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November 24 , 1855 . ] THE LEADIB , \ J 31
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up to & ¦ Standard-Mstj- and now yott « re ¦ combimng to force us down to one . " Cannot this question be fairly settled in a friendly and temperate discussion between the master and the more intelligent of the sp inners ? Both now appear to be in a reasonable frame of mind ; it is impossible to say how long that state of things may continue . Starvation makes men desperate , and a few weeks' pinching will place these 3 , 500 men far beyond the possibility of calm ratiocination .
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INDIA—THE SUBSIDIARY STATES . Notwithstanding the all-absorbing interest of the events which now so rapidly succeed each other in Europe , the public mind can yet find time and leisure for the affairs of the" British Empire in the East . The intelligence that has periodically reached us for some time past from that fabled quarter of the globe , demands , in truth , the most serious and careful consideration . After a comparatively long period of internal peace and tranquillity throughout
those vast dominions , we have been suddenly startled by the announcement of a formidable insurrection in the most ancient of our Asiatic possessions . These evil tidings have been accompanied by rumours of religious disturbances in Oude , that " perpetual seat of trouble and disquiet . " Although there maybe nothing in all this to create any apprehension for the ultimate safety of our Indian empire , the question naturally arises , in the first place , how such outbreaks can occur under a Government
that disposes of a military force scarcely inferior to that of France ; and , in the second , what means can be adopted for preventing the repetition of scenes which must inevitably impair the prestige of British power and sagacity , while they immediately destroy the sentiment of security necessary to commercial prosperity . A common but utterly erroneous idea prevails in this coxmtry that India is entirely subject to British rule , from the mountains to the double sea . Certainly , few persons are aware that the superficial extent of the independent states of the
exceeds that ^ British territories , properly so called . In round numbers , these states contain an area of 690 , 000 square miles , with a population of fifty-three millions of inhabitants , and a revenue equal to thirteen mil lions sterling . And when it is considered that , while some native potentates lord it over a mud fortress , with barely one square mile of adjacent lands , others rule over kingdoms exceeding in importance many a German principality , it may be readily conceived that such a disruption of the integrity of the British
empire must be ' fraught with inconveniences of no ordinary magnitude . Nor does it even happen that these states can lay claim to the privileges of antiquity or the rights of nationality . For the most part , they are the " more creatures of our peculiar policy , " and have been raised up at different times , to answer some particular and temporary object . The present result of past expediency is an annual drain on our revenues to the amount of one and a half million sterling ,- together with the constant expectation of such disturbances as
¦ foreign-invasionj and' seetffed- the fall enjoyment of their peculiar laws ,- customs ^ arid usages . Thus possessing power and wealth without responsibility , it is not surprising that these semi-barbarous princes should abuse the one and squander the other . "Within their own territories they exercise uncontrolled dominion , and the onl y measure to their oppres- * sion is the utter exhaustion of their wretched country and people . Every potentate , however insignificant , keeps up the pretence of an armed force , not indeed to oppose foreign enemies—that is our task' —bxvt as the means of overawing his own subjects , and compelling them to submit to Ms most arbitrary exactions . At the most important Courts there is usually , indeed , an English Resident , or Governor-General's Agent , whose moral influence sometimes avails to preserve a semblance of decency and humanity . These officers , moreover , consider themselves entitled to interfere directly with the choice of ministers , and thus the " independent" prince is not unfrequently obliged to appoint a Wuzeer in whom he reposes no confidence , and who , on his part , is more concerned to maintain himself in the favour of the Resident than of his own sovereign . In most instances the latter abandons himself to the most shameful and sensual practices , and only demands of his Minister the means of gratifying his morbid appetites . This officer , aware of the precarious tenure of his position , is principally anxious to amass riches , and to make to himself friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness . Everything is venal , and the only offence which cannot be forgiven is utter destitution . The Resident soon becomes disgusted with the atmosphere of deceit , falsehood , impurity , and oppression in which he lives and struggles , and , in a vain effort to disperse what is noxious and foul , has recourse to a harshness and severity that alienate the natives Avith Avhom lie is brought into contact . It is a hopeless dehision to expect any good results from the mere moral supervision of the most upright agent of a foreign power , and the British Government has been continually occupied and distracted by the squabbles that naturally arise out of such a false position . And sometimes , too , it will happen , as in the case of Sir David Ochterlony at Bhurtpore , that the injudicious meddling of a Resident in soma measure drives the nominal ruler to commit acts offensive to his jealous protectors , and which at last involve him in fatal hostilities . Perhaps the most striking instance of native misrule is furnished in the unhappy kingdom of Oude , than which no region is more blessed by nature with the gifts that should make a people prosperous and coxitented . The soil is exceedingly fertile , and supports nearly all the productions indigenous to tropical climates . Tlie people also are a fine manly race , fond of war and adventure , and capable of all martial and barbarous virtues . But the exactions of the farmers of the public revenue , themselves fleeced by those in power over them , have thrown large tracts of land out of cultivation and depopulated vrholo villages . An army of nearly 90 , 000 men , in which every grade is valued at a money price , according to the facility afforded for peculation , is solely employed in collecting revenue and doing battle with refractory landowners . No mnn thinks of paying his taxes until he has been worsted in fight , and as the country bristles with fortalices , seldom a week passes without the roar of artillery being heard in civil contest . All this has been going on for years under the very eyes of able and energetio Residents , whose remonstrances have passed unheeded , though the treaty of 1837 expressly stipulated that unless the king governed his people with
jttstieerstftfr '' meftgKttt&fi ^ iffST territories SKbtSK be forfeited to the British Government : ft has of tentimes been asked why- this treaty has noi been acted upon , but had such been the case a general outcry would have been raised in this country against the insatiable ambition of the East India Company . The voluble philanthropists of Exeter Hall ; who despise facts and sacrifice everything to effect , would have , lifted up their voice , their eyes and hands , and called down the wrath of Heaven upon such audacious spoliation . It was better in their purblind vision that men should be tortured' and robbed and put to death , that rich lands should run to waste , that beasts of prey should prowl where flocks and herds were lately grazing , and that entire commtinities should be blotted from the face of the earth . This is the state to which Oude has been reduced through a false and cowardly forbearance . This , in a scarcely minor degree , is the condition of the Nizam ' s territory , and indeed of almost every subsidiary or protected state in India . And yet we still hesitate to come forward in defence of oppressed peoples . "We still countenance the iniquity and injustice of monsters , who , but for our support , would long ere this have been called to a terrible account by their outraged and indignant subjects . This is the system . we uphold—because it is the system ; and yet we complacently talk of the blessings of British power and influence in India . Lord Dalhodsie commenced his Viceroyalty by the annexation of the Punjaub ; he has illustrated his reign by the annexation of Pegu ; let him now add a crowning glory by the annexation of Oude r and he -will have merited the gratitude of millions of human beings now groaning under the foulest of oriental despotisms . For his successor must be reserved the completion of the noble work , by the gradual absorption of all these miserable independencies into the bosom of the British Empire . The age of conquest in the East is well nigh over . It is time that the age of consolidation should commence . On this depends the duration of our power , and it is alike demanded "by our OAvn interests and the voice of humanity .
those which now agitate the frontiers of Bengal , the heart of Oudc , and the territories of the Nizam . On the same fatal principle of mortgaging the future for the snko of the present , former Governors and diplomatists have burdened the Supreme Government with the task of defending and sxiperintending the mighty empire of Hindostan , in consideration of one moiety of the annual revenue . The total amount paid by the subsidiary states for the maintenance of a contingent , force , officered by Europeans , is less than half u million , in return for which they ore guaranteed against
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REFORMATORIES AND DEFORMATOKIES . Dn . Booth has stolen a march upon the reformatory philanthropists . To the members and visitors of the Wandsworth Literary and Scientific Institution he has disclosed the fact that school education exercises really a partial influence over the human mind ; and he has revived the old dogma that men derive- their real spirit and power for life from the mother . He applies , in fact , to mankind at large , that which has been observed of geniuses , and places the whole population in the same relation to its maternity that Alfred stands in to Ethoiburga . Now , taking this view of the million-Alfred , Dr . Booth looks to his home in order to ascertain what is the condition of the maternal professorship , and he finds it painfully deficient . The ivife is incompetent to make a com fortable home for her husband , or an instructive mother for her child . She could dress herself show ily while young , but can only compass a slatternly exhibition in middle life ; alienates her husband to thepublic-houae ; forms for the child a school of discord and disorder at home ; and so sends forth the recruit for " the dangerous classes . " The Sunday school can do comparatively little good—a conclusion which Dr . Booth enforce * in a manner that must be , striking for the upper classes . Ho has discovered that fcton , Harrow , Westminster , do comparatively little harm . Notwithstanding the enormities amid which the youthful ambition in trained at the public school , thp class of country gentlemen ,.
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 24, 1855, page 1131, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2116/page/15/
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