INDIA.
THE Manchester Chamber of Commerce, after sundry fruitless at- tempts to prevail upon Government to send a Commission to India for the purpose of inquiring into the state and prospects of cotton- cultivation there, have made up their minds to send a Commis- sioner of their own.
The Chamber have been happy in their choice of a Commis- sioner. Mr. Mackay, upon whom their choice has fallen, is fa- vourably known to a pretty numerous public by his work on Ame- rica. He has had considerable experience in the collection of sta- tistical information ; he has lived long enough in a foreign land to know that essential differences sometimes lurk beneath external resemblances in the social arrangements of two countries, and to be on his guard against the erroneous inferences to which igno- rance of this fact leads. He is naturally acute, energetic, cautious. For the difficult task of investigating and reporting upon the con- dition of an important branch of industry, and the circumstances which are likely to promote or retard its progress among a com- munity so different in all respects from our own as that of India, probably a better selection could not have been made than that of Kr. Mackay.
This movement of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, though interesting and important in itself, appears much more so when regarded as one of the first notes of preparation for the great inquest which will be summoned to sit upon our Anglo-Indian go- vernment, previously to the renewal of the East India Company's charter.
British India now includes the whole enormous region from the Suleiman range of the Beloochees and Afghans on the west, to the mountains which divide Assam from Burma on the east—from the Himalaya mountains to Cape Comorin. Its population cannot fall short of a hundred millions of souls. The annual exports from England to India average nearly seven 'pillions sterling. The re- sponsibility of the British nation for the good government of such a dependency is awful. It involves directly the wellbeing of a hun- dred millions of fellow-creatures—indireetly, the prosperity of the large proportion of our fellow-countrymen whose -worldly means are bound up with those of a country which imports annually to the value of almost seven millions of our produce and manufac- tures, sends us a corresponding value in return, and besides pays a large annual tribute to the stock-owners of the East India Com- pany.
Of the actual condition and social relations of this important de- pendency the people of England are very imperfectly cognizant. In the archives of the East India Company is ample store of in- formation, but its very bulk renders it of little avail even for the Leadenhall Street Directors themselves. The interesting notices respecting India which occasionally come out through the press are fragmentary in their nature, the fruits of the observation of isolated individuals, gleaned up amid the hurry of engrossing avo- cations, bearing upon limited localities. The stirring but ephe- meral incidents of Indian wars bear an undue proportion to facts of less obtrusive but more pervading and abiding interest.. One fact, however, is highly suggestive. The foundation of our Indian empire and the establishment of the United States of North America as an independent nation were contemporary events. The loss of our North American colonies helped to concentrate the attention and exertions of England upon its Indian dominions. The progress made by British India since 1760, in civilization, material wealth, and intelligent enterprise, is barely perceptible; while the United States have expanded from a few obscure colo- nies into a. mighty nation, second only to our own in the value and extent of their commercial relations, second to none in intel- ligent and successful enterprise. The Anglo-Norman inhabit- ants of the " old Thirteen "kProvinces have made the valley of the Mississippi, and the, prairies beyond it, which little more than half a century ago were mere -wastes, the thronged abodes of a vigorous and wealthy European population, and have extended their settlements to the shores of the Pacific. This they have done without the aid of the aboriginal tribes, who have proved irreclaimably addicted to their nomade hunter habits. The Anglo-Normans who rule British India have had to deal with a country thickly peopled with races far advanced in civilization, though of a peculiar character ; yet in every respect the results of their efforts lag far behind those visible in America. To place the difference in a most striking point of view, it is only necessary to contrast the cotton produce and the mercantile marine of British India with those of the United States. There is actually a more fully-developed steam-navigation between Panama and California than between Bombay and China.
These general results are palpable ; their more occult causes, at least in so far as India is concerned, are obscure and hidden. It could be wished that many independent interests connected with British India might take the same step that has been taken by the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, with a view to elicit the truth respecting such special features of India's social condition as more immediately concern them.
The modifications in the government of British India which may be required, when the renewal of the Company's charter affords an opportunity to introduce them, ought to be set about in a fearless yet dispassionate and reflecting spirit. It cannot be denied that the policy of the Company, in its administration of India, has too often been characterized by narrowmindedness and undue timidity. But neither ought it to be denied that many of its acts have been indicative of a liberal, intelligent, and truly princely spirit—disinterested benevolence and superiority to mere conventionalities. If the progress of India since 1760 has fallen far short of that of America, the condition and temper of our possessions intrusted to the management of the East India Com- pany contrast most favourably with those which have been aban- doned to the rule of the Colomal Office.
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