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696 THE LEADEE, [No. 278, Saturday,
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CHANDERNAGpEE. Sixteen miles above Calcu...
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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.
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Governmeot And Civil See Vice Of India. ...
of this personage no really important question can be decided . The details of administration , indeed , have hitherto been confided to civil servants appointed by the directors , but even that exclusive privilege las recently been cancelled by throwing the service open to competition . It therefore only remains to do away with the fiction of a . government that has neither subjects nor a i governing class , and to establish the direct jnfluenee of the Crown over all its
dependencies and , possessions . According to Sir Chables Metoaife , than whom there can be no higher authority , the two grand specifics to insure the stability of British rule in India , are a powerful army and colonisation . But it is absurd to expect that Europeans will permanently settle in a country where they are treated as a conquered race . There is . no arena for an honourable ambition , no stimulant to exertion , no reward for exalted merit . The "interloper" under no circumstances asj > ii * e to ' public-offices ancl dignities . If he would _ afford a fairer chance to his son , lie must send him to
Europe to acquire a smattering of the literature of ancient European Republics , in order to fit him for becoming the instrument of a despotic government over a hundred millions of Asiatics . ^ It is true that he « njoys the special privilege of being amenable only to British law dispensed ¦ b y ^ Britisli judges ; but these very courts are an anomaly , and have more than once seriously impeded the action of the Groverninent . An improvement in- this respect has "been certainly effected by the last charter , but the jnachinery will never work satisfactorily until its motive power bo one and indivisible .
The civil service , as lat present constituted , is divided into two classes , or ! castes—the covenanted ^ and ihet uncovenantecL The iformer are the /' twiee-iborn , " the favoured of Iieadenhall-streefc , who enjoy the loaves and fishes , are entitled to furlough , and finally refcire upon u pension of a' thbusand a year .
TPhe latter are hard-worked and iridifferently jpaid , are eligible to no high office , can claim no furlough , and when incapable of further service Are summarily dismissed—with a certificate of good conduct . To . this inferior caste belongs the educational department , and the leamedj > rincipal of a college stands lower on the official ladder than a beardless
boy who has donned for the first time the blushing honours of a uniform . Many of these uncoyerianted servants frre gentlemen , of good f ( unily , superipr educaticrta , excellent abilities , ancl ppssestsedj of ; iarge locat information . But ^ n spciety . they are not recognised , and the highest change they can hope to attain is that > of assistant-magistrate . ; And herb another absurdity is worthy of notice . The dutiey . of a ' civil servant are' finaWcial and iudidiary . / the former beina ; deemed the
most important , ^ e ^ exhji qi ^ dn , of a , superior order of talent aiia energy , 19 ' . generally rewarded by a post ja that department . But in ordinary cases , the same * person may be suddenly remored from / one to- the other , or called lipoTi to discharge both at the same time . Then ! o & ain , && the c ^ v & nttntdd 'body is not sufficiently nu ' ineroiis to 'Mle ' ct' revenue ana administer justice throughout the vast extent of underthe ritaah
territory , $ jurisdiction , recourse is bad , not to tU ^ uncovenanted , but to the military service , and the ablest officers are taken from their regiments , and for a dozen or fifteen years' converted " into civilians . It is needless to observe how 'detrimental this system must be to th 6 discipline , of bo ^ h men and officers , and to ijie general eflScieucy of in © army . v Sir QxLAMLJ & fi Mjetoaupe , indeed , wab of opinion that every Company ' s servant . should go
out a cadet ; that there should be no separate civil service ; and that men should be selected for civil duties according to fitness , remaining soldiers nevertheless . With all due deference to so high an authority , it may be asked how this profession of faith can be reconciled with the oftentimes repeated assertion that more for the native
European officers are required regiments , and that everything depends upon the confidence the former are able to inspire into their men . It is surely more consistent with the dictates of experience and common sense that every man should adhere to his own profession , and that the military should confine themselves to military , asthe civilians
to civil , matters . „ i We would have , then , a Governor-General appointed by the Crown for a term of years , under whom lieutenant-Governors should preside at Madras , Bombay , Agra , and Calcutta . There should be also but one army , under one Commander-in-Chief , however ungrateful such a measure might prove to the Horse Guards . The Civil Service might be advantageously divided into two ^ branchesthe financial and the magisterial—but
without the faculty of interchanging . He who adopts the department of revenue must follow out his career ; and in like manner the aspirant to the tribunal must qualify himself exclusively for nis future magisterial functions . The degrading parsimony of the uncoverianted service * can no longer be endured . Let every ' man who enters the Civil Service of the Indian Government be eligible to every post according to his rnerit , and let this be the only motive for selection . It may
be objected that the cost of government will be thereby greatly increased . But are the existing salaries , incapable of diminution ? Is it impossible to obtain efficient magistrates and collectors for a smaller stipend than 1500 / . to 2000 / . a year , with an annual pension of 1000 ? . in prospect ? Perchance men in whose veins the sanare azul flows may become yet more rare , but perchance also men of surpassing energy and ability may become much more numerous . India is
no longer separated from Europe by a tedious and dangerous voyage of many months' duration , nor is the climate so fatal to life as travellers would have us believe . By the use of ordinary precautions health may be preserved during the average number of years supposed to be allotted to man , and a more reasonable mode of living repudiates the ostentatious extravagance that involved the last generation in debt in proportion to the magnitude of their salaries .
In addition to the Civil Service , properly so-called , there must be the judicial , and this likewise should be local . At present the judges , and even > many of the barristers , arc totally ignorant of the native languages , laws , and usages , and yetthey are constantly required to adjudicate , or plead , between natives and Europeans . If ones of the latter commit a crime at Peshawur , he cannot be brought to trial excepting in Calcutta , a distance of at least twelve hundred miles .
The consequence is that even criminal offences are allowed to pass unpunished ; because no one will willingly incur the expense , fatigue / arid loss of time , ; iricidcrrtlal to the prosecution . This subject , However , cannbt pe better illustrated than . "by thd following extracts from a minute drawn , up by , < $ i , r Chabt ^ ks MbtoaiiUjb in 1820 : —
"We have seen a native of India , lately a servant of tho King of Oude , but residing within the British frontier for Tefuge , arrested 611 n false allegation of debt , many hundred milks away frota' Calcutta , by an officer of the Supreriie Court , and placed in the power of his protended creditor And undoubted enemy , on some legal fiction of his being a constructive inhabitant of Calcutta / inconsequence of dealings with parties residing there . . . . * . We
have seen property seized in the most remote provinces under the Bengal Presidency as the property of a bankrupt firm at Calcutta , and made over wholly to another firm of that place on a bond , although creditors of the bankrupt firm , and claimants against it were present in those provinces ; although the transactions on . which they claimed took place in those provinces ; although the very property seized was properly their own , never having been paid for . The awe of the Supreme Court deterred the local authorities from attempting to maintain the right of the local creditors . "
It ia evident that such could never have been the object contemplated in the establishment of this court , although the abupe of its extraordinary powers might have been predicted by any one acquainted with the workings of the human heart . For the future , all evils of this nature might be avoided by constituting an Indian bar and an Indian bench . The judges might be chosen exclusively from the local bar , and on the occurrence of a vacancy the latter might be called
upon to nominate three candidates , on © of whom would be selected by the Governor-General , subject to the approval of the Crown- As the immense extent of our Indian Empire would render it impossible for one set of judges to undertake the different circuits , it might be found advisable to institute four courts , those of Calcutta , Madras , Bombay , and Agra , with perhaps a recorder at Lahore . One system of law might then be administered to Christian , Mussulman , aud Hindoo , and the judiciary department of the civil service would b « confined to the . duties of- a
stipendiary magistracy . By this means " the square men would be put into the square holes , and the round men into the round holes , " and merit would form the only true distinction , tlie only road to honour and advancement . ' , - ; ¦ j . .
696 The Leadee, [No. 278, Saturday,
696 THE LEADEE , [ No . 278 , Saturday ,
Chandernagpee. Sixteen Miles Above Calcu...
CHANDERNAGpEE . Sixteen miles above Calcutta , and on the west bank of the Hooghly , stands the pleasant town of Chandernagore , the Chandranagora of the natives . With regard to beauty and salubrity of situation , it is in every way superior to the- metropolis of British India , and the spacious parade by the rivec-sido yields in nothing to the great ornamental
works of the ancient rulers of the country . Jn the early times of the British Settlements , this place formed the head-quarters of tlie ^ French , whence they actively intrigued with the Soubahdar to effect tbe expulsion of their rivals from Bengal . But diplomacy failed in presence of superior energy aad , power , and , after a stout resistance , Chanderuagore succumbed to tlio broadsides of the Kent and
the Tiger , commanded in person by Admirals Watson aud Pocockk . However , ou the return of poace , the , fruits of conquest were , with characteristic bonhomie , restored to . the enemy from whom they had been so arduously wrested , and Qlmndernagor ^ vas again permitted to become a thorn in our . Bide . It ie true that tlio fortifications and garrison of the p lace ) are bo utterly insignificant tbnt a single battalion would nt . any time suflGoo to reduce it to submission * . Hut- this very cirf cutnstnuco tends to impress thd natives with
a mysterious awo for a power , that , from ao groat a distance , cim plant its : flag close to tho very capital of tho > redoubtable " John Koompanie ' s" dominions , They obsei've > top , that even tho Supreme Court faila to inspire mny dread within thjfl ; enchanted spot * hot n man swindle lus friend in . . Calcutta , defraud hia creditors , or commit a ininclomeanour , ho need onty IIcq to tho shadow of the tricolor , and neither police-officer nor bailiff will disturb hia sluinbora . Nor in it by any means conducive tdj the morality of young men im Calcutta that « o near at luittd they can find every means and opportunity for indulgence in quasi-Parisian vice . Aspiring
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 21, 1855, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21071855/page/12/
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