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^tihlir affair* J^aUUi JfUlUrllU.
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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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NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS . No notice can be taken of anonymous correspondence . Whatoviris intended / o » inseition must l > e authenticated by the name and address of tho writer ; not necessarily for publication , but asajcuarantee of hisgoodfaith . Itis impossible to aeknowledfce the mass of letters we receive . Their iuserfcion is often delayed , owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted , it is frequently frorn reasons quiteindepeDdent of themeritsof thecommunication . We oantiot undertake to return rejected communications .
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- : ? . ' ¦ . THE LATEST GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL . Pablia . ment , Bays the Times , is ready to take the third India Bill " shorn of all peculiarities and reduced to a neutral colour ;" the bill is nearly of the riglit hue , and after the infusion of the thirty or forty amendments prepared by Lord Stanley , will no doubt be accepted . The . government of uuuud i / o auccjjiicu . xuc . gcvciJiuicxii / 01
India will pasa from the hands of the India Company into those of the Crown . With TOhat likelihood of advantage to India ? The change will carry with , it at least the promise of a better rule than , the one superseded . One sentence m Mr . Bbight ' s late speech represents in brief the shortcomings of the present government of India : " In a single English county , " he said , " there were more roads—^ more travelable roads— -than were to
be found in the whole of India ; and the city of Manchester , in the supply of its inhabitants with , the single article of water , had spent a larger sum of money than the East India Company had spent in the fourteen years frotn 1834 to 1848 in public works of every kind throughout the whole of its rast dominions . " This simple fact points to the grand evil under which India has remained undeveloped and unsecured up
to the present time 5 the end of the Company ' s government lias been to draw the utmost rupee from the natives , to the enrichment of the proprietors of East India Stock , and to the exclusion of every influence that could by any possibility trench upon their monopoly . The Imperial Government can have no such sordid views , no such barbarous prejudices , to pervert and to restrict it , and it will , therefore , carry with it the possibilities and at least the promise of a better rule .
No doubt the new constitution offered by the present Ministry has been framed as much to conciliate diverse and contending opinions in the House of Commons as to provide a government for India equal to the vostneea and responsibility of the duties to be undertaken by it ; but whatever the scheme of Indian go vernment offered , and however perfected in theory , its practice must be to a great extent experimental . Mr . Bright predicts that in five veara
from the passing of the present b ' ill a new constitution will have to be framed for India , and it is probable that — oxcepting tho limit which he puts to the duration of the new form of governmenthis prediction will be verified . In such an event , there are many suggestions in tho plan laid down by himself that may be practically adopted , that of the division of lnclin into live Presidencies especially , though with a modified action as regards the total
independence of each . He would , in setting up these independent Presidencies , do away with the Governor-Greneral in India , and with the Imperial form of government : but tho advantages of the closest possible connexion through the government with the country in which we have so much at stake are too evident for such a change to be accepted by the English people ; and the plan of administration through a Governor-General is upon the whole found to work well in India , the difficulties all springing from the action of the home-machinery .
But , assuming that the scheme of government now proposed is to be carried into practice , and that in the course of a few years it will be set aside , such a result will have been arrived at by a process .. not wholly objectionable , namely , that of new practical experience , —for the past experiences of Indian government afford , little aid , except in the way of warning , to the formation of a thoroughly efficient system of government . Imperfect as the new machinery may be found to be , its action will be under the cognizance of this country , which has awaked
to a lively interest in the condition and progress 01 that magnificent possession , the lull value of which it has hitherto carelessly overlooked , or falsely estimated . Under this healthy surveillance , however faulty or impracticable the new form of government may prove on trial , whatever is wanted in the way of remedy will be speedily forthcoming and readily applied , for all , or nearly all the impediments thrown in the way of reformation by the secret system of the Company ' s government will be done away by the eonsti ^ tution mow offered .
It may be true , as the Times says , that " the anticipation that the bill will be paused in its present form is founded on a recollection of the Thames , on a reference to the almanack , or on other considerations wholly unconnected with the state of India , " but the result , however imperfect , will be again , a long step in the direction of a natural and
efficient government for India . No one believes that the present measure can be final ; but it is a necessary measure , inasmuch as no possible good is to bo obtained by delaying the transfer of the government of India from hands which the country has decided are not trustworthy to those in which it has anore confidence . But while the
country insists upon this change , it is taking upon itself , or rather rebinding itself , to discharge an anxious duty : it must keep a never-sleeping eye upon the working of every parb of the machinery of the government which it is obliged to accept at the outset in default of better ; it muBt compel those whom it entrusts with the conduct of that machinery to master its complications , to keep it in thorough working order , and to be ready with will and hand to apply whatever repairs
it may need , or whatever improvements will better it . It must see that justice—not weighed wholly by the scales here used—is done to India , as well as to the right of the dominant race . It must not only subdue the rebellious spirit which is now abroad , but it must make its power respected for wlmt it is worth , as a means of permanently improving the condition of the populations of India , giving them their share 111
the products of their own country , and teaching tliom how to develop its resources , mental as well as material . If tho people of England will faithfully diachargo these duties , it is really of no groat consequence what are the motives of Ministers in concocting their present Indian Bill . Tho right form of government for Indin , will be reached through experience , unporvortcd by selfishness , and to tho acquirement of this experience public
opinion must guide the way . The government of India must not be a question of Ministries , —England , and not merel y her politicians in office , must govern India if India is to be well governed and worth the cost and anxiety of governing .
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THE ACCOMMODATION BILL SYSTEM . It we may rely upon the somewhat hazy report of tlie remarks attributed to the Attorney-General cm . Friday last , Government is about to dabble with the question of accommodation bills . The Lord Chancellor , we are told , has inserted in a bill he is about to introduce into the House of Peers , " provisions by which any trader who is a party to the negotiation of accommodation bills , Unless these bills hear their real character upon them , will be liable to punishment ; " such punishment , it is understood > eing the withholding , in . case of the trader ' s bankruptcy , of the usual certificate , and the refusal of a legal discharge from his liabilities . Now we frankly confess to a wholesome horror , founded on past experience , of Government
legislation or interference at all hi purely commercial matters , and we have that objection largely strengthened when legislation . in this direction proceeds from what we hope we may be excused from terming the Lawyetism of the Legislature , Certainly , were legislation inevitable with respect to accommodation bills , probably-we could hardly entrust the question to more experienced hands than those of Lord Chelmsford , unless "we except his judicial brother , Lord Cockbum . But this question being one of wide and deep importance , vitally affecting every branch and operation of trade and commerce , it ought to be meddled with by no inexperienced or theoretical hand , let us recollect for a moment the fabulous amount of
commercial transactions represented by bills of exchange . Let us call to mind the indispensable and universal character of this kind of commercial facility , and the dead lock into which almost every department of commerce would be brought were unwise , crude , or meddling regulations and restrictions attempted on the part of Government . And yet , what else can be inferred from the words of the Attorney-General , than that some such dangerous meddling is to be forthwith attempted ? Mils of exchange are totc bear their real character upon them . " How is this to he , effected ? Where is the line to
be drawn between bills which are -practicall y tc accommodation bills / ' but which are as legitimate representations of ordinary mid established commercial transactions as bills drawn against shipments of produce or for the balance of account sales of manufactured goods and consignments . Assume a case for the purpose of illustra tion . Suppose tlie Right Hon . the JEarl of Hancock took it into his aristocratic head to invite a
wealthy young greenhorn just about to emancipate himself from the trammels of guardianship , and having the prospect of a large accumulation of Three per Ccuts . during his minority , down to some quiet suburban hotel—at Richmond , for instance—tliere to take a tete-a-t £ te dinner ; and then , by the united aid of champagne , cards , and dice , the aristocrat eased the plebeian of his Three par Cents .,
with a bill for the difference . In -what way must the " real character" of the bill be made to appear on the face of rhc document . Or suppose another bill was given for a turf bet , made by a turf black-leg with a wealthy " outsider , ' * whero the horse was previously " made safe , " by turfites , who hud placed tkeir money in that quarter , what must the bill show on its face in order that its true character may be determined P
But apart frotn such instances of bills of a more private nature , what would be tho confusion made by faulty or incomplete legislation amongst bills of a commercial characterF We need not multiply instances of difficulties that would occur ; scores will present themselves to the imagination of every one with the slightest practical knowledge of the 13111 of Exchange system . But , it may ue asked , are we to allow such flagrant commercial frauds as
were disclosed in the case of Monteith ' s and other accommodation-bill houses that collapsed during the late financial crisis , to escape without comment or punishment P Certainly not ; bat then we say wo object to reach such cases through the peddling and tinkering agency of Government interference . Look , we say , to good Bankruptcy Laws for the remedy . Confused and incomplete as thci > c laws lire , they would , we bcliovc , he found nearly sufficient if put into action judiciously and consistently
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638 THE LEADER . [ No . 432 , Juit 3 , 1858 .
^Tihlir Affair* J^Auui Jfulurllu.
miilirMttU's .
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There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural anci convulsive , as the strain to keepthmgfs fixed when , all the world is by thevery law of itBCreationmetera-al progress . —Db . Akhold .
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SATURDAY , JULY 3 , 1858 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 3, 1858, page 638, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2249/page/14/
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