On this page
-
Text (4)
-
244 THE LEADER. [No. 465, Febhpaby 19, 1...
-
INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS.
-
LORD STANLEY'S SPEECH. On Monday night L...
-
THE MADRAS RAILWAY. The report of the Ma...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
244 The Leader. [No. 465, Febhpaby 19, 1...
244 THE LEADER . [ No . 465 , Febhpaby 19 , 1859 .
India And Indian Progress.
INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS .
Lord Stanley's Speech. On Monday Night L...
LORD STANLEY'S SPEECH . On Monday night Lord Stanley made a most important statement on what is called the financial position of India , but which is in reality a declaration of the policy of the Government and the administration of India , and which will be read with gratification by the friends of progress . The speech , unfortunately , from the want of conversance of the reporters with the details , is published with many inaccuracies . The subjects it deals with are numerous and weighty , and we can only touch on some of those wliich are of greatest interest from our special view .
The basis of Lord Stanley ' s system of finance is founded on the fact that at the time of the outbreak of the mutiny , the equilibrium between income and expenditure was nearly restored , and he expects therefore , on the establishment of a regular system of administration , and by taking measures for promoting the progress of the country , to bring the income and expenditure within bounds , and he proposes to meet the temporary deficit by a loan . Still looking to the fact that in Bengal the land revenue is inelastic , and that the opium monopoly is an uncertain reliance ^ Lord Stanley keeps in view the imposition gradually and steadily which
of new taxes , the produce of may be assisted by the development of the country . It may be seen that Bengal will be subjected to a new fiscal system , for Lord Stanley maintains the land settlement , but he proposes , > vith a view to promote English colonisation and progress , to sell , the waste lands in fee simple as in the other colonies , and , what is of no less importance , to enfranchise the Zemindariai tenures , so as to make them freehold . Thus the English . and native freeholders will be left open to the action of the usual fiscal expedients , and these must ultimately result in a considerable revenue ; for Lord Stanley shows by its commercial statistics that the produce of India is
as rapidly increasing as that of the most progressive -countries in Europe . Pie referred , in support of this , to the facts , that in the last twenty years the . imports of India were at the beginning 43 ; 500 , 00 ( W , and at the last return 112 , 700 , 000 / . ; that the exports have advanced from 62 , 230 , 000 / . to 112 , 700 , 000 / . ; the tonnage entered and cleared from 10 , 700 , 000 tons , to 19 , 000 , 000 tons ; and that the average yearly export of cotton to this country has increased from 77 , 000 , 000 lbs . to 172 , 000 , 000 lbs . We have found it difficult however to follow the detailed figures , as in some cases five yearly terms have been taken , and in others the average of five yearly terms , and in one case the absolute yearly
returns . . . Lord Stanley dwelt very strenuou 3 ly on the effect that public improvements are likely to have on India . Thus , in speaking of the land revenue , he said it must be considered as comparatively inelastic , except there may arise an increase of English territory , a ^ cause of increase which has been moat active in times past , or where land , hitherto waste , may be brought into cultivation ; and that increase , he affirmed , is likely to take place to a considerable extent , in proportion as tlje railways and other means of communication shall
open up the country to individual enterprise ,, It is obvious that several of the lines traversing the Dekkan through wild countries will bo the moans of extending cultivation and extending revenue . He laid stress , too , Upon the value of improving the communication between the two countries by telegraph , and referred to the Red Sea telegraph and that by the Euplu-ates . We wish he could have said something about improving and cheapening the communication by steamer between
ISng-This , after all , was a weak point in his case , for j railways are so valuable 3 , 400 miles is quite inadequate to provide proper accommodation for the vast extent of India . If we imagine the London and North Western , the Great Western , the Great Northern , and three or four other railways as providing the whole railway accommodation for these islands—France , Spain , Italy , Switzerland , Belgium , Holland , Denmark , and Germany—it may give us some notion of the inadequacy of the length of line the Government has provided for India , and which some people object to extend by a single mile till these few lines are opened . Lord Stanley
was very distinct in his avowal that the liabilities under the railway guarantees cannot be considered as burthens on the Government of India . Setting aside the enormous benefit that must eventually accrue to Government from the opening up of the country , which these railways will effect , he ber lieved that the arrangements made in . connexion with them can but result beneficially ; and here he appealed to the opinion of the great founder of Indian railways , Sir Macdonald Stephenson , whose energy , talent , andunquestionable ability , he said ,
give weight to the opinions expressed by him , that the Government will not in any case be called upon to pay the interest ; for his estimate shows that the profits on these lines will exceed 5 per cent . —Sir Maedonald Stephenson , be it remembered , to whom the Government refuse to pay his annuity , although the shareholders of East Indian Railway are willing . Lord S ^ nley cautioned the House thatj however favourable the traffic may be , on the whole , that the lines at present are far from complete . little
Of other works he was able to say but . ; for there are only the harbours of the Mutlali and Kurracliee , and the Madras irrigation works . There was one project mentioned by Lord Stanley , in Avhich we are far from having confidence . While he shows a natural distrust for the military system of employing uneducated officers as engineers , and which the brilliant example of a man of genius like Sir Proby Cautley cannot redeem , he purposes to substitute for an open body _ of practising civil engnieers , a corps of officers like those Of the Ponts et Chaussees . True it is Lord Stanley proposes to draft these from among civil
Another declaration of the results of old Indian policy , which was not heard in the House without creating a great sensation , was , that notwithstanding the increase of English troops , from 45 , 522 to 91 , 580 , the number of native troops a d been allowed to increase from 232 , 254 to 243 , 961 . This might well be received with indignation , but we fear there is a determination to keep up that system of jobbery , the native army , with lieutenants and captains paid as . lieutenant-colonels and colonels . The English army is now required to watch the legions of Sepoys , Sikhs , and other suspicious characters , instead of these being disbanded , and an English army being maintained in the hills . We beli « ve that the whole of the hill stations of India , at this present moment , even with all the new cantonments , have not barracks for 10 , 000 English , and that several of them , for want of railway communication , can only be used as distant reserved depots . The true source of economy in expenditure is to be sought by placing the English soldiery in the hills , where they can be maintained on home pay , and thus the whole 91 , 580 English soldiers now in the country might be maintained for the same pi-ice formerly paid for the 45 , 522 ^ and the whole body of the native recruits for rebellion be forthwith disbanded . No task can be more difficult than that now imposed on Lord Stanley , of governing in India with the clog of a body of men who insist pii inipeding the policy of progress , and carrying out the condemned policy which has retarded the ; welfare of India and subjected it to civil war . Lord Stanley has , however , announced such reforms in the land system of India as will greatly promote English settlement , and thereby effectually dispose of the obstructive policy and its adherents , render the native army less dangerous and insure its suppression , and provide for the , restriction of the native officials and the suppression of their corruptions , extortions , and tortures . This Lord Stanley , some years hence , will have the proud satisfaction of knowing . he has effected .
engineers , practically educated in this country before they l e ave ; but any system of men ^ left practically irresponsible and free from competition will never work well . Of whatever class the men may be in . the beginning , they will soon cease to exert themselves ,. and the public works of India will be always backward , and far behind those of the general body of practising engineers . What India wants is free enterprise , and not doctrinairism or any kind of red tapism , from which it has already too much suffered . In connexion with this plan there is a hint likewise unfavorable , that the system is to be carried
out , of the substitution of cheap native agency in the government of India for the comparatively costly agency of Englishmen . In this . development of the policy or the old civil Indians , Lorft Stanley shone least , and he will heed the pressure of publio opinion to enable him to carry out an enlightened and effective policy . Lord Stanley offered an argument in behalf of the covenanted rate of salary , and appealed to the paucity of medical candidates as one proof that moderately paid Europeans cannot be got for India ; and , as another proof , to the salaries paid in the engineering
establishments by the railway companies . Now , it is notorious over India that the rate of remuneration for all oivil employment of Europeans is declining , and never was so moderate ; and that the railway companies are paying generally very moderate rates , Thus we shall in a short time find the Government diminishing the number of English employe ' s , whilst private establishments , or even natives , , are increasing them . While a coffee -planter finds it worth while to employ an English superintendent , or foreman , at 180 * . a year , , and can got such in abundance , the Government cannot find Europeans for its service . Our comment on this ftulaoy is , that India wants for its government more Europeans , and that they must bo had .
land and India . It is to be hoped the Great Eastern may be able to help in some respect in showing the way to improvement . It is strange , considering the resistance of the Indian authorities hero to railway extension—a resistance which still prevails—to find Lord Stanley using the progress of railways as a ohief argument fbr his confidence in the future of India ; and yet the whole length of line that lie is able to boast of as open is only 559 miles , and there is only undor construction about 2 , 823 miles , making , as he said , five or six miles in construction for one open , and wliioh it will take several years to effect ,
The Madras Railway. The Report Of The Ma...
THE MADRAS RAILWAY . The report of the Madras Railway Company , presented at the meeting yesterday , is a document most important as to the progress of India , and every paragraph of which demands attention . One announcement is , that a considerable addition has been made to the company ' s engineering staff , and that . on the other hand arrangements have been made to substitute natives for Englishmen in minor posts , which has been gradually carried out , as the natives get trained . The results are favourable , as the work is done as cheaply , and with equal efficiency as before , or even greater . This will be done with advantage tne
in many cases , obtaining assistants used to country and preferable to low class English oi dissolute and unruly habits . The surveys and the extension of such ot-tne line as is open have proceede d slowly and steadily . It will be remembered that not far from Madras the line forks , one trunk proceeding north-west , and the . other south-west . In this latter direction the lino is now open as far as Goriattum , w * miles , and active measures are in progress for too simultaneous opening of the lino ns far as balem , Ijeinjr a distance of 200 miles from Madras . Ai » s
is however delayed for some months , as grew difficulties have been found in the works on the Polar rive ? , between Goriattum and VainoniDauy ' The progress of this line is of groat importance for the military arrangements of the Madras presidency , and for the promotion of fcngnsn settlement , as it is the main route to the uplantw of the interior . The line throughout its longm skirts the fine coffee district of Mysore , and t » e 3 iealthy European settlements on the Shovaroys and the Noilghorrios , and runs close to the l ' ulneys . The opening to Salem will be in fact an opening to the Shovaroys , and indeed the railway is already open half way to the Shovaroy . s and to Bangalore , making those districts more accessible 'to English invalids and trbops . Bangalore , on the table land of Mysore , is well known as one of the healthiest stations of Madrus , and avoni exertions are being used by the Madras Uauwny
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 19, 1859, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19021859/page/20/
-