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only it is carried out in the most odious and reckless form . But we are not going to touch upon the point of humanity or justice ; we are only , for the moment , pointing out the inevitable financial effect of the operation . The English Government seizes the bankrupt revenue of the Deccan , and adds to the bankruptcy . The Nizam might make good the deficit out of his private purse ; and , if so ,
the seizure is virtually an aggression on private property . Or he might revoke Crown revenues bestowed on court favourites ; another species of aggression not unlike the revocation of patent offices or pensions in this country , without compensation . To recover £ 850 , 000 , therefore , the English Government must incur an amount of odium equivalent to a far larger sum in its damaging influence .
But we have the utmost doubt whether the £ 850 , 000 can be netted by the operation . The Nizam ' s territory has been a sort of " sanctuary for vagabond soldiers of all the races that wield the sword in India ; the invaded "interests" of the Deccan are not likely to surrender their pleasant holdings without a contest ; and , therefore , the attempt at se izure will entail war . Yes , Manchester men and Peace Ministerialists , war . Now , war is not an ceconomy . We have not all the current prejudices against it ; but we cannot recommend it as sound finance . The war is far less likely to nett £ 850 , 000 for our Government , than to add some £ 3 , 000 , 000 , at least , to the Indian debt .
Even that might be sound policy , under one allimportant if—if the territory were to be consolidated with our Indian empire and thoroughly reformed . It is demonstrable that the resources of India , so far from being exhausted , have been but scratched during the ages of wretched rule in which that splendid empire has been more than half fallow ; the tiger still shares the empire with the
Englishman ; fever still keeps whole regions in Chancery , " to the undisturbed possession of disease . There is not the slightest doubt , that reforms which might develope , rather than thwart the native institutions , with enterprises imported from Europe—notably scientific education , honourable employment as a consequence of that education , and railways—would render that huge Indian estate a real source of wealth . We are aware of no
reason why the New Brunswick principle should not be applied to railways in India , although it would , of course , need modification to suit it to the latitude . The " Nizam ' s territory" has heen one of those forbidden grounds from which English influence was self-excluded , or into which it intruded only by fits and starts , and was available only to prevent native development . The mixed ,
or " protected " Government , is a tradition of the ante-British jora reduced to a miserable burlesque , a sham in no wise respectable . Were it swept away , then might a reform of the country be possible , its productive resources might be set free , and the annexation might ultimately prove an operation of sound oKconomy . But the occupation , they say , is to be only " temporary . "
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ltAILWAY POLICY . Railway proprietors arc becoming heretical in political oeconoiny . One of the most extraordinary confessions ever made by commerce to the public consists of the speech delivered by Mr . ( Jlyn , Chairman of the North-Western Railway Company , at the half-yearly meeting of the ( shareholders on Friday . He boasted that the Directors had "dosed the
capital account , " excepting for certain special purposes . Our readers will understand how desirable it is to set current charges against revenue rather than capital , since it is only by that means that you get a clear conception of profit or loss ; and the'determination of the Directors not to pursue a system which magnifies profits to the eye , but really undermines them , is judicious . The boast was delivered with an emphasis implying that some difficulty had been conquered in carrying it out ; and we can well imagine that there waa : the commercial public is so fond of cheating itself .
It Bcems , however , that the capital account is not closed ; and although it is reopened for an excellent purpose , it in of the utmost importance to bear in mind the circumstances under which it is reopened . An extension of the railway is to be made into the heart of the city , for the traffic in goods ; evidently a most advantageous plan . At the name time another wort of extension in going on . Other parties have obtained a bill for a railway which will connect the North-Western with the South-Western and other railways south of the
Thames ; an excellent metropolitan junction of the several systems . In resisting the temptation to charge outlay against capital , one charge that pressed hard on their fortitude , from its weight and nature , was that for lawyers' bills ; and included in that was the cost of watching another sort of " bills "—those in Parliament . " If we have not had to promote bills , " said Mr . Glyn , " we have been occupied for a considerable time in opposing bills . " This looks very invidious . In one case , however , the opposition was natural and proper enough . The company resisted a project , developed in two bills introduced by the Great Western Company and the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Company : —
•• I do not think , gentlemen , that in the whole course of my parliamentary and railway experience I ever met with such an extraordinary attempt as that . It was admirable , in fact , from its boldness ; for they actually endeavoured to avail themselves of our capital—and -we have spent a considerable sum of money for our station and our lines in Birmingham—they sought to avail themselves of our own land and station for the purpose of beginning a competition against us !"
Cool ! The opposition was successful ; but still the Company is engaged in " a very serious contest with the Great Northern , " in which they hope to succeed , by favour of Mr . Gladstone ' s arbitration ; they hope , under legal advice , to bind the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Company to a written agreement ; negotiations with the Great Western have failed ; but they do not believe that Parliament will sanction a second competing line to the
Mersey . Such are the hopes , fears , and tribulations , the enterprises contemplated and resisted by the North-Western Company ; and it is under such circumstances that the capital account is to be reopened for an extension of the line into the heart of" the City . But Mr . Glyn extends his deprecation of the competitive principle beyond that hateful line to the Mersey : —
" Rest assured that every year's experience—and more especially when capital accounts arc closedwill lead to this fact and development , that competition is a fallacy as regards railway affairs . It is the reverse—it is the close and intimate connection between companies occupying the same districts—it is the connection supported by Parliament , and being allowed to do tl eir best for the development of their traffic — being allowed a fair receipt , under regulations laid down by Parliament—being allowed , in fact , to put something into the pockets of the
proprietors , which will lead at last to the only chance which exists of the railway system being properly supported in this country . It is in vain io talk of competition . Look at the competition between the Great Northern and the Midland and ourselves—5 s . or 4 s Gd . from Leeds to London and back ! It is ridiculous to suppose that such a system can go on ? It must lead to a combination and division of the whole territory among the companies according to their respective interests . That must be and will be the case . "
Most true . In passing , we would ask Mr . Glyn whether the competition which is so bad , so wrong , so impracticable for railway companies , is good for any other branch of trade ? Whether the evils which become so convincingly evident in railway affairs are not just the same with the evils which it produces in others ? But although he says that competition cannot go on in railways , he also declares with the eloquence of prophecy that it toil I go on .
" Hut m the mean tune I do not hesitate to say that to arrive at that point it is necesaary for us , and I believe we shall have to go through a very Kcriouu racing competition . I know what the effect will bea great deal of ruin and a great deal of misery ; and , what is more , I know the public will be extremely ill-served , and we shall have a repetition of horrible accidents until the public mind itself is nwakc to the real position of the question , and Parliament shall do that which it ought to have done seven yearn agoplace the whole syntem on u different footing , and arrange it according to territorial districts . " The remed y suggested by the railway chairman is " a combination and division of the whole
territory according to their respective ; interests ;" in other words , the principle of concert , so far applied . And he is not content with enunciating that principle , but ho urges his hearers to become the propagators and inisaionaries of the new doctrine : — " Gentlemen , I wish it to be understood thnt I alone am responsible for theHo remarks , but I am sure my eolleagueH concur in them . It is no uho your coming here and paying , ' All these rcmnrktt are very right . ' Do to other meetings , and imnrcBH them with
the same conviction . I know that I am addressing gentlemen who are not merely proprietors in the London and North-Western , but in other companies ; and I would say , * Go and impress these ideas upon them . If you do not you will ruin your property : if you do you will preserve it from utter destruction . ' I am quite certain that it will take time to bring about a proper feeling on this subject , and a judicious course of action . "
But let the missionaries understand what feeling they are to propagate . We are far from ascribing the intention of monopoly to Mr . Glyn ; it has been laid down as a fundamental rule , by high authorities in railway affairs , that the financial administration is the best which produces the largest revenue ; and undoubtedly the largest revenue will always be produced by low prices . There is a point at which lowering of price does not produce a proportionate increase of traffic , and that is practically the minimum point . There may also be an increase of traffic beyond the power of the rolling stock , so that the cost of wear and tear may outbalance the advantage of increased revenue . But it would not be for the public interest to overtax the railway
beyond its powers ; nor for the public interest to ruin the railway—which too low a tariff of prices would do . Ruined establishments cannot do the work well or safely . From these considerations it follows that a " monopoty , " in the old and ordinary sense of the word , would be as injurious to the companies as to the public ; that it is as impracticable as a reckless competition ; in other words , that the principle of concert holds good , not only between railway companies , but between each company and the public . Now , if this truth were fully understood by Mr . Glyn's missionaries and' those of whom they are to make proselytes , the progress of the new propagandism of railway union would be far more easy , more rapid , and more effectual .
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MR . GLADSTONE'S DENIERS . The revelations of Mr . Gladstone are absolutely incapable of refutation or disproof . But on the principle that tout mauvais cas est niable , a flat , barefaced denial has been deemed in this case the one kind of reply available to the satellites of his most religious Majesty the King of Naples . It is at least a satisfaction to find in the scared and blunted conscience of that perjured and lawless man , to whom cruelty and violence , torture and assassination , wholesale massacres , and secret murders have been a regal and righteous pastime in the intervals of his religious offices so exactly performed , some show of susceptibility where pity has never entered and remorse is but the lassitude
of revenge . Like other phenomena in the annals of humbler crime , he has the inklings of a decent solicitude for " reputation , " even in the very act of crime , to the last hour of an ignominious retribulion ; but neither confession , nor repentance . He stays not the hand of blood and treachery : he arrests not the atrocities at which all Europe of the nineteenth century stands aghast . Conscience is to be acquitted by denial . It is worth while to sec what the denials are , who the deniers .
< We know that a person , whose name we have heard , was engaged to arrange a reply to Mr . Gladstone , in the shape of a denial , in the very limited portion of the French press ( to its honour be it spoken ) amenable to so unholy an influence . The chief of the monarchical papers , Fusioiust , Legitimist , Orleanist , fought shy of an advocacy so perilous , or of a denial more damning than tlio charge . Yet neither M . Le Docteur Veron » Inconstilutionnel , nor M . Guizot , De Pastoret , anu Co . 's pseudonymous AssembUe Nation ale ar 0 Jj ~ inaikable for frankness and good faith . * . ' Dibals , ho forcible-feeble since the law of thes signatures , declined all complicity with the Ultramontane organs . The chivalrous Op inion I « " inouiane organs . i nu cinvajiuim vy— - i k
liquc of the young Legitimists , and the » " » hear / ed Gazette de France , never quite gtvc ) the hopeless problem of uniting Leg itimacy a Liberty . So that in none of the purely monorcnit press has his sacred Majesty of Naples o « »" a thorough champion . Hints of probable exagtf ^ rations have been loosely thrown out , and n « little of the especial rancour of the French *** # *''« against England and English perfidies , in cidenta j emits its venom ; but Mr . Gladstone survive inw ' The , only " next friend" to go in for the IV" K » utterly and unreservedly , is that highly rCH I ,,, of and ingenioUH Spiritual Director and Aposuc . Retrogress , and Ultramontane fclectnc J ^ . ' Jj'Umvers , the select confessional of the ^ nretre , the quasi llonapartist promoter o Fratricidal Roman invasion . But when wo tu
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800 ® ft ^ &CagCt % [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 23, 1851, page 800, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1897/page/12/
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