INDIAN CIVILIANS' PROSPECTS.
[TO TRIO EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—Having seen in one of your late issues a long article in sup- port of the Indian Civilians' Memorial to Government, I am encouraged to hope that you will give space in your columns to the following remarks and suggestions, so that our supporters may not run the risk of failure through ignorance of the vital points concerned.
It is all very well to get admissions and promises out of Govern- ment, but the latter, if ever fulfilled, will be so for the benefit of the juniors only, and will not recompense those who have already seventh year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth ! only embitter the hopeless condition of the remainder. The real So much for what the Quarterly reviewer is pleased to call my question with the men from 61 to 64 is what pecuniary effort is " astonishing ignorance." But it seems that I am flagrantly dis- Government prepared to make for their relief ?
honest, as well as " astonishingly ignorant." On p. 256 he ac- I think the great point which we have to insist upon before the cuses me of having misquoted the language of the Court in the Home Government is that highly-paid appointments must now be Purchas case. And how does he sustain his accusation ? Partly left out of sight altogether in contemplating the average career of by putting marks of quotation where there are none in my book, a N.-W. civilian. A 21-years' residence will not bring him to a and partly by interpolating words of his own into a passage which judgeship, nor to a "permanent" (or 1st-class) collectorship. It he pretends to quote from me. Any one may see this who will will carry those in the middle ranks of the service into an " officiat- take the trouble to compare p. '256 of the Quarterly Review with ing " (or 2nd-class) collectorship ; but as for those in the lowest
pp. 84, 89 of my book. quarter of the list, they will never, in their 21-years' residence, With one more specimen of my accuser's method of controversy reach a higher place than that of first-grade joint magistrate. I will conclude. On p. 252 he writes as follows :—" Com- Now, I presume it as beyond dispute that it was the intention menting on the dictum that ' in the performance of the services, of the Indian Government, when it fixed twenty-one years as the rites, and ceremonies ordained by the Prayer-book, the directions term of residence required for pension, that an officer should, contained in it must be strictly observed,' Mr. MacColl observes within that period, rise successfully through all the ordinary that this would be absurd if applied to the missals of Hereford grades of the service,—all those, that is, which are open by sent- and York. Very possibly it might also be inapplicable to the ority to all competent men. The ordinary civilian, therefore, hymns of the Rig-Veda." It seems almost incredible, but it is a should at least finish his career as a judge, and that within a resi- fact, that the reviewer has here quietly substituted quite another deuce of twenty-one years. Again, I assume that less than two dictum for the one on which I have really commented ; and years' incumbency could hardly be allowed for each of the higher then, on the strength of his own falsification, he turns my posts, and four years for each of those which hold the middle rank.
argument into ridicule. Thus the civilians' term would be divided something on this scale : I think I have said enough to show your readers the sort of —Judge 2 years, 1st-class collector 2 years, 2nd-class collector 2 reasoning by which the Quarterly reviewer has endeavoured toyears, 1st-joint magistrate 4 years, 2nd-joint magistrate 4 years, undermine my argument. Of his personal abuse of myself I will assistant-magistrate 7 years. only say that it is worthy of the logic and learning which it Surely it would not be asking too much to ask Government adorns. But I cannot help expressing my regret that such an that such a career at least should be guaranteed to every man article has been admitted into the Quarterly Review. men of not pronounced incompetent by his superiors. This, then, is, in genius, of learning, and—let me add—of good manners, have my opinion, the great' point we have to bring before the eyes of written and still write in its pages, and its conductors ought not our supporters, that highly-paid appointments have virtually to forget that noblesse oblige. The Quarterly Reviewhas too illus-
disappeared from the eyes of the latest recruits to the service, trious a history to be able, with impunity, to hire itself out as a and have become an exceedingly distant prospect, even to those Now for the remedies proposed. The prospect of employment in the non-regulation provinces is, in my opinion, a delusive one, as could be given outside the Commissions. ,
place here and there
second remedy proposed, that of facilitating litating retirement amongst the seniors of our own provinces, is, I am afraid, 'a much. It could hardly be expected that a Commissioner or the emoluments which have of late years been taken from the service, by abolition and alienation of appointments, notably by the suppression of the Judgeship of Jaunpore, and the transfer to military men of the Inspector-Generalship of Police.
I would have it established, as the Magna Charts of the service, that every officer, not incompetent, should be entitled, irrespective of promotion, to a salary of 100 rs. for every year of service. This would do less even than meet the presumed intention of Government, as regards his gradual rise through a 25-years' ser- vice. For its utmost term would but just touch the salary of a and it might surely be expected by every officer that he should be a 1st-grade joint magistrate after ten years, and get his
12 Chester Terrace, S.W. first promotion after seven. Nor would the expense entailed by this concession be more than we might reasonably ask, and Government bestow. I have made a calculation of what the additional cost of establishment would amount to, if salaries were now raised to the point proposed, and I find that it would only be some 150,000 rupees per annum ; and even this would, in a few (two or three) years, as the block wore away and the recruiting diminished, be reduced by half. The saving to Government by the abolition of the single appointment of the Jaunpore Judge- ship has been 30,000 rupees per annum. If the Government will not sanction any increase of present salaries, or any other addi- tional cost of establishment, and if all other means of relief are found impracticable, it should at least facilitate the removal from. the service of disappointed and discontented members, who now see themselves bound for a life-time to a one-sided engagement ; and I am very glad to see that you suggested this last and least com- pensation. I, myself, and many of my standing and a year or two under it, have resided more than half the required term ; and if five years, or even four years, were knocked off the remainder, I, for my part, and I believe many others, would gladly under- take to accept our pensions as soon as they fell due.—I am,
Sir, &c., AN ASSISTANT OF FOURTEEN YEARS' SERVICE.
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