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ESFDJA AND INDIAH PROGRESS.
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WHAT HAS THE COLONISATION COMMITTEEDONE ? Now that the Colonisation Committee is again sitting , and since it cannot be kept sitting perpetually , it is ¦ worth while to consider what it has done and what still remains to be done ; for it will not be carried beyond this session . It will be remembered that in consequence of the publication of a work on Kailways ^ Colonisation , and Defence in our Indian empire , Mr . William Ewart , the member for Dumfries , last year , brought before the House of Commons , and the Earl of
Albemarle before the Lords , the subject of English settlement in India . It was a period of crisis in Indian affairs , the army was in revolt , the old system brought , to a trial and found wanting , arid the double Governmentdoomed ; . the home ministry was . likewise ' -in a critical state , having only just assumed qffice . The question of English settlement wfts not in the ; , usual ' course ripe , for action ; the niany persons connected with India , who had at varioiis periods advocated plans for occupying particular . distiictSj had no organisation , and had not followed up the matter systematically , and the whole agitation , depended
upon the exertions of one individual . The .-moment was , however , boldly and skilfully chosen , and boldly and skilfully taken-advantage of , for , in tjie usual course , all that Miv Ewart could have required would have been the production of papers on the subject , but his motion was afterwards so shaped . as to demand a committee of inqtiiry . The proposition was most unwelcome to the East India Company and . the old Government , of India , because they knew the treatment of " interlopers " was one of the tenderest points in their conduct , and at any other time they couldhave claimed .
sympathy of the Board of Control , and resisted the demand with the whole strength of the Government . The Board of Control had , however , enough to do in those times to take care of itself , and the Ministry did not wish to risk a division , in which they might have been harassed by their opponents , who would have voted regardless of Company and colonisation , to inflict a blow on the Government . Mr . Ewart , therefore , insisted on having a Committee , and the Government having given way the Company could only show their spite .
At the time of obtaining the Committee , Mr . Ewart and his supporters were told that the Committee was needless and useless ,. that the proposition of English settlement in India was futile , and that the Company had done everything necessary , and was provided with reports to show there was not a field a hundred feet square to be got fox English occupation . " Immediately oh the opening of the Committee to receive evidence , witnesses flocked in , and till the end of the session report after report was published of the evidence . . Vainly did the representatives of the Company struggle with the evidence , and strive-to trip them up ;
vainly d » d they bring . witnesses of their own . ; a mass of testimony was acoiimulatcd , the effect of which was io show-that , in respect of English settlement , India had been more neglected than any country , not excepting tlie territory of the Hudson ' s Bay Company ; for that corporation enn show the lied River , Vancouver ' s ( -Island , - and British Columbia as settlements ; these , however , were wrenched , from the monopolists by force , Englishmen having been treated by the Hudson ' s Bay Company as " interlopers , " in the same way that they wore by the East India Company . Instead of the ovidqnee being restricted ( as tlie
East India Directors had fondly hoped ) to sotting UP a theory , and obtaining a corresponding report that there > yero no places for Englishmen in India but hill peaks and a fpw fields of a hundred feet square , the evidence went beyond questions of climate , area , and soil , and throw light upon every question of administration affecting the English citizen in India . Upon , the land tenures and titles very copious evidenco was given , and as it emanated from practical mom- * -not only indigo planted , but oivu servants-T-there was no getting out of it by the usual mystification of bamlnng about
Mahomedan law terms , but the subject received a thorough sif ting , and it became quite plain that the whole of these tenures are in a very unsatisfactor y state , and that there is no valid objection to the introduction of the freehold title as established in Europe and America . Until 1859 the idea was carefull y nursed that India was something different from the rest of the civilised and unr civilised world , and that a system of tenure introduced by the Mahomedan ' conquerors was entitled to be exempt from the application of a title which prevails everywhere else throughout our immense empire , as it does throughout Eui'ope and the whole continent of America . The notion of this
Indian exceptionality has , however , thanks to the Committee , received a deathrblow , for after the evidence published by them , it became impossible to maintain such an argument in England ; the result has been that Lord Stanley has announced . the intention of Government to grant a like title to the waste lands of India as to those of Canada , Australia , New Zealand , and South Africa , arid to enfranchise the tenures of the settled lands as those of Ireland and Canada have or
been enfranchised ^ CroAvn c opy - hold and clergy lands of England have been enfranchised . At present the waste lands of India supposed to be available , are by Lord Stanley treated as of comparatively limited extent ; but there is a growing land fund , for the hill coiintries available , for occupation will be extended by lapse and annexation ; waste lands will
accrue by the lapse of native . principalities in Hindostan , and lands held on various tenures , which include waste , will be enfranchised by the application of legislative measures founded on the Encumbered Estates and Copyhold Erifranchisement'Acts ' . Ah-eady- ^ dread words for the heavenborn to hear- — -an Encumbered Estates Act for India is talked ofj as there has been a similar Act for Ireland and the West Indies .
If Mr . Ewart ' s Committee had done nothing more than settle this : question of land tenures in India they would have deserved the gratitude of the English and Indian public , for they have prepared for India one of the greatest means of progress , which in its depressed and tortuously administered condition it could receive . The Committee , however , did much more : it showed that India was under the domination of an administrative system of the same character as that of France , Prussia , Russia * and Austria , equally bonevolcnt and equally oppressive . Under this system neither the Englishman nor the native
Zemindar is ever certain that he shall keep his property or his liberty , and he is restricted in his individual and associative action . Mr . FQrbes was riot afraid to use' tne strony words before the Colonization Commjtte yesterday , that in the Mofussil there is . no law . The paternal government is to provide everything ^ for the people , and at the present time India is without roads , bridges , canals or watercourses , its rivers and channels left without towingrpaths ,. and full of snags and sawyers , except where a paternal government—busy with war , and at no time able to overtake the claims upon it—lias occasionally
condescended to keep up some solitary bund or tank , or to clear out a watercourse , or make a show road ,. or a show canal to bo able to tell admiring England that such things were in India . To talk of roads , canaln , aild public works in India on the strength of the Great Trunk lload , and the Ganges and Jumnar canals , was like boasting of that as ty plum-pudding which had only one plum in it . The question has been— : not whether a trunk road exists in Bengal , but why any part , of India is without its duo complement of roads and canals .-
The character of the Indian Government was displayed before the committee in its true light —• jiiot , intentionally oppressive , but oH ' oetuaUy so , by its woaknoss and inability to discharge its duties , which are left in the liandn of agents untrustworthy , profligate , tyrannical , and cruel . When the reportB of the Oommitto arrived in India so excited were the settlers at finding for onco
the true nature of the Government displayed , and the hoge of redress held out to them , that they read the reports as eagerly as a new novel . The proposition to place under the power of such a Government , men , who hold the rights of citizenship at home , appears by the evidence to be so monstrous that the greatest Hindoo-maniac will hardly dare henceforth propose a Black Act . The feasibility also of extending the English jurisdiction of the supreme courts was amply shown by the Committee * Hence , Lord Stanley has thought it neccessary to declare that the preparation of the code is suspended , and that measures are in progress to place the Sudder courts under the supreme courts of the presidencies .
' This is another great measure , which ., will' have tlie tendency to elevate the condition of the ; native population , by training them in the duties of citizens , and enabling them to attain the rights of citizens . Surely the native merchant at Bombay —Hindoo , Parsee , or Mahomedan—who acts as a justice of the peace , serves " as a grand juror or petty juror , and has a municipal , vote , with tlie jn'o'tection of the habeas corpus and the right of trial by jury , under the sanction of the supreme court , is in a ; better condition than the , babop at Benares , whois at the mercy of one or two civil servants , and of a liierarchy of corrupt amlah and tyrannical burkimdaiizes . . The amlah , the official nobility of
India , of course , prefer the Russian system of government ; ar id the civil servants , under whom tlie amlah flourish , of course prefer the exaltation of their subordinates . Under such a system the people can never receive political or moral education , as bribery , extoi'tion , and torture must prevail and the great example to . corrupt society is the inducement held out to the young men of the educated classes to join the ranks of the amhih , anct to become employers , as the sons of the ipieicrs do iu France , realising that state ofdependence -which y / as the curse of Ireland , the constant looking-out for a place under Government , instead of cultivating and encouraging the independent action of each good citizen , as in England and the United States .
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NOTES ON INDIAN PROGRESS . The news from the hill districts is very sparing . There is , however , one announcement of some significance . On the dispersion of the army of Oude the 93 rd Highlanders and the 1 st Bengal Fusiliers were ordered to the hills at Pugshaieand Soobathoo . These gallant regiments well deserve tlie benefit of the refreshing climate of the lulls ,
after the share they have had in the campaign , but it is deeply to be regretted that ont ol this large army , only two English battalions can ownin this privilege . ¦ Two regiments arc , however , ordered to the Punjaub , it is to be hoped to be sent to the sanitaria there . Which regiment will be sent to Darjecling to , occupy the new cantonments 13 no * known . To Kuniaon tho native batta ion . is sent . Tho want of barrack- accommodation in tno 11 m stations is now hittorlv manifest ,, but during tno
last six months , what has boon done ait Reeling and Nynce Till , might have been done -ut e > ory hill station , for they wore free from trouble , ana accommodation provided for many thousand men . As it is ,. our unfortunate countrymen aro sent aovn to the cities of tho plains , for tho old game 01 guarding the black troops , which are atill kept up Fn enormous numbers . . „ , > „„ , „„«; Mr . Sidney Herbert has taken up in Par 1 ^ of
the deplorable case of tho death <* vo jundrej English soldiers , wives , and children , In tlie 1 wuii Dura barracks , nenr Calcutta , last autumn , wno , » sent to tho liills , might have been saved . f Very few officers have lately received leave lor the hills , —loss than tho usual number . t ] Xiwlimero amiirs aro still unsettled . What , » Jummoo Rajah has done about his cousin , Jojft »" « Sing , is uncertain , aa thero aro wn ^ ' ^ ? , ^ Iffiot at Lahore It is observed that tho wh ° ° "YE of Knshmcro politics must shortly undergo rot »»» . 1010 ¦
. Major II , Taylor , having boon pvon « . « -- y ; the govornmont oflvoto Kangra , M ^ yjJ of Kurnau ) , being appointed JJoputy-ComiwIwionor . ISangra , hitherto negleotoil , is now assum » S \'" E d anceTaa one of the most promising ot tho Ilia "" " , districts for English settlement .
Esfdja And Indiah Progress.
ESFDJA AND INDIAH PROGRESS .
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344 TH'E LEADER . [ No . 468 , March Ify 1859 ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 12, 1859, page 344, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2285/page/24/
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