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    INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS.

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    India And Indian Progress.

    INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS .

    Untitled Article

    THE " LEADER" AND EMIGRATION . In advocating any tiling , however new or true , ox liowever old and well established , which does not come within individual experien . ee , progress must be interfered with by misconception , and success be retarded by misrepresentation . Although a proposition may contain within itself such elements that its absolute truth-may be established therefrom , it is the way of the world not so to deal with it , but to seek without its terms , and to obtain a fanciful solution , which may suit the prej udices or prepossessions of persons or classes . To contend with these perverse influences seems , however , to he the fate of all undertakings , and as the public

    mind by the discussion gets a safer hold of the facts , and a deeper interest is thereby begotten , we must be content to submit to the effect , and , perhaps , ought to be well pleased with it . We have now brought the condition of Indian progress into an appreciable shape , and by directing attention to practical measures , instead of to political , sectional , and personal squabbles , we believe we have g iven a new direction to p ublic opinion regarding India . India has been too much known to us as a skirmishing ground for cabinets , directors , and governors-general ; while her vast material interests nave only received a partial representation , and it has been our endeavour to show how vast these

    interests are . In so doing we have more perseveringly than the rest of the press taken up the question of English settlement in India , anxious that such an important measure should not slumber from , the time of the adjournment of the Parliamentary Committee of last session until the period of its reappointment in next spring . The result has been that , having been foremost in the task , we have been assailed Tor the part we have taken as fomenting a course of agitation dangerous , to India and dangerous to the home community , more mischievous even , we are told ,

    than greased cartridges , to such a degree of irritation have the sentiments of our opponents reached . To some of the so-called authorities on India , to write against the emigration or colonisation mania appears a chief duty to society ; and every movement of the Government , of Parliament , of the press , or the public on this , head ,-is angrily received and bitterly inveighed against . The opposition comes almost uniformly from Indians , many of them old authorities in clubs , who Jiave been so long away from India that they _ do not know what it is now . Some come from Indians in India itself : but , nevertheless , the subject has made the greater

    advance , because , day after day , opponents arc overcome and even brought to be zealous converts . The most obstinate antagonists have been a few officials at home and in India , who , with the traditional abhorrence of interlopers , fear that the sacred prerogatives of their caste are in danger from an influx of their countrymen . One reason why such opponents of English . settlement make no way is—beyond the circumstance that they are contending against facto and the trutlv—^ tlmt the Government and administration of India , so far from being actuated by such jealous views , are most earnestly desirous of 'fotltering English enterprise throughout India .

    It is most interesting to view the progress of this question . The notion is old enough , we may fiay as old as the hills , a favourite one with every £ Jo . yerjaor « General from Bentinck to Canning , and which each has taken some stop to realise , but it lad to work its way for years slowly and partially , ifar the publications of Julius Jeffreys and Ranald Martin , directed to medical and climatic topics , did not succeed in enforcing the conviction of a general Sdlioy . At length , just before the revolt , was prouced the book on Colonisation * liailwat / s . and UUVWU V ** U * JW + *> W «* wv « v » ri > WMIi « VffJ rf ** ' ** Hf W / Kft O ¦ t'fff'W

    position was met by the ill-will of the then Board of Control and of the East ludia Company , and the motion was postponed , every effort being made in the mean while to gain political strength , and with suck success that it was determined to apply for a committee of inquiry , although the Board of Control , by that time willing to concede the papers , threatened to bring the wliolc weight of the Government and the Company to resist the motion . The motion was in the hands of Mr . "VV . Ewart , the member for Dumfries , who being strongly sup-Eor tcd by members from all sides of the House , and y a large body connected with the Manchester

    cotton interest , who perceived the value of the measure , pressed it forward with the determination of sustaining a defeat that session rather than yield , with the certainty of arousing Indian interests by giving them the hope of attention , aud with the Fair prospect of a respectable minority in contesting with the Government that session , and of a majority on a second attempt . His short speech made a very powerful impression , and being supported by 3 \ Ir . 3 > . Seymour and several others , the vote for a committee was carried without a division , although the locum tenens of the Board of Control told the supporters of the motion that if they got the papers lie was willing to concede them , they would be the fallacy of their ideas . Colonel Svkes , the great

    authority on India , said that the Indian Government had attended to it , and had obtained reports from every part of India , which , when printed , would show English settlement was not feasible j and the Chairman of the East India Company , in supporting these views , affirmed there was no land available in the Indian hills , and that a field one hundred feet square qould not be found for the growth of any crop . They gave way , however , with a very bad grace , and the committee being appoiuted , in a very few days under the direction of the chairman , Mr . Ewart , and other active members , the proceedings assumed such importance that they were protracted to the close of the session , and being reported from time to time to the House , with the printed evidence , are recommended to be continued iu the next

    Bitting . In consequence of this committee , the Earl of AJbemarle , who had taken up the measure in . the House of Lords , gave notice that he should postpone the discussion there until the evidence had been carried further . The evidence at first was directed to the climate and general resources of the hill districts , and thon chiefly to the political , administrative , and social obstacles which have hitherto impeded the progress of the English settler . This testimony was from various quarters , from Government officials round to the Indigo Planters' Association , but the errors of

    the administration were laid bare in such a way that the administration were laid bare in such a way that the mere publication has ensured the adoption by the Government of efficient measures for their remedy . The chief points discussed were the land tenures , the state of the jaw , the state of the police , and the use of the English language . In the next session it will be necessary to complete these subjects , including the application of English type , and to consider the hill districts in detail , and the commerce through them to Tartary , Thibet , and China . The committee will have before them not

    lish settlement , was taken from the great Indian authorities , and we were told that the hills could not feed a population . Simla and Nyncc M , and Mahabuleshtvar , were selected by them as type * of countries , which include some of the finest collceand tea regions in the world , and not only embrace to Kranite steeps of the Himalayan wall , hut fo tie gmer-bordering valleys and profitable pioun am sides , and in tEc south table-lands of ff ^ W As there is no mistake that the . hill ^ ™™ & regions have resources , and give then for 1 ,, Uu » line of objection was surrendered , and tlicii * o boson to hear very often about the lailuvc ot tuc Sm Dhoon colony , and of military colony , au the reports on military colonisation ; I » " J evident that , although the Dchra UJ' ? . * . Wfi failed , as such , experiments have Uulcd in Qi « Jg New Zealand , and the , Cape , ami vvil lfol »^ J i

    only the witnesses whom they could not cxainmo last session , but many others , and some having special missions from India to represent particular interests . Whether . the committee ngreo upon any report or not , is a matter of very little moment , for the publication of the evidence is quite sufficient to make tho requisite impression on the Governments of India and the public . In tho last session it would have been quite impossible to have obtained any favourable report from the committee , or indeed anv ronort at all . as there was an

    antagomterests of the country , and have taken steps for carrying out the required policy . They have al ready recognised the principle of a European arnw and of hill stations , of extending the railways and giving communication to the hills , and of favourineworks of irrigation and of land improvement with a general disposition to foster English enterprise in India . It will be quite but of the question for Mr Ewart to- bring forward any bill in the ensuinff session of Parliament , and it is very likely that he will have no opportunity of bringing hi any rrreat measure , as he originally contemplated , with a view

    tinental countries is beyond the law . The evidence was , as if appeared by instalments , eagerl y read in India , and produced not merely a deep impression , but has raised hopes and stimulated the spirit of enterprise and improvement . We are already able to record how every mail bears evidence of the exploration of . districts , the extension of plantations , and the commencement or advancement of hill towns , and the settlers look forward with interest to the nexf session of Parliament , when ( hey hope that their case will be further stated , and ' further' guarantees obtained for

    their encouragement . Officers of the Government , too , arc'looking with . anxiety . tb know what measure of support they can obtain for the extension of settlement or the advancement of the condition of the local population by the help of the English cooperation . Under such circumstances we can bear with calmness the invectives of our antagonists , the more particularly as we know from their own statements they have evidence to give in favour of the cause , and that the opposition has advanced a stage nearer to our conclusions : At iirst , the key otthe . Cy »/«»>>^» 7 ?^ ,, / .. « mwl tlie other onnonents ot

    JMigscttloment has taken a strong » u »« «**¦ '" f tl > 0 favourite assertion now is that the advjggj ^ cause we represent propose to ^^ S& cultural labourers out to India , ^^ f ^ u * prove , to their own sutislaction , WK ottrer for we want no such proof , that an ^ "B ^ ffloio at native rates of wagca must starve , uuu « , j it is a blunder to talk of bomlmg ou £ ug " agricultural labourers . Upon tins toxt , pofct page , and column uftor column , has beuMv which the Indian press take htllo t oubio ^ futo , and for this very good reason , Uu * > ii i jiu ^—

    to yearly agitation , his functions being reduced to bringing in such subsidiary bills as will gj ^ ve completeness to the Government measures , aud carry out in detail the whole scheme of policy as established by the committee . Indeed the whole course o £ operation has been that of-the slow but certain influence of public opinion , which , under a Parliamentary Government , is communicated to the administrators before even the action of the Legislature can be obtained , which affects all that is administrative , all that here is below the . law , and that which in

    connistic feeling on tho part of tho East India Company ' s representatives , who considered tho character of tnoir administrators at stake , and thoy wore abetted by tho representatives of the Board of Control . This state bf affairs is , however , materially altered by tho oarriage of tho India Bill , the abolition of the Company , and tho constitution of a new Oounoil for India , with Lord Stanloy at the head of it . There is no longor any opportunity , therefore , of making out a ooso for the Company , pr of resisting improvement , for the present administrators of India have shown themselves alive to tho

    we kuow , s iwij » w « — 'h , Hindoos . J » ir » agricultural labourers to comnotc with IUiuM * iTvvarl ; , Sir Erskino Perry , Mr , boy moV *»• . Smith , Mr . Campbell , made no such spoci , is not put forward in the ovulouooi « - » Jg jfr . found In the books of Mr . Martin , Mi . J "" fluon Clarke , or Mr . West ; and it is not ft mo \ " > of the Association for ^ roinoUug ^^ fAHS 0 Ciftincut in India , nor of the Cotton &IW ™ tion . It is an assumption' purely plfl ^ t 0 "H busy iu It is amusing to iU wntws who aio *> *

    j Hqfenae in our Indian Empire , by Mr . Ilyde Clarke , jn vyhiqh the whole question of occupying the hills (¦ with a , military and civil European . population was iproppunded . This produced butt little effect till the revolt was at its height , and the faithlessness of our native -airmy was evident , whon several leading members of the Legislature among the friends and ^ wranexions of the author took the same view of the tmeation , wad at his requost it was brought before 'Parliament . Qo tender was the ground then , that "the first niotioti was shaped to open the question by asking for the papers and reports , Even , this pro-

    Untitled Article

    342 £ THE ¦ ..- Ii JE-A . P ' E 1 L [^ Q . 457 , December 24 , 1858 .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 24, 1858, page 1422, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2274/page/22/