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322 THE LEAPBB. [No. 419, April 3, 1858.
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NOTICES TO COJRBBSPpNRENTS. Civrs Romanu...
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SATUB-DAY, APBLL 3, 1858.
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tDhere ia nothing so revolutionary, beca...
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LOBD ELJiENBOEOUGH'S INDIAN JUGGIiE. The...
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.
322 The Leapbb. [No. 419, April 3, 1858.
322 THE LEAPBB . [ No . 419 , April 3 , 1858 .
Notices To Cojrbbsppnrents. Civrs Romanu...
NOTICES TO COJRBBSPpNRENTS . Civrs Romanus . —We have «©• t & ank our correspondent for Ids letter and the accompanying Bssay . We sM pay particular attention t © both . We , shall be further obliKed if our correspondent ¦ will permit us to retain the volume until the end of next week , when it shall be returned to bis private address . . Ttftt . Jambs Grant ' s letter has been received , and engages our consideration . Mo notice can be taken of anonymous correspondence Whateveris in-tended for insertion must beauthentiested by the name and address of the writer ; not . necessarily for publication , but as aRuarautee of his good faith . Itis impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed , owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted , it is frequently from reasonsquiteindependent of the meritsof tbe « ommunication .
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SATUB-DAY , APBLL 3 , 1858 .
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Tdhere Ia Nothing So Revolutionary, Beca...
tDhere ia nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keepthings fixed whenallthe world is "by the very law ofits creationineternal progress . —Db-Absoxi )
Lobd Eljienboeough's Indian Juggiie. The...
LOBD ELJiENBOEOUGH'S INDIAN JUGGIiE . The Apocalypse has burst upon this generation . Lord ELiiENBOEOTjaH : is The Coming Man , and his India Bill is the Asian Mystery , a concentric Chinese ivory ball , carved from the tusk of a tame elephant , a complex ¦ wonder to captivate the pruriency of curious eyes , a symmetrical mechanism -with invisible joints , a polished , carved , convoluted globe , tossed in the air by a juggler who has studied magic and manipulation on the banks of in
the Ganges . With this measure our lands we are savages anatomizing a watch . It is easy to separate the parts ; but , ¦ wh en once the screws , cogs , axles , and spiral springs have been disturbed , all the Queen ' s Parliament will never put them together iagain . Politicians who put their trust in the Bill must not examine it too closely , otherwise they will detect the kaleidoscopic secret ; they will learn how all this brilliance is produced by a few bits of transparency shaken together and harmonized by an
optical illusion . Never was so composite a project submitted to a practical Legislature ; it is a cabinet of curiosities from till the disorders of political architecture—the Greek , the Roman , the Venetian , the styles of IiOtris XIV . and Napoi / eon—a supreme minister at home , a viceroy in India , nine nominated and nine elected members . The Coming Man has had his beau moment , and this is what he has made of it . The bill is , generally , an imposture . It provides for everything except the better government of India . It establishes an invisible despotism under the mask of an elective franchise . It creates a council of nullities whose pnly office would be to screen the Minister . It erects a home government to fetter the local authorities with whom the real responeibilities of Indian administration lie . It leaves totally unsettled every ; great question arising out of the recent mutiny . It destroys what ; worked well under the late system , and substitutes nothing better . To state the Blatter fairly , we will admit that it is a more Tjlauaible measure than Lord Paxmekston ' s .
It professes to provide for the representation of various important interests in the home government of Inclia . It calls into existence a more popular consultative body . But Xord Paxbobston ' s Council , although unnecessarily restricted , was more in the nature of a Council of State than Lord Eli-enadiaptraw's , "being qualified not only to deliberate but to advise independently and with an initiative . Lord Pajwmjohston ' s Councillors acted 'with- the President , Lord
Ellenbokottgh ' s President acts above the Councillors , Lord Paxmebston ' s were nominees , arid their nomination rested upon the responsibility of the Cabinet . Lord EiXEisrbobottgh ' s are to be partly sanctioned , in the first instance , by Parliament , and partly elected by the LeadenhaU-street proprietary and five great towns of the United Kingdom . N " , this elective scheme is singularly specious but it is founded upon a radical fallacy . The constituencies elect the House of Commons , and the
House of Commons is responsible for governing all parts of the empire , east or west . To Parliament , and to Parliament alone , as representative of the country , the administrators of India should be responsible . IfLondon , Liverpool , Birmingham , Dublin , and Belfast desire to lav the basis of good government in British India , they will instruct their members to act in the Imperial Legislature , and at this point their direet functions naturally and constitutionally cease . It is < juite unnecessary to vest them with powers to seat
the most opulent and liberal or old Indians in one of Lord EmiENBObOttgh ' s six committees , with none but consultative [ functions , and with no responsibility beyond that of banging an occasional protest round the neck of the Minister . The very constitution of the Council renders it impossible that any independent man will ever belong to it . The seats and the salaries , in fact , would be distributed among solemnly garrulous individualities content to be shelved upon an eminence of foolscap and green baize .
But it is of comparatively little importance what form is assumed by the Home Government of India , so long as it is single , represents the interests affected , and is subject to the absolute control of parliamentary and public opinion . Neither Lord Palmebston ' s bill nor Lord E : li / enbobottgh ' s secures this object ; but both are still more objectionable in that they leave to chance the local administration of our Indian empire . That empire must be practically governed within its own geographical limits , and not by a Council telegraphing from London . A Minister or a
Board at home despatching messages to the Governor-General at Calcutta , never will or can maintain more than a general superintendence of policy , acting as the link between the Crown , as the dominant power , and the real Government of India in India itself . A Council of eighteen , if carefully selected , might lay before the Minister a precis of information upon every important Indian subject , and in the last resort appeal to the public in support of their views . But beyond this , what could they do ? Lord EtiiENBOnouGH ' s bill creates a fiction in
the imperial metropolis , and provides literally nothing for India . What are to be the functions , powers , and responsibilities of the Governor-General , the local G-overnors , and the ordinary Civil Administration under the new system ? "What is to be the organization of the Army ? It may be objected that these questions do not fall within the cognizance of Parliament , but constitute the main details to be dealt with
by the new Minister and his Council . That , we insist , is the danger of the EtLENBOROuau Bill . If the essential problems connected with the civil and military administration of India be not disposed of before full poyers are conferred upon a supreme functionary in " London , with prodigious self-confidence , and a perilous faculty or invention , we warn the public that the acquiescence of Parliament will throw into Lord Ellenbobough ' s hands the despotic sway of the East—a sway which , if arbitrarily or unwisely exorcised , may ruin our Indian empire before a single point can be again rnisod for discussion in the
Legislature . Let . us have some guarantee , some binding provisions ,, some declared course of ! imperial policy . Has the rebellion tau » ht us onl y that we should confide unlimited discretion over immense establishments , and a most delicate institutional machinery t 0 th © dithyrambic Hero of Somna ' th ? ' Firstly , with , reference to the position of our future governors-general . Under the double government the powers of this officer , although not perhaps greater than hia situation warranted , were , in fact , far greater
than they seemed . If the President of the Board of Control issued instructions not approved by the Directors , it was easy for the Board to transmit a parallel statement of their views , and of their trust in the independent a » d salutary discretion of the Governor-General . If , again , the Directors persuaded the Minister at Cannon-row to an unwilling assent , what so obvious on the part of Mr . Vebnou Smith or Lord
B-ipon as to intimate his objections privately ? In either case , the Governor-General would have the support of one authority at home , and practice amply proved that a resolute administrator would frequently ignore and even diametrically oppose an order from London . Under the proposed bill , however , the President and the Board would be united ; the new Minister would be a despot in the chair of the Board of Directors ; and the Governor-General would be liable to
immediate dismissal for any act of disobedience . The question is , shall the Governor-General be a mere agent , or an administrator responsible for his policy ? If he be subordinate , if he have no power to deviate from a line marked by the President at home , he must manifestly be relieved of all responsibility . In that case , Lord Canning would resume his old position as Postmaster-General at Calcutta instead of St . Martin' s-le-Grand , forh &
would be no more than a receiver of letters on her Majesty ' s service from England , and a distributor of letters on her Majesty ' s service to the Indian provinces . All this is left open by Lord Ejllenbobotjgii ' s Bill , and not a word is necessary to show that it would beeasier for the new system than for the old to ruin the British-Indian Empire .
The grand duty of the Crown Minister and his Council should be to filtrate the details of Indian questions and place the result clearly before Parliament and the Cabinet at home , and to appoint the best men as civil and military chiefs in Iudia . The Legislature will inevitably fail if it provides only for a readjustment of the Indian machinery at home . It accredits a great proconsul to Calcutta , and is it to dissolve the existing relations between him and the authorities m London without defining his future position tuo
his powers , or his responsibilities hi local government of an empire almost a » large and quite as various in condition , creed , and race , as the old continont of Jiurope , and separated from England by halt tuo circumference of the globe P Wo may bito the chains of nature , but they bind us stUJ . The truth is , that India will not bo yoked to a telegraphic wire . Wo cannot centralize its administration in London . We cannot even centralize it at Calcutta . If guostious of peace and war , of general finunce , ana
the appointments of able governors-geuty . . Wd governors of-prositleTrcios ^' ftl Hvithin-tiioprerogative of the President and his Council , the selection of efficient local administrators , commanders , and councillors , the ninnngomom * of relations with native Courts , and frho general maintenance of free communication nnu public works should form the principal business of the Governor-General . Lot hun < mdeavour to centralize details , and he luuier-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 3, 1858, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03041858/page/10/
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