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Leader (1850-1860), 26th December 1857, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1238, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      ceived ample encouragement , estates are frequently held under tenures so doubtful that enterprise is checked , the demands of the revenue upon the cultivators of the soil are frequently excessive , the cost of administration is inordinate . Here is a broad field for the Reformers ; but when dealing with the revenue legislation of India / it is difficult to introduce changes without treading upon some ancient prejudice . Top much government would be no panacea for Indian grievances . So far as the regulation of property is concerned , there is—especially in the North-West—a traditionalunwritten

      , common law dear to the people , well known to them , and almost sufficient for their desires . " Ihave tried everything , " said a zealous young magistrate to Frazer , the Commissioner of Delhi ; "Ihave fined , imprisoned , and taken security from the people of the Pergunnah , but I can't keep them quiet . " "Did . you ever try letting them alone ?" 3 ? jrazek . asked . ^ The villagers know the history and the value of their land , and appreciate the qualities pf the several circles inio which it is divided ; and it is essential , when proposing practical reformations , to remember that India must be governed / to

      a great extent , through Indian customs . Laws , iu all ages and countries / must harmonize with manners , or they will remain inoperative . On the other hand , as population increases , it becomes the more necessary to define the relations between the proprietary and . non-proprietary classes , and to establish tenant rights by law , for nothing else will restrain the Zemindar ; and , as far as possible , to destroy the feudal tyranny of . the great landlords . British proprietorship , introduced into India , would double the prosperity of the people , wherever the settlers located themselves .

      Ihe land revenue systems of India are three in number ;—the perpetual settlement , confined to Bengal ; the village partnerships , prevailing iu the Punjab , Scinde , and some districts of Bombay , and tlie Ryotwarry , includiug tlie rest of Bombay , and the whole of Madras . Lord Cornwallis , in 1793 , instituted the perpetual settlement , fixing the annual rent payable by the owners of the soil ; the Tillage partnerships- were a formal development of the old village system , and under this , law the population

      has suffered neither from violence , rapacity , nor compression .. The rent is fixed , for a term . of thirty years ; property rests on a substantial basis , aud the results are highly favourable . Kyotwarry implies a direct holding from the Government , the cultivator paying a yearly rent , and renewing , relinquishing , or altering Ms holding at pleasure . His tenancy is annual , and remains undisturbed by Government so long as he pays at the sti pulated rate . Now , of these three : systems , that of Bengal is the worst

      since it exposes the ryot to be made the slave of the Zemindar . He ia taxed , aud he must pay ; he must live , and the Zemindar permits him to do no more . If this accursed institution rests upon the acquired rights of a class , it is at variance with ! the human and social rights of forty millions of people . The village system is undoubtedly more equitable and benevolent ; but it contains certain important defects , which discourage enterprise and render the interest of the cultivator and proprietor inconsistent with the permanent interests of the country . As for Ryotwarry , the practical evil of the working system is that it leaves the cultivator too small a share in the produce of the land , and that the Government , while drawing the tax , has

      comparativel y neglected to promote a more extensive appropriation of the soil to the purposes of industry . Xhc Madras cultivator is poor , spiritless , and unconscious that he iahabil . s a region over which . commerce should , perpotualiy bo carried in golden drifts , creating opulence for him and for hia Christian masters . It must never be forgotten that the Government , gains nothing by the degradation of the ryot ; the poverty of Madras impoverishes its administrators-. The worst improvidence is a policy of neglect . To neglect , however , must be added jealousy , since , although tl » e restrictions upon the purchase of land have been abolished , the Company ' s system is one that effectually deters men of sense and foresight from investing their capital in the Residency of Madras . Of course , these remarks must be understood with some liinitahimis .

      The amiicuts on the Godavery , Kistuah , and Cnuvcry are public improvements of immense imporlance , and the 3 Jellar . y , Wolaporo , and Poonah Railway will open up , large districts ; but the harbours on that , coast are inaccessible and inconvenient , and it must bo confessed that , upon the whole , civilisation has not fulfilled its duties in Madras or iiv Bengal . Elsewhere , also , the natives have the strongest claims , upon ^ English justice , and , when a new form

      of _ government is established , it will be for public opinion to do that which it has never yet donesuperintend the administration of British India .

      Untitled Article

      AN EPITAPH ON COPPOCK . We can quite understand that the memory of Mr . Jamies Copiock : should be respected by his friends . In private life he bore an unmvpeached character . But if he is to be set up in even the remotest niche of part y history , he must be characterized in accordance with the position he filled as a public man . During the whole of his career as an electoral agent he was sedulously engaged in the trade of parliamentary adulteration . Since the enactment of the Reform Bill , no man ever did so much to briu < r

      representative institutions into contempt . ' ¦ We will admit that Mr . Coppock was clever , bold , and zealous . But his talent was for intrigue , his ardour was that of a "Whig-paid agent , and his daring was , in a political sense , synonymous with an utter contempt of scruple . Enlightened cynics have been engaged in finding apologies for Mr . Coppock :. We are willing to pass him over in silence ; but that does not content the necrologists . They insist upon a funeral oration . Probably , they will not be disappointed . "We English of the nineteenth century entertain a . noble reverence for those who arc wise

      in their generation . Tliese be t / iy gods , O Israel ! Mr . Morbison amassed four millions and—died , and necrological columns ' improved' the occasion of his decease . James Coppock , general dealer in corruption , dies , and he , too , has his columnar testimonials . The miser , to whom bankers bowed , is introduced to posterity as ecccntricV the science of illegal interference at elections is paraphrased into devotion and pugnacity . This moral nation , however , is warned—lest unfledged CoppocKs should aspire to the agency in Clevelandrow—that the best friends of the deceased could

      not always approve of the intrepidity with which he fought his antagonists with their own weapons . But , then , he was faithful in cases of compromise ; he observed his pledges ; that is to say , he was not a liar or a rogue . Other agents were worse than he ; he did dirty work with clean hands ; his occupation was detestable , but his character stood high ; he debased the electors , but never stooped himself ; he evaded the highest constitutional laws of the realm , but , for all that , he was a man of honour . Rottenness was his stock-in-trade , but though lie loved the business he loathed the principle . We hope that . this sort of cant will not impose on the public

      mind . Many persons well remember how Mr . Coppock , warming his legs before a fire , avus accustomed to express his disgust of the venality among electors . But : to every bargain there are two parties ; iu this case there are three : the voter sold himself , the Whigs bought him , and Mr . Coppock was the go-between . The one person shut his eyes ; the other , perhaps , had , morally , no eyes to shut ; the third , Mr . Coppock , was the man who systematically trafficked in the franchise and reduced bribery to a science . But felix etiam oirportunitate mortis . He is gone before a lleform BUI came to take away his vocation . He is gone , and there is no rival to tho little barber of

      Shrewsbury—the satellite of W . B . Erail of Shrewsbury , we learn , is a great man , and the doors of Tory mansions are opened upon his arrival in town , unreported by the fashionable organs . A Trail of larger dimensions and more imposing deportment was Mr . James Coppock . Will this position satisfy his admirers ? If not , forgot him ; abolish the calling which he followed , and let his name decently disappear . We would not look upon his like again . If lie was audacious , he had his reward ; if lie was clever , lie applied his abilities to a very bad purpose ; if he

      was devoted to Ins party , so arc the servile and the Tcnal . Mr . Coppock was not servile . He opened an agency in Cleveland-row , and the Curllon might probably have had ' him had lie not been previously engaged .. I ^ ortmnatc for him was the opportunity of death . The tiimo is corning in which Coppookism will bo not only illegal , but impossible . So they say . Wo bury a , man and the world writes an epitaph of praise upon the worldly-wise . Shall we be stigmatized as purists if we beg to he allowed to add : — May the system which made him what he was be abolished ior ever !

      Untitled Article

      WEST INDIAN POLITICS . Oun West Indian letters inform us that ; the remarks wo ventured to- put forward ( on the tflst of October ) on tho subject of ' bellow Povcr at St . Thomns / and on tho obvious means of avoiding it

      by transferring the depot from the Danish scttbT ment to our own Virgin : Islands , have been verv favourably received by our fellow-subjects in those parts , and that the suggestions are likelv to Impressed upon the attention of the Colonial Office We are reminded , indeed , by one of our coiW spondeuts , that the expression < hundreds of bavs " applied to the Virgin Islands , has a certain tainti of rhetorical licence , and we are ready to confess that it was a colloquial exaggeration which had letter been avoided in an argument relying for its strength on geographical and even topographical accuraw ° statement . J ¦¦

      ^ In spite , however , of this pardonable flaw in ' the lorm , the substance of our proposition remains \ uialtered , and it is confirmed by every letter we receive on the subject It is , we believe , the positive oninion of nautical men of the widest experience , that except perhaps the harbours , or rather inland seas of Rio Janeiro and Sydney , the Virgin Gorda Sound is the finest in the world ; not excepting even Trmcomalec , so highly prized bv Nelson

      At Prickly Pear Island ( which forms the north side of the Sound ) there is a place for a coal depot with eight or nine fathoms water within a few yards of the shore , and the entrance to the harbour merely requires the lights , wliich are universally found m such places ; two buoys would fornv a sufficient fairway guide in the daytime . ¦ We cannot doubt that the authorities at the Colonial ^ Office will take tliese advantages in favour of the Virgin Islands into serious consideration . It is Clearly not only not necessary to leaye the depot at St . Thomas ' s , but a danger and a loss , in every respect , and a needless injustice to our own dependency into the bargain .

      Whilst we are referring to our West Indian letters , we may touch for a -moment on the Sepoy immigration scheme , which originated in Bristol or Liverpool some months ago , and was alluded to recently in the House of Commons . " It would be a good measure" ( writes one of our correspondents , entitled to speak with ¦ authority ) ' * if . Government would take care of them for us ; but to turn mutinous soldiers adrift where there are neither noliee

      arms , nor troops , would of course be an infliction . " The growth of cotton in our West India Islands is beginning , to excite much attention . The one thing needful is labour . Alluding to the experiments , initiated by the President ol the Virgin Islands , a correspondent estimates the extent of good cotton land in that dependency alone as from 30 , 000 to 40 , 000 acres . Assuming that every acre properly tilled should turn out at least one and a half or two

      bales annually , our estimate ( he writes ) of 20 , 000 bales might be realized within twelve months from the date of sufficient labour being , made available The cotton-plant gives two or three pickings amm-. ally there , and the second or third year ' s growth often proves more productive than the first . It has been found possible to have Sea Island cotton ready for picking within four months from sowing time . We may well be anxious for the result-of those experiments , for upon them will turn , in great measure , the future fate of our West Indian possessions . Sugar will give place to cotton as soou as our ability to grow Sea Island cotton in perfection shall have been established , and capital will not licsifate to follow the announcement of success .

      We dare say our intelligent readers , who arc en joying the good things of Christinas , will readily appreciate the importance of these West Indian questions .

      &Lt;S /L\Ttrttt /I -Lyirtt-Ftl ®Wx %Wm\U R

      Oitym CmtitriL

      Untitled Article

      AT . L THE DIFFERENCE . ( To the Editor of the Lender . ) Sin , —Tho sarcastic remarks on the late debnto at the India House , contained in your political summary , would probably have been spared , had you not been misled by a very suspicious omission in the Times report . The chairman is there mndc to remind tho proprietors that they were voting away thoir own money . He said , however , quite tho ' reverse . Tliese are hia very words as taken down at tho time l > y o short-hand reporter . "It should bo remembered that it is not our own money that We arc voting a"Wiiy The Directors aro as w

      Untitled Article

      » [ MN THIS nEl'AUTMKNT . A 3 ALL OPINIONS , UOWKVKIt EXTRF . MK , ATI * AI . M > 1 VKI > AN KXI'IIICSSION , TUB K 1 HTUM NKCKSSAU 1 J / V JIOLDS ''»»<* MK 1 . 1 ' - KI ' . Sl'ON \ 1 Il : LIC rOKNONl-:. ]

      Untitled Article

      1208 T ^ EE E IiEABBR , [ No . 405 > . Decemb 3 B ^ 2 ^ 1857 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 26, 1857, page 1238, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2223/page/14/