This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project
to make the world's books discoverable online.
It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject
to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books
are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.
Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the
publisher to a library and finally to you.
Usage guidelines
Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.
We also ask that you:
+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.
+ Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.
+ Maintain attribution The Google "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.
+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe.
About Google Book Search
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web
at |http : //books . google . com/
D gitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
/
Digitized by CjOOQIC
PUBLIC LliJllBY
13991B
ABTOS, LENOX AND
9U)fiN FWJHDjaiem
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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,
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by
/V^oogle
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digftized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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,
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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-
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by V^OOQiC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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-
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
' Digitized by VjOVjy IC
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.
Digitized by
^oogle
BR1TIS4I SETTLEES. iSr
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.'
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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-
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by
Google
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, ^
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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. %
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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^
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.
Digitized by
Google
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.
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by V^OOQl*^
^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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
^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-
Digitized by
v^oogle
H BRITISH SErrLBR8«
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.
Digitized by
Google
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQlC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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-
Digitized by V^OOQ IC
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.
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by
DyV^oogle
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
' 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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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«
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
DigitLd by Google
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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*
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.
Digitized by
Google
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
mabch, 1861. Pig.,^^, b^Google
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.
Digitized by
Google
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by V^OOQIC
90
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
92
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.
Digitized by
Google
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.
Digitized by
v^oogle
u
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.
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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(>
Digitized by VjOOsJ IC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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 '
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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-
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by CjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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. ,
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by V^OOQl€
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.'
Digitized by
Google
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,
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
I Digitized by V^OOgle
\
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQl€
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
Digitized by V^OOQiC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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..
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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>
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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^
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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..
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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^
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
i;:
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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 ,,
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
A. N ,--/^' ,'■■"
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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. .
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by
Google
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by
Google
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^
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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, ^
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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,
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
}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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
%
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQ.IC
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-
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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,
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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-
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
, Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
/
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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,
Digitized by VjOOQIC
%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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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 !'
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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 :
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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^
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
€
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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 ;
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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,
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
Google
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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'
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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 ;
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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?
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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 ?
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.'
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by.VjOOQlC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by
Google
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
^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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by
Google
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.*
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
. Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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,'*« }
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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. '
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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/
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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 *
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by
Google
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.
Digitized by VjOOQLC
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
digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.'
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by V^OOQlC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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,
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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*
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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?
Digitized by
Google
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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. .
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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. ^.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by
Google
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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-
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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. -
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
(
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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^
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by
Google
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;
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Dnitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by
Google ,
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
Digitized by
Google
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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*
Digitized by VjOOQIC
*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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
99i
OCR KAILWATS.
TABLE I.
11
1^
o o o
O O o
f* O 'H
»« « 09
o
o
S 2 I S S I I I I I
s
■4f «'
sf s
ll
H
, II I I I I I I R I
o
o
«^OOO00«0i00«i-<^O
o o o
fH O «
^^1
Jim
O O © O "O o © o
00©©©9©©
§ § § -
^ t^ ■* ^ lO
It
5
O O O CO 00
O O 91 ^ O
5» S 5 ? ^^
"«* o
<* o
i
2 S 3 3
S "^ ri
GB HI
3
0«
I
lllfflll
I
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
99*
OUR KAILWAY8.
TABLE n.
^oq JO wiavdiiioQ
iq pesnu 9q O) ^nnooiy
mil
Sr
|-g^
III
Sis
8
■■[i«3 Xii panu
«•
s i= °. *T. % a
5^ ^ I a I 5,
s
si
I
Id
<» :
III
^"8
I . I
iw>l
QD Cj, « CD O
3 « Ei ^ 5!
CO lO lO tH F^
eo iH iH
iqi poirabM ^imomy
I ?. I I I I I
^ ^ I I a s a 8
si
4
o ^ •'9
^
11
§ I I §
§ §
I I
8
(g
i
8"
S'
S "
I I
8
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
898
OUR SAILWAIB.
EH
o
CO
CO
oo
i,
I
I
.§»
"8
4
••igojij^ax
*i90indxg[ 9iip[jo^
T^X
•n»F»»»W ^'•^Wm ^oj «Vl|W9fl
'ozipuvifjiajf moyg s^diaoog
' nudSaasBB J 1009 s^dpoog
1
1
^
:^
'fe*
p!
Q^
»l
s
•S
M
M
1
a
^
Szi
I
*nodo B9[rp(
■aoiif q)08 '(npns nex
S
9
t
I
s
s.
«*
I
9.
-f— r
I
_s_
3^
o
8
H
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
400
OUR BAtLWAYS.
8
I
I
>
o
It
13 »S
s
I
s
M
I
8
s
I*
^J
1l-§
IP
-I
I
I
I
§1
9^
Oft to
09 ^S
^
^^
^
^^
.11
%l
« t-S-
5
5
I
I
n
9
^1
I'
I
-l
Si
i-
1 ■
^iS
1
o
98-
1
l«
s
ss
s
^
41 *-.««.
n
ga
t^
1^
SI
1
9
1
«
1
41
1
1 '
S.H-
1
§1
l'
1
1
•si
i
11
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^
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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/
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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 .
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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^
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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
Digitized by
v^oogle
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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|
Digitized by
v^oogle
OWTICAt NOTICBS. VUl
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
C&ITICAIx NOTICES. X.
" 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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
CUnCAL.MOnCBi^^
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-
Digitized by
Google
-eRtTICAL KQTICB6. xH
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
Digitized by VjOOQIC
XiU OEinCAL KOnOBB.
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 !*'
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQiC
JLV CRITICAL MOTICBS.
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
Digitized by
Google
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
XVll CRITICAL KOnCBB.
" 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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
Digitized by V^OOQIC-
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^
Digitized by
v^oogle
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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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
-METBOPOUTAJI STBAM PBB88, Pain TBI) BY B. C. I<BPA6B & COw •
Digitized by V^OOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
ft" [ G 195^
Digitized by VjOOQIC