TOPICS OF THE DAY.
USEFUL EMPLOYMENT FOR ENGLISH TALENT AND ENERGY IN INDIA.
Tin great fault of the English Government in India is, the almost exclusive attention paid to Diplomacy. In the Foreign department, there is incessant bustle ; in the Home department there is a lazy and listless discharge of routine forms. The strict observance of the law of promotion by seniority alone among the officers of the Line, the strict observance of the same law in the internal Civil service, and the one safety-valve left to carry off surplus enterprise and ambition in the anomalous Diplomatic service of the Company, have made and are keeping our Indian Government a government of acqusition merely—one which is continually extending its do- minions, without knowing how to turn to the best account those which it already possesses.
It would be unjust to say that nothing has been done for the benefit of India by its English rulers. When any evil has become too intolerable to be borne, the Government has generally stepped in; and its efforts, prompted by necessity, have been not unfre- quently marked by sound judgment and prompt and efficacious action. Of this class are the measures adopted for putting down Thugs. The operations, too, of an European Government, cnn- ducted in a spirit so much more manly and intelligent, have not been without an indirect influence upon those natives who have been employed as agents, or the still more numerous class of those who have witnessed and felt their effects. The natives have de- rived from the English a higher standard of military discipline and executive government : they have been made acquainted, theoreti- cally at least, with the higher moral standard of European opinion. Even the numerous surveys made by order of the Government, in its own territory or on the frontiers, have educated many natives in the practical applications of science. The Missionaries, the Col- leges thinly sprinkled at the Residencies, and the Newspaper Press, have not been altogether inefficient. Were British sovereignty in India to cease tomorrow, abiding traces that it had existed, and had existed for good, would remain.
But these influences have been desultory in their operation— limited in their sphere of action. Were British sovereignty in In- dia to cease tomorrow, its influence in forming what may, for want of a better term, be called the national mind of India, would be found lamentably and shamefully inadequate to the time of its du- ration, the means that have been at its command, the opportunities that it has enjoyed. One marked and pervading difference between the states of Asia and of Europe is, that while in the latter all the subjects or citizens have been gradually fused and blended into one nation and having thus become one, impressed a national character on their govern- ments, the former have continued motley associations of incompati- ble tribes, coexisting merely in space, mutually jealous and hostile, a public capable of being governed by force alone. This is the cha- racteristic of all Asiatic empires, the British empire in India not excepted. The characteristic upon which the hypocritical apolo- gists of the war in China dwell with so much emphasis—that the Chinese government is a Tartar dynasty ruling over alien tribes— is the characteristic of the Osmanli in Turkey, the Kujurs in Persia, the British in India. The most intelligent, the most brave, the most clannish race in each of these empires, keeps the rest of its heterogeneous tribes in subjection : and this is called a government. Hence the favouritism to the domi- nant tribe, which biasses and corrupts the law ; hence excessive and ill-adjusted taxation, monopolies, and other economical evils ; hence the reciprocal corruption of the governors and the governed. The dominant race look upon themselves as garrisons in a hostile country ; tbe subject races are slaves—feel that they are slaves— contract all the vices of slaves. There is a peculiarity in the position of the English Government in India, which keeps its per- sonal character higher and purer, and, strange to say, renders it at the same time more irksome and oppressive than that of any other great Asiatic empire. The Army and the Civil service are the Government of India. All the offices of any consequence are monopolized by Englishmen, and all vacancies are supplied by a continuous stream of raw recruits from England : colonization by Englishmen in India is jealously prohibited. The governors and the governed have thus been kept from amalgamating to the extent which they have necessarily done in those empires where the conquerors have relinquished their old homes. The English in India have thus been kept European—more high-minded than a Half-caste or Creole-caste would have been ; but they have at the same time been kept aliens to the rest of the population, careless of their interests, supercilious to their persons—adventurers bent on acquiring the means to live in England, not statesmen whose hearts were in their business.
The friends of India feel and have loudly proclaimed the evils of detail which have sprung from this common root. The unsettled land-rights of India—the salt and opium monopolies— the wretched state of the laws, and the courts of justice which ought to administer them—the demoralization of the natives, their utter want of veracity, and their gross superstitions— all these evils have been loudly and repeatedly proclaimed. They are a disgrace to a nation so powerful as England, which, having undertaken to govern India, has thereby pledged itself to the .suppression of such evils. The slow progress made in alle- viating them shows that they are not to be overcome in detail, but
must be struck at by some radical and comprehensive measure. The opium and salt monopolies are defended by no one, but they are allowed to exist. Mr. MAcauLair's costly mission to India as a legislator produced a fragment of the draft of a penal code, itself the fragment of a code ; and since his return nothing appears to have been done. There has for long ye*, been a talking about and about the land-rights of India; bet Two preliminary steps are necessary to this end. The first is, to create a public opinion, a national feeling, throughout our Indian dominions. For this purpose, British-born subjects ought to be freely permitted to settle in India and acquire permanent property in land. The adoption of English habits of thought by the wealthy merchants and Rajahs of Bengal, and by the wealthy Parsecs of Bombay, ought to be encouraged. The creation of a few more native Baronets would be the foundation of an Anglo- Indian aristocracy, to which the hostile native aristocracy must in time give way or become incorporated with it. The privileges re- cently conceded to the Half-castes ought to be confirmed and ex- tended. By these means, a public will be formed, we do not say of a moral and intellectual standard as high as that of Europe, but higher than any thing that has yet existed in India, and identified by its very prejudices with England. The permission to Europeans to acquire permanent property in land would diffuse this body over our whole territory : it would come into contact with the native peasantry and assimilate them to itself; it would be a medium for instilling European civilization into them. Upon such a public the. Newspaper Press, and still more the Missionaries, might be left free to act without any of those timid misgivings which still haunt the authorities of India. This is the first preliminary step towards im- proving the condition of Hindostan : the second is, by abrogating the rigid rule of promotion by seniority, to give free scope to su- perior energy and superior talents over the whole field of internal administration, and thus find healthy employment for those aspiring minds who are at present driven to do mischief on the frontier. It is impossible to have kept an observant eye on the Company's servants of late years without being impressed with respect for their talents, their acquirements, their dispositions. Isolated from general society, some may have been driven to con- tract dissipated habits ; but more have been thrown back on their own resources, and induced to cultivate their minds for amuse- ment. The organization of new provinces—the necessity of be- coming acquainted with the language, customs, and institutions of many and various tribes—the scientific studies requisite on the part of those intrusted with Government-surveys—have favoured the acquisition of large stores of novel and practical information. The better class of the officials of the Indian Government are characterized by a freedom from conventional prejudices, a spirit of observation, and a practical turn of mind. There have been many instances among them of an unostentatious and devoted philan- thropy—tinged in some cases, it may be, with the oddities of the humourist; but this is the consequence of their peculiar position, and would be removed by a better system of government. These talents, acquirements, and dispositions, might be made available for the better government of India, by disregarding the strict rule of seniority in promoting officers of distinguished talent and evident zeal in the pub- lic service. More life and vigour would thus be infused into the m- ternal administration of India; and the attention of the high-spirited would cease to be directed with dangerous exclusiveness to foreign affairs. These two preliminary measures cannot be separated. It would be dangerous to strengthen public opinion in India without improving the administration of government there ; it would be dangerous to awaken the spirit of emulous rivalry among the em- ployes of Government without a strong public opinion to keep it from degenerating into a reckless spirit of intrigue and self-aggran- disement. But unless both measures are adopted, our Indian empire must continue what it has been—a territory occupied by a great garrison—an aggressive empire, which can only be held to- gether so long as it continues to absorb, one after another, the dominions of neighbouring princes into its overgrown and inco- herent bulk. And while it retains this character, the great aim of government—that aim the prosecution of which alone renders a government truly legitimate—the promotion of the happiness of the people—must be neglected.
Previous page
