coarse. with which it was answered, were received largest number of conflicting sections under with a shout of laughter. There is always his banner, in that proportion he is a a strong element of the ridiculous in the subse- successful leader, into whose promising service quent complaints of a dupe, especially when mercenaries will freely flock. The men who the device by which he was taken in was rather perform these ignoble duties now are old men who were trained in a very different school. But already people are beginning to look forward, and to complain that the growth which is to come after the present statesmen, when they are removed, is unpromising and scanty. With such a code of public morals, illustrated by such examples, is the result to be wondered at? Is the prevalent ideal of a successful statesman likely to be captivating to ardent and powerful minds? Is any man likely to cherish an enthusiastic ambition to become a well-greased vane? A taint of this kind intensifies itself with terrible rapidity. If honourable men, moved by some fancied public need or party duty, stoop to play the game of politics in the spirit of adventurers, the adventurers will soon have it to themselves. Talent of the highest and noblest kind is fastidious of the work it is set to do. It will not, as a general rule, devote itself to studying the sleight-of-hand of political legerdemain. If politics are once made degrading, there are numberless avocations, more honourable and less repulsive, to which the higher minds of the community will betake themselves. The moral code of our day among highly-educated men is more advanced than it was in the last century, and the profession of politics must either share in the advance or fall hopelessly behind. It may be the part of a lofty patriot to be willing, for his country's welfare, to soil his hands and peril his good fame. But this self-sacrifice cannot safely be attached as an inseparable condition of patriotic service. The low morality and humiliating requirements of political life among the Americans have excluded from its arena everything like high honour or commanding talent; and the resuit is being worked out before our eyes. Let us look to it in time, lest their fate become our own. We have, of course, not a word to say against the immediate result of this bold and effective plan for getting and retaining office. It is a matter of sincere congratulation that the Reform spectre is laid; it is no more than a just retribution that the task of exorcism should have fallen to those who for their own personal objects originally raised the ugly apparition. What we lament is the pernicious conception of Parliamentary Government, which it recals, and the political morality which it sanctioned. The theory of the constitution requires that power should be confid ed to those in whose political opinions the majority of the House of Commons coincide. The inference which dishonest politicians deduce from this theory is that, if they wish for power, they must from time to time adapt their convictions, or rather their professions, to those of the majority. Unfortunately this view of the constitutional system has ceased to be confined to dishonest politicians. Under the influence of such examples as that which the present Government are furnishing, it is becoming the accepted morality of public life. The ideal model of a Prime Minister in these days is a lightly-hung and very sensitive weathercock. His excellence is no longer held to consist in impressing his own opinions upon the House of Commons and the Nation; or, failing that, in his readiness to retire from powers which he can no longer exercise according to his own convictions. In the present day he must have a more observant eye, and a far more pliable backbone, than the stiffer statesman of an older time. In proportion as he is quick to notice every catspaw of opinion that passes over the public mind, and shifts his helm accordingly-in proportion as, by exhibiting a cleverly tesselated mosaic of contradictory opinions, he can combine the STOR LIBRARY NEW-YORK THE LONDON QUARTERLY REVIEW. No. CCXXVI. FOR APRIL, 1863. 2. Rural Life in Bengal, illustrative of Anglo-Indian Suburban Life; more partic ularly in connexion with the Planters and Peasantry; the varied Produce of the Sil; with copious Details of the Culture and Manufacture of Indigo. Letters from an Artist to his Sisters in England. By the Author of 'Anglo-Indian Domestic Life,' &e. London, 1860. ART. I.-1. The Progress and Present State | remember that from 1853 to 1860 the exof British India; a Manual for General port from Calcutta of sugar, jute,* rice, and Use, based on Official Documents furnished linseed had doubled; that the trade in gunnyunder the authority of the Secretary of bags was created within this period, and that State for India. By Montgomery Martin, now Australian wool (and American cotton, Author of History of the British Colo- when there is any) are packed in Bengal nies,' 'Indian Empire, China,' &c. Lon- gunny-bags; that between 1834 and 1849 don, 1862. the whole trade of British India doubled itself; that it again more than doubled itself in the five years from 1850 to 1856; and that the succeeding five years have added thirty millions to the sum: when we remember such facts as these, the vastness of the subject we have broached becomes strikingly apparent, as well as the scantiness of any account we can give of it within the limits of an article. Nor is this all: the great Central Asia trade is a subject in itself. It is capable of demonstration that English woollen cloths and Indian grown tea can be sold north of the great chain of mountains at lower prices and of better quality than the produce of Russia and China, which at present alone appear in Thibetian and Tartar marts. We are not quite without means of estimating the nature and the extent of the existing trade, and many think that its course may be turned aside into a channel more conducive to our interests, and that it may also be stimulated into great activity.t 3. Letter to Lord Stanley on the Dearth of Cotton, and the Capability of India to sup. ply the Quantity required. By W. F. Fergusson, Agent for the Landholders' and Commercial Association of British India. London, 1863. 4. A Letter to the Lord Stanley, M.P., &c., on the Policy of the Secretary of State for India. By John Dickinson, F.R.A.S., &c., Chairman of the India Reform Society. London, 1863. Ir is impossible to regard our dominions in India from any point of view in which they do not suggest important inquiries. For the present, though not unmindful of the higher duties which are attached to our connexion with that country, nor of the social difficulties which are giving occasion to so much discussion, we propose to glance at it only in its economical aspect, and to notice some portions of the field which it affords for the profitable employment of English capital. That field is indeed a large one. VOL. CXIII. We consider it certain that, the interests of the inhabitants of India can in no way be more effectually promoted than by the judicious application of British skill and money, under a Government knowing how to rule *A kind of hemp, and a most valuable object of commerce. Gunny-bags are made of jute, and are used to wrap up nearly every kind of merchandise. We learn that a valuable report upon this subject, by Mr. Davies, the Secretary of the Punjab When we Government, has been recently published in India. L-10 all classes in a spirit of friendly confidence, | torious that the intelligent and energetic without fear or favour-neither setting one surveillance of Englishmen, when applied to class over another, nor setting one class such objects as these, attains results which against another, but keeping steadily in view seem beyond the reach of Hindustanis, even the interests of India alone. Where skilful when the strongest motives of self-interest and systematic manipulation has to be com- urge them to effort. Mr. Fergusson, in his bined with production, and indeed wherever clever pamphlet, attributes to the natives firm and unremitting superintendence is re- almost a mania for the adulteration of everyquired, the landholder of Hindostan is gene- thing they produce, and he certainly states rally found wanting, and the steadier action very striking facts upon this subject. Would of the European mind is required. Thus, that the English and other Christian nations although indigo had been from time imme- could be acquitted of blame in such matters! morial produced and manufactured in Bengal by natives, yet, when it was thence in- Ask Durant, the eminent silk broker, if since the 'It is not only with cotton that this occurs. troduced by European enterprise into the East India Company had to give up the manufac West Indies and tropical America, the result tare which was entirely in their hands under Eawas, that Western indigo, and especially ropean superintendence, the raw silk of Bengal that of Guatemala, drove the produce of has not been so lowered in quality as to be almost Bengal out of the market. After it had driven out of the market, because the natives case been for a hundred years a principal item in each skein with good silk, and fill up the interior the exports of the East India Company, they cause, the silk piece goods have almost entirely with coarse and inferior thread. For the same at last brought it to Europe at a loss, and lost the European market, being filled with starch then allowed it to disappear from their lists and gum, instead of silk. Native manufactured altogether, until the whole of the European indigo and lacdye are almost always mixed in the supply was obtained from across the Atlan- chest, the inferior being in the centre, and out of tic, where the new trade had thriven in the sight. The chief difficulty that the refiners of hands of skilful Frenchmen and Spaniards. sugar have had to encounter, and which has made Between the years 1780 and 1790, however, mixture with various foreign substances of the inmany abandon their works, is the fraudulent adthe Company bethought themselves of re- spissated juice or goor, brought to them for sale. suscitating the indigo trade. Skilled Euro- Linseed, poppy, and other valuable seeds, are peans were sent to Bengal, and within ten mixed with inferior grains; and nothing but the years the Bengal indigo was superior to all strong hand and power of Government, directed other kinds; and eventually succeeded in by European agents, ensuring prompt punishment, underselling, and indeed well nigh destroy- prevents their opium being equally adulterated. ing, the Western trade. Hindustanis, keen-Importers of European goods will tell the same tale of adulteration. Crosse and Blackwell know ly alive to their own interests, have all along that the labels of their pickles and jams are imitried to share in the profits of the revived tated and struck off in the Presidency towns, and indigo trade. There never has been any that high prices are given for empty jars with secret about the processes of manufacture; their undamaged labels by the native dealers. The they have all the advantages of capital, and value is well known which is put on empty China also those which flow from their rights in tea boxes, to be refilled with a mixture of good the land; all appliances are within their tea and dried leaves that have once been used. reach: notwithstanding which, the indigo natives will spend their days and lives in drilling they send to market is worth from 30 to 40 a hole with a needle in a rupee, and extracting per cent. less than that made by Europeans. three half-pence worth, or six to seven per cent. Again, the European planters have never of silver, which is replaced with lead, in order to succeeded in any of the many attempts which make it so little under weight that the fraud is they have made to replace their European not easily discovered. In fact, fraud seems to be assistants by natives, and the ostensible sav-natural, and preferred; and its detection is foling effected by employing native lowed by no reprobation on the part of the native agency has always proved itself to be no real economy. public, nor is any shame evinced by the actors. 'I mention these circumstances not in any spirit Some, indeed, of the most successful of the of hostility to the natives, or in ignorance of the native proprietors of indigo concerns have fact which rendered necessary the passing last sesemployed European subordinates in the ac- sion of the "Merchandise Marks Bill," but to tual management of them. While we are show that it is only by European superintendence upon this subject, let us direct attention to that improvement of the quality of the cotton exthe elegant, amusing, and instructive volume ported can be expected.'-Fergusson, pp. 15, 16. called Rural Life in Bengal,' which stands second in our list. The records of the criminal courts will show how Opium is an important source of revenue to the Government, but of it we shall say The history of the silk trade would tell nothing, as its production affords no field for us the same tale as that of the indigo trade, speculation to Europeans. Tea, coffee, and were farther evidence needed; but it is no-cotton naturally engage a large portion of the attention of Englishmen. In truth, most admit of favourable competition with the of the European capital now invested in tea of China. The history of the tea planagriculture in India belongs to persons not tations of Assam supplies us with undoubtseverally possessed of large sums, and not ed and important facts, tending to illustrate themselves able or inclined to devote their the difficulties which meet the English agrienergies to such pursuits, but who, through culturist in India. It would not certainly the machinery of joint-stock companies, seek be supposed à priori that labour forms the to win the profits derivable from these sour- most serious of these difficulties. Thouces. Undoubtedly a company can manage sands of coolies emigrate from British India through an agent coffee-gardens in Wynaad, in spite, too, of the notorious dislike indigo factories in Tirhoot, or tea-plantations which all natives of that country have to in Cachar, with at least fair prospects of enter a ship. Many districts - Lower Bensuccess; whereas it is almost certain that gal, for instance are most densely popu nothing but failure could attend an attempt to apply the same system to an estate on the banks of the Ganges, or a grant of land in the highlands of Central India. lous; millions of the inhabitants of such districts can barely subsist on the produce of their labour; and yet the want of labourers has, on more than one occasion, threatA species of tea is indigenous in the valley ened the very existence of the tea plantaof Assam, and in several of the valleys of the tions of Assam, although much higher pay ranges of low hills which form the eastern was offered than the Bengal kuli can gain boundary of Bengal. It was about the year in his village. Many expedients were 1825 that Mr. Bruce discovered the wild tried: the planters established villages on tea-shrub in Assam; and many years ago, their own grounds, giving very favourable botanists in the Bengal medical service, terms to their tenants, and trusting to the especially Drs. Wallich, Royle, and Fal- landlord-influence to induce the latter ulticoner, asserted that Nature had fitted almost mately to become their paid labourers. In the whole of the southern slopes of the Lower Bengal this generally succeedsHimalayas for the growth of the plant; and probably because the competition for land that practically a series of tea-gardens, whose keeps its value at a point at which the tenproduce would be equal to the demand of ant is obliged to seek every available means the whole world, might extend from Upper of supplementing the produce of his field Assam to Cashmere. The cultivation was by his earnings in other ways. But in Asintroduced by the Indian Government, so sam the villagers were easily able to pay often stigmatised as lazy and backward; their rents, and to secure a subsistence beplants, machinery, and skilled labour were sides; and no inducement which the plantimported from China, and experimental cul- ers could offer succeeded in getting them tivation was carried on in several places for into the tea-gardens. An agency was estabyears, until the commercial community lished similar to those which manage emiplucked up courage to undertake and carry gration of kulis to the Mauritius, and on the business. Thus it was that tea-plant- labourers under contract were sent up the ing began. The plant now most extensively Ganges and Bramaputra in boats. But cultivated in Assam is a cross between the indigenous and some imported varieties; and we believe that the peculiarities and relative values of several such varieties are now well understood. every time the boat pulled alongside the shore, these men had an opportunity of reconsidering their agreement, with the almost irresistible temptation furnished by the knowledge that, by running away, they The first of the Assam tea companies is swindled some one: many, no doubt, deabout twenty years old; its prosperity has serted from no other motive than that childencouraged similar enterprises, and both ish fickleness characteristic of all ignorant. the upper and lower parts of the valley are and half-savage people; but intentional misnow studded over with tea-gardens. The representation is said to have been also at cultivation has likewise spread to the south, work on the part of enemies of the plantand in Cachar and Silchar plantations are ers, or persons in some way interested in now established by companies which have frustrating their endeavours or in keeping been called into existence by the success of up the price of labour in Assam. Serious the Assam planters. It is not rash to say losses were sustained by the agencies, and that ground equally well adapted to the the plan was for a long time but meagrely purpose may be found in abundance on the successful. Perseverance, and a courageous eastern frontier of Bengal, as well as in and patient determination to succeed, have many other parts of the country; and there of late greatly mitigated these difficulties; is reason to suppose that the cost of produc- and it is, we believe, now only in the newer tion can be kept down to a rate which will plantations that they are materially felt. Meanwhile, the tea-planters did not find tion is yearly spreading. In a late report Assam a desert: without being thickly Dr. Jameson states that from the Kalee populated, it was by no means destitute of (Gogra) in Kumaon, to the Ravee in the inhabitants. But nothing will tempt the Punjab, tea is everywhere being planted, Assamese to labour save direct necessity: by natives as well as Europeans, and that when the rent cannot be paid,, and the he believes it will at no distant period befamily is on the eve of being homeless, come the great agricultural staple of that some member or members will go to the country. He also states that land well plantation, obtain the required sum as ad- adapted to the cultivation abounds. vance, and even work it out subsequently if they find it impossible to evade the fulfilment of their contract. But this source of supply is necessarily uncertain. The frightful extent to which opium is used is one great cause of the inertness of the Aswho begin as children to drug themsamese, selves with it. The labour difficulty is, at worst, now in a fair way of being overcome in these districts, and it will probably be overcome elsewhere by similar prudence and patience. In Kamaon and in Darjeeling the planter resides in a beautiful country and enjoys a delightful climate; his children can grow up about him, and a few schools exist where they can be at least partially educated. The present Bishop of Calcutta has much to his honour - made great efforts to arrange for the establishment of schools of a better class in some of these hill stations. We are not of those who desire that a generation may grow up in India who have never seen the white cliffs of their fathers' land; but we believe that such a generation must be, nor does the prospect alarm us, principally because we believe that they will always be a minority, taking their tone from those who have had the advantages denied to themselves, and also because wellconducted schools in the hills will do much to correct the evils of a childhood and youth passed in India, and to supply the advantages now only attainable in Europe. We understand that there is already a good school at Ootacamund, on the Neilgherry Hills. Both in Assam and in Cachar the newlyconferred right of purchasing land in fee simple will be received as a valuable boon. The original conditions attached to the Assam grants placed the planters under an obligation to clear certain portions of their land within fixed periods, and under penalty of forfeiture of the whole. These conditions would, it is supposed, have seldom been violated, had not the supply of labour failed; and Government had already declared its intention of taking this circumstance into consideration when the time for enforcing the penalties should arrive. It is satisfac- Westward from Kumaon the valley, calltory, however, to think that the indulgence ed the Dera Dhoon, contains many teawhich would thus have been then accorded may now be purchased as a right. In Assam the planters are not particularly favoured in climate. The accounts given of it would seem to show that the valley possesses some advantages over many parts of Bengal, and it has certainly not been found generally insalubrious; but the better climate of the lower spurs of the Himalayas has no doubt exercised a strong influence in attracting English tea-planters to settle there, and will continue to do so. gardens. The valley lies between the outer Darjeeling has already its tea-gardens, and land for the purpose is anxiously sought in the little territory. Success seems to attend every new undertaking, and there is reason to expect that many an English family may make these hills its permanently successful, and now many plantations are home. in vigorous activity; but a vast extension ⚫ In Kumaon, as in Assam, tea was origin-is evidently still possible. ally introduced by the Government. The We shall call attention to one more teaexperiment was instituted, we believe, at field. In Kangra, and farther on in Kanathe suggestion of the late Dr. Royle, and war, suitable land is available to a great exwas carried out mainly under the superin- tent. In Kangra there are already 6098 tendence of Dr. Jameson. There are acres held by tea planters, of which about now extensive plantations, and the cultiva- 400 had been actually brought into cultiva |