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IISTDIA, AND ¦ ¦ • ' INDIAN PROGRESS.
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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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called upon to give a vote which surprised and afflicted itr-rto sanction the extra budgetary expenditure whose enormous progress nothing seemed to be able to stay , in spite of the complaints made every year which Government admitted to be jus * . Under the present system the items of expenditure are decided by the respective Ministers , and . the Chamber is compelled to approve or reject them m _ toto , while , as the supplementary credits are asked for year after year , the balance of the public accounts for any one twelvemonth is not effected until several years afterwards . The speaker protested of
against what he termed the absorption surplus by anticipation , which he said would prevent the Government from maintaining and increasing their popularity . But what was the strangest and most significant part of his speech , was that in which he insisted upon the urgent necessity of completing the sinking fund , repealing the 10 per cent , addition to the taxes imposed for the purposes of the Russian war , and of increasing the salaries of Government officials ; and this at a moment when France has plunged into a costly war , has borrowed 20 , 000 , 000 sterling , and contemplates the imposition of new .
taxes . , ' . . Another member said , that when Government asked for additional expenditure to be incurred they ought to state how they proposed to meet it , and not content themselves " with the stereotyped phrase that it would be provided for out of the ordinary resources of the budget . " It is not improbable that we may have a new illustration of the old saying , " When the cat ' s away the mice will play . "
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INDIAN ARMY ORGANISATION , rilHE report on Indian army organisation , incom-- " - plete and undecided as it is , is one of the most extraordinary documents ever produced . The questions proposed for consideration were of the greatest national importance , and they have been treated as if they were of importance to the officers and military friends of the three presidencies , and in subservience - to the invested rights , privileges , and perquisites of the officers of the English home army . The English soldiers themselves have not been considered . These vices are too common ; for an officer is apt to look upon everything as it affects the interests he has possessed himself of by
have a large body of English officers and sergeants ; and , if properly managed , this would be the means of keeping a large number of both classes in India . Let all soldiers of good conduct be encouraged to pass an examination , as all classes of Government servants do , in the native languages , and let their military service count with their police service . Let there be , too , a fair prospect of promotion in the police , and the Indian police would become a favourite service , and would enlist large numbers of English , so that in time , as the resources ^ India Increase and prices rise , the xpounted police will consist solely * of Europeans , as it « ds desirable the police of the great cities should likewise be chiefly composed of the same class . ..
The reporters provide for a native army , consistingof 'battalions of mixed races and castes , hoping thereby to limit mutiny , oblivious of the fact that it will matter very little whether natives of one caste or set are kept together in battalions , when by help of the post-office , of which they so well understand the use , and by other means of communication , the whole body of Poorbeahs , and the whole body of Mahomedans in the army will combine their separate detachments , and then the leaders of the Brahmins will combine with the leaders of the Mahomedans for a general p lan of action as heretofore . Opposition to the Ferirtghee is a sufficiently defined cause to bring together discordant elements .
When a good hold is got of the hill regions , the natives can be enlisted as now in l ocal corps , like Highland rcgimentS i as their families remain at home as hostages . At present these corps are kept in the hills for local service , while the English are condemned to the plains ; and yet in Sylhet , AssamjDarjeeliiig , and Kumaon for instance , English regiments could be most carefully cantoned . The bill regiments have been recalled at the close of the war , but only one English regiment has obtained a bill station , and the English troops in the hills consist solely of drafts of invalids . , -
The question of supplying India with regiments ' of the'line * or English regiments for local service , has been largely debated , but the true elements of the question have not been considered . The grand object appears to be , to provide for the disbanded officers of the Bengal army , and to give them good berths . Under any rational system there would be no difficulty in . supplying India with any reasonable number of Eng lish recruits , if the plan of short service corps , to which we lately alluded , were carried out . For the sake of a free passage and a suburban allotment , there are plenty of young men who would enter for three years ' service without other bounty , and without extra
pay . Three years' services would , therefore , cost 61 . a year , or 4 d . a day . If ,. , as in the French service , soldiers understanding trades were allowed to work at their trades , paying the substitutes who did their military duty , whereby the whole regiment get extra pay out of the general resources , without any burthen to the Treasury , then we believei that the garrisons of Calcutta , and of every great city in India , could be well worked , while a body of Englishmen , trained to military service , would be distributed over the country , available as a reserve . We pointed out that many so recruited would remain soldiers for prolonged terms , or permanent service , but the option of short service would bo a great inducement .
The basis , however , of Indian inihtary organisation is the extension of the hill stations and colonisation , and the provision of branch railways . This , it should be borne in mind , will create in India , in the course of a few years , a large and effective army of Englishmen , which will not cost the Treasury a farthing ; for with the hills held by Englishmen , India cannot revolt , or must be reconquered . Unfortunately , nothing is said in tho report on tljis subject , nor was it made one of the questions for consideration . Wo are glad to boo that Colonel Burlton energetically protests against the large native army countenanced by his brother commissioners .
purchase or by nomination , without any reference to the interests of those whom he is appointed to serve . The Indian civil service is not without the s&me defects . What experience has pointed out , and the public expect is , that provision shall be made for the gradual suppression of the native regular army , as the present sepoys in the Madras and Bombay regiments die on , to the restriction of irregular troops , to the abolition of native artillery , to the establishment of hill stations for European troops , militia , and settlers , and to the maintenance of India by a ^ European military force being a
constituent part of the general army . What tho public is likely to get is very little . The artillery is to be held by Europeans , except in some garrisons of unhealthy climate ; whereas there is hardly one of these places which is really neoessary fox * military purposes ; and they ought to be as soon as possible dismantled , for wherever kept up they must be sources of danger , as in the hands of black artillery they give rallying points for future insurrections No arsenals should be kept in any such places ; and we are quite sure if
the hill stations were properly organised there is no garrison in India whicli could not be supplied by quarterly drafts of artillery from the hill stations ; but then railways should be laid down , by which reliefs can be bvought down in a day , instead of reliefs being tliree months on the road . Tho 93 rd Regiment , on the reduction of Oude , had the good luck to be rewarded with cantonment in a hill station , but at the last advices it had not yet reached its destination . Lord Clyde is anxious , tor his health's sake , to reach Simla , and he has been a long time on tho miserable roads .
There is another useful recommendation in the report , and that is , that as a large native police is now being enrolled , a military organisation should bo avoided as far as possible . Those best acquainted with India , consider that the police should
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Eastern Bengal Company—whereby , if approved , the parties who have laboured are to get nothing for their time and expense , and those who have done nothing are to reap the fruits of the others ' toil . Colonel S . T . Christiej 80 th Foot , has leave to Darjeeiing . Lord Stanley ' s announcement of a fee-simple tenure for India has been received with great satisfaction out there . The Friend of India , which has so long laboured in the cause , congratulates Mr . Macleod Wylie and those who have been firm , in maintaining this demand . It pertinently alludes
to Lord Stanley ' s declaration in the House of Commons , that it is most important to open the unoccupied lands to European colonisation . All the Sunderbund grantees , all tea-grower $ in Assam , al l miners renting of Government ,, ali planters in territories likei Wynaad or Darjeeiing , it is observed , may now , if they have inclination or capital , become owners of the soil . The Friend of India expresses no less satisfaction with the application of the system to zemindaries . < f Bengal is to be sold , " will be of the
and the editor maintains this step greatest benefit to India . Every Englishman or native who holds direct of the State , niay emancipate himself at once from all further risk of agency or dependence on the collector . No native can sweep away his property in an hour by neglecting to pay his rent>—no distressed Chancellor of the Exchequer raise his rent on the land which he has . cleared . " That single measure will , the editor firmly believes , place Lord Stanley a century hence in the front rank of Indian benefactors .
The Friend of India points to the necessity of providing that the large zemindaries niay be divided for the purpose of redemption , so as to facilitate the gradual progress of the measure . Simla was , at the last advices , in the state of expectation , Lord Cl y de not having yet reached ^ . The telegraph is being extended to the station , which ought to have been done long since . The town js fast being filled with residents , and the hopes of house proprietors arc raised . A club and family hotel have been opened . ^ A brewery has been established , under the superintendance of an experienced" man from England , with a large supply of hops and good water , and it is expected that
Siinla beer will rival that of Mussoories , Kussowlee , and the Neil g herries . As we observed lately , the new tariff will favour the manufacture . It is feared that the consumption will be limited by the ill-success of the hill brewers as yet in making a beer that will keep . When the railway system is extended there must be a great beer trade . In the tip part of Assam the authorities have had another brush with the Abors , who gave us so much trouble last year , and beat back a detachment with their poisoned arrows . This time they
had a party of fifty sailors to deal with , besides two companies of Assam Light Infantry . Two of their villages , about thirty miles from Debwoghur , were taken and burnt . Twenty of our men were wounded with poisoned arrows , and one died . This tribe has proved a groat obstruction to our progress , but has been gradually compelled to yield . . ¦ Captain Eckford , commanding Mynpoorie Lovy , has leaye for the hills north of Dehra . This is a strange destination for one attached tp Mynpoorie , for it might have been thought he could have found one nearer .
Lieutenant II . Collingwood , 48 th Bengal NX , has leave to the Pehra hills , and so has Lieut . Sloman , 61 st Foot . Ensign II . Brodrick , COth Rifles , hns leave to Nynee Tal , together with Cnpt . J . L . W . Nunn . Leave for Rawul Pindoc and Murreo has boon given to Lieut . K Bon-owes , 80 th Foot . The exploring party who went to discover a site for a Sanatorium , in the Vindliyun range , have returned . It consisted of P » ;) W > P , r , J- * - Macphorson , Dr . C . J . Smith , and Capt . bhakcspoar . They aseondod tlic ( Jnleo Furwarthuin , or llill of Wind , the hig hest peak of the range , and returned in good hoiillli . It is understood they were muoh pleased with their expedition , and that they-have reported favourably of ' tho practicability of forming a Simatarmm fbr huroponns . It is to bo hoped this recommendation will bo adopted , as such an establishment is much wuuUid in that Tho JVIndras Government have finally sanctioned tho surveys for the branch railway to Uio foot of tho NeilgliorrieB , and have apprbvod ' of tho plan ot
The efforts of Sir Macdonald Stephenson , Dr . Archibald Campbell , and Mr . Hyde Clarko have been successful in scouring a railway from Calcutta to Darjcoling , in favour of which th , e Indian Government has reported ; but as the Government is indisposed to grant a separate company fbr this distriot , it is proposed to give the lino to the
Iistdia, And ¦ ¦ • ' Indian Progress.
IISTDIA , AND ¦ ¦ ' INDIAN PROGRESS .
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rOLmcs . V THE XEADER . 641
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Leader (1850-1860), May 21, 1859, page 641, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2295/page/9/
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