HOW TO MANAGE A COLONY.* IN the autumn of 1858
Anglo-Indian society generally, and that of Calcutta more particularly, was agitated to its very centre by the discussions then raging as to the best method of reconstructing the fabric which the Great Mutiny had shattered. Many and various were the remedies proposed, the result, as is well known, being the transference of the Indian sceptre from the hands of the old Com- pany to her Majesty, assisted by a Secretary of State, and a Council to advise upon Indian affairs. It seems to have been generally sup- posed that in some unexplained manner this measure would at once inoculate her Majesty's one hundred and thirty millions of new sub- jects with full perception of the blessings of constitutional liberty, with all its accompanying features of entire equality in the eye of the law, and its utter rejection of sentiment, association, social cus- toms, and all the thousand and one distinctive peculiarities of the Oriental character, which mark it as presenting, m the aggregate, features analogous rather to the state of society in the feudal Europe of the thirteenth century, than the highly civilized, decidedly demo- cratic Europe that was born in 1789. Just at this period sickness in his family induced the author of these volumes to seek to recruit health by a trip to Java, instead of the usual remedy of a visit to Europe. Mr. Money frankly confesses that he "had no idea of acquiring useful information from an examination of the Dutch colonial system." He belongs, however—fortunately for those who desire to become acquainted with Indian matters—to a class of travellers whose value it is difficult to estimate too highly. While not insensible to the external attractions of nature in the loveliest island of the loveliest region of the globe, he finds time to remark the surprising contrasts that met his eye at every turn, and which impress him with double effect, fresh as he is from the mockery of justice, which, long ere they culminated in the mutiny,. had alienated "the peasant, the pet of our legislation," while arousing the bitterest hate of the peasant's feudal superior. Of course, as with all observant minds, to perceive is to inquire. He sees native chiefs mingling upon terms of perfect ease (though in reality limited by the strictest conventionality) with the European residents, official and non-official, who also co-operate with each other to the very utmost of their power. He sees good roads, with an ex- cellent though expensive system of posting, established throughout the colony; he sees justice promptly and efficiently administered by a Dutch official, assisted by a native adlatus, and such a system of checks devised as at once prevents native oppression whilst it en- lightens and strengthens European authority. He sees new branches of industry judiciously fostered, by rocogruzing and balancing the rights and duties of capital, and the rights and duties of labour. He sees certain branches of produce suffered to die out when no longer profitable to the labourer. Above all, and over all, and in- cluding all; he sees an annual surplus of 2,500,0001. flowing into the coffers of the parent state, the public debt extinguished, universal tranquillity—only broken by a revolt of idle pampered soldiery, com- posed, by an error in policy, of the dregs and scum of Europe—and a future, the prosperity of which is only to be measured by the produc- tive powers of the most fertile and best administered colony the sun shines upon.
We know so little of those islands, generally known as the Deitch East Indies, that we need not apologize for reminding those of our raiders who are already acquainted with the fact, that they comprise five hundred and ninety-two thousand three hundred and seventy-two square miles (or more than ten times the size of England and Wales), with a popuilation of seventeen million five hundred thousand in 1857, or, judging by previous rates of increase, nearly twenty millions at pre- sent. Of this series of magnificent colonies, Java and the little adja- cent island of Madeira, though only forming one eleventh portion, contribute above three-fifths of the population; the average since the last census giving twelve millions as the approximate number of the various races inhabiting these, the longest settled of the colonies. But it is not so generally known that the population of Java, to which Mr. Money confines his observations, has doubled since 1826, and that up to the year 1830, or rather between the years 1827 and 1830, Java was, of course, on a smaller scale, or precisely in the same position as India in 1858-61. There were the same embarrassed finances, the same disputes about land, the same organization of bands of ruffians, hired to settle land affrays by the strong hand, corre- sponding to the lattials in and about Calcutta, and the same utter hopelessness of any means being found of extricating the colony from the dark abyss before her. It is in the striking similarity thus traced between Java as it was and India as it is, that the great value of the work consists, combined as this exposition is with the startling con- trasts, if anything rather under than over stated, between Java as now ruled by the Dutch, and India as the "doctrinaires," whom we have exclusively entrusted with the task of legislating for it, have left it on our hands. Here, however, strictly speaking, the analogy Ceases: Mr. Money, though he does not exactly state as much in Plain words, leaves it to be inferred that precisely similar means to those by which Java was regenerated will produce similar results in India by developing cotton, tea, railroads, public works, &c. What these means are we shall as briefly as possible explain, when we think our readers will agree with us that, in the face of an indebtedness of 90,000,0001., and a revenue which even in 1856-57, the most pro- secrets year, showed a deficit of 470,0001., not to speak of our own Prospects at home, such a scheme as that which has so greatly bene- fited Java is, for the present at least, impracticable for India.
When in 1816 the Dutch resumed possession of Java, they found
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Java; or, 'How to Manage a Colony. By J. W. B. Money, Barrister-at-Law. gams and Blsekett Two volumes. that with the. usual tendency of English rulers to impose on Oriental nations English nineteenth-century habits of administration, and to foster notions of independence among the labouring classes quite opposed to their religion and their social customs, that able states- man, Sir Stamford Bathes, had, during the English rule, entirely altered the hitherto existent tenures of land, raising, in fact, the con- dition of the peasant at the expense of the lord of -the soil, and, in a word, introducing the ryotwaree system throughout the island. To this he added an improved system of police, which, with certain modifications, has been preserved intact. This system of peasant holdings the Dutch revoked, it never having been, and it not being at present, for very sufficient reasons stated at length in these columns, their policy to encourage native ownership of land other than that of the old family or feudal tenure. Still the revenue fell gradually and steadily, owing to the absence of any direct application of capital to developing the resources of the soil. In 1830 General Van den Bosch, who, when be first propounded his scheme, was regarded as "the wildest dreamer in the world," having been appointed Governor- General, conceived the plan of the Home Government of Holland making advances to parties who should contract to raise certain crops at fixed rates, which should first of all prove directly more remunera- tive to the labourer than his rice cultivation, should stimulate private capital to similar enterprise by showing large returns of profit, and leave a handsome surplus to Government, which protected itself by a first lien upon the produce after paying the expense of raising the crop. Of course, this form of speculation was at first scouted by the regular traders, but General Van den Bosch actually had the hardi- hood, backed against evasion by the admirable police system, to lend Government money to men of straw, who of course, if the experi- ment failed, were no worse off than before, while if it proved success- ful, they would adhere to the system as being, what it in fact proved to be, a short cut to fortune. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." All men like well-filled pockets. The calculations had been so carefully made that the results far exceeded its projector's most sanguine expectations. The land proved thirty per cent. more productive than the philosophic societies had assigned as the utmost limit of Java fertility. Public burdens fell, the revenue rose, the population doubled, and peace and prosperity reigned, and still reigns, in the colony. Government, in a word, did on a general scale what our own Drainage advances did, and do, for a particular interest, and with results at least equally, if not greatly more, beneficial.
Of course, the system involving practical serfage is inapplicable to our Eastern Empire. But we can go all lengths.with our author when he touches upon the judicial muddle of our court procedure in India, as compared with the clear, simple, intelligible scheme adopted in Java, where the Dutch use the influence of the native chiefs as a sort of moral police, while they never suffer these latter to assume in their business relations the invidious position of "middle men," the disgrace and the curse of the entire Indian system. We can appreciate the reluctance with which Mr. Money answered the inquiries of his Dutch friends, when, in reply to his involuntary expressions of surprise at the simplicity of the means for collecting the land tax, they in their turn elicited from him the utter desecration of all that the native respects, which has disfigured our administration of the land in Oude and elsewhere. And this brings us to the last, and to our view most important, because most immediately practical topic treated of in these volumes, that, namely, of the social rela- tions between the small governing minority and the subjugated race of eleven millions. Of the indifference to native feelings mani- fested by the English in India, of course with numerous exceptions, Mr. Money speaks in terms of fitting reprobation. How raw boys treat the descendants of men whose ancestors were "princes, and have always been gentlemen, since the days when our progenitors were painted with woad," is set forth with an earnestness that has doubtless acquired additional stimulus from the reflection that the Dutch do not admit into their service anyone who is not distin- guished for suavity of manners, especially in his intercoursewith the natives. Courtesy, respect for native customs, and habits of thought, well-marked lines in which the energies of the official, the " uncovenanted," the native chief, and the peasant may each find scope for fully developing his powers without the possibility of clashing with other classes,—these, Mr. Money thinks, and we cor- dially endorse his opinion, have done as much for Java as even the courageous attitude of Government in matters of finance. These, he thinks, and we think, would at least pave the way for a noble future in India.
The book as a whole is an earnest protest against the too rigid application of theories. Grant that free trade is sound political economy, and that we feel it and know it : the 'native finds it lands him in habits and modes of thought at variance with his religion and his veneration for his superior. You cannot make such a man a poh- tical economist, or compel him to feel on an equality with his feudal superior. Grant that it is " the glorious privilege of being indepen- dent," which Burns sang and asserted, that has made Britain what she is : you cannot make an Oriental fatalist take up that privilege by act of Parliament—no ! nor of Legislative Council. You .must not in short, try to amalgamate English psychology with Oriental reverence and Oriental apathy. We reason, and we scout sentiment. The Hindoo reverses these rules of thought and springs of action. And the reason why the native looks back with a. sigh of regret for those golden days of Anrungzebe, or even of Nadir Shah and Surajak Dowlah, of Black Hole infamy, days which we regard. with the horror such unchecked despotism and unbridled savage ferocity must awaken in minds cultivated in the European canons of civilization, is that none of these various and successive dynastic wars and invasions
interfered with the patriarchal relation which is the solace and joy of the Hi%loo's existence. Is not all the enjoyment of life summed up in its small amenities ? We have been conferring what we consider immense boons on the Hindoo, but we have been trampling on all his notions of regard and reverence to superiors and to tradition. An Oriental conqueror has massacred, and robbed, and spoiled, and dishonoured the native, but he has respected those minor religions, and accordingly he is regretted, while we are—detested. The Dutch have been wiser than we, and that is the moral of Mr. Money's book, which we lay down with regret that we cannot enlarge upon the many topics which arise out of the very lucid method in which he has arranged his subject.
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