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the Government ,QA THE LEAP EB. fNo. 484...
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I isT D I A, AND INDIAN PROGRESS.
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trians, it has no linefrom Alexandria to...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The Government ,Qa The Leap Eb. Fno. 484...
, QA THE LEAP EB . fNo . 484 . July 2 , 1859 . _ , ' ¦ „ - ^——^—i ^^ M ^—^ M ^^ B ^ M ^ H ^ B ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^—~~ i . ¦ ¦ :
I Ist D I A, And Indian Progress.
I isT D I A , AND INDIAN PROGRESS .
Trians, It Has No Linefrom Alexandria To...
trians , it has no linefrom Alexandria to Malta , Corfu , or Constantinople , and thus , unless a steamer is dispatched from Malta to . Alexandria with a message , no communication can be made with the outgoing packet at Aden ' af ter she has once lef t Suez . Occasional Government messages can be sent , but that is all . A partial remedy may be obtained by the Government making ^ such arrangements of the . mail steamers and their own steamers as will enable the merchants to telegraph so as to catch the Aden steamer , and measures should be taken to send messages home .
It is imperative that all the lines of connexion shall be proceeded with . The Constantinople line has unforttinately failed , or there would have been one working connexion . The present state of Continental affairs renders it the more nccessary to have alternative lines . From Malta to Marseilles a line can be worked while France is at peace with us . Another line should be laid from Malta to Sicily , so as to connect with the Neapolitan and Italian lines , and have the opportunity of a course by France , Switzerland , or- —when events permit it—by Lonibardy and Austria . The Corfu line should be connected , not only with Trieste ,
has to await the period when the Government sanction for its completion may be granted . The Government have in-anted , to the Bombay and Baroda Company a guarantee , and 550 , 000 / . additional capital , of which 300 , 000 / . may be issued in debentures . This debenture plan has constituted a very valuable resource for the railway companies and the Government of India , and it is to be regretted it is not more extensively applied . The Government have likewise authorised the company' to survey . an extension between Broach and Baroda to Indore , which open up rich districts of Central Indiiu affording valuable ex-_ _ _ ' - ' * -s .
ports . " We are very sorry to see in the balance sheet oi this company , " Customs Duty , 2 , 704 12 s . 4 d . " One concession , which will cost the Government nothing , and be valuable to the . companies , is the remission of customs duties . Attention is being given to the waste lands in Oude , of which leases are being granted on condition of the reclamation within u specified period , that is to say , within two years , of one-third oi " this whole grant . These arrangements are defective on two " -rounds . First , that the whole is liable to
resumption unless the one-third has been cleared , so that if one-fifth be cultivated it may be renewed instead of the remaining portion uncultivated , and the grant is only by the defective system of lease , instead of the recognition at once of a fee-simple title on compliance , with the requirement of cultivation . We have reason to believe that the whole of each grant being included in a . lease irf subject to the fiscal regulations and to forfeiture for a portion not -paying the land tax . The Indian authorities canno t yet accommodate ¦ themselves to the requirements of the times-.
The consumption of opium in Malabar is attracting attention . There is too much reason to fear that this vice is extending over India as it is through China ; and opium will not impossibly thin off the vast population of these countries before the English race as fire-water has done in the east . It appears very desirable that some measure should be adopted to restrict it * pernicious effects . In Malabar it is used by both sexes , and boys begin the mischievous practice at the age of iourteen years .
The complaints of the want of labour for public works is common in India , and it is one indication of that ; rise in prices , which is taking place throughout India . On the East Indian railway , in more than one district , a diffi c ulty is found m obtaining day labour , but the officers commonly succeed in the end in getting the coolies to work by contraot , which obtains an effective increase oi labour , but in many districts they do not . perform one-third of the labour they did two years ago . The Commandcr-in-Chief returned to Simla on finding that the insubordination of the European troops had been allayed . The telegraph line from Hyderabad to Nn « jporo is finished and at work . This will be a great help to the political arrangements of Central * ¥ * T ¦ India .
At . Nynee Tal iron works have been lately established , of which Mi . I Joskins is the manager . These works form an addition to the resources of the district . Within a short timo the hills will become as great scats of metallurgic manufactures aa the lii . il districts of England . The Ahmednugger mission in Bombay , belonging to one of the American societies , " hns now eleven churches and a large staff of assistants . In twenty-three years before ' 1854 it received 198 converts , and in the last three years alone 203 . The main and effective increase is , however , by the baptism of children , of whom * 251 are under the dn-ection of the mission .
At Umntsur , lately in Lahore , six converts were baptised at once . The law school of Bombay is making progress . In tho last session there were fortynono students , one am Indian European , tho others of native descent , including ton TiU'scos . The court oi lectures include those of the Pony protoasor ol jurisprudence , of professors of common law , judicial evidence and procedure , principles oi equity , mercantile law nnd oriminal law . Tho best school of law will bo tho establishment of justices of tlio peace , English and native , all over tho country . This will fkimliariso . the intelligent classes of tho population with tho workings of the law , and load many to make themselves acquainted with its principles . A bnstard system of law ,
INDIAN NOTES , THE Succession Duty has made little progress in Calcutta , while the Black Act is forced on -with tho same speed as the Customs Increase was . The Indian ofiichils regard their native subjects , but care not how they affect English citizens resident within their jurisdiction . The English have chieily to pay the increased customs duties ; but on the natives will mainly fall the Succession Duty , and as they may object to it the officials express great ¦ tenderness for them . If any duty is well calculated to be imposed in India , . it is a Succession Duty : for the people have been accustomed to
wholesale confiscation and absorption by the native princes , and have not been indulged with the rights of property ; for even of the land they only acquired a kind of user ; nor have they had more under t ! ie Company ' s government . Now , however , rights of property in the soil are to . be conceded ; " rights of enjoyment of personal property are secured and defined by . the law ; and for these rights , unpossessed under the native rule , it is but just the people of India should pay . The
Succession Duty falls at a time when it can Jsest be paid , and according to a rate in inverse proportion to the interest of the successor ; for the widow or child pay only a nominal rate , -while the stranger in blood ,, who gratuitously' succeeds to property , pays the highest proportion . There is , too , security for the' levy of' the tax ; and , although the ingenuity of the natives of India will—like the ingenuity of the natives of England—suggest various modes of evasion , on the whole a large amount of property must be brought under taxation .
This tax is of the more moment , because prices are rising in India ; and although , in the beginnings it may bring in a relatively small amount to the treasury , it will in time constitute a resource steadily increasing . It is of great importance that the tax should be imposed at once , because it will give a solidity to the Indian exchequer much wanted . The opium duties may decline ; and before many years the opium monopoly must be abolished ; but the Succession Duty will yearly afford further supplies .
The completion of the Suez and Aden line of "telegraph is a great and important fact , and is one of the many services rendered to the public by Sir Macdonald St ' ephenson . Tb-is eminent man lias , from the earliest time of his inception of rail-• ways for Bengal , constantly looked forward to the aneans of communication between India and England . He dared to sketch out that great undertaking , the national highway between England and India , at a time when not a mile of railway was laid in India ; but he received the countenance of the Indian authorities because they felt the necessity for such communication and appreciated its value * They nursed his hopes—they coujd little more ; but this obtained for him tho countenance of the homo Government , arid thereby of foreign Administrations . On his return home he took
measures for proceeding with the Euphrates line— , at proposition which was received with much favour Imt other parties took the opportunity , to trade -upon it , and ho was obliged to waive his own p lans . In the meanwhile he engaged in tho promotion of the Turkish railway system , and produced a pow-« riUl influence on the Turkish and Austrian Governments with regard to the national highway . Having likewise taken undo ? his charge tho telegraph by way of the lied Sea , he has , notwithstanding great difficulties , succeeded in carrying It
out . He was very muoh embarrassed by the proanoters of his own plan by way of the Euphrates , "who attempted tp prevent the establishment of a Red Sea route , but he succeeded in obtaining from the English * Government a liberal guarantee for the undertaking , and has since accomplished the « onstruction of the line . As y « t the full benefit of this feat cannot bo obtained , because the connexion at exthor end is deficient .
The Government has managed to render this undertaking abortive . After playing with the subject , and engaging in a most objectionable compact lor delivering over the communication to the
Ausbut with the Neapolitan lines and with Albania . By a connexion with the Neapolitan lines an alternative communication is obtained by way of France . The most important connexion is , however , that by way of Albania . Unfortunately our Government has never paid any attention to the transit between the ports of Albania and the countries of the Lower Danube ; and , although Albania is disturbed , arrangements may be made for passing a telegraph line . Such line would be a good alternative to the Constantinople line passing its messages beyond French influence , and it may even serve as a course of communication when Austria
is hostile , by giving us access throughRussia to Prussia . The Constantinople line would possess the like advantages . 'Alternative ' . lines are required for political and engineering purposes . Hitherto we have been dependent for the passage of Europe on France or Austria , because the independence of Italy being destroyed , no route by Switzerland and the Rhine can be relied on . The passage through Austria
is virtually barred by the I ) rench , who may dredge tip any Trieste cable . The Constantinople cable becomes therefore of great importance , but the Corfu cable is of greater importance if it be connected with Albania . Unless we have all Europe against us , we then have a possibility of obtaining a route . In the course of events we may , however , be safe even from such a general combination , for the successful establishment of the Red Sea cable will
now promote the Atlantic cables and before the end of next year we shall have one or more such lines in operation , with a connexion with Panama and other places on the Pacific coast ; and the Americans are quite bold , enough to Jay a cable across the Pacific , and" give us thereby access to the East . Every day the ^ cost of manufacturing and laying telegrapn cables is diminished , ana what was last year a most costly enterprise has already become a moderate venture . With an alliance cemented with our brethren of the United States , such as is now in progress , neither will European ambition be allowed , to assail these islands , or to deprive the English race of its empire in the Bast .
For engineering purposes it is desirable to have alternative cables to meet , tho casualties and dofeots of insulation to which all submarine cables are subject .. The report of the Bombay and Baroda Railway Company , laid before tho shareholders at the meeting on Thursday , is an interesting document . The engineer has run an engine on a trial trip from Surat to Broach , « , distance of thirty-three miles , and the distance from Surat to tho v eeturnee River , on the Bombay junction lino , is in
progress of construction . The Company ' s plans for the remaining portion of forty-six miles have to undergo the misohiovous form of being examined by the Government , and thus are delayed the arrangements for the stores and workshops of the entire line , and tho opportunity of commencing construction from the only port where tho English materials can bo landed without transhipment . The directors are under the expectation of an opening throughout between Ahniodabad and the Veeturaco river , a distance of 5260 miles , within tho year 1860 , but then tho junction with Bombay
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 2, 1859, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02071859/page/10/
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