THE Act of 1833, for effecting an arrangement with the
East them. The cry of Sir JOHN HOBHOUSE, in the debate, was that the India Company and for the " better government" of his Majesty's law had not had a fair trial, and that in nine short months after pass- Indian territories, had no sooner reached the metropolis of British ing the Act its provisions were petitioned against. The reply is ob- India, than a public meeting, the first ever held under a Sheriff vious:: a law founded upon a bad principle had no right to a trial. legislation either public or private. Still, neither in this nor in The first complaint of the petitioners is, that the people of India any case is there room for the imputation of undue "bias;" all is are saddled with the bankrupt concern of the Company's corn- fair and above-board ; no complaint of the manner in which a mercial monopoly. England, in the shape of an indirect tax on bill is rejected—the only evidence given being in its favour— tea, had, heretofore, paid the dividends on India Stock. India escapes from the lips of the contented and confiding subjects of is henceforward, and, virtually, in perpetuity, to be saddled with their Lordships' legislation. " On the contrary"—we again quote these dividends, amounting to an annuity of 630,0001. per annum; the Quarterly—" every man who is either the mover or the sub- and to a capital sum of twelve millions sterling. Besides this, ject of any private legislation, looks up to the House of Lords as commercial pensions and superannuations are charged to the Indian
his counsel and guardian." people; which will raise the whole charges upon them to one million
It is indeed difficult to believe that the writer of this sentence sterling at least. By the Act of 1793, the East India Company, could be series's. Or,assuredly,he is either the most ignorant or the as a compensation to the public for their monopoly, came under most impudent of his kind. At least, we whoknow and hear some- conditions to pay the nation annually 500,0001.; and they paid thing of what is passing around us, can testify, that instead of this amount once, in order to entitle them to certain pecuniary gratitude and confidence, the feeling inspired by the conduct of advantages ; but they never paid it a second time; and, by the the Peers in Private Bill Committees is one of unqualified dis- Act of 1813, their Tory friends, by an express clause, exonerated gust ; that a man would be hooted who talked gravely of Lordly them from the payment of a debt to the nation of 9,500,0001. ster- freedom from corrupt bias and culpable haste; that the mode ling! We mention this, in order to contrast it with the present uniformly adopted by those who have to pass Private Bills conduct of the same body. When the advantage was to accrue through the House of Peers, is to inlist the party spite or personal to the nation, they could not raise half a million from the Indian interest of as many Lords as possible, and by no means to rely on territory and the Indian commerce together : but now, that the the merits of his case. If the prejudices of party cannot be whole benefit is to be shared by themselves and their special roused, and the Lord to be canvassed is inaccessible to bribes, friends, they can raise double that amount, and from the territory direct or indirect, for self or friend, then the most approved me- of India only, without its commerce. Surely, all this was a heavy thod is to apply to some female favourite, and bribe her. These grievance to the people of India, and one can hardly be surprised things are done constantly—avowedly—necessarily—by those to hear them instantly raising their voices against it.
who are the " movers or the subjects of any private legislation" of The next subject of complaint in the petition is, that the only the Peers. If they neglect such precautions, they insure defeat. guarantee against arbitrary legislation heretofore existing in the
" When things are at the worst, they sometimes mend," says case of Englishmen and others, is withdrawn by the Act of 1833. the proverb : awl hence arises our hope that we are not far from Before 1833, no law, binding the parties in question, could he a change of the Private Bill system. It has become an unbearable made, which was repugnant to the municipal law of England; nuisance—the fruitful source of vexation, profligacy, and pecuni- and the security for this was, that the law could not be passed ary loss to the applicants for Parliamentary aid. It is practically until registered, with certain forms, in the King's Court of Justice; felt to be such by hundreds of thousands of those by whose energy the Judges of which, named by the Crown, and independent of and honesty reforms are always effected, if at all. The middle the Company, were very reasonably considered as the best judges classes must see how they are pillaged under the present system of the conformity or nonconformity of new laws to the above by those who openly avow their determination to consider, first maxim. By the last Act, the Governor in Council, or even the and foremost, their private interest in dealing with the measures Governor in his own proper person, without his Council, may which come before them. It is too bad to be mended : the only snake what laws he pleases, which shall bind about a million of way to abate the nuisance is to pull it down. The " movers and people,—that is to say, every Englishman, ashore or afloat, in subjects of private legislation "—that is to say, the great bulk of India, and every native of India living within the towns or the community—should not rest until they have procured the neighbourhoods of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Sincapore, Ma- removal of Private Bill business from Parliament, to some perma- lacca, and Penang; every one of whom was before under the nest, responsible, and, as far as possible, disinterested tribunal. protection of the law of England. The Governor-General is None, that the utmost ingenuity of mischief might devise, could now as free to make laws for these parties, binding them in be so bad as the present. We suggest no impracticable scheme. It their lives, liberties, and properties, as the Turkish Sultan can be might be a Board of Commissioners appointed by the Crown. If to make laws for Mussulmans and Rayas, or the Emperor of this mode should not find favour, the construction of Boards to be China for his conquering Tartars or conquered Chinese. Lord chosen in each county by the rate-payers—with powers clearly HEYTESBURY for the Tories, and Lord AUCKLAND for the Whigs, defined by act of Parliament, with facilities of intereommu- might, in the plenitude of their wisdom, and yet more of their nication, and with the aid of a court of law in questions of pro- authority, make laws for Englishmen drawn from the Shaster or perty, and perhaps in certain points of appeal—w ould not be the Koran or the book of Zoroaster or the book of Confucius. Sir difficult. Matters which are now decided upon by the ignorant, JOHN HOEHOUSE, in his palaver on this subject in the House, (for the venal, and the irresponsible, would then be submitted to men it cannot be called an answer to Mr. HUME,) said, that it was un- acquainted with the real interests of the people among whom they just that a few Englishmen should have privileges which others live, and liable to be called to account for any perversion of did not enjoy. The few Englishmen in question are all the their authority to party or personal purposes. Then the enormous Englishmen in India, and all who shall be there for the next expense of bringing witnesses up to London, and maintaining them twenty years to come ; and nearly a million of Indians, born under during the session, would be avoided. The business would be done the protection of English law, whose forefathers had enjoyed that with comparative cheapness, and infinitely better. These are cop- protection for seventy years, and who had hoped that their de- siderations which must affect the practical people of England; and scendants would enjoy it in perpetuity,—men who appreciated the will soon, we hope, induce them to make the exertion necessary to protection of English law, and were proud of enjoying it. Sir overcome the powerful and interested opposition which such a JOHN HoeImun either does not understand the compass of his proposal is certain to encounter from " Honourable" and " Right subject, or he chooses to misrepresent it. The petitioners were no Honourable" Members, naturally averse to such a curtailment of Orangemen, who insisted on an exclusive enjoyment of privileges.
did not ; and the Whig Government preferred the advice of the THE INDIAN PALAVER IN THE COMMONS. former, and, on their secret recommendation, enacted laws most repugnant to the feelings and wishes of those to be affected by
The inhabitants of Calcutta were disposed to treat the arbitrary and bad law in the same manner that the people of England treated the cry of Sir ROBERT PEEL and his adherents for a " fair trial " last year, when they wanted, under that pretext, to saddle them with a bad government.
The people of India have heretofore been excluded from all share in their own government. The Act of 1833 contains a delu- sory, indeed an hypocritical clause, by which they are admitted. It is to this effect—that " no native shall, by reason onlyof his religion, place of birth, descent, colour, or any of them, be disabled from holding any place, office, or employment." The Act has now been in operation very nearly three years, and the only instance in which the clause in question has been acted upon, out of a popu- lation of ninety millions of people, is that of a youth, who hap- pened accidentally to be in England—the adopted son of the late Rajah RAMMOHUN ROY, and to whom Sir JOHN HOBHOUSE has given a Writership. The Court of Directors have not acted upon it in a single instance, and in all probability will not in the seven- teen years which their charter has to run. At the public meeting in Calcutta, a native orator ridiculed the clause in question, and pointed out (what it was very easy todo) other clauses of the same act which made it perfectly nugatory. In order to benefit by the clause, a Ilindoo or a Mahomedan,however fit for office, must have sufficient interest with an East Indian Director to secure a Writer- ship, which, in the times of open buying and selling, was held to be worth five thousand pounds sterling money, and in money's worth is not of less intrinsic value now. But the candidates and their relatives are fifteen thousand miles off, and have no votes for East India Stuck or for Members of Parliament. Then, two- thirds of the Directors never resided in India, and the remaining third have been from ten to twenty years absent from it. Again, the Hindoos and Mahomedans are not of the same blood or kin with the Christian Directors, who have abundance of connexions of their own family and political party to provide for. By what magic, then, are the Indians to extort from the bounty of a Leaden- hall potentate a thing that is worth five thousand pounds sterling? But, after conquering the obstacle of obtaining a nomination, sup- posing that possible, the Hindoo must cross the ocean, and reside three years in England, to qualify himself. "However one may regret the prejudice," said the liberal Hindoo orator above referred to, " still the natives entertain a prejudice that it is sinful for them to cross the ocean, much more to remain in England fur years, for the purpose of tuition." So much, then, for the Whig emancipa- tion of our Indian subjects. At the public meeting, Englishmen and Indians united in denouncing that pretended emancipation as a mere juggle; and the world will think so too, unless the framers M the Act can prove it otherwise. The English and IIindoo orators at the public meeting com- plained, that the people wee taxed in order to augment the civil and ecclesiastical establishments of India, or, to be more down- right, the patronage of the home authorities. The Act of 1833 reduced neither in number nor salary any one appointment in which the patronage of the Crown or of the East India Directors was involved ; and it added a good many. It gave lucky TOM MACAULAY, for example, 10,0001. a year ; and in the shape of a Law Commission, it added about 20,0001. a year more as assistance to him. Then it added one entire new Presidency, with its many establishments,—a Presidency and establishments so superfluous and so useless, that the law for it had hardly been passed when the necessity for its abolition became transparent. There had been one Indian Bishop, since 1813. The Whig Government added two Bishops ; so, now, there is an expenditure on ac- count of the Established Church of about 50,0001. per annum, multiplied fivefold since 1814; and all this for the followers of a Church who may possibly amount to five thousand persons, but cannot amount to more ; for the great mass of Europeans in India are Catholics and Dissenters, and the mass of native Chris- tians are Nestorians or Catholics. Whether three Bishops for India or one for Manchester be most useful and necessary, we leave to the curious in such matters to determine.
In the Act, not one word is said of the civil or religious educa- tion of the great mass of the native population ; but permission is given to the Governor-General to grant money for the instruc- tion of any sect, persuasion, or community of Christians, not being of the Established Church of England, &c. " What does that mean," said one of the native orators, at the public meeting, but that money is to be taken out of the hands of the natives, to convert them to a faith which they consider to be detrimental to their salvation? Is that just ? Is it right? Is it in accordance with the precepts of that religion of which they beast so much ? I have not found one word in their sacred book which warrants them to wrench money from the hands of an unwilling man to convert him to a faith which he believes to be wrong." Sir JOHN HOBHOUSE s reply to this charge consisted of pure evasion. Sir JOHN had once visit The Indian petitioners complained, that, as fellow-subjects, they ought, in matters of commercial policy, to be placed on a fair equality with the people of England. They showed, that, by an Act of the British Legislature, the manufactures of India paid in England duties varying from 10 to 25 per cent.; while many British staple manufactures were introduced into India without any duty at all, and none paid beyond 21 per cent. It is an advantage to the Indian consumers to pay a low rate of duty for English manufac- tures; but then, there are manufacturers, and it is neither an advantage to Indian manufacturers nor to Indian consumers, nor English consumers either, that Indian manufactures should be charged with duties nearly prohibitory. On many articles the dis- criminating duties in favour of the West Indies have been equalized; but this reform should be carried further. On Indian articles, corresponding but not identical with West Indian—a long list—the discriminating duties are left as they were. But the Whigs may take credit for beneficial acts on a larger scale. Among these last, is unquestionably the throwing open of the China trade, with the little blunder of leaving a superintending establishment, costing 20,0001. a year. Among them too must be reckoned the equalization of the Sugar-duties ; which, we may venture to predict, will, in the course of two or three years, give additional employment to fifty thousand tons of British shipping,— produce a demand in India for at least an additional millions-worth of British manufactures, and cheapen in this country to the con- sumer the price of sugar,—an article for which he has been paying an extra price of a couple of millions per annum, ever since the time that lie paid down his twenty millions for slave emancipa- tion. The duty on coffee has also been reduced. Here is another subject for which the existing Government is entitled to approbation,—the granting of a Committee, now sitting, to in- quire int ) the expediency of abolishing the Indian Salt monopoly ; a grievous and oppressive impost extending over forty millions of people ; which extorts from the wretched Indian peasant the price of two months' labour to furnish himself and his family with dirty salt ;—which excludes from India the salt of this and of every other country ; and yet which, as a return for all these sacrifices, hardly puts a million into the coffers of the monopolists. To support the Whig Government against the Tories, when the Whig Government is right, is our duty and our pleasure ; but, to support them when they are unfair, or blundering, or disingenuous, is injurious to them and would be discreditable to us. We have ever been frank with them, and they are well aware upon what terms they can command our strenuous though humble assistance.
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