LORD RIPON AND THE BLACK ACT.
THE Viceroy of India has not, we fear, been wise in once more bringing forward the old "Black Act," but it is absurd to accuse him of "sentimentalism." Lord Macaulay was no sentimentalist, and the proposal to make Europeans in India as liable to all Civil Courts as Natives are was originally
Mr. Bethune was the very reverse of a sentimentalist, • and the second Black Act, extending the liability to criminal proceedings, was his, and was accepted by Lord Dalhousie, the least sentimental of mankind. The truth is, that for the last half-century every Viceroy, and a great majority of all Civilians, have felt precisely as all reformers in the Eastern Mediterranean • cow feel about the Capitulations, that exemptions from jurisdic- tion because of nationality are always indefensible in theory, and 'occasionally injurious in practice. They create a privileged class, they diminish the motive for selecting Native Magistrates with care, and they make it more difficult for poor natives, when injured by the privileged caste, to obtain swift and inexpensive redress. These arguments, in themselves very strong, are fortified in India by the dislike of the Executive to admit that its agents deserve distrust, by a profound desire to destroy the feeling that natives, even when entrusted with power, are watched more than Europeans would be, and by a distaste, only half- conscious, for the settlers, who are often very rough, and who, • whether rough or refined, break the otherwise perfect uni- formity of obedience to official decrees. For all these reasons, and perhaps for one more, a desire to be able to say that per- fect equality is secured by British domination, successive Governments have stripped away the old European privileges, until only one remains. A European accused of breaking the law can be arrested, committed, tried, and condemned like anybody else ; but only by the European officials. If the Magistrate is a native, he can only commit, and not condemn. This privilege, which is, in theory, at all events, • offensive to Native Magistrates, it is now proposed to take .away. The non-official Europeans are naturally excited, and as usual with most colonists, and especially colonists unrepre- sented in the governing body and debarred from political training, indulge in exaggeration. They have, however, a real case to put forward, which is briefly this. The reason which makes it expedient that an accused person in England should be tried by a jury—often a very foolish body—namely, the confidence in the law thus created, makes it expedient that an Englishman in Asia should, when accused, be tried by an Englishman. He has no confidence in anybody else, and in destroying his confidence you make him a bad subject, apt to think it indispensable, in the absence of justice, to defend himself by illegal means. If he distrusts the Court, he will terrorise the witnesses, and, perhaps, the magistrate. We all see how that goes on in Ireland, and though the Anglo-Indian settlers are not like Irishmen, they are very determined, very sensitive, and possessed of very considerable means of inspiring terror. It is better to inspire them, as at present they are inspired, with confidence in the law, more especially as, if placed under Native Magistrates, they would have some reason for distrust. Those Magistrates, as a body, do their work most creditably. The most bitter European does not profess to doubt either their intelligence or their knowledge of law. They are free from direct corruption to a degree which in Asia is extraordinary, and exceedingly sensi- tive both to official rebuke and to public comment on their proceedings. So far, indeed, from oppressing the Europeans, they would in a great many cases be far more afraid than the Civilians of the angry fuss which is excited by any suspicion of injustice to a European. But, on the other hand, they dislike the non-official Europeans exceedingly, detest their ways, their bearing, their modes of transacting business, and their presence altogether. They are often prejudiced against them, apt to believe complaints, and not unwilling to see their dis- like justified by proved charges. They would not, we believe, be betrayed into law-breaking, but they would feel, as Irish gentlemen feel about agitators, no displeasure if the evid- ence of the Police is very clear. As to the danger of false accusations, on which the Times' correspondent dwells, that would not be much increased by the change. Nothing stops a rich native, if he pleases, from suborning witnesses now ; and a European Magistrate can no more detect that they are telling falsehoods than a Native Magistrate can, perhaps not quite so well. Still, the Native is prejudiced, as a Swiss Magistrate is prejudiced, against the noisy, independent, over- visible foreigner, whom he only half understands, and thinks insolent, when he is only wanting in knowledge of behaviour.
A perception of that, intensified, of course, by the differences of civilisation, creed, and colour, and by the European's feeling that he is the superior—which is true, or why are we in India ?— destroys the settler's confidence, and makes him, instead of a supporter of the laws, a bitter and dangerous enemy of the official system. His desire to escape from the country with a fortune, which is already his greatest disqualification as a good Indian citizen, is intensified, and he developes that unreasoning and incurable distrust and hatred of his Government which, more perhaps than any other single cause, overthrew the East India Company. This distrust, already wonderfully softened, for we can remember when it extended to every servant of the Government, without distinction of colour, will gradually fade away, and it is a pity to revive it, in order to carry prema- turely a reform not demanded by any consensus of Native opinion.
If the opinion of the people of India were hostile to privilege, we should say the time for a rigid equality had arrived, but it is not so. The strangest and most interesting feature of the wonderful Indian system of administration, a system which strikes German, American, and French travellers alike with a profound admiration, is that it secures justice and order, while recognising individual rights to an extent which would seem to an ordinary jurist absolutely anarchical. There are said to be more than fifty systems of marriage, divorce, and inherit- ance legally in force in India, pleadable in our Courts, and dependent on personal privilege,—that is, caste or creed custom ; and there are certainly five in active execution in every city. Monogamy, modified polygamy and limitless polygamy, divorce by suit, divorce on conditions, divorce at will, perpetual entail, distribution by will, equal division of inheritances, unequal division, division with females excluded, division with females only included, are systems all in force in the same district, and dependent on caste laws, creed laws, tribe laws, and even family customs. Certain ranks are ex- empted from certain modes of summons. Certain classes,
especially well-placed native ladies, are exempted from certain duties as witnesses ; certain families cannot be tried at all,— everywhere, at every turn, privilege, religious, or personal, or official, is formally acknowledged. This particular privilege may, therefore, be acknowledged also, without creating any important anomaly. The Native Magistracy do not like it, —though we should doubt if they are quite unanimous, the relief from responsibility being considerable—the educated Natives of the coast fringe, who have imbibed European ideas, dislike it strongly ; but the body of the people, whose acquiescence is our security, care nothing about it, and are either unaware of its existence—for, remember, ninety per cent, of all Natives in the huge interior have never spoken to an European in their lives—or regard it, as the Telegraph, we see, argues, as a natural and becoming privilege of a superior caste. It can hardly be worth while, in the absence alike of popular feeling or of great visible mischief, to destroy the confidence in the law of an immensely valuable class of commercial pioneers. We understand Lord Ripon's motive perfectly well, and have a great respect for the benevol- ence which resents even a slight passed upon the less power- ful strata of society ; but it is well to wait, till an opinion already rapidly advancing allows the change to be made almost as a matter of course. India is not the land where equality is a dream of the people, and while, in every country of Asia, we insist by force on the Capitulations, it is well to retain the argu- ment that even in our own dominions we find them useful.
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