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536 THE LEADER. [No. 474, April 23. ISso...
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INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS.
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CLERKS, FOOLSCAP, AND GOVERNORS . Perhap...
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NOTES ON INDIAN ritOCJHESS. It is a sign...
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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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536 The Leader. [No. 474, April 23. Isso...
536 THE LEADER . [ No . 474 , April 23 . ISso ¦ tr ^ iMy ™ nirT *' i ^ "r * g— ' ^ ' ** " ^ F ^ r ** ^ rt ¦ . me— WBtecBB ^ gatii- *' Baca 3 ;—* MP' fa .. aJi'iiiti ' i ¦« ¦¦ ¦ - . ¦ ¦ !¦¦ *¦*¦ ¦ ^ 'i "" ¦ i . gaxywai . *• " - ' " - " .. ^^^^^^^^ ^^~ i ^ ' " '¦ " - " - ¦— ' ¦¦'"^' - ¦ -a *^— J" -rra *" - " jrayt * nT ^ ^ _ ^ . M ^_ *^*
India And Indian Progress.
INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS .
Clerks, Foolscap, And Governors . Perhap...
CLERKS , FOOLSCAP , AND GOVERNORS . Perhaps the very worst enemies of the Indian civil service are its friends , for , instead of vindicating its character , they asperse it by attributing to it illiberal and unnational principles ; and instead of enfrancliising it from those fetters which now impede its more effective action , they provide for keeping on these and laying on more . With the civil service we embrace the tineoyenanted , because it is exposed to most of the disadvantages and disabilities of the great service , for by this time reams of foolscap and successive Government Gazettes are devoted to its regulations . It is supposed the civil service govern India , and the English public desire they should do so , but in reality they are prevented from governing India , except so far as the enemies of red tape from time to time succeed and emancipate some province or newly acquired district , for a time , from clerkisin . Two centuries ago the Hon . East India Company sent out young lads as clerks to India , or apprentices as they would be called in that day , and the worthy gentlemen at the India House "who have succeeded , generation after generation , to the headship of the firm , have never been able to realise the idea that the young men have , got out of their
time . There is a " wholesome system of discipline maintained , which , though it neither provides Bridewell nor the cage of Little Ease tinder Guildhall , savours of 'their spirit . The officials have , it is true , been deprived of the valued titles of clerks , factors , and traders , though they retain that of writers ; but clerks they remain . The Indian serr vice was , it is true , beyond the eyes of the head partners , and in so far gave "way to license , but the home establishment was kept strictly to the counter , and clerks they are to this day . It is one great expectation we have of the hew
Government , that we shall obtain a real administration for India , whereas under the old system , a man so illustrious as John Stuart Mill , had no real responsibility , and little direct power ; and we do not speak of Mill because he has a public reputation as a writer , nor solely because the class of writings by which he is best known belong to the highest science of statesmanship , but because that men , who had , we believed , never been in India , was thoi'oughly and fully acquainted with it , and was well qualified to be one of its administrators .
It was one of the defects of the old system that man who returned from India in the prime , of life were lost to its service , when they were in the place * - where the most effectual aid could be ministered to its needs . There was ,, we own , the lottery of a seat in the direction , but what a lottery was that ! First , the candidate must be a Scotchman , or connected with the mercantile clique , and then he must wait long enough , as long as Mr . Prinsep did , before , after successive applications , he could obtain a vacant directorship . When Tbehad got it , he had pomp and patronage enough , trad considerable obstructive power , but little
effective power of doing good . The patronage * u « ne , and the claims ol' the pi'oprietpre of East India stock wore enough to keep him employed , but he had the prospect of the chairs before him , and the natural impulse of getting a scat in Parliament , to defend the interests of the proprietors and the character of his colleagues . Tims with paper and rod tape in India , and the Board of Control at home , twenty years of ft long life would pass by without a man of noble aspirations succeeding in doing ne much g ^ ood as ho had done in his own collectorato in India . His individuality was swamped , without his obtaining collective
Treasury ; and great as have been his services , we cannot help thinking that at the India House lie ought to have done still more ; but it was better as it stands , for we have had his services , and he has won the Governorship of Madras ; but at the India House he would have been buried with John Stuart Mill and other bright spirits . The system of clerkism at the India House has not only kept out competent men , but it has reacted to keep India in trammels . If a direct correspondence could have been maintained between a responsible officer in India and a responsible ofliccr at home the harm would not have been great ; but the Government trusted no one , and in India we have seen the combined evils of military , excise , and mercantile red-tapeism . There are . many things absolutely necessary for general discipline in an army ,, which are formal except in reference to ultimate ends or great emergencies , but when applied to other services can hardly be said to be purely formal , but positively ' mischievous . Thus a variety of-military regulations are parodied in the civil and uncovenanted services , and a gazette is employed for their promulgation , in which furloughs and temporary leaves of absence figure for the edification of the public . This is not so bad in essence as it is in spirit ; because it shows the spirit which
dominates . A man may be nominally the head of two millions of ¦ subjects , ' or he' may be really the governor of a large population in the Punjaub , but in the hour of his might and his triumph ,. the slave of the amlah stands at his eai ' , to proclaim that lie is only a clerk , and ¦ to put pen and paper hvliis hand for some office form . Luckily in England we have got rid of this , in a great degree , although the trammels of the Inland Revenue preSs , tightly , but there is the member of Parliament ] : > atron to ask a question in the House of Commons ,. if John Smith were immolated at the shrine of the demon
When Parliament meets a copy of this ordinance may very properly be asked for . A born official who has gone through Ilaileybury and "ot his writership , wlip goes to India as a boy , wilf make but light of schoolboy regulations ; an oflicer tvhb escapes from the major aud his regiment to a-wellpaid staff appointment , never thinks of the departmental regulations as offensive to his personal dignity , or oppressive : he has been too Veil trained in ascetic submission to care for anything short of the cat-o ' -nine-tails ; but an independent professional man , chosen for his attainments and ability , who has perhaps worked out at home a
large section-of a railway , and had hundreds of men under his control , is by no means pleased to find that impertinent dictation can be tendered to .. , and that he is restrained even irom resenting it . "While India wants the free action of Englishmen it is limited to the partial efforts of clerks , subalterns , and schoolboys . Members of Council and collectors are not compelled to wear . shell-jackets , and parade like schoolboys , but ninny is the personal restraint approaching to ¦ d egradation to "which the administrative- ' code condoms them . Individual responsibility must-be . enforced in . .. India by allowing greater scope for exertion , not . by imposing m-eater restrictions .
This is one aspect under which the improvement of-India-is to be regarded . ' . There must begreater independence of- action at - honie and abroad , centralisation . must be lessened , local < mvemment strengthened . There must by fewer collectors and magistrates , there must he more governors and commissioners . At home there must ho mbiisters instead of clerks— -men who ' caii be r . iatle responsible by Parliament and public opinion , and can enjoy the honour us well as the blame or" their administration . There , nm .-t be . iewer oflkiius in India n more , professional men employed , and more unpaid magistrates-arid iunetjomirius , so arf . to cullliis is dreadful
tivate a spirit of independence , '' a thought for the old school , but it is the only way in which the millions of India can , by our . menus ,. be brought under the influence of yond < jovcmment . It is not very pleasurable to consider that one _ of the statesmen who received the thiink :- « oi" I \ irliament—Mr . Frere—did nut even hold the rank of lieutenant-governor , of the province which ho ruled , but , under the anomalous title of Chief Commissioner of Scimle , was . brought wilhin the category of those to whom ( he thnnlc . soHhv wnion could be personally ottered . It was Tmt : v nhorl Juno ago that Sir John Lawrence held as nu an a tulo .
of red taj > e . Keal discipline is not favoured by such appeals , but the Indian services will gain in the first instance by such a resource in some of the perils of officialism . " We have lately illustrated a few cases of the official system in India , which show to some degree its incidence on its members , and the member of council . is as much subject to it , as the poor engine-driver or stoker , who is not a member of the uncovenanted service , We recorded that a strike had been brought aboxit on the East Indian railway by the Government refusing to allow the Railway Directors to employ their own money in
paying the monthly wages until the payment had been authenticated by the officers of Government in Calcutta , as if such supervision were any effective check . The Government must , however , make assurance doubly sui * c , waste the time of their officers , and impede the public business . Of all things wages paid at a distance are most difficult to supervise , they can only be audited , and must bo checked in lump by the results , and not in details . Any head of a lai'ge establishment here knows that with the greatest care ho cannot check quarter days and overtime , and that he must leave this to his foremen , relying upon their capacity
and integrity , . Lhe authorities at Ualoutta are , however , imbecile enough to attempt this ; and railway companies , their superintendents , and engineers we ' ll know that their connexion with the Government is n 6 t a pleasing one , and that they are put to the greatest trouble and inconvenience by the meddling of the officials . Bo injurious is tin ' s , that some of the guaranteed companies are almost in doubt whether they would not bo better off without a guarantee and freed from , the burden of the Government interference 5 mid tho moment any lino pays , there will be a likelihood of its cmfranchising itself irom tho trammels so opposed . Tho interference is as muohliko that of the French Ponts at Chauss & ea and police as can will bo .
Another example , forwarded by a late mail , was an order , in which the name of Lend Stanley was freely used , cautioning tho civil engineers and olhor professional men in the service of tho Government against giving information to projectors of railways , irrigation works , and other puplio improvements—n proclamation especially olTbnsivo and impolitic .
It was not every man who could ov would engage in this lottery , with a baronetcy as its thirty thousand pound prize , and , therefore , returned civilians and military ' lost all connoxion ¦ with India except from frequent applications to the directors ami the House to obtain dadetships and writoi-ships for their sons , and staff appointmcntB and loaves of absence for them and thoir flonu-in-law . Such ft man as Sir 0 . B . Trovolyan sought employment , and got it in the Imperial
Notes On Indian Ritocjhess. It Is A Sign...
NOTES ON INDIAN ritOCJHESS . It is a significant sign of the growth of l ^ ff ' " population in India that the julrtivss presented to Sir John Lawrence on his ( lupurtiire , by the hug » residents , was signed by -JS-J memoes - "lino ciui and uneovenanted service , 'by -17-fc inihrury , 'i' ^"'' and medical officers , 1 J 3 clergymen nn < l "''"" V' "" J and 83 gentlemen not connected with , tho l' ° y » mont . It shows , too , how suwdl u * the clement last referred to . „ In consequence of the Lawrence Afl . vlui . i . nt - ' ; nawur having been taken under tlie care "I «»^' vernment , wo . arc glad to learn that nnull . ov jto W founded at Murrco , in tho run . ja . il > , by tlie <¦ " »»> . ° of the iLuwreneo Asylum . After upl ^ 'l / 1 '" )! 1 " /; ' YJ to the erection of n monument in ht . ¦» <>"» \ ""> drnl , tho buluncc , amounting to about -Mint / . in hands of thoFunjuub Committee , mul M <»< " . oi " « j Calcutta Committee , including l , »> oo / " ' .. ' ° Canning , the Viceroy , Is to be applied > " Ul » endow un Asylum at Muwuo . An e UgH k « ° » l ° bo Bocuroil in that town , and an institution iox wij children of soldiers to bo flwt built . ; . In consequence of tho Nortli-Woalern U « ' * > « J £ withdrawn its brancjifroni WusaooHt-, Hie Deim «» ' » wll supply its ]> lace . v ., ,, isa ( i At jiilrJooHiiB , on February 28 « 1 | , the "' { g oliangod , witl » high wlndH , ruin , . iiu J > £ ofsnowontlio neighbouring hills . Ci 1 > < U" ^" ^ well hud paid a visit to lnmioc V a Zifti uric t i European tx-oopa on the Binchul . A mi * " l " ^^ Ul > ootun is building a temple for his ne | ' « fifty yards Aom tho walls of the oliurcl j I « « wj tenowupanlos liavo been fonjied . I . no u w k » . now voryregulcvr , which is of iinnort . uice . to U \\»^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 23, 1859, page 24, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23041859/page/24/
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