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1853.]

England's duty in the selection of a Governor-General.

That the Governor-General should be a man of rank too is an advantage in a community of Englishmen having among themselves no other than local official distinctions: he is thus at once raised above those social littlenesses which are unhappily too prevalent among Anglo-Indians.

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We do not object then to the Governor-General's being an English nobleman unacquainted with India, nor is it to be wondered at that among the English nobility the least wealthy should be most disposed to seek the office. But we do object to making the most splendid dignity that any nation has in its power to bestow upon a citizen, the exclusive privilege of genteel poverty.' There has been before now a tendency to do this, and looking at recent appointments to the Governorships of the minor Presidencies, it seems impossible to say that the tendency is yet extinct. We would have an English nobleman as Governor-General of India, but it does not follow that we should be willing to see any poor lord, with a scanty income, who is ready to undergo five years' exile for the sake of improving it, exalted to that position.

Let it be distinctly understood that we in no way allude to or make any exception at the person who at present holds the high office in question. Lord Dalhousie's was in every way a most proper appointment. A rising statesman trained in the business-like school of Sir Robert Peel, having creditably discharged, under circumstances of peculiar difficulty, his arduous duties as President of the Board of Trade, his career and position amply justified those expectations of him which in the last five years he has with so much credit to himself and benefit to India realized. But his term of office has already expired, and his almost immediate return is looked for; and it must be confessed that if there be any truth in the different rumours that have from time to time been circulated with regard to his successor, all those who are interested in India will have great reason to deplore his retirement. We do

hope that England, while discussing the Indian question; while canvassing so freely the conduct of the Court of Directors at home and of

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its servants abroad; while charging these so unsparingly with abuse of power and neglect of duty, will be mindful not to abuse the very important power, nor to neglect the very sacred duty which she herself will presently be called upon to exercise and discharge towards India. The legislature and the Ministers of the Crown may rest assured that no abuse of patronage in the appointment of civilians and cadets can be so injurious, no neglect of India so ruinous, no oppression of the often quoted 150 millions of natives so gross, as the appointment of a bad, that is to say an inefficient, Governor-General.

This, then, is England's first great duty to India, to appoint good governors. The Government of this country properly insists upon retaining in its own power the practical, if not absolutely the formal, nomination, not only of the Governor-General, but also of the governors of the two other presidencies. This power has often been abused. No one will deny it. It will be one unspeakably good result to India of the present agitation, if such abuse becomes for the future impossible. But how is it to be made impossible? Simply by bringing the public opinion of England to bear upon the matter, and opening up the channels through which this opinion is to flow; and this brings us at once to the other division of what we may call the English side of Indian reform-the abolition of the double government.

It is hard to overrate the importance of this abolition: it is not a question simply of expense and delay, though the Government system of double government does of course involve these. When Mr. Bright complains that business is hindered because every transaction has to be gone through first in Leadenhallstreet, and then all over again in Cannon-row, that needless expense is incurred by maintaining two establishments to do the work of one, he is not answered, because he is unanswerable. It is as if an attorney were to insist upon having every deed copied by two different clerks, working in two different offices at some distance from each other. But great as is the evil of

the extra expense thus recklessly incurred, and still greater that of the delay thrown in the way of public business, these evils are yet the least of those which this cumbrous system gives rise to. The great and unpardonable evil of it is, that it destroys responsibility, and grievously impairs the chain of communication between England and India. When we speak of England influencing India, what is it that we mean? We mean public opinion in England. But how does public opinion operate? Properly and naturally in two ways: through the Press, and through Parliament. The first way is happily still open, and whatever benefit India has derived from this country, it has derived principally if not solely by means of the Press. But the other and more constitutional channel is stopped by the double government. If there is a strong feeling in the country about India, it is sure to find its expression in Parliament. This we may safely say, without prejudicing the question of Parliamentary Reform, that on whatever subject the country or any large party in the country entertains a strong feeling, that feeling is sure to find its way into the House of Commons. And what is the next step? To question the minister? Ay-you may do that; you may call to the President of the Board of Control; but will he come when you have called him? Or if he comes, is it to any purpose, or is it to shuffle out of the matter by referring it to the Court of Directors? Lord John Russell may refuse for awhile to answer Mr. Disraeli about our relations with Russia, and the country may have the good sense patiently to assent for a while to the refusal, knowing that when it chooses to insist upon being answered, Mr. Disraeli will ask again, and Lord John Russell must reply. when Mr. Bright interrogates Sir Charles Wood about some Indian matter, he is met not by a refusal, but by an intimation that the Minister knows nothing,—that he must ask the Court of Directors! If a too credulous member, trusting to these instructions, were really to betake himself to Leadenhall-street, and put his questions there, it would be amusing to witness the contemptuous bewilderment with which

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he would be met. The sole machinery by means of which that Court can be interrogated is the Court of Proprietors, to which only a limited number of stockholders have access; and these, if ever they do succeed in getting any answer at all from their somewhat imperious directors, are assured that the matter about which they inquire does not concern the Court, that they are not responsible, that the Board of Control has done it all, whatever the particular it may be.

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And even were it otherwise, what are the East India Directors, that the country should interrogate them? The genius of the British Constitution recognises but means apart from the public press by which the nation may obtain information and express itself upon affairs of State, and that means is the presence of a responsible Minister of the Crown in Parliament. It is by this responsibility alone that England can effectually act upon India. Is it complained that a bad and incapable Governor-General is from time to time appointed, that rash, needless, costly, and inglorious wars are sometimes entered upon, that public works in India are neglected, or the people of India defrauded of their rights? The remedy is the same in all cases. Let there be a Minister who shall really be obliged on all occasions to render true account. Is the English mind bestirring itself about India, anxious for information more precise and less cumbrous, more regularly supplied and less bewildering than that contained in the voluminous reports of committees appointed every twenty years? The reply is still the same. Let there be in Parliament a well-informed, responsible minister, ready to furnish information session after session, or, if required, night after night. In a word, let England be put in real, regular, and constitutional connexion with India; that is to say, let the local authorities of India be responsible to the Governor-General, the Governor-General to the Minister of the Crown for Indian Affairs, the Minister of the Crown to Parlia ment, and Parliament to the country. It will be acknowledged by all that this is the chain that ought to exist; some venture to assert that it exists

1853.]

English Moral Influence necessary to India.

already. Some of the links are, indeed, perfect, but two at least are faulty, if not altogether wanting. The communication between the Governor-General in India and the Minister in Downing-street is not so direct as it might be, as it would be, were it not for the diversion existing in Leadenhall-street. And is the President of the Board of Control really as responsible for the affairs of India as the different Secretaries of State are for what goes on in their respective departments? Credat Sir Charles Wood. Yes, let him believe it himself, and assert it too, if he will, but for India's sake, let him not, in making such an assertion, be believed.

There are strong and terrible facts to be set against the assertion. The English people, anxious by fits and starts to express themselves towards India, but finding no constitutional means by which to do so; a Burmese war dragging its slow length along, disapproved by the country, avowed by no one, and yet continuing; and, above all, the ever memorable confession of a former Indian minister, I was the sole author of the Affghan war.'

But, it may be said, it is all very well to condemn the system of double government, but what do you propose to substitute for it? Now, in this question lies practically the whole problem with regard to the renewal of the Company's charter; and it has been our object in this paper not to answer this question, but simply to state it clearly, and bring matters distinctly to this issue. We believe that if we could succeed in doing this, we should be rendering very essential service; for that there never was a question so confused and mystified for want of being clearly stated. People are led off into a fresh track every day. Each number of the Times, indeed of all the London journals, opens up some fresh issue, or furnishes a string of fresh facts unconnected with any that have gone before. With a considerable amount of what is thought to be knowledge thus acquired, but undigested, crude, contradictory, we are sure that very many are absolutely at sea as to what is the real question to be decided about India. And to state this question has been our present

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endeavour; to call people off from following up vague tracks of inquiry which can only lead to confusion, because they cannot by any possibility be pursued far enough to establish any satisfactory conclusions, and to show what it is that this country may, and can, and should do for India; and (in still more practical language) what should be the great object of any measure brought before Parliament on the subject-namely, to abolish the system of double government; and by so doing to establish a real ministerial responsibility, which may make all future reforms possible; which, in fact, may not so much effect one or two particular reforms, as initiate an epoch of continual reformatory progress.

Let Parliament give to India that great boon directly and abundantly which now it derives only indirectly and in too sparing measure - that boon which the local government cannot give, which the local government itself stands most immediately in need of,-we mean English moral influence. Let the local government be left to remove or modify those hindrances to the actual present material wellbeing of India, which it is instinctively prompted and by its interest induced to do: to effect those reforms which, if not made by them, will certainly never be made at all; and let England be content (nor think the task a mean one) to impart to the Indian government that more exalted, dignified, historical, prospective view of our position in India and our relation to its inhabitants, which distance and ignorance of detail makes at once pleasant and natural to Englishmen; which is natural because it is pleasant, pleasant because it is noble, and noble because it is true; in a word, leave India to be administered by those best qualified to do so-viz., those best acquainted with its people, its customs, and its laws; but let it be brought into more direct communication with English mindthat is to say, let the government of India be made responsible to an English Minister of the Crown, and that Minister to the people of England.

It could hardly be difficult, indeed, to make numerous suggestions in answer to the question, What

would you substitute for the double government ?' The idea of turning the Court of Directors into a Council, connected with, subsidiary to, and dependent upon, the Indian Minister of State, would be one of the first to present itself; but this would require a separate article for its consideration. It may sound prudent to demand that abolition should be accompanied by substitution, but practically the demand does not succeed. Men see an evil and protest against and destroy it, in full confidence that whatever is needful to be substituted will appear in good time. 'Good governors, responsible ministers - and away with the double government!' Englishmen like a cry-long may they do so; Tadpoles and Tapers may abuse it, but at bottom the feeling is one of honest desire to have a question fairly and pointedly stated a very practical and fruitful feeling. Let the above be the cry of Indian reformers.

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Lastly, it may be objected that what we have been saying supposes considerable zeal for reform on the part of the Company's servants in India. We know it does. Let it not be feared that the zeal, or the discretion either, (which is sometimes forgotten at home,) will be wanting there. We only wish that the Company's servants - that is, the actual governors of India-were more thought of and consulted in this matter. They are at this time watching, with an interest little thought of at home, the proceedings of Parliament, and, still more, the stirrings of England, about India. They see that the nation is beginning to take more interest in India than it ever did before, and they rejoice to see it. They perceive that the men of Manchester are taking a more particular and, it must be owned, a more energetic interest, because they want cotton. They hope, indeed, that the national may keep pace with the Manchester interest; but they do not regret, but rather rejoice, in the activity of the latter, knowing that it is a natural and a legitimate interest, which cannot fail in the end to benefit India. They hear much said about India that evinces great ignorance and yet great conceit of knowledge; but they know that this is

one of the penalties which must be paid for long indifference and neglect, and bear it patiently. They hear themselves abused, ridiculed, and traduced; denounced as oppressors-laughed at as bunglersspoken of as ludicrously incompetent judges-stern and cruel exactors of revenue over-paid, luxurious, careless, some do not hesitate to add, corrupt-but they look at the map of British India, which the Indian army has conquered, and which the Indian civil service administers, and can afford to bear patiently with all that. But one thing does rouse their indignation. When they see young men in and out of Parliament making political capital out of Indian griev ances-young men who like to write slashing Radical pamphlets, or who wish to conciliate Radical constituencies, sauntering from the club or the park into the House of Commons, inflated with a two weeks' knowledge of Indian history, and a string of one-sided statistics culled at random from the Blue-book, and there declaiming with all the emphasis of ignorant impunity, against the follies and iniquities of those who have made India what it is; saying-and that, too, without being silenced by indignant ridicule-that the Indian people are worse off now than they were under their own native princes, or the Mahommedan emperors; then their patience does almost fail them, and they are tempted to wish that for a year or two the Mogul emperors were indeed back again, and that these young west-end Radicals might be transplanted for a while as ryots from the neighbourhood of Belgravia to that of Delhi, to learn the amazing difference that exists between declamation and fact.

But the impatience passes away, almost as speedily as do the words of these frothy declaimers, and there remains one general earnest feeling among the members of the Indian services, that England may deal with India honestly and wisely; minding first her own business, that is to say, appointing good governors, and trusting them when appointed; but taking ample security to herself that this trust is not abused by bringing both governed and governor nearer to herself, connected by the golden chain of responsibility.

FRASER'S MAGAZINE.

SEPTEMBER, 1853.

BY LAND AND SEA.

GOOD OOD travel-writing requires a certain sort of egotism. It is indeed autobiography-a narrative of personal adventure. The little monosyllable must be bold, and forward, and familiar. Shyness, hauteur, and fastidiousness are no garb for the pilgrim ego. But I need not be always proclaiming myself a hero; I need not show a consciousness of my own merits; no vanity need glitter in my story. I may tell it plainly and naturally, setting down what I felt, and not what I ought to feel; the experience of the day, and not the after-thought of the morrow. Yes, sir; and so, or not at all, you will be readable and pleasant; journeying by this rule, you will give freshness to the most hackneyed ground. There is always, we have said it before, something left to see; there is always something new to be felt in what has been seen before. And the difference of manner you have been pleased to describe makes the difference between Mr. Robinson Crusoe, who is our choice companion, and this or that grand tourist who condescends to line our trunks.

Nowhere is there more of that fine and true humour which prevents egotism from becoming offensive, than in our own country. Nowhere is there so genuine and ready a sense of the ridiculous. We should seem, therefore, to be well qualified for narrating our personal experience. Yet English reserve has passed into a proverb. We are said either to wrap ourselves up in coldness and disdain, or to seek refuge from our shyness in bustle and rattle. De Tocqueville pretends we are afraid of making acquaintances we might afterwards regret. But there is no ground for this imputation of selfishness. Our real fear is in an opposite direction, and is in truth a part of our humour. On the one

* Two Thousand Miles' Ride through tions. By William MacCann. 2 vols. VOL. XLVIII. NO. CCLXXXV.

hand, our quick sense of the ridiculous makes us ever afraid of ridicule, and on the other the tenderness which is always found with humour shrinks from meeting imperfect sympathy. Only the confidence of power can overcome this double timidity, and enable its fortunate possessor to present himself before the world with ease and grace in his natural character.

Hence perhaps it is that so few of our tourists attain any marked success in what, on a former occasion, we described as apparently the easiest of all arts-travel-writing. Another pile of vari-coloured volumes now courts our attention, and invites us into every quarter of the globe except our own. Europe alone is absent from our table. We will, then, take flight to the other hemisphere, and accompany Mr. Mac Cann* in his ride through the Argentine Provinces of South America. Mr. MacCann travelled for the purpose of examining the great sheep and cattle farms of the country, and seeking new openings for commerce. He finds a vast field for emigrant enterprise, but liable to the desolating influence of the civil dudgeon always running high in that luckless clime.

Many settlers, especially among the Irish, have realized an independence in a very short time. But sheep-farming is a gigantic affair on those boundless plains. A Mr. Handy, known otherwise as Irish Mike, and again as the Duke of Leinster, goes south, and buys his eight thousand sheep at eighteen pence a dozen. A hundred are lost or eaten on the journey home. About a thousand are killed as soon as they become fat; the fleeces bring five shillings and threepence a dozen; the mutton fattens a herd of swine. Mr. MacCann says nothing of the quality of the pork, but the profit

the Argentine Provinces. With IllustraSmith and Elder.

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