rallying point of the prestige in favour of the A ^ 
 Great Mogul. On the 31st of May, Lord Canning wrote to/ " '^ 
 General Anson that " his force of artillery would enable him tq 
 dispose of Delhi with certainty;" and he begged the commander- 
 in-chief " to detach European infantry and cavalry to the south 
 of Delhi." But then, on the 20th of May, Mr. Colvin, the 
 lieutenant-governor, had telegraphed to Lord Canning that " a 
 ^J£gry fgiw days would see the end of this daring mutiny." Up to 
 the 4th of June, when the mail arrived at Benares, and mutiny Clcn 
 broke out in that chief centre of Brahminism, the only European 
 force was thirty artillerymen. On the 6th of June, All^!hal)ad 
 had to meet its rebels with sixty-five European invalids, who h 
 been pushed up for its support. This key of a,ll Upper India had j^ 
 been positively denuded of the European troops who used for- 
 merly to garrison it. Cawnpore, only fifty miles from Lucknow, 
 had never been strengthened. During the year 1856, a wing of 
 the 1st Bengal Fusiliers was sent away from it to Umballah ; /^ i-^ ^ 
 
 ■J » 
 
76 
 
 sixty-one Europeans only were left; and even on tlie 5th of June, 
 Lord Canning wrote to the Directors, " It is our confident belief 
 that by the next mail we shall have it in our power to report to 
 your Honorable Court that signal retribution has been inflicted 
 on the mutineers and rebels at Delhi, and that the immediate 
 result has been the perceptible tendency in all the districts to 
 return at no distant period to quiet and order." What torrents 
 of blood might have been savecl Had other counsels prevailed; 
 had we had an Ellenborough, or even Lord Dalhousie, and 
 a Napier to grapple with events, it boots not now to consider. 
 Whatever might have been, we have to deal with what is. 
 The important question which we must now ask ourselves is, 
 whether men who so trifled with the rebellion at its commence- 
 ment are fit instruments to be trusted with the regeneration of 
 
 J \ India when order is restored ? A dispassionate judgment musF 
 pronounce that they are not. Lord Canning himself has shewn 
 no spark of prescience or genius. He has acted just as might 
 
 ^ be expected from a man of the most ordinary capacity. The 
 highest praise we can award him is — what used by Lord Eldon 
 to his father was a sneer — that he is " a respectable gentleman." 
 But it is not to such that the destinies of India are to be 
 trusted. As for the Civilian Government, whose eyes were 
 shut to what was coming, and who refused to see it when it 
 came, the blood of the murdered cries out against them; on their 
 heads be the sin. 
 
 I am an admirer of the soundness of Lord Canning's equality 
 
 ^ principle, but not of the extent or the manner in whicK iriias 
 been carried out. As to how far the Governor-General has 
 deserved well of his country, at this distance it is difficult for me 
 to form an opinion on which I can rely with satisfaction to 
 myself. Reports are so various, some attributing to him the 
 most perfect calmness and self-possession ; others positively 
 declaring that a European guard was secretly introduced into 
 the Government House every night ; some saying that he is led 
 entirely by his comicil, and even by one of the secretaries; 
 others that he has acted independently of his council; some 
 declaring that he is the most unpopular man in Calcutta among 
 all classes ; others maintaining that it is only a small section of 
 society that looks coldly upon him, that we at Madras really 
 
77 
 
 scarcely knew what to think or to believe. Lord Canning, if he 
 has played a noble part, has himself to thank for the inability of y^ 
 impartial people to appreciate him : for the secrecy of his govern^ '■'' 
 ment, and the impossibility of arriving at the truth through the 
 press in its present condition, are his own doing ; he is the 
 sufferer in common with others. But there are some few 
 undeniable facts which have a very awkward appearance. The 
 truth of his unpopularity with a large, influential, wealthy 
 portion of the European population, if not with the entire inde- 
 pendent society, is undeniable. A reference to the signatures of 
 the Calcutta petition proves that. The fact that at such a 
 moment a petition could be signed by 2000 people for his lord- 
 ship's recall proves that. He has unmistakeably alienated the 
 sympathies of a highly respectable body of Englishmen, however 
 his lordship and the Bengalee baboos may designate it factious, 
 and London journals dub the Europeans in Calcutta malcontents . 
 or malignants ! 
 
 The successful extinction of the rebellion may enable 
 ministers and partial friends of his own order to impute tlie 
 event to the Govemor-Generars ability, and honours may be 
 showered upon him ; but nothing will obliterate the fact that his 
 lordship accomplished a task of even greater difficulty than that 
 of putting down a rebellion. Displaying, as it appears to me, 
 a considerable degree of that personal indifference to danger 
 which excites every Englishman's admiration, remaining calmly 
 in the capital, transacting both the ordinary and extraordinary 
 business of government, and I should imagine likely to be popular 
 from his manners and affability, the unparalleled circumstances 
 in which he was placed appealing to our national generosity and 
 forbearance. Lord Canning's acts must have given deep cause of 
 offence before any man with a spark of honest feeling would lift 
 his voice against him, or refuse to give him all possible sympathy 
 and support : but I believe that his lordship, in his determination 
 to carry out the perfect equality principle at all hazard and in 
 every shape, has overlooked the insult which he offered to 
 Englishmen by the offensive manner in which his measures were 
 obtruded upon them. When men who were willing to lay down 
 their own lives, who were smarting under the deepest injuries / 
 that the rebels could inflict upon them vicariously through the a^^ 
 
78 
 
 persons of their relatives, friends, and countrymen, saw them- 
 selves classed in the same category with the apathetic disaffected 
 Bengalee, who would not lift his little finger in the cause of 
 order, then the blood boiled, and indignation naturally burst forth. 
 Thus they could see no justification of the suppression of the 
 liberty of the English press, simply because Lord Canning could 
 make no distinction between the English press which he exone- 
 rated, indeed praised for its good feeling, and the native verna- 
 cular press, which had not only, it was said, been hatching 
 treason, but the fettering of which had been loudly called for 
 months before by the English press. Thus again, when the 
 compensation order made its appearance, men read with astonish- 
 ment the provisions whereby Europeans were called upon to 
 prove that they had taken no part in the rebellion. Thus when 
 the Arms Act was passed, they said, surely we, whose loyalty is 
 unquestionable, ought not be called upon to register our arms in 
 common with the suspected native: and so strong was the 
 feeling, that the Calcutta Government has not deemed it advisa- 
 ble to enforce the operation of the Act against Europeans in 
 Calcutta, though Lord Harris has extended the Act to Madras, 
 where the public peace has not been disturbed. Now, it appears 
 to me, that all these matters which I have specified are precisely 
 those where a line might and ought to be drawn. They are 
 immediately connected with the rebellion, wherein there is tlie 
 widest possible distinction between the positions of the European 
 and the native. It is there that the main-de-fer should be most 
 imposingly exhibited ; there that the gant de soie is out of place. 
 
 It was not, however, resentment alone for what they felt to be 
 an unmerited slight that caused the animosity of the European 
 inhabitants of Calcutta. A perusal of the petition for the 
 Governor-General's recall will show that they dwell principally 
 on the imbecihty and vacillation which despised warnings, refused 
 to recognize the true character of the peril, took no measures for 
 meeting it till it was too late. Had vigour been shown in repress- 
 ing the rebellion at the outset, had common prudence been exer- 
 cised in providing against its probable spread as soon as the first 
 overt act had been committed, it is possible that Lord Canning 
 might have promulgated whatever measures he pleased without 
 cavil. 
 
79 
 
 hat all necessary means for meeting events in India were not ^a 
 n by the Home Government it is impossible to deny. Not a 
 
 was sent out across Egypt, though there were abundant /-. 
 ps in the Mediterranean ; and the way in which that route 
 taken advantage of at a later period surely argues the feasi- 
 ty of using it at the outset. There appears to have prevailed the 
 al red-tapeism and circumlocution. The Chairman of the Court 
 of Directors urged the President of the Board of Control to send 
 troops overland. The President stated that there were political 
 objections; though there were none to the transit of our two cavalry 
 regiments from India to the Crimea. Sir Charles Wood had *^ no ^ / 
 ships to give." The India House found the ships; the Horse 
 Guards shipped the men. The first vessel, the Caledonian, 
 sailed on the 26th of July; the first regiment might have been 
 landed in India, via Egypt, by that date, had Lord Elphinstone's 
 offer to overtake the mail of the 11th May been accepted by 
 Lord Canning. The effect would have been incalculable. The 
 point of that part of Nana Sahib's proclamation, which touched 
 on the destruction of the British ships by the Pacha and Sultan, 
 was its bearing on the minds of the sepoys, who knew that troops 
 had two years before passed to Europe through Egypt, and might 
 naturally argue that the converse would happen now; and we 
 hear that the surprise of the sepoys and the rebels, who fancied 
 we were nearly extinguished, at the numerous arrivals of fresh 
 troops during the last few months has been prodigious. Had 
 Lord Ellenborough been in power it is certain that the question 
 I would have been treated in a totally different manner. Instead 
 j of raising objections, difficulties would have been made to vanish, 
 and all available troops would have been pushed through Egypt " 
 without a moment's delay. But sailing vessels round the Cape 
 were deemed a sufficiently speedy mode of transport ; and the 
 Ministers in both Houses displayed the most consummate igno- 
 rance of the immensity of the peril ; they were scarcely to blame. 
 I They were themselves deceived by the nature of the representa- 
 tions which they received officially from India. They were 
 surely not to alarm the people by exaggerations, or preparations 
 on a scale utterly out of proportion to the supposed necessity. 
 They had no more personal acquaintance with India than Lord 
 Canning himself; they might pardonably distrust the warning of 
 
80 
 
 Lord Ellenborough, their political antagonist and the bitter 
 enemy of the Court of Directors who had so scurvily treated 
 him. To me it appears, that though unquestionably all practi- 
 cable steps for suppressing the rebellion were not taken by the 
 Ministry, they are not to blame ; they could scarcely have acted 
 otherwise than they did, with the information before them; 
 though it is also unquestionably true, that some few in England, 
 at any rate, saw clearly the full import of the crisis the moment 
 the intelligence reached London. Lord Ellenborough, in one of 
 the most remarkable speeches I ever read, pointed out the whole 
 future course of the mutinies, the time necessary for our relief, 
 the probable date of its suppression, with an accuracy which the 
 subsequent march of events makes appear like intuition. General 
 Tucker sounded the note of alarm, and more than one old officer 
 scented the full danger of the mutinies afar off even in their 
 earliest stage. The comparatively insignificant mutiny at Yellore, 
 a single station, the many warnings of the most experienced merf 
 of India flashed across their minds, and filled them with terrible 
 forebodings ; and it cannot be denied, that if the apprehension of 
 such men ought to have hurried the Ministry into more speedy 
 action and more extensive preparations, than official intelligence 
 from India seemed to require, those apprehensions were expressed 
 in a way which neither the Ministry nor the outside world could, 
 by any possibility, mistake. 
 
 The last of these miscellaneous topics which I wish to handle 
 is the question who is to pay for the rebellion ? Here, too, there 
 has been great diversity of opinion. The amount has not been 
 ascertained; it can scarcely be approximately guessed at. It 
 has gradually mounted from three millions to ten ; and of course 
 every day adds vastly to the cost. The bent of public inclination 
 in England, as, indeed, is only natural, has been to cast this 
 burthen upon India. England would fain escape the loan which 
 she sees looming in the distance; and if India only could be 
 made to pay, there can be little doubt but that she would be 
 made. Numerous suggestions with this view have been made. 
 Tax the countries where rebellion has broken out, say some ; tax 
 the merchants, — tax the English in India, levy a poll or pro- 
 perty tax, tax anybody, everybody, say others. Replenish the 
 Exchequer by the redemption of the land-tax, says my namesake. 
 
81 
 
 tlie late advocate-general of Madras. Why not sell Bengal f ts^ 
 writes the " Friend of India " in italics ; mulct the holders of 
 India Stock, the fault is theirs, somehow or other, and at all 
 evenfs hiake the people of India pay. As to those who have 
 rebelled, it is a just punishment; as to those who have not, it is 
 only fair that they should pay for their protection. Some of 
 these proposals are simply impossibilities ; some are, at least, as 
 impolitic as the others are impossible. 
 
 To take from the Proprietors of the Company's Stock would 
 be sheer confiscation. They have, too, at most, twelve millions 
 guaranteed to them. To introduce a poll or property tax would 
 be impracticable. It has been frequently said, that it is impos- 
 sible to introduce a new tax in India ; next to open proselytisj^j^^^ 
 I fancy it would be the most dangerous experiment we could try. 
 No doubt we shall make large savings when the stoppages of 
 pensions to traitors are reckoned up ; when the value of confis- 
 cated estates and territories is brought to account; when the 
 revenue of the escheated lands comes into our Exchequer ; but 
 our need is instant, and money must be forthcoming, and that 
 without delay ; another dry season threatens Madras with a loss 
 of thuty lakhs of rupees on the estimated revenue ; no aid can 
 come from Madras. The Court of Directors has pledged its 
 credit pretty well to the full ; it has expended its three millions 
 of railway deposits ; it is said to have borrowed largely from the 
 Bank of England and other quarters ; and the " loans " which 
 closed Lord Dalhousie's reign have so shaken public credit 
 in India, that little aid is to be looked for from the Indian 
 capitalist. Five per cent, paper is still selling at 8 per cent. 
 
 ;, discount in Calcutta, and 4 per cent, at 18. There is ore 
 
 I scheme lately broached, that of the redemption of the land-tax, 
 which is pretty sure to be favorably received in certain quar- 
 ters in England, because it seems to afford a chance of relieving 
 her of the burden. I shall find a more convenient place for 
 
 I considering this proposal at large; suffice it here to say, that 
 I believe it is most suicidal. 
 
 The following are some observations which I have written in 
 another place on this topic some months before the appearance of 
 
 ' my namesake's pamphlet, and which about contain the gist of 
 the matter. 
 
82 
 
 Among other quack nostra and specifics for the assumed incu- 
 rable ryotwarry disease, we have heard the redemption of the 
 land-tax broached more than once both in this country and at 
 home; and that, too, by very able and sincere men. To our 
 thinking, such a policy is simply suicidal ; it is the old fable of 
 killing the goose for the sake of the golden eggs, and furnished 
 forth to boot with the same moral. It is, in the first place, some- 
 what surprising to find it suggested that a theory of taxation, now 
 pretty well admitted to be erroneous in England, may be appli- 
 cable to India. A funding system and indirect taxation are, of 
 course, the natural expedients of a needy minister, anxious only 
 to provide for the evil of the day, and to tide his party over to 
 the diflficulty of to-morrow. But it is now pretty well under- 
 stood that the fatal facility of raising money by such means is 
 the worst evil of the system ; that it is better that people should 
 know precisely where, and how, and why, the shoe pinches them, 
 and thus when they have to raise the State supplies by an in- 
 crease of taxation falling upon themselves, they will be more 
 economical and cautious in their expenditure ; especially is this the 
 case where taxation is direct, so that they can see at a glance in 
 what direction it falls upon them. Pitt's scheme of the year 1798 
 for the redemption of the land-tax is now regarded by the majority 
 of political economists as an error, and it is frequently regretted 
 that the necessities of the day have cut the State off from so pro- 
 lific, so equitable, and so commodious a source of taxation. We 
 would not treat any Government, especially an Indian Govern- 
 ment, with its botching financiers, its wasteful expenditure, and 
 its expensive, yet inefficient agency, with the command of such a 
 sum of money as the redemption of the land-tax, if successful, 
 w^ould pour into its coffers. The temptation to rush into gigantic 
 schemes of improvement would be irresistible ; and independent 
 of the fact, that private enterprise can work cheaper than a 
 Government in carrying out undertakings of this character, the 
 inefficiency of any agency which the Indian Government can 
 possibly have at its command, would necessitate the profusest 
 waste. In short, there would be apparently an inexhaustible 
 heap of money, in which almost every one would deem himself 
 to have a vested right to peculate and plunder. The fabulous 
 pagoda tree of our predecessors would seem to have put forth 
 
I 
 
 83 
 
 a sort of St. Martin's summer and after-crop of foliage and fruit, 
 as if expressly to invite the efforts of the most vigorous shaker. 
 
 The revenue derived from land may be stated at sixteen 
 millions sterling. The value of land in the favoured North- West 
 is only six years' purchase ; but supposing it would be just to fix 
 arbitrarily, say, twenty years' purchase as the standard of re- 
 demption, the measure, in round numbers, would place about 
 320 millions sterling in the treasury of the Company. What 
 could be done with such a sum ? To suppose that it could be 
 permitted to lie idle and unproductive in the Government coffers, 
 enough being annually taken therefrom for the maintenance of 
 our administration, is simply ridiculous. Supposing that the 
 possession of immense wealth did not act as a direct stimulus to 
 the outfit of aggressive armaments against our neighbours, — the 
 Chinese, those " reluctanfes Vracones,'^ — and others whom we 
 compel to fight us, it is quite certain that our hoard would be 
 unmanageable. Could it possibly be funded ? and how or where, 
 and with whom? And the interest of the capital, even if the 
 operation of funding were practicable, would not nearly furnish 
 us with a sum equivalent to our present ordinary expenditure ; 
 so that it is certain we must resort to additional taxation to 
 supply our immediate wants. It may be said that we should 
 thus at once be put in funds for executing, on a systematic plan, 
 all those physical improvements which Colonel Arthur Cotton 
 and his followers have shown to be so indispensable for the 
 country. But independent of the waste which would occur, 
 what is to become of the balance ? Here is literally that emharras 
 des richesses which puzzles and bewilders the possessor. Wealth 
 is oft times a harder trial to bear than poverty ; and we would 
 far rather see our Government struggling for a season with 
 difficulties, and emerging superior to them into an honorable 
 independence by those acts of economy and increased exertion, 
 of frugality and industry, which give the victory to the stedfast 
 man struggling with the world, than expose it to the temptations 
 which must inevitably follow close upon this insane wish to dis- 
 count futurity. In the words of the philosopher Hume, upon an 
 analogous subject, " It would scarcely be more imprudent to give 
 a prodigal son a credit in every banking shop in London than to 
 empower a statesman to draw bills in this manner upon posterity." 
 
 g2 
 
84 
 
 There is, however, one source of taxation, long since pointed 
 out, of which we may avail ourselves both justly and wisely. I 
 speak of a nuzzerana, or tax upon successions, which we seem, 
 by some strange oversight, to have abandoned our right to, 
 thougli it was unquestionably paid to tlie State in the days of 
 our predecessors. Though it is impolitic to resume the enams 
 as we are now doing — and the Enam Commissions should at once 
 be put an end to — it is nevertheless a monstrous evil to the 
 country at large that so vast an extent of land should be held 
 without rendering any thing towards the revenue ; especially as 
 there is no doubt but that very many of these enams are 
 encroachments, and originated in the encroachments of our 
 native servants, though time has given their title. These 
 enamdars may be made to contribute towards the necessities of 
 the State. The proposition is Malcolm's ; Lord Metcalfe thus 
 enforces it : — 
 
 " It has not been the practice of our Government to grant 
 alienations of revenue in perpetuity. Where they exist under 
 our rule, they are continuations which we have allowed of grants 
 received from a former Government, and either correctly or 
 erroneously supposed to have conferred a perpetual or hereditary 
 tenure. For my own part, I cannot conceive a more legitimate 
 subject for taxation than the possession of a perpetual alienation 
 of public revenue held under the grant of a preceding Govern- 
 ment. It is necessary, for the apprehension of my meaning, to 
 consider under what circumstances such a grant was made, and 
 under what circumstances it has been continued. It was not 
 originally a gratuitous grant. Personal service was to be ren- 
 dered. Troops were to be furnished according to the extent of 
 the assignment. The native Government was supported, not 
 weakened, by the arrangement; and, in addition, a nuzzerana or 
 fine was payable on succession, and on other occasions. What 
 follows? We come and conquer the country. The holder of 
 the tenure has done his duty ; has been our enemy, and fought 
 against us. All alienations of revenue property lapse to the 
 conqueror. We have a right to consider this assignment as 
 having lapsed ; instead of which we confirm its continuance. 
 This is very generous, no doubt ; but it is a gratuitous waste of 
 revenue, and one of the causes why British India is likely to 
 
85 
 
 under the pressure of expenditure exceeding income. The 
 icrifice of revenue was not without a return to the native state. 
 Perhaps the original grant conferred a reward for past devotion, 
 by which the State had benefited. Anyhow, it was recompensed 
 by service, by attachment, by faithful support. It also took its 
 occasional nuzzerana. With us the alienation of revenue is a 
 perfect sacrifice. We either neglect the condition of service 
 altogether, or it is to us useless and insignificant. Nuzzerana is 
 not required, because it is not included in our regular system. 
 We receive no return, and the loss of revenue deprives us of the 
 means of paying those who would fight our battles and maintain 
 our empire. I am, therefore, of opinion that there is no other 
 class of our subjects so peculiarly fit for taxation as the holders 
 of alienations of state revenue. I do not think it necessary to 
 examine minutely the different descriptions of persons who hold 
 the hereditary alienations which we have confirmed. Of all, 
 it may be truly said that they are drones, who do no good in the 
 public hive. I do not profess that I would have recommended 
 resumption in every case. But we had a clear right to resume 
 all alienations of revenue ; and having, instead, continued them, 
 it appears to me that we may very justly call on the holders to 
 fulfil towards us a part of the obligations which the existence of 
 the assignments enjoyed by them implies, and which they would 
 have had to observe towards any native government. The pay- 
 ment of nuzzerana would undoubtedly have been one of their 
 obligations ; and, although the measure is new with us, it is not 
 liable to the charge of innovation with them, for it is one which 
 is in general use under all native governments, and especially on 
 succession to possessions of any kind. It would, therefore, be 
 the least unpalatable mode of imposing a tax, and would be 
 scarcely felt as a grievance on the occasions on which it would 
 be levied. Sir John Malcolm, indeed, is of opinion that the 
 imposition would be received as a benefit, and confer confidence 
 and security. Even that, I conceive, is possible ; for the very 
 gratuitous indulgence which we have conferred on the holders 
 of hereditary assignments of public revenue, so different from 
 what they were before accustomed to, may not unnaturally have 
 excited an alarm that such a boon cannot be lasting, which the 
 imposition of nuzzerana on hereditary succession might tend to 
 
/ 
 
 86 
 
 allay, as indicating the intention of taking some recompense for 
 the boon, instead of ultimately resuming it altogether. 
 
 " I am, for the reasons above stated, entirely disposed to 
 concur in Sir John Malcolm's proposition for levying nuzzerana 
 on succession to all hereditary assignments of public revenue ; 
 and shall be glad if the Governor-General and the Council deem 
 it expedient to authorize the Government of Bombay to carry 
 the measure into effect, as far as concerns the holders of perpetual 
 assignments in the territories of that Presidency." 
 
 But I see no other way in which taxes may be imposed at 
 present. It is fancied that the natives have vast hoards of hidden, 
 wealth, and that they may be forced to disgorge it. But it is the 
 old story of the traveller and the sun and the wind. We may 
 induce native capital to uncloak itself by those gentle and wise 
 suasions which inspire confidence, not by blustering and brute 
 force. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Topic 7th. 
 
 WJiat is required for the military protection of India ? 
 
 Another Topic which I can scarcely do more than glance at, 
 notwithstanding its vast importance, is the question, what is to 
 be the future condition of the Indian army ? Professional men 
 will, no doubt, fully express their opinions upon this subject, and 
 I do not profess to write with anything more than a plain sense 
 understanding of the subject. What I have to say is merely 
 that which would occur to any unprofessional observer of men 
 and things that surround him in every-day life, and who is so 
 situated as to be able to gather from many able and qualified 
 military men the practical professional knowledge of the strange 
 acts and proceedings which we have, of late, seen; but as it 
 would take a volume to discuss the entire military question 
 involved in this topic, even were I as capable of the task as I 
 feel myself to be incapable, my remarks must be few and brief. 
 I cannot pretend to take a connected view of the whole subject : 
 I seek only to offer a few desultory remarks upon some of the 
 more obviously salient points of discussion. 
 
 Whether the Indian army is to be incorporated with the 
 Royal army in the several branches, and to have the purchase 
 system, with all the anomalies of exchange and transfer, in- 
 troduced, or whether the military forces of India shall be kept as 
 a distinct army composed of all arms, and of Europeans and 
 natives with a special organization as at present adapted to the 
 country, and the services for which required: Whether the 
 Indian military forces shall be brought under the direct control 
 of the Horse Guards and be dependent on the authorities of that 
 bureau for all military honours, and have their military claims 
 decided upon by officers selected for special duties without any 
 knowledge of India or any connection with the Indian army : 
 
88 
 
 Whether tlie military forces in India shall be considered as a 
 separate force, belonging to Great Britain, but employed in India, 
 and subject to a separate military control independent of the 
 Horse Guards, and interested in its character, reputation, and 
 efficiency, as a portion of the military forces of the empire : 
 What shall be the future system of cantoning the military forces 
 in India and of occupying military strongholds ; in what manner 
 military efficiency and discipline shall be strictly maintained, and 
 the system of inspection and supervision exercised so as to enable 
 Government to ascertain that the military forces are in a state of 
 preparedness : Whether the Indian forces are to continue to be 
 divided into three armies allotted to the three great territorial 
 divisions of India as settled in the last century, or be consolidated 
 into one army as a whole; or have such a partial union as to 
 ensure the unity of system essential to military efficiency, 
 without the evils resulting from the dispersion of one immense 
 mass scattered over a vast extent of country varying in climate, 
 races, and requirements : Whether the Indian army shall be to 
 any extent, and, if so, how far, relieved from the numerous police 
 duties, civil guards, and detachments, which it has, hitherto, 
 furnished, by the formation of an efficient constabulary force for 
 all India, suited to the localities and duties to be performed: 
 Whether the Indian military forces can be entirely composed of 
 English soldiers consistent with miUtary efficiency, the financial 
 ability of the Government to support such a force, and with due 
 regard to the system of government maintained in India by 
 Great Britain: On what scale of relative strength, European 
 and native, the military forces of India shall be maintained; 
 what proportions the different arms shall bear to each other, and 
 what shall be the classes of men, the nature of the organization 
 and system, so as to provide for the various peculiarities, regi- 
 mental and general, essential for the efficient performance of the 
 many duties for which it devolves on Government to provide : 
 On what system the staff required for the general duties of the 
 Government of India, for civil, detached, political, and military 
 employments, shall be organized : Whether the staff shall be con- 
 stituted a separate corps distinct from the regimental officers, or 
 if regiments shall continue to supply officers, as at present ; and 
 if the former, what arrangements shall be made for maintaining 
 
89 
 
 the staff corps ; if the latter, what precautions shall be taken to 
 prevent regiments suffering from discipline by the withdrawal of 
 too many officers, or of an undue proportion in certain ranks, or 
 of experienced men : Under what regulations as to qualifications, 
 such as acquaintance with native languages, general ability, 
 service in India, professional knowledge, military rank, and 
 length of service, officers of the Royal and Indian armies shall 
 be selected for staff employment: What precautions shall be 
 taken to prevent powerful parliamentary, aristocratic, or royal 
 influence being used in England to advance officers on the staff 
 of India, or to benefit the officers of the Royal army to the 
 injury of the officers of the Indian army, being absent from 
 England, and having little or no influence from birth or by 
 political connections ; in what manner and by whom is the 
 patronage of first appointments to the commissioned ranks of the 
 Indian army to be disposed of, and what guarantees and arrange- 
 ments shall be made in England to ensure proper selections of 
 cadets : Whether military advancement in the army of India shall 
 be dependent on the purchase system, as obtaining in the Royal 
 army, or as partially and peculiarly applied at present in the 
 Indian army : Whether selection is to be the principle on which 
 promotion depends, or the seniority system as now strictly in 
 force in India: What measures shall be adopted in India to 
 provide for that higher quality of military training for officers, so 
 carefully attended to in continental armies, and lately com- 
 menced at home : What course shall be followed for weeding the 
 service of incompetent officers, and for securing officers of an 
 age, and with physical and mental powers suitable for military 
 commands : These, and a host of other questions of more or less 
 detail, will, doubtless, suggest themselves to the minds of pro- 
 fessional men. Indeed, since I commenced this work, we have 
 received from England the military despatch No. 235 of the 
 Directors of the East India Company, dated 25tli November, 
 1857, directing the Government of India to assemble a com- 
 mission of select officers from the armies of the three Presidencies 
 and from the Queen's army, with one or more civil officers, all 
 of ability and experience, the officers of the Queen's service to 
 have had experience in India, and the civilians to be specially 
 qualified by their knowledge of native character and general 
 
90 
 
 administrative experience, and on whose knowledge, experience, 
 and judgment Government can rely, to assist them by investiga- 
 tion and practical counsel founded thereon, in forming wise con- 
 clusions on the proper organization of the army in India. 
 
 The Directors designate certain heads of enquiry, to aid the 
 Government in framing instructions for the guidance of the com- 
 mission, allowing a wide latitude to Government to specify any 
 other heads of enquiry, empowering the commission to extend 
 their enquiries and to offer their opinions on the several branches 
 of the native army : — infantry, regular and irregular ; cavalry, 
 regular and irregular ; artillery and sappers and miners, — and to 
 make to the Governor General in Council any suggestions or 
 recommendations which occur to them, although not on matters 
 comprised in the specified heads of enquiry. 
 
 The heads of enquiry enumerated by me are those likely to be 
 considered by military men, and may, if answered in full, supply 
 all the information which could be elicited by the heads of enquiry 
 of the Court of Directors ; but as the questions suggested to the 
 Government of India from England involve details on the 
 military system of India more minute than I have ventured to 
 suggest, I think it right to place them before my readers, in the 
 hope that they may be found to contain suggestive hints for those 
 on whom the Indian crisis has forced the necessity of probing 
 our entire military system. These heads for enquiry are 
 arranged not according to the order in the Court's despatch, 
 but with reference to the importance of the subjects themselves. 
 
 1st. What proportion should the European bear to the native 
 portion of the army in India generally, and at each Presidency 
 separately ? 2nd. Should the artillery, and sappers and miners, 
 be composed, as heretofore, of Europeans and natives, or be 
 entirely Europeans ? 3rd. How can the demands for European 
 officers for staff and detached employments be best provided for 
 without injuring the efficiency of regiments? 4th. Should 
 cadets be trained and drilled in European regiments before they 
 are posted to native regiments, or what would be the best mode 
 of drilling and training cadets before they are posted to native 
 regiments? 5th. If separate corps are to be maintained for 
 military and police purposes, what will be the best organization 
 for each branch respectively ? 6th. Should a company or com- 
 
91 
 
 panles of Europeans form a component part of a native regiment ? 
 7th. What alterations should be made in the recruiting regu- 
 lations relating to tribes and castes, with a view to determine the 
 future composition of the native army ? 8th. Should corps be 
 raised each in a particular district, and be recruited there and 
 there only? 9th. Should corps be composed of troops and 
 companies, each of which shall consist of separate tribes or 
 castes ; or should the tribes or castes be mixed up together in the 
 whole regiment ? 10th. Will it be expedient to enlist natives of 
 other tropical climates, equally qualified for service in India, 
 with the natives of the country, and, if so, should they be formed 
 in separate regiments, or in companies, or otherwise? 11th. 
 Whether the system of promotion, generally, by seniority to the 
 grades of native commissioned officers (if these are retained), 
 should not be altered and assimilated to the systems in force at 
 Madras and Bombay? 12th. Whether, in native infantry 
 regiments, the discontinuance of the grades of native com- 
 missioned officers, and the substitution of an European Serjeant 
 and corporal to each company, is advisable ; and, if so, whether, 
 in lieu of the prospect of distinction and emolument arising out 
 of these grades, it would be advisable to establish graduated 
 scales of good service pay and retiring pensions claimable after 
 specified periods of service ? 13 th. Should the rules regulating 
 enrolment in the native army be retained, or should they be 
 assimilated to the rules which obtain in the British army ; or 
 ought there to be any and what changes in these rules, or in the 
 system of punishment ? 14th. Have the powers of commanding 
 officers of native corps, and the power of officers in charge 
 of companies, been diminished ? What consequences have been 
 the result ? Is it desirable that those powers should be increased, 
 or what other measures should be adopted for the improvement 
 of discipline. 
 
 A second military despatch. No. 236, also dated the 25th 
 November, 1857, from the Directors of the East India Company, 
 points out to the Government of India that a review of the volu- 
 minous records, containing the details of late events, has entirely 
 failed to satisfy the minds of the Directors in regard to the imme- 
 diate causes of the mutiny, and that they have no doubt that the 
 Government of India have not omitted to take advantage of all 
 
92 
 
 the means and opportunities at their command for the purpose of 
 investigating the causes of tlie extraordinary disaffection in the 
 ranks of tliat army, which has unhappily given rise to so mucli 
 bloodshed and misery. 
 
 The Court of Directors intimated their desire to the Govern- 
 ment of India to lose no time in reporting to them their opinion 
 on the subject, embracing the following heads, together with any 
 other " which you may deem it necessary to add, in order to the 
 full elucidation of the subject : " — 
 
 " 1. The state of feeling of the sepoy towards the Government 
 for some time preceding the outbreak. 
 
 " 2. Any causes which of late years may be thought likely to 
 have effected their loyalty and devotion to the service. 
 
 " 3. Whether their loyalty had been effected by the instiga- 
 tions of emissaries of foreign powers or native states, or by any 
 general measures of our administration affecting themselves or 
 any other classes of our subjects. 
 
 " 4. Whether the proposed use of the new cartridges was to 
 any and what extent the cause of the outbreak. 
 
 " 5. Whether the objects which the mutineers are supposed to 
 have had in view were directed to the subversion of the British 
 power in India, or to the attainment of pecuniary or other 
 advantages. 
 
 " 6. Whether the progress of the mutiny can be traced 
 to general combination or concert, or was the result of 
 separate impulses at the several stations of regiments; and 
 if the former, how the combination was carried on without 
 any knowledge or suspicion of it on the part of the regimental 
 officers. 
 
 « 7. If, however, you should not feel yourselves to be in 
 possession of information sufficient to form a well-grounded 
 opinion upon the causes and objects of the mutiny, we authorize 
 you to appoint a special mixed commission for a preliminary 
 investigation into the same, to be composed of officers selected 
 from all branches in the services of India, in whose personal 
 experience and soundness of judgment you have entire confi- 
 dence. In that case you will lose no time in reporting to 
 us your sentiments upon the conclusions arrived at by the com- 
 mission." 
 
7^^". 
 
 93 
 
 But five months liave passed since these two despatches were 
 written, and four months since the instructions reached the 
 Government of India I Already one member of the Council of 
 India, who, from his long political employment in Central India, 
 and in Oude, as well as in Council during the administration of 
 Lord Dalhousie, was well qualified to afford explanations, has 
 departed for England; another member of council is about to 
 retire to England on the expiration of his five years' service in 
 the Council of India, and yet not only has no report been made 
 by the Government of India, but neither of these commissions 
 of enquiry has assembled, nor have any measures been taken, as 
 far as the public know, to elucidate the causes of this national >^ 
 outbreak. Whatever may be the result of the commissions of 
 enquiry, there are some points which stand out prominent enough 
 for immediate discussion. 
 
 The first is, from what source is the staple of the future Indian 
 army to be drawn ? 
 
 It is said that the Bengal army has itself answered the ques- 
 tion of what was to be done with it by its own dispersion and 
 dissolution, and that henceforth we can hold the country by 
 Europeans, who, if they are more costly, need at any rate be less 
 numerous. But it is certain we could not do without some 
 native troops, however numerously we import the British soldier.* / 
 There are various duties which would wear out the European, 
 that must still be performed by the native ; and however we may 
 mass our force in large bodies on the one hand, or provide for 
 many duties which the native troops now discharge, by an orga- 
 nized police on the other, still we must have a mixed force of 
 Europeans and natives. Whence are the men to come? We 
 shall not get rid of our danger by substituting low caste for high 
 caste soldiers. The high caste Bengalee, when he enters the 
 Bombay or Madras services, throws aside his fastidiousness, 
 because it is not the fashion to pet and pamper him as has been 
 the practice in Bengal. We should not be less likely hereafter 
 to come into collision with low than high caste sepoys, if a suffi- 
 ciently exciting cause arose for the army to mutiny ; nor are we 
 
 * It is stated by Qui Hi, that whenever a European regiment marched in Bengal, 
 it was attended by companies of a native corps to take its guard duties. 
 
94 
 
 safe by substituting Seikhs or Ghoorkas for Brahmins and Mus- 
 sulmen. Indeed, I fear lest we should be training up a more 
 formidable foeman for future contest with ourselves. The Seikh 
 and the Ghoorka may both hate the Bengalee; but what 
 guarantee have we for the continuance of their fidelity towards 
 ourselves? They are a very different sort of enemy from the 
 sepoy. Our own recollection will serve to teach us how the 
 Seikh fought against us at Moodkee, Ferozeshah, and Chillian- 
 wallah. Fortunate were we that the treachery of Lai Singh* y^ 
 betrayed the Khalsa when the Seikh force burst across the 
 Ganges. The Nepaulese war in Lord Hastings' time showed 
 of what stuff the Ghoorkas are made; nor does their present 
 character belie the fame of their ancestors ; therefore those who 
 think that Sir John Lawrence has solved half the question by his 
 new Seikh levies of 35,000 men, appear to me to argue after a 
 "very shallow fashion, and in their elation at the momentary 
 success of the measure, to overlook all its elements of future 
 danger, t 
 
 We could not hope to hold India with less than 100,000 
 Englishmen, if we sought to dispense with the services of native^ 
 troops altogether. Such a policy would, perhaps, be unwise, as 
 it would necessarily isolate us still more from the body of the 
 people; and I can scarcely conceive it possible that England 
 could find 100,000 men available for Indian service exclusively, 
 beyond her present military force, and keep up the complement. 
 The drain would be large and constant; and if troubles in 
 Europe forced England to put forth her strength on the continent, 
 either troops must be withdrawn from India, or England would 
 
 * See Cunningham's History of the Seikhs. 
 
 t The Seikhs, though generally ftiithful throughout the whole of the rebellion, have 
 not been universally so. At Allahabad they fired on their officers, though this was 
 afterwards said to be a mistake. Elsewhere we hear of Seikhs being condemned by 
 court-martial, and though fortunately for us the insurgents in Delhi inflamed the 6T3 
 hatred of the Seikh by mutilating such as they caught, a very uneasy feeling was said 
 to have been created amongst our own Seikh levies by our firing on them at Allaha- 
 bad ; and there is quite enough before us to make us cautious how we place a blind 
 confidence in this martial half-civilized race. An officer, returning on furlough from 
 the scene of rebeDion, reported that the Seikhs, affecting to despise the sepoy, had 
 said jestingly, but somewhat ominously, to their officers, " Wait until it is your turn 
 to meet MS." T^' 
 
95 
 
 ^a 
 
 be terribly weakened. Our Empire in India has grown be- 
 yond our means; it is unwieldy, and unconsolidated from the 
 haste with which we have clutched at new territories before we 
 have taken firm root in our old. Lord Dalhousie argued plau- 
 sibly that the Punjab cost nothing as a military charge, because 
 he occupied it with the very troops whom it would have been 
 necessary to maintain for our protection against it. Waiving 
 the fallacy which lurks here, that our^'arinexation policy was 
 the main cause of our anxiety on the Sfore of the Seikhs, who 
 feared our rapacity, and would fain anticipate it, the argu- 
 ment is unsound; for we have denuded our interior to 
 provide for the wants of our exterior acquisitions; and the 
 sterling metal of our power has been beaten and spread out 
 over an ever-increasing superficies, until, like the gold-beater's 
 leaf, it has but little consistence, and is so attenuated as to 
 have no strength, however speciously it may serve to hide, 
 and even gild, the surface and inequalities of our immense area 
 of empire. 
 
 It is, indeed, this very necessity of pushing forward our Euro- 
 pean troops to guard our new frontiers and keep in awe our 
 newly- acquired subjects, whether in the Punjab, in Pegu, or in 
 Scinde, that has, by leaving Plindostan Proper with scarcely a 
 British regiment, given the sepoys the opportunity of mutinying 
 with a prospect of success, and no doubt proved an argument of 
 great pith with those princes and landholders who were hesitating 
 which side to join. Thus, if we compare the distribution of our 
 European regiments in 1857 with that of 1830, we shall be 
 startled at the difference of the degree of security in which our old 
 possessions were held at these two periods. At the earlier period 
 we shall find Bengal garrisoned, in its principal cities and mili- 
 tary posts, with something like an adequate strength of British 
 soldiers; at the later, we shall see Benares, Allahabad, Agra, 
 Delhi, Cawnpore, with scarcely a British defender; and thus, 
 with nearly double the number of British rank and file in 1857 
 to those we had in 1830, we were positively weaker, at the dan- 
 gerous points in 1857, than then, and infinitely less equal to 
 cope with a sudden insurrection of the people, much less with a 
 revolt of the native army. 
 
 / 
 
96 
 
 Strength on Strength on 
 Ist July, 1830. 30th April, 1857. 
 
 Presidency and in Calcutta 5,440 1 ,054 
 
 Below Allahabad and roads above 
 
 Calcutta 1,505 1,308 
 
 Between Allahabad and Agra, including 
 
 Oudeinl857 2,515 986 
 
 Above Agra, excluding Rohilcund, in- 
 cluding acquisitions for Lahore 4,513 10,247 
 
 Lahore Proper — 3,643 
 
 Peshawur — 4,294 
 
 Scinde — 1,087 
 
 Persian field force — 4,422 
 
 Pegu 1,134 4,579 
 
 European troops on the Madras Presi- 
 dency, excluding Pegu 11,006 7,304 
 
 The above return does not fully show the manner in which 
 the European forces of India have, within the last twenty-seven 
 years, been spread out; for instance, in 1830, the most advanced 
 posts, Kurnal and Loodiana, had only a few European troops ; 
 whereas the European troops on that frontier, including Lahore 
 and Peshawur, amounted, on the 1st of April, 1857, to 13,000 
 men, which ; added to the increased force for our recent acqui- 
 sitions in Pegu, and the troops with the Persian field force and 
 in Scinde on that date, make up about 20,000 men occupying 
 positions which did not come within British control in 1830 ; and 
 the increase made to the European forces in India has not been 
 sufficient to provide for these additional stations, without making, 
 as shown above, a diminution in the European forces stationed at 
 and below Cawnpore ; and hence has resulted the danger even to 
 the capital of the Indian Empire, during the revolt, besides the 
 terrible tragedy at Cawnpore. 
 
 Our true policy consists, no doubt, in restricting the native ele- 
 ment in our army to the smallest practicable amount; and, by avail- 
 ing ourselves of a system of railways and electric telegraphs, we 
 may group our forces in masses instead of scattering them over the 
 land, " as from a pepper box ; " especially if the civil duties, now 
 discharged by the native army, such as jail-guards, treasure- 
 
d^ 4f^ 
 
 97 
 
 escort, &c., be performed by an efficient police. Thus the native 
 troops will always be kept in awe Fy the presence of European 
 regiments ; and we may take another guarantee for their fidelity, 
 by so constituting each regiment, that its component parts shall 
 be mutual checks upon each other. Thus, if a corps were to 
 consist of 800 men, a handy and sufficient number according to 
 
 i our present organization,* it might comprise 200 Hindoos and 
 Mussulmen, 200 Seikhs, 200 Ghoorkas, and 200 East Indians. 
 
 I This last hitherto despised class has everywhere proved itself 
 a brave and faithful body, during the rebellion. The Eurasian 
 has volunteered and freely taken his share in the defence of the 
 Lucknow entrenchment, and other positions ; he has fought by 
 the side of our own countrymen, and charged with our cavalry, 
 bridle to bridle. In Calcutta and Madras, the regiments of 
 volunteers bear ample testimony to the physical and moral fitness 
 of the East Indian for military duty. There exists no longer 
 the slightest pretence for our supercilious treatment of this body, 
 which more than any other in India has claims — the claim of 
 blood and religion — upon us ; and their community of religion 
 with our own, would give us an additional hold upon their sym- 
 pathy. " Oh ! for forty men like the Madras Christian drummers 
 and fifers, in my regiment," exclaims an officer of one of the 
 Bengal revolt corps. " Ten just men," writes Qui Hi, " would 
 have saved Sodom; and had there been even ten Christian 
 soldiers in a native regiment, no such combinations as we have 
 seen could ever have been formed to overthrow us."t 
 
 There remain some thousands of disarmed Sepoys. It is 
 difficult to know what to do with these men. Disbandment is 
 the worst of policies. The 34th laughed when they were dis- 
 missed, and both they and the 19th wandered about the country, 
 representing themselves to the people as martyrs to their caste 
 and their religion. Each wanderer was a firebrand ; and if we 
 were to disband those now in the country, though they might 
 not succeed in raising a new insurrection, it is not to be expected 
 that they would at once settle down into the condition of peace- 
 ful cultivators. We should add, moreover, to those bands of 
 
 * In the Appendix will be fotind a scheme, furnished by an officer of ability and 
 experience, for organizing the army into legions, with 100 officers to each legion. 
 
 f Since the above was written, an order has appeared in Bengal for the enlistment 
 of East Indians. • . /•i.^U ,4 
 
fsJ 
 
 98 
 
 marauders, who will infest our roads and render life and 
 property insecure for years to come. It is perhaps impossible 
 to transport them bodily, otherwise that would be the shortest and 
 best fashion of disposing of them. It is difficult, also, to restore 
 them to their status ante helium ; for what confidence can we have 
 in then' fealty ? Perhaps the only practicable mode of dealing with 
 I them, is to break them up and disperse them in mingled bodies 
 Kl among the new regiments we may raise. There is the danger 
 Jl of their leavening the whole, it is true, but we may take other pre- 
 cautions against this ; and they would gradually drop off from 
 length of service, or distaste at their altered condition. We may 
 bring over Africans and Malays, as it has been suggested, and 
 ^ V indeed take any measures which give us the benefit of antagonism 
 ^^ of race. Only we must hold India by our own undivided suT" 
 premacy. If we cannot, we had better retire from the scene. 
 
 Next, as to the organization of new regiments ? A mistaken 
 economy seems pointing to our adoption of the "irregular" 
 system. In Madras, where three new regiments are being 
 "raised, it has been thought sufficient to officer them on this plan — 
 a commandant, an adjutant, and a quarter-master, are all the staff 
 of officers allotted. If this is sufficient, what becomes of all the 
 complaints so lavishly poured out upon the system of withdraw- 
 ing officers from their corps for civil or staff employ ? This, it 
 is said, has impaired the efficiency of regiments, led to a less 
 intimate relation between the officers and their men, and deprived 
 us of that minute knowledge of the condition and feeling of the 
 sepoys, which it is indispensable that we should possess. At 
 the commencement of the rebellion, upwards of 600 officers of 
 the Madras army, more than one-half the whole effective strength, 
 were absent from their regiments. Twelve hundred and fifteen 
 officers were away from the army of Bengal ; and though I have 
 not the statistics of the Bombay army before me, we shall proba- 
 bly be correct in assuming that a similar proportion of absentees 
 prevailed in that Presidency. But never has any yegiment 
 sunk so low in point of number of officers, as an irregular 
 corps.* There have always been many more than three officers 
 present at head-quarters, and it is wise to let well alone. The 
 Madras sepoy requires looking after. Our organization seems 
 • I have been favoured with a careful calculation, which estimatea the positions of 
 
99 
 
 nBen found the staunches! in India. Why then should we 
 experimentalize and try tinkering, instead of following up that 
 line of action which has confessedly resulted in success? If 
 we implicitly follow General Jacob, there can be no question as 
 to the superiority of irregulars ; yet I observe that all the expe- 
 rienced generals who gave their evidence before the Parliamen- 
 tary Committees in 1852-3, hesitated to express any decided 
 opinion upon the point. Certainly irregulars have not proved 
 themselves more trustworthy than regulars, during the mutinies ; 
 and it is to be remembered that the comparison is generally 
 instituted between cavalry regular and irregular, and not with 
 infantry. Possibly a system that may answer admirably for a 
 small " plump of spears," may be altogether unsuited to the 
 regular regiments of the line. The irregulars, too, are drawn 
 
 the officers of the Indian army on the 1st April, 1857, as 
 branches — Engineers, Artillery, Cavalry, and Infantry : 
 
 follows, comprising all 
 
 ^Jolonels. . .......... 
 
 Staff on 
 detached 
 employ. 
 
 Absent on 
 private affairs 
 
 and sick 
 certificate in 
 
 Europe. 
 
 Total 
 absentees 
 
 Present 
 
 on 
 
 military 
 
 duty. 
 
 Total. 
 
 37 
 
 47 
 
 47 
 
 687 
 
 816 
 
 149 
 
 77 
 
 77 
 
 392 
 
 597 
 
 186 
 
 124 
 
 125 
 
 1079 
 
 1413 
 
 37 
 
 105 
 
 104 
 
 409 
 
 2170 
 
 223 
 
 Lieut.-Colonels 
 
 Majors 
 
 Captains 
 
 Subalterns 
 
 229 
 
 229 
 
 1488 
 
 3583 
 
 
 
 1634 
 
 1292 
 
 2927 
 
 2825 
 
 5752 
 
 For the sake of comparison I annex a comparative statement of the establishment 
 of officers of the Royal army, extracted from Sir C. Trevelyan's evidence before the 
 Commission on Army Purchase and that of the Indian army. 
 
 Royal army. Indian army. 
 
 Cavalry Officers 567 483 
 
 Artillery „ 717 - - 588 
 
 Engineer „ 353 269 
 
 Infantry „ 4350 4492 
 
 5987 5832 
 
 The General Officer's Staff, Half-pay, Military Train and Colonial Corps, as well 
 as Household Cavalry and Guards, not included. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 from a superior class of society : the men find tlieir own horses, 
 and the officers are all picked from the ^lite of the regular ser- 
 vice. I feel convinced that to ensure efficiency and content, we 
 must keep up a full complement of officers, and it is a most mistaken 
 economy which has caused the new Madras regiments to be 
 officered on tlie irregular plan. The same consideration has also 
 probably led to the late order to raise our regiments to a strength 
 of 1000 men. The augmentation will give an additional force of 
 nearly 18,000 men ; yet not a single officer has been given to 
 the line. It is only necessary to spend a few days with any 
 regimental officer who has charge of a company, to convince us 
 that he has already as much on his hands as he can manage. 
 The numerous books he has to keep, the abstruse calculations to 
 make, the reports to furnish, keep him hours a-day at his desk, 
 and almost transform him from a soldier into a quill-driver. 
 Eight hundred men are quite enough for a native regiment, and 
 this increase of their numbers will not save us from the rock 
 a-head, on which the Madras army will some day split, if the 
 danger be not looked to in time. The men are worn out with 
 j duty, and eaten up with debt. The conquest of Pegu, garrisoned 
 f by Madras troops, has added enormously to their work. Their 
 tour for foreign service comes round thrice as rapidly as hereto- 
 fore.* The present fashion of increasing the numerical strength 
 of regiments will not make it possible to expedite the annual 
 reliefs. The period of foreign service will still be as long, and we 
 shall still hear of men selling their lotahs f to provide themselves 
 with the necessaries of life. Storier will still be rife of sentries 
 shooting themselves, with the exclamation, " Death is preferable 
 / to this slavery. "t It cannot, I think, be doubted, that if 18,000 
 ^ additional men are required for the Madras army, the proper 
 
 • In a letter in the " United Service Magazine," for December, 1857, from a Madras 
 officer, signed "Centurion," it is therein stated, on the authority of Sir Patrick Grant, 
 the commander-in-chief, that more than thirty -three per cent, of the Madras army 
 i on duty daily I 
 
 t Bra^pots. This word affords an amusing instance of the ignorance of Indian 
 affairs which prevails in England. Mr. Disraeli spoke, if he be correctly reported, of 
 the lotus being forwarded from station to station, and shortly after an elaborate essay 
 appeared in the " Household Words," illustrative of this flower, as the "symbol" of 
 insurrection ! '" 
 
 J I am informed that a return of the numbers of men who have committed suicide 
 within the last few years would be a terrible scandal. 
 
101 
 
 course is to form them into new regiments. The expenses may be 
 great, but we shall at least purchase the remedy we are in search 
 of. Possibly, however, an efficient police might enable us to dis- 
 pense with the necessity of so large a reinforcement of the line. 
 
 Since the above was written, it is reported that the Madras 
 army is to be augmented by nine regiments of the line ; a boon 
 to the army, no doubt, if these regiments were to be regularly 
 officered, but not holding out much reward, in fact, since the 
 irregular plan of officering is to be followed, whereby twenty- 
 seven fortunate individuals will get quasi-staff appointments, 
 while the regular line will be weakened by that number of 
 officers, who being still borne on the strength of their respective 
 regiments, the augmentation gives scarcely any promotion. 
 But I do not know that we are justified in regarding this in- 
 crease from the same point of view as that taken by military 
 men. To ,them, an increase of the army must always be 
 more or less a matter of congratulation ; but to the statesman, 
 who inquires whether the expense ought justly to be imposed 
 upon the country, the matter may well present itself in a some- 
 what different aspect. It has already been shown by me,* that 
 over and beyond her annual quota of fifty lakhs (£500,000,) to 
 the imperial expenses, add the cost of her own establishment, 
 Madras pays £1,225,759 for the military protection of countries 
 beyond her own boundaries, for which she receives nothing in 
 return. It is thus that she garrisons Cuttack, Nagpore, the 
 Straits, Sholapore, and Pegu. Were India really governed " as 
 one Empire," this would not much matter ; but as it is constantly 
 asserted that Madras exhibits a deficit, and as this is made a 
 plea for refusing funds for the execution of important public 
 works, it just makes all the difference in the world, and it 
 becomes a matter of imperative importance to guard against her 
 resources being further burthened with the payment of troops, 
 raised indeed within her territories, but employed at her cost. 
 
 The only ground on which the Madras army could be justly 
 augmented is, that it is from her Presidency the most loyal 
 soldiers are to be drawn; and provision should be made, by 
 which, when the Madras troops are engaged on foreign service, 
 their cost should be debited to the territories for whose protection 
 • " The Rebellion in India," p. 167. 
 
102 
 
 tliey are for the time being employed ; in the general imperial 
 accounts, a full equivalent should be allowed to the Presidency 
 of Madras, and made applicable to the construction of public 
 works, education, and the like. 
 
 The next topic to which I desire to call attention, is the 
 future composition of the Queen's Indian army. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer has informed us that there 
 are to be two distinct forces in India, corresponding in fact to the 
 present existing Company's and Queen's armies. But it still 
 remains uncertain whether the Indian army shall for the future 
 consist of a mixed force of European and native regiments, or 
 whether the Indian officers shall command sepoys exclusively? 
 At present, it is to be remembered that the Company's armies 
 include a large European force, in the shape of its artillery and 
 European regiments. This subject was fully considered in 1813 ; 
 and although the question now is so far different from what it 
 was then, that there is henceforth to be no Company's army ; yet 
 all the arguments then adduced to show that the morale of the 
 Company's army would best be maintained by having it partly 
 composed of European troops, apply with equal force to the 
 Indian army of the present day, which is to be changed in name 
 rather than in substance — if I rightly collect the intentions of the 
 minister. It becomes therefore important to place before the 
 public the opinions of Sir John Malcolm and Sir Thomas Munro, 
 delivered before the Parliamentary Committee of the House of 
 Commons in 1813.* 
 
 • On the 7th April, 1813, Sir John Malcolm deposed as follows : — 
 
 Q. " What in your opinion would be the effect on the general character, respecta- 
 bility, and efficiency of the Company's army, if the regiments of European infantry 
 in the Company's service w6re to be reduced, and if the Company's sendee were to 
 consist of natives alone ? 
 
 A. " My opinion upon this subject is more particularly formed upon an intimate 
 knowledge of the feelings and character of the army of the coast of Coromandel than 
 any other of the establishments, though I have seen and served with all; I think that 
 the character and feelings of the officers of the Company's army have been injured by 
 a former reduction of the European part of the Establishment, and that that injury to 
 their feelings and to their character and respectability would be added to, and indeed 
 completed, by the reduction of the remainder; and that a more serious injury could 
 not be inflicted, than one which added to a distinction, which has often produced 
 jealousy,— I mean King's and Company's — that of European and native. 
 
 Q. " You have stated the effect upon the Company's officers generally; in your 
 
103 
 
 Another point of paramount importance, unquestionably, is 
 that of securing the certain rise of merit, and the prevention not 
 only of important military posts being confided to inefficient 
 persons, but as far as possible, of providing that inefficiency shall 
 not be found in the Indian army ; that at whatever period in an 
 officer's career it exhibits itself, it shall be a bar to promotion, 
 and if necessary, a sufficient cause for removal. The athletic of 
 to-day may become the cripple of to-morrow; the promising 
 youth may sink into the middle-aged toper; and the position 
 which late events have discovered to us that we occupy, requires 
 
 opinion, if that measure were adopted, what would be the effect upon the European 
 officers attached to the native infantry, in particular ? 
 
 A. " The effect which I have described would be most certainly felt by the officers 
 of the native infiintry. 
 
 Q,. " What would be the effect on the native commissariat officers and sepoys ? 
 
 A. " Any measure which tended in any shape or way to lower the character and 
 responsibility of European officers with themselves, must in course be gradually com- 
 municated to the men under their command. 
 
 Q. " Do you think that any bad effects would arise from uniting the two services in 
 one, and from incorporating the Company's army with that of the King ? 
 
 A. " I conceive that the bad effects which I have pointed out from the service in 
 India being exclusively native, would be equally felt whether that service belonged to 
 the Crown or Company ; and I conceive there are many and numerous difficulties in 
 the way of any arrangement to connect a local service for India with the European 
 army of England. I neglected to answer one part of the question connected with the 
 European troops, which was, that I was con^dnced the feelings cherished by the Com- 
 pany's officers were for a system that would produce emulation with H. M.'s troops, not 
 jealousy; and that if they felt the loss of Europeans, it was because they had lost, 
 "among other things, the power and opportunity for competing for hone§t_fiime, in the 
 front of the battle and in the breach, with H. M.'s officers serving in India, from which 
 they are in some degree excluded, as European troops are in general employed upon 
 services of the greatest glory and danger. It seems impossible but that officers with 
 that advantage which the circumstances of their commanding Europeans gives them, 
 must feel a superiority, and the other service must feel a consequent depression." 
 
 Sir Thomas Munro's evidence before the Select Committee of the House of 
 Commons on 12th April, 1813, was as follows: — 
 
 Q. " If the European regiments were to be reduced and the infantry of the Com- 
 pany's army were to consist of natives alone, what would be the effect upon the 
 character and the efficiency of the Company's army in general, and on the European 
 officers of native corps and sepoys in particular ? 
 
 A. " If such a separation were to take place, I am of opinion that it would tend mate- 
 rially to destroy the efficiency of the Company's army; it has been a part of our military 
 policy in India to raise the European character, by all possible means, to employ Euro- 
 peans only in leading the assaults of all places taken by storm, and to employ them in 
 the field in all enterprises where courage is rccpiired ; by a separation of the European 
 
104 
 
 the utmost vigilance for self-preservation, and the permanence 
 of the empii'e. For this purpose two tilings seem essential ; 
 first, a system of inspection which shall be constant in its opera- 
 tions, and ever impending over every officer in the army; 
 secondly, a veto on promotion vested in the commander-in-chief, 
 which seems to be less invidious and easier of application than 
 a power of selection. 
 
 On both these points recent enquiries prescribe us with infor- 
 mation ; and the evidence of His Royal Highness the Duke of 
 Cambridge is precisely in point; the commissioners appointed 
 
 part of the establishment from the native, the European part of the establishment 
 will be exclusively employed in all those services in which military renown or distinc- 
 tion is to be acquired ; in the sepoy service, the officers cannot be; employed except 
 in all the lower drudgery and fatigue of war, they will in consequence sink in their 
 reputation, and will become in tim6" litfle better than a country militia; they will be- 
 come somewhat like what the sepoys of the French Government Ibrmerly were, who, 
 being separated from the European branch of the service, were commanded by officers 
 of inferior description. The officers, by being excluded from all great occasions of 
 signalizing themselves, would sink in character, and would be held in no estimation by 
 the officers of the European part of the establishment; the sepoys, whom they com- 
 manded, would likewise lose their respectability, and the whole native branch of the 
 establishment would then become no bettier than a native army is when commanded 
 by Europeans under a native prince; the European officers of the sepoy establishment, 
 excluded from all distinctioti, both in India and in their own country, would become 
 discontented, and they would most probably in time, sooner or later, by means of a 
 civil war, effect the separation of India from this country. 
 
 Q. '* Would these be the probable effects if the three regiments of the Company's 
 European infantry were reduced ? 
 
 A. " I conceive that the reduction of the three Company's regiments of Europeans 
 would most likely be followed by those effects." 
 
 Sir John Malcolm's evidence before the Select Committee of the House of 
 Commons on 7th April, 1813, is as follows : — 
 
 Q. " "Were not the sepoy corps in the French service in India, a distinct branch of 
 their military establishment, separate from the regiments of the line .'* 
 
 A. " They were. 
 
 Q,. •' Was there any difference in the character and efficiency of the sepoy corps in 
 the French service in India, and those in the service of the Company ? and if there 
 was, state the causes which occasioned that difference. 
 
 A. " The sepoys in the French service in India were always deemed inferior to those 
 in the British service; the leading causes I conceive to be, that the service was 
 deemed inferior by the European officers, who in consequence wanted that military 
 pride which is essential to the character of a soldier; I also conceive a difference may 
 have arisen, from the French officers never having attended so much to the prejudices 
 and characters of the men under their command, as has been the habit in the English 
 service, indeed I know this feet from frequent observations made by old sepoys." 
 
105 
 
 to enquire into the system of purchase and sale of commissions 
 in the army, report that " a system of periodical inspection by 
 officers specially appointed for the purpose, as is practiced in the 
 French army, would probably be found a beneficial measure, 
 tending to give confidence in the fairness and impartiality of the 
 reports ; and though such inspection could not be applied to 
 regiments abroad, the object might be attained by other means. 
 A board of general officers might be constituted, under the name 
 of inspectors-general ; some members of this board should retire 
 annually and be replaced by others, so that while an uniformity of 
 
 The evidence of Sir Thomas Munro before the Select Committee of the House 
 of Commons on 12th April,' 1813, was as follows: — 
 
 Q. " Did the military character of the sepoy corps in the French service in India 
 stand as high, and were they as efficient in the field as the sepoy's corps in the Com- 
 pany's service ? 
 
 A. " The military character of the sepoy corps in the French service was very low, 
 and they were by no means so efficient as the Company's sepoys ; I should suppose 
 that one regiment of the Company's sepoys would have dispersed three or four corps of 
 French sepoys, and I am convinced that this superiority in the Company's sepoys has 
 arisen entirely from their considering themselves as a part of an European army ; the 
 officers by whom they have been trained were bred in Euroi^ean regiments; after 
 serving a certain time in European regiments, they were appointed to sepoy corps, and 
 after remaining with sepoy corps some years, they were afterwards sent back again to 
 command European regiments, or to serve in them, so that there was no distinction in 
 the European officer whether he was with a sepoy or an European corps ; the Com- 
 pany's sepoy considers himself as forming an integral part of the British European 
 army, and it is from that he derives his high character and confidence. By a sepa- 
 ration of the European infantry, he would regard himself as no better than the common 
 militia of the country ; it would be impossible to maintain anything like equality in 
 an army divided into two branches, in one branch of which the officers should be ex- 
 clusively employed on all distinguished occasions, and the officers of the other branch 
 excluded from having an opportunity of distinguishing themselves ; without equality 
 there can be no such emulation as there ought to be ; among military men there 
 must be something like equality to maintain it ; In place of emulation we should 
 have jealousy. Our military establishment in India should be formed upon principles 
 which, while they extinguish all jealousy, should kindle and keep alive emulation." 
 
 The Europeans in the Company's services have never failed. No regiment in the 
 world is more distinguished than the 1st Madras Fusileers, whose leader, Neill, saved 
 Benares and Allahabad, and thereby secured the turning-point of the rebellion, 
 though his real merit and share in the salvation of the empire is not yet justly \ ' 
 understood, much less acknowledged ; while the men themselves have been the'^'f,***^ 
 admiration of the army in every duty undertaken by them throughout the war. 
 
 Sir John Malcolm's evidence before the Select Committee of the House of 
 Commons, on 7th April, 1813, on this point, was as follows: — 
 
 Q. " Have the Company's regiments of European infantry been found equal to 
 the performance of services required of European troops ? 
 
106 
 
 system is maintained, the impartiality resulting from a change 
 in the inspectors may be secured. This board should personally 
 inspect the troops in Great Britain and Ireland ; they should also 
 require from general officers commanding on foreign stations, 
 such arrangements as they might deem essential for acquiring 
 an intimate knowledge of the merits and capabilities of officers 
 serving abroad. Such a system would, it is believed, remedy 
 some defects which are found in the existing mode of inspecting 
 regiments, and it would gradually collect information, which 
 would assist the commander-in-chief whenever it may become 
 his duty to select an officer for the command of a regunent" 
 
 A. " I believe they have on every occasion. I never heard of their failing to distin- 
 guish themselves when an opportunity was given. 
 
 Q. ** Would it be advantageous in a military point of view, as well as with a view to 
 economy, to have the regiments of Europeans in India completed by filling up the 
 "Irasualties with recruits, or to have them occasionally retained by entire regiments ? 
 
 A. " It, no doubt, would be most economical to have them filled up with recruits, 
 and the regiments would always continue more efiicient ; as any new regiment coming 
 entire from England is unfit for service for, I may say, a twelvemonth at least." 
 
 The advantage of having a body of European troops on the spot already acclima- 
 tized, in preference to, or in aid of troops fresh to the country arriving in entire 
 regiments by a system of reliefs, is pointed out in the same evidences. And I believe 
 that if the steadiness of the Company's Europeans, accustomed as they ate to the 
 country and the inhaliitants as contrasted with the conduct of the Queen's regiments 
 lately poured into Calcutta, the comparison will be in favour of the former; and I 
 am informed that though the Queen's regiments have come into the field numerically 
 stronger than the Company's regiments, yet, after a brief period of service, the men of 
 the latter arm have been found the better able to stand up against heat and climate. 
 And it stands to reason that this should be so. 
 
 The evidence of Sir Thomas Munro before the Select Committee of the House of 
 Commons, on 12th April, 1813, was as follows : — 
 
 Q. " Would any advantages result from filling up the casualties in European regi- 
 ments in India with recruits from Europe instead of relieving entire regiments ? 
 
 A. " I conceive that very great advantages would result from such a practice, because 
 by sending out recruits only you have always veteran regiments; the recruits, upon 
 their landing, are thrown into old regiments who are acquainted with the mode of 
 living in the country, and the recruit soon becomes a perfect soldier; by sending out 
 entire regiments, however excellent the oificers may be, from their not being acquainted 
 with the manners of the country and with the modes of living, a corps, upon its first 
 arrival, and sometimes for one or two years afterwards, is quite inefiicient if it is sent 
 to the field, and is rather an incumbrance than an advantage to the army. There is, 
 likewise, by the system of sending out recruits, instead of whole regiments, a consider- 
 able saving, not only in expense, but likewise in the lives of men ; for when regiments 
 are sent out in a body, from their inexperience in the country mode of living, a much 
 greater proportion of them die than among those recruits who are thrown hito old 
 veteran regiments established m the country." 
 
107 
 
 This portion of the report is based on the evidence of His 
 Royal Highness the commander-in-chief, who pointed out that the 
 system of inspection of regiments was, of his own knowledge, 
 " very unsatisfactory," but that there has been very great dif- 
 ficulty in " carrying on the inspection, because, from the mode 
 in which our army has been divided and situated, the inspecting 
 officer has not had that constant intercourse with the regiments 
 that he has inspected, which " His Royal Highness considered 
 " is essential, in order that he may give a really candid statement 
 of the services of the officers who are under his command." 
 The " system which is now introduced of brigading regiments, 
 and having them in divisions, will," in the opinion of His Royal 
 Highness, " materially improve the system of inspection." " The 
 arrangement is that the brigadiers make their inspections. Those 
 inspections are further made by the lieutenant-generals generally ; 
 and they have to give their opinion to " the commander-in- 
 chief, " whether the reports of the brigadiers are such as they 
 concur with or not : so that it now is almost a double inspection 
 and muster twice a year." Previously to the present system 
 being introduced, the inspections '^were much more cursorily 
 made than one could desire, or than the officers making them 
 would have wished ;" and in reply to the question, " Has your 
 Royal HUghness ever considered the system of inspection in 
 France ? " — A. " As I understand, there are several officers who 
 go at one and the same time and make their inspections together. 
 No doubt that would be a very good plan. But at the same time 
 I am not sure that what we are now trying does not almost 
 amount to the same thing. Virtually there will be a double 
 inspection in every case where the army is brigaded and in divi- 
 sions." His Royal Highness had no doubt of the " importance, if 
 any weight is to be attached to the reports of the inspectors, that 
 every security should be taken that these reports are perfectly 
 fair ; " and he thought that " it would be an advantage that a 
 regiment should be inspected by different men at different times ;" 
 and he thought that " a change in the inspectors is a good plan for 
 getting reports on which the commander-in-chief can rely;" and to 
 the question, " Does the system, as it works in this country, secure 
 that change ? " His Royal Highness answered, " I am in hopes 
 that what is now introduced will in a great measure secure it ; 
 
108 
 
 but there again, I may observe that it has been so lately intro- 
 duced, that it will require some time to see how it works. Still 
 I think that we have an advantage now that we had not before." 
 His Royal Highness also observed, that he apprehended there 
 would bo a change in the inspectors, as "we nmst move the 
 regiments constantly ; they would therefore be put into different 
 divisions from time to time ; we should thus obtain from time 
 to time reports from a variety of general officers," and he 
 thought that the " improvement now in course of consideration, 
 with respect to the inspection of regiments, would give the 
 commander-in-chief more means of distinguishing between the 
 fitness and unfitness of officers." 
 
 The commissioners for reporting to the best mode of re- 
 organizing the system of training officers, state that there 
 " has been created in Austria, very lately, a separate corps of 
 adjutants or aides-de-camp, who are charged with the admi- 
 nistrative duties, such as inspecting the bearing, equipment, 
 carrying on the discipline, &c., of the troops." 
 
 This consists of 
 
 11 Generals. 
 
 18 Lieutenant-Colonels. 
 
 18 Majors. 
 
 58 1st Captains. 
 
 10 2nd Captains. 
 
 10 1st Lieutenants. 
 
 The system of inspection to be devised for the Indian army 
 should, therefore, be of such a nature as to enable the authorities, 
 both in India and England, to ascertain with precision the real 
 state of the military forces and establishments at any period. 
 A separate body of inspecting officers is essentially necessary to 
 this end ; their reports being drawn out under well-defined orders, 
 particularizing the various heads of enquiry. These inspecting 
 officers should not have any power or authority to give orders or 
 make changes, but only to report fully, and make suggestions 
 for improvement to the highest authorities. They should be 
 enjoined to avoid all interference, and, indeed, all communication, 
 with the military authorities on the subject of their enquiries ; 
 and in order to prevent partiality, and ensure information from 
 
109 
 
 numerous channels, it would be advisable to make frequent 
 changes in the inspecting officers. By means of regular reports 
 of this kind. Government would, in a few years, be in possession 
 of the fullest details connected with every portion of the military 
 establishments, and consequently enabled to rectify any defects 
 that might become apparent. 
 
 As to the second, the power of veto, we have also the testi- 
 mony of His Royal Highness the commander-in-chief, wliich 
 I have abstracted.* 
 
 * Q. 4183. His Royal Highness considers that it would be more satisfactory to the 
 commander-in-chief, if it was generally acknowledged that he had the power to veto," 
 because although it exists, it is very rarely evinced, and leads to a great deal of 
 difficulty and disagreeable feeling. Is decidedly of opinion that if public feeling were 
 to support the commander-in-chief in the exercise of the power of veto, he might 
 evince it with great benefit to the army, and without injustice to individuals. 
 
 Q. 4186-91. His opinion is most decided that the power of vetoing is much more 
 easy to evince than the power of selection, but does not think the consequence of the 
 veto must be selection. Thinks cases may occur in which a man has some notorious 
 defect; for instance, for want of temper, understanding below the average, and in 
 such cases would have no difficulty in saying, " There is nothing against your 
 character, but you are unfit from natural defects, and therefore you cannot be 
 promoted;" such, at present, is the power, but it is not exercised. There has been no 
 instance of its exercise in the time of His Royal Highness or Lord Hardinge, and it 
 would be extremely difficult to exercise it now in the present state of feeling. 
 
 Q. 4 1 92. Thinks that if the inspection returns were satisfactorily made, there would 
 be no difficulty in the commander-in-chief knowing whether an officer's promotion 
 ought to be stopped or not; but considers that unless the power of veto be backed by 
 public opinion, no man could exercise it; considers that the commander-in-chief could 
 not exercise the power of selection. 
 
 Q.4193. His opinion is very decided that the power of selection is impossible, 
 whether it is to be exercised by a military man or civilian, and thinks that no man 
 having that jiower would hold his position for six months. 
 
 Q. 4194. Considers that, constituted as the army is, and scattered over the face of 
 the globe, no man can frame a standard of selection. 
 
 Q. 4195-6. Considers that a standard of veto could be made by " personal 
 incompetency," which would appear and be reported from any part of the world, 
 while the standard of merit might not show itself at all, and yet it might exist. 
 
 Q,. 4197. Thinks it would be easier to veto the promotion to a majority of twelve 
 captains, than to select one of those twelve as better than the rest. 
 
 Q. 4198. Thinks it would be a very delicate thing for an inspecting officer to say 
 that one man is pre-eminently superior to all the rest. 
 
 Q. 4199. Considers that a system of selection would cause ten times as much 
 heart-burning as the system of purchase. 
 
 Q. 4200. Does not see how a man selected upon no sufficient grounds, could be 
 placed over the heads of others. 
 
 Q. 4214-20. Thinks that the system of selection would act very unjustly on 
 
110 
 
 Tlio power of veto, which His Royal Highness the Duke of 
 Cambridge proposes for the Royal army, is peculiarly applicable 
 to the Indian army ; and it should, in order to be really efficient, 
 commence at an early period of service, since a few years 
 generally suffices to make known the character of every officer. 
 
 At the expiration of ten years, therefore, further advancement 
 might be stopped on the ground of well-known and fully-proved 
 incompetency, and so on at more advanced stages of service ; 
 and at the end of thirty-five years' service, every officer should 
 be struck off the strength of his regiment, leaving it to Govern- 
 ment to select him for special employment, if considered advis- 
 able. Of com-se, at any period after ten years, officers should 
 be allowed to retire on suitable pensions, and if remaining as 
 long as thirty-five years, the pension should be increased to 
 £600 per annum, as in the Royal artillery and engineers. 
 This change might be made without entailing too heavy a bur- 
 then on the finances of India, since we find by Sir Charles 
 Trevelyan's evidence, (4465 of the Report of the Commission on 
 Army Purchase,) that the per-centage of non-effective officers of 
 the Indian army is far below that of any of the branches of the 
 Royal army; and the average charge of each non-effective is 
 further considerably below that of non-effectives in the Royal 
 artillery and engineers, which, like the Indian Service, are 
 seniority corps. 
 
 The last topic on which I think it needful to add any observa- 
 tion is that of a separate staff corps for India. During my 
 residence in India, I have seen various schemes and propositions 
 put forward on this point, but have observed that they have been 
 invariably met by a denial of their practicability. The question 
 
 officers serving in the "West Indies and the Colonies, performing very painful duties; 
 they would lose all chance of selection, though, perhaps, pining to be employed on 
 active service before the enemy ; while other officers on active service, who would have 
 greater opportunities of distinguishing themselves, would, under the selection system, 
 be promoted by the commander-in-chief, backed by public opinion. There is always 
 a great deal of promotion in regiments in time of war, and, in addition to this, war 
 promotion ; the officers on active service would reap all the benefit of the selection 
 promotion ; this would inflict upon officers serving in the Colonies the disadvantage 
 of being put wholly out of consideration, and the promotion of regiments in the 
 Colonies would be as good as stopped when compared with those on service, where 
 the vacancies are few as compared with the regiments actually engaged in war. 
 
Ill 
 
 was raised and discussed with much ability, and an intimate 
 knowledge of military detail, in the '' Madras Athenaaum " of 
 1854, and the " Friend of India " took up the discussions in 
 the same year.* For my own part, my opinion has oscil- 
 lated backwards and forwards, and varied much from time 
 to time in favour of and against the measure. That the scheme 
 is not practicable I never could allow; whether it would 
 be attended with advantage to the army if carried out is a 
 more difficult question. Recent events have, however, furnished 
 us with one very powerful argument against introducing any 
 entirely new system. The success of the Indian staff in conduct- 
 ing all the duties on which depend the efficiency and safety of 
 armies in the field has been beyond all question. We have not 
 witnessed in India the repetition of such scenes as marked the 
 earlier period of our struggle in the Crimea, and as have always 
 attended the awakening of England from times of peace to those 
 of war. Our troops have been moved and provided for with 
 despatch and plenty. Mr. Russell's letter to the " Times " 
 expresses the astonishment of the Crimean veterans at the dif- 
 ference between the accommodation provided for them in this 
 country and in the camp before Sevastapol. Our staff has had 
 no apprenticeship to go through ere it was master of its trade : 
 no lamentable noviciate which practised on the corpus vile of the 
 common soldier. The emergency was sufficiently sudden to 
 apply the severest test to the system; and with all the strains 
 upon it, it has not broken down. Far from it, its success is 
 beyond all question. It is said, I know, that the comparison is 
 not fairly instituted, for that the circumstances of the two cases 
 are not parallel ; that in the Crimea we were in an enemy's 
 country, far from our own resoures ; that here we had the civil 
 power to assist the military in finding means of transport and the 
 like; that in Affghanistan our commissariat broke down, and 
 that it would have done the same in the Seikh war but for Jottee 
 Persaud; but in the Crimea we had a seaboard close to the 
 scene of action, and in the north-west the country was in a great 
 measure that of an enemy. But we are not, let us hope, likely 
 
 * A mass of valuable statistical information will be found in the papers in the 
 " Athenaeum " by those who are on the look-out for facts and figures. 
 
 t- 
 
112 
 
 to require an Indian army for foreign conquest hereafter ; and 
 for operations within our own confines, even under the most 
 adverse circumstances, it is certain that the staff, on its present 
 organization, has answered its intended object. It is better, there- 
 fore, to improve our existing instrument than to seek to supersede 
 it by the introduction of a new, which must be experimental, and 
 may be a failure. 
 
 The organization of a separate staff corps for India, therefore, 
 appears to me to involve many grave questions requiring the 
 mature consideration of Government. In the East, a man of tact 
 and judgment will often prove of inestimable value to the State 
 in time of emergency ; such a character will make an impression 
 on the minds of millions of Asiatics, where a man of mediocre 
 talent would be found useless, nay often worse — an incumbrance ; 
 but the fact of certain officers being specially set apart for staff 
 duties, must often entail on Government the retention of many 
 of moderate ability, and necessitate their employment on duties 
 requiring peculiar, minds, when those best fitted would only be 
 obtainable from extensive numbers. The climate appears also 
 to oppose the formation of a distinct corps of officers for the staff 
 duties, unless ample provision be made for numerous absentees 
 leaving India on account of ill-health and on visits to their native 
 country. 
 
 The withdrawal of officers from regimental duties has been 
 objected to mainly on the ground of causing the regular army to 
 be inefficiently and insufficiently officered, but this serious defect 
 is not to be remedied by prohibiting the withdrawal of all officers, 
 but rather by properly regulating the numbers and grades to be 
 withdrawn for staff employ, at the same time allowing an ample 
 number for regimental and also military duties ; * nor is the em- 
 ployment of officers on staff and detached employ the only drain 
 on the effective strength of the army, for the number of officers 
 on leave, on sick certificate, both in Europe and in India, often 
 occasions as many vacancies to the commissioned ranks as the 
 numbers withdrawn for staff and detached employ. The remedy 
 is therefore for Government, whilst selecting the most competent 
 
 * Attention may well be directed to the system of " seconding," which has been 
 found to answer admirably in the ordnance department of the Royal army, comprising 
 some 800 officers, who rise as in the Company's service, by a system of seniority. 
 
113 
 
 officers for the more difficult kinds of employ, to take care that 
 sufficient inducements are given for good officers to remain with 
 their regiments, the absolutely incompetent officers being dis- 
 posed of by means of the veto power, and a sufficient number of 
 regimental officers being allowed to provide amply for contin- 
 gencies of sickness, absence on leave, and the inexperience of 
 young officers. 
 
 The necessity of dismantling the forts and strongholds of petty 
 chieftains ; of holding the central points of strategetic com- 
 binations by strong forces; of having all arsenals, depots, and 
 stations well fortified and garrisoned ; of massing and brigading 
 our troops, instead of scattering them in infinitesimal fractions 
 over an immense area ; of availing ourselves of a system of rail- 
 way and electric telegraph to consolidate our military power ;* of 
 keeping the science of great guns and the knowledge of the use 
 of the minie rifle to ourselves ; of having active men in command ; 
 of guarding against the emanation of a spirit of jealousy between . 
 the Queen's and the Indian armies by any undue favoritism ; 
 and of promoting a generous spirit of emulation among men 
 of aU arms, are all so obvious that they need only be mentioned 
 in a paper already run to a totally unexpected length, on a 
 topic so much more within the province of others than that 
 of the present tmprofessional writer. 
 
 * Had the last few yetirs been energetically employed in developing that scheme of 
 land and water communications which Colonel Arthur Cotton showed to demon- 
 stration were the prime necessity of this country, instead of dawdling over those 
 costly playthings — our high speed first- class railways; had river navigation been im- 
 proved in the Iiylus, the- Godavery, and the Ganges, and with Bourne's flat-bottomed 
 steamers in full play, what vast facilities should we have possessed, even during the 
 rebellion, of hastening forward men and munitions of war to points threatened or 
 attacked. But it is the character of the Englishman to be ever wise after the event. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Topic 8th. 
 
 VIIL What shall he the form of the Home Government of 
 
 India ? 
 
 As " Double Government " has been already condemned by the 
 nation and Parliament, I have struck out almost all that I had 
 written in favour of the abolition of the Court of Directors and 
 Board of Control.* There is no use in thrice slaying the slain ; 
 and it is not my disposition to insult the fallen. It is wise as 
 well as manly " parcere subjectis," however prone we may have 
 been " debellare superbos." Besides, the East India Company 
 has done much good in its day ; it was a mighty institution, and 
 although it has been put away because it had survived its objects, 
 and was unsuited to the exigencies of the present day, English- 
 men may be proud of its power, though they may not admire the 
 means by which that power was attained. So far, therefore, as 
 the past is concerned, I might leave this chapter a blank ; and 
 even as it is, I have but little to say. It is principally as regards 
 the future that I touch on this topic at all. 
 
 We may rest assured, that the work which lies before us is 
 
 • I had at first written fully on this topic, but Lord Palmerston's Bill and the 
 discussions in Parliament rendered much that I had noted down out of date ; I there- 
 fore altered the chapter to its present form. Scarcely had this been done, when news 
 of the change of ministry reached India. Had the fall of Double Government been 
 the less certain on account of that change, I should have felt it incumbent upon me 
 to have entered on the discussion of this question at large. The evils of Double 
 Government, as they affect administration at home, are so thoroughly known, 
 that I have not thought it necessary to say much regarding the delay, the expense, 
 the irresponsibility, which this form of Government necessarily caiises ; my observa- 
 tions are chiefly confined to the operations of Double Government on administration 
 in India. 
 
115 
 
 more calculated to task our energies and our wisdom, than even 
 that rebellion which we are now extinguishing. We have our 
 power to consolidate ; a suspicious disaffected body of subjects to 
 re-assure ; whole kingdoms to re-organize ; sweeping reformations 
 In revenue and justice to introduce; provinces to re-settle* ; the 
 strictest economy to practice ; to recruit our finances without 
 wringing the people ; to recommence " public works ;" to re- 
 establish our credit, moral and pecuniary ; to foster education ; 
 and we cannot have instruments in too perfect order, or agents 
 too capable, for such mighty work, before which the very hearts 
 of most men might well quail. And therefore we may well 
 rejoice at knowing that though India must practically be governed 
 in India, our working gear at home is in order. Just as sailors 
 knock down all lumber, and even ornament, when they clear 
 the decks for action, we have acted wisely in pitching " Double 
 Government," that " fons et origo malorum," into the hold, at a 
 moment when we must have nothing to obstruct our view, or 
 hamper our exertions. Enough has been said in Parliament upon 
 the general inexpediency of the old Home Government, which, 
 by-the-bye, was not objectionable because it was a Double 
 Government, but because it was a bad form of Double Govern- 
 ment. The arguments drawn from analogy were, therefore, all 
 worthless. England, it was said, had even a triple Government 
 — Queen, Lords, and Commons ; but independent of the answer 
 that those form but one body, the general result of these parties 
 checking each other is, on the whole, responsibility to the nation. 
 The checks of the component parts of the Indian Home Govern- 
 ments upon each other, if, indeed, the directors had any power 
 of check at all, resulted only in delay and irresponsibility. The 
 expense, the procrastination, the immunity of the particular 
 " Double Government " which ruled India, has been thoroughly 
 exposed. Indeed the amendment of Mr. Baring virtually ad- 
 mitted the inherent viciousness of the system. " Single-speech 
 Hamilton," who, like the sailor's parrot, if he did not talk much, 
 was an awful thinker, compressed his experience of forty-years' 
 Parliamentary tactics into a work, which he called " Parliamentary 
 Logic ;" a volume which may be said to comprise every sophism 
 
 * The records of the revenue settlement in the North-West are stated to have 
 perished during the rebellion. 
 
 I 2 
 
116 
 
 conceivable, in five hundred and fifty-three aphorisms, reducing 
 to theory the corrupt practices of Bubb Doddington. This Par- 
 liamentary Machiavel tells us, that when no other topic of 
 objection can be discovered against a measure, its opponents must 
 resort to what Bentham calls the "Procrastinator's argument :" — 
 " Wait a little, this is not the time." 
 
 It becomes unnecessary, also, to consider here more than 
 cursorily the Company's defence, which is set forth in its petition 
 to Parliament, and the supplementary " memorandum of improve- 
 ments in the administration of India during the last thirty 
 years." The latter of these two documents, it may be observed 
 generally, is a transparent specimen of a very ordinary fallacy ; 
 that of stringing together all that is worthy of praise, omitting 
 all that is worthy of blame. Mr. Kaye and other encomiasts of 
 the company have rendered us so familiar with this sophism, 
 that its only merit — that of novelty — having ceased to charm, the 
 custom stales upon and wearies us. It was thus that Lord Dal- 
 housie composed his celebrated retrospective minute. It is thus 
 that Lord Harris might, at the expiration of his Government, 
 make a seeming-show of great reforms, though the general 
 character of his tenure of office has been stagnation. Without 
 examining the memorandum in detail, it will suffice to say that 
 many of its statements are grossly inaccurate. I will only instance 
 one, which I shall have to refer to again. In page 26, the 
 directors take credit for the abolition of the moturpha in the 
 Presidency of Madras. It has never been abolished, but is 
 exacted to the present day, on "the old woman's apple stall 
 and the barber's razor." The best answer and antidote to this 
 memorandum is Mr. L udlow's second vo lume of his^ " British 
 India." "~ "" ' ' 
 
 The Company's petition, too, appears to me to have been 
 singularly over -rated and over -praised. I have studied it 
 attentively, and cannot see why it has been termed one of the 
 " most remarkable state papers that ever emanated from a public 
 office." It is clever; it is nicely written. Its English is very 
 immaculate ; and it may be very good policy in the Directors to 
 declare that it is unanswerable, and the like. I am very sure I 
 could answer it more unanswerably still, paragraph by paragraph, 
 and, as it is, it has been pretty well pulled to pieces in 
 

 117 
 
 Parliament. When I see it so puffed, I think of Dickens' Yankee, 
 who designated every one of his countrymen that chanced to be 
 spoken of as " one of the most remarkable men of his age." 
 
 To constitute a really great state paper I conceive that some- 
 thing more than cleverness and correct English are necessary. 
 It should be based upon /acts ; it should not be egotistical ; it 
 should be calculated to meet the object it has in view. In all 
 these three, if, indeed, con.viGt.ion and not deception was the 
 object of the petition, I conceive that it signally fails. It would 
 take a pamphlet to examine the petition at large; I can only 
 suggest a few general cursory remarks. As to its facts, it starts 
 with a statement which every one knows to be untrue. India 
 was not acquired by the petitioners " at their own expense," or 
 subsequently maintained '^ without the smallest cost to the 
 British Exchequer." Whether the East India Company's 
 Government has been " one of the most beneficent in act ever 
 known among mankind," let the unanimous condemnation of its 
 policy by independent bodies of Englishmen in different parts 
 of India, let the native petitions from all the Presidencies, let the 
 Calcutta Missionaries' petitions, and the Torture Report testify. 
 Let the same testimony speak to the claim of the Government to 
 be considered, as " in all departments, one of the most rapidly 
 improving in the world." As to how India regards the Govern- 
 ment of the East India Company, let Mr. Halliday's state- 
 ment, that they believe India is "Ijrach" or farmed out by 
 the Crown to a joint stock company, and that the present plan 
 has the appearance of a ^^ sham," reply ;* and as to the assumed 
 effect to be produced upon the people by the abolition of 
 the Company I will add my own unqualified contradiction, 
 
 • See Halliday, 2 rep. H. of C, Q. 4059-78; 4135-38; 4144-50; 4174. See also 
 Lord Ellenborough, H. of C, 18th June, 1852, Q. 2305. Marshman, ib. Q. 4655-6. 
 Sullivan, ib. Q. 5010. 
 
 Mr. Halliday's evidence is so important that it may be well to extract a portion of it. 
 
 Q. 4059, " You used the expression, ' Farming the Government;' do you think the 
 people of India believe that the Government of India is farmed to the Company, in 
 the same sense that the taxes were farmed at the period you allude to ? They use 
 precisely the same word in speaking of the renewal of the charter. They will talk 
 with you as to the probability of the " Ijrach " or " farm " being renewed, and, as far 
 as I know, they have no other term to express it." 
 
 Q. 4063. " As they become more and more enlightened mil not the mischief, 
 
 Ai-" 
 
118 
 
 Mention the substitution of the Crown for the Company to a 
 native and his eyes sparkle at the bare thought. Sir Erskine 
 Perry told the House of Commons what alarm the Cingalese 
 expressed at the mere idea of being transferred to the Govern- 
 ment of the Company. The assertion that there has been " indis- 
 criminate animosity towards the natives on the part of the 
 Englishmen in India " is untrue. The " Englishman," which is 
 the organ of the independent English community in Calcutta, 
 has, from the first, steadily ignored such mistaken policy. Of 
 the whole Indian Press, but three journals have counselled 
 " indiscriminate " vengeance. Whether the Company has 
 " governed India for India," or for the Company, is a matter of 
 opinion. Those who bring forward the words of the Directors 
 will establish the affirmative; those who look to their acts will 
 come to a contrary conclusion. Intentions we may make the 
 Company a present of, for what are they worth. As to the 
 statement that " in no Government known to history have 
 appointments to offices, and especially high offices, been so rarely 
 bestowed on other considerations than those of personal fitness," 
 I can only say that I believe in no country in the world is 
 " Dowbism," in both civil and military appointments, so rampant. 
 Let the son of a Director and an outsider from the " middle 
 classes " — the son of Smith, the saddler — come into competition 
 for office in India, and every man knows which will obtain the 
 appointment. Let the second cousin, twice removed, of some 
 needy nobleman come out with the only outfit his noble relations 
 are likely to give him, a few letters of introduction with 
 coroneted seals, and see how soon he jumps into command of an 
 irregular corps of cavalry, or a snug staff appointment, while 
 Jones, Brown, and Robinson, the "refuse," remain with the 
 regiment to be slaughtered by their sepoys. So much for 
 accuracy of statement. 
 
 Another large class of sophisms which runs through the 
 petition, is that of making a virtue of necessity ; claiming credit 
 
 which you consider arises from their notion of a farm disappear of itself ? It may, 
 in tliat sense, no doubt, and does ; and yet there arises a proportionate weakness to 
 the Government, from their seeing that the body held up as their apparent governors 
 are not their real governors. Without wishing to speak irreverently it has somewhat 
 the appearance of a sham."' 
 
119 
 
 for improvements wliicli have been forced upon the Company, 
 and for hnes of conduct which they could not avoid- Under 
 this head falls the patronage cry. The Company has chosen 
 from the middle classes, because they are themselves of that 
 class ; and in providing for their own relatives, friends, and 
 dependents, they could not do otherwise. India has not been 
 hitherto coveted by the aristocracy as a field for its offshoots ; 
 but I am not aware that the Directors have virtuously withstood 
 the solicitations of any " bloated aristocrat," out of a sense of 
 duty to provide for the " middle classes." Under this head falls 
 the claim of merit for fostering railways, education, &c. The 
 truth is, that like a sturdy beggar, who will go as far as you kick 
 him and no further, every one of these improvements has been 
 wrimg out of the Directors by pressure from without. The press 
 and the Parliament have to be thanked for the contents of the 
 " Memorandum of Improvements " — not the East India Company. 
 
 The egotism of the petitioners lies veiled under a very flimsy 
 mock-humility. They alone are the repositories of all knowledge: 
 their advice alone is worth hearing ; they alone can be safely 
 trusted with India ; they have done everything for India ; their 
 intentions are the purest ; their deeds the most benevolent ; their 
 reformatory action the most rapid in the whole world ; they are 
 so beloved by the people of India, that Heaven alone knows what 
 will be the consequence of abolishing their rule ; they are so 
 disinterested, that to no one else can be confided the dispensation 
 of patronage. The talking bird and golden water are in safe 
 custody of a terrible wizard on the top of a perilous mountain ; 
 all those who attempt to reach them, as in the story in the 
 Arabian Nights, shall be turned into black stones. There are 
 plenty of mocking voices, it is true; but a few have at last 
 stuffed their ears with cotton, and succeeded. 
 
 On the other hand, their abuse of everybody but themselves 
 is most lavish ; and herein I conceive the petition is singularly 
 wanting in judgment ; for what is so likely to irritate Parliament, 
 and array public feeling against the petitioners, as " indis- 
 criminate " abuse ? Their independence of Parliamentary and 
 ^arty influence (as if the two were the same !) has been " happy." 
 The most disastrous results are to be anticipated from Parlia- 
 mentary interference ; India will become the '* shuttlecock of 
 
120 
 
 PI 
 ■' faction." I would rather hope that it may become the neutral 
 
 gi'ound where party-spirit may for once be laid aside, and all 
 adopt a common " lingua franca ; " but this I feel well assured 
 of, that whatever be the spirit in which Indian affairs are debated, 
 India must be the gainer by constant Parliamentary ventilation. 
 As to other " bodies and individuals " who may venture to 
 ^ suggest anything on Indian topics, they are " entirely ignorant 
 _of the country, or know only enough of it to impose on others 
 Al^ who know still less than themselves ;" they are " self-interested;" 
 """^ they have " very frequently objects in view other than the interest 
 or good government of India," &c., &c. This has been the con- 
 stant cry of the Company as long as I can remember it. If a 
 lawyer rose up, he was a tempter ; he was " venal " and full of 
 quibbles ; wedded to the narrowest prejudices ; only able to take 
 ^^^ a lawyer's view of the case, not a statesman's. He was a miserable 
 special-pleader — a pettifogger ; he sought to open out vast fields 
 of litigation for his own peculiar advantage ; his experience was 
 confined to Calcutta or Madras ; he could not judge of the 
 *' patriarchal " system of administering justice in the Mofussil, or 
 non-regulation provinces ; his aim was to let in a flood of techni- 
 calities upon the unfortunate inhabitants of the interior. He set 
 out on his selfish mission of reform with '* Chitty on Special 
 Pleading " in his hand ; he was, perhaps, the most dangerous of 
 all would-be reformers ; certainly he was the most noisy, and the 
 least to be trusted. If men, full of experience from the Mofussil, 
 the missionaries, who had wandered from village to village with 
 the Bible in their hand, came forward to bear witness against the 
 state of society, in Bengal for instance, under the Company's ruh, 
 their statements were exaggerated, though it was conceded that 
 they were conscientious ; their position unfortunately forced them 
 to take a one-sided view of affairs ; their request for enquiry was 
 ^ superfluous, because it would only excite angry feelings among 
 ^ the people, and the time for action had already arrived. That 
 device, be it remembered, is the last shift of the delay-monger. 
 The time for action, not action itself, has arrived. Therefore let 
 there be no enquiry ; and enquiry is accordingly put aside, while 
 no action follows. The worthy complainants are sneered at by 
 the Court of Directors, and their testimony is got rid of. If the 
 f independent merchants and capitalists of Bengal assert that the 
 
121 
 
 Indian Government has displayed such vacillation and imbecility, 
 and such a wilful determination to ignore the true character of 
 the rebellion, as to justify a petition for the recall of the Governor- 
 General, they are "factious," they are "un-English," "unprincipled 
 Europeans," "malcontents," " malignants." If the press exposes 
 jobbery, or imbecility, or arrogance, the editors are "un-English;" 
 they are " bullies;" they traffic in "misrepresentations," in "reck- 
 lessness of assertion," in calumny; they are half-educated, broken- 
 down adventurers, cashiered from the army, or earning a 
 shameless livelihood after mercantile failure or a passage through 
 the Insolvent Court ; in short they are — Indian editors. If the 
 natives of all three Presidencies come forward with charges 
 precisely similar in their general nature, and point out such 
 instances of miscarriages of justice, over-assessment, infamous ^J^ 
 police, extortion, insecurity for life and property, torture and ■ 
 the like, as, if true, are conclusive as to the miserable condi- 
 tion of society, these natives are the mouthpiece of the Presi- 
 dency towns, not of the people at large ; they are but the merest 
 fraction of the millions of the East. The petitions are not 
 their own composition. They are written behind the screen 
 by Europeans ; they are principally composed in London. The 
 natives do not know what they are made to talk about ; they 
 are very far from wishing any such changes as the prayers 
 of their petitions indicate. If a society is formed in England 
 for the promotion of Indian reform, its members are " Sciolists ;" 
 they are demagogues ; they are place-hunters ; they have no ac- 
 curate information; how should they? They have never travelled 
 in India, much less had any experience from official employment. 
 The only perfectly disinterested body, singularly enough, is that 
 very one which monopolizes the entire patronage of India ! >\ 
 
 Then the system of Indian government is such, that nothing 
 short of thirty years' study can make anybody conversant with 
 its details ; and thus that oldest of sophistries of despotism, which 
 first clothes the administrative machine with complexity and 
 mystery, and then proclaims that nothing but a specially-trained 
 understanding can be trusted to work it, is palmed off on a 
 credulous and careless public. I would ask if it was judicious on 
 the part of the persons put upon their trial thus to speak of their 
 judges. 
 
122 
 
 If we except a few contradictions, such as the assertions that 
 the Double Government is happily independent of Parliament, and 
 that it is, as at present constituted, thoroughly amenable to Par- 
 liament ; that the Directors are not justly censurable, because the 
 Board of Control has the entire power, and again that the 
 directors have the " initiative and advice which it would be 
 dangerous to abolish," (paragraphs which serve to show that 
 Mr. Mill is at least as accomplished a sophist as he is logician), 
 the petition is pretty well demolished. As to the " sentimental " 
 part of the paper, and the fear lest the new body should not suc- 
 ceed to the " feeling " with which the " historical antecedents " of 
 the Company invest it, the less that the petitioners say on that 
 point the better for them. Sir George C. Lewis has ably handled 
 that topic. 
 
 There remains for me to say a few words on the future Home 
 Government, of which it may suffice to say, that it is merely 
 an attempt to continue Double Government under a new name, 
 and to maintain the evil of irresponsibility. 
 
 Responsibility is the great object of the Indian Reformers, for 
 it is only by having some one individual to look to, who cannot 
 ride off on any difference of opinion between himself and his 
 Council or Board, that a divided responsibility can be got 
 rid of.* 
 
 Changes in India are indispensable and unavoidable. On 
 some topics, however, enquiry may be requisite, or, at least, 
 desirable; on others, reforms will carry themselves. This is 
 not the time to introduce sweeping changes in India; and, 
 indeed, none are called for. Those for which the country is 
 now ripe will enforce themselves very soon after peace is 
 restored ; nothing is more idle, indeed pernicious, than the 
 legislative introduction of theoretical innovations. Governments 
 are the converse of poets, who are born, not made. In the lan- 
 guage of Sir James Mackintosh, " Governments are not made, 
 but grow." " '[ «—*».«« 
 
 At the same time, the abolition of the Double Government, of 
 
 * Lord Ellenborough, in his evidence before the House of Commons, 18th June, 
 1852, contemplates only a Council of advice, whether the Committees be named in 
 the Bill or elected. 
 
123 
 
 the Court of Directors, and the East India Company, was, I hold, 
 a condition essentially precedent to the commencement of that 
 better line of policy which must henceforth be inaugurated. It 
 was wise, in the first instance, to avoid all that could give rise 
 to opposition to the removal of the Double Government. Had 
 the measure proposed been more sweeping; had it aimed at reforms 
 in India, even the abolition of the Company might have been 
 jeopardized. Indian reformers recognize the measure as a 
 means, not as an end ; without it they could not have worked, — 
 with it, they must keep the Government of the day up to the 
 collar. 
 
 How then does the abolition of Double Government at home 
 promise to affect administration in India ? 
 
 In the first place, we have swept away that " traditionary-— 
 policy," which was among the main obstacles to the influx of 
 independent Englishmen into this country. The jealousy with 
 which " interlopers " were formerly regarded is far from extinct. 
 The exclusive civil service, with its associations, its amour- 
 propre, its esprit-de-corps, its hereditary nomenclature, regarded 
 itself as the " aristocracy " of India, and indeed was proud so to 
 designate itself. It regarded with disfavour the introduction of 
 any independent Englishman to the discharge of functions which 
 savoured of civil administration. It fought against the indigo- 
 planter being made a magistrate; it saw with alarm every 
 encroachment on its privilege and prerogative ; and even while the 
 revenue collectors are exclaiming against the amount of work 
 imposed upon them, and the numerous different descriptions of 
 duties they have to perform, they at the same time protest against 
 the separation of magisterial and revenue functions, because they 
 know that this measure, so indispensable to the well-being of the 
 people, must, if carried, necessitate the employment of Europeans 
 largely in the magistracy. Notwithstanding that the members 
 of the civil service were taken, in England, from the " middle 
 classes," it must not be forgotten that their position was entirely 
 mtered from the moment they set foot in India. They became a 
 sort of imported fictitious aristocracy ; they were no longer of the 
 middle classes, but constituted, in their own opinion on all 
 points, and, in fact, so far as governing functions are concerned, 
 the highest class. They were an oligarchy ; and I consider that 
 
124 
 
 a " middle class oligarchy " is tlie worst theoretical Government 
 in the world, for it wants all that nobihty of feeling, largeness of 
 view, politeness of demeanour, which are characteristic of an 
 educated hereditary aristocracy. Hence the petty jealousy of 
 the civilians towards all those who refused to look upon their 
 body as one entire perfect chrysolite, or who trenched, however 
 sparingly, upon the ruling functions which they looked upon as 
 exclusively appertaining to themselves. For the same reason, 
 the faults of the Indian Government have been, in the language 
 of Mr. Ludlow,* " in a great measure, middle-class faults ; the 
 grasping after wealth, the hasting to be rich, the narrowness of 
 view, aye, and not a little of the arrogance of the purse — the 
 vulgar assumption of superiority." Now that government of 
 India is brought directly under the Crown, it is not too much to 
 hope that no such feelings will be allowed to prevail ; that the 
 position and value of the independent Englishman will be recog- 
 nized, and enterprise be hereafter as much fostered as it has 
 hitherto been frowned upon. 
 
 Next, the screen which the Court of Directors proved to the 
 short-comings of the civil service has been withdrawn. Let me 
 not be supposed to censure the individual members of that ser- 
 vice, sweepingly or undeservedly. Their defects are the result 
 of their system, which provides for no special training; which 
 miavoidably fosters a spirit of exclusive cliquism. The wonder 
 is how they have done so well, not that they have done no 
 better. But still such is the force of a common bond of union, 
 of an exclusive order, and its influence with the Court of Direc- 
 tors, the appointing and controlling body, that complaints against 
 the administration of any individual were sure to be visited as 
 lightly as possible, if not palliated. Hence, men in power in 
 India might do with impunity things which would cost them 
 their appointments at home. Witness abundant cases, which 
 many of my readers will no doubt call to mind, but which it 
 might be invidious in me to supply. This also vanishes with 
 the Court of Directors. The minister at home will have no lean- 
 ing in favour of the service. The conduct of every one among 
 them is brought much nearer to Parliamentary enquiry, and this 
 
 ♦ VoLu., p. 152. 
 
125 
 
 knowledge will exercise a most wholesome effect upon all civil 
 administrators in India. 
 
 Thirdly ; it will not be possible now for Governors-General and 
 Governors in India to treat with indifference orders received from 
 the Home Government, when those orders are opposed to the feel- 
 ing or wishes of the authorities in India. Obedience to orders will 
 be enforced henceforth ; and we shall thus have removed one of 
 the principal sources of that miserable procrastination, which has 
 kept India so long without the application of those reforms and 
 improvements which have been demanded, argued, proved 
 necessary, admitted, sanctioned, and positively directed. The 
 whole history of the Company is one long illustration of this 
 practice. It is hence that the Company has appealed to its 
 orders, whenever assailed on the score of non-performance. 
 " We directed the thing to be done in such and such a year ; we 
 reiterated our orders in such and such a year ; we have again 
 written peremptorily on the subject ; " and yet nothing is done — 
 those orders are quietly treated with contempt. The authorities 
 in India remain unpunished. They know their own impunity, 
 and take advantage of it. But what should we say of an absentee 
 Irish landlord, who, in reply to constant complaints against his 
 agent, of unroofing houses, turning tenants adrift, and the like, 
 contented himself with reiterating virtuous remonstrances to his 
 servant, and winking at his continued practice, so long as the 
 " rint " found its way across the Channel ? It is just thus that 
 the directors and the local Government have acted, as Lord 
 Macaulay informs us, in a brilliant often-quoted passage, in his 
 essays. In the "memorandum of improvements," it will be 
 remembered that the directors have taken credit for the abolition 
 of the moturpha. It is true that express orders came out to 
 abolish it about two years ago, but those orders have not been 
 acted on, and the Company still pockets the tax, and makes no 
 sign. Peremptory orders have, for the second time, come to 
 Lord Harris to deprive two missionaries, the Rev. Mr. Gundert 
 and the Rev. Mr. Percival, of their appointments in connexion 
 w^ith Government education. His lordship feels very strongly on 
 the subject, and has written, in support of his nomination, one of 
 those characteristic minutes, in which whole classes are sweep- 
 ingly denounced without a tittle of evidence, and written down 
 
 1^ 
 
126 
 
 )^^ 
 
 factious, because they hold different opinions from his own.* Up 
 to the present moment, the twice-repeated orders of the Court of 
 Directors have not been attended to. In the present case, I con- 
 ceive Lord Harris is in the right ; but the question is, whether 
 obedience should not be enforced towards the orders of his 
 superiors? I conceive there can be but one reply, though 
 resignation might be the alternative. One instance more, and 
 the latest, must suffice. The President of the Board of Con- 
 trol stated in Parliament, on the 16th of February, that annexa- 
 tion frequently " characterized the policy of Governors- General, 
 but it was in spite of the orders of the Court of Directors and of 
 minister s^ Now this obedience will be enforced, no doubt, by 
 the ministerial Government, which cannot be treated w^ith indif- 
 ference so cheaply as the Court of Directors. 
 
 Lastly, when measures are determined on in this country they 
 will not henceforth be lost in such constant references and 
 oscillations backwards and forwards, no one being able to tell 
 where the hitch is ; whether the Court of Directors' influence is 
 the impediment, or if the Board of Control has refused its 
 sanction. In short, we have no longer two Kings of Brentford ; 
 and the lieges will be the better for it, for hitherto, 
 
 Quicquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi. 
 
 * Speaking of the popular apprehension of proselytism, Lord Harris thus writes : — 
 " The suspicion is not brought forward by the people. The acts of Government are 
 not looked upon by them in that light, but the cry is raised by a few ill-disposed men, 
 who are stirred up by unprincipled Europeans for the purpose of creating opposi- 
 tion to Government. These men would not be satisfied even if the Government 
 were to teach nothing but the purest brahminism, and would discover some objections 
 which would be converted into attempts to undermine the religion of the people." 
 
p 
 
 CHAPTEE YI. 
 
 Topics 9th — 11th. 
 
 JX. Sliall we continue our policy of centralization ? — X. How 
 can we improve the constitution of the local Governments ? — 
 XL Is the Legislative Council properly constituted ? 
 
 What has saved India at the present crisis ? The courage of 
 Sir John Lawrence, who broke through the bonds of centraHza- 
 tion,* and upon his own authority and responsibihty, took thought 
 not only for the safety of the Punjab, his immediate government, 
 but for the whole empire ; who opened a loan at 6 per cent, / /J' 
 raised regiments, and forwarded every available man southward / 
 to Delhi. Our first means of checking the insurrection were ^ ''^ 
 supplied from the Punjab, while the central Government was -^ • ^ 
 paralyzed and helpless. Lord Elphinstone has raised his reputa- 
 tion by not hesitating to act in a manner so independent as would 
 never have been tolerated under the rule of Lord Dalhousie, 
 The rapid power of action which is supposed to reside in a 
 despotic Government, and to form one of its chief recommenda- 
 tions when the times require a dictator, has proved to be signally 
 wanting in the supreme Government at the hour of need. It has 
 broken down most completely just when and where, according to 
 political theory, it should have proved most promptly efficient. 
 What would have been the fate of the empire if the advocates 
 of centralization had succeeded in their desire of amalgamating 
 the three Indian armies, and bringing them immediately under 
 
 * This is the general belief in India. The Red Pamphlet, however, says that . 
 Lord Canning at once gave Sir John Lawrence carie blanche to act as he pleased. 7 
 If this is so, it is creditable to Lord Canning, but does not affect the argument that . 
 the centralizing policy utterly broke down in the first moment of exigency. 
 
 /^ 
 
128 ( 
 
 the central control ; if there had been a community instead of 
 an antagonism of interest ; and if a unity of feeling and purpose 
 had been fostered by a common organization ?* 
 
 Yet the public may rest assured of this, that the determination 
 to push on the centralizing policy is stronger now than ever in 
 Calcutta. Within the last week I have seen a state paper from 
 a high military official, proposing the amalgamation of the armies, 
 and the abolition of local commanders-in-chief; and Lord Canning 
 has just " reformed " the financial department by introducing one 
 finance department for all India, which is to be immediately under 
 the supreme Government, and all the appointments to which are 
 to be in the patronage of the supreme Government ; while so 
 little is local experience reckoned of any value, that the subor- 
 dinate officers are to be continually on circuit at the various Pre- 
 sidencies, ruling at any one for no longer a period than two years. 
 The old supercilious indifference towards Madras, " the be- 
 nighted," has been exchanged for grudge and jealousy caused by 
 the fidelity of the Madras troops, the loyalty of the people, and 
 a dislike to acknowledge the obligations conferred upon the 
 supreme Government by the vast amount of assistance which 
 the " minor " Presidency has been able to render it at the season 
 of its utmost need. Not only has Madras lent regiment after 
 regiment, headed by her illustrious Fusiliers, who have been 
 dispatched bodily to Calcutta ; not only are her various columns 
 now pressing forward, and the Madras sepoy thrashing the Ben- 
 galee in actual battle as heartily as he always has in cantonments, 
 when the two have met ; but at a time when the Calcutta 
 Government was paralyzed and the military secretariat " no- 
 where," Madras provided ammunition, all the appurtenances of 
 war, tents, stores, and the like, not only for the troops already in 
 India, but for those who were on their way from England, and 
 who, but for this aid, must have been shelterless on landing. 
 Day after day have I seen the esplanade covered with hundreds of 
 
 • " I remember that some five years ago a proposal was made for amalgamating 
 the whole native army of India. Where must we have been now if this had been 
 done ? The ruin must have spread much more widely and contagiously, and it has 
 been no small source of safety to the Indian empire that the armies of the three Pre- 
 sidencies have been kept separate, and that the disaifection which spread among one 
 army should hardly have reached another, and should never have touched a third." 
 
129 
 
 newly-made tents ; Madras has actually shipped men-servants for 
 the use of the officers and men of the regiments coming to Cal- 
 cutta, and I fear lest all the service rendered has but raised a 
 spirit which will indemnify itself in peace by renewed neglect,* 
 and a still more oppressive claim to supervise and veto the 
 minutest details. 
 
 It is difficult to give a clear understanding of the existence of 
 this spirit. Perhaps it is best explained by a few examples. I 
 give the stories as they are current in Madras, without vouching 
 for their authenticity. When the 8th Madras cavalry refused to 
 proceed, and were disarmed, a high Calcutta military official is 
 reported to have said " Thank God — there is a Madras regiment 
 gone at last." When the Madras splendid rifle corps was em- 
 barking, a Bengal officer, coming out in consequence of the rebel- 
 lion, was heard to express a wish that the mutineers might give 
 them a good thrashing. I believe this feeling extends beyond 
 official circles. For some years a Madras engineer has been in 
 charge of the Calcutta mint. It is thus that the " Englishman " 
 of the 25th February notifies an approaching change : — " We 
 understand that the mint mastership has been offered to Colonel 
 Baird Smith, Bengal Engineers. The owls and hats of Madras 
 may consequently return to their benighted city." Mr. Francis 
 Maltby, one of the ablest administrators among the Madras civil 
 service, was appointed commissioner some time since to bring 
 the ceded districts into order. Major Cuthbert Davison, the 
 resident of Hyderabad, refuses to forward his papers in their 
 entirety to Bengal. Such a reprimand comes to Mr. Maltby as 
 has induced him to lay the whole matter before the Governor- 
 General in Council. When these papers are made public they 
 will afford a pretty specimen of the pretensions and evils of 
 centralization. 
 
 It would be difficult to commit a greater mistake than that of 
 supposing the remedy for Indian affairs complete with the aboli- 
 tion of the Double Government at home. India must be governed 
 in India after all ; Sir Charles Trevelyan enunciated this truth in 
 his evidence before the Parliamentary committee.* It is the 
 catchword of the true Indian reformer, and though it is used by 
 
 /K 
 
 
130 
 
 the Court of Directors and others, who would fain divert public 
 attention from tlie paramount importance of securing the respon- 
 sibility of the Home Government, probably with but little sin- 
 cerity ; it is clear that in proportion as the actual task of govern- 
 ing India is to be carried on in India, the necessity increases of! 
 providing that the machinery for such work shall be as complet< 
 and efficient as possible. In this view indeed the condition of the 
 local Governments in India assumes an importance even para- 1 
 mount to that of the Indian Home Government, since the real 
 practical every-day work of administration must emanate from 
 the former, and the absence of any necessity for interference 
 on the part of the latter will be the best criterion both of the 
 quality of the Indian administration and of the happiness of 
 the people. 
 
 Centralization exercises so fatal an influence upon all im- 
 provement in India, that I venture to crave patience while I 
 probe the subject far deeper. I do not speak of the dest ruction 
 e^ , of municipal institutions which M. De Tocqueville shows to 
 r . I have been the bulwark of constitutional liberty in Europe, for 
 '^ ^' -J we have long since destroyed all vestiges of those admirable 
 f municipal institutions which we found in India. I allude to the 
 ,' jealous monopoly of all power by the Supreme Government. 
 The " Friend of India," some years back, told us that it was the 
 jealousy of the Supreme Government, which could not initiate 
 any measure in the " minor " Presidencies, that checked their 
 independent action. The Public Works Commissioners, in their 
 report, entered at large into the subject, and adduced many 
 instances in which the baneful power of Calcutta had operated 
 ■flpon Madras. Lord Dalhousie, I am aware, denied that he had 
 ever negatived any feasible propositions from Madras. But this 
 question of feasibility involves the whole question which it begs 
 entirely. It is argued that the local Government is far better 
 able to decide upon matters requiring minute local experience 
 than the Supreme Government, at a distance, with its over- 
 whelming multiplicity of business, can possibly be. The 
 vexatious delays which are continually occurring before any 
 sanction to the most trifling outlay can be obtained, frequently 
 appear in the public papers ; and Lor^_Canning has recently 
 declared that India must be go yemed^as one Empire. This is 
 
131 
 
 very evident in the recent course of legislation. We are to have 
 one code for all India — for Bombay with its already respectable 
 code, and Madras and Bengal with none. "When a draft 
 municipal act for Madras, well considered by all the authorities 
 at Madras, was sent up to the Supreme Government, it was put 
 aside in favour of one for all India and the Straits to boot ; 
 though the local peculiarities of Madras :^ith its wide-spread 
 environs render it a very different place from the closely crowded 
 city of Calcutta. Another instance will be found hereafter in 
 the special appeal act. 
 
 It is not true that India must be governed as one Empire. 
 We do not legislate on all or even on most occasions for England, 
 Ireland, and Scotland, by one and the same Act of Parliament ; 
 nor is the principle necessary for India ; so far from it, I think 
 it is very detrimental in its operation. If an instance be wanting 
 I would cite that of police. I can scarcely conceive a greater 
 mistake than that of providing one cut-and-dried uniform 
 measure for the police of all India ; and yet the well-considered 
 scheme for a Madras police has been h^mg up by Lord Canning, 
 on the plea that it was necessary to reconsider the subject 
 of the Bengal police ! But for this — the two measures being 
 as separate and imconnected as the Presidencies themselves — ^we 
 might, at this very moment, have had an effective model police 
 in some of the districts adjacent to the city of Madras. The 
 existence of any centralizing spirit, I am aware, is frequently 
 denied by those whom it concerns. Lord Clare, we know, 
 resigned the Government of Bombay because he would not 
 stand the minute supervision of the Supreme Government. Ever 
 since I have been in Madras I have heard constant complaints 
 from the highest officials on this score, accompanied frequently 
 by no slight indignation at the tone in which the Calcutta 
 communications were couched. * 
 
 * Mr. L. R. Reid, before the House of Lords' Committee, states as follows : — 
 Q. " You state that the finances of the Presidency of Bombay are under the con- 
 trol of the Supreme Government. Do you consider that arrangement as a salutary 
 check upon the local influence, or rather as an injurious interference with the due 
 exercise of local knowledge ? 
 
 A. " I think it acts both ways ; I think it is sometimes a salutary check upon 
 imprudent expenditure, but I doubt whether it is not also very often a check upon 
 prudent expenditure. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 
 
 That decentralization would be felt as a relief by the local 
 administrations of the minor Presidencies, and that it would 
 redound to their credit and advancement, I, for one, have not 
 a moment's hesitation in maintaining. But a less interested 
 witness had better be called into court. 
 
 Mr. Kaye, upon this point, writes as follows : — 
 " Looking now to general results, it would appear that this 
 system of extreme concentration of power in the hands of the 
 Supreme Government has imperfectly fulfilled the intentions of 
 
 Q. " What was the impression upon your own mind, during your own expe- 
 rience ? 
 
 A. " The impression upon my mind was what the impression of a subordinate 
 naturally would be, that the representations of the local Government were not always 
 allowed due weight. We felt ourselves precluded from recommending much which 
 we deemed very advantageous, but which we feared might not be so considered in 
 
 Mr. McLeod, before the same Committee, states as follows : — 
 
 Q. " In your last answer in your previous examination, you stated that the inter- 
 ference of Bengal with the Presidency of Madras acted injuriously upon the public 
 service ? 
 
 A. " I think it has a tendency to prevent the Madras Government from bringing 
 forward measures of reform, attended with expense, which, but for the necessity of 
 submitting the matter previously to the Supreme Government, which is really formed 
 chiefly of men connected with the Bengal Presidency, would be taken in Madras with 
 benefit to the public interests ; if there is any new expense to be incurred, even 
 though, on the whole, there would be a saving, I conceive that, under that rule, the 
 measure must be referred to Bengal." 
 
 Q. *' Do you apprehend that there is any unfair disposition to sanction expen- 
 diture in Bengal, which does not exist in sanctioning expenditure in Madras and 
 Bombay ? 
 
 A. " I would not say that there is any unfair disposition of that sort ; but I have 
 not the least hesitation in saying, that it is the general belief of the authorities in 
 Madras that they are better qualified to judge of the measures necessary or exjiedient 
 for the Madras Presidency than the authorities in Bengal, and I think they are 
 quite right in being of that opinion ; I think, too, that the knowledge on their part 
 that all measures that are attended with any increase of expense must be referred to 
 the Bengal authorities to get their sanction has a tendency to impede the beneficial 
 action of the Madras Government." 
 
 Q. " Has it not also a tendency to promote greater economy in the expenditure ? 
 
 A. *' I do not think it has ; I do not think that, under the operation of that 
 rule, the expenditure of the Madras Government, on the whole, is likely to be more 
 economical than it otherwise would be, or that the interests of the public are likely 
 to be benefited, even in an economical point of view." 
 
 And again : — 
 
 Q. " Can you point out to the committee the general distinction between the 
 
133 
 
 the Legislature. It has borne, indeed, the accustomed fruits of 
 centralization. It has dispirited and enervated the local Govern- 
 ments. It has thrown upon the central authority an accumulated 
 burden, under which it has not made much progress in the work 
 of provincial improvement. I speak especially with reference to 
 the Governments of Madras and Bombay. The Bengal and 
 Agra Governments are immediately under the eye of the 
 Governor-General. He passes from one to the other, traverses 
 the whole tract of country from Peshawur to Pegu, and has a 
 
 mode of action under the former Charter Act, and under the subsequent Charter Act 
 of 1833? 
 
 A. " I had not any very great opportunity of observing the difference ; but I think 
 it was more with regard to the authority to create new appointments, and to incur 
 large or permanent charges ; as respects these, the powers of the local Government 
 were much more restricted than they had been before ; except upon that point, I do 
 not remember any marked difference." 
 
 Q,, " In your judgment, did any inconvenience arise from the restriction which 
 that imposed upon the Bombay Government ? 
 
 A. " Yes, I think inconvenience arose from it " 
 
 Q,. " Will you state what the inconvenience was ? 
 
 A. " The inconvenience was the great difficulty in getting any new appointments 
 created which were necessary for the public service ; the obstacles that were thrown 
 in the way so numerous, and it required such detailed explanations before authority 
 could be got to constitute any new office, that it created great embarrassment to the 
 local Government, and tended to prevent its establishments being made so efficient as 
 they might have been." 
 
 And again : — • 
 
 Q,. " Can you suggest any mode by which the relations between the Govern- 
 ment of Bombay and the general Government of India can be improved, so as more 
 fully to develope the resources of Bombay ? 
 
 A. " I think too free an action can hardly be given to the local Government in all 
 matters of internal administration. I think they are more capable of exercising power 
 efficiently in such matters than the general Government of India can be." 
 
 Q,. " Do you think that the powers of local Government are too much curtailed 
 at present ? 
 
 A. " I think so as regards the creation of appointments, and especially minor 
 appointments." 
 
 Q. " Do you think it better that any such expenditure of the local Govern- 
 ment should be made referable to the Government at home, rather than to the 
 Governor-General in Council ? 
 
 A. " I think it would be desirable that every expenditure of the Presidency should 
 come periodically under the revision of the Supreme Government, as the whole of the 
 finances of India would be affected by it ; and they should have the power of calling 
 for explanation in any instances." 
 
 Q. " But not a power of disallowing any expenditure ? 
 
 A. " It is not a power which it would be desirable to have exercised frequently. 
 
134 
 
 kindly paternal interest in the welfare of all those provinces, 
 which, in spite of the divided administration, still integrally 
 constitute the one great Presidency of Bengal. The vast progress, 
 therefore, which has been made, under the Government of the 
 North- Western provinces, can hardly be admitted as an argument 
 in favour of this excessive centralization. We must look for 
 arguments on the southern and western coasts ; and I fear that 
 
 or minutely ; but, of course, in extraordinary cases of expenditure it would be 
 reasonable that the Governor-General should have a power of disallowing it, subject 
 to a reference to the Home Authorities." 
 
 Q. " The extent of the power of the Governor- General should be limited by the 
 amount which is proposed to be expended ? 
 
 A. " Yes." 
 
 Q. " But you think that the limit to which the Presidency is now confined is too 
 narrow ? 
 
 A. " I do ; no office under ten rupees a month can be created by the local 
 Government, without a previous reference to the Government of India. At first, the 
 minor Presidences were required to make such reference in each individual case, even 
 under that amount. Then that was found to be so inconvenient, that they were 
 requested, instead of referring each case, to send monthly calendar statements of new 
 appointments, or changes in old ones, within the limit of ten rupees of monthly salary, 
 which worked very well; it did away with the inconvenience of such frequent reference." 
 
 Q. *' Does the restriction of the local Government, with regard to appointments, 
 aflfect the power of the local Government injuriously ? 
 
 A. " I think it affects their efficiency more than anything else." 
 
 And Mr. David Hill states as follows : — 
 
 Q. " Has your connection with tlie home administration of the affairs of India 
 enabled you to state to the committee an opinion as to the changes made by the last 
 Charter Act, in the relations between minor Presidencies and the Supreme Govern- 
 ment ; — is it your opinion that such changes have been advantageous or not ? 
 
 A. '* I think they have been of advantage ; I think the principle of control has 
 been carried too far in its operations ; that is to say, the minutest disbursement at 
 one of the subordinate Presidencies is interpreted in Calcutta to require that all the 
 circumstances attending it should be reported, for the previous sanction of the 
 Governor-General in Council. The Governor of Bengal takes more latitude to him- 
 self, though, in that capacity, he is as much under the authority of the supreme 
 governor as the Governments of Madras and Bombay. There is even more sympathy 
 for the North-Western Presidency as part of the Bengal territory ; but with respect 
 to the Presidencies of Madras and Bombay, the officers of the Government of India 
 seem to take a pleasure in running them down. I do not think that that can have 
 been intended. The general principle of control seems quite proper, but with respect 
 to petty disbursements it appears that the natural course would be that the local 
 Government, in its discretion, should authorize them, and that a periodical list of 
 them should be submitted to the Government of India, and should be liberally con- 
 structed at head quarters." 
 
 [See fxxrther on this subject, " Calcutta Review," No. 32.] 
 
135 
 
 we shall not gather, from the apparent results, any very satis- 
 factory proofs that the tendency of the system is to kindle much 
 administrative zeal, or to develope much internal improvement. " 
 
 People in England have no conception of the extent to which 
 centralization obtains in India. In all imperial matters, the 
 central authority should be not only supreme, but it should 
 initiate ; in local matters, the control of the central authority 
 should be applied in the way of subsequent check, not of previous 
 sanction. Sir Thomas Munro, many years ago, laid down the 
 true principle : he said — " Let each Presidency pursue the course 
 best calculated to promote improvement in its own territory. 
 Do not suppose that one way will answer for all, and that 
 Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay, places 1000 miles apart from 
 each other, must be in everything so much alike, as to require 
 exactly the same rules of internal administration on every point ; 
 let each Presidency act for itself. By those means a spirit of 
 emulation will be kept alive, and each may borrow from the 
 other every improvement which may be suited to the circum- 
 stances of its own provinces. If there is only one system, and if 
 one Presidency is to be the model of the rest, it will have no 
 standard to compare its own with ; and when it falls into error, 
 it will, instead of correcting it by the example of others, commu- 
 nicate it to them." Nor was Munro singular in his opinion. 
 Mr. Elphinstone, Sir Richard Jenkins, and other distinguished 
 men, entirely coincided with him. A bureaucratic centralized A, 
 despotism may suit the inhabitants of the Continent of Europe, 
 but is not, and never will be, the form of government for 
 _Anglo-Saxons — men who love to have elbow-room — men, who, x/ /, 
 when they have the opportunity, build their houses with a clear 
 space around them on all sides. 
 
 Lord Dalhousie denied that he had ever injudiciously or unne- 
 cessarily fettered the Madras Government. But the general 
 sense of the officials in the subordinate Presidencies is certainly to 
 the effect that their operations have been capriciously and inju- / 
 riously crippled by centralization. * . 
 
 t 
 
 * In proof of this we may consult Lord Elphinstone'a evidence : H. of C, 11th ^ 
 June, 1862:— ^ 
 
 2104. Q. " Will you state to the Committee what, in your opinion, has been the 
 
136 
 
 To the extracts given may be fitly appended the opinion of a 
 distinguished foreigner, the Count Von Orlich, who takes an 
 unprejudiced survey of Indian politics from a point of view 
 different from our own. Ho writes as follows : — 
 
 " The greatest mistake of late years has been the constant aim 
 at centralization. All centralization carries in it the germ of 
 
 effect of the changes made by the Act of 1 833 in the relations of the subordinate 
 Presidencies to the Sujireme Government ? 
 
 A. " I think the effect upon the subordinate Presidencies has been upon the whole 
 very injurious. I think it has lowered the character of those governments in public 
 estimation, and damped and depressed the zeal of public servants under those Presi- 
 dencies. It has also led to considerable delay in the ordinary transactions of business." 
 
 2105. Q,. " How have those changes produced those results? 
 
 A. *' I think that governments that are deprived of the means of executing improve- 
 ments which they consider necessary, and which are subject to minute supervision in 
 every petty detail of administration, cannot be expected to command the same respect 
 that other governments possess that are not shorn of those attributes ; I think the 
 subordinates under those governments feel the powerlessness of the governments 
 under which they serve. The delay that is caused is very great in the transaction of 
 business. If the Governor-General happens to be at Simlah, which he frequently is, 
 being about 2000 miles from Madras, in a country where there are no means of rapid 
 communication, the necessity of reference causes very great delay. If he leaves the 
 duty of superintending the affairs of the other Presidencies to the Council at Calcutta, 
 the delay is certainly lessened, at least as far as Madras is concerned ; but it is at a 
 further expense of the consideration of the Governor of those Presidencies, while the 
 object sought to be attained, namely, the centralization of power in a single controlling 
 authority, is defeated." 
 
 21 06. Q,. " Do not you think that the necessity of reference to the Supreme Govern- 
 ment, as to all points of expenditure, has acted as a salutary check upon extravagance 
 in the subordinate Presidencies ? 
 
 A. *' I very much doubt if it has. I think that the responsibility is in some degree 
 taken off the shoulders of the subordinate Government, and transferred to a Govern- 
 ment which has no effectual means of checking the expenditure, or of knowing what 
 expenditure is judicious and what is unadvisable." 
 
 2107. Q,. *' But the finances in India are under the control of the Governor-General 
 in Council ? 
 
 A. " Yes ; and I think the supreme control of the finances of the Government should 
 continue" in the hands of the Governor-General in Council, but that all the details of 
 administration of the subordinate Governments should be left to the Governors in 
 Council of those Presidencies." 
 
 2138. Q. " Has the expenditure, which you and your Council recommended at 
 Madras as, in your opinion, necessary for the good government of the province, been 
 rejected in frequent instances by the supreme Government of India ? 
 
 A. *' Very frequently ; and occasionally recommendations have not been so for- 
 warded, from the certainty that they would be rejected. I think, on the one hand, 
 it sometimes makes the subordinate Governments send in applications for expenditure 
 without due consideration ; and on the other hand, it sometimes prevents their sending 
 
137 
 
 revolution and ruin. The centralization of an empire like India 
 must be regulated by the measures which its external relations 
 demand ; while internally it should aim chiefly at the manage- 
 ment of its roads, canals, ports, &c. All beyond should be left 
 to the different territories, and the more the principles of self- 
 government are allowed their full play among the various peoples, 
 
 on recommendations of which they approve, from a conviction that they will not be 
 sanctioned." 
 
 Mr. W. Wilberforce Bird is of the same opinion, 14th May, 1852 : — 
 
 1010. Q. " Would you suggest any change in that system ? 
 
 A. " I think there might be a limit ; at present, at neither of the subordinate 
 Presidencies can the slightest expense be incurred, not even to the amount of five 
 shillings, without the special sanction of the Government of India. Perhaps this is 
 too strict, there might be a certain limit within which they may be authorised to ex- 
 pend money without the sanction of the Governor-General in Council ; it increases 
 the number of references, and such small expenditure is generally sanctioned ; the 
 Government of India could hardly refuse a disbursement to that extent." 
 
 Mr. Willoughby says as follows, 27th May, 1852 : — 
 
 1476. Q,. " What have been the effects of vesting the Central Government with 
 the present power of control over the subordinate Presidencies ; have they all been 
 advantageous, or the reverse ? 
 
 A. *' In my opinion, the authority vested in the Government of India over the 
 subordinate governments has produced both good and evil ; on the one hand, by 
 checking any tendency to extravagance, it has promoted economy ; and on the other 
 hand, it has transferred to a distant authority the decision of questions in which the 
 local authority is much more likely to be able to form a correct judgment. I have 
 heard, though I cannot possibly vouch for the fact, that the late Lord Clare resigned 
 the Government earlier than he would have done, in consequence of the changes in- 
 troduced by the Act of 1 833, but no doubt he must have felt the restrictions under 
 which the Act placed the subordinate Governments in a greater degree than subsequent 
 Governors, because from 1831„tQj.B34 he had exercised the power of Governor with- 
 out being subjected to those restrictions. He therefore felt, probably, the restrictions 
 more severely from having acted for three or four years unfettered ; but from my own 
 personal knowledge, I can affirm that the late Sir Robert Grant, one of the most 
 conscientious and benevolent men with whom it has been my good fortune to be asso- 
 ciated, and who, in his seat in Parliament, strongly urged the expediency of the 
 subordinate Governments of Madras and Bombay being placed under those restric- 
 tions, felt that they impeded and hampered his powers of doing good, although they 
 had not, during his administrations, been brought into full operation. This affords a 
 remarkable proof of the difficulty of attepapting to legislate for India on mere theory 
 alone, and forsaking the safer guide of practical experience, — a fault which I fear many 
 are too prone to fall into. To resume, however ; the restrictions under discussion have 
 operated injuriously in various ways ; they have increased and multiplied correspond- 
 ence to a great extent, and have created delays and obstacles particularly in regard to 
 measures devised for the improvement of the country, and more especially when the 
 Governor-General of India has been obliged to be absent from the seat of government. 
 These inconveniences would not have been so much felt, had Madras and Bombay 
 
138 
 
 dlsti*icts, places, and communities, each according to its situa- 
 tion, customs, and means, so much stronger will be the chain 
 wliicli binds all together. England herself exhibits to the fullest 
 the blessings of such a system, and her neighbour the conse- 
 quences of a fatal system of centralization." 
 
 But Lord Dalhousie, I am aware, took another ground. He 
 
 been represented at Calcutta, as, I believe, was contemplated ; but only on one occa- 
 aon have the interests of Madras been represented, (I refer to Colonel Morrison)—. 
 those of Bombay never. We have therefore felt, more especially during the frequent 
 and unavoidable absences of the Governor-General, that we were not subjected 
 to the control of a Government of India, composed of members possessing a knowledge 
 of all India, but to a Government of Bengal, composed, no doubt, generally speaking, 
 of men of distinguished abilities and sterling integrity, but imbued with Bengal 
 influences, and, occasionally, prejudices. By the Act of 1833, the power ' of creating 
 any new office, or granting any salary, gratuity, or allowance, without the previous 
 sanction of the Governor-General in Council,' was withdrawn from the subordinate 
 Presidencies. The first restriction, that against creating new offices, was salutary ; but 
 those that follow carried out the system of centralization too far, and, in fact, in practice, 
 the strict observance of the law, which was for a time attempted to be enforced, has 
 been evaded. The rule, of referring in the first instance on all matters of finance, 
 however trifling in amount, to the Governor-General in Council, was found to be so 
 inconvenient and productive of such delay, that the Government of India dispensed 
 with a formal reference in each case, and allowed monthly abstracts to be substituted, 
 exhibiting any increased expenditure. Those abstracts then undergo audit at Calcutta, 
 and the several items are either approved or disallowed ; in the latter case, giving rise 
 very often to a long correspondence. There is also another instance in which I thmk 
 the control of the central Government operates prejudicially. The expenditure of 
 Government is, of course, divided into fixed and contingent ; the abstracts prepared in 
 each office are subjected to audit in each month, in their respective departments ; but 
 it often happens that, for the good of the public service, changes are required, and the 
 subordinate Governments have not the power of sanctioning those changes without a 
 previous reference to Calcutta. Even, although, in the aggregate, no increase of expense 
 is incurred, we are obliged to explain in detail why we think A. should receive three in- 
 stead of two rupees, and why B. should receive two instead of three per mensem. This 
 appears to me to be a mere waste of valuable time and paper, and especially when we 
 consider what large miscellaneous powers are of necessity intrusted to the subordinate 
 Governments. But it is in measures relating to local wants and improvements that the 
 minute control of the Government of India is most severely felt, and the more so, be- 
 cause in these days, when steam annihilates both time and space, it is felt to be unne- 
 cessary ; for the subordinate Governments, in common with the Government of India, are 
 also subjected to the strict supervision and control of the authorities in England. In 
 fact, we often find, that after having incurred the trouble and delay of a reference to 
 Calcutta, we are told that the matter will be referred for the consideration and orders 
 of the Court of Directors. The delay and inconvenience which would result from these 
 double references was foreseen by the Court, and was urged by them, when the Act of 
 1833 was under discussion, as a reason why the subordinate Governments should not 
 be divested of the powers they formerly exercised. One or two examples will illus- 
 
139 
 
 stated that/tlie Court of Directors had left him no option. The 
 following* is the document on which his lordship relied : — 
 
 " The powers thus conveyed, when the words are interpreted 
 in all their latitude, include the whole powers of Government; 
 and it is of infinite importance that you should well consider and 
 
 strate the question. It will be admitted that banks established on sound principles, 
 are calculated to promote the iuterests of a large commercial community like that of 
 Bombay. A chartered bank had for many years existed at Calcutta, and a Govern- 
 ment Bank at Madras ; in the course of time, a respectable proprietary was formed to 
 establish a bank at Bombay, and the capital deemed necessary was subscribed. A 
 reference was made to the Government of India for sanction, and after a very con- 
 siderable delay, the subordinate Government was informed that the Government of 
 India, in consequence of certain differences existing among the shareholders, had re- 
 solved to dispose of the bank stock by public auction, and to apjjly the premium expected 
 to be realized to improvements in Bombay. This fatal shock to private enterprise was 
 only averted by the original projectors of the bank deputing a special agent to England 
 to represent the injustice of the proposed measure, and the Court of Directors at once 
 afforded redress, and gave the requisite sanction. 
 
 The proprietors had then to apply to Calcutta for an enactment, and one was at 
 last tardily passed, clogged, however, with a condition which operated most injuriously 
 to the interests of the bank, and from the effects of which, it has not to this day 
 recovered. In this instance, a delay of, I think, between two or three years occurred, 
 on a question on which, having precedent to guide us, and subject, of course, to 
 the approbation of the Home Authorities, the subordinate Government was much 
 more likely to know what would be beneficial, than a distant Government, occu- 
 pied with its own interests ; it was not a question relating to the services, but to 
 the commercial community of Bombay, and the proceedings of the Government 
 of India on that occasion created great dissatisfaction. Again, in regard to local 
 improvements, I will give the following example: — this Committee, no doubt, is 
 aware of the discussions which for some years past have taken place on the 
 subject of augmenting and improving the quantity and quality of cotton from India. 
 I can testify that the Bombay Government has given miich and anxious attention to 
 that question, regarding it as one of national importance. One of the chief ports 
 from which the cotton of Bombay is exported is Tancaria ; the conveniences of the 
 port (it scarcely deserves the name) are exceedingly small ; in fact, it is a muddy 
 creek, from which merchandize can only be shipped at certain periods, and at spring 
 tides the seawater ovei-flows its banks ; for the convenience of the shippers, and to 
 prevent the cotton being soiled with mud, it occurred to the local Government that 
 a pier, wharf, or quay might be constructed ; an engineer officer was therefore 
 deputed to the spot, to report upon the practicability of the work, and to estimate 
 the cost of construction ; he reported that it was perfectly practicable, and estimated 
 the cost of construction at about 30,000 rupees, or £3000. After these preliminary 
 proceedings, the improvement, as is required in all cases, involving an outlay of more 
 than 10,000 rupees, or £1000, was referred, with the recommendation of the local 
 
 * Extract from the Court's Dispatch on the Charter Act of 1833, to the Govern- 
 ment of India. 
 
140 
 
 understand the extent of the responsibility thus imposed upon 
 you. The whole civil and military Government of India is in 
 your hands ; and for what is good or evil in the administration of 
 it, the honour or dishonour will redound upon you. 
 
 " It is true that former Acts of Parliament, which made the 
 
 Govenimcnt, to Calcutta for sanction, and the answer we received was in the nega- 
 tive, on the plea that on financial considerations the outlay could not be authorized. 
 This occurred in the middle of 1850. The proceedings must, in due course, have 
 been reported to the Home Authorities, who may at once, recognizing the importance 
 of the work, have sanctioned it; but when I left India in May, 1851, Tancaria 
 Bundur was in the same unimproved state as when I first visited it 32 years ago. No 
 one is more sensible than I am of the necessity of prudent economy, or more opposed 
 to a wasteful exjienditure of the public money, but I think the Committee will agree 
 with me, that the restrictions under discussion in this case operated most injuriously, 
 and were disheartening to the subordinate Government, who were endeavouring to do 
 their duty to the country and the people. I could easily cite other examples ; for 
 instance, the Bombay Government has repeatedly requested to be permitted to bridge 
 the rivers and nuUas, which abound in the high road between Bombay and Agra — an 
 unbridged road in India — being, for the purpose of traffic, perfectly useless during 
 the rainy season. It was a work, no doubt, involving a very considerable expendi- 
 ture, and we received the usual reply, that the state of the exchequer precluded 
 sanction. No doubt, on large questions, such as those of peace or war, or political 
 relations with the native states, and matters which require a large outlay, the control 
 of the central Government is highly proper and beneficial ; but a general control of 
 this nature existed even before the passing of the Act of 1833, and the Court of 
 Directors had, previously to that Act, prohibited even the Supreme Government of 
 India from creating any new office without their formal sanction. On the whole, 
 I am decidedly of opinion that, in matters of finance, a greater latitude of discretion 
 might, with advantage, be allowed to the subordinate Governments, provided they 
 are competent and eflficient, but if they are not competent, the more restrictions they 
 are subjected to, the better it will be for the public interest." 
 
 Lord EUenborough says, 18th June, 1852 : — 
 
 " But I should have been glad if there had been associated with the Council some 
 distinguished officers of the Madras and Bombay Presidencies, with whom the Council 
 might have advised upon matters referred for its consideration and orders, by those 
 two Presidencies. It is impossible not to admit that there may be certain prejudices 
 existing in servants of the Bengal Government, which may induce them not to view 
 with the same degree of favour proposed expenditure in Madras and Bombay, with 
 which they would view similar proposed expenditure in their own more immediate 
 province. Although the control was made by the Act very much greater, on the part 
 of the Supreme Goverment over the Madras and Bombay Presidencies, than it had 
 been before, I certainly did not know so much of the affairs of Madras and Bombay, 
 as Governor-General, as I had known as President of the Board of Control ; whether 
 the cause of that was, that having the concerns of Bengal, of the army, and all 
 political matters more unmediately before me, I did not pay so much attention to the 
 affairs of those Presidencies when Governor-General, as I paid when at the Board of 
 
141 
 
 local Government a Supreme Government, gave the Governor- 
 General in council a control and superintendence over the other 
 Presidencies, as complete and paramount as it was possible for 
 language to convey ; and this we must assume to have been the 
 intention of the legislation. In practice, however, the Supreme 
 Government made little exercise of its superintending authority, 
 and the result has been that even that little exercise of it has 
 been generally made when it was too late to be made with real 
 effect, namely, after the subordinate Government had taken its 
 course, thus losing the character of control and responsibility, 
 and retaining only that of ex post facto intervention, — a sort of 
 intervention always invidious, and in most cases nothing but 
 
 Control, where the matters of all the Presidencies came equally for consideration 
 before me, I do not know ; but the fact is so." 
 
 Lastly, Mr. Sullivan's deposition is as follows : — 
 
 4663. Q. " The Committee are aware that you have given much attention to the 
 subject of the Government of India, and they will be glad to hear what you consider 
 the defects in the present system, both in India and at home, and what remedies 
 you would suggest as applicable to those defects ; perhaps it would be better to 
 divide your answer, and to begin with the Government in India ? 
 
 A, " I think the sooner the relations which subsisted between the Supreme and 
 subordinate Governments in India, previous to the legislation in 1833, are restored, 
 the better ; I believe that all legislation that disturbed those relations was wanton, 
 mischievous, and has been most pernicious in its operation ; I think it was wanton, 
 because, under the old law, the Governor-General had ftiU authority to interfere in 
 the aftairs of the subordinate Presidencies, whenever he thought fit ; he had such 
 ample power that he might have made either Bombay or Madras the seat of the 
 Supreme Government for the time, and have had the whole of the affairs of those 
 Presidencies under his hands ; but this power was, in my opinion, wisely kept 
 dormant, except upon great occasions. It never was brought into operation except 
 the Governor-General thought the public interests likely to be seriously compromised 
 by the subordinate Government. The legislation of 1833 kindled those powers into 
 what I consider to be a mischievous activity ; it threw upon the Governor- General, 
 already overloaded with business, additional business which he had no competent 
 qualifications to perform. It exceedingly weakened and lowered the dignity of the 
 subordinate Government ; it detracted very much from its authority ; and it left to 
 the Governor-General questions to decide, for which he had no previous preparation. 
 The consequence is, that the business of the subordinate Governments has, in a great 
 measure, been taken away from those who are perfectly competent to discharge it, 
 and lodged very much in the hands of the secretary, who has never given his mind at 
 all, nor had any opportunities, to qualify himself to decide upon subjects. It has 
 had another very mischievous effect, — that is, that it tends very much to make 
 Bengal a model for all the other Presidencies ; countries, which are as far separate 
 and as distinct as Russia and Spain, have a tendency, under the present regime, to 
 be brought under the same regulations, and the same laws and customs." 
 
142 
 
 invidious, because what was already done, however open to 
 censure, was beyond the reach of recall or correction. 
 
 " It is evidently the object of the present Act to carry into 
 effect that intention of the legislation, to which we have alluded. 
 Invested as you are with all the powers of Government over all 
 parts of India, and responsible for good government in them all, 
 you are to consider to what extent and in what particulars the 
 powers of Government can he best exercised by the local authorities, 
 and to what extent and in what particulars they are likely to be 
 best exercised when retained in your own hands. With respect to 
 that portion of the business of Government which you fully 
 confide to the local authorities, and with which a minute inter- 
 ference on your part would not be beneficial, it will be your 
 duty to have always before you evidence sufficient to enable 
 you to judge if the course of things in general is good ; and to 
 pay such vigilant attention to that evidence, as will insure 
 your prompt interposition whenever anything occurs which 
 demands it." 
 
 It is obvious, however, that, so far from these instructions 
 leaving the Governor-General no option, they invest him with 
 absolute discretion as to the quality and extent of powers to be 
 exercised by the local authorities, and the time and method of 
 the Supreme Government's interposition. 
 
 Let me not be thought to deny the necessity of an ultimate 
 supreme authority. For the command of armies, the power of 
 legislation, for the framing of treaties, the declaration of peace 
 and war, the imposition of taxes, the settlement of traffic, the 
 origination of main trunk lines of road, railways, and electric 
 telegraphs; all those things, in short, which are from their 
 nature imperial, require some one central controlling authority ; 
 but in those matters which may be called the domestic affairs of 
 Government, each Presidency may well be left to itself. It 
 should have the entire management of its own administration, — 
 judicial, police, and financial. It should raise its own loans, 
 carry out its own public works, conduct and correct its own 
 revenue system, and be directly responsible to the Home Govern- 
 ment for its conduct in all these matters, — just as in Australia, 
 the several Colonies are permitted to manage their own internal 
 administration in all respects, notwithstanding the existence of a 
 
143 
 
 Governor-General* Indeed it is quite impossible that any one 
 man, be his physical and mental powers what they may, can 
 master the details of the affairs of such an Empire as India. 
 His experience of the wants of a particular province or locality 
 cannot be put in competition with that of the local authorities on 
 the spot. He is forced to rely on those about him, who not only 
 share his ignorance, but have their own objects to promote, their 
 own prejudices to flatter, their own pet improvements to get 
 sanctioned, their own districts to favour, and, consequently, the 
 question is shelved till some more convenient season, by suggest- 
 ing a call for further information, a sarcastic refusal, or a 
 
 • It is thus that the matter was treated in the " Madras Athenaeum " in November 
 last: — 
 
 " That in place of the Court of Directors, there ^^dll shortly be a single Council for 
 India in England, can scarcely be doubted. The minister for India will be brought 
 face to face with his council, and that council will, we trust, be composed of the best 
 men that can be selected, and will not, for two thirds of it, be, as now, the result of an 
 election more curious than creditable. In all matters of a purely local nature, there 
 should be no go-between to that Council and the Government of a Presidency. Suffi- 
 cient for the Imperial Government its control over the minor Governments in 
 Imperial affairs. Of everything else it should be relieved. By this means, what an 
 immense burden would be lifted from the central machine ! What a freedom would 
 be given to its motion ! What a mass of complicated details would be taken from it ! 
 What a clear quarter-deck would be left for the captain's meditations ! Nor would 
 the effect be less advantageous to the minor Governments themselves. Men work ten 
 times as well when they are pretty certain of their labours having palpable results ; 
 and statesmen take broader views, and originate bolder measures, when they feel 
 tolerably sure of support and appreciation. 
 
 " We believe that our countrymen at home have generally no conception of the 
 extreme centralization of authority in the hands of the supreme power in India. They 
 are not aware that an empirical system, which cannot bring forward a single success- 
 ful precedent in its favour, and which is utterly opposed to English habits and feelings, 
 has been suffered to grow up, and exert its pernicious influence, until the operations 
 of the various Governments within its influence, have been almost reduced to stand 
 stUl. We are certain that the thing only requires to be brought before the public at 
 home to be condemned ; and we look with confidence to Parliamentary interference 
 for so desirable a result. Too long have the interests of the minor Presidencies, to say 
 nothing of the Straits settlements, been sacrificed to the fortuitous motives prevailing 
 at different times in the Supreme Council of the Empire — faction, jealousy, ambition, ^ 
 or some monomaniacal idea. Let us look forward to a happy adjustment of the 
 balance between local au thori ty and central control — to local councils remodelled so 
 that every section of the community may have its proportionate interest, and no 
 more than its proportionate interest, represented in them — and to a check upon, 
 rather than a sanction to, the measures of our domestic administrations, by the Council 
 for India in England." 
 
% 
 
 144 
 
 reference to the Court of Directors. Especially will this policy- 
 prevail where the Governor-General has some favoured province 
 of his own which he is desirous of fostering at the expense 
 of our older acquired territories. 
 
 Let us test the results of the "most rapidly improving 
 Government in the whole world," by a few figures. If the 
 commercial statistics of India, during the past few years, be 
 contrasted with its condition some years back, it will appear that 
 the progress of the country has been considerable. Thus it is 
 stated in the " Memorandum of Improvements," that since 1854-5, 
 up to 1855-6, our exports have risen from £7,993,420 to 
 £23,839,268, while, during the same period, the imports have 
 risen from £4,261,106 to £13,447,027. I shall not stop to 
 enquire here how far the Company's Government can fairly lay 
 claim to the credit of this increase ; let the reader compare 
 some of the actual imports and exports with those of colonies and 
 countries elsewhere, when it will be found that other Governments, 
 without announcing that they are among the most rapidly improv- 
 ing in the world, have a marvellous superiority over India. * 
 
 But here w^e are met with the constantly recurring fallacy, 
 that no comparison can be fairly instituted between India and 
 the other Crown possessions, because India is not a cqIotw ; and 
 therefore that the condition of " the colonies " affords no argument 
 for transferring their systems to India. In Australia, for instance, 
 it is said, we are dealing not with a conquered population, but 
 the emigrant surplus of our Anglo-Saxon race, who carry out 
 with them to this home of their adoption, — that 
 
 " ambiguam tellure nova Salamina futuram," — 
 not only the rights, but the prejudices and institutions of 
 Englishmen. What point of resemblance does such a condition 
 of things present to the condition of India, where we stand, to 
 use the phrase of one statesman, as the Normans among the 
 Saxons? But not to speak of Jamaica, and the otheFWest 
 India colonies, where we had to deal with an aboriginal popula- 
 tion, what shall be said of Ceylon, which is not nearer to India 
 
 * Two articles which appeared in the *' Madras Athenaeum " of 25th July and 8th 
 August, 1854, wherein the figures and comparisons are conclusive, will be found in 
 Appendix. 
 
145 
 
 geographically than its other features? There we sec the 
 happiest results from the system advocated for India ; a mutual 
 respect and confidence established between the people and the 
 Governor ; the country rapidly progressing in wealth and social 
 improvement, and the state of the people such, that notwith- 
 standing the immense number of Indian immigrants, Sir Henry 
 Ward was able, without fear for the safety of his own dominions, 
 to despatch troops to the assistance of the Government of India. 
 
 It may be objected that, as to Ceylon, the foregoing remarks 
 bear rather upon the form of the particular Government than the 
 subordination of one Government to another ; and this is un- 
 doubtedly correct : but nevertheless the remarks are directly in 
 point, because if it be decreed that the obnoxious principle of cen- 
 tralization shall cease, the powers and forms of the local Govern- 
 ments become necessarily the next immediate object of deliberation. 
 
 To keep up such a costly Government as that of Madras, when 
 it is so utterly powerless that it cannot sanction "an increase 
 of one rupee a month to two sweepers,"''^ is such a monstrous 
 absurdity, that nothing but the apathy of England towards India, 
 the general ignorance of her affairs, and the self-interest of those who 
 looked to the enjoyment of immense salaries drawn from the people 
 of India, could probably have perpetuated it to the present day. 
 
 The annual cost of this pageant is 7,09,619 rupees. 
 
 The items are as follows : — 
 
 The cost of the Madras Government is as follows : — 
 
 / Governor 1,43,500 
 
 Private Secretary 18,000 
 
 Military do 12,000 
 
 Office Establishment 4,374 
 
 Gardens 19,41 9 
 
 Contingencies 26,053 
 
 Total, Governor. ... 
 
 Commander-in-chief . . . 
 3rd Member of Council 
 4th Ditto 
 
 2,23,346 
 
 85,800 
 64,000 
 64,000 
 
 Council 2,13,800 
 
 Chief Secretary 50,000 
 
 Secretary, civil and judicial,, 40,000 
 Secretary in Military depart- 
 ment 24,000 
 
 Deputy Secretary ditto 9,724 
 
 Ditto to Government 12,600 
 
 Total, Secretariat 1,36,324 
 
 Office Establishment 1,36,149 
 
 Total 
 
 7,09,619 
 
 * See " Rebellion in India," p. 181. 
 
146 
 
 A pretty sum, truly, to pay for deliberations which cannot be 
 trusted to settle the income of a sweeper's pay of one rupee a 
 month. The feeble Madras Government, at the present moment, 
 is pitiable in the extreme. As a Member of Council told me the 
 other day, there are only two orders now passed ; one is, " Refer 
 it to Calcutta," the other is, " Refer it to the Advocate-General ;" 
 so cabined, cribbed, confined, and, consequently, so timid, has 
 the Council become. 
 
 It may be agreed, however, that in proportion as the incubus 
 of centralization is removed, and the subordinate Governments 
 rendered independent, will be the increase of work they will have 
 to perform, and the necessity of experienced men in Council to 
 deliberate over the welfare of the people then really committed 
 to their care. But this by no means follows as a matter of 
 course. Several schemes for remodelling the local Governments 
 have been suggested. The bulk of evidence detailed before the 
 Parliamentary Committees of 1852-3, I am well aware was in 
 favour of the continuance of councils in minor Presidencies. 
 The reason assigned by all the witnesses, was the difficulty of 
 otherwise dealing with the armies of Madras and Bombay. 
 The province of Agra, it was said, has no army of its own, no 
 Commander-in-chief; and therefore a Lieutenant-Governor is suffi- 
 cient for the chief administration of affairs ; but where there is an 
 independent Commander-in-chief, there must be a Council. I do 
 not myself see the force of the reasoning, and at any rate there 
 would be little difficulty in devising a remedy. The great good, 
 as it appears to me, to be anticipated from reducing the Govern- 
 ments to lieutenancies, would be the necessity induced of selecting 
 for the office, men of real experience and long practice in India 
 affiiirs. A vacancy in either of the Presidencies would not then 
 be seized as an opportunity of providing for some needy peer, 
 whose foot is to touch the Indian soil for the first time at the 
 moment he commences to draw his enormous salary. Men of 
 the stamp of Thomason, Munro, Metcalfe, and Mertens Bird, 
 must then be sought for ; for, otherwise, the neophite Governor 
 would be a mere tool in the hands of his Secretariat, who would 
 pull his wires as they pleased. If economy is to be the order of 
 the day, the prospect of this prize, being in the main confined to the 
 Indian services, would go far to compensate for reduced allowances. 
 
147 
 
 and stimulate the happiest spirit of energetic competition. Late 
 events are, of themselves, enough to save us from the infliction of 
 Commanders-in-chief — graphically described as too weak to rise 
 from a chair when sworn in at the India House, or so blind that, 
 but for timely guidance, a screen would not have been avoided by 
 the retiring nose. On the other hand, however, this scheme smacks 
 of centralization ; for Lieutenant-Governors would be more imme- 
 diately under the control of the supreme authority than even the 
 present. Governors and their Councils; though, perhaps, this very 
 fact, by destroying all jealousy of the mere semblance of power, 
 might lead to far wider liberty of action than is permitted at 
 present. Colonel Cotton's objection, too, deserves consideration. 
 He is for an infusion of new blood Into the Council Chamber, 
 whenever practicable. The se mi-Bhraminized J^ Ang^lo-Indian 
 maniac " he regards as the worst of stop-gaps, and says, improve-^ 
 ment is hopeless under the guidance of such men. The best 
 chance for India, he argues, is, in having her affairs administered 
 by English statesmen, with English Ideas and fe elings. There is 
 much truth in this ; but I believe It is possible to combine the 
 advantages of practical Indian experience with the liberality of 
 English ideas. In deliberating on Indian affairs, we have fre- 
 quently only a choice of difficulties ; and the more we learn of 
 facts, the less we rely on theories, our most settled notions being 
 ever liable to considerable modifications. I do not, therefore, 
 dogmatically insist on what I am about to propose, being the 
 best possible form of government; but suggest for the consi- 
 deration of others, what seems to me, on the whole, to offer the 
 best hope of success. I would keep the present form ; but reduce 
 the salary of the Governor, and entirely remodel the Council. In 
 point of fact, I would give him much such a Council as obtains in 
 Ceylon. The proof of the pudding is In the eating. The results 
 of both the Ceylon and Indian forms of government are before 
 the public. The one has proved itself nearly all that can be 
 desired ; the other has most signally broken down. The day 
 has gone by when the natives at the Presidency " reckon up " a 
 Governor according to the silver on his body-guards' pelisses, or 
 the number of gilt sticks up behind his carriage. Less pay and 
 more work ; less show and more utility ; less mystery and more 
 publicity — are the directions in which reform lies. Pageantry is 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 not necessary to inspire a real respect ; and a Governor might be 
 a far less costly agent without impairing Iris efficiency. The 
 Council Chamber is at present like the " pillow " of the Common 
 Pleas in former days, a mere " Sleepy Hollow," where worn-out 
 effete Civilians repose ; or where an efficient man, if one is now 
 and then caught, wastes the time and labour which he might 
 beneficially employ in the administration of affairs in the 
 Mofussil. If tlie Councils were composed of a greater variety of 
 elements than at present enters into their composition, the 
 Government would be greatly the gainer. As the Council is at 
 present constituted, all matters which come before it are exclu- 
 sively regarded from a singly point of view, that of the Civilians- 
 men who have necessarily a common esprit- de-corps, who are 
 brought up in one and the same routine, who have a " traditional 
 policy " for their guide, and- the interests of their order to sup- 
 port. Not that I would wish to see the Civilian elements excluded. 
 These high prizes act as so many incentives to energy ; and the 
 Civilians must always bring to bear upon any Indian topic an 
 amount of practical knowledge and lengthened experience which 
 it may be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain elsewhere : but if 
 there were added to the Council, men who should represent other 
 important interests, such as those of the mercantile class — the 
 Mofussil adventurer, the lawyer, and the native — all questions 
 would be treated with sufficient breadth of view, and that ample 
 discussion, which nothing but the clash and conflict of a variety 
 of opinions can secure. There would, probably, be no occasion 
 for giving any pecuniary compensation to any member of Council 
 other than those, who, being members of the Civil Service, have 
 no other means of obtaining an income. At any rate, a moderate 
 salary would suffice. I am inclined to think that the position which 
 a seat in Council would give to its occupant would be sufficient 
 temptation and reward to the independent members ; and though 
 I may be laughed at for suggesting that a native should sit at the 
 Board, I sincerely believe in the propriety of rendering it gene- 
 rally known that there is no obstacle to a native being in Council, 
 if only a person duly qualified can be found. I am far from 
 advocating the hasty advancement of natives into the highest em- 
 ployment per saltum, or t'll they have proved their fitness for 
 civil administration by a gradual rise, through inferior office. 
 
149 
 
 But at the present moment I could name certainly one native 
 whose presence in Council^ though it might not be very palatable 
 to the present occupants, would, I believe, be attended with great 
 benefit to the public service. In point of acquirements, know- 
 ledge of the people, an upright desire for the welfare of his 
 countrymen, a steady allegiance to the Crown, and a thorough 
 appreciation of the worth of English rule, the gentleman I allude 
 to is quite on a par with any European of my acquaintance. 
 Closely connected with this topic is the necessity of abandoning 
 that abominable system of spcrecy which is the bane of I ndian^ / 
 administration. Publicity, ventilation, are the best safeguards *■ 
 for a careful discharge of public duties ; secrecy has hitherto been / 
 the bane of Indian administration. The topic is to be con- * 
 sidered more at large elsewhere. Again, a sweeping reform 
 is essential with reference to the enormous abuse of minute and 
 report writing. Here, circumlocution runs riot ; reams of harmless 
 foolscap are consumed weekly to record and re-record, copy and 
 re-copy papers which ought to have been condensed into the 
 limit of a single side. I could give instances which would make 
 a plain man's hair stand on end of this useless multiplication of 
 labour, waste of time, money, and materials. I would put 
 embryo Members of Council and Secretaries through a course of 
 electric telegraph, and make them pay for their own messages. 
 It is astonishing how wittily brief their style would become in a 
 short time. 
 
 One topic remains to be handled ; and upon the best considera- 
 tion I can give it, I think that the legislative power had better 
 continue as it is at present, in the central seat of Government. 
 I do not think the new Councils should have any legislative 
 powers. Each Presidency is represented by a member of the 
 Civil Service, who is supposed to look after the interest of his own 
 Presidency in the Legislative Council at Calcutta. Under the 
 present system he need not necessarily be a Civil Servant, but 
 sliould be the ablest and most experienced man who could be 
 selected for the purpose, whether in the service or out of it. The 
 handsome salary attached to the office would permit a man, what- 
 ever his calling, to leave his own business and Presidency, and to 
 devote himself exclusively to the business of legislation ; and the 
 principle of representation miglit be indefinitely enlarged us the 
 
150 
 
 progress of the country required it, so that ultimately there should 
 be an imperial Parliament in Calcutta, of which we possess 
 already the germ. The member for each Presidency would be 
 kept constantly instructed and informed by his own constituents, 
 who, as a general rule, would prepare the drafts of such acts as 
 the Local Council deemed necessary for the territories under its 
 control; and these drafts, settled by the law officers, and 
 approved by the local Government, would be forwarded to Cal- 
 cutta for further debate and promulgation or rejection, as the case 
 might be. I am not one of those who cry, with Lord Dalhousie 
 and Lord Canning after him, " India must be governed as one 
 Empire," especially in the matter of legislation ; and I think wc 
 have felt sufficiently the evils of passing general acts for all India, 
 which are not adapted to the special requirements and conditions 
 of the separate Presidencies. To instance my meaning by the 
 first act which occurs to mind — that for regulating special 
 appeals. In Calcutta, the Sudder Court consists of five judges ; 
 and the Legislature having reference to the state of the Calcutta 
 Court passed an enactment that three judges should sit on the 
 hearing of special appeals. The object was to save the whole 
 Court sitting to hear mere questions of law. But the act applied 
 to all India. In Madras, the Sudder consists of only three 
 judges; so that the object of the Legislature is defeated here, 
 and we liave this absurdity, that while three judges must sit to 
 decide special appeals, in which questions of law only arise, two 
 may dispose of general appeals, in which questions of law and 
 fact are opened up ! The carefully drawn drafts of the police 
 and municipal acts, settled by myself in consultation with the 
 Chief Magistrate, approved by the Advocate-General, and recom- 
 mended by the Madras Government, were so altered by the Legis- 
 lative Council that I scarcely knew them again. 
 
 But the legislative power is so essentially a distinctive mark of 
 the supreme power, that I think it would be better to have one 
 Council sittmg in the central seat of Government, than that each 
 Presidency should have its own legislative machinery attached to 
 it, care being taken that the interests of each are duly and ably 
 represented, and that the requirements of any one are not over- 
 looked and confounded by subservience to a vain theoretical prin- 
 ciple, which, I beheve, has its origin in the desire of the Calcutta 
 
151 
 
 Civilians to centralize all authority in their own hands ; and hence 
 the cry, so agreeable to the ears of despotism, ambition, and 
 selfishness, that India must be governed as one Empire. 
 
 At the same time the constitution of the legislative assembly 
 requires alterations. The enormous salary paid to the professional 
 legislative member of Council — £10,000 a-year — might very 
 properly be retrenched. The fact is, this office is a relic of one 
 of the grossest Whig jobs ever perpetrated, vs^hich has cost tlie 
 country some £350,000, and not even yet given birth to the 
 " code " so long ago expected from it. Lord Macaulay and other 
 unpractising lawyers have drawn enormous salaries from this 
 office for the last twenty-five years ; yet, if we look for results 
 at all commensurate with the outlay, we shall be literally 
 astounded with their meagreness. Beyond a few reports drawn 
 up from time to time, and the draft of the criminal code, 
 refashioned by Mr. Bethune, there is literally nothing. The 
 codes of procedure, civil and criminal, which it was pro- 
 posed to pass at the granting of the^ last Charter, when the 
 amalgamation of the Courts was held out as a settled mea- 
 sure, were prepared by an unpaid commission sitting in 
 London, within a very reasonable space of time ; but they 
 have not yet been passed, and the promised amalgamation seems 
 fairly shelved. 
 
 But one danger in forming the Legislative Council seems to 
 have been entirely overlooked, and it is to this that I desire to 
 call attention. It has become a mere body for registerhig the 
 edicts of the Governor-General.* The Chief Justice and one of 
 the Puisne judges were appointed members of the Council, in 
 order, as I suppose, that they might be a certain obstructive 
 force and check upon the unconstitutional tendencies of a 
 despotism.! The Governor-General possessed the power of 
 
 * The " Friend of India " says, that if the Governor-General were to order the 
 Legislative Council to declare every Euro2)ean in India answerable to Mahommedan 
 laws, the legislature would do his bidding without demur, 
 
 t A man of the most liberal ideas might prefer to live under a desi^otism rather 
 than any other form of Government, pro\ided the despot Avere all wise, all good, and 
 all prompt, — for that would be the rule of a God ; but it is because men are fallible^ 
 and the best ruler is but a happy accident, that society is compelled to take such 
 guarantees as it can for the mainteiiariee and preservation of its liberties, as against 
 those to whom it commits the task of governing. 
 
152 
 
 calling into the Council two persons in the Civil Service ;* but it is 
 superfluous to say that it has not been exercised. The profes- 
 sional legislative member, Mr. Peacock, a hard-working special 
 pleader, is not exactly the description of person to step at once 
 into the difficult post of legislator for India, however neatly he 
 may draw the acts determined on. New to the country, ignorant 
 of the languages, unacquainted with the people, his important 
 functions shrink to the comparative insignificance of advising on 
 dry legal points, and the almost mechanical labour of the drafts- 
 man. I never had any confidence in Mr. Peacock as a check 
 upon the Civilian's Government ; his position brought him too 
 closely in contact with the Executive; he has a seat in the 
 Executive Council indeed, and I never can forget how he exer- 
 cised his ingenuity in straining a point to enable the Government 
 to palm off the fraud of a five per cent, loan, under the name of a 
 ** public works loan." But the other lawyers have proved 
 themselves, in my opinion, oblivious of the object for which they 
 were placed in Council; let us hope from an overpowering, 
 though mistaken, sense of the paramount importance of supporting 
 the Government at all hazards, at such a crisis as the present. 
 • Let us remember how the Press Actf was passed without a word 
 of dissent or argument ; how some forty minutes were sufficient 
 to shackle us with that measure ; not a voice being raised to 
 point out the fallacy of Lord Canning's reasoning, the absence of 
 necessity for the measure, its many evils, and its little good. So, 
 again, a whole body of the most highly penal acts| was passed 
 without an observation. When the whole of the North- West 
 provinces were in a blaze of rebellion, the simplest and the most 
 constitutional mode would have been to have declared martial 
 law, and a few§ of the inhabitants of Calcutta at one time actually 
 petitioned Government that this course might be taken, as they 
 preferred falling under martial law itself, to the danger of such 
 provisions as had become the law of the land. But this would 
 not suit the policy of the Civilian's Government. They had, to 
 use the words of the " Times," " the wish to make something less 
 
 * 16 & 17 Vic, c. 95, S.22. 
 
 t Actxviof 1857. 
 
 i Acts xi, xiv, xvii of 1857. 
 
 § Tlie pttition was only signed by 270 pei-sonsi 
 
153 
 
 til an revolution out of the matter, and to preserve their own 
 privileges and functions as far unimpaired as may be ; " and the 
 proclamation of martial law would have been a signal admission 
 of the helplessness of the civil power. Therefore Acts xi, xiv, ly 
 xvi, xvii were passed. They invest the judges, and any com- 
 missioner whom the Government may appoint, with the most dP^ 
 unlimited power, even of life and death , without an app eal ; ^ 
 their only merit is that they are temporary. Lord Harris has ^ 
 extended them to the Madras Presidency — a pretty conclusive 
 proof of his estimation of the loyalty of the people ; and I will 
 undertake to guarantee, that a mass of oppression and injustice 
 scarcely credible has been wrought under colour of these Acts, 
 if only the records of the various cases are hereafter submitted 
 to any instructed judgment for perusal. In Madras, our last- 
 named Member of Council has been appointed from the S udder, 
 and he is even now knocking over judgment after judgment; 
 I believe scarcely one can stand.* These acts give the fullest 
 scope for the action of that Civilian's hobby, " patriarchal justice," 
 which merely means that men without an inkling of the principles 
 of jurisprudence, innocent of any acquaintance with the elemen- 
 tary law of evidence, utterly mistaking the principles of " equity" 
 (which has to answer for a multitude of sins), without practical 
 forensic experience, or any special training, may, in each indi- 
 vidual case, do whatever they like, without question or any 
 check whatsoever. Yet these acts were passed by the Legislative 
 Council without a dissenting voice. The worst case, how^evcr, 
 remains to be noticed. When Lord Elphinstone set the law at 
 defiance at Bombay, and having illegally arrested one Luxumon 
 Dejah, refused to pay obedience to the legitimate authority of 
 Her Majesty's Court of Justice, and, to cover his act, had recourse 
 to what the Chief Justice termed a " transparent device," by 
 making a gentleman, who happened to be a Mofussll judge, apply 
 his official seal to warrant the detention of a person against whom 
 no complaint was pending In his Court ; and when the Governor 
 of Bombay resisted, by an armed force, the execution of the 
 Queen's writ, it only required a little play of the telegraphic 
 wires to procure an ex post facto law, which, at the same time, 
 
 * An order has been issued since this was Avritten, prohibiting the trial of ordinary 
 offences under the commission. 
 
154 
 
 deprived the natives resident within the jurisdiction of any of the 
 Supreme Courts of tlie protection and rights which tliey had 
 hitherto enjoyed ! There was not the shglitest plea of necessity 
 here ; the Supreme Court would have decided the case according 
 to law. Already, hi Madras, two Mussulmen who had been 
 * ' surprised in sticking up seditious placards, had been committed 
 ^ to the sessions, found guilty, and sentenced to transportation for 
 
 V| life. In Calcutta, the rule nisi for an habeas corpus to bring up 
 / the King of Oude has been discharged by the Supreme Court, 
 upon cause shown by the Advocate-General ; and if there was a 
 ' . chance of the prisoner at Bombay esciiping, because he was not 
 *^' legall y arrest ed, the Government might have watched him from 
 the door of the Court, and an Act might have been procured 
 which should prevent the possibility of similar inconvenience for 
 the future. Thus the supremacy of the law would have been 
 vindicated, and the indecent spectacle of the executive setting, 
 itself above the law have been spared. The full importance 
 of this affair may perhaps be overlooked. Arbitrary illegality, 
 in thnes of trouble, is reckoned independent vigour, but it is in 
 such times that liberty too often receives its deadliest wounds. 
 A J In J[ndia we have so little liberty that we may well be jealous of 
 »t^ its preservation; and the readiness with which the Legislative 
 ^ Council passed an e.v post facto law, at the bidding of the Supreme 
 Government, makes ns tremble, lest any illegality which the 
 executive may commit hereafter may be thus covered and solved 
 by the legislature. The only observations which were made by 
 the lawyers fell from the Chief Justice, who introduced a proviso 
 for the exemption of the British subject from the operations of 
 the law, not on first principles, but out of deference to popular 
 clamour, and apprehension of what might be said in Parliament. 
 This act has shaken all confidence in the Legislative Council, as 
 at present constituted. The functions of the two component 
 parts of the administration are inverted ; and the Supreme Go- 
 vernment is only rendered the more irresponsible and despotic 
 by having so pliant a body at its back. Formerly, when the 
 Executive had to pass laws, as well as to carry them into effect, 
 there was a pause before altering a law, merely because judicial 
 construction had placed upon it a meaning not palatable to the 
 Government. The alterations would then too manifestly proceed 
 
155 
 
 from questionable motives and with an interested intent. The 
 Governor- General shrank from interposition which could not but 
 attract odium to himself. Now, there is the semblance of a dis- 
 tinct body, supposed not to be influenced by any such considera- 
 tions ; and it is an easy and uninvidious course for the Governor- 
 General in his Executive Council, with Mr. Peacock by his side, 
 to direct what measures Mr. Peacock shall propose for the Legis- 
 lative Council, and there introduce and support. The result is 
 obvious — a powerful instrument has been fashioned to further 
 the despotic Government, instead of a check upon its action ; and 
 I am satisfied that it will be necessary to reconsider the present 
 state of the Legislative Council. The infusion of some really 
 independent elements into its body seems not only expedient, but 
 indispensable. Its basis ah'eady requires widening, and I know 
 no good reason why the various interests in India — the native as 
 well as the European — should not be represented there. The 
 presence of some of the leading mercantile men would save the 
 Council from such gross financial blunders, as the introduction 
 of the Indian copper currency into the Straits settlements, against 
 which the population of those places has successfully appealed. 
 A native would be not only more useful in the Legislative than 
 in the Executive Council, because it is there that his knowledge 
 of his countrymen would be most effective, but it is there also 
 that he would be viewed with less jealousy by his fellow-country- 
 men ; and I know of no other step whereby we can so effectually 
 convince the natives of our desire to let them share in the 
 administration of the country. 
 
CHAPTER yiT. 
 
 Tone 12th. 
 
 XII. Shall ice continue our annexation policy ] \st, as to Princes 
 — 2nd, as to Zemindars — Zrd, as to Enamdars, 
 
 Not much can be necessary on this topic, for, as far as I can 
 gather from all quarters, pubUc opinion is unanimous now in 
 favour of its abandonment. Its iniquity is seen tlu'ough, so is its 
 folly ; and whatever may become of the cases that have already 
 occurred, it requires perhaps but little prescience to foresee that 
 no fresh cases will occur hereafter. Indeed, so far has opinion 
 gone in this respect, that a Captain Roll^nd, at one of the Court 
 of Proprietors, actually proposed, at a meeting of the Court, to 
 restore the kingdom of Oude to its former owners, and very 
 recently, at a time when Lucknow was the centre and focus of 
 rebellion. Lord John Manners has expressed the same opinion. 
 It would not be hard to show that every case of annexation, from 
 that of Scinde down to that of Oude, has been most manifestly 
 unjust, and as manifestly impolitic. But for our views in respect 
 to AfFghanistan and the Punjab, the occupation of Scinde would 
 » not have been necessary ; and although the Seiklis invaded our 
 territory, and set the stake of their kingdom on the hazard of 
 open war. Captain Cunningham's work and other reliable sources 
 teach us that the event was brought about mainly by our own 
 manoeuvring; and but for that insane lust of dominion which 
 has marked our encroachments on the map of India, stimulated 
 perhaps by a little Russo-phobia, we should" never have com- 
 menced a policy of annexation which has proved so lamentably 
 fatal to us. The late Mr. Sullivan, indeed, went so far in his 
 opinion, as to counsel the delivery back to the several despoiled 
 potentates of the countries we had taken from them. When he 
 
157 
 
 enunciated tlils before the Parliamentary Committee of 1852-3, 
 one of his cross-questioners thought he had effectually posed the 
 witness by asking where we should stop ? The query was either 
 a very innocent or a very malicious one. It was either a sneer 
 or a most damnatory admission. But it seems to me, that we 
 cannot look at the abstract justice of these acts now. Bad as 
 our conduct may have been in the original taking, time has so far 
 sanctified the political fraud, that he would be an enthusiast who 
 recommended the dismemberment of the territories now incorpo- 
 rated with our own, however unjustifiable our first intermeddling 
 in their aiFairs ; who could now dream of restoring Scinde, or 
 the Punjab, — the annexation of which last, by-the-bye, to have 
 been justifiable, should have taken place at the conclusion of the 
 first Seikh war, and not of the second, when the minor king was 
 not responsible for the acts of his rebellious subjects. Oude 
 stands upon a difibrent footing. The persons immediately about 
 the king, beyond all question, have been implicated in the 
 insurrection which was intended to wrest the empire from our 
 hands. Whether the king himself is a guilty party, remains to 
 be proved. Now, however good a case the king might have been 
 able to make out, had his claims to restoration been laid in a 
 peaceful manner before Parliament — not that this kingdom would 
 ever have been restored — our injustice was of too gigantic a 
 nature to be acknowledged, so long as there is apparently one 
 code of morality for nations and another for individuals ; it can- 
 not be denied that the question has been placed by the whole 
 people of Oude upon a totally different footing. The Nation has 
 chosen to resort to arms as the simplest means of trying the 
 right, and if they are w^orsted they cannot complain that we 
 pursue our victory to its legitimate consequences. We shall be 
 in by a new right — that of conquest ; and we must convince the 
 Asiatics of our invincibility. They would laugh at our beards if 
 we were to restore the kingdom of Oude under present circum- 
 stances. They are quite incapable of comprehending the prin- 
 ciple on which we should be acting. They would impute it to 
 fear and weakness. We should be losers instead of gainers in the 
 estimation of the millions of the East. We shall sow the seeds 
 of future insurrection, if it is seen that we do not exact the full 
 penalty of revolt when we have to put it down. The idea is 
 
^ 
 
 ^'-^'■^ 
 
 158 
 
 purely quixotic ; the deed would be incompatible with our safety. 
 No man holds a more thorough conviction than I do of the gross 
 injustice, and, at least, equal folly of the aggressions made against 
 the kingdom of Oude, on the most miserable false pretences ; yet 
 even I, and those who think with me m respect to Lord. Dal- 
 liousie's annexations, would never counsel so fatuous an act as 
 the restoration of Oude. We have covered ourselves with dis- 
 grace, it is true, in the eyes of Europe, by our violation of those 
 principles in India which we are ever so strong and ready to 
 maintain in England.* Do not let us, in addition, excite the 
 dangerous contempt of Asia. 
 
 So also, with regard to those cases which have been discussed 
 
 and settled definitely by Parliament, " rightly or wrongly," — such 
 
 • J as the claims of S attar ah, Ali Moor ad, and the like. It is too late 
 
 (I now to interfere. The account is closed; judgment has been 
 
 ^ given against the plaintiffs ; it may be erroneously in respect to 
 
 law, or fact, or both ; but " interest rei-publicae ut sit finis litium; " 
 
 it is not expedient to open up those affairs again. Let us seek to 
 
 make what amends we can, by accepting the situation into which 
 
 * Since the commencement of this work, Lord Canning has issued a proclamation 
 to the people of Oude, in which he states, " This resistance, begun by a mutinous 
 . soldiery, has found support from the inhabitants of the City, and of the Province of 
 '^ Oude at large^ He then announces perhaps the most astou ndin g revolution on 
 record, with the exception of five individuals, the right of every proprietor in the soil 
 '^ is confiscated ! What the people of England will say to sucR^sweeping meaSlxre of 
 injustice I scarcely like to conjecture. Let the reader contrast Lord Canning's 
 f manifesto with that of Lor d_Ptil housie. just two years ago. Then it was insisted with 
 "2- much reiteration that the King had failed to " protect the lives and properties of the 
 / people of Oude,"' that though for fifty years the British Government had laboured 
 " earnestly and perse veringly for the deliverance of the people of Oude ! " yet that 
 ' / " the people of Oude are still the victims of incompetency, corruption, and tyranny, 
 without remedy or hope of relief ! " and that, finally, the British Government *' put 
 forth its own great power on behalf of that people, for whose happiness it more than 
 / fifty years ago engaged to interfere." Well, two years have passed since the paternal 
 annexation of Oude in the name of the peojjle, and we have before us another pro- 
 clamation. Does that sum up the blessings which the change has showered on a 
 grateful people ? does it speak of the security of life and property introduced by the 
 British rule ? or does it expose the sham and pretence on Avhich the seizure was 
 made ? Does it not testify to the rising of the entire people as one man, to thrust us 
 forth from among them ? and such has been the nature of the protest they have 
 entered against our acts, that it is deemed a " just retribution^ to confiscate the 
 / entire proprietary right in the soil ! What a commentary is the latter on the earlier 
 A manifesto ! 
 
159 
 
 wc have tlirust ourselves, with its duties as well as its rights, aud 
 the practical determination to give our new subjects no cause for ^, 
 
 regretting their old rulers. S att ar ah. Jliansi. and other States 
 have, moreover, forfeited all claim to pitv by taking advantage of 
 our time of trouble and peril to rise and plot ; even, in some 
 instances, most treacherously to murder our fellow-countrymen 
 and countrywomen. 
 
 But there remain yet certain cases, the merits of which have 
 never yet been mooted, except, indeed, in the private rooms in 
 Cannon Row and Leadenhall Street. These cases, it is fitting, 
 should be fully inquired into, and if the appellants can convince 
 the English public that their property has been taken from them 
 in defiance of law, treaties, and pledged faith, justice should be 
 done, and they be remitted to their dignities and allowances. 
 Such are the cases of tlie Nabob of the Carnatic and the Ranee 
 of Tanjore. The particulars of those annexations are detailed In 
 the ". Rebellion in India." They can only be regarded as bare- 
 faced robberiesj without a shadow of justification, or a reason 
 which can stand public investigation. The parties have further- 
 more gained for themselves the strongest possible claim to a full 
 and patient hearing, by their loyal and peaceful bearing through- 
 out the whole of the past year, although there was so great 
 temptation to rise against us. These dignitaries afford us 
 precisely the opportunity we should most anxiously covet, of 
 inaugurating the accession of the Crown to the actual Govern- 
 ment of the country, by some signal mark of justice, which all 
 the nations must see, all must understand, and none could 
 mistake. Restitution in these cases would not be Imputed to 
 fear. The dignities are merely titular; the possessors have no 
 subjects and no territory. Opposition is known to be impossible. 
 No man could be injured by the recognition of these titles and 
 the restoration of these revenues. There is not an inch of land 
 or a unit of humanity to be affected by the " blessings of EngUsh 
 rule." The questions. In point of fact, to be decided are mere 
 money questions. In consideration of our promise to pay to 
 the former occupants of the thrones, and their heirs and suc- 
 cessors, certain annual stipends, they, on their parts, assigned 
 over to the East India Company and Its successors the whole 
 of their territories in perpetuity. Tlie simple point is whether 
 
 / 
 
160 
 
 there still lives such an heir as satisfies the terms of the 
 agreement ? 
 
 Now in the case of the Nabob of the Carnatic, it is admitted 
 that there is an heir by the East India Company ; but they have 
 deprived him of his rights, because, they say, that the last Nabob 
 made a disreputable use of his dignity, and because the treaty is 
 purely personal ; three descents were cast under it, at any rate 
 without objection ; and as to the point of heirship, it is thus that 
 the Directors have themselves acknowledged the fact. Speaking 
 of Prince Azeem Jali, the uncle and guardian of the late Nabob, 
 and Regent (Naib-i-Mooktear) during his minority, the present 
 claimant of the Musnud, and, according to the Mahommedan 
 law, the lawful heir and successor, whose grandfather, father, 
 brother, and nephew have all reigned, they thus express them- 
 selves* : — 
 
 " We disapprove of the principle of this arrangement, but 
 under the peculiar circumstances of the case, the Nabob being an 
 infant and in delicate health, and the Naib-i-Mooktear being the 
 next heir in case of his demise, the appointment of Mr. Scott 
 admits of justification." 
 
 In 1843,t the Marquis of Tweeddale, then governor of 
 Madras, thus again expressively recognized Prince Azeem Jah's 
 right to succeed the Nabob on his death ; — 
 
 " The Most Noble the Governor in Council is of opinion that 
 the individuals named in the margin have no claim to the 
 Goolam Moortoozah Khan, "i privilege of exemption from juris- 
 Syed Curreemoodeen, j diction of the Supreme Court, and, 
 
 accordingly, directs that their names be st ruck off' t he lists re- 
 ceived with the foregoing communication. 
 
 " His Lordship in Council observes that H. H. the Prince 
 Azeem Jah Bahadoor, the late Naib-i-Mooktear, does not hold the 
 place in list No. 1 to which he is entitled in consideration of the 
 position he lately occupied in communication with the British 
 Government, and of that he still holds in relation to H. II. the 
 Nabob and to his succession to the Musnud. It is therefore 
 resolved that the name of Prince Azeem Jah Bahadoor be placed 
 
 • A Court of Directors' General letter in public department, as to the appointment 
 of Dr. Scott to be physician to the Durbar, 
 t 29th September, 1843. 
 
161 
 
 in the first list of male relations of H. H. the Nabob ; in other 
 respects, with the exemptions above recorded, the revised lists 
 proposed by H. H. the Nabob of the Carnatic appear to require 
 no modification." 
 
 From these quotations it is abundantly clear that, up to a 
 comparatively recent period at any rate, no notion was entertained 
 of depriving Prince Azeem Jah of his rights on the ground that 
 he was not the heir, and that the treaty was purely personal. 
 Nothing short of the annexation mania of Lord Dalhousie could 
 have imagined such an open robbery, in spite of treaty, law, fact, 
 reason, public faith, honour, and honesty. Nothing can be more 
 lamentable than the present condition of this unfortunate prince ; 
 stricken in years, bowed down with shame and mortification, 
 steeped to the lips in poverty, he has still had the spirit 
 indignantly to refuse to receive the pension which the Company 
 has condescended to offer him out of " its mere grace and/ I 
 favour." He is miserably poor, indeed with scarcely means to 
 keep body and soul together, and yet neither threats nor 
 solicitations^ have been able to induce him to submit to receive 
 at the Company's hands as a pension what he knows is his by 
 right; the bitterest ii overty is preferable to such de| :rr adationT _ 
 though his submission would restore him to temporary affluence. 
 The treatment of every matter arising out of this scandalous ^ 
 theft is a disgrace to all concerned in it. 
 
 The Government, which has seized the Nabob's share of the 
 revenues of the Carnatic, has not paid one of his debts, nor 
 instituted any inquiry into them. A commission, it is true, has 
 been appointed, but no act has been passed to invest the 
 commissioner with the necessary powers^^ These gentlemen 
 enjoy a salary of 700 rupees a-month each ; they have been two 
 years working out the cook's accounts, while the creditors, 
 clamouring for payment, have been soothed and put off by the 
 Government solicitor with assurances and promises of a speedy ^ 
 settlement. At last actions were brought ; the various houses of t. 
 the late Nabob are put up to auction ; writs are issued against 
 
 S 
 
 • The reason of the Government's anxiety that the prince should take his pension 
 arises from the fear lest the withdrawal of so large an expenditure among . the 
 Mahommedan inhabitants of Triplicane should engender disaffection, and end ^ 
 in outbreak. 
 
 M 
 
 t 
 
f 
 
 162 
 
 the person of the prince. The Government applies to tlie 
 legislature for a protecting act, and one is passed accordingly 
 in a few minutes, though nobody can understand it. The widows 
 of the Nabob oppose the purchasers with the str ong hand , and it 
 is only at the eleventh hour, when matters have been permitted 
 to reach this point of scandal, that a bill is introduced by 
 Mr. Peacock in the Legislative Council, which promises a fair 
 adjustment of the Nabob's debts. 
 
 So stands the case of the Nabob of the Carnatic. The Ranee 
 of Tanjore stands in a very different position to what she did 
 when I last wrote. The suit brought by her in the Supreme 
 Court to establish her title as " heir_" to the rajah, and her 
 right to the whole of her husban d's property , which the Company 
 had seized (some £700,000, as she estimates it), has been decided 
 on all points in her favour. The erroneous idea that a woman 
 cannot succeed to the raj was refuted incidentally at the trial, 
 by the production and establishment in evidence of famil y recor ds 
 and pedigrees, by which it was clearly shown that a woman in 
 this very family, one Soojan Bee, had succeeded to the raj on 
 the death of her husband, Bava Sahib, the fifth rajah, and 
 reigned, as his widow and heir, in her own right ! "Against this 
 decree the Company has appealed to the Privy Council ; and in 
 the appeal they upheld all the acts of Mr. Forbes, the president, 
 who seized the private property. This, they say, was an act of 
 State ordered by the Directors, sanctioned after completion by the 
 Government of Madras.* 
 
 The Ranee and her family have been most loyal throughout the 
 rebellion ; the disbanded sepoys of the rajah's regiment volun- 
 teered their services to go when and where the Government 
 might direct ; and the family is fully entitled to obtain its reason- 
 able request, that the Ranee's claims may receive a full, open, 
 fair investigation before Parliament or the Privy Council. 
 
 But the savage " Earth-hunger " which characterizes the Com- 
 
 * I hear, however, that the Directors repudiate Mr. Forbes's act, saying, that he 
 acted on his o^vn responsibility ; that they never contemplated the seizure of any pri- 
 vate property ; and that they are the victims of his rash haste and mistake ; if so, at 
 the same time that they knock down their agent with the one hand, they pick him up 
 with the other, for he has just received one of the highest rewards which the service 
 has to offer, that of member for Madras in the Legislative Council at Calcutta! 
 
163 
 
 ^e^, 
 
 panj mu st cease altog ether. I have shown before how it stops 
 not with the kingdoms of potentates ; but swallows up every large 
 estate in the empire, by the absorption of the great zemii^darries ; 
 
 a. 
 
 while no patch of land, however small, is too insignificant to -^ 
 escape their greed. The resumption of enams is the result of J ^ 
 this craving in its lowest appetite.* But example is better than 
 precept ; Segnius irritaiit, Sfc, and I will therefore lay before the 
 reader a few instances of undoubted fact, furnished me by a 
 civilian, lately retired, from his own experience ; and I shall use 
 his own words : — p/ 
 
 " Meet a ryotwar Collector in his own house, over his hospitable 
 board ; he will admit that the sale of a great zemindarry which he 
 had just achieved was brought about by dexterousmanagement, 
 that the owner had been purposely permitted to get into the^ 
 jneshes of the Collector's net beyond his power of extrication ; 
 that the sale could easily have been o bviated , nay, perhaps, was 
 uncalled for. He will not deny that the unconditional sale of an 
 ancient zemindarry entire for a small balance of taxes, when the 
 subdivision and disposal of a part would have met every require- 
 ment, is a questionable transaction, barely honest. He will hear, 
 without offence, an unprejudiced person stigmatize the purchase 
 by Government of an ancient patrimony, sold thus, in the aggre- ^^ 
 gate, without necessity, as a robbery, as spoliation under the 
 pretence of law^ ; but he will excuse himself by saying, that it was 
 the anxious^^esire o f the Governm ent to obtain possession of the 
 zemin dar's inherit ance, and he will congratulate himself by stating (^i 
 that the cultiva ting classe s, at all events, will be benefited ; that / ^ ^7 
 it was well to do a little evil that good might come. 
 
 " If example be asked for, many cases might be cited, ex- 
 tending over a long course of years. Twenty years ago, the 
 Chocumputty zemindarry, in Tinnevelly, being in arrears to I 
 Government, was advertised for sale. The owner, to arrange a ' 
 settlement, voluntarily came to the collector's head-quarter's 
 
 * It has been suggested to me that there is no reason why zemindarries and enam 
 lands should not be subject to the penaltj^of sale when their proprietors fall into_ 
 ^,,flrr^ar. But the answer is clear. Enams pay no rent ; and my complaint is, that 
 the Company is disturbing old possessions by resuming them on the score of want of 
 titl e, while, as to zemindarries, I maintain that the facts, now about to be given 
 disclose the existence of a settled policy to destroy and weed out the old nobility from L , 
 the soil. " " ~ 
 
 M 2 
 
 t 
 
 f 
 
164 
 
 station. Some days before the date of sale, while there residing, 
 he was seized, and placed in confinement under the provisions of 
 an absolut e criminal re gulation. No specific charge whatever 
 was brought against him; the collector and magistrate merely 
 reported that he was a * thoroughly worthless and good-for- 
 nothing fellow,' and the governor, Sir Frederick Adam, supported 
 the local official, and ordered the man to be removed to Trichi- 
 nopoly for confinement, where the ex-zemindar now is, unless he 
 be dead. The revenue sale proceeded on the day fixed; the treat- 
 ment the zemindar had met with deterred any banker advancing 
 money to pay the arrear. Government was the only bidder, and 
 an estate was thus obtained for absolutely nothing, which yields, 
 I believe, a clear surplus revenue of 30,000 rupees, per annum. 
 
 " The Woodiagherry Jaghire, worth 80,000 rupees a-year, in 
 Nellore, was confiscated in even a more summary manner, with- 
 out a shadow of justice, and without even the form of law. The 
 Jagheerdar was accused of treasonable practices in conjunction 
 with the Rajah of Kurnool, at a time when a perfect panic reigned 
 in Madra s of Russian_ intrig ue. A commissioner was sent to 
 enquire into the truth of this man's alleged treason, who, without 
 seeing the Jagheerdar, or hearing his defence, or telling him of 
 what he was accused, reported his sentiments to Government. 
 The Jagheerdar, a Mahommedan nobleman, and a man of seventy 
 years of age, was then seized and confined for life without trial^ 
 and his estate was confiscated. Every inhabitant of the Nellore 
 district knows that the charges w^ere false, and the commissioners 
 in Kurnool, at that day, were both perfectly satisfied that the 
 documentary papers, on which he was condemned unheard, were 
 palpable f orgerie s. Thus, however, a great estate was obtained, 
 and an old native family was ruined, while the collector con- 
 gratulated himself that the escheat was a profitable one to the 
 Government, and that the confiscation enabled him to foster the 
 poor jyots. No district under the . Madras Presidency is more 
 wretchedly administered under ryot warry Umanee management 
 than Nellore. 
 
 " In Gunt^or, in recent years, the Vasareddy estates, with 
 an annual dowle of six lacs of rupees, were sold in the gross 
 for 5000 rupees, for a balance created by the mismanagement 
 of the officers of Government while the estates were under 
 
165 
 
 legal sequestratio n, owing to a disputed title. In Masu lipatam « 
 three years ago, the Nedadavoola estates were sold for about 
 12j000 rupees at a mock auction, the worth of these being, 
 perhaps, 30,000 rupees a-year. In Vizagapatam, some years 
 back, tlie ancient zemindarry of Golugondah, which yields about 
 10,000 rupees of clear surplus annually, was sold and bought 
 by Government for £10 sterling. The Collector who sold, and 
 the then Board of Revenue who authorized the sale, advised ^ 
 its being restored to the member of the family who seemed best 
 capable of administering the zemindarry, but the Government said 
 it was a valuable acquisition, andf desired that the subject of 
 restoration should, on no account, be ever entertained. The 
 numerous members of the family, so plundered, were accordingly ^ 
 left to shift for themselves. ♦ 
 
 " In Ganjam, only last year, the ancient zemindarry of Hautghur, 
 was, in like manner, confiscated. The zemindar, who is weak in 
 mind, had entrusted his zemmdarry, with a small reservation, to 
 an influential and wealthy person, who bound himself to pay the 
 peshcush, and to account for the profits. He, purposely, in the 
 last year of his engagement, swept into his own pocket the 
 resourcesjDf the zemindarry, and withheld the GovernmenjLdiiea. '^ 
 The agent to Government took no heed of his proceedings, but » 
 winked at them, and advertised the estate for sale. When 
 the day of sale arrived, the Government agent bid as far as 
 120,000 rupees for the estate, but, much to his dismay, farther 
 biddings were made, and, in despair, he adjourned the sale 
 two or three times from no ostensible cause. On the fourth 
 day, the Government agenf suddenly came to ofiice, and knock- 
 ing down the estate to the vakeel of the Cullicote zemindar 
 for 162,000 rupees, he demanded the deposit of 15 per cent, 
 agreeably with the sale advertisement. 
 
 " The agent of the purchaser said he would make the deposit 
 if he were allowed to go for the money, and when this was 
 refused he brought to the notice of the Government ofiicer the 
 fact, that the zemindar had a large amount of Government paper 
 in the Collector's treasury, which might be held as security for 
 the production of the deposit ; but the Collector was inexorable, 
 and demanded the instantaneous production of the rupees. This 
 not being complied with, he declared the bidding void, and, as 
 
166 
 
 the next highest bidder had, in like manner, neglected to bring, 
 on the evening of the fourth day, the deposit money in cash along 
 ■vvith him, the Government offer of 120,000 rupees was declared 
 to bo the only hond-fide one, and the State was thus made the 
 purchaser of the H autgh ur zemindarry for one-sixth of its real 
 value. Messrs. Dodson and Fogg might have learned something 
 in the way of their profession by a visit to Ganjam. 
 
 " This extravagant and outrageous proceeding was, after a 
 year's correspondence, disapproved of by Government. The 
 Governor's agent had acted somewhat indiscreetly in his zeal for 
 his employers, and it was found politic to disclaim the purchase, 
 and to hand the estate over to the Cullicote rajah, on his com- 
 pleting the purchase-money. But the mind of the Government, 
 in crus hing the ancient native famili es in Southern India, was 
 fully exemplified by the acts of the authorities on this occasion. 
 The principal performer was not a young officer, but an old 
 experienced hand of thirty years' service, who knew what was 
 pleasing to men in authority ; and his immediate superior, the 
 revenue commissioner, sanctioned and approved of the pro- 
 ceedings. In private life, such sharp practice in obtaining 
 possession of an estate as was evinced in securing Hautghur 
 for Government, would send a party concerned into disrepute ; 
 but gentlemen, in public matters, will say and do things which 
 they would scorn to think of in the ordinary transactions of 
 private life. 
 
 " The ruin of Haut ghur was the more discreditable to the 
 Government that perimtled^ it, because the default was not wilful, 
 and because the zemindarry is situated in a non-regulation 
 district, specially exempted from the provisions of the ordinary 
 regulations, where the revenue sale law, therefore, did not hold. 
 The extinction of the zemindar was a most ungracious proceeding, 
 too, for the family thus despoiled had done the State good service 
 not many years back, during the insurrectionary movements in 
 Goomsoor. There was not the slightest necessity either for 
 proceeding to sale, for the default itself could have been prevented, 
 if the Governor's agent had acted with proper vigour, and inter- 
 fered, as he should have done, to s ave the^ zemindar from 
 spoliation. ''"■-*— 
 
 " In Vizagapatam, in 1854, the same game was played in 
 
167 
 
 respect to the Madagole zemindarrj. This estate is worth 30,000 
 rupees per annum, and the zemindar owed the Government 
 the sum of 20,00 rupees. Mr. Robertson, the governor's 
 agent, who had a fooHsh disinclination to destroy, without 
 necessity, a family which hadT^TieTd a distinguished position in _ / 
 this countrj for some centuries, proposed to administer the estate 
 for the zemindar, whose eccentricities and weakness of mind / 
 were notorious, but the commissioner would not listen to the "^ 
 proposition. The agent then observed that the sub-division and 
 sale of a few villages would meet the Government demand ; but 
 this course was equally distasteful^ to his superior in office, who 
 authoritatively reminded Mr. Robertson that it was greatly 
 desired that the entire estate should be acquired by Governme nt, 
 and the sale of a property worth, say, fou r lac s of rupees, was tEua 
 insisted upon for a balance of twenty thousand only. This trans- 
 action also occurred in a non-regula tion district, where the sale 
 law does not hold good, but just as the sale was imminent, some 
 friends of the zemindar's family obtained sufficient money, by 
 loan at 18per cent, to meet the present demand, and the sale 
 was stayed. 
 
 " It may appear wonderful that a man in possession of an 
 unencumbered estate of £3,000 a-year is so situated as to be 
 unable to borrow a matter of £2,000; but the reason is simply 
 this, — Madagole is what is called a h ill zemindarr y, and in the 
 state of 'society that exists there it is not possible for any 
 banker, merchant, or native monied capitalist to obtain posses- 
 sion and manage the property ; the partizans of the old family . 
 would soon make the place too hot for the intruder, and the ^ 
 Government, with the power of its resources at command, is 
 alone able to administer such a zemindarry. When to this it is 
 added that the owner is of weak intellect, and when, besides, the 
 Government officials are watching for any opportunity to sell him 
 up, it is evident that loans to such a person are perilous opera- 
 tions. It would be very different if the Government would act 
 towards such landl ords in good fai th ; if they would step in, as 
 they are entitled to do, and take the management of a great 
 estate out of the hands of an incapable proprietor, or appoint 
 curators, or interfere as the Lord Chancellor in England would 
 interfere, in the case of a lunatic or of a landed proprietor of weak / 
 
168 
 
 mind. But this is the last jthing that most Madras officials would 
 permit ; their desire is to extirpate all })rivate property in the 
 soil, and whenever such a course is feasible they fulfil their 
 mission without coiupunction. 
 
 " In January, 1855, the commissioner for the suppression of 
 Meriah sacrifice in Orissa, and one of his assistants, visited 
 Jeypoor. The control of the zemindarry was not within the scope 
 oT their duties, but as these gentlemen remained in that country 
 for many weeks the state of affairs there became known to them. 
 They represented to the Supreme Government that the practice 
 of suttee was not unfrequent, that there was no police authority 
 in the zemindarry, and that grave crimes and misdemeanours were 
 of constant occurrence. As a remedy, they advised the removal 
 of the zemindar, who they reported to be childish and old ; con- 
 fiscating, as a matter of course, his possessions, and giving him a 
 ^_£ension for life. This summary method of disposing of an inof- 
 fensive gentleman is quite refreshing ; this, indeed, is v igorou s 
 »_«fi^vernment. The state, which by law is bound to repress crime 
 throughout Jeypoor, neglects its duty, and it is then hounded on 
 by its own officials to suppress the oldest family in the Northern 
 Circars, on the friv ol on s pretev t that the head of this family is 
 old, and has failed to do that which the Government itself had 
 undertaken to perform. The recommendation to confiscate pro- 
 perty to the extent of £15,000 a-year, is disposed -of in a couple 
 of lines. What matters it ? The land belongs to a black, and it 
 would be a nice little acquis ition to the Government. 
 
 " This report having been sent to the IVIadras Government, it 
 was suggested by the local officers that the long and discreditably 
 neglected duty of maintaining an efficient police force in Jeypoor 
 should be at last undertaken. An addition to the armed sebundies 
 of Vizagapatam was necessary to this end, and it was proposed 
 to locate a body of this force, with an officer to officiate as 
 magistrate, in the very considerable town of Je^^or, the capital 
 of the zem indarry. It was also pointed out that this officer^lf 
 need be, rnlgHt assume the fiscal administration of the zemindarry 
 for the incompetent old gentleman, and put his affairs in order, in 
 which task he would have the entire support of the people at 
 large. There was not the slightest difficulty apparent in the 
 matter. The Madras Government at once acquiesed in the pro- 
 
169 
 
 prietj of this policy, but as its adoption involved an increased 
 constabulary charge. It was necessary to refer the matter to the 
 Supreme Government for sanction, and Lord Dalhousle at once 
 over-ruled the proposal, fie said the zemindar had promised to 
 put down the practice of suttee, and that it would be well to 
 wait, and see whether he did or did not. The other grave mis- ""] 
 demeanors and atrocities brought to notice he thought were ^ 
 exaggerated ; and, on the whole, he saw no sufficient grounds for 
 interference. His lordship also significantly observed, that If the 
 Government did interfere, it must be once and for ever. The 
 plain meaning of this is, the pear is not quite ripe, the sick man 
 is not yet in extremi s, but in a little time, upon a proper repre- 
 sentation, confiscation will be had recourse to. At the same X 
 time it is strictly enjoined that no reform shall be commenced 
 upon ; and the responsibility of Government to introduce a police 
 system and to maintain tranquillity, by which alone order can 
 be re-established, is quietly ignored. The Governor-General's 
 admirers consider the observation and annexation of independent 
 kingdoms in the British Indian Empire as the highest proof of 
 his administrative ability ; his opponents call his policy detestable / 
 and filthy, but this angling for the confiscation of private estates 
 is contemptib le petty-larceny in a ruler." * 
 
 What an exposure from one of the Company's own servants, 
 and one of the ablest of them, too ! How can the people be 
 well affected to us, when they see and feel the effect of such 
 monstrous iniquities as these? 
 
 The same spirit cannot but be at work, fermenting among a 
 lower and a larger class still, f In the " Kebellion in India," 
 
 -z 
 
 * The case of Lutchmeputty Naidoo, the great Vasareddy zemindar, is told at 
 length in Mr. Mead's work. It reads like a fable, but I can vouch for the literal 
 accuracy of every word of the narrative, having been Lutchmeputty 's counsel in the 
 Sudder, and so carefully examined the whole of the gigantic record of the case. 
 
 t Here is an illustration strikingly apposite at the present moment on this resump- 
 tion of enams : — 
 
 At the time of the mutiny at Vellore two subadara of a native regiment informed 
 their commanding officer of an intended mutiny in their regiment. This disclosure^ 
 may have saved India. At any rate the act was one deserving of a mark of Govern- 
 ment gratitude throughout all time. Accordingly a grant of " enam " land was given 
 to each of the subadars, one in Ti-ichinopoly, the other in the adjoining district of 
 Madura. In one of these the sons of the subadar are at this moment enjoying the 
 fruits of their father's fidelity ; and doubtless it is a source of strength to us at this 
 
 M 
 
170 
 
 I gave at length a native's impression of the Bombay Enam com- 
 mission ; I would now call attention to the evidence of Mr. Wise^ 
 ^ before the Lords' Committee, 1852-3, the whole of which will 
 ijf~^ be found at length in another " Topic " ; that evidence shows 
 what " a cur se and bligh t " this " resumption law " has proved to 
 t^ the country. All I can add to this is, to set out a petition of one 
 of these enamdars, which may serve as a fair average specimen 
 of the working of this policy, and at the same time expose that 
 delusion — the petitidViing system — under which the people suffer, 
 / with a patience truly marvellous. Here is the petition : — 
 
 " To the Honorable the Court of Directors of the East India 
 Company. 
 " The humble memorial of Janakabhoy Ummall. 
 " Respectfully sheweth, "" 
 
 " That the villages which your petitioner now desires to have 
 registered in the name of her adopted son, were enjoyed by her 
 husband's ancestors for several generations, as well before as after 
 the country came into possession of the East India Company, as 
 appear by the second paragraph of the Report of the Collector of 
 Tinnevelly to the Board of Revenue, (copy of which accom- 
 panies,) under date 14th March, 1851. 
 
 " That upon the country coming into the possession of the 
 
 y Company in 1802, the villages in question were entered and 
 
 registered in a permanent lease of punns 1288 fanams 4 per 
 
 annum, in the name of Regoonadha Row, the father of your 
 
 moment, when troops stationed in the neighbourhood and the population around can 
 point to the substantial token of what those may look to, who, in a season of mutiny 
 ' and insurrection, remain faithful to their coloure and allegiance. 
 ^ " This story shall the good man teach his son." 
 
 In the other districts matters have fared differently. There, on the death of the 
 Bubadar, the collector of the day raised questions as to the duration of the g rant. The 
 order of Government said nothing about heirs , or perpetuity. It was contrary to 
 mamool (custom) for such grants to endure beyond a certain number of lives. He 
 would recommend the widow for enjoyment of the estate. After her death the Go- 
 vernment should resume the grant. There was correspondence between the collector, 
 the revenue board, and the Government. The widow is dead. The last of the faith- 
 ful subadars' children is a beggar turned out of the land ; he has petitioned through 
 the ordinary round, with the ordinary result. What puzzles the unfortunate man is, 
 that in the neighbouring districts he sees a different course adopted with regard to the 
 children of his falher^_peer. These matters depend much upon the whims of the 
 individual collectors. 
 
171 
 
 petitioner's husband. In 1807 an addition of punns 151 was 
 made, at which rate the said Regoonadha Row, and after him 
 his son, Ramasaurmy Row, your petitioner's husband, enjoyed 
 them after their respective deaAs. ~^ 
 
 " That your petitioner's husband died in the year 1825, having / 
 
 previously thereto, and while of sound mind, verbally directed 
 your petitioner to adopt Sooba Row, then seven years old, the son 
 of her younger brother. That on the death of her husband, the 
 said villages were registered in the name of your petitioner. 
 
 " That in 1827 your petitioner, in obedience to the directions 
 of her husband, adopted the said So oba R ow, and bestowed on 
 him the name of Regoonadha Row, after her husband's father. 
 
 " From that date the said Regoonadha Row has performed the 
 funeral ceremony of your petitioner's husband, and of such 
 members of petitioner's husband's family as have since deceased. 
 
 " That from the period of the said Regoonadha Row attaining 
 his legal age, now some twenty years since, he has been in pos- 
 session of all petitioner's property, including the said permanently 
 leased villages, and has managed the whole of the family affairs, 
 as is notorious to all the neighbourhood. 
 
 " That as a further proof of the bona fides and validity of such 
 adoption, the whole property of the said Ragoonadha Row's 
 natural father in his decease passed to his other sons, the said 
 Ragoonadha Row inheritingnothing in accordance with the 
 Hi ndoo law, by which a ^oy, adopted out of one family into 
 another, ceases to havej Jiy right to share in the estate of his own n^ 
 natural father. ' 
 
 " That this appears by the first paragraph of the letter of the 
 Collector of Tinnevelly to the Board of Revenue, under date the 
 6th of August, 1851, copy of which accompanies. 
 
 " That, as a further proof, none of the remainin g descend ants 
 of the original grantee in the female line have ever raised any 
 claim to the said property, but that the indisputablejight of the 
 said Regoonadha Row, as the adopted son, has been acquiesced in 
 by them up to the present moment, as appears by the fourth 
 paragraph of the letter of the Collector of Tinnevelly to the 
 Board of Revenue, under date the 14th March, 1851, herein- 
 before mentioned and referred to. 
 
 " That shortly after the death of your petitioner's husband. 
 
172 
 
 when the facts were yet recent, in the year 1829, one Doda 
 Row instituted a suit in the Zillah court (No. 32, of 1829) 
 against your petitioner and her adopted son, claiming the 
 said property among otliers as the representative of your 
 petitioner's husband. 
 
 " That in that suit the right of the said Regoonadha Row was 
 asserted and pleaded by your petitioner; tliat in the course of 
 that suit questions as to the legal ity of su ch adoption were put to 
 the pundits both of the Zillah and provincial courts, and that the 
 responses, in both cases, asserted the right of your petitioner to 
 / adopt A decree was pronounced in favour of your petitioner, 
 against which the plaintiff appealed. The suit was remanded, 
 when it was compromised by razeenamah^ in which the right of 
 your petitioner's adopted son to the property is fully acknow- 
 ledged. Copies of the original decree, the futwah of the 
 pundits, and the razeenamah herewith accompany. 
 
 " That, as a further proof of the notoriety with which the said 
 adopted son has always acted in that character, a portion of the 
 estate of his adoptive father was actually continued to him under 
 order of the Board of Revenue ; and the first paragraph of the 
 letter of the Collector of Tinnevelly to the Board of Revenue, 
 under date 6th August, 1851, hereinbefore referred to, shows 
 that he was actually in possession of such property, although, it 
 is true, that no questions were then raised as to the fact or the 
 validity of his adoption. 
 
 " That your petitioner, in the year 1849, and on the 21st 
 September, being then upwards of eighty years of age, applied 
 to the Collector to have the registry of the said villages trans- 
 ferred to the name of her adopted son. 
 
 " That this application was sent to the thasildar of the talook 
 for report, especially with reference to the adoption. 
 
 " That in October, 1849, the tahsildarnaving enquired, 
 reported that the said Regoonadha Row, was duly adopted, and 
 the rightful successor of your petitioner. 
 
 " That the Collector, on the 14th March, 1851, wrote, in 
 detail, to the Revenue Board, and applied for their sanction to 
 alter the registry as requested. 
 
 " That on the 14th April, 1851, the Revenue Board referred 
 to the Collector for further information. 
 
173 
 
 " That the Collector referred the matter to the said tahslldar 
 for further information on the 23rd May, 1851. 
 
 " That the said tahsildar made an enquiry, at which it was 
 proved by six respectable witnesses, who, from their connection 
 with your petitioner's husband and family, were the fittest 
 persons, that the directions to adopt had in fact and in truth been 
 given. That these witnesses were not named by your petitioner, 
 nor was she any party to such enquiry, nor was her testimony 
 called for, and it was, in fact, an ex-pa rte enquiry, behind your 
 petitioner's back. 
 
 " That the Collector in his said letter to the Board of Revenue, 
 under date 6th August, 1851, reporting the fact of the enquiry 
 to the Revenue Board, added in paragraph 3, ^ I confess the 
 evidence does not satisfy me.' 
 
 " That on the 1st September, 1851, the Board of Revenue put 
 their construction upon the proceedings, declaring that your 
 petitioner had failed to establish the order to adopt, whereas, as 
 your petitioner has shown, she was no party to such enquiry, 
 and the whole denial of your petitioner's claim is based on 
 the meagre expressions of the Collector^ opinion above referred 
 to, without the least reasons being exhibited for his disbelief 
 of the credibility of the evidence offered, which, it is to be 
 observed, was such as the tahsildar, and not your petitioner, 
 selected. 
 
 " That such expressions never can, as your petitioner submits, 
 be of weight against the twenty-seven years' open recogni tion 
 by all parties of the bona fides ^oi the adoption, which has been 
 submitted to by members of the family, one of whom disputed the 
 adoption shortly after it took place, but subsequently admitted it 
 by razeenamah, thereby cutting himself off from all hope of 
 succession ; and others, the female branch of the first donor, 
 having tacitly acquiesced in the truth of the same adoption by 
 their silence. The adopted son has been, ever since his coming 
 of age, Tn open notorious possession and management of your 
 petitioner's property ; has performed all the fun eral ceremonies of 
 the deceased niembers of his adoptive Other's family ; has been 
 cut off from all succession to the estate of his natural father ; 
 has been, on one occasion, recognised by the Revenue Board ; has 
 been reported on by the tahsildar, after enquiry, as the adopted 
 
174 
 
 son, and by common reputation has been regarded as such by 
 all his neighbours and the world in which he now is. 
 
 " Your petitioner would further respectfully beg to point out 
 the extreme hardship of calling for a minute proof of the fact of 
 adoption after the lapse of so many years, when, according to the 
 ordinary course of events, much of the b est evidence ma y have 
 died out, when the memory of such witnesses as survive has 
 become dim, and when the enquiry is conducted in such a fashion 
 as to exclude_ym^L^®*^^^^^®^ from taking a part in it, and sub- 
 stantiating it by such evidence as she might have had it in her 
 power to tender. That on the 7th June, 1855, your petitioner 
 memorialized the local Government of Madras, praying for the 
 transference of the registry, but that such petition was ignored on 
 account of its being preferred by her vakeel ; that she petitioned, 
 in person, on the 3rd November, 1855, when the Government 
 declined^ to interfere. 
 
 " That if it be objected that the Government reserves to itself 
 the right of recognizing or repudiating adoptions in the case of 
 grants of shrotriam, yeomiahs, and the like favourable claims, 
 unless the fact of adoption be notified to the collector of the dis- 
 trict six months previous to the decease of the party making the 
 adoption, your petitioner would respectfully call attention to the 
 fact that the notification of this order dates only from the year, 
 1846, and comes into operation only from the 1st February, 1847. 
 
 " That your petitioner's case occurred many years before such 
 order, that is to say, in the year 1827, and that even if the order 
 was silent with respect to cases occurring previous to its promul- 
 gation, it could not in reason have any retrospective effect ; but 
 the order expressly declares that claims, founded on adoption, 
 which may come under consideration before that date, ' will be 
 decided according to the circumstances of the several cases.' 
 
 " It is true that your petitioner's case did not come under con- 
 sideration before the 1st of February, 1847 ; but your petitioner 
 submits that the only reasonable construction of this order is, that 
 adoptions not notified to the Collector subsequently to the issue of 
 the order will be summarily rejected, and that it never could be 
 intended, peremptorily, to exclude all old cases, such as that of 
 your petitioner, simply because they did not come under con- 
 sideration before 1847. 
 
175 
 
 " That the principles to guide the authorities in their disposal 
 of questions like the present have been unmistakeably laid down 
 upon an equitable and intelligible basis by your Honourable 
 Court, and the late Governor-General, the most noble the Marquis 
 of Dalhousie. 
 
 " In the po litical lett er of your Honorable Court to the Govern- 
 ment of Bombay, under date 26th September (No. 11) of 1834, 
 the following paragraph occurs: — On the subject of adoption, our 
 opinions have been communicated to you in our letter of the 11th 
 June, (No^__8} 1834. We then stated it to be our wish, that 
 whenever the tenure of the estate and the custom of previous 
 Governments are such, that the refusal of your permission to adopt 
 would be considered an act of harshness, still more when it would 
 be considered an injury, the permission should be given; but 
 otherwise not, unless as a reward, marked either by special 
 services or general fidelity and good conduct, and especially by a 
 good administration of the Jaghire. 
 
 " In his minute of the 3rd of August, 1848, in the Rajah of 
 Sattarah's case, the Governor-General, with reference to the 
 sanction of the adoption, (paragraph 26,) writes as follows : — ^ The 
 Government is bound in duty, as well as policy, to act on every 
 such occasion with the purest integrity; and in the most scrupulous 
 observance of good faith, where even a shadow of doubt can be 
 shown, the claim should at once be abandoned. 
 
 " On both these principles, that of doubt and merit, your 
 petitioner respectfully submits that her case is one in every way 
 worthy of your benevolent consideration. 
 
 " As to any shadow of doubt being shown, the only question is, 
 whether there can, from all the circumstances of this case herein- 
 before enumerated, exist any doubt whatever that the adoption is, 
 in every respect, legal and valid ; but to put the case on lower 
 grounds, your petitioner would respectfully ask, whether the first 
 terms, in which the Collector of Tinnevelly has condemned your 
 petitioner's case, do not show the existence of doubts, even 
 in his mind, and whether, taking a broad plain sense view of the 
 whole matter, it is not one of those doubtful cases which the late 
 Governor-General had in his eye when giving utterance to the 
 sentiments above quoted. 
 
 " Your petitioner admits that the questions hereinbefore. 
 
176 
 
 referred primarily to the subject matter then under discussion, 
 namely, the adoption of children by sovereign princes, but that she 
 submits that the principle involved is j)recisely the same, whatever 
 is the extent or nature of the estate to which the adopted son is 
 to succeed, and that the same rule should be applicable to the 
 I poorest yeomiahoor as to the richest sovereign prince. 
 
 " As to merit, your petitioner would crave once more to refer 
 to the Collector of Tinnevelly's letter, under date the 14th March, 
 1851, (paragraph 8,) wherefrom it will be seen that your petitioner's 
 husband's ancestors have for generations done the St ate good 
 service, holding highly respectable and responsible situations; 
 that the father of your petitioner's husband served the Company, 
 and received a pension of 50 rupees a month, 20 of which were 
 continued to your petitioner's husband to the date of his death, 
 after which it was discontinued, expressly on the ground that 
 your petitioner held these villages upon a favourable tenure ; a 
 fact, of which the Collector put forward to the Board, as your 
 petitioner now does to your Honourable Court, as a reason for 
 taking a favorable view of her application. 
 
 " On the whole, therefore, your petitioner, strong in the truth 
 and justice of her case, throws herself with every confidence on 
 the knowTi liberality and benevolence of your Honourable Court, 
 and prays for the poor boon she has so long in vain solicited at 
 the hands of the various authorities in this country. The 
 advantage to be gained to the Company by the resumption of 
 her little patrimony is as nothing to the maintenance of the 
 Honourable Company's name among its subjects for justice and 
 charity, and she prays, in co nclus ion, that the ncjcessary orders 
 may be issued for the transference of the registry of the villages 
 in question from her name into that of RagoonadhaRow. 
 
 " And y our petitioner sha ll ever pray, &c." 
 
 No answer has been received to this petition. The widow's 
 mite is perhaps too small to occupy the time of the Directors, 
 though it was not too small to excite the cupidity of their servants. 
 
 Let me add another instance which will show what paltry pleas 
 and pettifogging special pleading can be had recourse to for the 
 purpose of turning people out of lands he ld on favourable tenures. 
 Certain villagers or laman had an Agraharam'which they and 
 their ancestors had enjoyed for a period reacln'ng beyond the 
 
177 
 
 company's occupation of the country. At that period a light 
 assessment had been fixed. The occupants, some five years ago, 
 fell into ^ arre ars. The Collector issued a notice on the 14th of 
 January, 1853, that if the arrears were not paid within five days 
 the estate would escheat at the end of the year of grace. This 
 notice was not served till the \^th of January. The occupants 
 claimed to calculate the time from the date of service. The 
 Collector, however, reckoned from the date of his signing the 
 notice, and the estate was seized at the expu-ation of the year of 
 grace according to his calculation. The propnetoFs paid the 
 arrear up within the year from the date of service of notice. 
 They have petitioned the Collector, the Revenue Board, the 
 Government, and now the Court of Directors, for relief against 
 this quibbling and most unfai r construc tion, by which they have 
 been deprived of their estate ! 
 
 This is all I have to say on the topic of annexation. Is it not 
 enough ? In the formula which concludes a Hindoostanee letter, 
 Kear-ze-ardar, what more needs be said ? 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Topics 13th — 14th. 
 
 XIII. What is required to improve the tenure of land? — 
 XIV. Shall we redeem the land-tax ? 
 
 " What's in a name?" asks Shakspeare, in one of those para- 
 doxical half-truths which pass current plausibly enough in the 
 regions of poetry, but which cut a very sorry figure when ques- 
 tioned at the bar of sober reason. It might not be difficult to 
 show that nam£s have, perhaps, exercised as strong an influence 
 as things over the fortunes of mankind; and it has always ap- 
 peared to me that the name " ryotwarry" is one of those unlucky 
 appellatives which stand for a vast amount of imaginary evils, 
 the bare idea of which has prevented candid inquiry into the 
 thing itself. Mr. Ludlow's excellent work is disfigured by abuse 
 of the ryotwar system ; so is Mr. Mead's ; and a friend of mine 
 was so prejudiced against it, that he actually declined for some 
 years to be introduced to a gentleman because he was known to 
 be a strong supporter of this tenure ! 
 
 The ryotwarry tenure of Madras, as it has been worked by 
 the revenue officers, has impoverished the people ; though 
 already they are beginning to rise under it to comparative 
 prosperity, now that its fundamental principles are better 
 understood and partially acted on. Some years ago I described 
 it thus: — 
 
 " Picture to yourself the position of a man perfectly isolated 
 and protected from all interference on the part of his neighbours 
 and superiors ; holding his farm for a certain term at a very easy 
 rent, fixed with reference to the capabilities of the soil and the 
 situation of markets ; certain that so long as he continues to pay 
 that rent to the Government, no power can evict him or his 
 children from their holding ; with the knowledge that whatever 
 
179 
 
 he can by his capital and labour make out of the land, beyond 
 the Government dues, will go exclusively into his own pocket ; 
 and with a power of temporarily diminishing the area of his cul- 
 tivation with a proportionate diminution of liability, according to 
 the fortuitous variations of seasons and markets. If these be not 
 sufficient conditions to stimulate industry, we may, in vain, seek 
 for others."* 
 
 If this be a true description of the theory of ryotwar, I 
 apprehend there are few people who will not admit its excellence ; 
 and that it does truly describe it, all that I have learnt and seen 
 since 1854 most firmly convinces me. 
 
 The condition of the people of Madras having been shown to 
 be very wretched ; and, further, this condition having been 
 arrived at under the ryotwar tenure ; nay, in consequence of the 
 fashion in which that ryotwar system has been worked by the 
 revenue authorities, the system itself has been, without more ado, 
 condemned, especially as it is supposed to be something very 
 complicated and difficult of comprehension, instead of being, as it 
 is, the most simple and natural order of things. We have raised 
 the cry, ' away with it,* ' away with it,' instead of endeavour- 
 ing to ascertain whether the system was itself radically bad, or 
 whether it was in itself good, but had been worked on principles 
 never contemplated by those who framed it, and which were 
 mere excrescences capable of being lopped off. The rush has 
 been to supersede the ryotwarry altogether by some new system ; 
 and as the village system of the North-West has been puffed up 
 by the East India Company, the presidency of Agra paraded by 
 them as the " garden of India," and the people there declared to 
 be enjoying a golden age and arcadian happiness, many have 
 jumped to the conclusion that the North- West village system 
 should be transferred bodily to Madras — the ryotwarry having 
 been swept away. These politicians, aiming rashly at a radical 
 universal change, forget that the statesman must deal with 
 things and men as he finds them; and that modification and 
 adaptation are safer tools to work with than novelty and total 
 re-formation. 
 
 I beg it may be understood that what I am about to write has 
 
 * Letter to the Right Hon. Robert Lowe on the condition of Madras. 
 
 N 2 
 
18Q 
 
 roforence solely to Madras. In Bengal we have the zemindarry ; 
 in the North- West, the village system ;* and I should no more 
 dream of suggesting that either of these systems should be swept 
 away, for the purpose of superseding them by a pet scheme 
 of ryotwar, than I should like to see the tenure of Madras set 
 aside in favour of any theory, however plausible. We must 
 work in each Presidency upon the facts we fijid there ; and in 
 each endeavour to amend, rather than abolish, existing practices. 
 Thus, in Bengal we have the much coveted middleman in the 
 person of the zemindar. It is immaterial now to consider 
 whether Lord Cornwallis's perpetual settlement was a mistake, 
 or whether we dealt with the wrong party, and ignored the real 
 proprietor of the soil. The zemindar has been acknowledged, 
 and legislation is now taking the proper direction — that of pro- 
 tecting the ryot in his rights, and making him the tenant not the 
 slave of the zemindar. Mr. Currie's bill, which the " Friend of 
 India " affectedly calls the " Ryotee bill," has done much towards 
 this ; the praises of this measure have been loudly chanted, 
 though it has entirely escaped observation that it does but clothe 
 the ryot in Bengal with those very rights which the ryot in 
 Madras has always had since 1822,f under the well-abused 
 ryotwarry ! So again in the North- West, I shall show that the 
 village system is following the necessary order of things in 
 converting itself into a ryotwarry, and eventually into a middle- 
 man system. For the village communities are falling to pieces 
 as society advances ; sales in execution, under decree of courts, 
 have everywhere introduced strangers into these " Bayhads ; ' 
 and these new men, holding direct from Government, are, in fact, 
 ryots as much as the natives in Madras. When these new 
 tenants are wealthy soucars, or servants of the Government, they 
 will not cultivate the soil themselves ; they will let out the land 
 
 * Perhaps I should rather say we had; for what with the convulsion through which 
 society has just jjassed there, the confessed result of the operation of the courts of 
 law upon the system, and the unfortunate fact that the revenue records have perished, 
 it seems probable that a re-settlement of a vast breadth of country is unavoidable. 
 It may be a curious sight to see whether the re-institution of a village system will be 
 attempted there, or whether a ryotwar settlement must not be of necessity introduced. 
 I incline to think it must, since the gradual decay of the village system in that 
 locality has paved the way for the more advanced system of ryotwar. 
 
 t Reg. V. of 1822. 
 
181 
 
 to sub-tenants, and thus the middle class springs up spon- 
 taneously.* 
 
 Nothing but the stationary institutions of India, especially 
 that of caste, could have preserved the village system so long. 
 Where our administration is introduced, where our courts are 
 established, where enterprize and capital open up the resources of 
 the land, and wealth accumulates among the natives, the village 
 system will gradually and spontaneously melt away ; nor would 
 any efforts of ours avail to support it against the necessary 
 consequences of advancing civilization, f 
 
 * To fall back from individual tenancies to joint rent holdings is an obvious retro- 
 gression. The progress of property has ever Ijeen towards holding in severalty ; each 
 man, as he becomes more independent, vpealthy. and civilized, desiring to be sole 
 loi-d of his own possessions. In the darkest ages of barbarism, or in the earliest ages 
 of the species, men might herd together for common protection or defence ; or the 
 father of a family might gradually draw around him those who became members of 
 the family by intermarriage. In either case, there would clearly exist a common bond 
 of union among all the occupants of the village. The mud wall would limit them 
 from the exterior world ; all would be ready for mutual assistance, in case of any 
 marauding incursions on their common fields ; all, in short, would be equal ; and 
 the very term " Bayhad," or brotherhood, which signifies a village, points to this 
 derivation of the joint or village holding. When one powerful enough to subdue the 
 country appeared, all would readily become jointly responsible for their common tri- 
 bute ; and the fact that in the North-West the village system does not admit of the 
 sale of land in execution of decrees of Court, because it necessitates the compulsory 
 introduction of strangers into the Partnership, indicates the same fact. It was the 
 early state of legendary Greece ; and curiously enough, Grote, after describing a 
 Greek village, in a fashion which might serve almost without alteration for one in 
 India, quotes Mills' description of an Indian village community as a parallel to that 
 depicted in his text. It is in the ruder times that we hear af Amphyctyonic and 
 Hanseatlc leagues ; but as human institutions advance, and individual security is felt 
 in proportion to their advancement, walls are thrown down, men cease to plough the 
 field with spear in hand and sword on thigh ; the common bond of union loosens 
 gradually, and ere long dissolves. The interests of the individual predominate over 
 those of the community, and a natural selfishness prompts the acquisition of separate 
 and distinct property, with which no one can by law interfere. In other words, the 
 natural tendency of society is from a village to a ryotwarry system, however fondly 
 some may wish us to revert to the earlier and ruder form of union. 
 
 t Such is Mr. Halliday's opinion. In 1853 he speaks as follows before the Com- 
 mons' Committee: — 
 
 " From your knowledge of other parts of India besides Bengal, will you favour 
 the Committee with your opinion as to the mode of raising the land revenue : would 
 it be possible to make any alteration in the present system ? — I am very incompetent 
 to speak about the Madras system •, I have a prejudice against it, and am prol)abIy 
 very slightly informed upon the subject ; as I have understood it to work, it does not 
 
182 
 
 What we really require with regard to the occupant of the soil 
 is, to give him a simple, secure, and defensible title. Having 
 recognized his right of proprietorship in theory, and in official and 
 State papers, it behoves us to give to every man a document of 
 title, once and for good, which shall be the evidence of his right ; 
 and which shall be made as public and notorious as possible, by a 
 general system of registration. 
 
 seem to me to be a good system. The system at Bombay I am told works extremely 
 well, but I should not have imagined beforehand that a plan of valuing every parti- 
 cular bit of a field according to the nature of the soil, and then fixing beforehand a 
 rent upon it arbitrarily to last for thirty years, which every man who took that field 
 must pay to the Collector's treasury, was likely to succeed ; I am told, however, that 
 it does succeed. The system in the North-West provinces is more generally ap- 
 proved, and has hitherto found more favour, perhaps, than any other system which 
 we have adopted in any part of our territories ; but as I understand it, it is open to 
 this great objection, that it is not compatible with an advance in civilization. It can 
 only be upheld by keeping the people in the same primitive state in which they are 
 at present ; I am speaking only from hearsay, but I am told that it is impossible to 
 allow land to be used as a security for money, or to pass from hand to hand, as it 
 ought to pass and must pass as the nation advances, because the moment it is allowed 
 in any village settlement in the North-Western provinces, the village settlement of 
 necessity breaks down, and the whole system falls to the ground. If that be the case, 
 the village system is incompatible with a state of improvement and advancement ; so 
 that, as far as I understand it, which is, however, only at second or third hand, not 
 having seen it actually at work, the system which certainly has been considered the 
 best has a very serious impediment to its continued good working lurking in its 
 vitals. 
 
 *' Do you mean to say that a village, the rental of which was 1,000 rupees a-year, 
 could not have money raised upon it to the amount of 2,000 or 3,000 rupees ? — No, 
 I have not said so ; but I have heard persons who advocate very strongly the village 
 system of the North-Western provinces say, that it was absolutely impossible that 
 each separate proprietor should be allowed to raise money upon his land in the village, 
 or that his property in the village should be allowed to pass from his hands to the 
 hands of any person not belonging to the brotherhood, and that the interference of 
 the courts to enforce any debt, or any transfer, upon those principles, was very much 
 to be deprecated, and ought to be prohibited by law. If that be the case, it is in the 
 judgment of those who know more of the system than I do, and who advocate it, 
 founded on the principle that the possession of land and its transfer must be confined 
 to the brotherhood of each village, and therefore the land cannot be used as a security, 
 and cannot pass from hand to hand. 
 
 " Is not that the case partially only, and not universally ? — I am not personally 
 aware. What I desire to say is, that if that is the case, it is an objection to the sys- 
 tem in my view. 
 
 " Your opinion is, that a system like that cannot be permanent in a country which 
 is gradually advancing in civilization ? — I cannot comprehend how it is possible that 
 it should be." 
 
183 
 
 I have written a great deal at different times, and through 
 various channels, upon the land tenures of India, and I purpose 
 now, without any apology, to put together the scattered materials 
 which I have collected before me, with scarcely a recast. I shall 
 not stop to consider the zemindar tenure ; for no one appears to 
 have come forward with any theory of creating at once a class of 
 middle-men. The tendency of opinion sets strongly in favour of 
 a village or joint-rent system. I purpose to furnish materials for 
 testing the results of this system as they are found in the Nortli- 
 West and in the Presidency of Madras ; of instituting a com- 
 parison between the joint-rent and ryotwarry systems; and of 
 considering how the ryotwar, which affects some 22 millions 
 of men in the Madras Presidency, can be purged of its errors, 
 and made such as to admit of the people rising under it to wealth 
 and prosperity. 
 
 In the first place, does the mere comparison between the 
 Madras Presidency and the North- West, assuming that the Agra 
 Presidency is as flourishing, and the village system there as 
 successful as asserted, settle the question at once in favour of the 
 village system? Does the success arise from the village system, 
 or from other causes independent of the tenure ? I have written 
 as follows : — 
 
 " It is the fashion to bid us look at the North- West provinces, 
 as though that must peremptorily settle the question between the 
 relative merits of the village system and ryotwarry. The death 
 of Mr. Thomason, we are told, prevented the introduction of a 
 radical change into the Madras Presidency, as though that wise and 
 cautious man's first measure, had he lived to assume the govern- 
 ment to which he was appointed, would have been the establish- 
 ment in Madras of a revenue system which, under his auspices, 
 had flourished so satisfactorily in Agra. If we may judge him 
 by his own words, we apprehend that he would have pursued a 
 very different course. 
 
 " Mr. Thomason, we imagine, would have, in the first instance, 
 allowed himself time for extensive enquiry and calm dispas- 
 sionate consideration ; nor if he found the countries of his first 
 and second governments totally dissimilar, would he have looked 
 upon the village system as that which was alone capable of assi- 
 milating them. He was far too enlightened a man to put his faith 
 
184 
 
 in any nostrum or infallible specific, and he would not have been 
 blind to every circumstance in forming his judgment except the 
 comparatively insignificant question of the best mode of collecting 
 the revenue. His reports show how very cautious he would have 
 been in fitting the Presidency of Madras with any particular 
 revenue system, and though he might have been naturally 
 inclined to favour that form with which he was so intimately 
 acquainted, it would be an injustice to his memory to believe 
 that he was so blinded by his prejudices, that nothing would have 
 opened his eyes to their consequences and defects when attempted 
 to be applied to a totally new state of circumstances. And the 
 result of his inquiries would have been as follows. We find the 
 task ready done to our hand, and shall, therefore, borrow from 
 Mr. Bourdillon's comparison of the Madras Presidency and the 
 North- West provinces. 
 
 " ' A comparison has sometimes been drawn between the 
 present condition of the two Presidencies of Madras and Agra, 
 as though that decided the question between ryotwar and 
 village settlements ; I will, therefore, briefly show how the other 
 things I am now referring to vary in the two cases. 
 
 *' ^ The first particular I will notice is the promotion of irriga- 
 tion. In the Madras Presidency irrigation has existed for many 
 ages, and the former Governments regarded the promotion of it 
 as one great point of good government. Of the whole land 
 revenue of the fourteen ryotwar districts, amounting to about 25 
 lacks, about 13 lacks is directly produced by the Government 
 works of irrigation; almost the whole of them ancient. For 
 many years after the country came under the English rule at the 
 commencement of the present century, the irrigation was much 
 and lamentably neglected ; and it is only within a limited time, 
 and even now on a limited scale, that attention has been paid to 
 it. For many years, not only no new works were formed, but 
 even the ancient works were allowed very much to go to decay. 
 The only exception is Tanjore, where, in consequence of almost 
 the whole revenue being immediately dependent on the irrigation 
 works, they have, of necessity, been always attended to. 
 
 " ' In the North- West provinces the Government works of 
 irrigation are of comparatively very recent date ; but they have 
 been carried on with much vigour. I must compare the ex- 
 
185 
 
 penditure on this subject in the two parts of the empire, 
 conjointly with that on communications and civil buildings, not 
 having the means of showing them separately for the North- 
 West provinces. 
 
 " ^ The following statement shows in juxta-position the outlay 
 on ' civil buildings, roads, and other public works, exclusive of 
 repairs,' in the Madras Presidency, and in the North- West 
 provinces respectively, during each of the last five years. It is 
 compiled entirely from the financial statements annually laid 
 before Parliament by the Court of Directors : — 
 
 1847-48 . 
 
 N. W. Provinces. 
 Rupees. 
 , 4,23,266 
 
 Madras. 
 Rupees. 
 3,52,465 
 
 1848-49 . 
 
 , 19,27,807 
 
 2,38,012 
 
 1849-50 . 
 
 ..... 15,57,774 
 
 1,49,194 
 
 1850-51 . 
 
 22,50,062 
 
 2,33,147 
 
 1851-52 . 
 
 , 25,00,000 
 
 2,01,044 
 
 
 
 
 Total... 86,58,909 11,73,862 
 
 " ' It should be explained that in the latest annual statement. 
 No. 505 of 1853, the amount for the North- West provinces in 
 1851-52 is given only as the estimate, the estimated amount being 
 34,91,500 rupees. In the preceding year's statement the similar 
 expenditure for 1850-51 was estimated at 34,45,000 rupees, but 
 the actual was only 22,50,062 rupees. As the expenditure on 
 canals is increasing every year, it seems safe to take 25 lacks 
 as the actual outlay under the head above particularized, 
 in 1851-52. 
 
 " ^ The foregoing statement does not, however, comprise the 
 whole expenditure on public works. The whole of the outlay 
 on irrigation w^orks at Madras is erroneously classed under the 
 term " Repairs of Tanks," and no part of it, therefore, is 
 separately shown in the accounts laid before Parliament. It 
 contains, however, some expenditure for new works, but I have 
 very good authority for declaring that no more than one-fifth of 
 the amount is of that nature. 
 
 " ' Paragraph 77 of the Financial Dispatch of the Court of 
 Directors, given as Appendix 12 of the Report of the Select 
 Committee on Indian Territories, No. 533 of 1852, gives the 
 
186 
 
 whole expenditure on * Repairs of Tanks ' at Madras, in the 
 latest five years there shown, as follows : — 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 1846-7 8,42,059 
 
 1847-8 12,96,565 
 
 1848-9 9,97,254 
 
 1849-50 9,70,194 
 
 1850-51 9,19,290 
 
 Total 50,25,362 
 
 '' ' Four-fifths of this may be taken as the ordinary repairs of 
 existing works, and one-fifth, or 10,05,072 rupees as the cost of 
 new work«. The repair and maintenance of the canals in the 
 North- West provinces does not appear in the accounts at all ; 
 being, apparently, defrayed out of the canal revenues before they 
 are brought to account. 
 
 " ' But there is an addition to be made on the other side also. 
 In the North- West provinces there are three separate sources of 
 revenue placed by the Government at the disposal of local 
 committees, for the construction and maintenance of roads and 
 bridges, other than the main lines. Those funds are as follows : — 
 
 The road fund of one per cent, on the land 
 
 revenue 4,50,000 
 
 The surplus ferry receipts 2,25,000 
 
 The Noozool or miscellaneous fund 1 ,50,000 
 
 Total rupees 8,25,000 
 
 Or in five years 41,25,000 
 
 " * All of these, though expended under local administration, 
 are, in fact. Government expenditures. The road fund is a 
 deduction from the land revenue, though called by another 
 name; the surplus ferry receipts and the Noozool are also 
 resources given up by the State ; the corresponding receipts 
 in the Madras Presidency are carried to the Government 
 exchequer. 
 
 " ' Distinguishing between the construction and the repair of 
 these roads, it may be assumed that fully one-half of the amount 
 of these local funds is devoted to the former. The comparison 
 
187 
 
 between the two Presidencies for the five years will then be as 
 
 follows : — 
 
 N. W. Provinces. Madras. 
 Rupees. Rupees. 
 
 Civil buildings, roads, and other public 
 
 works, exclusive of repairs 86,58,909 ... 11,73,862 
 
 New works of irrigation at Madras ... „ ... 10,05,072 
 
 Local funds in North- West Provinces, 
 excluding expenditure on mere re- 
 pairs 20,50,000 
 
 Total 107,08,909 21,78,934 
 
 " * Thus it appears that the Government expenditure on the 
 public objects mentioned is five times as large in the North- West 
 provinces as it is in Madras. But even this does not, by any 
 means, show the whole case ; for whereas in Madras the Govern- 
 ment provides for the construction and maintenance of the 
 irrigation works down to the very fields, in North India it only 
 provides the main channels, and the ryots pay for the construction 
 of the branch channels and works, the charge levied on them 
 for irrigation being, in consequence, extremely small. Thus the 
 account for Madras, in fact, takes in a large portion of the 
 expenditure which is entirely excluded in those of the North- West 
 provinces. If the correction for this difference could be made, 
 the disproportion would be seen to be still greater than it 
 now appears. 
 
 " * This difference in the mode of treating the two provinces 
 in the matter of expenditure on public works is sufficient to 
 account for considerable difference in their state. It would be 
 idle to expatiate on the advantage of good and cheap commu- 
 nications ; but some local circumstances may be noticed. North 
 India possesses magnificent trunk lines made and maintained 
 directly by the Government, and second class roads in every dis- 
 trict, formed by means of the local funds ; for the comparatively 
 excellent condition of which, see the statistical reports and 
 published official correspondence. It possesses also the grand 
 natural highways of the Ganges and Jumna and other rivers. 
 In place of these latter, Madras has the advantage of a long line 
 of sea coast; but this has by no means been turned to its full 
 
188 
 
 account. There arc many harbours along tlie coast, valuable hi 
 slieltering the coasting craft ; but not only has no attempt been 
 made to Improve them, but they have been permitted very nmch 
 to deteriorate. And even if they were in good order their value 
 would be much diminished by the almost entire absence of roads 
 from the coast to the interior. From the Cuttack frontier to 
 Cape Comorin there is a coast line of a thousand miles ; and in 
 all that length there is only one good road going inland, viz., 
 that westward from Madras ; there is a second, inferior in 
 quality, from Negapatam, and a third in course of construction 
 from Tuticorin. All the other lines are mere unmade tracks, 
 or worse, viz., roads once imperfectly made, many years ago, and 
 then allowed to go entirely to ruin. And the roads parallel with 
 the coast are no better. 
 
 " ' The natural resources of the Madras Presidency are pro- 
 bably not inferior to those of the North- West provinces ; its terri- 
 tories are capable of raising all the tropical products, with, 
 perhaps, unparalleled cheapness. But in the entire absence of 
 communications, it is no wonder that it has made very little pro- 
 gress in trade since the last charter. While the exports of Calcutta 
 have advanced almost every year, till from 409 lacks in 1834-35, 
 they reached 1,015 lacks in 1849-50, the last year given, or 148 
 per cent, increase, those of Madras exhibit little growth, and of 
 late years they have been declining. The highest year was 
 1844-45, when the amount reached 164 lacks; but the whole 
 average of the first three years in the period was 109 J lacks, 
 that of the last three was only 125 J lacks, being an increase of 
 no more than 15 per cent.' 
 
 " Is it not patent, upon these facts, that it is utterly illogical to 
 charge upon the ryotwarry the inferior condition of the Madras 
 Presidency to that of the more favoured Agra ? Place her upon 
 the same level by expenditure of public money upon works of 
 communication and irrigation; equalize the assessments of the 
 two countries ; improve in the same ratio her natural facilities 
 for transit and export; and it will soon be found, beyond the 
 possibility of cavil, that the mode in which the land revenue is 
 collected, whether by this or that system, or according to this or 
 that method, is in reality the most immaterial point of con- 
 sideration in the whole matter. But until this experiment shall 
 
189 
 
 have been made, we protest against the fairness of any com- 
 parison between Madras and the North- West, and against the 
 prosperity of the latter or the poverty of the former being 
 attributed to the accident of their respective revenue systems; 
 the more forcibly, we take it, because the introduction of the 
 same liberal policy into a few favoured districts has already 
 incontestably proved that the same consequences will follow, 
 and that the ryotwarry is perfectly compatible with the rapid 
 rise of the people in wealth and contentment." 
 
 Next, is it true that the village or joint rent system has proved 
 such a success in the North- West? On this topic take the 
 following ; — 
 
 " We have from the first regarded with some degree of 
 suspicion the magniloquent accounts from time to time put forth 
 respecting the extreme prosperity of the North- West provinces. 
 That the North- Western Government has enjoyed a succession of 
 such men as Martens Bird, Thomason, and Colvin, would 
 naturally lead to an ^ a priori ' expectation, that if Indian Go- 
 vernment was good anywhere, it might safely be predicated of 
 the territories over which they were called to rule. We re- 
 cognized these men of large experience and thorough business 
 habits, with their hearts in the work of creating the prosperity 
 of their dominions, setting studiously to work at the one grand 
 object of their existence, in what may be called real hard 
 working costume, as opposed to the frippery and show which 
 distinguish the office of Governor in our older Presidencies : and 
 we have been accustomed to such repeated assurances of the 
 entire success of the measures there introduced, that it becomes 
 almost a habit to regard the Agra Presidency as an exception to 
 the rest of our Indian rule. What men could do, the successive 
 Governors of the North- West provinces have no doubt done ; 
 and we cheerfully record our grateful appreciation of their 
 labours. But it has ever seemed to us a strange inconsistency 
 that prosperity and a state of progress should be found under a 
 system of village settlement." 
 
 Mr. Halliday, in his evidence, unequivocally announced his 
 conviction that a village system was incompatible with a state 
 of progress, — a testimony of the highest importance with respect 
 to the quarter whence it emanates, but certainly not calculated to 
 
190 
 
 creute any surprise in those wlio have taken the trouble to trace 
 the origin of village systems, in this and other quarters of the 
 world, and in other ages as well as the present To such it was 
 brought home as a proved and patent fact that these communities 
 were among the rudest and earliest of human society, and that 
 every step forward in the progress of civilization caused a greater 
 strain upon the ligaments which bound tlie villagers together, 
 until further advancement finally burst the bonds asunder. The 
 ' Friend of India ' argued lately that the condition of Arracan was 
 tending to a village system ; we maintained that if it were really 
 prosperous as it was pictured, it never could lapse into any such 
 form of settlement ; that the tendency of all village systems is to 
 crumble to pieces, and revert to ryotwarry, with the increase of 
 material wealth ; and we hinted our strong suspicions that some- 
 thing like this must be actually going on at the present moment 
 in the North- West, if riches were accumulating and the condition 
 of the people really ameliorated. In confirmation of this we 
 appeal to the startling pamphlet now before us. No. 24 of the 
 Records of the North- West Provinces Government, the following 
 extracts from which fully bear out our suppositions, reasonings, 
 and expectations, nay, go beyond them with respect both to the 
 extent and speed of the anticipated revolution, 
 
 " The claqueurs of the Court of Directors, who have used the 
 Presidency of Agra throughout the Charter discussions as a lure 
 to decoy away inconvenient scrutiny from the more rotten fruits 
 of their administration, may now hide their diminished heads, if 
 there be any modesty in them. At any rate the village system, 
 primitive and patriarchal, will not again serve their turn, for a 
 more complete and thorough break-down, a more total discom- 
 forture than it has met with under the most favourable and 
 encouraging conditions, it would be impossible to conceive. But 
 we will no longer baulk the curiosity of our readers ; but rather 
 at once usher in our extracts to their notice. ' Education,' writes 
 Mr. W. P. Hammond, * may teach thrift, and excite members 
 of coparcenary communities to seek after professions, and other 
 fields of industry ; but the dissolution of these communities, as 
 they increase beyond the means of subsistence aflforded by the 
 profits of the estate, is merely a matter of time. Numbers must 
 relinquish their almost barren privilege of ownership to the private 
 
191 
 
 or the public creditor, and either emigrate, or, if they remain, 
 subside to the grade of ordinary cultivators.' 
 
 *^ The readers of the ' Household Words ' will remember the 
 picture of the Land Shark in Australia. Here is his pendent in 
 the North- West provinces of India. The picture is painted by 
 Mr. Craigie, Collector of HuzafF Nuggur: — 
 
 " ^ The thriftless, careless, and extravagant Sheikh, Syud, 
 Patlian, and even the more careful but untutored Jat, fall an 
 easy prey to the ever-watchful never-relenting bunya; a mar- 
 riage or two throws the first, and a drought or two the other 
 class, into the meshes of the Mahajun's books, where they become 
 inextricably entangled in compound interest ; and the moment of 
 their final destruction rests entirely on the will of the money- 
 lender. The enormous interest paid for money by an ignorant 
 people who cannot club for self-protection, I believe to be the 
 root of the evil ; and I am persuaded that the bunya will acquire 
 more and more land in India, till the labours of the schoolmaster 
 ramify much further than they have yet done. The petty usurer 
 is rising to a landed giant, and I see not how his growth can be 
 checked, for care, economy, knowledge, and labour must inevit- 
 ably depress neglect, extravagance, ignorance, and sloth ; and if 
 the old landlords wish their sons to retain the family estates, they 
 must educate them up to the highest standard of their times, 
 otherwise their decline and fall are certain.' 
 
 " But this is not the only class into whose hands the shares of 
 the villager is passing. They contain among themselves, it 
 appears, the elements of dissolution ; the more successful swal- 
 lowing up their less thrifty or fortunate coparceners, and this, 
 apparently, not always by means the most legitimate or straight- 
 forward. 
 
 " ' Another cause,' writes Mr. Turnbull, Collector of Boolund- 
 shuhier, ' may be found in the process of gradual absorption, by 
 the more wealthy and influential landholders, of the petty hold- 
 ings in their neighbourhood, which is brought about either by 
 fair or foul means as the case may be, and according to the 
 individual character and circumstances of the parties. In some 
 instances, the property is willingly alienated to secure the owner 
 a powerful friend and protector, but in others fraud and chicanery 
 are employed, and all the machinery of the law is put into 
 
192 
 
 motion ; and in the end the man of icealth, hy false suits and unjust 
 decrees, generally contrives to attain his object, and wrest the pro- 
 perty from his weaker neighbour.'' 
 
 " Our excellent administration does not appear to have been 
 successful in conciliating the affections of the people. The 
 Honorable R. Drummond, Collector of Agra, gives tliis alarming 
 information : — 
 
 " * The subject is one fraught with the deepest interest, especi- 
 ally amongst a Rajpoot population, living on the borders of native 
 States, where no such alienation of landed property is known, and 
 is calculated to give rise to a spirit of disaffection towards our 
 Government. An ignorant and turbulent race, like the Rajpoots, 
 cannot and do not discriminate between the acts of the civil court as 
 independent of the Government, and the acts of the Government 
 itself; and I believe it is not uncommon for them to state their 
 expectation of eventually regaining their ancestral possessions, on our 
 Government giving way to some more powerful race, as the Maho- 
 medan rule gave way to us. In fact, it is the same feeling vy^hich 
 in Ireland was only got rid of when the old proprietors them- 
 selves left the country, and migrated to other shores.' 
 
 " As to any prospect of revertal to the village system at 
 some future period, we cannot speak more conclusively than 
 Mr. Alexander, Commissioner of Rohilcund : — 
 
 " ' It can be asserted, without contradiction, that no reaction 
 of circumstances under our Government will ever renew village 
 communities which have been once broken up. The state of 
 things to which they were peculiarly adapted has passed by, and 
 I concur with the Collector of Moradabad, in thinking that we 
 have not cause to look on the fact with regret. In former times, 
 mutual dependence was the necessity, and may also be said to 
 have been the virtue, of the village constitution ; independence 
 was profitless. Without preventing mutual dependence, our 
 system has tended to cause and foster independence, and to give 
 it a value it had not before.' 
 
 " Indeed the very contrary is predicted by Mr. Cust, Collector 
 of Banda, who writes as follows : — 
 
 " * At any rate these constant transfers to aliens apportions of 
 estates, are pregnant of grave consequences, and will severely 
 test the expediency of our " village system " some quarter of a 
 
193 
 
 century hence. Arrangements which answer when the members 
 of the village commmiity are homogeneous, or related by ties of 
 blood, utterly fail on the introduction of alien speculators. The 
 moral control of head men and lumberdars is destroyed, and the 
 village constitution breaks up ; hence follows the necessity of 
 complete partition under Regulation XIX. of 1814, and a vast 
 increase of the number of small muhals, composed of (in many 
 instances) fields interlaced one with the other, threatening serious 
 inconveniences at a future period.' 
 
 " And, finally, as to the demoralizing effect of our control 
 upon the character of the native, we have presented to us by 
 Mr. Tucker, Commissioner of the 5tli Division, the most fearful 
 corroboration of what was asserted by Shore, and reiterated by 
 Campbell, by the latter of whom the admission is naively made, 
 apparently with an utter unconsciousness of its damaging effect 
 upon those whose Government he defends. Both these writers 
 assure us that the longer native states are under our control, the 
 more marked is the depreciation in native character. In the 
 course of comparatively few years, we succeed in destroying 
 whatever of truthfulness and honour they have by nature, and 
 substituting in its place habits of trickery, chicanery, and false- 
 hood. Not very flattering to ourselves this bitter truth and 
 humiliation of spirit, yet how well founded the assertion may 
 best be determined by a perusal of the next extract. 
 
 " ' Every native,' writes Mr. Tucker, ' will tell you that it is 
 impossible now-a-days to find an honest man — those who appear 
 so being only too great fools to cheat successfully. Our whole 
 system of law and government, and education, tends to make the 
 natives clever, irreligious, litigious scamps. No man can trust 
 another. Formerly a verbal promise was as good as a bond. 
 Then bonds became necessary. Now bonds go for nothing, and 
 no prudent banker will lend money without receiving landed 
 property in pledge- Thus almost every loan, which formerly no 
 one even heard of, generally produces a friendly suit and confes- 
 sion of judgment and transfer, as a prelude to a subsequent re- 
 transfer, on repayment, with an abundant crop of intermediate 
 suits for surplus mesne profits, &c., &c., which generally ruin 
 one party, and enrich only the vakeels and mooktars, and a few 
 very knowing and unscrupulous money-lenders. 
 
 o 
 
xJ^ 
 
 194 
 
 " ' The first and only cure is therefore to begin with the begin- 
 ning, and instil religious principle ; the old religions are tottering 
 to their fall, and the people, with all their ideas as to what is 
 truth unsettled, have no anchor whatever to ride by. They 
 more or less doubt their own religions, and there is no other hold 
 upon them. You have only to compare our new provinces with 
 our old. From the recently acquired Punjab, where the people 
 have had little of our Law and Government education, and are 
 comparatively truthful and honest, the population becomes worso 
 and worse as you descend lower and lower to our old possessions 
 of Calcutta and Madras, being, I believe, peculiarly bad where 
 the native mind has been most shaken by missionary efforts.' 
 
 " These passages will no doubt take many of our readers by 
 surprise. We beg them to recollect that they are not the exag- 
 gerations of the press, or the crude notions of hasty travellers, 
 but the official reports of the Government Collectors themselves ; 
 genuine, authentic, authoritative, authorized, plain spoken, un- 
 mistakeable, superior to all suspicion. We will not weaken the 
 effect they are calculated to produce, by a single word of com- 
 ment of our own." 
 
 Let us now look at the results of the village system in the 
 Presidency of Madras. 
 
 " We have tried the village system heretofore in Madras. 
 The following Is Mr. A. D. Campbell's account of it before the 
 Lords' Committee in 1852 : — 
 
 " * In a few villages, where the assessment of rent was least 
 excessive, for it was high in all, and the greater number of the 
 ryots of the village entered into the lease with the Collector, its 
 effect was more favourable than in others; but generally the 
 result was, that a few only of the villagers entered into the lease, 
 and then stood as temporary middlemen between the Government 
 and the rest of the peasantry. The inferior ryots were shut out 
 from all immediate communication with the Government officers; 
 oppressed by their more powerful brethren, the renters, who, in 
 good seasons, pocketed all the profits, and in bad, cast on them, 
 by extra assessment or saddling them with waste land, the 
 greater burthen of the leases ; so that at the expiration of the 
 ten years, the villages generally returned into the hands of the 
 Government in a lamentable state of impoverishment, and in 
 
195 
 
 some districts, particularly in Bellary, in a state, as described 
 by Mr. Chaplin and Mr. Thackeray, of absolute bankruptcy.' 
 
 " This may seem exaggeration, but the following facts, for the 
 correctness of which we vouch, shall speak for us, and justify 
 the opinion which we have formed. 
 
 " Let us pass over an interval of four lustres, and recollect 
 what account Mr. Halliday gave of the North- West system, 
 before the Commons' Committee in 1853. The reports of the 
 Collectors of the North- West are received as unquestionable 
 guides as to the working of the village system in that locality. 
 The followmg testimony of a Revenue officer who has superin- 
 tended the village system in Rajahmundry, is entitled to equal 
 respect as to its state and results in the Madras Presi- 
 dency : * Nominally,' writes this authority, * each individual 
 ryot is responsible for the aggregate assessment, his consent 
 having been obtained to the written agreement presented to 
 the revenue officer by the head men of the village — nominally, 
 his assent has been cheerfully given — and nominally, the 
 villagers proceed to make a distribution of the land and 
 shist. The theory of the joint rent system is admirable; it 
 supposes a fair rent payable by the collective village com- 
 munity, an engagement alike advantageous to themselves and 
 to the Government — it ignores any approach to discontent 
 on the part of the renters — it professes absence of interference on 
 the part of native officials — it looks for justice in place of oppres- 
 sion — it understands an equitable distribution of land and 
 assessment by the heads of villages, to whom all internal 
 arrangements are entrusted — and provides for the punctual dis- 
 charge of each instalment of the rent, by certain imposed penal- 
 ties. Practically, however, much of this is a delusion. It has 
 been found inexpedient, and, in fact, impossible, with any show 
 of justice, to collect, by extra contributions from the general 
 body, deficiencies on the part of individuals ; and although the 
 stipulation still exists, and is held in terrorem over the people, it 
 is very rarely resorted to. Were the head men alone made 
 answerable for the public demand, it would undoubtedly be their 
 interest to make a fair distribution of the lands of their village, 
 so as to ensure the realization of each man's quota — but as the 
 responsibility is general, so also is the indifference to a ncigh- 
 
 2 
 
196 
 
 bour's welfare, and the better class of ryot looks after himself, 
 and cares little for his poorer brother. The influential members 
 of the community are not bound by common ties to the poor 
 class of cultivators ; being of different castes, and regarding 
 them rather as a dead weight upon the village than as contri- 
 butors to the common weal, they not only afford them no 
 assistance, but are the very persons who inflict the injustice which 
 it ought to be their province to prevent. 
 
 " * The real responsibility then lies at the door of the Govern- 
 ment officer, and it is he who virtually fixes the rent of a village. 
 The eventual agreement of the villagers is not obtained without 
 much opposition, frequently with so strong an exhibition of 
 contumacy, that it requires no little firmness of purpose, and 
 arguments of no little force, to persuade the recusants to under- 
 take their engagements ; many villages there are where the 
 inhabitants pull well together, where lands are rich, the ryots for 
 the most part prosperous, and with these the difficulty is easily 
 overcome — my remark applies particularly to those villages 
 where the poor out-number the rich, and where the returns have 
 not kept pace with the increase of the demand. 
 
 " ' I do not mean to say that the minute inquiries, or the 
 amount of interference which it is believed take place in pure 
 ryotwarry districts, are always necessary or even attempted here, 
 — it is almost a distinction without a difference ; the head men 
 of the village are utterly unable to arrange the affairs of the 
 community without the assistance of these Government officers, 
 and the system has not as yet effectively provided against the 
 baneful effects of this interference. The grand object of all 
 concerned is to press the occupation of the land upon the village 
 at large by any means short of absolute force, and the amerkum 
 is not completed without considerable difficulty even then. State- 
 ments of the amerkum effected are forwarded by the tahsildar 
 every fortnight, showing how much land is already taken up, 
 and how much remains unappropriated, and he is urged to com- 
 plete the allotment at the earliest possible date. Those who held 
 land last year are supposed to retain it the next, their names are 
 often registered whether present or absent, and it is sometimes 
 found that land is allotted to deceased ryots, and to individuals 
 whose consent has never been obtained ; and therefore it is that 
 
197 
 
 the authority of the Collector and his European subordinates has 
 been foufld necessary to control, in some^ degree, the injustice 
 and oppression^ exercised towards the poor. At the completion 
 of the amerkum, one general list is given to the ryots describing 
 each man's holding, and is kept for reference ; and a useful prac- 
 tice lately introduced, has now, I believe, become general 
 throughout the district, of posting up a copy of this document in 
 the choultry or most conspicuous place in each village, to give 
 the people the means of checking any attempt, on the part of the 
 wealthy ryots, to saddle them with more land than they agreed 
 to take. 
 
 " ' No sooner is the amerkum completed, than care must be 
 taken to see that the ryots proceed with the cultivation of their 
 lands at the proper season. Here, again, if left to themselves 
 the cultivation would in many instances be entirely neglected — 
 the wealthier ryots often combine to induce the poorer ones to 
 abscond, hoping to evade the responsibility of the demand upon 
 the latter, whose lands they know to be the worst in the village 
 — for it may be understood as a general rule that the poorest 
 soils are left to the indigent ryots of the lowest castes.' 
 
 " A much longer detail is given of other kinds of interferences 
 which we refrain from quoting. 
 
 " ' I must confess,' proceeds our authority, ^ that I am unable 
 to comprehend how the joint rent system can be administered in 
 its integrity, in the absence of a hond-Jide village community. 
 The distinctions of caste must ever render the interference of the 
 Government officers necessary, and this interference is admitted 
 on all hands to be the bane of every system. My experience 
 convinces me that the ryots in the Delta talooks will not act in 
 one general body ; they neither understand nor appreciate the 
 term — joint responsibility. 
 
 " ' We have been working in the dark, we have no survey to 
 guide us, our village system has all the pernicious features of the 
 ryotwarry, without the same protection to the ryot ; individual 
 assessment is unequal, and the collective demand arbitrary. 
 The primitive system of village communities which has worked 
 so successfully in the North- West, would seem indeed to be 
 unsuited to the character and genius of the people of these pro- 
 vinces ; in general, there is no feeling of identity of interests 
 
198 
 
 between the lower and liiglier classes, except in deceiving the 
 Government authorities.' • 
 
 " Again, the details of the partition of land are supposed to 
 be settled by the villagers themselves. ' But this,' says the same 
 authority, ' is only the theory, as I have before explained — in 
 practice, it is not so. The period allowed for this apportionment 
 of the land and shist of the village has hitherto been, as in ryot- 
 war ry district, from the Jumabundy, which usually terminates in 
 March or April, till September. The village moonsiff, and other 
 influential ryots called pettendars, who are Government servants, 
 and receive emoluments for their services, are expected to effect 
 this without the aid of the talook authorities. But first a peon, 
 then a samutdar, and afterwards the tahsildar, are successively 
 called to their aid, and the matter is not finally arranged without 
 constant references to the European officer, whose authority is 
 necessary to adjust disputes and differences.' 
 
 " We say nothing of the * challenge,' because it is not an 
 essential of the joint rent system, and is, we believe, the mere 
 crotchet of an individual brain ; though it would not be well to 
 pass altogether in silence a plan apparently devised with a 
 diabolical ingenuity to scatter distrust broadcast, and entirely 
 prevent any effort at improvement.. What says the same 
 authority ? — 
 
 " * In addition to the uncertainty which such an arrangement 
 involves, another check, designed indeed for the protection of the 
 poorer class, is the right of ' challenge ' which has long been 
 recognised in this district. After the allotment of shists, any ryot 
 who imagines that his wealthier neighbour's field is more lightly 
 assessed than his own, offers to take it at a higher rate, claiming 
 a corresponding reduction for his poorer holding. The party 
 challenged must either consent to the enhanced demand, or he 
 must surrender his holding to the challenger, and put up with 
 the poor field on the reduced assessment.' 
 
 " The following is the conclusion at which the author arrives : 
 
 " ' My account of the working of the joint rent plainly indi- 
 cates, that in many villages there is a sort of compulsion from 
 first to last — nothing seems to go on without the interference of 
 the Government officers — and the village machinery, so to speak, 
 cannot work without their assistance.' 
 
199 
 
 " And again : — 
 
 « f Why is it that the poor man and the pariah are so anxious 
 for employment on the public works, and afraid of putting their 
 names to the register of lands ? Simply because they know 
 that their rights will not be respected, and that they cannot 
 expect impartial justice in the talook cutcherry.' 
 
 " It is impossible to indite a more sweeping condemnation of 
 the joint rent system than these authoritative facts furnish forth. 
 There appears to be an equal amount of minute interference 
 with that which has been necessary for the bastard ryotwaiTy 
 system, with all its restrictions and excrescences; while no man 
 who understands the real meaning of ryotwarry — that is to 
 say, that each individual shall be lord of all within his ring 
 fence without any extraneous intermeddling — could venture to 
 contrast the hardships to which a joint responsibility gives 
 rise, with the freedom of action which flows from individual 
 holding." 
 
 I now come to the ryotwarry ; and I trust that the following 
 papers, which Colonel Arthur Cotton has declared to contain the 
 best account of the ryotwarry that he knows, may throw abun- 
 dant light upon this important topic. They were written, toge- 
 ther with the matter already quoted, in a controversy with the 
 " Friend of India " upon certain changes which that journal pro- 
 posed to introduce in the tenure of Madras. They meet the three 
 objections constantly urged against the ryotwarry. 
 
 First. As to the ryots' security of tenure : — 
 
 " * The objects we conceive to be desirable in Madras,' says the 
 * Friend of India,' ' are threefold : to render the tenure as secure 
 as is consistent with the due collection of the revenue ; to afford 
 an inducement for the investment of capital in the land ; and to 
 create a class, or rather suffer a class to grow, who shall have the 
 means and the leisure for permanent improvement.' 
 
 " Let us deal with these objects in the same order. By security 
 of tenure, we presume is meant, security to the ryot or occupant 
 of the land ; and if so, we assert, first, that, practically, the ryot 
 has such security at present ; and, secondly, that, theoretically, 
 the ryotwarry is perfectly compatible with the largest possible 
 estate, that of a fee simple. 
 
 " In proof of our first assertion, we will proceed to cite a few 
 
200 
 
 autliorities. Mr. Bourdillon, than whom there is no Letter 
 authority, writes as follows : — 
 
 " * Again, it is objected that land is constantly changing hold- 
 ers, and it appears to be supposed by some, that every field is 
 returned on the Collector's hands every year, and is leased out 
 again by him, to the highest bidder or to the first applicant, or 
 else is forced on some one who does not want it. This is wholly 
 imaginary. The gj^eat hulk of the land is permanently in the same 
 hands^ and passes from, father to son as certainly and as securely as 
 under any settlement whatever. A proportion of the land changes 
 owners every year, as in every country in the world ; but by no 
 means a considerable part, and even of this only a part is aban- 
 doned. Part is bought and sold, part is transferred by one ryot 
 to another, and perhaps the smallest portion of the three is that 
 which is given up altogether. 
 
 " ' It is a defect in the arrangements of the ryotwar system, 
 that though the tenure of land is thus permanent, yet ostensibly 
 only a yearly title is given. But though in form the table is only 
 yearly, i. e. the document given to the ryot (the puttah) is only 
 for the year, yet it is a rule universally recognized and acted on, 
 without any exception, that so long as a ryot pays the assessment of 
 his la7id he cannot be deprived. This rule is so thoroughly esta- 
 blished, so antecedent to all other rules, that I doubt whether it is 
 to be found in terms in the Hookumnamah or settlement regu- 
 lations of any district ; though all such of those regulations, in 
 every district, as affect the tenure of land, inevitably imply it. 
 
 " ' Certainly in practice the formal defect of title is not felt. 
 Land is freely bought and sold, and capital is freely invested in 
 it, (in the digging of wells, as well as in other improvements) 
 without the least hesitation on the ground of any supposed absence 
 of permanency in tenure. And I believe it would be impossible to 
 bring forward a single instance in which a ryot had forborne to make 
 such an outlay, from any apprehension of that nature.'' " 
 
 " And this is known by every body practically acquainted with 
 the Madras ryotwarry districts to be the simple fact, however 
 startling it may appear to those theoretical ' reconstructors ' 
 at a distance, who undertake to fit us with remedies, notwith- 
 standing they have never set foot upon our shores. 
 
 " The late civil engineer of North Arcot, bears testimony to 
 
201 
 
 the same fact. One of the trustees of Patcheappah's Charity, 
 having questioned the ryots on some of the charity estates, brings 
 back the same report. A gentleman, but lately returned from a 
 tour in the Mofussil, with whom we have conferred, bears pre- 
 cisely similar testimony. We may add our own, which extends 
 to various districts ; but what is the use of heaping up evidence 
 upon a point which no one acquainted with the facts, we presume, 
 will dispute ? 
 
 " But lest it should be urged that we have merely cited 
 assertion, let us add a fact which speaks for itself and is conclusive. 
 The issue of the annual lease, or puttah, was intended to give 
 security and confidence to the ryots. In many districts it is not 
 the practice to issue fresh puttahs except when there has been a 
 change of tenure, either with respect to extent or tenant, and it is 
 not found that the ryots come forward to complain of the with- 
 holding the evidence of their title ; on the contrary, a great mass 
 of useless labour is saved to the Collector, and the practice ought 
 to be made universal. 
 
 " In Canara and Malabar, however, the ryots cannot be made 
 to take their annual puttahs. In 1848, an order was issued to 
 the district authorities to issue puttahs to all the ryots, but the 
 measure was found impracticable, the ryots not caring to take the 
 documents. What does this signify, except that there is a well 
 understood agreement between the ryot and the Government, 
 that so long as he pays his kist, he is secure of his tenure ; hence 
 he wants no annual assurance of his lease, no better grant than 
 what he already holds ; and that such tenure is compatible with 
 the collection of the Government revenue, is proved by the fact 
 that in Canara and Malabar, where the assessment is moderate, 
 we hear neither of torture to extort the dues, nor of balances un- 
 collected. 
 
 " Our second assertion requires somewhat more elucidation. 
 For it may seem at first sight paradoxical to the mere superficial 
 inquu'er, that a ryot can never hold in fee simple. That such 
 has not been the admitted practice, we do not deny ; but if the 
 ryotwarry system, as counter-distinguished from the village 
 system and zemindarry, simply means a personal settlement be- 
 tween the Government and each individual landholder, whereas 
 in the villafre settlement the Government deals in the mass with 
 
202 
 
 each knot of villagers, and in the zemindarry, tlirougli the means 
 of a middle man, it follows that there is nothing in the ryotwarry 
 system which precludes the landholder from receiving his land in 
 fee, when once he has agreed to pay the amount of land-tax 
 assessed upon it. The annual settlement is all in favour of the 
 ryots, because, while by the terms of settlement, the ryot, paying 
 his assessment, cannot be ousted from his land, on the other 
 hand, his contract to hold cannot be enforced against him for 
 more than one year, when he may throw up the whole or any 
 part of his holding that he pleases. The thirteenth rule of Read's 
 proclamation to the ryots in Salem, on the 10th December, 1796, 
 (which Dykes calls the * Ryots' Charter ') is as follows : — 
 
 " ' Rule 13. — Time prescribed for the settlements of annual 
 tenure, 
 
 " ' Since the obligations entered into between the Circar and the 
 yearly tenants are binding upon them for the current year only ; 
 to the end they may extend or reduce their farms according to 
 their circumstances, by retaining or rejecting certain fields, as 
 they may choose, from year to year, that makes it necessary for 
 them always to declare, during the ploughing season, what they 
 intend to cultivate, that mutual agreements be exchanged as here- 
 after directed, and the rents of every farm duly collected.' " 
 
 " And, singularly enough, Munro, in his letter to Colonel 
 Read, dated 18th July, 1797, writes as follows: — 
 
 " ' Revenue, having reached its lowest point of depression, 
 will, after next year, begin to rise regularly and uniformly ; the 
 ryots having changed every field that they wish to get rid of, and, 
 having chosen such as they like, will consider their farms as an 
 inalienable property, and will begin in earnest to improve them 
 with their whole means ; revenue will be permanent ; settlements 
 will consist merely in adding the amount of the new lands de- 
 manded by the ryots to the rent of the former year, and, in some 
 few instances, making a deduction of fields left unoccupied on 
 account of death or failure ; and the ryots may have their lands 
 made over to them in perpetuity, from time to time, in proportion as 
 they demand them.^ 
 
 " Thus expressly recognizing as part and parcel of his intended 
 system from time to time, and as the ryots required it, handing 
 over to them the largest possible tenure which the law knows. 
 
203 
 
 How can it be said, in the teeth of these facts, that the ryotwarry 
 system does not admit of a tenure at once consistent with the 
 security of the ryot and the collection of the Government 
 revenue?" 
 
 Secondly. As to the inducement to the ryot to invest his 
 capital in the land. The one thing needful here is to lower the 
 assessment. Where that remains at its present rate, the people 
 are impoverished ; where it has been reduced, the people have 
 sprang up with almost magical rapidity into prosperity. On this 
 topic, take the following : — 
 
 " The second object which the ' Friend of India' wishes to 
 secure the Madras ryot, is to afford him an inducement for the 
 investment of capital in the land, a consummation most devoutly 
 to be wished for. It does exist in some quarters ; it may easily 
 become the rule instead of the exception for the whole surface of 
 the land ; and the method to make it so is easy and patent. The 
 tap-root of the evil is the exorbitant assessment. Whenever that 
 has been lightened, the ryots have readily invested their capital 
 in the land; and we venture to enunciate as an axiom, that 
 whenever the land is saleable, such an inducement immediately 
 and necessarily exists. At present, assessment is so grossly dis- 
 proportionate to the productive powers of the land, it is so un- 
 equally and irregularly fixed, that it swallows up nearly all the 
 profits. The land by itself affords Government no security for 
 the kist, because it is unsaleable ; therefore the revenue officers 
 are obliged to look to the crop for their security, and hence a 
 host of consequent evils. Hence, the necessity of fixing various 
 periods for payment of the annual land-tax in instalments ; hence, 
 the interference of the tahsildar and his myrmidons to watch the 
 exact quantity of grain thrashed out to satisfy the approaching 
 demand of revenue ; hence, the impossibility of the ryot seeking 
 his own market for his produce; hence, his subjection to the 
 soucar and bunyan, to whom he is ever forced to have recourse 
 for advances ; hence, his obligation to mortgage his newly reaped 
 crops at a price below what he could obtain in market overt ; 
 hence, pauperism, despondency, servility, almost all the debasing 
 peculiarities in the character of the ryot. Example is ever better 
 tlian precept. Let us, therefore, illustrate what we mean. In the 
 Rajahmundry district, in the talook of Oondy, the tahsildar has 
 
204 
 
 been actually seen going his rounds to collect the instalment of 
 kist, accompanied by a soucar who purchased the grain from the 
 ryot at six rupees per candy, at a time when it was selling on 
 the coast for nine rupees. Whether the tahsildar shared in this 
 plunder, it is hard to say ; but he made no secret of the act, and 
 asserted that, without recourse to this measure, the ryots could 
 not find money wherewith to pay the Government demand. We 
 need not pause to depict the lamentable consequences of such a 
 state of things ; nay, the ryots are not permitted even to thrash 
 out the whole of their crops at one and the same time, because 
 the tahsildar cannot trust the residue in their hands, after de- 
 ducting only what he requires for the present instalment. In the 
 words of Mr. Bourdillon: — 
 
 " * In almost all the ryotwar districts, the ryots are prohibited 
 from cutting their crops without leave from the tahsildar, or his 
 local representative- the turrufdar, or the head of the village at 
 least. I state this generally, but exceptions are made in favour of 
 those known to be wealthy, or who are in favour with the tah- 
 sildar. When cut, a part of the grain, about twenty-five per 
 cent., is allowed to be taken by the holder ; but the remainder 
 must be stored on the village thrashing floor under charge of the 
 watcher, till the ryot either pays the tax of the field or gives 
 adequate security to do so. The taliary, or watchman, guards it 
 from being taken away by the owners ; and refractory parties 
 removing their grain at night and without leave, as they occa- 
 sionally do, are fined by the collector. In some districts a tur- 
 rufdar makes an estimate of the crop of each field before it is 
 allowed to be cut, which estimate is lodged in the talook cut- 
 cherry ; and after the crop is reaped and stored, none is allowed 
 to be removed without an order from him.' 
 
 " This is the state of things even where the boasted village 
 system is in force. That has not been found to work any bene- 
 ficial change ; nor could it, or any other system, so long as the 
 assessment continues utterly ruinous, and prohibitive of all accu- 
 mulation of capital. 
 
 " From the article on Canara in the ' Calcutta Review,' and 
 that most timely publication. No. XXII. of the ' Madras 
 Records,' which gives us the papers on the revision of assess- 
 ment in South Arcot, we may gain a more correct and i)rac- 
 
205 
 
 tical view of the real merits of the case. There we see 
 the proved results of lightening the assessment without any 
 change of tenure, and learn that the ryotwarry is perfectly 
 compatible with the most elastic spring towards prosperity, the 
 moment that which has alone restrained its upward tendency 
 is removed. It is the exorbitant assessment which has neces- 
 sitated the minute interference with the ryot at all seasons of 
 the year, and during every agricultural operation. We have 
 overlaid our task with a mass of superfluous and injurious la- 
 bour ; we have called for accounts voluminous beyond all belief, 
 and accumulated trouble by declaring that they must be kept in 
 a language which neither the ryot nor tlie civilian can under- 
 stand; we have departed from our pledged faith to the people 
 not to impose additional taxes upon them for improvements the 
 result of their own capital ; but it is no more fair to charge these 
 excrescences on the ryotwarry system, than it is to bring them 
 forward as arguments against it, now that they have been finally 
 abandoned. 
 
 " Before proceeding to examine the results now before us of 
 lowering the assessment, we wish to deal with the * Friend of 
 India's ' suggestions. The ' Friend of India ' writes as follows : — 
 
 " ^ We w^ould first have the Government of Madras appoint 
 one or more commissions to revise the rate of the assessment. 
 Their object should be, if possible, to equalize the ratio between 
 produce and taxation throughout the presidency. One district 
 should not be taxed more heavily than another, — Bellary than 
 Guntoor, Madura than Salem. The rates thus fixed, no sub- 
 sequent inquiry into black land or red land, loam or sand, cotton 
 land or paddy field, would be required. The tax would be 
 assessed at a fixed portion — say, one-half — of the gross produce ; 
 if the soil is bad, it would be light ; if rich, heavy ; but in any 
 case a subsequent enquiry would, except in one contingency, be 
 needless. Government should then pledge itself formally not to 
 increase the rates for fifteen years. This would allow time for 
 the operation of another suggestion, which is the key of the 
 whole plan. The fixed rate should be assessed not on individual 
 ryots, not on John Smith or Streenevassa Chetty, but on the 
 patch of land. So long as it is paid, no attention should be given 
 to any changes of proprietorship.' 
 
206 
 
 ** Before ' revising the rate of assessment ' for which the 
 ' Friend of India ' proposes * one or more commissions/ it is 
 absolutely essential that there sliould be a revenue survey 
 conducted on scientific principles by honest agents. This lies at 
 the bottom of the whole reform. It has been effected in the 
 Bombay Presidency, throughout the Deccan, and in the North- 
 West Provinces ; and it is as indispensable in Madras as in either 
 of the above-named localities. It was only the existence of a toler- 
 ably accurate survey in South Arcot which enabled Mr. Maltby 
 to carry out in that district his reform in the assessment, to which 
 it is, in the language of the law, ' a condition precedent.' 
 
 " The ' Friend of India ' says that it should be the object to 
 equalize the rates between production and taxation throughout 
 the Madras Presidency. One district should not be taxed more 
 heavily than another — Bellary than Guntoor, Madura than Salem; 
 and tliis with the most imperturbable gravity. He ignores all 
 the circumstances in which the districts differ, regarding only 
 those in which they assimilate ; a fallacy which has ere now led 
 to grievous blunders and absurdities. We, on the other hand, 
 maintain that each district, and each plot of ground in that 
 district, should be taxed with reference to its own circum- 
 stances ; and that there may exist very good and sufficient 
 reasons for exacting a higher assessment from Guntoor with its 
 sea-board, than from Bellary without a practicable road, or more 
 than one arched bridge. What would be a light assessment in 
 one district, might be grievously burdensome in another; and 
 such is the effect of proximity to markets and means of commu- 
 nication, that in Rajahmundry, villages fifty miles away from the 
 sea have been ruined by an assessment borne with facility by the 
 dwellers on the coast. At Coconada, grain has been selling at 
 nine rupees, which only fetched six in the Woondy talook ; so 
 that a distance of fifty miles suffices to create a difference of 
 one-third in prices. In the year 1797, cotton could be conveyed 
 from Mirzapore to Calcutta, a distance of 500 miles, at seven 
 rupees a ton; the present cost of carrying it from Bellary to 
 Madras, 283 miles, is 500 rupees a ton. Surely, regard must be 
 had to the circumstances of each place in fixing its legitimate 
 assessment. Any other plan must operate detrimentally to the 
 interests of the Government, or the ryots, or both. Either the 
 
207 
 
 one must give up what it might fairly claim, or the others must 
 submit to what they cannot possibly bear. On this subject we 
 may refer to Colonel Arthur Cotton's work ; and we extract a 
 short passage from Mr. Bourdillon, which may, perhaps, make 
 people reflect on the possible consequences attending difference 
 in locality, facility of communication, and such small matters : — 
 
 ^' ' Tanjore contains 4,000 square miles, and yields in land 
 revenue alone thirty-nine lacks ; Bellary contains 13,000 square 
 miles, and yields of land revenue twenty-two lacks, being for 
 equal areas only one- sixth of the revenue of Tanjore. But I 
 will omit the consideration of what vast tracts in Bellary are 
 wholly waste and unreclaimed, (and in part, indeed, irreclaima- 
 ble), and will compare the cultivated areas only. The total 
 extent cultivated in Bellary in the revenue year 1259 (1849-50) 
 was 14,37,749 cawnies; and as the revenue realized was 
 22,52,334, the average per cawny was only a rupee and a half; 
 in Tanjore, in the same year, the ryotwar cultivation was 
 6,37,360 cawnies, and the collections 38,74,000 rupees; the 
 average to the cawny of actual cultivation was therefore above 
 six rupees, or more than four times the rate of Bellary.* And 
 yet land in Bellary is an unsaleable commodity, while in 
 Tanjore it is a valuable commodity ; and in every indication of 
 a sound and prosperous condition Tanjore has an immeasurable 
 advantage. 
 
 " ^ And this difference in its favour is not due to any supe- 
 riority in natural fertility ; of the two provinces, I imagine the 
 soil of Bellary is the better. What, then, is the cause ? It is 
 mainly this, and no other, viz., that in Tanjore the state has, for 
 ages, laid out a portion of its income, first, in bringing water to 
 irrigate the soil, and, latterly, in making roads to transport its 
 produce. If that had not been done, Tanjore would, at this 
 moment, be no richer than Bellary or Guntoor. This example 
 may serve to show that the way to make our provinces flourish, 
 and to give land a value, is not to reduce the land-tax, but to 
 devote a portion of the produce of it — and a portion only will be 
 
 * The capacity of the cawny is of no consequence in this comparison, being the 
 same on both sides of it; but I may mention that the cawny contains 6,400 square 
 yards, being, within a fraction, one-third larger than the acre, which contains 4,840 
 square yards. 
 
208 
 
 amply sufficient — to the creation of tliose means which, on the 
 one hand, multiply the resources of the producer, and, on the 
 otlier, bring him near to a market* 
 
 " The * Friend of India ' suggests that assessment should be 
 fixed for a period of fifteen years, at the expiration of which 
 it might be open to the Government to raise it. Has the 
 * Friend of India ' lost sight of our pledged faith, that so long 
 as the ryot pays his fixed kist, the land is his for ever, without 
 any further advance ? And if there is one thing more than 
 another calculated to hinder the investment of capital in the 
 soil, it is the feeling of uncertainty engendered in the minds 
 of the ryots by the fear that Government may raise their 
 kist as their land becomes more productive. This has operated 
 to a great extent upon the ryots under the Godavery Delta, 
 and precisely the same argument is used by European capi- 
 talists, who ask how can they be expected to speculate in coffee 
 planting on the Indian hills, where after twenty years they 
 know not what fresh terms the Government may enforce, 
 whilst in Ceylon they may purchase the soil outright for 
 ever ? One plan would be this : — let Government at once fix 
 the maximum assessment which it ever intends to talce under 
 any future circumstances ; and when it is found inexpedient 
 at once to exact the full amount, let it take the minimum, 
 raising it as the resources of the land are developed, and the 
 landholders rise in wealth. With such a system a feeling of 
 comparative security might be at once engendered, whilst all 
 proper and prudent consideration will be shown for the existing 
 condition of the ryots and the soil. 
 
 " Further, the Government, says the ' Friend of India,' should 
 take fifty per cent, of the gross produce. Was there ever so 
 lamentable a self-exposure as this. What has been the result of 
 taking half the produce from that unfortunate district. South 
 Arcot, so highly taxed above any other in the Madras Presi- 
 dency ? It is universally allowed by all revenue authorities in 
 the Madras Presidency that 33^ per cent., or one-third of the 
 gross produce, is the extreme limit of demand. It was for this 
 purpose that Munro recommended a reduction of 25 per cent, 
 in the ceded districts, in order that the rates might be brought 
 down to the standard of ^d. of the gross produce, which recom- 
 
209 
 
 mendatlon was carried into effect, though "upon a totally 
 erroneous and unproductive principle. This is the maximum 
 which the Board of Revenue has repeatedly laid down in its 
 instructions on the subject; this is the maximum which Mr. 
 Mai thy attains in his late revision ; and it was thus that 
 Munro expressed himself on this topic before the Parliamentary 
 Committee : — ^ I have stated in my Report of 15th August, 1807, 
 that when the rate of taxation exceeds one-third of the produce, 
 land, generally spealdng, is of little or no value, and is often 
 abandoned. I have also given it as my opinion that when so 
 high a rate of revenue as one-half of the actual produce is 
 exacted, persons loho are not actual cultivators cannot occupy 
 Circar lands icithout loss.^ And in the Government Minute 
 of Consultation on Mr. Maltby's Report, we find the following : — 
 ^ They hold in common, it is believed, with all authorities of any 
 weiglit, that a general assessment of 50 per cent, of the gross pro- 
 duce upon botli irrigated and unirrigated land, must of itself con- 
 stitute a tax which neither South Arcot nor any other district of 
 Southern India can bear, and the ryot at the same time prosper.' 
 " Further ; let us take the proved results of a tax of 50 per 
 cent, of the gross produce. In South Arcot, we quote from the 
 report of Mr. Maltby, out of 1,76,167 cawnies of irrigated land, 
 there were ^6^55 lying waste ; out of 10,64,880 of dry land, 
 8,15,993; and out of 4,731 of garden land, 3,226; or 54 per 
 cent, waste of irrigated, 77 per cent, of dry, and 74 of garden. 
 Of the best, or garden, soil, 500 cawnies have been used for 
 building sites : the district does not grow grain enough for its 
 own consumption ; ' the best lands now lie waste, whilst numbers 
 of its inhabitants seek subsistence in foreign emigration.' In the 
 words of the Board of Revenue, ' The extensive emigration 
 which has been yearly going on amongst an industrious and 
 agricultural population, from a district where there is an abund- 
 ance of available waste land, and many outlets for the surplus 
 produce, must, in the absence of any other adequate cause, be 
 attributed, the Board think, to the excessive character of the 
 land assessment, which does not admit of their earning a living 
 from the cultivation of their own native fields.' Such is the 
 picture of what the Madras Presidency would be if the pro- 
 posed reduction were carried out ! " 
 
 p 
 
210 
 
 The results of heavy and light assessment are next to be 
 shown by practical examples, and for this purpose Madras has 
 to be contrasted with other territories : — 
 
 " The * Friend of India ' has chosen to compare Arracan 
 with Madras, and though the comparison is mifair, it is very 
 valuable and should be accepted ; but let Canara be compared 
 with Arracan, and we have no reason to fear the result. 
 
 " There are two countries in which the tenure is identical, but 
 one of these countries is prosperous and the other declining. 
 The nature of the tenure, then, does not account for the dif- 
 ference, and the cause must be sought elsewhere. 
 
 *^ When any particular branch of industry in England is in a 
 declining state, or when the country generally is suffering, public 
 attention is usually drawn to the pressure of taxation as the 
 cause to which the evil may most probably be attributed ; and it 
 is most extraordinary that in India we should go on discussing 
 the manner in which the tax gatherer makes his rounds, until we 
 lose sight of the amount of assessment that he comes to demand, 
 
 *'' The parallel between Madras and Arracan is much more 
 close than the ' Friend of India ' is aware of; in fact, every alleged 
 discrepancy may be excluded as erroneous. There is no differ- 
 ence of principle as to the right of possession. In Madras, as in 
 Arracan, the peasant is recognised as proprietor — and by no 
 one has this principle been more staunchly contended for than 
 by Sir T. Munro. The peasant of Madras is as much at liberty 
 to contract and expand his cultivation in good and bad seasons as 
 the peasant of Arracan, and, what is more, he does so. The 'Friend 
 of India * says that it is only necessary for the Madras Govern- 
 ment to say that it will not raise its rent for ten years, to make 
 Madi-as as prosperous as Arracan. The Madras Government 
 has done much more. It has said that it will not raise its rent 
 for ever ; so long as a peasant pays the rent of a field, so long 
 he is the proprietor of it. If it is not to his advantage to continue 
 to cultivate the field, he is at liberty to throw it up, and the 
 demand for rent ceases. Whether, when thus rejected by the 
 owner, the land is available for any other cultivator, or whether 
 the previous cultivator has a lien upon it for one or more years, 
 is a matter of local custom, and varies in different districts. The 
 correct principle most certainly is, that if there is any party 
 
211 
 
 willing to cultivate tlie land, the owner must either pay the 
 assessment or resign it, and the ^ Allod ' of ten years in Arracan 
 is a faulty principle. The proper test whether a peasant is 
 justified in leaving his land fallow is, whether there is any one 
 willing and able to turn it to account, so that it shall yield sub- 
 sistence to the community and revenue to the State. If there is 
 not, the peasant can himself resume it when it is profitable to do 
 so ; if there is, he has no right to withhold the land from cultiva- 
 tion unless with the view of making it, by a fallow, doubly profit- 
 able the next year, and then he is fairly bound to pay the rent. 
 But as the privilege is, as stated above, prevalent in some districts, 
 it does not account for the difference between Arracan and Madras. 
 
 ^' In Madras, as in Arracan, the rent for a year once paid, 
 ' the excuse for the tahsildar's interference ceases.' * The constant 
 disputes with the Collector — iliQ measuring of this patch and the 
 examination of that ' — are imaginary. The ryot pays the whole 
 rent or none; wherever the ryotwarry principle is fairly in 
 operation, each field bears its assessment, and the peasant either 
 cultivates the field and pays the assessment, or resigns the field 
 and ceases to be responsible for the assessment. 
 
 " How then is the difference between Madras and Arracan to 
 be accounted for ? The answer is plain ; because in one the land 
 assessment is light, and in the other it is heavy. 
 
 '^ In proof of this a comparison should be instituted between 
 the taxation of the land in one country and in the other. The 
 exact amount of the assessment in Arracan we do not know, but 
 believe that the province resembles Canara in possessing a fertile 
 soil and an unfailing monsoon, and that, notwithstanding these 
 advantages, the assessment on wet lands does not exceed 3 rupees 
 an acre on the best lands ; at least that is the case in Chittagong. 
 
 " But we know what the assessment in Madras is, and as one 
 instance is more forcible than many general assertions, let us take 
 the followino; ; — 
 
 " In Salem a piece of land measuring two acres and one-fifth 
 has lately been put up to sale for an arrear of revenue. The 
 assessment upon that field is 19-6-0 rupees, or 9^ rupees the 
 acre. Now the question is. Is the assessment on the land in 
 Arracan equally heavy ? But it may be said that this may have 
 been land of unusual fertility, e^nd the mere amount of the 
 
 P 2 
 
212 
 
 a5?sossment proves notlilng at all. Let iis then sec what the land 
 sold for. It sold at a Government public auction, which confers 
 the best title that can be obtained, for 15 rupees, or less than the 
 assessment of one yeai'. So that the Government tax of 19 rupees 
 and 6 annas was undoubtedly within a fraction of the whole rent 
 of the land. Now the question is, Is the Government in Arracan 
 tiikino- the whole rent of the land? If not, the difference of taxa- 
 
 o 
 
 tion accounts for the different conditions of the two countries. 
 
 " Let it, then, be added that much of the land in Madras is 
 assessed from 9 up to 50 rupees, and that a great portion is lying 
 waste because the assessment is more than the rent, and the 
 argument is complete. 
 
 " Let the Madras peasant be taxed as lightly as the peasant 
 of Arracan. It will be time to attempt a ' change of tenure ' 
 in IMadras when the simple remedy of a reduction of taxation 
 has been tried and has failed. 
 
 " The ' Friend of India ' is greatly mistaken when he says, 
 ' by the universal consent of all men, officials included, the evils 
 which exist in Madras are traceable to its peculiar tenure.* He 
 would have been right if he had said, by the universal consent 
 of all who have studied the subject with candour, the evils of 
 Madras are ascribed to the enormous pressure of its taxation, 
 and wherever that pressure has been relieved the tenure has 
 proved to be as admirably adapted to the w^ants of the people 
 in Madras as it has in Arracan. 
 
 " In the Deccan, under the new assessment, the rates of lands 
 are as follow : — In Poonali something less than Is. an acre. 
 In Indapore the average is 8d. an acre, and in Dharwar, the best 
 class land, the famous black cotton soil, fetches on an average 
 but Is. 9d., the very highest being let at less than 3s. an acre. 
 This may be as convenient a place as any to exhibit the results 
 of this enlightened policy. Since the survey, the increase of 
 average brought into cultivation up to 1854 is as follows : — 
 
 Poonah 17.0,232 Acres. 
 
 Ahmednuggur 260,000 „ 
 
 Shokpore 456,645 „ 
 
 Dhanvar 292,756 „ 
 
 Total 1,188,633 
 
 and reckoning Nassich and Belgaum, an addition of a million and 
 a-half of acres has been made to the cultivation of the province. 
 
21; 
 
 The Coltectorate of Poonah is divided into eight talookp, and the following tabic of four, 
 comprising eight years before and eight yeare after the survey, shows remarkably, first, the 
 actual collections of the year as compared with the estimated settlement ; secondly, how 
 " remissions " have gradually dwindled ; and thirdly, how balances have vanished. 
 
 ^ 
 
 ct <o 
 
 O c» 
 
 l-H O 
 
 OrH 
 
 C5 O 
 
 O CT) 
 
 05 o 
 
 o a^ 
 
 r>. Tf 
 
 O CO 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 l-H r-H 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o CO 
 
 o o> 
 
 CO lo 
 
 O 00 
 
 l>. o 
 
 O l> 
 
 lO o> 
 
 o CO 
 
 ^ o 
 
 O CO 
 
 -~ . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 So 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 g § 
 
 m CO 
 
 O CO 
 
 <N -H 
 
 o <-< 
 
 rj. O 
 
 o ■* 
 
 00 CO 
 
 O'* 
 
 i^ CO 
 
 O Oi 
 
 
 00 r- 
 
 o 
 
 O) CO 
 
 CO 
 
 CO (N 
 
 
 O (M 
 
 r^ 
 
 r-H CO 
 
 CI 
 
 .53 "^ 
 
 t-^r-^ 
 
 o 
 
 aj_,- 
 
 CO 
 
 co^ 
 
 s_ 
 
 o^ 
 
 oi 
 
 ^..°l 
 
 TTi 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 of CO 
 
 co" 
 
 co" 
 
 csT 
 
 ,— r 
 
 p-T 
 
 lo 
 
 ■^ 
 
 lo'co*" 
 
 r— 1 
 
 -^ 
 
 "^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 c^ 
 
 Cl 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 •1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1-^ 
 
 1— ( 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■—1 
 
 <-* 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 o o 
 
 O CO 
 
 o CO 
 
 (M ^ 
 
 o CO 
 
 CD t^ 
 
 O r^ 
 
 i::'-^ 
 
 O o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 C 
 
 coo 
 
 C CO 
 
 rl CO 
 
 OJ> 
 
 CO o 
 
 O (M 
 
 CT) C3: 
 
 O O 
 
 CO Tj< 
 
 O o 
 
 
 
 
 '"' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 l-H 1— 1 
 
 
 <-* CO 
 
 O CO 
 
 CO uo 
 
 O 00 
 
 05CO 
 
 oco 
 
 o C^ 
 
 O 00 
 
 ■* CO 
 
 O O 
 
 .2 
 
 -* rfi 
 
 
 O) o 
 
 CO 
 
 CX) 00 
 
 
 CO t^ 
 
 »o 
 
 CO i.O 
 
 
 S 
 
 CD lO 
 
 o 
 
 J> Tf 
 
 CO 
 
 CN^O 
 
 l> 
 
 •— ^co 
 
 
 CO Oi 
 
 Oi 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ CO 
 
 CO 
 
 TjToi 
 
 lO 
 
 r-'^C>.' 
 
 CO 
 
 o: oj 
 
 Oi 
 
 co'oT 
 
 CO 
 
 CO TT 
 
 CO 
 
 co^t^ 
 
 o^ 
 
 
 C7i 
 
 r^ 
 
 CO 
 
 o -^ 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i-T 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o,-r 
 
 CO 
 
 
 i>o 
 
 »oo 
 
 ^ O 
 
 r^O 
 
 (N O 
 
 coo 
 
 00 t^ 
 
 r-. O 
 
 CO o 
 
 Ili ® 
 
 tj-i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 iO (N 
 
 a o 
 
 r-. O 
 
 rf O 
 
 Oi ^ 
 
 >o o 
 
 Tt< Tf 
 
 lO O 
 
 ■* lO 
 
 CO O 
 
 o . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 l> «0 
 
 r^ o 
 
 l-H -* 
 
 CO O 
 
 CO »n 
 
 Ci o 
 
 CO (M 
 
 COO 
 
 CO r- 
 
 CO O 
 
 O CO 
 
 ■o 
 
 CO r^ 
 
 ■^ 
 
 .-H lO 
 
 CO 
 
 OO 00 
 
 Oi 
 
 Tf 1— 
 
 CO 
 
 'a^ 
 
 O CO 
 
 co^ 
 
 lO 05 
 
 •* 
 
 C^ <N 
 
 >o 
 
 CO r-H 
 
 ■^ 
 
 Oi o^ 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO o 
 
 t>." 
 
 t-Toi 
 
 CJ 
 
 o"co 
 
 of 
 
 CO O! 
 
 '" o 
 
 cjToo" 
 
 03 
 
 
 <N,t-; 
 
 "*^ 
 
 Oi '^, 
 
 o 
 
 r-H t^ 
 
 CD 
 
 t^ C^ 
 
 lO 
 
 O CM 
 
 
 ■^ 
 
 n>^ 
 
 c<r 
 
 CO^O 
 
 •^ 
 
 toVo 
 
 
 >* lO 
 
 
 ^'^* 
 
 «o 
 
 c 
 
 in 
 
 o CO 
 
 o o 
 
 lO CO 
 
 ^ o 
 
 I> c> 
 
 o o 
 
 05CC 
 
 O CO 
 
 t>. l> 
 
 o o 
 
 >— 1 1> 
 
 r-H O 
 
 05 CO 
 
 o o 
 
 r-> O 
 
 O r-l 
 
 r-l a 
 
 O (M 
 
 •M ■* 
 
 o ^ 
 
 1 
 "o 
 
 ■"• 
 
 
 
 '"' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO o 
 
 COO 
 
 050 
 
 o o 
 
 1/5 l> 
 
 o CO 
 
 CO XT 
 
 o -^ 
 
 O CO 
 
 o •-< 
 
 
 CO '^ 
 
 
 lO r-H 
 
 >o 
 
 CO r- 
 
 rf 
 
 00 c^ 
 
 CO 
 
 •n- Oi 
 
 o 
 
 ■rtH C 
 
 CD 
 
 co^cc 
 
 ^i 
 
 rH^C- 
 
 00^ 
 
 O Tt 
 
 
 lO co^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 oTcc 
 
 CO 
 
 .-T^ 
 
 CO 
 
 to 0' 
 
 
 lO M' 
 
 
 i-TccT 
 
 CO 
 
 
 O CN 
 
 
 05 CO 
 
 -rf 
 
 <N a 
 
 CO 
 
 CO IC 
 
 CO 
 
 ---^o^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 rf, 
 
 (O cc 
 
 
 >o cc 
 
 
 CO IT 
 
 
 O UC 
 
 
 Tt~"^ 
 
 
 cn 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 <M a 
 
 
 
 
 
 • • 
 
 
 
 1 • 
 
 
 
 • • 
 
 . 
 
 , • 
 
 
 
 •^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CLl' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1^ ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ; t; 
 
 
 
 o" 
 
 
 
 in 
 
 
 
 
 S-1 •" 
 
 
 
 £ j; 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 r; 
 
 
 >> 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 p 
 
 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 C» 
 
 
 r* 
 
 ils 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 _o 
 
 jjj 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 M 
 >>* 
 
 it 
 •1 
 
 p. 
 
 * i 
 J 
 
 s is 
 
 III 
 
 s 
 
 V 
 
 0. 
 
 X- 
 
 c 
 
 a 
 E 
 J 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 . pi 
 
 ill 
 
 c 
 
 c 
 
 M 
 
 1 
 
 c 
 
 'I 
 
 p 
 
 • > 
 
 . a 
 
 1. 
 
 II 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 ^ Oi 
 
 w 
 
 11 
 
214 
 
 " Precisely analogous results have been found in the other 
 Colleetorates, of which, however, no statistical tables are pro- 
 curable. We have no doubt the increase has been since pro- 
 gressive. Compare Madras next with Bengal ; we find the rich 
 alluvial soil of that Presidency paying about 300 lacks on 
 100,000,000 of acres, of which about 70,000,000 are under 
 cultivation ; so that the average is only 8 annas per acre on the 
 whole cultivated area. Or, according to another calculation 
 which has been forwarded to us, we find that the permanent 
 settlement of the Marquis of Cornwallis comprised an area of 
 149,000 square miles, say about 96,000,000 of acres, of which 
 Colebrooke estimated one-third to be under tillage, (about 
 30,000,000 of acres,) and to pay Government 270 lacks, and that 
 this also gave the right over the waste lands which were also 
 productive, so that the average rent paid by tlie zemindars did 
 not exceed 8 aimas. At this date the average from the extension 
 of tillage must be much less on the actual cultivation, and if we 
 take two-thirds to be under cultivation, we can safely say that 
 70,000,000 of acres only pay 270 lacks of rupees, or 6 annas per 
 acre. Munro clearly points out the difference under which the 
 two Presidencies were acquired, a point which never should be 
 lost sight of: — 
 
 *' ' The Presidencies of Bengal and Madras were acquired 
 under circumstances which have ever since continued to influence 
 their revenue system. Bengal acquired at once the dominion 
 of rich and fertile provinces, yielding a revenue much beyond its 
 w^ants ; it had, therefore, no occasion to enter into any minute 
 examination of the assessment ; it was satisfied with what it got 
 from the zemindars, and left them in possession of the lands on 
 very easy terms. Madras, on the contrary, rose amidst poverty 
 and many struggles for existence. It never was able to pay its 
 establishments ; it acquired its territories by slow degrees, partly 
 from the Nizam, but chiefly from Mysore; and though the 
 assessment had already been raised too high by those Govern- 
 ments, its own pressing necessities did not permit it to lower the 
 demand, but forced it to enter into the most rigid scrutiny of the 
 sources of the revenue, in order to keep it up ; and there has, in 
 consequence, always been a pressure upon the ryots, whicli 
 nothing but necessity could justify.' 
 
215 
 
 " 111 Pondiclieny the French Government has made a 
 reduction of 50 per cent, on the uncultivated, and of 33 per cent, 
 on the cultivated lands. In Pegu the most fertile land, an 
 alluvial Delta, annually manured by the natural overflow of the 
 river, and requiring no artificial irrigation, is to be had at 2 
 rupees an acre. In 1854, the ^Englishman' informed us that 
 the Calcutta Revenue Board had framed new rules for waste 
 lands in Assam, which it was intended to extend to Arracan and 
 the Tenasserim provinces. Forest and grass lands were to be 
 granted on the same terms, one-fourth was to be exempt in 
 perpetuity for sites of houses, roads, &c., the other three-fourths 
 to be rent free for fifteen years, and afterwards to be assessed for 
 ten years at 3 annas per annum per acre, and from the 
 twenty-sixth year for seventy-three years at 6 annas per acre, 
 the whole term being for ninety-nine years. In Madras, hill 
 forest lands are granted rent free for five years, after which they 
 are assessed at 1 rupee an acre for twenty years, at the expiration 
 of which all is uncertainty, and the Government is free to levy 
 what tax it likes upon the improvements of those who are bold 
 enough to sink their capital in reducing the capabilities of the land. 
 '^ Thus we have completed the contrast between the Madras 
 Presidency and the other portions of our Indian territories, more 
 or less completely according to the various data at our disposal^ 
 but sufficiently for our purpose, which is to establish the assertion 
 that Madras is more heavily burthened than any other portion of 
 the empire ; and this we take it is now so clearly proved, that it 
 must be henceforth an admitted fact in any future argument on 
 the subject. These are the differences which it is essential to 
 bear in mind, where the question for consideration is how the 
 backward state of Madras, as compared with the other portions 
 of the empire, is to be accounted for; it is the most delusive, 
 self-deceptive fallacy to exclude these causes, and saddle the 
 whole blame upon the system of collecting the land revenue. 
 Let Madras be granted similar privileges with the North- West, 
 the Deccan, Arracan, Pegu, Assam, Pondicherry; let her 
 assessment be reduced to the level of even the highest of theirs ; 
 let her be provided with the same physical materials of advance- 
 ment, in the shape of roads and irrigation works ; let her have 
 only a fair per-centage of her revenues laid out upon the soil, and 
 
216 
 
 the means of exporting its produce, and then, if the people do 
 not rise in wealth and social prosperity, let ryotwarry be uni- 
 versally prochiimed the one prohibitive cause of stoppage and 
 degradation — but not till then ; especially when, look whichever 
 side we will where ryotwarry is in force, we find that the boons 
 wo ask have no sooner been granted, even in part, than there is as 
 elastic and immediate a spring towards improvement as under any 
 other revenue system whatsoever. We assert that the particular 
 form of revenue system is, in reality, the least important of all 
 questions when we are deliberating upon the measures necessary 
 for regeneratuig a country. Our reasons for preferring ryot- 
 warry to either a zemindarry or village system have been already 
 sufficiently insisted on. We say that it is the simplest and most 
 rational of all forms ; that it is not only compatible with pro- 
 tection to the ryot, but that administered in that simplicity which 
 characterized it in the intentions of its founders, minute inter- 
 ference — which is supposed to be its greatest curse — ^is not even 
 necessary, but, on the contrary, necessarily vanishes. Sir 
 Thomas Munro points this out with his usual felicity. ' It has 
 been objected,' says he, * to the ryotwarry system, that it is 
 intricate, difficult of management, and expensive ; but experience 
 contradicts these opinions ; for, wherever ryotwar has been pro- 
 perly established, it has been found to be more easy, simple, and 
 efficient, than any other kind of settlement. The idea of its 
 being more expensive arises from not considering that it includes 
 all the expenses of collection whicli would he incurred by zemindars 
 if the country ivere under them, and which would in that case be 
 necessarily deducted from the amount of revenue, and not appear 
 as a charge.^ 
 
 " These three objections are still alleged in the present day. 
 With regard to the last — the greater expense of collection — 
 Munro has hit the white ; and this is precisely what has occurred 
 in Bengal. A writer in the ^ Calcutta Review ' expands our 
 views on this subject, and probes the details as follows : — 
 
 " ' First, then, as to the cost of collecting the revenue. Ac- 
 cording to the published official accounts for the years 1845-46 
 to 1849-50, the charge for collecting the land revenue (with the 
 Abkari and Moturplia in Madras, and the Abkari and Sayer at 
 the other Presidencies) was 9| per cent, in Bengal, 9 J per cent, 
 
217 
 
 in the North- West Provinces, 13| per cent, in Madras, and 
 14§ per cent, in Bombay. But we propose to show that those 
 accounts are fallacious on this point, inasmuch as the term 
 " charges of collection " is very far from containing the same 
 classes of particulars in all the four cases. We have already 
 shown that the expenditure on works of irrigation, to the amount 
 of 5,55,000 rupees annually, is improperly included among the 
 costs of collection at Madras ; and to this must be added about 
 two lacks for the Civil Engineers and establishments belonging 
 to the Tank Department, making a total of seven and a half 
 lacks, or nearly two per cent, on the land revenue collection. 
 This however, is very far from being all ; and we now proceed 
 to show that items to a very much larger amount, which are 
 certainly part of the cost of collection, and which are no less 
 certainly paid by Government, do not appear in the accounts of 
 Bengal and the North- West Provinces, while at Madras similar 
 charges are exhibited among the costs of collection. 
 
 " ^ One great difference consists in this, that, under a ryotwar 
 settlement, such as that prevailing in the greater part of the 
 Madras Presidency, where the whole revenue is directly collected 
 from the individual ryots or occupiers of land by the agency of 
 Government servants, large expenditure appears in the accounts 
 for the salaries of such agents ; while, under a zemindarry settle- 
 ment, such as that of Bengal, or a system of village leases like that 
 of the North- West Provinces, still larger sums are permanently 
 remitted— to the zemindars in the former case, to the collective 
 body of villages in the latter — for the expenses of managing and 
 collecting the revenue. It is surprising that tlie present anomalous 
 and fallacious mode of comparing the costs of collection under the 
 several Presidencies has been allowed to continue so long, and that 
 a fair mode of making the comparison has not yet been devised. 
 It cannot be ascribed altogether to oversight; for the facts, as we 
 have briefly stated them, were brought prominently forward by 
 Mr. J. Mill, in his examination before the Select Committee in 1831. 
 He there clearly explains* why the charges of collection appear 
 lari^er under Madras than in the other Presidencies, allemno- the 
 same causes which we have assigned. His evidence on this point 
 
 * Q. 4077-09. • 
 
218 
 
 extends to too great a length to be extracted liere In full, but tlic 
 following is its purport. The charges of collection in the ac- 
 counts then before him were from 15 J to 17^ per cent, in the 
 ryotwar provinces of Madras ; in Bengal 6 J per cent. ; and in the 
 Upper Provinces from 9^ to lOf. Mr. Mill truly explains the 
 difference to be owing to the greater cheapness of collecting a 
 fixed revenue under a permanent settlement, where an allowance, 
 exceeding the actual cost of settling with and collecting from 
 individuals, has been already struck off in making the settlement, 
 and so does not enter into the accounts at all. Thus, in Bengal, 
 the apparent costs of collection were 6 J per cent.; but, in forming 
 the settlement with the zemindars, 10 per cent, was allowed them 
 for the costs of the detailed process, and was struck off the 
 jumma; and this, being added to the present actual charge to 
 Government, at once raises the proportion to 16 J per cent. And 
 Mr. Mill adds, the one-tenth allowed to the zemindars has, in 
 the course of improvement, become two, and even three or four- 
 tenths ; so we may safely say that the real costs of collection in 
 Bengal, at this time, are at least 25 per cent, on the amount paid 
 by the actual occupants of the land, being very much higher than 
 the highest per-centage under ryotwar settlements at Madras. 
 
 " * We are unable to state precisely the amount allowed from 
 the jumma, for the detailed processes of collecting the revenue, 
 in the recent village settlement effected in the North- West pro- 
 vinces ; but as far as we can gather from the published documents 
 respecting it, which we have had the opportunity of seeing, it 
 "was generally 10 per cent, there also; and this, added to the 
 9 per cent, directly borne by Government as above shown, raises 
 the total cost in those territories to 19 per cent. — again exceeding 
 the highest proportion at Madras, even including the outlay on 
 irrigation, there improperly entered among the costs of collecting 
 the revenue. Nor is even this the whole. Mr. Mill adds, that 
 various local expenses are, under the Madras Government, 
 included among the costs of collecting the revenue, though 
 having no connection with It at all. A careful consideration of 
 the published amiual accounts leads to the belief that this is still 
 the practice to some extent, though w^e are unable to specify the 
 probable amount.* 
 
 " The other two objections, intricacy and difficulty of manage- 
 
219 
 
 ment, fall under the same head, because they are attributable to 
 the same causes. It is we ourselves who have introduced the 
 intricacy and difficulty. It is the exorbitant assessment which is 
 the primaeval origin of these evils. It is the necessity of squeezing 
 out of the ryots far more than they can pay without utter 
 ruin to themselves, that has ushered in all the minute inter- 
 ference with every agricultural operation, and compelled us to 
 maintain an army of 40,000 peons, to bully, torture, and extort. 
 It is the voluminous and useless accounts which we call for, that 
 makes the working of the system intricate ; the keeping of these 
 accounts in Mahratta, which none but the writers understood, 
 and which had to be translated before they could even be read 
 by revenue officer or ryot, that has added to that intricacy. It 
 is to our overlaying the simplest fundamental rules with a host of 
 minute exceptions ; to our departing from our pledged faith, and 
 saddling the ryot with the cost of his own improvements, and 
 making them profitable to us rather than to him ; it is to the 
 introduction of such cruel absurdities as the compulsory delivery 
 up of " good and bad " in equal portions, the unnecessary issue 
 of superfluous puttahs, and all the long catalogue of similar 
 excrescences engrafted by us on the original plan, (all attributable 
 to our departure from the object of Munro and Keid), to secure 
 the profits of the zemindar or middle man to the ryot himself, 
 and the endeavour to transfer them, together with as much more 
 as could be wrung out of him, to the pocket of the Government, 
 that we owe whatever of intricacy or difficulty our Collectors 
 have laboured under. We admit that they have been enormous; 
 but so far are they from being inherent in the system, or essen- 
 tial to its maintenance, its necessary concomitants and props, 
 that we have the clearest possible proofs to the contrary. Canara 
 is a standing example of the ease and simplicity with which the 
 ryotwar may be administered, when shorn of its abuses, and 
 reduced to something like what its originators intended it to be. 
 When that state of things has been once reached, in which there 
 are neither remissions to be made, nor balances to be collected ; 
 when the dispute among the people is not who shall be made, but 
 who shall be alloiced to pay the revenue, our minds may be 
 perfectly easy as to the facility with which the Collector gathers, 
 and the cheerfulness with which the people render their dues. 
 
2-20 
 
 Tlicre Is then neither necessity nor even room for mmutc, vexa- 
 tious, extortionate interference in every operation, and at every 
 season of the year. All the malpractices of the subordinate 
 revenue officials are weeded, and die out by a purely natural pro- 
 cess, which works its own effect silently, but surely." 
 
 Next, let us contrast portions of Madras where the assessment 
 has not been lowered, with portions where it has. 
 
 As to picturing the former, I will leave it to each man's 
 imagination to fancy it as wretched as he can. There are two 
 districts, however, Canara and South Arcot, where the assess- 
 ment has very recently been lowered, which furnish us with 
 precisely the illustrations we are in search of. The facts are 
 talien from an article by a Madras Civilian of great reputation, 
 in the " Calcutta Review " for December, 1853. 
 
 Let us see then what has been done of late years for Canara, 
 and what have been the results. 
 
 The first measure, (in what year does not appear), was to 
 relieve the estates from a demand of 1,74,000 rupees, and " at 
 the same time the languishing commerce of the coast was revived 
 by a reduction of the duty on rice from 10 to 3 per cent., at a 
 sacrifice of 1,40,000 rupees." 
 
 " In 1833," continues the same writer, " the demand upon a 
 large number of estates, which failed to come up to the reduced 
 standard, or to which the previous revision had not extended, was 
 reduced to an amount adjusted to their capabilities. The effect 
 of this has been most remarkable, and agriculture has made a 
 great advance. The pressure thus withdrawn, was a sum never 
 really added to the revenues of the State, while it disheartened 
 the landholder, and discouraged improvement. From the date of 
 its withdrawal, the increase of the Government revenue has been 
 unchecked. 
 
 " The next great measure of relief was tlie abolition of the 
 transit duties. With a frontier of 300 miles, these pressed with 
 perhaps greater severity upon this than upon other districts, and 
 imder this head was included an excise upon the staple products, 
 betel nut, pepper, and cardamums. Tliis measure relieved the 
 province from taxation to the extent of 300,000 rupees, and has 
 changed the entire state of the garden cultivators from one of 
 indebtedness and poverty, to affluence and content. 
 
221 
 
 " The abolition of sea customs from port to port, and of all 
 duty on cotton in transit to Bombay, has effected for the sea- 
 borne trade what the last great measure had done for that of the 
 interior, and nearly a similar sum of 300,000 rupees has been 
 remitted to the traders of the coast. 
 
 " A still greater boon has since been conferred. A tobacco 
 monopoly had been established in this province, and taxation 
 could not possibly assume a worse form ; and not only were its 
 own inherent evils of the greatest magnitude, but so long as it 
 existed, the abolition of the transit duties failed of half its 
 advantages. Search on the frontier, domiciliary visits, and 
 oppression of every kind, could still be practised under the pre- 
 text of zeal for the interest of Government. This has now been 
 swept away, and the country is released of a taxation which may 
 be reckoned at 200,000 rupees. 
 
 " Concurrently with these measures, there has been steady 
 advance in the recognition of the claims of a large province to 
 the aid of Government, in the construction of public roads. 
 Since 1837, above 500,000 rupees have been expended, we will 
 not say on the improvement, but in the creation of public roads, 
 chiefly from the coast, through the line of mountains, to the table 
 land of Mysore, Bellary, and Dharwar ; and most amply has the 
 expenditure been reimbursed. Every year, for the last seventeen 
 years, has seen many miles of road opened to commerce, and it 
 has seen them crowded, as soon as made, by thousands of bul- 
 locks and hundreds of carts. In a country where this first duty 
 of the ruling power had been neglected from a traditionary age 
 to the present time, what could be done in fifteen years with 
 small means, is but a fraction of what is due to the country ; but 
 it marks a most important era in its progress." 
 
 This account is the more valuable, as it shows us what is the 
 effect not only of reduction in over assessment, but how wise is 
 the policy of abandoning oppressive duties and taxes, such as 
 those on tobacco, rice, transport, export ; combined with a 
 simultaneous outlay in the improvement of means of communica- 
 tion. And how triumphant a refutation, Canara, which is a 
 " picture in little " of what might be a full-length portrait of the 
 whole of the Madras Presidency, affords to those who assert 
 that the East India Company cannot afford to make what are 
 pleasantly called sacrifices of its revenue ! In allj the remissions 
 
'>'>o 
 
 or sacrifices have Lceii upwards of 1,100,000 rupees, wliile 5 lacks 
 of rupees have been expended in tlie creation of roads. 
 
 TJie writer of the article in question has thrown the results 
 in the followinjr tabular form : — 
 
 . 
 
 t^ Oi (M 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 CO 00 to 
 
 w 
 
 
 42 
 
 
 
 
 00 t-;Tt^^ 
 
 J^ 
 
 
 o 
 Ol 
 
 
 CO CO »o Ol 
 
 
 a 
 
 c^cT 
 
 g 
 
 CO CO CO CO 
 
 
 CO 00 00 !>. 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 Ph 
 
 CO ■^ 03 lO 
 
 
 i~- 1-- r^ o^ 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 1— I 
 
 ^ C^ O^ .-i^ 
 
 Tt^" CO oT of 
 
 
 i^*" oT oT oo" 
 
 i^ GO 00 CO 
 
 
 00 
 
 3 
 
 o 
 
 Tj^^ 00^ 00 00^ 
 
 "13 
 
 
 Co" rn" r^' Co" 
 
 
 P4 
 
 ^-^ 
 
 co" to a^ -^ 
 
 r-( 
 
 o 
 
 
 CO t tot- 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 
 
 ''i^ Tti 05 
 
 t- Tt< rH 
 
 
 ~~~~~~~~ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 o ^^»o_ 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO O i~- 00 
 
 
 s 
 
 c<r oT »o 
 
 T-t <M O 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 Ct) CO 1- CO 
 
 to o ot_ CO^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 p— 4 
 
 t-^ to 00*" oo" 
 
 
 rt 
 
 /- — N 
 
 
 
 
 ^5^ 
 
 rH 00^ 01^ CO 
 
 
 Xfl 
 
 00 
 
 o 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 K^ 
 
 Ttn' go" t-h 00 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 o 
 
 0> C5 lO 00 
 
 
 
 OJ r-H Ol rH 
 
 
 
 r-l 
 
 o 
 
 00 >0 O ''f 
 
 q3 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■> — ^ 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 lO CO t^ t^ 
 
 CJ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .-T c<r r-T co" 
 
 CO o^ t-; »o 
 
 g 
 
 ►*-» 
 
 j^ CO 05 C5 rt^ 
 _2 to Tfi Ol CO 
 
 
 
 t^ 00 kO 
 
 Tt< CO t^ 
 
 
 
 00^00 T-H^ 
 
 iO OO CO 
 
 
 I— ( rH I— t O'l 
 
 
 S 
 
 -^ 00^ o^^ o^ >o^ 
 bi >o 1-^ CO to 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 to Tt^ -^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 o^.^-.^.-t 
 
 
 
 c^^ (^q" Ti^" 
 
 
 
 
 |5J Ol O t^ CO 
 
 1^ ^ ,_ rH rH 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO rH t- C5 
 
 
 
 r— t 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 -ti 00 Ol CO 
 CO CO to o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 i-T o" of 
 
 
 >-> 
 
 t-H CO l-H 
 
 
 
 
 rH CO^ Ol^ 
 
 
 P! 
 
 CO -^ O 
 
 
 
 
 rH C^" 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 t^ -^ 05 
 
 
 rH 00 (M r-l 
 
 a; 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 cT C5 oo" 
 
 CO t^ 
 
 !/3 
 
 CO CO o a: 
 00 Oi t^ o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 <!* 
 
 
 ce 
 
 of of t-^ c^ 
 
 T-l Ol >0 
 
 &> 
 
 ^ CO CO CO 00 
 
 ^ T* T* 1 T* 
 
 1^ CO CO CO t— 
 
 
 
 
 
 d 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ;3 
 
 to !>. to rH 
 
 
 'f^ 
 
 • 05 (M 
 
 • 00 Oi 
 
 
 
 
 ^O i-H rH^i-H^ 
 
 '^5 co" -^^ 
 
 
 
 I OO" 'sO 
 
 
 
 
 G? 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 i-H 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO to CO 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 CO rH CO CO 
 
 
 > 
 
 t^ «o 
 
 . 
 
 
 , 
 
 o 
 
 TTl -^^ rH Ol 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 "O" O" -r^ oT 
 
 
 'S 
 
 ; oo'oo" 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 o 
 
 P> 
 
 co" co" to of 
 
 
 J 
 
 . crToo" 
 
 o 
 
 CD CO CO i-^ 
 05 CO CO CO 
 
 rH^rt^^ to Oi^ 
 
 O 
 
 <^H 
 O 
 
 
 rH ,-( Tf 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 co" co" oo" o" 
 
 rtt CO rfi 
 
 
 CO CO CO to "^ 
 
 
 d 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 CO 
 
 -^ 
 
 ■XJ rH rH 
 ^ 1 1 1 1 
 
 
 .2 
 
 »0 CO r-l 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 r-( 
 
 
 r^ Ttl Tt< 00 rH 
 
 
 *■+-' 
 
 CO CO r-H 
 
 o 
 
 
 P-( 
 
 
 CO l^ C5 00 CO 
 
 
 r5 
 
 CO CO^ O^ 
 of GO C^ 
 
 p-( 
 
 s 
 
 
 ^O GO^ Ol^ 00^ Ol^ 
 
 ^ of to OO" rH 
 
 
 P-( 
 
 Oi T-H C5 
 
 (— H 
 
 
 
 C? 
 
 PI rH Ol t- 
 
 
 o 
 
 lO t^ C5 
 
 
 
 
 d 
 
 
 fn 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 CQ 
 
 : : : 
 
 
 : : : : 
 
 
 
 '.'.'.'. 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 Ol C<J <M 
 
 
 oq i- oi CO 
 
 
 
 Ol !>■ Ol CO 
 
 
 <U 
 
 O CO >o 
 
 
 rH CO to to 
 
 
 
 rH CO to to 
 
 
 >^ 
 
 00 00 00 
 
 
 00 GO 00 00 
 
 
 
 00 00 00 00 
 
 
 I— 1 I— 1 I— ( 
 
 
 y-4 T-< r-t i-i 
 
 
 
 rH I— 1 rH rH 
 
 
223 
 
 Since 1837, or, in otlier words, since the era of ^^ sacrifices''^ 
 commenced, population lias increased by a third ; exports have 
 nearly doubled, imports nearly trebled themselves ; while every 
 item of Government revenue, directly from the land, and indi- 
 rectly from Moturpha, Abkarry, salt, stamps, and Ferry farms, 
 shows a considerable improvement. 
 
 Under such a state of things, the assessment, as might be 
 expected, is easily collected, and readily paid ; there can be little 
 or no room for extortion on the one hand, or need of bribery on 
 the other. Native agency is rendered harmless. 
 
 " The collections of the land revenue," says the writer of the 
 article, " are made with striking punctuality, and the balances 
 irrecoverable are of the most trifling amount. Those struck off 
 in the last five years on account of losses by floods, or fire, or 
 other causes, contrasted with the settlement of the year, afford 
 convincing proof of this. 
 
 Year. Assessment, Struck off. 
 
 1258 18,85,476 714 
 
 1259 18,96,603 986 
 
 1260 , 19,04,731 199 
 
 1261 19,14,101 53 
 
 1262 174 
 
 There are, at present, in Canara, 55,000 holdings, of which 
 19,000 pay less than 10 rupees a-year, and yet sales for arrears 
 of revenue are almost unknown, and the reference to the 
 European oflicer is as frequently on the question — who shall be 
 allowed to pay, as who shall be made to pay, the dues of Govern- 
 ment?" 
 
 Land, where a distinct title can be placed, is easily saleable 
 at sixteen years' purchase, and often even higher; and this, 
 where, fifty years ago, even mortgagees were willing to abandon 
 such land as they could not themselves cultivate, to any who 
 would pay the land-tax. 
 
 Let us now return to South Arcot. 
 
 The condition of this district, the most highly assessed of any 
 in the Presidency, previous to the reduction introduced there by 
 Mr. Edward Maltby, its enlightened Collector, may be broadly 
 stated, in his own words, as that of ruin and stagnation. The 
 assessment was fixed at 50 per cent, of the gross produce. 
 
224 
 
 Assessment was fixed on some lands on the supposition that they 
 could give a second crop. These were entered in the accounts 
 as lands " suspected or doubtful of two crops." Dry land was 
 reckoned as garden, because a well was dug in it, and a more 
 valuable description of produce grown; and, in short. South 
 Arcot may be looked upon as an example of the most fatal 
 errors committed in the administration of ryotwar. After fifty 
 years of undisturbed peace, with a largely increased population, 
 with a favourable soil and climate, witli outlets for its produc- 
 tion at Madras, Pondicherry, and the seaports along its own sea- 
 board, we find " more than half the land was uncultivated, — the 
 labour and capital of the country being driven to the inferior 
 soils ; " that " a moiety of the assessment was uncollected and 
 merely nominal ; " and that while " the best lands lie waste, 
 numbers of its inhabitants seek subsistence in foreign emigra- 
 tion." In 1853, Mr. Maltby took the matter in hand, and the 
 result is shown in the invaluable Public Record, No. xxii, on 
 the " Revision of Assessment in South Arcot." In August, 
 1854, the Government sanctioned reductions on the following 
 scale : — a maximum reduction of 25 per cent, on wet land ; of 
 35 per cent, on the eight highest classes of dry land, and 25 on 
 the four lowest ; and by sanctioning the reduction of one anna 
 per cawney for district roads. It was anticipated that by this 
 reduction, the Government would give up about 3 lacks a-year 
 on land thus under assessment ; but, on the other hand, it was 
 argued that so much fresh land would be taken up under the 
 reduced rates, that the deficiency would be very soon made up. 
 How just was this reasoning is apparent by the following " Notes, 
 on the Results of the Reduction of Assessment," which close the 
 Record, No. xxii. 
 
 " In closing this collection of papers, it may be well to mention 
 a few facts to shew the result of the reduction made in the assess- 
 ment so far as there has yet been time to develope them. 
 
 " The modification of the rates of assessment was made known 
 in Fusly 1264, some months after the commencement of the 
 Fusly, and when the principal season for cultivating the dry 
 lands was past. Nevertheless, the cultivation of that year ex- 
 hibits an increase of 38,395 cawnies over the preceding Fusly. 
 Of this increase, 17,673 cawnies consisted of irrigated land, and 
 
225 
 
 an additional revenue of 3,19,183 rupees was thus gained, to 
 balance In part tlie 6,22,324 rupees given up to the people in 
 the modification of the rates. 
 
 " In Fusly 1265, the reduction of the assessment was generally 
 known, but cultivation was greatly checked by the scantiness of 
 the early rains, and the district officers had not had leisure to 
 settle all the contending applications for permission to take up 
 waste lands. Notwithstanding these impediments, however, the 
 cultivation accounts, closed at the end of Urpasy, or the 11th 
 November, 1855, show a further increase of 84,007 cawnies in 
 the unlrrigated lands, and of 9,304 cawnies in the irrigated. 
 
 " The cultivation of the last six years is shown in the following 
 statement; and it will be observed that, although the current 
 Fusly 1265 is still incomplete, its cultivation up to the 11th 
 November exceeds the highest year on record by 75,002 cawnies, 
 or above 15 per cent. 
 
 Fuslles. 
 
 Dry Land. 
 
 Wet Land. 
 
 Garden 
 Land. 
 
 Total: 
 
 1260 
 
 Cawnies. 
 3,53,720 
 
 3,63,284 
 
 3,53,848 
 
 3,20,659 
 
 3,41,381 
 
 4,25,380 
 
 Cawnies. 
 1,18,434 
 
 1,31,201 
 
 1,24,725 
 
 1,17,468 
 
 1,34,651 
 
 1,43,551 
 
 Cawnies. 
 1,337 
 
 1,498 
 
 1,466 
 
 1,564 
 
 2,054 
 
 2,054 
 
 Cawnies. 
 4,73,491 
 
 4,95,983 
 
 4,80,039 
 
 4,39,691 
 
 4,78,087 
 
 5,70,985 
 
 1261 
 
 1262 
 
 1263 
 
 1264 
 
 1265 
 
 
 " The assessment on the lands cultivated in the current year Is 
 not known, but it is calculated that if the cultivation reaches 
 600,000 cawnies, the revenue given up by the reduction of the 
 rates, amounting to about 7 lacks of rupees, will be at once made 
 good. This result is by no means improbable, even in the 
 current year, as two cultivating months remain, in which the 
 extensive indigo lands are sown, besides cotton and tobacco being 
 cultivated. 
 
 " Of the gross increase of cultivation in the present Fusly, 
 amounting, on the 11th November, to 93,311 cawnies, 89,111 
 cawnies occurred in the ten Hooloos talooks, where the asscss- 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 mcnt lias been formerly reduced. In the remaining three talooks, 
 temporary remissions arc allowed at fixed rates mitil the assess- 
 ment is revised. 
 
 " Whether or not the full amount of the revenue given up in 
 the reductions is recovered this year, there seems no rational 
 room for doubt that in another year or two there will be an actual 
 and permanent increase of revenue, as a consequence of the 
 reductions ; and this, it must bo remembered, in addition to the 
 Road Fmid of 30,000 or 40,000 rupees a-year, for the improve- 
 ment of the district roads. 
 
 *' Fort St George, 
 
 '' December Mth, 1855." 
 
 A Table, to be found in Appendix, exhibits, in a comprehen- 
 sive form, the entire operations of the ryotwar in South Arcot, 
 from 1845 to 1856.* 
 
 It may not be out of place to mention that the low rate of 
 assessment enabled Mr. Hall, to whom it fell to carry out 
 Mr. Maltby's reform, to insist upon payment for land left fallow, 
 so long as it was not thrown up. This is a grand point, because 
 it at once sweeps away the necessity of that constant minute 
 interference of the native revenue authorities, with a view to 
 ascertain how much of a man's holding was cultivated ; — a neces- 
 sity which gave scope for bribery by the ryots, and extortion by 
 the peons, to a vast extent. 
 
 Dry as this subject is, these details, if they are once mastered, 
 must relieve me of the necessity of proving that if the conditions 
 pointed out are fairly laid down, the class desired by the " Friend 
 of India," which " shall have the means and leisure for perma- 
 nent improvement," must grow up rapidly and spontaneously. 
 If these conditions, as I have said before, avail not, none will. 
 
 I have shown, unmistakeably, I think, that in theory the ryot 
 is the proprietor of the soil. Munro said, give him his lands over 
 
 * In the present year it is estimated that the revenue will fall short, by nearly 
 8 lacks. But there is no argument against the soundness of the reform. It arises 
 solely from the want of rain, which has compelled the rj-ots to throw up their land ; 
 which will come at once into cultivation again when the season is more favourable. 
 This fact, however, suggests one reflection : — How much water could have been stored 
 by the expenditure of 8 lacks of rupees expended in anicuts and river improvements, 
 so that the breadth of cultivation should never again depend upon the precarious 
 supply of rain ? 
 
227 
 
 in perpetuity wlienever lie applies for them ; and the Indian and 
 Home Governments have both, within the last two years, ac- 
 knowledged that this is the fundamental principle of the ryotwar. 
 • Lord Harris, I am aware, has caused a seeming confusion, by 
 having stated in one minute that the ryot is the proprietor, and 
 in another that the Government is the proprietor. In his minute 
 of 26 October, 1854, he maintains this latter proposition: "The 
 land of a country," he writes, " belongs to a Government de facto, 
 and should be held by it and distributed by it among the popu- 
 lation, in such a manner as is likely to cause it to be most bene- 
 ficially cultivated, both as regards the interests of the cultivator, 
 and the whole community." That is nearly the doctrine of the 
 Socialists. Further, he says, the Government is to be " the great 
 landlord," the tax-payer is to be the " tenant of the state on 
 liberal terms." The ryot is not to have the " fee simple of the 
 land, which is considered almost a sine quel non in England." 
 
 But in a later state paper by Lord Harris's Government, the 
 Madras report for 1856-7, there occurs the following passage : — 
 
 " Under the ryotwarry system, every registered holder of land 
 is recognized as its proprietor, and pays direct to Government. 
 He is at liberty to sublet Ids property, or to transfer it by gift, sale, 
 or mortgage. He cannot be ejected by Government so long as he 
 pays the fixed assessment, and has the option annually of increas- 
 ing or diminishing his holding, or of entirely abandoning it. In 
 unfavourable seasons, remissions of assessment are granted for 
 entire or partial loss of produce. The assessment is fixed in 
 money, aiid does not vary from year to year, except in those cases 
 where water is drawn from a Government source of irrigation, to 
 convert dry land into wet, or one into two-crop land, when an 
 extra rent is paid to Government for the water so appropriated ; 
 nor is any addition made to the assessment for improvements 
 effected at the ryot's own expense. The ryot, under this system, 
 is virtually a proprietor on a simple and perfect title, and has all 
 the benefits of a perpetual lease, without its responsibilities, inas- 
 much as he can, at any time, throw np his lands, but cannot he 
 ejected so long as he pays his dues; he receives assistance in difficult 
 seasons, and is irresponsible for the payment of his neighbours." 
 
 Tliis is adopted by the Supreme Government, and in the Court 
 of Directors' Memorandum of improvements during the past 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 
 
 thirty years, it is expressly stated that " the actual cultivator, the 
 peasant himself, is regarded as the proprietor of the soil, subject 
 to the payment of the Government demands." 
 
 Is it not amazing, then, to find the". Government, in the very 
 same breath in which it calls the ryot the proprietor, the per- 
 petual leaseholder, propose to cut his estate down to a term of 
 thirty years, after which his rent may be raised upon him? 
 Surely this is in derogation of his right ? and what the Govern- 
 ment has no power to carry out. The fact is, that Munro's set- 
 tlement was as final as that of Cornwallis. Upon this I have 
 written as follows : — 
 
 " The ryot is virtually a proprietor on a perfect and simple 
 title, and has all the benefits of a perpetual lease, without its 
 responsibilities, inasmuch as he can, at any time, throw up his 
 lands, but cannot be ejected, so long as he pays his dues. 
 
 " If these words have meaning, they mean that the ryot has 
 the fee simple in the land, subject to the payment of a quit-rent 
 reserved by Government. 
 
 ^' And this is precisely our conception of what the ryotwarry 
 system was intended to be by its origmal framers. Read and 
 Munro. If this leading idea be once fully comprehended, and 
 steadily adhered to, and faithfully worked out in all its conse- 
 quences, fortunate will it be for the Government, fortunate will it 
 be for the people. But at the very onset, we are met ^ by a con- 
 tradiction. If the tenure of the ryot be, as it is here denomi- 
 nated, a perpetual lease, why is it to be limited for thirty years, 
 according to the ^ blockhead ' system, or fifty years, according 
 to the proposition of the Madras Government? Is not every 
 term, be it longer or shorter, a curtailment of that which is 
 ' perpetual ?' And if we tell the ryot that his tenure is perpetual, 
 by what right, or with what justice, do we in the same breath 
 inform him that without any consultation, explanation, or consent 
 on his part, this perpetual tenure shall be cut down to half a cen- 
 tury, or thirty years ? Is this really giving him a greater interest 
 in the soil ? Is it not, in sober truth, giving him a less ? And is 
 it not altogether a mistaken idea to suppose, that by bestowing on 
 the ' proprietor ' of the soil, a ' long lease,' we shall stimulate, or 
 inspire him with confidence, if his present perpetual tenure has 
 failed of this effect ? Are not the want of confidence, the indif- 
 
229 
 
 fcrence to good farming, the apathy of the ryot, to be attributed 
 to other causes ? and are they not to be sought for and found in 
 tlic heavmess of his assessment, the harassing amount of petty 
 interference with every operation of his agriculture, the chicanery 
 and corruption of the revenue servants, and the utter inefficiency 
 of our judicial system, which is tantamount virtually to a thorough 
 bar to all redress ? 
 
 " This confusion of ideas, which thrusts a ' long lease ' upon the 
 ' perpetual ' leaseholder, is, we think, attributable, partly to an 
 oversight of the ryot's real title ; partly to that vacillation which 
 halts between two opinions, and hesitates to draw the legitimate 
 conclusions from premises which are not denied. It is thought 
 that a permanent settlement is a monstrous folly ; that there is no 
 reason why a Government hereafter, in Avant of a larger revenue, 
 may not re-open the question of assessment, with a view to obtain 
 a revenue adequate to its wants, while it would not press heavily 
 upon the improved condition of the farmer. What, it is asked, 
 would be the position of the Government, if there were a sudden 
 emergency, such as a foreign war, requiring vastly increased 
 expenditure, and heavily drawing on the resources of the Govern- 
 ment, already not more than adequate to the securing all those 
 objects of administration which in their sum make up good 
 government ? In such a case, we say, let the extraordinary emer- 
 gency be met by extraordinary, but temporary measures. Let a 
 war tax of five or ten per cent., or whatever is necessary, be 
 levied, and cease with the termination of hostilities; just as in 
 England the war ninepence is called into existence by, and dies 
 with the war. But do not let such shadowy imaginings as these 
 come in to cloud the future prospects of the ryots. When once 
 the proportion which a Government may justly claim has been 
 fixed, be it 35, or 40, or 45 per cent, of the net produce, let no 
 element of doubt supervene, which shall make men suspect or 
 fear that proportion is not fixed/o?' ever. Let them not be cut down 
 from their perpetual lease, subject to the payment of that fixed 
 proportion, by being told that though this may last for a longer 
 period, it need not necessarily last beyond fifty or thirty years. 
 
 " But, it is urged, this is all in clemency to the ryot. The ten- 
 dency of the price of grain is to fall ; experience shows that prices 
 have fallen since Munro's time 40, 50, 70 per cent., and on such 
 
230 
 
 all event again occurring, it miglit be fair to take a less pro- 
 portion of the produce. But the answer is patent. The propor- 
 tion, If it is fair once, Is always fair. The hardship upon the ryot 
 is by erecting an invariable standard of value. Let this be 
 revised once in seven, or once in ten years, and adjusted accord- 
 ing to the average of the preceding seven or ten years, the com- 
 mutation price ever fluctuating with the price of grain, and while 
 the Government will profit by a rise without damnifying the ryot, 
 the ryot will never be ruined, or even straitened, by a fall in 
 prices. Nor is any interference with the operations of the ryot 
 necessary on this account. Minute statistical information of the 
 market rates of grain may be kept in each district, the more pub- 
 licly the better, and thus the data for striking the averages be 
 complete. But what is there in common between this measure, 
 and that of limiting the ryot's lease to fifty or thirty years ? If 
 the average can be struck at the end of the first seven years, so 
 can it at the end of every successive seven years ad infinitum ; 
 that is to say, throughout the entire duration of the ryot's per- 
 petual lease. 
 
 " The ryot is now recognised as the proprietor of the soil ; his 
 title is declared to be ' simple and perfect ; ' his tenure is admitted 
 to be a perpetual leasehold, subject to the payment of the Govern- 
 ment dues. 
 
 " Those dues having been fixed upon a principle of fairness ; 
 assessed upon the lowest kind of crop, say rice ; and the propor- 
 tions in which the Government and ryot are to share respectively, 
 settled ; the elements of prosperity will have been secured ; the 
 seeds of confidence will have been sown : let it be proclaimed that 
 these proportions, and the principles on which they are fixed, shall 
 not be liable to future change, and the harvest will speedily be 
 reaped. Let the Government take, then, all those steps which 
 are necessary to secure a knowledge, and provide a record of its 
 rights on the one hand, and which are necessary to diminish 
 revenue official interference to its possible minimum on the other ; 
 and all the conditions for prosperity will have been laid down. 
 Matters may then be left to take their own natural course. 
 These measures are a revenue survey conducted by honest agency 
 and on scientific principles ; and an edict that every ryot shall pay 
 for the whole of his holding whether he cultivate it or not j just 
 
231 
 
 as in England the tenant pays his yearly rent for his entire farm, 
 notwithstanding he may leave a fifth of it fallow. If a ryot 
 wishes to diminish his holding, by all means let his puttah be 
 altered ; but do not reserve to him a right to reclaim his aban- 
 doned land for a long series of years. If he has not sufficient 
 means to cultivate his entire holding, let any one who will, cul- 
 tivate that portion which is thrown up. Thus will be superseded 
 all that official interference which is now necessary for verifying 
 the extent of each man's annual cultivation, and which we see no 
 other means of extirpating than by insisting on this fair demand, 
 that every tenant shall pay for whatever he chooses to retain a 
 claim over, whether he cultivates the land in a particular year 
 or not. 
 
 " We have hopes that people, at any rate in India, are throw- 
 ing off their misconceptions of the real nature of ryotwarry. 
 That they at last see that the excrescences and vicious engraftings 
 which have disfigured the bark of the old tree, are superficial, 
 and that the tree itself is sound and vigorous to the core, and 
 capable of flourishing and bearing fruit. Especially do we cling 
 to this last manifesto of the Governments of Madras and India. 
 The ryot is a proprietor; his leasehold is perpetual. Let this 
 idea be generally adopted ; let it be as widely acted upon as pos- 
 sible, as universally, and invariably. Let it be published in 
 every village. Let no doubt be cast upon it either by issue of 
 leases for fifty years, or by the annual issue of fresh puttahs 
 in any district, or in any case, except when the holding has 
 been altered. This done, let the Government forthwith earnestly 
 bend its every effort to the task of producing those conditions 
 which will render land valuable. With a revenue survey, let 
 there be a thorough revision of the Hookumnamahs ; a plain, 
 intelligible, comprehensive, liberal set of rules embodying the 
 various ordered improvements and reforms of the last few years, 
 should be forthwith drawn up, published in every collectorate^ 
 and in every village ; affixed to every office, promulgated to every 
 villager ; so that not a man in the land, but shall know that he 
 may improve his property, and put the profits into his own 
 purse ; let the reductions in assessment be at once carried out, 
 whenever the present rate is manifestly too high, without waiting 
 for the survey; and then the ryotwarry will be found to be 
 
23^ 
 
 nothing more or less than the natural system under which every 
 kingdom in the world's history has risen to prosperity." 
 
 I have said that Munro's settlement was final ; by which, how- 
 ever, I do not mean that the assessment was not open to being 
 lowered. In fact, it was part of his original plan that it should be 
 lowered 15 per cent, upon his own estimates ; and he afterwards 
 recommended a reduction of 25 per cent, all round. But, inde- 
 pendently of this reduction, which never was carried out, it is 
 apparent that if the circumstances of the country ever so altered, 
 that what was a fair assessment became a burthen too grievous 
 for the people to bear, the Government must reduce it for its own 
 sake. But as against the Government, I hold that settlement was 
 final ; they never could raise it. They have no right to share in 
 the increased value of the land, that value being given, not by 
 them, but by the owner's sinking his capital in it. The Govern- 
 ment is not in the position of a private landlord. I pointed this 
 out not long since in a former work.* Government has since 
 expressly endorsed that view. In a minute of consultation on the 
 commutation rates (11th May, 1855,) the Madras Government 
 writes : — " The Government of a country is not in the position of 
 a landlord, justly entitled to take the whole surplus produce of 
 the soil ; all that it can claim is a revenue sufficient to secure the 
 objects of Government, viz., to maintain peace and order, and to 
 execute those works of public utility, the promotion of which, in 
 this country, is held to belong to Government." 
 
 If the Government requires a larger revenue, it appears to 
 me that it will most effectually obtain it by lowering, not by 
 raising the assessment. The results of both plans are before 
 us ; wliile a high assessment throws a vast breadth of land out 
 of cultivation, and drives the population to emigration, a 
 low assessment, as in South Arcot, rapidly increases the 
 area of agriculture, and consequently the amount of revenue. 
 Let Government require what funds it may, there is ample 
 margin for raising the amount without levying any additional 
 tax. There are 90,000,000 acres of land in the Madras 
 Presidency; deducting 20,000,000 for roads, houses, rivers, 
 and tanks, there remains 70,000,000. At the lowest estimate 
 
 . * " Madras," page 20 1» 
 
23^ 
 
 35,000,000 of tliese are cultivable. But Government lias only 
 20,000,000 under cultivation, having 15,000,000 more to be 
 brought under the plough. A modification of assessment would 
 effect this. There remains another mode by which Government 
 may raise its resources. Let it sink capital in the stowing of 
 water in large masses, according to Colonel Cotton's plan — and 
 a Civil Engineer reports that there is no difficulty in carrying out 
 this operation on the Neilgherries, — and then the thing is done. 
 For water quadruples the crop in quantity, often doubles it in 
 value as to kind, and trebles the security of reaping it. Land thus 
 becomes twofold more valuable ; and Government may lay a tax 
 or rent fivefold that charged on land not irrigated ; thus, not only 
 paying the interest, but returning a fair profit on the sunk capital. 
 
 If this tenant right of " perpetual lease " be admitted, and the 
 position of the Government as above laid down be the true one, 
 Gui bono keeping up the uncertainty which must attach to renew- 
 able leases ? Why not at once act up to theory ; and if it be 
 acknowledged tliat the ryot is a perpetual leaseholder, give him 
 a document of title to that effect ? 
 
 The ryotwar system is the simplest conceivable. It is impos* 
 sible to give a title more effectual. No change of tenure can be 
 necessary. All that is required is to carry out ryotwar itself 
 promptly, honestly, and boldly. 
 
 A great outcry has been raised against the ryotwar because it 
 has been supposed to be incompatible with security of title. 
 I have shown how ill-founded this idea is. We must, however, 
 I admit, make our practice square with our theory. Hitherto, 
 like the rower, we have looked one way and pulled the other. 
 There are certain other steps which may be taken with a view to 
 rendering assurances secure. The first is a general registration, 
 which, to be of any effect, must be compulsory. The existing 
 regulation for the registration of deeds* is a mere dead letter, 
 because it is not compulsory, and the benefits derivable from it 
 are scarcely appreciable by the people in general. In 1856, there 
 were but four documents registered in Chicacote, two in Ganjam, 
 eight in Vizagapatam, nine in Masulipatam, nine in Salem, 
 twelve in Coimbatore. On the other hand, in Canara, where land 
 
 * Repf.xvii. of 1802. 
 
'2U 
 
 lius acquired a consIdcraLlo value, the registrations amount to 2727, 
 and have kept at that average for the last live years — a fact which 
 shows that the people will resort to registry freely enough under 
 particular circumstances. Still, I think that the new act should 
 render registration compulsory. The penalty for non-registry, it 
 has been thought by some persons of great experience in Madras 
 judicial aftairs, should be the rejection of non-registered docu- 
 ments when tendered in evidence; whether this is the best 
 penalty that can be devised, or whether it is indeed a wise penalty 
 at all, may admit of much discussion. I desire to express no 
 opinion on the point. All transfers should be executed on 
 stamped paper, and registered. More precaution should be taken 
 against the fraudulent use of stamps than at present; and the 
 llevenue authorities should give a yearly receipt to that party 
 who pays the rent, specifying not only the amount received, but 
 the land for which it is paid. These receipts would be prima 
 facie evidence of occupancy, a point of constant litigation at 
 present ; and another advantage would be, that while they 
 rendered titles secure, they would also decrease litigation, and 
 diminish the facility of forgery, perjury, and subornation of 
 perjury in the Courts of Law. 
 
 It is admitted on all hands that a thorough revenue survey, 
 conducted on scientific principles, and by honest agents, is indis- 
 pensable. Village maps, and substantial boundary stones mark- 
 ing the limits of present estates, must be provided; the only 
 question on this topic is, whether the operation shall crawl over 
 the country at the rate proposed by Lord Harris, which will 
 bring it to a close in about thirty years, if no interruptions inter- 
 vene ; or, whether steps ought not to be taken for a rapid com- 
 pletion of this essential measure, by starting from many centres 
 instead of from one, so that various districts may be surveyed 
 simultaneously. The objection is that by the former arrangement 
 the expense will be spread over a long period of years; but I ap- 
 prehend that this consideration should not be allowed to stand in 
 the way of an undertaking which will of itself go far to settle, and 
 secure, and simplify men's titles. 
 
 Lastly, as to the proposition which has been made for "redeem- 
 ing the land-tax." Among others, Mr. Norton, the late Advocate- 
 General of Madras, has published a pamphlet on tliis subject, 
 
23o 
 
 wlilcli I learn, lias met with a certain success in England. That was 
 natural. I have glanced at the reason in my remarks on another 
 topic — Who is to pay the cost of the rebellion ? But now I would 
 crave to go somewdiat deeper into the matter, because it is one of 
 such primary importance to the future of India, that it is highly 
 desirable to obtaiif clear ideas upon it. Some persons are fa- 
 vourably disposed towards this scheme from a dim notion that 
 they will thereby secure the ryot a title for his land. I have 
 already shown how vain such an idea is ; and, in truth, it arises 
 from a confusion of thought. It is clear that the ryot may have 
 just as good a title to the land he holds, whether he holds it sub- 
 ject to a certain fixei" tax, or free from future payment of that 
 tax, because he has redeemed it by a ready-money payment. 
 The measures I have suggested in this chapter will assure the 
 ryot the most perfect title ; and in this aspect, redemption of the 
 land-tax is simply unnecessary. But, on the other hand, it is 
 fraught with peril. It remains to consider it in two points of 
 view^ ; that is to say, whether w^e could safely ^trust the Indian 
 Government with the funds which the measure, if successful, 
 would place at its disposal; secondly, whether it w^ould really 
 confer upon the present owners and holders of the soil those 
 benefits wdiich their philanthropic auxiliaries fondly hope would 
 be the consequences of a general redemption. 
 
 On this topic I lay before my readers the arguments which 
 have appeared in the " Madras Athenaeum," not indeed pro- 
 ceeding from my pen, but written at my request, and after con- 
 sultation with myself, by a gentleman every way qualified to 
 discuss the subject : — 
 
 Article I. 
 " It is to be hoped that in this time of financial embarrass- 
 ment, there will be no empirical tampering with our legitimate 
 sources of taxation. It is to be feared that any fortuitous shift 
 or expedient, however pernicious its ultimate result, will be had 
 recourse to for the sake of tiding over the momentary embarrass* 
 ments of this country. It is probable that such a measure, by pro- 
 mising to divert every portion of the costs of the revolt from the 
 pockets of English tax-payers, would add to the popularity of the 
 minister. It is fortunate, however, that there are at present in 
 England numbers of experienced persons from India, who would 
 
236 
 
 sot all the weight of their very considerable influence against any 
 quackery being tried in the revenues of this country. The ques- 
 tion of taxation is altogether independent of political differences as to 
 forms of administration. Irreconcilcable as these differences may be, 
 we are certain that they obtain among many persons who have but 
 one great object in common, namely, the good of the country. Any 
 attempt to play tricks with the revenues of this country should unite 
 in opposition to it all Indian politicians, however bitter in other 
 respects may be their antagonism. 
 
 •' It is one of the misfortunes of human nature that the best friends 
 of a country are frequently the causes of many of the evils that befal 
 it. A man distinguished for virtue, wisdom, and patriotism, is 
 nevertheless fallible ; and may get a crochet in his head, which, if 
 put into operation, would ruin the country that he would make 
 any sacrifice to serve. Now, of all the crotchets that are spring- 
 ing into existence out of the excitement produced by the present 
 crisis, there is none so fraught with evil as the crotchet about 
 the redemption of the land-tax. There is absolutely in existence 
 a class of politicians, who, contrary to every dictate of prudence, 
 foresight, and every sound principle of political economy, would 
 sell for a sum of money, the portion of the rent of land which, in 
 India, has from a period beyond history, been reserved for the pur- 
 poses of the state. Without being able to devise or even suggest 
 another impost to replace the tax which they would dispose of, 
 they would place in the power of Government the means of pre- 
 sent prosperity at the cost of future ruin. It is not sufficient 
 that they have seen millions raised and squandered to no purpose by 
 every Government in existence. It is not sufficient that even in 
 England, they have had constant examples of taxes being collected 
 for one purpose, and expended for another. It is not sufficient that 
 they have seen an income-tax take the successive forms of a peace- 
 tax, a war-tax, and then a peace-tax again, according to the exigen- 
 cies of the Government in office. It is not sufficient that they have 
 seen the failure of that miserable abortion — the sinking fund, for 
 which monies were ostensibly raised to pay off our public encum- 
 brances, and virtually applied for whatever purposes the minister of 
 the day chose to put them to. It is not sufficient that they have had 
 it clearly impressed on them by all history, that even the incessant 
 jealousy of a free parliament, which has the strings of the public 
 purse in its hands, is barely a sufficient check upon the finance 
 juggling of an embarrassed and unscrupulous ministry. These doc- 
 trinaires would confide the revenues of a country, not for a short 
 
237 
 
 period only, but for eternity itself, to a Government, on wKich there 
 is scarce any responsibility, and scarce any check whatsoever. They 
 would place in the hands of the Government of India — a Government 
 remarkable for its skill in making up plausible accounts — the means 
 of showing a magnificent balance-sheet, when its finances were 
 sinking into utter ruin. They would entrust to a Government, which, 
 from its very nature, is rabidly intent upon present gains, the absolute 
 disposal of the revenues of futurity. They would place implicit faith 
 in the discretion of that Government, that the sums raised by selling 
 portions of the income of the State should be so invested that the 
 vacuum in such income should not only be eventually filled up, but 
 flow over with abundance ; and they talk of this at a time when every 
 available rupee in India, whatever be the source it is derived from, 
 and whatever be the purpose it is raised for, is to be devoted to the 
 costs of suppressing an insurrection, arising from the thorough failure 
 and break down, in a great part of India, of the civil and military 
 administration of her wise, discreet, most honest, and prescient 
 Government. 
 
 " We regret to see a name so deservedly respected as that of 
 George Norton among the doctrinaires who would so recklessly 
 sacrifice the revenues of India. What a resource it would be 
 if India could raise a few millions just now, by putting up to sale 
 a portion of that land-rent reserved from the beginning to the 
 State for expenses of Government. This, however, would be to distort 
 Mr. George Norton's proposition. Admitting that ' the tendency of 
 such a measure, indiscriminately and extensively acted upon, would 
 be to swallow up the principal out of which the great bulk of the 
 fiscal income now arises,' he would eff'ect the redemption of the land- 
 tax by a, process of gradation. He believes that the immediate annual 
 supply to Government would be considerable, and that before even a 
 fourth of the whole land-tax were redeemed, the deficit would be 
 replaced from other sources of taxation. Meanwhile, Government 
 should exercise a wise discretion in not allowing too rapid or too slow 
 an encroachment on the revenues. Calculating the upset price of the 
 land at twenty years' purchase, and the land revenue of India at 
 twenty millions, and assuming that the tenants paying one-thousandth 
 part of the kist to Government, redeemed annually their proportion 
 of the tax, he puts down the annual sum to be received by Govern- 
 ment at £400,000, and the annual loss in revenue at £20,000. The 
 word ' tenants^ is in our own italics. We may hereafter have a word 
 to say as to whether the ' tenants ' would be, in the majority of cases, 
 the purchasers. If Mr. George Norton's graduated plan were 
 
238 
 
 adopted, Government, says he, would, at the end of 100 years, have 
 lost for ever two millions of its revenue. But how so able a man 
 could, for one instant, suppose that such a measure would be suffered 
 to proceed uninterruptedly, we are at a loss to conceive. Indeed, ho 
 feels the difficulties of his proposition as soon as he gets below its 
 plausible surface. Imagine a Government without the constant check 
 of a Parliament being entrusted with such delicate operations as the 
 following : — 
 
 " * But suppose Government desired, for public and profitable 
 purposes, (in other words, for increasing the wealth of the country 
 and consequent sources of revenue,) a larger amount of annual 
 redemption money. This might be done in either of two ways — by 
 lowering the price and attracting a larger proportion of purchasers, 
 or by raising the price to the same, or even to a larger proportion of 
 purchasers. In the latter case the measure would be doubly profit- 
 able to Government. It would increase its revenue without any loss, 
 * in case the surplus ' (after paying off, if so deemed expedient, a 
 portion of the national debt) ' was required for exigencies of unpro- 
 fitable expenditure,' and it would, at the same time, benefit the 
 purchasers with all the gainful results already alluded to. If the 
 surplus or increased revenue was directed to public improvements, 
 and was not requited for such exigencies, of course the advantage to 
 Government would be greater still. Should, however, the former of 
 these two ways be adopted, still the measure would be very profitable. 
 For supposing Government admitted 1 -500th part of the ' kist' payers 
 to redeem at the price of twenty years' purchase, or a less proportion, 
 (say l-700th,) at a lower price, it would take 100 years to reduce the 
 land-tax revenue by one-fifth, i. e., by £4,000,000 per annum ; and 
 Government would, in the meanwhile, have had its revenues much 
 more largely increased, wherewith to make that public and beneficial 
 outlay, which would have been the inducement for admitting a more 
 extended redemption, and might thus provide new sources of taxation 
 more than adequate to replace the loss.' 
 
 " ' Public and beneficial outlay,' ' public and profitable purposes,' 
 are high-sounding words ; but what Government in the world — 
 certainly not the Indian Government — is fitted to be entrusted with 
 funds of posterity, on the hypothesis of its laying them out in public 
 and profitable purposes ? We have little enough to show in England 
 for our 800 millions of public debt ; and we have literally no expe- 
 rience but what tells us that the funds of posterity, whenever they 
 have been drawn upon by any Government whatsoever, have been 
 recklessly and often uselessly squandered. 
 
239 
 
 Aeticle II. 
 
 " No one who lias read Quentin Durward will forget La Balafre, 
 the redoutable uncle of the hero of the tale. That worthy wore 
 round his neck a massive gold chain, from which, whenever he was 
 short of money, he used to twist off a piece with his teeth, and sell it 
 for ready cash. We suspect, that, before the old warrior died, when 
 his powers were enfeebled with age, and he could no longer wield his 
 tremendous sword to gain him another chain, that some of his 
 revenues must have disappeared altogether. Now what La Balafre 
 did with his chain is precisely what a certain set of politicians would 
 have us do with our Indian Empire. If our means are crippled by a 
 war, an internal revolution, or any other expensive difficulty that may 
 arise, they would have us raise the wind, by twisting off a good lump 
 of territory, and selling it at an upset price. What we are stating is 
 a positive fact. It has already been talked of in England; and a 
 brilliant Bengal contemporary puts in italics, in a recent issue of his 
 journal, the following rather startling question — ivhy not sell Bengal} 
 
 " It is rather unfortunate for the advocates of the redemption of 
 the Indian land tax, that they should choose a time of financial 
 distress for bringing forward the proposition. If both ends of our 
 finances were meeting and embracing, and nothing was wanted but 
 money for a liberal and judicious expenditure upon remunerative 
 public works, the measure would undoubtedly have had a plausible 
 look ; but to advocate it at a crisis when money has to be thrown 
 away in huge lumps, to be utterly dissipated and wasted for ever, 
 casts a very great doubt on the wisdom and forethought of thr. 
 propounders. It induces more than a suspicion that recourse will be 
 had to so disastrous an expedient in any further difficulty. Bengal, 
 for example, shall pay for the mutinies, and perhaps wipe out the 
 greater portion of the debt incurred for previous wars. For future 
 difficulties, we may dispose of a slice of Madras. For vast sums, 
 wasted by any kind of improvident expenditure, the land revenue of 
 the country, to any conceivable extent, may be made away with. 
 What diff'erence is it to John Smith, who has sunk £20,000 in 
 law suit, whether he mortgages his estate for that sum, or sells a 
 farm on it which will realize the amount. 
 
 " Well, to John Smith it may make little diff'erence ; for John 
 Smith, like John Company and the majority of men, loves himself 
 better than any one else ; but to John Smith's heirs or successors it 
 makes all the difi'erence in the world. The truth is that this argument 
 overlooks the distinction that there is between the saleable value of 
 land, and its real and permanent worth, Betv/een the one and the 
 
210 
 
 other there is as much distinction as there is between the ephemeral 
 fashions and habits of the day, and the undying principles of human 
 nature. Twenty or twenty-five years' purchase of the land may 
 serve a Government which would dazzle the world in the present at 
 the expense of the future. Twenty or twenty-five years' purchase 
 may be spent in a variety of ways; and Mr. George Norton's 
 suggestion was, that it should be invested in a manner that would 
 more than replace the vacuum caused by it in the annual revenue. 
 But who is so infatuated as to trust any Government in the world to 
 do that ^ All experience goes to show that the Government would 
 be as reckless in their disposal of them, as many a fraudulent banker 
 of his constituents' securities. 
 
 " The comparison between Government and a private individual 
 does not hold good. Land will not be worth more than twenty 
 or twenty-five years purchase to the latter. He can hardly calculate 
 on so long a period of life. He may desire the money for a 
 promising speculation ; and in many respects it may benefit his 
 individual self more than the possession of the land. Perhaps, 
 however, the seller might feel difi*erently were he, like the Wandering 
 Jew, destined to live for an indefinite period. If the lives of men 
 were prolonged for two or three hundred years, we do not think they 
 would be content to dispose of their lands for twenty or twenty-five 
 years' purchase. It is the duty of the State not to suff'er itself to be 
 actuated by the ephemeral motives that incite a man to squeeze into 
 his short life all the enjoyments which he can, but to think and to act 
 as if it were to endure for all time, and as if the present were but an 
 infinitesimally small portion of its existence. The short-sighted 
 sovereigns, who were our predecessors, granted away an enormous 
 quantity of land in enam. The grants, it is alleged, were made, in 
 many instances, for services to the State. So also the grants in 
 Jagheer. It is, however, a question with us, how far those grants 
 shall be recognized ; and whether any previous sovereign had a right 
 to alienate the revenues of the State in perpetuity. Hence our 
 enam commissions. Suppose, however, that we were insane enough 
 to sell off" large portions of the land tax, is it impossible that, long 
 after we are all in our graves, there will not start up some future 
 species of enam commission to question the right we exercised of 
 making away with the State revenues, and to deliberate upon the 
 propriety of imposing a tax similar to the one we had disposed of? 
 Even now, in England, political Avriters of authority question the 
 principle of Pitt's Land Tax Redemption Act, and seriously advocate 
 that land be reinstated in its appropriate place in the fiscal system. 
 
241 
 
 Yet in England the expansive power of indirect taxation is astonish- 
 ing. In India, before we can substitute indirect for direct taxation — 
 at all times a questionable exchange — the people must alter the 
 habits which a thousand generations have ingrained in them. Yet it 
 is upon the hypothesis of such an alteration which must form the 
 ground-work of any new fiscal system, that political speculators 
 would, like unprincipled bankers, sell the stock which they hold in 
 trust for posterity, and in which they are only entitled to a life 
 interest. Compared with such a deed, the conduct of a reckless heir, 
 who raises money upon post obits, is moral and judicious." 
 Article III. 
 
 " The first question that occurs in the consideration of any fiscal 
 reform, is, how will it act upon the great body of the nation ? How 
 will the masses, from whose incessant toiling is wrung the means of 
 supporting the State, be afiected by it? Just and excellent as a 
 measure may be in certain stages of the progress of society, it may 
 be as much behind the social grade of some communities, as it is in 
 advance of the low scale of humanity in others. It is obvious that it 
 is impossible to separate the consideration of any great financial 
 scheme from that of the present, as well as prospective condition 
 of the people. A Government which has the welfare of the governed 
 in view, must bear in mind their social institutions, their habits, their 
 tempers, their tendency to providence or improvidence, their desire 
 for dependence or independence, their susceptibility to the influences 
 of a higher civilization, and numerous other circumstances upon 
 which will depend the advantage or disadvantage of the measures 
 proposed. It is certain that an act of the most perfect theoretical 
 beauty and justice, may be an utter failure, owing to its inadaptability 
 to some or other of these conditions. On the other hand, a careful 
 consideration of the latter may suggest a policy, or the continuance 
 of a policy, which may appear very crude and clumsy in the eyes 
 of a political theorist, but may harmonize with the state of the 
 people far better than a measure of the most admirable symmetry. 
 The redemption of the land tax is a proposition that wears a plausible 
 face, and we shall, therefore, consider how it would afi'ect the present 
 owners and occupiers of the soil. 
 
 " The measure is advocated on two different grounds. The first 
 is, the present relief, as well as eventual profit, it would bring to the 
 State. The second is, the great stimulus that it would give to 
 agricultural operations, combined with the advantages of freedom 
 from taxation and independence of action, which it would confer 
 upon the owner of the soil. It is also anticipated that the capability 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 of obtaining the possession of land in fee simple, exempt from 
 assessment, would draw to this country what is so much wanted, 
 namely, European skill and capital. 
 
 " The registered holder of the land, however, that is to say the 
 person who is at present liable to the Government for the tax, is the 
 only individual to whom its redemption can be offered. A stranger 
 could only get possession of the land by purchasing the holder's 
 property in it. But would the persons who are now the great 
 contributors to the expenses of the State — would the descendants 
 of those who have occupied and tilled the soil from time immemorial 
 — obtain their land in fee simple free from tax ? That the land tax 
 would be quickly redeemed we have very little doubt, (that is to say 
 if offered at a fair price,) but the land would not fall into the hands 
 of those in whose possession it would be desirable to see it. It 
 would pass into the clutches of the money-lenders, who would 
 make advances to the ryot for the purpose of redeeming his tax. 
 The simple-minded ryot would rush at the bait held out to him. The 
 money-lender would ply him well with the means of purchase. 
 The ryot would sign mortgages with the greatest facility. And it is 
 not difficult to foresee that he would end by being a mere tenant upon 
 the estate from which he had so eagerly and hopefully redeemed the 
 land tax; and by paying to some money-lender a rent, double, or 
 perhaps treble the rent at present exacted by the Government. The 
 estate would probably be paid for by the mere interest of the money 
 lent the ryot. The money-lender would, in too many instances, 
 obtain possession of the soil without any expenditure of capital 
 whatsoever. And the result of this grand measure of financial 
 reform would be, that the ryot would be more impoverished than 
 ever, and that his condition would render it less possible than before 
 for him to use or consume any of those articles of commerce which 
 alone could form the basis of a new system of taxation. 
 
 " The social state of the people of India is generally such, that 
 we think the possession of land free from tax would be positively 
 injurious to them. A high tax would not be more pernicious to their 
 industry than no tax at all. It is certain that wherever the land is 
 the free possession of a people in a low state of civilization, the 
 condition of that people will never improve. They will simply 
 scratch the soil for sustenance, and live the indolent and vacuous life 
 of savages. To stimulate a people to exertion, especially in the 
 tropics where the natural wants of man are very small, some degree 
 of compulsory labour is necessary. This is effected by a tax. 
 Government says to the dweller upon the soil, ' you shall not till it 
 
243 
 
 unless yon pay a tax to Government.' The stimdus to a man's 
 industry is thereby doubled, and when his energies are once set in 
 motion his aversion to their employment disappears, and he feels that 
 what he can gain by his labour is infinitely more pleasant to him 
 than the mere indulgence of idleness. But the tax must be judi- 
 ciously laid on, and unfluctuating in amount. The cultivator must 
 not be led to fear that the profits of his increasing and improving 
 industry will be lessened by indefinite exactions. It is evident that 
 any State which depends for support upon the rent paid it by the 
 cultivators of the soil, will attend to the aggregate of their interests 
 in a far greater degree than a private individual will to the interest 
 of his tenants. The individual having wrung dry one tenant, may 
 obtain another, and after having served him in the same manner, 
 another, and, again, another. But Government, which embraces the 
 intelligence of many individuals, and is only held in trust for the 
 nation itself, will scarcely act in this manner. So long as it draws 
 its revenue from land, it will proceed upon a far more regular system 
 than private individuals will care to adopt. Indifierently as the land 
 revenue of this country has hitherto been conducted, we would 
 infinitely prefer to see the cultivator pay his rent to the Government 
 than to the money-lender. To the former, the tax rendered would 
 be (that is under an assessment revised upon true principles, which 
 is to be anticipated) moderate in amount, and fixed once and for 
 ever ; and in this case would stimulate rather than depress the ryots* 
 industry. But to the latter, the rent would be whatever his exorbi- 
 tant desires might choose to extort ; and beneath such a condition 
 industry would sink into the same state as it was under the middle- 
 men in Ireland, until Government saw fit to interfere. We are not 
 speaking, mind, of a country with enlightened proprietors and 
 intelligent tenants, — and even in such a country the relations between 
 the two are frequently bad enough, — but of a country in which the 
 occupiers of the soil are little better than semi-savage, and in which 
 those who are likely to become the landholders are the worst usurers 
 in the world. If ever a country required a Government that should 
 carefully watch over the interests of the governed, it is India ; but 
 by the redemption of the land tax, the interests of the great body of 
 the people would disappear for ever from the eyes of the Government. 
 " Let not the Government delude itself that by selling ofi" the 
 present land tax it would thereby get rid of all trouble whatever with 
 regard to the owners or cultivators of the soil. The state of society 
 in India is as yet so rude and undeveloped, that the Government 
 tnust protect the simple and improvident against the cunning and 
 
 R 2 
 
244 
 
 intriguing. Was ever the fee simple of land more absolutely and 
 entirely given away than it was in Bengal in 1793? The amount 
 payable to Government was fixed (at a money rate !) in perpetuity. 
 The zemindars were recognized as the legitimate owners of the soil ; 
 and were enabled to sell it, to lease it out, in large or small holdings, 
 and to extract whatever they could from their under-tenants. Yet 
 Government is now, after sixty-five years experience, compelled to 
 come forward with a bill to protect the interests of those under- 
 tenants, who are fleeced beyond all endurance by the owners of the 
 soil. This measure, though in the highest degree necessary, is 
 unquestionably a violation of the perpetual settlement. It is stig- 
 matized as such by the zemindars. In the North-West provinces, 
 the usurer, as we shall endeavour to show in a succeeding article, is 
 at the bottom of a great deal of the present revolution ; and it was a 
 matter of deep consideration with the authorities of those districts, 
 how the cultivator should be preserved in the possession of his 
 estate, and from the snares and wiles of the money-lender. 
 
 " In sum, we hold that while it would be no advantage to the 
 cultivator, under any circumstances, to be fieeed from a moderate and 
 judiciously-imposed tax, the operation of the redemption of the land 
 tax would be simply to transform the rent, now paid by him to the 
 Government, into an ad libitum charge made upon him by the money- 
 grubbing new proprietor of the soil. The ryot is already too much 
 in the power of the usurer; but this visionary p\irchase by him 
 of the freedom of the soil, would rivet on him the last fetter of 
 serfhood. A more disastrous condition than this, for an agricultural 
 population, — especially when the latter is almost the sole contributor 
 to the public purse, — it is impossible to conceive. Add to this, that, 
 by the time the tax was redeemed, the ryots of India would generally 
 be poorer by the whole of the amount paid by them to Government 
 for its redemption. The investment would be gone, yet there would 
 still be rent to pay for the occupation of the land." 
 
 Article IV. 
 " We must guard against its being supposed, that, in arguing for 
 the retention of the Indian land tax, we are supporting the present 
 conditions under which it is collected. Holding that it is in the 
 highest degree essential that the revenues of this country should 
 continue to be derived principally from the soil, as they have been 
 from time immemorial; and believing that a sacrifice of those 
 revenues to the fiscal aspirations of a few political theorists would be 
 the wildest measure ever entertained by a Government, we maintain 
 
245 
 
 that, generally speaking, a thorough reform of the present system, as 
 under various phases it is presented in different parts of the country, 
 is imperatively required. The tendency of things has, of late years, 
 been towards ameliorations such as we should be glad to see 
 immediately adopted. The state of the ryot when delivered over to 
 the zemindar and many kinds of middlemen, has, for a length of 
 time, been exciting the anxious attention of the authorities. It is 
 felt that under any system which withdraws him from the eye of the 
 European functionaries, his condition must be hopelessly miserable. 
 
 " A few hours after the appearance of our last article upon 
 this subject, we received our copy of the * Bengal Hurkaru ' of 
 January 12th, in which the situation of the Bengal ryot as a 
 tenant of the zemindar — the independent owner of the soil — is 
 forcibly and truthfully depicted. The ' Hurkaru ' gives a prac- 
 tical illustration of the ryot in the claws of the money-lender, to 
 whom he is driven by the oppressive exactions of the zemindar. 
 ' The ryot is detained in custody, or his property laid under dis- 
 tress. The mahajun kindly undertakes to advance the money : 
 the offer is accepted with thanks. But interest runs at a com- 
 pound heavy rate, and the ryot without any addition to his means has 
 another claimant to satisfy. The zemindar's exactions continuing the 
 same, however, it is seldom that he can meet the mahajun's whole 
 demand at once, and so get clear of him. The little he is able to 
 pay at a time goes to satisfy the interest alone ; the ashul or principal 
 remaining nearly undiminished and the same. And so the unhappy 
 ryot is doomed to see the fruits of his toil entirely wrested from 
 him by others, — the mahajun claiming what the zemindar spared. 
 Between two such millstones, of course, he is effectually ground to dust.' 
 " Would the state of things differ from this were the land tax, 
 in Madras, for example, redeemed ? The usurer would advance the 
 money. The ryot would purchase the redemption of the tax and 
 mortgage the estates for the purchase-money. The pressure of the 
 interest would eat up all his substance. At last, when he was 
 incapable of paying either principal or interest, the money-lender 
 would become the possessor of the estate, either by waiving his claim 
 to the sum advanced, (which the interest would, in all probability, 
 have already repaid,) or by bringing his insolvent debtor into court. 
 The land would still continue to be tilled by ryots, but they would 
 not hold it free of tax. The rent, instead of being what under just 
 conditions it should be, namely, moderate, as well as fixed in amount, 
 would vary according to the avaricious propensities of an ignorant 
 and unfeeling proprietor. 
 
246 
 
 *' The writer of the series of articles containing the one from 
 wliich we have quoted, is so evidently a master of his subject, that it 
 is with great satisfaction we perceive his views of reform to be 
 coincident with our o^vn. * The peasant proprietor,' says he, * is 
 in the most desirable situation in which a cultivator can possibly be/ 
 This view, as regards the Indian cultivator, we have long held. "We 
 feel assured that it is the condition which for a length of time will be 
 best suited to the ryots of this country. The distinction, however, 
 must be drawn between a peasant and a pauper proprietor. Nor 
 does the definition exclude an employer, even to a large extent, 
 of labourers. By the term a peasant proprietary, is simply to be 
 imderstood that the soil is owned by persons who are engaged 
 directly in agricultural operations. * There is no reason,' said Munro, 
 in his letter to Colonel Read, ' to regret that farms are small, — it is 
 better on every account, and for general wealth. It does not produce 
 men of great fortunes and overgrown possessions, but it lessens the 
 number of poor, and raises up everywhere a crowd of men of small 
 but independent property, who, when they are certain that they will 
 themselves enjoy the benefit of every extraordinary exertion of 
 labour, work with a spirit of activity which would be in vain 
 expected from the tenants or servants of great landholders.' "When 
 we see the legislature in Bengal bringing forward a bill which secures 
 to the under-tenants of the great landowners there a right of occupa- 
 tion on the soil, we cannot but feel that Sir Thomas Munro has been 
 more truly prophetic upon this subject than he was with regard to 
 the Indian Press. In Bengal, the system of large holdings has 
 entirely failed, the tenants have been reduced to the extreme of 
 misery, and the authorities have at last come to understand that, 
 generally, there is no class of natives fit to hold, in this country, the 
 position which is held by great proprietors in Europe. 
 
 " * We propose, accordingly,' says the writer in the * Hurkaru,' 
 ' that every ryot should be vested with the freehold of his farm, 
 subject only to an invariable tribute rent— on no account to be en- 
 hanced.' That is intended, we believe, to be the effect of Mr. Currie's 
 Bill, which, converting as it does the zemindars, who are the present 
 owners of the soil, into mere stipendiaries, is unquestionably a 
 revolutionary measure. Had the Government, at the time when the 
 present tenures in Bengal were created, been sufficiently experienced 
 in the character of the people, such a measure would never have 
 been rendered necessary. In Madras our system was initiated by a 
 man who had extraordinary insight into the nature of the tenure 
 which is required for this country. That some of his views were 
 
247 
 
 erroneous cannot be denied; and that his system has not been 
 generally adopted is certain. But he was the first who distinctly 
 enounced that ' every ryot, as long as he pays the rent of his land, 
 shall be considered as the complete owner of the soil, and shall be at 
 liberty to let to a tenant without any hesitation as to rent, and to sell 
 it as he pleases.' We shall not stop here to examine the immense 
 evils and inconveniences which, omng not to the tenure itself but to 
 numerous inessential conditions that grew up around it, have hitherto 
 pressed down the ryots of Madras into the lowest depths of misery. 
 
 " Were the system described by Lord Harris in the Annual 
 Report for the years 1855-56, existing in its integrity, it would 
 be difficult to conceive a more favourable position for an agriculturist 
 than that of a Madras ryot. But it is vitiated by imperfect European 
 superintendence, by native extortion, by inquisitorial interference ; 
 in a word, by every imaginable evil that is enabled to creep into a lax 
 and inefficient system of administration. The assessment also is 
 much too high ; and although the ryot is declared the proprietor in 
 fee simple, there is not a word about that most essential of conditions, 
 an assessment fixed for ever, and varying only, in its money rate, 
 according to the average prices of produce for a certain number 
 of preceding years. The provision that a ryot may increase or 
 diminish his holding, is the provision of a Landlord, not of a Govern- 
 ment collecting a tax. If the land were fairly assessed, the portion 
 of a farm given up would be saleable. So also the additional acres 
 taken up by the ryot. 
 
 " The true method of proceeding would be to give a legal as well 
 as a prescriptive title to the recognised proprietor of the soil. This 
 would operate to convert the virtual titles of many millions into real 
 titles. The extent of the actual holdings should all over the country 
 be accurately defined and registered. All land which was not in 
 occupation might fairly be claimed by the Government; and this, 
 with the tax on it, they might sell for what it would fetch. All 
 conditions incompatible with the existence of a fee simple should be 
 swept clean away. The absurdity of annual puttahs, and the heart- 
 sickening interference they necessitate, should be made to disappear. 
 The tax on the soil should be moderate and fixed for ever. Being 
 nearly the whole amount of the rent, few, except industrious 
 agriculturists, would be desirous to purchase the land. But it would 
 be an evil day for the ryot if Government, holding out to him the 
 bait of possessing the land free from tax, incited him to have recourse 
 to the money-lender, who would be no less anxious than the ryot to 
 become, under the new circumstances, a proprietor of the soil." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Topic 15th, 16th. 
 
 X V, Why have not British capital and enterprise invested them- 
 selves in India ? — X VI. Can tliey be induced to do so ? 
 
 " One stout Englishman is as good for routing out and exposing 
 abuses in a judge's or collector's court, as several hundred thou- 
 sand natives," says Sir Charles Trevelyan. The healthy influence 
 of the Englishman's presence is not confined to the courts. It 
 operates like an electric shock upon every man and thing in 
 India, with which it comes in contact. The doughty deed of the 
 planter Venables, who retook Azimghur, has been chronicled by 
 the author of the " Red Pamphlet." It may stand once for all as 
 a proof of an independent Englishman's worth in India : — 
 
 *^ On arriving at Ghazeepore, it was discovered that some of 
 the indigo-planters and the poorer class of Christians had been 
 left behmd. As it was known that the 17th Native Infantry 
 would return to plunder the place, great anxiety was felt on 
 their behalf by one, at least, of those who had escaped. This 
 was Mr. Venables, an indigo-planter residing in the neighbour- 
 hood of Azimghur, a gentleman of large property and of a very 
 high character. Fearing for the unfortunates who had been 
 left behind, Mr. Venables endeavoured to persuade Mr. Astell, 
 Mr. Home, and others, to return with him. They were most 
 unwilling, and pleaded fear of the Commissioner's anger if they 
 should return without his sanction. A message was instantly 
 dispatched for that sanction ; but the Commissioner, Mr. Tucker, 
 comprehending in an instant the feeling of his subordinates, 
 sent back a reply to the effect that 'he had no objection to 
 Mr. Venables going, but the Civilians were on no account to 
 risk their lives.' 
 
 " Thus privately and oflScially left to himself, this noble- 
 
249 
 
 hearted man determined to go alone. He started the next day, 
 went direct to his estate at Doorie Ghat, — some two-and- twenty 
 miles on the Goruckpore side of Azimghur, — assembled his 
 ryots, armed them, marched at their head, and recovered Azim- 
 ghur. He did more — he held it ; and whilst the apathetic 
 Civilians had retired into Benares, and were allowed to continue 
 to draw their immense salaries — Mr. Astell alone £250 per 
 mensem — Mr. Yenables, the indigo planter, remained at their 
 proper station, did all their work, even collected the revenue 
 which they ought to have collected, restored order where all was 
 chaos ; and whilst these men were whining over the loss of their 
 own private property, he employed himself in restoring the 
 power and re-asserting the prestige of Government. 
 
 " And yet he was one of those ' adventurers ' whom the 
 Government of India takes every opportunity of insulting. 
 Mr. Yenables held this district, reinforced only by a small 
 detachment of native troops, for about six weeks. At the end 
 of that time, the Civilians were most unwillingly compelled to 
 return." 
 
 The " Times " has asserted, with much truth, that Englishmen 
 will seek to make their fortunes in any place in the world, even 
 in Sierra Leone, rather than in India ; though the reasons which 
 the same article assigns for an explanation of this undoubted and 
 discreditable fact are fallacious in the extreme. As the intro- 
 duction of Englishmen with capital in their pockets, and energy 
 in their minds, is one of the most hopeful contingencies for the 
 regeneration of India, nothing can be more important than to 
 inquire why so very small a number of our countrymen, inde- 
 pendent of the services, have hitherto sought this land as a scene 
 of adventure and investment ; and what is required to induce 
 immigration, and the influx of capital.* 
 
 * With regard to the settlement of Europeans in this country, it should be observed 
 that Mr. Ewart's Committee for inquiry as to Colonization, may perhaps do more 
 harm than good, if it should lead people away from a real inquiry. Colonization, in 
 its usual acceptation, may not be possible or requisite for this country. India is not 
 fitted for the actual European labourer. The masters of labour, with money in their 
 pockets, are the class of persons we want, and who will make their own fortunes, and 
 regenerate the country. They may not colonize in India, inasmuch as they would 
 Me but temporary sojourners here, looking to return to England when they had 
 
250 
 
 All sorts of reasons have been assigned for the paucity of 
 European settlers in the interior. After one hundred years of 
 rule, India can scarcely boast of four thousand temporary 
 European settlers, while Australia, In fifty years, has aiforded 
 an outlet for nearly a million of our surplus population. Sir 
 George Clerk, before the House of Lords' Committee, thinks 
 that the European race must necessarily deteriorate, even 
 on the hills, in the course of three generations. But this 
 objection is purely hypothetical ; the possible condition of their 
 grand - children would certainly not operate as a check of 
 any force upon persons desirous to emigrate ; and though 
 colonization is highly desirable, an Influx of Europeans who 
 intended to leave the country when they had made their money, 
 is sufficient for our purpose. Sir J. C. Melville, before the same 
 Committee, gives a different account, and one of a very peculiar 
 nature. He admits that there are not more colonists now than 
 there were fifty years ago; but attributes this partly to the 
 dense population of India, as though there were no room for 
 settlers ! " It is not like Australia or America, where there is 
 plenty of vacant space for foreigners ; there Is a dense population 
 in many parts of India." And in many parts for fifty miles at 
 a stretch, there is no population at all, as he who travels by our 
 railroad across the plains of the Camatic can vouch. Constantly 
 have I heard travellers, looking across the vast and arid tracts, 
 ask, in wonderment. Where does the revenue come from ? But 
 Sir James has never been in India ; he has not therefore enjoyed 
 the advantage of travelling about the country in a bullock cart, 
 and he forgot the officially recorded fact that only one-fifth of the 
 enormous Presidency of Madras is under cultivation. The fact 
 is that gold Is lying on the surface of India, far more readily 
 attainable than in Australia and California. The climate, no 
 doubt, must ever operate to a considerable extent against the 
 colonization of India,* though the effects and disagreeableness of 
 
 amassed a competency ; though some of them might remain, and their descendants 
 become naturalized. It is the investment of British capital, under the immediate 
 direction of British owners, that we want : and the causes which will tell against this 
 I have endeavoured to explain. 
 
 * To this may be added, the vast distance and expense of the voyage between 
 India and England. When we look back upon the old times, when a ship scarcely 
 
251 
 
 the climate have been highly exaggerated : but the indigo, the 
 oil-seeds, the sugar, the cotton of her plains ; the coffee, the 
 timber, the other products of her hills, are quite sufficient to 
 tempt the influx of capital, if there were not other considerations 
 which scare men away. The true prohibitions and restrictions 
 to European colonization, are to be sought for in totally other 
 directions. It is the wretched administration of civil justice, 
 which makes it a rash enterprise to enter into any contract in 
 the Mofussil ; the revenue " system," which, in the official lan- 
 guage of the Court of Directors, makes farming a " wild specula- 
 tion;" the wretched state of the police, which, so far from 
 affi^rding protection to life and property, is one of the greatest 
 dangers, and a standing menace to both ; it is to the impossi- 
 bility which every man finds of standing alone upon his own 
 integrity and ability in the Mofussil, the thousand-and-one 
 plagues, lets, hindrances, obstacles, pit-falls, which beset him 
 with ruin on every side, the moment he falls into the evil graces 
 of any member of the civil service, revenue or judicial ; it is the 
 impossibility of procuring any valid, enduring, satisfactory title 
 to land, which will make it prudent to sink money in its improve- 
 ment ; it is the want of roads and the absence of a magistracy, 
 and a good law of master and servant; it is the jealousy of 
 Government, which still regards men as ^^interlopers;" these 
 are the causes which prevent the influx of European capital and 
 
 reached her port under six months, and a reply to a letter could not be looked for 
 under a year ; and compare the present days with those, the difference seems mar- 
 vellous. Our rapid communications, four times a month, — the voyage being performed 
 in about 28 days ; our weekly post ; the future electric telegraph, which will trans- 
 mit a message to England in an hour, are all so many inducements to the Englishman 
 to visit India. But the charges of that great monopoly, the Peninsular and Oriental 
 Company, are still so preposterously exorbitant, as to make us sigh for a cheap 
 Yankee opposition ; while an ocean penny postage should be agitated by the Indian 
 reformer, with the same view of bringing India and England close as the Symple- 
 gades. Lord William Bentinck, that noblest-hearted Englishman that ever set foot 
 in India, strongly advocated steam, as the means by which " the natives of India, in 
 pei-son, could be enabled to bring their complaints and grievances before the authorities 
 and the country," and by which " disinterested travellers (Mr. Danby Seymour is the 
 only one I can call to mind,) would have it in their power to report to their country 
 at home, the nature and circumstances of this distant portion of the Empire." The 
 result he trusted would be " to rouse the shameful apathy and indifference of Great 
 Britain to the concerns of India," 
 
252 
 
 enterprise into India. I give two specimens taken from the " Dacca 
 News," of the sort of difficulties with wliich a settler will have 
 to contend in India. They will frighten the boldest heart.* 
 
 BRIBERY. 
 (From the '• Dacca News," Jan. 16.) 
 * ** We have spent very large sums of money in bribery in this country. From first 
 to last, we believe that we have sjient as much in bribery as would amount to a small 
 competency, on which we might have gone home ; but if we had not done so, we 
 ahould neither have been able to remain in the country, nor should we have had 
 enough wherewith to pay our passage home, — to land, a pauper, in England. There 
 is scarcely an official in India we have not bribed. The European officials boast that 
 they do not take bribes. We deny it. They surround themselves by a set of most 
 miserably paid public servants, commonly known as omlah, to whom many of them 
 willingly surrender themselves completely, but to whom all must necessarily surrender 
 a great deal of power, and this power is by them turned into money. The inadequacy 
 of their pay is a great cause of their taking bribes. If they had higher pay many of 
 them would not do so. It is therefore to the State's profit that must be carried the 
 sums paid in bribery, for if it were not for these sums, they would have to pay higher 
 salaries to their servants. But the revenue of the State amounting only to a certain 
 sum, the consequence of paying the native servants more highly would be, that the 
 salaries of the Europeans must be reduced. If, for instance, there are four European 
 servants and twenty native in a district, giving 5000 rupees, say, of revenue monthly, 
 the Europeans agree to divide 4800 rupees among themselves, lea\dng 200 rupees for 
 the natives. But the natives cannot live on this, so bribery is winked at. We pay 
 bribes in order that the Europeans may enjoy higher salaries. Our bribes go indi- 
 rectly into their pocket. Do we not, then, bribe the European officials ? Bribery in 
 India is not always to be understood to mean the paying of a sum of money to cause 
 an official to do that which is wrong. We are called upon to pay him if he does 
 merely that which is right. A darogah often makes both parties deposit a sum of 
 money before he proceeds to an investigation, and keeps that belonging to the party 
 in whose favour he decides. We have often spoken to the English officials themselves 
 upon this subject, and have been blamed by them for having given bribes. They say, 
 ** Why do you not come to us yourself and state the facts, and what you want to be 
 done ? " When we were in our green youth we did so, and perhaps gained a single 
 case by doing so, but we rendered the whole of the omlah our enemies, and at last, 
 without our knowing why, our Civil Servant friend began to wax cold towards us. 
 Every case was given against us. False complaints, so easy to originate in this 
 country, where a false witness may be hired for two annas (three-pence), because 
 there is seldom a conviction for perjury, — false complaints used to arise in which our 
 Ci^ilian invariably punished us or our servants. That miserable system of tl^nnah 
 reports, where the darogah daily reports secretly to the head of the police, who is 
 also the Magistrate, and whom Mr. Halliday wishes to make Collector as well, had 
 done its work. Soft water wears the hard stone. The Magistrate was unable to re- 
 sist the daily insinuations against us which we had no means of refuting, because we 
 did not know they were made. He became suspicious of us, and so we lost our cases, 
 till our own seiTants, wiser than we were, came to us and said, " Sir, you will never 
 gain cases, and the Saheb's misaj (temper — disposition) will never be turned towards 
 you, till you bribe the omlah. They are all related to one another, and all bound 
 
253 
 
 The first article caused the " Dacca News " to be warned. 
 Everything which proceeds from the pen of the editor of that 
 journal upon this topic is worthy of the most attentive perusal. 
 
 by one common interest. They cannot allow that one, however intimate he may be 
 with the Saheb, should escape paying them their due." We were very loath to 
 believe this. We fought hard against it, but we found that native perseverance, 
 native daily -repeated insinuations, and the prejudice that exists in every Civilian's 
 mind against interlopers, was too strong, and we had invariably to give in. — We did 
 not do so without complaining to the men themselves, whose omlah we bribed. 
 
 " We have been asked why we did not resist all this. If we had been acting for 
 ourselves we might, perhaps, have felt moved to become a martyr, but as an agent 
 for others we did not see our way so clearly. We were once sent to take charge of 
 an estate which had been very much mismanaged — the native managei-s who pre- 
 ceded us having permitted encroachments on every side. The estate was seventy 
 mUes distant from the nearest magistrate. There was a rumour that a magistrate had 
 once visited it, but grave doubts were thrown upon this tradition. At any rate, Avhen 
 we went there, the memory of it existed only among the very oldest inhabitants. 
 We had reason to apprehend that a number of armed men would be sent to oppose 
 our r}'ots cutting their rice crops in a certain village. We applied to the thannah for 
 a burkindaz to protect them. It turned out that our apprehensions were groundless. 
 Our ryots cut the rice, and no one opposed them. The burkindaz, whose daily 
 wages we had paid, on his return to the thannah, passed our cutcherry and asked for 
 a present. It was not much, only five rupees, but we had then determined to keep 
 back our hand from all bribery, and to keep ourselves pure from corruption. We 
 refused the five rupees, contrary to the advice of all the old native servants of the 
 estate. We declared we would not give in to native ways. We asked what this 
 burkindaz could do to us. He could only report that what we had apprehended had 
 not taken place, that there were no armed men to oppose our ryots, who had cut 
 their crops in peace. We were very green. When the burkindaz returned to the 
 thannah, he reported that he had gone out as directed to protect our ryots from 
 oppression, but on arriving at the spot, he discovered that, so far from our being the 
 oppressed, we were the actual oppressor, for we had assembled a large force armed, 
 not in the usual Bengalee way with spears, but with muskets — and that on seeing 
 him, the musket-men had fled, and that he had pursued ; but being unable to come 
 up with them, he had not seized any of them, nor could he produce a musket in 
 proof of the truth of his story, but, with his report, he handed in some powder and 
 balls which had been dropped by them in their flight. On hearing of this report Ave 
 were in great consternation. We knew that if it were forwarded to the magistrate, he 
 would require our personal attendance to answer to such serious charges. It was the 
 season of the year when about 20,000 rupees were collected from the ryots, chiefly 
 by the process of attaching their crops while stUl on the ground. If a week or a 
 fortnight's absence were enforced upon us, the crops would be cut, and the money 
 would be for the most part lost. What were we to do ? A kind angel whispered to 
 us, that if we paid the darogah 50 rupees, he would suppress the burkindaz's report. 
 We did so, and registered a mental vow never to refuse a bribe when demanded from 
 us again. From that day to this we have steadily bribed, never refusing to give any- 
 thing at all, but trying merely how miich we could beat down the amount. 
 
 *' What has caused us to call the public attention to bribery at present, is the 
 
254 
 
 He is indeed a most invaluable witness ; and in the event of any 
 further inquiry into the condition of India, his personal testimony 
 should be secured at any cost. He probably knows more of the 
 
 circumstance that several influential zemindars have called upon us, to state that the 
 bribery and extortion exercised by the revenue survey people, in the Dacca district 
 where they are present, is sometliing infinitely beyond what they have been accus- 
 tomed to submit to. They actually cry out against it, wliich shows that it must be 
 very severe, for the amount that a Bengalee will allow to be officially squeezed out of 
 him, without hia making an outcrj^ is very great. One thing is very much com- 
 plained of, which is this : — A village belongs to A. B has a small talook, that is a 
 defined portion of the land of the village, included in its boundary. A does not 
 deny B's proprietary right in the share of the village he claims. There is no dispute 
 between A and B. But, under late rules, as we understand, the Ameen may not 
 mark out B's share without a reference to the Deputy Collector. The Deputy Col- 
 lector refers it to one of his Peshkars, and it is of these Peshkars that it is complained 
 that they will do nothing unless most highly bribed by either party or by both. In 
 all the Courts of the East India Company it is admitted, that the person who writes 
 down the evidence of a witness, which is seldom or never taken in the hearing of a 
 judge or magistrate, must be paid a certain sum in order to induce him to write down 
 what is actually said by the witness, or, in many cases, to give a different turn to 
 what has been said by them. The sum demanded for this purpose in the Magis- 
 trate's Court in Dacca, is quoted at from eight annas to one rupee. No revenue 
 survey Peshkar will look at anything less than two rupees for each witness. The 
 Peshkars declare openly that they cannot live upon 40 rupees a-month, and they 
 make their bargains with the unfortunates who have to deal with them within earshot 
 of the Deputy Collectors, whom we can neither accuse of taking bribes, nor of 
 sharing in the illegal gains of their subordinates. But the Deputy Collectors will not 
 interfere to prevent their subordinates taking bribes. When they were in the lower 
 ranks, they were themselves guilty of the same crime, and do not feel themselves 
 called upon to deprive those who may rise to the rank they now hold, from partici- 
 pating in the advantages which they themselves had. No Bengalee is interested in 
 the reputation of his office for purity. It is enough that he himself is pure. One of 
 the few darogahs we have known who never took a bribe, was an old Up-country 
 Maliommedan, who spent his days in prayer, and who was, in consequence, useless 
 as a darogah ; for no row, however great, — no murder, however atrocious, would pre- 
 vent his retiring when the hour of prayer came, which it did five times a day. We 
 were never more fleeced than under this darogah. He surrendered all his power and 
 influence into the hands of a sharp little Hindoo Mohurrer, who, undeterred by the 
 responsibility of himself holding the office of darogah, was the most extortionate little 
 wretch we ever knew. It was useless appealing to the darogah himself. The only 
 answer we got was, " God is great, and Mahomed is his Prophet." It was useless 
 appealing to the Magistrate, for who ever convicted a darogah or his subordinates of 
 bribery ? The Company's servants will scarcely listen to such an accusation. They 
 may acknowledge that it is probably true, but they will say — if we are to convict all 
 our servants who are guilty of bribery, we shall have none left, and rather than 
 mover e those quieia, they permit bribery, as they have done perjury and forgery, to 
 remain among the offences which are unpunished by their courts. But to return to 
 the revenue survey. We are informed that there is not an Ameen that does not 
 
255 
 
 working of the courts, of the land tenure system, of the doings of 
 the police, than any other man in India, He has been agent for 
 extensive estates, and has himself, as he informs us, uniformly 
 practised those acts which alone give the Englishman a chance 
 of holding his own in this country ; he has had as many as 
 ninety-two lawsuits at one time ; he is the manager of the Dacca 
 Bank, and has established his talented journal, because he found 
 that he could not obtain a hearing for his complaints and exposures 
 in the English newspapers, by which his communications were 
 systematically burked. With this introduction, I shall make no 
 further apology for introducing lengthy extracts from this writer ; 
 for the reader will not have to peruse the mere opinions of a 
 journalist, but will be confronting a personal eye-witness and 
 actor in the very scenes which he describes. * 
 
 demand eight annas a-day as his bassah kurch, that is, expense of lodging. These 
 functionaries make, we have been infonned, from 700 to 800 rupees each, during 
 the six months they are in the Mofussil. A feUow-lodger of one of them informed us, 
 that an Ameen married himself and his brdther on the profits of one season. Those 
 who know that the two great expenses of a Bengalee's life are his marriage and his 
 death, and that the saving of a penurious life are expended at those two periods, will 
 be able to form an idea of how great the profit must have been, when a man was 
 able to marry not only himself but his brother in six months. The same man in- 
 formed us, that the measurement of a Talook, paying a revenue to Government of 
 9 rupees, cost 27 rupees in bribes. The enormity of these extortions have caused 
 numbers of Bengalees to come to us. They complain not of the illegal fees, as we 
 may term the black mail levied in the Commissioner's, Judge's, Magistrate's, Assistant 
 Magistrate's, Collector's, Deputy Collector's, Principal Sudder Ameen's, Sudder 
 Ameen's, Moonsiff's, Register of Deeds' offices, with a multitude of others. They 
 complain not that in every instance where they come in contact with the East India 
 Company, whether it be that they seek the Company, or the Company requires from 
 them boats, coolies, hackeries, returns of crops, returas of population, information 
 or statistics of any kind, they complain not that they have to bribe. What they 
 complain of is, the inordinate amount extorted from them by the revenue survey. 
 
 " This article has already run to too great a length, or we might explain the 
 absolute necessity of bribery, arising from the close connection existing not only 
 between the omlah of a particular district, but of all the omiah in Bengal. They as 
 invariably come from Bickrampore in the Dacca district, as our sepoy army came 
 from Oude. But we must stop here for the present at least." 
 
 * Let us now examine the same witness as to a different kind of difficulty with 
 which the Englishman has to contend : — 
 
 THE TENUEE OP LAND BY EUROPEANS IN INDIA. 
 (From the " Dacca News.") 
 " Mr. Ewart has moved in the House of Commons for a return showing on what 
 tenure land is allowed to be held by Europeans in India, whether in fee simple, for 
 
256 
 
 Hitherto the witnesses have mostly been for the Company, 
 retired CiviHans, old Army Officers, &c. ; now we are beginning 
 
 Kfe or lives, or for years ; and if so, for what terms of years, and whether renewable on 
 payment of fines or otherwise. As we may expect that the Court of Directors, which 
 first denied that it had received a copy of Mr. Halliday's Police minute, and then 
 furnished, as the Police minute, a minute which was not the Police minute, — as we 
 may expect that Court to give a false return to Mr. Ewart's motion, we shall give a 
 a return of our own, as to the terms on which Europeans hold land in the perpetually 
 • settled districts. But before doing so, we would remind our readers, that the perpetual 
 settlement is a bargain entered into between Lord Comwallis on the part of the 
 British Government, and for which he staked the good faith of England — not of tho 
 Court of Directors, or the * Company Bahadoor,' for that is nil — and the landholders, 
 that as long as they paid a certain rent to the Government, they were to enjoy in per- 
 petuity the possession of the lands contained within certain boundaries, specified in 
 the books compiled at the time of the settlement by the various Collectors, and which 
 had been sanctioned with regard to each particular district by the Government. This 
 is the theory of the perpetual settlement. The practice has been very different, 
 especially with regard to Europeans, who, about twenty years ago, were allowed to 
 hold land on the same terms as natives. The practice is as follows : — 
 
 " A European is allowed to hold lands as long as these lands do not excite the con- 
 cupiscence of the Government of the EaSt India Company, administered by a Civil 
 Service, whose salaries depend upon the amount of revenue that can be realised, per 
 fas aut nefas, from the country. Example : Mr. George Lamb, a gentleman well 
 known for many years in the Dacca district, purchased an estate, called Chur 
 Doopooriah, paying, under the aforesaid perpetual settlement, a rent to Government 
 of 290 odd rupees. By the encroachment of a large and rapid river, the whole of this 
 estate was carried away. Mr. Lamb, aware, from long observation, of the oscillations 
 of the rivers in Bengal, that the land would re-form, continued to fulfil his part of the 
 bargain entered into with the Government — that is, to pay the revenues during eight 
 or ten years while the estate in question formed a part of the bed of the river, which 
 is from four to five miles broad. He, of course, expected that, when the river retired, 
 he would be allowed to take possession of the lands re-formed. There is a law, how- 
 ever, in connection with the settlement, which states, that if an island is thrown up in 
 the channel of a navigable river, it becomes the property of the Government ; and this 
 law is perfectly just, for it pre-supposes the drying up of the river — a circumstance of 
 frequent occurrence in Bengal — and the formation of land on a spot which had not 
 been included in the perpetual settlement^ as there vms no land existing there at 
 that time. There is, also, another law very useful in preventing disputes, which is to 
 the effect, that lands which are formed by the retiring of rivers from one bank, and 
 their encroachment on the other, are to belong to the proprietor on whose lands they 
 form. In the case before us, when the river was retiring, the Government, in the first 
 place, took possession of the dry land which first appeared, as an island ; and then of all 
 the lands successively emerging from the river, as formations on to the island, the 
 property of Government. Mr. Lamb, up to the present date, hoping against hope, 
 that justice may be done to him, pays the perpetual settlement revenue for Chur 
 Doopooriah, though he is not in possession, nor has had, for the last twelve or fourteen 
 years, a single bigah of land belonging to this estate. The Collector receives the rents 
 without a murmur, though, we believe, the Commissioner of revenue has ordered him . 
 
257 
 
 to have the English settler speaking for himself, and his reve- 
 lations are startling enough ; but they will be borne out and 
 
 to strike the very name of the estate off the books. The case, moreover, was five 
 times decided in Mr. Lamb's favour by the judges of the Company itself; and only 
 gained by them when they had succeeded, after a number of yeara, in packing a 
 Bench. We would refer the curious, with regard to this case, to our supplement of 
 the 19th July, 1857. 
 
 " A European is allowed to hold lands as long as these lands do not excite the con- 
 cupiscence of any native ; for, if any native should desire to possess them, they ^vill 
 certainly be decreed to him by the judges of the East India Company, who find none 
 so impracticable as European owners of land. Example : Mr. G. Lamb purchased at 
 a sale for arrear of revenue, from the East India Company, an estate said to comprise 
 within its boundaries certain specified villages. A native, about the same time, pur- 
 chased an adjoining estate. Mr. Lamb, from information gathered from the Collectors 
 books, brought a suit for certain villages in the possession of the native, as belonging 
 to his estate. The native brought a cross suit, claiming villages of the value of 1500 
 rupees a-year against Mr. Lamb ; INIr. Lamb lost his suit. The suit of the native was 
 decreed in his favour, giving him villages producing 6000 rupees a-year, instead of 
 1500 rupees which he had sued for. The document, on which the Sudder decreed 
 against Mr. Lamb, was a forgery. It purported to be one of the original papers of the 
 decennial settlement' (on which the perpetual settlement was founded) of Zillah 
 Tipperah. Mr. Lamb proved that the whole of that settlement was made in Arcot 
 rupees, while this paper was simimed up in Sicca rupees. The Sudder Dewany 
 Adalut, the Supreme Civil Court of Bengal, decided that the word ' Sicca ' meant 
 * current,' and might apply to any rupee. They themselves were, at the time of this 
 decision, receiving their salaries in Sicca rupees of more than 6^ per cent, greater value 
 than the Company's rupee, and would have repudiated with scorn the proposition of 
 being paid in Company's rupees. 
 
 " A European is to be prevented from becoming the possessor of land at any cost 
 whatever. Example : "While the last mentioned case was passing through the courts, 
 Mr. Lamb's opponent got deeply into debt, and his creditors put up his estate for sale. 
 Mr. Lamb was willing to purchase peace at any price, and therefore bid a large sum 
 for this estate, which comprised the disputed lands. Mr. Lamb purchased the estate in 
 his wife's name, in order to avoid, as he thought, all disputes. Mrs. Lamb, on be- 
 coming purchaser, sued for possession of the estate, but was nonsuited in the superior 
 court, the Sudder, on the ground that she, as an English or Scotch woman, could not 
 sue in her own name, but must be joined by her husband. We have got the best 
 authority for saying that this is not good English law ; but, supposing it were, there 
 was nothing on the record to show that Mrs. Lamb was either an English or a Scotch 
 woman. She might have been of any other race, among many of whom, the Arme- 
 nians, Mussulmanees, and Hindoos, for instance, married women may possess property 
 apart from their husbands. The objection was not taken in any of the pleadings, and 
 we submit that the Appellate Court had no power to take it up ; but there was an Eng- 
 lishman or Scotchman, well known, in their private capacities, to the judges on the 
 bench, to be such, to be prevented from possessing lands. The case was therefore 
 non-suited. On this decision being given, Mr. Lamb brought a fresh suit, joining 
 himself with his wife. The same objection would not serve now, but Mr. Lamb 
 lost his case in the Appellate Court on account of an alleged irregularity in the 
 
 S 
 
258 
 
 corroborated by every man of tlie class the more tlie matter is 
 probed. I would particularly call attention to the striking 
 
 Bale, an irregularity for which no one was responsible but the court which sold, 
 and therefore Mr. Lamb was punished. Be it observed, that Mr. Lamb gained 
 every one of these cases in the courts of first instance It was only when they 
 were appealed to the Sudder, when they were taken down to Calcutta, were 
 Civil Servicism is rampant, where the necessity of keeping the interloper from 
 gaining a footing in the land is fully appreciated — it was only in Calcutta that 
 he lost them. We could adduce many a case where the stime gentleman who, 
 unfortunately for himself, had a desire to become a landed proprietor, and to improve 
 his lands by introducing the culture of various crops unknown in this part of India, 
 had decree after decree given against him in the civil courts — many of them so absurd, 
 that they gave rise to fresh law-suits in the vain endeavour to have them executed. 
 We could bring instances of parallel cases, where natives only were concerned, where 
 decrees were ^ven in their favour, which would have made Mr. Lamb's fortune had 
 the same law — we shall not desecrate the name of justice by applying it to any of the 
 dicta of the Sudder — been dealt out to him. But the interloper was there. He was 
 to be put down. If he had not been put down, he might have had the presumption 
 to grow cotton ; and, by supplying Liverpool with that material, to have made English 
 people take as great an interest in, and become as well acquainted with the affairs of 
 India as they are with those of America. 
 
 " However long a European may have been in possession of land, every means, even 
 to the endangering of the salvation of the judges themselves, is to be used to oust him 
 from possession, and to give it to a native, with which class the Civil Service believed, 
 till lately, perhaps, they could do anything. This is an error on the part of the Civil 
 Service. Since Reg. II. of 1819, and the Public Works Loan, the native believes that 
 there are no deiiths so low to which the Comi)any Bahadoor cannot descend, so long 
 as they have power on their side. The Englishman confesses that the Government is 
 * awful dodgy,' but cannot believe that the men whom he knows well, and knows to be 
 tolerably honest in their private transactions, could be guilty of the rascalities which 
 have been committed under the aforesaid regulation. But we are running away from 
 our subject, which is^ that however long a European may have possessed land he must 
 be ousted somehow or another. Example : Messrs. Lamb and Wise, two gentlemen 
 settled in the Dacca district,, learned from their attornies. that an estate was to be sold 
 })y the Collector at the instance of the owner*s creditors. They agreed to bid for the 
 estate, and to purchase it together. The estate was put up for sale, and they bought 
 it. Though many objections were raised to the manner in which the sale was made, 
 &c. by the late proprietors, at the time of and immediately after the sale, they were 
 all overruled by the courts^ Messrs. Lamb and Wise were put in possession, and con- 
 tinued in possession for eleven years, eleven months, and odd days. If the twelve 
 years had passed, their title would have been secured by prescription. But before the 
 twelve years had expired, a suit was brought to upset the sale on the ground that the 
 law prescribed that notice of sale should be affixed in ten places. It had been so in 
 nine, but there was a doubt with regard to the tenth, whether the place where it was 
 affixed was situated on certain lands or not. The case came on in the local courts, 
 and was decided in favour of Messrs. Lamb and Wise. It was appealed to the Sudder, 
 where it was, as a matter of course, decided against the interlopers by two judges 
 out of three — decided, we have almost the highest legal authority in India for saying. 
 
259 
 
 evidence of Mr. Theobald and Mr. Freeman before Mr. Ewart's 
 Colonization and Settlement Committee. 
 
 against the common sense interpretation of the law. But what can be expected from 
 judges who have absolutely no legal training, and who consider the interloper as a 
 being who has no right to be in India. 
 
 " Such are a few — we solemnly affirm — a very few — of the instances we can give 
 to Mr. Ewart of the tenures on which lands are allowed to be held by Europeans in 
 India. Were we to unfold a half— one third — of what we know, we should be scorned 
 as unjust traducers of the Civil Service of the Honourable the East India Company. 
 Fortunately, we can prove every word we have said from the decisions of the Sudder 
 Dewany Adalut. Lord Canning must have wondered why his proclamations were 
 so little believed. It is long — as the evidence of every independent man will prove — 
 since the assertions of the Government of this country have been believed by its subjects. 
 
 " If more witnesses be required, I can myself point to two. Let Mr. James 
 Beaumont, the Manager of the Beypoor Iron Works, be asked to detail his expe- 
 rience of the difficulties with which an European adventurer has to contend in this 
 country. Let Mr. Summers Hutchinson, of Dublin, who has travelled over a large 
 portion of India, and almost all the rest of the world, be asked for his opinion as to 
 the condition of India as comjjared with that of any other country he has visited." 
 
 Let us turn to the Parliamentary evidence. 
 
 Mr. Wise, before the Lords' Committee, 5th May, 1853, speaks as follows : — 
 
 Q. 5249. " Are there any legal difficulties which disincline persons to purchase 
 land in that jiart of the country ? 
 
 A. " There are difficulties.'" *• 
 
 Q. 5250. •' Is any person, purchasing land, liable to much litigation ? 
 
 A. " He is subject to constant litigation. No person can have landed property in 
 India without more or less being forced into litigation. There are very often suits 
 brought against you ; even in the case of estates purchased at Government sales, you 
 have suits brought." 
 
 Q. 5251. Lord Broughton : " As to the validity of the tenure of the land ? 
 
 A. " Yes, as to the tenure of the land." 
 
 Q. 5252. Chairman : " In conducting those law-suits, is the owner subject to 
 much difficulty in the way of evidence ? 
 
 A. " Very much. The evidence is, generally, in India, all false, both the docu- 
 mentary and the oral evidence ; and the judges are obliged, of course, to go with the 
 evidence laid before them, either documentary or orally given ; so that he has great 
 difficulty to contend with." 
 
 Q. 5253. Lord Monteagle : " Do suits often arise from the boundaries being un- 
 defined ? 
 
 A. " Yes ; the boundaries are undefined, and the natives get up all kinds of cases. 
 They even ante-date papers, and all kinds of frauds are got up ; and, therefore, it is 
 very difficult for Europeans safely to own property." 
 
 Q. 5254. Lord Broughton : " Are they at all affected by the Resumption Regu- 
 lations ? 
 
 A. " The Resumption Regulations were the greatest blight and curse that the 
 Government of India ever inflicted upon the country." 
 
 Q. 5255. " Do you mean with reference to the land taken by indigo planters ? 
 
 A. " With reference to all landed property in Bengal. It has covered the whole 
 
 S 2 
 
260 
 
 Perhaps tlie chief obstacle to the Britisli settler is the condition 
 the administration of justice. What a pregnant fact is that 
 
 country with foi^ery and perjury, by making it necessary for every man to produce 
 measurement papers and documents; by setting aside the laws of 1793, and compel- 
 ling people to prove their right to property for 70 years back, a thing quite im- 
 possible to do. This law, jjut in practice immediately, sets every man to work to 
 fabricate papers, because it was imperative upon the judge to decide in favour of the 
 Government, unless you could prove by documents that the property had belonged to 
 you 60 or 70 years." 
 
 Q. 5256. " Are you speaking of the district with which you are more peculiarly 
 acquainted, or from what you have heard with respect to the Resumption Laws in 
 other parts of India ? 
 
 A. " I saw how the law affected myself and neighbourhood chiefly ; but, of course, 
 I have heard a great deal of its effects in other parts of the country." 
 
 Q. 6257. Earl of EUenborough : " Had it not very much the effect of shaking the 
 confidence which the people formerly possessed in the Government ? 
 
 A. " Completely." 
 
 Q. 5258. Lord Wynford : " Then it is the difficulty of ascertaining the tenure, 
 not the fear of being under this mixed law, that prevents Europeans from settling in 
 the country ? 
 
 A. " There is no law ; and the issue of a suit is a matter of great uncertainty." 
 
 Q. 5259. Chairman : " Are there any other causes which tend to prevent Euro- 
 l)eans from purchasing land ? 
 
 A. *' The magisterial powers are the great difficulty to Europeans : the magistrates 
 are generally young men ; they are poorly paid ; and when they have become sufficiently 
 experienced for performing satisfactorily the magisterial duties, they are made Col- 
 lectors ; and having reached that position, and become really useful and efficient, they 
 are transferred to another district as Collector." 
 
 Q. 5286. " On the exercise of that power, does the security of life and property 
 in his district very much depend ? 
 
 A. " I think so. I have seen a district in the very highest state of disciiiline, and 
 everything comfortable, under a good magistrate ; and I have seen the same district 
 put into the very opposite state in the course of a few weeks by a bad magistrate coming 
 in his place. It is immediately known to the natives ; they are very quick in discern- 
 ing character." 
 
 Sir Charles Trevelyan deposes as follows : — 
 
 Q. 6731. *' Do you consider that the permanent settlement of British-born sub- 
 jects in India, in the prosecution of industry and the investment of capital, is a thing 
 to be desired, or the reverse ? 
 
 A. " Certainly, it is to be desired. As far as it takes place, it will powerfully con- 
 duce to the happy result of consolidating our dominion in India, and especially now 
 that the English in India are going to be placed under equal laws with the natives, and 
 under the same courts of justice ; for so long as they belonged to a separate jurisdic- 
 ,tion, they were an element of disorder and misrule. The line which they took was to 
 depreciate and disparage the native courts ; but when they are once placed under 
 them, they will then become an element of good, and we shall have a power of im- 
 provement introduced in this way into our judicial system, of which we have no 
 conception at present." 
 
261 
 
 well-known practice of the Calcutta merchants to make it a con- 
 dition of their contracts with Mofussil traders and growers, that 
 
 Q,. 6732. " Is it your opinion that the i)ast unsettled state of the law as between 
 the English and the natives, and, above all, the state of the law in the Mofussil, 
 without the remedy of a code or Lex Loci, as was proposed, has been a considerable 
 impediment and discouragement to the settlement of the English in India ? 
 
 A. " I have no doubt that it has been a great impediment and discouragement to 
 the settlement of the English in India, and thereby a great drawback to the improve- 
 ment of India." 
 
 Q. 6733. " Then, it is your opinion that English settlera or emigrants located in 
 India, would rather have a tendency to lead the party friendly to British connexion 
 than to become leaders of discontent and turbulence ? 
 
 A. " That is my firm belief. I believe they would accomplish two objects — that 
 they would be on the side of English connexion, but that, at the same time, with the 
 true spirit of Anglo-Saxons, they would be stout and open-mouthed against every local 
 grievance." 
 
 Q,. 6734. " In a statement, made by Lord Macaulay upon the former renewal of the 
 Charter, he said that ' Next to the opening of the China trade, the change most 
 eagerly demanded by the English people was, that the restrictions on the admission of 
 Europeans to India should be removed.' He goes on to say, ' In this measure there 
 are undoubtedly great advantages. The chief advantage is the improvement our 
 native subjects may be expected to derive from free intercourse \vath a people far 
 advanced beyond themselves in intellectual cultivation. I cannot deny that this great 
 change is attended with some danger.' Now, from that passage we may conclude, 
 that the advantages of English settlement in India are great and obvious ; but what is 
 the risk connected with English settlement ? 
 
 A. " I presume that the risk which Lord Macaulay contemplated was this, that the 
 English settlers might head a national Indian party ; but India is such a great country, 
 and the preponderance of native feeling must be so decided for an unlimited number 
 of years to come, that Europeans will be lost in the mass ; and they will have exactly 
 the siime motives to dei)recate the re-establishment of a pure native Government which 
 the Anglicised natives have ; and for an indefinite time to come, they will stand by the 
 British Government, as representing the land of their fathers, the land with which 
 they are naturally connected, and the land from which, and through which, and by 
 which, they hope for the improvement of India." 
 
 Q,. 6735. Earl of EUenborough : " Do you think it possible that the natives 
 might assist the European colonists, who are supposed to be settled in India for the 
 purpose of establishing what is now called responsible Government ; and that, when 
 they had so separated them from the dominion of England, they might overthrow the 
 colonists themselves ? 
 
 A. " That would be a very probable result to the Europeans, for the number of 
 English settlers will always be comparatively a mere handful, because the country 
 presents great physical obstacles to the settlement of Europeans from the nature of 
 the climate •, and Europeans, foreseeing that result, will be more disposed to side with 
 the British Government and to support it." 
 
 Q. 6736. " Do you think that a separate Government established in India would 
 pay the dividends upon the East India stock, or the pensions due to the civil and 
 militarv servants ? 
 
262 
 
 breaches of contract shall be sued for in the Queen's Supreme 
 Courts ! When I exposed the state of the administration of 
 
 A. " It would depend upon the terms on which the separation took place. If it 
 took place according to the course of policy which I recommend, they certainly would 
 pay it, supposing the debt then to exist ; but if it took place according to the native 
 policy, there would be a clean sweep of everj'thing,— men and money, and everything.*' 
 Q. 6737. Chairman : " Do you contemplate it as probable that there can be any 
 great number of permanent English settlers in India without great physical and moral 
 deterioration ? 
 
 A. " I think there would be physical deterioration to a certain extent, but the pro- 
 gress of Christianity in India, both among Europeans and natives, is euch, and public 
 opinion is improvin,^ so fast, that I do not think there will be any moral deterioration ; 
 but although, according to my view, the European settlers in India would never be 
 numerous, they would be extremely influential in proportion to their number. One 
 stout Englishman is as good for routing out and exposing abuses in a Judge's or Col- 
 lector's Court as several hundred thousand natives." 
 
 Q. 6741. Lord Monteagle of Brandon : " If there were European settlement and 
 colonization along the line of those Upper Provinces which you have described, 
 would not that in itself, and independently of any other advantages, give very great 
 strength to our Indian empire upon the whole of that frontier ? 
 
 A. " No doubt it would have a great tendency to confirm our dominion in India. 
 I am strongly impressed with the idea, that India is so vast a country, and is inha- 
 bited by races differing so much in their character and degree of civilization, that its 
 consolidation into a single nation, possessing national sympathy and coherence, such 
 as would allow of self government, is so difficult and so distant, that we have nothing 
 to fear from that source." 
 
 Q. 6742. Lord Ashburton : " Can you say, from your own experience, that the 
 presence of European settlers in a district has a tendency to render our dominion 
 more popular? 
 
 A. " Yes. The instances of European settlers in the upper country are few ; but 
 all that I know were in favour of that idea. Colonel Skinner and his family is an 
 instance that immediately occurs to me. They greatly tended to the confirmation of 
 our dominion. 
 
 Q. 6743. " My question was intended to refer more particularly to indigo planters 
 and mercantile settlers ? 
 
 A. " The district of Bengal, in which indigo planters most abound, is Tirhoot. It 
 is well known that there is not a more flourishing and prosperous district in India 
 than Tirhoot ; and if every other district rebelled, I should expect that Tirhoot 
 would stand by us." 
 
 Q. 6744. " Should you say that the presence of those Europeans has a tendency 
 to make our dominion more popular in the country ? 
 
 A. " I should say, decidedly so, even now, under the disadvantage of their being 
 under a separate jurisdiction. Whatever inconveniences may exist, arise from the 
 very anomalous and objectionable state of the law as between them and the natives, 
 which gives them a very unfair and improper advantage, and is really for their injury, 
 because it prevents the establishment of confidence ; but if that were removed, I should 
 toy that they would be altogether and entirely an element of strength and popu- 
 lari'v." 
 
263 
 
 justice in the Presidency of Madras I was accused of hasty 
 generaHzation and induction from insufficient premises ; but the 
 
 Evidence of Mr, Cameron : — 
 
 Q,. 7460. " Do you not consider that the uncertain state of the law as affecting 
 Europeans in India must have been a great impediment to the settlement of Euro- 
 peans in the interior in times past, and even up to the time present ? 
 
 A. " Yes. I think it is." 
 
 This is the evidence of Mr. Moore : — 
 
 Q. 5875. Sir T. H. Maddock : " Is there any impediment to a gentleman like 
 yourself settling in any part of India, and carrying on cultivation or trade? 
 
 A. " I was in India as a ' covenanted free merchant.' There is no impediment 
 now; there was during the last Charter." 
 
 Q,. 5876. " There is no difficulty in carrying on any mercantile operation ? 
 
 A. " The dilficuity is this. Before I came home, I was speaking to one of the 
 most intelligent merchants in Calcutta with regard to this question, and his words 
 were these: ' We do not like to trust our Ciipital out of the jurisdiction of the 
 Supreme Court."' " 
 
 Q. 5877. " Does that imply that there is a want of confidence in the administra- 
 tion of justice in the Mofussil Courts ? 
 
 A. " It is the uncertainty of the law that is complained of." 
 
 Q. 5878. " It is not from any feeling of distrust of the administration of justice 
 on the part of the judges ? 
 
 A. " I think the system is considered faulty, more than the men engaged in it. A 
 question was put to a former witness, Mr. Halliday, whether the natives generally have 
 the same opinion of the Queen's judges as they have of the Company's judges, I 
 do not think they have the stme opinion of the Company's judges that they have of 
 the Crown judges, simply from the fact that they see everything in the Queen's courts 
 publicly and openly argued, and they know that no money can prevail there; whereas 
 they have not that opinion of the Company's courts. Within my own knowledge, 
 large sums of money are remitted by peoi^le in the country to their agents in Calcutta, 
 thinking that money will help them in those courts." 
 
 Q. 5987. Chairaian : " Is there any portion of your former evidence which you 
 wish to explain ? 
 
 A. " I wish to reply to a question of Sir Herbert Maddock, which I had not an 
 o{)portunity, on the last occasion, of replying to in full. The question asked me by 
 the Honourable Member was (No. 5875), ' Is there any impediment to u gentleman 
 like yourself settling in any jiart of India, and carrying on cultivation or trade?' My 
 answer was, ' I was in India as a covenanted free merchant. There is no impediment 
 now ; there was then.' " 
 
 Q. 5988. " What do you wish to correct or explain in that answer ? 
 
 A. " There is no impediment, at least, no open impediment to a European 
 settling in the country, though a former witness, Mr. Leith, alluded to an antagonism 
 between the indigo planters and the civil servants, caused, as he thought, by the latter 
 now enjoying trade which the former possessed. But an Englishman has no redress 
 from the servants of the Company when he settles in the interior. I will cite cases 
 on that subject, if I may be allowed. In 1849, the district judge of Pornea gagged 
 a European gentlemen, Mr. Cruise, in open court. I knew this gentleman's family in 
 Ireland, and I know he obtained no redfcss. Notliin^i was done to the judge; he was 
 
2G4 
 
 area of induction has been widening to me ever since. I have 
 liad several years more experience since I wrote, and an extensive 
 
 allowed to come home to this country, with his pension. Again, a short time since it 
 was reported from India that an indigo planter had been imprisoned by a ma- 
 gistrate of the name of Woodcock. The country prisons are not fit to confine 
 natives in, not to say Europeans ; however, the latter are rarely seen within their • 
 walls." 
 
 Q. 5989. Sir G. Grey : ** When did those occurrences take place ? 
 A. " Within the last five years. The firet occurrence took place, as I said before, 
 in 1849; the other during the last year." 
 
 Q. 5990. Chairman: " Are you aware what the cause of imprisonment was? 
 A. " I am not aware what the cause of imprisonment wios; but I am aware that 
 the Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie, removed the magistrate from hh appointment. 
 There was another case to which I can refer — the case of Mr. Hay. There has been 
 a most excellent pamphlet published by Mr. Prinsep, late of the Bengal Civil Service, 
 in which he states that he wishes civil servants to be tried, not upon their covenant, 
 but like every other European. Mr. Melville quite agrees with me in opinion, that 
 it would give very great satisfaction if this were carried out. We do not know, when 
 a civil servant commits any offence, that he is subjected to any trial at all; in fact, you 
 have it in evidence from one of themselves, that ' a ci\il servant may be corrupt with 
 impunity.' No European likes to settle in the interior when the laws are so uncer- 
 tain, and there is so little judicial responsibility." 
 
 Q, 5991. Mr. Hume: " What would you suggest in order to remove the com- 
 plaints which you say exist, and to encourage the settlement of Europeans in 
 the country ? 
 
 A. " A reform of the laws, and of the mode of administering them. When we 
 consider the benefits already conferred upon the country by the industry, energy, and 
 intelligence of indigo planters in creating a monopoly in the article of indigo, which 
 has superseded that of the Dutch, any legislative improvement tending to encourage 
 the residence of Europeans in the Mofussil may be regarded as an object of im- 
 poitance in a mercantile and financial point of view." 
 
 Q. 5992. " State the particular of the reform which you would introduce? 
 A. " I would introduce the English law as far as it is practicable. That is what 
 we want; we do not wish to be tried by one law, and the natives by another. No 
 Englishman has any objection, if the law is fair, to be subject to it; but the argument 
 used hitherto has been, that, as soon as Europeans are oppressed by the law, they will 
 exert themselves to effect its reform." 
 
 Q. 5993. Sir G. Grey : " Do you mean that your remedy would be the intro- 
 duction throughout India of the English law ? 
 
 A. " I would not say altogether the English law, but a modification of it suitable 
 to the country, and by which men can have justice." 
 
 Q. 5994. Mr. Hume: " You mean to say that an English settler in any of the 
 districts in the interior is not tried in that manner, and does not receive that protection, 
 ■which you think ought to be awarded to him ? 
 A. " That is my decided opinion." 
 
 Mr. Maci>herson, examined as to the native petition, says as follows : — 
 Qi. 8389. " The petitionee do not state that they have not had an opportunity of 
 judging how far these tests have remedied the grievance, but they state, on the other 
 
265 
 
 i. . . 
 
 a?i practice in the Sudder and Mofussil Courts ; and I can sincerely 
 assert that were I to abstract the published Sudder decisions from 
 the day I wrote up to the present, the results would be precisely 
 the same. How can it be otherwise ? No change has been 
 attempted. The same Heaven-born amateurs still occupy the 
 bench, and the quality of their judgments cannot but be the 
 same. Let the reader but reflect upon the consequences of such 
 a pitch-and-toss system of decision upon mercantile operations. 
 I am not speaking now of the bribery and corruption which 
 prevail in every court in the land among the whole body of 
 native officials ; nor of the weary delay ai]d length of time over 
 
 hauxl, that the grievance still exists, without making any reference to the tests, or any 
 allusion to any endeavour made by the Government to remedy the state of things of 
 which they complain ? 
 
 A. " I am not at all surprised that they should speak very strongly of the hardships 
 which they have endured from the mode in which justice has been administered in 
 India. I am, myself, a witness as to what the natives, and what, sometimes, Euro- 
 peans have suffered in the interior from the mode in which the business has been 
 committed. I may mention a case of my own. I became a purchaser of Ran- 
 gaunitty, within fourteen miles of Moorshedabad, one of the principal filjatures 
 belonging to the Company. I purchased it at public auction, in Calcutta, in 1835. 
 This residency had a certain amount of land attached to it, on which a certain rent of 
 about 1,200 rupees a year was to be paid. On purchasing that property, of course I 
 supposed that I was purchasing whatever rights the Government possessed in their 
 commercial capacity, and that they were transferred to me as purchaser of the pro- 
 perty, A very few months after I had paid for the propert}% I was informed that the 
 Collector had resumed more than half the land, and alienated it from me. Though 
 I had seen a great many very despotic actions done by men in power, I could scarcely 
 believe that this could be carried out; but I issued orders to my people to resist the 
 removal of the crops. The Collector who assessed the land happened at the same 
 time to be the magistrate, and, in his capacity as magistrate, he put my people into 
 prison. I had no information or notice of any description given to me till this 
 occurred. I remonstrated with the Collector and with the Commissioner; and for five 
 years the question was sent from one Collector to another, and from one Commissioner 
 to another. I think there were three Collectors and three Commissioners. Just 
 before my departure from the country, I requested an audience of Lord Auckland, 
 the Governor-General, and I stated to him this grievance; and I also stated to his 
 lordship that, if it required five years for a European to obtain any redress for a 
 grievance of this nature, it must require a great deal longer for a native. The case 
 was not brought to a close even when I left the countiy. By a calculation of one of 
 the Collectors, it was supposed that my loss from being deprived of those lands must 
 have amounted to upwards of 40,000 rupees. I proposed that if 10,000 rupees were 
 given to me, and all further litigation and inquiry ceased, I would be willing to take 
 that amount. Three months after I left the country, the amount was paid to 
 my iigents." 
 
266 
 
 which litigation extends ; nor of the numerous appeals, with their 
 attendant expense ; nor of the perjury of witnesses with which 
 an uprifjht suitor has to contend ; though all of these are most 
 formidable difficulties in the way of an adventurer in the Mofus- 
 sil, where no man can exist without being forced into litigation, 
 sooner or later, and to a greater or less extent. The editor of 
 the *• Dacca News," with his ninety-two suits, sinks into insigni- 
 ficance beside the Bengal planter who, a witness before the House 
 of Lords' Committee, told Lord Ellenborough he had a thousand 
 suits ; and even beside the late Mr, Morrison, wlio farmed the 
 Abkarie in North Arcot, and told me himself that he had had 
 1700 suits in the course of his business, which only extended 
 over a few years. I am speaking solely of the quality of the 
 decision when it is pronounced, not of the difficulties which beset 
 the way to obtaining it ; and I say that the decisions are such 
 that no man can safely invest his money in any contract which 
 he may be necessitated to enforce at law. I could give a host of 
 proofs. I select two at random from my own S udder practice 
 within the last two months. I take them not because they 
 present any extraordinary features, but because they are the 
 first that suggest themselves to my memory on the spur of the 
 moment. 
 
 A timber merchant in Malabar sued the proprietress of a forest 
 for non-delivery of certain logs of wood of the value of 69,000 
 rupees, which he averred she had contracted to sell to him. In 
 her answer she denied the contract. The plaintiff thereupon 
 petitioned the court to have the timber made over to him, he 
 finding security, on the grounds — 1st. That the defendant was 
 masking and concealing it in a neighbouring forest. 2nd. That 
 he had entered into contracts with third parties on the faith of 
 obtaining this wood, and he would be a loser if he could not 
 fulfil his contracts. These damages were contingent, and might 
 have proved the subject of a cross action if they were really 
 sustained. The defendant denied that she was masking the pro- 
 perty. She pointed out that by the regulations, the course is 
 laid down for the judge to pursue in case of any complaint made 
 pending suit — that the defendant is concealing or making away 
 with property. The judge is to examine the witnesses of both 
 parties on oath, and if he thinks the property is in danger he may 
 
267 
 
 attach it. But the court, without holding any such inquiry, 
 and taking the plaintiff's own word as to his sub-contracts, passed 
 an order for the whole of the timber to be forthwith handed over 
 to him, he furnishing security. Against this order the defendant 
 appealed to the S udder. I prayed, ex 'parte, for an injunction to 
 stop the execution of the order until the appeal was heard. This 
 was refused, on the ground that the case would soon come on, 
 and might be disposed of altogether. Circumstances delayed it 
 for some time. My client wrote to me that if the Sudder Court's 
 order was not obtained soon, it would be too late, as the timber 
 M^as already being made over to the plaintiff. At last the case 
 came on ; it was so simple, that the order was recorded on the 
 mere reading the petition ; no argument was necessary. The 
 plaintiff has now put in a petition for review of judgment. 
 What merchant would like to embark in the timber trade if he 
 is liable to have 70,000 rupees worth of his logs handed over to 
 any one who chooses to file a plaint against him, notwithstanding 
 he denies, by his pleading, that any contract was ever entered 
 into between him and the plaintiff ? 
 
 A zemindar contracted with A to let him his estate for ten 
 years. He broke his contract, and let the land to B. At the 
 expiration of the ten years C purchased the right to sue on the 
 contract from " the heir of A," and sued the zemindar for the 
 breach. He laid his damages at 50,000 rupees. He called a 
 few waiters in the employ of B, who stated that B's profits on 
 the ten years were 40,000 rupees, and this sum the judge 
 awarded. A clear premium for champerty ! A man might as 
 well assign a right to sue for a breach of promise of marriage ! 
 The appeal is before the Sudder now. No account was taken of 
 the labour, the capital, the time, the skill of B, employed to 
 secure these profits ; no consideration of the fact that A, his heir, 
 and the assignee, had literally done nothing ; and that in their 
 hands the estate might have been worked at a loss. There was 
 no proof that A hid purchased seed, ploughs, bullocks, or the 
 like in the belief that he was to have the lease. What B made 
 by the sweat of his brow was made the measure of C's damages, 
 who had been hard at work on his own business the whole ten 
 years, never been a penny out of pocket, and obtained an annuity 
 out of a breach of contract with another man ! If I were to let 
 
268 
 
 my chambers to the dullest practitioner of the bar, and refuse to 
 let him enter, he might just as reasonably, in suing me for the 
 non-fulfihnent of my contract, claim all the fees I had earned 
 from tlie date of the breach up to action brought ! 
 
 Take the business of one day in the S udder Court. It 
 affords an average specimen of the occupation of that court. 
 Two suits were brought upon an account stated. The judge 
 had written lengthy decrees, in which he found in favour of 
 the plaintiff. Especial reference was made to a particular letter. 
 When this letter was read, it was found to be an express repudia- 
 tion of the plaintift^'s claim, and a dispute of sundry items ! As 
 the pleader sarcastically remarked, either the judge had not read 
 the letter, or he had no notion of the meaning of an account stated! 
 
 The next case I was engaged in myself. A had obtained a 
 piece of land under a decree. It was described by miles and 
 bounds. This land she sold to B. The bill of sale referred to 
 tlie land as that which had been awarded to A in the suit. B 
 filed his plaint to recover possession of this land ; he obtained a 
 decree ; and in execution the judge had put him in possession of 
 my client's land, which lay outside the four specified boundaries. 
 He, of course, appealed. The Sudder sent for an explanation, 
 which amounted to this, — that the judge could do no better, and 
 had had a deal of trouble in doing even what he had ; but he 
 pointed out that the arrangement was only temporary, and that, 
 if he could discover hereafter the land that had been really sold, 
 plaintiff might have possession given of that, and my client's land 
 be restored to him ! Having reversed this order, I left the court 
 for my other business. How can property have any value ; how 
 can men venture to risk their capital, when they may at any 
 moment be beggared by such idiotcy as the above ? 
 
 Connected with this is the paucity of magistrates in the Mo- 
 fussil.* There is neither a magistrate accessible, nor a road to 
 
 • Here is an extract of a letter from a Wynaad planter, which will show how 
 little has been done, and what is really wanted by the settler : — 
 
 " 'Tis a common fallacy to hope, expect, and demand much from a Government. 
 Such hopes and expectations are always signs of shortcomings and weakness on the 
 part of the governed. This the Government doubtless feel. But if a Government 
 has its rights, so it has its duties, and one of them is the removal of all obstructions to 
 the investment of capital and the free exercise of the enterprising genius of its people. 
 Will Lord Harris in Council, will the Honourable the Board of Revenue, in solemn 
 
269 
 
 reach him if lie were so. Two instances have just occurred in 
 point. A planter on the Sheveroy Hills wrote to me that he had 
 detected some women stealing his coffee. He was forced to go 
 down to Salem to bring his complaint ; that is to say, six miles 
 down the Ghaut, and five more to the town. When he reached 
 the station he found the magistrate absent on jumabundy ; he 
 was told he must come again ; but as his time was too valuable, 
 and the loss was petty, he saw no use in throwing good after bad, 
 and thus the people find that they can steal with impunity. The 
 case is the same with respect to the recovery of advances. This 
 custom of the country is so irradicable, that no labourers will 
 engage themselves for work without an advance. The delay and 
 expense of recovering ad.vances is so great, that it is seldom 
 attempted, and the planter is at the mercy of his coolies. Some 
 few years ago a planter was brought down from the Sheveroy 
 hills to the Madras sessions to be tried for the murder of a 
 coolie, whom he had thrashed in a moment of exasperation of 
 seeing him, while under his own advances, tending the cattle of a 
 neighbouring planter on the adjoining plantation. I have myself 
 a considerable coffee estate on the Sheveroys. My manager 
 lately wrote me word that the malialies, the indigenous people 
 
 conclave assembled — will they, I ask, endeavour to do this ? Will they give us security 
 for titles to land by some legislative act within the scope of their wisdom ? 
 
 " "Will they give us an European magisti-ate. and some hope of an efficient police ? 
 
 " Will they give us an act, or extend any act, by which we may hope to punish 
 our servants and labourers absconding without notice — absconding with our money 
 advanced to them in good faith to enable them to join our plantations ? 
 
 " Will they give us roads on which ourselves and our produce can travel, and take 
 measures that all traffic shall not be closed in the rains ? 
 
 " And finally, if the old red tape binds us— if Wynaad, at present, does not look so 
 financially flourishing as other districts — if money is required — tax us by all means — 
 we are anxious to be taxed in money — (for God knows our patience has been taxed 
 long enough) — tax us, but give us security for our lands. 
 
 " Tax us but give us a magistrate, and some semblance of a police, not leaving us 
 as now at the mercy of a parcel of mangy and useless native officials. They are all 
 corrupt, and our collectors and magistrates (European) know it. Why, I heard a 
 gentlemen offer a certain police Ameen 50 rupees per mensem the other day, provided 
 he would enter his employment — but no ; the virtuous man was too knowing for that, 
 and declined the offer as he thought his Ameenship more lucrative on a salary of 15 
 rupees per mensem. Tax us, but give us roads and bridges, so that in the rains our 
 coolies may not be starved, nor ourselves shut out from the world for days together, 
 like Robinson Crusoe on Coffee Islands." 
 
270 
 
 of tlie hills, had cut down 30 acres of forest witliin my boundary. 
 Force is the only means of prevention. I had to write to the 
 Collector ; he is out at this season on jumabundy. in the district ; 
 and it will take at least a fortnight before any order can be served 
 upon the aggressors. Irreparable mischief is then done : " All the 
 Queen's horses and all the Queen's men can't put my trees 
 up again ;" and though I may punish the offenders, no damages 
 can restore me to my former position. If a magistrate were 
 resident on the hills, and there were a law of master and servant, 
 one great impediment to enterprise would be removed. Many a 
 respectable intelligent planter would be glad of a little increase to 
 his income — say 200 rupees a month — by being made a stipen- 
 diary magistrate ; but the Government is so jealous of interlopers, 
 that any such suggestion is sure to be put on one side, on the 
 plea of the chance of the misuse of such powers. No one can 
 be trusted without the pale of the regular service ; or if an 
 appointment be conferred upon any independent gentleman, the 
 jealousy of the Civilians, who dislike parting with a fraction of 
 their exclusive power, will be arrayed against him, and be pretty 
 sure to make the situation so disagreeable, that it will be thrown 
 up in disgust. Even while I write a case exactly in point comes 
 to hand. The exigencies of the hour have thrust upon the 
 Bengal Government the necessity of availing itself of the services 
 of the indigo planters in the Mofussil. These gentlemen have 
 accordingly, for the first time, been appointed honorary magis- 
 trates, and it is not too much to say that they have exerted a 
 very material influence in keeping quiet the districts under their 
 respective charge. Mr. Chapman, the Civilian magistrate of 
 Rajeshaye, has been treating the recently-appointed officers with 
 incivility, and giving them every possible petty annoyance, — a poor 
 return for their gratuitous services ! At last he forwards a formal 
 complaint against Mr. Deverell, and recommends that his " com- 
 mission as an assistant-magistrate be forthwith cancelled, for 
 having abused the trust reposed in him by Government in 
 making his magisterial powers a means of oppressing the ryots 
 of a zemindar with whom he has been for some time at 
 variance." Mr. Deverell shows how utterly unfounded this 
 statement is ; and, after conclusively proving his own supe- 
 riority in point of reasoning powers and regularity to his 
 
271 
 
 opponent, concludes his official letter as follows : — " In conclu- 
 sion, I have a few remarks to offer, which, I trust, will meet 
 with your attentive consideration. I believe it will not be 
 denied that it was the object of Government, in appointing 
 honorary assistant-magistrates, to relieve the magistrates of a 
 portion of their heavy duties, and to enable them more efficiently 
 to preserve peace and good order in the districts nnder their 
 charge; and I think it will be admitted that, as the honorary 
 assistant-magistrates discharge their duties without receiving any 
 stipend, the very least that they may in justice expect is civility, 
 and the cordial co-operation and support of the magistrates. I 
 have no hesitation in saying that the honorary assistant-magis- 
 trates in the Rajeshaye district have every reason to be dissatisfied 
 with the conduct of Mr. Chapman towards them. For my own 
 part, I think I have evinced great consideration towards him in 
 not handing him up to the notice of Government, as one who, by 
 a series of interferences and petty annoyances, is bent upon 
 defeating the object of Government, by disgusting the honorary 
 magistrates so as to induce them to throw up their appointments. 
 Mr. Chapman, by the way in which he conducted himself, and 
 the expressions he made use of on the occasion of his local 
 investigation, gave a direct encouragement to Protab Shaik and 
 others (No. 3) to make a complaint against me (copy annexed). 
 This was accordingly done in a petition, the language of which 
 was so unseemingly disrespectful towards me, that any other 
 magistrate but Mr. Chapman would at once have rejected it, and 
 ordered it to be reframed. 
 
 " I am sure I am not singular in the opinion that, instead of 
 working with and assisting and supporting the honorary magis^ 
 trates in his district, Mr. Chapman conspicuously throws every 
 obstacle he can in their way, and rarely loses an opportunity of 
 lowering them in the eye of the natives. Should you entertain 
 any doubts as to the correctness of the above assertions, you will 
 have them amply confirmed by a reference to my brother hono- 
 rary magistrates of the districts." 
 
 The Commissioner, in forwarding the papers to the Bengal 
 Government, remarks that Mr. Chapman has been " somewhat 
 hasty in his conclusions," and that his " interference is irregular." 
 He concludes : — " The system of minute interference, on the 
 
272 
 
 part of the officiating magistrate, with the proceedings of the 
 honorary assistants, of wliich Mr. Deverell complains, is, no 
 doubt, calcuhited to cause discontent among that body, who, for 
 having given tlieir services to Government gratuitously, naturally 
 look for support and co-operation from the magistrate of the 
 district I should be sorry to see an experiment, from which 
 such valuable results are anticipated, defeated by any want of 
 courtesy, or appearance of jealousy and mistrust, on the part of 
 the local authorities ; and I think the magistrates, under whom 
 these officers are placed, should be very careful to avoid the 
 exhibition of such feelings." Mr. Halliday, the Lieutenant- 
 Governor, observes that, " taking, then, Mr. Deverell's denial of 
 all interest in the land as unrefuted, and therefore quite sufficient 
 under the circumstances, I cannot but agree with the Commis- 
 sioner that Mr. Chapman's conclusions were hasty, and his inter- 
 ference irregular. I must add, that his recommendation for the 
 removal of Mr. Deverell from the magistracy was altogether 
 unwarranted." This is a pretty specimen of the thanks which 
 those are likely to get for their pains, who, even in the most 
 difficult and perilous times, trench upon the offices of the self- 
 styled " aristocracy " of India.* 
 
 * The foUomng is an extract of an official, recording his opinion of one of his 
 subordinates (both Civilians). It shows the necessary result of putting young and 
 untrained men, of however excellent intentions and personal character, into situations 
 that require special, trained qualifications. It is very instructive. 
 
 " Mr. C, the ofii dating magistrate, is intelligent, anxious to do his duty, right-, 
 minded, and not wanting in industry; but, notwithstanding these good qualities, his 
 administration has been, I regret to say, up to this time a complete failure. His pro- 
 ceedings as a judicial oflScer have been neither vigorous, methodical, nor legal. They 
 have been dilatoiy, lax, and uncertain. The proceedings of the subordinate police 
 have been intolerably slow, irregular, and inefficient; while the state of his own 
 serishta is worse than anything of the kind that I have ever seen in my whole official 
 experience. He has retained in his own hands nineteen-twentieths of the work of his 
 department, while the oflScers appointed to assist him have been almost unemployed, 
 
 and yet he complains of Mr. as having failed in giving him relief. The result 
 
 has been, of course, that business has been done in a slovenly and hurried way, raising 
 a constant necessity for the reversal of his decision, and affording much ground for 
 animadversion on his manner of performing duty. Two cases of marked illegality in 
 his proceedings have recently been brought to the notice of the court, and have 
 attracted their displeasure. At the close of last year, although not blind to Mr. C's 
 defects as a magistrate, I was in hopes that further practice, and the instruction and 
 advice of his superior officers, would have powerful influence in forming his official 
 character. The result has not borne out my expectations. It is with great regret 
 
273 
 
 Twenty years ago. Lord Metcalfe pointed out the consequences 
 of this inevitable cause of jealousy and antagonism, which no- 
 thing but the destruction of an exclusive service can eradicate. 
 " Well or ill founded," he said, " they will always attach to 
 it the idea of monopoly and exclusion. They will consider 
 themselves comparatively discountenanced and unfavoured ; 
 and will always look with desire to the substitution of a royal 
 government." " For the contentment of this class," he urges, 
 '* which, for the benefit of India and the security of our Indian 
 Empire, ought greatly to increase in numbers and importance, 
 the introduction of a royal government is, undoubtedly, 
 desirable." * 
 
 The insufficiency and uncertainty of title is another terrible 
 obstacle to the adventurer, and no doubt turns many a man and 
 many a purse from India. Let me instance what is now before 
 my eyes with respect to coffee planting, which bids fair to be 
 one of the most attractive occupations of settlers in the Southern 
 Presidency. In Malabar there are vast tracks of forest land, 
 equal to the best situations in Ceylon. Planters from that king- 
 dom, who have visited the Wynaad, admit the excellent adapta- 
 
 that I record so unfavourable an opinion of an officer, whom, in many resjiects, I 
 think of high promise ; but attributing, as I do, his failure in a great measure to the 
 want of previous experience, I would use his example as a powerful argument against 
 placing in such independent charge, young officers who are not fitted for them by 
 previous training and mature official experience. Mr. C, I understand, had never 
 been for a single day in charge of a subdivision, or even of a thannah. Men are here 
 and there to be found, whom strength of character and natural capacity for business 
 render independent of official training ; but such instances are rare, and not less so in 
 our Civil Service than elsewhere. The supercession of Mr. C by an officer of far 
 higher standing has been notified in the ' Gazette,' and I have every hope that, before 
 he is again placed by circumstances in charge of a district, he may have made such 
 progress in methodical application to duty, and in acquaintance with the details of a 
 magistrate's office, as to sustain his responsibilities with credit and efficiency." 
 
 * Mr. Allen, a retired Bengal Civilian, in his pamphlet, entitled " A Few Words 
 anent the Red Pamphlet," writes (p. 29) : — " With regard to the suggested future en- 
 couragement of the settlement of independent Europeans, it may be asked, When has 
 the Saxon in India wanted or required Government patronage ? All he requires there, 
 or elsewhere, is a clear field and no favour, — and that he has had." Let this chapter 
 be his reply. Aristotle, in his " Rhetoric," advises the controversialist never to put 
 his argument in the form of a question, unless he is certain that it is unanswerable. 
 A wise caution. 
 
274 
 
 tion of those jungles for coffee planting.* Labour is much 
 cheaper and more easily procurable there than in Ceylonf ; for 
 Ceylon is supplied with Indian Coolie labour, by annual emigra- 
 tion. Something analogous to that of the Irish reapers and 
 hay-makers into England. With the railway running through 
 Paulghaut to the western coast, there will be a near, cheap, 
 and easily attainable port of shipment. As it is, the coffee culti- 
 vation is on the increase ; but many are deterred by the great 
 uncertainty which exists with respect to titles and licenses ; and 
 in this respect, the simplicity and certainty of the system in 
 Ceylon, whereby a man can buy land out and out, far more 
 than counter -balances the advantages offered in India, in 
 respect to soil, situation, and labour. It is thus that the 
 
 • The following shows the coffee cultivation in the Wynaad, which is one of the 
 most favorable localities for English enterprise, if duly fostered : — 
 
 Dindremul. 350 ac 
 
 Bon Espoir 300 
 
 Wynaad 90 
 
 Mary 150 
 
 Belview 100 
 
 Rasselas 150 
 
 Teruhulley 100 
 
 Baugh Gherry 150 
 
 Poondroong 50 
 
 Bawelly Road 100 
 
 70 
 
 40 
 
 50 
 
 23 
 
 80 
 
 Bithery 50 acres. 
 
 Amelia de Lopez 100 „ 
 
 Pookoot 150 „ 
 
 Lecadie 350 ,, 
 
 Munda Mulla 80 „ 
 
 Mowbray 100 „ 
 
 Walthamstow 1 50 ,, 
 
 Perende Meetheel 140 „ 
 
 Hope 150 „ 
 
 Chemberah 170 „ 
 
 Adelaide 200 „ 
 
 Calputty 106 „ 
 
 Caroline 200 „ 
 
 Haredal 200 „ 
 
 Suffolk 214 „ 
 
 Providence 
 
 Adda ba Coon 
 
 Pew Estate 
 
 Bleak House 
 
 Famborough 
 
 PillaCardoo 100 „ Sandy Hills 113 
 
 Terriout 220 „ Peria Chola 
 
 Charlotte 250 „ Yellamally S- acreage not known 
 
 "Sleepy Hollow" 40 „ Berhuhully 
 
 Culli 250 „ Eddekel 80 
 
 Annette 100 
 
 To the above list must be added a large and increasing native cultivation, the 
 amount of which I am not prepared to state. 
 
 t Since this was written, I have seen the letter of a Wynaad planter before referred 
 to, which requires that I should modify this statement : — " Labour would be cheaper 
 in the Wynaad, if roads and other facilities existed ; wages would not then range 
 higher than on the coast. 
 
275 
 
 "Planters Association of Western India" addressed the coffee- 
 planters on the Sheveroy Hills, on September, 1857. " In a 
 district but little known, without roads, without bridges, and 
 without law, (for the distance of the courts and the difficulty of 
 travel made the law a practical nullity,) some fifty European 
 planters have been located, where, by years of toil, and a large 
 outlay of money, they have proved the pioneers of civilization, 
 gradually transforming uninhabitable jungles into well cultivated 
 plantations ; in many instances making roads, and opening 
 up the resources of a country, of whose agricultural value the 
 Government heretofore seem to have been careless or uninformed. 
 
 " It has always been most difficult to procure legal titles to land, 
 or to discover the legal owner ; in some cases land has been paid 
 for partially twice over, and capitalists have left the country in 
 disgust, owing to the difficulties entailed by the want of a 
 Government survey, and a court for the registration of title 
 deeds. 
 
 " These are some of the evils under which the European 
 settlers have laboured, and it was believed that the formation of 
 a society, combining the great majority of those interested in 
 coffee-planting, through whom our earnest and careful represen- 
 tation might be made to Government of those obstructions to the 
 investment of capital such a state of things was likely to entail, 
 could have none other than the most beneficial effect." 
 
 The planters in Western India have mostly purchased the un- 
 reclaimed forests from the native rajahs ; the Collector is now 
 considering the propriety of saddling their lands with an assessment 
 of 3 rupees per acre, which would effectually drive away fresh 
 comers, even if" it did not ruin the old. On the Sheveroy Hills the 
 land is all held from Government. The assessment is fixed at 1 rupee 
 per acre, which nobody objects to pay; but there the grievance is 
 the shortness of the term on which unreclaimed lands are leased. 
 The term is only for 21 years, at the expiration of which the Go- 
 vernment resumes to itself the right of re-assessing the land. 
 Some of the older leases were granted in perpetuity, and thus all 
 are not placed upon an even footing. It takes five years to bring 
 a coffee estate into profitable bearing. The outlay required is 
 very large, and the speculator must, of course, be out of his 
 money for some time before he gets any return. The Govern- 
 
 T 2 
 
276 
 
 inent gives the land rent-free, it is true, for the first five years ; 
 but jungle has to be cleared, and such a quantity of work to be 
 done, and money sunk, during this time, that but for this 
 encouragement no one would take up lands. People in India, 
 looking about for something to do in a healthy locality, unable 
 from the pension rules or other circumstances to quit India, turn 
 their attention to these hills ; but it is superfluous to argue that 
 no capitalist in England would be tempted to embark his means 
 in a property, of which only some nine or ten years' lease may 
 have to run, so long as he has the uncertainty of the Government 
 intentions hanging over his head, as to the future rate of assess- 
 ment on the renewal of the term. On the Neilgherries, the 
 demand for land by European settlers is at present very great. 
 The Board of Revenue lately liberally proposed that the grants 
 of lands purchased at public auction, after the rate of annual 
 assessment was fixed, should be in perpetuity ; but the Madras 
 Government declined to sanction this, as they observed that the 
 Court of Directors had lately fixed 30 years as the term for 
 cultivation in the plains, and they saw no reason why any dis- 
 tinction should be made in respect to cultivation on the hills.* 
 
 * The Board of Revenue, in revising the rules for occupation of land in the Neil- 
 gherries, writes thus : — 
 
 " With regard to Rule VIII, the Board doubt the expediency of either limiting 
 the term of years for which the land is to be held, or of declaring it subject to a 
 revision of its assessment ; and they think it would be an improvement if the present 
 rates were considered permanent, and the land given on a permanent puttah, — the 
 Puttadar or his heirs not being liable to ejectment, except on failure of payment of 
 assessment. It might perhaps be desirable, in the first instance, to consider, in com- 
 munication with the Collector, whether the rates now in force would be suitable for 
 permanency, and to adapt them to acre, instead of cawny, measurement." 
 
 The Government, less liberal, decides as follows : — 
 
 " Rule VIII prescribes the period for which leases for lands, taken up for different 
 purposes, are to run, and enacts that the land shall be liable to re-assessment on the 
 expiration of those periods. The Board • question the expediency of both these 
 requirements ; they recommend that the present assessment be declared permanent, 
 if the Collector considers it to have been correctly fixed, and that the land be given 
 on a permanent puttah. In respect to this suggestion, it is to be observed that under 
 the instructions communicated by the Honourable Court of Directors, for a general 
 survey and re-assessment of the lands of this Presidency, the new assessment is to be 
 declared unalterable for a term of thirty years, after which it would be subject to 
 re-adjustment. Under these orders, the Government see no reason for exempting 
 land on the hills from a rule which is to apply to land on the plains." — Records of 
 Government. 
 
¥ 
 
 277 
 
 Even this, it will be observed, offers better terms, by ten years, 
 than the Sheveroy Hill planters enjoy. In the new rules for 
 taking up waste lands in Assam, the lands are to be granted for 
 long terms of 99 years, at easy rates,* while in the draft rules 
 which I have seen, for the occupation of jungle lands in Pegu, 
 there is a further declaration that the estates shall be hereditary," 
 but a Machiavelian ingenuity appears to have been exercised, 
 I will not say with a view to render everything insecure, 
 i3uctuating, and uncertain, but which must produce such an 
 effect. This want of uniformity proceeds from the Government 
 not proceeding upon a clear settled perception of what its own 
 interests, inextricably wrapped up as it appears to me in the 
 interests of its subjects, evidently require. The old jealousy of 
 European settlers still lingers about the traditions of the Council- 
 chamber, and the results are such as I have described. 
 
 This appears to be all the more inexcusable in the Madras 
 Presidency at any rate, and also in all newly-acquired territories, 
 because the principles of the ryotwarry, as they have at length 
 come to be recognized, are based upon the indefeasible right of 
 proprietors of the tenant in the soil. 
 
 There are sundry matters connected with the security of title 
 which I have considered under the ryotwarry topic. Suffice it 
 here to state, that all measures which conduce to that effect, and 
 tend to prevent litigation, remove so many stumbling-blocks 
 from the path of the European adventurer. A statute of frauds; 
 a statute of limitations; compulsory registration of title deeds, and 
 
 * " We learn that the Board of Revenue have framed a set of new rules, regarding 
 grants of waste lands in Assam, under which no grant will be made for less than one- 
 hundred acres ; and forest and grass lands will be granted on like terms. One-fourth 
 of each grant is to be exempt in perpetuity, for the site of houses, roads, &c. ; the 
 other three-fourths to be rent-free for fifteen years, after which to be assessed for ten 
 years, at three annas per annum for each acre ; and from the twenty-sixth year, for 
 seventy-three years, at six annas per acre, — the whole term being fixed for ninety-nine 
 years. One-fifth of the land granted must be brought under cultivation by the expira- 
 tion of the tenth year from the date of the grant, in failure whereof the grant will be 
 liable to resumption. These new rules are very similar to those framed by the 
 Revenue Board, for grants in the Sunderbuns ; and when approved by Government, 
 will probably be extended to Arracan and the Tenasserim Provinces." — " JEnglish- 
 man,'''' June 2, 1854. 
 
 And see the terms of grants for Gorruckpore, the Dryrah Doir, and Kurraor, 
 issued in 1858. — Mills'' ^* India in 1858," p. 114. 
 
278 
 
 inortgiiges ; revision of the stamp laws, so as to confine the use of 
 stamp paper to the purposes for which it is bought ; the issue of 
 such revenue receipts as may afford evidence of occupancy ; a 
 revision of the existing law of perjury, and the like, are all 
 obvious improvements which the legislature should provide at 
 once^ and I am happy to think that these measures, together 
 with the introduction of County Courts, are being now advocated 
 by one of the ablest of our Madras judicial officers. 
 
 There is another subject which must not be overlooked. I have 
 already spoken of the antagonistic feeling which exists almost 
 everywhere between the Civilian and the planter. There may 
 be fault on both sides ; hauteur may be shown by an exclusive 
 service on the one hand, jealousy of that service may be lurking 
 on the other. There is a pre-disposition on both parts to spy out 
 faults, and make or seek opportunities for raising objections. 
 Crimination leads to recrimination ; opposition to dislike. When 
 these disputes come up before the Government, I am bound to 
 say that there is almost invariably a disposition to support the 
 service. It must be so. The Council is mainly composed of the 
 same order. There is a natural policy to support authority ; a 
 natural dislike to lower a member of the ruling class. It is but 
 seldom that a reference ends like that of Mr. Deverell's ; and the 
 difficulty of obtaining any redress against a member of the civil 
 service, be his offence or short-coming what it may, is proverbial. 
 I could give an infinity of instances. Mr. Brereton, for such 
 gross misconduct as would have caused the dismissal of the most 
 influential functionary, where there was a free Government, posi- 
 tively obtained leave to spend a time in England on the usual 
 allowance ; he has since returned, and has no doubt obtained 
 lucrative employment Mr. Shubrick's conduct, with respect to 
 his subordinate convicted of torture, called forth no public reproof. 
 Mr. E. B. Thomas, whose magisterial vagaries were so notorious 
 last year, remains where he was, and as he was ; though he has 
 since then been again before the Government, in a dispute between 
 himself and the commandant of the Neilgherries, who, unable to 
 obtain any redress, has now taken his complaint home to lay it 
 before higher authorities. The commandant of the Malabar 
 Police has found that any outsider who opposes a civil servant, 
 goes to the wall. For an offence which the Sudder Court 
 
I 
 
 279 
 
 brought to the notice of the Government, a judge was for the 
 moment suspended ; but his friends were powerful about the 
 Council-Chamber, and the next Gazette saw him nominated to a 
 better appointment. He was positively kicked up stairs. The 
 catalogue might be swelled indefinitely. 
 
 Let us now peruse what the " Red Pamphlet " says on this 
 subject : — 
 
 " Attached by education, training, and hereditary policy to 
 the principle — 'India for the Civil Service,' they had steadily 
 discouraged the settlement in the land of that other element, 
 which, in a crisis like that which, in spite of themselves, they 
 felt approaching, might have found a countervailing barrier to 
 Mahommedan or Hindoo rebellion. Had independent Europeans 
 been encouraged to invest their capital in the land of India ; had 
 not the terrors of subjection to a Hindoo or Mahommedan magis- 
 tracy been held over their heads, to prevent such a catastrophe 
 (to the Civil Service) ; had they been allowed the smallest 
 exercise of political power, or had the way to that power been 
 open to them, an independent body of landholders would have 
 arisen, who would have formed the connecting link between the 
 Government and the natives, and also have been able, from their 
 numbers and organization, to have checked any outbreak on the 
 part of the people of the country. But it was very evident that 
 such a measure could not have been accomplished, without in- 
 vading the exclusiveness of the Civil Service. Hence it has 
 always been (with the brilliant exception of Lord Metcalfe, who 
 had thoroughly at heart the interests of India,) systematically 
 opposed by the members of that body. Their policy has ever 
 been to shut out independent Europeans from the country. To 
 carry out this end, they have encouraged the trade in opium, 
 whilst they have neglected purposely the cultivation of cotton ; 
 they restricted, as much as possible, public enterprises which 
 necessitated settling in the land ; and although this policy has 
 resulted in a wide-spread rebellion, it will never be lost sight of so 
 long as the rule exists that a man, were he to possess the highest 
 administrative abilities, would be debarred from their exercise, 
 because he did not in the first instance come out to India as a 
 member of the Civil Service." 
 
 It is tliis policy which has for a century kept India without 
 
280 
 
 roads ; though the pressure from without, since the discussions 
 on the Charter Act of 1852-3, and the exposure of the Madras 
 Public-works Commission, have produced an activity in this 
 respect, of which the Company would fain even claim all the 
 credit for themselves. It is surely superfluous to argue how this 
 difficulty of communication operates upon enterprise, but the 
 following examples will be better than all precept. 
 
 In the Madras " AthenaBum" of March 18, 1858, is a letter 
 from a Wynaad planter, who says that the prospects of coffee 
 planting in that district are not nearly so good in 1858 as they 
 were in 1850. "Labour is not to be had, for the best of 
 reasons ; there are no roads to bring in provisions for w^ork- 
 men, and at present prices of grain the coolies cannot make 
 sufficient out of their pay to make it worth their while to 
 come from Mysore and the coast, where labour is now in 
 demand." " On many of the estates in the Wynaad, as much 
 as one-quarter of the crop has been wasted from want of hands 
 to pick it, and at the present moment, the greater part of 
 Mr. Ouchterlony's crop is lying in his stores for want of trans- 
 port." The extent of that gentleman's operations will be under- 
 stood from the fact that his last year's crop realized £18,000; 
 the encouragement which he has received from the Government 
 may be seen from the following extract from one of his letters to 
 me, with which I shall conclude this topic : — " What a spectacle 
 it is of a country for enterprise! I have been about twelve 
 years at this cultivation, and the so-called high road to the coast 
 is still barely passable even for bullocks. The nearest court to * 
 me is one hundred and fifty miles off, and the nearest police 
 station some fifty." . 
 
CHAP TEE X. 
 
 Topics 17th — 18th. 
 
 X VII. Do our Law Courts require reform ? — X VIIL Is the 
 
 Police to he reorganized f 
 
 The two great evils in our present administration of justice, arise 
 from the incompetency of the judges, and the corruption of all 
 below them. Coupled together, these two causes have made our 
 Civil and Criminal courts the pest and bane of the country. 
 The amount of perjury which prevails throughout the land is not 
 so much the consequence of the natural character of the people, 
 as the result of that feebleness on the bench which cannot contend 
 against the cunning of false witnesses, whereby the natives see 
 that acts of perjury, subornation of perjury, forgery, and the 
 like, are the surest means of gaining causes ; that they may be 
 practised with success on the one hand, and impunity on the 
 other ; and therefore most liberally had recourse to. As to the 
 character of native evidence, it must be admitted, I fear, that it 
 is altogether untrustworthy.* Any number of witnesses to any 
 fact, however incredible, may be procured in the Bazaar for a 
 few annas. ^. I will just give a few instances which immediately 
 occur to my mind. Mr. Arbuthnot,t in his " Select Cases," gives 
 a cause in which a forged bond was met by a forged receipt. 
 This is a very common form of defence ; one, it is superfluous to 
 state, attempted in many cases. The Torture Report lets us 
 into the secret of much false testimony in criminal cases ; for if 
 false charges are got up by the police, false evidence must 
 necessarily be suborned to support them. An instructive illus- 
 tration is furnished by Mr. Lushington.| " I was going to men- 
 
 * See, however, Sir George Clerk's Parliamentary Report, Q. 2278. 
 
 t Late Registrar to the Sudder Adawlut. 
 
 t Mr. Lushington, House of Lords' Report, 21st April, 1853. Q. 4455. 
 
282 
 
 tlon," he says, "an instance of tlie impossibility of trusting 
 evidence in India. It was the case of a wealthy zemindar, who 
 was accused of murder, and who had absconded ; at last, (I do 
 not exactly know how,) I believe he was persuaded to give 
 himself up ; he was tried before me ; there were about 100 wit- 
 nesses ; the facts of the case amongst the people were notorious 
 beforehand, and had reached my ears. The jury was composed 
 of native gentlemen of very great respectability, the very best 
 that could be procured ; I obtained their attendance almost as a 
 personal favour. The prisoner was a man of great wealth and 
 respectability, and I did not wish him to be dissatisfied with the 
 decision which might be arrived at. I think there were about 
 fifty witnesses on either side, and they swore to facts which 
 immediately contradicted each other. At the end of the trial, 
 I availed myself of the latitude allowed by the law, and cleared 
 the court for the purpose of asking the jury what their opinion 
 was upon the subject ; they said that every word that had been 
 uttered on either the one side or the other was utterly false. 
 Several of those gentlemen are in Futtepore at this moment; 
 I believe the Principal S udder Ameen was one of them ; the 
 law officer was another; there was not the slightest hesitation 
 among them; there was not an iota of difference of opinion. 
 Having delivered themselves of this opinion, one of them, the 
 Principal Sudder Ameen, observed * The fact is, we all know 
 the truth.' I reminded him that we must decide upon the 
 evidence ; but he continued, * Everybody knows the fact ; neither 
 did tliis man kill the deceased, nor was he a hundred miles off, as 
 he is stated to have been; but he was in the village at the time, 
 hiding himself in a house for fear his enemies should accuse him.' 
 Whether that was the truth or not, I do not know ; but such is 
 the evidence upon which you have to decide upon life and pro- 
 perty in India, in which fifty witnesses on each side deliberately 
 deposed to falsehoods, speaks volumes." Dr. Duff's evidence 
 will be remembered. In Madras, the character of native 
 evidence is the point in which our Mofussil judges and their 
 supporters constantly ride off, when brought to book for 
 their anomalous decisions. "Cases," says Mr. Baynes, "fre- 
 quently occur in which the judge might best decide by tossing 
 
283 
 
 up !" * To my mind, the very difficulty of dealing with 
 native evidence makes the employment of trained labour 
 only the more imperative. At least, it strikes me that a 
 man well versed in the theory and practice of the law of 
 evidence, skilled in cross-examination, and with that know- 
 ledge of human nature which practice in Courts of Law fur- 
 nishes, would, a priori, be more likely to detect falsehood and 
 elucidate truth, than a young gentleman left to his own devices 
 to investigate a case, without any landmark, any experience, any 
 knowledge of the fundamental principles of evidence. It is the 
 want of a thorough grounding in the law of evidence, simplified as 
 it has been of late years, and freed from the minute technicalities 
 observed in English Courts, which I think leads to the majority 
 of errors in decisions by the Company's judges. Many a man is 
 convicted, many a man acquitted; many a right declared, and 
 heavy damages awarded, many a right ignored, because the judge 
 has been influenced by the reception of a mass of hearsay and 
 irrelevant matter which should have been excluded from the 
 notes. So strongly did I feel this, that when I was appointed 
 Professor of the Law, I commenced my lectures with the law of 
 evidence, and I am at this moment busily employed in preparing 
 a text-book on the subject, which, I trust, may supply at least one 
 great want in this country.f Let me give a few instances of what 
 evidence is in this country. I do not say that it is of a better 
 quality in the Supreme Courts than the Company's ; but in the 
 former, it certainly does not impose on the judges to the same 
 extent. It is seldom, indeed, that a trained judicial mind cannot 
 fix upon some circumstantial evidence, some matter in the conduct 
 
 * " Mr. Norton can know little of the practice and procedure in the Mofiissil 
 Courts, if he thinks it a matter of discredit to a judge to be frequently unable to 
 appreciate testimony. \ would undertake to put Ramasaumy and Veerasawmy before 
 a full Bench at Westminster, and I strongly suspect that when the learned twelve 
 ret'red to consider, they would feel that the most impartial mode of appreciating the 
 testimony, would be by connecting the veracity of Veerasawmy with the circumstance 
 of a half-crown driven upwards by the thumb of the Chief-Justice, exhibiting Her 
 Majesty's effigy on reaching the ground, and that of Ramasaumy with the contin- 
 gency of the fallen coin displaying her armorial bearings."— i?aywe's Plea for the 
 Madras Judges. 
 
 t This book, which will prove highly valuable to the native pleaders and others, 
 has since been published at Madras. — Ed. 
 
284 
 
 of tlie party and the like, which will serve as a finger-post to the 
 ti'uth, let the direct evidence be as perjured as it will. Now for 
 the cases. A gentleman, who holds a large zemindarry, told me 
 that he had to fight a suit against the zemindar. The lease had to 
 be proved. It was only attested by native witnesses. They came 
 to him, and told him that the zemindar had offered them five thou- 
 sand rupees to deny their signatures. It was a large sum, would 
 provide for their children, &c. ; but they were honest though poor, 
 and would prefer to tell the truth if the defendant would give them 
 only fifteen hundred rupees ; and my informant actually had to 
 pay the money to make his own witnesses speak the truth. This 
 may seem a strange story ; but the gentleman I speak of knew 
 the natives and the courts well ; and he acted as he was certain 
 was best for his own interest. On another occasion, a gentleman 
 had to bring certain parties to a criminal trial. The case was 
 clear ; the witnesses straightforward and explicit. But the court 
 vakeel came to the prosecutor, and deliberately advised him to 
 put aside the actual witnesses, and to bring forward another set 
 in whom the vakeel had more confidence, because they were 
 accustomed to the courts. Some railway engineers were about 
 to be tried for having caused the death of a coolie by flogging. 
 One of them received the following piquant letter : — 
 
 " 6th October, 1857. 
 *' To , Assistant Engineer. 
 
 '' The humble petition of 
 " Humbly sheweth, — 
 
 " In consequence of your present case, condition, and trial, 
 my father is really very sorry and depressed in spirit, and as he 
 is an elderly man, and thoroughly knows the laws and customs 
 of this country and collectorate, he begs most humbly to propose 
 that should you wish to bring the case forward again, and 
 bring your witnesses who have said prior to the affirmative to 
 the negative, or if to the negative to the affirmative of your 
 deposition, and have another chance of your trial. Regarding 
 the above, my father desired me to go to you a few days ago. 
 As he requested I came to Seeroomungum to you ; persons 
 waiting at your house would not permit me to wait on you, 
 consequently I returned back. Should you think me right and 
 
285 
 
 deem It proper, and further wish me to come over regarding the 
 matter, I shall do so with pleasure; should you desire this, 
 I would wish you to get your witnesses present on that day, and 
 I shall speak to them personally." 
 
 That this enormous mass of false swearing is the result of our 
 judicial system, is shown by the testimony already adduced, as to 
 the superiority of the people of Oude in respect to truthfulness 
 over the natives in our own districts, separated only by the 
 river; and by the naive admission of Mr. Campbell in his 
 " India as it may be," " that the longer the people of a newly 
 acquired territory remain under our rule and system of admi- 
 nistration of justice, the more given to perjury do they become." 
 A strong Bench will, of course to a considerable extent, repress 
 this crime. When men see that mere hard swearing will not 
 carry the day, they will soon cease to rely upon it to the same 
 extent as at present; and a thorough determination to biing 
 every flagrant case to punishment, will inspire a wholesome fiear 
 throughout the land; yet the final eradication of this vice of 
 lying must be effected by education, not by any legislation; 
 and it is to the two other causes of the unsatisfactory condition 
 of the administration of justice that I now seek to confine 
 attention. 
 
 The exposure which I made in 1852, of the quality of decisions 
 in our Company's courts, satisfied the public mind at the time as 
 to the unfitness of the Mofussil judges, as a body, to preside over 
 the distribution of Justice.* It was this conviction which, pro- 
 bably, determined the ministry to create a court which should 
 exercise a really strong supervision over all the subordinate 
 courts in each Presidency. Hence, the project of amalgamation, 
 by which it was sought to throw the skilled labour of Her Ma- 
 
 * The " Times," on the appearance of this brochure in England, said in a leading 
 article, dated March 16, 1853, " While the destinies of 120,000,000 fellow creatures 
 still hang in the balance, everything is important that can assist the British Legislature 
 to decide the momentous question ; we hail, therefore, with pleasure a most seasonable 
 contribution from India itself, and that, not a got-up petition from mere natives, not the 
 result of any ' ignorant impatience of taxation,' but an account of the Administration 
 of Justice in Southern India. Mr. John Bruce Norton, Bariister-at-Law, discloses a 
 state of things which England cannot allow to continue with any regard to her character 
 and true interests, not to speak of the unfortunate, but considerable, fraction of the 
 human race cast on her cruel mercies and precarious justice." — Ed. 
 
286 
 
 jesty's Supreme Courts into the Courts of Sudder Adawlut. 
 Hence, the desire to provide, at once, simple codes of Civil and 
 Criminal Procedure, which should sweep away the accumulated 
 heaps of rubbish to be found in the regulations and con- 
 structions of the vai'ious courts. From that day, however, to 
 this, nothing has been done. The codes have been prepared in 
 England; they contain some few most objectionable features, 
 which makes me rejoice that they are not passed ; but the 
 Commissioners, who gave their gratuitous services, were much 
 disgusted at finding their labours handed over to the Indian 
 Legislative Council for further deliberation ; and now the whole 
 plan seems indefinitely shelved. The rebellion has shown the 
 soundness of the fears expressed by the Calcutta petitioners of 
 a change in the law which should submit their persons and 
 property to native judges ; while the reported decisions, published 
 since my pamphlet on the administration of justice in Southern 
 India, show that no improvement has been eff^ected in the quality 
 of the European Bench. Not that the judges of Madras are a 
 whit more deficient than their judicial brethren in the other 
 Presidencies. The " Friend of India " has, from time to time, 
 dissected the Calcutta Sudder Reports as they were published, 
 with much the same result as that which I arrived at with 
 respect to Madras. I do not know how the matter stands at 
 Bombay ; but it will be a marvellous circumstance if the judges 
 there are better than in other quarters of India. Like causes 
 produce like effects, and the want of all forensic practice, the 
 absence of any teaching in the principles of evidence and 
 jurisprudence, the neglect of all special training, cannot but 
 produce similar results without reference to locality. Not a 
 single effort has been made by the East India Company to 
 improve the quality of their European judges. No registerships 
 have been restored, because they would cost money : no demar- 
 cation has been made between the revenue and judicial lines 
 of service. A revenue collector may be now as then pitchforked 
 at any moment on to the Bench, especially if he has incurred 
 the displeasure of the Board of Revenue ; and no provision has 
 been made for the teaching or training of the young men who 
 have lately entered the civil service. It was a consideration 
 of these facts which made me, in the " Rebellion in India," 
 
287 
 
 question, though very cautiously, whether it might not be 
 expedient to make a thorough reform at once, by placing 
 educated professional men on the chief judgment seats in the 
 Mofussil. My reviewer in the London " Athenaeum " mistook 
 the latter part of that volume, and thought it was not well 
 considered. He says my panacea is the introduction of English 
 law. I am not aware that I have anywhere said so ; certainly 
 nothing could be farther from my thoughts. I have, it is true, 
 with great diffidence suggested that it may be a question whether 
 it be not expedient to commit the judicial functions to trained 
 professional hands. But I am no thick-and-thin advocate of the 
 barrister class. So far back as 1852, in writing on the admini- 
 stration of justice in Southern India, I expressly stated that I did 
 not advocate the introduction of English barristers to the 
 Mofussil Bench. I then pointed out that the Civilians possessed 
 many advantages, and that what was really required was, to 
 give such of them as might be set aside for the judicial office a 
 special training. It is only because nothing has been done from 
 that time to this with a view to fit the Civilians for the Bench, 
 that I have ventured to hint at the propriety of placing barristers 
 on the Bench. My further experience of Mofussil courts teaches 
 me that nothing can be more hopeless than their present 
 condition. The absolute necessity which I think has now arisen 
 of making the European amenable to the same tribunals in the 
 provinces as the native, arising from the increased number 
 of the classes whom the railways, the electric telegraph, and 
 other measures of advancement have thrown into the interior, 
 and the justice of their apprehensions of being compelled to 
 submit to the Company's tribunals such as they are now, induce 
 me to urge on any change which may remove those objections, 
 and strengthen the administration of justice generally. At the 
 same time I am well aware of the disadvantages attending such 
 a proposition. The ignorance of the people and their language 
 would be a fearful bar to the success of barrister judges in the 
 interior. The success of the class in the Anglicized Supreme 
 Courts of the Residencies, affords but little argument or 
 criterion of similar success in the Mofussil. The risk of intro- 
 ducing technicalities would require guarding against ; and I can 
 
288 
 
 scarcely conceive a greater evil than that to the people of India. 
 So much for English lawyers.* 
 
 To advocate the introduction of English law is a totally 
 different matter ; my meaning has been entirely misrepresented. 
 It is not English law, but English justice, which is my panacea 
 for India. I believe there are few persons who go the length I do 
 for radical reform in the English law even as it obtains at the 
 Presidency Supreme Courts. I advocate the entire abolition 
 of forms of actions ; the fusion of law and equity ; the intro- 
 duction of a uniform system of pleading for all sides of the 
 court. Common law. Equity, and Ecclesiastical; the abolition 
 of the master's office ; the simplification of procedure ; the 
 lowering of costs ; the abolition of the two distinct orders of 
 pleaders ; the institution of Courts of Conciliation similar to those 
 in Sweden ; the extension of the Small Cause Court jurisdiction ; 
 the compelling litigants to show each other as much of their 
 game as possible before coming to a hearing, instead of, as now, 
 striving to conceal their respective hands to the last moment. 
 With such views as these, it is not very likely that I should 
 propose to introduce English law into the Mofussil. I disagree 
 almost entirely from Sir Erskine Perry's views,t and I can 
 scarcely conceive anything more unfair to the people at large, 
 
 * I cannot, however, pass from this subject without noticing the constant allusions 
 in the " Saturday Review " to '' venal lawyers," who would deliver India over to 
 " Chitty on pleadings." If those gentlemen will look at Mr. Lushington's evidence 
 before the Lords' Committee, (2l8t April, 1853,) they will perhaps be surprised to 
 find that technicalities are one of the main evils complained of in the Company's 
 system. He states as follows : — 
 
 Q. 4413. " Will you state what are the principal defects to which you allude? 
 
 A. "The principal defect, and the one which has attracted my attention more 
 than any other, is a palpable disposition on the part of the superior courts, the 
 Company's courts, to encourage technicalities. It is of the utmost importance in a 
 country like India that a simple manner of transacting business and obtaining 
 judicial decisions should be observed. Instead of that, the great aim at present, on 
 the part of many judges, is to follow the precedents of English law whenever they 
 can learn them, and to force them upon the natives, who are particularly averse to 
 them. I do not know any race of men in the world who have such a natural 
 aversion to technicalities as the natives of India have ; they would rather have a 
 tolerable decision given by an almost arbitrary judge, a person who had no judicial 
 qualifications whatever, than the decision of a deliberate court, if they have to arrive 
 at it through all those forms and technicalities." 
 
 t See his evidence before the Lords' Committee. 
 
289 
 
 than granting that portion of the Calcutta petition prayer which 
 seeks to make English the language of the courts. Every court 
 should conduct its proceedings in the vernacular of the district ; 
 nor would I permit a judge, whether barrister or civilian, to sit 
 on the Bench unless he had a good colloquial familiarity with the 
 spoken language of the lower orders. Indeed I think it very 
 questionable whether a pleader in the Mofussil ought to be 
 allowed to plead in English. I have done it myself, and can see 
 what a disadvantage it places the opponent under. On this point 
 see Mr. Marshman before the Lords' Committee, May 3, 1853.* 
 Indophilus says he proposed the introduction of English, as 
 the official language of the courts, twenty years ago; and 
 Mr. Mead, who of course upholds the views of the Calcutta 
 
 * Q. 5190. ''What is your opinion of the use of the English language as the 
 language of the courts in India ? 
 
 A. " I do not think it is possible to introduce the English language into the 
 Mofussil courts as the language of business. The Mahoraedans introduced their own 
 language which was then the Persian, and it kept possession of the country as the 
 official language for 600 years. When the British Government took charge of the 
 administration, in order to avoid anything like a violent change, the old language was 
 continued in the courts, more especially as all the officers of the court were perfectly 
 well acquainted with it ; but, gradually, the natives began to complain that the 
 language used in the administration of justice and in the Fiscal courts was a language 
 entirely foreign to them. A general desire arose for the employment of their own 
 language, and about the year 1835 (that is eighteen years ago,) the Government of 
 India restored to the natives, after six centuries of disuse, their own language ia the 
 transaction of their own business, and, at present, Bengalee is universally employed 
 throughout the courts in Bengal, and Hindostanee in the courts in the North-West 
 provinces : this innovation has been exceedingly popular among the natives ; perhaps 
 it is a more popular measure than any that we have ever introduced in India ; and I 
 think that any attempt to abolish the use of the Bengalee language and to introduce 
 English into the courts, would not only be exceedingly unpopular, but that it would 
 create a degree of disaffection which the Government would be very sorry to en- 
 counter ; at the same time it would unquestionably impair the administration of 
 justice. At present the first inquiry that a native makes when a European comes to 
 take his seat in the court, either as a civil or sessions judge, or as a magistrate, is, 
 ' To what extent does he understand the vernacular tongue ;' for they firmly believe 
 that in proportion to his ignorance of the popular language will be his subserviency 
 to some influential natives in the court. There is a natural tendency on the part of 
 the native officers in the courts to use the Hindostanee language, with which they 
 are all familiar, and with which every judge and every magistrate is also acquainted, 
 because it is a kind of lingua franca, and the magistrates have sometimes been under 
 the necessity of inflicting a fine upon every man who ventured to address them in 
 Hindostanee, that is, in a language that was unknown to tlie great body of the 
 people, though familiar to the native officer and the presiding judge." 
 
 U 
 
290 
 
 petition, advocates the same proposition, though with a singular 
 inconsistency lie writes in another page — " What the dead lan- 
 guages are to our own countrymen, our own tongue is to the 
 Indian; and how few of the former are familiar with tliem." 
 Could any course be more unjust than to force the people to plead 
 in a language, their familiarity with which is thus described ? 
 
 The proposition must be very materially narrowed. It cannot 
 be applicable to the lower classes of courts, such as those of 
 Moonsiff s and Sudder Ameen's, before which, probably, not a 
 suitor who knows EnHi^ih comes once a year, — where the pleaders 
 and the judge are alike ignorant of any but their mother tongue. 
 Applied to the higher courts, those presided over by Europeans, 
 it is still abundantly clear that the witnesses, as a general rule, 
 must depose in their own vernacular ; and therefore, I presume, 
 if the record of their testimony is to be in English, we must 
 introduce translators, — an additional class of court servant ; a 
 necessary evil even in the Supreme Courts, but in the Mofussil, 
 calculated to increase the necessity of bribery. There would 
 also be a danger of the judge becoming gradually less and less 
 familiar with the language of the country, as there was less and 
 less necessity for him to keep up his knowledge of the tongue. 
 And I can scarcely describe the importance in practice of a judge 
 being able to check all the proceedings before him, by his know- 
 ledge of the language which is spoken in his court. Although 
 the theory is that the Mofussil judges are thoroughly conversant 
 with the vernacular of their respective districts, this is not the 
 fact in practice. A judge who has served in the north, where 
 Telegu prevails, is transferred to the south where Tamil alone is 
 spoken, and the reverse. The instances of judges being thoroughly 
 masters of the language of their courts, are the exception rather 
 than the rule. The high-flown poetical language taught in college 
 is scarcely of use in ordmary life, and not intelligible to the 
 masses. I have myself seen a Civilian magistrate, who had 
 obtained the reward of one thousand pagodas for proficiency, 
 unable to read the heading of the depositions taken before him, 
 when requested so to do in the Supreme Court. The cases in 
 which a Civilian is able to read a petition in the vernacular are 
 rare in the extreme ; the universal practice is to have them read 
 out by a native officer of the court. As an instance, an appeal 
 
291 
 
 from the Tinnlvelly Zillah Court was sent to me for advocacy in 
 the Sudder Court.* In paragraph 9, the Decree, with reference 
 to a Tamil document, sajs, "As the court does not know the 
 Tamil language, the court inquired if the vakeels were willing 
 to refer the matter to three Tamil scholars, and to abide by the 
 opinion of the majority." The judge had been transferred from 
 Bellary, where the Telegu language prevails. I have seen 
 myself, over and over again, the immense advantage of the 
 knowledge of the vernacular on the part of a judge ; and my 
 conviction is, that so far from making English the official lan- 
 guage of the courts, our course lies in exactly the opposite 
 direction, requiring, namely, that judge and pleader shall be 
 familiar with the language ordinarily in vogue in the district in 
 which their court is situate. Perhaps it is intended to limit the 
 use of English to the mere record and pleadings. But here, we 
 should still have to give translations of all proceedings, &c., to 
 the suitors or their pleaders in the native languages ; and this 
 idea which is now abroad is precisely one of those dangerous 
 innovations which the reformer will do well to resist. About the 
 same time that Sir Charles Trevelyan (Indophilus) was proposing 
 the introduction of the English language into the law courts, 
 the Honorable Mr. Shore was expressing his ideas on the same 
 subject. His objections are, I think, unanswerable. I would 
 refer generally to the 19th and 30th chapters of his admirable 
 and most truthful work. This is one of those matters on which 
 legislation can either affect nothing, or affects a grievous oppres- 
 sion. Our course is to lay down such conditions as shall super- 
 induce a tendency to make English the language of the courts, 
 and then leave events to their natural course. Thus we should 
 insist upon a knowledge of English being a sine qud non with 
 every vakeel at his examination ; and the general spread of 
 education will carry the English language far and wide. In the 
 Sudder Court, circumstances themselves have, without any 
 legislation or any order of court, brought about this very 
 chancje. I remember the time when all the business of the court 
 was carried on in the vernacular. Now, practically, English is 
 the official language of the court. A vakeel may address the 
 
 * No. 10, of 1856. 
 
 u 2 
 
292 
 
 court in the vernacular if* he pleases, but natives as well as 
 Europeans do now plead orally in English ; indeed, a native 
 pleader who did not know English would have no chance of 
 obtaining business. All the pleadings are printed in English, 
 after the fashion obtaining in the Privy Council. All important 
 documents, depositions, &c., are translated, and when it was 
 found generally convenient to both parties, the practice gradually 
 adapted itself to the altered state of circumstances. Let us not 
 wander away into classical usages, seeking to copy the practice 
 of the Romans, or arg:-c fi'om what the French would have done 
 had they been in our places. Let us not entangle ourselves in 
 whimsical fancies of superseding the vernacular written charac- 
 ter, by the introduction of our English letters ; but let us abide 
 by what, to plain sense, is obviously just towards the people, whose 
 government we have assumed. Therefore, I say, let not English 
 be the official language of the courts. 
 
 The real line of judicial reform lies in totally different direc- 
 tions. Let us sweep away the confused mass of regulation, and 
 circular order, and construction law, and procedure, which has 
 been accumulating for half a century, by the promulgation of 
 simple codes of procedure ; let us codify the criminal and civil 
 law, so as to define rights and crimes substantively; let us do 
 what we can, as quickly as we can, to instruct the future occu- 
 pants of the Bench in the principles of jurisprudence and the law 
 of evidence.*'' Let us raise the character of our pleaders by 
 
 • Lord Canning, I am aware, in his minute on the Police, expresses an opinion that 
 the " patriarchal " system of justice is the best adapted for the condition of India. 
 This is one of the catch-words of the civilians ; it means that each man may be left 
 to follow the dictates of his own " common sense ; " that training is unnecessary for a 
 judge ; and that all forms are but so many trammels. A straw thrown up is enough 
 to show which way the wind blows ; and from the first, I regarded this passage in Lord 
 Canning's minutes as a sign of his having fallen prostrate before the secretariat. For 
 when it was written, Lord Canning had never been out of Calcutta ; had never seen 
 the working or entered the precincts of a Mofussil Court ; he had before him the 
 results of this " patriarchal" system in the shape of Sudder reports, Missionaries* 
 petitions, Torture report ; and yet without a moment's hesitation he pronounces 
 an opinion of the most sweeping character, certainly not based upon the facts before 
 him, but instilled into him by those whose interest it is to maintain the only system of 
 administration of justice in which they could possibly find a place ; one which requires 
 no study, no knowledge, no judicial qualifications, nothing but " common sense ; " 
 and which admits of the easy transfer of one and the same individual backwards and 
 forwards from the revenue to the judicial departments. 
 
293 
 
 throwing open to honorable ambition even the highest judgment 
 seats in the land. Without sweeping away the present civilian 
 judges, let it be understood that the Bench is henceforth to be open 
 to the successful practitioner whose moral character is equal to 
 his ability. Let it not be confined, as heretofore, to an exclusive 
 service, even though this reform goes to the very root of an exclu- 
 sive service.* Let us sweep away the Mahommedan Law officer 
 and the Hindu pundit ; let us raise the respectability of the lower 
 grades of the native Bench, by increasing the salaries of officcf 
 Let our various Law professors publish their respective lectures 
 at the earliest possible period, so as to place plain text-books on 
 all subjects within the reach of the practitioner ; let us make a 
 separation, final and distinct^ between the revenue and judicial 
 lines of administration ; let us compel the young civilian to attend 
 the Law lectures and the Sessions while he remains in college ; 
 
 * I see no utility in keeping up the distinction of covenanted and uucovenanted 
 servants. The covenant is an antiquated form : it is " to obey all orders, to discharge 
 all debts, and to treat the natives of India well ! " I admit, at the same time, that 
 all members of the Civil Service who enter by examination, are entitled to be found 
 such employ as the old Covenanted Service offered to them. Beyond this, the 
 distinction between covenanted and uucovenanted is an idle one, and only leads to 
 heai-t-burnings and jealousy. 
 
 t Our treatment of our European and native civil servants has always appeared to 
 me incomprehensible. We know that before Clive's reform of the civil service, it 
 was as venal and corrupt as it could possibly be. Paul Benfield, who claimed to have 
 lent the Nabob of the Carnatic some £300,000, though he was a young writer, who 
 had been but a few years in the country, may stand as a type of the class. Indeed, 
 it could not be otherwise ; for pay was merely nominal, and each man came out with 
 a tacitly conferred letter of mark to plunder as much and quickly as he could. 
 When matters had reached such a pitch that they were unbearable, the proper remedy 
 was at once applied. The salary of the European was fixed at so high a rate as put 
 him above temptation ; sundry taxes were monopolised for the special purpose of 
 making a fund for the payment of the service ; and their honesty Avas secured. The 
 result has been admirable. As a general body, no men can stand more loftily above 
 suspicion of corruption than the civil service. But if such an incentive to honesty 
 Avas necessary with respect to the Englishman, the gentleman, the Christian ; how can 
 the native, without any of the moral checks of conscience which had to keep the 
 European straight, be expected to rise superior to influences and temptations which 
 proved too strong for the Englishman ? If the one fell, it Avas quite certain that the 
 other must. The remedy is precisely the same in both cases. We have tried the 
 efficacy of sufficient salaiy upon the covenanted Englishman — indeed, run into the 
 opposite extreme ; it remains for us to repeat the experiment vvith respect to the cove- 
 nanted native. Raise his condition, place him above temptation, give him as fair a 
 chance as his civil superior ; eve long his honesty will piobably be as great. 
 
294 
 
 let liiiii gain a knowledge of the natives for two or three years in 
 the revenue branch, which will make him au fait at the method 
 of conducting public business and the mysteries of revenue, what- 
 ever they may be ; let us re-institute the office of registrar, in 
 which he may learn judicial duties, since he cannot practice at the 
 bar. Let us seek, by fostering the jury system, to give the 
 natives an insight into and an interest in the administration of 
 justice, at the same time that we thus bring them nearer to our- 
 selves by more frequent communication, and give them a feeling 
 of just pride, which will tend to raise the natural character. Our 
 Jury Act, Reg. XT. of 1832, is a dead letter. Lately, by Act, we 
 have introduced assessors.* Let some scheme be sanctioned for 
 the judges to admit candidates at tlie bar, without the necessity of 
 their keeping terms in England, so as to give every fair equality 
 to the native of Lidia ; and let us have a firm, trained control and 
 supervision over every creek and corner of the judicial admini- 
 stration throughout tlie entire Presidency, by the amalgamation of 
 the Supreme and S udder Courts. This is one of tliose measures 
 which may not be practicable for all Lidia, since both in Calcutta 
 and Bombay, I understand Her Majesty's judges are fully occu- 
 pied ; but it is an experiment which might easily be tried at 
 Madras, wdiere the Supreme Court has comparatively little to do, 
 and the Small Cause Court, with proper men to work it, might 
 well discharge all the original judicial business of Madras. That 
 the law can be administered in a way satisfactory alike to the 
 Englishman and the native, is established beyond all question by 
 the estimation in which the Queen's Supreme Courts are univer- 
 sally held, notwithstanding they are still embaxTassed by forms of 
 procedure unsuited to the country ; unsuited, in my opinion, for 
 any country ; and litigation, though not so costly in them as in 
 the Mofussil, is still more expensive than it ought to be. The 
 satisfaction which they have given arises solely from the feeling 
 which they have inspired, that the time within which ordinary 
 litigation may be concluded can be calculated on with a certainty; 
 that they are not open to corrupt influences ; that the inquiry is 
 conducted according to rational rules of evidence, and that the 
 decisions are based upon settled principles of law. Englishmen 
 
 * See Lushiiigton's paper; appendix to 1st Lord's report for 1853^ 
 
295 
 
 have over and over again expressed their content with the existing 
 courts. The merchant's practice^ to enter into no contract which 
 he cannot enforce in the Supreme Court, is of itself sufficient proof. 
 The objection of Europeans to the Black Acts has never been 
 based upon any supposed rights, or superiority, or privilege of 
 race, but in the danger which would attend their subjection to the 
 ignorance and corruption of the Company's courts. It is the 
 fashion of tlie Company's defenders and apologists to decry the 
 Supreme Courts in India. " The Madras Court," Lord Macaulay 
 wrote, " has fulfilled its mission ; that is to say, it had ruined 
 and pauperized the entire body of inhabitants subject to its juris- 
 diction;" and it is thus that an anonymous scribe in the November 
 number of "Blackwood" for 1857, has had the audacity to speak 
 of those tribunals. The article is called " The Company's Raj." 
 The passage is as follows : — " The royal prerogative was very 
 early exerted under Parliamentary sanction in the establishment 
 of a Supreme Court of judicature at each of the three Presidencies. 
 We consider these courts to be decidedly the worst in the 
 country : presided over by Queen's judges with enormous salaries, 
 they have seldom secured even a decent amount of professional 
 knowledge on the bench, while the bar is, of course, propor- 
 tionally second-rate. Barristers of fame and promise at home, 
 will seldom forego the career that opens in Westminster Hall and 
 St. Stephen's. The crimson silk, silver sticks, and ^ barbaric gold ' 
 of the Indian judge are the insignia of acknowledged mediocrity^ 
 not seldom of proved incapacity in English law. They always 
 decorate ignorance of native usages, and even speech. Such 
 courts are mere caricatures of Westminster Hall. Their absurdity 
 was conclusively demonstrated when it was found necessary to 
 exclude them from all jurisdiction over the members of Govern- 
 ment and persons acting under their orders, for it is only as a 
 check on the Company's Government, that a royal court should 
 have a locus standi in the country. The indispensable denial of 
 such powers should have taught the legislature the folly of erect- 
 ing such a court ; yet, like the currier in the fable. Sir Erskine 
 Perry's main idea of Indian reform seems the unlimited importation 
 of English lawyers." 
 
 With such an unblushing, impudent statement as this before 
 the public, it may not be amiss to point to the character of 
 
296 
 
 these courts as reported by tliose who live under tlieir jurisdic- 
 tion. It is superfluous to cite the petitions of the Europeans 
 which have emanated from Calcutta. Let us see what is the 
 tenor of native opinion, what their testimony is as to these 
 courts, which " We consider to be decidedly the worst in tlie 
 country." It is thus that the Native Bombay Association, in 
 their Petition to Parliament on the subject of the Indian Commis- 
 sioners' Report, speak of the Supreme Court: — 
 
 " There are many other recommendations in the Commissioners' 
 Reports which, though, in themselves, of very serious importance, 
 and open to grave objection, your Petitioners do not propose to 
 make the subject of comment at the present time, as they consider 
 them to be of little moment when compared with the proposed 
 abolition or supercession of the Supreme Court, which, if sanc- 
 tioned by your Honourable House, will, your Petitioners apprehend, 
 have the effect of withdrawing the only guarantee on which they 
 can rely for the regular, systematic, and trustworthy administra- 
 tion of law and justice, under the protection of which they have 
 hitherto lived, and to which they look with grateful confidence 
 for the security of their persons and property. 
 
 " In this court, so justly respected by all classes, which is pre- 
 sided over by judges selected from the experienced members of 
 the English bar — men who have been educated, as it were, in a 
 legal and judicial atmosphere, and have imbibed not only the 
 legal knowledge, but the tone and habit of thought which charac- 
 terize the English lawyer, and constitute his fitness for the judicial 
 office, — it is proposed to substitute a tribunal in which the majo- 
 rity, and, therefore the preponderating influence, being appointed 
 by the Governor in Council, probably will, as they certainly may, 
 be taken from amongst the Civil Servants of the Honourable 
 Company. Your Petitioners would not speak otherwise than 
 most respectfully of these gentlemen, of whom many are not only 
 distinguished by high abilities and a zealous desire to promote the 
 welfare of the people whose affairs they administer, but who also 
 possess habits of business and a knowledge of India, to which 
 barristers from England could lay no claim. But, great as these 
 advantages are, and ready as your Petitionei's arc to appreciate 
 them in their proper sphere, they cannot admit that they consti- 
 tute the necessary qualifications for the judicial office. Even 
 
297 
 
 supposing that an improved system of training and appointment 
 should be introduced, and the Civil Servants of the Company no 
 longer be transferred from political and fiscal employments to the 
 highest judicial appointments, of which so many instances have 
 been seen, still the objections to the appointment of Civilians to 
 the Bench of the Highest Court are not removed, hardly lessened. 
 These gentlemen have not that one advantage, for which no other 
 can be substituted, an education in the legal axioms and methods, 
 in the habits of thinking and reasoning, which prevail in and 
 about the Superior Courts of England, and of which your Peti- 
 tioners see the excellence of every judge who takes his seat on the 
 Bench of the Supreme Court, whose demeanour and decisions 
 command respect, notwitli standing his ignorance of the habits and 
 language of the people ; while the judgments of even the most 
 experienced and intelligent servants of tlie Company fail to carry 
 the weight which should attach to the decisions of the higher 
 Courts of Justice." 
 
 The Madras Native Association, in its sixth Petition to Parlia- 
 ment, states as follows ; — 
 
 " Your Petitioners are able to appreciate the value of an inde- 
 pendent Supreme Court, from having long lived under its juris- 
 diction, and they are not prepared even to risk the diminution of 
 the benefits it confers. They have for years, and latterly more 
 especially, remarked the judicious reforms that have been effected 
 in it ; whereby proceedings have been simplified, costs lightened, 
 and litigation rendered far more speedy ; and those who are com- 
 pelled to have recourse to law can calculate upon obtaining a 
 decision within the space of a few months, as well as that the 
 quality of the judgment when delivered will ensure satisfaction ; 
 because it is arrived at upon investigations conducted according 
 to the settled rules of evidence, based upon well understood prin- 
 ciples of jurisprudence. Your Petitioners are desirous of seeing 
 the principles of such an administration of justice more and more 
 widely extended, until it embraces all their countrymen in the 
 provinces as well as at the Presidency; and allowing that the 
 Queen's Court, as now existing, is susceptible of further reforms, 
 which might easily be effected, they would far rather await the 
 correction of its defects at a future period, than run the risk of 
 
ail experiment likely to let in upon tliem the weak and wavering 
 administration of justice, which has hitherto characterized, and 
 must for a long time characterize, the judicial office in the 
 Mofussil. They have seen the power of the Supreme Court 
 sought to be circumscribed by act after act of the India Government, 
 and tliey naturally watch with jealousy whatever they deem to have 
 a tendency to diminish its usefulness. They are aware what little 
 good-will the Civil Service bears towards the trained professors 
 of the Law, who have ever been ready to oppose and to expose 
 the assumptions of irresponsible power, and the shortcomings of 
 uneducated labour ; and your Petitioners would respectfully but 
 firmly raise their voice to warn and protest against a course which 
 may, and as they believe would, throw the whole power of the 
 Bench in the highest court of the land into the hands of the East 
 India Company and its servants ; and their timidity is startled at 
 the apprehension of beholding the proposed experiment result in 
 depriving them of the only court in which they have confidence, 
 in lieu of producing the benefits anticipated from it — benefits 
 which proper measures would infallibly secure, leaving no chance 
 of so unfortunate a consummation." 
 
 The Calcutta Petitioners describe the Company's courts as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Your Petitioners consider it to be a fact long established, no- 
 torious and admitted by all (by all, at least, whose opinions merit 
 attention) without reserve, that the training for office of the 
 judges of the courts established by the East India Company is 
 essentially defective. 
 
 " They, and the class from which they are taken (scarcely 
 selected) are assumed by their masters, and by the advocates of 
 the present system, to have special qualifications, viz., knowledge 
 of the vernacular languages, and familiarity with the usages and 
 habits and thought of the people. This, however, when applied 
 to the whole body, or to any material portion of it, is but an 
 assumption. 
 
 " As a rule, neither of those special (and undoubtedly valuable) 
 qualifications exist in a competent or tolerable degree, much less 
 to an extent to afford any apology for the absence of other most 
 important and vital qualifications for the responsibihties of the 
 
I 
 
 2dd 
 
 judicial office. Were those boasted and assumed qualities pos- 
 sessed in the best and highest degree, they could (your Petitioners 
 submit,) but fit their possessors to decide, as jurymen, upon ques- 
 tions of fact, and certainly could not qualify them to make a 
 right application of legal principles to those facts, — in fine, to adju- 
 dicate rightly and according to any rational system of law. 
 
 " In the system of judicature established by the East India 
 Company, an extensive discretion has been, from the first, vested 
 in the judges, with regard to rules of decision upon contracts and 
 rights, somewhat analogous to that originally possessed by the 
 English Courts of Equity ; but, unlike the latter class of courts, 
 the East India Company's courts cannot, even at this day, boast 
 of any judicial body or system of law whatever. This is the 
 natural and necessary consequence of the entire absence of 
 judicial training already referred to. 
 
 " The experience and knowledge of this state of things (which 
 your Petitioners deem it sufficient to indicate or recite, as it is 
 notorious) has made all but the official classes here, and a large 
 number even of those classes, most anxious to witness some step 
 towards a radical reform of the Indian Bench ; considering this 
 to be the first great exigency in a general reform of the law and 
 of the courts." 
 
 They thus speak of the Supreme Court : — 
 
 " Not that your Petitioners desire, or would be content to see, 
 the large protective powers of Her Majesty's Court curtailed, 
 whenever that Court may be a branch of or merged in the 
 ' High Court.' 
 
 " Your Petitioners deeply feel (and have often, in representa- 
 tions to the local government and legislature, so expressed them- 
 selves) the necessity that exists — a necessity, perhaps, more 
 obvious here than elsewhere throughout the British dominions — 
 for some high and paramount safeguard of personal liberty, some 
 all-powerful judicial shield and refuge from the tyranny of igno- 
 rance, of inexperience, of unwise zeal, in office. 
 
 " Still less would your Petitioners be satisfied, that the useful 
 independence of the Royal judges be really interfered with or be 
 substantially less than it now is." 
 
 These extracts may serve to put to shame the spreaders of the 
 
300 
 
 unfounded calumnies against the Supremo Courts in India — 
 calumnies which nothing but a complete assurance of the impu- 
 nity arising from England's ignorance of India, could induce 
 tlieir authors so assiduously to bring forward. When we are 
 considering the topic of amalgamation, it becomes important to 
 ascertain the true character of Her Majesty's Supreme Courts ; 
 because it would be vain to look for reforms from their junction 
 with the Sudder, if they are in reality the ignorant, ruinous 
 tribunals, alleged by the defenders of the Company. Neither 
 would it be safe to introduce the principles on which these courts 
 have acted into the Mofussil, unless they possess the confidence, 
 and excite the esteem of the natives. 
 
 With really strong courts at head-quarters and in the Mofus- 
 sil, we might reasonably hope to check the corruption of the 
 subordinates, with which the present Bench is quite unable to 
 cope. 
 
 The fact is, that corruption is running through the land like 
 a festering sore. It is uttei-ly impossible to give any description 
 of the actual state of affairs. I believe that, as a general rule, 
 not a single step is taken in any civil suit or criminal trial (where 
 the parties are not paupers,) in which bribery or extortion is not 
 practised. I do not mean that the European judges take bribes, 
 but every officer about the courts is open to pecuniary influence, 
 and every native is imbued fully with the idea that decisions are 
 to be obtained by money. Of course it depends in some degree 
 on the personal character of the judge, whether this corruption 
 shall prevail to a greater or less extent in his particular court. 
 If he is a strong-minded, independent man, who can and will rely 
 on himself, there is far less opportunity for these iniquitous 
 practices. But if he happen to love his ease, or to be a weak 
 man, or to have confidence in the integrity of those about him, 
 then corruption runs riot.* In one court which I could name, 
 
 • Here is an instance — 
 
 BANGALonE, April 9th. — We hear that the trial of Tilliah Pillay, the Calendar 
 ■srriter, interpreter, &C., &c., of the Cantonment folice, has been closed ; and that 
 the judges of the Hoozoor Adalut Courts have sent up the proceedings to the Judicial 
 Commissioner for sentence. The trial was instituted on the complaint of one C. Nar- 
 rainsawmy Chetty, styling himself " Secretary of the Hindoo Sabah or Society.'' 
 
301 
 
 it is well known that every decree is purchasable. This arises 
 from the judge being more fond of his beer than his Bench, and 
 trusting everything to his head official; — an East Indian, a 
 civilian in this judge's own district, assured me that the common 
 report which I had heard, both in Madras and in the district, 
 was perfectly correct. I have, in the course of my own practice, 
 seen such acts by court servants, as convinced me they were 
 bribed, some by my own client, some by his adversary.* 
 
 The charges against Tilliah Pillay were as follow : — 1st — For receiving bribes, in 
 entering cases in the civil and criminal Calendars. 2nd — For receiving bribes, and 
 transposing the names of prisoners as prosecutors, and those of prosecutoi-s as i)ri- 
 soners. 3rd — For being instrumental in keeping in the criminal jail (without convic- 
 tion or sentence) for eight years, one Berkee Moonesawmy, his wife and son-in-law ; 
 and 4th — For j^asting pieces of paper in the criminal Calendar on sentences jmssed by 
 the sitting magistrate, and including such cases in the balance of " Cases remaining 
 to be disjiosed of." 
 
 Tilliah Pillay has been found guilty of the three fii-st charges. While the third 
 charge on which Tilliah Pillay has been found guilty is held to implicate him pei-son- 
 ally, it reflects the greatest discredit and almost criminal negligence (not to use harsher 
 expressions) on those above him. But it is not so much the individuals (overburdened 
 with work impossible for any man to get through,) as the defective system in which 
 things are done, that merit public censure. 
 
 For what can be said of a system, which has allowed gross corruption and oppres- 
 sion to continue for a series of years, without a check of any kind ? Who can recount 
 the wrongs that hundreds and thousands must have been made to suffer ? Still with 
 the above exposures before us, the system in force admits of Mahomed Saliah the 
 Second Cutwall, Sail) Ally the Pygusty Admecn, and others, remaining not only at 
 laige, but also in the execution of their important duties, — duties v.-hich affect the 
 lives and liberties of thousands of subjects under British protection. — Herald. 
 
 * Dr. Duff (House of Lords' Report, 1 9th April, 1853,) says, on this subject, 
 as follows : — 
 
 Q. 4221. Lord Broiighton. " You have spoken of the corruption of the vakeels ; 
 they are but agents of the parties, they do not decide anything ; how, therefore, can 
 they be corrupt ? 
 
 A. " It is not very easy to understand the matter in this country, but it is the simple 
 fact, that scarcely a single case that goes to a court in India goes there without 
 bribery, and without perjury, on all sides ; I mean literally what these words denote. 
 It is the case, as far as I could ever learn, everywhere in the interior. Now the 
 vakeels of the old school, to Avhom I more especially referred to, have endless ways 
 of promoting litigiousness, of perverting and corrupting those around them, and of 
 distorting the truth by collusion and otherwise, in their various pleadings ; it must be 
 owned at the same time, that they are aided in this exceedingly by the comparative 
 ignorance of the vernacular language on the part of the presiding judge ; this source 
 of the mal-administration of justice would be greatly rectified, by the presiding judge 
 ' being an adept in the native language ;' in Bengal, Avith a view to this desirable 
 
302 
 
 llyder Jung Baliadoor, examined before the Lords' Committee, 
 26tli April, 1853, gives an instance of liis own payment of a 
 bribe, and states the native belief to be universal in the efficacy 
 of bribes. I could give a hundred instances myself, if what 
 I have heard may be believed. Mr. Fischer has lately in- 
 formed me of a case between two zemindars, in which he was 
 engaged professionally. The Sheristadar for some time hawked 
 about a decree for whichever party would pay 500 rupees ; 
 ncitlier consenting, to spite both, he procured a decree in favour 
 of Government ! A man has just filed his schedule in the 
 Madras Insolvent Court, in which he enters deliberately the 
 sums paid, or said to be paid, to the officers of the S udder 
 Court, in a case in which he was concerned as defendant. In a 
 late case in Rajahmundry, the judge seized a prisoner's papers : 
 in the accounts was an entry of an item of 10,000 rupees, sent 
 down to Madras to bribe the S udder judges ! When I was, 
 some years back, in Rajahmundry, on an important criminal 
 trial, in which several prisoners were concerned, one of the 
 
 end, some eftective measures have, within the last few years, been adopted ; and the 
 full maturing of these would be part of the prospective improvement I contemplate/' ^ 
 
 And again (Dr. Duff, House of Lords' Report, 19th April, 1853) :— 
 
 Q. 4218. *' You think it would not be desirable to take vakeels and at once make 
 them judges ? 
 
 A. " From all I have seen of them, I should say they are the last class who ought 
 to be appointed judges ; they are mixed up with all the endless and intolerable, and 
 I may say indescribable, corruptions which have brought such obloquy on our courts 
 of justice. It would never be possible for any British gentleman who has not been in 
 India, and mixed with the people, to know anything of the real nature and extent of 
 those corruptions, they are so endless and so complicated." 
 
 Mr. Moore's evidence (House of Commons' Report, 6th June, 1853,) is to the 
 same effect : — 
 
 Q. 5897. " You have spoken of the native^ being in the habit of remitting large 
 sums of money to their agents, when engaged in litigation ; have you ever heard what 
 lias become of those sums of money so remitted ? 
 
 A. " I cannot say what has become of them ; it would be a veiy difficult thing to 
 say that ; I can only speak to the fact of their being remitted by the natives to their 
 agents. Another thing is, that the native law officers of the courts are very badly 
 paid ; they live in a much greater style than their salaries can possibly cover. Few 
 or none of them have any other means than what they receive from the State." 
 
 Q. 5898. " Does the habit still continue to the present day amongst native suitors, 
 of remitting large sums of money to their agents, thinking it will advance their cause ? 
 
 A. ** It does." 
 
303 
 
 13urt officers said to me — What, Sir, is the use of going on? 
 'he Mufti is paid for his futwah. He is to have 1,500 rupees if 
 e acquits all, 1,200 if he acquits three, &e. In a case which 
 I have just finished at Cuddapah, the Mufti was stated to have 
 been bribed on both sides, but highest by my client. The sum 
 stated was 2,500 rupees. The charge was one of murder. The 
 official of Rajahmundry assured me, with perfect good faith, that 
 the Mufti was a very good man, for he only took bribes in large 
 cases ! I have myself been offered a bribe of 50,000 rupees for 
 an opinion, while I was Government pleader. I believe every 
 Mufti in the land, or nearly so, is corrupt. A client of mine 
 from Cuddalore, told me his suit had already cost, before appeal 
 to the Sudder, 20,000 rupees. I told him it was impossible. 
 The amount in dispute was only 18,000 rupees. With a charming 
 naivete, he replied that it included "bribes and all." I was 
 counsel in the Supreme Court, in a case in which an ex-reverend 
 gentleman was convicted of having obtained 3000 rupees from 
 two poor women, under pretence of influencing one of the Sudder 
 judges. I could string such anecdotes together by the dozen. 
 But this, coupled with a reminiscence of the " Dacca News " 
 editor's testimony, must suffice. And yet people will insist upon 
 it, that litigation is cheaper in the Mofussil than in the Supreme 
 Courts. The legalized fees are no doubt smaller in cases of small 
 value ; but as nothing of this sort goes on, or is fancied to go on, 
 in the Supreme Courts, I have no question at all but that the 
 costs of an ordinary suit in the Supreme Court, are not a tenth- 
 part of those of a suit in the Mofussil. Yet with this state of 
 things, I may say, universally known, we go on day by day, and 
 from year to year, without change. 
 
 The evils in the judicial system with which we have to cope 
 are the ignorance of the European judges, the ignorance plus the 
 venality of the native judges, the corruption of subordinate 
 officials, the false testimony of the witnesses, the want of simple 
 codes of procedure and a clearly defined substantive law. The 
 remedies I have already pointed out. Those conditions once 
 provided, we should go far towards purifying, simplifying, and 
 cheapening the administration of justice. Litigation would not be 
 the dilatory uncertain affair it is at present. Far less opportunities 
 
304 
 
 would be offered for bribery and extortions, and men would be 
 afraid to take advantage of such opportunities as remained. The 
 character of evidence can only be raised with the character of the 
 people, and education must be the main instrument for that task. 
 But uiKiuestionably there would be infinitely less perjury and 
 forgery practised, if the courts were stronger and quicker in their 
 work. Simple codes of procedure are already prepared ; the task 
 of providing a substantive law, though opus heroicicm, is neither 
 impossible, nor such as men cannot be found to undertake. 
 
 There are some other reforms which I shall barely glance at, 
 vast as their influence would be upon the general administration 
 of justice. I can only indicate the measures, their details I have 
 no time to consider. In the first place, I should like to see the 
 present Moonsiff's Courts converted into County Com-ts. At 
 present, the most trumpery suit above a few rupees value, is 
 encumbered with lengthy pleadings and a tedious procedure. 
 The Moonsifts, I think, may safely be trusted with summary 
 powers. The pleadings should be oral; the Moonsiff's note of 
 the evidence conclusive. The parties should attend upon sum- 
 mons with their witnesses, in common with whom they should 
 be submitted to examination. The Stamp law, which is a griev- 
 ous tax upon justice, the worst tax in the world, as Bentham 
 has proved it, should be rescinded. The European judges 
 should be invested with a summary power of punishing perjury, 
 whenever they were satisfied that it had been committed before 
 them. The present law is almost a dead letter, and seldom 
 acted upon, in consequence of the difficulties in the way of a con- 
 viction. Indeed it is not unusual, where the grossest perjury has 
 been committed, for the judges to treat it as " prevarication," 
 which they have power summarily to punish. 
 
 It is the fashion just now to praise what is called the '' patri- 
 archal" system of administration. Lord Canning has officially 
 declared his opinion, that this is the best adapted to the condition 
 and feelings of the natives ; it is one of the well-known watch- 
 words of the civilians, and the " Friend of India," that most 
 mischievous of journals, so far as it directs public opinion in 
 England, has begun to cry out for the application of this system 
 in the North -West provinces. Let it not be forgotten, that 
 
305 
 
 scarcely four years have passed away since the system of admi- 
 nistration obtaining in the North-West, was lauded to the skies 
 by the Directors and all their satellites, as the very perfection of 
 Government. The whole of the evidence given before the 
 Parliamentary Committee, points to Agra as the garden of the 
 East. Mr. Campbell and other writers plume themselves and 
 the service on the results of their doings in that quarter, what- 
 ever may be said of civil administration in Madras or elsewhere. 
 And yet it is confessed now, because stubborn facts will take no 
 denial, that this so much vaunted system has actually broken 
 down at the first touch and shock of civil discord. This remini- 
 scence and this fact should surely warn us how we put faith in 
 any system, simply because the civilians and a superficial dog- 
 matic doctrinaire journalist insist upon its excellence. Taught 
 by experience, let us take nothing more upon trust, but examine 
 for ourselves the grounds which exist for presuming the proba- 
 bility of failure or success of any system, upon its own intrinsic 
 merits or defects. 
 
 First of all, then, let us obtain a clear definite idea of what the 
 " patriarchal " system really is. The name creates and calls up 
 visions of some golden age, or rather it refers us to Bible history, 
 and we see the venerable chief of a paternal despotism managing 
 all the affairs of his tribe — fiscal, magisterial, and judicial. He 
 is at once lawgiver, judge, and receiver of the people's dues. 
 He is looked up to by all with veneration and affection. His 
 decisions meet with a ready, cheerful obedience. Charming 
 picture of simplicity in truth. But the principal features some- 
 what change, when the patriarch is a beardless boy taken from 
 the junior ranks of regimental officers, — some fortunate Indian 
 Dowb with a coronetted letter of introduction in his pocket, or 
 budding civilian who has a vested right to employ ; when the 
 people are a newly " annexed " State, sulking and chafing with 
 ill-concealed dislike of their new rulers; and when the youth 
 placed over them has no fixed principles, no practical experience, 
 nothing but his " common sense," to use a slang civilian phrase, 
 to guide him ; when newly acquired power tempts to arrogance, 
 and ere age has mellowed down the infirmities of temper. Silent 
 leges inter arma, says the great Roman orator ; and the only excuse 
 for the temporary introduction of the ^* patriarchal " system, 
 
 X 
 
306 
 
 after a country has been newly conquered, is, that it is a less 
 evil than the continuance of martial law. Immediately after 
 conquest, the laws may be forgiven if tliey speak with a sound 
 at once harsh and uncertain ; for the sharp, short, peremptory 
 decision is then useless ; but as soon as circumstances permit, 
 this make-shift should stand aside, and make way for a more 
 scientific and deliberate system of jurisprudence. Advancing 
 civilization will indeed compel this in its own good time ; to intro- 
 duce the " patriarchal " system into the rich provinces of Bengal, 
 is one of the demands of the policy of retrogression. Nothing 
 can be more mistaken than the assertion that the " patriarchal " 
 system is what the people like and hold by. The same was said 
 formerly of the punchayet or arbitration system. But Mr. Ful- 
 lerton, the contemporary of Munro, and the sounder and abler 
 man of the two, long since disposed of that fallacy. In his 
 famous minute of the 1st of January, 1816, he shows that the 
 punchayet was to be tolerated only because no other distribution 
 of justice could be said to have existed. "If a man had no pun- 
 chayet to settle his cause, he obtained no settlement at all." But 
 he asks — Shall this state of confusion continue ? And we may 
 well repeat the question. 
 
 No fallacy can be more baneful than that which Im-ks under 
 " simplicity." Analyzed, it will be found to mean that the judg- 
 ment seat is to be guided by no rules, instructed in no principles ; 
 it may be ignorant, arbitrary, capricious, self-contradictory, 
 positively unjust. And all these qualities are to be permitted to 
 be rampant, because we will not set about obtaining a class of 
 educated judges — propter simplicitatem laicorum ; and because 
 we leave to each man full power to indulge his own fanciful 
 notions of " equity and good conscience." Thus justice, as Lord 
 Chancellor Ellesmere said, becomes the measure of each judge's 
 foot; judges too, be it remembered, in this instance, not like 
 the judges of England, men trained in the nurture of the law, 
 but raw inexperienced amateurs, thrown upon their own resources, 
 without a rule to guide or a light to illumine them. Truly saith 
 the law maxim, " optimus est judex qui mininum relingidt sibi ; " 
 and I would add, that that is the best judicial system which 
 leaves to the judge as little as possible, beyond declaring what 
 the law is. 
 
307 
 
 Lastly : with reference to the Police. 
 
 It can scarcely be necessary to bring forward proofs of the 
 character of this body, which may be described, summarily, as 
 the bane of the country. But as I wish this to be, as far as 
 possible, a self-contained book, I will quote a few pictures of it, 
 drawn by different hands. The Bengal Missionaries' Petition 
 presented to Parliament, will be in the memory of all. 
 
 Mr. Halliday, on the 3rd of April, 1856, writes as follows:— 
 
 " For a long series of years complaints have been handed 
 down from administration to administration, regarding the bad- 
 ness of the Mofussil police under the Government of Bengal, and 
 as yet very little has been done to improve it. Such efforts as 
 have occasionally been made for this purpose, have been usually 
 Insufficient to meet the greatness of the evil ; partial remedies 
 have failed to produce any extensive benefit, and during long 
 Intervals the Government has appeared to fold its hands in 
 despair, and to attempt nothing new, because the last tried in- 
 adequate measure had ended in inevitable disappointment. 
 
 " No complaint is more common among magistrates and police 
 officers of every grade, than that of the disinclination of the 
 people to assist in the apprehension and conviction of criminals. 
 From one end of Bengal to the other, the earnest desire and aim 
 of those who have suffered from thieves or dacolts, is to keep the 
 matter secret from the police, or, failing that, so to manage as to 
 make the trial a nullity before the courts. Something of this is 
 due, perhaps, to the natural apathy of the people ; though it 
 cannot fail to be observed, on the other hand, that where they 
 have any object to gain, the same people show no apathy nor 
 unreadiness, but remarkable energy and perseverance, in civil 
 and criminal prosecutions. More, no doubt, is due to the cor- 
 ruption and extortion of the police, which causes it to be 
 popularly said, that dacolty is bad enough, but the subsequent 
 police inquiry very much worse. But after allowing for both 
 these causes, no one conversant with the people can have failed 
 to remark, how much of their strong unwillingness to prosecute 
 Is owing to the deep sense which pervades the public mind of the 
 utter uncertainty of the proceedings of our courts, and the 
 exceeding chances of escape which our system allows to crimi- 
 nals ; often have I heard natives express, on this point, their 
 
 X 2 
 
308 
 
 inability to understand the principles on which the courts are so 
 constituted, or so conducted, as to make it appear in their eyes 
 as if the object were rather to favour the acquittal, than to 
 ensure the conviction and punishment of offenders; and often 
 liave I been assured by them that their anxious desire to avoid 
 appearing as prosecutors arose, in a great measure, from their 
 belief that prosecution was very likely to end in acquittal, 
 even, as they imagined, in the teeth of the best evidence; 
 while the acquittal of a revengeful and unscrupulous ruffian 
 was known, by experience, to have repeatedly ended in the 
 most unhappy consequences to his ill-advised and imprudent 
 prosecutor. 
 
 ** That a very small proportion of heinous offenders are ever 
 brought to trial, is a matter of notoriety. It now appears that 
 half of those brought to trial are sure to be acquitted. Is it to be 
 expected, then, that the people should have confidence in our 
 system, or that they should show any desire to assist the police, 
 knowing, as they do from experience, the miserable results to be 
 obtained ? 
 
 " I must say that this appears to me the weakest point of our 
 whole system, and that which most loudly calls for an effectual 
 remedy. No doubt the badness of the police, and the inefficiency 
 of the tribunals, act and re-act on each other, and both are con- 
 cerned in bringing about the deplorable existing consequences. 
 But until the tribunals are reformed, I can see no use in reform- 
 ing the police ; and I think it will be money thrown away to 
 attempt the latter, unless we are determined vigorously to insist 
 on the former. We have been hitherto debating about both for 
 many years without much practical effect, and in the mean time, 
 to take only one crime, and only the seven districts round about 
 Government House, we have seen dacoities increase from 82 in 
 1841, to 524 in 1851. It is true that under a special agency, 
 this has since been reduced to 111 in 1855, but the operations of 
 this agency have shown more than anything else, the utter ina- 
 bility of our ordinary institutions to cope with the enormous 
 social evil that is ever rising up in defiance before it." 
 
 On this, the missionaries again thus addressed the Government 
 on the 2nd September, 1856 : — 
 
 " That your Memorialists have perused with the deepest inte- 
 
309 
 
 rest, a minute by your Honour, on the Police and Criminal 
 Justice in Bengal, in which the existing system is most faitlifuUy 
 and powerfully described. Your Memorialists have noticed par- 
 ticularly the following statements : ^ that for a long series of years, 
 complaints have been handed down from administration to admi- 
 nistration, regarding the badness of the Mofussil police under the 
 Government of Bengal, and as yet, very little has been done to 
 improve it ; ' that, ' throughout the length and breadth of the 
 country, the strong prey almost universally upon the weak, and 
 power is but too commonly valued only as it can be turned into 
 money ; ' that ' it is a lamentable but unquestionable fact, that the 
 rural police, its position, character, and stability as a public insti- 
 tution, has, in the Lower Provinces, deteriorated during the last 
 twenty years;' that ^criminal judicatories certainly do not com- 
 mand the confidence of the people ; ' that ' whether right or wrong, 
 the general native opinion is certainly that the administration of 
 criminal justice is little better than a lottery, in which, however, 
 the best chances are with the criminal, and this is also very much 
 the opinion of the European Mofussil community;' that ^ a very 
 small proportion of heinous offenders are ever brought to trial ; ' 
 that ^ it now appears that half of those brought to trial are sure to 
 be acquited,' and that 'peculiar and accidental circumstances, 
 partly temporary, and partly arising out of the constitution of the 
 Civil Service, have, at this moment, made the inexperienced con- 
 dition of the magistracy more observable than it has ever been 
 before, while it seems certain that the evil during several suc- 
 cessive years is likely very seriously to increase;' and your 
 Memorialists attach great weight to these remarkable and im- 
 portant declarations." 
 
 Mr. J. P. Grant, on the 22nd October, 1856, remarks on this 
 document in these terms : — 
 
 " The Memorial of the missionaries, transcribing and adopting 
 a previous petition to Parliament, mentions the following as evils 
 existing in Bengal, * which it falls properly within the scope of 
 Government to meet and control,' and which they say ' appear to 
 be on the increase.' 
 
 " (1.) Insecurity of life and property in many districts. 
 
 " (2.) Numerous gang robberies perpetrated annually with 
 impunity. 
 
310 
 
 " (3.) Constant scenes of violence, in contentions respecting 
 disputed boundaries, between the owners of landed estates. 
 
 " The Memorialists maintain that tlie radical cause of these 
 evils is the mefficiency of the police and of the judicial system ; 
 that a well-organized police, with a more extensive and more 
 effective judicial system, (besides giving the required security to 
 life and property), would do much to check the outrages that 
 arise out of disputes about land ; and, moreover, that in order to 
 a cure of this last evil, the cause which leads to disputes about 
 land, namely, the insecurity of title and possession, must be 
 removed by, first, the complete survey of the land ; secondly, a 
 svstem of registration ; and, thirdly, ' laws to alleviate the infinite 
 mischief of the universal system of secret trusts.' 
 
 *^ Upon this important head I beg to record my complete con- 
 currence with the Memorialists, both as to the existence and 
 extent of the evils, and the nature of the remedies." 
 
 On the 13th March, 1857, the Court of Directors write as 
 follows : — 
 
 " That the police in India has lamentably failed in accomplisli- 
 ing the ends for which it was established, is a notorious fact ; 
 that it is all but useless for the prevention, and sadly inefficient 
 for the detection of crime, is generally admitted. Unable to 
 check crime, it is, with rare exceptions, unscrupulous as to its 
 wielding the authority with which it is armed for the func- 
 tions which it fails to fulfil, and has a very general character for 
 corruption and oppression. There is, moreover, a want of 
 general organization ; the force attached to each division is too 
 much localised and isolated; and the notion of combination 
 between any separate parts of it, with the view of accomplishing 
 the great objects of a body of police, is seldom entertained." 
 
 The pohce in Madras is fully exposed in the Torture Report. 
 Let us only look at Mr. Saafelt's description of them : — 
 
 " I can safely affirm that the practice still exists with all its 
 horrors in the Police Establishment, which has become the bane 
 and pest of society, the terror of the community, and the origin 
 of half the misery and discontent that exists among the subjects of 
 Government. Corruption and bribery reign paramount throughout 
 the whole estabhshment; violent torture and cruelty are their chief 
 instruments for detecting crime, implicating mnocencc, or extort- 
 
311 
 
 iiig money. Robberies are daily or nightly committed (and not 
 imfrequently with their connivance); certain suspicious characters 
 are taken up and conveyed to some secluded spot far out of 
 the reach of witnesses, where every species of cruelty is exercised 
 upon them; if guilty, the crime is invariably confessed, and 
 stolen property discovered ; but a tempting bribe soon releases 
 them from custody ; should they persist in avowing their inno- 
 cence, relief from suffering is promised by criminating some 
 wealthy individual, and in the agony of despair he is pointed to as 
 the receiver of stolen goods. In his turn, he is compelled to part 
 with his hard-earned coin to avert the impending danger. Even 
 the party robbed does not escape the clutching grasp of the heart- 
 less peon and duffadar ; he is threatened with being torn from his 
 home, dragged to the cutcherry, and detained there for days or 
 weeks to the actual detriment of his trade or livelihood, unless he 
 point out the supposed thieves ; the dread of, or aversion to, the 
 cutcherry is so great, that the owner would sooner disavow the 
 stolen article, and disclaim all knowledge of the property, though 
 his name be found written upon it in broad characters." * 
 
 * Dr. Duff gives the following highly important testimony (see House of Lords* 
 Report) : — 
 
 Q. 4224. " Then, further, the police system has operated injuriously on the native 
 character. The chief man connected with the native police is called a darogah, the 
 head of the district station ; heretofore, he has, generally speaking, been a man of low 
 birth and low caste, and therefore despised by the natives ; his salary, though lately 
 somewhat improved, was so low — 25 rupees a month — that it often did not pay his 
 travelling expenses ; every one saw that he must make it up somehow or other ; he 
 not only did so, but very soon realised a fortune. 
 
 " Endless mischiefs, however, were thus inflicted upon the mass of the people ; and 
 such innumerable temptations held out to lie and to conceal, that it would take a long 
 time indeed to enable one, even though favourably circumstanced, to come to anything 
 like the bottom of the evil. 
 
 Q. 4225. " Could not a native judge detect such evils better than a European ? 
 
 A. " Yes ; and that is one of the great advantages of having a qualified native judge. 
 Still further to illustrate what I have already said, suppose a burglary takes place, and 
 the magistrate hears of it, then an order is sent to the darogah, and he is despatched to 
 investigate it. So great was the mischief that usually ensued from the visitation of 
 that functionary, that Lord William Bentinck, as his only remedy, passed a law de- 
 claring that the hidividuals in whose house there might be a theft or burglary, if 
 unaccompanied by violence, were not under the legal obligation of reporting or reveal- 
 ing to anybody what had taken place. This was an actual ordinance of Lord William 
 Bentinck ; what was the reason of that law ? If a householder or villager reported 
 that a burglary or theft had taken place in his house or village, the darogah must be 
 
312 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding the revelations of the Torture Report, and 
 the minutes and despatches of the Madras Government and the 
 
 sent down to investigjite it ; and Lord William Bentinck came to learn that the 
 exactions and oppressions of tlie darogah were so intolerable that it was far better to 
 submit even to theft and burglaiy than to submit to so tremendous a visitation. This 
 is a fact which should be generally known as illustrative of the extraordinary state of 
 native society in Bengal. The darogah's i)roceeding was ordinarily of this kmd, 
 though of course it varied indefinitely : he would go down to the village and cast about 
 with a keen, covetous eye ; his object was not in the first place to find out the real 
 culi)rit, but to look about and discover the man who had got the most substance ; he 
 would go to him and say, ' You are connected with this outrage ; at least if you are 
 not the perpetrator, you know of it, and I will have you bound down and compelled 
 to go up to the court as H witness.' The man shrinks from this ; he cannot endure 
 the thought of having to go up, perhaps a distance of fifty or sixty miles, or more, as 
 a witness, to be detained possibly for weeks, his family being left behind in what a 
 Hindoo considei-s as a most destitute state, and subject, it may be, to endless dis- 
 honours ; he shrinks, and begins to compound with the unscrupulous officer of justice 
 to let him ofl' ; and according to his means he Avill give 1 or 20, or more, rupees to 
 get liberated. The darogah will, perhaps, go all round the whole village in this way, 
 levying his lawless contributions as he goes along. That this is one of the most ordi- 
 nary methods of proceeding on the i3art of the darogah, every one in Bengal well 
 knows. Another cause would be, in his ignorance of the guilty party, to go and fix 
 upon an individual, and say, ' You are the guilty party ;' and if the accused party 
 fail to satisfy hun in the way of bribes, he would next get individuals to come and give 
 evidence against him sufficient to enable him to send him up to the Tannah. There 
 was also a system which prevailed to a great degree within Bengal, which probably 
 has nowhere else existed in the world to a like extent — I mean tlie system of forced 
 confessions extorted from persons who are innocent : this is also as notorious in Bengal 
 as any practices connected with our court here in Westminster can be. Perhaps by 
 threats or by bribes the darogah will lead a man to confess, as he wants to have a man 
 charged with guilt. The magistrate having told him that he must bring up the crimi- 
 nal, or by such a day he will lose his oflRce, in order that he may not suffer in this 
 way, he must strive, by fair means or foul, to get the charge fastened on some one. 
 Perhaps he coaxes and bribes some poor creature into compliance with his wishes ; he 
 tells him, if you confess, you will get such a reward, and escape such or such conse- 
 quences. 
 
 " That there are such cases as these, is notorious. Here is an actual occurrence of 
 this description : a case of a murder had been reported; the darogah proceeded to. 
 seek the crimuial, and, from some cause or other, failed ; the magistrate dismissed him 
 from office, and sent down another man, the mohurrer, or registrar of the court, with 
 the promise of promotion if he succeeded ; at fii-st, he failed too ; but, at last, he 
 offered a reward in money to any man who would come forward and confess ; in this 
 instance, two persons came forward and made confession. The officer then got up a 
 tangled mass of circumstantial evidence, weaving a web of apparent guiltiness round 
 the men. Perhaps some persons would say, on such a night the men were not home. 
 The native chokedar might come and testify that he found them returning in the 
 morning suspiciously, and so forth ; in short, a system of entire fabrication was speedily 
 and ingeniously carried out. The case actually went this length, that the men, being 
 
313 
 
 Court of Directors upon it, at the time I write not a thing has 
 been done in the way of remedy. I affirm that the * traditionary 
 
 brought up before the magistrate, he convicted them or sent on to the Sessions Judge, 
 who, in his turn, handed them over to the Nizamut Adawlut, which condemned them, 
 and pronounced sentence of death upon them. In this instance which has been re- 
 corded, where the two persons were thus brought up and convicted, and condemned to 
 die for murder, it turned out afterwards that it was discovered that on the day or 
 night when the murder was said to have been perpetrated, they were both in the civil 
 gaol on account of another offence, so that of course they were liberated. Cases of 
 somewhat similar kind are notorious in Bengal." 
 
 Q. 4226. Lord Elphinstone : " Would they have been hanged ? 
 
 A. " Unless the discovery had been made to prevent it, they would have been." 
 
 Q,. 4227. " What bribe can induce people to confess under such circumstances ? 
 
 A. " The mass of the people being unhappily ignorant and cowardly in a high 
 degree, the darogah no doubt Avould promise his deluded victims that they would be 
 forgiven if they threw themselves upon the mercy of the court. It is not a few 
 questions, however, or a few short answers, which would bring out this iniquitous 
 system in its integrity or varied ramifications." 
 
 Q. 4228. Chairman : " Surely, a system could not have been very general 
 whereby natives were induced by bribes to put themselves in a predicament in which 
 they might be put to death ? 
 
 A. " That was an extreme case, which was now adduced merely for the purpose of 
 illustration, involving liability to capital punishment ; but the number of instances of 
 a minor kind are very large indeed — I am almost afraid from memory to state the 
 amount ; but I have seen it marked down on respectable authority, that cases, which 
 involved hired or extorted confessions, nearly equalled, or even exceeded, the half of 
 those that were brought before the magistrates." 
 
 Q,. 4229. " You mean, that the darogah derives such emoluments from corre- 
 sponding cases, that he has funds at his disposal to bribe parties in others ? 
 
 A. " His object in the particular cases referred to would be to save his o^vn office ; 
 his office to him being money, or the high road to speedy fortune." 
 
 And Mr. Hawkin's testimony is to the following effect (House of Lords' Report. 
 Q. 4370) :— 
 
 " Attempts have been made to improve the village police ; but I believe the evil lies 
 much deeper than any attempts which have hitherto been made to improve it could 
 possibly reach. The chokedar, who is the watchman, is a man who is taken from the 
 lowest grades of society ; he is a man who is perhaps the worst paid of any public 
 functionary ; he has very little to live upon, and, at the same time, he has great temp- 
 tations presented to him by his being permitted to patrol the village at all hours of the 
 night ; he knows, on the one hand, that the police darogah would rather not have a 
 great many things that happen reported to him, because he fears that if all were 
 reported, the magistrate might consider his a badly ordered division. At the same 
 time, the chokedar feels that the native community would much rather have the 
 presence of the thief than the presence of the police in many instances ; and, under 
 those circumstances, with the community on the one hand in this condition, with the 
 knowledge that the police officer is not very -willing to receive information on the 
 other, there are temptations held out to him ; and the police watchman is just as bad, 
 as much of a thief, perhaps, as any member of the community." 
 
314 
 
 policy * of delaying to a future day whatever can Le staved oft' for a 
 season, has prevailed to prevent the re-organization of the poUce. 
 
 It is ever well to prove assertions as we go along, and with this 
 view, I propose to bring together a few specimens of the delay 
 which occurs between the conception of a measure and its com- 
 pletion under the present system of India Government. To any 
 one moderately acquainted with the history of the East India 
 Company, this must seem a work of supererogation on my part ; 
 but still there are many who have not paid attention to this sub- 
 ject. Mr. Kaye says that the ryotwarry system has failed ; but 
 no attempt to remove the obstacles to its success, even to give it a 
 fair trial, had been attempted up to within a late date. " Un- 
 successful experiments " says he, " are no uncommon things in 
 the history of human administration." As though this were 
 quite sufficient excuse for nothing having been done in the way 
 of reform. The experiment concerned 07ily twenty-two millions 
 of hmnan beings. The reasons of the failure of the ryotwarry to 
 fulfil the expectations formed of it, have been pointed out over 
 and over again by the Company's ablest servants. In 1798, 
 Munro wrote that the assessment was too high. In 1807, he 
 proposed a reduction of 25 per cent. In 1818, the Board of 
 Revenue reported that the land was let " at a mere rack-rent." 
 In 1821, Munro again wrote that the only means of bringing 
 waste land into cultivation was by a reduction of the assessment. 
 Twenty years later. Lord Elphinstone repeated the same fact. 
 In 1854, Lord Harris reported the result of the last ^' ten years" 
 inquiry. In 1856, the Court of Directors reply; and here we 
 are in 1858 much where we were in 1798. The Torture Report 
 shows us the representations made from to time by various civil 
 servants, revenue and judicial. It recites the condemnation by 
 the Board of Revenue in 1827. It gives extracts from the Court 
 of Directors' own letters and despatches, which show that they 
 were fully cognizant of the state of affairs. In 1849, Mr. Lewin 
 reported much the same statements, and arrived at much the 
 same conclusions as the Torture Commissioners. Nothing has 
 been done from the date of the report to the present day. In 
 1852-3, the Bengal missionaries detailed the state of the case to 
 Parliament They applied to the Governor of Bengal in 1856. 
 In 1853, Mr. Halliday, the Governor of Bengal, had passed the 
 
315 
 
 most sweeping condemnation on the whole system of police. 
 Lord Harris had sent up his scheme for the new organization of 
 the Madras police to the Supreme Government. Lord Canning 
 has again shelved the whole matter. Recent events will cut that 
 gordian knot; and the Company will claim the credit of the 
 reform. In 1835, a Law Commission was appointed. One of the 
 first objects was to prepare a criminal code. The history of the 
 Macaulay code it is unnecessary to follow. Commented on by 
 every judicial authority in India, and then voluminously criticized 
 by the Commissioners, the code has been all but remodelled by the 
 late Mr. Bethune. It seems to have been altogether shelved for 
 a series of years, and then to have been constantly oscillating 
 backwards and forwards between India and England ; as though, 
 like a pipe of Madeira, when George the Fourth was king, its 
 qualities would improve with each voyage. But it has never 
 become law. 
 
 To meet the altered circumstances of India, the Charter Act 
 of 1833 contained the following clause: — 
 
 " And be it enacted, that no native of the said territories, nor 
 any natural born subject of His Majesty, resident therein, shall, 
 by reason only of his religion, place of birth, descent, colour, or 
 any of them, be disabled from holding any place, office, or 
 employment under the said Company." 
 
 The Directors thus explained their conception of the intention 
 of the Act, to their Governor-General. " The meaning of the 
 enactment we take to be that there shall be no governing caste in 
 British India, that whatever other tests of qualification may be 
 adopted, distinctions of race or religion shall not be of the num- 
 ber ; that no subject of the King, whether of Indian, or British, 
 or mixed descent, shall be excluded either from the posts usually 
 conferred on our uncovenanted servants in India, or from the 
 covenanted service itself, provided he be otherwise eligible." 
 Yet from that day to this, not a single native, not a single outside 
 European, has been admitted to the ranks of the covenanted 
 service ! When the Charter w^as renewed, we were promised an 
 amalgamation of the courts and codes of criminal and civil pro- 
 cedure. That was in 1853. The code has been drawn up by 
 some of the ablest men in England, and from that day to this the 
 scheme is in abeyance. " The same thing happened to my 
 
316 
 
 suggestions which has happened to so many others of administra- 
 tive reform," says Sir Erskine Perry, " that they were alluded 
 to, and nothing else." When the same gentleman wished to 
 introduce certain reforms with respect to the fees of the Supreme 
 Court in Bombay, he pointed out in his minute to Government, 
 " that those inquiries had been going on for twenty years, hut 
 that nothing had been done ! " In 1829, the Court of Directors 
 expressed their surprise that the Bengal Government did not 
 obtain the whole of its supplies of salt from the Coromandel 
 coast. In 1836, the Parhamentary Committee on the salt 
 inquiry reported their conviction, " that however modified the 
 salt monopoly may be, the evils of the system never can be 
 eradicated but by its extinction." We have had all sorts of pro- 
 positions made, and minuted, and reported on, and referred since, 
 but matters stand much as they did in 1829, and indeed in 1805, 
 when the monopoly was introduced into the Madras Presidency. 
 The melancholy history of education in Madras, will be found in 
 Mr. George Norton's evidence before the House of Lords' Com- 
 mittee, for 1853. Lord Harding's minute of 1844 stands a 
 monument of good aspirations. Education, as a Government 
 measure, may be said to date from last year, and even now the 
 " establishment " is so out of proportion to the money actually 
 spent on schools and school-masters, that it looks rather like 
 a new patronage-ground for us Europeans, than a great insti- 
 tution for the natives. The noble anient which now bridles 
 the great Godavery, was first advocated in 1779. In 1779, 
 Mr. J. Sullivan, in a letter dated 3rd February, fully explained 
 the advantages of storing the waters of the Godavery and 
 Kistnah to the Court of Directors. In 1788, Lieut. Lennon 
 reported to Government that he had, at his own expense, 
 surveyed the Godavery as high as the junction of the Sheveroy. 
 In 1792, the Court of Directors, in their letter to the Madras 
 Government, recognized the expedience of improving the 
 Godavery and Kistnah, with a view both to navigation and irri- 
 gation. The anient was not commenced until 1847. But this 
 tremendous obstacle to all important improvements, is not con- 
 fined to works of great magnitude. In Madras, the House of 
 Correction was an old bomb proof in an angle of the Black Town 
 wall. For fifteen years the late chief magistrate was continually 
 
I 
 
 317 
 
 representing the unfitness of this liole for human habitation. He 
 expressed it as his opinion that the place was not fit " to keep a 
 pack of hounds in." I know not how many presentments the 
 Grand Jury has made upon the subject. The Chief Justice 
 repeatedly made it the subject of his charge. He positively 
 refused to send Europeans there, and declared that " to keep a 
 man in a place of that kind for a number of months, would 
 positively endanger his life." We have at last a building, par- 
 tially finished ; but if the correspondence on this subject, between 
 the various authorities in this country and those at home, were 
 called for, I am sure it would fill a cart. And this with 
 respect to an absolute essential in one of the Presidential cities. 
 The condition of our roads in the interior, as shown by the Public 
 Works' report, reads like a huge malevolent libel. The proofs of 
 procrastination are to be found in that report to repletion. 
 I have here jotted down a few specimens which first occurred to 
 my recollection, on miscellaneous matters ; they are surely 
 enough to exhibit the evils of the system.* But the whole of 
 
 * Let this one specimen of the working of Indian Government suffice. It is known 
 familiarly as " The Great £7 Putty case." It is printed in my " Madras." It is too 
 instructive not to be again quoted here : — 
 
 "the great £7 PUTTY CASE. 
 
 " A range of barracks is built by an engineer, at a cost of £30,000 or £40,000 ; 
 there is a large saving on the estimate sanctioned, for which he officially receives the 
 thanks of the Court of Directors. Some time afterwards a storm occurs, which 
 breaks a few panes of glass, valued at £ 7. The whole Presidency is at once in a 
 state of excitement. The heads of that division of the army are directed to assemble 
 a committee of officers, to investigate this matter. Their report is referred to the 
 Military Board, who, after patiently examining all the papers, and referring to all 
 their records, forward all the documents to the Governor in Council, with a 
 deliberate and elaborate report ; in which they assure the Government, that they 
 have not hastily come to a decision, but have given their best energies to the inves- 
 tigation, and they conclude that the cause of the windows being broken was the 
 inferior quality of the putty, and that therefore the engineer ought to pay for them. 
 All the papers connected with this intricate and vital matter are now examined by 
 the Secretary to Government, who sends them in circulation to the Governor, and 
 the other three Members of Council. After a sufficient time has been given them to 
 consider this weighty subject, and to record their individual sentiments in writing, 
 the important day at length arrives, when the whole is to be reviewed and discussed 
 in Council. The flag is hoisted, His Excellency's carriage, with two troopers with 
 drawn swords in front and three behind, entei-s the Fort, and is drawn up at the 
 gate of the Government offices. It is followed by the Commander-in-Chief, and the 
 two Councillors with their silver sticks. The secretaries are summoned, and this 
 solemn investigation is proceeded with, upon which the fate of £ 7 depends. It is. 
 
318 
 
 Lord Harris's Government may be taken as a conclusive proof 
 of the obstacles which the Indian system presents to progress. 
 
 however, discovered that the decision of such an important question, by an assembly 
 drawing among them stilaries amounting to £40,000 or £50,000 a-year, and the 
 cost of whose weekly meetings in Council may be calculated at about £ 1 ,000, would 
 be too presumptuous. After much discussion, therefore, and probably a second or 
 third set of minutes, it is decided that the secretary^ shall draw up a report, embody- 
 ing the opinions of the Council, to be submitted with all the important documents 
 connected tlierewith, to the Honourable Court of Directors, and the Board of 
 Control. 
 
 " The thoughtless mail agent little thinks what he has got under his charge, when 
 he receives the box containing this despatch in the cabin on board the steamer. After 
 many months, during which these papers have been the frequent sulyect of comnui- 
 nication and discussion among the secretaries, directors, &c., &c., in London, 
 another steamer proceeds Avith the freight of these papers, greatly increased in bulk 
 and value by the opinions and decisions of the august Boards at home. They reach 
 Matlras ; the Council is again assembled ; the despatch is considered ; a copy, with 
 resolutions, &c., is sent to the Military Board, and after having been circulated, 
 considered, discussed, &c., by them, instructions are issued, announcing that the 
 Honourable Court, of course with the concurrence of the Board of Control, have 
 decided, for reasons duly stated, that the windows shall be mended at the expense of 
 the en^eer. If a wing of the barracks had fallen down, of course, as a subaltern 
 could not pay a lack of rupees, there would be no alternative but to re-build it at 
 the public expense ; but as he can pay £7, justice to the public service requires 
 that he should be made an example of. In the mean time, as the officer is not in 
 India, the matter lies over for a year or two. On his return, Ijeing surprised at the 
 receipt of these orders, after haAing been officially thanked by the Court for having 
 acquitted himself so well in the construction of this latge building, he addresses the 
 chief engineer, giving him, in a fcAV words, reasons why he ought not to be held 
 responsible for the loss of the £7, and as he has not previously had an opportunity 
 of speaking in his own behalf, the chief engineer draws up a minute on the subject, 
 v.hich is laid before tlie Military Board, who again considers the question, and once 
 more report to Government. Nothing can exceed the condescending and unweariec 
 patience of all the authorities. The Governor once more records a minute, the second 
 member of council minutes, the third member minutes, the Governor winds up by a 
 fourth minute, by which time the subject is ripe for discussion. Again the Council 
 assemble, consider, decide, and issue instructions to the Military Board ; and finally, 
 the officer is told he may keep his £7. And so ends the affair ; till the report of the 
 Governor in Council reaches the Court, when they will possibly order the matter to 
 be taken up de novo, and thoroughly investigated. It should be mentioned, that it 
 was discovered at last that some brads had been omitted in fixing the glass, which 
 was not likely to be discovered either by the President of the Board of Control, the 
 twenty -four Directors and their secretary, the Governor and Council of Madras and 
 their secretaries, the Military Board, the chief engineer, the general of the division, 
 the committee of officers, or the engineer himself; as none of them had ever served 
 an apprenticeship to a glazier. 
 
 " This is the literal history of an Indian question, which has recently been 
 agitated." 
 
I 
 
 319 
 
 Here was a nobleman sent expressly to remedy admitted abuses ; 
 his plans were early digested, and submitted to the Supreme 
 Government ; but after three years' delay, he has the mortifica- 
 tion of finding that the evils he was sent out to remove remain 
 just where they were, and that he is powerless for good. 
 
 With reference especially to the police, delay would seem to 
 liave been fairly exhausted. All the authorities admit that the 
 time for deliberation has gone by, — that the time for action has 
 arrived. It is on this plea that they refuse to grant the commis- 
 sion of inquiry prayed for by the Bengal missionaries. The case, 
 they say, is proved ad nauseam. We must do, not talk ; and 
 matter is again forthwith quietly shelved. Further inquiry into 
 the alleged condition of the people may be expedient, but the 
 immediate removal of proved ;evils under which they labour, is 
 indispensable. If ever there was a case in which the High- 
 landers' precept of " A word and a blow, hut the bloiv first" 
 ought to be put in practice, the police of India presents that 
 case. Yet it is thus that the shilly-shally procrastination system 
 deals with it. 
 
 On the 18th September, 1856, Mr. Halliday minutes as fol- 
 lows, on the Bengal Missionaries' Petition for an inquiry into the 
 condition of the rural population of Bengal : — 
 
 " They call, first and foremost, for inquiry into these, in 
 preference to all other subjects of investigation, and they desig- 
 nate them, and with perfect trvith, the radical cause of the social 
 evils of which I am far from denying the existence, though I am 
 not disposed to look upon them as so dark and deplorable as they 
 appear in the painting of the Memorialists. But why appoint a 
 commission to inquire into such matters as those ? They have been 
 inquired into repeatedly, and their defects thoroughly examined and 
 exposed. Measures for the improvement of both the police and 
 judicial system are now, as is well known, under the considera- 
 tion of the Executive Government, and likely soon to be presented 
 to the Legislature. The time present is, as regards those things 
 not the time for investigation but for action, and anything that is 
 likely to delay action on those points will impede the very con- 
 summation which the Memorialists so greatly desire. Nothing 
 would so surely or so long delay the completion of the necessary 
 improvements in the police and in the judicial system, as a 
 
320 
 
 commission for a new inquiry into those subjects, and on that 
 ground alone further inquiry is to be deprecated." 
 
 On the 6th October, 1856, the Governor-General writes 
 thus: — 
 
 " Nevertheless, I am as thoroughly convinced as the Memo- 
 rialists themselves can be, that the condition of the people of 
 Bengal cries out loudly for amendment, and that this amendment 
 is, in a great degree, in the hands of the Government ; and the 
 same evidence which has given me this conviction, has also 
 satisfied me that nothing more is needed in the way of inquiry on 
 the part of the Government of India, in order to set amendment 
 in motion ; that so far as information is concerned, the Govern- 
 ment of India possesses enough to guide it surely and safely to 
 the first great measures of reform in the administration of justice, 
 and in the police ; and that to incur delay on the ground that 
 further investigation of the present palpable deficiencies under 
 these heads is requisite, would be to waste time under false pre- 
 tensions." 
 
 On the 10th October, 1856, Mr. Dorin follows suit: — 
 
 " In respect to such sources of social disorder as would admit 
 of action being taken on them, I believe the Government are in 
 possession of sufficient information to enable them to proceed 
 with reasonable promptitude and decision." 
 
 On the 22nd October, 1856, Mr. Grant writes as follows: — 
 
 " In regard to what we are all agreed upon, no commission of 
 inquiry can be necessary, for there is nothing to inquire about. 
 In regard to what is believed to be overcharged, there is still no 
 need of inquiry ; for how much soever an existing evil may be 
 exaggerated, no one denies that so far as it really exists, whatever 
 can be done by a Government to remedy it, ought to be done." 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1857, the Court of Directors thus 
 reply:— 
 
 " The statements and arguments contained in the several 
 minutes to which we have referred, appear to us to dispose 
 satisfactorily of all the allegations and conclusions of the memorial, 
 in regard to the necessity, or expediency, of appointing such a 
 commission as that to which the Memorialists point. Without 
 denying that great social evils exist, the minutes show that Govern- 
 ment is in possession of full information in regard to them ; that 
 
321 
 
 measures are under consideration, or in actual progress, for 
 applying remedies to such of them as are remediable by the direct 
 executive, or legislative, action of the Government, while it is 
 shown that the cure of others must of necessity be left to the 
 more tardy progress of national advancement in the scale of 
 civilization and social improvement. " Mr. Theobald, in his 
 Evidence before E wart's Colonization Committee, 10th March, 
 1857, 1st Report, states as follows: — 
 
 " Mr. Halliday, in his minute, quotes, I think, from a Member 
 of the Council, who had said that the police were all thieves and 
 robbers, and that, probably, the most effectual way of improving 
 the country would be to put them all in prison, or words to that 
 effect. We have represented that to the Local Government, we 
 have represented it to the authorities here — the Court of Directors 
 and the Board of Control, and it is, I believe, as bad now as 
 ever. In 1836, it was in the same state. In 1836, the Court of 
 Directors seem to have been perfectly aware of that state of 
 things, for, by a despatch in January, 1836, they directed that 
 no financial considerations should stand in the way of a reform so 
 urgently required; so that the Court of Directors have shown 
 their knowledge of the state of the police at that time, which was 
 what it is now ; and at the time Mr. Halliday wrote, nothing was 
 done, and nothing has been done to the present day." 
 
 The "Friend of India," on the 31st December, 1857, thus 
 sums up the matter : — 
 
 " The evils of the police system in Bengal, are among the few 
 facts which all Indian parties admit. It is to be reformed, and 
 the minutes are now before us. The writing began on 28 th 
 April, 1854, when Lord Dalhousie recorded his views. Mr. 
 Grant followed with his views on the 23rd November, just seven 
 months afterwards. Lord Dalhousie replied on the 3rd January, 
 1855. The question was then referred to the Lieutenant- 
 Governor, whose views were expressed on 13th March. On 
 8 th May, Mr. Grant replied, again insisting on his own peculiar 
 plan. On 11th May, Mr. Dorin and General Law recorded 
 short opinions, and there the question stopped for one entire year. 
 What became of it we cannot even conceive, but apparently it 
 rested with the Legislative Member, for on 15th May, 1856, 
 Mr. Peacock sent in his remarks as if no interval had occurred. 
 
 Y 
 
322 
 
 On 4tli June, another minute went in from the Lieutenant- 
 Governor, and on the 24th September, the Court of Directors 
 issued final orders. On the 18th February, 1857, the Governor- 
 General reviewed the subject, adopting usually Lord Dalhousie's 
 plan; on 9th April, Mr. Grant replied, and the measure has 
 once again been referred to England." 
 
 Since then, the Court of Directors' memorandum so states the 
 case, that one might fancy that something had been really done. 
 Had the police been organized before the mutinies broke out, it 
 is hard to say what effect they might have had upon the course 
 of the rebellion ; for the plan, I believe, is to introduce a semi- 
 military body, something like the Irish police. But up to that 
 date it was all talk, minute writing, and reference. Mr. Baring, 
 indeed, says, that the police have been " successfully grappled 
 with;" that may sound all very well in England — Ave in India 
 rate this statement at its true value. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Topic 19th. 
 
 XIX, What shall be the future condition of the Indian Press ? 
 
 I HAVE been myself an editor of an Indian journal. From 
 November, 1854, to August, 1856, I was the responsible editor 
 of the " Madras Athenaeum." Some of my friends have advised me, 
 in any work I may write, to eschew this fact. For they say that 
 I shall be suspected of bias and prejudice, if it be generally known 
 that I have been connected with the press. I do not agree with 
 them. The identity of every editor is perfectly well known in 
 India ; * had it been any thing to be ashamed of, I trust I should 
 never have made the connection. At all events, I should 
 be deceiving the public if I professed to write as an ordinary 
 member of the public on this topic; while, on the other hand, 
 as a set-off against bias, I may claim the benefit of practical 
 acquaintance with the subject. What I am about to say of 
 myself proceeds not from any egotism, but a desire to place 
 the public in possession of such facts as may enable them to 
 judge how far I am a competent witness and a safe guide 
 in any discussion connected with the press question. I do not 
 say that I did my spiriting over gently, for I am not aware 
 that I ever spared any job or matter deserving exposure. 
 During the time I wrote. Lord Harris assured me that he was 
 fully aware of the ability and utility of the journal. I had Lord 
 Dalhousie's testimony to the same effect conveyed to me by his 
 private secretary : an official in the Board of Control informed 
 me that the *^ Athenaeum " was doing good yeoman service in 
 
 * For instance, the " Friend of India " has spoken of me by name, as, for years, 
 the Editor of the " Athenaeum ;" and, in a late article in the " Calcutta Review," 
 in which a Civilian (probably of Madras) endeavours to prove that the Torture Report 
 is worthless, I find as little delicacy obsen'ed. 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 
 
 opposing centralization and annexation. From the Indian Reform 
 Association the same assurance reached me : flattering attestation 
 to the high character of the journal was borne by the contem- 
 porary press of India. The " Athcnjcura" is frequently quoted 
 together with the " Friend of India " in proof of the respectable 
 character of Indian journalism. I put aside the judgment of pri- 
 vate friends ; and there remains, I think, sufficient to make me 
 look back upon my labours with an easy conscience, now that the 
 storm of vituperation has assailed the press, and Lord Harris 
 declares, as the result of his three years' watchful observation, that 
 he has no hesitation in stating his impression to be that the entire 
 press of India is, and " more particularly in this Presidency, dis- 
 loyal in tone, un-English in spirit, and wanting in principle; 
 seeking every opportunity, rightly or wrongly, of holding up the 
 Government to opprobium; not so scurrilous, certainly, as portions 
 of the press in the Colonies, but utterly regardless of correctness 
 in statement," He speaks of the " calumnies " and " misrepre- 
 sentations," the " falsehood," and " detractions " which are the 
 characteristics of the press. 
 
 Further, I took upon myself the labour and responsibility of 
 the editorship because it was thought by the reformers in Madras 
 that I could write beneficially upon subjects of public interest 
 affecting the condition of that Presidency. Of course I received 
 valuable assistance and support from many friends whose names 
 I am not at liberty to mention, and gained, probably, credit little 
 due to me for an extent of information and able writino-- I bore 
 the work in addition to the labour of all my other avocations ; 
 and I may add that I did not write for money. Not that 
 the labourer is not worthy of his hire ; or that many better men 
 than I have not earned an honourable independence in connection 
 with the press ; but it so happened that I had an ample income 
 from other sources, and it appeared to me that my writings would 
 have the more weight from their being voluntary contributions ; 
 springing from and representing my settled convictions ; not pos- 
 sibly open to the suspicion of having been written to order. 
 
 So the matter stands, I have made a clean breast of it. Am 
 I any the worse adviser on account of my connection with the 
 press ? Certain I am that the mass of correspondence from all 
 classes and conditions of men, on all sorts of public questions con- 
 
325 
 
 nected with India, has given me an insight into this country's 
 condition which I could not possibly have acquired in any other 
 way. 
 
 This question of the condition of the press, like many others 
 connected with the future of India, may be said already to have 
 solved itself with the year, the Gagging Act will die out, and we 
 shall hear no more of shackling the freedom of the press. Lord 
 Canning was not content with the rebellion ; he must enter upon 
 a death-struggle with the press. This- was lighting the candle at 
 both ends with a vengeance. The battle between the two prin- 
 ciples — Despotism and the Freedom of the Press — was fairly 
 joined, and the issue is already determined against the former. 
 While it is tacitly understood that the press will resume its 
 liberty at the end of the year, the fiat for the destruction of the 
 most complete oligarchic despotism the world ever saw has gone 
 forth. The East India Company owes this consummation to its 
 contention with the press, next to its contention with its rebellious 
 subjects. 
 
 I am not about to write a history of the Indian press; my 
 observations will have reference to late events. We all know 
 how Metcalfe established its liberty in 1835 — how Lord Canning 
 suppressed it in 1857. We know that the Court of Directors, 
 the Indian Government, and the Civil Service, during almost the 
 whole interval, have been jealous of the power of the press, and 
 would gladly have restricted its freedom upon any favourable 
 opportunity which offered. Lord Ellenborough stated in the 
 House of Lords, that when he was Governor-General, it was sug- 
 gested to him that he should shackle the press, and he was pro- 
 mised the support of the home authorities, if he would make the 
 attempt. About a year before the rebellion, a private circular was 
 sent to several, and, I believe, to all the editors in India, warning 
 them that some attempt was meditated against the freedom of 
 tlie press. The " Madras AthenaBum " and one other paper, 
 if my recollection serves me right, were the only journals that 
 noticed this communication. The others treated it with contempt, 
 because the thing looked impossible. Before the press was 
 gagged. Sir Henry Lawrence had appointed a censor over the 
 " Central Star " in Lucknow : and I am disposed to believe that 
 this was put forth as a feeler, since the "Star" was a staunch sup- 
 
326 
 
 porter of Sir Henry, Again, the Indian press, with the exception 
 of the " Madras AthenoDum," made no sign. On the 13th of 
 June, tlie old grudge of the CiviHans was fully gratified. Lord 
 Canning, with the magnanimity of a Quintus Curtius plunging 
 headlong into the open pit, took the whole responsibility upon 
 liimself ; but he did not say that the measure had originated with 
 liimself.* I have no hesitation in expressing my belief that the 
 measure brought forward by the Civilians who form the Govern- 
 ment, not because the crisis necessitated the measure, but because 
 it appeared to afford the long-sought-for opportunity of carrying 
 it out, with some show of plausibility, and with little resistance. 
 Political capital, as I have said before, was made by those gentle- 
 men out of the bloodshed of their countrymen in the North- West. 
 If Lord Canning's reasoning be examined, it will be found that 
 there is not in his introductory speech any justification of his 
 measure, so far as it concerned the European portion of the press. 
 That the native press, in the North- West especially, had been 
 violent and treasonous had long since been pointed out, and its 
 suppression called for by the European press ; f but Lord Canning 
 expressly exempted the European press from the remarks which 
 he had made on the character of the native press ; he actually 
 gave credit " to the many able and intelligent men who conduct 
 the newspaper press in this country for the feeling they have 
 shown at this period ; " not that much credit was due to them for 
 that, for their lives were in as great jeopardy as those of any 
 other persons in India. Newspaper property was not spared in 
 Delhi, and an editor shared there precisely the same fate as his 
 fellow-countrymen. Nana Sahib, indeed, paid the editor of the 
 " Bombay Gazette " the compliment of offering a reward of 2000 
 rupees for his head, while he only offered 5000 for Lord Elphin- 
 stone on the one hand, and 200 rupees for the common ruck of 
 Civilians on the other. But independent of personal considera- 
 tions, there caimot be a doubt that the press, as a body, would 
 
 • The Author of the " Red Pamphlet" says that when Mr. Halliday returned to Cal- 
 cutta, he called on Lord Canning, and urged the adojition of this measure : that then 
 Mr. Grant and Mr. Diver had interviews with his Lordshiji, and the thing was done. 
 
 t I have not seen any evidence myself of the character of the native press. I have 
 heard it alleged, on the other side, that it is not of the character so freely imputed. 
 The fact calls for elucidation. It is to be presumed that the Government is in pos- 
 session of proof, if any exists. 
 
327 
 
 unanimously have thrown all its weight into the Government scale, 
 if it had been left free to choose. The conduct of the Bombay- 
 press, in response to Lord Elphinstone's liberal policy, is sufficient 
 proof of that ; and the Government need only to have intimated to 
 editors its desire that more than extra caution should be observed 
 in the dissemination of reports, coupled with the assurance that 
 all authentic intelligence should be communicated from the 
 Government office, to have secured the most willing acquiescence 
 in so reasonable a request. On the contrary, the hostility of 
 Government, indiscriminate and utterly uncalled for, based, 
 indeed, upon the most untenable reasoning, if such it can be 
 called, could not fail to rouse angry feelings and excite animosity 
 on the parts of those who were so unjustly condemned.* It did, 
 
 * My reviewer in the " Economist," starts by questioning the bona fides of thia 
 reason for my iniblishing the " Rebellion in India" when and where I did. It is un* 
 fortunate, he says, for the accuracy of the statement that the comments of Indian 
 journalism have been just as free and severe since the Gagging Act as before. Now, 
 I would ask my critic to point me out in any single issue of any single journal, except 
 the " Friend of India " in ita article " The Centenary of Plassey," for which its 
 editor resigned, a single allusion to the policy of annexation ! That is entirely for- 
 bidden ground. What has been in every man's heart, and on every man's tongue in 
 private life, must not be approached in public discussion. Let me ask whether my 
 observations on the annexation policy, could have appeared in any Indian journal sub- 
 sequent to the Gagging Act ? But farther, independently of the total restriction as to 
 this special subject, is it true that the current course of disquisition has been just as 
 unrestrained, in point of fact, in its comments on Government action, as it was before 
 the Gagging Act, or as it is at the present day in England ? The first fact which 
 somewhat militates against this statement is, that a Calcutta journal has been warned 
 for re-printing articles from the London press, and that the editoi-s of Bombay and 
 Poonah journals have been Avritten to by the Secretary to Government, cautioning 
 them against admitting the press articles into their columns. The " Friend of India" 
 was twice warned, and its editor thrown overboard to save the existence of the journal. 
 The " Bangalore Herald " was next warned by the Madras Government for copying 
 an article on Lord Canning from the " Calcutta Comus," which his lordship had not 
 thought it worth while to notice. The " Hindu Intelligencer" was snuffed out. The 
 Madras " Examiner" was warned for copying an erroneous statement from the 
 " Hurkaru," and making certain comments upon it touching the position of a Go- 
 vernment official. The " Dacca NeAvs" was warned by the Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Bengal for an article headed — " The tenure of land by Europeans in India," which 
 contained some home, but disagreeable, truths, and was extensively copied into other 
 Indian journals ; the proprietor notified his desire to sell his types in consequence. 
 The " Rangoon Chronicle " was required to submit to a censorship not provided for 
 by the Act. 
 
 The " Englishman" was warned for I know not what. The " Hurkaru " actually had 
 its license taken away, but it was restored on second thoughts. The " Examiner" waa 
 
328 
 
 in fact, array against the Government, not only the wliolc of the 
 press — the " Friend of India," even, chopping right round into an 
 opposition journal, — but it alienated a large portion of the most 
 influential of the independent members of Calcutta society. That 
 the Act was entirely needless, every one now feels, and almost 
 everybody admits. It was followed by an immediate outcry 
 against the press in certain quarters ; but the various warnings 
 which took place from time to time, and the various principles 
 involved in the warnings, showed how very little the authorities 
 deserved to be trusted with such uncontrollable power. There 
 was no uniformity of principle. What was not thought worthy 
 of notice in one quarter, called for severe censure in another : and 
 had not the various Governments speedily found that they had 
 taken an utterly mistaken measure of public opinion, there is no 
 saying how tyannical a use they might have made of their newly 
 acquired power. Having a giant's power, they might have used it 
 like a giant. Lord Harris went the length of declaring, that the 
 *^ Madras Examiner " had forfeited its license by changing its 
 foreman in the printing office without registering afresh ! * 
 
 warned a second time because its foreman absconded. The " Mofussilite " ^vrites under 
 the censorship of the Lieutenant-Governor of Agra, who is said further to contribute 
 his own matter freely enough. In a recent issue, the paper appeared Avithout editorial 
 matter, but with the pithy remark — ** the editor proposes, the censor disposes." 
 Even in Akyab, where there is no journal, a private merchant has had his lithogra- 
 phic stone taken away, because he introduced political remarks into his commercial 
 circular correspondence. The Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal forwarded the " Dacca 
 News" of 9th September, 1857, to the Supreme Government for having made use of 
 the term " an unscrupulously rapacious Government ! " The Government observed 
 that it would not cancel, though, if the license had been cancelled, it would not object. 
 The Supreme Government has informed the Bombay Government that the publica- 
 tion of an unfounded rumour is not within the meaning of the Act. 
 
 * Extract from. Minutes of Consultation, dated \2th November^ 1857 : — 
 
 *' The Right Honourable the Governor in Council observes that on the 9th instant, 
 Mr. William Collins made, before the Commissioner of Police, a declaration that he 
 had ceased to be the printer and publisher of the " Madras Examiner." The license 
 granted under date 13th July, 1857, to the Right Reverend J. Fennclly, thereby 
 became void. 
 
 " 2. Nevertheless, on the following day, or on the 10th instant, the " Examiner" 
 newspaper appeared with a foot-note at the end of the last column in the fourth page, 
 to the effect that its printer and publisher was Mr. Robert Gal way. 
 
 " 3. There can be no doubt, the Goveniment apprehended, that in thus continuing 
 the issue of the paper when the original license had determined, and when no new one 
 had been granted, both the Right Reverend J. Fennelly, and Mr. Galway, the pro- 
 prietor and printer of the pai)er, have rendered themselves liable to heavy penalties* 
 
329 
 
 For my own part^ I was not one of those who imagined that 
 the measure would be received with a shout of pubhc indignation 
 In England. The tremendous nature of the crisis would weigh 
 heavily on most men's minds ; and it would be thought by all 
 but those, also, who look far a-head, that the present good of the 
 measure out-balanced its future evil. The authorities, in such 
 a season of peril, could not be too strongly armed, the Indian 
 press had never enjoyed the best of characters among those who 
 knew it not ; for has it not been assiduously paraded as personal, 
 lying, scurrilous, and so forth ; the freedom of the press might 
 be a thing to fight for at home, but India was very far off; and 
 its very principle of Government was despotic, the measure was 
 but temporary, at the worst; numerous communications justi- 
 ficatory of Lord Canning's Act were certain to pour in from India ; 
 India-House Influence would support It at home. In short, there 
 were abundant signs to my mind that at first, the measure, if not 
 received with favour, would excite no indignation. At the same 
 time I was perfectly confident that this policy could only last for 
 a season, and that as the real facts and merits of the case came to 
 be ventilated and understood, and as soon as the practical incon- 
 veniences of shackling the Indian press came to be known and 
 felt in England, the Act would be condemned. So it has come to 
 pass ; and quicker than I expected. At first, we had Sir Thomas 
 Munro's old minute of 1822 hawked about; and, on some weak 
 
 " 4. The Right Honourable the Governor in Council will not, however, exact the 
 penalties as he would be fully justified in doing, nor will he refuse the license for 
 which Messrs. Fennelly and Gal way have now applied, although he would be amply 
 warranted in such refusal by the highly objectionable nature of the articles which have 
 lately appeared in the paper. The Government would hope that the paper under its 
 new license — while it freely engages in fair and temperate discussion on public affairs — 
 will avoid all offensive and inflammatory matter, tending to those objects against which 
 the Press Act is directed. But if it should prove otherwise, the Governor in Council, 
 after this the second warning, will have no course left him, except that of putting in 
 force the pro^dsions of Act XV, of 1857, in their full stringency. 
 
 " (True Extract.) 
 
 « (Signed) T. PYCROPT, 
 
 *♦ Chief Secretary. 
 •' To the Commissioner of Police, with license to be delivered to Dr. Fennelly, with 
 copy of this order. 
 
 " (A true Extract and Copy.) 
 
 « J. B. BOULDERSON, 
 
 " Commissioner of PoliceC'' 
 
330 
 
 minds, tliis " remarkable " document made the impression of 
 prophecy fulfilled. Because there ivas n free press, and there is 
 a rebellion, they are connected in the way of cause and conse- 
 quence ; and Sir Thomas Munro had, of course, predicted exactly 
 what would happen. But a little reflection pointed out the fallacy 
 of this connection of the post hoc with the propter hoc ; no one 
 now believes that the rebellion has been caused by the existence 
 of a free press ; and the two have about as much in common as 
 Goodwin sands and Tenterden steeple. It was soon seen that 
 Munro had argued in a confused manner upon the tendencies 
 of an English and a native press. For instance, when he is 
 speaking of the natural tendency of a press to excite the people 
 to rise against the conqueror, it is abundantly clear that he is 
 speaking of the press of the conquered, not of the conqueror. It 
 is true that he pointed out what possibly might lead to rebellion ; 
 but the present rebellion, mifortunately for the argument of those 
 who call Munro a prophet, has not sprung from any of the causes 
 which he assigned ; Sir Thomas Munro was not in advance of his 
 age. He regarded the abolition of the Company's trading mono- 
 poly with the most dire foreboding. His obstinacy in regarding 
 the revenue branch of the Service as of more paramount im- 
 portance than the judicial, and his desire to leave the judges 
 unfettered in their " patriarchal" dispensation of justice, amounted 
 almost to infatuation, notwithstanding that his still abler contem- 
 porary, Mr. Fullerton, irresistibly established the necessity of 
 specially trained occupants for the judgment-seats of the Com- 
 pany's courts. Munro's strong mind, his time-won experience, 
 and his benevolence towards the natives, makes him a very 
 valuable authority with reference to all those matters which had 
 fallen under his own observation ; but when he was speculating 
 on the probable results of a free press, he was gazing on a future 
 of which he knew nothing ; and with all deference to his name, 
 we may well question how far what he wrote in 1822, under 
 vastly different circumstances from those obtaining at the present 
 day, ought to have any weight or value in the year 1857. At 
 any rate, against Munro we may surely set off the opinions of a 
 far greater statesman. Lord Metcalfe, who, many years later, 
 foresaw none of the dangers from the liberty of the press, which 
 had appeared so formidable to the fancy of Munro. Every word 
 
331 
 
 of Lord Metcalfe's minute deserves to be written in letters of gold. 
 1 will only quote a single passage : — 
 
 " It cannot be that we are permitted by Divine authority to be 
 here merely to collect the revenue of the country, pay the esta- 
 blishments necessary to keep possession, and get into debt to 
 supply the deficiency. We are, doubtless, here for higher pur- 
 poses, one of which is to pour the enlightened knowledge and 
 civilisation, the arts and sciences of Europe over the land, and 
 thereby improve the condition of the people. Nothing, surely, is 
 more likely to conduce to these ends than the liberty of the press." 
 
 Later still, the language of Mr. Kaye, that authority beyond 
 all suspicion, is conclusive as to the true character of the Indian 
 press. Writing on the above language of Lord Metcalfe, he says, 
 " Whilst such was the language of one of the ablest and best of 
 men whom England has ever sent forth to toil beneath an Eastern 
 sky, this great measure for the liberation of the Indian press 
 found at home many assailants. It has now lived down the 
 reproaches which were once cast upon it, and I should no more 
 think of writing an elaborate treatise in its defence than of defend- 
 ing the freedom of commerce, or the free admission of Europeans 
 to all parts of India, or any other of those fair images of progres- 
 sive civilisation which have pushed down from their pedestals 
 the old idols of monopoly and exclusiveness, a blind worship of 
 which was once considered necessary to the maintenance of our 
 empire in the East." The law was ample as it stood before the 
 Act, to have punished any seditious writings had such been dis- 
 covered. Three editors of native papers were actually prosecuted 
 by Government after the act came into operation; two pleaded 
 guilty by arrangement with the prosecution. The acquittal of 
 the third, the editor of the " Doorbeen," argues nothing against 
 the sufficiency of trial by jiiry. A Calcutta jury, during the 
 outbreaks, would certainly not be actuated by any very friendly 
 feelings towards a native who published treasonable matter ; but, 
 in this case, the wretched prisoner had actually forwarded to 
 Government a copy of the number of his journal on which he was 
 indicted, with a request that he might enjoy the sweets of patron- 
 age ; so little was he conscious of any intention to sow sedition or 
 allow his paper to become the medium of Its dissemination. There 
 need be no fear of a jury, two-thirds of whom are ordinarily 
 
332 
 
 actually in Government employ, or some way connected with it, 
 exhibiting a political bias against the state ; and repeated expe- 
 rience has proved that libels cannot be put forth in Indian 
 journals without the most serious risk bf exemplary damages and 
 heavy costs awarded by the judges of the Supreme Court on the 
 civil side, where there are no caprices of a jury. The folly of 
 this suicidal measure speedily became apparent. Government 
 deprived itself of one of the best, cheapest, and most certain 
 channels of gaining intelligence. The injurious rumours which 
 were daily propagated could not be corrected. The natives 
 looked with suspicion upon everything that appeared in the 
 columns of the papers. An Allahabad correspondent of the 
 " Englishman," writing on the 26th ult., has the following re- 
 marks, which illustrate the operation of the Gagging Act on the 
 minds of the natives : — 
 
 " The Oude rebels say, that we are imposing on their brethren 
 on this side of the water, by the appearance of such a number of 
 troops, — our dodge being to run the same men backwards and 
 forwards on the line of railway to keep up an appearance of fresh 
 arrivals. This practice is supposed by them the only one which 
 can account for such a regular supply. Another original idea is, 
 that we dress up mummies, and fix them upright in the train 
 carriages. The ' chapah kaguz,' as they call the newspapers, 
 they say, are all supervised by the Company, and publish false 
 statements of the arrivals of ships with the ' gora logue,' 
 under penalty of immediate confiscation ! So much for the Press 
 Act." 
 
 Gross exaggerations found their way in private letters to 
 England; and fabrications, also, which never could have ob- 
 tained a moment's credence had the press been. free. I need 
 only instance the story of Mr. Grant's relieving rebels, which 
 created indignation at home, and caused the " Times " to style 
 Mr. John Peter Grant an " Indo-maniac." Now this fiction was 
 not copied from any Indian journal ; it went directly home : had 
 it made its appearance in India, it would have been at once con- 
 tradicted. As it was, Mr. Grant reaped all the disadvantage of 
 many months' belief in the tale, on the part of the public ; and 
 his late denial, though given at the earliest practicable moment, 
 will not reach one ear out of a thousand that has listened to the 
 
333 
 
 original story.* It was quite impossible to check the introduction 
 into India of the English journals ; the " Press/' with its inflamma- 
 tory articles ; the " Times," Math its advocacy of entire annexation ; 
 the reported speech in Parliament of the Chairman of the Court of 
 Directors, in which he openly stated that India was given to us by 
 Providence for the purpose of proselytizing its inhabitants ; the 
 " sepoy " leaders in the " Nation," and the rejoicings of the 
 " Univers," might be read over the length and breadth of India. 
 On the other hand, it was equally impossible to control the native 
 news letter writers; or to stop the two thousand runners, with 
 despatches for private persons, ever travelling between Calcutta 
 and the North- West. So far from the freedom of the press 
 being incompatible with the suppression of rebellion, I believe 
 that it would have been found one of the main sources of Govern- 
 ment strength. As to Lord Canning's plea that it was impos- 
 sible to devise a measure drawing any distinction between the 
 English and native press, it was simply unfounded, the attempt 
 was never made. The freedom of the native press, by which 
 I understand the papers published in the vernacular, might have 
 been shackled, a censor might have been appointed ; they might 
 have been altogether suppressed, if it had been deemed neces- 
 sary, not only without any resistance, but with the most unanimous 
 approval of the public at that time. 
 
 If Lord Canning failed to give any satisfactory reason for 
 gagging the press in his introductory speech of the 13th of June, 
 he was certainly not more felicitous in his subsequent despatch to 
 the Court of Directors. He and his colleagues showed, what 
 nobody questioned, that those who gave the press its liberty 
 foresaw the possibility of circumstances arising, which might 
 necessitate its temporary restraint ; but the despatch utterly failed 
 to establish the fact that that necessity had arisen. In this respect, 
 the criticism of the " Times," upon the Calcutta Petition, would 
 have been equally applicable to Lord Canning's despatch. There 
 
 ' It is worthy of remark, that though Mr. Grant denies that he relieved these 
 prisoners, neither he nor Lord Canning has asserted that they were not released by an 
 order of Government sent np from Calcutta. I am informed, on good authority, that 
 such was the case. Neil had determined to make an example of these prisoners. 
 When the order came it was carried out ; but the soldiery had been warned, and the 
 prisoners were all shot down outside the prison gate. This matter requires further 
 sifting. 
 
334 
 
 was an entire want of connection between the premises and the 
 conchision ; besides which, there was no attempt made to establish 
 the minor premise. That state paper, however, referred to 
 certain Minutes of Lord Harris and his Council, which accom- 
 panied the despatch; and as the Minutes of the Governor of 
 Madras have been published, it becomes necessary to consider 
 those two very remarkable documents, for if his lordship's alle- 
 gations be true, they abundantly supply all that is wanting in the 
 Govemor-General's argument, and were probably published on 
 that account; though it is to be remarked, that the Calcutta 
 Council, in forwarding the Madras Governor's remarks, refrains 
 from endorsing them with approval or assent. It is a satisfaction 
 to me to reflect now, that at the time Lord Harris was penning 
 his narrow-minded, calumnious, libels on the press for the secret 
 eye of the Court, I, in a very different spirit, was writing of his 
 lordship for the public* I gave him credit for his goodness of 
 heart, and straightforwardness of purpose. I pointed out, that if 
 the results of his administration were small, he would claim to be 
 judged of by his writings. I am still willing to abide by what 
 I have written, but, in forming an estimate of Lord Harris, these 
 minutes, amongst his other writings, must of course be taken 
 into account. They appear to have been treated with merited 
 contempt by the press of England ; and even in India, though 
 they have naturally excited much indignation, not so much has 
 been said as the provocation would have justified. I have heard 
 his lordship's friends express pity for his exposui'e. They say it 
 has been done to spite him. He never dreamt, they add, that 
 these strictly confidential communications would have been placed 
 before the public. For my own part, I cannot acquiesce in the 
 morality of such commiseration. It is to transfer the condemna- 
 tion of a foolish or malevolent act from its perpetration to its 
 discovery. Nor can I admit, that however unreserved private 
 communication may be among friends, any public man has a 
 moral right to make his secret minutes the medium of charges the 
 most sweeping, and generalizations the most unwarranted from 
 his scanty premises, to the detriment of classes or individuals, 
 who, but for some such accident as the present, may have no pos- 
 sibility of exoneration or refutation. But be the motive for 
 
 • <* Rebellion in India," \\ 08. 
 
335 
 
 publishing these minutes what it may, Lord Harris must submit 
 to the consequences. The minutes will be found in the Appen- 
 dix ; * portions of one of them I must extract here, after speaking 
 of the character of the press in the terms I have before quoted. 
 His lordship thus describes an editor: — '' There has been much 
 said and written about torture of the body in these days, and 
 every attempt has been made to stop it, but there is another de- 
 scription of torture much more painful to an honourable mind — 
 that of traducing the reputation, which equally deserves con- 
 sideration, which equally calls for interference, and which now 
 can be practised by any man who will descend to defamation 
 whilst skulking under the shield of the editorial We ; or to mis- 
 representation while hiding himself behind some 7iom de guerre. 
 The bully of society in former days, I mean the duellist, offensive 
 as he was and frequently unfair, still had the merit of boldness, 
 and risked his own life, whilst he took the lives of others ; but 
 these bullies of the present day are sheltered under present cir- 
 cumstances from all risk." 
 
 And it is thus that his lordship shadows forth his proposed 
 remedy : — 
 
 " A disease of this nature should be kept under command, not 
 by repression, but by the application of a cure on sound prin- 
 ciples.! The liberty of the press is a most important and vital 
 principle in the best interest of humanity, and cannot on any 
 account be interfered with ; | but that freedom has been won and 
 granted for the purpose of eliciting truth, not for disseminating 
 falsehood. The propagator of untruth, or of misrepresentation, 
 should be made responsible for his statements. The burden of 
 proof should be thrown upon him, either as proprietor or editor,§ 
 and on failure, the act should be penal in an ordinary court, || 
 
 * See Appendix A. 
 
 t Lord Harris's cure " on sound principles " is a funny one. 
 
 X Yet in the next sentence his lordship proposes measures which would place it 
 under his control. 
 
 § A fair definition, though his lordship is evidently unaware thereof, of the present 
 common law liability for libel. 
 
 II By an "ordinary" court, it is quite clear that his lordship alludes to one of 
 our Mofussil or Magisterial courts ; for he would withdraw the inquiry altogether 
 from the Supreme Courts, where alone juries pronounce their "fickle timorous 
 deciBions." 
 
330 
 
 Tlie reputation of a Government, or of its officers, or of an}- 
 individual, should not be valued at a money rate, or left to the 
 fickle and timorous decision of juries." 
 
 In contrast to this, listen to the Earl of Camden, who, in his 
 last great speech in the House of Lords, thus expressed his 
 sentiments on the question of leaving to the jury the decision of 
 libel or no libel : — " With them leave it, and I have not a doubt 
 that they will always be ready to protect the character of indi- 
 viduals against the pen of slander, and the Government against 
 the licentiousness of sedition." 
 
 With regard to the justice or taste of dubbing the editors 
 " bullies," and drawing a parallel between them and the " duel- 
 list of former days," I have nothing to say, — or I might establish 
 a still more disadvantageous contrast between the editor and the 
 writer of the secret minute. It may be true that an editor, if so 
 disposed, may bully ; but at any rate he swaggers in the open 
 light of day. His office and his residence (in India) are perfectly 
 well known. Even the " arginnentum haculinum " may be 
 applied without difficulty. What he writes admits of immediate 
 contradiction or disproof. But the secret minute writer enjoys 
 the most complete impunity. The mischief he edits — whether 
 the result of malice or mere folly — works silently, and without 
 the possibility of antidote. If it is brought to light, the writer is 
 still irresponsible. His communication is " privileged ; " his posi- 
 tion is " official," and he is too elevated in dignity to make 
 redress. Though the " bully " is despicable enough, there is 
 another character more offensive — more sinful still — the assassin 
 who stabs in the dark. It is thus that an Indian editor might 
 
 o 
 
 retort upon his lordship. 
 
 What more concerns the public is the fitness which his lord- 
 ship evinces by his minutes, in point of reasoning and judgment, 
 for the important duties of a Governor. I would call attention 
 to the nature of his generalizations from the most insufficient and 
 scanty premises ; to the miserably illogical insinuations in which 
 he deals ; to tlie " recklessness of assertion " and " misrepresen- 
 tation " which he so freely indulges in, blameable as he deems 
 them in others. For instance, let it be observed how sweep- 
 ingly his lordsliip asserts that the press takes every opportunity, 
 rightly or wrongly, of imputing improper m.otives and the like to 
 
337 
 
 Government ; a poor return, as it appears to me, for the large 
 measiu'e of support and tlie praise wliicli lie himself received at 
 the hands of the Madras press, or its most influential portion. 
 Let especially his second minute, in which he deals with the 
 " Examiner," be scrutinized. That journal, the organ of the 
 Roman Catholics, has obtained a large circulation ; among other 
 causes, from its very moderate price. But this, in his lordship's 
 estimation, is not sufficient to account for its support. On the 
 contrary, its price is so small, that it must receive factious 
 support, and, therefore, without a shadow of proof, he intimates 
 that the Catholic priests — a body so poorly paid that they can 
 scarcely keep up a decent appearance of respectability — contribute 
 to its support ; and with equal absence of all proof, and indeed 
 contrary to the fact, he hints that the increase in the pay of the 
 Bishop has some connection with the increased size of the paper. 
 Then observe the " recklessness of assertion," the " misrepresen- 
 tation," which assumes that arrangements have been entered into, 
 for the translation of obnoxious articles into the vernacular ; and 
 he jumps to the conclusion that the sepoys will be the first to be 
 affected by the poison ; the Bengal sepoys, I presume, — for the 
 Madras sepoys are fortunately loyal. His lordship's horror of trial 
 by jury might be characterized as " un-English." The despotic 
 fashion in which he would crush the press, shows how fatally 
 Indian rule and flattery operate upon a naturally well-inten- 
 tioned but weak-minded person.* In contradistinction to Lord 
 Harris's " three years' experience," let us see how Mr. Lumsden 
 and Mr. Malet, both civilians in council, and, tlierefore, of at 
 least twenty years' service, express their opinions. Mr. Lumsden 
 
 * Contrast with these views of a liberal nobleman, the sentiments of the conserva- 
 tive Lord Derby and Lord Stanley. Speaking of trial by jur}', the former says — " To 
 that tribunal every case must necessarily be brought. Before that tribunal the 
 Queen herself is bound to plead ; to tliat tribunal she appeals for the vindication of 
 her rights, for the protection of her person, and it is, in fact, so incorporated with 
 our judicial system, that I cannot for a moment believe that it would enter the mind 
 of any foreign Sovereign to suggest even the possibility of an alteration, in that res- 
 pect, in the jurisprudence of the country." 
 
 And the latter thus describes the freedom of the press — " The vast developement 
 of the power of the press during the last quarter of a century has introduced into 
 modern politics an entirely new element. It is impossible to sit in Parliament without 
 seeing how far and to how great an extent modern journalism aifects even our Parlia- 
 mentary debates. That potver of the press is in itself a representation. It is the 
 best protection, as F believe, of the poor and the humble against the ])ovrrft(l. It 
 
 Z 
 
338 
 
 writes : ^' With a few rare exceptions it is admitted that the 
 iHoasTirc was uncalled for by the European portion of the press, 
 indeed the Governor General says as much. The strictures 
 of the European prints on the proceedings of the several 
 Indian Governments have seldom passed a justifiable limit, and 
 indeed have often been profitable, however severe." And Mr. 
 Malet thus expresses himself : " The restriction as to the respect- 
 able portions of the press, both English and native, "will be almost 
 nominal, for with the experience we have had of the benefit to be 
 derived from free discussions, it is not to be supposed that any 
 Indian Government will wish to check it, unless it exceed those 
 bounds within which alone it can benefit the public." 
 
 This episode may seem somewhat long; but the importance 
 of Lord Harris's opinion, if it be well founded, renders it 
 unavoidable. As I set off Lord Metcalfe against Sir Thomas 
 Munro, so I w^ould now set off the far more reliable authority 
 of Sir Charles Trevelyan against Lord Harris. It is surely 
 unnecessary that I should do more than point to the letters of 
 Indophllus, whose style, whose reminiscences, whose associates, 
 whose opinions, unmistakeably identify him with the statesman 
 who gave such lucid evidence before the Parliamentary Com- 
 mittees. Lord Harris's minutes fell a mere dead letter upon 
 the English public. Even among the Indian journals they w^ere 
 for ihe most part treated with a contemptuous indifference. 
 Sir Charles Trevelyan's statements at once fixed attention, and 
 carried with them the convictions of the people of England. 
 
 It is now well seen that of the two countries, India and 
 England, the former really stands far more in need of a free 
 press than the latter. In England, independent of the press, 
 there are very many checks against bad, and guarantees for 
 good. Government. There is a mighty public, there Is a cro"\vded 
 population ; the most rapid means of communication ; busindSs is 
 done in the eye of the public ; Parliament ventilates all topics. 
 
 is a protection which no legislation created ; it is a protection which no legislation can 
 take away ; and it is not one of the least subjects of satisfaction to me, looking back 
 at the few years wliich I have passed in public life, to think that I was one of those 
 who took part in a measure— I mean the removal of the stamp duty — which has given 
 an increased developement to journalism, and of which we have seen as yet only a 
 small portion of the effects." 
 
339 
 
 Public speeclies do the same during the recesses. The courts of 
 justice are closely watched by an upright intelligent Bar. There 
 the public purse-strings are held by the nation ; there the prin- 
 ciples of Government are fully understood ; there the people are 
 of the most independent spirit — have an luiconquerable love of 
 freedom ; and there every job that is perpetrated is agitated 
 against. But in India, where the Government professes to be 
 despotic, though it designates itself a "paternal despotism;" 
 Avhere the distances are immense ; means of locomotion in the 
 rudest stage; the people so timid and time-serving that they 
 crouch before men in authority, and lick the hand for " master's 
 favour ; " where the courts are social pests ; and, but for the 
 press, no job, however gross, would ever be brought to light, 
 it stands to reason that the only check upon the most arbitrary 
 injustice, the most flagitious jobbery, the most puerile incompe- 
 tence, is to be hoped for in the freedom of the press. 
 
 How the press has discharged its functions may be best learnt 
 by a reference to the articles of the leading Indian journals. 
 That the press was faultless, no one has ever sought to maintain ; 
 but that it is both honest and fearless cannot be denied. A free 
 press naturally — necessarily, indeed — excited the jealousy and 
 dislike of those upon whom it acted as the only check, especially 
 as, by a most suicidal order of Government, they were prevented 
 from writing in their own defence ; and hence, so many accounts 
 have reached England of the worthless character of Indian 
 journalism, which, from the mere force of iteration, have found 
 a wide-spread credit. It is always easier to accept for granted 
 the assurance of a third party, if he be credible, as a general 
 rule, than to verify for oneself the truth of his assertion.* Other- 
 wise, a reference to the traduced journals would have speedily 
 exposed the truthlessness of these reports. I do not mean to say 
 that incorrect information does not occasionally find its way to 
 the public through this channel, but the editor is too often the 
 dupe of ex-parte statements which bear the stamp of respectability. 
 
 * Thus, even after the letter of " Indophihis," the " Morning Post," in Febmary, 
 1857, writes of the press as, " on many occasions, such a miscliievous instrument, and 
 such a discreditable institution ! " This goes down with the puljUc. The Avriter, proba- 
 bly, writes upon impressions formed on his mind by general reputation, not of his own 
 knowledge; for I should be sorry to impute wilful, false statements to any man. 
 
 z 2 
 
3i40 
 
 I can vouch for the assiduity with wliich correct intelligence is 
 sought for ; and it must be so, for the character of a newspaper 
 depends very much upon its general accuracy. The Government 
 has itself mainly to blame, for the jealousy with which it stops 
 reliable information is one chief cause of error; yet, when a 
 wrong has been unintentionally done, I have never known an 
 instance in which an Indian editor refused, upon being set right, 
 to acknowledge his mistake, and make the fairest amende in his 
 power — a line of conduct which might, perhaps, be advan- 
 tageously followed in England. If there is a blot upon the 
 Indian press, it is to be found in the occasional " Slurk and Pottish " 
 encounters of rival editors, whose quarrels are as important in 
 their own eyes as tliey are ridiculous in the eyes of the public ; 
 though, after all, I do not remember to have seen anything that 
 beat the bandying of hard words between the " Times " and 
 ** Chronicle," when those two journals fell out some years ago. 
 There has been the most marked, indeed, the most astonishing 
 improvement in the tone of Indian journalism within the last six 
 years. I date from the commencement of the discussions on the 
 last renewal of the Charter ; and it is seldom that any of the 
 principal journals can now be taken up without finding in them 
 articles that would do credit to the leading London newspapers. 
 Topics of all sorts are handled with a breadth of treatment, a 
 knowledge of the subject matter, a depth of argument, and an 
 excellence of language, which it would be difficult to surpass. 
 On one point, I conceive, there exists a misunderstanding, which 
 arises from a mere confusion of words. The Indian press is said 
 to be personal. In one sense it is so, and most properly. In 
 imlividualizing the person whose conduct is the subject of remark, 
 so that there shall be no mistake as to his identity, "personality" 
 is unavoidable. It would be impossible, otherwise, to point the 
 moral of the tale ; and exposure would lose half its force, if the 
 object was left matter of conjecture. It is the fear of being thus 
 marked out that checks the insolence of office, the proud man's 
 contumely. If an account of some objectionable transaction were 
 to commence like a fairy tale, " It happened, many years ago," or 
 " Once upon a time," or " Not a hundred miles from Calcutta, a 
 certain judge," or the like, the strictures of the press would be a 
 solemn farce. Yet it is this to which our Indian authorities 
 
object. Wlien I wrote the " Administration of Justice in 
 Soutliern India," one of the chief complaints against it was its 
 " personality." I took the liberty of naming the judges whose 
 decisions I reviewed. It was objected that this was unnecessary 
 and offensive, for the extracts should have been introduced as 
 the decisions of the " civil judge of Masulipatam," " the sessions 
 judge of Trichinopoly," and so forth ; as though my Lord Campbell, 
 or any of the judges of the English bench, would have thought 
 that the " Times" or " Examiner" had transgressed the legitimate 
 license of the press by naming them in conjunction with their 
 judgments, which might happen to be under notice. When a 
 series of admirable articles on the "Promotion Order" appeared 
 in the " Madras Athenaeum," and with such success as to secure 
 justice for some seventy officers whose claims had been set aside, 
 one of the chief military authorities in Calcutta wrote to me 
 complaining, among other things, that he had been mentioned by 
 his name instead of by his office ! In the other and objectionable 
 sense of the term " personality," namely, that of departing from 
 the legitimate sphere of comment upon an individual's public 
 career, and prying into the sacred mysteries of private life, it 
 cannot, with any truth, be applied to the Indian press, which is 
 singularly free from this blemish. True, hard names may be 
 applied to individuals with reference to their official failings ; but 
 folly, ignorance, insolence, injustice cannot be reproved in the 
 language of panegyric ; and ridicule, iron}-, and satire are among 
 the most legitimate, as they are, frequently, the most forcible and 
 appropriate weapons of the public writer. I do not remember to 
 have seen anything stronger than the " Indo-maniac," which the 
 " Times," without compunction or delicacy, applied to Mr. Grant, 
 though it turned out that the epithet was inapplicable. The most 
 discreditable passage in the history of the press, that occurs to 
 me, is the set made against Sir Charles Napier by the " Bombay 
 Times ;" but it would be very unjust to impute the blame of that 
 attack to the entire Indian press, though Sir Charles, in his in- 
 dignation, was in the habit of including all Indian journalism in 
 the harsh terms of his descriptions.* 
 
 * Just now Mr. Layard seems intent upon running a muck against tlie Indian press, 
 though it would be difficult to say what has excited that gentleman's wrath beyond the 
 ridicule which a four months'' Indian tour has universallv created. — Ed. 
 
342 
 
 As to the charge lately brought against the press, that it is 
 " un-English," unconstitutional, seeking to bring the supremacy 
 of England into contempt, and the like, it appears to me that the 
 widest possible distinction is to be drawn between opposition or 
 disapproval of the conduct of a particular government or func- 
 tionary, and a general purpose to subvert the principles of all 
 British government ; though I am well aware that, in the eyes of 
 an exclusive civil service, it is heresy and treason to question any 
 of their acts, and that all those who will not applaud them and 
 their doings to the skies, but claim to hold or express an inde- 
 pendent opinion of their own, are "evil disposed," interested 
 intriguers, disappomted, jealous, half-informed, envious detrac- 
 tors, and the like. But the ready imputation of base motives is 
 the mark of a little mind. 
 
 The journalist, though he affects to lead public oj)inion, in 
 point of fact, follows in its wake ; and the most successful journal 
 is that which comes nearest to Halifax in the delicate art of 
 trimming at the right moment ; which discerns the first wavering 
 of the fickle 2^opidar{s aurce, and shapes his course so dexterously 
 as to seem to be moved by his own independent volition, instead 
 of bemg, in fact, impelled by every external influence. In 
 England, this requires, no doubt, great tact and discrimination ; 
 but, even in India, where society is less artificial and complicated, 
 we may be quite sure that a journalist must suit his wares to the 
 market. To assume that he can only succeed by lavish abuse of 
 Government " right or wrong," is to ignore the fact that the 
 great majority of his subscribers are members of one or the other 
 of the services. I dissent entirely from Mr. Mead's statement 
 that, " to the unfettered journalist in India, ahuse of the Company 
 and its rule is a necessity of his existence." The staple is, no 
 doubt, censure; but the reason is that there is comparatively 
 little to praise, though I am not aware that approval has ever 
 been withheld where it has been shown to have been deserved. 
 The most useful function of the press is its pointing out defects, 
 not harping upon perfections ; and I am quite sure that the chief 
 reason why the services support the public press, in spite of its 
 constant fault-finding with the Government, is that the censure is 
 felt to be merited. So, again, when the Indian press is called 
 rebellious, scurrilous, and the like, it seems to be quite forgotten 
 
343 
 
 tliat the accusation scandalizes the whole English population in 
 India. Though the readers of the leading Indian journals are 
 numerically small, compared with those of the European press, 
 the circle is a refined and highly educated one ; the editor may 
 hope to " fit audience find, though few ; " and it stands to reason 
 that if he could stoop to the debasement of writing pruriently or 
 maliciously, he would speedily lose the whole, or nearly the 
 whole, of his subscribers. 
 
 The press must be restored to its former freedom. It not only 
 offers the fairest hope of regenerating India, but it is the only 
 engine by which the evils of a despotism can be mitigated ; it is 
 the best gauge for the discovery of peril ; it is the safest outlet 
 for discontent, which, but for the opportunity of harmlessly dissi- 
 pating its fumes, might concentrate itself in most alarming force. 
 It is what " Indophilus" calls it, " a moral, preventive police;" 
 and it may be most truly said that there is not a reform lately 
 introduced into India which has not been forced upon the Govern- 
 ment by the advocacy of the press. I think — though the expe- 
 diency of a censorship for that branch is debateable — that the 
 vernacular press should be put upon the same footing as the 
 English, not from any notions of equality, but on account of the 
 utter futility of seeking to prevent the circulation of objection- 
 able matter by its suppression. And the restriction upon servants 
 of Government addressing the papers in self-defence must be 
 withdrawn. Of course, men of all classes, civilian and military, 
 do address the papers as it is. They know that their confidence 
 will be scrupulously respected ; and much valuable information, 
 and not a few able leading articles, flow from their pens. But 
 explanation would come with far more telling effect from the in- 
 dividual whose conduct had been impugned, than through the 
 vicarious pen of the editor ; and the free discussions which would 
 ensue on many subjects of public interest and importance would 
 be such as those of yore, the bare recollection of which warms 
 up the spirit of " Indophilus," who starts at it like an old war- 
 steed crying, " Ha, ha ; " to the trumpets. On this suicidal 
 policy of the Indian Government depriving itself of its most 
 valuable and powerful defence, the remarks of the " Times" are 
 so apposite that they deserve to be quoted ; — 
 
 " The press, like other British institutions, found an establish- 
 
:U4 
 
 meiit in India, and for ii certain period worked very serviceably. 
 In an evil moment, however, and by an unhappy thought, a noti- 
 fication was issued, of which the effect w^as to debar from any 
 participation in pubhc writing the whole of that numerous and 
 able class tlirough whose immediate instrumentality the Govern- 
 ment of India was conducted. No person connected with the 
 Government — in other words, none of the many thousand ser- 
 vants of the Company — could carry either his information or his 
 talents to the work of newspaper discussion, and the consequence 
 was that, except for such evasions of the rule as were unavoid- 
 able, the Indian press fell entirely into the hands of a class 
 numerically inferior, inimical to the ruling powers by the very 
 force of its position, and necessarily, in comparison with Govern- 
 ment officers, but imperfectly informed. Never could a policy 
 have been more disastrous. Government was deliberately 
 placing itself and its acts at the greatest possible disadvantage. 
 It was proscribing its own advocates and silencing its own coun- 
 sel. The proceedmg represented a complete inversion of the 
 policy pursued in some absolute states. Instead of attempting to 
 inspire or control the press for its own benefit, the Indian govern- 
 ment actually made it over to its opponents for their exclusive 
 use ; while men who could have set the administration on its legs 
 in a moment, corrected errors, and diffused accurate knowledge, 
 were restrained by the enactments of their own caste from taking 
 up a pen. It is really impossible to exaggerate the proportions 
 of this monstrous blunder. Half the value, and perhaps more 
 than half the influence, of the English press is due to that uni- 
 versal practice of correspondence, which literally brings a vast 
 portion of the British nation into co-operation with the * Times.' 
 Our columns are powerful, as expressing not merely what we 
 think, but what everybody thinks. There is not a public question 
 started on which we do not receive, either for publication or 
 otherwise — either for the instruction of the country or our own 
 information — communications of the most varied and authentic 
 character. Our readers little dream of the very high authority 
 occasionally attaching, under some unobtrusive signature, to the 
 correspondence we place before them ; and it is by means of these 
 aids — by this remarkable association of knowledge and opinions — 
 that truth is brought to light. In oiu* pages everybody finds a 
 
U5 
 
 liearing and every policy an expression^ until at last the public 
 discovers itself in possession of an unexceptionable result. This 
 might have been the case in India even in a more striking degree, 
 for public writing is there such a propensity, either of the pro- 
 fession or the place, that every Indian officer would sit down 
 to an article or a letter as the most natural employment in the 
 world — indeed, the only difficulty is to get them to stop. If this 
 communicative disposition were but judiciously encouraged, what 
 chance could any factious or wanton opponents of the Govern- 
 ment preserve in the face of such able, such well-informed, and 
 such indefatigable writers ? Little, indeed ; whereas, by foolishly 
 thinking to ignore an irrepressible power, the Indian administra- 
 tion left to the use of its antagonists an agency which it might 
 have employed for its own defence and the unquestionable benefit 
 of the country at large." 
 
 The archives of Government should be made far more accessi- 
 ble to the pubhc. There are, of course, topics on which secrecy 
 is indispensable ; but the general run of business is now involved 
 in a degree of mystery and secrecy which its authors may possi- 
 bly mistake for state-craft, but which in reality is not only detri- 
 mental to the public good, but a mere childish playing at Govern- 
 ment.* There has been an " editor's room " established. Lord 
 Harris, before he was Civilianised, set the example ; and for a 
 time many valuable papers were laid upon the editor's table. 
 That was in the days when the liberal Mr. Bourdillon was secre- 
 tary ; but gradually the boon has shrunk and shrunk, till it is 
 dwarfed and dwindled into a mere sham, and it depends upon 
 the idiosyncrasy of the secretary for the time being, what Idnd 
 of pabulum shall be spread upon the editor's t^ble. 
 
 " Heus ! etiam mensas consumimus, inquit lulus 
 Nee plura." 
 
 First the military intelligence was withdrawn ; then one thmg 
 and then another, until a few season reports, recording the fall of 
 rain and the price of grain in the various districts and the like, 
 form the staple food. Ill-disposed persons sneer at the display, as 
 
 * As to tlie absolute necessity of a free press in India, note the number of instances 
 now constantly occurring in which the several Governments in their published proceed- 
 ings call upon an officer for an explanation of his conduct, concerning which a repre- 
 sentation is said to have appeared in such and sUch a paper* 
 
346 
 
 a fair average sample of Government work. Be tliat as it may, 
 the feast of reason is at present of a very Barmecidal quality 
 indeed. 
 
 But it would be a grave mistake to suppose that the East India 
 Company does not very largely avail itself of the offices of the 
 press. There is no public body which more systematically works 
 this formidable engine : a staff of admirable writers is kept in pay 
 at the India House ; a clever panegyric on the Company's govern- 
 ment is a passport to the " loaves and fishes " of official employ. 
 
 " Allen's India Mail" is notoriously an India House journal. 
 Puffing articles can be foisted upon the public. I need only 
 instance some which have appeared in the " Edinburgh Review/' 
 from the pen of a Madras civilian whose style is familiar to me, 
 and the article entitled " The Company's Raj," in " Blackwood." 
 Whenever a crisis threatens the existence of the Court of Directors, 
 they can find pamphleteers in abundance; the exquisite art and 
 tact of a Kayo can lead captive the public by cataloguing all the 
 Company's virtues and the evils of native rule, the excellences 
 of the latter and the shortcomings of the former being systemati- 
 cally excluded, unless, indeed, the long eulogium be rendered all 
 the more seeming-candid by the occasional interspersion of faint 
 blame. The logic of a Mill, and, I may add, the sophistry, too, 
 is available for argument. The experience of a Melville can 
 draw up a memorial which every East India Director charac- 
 terizes as the most remarkable state paper that ever emanated 
 from a public office. A daily paper can be persuaded to tm'n 
 right round upon itself; writers, who would be powerful if they 
 were only better instructed in their subject, appeal to the public 
 every Saturday in a most sparkling journal. The " Calcutta 
 Review" is notoriously the refuge of the civilian who seeks a 
 safe delivery of matter which he has been incubating for months, 
 I might say, for years ; since an article has just appeared in its 
 pages from the pen of a Madras civilian, the aim of which is to 
 show that the " Torture Report" is unsupported by the evidence, 
 inconclusive, and, in fact, untrue ! But the use which the Court 
 of Directors make of the press requires no further proof than 
 their conduct in England at the present moment ; they are re- 
 newing precisely the tactics which contemporary history tells us 
 they so powerfully employed to oppose Fox's India BilL They 
 
347 
 
 ^vork the press miiiiistakeably ; and wise they are in doing 
 so; only let them not, at the same time, cry out they are a 
 Government whose acts and motives are misunderstood, because 
 misrepresented. 
 
 When the liberty of the press is restored, there need be no 
 recognized Government organ. With liberty to the servants of 
 Government to contribute to the press, with a liberal communi- 
 cation of state papers, and a courteous explanation of doubtful 
 information, supplied to the press ex-parte, (as to which an editor 
 might wish to hear the other side before writing,) would prevent 
 the appearance of unauthentic intelligence, supply the press with 
 ample materials for discussing, exclusively, public questions, lead 
 to a friendly feeling between the Government and the press, 
 save what Mr. Mead infelicitously calls the necessity of abuse, 
 raise the character of Indian journalism, diffuse valuable infor- 
 mation among the people in India and in England, give the most 
 effective and immediate power of check to malignant or inju- 
 dicious reports, and render harmless the alleged " right or wrong" 
 propensity to attack the powers that be. The effect of an avowed 
 Government organ has already been once tried ; " Indophilus " 
 has told us the result.* The " Friend of India" was, for many 
 years, the well-known, semi-official channel of Government po- 
 licy and explanation. It was favoured with exclusive informa- 
 tion, and had access to papers which were not before the rest of 
 the press. Nor do I see any harm that can arise from the 
 Government thus selecting the most influential journal of the 
 Presidency for any explanation or denial which it may, from 
 time to time, desire to offer, so long as there is no avowed con- 
 nection between it and the journal. In the Presidency of 
 Madras, where all the collectorates are being furnished with 
 printing presses, official gazettes are coming into vogue, for the 
 purpose of notifying district appointments, circular orders, and 
 the like. In Salem, the decisions of the courts and like items 
 of news are given. In Ganjam, the collector-editor wrote 
 leading articles in his ^' Gazette," and that so freely, as to call 
 forth the remark of Government, and induce him to change the 
 name of his journal. These local Government journals may be 
 
 * See Lord Aucklaiul'd Minute on constituting a Government organ. 
 
348 
 
 rendered influential organs, and give the Government a vast 
 advantage and power ; they may counter-balance the tendencies 
 of the vernacular press. We have, too, a widely circulated 
 paper published in the Tamil and Telegu language, edited by 
 the Rev. Mr. Perceval, the secretary to the University ; and it is 
 intended to publish it in Canarese and Malialum. The circula- 
 tion is already 1,000, which does not represent its influence, as 
 single copies circulate through whole villages.* It receives pecu- 
 niary support, I believe, from the Government, and is sure to 
 advocate Government views, seeing that it is edited by a Govern- 
 ment official. I believe it is a most useful undertaking, and very 
 well conducted. Thus, the Madras Government, even as matters 
 stand now, is far from being unrepresented; and I am quite 
 certain that, if the old jealousy of the entire press be abandoned, 
 and a totally opposite policy inaugurated. Government cannot 
 fail to be the gainer by the bargain. In almost every case that I 
 remember, explanation has been to its advantage. It complains 
 that the press writer acts on half truths; why not supply the 
 other half, now so carefully kept under the secretariat lock and 
 key ? Thus, the Government would have the benefit of hearing 
 questions discussed in every possible aspect, instead of deciding 
 upon arguments emanating even from one and the same point, 
 while publicity could not but enhance the credit of a Govern- 
 ment, whose boast is that their intentions are good. 
 
 * '• Report on Public Instruction in the Madras Presidency, for 1856," par. 6o. 
 
CHAPTER XI I. 
 
 Topic 20th. 
 
 XX, Should our future policy in India he retrogressive, stationary, 
 or progressive f And, herein, of stoppage of Public Works ; 
 demeanour towards the natives. Education. Proselytism. 
 
 " India for England " seems to be the general cry that has arisen 
 from the rebellion. It is, no doubt, an advance upon the cry 
 " India for the East India Company," which, for nearly two 
 centuries, has been the watchword of those to whom the Govern- 
 ment of the country has been connnitted. Only the few who 
 reflect and look far ahead raise the cry " India for India ;" and 
 as yet their voices are comparatively little heard. Whether the 
 Directors have or not looked upon India as a pocket borough or 
 home preserve, exclusively for the fortunes of their own relatives, 
 friends, and dependents, or whether they have exercised their 
 patronage upon a totally diiferent principle from that of selfish- 
 ness, and have been really guided in their selection and appoint- 
 ment of writers and cadets by any consideration of the claims 
 of " the middle classes," as a body, to participate in the splendid 
 provision which India afforded to their employes, I have already 
 considered. But I conceive that would be a most lamentable 
 and impotent conclusion if the lesson we are taught by recent 
 events is, that although we may abolish the Company, India is 
 still to be regarded as a place whereto our superfluous educated 
 classes may be sent to acquire a competency, and our merchants 
 to amass fortune ; instead of our reading aright the true moral 
 of the tale, namely, that henceforth we must fulfil the duties 
 of our situation as Governors, as well as exact our rights ; and 
 that though handsome provision must unquestionably be found 
 for the numbers of Englishmen who will be employed in the task 
 of governing India, yet that the good of the people of India and 
 
350 
 
 not that of ourselves must be the prmmry aim and object of our 
 a(hninistration. The difference is precisely illustrated by the 
 res])ective minutes of Mr. Barlow and Sir William Jones. 
 " The two principal objects," wrote the former, " which the 
 Government ought to have in view in all its arrangements are, 
 to ensure its political safety, and to render the possession of the 
 country advantageous to the East India Company and the British 
 nation." The latter ran his pen through the three first words 
 and substituted " two of the principal ;" adding, in a note, 
 "surely the pnncipal object of every Government is the hap- 
 piness of the governed." We cannot have too clear a conception 
 of the only policy compatible with our real interest, that of the 
 honest discharge of the duties which we have accepted by our 
 assumption of the Government, which are, at least, as important 
 as its profits. One motto should be ever before our eyes — 
 respice Jinem. We should never lose sight of the possible 
 termination of our rule here. Munro has most admirably stated 
 the exact truth. " There are," he writes, " tico important points 
 which should always be kept in view in our administration 
 of affairs. The first is, that our sovereignty should be prolonged 
 to the remotest possible period; the second, that whenever we 
 are obliged to resign it, we should leave the natives so far 
 improved from their connexion with us, as to be capable of 
 maintaining a free, or, at least, a regular Government among 
 themselves." 
 I The only question really is, how the continuance of our 
 I Government may be prolonged to the remotest possible period, 
 Munro answers the question by showing what his opinion was, 
 namely, by educating and enlightening the people : for when we 
 leave them, the result of our presence is to be shown by their 
 J capability of self-government. There are those who dream that 
 i the permanence of our dominion may be only or best secured by 
 j keeping the people in a state of brute ignorance, and governing 
 I not through their affection, but by the strong hand, a policy 
 i which I believe would precipitate our ruin. Munro thus nobly 
 enunciates the solemn truth : — " There is one great question," he 
 writes, " to which we should look in all our arrangements — 
 What is to be their :final result on the character of the people ? 
 Is it to be raised, or is it to be lowered ? Are we to be satisfied 
 
351 
 
 with merely securing our power and protecting the inhabitants, 
 leaving them to sink gradually in character lower than at present ; 
 or are we to endeavour to raise their character? It ought, 
 undoubtedly, to be our aim to raise the minds of the natives, and 
 to take care that whenever our connexion with India ceases, it did 
 not appear that the only fruit of our dominion had been, to leave 
 the people more abject and less able to govern themselves tlian 
 when we found them. It would certainly be more desirable that 
 we should be expelled from the country altogether, than that the 
 result of our system of government should be such an abasement 
 of a whole people." He points out the true course of Govern- 
 ment in the same minute. " By mild and equitable government ; 
 by promoting the dissemination of useful books among the 
 natives, without attacking their rehgion ; by protecting their own 
 numerous schools ; by encouraging, by honorary or pecuniary 
 marks of distinction, those where the best system of education 
 prevails; by occasional allowance from the public revenue to 
 such as stand in need of this aid; and above all, by making it 
 worth the while of the natives to cultivate their minds by giving 
 them a greater share in the civil administration of the country, 
 and holding out the prospect of filling places of rank and 
 emolument, as inducements to the attainment of knowledge, we 
 shall, by degrees, banish superstition and introduce among the 
 natives of India all the enlightened opinions and doctrines which 
 prevail in our own country." 
 
 Three years ago I expressed a similar conviction. I then 
 Avrote : — " Our empire is based upon their forbearance ; but how 
 much longer such a state of forbearance can be calculated upon 
 is another matter. The schoolmaster is abroad. The spirit 
 of education is awakened, and although some English statesmen 
 have declared that policy should make us stand still or retrograde, 
 on the ground that extended knowledge is incompatible with our 
 continued rule in India, I tell them that it is now too late to seek 
 to stop or check the onward progress of that great movement. 
 The illustration of Canute commanding the waves was aptly 
 used; and I would add another; the futile Bull which, when 
 Galileo propounded the Copernican theory, decreed the stability 
 and immobility of the earth. 
 
 " Nay, such policy would precipitate the very event it is 
 
352 
 
 designed to prevent; for we have liitlierto only given the natives 
 sucli a modicum of instruction as suffices to make them dis- 
 contented subjects, and fond of dechiiining on liberty and equality 
 according to their crude notions, only to be corrected by that 
 advanced cultivation w^hich will teach them the benefits tliey 
 derive from our rule, and cause them to become, upon conviction, 
 really well-affected loyal subjects of the empire. But whether 
 we are here by a special Providence, as some among ourselves 
 assume; or, as our enemies say, by that insatiable spirit of 
 aggrandizement, whose avenging Nemesis seems ever to dog the 
 footsteps of the conqueror, impelling or compelling him to add 
 territory unto territory, and dominion to dominion, until, at 
 length, he perishes from the very weakness inherent in the 
 immensity of his possessions : our mission in India is, I take it, 
 far other than to hold this country as long as possible, during 
 which to screw the greatest possible amount of rupees out of the 
 wretched peasantry, who are to be kept in a state of brutal 
 degradation in order that they may remain blinded to their own 
 power. If we have accepted the profits and the pleasures of 
 Government, unquestionably we have also accepted its duties and 
 responsibilities, chief among which I reckon that of elevating the 
 millions in moral and social rank. The issue is with Providence; 
 but, whatever that shall be, the path of our duty lies before us, 
 broad, and clear, and straightforward. We cannot swerve from 
 it to the right hand or to the left without subjecting ourselves, 
 sooner or later, to time's revenges ; and if we educate the people, 
 as we must, the very fables of our childhood should suffice to 
 teach us the impolicy of making them acquainted with their own 
 power, unless, at the same time, we redress tlieir grievances. If 
 not, assuredly, with a consciousness of power will arise the wish 
 and determination to revenge their own injuries, and woe be to 
 us in India if ever the natives should take the law into their own 
 hands. Our mission here really is to teach the natives to o-overn 
 themselves, and whether that shall be sooner or later, our policy, 
 I take it — to put it upon no nobler motive — is so to manacre the 
 interim, that when the separation takes place it may leave upon 
 the minds and recollections of the respective parties a sense 
 of obhgations and benefits conferred on the one hand, and of 
 duty performed upon the other." 
 
353 
 
 For asserting tins principle I was sneered at as a visionary, a 
 writer of balderdash, and of course au interested ignorant party- 
 spirited aggressor, by an India House critic, in " Allen's India 
 Mail." It is, at any rate, consolatory to share one's error with 
 men of acknowledged authority, and I reflect with satisfaction on 
 the passage quoted from Munro. To this I would add the 
 following ; I find Munro writing thus, — " If we are desirous of 
 raising in their minds that proper independence which results 
 from living under a well-regulated Government, and of rendering 
 them fit to take a share in it, and even at some future period to 
 govern themselves, we have not, I fear, taken the steps most 
 likely to conduct us to this object." 
 
 Lord Metcalfe also evidently contemplated a possible termina- 
 tion of our rule; but he went further; he argued that even if 
 that should be the necessary result of the policy of progress, our 
 duty left us no option or alternative. Listen to his noble lan- 
 guage, — " If their argument be that the spread of knowledge may 
 eventually be fatal to our rule in India, I close with them on 
 tiiat point, and maintain that, whatever may be the consequence, 
 it is our duty to communicate the benefits of knowledge. If 
 India could only be preserved as a part of the British Empire, ; 
 by keeping its inhabitants in a state of ignorance, our domination ! 
 would be a curse to the country, and ought to cease. 
 
 " But I see more ground for just apprehension in Ignorance 
 itself. I look to the increase of knowledge, with a hope that it 
 may strengthen our empire ; that it may remove prejudices, 
 soften asperities, and substitute a rational conviction of the 
 benefits of our Government, that may unite the people and their 
 rulers in sympathy, and that the differences which separate them 
 may be gradually lessened, and ultimately annihilated. AVhat- 
 ever, however, be the will of Almighty Providence, respecting 
 the future Government of India, it is clearly our duty, as long 
 as the charge be confided to our hands, to execute the trust to 
 the best of our ability for the good of the people. The promotion 
 of knowledge is, manifestly, an essential part of that duty." 
 
 " I conceive," says Sir Charles Trevelyan,'^ " that in deter- 
 mining upon a line of policy, we must look to the probable 
 
 * Report, House of Lords, Q. 6719 ; see also ib. 6G20-21, Q. 6786, Q. 6746-8. 
 
 2 A 
 
354 
 
 eventualities. We must have present to our minds what will be 
 the result of each line of policy. Now, my belief is, that the 
 ultimate result of the policy of improving and educating India 
 will be to postpone the separation for a long indefinite period, 
 and that when it does come, it will take place under circumstances 
 very happy for both parties. Whereas I conceive the result of 
 the opposite policy, of holding and governing India for the benefit 
 of the civihans and the military men employed there, or accord- 
 ing to any view less liberal than that of doing the utmost justice 
 we can to India, may lead to a separation at any time, and must 
 lead to it at a much earlier period, and under much more dis- 
 advantageous circumstances, than would be the result if we take 
 the opposite course." ,, 
 
 Mr. Ilalliday,* the late Governor of Bengal, says — 
 
 " I go the full length of saying that I believe our mission in 
 India is to qualify them for governing themselves ; I say also, 
 that the measures of the Government for a number of years past 
 have been advisedly directed to so qualifying them, Avithout the 
 slightest reference to any remote consequences upon our admini- 
 stration." 
 
 The Duke of Argyle goes farther still. Speaking in the Lords 
 on the 11th of February last, he says that our Empire "will 
 never cease until one of two events happened, — either until we 
 had declined from the valour and virtue of those who founded 
 that Empire, or else — and might God speed the time — ^we should 
 have raised the people of India more nearly to a level with our- 
 selves ; " and his sentiment was received with cheers. 
 
 This subject has acquired, if possible, fresh interest and 
 importance from recent events. The rebellion, as was to be 
 expected, has raised a cry from the shallow and the timid against 
 the causes of progress and education. The policy of retrogression 
 is only too well suited to the interests of those who cling fondly 
 to the retention of exclusive power. It is to this policy alone 
 that they can look for the maintenance of their privileges, and 
 their continuance in the monopoly of administration. " Gag the 
 press," " stop public works," " all India must be governed as 
 one Empire," were the first manifestations of the policy of 
 
 * First Report House of Commons' Committee, Q. 2076. 
 
355 
 
 retrogression; and districts not touched by the rebellion, and 
 with increasing revenues, must have the same measure dealt to 
 them as is dealt to the rebellious provinces. " Down with edu- 
 cation," followed next. It appeared in Roman capitals at the 
 head of a letter in one of the leading journals of the Madras 
 Presidency. We are told that our form of Government must, 
 for years to come, assume a sterner aspect ; we must rule by the 
 power of the sword. The natives, as a general rule, are to be 
 less trusted ; they must be made to feel that we are the dominant 
 power, and they a conquered and inferior race. Our admini- 
 stration must be more despotic ; our counsels more secret : the 
 publication of Government records was a mistake; it must be 
 withdrawn from. Such are the dogmas that now everywhere 
 assail one. Proofs, such as they are, are not wanting. The 
 ridiculous proclamation of Nana Sahib, is vouched as proof 
 of the danger of education. Nana Sahib has an article given 
 to him in the " Times." He is a specimen of an educated 
 native. He is a fearful prodigy, — the result of our teaching. 
 He is the representative of " Young Bengal ! " Now he happens 
 to be an uneducated native. His proclamation, cunningly framed 
 as it was to deceive the childish ignorant sepoys, with its story 
 of the Pasha of Egypt destroying the ships of the English, and 
 the Governor-General beating his head, is another proof of the 
 necessity of progress. Had the sepoys been " educated " in the 
 real power of England, this proclamation must have fallen a dead 
 letter upon them. It is a most curious fact, as I have already 
 had occasion to point out, that our safety in India is mainly owing 
 to the accident of two educated men being at the head of affairs 
 in Nepaul and Hyderabad. Ignorance is our greatest enemy in 
 India. I hold that the retrogressive and the stationary policy 
 are alike impossible. Our safety lies in the onward road of pro- 
 gress. We may educate the natives with perfect security to our I 
 rule, if we will follow out the consequences of such education, j 
 by gradually advancing them, as they are qualified, to situations I 
 of trust, emolument, and honour. I cannot conceive how those ^ 
 who so steadfastly assert that the present outbreak is purely a 
 military mutiny, and that too of only a portion of our Indian 
 army, that the princes generally have shewn themselves faithful, 
 and that the people have stood alcof and taken no part in the 
 
 2 A 2 
 
353 
 
 insurrection, can, with the same breath, urge this very niutiny 
 against the great body of the natives, as a proof of their diaboUcal 
 cruehy of nature, their unfitness for places of trust, the necessity 
 of ruHng them with a rod of iron, and the hke ! Having 
 acquitted the people of all complicity in the " mutiny," with what 
 fi\ce can any one ask for the institution of a policy, which nothing 
 short of general rebellion could justify ? 
 
 After peace and order shall have been restored, I hold that 
 though in all military affairs we must unmistakeably assert and 
 convince the natives of our superiority, yet that there should be 
 no domination of the European over the Hindoo as a class ; and 
 that we should continue, just as heretofore, only in an increased 
 degree, to endeavour to fit the native for civil administration, and 
 let him feel well assured that his success in life depends on his own 
 exertions ; then progress and equality may be our watchwords. 
 
 Then, too, I think that we may well adopt a more polite con- 
 ciliatory tone towards the natives at large, than has been the 
 fashion of late years ; a particular in which we have been gradu- 
 ally departing more and more widely from the practice of our 
 predecessors. 
 
 Mr. Ludlow thus expresses himself on the topic : — * 
 
 " I am sure that the tone of the oldest Indian officers and 
 servants whom I know, in speaking of the natives, is far more 
 manly and noble, because far less hard and contemptuous, than 
 that of the younger ones. I never knew one to give vent, for 
 instance, to the insolent Yankeeism of " niggers," as applied to 
 the natives of India. And I believe that this great trial which 
 we are now passing through, has its main source in the want of 
 fellow-feeling between Europeans and natives in India, arising, 
 on our part, from that forgetfulness of responsibility which always 
 accompanies an overweening sense of power. If its result be 
 once more to humble us in our own sight, we shall once more 
 be exalted in that of the natives." 
 
 Mr. Robinson's testimony! is to the same effect. It is as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Do you think that the tendency, generally speaking, of the 
 
 • " British India," Vol. i. p. 207. 
 t House of Commons' Committee, 13th June, 1853, Q. 6348. 
 
357 
 
 gentlemen of the Civil Service of India, is to be unkind, and 
 harsh, and cruel towards the natives ? — I think the tendency is 
 certainly to be harsher, unkinder, and less conciliating than it 
 used to be when I first went into the country."* 
 
 Many military officers have spoken to the same effect ; and I 
 must bear my testimony to the prevalence of a nasty supercilious 
 bearing of the younger members of the European community, 
 towards the natives. It is as though one should say : 
 " Hie niger^ est ; hunc, tu, Romane, caveto." 
 
 Nor is this bearing altogether confined to individuals. I can- 
 not approve of the tone adopted by the Government, towards 
 such of the natives as attempt to represent what they considei 
 grievances or defects, admitting of remedy, or calling for reform. 
 If an association is formed for the purpose of obtaining political 
 audience, the tactics of all officials are instantly brought into 
 play to decry and run it down. I do not mean to say that those 
 Native Associations at the various Presidencies can be relied on, 
 as representing the feelings or the social condition of the natives 
 in the interior. It is chiefly at the Presidencies that education 
 has commenced its work of regeneration. Hence the Presidency 
 natives are far in intellectual advance of their Mofussil brethren, 
 but we should not ignore the fact that they do represent the most 
 advanced native opinion. It is wiser to act upon this knowledge, 
 than to seek to prove that they are a set of shallow impostors. 
 
 * lb. Q. 6374-82 ; ib. Q. 6417-18 ; ib. Q. 6441-7. 
 
 He says — (Q. 6417.) " You have stated to the Committee that it is your 
 opinion that in the last fifteen years, the kindly feeling on the part of the Ci\il 
 Service towards the natives, has been diminishing ; will you state to what you 
 attribute that diminution of kindly feeling ? 
 
 A. " It is a subject on which I have thought much, and I cannot quite satisfactorily 
 make it out to myself. I think one cause is that we do not depend upon the natives ; 
 we are no longer in so much want of the help of the natives as we used to be. When 
 I first went to the North-West Provinces the country was unsettled ; we used then to 
 be obliged to count upon the powerful zemindars, and the natives of rank, to help us 
 keep the country quiet ; but now that necessity has ceased ; that, I think, is one 
 
 Q. 6418. " Do you attribute this diminution of kindly feeling to the Civil Sernce 
 generally, or to any particular rank or class of the Civil Service ? 
 
 A. " To the Civil Service generally, I think." 
 
 t " Nigger" is indeed a common enough appellation in the mouths of many who ] \ 
 should know better. See, also, Mr. Robertson's Pamphlet, " The Political Prospects ' ^ 
 of British India," p. 67. 
 
358 
 
 Yet, at Calcutta, the sneer of " Young Bengal " is proverbial. 
 The respectable Native Association at Bombay, which, if money 
 be a criterion of respectability and earnestness, subscribed thirty 
 thousand rupees for its objects at a single meeting, and which has 
 presented most temperate petitions to Parliament, was sought to be 
 lowered in the eyes of the Lords' Committee by Mr. Willoughby, 
 who produced page after page of pamphlets by Mr. Manockjee 
 Cursetjee, well remembered in England as the Byron of the East, 
 and for his piracy of Lord Stanley's verses. Their petition was 
 declared to have been prepared by Europeans, though Sir Erskine 
 Perry, well acquainted with the facts, told the Committee that 
 it was the work of the natives themselves ; and I am quite sure 
 the natives of Bombay are equal to the task. So the Madras 
 petition was declared to have been principally prepared in 
 London ! which I know to be entirely untrue. The Madras 
 Association, . Sir Henry Pottinger wrote to Sir Charles Wood, 
 was a hole-and-corner affair. No one knew anything about 
 them. The Governor, in making this statement, forgot that the 
 meeting at which tliis Association was formed, was a public meet- 
 ing convened by the Sheriff; and one of the tasks submitted to the 
 Torture Commission was, to inquire whether the Association 
 fairly represented the inhabitants of the Presidency. The Com- 
 missioners made a separate report in the affirmative. Neither, 
 I think, is the tone in which their communications is replied to, 
 worthy of a great Government, or even of a courteous body of 
 gentlemen. I would refer, for instance, to Mr. Secretary Buck- 
 ley's letter to the natives, who memorialized against the passing 
 of the distasteful Act xx of 1850, by which a native has a right 
 to inherit with his unconverted family. Sir H. Maddock, in his 
 minute upon this subject, expressly says that " the tone of this 
 reply is not exactly that which the Government of India should 
 assume." I would also refer to the minutes of the Madras 
 Government, No. 79, dated 22nd January, 1847, and No. 3, of 
 23rd March, 1847, in reply to letters from the chairman of a 
 meeting of the Hindoo community, on the subject of certain steps 
 which caused great commotion at the time, and which the natives 
 regarded as directly aiming at proselytism.* 
 
 • These documents will be found in ajjpendix to memorial forwarded by a large body 
 of the Hindoo community of Madras to the Court of DirectorSj under date May, 1847. 
 
359 
 
 There are other topics on which the policy of retrogression 
 has prevailed ; I trust only for a season. These are the press 
 gagging, and the stoppage of the public works. 
 
 I can scarcely imagine any more injudicious act than that 
 whereby the whole public works were instantaneously and in- 
 discriminately put a stop to. By this measure, all the skilled 
 labour, which it had taken years to create, was dissipated ; in a 
 day, twenty thousand labourers were dismissed in Rajahmundry 
 district alone, and in the Presidency of Madras three hundred 
 thousand men were thus suddenly thrown upon the world, without 
 means or employment, at a time when we should only have been 
 too glad to have kept so formidable a body from the temptation 
 of crime, by finding them work and wages ; men who were sure, 
 too, to create, wherever they went, by their reports, the most erro- 
 neous impressions as to the bankruptcy and approaching ruin of 
 the British Raj ; on the successful prosecution of these works 
 depends the future welfare of the Madras Presidency; and though, 
 no doubt, the prospect of financial difficulties was looming large 
 enough in Bengal, surely as much tenderness as possible should 
 have been extended to the Presidency of Madras, where so much 
 was at stake upon the works everywhere in progress. But the 
 orders were peremptory and indiscriminating ; no sparing and 
 judicious retrenchment was attempted. As the works and materials 
 stood, so they were abandoned ; and the loss from the rapid deteri- 
 oration of materials in this climate must be immense, to say nothing 
 of the dispersion of the labour which our engineers had trained with 
 so much skill and patience. I have myself seen bricks and other 
 materials perishing by the road side in the districts I have passed 
 through. A blight seems to have settled in the land ; and this 
 measure I regard as another instance of the readiness with which 
 the retrogressive policy is seized by those in authority at the head 
 of affairs. 
 
 As to the stoppage of the freedom of the press, I have already 
 said enough. 
 
 Education must be pushed forward systematically and univer- 
 sally ; for ignorance is our worst foe. What an interval has the 
 human mind passed across between the two following sentiments : 
 
 In 1671, Sir W. Berkley, Governor of Virginia, wrote as 
 follows : — '* I thank God we have not free schools nor printings 
 
360 
 
 and I hope we shall not have these hundred years ; for learning 
 has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, 
 and printing has divulged them, and libels against the Govern- 
 ment. God preserve us from both." Contrast this with Lord 
 Brougham's opening address at the meeting of the Society for 
 promoting Social Philosophy, especially with the following portion 
 of it: — "Knowledge thus diffused, but especially knowledge of social 
 interests and rights and duties, even more than the firm and tem- 
 perate distribution of justice itself, possesses the great, the cardinal 
 virtue of insuring the stability of the social system. It is, to use 
 the language of the day, in the very greatest degree conservative, 
 and in the highest sense of the phrase. But this diffusion has 
 another and most happy tendency, — it leads to the improvement 
 of the system, because it inspires all classes with the desire of pro- 
 moting measures shown to be safe as well as effectual — in a word, 
 wholesome reforms. Nor can anything be more groundless than 
 the fears of progress entertained by some, affected by more. It 
 is, in truth, ignorance continued, not knowledge advanced, which 
 they have to fear, — nay, which, when we come to an explanation 
 with them, they really do fear." 
 
 As we live in days when these latter principles are all but 
 universally acknowledged, it behoves us to act honestly up to 
 them, and the systematized liberal spread of education must be 
 regarded as one of the chief functions of our Government. Into 
 the vast question of Education it is not my intention now to enter. 
 That the results have been highly satisfactory in the Madras Pre- 
 sidency, both as regards the elevation of the students' morals, and 
 as regards their temporal welfare, cannot, I think, be disputed. 
 In the Appendix B, I have inserted two documents, the first of 
 which exhibits the employment of the " proficients " of the High 
 School; the second gives a brief account of our great Native 
 Seminary, and exhibits some of the results upon the worldly pros- 
 pects of the dU'ves. I have never heard of an instance in which 
 any of these yomig men have fallen away from the paths of 
 honesty ; the career of some of them has been noble ; that of one 
 of them, illustrious — I speak of Madava Row, whose merits 
 cannot be too extensively known. His history is thus sketched 
 by the affectionate hand of one of his own royal pupils: — 
 " T. Madava Row, authorised by a commission of His Highness, 
 
361 
 
 the Malia Rajah, has taken charge of the administration of Tra- 
 vancore. A wiser, nobler, and more satisfactory selection was 
 never made. A sovereign proves himself in the choice of his 
 minister. It is no wonder that a constitutional monarch, impelled 
 by the mighty public voice, nominates a worthy man his minister. 
 In regard to a Hindoo prince, the case stands quite differently. 
 The Rajah, in consequence, is entitled to the sincere thanks of his 
 subjects, and the praise of all those who are endowed with a right 
 judgment. 
 
 " Madava Row, the most talented, distinguished, and success- 
 ful scholar of the Madras High School, was invited by the Rajah, 
 through the Resident, to come to Travancore and educate his ne- 
 phews; and accordingly in July, 1849, he arrived at Trevandrum. 
 He was nominated, under the salary of 200 rupees per mensem, 
 to assume the tutorial management of the princes. This extremely 
 delicate and responsible task he accomplished with the greatest 
 skill; and his success, as admitted by all, exceeded the most 
 ardent expectations. For the space of nearly four years, he was 
 in this capacity; and in June, 1853, he was made Deputy 
 Peishcar, with a monthly allowance of 300 rupees. In this posi- 
 tion, he could not render any great service to the State, as all 
 material powers were withheld from him by jealous superiors. In 
 the meantime, whatever public measure passed through him, 
 received the stamp of his foresight and liberality of mind. More- 
 over, from the time of his first entering the Rajah's service, he 
 conducted the Rajah's private correspondence, and how he did it, 
 the Rajah well knows. In February, 1855, he was promoted to 
 the post of Dewan Peishcar, and 600 rupees constituted his 
 monthly allowance. In May, of the same year, he took leave for 
 four months, performed the nuptials of his daughters at Comba- 
 conum, thence paid a visit to Madras, and on the 1st September, 
 reached Trevandrum. Soon after his arrival, he proposed to the 
 Rajah, as well as to the Resident, that a division would facilitate 
 and improve the administration. The suggestion was taken with 
 much avidity on the part of the Resident, and the Rajah fully 
 agreed to it. 
 
 " Accordingly, a partition was made between the Dewan and the 
 Dewan Peishcars, Madava Row, and Ramen Manone; Madava 
 Row's division comprising five districts. How each of these ma- 
 
U2 
 
 iiagecl his part is sufficiently known. Though the districts deli- 
 vered to Miidava Row, contained the most turbulent race of men in 
 Travancore, though they were parched and famine-stricken through 
 successive failures of the monsoon, though they were thickly inter- 
 spersed by fierce dacoits, though they formed the high road for the 
 contraband trade of tobacco, yet, in a short year, beginning from 
 January, 1856, they improved in their physical and social features, 
 irrigation works being carried on on a large scale, corruption and 
 violence being suppressed, and crimes of all natures being crushed ; 
 scarcely a just grievance reached him, which did not speedily 
 receive that relief which was in his power to give. All the noto- 
 rious robbers and criminals who had hitherto eluded detection 
 were apprehended. The revenue in salt and other items were 
 more than trebled. In fact, Madava Row's division furnished a 
 worthy model to the others. The unanimous opinion of the 
 honest and unbiassed missionaries has testified to the excellence 
 of Madava Row's administration. Many of the points above- 
 mentioned are patent to the public; but a more latent fact 
 evinces a quality in Madava Row which all true statesmen pos- 
 sess. During his nearly two years' stay in Southern Travancore, 
 he has visited almost every part of his districts, and he has made 
 himself so familiar with all the places, that he can puzzle any 
 practical tradesman or farmer, by questioning the localities of 
 rivers, hills, lakes, dams, roads. He is well acquainted with the 
 nature, position, capabilities, and resources of all the parts of the 
 country under his jurisdiction. In his rambles, his great aim has 
 been to nurture familiarity with the peasantry, the source whence 
 true information respecting the condition of the masses may be 
 elicited. His naturally unostentatious manners, which, in every 
 circle, have always been a prominent embellishment of his sound 
 ability and unflinching virtue, facilitated the gaining of this point. 
 
 " When the Dewan died, on the 26th ultimo, the Rajah, after a 
 consultation with the Resident, who strongly persuaded him to 
 entrust Madava Row with the administration, wrote post haste to 
 the Dewan Peishcar, to come down from his station in the South. 
 On the morning of the 28 th he arrived at Trevandrum, and in 
 the afternoon received the commission from the Rajah's gracious 
 hands. He still continues to hold the same title and emolument 
 as before* He expects the full support of the Rajah and tlie 
 
363 
 
 Resident, for whose indulgence and patronage hitherto expe- 
 rienced he cannot be grateful enough. His past has been very 
 brilliant, and we hope his future will be much more so. He may- 
 meet with impediments in his virtuous and conscientious course, 
 but the strength of will which he possesses, and the peculiar for- 
 tune which has hitherto attended him, will remove them, and 
 enable him to outshine any minister who ever served a native 
 prince, and conduced to the honour, dignity, and fame of his 
 Court, and the general prosperity of his realm. In conclusion, 
 I have to congratulate Travancore most sincerely in being blessed 
 with one like Madava Row, to hold the reins of her Government, 
 and trust that posterity will find those pages of her history the 
 brightest which are devoted to his administration." 
 
 Such is the result of the secular education at present afforded 
 in the Government Schools. 
 
 There is, however, one topic, connected with education, of the 
 most vital importance ; I allude to the question. What is to be the 
 future attitude of the Government with reference to inculcating 
 the doctrines of Christianity ? 
 
 This subject requires far broader treatment than I originally 
 gave it in any former work. I confess that the idea that mis- 
 sionary efforts had anything to do with the causes of the rebellion, 
 struck me as too puerile to require an answer. I could not 
 understand. Indeed, the justice of Lord Ellenborough's attack 
 on Lord Canning, for having subscribed to missionary charities, 
 even if he had done so. I am not aware how the fact stands, 
 but I think it may safely be assumed that any subscriptions 
 which Lord Canning made were in his private Individual capacity, 
 and not as Governor-General. I do not for one moment believe 
 that such subscriptions would excite any attention whatsoever. 
 So far from the missionaries being regarded with suspicion, I 
 believe that they are everywhere received with favour, rather 
 than indifference. Their schools are fully attended. The natives 
 know their avowed purpose ; and still send their children to the 
 missionaries' seminaries, for the sake of the secular education 
 there imparted. Occasionally, it is true, an effervescence is 
 excited when a conversion takes place. For a time the schools 
 are deserted ; but the pupils soon flock back again. I have met 
 missionaries at work, of various denominations, nations, and 
 
364 
 
 persuasions, in different parts of the interior, and I can bear 
 testimony to the reception which they meet among the people. In 
 Tanjore, the memory of Schwartz is still fresh ; and the chapel 
 he built stands within the rajah's fort, in the middle of the 
 native population. We know with what a liberal spirit that good 
 man was treated by the former rajah ; nor are other instances 
 wanting of missionaries being lield in high estimation by native 
 sovereigns. For my own part, I believe that if ever Christianity 
 is to overshadow this land, it will be mainly owing to the con- 
 scientious perseverance of the missionaries, aided, no doubt, by 
 that secular education which the Government provides, and 
 which, in the language of Dr. Duff,* " undoubtedly tears up 
 Hindooism by the roots." 
 
 Our true policy is to let well alone, or rather to aid to the 
 extreme limit of our means in assisting missionary labours. But 
 on this, as on almost all Indian topics, there exists the greatest 
 possible diversity of opinion. If, on the one hand, there are 
 those who attribute the rebellion to a sudden panic among the 
 sepoys, lest their religion was to be forcibly changed, and who 
 look upon all missionary labours as a political mistake ; on the 
 other hand, a far more powerful body strenuously accuses the 
 East India Company of a " negation of Christianity." This is the 
 class which dares 
 
 " With rash surmise. 
 To point the judgment of the skies." 
 
 which settles authoritatively that " God hath entered into a con- 
 troversy with us," for our national sin ; that this is a national 
 judgment, and that henceforth Christianity must assume a bolder 
 attitude in India, though we are not yet distinctly informed what 
 that attitude is to be. The sermons, as a collection, preached 
 on the Day of Humiliation, are to my mind marvellous produc- 
 tions. One reverend teacher stickles at the doctrine of special 
 judgment in the cases of individuals, but holds an unquestioning 
 belief in the doctrine of special national judgments. Cholera and 
 the potato-rot may be accepted as manifest signs of divine wrath, 
 though the fall of a chapel upon the congregation could be satis- 
 factorily assigned to a faulty fomidation, or flaw in the walls or 
 roof, which caused the catastrophe ; or, at most, lead to a reference 
 
 * House of Lords' Report, 11th September, 1853. Q.4167i 
 
365 
 
 to the tower of Siloam, or a quotation from " Horace," — Swpe 
 Diespiter, &c. It is thus that the Church Missionary Society, 
 tliat highly respectable body, settles the question : — 
 
 " The committee, therefore, at once take their stand upon the 
 obvious and all-important truth, that God has a controversy with 
 our land, and therefore has visited us with this judgment. 
 
 " This one consideration leads the thought of Christian people / 
 above questions respecting the alleged faults of Government, or 
 mistakes of civil policy, or of the military department, to fix our 
 contemplations upon our national responsibilities. The judgment 
 is a national one, not only in the sense in which an insult to our 
 flag or an outrage upon our territory may be so called, but 
 because it has inflicted an outrage and insult unparalleled in our 
 annals, upon our national honour in its tenderest point, namely, 
 respect for our women and children." 
 
 Nay, they go farther ; they proceed to assign the exact causes 
 of Divine wrath. " The guilt of these neglected responsibilities 
 must be divided between the Government of British India and 
 the Christian churches of Great Britain. For a long period, the 
 Indian authorities would allow no Christian missionary to reside 
 within their territory. They compromised themselves with 
 Hindooism, and the Mahommedan imposture ; and this, under \ 
 the profession of neutrality in respect of all religions. Of late 
 years, this policy has been happily modified; connection with 
 idolatry has been for the most part severed. Missions have been 
 freely tolerated ; but the Christian conversion of the natives has 
 been discouraged, and the principle of neutrality is still professed. 
 The Christian church shared in this guilt. For a long time she 
 lifted up no protesting voice, and neglected the spiritual interests 
 of India. She has awakened from her guilty lethargy ; but has 
 not risen to the occasion. It was, indeed, her voice which pre- 
 vailed over an unwilling Government to open the door to 
 missionaries, and to separate itself from many abominations ; but 
 she has not taken full advantage of the opportunities thus gained, 
 but has halted in the subsequent discharge of her own appropriate 
 duty." 
 
 To say nothing of the irreverence of such dogmatism, there 
 are a few trifling difficulties in the theory which do not seem to 
 have struck its propounders. Thus, it is not clear why the 
 
366 
 
 punishment has been reserved for days when the moral state of 
 European society presents so vast a contrast to the profligacy of 
 the early Anglo-Indians. Why, if England is to blame, the 
 people in India, and not in England, are singled out as victims ? 
 Why the infliction has fallen heaviest on that portion of India 
 from which the Society draws annual subscriptions to the extent 
 of ten thousand pounds ; why the instruments of vengeance, the 
 sepoys and other rebels, are so much the heavier sufferers of the 
 two parties ? But let all this pass. It is matter of speculative 
 opinion. The fact is this, that the East India Company is at this 
 instant sore beset on all sides ; by Exeter Hall, the Church 
 Missionary Association, and Mr. John Fryar Thomas ; as well as 
 by the Bishop of Oxford and Mr. Gladstone. Various specific 
 instances are given of what is called " the traditionary policy," and 
 certainly very old the instances are. In 1829 (really in 1819) 
 says the Church Missionary manifesto, a Bengal sepoy was ex- 
 pelled at Meerut from the army, on account of his conversion 
 to Christianity, and with a sort of poetical justice the fact is 
 pointed out that the first blood was shed by the sepoys in 1857 at 
 . Meerut ! Thus, in a pamphlet entitled " Tlie connexion of the East 
 India Company's Government with idolatry," we are told that 
 *' Lord Clive presented a jewel worth four hundred pounds to an 
 idol," and that a collector, Mr. Place, authorized the natives to 
 put up prayers for rain in their pagodas in seasons of drought. 
 Salutes, we are told, used to be fired at Mahomedan festivals 
 even on Sundays ; that European soldiers had to parade at the 
 pageantry of idolatrous processions ; and that the Government 
 itself " administered " the funds of idolatrous temples. This 
 last charge, by the way, is not fairly stated, but what is the use 
 of bringing forward such antiquated trash as events from the 
 last century ? unless, indeed, to get up a religious outcry, and so 
 *' improve " the rebellion for purposes of conversion. The 
 writer of these things knows well enough that he cannot bring 
 forward a single instance of such acts in modern days, or he 
 would not be driven to Lord Clive and Mr. Place. If these 
 things were sinful, we have long since abandoned them, and, let 
 / us hope, repented of them. Had it been shown that in the year 
 / of grace 1857 we were still pursuing an encouragement of 
 ; idolatrous practices, there might have been some reasonable 
 
367 
 
 ground for assuming that what lias fallen upon us is the punish- 
 ment of our sins in that respect. But I can vouch for the last 
 fifteen years that none of the practices charged have been 
 pursued ; a fact which, I presume, must drive the supporters of 
 the divine judgment theory to that jealousy which punishes the 
 sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth 
 generation. 
 
 Monstrous as these allegations are, they are nevertheless 
 fraught with peril, because they will work upon that immense 
 fund of superstitious ignorance, and blind unreasoning belief, as 
 well as that sincere honest Christian spirit which fills England to 
 the uttermost parts of its boundaries. Without pausing to 
 inquire into the facts, the charges will be accepted as proved, 
 and it is difficult to foresee what rash measures may be forced 
 upon the Government of India. The plausible request that the 
 Bible may be taught as a "class-book" in the Government 
 schools is a mere quibble. I trust it may never be so degraded. 
 I know how powerful an instrument this plan would prove in 
 promoting the cunning and the interested, who would feign a 
 reverence they did not feel, in order to secure the favour of the 
 Government.* 
 
 * Listen to the evidence of Mr. Halliday (House of Commons Report, 25th 
 July, 1853):— 
 
 Q. 8763. " Reference has been made before the Committee to a minute of Lord 
 Tweeddale's, on the subject of introducing the Bible in the Government schools in 
 Madras ; what is your opinion as to the propriety of introducing the Bible as a class- 
 book in the schools of the Government ? 
 
 A. " There are two ways of introducing the Bible into schools. One is as a class- 
 book, by which I understand a horn book for teaching the language merely ; that 
 they should read out of that in preference to reading out of any other English book. 
 Another way is, that they should read out of it intelligently, so as to inquire and be 
 informed of the full meaning of it, which involves, of course, the whole teaching of 
 Christianity ; I cannot understand that there is any third way of introducing it. 
 Either the Bible is to be read simply as a book for the teaching of English, or it is to 
 be read as a means of acquiring knowledge of Christianity. If it be the first which 
 is meant, so far as it can be considered entirely distinct and capable of being separated 
 from the actual teaching of Christianity, I should object to it anywhere as a desecra- 
 tion. I do not think it is ad visible that you should teach little boys to thumb the 
 Bible in that way ; they learn to look upon it in all after-life as an abomination, for 
 which they were flogged and cuffed through their early years ; and I think that that 
 objection applies quite as much to Christian countries as to Heathen countries. But 
 if it be intended to introduce the Bible as a class-book, which shall be read with a 
 view to instruction in its doctrines, and that, in fact, it shall be the means of giving a 
 
368 
 
 I have myself seen this attempt made, wlien Mr. Thomas was 
 Chief Secretary ; my connexion with the Government High 
 School, of* which I was five years a Governor, let me behind the 
 scenes in all that long intrigue, which was defeated then, to be 
 brought forward again, of course, on the first favourable oppor- 
 tunity ; which the present, from the way in which it is snatched 
 
 knowledge of Christianity, I object to it as being in my judgment a wrong means to 
 a most desirable end, I being most seriously and entirely sjitisfied that it is by the 
 careful and systematic keei)ing out of the Government schools, and out of the Go- 
 vernment practice, all forcible and influential attempts at conversion, that we stand 
 where we stand, and that the natives are willing to receive missionary teaching and to 
 hear missionaries, and that they do in fiict evince that very tolerance w^hich is now 
 brought forward by zealous persons on that side of the question, as a reason for altering 
 the system hitherto pursued by the Government. I believe the persons who talk in 
 that way are utterly unaware of the hand which has i)ut them where they are, and 
 holds them where they are; I believe the very tolerance, or as they sometimes call it, 
 indift'erence of the natives to missionary teaching, and the very reason why the mis- 
 sionaries go in perfect security, and teach and jireach all over the country, without 
 stint or limit, without the slightest interference, or even exciting the anger of the 
 natives in any great degi-ee, is that the natives are thoroughly persuaded, by a long 
 course of observation of the conduct of the Government, that the whole thing is a 
 matter of private exhortation and private influence ; and that the force and influence 
 of the Government, whether in the schools or out of the schools, is never intended to 
 be applied to that purpose. But I have a very strong conviction that if any other 
 course were pursued ; if the Government, in the schools or out of the schools, were, 
 by reason of the present quiet and apparent tolerance of the natives, to attempt to 
 convert either by influence or by force, it might produce a very serious convulsion, 
 which would throw the missionaries back a great number of years." 
 
 Q. 8764. " Should you think it objectionable that the Government should give 
 permission to any class in the Government which wished it to use the Bible ? 
 
 A. " The meaning of that always is, for I have seen it attempted to be introduced 
 in a private school, about which there was a great deal of discussion, that if little boys 
 from six to twelve years old, under the influence of the master, can be got to say they 
 are willing to be taught Christianity, they ought to be taught it, without reference to 
 the will of their parents. I look upon that to be the grossest l)ad faith. If jou are 
 to teach Christianity, let it be done, not only with the knowledge of the children, who 
 are beside the question altogether, but also of their parents and the people of the 
 country ; but do not entice people into the school under the pretence of saying you 
 will only teach them Christianity if those little boys wish it, which is nothing but 
 saying that it shall be taught at the option and discretion of the master for the time 
 being. If, however, it be added, ' and with the permission of their parents,' which is 
 never added on this speculation, then I answer that the permission of only one set of 
 parents, or even the majority of the parents belonging to one school, would notsuflfice. 
 I do not think the i)ermission even of the whole set of parents of one school ought to 
 suffice, in a political view of the question, to induce the Government to alter its 
 system. But if, which is a thing not to be looked forAvard to, the parents all over 
 India were of that opinion, then the whole aspect of the question would be changed." 
 
369 
 
 at, no doubt is thought to be. The question has, however, been 
 definitively settled ; the fears of the natives are allayed ; and it 
 is to be hoped it will not be again re-opened. It is not true that 
 the Bible is excluded from the Government schools.* 
 
 Its teaching either nominally as a " class-book," or avenued, 
 as it ought to be if at all, for the purpose of teaching the natives 
 the truth and beauty of Christian feeling, is simply impracticable. 
 The question is too wide for discussion here. It would fill a 
 volume. But the testimony of Mr. Marshman is conclusive : — 
 
 " I am constrained to say that I fear the time is passed by 
 when the Government could safely introduce into their own 
 institutions the study of the Bible or the doctrines of Christianity."! 
 
 But there is a more dangerous course indicated ; one which, if 
 it should be acted on, will really, and very speedily too, show us 
 a national rebellion in dimensions which will admit of no ques- 
 tion. Because Act I, of 1856, aimed at the suppression of obscene 
 books and pictures, was declared not appHcable to representa- 
 tions on temples and cars, it is insinuated that these are the prin- 
 cipal source of the pollution of the popular mind. Now all I 
 wish to say upon this point is this, that if any crusade is to be 
 entered upon against the decorations of the cars and temples — 
 de-decorations we should call them — I beg that the English in 
 India may have three months' notice, in order that I, at any rate, 
 may wind up my affairs, and start to seek a livelihood in 
 Australia or elsewhere ; which, disagreeable as it would be at 
 my time of life, I should infinitely prefer to having my throat 
 cut from ear to ear, if I could hope for so kind and speedy a 
 death. 
 
 Let us now inquire Avhat truth there is in this charge against 
 
 * Mr. C. H. Cameron, House of Lords, 7th July, 1853 :— 
 
 Q. 7418. " Although no Christian instruction is given in the Government esta- 
 blishments for education, are the Scriptures excluded, or, on the contrary, are they 
 accessible to such native students as may wish to refer to them ? 
 
 A. " The Scriptures are to be found in all our libraries^ and they are accessible 
 to any student vjho chooses to consult them, and a great many do consult them." 
 
 Q. 7419. " There is no prohibition against reading the Scriptures, either in form 
 or in substance ? 
 
 A. " None whatever." 
 
 (Sir C. E. Trevelyan, ib. ; W. W. Bird, ib. ; and Halliday, ib.) 
 
 t J. C. Marshman, House of Lords, 15th June, 1853, 
 
 2 B 
 
370 
 
 flic East India Company, that idolatry has been iavonred, and 
 Christianity humbled, in the eyes of natives.* 
 
 First, with respect to European Christians. The annual cost 
 of the Established Church in India is between eleven and twelve 
 lacks. The steady advance of the church, during the last half 
 century, in the additional number of churches, of bishops, of 
 chaplains, has been most marked, and I scarcely apprehend that 
 the attitude of the Government towards its own Christian subjects 
 is seriously impugned.f 
 
 Secondly, with respect to the natives. We have abolished, 
 or caused to be abandoned, various abominations connected 
 generally with the Hindoo religion, or with special creeds. Thus 
 we have put an end to suttee universally. We have struck down 
 infanticide in the North- West. We have extirpated Meeriah 
 sacrifices among the Khoonds, and human sacrifices among other 
 tribes ; we have legalized the re-marriage of Hindoo widows — 
 one of the most hopeful sources of the moral regeneration of the 
 Hindoo ; we have removed temporal obstacles to conversion, by 
 declaring the convert entitled to participate in his family inherit- 
 ance ; we have entirely refrained from all participation in the 
 
 * The proclamation of Mr. Montgomery, the Judicial Commissioner of the 
 Punjab, that henceforth Christianity will be no impediment to office, must not be 
 supposed to represent the state of things throughout India. In Madras the rule of 
 neutrality has been long obser\'ed ; it required no ray of light from the North- West to 
 illumine this benighted Presidency. The very highest officers, the head sherLstadars, 
 in Trichinopoly and Canara, are Christians. So is the naib-sheristadar, the second 
 native revenue officer in North Arcot. Canara and Malabar have four Christian 
 thasildars. The head of the salt department in Guntoor is a Christian. A native 
 Christian is a pleader in the Sudder court, and in the lower grades of office there 
 are many Christians, native and East Indian. The numbers thu^ employed may not 
 be very' great, but the causes which operate to exclude their influx have not their 
 origin in religious feara or scruples. The same bars will be found in the case of the 
 Mahommedans as the Christians. It is the Brahminical interest, still strong through- 
 out the civil administration of the country, which operates by intrigue; supple sug- 
 gestions, and silent combinations, to keep as many offices as possible in its own circle. 
 The Brahmins have suffered several serious shocks of late years, as for instance in the 
 abolition of Mahratta accounts, and in the order forbidding many of one family to be 
 employed in the same office; but their power is still vast, and their influence still vaster. 
 Madras, at any rate, needs no such humiliating confession as that in which the Com- 
 missioner of the Punjab candidly takes shame to himself for abnegation of a plain 
 course of duty. 
 
 t J. C. Marshman, 16th June, 1853, House of Lords' Report, Q. 6550: and 
 Halliday, 25th July, 1853, House of Commons' Report, Q. 8762. 
 
371 
 
 administration of the Pafvoda funds : wo have ignored caste in 
 our Government schools; we have given grants in aid to mis- 
 sionary schools ; * one of the very last acts of the Madras Govern- 
 ment has been the affiliation of various missionary schools with 
 the Presidency college. The leading journal in England, it is 
 true, is not content with this " sum of our intervention." It is 
 very easy, no doubt, for English editors, who write at home at 
 ease, to decide the " timidity and caution," which are said to 
 have marked the steps of the Indian Government, in the intro- 
 duction of these great innovations. Tliere should have been a 
 " peremptory prohibition," we are told ; but we in India know 
 what must have been the immediate results of such an order, 
 and how much praise is due to the quick yet prudent action of 
 those military men and civilians, who, in various localities, have 
 persuaded a wild and savage people gradually to give up im- 
 moral practices which had obtained for centuries. f 
 
 These things have been done, and, for the most part, have 
 been well done. On this side, at any rate, the East India Com- 
 pany is [far less liable to attack ; has far less to answer for, 
 whether by way of omission or commission, than on any other 
 side which has been indicated. But they do no more than Akbar 
 did.t 
 
 There are, however, some few acts which have been done in 
 a covert under-hand way, of which, I think, there is cause to 
 complain. The natives are quick to detect these schemes ; they 
 have uniformly opposed them, and, though unsuccessful in their 
 opposition, they have had their prejudices and their indignation 
 roused. I have already pointed out what course was adopted 
 with regard to the Pagoda funds. § I will further add, that this 
 
 * In point of fact, the whole of the money given away in these gi-ants, in this 
 Presidency, are bestowed upon the missionary seminaries, for this one sufficient 
 reason that there are no other schools to assist. One of the last acts of the Governor's 
 of the High School, previous to the resignation of the President, myself, and the native 
 membei-s, was to recommend the adoption of the grant-in-aid system ; and it is higlily 
 to the credit of the native gentlemen on tliat Board, that there was not a dissentient 
 voice raised by any of them to the measure. 
 
 t See the account of the way in which Major-General Ludlow checked infanticide 
 and suttee at Beypore : Ludlow's " British India," Vol. i., p. 148. 
 
 J See Sir C. Trevelyan, House of Lords' Report. Q. 6714. 
 
 § *' The Rebellion in India," p. 209. 
 
 2 B 2 
 
affords an illustration of what I mean. No doubt it was better 
 that the Government should withdraw from the collection and 
 administration of the funds upj)ropriated by former donors, for 
 the maintenance of the Hindoo religion. The Hindoos themselves 
 would not have objected to this;* but the thing should have 
 been done in an open statesman-like fashion. The results of 
 handinor over these vast resources to the uncontrolled power of 
 particular natives should have been foreseen, and at the same 
 time that the Government withdrew its own control, it was 
 bound, I think, to have adopted all such measures as would 
 secure tlie funds from peculation and robbery, and the people 
 from dissensions and religious hate. A legislative act should 
 have been passed, declaring that the British Government saw 
 reason to withdraw from further interference with the religious 
 funds of the natives ; and for the purpose of preserving them in- 
 tact, a managing central body, nominated by the people and 
 enjoying their confidence, should have been elected, with full 
 power of management and supervision. But nothing of the sort 
 was attempted ; and, I believe, purposely. There has long been 
 in India, especially in the Presidency of Madras, a small but 
 highly influential section of European society, opposed, from con- 
 scientious motives, to all education not avowedly based upon the 
 Bible. In their eyes, any participation in matters which affect 
 the religious observances of the natives, is an abomination ; and 
 I cannot but think, that it was clearly seen what a " heavy blow 
 and great discouragement " this throwing the Pagoda funds to 
 the multitude to scramble for, must prove to the " heathen reli- 
 gion." When the funds were plundered, the temples would soon 
 fall, first into disrepair, and then into total dilapidation. The 
 seeds of discord, jealousy, and enmity, would be sown broad-cast 
 among the entire Hindoo population, and the plan succeeded so 
 well, that a further effort was lately made to disconnect the 
 Government even from the collection of the rents and profits of 
 the lands, as well as the management of the funds dedicated to 
 the Pagodas. 
 
 * The Madras Native Association very liberally proposed In one of their petitions 
 to Parliament, that if a Board were constituted for regulating the expenditure of these 
 funds, tlie suri)lus should he rendered a^■ailable for educational pur]>oses. 
 
37.3 
 
 So, again, with respect to Act 21, of 1850, mistakenly called 
 the " Lex Loci " Act, of which intended piece of legislation, it 
 was but a fraction, there cannot be a doubt that it has caused 
 great and wide-spread discontent among the natives at large. 
 I cannot find that this Act was called for by any considerable 
 body of natives who felt themselves aggrieved by the operation of 
 the existing Hindoo Law. Sir Herbert Maddock, in his minute, 
 dated 9th June, 1845,* states that he finds only one memorial 
 recorded, that of the Rev. Mr. Gogerly, and other missionaries, 
 calling for the passing of this enactment ! How it was opposed at 
 once by the natives of Calcutta and Madras, may be learnt from 
 a perusal of the other papers in the same appendix ; and it has 
 always appeared to me that this act of legislatien was a piece of 
 obstinate clap-trap ; totally imcalled for by the necessity of the 
 case.t 
 
 It was sought to be supported by the Indian Government by a 
 variety of fallacious arguments which were refuted by the natives ; 
 though their further observations were never replied to, but the 
 matter disposed of by simply passing the Act. Among other 
 matters, it was said that this was but an extension of an old 
 Regulation, which had been in force for eighteen years in Bengal. 
 But the fact was, that this Regulation had been practically a dead 
 letter ; at the time this Regulation Avas passed, there existed no 
 channel for the natives to express their opinions, and the clause in 
 
 ♦ Appendix A to House of Lords' Report, 1852, 
 
 t Mr. Leith (House of Commons' Report, 1853; Q. 3361), speaks thus of it:— 
 " I do not consider this a religious question, and I would guard myself against being 
 supposed so to argue it. In India I supported the missionaries to the best of my 
 humble ability, both with my puree and with my professional advice; I was their 
 adAiser on many occasions, and in every way their friend. But this, I think, was a 
 short-sighted policy; it was man trying to do God's work in man's way, not in God's 
 way (wrong should not be done that good may come), and I think it has rather 
 thwarted the object which all who are anxious for the spread of Christianity in India 
 have in view. I say, further, that they have not followed the Gospel in it; Christ 
 said, ' Leave all and follow me;' they say, ' Take all and follow me.' I say, it would 
 have been a better proof of convei-sion, that a pei-son should be willing to leave his 
 family property than that he should take the family property when becoming a 
 Christian. Injury is thought to be done to the father and to all those who look to 
 the Hindoo son as the means of securing these important spiritual benefits to them ; 
 I do think, both as a matter of policy, and as a matter of principle, the Act in 
 question was unauthoiised and unjust." (See Baillie, House of Commons' Report ; 
 Q. 3502.) 
 
374 
 
 question was foisted, as it were, surreptitiously, into the Regu- 
 lation, which was on a totally distinct subject-matter.* 
 
 All this appeal's to me very paltry, and a sort of chicanery 
 unworthy of a great Government. There cannot he a greater 
 mistake than that of legislating in advance of the state of feeling 
 of the day. The time would, no doubt, have come when such a 
 provision would be acceptable to the natives at large, if, indeed, 
 it was not rendered unnecessary by the mere action of popular 
 opinion. I would observe that there is a wide distinction to be 
 drawn between our duty as rulers, to forbid mala in se, such 
 as mm'der, suicide, and the like ; and those mala prohibita, which 
 rest on customs. 
 
 But to retui'u. Our true policy, I believe, will be found to 
 consist in urging on Government secular education, which " up- 
 roots limdooism," while we at the same time help forward mis- 
 sionaries' efforts by om' purses. We must imperatively put down 
 all tub-preaching colonels, and other military officers, who keep 
 tame converts to preach in the bazaar. These fanatics produce 
 nothing but mischief; they impede the work they seek to help ; 
 they probably owe their personal safety to a belief in their in- 
 sanity, which excuseth a multitude of sins in the eyes of the 
 Mahommedan and Hindoo. We must steadily pursue the path of 
 tolerance as a Government, and we may then give what impetus 
 we please to the exertions of individuals or societies in the propa- 
 gation of the Gospel. What the effect of " secular" education, 
 afforded by the state, hitherto, has been, is best shown by 
 tracmg the subsequent course in life of the young men who have 
 completed their curriculum of studies at the High School, and 
 gone out with honours. f 
 
 Let me add my own testimony. I have watched with anxiety 
 the course of the distinguished students of the High School. Not 
 a word has been breathed against the unimpeachable honesty of 
 any one of them. They have been tried in all positions of life, 
 however responsible and tempting. They have given equal satis- 
 faction to the Govermnent which employs them, and their fellow- 
 
 * See a pamphlet entitletl " The Political Prospects of British India," by T. C. 
 Robertson, late Lieutenant-Governor of the North- West Provinces, pp. 5, 6. 
 t See Appendix. 
 
375 
 
 subjects over whose welfare tliej preside in vast districts. Mr. 
 George Norton, the late Advocate-General of Madras, the founder 
 of education in this Presidency, who, for years, with singular 
 constancy and patience, fought the Fabian fight against the policy 
 of successive Governments, thus speaks of the effects of education 
 in his evidence before the Lords.* 
 
 " Do you conceive that the education which they received 
 at this school was likely to sap their moral principles, or to render 
 them less trustworthy servants ? 
 
 " Indeed, I think the reverse. Such as have been employed 
 are more noted for their moral principles than any natives I have 
 ever heard of before, and no imputation has ever been thrown 
 upon any of them." 
 
 So the whole of the noble evidence of Sir S. C. Trevelyan 
 must be studied, f though it is too voluminous for insertion here. 
 
 With respect to what the effects of similar education icill 
 he, opinion differs, for it is matter of speculation. Those who 
 regard the Bible as the sine qua non of moral teaching, naturally 
 predict that no satisfactory moral change can be worked out with- 
 out instruction in the Scriptures. Some would insist upon making 
 scripture teaching the touchstone of Government education. 
 Others, seeing the danger and difficulty of this course, w^ould 
 adopt it, surreptitiously as I deem, and under false pretences, as a 
 class-hooh. Let the seed be sown, they say ; God will give the 
 harvest. They argue that though Ave destroy Hindooisra, w^e sup- 
 ply no purer faith. We find a Hindoo, and we leave an atheist. 
 Even Sir C. Trevelyan says, nothing short of the conversion of 
 the natives to Christianity will work any real moral change. 
 Dr. Duff's and Mr. Marshman's evidence is to the same purport, j: 
 Looking, however, to past effects, it appears to me impossible, and 
 directly contrary to the fact, to say that no moral change has 
 been wrought ; and if we may infer the future from the past, the 
 
 * House of Lords' Report, 1852-53. (Q. 6287.) 
 
 t See Sir C. Trevelyan before the House of Lords' Committee, 21st, 22nd, and 
 28th June, 1853. 
 
 :}: It is not intended to represent these authorities as maintaining that Christianity is 
 not preferable to mere secular education, but simply as sho^v^ng that, in their opinion, 
 under existing circumstances, the present system of Government education is the most 
 feasible. 
 
spread of education on its present basis will result in an ever in- 
 creasing product of moral change. Whether the present course, 
 or tlie insisting on all boys, of whatever religion, reading the 
 Bible as a " class-book," will most conduce to the ultimate con- 
 version of the natives is matter of discussion. Each party may 
 fairly give the other credit for sincerity of belief and excellence 
 of motives, whichever shall prevail.* Sir Charles Trevelyan's 
 evidence is as follows : — 
 
 " You stated, in a previous portion of your evidence, that 
 while you considered the promotion of Christianity essential, not 
 only for the spiritual welfare of the people of India, but also as 
 the great civilizing agent, you yet thought it of the greatest im- 
 portance, even for the promotion of Christianity, that the Govern- 
 ment of India should be considered by the natives as neutral and 
 impartial ? 
 
 " I consider it of the greatest consequence. I was going to 
 add to my last answer, that whatever conclusion we may come to, 
 as to what is required by the principle of toleration, the con- 
 sideration of grave practical expediency cannot be overlooked. 
 Acting upon the principle of the neutrality of the Government, 
 we have made great progress, and our prospects for the future 
 are very satisfactory ; whereas, if that principle of neutrality were 
 once departed from in the manner described, the prospects of 
 the evangelization of the people of India would be very seriously 
 damaged, because, even admitting that the principle of toleration 
 would not be infringed by the course of proceeding proposed, 
 there can be no doubt whatever that the principle of neutrality 
 would be departed from." 
 
 " Are the committee to understand you as meaning to say, 
 that your view of the principle of religious toleration, is, that no 
 use should be made of money raised from a country, to which 
 the great majority of the people in that country conscientiously 
 object ; are the committee to understand that that is necessary, in 
 your judgment, to religious toleration ? 
 
 " My view of toleration is this, that toleration is founded 
 on perfectly equal treatment. The essence of toleration is 
 equality. If we assisted in teaching all the religions which 
 
 * Sir C. Trevelyan, House of Lords' Report j Q. 6842-3, 6858-9. 
 
377 
 
 prevail in India, that would be toleration ; if we refrained from 
 teaching any, that would be toleration ; but if we selected one or 
 two religions and taught them, at the expense of the professors 
 of all the others, that would not be toleration." 
 
 " Can you tell the Committee what the comparative results, 
 in the way of conversions to Christianity, have been, from the 
 education already given in the missionary and in the Govern- 
 ment schools ? 
 
 " Before I left Calcutta, I had a list made of all the con- 
 verts to Christianity from the educated class, and T found that 
 at that time the majority of this class of converts, whose character 
 and cultivation and strength of mind offer the best assistance to 
 Christianity, were from the Hindoo college. I think many 
 persons mistake the way in which the conversion of India will be 
 brought about. I believe it will take place at last wholesale, 
 just as our own ancestors were converted. The country will 
 have Christian instruction infused into it in every way, by direct 
 missionary instruction, and indirectly through books of various 
 kinds, through the public papers, through conversation with 
 Europeans, and in all the conceivable ways in which knowledge 
 is communicated ; and then, at last, when society is completely 
 saturated with Christian knowledge, and public opinion has taken 
 a decided turn that way, they wdll come over by thousands." 
 
 " Do you think that that ultimate result will be more assisted 
 by the maintenance of the principles of neutrality, on the part of 
 the governing power, that governing power being a foreign 
 power of unrivalled strength, than by any direct interference on 
 their part ? 
 
 " Decidedly by the principles of neutrality. Speaking merely 
 as a Christian, and setting aside for a moment my former 
 connexion with the Government, and the feelings which I ac- 
 quired as a Government officer, the thing which I deprecate 
 more than any other as hazarding the entire cause, and tending 
 to produce what is sure to be a great obstruction, and would 
 probably be a great calamity, is the infraction of that Government 
 system of neutrality." 
 
 For my own part I do not hesitate, as I never have hesitated, 
 to state my own conviction, that the course which the Govern- 
 ment is now pursuing is not only the only safe one, but by far 
 
378 
 
 the wisest and best adapted for the end idl Christians have at 
 heart 
 
 I know how hopeless it is to induce men to alter their opinions 
 on this point. Argument is thrown away. I may be wrong 
 myself. Only this observation I would crave to make, that it is 
 safer to rely upon the opinions of excellent men, founded upon 
 long practical experience, and delivered in times when there 
 prevailed no excitement, than to listen to the counsels of teachers, 
 however worthy, who are delivering their advice in a season of 
 agitation, and who have for the most part no practical acquaint- 
 ance with India. Thus it is wiser to refer to the evidence of 
 such men as Lord William Bentinck, the late Bishop Wilson of 
 Calcutta,* and Bishop Turner of Bombay; as well as of Sir 
 Charles Trevelyan, the Rev. Mr. Keane, Mr. Marshman, Dr. 
 Tucker, and the like, delivered in 1852-3, before the Parlia- 
 mentary Committees, than to be led away by Lord Shaftesbury and 
 Exeter Hall, the Bishop of Oxford and Mr. Gladstone, and others 
 who have never set foot in this country. Let us see, then, what 
 course the miimpeachable Parliamentary witnesses suggest. The 
 Rev. Mr. Keane,t in answer to the question, " Do you think the 
 effect of your religious instruction would be such as you describe 
 it to be, if you were considered to be the agents of the Govern- 
 ment, acting under their authority, and complying with their 
 directions ? " says, " I think we should meet with great difficulties, 
 which we do not meet with now." And to the question, " Sup- 
 posing the Government connected themselves with the missions 
 with which you have been associated, what effect would be 
 produced upon your labours ; would they be much more 
 efficient, or less so if you were recognized as a Government 
 servant ? " replied, " I think hitherto the opposite course has 
 worked well ; but I have such confidence that God is doing 
 wonders in India, that I believe if the Government were to give 
 its sanction now, wisely, to Christian missions that would work 
 well also." And in reply to the question, " Having regard to 
 your experience, should you expect greater success in the 
 
 * I cannot put my hand upon this opinion of Bishop Wilson, but I have a perfect 
 recollection of having met with it. 
 
 t House of Lords' Keport, Q. 7387-00. 
 
379 
 
 mission with which you are connected If you were known 
 and recognized as a Government servant, Instead of being an 
 independent Christian, acting upon private motives of charity 
 and duty ? " answered, " I very much prefer my present posi- 
 tion." And on being further asked, " You think that it Is more 
 efficient, and renders you more capable of extending religious 
 knowledge?" said, "I think so; missions must be a voluntary 
 work, and I think they do best when they are free from the 
 entanglements of the Government ; but still Government has to 
 fulfil its duty to God and the people in the matter." 
 
 Bishop Carr,* in reply to the question, " Can you suggest 
 any way of meeting the difficulty?" says, "I think that the 
 Government giving grants-in-aid to the different schools is the 
 only way of fairly meeting it." 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Tucker,f an authority of singular weight in 
 the Madras Presidency, in answer to the question, " Will you 
 state to the Committee the opinion which you have formed, 
 from your own observation, as to the practicability of the intro- 
 duction of the Scriptures into the schools with Government 
 assistance ? " says, " I should concur with those who have said 
 that it is not safe to attempt the introduction of Christian in- 
 struction into the schools as a part of the system." 
 
 Finally, the weighty evidence of Sir C. TrevelyanJ deserves 
 to be written in letters of gold. In answer to the question, " You 
 are of opinion that it Is very Important, as far as the Govern- 
 ment is concerned, that in all their efforts to promote education, 
 they should carefully abstain from taking any step that would 
 have the appearance of attempting to convert them to the Christian 
 religion?" he says, " I consider it of the highest consequence 
 that the Government should firmly and consistently maintain 
 the ground of entire neutrality and impartiality; that is the 
 principle on which we have been constantly acting, and It has 
 produced excellent fruits. I fear that a disposition exists to go 
 from the extreme of excessive timidity to that of over-confidence ; 
 and I have, therefore, called attention to the great importance 
 
 * House of Lords' Report, Q. 8151. 
 t House of Lords' Report, Q. 8287. 
 t House of Lords' Report, Q. 6799-6800. 
 
380 
 
 of maintaining inviolate the fundamental principle of onr Govern- 
 ment iu India, "vvliich is that of complete religious neutrality." 
 And in reply to the next question, " Even independently of our 
 having acted upon that principle with respect to education, 
 have there not been at various times, from the Government 
 and from the Governors of India, declarations advisedly made 
 of non-interference with the faith of the people?" he answered, 
 '' Again and again. I will give one, which will answer for all. 
 Tliis is an extract from an answer which Lord William Bentinck 
 made to an address which was presented to him by the mis- 
 sionaries of Bengal on his departure from India : — ^ I have the 
 more reason to feel flattered by your kindness upon this occasion, 
 inasmuch as it proceeds from those with whom, in their public 
 capacity, I have carefully abstained from holding any communi- 
 cation. The professed object of your lives and labours is con- 
 version. The fundamental principle of British rule, the compact 
 to which the Government stands solemnly pledged, is strict 
 neutrality. To this important maxim, policy, as well as good 
 faith, have enjoined upon me the most scrupulous observance ; 
 because, besides disarming the disloyal of his most powerful 
 means of mischief, it tends to give contentment of mind to the 
 good, and to form into one bulwark of defence the confidence 
 and attachment of the whole population. The same maxim of 
 strict neutrality is peculiarly applicable to the question, now so 
 much agitated, of general education. I venture to give it as my 
 firm opinion, that in all the schools and colleges under the support 
 of Government, the principle cannot be too strongly enforced ; 
 and that all interference and injudicious tampering with the 
 religious belief of the students, and all mingling, direct or indi- 
 rect, of Christianity with the system of instruction, ought to be 
 positively forbidden. It is held I know by many, that the 
 improvement of the human mind in India, if unaccompanied by 
 instruction in a purer faith, is calculated to destroy that which 
 exists, without substituting anything in its place. One of our 
 best and most useful prelates, the late Bishop Turner, thought 
 otherwise. His was an opinion, in which the Mussulman, the 
 Hindoo, and the Christian, all in fact who believe their faith to 
 be true, ought to join, — that the more the mind is enlightened, 
 the better it will be al)lc to a[)i rcciate religious and every other 
 
381 
 
 truth. There is, I understand, in England a large class of excel- 
 lent persons, who consider as a compromise the pjvtection afforded to 
 the religions of the country, and icould gladly induce more active 
 interference on the part of the ruling power in the diffusion of 
 Christianity. They may he assured that a more grievous error coidd 
 not he entertained. The recollection of past ages, when conver- 
 sion, by whatever means, by fire and sword, if persecution failed, 
 was the first care of the conqueror, is not obliterated from the 
 memory or apprehensions of the people ; and the greatest obstacle 
 to the cause they espouse would be the distrust any decided 
 intervention of the supreme authority would inevitably create. 
 The extension of episcopacy was not without objection, as involv- 
 ing the great principle of neutrality. Known as this great digni- 
 tary is to derive his office from the Crown, and bearing always 
 the rank and character of one of the highest officers of the State, 
 it is difficult for the public to see him in his other capacity of 
 head and patron of the Church Missionaries, without having the 
 suspicion that the Government must have some connection with 
 and interest in their proceedings. We may rely with confidence 
 on the exercise of the greatest caution in this respect on the part 
 of our excellent diocesan, but that caution is now, and will always 
 be, particularly called for. Being as anxious as any of these excel- 
 lent persons for the diffusion of Christianity through all countries, 
 hut Jcnoiving hetter than they do the ground we stand upon, my 
 humhle advice to them is, rely exclusively upon the humhle, pious, 
 and learned missionary. His labours, divested of all human 
 power, create no distrust. Encourage education with all your 
 means. The offer of religious truth in the school of the missionary 
 is without objection ; it is or it is not accepted. If it is not, the 
 other seeds of instruction may take root, and yield a rich and 
 abundant harvest of improvement and future benefit. I would 
 give them, as an example in support of this advice, the school 
 founded exactly upon these principles, lately superintended by 
 the estimable Mr. Duff, that has been attended with such unpa- 
 ralleled success. I would say to them, generally, that they could 
 not send to India too many labourers in the vineyard, like those 
 wliom I have now the gratification of addressing. I submit these 
 arguments to the Committee, in the firm belief that the course I 
 am advocating is the only one by which Christianity can safely 
 
382 
 
 and effectually be promoted ; aiid I am perfectly convinced, that 
 the greatest danger to which the progress of Christianity in India 
 is liable, the greatest obstruction wliich it is likely to meet with, 
 is the liability we are under to a panic and reaction in the native 
 mind. It would throw us back we cannot tell how far ; we can- 
 not tell how long we sliould be in recovering the ground we have 
 gained ; we cannot tell even what the political consequences or 
 the personal consequences to the Europeans in India might 
 be.'"* 
 
 And in addition to these authorities I will add the following 
 petition of the Baptist Missionaries to the House of Lords : — 
 " To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal 
 of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled. 
 
 " The Petition of the Treasurer, Secretaries, and Committee 
 of the Baptist Missionary Society, convened the 13th January, 
 1858, humbly sheweth : — 
 
 " That your petitioners are the representatives of the Baptist 
 Missionary Society, formed, in the year 1792, for the purpose 
 of spreading the gospel in heathen lands. 
 
 " That the predecessors of your petitioners sent their first 
 missionaries to the Bengal Presidency in the year 1793, who, 
 forbidden to prosecute their labours in British India, were 
 received under the protection of the Danish Crown, and, under 
 the direct sanction of His Majesty the King of Denmark, settled 
 at Serampore. 
 
 " That, in pursuance of their plans, the missionaries of this 
 Society subsequently formed stations in Bengal, Behar, and in 
 the North- West Provinces; established printing presses at 
 Serampore and Calcutta; by the translation of the Scriptures 
 into the various tongues of Northern India, especially in the 
 Sanscrit, Bengali, Hindi, and Hindustani languages; by the 
 compilation of grammars and lexicons ; and by the preparation 
 of tracts and school books in the vernaculars, they laid the 
 foundation for a vernacular literature, imbued with the know- 
 ledge, science, and religion of Great Britain ; and by the 
 maintenance of schools sought to enlighten the minds of the 
 people, and to lead them from the debasing and immoral practices 
 
 • See also ib. Q. 6804; H. H .Wilson, ib.nU ; Mr. Cameron, ih. 7406-7414-16. 
 
383 
 
 of idolatry to the worship of the true God ; and thus prepared 
 the way for those enlarged missionary and educational efforts 
 which the Christian communities of Great Britain, the Continent 
 of Europe, and America, have put forth for the elevation of the 
 people of India. 
 
 " That your petitioners cannot but feel the deepest interest in 
 everything that concerns the moral, social, and religious welfare 
 of tlie Indian empire, and most deeply deplore the lamentable 
 events which have overwhelmed large classes of her Majesty's 
 subjects with profound anguish and suffering. 
 
 " That your petitioners gratefully acknowledge the important 
 changes which late years have witnessed in British India, such as 
 the legal prohibition of suttee, infanticide, thuggee, slavery, and 
 the immolation of human beings at the festivals of Juggernath 
 and Kali, and will thankfully hail every further approach towards 
 the establishment of perfect religious liberty. 
 
 " That your petitioners further represent to your Right 
 Honourable House that the establishment of an episcopacy, or 
 the appointment of chaplains, by the British Government, for the 
 conversion of the natives of India to Christianity, in ivhat luay 
 soever supported, loould he most hazardous to the peace of India, if 
 not to the continuance of the British empire in Hindustan', and 
 they further believe that such interference with the spread or 
 maintenance of religious truth, or the endoAvment of any form of 
 religious belief, whether Christian, Mohammedan, or Heathen, 
 even for the religious instruction of the servants of Government, 
 is beyond the province of the civil power, and most seriously 
 detrimental to the best ifiterests of Christianity. 
 
 " Your petitioners therefore pray your Right Honourable 
 House, in any legislative measures which in wisdom of your 
 Right Honourable House may be adopted, to make provision : — 
 
 " That the future Government of India shall proceed in the 
 beneficent course of late years, and separate itself from all the 
 idolatrous usages of the people ; prohibit such practices as may 
 be injurious to public order and decency, or to the civil and 
 social rights of any class of her Majesty's subjects; and secure 
 to every rank and condition, to Government servants as well as 
 to all other classes — European and native — the freest exercise 
 and expression of their religious convictions. 
 
384 
 
 " And that the future Government of India shall be forbidden, 
 to establish, endow, or interfere with the spread or maintenance 
 of any form of religious belief." 
 
 I believe that if the suffrages of the hard-working, conscien- 
 tious, devoted missionaries, labouring at this moment all over 
 India, could be taken, they would echo these sentiments. They 
 know what an impediment the idea, if once entertained by the 
 natives that they were the propagandist instruments of the 
 Government, would prove to the spread of Christianity ; what 
 personal risk they would run ; what dangers have to encounter. 
 Let them continue to wander, as now, from village to village, 
 with the Bible in their hands, expounding the word of God 
 under the banyan tree to multitudes, out of whom the hearts of 
 some may be touched ; let them establish their seminaries where- 
 soever there seems hope for them to prosper ; let the Govern- 
 ment give these schools grants-in-aid, and let the Christian 
 public in India and in England prove their sincerity or their 
 interest in the cause of the missionary by giving them their 
 utmost assistance. 
 
 I have given the opinion of Englishmen ; what is the opinion 
 of natives we may learn from the fact that Mr. Frere, the Com- 
 missioner of Scinde, has stated, that " no single proclamation of 
 the rebels has yet been published, which has not dwelt on the efforts 
 to convert the natives to Christianity, as affording the most power- 
 ful incentives to rebellion ; " and I would call attention to a most 
 singular production — the Proclamation of Feroz Shah, son of the 
 Ex-King of Delhi. He calls on the people to rise, in order to 
 prevent the inauguration of what he pretends will be the English 
 policy, if we again get the upper hand. He is unintentionally > 
 complimentary to our past fairness and neutrality ; he seeks to 
 stir up the people, by assuring them that we have determined on 
 a different line of policy for the future. " i/'," he says, " after 
 all that has past, the English regain their former power in India, 
 it is certain that they will destroy the religion, honour, life, and 
 property of every one ; " he then professes to state what the 
 English Government has resolved to do, in order to effect this.* 
 
 * The whole of the proclamation, which is too long for insertion here, \n\\ be found 
 in the Appendix C, and is well worthy of perusal. 
 
 'J 
 
385 
 
 "We have two advantages," says Sir C. Trevelyan,* "to 
 confer upon the natives of India, which the Romans had not : 
 one of them is constitutional freedom, and the other is Chris- 
 tianity. Now, these two will make the people of India, at some 
 distant period, capable of self-government and self-defence." 
 I have endeavoured in these pages to show how we may most 
 safely, most prudently, most efficiently keep the even, steadfast, 
 noiseless tenor of our way towards this final end. I will con- 
 clude with the words of the same high authority, because I can 
 find no others which more completely embody my own solemn 
 conviction :— ^" It is a plain moral duty to govern India as well 
 as we possibly can for the benefit of the natives ; and Providence 
 has so arranged, that the performance of duty shall always be 
 found to be conducive to the best interests of mankind. Honesty 
 in this, as in every thing else, is the best policy." 
 
 * House of Lords' Report, Q. 6745. 
 
 2 c 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 There are in the three armies of India 4492 officers of infantry of all 
 ranks from colonel to ensign, belonging to 155 regiments of native 
 and nine of European infantry ; each native regiment having 26 officers, 
 six of the European regiments 51, and the other three regiments 52 
 officers ; the European regiments thus having in all 462 officers, and 
 the native regiments 4030, — total 4492 infantry officers. 
 
 It is allowed to withdraw for staff duty seven officers from each 
 regiment of native infantry, and fourteen from each European corps, 
 thus making a total of 1211 officers withdrawn from the infantry for 
 staff or detached duty ; and the colonels of regiments (167 in number) 
 being also absent, there are 1378 officers of infantry actually allowed 
 to be absent from regimental duty. 
 
 By the regulations of 1796, one-third of the lieutenant-colonels and 
 majors, of whom there are 346, are allowed to be absent on furlough, 
 which gives about 116 absentees in these two ranks; one-fourth of 
 the captains (of whom there are 1211) being also calculated to be 
 absent, gives 303 absentees in the captains' grade ; and one-sixth of 
 the subalterns (of whom there are 2768,) gives 460 subalterns absent, 
 making a total of 889 officers of all ranks absent on furlough, which, 
 added to those absent on staff and detached duty (1378), makes in 
 all 2267 officers absent from their corps; leaving for actual regi- 
 mental duty 2225 officers of all grades. 
 
 Allowing double the number of officers to the European corps, as 
 compared with the native, this number gives a proportion of 24J 
 officers to each European, and 12^ to each native corps, for the disci- 
 pline of about 9000 rank and file European infantry, divided into 90 
 companies, and 135,000 rank and file of native infantry, divided into 
 1550 companies: total 144,000 rank and file, divided into 1640 com- 
 panies ; and allowing, as before, double the number of officers for the 
 European corps, the proportion of officers will be one to every 
 35 Europeans, and one to every 70 natives, or about two officers to 
 each of the 90 companies of European infantry, in all 180 officers, 
 and 1550 officers to the 1550 companies of native infantry — one for 
 each company, — total 1730 officers for the 1640 companies of Euro- 
 
 2 C 2 
 
388 
 
 pcan and native infantry ; and leaving 495 officers for regimental 
 command and regimental staff, that is, a proportion of 2J officers per 
 regiment. 
 
 These proportions of officers would be sufficient for all military 
 purposes if always uniformly maintained throughout all the regiments 
 M'ith efficient and experienced officers ; but no allowance is here made 
 for the proportion that must at times be sick and unfit for duty, 
 especially when on service. And these proportions are liable to be 
 materially affected and the efficiency and numbers in the different 
 grades rendered unequal, in particular corps, by reason of a larger 
 number of officers than are allowed being withdrawn for staff duty ; 
 and also by reason of many being either young and inexperienced, or 
 old and worn out — merely hanging on for pension ; then these evils 
 are more especially felt when a regiment is on service with officers 
 unfit for duty, from wounds and sickness ; the evils are often 
 irremediable from the impossibility of recalling officers from staff 
 employ. 
 
 These defects and inequalities might be remedied without any 
 great increase in the number of officers, simply by dividing the 
 infantry into larger bodies than the present battalions ; for instance, 
 instead of having 164 regiments of infantry, native and European, let 
 the whole infantry (native and European) be divided into 45 regi- 
 ments or corps, or legions, each with 100 officers ; making in all 4500 
 officers, or 500 more than at present, out of which number (100) 
 there must be kept with the soldiers a sufficient number of expe- 
 rienced officers properly to carry on the regimental duties; and in the 
 event of a portion of the regiment being employed in the field, those 
 officers becoming unfit for duty, could easily be replaced, which, 
 under the present system of small regiments, is impossible, as no 
 transfer of officers can conveniently be made from one regiment to 
 another, however much it may be needed. In order to improve the 
 discipline and practical military training of the officers, let each of 
 these proposed regiments consist of a body of European infantry, — 
 say 600 men or more, divided into six companies, and 3000 natives, 
 divided into thirty companies, total 3600 rank and file, making, in the 
 45 regiments, 162,000 rank and file (divided into 1620 companies,) of 
 whom 27,000 will be European in 275 companies, and 135,000 native 
 infantry in 1350 companies. 
 
 Let each regiment have present and always effective, at least 
 60 officers out of the 100, making, for the 45 regiments, 2700 officers 
 for regimental duty, and whatever may be the proportion of ranks of 
 the 100 officers assigned for each regiment, let the same proportions 
 be, if practicable, maintained for the 60 officers present ; but if, at 
 any time, the ratio should vary, and the duties be performed by 
 officers of inferior rank, let them enjoy the benefit as respects supe- 
 rior allowances, so as by this outlay to force on the attention of 
 Government the fact of insufficient officers with corps. 
 
 This arrangement provides for a force of 162,000 European and 
 native rank and file of infantry, being 18,000 more than the whole 
 infantry of the three Indian armies prior to the breaking up of the 
 Bengal aimy: this increase being entirely in Europeans, and the 
 
389 
 
 native infantry continuing in the same numbers as before. Now, to 
 provide officers for this additional European strength, it would be 
 necessary, if maintaining the existing proportion of 462 officers for 
 9000 European rank and file, to make an increase of 924 officers ; 
 whereas, with the improved organisation, by the proposed division of 
 the infantry into larger bodies, only about eight more officers would 
 be requisite. 
 
 The distribution of the 100 officers of each proposed large regiment, 
 or legion, may be shewn by attaching two officers to each company of 
 European infantry, and one to each native infantry company ; or 42 
 officers for 36 companies, 12 for the Euro^Dean and 30 for the native 
 companies ; giving 540 officers for the 270 companies of European 
 infantry, and 1550 officers for the 1550 companies of native infantry — 
 total 1890 officers for 1620 companies ; and reserving 18 officers per 
 regiment (or 810 for the 45 regiments) specially for regimental com- 
 mand and regimental staff, there would be 2700 officers actually 
 available for regimental duty, admitting of 40 per regiment, or alto- 
 gether 1800 out of the 4500 being at all times absent on staff or 
 detached employ, and on leave. 
 
 If the proportions of the different ranks be fixed similarly to the 
 Royal Artillery, which is, like the Indian army, a seniority service, the 
 grades of the 100 officers per regiment and the 4500 officers of the 
 45 regiments or legions would be as follows, and is contrasted below 
 with the grades of the establishment of infantry officers, as at present 
 fixed for the Indian army : — 
 
 Grades. 
 
 Colonels commantll 
 
 Colonels 
 
 Lieutenant-colonels 
 
 Majors 
 
 Captains 
 
 Subalterns 
 
 Total ... 
 
 For each 
 
 Regiment or 
 
 Legion. 
 
 ^2 
 
 35 
 51 
 
 100 
 
 For 45 Regi 
 ments or Legions. 
 
 ^'^( 180 
 360 
 
 1575 
 2295 
 
 4500 
 
 Present Est i- 
 
 blishment of 
 
 Infantry Officei'S. 
 
 346 
 
 > 167 
 
 173 
 
 173 
 
 1211 
 
 2768 
 
 4492 
 
 The regular cavalry of the Honourable Company's army consisted, 
 up to May, 1857, of 21 regiments, each of six troops, all native, 
 comprising about 10,000 sabres, divided into 63 squadrons, each 
 consisting of two troops of about 70 troopers, making 140 to each 
 squadron. 
 
 For this force, an establishment of 483 European officers,— from 
 colonel to cornet, — was allowed ; the proportions of ranks being on 
 the same principle as in the infantry branch, only with three subalterns 
 less ; giving altogether 23 officers per cavalry regiment, instead of 
 26 as for each native infantry regiment. 
 
 The paucity of officers was thus yet greater in the cavalry than in 
 
390 
 
 the infantry ; although they were yet more required with the former 
 tlian with the latter, both to lead the cavalry in the field and to 
 maintain discipline in cantonment. 
 
 It has also been considered as equally necessary to have a propor- 
 tion of European cavalry as a component part of each native cavalry 
 regiment, in order to give stability and set an example, as to have 
 European infantry attached to the native infantry regiments. But 
 the army of India contained no European cavalry, and although the 
 strength of the cavalry of Her Majesty's army stationed in India was 
 considerable, and in general about 20 squadrons, yet even this pro- 
 portion was far too small for the 63 squadrons of native cavalry ; and, 
 moreover, the whole force of cavalry, as compared with the strength 
 of the infantry, was far below the proportions maintained in Europe, 
 and also far less than Asiatic warfare required. 
 
 The number of cavalry officers absent from their regiments on staff 
 and detached employ, was about 126, and, with the colonels, in all 
 147, which, added to the absentees on furlough (96,) make up alto- 
 gether 243 absentees, out of the establishment of 483 officers, leaving 
 available for regimental duty 240 cavalry officers, giving one officer 
 to about 40 rank and file, or nearly four to each squadron of about 
 140 troopers. 
 
 It would be of great importance to have attached to cavalry of the 
 Indian army a body of European horsemen of a lighter description 
 than Her Majesty's cavalry, and therefore, if a smaller class of men 
 should be enlisted for Indian service, (and thus the recruiting for the 
 heavy cavalry of England would not be interfered with,) the cavalry 
 for India might be fixed at 75 squadrons of cavalry (15 being Euro- 
 pean and 60 native) for all India, in the following proportions for the 
 three Presidencies : for Bengal 35 squadrons, seven European and 
 28 native ; for Madras 25 squadrons, five European and 20 native ; 
 and 15 squadrons, three European and 12 native, for Bombay; each 
 squadron having a squadron leader, as also each half squadron, 
 making, with one officer in reserve, altogether four officers per 
 squadron; thus giving for the 35 Bengal squadrons 140 officers, for 
 the 25 Madras squadrons 100 officers, and for the 15 Bombay squa- 
 drons 60 officers — total for the whole 75 squadrons, 300 officers ; 
 add to this a proportion of officers for regimental command, regi- 
 mental staff, and reserves, say 28 officers for Bengal, 20 for Madras, 
 and 12 for Bombay (total 60), which, with the above 300, would 
 make altogether 360 officers present for duty ; and supposing the 
 same number of absentee officers to be allowed as at present, there 
 would then be required to be always present for regimental duty, 
 (besides these 360 officers, who are, in fact, 120 more than have 
 hitherto been available,) at least 240 officers for general staff, detached 
 employ, and on leave, requiring an increase of 117 officers to the pre- 
 sent establishment, in order to allow of the same number of absentees 
 as at present. 
 
 The organization of the cavalry might be made on a uniform 
 system ; each squadron, both European and native, being composed 
 of 150 sabres which, for the 75 squadrons, would make 11,250 sabres, 
 
 -^^^ i^*r%, ixiyjt 
 
391 
 
 of wliich 2250 would be European, and 9000 native cavalry, distri- 
 buted amongst the three armies, as follows : — 
 
 
 Bengal. 
 
 Madras. 
 
 Bombay. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Squadrons — Europeans 
 
 Ditto Native . . . • 
 
 7 
 28 
 
 5 
 
 20 
 
 3 
 12 
 
 15 
 60 
 
 Total Squadrons 
 
 35 
 
 25 
 
 15 75 
 
 1050 
 4200 
 
 750 
 3000 
 
 450 
 1800 
 
 2250 
 9000 
 
 Ditto Nntivp .taaiT 
 
 Total Sabres 
 
 5250 
 
 3750 
 
 2250 
 
 11250 
 
 Squadrons — Officers 
 
 Staff Ditto 
 
 140 
 112 
 28 
 
 100 
 80 
 20 
 
 60 
 48 
 
 12 
 
 300 
 
 240 
 
 60 
 
 T?psprve Ditto 
 
 Total Officei'S .«• 
 
 280 
 
 200 
 
 120 
 
 600 
 
 Present Establishment 
 
 230 
 
 184 
 
 69 
 
 483 
 
 50 1 Ifi 
 
 51 
 
 117 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 
392 
 
 
 
 
 £ to <^ CO c» t^^ R <^ c^-l ■'5. -1 ''^v 
 ^00 (M »-^r>^^t^(^r^ <S ^ <S n 
 3coeoO'-0'*(Mr- — i^iOO 
 Kioor<:ft"coco"oooooiocoa)C>< 
 
 (NOI(N<N(N(NCO(N(N(M(MeO 
 
 S 
 
 i 
 
 asococot>»c^ococo»0'--'0 
 
 f^OOOCC<NOa5C^(NOOCOO 
 
 i^ 
 
 '-HCOCOO0CO(NO5t^05-<*CO0O 
 
 cot^^t^-^rTroiCot^oco-f 
 
 si 
 
 CO « 
 
 »OCO-^(NCICO<N<N<Nr-H<NCO 
 
 eg 
 
 lo" irT oT r^r oT t-" o" oT »o CO o" CO 
 
 COl005CO(Mt>.t-05t^Ot-_CO 
 
 n3 
 
 s 
 
 C^-^OCliOCOOOOO^ 
 
 00 05,0 05^COC^^l> (NO C» 2 S 
 
 ■V CO ■^ o cTr-Ti— (M o> o> 
 
 1 
 
 ooooooooocoo 
 
 1-H (M^ C^^C0,O_ C0^0,0,--J^0 C35 CO 
 O CO CO (N 00 >-< 00*" lO lO «o 5" o 
 t^l>00C0C000t^000500OC0^ 
 
 S3 g 
 
 t^OC^OOCOOOCO-^OCOTfCO 
 t^COCOCOCi-^^Tfl^OO^T*. 
 OjrtF-i-^lOOOlOr^ t>;,00 CO O 
 
 •*0)Tjrr>.cocoi>^t^co"cdo 
 
 05->l<CO<N'<*-<?<kOr^COTt<COCO 
 
 
 .rtiTt<CO-<*<OOOr>.<35C<»COTj»c<j 
 tp^Tl'Tj'Tt'OjlOCJCO-^t^COO 
 
 OnOTt-^O O'O O'C^ r^ xn^^ -^ ^ 
 
 S (N co^ 05, CO co^ ■* c\ <N t>-^ iq q, uo, 
 
 Ci3O'^'^<N00C0»Ot)<'O05'^o' 
 "(MCl(N<Nr-i(M(N(M(Nr-,(N(M 
 
 Extent of 
 wet, dry, and 
 garden land 
 
 cultivated. 
 
 ooioo"— loooooococooco 
 a5»oa>-*coi>coc<coooi>cooo 
 
 S 05 -^^ t>.^ «2_ CO «5 CO CO -^ ■«r_ 
 CO CO ci CO 0? O* C^ CO rf CD --H lo" 
 
 1 
 
 ir5COl^00<3>O.--'(NC0Tt<i0C0 
 OOOiOiOCOCOCOCOCO'OCO 
 
 i 
 
 rHC<ieO'>3«U5«.t>C»050r;^<N 
 
 S CLi 
 
 s 2 
 
 o3 O 
 
 n3 CO 
 a> CO 
 
 I" 
 
 
 
 •+j5 
 
 
 
 3 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 % 
 
 X 
 
 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 ai 
 
 a 
 
 
 [i( 
 
 gj 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 o 1=3 
 
 w o 
 
 o 
 
 W J^CO CO CO 
 « C^ 05 O OJ 
 I <^^0_CN 0)_ 
 
 I. 00 r>r CD co" 
 oc t^^o^co o 
 O CO ocTo'c^ 
 
 H op 
 
 2 ^ 
 
 o 5 
 
 
 o 2 
 
 
 02 
 
 L_| „ ^ ^ ^ 
 
 "■^ C2 CO ■* o 
 
 00 CO CO 03 
 
 ;^ o o o _o 
 
 ^ CD CO CO CO 
 
 H --• cN CO -^ 
 P 00 00 00 00 
 
 f> •-< i-H ri r-i 
 
 «o 
 
 ^ r- O C O 
 
 ►^ o Q Q Q 
 
 -<j CO o .2 ^ 
 
 &, Tj. CD 2 « 
 O "* 10 "2 O) 
 
 g S ^'§) 
 
 ^ §^ -1 g 
 
 10 CO "* -c 
 CO CC^ s 
 
 KO CO '^ 
 
 CO CO 4^ 
 
393 
 
 Extract from Madras Atlienmim of 1^54:. 
 Imports. 
 
 During the 18 years, from 1834 to 1852, both inclusive, the exports 
 from Madras amounted to £25,506,197-12 ; in round numbers about a 
 hundred and forty lacs a year. The imports, in the same period, reached 
 only £14,439,449-6, or eighty lacs per annum. "We naturally look for 
 the balance under the head of " treasure imported," but, strange to say, 
 more money was sent out of the country than was brought into it, and 
 we have not included the precious metals in the list of exports ! Still 
 dealing with the same period of time, we find that £3,338,810-10 was 
 shipped from Madras in the shape of treasure, and but £3,190-767-10 
 brought back again. The total of money and merchandise put on 
 board or sent across the frontiers by land is £28,845,008-2, and the 
 total imports amount to £17,630,217-4. A sum then of £11,214,790-18 
 is wholly unaccounted for, and if we allow the merchant a profit of ten 
 per cent, on exports, we shall find that for every rupee's worth sent out 
 of the country, whether in the shape of produce, manufactures, or the 
 precious metals, but nine annas come back again to the country. 
 
 But the value sent forward and the trader's profit must find a way 
 out again through some channel or other. True enough ! The London 
 banker, who is debtor to Madras for the sums that his correspondents 
 here have advanced on bills of lading, and which he gets back from the 
 mercantile agents, returns the equivalent, either by papng the drafts 
 which the Madras branch has valued on him, or by making advances 
 on goods shipped to this port, or remitting bullion. The agent of the 
 Madras trade returns in goods or money, as he is directed, all that he 
 has received, and in fine, every one who owes us anything, is good 
 enough to pay it. But there is one firm that has neither paid money on 
 our account nor sent out a shilling's worth of goods, who yet demand 
 and receive every year the seven annas in each rupee that we have 
 found missing. In the four years ending 1850-51, the East India 
 Company carried off nearly £2,470,000 of coined money, exclusive of 
 the sums raised by advances on goods and the sale of bills. In 1851-2 
 they shipped from Madras £651,200, and obtained money on bills to 
 the extent of £303,000. If this sum be added to the imports for that 
 year, the whole will amount to £2,854,965-10, against a total export 
 of £2,670,444-8 merchandise and treasure in 1850-1, and gives us back 
 the worth of our ventures, and a profit of more than seven per cent. 
 
 "We have searched for a proper standard of comparison, but without 
 success. The Crown Colonies within the tropics, which are said to be 
 wretchedly governed as contrasted with the countries under the sway 
 of the East India Company, are so small in comparison with Madras, 
 that the disproportion is ludicrous. Ceylon and Mauritius receive 
 about a third more than the total imports of Madras, and pay about 
 one-eighth of its revenue. l\^e prefer therefore to quote the South 
 American States, where the negro works for a bare maintenance, where 
 the rulers have never been trained for the duties of government, _ and 
 the hunter wears a dress of deer-skin, and seldom requires the aid of 
 the dhobie. Our authority is the Parliamentary return of '' British 
 cotton-manufactured goods exported in the year 1851," from which it 
 
3d4 
 
 appears tlint Brazil and nine South Ameiican Republics, having in the 
 Avliole a population of less than twenty-two millions, took more than 
 four millions' worth of manufactures, or a trifle less than four shillings 
 per head. 
 
 Extract from Madras Athenceum of July 25, 1854. 
 Exports. 
 
 There are 90,000,000 of acres in the Madras Presidency, or nearly 
 double the area of Great Britain, and the population is more than 
 that of England, Scotland, and Wales. There is no limit to the 
 power of jDroducing silk, indigo, sugar, coffee, and cotton, the most 
 valuable staples of commerce, the demand for which, in the markets 
 of the world, is almost equally inexhaustible. Three fourths of the 
 people of Madras are agriculturists ; rich lands in every direction 
 are lying waste ; English capital is ready to flow into every channel 
 that is opened to it. Nothing, then, but idleness or hindrance stands 
 in the way of a large surplus production, and, by consequence, 
 of national wealth and progress. 
 
 The extent of real surplus production cannot, of course, be always 
 ascertained by looking at the returns of articles exported. Yorkshire 
 produces both beef and broadcloth, but if the people in that county 
 were to resolve henceforth to wear cotton garments and live wholly 
 on potatoes, it is quite certain that a large increase might be made in 
 the amount of exports, whilst production remained stationary. The 
 figures in the Customs' records show the amount of wealth that has 
 been sent away, but not of that which is retained for home con- 
 sumption. A large export may be often nothing more than a forced 
 contribution, the necessities of the producer obliging him to sell 
 more than the proportion that he would part with under prosperous 
 circumstances. But in analysing the social condition of Madras, it is 
 not possible to make a mistake of the above kind. Every year the 
 whole available excess of production is sent out of the country. The 
 grain merchant maintains his usual store of rice, always hoping for 
 adverse seasons, but the ryot sells his crop even before it is cut down, 
 and the weaver's cloth is always due to the money lender. There is 
 no such thing as keeping up stocks of exportable merchandize ; at 
 the end of the season the hut and the godown are equally empty. The 
 trader is as bare of goods as the peasant of coin and comfort. 
 Any one who examines the official statements of revenue and com- 
 merce, will see that the average totals scarcely vary from one year to 
 another, and that Madras has paid more revenue, exported more 
 produce, and taken a greater share of imports in some former years 
 as compared with the present. 
 
 We have before us " statements of the trade of the Madras terri- 
 tories, for 1851-2," published by order of Government. The year in 
 question was favourable to all kinds of agricultural production ; and 
 may therefore be taken as even above the average of seasons. In 
 this period, then, of general plenty, we find that the whole external 
 commerce of Madras, by land as well as by sea, deducting re-exports 
 
395 
 
 and treasure exported by Government, amounted in value to 
 £2,793,459:2, (2,79,34,591 rupees), or less than two shillings and 
 sevenpence per head, on the population of twenty-two millions ! 
 
 The authorities we quote are Parliamentary Returns, of the Ses- 
 sion 1851-2, and M'CuUock, Ed. 1853, from w^hich it appears, that 
 the population of the British West Indies was, in 1848, 900,000. In 
 1850, they exported to the value of £3,666,250, upwards of one- 
 fourth more than the out-turn of the twenty-two millions of Madras, 
 and considerably above four pounds sterling per head. 
 
 Cuba, with a population of 1,200,000, sent forward in 1841, pro- 
 duce of the value of £ 6,306,028, the despised slave creating fifty 
 times as much wealth as the well cared-for inhabitant of Madras. 
 
 Mauritius, where the soil is cultivated wholly by the vohmtary 
 exiles from India, exported in 1850, merchandize to the extent of 
 £ 950,000, being at the rate of nearly six pounds for each inhabitant, 
 the latter amounting, according to the last census, to 168,000. 
 
 In 1836, the latest date which can be referred to, 560,093 Negroes 
 and Asiatics, under French control, in the colonies within the tropics, 
 sent to France onhj, products to the value of £ 2,839,448, a little 
 more, it will be seen, than the entire exports of Madras. 
 
 i^or^ ^/co contrived to produce in 1839, exportable commodities 
 worth £1,242,479, which were raised by the labour of 357,00 
 people. 
 
 Ceylon, in 1845, had a population of 1,500,000, but we believe it 
 has less at present; in 1850, it sent forward exports worth £974,439. 
 
 Java, with a population of seven millions, exported in 1845, goods 
 valued at £5,491,264. 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 Extract Minute hy the Right Honourable the President (Lord Harris), 
 dated Ind May, 1857 (referred to in the letter from the Governor- 
 General, dated the ith July, 1857.) 
 
 I have now been three years in India, and during that period I have 
 made a point of keeping myself acquainted with the tenor of the larger 
 portion of the British press throughout the country, and I have no 
 hesitation in asserting my impression to be, that it is, more particu- 
 larly in this Presidency, disloyal in tone, un-English in spirit, and ivant- 
 ing in principle, seeking every opportunity, Avhether rightly or wrongly, 
 of holding up the Government to opprobium, not so scurrilous cer- 
 tainly as portions of the press in the colonies, but utterly regardless 
 of correctness in statement. 
 
 With such an influence disseminating itself throughout the country, 
 uncontrolled and uncontradicted, what must be the consequence ? 
 
 The greater number of men, even in highly civilised countries, are 
 not very clear in the discrimination of the truth and falsehood of 
 statements which come before them, and, if this be so, what must be 
 the case in a country where there is still less of that power ? 
 
 I do not see how it is possible for the natives, in the towns more 
 
396 
 
 especially, \vith the accusations, misrepresentations, and calumnies 
 which arc constantly brought before them, to come to any other con- 
 clusion than that the Government of their country is carried on by 
 imbecile and dishonest men. 
 
 And I believe I may add that the effect thus produced is not limited 
 to the natives, but that it has spread itself also amongst our own 
 countrymen. 
 
 I am aware that it may be contended that the influence of the press 
 is not great ; that no one minds what it says ; and, lastly, that things 
 go on very well in England, though the same attacks are made there. 
 
 I am not prepared to allow the truth of the two first propositions 
 above mentioned, and I -would point out as to the third, that the case 
 of India is totally dissimilar. 
 
 In England, however strong may be the attacks on the Government 
 or on individuals, there is still that homogenity of race which prevents 
 any dangerous results to the common weal ; moreover, every man is 
 certain, whether on public or private matters, of having an opportunity 
 of bringing his case before the public, either by means of rival news- 
 papers or in Parliament ; there is, therefore, the certainty of removing, 
 in a short time, an unfavorable impression, if produced by an unfair 
 or untrue statement. 
 
 But in India just the contrary is the case ; week after lueek, month 
 after month, year after year, are these attacks on the Government and 
 on its servants disseminated almost unnoticed and uncontradicted. 
 
 What must be the conclusion which will be impressed on weak and 
 ignorant minds ? 
 
 Inevitably that no defence can be made. It may be right to look 
 with indifference on opinions which are so crudely imbibed, but I 
 do not coincide Avith that opinion. 
 
 All men are endued with some degree of the sense of right and 
 wrong, and it is well worth while to lead their feelings in a right 
 direction. 
 
 It will be asked, what is the remedy for this state of things ? Is a 
 censorship of the press to be introduced ? If so, would it achieve the 
 desired object? 
 
 I believe not ; and at all events it would be iinpolitic to recede from 
 the freedom which has been granted, in order to cure the license which 
 has emanated from it. 
 
 A disease of this nature should be kept under command, not by 
 repression, but by the application of a cure on sound principles. The 
 liberty of the press is a most important and vital principle in the best 
 interests of humanity, and cannot on any account he interfered with ; 
 but that freedom has been won and granted for the purpose of elicit- 
 ing truth, not for disseminating falsehood. 
 
 The propagator of untruth or of misrepresentation should be made 
 responsible for his statements ; the burden- of proof should be thrown 
 upon him, either as proprietor or editor, and on failure the act should 
 be penal in an ordinary court. 
 
 The reputation of a government or of its officers, or of any 
 individual, should not be valued at a money rate, or left to the fickle 
 and timorous decision of Juries, 
 
397 
 
 The freedom of subject demands that there should be some change 
 in the law on this point, by which relief may be given to those liable 
 to attack. 
 
 It must be evident to all candid minds that there is a tyranny now 
 extant, under the specious term of the liberty of the press, to which 
 numbers are slaves, and against which they dare not strike a blow. 
 
 Relief from such a tyranny is, I know, desired, but it is thought 
 hopeless to attempt to obtain it. 
 
 There has been much said and written about torture of the body in 
 these days, and every attempt has been made to stop it : but there is 
 another description of torture much more painful to an honourable 
 mind, that of traducing the reputation, which equally deserves con- 
 sideration, which equally calls for interference, and which now can be 
 practised by any man who will descend to defamation, while shidking 
 under the shield of the editorial We ; or to misrepresentation, while 
 hiding himself behind some worn de guerre. 
 
 The bully of society in former days — I mean the duellist, offensive 
 as he was and frequently unfair — still had the merit of boldness, and 
 risked his own life whilst he took the lives of others ; but these bullies 
 of the present day are sheltered, under present circumstances, from all 
 risk. 
 
 The first maxim enjoined by our divine religion is that of charity, 
 and it is confirmed by the sanction of every sound system of morals ; 
 but can this be said to be supported by our laws, when the practice of 
 the unlimited publication of misrepresentation and detraction is per- 
 mitted with impunity ? 
 
 I am aware that I am expressing opinions at variance with those 
 generally avowed in the present day, but I am bold to do so in the 
 conviction that they are founded on eternal truth, and that they will 
 prevail ; and that a contrary system, however plausible in theory, will 
 induce unfavorable results, such as, I believe, are now partially mani- 
 festing themselves in this country. 
 
 The honour of a Government should be maintained with the great- 
 est strictness, and when attacked should be defended, and every 
 real misrepresentation should be dogged to its source and branded 
 publicly with falsehood. 
 
 Extract Minute hy the Right Honourable the Governor (Lord Harris J, 
 dated the 20th June, 1857 (referred to in the letter from the Governor- 
 General, dated A^th July, 1857.) 
 
 In support of the statements which I have lately made respecting 
 the tone of the press and its eifects on the army, I now circulate two 
 copies of the " Examiner " newspaper of the 18th instant, one to be 
 sent to the Honourable Court, and one to the Government of India, 
 which contains an article full of seditious matter, and addressed in the 
 most open manner to the soldiery. 
 
 I at once referred this, in order to save time, for a legal opinion, 
 and the answer was as I anticipated, that though the article was 
 highly seditious, yet that the risks were so great, or rather, that the 
 
398 
 
 chances of success in the courts were so small, that it would be better 
 to allow such poison to be disseminated than to offer an opportunity 
 whereby Government miglit suffer a defeat. 
 
 So that the preaching of sedition and of, in fact, rebellion, must 
 be allowed to run in its full course. 
 
 I have already stated that this newspaper is the mouth-piece of the 
 Roman catholic priests, and is probably mainly supported hj the money 
 paid to them by Government. 
 
 It is circulated at so cheap a rate that it cannot be remunerative ; 
 and lately, since enlarged allowances have been granted to the Bishop, 
 it has been issued on three days in the week instead of, as previously, 
 on two. 
 
 I am informed also, that arrangements have been made by which 
 these seditious articles are immediately translated into the native lan- 
 guages, and that the circulation of them is rapidly increasing. 
 
 And amongst whom do these papers circulate first? undoiihtedly 
 amongst the sepoys. 
 
 Sir Thomas Munro, in his Minute of the 12th April, 1822, to every 
 word of which most remarkable and prophetic document I would at 
 the present time call especial attention, writes, " The native troops 
 are the only body of natives who are always mixed with Europeans, 
 and they will therefore be the first to learn the doctrines circulated 
 amongst them by the newspapers;" and this no doubt is the case, 
 and the results we are, I believe, now witnessing. 
 
 (True copies.) 
 
 (Signed) J. S. Mill, 
 Examiner of India Correspondence. 
 East India House, August, 1857. 
 
APPENDIX B.— No. 1. 
 
 TAst of the Proficients of the late High School and Presidency College of Madrt 
 
 Names. 
 
 Salaries 
 
 in 
 Rupees. 
 
 1 C. Runganathiim Shastry . 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 12 
 
 13 
 14 
 15 
 
 16 
 17 
 18 
 19 
 20 
 21 
 22 
 23 
 24 
 25 
 26 
 27 
 
 28 
 
 29 
 30 
 81 
 32 
 33 
 34 
 35 
 36 
 
 37 
 38 
 39 
 40 
 41 
 
 42 
 43 
 44 
 45 
 46 
 47 
 
 P. Thenathialoo Naicloo . 
 Sadagopa Charloo . . . 
 M. Sadasiva Pillay 
 
 V. Ramyengav 
 
 T. Madava Row 
 
 Mr. B. Loveiy 
 
 A. Sashiah Shastry . . , 
 V. Ramanooja Charriax- . 
 
 G. Cliungunnah Shastry 
 
 C. Riinga Chany 
 
 W. Sasha Chellaw Naidoo . 
 
 G. Rajagopal Xaidoo 
 
 A. Rama Chendra Row . . 
 
 D. Baboo Row 
 
 T. Yenkata Chany 
 
 Mr. II. Hcrakoosc 
 
 C. Sama Row 
 
 J. Runganathiim INIoody 
 
 B. Kristnasawmy Naidoo 
 
 S. Soondram Xaidoo 
 
 P. Rungiah Naidoo 
 
 P. Vijiarauga Moody 
 
 T. Teroomala Row 
 
 T. Durraaraycn Moody . . 
 
 D. Teagiah Shastiy . . . . 
 A. Streenevasa Row 
 
 M. Sivagooroo Pillay . 
 
 A. Nan-ain Row 
 
 C. Teroovengadani Naidoo 
 Mr. A. Dique 
 
 V. Kristnama Charloo . . , 
 P. Chinnatambee Naidoo 
 
 Head Tamil Teloogoo, and also Mopple, and 
 Malayaham, Interpreter of the Supreme 
 Court 
 
 Without employ 
 
 A Pleader in the Coui-t of Sudder, Udalut . 
 
 Sherestadar of the Civil Court of Cuddalore 
 
 Head Sherestadar of Tanjorc 
 
 Acting Dewan of Travancore 
 
 Principal of Patcheappah's School 
 
 Head Sherestadar of Masulipatam 
 
 Secretary to Patcheappah's Charities, also 
 Pleader of the Court of Sudder, Udalut. 
 
 Head Accountant in the Collectors's Cut- 
 cheny of Clungleput 
 
 Naib Sherestadar of NcUore 
 
 Indexer in the Revenue Department of 
 Government Office 
 
 Teacher in Patchappah's School 
 
 Naib Sherestadar of Salem 
 
 Merchant 
 
 Deputy Inspector of School at Trichinopoly 
 
 Merchant 
 
 Dep. Master of the Zillah School, Cuddalore 
 
 Intcii^rcter in the Small Cause Court . . 
 
 Head Writer of the Civil Court, Chingleput 
 
 Clerk, Public Dcpartmt., Govemmt. Office 
 
 Interpreter in the Small Cause Court 
 
 Deputy Inspector of Schools at Madura. . 
 
 Translator in the Chingleput CoUectorate . 
 
 Sub-Division Sherestadar of Rajahmondiy 
 
 Clerk in the Accountant- General's Office \ 
 
 Head Javobnevis in the Collector's Cut- 
 cherry of Gimtoor 
 
 Head Accoimtant in the Collector's Cut- 
 cheny of Chittore 
 
 V. Rajagopala Charriar 
 T. Moottoosawmy Iyer 
 
 Head Master of the Zillah School, Chittore 
 
 Teacher in the Presidency College 
 
 Deputy Inspector of Schools at Chingleput 
 Ditto ditto at Masulipatam , 
 
 Tahsildar in the NeUore District 
 
 District Moonsiff of Tranquebar 
 
 P. Vurda Chany {Translator attached to the Marattah Cut- 
 
 i cherry of the Revenue Board Office .... 
 B. Gopaliah Tahsildar in the Nellore CoUectorate .... 
 
 Clerk, Public Dcpartmt., Govemmt. Office 
 
 N. Ramasawmy Moody . 
 
 C. Ramiah 
 
 C. Armoogum Moody 
 
 P. Venkatakristnama Naidoo 
 
 Y. Yenkataramiah . . . . , 
 
 T. Samiah Shastiy 
 
 Y. Rajagopala Charloo 
 Y. Kanakiah Naidoo . . 
 T. Coopoosamy Iyer . . 
 Y. Soobramaniem Naik 
 
 Teacher in the Wesleyan School at Madras 
 Javobnevis in the Collector's Cutcherry of 
 
 Chingleput 
 
 Clerk in the Accountant-General's Office . 
 Deputy Inspector of Schools at Cuddalore 
 
 Translator in the Sudder Udalut 
 
 Clerk in the Accountant- General's Office . 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Without Employ 
 
APPENDIX B.— No. 2. 
 
 List of the past Students of Patcheappah's School, toho are notv holding 
 Employments. 
 
 Names. 
 
 Employment. 
 
 C. Coorasaloo Naidoo 
 
 M. Singala Charry 
 
 Narasimma Chany 
 
 C. Viziaragavooloo Naidoo 
 
 M. Teroovengaduin 
 Soobbiah 
 
 V. Narrain lyah 
 
 M. Parthasarady Chetty 
 
 Davasegamony 
 
 C. Rajaruthonum 
 
 Valoo Moodelly 
 
 Kistnama Chany 
 
 Sashachella Pillay 
 
 Xarrainsawmy 
 
 Sashadriah 
 
 Maunsing 
 
 V. Ramanoojum 
 
 C. Viirdacharry 
 
 Xadamoony Naidoo 
 
 C. Kistnasawmy Moodelly 
 
 A. Yiu-da Charry 
 
 Coopoosawmy 
 
 Chendrappah Moodelly . . . 
 
 Sambaseva Pillay 
 
 C. Mooroogasa Pillay 
 
 C. Etherajooloo Naidoo . . . 
 
 S, Strcerunga Charry 
 
 Rajagopaul Charry 
 
 Chunniah Naidoo 
 
 Thungavaloo Moodelly . . . 
 
 Singaravaloo 
 
 T. Narrainsawmy Naidoo . 
 
 Visvanathcn 
 
 Pillaloga Charry 
 
 M. Streei-unga Charry . . . 
 
 Casava Charry 
 
 T. Ragavooloo Naidoo . . . 
 
 Kistniah 
 
 Appiah Naidoo 
 
 P. Parthasarthce 
 
 Ramanjooloo 
 
 Ragaya Charry 
 
 Senior Head Signaller, Electric Telegraph 
 Office 
 
 Translator in Government Office 
 
 Signaller in Telegi-aph Office 
 
 Senior Head Signaller, Electric Telegraph, 
 Madras , 
 
 Signaller, Electric Telegraph, Bangalore 
 
 Telugu Head Master, Provincial School, 
 Rajahmundry 
 
 "Writer in the Commissary General's Office 
 
 Clerk in Government Office , 
 
 Tutor in Mr. Grant's School 
 
 "Writer in Sea Custom Hoiise 
 
 Clerk in Government Office 
 
 In Revenue Board Office . . , 
 
 In the Treasury 
 
 2d Teacher in Patcheapah's Branch School, 
 
 Conjevarvim 
 
 Head Teacher Madras Native Progressive 
 
 Seminary • 
 
 Clerk 
 
 Telugu Head Master at Nellore 
 
 Clerk in Small Cause Court 
 
 2d Tutor in the Native Progressive Seminaiy 
 
 Moonshee at the College 
 
 "Writer in Oakes Partridge and Co. .... 
 
 A Teacher at Rajahmundry 
 
 Clerk in the Madras Bank 
 
 Writer in Sheriff's Office 
 
 Cash Keeper 
 
 Wi-iter in the Custom House 
 
 In the Railway Company's Office .... 
 
 Clerk in Small Cause Court 
 
 Engineer's Office 
 
 Railway Office 
 
 Clerk in the Mercantile Bank 
 
 Moonshee at the College 
 
 Cashkeeper at Stephenson & Co. 
 
 "Writer 
 
 At Rangoon , 
 
 At Revenue Board 
 
 "Writer at Guntoor 
 
 General Trcasuiy 
 
 Oriental Bank , 
 
 Writer, Ciyil Auditor Office . . . , 
 
401 
 
 Employment. 
 
 Salaries. 
 
 Mooroogasa Moodelly . . . 
 Veerasawmy Moodelly . . , 
 
 M. Rajagopaxil 
 
 Raniachenfli-a Chetty 
 
 V. VurdachaiTy 
 
 Solayappen 
 
 C. Vanoogopaul 
 
 Vencatasooboo 
 
 Soobroyen 
 
 Rajaruthenum 
 
 Sunthojee Row 
 
 Veerunnen 
 
 V. Partbasarady 
 
 Soodaresana Xaidoo 
 
 Moorga Pillay 
 
 Moonesawmy Naidoo . . , 
 
 Rimgasoyee Xaik , 
 
 P. Yencataramiah , 
 
 Namasevoya Moodelly . . . 
 
 Vencataramanjooloo 
 
 Naunoo Iyer 
 
 C. Appasawmy 
 
 Colundavaloo Naidoo 
 
 Somasoondara Moodelly . . 
 V. Rajaiiithena Moodelly . , 
 
 Teroovengada Pillay 
 
 Easvara Row 
 
 Vencata Charry 
 
 Lixtchumiah 
 
 Narrainsawmy .......... 
 
 S. Parthasarady . . , 
 
 C. Augustcesvara INIoodelly 
 
 Ramanjooioo Naidoo 
 
 Authecasavooloo Naik . , . . 
 
 Soobroyaloo 
 
 Davasegamoney 
 
 C. Kistnasawmy 
 
 Chengulvaroyen 
 
 Kistnasawmy 
 
 Moorogasa Moodelly 
 
 Saravanam 
 
 A. Teroovengada Pillay . . . . 
 
 Sadagopen 
 
 Sevananda Moodelly 
 
 Namasevoyen 
 
 Narrainsawmy 
 
 Rajamunnaroo 
 
 Veerasawmy Moodelly . . . . 
 
 Kistnama ChaiTy 
 
 T. Rutlienum 
 
 Teroovengada CbaiTy . . . . 
 Mooroogasa Moodelly . . . . 
 
 Parthasarady Naidoo 
 
 T. Partbasarthee 
 
 Tbaneacbella Moodelly . . . . 
 T. Yerrasawmy Moodelly . . 
 C. Sashachella Moodelly . . 
 
 Asbton Richardson and Co 
 
 "Writer in Ice House 
 
 Clerk at Salem Civil Court 
 
 Writer in the Cutcheny of Nabob of Camatic 
 
 Telugu Moonshee at Sadi-as 
 
 At Sudder Court 
 
 Telegraph Office Signaller 
 
 Clerk in Military Board 
 
 Railway Company 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Gun Carriage Manufactory 
 
 Clerk, Adjutant- General's Office 
 
 Clerk, Office of the P. & 0. S. N. Company 
 Clerk in the Sheriff's Office 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 A Private Teacher 
 
 Schoolmaster, Rajahmundiy 
 
 Cashier at Messrs. Kenrick and Co 
 
 Clerk in Accountant-General's Office . . . 
 
 Rajahmundry 
 
 A Teacher at Bangalore 
 
 A "Writer 
 
 Medical College 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Clerk in the Government Office 
 
 Messrs. Oakes Partridge and Co 
 
 Gun Carriage Manufactory 
 
 Merchant 
 
 Apprentice in the Railway Department . 
 
 "VVritcr in the Treasury 
 
 Senior Head Signaller, Bangalore 
 
 Head Teacher,Patcheappah's BranchSchaol 
 
 at Conjcverum 
 
 A Private Teacher 
 
 Tutor in the Native Progressive Seminary 
 2d Teacher, Vemacxdar School at Triplicane 
 "Writer at Messrs. Asbton and Richardson 
 Apprentice in the Chief Engineer's Office 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Clerk at Messrs. Asbton Richardson & Co. 
 
 Clerk in Adjutant- General's Office 
 
 Clerk at General Police Office 
 
 Apprentice in the Chief Engineer's Office. 
 
 Paymaster's Office 
 
 Teacher in London Mission School 
 
 Clerk in the Military Fund 
 
 Clerk, Railway Department 
 
 Stipendiary Student, Medical College 
 
 Medical College 
 
 Clerk in Government Office 
 
 Signaller, Telegraph Departmt., Bangalore 
 
 Clerk in Government Office 
 
 Signaller, Telegraph Office, Mysore 
 
 Writer 
 
 9 n 
 
402 
 
 No. 
 
 Names. 
 
 Employment. 
 
 Salaries. 
 
 100 
 
 Ponnoosawniy Moodelly . . 
 Soobraniuiu'va ^loodelly . . 
 
 Thamodiira Moodolly 
 
 Pai'tha.snrady Moodelly .... 
 
 Sabapathy 
 
 C. Theroovengadum 
 
 C. Dorasawmy ^Moodelly . . 
 
 Poiinooriinga'Moodclly 
 
 P. Mooroogasa Moodelly . . 
 
 Auroomooga Moodelly 
 
 Itaniasawmy Moodelly 
 
 Chocalingum 
 
 Clerk in Land Customs Office 
 
 10 
 
 101 
 10''>, 
 
 Ditto Railway Department 
 
 In Assessment Office 
 
 16 
 
 174 
 
 103 
 
 In the Railway Department 
 
 10' 
 
 101 
 
 Clerk in a Shop 
 
 10 
 
 lOo 
 
 
 14 
 
 ior> 
 
 Clerk in Small Cause Court 
 
 30 
 
 107 
 108 
 
 English Head Teacher at Royapooram . . 
 Clerk in the Madras Bank 
 
 30 
 25 
 
 109 
 
 At Neelgheiry 
 
 42 
 
 no 
 
 At Messrs. Binny and Co, 
 
 14 
 
 ni 
 
 Revenue Board 
 
 
 }]'>, 
 
 llagavacharry 
 
 25 
 
 113 
 
 
 Messrs. Binny and Co 
 
 Messi's. Binny and Co 
 
 21 
 
 114 
 
 P. Kistnasawmy Moodelly . 
 Rungiah Naidoo 
 
 25 
 
 11-5 
 
 Messrs. Hill and Co 
 
 21 
 
 11(> 
 
 Shunmoogum 
 
 Deputy Examiner, Rangoon 
 
 70 
 
 117 
 
 Aroonachella Moodelly .... 
 
 Vencatarunga Pill ay 
 
 Balasoondi-a Moodelly 
 
 Valoo Moodelly 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 150 
 
 118 
 
 
 30 
 
 119 
 
 Public Works Office 
 
 50 
 
 1?,0 
 
 Accountant- General's Office 
 
 25 
 
 T?l 
 
 Appasawmy 
 
 Government Office 
 
 25 
 
 l'>?, 
 
 Tholasy Ram ... .... 
 
 20 
 
 l'?3 
 
 Rungasawmy Moodelly .... 
 l\ Yencatarunga Naidoo . . 
 
 Light Iloxise Overseer . . 
 
 14 
 
 }'>4 
 
 Student, Medical School 
 
 7 
 
 19;^ 
 
 Clerk in the Railway 
 
 Clerk, Engineer's Office 
 
 25 
 
 i9ri 
 
 Rungasawmy Moodelly 
 
 A. Sadagopa Moodelly 
 
 T. Nan-ainsawmy Naidoo . . 
 
 Soondara Moodelly 
 
 T. Rajamiinnaroo Pillay . . 
 
 ]Moottiah Moodelly 
 
 A. Ramanjooloo Naidoo 
 
 P. Appiah Naidoo 
 
 Ramanoojiah 
 
 12 
 
 1?7 
 
 Clerk, Railway 
 
 16 
 
 198 
 
 Ditto, Military Fund 
 
 lOi 
 
 129 
 130 
 131 
 132 
 133 
 
 Teacher, Mr. Grant's School 
 
 Clerk in Post Office 
 
 Writer in the Engineer's Depai-tment 
 
 Clerk in Adjutant- General's Office 
 
 Peishcar at Masulipatam 
 
 15 
 18 
 35 
 20 
 14 
 
 134 
 
 Writer in the Collector' sCutcheny, Nellore 
 
 Writer, Messrs. Oakes and Co 
 
 Head Master, Madi-as Hindoo Seminary . 
 Writer at Messrs. Binny and Co 
 
 15 
 
 135 
 136 
 137 
 
 Balakistna Chetty 
 
 P. Ramanjooloo Naidoo .... 
 
 Ramanoojah Charry 
 
 Coomarasawmy Chetty .... 
 P. Lutcliumiah. Naidoo .... 
 
 P. Valoo MoodeUy 
 
 T. N. Comaravaloo Moodelly 
 
 M. Mooroogasa Pillay 
 
 P. Namasevaya Moodelly . . 
 Sashachella Moodelly .... 
 T. Vencatachella Moodelly . 
 
 Ramasawmy Chetty 
 
 Kistnasawmy Chetty 
 
 D. Lutchumiah Naidoo .... 
 
 C. Nadamoony 
 
 Govindappah Chetty 
 
 T. Cliennatumbee Moodelly. 
 W. Shashachella Naidoo '. . 
 M. Ramaehendra Chetty . . 
 C. V. Ruthnum 
 
 
 25 
 20 
 
 138 
 
 Writer in Custom House 
 
 14 
 
 139 
 140 
 141 
 
 English Canaca Pillay, Rajahmundry 
 
 Writer in the Accountant-General's Office 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 21 
 20 
 30 
 
 14?, 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 30 
 
 143 
 144 
 14/) 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Military Fund Office ._ 
 
 In tlic Nabob's Establishment . . . . 
 
 35 
 28 
 20 
 
 146 
 147 
 148 
 149 
 150 
 151 
 
 Writer in Accountant- General's Office . . 
 
 Cash-keeper, Dale and Boy son 
 
 Writer in Small Cause Court 
 
 Ditto Stationery Office 
 
 Ditto Family Pension Office 
 
 Ditto at Stephenson and Co. 
 
 20 
 52 
 18 
 20 
 25 
 10 
 
 159 
 
 In the Road Department . 
 
 20 
 
 153 
 154 
 
 Writer in the Chief Engineer's Office 
 
 Writer 
 
 25 
 
 28 
 
 155 
 
 P. Parthasarady Naidoo . . 
 
 Saravana Moodelly 
 
 Moorga Pillay 
 
 Writer, General Post Office 
 
 12 
 
 156 
 157 
 
 Ditto, Accountant-General's Office .... 
 Sheriff's Office 
 
 20 
 12i 
 
 
 
 
 
403 
 
 No. 
 
 Emplo3'mcnt. 
 
 Salaries. 
 
 158 
 159 
 
 160 
 161 
 162 
 163 
 164 
 165 
 166 
 167 
 168 
 169 
 170 
 171 
 172 
 173 
 174 
 175 
 176 
 177 
 178 
 179 
 
 180 
 181 
 182 
 183 
 184 
 185 
 186 
 187 
 188 
 189 
 190 
 191 
 192 
 
 V. Parthasarady Naidoo 
 
 M. Comarasa^Tiiiy 
 
 M. Parthasarady , 
 
 C. CoUingaroy Moodelly 
 
 Moottoosawmy 
 
 Soobiah. 
 
 Janugheerum 
 
 Balakistnan , 
 
 Moorgasem 
 
 Vencatasooboo 
 
 Novlamony 
 
 Maselamony 
 
 M ooncsawmy Chitty . . . . 
 
 Annasamiah 
 
 lyaviah 
 
 Vincutuchillun 
 
 Numbermal Chitty . . . . 
 Strenevusa Charry . . . . 
 
 Runga Cbany 
 
 Ruthenuni 
 
 Veeraperwa lya 
 
 P. Euthemini 
 
 Parthsartby 
 
 Moottentiah 
 
 C. Casavooloo Chitty . . . 
 reroovanyadiim Chitty . 
 
 Ramasamiah 
 
 Dorasamiah 
 
 B. Yencatasoobiah 
 
 liam Chitty 
 
 Chengiilroyen 
 
 Kistnasawmy 
 
 Camoo Cliitty , 
 
 Appasawray Chetty 
 
 M. Sashial 
 
 Clerk in Accountant- General's Office . . . . 
 Sea Custom Office 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Writer M 
 
 Writer, Rangoon Pay Office 
 
 Normal Student, Primary School 
 
 Medical Student 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Writer, Accountant-General's Office . . . . 
 Ditto, Civil and Session Court, Chittoor . . 
 
 Signaller, Telegraph Office 
 
 Normal Student 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Writer, Railway Company 
 
 Writer, Telegi'aph Office 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Ditto ditto . . 
 
 Private English Teacher 
 
 Teacher in Free Church of Scotland's 
 
 Mission Branch School 
 
 Accountant, Railway Department 
 
 Clerk, Engineer's Office 
 
 Ditto, Government Office 
 
 Merchant 
 
 Normal Pupil 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Accountant, Survey Department, Cuddalore 
 
 Cash-keeper 
 
 Sub-Overseer, Survey Department 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Clerk, Stationeiy Office 
 
 Cash-kccpcr, Messrs. Dale and Bryson's . . 
 Pleader, Small Cause Court 
 
 25 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 14 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 20 
 
 30 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 30 
 
 10 
 
 30 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 15 
 25 
 15 
 
 15 
 15 
 10 
 25 
 40 
 50 
 12 
 80 
 
 The salaries of many of these young men have been increased since the publication of this report. 
 
 Mem. — It is almost impossible to get the names of all the lads ediicated in Pat- 
 cheappah, who are now holding employments, as they are so scattered about the 
 country. The list now furnished contains the names of but a fraction of those lads 
 who are indebted to Patchcappah's Iftstitution for their situations. 
 
APPENDIX C. 
 
 Translation of a copy of a Proclamation issued by Feroz Shah, son of 
 Bahadoor Shah, Ex-King of Delhi, at Bareilly, on the \^th 
 February, 1858. 
 
 " Be it kno^^'n to all Hindoos and Mussulmans of Hindostan, that 
 power and dominion are one of the greatest blessings of Providence, 
 and that his blessing cannot long be enjoyed by a deceitful tyrant. 
 
 *' For sonxe years past, these wicked Christian kafirs commenced 
 tyrannizing over India, intending to cause the spread of Christianity 
 by violence, and to do away with the religion of Hindoos and Mus- 
 sulmans, but it pleased God to turn the minds of the people against 
 them, so much so, that all of a sudden they became intent upon 
 destroying them, and of a truth they are very nearly annihilated ; but 
 owing to the lust of power and dignity, they have collected themselves 
 here and there, in wretched plight, and making useless efforts to 
 regain their power. Please God, in a short time they will be so 
 annihilated as not to leave a single tract behind them. Let it be 
 known to all Hindoos and Mussulmans in India, that owing to the 
 circumstances mentioned above, there exists the bitterest enmity 
 between the natives and the English ; and if, after all that has past, 
 the latter regain their former power in India, it is certain that they 
 will destroy the religion, honour, life, and property of every one. 
 I therefore give a short account of the resolutions past, with the joint 
 concurrence of the Judicial Council, the Supreme Court, and the 
 Parliaments, in hope that our Indian Brethren, becoming aware of 
 their evil intentions, will join together in extirpating them. When 
 the army mutinied for the sake of their religion, and killed without 
 mercy these kafirs with their swords, then, with regard to the cause 
 of the mutiny, and the loss of life, their Priests and sages came to 
 the following resolution, viz., that if the former Governor had 
 properly looked to the following points, there would have been no 
 rebellion : — 
 
 1st — " The Government took measures for protecting the heirs and 
 descendants of the former rulers, instead of extirpating them. They 
 ought to have taken them, on the pretence of conveying them to 
 England, on board ship, and to have drowned them in the sea. 
 
 2nd — " They ought not to have preserved the religious books of 
 any tribe in Hindustan, but they should have taken them by force 
 and burnt them. 
 
 3rd — " They ought to have deprived all natives of holding a single 
 * Biswah ' of land. 
 
 4th — " They ought to have intermarried with the daughters of 
 
405 
 
 natives of rank, compelling the parents by force, and bribing tbem 
 with money, to give them their daughters, so that in a few years 
 they would all have become one. 
 
 5th — " They ought not to have taught artillery practice to any 
 natives of India. 
 
 6th — They ought not to have left arms or Aveapons in the hands 
 of the natives. 
 
 Vth — " They ought not to have given service to any one, unless he 
 had eaten food with them. 
 
 8th — " They ought not to have permitted the Hindoos to relate 
 their religious tales, or granted permission to Mussulmans to preach 
 sermons. 
 
 9th — " They ought not to have permitted the erection of Mosques 
 and Temples. 
 
 10th — " Decisions in the civil courts ought to have been passed 
 according to the precepts of the Christian religion. 
 
 11th — " The marriage ceremonies should have been made over to 
 the English clergy, instead of allowing the old customs of ' Nikau ' 
 and ' Bhowlee.' 
 
 12th — " Hindoo and Mussulman systems of medicine ought not to 
 have been allowed to be practised. 
 
 13th — (Wanting in the copy furnished to me.) 
 14th — " They ought not to have allowed the Hindoo and Mussul- 
 man Faqueers, unless especially permitted by the clergyman, to make 
 Proselytes. 
 
 15th — " They ought not to have allowed midwives, but insisted 
 that English medical men should attend women in child-birth. 
 
 " These points were not at all regarded by the English Govern- 
 ment, but the superstitions of the perfidious natives were, on the 
 contrary, respected and encouraged. The consequence is, that these 
 very people rebelled ; that if the foregoing measures are adopted, 
 there will be no fear of any disturbance for a thousand years to come." 
 Oh ! men of Hindustan, see now these Christians. How great is 
 their enmity against you. You have been told of the future schemes 
 of the English, as related above. Now you must wash your hands, 
 and try your best to save your religion and lives, by murdering all 
 Europeans ; make your resolution firm, and by the blessing of God 
 you will succeed. 
 
 I, the writer of this Proclamation, give you a short account of facts 
 as follows. Hear it attentively, and act up to it. Before the rebellion 
 broke out I had gone to Mecca, and on my return, when I arrived a 
 Bombay, having been informed of the wretched condition of these 
 ill-disposed Christians, I thanked God ; and as I am by nature a 
 believer in Islam, and a lover of justice, and a hater of oppression, 
 when I left Bombay on my way back to this part of India, I persuaded 
 the people on the road as far as Gwalior to make a Juhad, and to 
 kill all Christians, and to this eifect I took pledges from a great 
 number of native chieftains and warriors. A small force accompanied 
 me from Gwalior, and I had intended to fight as soon as I had 
 matured my plans ; but the religious fervour of my troops became so 
 great, that they paid no attention to discipline. They consequently 
 
406 
 
 unadvisedly advanced on Agra, and commenced iigliting with tlic 
 ill-starred infidels at that place ;•'' and notwithstanding that they were 
 inferior in numbers to the enemy, they fought w^ell and bravely, and 
 though they were apparently defeated, yet, in reality, having killed 
 about a thousand of the kafirs, they obtained a victory ; my property 
 was lost, and my relatives and friends were dispersed. 
 
 From that day to this my time has been employed in preparing to 
 fight again, and for three or four months I have been very successful 
 in inducing several princes and other natives of rank, and warriors 
 of every part of the country, to join with me in extirpating the 
 wicked kafirs, and by the grace of God I have been able to collect 
 1 50,000 tried soldiers and recruits, and they have taken solemn oaths 
 not to desert the cause ; and, therefore, in a very short time we shall 
 be able to clear the country from the presence of the kafirs. Every 
 where ammunition is stored, and money is collected. The only thing 
 which remains to be done is for me to commence operations. 
 
 The object in view is purely of a religious nature, therefore it is 
 made known to all Hindoos and Mussulmans, that whoever is so 
 fortunate as to possess the grace of God he will join us in this reli- 
 gious war. After the receipt of this proclamation it is expected that 
 all wall join in the " Juhad.'' 
 
 The w^eak and old can join by their prayers for our success ; the 
 wealthy and old should assist us with their wealth ; whilst those who 
 are strong and in good health should exert themselves in the field of 
 battle. 
 
 On joining the "Juhad" every one must remember the following 
 points. 
 
 Those who are servants of the races of Lucknow, our young kins- 
 man, Mirza Burjees Qudur Bahadoor, and those who are servants of 
 the Nawab Khan Bahadoor, Khan of Bareilly, will not join in this 
 war, without obtaining first the consent of those chiefs ; for those 
 chiefs are ready to expel the kafirs. Deserting those chiefs is, in 
 fact, therefore adding strength to the infidels. 
 
 2nd — All should join in this religious w^ar, not for the sake of this 
 world's goods, but in hopes of reaping the fruits of eternity. 
 
 After retaining ascendency and power by the blessing of God, they 
 will also get high situations in this world. 
 
 3rd — The delay that has occurred hitherto in expelling the English 
 has been caused by the will and order of Providence, for the army 
 mercilessly murdered women and children in violation of the orders 
 of their sirdars, and gave themselves up so much to plunder that 
 they turned victory into defeat. They likewise oj)pressed the people, 
 and did not mind the orders of their leaders. 
 
 Now having relinquished all these sinful acts, and formed jj^our 
 mind for doing good, you should join in the "Juhad," and you 
 will obtain complete victory. 
 
 4th — The people of all grades should regard themselves as equals 
 for religious matters ; all Brothers should equally defend the faith. 
 It is not my object to wage this w^ar for wordly gain, and therefore 
 
 * An allufeion totlie biittlc on the Agra Parade, on the 10th October, 1857, 
 
407 
 
 having placed reliance in the precepts of religion I gird myself with 
 bravery and enthusiasm, and having wrapped around my head the 
 cerements of the grave (kaffen), and having armed myself with the 
 sword of " Juhad," I rise, repeating the holy " Bismillah," and, rely- 
 ing on the blessing of God, I am sure of obtaining victory. 
 
 I do hereby call you again and again to come and join me for the 
 sake of God. I will inform you of the date and day in which I 
 march out of the city. Those who are anxious to join are requested 
 to do so without delay. 
 
 " Sacrifice your life for your beloved, for death will some day take 
 it from you." " Oh ! Hafiz, do you decide which is the better of 
 these two courses." 
 
 Printed at the Bahadoor Press in Bareilly, by the order of the 
 Nawab, the Ruler of Kuthbairt, under the superintendence of Mool- 
 vee Qootub Shah, by Daregoh Shaikh Nenaz Alice, dated the 3rd 
 Rujab 274 Higeree. 
 
 RiCHAKKSON BkOTHEKS, 23, COUKHILL. 
 
fo 
 
LOAN DEPT.