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THE 



CALCUTTA EEYIEW. 



VOL. XXXVI. 



MAEOH— JUNE, 1861. 



* No man, who hath tatted learmn^, M noUl eonfets the maiHf wojfs of profit' 
ing hy those, who, not contented with etale receipte, are able to manoffe and set 
fvrth new positions to the world : and, were they Imt as the dust and cinders 
of onrfeet, so long as in that notion, they may yet serve to polish and hriglden 
the armoury of truth, even for that respect, they were not utterly to be east 
airay.'— MiLTOV. 



MESSRS. R. C. LEPAGE AND CO., CALCUTTA, 

* AND 

1, WHITEFEIAES' STREET, FLEET STREET LONDON. 



1861. 

/ 



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PUBLIC LliJllBY 

13991B 

ABTOS, LENOX AND 

9U)fiN FWJHDjaiem 



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CALCUTTA REVIEW. 



* MARCH 1861. 



CONTENTS OP No. LXXI. 



PAOB 



I. Admikistbatitb Bbfobh fob India. 

Thb Bbngal Gbadation List. 1860. .„ 1 

n. Bbitish Sbttlbbs. 

'- BeFOBT of thb €oMMI88IOKBB9 on IlfDIOO. 1860. 19 

III. LlTEBABY PaBADOX. 

1. MoDBBN Paintbbs. Vol. V. By John Buskin, 
M.A., London: Smith, Eldbb & Co 53 

2. HoMEB AND thb Hohbbic Agb. 3 Vols. By W. 
t'^^ E. Gladbtonb, M. p. London: J. H. & J. 

j j^ Pabkbb ih, 

3. HiSTOBY OF England fbom thb fall of Wolsby 

' OJ^ TO THB DbATH of ELIZABETH. 4 VoLS. By JaHBS 

j ^^ Anthony Fboudb. London: J. W. Pabkbb.,.. ib, 

, Qs 4. HlSTOBY OF FbIBDBICH THB SbOOND, CALLED 

I ^^ Fbbdbbiok thb Gbbat. Vols. I & II. By Thomas 

; 00 Cablylb. London: Chapman <& Hall. ib. 

IV. Hindu, Bational, and Biblical Ontology. 

1. Cheistianity oontbastbd with Hindu Phi- 

losophy. An Essay, in Five Books, San- 
skbit and English; with pbactical sugges- 
tions tendbbed to the Missionaby amongst 
THB Hindus. By Jambs B. Ballantynb, 
I L.L.D., Pbofessob of Mobal Philosophy and 

Pbincipal of the Govbbnment Collbgb at 
Bbnabes. London: Jambs Madden^ 1869. ... 81 

2. Thb Beligious Aspects of Hindu Philosophy 

STATED AND DISCUSSED. A PbIZB EsSAY. By BeY. 

Joseph Mullbns, Missionaby of thb London 

Missionaby Socibty, Authob of ' Missions in 

SotTTH India' and 'Bbsults of Missionaby 

j LABouBs IN India.' London: Smith, Eldbb & 

Co., 1860. ... .,, « •,. ••• ib. 

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11 

V. Kajmahal, its Railway and Histobical Associations. 

LoBD Canning's Spbbch at thb opbnino of the 
Bajmahal Railway 110 

yi. schbxb fob thb amalgamation of thb indian and 
Bbitish Abmibs. 

HoMB Nbws, 26th Jasvamt, 1861 ... 144 

VII. Eastbbn Bbnoal and its Raisvxtb. 168 

VIII. SCBIPTUBB and ScIBNCB NOT AT YaBIANCB. 

By John H. Peatt, M. A. Abchdbaoon of Calcutta. 
London : Hatchabd. Calcutta : B. C. Lepaob 
& Co., Tank Squabb 186 

Cbitical Noticb. 

A Gbammab of thb Pubhto, Pushto, ob Lan- 

OUAGB OF THB AFGHANS. By CaPTAIN H. G. 

Ravbbty, 3bd Rbgt. B. N. I. Sbcond Edition, 
Hbbtfobd: Stbphbn Austin. I960. ..» 1 



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CALCUTTA REVIEW. 



JUNE 186L 



CONTENTS OP No. LXXII. 

I. Police Retobm ik India. page. 

1: Selections fbom the Becobds of Gk)yEBNHEKT 
Papbbs- belatino to the Refobms of the Police 
OF India, 1861 199 

2. Act. No. 6 of 1861. Passed by the Legislative 
Council of India.... ' ih. 

3. Repobt upon Bbitish Bubmah. Bt B; Temple, 
Esq., and Libut.-Col. H. Bbuce, 1860 ib, 

II. MiLiTABY Colonization. 

1. Bepobt on the extent and natubii of *thb Sana- 

TABT Establishments of European Tboops in 
India. — Indian Becobds ... 220 

2. Memobandum on the Colonization of India by 
Eubopban Soldisbs. — ^Punjaub Becobds ib. 



III. The Highlands of Centbal India. ' 

1, Bepobt on the Mundla Distbict, South of the 
Nebbudda. By G. F. Peabson, Capt., Supebin- 
tendbnt of Fobests, Jubbulpobe Division 236 

2. Manusobipt Bepobts on diffebbnt pabts of Cen- 
tbal India ... ••• ib. 



lY. The Govebnmsnt of Bengal, and the ' Stbangebs.' 

1. Bepobt of Indigo Commissionebs. 1860. ... 275 

% A Blue Mutiny ;Fbaseb's Magazine. Januaby, 1861. ib, 

3. Bepobts of the Special Commissionebs ... ib. 

4. Indigo Blub Books ib- 

^. Indigo AND its Enemies. London, 1861.... ib, 



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u 

V. The Womek op India. pagb. 

1. The Daughtbbs op India : Theib Social Condition, 
Religion, Litebatttbe, Obligations and Pbospects. 

By the Bey. K J. Robinson. London: 1860. ... 815 

2. A Pbize Essay on Natiye Female Education. By 
Pbofessob Banebjea. Calcutta : Lepagb & Co., %b. 

3. BoHBSTic Mannebs and Customs of the Hindxts 
OP Nobthebn India. By Baboo Ishubbe Pass. 
Benabes, 1800. • ib. 

4. " The Eastebn Lily Gathebed," with obsebtations 

ON THE POSITION AND PBOSPECTS OP HiNDU FbMALB 

Society. By the Rev. E, Stobbow. Calcutta, 1866. ib. 

TL Bbitish Sbttlbbs, No. II. 

1. Repobts of the Special Commissionebs in thb 

Indigo DisTBicTS 844 

%, Nil Dabpan, ob the Indigo Planting Mibbob, 1861. %b. 

8. Nil Dabpan Tbial, 1861 ih, 

yn. Thb Unooybnanted Sebyicb. 

1. Note by the commissioneb chabged by goybbn- 

ment to beyise ciyil appointments and 8alabies. 878 

2. MeMOBIAL of THB UnCOYBNANTED SeBYICE fob THB 
AMELIOBATION OF THBIB OFFICIAL CONDITION. ... ih. 

Vni. OuB Railways. 

• 1. Repobt to the Secbbtaby of Statb fob India nr 
Council, on Railways in India fob thb yeab 
1860-61. By Juland Danybbs, Esq., Secbbtaby 
Railway Depabtment, India Office 1st May, 
1861 890 

Cbitical Notices. 

1. Nemesis : a Poem in foub Cantos. By John Bbucb 
NoBTON. London 2 Richabdson <& Co ti 

2. Dialogues on Hindu Philosophy, Compbising 

the 'NyAYA,* THE * SaNBHYA/ AND THE ' VeDANT,' TO 
WHICH IS ADDED A DISCUSSION ON THB AUTHOBITY OF 

THE Veda. By the Rey. K. M. Baneb jea. Calcutta, 
1861 xi 

8. "Hbabt Echoes fbom thb East." By Miss Maby E. 

Leslie. Calcutta, , xiv 

4. The Gulistan of Shaik Saday, a complete Ana- 
lysis OF THE PeBSIAN TEXT. By MaJOB R. P. An- 
DEBSON, TWELYE YeaBS InTEBPBETEB OF THE 25TH 

Begt. N. I. Ac. &c ; xviii 



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THE 

CALCUTTA EEVIEW. 



MARCH 1861. 



Art. I.—TAe Bengal Gradation List, I860. 

THE removal of the quasi-empire of the Court of Directors, a 
Board which stood so long between British Empire and Bri- 
tish India^ has given to the people of Britain an uninterrupted 
view of the people of India, for whose welfare they are now di- 
rectly responsible. And, although Parliament may still turn a 
deaf ear to any one, who endeavours to check profligate jobbing 
on the part of whig Secretaries of State, yet there are not want- 
ing indications that the habitual good feeling and sense of duty of 
John Bull will lead him, ere long, to turn his attention to the 
management of the fine, but embarrassed estate which he has in- 
herit^ from John Company. The servants who acquired and 
managed the estate referred to, will, very naturally, be taken to 
task pretty closely for any shortcomings on their part which may 
have injured the tenants, or affected the amount of the rents. 
It may, ultimately, be found, that they have for the most part 
done their work well and wisely, unless overborne by interference 
from the Great House ; but it may also be thought that they had 
become fat and lazy on high pay, and a too her^tary routine of 
succession and promotion. 

At any rate the Indian Civil Service is likely to undergo 
some amount of change^ and three plans present their claims to 
attention. 

\8t. Do away with the Monopoly as regards the " Uncove- 
nanted,'' i. e. let every man in the service of the Indian 
Government hold any office ; this has been partly done in Oudh 
and the Punjab. 

2nd. Do away with the Monopoly altogether, and let Can- 
didates^ either from England or trom any other part of the 
Empire, be appointed to Civil posts in India, as to Consulships 
and Colonial posts. 

ird. Uetain the Monopoly, with or without modifications, as 
regards the administrative service ; but give purely judicial posts 
to trained Lawyers. 



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Z ADMINISTRATIVE EEFOIIM FOR TNPIA. 

\sL There are Indian officials here and there, whose exclu- 
sion from a full career is as bad for the public as for themselves. 
These should be treated like dcsorvinjjf non-commissioned officers 
in the army ; presented with covenants. This was recommen- 
ded 4>y Mr. H. Ricketts, a Member of the Civil Service, who 
had largely studied the sulyect. 

2fifl. The complete destruction of administrative Monopoly 
is the plan which has most arji^uments (of an abstract kind) in 
its favor; and which is the most open to practical objections. 
Indian administration is as much a profession as Medicine or 
Law ; its practice therefore equally demands a diploma for the 
protection of the public. Whenever an inefficient diploma- 
holder finds his way into the profession, by all means let him 
be discouraged and sparingly employed ; but you gain nothing by 
allowing uncertificated persons to be inflicted on an unprotected 
public, at the caprice of men in power, either here or at Home. 

Srd. The chief complaints against the present servants are 
on judicial grounds, and they are, in this respect, tried in a way 
•no body of men could stand* No one denies that they arc 
courageous, energetic rulers ; many of them benevolent ; and a 
large proportion efficient in a way that may be rough, but is not 
nnsuited to rough duties. But, partly through the action of 
the Legislature,* and partly through the customs of a people 
long inured to despotism, and prone to seek in litigation the 
exercise of enmity denied to open force, the Magistrates of India 
have become vested with a far to</ large amount of equitable 
jurisdiction, over the persons and property of the people. If a 
man is ousted from land, or deprived of his wife by a seducer, or 
if his servants leave him, or his labourers fail in their engage- 
ments ; instead of suing for damages in a Civil Court, he comes 
before the Ilakim, (" the protector of the poor," &c.) and prays 
that there may 1)e an injunction issued for the fulfilment of the 
contract. Now it is obvious that this system is easily abused. 
Those who are most anxious to obtain an injunction from a 
foreigner, living at a distance from the scene, and immersed 
in much of the business which in England is shared between 
the Parson, the Squire, the Poor Law Guardian, the Land 
Bailiff, the Trustee of Roads, and the SheriflF of the County ; 
those will not be always the men who have a real grievance. 
When it is also remembered that the people have a strong 
social organisation of their own, and that the method of redress 
by caste arbitration is an ancient institution of the Country, 
there will be no difficulty in understanding, that the desire 
to injure an enemy may as often influence the Plaintiff on the 
♦ Act VII of 1819, IV of 1840 Ac 



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ADMINISTKATIVE REFUKM FOR INDIA. iV 

Maj:«;ist rate's "Miscellaneous File," as a real sense of wronp^. 
That description of Plain ti If, who passes by the public opi- 
nion of his village or his brotherhood to refer to a lemole 
alien, is either wronji; or an umisually oppressed individual. In 
the infant constitution of the Punjab, the ij^nonuit impar- 
tiality of the European oiTicer was united with the better 
information of the less trusted Punchayut; and the Maj^is- 
trate was at liberty, either to arbitrate a case himself or to will 
in the aid of local opinion. This appears an excellent theory : if 
it does not work well in practice, the only alternative certainly 
appears to be, to take all judicial power, not of a purely 
correctional character, from the administrative department, and 
vest it entirely in the hands of men especially trained and select- 
ed for the Bench. That all these officere should be Barristers is 
not likely, though the proposal is not a wonderful one, consi- 
dering that the agitation had its origin in Calcutta, where 
the learned Supreme Court Bar has always produced very active 
contributors, both to the speech making at Calcutta meetings, 
and to the leading articles of the Calcutta Newspapers. There 
is no peculiar divinity hedging the character of a Barris- 
ter, who may be as. ignorant as any Layman. And seeing 
that the codes of India differ and are likely to dilftT from, 
the barbarous congeries of precept and precedent — Bentham's 
" Grimgribber^^ — which the forensic hierarchy contrives to 
hold together in England, it does not appear why English 
Barristers, even from the Supreme Court, should enjoy any 
peculiar claims as of right, to seats on the Indian Bench. 
Moreover it is only the higher posts which would offer much 
inducement to men of that class, nnless indeed we are to bo 
inundated with the whole of the worthless and the briefless of 
the British Bar. The correct theory would undoubtedly be, to 
let the Pleaders of the united Courts, which are now understood 
to be on the eve of formation, have the right to the lower 
appointments, the holders of these being gradually promoted to 
the higher. 

The administrative service must always be, in practice, a dis- 
tinct profession. How the selections are to be made for it will 
greatly depend upon whether India u to be a colout/ or not. This 
is not a question of what is desirable, but of what is feasible. 
If it is possible to make India a Colony^ it is no doubt desirable 
that her affairs should be administered on a colonial plan ; but 
obviously all objections to the present system, on the seoi-e of 
its being ill-suited to a Colony, are the merest begging of the <pies- 
tion. The existing system is historically known to be founded on 
the opposite theory. Into whatever extremes the policy of the 



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4 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM FOR INDIA. 

Court of Directors may at any time have led them, and whatever 
reproaches may be brought against them for the discouragements 
they offered to Christianity, or to immigration of Europeans ; 
whatever preference they may have given in the lower grades 
of their service to Asiatics, or whatever privileges they may have 
attached to the class of Europeans who filled the superior offices ; 
the whole is referable to the feeling that India was a foreign 
Dependency^ occupied by tribes possessing each a civilisation and 
a religion of its own, in whose interest it was to be ruled by 
whomsoever the trust might be reposed in. Thus arose the 
principle of native administration and European control ; and 
though it is not difficult to amass proofs that the former has 
been corrupt and the latter lax, yet it will be premature to dwell 
on that until you have proved, either that a Dependency of the sort 
described can be otherwise ruled, or else that colonisation is feasi- 
ble. The burthen of proof as regards the latter point, at least, is 
clearly laid on those who impugn existing results. To such as, in 
spite of all the evidence, hold that Englishmen can colonise a 
tropical country, densely peopled by races in legal possession of 
every foot of land, and whose frugality and acclimation enables 
each of their members to live on one-third of what is required 
for the support of an Englishman of corresponding position, it 
is sufficient to say, '* Come and try.'^ No one now keeps them 
out ) it is absurd to say that the state of the Courts or the feeling 
of the authorities deters them ; for instances can be shown all 
over India, and in Countries far more despotically governed, 
of Englishmen who make large fortunes and reside in peace. 
Assuming then that colonisation, on a large scale, and in 
the strict sense of the word, is impossible, we have the 
simple question left ; can a foreign Dependency be fairly and 
beneficially ruled by England, unless the indigenous residents 
play a large part in the administration; and unless the 
superior morality and political science, of which she is supposed 
to be the depositary, be constantly infused into that adminis- 
tration, by the control of carefully selected and largely trusted 
Englishmen. 

Two important observations may, no doubt, be made, one upon 
each branch of this question. It may be said that Asiatic un- 
derlings are apt to be corrupt and tyrannical. It may also be 
said, that the Members of the Civil Service, though better selected 
now than formerly, still fail in Anglicising the administration. 
But there is no system in this imperfect world to which similar 
objections may not be made : pessimism is as bad as optimism ; 
the Moral of faults being proved against an established working 
system is, that they should be removed, not the system, for 

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ADUnilSTBATIVE £EFORU FOR IKDIA. 5 

which you have no proved sabstitute. Granting that there is 
considerable force in each observation, their united weight will 
not prove that the system must be destroyed ; it is the very 
foppery of politics to require abstract perfection, and object to 
every thing existing^ merely because it is capable of improve- 
meat. 

The few thousands of Planters and Merchants, Barristers 
and Attorneys, Wine dealers and Italian ware-housemen, who 
find it profitable to pursue their respective and respectable call- 
ings in this Country, are not justly entitled to be considered " the 
Public of India;" nor can the Newspapers, conducted with 
various ability, for their amusement, be justly treated as its 
*' Press/' The administration of India, if such authorities are to be 
consulted, should be carried on through the medium of Europeans, 
exclusively or almost so. We have abready endeavoured to see how 
far this would be just to the people of the Country, in whose in- 
terest it is assumed that we are to rule. (And this, even supposing 
that the service would attract a sufficient number of qualified 
Europeans.) If, on the contrary, we could obtain genuine native 
Public opinion, (the opinion of the educated classes is what 
is usually understood by the term,) we should assuredly find 
that the exclusion of natives from the posts of greatest power 
and rank would be very severely felt as a grievance. The pre- 
sent system steers a middle path between the two. Its object 
is to give to the educated native a fair career in the public 
service, for which he is so well fitted by intimate knowledge 
of the dialects and institutions of the masses ; while to the 
latter it gives such protection against the corruptibility and the 
openness to prejudice and partiality which must adhere to a 
native official, as may be afforded by the supervision of a care- 
fully selected class of chief officers, whose appointments, though 
costing the state but little in the aggregate from their numeri- 
cal paucity, are yet sufficiently valuable to those who hold them, 
to call forth their best intellectual and moral energies. 

Of all the opponents of this system the ablest and most 
consistent is the present editor of the Hurkaru. This writer, 
in his issue of the 27th October 1860, had an article, which, 
though containing many assertions from which we dissent, 
is terminated by a very sensible proposal: we refer chiefly 
to the following words; "If the Government desire that 
its work should be done as well as it is at Home they" 
(Query "it''?) "must recognise the * ^ ^ ^ division of 
labour, and make allowances for natural differences of talent 
and that aptitude which is the fruit of experience. A civilian 
of the present day is a Jack of all trades, and consequently 



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6 ADMINISrrilATIVB HEFORH FOE INDIA. 

botches every work entrusted to him. * * ^ Under the pre*- 
scut system before any ofReial can make himself acquainted with 
his ordinary duties in one department he is removed to another^ 
the duties of which are as dissimilar as those of a Physician 
and a Stock Broker. But if it were understood that in future 
officials would be confined to that department for the work of 
which they showed a particular aptitude^ men would be encour- 
aged id make themselves thoroughly acquainted with what 
was to be henceforth the business of their lives.'^ 

Now the assumption, that no division of labour is attempted 
by the Government, appears to us an exaggeration. On the 
frontier we have the brilliant Military Governors of whom so 
many have made their names household words wherever the 
English language is spoken. Sir H. Lawrence, Sir H. Edwardes, 
and General Nicholson were never to our knowledge, offered 
the post of S udder Judge or Financial Secretary, and the Ma- 
gistrates and Collectors of the North Western Provinces usually 
spend twenty years in the administrative branch of the Ser- 
vice,, and even when made Judges it is mainly for correctional 
purposes; there is however too much foundation for the Hur- 
karu's strictures as contained in our extract ; and all attempts 
that are made to reform the Civil administration of British 
India should proceed in the direction indicated therein. At 
the commencement of these remarks, for instance, it was 
shown that India not being at present a Colony, ought not to 
)>o treated on Colonial i)rinciples. But on the other hand there 
are parts of India, few and of small area, which are essentially 
colonial. Those which are most conspicuously so, are the Presi- 
dency towns, and there, to a considerable extent, colonial methods 
already exist. Similarly, in all towns where there is a seat of 
Government there might be a small cordon, within which En- 
glish laws should be administered in Criminal and Civil cases 
by trained lawyers. But this remedy of " trained lawyers'* is 
no panacea. What would be the use of a trained lawyer among 
the tribes of the Khyber, or even in the Sonthal Pergunnahs, 
where almost every dispute is about a boundary or a herd of 
cattle, susceptible of ready arbitration by an honest man of 
local experience, utterly unintelligible to an ordinary foreigner 
whatever be his legal acumen ? That is to say, the manage- 
ment of a rude tribe requires qualifications differing from those 
needed to decide an intricate question of bailment. 

It may be objected tliat this is a bald commonplace, but it 
cannot be denied that it is one that has been more generally 
recognised by the rulers of India than by their opponents — and 
every division of labor in which it is ignored will fail,- The 

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ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM FOR INDIA. 7 

Governnient of India has had a separate set of officers for 
frontier Districts, for interior Districts, and for political duties ; 
and the appearance of confusion may be a good deal traced, to 
the custom of requirino^ every Civil Officer to matriculate as an 
assistant to a District Officer ; than which, however, it would be 
difficult to devise a plan, better suited to give young officers a 
practical knowledge of, and interest in the people, with whose 
affairs they are more or less to be connected by the " business of 
their lives;" and the men who would let loose the Inns of Court 
upon such a field, would certainly not obtain " the advantages of 
a division of labor,'* any more than they would ''open the Civil 
Service/' The division of labor is a very good term, and may be 
veiy beneficially applied as far as circumstances permit. That it is 
not applicable without reserve to European labor in India, will be 
gathered from observing the fact that, in India, Milliners usually 
deal in wine and gunpowder; and that Newspapers are often 
conducted by persons who begun life in other ways. But those 
who think labor can be divided by the exclusive employment of 
'' trained lawyers,'* must be either enthusiasts without brains, 
or barristers without practice. 

It may be objected to the Indian Government's "division 
of labor," that Henry Lawrence and the other distinguished 
men above referred to were not members of the Civil Service. 
For the present purpose, however, they were so ; that is they 
were covenanted officers in Civil employ ; and it is very possible, 
that the Civil Service might be largely regenerated, if the officers 
for administrative duties were selected from the staflF of the 
Army, to a far greater extent than is at present the case. If the 
Punjab scheme of administration could then be applied to the 
Mofussil generally, and a good Civil Code be launched with the 
new Penal Code; a sound system of procedure in each de- 
partment, and a reformed Police being added, there would 
be little fear for the forensic future of the Rural Districts. 
The colonial portions of the empire might have any amount 
of " trained lawyers" that they were pleased to pay for, and if 
any man envied such privileges he might be allowed, under due 
restrictions, to indulge his eccentric taste by a writ of certiorari. 
The majority would probably be of a mind with those Spanish 
Americans, mentioned by Mr. Helps, who petitioned the Court 
of Madrid, that " no lawyers might be sent to the Colony." 
It is to be noted further that Administrative Reform is no 
new thing in India. Her rulers have not, it is true, introduced 
an ''open" Legislative Council or Parliament, in which Calcutta 
shopkeepers should have the power of paralysing the action 
of Government, and Planters be enabled to reduce their ryots 

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8 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM FOR INDIA. 

to the condition of Gibeonites : and surely the instance of New 
Zealand^ where agrarian questions are at length being settled 
by the primitive arbitrament of force, is a very good ground 
for congratulating the rulers of India, on their not having in- 
troduced colonial principles of Government into a country, which 
we hold on such a very uncolonial basis. 

But, once allow that the administration of British India must, 
for the present, be based on despotic principles and carried out 
through official agency, and it cannot be denied, that with the 
single exception of destroying the covenant, every thing that could 
be called a bar to administrative Reform has now been removed. 
This covenant is, in fact, a commission. Men are induced to 
leave the arduous paths of life in Europe by the guarantee of 
certain advantages in point of rank and remuneration in Indian 
exile, in order that the pedantry and narrow knowledge of a 
bureaucracy may be tempered, and its corruptibility checked by 
the constant influx of the best blood of England — speaking of 
course, in a metephorical, not in a patrician sense. It is exceed- 
ingly easy to shew objections to this plan ; the political danger 
of closing the higher ranks against the Natives of the country, the 
hardship of arresting the career of the man who has risen 
from the ranks, and most of all the grave possibility (to say the 
least) of indolence being generated in the minds of the favored 
few who have received the above mentioned guarantee. But the 
instance of Russia, where every official rises from the ranks, and 
where official corruption and esprit de corps are crippling the 
gigantic forces of the empire^ may serve to shew that an 
escape from these evils is worth buying at a considerable price. 
In point of fact this price has been gradually diminishing of 
late years. From the constitution of the highly paid and care- 
fully tndned Civil Service by Lord Wellesley, down to the intro- 
duction of the competitive system by Lord Stanley, a little more 
than half a century elapsed, during which the Service produced a 
few very black sheep, a certain number of average men, and 
sufficient great hearts and minds to consolidate an empire, which 
was the admiration of every foreigner who visited it, until ruined 
by Reforming sentimentality and Foreign office intrigue. To 
the Civil Service of those days we owe the political successes 
of Metcalfe, Jenkins and Elphinstone, which ^ve us internal 
peace for nearly forty years ; the patiait investigation of Holt 
Mackenzie, R. M. Bird and Thomason, crowned by the most 
complete knowledge and record of agricultural customs, rights 
and tenures ; the liberality of F. Shore, the learning of Elliott, 
and finally the splendid services of the Great Mutiny, when a 
Native Army, wrought to Froetorian insolence by the -result of 

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ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM FOR INDIA. 9 

wars the Indian administration disapproved, and indulgences 
they were powerless to prevent, was put down partly by the 
unlooked for aid of the local officers — ^typified by John Lawrence 
and Robert Montgomery— of whom in one Presidency (the North 
Western Provinces) one-third died at their posts, while the sur- 
vivors did wonders with scarcely a soldier on whom they could 
rely. 

There were grievous faults in the old Service ; many of the 
young officers lived for years, a life of idleness and extravagance 
fi*om which sometimes nothing could set them free. Still lives 
the memory of P — ddy H — s, who passed twenty-five years of 
service in journeying to and fro between Calcutta and London, ** 
with an occasional trip to Simla, and who never got beyond an 

Assistantship in the Customs ; of who passed his quarter of 

a century in Collegey and retired on his annuity without 

having ever " passed," or done an hour's work ; of who 

went to Court stark naked, acquitted murderers, kept his 
English records on the floor, and was finally removed by a troop 
of horse ; of the Customs Agent at Ghazeepore, who " cut'* 
Lord Hastings for only giving him £7000 per annum, in recom- 
pense for his signing R. B. B. on rowanaa for half an hour 
while pulling his first ckillum after breakfast, and who obsti- 
nately refused to write any thing but his initials unless his pay 
was increased ; but why multiply instances when the re- 
sult is before us? ^^The Empire of the Middle Classes'' remains^ 
after all the shocks it has sustained, still sound, still an unex- 
ampled proof of the administrative skill and virtue of English- 
men. Where is the Roman Proconsulship, the Spanish Conquest 
in America which can compare with her ? or who that has 
seen French Algeria would prefer the system prevailing there? 
Moreover such as the .old service was, it has passed away, and 
it is not only idle but unfair to rake up objections against what 
has ceased to be, merely because you want a share of the lucra- 
tive posts, or think your commercial enterprises would prosper 
better if there were no administration but what you pleased. 
The few enthusiasts and the many malcontents, who from dif- 
ferent grades of obscurity clamour against the existing state of 
things, are not raising their voices against the system which 
formed British India, and won the applause of Macaulay and 
Peel in England, as it did that of the best informed travellers of 
every rank from the Prince to the Printer, from Petersburgh to 
Paris; but they are finding fault with a Service open to public 
competition from the best educated sons of the great Universi- 
ties of Britain, and with the freest system under which any 
official organisation at all could be imagined as feasible. 

Mabch, 1861. c^ I 

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10 .ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM FOR INDIA. 

A late number of the " Quarterly Review " coDtained a strong 
and carefully reasoned condemnation of the English competitive 
system, but carefully excepted that in the Indian Services. And 
indeed the faults of the two are as different as the conditions 
under which they act. The English competition is offered to 
men whose destinies will be humble and their salaries low, the 
higher posts being, by common consent, disposed of on very 
different grounds. The Indian competition, on the other hand, 
is intended to form a guide for selection of men, who will begin 
their public life with large powers over the persons and property 
of vast communities; while they may possibly end them as Pro- 
consuls of Provinces, or Prime Ministers of Empii*es. Obviously 
the objections brought against the competitive system for pro- 
ducing an article superior to its ends, and making men discon- 
tented with the nature of their duties, ought to be brought 
rather against the English than against the Indian system. 
But a writer in the Saturday Review^ has brought a charge 
against the competitive principle, which applies with greater 
force to that for the Indian administrative service than to that 
by which Clerks or Tidewaiters are selected in England. ^' Com- 
petitive examinations" says he " are under our present system the 
great motive power of all systems of education, and the desire to 
excel in them is accordingly strongest in the sort of mind 
which is naturally inclined to set a high value on juvenile suc- 
cesses. This is not a very good turn of mind. It implies a 
certain preciseness and formality of character, and a constant 
inclination to defer to established authority, and to attach great 
importance to the express approbation of recognised superiors. 
It follows from all this that competitive examinations are fit 
only for boys or lads, and that even with respect to them, 
they test only the lower kinds of merit, whilst all the higher 
qualities — originality, independence, and love of knowledge 
for its own sake — ^are positive disqualifications for success in 
them." 

Now, whatever requirement there may exist in the English 
Clerkships for the higher kinds of merit here enumerated, must 
exist in a far stronger form, when the duties to be entrusted to 
the candidate are of such a far higher character as are those of 
Indian administration. Nay more, not only are such qualities 
unlikely to be successful in a competitive examination, but the 
advanced age at which the candidates are admitted to the Indian 
examinations has a special drawback of its own. It has been shewn 
that even under the old system a large proportion of the officers 
turned out good, and some were of the most splendid merit. 

• VoL 10 p. 651. 

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ADUINISTTRATIVE REFORM FOR INDIA. 11 

But this is not all; the old Civilians passed through a 
respectable test examination before entering Hailesbury, and 
while there had at least the option of obtaining a very high 
training under able and eminent teachers : but it is noteworthy^ 
that some of the very best of Indian statesmen^ Munro^ Mal- 
colm, Sleeman and Outram were officers of the army who had 
been chosen by haphazard, and received no preliminary training 
whatever. This can only be accounted for by the doctrine of 
chances; amongst a number of untried youths there must al- 
ways be a certain number who possess latent abilities of the 
most brilliant kind. A competition set .before men of twenty 
three years of age actually eliminates this element : at that age 
the candidate has completed, or almost completed that acade- 
mical career by which young Englishmeivtest the relative powers 
of themselves and their contemporaries ; and it will obviously 
not be those of first class qualities and attainments who will 
quit an opening career in England, for the questionable attrac- 
tions of hard work and exile in a vile climate and amongst a 
vile race. 

So far therefore as a branch of Indian administration demands 
special acquirements it may be better to make it a special 
service, than to continue to select its members from a general staff 
of oflScers, however open be the field of selection, and however 
carefully guarded the door of admission. For the department of 
account, for instance, in which the Civilians are generally con- 
sidered to have most failed, it might be well if all promotion wt^nt 
in the line, and if the entrance were merely barred by a special 
examination in financial subjects, Indian and general. With regard 
to the judicial line, it has been shewn above that the duties in 
outlying provinces are chiefly correctional, and those familiar 
with the subject will admit, that among our ruder populations 
even Civil justice is more a matter of administrative ability than 
of legal detail ; but there are Benches in India to which forensic 
experience and nicety of adjudication should be the only pass- 
ports. This has long been conceded by the institution of 
Supreme Courts with jurisdiction classified into Criminal, Civil, 
Equitable, Ecclesiastical and Admiralty, in the Presidency towns. 
These courts are about to be amalgamated with the unchartered 
Courts of the old system, and it will be a great step should a 
special standard of fitness be henceforth adopted for all benches, 
on which, from the intricate character of litigation or the pre- 
sence of large European communities, a jurisprudence of a 
complete kind is requisite. 

But for preservation of peace among rough agriculturists, or 
ignorant inhabitants of Bazai's, for the repression of violent crime. 

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H ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM FOR INDIA. 

the management of a complicated revenne system interwoven with 
the land^ for all the rough work of rough societies, originality, in- 
dependence, and energetic integrity should he the qualities chiefly> 
if not solely, demanded. Those quaUties may be possessed hv men 
who enter the service late in Ufe, and certainly competition is 
better than jobbery ; but no men, who have discovered qualities 
such as were found in some of the old civilians, are likely to come 
into the Indian Service. Southey refused a writership at seven- 
teen ! and when he had no prospect of a maintenance, but what he 
could expect from the abilities of which he may have been precoci- 
ously conscious : — ^the words which follow will be found in a 
Letter inserted in the first volume of his Life. " A man who feels 
must be in solitude there [in India]. Yet the comfort is that your 
wages are certain ; so many years of toil for such a fortune at 
last. Is a young man wise who devotes the best years of his 
life to such a speculation ?" Southey replied in the negative, 
and matters have not changed for the better since, the " wages'* 
being no longer '* certain,'* nor *' a fortune'* usually made " at 
last ;" while the chance of seeing your wife and children 
butchered, and of having to turn soldier at a moment's notice, is 
added to the certainty of a debilitating climate and rapidly rising 
prices. These are the inducements held out to induce first class 
men to abandon their college fellowships, or their prospects in 
Westminster Hall. 

But the case is widely different if you turn to younger men. 
FeVv lads of seventeen have the foresight of Southey, and the 
history of the past shews that the mere attraction of a red coat 
and a life of adventure will lead them in shoals to the utter- 
most parts of the earth. Now, if the principle of competition be 
extended from its new limits, of examinations, to its natural 
broad basis of active life, there seems no reason why the admi- 
nistrative service of India should not be^ recruited better than 
has ever yet been done — ^without destroying one advantage 
or witholding one guarantee — simply by taking its members 
from among those military officers who, after a certain period of 
regimental duty, shall be willing to give satisfactory proofs of 
their'fitness, and to forego the future steps of military promo- 
tion. Sic forth Etruria crevit ; such has been the system which 
has made the Punjab the model Province of British India, which 
produced Nicholson and Lumsden, Lake and Edwardes, which 
enabled Sir John Lawrence to destroy the mutinous sepoys, or 
chain them up like beaten hounds, while he sent the whole of his 
available forces to wrest a falling empire from their triumphant 
brethren in Dellii. Nor must the " Uncovenanted servants" be 
forgotten. Many of these in the Punjab are men of good 

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ABHINISTEATIVE REFOEM FOR INDIA. 13 

English blood and education, attracted and retained by the 
knowledge that in that part, at any rate, of the Indian empire, 
there is no bar to a successful career. Several of these Gentle- 
men have been placed in charge of Districts, and it would be a 
manifest injustice to exclude them any longer from any advan- 
tages of position, that mav be enjoyed by their Covenanted or 
Commissioned brethren. Our scheme, then, for administrative 
reform is simple, as regards the majority of those lower but most 
important and responsible posts, by means of which the business 
of the country is carried on. 

Two subjects of greater dignity, though not, it may be, 
of superior usefulness remain to be briefly noticed. The Legis- 
lative Council, and the Executive Cabinet of the Viceroy. 
A claim has been set up in several quarters, that as all classes 
in British India are now taxed, all classes should be represented 
in the legislature. To this there are several answers, each of 
which is perhaps sufficient ot itself, but of which the accumu- 
lative force is surely irresistible to any impartial mind. The 
argument derived from abstract rights will hardly convince 
any one in this practical age. As Dr. Arnold (no friend 
of tyranny,) long ago observed " the correlative of Taxa- 
tion is not Representation but Protection." No country could 
be governed for a day without a revenue, and the means of 
raising a revenue without taxation are yet to be discovered. Of 
all the duties of * Governments the most generally recognised is 
the protection of life and property, while the states which are 
really governed by Representation may be counted on the fingers. 
A representative government is clearly a matter of expediency, 
the forms which suit one time or one place being unsuitable — 
often impossible — for the same place at diflferent times, dr for the 
same time in different places. The burthen of proof is therefore 
laid upon those who contend that British India is at present in 
a condition requiring representative Government. In point of 
fact, it is probably felt by such advocates that the Natives^of the 
country would either not attend the council, or in such a feeble 
character as to be easily borne down by the representatives of 
the "European community," that is by a certain number of 
unsuccessful men of business converted into paid demagogues. 
And what would be the action of such delegates ? Is it not cer- 
tain from all that we know of human nature, and from the consis- 
tent behaviour of the more active and noisy of that class for the 
past hundred years, that their chief aim in life would be to impede 
the action of the executive and to vilify its agente ? And what 
practical result would be likely to come from such a course of 
conduct ? If they could not produce a change of ministers, 

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14 ADMINISTRATIVE REPOEM FOB INDIA. 

could they produce any thing but a dead lock and stoppage to 
business never too famous for rapidity? 

This brings us to the second question, the constitution of the 
Executive. Obviously a representative assembly can control the 
entire administration of a country, if by withdrawing support and 
confidence it renders necessary the substitution of new men in 
the posts held by persons who, under the name of Secretaries 
or Ministers, transact the business of the various Departments. 
But how would this work in a country where every Department 
is a profession in itself, of which the Head, for the time 
being, is or ought to be selected on account of an official 
fitness acquired and guaranteed by years of professional practice ? 
Only conceive the new Executive which might be called into 
being by the action of a Liberal majority in the Legislature. 
If putting aside these factions, those who are interested in 
British India would combine to meet a real danger, thefe is one 
which may demand theii best ^nd most united energies. If 
'^ Government by Electric Telegraph'^ is to be developed much 
further, and if the messages are not only to be " Take care of 
Dowb,'^ but " Give half a million to Crsesus,'' the time is not 
far off when we may at least save the salary of a Governor 
General, and pass under the reign of one who — in spite of his 
name — will be no king Log. The keystone of Administrative Re- 
form for India will not be laid by turning the Legislative Body 
into a nuisance, whose necessary abolition will but facilitate the 
introduction of an irresponsible Despotism sitting at Whitehall ; 
but by our all acting together with a calm earnestness that 
shall shew that " India must be governed in India" until the 
time comes when she may govern herself. In the meanwhile 
let us ose, and keep in working order, the tools that we 
have. There is a body of eight hundred Civil Officera, 
many of whom have abundantly proved their capability for 
very difficult work, and all of whom are daily increasing 
their knowledge of a very intricate subject ; there are a certain 
number of able and industrious subordinates competing with 
their superiors, with whom they are in some instances fit mor- 
ally and intellectually to move on a par ; and there are thousands 
of Military Officers who mu^t be provided for, and many of whom 
possess an acquaintance with local language and customs, and a 
capacity for brilliant service, which only require to be elicited. 
Should there be any special posts, either on the office stool or 
on the judicial Bench, which require special qualifications, by 
all means let those qualifications be sought for. But let it never 
be forgotten that the administration of a q\iasi-continent, 
peopled by numerous races differing in every quality and char- 
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ADMINISTRATIVE UEFORM FOR INDIA. 15 

acteriatic, except th^t of only obeying the firm will and the 
strong hand^ is a strictly extra-parochial aSair, and cannot be 
conducted on vestry principles. Let it be remembered how 
large a share of Indian shortcomings have always been due to 
English interference, and let some allowance be made fur the 
imperfections of human nature, which, though not confined to 
Englishmen in India, are certainly not banished from among 
them. 

It is the fashion with some soi-disant Reformers to affirm, that 
the Members of the Civil Service are a set of drones who live 
in idleness and clover for twenty-five years, and then return 
to Europe on a Pension of £1000 a year. To those who 
know India well it will not be necessary to observe that both 
statements are false. But readers at Home and Calenlta 
cockneys may be as well reminded of the history of Iiuliu 
for the last half century, of the great men whose names have 
been already cited, of the civilization of Sindh and the Pun- 
jab, of the settlement of the North-Western Provinces, (what- 
ever its correctness of principle, at any rate surely a work of 
labor,) and of the concurrent accounts of all travellers, British 
or foreign who have seen the interior of the country. In a 
former part of this article we cited the cases of some bygone 
black sheep of the flock ; but the white sheep are surely a fair 
set-off; or would it be fair to condemn the whole body of gen- 
tlemen who have devoted their lives to India since the commence- 
ment of the present regime, on account of their having in their 
ranks a few * hard bargains ?* As to the pension, it is the most 
inconceivable delusion ever witnessed out of a conjuring booth. 
Every Civil Servant from the day he joins, contributes four per 
cent of his salary to an Annuity Fund. Every year a small 
proportion of those who have served longest are permitted 
to retire on an allowance of £500 a year, derived from the Fund 
formed by the accumulated subscriptions of their deceased com- 
peers, supplemented by a Government Contingent. They are 
also at liberty to take the value of their own subscriptions, up 
to a second annuity of five hundred a year, calculated at ten 
per cent, or to make up the difference between what they may 
have paid and £5,000, or half a lakh of Rupees. Anything 
that may have accrued from the compulsory payments they 
have been making in excess of the last named sum is forfeited 
and a fine of £800 is demanded that the instalments of annuity 
may be paid quarterly and in advance. Men are not eligible to 
this retirement until they have been at least twenty five years 
in the service ; but no servant of twenty five years standing ever 
gets one of the available annuities, while on the other hand one 



Makch, 1861, D 

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16 ADMINISTRATIVE RflFORM POR INDIA. 

of thirty five years is chased from the service, whether entitled 
to an annuity or not. Such is the celebrated Civil Service Retire- 
ment ! on which comment would be superfluous^ were it not for 
the inroads on the rights and privileges of the Service now under- 
stood to be in contemplation. If the prizes of the Service are 
abolished or thrown open, and the pay of incumbents reduced, a 
€K>vemmeut presided over by a Royal Mistress, and conducted by 
British Earls, knights and gentlemen, is surely bound to give the 
disappointed employ^ the option of retiring. Especially is it 
the duty of Government to do this, and of '^ the Press'* to urge 
it, if the majority of the service, owing to the system under 
which they have been selected and employed, are such useless 
encumbrances. Good faith and justice are as necessary as expe- 
diency to any complete measure of Administrative Reform. 

Thus, therefore, we have attempted to shew the principles on 
which Administrative Reform for India should proceed. We 
have not been desirous of defending any particular existing 
system. As to writing up the old Civil Service, it is quite 
unnecessary 5 if its historical destruction did not speak for it, it 
has, at all events, ceased to exist ; and we need not 9peak of the 
dead, whether for good or for evil. ^' Though one should smite 
him on the cheek, and on the mouth, he will not speak.'' It 
shall not be ours, either by praise or blame, to profane that repose. 
But it has appeared to us, and, we hope, to our reader, that 
some such men as the old Civilians, are still required to administer 
those parts of India which are still in the condition of foreign 
Dependencies, requiring a despotic system, but for which an 
European is better than an Asiatic Despot. Those parts which are 
becoming civilized and colonial in their character, seem to require 
a set of officials more obviously the servants of the Public, more 
numerous, not so highly paid, and more amenable to the constant 
action of public opinion. It has also been inferred from analogy, 
that for the former class of duties, ihepersonnel now at the disposal 
of the Indian Secretary of State presents a large number of men 
of, at least, average ability, and far more than average expe- 
rience ; that there are probably a few great men latent in the ser- 
vice, and certainly some who are nearly, if not altogether, useless. 

Before concluding, it may perhaps be proper that we should 
state, what we think the best way of securing the most 
serviceable position and career for the capable and the 
brilliant, while a method is pointed out for the elimination 
of the ' hard bargains,' without undue hardship to themselves. 
We consider that those of the old Civil Service and of the 
competitioners who have shewn aptitude for administration, 
should be allowed the option of entering the Staff-corps of i\ie 

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ADMINISTRATIVB REFORM FOR INDIA. 17 

Army on their resi>ective grades. Something is due to these 
officers. They have left certain prospects in England in the hope 
of certain apparently guaranteed advantages in the Civil Service 
of this country, which have either ceased to exist abeady, or 
have come under the destructive touch of the future. Many of 
these men did good and gallant service for years before the Re- 
bellion, were tried during that crisis as few men of their class 
are tried, coming out of the trial with the applause of Queen 
and country, and have continued since to work hard at duties 
now become distasteful, amidst the wreck of nearly all their old 
hopes, and under much cruel misrepresentation from those whose 
good opinion was once their greatest consolation. To reduce 
these men suddenly from the highest position in the country to 
one in which they have neither acknowledged position, nor 
security for their future ; to turn the once independent servants 
of the Home Government into suitors for backstairs favor at 
Belvedere or Nainee Tal is too severe handling for old and faith- 
ful employes. The case of the competitionei's is in some respects 
harder. In addition to the pay, many of them considered the 
social status a farther inducement when giving up academical 
prospects for the gilded chains of Indian servitude; and in their 
case, the withdrawal of the covenant will reland them hopelessly 
on their original platform. All alike, be they gentlemen or not, 
will have to contend and to compete with men p<jssessed of more 
Parliamentary and connectional interest than themselves ; and it 
is but a matter of bare right that they should be protected by a 
commission from the crown, as a recognition of their place in 
the service, and as something to fall back on when ill health or 
other accident throws them out of employ. The simplest way 
to do this is as before suggested. A number of the so-called 
Military Officers on the Staff-corps, have long ceased to be 
soldiers in anything but in title; and there is no reason why 
Captain Sword should hold his commission in the Staff-corps as 
well as his Deputy Commissionership, while Mr. Pen, his' first 
cousin and contemporary in the Civil Service, should go oti 
furlough to England on the footing of a clerk, and return to 
this country in the character of an adventurer. There are 
departments in which men will remain and rise during the whole 
period of their service. Such is the financial, and such, shortly, 
will be the judicial branch. . Officers who elect to qualify for these 
need not perhaps be borne upon the strength of the Staff-corps, 
but this is a matter of detail. 

We now come to the incapables, with whom the public are too 
often burthened, owing to the absurd injustice of the rules 
regarding the retirement of Civil Servants. It is a popular 



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18 ADMIMSTRATIVK KEIORM FOR INDIA. 

notif)n that every member of this favored body is entitled io 
£ J 00 a year for life, in an elegant European retreat, immediately 
on completing his quarter of a century of Indian Service. In 
point of fact the Government gives hifn considerably less than 
£ 300 a year ; and this he seldom gets before his thirtieth year of 
service. The Annuity, in reality, consists of two portions of £ 500 
a year each : one made up partly from public nnoney, and partly 
from a sort of tontine on lapsed subscriptions of members who 
have died before retiring. These subscriptions are compulsory, 
being deducted from the monthly pay of every officer to the 
tune of some five per cent. The other moiety is the value of the 
subscriber's payments at ten per cent., per annnm. A large fine 
is demanded that the annuity may be paid quarterly in advance ; 
and the subscriptions of any member, whose payments, owing to 
length of service and unusually high rates of salary, may have 
exceeded £ 5000, are forfeited. The first of these, if it were 
untrammelled by the second, is a fair provision. If every Civil 
officer could get £ 500 a year for life after his twenty five years 
of service, all would be well. The provision, though modest, 
would be not inadequate; -and worn out, disappointed public 
servants, although they might have held poor posts, and saved no 
money, could be got rid of without cruelty. Instead of which, 
what is the working of the present system ? The fund only 
provides a certain number of annuities in each year, and an 
officer out of employ must simply starve until it comes to his 
turn to obtain one. No wonder if some useless men encumber the 
service, owing to a natural reluctance on the part of their 
superiors to turn them entirely adrift. 

There is another fund, the ^' Civil Fund" as it is called, out 
of which the widows and orphans of Civil Officers are pro- 
vided for, which must of course be kept up. We cannot at the 
end of a paper on Administrative Reform, enter into the de- 
tails of this subject; but would just mention, that it would be 
better for all parties if the former fund (that for Annuities) 
were entirely abolished. Government taking so much of the accu- 
mulations as was found necessary to guarantee the pension of 
£500 a year, and returning the balance to subscribers ad valorem 
on their past contributions. If only as a kind of compensa- 
tion for all the injury it is bringing on the service. Government 
is bound to take up this matter in a liberal spirit. As for 
the Civil fund, we will only here observe, that even whig states- 
men are, for the most part, English gentlemen; and that, 
were they not, the service may surdy commit, in all confidence, 
the sacred cause of the fatherless and the widow, to a Monarch 
who is herself^ both wife and mother. 

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BRITISH SETTLERS. 19 



Art. II. — British Settlers, — Report of the Commissioners on 
Indigo Planting. 1860. 

THE condition of colonies depends in a ^^reat measure on the 
character of their local government. Wise rulers frame equi- 
table laws, and^ appointing proper executive officers^ keep the 
courts of justice pure^ encourage enterprising capitalists to deve- 
lope the mineral^ agricultural and commercial resources of the 
country, afford every facility for the transport of traffic on roads, 
rivers and seas, and behold in the increasing numbers of settlers 
from the mother country, a wall of strength, a safeguard gainst 
anarchy, and the fairest prospect of preserving in a loyiu and 
prosperous state the foreign possessions of their Sovereign. The 
results of their administration are seen in reclaimed wastes waving 
with corn, populous cities standing on the sites of primeval forests, 
flourishing manufactures, crowded marts, merchant fleets, and well 
att-ended schools, colleges and churches. Under their auspices 
colonies, larger than many kingdoms, passing over the intervening 
st^e of youth, shoot up from infancy into manhood, and attain 
at once all the characteristics of ancient commonwealths. We 
speak not of fabled regions : this sudden rise and rapid progress 
are exemjJified in the Australian settlements and other depen- 
denci^ of the British crown, where Anglo-Saxons, putting 
forth indomitable energy^ have turned the wilds of nature into 
great and wealthy states, which in the race of social and moral 
advancement vie with the mother country, and in their educa- 
tional and ecclesiastical polity leave her far in the rear. 

The effects of an unenlightened, weak and wavering govern- 
ment, are seen in the depression of agriculture, trade and com- 
merce, and the departure of capitalists and labourers to otheir 
lands. 

Emigration from a country may be a proof of its numerical 
strength, wealth and prosperity, as at present illustrated by the 
groups of well conditioned people that leave Great Britain for its 
distant dependencies; but emigration may likewise be a proof of the 
misery of a country, and the incapacity of the men to whom its 
destinies are confided.* In the plains of India and on the declivities 
of her mountains, the jungles, capable of being cleared and made 
highly productive, are larger than the whole area of England. 
Why are they not brought under tillage, is a question which will 
naturally arise in every inquiring mind. Is it owing to the few- 



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20 BRITISH SETTI.ERS. 

ness of the iohabitants^ and the want of labourers ? On the con- 
trary the increase of the population has been remarkably great, 
and many thousands of labourers have been sent to Ceylon^ the 
Mauritius and the West Indian isles, — men in abject poverty, ^nd 
conveyed to their destination at the expense of their future em- 
ployers. With the most fertile land lying waste at their own 
doors, they have left their homes to supply the labour-market 
of foreign countries. This indicates something radically wrong 
in the laws or their administration, and is a fact which Speaks 
volumes against our rule. It clearly shows that though the chief 
edible commodities of the people are selling at prices almost 
unprecedented, aud extended cultivation would therefore yield 
ample profit, there is no adequate inducement to reclaim 
these vast wildernesses, and the labouring poor consequently 
resort to exile as their only refuge. Six thousand are to be ship- 
ped for the French colonies — six thousand living proofs of the 
bad Government of India, and of the wretchedness of its inhabi- 
tants. Not only do our senators ^facilitate the shipment of 
native labourers, but appear likely to eflFect the exodus of British 
settlers also. Indeed from the date of the battle of Plassey to the 
present time, nearly every year has witnessed legislation more or 
less antagonistic to European residents. Indifferent alike to the 
material prosperity of the country, the evangelization of its 
inhabitants, and to a free press, that powerful auxiliary in the 
administration of public affairs, the late East India Compaifiy, 
with a zeal worthy of the dark ages, occupied itself in deporting 
merchants, editors and clergymen. The few non-official English 
who stayed remained on sufferance, liable to be banished 
whenever capricious tyranny dictated. The reasonable request to 
be allowed to become owners of the land was not granted them. 
Natives might purchase estates, but the most to which Christ- 
ians could aspire, was to be tenants of Hindoo and Mohommedan 
proprietors. When Parliament compelled the Company to adopt 
a" more liberal policy, the local authorities, with the sanction 
of the Court of Directors, used their utmost endeavours 
to neutralize it, by throwing all possible impediment* in the 
way of capitalists : every administration, except that of Lord 
Bentinck, was either hostile or apathetic; and Arms Bills, 
Black Acts, and the gagging of the press show but too plainly 
that the ancient spirit ammates the present government. Legis- 
lators, on whom nature has not deigned to bestow the far-reach- 
ing minds of statesmen, not having a clear perception of what 
they are doing, may frame laws whose tendency is to discourage, 
ruin and expel British settlers, but the people for whose welfare 
they are enacted will be the first to deplore their results. 

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BRITISU SETTLERS. 21 

If a manufacture of incalculable benefit to tbe country be atten- 
ded with partial evils^ which all persons admit to be the case, it 
is the province of the state to make provision for the removal of 
the evils, not to destroy the manufacture itself. The most per- 
fect work of art may chance to be out of order, but while 
susceptible of repair, no person, unless a child or maniac, 
would dash it to pieces. It may be said that fOr uprightness of 
intention, and soUcitude to promote the prosperity of India, full 
credit should be given to the Members of Council : but these are 
not the only attributes requisite to govern an empire ; wisdom is 
quite as necessary, and without it legislation must be little better 
than groping in the dark, and will seldom prove otherwise than 
hurtful to the realm. Virtue, of the most exalted character, 
cannot be accepted as an adequate apology for ignorance and 
wrong doing. Some of the greatest evils which have afflicted 
the world have sprung from motives and aspirations that 
would be honourable even to angels. Before giving credit 
to the goveinmetit for a spirit of equity to British settlers, 
it may be well to inquire when it has been merited, and whether ' 
in the indigo crisis the acts of the executive deserved praise 
or condemnation. To form a right judgment on this im- 
portant matter, it will be necessary to bear in mind that 
in 1857, while mutiny and rebellion shook the empire to its base 
lower Bengal was tranquil, and the planters, though ten, twenty 
and thirty miles apart from each other, remained on their estates 
with their wives and children unapprehensive of danger. No 
troops, policemen, or guards of any description surrounded their 
solitary dwellings. Had they been the tyrants they have been 
pictured, how was it that the pent up passions of the people they 
had oppressed did not, when so favourable an op«)6rtunity presen- 
ted itself, burst forth in deeds of rapine and bloodshed ? The 
temptation to anarchy was great, yet not a single murder was 
committed, not a shred of property stolen, nor the least change 
made in the respectful demeanour of their tenantry. During 
the whole period of the rebellion, the counties of Jessore, Pubna, 
Nuddea, Moorshedabad, Rajshaye, and Malda continued quiet, and 
no traveller in passing through them- could have imagined, that 
the North Western portions of the empire were then in a blaze : 
but in the early part of last year these peaceful districts began 
to assume a different aspect ; discontent and turbulence gradually 
appeared, and at length developed themselves in riots, which 
resulted in the flight, ruin and imprisonment of thousands of the 
peasantrv, and the bankruptcy of enterprising capitalists. As no 
change had been made in the system of indigo-cultivation, 
and the planters are not even accused of having done any thing 

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22 BEITISH SETTLEBS. 

to outrage the feelings of the farmers, the question naturally arises, 
how was this disastrous state of things brought about ? Several 
causes may have been at work, and to each in its proper place 
we shall advert. 

In making his financial statement Mr, Wilson embraced the op- 
portunity to speak about indigo-cultivation, and to give expression 
to the enlightened sentiments embodied in the following language : 

* It is one of the few cultivations in India which attract British 

* capital and skill to direct native labour. That is the kind of in- 
' dustry which, above all others, the Government would wish to 
' encourage, and on that account alone they would feel precluded 

* from placing any impediment in the way of its extension. It 

* would be more in consonance with our views to remove what 

* little duty there now is as soon as circumstances will permit. 
' The value of the influence of European gentlemen settled in 

* our county districts cannot, in our opinion, be overestimated, 
' and it will be the steadfast policy of the Government to en- 
' courage it in every way we can.' Scarcely had these senti- 
ments been uttered when Mr. Grant fell under suspicion, whether 
deservedly or not we shall presently inquire, of labouring to 
frustrate the design of that distinguished and now lamented 
statesman. A crusade was commenced against planters, pro- 
ductive of evils which malevolent persons doubtless contem- 
plated with feelings of pleasure. Indeed there was much cause 
for exultation, for every day's proceedings proved increasingly 
destructive to the interests of British settlers. Speaking of 
the excitement and hostility of the peasantry, the Manager of 
the Sindoori Concern, under date of the 21st of February, writes : 

* The ryots are fully under the impression that the Governnient 
' wish to suppress the cultivation of indigo, and will support 
^ them against the planter, and they certainly have every reason 
' for saying so, for they are often told so by the police.' And 
on the 29th he writes : * The ryots are at present in a state of 

* great excitement ; in fact they are mad, and ready for any mis- 

* chief. They daily try to bum our factory and seed-golahs. 
' Most of our servants have left us from fear, as the ryots have 

* threatened to murder them and burn their houses ; and I fear 
' that the few that are still with us will soon leave, for the ryots 
' prevent them getting food from the neighbouring bazars. If 

* some most stringent steps are not taken by the Government at 

* once, none of us will be able to remain in the Mofussil, and 

* then there will be a general loot of the factories — rather a 
^ serious state of affairs when you consider what is at stake. 
' Even now it is not safe to ride from factory to factory. The 

* whole country is up, and if it go on much longer in this way 

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BEinSH SETTLEKS. 28 

^ there is no saying what may happen. The police are all against 
' us/ The manager of the Bengal Indigo Company states^ that 
the disturbances in his concern are owing to the ^current belief^ 
' that the Government is determined on putting a stop to all indigo 
' planting/ The Manager of the Carryoda factory writes on the 
' 1st of March : ' I am sorry to say that the ryots of the Soobdy 
' factory have been told by the ryots of Kadjoorah factory of the 
' Ooldar jdivision^ and those belonging to the Ailhass factory of 
^ the Sindoori division^ to join with them to present a petition 
' against us. My ryots said that they had nothing to complain 
' of, whereupon they were told that they would not be allowed to 

* remain in their villages. I am doing m^ best to keep them 

* quiet 5 but the whole district is in revolution, and the mutinous 
^ ryots say they will not sow indigo, having the Lord Saheb on 

* tneir side, who has told them they need not sow indigo if they 
^ do not like it.' Mr. Campbell, assistant in the Mulnath Concern, 
was attacked and beaten, and left for dead on the field. Mr. 
Hyde, assistant in the same Concern, was pelted with clods, and 
only saved himself by the speed of his horse.* 

The out houses of Chandpore, in the Goldar Concern, and the 
factory houses of Kadjoorah, in the Lokenathpore Concern, were 
burned down. Three hundred men attacked the dwelling house 
at Buckrabad in Malda, and made a bonfire of the property it 
contained. In the attack on the factory at Baniagram in Moor- 
shedabad two men were killed and several wounded. Since the 
above events transpired, two factories have been destroyed by fire 
in the county of Rajshaye. 

The statement, that the farmers have an impression that the 
Government is hostile to indigo and has prohibited its further 
cultivation, is confirmed by gentlemen who are in no way per- 
sonally interested in the matter. A. T. Maclean, Esq. Magis- 
trate of Damurhuda, in his evidence before the Commission says : 
' During the months of July, August, and September of last year, 
' I was residing in an indigo factory in Damurhuda, there being 
' no residence for a magistrate in those parts ; and being the 
' height of the rains, it was impossible for me to live in a tent. 
' During those three months I have no recollection of any com- 
' plaints being brought to me, or any expression of feeling for or 
' against indigo, being made. In February, when I rejoined my 
' appointment, I found the manager of Lokenathpore and the 
' villagers of Joyranq>ore at issue. Mr. Tweedie and his head ser- 
' vants on one side, and the mullicks and the chief villagers on 
' the other, were, on my recommendation to the magistrate, bound 
' over to keep the peace.' 

* Blue Book on Indigo Caltivatlon in Bengal, pp. 860-1. 

Maech, 1861. ^ E I r\r\n\o 

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24- BRITISH SETTLERS. 

* The discontent spread by de^ees throng^h the district. It seem- 
' ed to be the impression in Durgapore and in the northern part 
' of the Hardi Thanna^ that the GovemHient had prohibited the 
^ cultivation ef indigo. I endeavoured to disabuse their mindfi 

* of this idea, but with no success. They said it was the order of 

* the Bara Saheb that they were net to sow indigo any more. 
^ Latterly I heard it said, that people had come from Calcutta, and 
^ exhibited written orders to the effect, that there were penalties 

* for sowing ; but though I endeavoured to get hold of these orders 
' I never succeeded in getting a sight of them. The petitions 

* presented were numerous, they were vague and general, the 

* specific charges were few in number, and as far as I can remem- 
' ber were not well founded. Villa^rs going from village tor 
^ village, exciting each ether to join in a league to refuse to sow 

* indigo, was, I believe, a practice.'* 

W. H. Herschel Esq. Magistrate of Nuddea, states : ' On the 
' 20th February with the exception of Samtipore and two police- 
' divisions on the Bhagirothi, the whole of the rest of the district 

* was strongly excited on the subject of indigo planting. One 
' general idea seemed to prevail, that the cultivation of indigo 
' was stopped by the orders of Government, and a good deal of 
' irritation prevailed because they thought that these orders were 

* not being carried out. When I went to Khatg^arra the ryots 
' told me that they had broken up the indigo that had been sown 
' because Government wanted to put a stop to the cultivation of 
' it.'t * The ryots have an impression/ says the Rev. J, Long, 

* that^he Government is on their side, and this has emboldened 

* them to rise/ The Rev, C. H. Blumhardt states : ' The ryots 
' have certainly lately been under the impression that they had 

* the support of Government, and particularly that of the Lieute- 

* nant Governor, and that I suppose has inspired them with that 
' boldness and energy with which we now see them come for- 

* ward.* J The Rev. P. Schurr observes : ^ I cannot trace the 

* origin of the change which has occurred within the last six 
' months, but the perwannas have had a great deal to do with 

* it, — I mean theLieutenant Governor's and Mr. Herscher8.'§ 

Was the opinion that the Government is hostile to indigo, 
and resolved to stop its cultivation, founded on words and acts 
which indicated the conclusions the farmers every where drew 
from them ? We are disposed to think that the natives, follow- 
ing their usual course of reasoning, could not have interpreted 

* Report of the Indig^o Commiisiony Minutes of Evidence, pp. 82-3-4. 
t Ditto ditto ditto pp. 4-9. 

X Indigo Commission Report, Minutes of Evidence, p. 124. 

§ Ditto ditto ditto p. 68. 



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the intentions of the authorities as otherwise than antagonistic 
to the planting enterprise. The illegal proclamation made by 
the Magistrate of Baraset was a direct interference with capital 
and labour^ and could have been issued undeir no other govern* 
ment in the civilized world. 

'Proclamation No. 1603^ to the Darogaof Kolarooah. Be 
' it known.' 

A letter of the Magistrate of Baraset, dated the 17tb 
^ August 1859, has arrived, enclosing extract of a letter, No. 
'4516, from the Secretary to the Government of Bengal, dated 

* the 2l8t July 1859, and addressed to the Nuddea Commissioner^ 

* which, in referring to certain Indigo matters, states that the ryots 
' are to keep possession of their own lands, sowing thereon such 
' crops as they may desire ; that the Police should take care that 
' neither Indigo Planters nor other persons should interfere with 
' the ryots ; thkt indigo planters shall not be able, under pretence of 
' the ryots having agreed to sow indigo to cause indigo to be sown 
' by the use of violence on the lands of those ryots ;, and that if 

* the ryots have indeed agreed to do so, the Indigo Planters are 
' at liberty to sue them for the same m the Civil Court, th» 
' Fouzdaree Court having no concern at all iu that matter; foB 
' the ryots can bring forward numerous objections to their eulti- 
' vating indigo, and in respect of their denial of the above 

* i^reement.^ 

' Therefore this general Perwannah is addressed to you, that 
' you may act in future as stated above.' 

* Tie Ma AnguU 1859.'* 

Speaking of a report current in the South Eastern part of the 
county of Nuddea, to the effect that Government was opposed to- 
the cultivation of Indigo, E. Drummond, Esq. the Magistrate, 
says : ' This feport, I believe, to have been spread in particular 
' instances, by designing persons to do their immediate neigh- 
*- bours harm, but I have no doubt it owes its origin to the occur- 
' rences in Baraset, and that it is rapidly spreading, and will do 
' much damage in this district, if not checked at once.'t 

Cultivators, who had received advances and entered into con- 
tracts to sow indigo, are deliberately told, that in keeping or 
breaking their engagements they will be allowed to consult 
their own inclination. Were a similar proclamation to be 
issued respecting debts and rent, neither money-lenders nor 
revenue-officers would be able to realize a farthing, and both 
the state and bankers would become insolvent. It is Idle to 



* Blue Book, ludigo Cultivation in Bengal, p. 352. 
t Ditto ditto p. 676.' 



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26 bhitish bsttlkra. 

say such a catastrophe was not contemplated. Men who know 
the people foresaw the order coidd lead to no other result^ and 
the inability of a magistrate to comprehend the tendency of 
his oMrn actions, shows that he was grossly unfit for the situa- 
tion he was appointed to fill. Many copies were made of the 
proclamation, and it gradually found its way through all the 
indigo districts in Lower Bengal ; the police, though the most 
iudolent men in the world, were industrious to make it known, 
and are thought to have been well remunerated for their ser- 
vices. Every where the farmers put the same interpretation 
upon it, and believed it to be a permission firom Government 
to defraud the planters, by declining to sow indigo for the crop 
of which they had received payment in whole or in part. Native 
landlords generally showed themselves unfriendly to the plan* 
ter, and paid, it is believed, emissaries to travel through the 
excited districts, who encouraged the turbulent to continue in 
the lawless course in which they had entered, and by the dis- 
semination of faise intelligence, and the use of promises and 
denunciations, constrained the well disposed, who were peace- 
ably pursuing their usual labours, to abandon their fields, and 
join the insurrectionists. Letters were addressed to the head- 
men of villages, urging them to employ the whole of their 
influence to oppose British Settlers, and superior pleaders des- 
patched from Calcutta to defend the cidtivaotrs in all suits 
for breach of contract which were brought against them. 

Had a document of a similar character been addressed to 
English workmen during the recent strikes, it would have been 
productive of the most disastrous consequences, but British 
statesmen refused to interfere between the contending parties, 
and' reserved their power to prevent breaches of the peace. 
The entire responsibilibr of this proclamation has been sup« 
posed to belong to the Honorable Mr. Eden, and consequently 
much opprobrium has been heaped upon him, which his state- 
ments before the Commission did not tend to remove. We 
read his evidence with care, and it reminded us of a criticism 
to the following effect, which we once heard a lady pronounce 
on Milton^c^ Lucifer. There is nothing sneaking about him: he 
is bold, and braves the opinions of the universe. A large por- 
tion of the blame arising from this document must however be 
attributed to a person in very high authority. It appears that 
the proclamation was founded on a letter of the Lieutenant 
Governor, of the 2 1st of July 1859, to which it bears a strik- 
ing resemblance. Mr. Eden says : ^The wording of the 
* Government letter is this; "The ryots may confess . the en- 
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BRITISH 8ETILEBT. 27 

' '^ gagement and still have many irresistible pleas to avoid the 
' " consequences the planter insists upon/' The wording of the 
' Deputy Magistrate's Purwannahis; "The Criminal Court has 
' " no concern in these matters^ because notwithstanding such 
' *' contracts or such consent withheld or given, i^^ots may urge 
' " unanswerable excuses against the sowing of indigo.'' The 
' wording of my letter was ; " Such promises can only be pro- 
' " duced against the ryots in the Civil Couit, and the magisterial 
' " authorities have nothing to do with them, for there must be 
' '^ two parties to a promise, and it is possible that even the ryots 
' " whose promises or contracts are admitted may still have many 

* ** irresistible pleas to avoid the consequences the planter insists 
' " upon." '* 

There have however been other agencies at work besides the 
proclamation. The speeches of the Lieutenant Governor in his 
tour through the county of Nuddea, and the orders issued 
through his Secretary to the Commissioners of the respective 
indigo districts, seem to have been as influential for evil as the 
Baraset document. In attempting to exculpate himself from 
having given cause for the report that £Eurmers might take ad- 
vances, and with impunity leave their engagements unfulfilled, 
Mr. Eden states* ^The Magistrate of Jessore, in the extract of 
' his letter which you have forwarded to me, says that the rumour 
^ in the Jessore district was with reference to some expressious 

* which were supposed to have been made use of by the Lieute- 
' naut Governor at Nuddea.' ' 1 think,' says the Rev. G. G. 
Cuthbert, ' that the incitement came quite unintentionally from 
' the present Lieutenant Governor, from some remarks made by 
' him when visiting Kishnaghur in 1 859, to the effect that the 

* ryots should be lett free to cultivate indi^ or not as they chose. 
' The excitement caused by this was strengthened by the letter 
' addressed to Mr. Grote on the subject, by the officiating Secretary 
^ to the Government of Bengal in October 1859, about a com- 
^ plaint against the planter of Bansberria. This led the ryots to 

* believe, that the Government were on their side, and in favour 
' of their refusing to cultivate indigo.'f Even the Governor 
General observes. ' It is much to he regretted that the pro- 
' damation issued by the commissioner of Nuddea was so incom- 
' plete as not to take cognizance of the position of those ryots who 
' are under engagements to sow indigo in years subsequent to the 

* present year. It is to be regretted that the instructions under 
' which the proclamation was framed did not take distinct notice of 

* Blue Book on Indigo Cnltiyation in Bengal, p. 589. 

t Indigo CkmrnuMion Eq>ort» Minutes of Evidence, p. 181. 



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28 BRITISH SETTLERS. 

* the cases of such ryots. The Governor General in Coancil 

* has reason to believe that in some instances ryots in the above 
' mentioned position considered themselves to be set free from 
' obligations which it certainlv was not the intention of the 
' Lieutenant Governor to overlook ; and I am to request that, 
'His Honor will consider whether measures should not now be 

* taken to place the matter before the ryots in its true light/* 

Confirmation is lent to the truth of these statements by the 
spirit Mr. Grant has exhibited. He is occasionally oblivious 
of the dignity of his office. Planters, who liave invested mil- 
lions in a laudable enterprise, who are the ownere of estates in 
some instances covering an area of many miles, and who in 
any other country would be addressed in respectful language, 
are stigmatized as Hhese strangers,'! and the cultivators of 
the soil to whom they make advances designated capitalists. 
Indi^ property to a large amount has been destroyed, and from 
the insecurity which is every where felt, that which remains 
has been reduced more than nfb^ per cent in value ; emissaries 
are scouring the country, deterring well-disposed peasants from 
following their avocations, and breathing vengeance against fae* 
tory servants, should they continue to work for their masters. 
Village after village has repudiated the payment of rent ; lands 
which the planter had purchased and was accustomed to cultivate 
by his own labourers, ryots seize and appropriate to their own use ; 
troops are located where a soldier has not been required for the 
last hundred years; gun-boats havecruised on rivers that never bore 
warlike craft ; collisions have taken place in which men have been 
wounded and slain ; yet the Lieutenant Governor complacently 
declares there is only ' a commercial disagreement between two 
' classes concerned in a particular trade,' and the word ' con- 
[ fusion,' applied to the present state of the country, is not 
' justifiable/ J In the judgement of a ruler who has made the 
wonderful discovery of governing mankind by writing mach- 
iavelian minutes, what degree of anarchy will render the use 
of the obnoxious word appropriate ? Is it not to be employed 
till the provinces committed to his care be irretrievably ruined, 
and the grave close on all European settlers ? 

In a recent suit it is said to have been discovered that a con- 
tract written on a stamp-paper was dated three years before the 
stamp itself was sold at the shop of the vendor. If correct, this 



* Lord Canning's Letter of the 31st of August 1860, respcctimg Mr. Grant's 
Minute. 
-I- Blue Book on Indigo Cultivation in Bengal, p. 196, para. 7. 
X Mr. Grant's Minute, para. 4, ^ 



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BRITISH SETTLERS. 29 

statement would prove that some one had been guilty of forgery 
and deserved to be punished; but Mr. Grant deems it a sufficient 
reason to brand, in the Soth paragraph of his minute, the 
whole of the planting community. ' It must doubtless have been 
' agreeable to the planters when their suits were tried in such a 
' fashion, that decrees were obtainable on agreements purporting 
* to be four years old, though written on stamps which were in the 
' vendor^s shop one year ago.^ Among British settlers there are 
as many high-principled persons, who would shrink from the 
least approach to villany, as can be found in any other section 
of European Society ; yet he heaps opprobrium on the virtuous 
and vicious alike, and condemns the body for the reputed fault 
of a single member. If this style of reasoning is to be tolerated, 
no reputation will be safe: the slanderer may breathe his pestilential 
exhalations on ihe purest and most exalted characters. He 
may take the license to affirm, that because a Raikes had to fly the 
country to elude the pursuit of justice, all Indian civilians are 
peculators, and because one member of a family was supposed 
to be implicated in the failure of a certain bank, which revealed 
an astonishing amount of knavery, all the other members of it 
are rogues. The mere mention of such logic is enough to expose 
its al^urdity, and show the great want of moral propriety in 
the person who can use it. 

With the view of prosecuting the culprit, had the crime 
been really perpetrated, the Indigo-Planters^ Association in the 
Metropolis requested the commissioner of Nuddea to send 
down the bond to which reference has been made. After a 
delay of twenty days it was reluctantly given, and on the 
22nd of October appeared in the columns of the Cal- 
cutta " Englishman,'^ From a perusal of the document we 
perceive that no forgery whatever was committed, or even so 
much as contemplated ; though the date is wrong in one place, 
owing to a clerical error of the native writer, it is correctly 
stated in the body of the contract. Thus an instrument which 
had not been read through, for had it been, the grave blunder 
could not have been made, is said to prove the perpetration of a 
crime of the most disreputable character. "SYhat a dark picture 
does this present of the courts and the reckless manner of their 
' procedure. Without taking the trouble to ascertain the contents 
of the bond, Messrs* Bell, Herschel, Lushington, and Grant 
use it with unsparing severity to injure the reputation of the 
planters ; and now the truth is disclosed, if possessed of the least 
sensibility, must feel themselves in the predicament of men who 
have merited reproach and contempt. Had they been officers in 
Britain, after such flagitiousness, they would not have been 



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so BSmSH SETILEKS. 

permitted to liold their appointments another hoar; they may 
therefore thank Providence for fixin*^ their destiny in India. 

Mr. Grant is accused of interfering with the administration 
of justice by forcing on the executive authorities his own views 
of the law; censuring and removing magistrates who pronounced 
sentences he disapproved^ sending a decision of Mr. Herschel's 
to every official as a model after which all other suits were to be 
determmed, liberating prisoners whose cases presented nothing 
to mitigate /the punishment the tribunals awarded. Though 
these are charges of a grave character^ they are substantiaUy 
correct, and supported in part by irrefragable evidence which he 
himself furnishes. An instance is recorded in the Blue Book, 
of his giving his own opinion of the law in opposition to the 
enlightened views of Mr. Grote, the commissionen of Nuddea, 
and in favour of the erratic procedure of Mr. Eden. *The 
' Lieutenant Governor assumes that Mr. Eden^s principle, as 
' above stated, is beyond all question the true exposition of the 
' law, as it stands, and he cannot agree with Mr. Grote in think- 
' ine Mr. Eden's order inconsistent with that principle.' * In 
his letter of the 18th of September, speaking of the proclama- 
tion in which he had told the cultivators who had contracted 
to grow indigo for several years, that they would be free from 
their engagements at the close of the current season, he says : 
' In order then to place the matter before this class of ryots in 
' its true light, a local Notification for the Nuddea Division 
' might be issued calling the attention of those ryots who are UU' 
' der valid unexpired engagements from which they cannot or do 
' not release themselves by proceedings under Regulations V. of 
' 1880, to the fact of their obligations remaining in full force.' 
Had he only glanced at the Act, or been acquainted with the 
simple rudiments of law, he could never have used such extraor- 
dinary language. The Act affords protection to ryots, who, 
having Mfilled their engagements and declining to enter into 
new ones, apply to the court for a settlement of their accounts 
with the planter ; but it distinctly states, that the ryot cannot 
claim a settlement of his account till the expiration of the pe- 
riod of his contract, and that while any portion of the time of 
the contract has yet to run the judge has no jurisdiction in the 
matter. To speak then of valid and unexpired engagements 
from which ryots do not release themselves is to misinterpret 
the Act, and use words which the people are sure to understand 
as a suggestion to set tiie law at defiance. This is a strange way 
of correcting the serious blunder which called forth the repri- 

* Blue Book on Indigo CaLtivation in Boigal, p. 196, para. 9. % 

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BRITISH SETTLERS. 31 

mand of the Governor General. Thus by opinions, proclama- 
tions^ and orders contrary to the letter and spirit of the law, 
Mr. Grant has done much, indeed almost every thing, uninten- 
tionally no doubt, to mislead and impoverish the peasantry, jeo- 
pardize an important branch of commerce, drive European 
capital from the country, and evoke, in every district of bis 
Government, the demon of anarchy. 

The experience of the Lieutenant Governor has been confined 
to the metropolis. He possesses only a very slight knowledge of 
the vernacular, has never resided in an indigo-district, and is 
profoundly ignorant of the interior of the country, but when 
the executive authorities point out in a courteous manner the 
errors into which he falls, he answers arrogantly, and forgets 
he is speaking to gentlemen ; and if the ^ strangers,^ as he 
politely designates European Settlers, remonstrate against his 
procedure he becomes wroth, ^and pens minute on minute till 
the learned pile threatens to rise to the height of the tower of 
Babel, and with much of the confusion and perversity which 
prevailed at the erection of that wonderful edifice. Ignorance 
in a private individual calls for pity, but in a ruler of forty mil- 
lions of people, who receives princely emoluments for the dis- 
charge of his duties, it must be contemplated as a crime. He had 
however, he tells the world, a peculiar opportunity in the year . 
18.35 for making himself acquainted with indigo-planting. 

Lord Bentinck seeing the importance of Europeans to develope 
the resources of ludia, and conduct works of enterprise, wished 
to afford them every encouragement and facility to settle in the 
country, and invest capital in agriculture, trade and commerce. 
Desirous of obtaining correct intelligence, he caused letters of 
inquiry to be addressed to all European and Native gentlemen 
who were likely to possess the information which he sought. 
The answers to these letters confirmed his own opinion that, 
notwithstanding the partial evils which might now and then 
attend indigo-cultivation, the planters had done more than any 
other body of men to advance the material prosperity of India. 
He gave these papers to the world, and strongly recommended 
the Court of Directors to adopt towards British Settlers a liberal 
policy. Unable to resist his arguments, and perhaps awed by 
his character, the Court gave a cold assent to his measures ; but 
no sooner had he left these shores than steps were taken to 
reestablish the ancient policy of antagonism to European resi- 
dents. The Local Government was instructed to request all 
judges, collectors, and magistrates to give their opinion again 
respecting indigo-planters. They did so, and their letters are 
supposed to have been more than unfriendly, but they were not 

Mabch, 1801. F , ^^^T^ 

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a-Z BUTOSU SETTLERS. 

published to afforil those who were attacked an opportunity of 
defending themselves. They were kept secret^ and committed 
to Mr. Grant to form the materials of a dispatch to be addressed 
to the Home Authorities. A man with a nice sense of honour 
would have recoiled from such an undertakings, but be has the 
effrontery to boast of it. 

We have no desire to depreciate the service to which Mr. 
Orant belongs, but wish it well. It is adorned by many persons 
possessed of great minds and eminent virtues, who for talent, 
-labour, and integrity, have probably nev^ 4>een surpassed, 
and who will be mentioned to the latest day of our rule as 
an honour to the £nglish name ; still we counsel its members 
not to wage war against European residents, for the result 
of the conflict may be foreseen without the gift of prophecy. 
In Canada and the Cape of Good Hope such a struggle ended 
in the humiliation of officials, and the creation of parliaments 
in which emigrants aj*e duly represented, and in what are now 
called the United States, it terminated in the loss to the Crown of 
one of its largest dependencies. The unthinking may deem the 
army sufficiently strong to prevent such a catastrophe, but reflec- 
ting persons will see in our military force elements of danger, 
troops united to British Settlers by nationality and coDsanguinity, 
and be apprehensive that the ties of blood, and the feelings of 
sympathy may break the bonds of allegiance and discipline, and 
lead them to fight on the side of their countrymen. The wise 
and virtuous, who take an interest in the welfare of India, would 
deplore such a collision, and scarcely expect the statesman to 
survive whose policy provoked it. 

Having thus dwelt on the policy of tl>e Bengal Government, 
a policy which, when made known to the world, all statesmen 
will emphatically condemn, we shall notice the evils that really 
attend the planting enterprise, all these, we think, might have 
been removed without for years injuring the richest province of 
the.empire; but before entering on this portion of the subject 
it . will be necessary to mention the systems of cultivating 
and manufacturing indigo which prevail in different parts of the 
country. 

In the North Western Provinces the planters purchase the 
fecula of the indigo in a wet state, and it must have such a con- 
sistency that five seers can be lifted with one hand.^ It is 
obtained by contract with zemindars, or ryots at rates which are 

» C. R. Linsay Esq., Collector of Furruckabad, sayt, the reqnired ooiwiatency is 
2^ seers, or about 6 fbs., Commisgioners Report, Appendix No. 26 p. 123 ; but 
J. 0. B. Saunders Esq., till very recently an indigo planter, states it be 6 seers, 
Report, Minutes of Evidence, p. 182. 



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BRITISH SETTLEES. 83 

regulated by the price which is current when the stipulation is 
formed, and the whole or part of the payment is made in advance. 
It is likewise purchased in the open market from persons who 
grow and manufacture it on their own account^ or from dealers 
who buy it from others and and sell it again for profit. The 
price is from ten to twelve rupees per maund. In the North 
West Provinces Europeans also manufacture the dye from the 
plant, but appear not to have done so before the year 1827^ when 
what they had hitherto made was greatly depreciated in value by a 
largely increased production of a finer quality of indigo in Tirhoot 
and lower Bengal, which led them to change their system^ ta 
erect vats, and manufacture the dye themselves. To be secure 
against loss the contract for the plant is generally made 
with a merchant, trader^ or zemindar, and the rate paid^ which 
varies with the market, is about 2£ rupees per 100 maund, 
the weight of which is 96 Vb»,; if the agreement be made 
with the ryot himself the price is two rupees less, and he is 
sometimes required to bring as surety the zemindar or headman* 
of the village where he resides. It is stipulated to pay half 
the money in advance; hawever the ryot does not receive it all' 
at once, but at separate stages of the work, one quarter after the 
first irrigation, and the remaining portion after the first weeding. 
The bigha is supposed to yield the cultivator a profit of about 
one rupee, it is occasionally more, but sometimes gives him no 
remuneration for his labour; 

In Tirhoot indigo is cultivated on plantations owned by 
Europeans and worked by hired labourers ; and also by small 
larmers who grow it on their own land for the factory at a 
stipulated price. After signing the contract, an advance is made 
to them of two rupees per bigha, the measurement of which is 
equal to three Bengal bighas y an additional rupee is paid at 
sowing time, and another when the field is weeded. The remu- 
neration per bigha for an abundant or average crop is six rupees, 
eight annas, and for land which happens to yield no return three 
rupees are given as an allowance for rent and labour. The land 
is occupied by indigo the whole year, stod no other crops are 
grown with it. 

In Lower Bengid indiga tb cultivated on farms similar to those 
in Tirhoot, and IMcewise by the peasantry who- grow it by con- 
tract on lands which they bold from the planter or some other 
proprietor. These different systems are designated nij, own cul- 
tivation, and ryoUe, cultivation carried on by ryots. Summing 
up the cultivation of thirty factories, as recorded in the Report 
of the Commissioners, we find it to amount to 4,6.5,482 bighas, 
of which 3,66,016 are ryotte, and 99,^66 nij, which gives the 



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34 BRITISU SETTLEES. 

latter a proportion to the former of a little more than a foarth. 
The period of the contracts into which the ryots enter is one, 
three, five or ten years. The advances are made at two rupees a 
bigha, and the rate paid for the plant, whicli varies at different 
places, is 4, 6 or 8 bundles for the rupee. On the occurrence of 
a bad season and a complete failure of the crop, no compensation 
is made to the ryot for the loss which he has sustained in the 
shape of rent and labour; the sum he has received in advance is 
entered in the books against him, to be liquidated in after years ; 
but a part of such debts is sometimes remitted. On certain 
lands cereal and oil-seed crops are grown with indigo. 

An opinion prevails, even among persons otherwise well in- 
formed, that indigo is obnoxious in all parts of the empire, but 
nothing can be more erroneous. It is produced in Rungpore, where 
lacs of bundles have been sold in the market at the average 

1>rice of four for the rupee. It is grown and manufactured 
►y the Madras peasantry without advances, and the out-turn of 
the whole presidency in 1859-60, was 2,531,726, lbs. In the 
North West Provinces, the Punjab, Sind and Bombay, it has 
been cultivated and manufactured on a large scale from time 
immemorial, and its production can be indefinitley extended. 

What is the character of planters in the North West Provinces 
we learn from the letters of Commissioners, Collectors and Ma- 
gistrates, who, on being requested to communicate their opinions, 
wrote in the following terms of our enterprising countrymen. 
Mr. Phillips, the collector of Agra, states, ' that the cultivation 
' of the indigo plant is popular, and that the system pursued has 
^ never been productive of affrays or trouble to the judicial or exe- 
' cutive authorities of his district.** Mr. ThornhiU, Deputy Col- 
lector of Etah, says, 'The cultivation of indigo is decidedly 
' popular, and the cultivators take contracts witL eagerness, and 
' he is unaware of a single instance in which indigo cultivation 
' has led to affrays.'t Mr. Chase, officiating Collector of Myn- 
poory, ' represents the cultivation of indigo as highly popular, 
' both with the zemindars and the ryots, and as being unattended 
' either with breaches of the peace or with trouble or annoyance, 
' either to the European planters themselves, or to the judicial 

* or executive authorities of the district.* J The Collector of Ben- 
ares states ' that the planters are all honourable and upright men, 
' and gain the esteem and respect of the surrounding agricultural 
' community : they are a blessing to the district, and a great assis- 

* tance to the magistrate. There have been no violent affrays or 

* Indigo Cottmiissioners' Report, Appendix No. 26, p. 121. 
i- Ditto ditto ditto No. 26, p. 121. 

J Ditto ditto ditto No. 26, p. 121. 



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BRITISH SETTLEES. 86 

' disturbance within the last ten years about iildigo cultivation, 
' and the criminal suits instituted, are almost invariably con- 
' nected with the disputed possession of fields.'* Mr. F. Gub- 
bins, the Commissioner of Allahabad, says, ' The planters are 
' almost invariably a blessing to the surrounding country. I 
' have known this division eleven years, and have never heard 
' of any oppression on the part of the planters, whom I have 
' on the contrary, always found to be firm supporters of the law, 
* and ever ready to assist in looking after the peace of the dis- 
' trict, and in caring for the roads and public thoroughfares in 
' their neighbourhood.^t 

The complaints which have been made against indigo are 
confined to Bengal. As reasons for the tranquillity of the Up- 
per Provinces and the present disturbed condition of the Lower, 
it has been stated that the cultivators of Hindostan are superior in 
honesty and straight-forwardness to those of Bengal ; besides here 
the jurisdiction of magistrates is more extensive, which has ren- 
dered the enforcement of the law by the executive authorities 
impossible, the planters have been necessitated, in order to defend 
their property, to administer a rough kind of justice themselves, 
or accept the alternative of being reduced to beggary. Doubt- 
less much injury has arisen from these causes ; but there are 
other evils that cannot be thus accounted for, which deeply affect 
the condition of the labouring poor, and therefore cannot be a 
subject of indifference to any man possessed of comprehensive 
views and generous emotions. Such a person will be prepared to 
give the peasantry a hearing, to examine their grievances, and 
point out the way to redress them. 

It is alleged that ploughs, carts, oxen, and labourers are press- 
ed for the cultivation of factory-lands, and that if wages be giv- 
en, which, it is said, is not always the case, they are generally 
much below the market rate ; that implements of husbandry be- 
longing to recusants are abducted to prevent them attending to 
other crops, and for trivial faults or offences which have not been 
committed they are subjected to heavy fines, and their goods dis- 
trained to realize them ; that fields of hay and thatching grass, and 
trees for fiiel and building are cut down, and taken away without 
payment, or for such trifling remuneration as amounts to not one 
tenth of the value of the property carried off; crops of rice and 
other grain are destroyed, and the land sown with indigo by 
forcte ; ryots are seized, flogged, tortured and imprisoned, and if 
intimation of this treatment be conveyed to the executive autho- 



* Indigo Commisflioners' Report, AppencUz No. 26, p. 11-920. 
t Ditto ditto ditto No. 26, p. 118. 



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30 BRITISH SETTLERS. 

rities, to elude the police they are hurried from factory to factory, 
where they are kept in durance till their spirits bend^ or they can 
bribe the (guards to allow them to escape. That half a century 
ago such things may not have been infrequent^ and that some of 
them now and then happen in the present day, cannot be denied. 
It may be said^ and probably with much truths that when 
they do occur, they are done in almost every instance by the fac- 
tory servants and without the knowledge of their master ; but 
however well established this statement may be, it does not lessen 
the sufferings of the victims, or palliate the cruel injustice to which 
they are suJ^ected : the owner of an estate must to a great extent 
be considered morally responsible for what is transacted upon 
it^ and those who are oppressed naturally attribute their wrongs 
to him, though he may not be the immediate author of them. 
When such thins^ however really do happen, what is the legitimate 
inference to be drawn from them? Not only that an individual ■ 
planter or his servant is proved to be worthy of condign punish- 
ment, but that the rich can grind the faces of the poor, and 
the strong oppress the weak with impunity ; that the police, 
and the tribunals are inefficient, and, as far as the protection of 
person and property is concerned, there is no Government what* 
ever. 

The cultivators complain that they have no voice in the 
selection of the fields appropriated to indigo, and that instead 
of a fair proportion of different kinds of land being taken, all 
excepting the best is rejected, and £he worst being thus left for 
grain and other produce, the harvest on them is less abundant 
than it otherwise would be. But when the quantity of land 
appropriated to the plant is compared with the area devoted to 
other productions, it will be found to be exceedingly small, 
so that the above objection can affect the interests of the farmers 
only very slightly : still, wherever it exists it should be removed, 
and perfect freedom be secured to them in fixing on fields for this 
or any other crop. 

They likewise affirm that the factory measurement always ex- 
ceeds the quantity of land they stipulated to sow. The planters 
admit that the indigo bigha is generally larger than the zemindari 
and government standard, but as the cultivators are perfectly 
aware of the fact they say fraud is not committed or even intended. 
Believing this to be correct, and we have not the remotest idea 
of imputing to them a desire to overreach the peasantry, we yet 
cannot but think it very advisable to assimilate the ind^ acre 
to the measure which is adopted in the same district or county 
for lands devoted to other crops. Though conformable to long 
^tablished usage, it cannot appear otherwise than exceedingly 

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BRITISH SETTLERS, 37 

anomalous, that a field of certain known dimensions, which is 
sown with rice this season, should measure less next year when 
taken for indigo. As the planter pays for the produce by the 
bundle, and not according to the space over which the seed is 
scattered, to perpetuate this singular custom can yield him no 
advantage, and as it is one of the reasons assigned by the farmers 
for their opposition to indigo, to continue it can only excite 
further irritation, and prevent an amicable settlement of present 
differences. 

The fraudulent computation of the produce forms another 
grievance. At the time of cutting the farmers bind the indigo 
in bundles, and with carts or boats convey it to the factory, where 
with a chain which is six feet long two or three bundles are mea- 
sured, and by these the quantity of the rest is conjectured. If the 
stalks of the plant be made to protrude at each end of the bundle, 
and the chain placed over the soft or leafy part in the centre, it is 
possible to press into one bundle what ought to make two, and this 
it is alleged is often done if the factory servants be not bribed. 
Those who have the happiness to be ignorant of the tortuosity 
and fertile resources of Hindu and Mahommedan minds will 
perhaps think these gains are made vnth the cognizance of the 
planter, and carried to his credit ; but it is highly probable the 
utmost precaution is used to prevent him obtaining the least 
knowledge of the fraud. The native agent, who superintends 
the measurement, has persons among the cultivators who, with 
the hope of being well treated themselves and receiving a small 
pecuniary present, readily consent to aid him in the accomplish- 
ment of his designs. These allow more indigo to be entered in 
their names than they have actually brought, with the under- 
standing that the price of it is afterwards to be paid to him, 
and thus by a circuitous route the proceeds of iniquity travel to 
his own coffers. It appears to be sometimes the case that 
instead of counting the bundles in a load, and estimating them 
by the average bulk of three or four, no measurement is taken, or 
any enumeration made, but the indigo is thrown into the vat as 
soon as it arrives at the factory, and the quantity determined by 
the will of the agent, who is prepared to write in the ledger more 
than it really is, if paid, and less, if the douceur be not offered. 
Cannot arrangements be made to prevent this kind of knavery ? 
At the time of cutting the plant persons selected by the farmers 
in conjunction with the planter's agent might make a rough 
estimate on the fidd of the produce ef each cultivator, then 
accompany the carts or boats to the factory, and there see it 
weighed. As in measuring with the chain much depends on 
the strength of the man who compresses the bundle, it can seldom 

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38 BRITISH SETTLERS. 

be a fair estimate of the produce, and is likely to give birth to 
the suspicion of fraud even when there is not the least intention 
of practising it ; this method of computing the indigo crop should 
be instantly abandoned. 

The system of advances is of native origin, and existed ages 
before Englishmen visited India. Just as it has been in force 
from time immemorial^ it prevails with little or no modification 
now in eveiy kind of business. It is adopted by the Govern- 
ment in conducting the commissariat, the department of pub- 
lic works, and the monopolies of opium and salt. Merchants, 
miners, traders, and manufacturers are required to conform to 
this ancient custom, and even householders who need a carpen- 
ter, mason or other artizan to execute a few repairs, are asked 
to pay a portion of the remuneration before the work is 
touched. If then farmers object to this system of indigenous 
growth, which Hindoos and Mahommedans of every class use 
their utmost endeavours to keep in vogue, it cannot be to the 
system itself, but to the manner of its operation, and the conse- 
quences which it entails. The results of which it is produc- 
tive are of a grave and painful character, and if due attention 
be not paid to them indigo must eventually be abandoned, and 
the millions invested in it diverted to other climes. This would 
certainly be a great calamity, for every intelligent English- 
man who is acquainted with inland counties, cannot fail to per- 
ceive how they languish for the want of capital to develop their 
resources, and European wisdom and energy to originate and 
conduct works of enterprise. Then divesting ourselves of all 
feeling arising from difference of race, and with minds uncloud- 
ed by prejudice, let us endeavour to behold the evils of which 
complaint is made in the light in which they appear to the poor 
man who feels their pressure, and in which they would appear to 
us were we in his place. It is stated that a large portion of the 
money paid into the hands of the farmer by the planter himself 
is absorbed by factory servants ; the amount thus ])urloined is 
reckoned by different persons to be half, a third, or a fourth, and 
though it is impossible to ascertain the exact sura it is probable 
it is seldom less than an eighth or a twelfth. Menials in private 
establishments, mercantile and governmental officers extort similar 
gratuities which are surrendered to escape annoyance, trouble and 
vengeance which it is apprehended would be inflicted in case of 
non-compliance. But the custom, however noxious and widely 
spread, was created, and continues to be fostered by the abject 
spirit of the people, consequently the remedy is in their own 
hands. Let them with a calm firmness they have hitherto not 
exhibited refuse to be victimized, and at once point out to the 

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BRITISH SEm.KRS, ' 39 

planter or magistrate the villains who try to wring'from them 
the proceeds of their toil^ and in a few months extortions which 
have been practised for centuries^ will every where cease. But it 
is declared to be almost impossible for a farmer to leave home to 
go to a distant court to lodge a complaint, because in all probabi- 
lity he would be waylaid, beaten, brought back and ruined. In 
nearly every Concern the native agents as a matter of course exer« 
cise some authority. If the planter be not thorouffhly acquainted 
with the vernacular their power is great ; and where there is a^ 
frequent change of managers he is for a time entirely in their 
hands, wholly dependent on them for information about the ac- 
counts and the character of the respective cultivators ; and this in- 
fluence is employed to crush persons who resist their tyranny, 
and to frighten the rest into submission. Hence it happens that a 
vast amount of evil is perpetrated which never comes to light, 
the sufferers deeming it expedient to observe a profound silence; 
We are aware of this deplorable state of things, and yet still re-^ 
commend a bold and decisive step to be taken, for to persons 
who refuse to adopt a manly course of action by bringing their 
grievances to the notice of the executive authorities, the kindest 
masters, the best human laws, and the most competent admi- 
nistrator can be of no service, and the only prospect open to 
them is to bear what oppressors may please to mflict, till death 
terminate their misery. 

Some amendment is imperatively called for in drawing up 
indigo-bonds. A contract is a mutual bargain made wi&out 
force t>r fraud for a legal object, and necessarily supposes the 
stipulating parties are free to deliberate before assenting ; and 
when signed, neither reason, morality, nor law permit abri<^ment 
addition, or change. If one of the parties be rich his wealth 
gives him no power over the document, and if intrusted to his 
care it is not so much from a consideration of his social position: 
as from the belief that he possesses the honour which usually 
accompanies it, and would not for any pecuniary advantage, 
however great, commit forgery, the bas^ of crimes. No change 
can be effected except with the consent of the respective persomr 
who affixed their names, which would be equivalent to cancelling 
the agreement. If this be a right view of such legal instruments, 
inducing the peasantry to sign blank papers which may afters 
wards, as circumstances dictate, be filled up without their cogni- 
zance, is a practice which must be emphatically condemned. We 
do not mean to affirm that it is adopted to swindle the poor out of 
their earnings, or that the document, on which any thing may 
be written as coming from themselves, is held up as a rod of 
iron, to be used^ should they prove restive, to bend them to th^ 



Masch, 1861. a 

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40 bhitish sETn.Eii8» 

will of their oppressors. We are prepared to give due con* 
sideration to the reason assi^ed for its adoption. It is 
pleaded as an apolo^^ for this proceeding, that safficient time 
oannot be commanded, owing to the reluctance of the cultivators 
to give it for an object which they regard as a mere matter of 
form, and as on a large plantation several thousands come to 
take advances on the same day, it is found to be impossible to 
get them to wait till the bonds are properly made out. Here a 
question arises, what is such an instrument worth, and to what 
purpose can it be devoted? Into a court of law it cannot be 
taken, for every judge, except he were ignorant or corrupt, would 
pronounce it invalid. In the hands of the honest planter, and 
rectitude is a general characteristic of our countrymen, it can 
be of no use whatever ; forging the requisite legalities, and sup- 
porting them by the necessary amount of perjury is a thought 
that would never enter his mind, and from which he would 
recoil with loathing and detestation. The impulsive, headstrong 
and reckless may have no proneness to deeds which betoken a 
spirit of reptile-meanness, but the cold, hard, and sordid, who 
can plough up fields of grain, kidnap recusant ryots^ confine 
them in dark holes, beat and starve them into submission, which 
things have sometimes been done, can give no moral guarantee 
of hiB incapability of filling up a blank bond, and turning it to 
his pecuniary profit. To hope he will be moved from villany by 
the ruin, sorrow and anguish it creates around him, is to expect 
grapes from thorns, figs from thisties, and tenderness from stones ; 
for he who wages war against the poor and helpless, lays aside 
the attributes of humanity for those of the fiend. Why then 
go through the farce of signing blank papers of which ninety* 
nine planters out of a hundred possess too much honour to avail 
themselves, and which can benefit only the.bad man that may^ 
as in other communities, now and then come among them? in 
our city-marts, manufacturing towns, and agricultural districts 
at home such instruments have never made their appearance, and 
would be contemned as altogether foreign to the British oharac* 
ter. The early European settlers in India found them in vogue, 
and floating with the stream drifted into the native practice. 
But now the procedure of planters is scanned hj those who 
watch for their halting, and except they intend to mmish stones 
for their enemies to pelt them with, this reprehensible custom 
should be immediately relinquished. The difficulties of altering 
the system may be great but are not insurmountable. Large firms 
n Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, while the works are going 
on as usual, pay the wages of several thousand hands in the 
course of an hour or two ; and, provided the bo4y of the contrati 

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^ere previoOBly written out or printed, whioh might be easily 
done^ and there required to be entered only the position and 
quantity of the land to be sown, the price to be given for the 
produce, and the signatures of the contracting parties, and 
witnesses, a planter, with his European assistants, working hard 
from morning till night, might get through the labour in a day. 
If the area of the Concern be very large, and the distance to the 
chief factory a long journey to many of the farmers, it might be 
divided into several portions, and the business be done in each. 
In this manner all the contracts might be finished in three days 
or a week. To remove the objections which have been raised in 
courts of law owing to such documents being attested only by 
servants, who were not believed to be exactly free agents in the 
matter, two respectable men of the village in which the cultiva- 
tor resides should, on his part, witness and affix their signature* 
to the bond, and the planter have the same number of witnesses ; 
and two copies be made of it, the original to remain with the fac- 
tory records, and the duplicate with the farmer. This would be 
conducting the affair in a business-like way, every thing would 
be as clear as noonday, no misunderstanding could afterwards 
arise, and consequently no suspicion of oppression or fraud. To 
diminish the period occupied in drawing up bonds, it has been 
suggested that a respectable man of each village or division of a 
district might make arrangements with the cultivators, and 
then taking the whole responsibility on himself contract with 
the planter. Something of the kind is done in the opium de- 
partment at Gya and Patna, and in the North West Provinces 
in indigo. As far as the expediting of business is concerned it 
has much to recommend it, but the creating of middle-men, wh6 
have been injurious to the interests of every country in which 
they have ^cisted, and who in the course of time would, in all 
probability, become as fraudulent as the present race of factory 
servants, is a grave objection to it. Whatever removes the 
planter and cultivator to a greater distance from each other 
opens a wide door for the entrance of every thing which is t^ 
be deprecated. It is only when they transact business without 
the intervention of a third party that it is likely to be unac- 
companied with injustice, and prove mutually advantageous. 

Having pointed out the manner in which contracts should 
be made, it may be well to inquire if legal protection be needful 
to insure their fulfilment. Generally speaking, class legislatiotv 
is repugnant to the spirit of justice, inimical to the prosperity 
of a country, and destructive to liberty, and is therefore to l>e 
deprecated ; but sometimes it is called for by imperative necessity^ 
and conducive to the good of the realm. A real statesman will 



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4£ JBRITISH SETTLERS; 

acquaint himself not only with the abstract principles of law, 
but with the characteristics of those portions of the comma* 
nity among whom they are to be brought into operation, and 
will frame measures which combine theoretical knowledge and 
practical wisdom. For example, on the restoration of peace 
after intestine war, he would make a distinction between those sec- 
tions of the nation who to a man stood by the Government in the 
hour of peril, aod those who fought against it ; and if he deemed 
it expedient to disarm those who had been passively or actively 
hostile to the state, he would never subject to the same ignominy, 
those who had devoted their influence and lives to its service. 
These he would regard as a tower of strength, and be rather 
desirous of giving them such an organization as would render 
their services still more valuable in future emergencies. But 
charlatan legislators, for the maintenance of a political formula, 
which, they but imperfectly understand, would treat the loyal 
»nd rebellious alike, and thus, unintentionally, do their best to 
estrange the friends of order, bring back anarchy, and set the 
country in a blaze. Sir Barnes Peacock, Sir Charles Jackson, 
and Sir Mordaunt Wells, by their opposition to the Arms Bill, 
Jiave placed themselves among the wise legislators of the age, 
and all who are capable of comprehending the exigencies of 
our Indian empire^ will offer them the tribute of respect mingled 
with gratitude. 

Whether the circumstances in which the planter is placed be 
peculiar and require special laws to meet them is a question 
worthy of calm consideration. 

If the non-fulfilment of the contract arise from circum- 
/stances over which the farmer has no control, such as the 
failure of the crop owing to the want or excess of rain, 
he should be held in no way responsible for it. Having 
sown the quantity of land for which he stipulated, and delivered 
the crop, whether plentiful or otherwise, which it produced, he 
has virtually fulfilled his agreement, and should the out-turn 
not cover the advances it must be remembered that he has expend* 
ed more than double their amount in rent, ploughing, harrowing, 
weeding, and reaping. In a bad season indigo is a great loss 
to the ryot, and it is not too much te expect that in Bengal as 
in Behar, the other oontracting party should bear some portion 
of the risk. Conridering the small profit realized in a favour- 
able year, for the planter te debit the cultivator with the whole 
of the loss is te make misfortune a reason for the perpetration 
of iiyustice. If be transport his indigo to the Calcutta or 
Xiondon mart the carriers will not be responsible for accidents 
caused by the elements, and to avoid the loss to be apprehended 

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^BRITISH SKTTLERS. 43 

from them he must take the precaution to insure his property. 
Where then is the justice of making the ryot pay, because 
Providence sends unpropitious weather? The scanty crop, in 
the rearing of which he has sustained a pecuniary loss, he 
delivers to the planter, and one would think equity could de- 
mand no more from him ; but he is actually fined for the effects 
of flood and drought, and if unable himself to make compen- 
sation for ravages committed by the elements, the burden falls 
on his children. This brings the farmers under the yoke of 
an interminable servitude, and rouses their angry feelings. Some 
of them are now liquidating the debts of their grandfathers, 
others are greatly augmenting them, and losing all hope of 
gaining their freedom ; and, if the system continue, the next ge- 
neration will waste its energies in vain attempts to repay advan- 
ces made to the present. What little prospect there is of the 
accounts ever being settled may be seen from the evidence given 
before the commission. As all factories have large out-stan- 
ding balances, the following statements relating to one concern 
will enable the reader to form a pretty correct idea of the rest. 
It appears that the balances owing by the ryots to the Bengal 
Ind^o Company, have been from thirty or forty years in accu- 
mulating, and now amount to £77,800; £31,600, it is stated, are in 
the course of being paid off, but the remaining £46,200 are not 
immediately recoverable. Indeed there is a suspicion abroad 
that the planters do not wish these debts to be entirely liquidated, 
as they are said to give them great power over their ten- 
ants : by a sudden demaud for payment, and the threat of 
lodging them in jail if it be not made, they manage it is af- 
firmed, year atler year to force reluctant farmers to cultivate 
indigo. We are not prepared to say out-standing balances have 
never been turned to such account, but we think such use is now 
seldom made of them. The planters as a body, would no doubt 
rejoice if these debts were immediately paid. In many instances 
they would constitute ample fortunes, and enable proprietors to 
return to Europe in affluence, who, if things proceed as at pre- 
sent, may soon be reduced to beggary. Whoever is acquainted 
with the Natives in the way of business, is painfully cognizant 
of their readiness to receive advances, and of their reluctance 
to repay them, either in the shape of cash, labour or produce. 
Knowing these stubborn facts, while we do not discredit every 
thing, we are disposed to make large deductions from reports 
which are circulated to the disadvantage of British Settlers. 

The greatest hindrance to an amicable adjustment of present 
differences will be these out-standing balances. Most of them 
are lawful debts which the cultivators have contracted, and con- 



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fititute a portion of the property of indigo concerns for which 
each successive proprietor has been cha^^ed when he made the 
purchase ; consequently the courts can use their authority only 
to enforce payment, or inflict punishment for its not being ten- 
dered ; and this instead of improving matters would in most 
eases ruin both parties. The only way to remove the impedi- 
ment is for the planter to make concessions like those suggest- 
ed by J. Porlong Esq. On the ryot agreeing to sow indigo for 
five years and completing his enga^ment, to remit the old bal- 
ances, and to prevent similar debts being incurred^ to give him, in 
the event of a £stilure of the crop, a reasonable allowance for 
rent and labour. 

Under the present law the planter has no effectual remedy 
either against the fraudulent practices of the cultivator, or those 
of the ni-disposed and unscrupulous zemindar. Even with a 
decree in his favour he seldom obtains redress, for it is found to 
be almost impossible to execute it. If circumstances be favour- 
able it is probable that the first trial of the case may be finished 
in two or three months. This however may turn out to be only 
one stage in the business ; the defendant has the privilege of appeal 
of which he will perhaps avail himself, and if there happen to be 
many cases on the file, several months may elapse before the suit 
be called for, and when brought on, it may be remanded to be 
tried anew, which will cause further loss of time. At the ter- 
mination of the new trial a special appeal is admissible, and as 
the object of the defaulting ryot is not to obtain a reversal of 
the judgment, of which he may not have the least hope, but to 
cause delay, and prevent the decree being executed, it is highly 
probable that this appeal will be made. When the higher has 
confirmed the sentence of the lower tribunal, and ordered it to be 
carried into force, a notification of the sale of the property, 
consisting of huts, cattle, crops on the field, and grain m 
store, is issued ; then numerous claimants come forward, and 
prove by well concocted documentary evidence that nearly 
every thing was mortgaged to them long before the suit of 
the planter was instituted. It is true that Regulation 11, of 
1806 was framed to prevent such alienation, but it requires, 
and properly too, proof of intention to alienate before attach- 
ment can be made, and as it is very difficult and often impossi- 
ble, as all who are acquainted with the country know, to procure 
proof of such intention, this act seldom affords the plaintiff 
redress. If he be not already weary of the uncertainties of 
the law he may try to get the self-impoverished debtor im- 
prisoned, and, to mend matters, thus throw away more money 
by paying for his maintenance while in jail. 



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BBITISH settlehs. 45 

A judge of the chief Court of Appeal says. * The planter 19 
' obliged to make large advances, and has no security but the good 
' faith of the ryot, who is at the beck and nod of his zemind^ or 
\ mahajun. He has a large interest at stake, and can never 
' recover the loss incurred by failure of the ryot to me^t his en-^ 

* gagement. I may here instance the powerful influence a zemin* 
' dar has over his ryots. When I took charge, as Magistrate of 
' Nuddea, the Baja of Berhampore had a quarrel with Messrs. Hills 

* and White, and forbade the ryots to cultivate indigo, and not a 
^ man for miles round certain factories would take advances. I 
' proceeded to the spot, examined many of the ryots, they had 
' nothing to complain of, acknowledged that they had received 
' liberal advances, but said they would not cultivate indigo any 

* more, though they had done so for years. Nor were Messrs. 

* Hilk and White able to make advances until they had taken the 
' Mehal in Putnee, and paid a handsome salamee to the Riga. If 
' the influence of the zemindar be sufficient to prevent the ryots 
' taking advances, very little exertion of that influence is, I appre* 
' hend, sufficient to make them break their contracts, and it is 
^ from the effects of this baneful influence that planters ought to 
' be protected, for they cannot, under any circumstances^ obtain 
- redress against the real party who causes their loss.' ^ 

Losses arising from similar fraud are sustained in all other 
branches of business. The fellers of timber in the Morungji 
Chittagong, and Burmah are in the habit of receiving advances, 
and of selling the wood to third parties. Large advances are 
also made to dealers in cocoons, and it not unfrequently hap- 
pens that instead of taking them to the manufacturer with 
whom they had contracted they dispose of them at the market 
price to another person, and thus by two sales of the same article 
obtain double its value. In the grain, oil-seed, sugar, hemp, and 
cotton trades, the same dishonesty is constantly practised. 
The sufferer by the fraud might prosecute the rogues in the civil 
courts, but as such prosecution is expensive, exceedingly dilatory, 
and the obtaining of justice quite uncertain, he seldom thinks it 
worth bis while to appeal to those tribunals^ 

As the old law was found to afford no practical remedy for 
the loss and inconvenience which manufacturers, tradesmen and 
others sustained in the Presidency Towns from fraudulent 
breaches of contract by artificers, workmen, and labourers who 
had received advances, the penal Act XIII of 1859, was fruoaed 
to meet the emergency. As in the interior of the country the 
aame evils are experienced in every branch of business a similar 

* Q. Loch Esq. Blue Book, on Indigo Cnltivation in Bengal, pp. 63-4. 

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46 BRITISH SETTLEttS. 

law onght to be enaoied to check them^ and small Cause Courts 
established for its summary administration by European judges ; 
but to be effectual and afford proper security to both capital and 
labour it must be made to reach not only fraudulent contractors^ 
but all persons who are found guilty of seducing them by bribery 
or intimidation to break their engagements.'^ Every individual 
purposing to avail himself of the law, it is urged, should be un- 
der the necessity of sending his contracts to be entered in the re- 
cords of the court, within ten or twenty days after their execu- 
tion, and no prosecution be allowed on bonds presented when 
the period for their registration had elapsed. By a strict obser- 
vance of these provisions it is thought contracts would be drawn 
np on the day tiiey were dated, and not written, as is now some- 
times the case, just before the suit is instituted, and with the 
base design of bringing the defendant to ruin. At first sight 
this appears plausible, but will hardly bear examination. In 
the event of a trial being instituted, all that the due administra- 
tion of the law requires is, that the judge should be furnished 
with irrefragable proof of the bond being genuine, and this is 
secured by its being made in duplicate, and a copy remaining 
with each of the parties, signed by their respective witnesses. 
The most vigilant guardians of such documents are the indivi- 
duals personally interested in them, and who would sustain 
pecuniary loss should they be tampered with. In every part of 
the civilized world this consideration is deemed sufficientlv' 
powerful to make each contractor watchful lest he be overreached, 
and to detect and punish forgery should it be practised. It is 
however contended that this is not enough to protect the rural 
population of India, yet the ryots are not intellectually inferior 
to the peasantry of other lanas. They know the relative value 
of the rupee, anna, gunda and cowrie, and likewise the difference 
between a week and a day, a year and a month ; they marry, 
exercise parental authority, and perform all the duties of life ; 
they enter courts of law as witnesses both in civil and crimi- 
nal cases, and decisions of the greatest importance are founded 
on their testimony; they are pronounced capable of paying 
proper regard to tiieir own interest in growing and disposing of 
every kind of produce excepting one; it is only when indigo is 
in question that the Government considers them children, and 
thinks it advisable to make them register their engagements. To 
give permission to register bonds and afford every facility for 
doing so would be proper, but to render it compulsory would 

* Since the above was written, a law has been enacted wbicb constitutes 
breacb of contract a criminal offence. 

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BAITISU SKTTLERS. 47 

defeat the ends of justice. It is highly probable that in the 
rural districts not three per cent of the people can read^ and the 
number able to peruse a contract^ so as thoroughly to understand 
it, is considerably less. In such a stat^ of things, the best guar^ 
dians of the labouring poor are the respectable men of the vil- 
lage in which they reside, whom they are accustomed to consult 
in all matters of importance, and of whose counsel they can 
avail themselves without the expenditure of money or time; but 
the advice and aid, which, as neighbours, they are ever prepared 
to give at home, they would decline to travel to the record office 
and tender there, so that were the registration of bonds made 
compulsory, there would necessarily arise a class of scriveners, 
composed for the most part of persons who attend the present 
courts, in whom generally speaking little confidence can be placed, 
who falsify documents they are paid to write if the douceur 
&om the opposite party be large, purloin papers from the file and 
place in their stead others of a different character, and can be 
bribed to perform any amount of forgery and perjury that may 
be required. Did the truth of these statements need confirma- 
tion, we might refer to the portrait J. Forlong Esq. has drawn 
of an individual pleader, which is a graphic likeness of the ma- 
jority of the class. That gentleman says : ' I may give you a 
' specimen of their character from what one of the leading mook- 

* tyars of the place said to me two or three years ago. I met the 

* man accidentally, and inquired how he was getting on, he replied, 

* " Very well, but that he was getting too old to carry on the 
' '* business of ceiiiain wealthy zemindars any longer.'^ I said to 

* him, that I thought they were by far his best clients ; he confes- 

* sed they were, but he was too near the ^' Ganges'' or death, to 
' go on with the business. He then acknowledged that it was the 

* rule of the country and the custom, for a mooktyarto tell a 
' witness all he had to say, but added, ^' lam obliged also to get 
' '' all the witnesses, and, worst of all, forge all the documents, and 
' *^ this I cannot go on doing.*' This was stated to me without the 
' slightest concesdment or sense of shame, and as calmly as if the 
' man were talking about the state of the weather. I consider 
' this to be not only a true illustration of the morals of mooktyars 
' practising in the courts, but also a sure indication of what is 
' daily and hourly going on in every court in Bengal.'* 

The consequence of throwing the industrious poor into such 
nq>acious hands can readily be imagined; but suppose honest 
scriveners could be obtained, the magnitude of the business would 
present a serious impediment to its being speedily and properly 

* Indigo Commusion Report, Minutes of Evidence, taken at Kishnivghur, p. 46. 
March, 1861. H t 

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48 BRITISH SETTLERS. 

done, for in one county probably as many as 50,000 contracts 
would have to be written at the same season of the year. In 
1835, this important subject was submitted to the Law Com- 
missioners, when Lord Macaulay wrote an able minute upon 
it, in which he says, 'A great number of registrars would 
' be necessary to conduct the examination into all these agree* 

* ments. And the registrar intrusted with the conduct of such 

* an examination must be no common man. He must be not 
' only a man of sense, but what in this country it is hard to 
' find, a man of independence and integrity, a man who will 

* dare to stand up for a poor native against a rich Englishman. 
' It would be hard to find such functionaries in sufficient num- 
' bers. It would be absolutely necessary to pay them well ; and 
^ after all it may well be doubted whether the advant^es which 
' the labourers would derive from such a system of guardianship 
' would compensate for the journey, the attendance, the trouble, 
' and the loss of time/ 

' The general rule which is followed all over the world is 
^ this, that no judicial verification of a contract shall take place 

* till it is alleged that the contract has been broken. At present 

* it is probable that not one contract in a thousand is in any 

* country on the earth the subject of a law suit. K the immense 
' majority of contracts were not performed without legal investi- 
' gation and decision, the world could not go on for a day.'* 

It is stated the cultivation of indigo is not remunerative, 
and, except when the plant is grown with cereal or oil-seed crops, 
it is generally admitted that the profit is small, but reference 
is sometimes made to the collateral advantages aSPorded the 
peasantry, as being a compensation for the little gain realized 
in favourable years, and for the loss sustained in bad seasons. 
These advantages are the granting of loans without interest) 
the circulation of capital in the districts where factories are 
situated, the payment of household expenses, domestic ser- 
vants, overseers, clerks, ploughmen, labourers, carters, and boat^ 
men ; protection from oppression inflicted by the police, zemin- 
dars, and survey-ameens; acting as arbitrators in the settle- 
ment of family-(jttarrels, assatilts, village-feuds, claims of creditors, 
boundary questions, and things of a similar nature ; rendering 
great pecuniary aid in making wells, reservoirs, water-courses, 
roads and bridges ; and the establishment of hospitals, dispen- 
saries, and schools. Bui such incidental blessings accompany the 
steps of Englishmen wherever they settle, and ought not to be con- 
sidered a justifiable reason for underrating the v^ue of produce or 



♦ ludigo-Cominissioner'g Report, Appendix No. 14, pp. 82-3. 

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BRITISH SETTLEBS. 49 

laboar. They are the fruits of civilization, and can no more 
be sold in the market than rain and sunshine. It is better to 
r^ard these collateral advantages as inseparably connected with 
dur sojourn in India, and strive to augment them a thousand 
fold. 

Previous to the insurrection an increase had been made on 
many plantations in the wages of day-labourers, and also in 
the hire of ploughs, carts and boats ; and though the remuner- 
ation for indigo had a long time been stationary, there was rea- 
son to believe it could not have continued so, and that the far- 
mers would have obtained the real worth of the plant without 
the interposition of the executive authorities of Government. 
Had the contending parties been left to settle between themselves 
the value of this commodity, as they do that of every other, and 
the magistrate used his power only to punish breaches of the 
peace, aud secure to all persons perfect freedom in the exercise 
of their l^al rights, there can be no doubt that the planter^ 
if he found it to be necessary, would have offered the highest price 
be could afford to pay, and the ryot swayed by a regard to his 
pecuniary interests would have accepted the rate, if it appeared 
to him likely to be advantageous. Thus a great change would 
have been quietly effected in this important branch of agricul- 
ture and commerce. Had it happened that they could not come 
to terms, it would have proved that indigo coidd not compete 
with other products, and the millions invested in it would gra- 
dually have found their way to climes more favourable to the 
cultivation of the plant. Non-interference with capital and 
labour is a law dictated by the soundest policy, strictly observed 
hy British statesmen^ and departure from it has ever produced, 
what is now witnessed in Bengal, results of the most disastrous 
character. Had it not been for Mr. Grant's uncalled for inter- 
position, the planters and peasantry would have arrived at an 
amicable arrangement, but the difficulties of making it he has 
increased a hundred fold. He has excited a spirit of contempt 
for the rights of property and the sanctions of law such as had 
never appeared in the provinces over which he presides, since 
they came under our rule, and had he possessed only a portion 
of the talent of an ordinary administrator^ their tranquillity, 
nninterrupted more than a century, would not have been 
disturbed. In the North West Provinces and the Punjab it 
will be found necessary to increase the remuneration for the 
indigo-plant, for the price paid there is not higher than 
what is given here, but Mr. Edmonstone, and Sir Robert 
Montgomery, who have ruled those portions of the empire 
with wisdom, will leave the parties concerned to effect the change 



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60 BRITISH SKTTT.EUS, 

themselves^ and not by insane meddling ruin both capitalist and 
labourers. 

During the last three years rice and other grain have sold at 
prices unusually high, consequently their cultivation has been 
much more lucrative than formerly; this has rendered an increa« 
sed rate of remuneration for growmg indigo absolutely necessary, 
and unless it be given^ no new arrangements that may be made 
ean be of a permanent character. By comparing the profits often 
years' indigo cultivation with those of rice for the same period^ it 
might be ascertained what is needed to make the annual average 
gain of the former equal to that of the latter. As the aug- 
mentation required would not be the same in every district^ and 
would be determined by a variety of circumstances^ no sum can be 
mentioned that would be suitable in all cases. The wisest course is 
to leave the parties concerned to settle the matt«r^ without the in- 
terference of the state. They are fully alive to their own interests, 
and quite capable of forming a sound judgment respecting them. 
There need be no apprehension of indigo £ivin^ to be abandoned 
because the profits i^ized from it are too snuul to afford the ryot 
a higher remuneration for the plant. Speaking of the expense of 
producing it, and of the market-price of the dye, W. Moran Esq. 
says, ' In Tirhoot, for the last three years, the seasons have been 

* moderately favourable, whereas in Bengal, it has been the reverse. 
' In these years, I should say that the average of cost in Tirhoot, 
' exclusive of interest and Calcutta agency chai^^, was about 
^110 rupees a maund, and in Bengal for the same period from 140 
' to 150Rs. But in an ordinary run of years, I should think that 
5 they would make the indigo in both divisions, at about the same 

* cash cost. With the exception of a few Bengal Concems,celebrated 

* for fine quality, there are now scarcely more than ten or fifteen 

* rupees difference between the Bengal and Tirhoot indigo, in favor 
' of the former, Tirhoot indigo having of late improved in 

* quality very much. The average selling price of Bengal and 

* Tirhoot indigo has been for the last three years, say for Bengal 

* 210, and Tirhoot 195 to 200.'* 

We feel persuaded, that the planting enterprise will contribute 
to the material prosperity of the country, and indirectly to its 
spiritual welfare, and therefore wish to see it conducted on a 
larger scale. Instead of regarding it as opposed to religion, we 
class it, when rightly pursued, among other legitimate branches 
of trade, which are not only sanctioned by Christianity, but have 



♦ Indigo Commission Report, Minutes of Evidence, taken in Calcutta, July 
U, 1860, para. 28. 



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BRITISH SETTLERS. 51 

floorished most under its shadow. The gospel and commerce 
have gone hand in hand eighteen hundred years, and cannot 
. now separate as enemies. At present, however, we are nob 
sanguine about the fortunes of the planters, but fear many of them 
will be ruined, and that at home the religious and political world 
will vie with each other in loading them with contumely, for the 
accounts which have been published will doubtless make a deep 
impression, and kindle in the bosoms of the humane burning 
indignation ; but when sophistry, error, and malignitv have 
exhausted their strength, the voice of truth will gain a hearing 
and turn the tide of opinion ; for the English, though liable to 
mighty prejudices, are honest to the core, and when once they 
begin to reason their characteristic love of fair plav will resume 
its influence, and the effusion of their wrath will descend on 
the heads of the real culprits. 

Before concluding this paper we beg to observe, that among 
the boons European Settlers require, none can be more important 
than permission to purchase land in fee simple, unclogged with 
conditions, and a representative government. In other depen- 
dencies of the Crown land has been thus disposed of, and after a 
struggle more or less protracted emigrants have entered the na- 
tional council. Love of freedom, self-respect, prudence, and indo- 
mitable energy gained the battle, and the same qualities will 
achieve the victorv in India. After these changes have taken 
place there will still remain an evil of great magnitude, the gross 
ignorance of the people, which impedes nearly every branch of 
business, seriously affects the administration of justice, and in 
1857 proved sufficiently powerful to jeopardize the British Baj. 
Sound knowledge, both secular and religious, must be given if we 
wish to raise tiie natives, and accomplish the grand purpose for 
which providence committed India to our charge. This is a 
work not for the clergy alone, but in which laymen of every sec- 
tion of the Church have to take a part, and here, as is generally 
the case, interest and duty are united. The gospel brings in its 
train all earthly benefits; in every country where it has been 
propagated it has nourished liberty, trade, commerce,. science, 
literature, and the arts ; so that irrespective of the happiness of 
an immortal life which it communicates, it sheds on all who 
come within the range of its influence a plenitude of temporal 
blessings. When educated and christianized the rural population 
of India will be a noble race, and rank among the finest peasant- 
ry in the world. Such we believe the ryots will one day be. In 
feeling this assurance we do not dream, but cherish a hope 
encouraged by Heaven. The time will come, and may be 
nearer than external appearances would lead us to suppose. 

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52 BRITISH SETTLERS. 

when the mummeries and villanies of a superBtition, which hn^ 
ruled its votaries with a rod of iron for thousands of years^ will 
cease to be acted^ heathen shrines be forgotten^ filthy songs^ 
chanted in honour of filthy gods^ be efiaced from the memory of 
the people^ and the chuich-bell be heard in «very village^ calling 
men to tread the courts of the Lord and hallow the sabbath. 



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LITB&A&Y PARADOX. 53 

AuT. III. — Modem Painters. Vol. V. By Johu Raskin^ M. A., 

London : Smith, Elder & Co. 
2. Homer cmd the Homeric Age. 8 Vols. By W. E. Gladstone, 

M. P. London : J. H. & J. Parker. 
8. History of England from the Fall of Wohey to the Death of 

Elizabeth. 4 Vols. By James Anthony Froude. London : 

J. W. Parker. 
4. History ^ Friedrich the Second^ called Frederick the Great. 

Vols. I. & II. By Thomas Carlyle. London : Chapman & Hall, 

AT first glance it will seem as though it were absolutely im- 
possible that the writers, whose names head this article, 
should have any thing in common. And it will be as well if we at 
once confess, that we have no hope either of forging any new 
links between the subjects of which they have treated, or of 
propounding any novel theory of the universe, which may em- 
brace them all. But the most cursory reader of their recent 
works must have been struck by one peculiarity, which he can- 
not deny to any of them. However interesting the book, 
however numerous and beautiful the new views of things which 
it may have disclosed to him, however great the pleasure he 
has derived from its perusal, yet, in the majority of cases, he closes 
it with convictions diametrically opposed to those which the 
author had hoped to produce in his mmd, or at best, he rises 
with heavy doubts upon the very point which it was the main 
object of the work to establish conclusively. The banks of 
the river were perfect, but it has ended in a quicksand, or, 
worse, in space pur et simple. For instance, there is no work 
on art. Modem or Ancient, at all comparable with the five vo- 
lumes to which Ruskin has affixed the title of Modem Painters. 
They present a somewhat formidable appearance, but are in point 
of fact, entirely free from any technicalities that may not be un- 
derstood by the merest tyro. They are full of original and subtle 
criticism not only on pictures, but on poetry also ; nor can any 
body read them without acquiring both facts and principles, 
whereby he may be enabled to turn what critical power he may 
be gifted with, to better account than the supercilious detection 
of spots in the sun, which is the common criterion of taste. 
Above all, they open a man's eyes to what may be called the 
laws of external form — the laws which regulate the variety of 
shapes and colours taken by clouds, rocks, trees, ' the earth and 
every common sight.' These laws, again, are given in no dry 
scientific definitions, but are derived, traced and illustrated, not 
from pictures only, but from our own everyday experience. And 
lastly, Ruskin's language, though at times undoubtedly marred 
by an absence of self-restraint, and then defaced by an extra- 
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54 UT£RARY PARADOX. 

vagonce verging upon rant, yet is at once copious, perspicuous^ 
and distinguished by an eloquence all its own. 

Such and so agreeable is the road — ^beautified and diver- 
sified in every imaginable way by the genius of its designer. 
Yet it is only the road; and what is the goal towards 
which its maker conceives it to be but the means of conduct- 
ing those who may be tempted to tread it? There are few 
to whom it would not be a mortification to know, that most 
people look on them as being only accidenialljf of any use in 
the world ; that if they were successful in their intentions they 
would be a nuisance, or do positive harm, but that, thanks to the 
fact that their intentions are of far too chimerical a nature ever 
to be realized, or to obtain any dangerous number of parti- 
zans, their exertions and struggles towards those intentions 
can be looked at per se, and may be thus indirectly beneficial 
or not, as the case may be. Our deep sense of the obligations 
owed by the world generally to Ruskin, has already been express- 
ed, and the fruit of his lessons is to be seen in the great pic- 
tures that have been produced in England during the last ten 
years. Yet we should be inclined to retract what we have 
said in pndse of the work, were it possible to conceive the 
world generally abandoning its common sense and adopting 
the faith, which, after all, it is Ruskin's main object to preach 
in it. This creed contains two clauses. " I believe in Turner— 
I abjure all England else,^^ is perhaps the shortest mode of 
conveying it. No painter was ever equal to Turner : but alas ! 
he was an Englishman of the nineteenth century, not a Vene- 
tian of the fourteenth. And great as he was, he could but 
paint, thwarted and dwarfed by the degraded tone of thought, 
feeling and taste, prevalent in English society. Hence his 
shortcomings as an artist — Whence his penurious habits — ^hence 
his lonely and miserable life. The failure and unhappiness of so 
great a man does but point the moral with treble force, that, 
if we do not at once change our whole mode and manner of 
life, if we do not dismiss men-servants from an employ so 
degrading to the viale sex, if we do not forthwith pull our old 
houses down and erect gothio edifices in their room,* if we do 

* This was the original proposition. It appears to have struck onr anthor 
afterwards that it was rather too expensive to be practical. For (if we remem* 
ber right) it is argued in the Edinburgh Lectures. — ** If we cannot do this, we 
«an do something — we can build gothio porches to our doorways." Ruskin 
«ould never defend an architectural incongruity like this on .£sthetic grounds. 
But by a most g^ross misapplication of a Scriptural text, he reminds his hearers 
that they will be thus affording shelter to the poor. Even self complacency 
has its limits : and we have never yet met a man who would feel the glow of 
charity upon him, on the ground, that, when stepping in to his ^Unner, he had 
left a beggar provided with a roof in his porch. 

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LITERART PARADOX. 65 

not spend our money on their outsides^ instead of selfishly 
makbg ourselves comfortable in their interior; above all, if 
we do not utterly and from our hearts abjure the blasphemous 
science of political economy, and in its stead adopt and act 
upon such views as were lately promulgated in certain papers, 
which saw strange light in the Comhill Magazine^ we may no 
longer hope that any good thing will come forth from England. 
Turner himself saw and felt this. ' The age had bound him too 
' in its benumbing round/ And he gave clear expression to the 
bitterness of his feelings, in what to common eyes is a very beau- 
tiful landscape — The garden of the Hesperides — but which really 
is a grand yet melancholy allegory — ^The Assumption of the 
Dragon, in lieu of the Virgin— -deciphered by Ruskin, and tlie 
key to which he now bestows on the nation. Perhaps the 
riddle did not present much difficulty to the man, of whose fancy 
it is the pure invention. 

We have no liking for quotations, yet, lest we should he 
accused of exaggerating or distorting our author's views, we are 
compelled to take a few from the volume of the work published 
during the last year. All acquainted with other works of his, will 
at once be aware that these might be multiplied ad infinitum, 

' So far as in it lay, this century has caused every one of its 
' great men, whose hearts were kindest and whose spirits most 
' perceptive of the work of God, to die without hope — Scott, Keats, 
' B3rron, Shelley, Turner. , Great England of the Ironheart now, 
' not of the Lionheart ; for these souls of her children, an account 
' may perhaps be one day required of her.' 

' All his failure and error, deep and strange, came of his faith- 
^ lessness — faithlessness or despair — the despair which has been 
' shown to be characteristic of this present century, most sor- 
' rowfuUy^ manifested in its greatest men, but existing in an in- 
' finitely more fatal form in the lower and general mind.' Part 
IX. Chapter 12, p. 4. 

Or again. ^ I had no conception of the absolute darkness 
' which has covered the national mind in this respect' (the rela*. 
tion of God to man,) ^ until I came into collision with persons 
* engaged in the study of economical or political questions.' 
Vol. V. page 848. 

' The greatest man of our England in the first half of the 
' 19th century, in the strength and hope of his youth, perceives 
' this to be the thing he has to tell us of utmost moment, con- 
' nected with the Spiritual World. * * * Here in England is 
' our great spiritual fact for ever interpreted to us, the Assump- 
' tion of the Dr^on. No St. George any more t<> be heard 
' of! This child, bom on St. George's day, can only make mani- 



Mabch, 1861. 

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66 LTTERAEY FAttADOX. 

' fest the Dragon, not slay him. The fairy English qaeeo onoe 

* thought to command the waves, but it is the Sea-dragon that 

* commands her valleys. Of old, the Angel of the sea ministered 
^ to them, but now the Serpent of the sea.' Part IX. Chapter 10, 
H. 25. 

So far, we have only quoted passages of prophetic denuncia- 
tion ; the following, though not a whit more absurd, may be more 
certain of provoking a smile. He is speaking of the clouds, but 
cannot resist the chance of an allusion to hk theoiy. 

' But when the storm is more violent they are tossed into 
' fragments, and magnificent revolving wheels of vapour are 

* formed, broken, and tossed into the air, even as the gprass is tossed 

* in the hay field from the toothed wheels of the mowing n^chine, 

* (perhaps, in common with all other invention of the Hnd, likely to 
' bring more evil upon men than ever the Medusa-cloud did, and 
' turn them more effectually into stone.)' Vol. V. page 147. 

We ai^e not among those who consider that Ruskin has set 
burner on a pinnacle one inch too high above other landscape 
painters: w6 sympathize with his indignation in finding, in 
the catalogue of the Royal Aeadeoay for 1^59, CalcoU and Claude 
described as Turner's equals. We have already given a very in- 
adequate expression to our admiration of the book in its parts. 
But what it is our present object to draw attention to, k the 
strangeness of the purpose to which our author desires those 
parts to be sul>servient. The ^bove is a correct statement of the 
whole drift of the work, and it militates so strongly against 
common sense, that it is almost a waste of words to encounter it. 
Ruskin labours, and as no other man could labour : but he seems 
to leave to others the privilege of reaping the fruit of his labours. 
The contusion which most people would draw from a perusal of 
the book, is that great works ha/ve been painted and produced 
during this much abused century. We have already hinted, that 
the appeal to any picture painted by Turner, is not in the 
slightest degiee justified by fact. Ruskin's interpretation both 
of that fable of the Hesperides, and of some others, is as far 
fetched as any in Bacon's Wisdom of the Ancients; with this 
difference, that Bacon's are professedly fanciful. He never ascrib- 
ed to primitive ages the pregnant subtleties of his own brain : 
whereas Ruskin can write concerning the fables of the Medusa, 
Pegamsy Banai and the J)anaids. ' Few of us have thought, in 
' watching its career across on our mossy hills, or listening to 
' the murmur of the springs, that the chief masters of the human 
' imagination owed, and confessed that they owed, the force of 

* their noblest thoughts, not to the flowers of the valley nor the 
' majesty of the hUl, but to the flying cloud.'' (Vol. V. part VII 

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' Uterary paradox. 57 

Chapter 4.) We would add that any appeal to Turner^s life in the 
same caas*e is a wron^, both to the men and to the country 
which he adorned. He lived through and past obloquy into 
wealth ; and that wealth was a substantial proof that there was 
appreciation of bis powers. He found fit audience though few. 
Ruskin has been rather the popularizer and analyzer than the 
discoverer of his genius. And he^ died fulfilling the darling 
object of his lile> presenting his- country with a noble heirloom 
in a gallery of his owi^ worb^^ and bequeathing a sum larger than 
the Ciive Fund to the foundation of a like institution for English 
Artists. Whether he was personally Iwippy or not, is a question 
with which we have nothing to do. Even Ruskin will hardly 
find English Society guilty of determining those points in a, 
man's temper, which go to the making up of private happiness. 
All we wouM insist upon is, that the contemplation of his coui^se 
leads ordinary people to a conclusion, again {H^ecisely opposed 
to that drawn from it by Buskin. For assuredly in his case, 
this vile soul-benumbing nineteenth century did afford its 
opportunities for a great painter to lead a noble life ; nor was 
anything found in it to prevent those opportunities being pushed 
and used to the utmost. 

But there are other sinners in the same direction and on the 
same scale, and amongst them we must include even Gladstone. 
That it has been a labour of- love to him to compose his three 
TcAumes on Homer, and that he has spared no pains to render 
them as exhaustive as possible, is evident to anybody who may 
read the work The first contains a treatise on the ethnology 
of the races to whom, and of whose ancestors Homer sang. 
This we wonld rather treat of in connexion with the third, which 
contains, in the first place, an admirably drawn contrast between 
Greece and Troy as exhibited in the Iliad, and, in the second 
place, (what we must consider as the most valuable portion of the 
work,) a criticism on Homer as a poet, and on the use made of 
him by succeeding generations of poets. The second volume 
is entitled, the Beligion of the Homeric age, and in it is in- 
cluded by far the subtlest analysis of Greek Divinities, as ex- 
hibited by Homer, that has yet appeared. For Gladstone shows, 
on the one hand, more discriminative power than Colonel Mure, 
and, on the other, more imagination — we mean more power of 
truly appreciating the poet's view, — than Grote. But here our 
sympathy must end. The analysis is admirable : but what is the^ 
aim of the analyzer? He has analyzed Homeric Mythology, 
believing that he thereby proves, that in it are to be found clear 
traces of two great revealed traditions ; — ^the tradition of a Tri-*. 
nity, and the tradition of a Redeemer. 

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hi LIT££AJIY PABADOX. 

Now we may follow even the stream of direct revelation, and 
yet find no trace of any such definite doctrine as the former, 
until we arrive at the early Christian Church. We confess, 
if we may be allowed to adopt a similar misapplication 
of modern terms, that we had always looked upon the Jewish 
people, from the patriarchs downwards, as sincere Unitarians, 
and had ima^ned that their retention pf that faith through so 
many centuries of idolatrous paganism, had been at once the 
distinctive mark and the divine privilege of that nation only 
upon earth. Gladstone is somewhat vague as to the source 
from which the tradition is derived. But he appears to have 
a strictly literal belief in the early chapters of Genesis ; and if 
there is any meaning at all in what he implies, the belief in the 
Trinity must have been so strong before the dispersion of the 
world at Babel, it must have owned such vitality, as to colour 
and model a false and corrupt mythology centuries after. We 
hope we are not taking Sydney Smith's name in vain, yet 
we cannot help thinking that he would have exulted and 
revelled over such a proposition. Conceive Enoch and his 
cotemporaries being able to repeat anything similar to the 
doctrinal portion of the Athanasian Creed! or Noah having 
doubts in his youth on the divinity of the Third Person! 
It runs counter to all our ideas to imagine the giants 
orthodox members of the Church. Events are said to recur 
in cycles : and it is possible that the Arian controversy 
was but the repetition of that original of all religious feuds— 
the split between the children of Cain and the children of Seth« 
We trust that irreverence will not be imputed to us on such a 
subject. What we desire, is to bring in as palpable a form as 
possible before our readers, the gross anachronism into which 
Gladstone has been betrayed, at once by his ingenuity and 
his enthusiasm in support of a religious theory. Yet it would 
not be one whit less absurd to charge Job, the first Arab known 
to us, with a leaning towards Mahommedanism, than to argue 
that a formula, which is a deduction, and, we devoutly believe, a 
true deduction from the Gospel, was held as an article of faith 
in the Antedeluvian era. And surely it is more natural to sup« 
pose, that the supremacy of the trio, Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, 
was but the exaltation of the powers that ruled over the three 
unknown, and, to early ages, awful regions, the Heavens, the Sea, 
and the Future World, above the Deities of the common Earth, 
than to suppose with Gladstone that it was the relic of a distant 
doctrine ; even granting (which we do not) that the doctrine of 
the Trinity had ever been fully disclosed, and never lost, among 
the ordained preservers of revelation. 

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LITEBJlRt PARADOX. 59 

Indeed^ the second tradition of which Gladstone seeks and 
finds the traces, was kept alive among the Jews by frequent and 
divine iteration. Yet none the less is it the merest exercise 
of fancy, to explore the realms of Heathen mythology for 
proofs of its vit^ty among other nations. All that Gladstone 
really discovers is, that the early Greeks were not deficient in 
the religions instinct, which led men in all parts of the world 
to believe that their gods can save them in time of trouble. This 
is hardly entitled to the name of a discovery. But what he at- 
tempts to prove is, that the fiinctions of an universal mediator and 
redeemer are to be found distributed amongst three Homeric 
Deities, Apollo, Minerva and Diana, and that though the concep- 
tion of these ftmctions had been corrupted, yet, such as it remain • 
ed, it may be clearly traced up to the primitive revelation of that 
Divine Plan by which man was to be saved. But we all kqow 
that even the Jews did not understand the true purport of the 
prophecies addressed to them. The height of their expectation 
was a heavenly deliverance of their own tribes. Here, then, 
we are brought to the same stop which met us in our consider- 
ation of the first proposition. For in point of fact, that Divine 
Plan, so far from having sunk into the heart of the world 
before Babel, remained a sealed book even to the Jews, until it 
was given to St. Paul to open it, and to expound the riddle of 
past prophecy in full. 

One inconsistency may be worth pointing out. Gladstone 
conclusively proves that the three Deities in whom he supposes 
that the conception of a Redeemer, however degraded and cor- 
rupted in its transmission, is embodied, occupy an anomalous 
position in the mythology. They have special privileges, an 
independence of action, and a purity of sentiment not attributed 
to other Gods. The distinction is a remarkable one, and it is 
drawn out with great refinement of thought. It is stated also 
as tending to establish the truth of his opinion, regarding the 
idea of which they are the representatives. But assuredly 
no such distinctive qualities can be claimed for Jupiter, or even 
for Neptune or Pluto. If representatives of the Tradition of 
the Trinity can find their natural place in a Heathen my- 
thology, the importation of extraneous elements ' is not of 
great force as an argument, to prove that there is a similar 
representation of another tradition derived from the same 
source. 

We fear that we are occupying too much space with a subject 
of little general interest ; and we therefore pass over many other 
considerations suggested to us by this volume. Far more unquali- 
fied praise is due to the chapters, which treat of the morality of 

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60 UTBRAEY PABADOX. 

that primitive age^ Yet even in these a certain obliquUy of pur^ 
poBC is again perceptible. For instance many pages are devoted 
to proving that the damsels of the period did not personally 
assist at the ablations of chance visitors to their fathers or 
husbands. The question is supposed to hinge on a point of 
Greek grammar — the exact meaning of the three voices. It has 
never been denied that they contributed some service^ nor \a 
even Gladstone disinclined to admit that^ for example, they 
filled the tub. He would rather quote such custom as evidence 
of the genuine hospitality then prevalent. But he is naturally 
indignant that an imputation should be thrown on the moral 
purity of his favourite century by mere grammarians. We 
think that be beats the air with perfect success and carries his 
point against all comers. But the disquisition was, we venture 
to hold, supererogatory. Most people consider that we have 
changed for the better since the time of Nausicaa, yet none but 
a German, frantic for grammar, would hold that so marvelloua 
a revolution had taken place in the sentiments of fathers and 
husbands, as would be implied in the supposition, so success- 
fully combated. 

We stated above that it would be more convenient to review the 
first volume in connection with the third. In fact, we believe that 
a thorough refutation of the views propounded in the former is 
by implication contained in the latter. Gladstone refers the origin 
of the Greeks to the fusion of two tribes, the Hellenes who, he 
supposes, came from Persia, and the Pelasgians whom he brings 
from Egypt. Now, the East was without doubt the cradle of 
all Asian or Indo-germanic nations. But it is not in this un- 
deniable sense that Gladstone would stamp an Eastern origin 
upon the Greeks. One main residt of his argument, is to assign 
their immigration into the Archipelago and Europe to a date 
fer more recent, than could possibly be assigaed to the dim and 
and distant movements of the primitive fathers of many na- 
tions. We will not burden our pages with a disquisition on 
a subject interesting to the philologer only. But Gladstone 
has himself furnished us with a conclusive reply. Never has 
the poetry of Homer been more thoroughly appreciated, never 
has his power of delineating character been set in so strong 
and dear a light, never has the ordinary life, social and political, 
of that early ^ge been so subtly deduced or so fully expounded, 
as by our author in his third Volume. And therefore it is that 
we wonder all the more, that the eloquent critic, who feels so 
keenlv the peculiar excellencies of the Greeks, should also be 
the philologer who would refer their progenitors to a directly 
oriental source. For not only are those excellences essentially 

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LITERARY PARADOX. 61 

©f an Earopean character, but they are also, and perhaps by 
consequence, the exact antithesis of the forms taken by all 
Eastern systems of cfvilization. Enough has already been writ- 
ten on the su)]}ect ^{ their religion ; but it may be interesting 
to set in brief contrast the different views take^ by the two 
races on three other points, hardly less telling as te«ts, — Politics, 
Art, and the Treatment of women. 

On the first we cannot do better than quote Gladstone himself. 
The passages selected are also characteristic specimens of his style. 

* But that which is beyond every thing destinctive, not of 
Greece only but of Homeric Greece, is that along with an outline 
of sovereignty and public institutions highly patriarchal, -we 
find the full, constant, and effective use of two great instru- 
ments of Government, since and still so extensively in abeyance 
among mankind, viz, publicity and persuasion.' 

* Amid undeveloped ideas,' rude methods, imperfect organiza- 
tion, and liability to the frequent intrusion of the strong hand, 
there lies in them the essence of a popular principle of Govern- 
ment, which cannot plead on its behalf any other precedent so 
ancient and so venerable.' Vol. III. p. 7. 

Again. 'The speeches which Homer has put into the 
mouths of his leading orators should be tolerably fair repre- 
sentatives of the bast performances of the time. Nor is it 
possible, that in any age there should be in a few the capacity 
of making such speeches, without a capacity in many for receiv- 
ing, feeling and comprehending them. Poets of modem times 
have composed great works in ages that stopped their ears 
against them. Paradise Lost does not represent the time of 
Charles II, nor the Excursion, the first decades of the pre- 
sent century. The case of the orator is entirely diflferent. 
His work from its very inception is inextricably mixed up with 
practice. It is an influence principally received from his audi- 
ence in vapour, which he pours back upon them in a flood. The 
sympathy and concurrence of his time is, with his own mind, 
joint parent of his work. He cannot fttllow nor frame ideals. 
His choice is to be what his age will have him, what it requires 
in order to be moved by him, or else not to be at all. And as 
when we find the speeches in Homer, we know that there must 
have been men who could speak them, so from the existence of 
units who could speak them, we know that there must have 
been crowds who could feel them.' Vol. III. p. 107. 
We shoidd apologize for the length of this quotation, but 
apart from our present purpose, it is of considerable interest as 
containing our greatest living orator's view of his own art* One 
more and we have done« 

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6£ LITEEARY PARADOX. 

^ The king was not the fountain-head of the common life^ but 
' only its exponent. The source lay in the community. So deep- 
' ly imbedded is this sentiment in the mind of the poet, that he 
' could not conceive an assemblage having any kind of common 
' function, without their having, so to speak, a common soul in 
' respect to it. Of this common soul the organ is the ^' Some 
' " body/' by no means one of the least remarkable, though he has 
^ been one of the least regarded personages of the poem. The 
' Some body of Homer is, I apprehend, what in England we now 
' call Public Opinion.' Vol. III. p. 141- 

In these pages the line which our argument would take can 
only be indicated ; but detail is hardly necessary in so striking 
a contrast. Were it true, that the emigration of the Greeks 
from Asia had taken place within any appreciable period, it 
would be impossible that a picture of their political aims 
and practice should be so precisely the antithesis to all the 
desires and tendencies of their oriental kindred. Trace back 
the history of the East to ages more remote than that of Homer ; 
and you will ever find, in lieu of publicity, the same irresponsi- 
ble secrecy, in lieu of persuasion, the same imperial disregard of 
the common herd, which mark Eastern despotisms to this day. 
Contrast the liberty of repionstrance, repartee, and even, as in 
the case of Thersites, of coarse invective, allowed to dissenti- 
ents from Agamemnon — contrast the spirit involved in the 
very existence of oratory at all — with the timid apologues in 
which the most venturesome of oriental courtiers occasionally 
plucked up courage enough to shroud advice. Or imagine a 
Pharaoh controlled by public opinion ! In the West the gover- 
nors ever considered the will of the governed as the main thing 
to be studied, if not to be followed : in the East the tendency 
was ever to invert the relation. Even granting that there was 
no original difference in race, yet the operation of physical 
agencies upon man, though sure, is slow. And centuries must 
have lapsed, before two such full-blown variations on a common 
ancestry, as the Persian and Egyptian types on the one hand, 
and the Greek type on the other, could have been brought about 
by differences in the climate, the soil, and the conformation of 
their respective countries. 

With regard to the second point, it would be easy to 
expatiate upon the contrast between the poems of Homer him- 
self, and all the early literature of the East. In brief, the object 
of the former was to set before his hearers lively types of inde- 
pendent and individual character, or rather his object was to 
give pleasure. But our argument is all the stronger, if it was on 
account of its beingthe surest method of giving pleasure to hid 

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LITERARY PARAI>OX. 6S 

audience, and not of his own fancy only, that the poet founded the 
interest of his story on the marked characteristics of a few indi-. 
vidoals. The object of the early Eastern sa^ was ever to glori* 
fy the system into which all individuality should be absorbed; 
to set forth in striking opposition the insignificance of the hu- 
man unit, as compared with the grandeur of the whole of which it 
was its privilege to form a part. And in all we know of their 
lighter literature^from theSakoontald down to the Arabian Nights' 
Entertainment, no man is ever painted as carving out a path or 
career for himself. Riches and beauty are his sole desires : and 
these are granted only by the favour of fortune or the sport of 
princes. But a less hackneyed illustration may be found in the 
contrast between the shield of Achilles, and the Art of Egypt. The 
shield was forged by the God Vulcan for the greatest of heroes, and 
may fairly be taken as the ideal of the Greek Sculptor in the Ho- 
meric age. It was divided into eight compartments, each con- 
taining a separate scene in bas-relief. One may be quoted in 
extetuo. 

On it an ordiard next he placed, all beautiful and golden, 
Laden with luscious crop of grapes, dark were the dusters on it. 
On either side a dark blue ditch ; around a fence he carried 
Of tin ; a single narrow path led thro the field to reach it. 
And tender maids & striplings slim with gentle heart of childhood. 
Did in well-woven baskets bear the fruit as honey pleasant. 
And in the midst of them a boy on shrilly lute was harping 
Delightsome, and with tiny voice replied in dainty ditty. 
The others to the tune beat time & nummed& skirled <& bounded.* 

Another may be looked npon as almost the model of one of 
those pictures, hung by our great modern Poet upon the walls of 
. the Palace of Art. 

One was the reapers at their sultry toil. 

In front they bound the sheaves. Behind 
Were realms of upland, prodigal in oil. 
And hoary to tne wind. 

In the other compartments were represented a siege, a court of 
justice, the ploughing of a field, the attack of a lion on a herd, 
a dance in a copse. It will be at once evident that even at that 
early period the aim of the Greek artist was to ' hold the mirror ' 
up to Nature and human life; to reproduce common things, trust- 
ing solely to truth, and the mode of composition for pleasing 
effect. 

* Iliad XVII. 561-572. We introduce our readers to the most recent attempt 
to translate the nntranslateable, that by Mr. Newman. The sole merit of the 
peculiar unrhymed metre which he has chosen is, that it admits of a more literal 
and complete rendering than is attainable under more difficult conditions. Its 
faults are obvious. It is as incapable of elevation or dignity as the Trochaic 
lilt of Hiawatha. 

Mabch, 1861. K 

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64 LITERARY PARADOX. 

Now as in literature, so too in art, the aim of the East watf 
entirely opposed to this nature painting tendency. — The eastern 
artist loved to create forms transcendent above man — to translate 
such ideas as those of unreached repose, of imperturbable calm, 
of eternal duration, into shapes, colossal and magnificent indeed, 
but of a set and rigid conventionality. Occasionally, as in As- 
syria, they even sought the aid of allegory. 

- MaiTs head for wifidom and all cunning plans 
Of intellectaal migkt^ the lion's limos 
Speak massive strength^ the win^ ubiauity^ 
The whole, a giant both to will and «u>.* 

Their desire was, in short, not to ]Jease, but to overawe the 
imagination, and to this day what has survived ^f their work 
retains its ancient power of doing so. Is it possible that the 
nation, which in its infancy found delight in such pictures as 
those engraved on the shield, was, within any appreciable degree 
of relationship, (for we held that we are all children of 
Adam,) connected with the nation which designed the Sphynx ? 

Turn now to the third point— their social life — ^best shown in 
their treatment of women, and the differences between the two 
will be yet more glaring. Ulysses is supposed to be dead — would 
be held as deceased even by English law. Tet Penelope is no 
chattel belonging to her husband's family ; neither is she hand- 
ed over to the eldest surviving brother ; nor is hw influence 
limited to such as she might exert within a seraglio. She is 
regent in open day; and though it is certainly expected that 
a rich young widow, who holds so important a position in the 
world, wiH not abide in widowhood, yet she has free range of 
choice among the numerous suitors of her own degree. The posi- 
tion of a woman supposed to be a widow was manifestly not an 
unpleasant one. Or let us take the instance of a woman unmar- 
ried and perhaps eighteen years old. Nausicaa not only goes with 
her maidens into the country unattended, but when there, with a 
dignity and composure which prove that she was not overstep- 

Eing the recognized limits of maiden liberty, tenders her father's 
ospitality to a stranger, whose only introduction is a some- 
what rude, though unintentional interruption of her amusements. 
Even the authoresses of the Timely Retreat might find some- 
thing to envy in this freedom. She then ventures upon banter, 
and demands ' salvage ' of the man whom she pretends she has 
saved from drowning. The pleasing picture is marred by a 
single blot, and we have not to look far to find this too repro- 
duced in modern Society. She fears that if she enters the city 
with Ulysses, censorious tongues will put it about that she is 

• Prize Poem, Nineveh. Rugby, 1857. 

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LITERARY PARADOX. Oo 

going to be married to him. 'Thej' will say who is this tall 

* and handsome stranger with Nausicaa? Surely she is going to 
' become his bride. Truly she has picked up some gallant from afar 
' who has strayed from his ship : or some god has come down to 
' wed her. Better it were if she found a husband from abroad^ since 
' verily she looks down upon her Pkoeacian suitors^ though they 
' are many and noble. — Thus shall I come to disgrace^ and, indeed, 
' I myseli should be^ indignant with any one who would so act.* 

It will scarcely be believed that this is only a literal transla- 
tion of the lines * in which Homer conveys the sentiments 
passing through Nausicaa's mind upon the subjects The sequel 
is that her father rebukes hef tbv a breach of hospitality 
in not having brought her friend home in her own company. 
This simple story speaks volumes- for the liberty permitted to 
the unmarried maidens of that period* Of widows we hav« 
already spoken. Nor were wives worse off. The farewell of 
Hector to Andromache, perfect as poetry, is from this point of 
view valuable also as history. Gladstone truly write?, the 
^ general tone of the vekttions of husband and wife in the Hom- 

* eric poems is thoroughly natural : it is full of dignity and warmth ; 
' a sort of noble deference, reciprocally adjusted according to the 
*- positicMi of the giver and the receiver, prevails on either side. 

* I will venture to add, it is full also of delicacy.' And again 
' It is on the confidence exchanged between them, and the loving 
' liberty of advice and exhortation from the one to the other.* 
The Greeks moreover were all monogamists, nor was coneubi*. 
nage a recognised institution aoumg them. At any rate it is 
certain that it was never allowed within the precincts of the 
femUy. ' When Laertes purchased Eurydea, we are told that he 
' never attempted to make her his eoncubinev anticipating the re-> 

* sentment of his wife/ (Vol. II, 498) War was doubtless in this re- 
spect woman's greatest enemy : she then became the prey of the 
strongest. — Briseis the widow of a prince, is thus compelled to share 
the bed of Achilles: nor is this matter made much better by Glad- 
stone, who defines her position as that of 'bride elect.' But 
we must separate between the danger and suffering which uni- 
formly dogs the weak in times of violence, most of all too, after 
the sack of a city, and what belongs to the time of Homer, in 
particular. It is also well worthy of remark that the deity who, 
after Jupiter, stands- fij*st in Homer's estimation, is a goddess, 
Minerva. Lastly, the respect with which Helen was treated, and 
the delicate avoidanee of all unpleasant topics in her presence, has 
frequently been noticed, though it has never been traced with a 
more loving and tender pencil than Gladstone's. Indeed he 

• Ody.«$ey, VI. 27o-285. 

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66 UTEIIARY PARADOX, 

takes a view of her character not unlike that taken by some of 
the enthusiasts of Waterloo Place with respect to their fallen 
pisters in London.* She is drawn as the prototype of our mo- 
dern Ti-aviatas. Plucked as brands from the burning, they are 
treated as though the fire through which they have passed 
has been beneficial. Their fell has developed interesting 
traits, which are wanting in the dull common place character 
of self-supporting virtue. Surely Gladstone has fallen into a some- 
what similar error when he winds up a very beautiful analysis 
of Helenas character, as conceived by Homer, with the following 
sentence : * In the whole circle of the classical literature, there is 
' nothing that approaches so nearly to what Christian theology 
' would term a sense of sin, as the humble demeanor and the seU- 
' denouncing, self-stabbing language of the Argive Helen.' Vol. III. 
p. 612. We see then that women in the earliest age of Greece, in 
every possible position, — whether that of maid, wife, widow, or 
wife eloped, — enjoyed an amount of consideration, respect and 
freedom, tlie parallel to which is only to be found among Teutonic 
and Christian nations. An appeal to all history, and to our own 
present experience, is sufficient to point the contrast between 
such a relation of the sexes as we have just described, and the 
degradation under which women have ever been depressed even 
among those oriental nations, furthest advanced as regards other 
tests of civilization. 

We hope that we have both explained our meaning clearly, 
and made out our case. Gladstone refers the origin of the Greeks 
directly to the East. It has been shown from their earliest 
record, that, even in their infancy, their aim and practice, 
with regard to three most characteristic points, were wide as the 
poles from those then and since obtaining in the East. Furthei", 
Gladstone finds elements of revealed tradition, also derived from 
the East, in Greek mythology. We have given the train of 
argument which leads us to disagree with him. Yet we confess 
our great obligations to the work, and have, in fact, drawn our 
principal arguments against the conclusions urged in it from the 
armoury supplied by it. Indeed if our aiTow were not fledged with 
feathers from the eagle's wing it would be idle to aim at the 
eagle. — ^With respect to two of our great living critics, are we not 
then justified in asserting that the only portion of their books for 
which we are not thankml, is the purpose for which they were 
written ? 

If we turn to living historians we find the same tendency to 
paradox. ' Fronde's palimpsest' is known to all. But it has not 

• The error of these moon-light Missions, have been con8t4mt)y exposed in the 
Satnrday Review. 

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LITKRARY PARADOX. 67 

perhaps been so generally noticed that the wittiest, severest and 
most vigorous article that has appeared for years, waa devoted to 
its coniiitation in the 'Edinburgh,' for July 1858. Froude has been 

{'ustly called by no less an authority than Kingsley, Hhe greatest 
iving master of English prose.'"^ He is also a master accom- 
plished in the sophistical art of instilling impressions far 
stronger than are warranted by facts, even as related by himself, 
of conveying, by implication and choice of ambiguous language, 
more than he directly states. Few readers therefore will not be 
glad that so strong an antidote has been provided for them. 

But neither history nor review guide us to any conclusive 
settlement of the point at issue between them, the character 
of Henry VIII. The review is simply negative, and Froude 
in this respect stands upon vantage ground. He has a 
right to urge against those who refuse to accept his esti- 
mate of that monarch, the inconsistency of their own concep- 
tions. He may plead that though it may be difficult to recon- 
cile his view with certain facts, yet that at any rate it is not self- 
contradictory. A theory is not only more philosophic, but 
more likely to be true, which only presupposes that a few facts 
have been misinterpreted or misstated, than one, by which two 
or more ideas of the same person, mutually destructive of each 
other, are held at one and the same time. And that the latter 
is a true description of the view commonly held concerning this 
king and his age cannot well be denied. In it are included, 
first, the bluff king Hal — the John Bull of that period — a 
conception perhaps derived from Holbein as much as from his- 
tory : then the student of belles lettres and friend of Wolsey, the 
^ chivalrous rival of Francis I, the knight unequalled in the lists, 
the hero of the field of Cloth of Gold. Then there is the hard- 
working man of business. With these must be fused not only the 
Blue-beard of our infancy, but also the bloodthirsty tyrant, the 
murderer of Cromwell, of the Countess of Salisbury and of Surrey. 
Again, room must be found, on the one hand, for the high 
spirit and patriotic energy, which (in Hallam's words) broke the 
chain of superstition, and burst asunder the prison gates, and 
to which the B;eformation and Protestant liberty of thought are 
due ; and on the other hand, for a capricious and cruel intolerance 
with which the royal writer of an eloquent pamphlet in defence 
of the Papal supremacy, sent More and Fisher to the scaffold for 
refusing to sign a test, in which that supremacy was deduced 
directly from the devil. A less personal, but hardly less difficult, 
contrast is to be found in oppressive statutes, repudiation of loans, 

* la the article on Sir Walter Raleigh. MiscoUanies, VoL I. 

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68 IITEBABY PAHADOX. 

and bloody vagrancy acts^ on the one side^ and in a content on the 
other side^ so general^ that no wide advantage was taken of the 
opportunities offered for a national insurrection by a great religious 
crisis^ amongst a people who, if the common view be correct, were 
labouring under an intolerable tyranny — a tyranny, too, suppoi'ted 
in entire absence of its necessary prop and engine, a large stsmdin^ 
army. It is clear that the monarch and men, of whom we hold 
vaguely such irreconcileable ideas,are not really understood by us at 
all. Froude's solution is sweeping enough, consisting in an entire 
reversal of the popular conception of Henry. Looking on his whole 
career, posterity has been led to think that the good that resul- 
ted from his reign was wholly independent of his will — the evil 
was all his own. A man of hot passions, and sudden, violent 
resentments, he allowed neither Pope, nor wife, nor friend, nor 
servant to stand in the way of their gratification. It has been 
stated above that this view appears to us to be tantamount only 
to a confession of ignorance. Yet we would sooner so confess 
our ignorance, than adopt the theory which Proude would subs- 
titute for it. A more complete metamorphosis cannot well be 
imagined. Henry is transformed into a cool, wise, farseeing 
pilot of the reformation, through the storms and sunken rocks 
which encountered it at its outset. Nothing but the force of his 
character, ruthlessly <;utting away, root and branch, all that 
might in any way impede, or precipitate its progress, could have 
tided England over the crisis. A man of natural feeling would 
have been unequal to the task. The immolation, upon the altar 
of public duty, of five wives, of two prime ministers, of much of 
the best blood of his realm, of Potestant friends who are danger- 
ous only because they outrun the national movement, of catholic 
friends who are dangerous only because they lag behind it, would 
have been too heavy a demand upon any man not specially gifted. 
Accordingly the story of his life proves that Henry was provi- 
dentially blessed with a physical temperament cold to an almost 
unexampled degree. Desire, love, and friendship were mere names 
to him, compared with this sense of royal responsibility. ' Dri- 
' ven,' indeed, * by a tragical necessity** (of providing an 
heir to the crown) ' he looked on matrimony as an indifferent 
' official act which his duty required at the moment.^f ' He 
' regarded a queen as part of the state furniture existing only to 
' be the mother of his children.^J His heart (in the vulgar 
phrase) was in the wrong place. But in this frigidity of feel- 
ing lay his strength. For he* was thus enabled to bring England 



• Vol. III. p. 261. 
t Vol. II. p. 608. 
j Vol. IV. p. 132. 



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UTEEARY PARADOX. 69 

to the haven where she would be : to carry the commonwealth 
safely through to the goal on which his eyes and the eyes of the 
nation^ were set, as little deterred by the numerous victims with 
whom his path was, * inevitably' strewn, as the car of Jugger- 
nauth itself. The summary given by Fronde of the character 
of his minister Cromwell is far more applicable to his conception 
of Cromwell's master. For it need hardly be observed that, if so 
trenchant a policy, as is therein described, could be carried on 
during eight most eventful years, without the King's dictation, 
the theory, which would look upon the king as the ruling spirit 
of the age, falls to pieces of itself. 

' He had taken upon himself a task beyond the ordinary 
' strength of man, and he supported his weakness by a determina- 

* tion which imitated the unbending fixity of a law of nature. 
' He pursued an object, the excellence of which, as his mind saw 
' it, transcended all other considerations, the freedom of £ngland 
' and the destruction of idolatry : and those who from any motive, 

* noble or base, pious or impious, crossed his path, he crushed, 
' and passed on over their bodies.' Vol III. p. 2£5. 

A parallel passage to be more directly referred to Henry, is to 
be found in the reflection on Fisher's Execution. Vol II. p. 378. 

' Poor human nature presses blindly forward with the burden 
' which is laid upon it, tossing aside the obstacles in its path with 

* a recklessness, which in calmer hours it would fear to think of.' 
And again Vol IV. pp. 116^7. 122. 

'Justice was the ruling principle of Henry's conduct; but it 
^ was justice without mercy.' * The traitor, though his crime 

* was consecrated by the most devoted sense of duty, was dis- 
^ missed, without a pang of compunction, to carry his appeal 
' before another tribunal.' ' The nation, grown familiar with 
' executions, ceased to be disturbed at spectacles, which formed, 

* after all, but a small portion of their daily excitements and 

* interests.' 

It is not intended to offer more than a few remarks, suggested 
by the perusal of a history pervaded with this paradox. First, 
we are asked to exchange our old image of the hasty capricious 
and impetuous Tudor tyrant for an incarnation of a passionless 
inexorable Destiny. Such a hero may suit the taste of Carlyle and 
his last, though not least extravagant, disciple. But we venture to 
affirm, that ordinary readers will not bow down before an idol which 
presents so few real features of warm flesh and blood. — ^The repre-* 
sentation we have given of the new portrait is in no way over- 
coloured. Apart from our few quotations, a yet more confident 
appeal might be made to the general impression left upon the mind 
by dwelling upon it. All that may tell in favour of his personal 



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70 LITERARY PARADOX. 

character^ is carefully brought before us. Yet signs of compunction 
or grief for the necessary victims are few indeed. It was * a 
' special act of clemency' when More was doomed to the block 
instead of the gibbet. Morels acceptance of this ' tender mercy' 
is characteristic. ' God bless all my posterity from such par- 
' dons.'* No response was made to Cromwell, when he sent ' a 
* more passionate appeal than is often read in those days of haugh- 
' ty enduranoe.'t The most affecting letter ever penned by woman 
is that from Anne Boleyn to the king4 She was the only wo- 
man he ever loved.& Yet he remarried the day after her exe- 
cution. ' Fisher, bishop of Rochester, was past 80/ the Coun- 
tess of Salisbury not less advanced in years, when they were led 
to the scaffold. Our readers have the option of referring nume- 
rous acts such as these to a man so thoroughly engrossed in a 
noble purpose, that he sacrifices to its accomplishment, or to an 
austere sense of justice, his own feelings, which, by a fortunate 
providence, are naturally thin and chill ; or to a man in whom 
old affection and natural sentiment are obliterated by immediate 
resentment. Looking at the question a priori and setting the 
evidence aside for a moment, most people will hold that, of the 
two, the latter is the interpretation more couEistent with human 
nature. 

But there is a radical error in the mode in which the events 
of the reign are handled by Froude. He does not observe the 
golden jrule, which holds no less in reading the deeds of men of 
action than the opinions of men of letters. He does not inter- 

Eret his hero by himself. He fails to illustrate the course taken 
y him on one occasion by his conduct in any similar conjunc- 
ture. There could not well be a graver omission in treating of 
a reign, in which divorces, executions, and changes of ministry 
repeat themselves within such narrow intervals. It is true that a 
chain is no stronger than its weakest part. One link being broken, 
the remainder is valueless. But accumulative evidence is not 
fairly described as a chain. It should rather be compared to a 
number of separate lines converging on a common centre. They 
must be looked at together, or the force of their tendency is missed. 
But Froude on the contrary behaves much like a skilful barrister 

• Vol. 11. p. 878. 

t Vol. III. p. 521. 

X Vol. II. p. 480. and Hume VoL II. Note 9. — ^In the first edition Froude 
eharacterizes this letter u ' unbecoming' — In the second he appends a note, 
in which he states that the more he examines it, the more he doubts its authen- 
ticity. But he allows that he has no good reason for this doubt. Probably, the 
longer he looked at it, the more awkward he found it in connection with his 
theory. ' 

§ According to Froude. Vol. IV. p. 132. 

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LITERART PARADOX. 71 

when there is a mass of circumstantial evidence \ying against his 
client. He shows how each fact, taken singly^ may carry a different 
construction from that put upon it by the opposite ^ide. But he 
does his best to avoid and ignore the concurrent bearing of all 
the circumstances, taken together. It may be remarked that in 
this point of view there is some policy shown in the choice of 
the moment at which the history commences, and in its publica- 
tion in separate volumes. It would have been difScult to defend 
the tactics, principles and benevolences of Wolsey's administra- 
tion, or to reconcile them with the idea of a paternal government. 
And the case of Anne Boleyn was laid down before the reader, 
entirely isolated from its parallels. Once indeed, when the cloud is 
gathering over the fifth marriage, the historian * involuntarily 
' pauses.** But it is only for the en unciation of a sentiment. H e 
calls attention to the ^symmetry't which^had marked Henry's 
domestic troubles. Catharine of Arragon, a foreign Catholic, and 
divorced, is balanced by Anne of Cleves, a foreign Protestant, also 
divorced. Anne Boleyn, an English Protestant and beheaded, is 
balanced by Catharine Howard, an English Catholic, also beheaded. 
The degrees of misery are, as it were, shaded off, on either side, from 
the central Jane Seymour, who died a Queen on her bed, through 
the neutral tints of divorce, to the deep shadows of violent death. 
We do not admire the figure ; and plead guilty to having drawn 
out the metaphor in order to show our dislike to it. But we 
think that it might, at any rate, have led its author to observe 
that there was a corresponding ' symmetry' of revolutions and 
executions. The divorce of the Catholic Queen led to the fall 
of Wolsey, the Catholic minister, and the deaths of More, Fisher, 
and many others. The divorce of the Protestant Queen, led to 
the fall and execution of a yet greater than Wolsey, the Protes- 
tant minister, Cromwell, to the rise of Gardiner, and to the 
deaths of the protestant preachers, Barnes, Gerard, aud Jerome. 
The relatives of Anne Boleyn seem to have saved themselves by 
a participation in her trial and sentence. But> in order to be 
sure of catching the right man, Henry executed no fewer than 
four. And Hume not unnaturally attributes the attainder of 
Norfolk, and the execution of the accomplished Surrey to the frail- 
ty of Catharine Howard. It may be that the periods at which it 
was requisite to 'spur on flagging reformers,* by a persecution 
of the Catholics, coincided with the periods at which Henry 
had a personal quarrel with the latter party. It may be that 
the periods at which it was requisite 'to hold back ardent 
' reformers,' by the strong bits of stake and scaffold, coincided with 

• Vol. IV. p. 130. 
t Vol. IV. p. Ul. 

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72 MTERARY PAUADOX* 

the periods at which Henry had discarded his Protestant wives. 
But there are few, who, dwelling on the ^ synunetry' of his 
career, will not think that the relation between Henry's private 
life on the one hand, and these religious and political persecutions 
on the other, more nearly resembled that of occasion and its use, 
if not of cause and effect, than that of mere coincidence. Froude 
indeed allows the existence of a single link between his public acts 
and domestic sorrows, and one only. It was the ardent desire 
of the nation that an heir to the throne should be born. To 
this Henry sacrificed his love for Catharine and his devotion to 
Borne. And it is hinted, though hardly expressed, that his dis- 
appointment at the miscarriage of Anne Boleyn in the case of a 
male child, caused the low beginnings of an estrangement in the 
breast of the patriotic monarch. Nor even after Edward's birth, 
was ' one fragile life sufficient for the satisfaction of the people. 
^ The universal demand for a Duke of York was the sole motive 
' that constrained hini into re-entering a state, in which every 
' experiment was but a new misfortune.' On one of these latter 
occasions indeed he lost no time about it, ^ Anne of Cleves 

* being pensioned off, the King married without delay or circum- 
' stance, Catharine, the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard.' 
Indeed the whole history is marred by one great deficiency. 
Froude possesses imagination, sentiment, love of research, and 
eloquence in the highest degree. But he lacks, what great 
English authors rarely lack, humour. Whenever the reader 
smiles, it is at the author, never with him. An illustration will 
convey our meaning better than pages of metaphysics. He 
desires to prove that the divorce of Anne of Cleves, was looked 
upon as a right and proper act in Europe. In support of thia 
view, he quotes the following accounts of the reception of the 
tidings by Francis I, and the Emperor Charles V. ' Sir Edward 
^ Kame made the communication to Francis, prefacing his story 
' with the usual prelude of the succession, and the anxiety of the 
^ country that the king should have more children. Even at that 
^ point Francis started, expecting that something serious was to 

* follow. Sir Edward went on to say that the examination of the 
' king's marraige was submitted to the clergy. '^ What" he said 
* ''the matrimony made with the queen that now is?" then he 

* fetched a great sigh and spake no more till the conclusion^ when 

* he answered " he could nor would take any other opinion of his 

* '* highness, but as his loving brother or friend should do. For the 
' '' particular matter his highness' conscience was judge therein." ' 
' The Emperor,' wrote the resident Pate, ' when I declared my 
' commission gave me good air — saving that suddenly as I touched 
' the pith of the matter, thereupon he steadfastly cast his eye 

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triLRAUY PARADOX. 7S 

' upon me a pretty while, and then interrupting me demanded 
' what the causes were of the doubts concerning the marriage 
' with the daughter of Cleves. At the end, he contented himself 
' with expressing his confidence that as the king was wise, he 
' was sure he would do nothing which should not be to the 
' discharge of his conscience and the tranquillity of his realm/ 
Vol. III. p. 513-14. 

Surely the contrary inference is to be drawn from these minute 
narratives. It would appear that a trial of Henry by his peers 
would have resulted in a verdict not very dissimilar from that 
passed by posterity upon this point. Francis, exclaiming ^ what 
the wife that now is' and Charles looking his informant steadily 
in the face, both alluding with scarcely covert irony to Henry's 
connubial conscience, are not bad representatives of the feelings 
roused at the present moment by Froude's elaborate defence of 
his hero's married life, A very slight modicum of humorous 
perception would also have saved him from such sentences as 
these. 

' It was not that he was loose and careless in act or word. But 

* there was a bimness-like habit of proceeding about him, which 

* penetrated through all his words and actions, and may have made 
' him as a husband, one of the most intolerable that ever vexed 

* and fretted the soul of woman.' Vol. IV. p. 132. 

' It would have been well for Henry VIII. if he could have 
^ lived in a world in which women could have been dispensed with ; 
' so ill, in all his relations with them, he succeeded. With men he 
' could speak the right word, he could do the right thing ; with 
' women, he seemed to be under a fatal necessity of mistake.' VoL 
I. p. 459. 

The best argument in the world could hardly stand agains»t 
so fatally ridiculous a sentiment as the last. . 

It is with much difiidence that we hazard a criticism on so 
beautiful a style. Yet, perhaps, had the author been possessed 
of more humour, a larger proportion of simple English idiom 
would be found infused into what is now a perfect model of uni- 
form stateliness, and of earnestness sustained throughout at a 
noble pitch. 

Concerning Fronde's general estimate of England under the 
Tudors, we would only remark, that though it must be con- 
ceded that the picture is painted en couleur de rose, yet he 
compels our attention to a fact which his critics often seem to for- 
get. If the Government was unenlightened, the subjects were 
in a no less dark state. Men living in the days after Adam Smith 
are hardly able to conceive the days before that greatest of re- 
volutionists. In the Tudor times, feudal and traditionaiy privileges 



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74 LITRKARY PARADOX, 

still survived ; and the people could scarcely have been rendered 
miserable by the non-fullilment of wants and hopes, which could 
hardly even have crossed their dreams. Many laws and customs, 
which now wear the aspect of intolerable limitations of common 
liberty, or of proofs of a partial class-legislation, may then have 
appeared to be only in strict consonance with the natural order 
of things. 

But enough has been written to indicate the grounds on which 
rests our original assertion, that as in the great critical works of 
the day, so in this popular history, though there is much to 
interest, there is little to convince. The world delights in the 
book, declining only what it was written to enforce. But let us 
turn now from the neophyte in Hero-worship to the hierophant 
of the creed. ^' Audi/actnus majoris abollaJ' 

It has become a mere commonplace to say, that no living 
thinker has stamped his own genius so indelibly upon the litera- 
ture of this century as Carlyle. His power of imaginative and 
humorous sympathy, penetrates so deeply into motives and 
character, that, whether in history or in biography, he always 
seems (if we may adopt his own pregnant phrase)^ to be fashion- 
ing from the heart outwards, not from the skin inwards. And 
part of the truth contained in the commonplace is, that ever since 
the publication of his works, it has been the habit of all historians 
and critics (save those who were then past growing) at any rate 
to attempt to do the same. It is due to his influence that the 
brilliant antithetical mode of portraiture is no longer admired, as 
a sufficient rendering of men or of generations of men. Such bio- 
graphies, as those which would analyze Bacon's career upon the 
guiding principle that he was ''the wisest, brightest, meanest of 
mankind,'* — such descriptions as those which woidd characterize 
the Puritan as ' made up of two different men* — such pictures as 
would represent the Court of Friedrich Wilhelm as ' Hell, and 
himself the most execrable of fiends, a cross between Moloch 
and Puck' — such criticisms as those which would ascribe the 
merits of a biography to the weaknesses and follies of its author— 
^such interpretations as those which would stigmatize an epoch as 
' marked by an abandonment of the attributes of humanity'— 
or a religion, however false, as ' mere quackery, priestcraft and 
' dupery,' are now rated at their real value. They may be ac- 
cepted as rhetorical figures, but they do not account for any 
thing at all. They are mere pointed summaries of superficial 
contrasts. An epigram may be, so to speak, a key to a panora' 
ma. It is but a slight contribution towards a ime picture. The style 

• Employed in contrasting Shakspeare with Scott. Miscellanies Vol. IV 
p. 152. 

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LITERARY PARADOX. 75 

may be said to have perished with its greatest master, Macaulay. 
And perhaps the change which has passed over the tone of our best 
history, criticism and biography, could not be illustrated better 
than by a comparison l^tween that author's sparkling article 
upon Bosv^ell and Johnson, and Carlyle's essay upon the same 
men. And the change is solely owing, not to any direct attack, 
but to the silent example of Carlyle, combined with the growing 
admiration which his labours in this direction have, of late years, 
generally commanded. For, 

As when a painter poring on a face 
Divinely, tnroogh ail hindrance, finds the man 
Behind it, and ao paints him that his face, 
The shape and colour of a mind and life, 
Lives for his children, ever at its hest 
And fnllest— ' 

Even so will noble men and deeds ' speak in the silence,' and 
haunt the memory of any reader who has taken the trouble 
to master Carlyle's conception of them. 

But there is another aspect of Carlyle's influence upon the 
world both of writers and readers, which it is difficult to convey 
in any except vague language, but which is not the less real on 
that account. What has been termed Hhe mystery of the 
Universe,' impresses his mind with a wonder, awe and reverence, 
to which it is difficult to find a parallel even among our greatest 
poets. In simpler, though far less comprehensive language, 
' the mystery of the Universe' is the relation of man to cir- 
cumstance. To many, Carlyle has succeeded in imparting some . 
portion of his own deep feeling upon this subject. Still more 
strongly does he impress an unshaken belief in the reality, force, 
and dignity of human character and human life : a faith, in 
other words, on man's triumph over circumstance, a denial of 
his slavery to fate. Upon this subject. Buckle and Carlyle take 
their stand at opposite extremes. Buckle regards man as the 
mere creature of external influences, as clay plastic to the hands 
of time and nature. Carlyle holds up the spirit of man as 
casting the world in what mould it wills. The former represents 
man, as at best one of many instruments blindly contributing to* 
wards results; concordant indeed with the general laws of social 
order and progress, but of which he is the while himself uncon- 
scious. The ktter loves to show how great men have determined 
the course of a nation's history. Carlyle writes in the Volumes 
before us, and in all places : * ' Every original man is worthy ol 

* For instance in the Lectures, page 1, and passim ' For, as I take it, univer- 
sal history, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom 
the history of the great men who have worked there* 



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76 LITERARY PARADOX. 

'notice — nay, in the long run, who and what else is?' Hinuielf 
deficient in the faculty of generalization, (and in this deficiency 
lies his main weakness in history,) he not only finds no interest 
in the development of large principles and wide tendencies, in 
the record of abstract society, or in the onward march of civili- 
zation, but, in passages too numerous to quote, even reviles such 
imagined discoveries as mere ' delusions, froth and windbags/ 
Whereas to Buckle it is a matter of congratulation that no indi- 
vidual aberration, no single career, however energetic, is ulti- 
mately of more real effect in disturbing the fixed laws of human 
progress, than a shooting star is of effect in disturbing the ordain- 
ed revolution of the planet. It would be out of place here to draw 
out the contrast into finer detail. Nor is it for us to attempt to 
reconcile, or to take up any position betwixt the two. Yet the 
memories of many resulers of the History of Civilization, may 
have reverted with no slight gratitude, from the cold logical 
chain and practical Fatalism, in which Buckle would bind down 
our views of the Universe, to the deeper poetic instinct and the 
glowing thought and utterance, with which the Lectures on 
Heroes and Hero-worship were animated. 

And the old power is every where present in the history of 
Frederick the Great. Nevertheless we cannot but regret that it 
was ever written. In the first place we lament so large an out- 
lay of labour and power upon the objects to which the two 
volumes already published are mainly devoted. It is said that 
the popularity of the work in Germany is unexampled. But most 
English readers must be affected by the chapters which describe 
the various members of the line of Bradeuburg, with a sense of 
weariness similar to that which may have come over them in a 
historical portrait gallerjr at Versailles. Occasionally they were 
arrested by some touch m some portrait, the evidence of a mas- 
ter's hand. But, altogether, in the whole range of the self 
infficted misery involved in regular sight seeing, hardly any pen- 
ance has been found more tedious and exhausting. In the 
same way, while heartily acknowledging the skill with which 
some of the likenesses have been struck off, we do not care 
enough about the house of the Hohenzollerns to find interest 
in a long gallery* of its members. Some of the sketches too 
are marred by an extreme latitudinarianism of sentiment. One 
of the bestf is that of the first Friedrich Wilhelm, the great 
Kiirfarst. It is a most spirited likeness and strikes the imagina- 
tion with no common strength. He is to ordinary apprehension 
guilty of a base desertion of his allies at a critical conjuncture. 



* It occupies more than 300 pages of the first volume. 
t Book III. Chap. 18. 



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UTERARY PARADOX* 77 

But a man of such energy is only to be charged with ' advancing 
' in circuits — spirally — face now to West now to East, but with 
' his own reasonable aim sun-clear to him all the while/* Truly, in 
these latter dispensations, Force is gradually supplanting Charity 
in her office of covering sins. We may sympathise fully with 
the tenets of a ^ muscular Christianity ;' but it is rather more 
difficult to find comfort in a gospel of muscle only. 

Graver exception must be taken to the delineation of the 
main figure in these volumes, Friedrich Wilhelm, the father of 
Frederick the Great. It has been hinted above, that the doctrine 
of Hero worship may be looked upon as a sound outpost against 
the inroads of fatalism. And therefore it is most deplorable, that 
its strongest advocates should throw discredit upon the truth 
contained in it, by a suicidal choice of their heroes. When 
Friedrich Wilhelm follows Henry VIII, ' Ecce iterum Crispinus' 
is the natural cry of all, save the most esoteric disciples of the 
school. 

It is indeed to be at once conceded that Carlyle has converted 
the lay figure, to which Macaulay affixed the label quoted above, 
into a breathing human being, of intense but inarticulate 
afiections ; but also one of rigid views and most narrow sympa- 
thies — one to whom every whim was law, and whose whims were 
either born of a natural caprice, enhanced by long habit of 
absolute power, or insidiously instilled fcy enemies, thinly masked 
as boon companions. Why should we set such a man upon a 
pedestal at all ? It is true, and Carlyle makes the most of the 
fact, that he was a faithful husband in days when such royal 
fidelity was rare, in the days of the first Georges, Czar Peter, 
and Augustus ^ the physically strong.* But never did a man 
more thoroughly 

CompouDd for sins he was inclined to, 
By damning those he had no mind to. 

It IS true that he was thrifty. And thrift may be, as one of 
our old friends Sauerteig or Smelftingus is made to maintain,t 
' at the bottom of all Empires.' But is it thrift or a low and 
mean avarice when royalty starves its family,} and when it 
entertains its guests at a cost of 900 /. but directs that it be given 
out that it has been done at a cost of 5,000 ^.§ And is much 
gained by the whitewash, in the literal sense, thrown over this 
transaction. ' Alas ! yes, a kind of lie or fib— white fib or even 

• Vol. I. p. 849. 
t Vol. I. 422. 
t Vol. II. 309. 
5 VoL I. 469. 

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73 LITERARY PARADOX. 

* gray — the pinch of thrift compelling.'* This may be a hu- 
morous appreciation of the king's motives, but in what sense 
is it a justification ? 

Again it may be true that he had the interests of his country 
at heart. But it must be remarked, that neither the avaricious 
accumulation of treasure, nor the tyrannyf shown in the erec- 
tion of Berlin and the Stettin fortifications nor the importation 
of tall soldiers, impress us with the idea of any nobility of 
sentiment in this direction. His intentions were, without 
doubt, according to his lights, good ; but his lights were of 
the dimmest description, not such as emanate from the stuff 
that heroes aire made of. Kidnapping tall privates may be 
described as ' the polishing of a stanza' — J the creation of a 
citjr upon a inarsh, by means of money wrung from unwilling 
citizens, as the ' annihilation of wreck and rubbish' — § avarice 
as thrift ; but no obliquity of phrase can invest such courses 
of action, even for a moment, with the dignity of true patriot- 
ism. 

Lastly we are told with variety and iteration, which are almost 
wearisome, that he was ' of intellect, slow but true and deep, 
' with terrible earthquakes and poetic fires lying under it.' 
' Amiable Orson, true to the heart, though terrible when too 
' much put upon I' To all this we can only reply, that, as re- 
gards his heart, the volumes before us teem with evidence of the 
orsonism or brutality. But the traces of amiability are faint 
and rare. Yet 'he had fountains of tears withal hidden in 
' the rocky heart of him, not suspected by every one.'|| And such 
come to the surface when he hears of the decease of George ; 
when he meets his son at Ciistrin, for the first time after he had 
sentenced him to death ; and, specially, on his own truly pathetic, 
though in some degree whimsical, deathbed. He had thorough- 
ly alienated the affections of his children, but it would have 
been stnmge if they had not forgiven him then. Of his intel- 
lect we have already conveyed our opinion. It may be added, 
that for many years of his life, partly, from a constitutional ten- 
dency to hypochondria, partly, it must be suspected, from his habits 
of constant fuddling, he was a slave and prey to violent fancies. 
During this period, he was but as a pipe on which men like 
Seckendorf and Grumkow could play what stop they pleased ; or 
in Carlyle's own language, he was the main figure in an ' en- 

• Vol. I. 469. 
t Vol. II. 356-58. 
t VoL I. 461. 
§ Vol. II. 358. 
II Vol. II. 14. 

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LITERARY PARADOX. 79 

' chanted dance, of a well-intentioned Royal Bear with poetic tem- 
' perament, piped to by two black artists/* We do not deny 
that the spectacle is a pitiable one, or that it is presented before 
us with true tragic power. We complain that a man, in truth 
so weak, should be held up as admirable for vigour of purpose. 
There is no more fatal confusion than that, by which the spurious 
power gained in going with the torrent, is identified with the 
genuine strength displayed in stemming it.f 

Above all, we are at issue with Carlyle as regards the effect, 
which an ^ apprenticeship' under such a father, exercised upon 
the character of the son. He looks upon it as a model of 
Spartan training, producing Spartan virtues, and as the key 
to Fredericlj/s ftiture greatness. We should conclude from 
the evidence he lays before us, that the Crown Prince was natural- 
ly warm-hearted and open both in friendship and antipathy; 
but tliat the cruel and bigoted discipline to which he was 
subjected, drove him, first, into rebellion and unconcealed licen- 
tiousness, and finally, when he had been taught by his narrow 
escape from death the futility of resistance, into a profound 
hypocrisy, and a chilling disregard to the feelings of others. He 
became hard and callous. At the instance of his sister WilheU 
mina, he was released from exile and confinement at Custriu, 
on the occasion of her wedding. . Wilhelmina was warmly 
attached to him. She is the witty, though sometimes flippant 
chronicler of their lives, and had been a sharer in all their early 
torments. Yet he responds to her eager welcome with a cold- 
ness which, under all the circumstances, can only be charac- 
terized as heartless indifference.^ He became a hypocrite. 
This is hardly denied : but h)rpocrisy in a hero is rebaptized 
as 'Loyalty to fact;'§ or, in another place, as 'the art of 
' wearing among his fellow-creatures a polite cloak of darkness. ' 
' Gradually he became master of it as few men are — a man 
* impregnable to the intrusion of human curiosity, able to look 
' cheerily into the eyes of men arid talk in a social way, face to 
' face, and yet continue intrinsically invisible to them. ' Nor 
can we detect any 'scorn of mendacity '|| in the manner in 
which ho exercised the faculty so developed. On the contrary, in 
the relations of the two, after these lessons had been learnt, the 

• Vol. II. 316. 

t Compare Shakspeare's 

* Give me that man 

' Who is not passion's slave : and I will wear him 

* In my heart's heart — yea, in my heart of hearts/ 
t Vol. II. 3605. 
§ Vol. II. 338. 
II Vol. II. 333. 

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80 LITERARY PARADOX. 

'histrionic talents' of the son contrasted with the volcanic 
temperament of the father almost avail to transfer our sympa- 
thies from the victim to the tyrant. Apart from these natural 
fruits, the ' apprenticeship ' does not appear to have yielded any- 
thinj^ beyond an accurate knowledge of the arts of farming 
and drilling. 

Yet ' depend upon it brother Toby, said Mr. Shandy, learned 
' men do not write dialogues upon long noses for nothing/ 
And though some of the views advanced in the works we have 
been considering, may appear, when laid before us naked and 
in legitimate light, to be of hardly more value than some new 
theory upon nasal protuberance, yet it would be a proof of 
rash ingratitude to our learned ^ men to conclude thence that 
the works themselves are equally valueless. We have failed 
indeed in conveying our opinion, if it is not plain from all that 
has been written, that admiration is the preponderating feel- 
ing with which we regard bur authors. Nay, we would go 
further, and affirm, that no small portion of the power they 
exercise over us, resides in the bent and bias which we have 
endeavoured to point out. Men may qualify, modify, deduct 
and balance, till all spirit evaporates from their writings. Strong 
one sided statement is ever the most eloquent. To the majority 
of the world the speech of the barrister is more stirring than 
the summary of the judge. Nor do thoughtful readers run any 
risk from yielding for the time to such immediate impressions. 
Apart from natural combativeness, Audi alteram partem is a 
motto ever present to most educated men. And the position of a 
juryman, dictated to from above by an incarnation of impartial 
justice and superior knowledge, is not only less dignified and 
agreeable, but also less likely to do benefit to the intellect, than 
that of a man seeking to decide for himself between the conflict- 
ing arguments of able advocates. Among our many disadvantages, 
we should not forget that in India, exiles as we are, we have one 
point in our favour, which may go far to countervail them. It 
not unfrequently happens that materials out of which we may 
form opinion, are laid before us at once and together y which were 
laid before the reading public at home successively. The tide 
of fashion is strong and proverbially fickle. Reactions are often 
as unjust as the original opinions from which they are the re- 
bound. Yet few take the trouble to look back merely for the 
sake of modifying their opinion. And, therefore, it may well be 
true, that when two spirited representations taken from opposite 
points of view follow the one after the other, they only avail to 
sway the public mind to and fro ,• when simultaneously exhi- 
bited, they assist directly towards a calm estimate. 



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UINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL OXTOLOGY. 81 



Art. IV. — 1. Chridlanliy contraUedtoith Illndu Philosophy, An 
Ensai/y in Five Booh^ Satiskrit and English: with ^^rac.tical 
suggestions tendered to the Missionary amongst the Hindus, 
By James R. Ballantyne, L.L.D., Professor of Moral Philo- 
sophy, and Principal of the Government College at Benares. 
London : James Madden, 1859. 

2. The Religious Aspects of Kindn Philosophf/, stated and dis- 
cussed, A Prize Essay, By Rev. Joseph Mullens, Missionary 
of the London Missionary Society, Author of ' Missions in 
South India,' and ' Results of Missionary labours in India. * 
London : Smith, Elder & Co., 1860. 

THESE are two important volumes, upon a very important, 
but a very dry, subject. The benevolent Gentleman who 
suggested the idea worked out in these Essays, was a public bene- 
factor to the people of India, and, what is of far greater impor- 
tance, he was a lover of the Truth, in its highest, sublimest, and 
most divine form. 

It is a disputed point, whether the discovery, of a great prin- 
ciple — B, fundamental Truth, or that of a new method for discover- 
ing the Truth, is the most important in itself and in its results. 
Newton did the first ; Bacon the last.. Both the Principia and 
the Novum Organum are immortal, and are already acknow- 
ledged to be the property, not of a few nations, but of the race 
of man. But the investigations which they contain extend no 
further than the relation of man to the different objects of the 
external world, of which he forms a part. The laws and limits 
of the relation between spirit and matter, appear insignificant 
and unimportant, when contrasted with the relations of spirit 
with spirit, and especially of finite spirits with the Infinite 
Spirit. The greatest Teacher who ever dressed human thoughts 
in human words, has asserted that knowledge of the Truth is 
the means of man's emancipation : — 'Ye shall know the Truth, 
' and the Truth shall make you free. ' This is not a knowledge 
acquired by the cumulative processes of the Organon ; by the 
demonstrations of the Principia ; by the dialectics and guesses of 
the disciple of Pure Reason ; or by the rules of verbal processes 
laid down by Mill and Whateley. It is a knowledge which is 
felt as well as comprehended ; which has as much to do with An- 
science as with reason; which embraces within its influence both 
the Intellect and the Emotions ; and which bears as much upon 
the springs of actions, as upon the regulation of cognitions and 
of judgments. 



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82. HINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGT. 

The Essays mentioned above, treat of Ontology and Qnosiolo- 
gy, or the sciences of being and of knowing. Sciences which 
are, at once, boundless and limitless. They embrace — if the 
word embrace can be employed in such a connection — every ob- 
ject, law, and relation, whether comprehensible or incomprehen- 
sible. They treat alike of conditioned and unconditioned 
existences, and of all their relations. They refer to the questions, 
What docs exist ? How it came to existence ? Under what con- 
ditions, relations, or laws ; and for what object, it does exist ? 

This limitless Ontology is handled in these two volumes. 
The task which the writers have undertaken is to follow tho 
Hindu sages through all their cumulative collections of thoughts 
and speculations, to trace out and analyze the wisdom and the 
folly, which the most restless and active souls, inhabiting the 
vast plains between the Himalaya and the sea, were able to dis- 
play in explanation and defence of Hindu principles, during 
twenty or thirty centuries. The writers profess to analyze all 
those thoughts ; to present them faithfully in an English dress ; 
to contrast them with the Ontological system of the Bible; to 
point out and refute their errors ; to shew cause why the Hindus 
should abandon them, and embrace the more useful, rational, and 
truthful tenets of the Bible ; and to do all this, in t^^e style and 
manner best adapted to Hindu comprehension and mode of 
thinking. 

This is a task for giants. To write a book on the Cosmos is but 
child's play, to this. The laws and objects of nature will yield 
up their mysteries and secrets with much greater facility than 
Hindu speculations. The former have regular laws though often 
secret and intricate, the latter have none. The gauge of the 
Inductive Science is utterly inapplicable to the chaos of the 
* three systems of philosophy* handled in these Essays. 

One of the systems has no God ; another has no world ; a 
third has a God and an atomic world co-existing, and running 
on eternally parallel to one another. One of them has an ima- 
ginary world of Illusions, created by Ignorance ; another a sub- 
stantial world, constructed from nine eternal atoms, by the chief 
of souls; a third has a real world starting up from an eternal un- 
intelligent principle — or rather 'state of equipoise of three 
' qualities,* — for the sake of liberating a certain indefinite, eternal, 
innumerable 'purusha* from bonds created either by himself or by 
accident. One of them makes man to consist of a point of meet- 
ing between an eternal 'purusha* and a concrete form of nine 
eternal atoms ; another makes out that he was constructed by 
an unintelligent principle in successive portions — first intellect, 
then self-consciousness^ then five subtle elements, followed by 

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HINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 83 

five gross ones, and so forth ; the third persuades man to believe, 
that if he thinks himself to be a man, he is ignorant ; and if he 
is not ignorant, he knows that he is not a man, but Brahma. 

The progressive development^ of the human mind, as recorded 
in history, have not taken place in a continuous and unbroken 
chain, but in cycles. The stars presented by history, like those 
seen in the firmament, stand out in groups. Between Pytha- 
goras and Zeno, there was a luminous group ; a less bright one 
between Cicero and Proclus ; a misty galaxy between Anselm 
and Occam ; and a modern constellation, of great, but dubious, 
brilliancy, between Locke and Hegel. Upon opening these 
Essays, we felt a curiosity to examine the historical positions, 
and the epochs and order of the Hindu cycles of thinkers and 
of thought. We were disappointed. What was the historical 
position of Kapila and Fdtdnjali ; of Gantama and Kanada of 
B^drdyan and Jaimani? No materials have been furnished 
to enable one to form even a guess. 

This omission prompts us to a confession, which will certainly 
seem ungenerous to critics who are prepared ^ to profess dog- 
* gedly the Hindu belief in their (i. e. the Vedas') existence from 
' all eternity,' until some certain chronological data can be 
found of th^ir agQ. This is our confession. Let the critics 
disprove it, and we are ready to change sides. We doubt the 
antiquity and Hindu origin of many of the thoughts examined 
in these Essays. We think it a proveable point, that village 
Pandits compose fragments called Taniras, up to this day, for 
which they borrow thoughts from all sources within their reach, 
dress them up in Puranic Sanscrit, mix them with their own 
mythology, and transfer their nameless, dateless manuscripts to 
a class of copyists more ignorant and superstitious than them- 
selves, and pass theni among their ignorant diciples as Purauas, 
Even the more enlightenedBrahma-Samaj men borrow thoughts— 
occasionally Biblical thoughts — and dress them up in the Vernacu- 
lars, without acknowledgement. Whole series of notions and 
thoughts which are un- Hindu, might be selected from the writings 
of Sankara Acharya,Bhaskara, Annam Bhatta, Vishwa Nftth Bhat- 
ta, Sankara Misra, Saddnanda, Ram Krishna Tirtha, and almost all 
the Sanscrit Commentators. Many of these thoughts, we hold, 
must have been borrowed from visitors, travellers, and residents 
from other nations, without acknowledgement, and made to pass 
in Sanscrit as Hindu productions. Vlaq^s Astronomical Tables, 
in a Chinese dress, became a ioTia^flfe Chinese production, though 
each figure, right or wrong, continued the same. The origin of 
the Tirvalore Tables is not clear. We shall be very ready to lay 
aside this doubt regarding a Hindu habit of borrowing thoughts, 
if the contrary can be proved. 

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Si HINDU, RATI OX AL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 

Philosophy is frequently converted into a war of words for 
want of clear definitions. There is a difficulty about the termi- 
nology of the Hindu systems. That difficulty has not been 
satisfactorily removed in these Essays. 

Here is a list of Sanscrit terms which we think ought to have 
been clearly and fully defined at' the outset ; and the exact 
significations attached to them, in sUu, in the Hindu systems, 
clearly and prominently brought out, and laid before Eng- 
lish readers in a manner easily intelligible, from the English* 
stand-point. A6ma, Purusha, Brahma, Manas, Buddhi, Ahang- 
kara, Triguna, Prakriti, Fastu, Gydna, Agydna, Bravya, Chittay 
Guna, and several others. Of Dr. Ballantyne's philological 
ability to do justice to this subject, no one entertains a doubt. But 
we fear the learned author has adopted a wrong point of view 
throughout his investigation — a contentious point of view — which 
forbids his readers putting much confidence in his guidance. The 
defects of missionaries ; the doubtful conclusions of Sir W. 
Hamilton ; the disputes between Realists and Nominalists ; and 
Dr. Ballantyne's individual opinions regarding Bishop Berkeley's 
Idealism ; all this ought to have nothing whatever to do with the 
terminology, philosophy, and errors of Hindu sages, when ex- 
amined from a Biblical point of view. The fragpaents which 
have been put together to constitute this Essay must be 
recast and re-constituted, if the book is to live. We write 
these remarks with sincere regret, as we hold Dr. Ballantyne 
in high esteem and respect, as a Sanscrit scholar and 
philologist of the first order, and wish much we could give 
bim a similar position as a trust-worthy defender of Divine 
Revelation, a sound Biblical Theologian, and a Christian 
philosopher. We would willingly give him a niche along with 
the truth-seeking Dr. M'Cosh and Dr. Mansel, Sir W. Hamil- 
ton and Immanuel Kant, if his productions permitted us. It 
should be admitted, however, that Dr. Ballantyne has done more 
towards fixingSanscrit terminology, than any Sanscrit scholar with 
whose writings we are acquainted. His translations from the San- 
scrit are the most dryly literal that we have yet seen. But, all his 
Sanscrit compositions evince scholarship of the highest order. 
Even in this Essay, the reader has not much to complain of, in 
respect of faithful terminology ; because all the cardinal Sanscrit 
terms are appended, either parenthetically, or in foot not^, along 
with their renderings. The same cannot be said with reference 
to exact definitions of those terms, in their genuine Hindu 
acceptations. A few examples might serve to explain this point. 

An English reader wishes to know the exact Hindu sense 
of the terms, 'Mana*?,' 'Prakriti,' 'Trigima,' rendered into 

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niNDU, RATIONAL^ AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. S5 

European tenniuolo*^y. He will naturally turn to consult 
the writings of such a scholar as Dr. Ballantyne. He is anxious 
to know whether these terms represent any realities and ac- 
knowledged facts in the economy of nature; or are names 
attached to imaginary fictions. He wishes to know the exact 
positions and functions which they hold in the universe — if they 
exist. He turns to the learned author's Essay^ and finds 
that:— 

'Manas* is 'a substance/ an 'entity/ an 'organ/ a 'faculty/ 
an 'instrument/ an 'atomic inlet/ an 'atom.* Its existence 
is known by ' the not arising of cognitions in the soul simul- 
'taneously.* This term Dr. Ballantyne usually renders by the 
'word mind, 'Mind* is also occasionally the rendering of 
' Chitta/ of ' Mahat* &c. 

* Prakriti* is ' Nature/ ' energy/ ' primal energy/ the ' radical 
' energy,* an ' aggregate of the three qualities/ and an ' equipoise 
' of the three qualities.* 

' Triguna* signifies ' the three qualities/ the ' three fetters.' 
The technical sense of ' guna' shall be considered hereafter. 

These are the definitions and renderings of the three terms, 
as far as we can remember, in Dr. Ballantyne*8 Essay. Could an 
intelligent reader, unacquainted with Hindu philosophy, and only 
acquainted with the philosophy of Being as held in Europe, find 
out in his own constitution and in that ofthe Universe, the objects 
or functions, to which the terms refer, from these definitions ? We 
will leave it to the reader to answer ; and certainly will not in- 
sult him by telling him, that he should test the correctness of 
his philosophy, by its conformity to Hindu analysis. 

Since Mr. Mullens professedly compiled his materials from 
different translations, a confused and uncertain terminology 
might be deemed excusable in his compilation ; seeing that he 
only professes to follow his translated authorities. But since 
his Essay is offered as a guide to English readers, there are 
certain points which appear to us of sufficient importance to de- 
mand a few observations* Retaining the three terms already 
given, Mr. Mullens makes — 

'Manas* to signify, 'the organ in which takes place the 
' perception of pleasure, pain, and the like. It is in the form of 
' an atom, and eternal/ (p. 166.) It is the ' sphere of living and 
' present consciousness.* (pp. 85. 171) 'The mind, equivalent in 
' modern philosophy, to the sphere of consciousness, or internal 
* perception, is the instrument which apprehends pain, plea- 
^ sure, and the internal sensations/ (pp. 85. 204.) It is 'inter- 
' nal consciousness/ (p. 336.) It is ' that portion of the mind, 
' which is the sphere of all our conscious acts/ (p. 170.) 'The 



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86 HINDU, UATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 

* mind is only the instrument by which the soul perceives its in- 
' ternal work, and is aware of its own activity^ (380.) ' 1 have 
' shewn you that I think the theory which separates " mind'' from 
' soul, incorrect; and that the soul exhibits a unity of constitu- 
^ tion so complete, that if any part or faculty is taken away, it 

* ceases to be soul any longer. What is soul, for example without 
' perception, without reason, without memory, without conscious- 
'ness?' (p. 387.) 

* Prakriti' is 'that which precedes a thing made/ (p. 200.) 
it is 'substance,' (p. 187 J 'a compound of three other subs- 
' tances in equipoise ;' (p. 398.) a ' primal agency ' — ^an ' extremely 
' refined essence, — an indefinable something;' (p. 54.) it is Hhe 
' plastic origin of all things;' (p. 52.) Hhe universal material 
' cause;' (p. 52.) * not ordinary matter, eternal matter,' (p. 52.) 
It is ' matter,' and ' Mul-Prakriti ' is * root-matter,' (pp. 49, 200.) 
and yet ' Hindu philosophy possesses no term exactly equivalent 
' to the English word " matter," and comprising the class of 
' objects which that word expresses,' (p. 88.) 

The *Triguna' are 'thre^ qualities.' (p. 142.) 'These qualities 
' belong to the very essence of nature. ' Prakriti ' the root-matter 
' of the Universe, denotes the substance from which they came 
' forth, (p. 143) ' They are goodness, passion, and darkness, the 
' affections of intellect.' ' Nature is the state of equipoise of good- 
' ness, passion, and darkness.' ' These are not quidities, (in the 
' ordinary sense) but are the actual material engaged in the 
' service of soul.' ' There is a triad of these qualities, and neither 
' less nor more.' (p. 397) They are ' three material or natural subs- 
' tances.' (p. 398). 

Mr. Mullens cannot be held responsible for the confusion, 
apparent or real, in these explanations. Much of that confusion 
is owing to the Hindu sages who wrote the books ; and some 
to the translators. But there are a few points which should be 
noticed in Mr. Mullens' explanations. 

Is ' Prakriti/ and are the ' Triguna ' as stated and explain- 
ed in the Hindu systems, objects or functions in the economy 
of creation? Or are they pure fictions, devised by the sages, as 
expedients either to cloak ignorance, or to serve a purpose in 
controversy? Mr. Mullens very properly, we think, refuses his 
sanction to the notion called ' Manas,' or mind, though we wish he 
had gone further, and exposed thoroughly the false process and 
wrong analysis connected with the fiction. We certainly 
cannot say that we understand his meaning when he asserts that 
' Manas ' is equivalent to the ' sphere of consciousness in modern 
5 philosophy ;' and that it is the ' instrument which apprehends 
' ^Jeasure &c. ' Has the ' Manas ' of Hindu philosophy, any 

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HINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 87 

'equivalent' in modern philosophy, or in creation as it is? Why 
Mr. Mullens should assert that it has, and again (p. 387) deny 
the existence of * Manas ,* and treat it as an imaginary fabrication, 
we cannot well make out. Nor do we fully understand what is 
meant by saying that a ' sphere,' or even an ' instrument,' 
apprehends anything. 

If 'Manas,' ' Prakriti,' and the 'Triguna,' are accepted as 
real objects or functions in an analysis of the economy of Nature ; 
why reject the ' Sukma Sarir,' the ' thumb-like soul,'* the 
' ethereal cavity of the heart,'t the ' 727,200,000 arteries,'! 
and the whole anatomic theory ? Is the theory of the Hindu sys- 
tems regarding spirit (Atma) ; God (Brahma) ; Intellect (Bud- 
dhi) ; self-consciousness (Ahangkdra), and the like, consonant 
with the true notions of those objects and functions ? 

If Hindu notions of God, man, and the world, together with 
their attributes, laws and relations, be fundamentally correct, 
and only erroneous in minor details; then why write these 
formidable Essays? If Hindu sages are radically defective in 
their analysis of the world as it is, and of man as he is — if they 
are erroneous in their definitions of spirit and of matter; of 
God and of man; of nature in its source, its attributes, and its 
laws, why accept their 'Brahma' as our God; their 'Atma' as 
our soul or spirit ; their ' Prakriti ' as our Nature, and their 
' Manas ' as our mind ? The Biblical — the rational — analysis and 
definitions of these objects, on European principles of investiga- 
tion, difier essentially from the definition found in Hindu writ- 
ings. Their ' Brahma,' has but few attributes or marks in com- 
moii with Jehovah, the God of the Bible ; or even with the In- 
telligent Firet Cause of cultivated natural reason. The existence 
of a First Cause, demonstrated from creation as it stands in its 
relation to the mind and reason of man, may be either regarded 
simply as the subtratum of being — as an unintelligent, insensate 
Thing ; or, as a source of order as well as of being — as the mm- 
ma intelligentia. Now the 'Brahma' of the Hindus is neither, 
and yet he is said to be both. He is not the Ens entium, for as 
'Brahma' not as 'Prakriti' he is declared to be inactive and 
does nothing. Nor is he the source of order, for though he is 
declared to be knowledge ( judna), yet it is declared that his 
knowledge is incommunicable and unmanifested by any action 
of his own. Activity is utterly denied to him. He is simply 

• See Katha Upanishad ii. § 4. 12. Swet : Up. iii 13 Ac. 
t Katha Up. ii. 12. 20. IV. 6. V. 3. <Sfcc 
J Prasna Up. iii, 6. Sec, 

March, 1861. N 

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88 HINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 

a ' Juuna Vastu/ an immoveable, inactive, quality-less, knowledge- 
thing — if such a compound may be excusable. He is, as described 
by the Hindus, a kind of being, who has nothing whatever to 
do with his own, or with any other, existence — a little more 
unintelligible than the Dae Seyn of the Germans ; because J)ae 
Wesen, J)ae JFerden, Das Absolute and the like, are denied to 
'Brahma\ 

Again the man of the Hindu Shastra, is a very different 
being from the man actually found in creation. The Hindu 
analysis of man, as made up of the distinct substances called 
soul, mind, intellect, &c., and of two bodies, innumerable arteries, 
&c., agrees not with what any man is conscious of, or cognizes 
regarding himself. 

What European philosopher can recognize his idea of Nature, 
in the Hindu descriptions of ' Prakriti T Kant defines Nature to be 
' the totality of phenomena connected, in respect of their existence, 
' according to necessary rules, that is laws' (Critique B. ii. c. 2 § 3) 
But the ' Prakriti* of Hindu philosophy is a ' substance' a ' pri- 
' mal and radical energy,' an ' aggregate, and an equipoise of three 
'qualities.' We have noticed that Dr. Ballantyne, by a refinement 
of his own, not of Hindu writers, as far as we are aware, has 
attempted to shew that the Hindu term ' guna' is the same as 
the sura-total of the phenomena of the world of sense. We 
shall have occasion to return to this refinement again, when we 
come to consider Vedantic tenets. 

The general inference which we wish to draw from the fore- 
going observations, are these two:-— 

First ; Hindu principles and method of investigation, as con- 
tained in the three systems under consideration, we hold to be 
radically unphilosophical, illogical, and untrustworthy. Their 
premises are dogmatic; their processes faulty; and their infer- 
ences very frequently inconclusive and erroneous. The Hindu 
volumes analyzed in these Essays, offer no rational and intelligible 
analysis either of God, of man, of the world or of the different 
relations between these objects. This broad assertion is made 
with reference to each of the three systems, taken as a whole ; 
but not to every branch of enquiry in each. 

Secondly, judging from these two Essays, the mental point 
of view adopted by their writers, appears to be very different. 
One seems to have fixed himself, as to the religions aspect of his 
view, upon the Bible as the Infallible Revelation, requiring no 
proof, and looking down, from this elevated position, upon the 
philosophical investigations of Christendom, as its buttresses and 
outworks, and upon Hindu philosophy as the citadel of the 
enemy. As to the metaphysical aspect of his view, it seems 

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HINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 89 

to be destitute of any fixed theory or system. It is indefinite. 
The other appears to have placed himself in the centre of 
a circle of Hindu sages — of whom a select few were invited to 
sit by him as friends and equals. He almost apologizes to this 
circle for the obligation laid upon him, to introduce to their con- 
siderations, the tenets of a new religion, which differed in some 
material points from the principles of their profound and ma- 
tured philosophy ; and which were made manifest in Scriptures, 
which laid claims to a stronger evidence in favour of their 
Divine origin, than even the Four Vedas, and which are so ex- 
clusive in their claims, that they utterly exclude and reject the 
possibility of any other Divine Institute. 

Both of these mental stand-points have their advantages, and 
their disadvantages. At present we can only examine very 
briefly the treatment of Vedantic tenets by the writers, from 
their respective points of view ; reserving the consideration of 
the treatment of the other two systems for the present. 

Following this order, we propose to furnish a summary view 
of Vedantic tenets as given in these essays ; of the errors of 
those tenets as drawn out and refuted by the writers ; and then 
offer a few remarks of our own, explanatory of our views with 
reference to the character and completeness of those refutations. 
For the sake of greater brevity and clearness, we shall adopt the 
plan of placing the two summaries, as well as the errors and 
their refutations, in parallel columns. 

Summaries op Vedantic Tenets, 
Dr, Ballantyne, Mr. Mullens, 

* Nothing really exists besides One. ' In spite of appearances, there is 

And this One real being is absolutely in the Universe but One real existence 

simple. This One simple being is (Vastu) ; the being who is existence, 

knowledge,' (p. 81.) knowledge, and joy, the supreme 

Brahma.' p. 113. 

' According to the Vedanta there ' Brahma is the substance of the 

is no object; and hence it follows Universe • • • • • nothing exists 

that the term snbject is not strictly but he,' (him P) p. 128. 
applicable, any more than is the term 
substance, to the One reality.' (p. 

81.) 'He (i. e. the student) gets to un- 

' Soul, the One reality, is accordingly derstand that all duality is an illusion ; 

spoken of in the Vedanta, not as a that * * * * all is Brahma; that he is 

substance, (dravya) • • • but as the himself Brahma; • • • • • subject, 

Thinff, or, literally, " that which object, and the relation between them 

abides."' (Vastu) (Ibid) disappear. « • • • • Nothing is left 

but One.' p. 116. 

The mental process leading to the 'The Unreal has been based upon 

gpreat tenet of the Vedanta, is this ; the Real, by an improper process of 

1- Nothing comes iVom nothing ; "imputation"; just as there is somc- 

2. Creation and limited intelligence times imputed to a rope, the unreal 

exist : notion that it is a imakc' p. 113. 

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HINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 



3. Therefore — holding both — Brah- 
ma created from himself. 

Hence the Universe is identical with 
Brahma. 

But whence the notion of Creation ? 
and of the non-recognition that the 
soul is identical with Brahma ? 

Answer. Prom Ignorance. Hence 
Ignorance became the cause of every 
thing besides Brahma, (p. 82.) 

What is this * Ignorance'? * It is a 
something neither real nor unreal, in 
the shape of entity, — the opponent of 
knowledge — consisting of the tlree fet- 
ters.' (p. 34.) 

* Ignorance iB equivalent to the 
sura -total of qualities.' 

What is the origin of the notion of 
the three qualities. ? 

Answer * the phenomena of pure 
cognition ; of lively emotion ; and 
of inertness. To one or other of these 
three heads, every phenomenon may, 
with a little ingenuity, be referred.' 
(p. 35.) 

* Ignorance' has two powers, 

1. That by which it envelopes soul ; 
giving rise to the conceit of personali- 
ty or conscious individuality." 

2. That by which it projects the 
phantasmagoria of the world, which 
the individual regards as external to 
himself.' (p. 35.) 



'This (i. c. the improper imputa- 
tion) is caused by ignorance.' 

< By ignorance has the universe 
been produced.' p. 114. 

* Ignorance is a kind of thing, dif- 
ferent both from existence and non- 
existence, in the shape of an entity, 
consisting of the three "qualities," 
the opponent of knowledge.' p. 113, 

• In modem language, it (i. e. ignor- 
ance) is understood to mean the phe- 
nomenal, as distinguished from the 
substance which underlies it ; as we 
have seen all "nature" is recognized 
as the aggregate of the three quali- 
ties.' p. 114. 



' This ignorance in separate souls 
has two powers, a covering power, 
and a producing power. By obstruct- 
ing the mind of the observer, the 
covering power hides the infinite 
soul, and makes it appear limited. 
The producing power gives rise to 
notions of happiness, misery, posses- 
sion, and dominion; • • * and 
produces in the soul expanses of the 
universe, and projects them as a phan- 
tasm before the mind's eye.' p. 114. 

This may suffice. Those who wish to pursue the subject further 
should have recourse to the Essays, and to the original works 
from which they quote and draw their materials. The notion, 
that ' Ignorance' is equivalent to the phenomenal world, we be- 
lieve to have been originated by Europeans, not by Hindus. 
We have found it no where except in Dr. Ballantyne's writings. 
Whence Mr. Mullens has borrowed it, we are not aware. 

The passage referred to above by Dr. Ballantyne from the 
Veda nta Sdr, defining ' Ignorance ' to be a 'something neither 
real nor unreal, in the shape of bkdva/ does not prove satisfac- 
torily to our mind that ' Ignorance ' signifies ' the sum- total of 
qualities.' On the contrary, it seems to us that the description 
of 'Ignorance' in the passage referred to, and throughout that little 
Treatise, shews that it is spoken of as an attribute in t/ie relation 
botween soul and the world. The author treats of the xnews 
whicli the soul takes of its own existence, and of that of the exter- 
nal world ; and not of the reality or unreality of the existence 



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HINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 91 

of either regarded in itself. What is there predicated of ^ Ig- 
' norance/ we predicate of ^ Tdea.^ If we take the word Mdva to 
signify ' entity/ as Dr. Ballantyne does, adopting its sense in 
Kapila^s and Gantama's systems, still ^ Ignorance' is said to he 
i/idvarujja, not swarupd, or in the shape of entity not identical 
with it. We regard ideas as the shape or image of the objects of 
sense ; not the objects themselves. The word bhdva, in its most 
common and popular acceptation, signifies the ideas arising in 
the mind regarding objects of sense, not the objects themselves. 
Why reject that sense here ? 

But if we take Dr. Ballantyne's explanation of ' Ignorance' in 
this Essay, it cannot mean the ' sum-total of qualities,' because 
the two powers which manifest it, ^ envelope the soul, ' and 
' project the world.' If by soul is meant here, the Limitless One, 
to ^ envelope ' such a One, can convey no possible meaning ; but 
if the word ^soul' refers to the individual soul, then 'Ignor- 

* ance' cannot be the ' sum -total of the qualities' of the soul 
which it 'envelopes.' Again the term 'world' implies the 
' sum-total of qualities,' whether it has a real substratum or 
not ; and therefore to say that ' Ignorance' is the ' sum-total of 

* qualities,' and that it ' projects a world,' which also involves the 
' sum-total of qualities,' amounts to the same thing as to say 
that 'Ignorance projects' itself. The existence of the 'soul' 
and of the ' world,' is necessary to the manilestation of the ' two 
powers of Ignorance' in the theory. If the former vanish, the 
latter must vanish with it. If it be said that ' Ignorance ' is, 
by a figure of speech, personified here, still that cannot 
remove the difficulty ; for ' Ignorance ' must be a personification of 
something, otherwise it is but an imaginary fabrication. It 
cannot be a personification of the individual soul; for it 'enve- 
lopes' it; nor yet of the external world, for it 'projects' it. 
Hence we conclude that it is intended to refer to the relation 
between these two. The question under investigation by Sadd- 
nanda in the Treatise is, whether the world and the soul are real 
existences or not. This fiction of ' Ignorance' with two powers, 
which depend for their manifestation upon the existence of the 
so2d and the world, manifestly can furnish no solution to the 
question. 

We certainly cannot concur in Dr. Ballantyne's praise of the 
Hindus as profound metaphysicians. Breadth of thought, pro- 
fiindity, careful and logical analysis of objects and of principles, 
they certainly have not produced'in their sutras and commentaries. 
But acute quibbling and dogmatic assertions we have in abundance. 
A collection of phrases more crude and illogical than Veddnta 
Sir, we think can rarely be found. Its author undertakes to prove 

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HINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY, 



that all objects are identical with the one thing (Vastu) ; and 
shews that 'Ignorance in its totality is one; in its variety, 
' many/ This identity is asserted without a shadow of proof; and 
profusely illustrated by a reference to the relation between a 
forest and the trees which compose it, and the atmosphere which 
surrounds it ; between water and its varieties ; between objects 
and their reflection in liquids ; between fire and heated iron &c., 
&c. Because genera include their species; and because the 
chemistry and the laws of nature produce changes, either ap- 
parent or real ; it is inferred that the world is identical with 
God ; or that God is the substance of the world. 

But we must return to the Essays. Our general inference is, 
that in the Veddnta Sir, ' Ignorance' both in its totality and in 
its variety, applies to the relation between the soul and the world ; 
not to their eAstence, 

ErKORS of the VeDANTA and THEIR EEPIITATIONS. 



J)r, Balkmtyne, 

let. Error. * Granting to the Ve- 
dantins that nothing of iUeff exist* 
besides the one; it neither follows 
that a man is the one; nor that a 
man's endless course of existence de- 
pends upon himself alone.' p. 38. 
Eeflitation. 

(1.) 'The Vedantins, as philoso- 
phers — would seem to have been duped 
by the word thinly and its kindred term, 
real. They chose to restrict the name 
of thinff to spirit, and then jumped 
to the conclusion that all else must be 
nothing, or nothing of any oonsequance.' 
p. 42. 

(2.) 'Though the Vedantin be a 
Pantheist; yet he is a spirit of a far 
higher mode, (than the materialist,) 
erring though he be/ p. 49. 

(3.) According to the teaching of 
the Vedanta, there is really no wiU 
of God; for if, by the word God is 
meant Brahma, then that consists of 
knowledge only, and is what is meant 
by the word Veda itself And the Veda 
cannot be the revealer of the will of 
God, else we should find a duality; 
whereas, according to the creed of the 
Vedantin, there is no distinction be- 
tween the Veda and the Lord. pp. 
67-58. 

(4.) * If there is any Vedantin in 
the world ; then to argue ^-ith him 
would be like arguing with a child or 
a madman.' pp. 58-59. 



Mr. Mullene, 
1st. Error. ' God is identical with 
matter, and with the human soul..' 
pp. 180-282. 



Befutatien. 

(1.) God should be glorious; the 
Vedanta makes him very contemptible. 

(2.) 'The Vedanta confounds mat- 
ter and soul,' 

(3.) The defects and imperfections in 
creation, are those of Brahma, if crea- 
tion is identical with Brahma. 

(4.) If the universe is identical with 
Brahma, why does it not possess the 
excellences of Brahma P 

(5.) If soul is identical with Brah- 
ma, whence the sense of duality in 
individual consciousness ? 

(6.) If the All is identical with 
Brahma, whence the real difiisrences 
observable in contrarieties and op- 
posites? 

(7.) If Brahma is secondless, whence 
the difierent Gods, and castes of men ? 

Therefore the universe is not identi- 
cal with God. pp. 182-197. 

Agiun, this doctrine of identity can- 
not be established by holding the tenet 
of a M&y& or Illusion in human con- 
sciousness regarding the existence of 
objects ; because : — 

(1.) The theory of Maya insults 
God, by making him the author of an 
illusive sport. 



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HINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL OXTOLOOY. 



93 



(5.) If the VeiUintin assert that a 
trinity is impossible, he errs, because 
the truth of the Christian Scriptures 
has been established ; and because, if 
the One Reality is manifested in the 
form of all human souls, then the 
Doctrine of the Trinity may be easily 
accepted, pp. 72*73. 



2nd Error. The transmigpration of 
■ouls. 

BeJUiation, 
There is no transmigration, because: — 



(1.) The Hindu Spiritual Insti- 
tutes are no Authority in proof thereof, 
pp. 106. 

(2.) The origin of evil cannot be 
accounted for by the doctrine of Trans- 
migration, for, as Paley observes, re- 
$reuus diminishes not the difficulty, 
in any degree ; therefore no point in 
the series could render the solution 
ea-sier. pp. 87-90. 

(3.) Diversity of conditions cannot 
be accounted for, by the doctrine of 
transmigration. As a chain does not 
become competent to support itself, 
through indefinite addition to its links, 
just as incompetent is transmigration 
to account for diversities in conditions. 



(2.) If men are Brahma, they can- 
not be deceived. 

(3.) If men are bound by Mayi 
they can never be undeceived. 

(4.) The exercises of religion, and 
a long course of study Ac, cannot 
prove the means of undeceiving them. 

Therefore men are not deceived by 
M6yi regarding the identity of the 
universe with Brahma, pp. 298-304. 

2nd Error, The transmigration of 
souls. 

Reflitation. 

This refutation is divided into, 
answers to Hindu objections; and 
direct arguments. 

Annoers to objections. 

(1.) The inequalities in the condi- 
tions of men are fewer than is often 
thought. 

(2.) The inequalities that do exist, 
are frequently attributable to the con- 
duct of the person himself: or to 
other men. 

(3.) Inequalities in the conditions 
of men are sometimes of Divine ap- 
pointment as tests of character. 

(4.) These inequalities are appoint- 
ed by God for the good of society. 

(6.) The inequalities of physical 
and mental defects from birth, are 
often the results of hereditary di- 
seases, and consequences of sin, and 
sovereign acts of the Deity against sin, 
wid partial means of man's proba- 
tion ; and occasions for sympathy and 
benevolence. 

(6.) If there be no transmig^ration, 
whence come the souls of fresh births? 
Answer. Why cannot God continue 
the exercise of His creative power, in 
creating new souls ? 

Direct (tr^umenU, 

(1.) Transmigration confounds the 
various classes of existing beings. 

(2.) Human recollection contradicts 
the notion of transmigration. 

(3.) Transmigration is a system of 
gfreat injustice; because the soul is 
punished or rewarded for actions, of 
which the recollection is utterly lost. 

(4.) The object of the doctrine, viz., 
the improvement of soul, is defeated, 
by obliging it to frequent a wicked 
world during the Kally Yoga. pp. 
877-396. 



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HINDU, UATTONAL, AXD BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 



Srd Error. The doctrine of fate. 

Man cannot be held responsible for 
hia belief and acts, without Freedom of 
will — and freedom, or independence on 
a previous cause is impossible — since it 
has been proved that an uncaused 
cause is inconceivable, pp. 82-3. 



Jleflitation, 
(I.) Freedom of Will in God or man 
is conceivable. 



Srd Error. Tlie doctrine of innate 
dispositions, and of Fate, which 
makes God the author alike of good 
and eviL 

'JTie dispositions communicated to 
men and other creatures are of various 
kinds, cori)oreal and intellectual, es- 
sential and incidental, leading upwards 
or urging downwards, and productive 
of all the numberless varieties of 
character, lot, and history of created 
beings in this, and all other worlds ; 
they are all derived from the different 
proportions of the three ^w no*, 'with 
which each individual is formed' p. 
400. 

Refutation, 

(1.) Men are conscious of freedom 
in their actions; whence that con- 
sciousness, unless they possess free- 
dom? 

(2.) Human actions spring from 
human motives. 



(3.) Men universally assign praise 
and blame, according to the motives 
of actions. 

(4,) The attributes of wisdom, holi- 
ness, justice, benevolence assigned to 
God in the Hindu Shastras, arc in- 
consistent with the notion that he is 
the author of sin. pp. 396-417. 



(2.) Our consciousness of accounta- 
bility shews that freedom to be, practi- 
cally, a fact. 

(3.) A beginningless series of causes 
and effects forced upon us by the doc- 
trine of necessity, is as inconceivable 
as uncaused origination. Thus, in 
theory, the difficulties of Liberty and 
Necessity balance ; but, practically, 
the consciousness of moral accounta- 
bility cannot be accounted for, excep- 
ting upon the supposition of freedom 
of will to act. Hence the scale turns 
in favour of freedom, pp. 83-86. 

Our analysis has grown somewhat long ; but it was thought 
desirable to furnish a broad and fair foundation for the few ob- 
servations which we proceed to make on the Essays. 

The line of argument adopted by Mr. Mullens for refuting 
Hindu errors, will, no doubt, recommend itself at once to most 
Christian readers, but judging from a Hindu point of view, we 
fear many of his arguments will appear inconclusive, and will 
fail to produce conviction. The reason for this result is sufficiently 
manifest. 

He has assumed the correctness of the Christian point of view, 
which he has adopted as the test of the truth and error of dog- 
mas. The Hindu calls in question the soundness of that point 
of view, and rejects the test. The engineer who runs a mine 
in an upper stratum, to counteract that of an enemy in a lower 
one, and in a different direction, must fail of success. Trans- 
cendental errors can but seldom be refuted with arguments 
purely empirical, drawn from sensuous knowledge. The Hindu 
sage argues about absolute Being; the nature and origin of phe- 
nomena ; and their relations. 

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HINDU, EATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 95 

Given an Agent cogitating, an object cogitated, and the 
result in the shape of an inference. There are several ways to 
test the correctness of that inference. Let the object contem- 
plated be the absolute being : one might examine whether the ob- 
ject contemplated is, from the conditions and necessity of iis 
very being, cognizable or uncognizable, absolutely considered. 
Another might examine the conditions of all possible relations 
between the thinker and the object contemplated* A third 
might enquire into the nature, extent, and other conditions of 
the powers of the agent. The Hindu adopted the first metho'd, 
arrived at a point in which ' I do not know ' must be the answer 
to all further enquiry. Then instead of descending to the 
other method, he converted his very * Ignorance' into the 
means of solution, and undertook to expbin the absolute from 
that point of view. By way of illustration; suppose a person 
were to assert that he had made a tour to Sirius and back again. 
A simple ' No ' would not serve for a refutation, for he, and others 
might hold that a simple ' Yes ' is its equivalent. One might 
assail such an assertion by enquiring into the chemical composi- 
tion and force of attraction of that star ; the kind of beings, and of 
life adapted to its atmosphere, elements, and other conditions, sup- 
posing such examination to be possible, and within the reach of 
man. Another might enquire into all the possible relations between 
an inhabitant of this insignificant planet, and that enormous and 
distant luminary. Another might apply the gauge of logic and 
experience to the conditioned powers of locomotion belonging to 
the asserter, as the agent in such a journey. These different 
points of view, are easily applicable to human enquiries connec- 
ted with the unconditioned and the absolute. But unless he 
who asserts, and he who refutes have a clear comprehension of 
each other's point of view, it is manifest that no conclusion can 
be obtained, and no conviction produced. Mr*- Mullens' refu- 
tation of the first error might serve to explain this point. 

There is but one additional remark that we wish to offer re- 
garding Mr. Mullens' treatment of the subject. The Dialogues 
appear to us to be ill-constructed. The 'English Judge,' has 
evidently made himself the commander-in-chief, fixes the positions, 
and orders the movements, on both sides. Quru Das, and the 
other prolocutors are mere puppets in his hands. They always 
bring on their objections, frame their sentences, and introduce 
their quotations, io accordance with his vrill. And the ' Judge' is 
imprudent enough to remind his prolocutors that they are at his 
service, by such phrases as: — 'That is the point to which I 
' wish your attention to be turned ;' ' I am well aware, O Pandit ;' 
'you have well stated, O friend;' 'exactly, these are the 

March, 1861. r. 9 , i r\r\ni(> 

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96 HTNDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 

illustrations I mean :' and the like. Guru Das and his coUea^es 
must have been a very different set of men from Dr. Ballan- 
tyne's Bapu Deva Sastri, and his Benares Colleagues ' who are 
*no children.' Moreover, Guru Das' sentences are almost all 
cast in an English mould, a feat no bond fide Pandit can do. 

Mr. Mullens' Essay was written for English, not for Hindu 
readers. Almost every sentence in it proves this fact. As a 
comprehensive sketch or compendium of Hindu tenets, English 
readers in general owe him much gratitude for so laborious a 
performance. But the critical student must, we fear, employ 
other means, if he wishes to acquire a sound and deep knowledge 
of the principles of Hindu philosophy. 

Tlie method adopted by Dr. Ballantyne to dispose of the errors 
of Vedantism, demands a more lengthened investigation. The 
point of view which he has adopted in his investigation appears 
to be this : — 

The material or phenomenal world has no real existence — there 
are no * material substances.' ' The " matter," which (you say) 

* is alleged in the Bible to have been brought from non-existence 
' to existence, neither exists, nor could possibly.' (p. 82) * It 
' may be said, it sufficed to establish the authority of the Veda, 

* that it is in harmony with all demonstration. In the Bible, on the 
' other hand, we are told that the world was produced out of no- 
' thing.' (Book II. Aph. V. p. 29.) The purport of this whole 
aphorism appears to be, to bring forward proofs that the Veddn- 
tic tenets regarding the Absolute Oneness of real existence, as 
against the teaching of Bible, is the only rational and demon- 
strable view of the subject of creation. The names of Sir W» 
Hamilton, Sir W. Jones, and Bishop Berkeley are adduced — and 
even rendered into Sanscrit — in proof of the correctness of the 
Vedantic view of the matter. The teaching of the Bible, that 
to create means to make a thing out of nothing, is held to be the 
reverse of the teaching of ' unassisted intellect,' which teaches , 
that the real is but one, that sin, misery &c. are all illusions ; that 
man himself is God, and so forth, (p. 85) Dr. Ballantyne, though 
professing his faith in Bible teaching, agrees with the Vedantia 
as to the teaching of reason. ' I can articulate the word creation, 

' and I may appear to attach a distinct idea to the term when 1 
' say that it means " making out of nothing," which I do hold 
' it to mean, but is it pjssible for me to conceive, that what is so 
' made has in it a principle of existence which would sustain it 
' for an instant, if the creative force were withdrawn ? I am not 
' able to conceive this.' (p. 34) 

Admitting that the particular relation between the uncondi- 
tioned and the conditioned, which we call ' to create' is beyond 

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HINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGT. 97 

the limitB of the conditioned comprehension of man ; yet we 
hold that it is not more isomprehensible to say that Ho create, 
' is to transform the substance (Vastu) of the creation into the 
' shapes of phenomenal objects ;* than to say that ^ to create is 
^ to make a thing out of nothing/ « 

Hence we infer that Dr. Ballantyne has taken up a very serious 
position in a treatise professedly on Christian theism, when he 
asserts that the Biblical theory of creation, is contrary to reason, 
and the Vedantic theory the only rational view of the matter. 
Speculations of the kind, might be allowed to pass unchallenged, 
as individual opinions, in metaphysical treatises ; but it is a very 
different matter, for a writer to undertake the task of giving a 
faithful view of the teaching of the Bible, in a language which is 
the depository of the literature of a fifth of the human species. 
In this Essay Dr. Ballantyne speaks for Christians, and there- 
fore Christians have a right to examine his teaching. There are 
hundreds of clergymen and divines in the pulpits and seminaries of 
Christendom, who are, at least, as learned as Dr. Ballant}Tie in the 
doctrines and teaching of the Bible ; who deem it their duty to 
'hold fast the form of sound words' which it teaches; whose 
attachment to its truths is stronger and of a higher nature than 
their attachment to their natural lives. Do those consider it 
contrary to the teaching of 'unassisted intellect' to believe 
that God by His Almighty Power and Will, gave existence to the 
Universe out of nothing? Do they find that the conception 
which they have of this article of their faith is ' similar to the 
conception of a round square V Are they conscious that the 
' speculative reason, fearlessly followed, brings them inevitably 
' to the brink of that precipice of pantheism, over which, the ^ 
' Veddntin would have them cast themselves?' (p. 35.) Why 
refer to dergymen ? There are thousands of enlightened and pious 
laymen, who are as familiar as Dr. Ballantyne with the speculations 
of Berkeley, Hamilton and the rest, and yet do not regard the 
teaching of the Book, which holds the highest place in their affec- 
tions, and has become the law of their lives, as being contrary to 
the teaching of their ' unassisted intellect ;' nor do they believe 
that their 'speculative reason' — for we suppose the privilege 
of possessing one will be conceded them — ^brings them inevitably 
to the brink of the precipice of Pantheism. 

But supposing all believers in the Bible were to accept the 
conclusion, that it is contrary to reason to believe that the world 
was created out of nothing ; that the fact of such a creation is 
' unthinkable ;' that such a conception is either too great or 
too small for the human soul ; or that it is in itself contrary to 
the laws of thought, what then? Will the contrary view 



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98 HINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 

remove the difficulty, and relieve the mind from ite embarrass- 
ment ? Is it more conceivable that a * certain quiddity \ which 
we call a stone was evolved out of a spiritual substance or that 
the stone is a certain form of that substance ; than to conceive that 
a creative will of infinite power gave escistcnce to a substance differ- 
ing from itself? Admitting for argument's sake, that the notion, 
* to create a thing out of nothing/ is unthinkable, we must hold 
that the alternative one of evolving what we experience and regard 
as matteror non-spirit, from spirit-substance, is equally unthinkable. 
An atom or a universe is present to the mind, a person wishes 
to form a conception of its origin and nature. He may com- 
mence with the notion that the Real alone is One ; that sub- 
stance alone is Real, and that Spirit alone is substance. He 
has an atom under contemplation, and he discovers either that 
he must have two realities, the atom and his mind ; or that one 
of these is but a modification of the other ; or that one of these 
must have, by some process, originated the other; or, finally, he 
may re^rd both as aependent, and must full back in search of 
an original substance. He might advance a step further, and 
conceive that a notion of extension is essential to the conception 
of the attributes and properties of the atom ; that between the 
atom and his own thinking self, there must exist some sort of 
relation. But duality being an essential element of the notion 
of Relation, he has already two existences — the atom and think- 
ing self; nor can he, by any process of thought, reduce the 
two into an identical one. The notion of diiality cannot be 
cancelled by any process of his thinking powers. Other difficul- 
ties soon crowd upon him. What is the relation between this 
» thinking being, and the atom or the extension which I contem- 
plate ? though the perception of the atom is conditioned by a 
notion of extension, without which the atom cannot become 
an object of thought ; yet how can I demonstrate that t^is is 
not a condition of my thinking powers, rather than of the atom 
and extension in themselves ? How can I prove that the exten- 
sion, of which I have conception, is absolutely infinite in its 
own nature, and not merely negatively infinite only in reference 
to the capacity of my mind to measure it ? By what process of 
ratiocination can I shew that this extension is a substratum in 
itself; of which the atom which I perceive, is either a part or 
a manifestation? Or, if I suppose the atom or the universe a por- 
tion or a manifestation of an infinite substance ; how can I com- 
prehend and trace out the origin, the cause, the method,* and the 
extent of the transformation ? 

Our sole object in referring to these metaphysical speculations 
here, is to shew that the assertion that ' speculative reason ' 

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HINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 99 

necessarily leads to Pantheism, is founded upon a partial view of 
the matter. The impressions of the objects of the external 
world, received by the percipient mind, must involve the notion 
either of the Reality or of the Unreality of those objects. If 
the notion or conception produced by those impressions, be a notion 
of the unreality of the objects perceived ; whence the neces- 
sity of arraying all the powers of the ' speculative reason * to 
persuade people to believe conceptions produced by the impressions 
of their daily experiences. But if the sensuous impressions 
give rise to a conception of Reality and Substantiality, in the 
objects perceived, and the inference of ratiocination, and the 
conclusions of the 'speculative intellect,^ prove the unreality 
of those objects ; then, since these contradict one another regard- 
ing the same fact, at the same time, one of them must.be wrong. 

Is there a real and substantial substratum to all the objects 
of the phenomenal universe? 

Mankind at large answer this question in the affirmative ; be- 
cause the mind conceives properties and qualities, only as the 
attributes of some underlying substratum or support. Mankind 
do not profess to have any knowledge of that support, but only 
of the aggregate of qualities, by means of sensuous experience. 
The mind, by a sort of natural process, belonging to the laws 
of thought, infers the existence of a support. The inference 
cannot be proved, says Bishop Berkeley ; it is contrary to * spe- 
culative reason,' says Dr. Ballantyne. A ploughman steps in, 
and demands: — ' Prove that the properties made known by my 
sense-experience, have no underlying support.* The utmost that 
the Bishop and the Doctor can advance in reply is : — * We cannot 
prove a negative ; but produce you your proofs that there is 
such a substratum; and we will. show their futility; though we 
cannot prove the contrary.* Our ploughman might reply ; * my 
sense-experience of the aggregate of qualities, in the shape of 
perception, involves in itself an inference of a support; and as I 
never knew a man who did not believe that the figure and hard- 
ness of the stone against which he stumbled, were properties of 
a real substance, I think that notion is universal.' 

The view of the ploughman here might be held, not besidesi 
hut notwithstanding. Bishop Berkeley's opinion that colours, 
tastes, extension, figure &c., exist only in the mind ; and his 
doubts regarding the prevalence of the notion of real substances, 
made known by sense-experience. The ploughman's view is 
founded upon an analysis of the contents of a mental conception 
arising from sense-knowledge, and is held to be a necessary in- 
ference involved in the relation between primitive and deriva- 
tive cognitions. Were it granted that we can neithyj^jpye mt 



100 HINDU, EATIONAL, AND BIBUCAL ONTOLOGY. 

disprove the reality of the external world ; yet the existence of 
Ideas being provable ; the enquiry into the cause and origin of 
those states or changes proceeds from the laws of thought. 
Does consciousness t^tify of the changes only ? or also of the 
changes in the mental state, in their relations to their origin, 
that is, sense-experience. 

Now if Dr. Ballantyne's logic, on another subject, is sound, we 
think that the ploughman has the best of the argument. ^ The doc- 
trines of Liberty and NeciBssity, (says Dr. Ballantyne) are two 
Incomprehensibles, and thus balance each other; but the fact 
that a consciousness of freedom is felt by all, turns the scale 
in favour of libei-tv.* So is the ploughman's argument; ^the 
existence of the substratum of qualities cannot be proved ; nor 
can its non-existence be proved ; thus the two theories balance. 
But the cor^scious notion of a support underlying the properties 
made known by sense-experience, turns the scale in favour of 
its existence/ 

But however the metaphysical speculations, regarding the exis- 
tence or non-existence of a substantial substratum to the pheno- 
menal world, be decided ; that is not our present ol^ect. We 
have to do with the Ontology of the Bible, and of the Hindus ; 
and it appears to us that Dr. Ballantyne, by introducing this 
controversy into his Essay, has done a great disservice to the 
Hindus whom he wishes to enlighten, and a great injustice to the 
Bible, which he wishes to make known to them. 

We have strong faith in Dr. Ballantyne's uprightness, and in the 
purity of his aim and intention. And for this very reason, we 
regret the more to be forced to observe, that to our apprehension 
Aphorisms V. and VI. in Book II. of the Essay, are calculated 
to mislead and to do injury to Hindu readers. The purport of 
those Aphorisms we take to be this ; — Sir W. Hamilton, Sir W. 
Jones, and Bishop Berkeley, on the one hand, and the Bible on 
the other hand, contradict one another regarding the fact of 
creation ; the former agree with the teaching of the Yedas, and 
of reason ; the teaching of the latter is contrary to the voice of 
reason ; as it should be, since it is a divine revelation. Whether 
these were the views which Dr. Ballantyne intenderl to inculcate, 
we, of course, cannot say; but we fear that every Hindu who may 
read the Essay, will so understand its teaching. Those three 
excellent men, would not, we think, much enjoy the jposition in 
which they are placed in these Aphorisms. 

It is worthy of consideration also, whether Vedantic tenets, 
as hehl by the Hindus^ will bear the favourable construction put 
upon them in this Es^ay. Full fourteen pages are taken up with 
the defence of the Vedantin. His theory of creation and of 

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HINDU, RATIONAL AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 



101 



existence is made out to be nearly as orthodox as that of good 
Bishop Berkeley, if not as that of Paul. This defence demands 
a brief analysis, (see pp. 88 — 52.) 



Dkfbnsivi Pos!TU>X9 and Ekhohs of tkk Vkdam'(n. 



^CPfllldfl 1st, Til ere arP three kinds of 
eiliftt<emee:— the itirJeiM^nilcnt r tht* de- 
pL^ndent Dr plienmueiiftl ; nnd tlta «e^iii- 
In^ or inuHive* The Christ inn should 
noiaivPiit "an unknown quiddity, with 
ai> olw'lute ox l« ten IT," sriddeny tothe 
Vt*«tnnt'n hifl " |vhUoi*o|^bk'ttl Indlef,'* 
Ti^-^ardin^ thsit exiat4?ncc« pp, 3^. 40. 

2m\ TUl* VLHhintln hua heeu rhar^^iHl 
if^ith the i,vilde»t exttnivo^^nfe, hy be- 
hi^r itnade to jup^^rt thiit the Suprt^me is 
devoid of qunliti^Jt, when he iw^jcrti* 
t1iat Rfahma i;; Nirffvrm, ThU rhurffe 
i» unjust^ tjecause the term " aruTU*'' ia 
fi tech n km! tenn^ ain^ifyin^ ' phenoine- 
nul, mateml/ Hence Nirtfuuft Brah- 
fnft^m^MiM Immaterml God. A^^m, "ot- 
Ifann fjf Bcnse or luotlan (ire iuh Je up of 
what tlie V^ed^iitin CftUi* ' Guun*' iia wp 
Eiir<>iH'iirji* in j^eiieral say, tliey are 
made up of what wt* prefi^r ta cull mat- 
ter." p. 4L 

Brd To nay that BKihnin exists 
" w^khtmt lUteiWct, without in t€^ll3p:cmxs 
wTthoiit *?veri the coiiacinasneiia of hia 
ijwn *?xiiit*tu>e," is ni> «Ktrova^*auce of 
the VtrMutin. For "by intellect he 
«ie«u» ftn internal orj^an" of co|fnition i 
by *MntvllIfc*JHi-i?" he means the coneep- 
tioni of that ** orutiu ;" and by •* cou- 
wiouiinoiaij," the JVKiividualiifiinK' ofour- 
telf by the thoo^'ld of " t*^)," thereby 
ini Allying fl" eiSTsU-nt "nun^e^^'o/' The 
d«^lal of Bnihuiu'>* conBCinuHnu^ in 
tbifl liense, dm^s* not imply unronssi^inuii- 
ne«i bi the senst' in which we employ 
the tern*, pl). 47- 4«. 

4th The veilii^ text, *' i\U this m 
Bralinia, *' and the illuj»t ration taken 
from thesphler i+pinnintj liis wcb^ do not 
prove tht Vedintin % iVniheist. Ati no 
OUQ would BAy that the web i« the 
npider, »> no on« should infer that 
the world Is Bmblud, Again, " all thia/* 
a*i*jA not uiean the universe. Tb© 
world is only 9 disphiy of the pheao- 



Krrnr lat ; Tlie VtHhiniit RVst^m i# 
Panthei»nu Hut pnnthciwm (piiUilUnl 
by Sir W. JontV " iuextrSci»hlt*dllHcul- 
ty nttendifiir the mfffftr mtlttm *t/ mtf' 
ffx-//j/ iftfWiJHfvjf , which ifiilncf^tl • * • 
«ioiu»Mif the moot enliKThtcin d iimfHit; the 
mndenia to lielieve tbtU the wliiilu 
cvLHiUon was rather an energy than » 
work.** p. 32. 

2nd *• I'he Vedjinliiia » • • • wcmil I 
Beem to iKive heen dn|*ed by the wjn*d 
t^niifr, onti its* kiinlriHl ti^rm rettL They 
eh owe to ro^triet tlie unnie (if thiftf^ tit 
B|iinti and then jumped to the eonebi- 
sion that all clsie muMt Ite nrithiuirj or no- 
thing of rtuy €*>ri»t;qn4?ii*:t:," *' It is idlo 
tti dUpanijfje the imnjeont' imixurtiiniie 
tit phLmomeuii, by duhbkig them * in^ 
substautiaL' " 



3rd " In tbe Vedanta, there i« redly 
no will of God ; for Hruhnia connista 
of knowlefl^e nnlyj and U wJmt is 
meant hy the word VMa* If c nee the 
\'eda Cflnnot be a revealcr ni' iSrulima^ 
other wihe we shonhl find 11 Dunhty, 
whMi \» di*nieil." p. &9 



4th The verat^ity of the Veilas lia« 
notbtnm provtHlj for:^l) Their an* 
thority ifl Baid to be j^elf-evideiit. (2) 
The fl|Joc Illative intellect is duip^Mtsd 
to arrive at what they teach, without 
UiviiiB aid. (3) If their proat Umet, 
" The !ieal Ih hut One/* " there U m> 
dmility.*' l>e true, there i» neither 
place forj nor ne*Hj of, revelation. 



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102 HINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 

6th. The epithet Ttswa-Chanhane 5th. "Granting that nothing hut 

may mean that the familiar concep- the One exists per se ; it is not just 

tion of the chief energizing deity, — to infer that man is the One.** (p. 38.) 

iswara, the lord— is no other than " If it be not ageeed that there exists 

the aggregate of all embodied souls; anything besides Brahma; then there 

as a forest is no other than the trees is no foundation for the employment 

that compose it." p. 171. of arguments, either aflSrmative or 

6th.. The Vedantin holds not that negative. If there is any real Vedan- 

Brahma has no attribute, but that tih in the n^rld, then to argue with 

" he is all attribute, sheer existence, l|im would Ibe like arguing with a 

sheer thought, sheer joy." p. 49. child or a madman," p. 68. 

In this last * error/ Dr. Ballantyne is literally cruel upon the 
Vedantin. However, * Benares Pandits are no children/ and they 
need not be frightened at a slight excess in the language of 
their friend. "We shall leave the task of reconciling the sen- 
timents contained in the * defence/ and the * errors ' to the intel- 
ligent readers of the Essay ; and proceed, at once to examine 
the defence of the Vedantin; upon the soundness of which, 
to a great measure, depends the value of this Essay. 

From the three adjectives given in Position 1st, we do not 
conceive how any legitimate inference regarding the reality or 
unreality of objects in the external world can be drawn. Those 
adjectives are intended to denote qualities, all of which are 
alike predicated of Existence (Sattwa). The phrase 'such as 
has to be dealt with * is a clumsy and ambiguous rendering of 
the term Ft/dvahdrika ; which commonly signifies, customary, 
usual, judicial. Its substantive from Vydvahdra is universally 
used in Bengal for habit, behaviour, custom, usage. No conclu- 
sion regarding the reality or unreality of ' matter ' can be ob- 
tained from the quotation given in page 38. All that is asserted 
there, as seems to us, is that existence is divided into spiritual 
existence, customary or common existence, and apparent exis- 
tence. With the exception of this last, the division agrees 
very well with our division into spirit, and matter \ and because 
of the last, the Hindu analysis appears to us defective. Its 
defect arises naturally from the antecedent dogma of the ' Tri- 
guna,' and their product, ' Ignorance.' If ' existence ' is real, 
then what is apparent existence ? whatever it is, in the quota- 
tion it is asserted to have as much right to be called ' existence ' 
as that to which the epithet spiritual is applied has. Moreover, 
the epithet * seeming ' must necessarily presuppose some known 
real existence, though it be but the product of imagination or 
dreams. The mention made of the * unknown quiddity/ if em- 
ployed in contempt of the theory regarding the reality of 'Mat- 
' ter/ is an attempt at begging the question under investigation. 
But Dr. Ballantyne's defence of the Vedantin, taken a.<? a 
whole, hinges upon the signification which he attributes to the 



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HTXDF, UATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 103 

term ^ Guna/ in position 2nd. The asiial sense is a qualUf/, 
a cord — or * fetter * as Dr, Ballantyne has it, although we know 
not why he has selected the word * fetter *, any more than ' tether* 
or any other word for a cord employed to fasten two objects 
together. That the Hindus ever employed this word in the sense 
we attach to the words * phenomenal, material/ Dr. Ballantyne 
has either neglected or failed to prove ; and we have failed, 
after a mature consideration, to see sufficient reason for ac- 
cepting the new signification which he proposes. We take 
the word ' phenomenal' here in its widest sense to signify not 
only all visible, but also all sensuous objects ; which are sensuous 
indeed, by means of their qualities ; but that decides nothing 
regarding their reality or unreality. 

Now the view put forth here on this point, might be briefly 
stated thus : — ^The word * guna' has but two primary significa- 
tions in Hindu writings; namely, that of a quality; and that 
of a string, cord, or means for fastening and joining. That it 
ever signifies * material, phenomenal,' appears to us to be un- 
proved, if not unprovable from Hindu writings and usage. And 
hence it does not appear to be correct to say, that the phrase 
Nirguna Brahma conveys the same meaning to a Hindu, as the 
phrase Immaterial Ood does to a European ; or even ' very much 
the same sense.' 

Our reasons for making these assertions are briefly the fol- 
lowing : — In the Nyaya and its collateral systems, the word 
'dravya'is used for the objects of the phenomenal world; and 
' Guna ' is there used to denote what we call quOcliUes which 
have their abode in substance (dravya). There ' Guna' can- 
not mean the phenomenal world. (Tarka Sangraha. 2-4, Vais- 
eshika. Aph. 5. 6. Bhasha Parichchheda.§ 2-4). Secondly, The 
old lexicographer Amara Sina, in his Konka makes ^ guna' to sig- 
nify, ' a bowstring; that which abides in substance, (dravya) ; 
goodness &c. (i. e. the Triguna) ; whiteness &c. (i.e. all colours); 
and that which joins &c.' (Amara Kosha. p. 124. verse 49.) 
Thirdly, though there -is a degree of confusion about the signi- 
fication of ' Guna' in the Sankhva and Yoga Aphorisms, aris- 
ing from the previous adoption of the dogma of the ^ Triguna' 
as the substance of ^ Prkkriti ;' yet the passage quoted by Dr. 
Ballantyne (Sankhya Aph. Book I. Aph. 62.) does not appear to 
ns to prove that the word * guna' universally, but only as applied 
to the ' Three/ denotes qualities ; and this the commentator — 
not Kapila — ^asserts of the ^ Three,' ' because they are subser- 
vient to soul, and form the cords which bind the brute-beast to 
the soul.' Kapila's confused theory of creation, pressed hard, no 
doubt, upon the commentator ; but it does not appear to us pro- 

F 

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104 HINDU, KATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGT. 

vable, that he has given a new meaning to the word ' guna.' 
Fourthly, It has not been shewn that any of the writers of the 
Yedanta and Mimdns^ introdueed this new signification to the 
term ' guna,' Fifthly, The use made of the word ' guna.' 
elsewhere in this Essay, does not appear to be altogether consis- 
tent with this technical signification. We are told, for example 
that:— 

' Ignorance' (ajndna) is the aggregate of the phenomenal. (p« 49) 
'Guna' is the sensible — the sum of the objects of sense, (p. 45) 
^ Therefore Ignorance' is ' Guna' «nd what is predicated of the 
one may be also predicated of the other. But Dr. Ballantyne says 
(p. 34) that ' Ignorance ' is ^ equivalent to, and identical with 
the sum-total of qualities.' But * guna ' are never less than 
three ; and those three can never be identical with one another ; 
they must be distinct, whether eternal or non-eternal, otherwise 
the foundation of the Shad^Darshana is swept away. Now it 
is not * guna,' but an aggregate of tkr^ guiuu is said to form 
* Prakriti ' by equipoise, in one system j and ' Ignorance ' by 
a sum-total, in another. This ' Ignorance ' therefore cannot 
be a synonym of ' §una,' since a sum-total of three is neces- 
sary to constitute it. Again (p. 84) * Ignorance' is said to 
be * bhava-nipa,' or in the shape of entity; can 'entity' 
be predicated of * guna ' also ? If the dogma of the Ihiguna 
as 'pure cognition, lively emotion, and inertness,' (p. 35) be 
philosophically orthodox, why rejeet their equipoise in the shape 
of an unintelligent 'Prakriti;' and accept their sum^total 
in the shape of ' Ignorance,' as the creator of the world ? If 
the three qualities are not eternal ; and if they did not give ex- 
istence to Ignorance, and Ignorance to the world; they are not 
those of the Veddnta ; and Dr. Ballantyne's defence would be 
that of a shadow. Hence we cannot accept the technical sense 
proposed for the term ' guna.' Dr. Ballantyne has employed the 
word 'material' as an equivalent to the technical sense which he 
proposes of ' guna.' In Appendix A he attempts to shew that 
there is no word for our ' matter ' in Sanscrit. On this subject 
we wish, in passing, to propose two questions for the consideration 
of the learned Doctor. Supposing our word ' substance ' were 
substituted for the Sanscrit terms mentioned in that article — as 
by common usage, the word substance is applied to a spirit as well 
as to a lump of day — would it be conclusive to infer, that subs^ 
tance is not a term expressive of what we are pleased to call 
' matter?' If the Sanscrit has no term for ' matter ' a^ distinct 
from 'soul' or 'spirit,' then what is the distinction between the 
nine eternal atoms of the Nydya; and the Prakriti of the 
Sankhya, and their Puntsha ? Dr. Ballantyne ought surely to 

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HINDU, ILATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY.. 105 

give some specific names for those tw'o distinct substances ; or 
admit that Hindu analysis is deplorably defective. 

The truth of Position 3rd depends upon the view taken of the 
Veddntic analysis of man. If Dr. Ballantyne accepts the defini- 
tion of man furnished by the Upanishads, and recapitulated 
in the Veddnta Sdr; then indeed Yed&iitic assertions can- 
not be deemed ^extravagant' by him. Still we suppose- 
the talented, laborious, and excellent missionary^ Dr. DuflF— 
for to him we take the allusion to be made in the phrase, ' a 
' zealous writer against Veddntism,* (p. 43.) — may be allowed the 
liberty of forming his own opinion on the subject. But if the 
atomic substance called mind, as being an ' organ ;' a distinct 
substance from soul ; a creator of understanding ; of self-consci- 
ousness, &c. is a fiotion, and has no real existence in the consti- 
tution, of man ; then is the Vedantic system founded upon an 
imaginary foundation, and is 'extravagant' therefore, root 
and branch. Does Dr. Ballantyne accept the Ontology and Cos- 
mology of the Veddnta Sar ? Are those of the Bible and of 
Christendom to be tested by the speculations in that treatise ? Is 
it a duty incumbent upon the disciple of the Bible to believe that 
the world in the abstract should be conceived to be Ignorance — 
Ignorance which itself has no absolute existence, but which con- 
sists of the totality of three qualities — Ignorance which in its 
totality is the causal body of God ; and in^ its variety, forms the 
bodies of individual men ; Ignorance which gives existence to the 
Taiimdtras or five subtle elements, from which it produces intel- 
lect, mind, self-consciousness, the five sheathed man, and so 
forth ? No doubt readers of the Bible will deem these doctrines 
new. But if they are true, it is a duty to believe them ; and if 
it is a duty, Dr. Ballantyne should put forth more of his strength 
to prove and recommend them than he has done in these pages^ 
We write not these lines in a cavilling spirit. Very far from it. 
We write them with deep grief, under an impression that in 
this defence of Vedantism, the Truth suffers wrong at the hands 
of a friend who thus strengthens against her, the hands of a class 
of men, the most irreverent and captious towards all that is 
True and Holy and Great. 

We are not quite sure, that we understand the sense given to 
the word ' attribute ' in Position 6th. Is it the substance of a 
thing, or something else attributed to the substance? If * attri- 
bute ' denotes the substantial being, as distinguished from the 
qualities, properties, or manifested powers, which usually serve 
as the marks (lakshana) of substance ; and as the * gunas ' or 
cords by means of which a substance becomes known to others ; 
then is such an ' attribute ' the same as the Brahma of the 

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106 HINDU, EATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY, 

Vedanta — a thing without a mark, utterly unknown, utterly 
unknowable, and, as far as man is concerned, a perfect nonentity. 
This is indeed the Vedantic teaching of Brahma. But if the 
word * attribute ' is used to denote a power or quality belonging to 
a substantial being, by means of which it becomes manifested to 
others, — its usual acceptation — then has Ycddntic Brahma no 
such attribute, and the fact of ^ extravagance ' in expression is 
established. The Brahma of the popular UpanisAads, the Saririk 
Sutra, and the Vedanta Sar, is said to be devoid of any such 
attributes. It is * sheer existence, sheer thought.' If Dr. Ballan- 
tyne supposes that ' a Christian,^ should accept the theories of the 
Vedantin and Berkeley in disproof of the * unknown quiddity ' — 
the substratum of the external world — ^how will he meet the 
theories of the Sankhyas and Hume in disproof of the substra- 
tum of spirit — ^and especially of the quality-less Brahma of the 
Vedanta ? 

It seems to be a great mistake and a great injustice to intro- 
duce the venerable Bishop of Cloyne into Vedantin fraternity. 
The Italian Giordano Bruno, the Jew Spinoza, the German Schell- 
ing, and even the Welsh-Breton Des Cartes could fraternize with 
much greater facility. Bruno, Spinoza, and Schelling would very 
nearly agree with the Vedantin as to the fact of the relations of 
creator and creation ; though as to the means and mode of that re- 
lation, they would very greatly differ — the Hindu scheme being 
incomplete. The scheme of the Ontology of the Veddnta Sar, we 
take to be this : — 

Scheme of Ontology. 

I. Vastu=Joy-thought=Brahma. A thing — Substance of all. 

II. The Triguna=Material of the phenomenal. (How the 
Triguna were originated; and how related to Vastu, is not 
explained. It is said in the Upanishad that F'astu=BYBhxna, 
is incapable of sustaining relations ; and has none.) From the 
Totality of the Triguna arose : — 

III. lgnorance=Maya. Which envelopes the ' Ego,' and pro- 
jects the * non-Ego.' (Whence came the 'Ego' is not ex- 
plained. But to this 'Aham'=*Ego' it is said that nei- 
ther 'Ego' nor 'non-Ego' could exist, were it not for 
' Ignorance.' The theory seems confused. In the Vedanta 
Sar it appears to stand thus : AJndna found an ' Ego, ' (Aham) 
enveloped it, and gave it a conceit of individual existence. 
And also, there being no ' non-Ego,' Ajnana gave the * Ego ' 
a notion that there was.) 

Against this, at a great distance from it, as regards exactness 
of treatment, might be given Schelling's theory of Identity 

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HINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 107 

For convenience's sake Tennemann^s synopsis in Morell's trans* 
lation is furnished : — 

SCHELLING^S SCHEME OP OnTOLOGT. 

I. The absolute — the universe in its original form — The deity 
manifested in 

II. Nature (the absolute in its secondary form) as Relative and 
Real — as Relative and Ideal ; according to the following grada* 
tions : 

Weight— Matter. Troth— Science. 

Light — Motion, Goodness — Religion. 

Organic strocture — Life. Beauty — Art. 

Above these gradations, and independent of them, are arranged : 

Man (as a Microcolm). The State. 

The system of the world (the exter- History, 

nal universe). 

The similarity of the principle will be discovered at once. 
It should be observed, however, that Schelling commences with 
'Bas Absolute^ which admits of the predicate Relative ; but Vastu 
and Brahma admit of no predicates. The German's superiority 
in treatment is ve^ obvious. The Hindus are far inferior to the 
more imaginative firuno in their method of development. The 
Hindu begins by begging the question, he takes for granted that 
Vastu is the substance of the world ; and displays all his powers 
in the attempt to answer the question, ' How came the infinite, 
unconditioned Thing, to appear finite V The individual soul, ad- 
mitting the limits of its capacities, replies, ' I don't know.' And 
then making that * Ignorance ' the means of his rescue, he un- 
dertakes to explain the whole. According to the theory, the 
Fastu never moves, never wills, never acts. The dogma of the 
Trlguna does not appear to be indigenous in the Vedant System. 
It appears there as an exotic taken up in its crude state, and 
left undefined and unexplained. Practically considered ' Igno- 
rance ' differs very little from ' Prakriti.' Both are unintelligent. 
Both create a phenomenal world ; one a world of Illusions, the 
other a world of Qualities. 

Here we close. The ' partial exposition of Christian doctrine ' 
must be left for the present. We trust that we have succeeded, 
in some measure, in shewing, that the moral malady of the 
Hindus has not been so thoroughly examined and laid open in 
these Essays, as might be desired. The Sanscrit version of Dr. 
Balkntyne, as regards language, is worthy of his scholarship. 
All Christendom owes him gratitude for what he has done. We 
doubt whether there are half-a-dozen Christians on earth, who 
could dress Christian sentiments in a Sanscrit so chaste, idioma- 
tic, and pure. Though we have been forced to differ from the 

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108 HINDU, RATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 

learned Doctor on some points ; yet we hold his labours in high 
esteem ; and expect much more from his able pen, in aid of the 
efforts to make Christianity known to the Hindus. There are 
two points of Christian doctrine, however, of such vital import- 
ance, that we regret much Dr. Ballantyne did not enlarge a little 
more upon them in this Essay. The innate moral depravity of our 
race and the atonement of Christ. Until the nature and extent 
of the moral malady are thoroughly known and felt, indiffer* 
ence to the physician and the remedy must prevail. The atone- 
ment of Christ has always been the great stumbling block, and 
the great remedy of the human species. It is the keystone of 
human hopes ; and panacea for human afflictions. 
In the atonement alone can our rebellious race behold 

' Truth, love, and mercy in triumpli descending. 
And nature all glowing in Eden's Urst bloom ; 
On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending. 
And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb.' 

Man not only reasons ; but also feels. Midway between Reason 
and Feeling — between the understanding and the heart, between 
faith and love, is the true place of True Religion. To treat relig- 
ion — and particularly the Christian religion, — as a metaphysical 
speculation, is a great injustice towards the God of compassion and 
love who revealed it ; and a great wrong towards the sin-stricken 
and bewildered man who is in need of it. The religion of the 
heart only can gain the affections of the Hindus, console, and 
save them. 

Every Hindu, every day that he lives, sees and feels the 
blighting influences of innate and of actual depravity. He is 
fully aware that the intellect, the affections, the emotions and 
the passions of his soul, have fallen into a state of disorder 
and confusion ; that somehow or other, there has been an up- 
setting of all the furniture of his spiritual nature. . Christiani- 
ty is the only religion among men, that can explain to him the 
origin, the mode, and the extent of this moral disorder which 
has befallen his relation with his Maker, Ruler, and Judge. 
And we regret exceedingly to observe that the Essay contains not 
a single * Aphorism,' to explain to the Hindu, how the Bible 
accounts for, dissects, and explains the diseased state of his 
moral and spiritual nature. 

The doctrine of the Atonement also, has not obtained the 
prominence which its importance demands and deserves. It has 
been compressed into a single Aphorism, of just two pages, in 
Vk fourth Book, ' Of the mysterious points in Christianity,' pre- 
ceded by an Aphorism upon the * Rule of Excluded Middle/ 
This remark proceeds not from a light or censorious spirit, refer- 

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HISDU, EATIONAL, AND BIBLICAL ONTOLOGY. 109 

Its:;- '£^Hv^- -;-' ;^r -LlrL"5 

Creato/foP nfolS- u**"? °?.'^ '^'^^^y Provided by a merciful 

c^^uS-to^lStt;"!*''";^!' ""^ '»"- °f them 
clamafmn «f ^^P"'"* to them the conditions of the neu, pro- 

tKSy J^':f r^r ,^r V^^emouB race. We Z, 
and too7rfef to r.w! ?"' '?* *''** ^^*J^ *^ *«« metaphysical 
^-t^^^e^^^'^^^'^^ -ndeni^nd the dlnlerous 
wilfol rebellion TJH' ? A®."''*'^°^« "^ **»« ?"»'* of their 
offe,^[hemi„\T«'5^*^P***'''° "°d efficacy of the remedy 
^n^m^Mnt"^^i'\^'^'^y^''^^'^'^^^<>^<>f this Essay^ 
learni &"'' 1'*^?"^^^^^^ ^'°°^ *»»« same able pen for the 
omn)?aSi,J ' sincerely trust that Jesus Christ shall 

occupy a far more prominent place. 



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110 RAJMAHAL^ ITS RAILWAY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 



Art. v. — Lord Cannintfa Speech at the opening of the Rajmahal 

Railway. 

LAST September, the Ganges at Rajmalial was tapped by 
the Railway.* Henceforth neither passengers nor costly 
goods will be subject to the freaks of the Nuddea Rivers. The 
apex of the Delta has been touched by the Iron Horse, and a 
life and activity will, in consequence, be given to the neighbour- 
hood of Rajmahal, such as has not been known there since Gaur 
the city of one hundred kings ceased to be the metropolis of 
Bengal and Behar, and for which its position at the top of the 
Delta, admirably adapted it. 

But it is not merely in connection with Rajmahal and its liills, 
once the scenes of a bustling activity and of a numerous popu- 
lation, that this opening is to be viewed with interest. The Rail- 
way will bring a tide of trade and social life into thdise solitudes of 
Beliar, once the seat of an Empire over which the great Asoka 
stretched his rule. The traveller, who, in a miserable, expen- 
sive palki, tries to penetrate the fastnesses south of Bhagulpur, 
finds before him, in every direction, the wrecks and mouldering 
remains of former greatness. Buddhism has left indelible traces 
of itself on basalt images, in caves and on the rocks of Rajgriha 
and Monghyr, while the mountain eyries of the highland Chiefs 
of Rajmahal shew what power the feudal system exercised, in the 
days of Behar^s greatness. What will it be when the whole 
country from Rajmahal to Benares becomes pervious to the mer- 
chant, the miner, the missionary, the schoolmaster and even 
the indolent Bengali babu? 

As an instrument for awakening an interest in Behar's mental, 
religious and social improvement, the railway will be of great 
value. The Behar people have, ever since Buddhist days, been cut 
off from mental light and intercourse with foreigners : the Moguls 
did little for Behar ; its fine population were never appealed to on 
moral or intellectual topics, since the days that Sakyea Muni made 
the groves of Gaya echo with Buddhist mottos. We quote on 
this subject the excellent remarks of Lord Canning, made at the 
opening of the Rajmahal Railway. 

* Not far from the spot where acoording to Hinda myth, KapU Mnni, dis- 
turbed by it in his devotions, swallowed the whole river : — this myth probably 
referred to that change in its bed, that sent the main stream in an Easterly 
direction, while formerly it flowed down by Nuddea. 



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HAJMAHAL^ ITS BAILWAY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS 111 

* We began this day's journej at a spot washed by the tides of the Bav of 
Bengal, and within a stone's throw of the anchorage of some of the noblest snips* 
which, to the ftirtherance of oommeroe and all its attendant blessings, the skill 
and enterprise of our fellow-conntry-men have launched upon the ocean. We 
have ended it in an inland d^trict, 200 miles off, where not only are the uses 
of the gi'eat highway of nations uncared for and unknown, but where the very 
name of the "black water" is a word of mystery and terror. We began our 
Journey at the chief seat of Western trade and civilization on this side of the 
globe, the head quarters of England's power in Asia, and we have closed it almost 
under the walls of the ancient capital of Bengal and Behar — ^the city of Gour — 
which, little more than two centuries ago, was not surpassed by any in India, for 
its busy population and magnificence, but which now lies a mass of tangled 
ruins sjod rank forest, tenanted by wild beasts, reeking with fever, and void not 
only of human industry, but of human Ufe. In travelling between these two 
points, — ^points of such striking contrast — we have passed through a country 
teeming with population and covered thick with all that is necessary to the 
sustenance of man. We have skirted a district abounding in mineral wealth, 
and already eagerly seizing the opportunity, as yet imperfectly afforded to it, of 
pouring this wealth into the great centre of activity in Calcutta. We have 
been carried through the wild country of the Sonthals, one of the rudest and 
wildest races of India, but a race not insensible to kindly government, and 
who, if their bilk and jungles had been as accessible five years ago as they are 
now, would have been at once checked in a purposeless rebellion. Lastly, we 
find ourselves standing on the bank of the g^eat Ganges, at that point at which 
it is in the interests of Commerce, that the tedious and uncertain navigation of 
its lower waters should be exchanged for a short and secure land carriage.' 

The Rajmahal Railway, like the Mntla Line, its future southern 
extension, has been driven through a land of tigers and cholera ; 
on both lines the laborers have had to battle with the deadly 
miasma of jungles, the growth of centuries ; — and in some in- 
stances have been carried off, in broad daylight, by wild beasts, 
whose lairs, undisturbed for ages have been intruded on by the 
Btangerwith his iron road. Three centuries ago there was a 
dense population near the Bajmahal hills, as there was then in 
the Sunderbunds. In the centre of the Santal Country are 
to be found now the remains of large tanks and palaces, erected 
before the Santal migrated into it, about sixty years ago. 

In a similar way, in North Tirhut, the ruins of the once mighty 
cities of Janakpu and Simrun, 14 miles in circumference, remain 
amid what are now the haunts of tigers and boars, rife with malaria. 
It was the long struggle between Hindus and Moslem that re- 
duced this land to a terai or deadly jungle. Some similar catastro- 
phe must have taken place in the Bajmahal hills. 

One great advantage we look forward to from the railway is, 
that it will leave those Europeans without excuse, who fancy 
that, because they know Calcutta or one of the Presidency towns^ 
they are therefore competent to give an opinion on India, or 
even on Bengal. Even eight hours by this Bailway will tell them 
not to jud^ Behar men by the Bengali standard ; they will see 
there a different race of m^. In a few years a Calcutta 

March, 'iS61. Q 

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112 RAJMAHAL, ITS RAILWAY AND H181X)EICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 

cockney, who has never travelled beyond Chandernagore, will 
be a curiosity fit for the British Museum. The railway will 
idso check that tendency to centralization which looms so fear- 
fully in the future horizon of India. Federalism, which combines 
local action with a centralizing supervision, is what we want, and 
the railway will, in one respect, greatly favour the principle of 
* unity amid diversity.' As the stream of the Ganges, like that of 
the Nile, and other great rivers, has been the diffuser of civiliza- 
tion along its banks, so is the railway likely to prove a line of 
light through mofussil darkness, enabling the merchant, the 
educator, and the missionary to gain access to ' the highways and 
hedges ' of the Santal and other districts. 

Holidays will be rendered doubly valuable by the Railway, as 
Lord Canning remarked in his Rajmahal Speech : 

* The vast distances to be traversed by all whom business or pleasure pats in 
motion, the fierce climate which for so many hours of the day makes exertion 
and exposure eminently hazardous, and the fact that a life of bodily activity or 
mental toil in India is one of daily risk — all conspire to render any alleviation 
of labor, and any new facilities for relaxation, a boon of inestimable valne to 
every class, whether soldier or civilian, independent gentleman, or servant of 
the State/ 

' To British Science and British Enterprise shall be committed in India the 
noble task of bringing security, comfort, and comparative wealth within the 
reach of races as yet ignorant of these; of extenmng the field of profitable 
industry to them ; of supplying the wants of some by the supermuties of 
others ; of enhancing prosperity where it exists, and of reviving it where it has 
drooped and decayed ; of promoting fellowship between men, and of bringing 
light into dark places.' 

The railway will increase country tastes and particularly favor 
the study of geology and botany, so neglected in this country. 
The class of natives will ^adually become rare, who, like a Bengali 
babu some time ago, coiud tell a Geological Surveyor he had seen 
many hiUs near Calcutta ; when asked, where ? he said, — the 
embankments of the tanks. 

Punctuality, so wanting in onr native friends, will be taught 
more effectively by the rad than by the schoolmaster, — the train 
waits for no one, as many a native has already found to his cost. 

To shew the gradually increasing influence of this line, we 
give the following tables — which tell their own story. They 
show how the masses appreciate the railway. 
EAST INDIAN RAILWAY. 

2%e numbers conveyed per mile were in 

1854-55 2,983 

1865-66 6,983 

1866-67 8,877 

1857-68 .. 9,120 

1858-59 9,661 



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BAJICAUAL, ITS RAILWAY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 113 

Numbers conveyed of each Cla^sper mile. 



Ybab BiTDne. 


l8t Class. 


2iid Class. 


8rd Class. 


80th June 1865. 


77-6 


876-6 


8,680-0 


„ 1866. 


100-4 


448*7 


6,880-6 


„ 1867. 


110-8 


488-8 


7,884-3 


» 1868. 


188-0 


487-8 


8,668-8 


,. 1860. 


106-8 


408-6 


0,151-6 





Receipts from < 


^ach Class. 




YsAX nrDure. 


istChM. 


8nd Class. 


SrdOass. 


TotaL 


Average Receipts 
per mile. 


80th June 1865. 


£ 

1,880 


£ 
8,040 


£ 

18,668 


£ 
88.407 


£ 
104-8 


„ 1868. 


8,684 


8,801 


88,866 


48,700 


868-6 


„ 1867. 


8,736 


4311 


45,088 


64,484 


450-8 


n 1868. 


6,188 


5,037 


47,787 


68,866 


486-4 


„ 1860. 


6,814 


5,160 


62,064 


78,047 


680-8 



Passengers conveyed by the East Indian Railway. 



Ybab bvdivo. 


1 

1 


NUMBBB Of PA88BBGBB8. 


TotaL 


lirtOass. 


8nd Class. 


3rd Class. 


81st May«1866. 

80th June 1866. 

„ „ 1867. 

I n 186a 

„ „ 1860. 
(84 MiliBs, opened Ist October, 1858.) 


181 
121 
181 
181 
148 


0,808 
18,010 
18,400 
14,763 
16,106 


48,806 
68,674 
68,801 
61,766 
67,800 


880,546 

778,186 

047,068 

1,037,106 

1,100,617« 


888,7M 

838358 
1,013,668 
1,108,634 
1371,932 



• It was often said that caste, and native prejudice would prevent the maw of natives 
availing themselves of the rail; but in India, as else where the romMon people have more 
commofi sense than they get credit for — cheap fareH, and comparative necdom from 
railway accidents, decid^ the qnestioa. 



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114 BAJMAHAL, ITS EAILWAY AKD HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS, 

Receipts from Passengers and Ooods, on the East Lulian Bailway, 
with working expenses. 



Ybae 


BVDIirO. 


Paisen- 
gert. 


MiBoel. 
laneoQB. 


Goods. 


TotaL 


Working 
Expenfles. 


Net 
Profite. 






£ 


£ 


£ 


£ 


£ 


£ 


W&i June 1856. 


88,407 


1,924 


6,087 


81,463 


20,822 


10,631 


n 


1866. 


48,790 


4|,618 


83,771 


82,178 


83,766 


48,413 


n 


1867. 


64,484 


6,698 


62,664 


118,646 


44,162 


69,484 


f> 


1868. 


68,866 


14,672 


76,804 


160,282 


62,607 


87,726 


»» 


1869. 


73,947 


12,761 


1,18,889 


206,687 


96,184 


109,408 



Another social point connected with the Railway relates to 
treatment of the natives working on it. On this we quote 
from Lord Canning's speech at Bajmaha!, where having 
thanked the Company's officers for the treatment of their natives^ 
he observed. 

* Their treatment and management of the popnlation with whom they have 
been brought into daily contact haa been worthy of all praise. I apeak firom per- 
sonal knowledge on this point. During three years, nntil the time when the 
chief Qovemmental superintendence of its affairs was committed to the able 
and watchful care of my honorable friend the Lieutenant Qovemor, the £. I. 
Railway was directly under the control of the Qovemor Qeneral in Ck>uncil ; 
and I cannot call to mind that in that time a single instance occurred of 
coercion or oppression on the part of the officers of we CompcMiy, or of any 
want of cordiality and good will between the employers and tli^ native ser- 
vants, or laborers. I can remember no case of harsn dealing, or inconsiderate- 
ness of any kind. Both parties soon understood each other, and there has, so 
fiur as I know, been no interruption of that g^ood understanding.' 

' This, let me say it, is no light praise. The natives of Bengal, of whom, in 
one way and another not lees than 118,000 are daily working on this Rulway, 
are, in this part of the province, a timid suspicious people, — euily taking alarm 
at novelties, — averse to interference with their usages, unused to steady labor, 
fickle, and too often crooked in their wavs. There are however, a few painftil 
exceptions, chiefly with regard to contractors. Mr. Tumbull remarks of the con- 
tractors of the Patna division. "The railway works were in very bad odour 
among the natives, whose dealings with the late contractors left no &vorable 
impressions on their minds." ' 

He then made the following remarks : which deserve to be 
written in letters of gold, 

' 'Gentlemen, it is of no use to deny or conceal it, ibr it is known to all the 
worlds we Englishmen with all our great national characteristics, are not, as a 
people, conciliatory or attractive. God fbrbid that any of us should feel ashamed 
of his national character, or wish it to be other than it is. But none amongst us 
will deny that the very virtues of that character are not S(ridom exaggerated into 
fieiults. We are powerful in body and mind, and we are proud of that power. 
We are self-reliant, and jnstlv so, and we like to shew our self-reUanoe. We 
are conscious of our own high purposes, and enlightenment, and we are apt to 
look down Upon those, whose motives we believe to be lees worthy than our own, 
or whom we regard as debased in ignorance, and we do not care to conceal our 
feelings. These fifdlings are not inconsistent with our national greatness. In 
the days of slavery, Englishmen were amongst the hardest task-masters that the 



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BAJHAUAL^ ITS RAILWAY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 118 



African ever had; bat England did not hesitate to spend her gold and her blood 
lavishly for the suppression of the Slave Trade, and we poured out oar twenty 
millions like water, when we fonnd that it was the only means by which to rid 
ourselves of the curse of slavery.' 

* But, Gentlemen, no people, whatever their condition, will patientlv bear to 
be treated by their rulers as though they were less than men, less rational, less 
capable of right feeling than those who rule them. If we attempt, individually 
or collectively, to do this, if we neglect to win the heart of those over whom 
Providence has placed us, if instead of seeking to inspire them with confidence, 
we take for our maxim that the people of India jshould be governed as a con- 
quered people — ^which, as I understand it, means that they should be governed 
by sheer force,— if in our pride or impatience we reftise to show forbearance and 
indulgence to the weaknesses and shortcomings which attend us, we shidl not 
wortUly represent England in the great work which lies before her, and we 
shall assuredly fiul to accomplish it.' 

We give in a tabular statement the number of natives employ- 
ed^ on the Railway and their respective localities. Such a number 
of men, with such wages^ must have had a considerable effect on 
the labour market of Bengal. 

EAST INDIAN RAILWAY. 

Bengal Division. 

Statement of daily average of work-people employed on the eon^^ 
struction of the several divisions of the line of Railway, for 
the twelve months, from the ^\st May, 1859 to Ust May, 1860. 



Naxss ot Divisiovs oe 


. 


1 


j 




1 




1 




DiSTBICTS. 


1 


1 


1 


1 


i 




Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


South Birbhum, 


day. 


day. 


day. 


day. 


day. 


day. 


day. 


day. 


766 


876 


812 


9,070 


417 


69 


498 


11,497 


North Birbhum, 


8,186 


462 


806 


4^460 


118 


67 


14 


8,602 


South Ri^mabal, 


4,773 


168 


66 


6,276 


94 


26 


22 


10,407 


Centre Kiymahal 


4^887 


none 


260 


4,608 


827 


101 


89 


18,672 


North Ri^imahal, 


4,863 


286 


483 


6,903 


834 


18 


81 


12,968 


Pwpointi, 


8,670 


666 


180 


6,201 


116 


47 


80 


9,898 


Bhagulpur, 




482 


262 


190 


6,941 


70 


16 


, 2* 


4,984 




... 


2,121 


403 


177 


2,014 


26 


17 


' 18 


4,771 


Monghyr,... 




1,822 


486 


811 


4,964 


286 


60 


824 


7,761 ' 


Kiul, 


..* 


663 


266 


106 


2,768 


142 


39 


60 


4,089 


Hallohur,... 




2,122 


003 


276 


4v886 


137 


92 


84 


7,960 


Bar, 


..' ... 


2,144 


920 


286 


3,672 


122 


63 


18 


7,159 


Patna, ... 




906 


103 


126 


3,046 


122 


16 


26 


4,841 


Soane District, 




2,862 


874 


618 


4,886 


84 


86 


38 


8,772 


Soane Bridge, 


72 


69 


1,491. 


204 


38 


81 


82 


4,990 


Total, 





38,816 


6.207 


6,068 


64,692 


2,431 


734 


1,843 


118,791 



(Signed) Oboroe Turnbull, 

iUh September, 1860. 
We giye further Tables at page 14il. , 

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116 RAJMAHAL, ITS RAILWAY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS^^ 

The trunk line is now vi& Rajmahal, which will answer as far 
as Monghyr^ and so onwards as the loop line, but we believe the 
direct communication with the N. W. P. will ultimately be by 
the Barrakur to Patna, thus saving 100 miles, and opening 
out theComwall, as well as the Switzerland of Bengal to the philan- 
thropist, and the merchant. Already an extension is being made 
to the Barrakur from Rani^unj: it will then probably pass 
by the Kuhurbali Coal Fields, and through the Gt>bin^ur 
Valley, which is the exit from the high table land of Ramghur 
to the fertile plains of Behar and so on to Patna. The rail will 
create a wide extent of traffic, as has been shewn by the opening at 
Bhedea and elsewhere.''^ 

In addition to the Banigunj line being likely to be the main 
one, it will lead to ParasnaiA, and on the completion of the pre- 
sent extension line to the Barrakur, a drive of 54 miles only will 
lead to the top of Parasnath, or by the future main line from the 
Barrakur to Patna, which will land the traveller at the Kuhur- 
bali Coal Fields, with the adjacent copper mines, only 20 miles 
distant from Parasnath. 

** The hUl scenery beyond the Barrakur extending to Puainath and the 
Donwa pasa wiU be most refreshing to the person ' long in populous cities 
'pent/ — Even now, one can leave Calcutta by the mail tndn at night and break- 
fist in the morning at the top of Parasnath. 

Migor Sherwill, So well known for the Tenable Statistical information he has 
ftmushed the public regarding Bhagulpur, Monghyr, Malda, and the Sunder- 
bunds, has lately published a letter on the subject of a direct line in which he g^ves 
the ibUowing arguments in its fsvor — Patna and the N. W. P. would be 300 instead 
of 400 miles from Calcutta— Coal from Kuhurbali could be laid down at Patna, for 
the same price as Baniguig Coal ia sold in Calcutta — the fertility of the 
country between Qobindpur Valley and the Ganges produces heavy crops 
from a soil that has not been manured fbr 2000 years — even the roads are 
ploughed up in the wet season to g^ve a crop— the exports are forwarded 
only by pack-buUodcs, dilatory and expensive, to the (Ganges, where the 
produce is sent by boats to Calcutta. Zemindars and exporters could go 
by train to Calcutta, instead of trusting dishonest brokers and ffrain-dealers 
who fieece them. Close to the hills is much waste land not cultivated, be- 
cause the exports would hardly pay its carriage to the Ganges. The Zemindm of 
3ehar are rich, and food is cheap. — Perg^unnah Surrai, Nurhut, Behar, along the 
proposed lines are the chief places which furnish Rice, Wheat* Barley, Gram, Oil- 
seeds, Sugar, Tobacco, Turmeric, Mace, Iron, Hides, Gums, Dye Stuffs, Tnsser, 
Carpets, Stone-plates, Ochre.— 100,000 Filffrims from the K. W. P. and Gyah 
pass idong this line, and in the cold weanier, taking the route to Deoghur and 
Jug^gemauth, returning at thedoseof the cold season ; at Kurukdehe, the stream of 
pilgnms divides ; the one proceeding south to the Pftrasnath, the other east to Doo- 
ghur ; they again unite near Burdwan. The train would take up the Parasnath pil- 
grims at Nawadah, and convey them to Kuhurbali, and after visiting Parasnath 
would take them to Ranigunj. The pilgnms g^ing to Deoghur would be conveyed 
also from Nawadah to Kurukdehe 50 miles. — The Brahmins do not object to pil- 
grims travelling by rail as they arrive much richer and bettor able to offer a large 
present to the Brahmins. The Oobindpur Valley is now much dreaded by pilgnms 
who on their passage keep watch and ward all night long to prevent the attacks 
of tigers and thieves. Immense numbers of load pilgnms stream towards the 

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RAJMAHAL, ITS RAILWAY AND HI8T0EICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 117 

The construetion of the Railway itself presents many objects of 
interest — rails, the difficulty of their supply — sleepers, whether 
more lasting of iron or of wood ; the latter how b^t prepared-— 
fencing, the most efiSsctual kind — bridges, their well foundations^ 
their piers, their arches, their girders— ballast, the various 
descriptions, artificial and natural — the beds of rivers, if changed 
for railway bridges, how {ax likely to be permanent — oontractors, 
their failures and the causes— the epidemics and mortality amon^ 
the coolies, how far avoidable. But our object in this artide is 
rather to interest our readers in the moral and social aspects 
presented by the extension of the railway, enlarging the views 
of Europeans and Natives, lessening the influence of caste, 
and increasing the facilities of travelling, and so making more 
accessible the various places of historical interest which lie near 
the line. 

As the historical associations on the Railway line between 
Calcutta and Ranigunj, connected with the French at Chander- 
nagor, the Dutch at Chinsura, and the Portuguese at Hugly, 
have been noticed in Cone's Ilailway Guide, we will begin with 
the Kanai or Burdwan junction, which will eventually super- 
sede Burdwan as an engine-changing station, connecting the 
Ranigunj station with the main line by a loop line, and confine 
our remarks to places between that and Rajmahal, where the 
line ends at present. Our space is limited, consequently our 
notices must be brief; but ample information may be found in 
old histories. We notice places in the order in which they lie, 
starting from Burdwan. 

We enter the Birbhum District across the Aji. The ^i which 
rises near Monghyr, separates Birbhum from the Burdwan 
District, which receives along with Tirhut, the name of the 
garden of Bengal. It is navigable only for a few weeks in the 
rains. Coal mines are met close to its banks. This river receives 
a number of tributaries : it flows into the Hugly near Cutwa^ 
memorable for Clivers Victory of Plassey. We cross the Aji 
river by a bridge 1,800 feet long, over arches of 50 feet span 
each. We leave behind the Burdwan District, and enter the 
Birbhum Zillah, the Bengal Highlands. A Scotchman would 
smile at these being called Highlands, but they are such to a 
Calcutta man. These hills were once noted for Mahratta raids, 
but will hereafter, we trusty be associated with iron and copper 

RMgir HiUfl, the reputed birth place of Gaatama : these are 12 miles sotith-west of 
BeSa dty, close to the proposed lines and have 12 hot and 4 cold springs. Com- 
merce in Asiatic countries generally follows the same road as that pursued by 
pilgrims. The Behar people are fond of travelling, having numerous shrines or 
places of local veneration in their diitrict. 

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118 AAJHAHALj ITS RAILWAY AND BIBTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 

foundries, and the development of extensive mineral resources. 
Birbhum was once a little Belgium, an arena for Mahratta and 
Moslem to exhibit their prowess in, though the former generally 
adopted the Parthian system of war&re, fighting and retreating. 
As late as A. D. 1814, the roads were so infested with robbers, 
that pilgrims oould not pass through Deogur on the way from 
Benares to Jagannath — but by giving the robbers lands, on 
condition of keeping the roads clear, the robberies were put 
down. The oldest town in Birbhum is Nagore, the residence of a 
Musalman Baja; it has an entrenchment thrown up against 
the Mahrattas, from twelve to eighteen feet high, which extends 
round the town for the distance of thirty two miles. Molisser 
on the road from Sun to Murshidabad is surrounded by 
eighty tanks; — ^in this Zillah, tanks for irrigation are very 
common. It is very important for these districts that there are 
a number of jhils, which serve as natural drainage basins in the 
freshes, and prevent the floods from devastating the country. 
Artificial basins, with a similar view, are now being formed near 
the Mississipi. Baklesur is noted for its hot-springs and cheating 
Brahmans. Baidanath is a famous place of pilgrimage for Hindus 
from all parts of India, but especially from Scinde and Raj- 

Eutana; they come in February. Its temple is said to have been 
uUt by a Choi Riga from Mysore, who had invaded the 
country. 

Surul, the first station North of the Aji, has largely increased 
since the Railway staff settled here. The great mortality in 
certain parts of the South Birbhum District, has led to various 
sanatary improvements in Surul : — ^it has a dispensary and 
hospital; near Surul are the remains of the old commercial 
residency, retaining with its twenty five rooms, the relics of 
the old palatial style and mode of living, when the Residents 
were the princes of the land. A road, metalled and bridged, 
leads from the Surul station to Uambazar noted for its elegant 
lac ornaments made by only two men. It is on the Damuda, 
which is there a quarter of a mile wide. The country to the 
West is described as an extensive coal field, having also plenty of 
iron. — Cuiwa is thirty one miles distant from Surul. 

The next place of importance is Synthea : the Bridge is 1,500 
feet long; m the dry season it is over a wilderness of sand. 
Water is procured by digging in the sands of this river. The bed 
of the More river here is in places quite black with magnetic 
iron dust, which clings in clusters to the magnet. The lover 
of Oeology may see to the north of the village a high gravel 
bank, composed of pink quartz, with pieces of quartz fdspar, 
and pisiform iron ore intermixed. The Harpah or bore in 

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RAJMAUAL, ITS RAILWAY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 119' 

this river at the first fall of rain is a curious sight. A journey 
of an hour and three quarters from Synthea takes the traveller 
to the Birbhum Iron works of Messrs Maekey & Co. : the 
first pig iron manufactured in Bengal upon the English prin- . 
ciple, was smelted here in January 1856; two tons of iron 
are produced daily, and three European smelters are em- 
ployed. The district is rich in coals, and iron ; even the ballast 
laid along the line at Synthea gives 15 per cent, of iron. A 
metalled road, eight miles long, leads from. Synthea to Suri, the 
capital of Birbhum. 

A road leads from Synthea to Jammakundi, a large town with 
many substantial buildings and temples, sixteen mUes S. W. of 
Berhampore. Beyond this is Rangamatti, the site of an 
extensive city, when the Ganges, then four miles wide, flowed by 
it. The Western boundary of the river may be still distinctly 
traced by a bank of stiff clay, gravel, and nodular limestone, 
about fifteen feet high, which runs along as far as Bajmahal. 

Rampur Hat is a changing station of the Railway. The house 
of the Resident Engineer, with its nice garden in front, is a plea- 
sant sight. This place was in great danger during the lastSantal 
insurrection, and some hard fighting took place near it. We 
trust the authorities havfe learnt the lesson, that the school- 
master is, in the long run, cheaper than the soldier • This 
insurrection, which might have been easily prevented, had the ofli • 
cials redressed the evils of the Mahajan system in time, cost the 
Grovernment many lacs. Similarly the expenditure against the 
Kukis, a few months ago, cost the State one lac of rupees. The 
Santal leaders, were simple ryots> and their allies hj^tq cowherds, 
oilmen and blacksmiths. 

Nathati is the first station in the Murshidabad District, now sa 
famous for its mulberry cultivation. A road leads from this vi& 
Jeaganj, a large mercantile emporium, to the city of Murshidabad, 
thirty five miles distant, and may ultimately form a branch 
line of the railway. Whoever wishes to study the morals and 
manners of a Moslem Court during the last century, m«st 
peruse the pages of the Seir Mutakherin, where the state 
of things previous to the English conquest is unfolded — the 
name of Ali Verdy Khan is the one redeeming feature in the 
landscape. The voice of revels is now hushed in Murshidabad — 
its Moslem nobles left it when the capital was removed. But the 
ruins of Gysabad near it, not far from the Nalhati road, remind 
us with its P&li inscriptions, of the day when Buddhism ruled the 
country instead of the Crescent. Cajptain J. E. Gastrell, in his 
Statistical Report of Murshidabad, states of this place, ^ Moorshe- 
' dabad, commonly called by the natives Maksoodabad, is seven 
Mabch 1861. R 

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120 RAJMAUAL^ ITS BAILWAY AND HI3T01MCAL ASSOCIATIONS. 

'miles South of Jeeagunge, on the Bhaugiruttee. There are 
' no defined limits to it as a city, nor is there any part known 
* speciaUy by the above names ; it appears to be a name given 
' to an indiscriminate mass of temples, mosques, handsome 
' pucca houses, gardens, walled enclosures, huts^ hovels and 
' tangled jungle containing the ruins of many edifices that have 
' sprung up, and decayed, around the residences of the former 
' and present Nawabs Nazim of Moorshedabad/ 

Murshidabad calls up many historical associations, numerous 
enough to have an article to itself in this Review. It is full of the 
past; — the days of Jagat Set, the Rothschild of Bengal, — of Ali 
Verdy its Akbar,— of Suraja Daula, of the Aurungzebe type. The 
objects worth seeing now are the Palace, the tombs of Ali Verdy, 
and of Suraja Daula, the ruins of the Residency, of the Dutch 
factory at Kalkapur, and the ivory carvings of Murshidabad. 
For an account of these consult Captain Grastrell's Geographical 
Report of the Murshidabad District, and the Seir Mutakherin. 

Fulsa is on the Bansli one of those hill streams which rise to 
such an enormous height after a heavy flood. Jungipur on the 
Bhagirathi is only sixteen miles from Pulsa. Near Pulsa is the 
Nobinger Jhil a great haunt for tigers, who lurk in grass that grows 
twenty feet high : this jhil was probably the old bed of the Ganges. 
Pakour is the first Station we meet with in the Santal 
country. It is the residence of one of the Santal Deputy Com- 
missioners. There is a Martello tower here thirty feet high 
and twenty feet in diameter, loopholed for musketry, with space 
on the top for one or two light guns. It was built in 1856 for 
the protection of the railway officers, and railway bungalows, 
when the latter were rebuilt after the Santal insurrection of 
1856. This tower afforded protection against a company of 
mutinous sepoys in 1858. From the tower a fine view is 
to be had of the Rajmahal hills, and Jungipur. Pakour con- 
tains 1,400 houses, and is the residence of a Rt^'a. A road is 
being made from Pakour to Suti thirteen and a half miles, at the 
junction of the Bhagirathi and Ganges rivers which will open 
out an important place of trade. Within sixteen miles of 
Suti is the Mahananda river, the great artery of the Malda 
District, and forming the boundary between Dinajpur and 
Rungpur. Malda is situated on it, and the ruins of Gaur are 
within a few miles of it ; near it is Bogwangola, on the banks 
of the Ganges, occupied chiefly by sheds for the accommo- 
dation of the grain merchants who resort to the fair there : 
it is therefore more of an encampment than a town, the 
Ganges having repeatedly swept the place away. A road from 
Malda to Jungipur will shortly be finished. Geria five miles N. 

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lULJMAHAL, ITS RAILWAY AND HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 121 

E. of Jungipur, famous for its silk filatures, is memorable as 
the place where Major Adams^ at the head of 800 English 
and 2000 Sipahis, defeated^ in a hard fought battle, Mir Eassim's 
Troops in August 1768. Patna at that time was lost to the 
English. 

A little beyond Pakour we cross the Bansli River by a bridge 
with 8 openings, 60 feet wide, 35 feet above the river's level ; a 
mile to the west on its banks is Mohespur, where in 1855, a body 
of 8,000 Santals were defeated by a detachment of Sepoys, and 
stripped of the plunder they had gained at Pakour. 

The cuttings are through basalt and gravel to a depth of 18 feet. 
The line from the More to Bajmahal was finished by the Railway 
Company, who in one year did as much work as the Contractors 
did in three. 

Bahama is the nearest station to Burheit the capital of the 
Santal pergunnahs, accessible by a carriage road leading through 
a very pretty country, amid the windings of the Goraani valley. 
Near Burheit a battle was fought by the English with the 
Santals, which ended in the capture of their leaders Sidu and 
Kana, who believed themselves to be inspired by a god. It 
is lamentable to say, that for much of the interest now taken in 
the Santals we are indebted to fear; when in 1855 the 
Santal insurrection so suddenly and unexpectedly blazed forth, 
and it was ascertained that these simple people were driven to 
insurrection through oppressions unredressed, the cry was laised 
what has the Christian world done to enlighten them ? Half the 
population to the east of Bahawa belong to the Vaishnab sect. 

The works in the Gomani valley were very expensive, owing 
to the sickness of the coolies, consequent on the unhealthiness 
of the country. On the left of Bahawa lies the Bamini Koh, dis- 
tinguished for its fine scenery ; but the hills have been much strip- 
ped of trees, in order to supply charcoal to the iron smelters of 
Birbhum. Coal mines are in various parts here very useful for 
brick-making on the railway, and in affording employment to 
the Santals. 

The subject of irrigation is one of great consequence to the 
Damini Koh districts : though what Sir A. Cotton effected at 
Rajmundry may be impossible on the Ganges.* Sir A. Cotton 
shews that a revenue of £ 8,000,000 sterling might be raised 
from works of irrigation ; the example of the sandy desert of 

* At Rf^mundry, he threw a weir 4 miles across the river, fronding it with 1,600 
miles of channels to irrigate 700,000 acres. It soon doubled the revenue, raised the 
agricultural exports ten fold, and increased the annual number of b^ts in the 
canal from 700 the first year to 13,000 the last year. 

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122 RAJMAHAL, ITS RAILWAY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCUTIONS. 

the Cavery, rendered most fertile by irrigation, will ever remain 
as Col. Cotton's manumentum are perennim. 

Uda Nulla Pass, seen in the distance between the river and a 
spur of the hills^ reminds us of the progress of British power ; 
here, in 1763, Major Adams forced the lines of fortification 
erected by Kasim Ali, when he designed to make Rajmahal his 
Moslem capital, and Uda Nulla a barrier against the British, 
who have now reached Peshawar. The pass was formidably 
entrenched, the ditch being deep, fifty or sixty feet wide and 
full of water ; it held out against the English for a month, but 
was carried by an attack on the hill forming the right of the 
lines, and a feint on the river end : but the loss was severe ; this 
led to the reconquest oi Monghyr, and the massacre of the 
English at Patna by Sombre the German adventurer. 

The Sila PaAar cutting is a work of immense labor through 
solid basalt ; three or four thousand men have been employed on 
the mining and blasting work. The first contractors abandoned 
it in despair. The stone is as hard as iron, but on exposure to 
the air melts away. A jhil to the East of Sita Pahar is navi- 
gable in the rains for boats to the Ganges. 

The Rajmahal Junction was three years ago a dense tiger 
jungle ; near it two Europeans were killed by Santals in the 
insurrection. Hill men and Santals may now be seen paying 
their pice to go by rail from the Junction. On the right the 
approach to Rajmahal is through jhils and jungle with an 
occasional ruin, not yet turned into ballast, peeping out. The 
Domjala Jhil South of Rajmahal is a fine sheet of water. In 
the rains it extends seven miles from East to West, three miles 
from North to South. Kasim Ali intended to have erected 
on its banks a fine summer house. There is also another fine 
jhil the Ananta Sarabar ; both these jhils are cultivated in the 
dry season: the river in its vagaries probably flowed where 
those jhils are now. On the left, within a mile of Rajmahal 
Station, we pass Begumpur, w^liich, three years ago, contained 
the ruins of the enormous Zenanah of Sultan Suja, capable of 
accommodating a thousand "lights of the harem'^ — ^all has 
been ruthlessly used up for ballast. To the North of it, a place, 
now a jhil, was once an extensive sheet of water, where regattas 
and aquatic sports were engaged in for the amusement of the 
inmat^ of the Zenana. Opposite to it the Sultan's Army of 
80,000 men used to be encamped. 

Rajmahal, the apex of the Bengal Delta is ihepresefit point for 
tapping the Ganges traffic. The Railway Company by means of 
two tram roads, have formed a connection between the river and 
station, available even when the Ganges is at its lowest; but 

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RAJMAHAL, IT3 BAILWAY AND HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 123 

there is little doubt Rajmahal will, for up-country boats, have to 
yield the palm to Colgoug, which saves a long detour : at all 
events even Rajmahal will save merchandise being forced for 
nine months in the year to make a detour, before reaching Cal- 
cutta, of five hundred miles, — by railway the distance is only 
two hundred miles ; thus avoiding the Sunderbunds, with its 
«alt water and tigers, dangerous winds, pestiferous jungle and 
worm-eaten boats. » 

Time will gradually show the influence that will be exercised 
by the Railway over the populous and commercial districts of 
Malda, Bhagulpur, Purnea, Tirhut, Monghyr, Behar, Patna, 
Sarun, Shahabad, Ghazipur, mutually brought into contact by it, 
while tributary rivers form a link, such as the Kosi with Purnea, 
the Gandak with Tirhut and Gorukpur, the Gogra with Chupra and 
Gorukpur, the Surjyea with Ghazipur and Azimghur, the 
Gumti with Jaunpur and Gude, and the Soane with Shahabad : 
Sugar, Salt, Opium, Indigo, Saltpetre, and Oilseed are already 
carried down the Ganges to the amount of ninety thousand tons 
annually. 

Rajmahal is a modem city dating from Akbar^s times.^ 
It has a pretty approach by rail through a hilly country : boulders 
are to be met with near it. The spot selected for the station is 
very suitable,as the river does not cut away, and it is near the native 
town. Rajmahal contained in 1811, two hundred brick houses, 
fifteen thousand thatch houses and thirty thousand people. 
During the whole time of the Mogul Government it was a 
place of some importance ; but Jehangir's son, Sultan Sujah, 
was the real founder of it, by making it his residence and the 
capital of Bengal and Behar, for which by its locality it was 
well situated, — far better than Murshidabad. Subsequently 
disliking Gaur, which his grandfather had called an earthly 
paradise, he erected, A. D. 1630, at Rajmahal, a handsome palace, 
the Sangdalan, of which little now remains,t the stone having 
been used in building by the Nawabs of Murshidabad. The 
hall of black marble which once formed Sultan Suja's boitakana, 
now makes a comfortable sitting room for the Railway Engi- 
neer. The encroachments of the river, the demand for its 



• Major Wilford assigned it as the site of the ancient Palihothr, but he 
sabseqnently altered that opinion and assigned Bhagulpur as the sit^. Kative 
tradition states that Timur laid the plan of it, induced mainly by its centrical 
situation, combined with a supply of good water; but Man Sing, a Rajput, raised 
it, in Akbar's time, to great note, and encouraged Hindus to resort largely to it. 

t Except a small but elegant hall opening on the River's ancient bed. The 
roof is vaulted with stone delicately carved, the walls have traces of gildings 
and Arabic inscriptions. It is described by Heber, Journal Vol. I. p. 256. 



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124 BAJMAHAL, ITS RAILWAY AKB HISTOEICAL ASSOClATIO^^g. 

stones for the Murshidabad palace^ and English utilitarianismi 
have reduced the palace to a ruin. Tennant maintains (TI — 127) 
that its circumference was equal to that of Windsor : its walls 
were seven to fourteen feet thick, and twenty feet under the 
earth. Its flower gardens, aqueducts and galleries over the river, 
have passed away. South-West of the Sangdalan was the Phulvari 
garden-house erected by Sultan Suja * Near it atBe^umpooriathe 
tomb of Bakhiehome;\ widow of an aid-de-camp to Aurungzebe : 
it has a considerable endowment. The antiquities of Rajmahal 
commence a mile from the city on the Bhagulpore high road.J 
Some way South is the tomb of Ali Verdi BLhan^s father, and 
a little further South \a Nageawarbag, a palace built by Kasim 
Ali, five hundred feet square. § 

In 1638, an earthquake threw down many buildings in 
Kajmahal. Besides this a conflagration, and the subsequent 
removal of the capital to Dacca, led to its destruction. The few 
remains lefb near the present station, the material exuvisB of a 
past social state, have been used as ballast. Bishop Heber visited 
Rajmahal in 1824, and fully describes the ruins. Heber's Jour- 
nal, Vol. I. pp. 255-7. 

The old grave-yard to the North- West of the Hotel contains the 
remains of Surgeon Boughton, the man who, having gone from 
Surat to Agra in 1636, and cured the daughter of Shah Jehan, 
as his fee obtained a patent for his countrymen to trade free 
of customs duties. He went with this view to Rajmahal and there 
cured one 'of the lights oV Sultan Suja^s 'harem.' He remained 
in his service enjoymg a splendid stipend and secured for his 
countrymen the privilege of free trade. In consequence of this 
the East India Company sent ten ships from England to Bengal, 
the agents of which were introduced to Sultan Suja at Rajmahal. 
They were kindly received, and their views of extending English 
trade were promoted ; for the Sultan, like the great Akbar, was 
a friend to trade. 

Following the Bha^lpur road to the West we come upon the 
ruins of old Rajmahal which for three miles stretched its line of 



* The Zenana now turned into ballast mast have contained 200 separate 
apartments, and was sitnated on the banks of what was then^a lake, several 
miles in extent, but which is now a fetid marsh. 

t Oocapied by a railway officer and loop-holed, a tower was erected in the 
Santal insurrection for defence. 

1 Tou pass to them through cottages, palm trees and ruined musjids. 
. ' § Much of it has been used for ballasting the RaiL See drawing in the 
Calcutta Engineers' Journal, November 2nd, 1857* Ditto May 3rd 1859, of 
a ruined gateway. 



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KAJMAHAL^ ITS BAILWAY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 125 

aristocratic buildings on the bank of what was then the bed of 
the Ganges — no artisans or common people were allowed to live 
in this Belgravia of Rajmahal. We explored the ruins on an ele- 
phant ; firsts on the left hand side we come to the tomb of Miran 
who co-operated in the assassination of Sauraja Daula ; lights 
are still kept burning at it; — then to patara koti a stone 
house built by a Mahajan ; — ^then to the remains of the famous 
Jagat Set's house, of which only the foundations and two but- 
tresses remain ; he was worth in Clivers time £8,000,000 sterling ; 
on the right we see the tomb of Eteramed Daula ; near it the 
Roshun mosque built by the same prince two centuries ago. Four 
miles from Rajmahal, on the South side, is Man Singh's Jumma 
Mtisjid, great even in ruin. — ^The Jumma muyid was built by Man 
Singh as a palace, but a complaint being made by a jealous 
Moslem officer to the emperor Akbar, that he was building an 
idol temple, Man Singh to defeat his object, turned it into a 
mosque, measuring in the inside one hundred and thirty eight 
feet by sixty feet ; and opposite to it, on a mound, he erected 
a splendid house, called Huduf, which is still shewn ; it is about 
four miles from Rajmahal on the Bhagulpur road. Its ruins are 
still imposing, and, situated on an eminence, it must have had 
a fine view when the full tide of the Ganges swept close to 
its walls. Near it is a bridge with four towers, which Kasim 
AH fled across, after his defeat at Uda Nulla, though he could 
have made a stand here, as it was fortified with cannon. 

Long ages miist have elapsed since the waves of the Bay of 
Bengal washed the Rajmahal hills,* and ever since that period 
the Bengal Delta has been gradually extending into the sea ; not- 
withstanding all the assertions of pilots and merchants, the day 
may not be probably far distant when much of the trade of 

• ABsmning Ellet's calculations, that the Mississipi Delta took 45,000 years for 
its formation, the Ganges must have taken fact more. 

Tradition and local examination shew according to Buchanan Hamilton 
III. 16, that the Koei formerly flowed, far to the South East, vid Tiypur 
and joined the Bruhmaputra,— that the great lakes North and East ftom Malda, 
are remuns of the Kosi, united to the Mahanadi, and that on the junction of 
the Ganges and Kosi, the two opened the passage now called the Pa£na, and the 
oldhedoftheBhagirathifiromSuti to Nuddea, was deserted hy the great river. 
This is in accor<&nce with native tradition, which considers the Bhagirathi 
that flows down hy Hugly as the true Ganges, — Captiun Layard is of the same 
opinion, and so is M^or Sherwill as the result of ohservation. At Tirtapur or 
Jahnavi, near the mouth of the Bhagirathi, is a famous place of pilgrimage, 
where, according to the myth, Eapil Muni swallowed the Ganges, and when 
Bhagirathi recovered her, she was stolen by Sunkasur, who led her down the 
banks of the Padma; with difficulty Bhagirathi recalled the Goddess to the 
narrow Channel at Suti. Hamilton writes of this : * These legends I have no 
doubt owe their orig^ to changes which have taken place in the course of the 
river, and which are probably of no very remote antiquity.' 



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126 RAJMAHAL, ITS RAILWAY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCLATIONS, 

Calcutta must be transferred to the Mutla, and the city of 
Palaces must submit to the freaks of the Ganges as Gaur 
has had to do. The Ganges forsook Gaur, and thus contributed 
to its decay, as the Nile's vagaries did to that of Memphis. The 
Delta of the Mississipi which advances five miles in a century, is 
a warning to Calcutta. Similarly the deposit of the Po has 
converted cities, which at the beginning of the Christian era 
were good seaports, into inland towHs, now twenty miles away 
from the sea shore. 

In 1841 a survey was made for a Ganges Canal between 
Rajmahal and Calcutta. Nothing has been done as yet ; but the 
railway will not supersede river navigation for bulky articles, as 
has been shewn in England and America. In 1858, the subject 
was revived by Government, and Colonel Cotton made a survey 
on the assumption that not one-tenth of the present traffic could 
bear the expense of land carriage, that a canal one hundred and 
twenty yards broad and three deep, would greatly reduce the cost, 
besides furnishing irrigation to six millions acres, and to Calcutta 
fresh water and water power. The Ganges' discharge at Rajmahal, 
at its lowest, is 6,000,000 cubic yards per hour. He proposed to 
erect at Rajmahal a stone weir across the Ganges, twelve or fif- 
teen feet above the summer level, with locks in it, to transmit 
the river traffic through Murshidabad, Kishnagur, Santipur. 
The current would be 1 1 mile an hour. 

Malda is connected with Rajmahal by a steamer which plies 
twice a day, between Rajmahal, and the Malda Ghat. Malda 
was famous last century, when those princely merchants, the 
Commercial Residents made it their abode, for providing the East 
India Company with silk and cotton. Malda is close to Gaur; but 
of Gaur, owing to Moslem plundering little remains. Rajmahal, 
Malda aud Murshidabad have, for centuries, been supplied with 
building materials from it : now it is famous for its mosquitos 
and tigers. The best account of Gaur is by W. Creighton, who 
was employed as an Indigo Planter by C. Grant, from 1786 
to 1807, and has left a description of it, published in 1817, 
with eighteen views and a topographical map. "We insert a few 
memoranda of objects to be seen. Gaur, with its suburbs was nine- 
teen miles long, by one and a half 4)road. Its river embankments 
were thirty feet high and one hundred and fifty broad ; they had 
buildings on the top, were pierced by gateways forty feet 
high, opening on causeways paved with bricks. The Fort was 
one mile long, by half a mile broad. The Sagur tank runs one 
mile long by half a mile broad. The Sana Mmjid, lined with black . 
marble was one hundred and seventy feet long,by seventy-six broad, 
its four aisles covered by forty-four domes. — Feroz Shakes Tower, 

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BAJMAHAL, ITS EAILWAY AND HISTOBICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 127 

ninety feet hi^h^ and twenty-one in diameter erected three cen- 
turies ago. — ^The Dakhil gate, forty-eight feet high, built A. D. 

i 1466. — Shah HusairCi tomb^ the walls of which wtre cased with 

' bricks, curiously carved and beautifully glazed blue and white ; 

the best were removed for works in Fort William eighty or ninety 
years ago. — The Tainted Mosque; its walls were cased inside and 

\ out with glazed bricks wrought in different patterns, colored 

white, green and blue, built A. D. 1475. — Kadam Rami, built 
A. D. 1530, visited by pilgrims, to see the stone bearing the 
impressioa made by Muhammed's feet. It was brought from 
Mecca, 

Gtiur, according to. Dow, was the capital of Bengal B. C. 750» 
We should like to see the data for this. It was more central 
forBehar and Bengal than Calcutta is, being near the heads of 
the rivers, which were then deeper than now. 

We find that between A. D. 754 and A. D. 785, Gajanta ruled 
at Graur which was an independent kingdom. He was the last 
of Adisur's dynasty, which was succeeded by the Pdl Rajas who 
ruled over Dinajpur, Kuch Behar, Kamarup, extending their 
empire to Orissa and the Vindya hills — they were Buddhists: 
their dynasty ceased A. D. 1040, with Mahmud of Gizni's inva- 
sion, who had first taken Kanauj to which their dominion ex- 

' tended. A branch of those Pfi.ls ruled over Gwalior. . The Vaidya 

sueceeded.the Pcd. Lakshman Sen, who ruled from A. D. 1077 
to A. D. 1 1 14, was a great conqueror ; Nepal and Oude fell under 
him. One of his successors removed the seat of Government to 
Naddea to be at a greater distance from the Musalmans, but 

. * in A. D. 1200 Nuddea was taken by the Moslems. 

A little beyond Rajmahal we come to the A:ontiers of the land 

o( £ahar, which 2,300 years SLgo rose in revolt against the Brah- 

. ^ minical priesthood and caste, and held for seven centuries the as- 

^ cendancy in India, until fire and sword wielded by Brahmans 

drove the Buddhists out ; but persecution did not extinguish 
'• them. Their proselytizing enei^ spread their system in Elabul, 

China, Burma, Ceylon, MongoUa, Tibet, and they have now the 
great^t number of followers of any religion on the ia^Q of the 
earth.* 

* Hany seemg the firm root Hindaism has taken in Bengal, fifincy that Chris- 
tianity cannot be introdnoed ; bnt the name Ganr sn^geste to na, that the last 
Hindu dynasty that ruled in Gaurthe Pdl B^as, were Buddhists, and Hinduism 
was at such a low ebb, that Adisur King of Gaur, a Hindu by religion, was 
obliged to import Hfndta priests from Kanaig : — the Brahmans of Bengal have 
only been six centuries settkd in Bengal 
» The moslem rulers of Gaur were great and powerful, but there is little recor- 

I ded of them except their wars and the firequent changes of rulers through assassi- 

Maech, 1801. S 

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128 EAJMAHAL, ITS BAILWAY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 

The geological formation of the Rs^mahal hills consists of 
successive layers of lava and basalt^ with intercalated sedimentary 
deposits of sand and clay^ and indurated ash^ sandstone and 
shale^ full of vegetable remains of five or six successive depo- 
sits, with volcanic rocks intervening, the whole rests on detach- 
ed bases of the coal bearing rocks, and on gneiss, which are seen 
along the Western scarp : along the Eastern flats, near the hills, 
laterite or ironstone is abundant »sr also conglomerates. The 
age of the groups appears to be the same with the oolitic forma- 
tion of Europe : trap of various structure and mineral charac- 
ter is poured over those rocks, including both columnar basalt, 
clay stone, crystalline, trap and pumice. It is curious to see 
how the molten matter, coming in contact with the upper beds 
of the stratified rocks, has indurated and vitrified them to an 
intense hardness. A report on the Geology of these Hills wiU 
shortly be published by Professor Oldham. 

Not more memorable, last century, was Hounslow Heath 
for highwaymen or the Pentland Hills for Eob Boy^s fol- 
lowers, than were the Northern fronts of the Bajmahal hills 
for the Pahari Robbers, who, descending from their moun- 
tain eyries plundered all defencelesB traveHers. Woe to the 
traveller whose boat had to lie to for a night near Colgong' 
last century. We have traces of the dread of this all along in the 
ranges of forts, which extended from Bajmahal to Bhagulpur. 
the latter place then received its name, from being a city of 
refiige from hiU banditti. Sahal^anj had one of these forts ; 
near it many Buddhist- Hindu images have been found. Tellia- 
gury was another, and it commanded the road to Bajmahal* 
Could we, afler the manner of Sir W, Scott, call up the past, 
those hills could tell of many raids between the hill chiefs and 
the Moslem or Hindu rulers of the plains. Bajmahal, Bhagulpur 
and Monghyr, in consequence, were made great military stations 
to serve as a check on them. On the fall of the Moslem power 
the chiefs made constant raids on the plains ; Cajptains Browne 
and Burke were employed for several years against them, but the 
allowance of a money grant, and mild means efiected, under Cleve- 
land's auspices, what the sword could not do ; he ruled that petty 
disputes were to be settled by themselves, but that parties convict- 
nation. They had litble security for their lives or government. Pirg or Saints ruled 
them, and they shewed no quarter to Hindus : conversion or expulsion was the 
rule. They had not the tolerant spirit of the Moj^uls, and the people they had 
to deal with, Bengalis, had no courage to resist. The numher of Pir-sthans or 
monuments of saints in Dinajpur, erected on the ruins of Hindu temples shew 
their power. The Hindus in Bahar expelled the Buddhists, and the same measure 
was meted to them again by the Moslem. 

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EUHAHAL, ITS KAILWAY AND HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 129 

ed of capital crim^ were to be punished by the English 

The pnBople on these hills, ' the Gaels of Asia' diflfer from the 
Santals in race, manners, language and tradition, and neither eat 
nor intermarry with them : they live in their eyries on the 
hill tops. Their faces are oval, their noses seldom arched. They 
4re fond of drink, but good humoured in their cups : at a party 
one person helps all the rest to liquor, as no man could rely on the 
moderation of his appetite ; their chief food is maize, and they 
worship a so-called god of that plant: they eat beef and 
drink beer, which other tribes do not. Their Government is 
patriarchal. Every fSEunily has some land, which is the property 
of the cultivators. 

For ages they were untamed thieves and murderers, engaged 
in forays on the plains ; whUe the Musalman Zemindars in re- 
prisal shot them as dogs. Cleveland on becoming Collector of 
Bha^pur, in 1779, adopted a policy of conciliation : he forbad the 
Zemmdars, who were often the aggressors to attack them ; he 
employed them in a militia corps,^ established bazars among 
them for the sale of the honey, wax, and hides which their hills pro- 
duced ; he gave them tax-free lands to cultivate wheat and barley 
on; he made shooting excursions with them into the hills^ 
feasted their families, and pensioned the chiefs.f-r-Sons of the hill- 
men are now being educated at the Church mission school Bhagul- 
pur; they generally become Sip«liis.t The Hill men, like the 
Red men, however are gradually fading away — not before the 
White man, but before the Santai, whose superior industry has 
not only reclaimed the plains, bat is also enabling him to creep 
np the hills« 

Through the liberality of Government we have obtained 
access to all the M.S. correspondence extant between Cleveland 
and the authorities particularly Warren Hastings, who ftiUy 
sympathised with Cleveland's views. The first letter from 
Cleveland to Warren Hastings§ is dated Bhagalpur, November 

• In Cleveland's time tke corps amomnted to 1,300, and were armed with the 
. bow and arrow for a time : their native commandant was one Jowral, the Rob 
Roy of the hills, and he proved most active against his feUow-countrymen. 

t Of the hills, while Santals eccHpy the valleys. 

X On Cleveland's death, all his plans for teaching simple manufactures, provi- 
ding them with implements of husbandry and seeds, were dropped. Colonel 
Shaw took some interest in them in 1787. Lord Hastings, too, while on a visit 
here, ordered them implements of husbandry and potato seed, but his orders 
were neglected. .,. , , 

§ W. Hastings was the first European in Bengal who conciliated natives 
by his interest in their studies and patronage of their literature ; he urged 
Wilkins to bring out Bengali types in 1778, when the latter became at one 
And the same time metallurgist, engraver^ founder* printer. 



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130 RAJMAHAL, ITS RAILWAY AND HISTOBICAL ASSOCIATIOKS. 

1779, in which month he was appointed Collector on 
a salary of 150 Rnpees monthly. He says Hhe success which 
' has hitherto attended my endeavors to regidate the Hill 
^ Chokeybundey, and the means I have used to bring down 

* the hill chiefs, have succeeded as much beyond my own 
' expectations, as the good effects already experienced from 
' them have equally astonished, and satisfied the minds of 
' the low country inhabitants. The Gauts and Chokeys of 

* the Northern Range of Hills extending from SacraguUy 

* to Shahabad are now entirely completed. The Western 
^ Range from Shahabad to within two coss of Jumnee is also 
^ settled very much to my satisfaction ; and I shall complete the 
^ remainder of this Range to the southward, at the back of Sul- 
' tanabad and running down close upon the Beerbhoom Bonn- 
*dary, being by much the most troublesome and uncivilized 

* part of the whole country, as soon as I can, prevail on the 

* hill chiefs and Gautwalls to come in and submit to me.' He 
mentions his agreement with the plan proposed by the hill 
ohiefe, at a feast given to them by him at Rajmahal in April 1779, 
viz. of having the whole range of hills under one authority 
and system. He remarks on this, ' unless the whole range of 
' hills are put under one authority, and the same system of 

* governing them adopted throughout, all the pains I am taking 
■* to put them in my own district on a proper footing, (parti-^ 

* cularly those to the southward of the Eastern and Western* 
^ Ranges, the one joining with Ammar and the other running 
' close upon the back of Sultanabad,) will be in vain, as I am 
' myself thoroughly convinced that all the inhabitants of the 
' hills may in a short time be induced to submit. As a proof 
' of which, within these nine months, I have had the most flat- 
' tering experience of the good effects to be expected from the 
^ system I have adopted, no less than forty-seven hill chiefs and 
^ all their adherents having voluntarily submitted to me and 
' taken an oath of allegiance to Government during that time, 
' and I make no doubt, if the same system continues to be adopted, 
' there is not a chief in that vast extent of country who will not 
' gladly renoimce his hitherto precarious and desperate way of life, 
' for the ease and comforts he will enjoy, in being obedient to, 
' and imder the protection of a mild and regular Government. 
' They have never yet been fairly put to the teist how far their 
' dispositions may incline them to be upon good terms with us. 
' We have till lately considered them as enemies, and they have 

* been treated accordingly. It is but consonant with our own prin- 
' £ipl^ of Justice andHumanity, to use every means in our power to 
'avoid a state of warfare; why should they be denied to this 

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EAJMAHAL, ITS RAILWAY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 131 

* unfortunate people? I must do those who have submitted the 
' justice to say — ^and I call all the inhabitants of this country in 
' ^neral to witness, that the hill people have not, for many years 

* been so quiet as they have been for these last eight or nine 
' months, except, as I before mentioned, near the lK)undary of 
' Ammar/ 

In March Mr. Cleveland writes to Warren Hastings that Rup- 
narain is so on the watch, that there is little chance of taking him ; 
and recommends the withdrawing three companies of sepoys from 
Chandan toChukyea, the Jangelterry being perfectly quiet, except- 
ing Sultanabad, where Morar Sing of Jummi was roving about 
with several armed followers, though he had seven eighths of the 
revenue of Jummi allotted to him for keeping up chokeys near the 
hills, for the good government of which he was considered respon- 
sible. Mr. Cleveland wishes his Tdluk to be resumed, and ^ to 
' re-establish the chokeys in the same manner as has been adopted 
' in the other districts, by loans from Government without interest, 
' the repayment of wluch will be sufficiently secured on the 
' resumption of the Talook.' 

In a letter, dated April 21st 1780, from Sikrigully, Mr. Cleve- 
land states the whole of his plans about the hifl people; we give 
them in extenso as a precious historical document : — 

' Having for some days past been employed in receiving visits from the 
hill chiefs, in the several Pergonnahs under my authority, and having feasted 
them and given them the usual presents suitable to their rank, it is with sin- 
gular pleasure I have the honor to acquaint the Board, that their heha\'iour, 
their proposals to me, and their ready compliance with some 1 made to them 
in return, have given me the greatest satis&ction, and I flatter myself will 
equally ensure your approbation. 

* These people in general, are now become so sensible of the advantages to 
be derived from a firm attachment and submission to Gbvemment, that many 
of them have not scrupled to declare, they would for ever rer ounce all un- 
lawful practices of robbery, murders, and devastations, if (Government would 
point out imd secure to them the means of subsistance, the want of which 
nas frequently oblu^ them to commit acts, they seem to have some idea, are 
not only improper but inhuman. This naturally led into a proposal which I 
have long had m meditation, and is grounded on the following principles. 
The iDhi3>itants of the hills have in fad) no property, a mere subsistence is 
all they seem to require, to obtain which the means appear as a secondary con- 
sideration. The firat question that occurs therefore is, whether it is K>r the 
interest of Government to supply the means of subsistence for a certain time, 
or to suffer the inhabitants of the hills to commit devastations on the countiy, 
as they have done for many years past. Certainly the former. For although 
the losses which (Government has experienced m its receipts of revenue on 
this account, have in fact been trifling, owing to the rigid observance of the 
engagements entered into with the Zemindaro and Farmers, yet the sufferings 
of the low country inhabitants during the hill, insurrections are not to be 
described. To make friends therefore with the hill chiefs is with all due sub- 
mission an object worthy the attention of (Govermnent In the memory of the 

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1S2 BAJHAHAL^ ITS BAILWAT AlO) HISTOEICAL ASS0CUTI0N9. 

oldest inhabitants they nevir expressed themselves so earnestly for an aooom* 
modation as at present. 

' The disbursement, and of course the circulation of money in the hills by 
Government, appears to me the most likely bait to ensure the attachment of 
the chiefs, and at the same time nothing will be so oonduoive to the civilization 
of the inhabitants as to employ a number of them in our service. 

' On these principles I have taken the liberty to make the following pro* 
posals, which the hill people have cheerfully ag^'eed to, provided they meet 
with your approbation. 1st, that each Mai^ey or chief estimated at about 
four hundred, shall Aimish one or more men as may be required, to be incor* 
porated into corps of archers. 2nd That a chief shall be appointed to every 
liity men, and shall be accountable for the good behaviour or their respective 
divisions in the corps. 3rd That the corps for the present shall act imme- 
diately under the orders of the Collector of Boglipore, and to be employed in 
his districts only. 4th That the enemies of Gfovemment are to be consider- 
ed as enemies by the hill people, and that it shall be expressly and particu- 
larly the duty of the corps to bring all refractory hill chiefe and gautwalls 
to terms, or to expel them from their country, and treat them as enemies 
wherever they may be found. 5th That each hill chief commanding a divi- 
sion in the corps shall have an allowance of 5 rs., per mensem, the com- 
mon people 3 rs. ; and effectually to secure the Mai\jeys or chiefe of the 
seversd hills, in a firm attachment to Government, each chief supplying a 
common man for the corps, shall receive a monthly allowance of 2 rs. subject 
however to such restrictions as may be thouf'ht necessair in case of misbeha- 
viour. 6th That each man in the corps shau have 2 turbans, 2 cummerbunds 
2 shirts, 2 pairs of jungheas and a purpet jacket annually. 

' The two latter proposals, I have not yet made, having informed the chie& 
in ^neral terms only, that if the plan meets with your approbation, they 
shfdl have no reason to complain of tneir aUowances. 

' I now take the libertnr of proposing that one man be immediately enter- 
tained from each hUl, and a chief appomted by themselves for the present to 
eveiy fifty men. 

The expense at this rate will be nearly as follows, agreeably to the 5th and 
6th articles of my proposal : — 

8 Chiefs commanding divisons in the corps, @ 5 Bs. 40 

40O Common Hill people, „3 „ 1.900 

400 Chiefs (not in the corps) supplying the above, „ 2 „ 800 



per mensem 2,040 

' 12 



24480 



16 Turbans Ac. annually, agreeable to the 6th article, \ ^/^/^ 

for the Chiefs in the corps, @ 10 Bs, > "^"^ 

800 ditto for common people, „ 6 „ 4800 



Total annual expense 29,440 

The cloth for jackets to be supplied fronr the Company's warehouse in 
Calcutta. 

' I confess gentlemen, the sum of Rupees 29,440 annually, appears to be 
an enormous disbursement, where no apparent advantage to the Hon'ble 
Company's Revenue, is likely to be immediately derived fiom it. The object. 

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BAJMAHAL^ ITS BAILWAY AND HISTOBICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 13S 

howeyer, will, I flatter myself, appear to you in a more extensive lieht, 
and when you consider the comfort you will, in all human probability, 
administer to a race of people hitherto little better than savages, who will 
in a course of time, become useful members to the community in the very 
heart of your dominions, these,— and the confidence which the inhabitants 
of the adjacent countries will have in their village and hereditary posscA* 
sions, no longer apprehensive of continued devastation and murders — will 
I trust be at least sufficient inducement for you to give my proposal a 
due consideration. And any alterations and exceptions, which in your 
wisdom you may think fit to make, will, I have not the least doubt, be 
cheerfully subecnbed to by the hill chiefs. The expense however as the 
inhabitants become civilized, may in a mat measure be suspended, as they 
will no doubt find the same means oi supporting themselves, that people 
of the same class, have done in other countries by emigration or proper 
attention to the cultivation of their own lands.' 

In order to comply with W. Hastings' order to apprehend 
Bupnarain Dos, the Zemindar of Chanderry^ who was attacking 
the Bhagulpur and Gurruckpur Pergunnahs, Captain Browne gave 
him three light companies of Sepoys for the purpose. Two years 
before the Jungleterry was placed under theCoUectorrfte of Bhagul- 
pur, and Mr. Cleveland dwells on the importance of that measure. 
' The services for which a military force could have been required 
' here, when the Jungleterry was under Captain Browne, must in 
' a great measure have arisen from disturbances in those Districts, 
' and he was then certainly the best judge, what was necessary 
' to be done to secure the country from degradation. But now 
' the case is very different, the whole is under my authority, and 
' unless I have the immediate knowledge and direction of every 
' military operation as well as civil transaction, I cannot pursue, 
' with any degree of confidence, or spirits, such plans as may to 
' me appear necessary to be adopted, lest I should be counteracted 
' therein by any different process, which in Captain Browne's 
^ opinion might be more advisable for the public good.' Bupnarain 
kept himself closely concealed in Turi Fort Birbhum* Jungle- 
terry. Cleveland deprecates any general attack on these grounds. 
' We have already had sufficient experience of our incapacity 
' to trace these people through their jungles, with any pro- 
' bability of success against their persons. Their country may 
' be destroyed it is true, but whilst we are employed in do- 
' ing this, and hunting one party from place to place, another is 

* at the same time taking ample revenge by plimdering and set- 
' ting fire to the villages, m the more civilized and cultivated parts 
' of the coimtry. I will use my endeavours to put the count^ on 

* such a footing as will make it for the advantage of the chiefs 

* It held out agiunst Capt. Brooke in 1773 a long time until cannon were 
brought against it. 

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134 RAJMAHAL, ITS RAILWAY AKD HISTORICAL ASSOCUTIONS. 

' and gautwalls to continne obedient, and properly affected to our 
' Government. Orders were sent to the Birbhum Raja about it/ 

The Board of Revenue in August 1780, sanctioned allowances 
of 550 Rs. monthly, as an encouragement for the future good 
behaviour of the chiefs, they being bound under penalty of a sus- 
pension of their allowances, to be accountable for the good order, 
and management of their respective districts. 

In September 1780, Mr. Cleveland writes froni Monghyr, 'the 
' chiefs of the Northern hills agreed, but those to the Southward, 
' whose hills lie contiguous to the Pergunnahs of Ammar and Sul- 
' tanabad, absolutely refused to accept any allowances, on the terms 
' prescribed, alleging as a reason, that they could not be answera- 
' ble for the conduct of their neighbours, and as they had often 
' since the commencement of my arrangements, given proofe of 
' their refractory dispositions, without expressing the smallest 
' inclination to surrender themselves to Grovernment, they 
' would now become every day more incensed against my divi- 
' sion, and would plunder and destroy the villages in it, with 
' re-doubled fiiry ; their motives for this, I underetand would be 
' to compel the chiefs under my authority to renoimce their 
' allegiance, which they might ^sily be induced to do, rather 
' than become accoimtable for disturbances, which it would not- 
' be in my power to assist them in preventing, and as they have 
' an idea that as long as any part of my division remains un- 
' settled, chastisement would be entirely suspended, or equally 
' divided, whereas if otherwise, the whole blame would fall 
•' inevitably on them in case of disturbances, they conceive that 
' a persevering refractory conduct, would have the end desired. 
' For these reasons the chiefs in question decline to accept the 
' allowances, unless similar arrangements take place in Ammar 

* and Sultanabad, and the chiefs and deputies there are bound 
' by the same penalties, to be answerable for the good order 
' and management of their respective districts.^ 

Mr. Cleveland's remedy was to annex the Pergunnahs of Am- 
mar and Sultanabad to his authority : he adds ; ' I have been fiir- 

* ther induced to say thus much on the subject,in consequence of the 
' very flattering approbation, my plans, in general, had the honor 
' to meet with from Lieutenant General Sir Eyre Coote, K, B. 
' in seveial conversations I had with him on his way, both up 
' and down the country. And my proposal for raising a corps 
' of archers, as represented in my address of 21st April, was par- 
' ticularly approved of by him. I have taken the liberty of 
' recalling your attention to this circumstance also, being per- 
' suaded of the good effects, it will have in bringing the hill 
' inhabitants to a speedy state of civilization, add to which the 

Digitized by V^OOQIC 



UAJMAHAL, ITS BAILWAT AlO) HISTOBICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 135 

* great service they may be of in Military operations, at a foture 
' period/ In February 1781, he writes from Sultanabad of having 
enlisted the hill men, and 'so well pleased are the Mountaineers 
' in general with the service proffered to them, that my only 
^ difficulty now, is to frame excuses for not entertaining more 

* than the prescribed number. ' I shall do myself the honor of 

* laying a full account of my proceedings and negociations before 
' you, as soon as I can possibly collect them together. In the 
' mean time I have the satisfaction to observe, that my success 
' has exceeded my most sanguine expectations. I flatter myself 

* there will not again be any cause of complaint from the people 
'of the low coxmtry, on account of insurrections or depredations 
' of the Mountaineers, as long as a proper attention is paid to 

* the regulations which have been lately adopted.' He wished 
Beelputtah ne^r Sultanabad, to be annexed. 

In December 1782, Mr. Cleveland writes from Bhagulpur to 
Warren Hastings, that Rupnarain is considerably in arrears of 
the tribute of his Gatwali of Chandoory held by a Mocurydeen 
of the Board since 1777. Mr. Cleveland mentions that Rupnarain 
twice paid his respects to him, when in the district near Chan- 
doory, but was attended by near 500 Matchlock men ; and that 
he had a long conversation with him, at Jimudah, in which he 
assured him his past offences were forgiven, 'having, as I 
' then thought, given him confidence that his former misconduct 
' was forgotten that it might never more be a source of uneasi- 
' ness to him. It was my wish to have introduced him to the 
' Hon'ble Governor General, on his way down the country, as I 

* had not a doubt but Bupnarain would be flattered, in having 

* the opportunity of paying his respects, to the first member of 
' Government, and that he would certainly be impressed with 
' assurances made to him by such high autiiority, which it was 
' my intention to have requested of the Qt)vemor General, 
' as a confirmation of all I had said. But in this, however, 
' I was disappointed. Rupnarain never* came to Boglipore. 
' On my second interview with him, in February last, at 
' Durrampore, I represented the impropriety of his coming to me, 

* with suc3i a train of people, upon which he made an apology, dis- 
' missed them all except a few attendants, and afterwards remained 
' in my camp four or five days. But this was in his own dis- 
' trict, and I soon found out that his people were within call at 
^ the shortest notice. In short whether Rupnarain Das, is imder 
' apprehensions of being seized for his former misdeeds, if he 
' comes to Boglipore, or whether he piques himself on never at- 
' tending at the Sudder Cutcherry of the district, as all other 

* Zemindars and Gautwals do^ at least once a year^ I cannot pre-* 



136 RAXMAHAIi^ ITS RAILWAY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS.' 

' tend to say, but I tnist, gentlemen, at all events, you will sec 
^ the necessity of taking some decisive measures, either to bring 
' him to reason or to disposses him of his GautwaUy altoge- 

* ther * * * I have only to add on this subject, that unless 

* Rupnarain Das is brougnttoa proper sense of his duty, or made 
' an example of, the several arrangements which I have hitherto 
' carried on, with so much success, in the HiUs, will be materially 
'* affected. And as 1 now consider my own credit as much at 
' stake as the interest of this Government, to accomplish the entire 
^ subjection and civilization of the Jungleterry and Hill in- 
' Jiabitants in general, I flatter myself you will do me the honor 

* to repose such confidence in me, as to believe, I neither 

* recommend nor desire any measures to be adopted, which I 
' am not fiilly convinced will accelerate' the accomplishment 
^ of the object in view/ Rupnarain in the end complied with 
Mr. Cleveland's orders. 

In February 1788 Mr. Cleveland writes, showing the benefits 
resulting from employing the Hill rangers, whom he used as the 
Russians do the Cossacks. — ^ Some of the Hill Chie& dependant 
' on the Sultanabad Zemindar, having lately committed some dis- 
-* turbances in Radshai, and having plundered some villages in that " 

* district, of about 100 head of cattle, I was under the necessity 
' of detaching four companies, from the corps of Hill Archers 
' and fifty Millitia Sepoys, under the command of Jourah, com- 
' mandant, about fifteen days ago, to aj^rehend the Chie& con- 

* cemed in this revolt. It is with much satisfaction I have tha 
' honour to inform you that the commandant has laid hold of all 
' the people, I sent him aft;er, and is now on his return to 

* Boglipore with the detachment and prisoners, the latter of 
' whom will be regularly tried, as soon as I can assemble the 
' Hill people for that purpose, 

' Having strong suspicions that the HiU Chiefs have been in- 
' stigated to this revolt by the Ranny Sirbisserry, the Zemindar 

* of Sultanabad, I have thought it necessary to bring the Ranny 
' and her Duan to this place, where they are under restraint. 
' The result of the trial I shall do myself the honor to inform you 
' of; and if in the course of it, anjr thing be proved against the 
' Ranny, I am of opinion, it will be necessary to inflict some 

* exemplary punishment upon her, to prevent any thing of the 
' kind in fatture. * * * Since the establishment of the corps of 
' Hill Archers, this is the third time I have had occasion to em- 

* ploy them against their brethren. And as they have always 
' succeeded in the business, they have been sent upon, I flatter 

* myself the Honorable Board will not only be convinced of the 
' utility, and attachment of the corps, but that they will have fidl 

Digitized by V^OOQIC 



AAJMAHAL^ ITS BAILWAY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 137 

f confidence in the general system, which I have adopted for the 
' management of this wild and extensive country. 

' As Jourah Commandant was the first inhabitant of the hills 
^ who entered into the service ofGovemment^andhehasuniform- 
' ly conducted himself with propriety, and very much to my satis- 
^ faction, I shall be happy if it meets with the Honorable Board's 
' concurrence to honor him with some reward as a mark of their 
^ approbation* In a pecuniary way, an addition of 10 Bs. per 
^ mensem to his pay of 20 voll make his income handsome, and 
^ no doubt be satisfectoiy to him, as an honorable reward for his 
' services and attachment. I take the liberty of requesting your 
' permission, to give a jaghire of about 400 begas of land to 
' the first son he has bom in the Hill Archer's cantonment. 
' I recommend the jaghire being given to his son, because I 
' think it will be the most agreeable way of rewarding him ; and 
' there is little doubt of his having one^ aa he has no less than 
' four wives, two of whom are now at this place pregnant and 
' will both lie in within the next two months.' 

In March 1783 in a letter from Bhagulpur Mr. Cleveland 
gives an account of his plan for trying offences by the hill chie& 
themselves. 



' I had the honor to inform yoa in my addiesg of the 14th ultimo, that the 
detachment which I had sent into the hills against some refractory chiefs was 
then on its return with several prisoners. I have now to acquaint you that 
an assembly of the hill chie» was held here from the 28th ultimo, to the 
1st. instant when 17 prisoners were brought before them for trial, viz. 



Roopal Alangery of Kiles Hill 
Chumral Durway of ditto 

Singhri of ditto 

Bundral Mangey of Duworv... 

Durie of Daldully 

Dulro of ditto 



Charged with sundry robberies 
and rebellion, being taken pri- 
soners in arms against the corps 
of Hill Archers^ 



Singha Mangey of Buskea ... 

Purty of Chowdar 

Mungut of ditto 



The first a Jemadar and the 
two latter Sepoys in the corps of 
Hill Archers, charged with a 
robbery in Badshai wheH on leave 
of absence. 



Lutchoo Mangey of Nidgir 
l>ennal Mangey of Jumney 
Bnskal Mangey of DunnearKhoni 

Ganshey of Chowdar 

Budderreal of Buskia 



Cawn Mangey of Chowdar 



Charged with flundry robberies 
in Kadsnai. 



] 



Charged with employing his 
people in sundry robberies, and 
for several acts of rebellion. 



Digitized by 



v^oogle 



138 RAJMAHAL, ITS RAILWAY AIH) HISTOBICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 

Rial of Dowo 1 Char^ with a robbery in 

Fondoo of dittto ••• .v. ...jBadshai^ 

of whom the 8 following were found guilty of the crimes laid to their 
charsre, and were ordered to be hans^, viz. Boopal^ Chomral Darwaj» 
Bondral, Singha, Dermal, Bnskal, Chuiuiey and Cawn. 

' The renuunder of the prisoners were ordered to be kept in confinement^ 
nntil they could give me sufficient security for their future eood behaviour. 

' I have accordingly approved the proceedings of the assembly, and except 
Chumral Dorway, whom I have judged it neceesarv to retain for the pre- 
sent, the prisoners ordered to be hanged were executed this morning in the 
presence of the corps of Hill Archers^ the chie& and several thousand inhabi- 
tants of the hills. 

' I have the pleasure to inform the Honorable Board, that this assembly waa 
held and conducted with uncommon solemnitv, and I have the satisfaction to 
observe throughout the whole of their proceedings that strict justice was done 
to every prisoner without the smallest partiality, for or agamst any of them. 

During the course of the trials several of the prisoners alleged in tiieir 
defence, that they had been instigated to commit robberies by the Banny 
Serbisserry the zemindar of Sultanabad ; but the Ranny who was brought 
before the assembly in a covered Dooly denied the charges, and the prisoners 
had nothing Airther to allege against her, than that they had been tfifarmed 
by Poosal, Dermal and Tekol, Siree othw Mangeys, that the Banny had sent 
them the usual allowance of provisions on such occasion, and orders to plunder 
by two of her agents, Currem Mundal and Nermah,' both inhabitants of 
Sultanabad ; also that Curreem Mundal had received from Poosal, twelve 
buffaloes being the Banny's share of the plunder. 

The charges at present exhibited against the Banny are certainly not suffir 
ciently proved to proceed against her. As I have a strong suspicion however 
that they are founded on trum, I have summoned Curreem Mundal, Nermah 
and the afore-mentioned Mangeys all of whom shall be strictly examined, 
and I will then do myself the honor to lay before you their several depositions. 
Lohanny Sing and cfaboo Boy two inhabitants of Cooherpertub in Badshai, 
have also been accused by some of the prisoners as the instigators to their rob- 
beries, and of having received a portion of the plunder, all which I have too 
much reason to beheve, from the general bad diaracter of l^e men, and from 
some circumstances of Lohannv Sink's conduct, which I had occasion to re- 
present in July last to the Committee. I have therefore taken upon me to 
send people to endeavour to apprehend these men, as I am convinced they 
would pay no attention to a regpilar summons. I thought it necessary to 
reprove Chumral Durway as he a^owledges to have had a kind of pai^er- 
ship with Lohanny Sing, in several robberies for many years past, ana he 
promises to prove all he had advanced. 

'I flatter myself my proceedings on this occasion will belhonored with your 
approbation.' 

In a letter from Rajmahal^ March 1783, Mr. Cleveland writes 
about the implication of Rsmny Sarbafiarri Sing, in several rob- 
beries. He states ' 1st, That Curreem Mundal, with his servant 
' Nermah, went into the hills in the month of Sarvon last with a 
'large quantity of rice, salt and tobacco which he distributed to 
' Poosah and other Mangeys, for cattle they were to plunder from 
' the Beerbhoom villages, and to give in exchwige, telling them at 

Digitized by V^OOQIC 



EAJMAHAL, ITS RAILWAY A2JD HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 139 

' the same time that the grain^ 8cc. was the property of the Sircar 
' (meaning the Ranny) and that the Mangeys womd be exculpat- 

* ed should any notice be hereafter taken of their conduct. 2nd 

* That Foosah Mangey accordingly plundered the villi^e of Run- 
' gong in Beerbhoom^ of 30 bufifaloee^ and about ten days after he 
' had received the grain, &c. he delivered the buffidoes to Curreem 
' Mundal on his own account, and 3 more into his charge to be 
'conveyed to the Ranny, as her share of the plunder. 2nd That 
' PoosaJi Mangey sold the remaining 16 Buffaloes, to different 
' Ryots in Sultanabad. 4th That Curreem Mundal conveyed the 
' 3 Buffaloes aforesaid to the Ranny, that she expressed great dis- 
' satisfaction on the occasion, and would not receive them, in con- 

* sequence of which they were ordered to be returned; but Poosah 
' Mangey denies ever having received them back again. Although 
' I cannot ascertain that Ranny did actually return her proportion 
' of plunder, yet from the prevarication of the evidence and the 
' Rann3r's own account of the transaction, I have strong reasons 

' for believing she was more deeply concerned in the business than . 
/ really appeals. Admitting, however, that the Ranny did not 

* receive the cattle, nor was in any respect concerned in Curreem 
/ Mundal's transactions with the hill people, it was certainly her 
' duty as zemindar of the Purgunnah, to have informed me of any 

* particular circumstance relative thereto, that Poosah Mangey, 
'and Curreem Mundal might have been called to an account for 
'their behaviour. The Ranny, however, never once addressed me 
' on this subject. I think therefore she is highly culpable, and 
' as her conduct renders her on every account a proper object for 
' an example, which is become absolutely necessary, to put a stop 
'to the connivance hitherto. carried on by the zemindars of one 
' district, at the depredation of the hill people on the inhabitants 
' of their neighbours, I take the liberty of submitting to the 
' Board's consideration the good effects that may be expected from 
' dispossessing the Ranny of her zemindary, a measure I am in- 
' duced to recommend in the strongest manner, from a conviction 
' of the necessity of it. As the Ranny has heirs or near relations', 
' the person whom the Honorable Board may think proper to ap- 
' point her successor, should be obliged to give her such a main- 
'tenance as may be judged proper during her life time. And in 
' order to destroy effecti^y any influence the Ranny might retain 
' in the Purgunnah or hills notwithstanding her dispossession, I 
' recommend that she should not be allowed to reside in or near 
' Sultanabad on any account whatever. Curreem Mundal and 
' Nermah I have delivered over for trial to the Phousdary court.' 
He makes one very important remark showing that the hill 
people were tempted often to plunder the low country people^ 

' that until some of the inhabitants of the low country, who 

Digitized by V^OOQIC 



140 EAJMAHAL^ ITS BAILWAY AND UI8T0RIGAL ASSOCIATIONS. 

' cany on the illicit and destructive traffic with the hiD people, 
' are made severe examples of, it will avail little to punish the 
' hill people for plunderinff, as they are generally employed in 
' this service by the Qautwami and Zeminda^ officers, who frighten 
' them into a compliance by threatening to expose the whole of 
' their former conduct. In short, Gentlemen, I am sorry to say 
' that it has hitherto been almost a general custom with the low, 

* country inhabitants of Sultanabad, Badshai and Beerbhoom to 
' employ the hill people in plimdering each other's villages. And 
' almost every man has been so deeply concerned, that even the 
' suflTerers have been afraid to complam, lest their iniquitous prac- 
/ tices should be brought to light.' In July of the same year Mr. 
Cleveland represents, that he could do nothing with Rupnarain, 
who aimed at independence. Mr. Cleveland writes in the last 
of his letters that we have, July 29, 1783, that he must be re- 
moved from the country, as his father Jugamath had required 
2,(i00 troops to be brought against him. 

Such is all we have extant of the career of a man, who, in epic 
days, would have been exalted from a hero to an object of worship. 

We now bring our article to a close, and trust tA(U we have 
shewn that not a little interest belongs to Bajmahal and its histo- 
rical associations.*^ We give as a specimen of the, Rajmahal hill 
language, a translation of the Lord's Prayer. 

O mergh no doku Aba ninki namith pak menan deth ninld 
rajeth bardndeth ninki mareth merghno menith achovehi qeqlno 
hon menandeth inti lapen erne qata auro jesa em em bahano 
elurin map nanim dchovehi nin enki elen map nana auro emen 
takyoma pare dagr^ante bachatra indrain ki ninki rajeth bareth 
auro simiyarethjugek behitlu Amin. 

* With reference to Beveral remarks made in the ahove article as to the conduct 
of Europeans towards the natives, we quote with pleasure a few lines from the 

* Friend of India,* May 2nd 1861, (page 483). 

< The rail runs for nearly 200 miles through the Sonthal Pergunnas, Bhagul- 
' pore and Monghyr, and the numher of Europeans employed on that length has 
'varied from one to three hundred; but, during the past five years, not more 
' than four serious cases occurred, between Christian cheers of the rail on 
' one side and natives, in or out of their employ, on the other. One of these 
"* cases was a homicide in which the offender was acquitted in the Supreme Court ; 
' and two were cases of assault, both committed by the same individual, not an 
' Englishman. Mr. Tule says — " I never heuxl of a charge against the higher 
< ** officers of the rail, and it is wonderfrd^ I think, that there was so few against 
' '* those in subordinate positions, who were often fresh from home and located far 

* " from control. I exclude petty cases of all kinds, and maltreatment of native 
* " by native ; but even these were anything but numerous. As to money matters 
' " the natives seldom complained, and seldom indeed had cause to do so. If 
• " they were not treated with justice and kindness, do you think they would 

* " swarm to the rail as they do ?*' And yet, with these facts before them, there 

* is a large class of officials and missionaries who wooM «z«bide the edncsted 
' European from India lest the native be oppressed.' Ed. Cal. Rsy. 

Digitized by V^OOQIC 



BAJMAHALy ITS EAILWAT AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 141 



! 



r 



I 



I 



Working Ex- 
penMfl. 



I* 



■ti; 



Receiptg'from 
Passengers. 



I 



o 

JZJ 



I 



4 



ll 



t 



No. of Miles. 



Tear ending 
SOth June. 



S 2 



2 ^ 



3 
9 



S 

i-l 



8 
3^ 



«i 



3 5Sr 8" 



I 



^ 



o 
o 






s" 



3 



I 



9- 



S. 



^ ^ § 

iH 1^ 00 






§ ^ 



s 



9 









S 



I 



s 



§ 2 



I 



S; 



i 



^M mS ^S<8 ^Aoo ^3S 

tH iH iH tH »H rHrH 



I II ij ji 

49 ■•» *i 4*C ••*B *» 

o do HO »5^ »6;l dJ: 



3 § I 



& 



00 



I 

.a 

i 
I 

.a 



I 

I 



I 



s 

I 

a 






Digitized by 



ill 

a e 9 

a u 9 
S *=* S 

ill 

II s 

^ 'S, --S 

^ s- 1 

S. :g ^ 
.all 

• & +- 

•s 
v^oogle 



142 JUJUAJaLAL, ITS RAILWAY AND HISTOBICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 

The following is the Comparative cost of Railways 



Kajos ov Stats. 



Tear. 






Total Capital 
expbhdbd. 



Per MUe 

of Line 

open. 



Rbckiftb, Tbafvio. 



Per Mile 

of Line 

open. 



Aostria, .. 
Bdginmy. 



Fnmoe,.. 



Qerman^, exclusive of 
Anstna and Pmsaia, 



^Enffland A 



Great 
Britain. 



sngiana a 
Walea, ... 

Scotland,... 

^Inland, .^ 



Holland, 

Pnusia, 

Sardinia, 

Spaih, 

Switzerland, 



Toacany, 

United States of Ame- 
rica, 



Mile. 



1866 
1856 
1864 
1866 
1867 
1867 
1867 
1867 
1866 
1866 
1866 
1866 
1866 
1866 



1,686 

446 
2,913 
2,226 

6,706 263,1464S88 
1,243 
1,070 

168 
2,603 



26,876,786 16,878 

7,2H788 16,381 

74^772,994 26,668 

29,186,260, 18,111 
89,276 

86,084,288 

16,760,800 16,664 

8,248,846 19,981 

86,296,043 14^101 



234 
180 
208 
132 
17,481 



4^087,427 

2,068,493 

144^646,963 



East Indian, 



Great Indian Penin- 
sula, 



Madras, . 



1868-69 
1868-69 
1868-69 



142 

194 

96 



1,716*000 
1,699,033 



19,888 

16,566 

8,276 



3,461,322 

960,327 

7,882,666 

4,042,370 

20,195,460 

2,486,890 

1,139,296 

278,619 

4*537,602 

838,724 

137,028 

129,271 

127,536 

18,780,848 



2,190 

2,158 

2,706' 

1,816 

8,161 

2,107 

1,091 

1,709 

1,877 

1,477 

924 

636 

966 

1,284 



12,064 

8,758 

672,000] 7,000 



206,687 

148,496 

47,942 



1,447 
764 
499 



Digitized by V^OOQIC 



BAJMAHAL ITS RAIL AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 

throughout the world, along with the Indian ones. 



143 



WoBKnroExPBlTDXTUBB 


Nbt RBOxipra 


Proportion. 

per cent of 
working ex- 
penses to re- 
ceipts. 


Proportion per 
cent., which net 
{Receipto bear to 
,the capital espen- 




Per Mile oj 
Line open 


F 


Per Mile of 
Line open. 


£ 


£ 


£ 


£ 






1,824,120 


1,160 


1,687,202 


1,040 


52-70 


6-32 


560,600 


1,260 


899,727 


898 


5816 


5-48 


8,469,237 


1,191 


4^418,489 


1,615 


4401 


6-68 


1,442,928 


897 


2,699,442 


919 


49-38 


5-70 


9,707,498 


1,664 


10,487,962 


1,697 


48-00 


4-06 


1,093,970 


941 


1,892,920 


1,166 


44-00 


4-13 


488,771 


465 


700,525 


626 


88-00 


3-99 


169,887 


1,042 


108,782 


667 


60-96 


3-86 


2,341,005 


968 


2,196,697 


909 


61*59 


6*22 


174^060 


744 


164^674 


708 


61-88 




67,879 


522 


69,149 


402 


56-48 




69,273 


841 


59,998 


295 


54-28 


1-48 


58,901 


446 


68,685 


520 


46-18 


8-84 


10,079,149 


666 


8,701,700 


568 


54*00 


6-70 


96,184 


677 


109,408 


770 


46-04 


7-4-10 


65,491 


887 


88,006 


427 


44-1 


514-0 


26,890 


264 


22,652 


284 


52-9 


2-1-8 



Mabch, 1861. 



Digitized by V^OOQIC 



114 SCHEMB FOB THE AMALGAMATION 



Art. VI. — Scheme for the Amalgamatum of the Indian and 
BritUh Armies , Homelfews, January %Qthy 1861. 

AG RE AT event in the history of our country is, while we write, 
on the eve of accomplishment. Whilst these lines flow from 
our pen, the scheme resolved on, after so many months of discussion 
and consideration, by the collective wisdom of three great offices of 
state, the Horse Guards, the India Office and the Executive 
Government of India, is receiving at the hands of a specially 
appointed Commission, that final manipulation which is to fit it 
ibr its appearance in the pages of the Calcutta Gazette. To 
give due solemnity to an occasion big with the fate of many 
thousands of British Officers, and which is to witness the 
obsequies of an Army, and its resurrection under a totally new 
organization, the Commander-in-chief has been summoned from 
Umballa, and is now present to render the Governor General the 
invaluable aid of his experience and judgment. A few days more, 
and the hopes and fears of four long years will be cleared up ! 

In sober earnest it is a great event we are witnessing, and 
a spectacle at once grand and touching ! We are witnessing the 
extinction of an army which has existed for more than one 
hundred years, amidst all the vicissitudes attending the acquisi- 
tion of a mighty Empire; — ^which has emblazoned upon its 
banners the emblems of a hundred battles, and the officers of 
which have, by their ability, no less in the cabinet than in the 
field, contributed, in an eminent degree, to build up the reputa- 
tion which England enjoys in the public opinion of the worId« 
But though in some sense the process now awaiting the Indian 
Army is that of extinction, the word hardly conveys a true appre- 
ciation of the reality. It would be perhaps nearer the mark to 
compare the impending dissolution of the Indian Army with the 
case of the titled heiress whose wealth and titles merge, and are 
lost sight of, in the higher honour, and greater wealth of him to 
whom she gives her hand ; — and just as the ofispring of such 
a pair may be expected to inherit the characteristic virtues of 
both father and mother, so may we surely anticipate, that the 
army, which, in the next generation, will proceed from the British 
and Indian Armies, now to be united, will be worthy of the joint 
parentage from which it sprung ! 

It is impossible, however, to mark without deep concern, the 
attitude in which a. great portion of the Indian army is awaiting 
the official declaration of the scheme, by which their fiiture 
prospects are to be decided. Whilst few are looking with hope 
and exultation to the enlarged field of action they see before 

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OP THB INDIAN AND BRITISH ABMIIS. 145. 

them^ too many^ it may be feared, are regarding tlie coming* 
arrangements with preconceived suspicion and determined hosti*- 
lity. Timeo JDanaoa el dona /erentes, is the motto of these last. 
They have adopted the idea that they have nothing but coldness 
and injostice to look for from the detested Horse Guards^ and 
their attitude is that of men, who, come what will, are deter- 
mined to regard themselves as injured and trampled upon. This^ 
is doubtless very deplorable, and every eflTort of those who have the- 
remotest chance of influencing public opinion, should be directed 
to the object of placing the impending measure in a just and 
reasonable light, before the eyes of those whom it is to affect. 

Whilst amalgamation, or the separate existence of the twa 
services, was still a debated and open question, it was right that 
both sides should be heard, and natural, that where personal 
interests and feelings were concerned, the debate should be 
carried on with some warmth of temper and even acrimony. 
But for months the question has been decided, no argument and 
BO cavilling can now affect it. The frigate, so to say, has had 
to succumb to the superior weight of metal of the line of battle 
ship. It behoves the crew of the frigate to haul down their 
colours with a good grace, and instead of meeting their captors 
with scowling and suspicious glances, to receive them with the 
frankness which belongs to brave men of the same profession. 
Surely this is the conduct which good sense prescribes to the 
officers of the Indian Army, in common with all who suffer under 
disappointed hopes or defeat. The situation as we view it, and 
dropping all metaphor, is this. Amalgamation, months ago 
resolved on, is now on the eve of accomplishment. A schemo 
for its achievement, approved and ratified by the Sovereign 
herself, only awaits a few necessary local arrangements before it is 
brought into operation. No hard words, no black looks, can alter 
what is to all intents and purposes, an accomplished fact. But 
the Indian officers have it stiU in their power to influence very 
materially, the footing upon which they shall hereafter stand 
with their future comrades, both of high and low degree. Accord- 
ing to the temper in which they accept the inevitable changes 
will they receive the hearty sympathy and good will of those into 
whose ranks they are to pass, or an unfriendly and grudging 
welcome. At present all is smooth and smiling so far as the 
Duke of Cambridge, and the Army over which he presides, are 
concerned. We can confidently assure our readers that there is 
every inclination on the part of the Commander-in-Chief and 
those he influences, to render justice to the Indian officers, and 
to welcome them with a soldierly and high minded frankness. 
Ask those who were present at tne Duke of Cambridge's last 

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148 6CH2HE FOR THE AMALGAMATION 

/ 

levy two months i^, what was his reception of the Indian 
offioers who had the good taste and correct feeling to be present. 
The very appointment of Lieut. Colonel Norman to be Assis- 
tant Military Secretary at the Horse Guards^ is an earnest of the 
Duke of Cambridge's desire to stand on good terms with the 
officers of the Indian Service^ and to act tenderly in regard to 
their interests. Could we ask a more acceptable appointment 
than Colonel Norman's to have been made? Had the Army 
been desired to elect its own representative at the Horse Guards, 
upon whom would its choice have fallen so unanimously as on 
Col. Norman ? We repeat that Colonel Norman's appointment 
is at once a compliment to the Indian Service, and a miarantee 
that their claims will always have kindly consideration. Let 
those, who are still incredidous of the Duke's disposition 
toward the Indian officers, turn to the order lately issued 
by his desire, on the occasion of a number of Indian Officers 
being attached to do duty with the Royal Artillery at Woolwich. 
Surely it is the duty of officers, no less than their interest, to 
consider carefully the possible result to themselves and their 
comrades^ in case, by a surly or hostile reception of an inevitable 
measure, they incur the risk of- chilling and alienating feelings, 
which they may be assured are^ at present^ of the kindliest and 
most conciliatory nature. 

We write thus, well knowing that any scheme, which it is with- 
in the bounds of reasonable expectation, should be offered for the 
amalgamation of the two Armies, must press hardly on some one 
or other of the numerous interests involved. How indeed could 
it be otherwise? Nothing short of the loctis quo ante would 
satisfy many, or, indeed, would suffice to place them in as good a 
position, as regards their future prospects, as they enjoyed before 
the events of 1857. Shall the new measure therefore be resented 
because it contains no proviso for reconstituting every mutinied 
regiment in Bengal and Bombay, and every office and command 
which the irresistible torrent of the mutiny has swept away? Surely 
to do so would be utterly unreasonable. Numerous cases of indi vi* 
dual hardship must inevitably arise. Those whom they may affect 
must reconcile themselves to them, by the same reflection which we 
bring to bear when a drought ruins our crops, or an inundation 
sweeps away our harvest, or a stroke of lightning sets fire to our 
house or our hay-ricks. All that can be reasonably expected is, that 
there shall be no wanton disregard of the interests of the Indian 
Officers, and that wherever the blow is inevitable, it shall be 
dealt as gently as possible, and shall be accompanied by every 
alleviation that circumstances will admit of. But whatever 
happens we entreat officers to eschew the prejudice which ascribes 

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OF THB INDIAN AND BBTEISH AfiMIES* 147 

lieforehand every sort of chioanery and fiEtvooritism to the 
Horse Guards^ as a matter of coarse^ and never gives that much 
abused institation the credit of fair and honest dealing. Was 
the patronage of the Indian Army administered under the 
old regime so as to give universal satisfaction and contentment? 
Yet to listen to the language of those hostile to the arrangements 
which bring them under the power of the Horse Guards, it 
would be supposed that favouritism and jobbery were the exclu- 
sive attributes of the British Commander-in-chief-ship. 

Enough is generally known of the forthcoming scheme of 
amalgamation to justify us in noticing, in some detail, a few 
of its more salient points, and in endeavouring to form an 
opinion, as to the bearing l^e scheme is calculated to have upon 
the interests at stake. We would ask those who may be wil- 
ling to follow us in our consideration of the measure, to do so 
in a spirit, as far as possible, removed from querulousness and 
prejudice ; and to judge of it with a due remembrance of the 
surpassing difficulties with which its framers have had to 
contend, and of the imperative necessity which has hampered 
them, of hitting off the just medium between liberality to indi- 
viduals, and due regard to the embarrassed state of the public 
finances. 

First let us see how the proposed scheme is likely to affect 
the European non-commissioned officers^ and the rank and file 
of the Army. 

The men of the Artillery, of the Cavalry, and of the exist- 
ing Infantry regiments of all three Presidencies will be called 
upon to volunteer for the corresponding branches of the British 
Army toith a bounty. It may be reasonably expected that the 
great majority of the soldiery will accept such an offer without 
hesitation, and that the non-contents will be few in number. 
Those who accept, will of course then become liable for service 
out of India; but it is underatood, we believe, that, for the 
present at least, the new bri^des and regiments will continue 
to be employed exclusively in India. Tlw Artillery volunteers 
will be formed into additional brigades of Royal Artillery, 
fourteen in number, according to some accounts ; namely^ seven 
for Bengal, four for Madras and three for Bombay. The 
Cavalry volunteers will receive numbers in continuation of the 
existing Cavahy raiments, and the Infimtry regiments will 
(if the number of men of each regiment volunteering be suffi- 
ciently considerable,) take their places in continuation of the 
Infimtry of the Line, under the designation of the 101st or 
Royal Bengal Fusiliers, the 102nd^ or Royal Madras Fusiliers, the 
103rd or Royal Bombay Fusiliers^ and so on. Each regiment 

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148 SCHEME POE THE AMALGAMATION 

holdincy at present any distinctive title, as Fusiliers, or Liehf 
Infantrj, will retain that designation in addition to the nanioer 
which may fall to it. The men who decline to volunteer 
will be formed into local battalions of Artillery and Infantry, 
probably, for each Presidency, and will serve on in India, with all 
their present privileges and advantages, until the last man dies, or 
completes his contracted peri6d of service. When it is added, 
that under the proposed arrangements for the disposal of the 
officers of the European troops, (to which *we shall come 
presently,) every regiment will retain the greater portion of its 
existing officers, enough has been said to prove, we think, 
that the proposed arrangements contain nothing which should 
render them unacceptable or distasteful to the European 
soldiery. There may be secret springs and influences at work 
in the minds of the soldiers, which it is impossible to fathom 
beforehand, or anticipate, and which may induce them to 
look coldly on a scheme which, to the uninitiated spectator 
appears all that is fair and advantageous. All we can say is 
that we, as dispassionate lookers on, fsiil to discover any single 
point, in which the soldiers can consider themselves aggrieved 
or their interests tampered with, in the projected amalgamation. 

Pass we now to those points of the scheme which affisct 
the officers* 

Two great features in the scheme as it affects the officers must 
be first prominently stated. One of these is, that whatever 
Native troops are hereafter kept up will be placed upon the 
footing of what are called in India, 'Irregulars,' that is to 
say, the Native Army will revert to the organization which it 
enjoyed in the earlier days of its existence, and under which all its 
greatest achievements were wrought ; instead of feebly imitating 
.the organization which long experience has prescribed as best suited 
for European troops, and which led the Court of Directors, more 
than sixty years ago, to attach, nominally, some thirty English 
officers to a native regiment, but in reality about half that 
number, and then to nullify the authority of that half with 
folios of rules and regulations. It has been determined to revert 
to the system which invests with nearly absolute authority a 
single selected officer, and makes him responsible, with the 
assistance of three or four subordinates only, for the discipline 
and efficiency of an entire regiment. It would be foreign to the 
object we now have in view to discuss the long litigated question 
of ' Regulars versus Irregulars.' It is enough that we note at 
present the fact, that the Irregulars have carried the day in the 
Amalgamation scheme, and that our Native Army is to consist 
henceforth solely of troops organized on that system.. 



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OF THE IXDIAN AND BBITISH AEMIES. 149 

. The second point Aiehich we desire to note prominently, previ- 
ous to considering that portion of the scheme which affects the 
lEuropean officers^ is, that the existing Regimental and General 
lists of officers are to be carefully preserved, and kept up for 
reference and guidance, though the troops themselves have either 
been swept away, as have been the mutinied regiments, or 
embodied in a new shape, as is to be the European portion of the 
army. Thus the claims of all officers, not otherwise provided for 
under the new regulations, (namely, by transfer to the staff corps, 
or otherwise as the case may be,) to promotion to the superior 
grades, will still admit of easy regulation, and the gi*eat object 
held in view of not prejudicing the existing rights of the officers 
^11 be carefully ensured. The attention of the reader having 
been directed to these two preliminary features of the scheme, the 
way is open to an easier understanoing of the measure, in its 
effects upon the prospects of the European officers of the army. 

The most salient feature in the scheme, as it affects the officers, 
is of course the proposed ' Staff Corps.' It is understood thai 
every officer (including officers of the Royal Army,) now em- 
ployed otherwise than re^imentally, will have the option of eui^ 
rolling himself in the Staff Corps, without examination or proba- 
tion of any kind. Twelve years' service in the Army, of which 
four in a staff situation, will entitle officers electing for the StaS 
Corps now, or entering it hereafter, to receive the substantive 
rank of Captain. Twentv years' service, of which six in a 
staff situation, will similarly entitle to the substantive rank of 
Major: twenty-six years', of which eight in a staff situation, to 
that of Lieutenant Colonel. But as these periods of service 
would entitle some officers to receive two steps of promotion 
on entering the Staff Corps, the scheme contains a proviso, 
that in such cases the second step shall not be attained for two 
years after the first. An illustration will serve to elucidate 
the working of the latter arrangement. A, an Officer electing 
for the Staff Corps, is Captain (regimental) of twenty six years' 
service, of which (say) eight on the staff. He will enter the 
Staff Corps as Major, and will not obtain the further grade of 
Lieutenant Colonel until two years later. We have heard, on 
good authority, that this proviso was inserted at the special in- 
stigation of the India Council, in opposition te the wish of the 
Duke of Cambridge, who would have given the officer, situated 
as in the above example, the immediate benefit of the double 
step. 

Officers extra-r^mentally employed at the promulgation 
of the scheme, will not however be compelled te enrol them- 
selves in the Staff Corps. They wiU have the option of 

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l&O SCHEME FOB THE AMALOAHATION 

taking their chance of promotion in their present regimejits, 
in case that course should appear to them more advantageous 
than accepting the substantive promotion offered in the Staff 
Corps. In this case^ they will not forfeit their appointments, 
but may retain them irrespectively^ in most cases^ of the 
regiment rank they may attain to. For example^ suppose A, 
a Captain of fifteen years' service^ on staff employ, is second 
Captain in his regiment, and has reason to believe, that the 
senior Captain and Major are only waiting until they have 
Berved the requisite number of years, to retire on their pen*- 
sion : — if A, enters the Staff Corps, he knows that he has five 
years to serve before he will be entitled to the substantive 
rank of Major, whereas, by refusing the Staff Corps, and re^ 
taining the advantages of regiment promotion, he may be 
a Major (say) in one year. Obviously it is for A's interest, 
as far as promotion is concerned, to refuse the Staff Corps, 
though against speedier promotion he has to place the risk of 
foregoing departmental promotion on the staff, as in futuie 
no appointments will be given except to officers of the Staff 
Corps. 

Such, is the outline of the scheme proposed for the first 
institution of the Staff Corps. It would be premature to 
criticize very narrowly a project, the more minute details of 
which are still imperfectly known to us : — ^but it is impossible 
not to be struck with the enormous extension given by the 
proposed plan to the received and ordinary idea of an Army 
Staff Corps. A more heterogeneous mass of talent and attain- 
ments than its ranks will contain, it is impossible to conceive ! 
The most strictly military, and the most purely civil appointments 
are to be alike filled by officers drawn from the Staff Corps. 
Whatever the exigency of the state, it will be supplied without 
difficulty out of the ranks of this most convenient body. But 
the doubt arises, whether a body so constituted, one half 
of the members of which will be permanently employed on 
duties (^ the most purely civil nature, can ever hope to retain 
its military character, or to preserve its status as an army Staff 
Corps. It se^ms anomalous that service in a purely civil capacity 
should be rewarded with increased military rank in exactly the same 
Tatio as service of a strictly military character : — ^that, by different 
routes, the Deputy Commissioner, and the jCommancUmt of Ir- 
regular Cavalry for instance, should both be pressing on to the 
common goal of high military rank. We submit, that, if the 
scheme contains no such arrangement already, it will be found 
necessary hereafter to divide the Staff Corps into a civil and a 
mUHary branch, and to regulate the .promotion of the fom^r by 

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OF THE INDIAN AND BRITISH AKMIES. 151 

different rules to those which determine the promotion of the 
latter. 

The Staff Corps will be recruited^ it is understood^ for the pre- 
sent, partly from the British regiments serving in India, and 
partly from those Indian officers, who are at the present mo- 
ment unemployed. Justice, no less than expediency, will 
demand, that a large share of the early patronage arising 
from the Staff Corps, should be appropriated to the latter 
class of officers ; who, in the mean time, will, however unwill- 
ingly and to their own disadvantage, be drawing their full pay 
without contributing to the service of the State. As the un- 
employed Indian officers become, in process of time, absorbed, 
the Staff Corps will depend entirely upon the British regiments 
for its supply of recruits. The latter will be chosen, it need 
not be doubted, by the process of competitive examination ; and 
the first and preliminary qualification will be a certain number 
of years' service (probably three) in India. Should the candidate 
succeed in passing the examination, fixed for that branch of the 
Staff Corps to vriiich he a^ires, he will be admitted, for a given 
period, out probation only. The term of probation satisfactorily 
passed, he will be struck off the rolls of his regiment and his place 
filled xxp. The patronage which will thus be created in the Bri- 
tish Army will represent, to a certain extent, the patronage enjoy- 
ed by the late Court of Directors, and their successors, the 
Indian Council. 

Such being the scheme for the first creation, and future main- 
tenance of the Staff Corps, we are in a position to form a judg- 
ment,as to the effect which the amalgamation is likely to have upon 
the interests of India^ and to decide, whether the mournfiil anti- 
cipations of those of us, who saw in the proposed extinction of 
the local Army, the ruin of our Indian Empire, are likely to be 
realized. The great argument, it will be recollected, of those 
who were opposed to amalgamation, was that the supply of 
officers, permanently connected with, and interested in the coun- 
try, would be cut off ;-^that instead of being able to draw upon 
an inexhaustible mine of civil and military talent, habituated 
to the country, skilled in its language, versed in the peculiari- 
ties of native habit and ways of thought, and kindly disposed 
to the Indian races, we should have to fall back upon the un- 
sympathizing element of the young officers of British Line re- 
giments, and to look for our future Clives and Lawrences 
amongst the rollicking revellers of the mess table ! But how 
much of their force do all these objections, so plausible at the 
time, lose, — ^naj^ how absolutely puerile do they seem, when 
viewed by the light of the gpeat and carefully constructs scheme 

UAMCBf 1861. W I r^r^ri]p> 

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152 SCHEME FOR THE AMALGAMATION 

before us ! How theoretical and fanciful objections and difficulties 
vanish^ when opposed by the quiet strength of a practical 
measure ? The Staff Corps^ as we have seen^ commences by 
enrolling in its ranks every officer at present extra-regimentally 
employed. To replace the casualties in the new Corps whidh 
the efflux of time will cause^ we have^ firsts a very large reserve 
(alas^ that it must be so !) of officers of the Indmn service, 
who^ in the first instance^ must remain unemployed ;-*and, 
when these have been exhausted^ we shaU have all the youth and 
talent of the British Army upon which to draw^ to replace casual- 
ties^ as one by one^ and not^ be it remembered, by sudden and 
wholesale cataclysms, they take place. We must have formed 
a very undue estimate, of the advantages offered by employ- 
ment in the Staff Corps under the new scheme, if they are 
not great enough to attract an adequate number of competent 
^oung British officers to recruit its ranks. But if it be 
indeed the case that we are mistaken, we feel confident that 
the career offered by the Staff Corps will attract into the Army a 
new class of officers, who will thankfully avail themselves of the 
advantages the Staff Corps offers, and be no more deterred by 
the drawbacks of prolonged banishment from England, and 
association with the uncongenial races of India, than the class 
of officers whose successors they will be. Therefore it appears 
to us, that the anticipated evils of amalgamation must, at all 
events, be relegated to the next generation, and that, if need be, 
there will be plenty of time before that, to create a new class of 
officers, supposing — what is contrary, however, to all present 
experience, — the existing class of officers to be found in the 
British regiments should prove unwilling or unfit to enter the 
ranks of an Indian Staff Corps. 

But we must hasten on to notice other salient features of the 
scheme. 

It is known that the officers of the European Artillery, 
Cavalry, and Infantry will receive the option of continuing to 
serve in their present regiments under the altered condition and 
designations of the latter, (in which case, of course, they will be 
eventually liable to serve elsewhere than in India,) or of being 
transferred to the local battalions of non-contents. The places 
of any officers of the European forces preferring the latter, as 
well as of those who may decide to enter the Staff Corps, will be 
fiUed up, it is understood, by volunteers from the unemployed 
Native Infantry Officers. Promotions in the new brigades of 
Royal Artillery, as well as in the Cavalry and in the new 101st, 
lO^nd, &c. Foot, will continue to be regulated by seniority. Thus 
the experiment of seniority promotion will have a fair trial im 

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OF THE IXDUN AND BRITISH ARMIES. . 153 

tiie Cavalry and Infantry of the British Army^ and the result 
may in the next generation, for anything we can tell, lead to 
vast modifications in the existing system of purchase, perhaps- 
even to its entire abandonment. 

The operation of the amalgamation scheme has yet to be 
noticed in its bearing on the Engineer corps, and on the Medical 
Service. Both, it is understood, will be amalgamated with the 
corresponding branches of the British Army. Both will receive 
the option of taking their chance of general service elsewhere 
than in India, or of continuing to serve in India only, with all 
their existing advantages guaranteed to them. The officers of 
all arms, who may volunteer for general service, will reckon, as a 
nuitter of course, their previous service towards retiring pen- 
sion; but, henceforth, two years of service out of India will 
count, it is said, as one only of Indian Service. This is a poiut 
upon which we would be understood as reserving any opinion 
for the present. As we have before had occasion to observe, it is 
premature to criticize any but the broader features of the 
scheme, whilst our information as to details is necessarily 
defective. 

Thus far even those most hostile to amalgamation and pre- 
determined to view the scheme unfavourably, must admit that its 
terms are favourable and liberal. But it cannot be disguised 
that after the demands of the Staff Corps, and of the 
European Troops have been supplied, a very large body of 
officers will remain, whose prospects, as we understand them, 
are the reverse of brilliant. The officers for whom employ- 
ment can be found neither in the Staff Corps, nor with 
the European battalions will be held available for general duty, 
whenever and wherever required, with the hope perhaps 
of being able eventually to obtain entrance into the Staff 
Corps, under the competitive examination, by which admissions 
into that Corps are in future to be regulated. Amongst these 
Officers' will be found, in Bengal particularly, many Lieute* 
nant Colonels, who, in the halcyon days of the native army, could 
oalculale almost with certainty on exercising the command of a 
Native regiment, with the comfortable addition to the pay of 
their rank which such employment brought. The irresistible 
torrent of the mutiny has swept away M but an insignificant 
number of regiments of the Bengal Native Infisuitry, and their 
place has been taken by newly-raised irregular regiments to the 
command of which regimental Lieutenant Colonek are, by the 
rules of the service, ineligible. Nor would it indeed be either just 
or politic to displace in their favour, the generally able class of' 
young men, who have nused and hitherto commanded the new^ 

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161 SCHEME FOR THE AMALGAMATION 

lenes^ and to supplant the latter by Lieutenant Colonels advanced 
in life, to whom the Irregular System is equally strange and 
distasteful* No one, who has the interests of the service at heart, 
could desire to see the Lieutenant Colonel of the old Native Infan- 
try school, accustomed to rely on the constant support of his 
regimental Staff, to see nothing but neatly fitting red coats 
and forage caps, and to regulate discipline by a mild application 
of the Articles of War, and standing orders for Infantry, trans- 
planted to the uncongenial soil of a regiment of mixed Sikhs and 
Aff^hans, with uncouth tongue, non-regulation beards, and 
unsifi^htly mud-coloured uniform, located — to complete his dis- 
comfort, — ^in one of the bousdess camps of the Deraj&t Frontier ! 
The subject is not one for jesting, yet we may be pardoned for 
saying, that the s«rprize of both officer and men, if they found 
themselves ihos suddenly brought into the relation of com- 
mander and commanded, would, prebaMy, l>e about equally 
l^alanccd. In the Madras and Bombay Armies and indeed in 
the few remaining regular regiments of Bengal, the hardship 
inflicted upon the older officers by amalgamation, and the pro- 
posed conversion of regular into irregular regiments, will be 
less. The Lieutenant Colonels now commanding regular regi- 
ments will probably retain their position, and be trusted to 
superintend the conversion of their, regiments into irregulars. 
The conversion will doubtless proceed very gradually, and will 
perhaps hardly be fiiUy accomplished for eight or ten years 
to come* 

We have naturally considered the case of the elders first, but 
the case of the unemployed juniors is not a whit less grievous. It 
ma;^ be said, with a certain amount of justice, in the case of the 
juniors of the Bengal Army, that in the cornucopia of appoint- 
ments, which has been emptied over their heads since the Mutiny, 
it is next to impossible that any really deserving men should 
have failed to secure some sort or other of extra-regimental 
employment ^ — ^that the merit must be hidden indeed which has 
not had the opportunity of coming to the surface, during the 
stirring events of the last four years. But it must not be for- 
gotten, that wounds, sickness, and other causes have operated in 
many instances, during the period in question, to withdraw most 
deserving men from the field of competition. It would be a 
reproach, indeed, to those who administer the patronage of the 
Army and of the country, if, when the new arrangements come 
into force, some hero of the ridge at Delhi, or of the feeble 
ramparts of Lucknow, should fiud himself consigned to the 
<»blivion of an unemployed list, because wounds or sickness may 
kave withdrawn him temporarily from the competitive struggle.. 

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OP THE INDIAN AND BEITISH ABHIES. 155 

We are confident however that the Governor General and the 
Coromander-in-Chief, will avoid all reasonable ^ound of cavil 
at the forthcoming scheme of amalgamation, and the obloquy 
of permitting officers with such unquestionable claims to consi- 
deration, to vegetate unemployed under the cold shade of 
neglect. 

It is difficult to estimate with anything like exactitude, the 
probaMe number of officers for whom emplojinent will not be 
found under the new scheme. It may be feared, however, that 
it will be very considerable. When every attempt to provide 
employment in the ordinarj way for all unemployed officers pos- 
sessed of the requisite capacity has failed, it may well receive 
the consideration of the government, whether it would not be 
both fairer to individual, and more advantageous to the public 
to purchase out (either by increased pensionary inducement, or 
by liberal offers of land in Australia or India,) those who will 
otherwise remain probably for years, a heavy incubus upon the 
State. We would advocate the early employment, if necessary, 
of an able actuary to determine this question. What a sum 
might have been saved to the State, if the purchase out of offi- 
cers willing to resign their elaima on the service, had commenced 
three years ago I 

We must now close this necessarily very imperfect notice of 
the grand scheme about to be promulgated. With certain draw- 
backs, which were doubtless inevitable, its provisions appear to 
to us decidedly, as a whole, beneficial to the service, and con- 
ceived in a liberal and kindly spirit. Unquestionably the posi- 
tion of the unemployed class will be very grievous, but the 
scheme may contain details for ameliorating it which are not yet 
made public. It must be borne in mind too, that this class is 
not created by the amalgamation, but that it is already in existence. 
Indeed a striking peculiarity of the whole scheme is, how very 
slight is the measure of change which it will introduce. What 
changes it does involve are often little more than nominal, and affect 
designation rather than actual position and prospects. But even 
a change of desigtiation is in certain cases worth something. 
However much some officers may affect to despise a name, few, 
we believe, would desire to revert to the title of ' the Honour- 
able Company^s Army.' The name of * Native Infantry' stinks 
in the nostrils of most of us. There are not many officers, we 
take it, in Bengal at least, who desire to perpetuate, even in 
name, their connection with that once highly esteemed branch 
of the Army. The days when such a connection was deemed 
honourable, and a source of just pride, passed away when 
^ Native Infantry' became almost a synonym for mutineers^ Such 

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158 SCHEHE FOR THE AHALGAMATIOX 

feelings of course do not extend to those who claim to belong 
to the time-honoured corps of Indian Artillery^ or to the Indian 
European regiments ; — ^vet even the officers of those arms will 
not^ if we judge them rightly^ despise the designations they axe 
hereafter destined to bear^ or deem it otherwise than a gratifying 
change to add to the title which is still to identify them with a 
past order of things, the distinction of ' Royal/ 

So much as a mere matter of sentiment. But we believe that 
with these nominal advantages, more solid ones are also mixed 
up. The impending affiliation of the Indian Artillery and 
Engineer corpus on the corresponding branches of the Royal 
service, seems likely to bring with it a very considerable amount 
of promotion, to the higher ranks at least of the former services. 
The same result, we anticipate, will attend the new organization 
of the European Infantry. Then as to the Staff Corps : — ^to be 
assured of the substantive rank of Captain, Major, and Lieute- 
nant-Colonel after twelve, twenty and twenty-six years' service 
respectively, even though the pay of the respective grades be, as 
is asserted, somewhat reduced, is an unquestionable improve- 
ment upon the glorious uncertainty which attended promotion 
to those ranks under the former order of things. The promotion 
o£Pered may not be brilliant, but it will be sufficient to attract 
into the service that class of men, who enter the army for a 
career; that class, in fact, of which it was the boast of 
the Indian Army to be composed. The proposed Indian Staff 
corps is destined, we firmly believe, to be hereafter the grandest 
body of officers to be found in the world. In its first institution 
it will hardly deserve the name of a carps d'^iU, because admis- 
sion into its ranks will have been the result in many instances of 
mere interest, — ^in others of chance and a favourable concatena- 
tion of circumstances, — ^in a few only of legitimate selection and 
proved ability. But every year the composition of its ranks 
should improve, as entrance becomes the reward of high attain- 
ments and peculiar capacity, and it must eventually take the 
place in public estimation which it will deserve, as being tjom- 
posed of the most eminent men which the military profession, 
under the most favourable conditions, can produce. There is 
infinite grandeur in the idea of a corps which shall contribute 
from its ranks to the public service every sort and description of 
talent for which a demand may arise ; — ^which will manufacture 
and hold available for use, the proconsul who is to rule a 
province, the general who is to lead an army, the man of science 
whose discoveries may influence the future of the entire empire. 

Since the above was written, the scheme has appeared. It will 
be seen that our anticipations have in almost every instance 

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OF THE INDIAN AND BSITISU AEMIBS. 157 

proved correct, and that the great measure is even more com- 
plete and more considerate towards unemployed officers than 
we had dared to hope. We notice too the publication of a 
retiring scheme drawn up by the Commission, which, if sanc- 
tioned, even partially, by the Home Government, cannot fail to 
lighten the difficulties of the Executive, to place a charmed 
weapon in the hands of the military reformer, and to commend 
this word amalgamation even to those to whom it has hitherto 
been most repugnant. 



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158 EASTERN BENGAL AND ITS RAILWAYS. 



Art. VII. — Eastern Bengal and its Railways. 

EASTERN BENGAL extends from the slopes of the Hiroa- 
laya mountains below Darjeeling in the Norths to the head 
of the Bay of Bengal in the South, or roughly is enclosed with- 
in the 'SL'lnA and 27th parallels of North latitude. 

The Eastern boundary, commencing at Chittagong, becomes 
interlaced with the hills which limit the empire of Burmah, and 
stretches out through the extensive valleys of Upper and Lower 
Assam, as far as the gorge in the Himalaya mountains, through 
which the great river Burhampooter descends from Thibet. 

The Western limit follows the course of the rivers Ilooghly 
and Bhagiruttee, and passes through Calcutta, MoorshedabadL 
Dinagepore up to Darjeeling. 

Its length from North to South is about 350 miles ; its breadth 
300 miles. The total area of this country is about 100,000 
square miles. Comparing this extent of country with the British 
Isles, which contain 120,000 square miles, it will be seen that 
Eastern Bengal is a country of no mean proportions. 

The population, estimated at fifteen millions, may be looked 
upon as a simple, rural population, covering the cultivated area 
of the country very evenly, and but moderately condensed in 
towns, save in the metropolis of the Bengal Presidency. Per 
square mile, it is perhaps the most densely populated country 
of equal extent on the face of the globe. 

' Eastern Bengal ^ is certainly a most fertile and prolific tract 
of land, and is suited to the most economical modes of cultiva- 
tion. Watered by the two great rivers, Burhampooter and 
Ganges, and supplied with innumerable tributary rivers travers* 
ing the country like net work, there are abundant means at 
all points for irrigation, and a most extensive system of water 
carriage at all seasons of the year for the usual country boats. 
The products of the country are not surpassed either in quan- 
tity or quality by any District under the Tropics, and their im- 
portance is shewn by the large revenue returns. 

The dwellings of the rural population consist chiefly of bam- 
boo and mud huts, covered with a thick thatch of leaves or rice 
straw, and are usually to be found deeply ensconced in the jungle, 
and ordinarily not visible to travellers. This privacy is looked 
upon as of great importance, as it often shields a family from ob- 
noxious intrusion. The Bengalees are an effeminate and indo- 
lent people; they are ingenious and handy workers, and though 

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EASTERN BENGAL AlH) ITS RAILWAYS^ 159 

■low in movement^ they are nevertheless apt at leamingv Their 
moral habits are however degraded. Cunnings deceit^ and sen- 
sualiiy^ are amongst their characteristics^ and^ as a natural con- 
sequence, where immorality predominates, coorage is at a low 
ebb. Yet it is impossible to imagine the whole mass of the 
nation to be utterly void of some particle ef that honesty of pur- 
pose, that conscientiousness of thought and feeling, which may 
be found even among those who do not rank in the highest 
position, either morally or intellectaallyj and education and ex- 
ample, combined with great firmness, may, in getteraticms to come, 
yet present us with a community recognising the authority of 
moral principles } while, among the more cultivated intellects, 
there is even now no want of a certain shrewdness and quick- 
ness of thought, which ofibr materials for still better things. 

To facilitate description, ' Eastern Bengal^ may be arranged 
into three great territorial tracts. 

The District lying to the south and west of the Ganges, includ- 
ing the District to the east of Calcutta and the great Soon- 
derbunds circuity comprises the first tract.. 

The Soonderbunds stretch across the head of the Bay of 
Bengal, a distance of 260 miles, and present, at the Sandheads, 
a low swampy country and a dense forest for 50 miles inland. 
Beyond this, cultivation first makes its appearance. There are 
nine principcJ streams and several tidal estuaries to the sea &ont. 
llie portion of the country which has been cleared is cultivated 
ehieny with rice, and is densely populated, but in the forests and 
on the extensive swamps there are but few inhabitants on account 
of the numbers of wild beasts and venomous reptiles, and the 
malaria which at the end of the rainy season is very deadly. 
The Soonderbnnds is a tract of much interest, and ofiem 
many subjects for contemplation. The water channels afford 
an excellent, though circuitous, line for the navigation of 
country boats, which ascend and descend from the open and more 
cultivated parts of Eastern Bengal ; but they are full of danger 
for the navigation of steamers or other large craft. The coun«- 
try is mostly covered with crops of rice and oil seeds, and open 
pastures, studded with beautiful groves of trees, which shelter 
and nourish the cattle belonging to the many villages that stud 
this interesting localiiy. 

The Second Tract consists of the Districts lying between the 
Ganges and the Burhampooter, extending Northwards to the foot 
of the Himalayas. The character of the country is similar to the 
cleared portion adjoining the Soonderbnnds ; it is however a 
slightly higher tract of country, and is specially suited for the 
growth of fU>rous plants, for which the neighbourhood of 
MjLXCH, 1661. X 

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160 fiASTSBH BXNOAL AlKD ITS EAILWAtS. 

Bongpo^ is greatly celebrated. The population inliabiting tliis 
tract of territory is scarcely less dense tJian in the first tract, whilst 
the general appearance of the conntry, always fiat^ is much the 
tome as in the other parts of ' Eastern Bengal/ 

The Districts IjringEast of the Burhampooter^ including Dacca 
and Sylhet constitute the Third Tract. This tract presents greater 
tesources than either the first or second tract. The greater portion 
of its surface is occupied by the rich plains of Mymensing and 
Sylhet through which the river Soomia meanders. The old 
channel of the Burhampooter^ now nearly dry, together with 
other old beds of alluvion, wind along by Dacca from the Eastward. 

This l^ract afibrds a great variety of produce, such as cotton, 
mtgar-caae, rice and other grains, together with potatoes, plantains 
and oranges. These last are supplied to Calcutta in greater 
quantities from here than from any other quarter. The Eastern 
hills offer a large assortment of agricultural produce and mineral 
wealth. In the high lands axe obtained lime and coals, besides 
valuable timber, and the district produces tea of the best quality. 
In the pastures and jungles are elephants and bufBd oes, valu- 
able to India as beasts of burden, and, to commerce the latter 
are also valuable for their hides. This tract is therefore one of 
vast importance to the general resources of India. Excluding 
for the moment, any description of the great valley of Assam, 
the occupied portions of the three tracts contain together 
about 35,000 square miles, and it has been estimated that no less 
than 425 human beings are located on every square mile, giving 
nearly fifteen miUions of inhabitants for working the internal 
resources of the country* 

Viewing the three great tracts together, they certainly offer 
the finest field in India for the investment of capital and skilful 
enterprise. On the east and north limits of ' Eastern Bengal' 
are two ^ Hill stations/ Cherapoonjee and Daijeeling. Each of 
these stations is a Sanatarium useful in alleviating^ the effects 
of the fierce and trpng climate of Bengal. To auiuvalids, and 
especially to European constitutions, these stations are most 
valuable, and although at present hard to reach, they wiU be 
made accessible to the metropolis within a very few years. 

In contemplating the picture of the countary- that has been 
described, it is paimiil to reflect how backward m civilisation id 
this important province of our Indian possessions. Although 
in its present undeveloped state it produces a greater proportion 
of revenue than an^ other tract of country in India of equal 
extent, it may be said to be enveloped in the accumulated dark- 
ness of past ages. There are no roads of importance, no iq)pli«. 
ances of modem civilisatiouj and the transit of produce isk 

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XASIEKN BENGAL AIOY ITS &AILWATB. 161 

effected by the most primitive expedients. Through its length 
^nd breadth it is limited to a tedious water communication in 
boats of unsafe and cumbersome construction. The staple of 
the export trade consists in the raw produce of the country, 
and the manufactures of Indigo and Silk. The imports are 
oomparatively trifling, when such a vast population is taken into 
account, and much judicious management will be re<j[uired before 
the consumption of English man^actures attains Us due pro* 
portions. 

It has been previously observed that the population of ' Eas- 
tern Bengal' was not condensed or concentrated in large towns, 
with the one great exception of the Metropolis, nor is there any 
reason why it should be. The elements of its commerce are 
solely agricultural, and differ therefore materially from trade in 
England. The produce of the country is collected in certain 
Bazars for further distribution, and the towns of Dacca, Bung« 

J ore, Mymensing, together with the marts of Sen^gun^, 
essore, Naraingnnge, Sylhet, Assam, &c#, constitute the chief 
resorts of traders and emporia of the resources of the country; 
but they are simply warehouses for exchange with Calcutta, and 
not centres of industry such as we possess at Manchester, 
Leeds, and innumerable other towns in England. Some^ few 
wealthy Etiropean and native traders however have established 
liouses of their own, and transmit their own produce direct to 
Calcutta. The working people are ill directed by the zemindars 
or native landlords. The native mahquns or merchants, to* 
gether with the smaller traders and boatmen, have all endea- 
voured more or less to oppress or cheat them. 

The great valley of Assam, which lies to the extreme east of 
Ben^, extends a l^igth of four hundred miles, with a breadth 
varying from forty to seventy miles, and comprising an area 
of about 22,000 square miles, through which the Burhampooter 
Biver flows. Mr. Barry, of Serajgunge, has fdUy described* 
the great value of this district as a field for mercantile speculation, 
on account of its great resources. Goal, lime, and iron have been 
discovered in several places, also ^Id and precious stones, and 
several amber and salt mines. Timber is K>und in the forests 
that line the Buriiampooter. There are several extensive tracts 
of tea and other ooltivated land, though the countrv is generally 
swampy. The people however are idle, and being abstemious are 
without any sufficient incentive to labor: the consequence is, 
'there are immense tracts of excellent land lying waste, that 

- • Memorandum on the Provinoe of Amm, published by C* B. Leins, Baptist 
mmm FMs, Cslcut^ 1858. 



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162 EASTBSN BENGAL AND ITS RAILWAYS. 

might be most profitably onltivated. Wild elephants^ tigers 
leopards^ bears^ buffaloes^ hogs, and game of all sorts abound, 
and the greater part of the coontry is in a truly primeval state. 

It has been already mentioned that ' Eastern Bengal' posses- 
ses^ in her many rivers, a complete system of water communica- 
tion. These rivers are at present the only channels of communica- 
tion that serve for the transport of merchandise; they are very 
circuitous and dangerous, and the tediousness of a journey up 
and down can be mUy understood by those only who have had 
the fortune to endure it. Roads there are none, save near 
Calcutta and around some of the 'Civil Stations. There are a 
few miles of half-made roads, formed in a desultory unqrstematia 
way, connected with the Indigo Factories, but no road that can 
be depended upon for a journey of twenty miles without interrup- 
tion. Wheded carriages, other than bullock hackeries, are 
therefore not to be met with at any distance from Calcutta, 
save at the Civil Stations, and the consequent loss of time in the 
transit of goods and in travelling generally, brings with it 
a corresponding loss of money. BoaAs therefore are the great 
want — good and substantial roads— and for the complete deve- 
lopment of the country, railroads, as well as the common roads, 
must be provided. A well defined system of roads is the key 
to the prosperity of the country. 

It has been estimated that about one half of the produce 
traffic, between the interior of this side of India and Calcutta, is 
obtained from within the districts of 'Eastern Bengal,' and 
that the largest portion of it is for British or foreign consump- 
tion. The present Eastern Bengal Railway was projected in 
1856, and the computations concerning the amount of tonnage it 
was likely would be carried, were based on the returns of the 
Eastern Canals, from which it was fully demonstrated that 
upwards of one million tons weight of produce were trans- 
mitted annually to the port of Calcutta from the districts of 
' Eastern Bengal,' and that at least forty thousand tons of im- 
ports were distributed over the same temtory as return cargoes. 
From a further calculation it was presumed that the railway would 
obtain th6 transmission of 419,560 tons per annum. The pro- 
moters of the railway speculated on taking £379,210 per annum 
as gross receipts, from goods and passengers, wh^ the line wa» 
completed to Dacca and Narraingunge which would produce a 
dividend of 8 per cent upon a capi^ of £3,000,000 the estimated 
cost^ including the rolling stock, management, &c. 

It may be observed that in so complex a river system as the 
Qangetic Delta, it was a question of no small importance to de- 
cide carefully in the first instance, the route of the tnuik 

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EATTEBN BBNG^ AND TS& RAILWAYS. 168 

line, so as to admit of the extension lines being connected advan- 
tageously hereafter. By a reference to the map inserted at page 
1 6S, it mil be seen how judiciously the main line has been laid out 
for the aggregation of the traffic that will be brought down 
the various streams which traverse the country. 

Such a system of railway as is here sketched out for the full 
development of the resources of the country is most essential, and 
the Government, it is presumed, will bear this always in mind, 
when deciding on the concessions hereafter to be made, from time 
to time, to the Eastern Bengal Railway Company; without it the 
resources of the various districts of the country cannot be 
thoroughly opened out. How strqngly this is really felt by the 
authorities, may be understood by a short account of the steps 
they have already taken, and the progpress that has been made 
with the Eastern Bengal Bailway undertaking. 

So far back as the year 1853, it was clearly perceived that the 
traffic of ' Eastern Bengal' required that a railway should be 
<»rried into that quarter. The question was brought under the 
consideration of the Government, before even the experimental 
line of the East India Railway Company to Raneegunge was 
tried, and^ Major Greathead, then a very young officer in the 
Bengal Engineers, was instructed to examine and report on the 
line of common road between Calcutta and Dacca vi& Jessore. 
To his report we owe the first outline of a plan for a line of rail- 
way from Calcutta eastwards; for not only did he distinctly 
point out that a railway, could be had at but a trifling more 
cost than the ordinary road he was sent to report on, but 
he also broadly discussed the question of the amount of traffic 
that might be expected. This at once placed within the reach 
of an enterprising merchant of Calcutta, Mr. W. F. Fergusson, 
an amount of information which enabled him to organize a set 
of promoters in England; soon after which, the present company 
for carrying out the undertaking was formed. 

In the early part of 1856, when a favourable opportunity 
occurred for putting forth a prospectus of the railway, and tes- 
ting its merits upon the London money market, the avidity 
vntik which the shares were taken up was perfectly astonishing. 
The capital for the first section of the line was put down at 
one MillionSterlin^, but applications were actually made amount- 
ing to upwards of 15 Million Pounds Sterling, and the re- 
quisite deposit per share was collected for preliminary 
expences. This glut of applicants was weeded by the Direc- 
tors, and the share list purged and reduced to the amount 
of capital required, and the deposit money for the surplus was 
returned to the applicants. In this way a singularly good, and 

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164 -EAMBSBM BENGAL AND ITS BAILWATS. 

Bolvent list of shareholders was obtained. The CkHnpanj ikmd 
got the capital sabscribed on the condition of a guarantee being 
given of a fixed interest of 5 per cent., to be paid to the sob- 
acribers by the Government of India or the Court of Directors. 

The East India Court of Directors looked carefully at tb# 
project, and would give no guarantee before the route of the line 
was definitively settled, or some favourable opinion expressed by 
the local Government of India. At this stage, it was thought 
expedient to send out an Engineer to Bengal to make surveys, 
and such preliminary investigations as would eventually be re* 
quired ; and during the latter end of 1856 and the early part of 
1857, the country was explored and surveyed by Mr. Purdon, an 
Engineer, who was despatched firom England (or this special 
service. The plans and estimates, togetiier vdth the reports of 
that gentleman^ were duly submitted to the Government throng 
Colonel Baker, and were fully discussed by the present Governor 
General in Council. The main trunk Une from Calcutta to 
Dacca being considered the best that could be devised, was de* 
termined upon, and a recommendation was sent home to Gk>vem« 
ment, and Uie East India Board to concede it to the present 
Company with a g^uarantee of 5 per cent, on the Capital requir* 
ed for its construction. 

It was in June 1857 that the favourable opinion of the Gbvem^ 
ment of India reached England, and with this despatch also 
came the lamentable int^igence of the mutiny of the Native 
Bengal Army ; yet such was the reliance placed on the British 
strength in India, that vnthin one month after the opinion of 
the Government of India was received, the concession of the 
line was given, and the guarantee of 5 per cent, gpranted on the 
capital conditionally sul^ribed. An Act of Parliament was 
next obtained within three months following, fully incorpora* 
ting the Company. 

Many of our readers can remember the impression the Mutiny 
in India made on Parliament, and how manfully the old Court of 
Directors permitted the Bill for the construction of the Eastern 
Bengal Railway to be proceeded with at a time when the very 
existence of the East India Company was in jeopardy; and 
how Members and Noble Lords smiled as the Bill proceed- 
ed, wondering at the revived energy of the Court of Direct 
.tors during their throes of dissolution. The Act received 
the Royal assent in August 1857, when the direful news fixHa 
India was at its culmmating point. The promoters sooa dis- 
covered that the confidence in bidian Securities of the publie in 
England was shaken, and they refrained from making a call on the 
Shareholders for funds to enable the undertaking to proceed^ 

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BAffTEKK BENGAL ANB ITS RAILWAT3. 165 

The Court of Directors participated in this very reasonable and 
just apprehension;, and it was matoally agreed to let the subject 
rest ontil better times. 

'The baneful effects of the Mutiny on the public generally, 
extended itself to the promoters of the undertaking, and neither 
the Bailway Board nor the Court of Directors had sufficient con- 
fidence to avail themselves of the opportunity of a year's leisure 
for completing the plans and particulars for the works, and the 
loss of this time was the cause of serious detriment to the 
Company. In the month of May 1858, when the cheering news 
from India of the rapid suppression of the Insurrection began to 
enliven their prospects, the Board found the old East India 
Court of Directors swept away, and a new order of things 
established at the India House. The confidence of the Share- 
holders then revived somewhat, although a Committee of the 
House of Commons was receiving the most conflicting and ex- 
traordinary evidence, that ever was taken, upon the causes of 
delay in the execution cf the Railways of India. The Board 
now requested their Consulting Engineer, the late Mr. Brunei, 
to take steps for letting the construction of their works proceed, 
and they agidn engaged the services of Mr. Purdon, and ap- 
pointed him Chief Engineer of the line in India. 

In the mean time the evidence taken before the Parliamentary 
Committee on the causes of delay in the construction of Indian 
Bailways had created a strong feeling in England, that it was 
most advisable to get some of the great English contractors to 
execute the works, and bring their experienced and trained hands 
and fiuniliar appliances, to bear on the prosecution of the Indian 
lines. Mr. Purdon was accordingly instructed, under Mr. Brunei's 
direction, to procure designs and prepare a comprehensive con- 
tract for letting the whole of the works of the Eastern Bengal 
Bailway between Calcutta and Kooshtee, and the Board at once 
advertised the letting of the work by Public Tender, with a 
view of commencing active operations during the ensuing cold 
season in Bengal. This it appears was a very difficult task to 
perform in four months* It was nevertheless successfully accom- 

5>lished, and Mr. Purdon, with a staff of Engineers, started 
or India in September 1858, immediately after the Board had 
accepted the Tender of Medsrs. Brassey, Paxton, and Wythes. 
They arrived in Calcutta on the Ist November 1858, and lost 
no ume in communicating with the Government. 

The executive staff now experienced some of those difficulties 
in their surveys, which might be expected on commencing a 
new work in a foreign country, where their transactions were 
aot facililaied by official routme.* The Engineers of the lock 



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166 EA8TBBN BENGAL A2XD 118 BAILWATS. 

Government were fiimislied by the Home Authorities with 
the details of the contract that had been made with Messrs. 
Brassey, Paxton^ and Wythes. The conditions of the contract 
and the comprehensive specification puzzled them at first, 
because they kiiew that no working surveys of the line had as- 

et been made^ though » preliminary survey had been obtained 

y Mr. Purdon, and that the Government had not even sanc^ 
tioned the precise route of the line. The time allowed for the 
execution of the works also speared to them marvellously short. 
The Engineers of Government in India were not familiar 
with such contracts^ though of every day occurrence in Eng- 
land. Difficulties occurred^ and doubts were entertained. The 
contract was said to be a very bad arrangement, and it was 
observed how much better it would have been if, instead of 
wasting a whole year in England contriving such a contract, the 
Company's Engineer had returned at the close of 1857^ and made 
the proper working plans of the line, from data that could be at 
once understood by the local Government. But in fact all thia 
was impossible, for India was at the time in rebellion. 

The chief items of expenoe of any Bailway in Lower Bengal, 
such as the Permanent way, the Ballast, the Earthwork, the 
principal Bridges, Stations, and fencing, can be calculated with 
sufficient accuracy from a general survey of the line, and it makes 
little difierence, (there are of course exceptional cases) whether 
the line be carried a few chains to one side or the other of the 
assumed line of route. The amount of all the items can be so 
nearly determined by an experienced Engineer, that an ap« 
proximate set of quantities may be got out to form the basis of 
a perfectly sound contract, which shall provide for adjusting the 
gross sum according to the ultimate ascertained quantities of 
the work when executed. In all sound contracts, provision i& 
made to adjust the original estimate with the actual outlay, and 
this adjustment is made by a comparative view of the quantities- 
which formed the basis of the original estimate, with those 
actually found to have been executed at the completion of the 
works. The excess or deficiency of works of any kind being 
added to or deducted from the original estimate. 

Obtaining possession of the land for the formation of the 
Railway was a tedious operation, and although the constrac- 
tors were to have commenced work as early as December 
1858, they were unable to do so before the month of October 
following, as the land could not be made over except at 
a few disconnected places until that period. Next came 
the Contractors' difficulties with respect to a fiur adjust-- 
ment of wages for the cooUes, who withheld their service 

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EASTERN BENGAL AND ITS RAILWAYS, 167 

Ibr a time, with a view of forcing the Contractors to 
pay exorbitant rates^ believing them to be l>ound under any 
circomstances to a fixed period for completing the works. 
Time however smoothed in a measure these difficulties, and 
the Contractor's staff being shortly afterwards organized and 
distributed over the line, they commenced work in earnest. Ship- 
ments from England arrived, and the materials were transported 
speedily, and fortunately without loss, on to the various divi- 
sions or districts, as they are called, of the line. A severe 
scrutiny on the part of Grovernment was in the meanwhile 
carried on, on account of the doubts still entertained of the 
soundness of the conditions and stipulations of the contract. 
- After this brief sketch of a part of the histoiy of the proceed- 
ings of the Eastern Bengal Railway Company up to the time of, 
the arrival of the Engineering staff, and the present Contractor 
and his staff in India for the actual prosecution of the works, the 
present state of the undertaking should be described. 

It appears from a statement which has been obtained from the 
Chief Engineer, that up to the present time 66 per cent, of the 
Earthwork for the whole 110 miles is done, and 21 per cent, of the 
brickwork; 16 per cent, of the ballast is burned, and about 40 
per cent is ready for firing, and the materials for laying the greater 
portion of the permanent way are upon the ground. In additi- 
on to the above works the iron bridges are in a very forward 
state. It may therefore be confidently anticipated, if all still 
continues to go on smoothly, that the 110 miles of line will be 
finished and ready for traffic, before the rains of next year, or in 
May 1862. 

Fifty^six millions of pounds sterling represent the an- 
ticipated cost of railway works in India already conceded to the 
fostering care of Joint Stock Companies ; this amount is to be 
invested with the Government of India at a guaranteed rate of 
interest of five per cent, per annum, with a prospect of course 
of an additional rate of interest from a dividend. This is in- 
deed a grand step in advance for India; and should Indian Rail- 
ways b^metw remunerative as they are popular, it may be con- 
fidently predicted that as much as one hundred millions of pounds 
sterling can be easily raised in England, and be beneficially laid 
out on Indian Railways. 

' The Eastern Ben^ Railway Company has a concession to 
construct a Railway from Calcutta to the River Ganges at 
Kooshtee, and ultimately to Dacca, together with a branch to 
Jessore. The Company have taken power under an Act of in- 
corporation to increase their Capital to £6,000.000, and to make 
arrangements for the construction of at least 600 miles of Rail- 
BiAKCH, 1861, Y ,, 

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T^ EASTERN BENGAL ANt) ITS RATLWAT8. 

way. Sufficient capital to construct only the first section of 110 
miles from Calcutta to Kooshtee has at present been raised. 

A small map here introduced will shew the line conceded to 
€he Eastern Bengal Railway Company; the black line being the 
|>arent stem of the system of communication which it is thought 
will be required. The dotted lines and the annexed table 
will shew the lines that evidently appear necessary to develope, 
if not to complete, the railway system in * Eastern Bengal.' 
These lines may be constructed under the powers already con- 
ceded to the Railway Company by their present Act of Parlia- 
ment, subject te the capital bc^g guaranteed by the Indian 
Government. 

Mile$. 

Main trm^ line between Calovtia and Kooshtee,... 110 

1 Extension ^f the Main line from Kooshtee to Nanungunge vi& 

Dacca, ... , 106 

•'2 From Shazadpore to RoBc^re 116 

3 From Rong^re to near Daijeeding along the course of the Teesta 

river, 100 

4 From Rungpore to opposite Rigmahal vi& Dinasepere and Malda, 

to connect the North West with the Eastem^ngal system of 

lines, 110 

^ From Rungpore to the foot of the Assam Valley, 50 

4 Fvom off the Dacca extensien line at Dhumroj to Sylhet, 12Q 

Toul, .~m 

This amount of railway mileage appears to be as requisite to 
accommodate ' Eastern BengaP as the 1^414 miles of railway 
already conceded to the East Indian Railway Company^ is for the 
North West^ since its population^ produce, and natural resources 
»re no less in proportion. How these extension lines (all of them 
abutting on the main line or trunk), already conceded to the Eas- 
tern Bengal Railway Company, are to be carried out, is a 
problem whidi our rulers will have to solve, if the resources of 
this side of India are to be developed : and to the discussion of 
this problem we shall briefly address ourselves. 

It appears certain that no better course can be adopted for. 
carrying out the ext^ision Railways, than that of accepting the 
medium of the Companies already incorporated ; because, as was 
most truly observed by the Governor General of India at the 
recent opening of the Railway to Rajmahal ;—>' Though tha 
' Government were most anxious to give encouragement to the 

* investment of English Capital in India, and however sincere 
' their desire, that encouragement would fail unless they could 
' prove by the establishment of Companies that there is scope 

* for remunerative employment of such Capital in India, parti-^ 
' cularly in Bei^L Without such assurance, capitalists will iK)ti 

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A. N ,--/^' ,'■■" 




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EASTEBN BENGAL AND ITS RA£LWATS» I6ff 

^be' induced to aid in such enterprises, however usefol ia their 
* ultimate results/ 

Now if we are to look forward to the construction of 71^ 
miles of Railway in Eastern Bengal, and in like proportion 
through other important provinces and districts of India, it is 
di£Scult to conceive by what other means the money am be raised p 
for although the Government might possibly raise a loan of a 
few milUons for the purpose of making a limited number of 
miles of Railway, it is quite improbable they could raise money 
enough, in addition to the heavy loans required for the other 
purposes of the State, to construct the many miles that are re- 
quired. The House of Commons would scarcely sanction such a pro- 
ceeding, if indeed it were feasiUe, as the English Market would 
thereby be deluged with Indian State securities to ' the depreoi-' 
ation of all English stock* It would however be quite other- 
wise if the Joint Stock Company principle of raising capital 
were judiciously made use of, because, where private enterprise 
can have scope, the direct action of Government is seldom or 
ever desirable. But putting aside any question of whether it 
is abstractedly better to borrow in the form of a direct loan 
to Government, or indirectly by encouraging the investment 
of Joint Stock Capital; the former course can only be 
practicable to a very limited extent, neither is the latter system 
Capable of any great extension, unless it can be shewn to afford 
remunerative employment for the capital invested ; but if it be 
carried out by degrees, so as not to overdraw the resources that, 
can be spared in England, at any one time for such purposes, every 
mile of Railway here mentioned may be constructed in compa- 
ratively few years, provided the different sections of the lines be 
taken up in succession, and laid before the English public in a 
skilful and judicious manner, and under a Government guarantee* 
The raising of money for Indian Railways, through the medium 
of Joint Stock Companies, was not adopted in the first instance^ 
chiefly because it enabled the capital to be more conveniently 
raised. There was another very important reason for it, namely, 
the deficiency of the requisite executive machinery at the dispo* 
■ sal of the Government, for the construction of the lines, which 
thus would have to be entrusted to officers in the service of the 
I State, who would have to be self-trained to their duties ; whilst 

' Joint Stock Companies on the other hand could bring together 

experienced men from England and other countries. It may be 
argued that the Government also could engage the same expe- 
rienced Staff of Engineers and other Officers, but this does not 
appear so certain. The State could not so easily get them 
together as Joint Stock Companies, because Civil Engineers in 

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170 EASTERN BENGAL AND ITS BAILWATS: 

general, have a dislike to military control *per %ei as it does* 
not permit them to exercise that freedom of thought in the pre-' 
paration of their designs, or the supervision of their works, to 
which they have been accustomed. It is no small privilege ta 
India to possess, as she does at the present time, that diversity 
of Engineering thought and talent in the prosecution of her 
railway works, which has been introduced by the agency of Joint 
Stock Companies, and it would be unwise if India were not to 
avail herself of that skill and experience, which the satisfactory 
construction and completion of English and European Railways, 
places at her disposal. It might also be made advantageous to 
the Indian Government, as a school to train the officers and 
servants who are in her pay, since the process of making an expe- 
rienced Railway Engineer is not so easy as it is at times imagin- 
ed, and it is always an expensive and tedious operation. There 
are many clever and talented Engineers to be found in the service 
of the Indian Government, but it is hardly possible that they 
should posses that experience in those numerous details of Railway 
practice, which go to form the Railway Civil Engineer. 

It has been previously mentioned that the present concession 
to the Eastern Bengal Railway Company extends beyond the 
Ganges to the Burhampooter and to Dacca, but that the capital 
actually subscribed is only for a section of Railway between 
Calcutta and Kooshtee on the Ganges, a distance of about 110 
miles. There is no ^arantee as yet given for the extension capi- 
tal, and no subscription contract is as yet entered into for raising 
the money. Now at first sight it might appear that nothing is 
easier than for the Government of India to guarantee 6 per cent, 
upon the extension capital, issue the stock, and raise the money 
forthwith. But a little reflection will shew that there is consider- 
able difficulty in the way, the shares being already at 10 per cent; 
discount.* In the face of this fact, no extension capital can be 
expected to be subscribed for at the present time, unless the 
shares can be obtained at a still greater discount, or unless a 
higher and more tempting rate of interest be guaranteed. Such 
a state of things practically precludes the possibility of rais- 
ing Joint Stock Capital for further extensions, until the 
project appears likely to be more remunerative than the 5 per 
cent, guaranteed, and also perhaps until a period of more eager 
desire for investment in Indian Securities is manifested by the 
London Market than at present exists. 

* The cause of this depression is believed to be owing to the fket that the 
merits of the underiaking have not as yet been sofficiently notified and expliuned 
.to the public. 

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5ASTBEN BENGiX AND ITS RAILWAYS*' 171 

la order then to float any extension shares, it is evident that 
the portions of Bailway previously coilstraoted must be made in 
the first instance remunerative ; the management of the Compa- 
ny's affairs must in like manner be mJaintained in good repute ; 
Capitalists will then in all probability be found to take up the 
stock from time to time, when judiciously offered in the market. 
What at present is most necessary for the Railway Boards is, to 
collect into a well considered compendium or pamphlet all such 
reports and statistics, estimates and prospects of traffic of the 
various lines, which should be circulated amongst the proprietors 
and the public under the sanction of Government, to enable 
people to judge of the merits of the various projects. The pub- 
lication of these in one volume for all the Indian lines would give 
a great impulse to those investments, and be likely to produce 
a large accession of capital for these undertakings at the 
earliest period that it is desirable to obtain it. When the 
parent stem is extended to Dacca, the line to Eungpore may 
be put forward, and if guaranteed will be taken up with as 
much avidity as the original share capital of the Company, if 
but good faith and steadiness of purpose in keeping up the re- 
putation of the Company, be maintained. 

It may be observed that in dealing with so difficult a subject 
as the raising of Railway Capital, many collateral points will 
naturally arise, which require to be specially met ; for instance, 
an unusually sterile tract of oountiy over which little or 
no traffic can be obtained; or an expensive bridge over a 
great river such as the Granges at Kooshtee; or some sud- 
den depression in the money market; or the reputation of 
the Company itself suffering from assumed, or actual bad 
management. All or any of these causes might disturb the 
proce^ings of the Company to such an extent, that they 
would have ^eat difficulty in raising capital. To meet such cir- 
cumstances it might be permitted to the Company to borrow on . 
debentures, a sum equal to one third the Capital subscribed, so ae 
to counteract and tide over some of these temporary difficul- 
ties, and it might also be desirable for the Qovemment itself to 
assist and relieve the Company from some of the very heavy 
works, and perhaps to undertake directly the construction of the 
line across any commercially unproductive tract of countip, so 
that every link should be made complete by leasing the Govern- 
ment works to the Company. The Government might be en- 
abled in more prosperous times to borrow for such purposes on 
the securities of the Revenue of India, in addition to guaranteeing 
the share Capital of the Company ; but whether encouragement and 
positive assistance on the part of Government are given or not, it 

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172 EASTEBN BENGAL AND ITS SAlLWAYSr 

is essential tlmt the fullest obntrol of the expenditure and manage- 
ment of the Company's undertaking should be vested in the 
Government. 

. This leads to the discussion of another very important question 
already dealt with partially^ viz. the relation between the G-overn-' 
Vient and the Company^ and the powers of each. Considering 
the varied character of Joint Stock Companies in general the 
utmost influence and care of the Home Authorities shoidd be 
exercised in obtaining a good Directory in the first instance, 
and afterwards maintaining it. The approval by the Indian 
Secretary of State of each Director should be made a ain^- 
qu^nonhj Act of Taxliament. The Home Government should 
have power to dismiss any Director^ although the shareholders 
should still retain the prerogative of electing their own Directorsr 
It is evident the Government have a large stake in the undertak-^ 
ing^ since they not only give the land, but also the guarantee of 
6 per cent, and it may be generally remarked in respect to all 
Railways that inefficient Directors do much mischief, and often 
seriously impede the progress of the undertaking, which must 
not be looked upon as- being but a private speculation^ but also 
a grand national work. . 

It is doubtless a delicate and difficult problem to determine 
where the interests of the shareholders are in opposition to the 
representatives of the State; but it appears self evident that none 
but well known men should be admitted to sit at the Board of 
Direction, — men who being respectable in social standing and 
commercial position would draw around them respect, and bring 
with them a connection that would facilitate the raising of capi-< 
tal; men who, possessed of good sense, would never attempt 
to frustrate the national object and jeopardise the -general pros** 
perity of the undertaking as a whole ; men who would carry 
with them the confidence of the body of Shareholders, and 
who possess sufficient strength of mind to enable ihen to combat 
successfully the elements of disturbance, suspicions, and of im- 
proper interference and combinations, made against the Board of 
Directors and governing authorities whenever they occurred. It 
must not be supposed that there is extraordinary difficulty 
in procuring such Boards of Direction. Gentlemen of the stamp 
required are found ready to enter respectable Directions of great 
Companies, such as the Indian Railways are likely to become, and 
such Gentlemen are actually found to sit upon the Direction of 
our Indian Railways, and it should be as much an honor to sit at 
one of the Boards as it is to be a Director of the Bank of 
England, or as it was to be Director of the late East India 
Company. . 

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lASTEEN BENGAL AND ITS BAILWAYSi 173 

- Having Becured the bert possible' Boiard of Dlreeiors/ next» 
comes the degree in which the Government should exercise its 
control. There is but the faintest possible analogy between the 
constitution of an Indian Railway Company and the position o£ 
the ordinary Railway Companies in England. The one goes on 
without any supervision on the part of the State beyond the 
Act of Parliament for the guidance of the Railway Company, 
The other requires the constant and vigilant supervision of the 
Local Government and its Officials^ to prevent abuses to the 
landholders and community at large^ that might otherwise lead 
to consequences disastrous to the Empire. 

Unlike Companies for English Railways^ the Government re-* 
serve to themselves at starting the right of selecting the route 
of the line, and as they give the land and the requisite guaran- 
tee, they are obviously entitled to the most complete supervision 
of the expenditure of the Company* 

There are many essential reasons why it would be well for 
Railway Boards to admit the necessity of the Government con* 
trol over their undertakings in India, but chiefly because there 
are no independent tribun^ in India. The Supreme Courts 
of India are unable to enforce the performance of an agreement 
between an English Company and the Imperial State. No 
Railway executive in India therefore, should be entrusted with 
the difficult problems that aris^ from time to time, unless placed 
under the direct sanction of some local authority, possessing 
stability of character and a certain amount of freedom of ac- 
tion. To refer ev^y question home for deliberation would cause 
much difficulty and elicit many inconvenient explanations ; it 
would excite irrelevant correspondence, and would seldom 
present a true description of the case when it reached England. 
It is therefore almost impossible for a Railway Company, of 
itself, to organise an agency of sufficient power or authority, 
for the coiwtruction or the working of a Railway in India. 
Considering then the intimate relations that should exist be^ 
tween the Railway executive in India and the local Govern- 
ment, it is a most important desideratum to determine the most 
^ective system of conducting the Company's a£BEiirs. It may 
be assumed with sufficient accuracy for argument, that capi«i 
talists will invest no money in Indian Railways without a guar- 
antee from the Indiui State, and if this is so, the legislature 
says, so long as we guarantee you your property, we will take 
to ourselves the right of controlling your discipline. It is clear 
then tbat the Companies cannot 'ab initio' regulate their 
own operations independently of Government, neitJber can the 
executive Officers ia India be wholly trusted with unlimited 

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174 BASTEEN BENGAL AND ITS RAILWAYS* 

powers^ since they would clash with the civil discipline of Go- 
vernment. 

The capital being raised under a guarantee, and secured under 
a regular agreement between the Government and the KaiU 
way Company, it is made a proviso that the Company are to 
be allowed the full advantage of any increase of profit that is 
fairly due to the successful development of the traffic, irfl^r the 
Gx>vemment have been repaid their guarantee. This source 
of increased dividend is contingent on the success of the line, 
which again is of course due to the project being well consider- 
ed and the management being judiciously maintained. In 
granting this benefit to Joint Stock enterprises, the interest of 
the State is fully secured, and it is manifestly also to the interest 
of Government to assist the undertaking cheerily on its course 
of prosperity. 

Such being the basis upon which Indian Railways, as at pre- 
sent constituted indisputably rest, it is really not a matter of 
much difficulty to determine the way of so applying the Govern- 
ment control, as to give satisfaction both to the Railway Com- 
panies and to Government, It is by no means necessary or proper 
for the Government to have an absolute control over the Railn 
ways, as if they were entirely its own property; on the contrary, 
it is much better to be associated with the Railway Boards. 

The right of appointment of their Chief Officers and other 
Ainctionaries rests with the Railway Companies themselves, sub- 
ject however to the approval of the Home Government, and it 
has been supposed that the right of dismissal over all the Officers 
and Servants of the Companies employed in India, should be 
referred to the local Government who control themj but this iff 
not so, and it would be very injurious to the administration of a 
Company's affairs if it were ; because no really good officials 
could be found who would come out to India to take service 
under one set of men, whilst another set of men might sum- 
marily dismiss them ; neither would any good arise from such a 
power being given to the local Government, because their ap- 
pointments being made direct from the Company, the Officers 
and servants of the Company would very naturally disregard 
any interference, not contemplated or specified in their agree- 
ments, and it would very probably give rise to insubordination 
«nd distrust of the Company. It might not .be amiss perhaps 
for the Local Government to have power actually delegated to 
them in each agreement, to argue the merits of all cases of in- 
discretion, insubordination, or inefficiency, previous to the deci- 
*8ions of the Home Board, but it should not be permitted to 
ithem to act merely on their own convictions. 



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BASTERN BEICGAL AND ITS BlILWATS. 175 

It has been previously observed that there was little difficulty 
in devising a complete scheme for working out tiie Hail way 
Company^s contracts in India, after the agreement between the 
State and the Company has been completed. In order to discuss 
this part of the subject on its merits, it is desirable to have a 
knowledge of the arrangements most commonly adopted. A- 
general Agent is appoint^ to India to represent the Board, and 
he is either accompanied or preceded by the Engineer in Chief 
with a staff of Assistant Engineers and Subordinates. These 
two principal Officers are then placed in communication with- 
the local Gfovemment, with whom it lies to sanction previously: 
every thing that has to be done, both in the administrative and 
executive departments. It is rightly required that the Agent, 
representing as he does the Company in India, should be the 
sole medium of correspondence between the Executive, the Home- 
Board, and local Government. He is to be conversant with all. 
things relating to the affiEtirs of the company, without interfer- 
ing on points which are left wisely to the discretion and profes-- 
sional knowledge of the Chief Engineer, who on Engineering 
matters should be exempted from his control ; but it is also not- 
unreasonably desired that a certain check should be kept by the 
Agent over the Chief Engineer on matters of general outlay, so 
as to subject him to the control of the Board and the local' 
Government. The latter is represented by an Officer called the 
' Consulting Engineer ' whose duty it is to advise the Govern- 
ment and convey its views and orders to the Company^s 
executive. 

It is presumed that the rente of the intended Railway has 
been generally ascertained before hand, from exploring surveys- 
made either by the Company or by the Engineers of the local 
Gk>vemment. It is now too late to talk of a Royal Commission 
to lay out a general system of Railways for India, since the 
leading lines of the Coimtry have been long since determined ; 
the routes therefore of all future extension lines may be safely 
left to be decided by the different Government authorities, no 
matter from what source they gather their intelligence. The> 
Railway officers are responsible only for the construction of the- 
line, and so long as they do it in conformity with the views and 
regulations of Government, as intimated to them through the^ 
Gt>vemment Consulting Engmeer, they need not care what route 
has been determined on. The manner in which the route is 
ultimately decided on has varied greatly according to the circum- 
stances of each project, and depends greatly on the views of 
those officers who may be acting for the Company or Govern- 
ment at the time. 



Mabcb, 1861. 



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176 EA9TER^' BENGAL AND ITS EAILWAYS. 

There are two systems at work in the management of Rail- 
tvays in India. Some of the Companies have proceeded with 
the construction, before taking any comparative views of their 
tneans and ends ; others have more wisely made comprehensive 
estimates before hand, and passed carefully in review every thing 
they would ultimately have to provide. It has sometimes hap- 
pened that no skilled Contractors could be found with capital 
sufficient to take the whole works ; this has obliged the Railway 
Companies themselves to construct them with their own Execu- 
tive Sta£P ; but this system has frequently obstructed the works^ 
and is one which should be avoided as highly objectionable and 
defective. But it is not always a matter of choice which system 
is adopted, although there can be little question of the desirable* 
Hess of letting the works, whenever practicable, to Contractors pos- 
sessing experience and resources. The practice pursued under each 
of the two systems referred to will be dealt with hereafter. 
In the mean time it may be observed that whichever system be 
used for constructing the works, the regulations which affect 
the executive of any Railway Company, and the machinery by 
which the Government control is to be exercised, demand the 
primary consideration. 

The Government Engineers and the Civil Engineers have not 
hitherto worked, as they ought to do, harmoniously together, 
and much evil has resulted in consequence. The cause of this 
disagreement is not difficult to explain ; but before doing so, it 
is necessary to point out how badly contrived is the machinery of 
the Railway Company's executive, from the fact of the Railway 
Agent and the Chief Engineer of the line having independent 
authoriiy. The arrangement is defective ; the Government Engi- 
neers encouraged it as a safeguard for themselves, but the system 
had a depressing effect on the Railway Engineers who make the 
designs and direct the execution of the works, and who being alone 
responsible for the soundness of their construction, are entitled 
to credit accordingly. The result was however, that the Agent 
of the Railway Company was made a sort of buffer between the 
Government and the Company's Engineers, and his intervention 
was sought as a matter of policy. 

The office of the Agent thus became one of great practical 
consequence instead of being as at first intended, simply a medium 
for communicating the wishes of the Board and the Chief En- 
gineer. Consequently when the ^ent supported the official 
requirements of Government, the opinion- of the Chief Engineer 
was unduly overborne, so often as he submitted and strenuously 
supported his own views, which might at times be in opposition 
to those entertained by the Government Officers. 



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BASTERN B£XGAL AND ITS BAILWAY8. 177 

Reverting to the system of the proper organization of the 
Company's Staffs it must always be borne in mind that there 
are two distinct periods in the existence of a Railway Company* 
One is the period of the construction of their works ; the other 
the subsequent period of working the imdertaking. The first 
is a period of capital expenditure; the second^ a much longer 
period of Revenue disbursements and returns. The first is 
essentially an Engineering period ; the second a traffic- working 
period, where the generd control of the Agent may be advan- 
tageously exercised. 

The Agent's financial knowledge and habits of business might 
be made of great service to the Chief Engineer, during the 
construction of the line, more especiaUy as he will afterwards 
be called upon to work the line in conjunction with the Traffic 
Manager, Locomotive Superintendent, and Resident Engineer. 
But during the construction of the Railway works and its capital 
expenditure, the Chief Engineer must be the principal man con- 
sulted and confided in, because on him the wliole responsibility 
rests ; the Directors and every one else look to him for the suo- 
cessfol accomplishment of their undertaking. His judgment is 
looked on as final, and the Shareholders having entrusted him with 
their confidence and embarked their capital upon the faith of his 
estimates and reports, naturally look to the Chief Engineer 
as their Chief Officer during the construction of the line. It 
is well known to Railway Companies, that the most important 
thing at the outset of their speculations is to determine who 
«hall be the Engineer entrusted with the expenditure of their 
•money, as he must not only be a man who can command confi- 
dence, but he must be a skilful man, and one accustomed to 
-design works soundly and economically. His administrative 
ability in directing the execution is no less necessary, than his 
general prudence and habit of forethought and integrity of charac- 
ter, so as to keep the Company safe on points which none other 
besides himself, could be expected to foresee or be able to g^nard 
against. For this reason he should not be interfered with in pro- 
fessional details and trivial matters that only thwart and cross his 
purpose without effecting any real economy. The character of an 
Engineer has always been held in consideration amongst the high- 
est class of Railway Directors, as well as amongst Statemen and 
capitalists, and there is no sound reason why the Government 
of India and the direction of the Railway interests should not 
similarly regard it. 

It has been previously explained that no g^reat amount of 
capital can be obtained for Indian Railways, except through the 
medium of Joint Stock Companies, and that it requires a mor^ 

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173 EASTERN BENGAL AND FTB BAILWATS; 

skilful system of management than has hitherto been InxKight 
to bear on such enterprises ; and certain points have been touch- 
ed upon, which tend to shew that the only way to raise the 
requisite capital, is to strengthen the existing security by a 
State guarantee, and supply such management as will carry with 
it that confidence, which usually attracts capital to such specu« 
lations : also, commercially speaUng, by a judicioufl selection of 
-the route and design of the works, and by a wide publication 
of the advantages that may be obtained firom each project. 
There need be little fear but that all the lines really want^ in 
India may be made, if their merits are only properly placed be- 
fore the English public, and a State guarantee of 5 per cent, is 
given to them. The reason why the efforts already made have 
not been continuously successful, is easily traceable to the ts^t, 
that the requisite skill has not characterised the mani^ment of 
this subject, and also that the London money market is not at 
all times accessible to Railway schemes. 

The spirit of * Capital * is coy, and requires gentle wooing ; 
it is repelled or attracted by the most delicate influences^ 
and as no brusque or inconsiderate action or remark ever 
passes unheeded, so likewise no force is of any avail in its 
subjection. It may from this be assumed that no system 
will be found to work out successftd results, if the men who 
compose the deliberative body of Directors and Gbvemment 
authorities in London are not cautious in their- movements, and 
equal to the circumstances they have to control. The basis of 
the management must be sound at starting, and it may be 
brought into operation as regards the organization of the Lon- 
don Boards of management in the way already suggested. 

The Executive Staff usually employed in Englnid by the In- 
dian Railway Companies, consists of the Secretary and his 
Clerks, together with a Consulting Engineer, his Assistants 
and Inspectors, for directing the execution of that portion 
of the works which must be don6 in England. It has been 
found necessary that such Consulting Engineers as can be 
safely trusted to advise the Directors and Government authori- 
ties at home, should be men of first rate standing in th^ 
profession, who can also obtain the confidence of Parliament 
and the public ; and as such men are naturally consulted with 
reference to the appointment of the Chief Engineers of audi 
Companies in India, there is little more to desire, because 
a man is sure to be selected who will work harmoniously 
with the Consulting Eiigineer and the Home Board, and all that 
is wanted is that the Board should second the views of their 
p rofessional adviser, and that their Seeretaiy be sttdi a person as 

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BASTESN BENGAL AKB ITS RAILWAYS. 179 

will bring every item under the deliberative judgment of the 
Board. There is not much that is wanting in the constitu- 
tion of the Home management ; but as already stated the selec* 
tion of Directors is of the utmost consequence so that they may 
command the confidence of capitalists. An injudicious selection 
of Directors would be calculated to create distrust of the whole 
undertaking. % 

The Agent in India who shall act as the Chief Officer or head 
of the Company, and represent the Board, should be selected for 
his administrative aptitude. His character should be strictly 
honorable in order to obtain the cheerful obedience of the Exe- 
cutive Officers, and the respect of the Local Government. His 
duties should be clearly defined with reference to the head Offi- 
cers of each department, and, at first starting, there should be 
no other departments than those of the Chief Engineer and his 
own. The Agent should commence with a very small estab- 
lishment, but sufficient to assist him in conducting the cor- 
respondence with the Board and the Oovemment, and be- 
tween him and the Chief Engineer ; a responsible Book-keeper 
shoidd also be attached to the Office of the Agent during the 
earlier stage of the proceedings, before the line is open^ for 
public traffic, in order to keep a perfect account of the capital 
expenditure, together with any sluure or transfer transaction. 

The Chief Engineer's establishment must of course be govern- 
ed by the extent and magnitude of the proposed operations, and 
it must be left to himself to select and distribute his District 
Engineers and their assistants as he thinks best. He should of 
course be allowed such draftsmen and writing clerks as may be 
necessary to conduct efficiently the duties of his office. 

It has been observed before, that there sore two important 
stages in the progress of a Railway Company. The time of 
construction and the period of ordinary workmg. During the 
first of these, the Agent has but little to do, b^use the Chief 
Engineer has alone to work out the design which is governed 
by the capital expenditure. There can be no greater mistake 
made in the administration of the constructive department of 
Indian Railways, than the attempts of Qt>vemment Engineers 
and Railway Company's Agents to organize under a fixed routine 
the proceedings of tiie Company's Executive Engineers; be- 
cause the circumstances are varis^le, and promptitude is essen- 
tial in order to grapple effectually with the difficulties of new 
works and novel circumstances. Where such vast sums are 
involved, the progress of the works should not be idly sacrificed 
for montiis or even dajrs to the bugbear of routine. It has not 
unfirequenUy happened that a question of some trivial diminution 



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180 EASTEUN BENGAL AND ITS RAILWAYS. 

of prices, or a plan of some trifling section has iiivolved 
the stoppage of important works, and voluminous notes on the 
subject have been made by the Government Engineers previous 
to a decision that the work might go on as proposed. The 
establishments asked for by the Engmeers to carry out their 
duties have often appeared excessive, because there has not been 
sufficient regard to the distinction between a fixed organization 
relating to a revenue expenditure, and an organization which 
is only temporary, and which is part and parcel of the 
capital expenditure. Is it not obviously to the advantage of 
the Company to complete the works as speedily as possible, 
and so free the capital from its unproductive posture? Is it 
wise to delay the undertaking for the want of an additional 
temporary establishment, which is deemed absolutely necessary 
by the Chief Engineer ? 

The remedy for all this is simple, viz., to recognize the prin- 
ciple that the Chief Engineer of the Railway is responsible, for 
the design and execution of the works, and until the Railway 
Engineers are made responsible by the Government authorities 
at Home and aboard, there can exist no sound principles of 
management in the proceedings of Companies. The Elastem 
Ben^ Railway diflTers from most of the other Companies, 
in so far that the whole project was laid before the Home 
Government in the utmost possible detail, when the contract 
for its construction was made, and this has been so useM in 
bringing every thing necessary to complete the undertaking 
under Government ireview and preventing disappointment, that 
few disputes have arisen between the Company^s Executive and 
the Government Officers. Hence the satisfiEMstory position- of 
the Eastern Bengal Railway Company^s operations. Its con- 
struction ia indeed a marked success, although some misunder- 
standings regarding the Directors* duties and those of the 
Government Engineers, may have arisen ; these happily have not 
' done much mischief, in consequence of the soundness of the 
contract and the system of Engineering management that was 
adopted. Nevertheless all this points out the strong necessity 
which exists, of calling upon the Railway Engineer in India 
to submit his plans and estimates, and every thii^ else necessary 
for carrying into successful effect the undertaking from begin- 
ning to en&, and requiring him to get these, or any modification 
of them, agreed to under sanction of the Government Engineers, 
so that he may begin operations upon some fixed basis, from which 
there cannot easily be departure. Differences of opinion should be 
limited to matters of detail, which do not involve those vast 
discrepancies of design and outlay that have been at times forced 

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EASTERN BENGAL AND ITS EAILWAYS. 181 

upon the Railway Companies, and for which their own Engineers 
and Managers have been blamed, as we think erroneusly. 

It is not material in point of principle, whether the works 
be let to great Railway contractors or not. In many cases, it 
is impossible they could be so let, from the fact of such men 
not being always ready to take them at a reasonably fair price, 
and it would destroy the advantage of having such contractors, 
if it was necessary to give them a higher price than the same 
work could be done for by the Company's own Executive, either 
through the medium of a series of small contractors, or by day 
work, or a combination of both, as ia usually the case. 

Whatever course is pursued, the great requisite that we have 
urged before for proceeding successMly, is the judicious selection 
of the Chief Engineer, who must be trusted with the expendi- 
ture of the money. It is by no means necessary that any blind 
confidence shoidd be put in any such individual ; on the con- 
trary, it is proper to watch his proceedings carefiilly and control 
his actions when necessary, but he must be recognized as the 
designer and the constructor of the project, and looked to as the 
fittest man to determine all Engineering points, though subject to 
be called upon at any time to submit in review, every thing 
affecting the design and execution as well as the accoimts of the 
expenditure. Unless this ia admitted, it is impossible that the 
various questions that arise can be discussed by the Board or the 
Gbvemment in a fair manner; and if the Chief Engineer is not 
in a position to bring all matters that are necessary imder 
review, it is clear that some body else should do so. But where 
shall we find any other official that is more competent to grasp 
the whole question, and assign to each consideration its proper 
place before the deliberative authority, except perhaps in the de- 
partment of the Company's Consulting Engineer ? 

The true way is to call upon the Chief Engineer, to put 
forward the points referred to, and with the advice of the 
Company's consulting Engineer to assist the Directors and 
Government Engineers, or other authorities, in deciding the 
basis upon which the proceedings should rest; and if the 
works can be let to great general Contractors, the case is 
afterwards very simple, if the practice adopted on the Eastern 
Bengal Railway be pursued. But if the works must be carried 
out by small contracts, and by the Company's own Executive 
staff, still there is Uttle danger of the Engineers going < 
wrong, provided the basis of their operations be fully determined 
beforehand, and agreed to by the Consulting Engineers of the 
Government. All that is then necsssary is to hold the Chief 
Engineer to the responsibility that he has agreed to, and to see 

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18> BASTBBN BBKOAL AND ITS RAILWAYS* 

that he is fceely trusted^ because there should be &o oocasbii 
for distrust^ if the estimates^ qpantities^ and othw requires 
ments of the work, be but clearly specified. The mode of 
dealing with the detailed operations^ may be safely 1^ to th» 
Chief Engineer under these circumstances^ and th^« would be no 
want of confidence in the Gi>yemment officers^ because they would 
be freed from that perplexity of doubt which the absence of 
a fixed basis engenders. 

Referring next to the periods of construction and traffic work- 
ingy it has been shewn that during the first period the Chief 
Engineer and Company^s Agent^ together with Government 
Consulting Engineers^ are all the heads of departments necessary, 
and that the Agent's office is one of very little range of action. 
When, however, the time arrives for working the traffic, an 
entirely different management is necessary. It brings into exis- 
tence the Traffic Manager and the Locomotive Superintendent^ 
together with the Agent's active duties>and as the Chief Engineer 
is removed to other places for the purposes of construction^ his 
place should be taken up by a Resident Engineer of the perman- 
ent way and works ; but if the Chief Engineer should remain in 
the service of the Company for extensions or branch lines, he 
should still be held as tiie responsible person to consult upon all 
questions affecting the 'way and works,' and the Resident 
Engineer in charge, should be regarded as his assistant only. 

Questions of importance which task to the utmost the ad- 
ministrative powers of a Joint Stock Company, controlled by 
Government, are of every day occurrence, and it is of the great- 
est consequence to select as tibeir Agents, men fully competent 
to handle such difficult matters so &r &om home; and to 
command the services of the class of men required, good 
salaries must be given, and as this involves great cost, it foUows 
that small Railway projects cannot bear the requisite expenses 
of a separate management so well, as when the undertakings are 
of a sufficient magnitude to support an efficient staff. 

It has been remarked by the greatest of all Railway authorities, 
the late Mr. Robert Stephenson, in reference to the duties of Direc- 
tors and officers, that 'no Railway can be efficiently or well con- 
' ducted witiiout thorough unity amongst the heads of all the: 
' great Departments. Upon the Superintendents of ways and 
' works of the Locomotive Department, of the out-door arranffe- 
' ments and of traffic, devolve the most onerous and responsible 
'duties; where they fail to act together, or when any one of 
' them ceases to ei^joy the full confidence of the Board, every 
' thing must go wrong. Having_selected men of the best class, 
' confiding in their integrity, and assured of their competency. 

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KA8l«&K BKKaAt; AKD TTS BAlLWAYi. I8S 

^ one of the principal dtitiee of ti Railway direction is to sup- 
^ port its officers ; any Directorial interference with details must 
^ weaken their efficiency, upon which must mainly depend the 
^ ultimate success of the Company they serve/ 

It is manifest from this and what has been previously statedy 
that the persons who must be looked to for successfully working 
Railways in India, are the four principal officers, viz. tiie Agents 
or head of the Company ; the Engineer of the way and works ; 
the Traffic Mauf^er ; and the Locomotive Superintendent ; and 
that one of the chief duties of the Directors at home is to sup* 
^rt them ; and it m^ be added, Hukt the duty of the Consult* 
ing Engineer of the Local Government is to control their pro- 
ceedings in India. 

As the Board in London is too far removed for direct action, 
it would be well to have a deliberative committee or council of 
administration in India formed of these four officers, with the 
Government officer as an ex-officio member, to act as chairman, 
^ese should meet as often as necessary to decide upon the vari« 
ous proceedings of the Company. The Agent of the Company 
should act as Secretary at all such meeting, and their resolu- 
tions, as well as the substance of their discussions, should be 
feithfully reported to the London Board and to the Government; 
The &ct of the Gt>vemment officer taking the most important 
part in their deliberations, need in no way disturb their proceed* 
ings, which have eventually to be sanctioned by the Local 
Government under the contract existing between the Company 
and the Government. There can be no objection to this princi* 
pie, and it is submitted that the Executive Officers acting as a 
deliberative body, would be like our cabinet at home, which is 
composed of the members of the executive Government, each re- 
sponsible in his own department. The working of such a body 
should be such as not to relieve any officer from the reeponsibilily 
that belongs to his department, and votes should only be taken upon 
those general questions which must be submitted to the Home 
Board before any action is taken. The Gtovemment control would 
always check any strong headed individual who might be disposed 
to a pertinacious adherence to his own views. For instance, if the 
= Locomotive Superintendent or the Engineer applied for approval for 
the supply of a quantity of stores or machinery, the deliberative 
body mi^t perhaps disapprove of allowing what was asked for, and 
it would not do for him to say, if you refuse me what I ask, I wiU 
-leave the responsibility with you. The d^berative body should be 
freed from such a pressure being put on them by the controlling 
-power of the GK>vemment acting quite . independent of the 

Mabob, 1861. AA 



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1?84 "EASTBEN BENGAL AND ITS KAlLWAYS. 

ddiberative council^ although perhaps greatly gtdded bj the 
discussion that took place^ but not by the voting; and the 
Oovemment would be supported in such control by the deliberatiye 
opinion of the council or body of Railway officers^ whilst the 
deliberative Council would not possess the power of interfering 
with the individual responsibility of the heads of Departments 
beyond expressing their own views. 

The modem Joint Stoek Banks^ which of late years have suc« 
ceeded so well in India, afford a fair specimen of the manner 
in which Railway Companies' affairs should be conducted. There 
is a Manager or chief officer, a Cashier, and so forth. The duties 
of each are defined with the utmost care, and the success of all 
undertakings greatly depends upon the judgment with which 
tiiese several duties are defined. The Manager presides at a 
deliberative Board of the officers, and they discuss and decide 

Sneral things. Each officer is however responsible for what 
Is in the way of his own duty, and has to report all particu- 
lars in as great detail as if he never joined in deliberation 
on the subject, and the Manager has to do the same. All 
the officers are quite independent of each other, and thus the 
Board at home gets the real facts of every material circumstance 
transmitted regularly from each department in the spepial re- 
ports, also the results of the generd deliberation of idl the offi^ 
cers, through the general Manager, Secretary or Agent. The 
Home Bofu*d then sends out an Inspector once or twice a year 
to look into each department, and report upon the whole state of 
the Company's affairs. 

* Such particular caution is not necessary in the case of Rail- 
way management, owing to Oovemment control being in force, 
but something like it should be observed. The Agent together 
with the other officers before mentioned, might do as the Mana- 
ger and other officers of a bank do, and form a very effective 
Board of management. 

The council of administration should be referred to by all the 
subsidiary officers appl}ring for instructions, including the Store- 
keeper, the superintendent of PoUce, the local Solicitor and the 
Accountant, together with the tradesmen and all other parties 
that do not exactiy come within the province of any single 
department. There would naturally g^ow from this prac- 
tice sub-divisions for the dispatch of the different sections of 
business, and the members of the council would form themselves 
into conmiiti^es for special enquiries, and principles of mange- 
ment or negotiation would be originated which would ultimately 
lead to as sound a system of administration as could be wishea 
for or expected. 

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SCRIPTURE AND SCIBNCE KOT AT VARIANC*, &C. 156 



Art. VIII. — Scripture and Science not at Variance. By John 
H. Pratt, M.A., Archdeacon of Calcutta. — ^^London: Hatchard* 
Calcutta : R. C. Lepage & Co., 1, Tank Square. 

IT has often been noticed that, in the works of creation, along 
side of the bane is uniformly to be found the antidote. (X 
the truth of this remark the animal and vegetable kingdoms 
would at once famish many • striking illustrative examples. 
The evolutions of providence, in the history of individuab> 
societies and empires, would also supply their full (}uota of corro* 
borative attestation. But it is in the kingdom of grace that 
the most conspicuous eicemplifications may be found. Without 
trenching on the proper domain of a purely theological Review, 
inay we not, in the interests of Literature, Science and Philo- 
sophy, boldly ask, when or where, during the last eighteen 
hundred years, has the poison of Infidelity insinuated itself 
in the shape of doubt, or cavil, or scoffing objection to the 
Bible as the only authoritative Revelation from Ood, without 
the healing bsJm or corrective being instantly provided, in 
the form of a cutting exposure, a triumphant reply, or &esh 
cumulative evidence of irresistible force? ' 

At the beginning of last century, the frigid and wither*, 
ing Deism of Herbert, Ilobbes, Blount, Galon, Toland, Shaftes^ 
bury, Collins, Woolston, Tindal, and Bolingbroke threaten^ 
ed not only to benumb, but utterly to consume the very life 
of Christianity, through the wide realms of Christendom. ^It 
^ has come,' wrote Bishop Butler in 1736,^1 know not how, 
' to be taken for granted, by many persons, that Christianity 
\ is not so much as a subject of inquiry, but that it is now at 

* length discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly they 

* treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point 

* among all people of discernment, and nothing remained but to set 
'it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were 

* by way of reprisals, for its having so long interrupted the plea« 
' sures of the world.' It was this light and deriding state of the 
public mind which evoked the immortal 'Analogy of Reli- 
gion,' with its unanswered and imanswerable train of argument. 
.. At a later period the more subtile and philosophical scepticism 
pf Hume called forth the slashing exposures of Campbell, 
Peattie, and other redoubted champions of the faith; while 
Judge Hailes and other eminent men laid bare the historical 
sopUstries and malicious sarcasms of Gibbon ; and Paley abbre>- 
yiated and popularised the massive and voluminous demonstra- 
tions of Lturdn'er. 



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VM MiftlFnJBJI AlTD fiCIKNCl ^OT AT TA&IAXOB, kc. 

But it is needless to enlarge on this subject. Suffice it to 
tay^ ihsAi no.sooner was a blow levdled at the credit of Revealed 
KeUgion from any quarter — ^whether directed by the keen 
philoeophism of a Hume^ or the low buffoonery of a Paine — ^than 
it was instantly parried, repelled, and made to recoil with d^hdly 
eSdot on the breast of him who aimed it. It was this uniform 
result, redounding to the honor and unshaken strength of 
Christianity, which prompted Dr. Gerard of Aberdeen, to write 
his admirable Dissertation, aftitled ^CAristianUy confirmed bf 
the opposition of Infidels J ' It is,' says he in his prefSace, ^ by such 
friction as seems at first sight likely to break it, that the dia- 
mond is polished and receives its lustre. In like manner, it 
is by being fretted, as it were, that truth is made to shew the 
foil brightness of its evidence. The trial distinguishes tiie true 
gem from the supposed one, whidi in the lump promised, per- 
haps, as fiair as it. And plausible faLsehoods are often as well 
received as real truths, tUI both have been subjected to an exact 
and severe examination; but the opposition of argument over-» 
turns the former, and renders the certainty of the latter more 
undeniable. No species of truth has been subjected to a stricter 
scrutiny, or tried by ruder opposition, than the evidences of our 
holy religion. As soon as this heavenly gem was presented to the 
world, both Jews and Heathens fell upon it with so great violence 
that, if it had had the smallest flaw, it must have been 
shattered into pieces. It has been in the possession of the 
world for many centuries ; and numberless attempts have been 
successively made, to prove that it is a worthless counterfeit { 
but all these attempts ha/ve only contributed to evince with stronger 
evidence, that it is genuine/ 

It 4s tibe truth of this assertion which our author undm*takes 
talmly to examine, and by solid arguments to illustrate and 
establish. And what stronger proof could he have afforded of the 
truth and divinii^ of Christismity than this,— that the more various 
tiie lights in which it is viewed, the more narrowly it is inspected^ 
the more violently it is assailed, the more scrutinizingly it is sifted 
tdown to l^e very foundations, by subtile and relentless foes, the 
more firmly is it found to be planted on a Bock, and the more 
^oriously does it shine forth in the effulgence of demonstrated 
heavenly verity ? Still, for the Bible, with its high claims of In- 
spiration by drod, there is no rest ; and for it tiiere can be no 
^rest or peace, till, instrumentally through its influence, sin is ban- 
ished from the habitations and hearts of men. Accordingly, in 
our day, besides a mushroom crop of old exploded obj^tions; 
decked out in hariequin and pantomimic attire for the million, 
the real or supposed revelations of Physical and Metaphysical 

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SOklPTUBE AND 8CIENCS NOT AT TARIANCB^ kC 187 

«cience have been marshalled in hostile array against the Inspired 
word of Ood. Bnt already have the anti^hristian Rationalisms 
and Pantheisms of Germany met with merited rebuke and valid 
confutation from some of Germany's ablest sons ; while the anti- 
Biblical misapplications of Physical Science, in France, Great 
Britain, and America, have been as deservedly rebuked and mer-> 
cilessly exposed by men of learning and science, who glory in 
proclaiming their unwavering faith in the Oracles of God." 

Scientific objections, formerly limited to the learned few, hav* 
of late been reduced into simple and compendious forms adapted 
to tiie tastes and capacities of the unlearned many, and hurled 
promiscuously into the multitudinous streams and streamlets of 
our popular literature. The results of recondite research, strip- 
ped of the cumbrous and prolix processes, by which they may- 
have been reached, and which would be unintelligible to the mul- 
titude, are thus everywhere propagated, as if they were so 
many aphorisms or axioms of indisputable authority. And as 
English Education, apart from Revealed Religion, spreads in 
Ii»ua> popular English Literature, tainted and polluted with the 
leaven of an insidious infidelity, is sure to gain increasing cur- 
rency in educated native circles, and acquire, if not arrested, 
in time a preponderant ascendancy in their minds. 

It was, therefore, a seasonable thought on the part of Arch- 
deacon Pratt — a gentleman, well known to be thoroughly at 
home in the very highest walks of science generally, and espe- 
cially demonstrative science — ^to take up the poptdanzed scien- 
tific objections of the day against the Divine authority of Scrip- 
ture, and answer them in forms, at once brief and level with the 
popular understanding. Nor has the thought been more seasona- 
Uy conceived tibian felicitously executed. That such is the 
judgment of the reading public in England is clear from the 
fewjt that, within a short period of time, it has gone through^/Jwr 
editions. The fourth edition, brought out within the last few 
pionths, is now before us, considerablv enlarged and improved. 
Its contents are designedly of a miscellaneous character. It was 
not int^ded to be an original or exhaustive treatise on any one 
isubject. It is purposely of the nature of a portable Manual 
of popular objections and answers on the subject of Scripture and 
iScience. But, let it not be supposed, that, on this account, it is 
either flimsy or superficial in its texture or reasonings. On the 
contrary, it is the product of a mind profoundly conversant 
with the subjects treated of— a^ mind, therefore, capable of brush- 
ing aside all crudities, accessaries imd irrelevances,— capable of 
seizing, at once, on the very pith and heart of each objection in 
tuoeessioB, and of exposing its holiowness and deformity by 



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188 JSCBTPTUEB AND SCDBNCS HOT AT VAEIANCS^ &d. 

the touch of the Ithunel spear of trath. It is impossible^ oai6«- 
fully and candidly to peruse the volume^ without feelmg, at 
every step, that the reader is in the hands of a master. The 
very simjdicity and transluoency of its unadorned diction will 
be found only an additional proof of the writer's thorough com* 
prehension of his subject, and of the perfect ease with which ha 
can successfully grapple with it. 

We think it due to the Author that he himself should b» 
allowed be explain the object and plan of his treatise. This he 
does in an introduction which we here give entire :-^ 

' The assertion, not unfrequenily made, that the disooveries of Scienoe arr 
opposed to the dedarations of Holy ScnDture is as mischieyous as it is false* 
because it tends botii to call in question tne Inspiration of the Sacred Yolome 
and to throw discredit upon scientific pursuits. 

Many, however, who are predisposed to re«eot such a conolusion« firom * 
general conviction that Scripture is the Word of God, are nevertheless at a 
loss for arauments to repel the charge. It is the object of the following 
pages to tumish such persons with a reply, in a concise and portable form; 
The Treatise, therefore, is intentionally onlv a summary of arguments^ 
To expand it, except bv the addition of new illustrations, would diefeat my 
design. A larger work would not find access where I hope this wilL 

There are others also whose case it is here designed to meet^-those who 
receive the Christian Revelation, but, under ^e influence of supposed diffir 
oulties brought to light by scientific discovery, are tempted to abandon the 
Earlier Portion of l£e Sacred Volume as not inspired. It is possible that 
thd unbeliever may find something in these pages to soften his prejudices r 
but his case is not here specudly contemplated. 

My Treatise is, therefore, of the defensive kind. It is intended to show 
how difficulties are to be met and oljections removed. Some hesitate as to tha 
expediency of putting such books indiscriminately into the hands of the 
young, thinking them calculated to engender doubts where they never exist- 
ed, and to create the very scepticism which they were intended to rebut,. 
There is some weight in this ; and, no doubt, were the mind never likely in 
after life to encounter the fiEdse views of sceptics, it might be iax better ta 
leave it untainted. If the young could always be fmoed around by truths 
till its principles became so thoroughly infused into their minds and hearts 
as to make error innocuous when they go out into the wide world, to leave 
them ignorant of the different forms or doubt and unbelief till circumstances 
force tbem upon their notice, might be the better course. But it is next ta 
impossible to protect them, even when under the wisest guidance, from be- 
coming ac<|uaint6d with, if not imbibing some of the misoiief^ which a re- 
fined scepticism — especiidly r^arding the historical character and fhll inspi- 
ration of the Holy Scripture — is spreading far and wide through the press 
and other channels, if the hesitation regarding the propriety of teacning 
these things to the young arise £rom a dblike to see old Kna pr%mA fade in- 
teipretations upset, such a course is most dangerous. By maintaining falsa 
ana exploded interpretations as true, we are sowing in the minds of the 
young seeds of a ftiture revulsion which is likely to iigure them fiur more 
than the introduction of the new views at an earher sti^ could possibly do. 
There can be no question that the safest course is conscientiously to teach the 
young the whole truth without reserve, not shrinking from stating in a phda 

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SOWPTUEl AND SCIENCB NOT AT VARIANCE, ftc. 189 

and open macnner the yarioos objections and difficulties they will hear broaoh- 
ed, expliuning to them at the same time in what spirit and by what kind of 
anient they should be met. 

The fiust is, that sceptics and semi-sceptics are, unwittingly or not, under- 
mining the faith of many in Scripture by subtle ar^mento drawn fix>m the 
i4>parent contradictions between Scripture and Science. Against this it is 
neoeesary to provide an antidote : and the better fortified our youth are in 
their earlier days, the better prepared will they be to contend for the truth in 
after life. It is not the Christian, but the worldly philosopher who has raised 
these questions. But having raised them, he forces the advocates of Scrip- 
tural truth to enter upon the contest, and to meet him on his own ^ound, 
Chat they may i>ut a weapon of defence in the hands of those whose uuth is 
in dan^r of being shaken. 

Li the First Cluipter I bring the experience of the past to bear upon the 
sulgect, by showing how many examples history supplies in which from 
time to time Scripture and Science have appea^^ to be in irreconcilable 
eonfliot, but further light has cleared up all difficulty. From this I amie, 
ttAt it is in the highest degree unphihsophical, whenever new difficuHies 
arise in these days of discovery, to doubt that these also will be cleared up 
as light and knowledge advance. The experience of the past should encourac^ 
ms fearlessly to carry our investigations into the phenomena of nature, fully 
p t igu aded that no real discrepancy can ever be in the end established. Th^ 
above may be resarded as a negative argument. 

In the Second Chapter I enter upon an examination of the character 
and contents of the earlier portion of the Book of Genesis ; as it is in this 
part of the Sacred Volume that the seeds of strife between Scripture and 
Science are supposed chiefly to lie. By what I cannot but regard as an 
unanswerable proof of the historical character and plenary inspiration of 
these Earl^ Cnapters, andW a reference to their important bearing in 
various eminent particulars, 1 establish a positive argument, and show that 
it is impossible that Scriptture, proceeding as it does &om Divine Inspiration, 
and manifesting such superhuman wisdom and foreknowled^, can, when 
rightiv interpreted, be at vari^ice with the Works of the Divine Hand ; and 
tluit uierefore, if difficulties remain at any time ilbt cleared up, they must 
arise from our ignorance, or from hastr interpretation either of the pheno- 
mena before us or cHT the lanj^ua^ of the Sacred Record. 

The results of this investigation are then summed up, and the conclusion 
drawn, — ^that no new discoveries, however startiing tiiey may appear at 
first, need disturb our belief in the Plenary Inspiration of the Sacred Volume < 
or damp our ardour in the pursuit of Science. 

Itwul be seen from the above sketch, that it is not necessary for the. 
validity of my argument that every instance of apparent discrepancy^ between 
Seripture and Science shall have met with an explanation. It reouires only, 
that so many instances of the suooessfhl removal of difficulties, which at one- 
time appeared to be insurmountable, should be adduced, as to assure the 
mind under new perplexities, that there is every reason to believe that in 
time these also will vanish. The primary object of the Treatise is, not to 
solve present difficulties, but to create confidence in the mind, while in 
perplexity r^arding them, that all will in the end be right, and that the 
narmony of scriptm^ and Science cannot reallv be broken, though it may 
for a time seem to be disturbed. In point of fact, however, I know of no 
alleged or apparent discrepancy between Scripture and Science which cannot 
be met by a decisive or at least satisfactory answer. The chief examples 
I have brought together in the following pages, and made them the ground- 
work of my argument. Had I known of any existing unanswered difficulty, ^ 

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190 9C1IPTUEB AND SCIEHCB NOT AT FAIUANOB^ bc» 

I should now have hroughi it forward as an illnatraiion of the use of mj 
principle. Had, for example, the astounding announcement of M. Bunseo 
and Mr. Leonard Homer, that the age of the numan race is many thousand* 
of years older than the Scripture narrative makes it, not yet met with a 
reply, I should have produced it, — ^not, as in the present edition, doing 
homage to my argument, hut as an exampie of the principle I have set fortb^ 
that we should wait, fortified hy the experience of the past, and hy an 
immovahle helief in the inspiration of Holy Scripture, and feel assured that 
time would turn ohjections into proofs, and discrepancy into harmony." 

Such, then, is the Author's object and plan — ^an object truly 
noble in its aim, and a plan skilfolly executed. In vindicating the 
harmony between Science and Scripture by an appeal to the 
history of the past, the examples, adduced for illustration, are 
thus classified : — 

L ' Examples, from the Earlier History of Scientific discovery, in which 
Scripture has oeen relieved of fidse interpretations, imd the harmony of Scrip* 
ture and Science thereby re-established. 

The Firmament— Antipodes— The Earth a Globe— The Motion of the Earth* 

2. Examples, from the later History of Science in which Scripture has 
not only been relieved of fidse interpretations, but has had new light reflected 
upon it from the discoveries of Science. 

. The Antiquity of the Earth — Creatures in existence before the Six Days — 
Existence of li^t before the Six Days — Death in the World before Adam'a 
Fall — Specific Centres of Creation — ^No known traces of the Deluge — ^Tho 
Deluge probably not over the whole earth* 

3. Examples, in which Science has been delivered from the conclusions of 
some of its votaries, and thereby shown to be in entire agreement with Scrip* 
ture. 

AU men of one blood — ^Differences of nations since the Flood — ^Mankind 
originally of one language — ^Age of the human race according to Hindoo 
As&onomy — ^to Egyptian Antiquities — and to Nile-deposits — Tne six daya*^ 
qreation not confined to Para(£se^~The origin of species.' 

Having concluded his negative argument by demonstrating 
the invalidity of objections the Author next proceeds positively 
to exhibit ^ the Aistarical character, plenary Inspiration, and 
iurpasHng importance cf the first eleven chapters of Genesis* 

After having delated, in his usual lucid strain, on the various 
topics included under these heads, he winds up by asking, — 

' What, then, are the results arrived at in the foregoing pages P Thej^ 
XfiBj be summed up under the foUovring heads : — 

. 1. That, through ignorance and hastv zeal. Holy Scripture has undergonft 
man}r severe tests during the progress of Science, and has come through the 
trial in every case with triumph. The experience of the past has worked out 
this result, that through the whole course of philosophical discovery, Scrip- 
ture and Science have never been found at variance, though they have often 
been charged with being so. 

, 2. That Scripture speaks in human language, and according to ita usa^ ^ 
l)iit in no case adopts the errors and prejucuces of men, even in thmgs 
natural It speaks to us on such matters according to the appearances of 
things* that b, as tlnngs asb 8BBN, whidi is a way intelligible m all ages of 
t^e world. It speaks as man would speak to man ia eisery-5Uy life, aveni 

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SCBIPTUUB AND SCIENCE NOT AT VAEIANCE, &C. 191 

tin. sucb topics, snd in times of th« greatest scientific light It speaks not 
scientificaUy, and therefore does not adopt scientific terms, or give scientific 
riews of things : hut there is, nevertheless, no sacrifice even of scientific 
truth to human ignorance and prejudice. 

3. That this harmony hetween Scripture and Science appears, not only 
from the ahundant illustration it receives &om the history of ]^ast conflicU 
through which the Sacred Volume has passed intact, hut pre-eminently from 
the character of Scripture itself as the Inspired Word of God, and, therefore, 
infallihle in every respect. 

4. That the Earlier Chapters of the Sacred Volume, in which the seeds 
of variance have heen supposed to lie, are of inestimahle value to us ; and 
the fact of their Inspiration must not he set aside on the pretence that 
Christianity would remain the same if they were hlottedout; for they form 
a most importaut portion of the Divine Revelation, and convey inspired truths 
of the highest moment.' 

The grand conclusion, drawn from the whole, even in these 
days of advancing knowledge, is this, ' Hat no new diseoverie^, 
however startling, need disturb our belief in the plenary Inspiration 
of Scripture^ or damp our zeal in the pursuit of Science,* 

Our main subject being to introduce the work to the favoura* 
ble notice of our readers, we have neither space nor scope for 
any lengthened critical remarks. With the tone and spirit 
which pervade it throughout we cordially sympi^thise. It is 
genial and kindly, without being slobbered with the mawldshness 
of a simpering sentimentalism. It is courteous and gentlemanly 
even towards unscrupulous antagonists, while yet unweakened by 
the compromises of a spurious liberality. It is fearless and 
inflexible in its maintenance of the sacredness and authority, 
the plenary inspiration and infallibility of Jehovah's Holy Oracles, 
without stooping to the hackneyed phraseology of acrimonious 
controversy, or degenerating into the fierce and fiery invectives 
of resentful partizanship. With his mode of conducting the 
argumentative parts of the discussion we are equally pleased* 
It is characterized by fiEiimess, candour and straight-forwardness. 
It shirks nothing; it evades no attack; it glosses over no 
difficulty. And yet in every instance, the objection, presented 
in its Mlest force, is either effectually parried or triumphantly 
xeAited. I 

The only case in which we might slightly demur, is our 
Author's treatment of the Mosaic Deluge. Of late. Dr. Pye 
Smith, Hugh Miller and other men of undoubted science and 
piety, have cut the tangled and intricate knot of manifold diffi- 
culties, by adopting the theory of a Partial Deluge ; and our 
Author appears not disinclined to the adoption of the same 
view — ^takmg special care^ at tihe same time, to shew that 
it meets all the absolute requirements of tiiie Mosaic Record. 
We confess, however, that we are not yet quite prepared to 

Mabch, 1861. BB 

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192 SCIUPTCBE ANB 801SNCE NOT AT VAEIILKCS, SdO. 

abandon th6 universality of tii€ Deluge, according to thenroel 
obvious interpretation of scripture language. Geologically con- 
sidered^ the gradual submergence and subsequent emergence of 
whole continents is not incompatible with the past hi^ry of 
our globe and its stupendous cataclysms, as recorded in the testis 
mony of the Rocks. And to the Arm of Omnipotence the greater 
miracle is as easy of accomplishment as the less. Doubtless to 
the poor bewildered vision of Human Science, yet wrapped in 
its swaddling bands, formidable difficulties do present tiiemselves. 
But even these adinit of a possible if not probable solution. 
And if they did not, we would rather insist on the yet unsettled 
and immature state of the Natural Sciences chiefly concerned^ 
and wait till their inductions and generalizations approximated to 
something like certainty. Geological theories, m particular, 
have hitherto too much' resembled Bishop Berkeley's ghosts of 
levanescent quantities; they seem as if framed for startling 
people in the dark, and then disappearing like 'the baseless 
fabric of a vision.' In our own day, the celebrated author of 
the ' Seliquia Diluviana' lived to renounce his former views 
on the subject of his great work, and to recall it. The fiunous 
theory of Sir Chariee Lyell, and other eminent geologists, which 
gave the designations of Eocene, Meiocene, and Pleiocene to 
the several divisions of the upper Tertiary period, has, by recent 
more accurate observation and discovery, been shaken to its base. 
While, therefore, unhesitatingly recognising the leading facts 
presented by geological science, we cannot accept many of the 
doctrines founded thereon by geologists as demonstrated irtUhs. 
They are as yet, to a great extent, only plausible inferences, or mere- 
ly probable deductions, often based on, or interlinked with, in- 
genious assumptions, rather than ascertained or actuaUy verified 
conclueions. And amid such scientific uncertainties, we deem it, 
on the whole, more philosophic to wait for further Kght, ere we 
finally relinquish our old belief in th6 universahty of the Mosaic 
Deluge. 

In some other instances, not only has the objection been 
shewn by our author, to be utterly g^undless, but it has been 
rendered tributary to confirming the literal truth of Scripture. 

For example, how often has the Mosaic account of the con^ 
ftision of tongues been made the subject of profime ridicule? 
How often has the variety of languages been alleged to be so 
great, and their differences of character so wide, that it is in- 
conceivable that mankind should ever have been of ''one lan- 
guage and of one speech?* Now what has been tiie result of the 
most searching philological inquiries on the subject? * Baron von 
Humbolt/ says our author, 'the Academy of St Petersburgh, 

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SCRIFTUKE AND 8CIKNCE NOT AT VAEIANC£, &C. 193 

M^on^ Klaproth^ aond Fredaric Schlegel> have all come to 
one condusion^ b^ a comparisou of languages^ that the further 
philological inquiry has been carried, the more numerous are 
the indications that all language$ must have been originally one! 
^or is this all. ' While the numerous languages which have 
been examined, and which w^e at one time tiiought to have 
almost nothing in common, are found to be closely allied to 
each other in grammatical oonstruction, when belonging to the 
pame family, at the same time philologists have decided, that the 
families have such differenoes as no pnnciple of ordinary growth 
pr expansion from a common origin can account for/ Accord- 
ingly, Herder, Sharon Turner, Abel-Bemusat, Niebuhr, Balbi, and 
other Linguists have come to the conclusion, that ^ there are 
evident intern^ proofi that the separation into different tongues 
must have been by 9ome violent and 9udden cause, — and that ' no- 
thing but a violent chan^, caused by some force from without, 
can have created the distmct differences which now exists if these 
families are the broken fragments of a once undivided whole/ In 
other words, in the deliberate judgment of the most renowned 
philologists, the actual existing phenomena of langu^e demand 
the intervention of some such violent change as that of the 
Babel catastrophe, in order adequately to account for them ! 
^ow singularly then, do ' all the results of investigation which can 
be considered of scientific value tend to support, and illustrate 
the scriptural account of the miraculous confrision of languages 
which led to the dispersion of the descendants of Noah upon 
the face of the earth !' 

This leads us to remark, what we have often thought, 
that the preternatural occurrenqe at Babel is not only sufficient 
to account for tAe diversity of langiujtge but also, for the diversity 
qf race. 

Anatomically, physiologically, intellectually and morally, 
the race of man has often been proved by Prichard, Smythe 
and others to be but one. And our author has, with his 
wonted condensing power, furnished a brief but clear summary 
c^ the facts and arguments which go to prove the consistenc v 
of all existing varieties with original unity of race. Still, 
granting the physical possibilify of all men being from one 
original stock, and making all due allowance for the potency 
pf climatic and other influences, in modifying the human con- 
stitution, it has been questioned, whether, according to Scripture 
chronology, there was a sufficient time for bringing about the 
radical chmges which are known, from the old Egyptian monu- 
ments and paintings, to have existed at least within a thousand 
years of the Deluge. The ordioary considerations adduced by our 



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194 SCRIPTURE AND SCIENCE KOT AT VARUKCE^ &C« 

author are enough to blunt the edge, if not wholly remove the 
diflSculty. To these he has also added one, which is too often for- 
gotten, viz., ' that it is a mistake to assume, that the population 
of the earth began again &om s^ new sinffle centre alter ihe Deluge. 
Eight persons repeopled ike earths There is no evidence t&ilr 
Shem, Ham and Japhet had not in tibem elements differ-* 
ing as wide as the Asiatic, the African, and the European 
differ from each other. They may have married too into dif- 
ferent (antediluvian) tribes, and their wives have been sa$ 
diversified as themselves. It is, then, altogether gratuitous to 
assert, that the races, which now exist, must be traced down 
from one man Noah, as from anew starting point. This* at 
once carries our range of time, 1,700 years fiirther back, to the 
da3rB of Adam, for the operation of tiiie caches of change; and 
the objection is entirely removed.' • 

If, however, tiie a^regate of these considerations and sug-» 
gestions do not satisfy ti^e determined doubter; if anything 
be thought by some to be still wanting to complete the chain of 
counter-evidence ; may it not be found, fisrirly and legitimately, 
in the direct and preternatural exertion of Divine Power at 
Babel? One avowed object of the congregated host of rebels 
was to defeat the divine purpose of dispersion over the &ce of 
the earth. One grand object of the confusion of tongues was 
to effectuate and expedite that dispersion. And as the Almighty 
never does anything by halves, are we not warranted to infer, 
that, besides the mmiediate change in the organs of speech, 
there were then miraculously impressed on the human frame 
such other constitutional peculiarities as might rapidly issue in 
those diversities of complexion and structure which constitute 
the different varieties of race, and which were indispensable to 
adapt these varieties to the several zoological provinces respec- 
tively occupied by them? This additional consideration we 
would, though with all diffidence, recommend to the attention 
of our excellent author, in the event of ^ new edition of his 
admirable treatise being soon called for* 

On the compatibility of the vast and unknown antiquity of 
the globe, as unfolded by geological science, with the recency 
of the Adamic creation as recorded by Moses, our author's 
remarks are just and conclusive. In common with all enlight- 
ened expositors of our day, he regards the first verse of Genesis 
as a distinct and independent sentence, in which we have a sub- 
lime announcement of the first fiat of the Creator in calling 
matter into existence; and a solemn protest, by anticipation, 
against the Ath^tic doctrine of th^ eternity of matter, as well 
as against tiie Pantheistic doctrine of deduction or emiuiatiou 

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lk3RIFnj]UI AND 8CIENCB NOT AT VARIANCE^ &C. l95 

from the substance of Deity. This primary and absolute ori- 
gination of the material universe^ is^ by the Inspired Seer^ 
declared to have been 'in the beginning;' but wAm that 
'beginning' was^ is not told. For aught that the record 
contains it may have been nimiberless ages anterior 
to the detailed operations^ subsequently described^ — ^thus leaving 
a period of indefinite length for endless geological revolutions 
and catastrophes between the original act of creation and the 
last organization of the elements for the abode of man. This 
happy reconcilement of the demands of geological science with 
a fair interpretation of the Mosaic narrative^ was^ in our day^ 
first suggested by Dr. Chalmers, in a Review of Cuvier^s Theory 
of the Earthy which was contributed to the Edinburgh Chris- 
tian Instructor as far back as 1814. On his part, this view of 
the opening verse of Genesis, now all but universally adopted, 
was the intuition of a profound sagacity* 

The view, however, though original, as respects Dr. Chalmers 
himself, and the world at large when he first propounded it, is 
not, in reality, new. In meeting the cavils of objectors, who 
are ever apt to allege, that new interpretations are forced upon 
us merely to save the credit of the Inspired Volume, it is in- 
teresting, and, indeed, extremely important to observe, as a 
well known Lecturer has well remarked, how 'the early Fa- 
thers of the Christian Church should seem to have entertained 
precisely similar views; for St. Gregory Nazianzen, after St. 
Justin Martyr, supposes an indefinite period between the creation 
and the first ordering of all things. St. Basil, St. Coesarius, 
and Origen are much more explicit.' To these might be added 
Augustine, Theodoret, Episcopius, and others, whose remarks 
imply the existence of a considerable interval 'between the 
the creation related in the first verse of Genesis, and that of 
which an account is given in the third and following verses.* 
In modem times, but long before geology became a Science, 
the independent character of the opening sentence of Genesis 
was affirmed by such judicious and learned men as Calvin^ 
Bishop Patrick, and Dr. David Jennings. 

Might not important facts like these, in a new edition of our 
author's work, be advantageously noticed, either in the text 
itself, or in a foot note? 

On the most vexed question of all, that of the six demi- 
urgic days, our author's trumpet gives no uncertain sound. 
Most of our Scientific Bible Reconcilers have considered these 
days as geologic periods of unknown length. Not so our Author. 
Against this view he stoutiy contends. In his judgment — a 
judgment in which we cordially concur — ^the first chapter of 

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}90 SCSIPTUEB AND 6CIBN0E NOT AT VABIANOB> &C. 

Genesis^ does not pretend (as has been generally assumed) to 
be a cosmogony^ or an aeoount of the original creation of the Ma« 
tenal Universe. The only cosmogony which it contains^ in that . 
sense at least, is confined to the sublime dechuration in the first 
verse. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 
The Inspired Record, then stepping ovar an interval of inde- 
finite ages, with which we have no <Urect concern, proceeds at 
once to narrate the events preparatory to the introduction of 
man on the scene, employing phraseology strictly faithful to 
the appearances which would have met the eye of man, could 
he have been a spectator on the earth of what passed during 
those six days/ 

According to this view of the subject, the six days are six 
ordinary natural days, measured, like any other natural days, 
by the revolution of the earth on its axis. The gi:and objection 
to this literal interpretaf^ion of the ' days ^ was the supposed 
geological discovery of ' multitudes of pre- Adamite fossils in 
the Upper or Tertiary Strata, which are precisely the same as 
species now in existence.' At length, however, the late M» 
D'Orbigny, after an elaborate examination of prodigious num* 
bers of fossils, 'has demonstrated that there have been a^ 
lead twenty-nine distinct periods of animal and vegetable 
existence, that is, twenty-nine creations separated one from 
another by catastrophes, which have swept away the species 
existing at the time, with a very few solitary exceptions, 
never exceeding one and a half per cent, of the whole number 
discovered, which have either survived the catastrophe, or have 
been erroneously designated. But not a single species of the 
preceding period 8v>rvived the last of these catastrophes i and this 
closed the Tertiary and ushered in the Human Period' In 
other words, ' between tiie termination of the last or Tertiary 
Period and the commencement of the Human or Recent Period, 
there is a complete break. Although five in every seven 
genera are the same in the recent as in the previous period- 
there ianot a single species common to the two periods. Thus the 
difficulty wholly evanishes\ 

What an additional proof is this of the assertion already made, 
that Geology is still but in its infancy ; and that many of it» 
vaunted conclusions are no more than unverified hypotheses? We 
confess we never liked the Period-day theory and could never 
see our way to an intelligent adhesion to it. Before adopt- 
ing it as a final and satisfactory solution of the difficulty, 
we preferred to pause and wait for further light. That light 
has now happily dawned, or rather shone upon us, through 
the decisive demonstrations of M. D'Orbignyj and we are 



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SCRIPTURE AND SCIBNC3E NOT AT VARIANCE, &Cr 197 

ilow enabled to plead the latest and most accurate results of 
Scientific investigfation in favour of the six days, as six na- 
tural days, of the creative and formative work of which, the 
seventh, or sabbath is the rightly fitting periodical commemora- 
tion. 

Tn connection with this subject our author has been led to 
notice and expose some of the ' hazardous assertions' so ground* 
lessly made by two of the writers in the new, strangely and un- 
worthily celebrated volume of ' Oxford Essays and Reviews ;' 
as well as their unfairness or disingenuousness, if not down-right 
dishonesty towards himself. By actual quotations he has shewn 
that the late Professor Baden Powell, in his unhappy zeal 
against the authority of Divine Revelation, has made Aim my 
the very reverse of what he did say, — and that Mr. Goodwin 
also has inexcusably mistaken and misrepresented some of his 
most clearly enunciated views. Of the volume, containing these 
mistakes and mis-statements with a thousand others still more 
pernicious, the less said the better; in itself it is not assuredly 
any thing very formidable. Quite the contrary. It is in sober 
and sad reality, one of the poorest, dreariest, driest, dullest, 
most incoherent and inconsequential products of the mint of 
modern infidelity. From beginning to end we have not been 
able to detect in it a single sentiment, statement, train of argu- 
ment, inference, conjecture, or even gratuitous averment that has 
the remotest title or pretention to originality. It is neither more 
nor less than an unskilfully hashed-np and imperfectly re^heated 
medley of the stale and (^--refuted sophisms and perversions of the 
English Deists, French Encyclopedists, and German Neologians; 

We are glad to find the author, in a valuable ^ Postscript^ 
added to this edition, dealing out some heavy and even smash- 
ing blows at the late Baron Bunsen and other Egyptologers 
of his rationalizing school; — ^men, who, with fatuous inconsis- 
tency, evermore evince the most senseless scepticism relative to 
the credit and authority of the Mosaic History — ^beyond all mea- 
sure the most multifariously authenticated record of all Anti- 
quity — ^while they evince an equally senseless credulity relative to 
some obscure, mutilated, contradictory fragments of the heathen 
Manetho, and some slender hieroglyphic skeletons of names 
'half-guessed at and half decyphered by a doubtfol means of 
interpretation.' 

There are other subjects on which we would fain make some 
remarks — ^more especially the latest spawn of a thinly disguised 
Infidelity, Darwin^s Origin of Species, with its 'struggle for 
existence ' hypothesis and its ' Natural Selection ' surmise, on 
which our author has favoured us with some very judicious 

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198 SCEIPrURE ATO) SCIENCE NOT AT VAEIANCB^ &C» 

comments. But our space is fairly exhausted and we must 
pause. If any fiirther evidence were wanted to prove the divi* 
nity of the Mosaic account of the creation^ it might be found in 
the contrast which it presents to aU the cosmogonies of heathen 
nations^ unfavoured by the light of Inspiration. Let any inteU 
Hgent reader open the Institutes of Manu or the Vishnu Puran, 
and compare, rather contrast the cosmogonies so minutely and 
elaborately wrought out there in defiance of science and common 
sense, with the simple, compendious and sublime narrative of 
Moses, and we venture to affirm that, after a careful and can* 
did perusal, he will be more than ever disposed, with reference 
to the latter, to exclaim, ' Verily the finger of God is here.' 

With our author we now part, under a confirmed persuasion 
that in his work on ' Scripture and Science not at variance ' he 
has rendered good service to the cause of Biblical truth. To all 
Christian heads of families, to all Christian managers and 
teachers of schools, we, therefore, earnestly recommend his most 
interesting and precious volume. Some of the objections there- 
in exposed they may never hear of as actually urg«i ; and others 
may be regarded as too contemptible to merit a serious hearing. 
But let it be remembered that the volume of Archdeacon Pratt 
is purposely of the nature of a miscellany — ^representing the 
thoughts, the whimsies, the speculative conjectures, and the 
crude unverified hypotheses of different and even antagonistic 
schools of infidelity. Such a volume, therefore, ought to be kept 
in every private and public Library, as an armoury of weapons 
wherewith to repel the onslaught of old objections, and a maga- 
zine of examples illustrative of the most successAil modes of 
resisting the aggression of new ones. 



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THE 

CALCUTTA REVIEW. 



JUNE 186L 



AttT. I. — 1. Selections from the Records of Government Papers 
relating to the Reforms of the Police of India, 1861. 

2. Act No. 6, of 1861. Passed by the Legislative Coancil 
of India. 

8. R^rt upon British Burmak. By R. Temple, Esq., and 
Lieut..Col. H. Bruoe, 1860. 

THAT the question of Police Reform has of late eiigaged so 
largely the attention and occupied to such an extent the 
thoughts of our legislators, is not to be wondered at, when we 
consider the great importance of the subject, and the vast in- 
fluence that a right solution of the question must exercise, not 
only upon the present, but also on the future condition of our 
Indian Empire. One of the great results of the storm which 
recently swept over India, and of the transfer of the reins of 
Government from the 'Company' to the Crown, has been the 
recognition, to a certain extent, of the power of public opinion, 
and the gradually strengthening belief, that the voice of the 
people has a right, to be heard, and that those who pay taxes 
. should have a share, however small, in giving laws to the empire. 
With what contempt such an idea would have be^i receiv- 
ed only a few years back, by the Civilian governing class in 
India, we need not pause to point out. Certain it is, that the men, 
who in former days were contemptuously looked down upon as 
* interlopers,' and who were only tolerated in the company's terri- 
tories a^ loAg as they were not disagreeably troublesome, are now 

B 

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too POLICB KEFORU IN INDIA. 

beginning to feel their strength and to make themselvee heard. 
And in proportion as their right to do so is conceded, and 
their position is recognised, will India become attractive to 
European Settlers, and will draw to her ample bosom a band 
of colonists, who, in their efforts to enrich themselv^, will con- 
fer a tenfold benefit upon the land 4>f their adoption. Already 
from the homes of civilization, and the great marts of com- 
merce in the &t West, the TCStless Angh>-Saxon is looking 
out across the Eastern seas to the plain of Hindostan, for a 
field wherein to expend his inexhaustible energy and lus un- 
employed capital. But if we are willing that he should not look 
in vain, if we desire to allure to our shores men with weidth to 
invest and enterprise to direct its investment, as well as some of 
their poorer, though equally hard-working brethren, we must take 
care that the country to which we invite them, is one where their 
lives will be safe from attack, and their property fiM>m plunder; 
where, away from the centres of civilization, on the slopes of the 
distant hills, or on the plains and in the iungles of the rural dis- 
* tricts, to which doubtless many would direct their steps, they can 
live secure from the alarm of robbers and the murmurs of rebel- 
lion, to give their undivided attention to the development of the 
resources, and improvement of the cultivation of their estates. 
Such a state of tranquillity can only be secured by good laws, 
given by a wise Government, and enforced and upheld by 
a well organized and trustworthy machinery. That a good 
^police forms a most important part of such a machinery no one 
will deny, and thus we arrive a^n at the point from which 
we started, that the subject of Pohce Refcmn is of the highest im- 
portance to the friture of this magnificent empire. We propose 
in the following pages to give a very brief history of the steps 
which have led to the present prominence of tiiis question 
before Goyemment, of the progress that has been made and is 
making, and the results that have already been achieved. 

The reform of our police administration had long been before 
successive Governments of India. All united in oond^nning 
the existing systems, but for a long period no serious effort 
appears to lukve been made to improve them. At last however 
• Sir Charles Napier, after his con^fuest of Scinde, boldly set 
aside the forbodings of those, who, clinging to ancient traditions, 
prophesied the failure of any deviation from the time-honour- 
ed grooves of past ages and applying to ihe newly acquired 
province the principles of police he Imd learned and tested in 
England, he gave to Scinde the first good police we ever had 
•in India« The sucoesa which has at^ded its working, and 

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ihe &ct ihmt to* tbe present daj H leinaiiifl in all; mliteriar piin> 
eipks of oompodtion, organiasation and action, the same as when 
it came frouk the hand or the great Sdnde Administrator, proves 
how well' be was justified in his determination and how entirely 
he appreciated tiie wauts and reqpiirements o£ the people he 
governed^ 

The next reform was madie in Bombay. In^ 1848* we fin<f 
the Honorable Mr., afterwards Sir Gtobrge, Clerk recording his 
^jonion that ' the police thronghont the presidency is (m a foot« 
ing, in several respects, most nnsatis&ctory.' This, to say the 
least of it, i» a very mild exposition of the extremely useless 
andinefficient state of the Bombay police as tiien existing ; but a 
leference tahis minute on the subject^, and a consideration of the 
fiu^tshe adduces in support of his views, wiU show the reader tha« 
nothing could peesiMy have been wotse; that in 10 Zillahs 
npwards of 7000 cases of gang and highrway robbery, burglary^ 
and cattle-stealing occurred in one year, thirty of which wece 
attended with murder, and that the influeiice of the police 
ttther in the prevention or detection of crime was next to 
nothing. . . 

The remedy he proposed, and wlucb> after some timie, was* sanc- 
tioned by the C^>inrt of Directors, and adopted^ was to follow 
lo a certain extent the great principle of the separation of 
police from magisterial fonetions, which Sir G. Napier had 
first initiated .in Scinde, and to place the police of each Zillah 
nnder a separate officer, who was to be subordinate to the 
magistrate, and Under him to devote his whole attention to its 
•ontrd and w(Nrking. Subsequently, we think in 1855, a Com- 
missioner of Police JEit the seat of Oovemment was authorised, 
#ho exercised control not only over the police officers al>ove 
referred to, but also over the magistrates themselves, in all 
laatters relating to police administration and action. 
. . Soon after these changes had been carried out in Bombay, 
$ak inquiry, the &me of which has spread over Europe, was 
set on foot in Madras^ and in 1855, the report of the celebra* 
ted ' Torture Commission ' reduced to a certainty the long en* 
tertained fears and sospicioiis of all thinking Europeans in 
India, while it filled with dismay the hearts of those mild phil- 
anthropists at home^ who believed we Were faithfully fulfilling 
our mission amongst the heathen, and putting forth by the 
beneficence of onr rule in the east, the best possible adver- 
tisement of the benefits of civilization and the blessings of 
Christianity. One of the witnesses examined before this Commis- 
sion gives it as his carefully formed opinion of the Mofussil 
police^ that ' it has become the baoe and the pest of societyj the 

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202 PoucB ftipon nc ihbii. 

' terror of the oommunity, and the origin of bdf the muerjr 
' and discontent that existe among the soibjects of Gbvemmeni. 
' Corruption and bribery reign paranKHuit throi^bont the whole 
'establishment: violence, t^ore and cmeky are their duef 
'instruments for detecting crime, knplicatu^ imocence, or 
'extorting money/ — ^And this opinion the Commission deliberate- 
ly adoptM and pat forth, as the ennnciatioQ of their own senti- 
ments. After this terrible description we are not surprised to 
learn, that in the Madras presidency there occurred in 1854, no 
fewer than nZ4i gang robberieB> at wbkh 481 were attended 
with aggravating circumstances. 

To I^rd Harrm was due the credit of exposing the horror* 
of this monstrous evil, and to him also belongs tlie merit of an 
immediate and successful remedy. He lost no time in proposing 
a thorough and radical change of the whole police system of the 
presidency, persevered in carrying cot the change in spite of the 
opposition of conflicting opinions, and ihe obstades and delays 
which were the inevitable aoeompaniments of the Mutiny, and 
saw the complete triumph of his ideas, and the entire adopti<m 
of his plan, in the Act, XXIV of 1859, which contained the 
police bill fw the taritories subject to the GKxvemor of Fort 
St. G^rge. The success whidi has already attended the intro- 
duction of this new police, and many interesting details of 
its system, and of the fisivourable reception it has met with at 
the hands of the rural populatioii, were very recently idated 
in an article in this Review. 

We have seen the wave of Police Reform, taking its rise in 
Scinde and following the coast line, spread over the Bombay 
presidency. Plassing round Cape Comorin it fertilised the plains 
and table lands of Southern India and the Deccan and rolled 
onwards till it reached the mouth of the Gkmges. But here it0 
progress waa stayed. In Bengal much had been thought, much 
had been spoken and much written, but nothing had been done. 
' The police of the Bengal presidency were a<^iowledged on all 
hands to be the worstin India. They are described in a paper 
read by Lieut. Col. Kennedy in March 1859, at the United 
Service Institution in London, as freebooters, whose only voca- 
tion was to plunder the people tliey were supposed to protect. 
Lieut. Governor after Lieut. Governor had condemned them as 
utterly destitute of morality and wanting in efficiency; one 
Lieut. Gbvemor writes, ' throughout the length and the breadth 
' of the land, the strong pr^ almost univensally on the weak, 
'and power is but too commonly valued only as it can be turned 
' into money,' One would have supposed that the evil being felt 
to be so enormous, and the advantages to be derived from its 

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POUCX £EFOKM 15 nnnA. 293 

suppression so obvious^ more earnest endeayonrs would have 
been made to introdnoe a happier state of things. It was not 
only a moral but a financial evil. Sir C. Treveljan gives 
expression to his opinion thus : ' If real protection of life and 
'property were established there/ (in Bengal) 'by ihe for- 
'mation of an efficient police^ and the people were ruled 
' quietly and prudently^ with all our power^ the magnificent 
' valley of the Ghmges alone would yield more than the present 
'revenue of the whole of British India.' Nor was the police of 
the North West Provinces much> if at all better. The disease 
was felt to be universal as to locality and mortal in its effects. 
Yet no one was found bold enough to come forward and i^ly 
the only remedy tiiat could prove efficacious^ the eradication of 
the whole system and its agents^ and ihe introduction of a 
new and healthful organization. 

Something more powerful^ than the reports of amelioration 
in Bombay, and the echo of the cries for reform in Madras, 
was required, ere the people of Bengal and the N. W. P. should 
be ddivered irom the intolerably oppressive police, under whom 
they groaned. That something came at last in the grand crash of 
the mutiny, and as the tempest spread, and district after district 
in upper Ii^^ was submerged in the irresistible flood, the regular 
police melted away like snow drifts before the southern breeze, 
and was either seen no more, or reappeared amongst the ranks 
of the mutineers to urge on their fury and incite it to acts of 
unparalleled atrocity. In the day of trial their cowardice, their 
corruption and their treachery were found to be equal, and the 
men who had been specially appointed as tiie conservators of 
law and order, were the first to join the cry for universal anarchy, 
and to add ihm forces to the multitude that endeavoured to 
subvert both. 

Hie storm swept past ; the atmosphere began to clear ; district 
after district, emerging from chaos, again acknowledged the 
Anglo-Saxon ruler, and returned to tiie easy servitude of a well 
organized and well administered government, and again in upper 
India the old police, if not in the same persons, at least in the 
same system and retaining the same effete character, was 
restored to its old haunts. But together with it, forming a dup- 
licate police administration, and devouring incredible sums of 
the sadly diminished finances, was found, both in the N. W. 
P. and in Bengal, another power which the exigencies of the times 
had called into being, and which, as it had been a means of 
protection during the times of trouble, threatened now in the 
times of peace, to be the cause of utter ruin to the country. 
This power was tiie military police. 

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204 POUCX REFOEH IN IIOIIA. 

While the stonn lasted every nenre was strained^ as migbt 
have been expected^ to arrest its fury. To the Englishman it-' 
was a matter of life and death. Men fighting for their lives are 
not likely to question the policy of the means taken to pre-- 
serve them, nor to scrutinize at the time their costliness. 
Money was plentiftd and supervision over its expenditure' 
had ceased to be exercised. Half the officiab in India urged on by 
every variety of motive, private, personal, poHtieal, or public,, 
conceived that their chief, if not omy mission on earth, was to> 
organize a regiment of Irregulars, or raise a body of horse } and 
the result was what we have seen. 

Hordes of military police and local levies, whose name waa 
Legion, and whose aggregate numerical strength has, probably, 
nev^ been accurately known to any cme, had grown up in every 
district, pervaded every town and pat»)lled every high way, and 
bid &ir, if allowed to remain undisturbed, to become as great 
a source of anxiety in the Aiture, as the pretorian sepoys had proved 
in the past, while, for the time being they consumed the revenue of 
country, and contributed no inconsiderable impetus to the forces 
which were hurrying the coach of state along the l»oad and easy 
road leading to insolvency. Such was the state of police affidrs 
in Bengal and the N. W. P., when the late lamented ^r. Wilson, 
arrived in India, and, as we shall shortly see, that great financier 
was not slow to discover tiie root of the evil, and to a{^y himself 
to provide a sure, and, we believe, a successM remedy. 

But before proceeding to consider what tliis remedy was, we 
must ask our readers to turn aside with us for a shcMrt time, and 
see what was being enacted in another Province. Lucknow was 
no sooner taken finom the rebels in March 1858, than the Chief 
Commissioner of Oudh directed that immediate steps should 
be taken for the formation of an armed police. The prompti- 
tude of this action, and the extraordinary energy with which 
the officer to whom the task was entrusted, carried out hi» 
orders, soon bore their legitimate fruit. Regiment after regi* 
ment was formed, organized, drilled, clothed, armed and pre- 
pared for service, and by the month of October, 1858, the nmks 
of the Oudh police numbered 13,000 men, who on many occasions 
in the field proved the exceUenoe of th^ rapid organization 
and training. 

The country was then being slowly wrested, step by step, 
from the rebels. And as the purely military forces of the Com* 
mander-in-Chief advanced, their places were taken up by detach- 
ments of the military police, who thus prevented the return of 
the insurgents, and enabled the civil officers to restore the civil ad- 
ministration. The thanahs were repeopled with the old thanahdars 

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TOLICB KEFQItH IK IKBIA. ^ 205 

9md bnrkundazes, who emerged from their hiding places, or 
^deserted from the rebel ranks, as they saw the hopes of success- 
frd resistance disappearing, and the prospect of re-employment 
«ndar the Ooyeniment brightening in the horizon. In a short 
time the same incubus that oppressed the N. W. P., the double 
police, would have settled down upon Oudh, and added another 
^uilet to the drain on her already exhausted finances. Sir R. 
Montgomery, however, with his usuoal prompt decision, came to the 
i^scue, and in December 1858, before the last band of rebels was 
driven in confusion over the Baptee,' had issued his orders that 
henceforth there should be but (?»tf police in Oudh, a police which, 
while it conducted the ordinary poUoe duties of prevention and 
detection of crime, would, at the same time, be strong enough to 
protect the peaceably disposed inhabitants, and would put down 
with a vigorous arm all attempts at outrage and plunder. 

The thanadars and their satellites were quietly discharged, 
and the newly organized police, assuming their civil functions 
became from henceforth the only police of the Province. In the 
Police Report of Oudh for the year 1859, in allusion to this 
transition we find the following sentence. ' A hypothetical 
' case of 20 Regiments of British Infantry turned over for 
* civil employ for a police in Ireland, will hardly give an 
' adequate idea of the task which devolved upon the officers 
' of the Oudh Police.' Had the writer said ' French Infantry' 
instead of ' British' we believe he would have been still nearer 
the mark, for the regiments of military police to which the 
civil duties were now made over, consisted in some districts, 
almost entirely of Seikhs, and Punjabees, unacquainted with the 
language and indifferent to the manners and habits of the peo- 
ple. Some of us can remember the opposition which this 
scheme met with, and have not forgotten how speedy and 
hopeless failure amidst 'shouts of derisive laughter' was con- 
fidently prophesied as its inevitable fate. No one will now 
venture to deny the wisdom which planned and the bold de« 
cision which gave execution to the measure. The Oudh police 
has been a great success. It is notorious that there is not in 
the whole of our Indian Empire, a Province where the law 
is more respected, and where the crimes which were formerly 
so life have been so speedily and so effectually repressed. Dacoity, 
previously the bane of the province, is almost unknown, and, if 
we except those mysterious supposed murders in one parti- 
cular district, which have hitherto baffled not ovXy the vigilance 
of the still unpractised police, but the skill of the vaunted Thug- 
gee. Department^ heinous crimes, of every description are of rare 



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SM ' POUCB EBn>BH US ikbu. 

occurrence. And not only has this security to life and property 
been afforded by the new police^ organized and officered, be it ob* 
served^ upon a system previously untried in upper India, but 
the mass of the people have found an inexpressible relief in their 
deliverance from the oppression and corruption of the old in« 
efficient thanadaree. No better proof in support of this asser* 
tion can be adduced than the following quotation from the 
speech of the Oudh Talookdars recently delivered in open Durbar 
to the Viceroy of India at Calcutta* ' The new arrangements 
^ which have been made in the Police Department, through 
' Colonel Bruce and other officers^ have not only protected 
^ the life and property of the people from the hancbs of thieves 
^ and robbers, iui also put an instant step to iriberfy* It is quite 
unnecessary to offer any comments upon the conclusiveness of 
such a testimony, coming as it does from the men who, of all 
others, are most competent to form a correct opinion upon the 
subject. We will not here enter upon any exposition of the 
system which led to these satisfiEtctory results, as it differs 
but little from that which is now being introduced alT over India, 
and upon which we sludl immediately offer a few observations ; 
but we would remark in passing, that it is our firm belief that 
very much of the success of the Oudh Police is attributable to 
the unwearied efforts of the European officers, to the real, in- 
domitable English pluck with which they oombatted all oppo- 
sition, and returned undaunted to their work after every reverse. 

We go back now to Mr. Wilson and the Police of the N. W. P, 
This sagacious statesman very soon after his arrival in India 
had his attention drawn to the subject. The question of finance 
was too intimately connected with that of police, to have long 
escaped his keen observation, and he speedily came to the con- 
clusion, that the maintenance of a double police on a great scale 
was not only a financial, but a political blunder, and from that 
hour its doom was sealed. The question was urged upon the 
Government. Lord Canning always ready to listen to, and en- 
courage any proposal for financial -reform gave his ready ac- 
quiescence, and the seed thus sown, rapidly germinated in ex- 
tensive inquiry, and fructified in the assemblmg of the Polioe 
Commission. 

It was seen that the time had now arrived, when it was incum- 
bent on the Oovemment of India to give a distinct enunciation 
of its opinions and principles on the subject of the future police 
system for India. It was clearly a financial impossibility 
to maintain permanently a double police in the great Provinces 
of. 3engal ;. equally dear was it, that to disband, at a stroke, the 

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POLICE BBPORM IN INWA. '207 

military levied which had done . such good service diiriiig the 
mutinies, but which were no longer necessary, for preserving 
the tranquillity of the country, would be to scatter broad-cast 
over the Presidency, a large body of discontented men, while, at 
the same time, to preserve the resuscitated thanadars and burkan- 
dazes would be to deliver over the people once more to the oppres- 
sion under which they had laboured in times gone by. Re-estab- 
lished in their former places and re-invested with tiieir tradition- 
ary influence and power, the old police would have felt that their 
previous incapacity and proved cowardice and misconduct had 
been condoned, and they would henceforth have been stronger 
than ever to overbear the weak, and to connive at, or encourage 
the guilty. The time therefore was favourable for the intro- 
duction of a new system ; the old one had been tried in the 
crucible of rebellion and had dissolved away. Some new scheme 
of administration could appropriately be introduced, with the, 
satisfactory reflection, that, at all events, whether successfiil or 
not, it could not possibly be worse than the one it was to displace. 
The members of the Police Commission were carefully selected, 
and it comprised men of great police experience, and some whose 
names had become well known throughout India during the 
recent disturbances. The instructions given to them by the 
Government were clear and explicit. They were carefully to 
compare the existing police systems, to ascertain the composition, 
organization and cost of the various police bodies of India, to 
acquire all the information in their power as to their efficiency 
and their results, and, finally, to propose for the consideration 
of Government the broad fundamental principles, which their 
. deliberation would lead them to believe to be essential in all 
circumstances and localities to the existence of a good police. 
More than this, the Copamission was fiirnished with a memo- 
randum which will be found at page 240 of the papers relating to 
the reform of the Police of India 1861, which embodies the views 
of Government on the characteristics of a good police. In this 
brief and masterly production, which entirely exhausts the subject 
upon which it treats, will be found sketched out the attributes 
and requirements of a police more perfect than India has ever 
seen — ^more perfect, perhaps, than we shall ever see, but, neverthe- 
less, not to be regarded as beyond the possibility of attainment. 
. The Commission met, and after a good deal of inquiry and 
discussion, submitted a very able report, embodying in the 
shape of a series of propositions their views on Police, for the 
the approval of Govemmeut. This report has long been before 
the public, and we need not now examine it in detiul. One thing 

C 

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20S 1N>UCE ftsrORM IN IKBIA. 

coimec£ed with it is remarkabte^ that notwithstanding tlie mem* 
bers of the commission had been drawn from all parts of India, 
and their opinions on many important points were at first known 
to be various^ and in some cases antagonistic, the report after 
serioos deliberation and debate, was unanimously adopted, and 
thns carried with it the additional weight of binng an united 
testimony in favour of the system which it advocated. A brief 
sketch of the general principles laid down in these propositions 
will not be out of place here; and it is to be observed that these 
principles have been adopted by the Oovemment as a correct 
exposition of its views, that they are embodied in its Police 
Bill published in Act V. of 1861, which finally passed the 
legislative council in March last, and are henceforth to be 
accepted as the fundamental doctrines oi future police adminis- 
tration in India. 

The Police Commission drew two broad lines of demarcation 
which had never been previously observed in India. The first 
was between the police and the military. For many years the 
latter have been in the habit of performing a great variety of 
purely civil duties. The protection of civil jaifc and treasuries, 
the escort of treasure, the watch and ward over commissariat 
and other stores, the supply of innumerable small detachments 
at great distances from r^mental Head Quarters, for the over- 
awing of gangs of robbers and dacoits ; these and many other 
duties which are strictty within the province of a good police 
have hitherto been in India performed by the Native Army. 
Commanders-in-Chief and Commandants of regiments have for 
years remonstrated against tiiis iUegitimate employment of their 
forces. The men thus taken from Head Qnarteni, and stadioaed 
at remote posts, away &om the control and supervision of their 
officers, contracted lax habits subversive of all military disci- 
pline, while the strength of the Corps at Head Quarters 
became so much weakened as materially interfered with its 
efficiencv, in the event of its bdng snddeiJy called upon to take 
the fiela. Again since the rise of the military pmice during 
the mutinies, manv duties have been performed by titem, whidi 
belong purely to the military under tbe Commander-in-Chief. 

The Police Commission, recognizii]^ the anomaly of this prac-^ 
tice, lay it down as an axiom that henceforth there should be 
•two and only * two departments charged with protective and re- 
pressive duties and responsibilities' — =the one the military und^ 
the Commander-in-Chief — ^the other the Civil Constabulary un- 
der the Civil Executive Government; that the military should at 
once be withdrawn from the performance of all the duties ^bove 

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POLICE REPOSH IN INDIA. £09 

onamerated, whioh they had been in the habit of performing 
and should be confined in future to their proper ^heres : in short, 
that all the Army should be concentrated m such positions aa 
the military occupation of the country may render advisable^ and 
that the only detachments should be in those positions whose 
military occupation is necessary firom strategical* considerations, — 
tiiat the whole duty of protection of life and property and re-* 
pression of crime should be confided to an organiz^ and partially 
armed civil constabulary, and that only in the case of rebellions 
or extended insurrection from within, or foreign invasions &om 
witliout, should their functiona be si;^rse<£d by tho regular 
Army, 

. The advantages to be gained by this measure are twofold^ 
In the first place the efficiency of the Native Army will be 
greatly increased. The majority of the men of every regiment 
being alwa^ at Head Quarters, they will acquire a much greater 
proficiency in all that belongs to military duty, while at the same 
time they will be relieved firom the laborious and uninteresting 
escort duty which formerly fell so heavily upon the Sepoys, and 
regarding which we find the Commander-in-Chief of the Madras 
Army writing in 1857, ' one third of the army is permanently 
on duty from year's end to year's end, and the men are dis- 
' heartened and dispirited.^ 

Another no small advantage to be gained by the substitution 
of constables for military guards and escorts is the great saving 
that will accrue to Government. It is calculated that every Sepoy 
costs the state 250 rupees per annum, while the cost of a cons- 
table is at the highest rate Rs. 130, the average being probably 
not more than Bs. 120. If then the Government is enabled by 
the replacement of the one hy the other, to reduce the strength 
pf its Native Army while at the same time it adds to its effici- 
ency, the gain both political and financial, will be very con* 
siderable ; nor is this all, the strength of the fiiture European 
Army in India must, after recent events, depend in some mea- 
sure on the strength of the Native Army, and, when the latter can 
be reduced, the former may in a corresponding proportion b^ 
weakened also with safety, should other circumstances admit of 
it. 

The second great line of separation drawn by the Police 
Commission is tiiat between the executive police and the 
judicial authorities. A great deal has been spoken and written 
upon this subject. Many contend that there should be no sever- 
ance at all, but that the police should be wholly and entirely 
under the magistrates as has hitherto been the case generally 



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210 POLICE REFOEM IN INDIi. 

throughout India. Others again insist that there should be no 
connection whatever between the two, and that the police through 
their Chiefs should be responsible only to the Head df the local 
Government. While others again^ admitting, in a general way, the 
necessity of information to the judicial authorities, have been 
unable to agree upon the exact point where this subordination 
should begin, some wishing to fix it upon the district Officer 
or Magistrate, others upon the Commissioner of a Division. 
We believe that very much of the controversy, which has taken 
place upon this subject, has arisen from misapprehension of what 
the upholders of the principle of separation really mean. The 
great principle involved in the question is simply this, that the 
thief catcher shall not be the thief i^eri that the Officer who 
investigates the circumstances of a crime, hunts down and appre* 
hends the criminal, arranges the evidence and prepares the case 
for trial, shall not then take his seat upon the bench and pro- 
ceed to try the accused. If this principle is granted, it appears 
to us to be of very little consequence where the acknow- 
ledged link of subordination is to fit in, and we believe that 
in practice no difficulty will ever be experienced, for practi- 
cally, the district Officer, as defined in the 31st proposition of the 
Teport of the Police Commission^ must always be the supreme 
power in his own district, the police must always be bound 
to obey his orders, and therefore if any clashing of authority 
between him and the police Officer were likely to arise, a con- 
tingency which we believe would be of very rare occurrence, 
he would, as the paramount authority on the spot, be able to 
control the other, and prevent any evil consequences to which his 
recusancy might give occasion at the time. We believe, that 
in almost all cases, certainly in all where both judicial and 
police Officers have the * interest of the Oovernment at heart, 
there will be nothing like rivalry or quarreling about authority. 
The district Officer from his position, his experience, and his 
legal knowledge, will, in nine cases out of ten, be looked up to 
by the police Officer, who will have recourse to him for advice 
and assistance whenever he is at fault, while on the other hand 
the judicial Officer will, ere long, come to regard the policeman 
as his right-hand, in all matters affecting the protection and 
tranquillity of his districts. 

This separation of the police and judicial functions is the 
grand fundamental principle of the present police reform, and 
is not calculated to introduce dissension and stir up a spirit 
of opposition as has been asserted, but on the contrary its ten- 
dency is to assist the district Officer, and carry him idong witk 



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POLICE RBPORM IN INDIA. : 211 

it^ by forming and placing at his disposal a moire perfect in- 
strument for the good government of his district than he ever 
had before. It cannot be denied that an English Officer^ whose 
heart is in his work^ and whose whole time and attention are 
concentrated upon it, will, in the course of a very few years, have 
formed a district police infinitely superior to any we have 
ever seen under the old thanadaree syst-em ; and it is as undeni- 
able that in most districts where this is the case there will be little 
interference on the part of the district Officer, whose experience in 
police work will year by year diminish as that of the other 
increases, and who will, therefore, be too glad to leave him to 
work out his oases, and trace his criminals in his own way. 

It will be seen from the above remarks, that the supervisioa 
and control of the police in future by a separate body of 
European Officers, is one of the points strongly dwelt upon by 
the Police Commission as an essential element of success ia 
in the new system. Their proposal is briefly as follows : that 
each local Government be for police purposes considered a 
police district; that a head of the police for such districts 
or province be appointed who will be subject to the control 
of the local Government only. That subordinate to him a 
sufficient number of European officers be appointed/ in the pro- 
portion of not less than one to each civil district, who will con- 
trol the police of their respective districts, subject to the general 
supervision of the magistrate, and be responsible to their 
chief for all matters of discipline, organization, drill, dress &c., 
he, in his turn, being responsible to the local Government for. 
maintaining the whole force in a state of efficiency by personal 
attention and by general management through his subordinate 
officers. Thus it will appear, that as in each Province there will 
be but one responsible head of the police, so under the opera- 
tion of the new scheme there can be but one police within the 
same limit, and all separate establishments of cantonment, coast 
and river police, salt chokeydars, thuggee and dacoity informers, 
and police for Railways, must, be gradually absorbed into the 
one great provincial department. As a matter of course the 
village police will also come under the police Officer, who will 
exercise over them the same control which has hitherto been in 
in the hands of the district authority. The advantages of such 
centralization are too obvious to require comment. 

These we believe to be the great fundamental principles 
advocated by the Police Commission, into the details it is un- 
necessary here to enter. There is one point, however, which 
we observe we have omitted, and which, though belonging rather 



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% 

212 POLICE UFORM IV TSDIL. 

to militarv finance than to police reform, is too importtot 
to be left out. We allude to the recommendation of the 
Military Finance Commission^ endorsed by the Police Com- 
mission and subsequently adopted in its entirety by the Govern- 
ment, that the police should, on the requisition of the military 
authorities, furnish police guards over military stores, the 
watch and ward over which can be maintained as efficiently and 
more economically by them than by the Native Army, and as 
such duty belongs properiy to the military department, and 
cannot be fairly chargeable upon a civil consUbulary, it is 
£Eu^er recommended tlwt for all such guards supplied by the 
police, payment should be made by the department requiring 
them. 

Thus a further reduction of the Native Armv becomes 
possible, the number of men hitherto employed in these duties 
having been very considerable, while at the same time, by the 
system of payment above described, the Government has secured 
the best possible guarantee for economy, as the head of every 
department requiring a guard from the police, is held respon- 
sible for its cost, until he satisfies the Controller of Finance of 
the absolute necessity for having it. Those who remember how 
lavishly guards of sepoys were furnished upon every requisition^ 
and for every conceivable purpose, in former days, will appreciate 
the very great saving likely to accrue from the introduction 
of the new system. 

The Police Commission on submitting their reports, forwarded 
agreeably to instruction, received a djnift act for a new PoUce 
Bill to be applicable to the whole of India. Their report is 
dated in Septemb^ 1860, and in March 1861 Act V. of that 
year, being ' an Act for the regulation of Police ' finally passed 
the Legis£dive Council after considerable discussion, and on the 
22nd of the same month received the assent <^ tiie Governor 
GeneraL In this act will be found embodied the great prin- 
ciples recommended by the Commission, of which we have given 
a brief and imperfect outiine above. 

But soon after receiving the report of the Commission, and 
some time before the act became law, Government having de* 
cided upon its future course with r^ard to the police .of India^ 
action was at once commenced without farther delay. A 
Chief Commissioner of Police for the N. W. P. was appointed^ 
and entered upon his arduous duties. The Govenxment had de« 
cided that a double police should no longer exist in any province 
of the empire, that the military police, as such, should be im- 
mediately disbanded and. absorbed into the new force, and that 

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POUCB SEVOSM IN TSDU. SIS 

for the ftiture one distinct and fully oi^nized civil constabalaiy 
only for each local Oovemment should be recognized. The measures 
requisite upon the above decision have been carried out in the N. W; 
P. with great energy. All inefficient men of the military and of 
the old civil police have been discharged^ the remainder have 
been formed into the constabulary, European officers have been 
appointed in every district, and the whole machinery is now 
at work, and will m due time, no doubt, bring forth the good 
results to be looked for from the known ability and energy of 
the agents employed. 

Hitherto we have said nothing of the Punjaub. Soon after 
the annexation of that important Province, a civil police was 
organized upon the old thanadaree system, bat with this in its 
favour, that the men composing it were more carefully select- 
ed, better paid, and more rigidly supervised by the district 
officer, than in the older Presidencies of India, and, we believe, 
it has been found to work well comparatively. In addition 
to this body, there was also a large force of military police, 
both horse and foot, whose duties were chiefly, if not al- 
together military, and whose operation was almost exclusively 
confined to guarding the extensive frontier. Now, however, 
this double police has been abolished, and the same system, 
as that which prevails in Oudh and has been initiated m the 
N. W. P., has been also inaugurated in the Punjaub. It is 
true there is still a local force kept up under the orders of the 
local Oovemment and not under the Commandet-in-chief, but 
this we believe is only a temporary arrangement, and, whether 
or no, it is entirely distinct from the civil police, and is not 
under the control of the Inspector Oeneral. 

At Nagpore a similar police is being' organized in which the 
local Infantry of those districts will, we l^lieve, be absorbed. 

Hie great Proconsulate of Bengal alone remains ; bat there too 
the note of change has been sounded, and we believe that while 
we now write, arrangements are progressing for the abolition of 
the military police and the drafting of the men in its ranks into 
the new civil constabulary. 

We have now briefly recapitulated the measures of police re- 
form which have been already introduced, or are in progress in the 
different Presidencies and Provinces of Hindostan, it remains 
further to notice what has been done in the same direction in the 
large outlying dependency of British Burmah ; but as the intro- 
duction of a new organized police in that province is but part ot 
a great scheme of financial reform which is now being carried 
out^ it may not be oat of place to indude the who^ in our 

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214 POUCE BEFORM m INDIA. 

observations^ though not within the proper compass of this articled 
During the autumn of 1860^ the President of the Military Fi- 
nance Commission visited Rangoon, and on his return he address- 
ed a Memorandum to Government, which will be found at the 
end of the ^ Report upon British Burmah' wherein he pointed out, 
with that clearness and conciseness which characterise all his 
papers, a number of economical changes which might be made 
in almost every department of the administration. Soon after 
this. Colonel Phayre, the Commissioner of Pegu, arrived in Calcut- 
ta, and became during his stay a member of the Police Commis- 
sion. After that body had submitted its report to Government, 
Lord Canning determined to send two officers to Burmah, to be 
associated with the chief Civil and Military Authorities of the 
province, as a special commission for the purpose of considering 
and reporting upon every measure of economical reform, that 
might appear practicable and desirable. Accordingly two of the 
members of the Police Commission who were men of tried abi- 
lity and experience were selected for this purpose and leaving 
Calcutta, arrived in Rangoon on the 12th of November. From 
thence, in company with Colonel Phayre and General Bell the Mi- 
litary Commander, they travelled over a considerable part of the 
province, and after collecting and digesting all the informa- 
tion they could obtain, left Rangoon for Calcutta on the 4th 
of December, and on their return submitted to Government the 
very able and comprehensive report, published in the blue book 
indicated at the head of this article. We will not enter into 
details which are accessible to every one who feels an interest in 
them, and will content ourselves with giving a brief summary 
of the results. According to this report the annual expenditure of 
the Province of Pegu including military charges, has hitherto 
exceeded the revenue by the very considerable sum of fifty-nine 
and a quarter lacs of rupees. The Commission go very carefully over 
every item of expenditure in each department, military, civil, 
police, marine &c. They propose a new police, to be organised 
upon the same principles, as we have seen applied to tlie new police 
forces in India, into which is to be absorbed the Pegu Light In- 
fantry, which in Burmah represented the military police of 
India. 

They recommend reduction in the military expenditure of 
Pegu to the extent of fifty-seven lacs annually, and suggest a new 
arrangement and distribution of civil establishments for Pegu, 
Tenasserim and Arracan by which a further saving of seven lacs 
annually will be effected. The result of the whole scheme when 
carried out being that, instead of the large annual deficit which 

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POLICE REPOEM IN INDIA. 215 

ba^ hitherto obtained in these provinoes^ the yearly revenue and 
expenditure will be very nearly balanced. Many of the reduc- 
tionis recommended have already been effected, others are now be- 
ing carried into execution, and we believe we are not mistaken in 
asserting that by the end of the present official year, the whole, 
or, at all events, those of great financial importance will have 
been made. 

We think deserving of especial notice, the celerity with which 
in this case of British Burmah, action has followed on design. 
We attribute this, almost entirely, to the unanimity which has 
marked the proceedings of the two Commissioners, and their asso- 
ciates the CMumissioner, and the Military Commander of the 
Province. Any one who wiU take the trouble to read the report 
will see that, in all the recommendations for economy they were 
all agreed. Their names are appended to all the propositions, and 
the two Calcutta members of the Commission bear ample testi- 
mony in this report, to the cordial and hearty co-operation not 
only of the chief, but of all the subordinate officers of the admi- 
nistration with whom they came in contact. We have here the 
instructive, and, we fear, unusual spectacle, of the whole body of 
officials of a large dependency uniting heartily to forward and 
carry out the economical views of the supreme Government, al- 
though, it cannot be doubted, involving in many instances the 
sacrifice of their own convenience, and, perhaps, in some, the di- 
minutfon of their incomes. When we reflect upon the high 
value men put upon power and patronage, and how rarely we see 
those who have been accustomed to them cheerfully relinquishing 
any part of either, we shall perhaps appreciate more truly than 
we have hitherto done, the disinterestedness of the Government 
Officers in Burmah. But, as we hinted before, in these matters 
unanimity is the secret of success. No doubt there were some 
reforms the Calcutta Commissioners would have desired, and 
which the Burmah Officials could not approve, or the case again 
may have been reversed. On these points one or other evi- 
dently gave way, preferring to send up a series of recommenda- 
tions to Government that carried the weight of an unanimous 
opinion, to framing proposals, perhaps more varied and universal 
in their application, but upon which all could not agree. It is 
a characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon to hold out tenaciously for 
what he believes to involve a principle. It is an admirable cha- 
racteristic when rightly applied ; though we fear, in too many 
cases, it degenerates into mere obstinacy. In this case, how- 
ever, if disagreements did arise amongst the Burmah Com- 
mission, they wisely kept them to themselves, and the gratifying 

D 

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216 POLICE BEFORM IN INDIA. 

result lias been^ that the Oovernment hampered by no conflicting 
opinions, and not being called upon to decide between contend- 
ing parties, has been able to proceed with promptitude to decided 
action. 

Act V will, we presume, ere long have been made applicable to 
each of the local Governments of the Bengal Presidency, and we 
thus see a new system, amounting almost to a complete revolu-^ 
tion in police administration, already inaugurated and about to be 
introduced throughout the whole of British India, from the 
Himalaya to Cape Comorin, and from Peshawur to the Eastern 
boundary of Pegu. By this measure the military police and 
the old thanadaree will alike be abolished and will be replaced 
by a civil constabulary, more simple in its forms of procedure 
and at the same time, more centralized, sufficiently armed and 
organized to secure greater efficiency in action, while not suffici- 
ently so, ever to become a source of apprehension to Govern- 
ment. The Native Army released from irksome and non-mi- 
litary duty will be concentrated at its several military sta- 
tions, and being subjected to better discipline and supervision, 
will become more useful for its duties in the field ; and while 
this improvement in its morale is effected, the simultaneous 
diminution of its numbers, will give a sensible relief to the 
Imperial finances. The new police will be less costly than the 
aggregate civil and military police have hitherto been, and 
the employment of constables for many duties of watch and 
ward over military stores in the place of sepoys, will render pos- 
sible a further reduction of the numerical strength of the lat- 
ter, and guarantee to the Government the exercise of a strict 
economy. Such, we believe, to be some of the advantages of the 
new system : we believe the subject has hardly received from 
the public the attention to which it is entitled, and that, as the 
change has been introduced in different provinces at different pe- 
riods and not simultaneously in all, many people are unaware of the 
extent or the nature of the change We shall consider ourselves 
fortunate if we have by these pages done anything to enlighten 
those in search of information, or to lead the public in general 
to a proper appreciation of the benefits anticipated as the result 
of the new system. 

One or two observations still remain. And first, we would most 
earnestly advocate either the institution of a police bureau at 
Head Quarters of the Supreme Government, or that one of the 
already existing secretariats should be made the depositary of 
police reports and police information of every sort from the 
several local governments. We believe the importance of this 

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POUGB REFORK IN INDU^ 217 

can hardly be over estimated. By this means the OoverDment 
will be able to compare the different local systems, to contrast 
the efficiency and the costliness of each provincial police, to 
discern the causes of variation in them, and to ascertain the 
reasons of the superiority or inferiority of one as r^ards another. 
In addition to this, a means of control will be furnished, which will 
act as an effectual check against departure from first principles. 

We maintain that as with individual police officers so with local 
Governments, each should be left to carry out their legitimate 
objects in the way best adapted to their own genius, and to 
the peculiarities of the locality in which they happen to be 
situated ; but as strongly do we maintain that the latitude 
left to them should in no case extend so far as to admit of a 
departure from fundamental principles. These having once been 
laid down, and forming as it were the back-bone of a system 
applicable to every locality, should be caiefully guarded from 
any innovations or imagined improvements, which might other ^^ 
wise be made at the caprice or upon the conviction of the rulers 
of any of the several provinces. While the Supreme Govern- 
ment wisely leaves the filling up of details, the completion of the 
structure as it were, to the local authorities ; it should jealously 
protect the frame work, which secures a similarity of outline, 
from any interference which might mar the symmetry of the 
j[abric. 

Another point to which, we believe, too much attention 
cannot be directed, is the efficient supervision of the Police by 
hard-working, earnest European officers. Some go further than 
this, and desire a large introduction of Europeans into the 
upper ranks of the constabulary. This we look upon as a matter 
of minor importance. We believe that it matters little whether 
our Police Inspectors are Europeans, Eurasians or Natives so long 
as they are good men ; and that good, well qualified useful men 
are to be found in each of the al^ve classes of the community, 
we have little doubt; but we think that either Eurasians or 
Natives will rarely if ever be found to supply the place of the 
European district Superintendent. For this office honest, con- 
scientious, hard-working men, who combine a true sense of duty 
with more than average acuteness, and common sense are re- 
quired, and except, as we said above, in very rare instances, we 
do not believe such qualities will be found united-anywhere but 
in the British Officer. 

One more remark, and the task we proposed to ourselves at 
the outset will be completed. We desire ere concluding to 
enter our protest against the inconsiderate objections so 



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218 POLICE EEFOBJf IN INDIA. 

often raised in the local Journals against the new police. We 
are happy to observe that the criticisms to which we allude, 
seldom come from the editors of newspapers themselves^ but 
generally appear as ' communicated/ or ' from the pen of a cor- 
respondent ' in some locality or other. Many of these, we have 
good reason to believe, emanate from disappointed aspirants to 
police appointments, but they are not the less mischievous, as 
calculated to mislead the public, and bring discredit upon a 
system yet in its infancy and entitled to a fair and impartial 
judgment. If a dacoity is successful and the perpetrators get off 
unpunished, or if a murder is undiscovered, we are told it is 
the fault of the new police and of the new system. We heard 
Httle or nothing in former days of the frequent and signal 
failures of the thanadaree. We believe that in Oudh, where 
the system has now been on trial for two years, the amount of 
detected crime is no way inferior, to say the least, to what it 
was under the old system, while the generad security of life and 
property throughout the whole province, is so infinitely superior 
as to admit of no comparison. It is not fair to impute ineffici- 
ency where the only fault is the unavoidable one of want of ex- 
perience, A good police cannot be formed in a day. Although 
a moderate amount of capacity and of training are sufficient for 
an ordinary constable, still a certain amount of both are requisite, 
and a very large amount of both, added to many other qualities 
*which no training can supply, are necessary for a good detective. 
To form a good official of this class are requir^ great intelli- 
gence, experience of men and society, a steady head, a strong 
nerve, a quick appreciation of the vdue of evidence, and an in- 
stinctive perception of the faintest clue to a mysterious deed. Such 
men cannot be either formed or found in a day, and those who 
set themselves up to impugn the system and its agents, forget 
that policemen are not heaven-bom, and that detectives are not 
rained like manna A:om the skies. A consideration of the speech 
made by Sir Robert Peel in 1829 before the House of Commons, 
when proposing his Bill for a Metropolitan police, and a con- 
trast of what the police in London was then and what it is in 
1861, will clearly bear us out in these remarks and show what 
may be the result of thirty years' experience in developing the 
efficiency of a police force. 

In conclusidn. In 1856 the Court of Directors in a despatch 
addressed to the Governor General of India, sum up generally 
their opinion of the Indian police in the following remarkable 
sentences. * An immediate and through reform of police in all 
' the old provinces of British India, is loudly called for. That 

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POLICE REFORM IN INDIA. 219 

'the police in India has lamentably failed in accomplishing 
'the ends for which it was established^ is a notorious fact: 
' that it is all but useless for the prevention^ and sadly deficient 
' for the detection of crime, is generally admitted. Unable to 

* check crime it is, with rare exceptions, unscrupulous as to its 

* mode of wielding the authority with which it is armed for the 
' function which it fails to fulfil, and has a general character for 
' corruption and oppression. The^e is, moreover, a want of general 
' organization ; the force attached to each division is too much 
' localized and isolated, and the notion of combination between 
' any separate parts of it with the view of accomplishing the 
' great objects of a police, is seldom entertained.' 

We believe that the new system, we have been discussing, is 
calculated to remedy all the evils so forcibly pointed out in the 
above extract, and in that belief we demand for it a fair and 
unprejudiced trial. 

We have read some where in the Bagh-o-Bahar of a 
country so admirably a^dniinistered, that the inhabitants of the 
Bazaar never closed their doors at night, and travellers on the 
highway chinked their money in their pockets or tossec^it in 
the air as they went along the roads, so confident were they in 
vigilance of the public guardians of their property. We are not 
80 foolish as to assert that we shall ever arrive at such a state of 
security in India, but there is no reason why we should not 
aim at it. The higher our endeavours, the nearer we are likely 
to approach to perfection. A good police can do much, but it 
cannot do all. We must educate the people, instil into their 
minds moral principles, and teach them that it is both more 
pleasant and more profitable to do right than to do wrong, 
before we can hope to make much impression on our criminal 
statistics, and after all is done, we cannot anticipate any very 
remarkable cessation from crime, either in India or in the world, 
before the millennium : but, if we cannot wholly suppress crime, 
we can at least do much to repress and to detect it. There is 
nothing Utopian in this. We believe the wheels of police ad- 
ministration have now got into the right groove, and we look 
with confidence to the experience of the next ten years to bear 
us out in our conclusions, and to justify our hopes. 



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no IIILITART COLONIZATION IN INDIA. 



Aet. II. — I. Report on the extent and nature (^ the Samaiary 
JBstablisAmente/or European Troopi in India* Indian Beoords* 

2. Memorandum on tie Colonization of India by European Sol* 
dieri. Punjab Eecords. 

THE three great objects of all Indian statesmen at the present 
moment are^ to develop the resources of this magnificent 
dependency^ diminish the expenditure of its administration both 
civil and military and increase the strength of our grasp on the 
country. All suggestions likely to lead to the attainment of any 
one of these desirable results^ are worthy of attention^ how much 
more so then a scheme embracing in its consideration all three. 
We claim this distinction for that which is the subject of the 
present article. How far we are justified in so doing, let the 
reader judge ; but at all events, whether the proposition be deemed 
worthy of consideration, or looked upon as too theoretical for 
practical success, some good purpose may be attained from the 
mer» discussion of the subject. We shall have greatly over- 
estimated our subject, if in the course of our discussion its impor- 
tance does not become apparent ; and if our scheme should prove 
deficient or faulty in its details, more experienced or more capable- 
men may be induced to fill up that outline ; for we conceive that 
all must approve of the idea, though perhaps differing as to the 
mode in which it should be carried out ; should such be the case 
our labour will not have been in vain. 

We shall not follow the usual custom of passing in review the 
numerous instances, offered as well by ancient history, as by 
that of our own time, in which military colonization has been 
attempted; nor shall we seek to analyze the causes of their 
failure or success. In our opinion no good purpose could be 
effected by the adoption of such a course. The conditions and 
circumstances under which military colonies could be esta- 
blished in India, are exceptional and differ widely from those^ 
which, in other countries, or in other ages, have attended similar 
experiments. We are not disposed to weary our readers, with 
prolix accounts of what is, after all, only apparently connected 
with our subject ; and will therefore at once enter on the consi- 
deration of such a schemt as applied solely to India. 

It would evidently be most desirable, ii some means could be 
devised, by which we could reduce the present enormous native 
army. Such an act would not only largely diminish that over- 



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MIUTABT COLONIZATION IN INDIA, 221 

groivn expenditare, which is at present paralyzing the action of 
our rulers, and preventing the introduction as well of adminis- 
trative reforms, as of any large scheme calculated to increase the 
material resources of the country, but would also remove an impor- 
tant element of more than possible danger to the state. English 
troops must be maintained in a country which the recent mutiny 
has shown to be principally retained by the power of the sword. 
The effemimate trade-loving Bengalee may be well affected 
towards our rule, as well as the Hindu generally throughout, the 
empire ; but can we rely on the tranquillity of the Mahratta, 
with his hereditary love of war and plunder, of the so called in- 
dependent states, of the Sikhs, with their abiding confidence in 
the ultimate triumph of the Khalsa, of the thirty millions of Mus- 
sulmans, animated by all the hatred of race, faith, and supplanted 
conquest? It is evident from past experience that we can 
neither trust to their military fidelity or civil loyalty. Such 
being the case, the necessity of maintaining a large English force 
becomes immediately apparent. This assertion is at once met by a 
statement of the vast cost of British soldiers ; yet a trust-worthy 
army must be kept up, both for the maintenance of internal 
tranquillity, and for defence against external aggression. The 
fear of hostility from without may, by some, be considered 
groundless ; but who can say that nothing is to be dreaded, either 
directly or indirectly, from Russia with her large and growing 
influence in central Asia; an influence to which our fleets can 
furnish no counterpoise, and which our diplomacy is far too 
obtuse and blundering to destroy? Who can assert that France, 
with her powerful steam Navy, might not convey a force to 
these shores, which, supported either by a disaffected population, 
or by some great feudatory, might inflict a wound, none the less 
hurtful, because it could not lead to any permanent success 
on the part of the invader? War and invasion are ever best 
averted by ample preparation for its event. These premises being 
admitted, the question arises, how are we to obtain the greatest 
amount of British combatant power, at the least possible cost. 
One method, undoubtedly, is te improve the means of communi- 
cation, so that a large force might with rapidity be concentrated 
on the required spot. In this manner a small body, unless 
rebellion and war raged from one end of India to the other, would 
be as effective as a large army with our present imperfect means of 
transport. The construction of numerous railways, canals, and 
roads, together with the improvement of those of the latter 
already existing, as well as the organization of an efficient land 
and river trannt, are measures which would lead to this desirable 

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222 IIILITAIIY COLONIZATION IN INDIAi 

result^ and moreover be fraught witli liamerous commercial ad- 
vantages. Promising as such schemes may be, time is required tor 
their completion, and till that time arrives, and even afterwards, 
a considerable force of English troops must be retained. How to 
effect this at the least possible cost to the State, so ae to com- 
bine military efficiency with the utilization of their productive 
power as citizens, is what we propose to consider in the follow- 
ing pages. 

Increased military strength, reduced expenditure, and growing 
commerce would, in our opinion, follow the adoption of the 
scheme of Military Colonization which we now advocate. 

In a country whose financiers deal with figures of vast magni- 
tude, an experiment likely, to be productive of such important re- 
sults, such permanent diminution of expenditure, is at least worthy 
of consideration. Each succeeding yeai* and every newly surveyed 
hundred miles, discovers places, both in the hills, and on isolated 
eminences in the plains, whose climate is adapted to English consti- 
tutions, and where pursuits either of a manufacturing, conunercial^ 
or agricultural nature, could be advantageously followed. As re- 
gards agriculture taken in its broadest sense, and not limited to 
the cultivation of grain, merely ground can generally be found at 
no great distance from those spots, which from their healthiness, 
are suitable for English residents. The lowest ranges of the 
Himalayas, the isolated eminences and detached mountain chains 
in the Punjab and Rajpootana, may be cited as examples. Doubt- 
less the Rajmahal and Neilgherry Hills, with many others, afford 
similar instances ; but as we are merely indicating, not elaborating, 
a plan, we shall not attempt to be specific as to localities. Of 
course, in those places classed as regular hill stations, the settlers 
would be compelled to confine themselves, almost entirely, to 
manufactures or commerce, while in those of lower altitude and 
easier access to the plains, agriculture could be carried on with 
great ease, while they would be of sufficient height above the 
level of the sea to prove healthy. The house of the colonist would 
be within a mile or two, sometimes less, of his farm, a visit to 
which, morning and evening, even during the hot season, wouU 
be no great tax on his powers. Such an amount of supervision 
would be sufficient to prevent the labourers from neglecting 
their work, until the arrival of the cold weather, when a more 
close and active superintendence would be feasible. We employ 
the word ' superintendence ' purposely, for in the present scheme 
we do not propose that, as a rule, the labours of the Englishman 
should extend beyond supervision. In English hands, under 
English direction, and with as little as possible intermeddling 

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HILITAEY COLONIZATION IN INDIA.' . 225' 

by Government^ we have little doubt but thai the proposed mili^ 
tarj settlements, would soon become distinguished from the rest 
of India by prosperity and progress. Nor would such advan- 
ti^es be confined to the actual possessions of the British colo- 
nist. These spots would become the leaven influencing for good 
all the surrounding districts. The success of the experiment 
would attract many from England, who, forming partnerships 
with the military colonist, would contribute their money as an^ 
equivalent for his experience. By tbis means, a large amount of 
British capital would be invested in. India ;. a result, the attainment 
of which, on an extensive scale, is as desirable as it is difficult. 

We do not intend to enter in detail, on the q^uestion of what 
manufactures or what products, would be developed, originated, or 
improved, by the present scheme ; we need merely mention that 
tea cultivation opens a vast field for the employment of industry 
and capital; that the demand for an increased production, a 
more careful preparation, of cotton is, particularly in the pre« 
sent state of afi&irs in America, daily becoming louder; that 
sugar is capable of augmented cultivation, and improved manu-^ 
iacture; that good thread of native construction is unknown^ 
and that there is no reason why such should continue to be the 
case; that, the inferior character of the iron generally mado 
from the native ore, together with the success of the Kumaoa 
iron works, and the daily increasing requirements of the difierent 
railway companies, point out an advantageous investment; that 
the large amount of business done by the Kussowlee and Mus- 
souree breweries shows that a want, inseparable from the presenco 
of Englishmen, may be supplied without recourse to importation ; 
and, finally, that from the abundance of raw material, the varied 
nature of the soil, and the cheapness and abundance of labour,, 
there is no reason why India should not compete, in the wav of 
manufactures and commerce, with America, the West Indies, Man- 
chester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Birmingham and the Welsh iron 
works. Before quitting this branch of our subject, we cannot 
refrain from mentioning, that we are acquainted with a privato 
soldier in the Punjab, who is at this moment constructing a 
lace machine, having already successfully completed a model. 
Why should not lace be made in India equal to that of Not^ 
tingham or Belgium ! Surely the delicate, and nimble fingers of 
the Hindus are peculiarly s^iapted to such work. These facts 
show, that there exists in India, ample scope for English energy 
and industry, in the shape of superintendence and direction. 

Having premised thus much, we proceed to suggest our plan ; 
which is, that in localities more or less elevated Sbove the plains, 

s 



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224 • lilLTTARY COLONIZATION IN INDIA. 

sach as those we have indicated^ military colonies should be 
established^ under the following conditions and arrangements. 
The privates and non-commissioned officers should be men 
who have served at least 14 years in the wrmj, of which not less 
than 8 should have been in India. No one should be selected 
who was not married, preference being given to those with large 
families. Good character and health, as well as active habits, 
and a colloquial knowledge of the language, should be considered 
indispensable qualifications. The candidate should be acquainted 
with some trade, manufacture, or branch of agriculture, or be 
able to show a probability of supporting himself and family in 
comfort and respectability, and each man should possess not 
less than 800 rupees. On quitting the regular army, he should 
re-engage for 16 years, or so long a period as, when added to 
his former service, would make up a total of 30 years. In 
return for this prolonged engagement, each man should receive a 
free grant of land suited as far as possible, to the purpose or 
cultivation to which the colonist proposes to devote his industry. 
This land he should not be permitted to alienate, until tfao 
expiration of his service, when it should become his own abso- 
lutely, and in fee simple. In case of death before the completion 
of the tenant's engagement, the land should be in the same man- 
ner the absolute property of his legal representative, subject to the 
condition, that it should be resided on by an English owner or 
agent, for at least 16 years after the date of the first grant. In 
case of the colonist soldier being invalided before the completion 
of the SO years total service, the grant, in the same manner and 
under the same condition provided above in the event of death, 
should become the absolute property of the soldier. The colonist 
should at all times, until the absolute acquisition of the land, be 
liable to be deprived of it, for repeated and grave misconduct, or 
for neglecting to keep the estate under fair cultivation. During 
the whole period of colonial service the soldier should receive two 
fifbhs both of Indian pay, and family allowances, and when called 
out for more than the regulated days of training, the full amount of 
both should be granted him. In all cases of military offences the 
colonist should be subject to the Mutiny Act, Articles of War, and 
Queen's Regulations, while all civil offences, should be dealt with 
by common law. The military colonists should be called out for 
one day's drill in each month, in their respective villages, and for 
eight days together for battalion drill annually in some central 
place. On these occasions they might be massed, either by wings, or 
regiments, as should be deemed most advisable. In addition 
to the above they should be liable to be called out, for not 

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MILITAUY COLONIZATION IN INDIA. 225 

more than three days in each year for guards of honour or 
other occasions of ceremony. In case of war or disturbance^ or 
when they may be apprehended, or in any special emergency, 
such as the country being temporarily denuded of regular troops, 
the Lieut. Governor or Governor should be empowered to call out 
all, or any of them, for field service. Should any colonist before 
the expiration of his engagement become invalided as unfit for 
active service, but be still considered capable of garrison duty, 
he should be placed on the reserve list, and be only compelled to 
attend the monthly and annual training in his own village. 
Such men should during the annual training, be practised in mus- 
ketry, at as long ranges as can be met with in the immediate 
vicinity of the settlement ; but care should be taken to render 
such drill and practice, as little fatiguing and irksome to them as 
possible. On the corps to which they belong being called out for 
active service, the invalids should form the garrison of the 
station. In the event of the soldier becoming permanently unfit 
for any service, he should be called before a standing committee, 
consisting of one field officer as president, and two surgeons as 
members, who, according to the circumstances of the case, such 
as the man's utter incapacity for any work, his pecuniary circum- 
stances, his character, &c., should recommend him for the receipt 
of a pension not exceeding two fifths of what his pay and family 
allowance would amount to, were he still serving in the regular 
army. This pension should only be granted from year to year, 
and the amount for the ensuing twelve months should be fixed 
annually by the standing committee ; at the expiration, however, 
of the term for which he engaged to serve in the colonist corps, 
the pension should cease. In order to secure either the men or 
their wives and families from positive want, under any cir« 
cumstances, every man should, after the expiration of the third 

i rear's service, be compelled to contribute a very small sum month- 
y, such as two annas for himself, and one anna for his wife and 
for each child, by which a fund could be formed, whence 
relief might be afforded in cases of absolute distress either to the 
man. after the expiration of his service, or to the widow and 
children in case of his decease. No man at the expiration of 
his engagement, should draw either pay, pension, or family 
allowances, except for special and meritorious services, for which 
a certain small sum should be annually placed at the disposal of 
the Secretary to Government, Military Department. Even after 
the termination of the period of the soldier's second enlistment, 
the original grantee of land should be bound to render feudal 
service by appearing in arms for the defence of the station in. 
case of actual attack. 

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226 MILITART COLONIZATION IN INDIA. 

The Colonist villages should be occupied either by a company 
amounting to from sixty to a hundred and twenty, or a subdivi'- 
sion amounting to from thirty to sixty men. No village should 
be more than ten miles from the next, or further than twenty- 
five miles from the central point of assembly. Each company 
of eighty men and under, should be officered by one Captain and 
one Lieutenant^ when over that strength another Lieutenant 
should be added. When the battalion consists of eight com- 
panies or under, the field officers should be two, namely, a Lieu- 
tenant Colonel and a Major ; if over eight companies a second 
Major should be allowed. No Battalion shonld consist of more 
than twelve companies, and no company of more than one 
hundred and twenty men, exclusive of the reserve or invalid 
force. In each village an earthern fort with a shot-proof ma- 
gazine and arsenal should be constructed. In the enclosure there 
should be also a good well, situated in a spot sheltered from the 
Jire of the enemy, and provided with covered passages leading 
to it. The armoury should be sufficiently large to contain all 
the women and children of the station, while the men might 
•obtain shelter in the casemates. A sufficient amount of pro^ 
visions should be kept in store for a week^s siege. The hospital^ 
and treasury, should be within the walls of the fort, the lat- 
ter being constructed in such a way, as regards flanking, 
defence, &;c. tlmt a very small garrison would suffice to hold it. 
One large 68 pounder pivot gun placed in the most comman- 
ding position, together with some half dozen 24- pounder howit- 
zers and 12 pounder carronades distributed along the ram- 
parts, would complete the armament of the fort. An Assistant 
Surgeon and a Chaplain should be appointed to, at least, every 
three villages, while in each should be stationed a medical sul>> 
ordinate. The Assistant Surgeon and medical subordinate might 
also be employed to spread the blessing of vaccination among 
the surroimding natives and have charge of a native dis- 
pensary or hospital. In addition to his purely spiritual duties, 
the Chaplain would be able to superintend the education of 
the district: for this purpose, village schools for the younger 
children, and a central academy at Head Quarters, for those 
of more advanced ages, should be provided. Attached to each 
village school, a native class should be established, having no 
communication with the other children. The senior Chaplain 
of the corps, in concert with the Colonel, would be held respon- 
sible for the effectual working of the education of the whole of 
the district occupied by the regiment. At the Head Quarter 
Academy^ some useful trades and arts, together with Hindustanee 



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MILITARY COLONIZATION IN INDIA. 227 

ttij^ht be taught, in addition to the usual branches of education. 

Every officer should be invested with magisterial and collectoral 
powers over the district adjoining his station, while the Colonel 
and Field Officers should occupy the position of Commissioner 
and Deputy Commissioners over the division occupied by their 
corps. Each officer should receive a grant of land proportionate 
to his rank, and on the same terms a^ the non-commissioned 
officers and soldiers. On promotion he should be allowed the 
option of either buying the estate of the officer he replaces, 
receiving a certain allowance from Government, which should 
be the difference of price, according to calculation between the 
grant of uncultivated land held by him before promotion, and 
the amount attached to his present rank ; or of buying from 
Government at a certain fixed rate an amount of land equal 
to that attached to his former position, receiving a gratuitous 
addition sufficient to make the whole of the new estate equal to 
the acreage belonging to his increased rank. No officer should be 
appointed who has not been at least 7 years in India, and in 9 
the service. He should be married, able to show himself the 
possessor of a sum not under 1,500 rupees, after deducting the 
expenses of his journey, he should have passed in Hindustanee, 
as well as have some colloquial acquaintance with the dialect 
of the district in which his colony is placed. After serving 20 
years in the colonial corps, the grant of land in his possession 
at the time should become absolutely and entirely his own, pro- 
vided, he shall have served at least four years in his present 
rank ; otherwise he would receive only what appertained to that 
he last held. He should also, as a further boon, be allowed to 
retire on the full English pay of his rank, together with an 
honorary step of promotion. 

An Inspector of Military Colonies should be appointed, who 
would report to Government as to their efficiency and proper 
working, also whether any officer from age, sickness, or inefficien- 
cy, was disqualified for his post. The Colonel of each corps 
would assist in this, by means of his yearly or half-yearly reports, 
addressed to the above mentioned Inspector. 

The force should be under the direct control of the civil autho- 
rities, except in time of war. In each battalion 200 colonist 
Artillerymen with four light 6 pounder guns, and two 12 pounder 
howitzers should be distributed among the different companies. 
These pieces of ordnance should be of as light a description 
as possible, so that their transpcjtt, when the corps took the field, 
could easily be managed by mules, ponies, bullocks, or coolies. 
If to the establishment of the battalion were added a strong troop 



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iiS MILITAEY COLONIZATION IN INDIA. 

of 70 Colonist light dragoons and 60 horses^ a corps complete in 
every respect would be the result. This troop could be stationed 
in a village on one of the lower ranges, not more than two 
miles from the plains, and in as central a position, as regards the 
other villages of the battalion as possible. 

After the first nomination, promotion should go in the corps, 
both as re^^ards officers and non-commissioned officers, with 
the exception of one third of the vacancies, which might be 
filled up by drafts from the regular army. All promotion 
should, foi the sake of convenience, be confined, as far as pos- 
sible, to the village or district where the vacancy had occur- 
red. At the Head Quarter tK)lony should reside the Regimen- 
tal Staff. This would be composed of the Paymaster, per- 
forming, in addition to his other duties, those of Civil Treasurer, 
the Quarter master, also acting as Assistant Commissary Greneral, 
the Surgeon, and the Adjutant. Of these, the Quarter mas- 
ter and the Adjutant would perform none but purely military ser- 
vices. A Captain and two Lieutenants from the Aj*tillery should 
superintend the gun drills take charge of the Ordnance stores, 
and, on the corps being called out, either for training or active 
service, officer the Field Battery. "When not occupied bv 
their special duties, thev should be at the disposal of the com- 
manding officer for employment, either, in a civil, or a military 
capacity, or in both combined. For example, they might conduct 
the survey of the district, and take charge of the roads, a task for 
which their previous scientific education would admirably fit 
them. As regards musketry instruction, one of the subalterns 
might be appointed to perform, in addition' to his other duties, 
those of Instructor of musketry. The possession of a Hythe 
certificate should be an indispensable qu%li£cation for this post^ 
and some extra pay should be attached to it. Promotion by 
brevet should be allowed to go on, and officers of the Colonist 
Corps should rank, and take command with those of the regular 
army, according to date of commissions. Leave should be 
granted as laid down in the new regulations for H. M.^s Indian 
forces, while pensions and compassionate allowances should be 
bestowed in accordance with the rules of H. M.^s service. This 
regulation of course is not to be taken as interfering with any 
vested interests regarding Indian pensions. The monthly pay of 
the officers of the colonist corps, to be as follows ; Lieutenant 
350 rupees ; Captain 550 rupees ; Major 900 rupees ; Lieutenant 
Colonel 1300 rupees, with a command allowance of 400 rupees. 
The Regimental Staff should receive 100 rupees a month more 
than they would have obtained in the line^ with the exception of 



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MILTTART COLONIZATION IN INDIA. 229 

the Adjutant whose pay is already large^ and who would have 
none but purely regimental duties to perform. The Eegimental 
Staff should also receive grants of land according to their rela- 
tive army rank. It may be observed that the rate of pay here 
fixed^ is larger than that of the regular army^ the Colonist Corps^ 
moreover, receiving grants of land in addition. The reason for 
this apparent anomidy is to be found in the fact, that besides 
the military duties, in time of peace sufficiently light, the whole 
civil administration of the district would be performed by the 
officers of the corps ; and that their promotion would be much 
slower than in the regular service. As regards the extra 
100 rupees a month proposed for all the staff, with the excep- 
tion of the Adjutant, it must be remembered that their labours 
would not be limited to duties of a purely regimental nature. 
For every three or four Colonist regiments, a Lieutenant Colo- 
nel of Artillery and one of Cavalry should be appointed. These 
officers should not interfere with the Infantry Lieutenant Colo- 
nels, except as regards matters specially belonging to their own 
branches of the service. On the regiments being called out 
for training, they should superintend the cavalry and artillery 
drill, and, on Colonist brigades being formed, would assume 
command of their respective arms. Their pay would only be, 
1200 rupees a month consolidated, except in the field, or when 
called out for permanent duty, on which occasions, they should 
receive the pay and allowances attached to their rank in the 
regular service. The freedom from all civil duty explains the 
proposal of a rate of pay lower than that suggested for Infantry 
Lieutenant Colonels. The Captains and Lieutenants of Artillery 
and Cavalry, being employed in a civil as well as a military 
capacity, should receive respectively 120 rupees and 70 rupees 
a month over and above the pay of their rank in the regular 
army. 

The cost of the scheme is now to be considered ; and though 
we do not purpose to enter into intricate calculations on the sub- 
ject, yet we do not hesitate to assert, that, considering that the 
officers would administer the civil government of the district, a 
very considerable saving would accrue to the State. The expense 
of the grants of land would be but trifling, while the pay and 
pensions would be less than that of a regiment of the line. 

Besides these considerations, the passages home, as regards the 
men entering the Colonist Corps, otherwise requisite would be 
saved. Though much cheaper, such a corps would be, cssteris pari- 
bus, very nearly as efficient as a regiment of the line ; indeed in 
some respects it would be more so. A series of such colonies, 

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280 MIUTART COLONIZATION IN INDIA. 

located in strong positions^ and consisting of men acqaainted 
with the coiintry in general, and the immediate neighbourhood 
in particular, acclimatized to India, if such a thing as acclimatiza- 
tion be possible, and of toleiably strong constitutions, as shown 
by their lasting through the previous Une service, would be of 
incalculable benefit for the occupation of the eountiy. Each 
battalion of such a corps, at all times complete in itself, and 
composed of men accustomed to natives, and many to Indian 
warfare would be equal to four times their number of Sepoys. 
During the absence of the battalions on service, the colonist 
villages, with their fortified keeps manned by invalids, those ou 
the reserve list, and those bound to furnish feudal service, to- 
gether with the independent English residents, would supply 
an important element of strength. 

The inducements held out to the men would consist in the^ 
free grant of land ; the pension — ^for their pay in the Colonist 
Corps would be virtually such — drawn throughout the period of 
colonist service; the comparative fireedom firom military res- 
traint; residence in a fixed and healthy locality; the family al- 
lowances bestowed until the termination of tike second engage^ 
ment; and the great scope for industry and talent. 

As to the officers the attractions are, we consider, quite suffi- 
cient to induce able men to join the corps. They are as foUows : 
the grant of land ; the high pay ; and the settled home in a 
good eUmate, by which the expense and worry of marching, so 
great in the case of families in India, would be avoided ; we use 
the term settled home, because the removals on account of promo* 
tion would neither be sufficiently frequent, nor to so great a 
distance, as to deserve mention. To married men with large 
families and who had been unfortunate in promotion, such a corpa 
would ofier great advantages. 

By entering it, both officers and men would be able to reckon 
on providing comfortably and respectably for their wives aad 
children. To government, the direct results of the scheme 
would be increased English agency in civil administration, and 
the establishment of an efficient force, costing little and supplying 
the place of native regiments ; while those of a more indirect 
nature must be found in an improved state of the revenue 
arising from developed resources, increased production and a 
higher state of civilization — ^that best safeguard of our rule ; 
in the tranquillity and consequent prosperity which would soon be- 
come apparent ; in the inducement which the prospect of ultimate 
admission to such a corps, would hold out to the enlistment of 
a better class of recruits ; in an extended acquaintance with the 



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mUTARY COLONIZATION IN INDIA. ^31 

Biatives and their state of feeling; and lastly in the moral hold 
on the country, which the increasinpj English population would 
daily render more firm. Nor would the country itself, and the 
liative population be without benefits from such a plan. We 
will indicate some of them. Increase of employment, the 
opening of many new branches of trade and agriculture ; togeth- 
er with the improvement of those already existing ; the estab* 
lishment of many thousands of English homes, each acting as a 
little centre of civilization ; the promotion of industry and 
enterprise by the increased strength of our rule ; and, lastly, the 
eultivation of much land at present lying waste or but imper- 
fectly tilled. 

These are some of the advantages which may with confidence 
be predicted, as the consequences of the adoption of military colo- 
nization. Indeed the advantages both political and military, 
commercial and financial, appear to us so great, while the cost 
of an experiment would be so small, that it would be unworthy of 
Government to delay any longer making it. Success being, 
as we can scarcely doubt, the result, military colonies should be 
established throughout the whole of India. The distribution 
might be as follows. To the Punjab three might be allotted ; 
one stationed in the hills near Murree ; another in the Kangra 
district ; and a third in one of the central ranges to the east of 
Jhelum and Rawul Pindee. At present there are in the Punjab 
about 10 regiments of British Infantry, 3 of Cavalry, and 9 troops 
or batteries of Artillery. Under the proposed system there would 
be added to the above; 3 Regiments of Colonist Infantry 
toiounting to, from £,500 to 3,000 men; 3 Troops of Light 
Dragoons numbering some 160 or 180 sabres; and 3 Field Bat- 
teries. Such a force, supplementary to the regular troops, would 
enable the Oovemment to dispense with the present large native 
force, with the exception of some 10 Regiments of Infimtry, 8 
of Cavalry, and 2 Mountain Batteries, which would be required 
for frontier and escort duty. Nor would the three Colonist Field 
Forces be the whole of the strength substituted for the disbanded 
native corps ; for from 15 to 25 villages in each regiment with 
their fortified keeps, would serve as so many poinU d'appui, so 
many places of refrige, and so much overawing force — ^if we may 
use the expression — with which to maintain our rule in the 
neighbouring districts. Assuming, therefore, that the colonists 
would furnish 3,500 men of aU arms, ready at any moment to 
take the field, and reckoning 1,000 English, as equal to 4,000 
Native Soldiers, 14,000 of the latter could be disbanded ; and 
we should still be stronger than before by. 15 or 25 viUage- 



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23*2 IIILITART COLONIZATION IN INDIA. 

forts garriBoned by the reserve force, invalids and voluntedrs, 
as well as by the moral influence of an increased and increas- 
ing English population. The reasoning and calculations ap- 
plied to the Punjab, would also hold good in any other 
province, with the exception that the former requires a 
larger native force than would elsewhere be necessary as re- 
gards at least the Bengal Presidency; one colonist regiment 
might be stationed im the hills between Kalka and Simla, 
and one each in those of Rajmahal, Dehrah and Darjeeling 
districts, while a fifth could be located among the isolated 
hills aud ranges, so frequent in that part of Bigpoetana where 
the Bengid and Bombay Presidencies touch. As regards Bom* 
bay and Madras we cannot venture even to suggest spots 
as suitable for military colonies, but we believe many — par- 
ticularly in the Neilgherries — are to be met with well adapted 
to the required purpose. To each of these Presidencies, wo would 
allot two Regiments. According to this arrangement the total 
number of colonist corps for all India, would amount to 12, 
varying in effective field strength from 700 to 1100 each, and 
glueing a total of about 10,000 Infantry, 700 Cavalry, and 72 
pieces ef Artillery. This, by our former calculation of the 
relative value of Eoglish and Native Soldiers, woidd enable 
the Government to disband about 50,000 of the latter, while in 
compensation it would gain, besides the 12 Colonist Regiments, 
about 250 village forts sufficiently strong to resist a coup 
de main and to hold out until the arrival of succour. The 
distribution we have recommended would tend to reduce the 
JIative Army of Beng^, in a much greater proportion than 
those of Bombay and Madras. This we consider advisable, on 
account of the inferior trustworthiness of the Bengal sepoy 
as compared with his Madras or Bombay comrade* 

The companies of each Colonist corps being, at the utmost, 
only 25 or 28 miles from the Head Quarters — this last being 
invariably in the centre — the concentration of the Regiment 
could be easily effected. A simple system of telegraph communi- 
cation, either electric or other being organized, the different 
companies could be collected, within 12 hours after the issue 
of the order from Head Quarters, and the baggage, camp 
equipage, and guns within 6 more. The troop of Cavalry, being 
only useful in the plains, should be ready to join the rest of the 
oorps as it debouched from the hills. Each Regiment might 
easily be made as efficient as a moveable column, and horses 
be obtained for the Battery, by adopting the following arrange- 
ments. Every 8 privates and corporals should maintain among 

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lULITART COLONIZATION IN INDIA. £33 

tbem, 1 camel, or each take it in turn; each Sergeant 1 
mule; each Lieutenant I mule and 1 draught horse; each Captain 
1 mule and 2 draught or saddle horses ; each Major, £ mules and £ 
draught or saddle horses ; each Lieutenant Colonel, £ mules and 3 
draught or saddle horses. To aid in keeping up this transport esta* 
blishment £ annas per day should be idlowed by Gbvemment for 
each animal. Provided they were kept tolerably efficient and in fair 
condition, the owners might be allowed to use them for any purpose 
they chose. No animal, destined for the use of the regiment 
•hould be purchased or changed, without the approval of the 
•fficer commanding the station, who, while instructed to make 
this obligation of providing transport as little irksome as possi-- 
ble, should be empowered to withhold the £ annas a day if the ant* 
mals were not kept in working condition. By this means provi-- 
sion would be made for the transport of baggage, camp eqmpage, 
and stores, as well as for the draught of the Battery. A monthly 
muster should be taken, on which occasion, those animals allot* 
ted to the b^gage, shcmld be loaded, and those destined for the 
Battery ham^sed, the whole being taken for a inarch of one* 
mile at least for the sake of practice. Each owner should be 
responsible that the different animals received a sliort training to< 
fit them for their intended purpose ; this together with the 
monthly and anniul drills and musters, would make them fit to 
take the field at a mementos notice, in a tolerable state of effi* 
oiency ; while a month on a campaign,, in the charge of experien- 
ced hands, would render them perfect. 

More than l£ such colonies^, as we have described, could not be 
maintained at their fixll strengtii, nor perhaps is there sufficient 
reason why so many should be kept up. Let the number of these 
corps be prc^rtioned to the supply obtainable. Li the first place 
let one colony of one company be tried. K it prove a failure, the 
expense will not have been v^ry great, nor would the experiment 
be totally devoid of benefit to the country. If, on the contrary, 
success attended the experiment, the number of colonies may 
gradually be increased, until they amount to 1£ regiments, or as 
many as may be deemed advisable. The men attracted would, as 
a general rule, be those who eith^ would not otherwise have re- 
mained in the service, or at best would have stayed but a short 
time longer ;, thus the regular army would not be injured. 

Let us briefly recapitulate in a single paragraph, th^ advan-* 
tages attendant on the adoption of the scheme which forms 
the subject of this article. It would act as an inducement to 
a superior description of recruits ; it would be a strong motive^ 
to steady^ sober^ and saving habits in regiments on Indian 

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231. MILITART COLONIZATION IN INDIA. 

fiervice ; vast sums, now expended in providing passages home 
for discharged men, would be retained in the Treasury ; it would 
fnmish a veteran, yet healthy and efficient force, ready to take the 
field at any moment, and better able to resist the diseases inciden- 
tal to a campaign, than one composed of those whose health had 
been impaired by a long residence in the plains ; it would increase 
the civilization of the country, develop its resources and tend to the 
discovery of many at present hidden sources of wealth ; it would 
strengthen our grasp of India, while permitting the disbandment 
of a large native force, thus relieving us of a very just cause 
for apprehension, and our exhausted treasury of a considerable^ 
expenditure; it would bring English capital to India; and lastly 
it would enable Government to have an increased English civil 
administration in the numerous and extensive districts occupied 
by the colonists. Some outlay would doubtless in the first 
place be necessitated, but not more than would be covered by 
the first two or three years' savings from diminished military 
expenditure. Some details of the scheme brought in the pro- 
eeding pages to the notice of the reader would probably require 
modification, and others elaboration. Time and experience would 
be our best guides, as to the manner of carrying out a scheme 
never before attempted under similar circumstances. But should 
even a complete remodelling of the scheme be found necessary^ 
it would not affect the principles we have sought to urge on 
our readers namely, that the establishment of military colohies 
in India, would both directly and indirectly increase our strength^ 
augment our riches, and diminish our expenditure. 

Considering the practical minds with whom by writing thii 
article, we bring ourselves into contact, it was necessary that 
we shoidd draw out a rough plan of details to show, the feasi- 
bility of the scheme we advocate, and that it claims to be some- 
thing more than a mere speculative theory. Such must be 
accepted as an excuse for touching on questions of machinery, 
on which so many are able to give more valuable advice than 
ourselves. Even, however, should other means of carrying out 
the same project be adopted, we shall not regret having entered 
into that part of the subject, for our very mistakes will serve as 
beacons to guide the organizer to complete success. Grant but the 
principle and let any one have the credit of the machinery by. 
which it is carried out. Such a field as India offers for English 
ener^ and capital can no longer be neglected, nor can the safety of 
the brightest gem in the British crown be left to dogmatical 
and worn out traditionary policy. 



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MIL1TART COLONIZATION IN INBU. 235 

The native population of India may be compared to fire, a 
good and useful agent if kept under proper subjection, but at 
the same time a most dangerous element if neglected or per- 
mitted to gain the upper hand. That the profession of arms is 
not a safe outlet for i^eir energies, is acknowledged by all save 
a few^ who, unenlightened by the fearful warnings afforded by 
Indian history in general, and the late mutiny in particular, 
perceive no danger, in trusting the native with arms, and ima- 
gine consequently that none exists. An array liable at any 
moment to be excited to madness, for the slightest, the most 
childish, the most imaginary reasons ; an army which hates, 
whilst it fears us ; an army which is ignorant of the very name 
of loyalty ; an army, the hostile races and sects of which are mov* 
ed by different motives in a strong confederation of discontent 
against their rulers ; an army which cannot be depended on even 
to consult its most obvious interests ; an army whose revolt 
would receive the support of public opinion, and whose opera- 
tions in case of rebellion would be openly favoured or secretly 
sympathized with by nine hundred and ninety nine out of 
every thousand of the population ; an army of this description 
cannot be looked upon in any other light than that of a 
nuisance, one which cannot altogether be done away with, but 
i^hich should be brought within the smallest possible compass. 
This may in our opinion be effected by improving our means 
of internal transport, and thus with a small number of troops 
enabling a strong force to be suddenly massed on any threat- 
ened point ; and by the establishment of military colonies. This 
last measure besides affording military strength, would benefit the 
country in many ways ; amongst others it would attract settlers 
and capital from England, and if our hopes are npt deceiving us 
would inaugurate a new era for India. In 20 years^ time this 
well nigh bankrupt country would become a rich, lightly taxed, 
yet highly productive dependency; adding equsSly to the 
wealth, strength, and reputation of the British empire. What 
is it now ? a source of weakness to England, dependent on her 
for security, tottering on the verge of insolvency, and a source 
of well founded anxiety to all entrusted with its Government. 



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2S6 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL IKDU. 



Art. III. — 1. Report on the Mundla District South of fiie Ner- 
budda. By G. F. Pearson^ Capt., Superintendent of Forests^ 
Jubbulpore Division. 
2. Manuscript Reports on different parts of Central India. 

EVERY one, who has paid even the slightest attention to such 
subjects, is aware, that there existe within the limits of 
British India, a vast area of which very little is really known. 
An inspection of our best maps, the sheets for instance of the 
Indian Atlas, will at once impress this fact on the mind of any 
one who entertains any doubts about its truth, and some idea of 
the immense extent of those unknown tracts may perhaps be 
best realized by finding in such Maps the words ' unexplor* 
ed/ or * unfrequented and thinly inhabited jungles,* spread- 
ing in widely separated letters over the paper, or perhaps still' 
more forcibly by the eloquent silence of blank spaces. 

Nevertheless, within this area lie lofby hills and wide valleys, 
broad plains and winding rivers, abounding in scenery whose 
picturesque beauty it would be very difficult to match; it 
almost all lies hi^h above the sea level; manv portions of it, 
now practically umnhabited, are extremely fertile, and not a few 
isolated spots possess advantages of climate, which, although 
they may not render them equal to our 'hill stations' or 
Sanataria, yet give them a vast superiority over our ordinary 
cantonments as residences for Europeans ; some such places wiU 
we believe be found well suited to the English constitution, and 
perhaps in a few instances may even become the permanent 
abodes of settlers of our race. 

These vast jungle tracts have been penetrated here and there 
by an enterprising sportsman, or by some zealous missionary, 
and an occasional official has now and again found his way into 
them, when some exceptional duty has called for his presence 
far away from his ordinary beat ; such explorers have left isolated 
records of their adventures and observations, some in the pages 
of the sporting Journals, some in those pubUcations which are 
devoted to Missionary labors, while others and by far the most 
valuable are buried deep among the Records of Government. The 
Journal of jbhe Asiatic Society also contains some papers of gpreat 



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/ 



THB HIGHLANDS OF CEMTBAL INDU. 2S7 

▼alua and interest^ such as those by Major Sherwill and Mr. 
Samuels, describing different parts of the jungle highlands of Hin- 
dustan, and the wild people who inhabit them ; the ethnologists 
too have been busy in the same learned volumes. We believe in- 
deed that the study of the aborigines of Hindustan has been 
pretty successAilly prosecuted both physiologically and philolo^ 
gically. Notwithstanding all this, if we consider the immense 
extent of the subject, and the many points of interest which it 
presents, and if we remember the proverbially roving tendencies 
of Englishmen, and their usual readiness to give the public the 
benefit of their experiences, at least in these all-printing days, it 
will not, we think, be found unfair to assert that we know mar-> 
vellously little of these mountain districts of British India. 

The explanation, is we presume to be found in the fact that 
those qualified to collect the information, or likely to record it 
for our benefit, have been fully occupied in other and more im-» 

Eortant duties. All attention has been naturally enough absorbed 
y the tax paying and litigating dweller in the cultivated dis- 
tricts, while the man of the jungles, who paid . nothing to the 
public treasury, and seldom appeared in the civil or criminal 
courts, remained almost unknown, and uncared for : in Bengal 
this was eminently the case, until the Sonthal, not long since, 
forced himself somewhat unpleasantly on the notice of the 
authorities. 

It would be an interesting enquiry, but quite impracticable with- 
in the limits of an ordinary article, to ask how far the successive 
conquerors of Hindustan established their power over the inhabi- 
tants of the jungle tracts, or how far their influence was directly 
or indirectly felt within its limits. One thing is however evident, 
namely, that from the time of the great Aryan invasion, the 
physicsJ capabilities of the land have always regulated the pro- 
gresa of civilization, and of the more civilized races in their ad- 
vance over the country. The aborigines, or antecedent possessors 
of the soil were driven first from the great alluvial plains, and 
more fertile valleys. Nor would it seem that these ancient immi- 
grants ever gained, perhaps they never even cared to seek, much 
eontrol over the savage denizens of the hills and forests which 
on every side hemmed in their conquests. Subsequently, how- 
ever, there was at least one way in which the masters of the rich 
plains were forced into contact with the wild people of the 
highlands : the roads from city to city necessarily often passed 
through parts of the jungle country ; whenever this was the 
case, tolls, and black-mail were, as a matter of course, levied by 
the savages on the unhappy trader, these were, of course, equally 

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838 THE HIGHLANDS OP CENTRAL INDIA. 

often made the pretext for exactions which most have had % 
most injurious effect on trade, and may in some cases have put 
an end to its very existence : we may moreover be sure, that 
bad as such spoliation must have been, it sometimes still further 
degenerated into open pillage and wholesale plunder and murder ; 
we know indeed that this was the case, for we found it so, aa 
British power extended itself from district to district throughout 
Hindustan ; and some of our earliest intercourse with the jungle 
tribes was carried on by those officers, to whom the duty was 
entrusted of putting a stop to their depredations, and keeping 
open the principal lines of communication. For this purpose 
different plans were adopted in different parts of the country, to 
meet the varying conditions of each locality: Cleveland pension- 
ed in the Damin-i-koh (better known as the Rajmahal hills,) 
the chiefs of tribes, and heads of villages, who have accord- 
ingly ever since received from five to twenty rupees a month from 
government : elsewhere in Behar and throughout central India, 
the leaders of gangs of plunderers, rather than hereditary chiefs 
were dealt with : they were made Ghatwals : a tract of land, some- 
times a very large one, was given to the Ohatwal, either at a 
very low rent, or else rent free, and a regular stipend payable 
in money was afterwards added in lieu of his supposed right to the 
tolls above mentioned, and on the understanding that he should 
be held responsible for the safety of a certain length of roadj 
and for all highway robberies occurring within a district agreed 
on. The Qhatwali, unlike the pensions of the Rajmahal men, 
was not hereditary, in theory at least : infraction of the con- 
ditions of the grant rendered it ipso facto vacant, and although 
we believe that in practice the son, or other heir generally 
succeeded to the dignity and emolument, yet the sanction of 
Government was always necessary. In each case the object 
which brought* the British authorities into contact with the 
jungle people was to secure the safety of the principal roads ; 
and the plans which they followed were crowned with a success 
so complete that in almost every instance the dangers which 
their negotiations were intended to meet have been entirely for- 
gotten, and the continuance of the pensions and grants seems an 
anachronism in our times. Such negotiations, however, and the 
intercourse to which they gave rise, were from the nature of the 
case confined to a few localities, and of course left the highlands 
of Hindustan nearly as much a terra incognita as before. 

It is not our intention to attempt any general description of 
60 vast an area, our limits would not admit of it, nor do we indeed 
possess the necessary materials; we may refer the reader td 

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THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 239 

such papers as we haVe above alluded to^ aa^uriDg him that they 
abound in interesting matter; and considering those and other 
such isolated records^ as useful material for the construction of 
a still future history of the ancient inhabitants of Hindustan, 
we shall endeavour to add one more to their number, and trust 
that we shall do good service in calling attention to the contents 
of the document before us. 

That portion of the vast area which we have called the high- 
lands of Hindustan, to which we shall confine our remarks, in- 
cludes the patch of country, which, on our maps, bears the names 
of Santpoora, Ghondwana, Mundla, Sohagpore, and Singrowlie. 
It is thus bounded on the north by the generally east and west 
line traced across the peninsula by the source of the Nerbudda 
and of the Soane rivers ; and without undertaking to fix any 
definite limit for our area on the south, we shall not wander far 
in that direction ; on the west, the course of the Taptee river 
might furnish us with a convenient and sufficiently definite 
boundary line ; but to the east, we cannot find one, for the wild 
unknown tract extends &r down towards the Madras Country, 
behind Chota Nagpore, and Orissa. 

We shall then confine our remarks to the tract of country 
stretching east and west immediately to the south of the Soane 
and the Nerbudda valleys, and within these limits shall rather 
dwell on some selected localities than attempt to give any 
general descriptions. The whole is however very beautiful : it is 
hilly, almost mountainous, covered with fine forest jungle, and 
watered by streams and rivers which always contain running 
water : the scorching heat of May and June never bums up the 
grass, which is at all seasons fresh and green : game abounds, 
the gour (bison), buffalo, sambur (elk), the golden barasinga 
(lal sambur), the spotted deer« chikara, hog deer, benkra 
(jungle sheep) and ravine deer, hogs and haies are found 
almost every-where, and elephants in some places. Tigers too 
and leopards, bears, hyenas and wolves are for the most part plen- 
tiful : the tigers are so numerous in parts of this country as to 
have got the credit of having depopulated whole Talooks : 
Government indeed organized an expedition against them and 
an officer was actually appointed for the duty shortly before 
the mutiny broke out. 

Many an exciting episode in the history of Hindustan has 
been played out in this jungle country, from the most ancient 
times down to the chase after Tantia Topee. From the base 
of the hills to the north the advancing tide of the Aryan im- ' 
migration must have been often beaten back: and, although 



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MO THR HlOnLAXDS OT CENTEAL fSDlA. 

we shall presently bare ta notice at least one case, in whicb 
the conquerors exercised power within oar Emits^ yet even now, 
along the Nerbudda and Soane valleys, tbere is a sharply marked 
line of demarcation between the tnhabitants of the fine alluvial 
flats which stretch along the banks of those rivers, and tbe den- 
izens of the hilly country south of them. The aborigines per- 
haps long retained sufficient power to make outlying settlements 
among the hilla, midesirable for the inhabitants of the piains, 
and a defensible frontiei^ a necessity of self-preservation : whilst 
the wild tribes were themselves safe from all fear of invasion 
among the trackless forests, rugged hills and deep ravines, to 
which they could at a moment's notice retire, even if attacked 
in their few and scattered villages, and clearings. 

Ethnology has, we are aware, subdivided these aboriginal in- 
habitants of Hindustan into many families : their language, we 
believe, warrants this classification, as do also sonire perhaps of 
their habits and religious peculiarities : the Hindus moreover 
speak of them as belonging to many different castes, such as 
Oonds, Coles, Bygars, Sonthals, Bheels, Bhoomeahs, Kurkurs, &c. 
notwithstanding whidr, to the unscientific traveller their similari- 
ties will far outweigh all such differences ; he will infalliUy treat 
them all as one people, or his first efibrt at classification wiH 
certainly be based on the greater or less admixture of the blood 
of the higher races, which he will not fail soon to notice here 
and there among them : utterly nnaUe to distinguish a Otoni 
from a Sonthal, o^ a Bheel from a Cole, he will at once seize on the 
palpable difference between the Oond inhabiting a village near 
the plains, and who evidently has Hindu blood in his veins, and 
his fellow Oond ot pure extraction from the depth of the jim- 
gle fastnesses. 

This method of ignoring the ethnological difficulties, which 
meet us, is eminently unscientific, but as it does no violence to 
facts, and will prove convenient in avoiding confusion, it may 
suffice for our purposes: the following passage from Captain 
Pearson's Report contains a good description of these people 
which may be considered as generally applicable, and which also 
will be foimd to contain a practical comment, on the advantages 
of our method of classification, or rather of ignoring subdivi- 
sions. 

' ' The Gonds hardly require any description ; they are in this 
' part of the country, for the most part an exceedingly poor, 
' miserable, indolent and unsettled race ; far inferior as far as I 
' have seen to the Beitul Gk>nds ; cultivating in any spot but 
' just enough to supply their personal wants ; very timid^ and I 



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THB HIGHLANDS OF CBNTRAL U^DIA. ZiL 

think, much kept down and bullied by the petty landowners, 
their own Tbakoors: it is perhaps a misfortune for thenr 
that, owing to the extreme fertility of the soil, kodon, which, 
is their staple article of food, is almost spontaneously produced ;• 
* * * they wear the most infinitesimal portion of clothing, 
that it is possible to conceiye, and subsist in a great measure 
on the natural produce of the jungles ; * * * they generally live^ 
in the most out of the way parts of the foresl^ and at the 
top of the very highest hills ; * * * they use no implement of 
agriculture whatever except the hatchet; **«■** they show, 
considerable energy in cutting down very large tracts of jungle 
on the hill sides, where they invariably form their fields, burning 
the trees as soon as they are dry, and simply throwing down 
kodon and kootkee seed, at the commencement of the rains, in the. 
ashes. This seed is left to come up of itself as it best can, with- 
out the slightest attempt at ploughing or preparing the groimd 
in any way whatever further than I have described above, and 
when the crop has grown and ripened, such as has escaped the 
depredations of the deer and wild hogs is cut and stored for 
use. * * * yhey never use the same spot twice, and inva« 
riably select the sides of hills, for their fields, leaving un- 
touched the rich soil of the valleys. It is not le^ wonderful to> 
behold the immense tracts of jungle, which they have cleared 
with their hatchets in the course of time, than the curious 
spots which they select for their fields and huts, I have seen a 
Bygar field on a ledge of rook, half way down the steep ghats 
overhanging Lumnee, with a precipice of 600 or 800 feet 
both above and below : and on a dark night, on the summit of 
the highest hill, one glimmering spark may often be seen 
showing the solitarv hut of some Bygar, who has built his hut 
and formed h'is field there. * * -h- * I cannot find that 
the Bygars differ in any way from the Gbnds in their man- 
ners and customs, but they are usually, I think, blacker in 
color and more athletic; they appear both to use the same 
ceremonies and to worship the same idols. At first on going 
near their villages they are usually very timid, but after a 
little encouragement they would often become very communi- 
cative and even confidential. I should call them a simple; 
harmless, and, I think, generally a truthful race : rather slow 
at comprehending any Xhing at first, but afterwards, when 
they understand it, showing considerable shrewdness in many 
respects, much more so than you would at first give them 
credit for/ p. 16, 



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%4it THE HIGHLilNDS 07 CENTEAL INDIA. 

It has been suggeeted from several considerations^ some of 
which we shall have to notice presently, and is, we believe, pretty 
generally believed, that the Gonds once enjoyed a high state of 
civilization, or, at least, that they were once at a very mnch 
higher j>o\nt in the scale of progress, than that at which we find 
them. The subject of the descent of any people in the scale of 
civilization, their degradation in knowledge of the arts of life is 
one full of interest: it has engaged the attention of many 
thinkers in our time, and has given rise to many diversities of 
opinion. Some assert that such cases occur frequently, or even 
that all savage nations were once in a state of comparatively 
high civilization: others, on the contrary, believe that if sucn 
cases ever occur at all, they are extremely rare, and that the 
amount of the real retrogression is always much less than is 
generally supposed. 

Now within our area we find everywhere traditions of the 
golden days of the Gond Rajahs, when the district which, is 
now an unprofitable waste produced great revenues : and when 
plenty, if not peace, blessed the valleys now overrun by dense 
jungle, and permanently tenanted only by .the beasts of the 
for^. Captain Pearson shows (Report p. 39,) that these tra- 
ditions are &bulous for the most part; but, in confirmation 
of at least a modified form of them, we find occcasionally a case 
like that presented by the Talooka Mowye, which he thus des- 
cribes at p. 29. 

' There are in this Talook some very remarkable renuuns of 
' extensive irrigation, works of former days, there bein^ a great 
' number of tsmks (said to be 120) round Mowye itself These 
' are, some of them, of considerable size, but they are generally 
'much out of repair now. I was unable to obtain the least in- 
' formation as to who constructed the tanks, or when they were 
' made. The people attribute them to Rajah Bheem, a fabulous 

* personage, whose " \&t" I saw at Bheemlat. But there is in 
'the jungle near Mowye what the people take to be 9k forty 

* but which seems to be nothing more than a mound of earth and 
'burnt bricks, fifty or sixty feet in diameter and twenty or 
' twenty five feet in height. There are several large masses of 
'stone lying about, and it struck me as being something simi- 
' lar to the Buddhist Topes at Sanchee near Bhilsa. If I am 
'correct in my surmise, it is possible that the tanks were of the 
' same date as the mounds here referred to, and that they were 
'constructed by the Buddhists at a very distant period : more- 
' over, I think that in Ceylon there are enormous irrigation 
' works^ now fallen into ruin, which were constructed by the 



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THE HIGHLANDS OP CENTRAL INDIA. 243 

* Buddhists in former ages^ and which would seem to point to a 
'similar origin for these/ As to the date and origin of 'these 
tanks and moimds it would obviously be impossible for us to 
oflfer any opinion : the subject is not without interest from the point 
of view of the antiquarian : to us it only presents itself as part of 
the wider question above mentioned, namely the ancient civili- 
zation of the Gonds. It may have been a natural, but it is certain- 
ly a very hasty conclusion to arrive at, that, because these poor 
savages are now the sole inhabitants of districts where those 
ruins Ue, they therefore erected the buildings of which the 
mounds prove the former existence, or that if they did build 
them, that fact can be taken as any proof of their having for- 
merly attained a much higher state of civilization. 

It is quite certain that formerly, (as is now the case in somcj 
neighbouring districts,) Hindus of the Baghel, Rajput, and 
Brahmin castes, estabUshed themselves in many parts of the 
Oond country, not as colonists in the ordinary sense, but as a 
kind of feudal chiefs. Such were the so called Gond Rajahs ; 
such were also the freebooters who from being the terror of the 
traveller, became as we have before described, the pensioned 
protectors of the mountain roads. Ruled by these men of another 
race, the Gonds once no doubt, held a political position which they 
have long lost; they were respected, or at least feared by their 
neighbours ; wealth was accumulated, and such structures as these 
taouks and mounds erected. But as to the Gonds themselves, it 
would be, we think, gratuitous to assume that any thing which 
can be justly called civilization had progressed to any consider- 
able extent among them : their social condition may have been 
just as low as it is now, and, relatively to their alien lords, just 
as degraded as at present : their manners and customs, their 
religious rites, their ideas on such subjects as property, mar- 
riages, inheritance, personal liberty, all, in short, which goes 
to make up our idea of what is called civilization, may have been 
just what we find them ; and thus, instead of coiisidering the 
poor Gond as the degraded descendant of the men who built the 
tanks, and mounds, we are led to the conclusion that the real 
constructors of the»Be and other monuments of the former exis- 
tence of a higher civilization in Gondwand, were Hindus or 
Buddhists, belonging to the higher race — ^that race which in the 
Hindustan of our times represents the highest civilization to 
which the Hindu population has ever reached, and to which it 
probably attained even before the Bhilsa topes were thought of. 
Among the other monuments left, of the state of things to which 
we allude, the most striking are no doubt the hUl forts so numerous 

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Stii THE HIGHLANDS OT CENTRAL n<DU, 

within our area : the position in which some of their remark- 
able ruins are found, suggest that they mark the site of castles 
and watch towers^ created by the inhabitants of the plains, as 
defence against the predatory raids of their dangerous neighbour» 
of the hill country : but by far the greater number of them were 
unquestionably the strong holds of the robber chiefe themselves, 
built to facilitate, their forays and protect themselves and their 
ill-gotten spoil. 

Saoligurh, Baorgurh, Jamgurh, Asseer, Bandugurh and counts 
less others, are perched on the summit of some naturally almost 
inaccessible eminence ; very little artificial assistance made the 
one only possible approach easily defensible by a handful of men 
against a host of assailants ; one or more tanks according to the 
requirements of the garrison completed the arrangements. Per- 
manent buildings were not as a rule erected inside ; in most cases 
one such is found, though sometimes the ruins prove the former 
existence of rather ambitious structures. One purpose which all 
these forts most probably served, and for which perhaps they 
were most frequently used, was as places of refuge in times of 
danger : they were the secure asylums to which the females and 
the treasures of their owners could be conveyed in the day of 
trouble. Legends of buried treasure are almost universally con- 
nected with them ; and, indeed, with every probability of truth, 
if we remember that the habit of thus disposing of precious 
things, is, even now, universal in Hindustan, and that such pla- 
ces as these forts would naturally be favorite depositories. To jus- 
tify the hopes of the treasure seekers we have only to suppose 
what must have not un&equently happened, namely a successful 
surprise on the fort and a change of masters by a coup de main. 

The stories which are still to be heard in connection with these 
forts, and with the wild passes of the hills around, abound in 
romance. The names of tfeswunt Rao, Ameer Khan of Tonk, 
Dowlut Rao, and other warriors of the houses of Scindia and 
Holkar, are still remembered here ; the Bheel and Pindari wars 
furnish many a subject to the story teller ; and the calamitous 
years 1857-58 have no doubt added their quota. It was however, 
prior to those days of accursed memory, that the writer of these 
pages used to listen to long-winded tales of Sir J. Maloom's 
campaigns, and there is no doubt, but that in the hands of a 
more zealous and intelligent collector the field would have yield- 
ed if not a rich harvest, at least plentiful gleanings. Alas ! the 
Homer or the Walter Scott of Gondwana is still a coming man, 
and the heroes of these hills, must still remain content to share tiie 
silent glories of those brave men, who, as we are told, fought 
* before Agamemnon !' 

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THE HIGHLANDS OF CBT^TRAL IKDTA- 245 

Many a stidden onslaught^ well contegtcd fight^ and lon^ 
sustained chase has l>een witnessed by these gorges and ravines ; 
and the passes^ through which communication was kept up be- 
tween the Nerbudda valley and the Deccan^ would be found pro- 
lific in traditionary records. These passes were frequently of 
great strategic importance and were always important commer- 
cially. They were dreaded by the unhappy trader of by-gone 
days : there he was mulcted of black-mail by the lazy lords of 
the hills. This was^ we believe his fate until the Ghatwals, 
before alluded to, became wealthy pensioners, and, at least par- 
tially, abstained from the plunder and murder, which their idle 
dissipated descendants still bemoan as the noblest feature in 
their peculiar conception of the * good old times.' 

Before leaving this portion of our subject, which in our hands 
has assumed an aspect half antiquarian, half warlike, we cannot 
deny ourselves the pleasure of presenting the reader with a more 
detailed sketch of one hill fort, as a specimen of the rest. One 
of our Manuscript Reports will furnish the materials, and the place 
we select is rather a favorable type of its class, for it is still what 
they all once were, namely the strong-hold of a Hindu chief, 
who rules a considerable population of the hill tribes. It is still 
garrisoned by his ragamuffin sepovs, and is the place of safety of 
the females of his family and the treasures of his Toshakhana. 
Bandugurh may indeed claim to be one of the most ancient, 
one of the most famous, and, perhaps, the most mysterious of all 
the hill forts of India, at least, of alt this part of Hindustan. 
It is situated in a wild hilly country covered with thick jungle, 
and itself sits on the summit of a grand mass of rocks, which 
towers several hundred feet above the highest peaks around. 
The great Akbar was bom, history says, in a village near Bandu, 
but local tradition avers, in the fort itself: it belongs to the 
Bajah of Bewah, and its approaches are still kept sacred from 
the foot or even the eye of the Feringhi. 

In lh55, we saw, among the old records of the Quartermaster 
General's office of the Sagur Division, some accounts of Bandu, 
compiled from the reports of the Hurkarus of the department, 
the palpable exaggerations of which at all events attested the 
vigilance with which prying curiosity was kept from tQO close 
inspection ; and the scanty information even now possessed bv 
the political officers of the adjoining provinces, especially if 
combined with the impossible caricature inserted, as a repre- 
sentation of Bandu, on the Indian Atlas sheet, by some highly 
imaginative typographer, does not, we venture to think, go far 
to correct, or even materially modify the Munchausen-like stories 



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246 THE HIGHLANDS OF CE!fTRAL IXDIA. 

told about the place by the Rajah's people : these stories state it 
to be not only a virgin fortress, but absolutely impregnable ; it is- 
said to be surrounded on all sides by a morass (daldal) deep 
enough at the driest season to be impassable by elephants, 
the only means of crossing which (an artificial causeway of stone 
always hidden by the water) is kept a profound secret : besides 
which, the approaches to this causeway from the land side, are 
defended by fortified buildings, which in their turn, as well as 
the whole of the causeway itself, are commanded by the guns 
on Bandu. The garrison is asserted to be always immensely nu- 
merous and fully equipped, provisions and ammunition in vast 
quantities always in store, and the supply of water quite inex- 
haustible. When numbers and quantities come to be given in 
figures, these always assume proportions worthy of Rabelais 
himself. 

Local tradition, moreover, states, that Bandu was once the 
highest hill in all Hindustan, if not in the world, overtopping 
the loftiest peaks of the Himalaya : so high indeed, that the 
lamp of Ram placed thereon was visible in Ceylon. In order to 
deprive the island hero of whatever advantage may be supposed 
to have been derivable from the sight, his great rival one day, 
by the advice of Luchmee, placed his hand on Bandu, and press- 
ed it down to its present level, in doing which he caused the 
fosse or depression all round which forms the existing daldals, 
whose unfathomable depth corresponds to the vastness of the 
displacement above.* 

In addition to the above myth, tradition tells us, that, within 
the historic times, Bandu once sustained a twelve years siege. 
Some illustrious warrior invested the fortress, and having eaten a 
mangoe on the day of the first assault, and having put the stone 
thereof into the ground at his tent door, he kept up a strict 
blockade on the beleagured place, until the seed had grown to a 
tree and he had eaten of its ripened fruit. For several of the later 
years of this siege the defenders were wholly dependent for food, 
on the crops raised by themselves in the enclosed space, above, 
which, however, sufficed to supply the wants of numbers ample 
for the defence. The area is really considerable, and no doubt a 
very small number of resolute men could hold such a place 

• Should the learned reader detect in thia bald version of a local l^i^end, 
the tortm-ed misrepresentation of some well known episode of classic Hinda 
mythology, the writer hiis only ignorance of the Hindu pantheon to plead as 
his apology. He gives the story as the author of the report heard it on the 
spot, only taking the liberty of condensing the rigmarole, and mercilessly 
rescinding all the expletives and superlatives. 



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THE HIGHLANDS OF CBNTRAL INDIA. 24T 

against almost any number of assailants^ both sides being sup- 
posed to be armed and to fight^ as those^ who have hitherto 
defended and attacked Bandu^ have fought and been armed. 
Whether the resources of modern warfare would materiallj modify 
the relative strength of attack and defence^ and^ if so^ with 
which side the advantage would rest^ we are unfortunately unable 
even to coiyecture. 

Bandu hill is formed of a tabular sandstone^ the verv mas- 
sive and thick beds of which are inclined with a gentle slope to 
the east or north-east, so that the flat sur£stce at top also slopes 
in that direction. This plateau ends on all sides in a vertical 
escarpment^ which varies in height from 100 feet to 200 feet : the 
space at the summit is about a mile long from east to west, and 
less than half a mile broad from north to south, at its broadest 
part which is near the western end ; the total height above the 
daldal is a little more than 1000 feet> and a steep talus, over- 
grown with thick jungul, extends up to the foot of the vertical 
escarpment which bounds the flat surface above. With regard 
to the absolute continuity of this escarpment we cannot speak 
positively ; for, although our indefatigable explorer succeeded in 
making observations from all sides, the extreme jealousy tnth 
which a European is watched and kept at a distance, prevented 
those observations from being sufficiently accurate to warrant 
definite assertions on this point, and very nearly succeeded in 
baffling his attempt in making them, even to a partial extent. 
One thing however he did effect, namdy, the exploration of the 
mysteries of the daldals. It needed an efibrt of some vigour, 
even for a tolerably stout pedestrian, fairly to outwalk the long- 
legged piyada sent to dog his steps, and prevent him from getting 
near the fort ; this, however, he at last succeeded in doing, by 
taking him up and down hills and through the jungle, aU the 
while obstinately declining every path ; once well ahead of his 
watchfrd attendant, he made straight for the nearest point of 
Bandu hill, and soon reached the morass. 

Most of the valleys within several miles to the south, are swam* 
py, and it was evident on close inspection, that the daldals of Ban- 
du were not a special or exceptional case, but, on the contrary, 
similar to those elsewhere seen, a familiar acquaintance with 
the general features of which at once suggested that, regard 
being had to the form of the ground, this one, as well as otifiers 
like it, might probably be forfable ; apparently without any bet- 
ter motive than a strong inclination to do what was so perti- 
naciously forbidden, our explorer at once walked into the water, 
and had, after a little poking about, the satisfaction of soon finding 



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248 THE HIGHLANDS OF CKNTEAL INDIA. 

himself at the other side of the unfathomable abyss without 
having wet his waistband, this too was in February, by no means 
the driest season. It must however be admitted, that the question 
of the impregnability of the place is not radically affected by 
this exposure of the exaggerations concerning the depth of the 
daldal, for the talus was found to be high, steep, and covered 
with dense jungle ; and at the point reached, the escarpment abov^ 
was utterly unscaleable. 

When just now we stated that Bandu hill rises high above all 
those near it, we should have made an exception in &vor of 
Banenia. This hill is generally treated as part of Bandu, and a 
line of defensible posts runs round it ; it is, however, separated 
from the main mass by a glen, nearly as deep as the outer val- 
ley, and from its summit to the nearest point of that of Bandu, 
may be nearly a mile. It. stands to the west of that hill, and 
although of about equal height, has only a very small fiat space 
above ; no daldal separates it from Bandu, or cuts it off from the 
ground to the west ; no vertical escarpment renders its summit 
easily defensible like that of its neighbour, and its artificial 
defences seem by no means formidable. Whether assailants in 
possession of Banenia would have gained a position formidable 
to the defenders of the great fort, we cannot decide. It has been 
already stated that the summit surface of Bandu slopes to the 
east ; it, of course, thus presents its highest portion te Banenia ; 
and it would hence seem, that guns placed on the latter, could not 
be pointed so as to command, or sweep the surface of the former. 
On this subject we of course can offer no definite opinion, but 
leave the facts to speak for themselves. 

Bandugurh and some one or two others of the hill forts of our 
area, of which we have taken it as a t3rpe, are nearly if not quite 
€qual as fortresses te such places as Kalleenjur, Ramgurh &o. 
which proved so troublesome during the mutiny campaign. But 
none of the former were, as far as we are aware, ever manned, or 
in any way made use of during the disturbances. 

We steted at the commencement of this paper that portions of 
our jungle tract lay high above the sea level, and were especially 
adapted by climate and other conditions for the residence of 
Europeans. As a typical instance of such localities we select a 
place called Puchmurri, and shall now proceed te give a short 
account of it. 

Near the culminating point of that range of hills, which, 
following a nearly east and west direction, runs along between 
the valleys of the Nerbudda and Taptee rivers, there is a litUe 
plateau, with an area of some five or six square* miles, situated at 



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THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTHAL INDIA. £49 

about 4000 feet above the sea. Its siirface is formed of undula- 
ting grass land, dotted over with scattered OToups of well grown 
trees, and on it stands a solitary Gond village ; this is Puch- 
murri. The park-like aspect of the place, to which the smooth 
green turf and fine trees so largely contribute, is enhanced bv the 
rugged beauty of the bold rocky masses, three of which rise in 
p^ks each about 1000 feet above the plain itself, as well as by 
the deep ravines and dark gorges which bound it on three sides : 
the grassy slopes above are in fine contrast with these glens, 
formed as they are of bold rock bluffs and precipices, with forest 
glades alternating or rather mixed together, in the most picturesque 
concision. The scenery which they present, and which indeed 
extends for many miles to the east, south, and west, is of surpassing 
beauty and variety. A great deal has of late been said and written 
on the subject oi sanataria, enough, perhaps, to render it a weari- 
some one to most readers ; we hasten then to announce that 
there is, in the present instance, no need for alarm, inasmuch 
m we have nothing to say about sanataria here. Puchmurri 
has, it is true, been reported on officially as a site for a sanatarium. 
We have seen several such reports, and have one of them before 
us : ttiis last, written by a gentlenmn with whose views we alto* 
gether agree, assumes that the dimatal and other conditions 
which fit any place to be a sanatarium, properly so called, ought 
to off^r the strongest attainaUe contrast to those of ordinary 
stations on the plains, and asserts that in his opinion Puchmurri 
does not meet such re<]|uirements. This is, we conceive, a just 
and important distinction to draw, for the real advantages pre- 
sented by such a climate as this of Puchmurri, is not that it 
is capable of renovating the frame of a European, whose health 
has sunk under the debilitating infl^uence of long residence in 
our Indian heat, but that the constitution of an European, per- 
manently resident in such a place, would never need any renova- 
tion at all, any more than it would were he living in the south 
of Europe. There is an old proverb about prevention and cure, 
which it is, we presume, unnecessary <^ quote, in order to point 
the moral of these remarks. 

Our reporter characterizes the climate of Puchmurri as having 
a general similarity to that of some of our best stations^ such 
as Sagur. The very important superiority which he claims for 
the former consisting in a lower temperature at all seasons, cool 
nights throughout the year, and freedom from the extreme heat 
of April, May, and June : these are considerations which we think 
may fairly be supposed of weight sufficient to give the place the 
strongest claims on the attention of Government. Nor need 

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250 TRI HIGHLANDS OF CE5TRAL IN0IA. 

Puchmurri rest its case on these alone^ it has others to which we 
shall now revert. 

It has^ been we believe, and we have heard still is in contempla- 
tion, to erect central India into a seperate province, wil^ a Lieute- 
nant Governor, or chief commissioner of its own. Under this ar- 
rangement Nagpore would be joined to the Sagur and Nerbudda 
territories, and we may be permitted here to record our hope 
that the able and snccessftd officer who has so long and so well 
managed the latter district, may be the first incumbent of the new 
dignities. Be the new governor, however, who he may, we beg to 
urge on his consideration the advantages, which Pudbmum pre- 
sents as a site for his Sudder station. 

Besides its climate, which we submit is a consideration of 
incalculable importance, it has the advantage of being almost 
geometrically the centre of the new province; the following 
being in round numbers the distances at which the principid 
stations lie : Sagur 100 miles to the north, Kamptee (Nagpore) 100 
miles to the south, Hosungabad 80 miles to the west, Jubbul- 
pore 90 miles to i^e east. Beitul on the south west, Chindwarra 
on the south east, Seoni and Nursingpore on the east, are all 
nearer to Puchmurri than the nesurest of the above mentioned 
places, while Dumoh on the north east and Sehore on the north 
west are about as far off as Sagur. 

Stationed on the healthful heights of so truly central a plaoQ 
as Puchmurri, it is evident that a compact body of European 
troops could command all parts of the surrounding district, with 
a greater economy of numbers, of labor, and of the risk of life 
than would be possible from any other point witiiin the same 
area. The chief civil officer if stationed here, would be within the 
shortest practicable distance of the aggregate of his subordinates, 
which would, we presume, be considered a convenience ; his courts 
of appeal would be at the point nearest the average majority of 
suitors, which would certainly be a public benefit j while that 
officer himself, and the staff of Europeans which must inevitably 
collect round the central aijministrative authority of a great pro- 
vince, as well as the British troops required for its security, 
would all enjoy in this fine climate a European health, and their 
mental as well as their physical vigour would be kept at a high 
standard. 

Puchmurri, moreover, is easily approached from the north, and 
a carriage road might very readily be made on that side. The 
ghats on the south and west are more difficult and could be 
made passable by wheels only at a considerable expense, while on 
the east we believe no ghat exists. Should there ever be a station 



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THE HIGHLANDS OF CE5TBAL INDIA. £51 

nere^ none^ that we know of^ will possess any thing like such ad« 
vantages in the important matter of picnics ; advantages which 
the clunate will render available well nigh throughout the year. 
Then^ among other attractions^ there is the great annual Mela or 
fair, held just under the south escarpment, near enough to be easily 
visited, far enough off to be incapable of becoming a source of 
annoyance to the station : there are also the sacred caves, and 
holy places, from which the Puchmurri block of hills gets the 
name of Mabadeo; these might become objects of romantic 
interest, even to the ladies of the future station, if only the 
resident Byragis could be induced to condescend slightly to 
increase the amount of their wearing apparel. The grape vine 
and orange would no doubt flourish here ; European vegetables 
would certainly thrive, at least as well as at Sagur and Jubbul- 
pore, and the immigrant malis would And abundance of soil for 
all that they could be required to furnish. One of the cheapest 
com countries in Hindoostan lies within a few miles to the 
north, along the banks of the Nerbudda, and such supplies of live 
stock &c. as the Bundelas on that side did not furnish, would 
soon be supplied by the now hopelessly savage Qonds from the 
hills around. 

We have described the plateau of Puchmurri as prettily wooded, 
and we trust that the first officer who may have authority in such 
matters, will levy a heavy fine for every tree felled, or establish 
such other regulations as shall succeed in protecting the timber ; 
and that in allotting building sites, and laying out roads, he will 
make every effort to preserve the ornamental trees; for if every 
one is permitted to cut away the timber as may suit his fancy, 
one of the chief beauties of the place will be in considerable 
danger of being lost. Nor let the reader hastily suppose, that, in 
venturing to urge so apparently common-place a suggestion, we 
are fighting with a phantom or guarding against an imaginary 
risk : he would acquit us of the charge of fanciful nervousness 
were he ever to see that dreariest looking of all pleasant places, 
Chirra Poonjee. At the time of our visit to that finest climate of 
all our hill stations, most of the residents were enthusiastic 
gardeners ; floriculture was a perfect rage. The mania was dis* 
tinctly traceable to the then recent visit of doctors Hooker and 
Thomson, whose wonderful Rhododendrons, and beautiful air 
plants were, we must admit, well calculated to fire the enthusi- 
asm for practical botany, which then animated the little station. 

The most active of the amateurs, with a bitterness of regret 
with which we could fully 83rmpathise, told us, that when first 
inhabited by Europeans, the little plain of Chirra, now perfectly 

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252 THB HIOBLANBS 07 CKlfTEAL INDIA. 

bare of vegetation^ was well wooded, but that the g^lant officer 
in charge, having some theoretical views on the subject of the 
insalubrity of jungle, and being withal of an energetic and 
practical turn, had eradicated every twig within reach : since 
vtrhen, no one had succeeded in getting trees to grow again. My 
informant was himself painfully endeavouring to rear a few 
plants round his house, and he has, we believe, since Bocceeded, in 
spite of the two-fold discouragement of a bare slab of sand- 
stone beneath, wherein his trees might strike root if tiiey could, 
and a fall of 600 inches of rain per annum, to fertilize the un* 
promising footing on which they feebly clung : how it had fared 
with the indigenous vegetation we are unable to conjecture. Thia 
is no doubt an extreme case, but were Puchmurri to meet the 
fate of Chirra Poonjee, we believe that considerable difficulty 
might be experienced in replacing the g^ves which now adorn 
its grassy slopes. 

We take leave of Puchmurri, vnth the wish rather than tiie 
hope, that it may shortly meet at the hands of the authorities the 
attention it undoubtedly deserves ; confident that, if it should do 
so, its claims to become the site of the European head quarters 
of central India must be recognized as irresistible. 

Thus far we have been occupied, first, with Bandugurh, which 
we took as a type of the hill forts, that form so characteristio 
a feature in that portion of the great jungle highlands which 
forms the subject of this paper; next, with I^chmurri, which may 
be considered a fair specimen of the general character of some 
of the culminating points of the highest ridges of the same 
wild country, and One instance of the great advantages which 
some of these present for the location of European military 
posts, and official colonies^ We shall now proceed to give some 
account of a third place, which we select as an example of what 
forms a not inconsiderable aggregate portion of our whole area, 
of such places, namely, as, offisring other and very different con- 
ditions from those described as obtaining at Puchmurri, are cal« 
culated to invite the European commercial settler. Of these 
Ummurkuntuk and parts of the Mundla district, will furnish a 
favorable case, and we shall have the advantage of again recur- 
ring to Captain Pearson's interesting Report. The following 
passages descriptive of the scenery and climate will give the reader 
a better idea of them, than we could hope to convey to him in 
our own words. 

'The ^neral character of the country between Mundla and 
' the Rajahdhar ghat, is a series of elevated plateaux, rising one 
' above the other gradually from the river to the Une of hills 

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TAB HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDU. S53 

' which boiind the plains of Raipore. These plateaux are sepa- 
' rated from each other^ by low lines of ghats covered with 
' thick jangle; the plateaux themselves being, for the most part, 
' open prairies covered with long grass, and watered by numer« 
' ous streams. * * * * In Apnl all these rivulets con- 

* tain streams, of running water, and I was told by the natives 
' that they never run dry, even in the hottest seasons. As a greater 
' elevation is reached, the country becomes more hilly, and vast 
' forests of Sarrye tree are met with. Here the climate is 
.' excellent, and scenery of a description which India so seldom 
' affords, of hill and vale studded with magnificent timber, and 
' every variety of landscape, delight the eye J p. 1-2. 

Again, speaking of part of the same district, he tells us, that 

* from the elevation the nights are always cool ; indeed dew falls 
' almost every night even in the hottest months, and the foliage 
' is consequentlv always green, and the growing grass always 
' springing. This at the present time (April) forms splendid 
' grazing lands for lar^ herds of catUe' p. S. Of Ummur-* 
kuntuk itself he thus wntes : 

' The climate appeared to me to be singularly delightful, 
' during the short time I was there. I can scarcely imagine, 

* and have seldom experienced any thing more grateful after the 
' hot and violent winds on the plains below, than the mild sofl 
' balmy feeling of the air up here in the mornings and evenings 
' at this season (April — ^Mav) ; while the nights, though by no 
' means so cold as in the vallejrs below, are yet quite sufficiently 
' cool to ensure an invigorating rest. The heat in the day time 
' was never in the least oppressive * * * and although the 
' mean temperature of Ummurkuntuk is somewhat higher than 
' the average of the plain immediately below it, yet the variation 
' was 10^ less :— 

* The scenery on the plateau is not generally of a striking 

* character, but there is a fine view to the south over Summee, 
' as well as east from the bluff which overlooks the plains to- 
' wards Sirguja. The ravine at Kuppaldhara, where the Ner- 

* budda falls over a basaltic cliff somewhat under 100 feet high, 
' is very wild and well worth visiting, as also is the valley of the 
' Johilla, on the further side of the of the plateau. But the 
' green grass, and green woods in the Sone Bhudder, and some 
' of the smaller valleys, are what appeared most gratifying and 
' refreshing to my eyes.' p. 13-14. 

It would be easy to multiply descriptions taken from the Re- 
port of many parts of the Mundla distrct, the whole of which 
IS full of picturesque variety. The height above the sea varies 



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ibi THB HIQHULNBS 07 CENTRAL INDIA. 

from 1400 feet, to 3600 feet, then the Bunjur valley is 1400 
and up to 2000 ; Hallar and Bormeyr from 1800 up to 2£00, 
and the valleys of Kurmeyr and Seoni, from 2500 up to 2800. 
The plateau of Ummurkuntuk is set down at 3600, some hills 
rising a few hundred feet above it. Of the general agricultural 
capabilities of the district, the reporter has the highest opinion : 
the valleys are all of the richest black earth, and fine fertile soil 
spreads up into every glen, wide enough to afford a dat sur&ce 
whereon it could rest ; and his praises of the abundance of run* 
ning water and the fresh greenness of the grass frequently recur. 
Again, speaking farther of the Ummurktmtuk plateau, he says, 
^ the soil is ev6ry where of a rich black description ; * * * all 
' that portion of it lying north of the Nerbudda has been recentlv 

* given to the Rewah Rajah, but the south bank is still British 
' territory. It is well sheltered and has a gentle slope down to 
' the river, and is composed of rich black soil : it appears to me 
' to offer a very favorable situation in case it was desired to try as 

* an experiment whether the tea plant would thrive in these hills.' 

In this plateau of Ummurkuntuk the Nerbudda river rises :— 
' For so large a stream it does not make by any means a striking 
' entry into the world. For a considerable distance above the 
' temples, there are numbers of puddles, any one of which might 
' stand for the source of the river. But at the one which does 
' duty for the source, there is a stone tank about thirty feet square, 
' in a corner of which is a small temple in which the Bramuna 
' state the spring exists. There appears, however, no visible sign 

* of it. For some distance below the tank, the water is dam- 
' med up into biggish puddles by small mud banks, and the 
' Byragis and other disreputable parties who frequent the place^ 
' seem to pass the greater portion of their time in dabbling in 
' the water.' 

It is a curious comment on the peculiar view of British rule 
in India, which circumstances can sometimes force on the consi- 
deration of even the bigoted and degraded representatives of the 
Hindu religious world, that these ' disreputable parties,' as our 
reporter irreverently calls the holy guardians of this sacred place^ 
are ' loud and bitter in their groans against the British Oovem- 
' ment, for having made Ummurkuntuk over to the Bewah 
' Rajah : who, they state, will make them disgorge part of the 
' profits, which, they derive from pilgrims who visit the shrine, 
' and of which, under our government, they derive the whole 
' benefit.' 

The valley of Lumnee is one of the finest in the district ; it 
forms a sub-Talook of Mundla, and contains about 100 square 



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THE HIGHLANDS Or CENTRAL INDIA. jE55 

miles. ' It is sitaate at the extreme eastern corner of the district/ 

* at the south side of, and beyond the principal ghat range. It 
' is like a basin, lying half way down Hie ghats on the further 
' side, and, as it were, surrounded by them ; the promontories of 

* Chowradadur and Ummurkuntuk towering some 1500 feet above . 

* it to the north, and another broken portion of the range dividing 
' it from the Kalacotie plain, which lies below it to the south » 
' Except Lumnee itself, and two or three small Bygar villages, 
' there are no inhabitants in the valley : but it is full of dense 
' jungle, and in the rainy season is represented as a great place 
' of resort for all kinds of wild animals especially wild buffalos 
' and elephants. The elevation of the valley is about 1000 feet 
' above the sea, * * * * the soil appears to be very rich, and 
' it is well watered by numerous streams, and I think it probable 
' that it would prove, if cleared of jungle, an exceedingly desir-» 
' able site for coffee cultivation.' p. 15. 

The climate of all that part of the country has got a very bad 
reputation, fostered, as CaptainPearson tcUs us, by the whole race 
of subordinate government employ^, who dislike being sent out 
80 far into the jungles. But besides this, the bad character of 
the place has gain^ credit among Europeans, in consequence of 
the sad fate of some German missionaries, who were some years 
since established at a place near Karunjeah, 10 miles west of 
Ummurkuntuk, by Major Macleod, to form the nucleus of a 
colony ; three out of five of them died : here is Captain Pearson'^ 
account of them. 

^ The situation chosen was in all respects save one, excellent ; 
' about 2700 feet above the sea, four miles south of the Ner- 
' budda, and commanding a fine plain of rich soil stretching 
' down to that river. But strange to say, in a country so abun- 
' dantly traversed by numerous streams of excellent water^ 

* these people seem to have pitched on a spot, where they were 
' full two miles distant from the nearest stream of running water, 
' and their entire dependance for this most necessary article, was 

* on a wretched little circular tank of stagnant muddy liquid, 
' which would be quite sufficient to poison any one who drank it.^ 

But besides this fatal error, in itself abundantly sufficient to 
account for all their misfoi-tunes, these ill starred strangers were 
surprised by the rains before they had completed their bungalows, 
and thus, ' with no proper house over their head, with bad food 
' and no proper water, added to the cold, which, at that season, is 
' no doubt considerable here, they must have got bowel com- 
' plaints, which, far away from medical aid, must have got 
^ worse and worse; at last three of them died; and thus most 

J 

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thi THK HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA.- 

^ unfortunatelj^ but most unjustly, this climate got into a bad 

* repute* p. 17. 

' Captain Peareon again and again in the Report, gives it as his 
opinion, that the fears entertained 6( the salubrity of the climate are 
utterly unfounded, and insists, that if sites be judiciously selected; 
the jungle, where there is any too near, cleared away^and common 
attention paid to shelter, and the water supply, it will prove per- 
fectly healthy ; and he, more than once, strongly urges the ex- 
pediency of building some houses on one or more of the higher 
uplands, to which invalid soldiers from Jubbulpore might be sent 
for change of air. Of the climate of the upper Lumnee valley 
he gives the following description. ' In April and May the 
' nights were always cool, generally calm ; during the first half of 
*■ April a cool east wind prevailed during the first half of the day, 
< when it veered round to the north west, and blew sometimes 

* hot and strong during the afternoon. Later in the month the east 
^ wind ceased, and it blew gently and cool from the northward 
' in the mornings, but about ll.A. m. the wind set in with vio- 
' lent gusts, from the west and north west, accompanied by clouds 
' and heat, threatening rain, but it cleared toward sunset and be* 

* came calm and pleasant ; from October to February the frosts 

* are very severe, the ground being covered with a white coat of 
' hoar frost, and this is one of the reasons why I think Lumnee, 
^ which is lower and more sheltered, would answer better for 
< plantations than the upland country; at all events this is a 

* point that should be practically ascertained ; dew certainly falls 
f every night over the uplands, on some nights more, on some 

* less; difiering much according to the locality, the heaviest falk 

* being in the narrow valleys ; to the dew of course must be 

* attributed the verdure of both grass and trees on the plateau.' 

. These quotations will have given some idea of the country aiid 
of its climate, but they do great injustice to the subject, and 
still greater injustice to tbe admirable sketches contained in the 
Report of which they form part, and to which we once more beg 
to refer the reader for fuller details. 

The Mundla district has long enjoyed unenviable notoriety 
as one of the worst in all India for tigers. To them indeed has 
been atributed the depopulation of whole Talooks. A party of 
men (no one ever thinks of going alone) passing along the most 
frequented roads, must be pretty numerous ; the men must keep 
their cattle, if they have any, close together ; they must shout 
as they go along, and straggling, be the straggler man or beast, 
is considered fatal. Both men and cattle are stated frequently 
to be carried away at midday from the middle of the villages : 

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rtn HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA, 85 f 

and 80 serious did these ravages appear to the aathorities^ thai^ 
the eommissioner of the Sagur and Nerbudda territories some 
years sinee^ sought and obtained the sanction of Government for 
the appointment of two officers^ who were to make systematic 
war on the Mundla tigers : the important matter of pay and 
allowances was settled, elephants, beaters, and native shikaris 
arranged for, the expedition organized and actually started : it 
was found, however, that nothing commensurate with the trouble: 
the expense, or the grandeur of the preparations, could in thic^ 
manner be effected. This district may for hunting purposes, be 
considered as one vast jungle, out of which of course no wild 
animal could be beaten by any conceivable number of elephantg* 
or coolies, so that the old native plan of the fara and machan 
was the only one by which a shot could be obtained. We may 
explain, that this consists in sitting up at night in ambush, nean 
the carcass of a beast killed by a tiger, who dways returns, after 
a few hours interval, to gorge on his prey : a plan which can be' 
tried only about the full moon, with any chance of success. 

Now although many people have no doubt been killed by ti- 
gers in Mundla, the reports on which the above account is based, 
were proved by Captain Pearson to be gross exaggerations. After 
travelling backwards and forwards through the length and 
breadth of the country, he tells us at p. 80, that he can safely ac* 
quit the tigers ' of having any thing whatever to do with the 
' depopulation of the district.* Tigers of course there are, and 
they sometimes do mischief, but they 'certainly are not worse 

* than in Seoar or Beitul,' districts to the west, where no one 
has ever pretended that they interfered with the question of po- 
pulation. Further on he sums up thus ; ' the Oonds and Bygar« 
' are continually prowling about, in a perfectly heedless way. 

* through the densest jungle, with only an axe on their should'* 
' ers, and, of course, they sometimes get knocked over; but I 
' only came across three or four places in the district where 

* there was a regular ' Leidut^ as it is called, and although 
' a Gond village may perhaps be deserted on this ac^count, it 
' must be remembered, that it does not take much to make a 
' Gond change his location, as they seldom if ever stop in one viU 
' lage over three years.* Our own experience in the adjoining 
districts goes to confirm every statement here made. The way in 
which these jungle men pass most of their time is well desenbed 
as heedless prowling; they really wander about very much in 
the manner of wild beasts, without object or intention, alone or 
in couples, the only exception to their ligilessnees being, when, 
with their eternal hntchet, they chop at and wantonly disfigure^ 

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25S THB HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDLl. 

or if unusually actively inclined^ cut down altogether^ the most 
promising young trees they can find. It rots where it falls, and 
not once in a hundred times do they make any use whatever of 
even a leaf. But if it is not a matter of surprise that these fiel- 
lows sometimes get knocked over, how much less need we won« 
der at the fate of the Bhat, or conjuror, who Captain Pearsan 
tells us, was supposed to possess the power of shutting up tigers' 
mouths, when, be goes on to say that, he ' got himself devoured 
* one day while practising his dangerous calling.^ On the whole 
perhaps, after hearing what our reporter has to tell us, of the 
modifications which we must apply to the old stories, the repu- 
tation for tigers may prove rather an attraction than otherwise 
to the £uropean. 

On the subject of European colonization the Report treats at 
some length, and contains information to which, at no distant 
period, attention will, we believe, be most seriously directed. 
The reporter estimates the land available for agricultural pur- 
poses, in that part of Mundia which lies south of the Nerbudda, 
at 1330 square miles /or the best latul. This first quality land is 
thus distributed : 300 square miles in the plateau immediately 
below Ummurkuntuk ; about 300 square miles round Rajgur 
Bichia, of which part of Mundia we shall extract a short notice 
from the Report presently : the remaining 750 square miles are 
distributed among the minor valleys, scattered at various levels 
throughout the mountain ranges, aU over the district : and these 
patches vary in area from 4 or 5, to 20 and 30 square miles in 
each valley. ( see page 37) . 

The best land for agriculture would also be best adapted to 
pasturage, and as the whole district is estimated to contain 4106 
square miles, there remain 2756 square miles, which are princi- 
pally slopes and hill sides covered with forest jungle. 

Besides his suggestions for tea, coffee and cotton planting, in 
special localities, the reporter informs us that wheat, barley, 
onenna, and mussoor grow luxuriantly with a minimum of cul- 
tivation, and that flax-growing has been most successful in the 
few places where it has been tried. He has no doubt but that 
oats would grow admirably, and that from the abundance of the 
supply of water, and the richness of the soil, sugar would prove 
a very profitable crop : *rice as requiring less labour in the culti- 
vation, and kodon and kootkee requiring none at all, are now 
the favorite crops. He dwells on the extraordinary facilities for 
irrigation, which he believes a small expenditure would make 
very profitable, he indicates the forests as a source of profit not 
only for their timber, but their gums and lac : he believes iron 

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THE HIGHLANDS OF CRNTBAL INDIA. 259 

eonld in some places be profitably worked, not on a great scale 
for exportation, but so as to supply all local requirements, even 
when these should be vastly increased. But before all these, he in* 
sists that the European settler should first of all direct his efibrts 
to cattle-breeding, and the rearing of sheep, poultry, and horses. 
As we shall have to return to this subject, we shall 
leave further remarks until then, and add one more suggestive 
quotation from the Report, selected as descriptive of one of 
the most favorable spots in the district, for the hopes of the 
European colonist. It refers to Rnjgur Bichia above mentioned. 
The southern portion of the valley south of Bichia, is most ex- 
cellent, and would form a most desirable settlement for any 
European who wished to take a grant of land in Mundla ; the 
locality about Munglee, is the one which seems to me the best. 
It is admirably supplied with streams of running water, which 
is also everywhere near the surface, the soil is excellent, the 
climate, I think, perfectly healthy, although on this subject 
I would of course, speak somewhat diffidently. There is a 
broad belt of Saul forest which extends along the north west 
end of the valley for several miles, and which appeared to 
me to have the effect of cooling the hot winds at this season 
(April, May), as while west of this belt they blow fiercely, 
I never felt a warm blast to the leaward of it : * * * * there 
is abundance of good timber in every direction, and there 
is not a single landed proprietor in the neighbourhood to in- 
terfere with * * * * between Bichia and Rajahdhar, which 
is certainly one of the finest portions of the Mundla district ; 
there are scarcely half a dozen villages all the wav up the 
valley for SO miles. Another advantage to the settler would 
be that he would be 50 or 60 miles nearer Mundla, and, con- 
sequently, to a market for his produce, than at Pertabgurh or 
Lumnee. The country is perfectly lovely at this season along 
the river, and the clumps of Sarrye trees, interspersed with 
young green grass give it quite a park-like appearance ; while 
herds of red deei, basking in the morning and evening sun, add 
much to the beauty of the scenery. ******** The 
road from Jubbulpore to Raepore passes by Bichia, and up this 
valley to Rajahdhar, and it is a very important line of com- 
munication in a military point of view, and likely to become 
so commercially.' 

Finally, as evidence of the general fertility of the country, and 
of the extreme facility with which, almost without cultivation, 
the fruits of the earth can be obtained. ' I will only mention^ 
* that as soon as my regiment arrived at the foot of the Rajahdhar 

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t60 TUB HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDTA; 

' ghat, in April 1858, we found rice, wheat, dhall, and chen* 
' na, alt sellings for 100 seers the rupee, measured out in 
' heaped up baskets ; and at this very time the regiment and 
' all its camp followers were supplied, at an enormous expense, 

* with every seer of flour by the commissariat/ — p. 8. 

We can add of our personal knowledge, that, in another part 
of the di&trict, three maunds of jhow were in May 186(, 
(this famine year to wit) sold for the rupee. 

With the above quotation we may close our description of the 
facilities which may be expected in the prosecution of some 
scheme of European colonization in the Muudla district. 

The establishment of a small colony under the protection 
of Government, and managed by a salaried official, has been 
suggested, as also military colonization, on the system of thd 
Hungarian ' Oreutz Regimen ter.* We have to confess our igno- 
rance of the organization or duties of this last mentioned body; 
but even, without knowing any thing of the advantages which 
it possibly might present if we only knew them, faith in first 
principles is, for once, strong enough to prejudice us against that, 
among all such plans, and we heartily concur in Captain Pearson's 
opinion, that the colonization of Mundla had best be letl to 
private enterprise. 

No sooner, however, do we turn the shield, bring its reverse sid6 
1)efore us, and look closely at the picture, hitherto so attractive, 
from a different point of view, than difficulties and obstacles 
begin at once to appear. For instance, the extraordinary cheap- 
ness of the ordinary staple food, which we have above brought 
forward to prove the fertility and productiveness of the soil, un- 
doubtedly also prov^ the absence of all means by which such pro- 
duce could find its way out of the country, so as to reach some 
considerable market, — proves in fact the want of roads, a difficulty 
and obstacle in the way of European colonization, on which, how- 
ever important, it would be tedious for us to dwell ; for it is, per- 
haps, the very first to strike every observer, be he painstaking and 
impartial, or superficial and partisan ; and it has, not unjustly; 
been urged on the attention of government with the most 
wearisome iteration. Here is the aspect which it assumes in 
Captain Pearson's Report, and we need not say, that, to any one 
interested in the country, and anxious for its improvement, it 
is both sad and irritating to find such a statement as this. 

' The road from Jubbulpore to the eastern coast of India, lies 
' through Mundla and over the Michael range to Raepore and 

* thence through Suihbulpore to Cuttack. The present road, as 
noted in all government Maps and Routes, passes the ghats 

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THE HIOHLANBS OV CENTRAL INDIA. 261 

' at Rtyahdhar^ but the bulk of the traffic goes by Chilpee^ four 
' miles west of the former^ the reason being that the Rajahdhar 
' ghat^ on account of the steepness of the ascents and descents, 
^ is exceedingly difficult for wheeled carriages ; while the Chilpee 
^ ghat, although in its primitive condition, is easily passable both 
^ by animals and carriages/ Appendix. B. p. 48. And again, 
' The road over the Rajahdhar ghat could not be made fit for 
' wheeled carriages for less than Rs. 30,000 and a large sum 

* nearly, equal to that, has already been expended, though 

* without any benefit on account of the wrong line having 

* been adopted, the ascent being one in five, or one in six/ — ^p. 7. 

That is to say, in the ease of a great road, not only important 
to this district, but to the empire, on which govemtnent has 
expended large sums, the money has been so squandered by the 
imbecility of the officer entrusted with the duty of improving 
the means of communication, that wheeled carriages have to avoid 
the road he has seen fit to make, and travel by an old track. 
Here then, as indeed everywhere else in British India, the want 
of roads will prove one great stumbling block in the path of the 
European settler. It is however removable, and in this part of 
the country without great cost or trouble : a road from Rajahdhar 
to Mundia and on to Jubbulpore, is already in an advanced state, 
and half a dozen bridges would render it passable for carts at all 
seasons : branch roads from it would not be costly or difficult of 
construction. Save at the ghats, there is notidng to render 
them so. 

. The next difficulty in the way of European Colonization, is of a 
far more serious nature than the want of roads. We shall intro- 
duce it to the reader by another quotation from the Report. At 
page 5, speaking of the district generally. Captain Pearson writes 
thus: ' Here, at all events, exist none of the <5hief objections to 

* European settlers, as there could be no interference with the 
' rights of native landholders, and no disputes could arise about 
' the crops, for there are no cidtivators to dispute with : at the 
' same time it would be entirely useless for any to attempt 
' it, (that is colonization,) who have not considerable capital at 
' their disposal, for it would be three or four years before the 
^ settlers could hope to be independant of external assistance; 
' houses would have to be built ; and without capital good stock 

* for breeding purposes could not be procured.* And, in continu- 
ation, he concludes by saying, that he is convinced the capabili- 
ties of the district are such that they need only to be known in 
order to attract to the enterprise, ' persons of capital and stabili- 
' ty, sufficient not only to take in hand, but to succeed in carrying 

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262 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 

' out with profit such a plan/ namely European colonization of 
Mundla by private enterprise. 

There appeared in the Allahabad Goverment Gazette, dated 
29th September I860, a set of Bules, to regulate the conditions 
on which the authorities were prepared to assign grants of waste 
lands, in the northwest provinces, to European applicants for 
such grants. A comparison of these rules with some passages of 
Captain Pearson's Report, suggests some very curious reflections. 
He has just told us, that it would be entirely useless for auy 
European to attempt profitable farming in Mundla, unless he 
could command considerable capital, besides which a statement 
has lately gone the rounds of the Indian papers, to the effect, that 
a non-commissioned officer, retiring honorably, we believe, from 
the service, applied to Government for a small grant of land, that 
the grant was refused, the highest authority giving as the reason 
of the refusal, that successful management of land in India by 
Europeans, could only he hoped for from men of capital. Now 
the rules trenchantly exclude all men of capital : first bv limi- 
ting each grant to, we believe, 5000 acres; next by limiting the 
leases to short periods. We do not assert, nor do we believe 
that Government is under any moral obligation to permit luid 
to be purchased in fee simple, and in large lots; but it is 
difficult to escape the conviction, in the. face of this Report, and 
of the minute above alluded to, that these rules were passed with 
the deliberate intention of excluding Europeans from Mundla ; 
for to accept the other alternative seems utterly irrational, name- 
ly, that the framers of the rules could suppose men of capital 
would take small patches of land on short leases. 

Nor is this alternative left simply as we have stated it. Captain 
Pearson tells us, that ' the breeding of cattle, sheep, poultry and 

* horses seems to be the first thing to set about with a prospect 
^ of profit, and to be especially desirable, not only on account 
' of the singular advantages which the district affords, for carry- 
^ ing it out, but also because it would involve less expense in the 

introduction of foreign labor at the outset, as the Gonds 

* would be much more adapted to the more desultory work of 

* looking after poultry, cattle &c., than to regular labor, and would 

* take to it more naturally.* — pp. 28-24. At p. 5. above quoted, it • 
may be remembered that he says, three or four years must elapse 
before tbe settler could hope to be able to depend on his farm 
produce as his sole resource ; meanwhile he would reap some im- 
mediate profit from his cattle, would feel his way, and find by 
painful experiment, with no doubt cost and loss, how he could 
best direct his future operations. He would have some chance by 



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€ 



mi HIOHLANDS OF CBNTRAL INDIA. 263 

tlitts oommencingi of oonoiliating the Gonda, an all-important 
coDsideration aa we have seen, and, might, perhaps, in these 
{preliminary three or four years, lay a soond foundation for fu- 
ture success, if permitted to follow Captain Pearson's judicious 
advice, advice, be it remarked, which is recommended to his 
notice in the rules themselves, which rules nevertheless, lest 
^ome man of capital should perchance be found, mad enough to 
take one of their small grants at a short lease, decree that such 
grantee shall forfeit every acre not brought under tillage in two 
years. 

Can the rulers have thought any further impediment re« 
quired? Lest however some capitalist of indomitable energy, 
undaunted by the above difficulties, should present himself, the 
4oor is ^ banged to ' in his face by the announcement, that no 
grant whatever will be conceded to a Suropean, until the dis-^ 
trict shall have been surveyed and mapped. He may amuse him* 
self meanwhile with conjectures as to when this is likely to be. 

To complete the forbidding aspect of this side of the picture^ 
we have only to add, that, prior to the promulgation of the rules, 
a company, we believe, proposed to Government to take up a 
large portion of the Mundla district on lease : they offered, if 
we are rightly informed, to pay as rent, a tax larger sum than 
has ever been realized as revenue, from the same area, the reve- 
nue having always been so small as to represent but a frac- 
tion of even the slight cost of administration. Of the causes 
assigned for the rejection of this offer, we know nothing, it is of 
course amply explained in the rules. 

We have above, perhaps indiscreetly, spoken of the motives 
of the framers of the rules : motives are of course entirely 
beside the question and with them we can have nothing whatever 
to do. We should, instead, have said, that the necessary result of 
these rules will be to exclude European settlers from Mundla, 
and from all those parts of our great jungle highland districts 
similarly circumstanced, and of which we have taken Mundla ns 
a type : this we presume no one will be found to question, nor 
can it be denied that these rules may justly be considered, not as 
difficulties in the way of Suropean colonization under such cir- 
cuinstances, but as an absolute and final prohibition of all attempts 
at its realization. 

Accepting this view of the case, it will now only be necessary 
to write down the word COTTON in capital letters, in order to 
suggest to the mind of the reader a long string of reflections, 
wHch rise naturally in connection with the subject before us. 
It is beyond our province to determine, and no part of our intention 

K 

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264 THB HIGULINDS OF CENTRAL INDIi. 

to discuss whether the action of European enterprise, ought, 
in the matter of Indian cotton, to be strictly limited to the en- 
couragement of an increased production in districts already grow- 
ing it, or to be allowed to extend to attempts at cotton planting 
by Europeans themselves : it is enough for us to rest assured, 
that whichever of these plans obtains the lai^est acceptance, or 
is best calculated to ensure ultimate success, both will, ere long, 
be pretty extensively tried : and we may, moreover, be pretty 
sure that, although the greatest and most important results, may 
perhaps he looked for from the indirect influence of European 
capital, in stimulating the production of cotton in Hindustan, 
yet cotton planting by Europeans themselves is certain to spread^ 
and that, whether for good or for evil, its influence on the niture 
of British power in the country will be serious. Government has, 
moreover, again and again announced its intention to encourage 
the influx of European capital and enterprise, and its wish to do 
all. in its power to aid, as well as to lead the way in ^ developing 
the resources of the country,' has done so indeed, until such 
phrases, as that which we have just placed in inverted commas, 
have taken rank among the stereotyped common-places of pub- 
lic documents. <* 

Here then, we have on the one side both a real necessity, and 
a popular cry in favor of English settling in Hindustan, which the 
Government echoes, and promises to satisfy. On the other, we 
have these districts of Mundla and the like, presenting every 
facility for a trial of the experiment under exceptionally favor- 
able circumstances, a fertile soil, a climate suitable in every way, 
no native landholders to interfere with, and we find the autho- 
rities acting thus; — ^they recommend, as trustworthy in all res- 
I^ects,this Report for the information of intending settlers; so far 
they are certainly right; but when it tells the would-be*colonist that 
considerable capital is absolutely necessary to his success, they 
meet him with a rule which decrees that he can have only a few 
acres, and those at a short lease ; — when it tells him that his best 
chance is cattle breeding, and that three or four years must 
elapse before he can hope to get firm hold on his somewhat 
difficult position, they meet him with a rule which provides, that 
he may be ejected out of every acre which he has not brought 
under the plough within two. In fine, they seem to act just as 
if it had been their intention to use the valuable information 
before them, for the sole purpose of contriving expedients for his 
total exclusion. 

. This we believe to be, as far as it goes, a perfectly fair state- 
ment of the case ; but, like most questions, this one has two jndes ; 

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TBE HIGHLANDS OP CENTRAL INMA. 265 

for even taking for granted^ that the authorities have deliberately 
determined to exclude Europeans from such districts as Mundia, 
it need not therefore follow^ that they had no good reason for their 
decision ; or supposing that their reasonsi whatever they may be, 
should prove such as would not satisfy us, as to the justice and 
expediency of that decision, it is evident that they neverthe- 
less may have produced honest conviction in the minds of the 
framers of the rules. This last we conceive to be the state of the 
case in the present instance, and we shall presently point out, 
what we believe to be-the consideration which had weight with 
the authorities in this matter. Government is loudly charged 
with inconsistency — worse still, with wilful deception, in first 
promising to aid and encourage the European settlers, and then 
issuing such rules as those above mentioned. Now we mentally 
acquit the accused of the latter charge, and this is how we ex- 
plain the existence of the inconsistency. Unquestionably, if We 
could pry into the secret coj^itations of the ruler of British 
India, we should find, that the ultimate analysis of his profound- 
est meditations on the very greatest questions of state policy, 
would result in two exceedingly common-place rules of conduct, 
between which, in last re<?ort, his choice is practically limited. 
They may be thus stated : firstly to protect all his subjects from all 
wrong of all kinds ; and secondly to make India pay. Crude, un- 
philosophical, and unstatesmanlike as these maxims look, in the 
rough dress of our untaught phraseology, we believe they will be 
found to contain the leading ide£» of our rulers; and, if so, it 
will not be denied that they must come not unfrequently into 
real, or apparent collision. On such occasions, there must after all 
be no small difficulty in practically adjusting their relative claims 
to authority ; and this difficulty must be enormously increased, 
when pressure from without disturbs the normal equilibtium of 
the balance, and extraneous influences force irrelevant matter 
into the scales. It must sometimes happen, that one of our 
maxims, for the moment, attains undue prominence, acts with 
more than its legitimate weight, and gets a temporary lead. 
Our plea is that it is impossible to conceive that« this should not 
sometimes occur, and that it offers a simple and natural ex- 
planation of apparent inconsistencies, without forcing us to 
resort to, what we confess we consider, the somewhat extrava- 
gant alternative of supposing, that a batch of gentlemen, 
who, quite irrespective of their official position, we should 
think it an honor to know, and whose word in private we should 
never think of doubting, met together to put on paper agfatuitous 
and unnecessary lie. We find it much easier to belier^that they 



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206 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTftAL 19011. 

and their master suffered the common fate of inferior hmnmity, 
and honestly wavered, nnder the inflnenoe of contending motives 
and contradictory mles of conduct. Let ns now torn to the 
Beport and see what light it throws on this part of the sub- 
ject. 

As Captain Pearson's knowledge of the country and of its in- 
habitants increased, and in direct proportion to the ' amount of 
the information which he gradually accumulated of the general 
condition of the district, a curious change seems to have come 
over his views, on the subject of the means best suited to brin^ 
about a better state of things : what he found was simply the 
shadow of a revenue paid by a district, in which * depopulation 
' is continually progressing,' and at page 6 he writes thus : * It 

* is difficult to sav at once, what means would best succeed for 
' repopulating this fine district, and developing its resources ; 
' but it mutt be taken for granted, that no plan will be of any aoail 
^for that purpose y unlets one or more European settlers, of some 
' sort, go and take up their permanent abode there r' at the very 
end of the Report, page 89, he says ; ' / can not help feeling 
' that the chief dependence for in^roving the district, must be 

* placed in the hope of being able to induce respectable natives, to 
' come up from the Nagpore country and settle here* The italics 
are ours, and indicate the passages showing the change above 
alluded to; it is, as will be seen, thorough and complete. The 
beau ideal of the Indian officials, is, we l^eve, the 'respectable 
native,' as his b&e noir, unquestionably, is the 'enterprising 
European': nor could any unprejudioed observer wonder at the 
preference. The former is courteous, conciliating, and above all 
respectful ; he has the most heartfelt admiration of the laws, the 
coturts and the officiab, which he daily finds so useful in grinding 
his dependents down to their fitting position of abject submission : 
the otiier is too often a'sad dog'; frequently, alas, the reverse of 
courteous, rarely conciliating, and very seldom indeed respect- 
ful ; he has, moreover, the most cordial aUiorrence of the laws, 
the courts and the officials, which daily spoil his temper, and 
waste his time, and his money. Considering these things, had 
this Beport been the work of the Chief Commissoner of the 
district, within which its subject lies, or of one of his deputies, 
we should have been prepared for the passage last quoted as 
natural and justifiable. But there is nothing in Captain Pear- 
son's Beport whidi can suggest the suspicion, that he arrived 
at his conclusions by anv other process than the impartial exami- 
nation of bond fide evidence, or that he was swayed by foregone 
conclusions and prejudices. 

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THB HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDU. £67 

The change illustrated by the two quotations above was a 
gradual one : his distrust in the certainty of the benefit deri- 
vable from European colonization soon appears to have sug- 
gested itself; for^ very soon after the passage^ where this certainty 
IS confidently declared, he telk us, that ^too much care could 
^ not be exercised before making any grants to ascertain that any 

* person who was willing to nmke the trial, was in every way 
' fit for it, and had the necessary capabilities and qualifications 

* to carry it out successfully/ That such a person could be found, 
he does not at this stage seem to doubt, for he goes on to speak 
with confidence of the success of this scheme. As he sees more 
of the stupidity and excessive timidity of the jungle people, 
he insists that care should be taken, 'without entering into 

* vexatious particulars, to provide effectual means for the protection 
' of the present inhabitants from oppression/ At this point he 
still entertains hopes that care is all that is necessary, uid that 
by taking proper precaution, all difficulties wiU ultimately be 
overcome. He thus continues — 'no doubt, any one for his own 
' interest would take care of this, but still we all know how liable 
' our own dependents are to oppress and bully their own country- 
' men, when the latter are poorer, or lower in the social scide 
' than themselves ; and, no doubt, if a European came up here with 
'a large staff of chuprassees, to collect labor &c, even if he 
' were the kindest man in the world, and desired most of all to do 
'justice to those he employed, yet if he did not take care, his 
' assistants would soon drive all the Gonds and Bygars out of 
'the country. Perhaps if it could possibly be managed, it would 
' be better if it were made legal, for every man employed to claim 
' daily pay for work performed, and I think I would not sanction 
'as legal, any agreement between the settlers and the Oond 
'ryot, which was not countersigned by a magistrate, deputy 
'collector, or some disinterested party, in order to testify, that 
' the terms were fully understood by those who bound themselves 
' by them^ — ^p. 26. Now here the European is supposed to desire 
to take that care which is competent to obviate the difficulty — 
' if he did not take care his assistants would &c. ; ' but he will 
take care, it is for his own interest to do so, beside he is proba- 
Uy kind, and desires to be just. — ^We are not ourselves very devot- 
ed admirers of the patenml system of Government, and are not, 
therefore, likely to be enamoured of such expedients as thai 
suggested for the daily payment of cooUes ; nor have we unbound- 
ed confidence in the interference of deputy collectors, and other 
such disinterested parties : still we admit that circumstances so 
special may warrant treatment even as exceptional as has been 



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268 THK HtOfiLAND8 OF CKNTEAL INDU. 

proposed, and at all events we recogpiize in what Cap^n 
JPearson says, a sensible and manly view of the case. He ac^ 
knowledges that the average European though keen in the 
pursuit of gain, is anxious to be just : he insists very properly 
that his subordinates are all that is the reverse of tlus, and the 
jungle people being timid and stupid, he urges that the Eu- 
ropean master should be stimulated and aided in his attempts 
to restrain his native employ^, by such regulations as while 
satisfying his sense of justice, may best meet that end with- 
out unnecessarily or vexatiously trammelling himself. This view, 
if not so sanguine as that of page 5, is at least just, and leaves 
the ciEise to stand on its own merits; in fact, leaves experi- 
ment and fair trial to decide, what in reality it alone is compe- 
tent to decide. At p. S9, on the contrary, the whole question 
is prejudged, and decided for us without experiment, and even 
without any one reason being assigned for the conclusion announ- 
ced — ' however well inclined I feel to my countrymen, / can^ 
^not help feeling that there are very few, who would have 
'sufficient patience and knowledge of their character, to deal 
' successfully with the wild and timid races who inhabit these 
' parts ; or, however well disposed and capable they might them- 
' selves be, how far they would be able to prevent their chupras- 
' sees and other assistants from exercising oppression.' We can- 
not but regret that the reporter should have suppressed all the 
reasons on which so important an opinion as this was formed, 
and one so unlike that formerly advanced. We may be gratified 
to hear that he is well inclined to his countrymen, the state of 
of his feelings is highly creditable to him ; but we consider the 
announcement of it as a poor equivalent for evidence in a case 
of this kind. Page 5 we find bears the date of October 1S59, 
whereas page 39 was apparently written in May 1860. If Cap- 
tain Pearson in the interim, had come in contact with some spe- 
cimens of the enterprising European,' and thus learned by person- 
al inspection that he is not the amiable being he took him for, 
we submit that he ought to have told us so. When we once 
more read over the two passages which we have placed in jux- 
taposition above, one from page 5, the other from the end of the 
Report, we are prepared to maintain, that, in common justice to 
himself, the reporter was bound, either to give his reason for the 
change which his opinions had undergone, on the subject of the 
European colonist, or else to bring forward any evidence he may 
have had, for thinking the jungle man more timid than he had 
believed him to be at first, when ordinary care was all that he 
considered necessary for his protection : but, above all, we have, 

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THB HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 269 

we conceive^ a right to call on him to infonn us^ what reason he 
has for supposing that the respectable native^ whom he hopes^ 
to induce to come up from Nagpore, will treat the jungle people 
differently from those other respectable natives^ who, he tells us, 
now ' bully and keep them down.' And finally, we may ask him, how 
it has come to pass, that his conviction, founded on feelings 
which he cannot help entertaining, of the contingent possibility 
that the European might permit his subordinates to bully the 
the Oonds, has so completely out^weighed the fact, (founded on 
actual evidence reported by himself,) that native landholders ac- 
tually do bully them, as to warrant him in assuring us that the 
only hope of improving Mundla lies in encouraging the latter. 
We are inclined on the whole to admit, that Captain Pearson's 
manner of treating this part of his subject is open to some such 
adverse criticism as the above : adverse criticism, however, is not 
our object, and when we take the statements, even the state- 
ments of opinion, in the Report, apart from the way in which 
we find them advanced, we in the main, or at all events to 
a great extent, agree with every one of them, and believe that the 
contradictions are, after all, more apparent than real. In the 
first place, we agree with him in his belief that European coloni- 
zation could change the Mundla district, from a thinly popu- 
lated wilderness, m which a few half starved and wholly de- 
graded savages eke out a miserable existence, into a rich and 
prosperous province, and, postponing for future consideration his 
counter proposal of native colonization, we believe that Euro- 
pean colonization is the only way in which this could be effect- 
ed : but then, we do not shut our eyes to the fact, which does 
not seem to have engaged his attention at all, that benefits of 
this magnitude cannot be realized here, any more than else- 
where, without bein^ paid for in some coin. We agree with him 
in thinking, there is the most serious danger that even the 
greatest care, kindness, and love of justice on the part of the 
European settler, may fail so completely to check the rascalities 
of his subordinates, as that an occasional Gond might not suffer 
an occasional wrong, or even that one or two might uot occa- 
sionally run away into the jungle. At this point, however, we 
stop, namely at that reached by the reporter at p. £6. above quoted 
— we agree with his opinion there expressed, that self interest 
would act on the settler favorably for the Gond. We have some 
little confidence in the action of the virtues there attributed to the 
European, and we further believe that certain checks might be 
devised, (whether those he suggests or others,) which would secure 
the wild man all the protection that .the most rigid justice could 



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270 THB HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA* 

demand^ and it is only where he fears that this ootdd not beeffeeU 
ed that we take issue with him ; in shorty although we shrink 
from the casuistry which teaches us to do evil that good may 
come^ yet we believe that whatever may be utuwoidaify suffered 
by the wild men^ would be far more than made up to them^ by 
the advantages tiiey would reap from the presence of European 
settlers in Mundla. On this point, on which we take issue with 
Captain Pearson, turns the whole question, in reality ; we can 
only leave it to the reader, and in doing so it is but fair to con- 
fess that our opponent possesses fuller information and a more 
extended experience than we do, in spite of which we have the 
firmest confidence in the correctness of our own conclusions.''*' 
Captain Pearson then, at first advocates, and finally rejects, the 
European colonization of Mundla as the best hope for the im<> 
provement of the district. We shall now proceed briefly to exa- 
mine which has received his iq>proval. 

First, as to the excessive timidity of the jungle men, no one, 
who really knows any thing of them, will question his assertions. 
Their indolence too is extreme ; nothing save compulsion would 
ever induce them to work. We speak from experience when we 
say that they will refuse a sum, which they could not in any 
other way earn in a month, if required to do, in exchange for it, 
three hours' work : rather than undergo the very slight amount 
of labor required to secure the best crops of the best com, they 
prefer to barely keep body and soul together by means of that 
miserable stuff kootkee, already described as their favorite crop 
and which grows almost spontaneously. We believe that no 

* It may, perhaiw, not be out of ^laoe here to mention, that we have seen 
with regret some critioisms on Capttun Pearson's Report, which advocated what 
may be called the extreme " enterprisinff European party. The reporter was 
personally attacked, although not one ofnis statements was questioned, nor any 
of the reasons on which he rests his conclusions impugned. It was asserted to 
be a self evident proposition, that all that is required to ensure the improvement 
and prosperity or Mundla, is the presence there of men of the stamp of the 
" old Indigo planters of Bengal'*, it is treated as not only absurd but malicioufl 
to suppose that any injustice to any one could result from such men having 
uncontrolled power there ; and the suggestion for the registration of contfacts, 
is treated as a malignant insult offeredoy the reporter to his non-official fellow 
countrymen. Surely nothing could more strongly impress on anv candid 
mind how well grounded Captain Pearson's fears may in some cases be, than 
the possibility m such views being seriouslv advocated. Nor can any thing show 
more clearly that the official conception of the " enterprising European ' is not 
entirely the phantom of imaginative prqudice, or tend more powerfully to justify 
the apparent determination of the authorities, either to exclude him altogether 
horn such districts as Mundla, or, if forced to admit him, to take tiie moat 
stringent precautions that he shall not put in practice the theories whicl^ such 
advocates are not ashamed to avow. 

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THE HIGHUINDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 271 

reward, which it is in the power of man to offer, woidd induce them 
to submit to sustained labour, and we are convinced that, if to 
twenty average specimens there was given every luxury that the 
wildest effort of their imaginations could conceive, during six 
days, and they were required in return to do on the seventh 
day, an easy six hours' work, every one of the twenty would rurt 
away to starve in the jungle rather than submit to such condi-* 
tions. In short we accept Captain Pearson's condoBion, that the 
settler could not count on the jungle man as a source of labor, 
and that the gentlest attempt at coercion would drive him to the 
woods. Unless he is to be reduced to slavery, some means must be 
taken to raise him at least one step in the scale of progress, before 
he can meet the European on common ^und : this one step we 
l>elieve many of bis congeners (as we twe the unscientific liber- 
ty of considering them) have already taken, in learning to ap- 
preciate improved food, clothes and dwellings, and in feeling 
the consequent desire to possess the same : this desire is the only 
possible motive of exertion that can be used, and prior to its 
existence we know of no way, save violence, by which the Eu- 
ropean settler could avail himself of their assistance at all. Now 
this process of giving the Gond a taste for luxury has com- 
menced even in the wild district, though to, of course, a very 
partial extent : for instance at p. 82. we hear that they are ' gra- 
* dually migrating towards those villages where they can ob- 
' tain the advantage of bazars ; that is, where Hindu cultivators 
' are settled,' and again at p. 33.; after describing the ^ hopelessly 
' bad condition' of the inhabitants of the wilder parts of the 
country, the reporter tells us that it is 'in strong contrast to the 
' state of affairs about the villages nearer Mhow, which are inha- 
' bited and managed by Hindu cultivators,' 

The adjoining districts, within the territories of the Bewah 
Rajah, are identical, as regards population and general physical 
condition, with those described in the Report, in all respects save 
one, namely, that there the experiment suggested by Captain 
Pea^n, has been long tried, and we can safely assert, that 
stronger confirmation of the justness of his view could not 
be desired than may there be found. In that part of the country, 
precisely the same hill men live in precisely similar hills and 
dales, the only difference being, that their villages instead of be- 
longing to themselves, themselves and their villages belong to 
Baghels, Rajputs, and Bramuns, who,* settled here and there 
about the country, seem to be a kind of feudal lords of the soil. 
Now it is palpable, even from a superficial inspection, that this 
state of things is highly beneficial to the wild men : wheat, rice' 

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272 THE HIGHLASIDS Of CSNTILAL INDIA. 

jhow, urhur and other dals^ chennay sogar^ janeraj maize, some 
oil seeds, and tobacco are seen round every village, trade, if it 
cannot fairly be said to exist, is, at all events, beginning to be 
bom, for something is exported and something , however little, 
imported : the firagments of dress one sees, for instance, are not 
exdosively the prince of that most antedilnvian of all contri- 
vances, the indigenous loom. Unquestionably the people eat better 
food in better huts ; moreover they work a little : their physical 
condition is in short improved, very slightly perhaps, but still 
positively, tangibly, perceptibly; they have tsSken a step, and if 
|t be but a short one, still it is in advance ; they are less migratory, 
and the small end of the wedge is really inserted. 

Their Hindu masters have all the goiod and all the bad quali- 
ties observable in the same kind of people elsewhere : they are a 
handsome thorough-bred looking race, tall, fair, dignified, and 
graceful in mien, and having all tiie outward signs of hereditary 
rulers of men : moreover they are lazy, idle, and dissipated, 
and their government of their Oond subjects may be described 
as an irresponsible despotism, modified (not indeed by epigrams, 
but) by the jungle, to which their vill^ers have always the re- 
source of flying. It is perhaps humiliatmg to confess it, but we 
nevertheless bddeve that these men do what En^^lishmen would fail 
to do, namely, manage the wild people of the jungle profitably to 
themselves, and to the decided advantage of the inferior race. 
The overbearing insolence of the ' Anglo Saxon,' in his treatment 
of men of, what it pleases him to call, an inferior race, is prover- 
bial; moreover it is (what is by no means the same thing) 
true ; but we unhesitatingly deiy any European to parallel the 
supercilious hauteur with which these lords of the soil treat their 
dependents, it is positively wonderful to see ; but nothing ever 
led us to think that the Gonds minded, or even perceived it : we 
fear they do not appreciate the exquisite contempt shown for them, 
its artistic grace is lost upon them ; of one thin^ at all events we 
are quite convinced, namely that they do not feel insulted by it. 

To the Hindu Thakoor, just as much as to the European se|tler 
the labor of the Gond is the great desideratum, the first neces- 
sity; the grand difference between them lies in the form in 
which each would seek to obtain it. The latter would try to get 
it directly, that is in the form of a day's work ; this would be a 
sine qud nofi, even if he could profit by Captain Pearson's advice, 
and commence by cattle breeding, but much more so in the 
prosecution of those undertakings which would be ultimately 
most profitable to him, such as tea, cotton, coffee, or indigo plan- 
ting ; the former meanwhile seeks it, on the contrary, indirectly. 

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THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 273 

namely in the shape of his crop : he goes ronnd his villages^ sees 
the arable land^ advances to the head man^ or to private indivi- 
duals corn for seed^ sometimes also for food^ and at harvest timo 
returns for the crop. At this stage of the proceedings it is that 
the peculiar genius of the Thakoor shines forth with peculiar 
lustre ; his prey is not at his mercy in the sense in which the 
Bengali villager is at the mercy of the mahajun : a little too 
much pressure and the village is deserted in a night; the inevi- 
table jungle is within sight, and stays the mastePs hand. That 
the screw must practically be adjusted with a nicety approaching 
to scientific accuracy is proved by the following considerations ; 
first, were too much exacted, cultivation under the system would 
to a physical certainty decrease, whereas it is rather perhaps 
slightly on the increase ; next, were any kind of fair play to be 
shown the Gond, he would certainly long ere this have spread, 
multiplied and grown rich and independent, just as the Sonthals 
did in the Bajmahal hill district from 1840 to 1865, whereas we 
find him kept at the lowest possible stage, just above his abso- 
lutely wild condition, that is, barely up to the point at which he 
can be made useful to his master. Just as direct taxation is felt 
in a way quite unlike that in which indirect taxation is perceived 
to be oppressive, so the Gond parts with his labor in the shape of 
his crop, although nothing could induce him to give it in the 
shape of a day's work ; that is, as we have seen, in the only 
form in which it could be made use of by the European settler^ 

But the Thakoor manages to get something out of him in the 
way of direct taxation also. The lord of half a dozen villages issues 
his perwannah, commanding the attendance of a number of young 
Inen ; when the service required is the cutting and carrying of 
wood, we believe that obedience is always readily accorded, and 
no reward ever given or expected. In the case of a hunting party, 
or if the Thakoor himself, or any other noble traveller, requires a 
load to be carried for a stage, we have never heard of any ques- 
tion being raised, or any difficulty being made by the villager. 
But when sustained labor is required, if a field has to be broken 
up, or a bund built, then a day^s food is always given in return 
for 8 or 4 hours' work ; and we have seen many a bund and many 
a tank long left in a half completed condition, only because labor 
could not be obtained : here in fact we have the measure of the 
power of the Thakoor, the limit beyond which he cannot stretch 
his authority. 

Tf the European could establish himself in a country like this, 
if he could begin where the Hindu cultivator leaves off, or rather 
stops short, then, indeed, we might hope for the best results ; 



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274 THE HIOHIJINDS OF CKNTRAL INDIA. 

be would offer his wages to men prepared^ or in proeera of 
being prepared to appreciate the advantages of sach treatment ; 
and if he had the patience and wisdom not to want to get on 
too £Eist, more labor for higher pay would soon be obta^Ue^ 
and a commencement once successfully made^ his villa^ would 
soon be crowded with deserters from the estates of his neighbours. 
Never could there be found a more doubly truthful application 
of the trite old French proverb ^ ce n' est que le premier pas 
^ qui coute' than here : in one sense the European cannot make 
this first step in advancing the Gond on the path of progress : 
in the other were he permitted to make his first step as he 
might make it, under the guidance of Captain Pearson's advice 
and in the absence of the rules, it would prove his sole difficulty. 

In conclusion, we must for a moment revert to the subject of 
this paper, namely, the great jungle tract including Santpoora, 
Oondwana, Mundla, Sahagpore, Singrowlie : on the great majority 
of the subjects, suggested by an area so vast, we have not touched 
at all. For instance on that of its mineral wealth we had intend- 
ed te have given a connected sketeh ; we found, however, that to 
do te such a subject even a semblance of justice, would have 
extended this article far beyond all permissible limits : a technical 
account of the coal fields of that portion of our area which 
borders on the Nerbudda valley, has been published by Govern- 
ment, with maps, &c ; te that volume we may refer, as the only- 
extant information on the subject. 

Many other parts of our area equal Mundla in the peculiar 
advantages, te illustrate which we have analyzed Captain Pearson's 
Beport of that fine district. Other places equal Puchmuri, or 
nearly equal it, in most, if not all those features which we believe 
render it so desirable as the site of an official colony. Mythioo-^ 
histeric ruins, and beautiful scenery are to be found almost every- 
where, and of the former we have given but a meagre idea 
in our account of Bandugurh. In short, we take leave of our 
subject with the regretful conviction, that we have been able 
to do but little te attract towards it that attention which it so 
richly deserves. 



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THG GOVERNMENT 07 BENGAL AND THE 'STEANQEBS.' 275 



Aet. IV. — 1. Beport of tie Indigo Ckmmissianers. 1860. 

2. A Blue Mutiny, Fraser^s Magazine. January, 1861. 

3. Reports of the Special CommUHonerB. 

4. Indigo Blue Books. 

5. Indigo and its Enemies. London 1861. 

THE unpopularity of a Oovernment, when it is almost univer- 
sal^^ is generally considered sufficient proof that it is unsound, 
unjust^ or at least unsuited to the wants and necessities of the 
people. When it becomes so in England it is overthrown, and a 
new Ministry, which, at least, promises better, is put into its 
place; should that idso fail to give satisfaction the process is re- 
peated, and, perhaps, the first dismissed, having had a lesson, gets 
another trial. This occurs every few vears, and is considered a 
wholesome and necessary check upon tne tendency of men, who 
have been long in power, to forget that they are, after all, only 
the servants of the people. Public opinion is powerful in Eng- 
land, chiefly through the press, but how many statesmen has 
England seen, who would have disregarded the warnings or 
demands of the popular voice, or, perhaps, treated it with 
contempt, but for the all-powerful executive which popular 
opinion possesses in the House of Commons ? Where would 
the Reform Sill and a thousand others have been, had England 
been governed by a ministry hereditary and irresponsible, and 
which no representations could remove? It is thus in Bengal^ 
and over all India, and the e£Eect of security and irresponsibility is 
exhibited in the usual manner, in insolence, arrogance, and a con- 
temptuous disregard of all demands for reform. We have a 
her^tary Government which does not change, into which 
no new blood can be introduced, except at the lower extremities ; 
and having to pass through the same veins, and follow the same 
arteries, t&ing fifbeen, or it may be thirty years to reach the head 
and brain, can it then be ooosidered new ? It is no exaggera- 
tion to say that this is the case with the Civil Service. Its 
education, after reaching India, has undergone little or no 
change for fifty, or perhaps we may say one hundred years* 
The same grades of assistant Magistrate, Magistrate, Collector, 
Sessions Judge, Commissioner, Sudder Judge, Secretary, Member 
of Council, and finally Lieut. Governor have to be gone through 

* That the Indian Government is unpopular with natives was settled, be- 
yond dispute, in 1857 :--that it is so with all independent Europeans, who can 
deny? 



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276 THE GOVESNHENTOF BENGAL ANB THE 'STRANGEES/ 

by all with scarcely any variation. It appears to have been as^ 
somed that this formula ceold not be improved or modified^ and 
so it has gone on ; and^ as might be expected, the old world ma- 
chinery, no matter what material it was fed with, has pro- 
duced fabrics suited neither to the tastes or wants of modem 
times. It is like a paper mill. The rags of the be^ar and the 
cast off linen of the gentleman being tihirown into one vat, be- 
come undistinguishable, producing a medium article, not so good 
as the best, and not so hsA as the worst. And can we blame 
the linen because it was mixed up with the rags to make an 
average, and was not done justice to? In spite of the mixing, 
a few sheets of first rate qimlity have turned up, but under suck 
difficulties, that their number, compared with the whole quantity, 
has been very small. 

It has been the creed of the Civil Service for generations^ 
that the independent European was dangerous, * an embarrass- 
ment to Government,' and not to be encouraged. It origi- 
nated in the trading days of the Company* who would admit 
no poachers into the preserve, and it has been kept up since 
partly from self interest, partly from fear of those who 
were 'too prone to assert their indefeasible rights,' and a 
mistaken policy. There are men now in the Civil Service, and 
able men too, who still consider the introduction of Europeans 
freely into India as dangerous and impolitic. It took a long 
time and many a hard fight to repeal the corn laws and establish 
free trade, but it was done, and so will it be in India; but we 
need not wonder if some civilians should, like British farmers, 
look upon the measure as ruinous. It is hard to convince men 
when their education, and harder still when what they conceive 
to be their interest opposes conviction. There are English farmers 
who still maintain that free trade has been the ruin of the 
country. In most cases Hhe ruin of the country' means, a real 
or imaginary injury to the class to which the speaker belongs. 
The protectionist farmer and the civilian are on a par in opinion, 
but there the similarity ends. The farmer has no power to in- 
jure in any way the free trader. He is not an officer of the cus- 
toms department through which the article, he believes is ruining 
him, has to pass. If he were, it is not improbable that difficulties 
might be thrown in the way of the obnoxious article. Now the 
ci^ian is an officer of the customs department, and not only 
of the customs department, but of every other from the free 
port to the most remote comer of the land. There is not a 
market to which the free article can be carried, over which he 
has not a certain control, and that control is, of course, grei^test 

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TH£ GOVEONHBNT OF BENGAL AND THE ' STBANOESS/ 277 

in the most remote^ namely, the Mofussil. It is perhaps strange 
and, upon the whole, most creditable to the Indian protectionist, 
that he has not used his power ofbener and more unscrupulously. 
It may be accounted for in many ways, and first, we will place it 
to the credit of his general love of fair play, his natural partiality 
for his countrymen, for there was, and even still is, such a 
partialiiy, although self-interest, or fancied self-interest has done 
much to smother it. Secondly, it has happened that the civilian 
has had an interest, under the rose, in the Interloper's money- 
making schemes ;* and more than that, in a lonely out-station a 
cheery companion and a fellow sportsman is too valuable to be 
readily quarrelled with. Any one even tolerably acquainted with 
the Mofussil, will at once admit (and has not the experience of the 
last two years proved it,) that even now, and how much more so 
must it have been in old days, it is in the power of a Magistrate, by 
a slight indication of hostility, by a mere hint of its existence, to 
end^ger, if not absolutely to ruin, the most equitable and flour- 
ishing enterprise ever undertaken by an Interloper, and when 
that hostility is carried so far as to suggest, that there may 
be ' irresistible pleas ' for not fulfilling a contract, need we 
wonder that it is successful, and that the chance of emancipation 
from obligations and debt is eagerly snapped at? It would be 
80 in anv country where the moral sense is fiur stronger than 
in Bengal. 

It would occupy more space and time than we can afibrd, to 
recapitulate all or half of the charges which have been brought 
against the planter. Bape, robbery, murder, kidnapping, torture, 
foi^ry, and outrages of every description are amongst the 
number, and are still repeated and harped upon, in spite of the 
unwilling dismissal of all the heavy charges recorded in the 
Indigo Commission's Report. We say unwilling dismissal ad- 
visedly for reasons which will be given hereafter. It is curious, 
that the filthiest crimes which have been imputed to Planters, 
and which have been above all others, declared to be the most 
improbable and foundationless, have a Missionary origin. There 
may be some who will really misunderstand us when we allude to 
Missionary fisdlings, and a great many more who will pretend to do 
80, it being the old and well estabUshed tactics of the unworthy 
members of all respectable professions to construe any and every 
charge made against the individual into an attack upon the class, 
and, if it can be twisted into a scoff at religion itself, it is so much 
the more effective. 

* Evidence of Mr. Mangles before Colonization Committee. 

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S78 THB GOVERKMBNT OF BENGAL AND THE ' STRANG ESS.' 

The planter is accused of violence in carrying on his business, 
violence in representing his grievances, and, in short, on every occa- 
sion when an opportunity lor being violent is available. Now, 
we admit that in some instances the charge is to a certain extent 
true, but is a man to be refused justice because his manner 
of asking for it is open to objection? We do not approve 
of violence either in business or debate, but we maintain that 
although violence may prejudice many against a cause, the merits 
of which they are ignorant of, it does not make a just cause unjust. 
When a ryot rushes into * the presence,' and throws himself 
upon the ground roaring for justice, he is decidedly violent, but' 
would any Magistrate be warranted in refusing him justice or even 
a hearing because of his violence. Should he say, ^My dear Sir, 
your case may be a very hard one, but, really, your manner is sO' 
rough that I can do nothing for you P ' There is nothing so likely 
to engender violence as a strong conviction that justice will l>e 
denied, and the Planter has tolerably good grounds for holding 
such a belief, and so has the ryot, for there is, as a rule, no 

1'ustice in the Mofussil. There is no such thing as simple justice 
:nown. The rich man can buy decrees, but is^^^justiee. The 
advantage in law is on the side of the rich all over the wor^, in 
England as well as in Bengal. It has been so since the da^s of 
the antediluvian patriarchs, and will be till the Millennium. It 
is difficult for the most ch^table to make sufficient allowance 
for the position of the Planter. He has to deal with notoriously 
the most immoral and lying people in the world. If he wants 
bis own he must take it, for practically the law will not recover 
it for him. If people would look calmly and with an unpre- 
judiced eye at tne charge of violence and lawlessness brought 
against the Planter, and at the admitted^ diminution of affirays and 
disturbances, they could not fail to come to a conclusion, much 
more favourable to the Planter than we fear they have, at least 
in England. To help them to which comparatively favourable 
conclusion we may quote a few words from the Indigo Com-- 
mission Report. At para. 86, after referring to the decrease 
of heavy crimes, Mr. Seton Karr says, 'even in Nuddea, as 
' will be seen, the cases were few in the years preceding 1859 
' and 1860. Some of this good result is no doubt due to the 
* working of Act IV of 1840, for giving summarv possession 
' of lands, to the law for the exaction of recognizances, and 
' security against apprehended breaches of the peace * * * * 
' and to the establishment of sub-divisions, with convenient circles- 
' of jurisdiction * ^ and we doubt not to the good sense and 

• Indigo CommiBsion Report. 

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THE GOVERNMENT OF BENGAL AND THE ' STRANGBES/ 279 

' good feeling of the influoDtial planters.* Now we beg careful at- 
tention to the above. It is admitted^ nay proved^ that increased 
facilities for obtaining jostioe have diminished^ indeed almost ex- 
tinguished; serious outrages. The inference is simple. Still 
greater feoilities would annihilate the minor offences as surely as 
they did the serious outrages. Now, if the Planter were really the 
oppressor^ which it is the interest of his enemies to represent him 
to be ; if; as they assert, oppression is necessary to the very existence 
of his profession, we should expect to find him the steadfast op- 

Cr of all reform of the law, or of the administration of it. A law- 
man does not ask for an increase of Magistrates. A colony of 
burglars would not be likely to petition for more detectives of a 
better and less corrupt description, in preference to those who 
used to wink at their proceedings and share the spoil. But who 
has been so loud as the planter in complaining of. a vile police? 
who has cried so much, and so persistently, for the reform of 
the existing courts, and for an increase in their number? The; 
Planter has begged, petitioned, and prayed for years to be 
brought nearer justice, to have more of it, to have it purer, and 
more accessible, and this fact, which is too notorious to require 
proof, should be a sufficient answer to nearly all the charges 
brought a^nst him, the chief of which is lawlessness. To 
English mmds the charge of lawlessness is considered a sufficient 
ground of condemnation, and if proved, at once puts the unfor- 
tunate so charged beyond the pale of sympathy. It may be 
instructive to enquire in what lawlessness consists. An English- 
man would define it, as meaning a detestation of law, order, 
and justice, a love of anarchy, a capability of committing any 
or every crime for the prevention of which laws are made. Tx> 
an Anglo-Indian, and especially to one of Mofussil experience, 
it has a far different meaning. All men who are beyond the law, 
or have no law within their reach^ are lawless ; but does this 
necessarily mean unjust, oppressive, cruel and tyrannical ? Suppose 
that, under pressure from a mahajuu or any oi his numerous and 
merciless creditors, a ryot flies to an Indigo Factory, and, in 
consideration of his agreeing to cultivate a small portion of his 
land with Indigo, receives a sufficient number of rupees to satis- 
fy, for a time, his most relentless persecutor, and the temporary 
difficulty being removed,endeavours to evade,neglect, or altogether 
repudiate his agreement, and that the only remedy left to the 
planter is an expensive and almost interminable CivU suit, costing 
from one to two hundred per cent upon the amount claimed. 
The claim is a just one, and the Planter has an empty godown 
on the spot, while the Civil Court may be ten, twenty, or fifty 

M 

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2S0 THE GOVERNMENT Of BENGAL AND WE ^STRANOEBS/ 

miles away^ with a lane of greedy, corrapt Amkh gnardiiig 
every approach, and watching at every gate for what they may 
devour. The short and easy remedy is the most natural ander 
such circumstances, and need we wonder if it is adopted? We 
are far from defending it, for it is a rule in civilized lands that 
even one's own is not to be taken by force. In the letter of the 
Court of Directors, No. S of 18S2, we find the following in para. 5. 
' There is too much reason to believe that the Ryots are to a 
' great extent oppressed* and defrauded, if not by Indigo planters 
' themselves, by agents employed by them, acting in their names 
f and for their advantage, while breaches of the peace attended 
' with violence (often with wounding and sometimes even with 
' murder,) are committed, the chief actors in which are hired armed 
' men engaged by Planters, for the express purpose of enforcing 
' their claim in defiance of the law.'' If we alter only one woi3 
in the above quotation it will fairly represent the state of mat- 
ters. For ' in defiance of the law ' let us put ' in the absence of 
' the law ' and it will explain very nearly every instance of ' law- 
' lessness.' It cannot be denied, that when the power of right* 
ing one's self without the formality of a law-suit exists, the 
power of oppressing others must necessarily co<-exist, and amongst 
any large body of men, no matter what their profession may 
be, some will undoubtedly be found who will tyrannize under 
such circumstances ; but what does it amount to after all ? Let 
us take the list of crimes furnished to the Indi^ Commission 
by the most spiteful, and, we will do him the justice to say, th6 
most open and plucky enemy of the Planters, Mr. Eden, and see 
if it bears out the sweeping charges so unhesitatingly made by 
such men as Mr. Layard. We cannot doubt that such a partisan 
as Mr. Eden did his best to establish his case, and no greater 
proof of his zeal is needed than is furnished by the statement 
referred to, which goes back to about the time of his birth, that 
is to 1830. The list contains in all forty nine cases in 29 
years, a trifle over a case and a half per annum. Now, with 
regard to the cases themselves, we cannot do better, eveii 
at the idsk of provoking a laugh on a serious subject, than 
quote Mr. Eden's own words in reply to the question. No* 
3578, put by Mr. Fergusson. Mr. Fergusson asks, is it not 
the case that more than half of those accused were acquitted? 
Mark the reply. ' There are scarcely any one of these cases 

• Would not thia remark apply with equal force to CJovemmentP for wKo 
can deny, that ryots ase oppressed and defrauded by the amlah of every court 
in India ? 



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I 
TBE 60VEKNHBT9T OF BENGAL AN=D THE ^ STRANGE RS/ 281 

' in which the European or principal Manager of the concern 
^ has even been put upon his trials although in many of them^ 
^ the Judges trying the case8> have expressed strong opinions 
' that such Ear(^>ean6 were themselves implicated in them/ Ima- 
gine a comj^ler of criminal statistics in England including a 
number of men^ who had never been tried or even formally 
accused in the list of criminals, because some of the Judges had 
expressed ^strong opinions^ upon individuals who never came 
before them. Mr. Eden was unfortunate in the choice of the case 
on which he made his final stand, for his statements prove no- 
thing more than that Mofussil CSourts will commit upon evi- 
dence which the trained Judges of the Supreme Court consider 
insi^icient or altogether worthless; This has been notoriously 
the case from time immemorial, and forms the chief ground on 
which the European claims exemption from Mofussil Courts. 
The Judges have had no legal education, are surrounded by per- 
jury and corruption of ever^ description, and the case must be 
simple indeed, if by any tbii^ short of a miracle, they arrive 
at the same decision as the learned and deeply-read Judges of 
the Supreme Court, held in check and guided as they are by 
the experienced intelligence of an able bar. 

The comparison is an unfortunate one for the Mofussil Judges. 
Mr. Eden's logic amounts to this. Ignorant, or say comparatively 
ignorant Judges condemned two men to imprisonment for life, for- 
murder, upon the same evidence as was rejected by educated law- 
yers, ergo, the learned and experienced were wrong and the igno- 
rant ex-collectors right. We should be disposed to come to a di- 
rectly opposite conclusion, and say, that probably two innocent 
men were sentenced to imprisonment for life for a murder, which 
does not appear to have been legally proved was ever committed. 
No body could ever have been produced or identified, if we are 
to credit Mr. Eden's next most lo^cal statement. ' If the murder 
' was not committed, (says Mr. Eden,) where is Dick ailias Richard 
' Aimes, who has never appeared since ?' It amounts to this. If 
Tom is accused of murdering Dick, and fails to produce Richard 
Aimes, he is indoubtedly guUty, and sboidd be imprisoned for life. 
The above specimen vrHl surely sid&oe, so we may be excused from 
fc^owing Mr. Eden's evidence further. Instead of having shown 
their utter worthlessness and irrelevancy, if we admit that the 
forty nine cases are strictly true, who is there to blame ? We have 
no hesitation in saying, in the most solemn manner possible, 
that every crime which could have been either totally prevented or 
mitigated by good laws, good police,and more available justice, lies 
at the door of those, whofor years have refused to admit the necessity 



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282 THE GOYfiRNHENT 0¥ BBNOAL AND TUB ' 8TEANOBB0/ 

for reform, chiefly for the same reason that the planter was un- 
williug to reduce the number of bundles he would extort for the 
rupee, namely, expense. It would not pay. The country oould 
not afford justice and must go without. There is a wonderful si- 
milarity between the Oovernment and the planter here. The 
planter could not, he said, afford more for the Indigo as it would 
not pay him, and it turns out that, in some cases,^ he was giving 
away more in rent than he made from the Indigo. The Govern-* 
ment could not afford justice, and it lost in revenue, owing to 
the insecurity of property, ten times more than would have 
sufficed to bring justice to the door of the poor and oppressed, 
for whom it professes to have so mudi sympathy. Mr. Grant steam* 
ed through seventy miles of people calling for justice. Can it bA 
that Mr. Grant's route was a newly discovered one — ^was it through 
some lately annexed territory, Oude, or Sikhim ? Or is it possi* 
ble that seventy miles of people can be still crying for justice, 
in a district over which we have ruled since the last shot was 
fired at Plassey. No, Mr. Grant, it cannot be, for your and 
^our predecessors' Judges, Collectors, and Magistrates have sat 
m judgment in that district for a hundred years. It could not 
under such circumstances, be justice they called for. If it was, 
what a grand corroboration of all that Planters and other inter- 
lopers have so long procUimed, that there was neither law not 
justice. Mr. Grant, in order to strengthen his case against the 
Planters, has gone on blindly heaping accusation upon accusation, 
setting forth, with all the strength of his able pen, the Planters' 
sins of commission, forgetting, or, in his anger not heeding, the 
inevitable conclusion, that the' sins of the Planters would have been 
impossible but for his own heinous ones of omission. Mr. Grant 
has not the excuse of ignorance, for he boasts that he had ' pecu* 
liar opportunities' of becoming acquainted with abuses in con- 
nection with Indigo * in all district? so far back as 1835 ; so for 
twenty-four years has he tolerated grinding oppression, which 
has only now become unbearable, although it is admitted by all, 
and even by Mr. Grant himself, to be absolute freedom compared 
with what formerly existed. Mr. Grant has filled no subordinate 
place for very many years, and after such an avowal of his 
knowledge, we should expect to find him taking the lead in re- 
medial measures; but has he done so? We cannot call to mind 
one single step taken by Mr. Grant, to put a stop to such a dis- 
graceful state of affairs, when he occupied a seat in council. It 
could not have been from waut of power, for we have seen that a 



* MessTB. Uill'ti Concerns. 



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TUB QOYBRNMENT OF BENGAL AND THE 'STBANOBBS/ 283 

subordinate officerj possessed power sufficient to nproot the 
growth of two or three generations. And to that subordinate the 
credit, if there is any, of the emancipation is due. Mr. Eden 
took the first decided step, which did not meet with Mr. Grant's 
approval or sanction for several months, namely, from 20th 
Angust 1859 to 7th April 1860. There was certainly no 
undue haste shown by Mr. Grant in the investigation, for 
he took seven months to consider a proclamation which only 
occupies sixteen lines of the Blue Book. Mr. Grant is not 
80 slow a thinker or actor in matters personally affecting 
himself, for we find the petition of the Indigo Planters, present- 
ed to the Supreme Government on the 26th July 1860, replied 
to, in a minute filling eleven pages of the Blue Book, on the 
17th of August, considerably under a month, and even this short 
delay he states to be 'longer than was desirable,' and pleads ill- 
ness as his excuse ; we see that a proclamation, which, whatever 
might have been its intention, was undoubtedly interpreted ad 
meaning that a ryot, in spite of a legal agreement to cultivate 
Indigo, might ofier ' irresistible pleas ' to avoid the consequences 
the planter insists upon^ required seven months for explanation and 
consideration^ and was finally approved. But suppose it had 
been otherwise, and that Mr. Grant had taken the same view 
of the matter as Messrs. Grote, Keid and Drumraond^ who, one 
and all, condemned the ' indiscretion ' of Mr. Eden, the conse- 
quences would have been much the same, for it did not take 
nearly seven months to do the mischief. This extraordinary de- 
lay, taken in conjunction with Mr. Grant's subsequent proceed- 
ings, showing, as they do, unmistakable animui, as, for instance, 
his offering a reward for the conviction of certain individuals^ 
supposed to have been concerned in an affray, can only lead to the 
most damaging conclosion, that he allowed seven months to 
elapse to give the proclamation time to toork, in case he should be 
ultimately compelled to disavow or condemn it. What knowledge 
Mr. Grant did possess on the subject of Indigo, we have his own 
admission, was twenty-five years old, and could not consequently 
be said to be either fresh or practical, having been all derived 
from having been employed, in the year 1835, in ^ digesting' a 
mass of correspondence on the subject, which correspondence, if 
we mistake not, resulted in a verdict far from unfavourable 
to the Planters generally. It was upon this theoretical and 
mouldy knowledge that he set aside the opinions of the ex- 
perienced and practical men we have mentioned above, and 

• Factory servants. 

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284! THE OOVERNMENT OF BENGAL AND THE 'STRANOKIS,* 

upheld the spitefal proceedings of a favourite subordinatej, the 
general fairness and truth of whose statements may be gathered 
from the following. ' In fact the ryots dare not go to a factoiy 
' unless protected by a letter from a Magistrate/'^ Contrast this 
with the following extract from a letter from Mr. Cockbum, De- 
puty Magistrate, to the Oovemment of Bengal, dated SIst 
December, 1859. ' Again, most European Planters listen to the 
' complaints of their ryots, and if they do not afford them 
^ redress, still the Bengal ryot is generally quite satisfied if he 
' can only get at his ' moneeb' and relate his grievance? in his 
' loudest voice. He can then go back to his village, and brag 
' about the friendly way he was treated, and this no doubt keeps 
' the lower factory servants somewhat in check. But it is next to 

* impossible for the ryots of a native zemindar to get to him. la 
' the first place, he generally resides miles away, or in quite a 
' different district from his factories, and an ordinary ryot cannot 
' afford the time the journey there and back would occupy ; besides 

* no ryot would attempt to face his zemindar without a rupee ia 
' his hand as a nuzzur. If he was fool enough to present himself 
' without this necessary article, the result would undoubtedly be a 
' shoe-beating and a summary ejection. In fiict it would be next to 
' impossible for him to get to his sM^mindar without previously 
' feeing the amlah.' This is the statement of an ex*planter, and 
the general tone of his letter certainly shows no particular par- 
tiality for the members of the profession he once followed. Apart 
from that, there is really more knowledge of the Mofussil, more 
insight into the character of the natives displayed in the short 
extract we have given, than in all the smooth flowing minutes 
of Mr. Orant. Regarding Mr. Eden's statement that a ryot can- 
not venture near a factory without a letter from a Magistrate, 
we only notice it because of its extreme absurdity, and to show 
the length to which a partisan will go. Our own experience of 
the Mofussil has been considerable, and we can only call to mind 
two instances in which we ever received official notes from the 
hands of a ryot. One was an order, bearing the seal of office, em- 
powering us to seize and impress, in any way we pleased, with as 
much or as little oppression as we chose, every cart that could be 
laid hands upon, and send the same immediately to the station 
for the use of the ' Sircar,' in the year 1857.t The other was 

* Letter of Mr. Eden. 

t To avoid this hundreds of bullocks were driven into the Terai, carts 
broken up and the parts secreted, chiefly because of the extortion of tho 
Government ttervants, through whom their pay would have to paw. 

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THE OOYSRNVENT OV BENGAL AND THE 'STRANGEBS.' 286 

a few monihs later in the same year. It was a short and 
hurried note from an official^ announcing that he had abandoned 
the station, and fled to Dinapore, leaving nearly all the Planters, 
with their wives and children, scattered throughout the district, 
where many of them remained until after the return of the 
officials with a body-guard of Sikhs, and not a child even was 
injured. It is pernaps hardly fair that we should mention this 
circumstance, for we were especially favoured, no one else, as far 
as we are aware, having received any notice of the flight or the 
probable anarchy that might be expected to result, and which 
assuredly would have resulted had not the presence of the Plant- 
ers tended to maintain confidence. It is hardly necessary to 
mention, that, in alluding to the above case, we have no intention 
of reflecting in any way upon Civilians in general, or their con* 
duct during the trjring year of the mutiny. They bore them- 
selves in 1857 as Eng&h gentlemen usually do, and the above ic^ 
almost the only instwce of disgraceful panic and abandonment 
of duty on record. 

We cannot do better than close this portion of the subject with 
a few quotations from a Minute by Sir F. Halliday, in reply to 
Mr. Sconce's representation of oppression in Nuddea. The 
man who was knighted for his long service in India, and his able 
government of Ben^^, says in 1854, ' For, granting that the 
' whole of these obviously exaggerated stories were true, or sup- 
' posing that a commission, instituted as Mr. Sconce would re- 
' commend, were to find that these oppressions really were of 

* constant or frequent occurrence, what would follow? not that 
' Indigo planting is inherently vicious and proper to be put down 

* by Legislative enactment, but simply this, that, in tne Zillah 
' of Nuddea, the laws were inefficient and the tribunals of no 
' avail I that the strong might oppress the weak with perfect im- 
' punity ; that crime met with no pimishment, and injustice went 
' always unredressed.' 

' But if things were really so, if the strong and the violent 

* and the imscrupulous could in Nuddea work their will with 
' impunity, does Mr. Sconce suppose that there would be no 
' oppressors but English Planters? that no violence would be 
' heard of but such as thev perpetrated ? that there would be 

* nothine to tell of the hardness of Mahajunsor the severity of 

* Zemindars V 

' Or is it to be supposed that the tribunals would be found to 
' be vigilant and impartial towards all but English oppressors, 
' and that none but Planters could commit violence under their 
' jurisdiction V 

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886 THE OOVIENIIENT OF BENGAL AND THE ^STRANGERS/ 

' Yet one of these conditions is what must have seemed to 
' Mr. Sconce probable; he heard nothing of any tyranny bat 
' Planters' tyranny^ and he has not allnd^ to any other kind of 
' oppression. Had he supposed there was any soch^ he would 

* surely have included it in his proposed enquiry. He must 
' certainly have supposed^ that in a general dissolution of Law 
' and Justice none were found to turn anarchy to accoimt but 

* tyrannous Planters^ or else that Law and Justice were in so 
' smgular a condition in Nuddea, that they dealt only with wicked 

* natives, and allowed oppressive Planters to commit all sorts of 

* mischief with impunity' 

In the letter a^^companying the above Minute the following 
pithy sentence occurs. ' He (the Lieut. Oovemor) thinks also 
' that in the course of the daily administration of justice in your 
' Court, you must have had, and will still further have opportu* 
' nities of satisfying your mind, whether Law and Justice are indeed 

* so utterly and shiuneftdly relaxed and inefficient in the Zillah of 
^ Nuddea as they must be, if only a part of these enormous alle- 
' gations be well founded.' This is llie logical reply of a man of 
undoubted ability and immense knowlec^ of the countiy and tiie^ 
native character, (real, practical, persondi knowledge, not glean- 
ed from musty ^pers in 1835,) to the recommendation of the 
honest and well mtentioned but feeble-minded late member for 
Bengal. Mr. Sconce had been then barely three months in an 
Indigo district, and must have possessed either more honesty or 
more acuteness than all those who had preceded him ; a con- 
clusion neither very complimentary to the service nor truthful. 
What a contrast between the clear, stnughtforward writing of 
Sir F, Halliday and the unworthy dodging of Mr. Orant. Let 
us take one instance. In an ungua]:ded moment, the planters 
stated that the Indigo districts were occupied by * a vast mi- 
' litary force/ which was certainly an exaggeration. The state- 
ment was only intended to corroborate the assertion that tiie 
districts were in a disturbed condition, and was followed by 
' where troops were never seen before.' Mark the advantage 
taken of the slip, while the real question is evaded. Mr. Grant 
enters into lengthy statistics shewing the exact proportion of 
troops to the population, and proves, with a chucUe, that the force 
is not ' vast,' that the districts are not disturbed, that life and 
property were never safer, and yet, in opposition to this statement, 
we find in his letter to Mr. Sconce, dated 23rd March 1860, that 
the people 'are now almost in rebellion to escape the cabmity 
' of cidtivating a fidd with Indigo.' 

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YHB GOVBRNXBKT OP BENGAL AND TffE ^STRANGERS.' 287 

We defend the planter generally, because we believe that, what« 
ever may be his sins, he has not been fairly or honestly treated* 
In doing so, we must not be supposed to undertake a defence 
of the system^ or the many admitted errors, and, perhaps in some 
instances, crimes, to which it has led. On the contrary, we give 
up the system as utterly Unsound and altogether most unsatis- 
factory. But it was not necessarilpr> universally or even gener- 
ally criminal, involving a suppression of the ' voice of consci- 
ence,' 'avarice and unscrupulousness.** We only notice the ' Blue 
Mutiny,' at all, because the authorship is attributed to the 
late president of the Indigo commission, and shall content our- 
selves with a very few remarks. Perhaps the most glaring and 
wilful misrepresentation is contained in the claiNtrap appeal to 
coimtry squires at page 10 1, on the subject of tne measurement 
of land for Indigo. * (Jouniary squires will be staggered to hear 
* that a different standard of measurement prevails in regard to 
< lands marked out for indigo, to that used for any other measure- 
^ ment !' No one knows be^r than the late president of the Indi- 
go commission, that the nlHtnate result to the Byot, is not in the 
feast affected by the area he cultivates, but by the number of 
bundles he produces, and although the practice is an absurd and 
useless one, it involves neither fraud nor injustice, as this one- 
sided statement is intended to imply. The author of the 
' Blue Mutiny' cannot be so ignorant of the customs of the 
country as not to know, that a different standard of weight 
prevails in almost every bazar in India. We buy salt-petre 
m the North West bjr a standard about one fourth larger than 
the one by which it n sold in Calcutta ; a different standard pre- 
vails for almost every kind of grain, varying in almost every 
bazar, even when not more than twenty miles apart. It is an 
absurd and senseless custom, and so was the system of Indigo 
measurement, and the sooner both are abandoned the better. Why 
did not the author of the ' Blue Mutiny* proceed to 'stagger* 
the EngUsh squire still further, by informing him that the planter 
sold his Indigo by a standard about eight pounds lower than the 
Bazar maund? It would have been equally true, and, if put for- 
ward fks a ' startling' fact, might have created an impression 
equally unfair and unjust. Again, ' it is shown conclusively, that in 
^ this way contracts were transmitted from the fother to the son, 
' and even to the grandson, and that the majority of the cultiva- 
f tors are now those of the second and third generation, who had 
< no option in the matter, and no power to set themselves free !' 

* Fraser'* Magaaine, January, 1861. 

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S88 TH6 GOYEEKMENT ^P BENGAL AND TOE ^ aTRAMOBBS/ 

There is in this sentence the usual mixture of truUi and the 
reverse^ which we find throughout the article. It is, we believe, 
true that a considerable proportion of the Indigo cultivators are 
canning on a cultivation b^un by their Mh^s or even grand- 
fathers^ just as Civilians and others fellow so generally the pro- 
fessions of their fathers. The son of an officer is more likely te 
^nter the army than the son of a Civilian, and we all know that 
the native of India will go on cultivating a particular article, for 
no other reason than bec^ise his grandfSfither did it. But this is by 
no means the only or the chief cause in the present instance. We 
believe it is true, that the planter managed, to ke^ the Byot cfa 
the wrong side of the factory books, not by fraud or false entries, 
but by am>rding him too many facilities for getting into debt, by 
being, in every thing except Indigo matters, a soft and easy cre-^ 
ditor, asking for no interest, and being generally in no hurry. 
And what native can resist the offer of ready money in advan<^ 
for services which he trusts to time and chance to give him an op-» 
portunity of evading? If the law had been prompt in compelling 
the fulfilment of the conditions upon which ^e money was grant- 
ed, it is quite possible, that only those who were driven to the fac- 
tory by pressing necessity, might have entered into engagements 
at all, which, for the sake of present relief from absolute ruin, and 
of putting off the evil day, they might have consented to carry out^ 
The lax state of the law, or rather the absence of any law suited 
to the case, no doubt tempted many Ryots to incur obligations 
which they might have shrunk from, had specific and summary- 
penalties awaited non-fulfilment. Here the planter was un- 
doubtedly wrong. It is a sin to tempt the poor for the purpose 
of obtaining a power over them, no matter whether the power so 
obtained is abused or not. We have seen that the planter offered 
far too many facilities for getting into debt to the factory. We 
believe the law is, that whoever inherits property inherits its 
debts, and in this lies the simple solution of the fact (for we do 
not deny that it may be so), that the cultivators of Indigo are 
now in the second or third generation. The Ryot took up the 
debt, and not the Indigo contract of his fftther, and it is quite 
possible that the planter did not care to inform him, that tiie 
only obligation inherited was a money one, which he had only ta 
pay off, in hard cash, to be a free man. This was very likely an 
impossibility, for where was the money to come from, and so the 
Indigo cultivation went on. It is a demoralising state of matters^ 
and we cannot hold the planters, who encouraged and fostered ity 
innocent. But it is, after all, only what exists on a large scale in 
heavily encumbered estates in England and elsewhere; aa 

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Tire GOVBENMENT OP BBNGAL AND THE 'STRAXGElfe.- 289 

inheritance^ whether it consists of half a. county in England-, or a 
brass lotah and plough in Benga);^ must be tafcen with its debts, 
and if they cftimot be beared o£^ they must be endured. The Ryot 
would no dmibt have been glad to be rid of the hereditary in- 
cumbrance^ but without paying for the release, and in all the evi- 
dence taken, we cannot call to mind a single instance where pay- 
ment was tendered and revised. 

We believe that the ' bad baRlances,*^^ standing- m most Factory 
books^ would have been written oflF to profit and loss long ago, but 
that retaining them gave a certain power over the Ryot, which the 
planter was unwilling to give up, although he had no hope of ever 
recovering a rupee. It was port of a bad system which we do 
not for a moment defend, and there can be no doubt that too- 
much risk was thrown on the ryot. If the planter had consent- 
ed to openly take a share of the risk, which he virtually and 
actually did, as is proved by his * bad balances,* a oonstapt source 
of discontent would have been removed. Again, the measurement' 
of bundles system^ putting it in the best possible light, is ad-* 
mitted ta have been unjfist, as well as unsatisfaetorv to those 
most concerned, to the planter as well as the ryot, ana profitable 
only to a thieving Amlah. Its condemnation was pretty general, 
and there was nothing to be gained by such a gratuitous depar- 
ture from truth as the foUowmg : 'an iron chain which is made 
' to compress the stalks as mucn as a strong limbed inhabitant of 
'- upper India can compress them.' The author of the ' Blue 
Mutiny,' while professing to give a fiair representation of an im- 
portant question, has descends to clap-trap appeals unworthy of 
what he upholds as a just cause, and the quotations we have given 
will show that it contains neither the truth, the whole truth, nor 
nothing but the truth. 

We have given up the system aa indefensible, but we believe it 
was more foolish and short-sighted than criminal. Mr. Grant says,- 
it was inherited by the present generation ; he might have added; 
from the honorable E. I. Company : and this is not the only system' 
which the honorable Company handed down, and which has ended 
in something not unlike Uie bankruptcy and ruin which has over* 
taken the planters. It was their system that caused the mutiny.- 
It was their system of reckless extravagance and loose expendi- 
ture, that caused the just past (?) financial crisis. They too, 
like the planters, worked upon borrowed capital, and so low wa» 
their credit that fe^ could be found to lend, and the rate of m-' 
terest had to be repeatedly raised to induce contributions. In 
1857 their 'block^ was as low in public estimation as the plan- 
ters^ now is, and could be purchased at from forty to seventy per 



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290 THK GOVBmNMBNT Of BENGAL A5D THE 'STBAKOEIS/ 

cent diBCOtmt in the North West. The Bengal pkntii^ system 
was perhaps suited to the time in whidi it was instituted ; but 
that time has passed away, and we can no m<»re blame the 
planter for not seeing a-head, than we can blame the hcmorable 
Company for not discerning the approach oi the mutiny and ]»e- 
paritt^ to meet it. We do, however, Uame both, for the signs of 
the tmies were as palpable in the one ease as in the other; buir 
blindness and want of the fkculty of peering into the future may 
not amount to a crime, although it may be little short of cme in 
men whose place it is to guard and rule and watdi over a greai 
empire. Boih are guihy, but what difiorent results have fol* 
lowed* Hie blindness of the planter has cost a few lacs of rupees^ 
and the worldly ruin of perh^ a score or two ; the fiituity of the 
other has been paid (or wiUi oceans of blood and millions of 
money. It was said that the mutiny was inevitable, that it was 
a wonder it did not occur sooner. Mr. Layard stood over the 
' well' at Cawnpore and wondered if we deserved it ! Mr. Onmt 
says the fiiU of the planting system was also inevitable, and 
wonders that it was propped up so long. But let us see the 
different treatment which the delinquents have received. On 
the one hand, those who inherited and carried on an old world 
system have been partially ruined, and mercilessly^ traduced^ 
and on the other we find the same m^i sitting in higher places 
than before the break down of tieir svstem. 

The measurem^it system of both has helped ilieir downfidl. 
The grasping measurement which included Oude, and fifty other 
places, in their ' Cultivation,' had at least as much to do with 
ihe mutiny as the different standards of the Planter with his 
rebellion. It is not to establish the innocence of the Planter 
that we write, but to show that those who have taken up 
t^e first stone, and cast it with a strength only to be accounted 
for by political insanity, are not themselves sinless. 

We feel that an apology is required for referring at all to the 
vindictive evidence of Mr. Latour, and we do so with reluctance, 
but a few words are necessary, not because of the value of his 
testimony, but on account of his position. A Judge is a Judge, 
and the evidence of one in that position might carry weight with 




' state, that considerable odium has been thrown upon the Mis« 



* Appendix to Indigo Commission No. 12, abduction of HaromonL 

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THE 60VEENMBNT OIT BENGAL AND THE 'ST&ANOESS.f 291 

' nonaries^ for saying that not a chest of Indigo reached England 
^ without being stained with human blood. That has been stated 
' to be an anecdote. That expression is mine, and I adopt it In the 
' fullest and broadest sense of its meaning, as the result of my 
' experience as Magistrate in the Furre^pore^ district/ Mr. 
Latour adopts the statement in the ' fullest and broadest' sense, 
that is that not a chest of Indigo reaches England unstained 
with human gore. Now let us look a little further on. In 
answer No. 3926, Mr. Latour says ' I was thoroughly satisfied 
' that no oppression whatever existed in the districts of Dinage- 
' pore, Malda, Bhagulpore, Monghir, Shahabad, and Gya, I might 
' add that I am well aware that we have nothing of this kind ia 
' Patna, Tirhoot, and Chuprah.' Here we have a list of nine dis^ 
tricts in which Mr. Latour declares that no oppression exists. 
The total quantity of Indigo exported may be taken at an^ 
average of a lac of maunds, though generally above that, and the 
district of Furreedpore has yielded, for the last ten years, not 
more than two thousand five hundred maunds per annum, or say 
two and a half per cent. This is the ' fullest and broadest'^ 
sense of Mr. Latour, and we will not dispute it. Need we say 
another word upon such evidence as this. If it had been given 
before a commission of Lunacv instead of an Indigo one, it 
would, we doubt not, have had Ml weight given to it ! 

Great as the misfortune might be to the country and to the 
individuals interested, if cruelty and oppression were the neces- 
sary accompaniments of Indi^ cultivation, we should say, in. 
Heaven's name let that cultivation be abolished, let it no longer re- 
main a blot and a stain upon the land. Mr. Grant says the ryots 
are slaves, and for one moment we accept his statement. But he 
says they are inherited slaves, that the wrong is one of past 
generations chiefly. The Planters have been heirs, and their 
inheritance has been sanctioned by Government for generations. 

There was once another case of grievous wrong, &r worse than 
the mind of the worst Indigo Pknter ever conceived, also an 
inherited one, also a sanctioned one, for as many generations^ 
Mid how was U righted? When, with the advance of civiliza* 
tion the moral perception of the government and the people of 
England became brighter and purer, it was determined that the 
' cattle,' with human souls should be set free at any sacrifice^ 
and it was done at a saoifice unparalleled in the history of the 



* Appendix Na 2, Indigo Commissionen' Blue Book pats down under the 
head ot /serious offimoos' Ibnr oases in five years in Foireedpore. 



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m TH£ GOrnxklNT OF BENGAL AND TH« 'STiULNGERd/ 

World. Not by proclamations inciting rebellion amongst the 
slaves^ not by telling, tbem that they might offer 'irresistible 
pleas/ (though Ood knows the^ mid>t have done so,) not by tr»: 
dacing their masters and holding uiem up as patterns x>t cmelt/ 
and corruption. No^ vested rights^ though vested in humaii 
flesh and blood, were respected^ because thejf had been inierited, 
and because they had been sanctioned by those who now wished 
for their abolition, and — we need not teU how it was done, for 
every school boy knows* 

There were two courses open to the Lieutenant Governor, 
by which to remedy the evils, the partial existence of which we 
do not deny. He might have adopted the West Indian one, and 
was bound to do so, if he believed that the ruin of vested and 
inherited rights must precede emancipation ; and we have his own 
statement to pretty nearly that effect.''^ ' I do not believe that 
^ the most sanguine of those who expected the sudden and violent 
' break-up of a false system, ever expected that the crisis would 
'pass over so peacefully as it has done, and on the whole, with so 
' little injury to the great interest at stake.' It appears then that 
the most sanguine anticipated greater ruin than has accrued, eo, 
Surely, here was a case for compensation. It must not be for- 
gotten for a moment, that it is the ^stem, (it was the system in 
the West Indies,) and not the individual Hanter that is held 
responsible for the evils attending the production of ' a Blue dy^,' 
as Mr. Orant calls it, reminding one of Mrs. Candle's definition 
of billiards, ' pushing balls over a g^reen doth.' It is Mr. Orant 
that has forced the comparison upon us.' He has laboured ta 
prove that ryots cultivating Indigo are in a state of 'predial 
slavery,' that though they cannot be bought and sold with » 
halter round their necks, they possessed, under a free and Christian^ 
government, of which he has been a member for thirty years, 
no more actual liberty than the African whose soul and body had 
been purchased for a handful of glass beads, or, second hand, for 
so many dollars. If Mr. Orant's statements are true, the Bengal 
ryot must be in a far worse position than the Negro, for the 
Planter is free from some of the obligations of the skve holder. 
Self interest, in the one case, compelkd the provision of food and 
raiment, which it does not in the other. Mr. Orant may say that 
he has not compared the position of the ryot with that of the' 
African slave. It is t^ue that he has not directly done so, but .we 
have always understood that the word ' slaveiy' was short for all 



* Minute in rqply to Indigo Planters' Petition, 17tii Augn«t, 1860. 

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^HE GOVERNMENT OF BENGAL AND THE 'STEANGERS/ 29S 

tnanner of oppression^ such as is attributed to the Planters. We are 
far from holding such extreme opinions^ or from believing that the 
cases are in any way parallel; we believe tbkt the errors of the plants 
ing system could have been corrected in a manner as simple as it 
was^ust. It would have been easy for Mr. Grant through the 
officials of the Indigo distncts^ or easier^ and better still, 
through the Planters^ Association, to have made known his dis- 
satisfaction with the system of Indigo cultivation ; with the 
purely commercial question he had no right to interfere, and he* 
was not called upon to do so. It was^r. Grant's place, and it 
was clearly his duty, to prohibit any individual, no matter what 
his profession or character might be, from usurping the place of 
the law, and taking it into his own hands. But before the state 
is warranted in depriving a man of the means of self defence, it 
is bound to undertake, and show that it has the means, to 
guarantee the safety of his person and property. It is to be 
presumed that the power of self-defence which was hitherto 
allowed the Planter, was, in some measure, intended to reconcile 
him to the absence of more formal justice, and much that he has 
done under such license has been winked at to keep him quiet, 
and to prevent the cry for reform, which he was sure to raise, if 
interfered with, from being heard and causing enquiry. Mr. 
Grant's policy has been the reverse of what we have stated to be 
the acknowledged and fair rule. He has deprived the man of his 
weapons, (bad and dangerous ones, but under the circumstances- 
necessary,) and has, until compelled reluctantly by high^ authori- 
ty, virtually refused the protection which, in their stead, he was* 
bound to supply ; and here we must refer to the suggestions on 
this head contained in the report of the Indigo Commissioners. 
But before doing so, we may be allowed to state a difficulty inte 
which many have fallen while speaking of the report. We are 
quite unable to decide whether the report of the Indigo Commis- 
.sioners influenced Mr. Grant, or whether Mr. Grant influenced 
the Commissioners. The first remark made by the Commissioners, 
when approaching the question of reform, wUl scarcely encourage 
the hope that any thing wise or liberal will be suggested. They 
say, with reference te the appointment of Planters as Honorary. 
Magistrates, 'as a question of principle, there can be no doubt 
' ihkt the measure is nol in accordance with the rule hitherto 
' observed in Bengal.' As the rule ' hitherte observed in 
Bengal,' is the subject of almost universal condemnation, we 
should have thought this alone a pretty good reason for giving the 
measure a trial. The reason assigned is one, which, if carried out, 
would deprive every English squire of his commission of the peace. 

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291 tHB OOVmmiMT 0? BENGAL AND THl '[STlAKQBlffl.^ 

namely bavmfi: an interest in tiie district.^ The snm total of 
reform suggested by the commissioners is contained in one 
remark : ' Let sub-divisioDS and Mmstrates be multiplied as the 
'executive Government may think fit/ In the first place we all 
know what the executive Oovemmenfy ' thought m to do, and 
if the suggestion had been carried out in its widest sense, let us 
see what tSe commissioners themselves expected from it. ' But 
*if the above provisions are honestiy worked by competenfe 
' Judges (half were to be natives,) not overburdened witii arrears 
'and if the appellate courts have leisure to take up appeals as 
' they become npe for decision, it is quite dear that smts, other 
' than suits for real property, m^ become as summary as the 
^nature of things will allow/ Two 'ife* and a 'may* in one 
sentence, and that the sentence upon which property to the value 
of several millions depended. Does not this fully justify the re« 
mark of the leading Journal of the world ' that in the decision 
' of the majority, human incompetency had reached its height/ 
The course of events, since this practical denial of reform, or even 
the necessity for it, was issued, is a sufficient proof of incompeten- 
cy, for all the measures which the minority opposed have since 
l>een adopted, but most of them too late. Specual l^^ktion was 
resorted to, to meet a difficulty which ' the nature of lyings' would 
not allow of being overcome in any other way, and was only 
thwarted by ignorance and arbitrary power, greater even than 
that of the majority. Why it was so thwarted it is not difficult 
to perceive. The decision of the majority was adopted by Mr. 
Grant and acted upon, or, as we said ben>re, the majority acted 
in accordance with his known bias and fixed determination, 
that there should be no reform that could in any way favour 
the Planter. All the measures of Mr. Cbtmt, as explained in 
his own minute,t met with the fullest approval of the Supreme 
Government, and he was assured of its 'cordial support,' if he 
continued to act on the principle on which he had hitherto 
acted. The Contract Act of Mr. Beadon met with the strongest 
opposition from Mr. Grant, and yet the Government^ which had 
promised him ' cordial support,' altogether forgetful of the incon- 
sistency, determined to pass it in spite of him. The melancholy 
result we have seen. The Supreme Government was either 
wrong in affording its 'cordial support' to Mr. Grant, or it was 

• The Lieut. Governor of the North West Provinces has recommended the 
appointment of zemindars as Honorary Magistrates with jurisdiction Ihuted 
to their own estates. 

t Minute of 17th August 1800. 

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THS OOVEKXHBKT OF BSNOAL AND THE ' STRATrOBRS.' 19^ 

wrong to attempt to pass a bill which he opposed. The intro- 
duction of the Contract Act, the appointment of Small Cause 
Courts^ the naming of Speciid Commissioners, were all measures 
thrust upon Mr. Qrant by those, who afforded him the fullest 
approval to his refusal of them all I The inconsistency is too 
glaring to need further illustration, and was no doubt plain 
enough to Sir C. Wood. We conceive that Mr. Grant's chief 
condemnation is contained, not so much in what he has done ac- 
tively agaimi the planters, although instances and evidences of 
personal enmity are unfortunately not wanting, as in what he has 
refused to do for them. Active persecution was not required to 
complete their ruin ; it was sufficient to let things remain as 
they were, and it was done. If honest convictions and motives 
of policy, however mistaken, ever influenced Mr. Grant, they 
have long since merged in a personal quarrel, in a war of reori^ 
mination of the bitterest, and, for a Gt)vemor, of the most un- 
dignified description. Great indeed must be the oppression which 
can justify a Governor in banishing millions of capital from a 
land, in which, in seasons of distress or famine, every rupee may 
be a month's life to a starving fellow creature.* 

Amongst a very large class, Mr. Grant has obtained credit, in con- 
tradistinction to the violence of his accusers, for moderation of 
views and language. Here it will be necessary to introduce ra-' 
ther a long extract from official correspondence to show, that Mr. 
Grant's claim to praise on the ground of moderate views and 
temperate language, is not so well founded as appears to be 
generally supposed. At the same time w6 may take the oppor- 
tunity of remarking that, important as the Indigo question is 
in itself, we should not have dwelt upon it at such lengthy but for 
the fact, that it may be looked upon as the Cmm Belli on which 
the great battle of the independent European is to be fought. 
If the legislation and the reform necessary for the protection of 
this interest cannot be obtained, it is vain to look for cotton, or 
any other of the thousand products India is capable of yielding 
under the intelligent supervisionf of English capitalists. Mr. 
Grant has asserted that Indigo Planters are the only class de- 
manding special legislation, that sugar producers and others 
find no difficulty in carrying on their business under the present 
laws. The first part of the assertion is no longer true,{ if it 

* €hreat distreM, in now impending in Bengal, owing to the damage done to 
the rice crops hj rain and inundation. 

t Lord Canning has just stated that in knowledge of cultivation the 
ryot has nothing to learn ! 

X Petition of Landholders' Association in faror of the Contraot Act. 



o 

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296 THE OOVRBNUENT Of BENGAL AND THE ' STJBULNGIBS.* 

ever was; and the statement^ that no demand was mode on be- 
half of other interestSy is accounted for by the fact, that no oUier 
ag^cultaral interest, conducted by Europeans, with a thousandth 
part of the capital, or of the same precarious nature, had any ex- 
istence. As soon as they make their appearance, we find Uiem 
join in the clamour with the same zeal and readiness as the plan- 
ters.''^ Special legislation has been objected to on the ground of 
its being opposed to English law and English customs, and Mr. 
Grant asserts that if Indigo paid the Ryot there would be no 
fear of his breaking his contract. We all know that honesty 
is the best policy in the long run, but Mr. Grant will scarcely 
be prepared to deny, that, even if Indigo cultivation did pay the 
Uyot, the taking of advances, and not working them off, would 
pay him better, and this is what he has now practically the power 
of doing. The moral obligation of a contract has no existenee 
in Bengal. Let ns see how English principles of legi8la4^ion are 
adhered to when it suits Mr. Grant's purposes to propose a depar- 
ture from them. On the 17th of August 1860, in his reply to 
the assertion of ' confusion ' made by the Planters' Association, 
Mr. Grant says para. 3. ' There are no affrays, no forcible en- 
' tries and unlawful carrying off of crops and cattle, no ploughing 
' up of other men's lands * * * since about July 1859. I hare 
• not heard of a single case of lawless violence in Nuddeaf' For 
thirteen months, or nearly a year before the Indigo Commission 
commenced its sittings,:^ no single case of affray occurred in 
Nnddea, comprising two of the largest Indigo districts in Bengal. 
It was necessary to show some such result as this to prove tJie 
wisdom and success of his measures, and Mr. Grant, with the 
usual shortsightedness of those who seek to establish a case 
without scru^e as to the means, makes it stronger than turns 
out to be convenient only four days later. We must now r^r 
to the proposed departure from the principles of English legis- 
lation alluded to above, and we beg particular attention to the 
following extracts, bearing a date only four days later than the 
statement that affrays and disturbances of all kinds had ceased 
for tiiirteen months. One case of affray occurred in the Nuddea 
division on the 18th of June, and upon that one isolated case an 
affray law upon the Draco model is demanded. 

* See reoominendation of Bombay Chamber of Commerce, petitions of Tea 
.Planters and others. 

t In appendix No. 2 to Indigo Commissions* report we find a tabular state- 
ment sifcned by Mr. Herschel giving a list of twenty Jive " serious offences" 
which had occurred in Nuddea oetweea January and the 16th August i860 { 

t Cpmmission opened its sittings on tiie 18th May 1860. 



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THE GOVEENMENT OF BENGAL AND THE 'STRANGERS.' 297 

Mr. Orant only mentions this one^ for he dared not adduce the 
twenty-five others of which he had denied the. existence. 

' The affair seems to the Lieutenant Governor to be one of a 

* class of cases^ the frequeney of wAicA, under a civilized Oovern- 
'ment^ must be felt to be a disgrace both to the administration 

* and the legislature of the country. Whoever does not take all 
' reasonable and fit measures, to prevent such outrages^ so far as 

* lies in his power^ participates as an individual in this disgrace. 

'The Lieutenant Governor is convinced^ and^ as far as he id 

* aware^ all persons of Indian experience are convinced^ that^ in 

* order to prevent such cases^ a law^ specially suited to the peculiar 
' circumstances of this country, is indispensable^ and, that he may 

* not participate in the disgrace, .which will continue to attach 
' somewhere, if this shameful state of things continue, the Lieute- 
' nant Governor desires to urge upon you, in the strongest manner, 
' to move the Legislature to pass a law, having this object, appro- 
' priate to the country for which it is their function to legis- 
'late. TAe LieuUnant Governor beg$ that you will press upon the 
' Council that they dtre not legislating for Middlesex, but for Bengal ; 
^and, therefore y that it is no argument against a law which is to be 
' applied to Bengal, that such a law would be objected to in Middlesex. 

* It is only because India requires peculiar legislation that it has a 
' special legislature of its own. 

' Here is a case m which, according to the report, there can 
' be no doubt, in the mind of any reasonable man, about the ori- 
'ginators of the outrage, or their motive. Even if the report of 

* the local officers were contested as to any point of fact or 
' inference, the argument for a law would remain the same, because 
' it cannot be questioned that affrays, with murder, such as the 
' affair here reported, instigated by those interested in Zemindaries 
' Indigo Factories, Farms and other such concerns are common in 

* Bengal. If gentlemen hesitate to legislate suitably for the sup- 
*pression of such outrages, because cf notions of legislation such as 
^ are naturally and properly in vogue in England , let them imagine 
' what changes would come over the feelings of English Legisla- 
'tors if such affairs as this were to become common ia England, 
' the real criminals, who cause and profit by the outrages, being as 
' perfectly secure from all legal penalty, as the most innocent 
' infants in the country. 

' The Lieutenant Governor therefore presses for the enactment 
' of an Affray Law on the principle originally suggested ; which 
' is to subject to very heavy fine all persons in whose interest 
' affrays are committed, and all persons whose houses or lands have 
'been made use of by. the persons guilty of such outrage, in the 



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208 THE GOV£fiKM£IIT OF BEHGULI AlfD THB 'ST1U566M/ 

1 course of the act^ who eannoi prove that they and tieir servants, 
^ for whom they are reBponsible^ did all that it was possible for 
^ them to do, in order to prevent the crime* 

* Itie for caees where proof is imposeible thai a law is required 
^ the effect of which will be to deprive the originators of such 
'crimes of the gailty profit for which alone they are committed. 
' This will go to the root of the evil. 

^ The mere execution of the Criminal Law upon the low agents 
f hired for such purposes as this^ will not in Bengal put a stop 
'to this class of offence. If a dozen of the lattidb and spear-^ 
' men who murdered Panchoo are hanged for the crime, the effect 
' would probably not be to riuse the hiro of such ruffians, for such 
' purposes, by two annas a day. This will not touch the instiga^ 
' tors. It was not the lattiaLs and spearmen who, according to 

* the present report of the case, and, indeed, according to any ra« 
' tional hypothesis concerning it, had an object in kidnapping, with 
'the chance of killing this influential Ryot. Those whose object 
' this was, having no law to fear for themselves, will not be deter* 
' red from doing the like again by the mare punishment of their 
' vile instruments. 

' Besides the provision for the prevention of affrays above reoom<* 

* mended, the Lieutenant Gbvemor is of opinion that the mere coU 
' lection, harbouring, or concealing, of Lattials in a house, out* 
'house, or office, should subject the owner or possessor, or 
' master of servants in possession, to heavy fine ; and that the hiring 
' or assembling of Lattials or Peons, or other men not being mere 
' labourers, in excess of a number of retainers to be registered by 
' theMagistrates, should be highly penal. As these men are procur- 
' able through their captains at a day's notice, it is on\y by punish- 
' ing those, who harbour and conceal them, when collecting, that 
' the Law can attain its object in discouraging the employment 

* of bravoes of this sort.' 

This is the letter of a man whose temper had for the time 
quite overcome his prudence. It was very mortifying after the 
unqualified statement of the 17th, of the ' practiced introduction 
of the supremacy of the law' to have to record on the 21st, that 
^ the healthy state of things,' of which he had boasted, hkd no 
existence* And yet this is what Mr. Grant has done, if there 
is any meaning in English. He says ' this is one of a class 
of cases the frequency of which under a civilized Government 
&c.' There is no mincing the matter ; one of the statements 
must be at variance with the truth. When it was necessary to 
vindicate his conduct and to disprove the charge of ' confusion,' 
he asserts that property is every where ' inviolate/ and that it 

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THE ^OVBENHBKT OF BI^OAL AN0 THE ' STBAKGBftS/ 

bad been eo for iliiiteen monthb^ that there were ' no affrays/ 
We have shown above that this istatement is totally devoid of 
truth. We have dropped the five months^ from July 1859 to 
January 1860^ and taken only the seven months of 1860^ preced- 
ing Mr. Grant's declaration, with the exception of the first 
case which occurred Srd December 1859, that there were ' no 
affrays, ' that property was every where ' inviolate * since July 
1859. The first case is thus headed by Mr. Herschel ' lUegal 
assemblage, assault, wounding.* The cases are variously headed 
* assault and wounding,' 'plunder and wounding,' 'assault 
Itnd riotous assembhtge, ' * Tumultuous assemblage' 'Riotous 
assemblage and attempted attack on the Amjhupi Factory' 
(Dismiss^.) The last in the list is ' violent assault and false 
imprisonment,' and we are told in English, certainly not entirely 
after Lindley Murray's own heart, 'This statement is published 
at length, on account of the important space this district has 
lately filled in public estimation.' Mr. Qrant cannot be surprise 
ed if, afber such misrepresentation as this is proved against him, 
his assertions fail to carry conviction, and are duly weighed, to see 
if they are probable, if he has any motive in misleading, before 
they are accepted as facts. When a case was to be made out to 
justify the introduction of a law, which would practically subject 
every man who could not prove a negative to a very heavy fine, 
or even, it is hinted, 'capital punishment,' Mr. Orant does 
not hesitate to demand this law because of tlie ^frequency of the 
cas&f of which he triumphantly announced the abolition under 
the ordinary law for thirteen months, in the very same district. 
Here are two statements directiy opposed to each other, made 
within four days of each other, each, having a distinct and 
separate motive, and it is a grievous but undeniable fact that 
one or other of them must be absolutely £dse. The truth, as 
we have shown, lies between the two statements, and, therefore, 
both are incorrect. The 'supremacy of the Imw' has never 
been such as Mr. Grant affirmed it was, and the 'frequency of 
the cases ' never so great as to demand, or in any way justify, 
the introduction of such a law as he proposes, compajred with 
which martial law and the combined tyranny of Naples and Austria 
would be as nothing. Mr. Grant 'presses' for the enactment 
of a law * * which is to subject to a very heavy fine all persons in 
whose interest affrays are committed. AU persons whose homes or 
lands have been made use of by the persons guilty of such outrages 
* * who cannot prove that they and their servantSy for whom they 
are responsible, did all that it was possible for them to do in order 
to prevent the crime. It is truly lamentable to see the ruler of 

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S09 THs oovxsmoBirr or bbnoal and the 'sr&iNOBRs.' 

a country larger thaa England and Scotland pat together^ so 
swayed by private pique^ party feeling, and anger as to make 
him forget that truth and justice are above aU things, and 
that he holds his high appointment to uphold the one and 
to dispense the other. If an affiray were to take place upon any 
man's land, (it might be that he resided in Calcntba and his land 
lay in Jessore,) unless he could prove that he 'and his servants* 
had done all that was possible to prevent the crime, he must be 
subjected to very heavy fine. There is a clause in this act which, 
if carried out, would embrace some criminals whom Mr. Grant 
assiiredly never meant it to include. The land in all India 
belongs to the Gt>vernment, and Mr. Grant and his Magistrates 
are clearly 'responsible* for the Police. Did Mr. Grant intend 
that he and his Magistrates should be subjected to heavy fine 
for every case of torture and oppression and aflray, originating 
with the Police ? ' It is for eases where proof is impossible that a 
law is required* says Mr. Grant. 'This will go to the root of 
the evil.* Now we ask in the name of common sense, in the 
name of justice and fair play, was ever such a principle of l^s- 
lation propounded since the time of the Druids ? How a law can 
be expected to go 'to the root of an evil * which is to dispense 
with the one tmng needful to the application of a law, namely 
proof, we leave it to others to point out, for we cannot. 

In the same Blue Book*^ we find a proclamation from Mr. 
Herschel, without date, addressed to ryots, who appear to have 
been amusing themselves by 'pelting* some planters with clods. 
After pointing out this 'great folly,* Mr. Herschel says, 'I 
* shall send the Military police into that village whose inhabitonts 
' again unjustly beat a Sahib.* We do not believe Mr. Herschel 
had any intention of stating that they were at liberty to beat a 
Sahib, provided they did it justly, yet this is the clear meaning of 
the language, and can we doubt that the Ryots understood it so ? 
We are far from wishing to impute bad motives to any one, but 
when we find that the mistakes have all one tendency, it is at least 
strange, if not suspicious. We have not been able to lay our 
finger upon a single instance, where the ambiguity could in any 
way be construed in favor of the Planter. We have not at- 
tempted to exonerate the Planters from the blame which can be 
justly attached to them, and it is by no mcMis slight, but we 
have endeavoured to show that the .fisiults of the Iramter have 
been viewed through a powerful magnifier, and those of the Civil 
Service, and especially of the Lieutenant Governor, through a di- 

minishing glass. 

•"Page 1069. 

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THB QOYERNHKNT OF BENGAL AND THK 'STBANOERS/ 801 

We have seen that Mr. Grant followed the advice of those 
^who recommended that he should do nothing. It would have 
been well for him, and for all^ if he had adopted the wise and 
just suggestions contained in the able Minute of Mr. Temple^ 
(the only un]prejudiced and by far the most talented member of 
the Commission^) and concuired in by Mr. Fergusson. In this 
able paper we find no such insinuations as the foUowing ;' as re- 
gards the knocking down of houses, gentlemen of undoubted 
veracity have seen places where houses had been, and have 
known*^ Indigo growing on deserted homesteads, understanding 
that the Ryot had absconded after some dispute, and that their 
houses had been demolished 'f We say it would have been 
well for Mr. Grant if he had adopted the wise suggestion of 
Mr. Temple, instead of listening to the advice of tihose, whose 
recent actsf of spiteful meanness have brought more shame 
upon his Government, than all the injustice that has been per-* 
petrated under or by it. It is a melancholy but undoubted 
fact, that a mean or ungentlemanly act meets with far more 
universal reprobation than more serious crimes, and the present 
instance is a striking proof of it. ' It is mean^ is the universal 
^clamation of those who will not trouble themselves to form 
any opinion upon its injustice. ' It was ungentlemanly,' and 
that is considered a stronger condemnation than ' imchristian.' 
More than that, it was a gross 'mistake,' which has been 
isaid to be the greatest crime of all. 

It is denied that the Ryots ever laboured under the impres- 
sion that it was the wish of tiie Government that Indigo culti- 
vation should cease, or that they would have obeyed had a direct 
order been given to that effect, and yet Mr. Grant quotes a pas- 
sage from Mr. Herschel's report, (page 467 of the Blue Book) 
proving beyond doubt that such was the impression. Mr. Her- 
fichel says ' I went to one of the villages in the Khalboleah Con- 
^ cem, where the Ryots refused to sow. On explaining the law 
' to them they submitted, it being clear that they had taken ad- 

* vances. " If tkat is tie order of Government/^ they said *^of 

* " course we must sow,'* this is the general feeling.' There can 
be but one meaning in this. It is, as if the Ryots had said, 
^ We took advances, but did not intend to sow, being under 

* If the gentlemen of undoubted veracity were persanalUt acqwdrUod with 
the Indigo, as this sentence states they were, it is a pity they did not ask it 
who put it there, and the history of the Byot who had formerly occupied the 
land. 

t Commissionen' Report para. 89. 

X Cirotthition of NU Darpan under Government frank. 



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302 THE QOVEEHMBNT OP BENGAL AND THE ' STRAHOERS.^ 

' the impression that Government either did not wish or would 
' not compel us to fulfil our engagements ; but if it is the wish of 
' the Government that we should do so^ of course we must/ It 
is dear that the Byots required to be specially and indiyiduaUy. 
informed that it was the wish of the Government that tiiey 
should be honesty they having entertained a contrary opinion. 
What must have been the conduct of Government to create- 
such an impression. Let our readers judge. The passage we 
have last quoted appears in the margin of Mr. Grant's Minute of 
the 17 th August^ to which we have had so often to refer^ and 
could hardly have esct^ped Lord Canning's notice. K such a 
document had been submitted to Lord Dalhousie I Since he leffe 
Lidia we have had disaster after disaster^ mutiny after mutiny^ 
Blacky White, and Blue.* We are writing of the Goveniii(Lent of 
Bengal and not of the Supreme Government^ but it is impossible 

* Mr. Grant had hia ahare in the Black, an Governor of the central 
provinces in 1859, and managed it pretty much after the manner of the 
present Blue one ; bat he had bss power. Does Mr. Grant remember the dis* 
charge of 70 Chnstians from the I^vy at Benarea P His character is thus desr 
orib^ in liie clearest work of that time, so Well known as the " Bed Pam-- 
pklet*" * Mr. Ghrant was a very different character. In the prime of life, active, 

* energetic, and possessed of a certain amoont of ability, he might, had ha 
' been trained in any other school, have done good service on the occurrence of a 
' crisis. Unfortnnately, he laboured under a complete ignorance of the habits 

* and customs of the natives of upper India, accustomed, during his service, 
' to deal only with Bengalees (inCiucutta), he had imbibed the extraordinary 
' notion that they were a type of the Hindustanees generally. His vanity was 
' so great that he would not stoop to demand information, even from practical 
' men of his own service. With the supercilious manner, which is so often the 

* accompaniment of a confined understanding, he pooh-pooh'd every suggestion 
' which was at variance with his settled ideas. Of' the Sepoys he had no know« 
' ledge whatever, although with respect to them he was always ready to offer 

* a suggestion. Of military men in general he had a jealous dislike, which 
' promjpted him on every occasion to oppose any plans or sugjgestions offered by a 
' member of that profession. He was an adept at intrigue, and being possessed 
' of a practical knowledge of revenue matters, a plausible maimer, an easy 

* address, and considerable influence at the India House, he had gained a seat 
' in Council at an eariier age than was customary. As a practical man he had 
' always been a failure. It was his advice, given because Mr. Halliday proposed 

* an opposite plan, which delayed for seven or eiffht months, the proclamation 

* of martial taw in the Santhal districts ; and it will be seen that on the 

* occasion of the Mutiny at Barrackpore his pernicious influence was alwava 

* opposed to those prompt and severe measures, on t^e execution of which the 
' safety of the empire depended. These faults are attributable to the evU 

* action of the school in which he was trained, on a disposition naturally haugh- 
' ty an^ supercilious. Had he never been a civilian^ had he been .trained to 
' depend on nis own exertions from the moment of his entrance into life, hm 
' career would have been more useful to his country and more honourable to 
•himself.* 



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THK QOVEBNMEKT Of BE5JGAL AND THE ' STRANGERS/ S03 

to forget, that tbe misrule of the one could not have fceen 
continued for a day, but for the 'cordial support* of the other. 
We fear that Lord Canning is but too ready to afford ' cor- 
dial support' to any one who will save him trouble. It is 
deputations he most fears, and if they can be kept off, things 
may drift on. Indolence and amiability, combined, have placed 
him in the position of the unjust Judge, for all that he has done, 
he has done because of importunity, and what was truly said 
of his measures in 1857, may be as truly said in 1861. The Post 
Office stamps ' Too late ' and ' Insufficient^ would apply as well 
to the special Commissioners in Bengal, as to the treatment of 
mutineers at Dinapore. 

It is as untrue to assert that the present strife about a 'Blue 
Dye* in Bengal is a war of principle, as it is for the Northern 
states of America to proclaim (which they are beginning to do,) 
that they are warring against slavery. It is a personal strife 
arising out of hereditary jealousy, intensified by supposed in- 
terest. No, iAie free states as readily yielded up the escaped slave 
to torture and death, as Mr. Grant's Courts have, for the last 
half century, handed over the recusant ryot to Ais persecutor. 
There was, perhaps, a murmur of disapproval in both cases, and 
it must be admitted that the free states offered greater facilities 
for the recovery of * property' than the Government of Bengal, 
but we have never heard that the ' difficulties' in Bengal were 
intended as a feeble substitute for emancipation. 

It is a remarkable fact that, where the initiation of a ^system' 
was left to the Interloper himself, it has given general satisfac- 
tion, and has not been rebelled against. It is only where the 
Honourable East India Company established it, and then handed 
it over to its servants ' to afford them a means of remitting their 
^ fortunes home, as well as for the benefit of Bengal' that the 
system has been found to be rotten. 

The disiarict of Tirhoot (including the smaller districts of 
Chumparun and Chupra, where the system is the same,) produces 
from one fourth to one third of the whole out-turn. As the Tir- 
hoot system has not been attacked, it is not necessary to enter 
upon a defence of it, but a few remarks, pointing out, not that 
it is barely tolerable to the natives, but a positive and great 
benefit to them, may be useful. It is admitted that the Tirhoot 
Ryot can sustain no loss. A Tirhoot Factory capable of pro- 
ducing 1,000 maimds of Indigo, in a good season, will spend 
from eighty thousand to a lac of rupees, at least sixty thousand 
of which will be expended within a radius of ten miles. The 
land actually occupied with Indigo will not, on an average exceed 

p 

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304 THE OOYEENMEKT OF BENOAL AND THE ^STRANOSES/ 

one twentieth of the area known as the ' Deiaut. '^ The Byot has 
therefore nineteen-twentieths of the land at his own disposal^ and 
for the. remaining twentieth there is probably more actual cash 
expended 'than for all the rest. The average rent may be taken 
at two rupees per bigah, and the average cost of cultivation, in- 
cluding nij and fyoUy not under, and now considerably over, 
twenty rupees, or ten times the rental of the land. The bene- 
fit of this is so self-evident, that we need not do more than 
simply mention it as a fact capable of the clearest proof. A &c-. 
tory, of the size mentioned above, will require, during the manu- 
facture, at least five hundred carts, and the usual advance made 
for each (from one to two months before they are required,) may 
be safely taken at twelve rupees. It is frequently much more, 
and we have known Ryots receive as much as thirty rupees to en- 
able them to buy bullocks. All this is given without interest, 
and, in the case of the Byot who receives thirty rupees, it cannot 
possibly be worked off under two years, and may take three. 
Carts are comparatively useless in Bengal for there are no roads, 
but this is not the case in Tirhoot. There are some excelhmt 
^ Imperial^ roads made from funds rai^ locally by Ferries. 
Some Planters are on the Ferry Fund committee, and it is not 
unusual to give the Planter near whose Factory an ' Imperial * 
road passes, the charge of that portion of it, whether a mem- 
ber of the Committee or not. Besides the above, each Factory 
has roads of its own, made and maintained at its own expense, but 
open to all, without exception, unless it happens to run through 
the Factory compound. We are quite safe, indeed we are probably 
far below the mark when we state, that there cannot be less thaii 
200 miles of private road, private bnly in the sense of being 
made from private resources, in this one district. It will be a 
great and glorious day for India when, those who are an ' em- 
barrassment to the Government^ assert, in a similar manner, 
their ^indefeasible rights' from one end of the land to the 
other. 

It is contact, constant, daily contact, with the European, and 
that only that will surely but slowly reg^ierate Indm. It is 
that only that will remove the ' antagonism of race' of which, a 
great part, as it stands at present, has sprung from and been per- 
petuated in the Council Chamber of Calcutta. The European ab- 
hors his customs, condemns his immorality and lying, but does 
not hate the native. If an i^proach to such a feeling does exist, 
it can be traced to those who for years have struggled to place 

"■-■■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ — . m >. 

* The area over which the Factory influence is supposed to extend. 

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THB GOVEBNMtNT OV BENGAL AND THE 'ST&ANOERS/ SOS 

his property, his liberty and his life at the mercy of Idolaters, 
to subject him to the jurisdiction of a people whose very souls 
are tainted with hereditary corruption, the pollution of centuries*. 
If such attempts were only made by the avowed, the known ene* 
inies of the Interloper, it would be matter which could create no 
surprise ; but it is painful to find those we most respect joined 
with them, led away in pursuit of the phantom of the equality of 
the two races, conjured up by benevolence, and springing from the 
wish that it might be. It is the earnest wish of all who care for 
India and its millions of benighted, degraded inhabitants, that 
the Asiatic should equal the European, but many a generation 
will pass away before this comes to pass. There are two ways of 
producing equality, one by filling up hollows, and the other by 
cutting down elevations ; and the last is the plan adopted by our 
rulers, either because the cutting down is pleasant, or because 
the filling up seems hopeless. The next most agreeable thing 
to climbing to the top is to pull down those who are there, and 
need we wonder if the British Indian Association adopts the argu- 
ments of its advocates in Council, an<^roclaims with a loud voice 
the * eternal principle' that all men are equal, and yet the members 
of the British Indian Association would consider it pollution to 
enter the room in which a ' Dome** was engaged in laying down 
a mat. Is there a native in all India who, after the events of 1857,' 
would have dared to raise his voice in opposition, if the name of 
European had been entirely omitted from the Arms Act ? There is 
one land of equality which is possible and which we should all re- 
joice to see. Let the law for the native, let the courts to which 
he is amenable be made as pure as i^e Supreme Court. Let the 
object be to make the law equally good, not equally bad for 
all. Let us have no more such childish foolishness as this, ' If 
it is good enough for the native it is good enough for the Eu- 
ropean.' It is not good enough for the native, never was, and 
never will be^ until the whole system is changed, until trained 
men take the place of ignorant boys. 

It would be a great mistake to suppose, that because the great' 
benefit of Indigo to the population in general is clearly demon- 
strated, there are no difficulties arising from a corrupt police, and* 
the want of a practical, available and summary law in Tirhoot.t 

, * Domes are low oaste men who eat dead animali, and are employed tip 
ooantry in making and lading down bamboo mate. We have Heen a Raj- 
poot reTuse to enter a room m which one was so employed. 

t On one occasion, on beinff refosed an unreasonable demand, 400 
eatimen struck in the middle cf the manufacture, and walked off to their 
viiOAges. What was the Planter to do P If he entered a civil iummdry 

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d06 TQB dOVBENVBNT Of B^NQia AND TUB 'flTftA|^OBBa.'' 

There are difficultieB which can only be met by a Contract A^t. 
JBut it is a curious tact that the fartiier we proceed from the seat 
of Government, the greater number of miles we put between us 
and the Bengal Civilians, the more tranquil and peaceful we find 
the people, and the more respected we find the Planters. A running 
stream would appear to have a similar power in checking this, as 
well as some other evil influences, for no Boouet do we cross the 
Kurrumnassa^ than we find the Commissioner reporting, ' Hie 
^ Planters are almost invariably a blessing to the surrounding ccmn- 
' try. If a landed proprietor is pressed for money he gets a loan 
* from a Planter, and in return gives him a good deal of land to 
' cultivate Indigo upon. Ka poor tenant is being squeezed by an op- 
' pressive landlord,and is in danger of forfeiting his tenant-right, ha 
^ takes an advance from the Planter to free himself from his diffi- 
' culties, and gives him h^ his fields to sow Indigo in. I have 
' known this district for eleven years, and have never heard of any 
'oppression on the part of the Planters, whom I have always, on 
' the contrary, found to be the firm supporters of the law, and ever 
' ready to assist in lookingflPber the peace of the district, and ia 
' caring for the roads and public thorough£EU^ in their neigh- 
' bourhoods.' 

It is thus all the way up, beginning, we may say, at Bhagul*. 

E>re till in the North West we lose nearly all trace of the ' Blue 
ye/ in the districts between Delhi and and the Punjaub. It 
cannot be frdly accounted for by the different habits, or by the 
higher morals of the people. They are undoubtedly a finer, 
hardier and more manl v race than the Bengallee, but the morali- 
ty of the P^hi Mussalman and the Ooojur of the surrounding 
territory is about upon a par with that of the Bengallee, and 
thar fiuiaticism and detestation of the ^^ Kaffir'' fjEur greater; so 
we must look for a complete solution of the problem elsewhere^ 
and we shall not have to look far before we find one. Does the 
Civilian out of Bengal keep a tighter hand upon his count^ymea 
than the Civilian in Bengal ? Does he keep the Interloper at a 
greater distance, and thus secure greater freedom from bias^ 
which, it has been asserted, intimacy creates, as well as a feeling 
of distrust in the minds of natives ? Does the Civilian of the 

suit, it was possible that a decree might have been obtained in time for next 
season and 100,000 Rs. would have been lo8t. He took a shorter plan. He sent 
for the Darogah of the adjoining Tannah, only a mile distant, rave him 50^ 
Rupees and the carta were at their work next day ! Some time aner he men- * 
tkmed the circumstance to the Magistrate. It is very horrible, but who is to 
blame P Let Mr. Grant answer. 
* The limit of lower Bengal. 

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tH£ GOTBBNMUm' OF BENGAL kSD THB 'STRANOEEs/ SOT 

North West condone that which his fidlow Civilian in Bengal 
«o loudly reprobates^ but yet tolerated so long, when his love 
for the Interloper was < assuredly not greater than it is now? 
We know that it is none of these things, for we are told that out 
of Bengal there is nothing to condone; that it is only surround- 
ing the very throne of Bengal that ' oppression and cruelty^ and 
tyranny have any existence. We know that the Civilian and the 
Planter meet on terms of intimacy and equality, (when both are 
gentlemen,) drawing together and becoming more firiendly, until 
jealousy is almost lost, precisely in proportion as the distance 
from Calcutta is counted by tens or bv hundreds of miles* It 
is the 'system' that has done it all, or nearly all, for we 
are willing to allow something for the habits of the people,, but in 
a conquered and semi-barbarous country it is the Government 
that makes the people. It is the 'fiystem,' but not the ' system' 
of the Planter only, thongh that has had its share. It is 
the sjTstem of the Government of Bengal. It is the sjrstem 
of the Bengal Civilian ; and until all three are changed, we shall, 
never see it much better. The first has received a blow the recoil 
'of which will ere long destroy the second, and the third is going, 
and good speed to tiiem, and may we have something better in 
their place. 

The feeling of intense bitterness engendered by the feeble va-. 
itnllation, the ruinous incapacity, exhibited by Lord Canning in 
1857, has passed away. The danger, the destruction he was 
bringing upon all has been providentially averted^ The danger 
lias passed, and people have forgotten tiie weakness and half the 
misery it wrought. The voices of those who suffered most we 
have never heard. They lie buried at the bottom of the ' WelP 
at Cawnpore. If we were writing of the great Mutiny we could 
tell how they might have been saved ; how the blood of the 800, 
is on the heads of the council and the clique of Calcutta, who 
treated the greatest rebellion of modem ages as a ^ causeless, 
panic' But the shortest memory aniongst us still retains a 
sufficient recoUection of that fearful time to preclude the hope, 

♦ A Social Barometer would indicate pretty nearly as follows : 

Calcutta. Intimacj NiL Jealousy Intense. 

100 from do. do. do. do. do. 

300 do. do. do. slight do. Weaker. 

600 do. do. do. Considerable. do. Very little. 

700 do. do. do. {^Slf'si^'*} do. Scarcely pcweptible. 



rVcry friendly, ladies') 
do. ^ c 



1000 do. da do. ] compare babies and > do. None. 

(.*' spend the ^ay,'*« } 



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808 ISS aOVKENMENT OF BBNGAL ANB TRV ^ ST&AN0ES8.' 

the smallest trace of hope^ of any good to India from Lord 
Canning. Experience is lost iq>on a character so indolent^ so titah^ 
bom, so destitute of either originality or energy. Mistakes aris- 
ing from nnayoidable ignorance in March 1857, and from evil 
connsel might be pardoned ; bat we 9sk, did March 1858-59-60- 
61, bring any change? Did the councillois who had betrayed 
and misled him lose tiieir influence, were they replaced by others ? 
Hie Governor General had neither the energy, tike determination, 
nor the ability to shake them off and think for himself. He was 
n&aid to stand alone. We all remember the celebrated confiscation 
proclamation in Oude. How Lord Canning first defended it as. 
necessary and just, how he afterwards said it was only a threat 
never intended to be executed, how, on beii^ taunted with issu^ 
ing a mock threat, he strove to prove that it had been carried 
out, fully and ^itirely, and had been successful.'^ Lord Canning^ 
professes a desire to encourage European capital, and we do not 
doubt his perfect sincerity, but we have no hope and no trust in 
his ability to act up to his professions and wishes. 

He has flowed a measure which above all others would give 
an impetus to capital and energy, (the sale of land in fee sim* 
pie,) to remain under the 'consideration' of the Lieutenant 
Governor for nearly eighteen months, and when Mr. Grant's 
scheme does at last make its appearance, because it could no 
longer be withheld, it is clogged, in every clause, with the 
policy, with the 'rule hitherto observed in Bengal,' and 
18 acceptable to no one. Mr. Grant cannot make up his mind 
to abandon all control over the land, even though it be only 
a howling waste of jungle. He must retain the power of in* 
terferance and resumption. He fears that land jobbers will buy it 
all up, that the desire for permanent investment in Lidia, 
without return, is so strong, that British capitalists will rush 
to secure a wilderness on speculation, and prevent the rapid 
progress of clearing, cultivation, and improvement, which has 
been 'hitherto observed in Bengal.' This is not the real 
reason, it is but a cloak, and a transparent one, to cover the 
hereditary jealousy of independence, a mask to hide the dreaded 
face of the Collector, and to make the European 2iemindar, what 
the native one has ever been, a trembling abject vassal. If we 
could forget what he has been as a Governor, and only remem- 
ber that he is an English Gentleman, we might appeal to Lord 
Canning, we might ask him for justice, even for encouragement ; 
but the 'amlah'that betrayed him in 1857, through whose eyes 

* We know that the proclamation was never generaUij known in Onde, it 
was barked by the aitthoritiee. ' 

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l^E GOVEEKltSNT OF BENGAL AND THE ^STRANGERS/ 309 

he looked when he could see no 'solid standing ground' for 
making a distinction between thoscf who were murdering and 
those who were being murdered^ through wliose evil influence 
he was induced to spurn the offer of aid that might have 
saved Cawnpore^ surround him still, and we refrain. England 
may find a substitute for Indigo or may do without it, she may 
look on with indifference and apathy while the destruction of an 
article, which however useful, is not essential to her, is going 
on. But there is no substitute for cotton. It cannot be done 
without. It is meat and drink to milHons. Let the people of 
England only realise that the /system' of administration, that 
the 'rule hitherto observed in Bengal' will obstruct in any 
way, will tend, in the remotest degree, to diminish the export of 
cotton by only a single bail, and the whole ' system' will be 
swept away like a cobweb. Let the Civil Service beware. It hac^ 
not kept pace with the times any more than the Planters; 
Every step it has taken forward it has . uniformly endea-^ 
voured to retrace as soon as the pressure that compelled it was 
removed. When it could no longer deport him, it made the 
independent European little better than an outlaw : it has 
humiliated him with a relentlessness that never slumbered, that 
never lost an oppiMrtunity. What social outlawry left unac- 
complished it has tried to complete by Black Acts and Penri 
Codes. Let the Civil Service look back upon the work of the 
last two years. Before it could compel the planter to be liberal 
it ruined him. They said his system was too rotten to be capable 
of repair. It was old and full of abuses and it must die. Let 
them read the lesson, for there is another system older and more 
decayed, as devoid of liberality, and with as little foresight. 
Toleration is not sufficient; we ask for encouragement, whi<m is 
not only not inconsistent with the welfare of India but the source 
of her ultimate regeneration. It is the encouragement afforded 
by protection and justice, and it is not very much to ask, but it 
is sufficient. 

Since the preceding part of this article was put into the printer's 
hands, new and most important evidence on the subject has 
been laid before the public. The vindiotiveness with which 
certain Officials, who have taken a leading part in the Indigo 
controversy, have acted, has been established in a Court of Law,^ 
not indeed in their own persons, but in that of their tools. The tar-f 
dy but unmistakeable disapproval of the Supreme Government has 
obviated the necessity for further appeal to the Law. The Gover- 

* The Triali for Libel oonseqaent on tii^ pablicaUcm of the t Nil Dqrpcn/ 

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810 fHS GOTKBIIHENT 6f BENGAL AND THIS ' STfiANOfEBS/ 

nor General has administered a dignified and stem rebate, to 
all concerned in * acts which were not only unauthorised but 
^ quite unjustifiable/ Lord Canning says^ Mr. Seton Karr * is 
^ chargeable^ not only with an unwarrantable assumption and 
' indiscreet exercise of an authority which did not belong to 
' him^ but with a neglect of duty^ which it is difficult to reconcile 
' with the motives that led him to such an assumption/ This is 
a reproof which it has seldom or never been the lot of a high 
Government servant to receive, and, at the^ame time, be allowed 
to retain his appointment. But hard as it has hit, and trulv 
as the shot has been aimed^ the effect of the ricochet is still 
greater. It has glanced from Mr. Seton Karr, after inflicting a 
serious bruise, the effect of which cannot fail to be permanent, 
and has lodged deep at Alipore. ' The Gbv^mor General could 
' have wished, that these errors bad been noticed by His Honor with 
f the gravity which they deserve, as veiy serious infractions of the 

* Secretary's duty.' Through this veil of official language it is 
easy to see the severe displeasure of Lord Canning, because 
^ where condemnation from the head of that Gk)vernment (of 
^ Bengal) was due, it should have followed at once in such a man- 

* ner, as to mark unmistakeably His Honor's diispleasure, and to 
' render it impossible to implicate his Government in acts which 
'were not only unauthorised but quite unjustifiable.' This is a 

rave and serious charge against the head of a Government. It 
that Mr. Grant has neglected to punish or has even condoned the 
act of a subordinate so unjustifiable that the Governor General 
has thought it his duty to forbid his being again employed in 
such a responsible position. The dignified sense of justice dis- 
played by Lord Canning in this matter, is quite consistent with 
the estimate of his character which we have formed from his* 
career in India. He has not yet done any thing to indicate any 
change of policy, and we are not sanguine enough to hope for 
any of a sufficiently decided character, to meet the wants of India, 
or to restore order and give good government to Bengal. As 
we said before, however, we have most perfect faith in the gentle- 
man, and this last Minute has shown that it was not misplac^ ; but 
we have none in the statesman — in the Governor General. We 
shall now leave this most di^raceful episode in the Indigo 
question, and turn to other and even more important official docu- 
ments bearing upon the same subject. 

The Report of Mr. Montresor, one of the two Special Com- 
missioners to the disturbed Indigo districts of Nuddea, has lately 
been given to the public here : but it is confidently asserted that 
ita dispatch to ikigland took place three weeks eariier. As it 

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THE GOVERNMENT OF BENGAL AND THE 'ST&ANOEBS/ SI I 

waB decidedly unfavourable to the Plantere, we regret to say, that 
the conduct of the Oovernment of Bengal has hitherto been 
such, as to induce a ready belief, that it would not hesitate to for- 
ward accusations in advance of any possible refutation that 
might be offered by those accused. A charge of such manifest un- 
&irness and dishonesty should not be advanced without some 
proof, and we refer our reader to the note at the foot of this 
page,"^ for an instance where the same course was followed, with 
this difference, that the existence of Mr. Montresor^s Report 
was so well known, that it could not be altogether withheld, as in 
the case noted below. 

We will now refer very briefly to the Report itself. It is to 
be regretted that the replies of Messrs. Larmour and Hills 
should have been so long delayed, but we have no hesitation in 
saying, after a careful and impartial perusal of them and the 
Report, that the refutation of the serious charges, we might say 
of all the charges, is full and complete. Mr. Montresor is convict* 
ed of writing an entirely one-sided report, of publishing the state- 
ments of the Ryots, with his own inferences and deductions, and 
of suppressing the explanations, complaints and grievances of 
the Planters. If we were disposed to admit the not very pro- 
bable supposition, that Mr. Montresor himself believed every 
representation made by the Ryots, he was bound in common 
fairness, for the sake of truth and justice, to give the same pub- 
licity to the other side. If the weight of testimony, in his opin- 
ion, was on the side of the Ryots, he was at liberty to say so. 
But that there^as something to be said on the Planters' side, 
and that it has been said in a manner most creditable to Mr. 
Hills, no one will deny. Although his investigations have been car- 
ried on in another district, the Report of Mr. Morris, to which w^ 
shall presently refer, corroborates in a remarkable manner the 
statements of Messrs. Larmour and Hills. Although it may vary 
in intensity in different localities, we are not aware that any dif- 
ference in the manner of the opposition to Indigo has been dis- 
covered in Nuddea and Jessore ; whei^ therefore, Mr. Hills asserts 
that such a state of affidrs exists, as he and others have represented, 
when Mr. Morris describes an exactly similar state of matters 

* No, 3. Indigo SeUoHom was forwarded to England without tbe Planters 
being made aware of its existence, and formed the oaals of official accusations 
against them. On intelligence of this reaching India the Association mada 
an application to the Government of Bengal for a copy, and met with a refu* 
sal. Suhsequentlj, copies were granted, but not until they had done their 
work. The book contained matter on which an action for libel has, we be- 
lieve, been instituted in the Supreme Court. • 

<l * 

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812 tHE GOVTRKMENT OF BENGAL AND THE ' STRANGERS/ 

in adjoining districts^ agitated from the same cause^we cannot 
hesitate, but must accept Mr. Hills^ calm and temperate state- 
ments as true, and Mr. Montresor's as giTing a false and one- 
sided impression. It has been stated that Mr. Montresor 
avowed ignorance of Zemindaree accounts, and placed himself in 
the hands of one openly opposed to the Planters, but this is no 
sufficient excuse. The report has gone forth with his name at- 
tached, and any obloquy that it may incur, any condemnation it 
may receive, will fieill upon him and upon him alone. If he has 
misused the high trust that was reposed in him, to further the 
ends of those in power, whose antipathies and wishes are but 
£00 well known, the shame and degradation such conduct de- 
serves will come in its own good time. 

The Minute of the Lieutenant Governor to which weliavehad 
so ofben to refer, asserts that the Indigo districts are not in a 
state of * confusion,' that the ^ Law is in full force,' ^ the life, 
' property and personal liberty, even of the humblest cultivator, 
' were^neverl>efore4nore secure than they are now in those dis- 

* tricts.' His own Special Commissioner Mr. Morris says ' The 
' present condition of affairs in the interior is truly deplorable. 
' The prospect presents one of two alternatives ; either litigation 
' to an unlimited extent, or the weaker side :(the European) must 
' retire from the field.' ' The disorganised state of the country 
' was apparent from the fact that, cm my arrival at Sal^amoodiah, 
-* the Darogah of Hurrinarayanpore presented me with a list of 
' no less /than 100 defendants, concerned in outrages connected 
' with the Factory, who were at large, and whom he had orders to 

* apprehend. In some villages he actually declared liimself afraid 
' to go lest he should be speured, and this in spite of there being 
' SO Military Police stationed within 100 yanls of his Tannah, 
' and a like number two miles off' ' Mr. Stuart the Deputy 
' Magistrate told me, that he had *himself seen several hundreds of 
' people, armed witli spears and bamboos, assemble at a moment's 

* notice, on the beat of a drum or some such signal. He suddenly 
' went to the spot on an application to protect the servants of Mr. 
' Kenny. He waanot at first recognized as the Magistrate, and so 

* the demonstration was made, but immediate flight followed his 
' attempts to seize the participators in it.' Again, ' I am impress- 
' ed with the conviction, that the Ryots have, as a rule, wilfully, 
' and without sufficient cause withheld payment of their rentis, 
' and that this recusancy on their part, has derived its force mainly 
' from the ill feeling that has sprung up in their minds towards 
' the European IHanters, on the suoject of Indigo cultivation' 
If our space permitted, we could quote a great deal more to the 

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THE GOVERNMENT OF BENGAL AND THE 'STRANGERs/ 313 

same effect^ namely^ that there has been and still is, unlawful 
combination^ that life" and property are not ' inviolate/ that 
there has been no ^ practical introduction of the supremacy' of 

* of the Law' that the-* confusion is truly deplorable/ that it is 
increasing, that the ' breach is widening/ and that ' the crisis 
demands that prompt, stem and impartial justice should be 
administered/ 

Can any one for a moment doubt but that this report gives 
a fair and true representation of the state of affiiirs in the Indigo 
districts? It is, from beginning to end, a contradiction of all that 
Mr. Grant has written- on^ the subject, and we cannot but res* 
pect the moral courage of the man who has- dared* ta teU him> 
that the condition of the country he is appointed to govern is 

* truly deplorable,' that ' the crisis demands that stem and 
prompt justice should be administered/ Mr, Morris deserves the 
commendation of every honest man^ not because he has benefitted 
the cause of the Planter^ but because, with a* thousand motives 
and inducements to gloss over matters, he has dared to tell the 
honest truth, although that truth could not fail to be unacceptable 
to the man upon whose favor all his pres^it hope of preferment de- 
pends. Mr. Morris has tokl him that the ' confusion' he has denied 
does exist; that the unlawful combination has been universal; that 
the Supremacy of the Law, of which he has boasted, has no exist- 
ence ;. that the Police fear to enter villages ^lest they should be 
speared :' in short, that the condition of the country he has re- 
presented as peaceful and prosperous, is * truly deplorable.' And 
now a serious question arises. Did Mr. Grant know the real con- 
dition of the Indigo district, and .knowingly and wilfully mis- 
represent it ? Did he cry, Peace, when there was no Peace, lest his 
own theories might be upset and his^ misgovemment proclaim- 
ed? Or was he ignorant of aH that he should have known? Will 
he plead guilty to the first ? "Will he admit that he had pledged 
himself to a denial of justice, that he wa$ actuated by a spirit of 
bitter animosity, a desire for revenge upon those who had attack- 
ed him ? Or will he admit the second ? It is a dilemma in which 
a choice is difficult, and we leave it to Mr. Grant to make his own. 

Our space forbids our entering more fiilly into the various 
matters discussed in Mr. Morris's able report, and it is not neces- 
sary, for all those interested cannot fail to have perused it for 
themselves. It contains, however, one characteristic instance of 
native ingratitude to which we would call attention. We refer 
to the case of Azeem Kahar, 'an aged and blind Ryot.' This 
man had benefits, such as are rare indeed, heaped upon him, had 
been tended in sickness and trouble, had land given him at half 



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S14 THE GOVEKNHBNT Of BENGAL AND THE 'STRANOBBS/ 

its asoertained value^ and was finally pensioned, and yet we find 
him vociferating loudly for justice against an oppress^! Does 
not this case show the folly and danger of assuming, that because 
a native complains of oppression there is necessarily any founda* 
tion whatever for the charge. Perhaps this ' aged and blind 
Bvot' formed a link in that dismal chain of misery and suffering 
wnich extended for seventy miles. We doubt not that many with 
equal cause took part in that fabulous demonstration. The great 
problem, 'the development of the resources of India' wUl be 
finally and satisfactorily solved, when some future traveller shall 
find such 'oppressors' as Messrs Kenny and Hills, in ev^ pro^ 
vince of Hindostan. 



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THS WOlfBN or INDU. SIS 



Art. v.— 75ltf Daughters of India : their Social condition, Religion y 
Literature^ Obligations and Prospects, By the Bbv. E. J. 
Robinson. London: Nisbet & Co., 1860. 

2. A Prize Essay on Native Female Hducation. By PaoPBSSoa 
Bakebjba, Calcutta : Lepage & Co., 1848. 

3. Domestic Manners and Customs of the Hindus of Northern 
India. By Baboo Ishubee Dass, Benares : I860. 

4* The JBastem Lily Oathered; with observations on the posi* 
tion and prospects of Hindu Female Society. By the Bey. E. 
Storbow. Calcutta: 1866. 

THE women of Lidia out-nnmber the entire population of 
Great Britain, France and Italy ; any custom or law there- 
fore affecting their wel£sure, carries with it a large amount of good 
or evil to no inconsiderable portion of the human race. The 
chivalrous sentiments of Englishmen, and the benign and elevat- 
ing aspects of our sublime faith toward the sex, alike require 
that we should understand the evils associated with female life 
in this country, and discover the means by which tiiose evils 
may be eradicated. 

It is bv no means an easy matter to give a faithfid portraiture 
of the relative condition of women in India. An intelligent, but 
not impartial Hindu writer has justly remarked; 'perhaps no 
' question relating to Indian manners has received more attention 
' from, and is yet less generally known by Europeans, than the 
' character ana condition of the female sex in this country/'^ It 
is much to our honour that our sympathies have been so power* 
fully drawn toward this subject; and if we have £Edled correctly 
to comprehend it, the causes of our ignorance and misunder- 
standing are not far to seek. It is said to be a trait of our Anglo- 
Saxon race, that we are intolerant of the customs of oth^ 
nations, and therefore somewhat unable to estimate them at 
their proper value. There may be some truth in this, though 
it is a remark admitting of a much wider application, and tru^ 
of most other races than of ours; but we are inclined to think 

• '* EflHiyf on MifloelUmeoas Snbjeota*" hj Shoahee Chonder Datt. Pabliahed b j 
D'Rozario and Co. Calcutta. This Yolnrne U deserving of more attention than 
it has received, as iUostratitig the manner in which varioas social questions are 
viewed by educated natives. 



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S16 THE WOMEN O? INDIA.. 

tibat in the ease before us^ our vice leans to the side of virtae ; 
for, seeing so much in the position of Hindu women that grates 
upon our feelings as Englishmen and Christians, we are apt to ex- 
press our dislike in too sweeping, language and to overlook what 
may be said in explanation of some of its [biases. But if we are 
prejudiced, Hindus, we regret to say, do little to enlighten us. Old 
India resents as an insult, or suspects as an insinuation, any en- 
quiry into his domestic affiurs. Etiquette requires him not to 
notice his wife before others, and her not even to accost him. Ta 
speak to her affectionately in presence of another, is to make him- 
self ridiculous. He rebukes all approach to familiaritv by never 
uttering her name to a third person, nor speaking of her more 
closely than as the mother of his son or daughter. A near 
relation may venture, in general terms, to ask after the health 
of the female members of the household, and a very ' old friend 
of the family* might venture to enquire, if one of them were 
in 'the article of death,* ' are all of the house well?* But to 
resolve this vague, nebulous form of speech into anytiiing more 
specific and definite would certainly endanger his reputation for 
courtesy, if not induce grave doubts respecting his designs. Is 
the ' Mletcha * then, likely to receive ' the fidlest information,' 
who, prompted by 'an enquiring turn of mind,* seeks from 
Old India a knowledge of the manners and customs which 
regulate female society ? Nor, unfortunately, does Young India 
prove a helper where his father fails us. Like a guerilla soldier; 
mortified that he cannot remain in the open country, and hold- 
ing every rock and mountain pesJ^ as he slowly retires, that he 
may at least have a safe shot at his advancing, victorious adver- 
sary, he is very fond of repaying himself for the admissions he is 
compelled by his candour or eidightenment to make respecting 
the- unwise and offensive customs of his country, by defending 
other customs which are hardly defensible, with . reasons which 
conceal or ignore one half the truth, and by turning sharp 
-round upon us with some broad assertion which really means, 
■* after all our customs are almost as good as yours ; and if some 
of ours are bad, you are not without a considerable number 
which greatly stand in need of reformation.* Thus, for instance, 
in meeting the statement of the Abb^ Dubois, who alB^ms that 
*he had never seen two Hindu marriages that really united 
•* the hearts of the parties closely,* the writer we have already 
cited, says, ' No, not at the time, Abb^, for then thejr are 
' children ; but we will undertake to cite three instances of happy 
* matches amongst the Hindus, for every two any person, in 
' support of the Abba's assertion, will point out to us amongst 

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THE WOMEN OF INDU. 317 

^ the European community. 'We are prepared to admit that 
^ Hindu husbands do frequently prove heartless tyrants^ but cer« 

* tainly not more so than husbands in England, Fiunce and Italy. 
' Husbands closdiy united to their wives are scarce, we fear, all 
^ over the world; even for all the ^Move passages^' that preoede 
' marriage in many countries.' In another place he says, * We 
^'do not delight to talk scandal, but it is by no means a secret, 

* that in Europe, principally on the Contment, it is not un- 
' common for a young married woman to receive the most ardent 
^ love-letters from her admirers.' We shall not stop to reftite 
these false and ex^gerated statements ; thy prove how small an 
amount of reliance we can place on those whose knowledge 
is thus warped by prejudice, and an inclination to depreciate. 

We are not, however, without the means of forming a just 
estimate of the position of women in this country. Hindu wri- 
ters are by no means reticent on this subject. Lawgivers, philo- 
sophers, poets and historians alike contribute fireely to enable us to 
understand what men think of women. Added to this, there are 
certain great facts patent to the observation, which no reasoning 
can justify to a healthy Christian mind, and which stand out 
prominently and offensively on the surface of native society, like 
huge tumours and excrescences only fit for the surgeon's knife. 
Women are almost always married before they are ten years of 
age : reading and writing are deemed superfluous for them, if 
not pernicious ; and not one in every three hundred can read : 
the sentiments universally entertained of their capacities, uses 
and dispositions are contemptuous and brutal in the extreme : they 
live secluded from society, either because they saee deemed too 
weak or too wicked to use their liberty wisely or well : should they 
ever, when children, lose their husbands, there is for them but a 
dreary life of unbroken widowhood, hardly ever relieved by sym- 
pathy and tenderness. Nor can we forget that for centuries, 
women in eveiy part of India were allowed to bum themselves 
on their husbands' funeral pjnres, and were taught that this was 
the holiest action they could perform ; and that over the greater 
part of this vast peninsula, female life was so little valued that 
infanticide was not a crime, and, indeed, was often deemed a 
meritorious act. The first has ceased, the latter is happily pass- 
ing away ; but it must be remembered that no shaster, and source 
a Hindu sect, or even a solitary individual, ever recorded a pro- 
test or uttered an expostulation against these enormous wrongs. 
These constitute the gravamen of the charge we bring agai^ 
the system of Hindu female society, — ^that it is viciously consti- 
tuted and based on ficdsehood ; a mighty wrong and ii^ury being 

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318 THE WOMBN OF INDIA. 

wrought by one hdf the oommtinity on the other half^ afflicting 
and degrading alike those who work and those who endure it 

In the ancient^ the Vedic period^ woman was more honoured 
and free than she is now. ' Hymns in the Big-veda mention 
* her with respect and affection^ comparing the goodness of the 
' god Agnitothat of a ' brother for his sistm/ and the brightness 
' of this god to the shining of a woman in her love/'^ Sarah, 
Bebekah and Rachel^ Hagar and Leah^ Bilhah and Zilpah, Dinah 
and Tamar resemble as closely as may be the women of ancient 
India. And the state of society in which the former lived, 
exhibiting morat laxity mingled with fierce jealousy; freedom 
and restraint ; an assumption of authority on tiie part of men, 
and its frequent evasion by the cunning management of women > 
a courteous deference to them, combined witib a suspiciousness 
alike of th^ rights and of their integrity and constancy, gives us 
perhaps the best portraiture we can now have, of the relative posi* 
tion of men and women in this land three thousand years ago. In 
the ages immediately succeeding they were held in similar esteem. 
They listened to Brahmanical discourses, and occasionally took part 
in moral and philosophical discussions. They were seen at public 
festivals. Yet that which pleases us most are the indications scat- 
tered here and there^ of the mingled honour and afi*ection with 
which they were regarded. We lay little stress on the fru^ that the 
greatest of Indian poems, turns on the capture and deliverance of 
a woman ; but it is worthy of notice that the beautifrd Sita is ever 
spoken of^ especially by her husband^ in terms which plainly tell 
how highly gentleness, fortitude, fidelity and woman's love were 
regarded by strongs brave men in those primitive ages. The 
troubled story of king Nala and his wanderings faithful wife 
Damayanti in the Mahabharat, illustrates the same truths and 
shews that women had a larger liberty than now : for besides 
being permitted to roam about at will, Damayanti actually chose 
her own husband. The beautiful story of Savitri, told also in the 
Mahabharat, gives a picture of womanly fidelity and tenderness 
which is very touching ; and, to refer to a later period, the ' Meg 
Dutha' breathes sentiments of pure afiection and loving honour 
towards an absent Wife, which are not always^ we fear, wafted 
to absent spouses by their loving lords, in these days of enforced 
«nd necessary separation. 

Coming down to the time ^f Menu, we find a very marked 
deterioration in the position of the sex ; and since his code has 
given the key-note to all subsequent opinion and usage, we shall 



• Mn. Spier's « Life in Andent India" p. 106. 

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THB WOMEN OP IWDIA. 319 

q^ote some passages from him, premising however, that the code 
is evidently founded, to a large degree, on pre-existing usages and 
opinions, and that therefore there must have been causes at work, 
tending towards an un&vourable change in the lot of women some 
generations before the advent of the great codifier, though it is 
not to be denied that he rivetted, with evident satisfaction, the 
last links of their galling chain. The causes leading to this 
ill-fated depreciation cannot now be ascertained ; probably like 
many other social problems in oriental history, they are far even 
beyond our reach ; though it would not be difficult speculativelyj 
to define the steps by which the sex descended from their tower 
of pride, to their seat in the dust. 

^ By a girl, or by a young woman, or by a woman advanced 
' in years, nothing must be done, even in her own dwelling place, 
' according to her mere pleasure/* 

' In childhood must a female be dependent on her father ; in 
^ youth on her husband; her lord being dead on her sons : — a 
' woman must never seek independence/f 

^Though unobservant of approved usages, or enamoured of 
' another woman, or devoid of good qualities, yet a husband must 
' constantiy be revered as a god by a virtuous wife/t 

' No sacrifice is allowed to women apart from their husbands, 
' no religious rite, no fasting : as far only as a wife honours her 
' lord, so &r she is exalted in heaven/§ 

'Let her emaciate her body by living voluntarily on pure 

* flowers, roots and fruit : but let her not, when her lord is 

* deceased, even pronounce the name of another man/|| 

'A wife, a son, a servant, a pupil, and a younger whole 
' brother, may be corrected when they commit faults, with a rope 
' or a small shoot of a oane/^ 

' For women, children, persons of crazy intellect, the old, the 
' poor, and the infirm, the king shall order punishment with a 
' small whip, a twig or a rope/** 

' It is the nature of women in this world to cause the seduction 
' of men ; for which reason the wise are never unguarded in the 

* company of females/ 

' A female indeed is able to draw from the right path in this 
' life not a fool only, but even a sage, and can lead him in subjec- 
^tion to desire or to wrath/ 

♦ Menu'a " Institutes of Hindu Law," chap. V, p. 147. ~" " 

t Ibid, 148. 
t Ibid, 164. 
§ Ibid. 155. ■ 
II Ibid, 157, 

T Ibid, cUap. VIII, 299. 
••Ibid, chip. IX. 230. 

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320 THB WOMBN OT XSmH. 

* Let no man^ therefore^ sit in a sequestered place with Ids 
** nearest female relations/'^ 

' A barren wife may be superseded by another in the eighth 
* year : she^ whose children are all dead, in the tenth : she, who 
' brings forth only daughters, in the eleventh : she, who speaks 
' unkindly, without deky/f 

' Women hav)9 no business with the text of the Veda ; thu0 
' is the law ftdly settled*: having therefore no evidence of law, and 
' no knowledge of expiatory texts, sinful women must be foul as 
' falsehood itself ; and this is a fixed rule/:|: 

Women are ranked with the inferior castes. Obedience to her 
husband is the grand duty of a wife, which, if fmthfully perform- 
ed, stands as a substitute for all other duties, be they civil or 
sacred. If a wife neglects her husband because he drinks or gam- 
ble, she must be punished ; but if * she drinks, or shews hati^ to 
^ her lord or is mischievous, or wastes his property, she may at all 
^ times be superseded by another wife/§ It is a husband who exalts 
a wife to happiness in the next world. ' A widow who slights 
^ her deceased husband by marrying again, brings disgrace on her- 
' self here below, and shall be excluded from the seat of her lord.' 

These passages are not only valuable as exhibiting an ancient 
form of opinion, they may be taken as a tolerably correct mirror of 
the current state of feeling in our own day, and thus we arrive at 
the melancholy conclusion, that for 2500 years, one half the popu- 
lation of this densely inhabited and enormous peninsula, have been 
thus thought of and thus treated by the other half. That opinion 
on this subject has not materially altered will be made clear in fu- 
ture pages, although it is obvious from the fact, that the code 
of the ancient lawgiver is still recognised as sacred and authori- 
tative throughout purely native society. But let us now give a 
proof of the unhappy harmony subsisting between ancient opin- • 
ion and modem, by citations from the Gentoo code, which, 
though chiefly compiled from Menu, was itself issued eighty years 
^go, as an authoritative exposition of Hindoo law ; and by citing 
a few proverbs and poptilar sayings, which in all countries embo- 
dy so largely the popular state of thought and feeling. — 

' A man, both day and night, must keep his wife so much in 
' subjection, that she by no means be mistress of her own actions : 
'if the wife have her own free will, notwithstanding she be 
'sprung from a superior caste, she will yet behave amiss.' || 

• Ibid, II. 213, 214, 215. 
t Ibid, IX. 81. 

t Ibid, IX. 18. 

§ Ibid, IX. 78, 80. 

II A Code of Gentoo Law, Chap, zx, p. 249. 

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TITE WOMEN OF INDIA. 3^1 

*A woman shall never go out of the house without the consent 
''of her husband^ -x- -x- -x- -x- and shall never hold discourse with a 
' strange man ; but may converse with a suniassi, a hermit, or an 

* old man, * * * * and shall not stand at the door and must never 

* look out of a window/* 

' Women have six qualities ; the first an inordinate desire 

* for jewels and fine furniture, handsome clothes and nice victuals ; 
*"******; the third, violent anger ; the fourth deep resentment ; 
' (i. e) no person knows the sentiments concealed in their heart; 
^ the fifth, another person's good appears evil in their eyes ; the 
' sixth, they commit bad actions/f 

'In creatures with nails, in rivers> hi homed animals, in 
' those with weapons in their hands, confidence must not be 
' placed ; nor in women, nor in kiiigs' favourities/ J ' One may 
' trust deadly poison, a river, a hurricane, the beautiftd, large, 
' fierce elephant, the tiger come from prey, the angels of death, 
'a thief, a savage, a murderer; but if one trust a woman, without 
' doubt he must wander about the streets a beggar/ § 

The most offensive and depreciatory of these sentiments 
we have suppressed. Many proverbs appear to be the mascu- 
line, popular embodiment of these calumnious and unjust lawSr 
For instance. — 

' Blind sons support their parents, but a prince's daughter 
^extorts money from them.' That is, a son, however helpless, will 
care for his parents, but a daughter, however rich, will try to get 
all she can from hers. 

* Unless a daughter dies she cannot be praised for her virtue.' — 
Women are so fickle and frail that you are never sure what their 
lives will turn out to be. 

' Those? who attend to the words of a woman are possessed 
with devils.' — Plain enough ! 

' Females produce young ones.' — ^They are given to exagge- 
ration, and produce wonderful stories out of very meagre facts. 

' We cannot understand the character of women ; even the 
gods cannot.' 

' Women are unsteady as the birds that float in the air.' 

The sentiments prevalent throughout Southern India are 
equally insulting, offensive and degrading. A Tamil proverb 
says, * even were a woman well read and behaved, taking her coun- 
' sel would lead to the eating of refuse.' 

• Ibid. p. 262. 

t Ibid, 260. 

X Nithi^^inthamani. 



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822 TOE WOMEN OF INDIA. 

A popular stanza in Tamil literature hite off the mutual weak- 
nesses of both sexes ; it was written by Ouvvray the renowned 
female sage. 

All women were fpood if left alone, 

They are spoilt by those who rule them ; 
And by men might a little sense be shewn, 

But the women so befool them. 

The same traitorous and clever woman has ssdd^ ' Ignorance is 
an ornament to women.' 

It is but candid to admits that tiiough this be the prevalent 
language alike of lawgivers, shastras and moralists, oti^er senti- 
ments of a much more kindly nature ate now and tiien to be met 
with. Thus one Puranic authority says — 'Women are the 
' friends of the solitary ; they solace him with their sweet con- 
' verse ; like to a father in the discharge of duty, consoling as a 
' mother in affliction.' Even the Institutes of the ancient lawgiver 
contain the following admirable sentiments. — ' Married women 
' must be honoured and adorned by their fathers and bretJiren, by 
' their husbands, and by the brethren of their husbands^ if they 
' seek abundant prosperity ; where females are honoured, there the 
' deities are pleased ; but if they are dishonoured there aU religious 
' acts become fruitless. Where female relatives are made misera- 
* rable, the family of him who makes them so, very soon wholly 
' perishes. On whatever houses the women of a £Eimily, not bein^ 
' duly honoured pronounce an imprecation that house with all that 
' belongs to it, will utterly perish.'* We may remark, by the way, 
that we are quite sure this unusually gallant and benevolent ut- 
terance, came neither from the bram nor the heart of the great 
codifier himself. It is evidently one of those thoughts he pick- 
ed up, as Elphinstone says, in writings ancient even in his day, 
for he was a compiler rather than an original lawmaker and 
thinker, and in a moment of weakness inserted in his compila- 
tion. Had ' new and improved editions ' been as common in 
Menu's days as in our own, we feel quite sure this would have been 
struck out, as a very weak and foolish passage, by the dry, hard, 
women*contemning sage. 

Let us now endeavour to pourtray the present state of female 
society. It will be seen, that with slight modifications, it is a 
transcript of that which the old Lawgiver wished to see. 

That the birth of a son is greatly preferred to that of a daughter 
no Hindu will deny ; though apologists are not wanting who 
affirm, that this arises from adventitious causes, and that if Hindus 



• The Codes of Menu c III. 55, 56, 57, 58. 

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THE WOMEN OF INDIA. 823 

have this bias so have Europeans. Admitting that this is 
the case, it may with truth be affirmed that on the part of 
western parents it is flight, whilst on that of Hindus it is strong 
and even intense. If they pray for offspring it is for sons not 
daughters. There is a definite value attached to the former; 
they are at once an honoor, a necessity and an advantage; 
the latter, on the other hand, are regarded as a reproach, an en- 
cumbrance and a source of trouble. The wife who only bears 
daughters is despised, and may be displaced by another. The 
congratulations which are freely offered on the birth of a son are 
withheld on the birth of a daughter, if indeed expressions of 
condolence are not offered to the unfortunate father. The Tamil 
parent strikes the roof of his hut three times, in token of glad- 
ness when a son is born. The Bengali Kulin sees in a daughter 
a bitter well-spring of anxiety, expense, and possible humiliation, 
for she Tnust probably many a man who has many wives, most 
of whom he but seldom sees ; she must live a burden on her 
father's house, and be exposed to more than ordinary trials and 
temptations through the absence of him who ought at once to 
be her 'bread winner' and her protector. Still greater are 
the regrets among Rajputs when a daughter is bom. For her to 
live unmarried would be both disgraceful and impious ; to marry 
one of the same clan, whom we should call an equal, is degrading 
if not incestuous; to find a suitable husband is difficult indeed^ 
and requires a sum of money usually beyond the parent's means ; 
in this dilemma, instead of breaking through a hateful custom, 
they have been wont to destroy the greater part of their female 
offspring. Parents who can deliberately perpetrate such an 
atrocity, are glad when the birth of a son saves them from its 
eomimssion ; but there is guilty and mournful significance in the 
reply of the Rajput, who, when asked if a girl or boy has been 
bom in his family, replies, 'nothing.' 

But exceptional customs apart, the Hindus universally prefer 
male offspring, for some reasons which we can appreciate, and for 
others which arise only from an ill constituted form of society. 
Morally and intellectually woman is deemed inferior to man. 
This idea underlies the whole framework of society. But a 
son is a necessity to a Hindu family. He alone, and not a 
daughter, can perform the Shraddha, which quenches the 
hunger of departed ancestors, and guards them against un- 
numbered ills. Dismal indeed is that house which has not a 
son thus to enrich it. A daughter on the other hand is not 
only not a necessity, she is an encumbrance and a source 
of anxiety. She is ever dependent and seldom trusted. If we 

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824 ' THE WOMEN Of INDIA. 

may employ such a phrase, she is of no use to her family. Many 
she must whilst yet a child, and it is no easy task sometimes to 
find a suitable partner for her ; when found, to unite them is a 
terribly expensive business, and when that is done she becomes 
an essential part of her husband's family. ' The duty of daughters 
^ is, from the day of their marriage, transferred entirely to their 
' husbands and their husbands' parents, on whom alone devolves 
' the duty of protecting and supporting them through the wedded 

* and the widowed state. The links that imited them to their 
' parents are broken. All the reciprocity of rights and duties 

* which have bound together the parent and child &om in&ncy, 
' is considered to end with the consummation of her marriage ; nor 
' does the stain of any subsequent bacislidin^ ever affect the family 
' of her pu*ent6 — ^it can affect that only of her husband, which is 
'held alone responsible for her conduct.'* Even should her hus- 
band die she seldom returns to her father's house, save as an oc- 
casional visitor. May we not conclude then from all this, that the 
rejoicing or sadness attendant on the birth of children is largely 
owing, in the best families at least, in some measure to a con- 
viction of the superiority of men to women, but still more 
to a painful consciousness, that the iron customs of the country 
have created a gpeat, an unjust, and an unhappy disparity in the 
fortunes of the sexes ! 

But the preference given to male children, is seen not only in 
the actual joy that breaks forth because a mother does nol give 
birth to a daughter, but in two, at least, of the customs which 
follow on parturition. The one relates to the mother, the other 
to the child. Hindu ceremonial law declares that a deeper 
stain of impurity attaches- to- the birth of a girl than of a boy :— 

* A mother having brought forth a boy, may be allowed to do 
' her accustomed work, having bathed after twenty nights ; but 
' after a month, when she is delivered of a girl,' says one of 
the shastras. A superstkion not without its grave and suggest- 
ive associations, is connected with the sixth night of a child's 
existence. It is supposed that Yidhata, the Supreme, in the 
form of destiny, then comes and writes in unseen, but ineradi- 
cable characters the fate which has been, preordained for the 
child. And then it is that the goddess Shashthi, the sup- 
posed guardian of infants, is worshipped. Offerings are made 
to her; adorations are presented to midce her propitious to the 
child, and the following prayer is addressed to her — 'Come, O 

• " Ramblet and BeooUectioo* of an Indian Official" By Colonel Sleeman; 
Toll, p. 830. 



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THB WOMEN OP INDU. 825 

' thou blessing-dispensing goddess ; celebrated by the name of 
' the great Shashthi, and by thy divine energy protect my son 
' in the watch room. As Scanda the son of Gouri, was ever 
' guarded by thee, so may this my son likewise be preserved, 
'Reverence to thee, O Shashthi!' Now all this worship and 
invocation, as well as the festivities accompanying it, are usually 
omitted with female o&pring. 

The childhood of a Hindu girl differs little from the ordinary 
phases of juvenility elsewhere, save in two particulars; — it 
is made far too short by early marriage, and even its infantile 
associations are injured and disfigured by a premature acquaint- 
ance with the contingencies of connubial life. She has her dolls, 
her games, and her pretty ways but unfortunately she is not 
•left entirely, nor long enough to these. Though mental train- 
ing is denied her, she is early taught that she must be married, 
and all the unhappy possibilities of that state are intruded on 
her innocent and simple nature. From her earliest years she 
hears about her marriage ; — the display with which it will be cele- 
"brated; — the kind of husband it is likely she will obtain; — the 
presents he may give her ; — the pleasures and pains of married 
life ; — ^the likelihood of her becoming a widow, and the possibi- 
lities of her being superseded in her husband's affections by another. 
Even her religious emotions are guided very much in this direc- 
tion. Besides the ceremonies and rites sanctioned by the shastras, 
^here have sprung up a number of others which can lay claim to 
no authority, but which are largely sanctioned by custom ; and 
the vows and prayers of young girls form no small part of 
these. Two or three of these may be mentioned. The Sha- 
joti, is a ceremony performed by female children of all classes, 
under the careful superintendence of the female head of the fa- 
mily, for the purpose pf obtaining a good husband, who shall 
never take a second wife, and give to her who prays plenty of 
ornaments. The Yampookur consists chiefly of worship given to 
the Hindu Pluto, to render him propitious, so that she who wor- 
ships him may never he deprived of her husband, and subjected 
to all the sorrow and shame of widowhood. 

The play of childhood is soon interrupted by the mingled 
gravities and follies of marriage. Like everything else relating 
to the framework of native society, the proper age for its cele- 
bration is fixed by the shastras, and confirmed by immemorial 
custom. ' The marriage of a girl (whatever her caste) is to be 
' celebrated after she is seven years old, otherwise it becomes 
* contrary to the dictates of religion. At the age of eight, she 

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326 • THE WOHKN OF INDIA. 

'becomes a Gouri, at the age of nine she becomes a Rohini,^ scuA 
' at the age of ten a mere virgin. Her youth commences if 
' she is older. Therefore the wise are to dispose of her before the 
* close of her tenth year, even if the time were otherwise inaus- 
*piciou8 or improper/f Menu says. — 'To an excellent and 
' handsome youth of the same class^ let every man give his 
'daughter in marriage according to law; even though she have 
' not attained her age of eight years.' j: So important does the 
old lawgiver consider this matter^ that he counsels nothing short 
of female rebellion and independence as the ultimatum, if the 
father of a girl neglect to provide her with a partner. — ' Three 
'years (beyond the eighth) let a damsel wait, though she be 
' marriageable ; but after that term, let her choose for herself 
' a bridegroom of equal rank. If not being given in marriage 
' she choose her bridegroom, neither she, nor the youth chosen 
' commits any oflTence.' 

That every girl must be married, is a law in the Hindu code 
of fashion, which has its ludicrous aspects; but the gravity 
of the evils it produces forbids that we should make our- 
selves merry over them. It leaves neither liberty to the parent 
nor child. It forbids all preference and choice. It forces 
an union often, where its only consequences must be disgust, 
disappointment or sorrow. It destroys the sanctity and dig* 
nity of marriage, by directing the minds of children to a 
union which should never be regarded as universally incum- 
bent, and by turning the parent into a mere negotiator 
whose great and sole aim is to ^et his child married off his 
hands, even whilst she is a child. § But the early age of mariiage 

* Qonri and Rohini are the names of two of the twenty seven stars in the 
Hindoo Calendar. The former represents the wife of Shiva, the hitter of 
Chondro. Gonri is therefore superior to Rohini, and he who gives hi? daughter 
in marriage at the earlier period, confers a g^ft superior to him who keeps his 
daughter unmarried until the age of nine. The Hindoo idea reslly is, when 
translated into ordinary phraseology, that a girl must he married before tho 
age of puberty, and the sooner after the age of seven the better, and the more 
meritorious, u she be not married before this period great disgrace ensues, and 
abhorrent sin is supposed to foUow. 

t Rev. K. M Banerjea's PrisEe Essay on native Female Education, p. 24. 

X The Code. Chap. IX. 88. 

§ Hence has arisen the recognized profession of the Ghataks, formerly 
monopolised by men, but now we understand largely engaged in by women, 
who on account of their superior information respecting the charms and quali- 
fications of girls, which they can ascertain by having access to zenanas, are likely 
to monopolise the business in turn, and drive their masculine rivals out of 
the field. The Ghatak is employed in looking out for a suitable partner for 
any girl who is approaching the prescribed age for marriage. The preliminary 
arrangements which bring the parents into negotiation are usually transacted 
through this singular official. 



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THE WOMEN OF INDIA. 327 

18 an evil tenfold greaterihan is even the enforcement of marriage. 
A girl most either be united to a mere boy, or be bound to a man 
much older than herself. In both cases the contracting par- 
ties are mutually ignorant of each other, and probably have 
never spent a moment in each other^s society. It is obvious 
that such a procedure enormously increases the probabilities, 
that marriage will not conduct to satisfactory issues. It is 
,true, that parents will usually be animated by a strong desire to 
form such alliances for their children, as bid fair to lead to happy 
results; that their prudence and foresight are more likely to 
secure equal social alliances, than are the passionate impulses and 
extravagant imaginings of inexperienced youth; that if love 
does not exist &fore marriage, it may follow after it, where 
parents have been judicious in the selection. Yet to all this 
the reply is conclusive and final — marriage is a contract so in- 
timately affecting the entire natures and the life-long happiness 
of the two who are united by it, that it ought to be left entirely 
at the choice of the two whom it binds together. The present 
system of course, is attended with less evil, than if women were 
advanced toward the English idea of their rights and privileges ; 
but even now, with their meek and uncomplaining submissive- 
ness, the amount of evil it must necessarily induce is beyond 
all computation. The alliances, where there is found to exist 
that subtle and instinctive repugnance of natures, which aU 
keen observers of mankind have marked, but failed to analyze ; 
where there is that which disgusts and offends; where the 
temper, the tastes and the feelings are antagonistic, and where 
the transporting and glorioi^ passion of love can never be 
developed, must be very numerous, and so &r as they exist, 
they must diminish that amount of happiness, whatever it is, 
of which Hindu married life is susceptible. 

But the impediment put in the way of all mental improvement 
is not the least of the evils arising out of this pernicious custom* 
For a girl of five or six years of age to be taught that she is to 
be married before she is ten ; for her to be taught hardly any 
thing but what relates to her nuptials; for her to be intro* 
duced to the cares and responsibilities of maternity before she 
is fifteen ; is of itself sufficient to check all mental culture and 
to impair beyond hope of restoration the moral purity and in- 
nocence of woman. This would inevitably be the result, even if, 
as among us, it were admitted, that the mind should be cultivated, 
but how much greater must be the injury, where both the wisdom 
and the right of such cultivation is denied. 



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3£8 THE WOMEN OP INDIA. 

The physical effects of such pi*emature onions, both upon 
mothers and their children, can easily be imagined, and need not 
here be fully stated. Hindu women are certainly as richly 
endowed with feminine grace, dignity and beauty, as women 
anywhere. The litheness of their frames, the natural elegance 
of their movements when free and unconstrained, the beautiM 
symmetry of their small hands and feet, the clearness of their 
complexions, and the great regularity, if not exceedingly delicate 
chiselling of their features, are feminine treasures of which tdiey 
will be justly proud when they can compare themselves witik 
the women of other climes. But all these charms are prematurely 
injured by early marriage. Before the girl has become a full 
grown woman she is a mother, and by the time most English 
women marry, she has given birth to two thirds of her children.* 
No wonder then that at thirty, when she should be in the 
summer of her beauty and strength, she gives indications of 
premature decay, and at forty, has lost all traces of loveliness and 
of comeliness. Indeed Hindu women enjoy no summer tide of 
glorious beauty, such as is accorded to their western sisters, who 
dwell, we will not say in a happier clime, for the climate is not 
the cause, but in the midst of more genial influences. They, 
from the age of twenty-five until forty, or forty-five, retain, 
almost unimpaired and undimmed, the graces with which they 
are so riohly endowed. H^r-e, however, ere feminine maturity is 
reached, they become associated with influences fatal to their 
beauty and prime, and they droop and die away, as if youth and 
old age were alone the destined heritage of women. 

It requires no stretch of im^ination to picture the kind of 
mothers such a system produces. Affection is not wanting. 
Thanks to a beneficent Creator ! who has so constituted human- 
ity that some of its best emotions are indestructible; for 
though for a time they may be perverted, they return invariably 
to their proper channels, like the sun^s kindly influence after 
an eclipse, and the germinant powers of nature afber a season of 
drought, and blight. But there is much more that is wanting 
and which, alas, is seldom or never found. There is wanting 
the trained mind to influence the child's mind. There is 
wanting the disciplined feelings to prevent the mother making 
of her little one nothing but a toy. There is wanting all, or 
much of that matronly dignity and power, which at 'once 

* " The mean age of mothers at a first birth, calculated from ninety-five in- 
stances gpven, is little more tlian two years higher than the age of pnberty, 
being fourteen years and eight months.*' This is in BengaL In other parts of 
India the average age is a little greater. 



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THE WOinSN OF INDIA. 329 

rules^ attracts and blesses a family. A Hindu- mot>her of fifteen 
is no fit guardian of her infantas welfare^ nor does she become 
better qualified to guide its steps as it advances toward maturity, 
for all means of mental improvement and growth, are denied 
her. 

The physical injury inflicted on a people by early marriage 
must necessarily be great. The immaturity of parents must 
kad to the weakness of their offspring. Trtiis is a law very far 
reaching in its issue?^ and worthy of much more attention than it 
has received. It is illustrated most in Bengal, where it is most . 
violated. The people are the children of children ; they are 
therefore the least muscular of races. They are incapable of 
much exertion, or fatigue. Their want of stamina predisposes 
them to disease, and renders them incapable of sustaining its 
attacks. They have a large number of children, but few of 
them arrive at maturity, and the average^ duration of native 
life is less than twenty years, or only two thirds of what it is 
in England. To the same cause we are inclined to attribute that 
intellectual subtlety, combined with a great want of mental 
robustness, which is one of their most marked psychological 
characteristics. Much of this, we are aware, is attributed by some 
to the tropical exuberance of the climate, which, they say, 
forces both life and death into rapid motion. We deny this. 
The characteristics we have just pointed out, owe their ex- 
istence mainly to the fact, that every Bengali woman ia married 
before she is eleven years of age, either to a youth little older than 
herself, or to a widower who is most likely a great deal blder, 
and to the customs arising out of this violation of natural law. 

Before describing married lifei we wish, because of its redeem- 
ing features and beautiful appropriateness, to refer to the closing 
vows mutually plighted at nuptials. We need hardly say, 
that the ceremonies on such occasions are very numerous, 
very trivial and unmeaning, and sometimes not very decent. 
The following rites, however, breath sentiments which we fain 
hope are carried not seldom into actual life. After various trivial 
ceremonies the bride's Pandit addresses the bridegroom in language 
«uch as follows, 'The bride says to you. — If you live happy, keep me 

* happy also ; if you be in trouble, I will be in trouble too ; you 
' must support me, and must not leave me when I suffer ; you must 
' always keep with me and pardon all my faults ; and your pooj&s 
' pilgrimages, fastings, incense, and all other religious duties, you 
' must not perform without me ; you must not defraud me re- 

* garding conjugal love ; you must have nothing to do with another 
' woman while I live j you must consult me in all that you do, and 

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SSO THB WOMEN OF INDIA. 

' you must always tell me the truth. Vishnu, fire, and the Brah- 
' mins are witnesses between you and me/ To this the bride- 
groom replies. ' I will all my life time do just as the bride requires 
'of me: but she also must make me some promises. She 
' must go with me through suffering and trouble^ and must al- 
' ways be obedient to me \ she must never go to her father^s 
' house, unless she is a8k6d by him ; and when she sees another 
' man in better circumstances or more beautiful than I am, she 
' must not despise or slight me.' To this the girl answers " I 
'will all my life do just as you require of me? Vishnu, fire, 
/ Brahmins, and all present are witnesses between us.' After this 
the bridegroom takes some water in his hand,, the Pandit repeats 
something, and the former sprinkles it on the bride's head. 
Then the bride and the bridegroom both bow before the Sun in 
worship. After this the bridegroom carries his hand over the 
right shoulder of the bride and touches her heart, and then puts 
some hundun (a coloured powder) on her maug or the line on her 
head, and put.8 his shoes on her feet, but immediately takes 
them off again * 

A Hindu woman's cares and humiliations begin with marriage, 
and therefore tbey begin early. The first indication of her al- 
tered condition is in the limitation of her personal liberty. It 
seems to be rejj^arded not only as the prudent course, but the 
most fashionable one, to inhibit all promiscuous intercourse be- 
tween women and men, and to reduce it even in families to the 
smallest possible limits. Of course, the poor cannot shut up their 
women ; but it is astonishing to observe how soon he who gets 
rich or respectable, however low his caste, begins to hide his 
female relations from public view. A high fence around his com- 
pound, and an inner apartment exclusively for the use of women, 
immediately proclaim his rising fortunes. As the southern breeze 
and free ventilation are essentisi in a European residence, so seclu- 
sion is the great thing to be secured in a native one. Away 
from the street or the road, all respectable women must live in 
dingy, prison-like apartments with the smallest possible num- 
ber of doors and windows, which through their narrow bars ad- 
mit no sight-seeing but such as is afforded by the firmament, 
or the dreary monotony of a stagnant tank, or an ill cul- 
tivated garden. A stray female may occasionally penetrate into 
the zenana; men never, excepting— to use an Irishism — they 
be the small boys of the family. It is even thought improper 
for a husband to have any social intercourse with his wife during 

• Domestic manners and ouatoms of the Hindoos.'' by Baboo Isuree Dase. 

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THE WOMEN OF INDIA. 331 

the day. Thus deprived of personal liberty ; hardly ever having 
eonversation with strangers of her own ses.^ and never with men ; 
circainscribed not only m her ability to move from place to place 
but even in her power of vision ; hardly ever quitting her own 
dwellings and when she does^ travelling in a covered conveyance 
through the chinks of which alone she can peer ; she leads a life 
which is dull, monotonous and uninteresting in the extreme. 
This jealous seclusion of the sex is often traced up to the influ- 
ence and example of the Mahomedans. Previous to their advent, 
it is said, women were comparatively free, but such was the li« 
cense of their conduct and the evils it induced, that the people 
in their jealousy and terror found no safety but in adopting the 
exclusive custom of their conquerors. There may be some truth 
in this, but not much. Women were kept in seclusion for centu- 
ries even before the rise of ^oslemism, and if occasionally 
they had liberty, such cases were quite exceptional.''* Indeed the 
practice seems necessarily to follow from the low and jealous 
ideas entertained of the sex in the earliest ages, and propounded 
in a variety of forms in the Code of the great Lawgiver. 

To dwell in such circumscribed limits, would, under the most 
favourable circumstances prove irksome, and prejudicial alike to 
the frame, the mind and the heart. If the inmates of the 
zenana were highly educated, if they were endowed with all 
those accomplishments which so pleasantly occupy and gracefully 
adorn their Western sisters, life would even then be without 
elasticity, and the feelings would droop as if they had no vigour 
and no spring, if they were thus secluded from the outer world. 
How much more must this be the case where the mind is left, 
totally uneducated, destitute of even the power to read, and 
where society is unsofbened by the benignant, pure and enno- 
bling influences of Christianity, 

That women in India are not taught to read, that the art 
should be forbidden them both by religion and by custom, that 
they should be deemed unworthy of such an acc^uisition by a 
people who boast of their learning and civilization, is at once the 
condemnation of Hinduism, and the opprobrium of its adherents. 
Says the code 'women have no business with the text of the Vedas ; 
' thus is the law fiilly settled : having therefore no evidence of 
'law, and no knowledge of eipiatory texts, sinful women must be 
^foul as falsehood its^; and this is a fixed rule.^f Another 

* Lnksman thoB expresses his astonishment on finding a woman, walking in a 
desert wild. 'What! art thou wandering fearless/ whose form is that of one 
who shonld not see even the snnP" Bhatti. 

t Menu's code. Chap. XI 18. 

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8S2 THE WOMBN 07 n^DIA. 

authority says — ' the Vedas are not even to be heard either by 
* the servile class, women, or degraded Brahmins/'^ These injunc- 
tions reach much farther than at first sight appears. In com- 
menting on the latter passage, the Bev. K. M. Banerjea says. 
' And as pronunciation, grammar, versification^ arithmetic, mixed 
' mathematics, were included in the number of the Yedangas, or 
' members of the Vedas, an almost impassable barrier may be said to 
' have been opposed to the education of theShudras and the women/ 
Even should it be denied that the common elements of knowledge 
are forbidden by the Shastras to them — a point we think settl^, 
but which we do not care to dispute — ^it cannot be questioned that 
usage is opposed to their education. The prejudice against wo- 
men being taught to read and write has been up to our own age 
deep and universal. They are considered dangerous accomplish- 
ments. It is supposed that they will destroy modesty, induce 
pride, encourage intrigue, and bring down calamity on her who 
is thus fatally gifted, as well as upon the husband who is infatu- 
ated enough to marry her who is thus dangerously gifted, or 
to allow her, when his wife, to acquire these dubious qualifications 
and for these and other reasons it is tbat^ women, with but rare 
exceptions, are left in total ignorance. 

Another unhappy element in their lot is the very subordinate 
position all women, excepting the Guinnee, or head of the fiamily, 
occupy. The latter is usudly the mother-in-law, or, in case of 
her death, the eldest brother's wife ; and in a respectable family 
the number of subordinate females is considerable. These person- 
ages all the world over, are suspected of having a prejudice against 
a son's wife, and their own training in India is certainly not fitted 
to make them better than mothers elsewhere ;. hence the sayings 
of southern India — " If the mother-in-law break the pan, it is 
earthern ; if the daughter-in-law break it, it is a golden vessel.'* 
" Tears come into the eyes of a daughter-in-law six months after 
the death of the mother-in-law.'' Even if the yoke of the lady- 
superior be easy, there are other domestic contingencies which 
threaten the happiness of the dweller in the Zlenana. The parti- 
alities of the Guinnee for some one of her own widowed daughters^ 
perchance returned by her unhappy loss to the paternal abode^ 
or for one of her own daughters-in-law,- or for some of the 
grand-children ; the greater affection exhibited by one husband 
than by another ; the richer clothes and more precious orna- 
ments obtained from a husband by one wife. These and a variety 
of other causes disturb greatly the peace of families, and keep 

• Srt« Bbagabhat. 

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THE WOMEN OF INDIA, 333 

the female apltrtments in a state of chronic warfare. Nor does 
the influence of a husband mitigate those evils to any appreciable 
extent. He probably, with his favourite lawgiver, attributes 
the evils of the Zenana, not to the tyranny and selfish folly 
of his own sex, but to women^s "mutable temper, their want of 
settled affection, and theii perverse nature ;*' '^ their love of their 
bed, of their seat, and of ornaments, impure appetites, wrath, 
weak flexibility, desire of mischief and bad conduct,'^ and there- 
fore he thinks it hopeless to reason with such beings, and makes 
up his mind that the evil cannot be helped, only that he will 
repress it with a strong hand when it troubles his own repose. 
And these evils are intensified because there is no escape from 
them, not even a temporary one. How much strife and ill 
feeling are avoided in an English home by our freer usages. 
Many a domestic storm blows over, because a woman when she 
sees it gathering, puts on her bonnet and takes an agreable 
walk, or makes a call or two, which wonderfully restores her own 
good nature, and gives time to the antagonistic element at home 
also to cool down. Or there is an easy and efficacious retreat in 
some genial book ; or in the thousand occupations which fill an 
Englishwoman's hands and thoughts. Even should the home 
pressure become intolerable, there are a multitude of honourable 
expedients which are within reach of most women either of edu- 
cation or of energy. The Hindu woman has literally no antidote 
and no means of escape. She must bear the full force of what- 
ever adverse circumstances fall to her lot, and the only way of - 
escape is through the dreary gate of death. 

In what way a respectable woman spends her time, is a ques- 
tion involved in some mystery, from the fact that she appears to 
have nothing to do. Of course the poor have plenty of occupa- 
tion. They labour quite as hard as the same class in England. 
But the richer classes have apparently nothing to. engage their 
hands or their thoughts. They have no furniture to clean, no 
clothes to make or mend; no " fancy work'' to interest them, 
no letters to answer, and no novel " to finish." We know that they 
spend much time in devotion ; more, considerably, than she who 
worships a purer divinity and holds a truer faith ; we are told 
— and shall we not believe it, for they are women ? — that they 
attend elaborately to the toilet ; we believe that they give long 
audience to the menials who bring the gossip of the neighbour- 
hood, and that games of skill and of chance, like cards, dice and 
chess, are much played. 

It is obvious, however, from what we have described, that the 
ordinary life of a Hii^du woman is a very unenviable one. Her 



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SS4 THB WOMEk 07 INDIA. 

sources of happiness are very few, an'd they are all of an inferior 
nature. The causes of her humiliation are very numerous. She 
is doomed to inactivity. She is most trusted if she be ignorant. 
From childhood sh^ is taught that she is too weak and wieked 
to be confided in, or consulted; that she is not fit to be the 
equal, but only the servant and plaything of man ; that it is 
presumptuous, if not wicked, for her to desire to aspire to 
know, and to do. Thus do they live and die, with all the rich 
and beautiful dowry with which they have been gifted by God, un- 
developed and repressed ; likp lovely flowers in the depths of a 
forest, unseen by anv eyes but such as cannot comprehend their 
beauty ; or like precious herbs instinct with healing virtues, which 
are not dreamt of by the rude races in whose lands they flourish. 

Of the precise amount of influence possessed by women in 
families, it is difficult to speak positively. In social matters they 
are left, to a great extent, to do as they please. Their wishes 
respecting religious observances are much deferred to ; and in the 
distribution of property they usually have rights which cannot 
be ignored. A clever, scheming, active woman, will of course 
get power, and often wield it over her own husband ; nor are the 
cases unfirequent in which a man becomes the unconscious and 
willing servant of a wife, who has fascinated him with her beau* 
ty or her superior mental endowments. The following extracts 
contain much truth, although the writer is certainly disposed to 
rate the position of women too highly in the social scale. — 

* The laws of the Hindoos, instead of being degrading to women 
' as it respects the rights of property, may be regarded as more 
' indulgent than those of most nations. Hence in almost every 

* transaction, respecting family property, the women have great 
'influence, and show considerable tact and aptitude for business, 
*and are not very easily outwitted by the cunning tricks about 
' title d^eds &X5., in which the Indian lawyers are often better 
' versed, than in the simpler rules of common honesty. As the 
' women have legal rights to certain parts of all real family 
'property, very few bargains can be made about it, without 

* their consent. The same may be said with respect to all mar- 
' riage transactions, affecting not merely their own children, but 
' also their grand-children ; and a man applying for the hand of 

* a damsel, either for himself, or iiis son, makes perfectly sure 
/that all is right, if he has once got the consent of the grand- 

' mother. As far as the elderly women, in general, are concerned 
' it may be safely stated, that scarcely any important step, af- 
' fecting the family interests, can be taken, either by their sons^ 
'of husbands, without their consent.' 



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THE WOMEN OF INDIA. 885 

' That there is a great want of gallantrjr and of external at- 
' tention to females in India^ especially in Bengal^ (where the men 
' being, even for India, proverbially destitute of manliness, are no- 
' torioos for their harsh treatment of women) there can be no doubt ; 
'but that Indian women, generally, are so entirely deprived of all 
'social influence, and even common respect, as some writers, 
' whose observation has been confined chiefly to Bengal, have 
' represented, is entirely contrary to all my experience, in those 
' parts of India where I have resided. They do not indeed appear 
' so much on the open stage of life, as their more privileged, and 
' better instructed sisters in Europe, but their influence behind the 
'scenes, is not less powerful, as every one who has much to do 
' with native society, soon becomes aware. Indeed, very seldom 
'can a man complete any engagement, or important business 
' transaction, unless he is a very common business man, without 
'first having settled jbhe affair with his privy council, in the fe- 
'male apartments of his house. In India, as in Europe, a man 
' either respects his wife's judgment sufficiently to make him wish 
' to have her advice, or he stands in such awe of her resentment, 
' as to make him very reluctant to proceed in any cause opposed 
' to her will. The share which women have in family property, 
'would of course, render many transactions entirely void, if not 
'carried on with their consent, and in almost all family affairs, 
'whether secular or religious, their influence is very great. 
'That of the elderly women, if they happen to be possessed of 
' oonsiderable sagacity, ia not un&equently even greater than that 
' of the men, but the younger women being usually treated very. 
' much as children, even after they are married, and have young 
'children of their own, have not nearly so much influence as 
'women of the same age in Europe, being almost entirely under 
' the authority of their mothers-in-law, who claim, and exercise 
' over them, and their children, the sacme authority as over their 
'own unmarried daughters. Marriage merely transfers authority, 
* over a very young woman, from her own parents, to her parents- 
'in-law, to whom her husband also, is still,. to a large extent, 
'subject. Nearly all the power, of which the family system in 
' India deprives the younger women, is transferred, not, as is 
' sometimes supposed, to the men, whether fathers, brothers, or 
' husbands, but to the elder female members of their families, 
' on either side. Unless where polygamy is practised, which is 
' only the case among a few of the wealthier classes, the custom 
'of women of respectability being excluded, or of excluding 
' themselves, from public society, instead of diminishing female 
' influence, greatly increases it, by concentratiag the active Oad 

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S36 TUS WOMEN 0¥ INDU. 

* OBtiring energies of woman, more directly, and constantly, on 
'domestic and family affairs. The sphere of female activity bein^ 
' much contracted, it naturally acts with more intensity. If it is 
' circumscribed to comparatively fewer objects, these few are pur- 
'sued with the greater avidity; and, consequently, the energies 
', that, in European female society, find scope abroad^ are, in Inman 

* life, entirely spent at home.'* 

But they are exposed to certain contingencies which go far to 
destroy even in anticipation, the small modicum of happiness 
$pared to them. These are the marriage of a second wife by their 
husbands ; and the dread of being left to all the humiliations of 
perpetual widowhood. British humanity and beneficence have 
fireed them from other two causes of overwhelming sorrow, — ^the 
possible loss of their female offspring through infanticide, and 
immolation with their deceased husbands. 
. Divorce and polygamy are both allowed by Hindu law, though 
neither of them are as much practised as is generally supposed. 
And the Hindu who can afford it, always prefers taking a second 
wife to divorcing the first one. Thus she is disgraced, and, it 
it may be, practically put aside, without being legally divorced. 
There is a reason for this: — Hinduism presumes that a wife can 
never be firee from her husband, even if he die. This notion i& 
embodied in the popular saying, — '^ He whose widow is not dead 
has half his body in the land of the living,^' and gave rise both 
to the suttee rite and the prohibition of marriage to widows. 
We cannot attribute this idea to any other source than excessive 

{'ealousy, a jealousy which abuses despotic power up to the utmost 
imits of human existence. It follows that wives are disgraced, 
superseded by. others, and practically put away, but they still 
continue in the power of their husbands, and are not, strictly- 
speaking, divorced, unless under very special circumstances. Meni4, 
thus defines the law : — ' Even though a man have married a 
'young woman in legal form, yet he may abandon her, if he find 
'her blemished, afflicted with disease, * * * * and ^ven to him- 
' with fraud. If any man give a faulty damsel m marriage, 
' without disclosing her blemish, the husband may annul that act 
*of her ill-minded giver.' * A wife, who drinks any spirituous 
'liquors, who acts immorally, who shows hatred to her lord, who 
' is incurably diseased, who is mischievous, who wastes his proper- 
' ty, may at all times be superseded by another wife. A barren 
' wife may be superseded by another in the eighth year : she, 
' whose children are all dead in the tenth; she, who brings forth 

II* ReooUecftions of Northeni India. By the Bey. W. Buyera, p. 899-400^ 

m 

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TfiB WOMBN OF INDIA. 337 

'only daughters in the eleventh ; she who speaks unkindly with* 
'out delays but she, who, though afflicted with illness, is belov- 
* ed and virtuous, must never be disgraced, though she may be 
'superseded by another wife with her own consent. If a wife, 
' legally superseded, shall depart in wrath from the house, she must 
'either instantly be confined, or abandoned in the presence of the 
'whole family.'* 

It will be seen that loop-holes are not wanting for such as de-" 
sire to use them; but lor various reasons they are not much 
used.* There is among men in this country, a strong feeling of 
the sanctity and indissolubility of the nuptial bond, though a 
lamentable laxity with regard to its obligations; they are 
kept therefore from indulging largely in the practice of divorce. 
Then if a wife is troublesome, passionate, or refractory, he has the 
means at hand of keeping her at a distance from him, and leav- 
ing her to herself. In this he certainly has an advantage over 
Englishmen. They cannot imprison refractory spouses in a cor- 
ner of the house, for custom brings husband and wife into con- 
stant intercourse, and few are the really unworthy wives who are 
discreet enough, in times of strife, to allow the opportunity to pass 
of " speaking their minds/' The Hindu, on the other hand, is 
master of the situation. He need not approach his wife. He can 
quietly keep out of her way. Thus by avoiding her he enjoys an 
amount of domestic quiet for which he may well be envied 
by many an unhappy Englishman, whose wife is "a free-born 
Briton'' as weU as himself, and knows well how to abuse her 
freedom. 

Laxity of morals must be adduced as another cause why Hindus 
do not more frequently supersede or divorce their wives. It is 
the opprobrium of Hinduism that it does not stigmatise im- 
purity as a sin, or, since the word sin has a totsdly different) 
meaning as explained by a Christian and a Brahmin, let us sayj 
as an immorality. He who cares not for his wife, forsakes her for 
others, without compunction and almost without shame. This 
is an evil as culpable as it is wide spread, as pernicious as i( 
is hateful. 

But second marriages are occasionally contracted, chiefly when 
the first wife has not given birth to a son, or when her son is 
dead ; for, to have a son who shall perform his father's funeral ob-j 
sequies and thus secure peace to him and his ancestors, is the 
one neoessity of a parent. Such unions are happily not common^ 
and> from all we can glean, we conclude that not more than one 



• The Code chap ix 72, 73, 80, 83. 

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838 THI WOMEN OP INDIA. 

married man in fifty has a second wife.''*' Yet the dread of such 
an addition being made to the establishment of her lord^ seems 
to be the great fear of every woman, and regarded either as snch 
a disgrace or such a cahunity, that the little child is taught to 
pray that her husband may be satisfied with her, and never desire 
to take a second wife. The reasons for her repugnance are very 
obvious and very justifiable, but it is not necessary for us to give 
them. 

Among the Eulin Brahmins of Bengal, it is well known that 
polygamv is the rule ; though it is a happy sign of the growth of 
a healthier public opinion, that the custom is now looked on by a 
laige portion of the community as both demoralizing and unjust. 
Mr. Robinson, in the follwing passage delineates the main fea- 
tures of the custom. 

' When a daughter of any family is married to a Kulin Brah- 
' man, the honour of that family is increased^ and there are too 
* many parents willing to pay any price to become so illustriously 
'allied. Except from the Shrotrigas, a favoured Brahman caste, 
' Kulins may not legaUv receive wives from any families inferior 
'to themselves. But the love of money on the one side, and the 
' lust of rank on the other, find it not impossible to agree upon 
' terms. With virtuous exceptions, Kulins study to make the 
' most of ibhe estimation in which their order is held. Before con* 
' descending to accept a wife, they will handle a sufficient fee ; 
' and they determine the price at which they will sell their favours, 
' by the extent of the demand for husbands of their value, and by 
' the amount of risk the bridegroom will incur,, in the proposed 
'alliance, of depriving his posterity of honours so advantageous to 
^ himself. In other respects proudly indalent, many Kulins get 
' more than their living by going about the country, assisted by 
'Ghataks or professional Brahman negotiators, to show com- 
' passion to the daughters of the respectable and ambitious. It is 
f not uncommon for one Kulin to count twenty wives of his own ; 
' and a case occurred in which a lucky individual was known to be 
'blessed with not fewer than one hundred and eighty. A large 
'establishment for a poor man ! Not exactly; for the husband in 
'such a case, does not dream of keeping aU his wives under his 
' own roof; most of them remain with their parents or with their 
' paternal relations. Prudently fixing his abode near the richest 
' of the families with which he is matrimonially connected, he 
' visits the others as he finds it worth his while to do so. The 
' wife must pay for every glimpse of her precious master. She 

* It ia iiu: otherwise with the Mahomedans. 

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THS WOMEN OF INDIA. 889 

' may hardly afford to see him agam after the day of marriage ; 
' and few and far between^ in comparison with what ought to be 
' their number are the visits welcomed by the majority of his 
' ladies. The perplexed offspring of such unions cannot count 
' their step-mothers and half-brothers, — ^know not, in fact, who 
' they are, or where they live. 

' While Kulin men are in such request, the greatest difficulty 
' is found in securing husbands for Kulin females. Not at liberty 
' to marry into inferior grades, and commonly lacking the means 
' necessary to purchase alliances with gentlemen of their own 
' castes, they are out-bid and edipsed by women, who ought* to be 
' well contented with bridegrooms of humbler rank. Frequently, 
' on their attaining a marriageable age, their parents find them- 
^ selves in extreme perplexity to avoid the condemnation of leav- 
' ing them destitute of the matrimonial sacrament. In too 
' many cases, compelled to throw themselves on the compassion 
' of some decrepit or even dying Kulin, they are thankful when 
* they can persuade the old man or hopeless invalid to save 
' their family from infamy, by obligingly adding another to his 
' long list of useless wives. And here is one secret of the terrible 
' infanticide prevalent in the country.'* 

There will not probably be a single reader of these pages but 
who will heartily desire that this abominable and demoralising 
practice were brought to a termination. There are but two ways 
by which this can be done — ^by the growth of a public opinion 
which shall frown it into extinction, or by legislative enactment. 
That it will finally come to an end by the former means, if not 
by the latter, is certain ; but we are loth to wait for the result 
of this process, for like all great evils in a land like this, it is 
very slow in dying; yet, on the other hand, there are enor- 
mous difficulties in the way of prohibitive legislation on the 
matter. Were Kulins alone addicted to polygamy it might 
more easily be dealt with, but Hindu and M^omedan aUke 
recognize the practice, and the latter hurgelv adopt it. We think, 
however, that there is a clearly ascertainable distinction between 
the custom of the class and the custom of the communities. The 
latter baso their practice on law, the former only on custom. Now 
we are not bound to recognize the latter where a great and 
pregnant evil is concerned, and since we believe it would be im- 
possible to cite any Hindu authority of any weight in favour of 
Kulinism, we see no insurmountable difficulty in the way of its 
prohibition. Of course it would be at the option of any Kulin 

• The Daughter! of India, p. 76-6. 

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340 THB WOMEK 09 tNDtA^ 

to marry a second wife on the ground of the sanction of Hindu 
kwy if he coold plead it. 

Biit we must pass on to notice the enforced widowhood of every 
woman who is unfortunate enough to lose her husband, however 
brief and transient may have been her union with him.^ It 
was a noble and beneficent act to rescue widows from the pos- 
sibility of immolation; but we question if it. has been ever fully 
understood to what a fate it preserves them; a fate which, un- 
happily, legal enactment cannot touch, and which can oidy be 
destroyed by the spread of right and benevolent principles, 
throughout the whole of society. It is indeed easy to under- 
stand how many a woman, aware of the hard and terrible destiny 
which awaited her if she lived, preferred deliberately the short 
agonies of cremation to such a life of sorrow. 

She is deemed the happy woman by her sex, who dies whilst her 
husband lives. Even the name widow is a reproach, and few curses 
are so deep as the one—'' may you become a widow.'' Such a lot 
is not regarded so much in the light of a misfortune, as in that of 
a curse, inflicted by some angry god for heavy guilt contracted 
by ils victim in this life or in some previous birth. She is there- 
fore condemned rather than pitied, shunned as a loathed and 
evil thing, rather than sjrmpathized with. Nay, such is the 
frantic spirit of Hinduism, that he who helps to make her«uffer, 
and who infuses additional sorrow into her cup, supposes that he 
is furthering the purposes of heaven, and working out meritori* 
oosly the designs of inexorable fate. 

Immediately on the death of her husband, though she be 
a child of eight years of age, she is divested of all her ornaments ; 
nor can she keep them as precious memorials of the past ; they 
pass from her possession. If they are of shell or wax they are 
broken, if of precious material they are sold. Henceforth, no 
garment of fine, coloured, or embroidered texture must be worn, but 
only such as are coarse. It is meritorious in her to be slovenly. 
A married wife delights in the plaiting of her hair, and the anoint- 
ing of her person with unguents or odours, but the widow must 
di^Kurd all these things. She must not even lie upon a bed. Hin- 
dus are studious about their food; the most refined Parisians are 
not more delicate in the selection of sauces and cordials than are the 
wealthy here about their curries and sweetmeats. Yet the relict of 

* In writing thas, we have not forgotten that as the law now stands, a wi- 
dow may legiQly marry, bat hitherto it has remained almost a dead letter. 
It is to tne diflgrace of the " enlightened ** classes, that, though there are some 
millions of wi<U>w8 in India, not forty have been married sinoe the passing of 
the act in 1856. 

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TEE WOMEN OF INI>IA. SlI 

the wealthy Brahmin^ as well as her poorer sbter^ most feed npon 
the coarsest and scantiest fare. She must never have more than one 
meal a day. Two days in the month she must maintain a strict 
fast. On these days she must not even moisten her mouth by 
swallowing her salivai Water is forbidden her ; and if she is 
tliii-sty, the Shastrag advise, that she preisent ssveetmoata and 
eocoanut water to a Brabminj whose eating tbera willj by a large 
stretch of the ima^inatioDj satisfy her hunger and cjuencb her 
thii-st ! She is forbidden to eat either fohj or auimal food. The 
irioe she uses must be of the coarsest description. She is not 
allowed all kinds of sweetmeats ; nor must those she takes be 
bought in the bazaars. With a refinement pf cruelty, which i» 
fiendish for its cool inhumftuity and coiitemptible for its punc- 
tiliousnesSj it is enacted, lest starved on one meal a day she 
should glut her appetite at other hours with sweetmeats, that she 
mu^t never eat them but at her meats. She must not appear at 
any scene of festivity or gladneea. Even to marriages she is not 
invited, and if, on account of proximity of rektionahip she does 
appear, she is not allowed to take a part in the ceremonies. From 
all this neither age, decrepitude nor delicacy of frame exempts 
her- ^ Let the widow emaciate her body by living on roots, fmits 
*^ and flowersj let her not even pronounce the name of another man 
'after her lord is deceased ; let her continue till death forgiving 
' injuries, performing harsh duties, avoiding sensual pleasures, and 
^ practising virtue/f * The widow shall never exceed one meal 
' a day, nor sleep on a bed; if she do so, her husband falls from 
' Swarga."J 

This hopeless, heart -cnisliing existence is endured literally Ijy 
millions of women. The number of widows is proportionately 
much lar^r than it is in a country like England, It is exceed- 
ingly difficult to arrive at perfect accuracy among a people who 
invariably suspect every attempt to collect ftatistics ^ but aa in- 
telligent native writer says, ' in many famOiea the widows con- 
siderably out^number the married women/ In endeavouring to 
discover the percentage of widows we received from two credible 
sources the following figures : which of course can only be re- 
ceived as proximate* 

Married women. Widows. Unmarried. 

60 £5 151 iQo 



50 80 SO 



} 



Two oanses account for the large number of widowe. Every 
girl is married before she is eleven years of age. Then we have but 



Menu. 
The Smiiti, 



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S42 THS WOMEN Of INDIA. 

to reflect upon the enonnoas mortality taking place, between the 
latter age and the marriageable age in English society, to observe^ 
how enormously the probabilities of widowhood are increas- 
eiy after the widest deductions are made for the decease of 
the gentler sex. It must too be remembered that the number ot 
widows is never diminished by marriage. Coupled with this 
most deplorable and unsatisfactory state of things, there is the 
other fact, that there are no unmarried, adult women in India. 
Every widower therefore is driven, whatever may be his age, to 
marry a child imder eleven years of age. We must take into 
account the enormous number of men whom death deprives of thdr 
wives, after they themselves have passed their twenty-fifth year, 
and, since few Hindus remain unmarried, we shall perceive the 
vast number of incongruous, inauspicious marriages from all 
these marrying only children. Thus does one folly lead on to 
another ; and nature, violated and despised, avenges herself by 
the inconveniences and su£fering she allows to fall upon her un- 
thinking and unrighteous >sontemners. 

The sorrow and the crime caused by enforced widowhood are 
far beyond conception. There is first of all, the humiliation and 
self-denial inherently associated with the state. Possibly it is 
lightened in many cases by a humanity which struggles against 
Shastras and conventional inhumanity ; but, admitting this, how 
dreary, desolate, hopeless and intensely wretched, must be the 
lot of all those myriads who are doomed to such a fate, by one of 
the most heartless and despotic series of laws and customs, 
which the wickedness and stupidity of man ever devised. 
We maintain that there is not a more unnecessary, and pitiless 
evil in the whole world than this, nor until it is swept away, can 
the men of India lay any claim to be considered a great and 
civilized people. 

The difficulties and embarrassments it brings upon society are 
Tiecessarily very great. A polytheistic race will never be either 
charitable or rich. There is a large amount of enforced alms- 
giving in India, but very little free, spontaneous benevolence jand 
even where there is Brahminical rank, there is often great 
poverty. Hindus and their offspring are therefore thrown upon 
the tender mercies of heartless, and poor relatives, and these too 
not their own but their husband's in most instances. The increase 
of domestic poverty arising from this cause alone must be very 
great ; and the suffering and humiliation induced by dependence 
on those who not only look upon widows as accursed by the gods, 
but as an unwelcome burden upon their resources, may in some 
measure be imagined. 

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THE WOMEN OP INDU. S43 

But hamiliatiou and pecuniary embarrassment are by no 
means the only, or the greatest evils resulting from this un- 
reasonable and pernicious custom ; its immoral bearings are very 
obvious. Domestic purity and fidelity are greatly valued and 
jealously guarded in every Hindu home, but how often must these 
be destroyed and broken in a country where servants and depen- 
dents are numerous, where the various members of a family 
cluster in patriarchal fashion around the same centre, where reli- 
gion ignores all moral instruction and discipline, and where 
vouthful widows are but too numerous. Familiarised, as the 
latter are from childhood, with matrimonial associations ; left with- 
out any moral discipline calculated to control the passions and guide 
the feelings ; with a religion whose most popular legends delight 
in stories like that of Krishna and the milk maids of Brindabun ; 
with no immediate protector to receive the lawful love of a heart, 
which is the more disposed to love because it has none on 
whom to lavish its affections, or by whom its emotions and sym- 
pathies may be observed or directed, we may well believe that they 
are often drawn aside from the path of integrity and honour. We 
are convinced that were the truth known on this subject, it would 
reveal an amount of crime which would be absolutely appalling. 

Need we say that these facts present us with a state of society 
most deplorable and unsatisfactory; and the question naturally 
arises, what can be done to improve and elevate it* This opens 
up a subject whose ramifications are very wide and far reaching; 
and without attempting any thing at present but the slight^ 
indication of the directions in which benevolent and remedial 
influences should point, we may say to every one who wishes the 
women of India to assume their rightful place of grace, dignity 
and importance in society ; — let the education of boys and young 
men be largely impregnated with just and rational instruction 
respecting the true rehitions of their mothers, wives and sisters to 
themselves; let every opportunity be sought of drawing the 
native mind,* not violently, but gradually, toward better customs, 
and a nobler and more confidi^ treatment of the weaker sex ; 
and let everv opportunity be judiciously and zealously embraced, 
of pushing forward the great, but difficult and delicate work, of 
female education, ¥rith &e ultimate if not the immediate object 
in view of winning them over to the Gospel of Jesus Christ* 



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844 BKniSH 9E1TLSKS. 



Aet. VI. — Seporls of the Special Commissioners in the Indigo 
Districls. 1861. 

2". Nil Barpan, or the Indigo Planting Mirror. 1861 

3. The Nil Darpan TriaL 1861 

DISPENSING with a formal preface, we beg to submit to 
the notice of the reader, some fmrther remarks on the subject 
to which we directed his attention in our last number. 

It is stated that at some factories, the aocounts of the native 
collectors of rents are kept in a very imperfect manner, and exhibit 
discrepancies of a erave nature ; that in several instances, the 
balances entered aeamst the farmers, were found, on investigation, 
to be nearly double the sum which was due."^ On one occasion, 
a register was brought forward, the last pages of which, compris- 
ing the accounts of several months, had apparently been recent- 
ly written, for the leaves adhered together, rendering it highly 
probable they had not been opened since the respective items 
were entered.f The collector of the district of Kaspore came to 
the court of the commissioner, and being requested to give in « 
list of the chief defaulters in the villages under his charge, com- 
menced to make it, but, after writing a few names, decamped, un- 
wittingly leaving behind him bundles of papers, which, on 
being examined, were found to contain a double set of cash 
books. The new one, which had been prepared evidently for 
the purpose of commuuicating to Mr. Montresor wrong informa- 
tion, presented, on being compared with the original, alterations 
to the disadvantage of the ryots, amounting to more than two 
hundred rupees.J While noticing these frauds, justice compels 
us to condemn, in the most emphatic manner, the means which 
were used to (Uscover them. It appears to us, that the commis- 
sioner had no right whatever to open these bundles, in the absence, 
and ¥rithout the permission of the owner, and by doing so showed 
a great want of delicacy and propriety; yet he voluntarily gives 
a detailed narative of this cunning transaction, and instead of 
being afflicted with a feeling of shame, as every individual with 
a nice sense of honour would be, he seems to pride himself on 
his acuteness. Some villagers who were not entered among the 

• Mr. Montreeor's Beport, pars. 34, 36, B9. 
t Ibid „ 13. 

X Ibid „ 28. 



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BRITISH SETTLERS. 845 

debtors^ had large sums standing in the books against them^ 
and against the names of others, included in the list of defaulters, 
the balance was as small as half an anna."^ For this strange 
proceeding what reason can be assigned ? A suit, however excellent 
may be its object, is, as every one knows, who is acquainted with 
the country, very expensive and attended with much inconveni- 
ence, whilQ the obtaining of justice is quite problematical ; it is, 
therefore, likely, that the debtors who were not summoned had 
presented hush-money to the collectors, and the persons who owed 
little or nothing to the factory, had been cited to wring from them 
bribes, by means of working on their fears of being taken to court, 
which, in the minds of the poor, is a place associated with irre- 
trievable ruin. 

The landlord of Shamuntah, on renewing the lease of a farm,' 
demanded a bonus of five hundred rupees, which was given by* 
Mr. Larmour, who, to realize this sum, levied contributions on thd 
tenants, and, in little more than three years, obtained half of it. 
As there was some reluctance manifested about further payments, 
the native collector sought the aid of the commissioner, saying, 
that a word from him would cause the ryots to bring in the in- 
stalments which were due, but as the demand appeared to be of 
an objectionable character, he declined to use his authority to en • 
force it. In explanation of these subscriptions being made, it is 
stated that the bonus was tendered to the landlord, Puran 
Chnndra Roy, to induce him to lease the farm to the factory, 
and prevent its being let to Nobakisto Paul, who, it was appre- 
hended by the villagers, would increase the rents; to facili- 
tate this arrangement, which would be advantageous to them in 
a pecuniary point of view, some of the head tenants of the 
place agreed to make good l^e sum to the Mulnath Concern.f 

The commissioner observes^ * On my arrival at Domurhoodah a 

' number of ryots from several villages attended, and requested 

' me to receive from them rents in advance for the ensuing year. 

' These were villagers chiefly connected with the properties in Mr. 

Hills' Concern. As Mr. Hills had brought no complaint of 

^arrears against his ryots, and my duty was in no way conneeted 

with the ensuing year, I informed them I could not at present 

act in the matter; but that if a charge of withholding rent 

' was brought against them, I would take their oflFer into consi- 

' deration, at the same time giving them to understand that a ver* 

' bal representation of this nature would be of no effect without 

♦ Mr. Montr«or*8 Report;, para. 13. 
t Ibid „ 36,37. 



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816 BRITISH 9ETIXBR8. 

' the simultaneous production of the money.'* On tins paragraph 
Mr. Hills remarks: 'it is altogether against the nature and 
' habits of the Bengal peasantry to tender due rent before it 
' is demanded of them. The request therefore to pay for the en« 
' suing year, not then due, ought to have struck Mr. Montresor, 
' that there was some ulterior object in view for so unusual a pro« 
' ceeding. As it appears that that gentleman had no business to 
' inquire into their motives and actions, but only to accept their 
' words and give them full credit for honestv and fair dealing, I 
' beg leave to supply his omission, and explain why the request 
' was made. He had not looked into their accounts, had he done 
' so, he would have discovered that those very ryots were greatly 
' in arrear for the year just closed, and which I have not been 
' able as yet to recover ; yet they appeared before him with cash 
' in hand, mark, not to pay up what they really owed me, (and 
^ which was then upwards of annas 8 or half of their rental,) but 
' for him to receive the money and give them credit for the subse* 

* quent yearns rent, in accordance with the receipts they held for 

* tne year just closed. Their object was solely this. Shortly be- 
' fore Mr. Montresor's arrival in this district, in the months <:>f 

* Falgoon and Chyte, I issued notices to those ryots, through the 

* local Deputy Collectors, under section 13 of Act X of 1839f that 

* from the ensuing year I would demand from them a certain in« 
'^ crease of rent, and it was with this fraudulent intention, of avoid* 

* ing the necessity of complying with those notices, that the offer 
^ was made, and credit asked in accordance with the receipts they 
' held for the previous year.^t 

' In all matters of rent,' says Mr. Montresor, ' the Tuhsildar 

* is the sole medium of communication between the zemindar and 

* the ryot. No money for rent reaches the factory, and no receipt 
' for payment goes to the ryot, except through his hands* It is to 
'his report alone that the European zemindar trusts for his 
' knowledge of the progress in the collections of the rents of the 
'village; and the statement and returns of this officer form the 
'chief documents placed before the courts in rent cases.' J 

From the above it evidently appears the Planters are in the 
hands of the collectors, and to suppose they are cognisant of the 
frauds committed, would be doing them great injustice ; for it is 
highly probable they are victimized to a larger extent than the 
ryots, and that those who are paid to serve them, rob them right 

• Report 17th May, par. 7. 

t Mr. James Hilla* Keply to the Secretary to the Government of Bengal, 
27th July 1861. par. 3. 
J Mr. Montresor'e Report 10th June 1861 par. 16. 



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BltrnSH SETTLEES. 847 

and left, without the least Compunction. It may, however, be 
asked, is not employing agents who are guilty of forgery, per- 
jury, extortion, and nearly every possible crime very reprehen- 
sible ? As far as they have a knowledge of their proceedings, and 
we are disposed to think they cannot be altogether ignorant, it 
must be admitted they are much to be blamed for retaining them 
on their estates; but from this acknowledgment it does not 
necessarily follow that we should conclude they are lost to all 
sense of honour, and capable of soiling their hands with money 
wrung from the sufferings of the poor. Hindoo, Mohammedan, 
and European gentlemen, and also Lieutenant Governors have 
drawn pictures, which make some of the natives that sit on the 
bench, plead at the bar, and fill other offices in court, as great 
villains as ever walked the face of the earth ; yet no one has 
breathed a suspicion of Civilians being corrupt ; and though they 
could, in a single day, make ample fortunes by bribes, their integ- 
rity it is believed, never yields to the influence of the most 
powerful temptation ; and is it an undue exercise of charity to say, 
that Planters exhibit similar virtue ? Where are the fifiots to prove 
the contrary? That it is the duty of Government, of Plan- 
ters, Merchants and private individuals to employ honest agents 
to conduct their business, must be allowed ; but u they fail to do 
this, are we to infer, without satisfactory evidence to warrant the 
inference, that whenever roguery is practised by their servants, it 
is done that they themselves may obtain a share of the proceeds 
of iniquity? No one would impute such a crime to a European 
judge, lawyer, physician or clergyman; and why should it be im- 
puted to the Planters? It is resolved to use every means, foul or 
fiur, to drive them out of the country; and are there Europeans 
who can be so far duped as to join natives to effect this object? 
But suppose it to be accomplished, what step would be taken next ? 
Would not class after cla«3 be banished or swept into the sea, till 
there was not an Englishman left ? When they thought they ha(d 
us in their power, did they spare community, sex, or age of the 
Saxon race, or of their own countrymen that had identified them- 
selves with us by embracing our faith? and can we imagine four 
short years have wrought a miraculous change in their feelings 
towards us ? Did the rebellion teach them no lesson ? If they 
had doubts before, did at not put those doubts to flight, that in 
valour and humanity, in principle, in morals, and in every thing 
else whidh constitutes the character of real men, we are their 
superiors ; and is it not this superiority which the disaffected to 
the British rule hate, and for which the well disposed, who form 
the body of the people, respect and esteem us? 



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848 BEITISH SETTLEUS. 

. Many villages that had relinquished the cultivation of Indigo, 
came to an agreement among themselves to refuse the cesses 
which the factory-servants had been accustomed to levy, but to 
enforce the payment of them the collectors declined to receive 
rent when offered, or, to avoid a direct refusal, absented them- 
selves from the place for months, and could not be found. Mean- 
while the non-complying ryots were entered in the list of de- 
faulters for the purpose of having suits instituted against them.^ 
According to the accounts handed in by the tenants to the com- 
missioner, the sum paid by them in the shape of custom, per- 
.quisites and subscriptions, was from twelve to three hundred per 
cent. It is right, however, to observe, that though Mr. Montresor 
has inserted these documents in his report, he adopted no means to' 
test their accuracy. While we feel persuaded that on examina- 
tion, the amount would be found to be less than is here stated, 
we are prepared to believe that the sum thus deducted from the 
earnings of the industrious poor, in the cultivation of indigo 
and every other department of business, is large ; that the evil is 
daily augmenting, and, if no steps be taken to check it, will 
soon become intolerable. Important documents, which speak to 
the disadvantage of the planting enterprise, were received with- 
out evidence, and regarding their accuracy not a single inquiry- 
was made. This indicates something like the bias and warmth 
of the partisan, rather than the calmness and impartiality of the 
judge, in which capacity the commissioner was sent forth. A 
thorough sifting of these accounts might have shed great light 
on all business transactions, and been of eminent service to every 
branch of trade and commerce. He may allege that such sL 
scrutiny did not come within his province ; yet the reader is 
naturally led to suppose that, when he quotes documents, it must 
be for some purpose similar to the following ; to exhibit the 
soundness of the conclusions at which he has arrived, confirm 
or refute the statements of one of the contending parties, or 
show the nature of their quarrel and the obstacles to an ami- 
cable adjustment of their differences; but while their accuracy 
is unascertained, they can answer no such purpose, and publish- 
ing them to the world under the auspices of the Oovemment of 
Bengal, is calculated to mislead persons both here and in Europe, 
who are honestly endeavouring to form a right judgment on the 
indigo question. Was this the object contemplated, and did the 
commissioner labour to Achieve it? We do not believe he did; 
we give him full credit for rectitude of intention, and attribute 

* Mr. Montresor*s Report par. 95. 

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BRITISH SETTLERS* S49 

the grave faults in his report, rather to want of mental power 
than to obliquity of purpose. A great question, identified 
with important interests, and probably with the stability of the 
British rule, he cannot grasp. He appears to see objects always 
in a mist, and therefore indistinctly; hence his decisions are 
often opposed to the evidence which he brings to support them. 

It is contended by the commissioner that there was nothing 
like a combination to repudiate the payment of rent, but he 
furnishes very conclusive evidence to prove the contrary. The 
rental of the Katgarah concern, comprising 105 villages, is 
rupees 86,371-10-8, the balance on the l£th of February was 
rupees 11,500, and at the commencement of March it was 
rupees 7,233-11-0.'^ Some astonishment is expressed that four 
thousand rupees should have been realized in so short period, 
but there is nothing to wonder at in the matter. An opinion 
prevailed that Government was hostile to the cultivation of 
indigo, which emboldened the ryots to withhold their rents, but 
when they heard, and the tidings soon flew abroad, that special 
commissioners had been appointed to enforce all legal payments^ 
many came to the conclusion that it would be fruitless to resist 
longer, and therefore brought in the balances a^inst them. In 
this simple way the subject may be satis£Etctoruy explained, and 
we are astonished that Mr. Montresor should have felt any sur- 
prise about it. The rent of the village of Mednipore is rupees 
654, and the balance was rupees 432-10-7.2t. The rent of the 
lands belonging to the Bansbariah concern is rupees 79,507-11-0, 
and the balance is 27,744-12-4.^ In the 24th paragraph of the 
report it is stated, that the defaulters of twenty three villages came 
to the commissioners courts some without being summoned, and 
paid the balances standing against them, which shows they with-^ 
held payment as long as possible, and made it only when they 
knew it would be enforced by law : a stronger proof of their pur- 
pose to repudiate rent could hardly be furnished. That the rents 
were really due which were said to be repudiated, and that cases 
were not got up to answer some ulterior object, may be seen from 
the results of the suits which were instituted. At Umbicapore 
79 rent cases were tried by Baboo Grish Chunder Banerjea, and 
terminated in the following manner : ^ Forty-six defendants 
^ paid down the amount on the decree being pronounced ; in 
' twenty eight cases the balances were realized on execution, with- 
' out proce^ng to attachment; and, in the remaining five, two 

* Mr. Montresor's Beport par. 42, 43. 

J Ibid, par. 78. 
Ibid, 17th May par. 3. . 

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850 BRITISH SETTLEBa. 

' were pending^ and in three^ the decree holder had not iq)pUed for 
* execution up to the 27th of April/* In every caae ihe sum 
claimed was pronounced by the presiding judge to be legally 
due, and hundreds of cases^ which might be quoted^ terminated 
in the same way^ affording proofs of an irrefragable character, of 
a wide spread combination to repudiate rent. While the com- 
missioner declares there is no such combination, in nearly every 
paragraph of his report he adduces facts^ which place its existence 
beyond all reasonable doubt. After consuming much time in 
asking questions, he sometimes stops in the middle of his in« 
quiries, hints at the culpability of one of the parties, without 
conveying a positive charge which might be met, and then 
makes the sage remark, ' however, this is not my business,' and 
proceeds to something else^ perhaps little less fordgn to his pur- 
pose. Had we not confidence in his integrity, we should be in- 
clined to think he cut short inquiries, when a further prosecution 
of them seemed likely to refute foregone conclusions, but we are 
prepared to believe, it arose from nothing worse than an erratic 
disposition, which he found it impossible to control. Not having 
a definite idea of the nature of his mission^ and the specific 
duties it involved, his report, as might be naturally exped^ed, ia 
confused, vague, and inconclusive. 

We now turn to the report of the special commissioner of the 
county of Jessore. This is a calm and lucid document, in 
which &cts are stated as they were elicited, without the least 
colouring, whatever persons they may affect, and, almost in every 
instance, the judgment of the reader acquiesces in the deductions 
drawn from them. Well acquainted with the position and 
character of both ryots and Fhmters, and with the laws relating 
to the great questions pending between them^ Mr. Morris sees 
his way cleariy, and performs a vast amount of business in a 
short period; yet bustle and distraction of mind are nowhere 
apparent, every investigation is deliberately conducted step by 
step to its close, and^ whenever we cannot coincide in his opinion, 
we differ from him with full confidence in the honesty of his pur- 
pose. Of the existence of a league among the farmers, to repu- 
diate rent and the execution of contracts, he entertains no doubt 
whatever, and those who carefully read the evidence he adduces, 
can hardly help coming to the same conclusion.. 

The annual collections of the Nischindepore concern are be- 
tween twelve and thirteen thousand rupees. Out of 17,059 
rupees^ 4,372 of which are balances of 1859,-1 860, Mr. Durand, the 
manager, realized 2786, leaving a balance of 14,273 rupees. 

* Mr. Montresor's Report 8th May 1861 para. ^. 

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BRITISH SBTTLEBS. 351 

^ His own servants have turned against him^ so that his ac« 
^ counts have been left incomplete and imperfect; and many who 

* owe their present prosperity to his bounty are the most bitter 
^ against him. With the exception of a few bighas around the 
' factory^ there are hardly any lands which he can now call his 
' own^ and I was shown a spot^ says Mr. Morris^ where he has" 
' obtained an Act IV. decree^ for nearly 800 bighas, and of most 
' of which he has been virtually dispossessed by his servants, 
'not being permitted to sow indigo on them.'* Ryots setting 
aside the legitimate proprietary rights of the Planter, and impro- 
priating to their own use lands which he had been accustomed 
to cultivate by his labourers is now becoming a general practice.' 

The sum claimed by Mr. French of B-amnagar, on account of 
current rents and balances amounted to 28,000 rupees, and be- 
tween the 28th of April and the 10th of May, he instituted, in' 
the court of Mr. Deputy Collector Stevens, no less than 278 
suits, representing rupees 2,579-5-ll.t Great difficulty is every 
where experienced in measuring lands, and, owing to the combi«' 
nation of the tenants to prevent it, it is seldom it can be done. 

* For two months Mr. French has endeavoured in vain to measure 
^ his village of Durgapore, although his right to do so was de« 

* creed by Mr. Deputy Collector Taylor, and a protecting peon 
' was sent to accompany the Ameen .'% Mr. Oatts of the Hizrapore 
and Porahattee concerns, who is acknowledged by the farmers to 
be a kind and indulgent landlord, ' had not been pressing them 
' for their rents, as he hoped that his indulgent and conciliatory 
' policy would enable him to reap his reward in indigo. But he 

* now admits that he has signally failed ; and, excepting, perhaps, 
'• Nischindepore, there are no concerns, iliat I have seen,' says the 
commissioner, ' the foture prospects of which appear so bad" as 

* these. This is a lamentable state of things, and is entirely 

* attributable, as the people say themsdves, to the bad kov^, or 
' surrounding and prevailing influences. In the Porahattee fac- 
*tory, 117 contracts for indigo cultivations were voluntarily 

* taken, as proved by petitions to the joint Magistrate. Of these 

* only seven have been carried out in their integrity. Honesty 
' and good faith seem to have left the country. This was confess- 
' ed to me by the Ryots themselves in the village of Marada. 
' They spoke of the existence of a combination, and mentioned 
^ several men who instigated opposition to the factory, by reason 
^ of whom they were afraid to sow Indigo/ § 

* Mr. Morris* Report, 2l8t May 1861, par. 2. 

t Ibid 2l8t May 18H1, par. 3. 

i Ibid 21st May 1861, par. 4 

§ Ibid 2lBt May 1B61, par. 4. 



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352 BAinSH SBTIXEBS. 

Since the 6th of Aprils Deputy Collector Baboo Rutton Lai 
Ghose has disposed of 283 suits instituted by the Bijolee con- 
cern ; and the e£Eect has been that, out of a yearly rental of 
22,612 rupees, only 1626 remain to be realized. There is a 
fact connected with this concern deserving much notice, and 
which will give the reader a pretty correct idea of the present 
lawless state of the indigo districts ; it shows that the farmers 
who ave well disposed to European settlers, are not protected 
either in their persons or property ; that they are mobbed and 
trampled in the dust with impunity, as if the Police and the 
Courts of justice had no existence. The commissioner states 

* I found the inhabitants of three villages, Biiolee, Bishtodia 

* and Damookdia^ the last of which is leased from Saboo Ram Rut- 

* ton Roy, entirely on Mr. Oman^s side. They approved of his 
' conduct towards them, and had given him lands in putta, and 
' agreed to sow Indigo for him ; but they begged for protection 
' from the villa^^ers of the surrounding villages, who had joined 
' in a combination against the factory. Two men showed me the 
' marks of beating, which they had sustained for their adherence 
' to Mr. Oman, and all spoke of the intimidation and threats 
' that had been held out to them. They also complained of their 
' lands being forcibly taken from them, and appropriated by others. 
' Money had also been demanded from them to support the com- 
' bination.'* Speaking of the Hizlabut concern, Mr. Morris says, 

* It is manifest that the main body of the people is well affect- 
' ed towards the factory, and that, were a few designing and influ- 
'ential men, who, by lawless violence, intimidation and evil coun- 
' sels, coerce the mass, put out of the way or held in check, the 
' former relations that existed between Mr. Roberts and his ten- 
' ants would be resumed. I obtained clear and palpable proof of 
' the existence of a combination, and the word '^ Committee" I 
' heard for the first time commonly used. The ringleaders are well 
'known characters, and the pernicious influence that they exercise 
' was a common subject of complaint. There can be no doubt 
' that they levy black mail in the form of subscriptions, and both 
' in the matter of Indigo and rent, prevent the people having any 
' connection with the factory .'f ' Hence too much stress canned 
' be laid on the action of Government, and the character of the 
' magistracy at the present time. With active and experienced 
' officers scattered over the country, quick to uphold the right 
'and punish the wrong,! am pcMuaded.that a proper equilibrium 

• Mr. Morris* Report, Slst May 1861, par. 5. 
t Ibid SOthMay 1861, par. 2. 

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BRITISH SISTTLBRS. 853 

' would soon be restored, and things would right of themselves. 
' In other words, rents would be paid without demur, and In- 
*digo, like any other staple, would be governed by the usual 
' laws that regulate labour and production,'* 

The Nil Darpanf is a drama in the- Bengali language, which 
was published at Dacca^ and represented in that city before 
a Hindoo and Mohammedan audience. The leading native 
characters, who are ryots, are persons of high principles, honest, 
faithful, and straight-forward \ truce-breaking, cheating and lying 
in business transactions are crimes foreign to their nature, at 
which they stand aghast ; their wives and daughters are beauti- 
fid, modest and chaste, and exemplary in each relation of life. 
Indeed, both the men and women are free from vice, and exhibit 
in their conduct the most exalted virtue. Before the advent of 
the planters, the place of their abode was Paradise itself; but 
those children of Satan came and marred the land. The Eu- 
ropean characters in the play are described as a disgrace to hu- 
manity, and without a single redeeming quality. To compel re- 
cusant farmers to contract to cultivate indigo, Mr. Wood orders 
them to be imprisoned, starved, tortured, and scourged, and 
sometimes dispenses with the aid of others, and inflicts the pun- 
ishment himself. "When he speaks to the * bloody niggers,^ the 
designation he usually gives the ryots, it is in such foul lan- 
guage as would shock even the inmates of a brothel. Mrs. 
Wood is said to have ^ no shame at all,' and believed to place 
her person at the service of a libidinous magistrate, who, in return 
for the indulgence, decides in favour of hev husband all the fac- 
tory suits which come before him in his judicial capacity^ Ryots 
are condemned unheard, and thrown into prison for crimes which 
they never perpetrated. One of them, an aged and respectable 
man, in despair of obtaining justice, and weary of the miseries 
of life^ hangs himself in jail ; on hearing the sad tidings, bis 
wife from grief becomes insane, and, in her madness, kills her fa- 
vourite daughter-in-law, and then dies. The eldest son of the 
family also dies ; the planter having laid open his skull by beating 
him with a club. Mr. Rogue, not Rose, as given in the English 
translation, who is a bachelor, has agents, both male and female, 
to decoy beautiful women to the factory, where they are forced 
to submit to his pleasure. His licentiousness is narrated in alTits 
grossness; the door of the chamber is thrown open, and the 
reader is invited to enter and view with his own eyes each detail 
of the wickedness. Not deterred by a sense of decorum, delicacy 



* Report, 30th May 1<*61, par. 2. 
t Nil; Indigo, Darpan, Looking Glass. 



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854 BRITISH SETTLBM. 

or shame^ a fcding to which the writer apfpears to be a 
stranger, his pictures are drawn at fall lengthy and move before 
us in ril their filthinees ; and^ lest it should be supposed they are 
portraits of exceptional individuals, he vouches for their being 
true likenesses of a large community of British settlers. 'I 

* present/ he says, ' the indigo planting mirror to the indigo plan- 
' ter's hand ; now let every one of them observe his face.' 

The conductors of two Calcutta journals, that have taken 
a prominent part in the indigo controversy, are charged with 
writing againfft the poor, and in fSeivour of their oppressors, who 
by cruelty and lewdness have earned for themselves a distin- 
guished place in the annals of crime ; and to sink the press be- 
neath the contempt of all ri^t-feeling men, and make it a dis- 
grace to the English name, it is said these editors have received 
a stipulated price for the prostitution of their talents. In his 
addr^ to the planters the author thus speaks : ^ The editors of 
' two daily newspapers are filling their columns with your praises ; 
' and, whatever other people may think, you never enjoy Measure 

* from it, since you know fully the reason of their doing so. 

* What a surprising power of attraction silver has? The detest- 
' able Judas gave the great Preacher of the Christian religion, 
' Jesus, into the hands of odious Pilate, for the sake of thirty 
'rupees; what wonder, then, if the proprietors of two news- 
' papers, becoming enslaved by the hope of gaining one thousand 
^ rupees, throw the poor helpless people of this land, into the ter- 

* rible grasp of your mouths.' 

After a circulation of some months in native society, the Nil 
Darpan was translated inU) English, and nearly three hundred 
copies were sent home, under the official frank of the Govern- 
ment of Bengal,^ addressed to private gentlemen, supposed to 
exercise great power in their respective circles, editors of news- 
papers, secretaries to philanthropic, religious and political societies, 
and influential members of the upper and lower Houses of Par- 
liament. The parties attacked were left in ilie dark, while their 
reputations were being destroyed in their native land, and knew 
nothing of the clandestine procedure, till information respec- 
ting it reached them from a private source. When aware of the 

* Sir Mordaunt Wells says, the circulation was nearly three hundred. The 
•dition conBisted of 500 copies. Mr. Seton-Karr states that the Indian 
eireulation amounted to onl;^ 14 copies, and Mr. Lushin^i^n informed the 
court, that the copies undistributed were about 200, which makes the number 
despatched to England to be what we have mentioned. In the Calcutta 
Christian Observer for August, page 246, it is said ' about a hundred and 
fifty copies were sent home,' but whether this statement be correct, or tiie 
number were more or less, the nature of the proceeding is just the same. 

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BRITISH SETTLEBfl. S6S 

existence and circulation of the pamphlet^ they wrot« to the 
Government of Bengal and asked for an explanation. The 
Lieut. Governor refused to comply with their request, and an- 
swered their communications in the vaguest manner^ endeavour* 
ing to treat as a trivial affair, what, to men who had every thing 
staked on their good name, was a matter of Ufe and death. 
Had an honest and ample apology been given, and the wrong 
done repaired, as far as possible, it is probable the gentlemen 
assailed would not have thought of ulterior proceedings; but 
being rudely repulsed, where they ought to have met with cour- 
tesy and r^ress, they resorted to the law. This was a step at 
which we felt no surprise, nor could in the least blame, still it 
was one which we regretted, because we apprehended it might 
interfere with the freedom of discussion, which at all times, and 
especially in the present juncture of affairs, is necessary to the 
permanent good of the realm. The Printer, Mr. Manuel was 
indicted in theSnpreme Court for various libels on the Editor of 
the Calcutta ^Englishman ^ and the general body of indigo planters. 
Mr. Manuel, though legally wrong, was not considered to be so 
morally, and the suit was instituted against him, as the only way 
left open to arrive at a knowledge of the real culprit ; therefore, 
on his giving up the name of the Rev. James Long, a« the gentle- 
man who brought the book to his press, the prosecutors, through 
their counsel, begged the Judge to treat him with all possible 
forbearance. He was in consequence fined only ten rupees, and 
left the court without the least reflection on his character. 

So far &om concealing his connection with the Nil Darpan, 
and wishing to avoid the legal penalties consequent on its pub- 
lication, Mr. Long desired a declaration to be made in court, that 
he himself was responsible for the work, and, in compliance with 
this request, the printer gave up his name. He was indicted on 
the same charges as Mr. Manuel, and prosecuted on the 19th, 
20th and 24th of July. The court was crowded on each day 
of the trial, and more attention and interest were awakened than 
had ever been witnessed before. Gentlemen of every grade of 
the Civil Service, Military Officers, members of the press, the 
Chamber of Commerce and the Trades' Association, merchants 
and bankers, clergymen and planters were present and watched 
the proceedings as persons deeply concerned in the result. Every 
one felt that a batUe, regulated by the rigid forms of law, was 
now to be fought; that Government Officials and European 
Settlers stood face to face before a judge whom neither could bias. 
It was no longer a conflict between freedom and despotic power, 
between the principles of agriculture, trade, and commerce. 

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660 BmmsH settlees. 

enunciated by Adam Smithy and those enforced by the Raler of 
Bengal. These and all other questions for the moment gave place 
to the following. Have the people that have come from the mother 
country to this distant dependency of the Crown, by barbarity 
and lewdness on the one hand, or cunning and meanness on 
the other^ ceased to be En«;lishmen ? The audience recognized 
this to be the great point at issue, and foresaw that the guilty^ 
however exalted their position, would be brought down to the 
ground filled with shame. 

The prosecution was conducted with ability and fairness ; but 
one portion of the counsePs address calls for animadversion; 
that part of it in which he alluded to the Rev. Mr. Smith, the 
martyr of Demerara, and whom he accused of inciting the negroes 
' to insurrection, mutiny, and rapine.' This language was held not 
at a petty police tribunal, where it might be allowed to pass unno- 
ticed, but in the metropolitan court of India. At the present 
day, when all educated Englishmen have a respectable ac- 
quaintance with the laws of their country, and the great events 
recorded in her annals, it was presuming too much on their 
ignorance, to suppose tiie history of our West Indian colonies 
was a region of literature they had not traversed. What are 
the facts of the case ? Let us for a moment advert to them. 
From an edict issued in 1 823, the West Indian planters believed 
they possessed authority to g^ve or withhold passes to their 
slaves to attend worship on the sabbath. When the slaves, did 
go to the house of God, a police official accompanied them * to 
judge of the doctrine taught to the negroes.* This surveillance 
was sanctioned and reqmred by the express orders of the 
Governor. Many planters declined to give passes, or, in a spirit 
of mockery, gave them when the hours of divine service were 
over, and they were of no use. Some of the slaves had the 
moral courage to attend christian ordinances without permission, 
and, in consequence, subjected themselves to grievous punish- 
ments. The news of parliament having sent out peremptory 
instructions forbidding the use of the lash in the field, was not 
immediately made known, and a mistaken apprehension having 
got abroad, that a dispatch was also kept from them which an- 
nounced their freedom, their fiery passions were roused. As the 
period of emancipation drew nigh, some of the planters became 
more resolved to indemnify themselves by increased exactions, for 
the services they were about to lose. The condition of th2 
slaves was at last intolerable, and driven mad by oppression, they 
made a strike for their liberty, accompanied with rapine and 
bloodshed. These calamities excited in ev^ry wise and humane 



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BRITISH 8BTTLBB8. S67 

person, feelings of regret, bnt surely not of surprise. The civil 
and military authorities, alarmed at the resuH^ of their own mis- 
govemment, threw the blame on the clergy, and made them 
victims. At a signal previously settled, the striking at noon of 
the town clock of Montego Bay, twenty-six functionaries, we 
have all their names before us, ' crying now let us go,' rushed 
from the sanctuary of justice, and, gathering a mob, proceeded to 
the church, in which two tiiousand negroes were accustomed to 
worship their Maker, and laid the edifice in ruins ; and, in the course 
of a few days, ten more churches in the western part of the Island, 
were reduced to ashes. The pastor, the Rev. Thomas Burchell, 
a Baptist clergyman, was thrown into jail. To deter other 
ministers from preaching the gospel to the African race, the 
following placard, measuring nineteen inches in length and 
twelve in breadth, was posted on the door of the court-house. 
Whether this was done by planters or Government officials could 
not be ascertained ; but, whoever were the authors of the docu- 
ment, they had Satan's aptness in quoting scripture. 

PLACARD. 

^^ But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in 
my name which I have not commanded him, even that prophet 
shall die" Deuteronomy, ch. xviii, v. 20. 

^ May this be the fate of all such as Burchell I' 
The Reverend Mr. Smith was charged with having instigat- 
ed the revolt at Demerara, and was conveyed to George Town un- 
der a strong military guard. After an imprisonment of two 
months, he was tried by a court martial. Every circumstance 
was viewed and treated as suspicious, the laws of evidence were 
set at defiance, he was declared guilty and sentenced to be executed; 
but, while in jail, death tsune to his relief. His enemies, or rather, 
we should say, the enemies of his religion, which was raising the 
negroes to the dignity of men, not having their wrath appeased 
by the mart3rrdom of the husband, resolved to wreak their venge- 
ance on his heart-broken wife. She purposed to pay the last 
rites of respect to the dead. To deprive her of this sad con^ 
solation, the police, by the orders of the Governor, took away the 
body, and threatened to send every one to jail that presumed 
to attend the burial. Brave in her sorrow, as women only 
can be brave, she followed, accompanied by a female friend, and 
saw the remains rudely sepulchred by the constabulary force. 
Not yet satisfied, the authorities had the heartlessness to take 
from the woman, whom they had made a widow in a foreign land, 
two hundred guilders, under the pretence of payment for the main- 
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868 BRITISH. 8BTTLSR8. 

tenanoe of her huBband while in prison ; and ihey then filled her 
cup of anguish to the brim^ by knocking down the monument 
which an affectionate flock had reared to his memory. It is 
to be hoped that such outrages on justice and humanity, were 
never perpetrated before, and will never be witnessed again. 
They filled the people of England with burning indignation^ 
and perhaps, contributed more than any other events, to advance 
the cause of freedom. The walls of parliament resounded with 
the eloquence of Mackintosh and Brougham, and the noble senti- 
ments uttered by those noble men met with a response in the 
breasts of all classes, from the cottage to the throne, nor were 
the ministry of the day apathetic. In a dispatch to the Earl of 
Belmore, Governor of Jamaica, Viscount Ooderich thus speaks 
of the West Indian revolt : ' Amongst those who acknowledge 
' the divine authority of our national faith, there is no room for 
' controversy respecting the duty of imparting the knowledge 
^ of Christianity to all mankind, and especially to our more im-- 
' mediate dependents. However, the modes or seasons of instruc- 
' tion may be regulated according to the various circumstances 
' of different classes of society, nothing can justify the systematic 
' cally withholding from any man, or class of men, a revelation 

* given for the common benefit of all. I could not therefore ac- 
' knowledge that the slaves of Jamaica could be permitted to 
' live and die amidst the darkness of heathen idolatry, whatever 
' effect the advancing light of Christianity might ultimately have 
' upon the relation of master and slave ; nor am I anxious to con- 
' ceal my opinion, that a change in this relation is the natural 
' tendency, and must be the ultimate result of the difiusion of 
' religious knowledge amongst them. For although the great 
' moral virtues of contentment, and universal benevolence may be 
' expected to appear amongst a christian slave population, as the 
' legitimate fruit of christian principle, yet all probability justifies 
' the belief, and all experience atteste the fact, that the increased 
' range of thought, the new habits of reflection, and the more 
^lively preception of the duties owing by their fellow-christians 

* to themselves, to which the converted slaves will attain, will 
' gradually produce in their minds new feelings respecting their 
' servile condition. 

' It is not, however, merely to a misconception of religious 
' truth, but to the direct instigation of some of the Missionaries, 
' that the recent insurrection is ascribed in some of the documents 
' which your lordship has transmitted. I have observed with 
' great satisfaction, the efforts which you so judiciously made to 
' guard the persons to whom it would belong to sit in judgment 



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BKITISH SEtTLERS. 859 

'on the Missionaries, a^inst the influence of religions prejndi- 

* ces ; and I trust that the caution which you have given, will 
' effectually prevent the manifestation of any intemperate or hos- 
' tile spirit towards them in any subsequent stage of the proceed- 
' ings. I most distinctly avow my conviction that the improba- 

* bility of the charge is so extreme, that nothing short of the 
' most irresistible evidence could induce a belief in it. The Mis- 

* sionaries who engage in the office of converting the slaves in 

* our colonies cannot, with charity, or in justice, be supposed to be 
'actuated by any views of secular ambition or personal advanta^. 
' They devote themselves to an obscure, and arduous, and ill-requit- 
' ed service : they are well apprised that distrust and jealousy 
' will atfcend them, and the path they have chosen leads neither 
'to wealth nor reputation. If, in their case, as in that of other 
' men, motives less exclusively sacred than those which are avowed 
^ may exercise some influence on their minds, it were irrational 
' either to feel surprise, or to cherish suspicion on that account. 
' The great ruling motive must, in general, be that which is pro* 
' fessed, since, in general, there is no other advantage to be ob- 

* tained than the consciousness of having contributed to the diflu- 
' sion of Christianity throughout the world. When, therefore, I 
' consider that no motive can be rationally assigned, which should 
'have induced the Missionaries to embark in so guilty and des- 
' perat« an undertaking, I cannot but earnestly trust, that the trial 
' of anjr of their number, who may be charged with a participa- 
'tion m this rebellion, may have been postponed until compara* 
'tive tranquillity should have succeeded to the first panic, and that 
' such trials may have been conducted, not before a military tri 
' bunal, but with all the regular forms of law. Should any such 

* Missionary have been convicted, and be awaiting the execution 
' of his sentence on the arrival of this dispatch, your lordship will 
'not permit that sentence to be carried into effect, till his 
' Majesty's pleasure can be known.'* 

. This digression the reader will think, has occupied too much 
of his time, but we could not acquiesce in the justness of the 
stigma cast on the memory of the pious and heroic dead, and 
felt it to be our duty to place the matter before the Indian 
public in its true light. We do not for a moment believe that 
the counsel, to whom we have ^verted, is capable of designedly 
injuring the reputation of his fellow men, and doubt not he will 
regret as much as ourselves the sentiment to which^ in the heat 

* The dispatch fron^ which the above passages are quoted, is dated the 
1st of March 1832. The whole docament was pablished in the Jamaica 
CoaraDt, on the 13th of May, and in the London Times on the 22nd of June. 



X 

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360' BKlTrSH SETTLERS. 

ef argument, he gave expression. Without further observatioiffi 
We leave the facts to speak for themselves, feeling assured that 
the mart3rr of Demerara and his devoted colleagues will be re- 
membered with affection and reverence when those who vitupe- 
rated and maligned them are all forgotten. 

We shall now proceed with our notice of the Nil Darpan trial. 
The counsel for the defence accomplished all that could be done 
for his client, and did well whatever he attempted. Though 
he Ibst the case, an event which he doubtless foresaw from 
the beginning, in conducting it he lost nothing of self-res- 
pect, the advocate and the gentleman kept together, and not 
a word fell from his lips which the audience wished recalled. 
The presiding judge exhibited a sound and comprehensive 
knowledge of the law, and his charge to the jury embodied 
all the qualities becoming such addresses, except that of csdm- 
ness. The want of this made him appear in one part of the 
charge more like the pleader than the judge ; but there was no 
palliation of vice, no perversion of law, nothing to undermine 
the foundations of liberty, or that could injuriously affect the 
real welfare of any class of society, native or European; there 
was warm sympathy for English ladies who had been gprossly 
Kbelled, a fearless condemnation of the Government of Bengal, 
that, instead of suppressing, had propagated slanders, and a 
stem rebuke to a minister of the gospel, who had written a pre- 
face to an obscene publication, and helped to spread it abroad. 
In this departure from established usage the mind of Sir Mor- 
daunt was not ignobly stirred ; in the irregularity there was some- 
thing of greatness, and the sentiments of the man went far to 
excuse the absence of the judge. 

The defendant was adjudged to he imprisoned for a month and 
to pay a fine of a thousand rupees, and no solicitation was made 
to mitigate the sentence. As the chief object of instituting the 
suit was to reach a greater culprit, it woidd have been the dic- 
tate of wisdom, to say nothing of mercy, to have treated him 
with the dignified forbearance shown to the printer; but wh^i 
we remember the wrongs the prosecutors had borne, though we 
lament, we are not surprised that the law was permitted to take its 
course, and that no attempt was made to lessen the punishment so 
as to divest it of all appearance oC a harsh and vindictive spirit. 

In strict accordance with the law the court pronounced Mr. 
Long guilty, but was he morally wrong, is a question which 
may be raised and is one worthy of calm consideration. To 
form a sound judgment respecting this question it will be neces- 
|3ary briefly to notice the part he has taken in the discussion 

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BRITISH S£TTLKB8. 361 

about indigo planting. The indigo oontroversy originated from 
some statements made in the minutes of the Calcutta Missionaiy 
Conference which assembled in the month of September 1855, 
and consisted of fifty-one clergymen and four laymen. The 
Rev. C. Kruckeberg stated^ that the Ryots expressed a hope that 
the Santals, who had lately revoltedand revelled in bloody would 
come and help them to throw off the yoke of the planters.* 
The Rev. O. O. Ciithbert said he never heard of more than one 
thoroughly Christian man remaining in the planting business, 
and he was ruined.t At asubseqjaent period he endeavoured to 
palliate this unguarded language, but in the opinion of most peo- 
ple made the matter worse. He said 'Stronger things than he (the 

* missionary) has yet had to comment on, are said by laymen, 
^ practically acquainted with the subject. A friend of mind ha9 
'often quoted to roe the remark of a gentleman not undistiur 
'guished in the public and the literary world of India, who. was 
' for many years engaged in indigo affairs, and whose name, were 

* I at liberty to mention it, would carry weight with most persons. 

* *' That every chest of indigo that comes into the market 
' is stained with human blood.'' This, I must own, is stronger 
' language than I can use from my own knowledge of the mat<* 
'ter.'J The Rev, P. Schurr says: *^If the planter enjoys tlie 
' friendship of the civil servants, be ean oppress, imprison, and 

* iU treat the Ryots with impunity. By some planters^ orders^ 
' villages have been plundered and burned, and individuals killed,! 
and in another part of his- paper he speaks of the bad ejuimple of 
the planters, 'their incontinence, their severity, and brutality.') 
The Rev. James Long was present at the conference, but from 
the record of the proceedings it does not appear that he thea 
made any remarks respecting the planters unbeeomiBg the spirit 
and character of a Christian minister. About five years afber 
the missionary gathering, the following letter, reflecting on the 
daily press, the Magistrates, and the planters, appealed in one 
of the Metropolitan journals. The writer sent bis name to the 
editor, and that gentleman revealed it to the public, apparently 
being provoked to do so by attacks on his character. He says, 
' Mr. Long complains,' in his statement of his coftneetion with 
theNilDar^n ' of the violent and acrimonious editorials and letters 
' of what he calls the Indigo papers. A specimen of Mr. Long's 
' own style will show what right he has to complain of virulence 

* Calcutta Christian Observer, November 1856, p. 529. 

t Ibid November 1855 p. 530. 

t Ibid June 1856, p. 267, 

I Ibid November, 1855, pp. 507, 511. 

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302 BRITISH SETTLERS. 

' and bitterness. See his letter, signed a Missionary, in the Hur- 
' kam of the 5th of April, 1860/* This is the communication 
to which reference is made. ^^ 

A MISSIONARY AND THE PLANTERS, 

TO THE BDrrOR OF THE ^BENGAL HUEKARU.^ 

Sir, — ^The Daily Press here, being all on the side of the Indigo* 
planting interests, announce that peace and order are prevailing 
BOW in the Indigo Districts, with few exceptions. I have infor- 
mation of a d^erent kind however, and firom trustworthy 
sources — ^it is a peace procured by the dungeon and the stocks-— 
by Magistrates pandering to the interests of Planters. The Ma« 
gistrate gets good cheer in the Planter's house *, of course he is 
not ungratefm enough to give a decision in favor of the ryot, 
which, besides, would bring on him the abuse of the Calcutta 
Press. The unjust deeds of certain Magistrates are noted, and 
in due time will come to light. 

A "reign of terror*' exists in certain districts — £Ekctory go- 
downs had they ears, could tell sad accounts of the sufferings of 
ryots. Yes sir, certain Planters can make use of Black Holes as 
well as Saraja Dowla did, while the violation of their daughters 
will teach ryots how they complain of the Indigo sahib. 

You may say, Sir, oh, the Commission will investigate this^^ 
the reign of terror Sir, the stocks and the black holes are rapidly 
drilling ryots never at any time possessed of courage, inlo silence. 
A rifoffs life will soon not be safe^ who hears testimony against tke 
Planter, As for the Commission, the well applied bribes and the 
black hole will make the ryot testify to any thing the Planter 
wishes, and the Commission will fail in eliciting truth. 

Let me ask you, is an Austrian policy to be carried^ out in this 
country— we have already the beginning of it, and Mr. Wilson 
may yet be the Radetzky of India — he is well intentioned, but 
he is allowing himself to drift on with the Calcutta current* 

I am sorry to write this. Sir, of the doings of certain men, 
but it is the system which is at fault — the system of forced ad- 
vances and fictitious arrears, — the system which pauperises the 
ryots of a whole district to prop up a serfdom. 

I trust that in your paper you will allow the principle of audi 
alteram partem. 

Yours, 8cc., 
A MISSIONARY. 

• Ben^ Hurkaru, 28th June, 1861. 

O" "^ e admit with sorrow the above letter, written by an English Mis- 
sionary who has not been ashamed to give us his name. We pity him if he 

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BRITISH S£TTLlfiaS» 863 

On the 12 th of June 1860 Mr. Long appeared before the 
Commission of Inquiry into Indigo Plantings and the evidence 
he gave fills nine quarto pages. It contains many statements 
important in themselves^ but few that bear directly on the great 
business of the Court. It is very discursive, most portions of 
the testimony which relate to the Indigo enterprize are de- 
scribed to be the expression of native thought and feeling, and 
whether he sympathized with them, or not the reader is left to 
conjecture ; but now and then his own opinions are announced, and 
though nearly always hostile to British settlers, they are not 
characterized by ^ravagance. When asked if he believed the 
statements of the ryots as to outrages on women, he replied, 
^ I felt we had to inquire about a system and we might have a 

* good man working a bad system, and a bad man working a 
' good system. For instance, if it could be shown that in a certain 
' district there were four or five Missionaries guilty of immoral 

* practices, this would not prove that the missionary system was 
^ bad, and so with alleged immoral practices of planters as bear- 
' ing on the planting system. I, of course, can have no personal 
^ knowledge of this, any more than I can have of many vices in so« 
' ciety whether European or native, which are deeds of darkness, 
' and done in darkness.'*'^ When asked if he gave the tale which he 
had circulated as an individual instance of a general practice 
among planters, and if he believed that instance to be true, he 
answered. 'Not as an individual instance of a general prac* 
' tice, though I have been acquainted of late years with various 
' facts relating to outrages. I am glad to acknowledge, however^ 
' that there is a great improvement in the morals of Indigo Plan- 
' ters. That such things should be of occasional occurrence in 
' a certain state of society is not surprising; from the respecta*- 
' bility and integrity of my informants, I find it morally impossi- 
' ble to disbelieve it ; I have no inclination to blacken the char- 
' acters of my countrymen.'t ^ 

believes these falsehoods : we pity him more if he disbelieves them and yet 
publishes them. What we wish to point out is, that the Missionary, and we 
are afraid the Government, do not really wUh the Commission to enquire into 
the ^* system" to he appointed. The cry now is briben, mnrder, arson, rape 
will keep the ryot silent. A Missionary knows that this is false, for he 
himself has been, within the last week, visited by a number of ryots who 
came to Calcutta, no man hindering them, to oomnlain. No — unless planters 
insist upon it, there will be no commission, ana firebrands and falsehood 
mongers like A Missionaby will still continue to have the power of work- 
ing infinite harm— Ed. Hurk. 

* Indigo Commission p. 161 Question 1663. 
t Indigo Commission p. 161 Quetttion 1664. 

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864 BRITISH SETTLERS. 

About the period he gave evidence before the Indigo Com- 
mission^ Mr. Long was chairman at the annual meeting of the 
Family Library Club^ and made a speech in which he was un- 
der8t(>od to have exhorted the natives present, all educated 
young men, to begin something like a crusade against the Anglo^ 
Saxon race, as a special dutv which Providence imposed on ttiem 
in behalf of the indi^nt classes. This speech was published in 
the report of the institution, and elicited some animadversions 
in the newspapers. Mr. Long gave an explanation, in which 
he stated that he had no thought of inciting a war against 
European settlers ; and after this every body was disposed to 
pass over the matter as one of those effosions which say little 
for the wisdom of the head, yet leave the heart in the right 

Elace ; such effusions had previously been given to the world both 
y the clergy and the laity, and very unreasonable would be the 
person that should expect from the lips of chairmen and platform 
speakers, nothing but the words of a si^.^ 

But to revert to the Nil Darpan, Mr. Seton Karr observes.' 
^ About the month of October or November last,- the Reverend 
^ Mr. Long brought to mv notice the existence of this drama in 
' the original Bengali, and a native hawker who was commissioned 
^ by the Native author to sell the book, brought me a copy, which 
* I purchased. Until that time I had never heard of the work.'t 

' I mentioned the work to the Lieutenant Governor, in the 
^ belief that it was my duty to bring to his notice all native pub- 
' lications illustrative of popular feeling. The Lieutenant Gover- 
' nor, as well as other persons, expressed a desire to see a transla- 
' tion of this Drama, and Mr. Long informed me that a native 
' was willing to translate it. A translation was accordingly made 
' under my sanction.* 

' I think I am correct in stating that up to this point all I 
' had done was also with the knowledge and sanction of the 
' Lieutenant Governor. He approved of my noticing the work^ 
' and of the act of translation, and of the printing, but he never 
' intended that so large a number as 500 copies should be struck 
' off. I believe that he contemplated that a small number of copies 
' should be printed^ to be dealt with as he might think fit.' 

' When the work of translation and printing was completed, 
' the copies were brought to my Office, and Mr. Long gave me 
the names of several persons to whom he was desirous tijat the 
' work should be sent ; other names were also added by me to the 

• For the Ktrictnres on the above speech of Mr. Long, see the Calcutta 
Engliflhroan 16 July, I860, 
t Mr. Setoo Karros statement with regard to the Nil Daipan. 



t 



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BRITISH SETTLER9. 365 

'list, and I must here distinctly repeat^ what I have avowed 
' already^ that the circulation under the official frank took place 

* with my sanction and knowledge^ and without that of the 

* Lieutenant Governor/* 

Mr. Long superintended the translation of the Nil Darpan into 
English^ the proof sheets passed through his hands^ and were re« 
turned to the press^ all the corrections being in his handwriting, 
from which it may be fairly inferred he was thoroughly acquain- 
ted with the contents of the book^ the obnoxious passages could 
not have escaped his notice, and by stating in his preface ^ the 
' language is plain but true' he adopted the whole as an expres- 
sion of his own optBions. 

As the planters could not be humbled to the dust alone^ the 
dramatist involved editors, magistrates and English ladies in 
their humiliation, and represented European society in the rural 
counties as one mass of corruption more destructive than the 
plague. It is possible individual Europeans may have been as 
wicked as they are described in the play, but the author declares, 
that the pei*8on8 whose portraits he draws are types of a class, 
and not exceptional characters. 

This literary weapon being of a terrible nature was seized 
and wielded against British settlers. The laws of honour for 
the moment were dropped. Had they been observed, the par- 
ties concerned would have been apprised of the blow to be struck; 
but stratagem, though banished from circles in which gentlemea 
move, is yet practised in war. To keep the enemy ignorant of 
his danger, to attack and rout him in the dark are achievementei 
which generals covet ; and if, inspired with military ardour, the 
Nil Darpan men adopted the policy of the camp, it was doubt* 
less to accomplish a greater amount of good than they could 
otherwise have effected. Of this we are assured by the best autho- 
rity, their own words; but notwithstanding these assurances 
we think the course they pursued highly culpable; justice, re- 
ligion and humanity condemn it. To libel a large community 
of English ladies and gentlemen, hold them up to the reproach 
of the whole people of England, and keep them in ignorance 
while the deed was done, was as Lord Canning rightly designa- 
tes it ' a great public scandal.' The minute of the Viceroy on 
this painful subject does honour to the name he bears, it brea.the8 
something of the spirit of his illustrious father. Arguments have 
been advanced to justify or palliate this great enormity, but they 
are too weak to impose on the understanding of a child* It is said 

• Letter of Mr. Seton Karr, 29 Jaly 1861, to £. H. LoBhington Esq. 
Secretary to the Government of BengaL 



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366 BRTTTSH SriTLBBB. 

a celebrated dramatist attacked French physicians, bnt he avowed 
the piece,* advertised it in the usnal way, and all the doc- 
tors of Paris went to see the play and enjoyed it more than 
other persons. The men ridiculed were admitted to be excep- 
tional characters, quacks and scoundrels, and MoUere not only 
afforded amusement to his countrjrmen, but was considered by 
the physicians themselves to have done excellent service to the me- 
dical profession. But the cruel, corrupt, and shameless Europeans 
in the Nil Darpan are declared to be types of a class and not 
exceptional characters. The Bengali dramatist, or rather we 
should say the gentlemen connect^ with the English transla- 
tion, did not foUow the example of the Frenchman. They did 
not publicly acknowledge the work, it was not advertised in the 
newspapers, the planters were not invited to the play, nor was 
it acted in Calcutta ; it was sent many thousand miles to *be ex- 
hibited in the metropolis, and in the provincial cities and towns 
of Gr^at Britain; and strange to say it was contemplated to 
improve the lives of European settlers not by warning and in- 
structing them, but by concealing their sins from them, while re- 
vealing them to other persons. If this did not show a want of 
benevolence and charity it at least evinced a great deficiency of 
wisdom, and it may be doubted if a similar instance of reforming 
mankind can be adduced from any period in history since the 
foundation of the world. It is also affirmed that the Nil Darpan, 
like other Bengali books, was translated into English to be sub- 
mitted to the authorities here, to make them acquainted with the 
expression of native thought and feeling on a subject of great 
importance respecting which there had been much discussion ; 
yet the pamphlet was not sent to the Governor General, to the 
Government of India, to the members of council, to the commis- 
sioners, judges or magistrates, the circulation in this country was 
only fourteen copies, and most of these were called in or des- 
troyed ; while the number sent to England, where there was no 
pressing necessity for the publication, and where- its contents, if 
true, could be productive of no beneficial results, was about two 
hundred and eighty-six, addressed to gentlemen believed to possess 
great influence, some of whom were known to be hostile to the 
planters. From this every person will draw the same conclusion 
that an object which required for its accomplishment such 
secrecy and a path so circuitous was very unlikelv to be a good 
one. It may be said that such books as the Nil Darpan act as 
an antidote to vice by exhibiting it in its most repulsive form, 

and thus give to the morals of society a healthy tone. *Fhia 

' I ,■■.■■■■,. I ■ . •■ -■ ■ .. ■ ■ 

* L' Amour M^decin. - 

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BRITISH SETTLERS.- 867 

method has antiquity to recommend it. The ancients made 
their slaves drunk in the presence of their children to deter 
them from contracting the habit of intoxication^ forgetting it 
might have a contrary effect^ and give them a taste for wine. 
To do evil that good may come is a notion prevalent at Bome^ 
but finds no sanction in the sacred page. Religion is light, and 
in this element her sons live, reflecting in their works the 
glory of God, being herself beautiful and bright and pure, to 
her belongs the ministry of righteousness and truth, and on 
}ier lips are words of good wm to men; but craft, mystery 
and deceit she leaves to the children of the world who ^ love 
darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil/ A 
ruler of forty millions of people, and while the provinces over 
which he presides were in a state of anarchy, stooped from the 
dignity of his office as never ruler stooped before him, so that 
the exercise of confidence in his administeition by European 
settlers has become an impossibiUty. With favourable oppor^f' 
tunities for rendering eminent services to the Crown and earning 
for himself a great name he has thrown Bengal back more tiian 
quarter of a century, where land and labour can be procured 
to any extent, requiring only English capital and enterprize 
to make them highly remunerative, he has caused a loss of 
a million and a half sterling ; and if he carry out his policy with 
vigour he may have the satisfaction of beholding the Indigo disr 
tricts in the Delta of the Granges, which is the most fertile por- 
tion of the empire, a complete desert, and of receiving at the close 
of his career, as a reward for his toil, the thanks of those natives 
happily but few in number, who are disafiected to the British 
Kaj, who hate his countrymen, and wish for their expulsion 
from India. As two of the Nil Darpan men earnestly solicited 
the Legislature to frame a statute to punish the publishers 
of immoral writings, their being guilty of a breach of this law 
is declared to be a very improbable event. There is sometimes a 
wide space between doctrine and practice. Bacon was a great 
philosopher, yet he had the infirmities of a man. The President 
of the Commission of Inquiry into Indigo-planting, penned these 
memorable words. ' There are considerations which are para* 
' mount to mercantile interests and political expediency, and to all 
.'material advantage — the simple consideration of justice and 
' truth.' This sentence would do honour to a Grecian sage, yet 
the author of it fell, and had the humiliation to acknowledge 
that he had read and sanctioned, «the translating, the printing, 
and circulation of one of the foulest books in the world, written 
to traduce English ladies and gentlemen who are exiles in this 

Y 

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368 BRITISH BEtTLEHS. 

distant land To defend this clandestine proceeding is to add 
insult to injury. 

For his share in this monmfcd business Mr. Seton Karr has 
made an ample apology ; the Lieutenant Governor has assured 
the world of his regret^ but in a way so cold and languid tliat 
we should suppose^ did we not know the contrary, it wte not 
so much for the sin itself as for its being found out; Mr. 
Long in a becoming manner has expressed his sorrow for the 
pain he has given, and twenty years of devoted labour in educa- 
tion, literature, and the Christian ministry will not be effaced 
from the memory of his countrymen by one deplorable act. 

The German missionaries who have taken a distinguished part 
in the Indigo question, have been subjected to much uiimadver- 
fdon tending to lower them in the estimation of the public, but 
all who have the honour of their acquaintance, know them to be 
equal in learning, in laborious discharge of duty and in sane- 
'tity of life to any body of English or Scotch clergy. As found- 
ers of missions and promoters of science and civilization, some 
of their countrymen have earned in India great names. That 
the land which was the cradle of the Reformation and gave 
birth to men who bearded the insolence of Rome, rescued nations 
from her thraldom, and changed the face of the world, has be- 
come a Nazareth from which no good can emanate is a declara- 
tion that will cause every intelligent person to smile. Suppose, 
however, the missionaries of the county of Nuddea passed their 
infancy and ^outh in the condition which the newspapers gra- 
phically describe, and before visiting the East lived on sauer- 
kraut, which by the bye, is relished by kings and cottagers 
alike, this would in no way contribute to a refutation of their 
statements about Indigo planting, these must be examined, on 
the spot, and no reference need be made to genealogical tables de- 
posited in archives on the other side of the globe ; moreover 
prying into the pedigree of Sahibs, whether in or .out of the 
services, has been prohibited in this country from time imme- 
morial, and to ask a person what his grandfather was, is breach of 
good manners; we are all well bom, may use armorial beurings, 
and place the founder of our family in any period in the annals 
of the world, after or before the deluge, and as on these delicate 
themes etiquette enjoins silence, awkward questions and revela- 
tions are avoided. Without gratifying our curiosity by en- 
quiring into the lineage of the missionaries of Nuddea and as- 
certaining the exact position which their ancestors held among 
their contemporaries, we shall notice the degree of importance 
which is to be assigned to their statements in forming a right 



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BRITISH SKTriiEBS. 809 

Opinion of British settlers. Believing incKgo otdtivation to be 
inimical to the welfare of the peasantry^ and like other evils, aa 
obstacle to Christianity, to the diffusion of which they have devot* 
ed their lives, they employed all their influence to root it out of 
the land. While we respect their motives, we are disposed to think 
their zeal carried them beyond the limits of prudence, and was 
jHToductive of results which they never contemplated. It was 
befitting clergymen to speak of the oppression, extortion and 
cruelty that came under their notice ; and to contend that they^ 
were acting out of character in doing so, though a cry often raised 
and one which meets with much approval from a certain class o£ 
persons, is scarcely worthy of a moment's- consideration. It did 
not frighten the ministers of ancient times. Whoever reads: 
the writings of the prophets will find their denunciations of 
iniquity comprehended evwy breach of the decalogue and spared 
BO rank of transgressors ; the membei^p of the college of GaliW 
had the courage to rebrdce sin, no doubt some of their contem- 
poraries thought it very unclerical, and called them insane, pes- 
tilent and seditious fellows bent on turning the world upside^ 
down, but undeterred b^ clamour and unelated by applause they 
changed not their doctrine or became more supple in their man- 
ners. The Christian ministers of the country <k Nuddea are to 
be blamed not for following, but for deviating from apostolic 
practice^ they exhibited a want of discrimination and jjadgment,; 
a fault with which the sacred penmen can never be charged. 
The condemnatory language in which they spoke of the planters 
was understood to embrace almost the whole body so that for 
the crimes of individuals nearly all the members of a large com- 
munity were brought into contempt. Strongly biassed against 
Indigo cultivation they were not careftd to weigh their words 
and actions, but this neglect of prudence did not lessen the pain 
and injury inflicted, it rather augmented them, nor could it be 
accepted as an adequate apology by the aggrieved parties. In 
the course which they took we believe they were influenced by 
the best motives, and the sole object they had in view was 
to promote the well-being of the industrious poor; for we think 
it quite possible for conscientious men to entertain widely dif- 
ferent opinions about the planting enterprize, and should wonder 
if on such a difficult and complicated question complete unani- 
mity prevailed. The real interests of the Native and European, 
we conceive to be identical, and were this view of them generally 
taken and made the basis of action, the country would prosper. 
Let each be supported by the law in the free exercise of his legiti- 
mate rights, that on the one hand no force be used to make the 



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870 BRITISH SETTLERS. 

^ots cultivate any crop» and on the other that they be not at- 
towed to violate with impunity their pecuniary obligations^ then 
we should have a respected Oovemment^ thriving colonists, and 
a well conditioned peasantry ; but let the constituted authorities^ 
ignorant of the first principles of trade and commerce^ represent 
these interests as conflictmg^ and do all in their power to set race' 
against race, then the bankruptcy of capitaliate, the ruin of far- 
mers, misery and anarchy, will, as at present, be the results, and 
the administration of Bengal continue to be a bv-word among 
pur countrymen at home, and be pointed at in all parts of the 
world as the most insane of Governments. 

We do not consider the planters to be either angels or fiends. 
They possess, with but little difference as to number or d^ree, 
the virtues and vices which are seen in other communities. There 
may be individuals among them with many characteristics of 
the Evil One, and who «re always out of their dement except 
when doing the work of their infernal Master ; but this may be 
truly affirmed of every other section of society. The exchange, 
the pulpit, the bar, and the bench are now and thto dishonoured; 
still we believe the body of merchants, of ministers, lawyers and 
judges to be true and faithful men, and that deliberate villany 
and sanctimonious hypocrisy are rare and not common crimes. 
If the same discrimination and charity be exercised in forming a 
judgment of the planters, and they be compared with an equal 
number of other Europeans, in or out of the services, they will 
not suffer in the comparison. Taking into consideration the pe- 
culiar circumstances in which they are placed, and their provo- 
cations and wrongs, the corruptions of the courts, the inefficiency 
of the police, the character of the people who repudiate the exe- 
cution of contracts and the payment of rents, the insecurity of 
property, the opportunity and temptation to take the law into 
their own hands, every person, who is well acquainted with the 
country, will be astonished at the amount of good which hai^ 
been done and at the little evil which has accompanied it. That 
they had done more to promote the material prosperity of India, 
than any other body of Europeans was the opinion of Lord Ben- 
tick and Lord Metcalfe, and these were no ordinary statesmen. 
Many evils do prevail, but most of them must be attributed to 
the Government, for under a wise and energetic administration 
they could not exist. Crime is found to pay, for the chances 
against detection and punishment are a thousand to one. For- 
gers and perjurers drive a flourishing trade, and the business is 
regularly transmitted from father to son. If the Government 
be in real earnest about the welfare of the eoontry^and the 

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BBtTlSH 8ETTLBR8. S71 

honour of the British name^ let it at once use all its power to 
suppress these and similar crimes^ which gnaw at the vitak of the 
state, then the people will • learn, what long experience has 
taught the nations of Europe, that ^ honesty is the best policy/ 

Under a wise, energetic and humane Government, the natives 
would be a prosperous ahd well conducted people, and when 
recipients of a sound education and a pure faith, they will make 
Indm one of the finest portions of Christendom. We love them^ 
but we hope too wisely, to encourage them in wrong doing. 
Seizing other persons' lands, breaking business engagements 
and refasing to pay rent must in the end lead both them and 
the country to irretrievable ruin. Capital and European know- 
ledge are required to develop the resources of the empire ; but 
if things continue much longer in their present state, both 
money and skill will take their departure for other climes. 

The 'Bengal Hurkaru' and the Calcutta 'Englishman,' the 
journals which are maligned in the Nil Darpan, have faced many 
storms ; in fair and foul weather they have pleaded the cause of 
liberty ; in times when it wa9 dangerous for a man to say his 
soul was his own, they have staked all on an honest expression 
bf their opinions. Their views of politics, of trade, of develop- 
ing the resources of the country, and of the interests of na- 
tives and Europeans, have generally been correct and - been 
stated with ability and candour. If now and then they 
have used reprehensible language, let it be remembered they 
cannot follow the counsel of the Roman poet, who advises 
authors to keep their works by them for years before giving them 
to the world ; editors of daily papers must send their manuscripts 
to the printer when the ink on them is scarcely dry; and if a 
few warm words be penned in the glow of composition, on the 
morrow, ithough they cannot recall, perhaps they are the first 
to regret them. On a careful examination it will be found they 
transgress the laws of propriety as seldom as the leading jour- 
nals m Europe. But on this subject is there not an unhealthy 
sentiment abroad, which in the fulness of its strength is one of 
the precursors of the fall of states ? It is thought that both weak 
and wicked rulers, should be addressed in the soft language of 
the nursery; but persons in high places who abuse their trust, 
if they wiU not reform must be exposed to public censure, and 
though the infliction may produce no moral change in the 
bhastised, it may save the nation, by driving them into private 
life, and bringing into office men of wisdom and virtue. Being 
a human institution, the press is not an unmixed good, but the 
evils which -attend it are fSew, compared with the blessings that 



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872 



BEinSH SETTLEAft. 



oome in its train ; it is every where a powerful auxiliary to thcr 
proper administration of public affairs, and one of the strongest 
bulwarks of the rights of the people. 

APPENDIX. 

The following table, which refers to the loss sustained in one 
season only, gives a pretty correct idea of the situation of the 
planters, and pre-shadows the apparently inevitable ruin which 
IS coming upon them. Though the block of the respective 
concerns is valued at the sum it would conmiand in ordinary 
times ; many indigo factories, in the building and establishing^ 
of which thirty thousand pounds were expended, if now offered 
as a giil would not be worth accepting, the policy of the Gt)vem« 
ment of Bengal has so much depseciated prepay, and rendered 
it every where so insecure. 



Naxbs of 

COHOBBKB. 



Ackrigonge ... 
Dfaamoodea ... 
Comedpora ••• 
Meerpore 
Bamundie 

Kfttedie 

NuDdttnpore ..< 

SonadA 

Hurrah 

Mnlnatb 

Khal Boleo .. 
Katgnrrah. .. 
Patkabarree. .. 
Loknathpore. .. 
Sondoor66. ... 

Bqoolee 

Ni8chindyix>re 
Bansbarreah. .. 
Carragodoh 
Catcheekatta .. 
Joradah 



LoMin 
son 1860-61. 



Sr Block 



4i»,JK0 

4j^<kO 
4^i>X0 

80,000 
40,000 
10,000 
60,000 
40,000 



:i 



Vahieoftlia 
186a 



0|160/)00 
76,000 

oboo/xw 

OlOO/XX) 

200,000 

160,000 

60,000 

ao/xx) 

60,000 
01600,000 
660,000 
0160,000 
160,000 
900,000 
200,000 
100,000 
G 800,000 
200,000 
0106,000 
200,000 
200,000 



Nambi ov 

CoVCBBVi. 



Salga0iiiood«a. 

^ Heeieeleebut .. 

Dovaracole. .. 

<} BCa^jetparrah., 

^CoHunpore 

Packydangah .. 

OMeorgnnge 

^ Muddendaiw .. 

^ Noaibshye 

^ Nowhatta 1 
oChowlea J 

Porahatty 1 
Hazrapore J 

Jengergatcha .. 

Baboo Kalee ., 

. Ramnaghiir .. 

^ Serioole 

^ Barraaet 

^ Shikarpora 
^ Concerns 
Bobert 
^ Watson 
^ ACo^ 



Loss in Sea- 
son 1860^1 



Value of th« 
Block in Feb 
1860. 



80,000 
40g000 
40,000 
16/XX> 
76,000 
10,000 
60,000 
40,000 
60,000 

60,000 

60,000 
10,000 
40,000 
10,000 
40,000 
12,000 

300,000 



0| 250fiOO 
o| 100/)Oo| 



0|160,000 
40/100' 
0|160/)00 
SOfiOO 
01600,000 
0100,000 
300,000 

300,000 



),000 

60,000 

),000 

o|ioo,ooo 

>,000 
76,000 



oioo,c 



Ol60,C 




















c 
i 
( 



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THE UNCOVINANTBT) SBRYICE. S73 



Art. VII. — Note by the Qmmusioner charged hy Oovemmenl to 
revise Civil Appointments and Salaries, 

2. — Memorial of the Uncovenanted Service far the amelioration of 
their Official condition, 

NO ordinary amount of observation suggested the remark^ 
' with how little wisdom the world is governed !' But, if by 
wisdom we are to understand the forethought, judgment and 
sagacity of man, and if in the idea of government we are to 
recognize the direct application of specific means to definite ends, 
means adapted and adequate to attain those pre-arranged ends 
and no other ; we may go further and declare that such wisdom 
and such government have no existence. Results frequently 
surpass and astonish the most sanguine expectations, and from 
small beginnings, meant to be circumscribed and limited in their 
operations, gigantic institutions have been reared, of which the 
founders could have had no conception in their wildest dreams. 
Without alluding to a higher principle, we may account for 
such progress by referring to the law of gradual development 
which seems to be inherent in all things around us. Cir- 
cumstances vary and demand to be accommodated, errors and 
defects suggest their own remedy, and so this inherent law of 
development produces gradually the most astounding results 
in spite of man's ^ little wisdom' and often contrary to his plans 
and wishes. 

These remarks are exemplified in the origin, rise, and present 
condition, of that branch of the Indian administration, known 
as the Covenanted Civil Service. 

A number of 'fine old English gentlemen, all of the olden 
time,' actuated by a spirit of enterprize and the hope of gain, 
formed themselves into a company of merchants, with the view 
of opening up the Trade of the East Indies. Their' first idea 
was to convey the produce and manufactures of England to 
India, and receive back similar supplies from the East. They had . 
no resting place in these territories, not an acre of land 
that they could claim. But very soon it became necessary to 
make good a position on shore for the systematic conduct of 
their commerce, and accordingly coast factories were established. 
The servants of the Company were sent out with authority and 

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374 THE tJNCOVENANTED SKaVICI.* 

credentials to conduct their business^ subject to certain rules of 
discipline^ and thus was formed the nucleus of what afterwards 
became a powerful body^ and an institution of the Government. 

The earlier history of the service is not without interest. 
Grades of rank were established with a scale of salaries' which 
were merely nominal. At Madras about the beginning of the 
eighteenth century there was a President with a salary of 21)0/. 
per annum^ six Councillors at 100/. each^ six Senior Merchants 
at 40/. each, two Junior Merchants at 30/.^ five Factors with 
15/. each and ten writers at 5/. each per annum^ The Servants 
of the Company were, however, permitted to trade, which, in 
many cases, more than compensated for the very trifling amount 
they received in the form of direct remuneration ; and it actually 
required two centuries to convince the Company^ of the obvious 
impolicy of this system. 

But John Company was neither wise or far seeing. Present eco- 
nomy was his first consideration, and so long as large invest- 
ments came across the sea, he cared little for what was lost to him 
by internal commerce, or how much* he sufiered by the ener^es 
of his servants being divided between their personal interests 
and those of their employers. 

The social condition of the service at this period was peculiar, and 
demands some attention. Being the only Europeans then in India, 
they naturally kept together, and the instructions from home, sug- 

fssted by motives of economy, encouraged this state of things, 
hey were ordered to live together, and not distribute themselves 
' up and down in the town.' They were to dine together, in order 
that the younger servants might be under the check of theiy 
superiors, and be thus restrained from excesses. Paternal John 
always evinced a most tender care for the morals, and conduct 
of his younger servants, relying no doubt on the correctness of 
the principle, that the child was father of the man. The instruc- 
tions from the company were, however, not strictly carried out by 
their distant servants ; for, at this general table, ' the dishes, 
plates and drinking cups were of massive and pure silver,' and 
we may be sure the other appointments of the table were upon 
the same extravagant scale. We find also that a band of music 
attended the President at dinner, and that there was a flourish, 
of trumpets to announce his arrival. But though these servants 
lived much together in the same buildings and forts, and dined 
together, they seem not to have presented the appearance of a 
very ^ happy family.' Fierce contentions rose up among them, 
and, following the example of the times, frequent appeals were 
^ad to the duello. But worse still, the President controlled his 



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THE UNCOVENANTKD SEEVICB. 875 

obunselloTS with the aid of a staffs which he appsars to have 
used with considerable freedom^ either to enforce his arga« 
ments^ or perhaps to maintain discipline. One unfortunate 
refractory member of the Council complained that the President 
had inflicted on him ' two cuts on the head, the one very long 
' and deep, the other a slight one in comparison to that ; then 
' a blow on the left arm, which has inflamed the shoulder 

* and deprived me of the use of that limb ; on the right side a 

* blow on the ribs, which is a stoppage to my breath and makes 
'me incapable of helping myself; on my left hip another nb-r 
^ thing inferior to the first, but above all a cut on the brow of 
*^my eye.* This staflF mi^ht also have been used, with salutary 
effect, in the correction of the imsteady and irregular lives and 
eonduct of the Company's Servants of those times ; for we find, 
the excesses of the night were betrayed by the shaky hand- 
writing of the morning, and that gambling, and a disregard of 
all wholesome restraints were freely admonished by their paternal 
masters, who did not think it beneath their dignity to inquire 
into the details of the domestic arrangements of their servants, 
and pass imperial edicts as to the number of horses a president 
or a writer should keep in his stables, or drive in his conveyance, 
or to make the penalty of a violation of these orders dismissal 
from the Service. 

The first great change from this abnormal condition of the 
Service, was caused by the conquest of Bengal. The acquisition 
of territory naturally transformed these merchants and tradesmen 
into administrators and diplomatists; but, nevertheless, the condi- 
tion of the Service continued much the same as before. Pitifully 
small salaries were still the rule, and it cannot be a matter of 
surprise, that those who engaged freely in private trade to remu-^ 
Aerate themselves, should now use the large powers, of which 
they suddenly found themselves possessed, for their self-aggran<- 
dizemtot. Lord Clivers mission of reform to India, and the efforts 
of Warren Hastings, the first Governor General, seconded by the 
Act of Parliament, whidi ordained that no servant of the Crown 
or Company should accept presents from the Princes or other inha-* 
bitants of India, tended much to restrain the cupidity of the Com- 
pai^s Servants, though, of course, they ^reatljr reduced the advan- 
tages of the service, restricting the gains, with the exception of 
the miserablejpittonce in the shape of salary then allowed, to pri« 
vate trade. Lor^ ComwalKa saw clearly the anomaly of this 
state of things, and strove to prohibit private trade; but honest, 
careful, conservative John could not see the policy of spending a 
few more pence to gain ever so many more pounds, and halted 



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370 THE U5COVlENA2niGD SBRTICB, 

and VAcillated till the Ministry came to his aid, and, impressed 
with the Indian Governor General's representations, introduced a 
^iaose in Ch«irter Act of 1793, prohibiting the Company's Ser- 
vants en^ging in private trade. To raise the salaries of their- 
Servants to- such an amount as should be worthy of their high 
position, a fair remuneration for their important services, and a 
suitable compensation for the sacrifice of home and the pains of 
exile, soon beicame a necessity ; and the service from that time 
assumed a shape and aspect which it has retained to the presait 
day. 

The commencement of the nineteenth century saw the Com- 
pany still a trading body, but their character as rulers in India; 
grew and strengthened in spite of themselves. They would fcdn 
have gone on trading in their own quiet way if they could, but 
imperious circumstances would not permit that, and against their 
will they became a great and formidable Governing Power recog« 
nized by the whole civilized world. The change necessitated 
a far higher order of qualification than was formerly de« 
manded of the Company's servants', and Lord Wellesley, who 
was then Governor General of India, projected a College on a 
large scale, in order that ' the writers, on their first arrival, 
'- should be subjected for a period of two or three years to the 
' rules and discipline of some Coll^iate Institution, at the seat 

* of Government.' Anticipating the sanction of the Court of Di- 
rectors to the proposal, and fully persuaded of the advisability, 
nay, necessity of the measure, he at once opened the College of 
Fort William, which was to expand into the proportions which he 
had sketched for his grand project, so soon as the sanction of the 
Court was received. This sanction was refused ; the grand 
scheme was laid aside ; but our readers are aware that the Colleges 
of Fort William, Madras and Bombay, with all their important 
advantages, have Continued till now. They continued even after 
a College, for the purposes contemplated by Lord Wellesley, was 
established in England, and served to justify his opinion, that a 
short.training for the young writers in an educational institution, 
among the people with whom in public life they would have 
to deal, was most desirable. But the College at Haileybury 
was an admirable institution, and fully answered the high and 
practical ends for which it was established. It sent out into the 
world of official and political life in India, many names which 
add a lustre to the pages of Indian history, and we gladly accept, 
in its full breadth of meaning, the opinion of a writer of the day, 
who sayg^ * An abler or more honorable body of public servants 

* has never been engaged in the administration of any country 

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THE UNCOVENANTED SBEVICE.* 877 

' in the world, than those who graduated at Haileyhury and pas- 
'sed College at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay/ ^or was the 
association at College without its advantages. Friendships formed 
at home in youth were matured in a distant land ; a laudable 
emulation which may have sprung up at collie, was carried 
with its beneficial influences, into a different sphere ; characters and 
tastes^ which were slowly forming in early association with others^ 
grew and strengthened and became confirmed under the same 
individual influences in after life; and so the literary tastes ac- 
quired by the graduates of Haileybury, were indulged in at a 
distance from alma mater, much to the credit of the institution. 
But better than all, there was created under this sjrstem an 
esprit de corps, a tacit compact and understanding among its 
members, which impelled them to act together to maintain the 
character, honor and efficiency of their exclusive service. It is 
quite true that, whilst Haileybury flourished^ there was little 
chan^ in the family names of its graduates and of the Civil 
list ; but what of that ? the efficiency of the public service was 
not in any way impaired by this circumstance. On the contrary, 
the bright examples of fathers and uncles must have stimulated 
the younger representatives of the name, to be their worthy and 
successful imitators. 

But that together with these benefits there were many serious 
disadvantages, both in a social and official point of view, 
cannot be denied. The spurious aristocracy it raised in a 
community whose class divisions have ever been a barrier to 
its advancement; the assumed fitness of its members for 
any service whatever, to which they might be appointed; 
the frequent changes of office, without reference to anteced- 
ents, which the rule of gradations in rank and emolument 
entailed, were some of the evils which disfigured one of the 
finest services in the world. These defects however did not 
undermine its stabilify. John Company had become unpopular ; 
perhaps, because he was not fully understood, but one of his most 
serious offences was his unlimited power and patronage. It 
was not to be tolerated, that so many persons, vrithout political 
power or social influence, posssessing no great amount of wealth, 
but having merely the aecidental advantage of being holders 
of Indian Stock, should have the power to confer rank and 
wealth by a simple nomination to the service, which in time 
might raise the fortunate recipient to the Governor Oenerakhip 
of British India, and to emoluments superior to any enjoyed by 
ministers of the Crown. The Indian reform party agitated the 
question in Parliament, and by the Charter Act of 1853, the 

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878 THE UNOOVENAIITSD SSBVICB. 

patrenage of the company in the CivR and Medical services was 
lost to it for ever. 

Whether the Competitive is an improvement upon the former 
system of nomination is a question which time alone can solve ; 
the service has indeed been thrown open to idi the educated 
youth of the United Kingdom ; but it has, nevertheless^ lost no- 
thing of its exclusiveness« The most serious defect of the Com- 
petition system^ however^ is^ that it is based on the error of con- 
fimnding learning with education. The education and special 
teaining of Haileybury were wholly overlooked, and a certaia 
amount of learning, — of mere scholastic knowled^ — was substi- 
tuted for a system of preparation, which, though it may occa- 
sionally have failed, might with reason be supposed to be the 
most obvious means of ensuring fitness : and when we consider 
tiiat the servioe was after the Charter act of 1853, to be supplied 
from all ranks and classes of the community, and remember 
to what perfection cramming is carried in England, we shall 
not be surprised to find, that, with the College at UaUeybury, 
the pride and prestige of the Civil Service proper has passed 
away. 

We have seen the origin and rise of the Covenanted Civil Ser- 
vice of the East India Company until it reached its zenith of 
power and importance ; we have discovered what was the first 
parasitical plant which grew on this stately tree, and we shall 
find that subsequent changes will be produced by circumstan- 
ces, as imperious as those under which it sprung into being and 
was forced into strength and jnaturity* 

The territory of the Company had widened over the length and 
breadth of the land; the demand for judicial and fiscal adminis- 
tration had increased with the acquisition of territory; and 
what with expensive wars, and, perhaps, not the most scientific 
management of the finances of the country, the Company had 
been drifting for years into a very uncomfortable state of insol- 
vency. Paniament had idready determined that a Covenanted 
Service was essential to the efficient administration of the 
Government, but the Covenanted Service was deficient in strength 
to meet the exigencies of the state ; it became necessary, therefore, 
to call in auxiliary aid. The first step to this end, was to demand 
the help of Military men for the performance of purely dvil 
duty. Such employment was not unacceptable to thoee whose 
prospects had hitherto been confined to army rank and promotion, 
and the measure suited the economical views of Government. 

The consequences of the measure to the Army, do not &II 
within the scope of our observation. But even this means of 

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THE UNGOVENANTSD SEBVICS. 919' 

supplying the demand for executive control^ was found inadequate^ 
and it became necessary to look still further for additionid 
strength. The materials were found ready prepared to band. 
This important change in the aspect of the aervice^ came on 
as gradually uid imperceptibly as all the rest had done. From 
an early period in the history of the Covenanted Service we find, 
that native writers, who were employed, as copyists, to relieve the 
Covenanted officers of the drudgery of the desk, filled the 
Government offices. In the course of a century we see, that the 
advantages of employment under Government, had attracted 
men of superior ability into this subordinate service : by slow 
degrees higher and higher duties were entrusted to this class of 
servants, until they found themselves by their intelligence, charac- 
ter and faithfulness, in positions of high and important executive 
control. The taunt of an arrogant member of the superior ser- 
vice, that the Uncovenanted Servants were mere hirelings, possess- 
ing no rights or privile^, and entitled to nothing l^yond the 
wages which, as manual laborers, they had earned, being retained or 
dismissed at the pleasure of their Covenanted emjdoyers, was not 
without truth. But the Government, more just and honourable 
tiian their supercilious servant, recognized them as a Service, 
appointed them a status which their usefulness and ability had 
earned for them, and granted them privileges of leave of abisenoe 
and pensions, which proved to be not only a fair and liberal oon« 
cession to deserving men, but also had the effect of rendering 
this branch of the Service more valuable than it had been, of 
improving in no small measure its tone and character^ and, con- 
sequently, its utility to the state. These effects were soon per- 
ceptible. Some of the important executive offices, which had 
been held and scrupulously retained for the superior service, fell 
one by one into the hands of these subordinate uncovenanted 
employds, till the once broad line of demarcation between the two 
became so faint and indistinct as .to be scarcely perceptible, and 
several appointments were made, both at Madras and m Bengal^ 
which those in authority who watched the interests of the more 
favored Service, as secured to it by law, unhesitatingly set aside* 
Still the demands of the country for responsible executive admin- 
istration wer^ not capable of being supplied by the exclusive 
Covenanted Servants, and thus it was that, with reluctance, but 
under the pressure of a necessity which was not to be avoided, 
the primary boundary lines which divided the services were 
removed further and further back into the t^ritory held by the 
superior officers, to make way for the advancing tide of the 
more subordinate class of public Servanta. 

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880 THE XmCOVEITAHTED SEAVIOE.' 

. The appointment of an Unoovenanted officer to act as a Civil 
Judge in Bengal^ forced the Supreme Oovernment to pass the fol- 
lowing orders on this point. " Accordin<» to Geo. Ill, Cap. 16, 
' all vacancies happening in any of the offices, places, or employ- 

* ments in the Civil line of the Covenanted service in India shall 
' be, from time to time, filled up and supplied from amongst the 

* Civil Servants of the said Company belonging to the Presidency 

* wherein such vacancies shall respectively happen.' It might 
be difficult perhaps to define very precisely all the offices 
which are or are not included in the words 'offices, places, 

* or employments in the Civil line of the Company's service' but 
it is quite certain that the office of Civil and Scions Judge is in- 
cluded in them. A reasonable interpretation has always been 
put upon the words of the law ; but if these words should now 
be interpreted, as not including those offices in the regular Judi- 
cial and Revenue lines of the service which have hith^to been 
held only by Civil Servants of the HonoraUe Company, the law 
Would l>e annulled altogether." 

This attempt to illustrate the law, and the weak and incondnsive 
inferential conclusion to which the expounders of the Act arrived, 
only showed the difficulty which beset the question, and left it 
as uncertain as ever. A Commissioner was appointed with the 
view to revise Civil salaries and appointments, and in an elabo- 
rate minute prepared by Mr. Rieketts, an attempt was made to 
determine precisely, what appointments should be considered 
as coming strictly within the meaning of the Act, and what, 
though once held by the Covenanted Service, should be now 
declared open to Uncovenanted officers; but this minute made a 
complicated subject still more complicated, and the su^estions 
it contained never received the sanction of authority. 

It cannot be denied, however, that the enquiry was conducted in 
a liberal spirit. It was admitted, that, as the Unoovenanted Ser- 
vice WBS composed of all classes, Europeans, East Indians and Na- 
tives, fitness should be the only acknowledged claim to preference, 
that in defining the limits of the Covenanted and Unoovenanted 
rights, opportunity should be taken to enlarge the list of Un- 
oovenanted offices, as far as might be done with justice to the 
claims of the Covenanted. It was contended that the fact 
of opening to the Unoovenanted servants, offices which had hi- 
therto been held as the prescriptive right of the Covenanted ser- 
vice, would stimulate energies that were dormant from hopeless- 
ness, and raise up a large number of competitors, fully qualified 
for any duties with which Government might be willing to en- 
trust them ; and the effect of these suggestions was shown to be. 



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THB UNCOVENANTED SBRVICB. 381 

that the services of none but fully qualified persons would be 
secured, and that the resources of the country would be greatly 
i^elieved, since it was not intended to remunerate the Uncovenant- 
cd according to the standard of salary allowed to the Covenanted 
service. But whilst it was the intention to reduce the salary 
qf these Covenanted appointments when held by Uncovenant- 
ed servants it was contended, not without some show of .reason, 
that the salary of an appointment, whatever it might be, should 
be drawn alike by the European and Native, as either might 
happen te be placed in it. The correctness of this opinion 
seems however te be doubtful. Although it may be admitted^ 
that, in appearance, it is invidious that the same duties and respon- 
sibilities should carry with them different salaries, a higher re- 
muneration to an European and a lower one te a Native, yet, 
strictly speaking, the value of labour must be regulated by the 
price of the commodity in the market. If one man can sell his 
service at a good profit on a lower scale than another, it is diffi- 
cult te understand the policy of appointing an equal allowance te 
both, when the consequence of such unnatural equality is over- 
liberality te one, and only common justice and fairness te the 
other. It may be difficult te adjust salaries, in exact proportion 
to the claims of the different classes of a heterogenous service, 
but it is, nevertheless, a problem which will, no doubt, admit of 
some kind of solution. 

The concluding paragraph of Mr. Bicketts' note, explains the 
practical resulte te which his enquiry tended. He says : — ' The 
' steps necessary in this matter,' namely the revision of civil 
salaries and appointments, ' are, first, the revision of the list and 
' the transfer of every office, or class of offices which it may be 
' considered right to reserve for the Covenanted service, te the: 
'list styled 'Exclusively Civil,' secondly, the modification of 
' Act 33 Geo. III. Cap 16, which rules that all vacancies hap- 
*• pening in any offices, places or employments in the Civil line 
' of the Company's Service in India, being under the degree 
' of Councillor, shall be from time to time filled up and supplied 
*. from amongst the Civil Servants of the said Company belong- 
' ing to the Presidency wherein such vacancies shall respectively 
^ happen, and the enumeration of the offices which shall be ex- 
'clusively filled by Covenanted Servants, and shall not be 
', bestewed on any .other class except on temporary emergencies* 
'when Covenanted. officers will not be available; and thirdly, 
' should the doctrine of payment according te race prevail, a 
' declaration of the per ceutage by which the salaries now 
' adjusted shall be decreased when an office may be bestowed on^ 



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982^ TRB imCOVfiNAlTTBD SEBVlCt* 

' a person of Eiiropean descent born in India^ or an East Indian^ 
' or a Christian Native^ oi a Hindoo or a Malioniedan Native/ 

It was not to be concealed that the Uncovenanted Service had 
now risen in importance, and become an element more than ever 
useftd in the administration of the State ; and at this |>articalar 
juncture, steps were taken to improve and confirm tl^ advan« 
tf^e. They memorialized the Home Oovemment^ with the- 
sanction it is believed of the local anthorities, with a view to a 
reconsideration of the regulations under which they were placed^' 
Illative to leave of absence and ultimate retirement from the^ 
Service. This was a most judicious movement, and the prayer> 
of the petition was reasonable and moderate, md supported by 
arguments and representations, whioh those even, whose interests 
were antagonistic to the memorialists, were unable to impugn. 
The memorial embraced three leading points, and they were such 
as it was bdieved the Government would be willing to consider. 
First. That the bar be removed which, by law, (Act S3 Geo. 
III.) excludes Uncovenanted Servants, whatever might be their 
merits or special qualifications, from holding offices heretofore 
reserved for the Covenanted Service. Secondly. That the rules 
for leave of absence be relaxed ; and Thirdly. That tile period of* 
service qualifying for pension should be reduced. 

With respect to the first of these, it cannot be a matter o9 
surprise that the service which gained a certain amount of con-» 
i^ideration as mere copyists, and when the only qualification re- 
quired of it was penmanship, should look for higher privileges'' 
wlien in the course of a century they had risen to nil offices 
of high trust. They were now l)eginning to stand side by side 
with the members of the Covenanted Service in the executive 
administration of the country, and Government had already 
admitted them to occupy a certain position within the limits of 
the disputed official territory, which by law was to be held by the 
Covenanted Service alone. The demand of the Gt>vemment for 
executive officers had forced them to employ uncovenanted 
Agency, until the proportion of Uncovenanted to Cavenimted 
officers in only the Judicial and Revenue lines, was found in Bengal 
to be as 402 to 163 ; in the North Western Provinces as 863 to 
IS^l; with a still greater preponderance of Uncovenanted Ser- 
vants in the Punjab, and the presidencies of Madras and Bombay. 
The Memorialists did not ask for equal rights with the Covenant- 
ed Service, but only for advantages superior to these which had 
long ago been conceded to themselves as recognized public ser- 
vants ; they solicited that those of them * who had passed 
' through a tern of approved service in India should not solely 



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THE UNCOVENANTED SERVICE, S88 

* by virtue of a system/ and a law, unsuited to the present age, 
be passed over when qualified and worthy to be promoted "to 
offices, hitherto reserved exclusively for members of the Cove- 
nanted service. There was a fear, perhaps, that if the land-marks, 
which divided the Covenanted from the Uncovenanted service, 
were altered according to the petition, the absence of any definite 
rule of admission into the Uncovenanted service would open the 
door to the exercise of patronage, and to the abuse of the power 
which the measure would place in the hands of the locat 
Governments, and that nepotism would inundate India with 
incompetents from home. But the forethought of the Me- 
morialists led them to fence round the prayer with conditions, 
which would secure a well earned advanti^e to themselves, and 
yet render any abuse of power or patronage an impossibility. 

* The prayer of your Memorialists is on behalf of the Uncovenan- 
' ted officers of approved service onlgy whose able and faithful 

* discharge of important duties must, in many cases be a better* 
' test of qualification for responsible office, than scholastic ac- 
' quirements alone."* This clause not only shows how the admis- 
sion into the hitherto exclusive offices might be secured to men 
best qualified to fill them, so that the interests of Government 
should be subserved ; but it also suggests that, looking to those 
interests, it is wiser to employ men of practical experience, of 
tried and proved fitness, than, for the sake of merely supporting 
a weakened oligarchy and the faded prestige of a once powerful 
body, to entrust important offices to those whose scholastic ac- 
quirements might be admitted, but whose assumed fitness lies 
in the fact of their being members of the superior service. 

In considering different systems, we are apt to assume oppo- 
site conditions without sufficient proof. But it must not be 
supposed, because men of superior scholastic acquirements have 
-been admitted into the Covenanted service under the competition 
system, that its members, under the former regime were deficient 
in such accomplishment, or that the Uncovenanted service are' 
wholly wanting in intellectual culture. The higher advantages 
now opening out to the last service, have attracted to it 
gentlemen of education, which, under more fortunate circum- 
stances, would have placed them on an equal footing with their 
more favored brethren ; and there is no question, that the number 
of such will increase with the gradual improvements whch may 
be anticipated. The mdst that can be said of the competitive 
system is, that the mental discipline which is necessary to arri,ve 
at eminence in scholastic acquirements, would probably stand in 
good stead in the application of the mind to thfe business of life; 

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384 TH« ^^-covE^'ANTlfiD seevice. 

but in tliis system the adoption of suitable means to a specific 
end is wholly wanting. Clever lads who have shone in Classics 
or Mathematics, or have been well crammed for examination 
in the Sciences, are pushed into positions of administrative im- 
portance, or Executive control, and expected to succeed by virtue 
of their mathematical or classical training. Now, without re- 
ferring to the natural tendency of the mind to relax its efforta 
when the object for which its strength was put forth has been 
attained, there is obviouslv no preparation ia this system for the 
work to be performed. No sort of provision is made fwr that 
training which Lord Wellesley contemplated when he proposed a 
College for young writers in the heart of their future labors ; or 
better still for that preparation for the higher duties of office 
which the Uncovenanted service acquire by a familiar practical 
acquaintance with the various branches of the administration, 
through means of the early and systematic performance of their 
subordinate duties. 

To return to the Memorial. The two other petitions it con- 
tains are, for the relaxation of the existing sdes for Leave of 
Absence for the Uncovenanted Service, which were felt to be un- 
necessarily stringent, and for a reduction in the period of ser- 
vice qualifying for pension, which was considered too long. The 
rules for leave of absence for the Covenanted Service, provide for 
sick leave for a period of three years consecutively, the absentees 
retaining their appointments for two years. For the first two 
years of absence they draw half pay, not exceeding £1,000 nor 
less than £500 per annum, and for the third year £500 are allowed 
to officers of 10 years' standing, and £^50 to those below 10 
years. The rules for the Uncovenanted Service als<) allow three 
years sick leave in all, but only two years can be consecutive ; 
and before a second leave is granted, a service of two years is 
necessary. The pay on leave, is half the amount of salary for the 
first year, not exceeding £600 per annum, and one third of salary 
after that period. The Uncovenanted Service do not petition for 
an extension of the period of leave ; they are satisfied to have, 
like the Covenanted Service, three years sick leave during the 
whole term of service, nor do they ask for any modification of 
the allowances already granted to them during such absence. 
All they want is, that the three years leave may be available at 
one term or by instalments, as it may be required; and tlie 
prayer is not unreasonable. There can be no practical good 
m making it difficult for a servant to obtain temporary rest 
from his labor under certain general limits, whenever ill health 
may compel him to seek repose ; and the pecuniary loss which 

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THE UNCOVEXAXTfiD SERVICE. 885 

the measure entails^ will be a sufficient safeguard against a resort 
to it on small grounds. 

In respect to Furlough, the Covenanted Service are allowed 
three years, available by instalments after certain periods, of 
service, vacating their Offices, with pay during absence of £500 a 
year. The Uncovenanted Service are now allowed one year without 
pay during the whole course of their service, and such absence 
does not reckon as service. Seeing that the Service is receiving 
daily accessions from a class to whom furlough is as great a bene- 
fit as to the Covenanted Service it is not surprising that the me- 
morialists should pray for two years furlough, on one third salary. 
It is intended that this privilege shall be fully and £urly earned. 
They ask that the first grant shall not be made until after 10 
years service, and the second not until after a further service of 
five years ; but that after fifteen years of unbroken service fur- 
lough should be granted for two years continuously. The present 
rules of the Uncovenanted Service, in respect to leave on Private 
Affairs, are the same as those which apply to the Covenanted 
Service ; namely, six months in every six years on half pay, with 
this difference, that the half pay of the Uncovenanted service 
is restricted to £600 a year as a maximum. The leave of ab- 
sence which counts as service in respect to the Covenanted Servant 
are four years in all — ^three of furlough and one of sick leave — 
besides absence on privilege leave and on private affiuis. The 
Uncovenanted Service may, under present rules, claim as service 
two years of sick leave, besides pnvilege leave, and leave on 
private affairs ; but with exemplary magnanimity the memoria- 
lists give up the advantage of reckoning absence on sick leave 
as service, and ask to retain this concession only for the period 
passed on privilege and casual leave. The expediency of fore- 
going an advantage already yielded by Government, may^ 
perhaps, be questioned j but it affords a proof of the spirit 
of earnestness and moderation which characterizes the movement. 
The memorialists also propose, that the present rules be retained 
for special and privilege leave, which are much the same as those 
which apply to the Covenanted Service, privilege leave of 1, 2 or 
3 months consecutively being granted to both branches of the 
service, after 11, 22 or SS months of actual service. 

Tiiere is no direct analogy between the two branches of 
the Civil Service in BHpect to retiring pensions. The mem- 
bers of tiie CoveMatoi service quit the service on an an- 
nuity purchased by monthly deductions from their salaries, 
a moiety of the mirohase money being contributed by the 
State; whilst the Uncovenanted Servants retire on a certain 



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386 TIIE.UNCOVENANTED SEBTICB. 

rate of pension granted as a free gift by Oovemment after 
certain terms of approved service. The conditions at pressnt 
are^ a pension of i pay to judicial officers, and officers in the 
educational Department, after 15 years service under Medical 
Certificate, and after 20 years to all other Uncovenanted officers. 
On half pay on Medical Certificate to judici^ and educational 
officers after twenty-two years' service, and to all other Uncove- 
nanted servants after 30 years' service. And a retiring pension 
of i pay to all Uncovenanted officers without Medical Certificate 
after 35 years' service. Liberal as these concessions are, the pro- 
tracted terms of service to constitute qualification, greatly dimin- 
ish their value, and oftjen reduce the prospect of the Uncove- 
nanted servant, to toil and labor unbroken and unremitting, for 
life. The prayer of the Memorial therefore is, that all sections and 
departments of the Uncovenanted service should be brought 
under one uniform code of rules ; that service before the age of 
^1 years shall not reckon as qualifying for pension, and that the 
period passed on leave of every sort, except casual and privilege, 
shall also be excluded. This ground-work being established, the 
Memorialists ask for ^ pay after 15 years' service under Medical 
Certificate : for half pay afber 22 years' service under Medical 
Certificate, and for a retiring pension of half pay without Medi- 
cal Certificate after 25 years' service. 

The same spirit of moderation which characterized the other 
petitions of the Memorial is apparent in the prayers relating 
to Retiring Pensions. This will be admitted when the efiects 
on both mind and bod^ from sustained, hard, active service, 
frequently combined with severe menl^ exertion, in a de- 
pressing and often sickly tropical climate are considered. In 
order that undue advantage should not be taken of the pri- 
vilege of retirement after 25 years, in a service not strictly 
guided by rules for admission, it is provided that service to 
reckon for pension shall not commence till the age of 21 years^ 
so that no servant could possibly retire, unless disabled from 
sickness, till the age of forty-six and then after active service of 
a ftiU quarter of a century, in the trying and wastin^^ climate of 
India. But after all it is an advantage placed withm the grasp 
of the few only who might be able to accept it. It is reasonable 
• to suppose that many will continue in the service after they lyre 
entitled by rule, to pension. The pleasures of retirement are 
not to be compared to the advantages of ftdl pav to men whose 
expensive private and family responsibilities nave grown up 
around them with their increasing means, to maintain which re- 
tirement idlowances are wholly inadequate ; necessity could alone 



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THE UNCOVINANTED 8BKVICB. 8«7 

excuse the sacrifice of income which retirement would entail ; and 
if such necessity did really exist, it would be cruelty to refuse an 
indulgence purchased at so severe a cost. These remarks apply 
with still greater force to retirement on Medical Certificate. 

The liberality with which the Christian portion of the Un- 
covenanted Service, who are the chief promoters of this move- 
ment, have admitted their native brethren into full participation 
with themselves, in the advantages they propose, is highly com- 
mendable and worthy of special remark. 

Equal legislation demands perfect similarity of condition. 
No system of jurisprudence, no efforts of the most philanthropio 
statesman can force things into a state of equality which are 
essentially unequal. The process of raising the inferior to the 
level of the superior class must be gradual, at the same time it is 
impossible to depress the superior class without humiliating it and 
producing the most disastrous consequences to both. The process 
of assimilation may be promoted, by extending the privilege 
of the higher to tiie lower order, which they may by degrees 
improve to their own benefit, but not by violently conferring 
equal rights, powers and privileges to all aUke, which, in effect, 
would place the inferior in a position of unnatural and un- 
merited relative elevation above the superior order. In the Un- 
covenanted Service, as in the community at large, there is an 
admixture of the Anglo-saxon and the native. To place both 
on an equal footing of pay and emoluments, would be to give 
the native an advantage over the Christian; to put the one 
at once in a condition of affluence, whilst dooming the other 
to a far more protracted term of servitude ; for it is impossible 
to deny the correctness of the opinion of the Sudder Court of 
Madras, that ' it is not too i^uch to compute the value of a 
' rupee to a native at three times what it is to an European.' 
Tliere is, as has been said, an essential difference of condition in 
such a case, which defies the application of the principles of equal- 
ity, without palpable injustice to the higher and better order. 
But when we turn to the privileges and advantages which 
the Uncovenanted, as a service, seek, these distinctions and differ- 
ences of condition vanish, and all may equitably stand on a 
common platform. There is a self-adjusting pnndple in the 
measure, which will operate to adapt the rules to the conditions 
of every individual member of the service. Nothing is forced ; 
one does not get more than another, or more than he actually 
requires; but certain privileges are placed within the reach of 
all alike, and those alone who want tiiem, will avail themselves 
of them. Why should not a native, actuated by a spirit of laudable 



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588 'THE UNCOVENAOTED SERVICE. 

ambition^ equally with the European, who may l>e drawn by 
family ties and home associations, visit England on furlough, if 
he can ? Or why should Government exact more than the ser- 
vice of a quarter of a century from a native, before he is permitted 
to retire on half pay, simply because he is a native. If 
he can labor on in the country of his birth, and amidst all 
Ids social ties and connections beyond that period, it is very 
certain he will do so 5 and if he cannot, iJiere is no reason why 
he should not be set at liberty with the proportion of the privi- 
leges conceded to the service, which, by a faithful discharge of 
duty, ha may have earned for himself. It is in this principle 
that the inferior orders, by sharing in, and improving for them- 
selves the advantages of the superior classes, become assimilated 
to and amalgamated with them. 

The Uncovenanted Service may congratulate itself on the pros- 
pects which are opening out before it. The blow struck at the 
patronage of the Covenanted Service, the financial exigtncies of 
the State, and the l»rge demands of the Executive Adminis- 
tration caused by the extension of territory, and the gradual in- 
troduction of English institutions into the country, have done 
for it what no efforts of its own could have accomplished. 
They have brought about changes which, thirty years ago, would 
liave startled and paralyzed the nerves of the hardiest, and most 
easy going East Indian Uncovenanted servant, if he could have 
seen them in all their present magnitude and reality. 

The opportunity is not to be lost. The better portion of the Un- 
covenanted Service need not now expect to drudge on in obscurity 
in the lower ranks. Ability must show itself and rise to the 
surface. The demands of the Executive Adminisia^tion which 
are great must be supplied ; and in no direction can the authori- 
ties look to supplement the Covenanted Service with such assur- 
ance of success, as to the suboniinate cognate service, the train- 
ing of whose members in official details fits them for the high- 
er appointments of executive control 

The demand will create the supply. The concessions sought 
for in the Memorial if granted wlX attract men of superior ability, 
and it is quite within the range of probability that, as the early 
writers of the Covenanted service rose to fill the highest t}osts under 
OoverDment, so the mere copyists, the first representatives of 
the Uncovenanted Service, may find themselves, in time, occupy- 
ing positions in the administration of the State, the attainment 
of which they now view with incredulity, not perhaps unmixed 
with a feeling of awe at the important trusts, and large respon- 
Abilities which they will entaiL 

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TUB UNCOVENANTED SERVICE. 889 

We have seen the rise and progress of the Civil Service ; we 
have observed how their originally contracted and limited plans 
gave way to circumstances, which, unlooked for and nndesired, 
made them masters of an Empire. This mighty Empire has 
now passed into more legitimate hands, and the great and power- 
ful Oligarchy is dissolved. It is dissolved ; but, with trifling 
changes, the Government and administration of the Company 
still remain, to undergo revolutions still more surprising per- 
haps, than any that have yet befallen them. The powerful 
institution^ by means of which the Company worked out its 
plans, the Covenanted Civil Service also remains ; but its pa* 
tronage is gone, its prestige dimmed. True, it is still a close 
aud exclusive service, but every day we And new avenues opening 
to admit strangers within its sacred enclosure, and behold profane 
feet treading the charmed circle. The past official history of 
India is replete with interest and instruction, but what has been^ 
affords no clue to what is yet to come* 



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*90 OUR RAILWAYS. 



Art. VIII. — Report to the Secretaiy of State for India in Council 
on Bailwaye in India, for the j/ear 1860-61, bf Inland Danvers, 
Esq., Secretary Railway Department, India Office let May 1861. 

THIS is the second report that has emanated from the able 
Home Secretary to the Railway Department, and it certain- 
ly draws public attention to the important subject, on which 
it treats, in a very popular manner. Mr. Danvers seems to be 
a great master of figures, a most perfect statistician : it is curioufir 
also to observe the carefid manner, in which he obeys the man- 
dates of the people of old, who said to their prophets ' Prophesy 
unto us smooth things'. We who had all been for months 
under the belief, that ' our railways' were on the eve of bein^ 
left to the mercy of the winds and rains, and the shareholders, 
who always seem to live under a dread of some repudiation as to 
the interest of their money, are cheered by Mr. Danvers' able 
statement, breathe freely, and wonder, why the public do not 
rush to Uie Stock Exchange and buy their shares for double 
their real value, that value being just what they will fetch. 
We open the report and turn twenty-eight pages over, one 
after the other, and fed dazzled at the mass of figures, met with 
at every page. Each paragraph seems to lead to another, of 
greater interest. Thousands of pounds and millions of rupees are 
talked about in a manner that, at first, seems reckless, but, which 
upon mature consideration, may be seen to lead to real knowledge 
of our financial state in reference to railways. We are early in- 
formed, that at last, Government at Home has stopped the 
guarantee system, and liberally paid the Oude Railway Com- 
pany £12,166 0«. hd, with interest, and we hope in exchange, 
something has been given to Government that may turn up to 
the advanta^, of the local Oude Railway Company. Then we 
find, notwiuistanding Sir C. Wood's statement in the House 
of Commons, the intentions of the Government of India, have 
been carried out, and the following important lines are abandoned, 
or more mildlv putting it, postponed. 
These are the lines, from 

Allahabad to Jubbulpore 227 

Delhi to Lahore 240 

Sholapore to Bellary 183 

Total miles postponed 650 



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OUR RAILWAYS. SOl 

We are consoled however by being told that ^ the extent of line 
' now in course of execution is 2,934i miles^ of which 1^353^ miles 
*will probably be opened during the present year. In 1862 
' almost all the rest will^ it is expected^ be finished^ including the 
' great trunk line from Calcutta to Delhi/ All we can say in 
reference to this bright picture is^ it is a consummation most de- 
voutly to be wished for. We have our misgivings. Even Mr. 
Danvers in para. 10, honestly states that ^some very formidable 
^ works have yet to be finished, which necessarily involve risk of 
'delay.' 

The advantage of Indian Railways toEngland is clear, from the 
statement in para 12, that during the past year 234,710 tons of 
materials, costing £2,140,703 were despatched to this country. 
Add to this the enormous sum of £36,015 as pay of Directors and 
Engineers in England, and we have £2,176,718; but if we turn 
to page 10 we find ' amount expended by Railway Companies 
'in England, between 1st of May 1860 and 30th April 1861, 
'£2,425,478,' so that we have the large sum of £248,760 unac- 
counted for. The particulars would stand as in Table I at 
page 392. 

Now we are not prepared for a moment to assume, that these 
enormous unaccounted for sums, have been spent by the Directors 
and their friends in dinners at Greenwich and Blackwall, but 
some explanation is required. Notwithstanding the statement of 
Mr. Danvers that 354,317£ stood 'to credit of Companies 30th 
April 1861 (partly estimated)' that gentleman's own figures 
on the same page show that the Ba^way Companies, were 
£236,098 behind the world. Thus : 



Amount to credit of Companies 30 April 1860—2^12,406 
Amount raised up to 30 April 1861 6,841.974 



Per Contra. Expended in England 2,425,478 

in India 4,129,872 

i n India (by estimate) 1,735,128 



8.064,380 
8,290,478 



DeMmcy 236,098 

Add advance par. 22 from Gov.— 682,000 

Due from Railway Companies 30th April 1861 £ 918,098 

The unaccounted expenditure in England^ has curious features 
about it. The Puiyaub Company procures 24,106 Tons while 
the East India Company has 56,448 Tons of materials, and yetj 
the unaccounted for expenditure is relatively £55,819 against 

2b 

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99i 



OCR KAILWATS. 
TABLE I. 



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Digitized by VjOOQIC 



OUR RAILWAYS. 393 

£47,714^ and more strange still, the Great Indian Peninsula has 
only 25,971 Tons and it& unexplained expenditure is nearly 
£100,000. The Bombay and Bwoda having purchased 82,980 
Tons, has only £4,208 unaccounted for. We are quite unable 
to explain, and must leave to the ingenuity of our readers the 
solution of these discrepancies. It is a curious question to ask, 
if the progress be* made in the Indian Railway System, that is 
contemplated for 1861-62 1862-63, what is to become of tha 
English establishments now costing nearly £40,000 per annum? 
It has been said, that in olden times. Railway Directors turned 
cab-drivers. A note of warning has evidently been sounded, 
for we read that a reduction of £500 has been made. When once 
a line is opened in this Country, what is wantied with Boards of 
Directors and consulting Engineers ? and if in 1864-65 the expen- 
diture of all the Companies in England wiU only amount to 
£100,000, the establishment at then: present rate would cost 
SO per cent. The Directors may try and keep alive the idea 
of their being required for extensions, but if we mistake not, 
the guarantee- system has exhausted itself. It has moreover 
worked so badly in many ways^ that in India it has few friends ; 
as may be seen by the fact, that out of the £35,000,000 raised 
for Indian Railways, only £669,000 has been subscribed in 
India, and of that^ we may say, not a tenth is by native Capi- 
talists. So far as the majority of the Railway Officers in India 
are concerned, we believe they are indifferent as te whether they 
serve a Company or Government. We know of some good men 
of the Engineer Staff having endeavoured te obtain an exchange 
te the Public Works Department; as for non-professional men^ 
they care for little beside their monthly stipends. We may 
state here, that the amount of capital which it has been thought 
prudent not te subscribe for abandoned lines, is £7,500,000 We 
give in page 394 a stetement showing the Estimated Expendituie 
on Railways during the year 1861 — 1862 in England and in India. 
This statement gives us some information that may be new 
even te the highest authorities in India. It explains the sums 
advanced by Government te various Companies who were unable 
te raise funds. The account stands thus : — 

£ 

Madras 250,000^ 

Scinde 48,000 

Bombay and Baroda 364,000 

Calcutta and South Eastern ... 20,000 



Total 682,000 

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99* 



OUR KAILWAY8. 
TABLE n. 



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OUR EAILWATS. 395 

This £682,000 was advanced out of the loan of three mil- 
lions, borrowed at the close of the last session of Parliament 
for the Railways, so that there must have been a balance of 
£2,818,000, which, with the five millions now borrowed, leaves at 
the disposal of Government £7,318,000; and as the total expen- 
diture anticipated during 1861-62 is £8,000,000 the Companies 
need only raise £682,000 ; but we anticipate some of the Com- 
panies will try to raise their own fimds, and will probably suc« 
ceed to the following extent* 

Company By CaUs By Debentures 

East Indian 36,000 2,794,841 

Great Indian Peninsula ... 800,000 483,832 

Eastern Bengal 124,000 867,649 

Southern of India 25,000 112,058 

Punja^b 350,000 

1,385,000 3,748,380 
1,335,000 



Total that will be raised by Railway') g QgQ qqa 

Companies. J * ^ 

We do not think we are too sanguine in anticipating that 
this amount will be obtained : perhaps the East Indian, may re- 
quire a short loan, to enable them to make their financiaJ ar^ 
rangements ; but Glynn & Co., Prescott &Co., Bevan & Co., Smith, 
Payne & Co. and several other large banks are known to have 
large accumulations of Indian Bond interest, belonging to their 
constituents, which wiU find investment in the East Indian Line. 
With this contemplated assistance. Government will only have to 
supply £2,916,620 out of the £7,818,000 which we have clearly 
shown, is now unappropriated, leaving a balance of £4,401,380 ; 
and with Mr. Laing's financial statement, showing our income 
equal to our expenditure, what use, we would ask, is to be made 
of this mo^ useftil sum of money ? It has long been the wish of 
the Government of India to make its own Railways, and it 
would appear that some of this money might at once be ap- 
plied for the purpose. Some tramways in Calcutta, some railroads 
in Oude and Rohilcund have long been under consideration, 
some systcQiatic net- work of metalled roads, and notwithstanding 
the bountiful supply of rain with which we have this season 
been blessed, special irrigation works might be assisted. At 
least, we hope Govemme^t will use the money for the coun- 
try's good. 

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S96 



OUR EiULWATB. 



We have pointed out some very extraordinary tilings in Mr. 
Danvers' report^ which require explanation^ and, no doubt, they 
will be attended to ; but we are certain that the Secretary is 
fiilly justified in taking the cheering view he does of our future 
in reference to Railways. Some Companies indeed are helpless- 
ly insolvent, particularly the Madras, and the Bombay and 
Baroda, and perhaps some lines, when opened, will cauBe great 
disappointment, and give rise to a line of action little expected 
at present. Yet our Railway system must be extended and 
there appears little doubt the English Parliament will be 
glad to assist us if necessary. One most serious matter to the 
Government and the Shareholders is the Ghiaranteed Interest,, 
and we confess we were rather startled at the stat^n^it, showing 
the amount of Guaranteed Interest paid to the Railway Compa- 
nies up to the 81st December last. 'We can conceive nothing, 
more likely to give confidence to Shareholders than such a state- 
ment, and we are much obliged to Mr. Danvers for his concise 
compilation, which we here give in Table III* 

TABLE III. 



Ck>MPAVlB0» 


Interest paid to dlst 

Dec. 18G9; England 

and India. 


IvTSSBfT Piii^ ilr 186a 


111 










Ifinirlanu. 


In£a. 


TotoL 






£ 


e 


£ 


£ 


£ 


East Indian, 


2,069,189 


666,870 


.M 


666,870 


2,736,059 


Eartem Bengal, 


29,841 


85,70a 


... 


25,708 


55,544 


Calcutta and South Eastern, 


5,820 


8,722 


... 


8,722 


14,012 


Bffadria, 


663,116 


214,976 


... 


214,976 


778,092 


Groat Southern of India,... 


6^466 


18,708 


... 


18,708 


19,169 


Qreat Indian Peninsula, ... 


909,471 


289,747 


8,610 


298,867 


1,907,828 


Bombay and Baroda, 


187,970 


93,966 


476 


94^4i2 


232,412 


Bcinde, 


106,460 


53,469 


601 


63,970 


159,400 


Punjab, 


40,223 


83,180 


••* 


83,180 


73,403 


Indus Steam Flotilla, ... 
Totals 


11,171 


12,569 




12,569 


38,740 


8.877,217 


1,412.906 


9.687 


1.422,492 


6,299,709 



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OUR RAILWAYS. 397 

The annual eai'nings of the Railways^ on the 30th June I860 
amounted to about £318^310. Those for the year ending 30th 
June next, niay probably amount to £400^000 which will be 
set off against the sum to be paid by Government for the guar- 
antee. The Report also gives the number of Shareholders of 
Indian\Railway Stock as 17,118 in 1860, while the year before, 
the number of Shareholders was 15,224, so that there has been an 
increase of one thousand eight hundred and ninety four, 538 
among the larger, that is, those holding more than the value 
of £1,000, and 1,356 among the smaller proprietors holding less 
than £1,000. The share capital, in the same period, hsd in- 
creased from £22,920,000 to £25,887,057. 

Having taken this hastv review of the financial position of 
the Railway Companies, as laid down by Mr. Danvers, we will 
turn to the " Traffic" operations of the three Companies ; viz. East 
Indian, Great Indian Peninsula and Madras. Without parti- 
culariziDg the traffic of each line, we will content ourselves by 
giving the ' Statements,^ relating to the combined traffic of the 
tiiree Railways, which will be found in pp. 398, 899 and 400. 

We make no apology for giving these ' Statements,' as 
their value, is undoubted, and they are not obtainable in this 
country, they lead us also to a real knowledge of the steady ad- 
vancement of the Railway System. It is pleasant to observe how. 
every thing is on the increase. While, however, the three main 
lines give us hopes of future well-doing, the Home Secretary 
honestly gives us a picture less promising, in the details of the 
Bombay and Baroda Line, where upon 29 miles, which cost about 
£500,000 the traffic of twenty one weeks produced £609 Ids 
jprofit or about £1508 per annum instead of 25,000£. But, in 
this case, as in all others, where the features of the calculation 
maybe very disheartening, Mr. Danvers comes forward with 
some encouraging explanauon, and he says. 

'In February last, 29 miles of the Bombay and Baroda 
' Railway were opened for traffic, but, inasmuch as hoih ends of 
' the line terminated on the opposite sides of the rivers to the 
'towns which the Railway is to connect, the traffic was com- 
' menced under very disadvantageous circumstances, and was 
' confined almost entirely to passeMpr traffic. The results, there- 
* fore, can form no criterion of wnat the traffic will be when 
'the Railway is carried across the Taptee and Nurbudda Rivers* 
' The Bridge over the former is now completed, and trains are 
' running over it. The latter will, it is expected, be in the same 
' position in June next'^In reference to the ratio of working 
expences to receipts on the East Indian Line, we learn the 

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OUR SAILWAIB. 



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OUR RAILWAYS. 

STATEMENT No. 2. 



399 



Statement showing the number of Passengers per mile in the three 
Railways; during the years ending ^^th June 1859 and 1860. 



Year ending. 


On the East 
Indian. 


On the Great In- 
dian Peninsnla. 


On the MadTM. 


Average on the 
Three Lines. 


30th Jnne 1860 
„ 1869 


10^888 
9,661 


4^369 
6,987 


6,897 
8,009 


7,0M 
6>688 



STATEMENT No. 8. 

Statement showing the Proportion per cent, of Passengers y contributed 

per mile by each of the three companies, during the years 

90th June 1859 and I860.* 



Year ending. 


East Indian. 


Great Indian 


Madras. 


30th Jane 1860 
„ 1869 


49*9 
48*6 


aox) 

41*2 


80-1 
lQr2 



STATEMENT No. 4. 

Statement showing the Proportion per cent, of Passengers conveyed 

in each class; by the three companies combined, during the 

years 1859 and 1860. 



Year ending. 

90th Jnne 1860 
„ 1869 



1st 



ra 



8nd chiss. 

6-4 
6*9 



drddaas. 

98-8 
92*6 



20 



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400 



OUR BAtLWAYS. 



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Digitized by VjOOQIC 



OUK RAILWAYS. 401 

curioofffoct^ thai that ratio was lowest in 1857, the year of the 
mutiny ; it has since risen to more than it was in 1856. The 
Directors of the Great Indian Peninsula do not give so elaborate 
a statement, contenting themselves with saying that the ratio in 
1859 was 58.3 and in LSeGut was 60.5. The Madras likewise re- 
presents the ratio in lr8Sd as 53.& and in 1860 as 58.7. What-^ 
ever may be the bad features of any particular case, or whatevex 
general cause of mistrust there may be, in the Home Secretar3^8 
Report, maybe foimd some healing hope andcomfort,.tQ encourage 
all to^ look forward to a happy consummation. In re&rence ta 
the " General Traffic results" he says. 

^Although these statemoits exhibit satisfactory resultaas r^ards 
' increased traffic), and indicate an improved polu^y with respect tck 
^ the regulation of fares and the adaptation of the Baibvays to the 
' peculiar circumstances of the country, their remunerative powers 
^cannot safely be determined mitiLthe lines are completed from end 
^ to end, and are in fair working order. The East Indian may 
' be taken as an example. Calculations have hitherto bees.made 
^ on the assumption that the cost would beabout £12,000 a mile, but 
^ it is now estimated that it will be upwards of £16,000 ti mile ; . so. 
' that, instead of a revenue of £808,9505 to produce a profit of five 
^per cent, there must bea revenue of£. 1,1 00> 000. Judgment must, 
'accordingly, be suspended until all the mateiials for calculatioa 
^are attainable. But adverting to the increase of traffic that ha» 
' already taken place on the broken sections of line which have been> 

* opened from time ta time, and ta the average amount of work«^ 

* ing expences, whidi will probably be further gradually reduced 
^by the en^loyment of native skiU and labor, and by the use of 
^native fuel, theve is good ground for the hope that the increase 
' in the original estimate of their cost will not pievent them> 
^firom being remunerative.^ 

. Captain Stanton, consulting Engineer to the Government o£ 
Bengal enables Mr. Danvers and ourselves to state, ' that out 
'of 3,112,500^ passengers, five have been killed. One, on the 
^ East Indian, was a syce in diarge of Government Horses, who,. 
^ sitting in a ^mgerous position, was knocked oCthe carriage, ancL 
' received ii^uries which caused his death. The c^her four were 
^ travelling on the Great Indian Peninsula, when five carriages were 

* thrown oflF the line in consequence of a budge giving way.* 
Considering the difficulties to be overcome in (organizing aa 
efficient tra^c management, we think the result most satisfac- 
tory and commend^le ; the result bears comparison, to its ad^ 
vantage, with the earlier days of Railway management in Eng* 
knd. From an old number of the Quarterly Beview, we find ' tli^ 



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402 OUB RAILWAYS. 

'within the year 1843, seventy raSroads, constructed at an 
'outlay of £60,000,000 have oonveyed 25,000,000 passengere 
' 830,000,000 miles, at the average cost of Ikd a mik and with 
' but one fatal passenger accident^ — ^But by this calculation eadi 
passenger need only mive travelled 10 miles, or a little more, and 
though w« have not the united train run of the Indian Lines pkoed 
before us, we are, fix>m our knowledge, entitled to assume, that 
each passenger on an average travels naif the length of any tins 
he proceeds upon, and so we find 3,112,500 pass^igers travelled 
1,123,612,500 miles, and assuming, as in England, there had been 
25,000,000 passengers, they would have travdled more 
than 9,000,000,000 miles and would have admitted of upwards of 
30 deatiis, while five deaths for the distance, run only just 
exceeds the resuli in the early days of Railway travelling in 
England. — ^To draw a comparison of the number of passengers 
* killed and injured^ in the Indian and English Series without a 
statement of the miles run, seems unfair in {he extreme, for 
the gp-eater number of miles passed over by the passengers must 
increase the risk. Mr. Danvers informs us that the average num- 
ber of passengers on Lines in great Britain is 189,000,000 and 
the proportion of killed and injured is 

Killed Injured 

In India 1.28. 1.92. 

In England... 0.15. 3.19. 

Now, if the increase of mileage in England since 1843, is 
equal to the increase of passengers, we should have to midti- 
ply the miles run rather more than five times which would give 
1,650,000,000 miles run, against 1,123,612,500 in India. Such 
ealeulation is very suggestive during the early stages of our 
Railway System. 

Our space warns us, that though the subject of 'Our Railways' 
is one of momentous consequence, we must draw our remarks 
to a close, but before doing so would echo the praise, most justly 

S'ven from home through Mr. Danvers' report to aJl those who 
kve labored in this country. Lord Canning has done justice 
to the East Indian Railwav Engineers, in his letter to Sir Charles 
"Wood, found r^rinted in the Report under notice. That mistake^ 
have been made, there is no question, but how could many of 
them have been avoided? We have stations built in the North 
West Provinces, that would make fit palaces for the Governor 
General, and who are they for ? For the 1,500,000 passen- 
gers whose pride is to be half naked, but who are mvored 
with these luxuries, we presume, to induce them to improve a 
little upon their domestic architecture. No one is to blame^ itis 



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OVB RAILWAYS. 403 

the system. A fiskvorite assistant of the late lamented Mr. 
Brunei finds himself called upon to design a station for some 
important town the emporium of a lai^ and recently acquired 
province ; he is supposed to be checked (or whatever other term 
best explains the position of a Government consulting Engineer) 
by an Officer of the Bengal Engineers^ who is acknowledged 
to be one of the best judges of architecture in the Corps ; and it 
would be a disgrace to them both, considering they had besides 
the assistance of an architect of repute, if they did not rear 
a building that is the wonder and admiration of thousands of 
the staring half naked natives. Mr. Berkely of the Great 
Indian Peninsula, whose eurly eflEbrts to popularize the Bailway 
in the columns of the ^* Bombay Quarterly,** must be fresh in the 
minds of many Indian readers, receives dso deserved praise. An 
elaborate paper by this gentleman is largely quoted 'in the 
Appendix of Mr. Danvera' Report, in which his name and ill 
health, are identified with the ascents of the Bhor and Thul 
ghaut inclines. The Agent and Manager of the Madras Bail- 
way dso contributes a paper upon the supply of Engine Drivers 
and other skilled officials who are very scarce and who^ 
duties it is by no means easy to teach. But yet all the difficul- 
ties that have accompanied the introduction of Railways in 
India, will, we doubt not, be overcome and the country bene- 
fitted by the results. Large, expensive stations have been built, , 
which perhaps are unnecessary, but let us hope as a recompence; 
some stations will have to be enlarged to accommodate unexpected 
traffic. Bridges have fallen down, which were built by Railway 
Engineers, as bridges have fallen down built by others, but 
they are 'built up agiun, and in the end, we hope, all will be 
right. The system of guaranteed interest and the control con- 
sequent upon it, has been unpopular with both parties to the con- 
tract, and it may be a happy circumstance, that it is virtually at 
an end. Judging fix>m what we now see put forth by the Home 
Government, the loaves and fishes, have been plentiful to the 
Railway Employ&i in England, while constant complaints are 
made of the want of generosity tp the members of the scien- 
tific staff in this country. It was supposed that the Railway 
service in India was a lucrative one; we are now certain; 
had the same men come out to India to make Railways for 
the Qt)vemment, their positions would have been more popular 
and still more lucrative. We know men who have served Com- 
panies for seven years, without a day^s absence from their most 
arduous duties, and yet have received notice of dismissal with 
less compliment or thankafrom the Company they have served, 



Digitized by 



v^oogle 



404 OGB BAILWAtB. 

than wotild be given to a oommon but SaithM uhderling. This 
would never have been the caae had it been a Government servioe. 

The report we have had under consideration is tiie production 
of Mr. Juland Danvers, Secretary^ Railway Bepartoient; but it 
may tend to explain malters^ if we relate that there is in ccmneo* 
tion with the Railways an ex«officio Director and that this post was 
held from the commencing of the Railways, by Sir James Cosmo 
Mdvill^ the news of whose death has lately reached us. It was 
first held by him, when Secretary to the late Ckmrt of DirectcHrs 
and after his retirement from that office, it was still considered 
of importance to Government interests that he should retain 
his position on behalf of Government towards the companies. 
So that though to Mr. Danvers, is due our thanks, for his most 
interesting and able contribution to our meagre stock of in« 
formation connected with our Railways, we must not forget 
the able gentleman who long held the appointment, which com- 
mands and organizes the information. Mr. Danvers has sue- 
oeeded Sir James Melvill and we can only hope^ that we shall 
not on this account be deprived of our annual Report. 

Let us observe in conclusion that while complaints are general, 
that if Government does not do some thing to assist the RaiU 
ways by making roads, their full benefit can never be secured, we 
can say as truly that if the Indian Government do not make their 
own Railways, in extenmon of those at present under construction, 
they must expect their revenue materially to su£Eer. ' We extract 
the following timely warning from the report that has afibrded ua 
so much interest and will amply repay all, who obtain it for 



'The interest alike of the GK)vemment, of the Railway Cosx^ 
' panies, and of the public, would be sacrificed by the suspension 
' of operations in the present condition of the lines. Not only 

* would a large outlay remain un{Hrofitable, but positive loss would 
' he incurred by the damage to, and even destruction of, unfinish« 
' ed works, if left to the mercy of the elements in a tropical cli- 
' mate. Never was there a time more pregnant than the present 
' with proofs of the necessity for a sure wd permanent system 
' of internal communicaticm in India. Whether we look to the 
' lamentable accounts o( the famine, now descdating the North- 
' West Provinces, or to the anxiety with which passing events in 
' America are bemg watched by our manufacturers, and to the 

* temporary and necessarily imperfect measures which are being 

* taken by the Local Governments to aid the transport of Indian 
'Cotton to this country,or whether adverting to the large European 
^force now destined to garrison the country, we consider the 

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OVrSL RAILWATS. 406 

'safety, ease and economy which would be secured by the con- 
' veyance of troops by Railway, the early completion of the main 
* lines which have been sanctioned appears to be a matter of para- 
' mount importance, and to admit of no delay/ 



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Digitized by VjOOQIC 



CRITICAL NOTICES 

OP 

WORKS ON INDIA AND THE EAST. 



A Gram7nar of the PuMlo, Puskto, or Language of the Afghans. 
Bv Captain H. G. Raverty, 3rd Regt. B. N. I. Second Edition, 
Wertford: Stephen Austin. 1860. 

' Beauty ' the poet tells us, * is not, as fond men misdeem, An outward show 
of things that oidy seem.' That is, to put it prosidcally, though a handsome 
flnce and a fine figure never &il to make a good impression ^ if the lady, on 
closer acquaintance, should be found to make havoc of ner h*s, to be very bad 
tempered, and to believe in Joe Smith and spiritual rappings, our feeling of re- 
sentment will probably be greater than if she had less attractions. If any 
thinff could bribe one to study Pushto, it ou^ht to be the exquisite manner in 
which tiie volume named in the mar^ has been got up. Tne whitest paper, 
the blackest ink, leaded types, careful printing, a generous mar^, are pomis 
of almost irresistible cliarm^ and contribute their foil share m keeping up 
the well-deserved fame of Stephen Austin's printing office. But on examin- 
ing the volume we are deterred from giving ourselves to Pushto by the 
author's sad experiences. He saysv * After having devoted seventeen of 

* the best years of m v life, and expended much money in acquiring, more or 
' less, a knowledge of nine Oriental languages, I find that tiie pursuit has never 

* brought me advanta^ or advancement.' The Punjab Government, it ap^ 
pears, kept the meritorious author down. A thousand pities. But he knows 
now to requite good for eviL He is convinced that the Kabul disasters were 
due to the non-existence of his Orammar, and is quite certain that any foture 
complications in that quarter wiU readily be obviated, or at least mitigated 
through his labours. He hastens therefore to present us with his TOoks, 
as Dost Mohamed, he informs us, may die any dav. Thanks I 

But a pift may be unacceptable ; it may be worthless. Is Capt. Raverty com- 
petent, with all his devotedness, to teach us Pushto P He introduces, Imnself to 
the public quite fireelj, somewhat like the great Mulligan, Mr. Titmarsh's 
friend. He gives us, m his copious prefaces and introductions, written not 
in Pushto, but in plain, though not very good, English, an insight into his 
mind, talents, and abilities. A grammarian should above dl possess the 
anal^cal faculty, a &culty closelv allied to the logical &culty. This he is 
glanngly destitute of. Let us take a few examples at random. He wishes 
to prove, for instance, that the A%hans are ' the lost tribes of the house of 
Israel ;' and he does prove, to ahnost every body's satisfiujtion, that they claim 
to be of the tribe of Benjamin, not one of ihe 'Lost Tribes ' at all. He sets 
out to prove that Pushto does not belong to the * Indo-Teutonic ' family of 
iangna^, and the first argument he uses is that it contains a great number 
of Zend, Pddevi, and Persian words and that it bears a great similarity to the 
Masch, 1861. a . 

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11 



CRITICAL yOTICES. 



modern Persian, all these bein^ ' Indo-Teutonic ' languages. He says that 'the 
' Pushto pronouns bear no similarity whatever with those of the Sanskrit 
' * family/ as the reader will at once see. 



nPiret person^ 
' Second person. 



fiMlBkrit 


Ze&d. 


Greek. 


L-in. 


SUtobic. 


Gflcman. 


Englieh. 


mtu 


ma. 


me. 


me. 


n^a. 


mich. 


me. 


*-] 


•thwa. 


te. 


te. 


13a. 


didu 


thee. 



Poahto. 



te ordi; 



And even in the third person, which ia. usually more difficult to reoognize, 
de in the nominative, philologists will at once recognize as identical witn the 
Chreek, German, and English article ; and ye, the oblique case, as the Prakrit 
add Latin te, and the Zend, Greek, and English A«. 

. But then, a man. nped not be a logician after all, nor even a philologist to' 
teach us a Iimguage which he knows : and Captain ttaverty tells us that 
Pushto is not dimcult. Why then does the grammar extend to 200 quarto 
pages P It ought to be vei^ knotty and crabbed indeed to require or even 
^ustif^ sudii an unreasonable length. W« fear we must be plain. The book. 
IS' an imnosition. It smells of Grub Street £rom bcurinni^ to end. It has ■ 
very little to recommend it to a bond^fide learner. Capt R&vertv in l^s pros- . 
pectus solicited subscriptions for his works on the groimd that they would bo 
*-euriosities in literature.' He has kept his word ; the grammar certainly will 
•stabUsh his character for veracify. But it is destitute of every element that 
could make it useful to an inquirer. Its iacts are Mae, its rules are incorrect, 
its method is utterly at fault, and system it has none. 

It is not that the author is ignorant of Pushto. On the contrary, consider- 
ing the disadvanta^ of his position, for out of the 'aeveuteen years ' he did 
not spend one on the Afghan frontier, his knowledge of the language is very 
great $ the mere collection of his illustrative examples betokening a variety 
of reading which is astonishing. But partly from the absence of orisiuaL 
training, and perhaps more from the vast dispiay and parade ^t up to hide, if 
possible, the original defect, the grammarian nas made a decided^^^eo. The 
way in which he uses grammati<^ terms, sometimes Arabic, sometimes En- 
glish, reminds one very much of a child playing with edged tools; he has but 
a dim preception of their real use, and the looker on becomes quite nervous, 
lest the man should cut himself; and he does cut himself He speaks of 
conditional and optative tenses; he has a thing he«alls FiUttre Indefinite,^ of 
^hich it is hard to tell, what it is ; he sports an Aorist, which on inspeotiou 
turns out to be the Subjunctive Mood ; he has a * noun, of fitness,' which com- 
mon people would call a Gerund ; * I should do' he calls the friture ; he reoc^nizes 
two Forms of the Imperative, but has no idea that the one i^ the present 
Imperative, and the other the Aorist Imperative ; the verbal noun (it is really 
the old Infinitive, and usually ends in an or ana, as one might expect from a 
comparison of the Sanskrit, Hindi, Greek* Persian, and Gennan languagtes, 
though one of Capt. Raverty's great arguments is that there is no similarity 
between the Infinitives of these iMiguages) his verbal noun he call tJie Pre- 
sent Participle. There is a startling announcement (p. 48) that certain three 
prepositions are used as demonstrative pronouns. Certainly Pushto must be 
a difficult language, if prepositions per^rm such antics. But in vindication 
of Pushto we must st^te feat it is the grammarian^ who performs the sur- 
prising feats, not the harmless parts of speech. This statement is eauivalent 
to saying that the Gkrman prepositions van, an, are used as articles whe^ 



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OEIXICAL NOTICES* 1U 

tEey are spelt vom, am, or that the French preposition de stands for a de* 
monstrative pronoun when it is written du. Capt. Rarertv does not see that 
the insignificant vowel mark, which he is ohliged to pat after his curious pre* 
positions, is the pronoun, and that the preposition remains a preposition. 

His English style is so had that his rules are- mostly unintelligihle. He 
repeatedly says, ' thou hecomeM ' ' thou seized ' and the like ; he constantly 
mentions ' words with prepositions and postpositions* ' prefixed ;' the latter seems 
to he quite an easy operation with lum; he speaks o{* extrinsic Mends;' 
he ohtains, * assistance from the potentiality of the spirit ;' he says * after 
having exphdned the past tense so fully, the imperfect is easily described.* 
And when nis rules are mtelli^ble, thej are sure to he wrong, or* at leasts 
misleading to one who simply seeks mstruction. Sometimes the example 
he adduces, refutes his rule, as in Sec. 9G, and many other places. And then 
his radically incorrect views about pronouns, and his inability to understand 
the construction of the past tenses, viUate almost every pa^e. How little he 
understands the structure c^ the Pushto sentence, may be mferred from the 
principal rule which he gives on the. subject (p. 108). ' The object must be 
m the nominative, and sometimes in the dative (!). and the agent in the in* 
«tramental case,' That is odd. The nominative b the object, and the agent 
is the instrumental ; then where in the world is t^ subject P Even Oapi, 
Baverty woukl find it difficult to construct a sentence without a suljeet A 
very ho'ge part of the volume, more than ai hundred pages, is taken up- with so 
called nues for the formation of the tenses, whicdi are totally useless, as after 
telling how many difibrent methods there are of forming a certain tense— if 
the word ' method can be properly applied to any uiing in this book — he 
does not in a single instance give a list of tilie vwbs bebnging to anv one of 
his classes, nor does he ever point out a mark by which they are to be recos- 
uized. Indeed, he has no less than thirty-seven conjugations. This is simply 
mocking the poor inquirer who comes to him for advice. Classification is oon« 
fessedly a difficult sumect, but if Capi Baverty had no more power of generaliaa* 
tion than is manifested in his leaving^thePushto verbin an anarchy of thirty* 
seven divisions, he should not have usurped the dictatorship ; aut Oeesar aui 
nullus ; he is evidently not C»sar. He does not even tell the reader always 
that the verb, which he gives as an example in one or another of his oqjnga- 
tions, is the only one of the kind. The same may be said of a subsequent 
chapter, that on the derivation of words, in which the value of his rules and 
,the sinful wasto of good paper may be seen at a glance. He states lucidly^ 
' Abstract nouns may be obtained from adiectives, in eiffht different ways^ 
and then he enumeratos them. But it so happens that besides the sii^^ 
example which is given under the head of the first four rules, there is not 
another a^ective in the language which forms its abstract in the way indi- 
cated; of what use then are these four rules P A little reflection, moreover^ 
would convince any one that even the f^Ueged derivation is purdy imaginaryw 
He goes on, in the same chapter : ' VI. This form is something similar to 
the fourth 'WhvP By rule 17. <ar 'bhwk' fiarmed iJyiri" darkness, and bj 
rule VL tor ^hiaxk* forms torwdle ^hluckneBa.* Striking similarity; very 
mudi like Sambo and Pompey^ who were very much like raoh other, especial- 
ly Sambo. 

The oblique cases of the personal pronouns bother the author very much ; 
he has made the discovery that ' they have no meaning separato from the 
verbs,! which is a pure absurdity, if it means anything, an oblique case of 
anything impl^nng 8omething upon which the case depends. Then he has 
what he calls * affixed personal pronouns,' and refers to the Arabic and Persian 
»as analogous. A prcmoun which is affixed (as is the case in the Semitie 
languages) implies that the word to which it is affixed is a word withoidi 



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It CRITICAL Nonona 

this iffix ; Imi£ on sepiMratinffCapt Bavcoriy's ' affixed profuntm'finoiB the words 
which he adduoea as ezammea, the hitter oease to be words altogether. Tbm 
fiietisthaibe mistakes the common personal termhuitionsof theyerbfiur 
pronoims ; he virtuallj calls the terminations, fot instance, am, om, at^ in the 
Latin agam^ afoSf agat, 'affixed personal piononns.' Thero is no dodit that 
these terminationa were pronoons originally, as philolo^ has proved ksDg 
MO, hot oar gallant author is so totally innocent of anTthm^ like philology, 
t£at he can hardly eren ba presumed to have blundered mto the truth Dry- 
mistake; berides &at the enunciation of a theoietdoal truth like iliis wauid 
be out of place here* The mistake is probabh' the moat serioos in the whc^ 
production, as it destroys whatever value the bare paradigms of the transiti^w 
verbs might have had. Whole pages are utterly mined bj ihia sad botehery. 
AjAd the matter is so vital that tnis baneful error alone is sufficient to damn 
the book. What would be said of a Latin grammar that went on oonjuca- 
ting page after p^e a m# lamdaimr, a U Icmdatmrt ah so Umdatmry and did 
not give the smalust hint of the existence of the forms lamdor, Imtdangp 
kmdammr, lamdamini, and so throughout all the tenses F This is precisdy 
what the ingenious author has done. 

The prinetpid value of this grammar might be supposed to consist in its 
c(^p»ous ulostration by examples taken from a eonsiderable range of auUiorB. 
And Cs|»t. Raverty certainly deserves the highest credit for the industry and 
perseverance wit^ which ho has collected this stca9 of materiaL Our admir* 
ation, however, would be more unaUoyed, if we were sure that the author 
thought the examples necessary for the explanation of his doctrines, and if 
there were no ground for believing that they were collected rather for hock* 
making purposes. The examines tiiemselves would not create this suspicion 
so much as the manner in mich they have been translated. In a grammar, 
bare, bald, literal translation is all that is required, but that is essentiaL 
Onuunent would not only not be expected, but would be utterly unsuitable, 
and would matoially impair the useralness of the work. Oapt Keverty has 
permitted himself to be carried away by an inconsiderate vanity, and haa 
wretchedly marred the beet, almost the only good, feature of his production* 
The student will often get more assistance from an unadorned, fiedtnful trans* 
lation than even from tae best rules ; henee in Capt Bavcorty's grammar 
such tranriaticm would have been of tenfold value ; but what is the perplexed 
hiquirer to do, when, instead of literal rendering of word for word, he finda 
roost naaseously dilated paraphrases, got up quite regardless of expense^ 
which however are of no use to any one except to the grammarian, who no 
doubt each time that he had achieved one, took a step badcwards, ^azed at 
his creation with fervent admiration, put his head slightiy on one side, and 
exclaimed, 'Isn't it pretty P' Let tne reader look for instance at the first 
example in p. 06, with its 'Fhomix of one's desires,' and *the immortal 
bird. Or take this hemistich of five words : ^ a devotee be »ZZ— five 
words also in the original ; the Bombay Ct^tain renders it in the third-rate 
reporter style: 'If a man in the constant habit of praying may become 
afflicted wttn sickness.' For a ' rose' he says * aueen of flowers ;' for ' birds* 
he 9m * foathered race,' £or * wine' 'juice or ijbe grape,' ukl so on to an 
incredible extent. There is a couplet of Uamid's in p. 94 also, the literal 
translation of which is : ' When his justice's sun did set, the dark night of 
oppression rose, the land became dark ;* which Capt Baverty sweetly Deau- 
tines thus. ' Since the bright luminary of his equify and justice katk set, the 
black night of oppression hae set in (!), and filled the land with darkness.' 
What Ih the learner, who is not supposed to have spent seventeen years on 
Oriental languages, to make of sudi elegance F He wants bread, and the 
iprammarian gives him— not » stone, but— wind. The reader will also observe 

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CRITICAL NOTICES, V 

that in the example just cited 'justice' ib rendered by 'equity and justice;*^ on 
the same paee he wul find ' cameesnees and inadveitency ' where the original 
has only neglect ; and so he will find throughout the book such geminous and 
even tergeminous renderings to the number of at least two hundred. Out 
bono? £ it to exhibit the author's opulence of diction P such an exhibition^ 
we fear, would be lost on the frontier officers whom Capt. Baverty expects to 
use his grammar. Or is it that Capt Baverty has so little confidence in 
the expressiveness of his own tongue that he must use two or three words, 
where one has sufficed the Khatak or the AMdi P Or is it that he wishes to 
give the purchaser his guinea's worth of type and paper and twaddle f One 
might fbr^ve this and put it down as an unavoidable idios^crasy of 
the enthusiastic hierophant of A%han mysteries, were there not other offences 
in his translations less pardonable: words omitted, sentences transposed, 
sense distorted, with a most reckless disregard of the want6 of his pupils. 
It is absolutely harrowing to think how some youn^ officer of the P. 1. F. at 
Bahadur Khel or Tak wiU try to beguile his sohtude with a dip into this 
handsome volume, and will be puzzled and bewildered by the heartless cruelty 
of Capt Baverty* 

This notice has already become too long, so that we can give no more ex- 
tracts ; but some translations are so baa that th^ raise a doubt as to the 
author's knowledge of the language. In p. 72 a line reads, ' though his 
house or goods be spoiled ;' Capt Baverty renders, ' whether his dwellings 
be sacked and pillaged, or fillea with wealth and goods.' There is nothing 
in the original to correspond to the second clause, though it is easy to see 
that the translator was led wrong by the position of words in the Pushto 
line, which is, * though his house be spoiled, or goods' ; a grievous blunder, 
at best P. Ill ' Like as one forgetteth a deceased person m hundred years ;' 
the ori^^al says, ' as one forgets a person dead a nundred years.' P. 119. 
'This unembdlished firmament became adorned with ornaments and em- 
bellishments ; which the diamonds of omnipotence and power have carved,* 
Belioiousl The diamonds have probably taken the head of the table. 
Besides mistaking the construction, as usual, he also reads kandile for gan^ 
dile ; the prcmer translation of the second line is simply : ' Embroidered with 
the gems of his power.' — ^But enough. 

ill fi&r as the study of Pushto is concerned, it is really to be regretted that 
Captain Baverty turns out a charlatan, and all his statements of fact or 
science must be taken cum grano salts. He publishes (p. viii.) to the world 
that it is impossible for any one on the North West Frontier to know Puidito. 
He is as much mistaken in this, as when he calls the Prophet's flower a violet 
(p. 100), or derives tJie name of the Pathans from an imitfinary place called 
Posh, and an impossible word t4it. There are officers from whose pen we 
should like vetr much to see a concise grammar of the language of the 
Afghans. We have heard Captain James deliver a long address in Pushto, 
which was a model of idiomatic ease and vigorous native eloquence P Colonel 
Lumsden is said to be second to none in his knowledge of the language ; or 
if Colonel Vaughan could be induced to prepare a second edition of his Gram- 
mar, it would be of great assistance. As it is, we do not hesitate to pro- 
nounce Vaughan's Grammar as an introduction to Pushto far preferable to 
the book here noticed. 



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CRITICAL NOTICES 

or 
WORKS ON INDIA AND THE EAST. 



NemcM : a poem in four Cantos. By John Bruce Norton. 
London : Richardson and Co. 

Wb claim this poem as the work of an Indian poet and recognize in it the 
happy style of the author of " Memories of Merton." To speak of Indian 
poetry, is to speak of a thinff that future generations may hope to see, but 
which has not yet established itself as one of the things that are. Now and 
then, a good poem, or collection of poems, is written by one who has been some 
years in this country, bnt, as far as the subjects treated of are concerned, it 
might as well haye been written in London by one who had never crossed 
the Channel Poetry cannot flourish in the troubled atmosphere of the 
first phase of a nation s history. She waits for a period of healthy repose, when 
the sicy is unclouded. Then she lifts up her yoioe and finds that the assemblage 
of hewers of wood and drawers of water, by whom her infancy was surronnd- 
ed, has fi^yen way to a community of men of all occupations and tastes, 
among whom there are sure to be some sufficiently thoughtful and imagina- 
tiye to be a fit audience. 

The first comers in a new country are too busy in their contest with nature 
to attend to any thing else. They must fight with savatfes and wild beasts, 
cut down trees, build houses, till the ground, and struggle hard for their exist- 
ence. The next ^neration have easier work, and the next, and the next, until 
at last aff itation gives way to rest, that a^in leads to solid comfort, to which ia 
ultimatdy added artistic taste. In India there has been more to subdue than 
external nature. The task of our ancestors and our countrymen has been to 
subdue mind — ^the mind of an intelligent and semi-civilized race of men. 
This is a task that will take yet many a long year to accomplish. Those 
who have not been directly engaged in this the gr^ national mission, are in- 
tent upon pursuits that concern almost exdusivdy their own material welfare. 
They are strangers and soioumers in the land. Both classes are fully occu- 
pied, and neither has much leisure for poetical studies. Mr. Norton has found 
time amidst the distracting calls of the legal profession for the indulgence 
of his higher tastes. He has sent forth to the world more than one volume ; 
thus showing that, where the poetic vein exists, it will sooner or later find its 
way to the surface even in a man of business. It is common to find lawyera 
among the contributors to magazines and newspapers, the authors of histori- 
oal works, and among the merciless censors, who criticise performances which . 
are fiur bejond their own powers to execute or even to appreciate ; but it is 
comparativdy seldom, that we find them among the worshippers of that muse 
whose devotees they find suchpleasure in ridiculing. But here we have a 
lawrer among the poets. What the effect of his poetical aspirations may be 
on his practice, it is not for us to determine. 

" Nemesis " is the name, which our poetical lawyer or legal poet has thought 
proper, io give to the poem which we are now about to nouoe. R^gurding the 

a 

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Vll CRITICAL NOTICES. 

fitness of soch an appellation we shall have somel^n^ to say hereafter. He 
eommenoee with a prologue or poetical prefiu)e. It it ia heyond us to imagine 
what poMihle advantaj^ is derived m>m this practice. Oood poets gain 
nothing whatever hv it, and when ordinary or inferior poets resort to tt» 
it leaves on the mind of the reader an impression of wealmees in the writer. 

^ Kot always nor on light oocasion, I 

'* Seek with the crowd, nav, oft refiiie, to sing, 

** Lesi weak woald grow tho too oft shaken string. 

From snch a commencement we might infer that the author is one of 
those gentlemen, who, though possessed of a tolerahle voice, rather strinsy 
perhaps, as the ahoye lines would imply, jet " oft refuses to sing," nnd^r the 
pretence of modesty, bmt with the real ol^ect of enhancing the effbot of his 
performance, when, at length, he does yield to the repealed solicitations of 
the eager company. These remarks apply with equal loroe to the lines with 
which the poem closes. 

** Go forth my poem : thiae is not the roar 
** Of torrent or of oatarad; thy flow 
• ** Is like a hamble streamlet, winding slow 

" Tbrongh England's southern meadows to the shore. 

' These lines sug^t the idea that the author contemplates, with a feeling of 
^complete satisfaction, his finished work, a pleasure which even the highest 
genius is not often permitted to ei\joy. 

"Nemesis" consists of four cantos, written for the most part in the 
Spenserian stanza, over which the author ezhilnts considerable power. This 
species of verse requires no little skill to sustain, and Mr. Norton has been 
veiy successftd in the use of it. In the Alexandrine at the end of eaeh 
stanza, he has avoided that heaviness of diction, which so often characterizes 
such lines. The poem is properly speaking a novel thrown into verse. The 
Opening scene consists of an old man and his little grand-daughter sitting toge* 
%her iSfore a rustic cottage, on the banks of ihe Darrent. He has no 
relative left in the world but this girl, and he b consequently bound up in 
ker. As she arrives at mature years, a retiring youngpoet, named Hubert, 
falls in love with her, but conceals his passion. Of Hubert we hear littl# 
more. Mabel Lee had reached her eighteenth year, when 

" There came a bnely yonth to dwell by Darrent's flood. 
. Gerald is a young man of rank and fortune, highly talented and aooom- 
plished, buttiredof a life of gaiety and dissipation, and desirous of returning 
to his better self, by a temporary exUe from the busy town, and a season of 
mnsing and roaming in the country He has a faithful little spaniel, of the 
Kinjz Charles' breeo, or, as the author mysteriously and somewhat podphras- 
ticaOy puts it, 

" Pare in his downward breed firom that sleek pack 
** That erst our merxy monarch used attend. 

This spaniel, by rescuing Mabel's kerchief firom the Darrent, becomes the 
medium of introduction between the youth and the maiden. Qendd makes 
. her a present of the dog. The animal runs away next day, and of course 
the handsome stranger brings it back, and thus an intimacy begins to be formed. 
They read together, walk together, talk together $ and the first 'canto ends 
with the words 
• —she fell. 

lihe next canto changes the scene to the banks of the Thames. The amor-' 
iKis couple are living ' in a cottage, surrounded by all the luxuries that taste 
ngk suggest and money procure. For a time they live happily enoogh, bti| 



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are long Mabel beeoines coniicious of her fault, Qerald grows tired of ker, lodct 
vpon her as an obstacle to his mental happiness, and at last makes every ef* 
finrt to get rid of her. 

The means to which he has recourse are the vilest that human nature t» 
capable of. The heartless seducer becomes the fiendish temnter. He Intro* 
duces a young friend to Mabel, hoping to see her fascinated by his blandish*' 
ments, and thu» affording him a reasonable excuse for foritokin^ her. But the 
confiding girl does not listen to the voice of the charmer. Failing in thia at^ 
tempt, he makes another still more dastardly. He stays away from hom^ 
night after night, spending his time among riotous, dissolute companions* 
Sometimes he brings a party of them to his cottage to offend Mabel's ear with 
their coarse jokes. He finds among his comrades one willing to be an accomplice 
in his viUainv. Tlus friend, after the whole party have left Ihe cottage, re- 
turns to look for his purse ; he takes an undue liberty with Mabel ; at thatl 
moment Gerald enters and upbraids Mabel with her conduct He pretends to 
be in^riated against his accomplice, and leaves the girl he has wronged Ui 
comfort herself as best she may. Almost distracted with grief, she entertaim* 
for an instant the idea of destroying herself. Her better feelings triumph/ 
8he resolves to suffer in silence. She returns to that home on the banks oi 
the Darrent which she had so rashly left. But it is too late. She learns that 
her grandfather died broken-hearted, when he hoard of what Mabel had done* 
A boy fishing in the stream teUs her the sad tale. She sits for a while on 
the grassy bank, and when the villagers cluster round the spot in the evening 
to discover her retreat, they find nothing but a dripping scarf and riband, and 
a spaniel wet with the waters of the Darrent 

" Whether she plungod, or if in trance she fell 
*' While musing on the bonk, what man may judge or tell P 

The fourth canto is like the fifth act of a tragedy. Gerald repents to 
some extent He goes to the mountaina of Scotland to obtain comfort for 
his bruised spirit. ' He returns to his cottage on the Thames, and devotes 
himself to the education of his orphan boy. The boy grows up thoughtful 
and delicate. He dies youn^ and Gerald seeks to arown his sorrow in the 
din of battle. He joins the English army fighting against the Sikhs. In 
ea^ quest of death he performs prodigies of valour, and returns home to be 
knighted. He then becomes the most powerful and brilliant statesman of 
the day. At last the weight on his mind becomes too much for him, and his 
reason forsakes him. His mental fiiculties return for a few hours before 
death, and enable him to recognize in the pastor who watches his last momenta, 
the dearest friend of his lK)yhood, but who had preferred the rewaixls of 
virtue to the pleasures of vice. 

** Toalate, dear WilHam, as we sow, we reap— 
'* Hark your own ooarae— and his^-the wretch who dies." 

** TiB done : with him went down into the dust 
'^ The titled line, whoee sires had filled a throne ; 
" No scnlptnred epitaph, no marble bust, 
" Points where he Hes nnhonoor'd and aboe. 
" Far in a village churchyard, all unknown, 
" Where o'er it weeds and two dwarf fir-treeti wave, 
'* Just rais'd above the soil there lies a stone, 
" Whose date and deep initials scaroelv save 
" The record for a while of lordly Gerald's grave." 

Such 18 the outline of the story which Mr. Norton has written in the shape 
of a poem. We cannot help saying that it is far better suited for the co*. 
htmns of the LamUm Journal or Family Herald, than for a poem which 
exhibits in its execution so much merit. The subject ia a most gloomy acid 

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IX CRITICAL NOTICES. 

unfortan&te one. We hinted abore that " NemeeiB *' was a bad title. W« 
repeat it The opening canto is beautifdl in many respects, hat our pleasure 
in its pemsal is ffreatJy diminished by the thought that the sleuth hound 
" Nemesis" is following on at faU speed. All that is fair and beautiful in 



repi 
wfil 



ing on at fall speed, 
presentation and diction, is marred by the thou^t tiiat all is vanity and 
1 end in death and ruin. To pomt a moral in the way Mr. Norton has 
endeavoured to do, is not the province of descriptive poetry. It bdon^ 
to dramatic poetry, and that of the highest style, to convey lessons of this 
kind. To unoerstand the deepest and wildest <n human passions, we must 
see the characters act their part before us, and study the consequences to which 
their acts lead. It affords Uttle g^ratification to the intellect and the heart to 
be told, that a character did so and so, and another character something else. 
What would the tragedy of" Hamlet " be if thrown into the narrative style? 
Epic poetry affords no scope for the representation of strong {wsston. And 
wnen exciting incidents and strange phases of character are cbpicted in weak 
langniage, however elegant and hannonious, no interest is created in the mind 
of the reader, beyond what a deaf man would feel in looking at a scene in 
which he sees figures moving before him, while he is obliged to ask a bystan- 
der to tell him what they are saying. This view of the functions of narrative 
poetry must not be too widely appued. Sometimes a poet so combines the des- 
cr^>tive with the dramatic, that an entirely satisfactory nicture is obtained. 
But even in such a case, it will be found that, for the oevelopment of the 
strongest passions of our nature, the dramatic form is the best 

Another error which the author has made is the attempt to depict passing, 
or, at all events, very recent affairs, without throwing over scenes and incidents 
with which we are familiar, an aesthetic and poetical veil which hides their hard 
outlines. As an example of how a contemporaneous event, the facts of whidi 
are familiar to us, can oe artistically treated, we need onlv refer to Tennyson's 
lin^ on the Balaklava charge. Occasional evidences of Mr. Norton's Tenny- 
Bonian predilections occur in the course of his poem ; such as the lines, 

" Let man victorious his dominion roll, 
** Tided on puiple billows &r and wide, 
" Time from the face of earth sweeps his oontnml. 
" LoTO clshns a sovefrogn sway sod keeps it o'er the whole. 

The parallel lines in Tennyson occur in the poem on " Love and Death, " 
1^ here Love nys :— 

" This boor is thine. 
** Thou srt the shadow of Uh, and ss the tree 
** Stands in the sun and shadows aU benesth, 
" So in the great light of etomity 
" Life eminent creates the shade of death ; 
** The shadow passeth when the tree shall fidl, 
" But I shall reign for ever over slL 

All we mean to shew by putting these two passages side by side is that, 
if our author has tried to resemble Tennyson in thb instance, he has succeed- 
ed remarkably well. 

Mr. Norton shews great facility in ornamenting his poem with classical 
allusions. The passages to which we more particularlv refer are those in the 
first canto where the happy intercourse between Mabel and Gerald and the 
topics of their conversation are described. The olrjeot is to represent Gerald's 
attainments as veiy fascinating and his knowledge extensive. The allusions 
are sometimes indeed dragged m by the head and shoulders, and at others 
jumbled i(>gether in a most unintelligible manner, but the following verses will 
show that the author knows how to introduce them .gracefully when he 
likes to take the pains. 



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" He told of her, the loTe-loni maid, who leapt 
" Prom the white crags of Leucas ; now br mght 
" Leander swam the straits when Sestoe slept, 
** Save she who held aloft love's goiding light : 
" He spake of timid Arethnsa's flight 
** Prom swift Alpheos, when her fainting cries 
** Diana heard, and snatched her from his sight, 
'* Under the earth to glide a stream, and rise 
** The fairest fount that leaps beneath Sicilian skies. 

" Psyche who ravished Cnpid ; Thetis bound 
" Sleeping by bold .gJacides, and wed 
** UnwiUmg apon Pelion ; by the sound 
" Of Oipheus Ivre the wild-beast captive led : 
** How dolphin-borne, betra/d Arion sped ; 
** How Anadne in her Cretan bower 
" To thankless Theseus gave the ha>yrinth- thread ; 
" Pygmalion too, who felt a statue's power ; 
" And DanaS woo'd and won by Jove in golden shower. 

Oar space b nearly exhausted, but we cannot conclude wiUioat drawing 
attention to a poem odled ** Alix de ChoisenU" which is introduced at the end 
of the second canto. This poem is perhaps the gem of the book, and shows 
that, if Mr. Norton were to devote himself to poetir of that class, he would 
attain much greater success than by any metrical and didactic rendering of a 
common-place love storv. The poem in auestion represents a knight, Raynard 
de Choiseul, as the husband of Alix, a laay of the highest rank in the Court of 
France. Yaleran de Corbie, whose affection for AUx was unretumed, grati- 
fies his reven^ by slandering AUx in the absence of her husband. The cause is 
tried in the bsts acoordinff to the rules of chivalry. The knights ai>pear with 
vizors down, Yaleran in uack armour, and his opponent in silver, with a sil- 
ver shield beanns the device of a single broken my by a tomb, and the motib 
" Je meurs." The knight of the silver armour unseats Yaleran, and, with 
the sword point at his brow, makes him retract his slanderous statements. . 



" Tea, I do own me, it was baffled rage 

" That made me fiusdv blacken the lur £unc 

" Of Alix, whom I lovd from tenderest age; 



" Her to the peers of Prance do I prodaim 
** 0*er aU most bjral wife, and spotless dame ; 
** Know Raynard it is baffled rage which now 
^ Prompts this my dying deed, een when my shame 
** Clips like a thorny crown mv burning brow ; 
" If I eiqoy not Alix' love— neither shalt thou. 

" He spake ; hidf rising, clasp'd his fbeman's knees, 
** Dash d with his arm the threatening sword aside^ 
" Then gathering life up, like the steed that sees 
** The goal scarce reach^ with his last dying stride, 
" He plunged his dagser in his conqueror's side ;— 
" Too true the blow,lor it was hatred's heir ; 
" The victor sinks : the hdmet straps divide ; 
" The casque fUlslMck— Oh! God I what sight is tbero F 
** Tu Alix* channing ihoe and golden-oluster'd hair I 

Baynard gallops up to the lists just in time to see Alix die. Shesaystohim 

" Thou mighf St have fallen beneath that tiger 8prii« : 
** SUin by a woman ends his dastard line; 
" To me was the oflbnoe, fitly the vengeance mine. 

" Nemesis " contains many fine passages. But we hope to see the author at 
some future day exerme his poetical tcdeats, which are of no mean order, 
upon a more fbrtmuite sabjeot. 



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Dialoffuet <m tk4 Hindu PhihiopJ^, eamprimmg the NtfMfa, the Sankhjfa^ 
OMdthe Vedamt^UfwhicliUiMedadueuuUmontheaMihorUgifthe Veia, 
By Rer. K M. Bttneijoa. Calcizl^: 186L 

The stady of Hinda philosophy has heen pursued with great difigenoe in 
India for thouBands or years, as the numbers of commentarieaiuid oontro- 
Tersial treatises prove; but, in most cases, these add yery littk to tike intellec- 
tual wealth previously existing among the natives of I&idostan. ^ Most of the 
writers onl^ ring the changes on the old topics, without addiu^ an^ real disco- 
very of their own. The old thinkers, who first arranged the mfferent systems, 
remain in their original glory ; their crude speculations have been blindly ac- 
cepted by their successors, who, instead of carrying on the investigation which 
their ancestors had so well begun, have been satisfied to receive the early grop- 
iiigs of science as her last teadnngs, and have devoted tiieir talents to ingeniona 
^^utations, in whidi victory, and not truth, was the grand object of thef 
disputants. 

Out of India, Hindu philosophy can never interest more than the few. All 
educM«d men are more or less mterested in that of the Greeks ; the errors of 
Plato and Aristotle are almost as important for us as their successes ; but thiiT 
is because there is a historical element in Qreek philosophy, and we can trace 
in the successive schools the gradual development of new methods and ideas, 
Greek philosophy, again, as nandled by Plato and Aristotle, has a value like 
the Novum Organon of Bacon ; we stud^ these woriu for their true philoso- 

Shical spirit, apurt from the defects of their method, or the actual eirors m their 
octrines. The dialogues of the one, and the Physics and Ethics of the other, 
are masterpieces of philosophical writing ; and we study them as we study sor 
many other masterpieces or the Greek mind, as models oiform, 

Now Hindu philosophy, in its form, is absolutely repulsive; it was, in fact, in- 
tended, from the first, to W intelligible only to the initiated. The yery plan of 
Sutras, universally adopted, stamps the barrenness of the whole method. Every 
system comes down to us, permanently fixed in some particular mould, — a ooiain 
number of aphorisms, unintelligible without a commentary, which are sup- 
posed to embody the entire dodrines of the school. No new tiruth can be 
added, for there is. no vacancy for it: the early teachers in their haste to 
generalise have given eveiy thinff its definite place in their system ; and the 
unlucky discoverer of a new truw must either found a-new school' for himself, 
or foist in his discovery in any comer of the old Sutras where he can squeeze it 
in. The voluminous writings of the Hindu commentators abound with proo6 of 
their great sap^ity, and pnilosophical acumen ; but, cramped as they have beoi 
by their arbitrary and narrow systems, they have too often only wasted 
thc^r stren^^ on problems and difficulties which theb own limitations have 
caused. Still, little read as Hindu philosophy will be out of India, in India its 
influence is immense ; and one of the grand battles which Christianity has 
yet to fight here, will be with this hoaiy antagonist. There are some senten- 
ces of Dr. Ballantyne which will illustrate the far spread influence whidi 
it exercises over all educated natives, even those who have been trained in 
European science. " Our English students, struck by the imposing methodical 
completeness of the Brahmanical systems, which they cannot comprehend in 
detail, and bewildered in every attempt to cope with the dialectical subtiltr of 
the Pundits, who, they see perfectly, though unintelligible to the English 
student, are quite intelbgible to each other, beoMne. posi^ssed by mor uneasy- 



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IMihg thai there is more, if they ooold but come at it, in the SaiiBkrit philo* 
wphj thim is dreamt of in ours." These Hindu systems therefore must be 
studied toA thoroughly examined by the trained European intellect, the truth' 
which ^ey contain embedded in them, must be drawn out, and their errors sifted 
Mdd exposed ; for we must never forget that ernnr as well as truth has its 
laws, and Uiat a false philosophy can onlv be overthrown by replacing its 
errors by truth, while we retain all that is valuable in it, and anpropriate it as 
our own. It is in this wav that Dr. Ballantyne has done such £[(X)d service 
during his Indian career — ^he has made the Benares College during his principal- 
ship, " a real Exchange of Indian and European learning. " 

• Our readers wiU recollect that two essays were published last year, by Dr. 
Ballantyne and the Bevd« J. Mullens, the successful competitors m the prize 
offered by J. Muir Esq, late of the Bengal Civil Service. The work we are 
now noticing, though not written for the prize, appears to owe its ori^n to 
the stimulus Mr. Muir's offer created, and we have no hesitation in saying that 
it is much superior to either of the before-named works. It forms a very 
valuable contribution to the history of Indian philosophy, and it starts 
many very interesting topics of inquiry. Its objects are primarily two-fold ; 
** first to give a oorraot and authentic statement of the doctrines of Hindu 
philosophy, and secondly, to suggest such modes of dealing with them, 
as may prove most effective with the Hindu mind." But in the pursuit of 
these two inquiries a number of collateral questions are treated, which 
may well furnish the educated Hindus, who may read the work, with topics 
for serious thought. 

• One novel feature in the work is, that the author frequently avails himself 
of the different arguments, by which the advocates of contending schools 
have demolished each other's positions. " We have thus impressed Kanada, 
Kapila, Bamannga. to do battle for us against the Yedant, and taken advan- 
tage of Sankaracharya's powerful battery against the Nyaya and Sankhya." 
The English reader will, we doubt not, be astonished at the acumen and feli* 
city of iUustration which these native disputants continually display ; and had 
Profbssor Banerjea done nothing but collect these extracts, we should still have 
had to thank him for a very interesting work. The English reader has now 
the opportumhr of learning something about one of the greatest of the Hin* 
dus, Sankaracharya, Who, had he hved under more fiivourable influences, 
might have been the Aristotle or the Aquinas of his millennium. 

The work conasts of ten dialogues. The scene is laid at Benares, and 
one of the interlocutors u a Brahman, who has become a convert to Christian- 
ity. He has various conversations with his old Mends, especially three. 
Who severally hold the Sankhya, Nyaya and Yedanta doctrines. The very 
nature of the discussionprecludes the criterion of Revelation, as the disputants 
do not acknowledge the Christian Scriptures ; but conscience and the work of the 
law written in the hearts of all men, are a common ground with alL A Chris* 
tian ethical influence pervades the whole, — we are never allowed to forget that, 
with one of the speakers, " old things have passed away," — ^but it is only 
towards the end that he feels himself permitted to speak out more plainly on 
these subjects. The work does not close without shewing the " more 
excellent way." 

Of the topics discussed, one of the most startliiig to a Hindu reader, will be the 
relation of Hindu phibsophy to Buddhism. We cannot say that the author's 
arguments entirely convince us — in (auet, on such a subject, m the utter absence 
of historical documents, certainty is quite out of the question — but he un- 
doubtedly makes out a very strong case ; and we recommend those of his 
Hindu readers who dispute it, to answer his arguments if they can. He 

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maintaini tliai the notikms of Mays, or the OluMry Bflbure of all 
phenomeiu, tnmsmimtioD, and m^UcU, or emanoipafcioii from tiie necesflitf of 
birth and death, are Ul poet-Buddhisi^c, and are not found in the earibr wriwifft 
of the Hindus. He shews us how the Veda, and the Rrrfimanas, or later oerettio- 
nial treatises, contun no allusions to the doctrine of Mayawhidiis the fisvouxite 
Yedantist theory in India ; but in Buddhism it plays a prominent narC, aod all 
the Buddhist Wends about Sakya Muni's career/ repreaent ntm-«» be* 
coming disg^usted with lijfe, and as being impelled by this disgust to found 
his system which promises ninrana as the great relie£ " The Bra hm a nica l 
philosophers use the very same expressions with reforenoe to the evils of lifo^ 
but thev cannot produce a hero as the original teacher of the doctrine. 
When they say this doctrine was taught by the Creator to the Sun, by the Sua 
to Manu, &c., it is simply a confession thiUi they know not how to aooount for 
it — ^for their own Yedas show that the doot^e was unknown in the period of 
tiie Mantras, and they themselves declare that the doctrine was toit by the 
lapse of time, until it was restored in the Bhagayad Gita." 

Another very important subject which is here discussed at length, ia the 
atheism of four at least of the original schools of Hindu philosophy. It has 
been generally supposed that only one of the six, Kapila'sSankhj^a, was taint- 
ed with this error ; but Professor Banerjea shows that the two Logical syatems, 
the Nvaya and V aiseshika, are almost equally defoctive ; in both it is a blind 
law 01 previous works and their effects which produces creation, and the latter 
especially declares expressly, that this adrU&ta is the cause of the first act 
of mind as well as of the primal motion of atoms. Jaimini, the founder of 
the Purva Mimansa, although Elphinstone speaks of it as " purelj re- 
ligious, and having no claims to be placed amon^ the schools of philo-> 
sophy," has only elaborated a system of duty, without any reoogniiaon of 
the will of the Supreme Being, — nay, without any reoogiution of a Supreme 
Being at alL His revelation has no reve«der, for sound is eternal ; his laws 
have no lawgiver, like Lvicretiu»* ^tedera of nature. Even Patai^ala, in the 
Theistic Sankhya, does not attribute creation to lus supreme Being: He is 
" untouched by troubles, works, fruits or deserts." We have thus only tiie 
Yedanta left, out of the six ; and this is discussed in the eighth and ninth 
Dialogues, two of the most interesting in the book. He then shows us how 
continually the ground of the so called vedanta is shifting, and especially at 
the present time. But under any form, it must retain its primal error ; and 
our new school in Bengal is gradually driven into natural Deism. " The^ 
commenced with the acknowledgement of all the Shastras, Puranas, Smritis 
as well as Yedas. At least, Bammohun Roy did not avowedly rdect any of 
them, though he did not follow the orthodox interpretation. In nis pr^aoe 
to the I'sopanishad, he admitted the authority of the whole body of our Shaa- 
tras. His successors set aside the Smriti, and Puranas, and adhered to the 
•Yedas alone, and now they have given up the Upanishads too !*' 



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CRITICAL NOTICES. XIV 



Heart Echoes from the East. By Miss Mary E. Leslie. Calcutta. 

This is the third yolame of poetry Miss Leslie has given to the public 
within five years. Her first and largest work, "Ina and other Poems/' 
contains much that has the true ring of poetry in it; and although the drama 
of the principal piece is slight and defective, it contains many passages of un- 
doubted excellence, whilst some of the smaller poems, such as the " Death 
of Moses," " Tintoretto and his Daughter," and " Eastern voices" are equal to 
to any thing in the limited range of Anglo-Indian poetry. Miss Leslie's 
secona publication, " Sorrows, Aspirations, and Legends," drew its inspiration 
mainly from the incidents of the mutiny. If instead of cramping her imagi- 
nation and her artistic skill by writing sonnets, she had described the same 
events in a series of spirited ballads or plaintive dirges, it would have achieved 
greater success, and won a wider popularity. We now have to notice her 
third production. 

" Heart Echoes" is a volume of religious poetry ; and as such we desire 
te judge it. We do not m«an by this, that it should be submitted to other 
canons of criticism than those usually applied to poetry, nor do we mean 
that religious poetry should be subjected to severer or laxer tests than the pro- 
ductions of the secular muse : but that, since its range of subjects is more limit- 
ed, since it does not admit, for instance, of the same descnptive flights, nor 
of an equaUy broad display of the emotions, since it is almost excluded from 
the realms of the drama, and cannot with much e£feot enter into the domains 
of narrative, it should be judged by what it is and not ocmdemned for what it 
is not. Such a volume as this cannot be expected to contain elaborate descrip- 
tions of scenery nor thrilling Incidents, such as Scott and Byron delighted in ; 
nor that play of the fancy and imagination which pleases us so much in 
Spenser and Coleridge ; but it is within the sphere of purely religious poetry 
to clothe beautiful thoughts in language rich, melodious and clear; to 
embody conceptions always elevated and not seldom sublime, and to exhibit 
sentiments unusually pure, exalted and spiritual 

The great characteristic of this volume is \i% extreme individual, meditative 
pietism. The authoress never goes out of herself. The utterance of her own 
thoughts, feelings, and desires about herself fills almost every page. We 
mention this as a peculiarity ; we do not speak of it as necessfuily a defect. 
It may be that her own nature is intensely subjective and individualized ; or, 
perhaps, she has never come beneath influences which draw the thoughts and 
feelings toward the outward world ; or it may be, that she desisned to give 
imity to her volume, by exdudine from it whatever was foreign to ner own per- 
sonal relations to the religious lue. We suspect the second conjecture to be 
nearest the truth. We certainly think that it is well for all of us to ^ a 
good deal out of ourselves, toward the ereat world of suffering and of rejoicme, 
•f good and evil, that lies outside of us, but is yet within sight and hearing ; stul 
if a nvriter is pleased to give us only heart utterances, we gpratefuUy accept 
the ofienn^, provided it l)e a wortiiy one, aware that we can learn enoueh 
of the outward world from others. But Miss Leslie's range of thought 
and feeling is greatly limited and restricted* There is always good taste, cor- 
rectness of sentiment, a healthfrd moral tone in what she writes, but she 
seldom expresses deep emotions of joy or of Borrow ; her nature has not yet, we 
imagine, come beneatn the influence of any strong or over-mastering passions, 
and if she ocoaaionally rises toward an eloquent Expression of elevatM thought, 

* ' I 

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she yet more freqaentlj keeps to an ordinary level of sentiment and idea. 
This would be a defect in any book, even a prose one ; for thoughts, princii^ and 
ideas are the bone and muscle of a book, and language only the flesh and skin 
eovering them. And we hold it eqoall^ to be a def^ in a volume of poetry ; 
for surely poetry is not merely the music of words, and it is literary heresy of 
the gravest kind to suppose that it is nothing more^ we wish, th^re&re, that 
the volume before us nad in it less prosaic and more poetical thought^ and that 
the mental and emotional pc^ of it were altogether of a higher order and a 
more extensive ranee. We have for instance in many S^ the pieces no 
special idea or embodiment ; nothing like origimLUty, or freshness of £uaiey 
or conceit, such as some of our best religious poets have delighted in. We 
suspect that Miss Leslie has o^n been so beguiled by attention to the me- 
chanical art of versification* that she has overlooked the subject matter of 
thepoem. 

There are two or three minor defects we shall point out The first we have 
iust alluded to. Miss Leslie frequently, betrays the process of verse making 
by using words because of their rhyming quality merely. This exhibits 
the artist rather than the true poet, and imparts a mechanical air to her pro- 
duction, instead of that natural, impassioned, and unconstrained one which 
distinguishes the highest compositions. Instances abound : we will select 
one or two which first come to hand. 

Thou didst arise. 
Leaving Thy tomb wide open, for our eyes 
To look into, when wearily we tread 
With sadden thoughts of death disquieted. 
Leaving Thy grave^lothes scattered on the fkxxr. 
For us to wrap our brows in, when doth pour, 
The death-dew down our cheeks, and in our hearts 
We feel the spirit fluttering ere she parts. 

p. 4a 

And wilt thou gird Thyself, and go all romid 

Criving to each Thy kingdom^s fresh, new wine^ 
While all the angels hush the ringing sound 

Lingering upon their harps with intertwine P 

p. 113. 

And thon hast died ? Ah me! 
I who have saffisred at the thooghts of death. 
Imagining the slow and painfnl breath. 
The "cutting off," as boned Psalmist saith, 
The dying agony. 
Feel strong and brave what time I calmly think 
How Thou, too, stoodest on the death-stream's brink. 
From Thee too life was ctrt off link by link. 

Eoughly, distressingly. 

p. m. 

The kst words of at least half those h'nes are used, not because they bent 
express the sense, but because of their rhyming properties. Yet she has no 
lack of rhyming and versifying power. 

Miss Leslie has great partiality for compound words. We would advise 
her to give them up entirelv, or to use them far more sparingly ; most of thoHO 
she employs are too artificial, and strained. How much more effective 
might single, well chosen words be than " tendril-young," *' angel- tender- 
nesses," "death-ashy," ** spirit-storms," Ac. 

We have frequenUy met in these pages with considerable obscurity of ex- 
pression and weakness towards the dose of her pieces, as if the first vigorous 



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CRincAL NOTICES. xvi 

flight of the authoress had suddenly suffered a collapse. The want of sustained 
power we shall not illostnito ; hut let this verse prove the former assertion. 

Lay Thy hand. Saviour, on my lipirit tremblinp, 

Speak thoa the clear, low wonu of hope and Ufe, 
The prophet's heart mine dimly then resembling. 
Shall press on in the strife. 

p. 11. 

She does not mean that the prophet's heart shall press on in the strife ; yet 
this is what is really said. 

We have been thus free in our animadversions, really hecanse we do not wish 
to sec so much that is excellent marred or depreciated by defects ; and because 
we recognize fully the good that there is in this volume. Its poetic claims 
fln*e great; it contains passages of great tenderness, delicacy and oeauty. And 
its defects are not radical, for they arise, we believe, frequently from careless- 
ness, and not seldom from the choice of venr involved and artificial metres. 
That Miss Leslie possesses considerable poetic power is evident, and we cer- 
tainly desire to see her cultivating it. She is apt not to choose the most 
fitting medium for the exhibition of her naturally fine powers; but that 
she can write true poetry, fWl of beauty and pathos, and translucent as the 
waters of a Cumberland lake*, we hold to be a fact which can be proved by 
a hundred instances. 

The first Lyric, and the Sonnet " Silently rose the temple ; iron clang, Ac" 
aire among the best pieces in the volume. The following are fair specimens 
<^ what Miss Leslie can write. 

XXIL 

*' The blind and the lame came to Him in the temple and Ho healed them."* 

Matthew xxi, 14. 

Tbt temple gates are thronged to-day, Ixml, 

With lame and blind. 
They come expecting not a healing word 

From Thee to find : 
O wearily they grope along their way. 
In darkness, feeblenett, from thee astray. - 

Wilt Thon not enter in theee courts, as when 

In Judah's land. 
Then on the temple floors *mid crowding men 

Didst take Thy stand. 
Until the blind and lame passed Thee around,^ 
And by Thy perfect healing rendered sounds 

Went each his way,— one to the sacrifice 

Of thfi^ bright eve, 
To see the symbol sign with those glad eyes 

Erst wont to ^eve ; 
One to bound no the glorious, high ascent, 
And mingle with the worshippers low bent ? 

Lighten o«r blind, O Lord, that they may see 

With vision blest 
Thy Racrifice upon the awful tree, 

God manifest! 
Ileal Thou our lame, that they the stairs may climb- 
Which lead unto Thy dwelling place sublime. 

pp. 67-58. 



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" We wait for Thy loving-kindiieM Qod, in the midst of Thy temple." 
PsiXK zlviii, 10, (Prayer Book vertion,) 

For thy loving-kindneas, Lord, 

Wtitlnow; 
Unto me thy erace accord. 

While I bow, 
While thy people calm and lowly, 
In thv templeAxmrts the holy, 
Uttermg with fervour slowly. 

Hymn and vow. 

Thon with all th^ saints of old 

Oft*d]dst meet. 
While the altar-smoke unrolled 

Heaven did greet. 
While the wWte-fleeoed lambs were dying. 
And the High-Priest deeply sighing 
Sprinkled all the gold o'er-lymg 

Mercy seat. 

liOW in dust that temple lies 

Stone hj stone. 
Ended is each sacrifice ;— 

One alone. 
Priest and Victim, Heaven*s throne filling 
Pleads for us, our soul fears stilling. 
All our thoughts with rapture thri^ng 

With love's tone. 

Yet wherever two or three 

Meet to pray. 
Is His temple, there doth He 

Come alway ; 
And His people ever waiting, 
And His great love celebrating. 
Feel His loving-kindness sating 

Them for aye. 

Father ! give me now to see 

Even here, 
Something of the mystery 

True and dear, 
Of thy heart of tendernesses. 
Which the worn and sinM blesses, 
Showering down soft, sweet caresses 

Us to cheer. 

Saviour ! while I wait, do Thou 

Touch my eyes. 
Let me see Thy glory now. 

Ere I rise; 
Let me know the love that brought Thee 
Down from blessedness ; that sought me 
While I wandered ; and then bought me 

With death-sighs. 

Comforter! I plead with Thee}— 

Come and dwell 
In my heart most tenderly. 

And dispel 
AU the coldness of my feeling ; 
Unto me His love revealing ; 
Me unto His coming sealing 

Sure and well. 



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CamCAL NOTICES* xviu. 



Tri-Une God, to Thoe I tnni 

Waitingly, 
Beep within my heart doth yearn 

After Thee ; 
While the prayer-tones are ascending, 
White the hymn-notes are soft blending, 
From thy throne of Glory bending, 

Shine on me ! 



pp. 127-131. 



LXI. 
** Hkb great love." £pHBSTAira ii, 4. 

£v*n as the mariner who rowing down 

Some shallow sparkling stream fieels evermore 
Uifl keel grate on the pebbles, and his oar 

Tangled by lilv leaves, and .then a frown 

Gathers upon his brow, till past the town, 

And past the hill-side drifting, either shore 
Fades slowly, and old ocean's hymn and roar 

Rising around, the sheep-bell's tinklings drown : 

His heart bounds with the waters, and his cheer 
Rings out most joyously : so I, whose glee 

Had parsed away while fathoming the clear 
Bright waves of earthly love's felicity, 

L^ lulled to rest without a thought or fear 
Upon Hi9 love's unsounded, shoreless sea. . 

p. 216. 



She, wlio can write such a sonnet as this, makes good her claim to the rank 
of poet. 



Tie Gulistan of Skaik Baday ; a complete Analyns of the Persian 
text. By Major R. P. Anderson^ twelve years Interpreter 
of the 25th Regt. N. I. &c. &c. 

The lover of oriental literature will not, of course, expect to find much to 
Ratify his taste in a bald translation, in which the Prose and Poetry which 
form the eWant mosaic of the Chilistan, are alike ' done into English Prose' of 
a very indilerent sort. And to do the g^allant editor justice, he does not 
profess any but a strictly utilitarian object m his work, and by a utilitarian 
standard it must be judged. On the title-page, he has, soldier-like, hung out 
his colours, so that there may be no mistake about it ; ' prepared by the 

* author purely to facilitate the study of the Persian language,' is sufficiently 
explicit to warn off any curious orientalist, who might hope to find in a 

foodly volume, price 20 rupees, a standard edition of his favourite author, 
'he Major's design is further explained in the first sentence of his introduc- 
tion, — * the object of a work of this description is apparent ; i. e., it obviates 

• the necessity of using a dictionary, and moreover the entire * Gulistan' (as 

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XIX CttfriCAt NOTICED. 

' wanted for the examination) can now be studied without t&e aid of s 
' Moonshee.' To dispense at once with both dictionary and Mognshee, is » 
tempting prospect for the young officer, who, fired with ambition to emulate 
the career of a 12 years* interpreter, finds to his encouragement, tiiat » 
2 volume folio dictionary, or a heavy quarto, need no longer be his travelling 
companion, nor a sleepy Moonshee his guide. We question however, the 
safety of the new royal road which so seductively opens to him in the 
ingeniously conlaived arrangements of Migor Anderson's Analysis. This 
designation, by the way, seems ratiier a misnomer. The Analysis is simply 
a literal rendering, given, first in the order of the Persian words, and then 
re-arranged into very in-elegant English. There is no attempt at grammatioal 
analvsis, either as regards the structure of sentences, or the derivation of 
vroroB, unless indeed, some occasional displays of philogical lore, scattered, 
few and far between, over the pages of the translation, are to be so regarded, 
e. g. on page 292 (when the student may be presumed to have gone half 
through the book), he is gravely informed tnat the puzzling compound 
huzurg-zAdak means the son of a great man, from huzurg a peraonage and 
zddak bom ; and a^un at p. 479 when the belated individual has almont 
reached the end of his journey, and, it may reasonablif be suppbs^, is about 
to pluck those substantial advantages of his wearisome toD^ under the 
Autnor*s guidance, promised him in tne j^refiaee, his distrusting guide thinks 
it necessary to point out to his feeble vision that zer^dastdn meaning in- 
feriors, is a compound of zer under, and dast the hand ! However, letting 
the somewhat pretentious title of ' Analysis* pass, and taking the book as it 
really is, namelv what school boys are wont to call a crib, we are far from 
saying that the be^ner will find no assistance from it Our fear is that what 
he picks up in this otiose way will not add much to his permanent stock. 
' Lightly won, lightly lost' appues to intellectual acauisitions, as truly aa to the 
eambler's gains, llie author justifies the method he has adopted, by the 
following smgular argument. ' A student commencing the study of any 
* foreign language has to use his judgment when referring to a dictionary, 
' and IS of course liable to select the wrong meaning. By having this * Ana- 
' lysis ' he finds that the exact meaning of the word ( to suit the t>efy paasase 
' he is translating ) stands the^r«^ in the vocabulary, and if he wants also the 
' general meanings, they immediately follow in succession.' We should have 
thought that of the two methods that which exercises the student's judgment, 
was preferable, and was likely to be most successful even in the proximate 
object of fixing the meaning or a passage in the memory. Of one thing we 
feel sure, that however useml the * Analysis* may prove in cramming up for 
an examination, it is as ill calculated to make one a Persian scholar, as the 
furtive use of a Smart* s Horace is likely to make the school boy a good 
classia Still, we are aware that this method, of dose translation, has not 
been without its advocates. The vigorous understanding of Locke, impatient of 
the shackles of conventionalism, sought to introduce a reform of the estab- 
lished systems of our grammar schools. His object was to initiate the pupil 
generally into the knowledge of a language before he troubled him with 
the rules of Syntax and Prosody, and the medium by which he proposed 
to give him this initiatory knowledge, was that of interlinear translations. 
He recommended taking some easy and nleasant book, such as ^sop^s Fables, 
and writing Uie English translation, maole as literal as it can be, in one line, 
and the Latin words which answer each of them just over it in another: and 
he appears to have executed such a translation ; for soon after his death ap- 
pearea J^op^s Fables in Latin and English inierlineary, for the benefit 
qf those vshOf not having a master, would learn either of those tongues, B^ 



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CJEITICAL NOTICES. XX 

John Locket GenL* The Hamiltonian method was a more reOent attempt 
of the same kind. We scarcely think that Major Anderson's plan of discard- 
ing the interlitiear arrangement of the translation, and connecting the 
English renderings with the text hy a -string of numbers, as notes of 
reference, is at all an improvement. It has been adopted, we presume, 
with the view of giving room for the introduction of the series of the 
general meanings of each wopd, which he seems to consider a novel anil 
important feature of his work. We fail to see the advantages of adding 
to the ' exact meaning of the word,' appropriate to the passage, a string of 
synonyms. The greatest blemish of the dictionaries seems here to be re- 
produced, and j>araded as an excellence. For instance of what use, but to 
swell the book, is it to tell us, as on page 225, that the Persian verb trans- 
lated * leave off* is also susceptible of the meanings, * quitf forsake, relin- 
quUh, abandon !* or that kho-e may be rendered, ' a manner, a custom, a 
di^osition, a nature P' Half a dozen more of such futilities might be culled 
out of this one page, taken at random. In his laudable endeavour to strip 
every rose in Sady's garden of its thorn of difficulty, the Editor has taken 
rather a strange liberty with the text. All the Arabic proverbs and quota- 
tions ( and they abound, as every reader of the Gulistan knows, and often 
contain the point of the story, ) are quietly omitted from the text, without 
one word in explanation, so far as we have been able to find. They are 
translated in the English version, but have disappeared bodily from the 
text We infer that in the Fort William College examinations, candidates 
are not expected to translate the Arabic verses, and therefore these did not 
fall within the scope of the Editor. We think, however, that it was 
scarcely &ir to his author or his readers, to take this liberty with the text, 
and that it might have been charitably supposed that some students might 
be desirous of mastering the original work m its integrity. We might at 
least have had the opportunity given us of comparing the translation with 
the text on which it is based, without being reduced to the necessity of hunt- 
ing out an unabridged edition of the original work. 

One pecidiarity of this translation is to be found in 'revised* renderings of 
sundry passages. The author's endeavour as he tells us in the preface, was 
' to re-translate here and there some of Shaik Sadv's inimitable and ^legaat 
'similes in such a manner as to elucidate, as &r as possible, their co- 
' vert meanings.* We cannot congratulate our author on the felicity of these 
attempted elucidations of his renderings. We may say, as Hooker did of in- 
terpretations of Scripture, ' those which are frirthest from the text, are common- 
' ly the worst* ; e. g. on the first page, Sady makes the spirited observation 
Waqt-i'ZaHlrat chU namdnad garez, 
Da»t hag'irad sar^ushamsKir-i-tez, 
which may be freely translated that when a man is driven up into a comer, 
he will seize the sword aimed at him by the point. In this there is no very 
covert meaning. Our translator, however, not content with giving the passage 
literally, * In the time of necessity, when there remains no escape, the hand 
' seizes the point of the sharp sword* adds a revised translation, which is not only 
destitute of all the force of the original, but fairly inverts its meaning, and 
violates both sense and grammar. He makes his author to utter the un- 
meaning platitude, that ' in the time of need, when it is impossible to escape, 
* the hand graspeih the sharp edged sword,* A very natural action, doubtless, 

• Preface to the first book of the Iliad, on the plan reeommended hy Mr, Locke, 
London, 1862. 



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XXI CRITICAL NOnCBB. 

to ^^nufp one's good sword in the honr of danger : but not quite the ntuatwm 
which Sady*8 verse presents to the mind's eye. We must not, however, pur- 
sue our criticisms further, lest our remarks become obnoxious to the defiioioe 
which the author throws out in his preface to the ' turbulent railings of 
* satirical critics ! ! !' but rather commend the book to the tribunal of Uie 
' competent authorities ' ( we presume, he means the C(dlege examiners) 
to whose discrimination he conndently appeal»k 






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