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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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INDIA AJgD ENGLAND . Russia is making insidious approaches towards our Indian possessions . This same strategy was invented some years back , -when Sweden and England were allied against Russia , and Russia conceived the idea of attacking England in India . Russian agents then penetrated , as they have subsequently , not only to the Khan of Khiva , but to the Court of Aurungzebe . But the state of those possessions has materially altered since that time they are more extensive , and they are not less vexed ^ by disorderly tribes on the border ; but their internal condition is by no means what it
What is it that would counteract any attempt of Russia to win India from England ? It is , that the leading natives have not only become much reconciled to the English rule , but have learned to appreciate English institutions , and are , to no small extent , Anglicised . There are now in all the presidencies of India cultivated men , who woufcl be the last to transfer their country from English to Russian rule , because they are well able to appreciate the difference between English and Russian institutions . They know
tfce suppression of commerce , the tyranny , and the meanness of Russian government . The great safeguard of England , therefore , in that quarter consists in the intelligence , the love of freedom , and the love of commerce in the natives . And tfce consideration of that principle may perhaps assist the spontaneous effort of opinion in this country to develope Indian liberties . ^ A beginning no doubt has been made in the Government of India Act of last session ; but much remains to be done . That Indians are perfectly able to appreciate that Act and to take its measure is proved by the proceedings of the
understand their own position as well as we do "better . You could not , out of the whole round of English literature , pick out a . better description of the Complicated and imperfect Government of India than in the speech of Dr . Bhawoo Dajee , in a speech after the reading of the report : — " For the next twenty years the ? nativc-s of Hindustan ¦ were , as heretofore , to be in a great measure excluded from public emplojment in their own country , although pronounced by Act of Parliament as equally eligible for this as Europeans , and proved by the testimony of the Duke of Wellington , Lord William Bentinck , the Earl of Ellenborough , Sir George Eussell Clerk , Mr . J . SullivanMr . Holt
Mac-, kenzie , and all the ablest statesmen of the age , to be eminently qualified for office . We were to ha \ -p , till the close of the-present century , a Constitution which was framed during the end of the last . We weic to have three separate sets of the Government of India , the principal function of each of Vhioh seems to bo to thwart and retsird the operations of the others—the Learlenhall-strcot division costing 130 , 000 / . a year , being merely the ministers of patronage , and place of record , without one atom of power beyond this , that of suggesting , criticising , and obstructing the Board of Control , costing 250 , 000 / . a year , managed by a president appointed without any necessary qualification to the office , whose average tenure of office has since 1820 fallen short of
two years , void of all responsibility , endowed with absolute power , governing in secret , and presenting to Parlia ment , when asked for information , collections of papers so infamously curtailed and garbled as to mislead in . place of enlightening , and whose main contributions to the policy of India during the past twenty years have been wars which have cost thirty millions sterling , including amongst them the Scinde infamy and the Cabul disaster . We have three Governments in India costing half > million sterling annually amongst them , so completely under a parcel of London clerks as to be compelled to send borne particulars of everything they say or ao , to be commented on , checked , or controlled by parties incapable from position of forming a correct opinion on what they decide , and finally , in India , we have had public education neglected , improvement thrown aside
, irrigation and . the means of communication overlooked i though to neglect such as this we have , since the Charter Actofl& 33 , been indebted for famines which , have swept away nearly two millions of human beings , and sacrificed to Government above eight millions sterling—a sum which , if properly expended , would have been sufficient to have averted for ever the calamities bv which in a few years its loss was occasioned . Against things so monstrous as these , in reference to which the Ministry seemed deaf or unheeding , were the petitions directed , as well as against local grievances . Appeal ? to the people of England through the press were also made by the India Reform Society , and the result has been that tbe Ministers were obliged to errant more
reforms than they at first intended . The doable government still remains , however , slightly modified , Irat its days are numbered . The report ju 3 t read has given the prominent innovations in the last Charter Act , and we ought no doubt to acknowledge with thankfulness the fiew improvements which have been introduced by the Ministry , while we cannot help lamenting to notice , in common ^ i th our Calcutta brethren , the absence of any provision for the extension of public works , —for the admission of even a single native into the Legislative Council , and the virtual exclusion of tho educated natives from the Civil Service b y the continuance of the Haileylury College , as tbe exclusive medium of admission into feliat service . Tho British Government professes to educate the natives to an equality with Europeans
—an object worth y of the age and of Britain ; but if Englishmen , after educating the natives to be their equals , continuo to treat them as their inferiors—if they deny the stimulus to honourable ambition , and show the natives that there is a barrier over which superior native merit and ambition can never hope to pass , and that these are considered traits to which a native cannot hope 1 o exhibit—are they not in effect undoing all that they have done , un teaching the native all that ho has been taught , and pursuing a suicidal policy , which will inovitably array all the talent , lionour , and intelligence of the country ultimately in irreconcileable hostility to the ruling power ?—will not the British nation be breaking its pledged faith ? The timo has come when these tbinga should be considered . "
This is capitally said . When tbe English Government spends as much in maintaining a Governor--General as it does in Indian irrigation , we con understand how little imperial England has yet done for tke greatest of her dependencies . Irrigation , indeed , would do little for India coinparea to what England can do for her by combined measures . However you may cultivate land , you may bring out its value but little , unless you supply b y roads the means of transit . No district will cultivate more than for its ordinary wants , unless it has the m « ans of exporting the surplus ; and thus a district isolated from the rest of the Avorld is
liable to famine , because a bad harvest converts the closely-measured supply into a scarcity , while the want of roads prevents the ingress of auxiliary supplies . Give India roads , and lier land will be able to cultivate a surplus available for trade with England . We have already remarked that English capitalists are withholding tbe money which they have beem in the habit of sending to Russia : where could they employ it better than in roadmaking find irrigation for India ? We believe there is no investment which would return so full
a profit ; and we are certain that there is nothing ^ which could so thoroughly bind India to England as its complete union , commercially and politically , with our trade and our institutions .
Bombay Association , at its first annual meeting oa the 9 th of November . The report is remarkable for being no mere enumeration of grievances . It quite distinctly recognises what has been done ft > r India in the Act , showing how it provides for a better informed Government at home ; how it commences legislation in India , and opens the door , technically at least , to the employment of natives ; promises to secure law reform , and so forth , The very points of improvement which we have mentioned in the Bill , as it passed in Parliament , are recognised by the Bombay Association as explicitly as they could be by the most intelligent English" politicians .
It is shown , however , that the technical admission of natives is likely to be little approved , while there is no examination provided in India ; that the complicated system of governments retained , although improved ; that the natives have bo representation in their own Government , with Other shortcomings in the Act considered as a Reform Bill . These objects are stated as temjSerately as the improvements are stated candidly . -The Association recognise the amendment introduced into the Bill even before it came into
Parliament , through the exertion of the petitioners iu India and their friends in England . In short , the report proves that the Bombay Association is perfectly able to understand an Act of Parliament in all that it secures , in all that it omits , in the method of modifying it , and in the sequel—the ivork that remains to be done for the purpose of completing Indian reform . Politicians thus accomplished are , indeed , the Tory best security that the English Government possesses against any tampering of foreign intriguers . Mow desirable , therefore , is it to encourage this English feeling amongst the natives ; to cultivate their closer connexion with English
institutions , and thus to increase the reliance which our Government must feel in the impulse which would make them repel any alien intrigues . They
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OUR NAVY , ITS STRENGTH AND tt t . ., IMPROVEMENT . Under the administration of Sir James Graham , with the concurrence of his colleagues , our Navy is rapidly developing itself into one of great strength , and it will be an instrument of power in the hands of the English Government . Among the sources of its power are improvements which will considerably ^ elevate the condition of the sailor , and give him a more active interest in the success of $ he Navy . Independentl y of the bounty for continuous enlistment , there has been an
increase to the pay , and tie chances of promotion have been multiplied . Even the distribution of prize -money has been placed under more equitable rules , which , by withholding portions heretofore given to functionaries who had no practical share in the engagement , reserve a larger -portion for the actual conquerors . The character of the ships is altered ; they are larger , safer , more commodious , better ventilated ; and life on board is proportionately more comfortable then it was . A ship is no longer a prison with a chance of beini ?
drowned , as it really was in Samuel Johnson ' s days ; but , thanks to the . genius of Cook , and the improvement worked by subsequent reformers in the regime , as well as in the build and machinery , a shi p is now a floating palace , wfth very little chance indeed of incurring any : mischief ; save ^ when the saiior encounters that danger which is his opportunity and his glory . Although the use of corporal punishment has , Derhaps witn
some judgment , not been « ntirelv laid asjde , it has been placed under such restrictions , in regard to consideration and reporting , as mil limit it to being the desperate penalty for the desperately incorrigible . And the general improvement in the condition and . character of the men ' renders it more than probable that the number of incorrigible sailors for punishment will be in itself greatly diminished . . :
Our great marine , the Admiralty is rapidly converting into a steatfi navy ; and it has been stated on authority that ^ Ministers intend to ask the next Parliament for 8000 more men J&anthe number voted hist year . It has subsequentlylieen observed by a contemporary :, that the yot ^ . QFJaft year has already been * exceeded ; and Jf we . are not mistaken , the officers'of the Admiralty have already made considerable way / in ( lie additional 8000 for . which the consent of Parliament is justly assumed . - ¦ *
There , are , however , certain hindrances still existing , which might be removed with present advantage , and a still greater advance to the Navy in future . Candidates for admission as boys procure their names to be put down in the list for examination ; but in order to get accepted , they must present themselves personally , and the best will be chosen out of the whole number , appearing . That is all fair ; but it is not fair to oblige a poor man , of a youth , whose very , application shows that his circumstances are humble , to make a journey to the port of inspection' for
the mere chance of being accepted or rejected ; with the knowledge that many must be rejected . It follows that the number of candidates presenting themselves for inspection is more limited than it should be ; and , so far from having any reason to suppose that only the least eligible stop away , we believe that absence is dictated much more by distance or want of means for transit , than by conscious unntness . ' Now ' this difficulty would be got over by multiplying the posts foe inspection , and by admitting candidates into a list of past"
" seamen . A still more serious improvement would effect a very desirable change in our Navy . The conr dition of warrant officers has been improved ^ bu , t how slight are the chances that a -warrant officer can ever attain to a commission P . It is said , iiir deed , that the character of education and habits in the class is such as to render it ineligible for admission to the gun-room . It may have beep so under old circumstances , with trained-lite common seamen ; but education is to be encouraged in the Navy , and a different system would promote that improvement of education by calling into tbe force a number of youths already educated and often trained in the bosoms of
educated families . Intelligent officers no longer expect to rely upon tbe plan of impressment , and fora reason new to our time . The injustice of the practice would alone have condemned it ; but naval men have at last recognised the truth , that the training of the merchant service is not so good as that which the navy can form for itself . This is ii'great step in
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-t SATURDAY , JANUARY 14 , 1854 .
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fbere is nothing bo revolutionary , oecause there is . nothing « o unnatural and convulsive , as the 3 train to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Be , Aknoxd .
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January 14 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . ^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 14, 1854, page 37, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2021/page/13/
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