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No. 466, February 26, 1859] TfE LEADER _...
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¦ 1HDIA AND INDIAN; PROGRESS.
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LORD STANLEY, AND EAST INDIAN ¦ . . ¦ ' ...
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THE BOMBAY MAILS. The Ripon arrived at S...
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NOTES UPON INDIA. It lms been heard with...
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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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No. 466, February 26, 1859] Tfe Leader _...
No . 466 , February 26 , 1859 ] TfE LEADER _ Jgg _
¦ 1hdia And Indian; Progress.
¦ 1 HDIA AND INDIAN ; PROGRESS .
Lord Stanley, And East Indian ¦ . . ¦ ' ...
LORD STANLEY , AND EAST INDIAN ¦ . . ¦ ' FINANCE . . ' -. Lord Stanley had one night for liimself and one for his opponents ; and having delivered a speech which was successful with the public , he was equally successful in undergoing the ordeal of the ex-. Indian ministers—Sir Chas . Wood and Vernon Smith . . . ¦ . ¦¦•• Public Avorks may be called the key to Loi-d Stanley ' s financial policy , and it is a key the public wJU . eui . TUst to him ; it is the master key of the complications of the Indian situation , and must not be recklessly thrown , away . Sir Chas . Wood began with a sneering hint , that some discrepancy may occur in the calculations from taking the rupee t 2 s . to the < £ instead of at Is . 10 * d ., whereas , the sooner the rupee is taken at 2 s ., or one ^ -tenth , the sooner will one mystery ; of Indian finance be got rid of , and if the rupee be really assimilated to the florin , instead of various other changes being made in it from time to time , so much the better . Sir Charles after paying some compliment to Lord
Stanley on his statement , paid but a poor compliment to himself , by affirming .. that Lord Stanley ' s account of the public works was not so full as it might have been , nor yet very satisfactory ; and we agree with . him ' ,, for we should have been better pleased had Lord Stanley been able to give a statement of a large , number of public works ; there are railways for instance . Sir Chas . Wood coolly said that when he became connected with the India Board , one of the first things he : did was to urge the completion of the gx-eat lines with the greatest possible rapidityand the result that Lord Stanley
, finds after a year of office is , that only 559 miles are open in all India—hot length enough in the whole to communicate from Calcutta to the nearest presidency ; and this Six- Chas . Wood calls urging on the great lines - \ vith the greatest possible rapidity . There was no mutiny in Madras or Bombay , and yet fifteen years after railways were planned for India we have just" 559 miles . How could Lord Stanley give a more satisfactory account of what Sir Chas . Woorl and Mr . Vernon Smith had done ? Had 5 , 000 miles been opened , as they might have been , Lord Stanley ' s statement might indeed have been satisfactory .
The tenure of land question—one of the most vital points in Lord Stanley ' s statement-r-was ingeniously treated by the great Whig minister . He professed to understand that Lord Stanley hold out that very little could be done by the Government as to the title of new lands or of old lamds ; whereas Lord Stanley proposes to give a freehold title to the Government waste lands , and to ^ enfranchise tho zemindai'ial lands—objects resisted by the Whigs and the mandarins for years . Of all the lands of India onen for occupation and
improvement , Sir Charles Wood ' s information was only able to point out to -him tho Sunderbnnds , as to which lie stated with candid truth that he was not quite puro any grout number of English settlers would bo induced to' take up their abode in the Sundcrlmnds , wliioh ho believed are now princip ally in the occupation of tigers . Wo believe with him ; but neither Lord Stanley nor anybody else proposed to induce any considerable number of English settlors to take up thoir abode in tho pestiferous Sunderbunds ; but Lord Stanley had full right to refer to tho great undertaking which Sir Charles Wood neglected—tho opening of tho port
regions , as the squatting titles of the Indians in Canada , of Kaffres in Africa , and of Maoris in New Zealand , have been compensated and provided for . There is no reason the condition of the poorer hill tribes of India should not be raised by the influence of English ca | 3 ital and civilisation . It was quite within keeping - for such a man to deprecate Lord Stanley ' s view of giving the aid of the credit of this country to the Indian exchequer . The United States federal treasury has , by means of the public funds , paid off most of its public obligations ; and as new territory is acquired , so are new resources obtained to meet further , obligations : and so have' California , Oregon , and Arizona
Washington , Texas , New Mexico , afforded , and still afford , fresh supplies for the federal government . The English Government , under the policy inaugurated by the Whigs , have given away the public funds of Canada , South Africa , and all Australia ; and with the same profligacy , and the same want of principle , they , propose to abandon the increasing resources of India . Let the guarantee of the empire be given for India , and the sale of the waste lands and the enfranchisement of the old tenures will provide abundant funds , not only for the liquidation of the Indian old debt ,, but of all sums raised for public improvements , and of providing a large sum for the reduction of the National Debt here . The present
upset price of wild land in India , -depressed' as are prices in that country ,, is 6 s . per acre , whereas in the United States it is only 5 s ., and in Canada , 2 s . 6 d . In a few years ^ with the 'progress of railways and water communication , there will not be an acre of wild land in India worth less than a pound , or ten rupees , or of cultivated land worth less for enfranchisement than five pounds , or- 'fifty rupees . The policy of Lord , Stanley will raise the value of all the property in India , as wages and prices are : rising throughout ; and it ' -only , rcma'iusadministration to
ficulty in getting young men- to take subordinate offices at moderate salaries in India , when private enterprise is thrown open to them , and those who have brains can promote themselves . Three or four hundred a . year is quite enough for a subordinate in India , as so many officers in the army can bear testimony , and there "is no need to pay suckling lawyers or untrained laymen- more for officiating as police magistrates and in other junior The must be extended
local employments . police under English superintendence , and when this is done , the waste land sold , and the settled land enfranchised , the police must be . . paid partly out of the county rate as here , and partly out of the <* eneral taxes . Many of the local charges nowborne by the general revenue will hereafter he paid out of the local taxes , and tlie duties be more efficientlv discharged . ' , ch of
There" is one means of reducing the arges the English army creatly , and that is , to carry out the plan in Sir John Login ' s memorandum , of enlisting men in England for short service in the hill cantonments , giving" them English pay , and leavinw them , after five or seven yeai-s , to settle down as- civilians . Sir Charles Trevelyan , the new Governor of Madras , has -read this memorandum , and he can readily apply the system hi the Neilgherries , the Shevaroys , and the Pulneys , in which 5 , 000 short-service men could be cantoned , and where they would , at the end of their term , constitute a strong militia . ,
. There were some persons to be found in the House of Commons who ,, in their desire to injure the Administration by a side wind , advocated the mandarin -system of the Government carrying out public works themselves , instead of ; guaranteeing them . As the Government of India have not got engineers enough for essential ¦ . purpose ' s , ' and fiave to employ sergeants , corporals , and privates , they are in no condition to undertake or carry on public works . The grand system of public works for India is that which has made England and the United States—private enterprise .
for a liberal ' and judicious secure a fair share of the proceeds for .-our own taxpayers , who have had for so many years to bear the brunt of the expenditure of the empire . Why , we should like to ask , are the proceeds of the land revenues of British Columbia to be diverted from the taxpayers here , and go to the English and American squatters there , ' when the price of the lands of California goes not to , the settlers and squatters in California , but in relief of the American taxpayers in the mass ? We want an imperial policy for India and for England , and there is now some chance of our getting it .
There is one measure of itself which will go _ a great way towards increasing the value of land in India , and that is tho amalgamation of the Sudder Court with the Supreme Court , or , in fact , the suppression of the former , for which Lord Stanley has taken some proceedings . He said , with great impress ! venesa , that to lose . the opportunity which the present occasion offers would be a great mistake . We are ghul to learn that all proceedings with regard to the Code or Black Act are to be suspended for tho present , in order to facilitate the arrangement for the extension of tho supreme courts , and we hope the Codo will \> e suspended altogether . AVlmt ia to prevent the judges of tho supremo courts going on circuit by the Gaingos , ns far as " Allahabad , and by tho railway to Delhi ; by
steamboat to Dacca , and right up tho Burhauv pootor ; by railway to Poonah and to Salem , and ultimately throughout tho Dekknu . With tho present station judges administering the law- in civil cases , and with English justices of peace throughout tho country , every English settlor ought to bo ablo to obtain tho administration of , English law , and thus gradually tho . natives would bo prepared for tho like privilege and redeemed from tno oppression of tho " native scoundrels , " to whoso demerits full testimony was given . The uoav presidencies , or Hiib-prosidencios , ought ; to have supremo courts ; tho salaries of tho hend civilians as commissioners should bo paid ns to Uoutenant-goVornors , so as to extend local government ; and the subordinate civilians bIiouW be abolished , and their salaries employed to pay four or five Englishmen . There will bo no ¦<
Hfot tho Mutlah , and the formation of a branch rauw «* y > which , besides-eonferringjtho greatest benefit on tl jo city of Calcutta , may bo a stop towards exertions ibv reclaiming tho Sundorbunds . Lord Stanley has , however , hold out groat oncouragoinentibr English settlors to take up thoir abodo in tho health y hilla , by granting a free temu-e of land , * nd by giving them tho protection , of English troops , j ? horo is good soopo , too , ibr extending the public domain by extinguishing the squatting titles of scvgx'aI of th . o savage tribes in the hill
The Bombay Mails. The Ripon Arrived At S...
THE BOMBAY MAILS . The Ripon arrived at Southampton this ( Friday ) morning , bringing these mails . i > he left Alexandria on the 11 th inst . ; Malta , 15 th ; and Gibraltar , 20 th . The Ripon brings 69 passengers , . £ 1 , 210 in specie , 1 , 648 bales of silk , and 12 cases of shawls , & c . She spoke the Sultan , steamer , on the 21 ' st , offMafra , and Ceylon , on the 23 rd , off Cape 3 ? inestcr . re .-i-rhe Spanish schooner Francoli put into Gibraltar on the 13 th , with damages from collision with an unknown bark , off Marbella , on the previous day . One man hurt by the collision . —Her Majesty ' s troopship Perseverance , from Portsmouth , arrived at Gibraltar on the night of the 12 th , and proceeded to Malta on the evening of the 14 th .
Notes Upon India. It Lms Been Heard With...
NOTES UPON INDIA . It lms been heard with very much rogrot that tho committee on English settlement in India propose to bring the committee to a close by Easter , although there are a groat many subjects still to be investigated , and numerous witnesses in this country ana on thoir way from Judia anxious to l > o examined ; but tho proceedings of this committee depend , to a great extent , on tho extension of Biigliah influence and civilisation m India , and the welfare of the settlers now there * and about to proceed thither ; and after tno success which has attended tho formation ot this committee , it is deeply to hq regretted that tho committee should bo brought to a close to suit tho convenience of individual members , 'and graUty tue sinister wishes of opponents . ,,: „„„ A letter from Assam in tho Indian Mail gives a very favourable account of tlio profits ot teagrowing in Assam and Cacheer . 'Xho general estimate is 30 per cunt , at tho end ot tho fourth y ear . Tho correspondent thinks that with a first capital of 1 , 500 / ., a sharp hand would do well , and louk forward to going homo at the end ot seven years , but he must bo prepared to rough it in tho general way of colonial life . n ^ . , . . . Tho receipts from tho Government electric telegraph establishinont in November wore 2 , 400 / . for private messages , tho calculated value ot Government messages being 4 , 000 / .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 26, 1859, page 23, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26021859/page/23/
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