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878 THE LEADER. [No. 440, August 28,18SS...
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3IR. E WART'S COMMITTEE ON INDIAN COLONI...
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.NOTES OjST INDIAN PEOGRESS. The Red Sea...
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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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Notes On The Evidence Given Before Mr. E...
sue the Government , but this right or privilege is , it seems , to be taken away from us . What next ? and next ? and next ? I dare not speak of it . It requires no ghost to come from the grave to tell us the result . . . I must conclude by summing up with a view of the immediate evils we have to complain of : —That the Government deprives the people of their land ; that it interferes with their religion ; places over natives European oflicers incompetent from age aud experience to do the work assigned to them , " & c .
By-these means the natives of India , in the opinion of Mt . Warden , have been brought to change their opinion of the justice of the British Government . Mr . Warden could speak only of Bombay , where his experience was ; but iu Bengal , in IS 27 , a commission was issued similar to the Enam Commission , xinder what were called tie resumption laws , for the purpose of inquiring into the title under- which
any lands were held free from the land-tax , and resuming the lands . The late Chairman of the Court was one of the hottest supporters of this inquisition ; it was absolutely illegal from beginning to end , for the time of prescription had expired * and the Legislature of that day bad not the astuteness to pass a law to alter the time of prescription , and being * essentially unjust , it made Government unpopular with all classes .
2 . The Itifluence which is used by the native officers of the courts over the European magistrates and judges , —lias been a subject of much discussion . Mr . Warden was asked liis opinion . It is penal . ( he- . says ) in Bombay for a sherishtadar ( record keeper ) to abuse his influence , which is a presumption ^ he has some influence , and " ray opinion is , that a sherishtadar has more or less influence in all cases . " On one occasion when complaint was made of influence of this kind having been used , "I remember ( says Mr . Warden ) I said on the bench that I thought - . evert . British officer in India was
more under the influence of his immediate subordinate than vanity would always admit ; my laving said this raised a storm against me ; lowever ( adds he ) , I never knew anybody but gentlemen , in the civil service deny it . All military men with whom I have ever conversed have acknowledged and felt it ; but many persons in the civil service have said they did not think it existed . Por myself , I have no doubt of it . " Tins ; we may remark , is a very decisive corroboration of the independent settlers who were examined , and all of whom stated to the same effect .
3 . The estimation in wMciithe Queen's Courts { the Supreme Courts ) are held by the natives . —Whew the Queen ' s system of justice is adopted , whether a iudge is acute or stupid , he is , at all events , always known to be exercising liis own judgment . He ' known not to be dependent upon his subordinate officer for his opinions . The people feel satisfied that the ease is brought horne to the judge , aud that the judge gives an independent judgment . The case does not come home to the minds of the Company ' s judges -in the same way as it does to the Queen's judges . The Queen ' s judges and the Company's judges belong to the same class of life ; both are governed by precisely the same code of
morality ; they are of equally high principles of honour , morality , and justice . But the Queen ' s fudges have the advantage , which the Company ' s mages have not , of having had a legal education . The objection to the latter is , that they are ignorant of the principles of jurisprudence , and that they ought to have a legal training . " Every day of my life , " said Mr . Warden , "I have felt the want of a legal education . Wo struggle hard and do our WBBt , but I think we are very inferior as judges to wemett who had
" g ^ nave a legal education . " 4 . As to the introduction of the Enr / lish lanquane into the Country Cour 49 , —Ur . Warden says that from what ho has seen at Bombay , ho is not of opinion that it toM 1 » at all distasteful to the natives for English jud ge * to administer the law through the medium of their own language It is so administered in Bombay , where there is a constant influx of natives from the interior of the country , and they have never manifested any objee tion to the use of the English language .
6- Of the increased employment of interpreters . — Mr . Warden is of opinion that the expense under thia head would bo counterbalanced by the diminution of expenses for other officers who would no longer be required , aud that the educutionul establishments of India would supply a sufficient number of interpreters . We must here pause for the present .
878 The Leader. [No. 440, August 28,18ss...
878 THE LEADER . [ No . 440 , August 28 , 18 SS .
3ir. E Wart's Committee On Indian Coloni...
3 IR . E WART'S COMMITTEE ON INDIAN COLONISATION AND SETTLEMENT . Abstract of Evidence givtn bi / J . "Warden , Esq ., a retired Judge and Member o Council of the Bombay Presidency . SA . YS : He was upwards of thirty-three years in the Civil Service of India , in the Bombay Presidency ; left in 1 854 , and was then Senior Btember of Council , Chief Judge of the Suddur Court , and President of the Board of Education , in which last capacity he succeeded Sir E . Perry . During the greatest part of his service he was in the Deccan , but has been in all parts and in a great
variety of employments , and he had travelled through the Deccan with Mr . Elphinstone . In those parts in which he had been employed , the climate is sufficiently good for Europeans to colonise as overseers , capitalists , and bailiffs ( manual labour being out of the question , both on account of the climate and the wages of native labour ); and the race of Europeans might be continued in India , if the children were brought up in the hills , in which there would he no difficulty . On the eastern side of the Mahableshvur hills in the Deccan they could reside all the year round . At Poonah there is a large military
cantonment of cavalry and foot , and the soldiers look as healthy as they do at a review In Hyde Park , and exposure to the sun did not appear to do them any harm . Tha soldiers' wives do not look so healthy as the men , but that may be accounted for by the miserable huts in which they live . Inquiries have been made by Government as to what places are healthy and suitable ad depots for soldiers . In the north of Guzerat there is a place called . Aboo , and between Poonah and Bombay there is a hill called Malheran , to the foot of which the railway goes , and the electric telegraph is carried to the top of it .
The witness was ashed- oh ¦ what security he considered the English power rests in India . He replied , On what has been called the Government of Opinion , which the Duke of "Wellington on one occasion defined as the opinion of our power and our justice ; that is truly what is meant by the Government of Opinion in India , on which our empire rests . " With regard to the opinion of our power , it was first shaken after the Affghan disasters , when the natives for the first time discovered that they could demolish a European regiment and thrust back an ? " army , as they , in fact , did . The opinion cf our justice was at its . height when Lord Hastings was Governor-General , with Lord
Metcalfe as his chief secretary . There was Sir John 31 alcolm there , the greatest friend the natives ever had , ¦ who was watching their rights and usages in tlie centre of India ; there was Sir Thomas Munro , at Madras ; and there was Mr . Elphinstone at Bombay . "With such functionaries as those at the head of the Presidencies , there was never any fear of our being unjust or ungenerous to the natives . In speaking of justice the idea of generosity is combined in my mind . During the last eighteen years the native opinion of our generosity has very much altered . The measures which have been taken by the Government with respect to them has very much shaken their faith , in the generosity of the British Government .
As to the System of Law in Bomhay . —It is called the Elphinstone Code , which is a code formed by a committee of gentlemen during Mr . Elpliinstone ' s administration , and which was revised word for word by himself . That code is extremely simple and clear , and answered all practical purposes , but it was latterly encumbered with a number of supplementary regulations which deformo'l its beaut }' . All the great principles of it were based on the principles which prevail in this country . Tho code contained the following general regulation : — " The rule to be observed iii the trial of suits shall be Acts of Parliament and regulations of Government applicable to the case in the absence of such nets nnd regulations , tbe usage of the country in which the suit arose ; if none such appears , tho law of the defendant ; and in the absence of specific law and usages , justice , equity , and good conscience alone . "
As to tub Enam Commission . —Witness says , that having been employed under tho commissioner in tho Deccan , in tho original settlement of the country , he became more or less aware of tlie principles on which tho settlement of tho country waa originally made , and has observed some changes that have taken place since that time . When Mr . Elphinatono took charge of tho administration of tho country , ho issued a proclamation to tho peo ple , declaring the principles on which tho country would bo settled . That was in February , 1818 , and it promised that private rights should be treated with generosity .
With kesitogt to tiik Enam Commihsion . —Tho Enam CommUnion has not attracted all tho notice that it should have done in thia country . Mr . Klnhinatone ' arule respecting enams , as far as I remember , wuh , that any man who had ofticiul possession of itn ennin , that In , whose enam was found recorded in tho Peishvnh ' a records , and also actual possession , got bin enam confirmed to him ; if , on tho other hand , it was found that he had not official or actual possession , then hi « « n « m was taken away from him . This was tbe Btato of affairs
; Enam Commission wenf I great deal farther , it disturbed Mr . Elp Mnstone ' s So menr , and not only so , but i t deprived the Peishwah ' s sulT jects of their rights in respect to their lauds which t \ Z subjects of - other , parts of the Bombay ' presided had . The Euam Commission has not received all ths attention that it ought to . have received in this coantrv as an obstacle to colonisation . Were I going as a British settler to undertake tho cultivation of cotton in the Peishwah ' s dominions , I should seek enam land- and with my knowledge of tlie Enam Commission 1 should find that an obstruction to my settlement .
Enam Commissionbut the at that time . Some time afterwards it was di «^« """ , that ten or twelve villages which , accS . t TS Peishwah s records , should have been resumed ha , i * Z been resumed ; according to the record s they were in state of resumption when we took the country T speaking now altogether from memory ; it was . i : *" vered that a memorandum which had been sent fZT the commissioner ' s office to resume those lands had iJ « been carried into effect , and these villages were thm taken possession of by the British Government K S ! 3 ^ ™! L ^ J 5 ?? e * *« -fc » dJ 2 ri . S
.Notes Ojst Indian Peogress. The Red Sea...
. NOTES OjST INDIAN PEOGRESS . The Red Sea telegraph lias now the march of events to help . it . The successful operation of the Atlantic line was a very favourable step , but what lias done more for it than anything is the receipt in Europe of news through Russia from Peldn fourteen days later than the mail through Egypt . For anything that is known , as the Times says , the Russians are stealthily pushing telegraph lines through their own dominions , and our merchants may find themselves superseded in the markets by the better-informed Russians , and their satellites the Greeks . The sooner the extension from Aden is provided for the better , or iff a line is granted from Kurrachee to the Persian Gulf , the public -will be none the worse satisfied . Mr . W . P . Andrew has published another pamphlet . UTging this .
Telegraph wire has "been sent in large quantities to Bareilly , so as to establish the lines throughout liohilcund . . ; .. ; ' ¦ . . ' : . . .. ' . ' \ : ' : ¦ - / . ¦ ' ¦ . - ¦ From Indore we'loam ¦ that the Deputy Superintendent of Telegraphs has opened a line from Indore to Bisura , Lut beyond that place it is expected the wire will not he extended this season . A very strong representation has been made to the Government by 1 lie local authorities in favour of the line of tlie Northern Bengal Raihvay from Calcutta to the sanatorium of Darjeeling . -
Captain O'Connell has been employed by the Madras Government in investigating the plan for railway inclines up the Coonoor Ghaut . The connexion between Madras and the sanatoria in the Nielgherries is of the greatest importance , and it is a matter of gratification to find the Madras Government turning attention to it . The Bombay Government , as we have observed elsewhere , have already provided access to the sanatorium of Malherun , which they have brought within three hours of Bombay , and the connexion with the Poona district will within a few months be complete by means of the Great Indian Peninsular Kailway . We are sorry to learn that an earthslip delayed the Great Indian Peninsular Railway traffic for a few days before it was effectually repaired .
A steamer is to be again put on between Tuticorin and the Malabar coast and Colombo . The agent of the Oriental Inland Steam Company in the Punjaub has given notice not only that the steam trains will ply on the Indus in January next , but that the compnny are prepared to work on the Sutlcj anil Jhelum should sufficient inducement be offered . Messrs . Poolo nnd Jtennert are organising a licet of ten cargo boats from Calcutta to the North-West . There is a sad want of steamers and railways . At Neemuch tlio new barracks arc comp leted , and above a thousand men are regularly at work on the other buildings . The public works at Lucknow are proceeding rnpidly , thanks to Colonel Abbott and Mr . Montgomery .
According to the Englishman , tho Government has fully determined that , when tho rains are over , < ' ulcuttn , Barrackpore , Ilaznrcebngh , Berlmmporo , Dinnporc , Parjeeiing , and Dacca are to receive English garrison * . Not one of these plncofl if * suited for an English garrison ,-except Darjecling , ami all of them want niilway access . A lino has been granted part way to Dccuu . Tho Government hove made admission to tho bcnelit of tho nncovonanted furlough rules to civil engineers and overseen ) , dependent on their rdinquialinicut of tho ad vantage of a free passage home . Capt . II . Hundley hus been appointed Lloy d ' s Surveyor at Calcutta . An important discovery ha » bean mndo in Lower Scindc of a quarry of lithographic limestone , whMi is ° > good colour , nnd tnkes transfer readily . Hitherto Iiuliuu stones havo not boon able to compete with < ienimn atones . Ono wnnt is siliclo > ii 8 snnd to rub tho tuc-n ol tho stones ; Bombay is supplied from Kurraclica ami Vingorln . Dr . Whcttall has boon appointed Secretary of tuc Agrl-Horticultural Society of Lahore .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1858, page 878, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_28081858/page/22/
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