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INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS.
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Untitled Article
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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 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 .
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Citation
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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/
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