SIR CHARLES TREVELYAN ON PUBLIC DUTY.
ONE of the most flagrant acts of insubordination committed in modern days was that perpetrated by Sir Charles Trevelyan in his
official character as Governor of Madras. At a critical moment in the history of British India, because he differed from his imme- diate superiors upcn vital points of policy, he, a subordinate officer, took upon himself to publish his differences on his own responsi- bility, and to denounce in vehement and inflammatory language the scheme of taxation propounded by an officer specially sent from England to carry out the views of the Home Government. TLe Minutes published were too intemperate in tone for publication, even supposing that publication were warrantable ; and, in fact, they constituted a de facto challenge to the Supreme Government of India, delivered with the utmost ostentation before all the world. Practi.ally, Sir Charles Trevelyan said to the Home Go-
vernment, "Choose between me and Mr. Wilson and Lord Can-
ning; " and to the Indian community, he said, "See how much wiser and juster we are than the gentlemen at Calcutta." The effect of the first appeal was the immediate recall of Sir Charles Trevelyan ; the effect of the second—sedition—was nipped in the bud by the firm countenance of the Calcutta Government and the prompt. action of Lord Canning. Fortunately, as in the case of Lord Ellenborongh, the chastisement followed swiftly on the heels of the offence. The coups d'etat of both egregiously failed.
Some months have elapsed. Sir Charles Trevelyan is home again. Mr. Wilson dying, as Sir Charles says, "nobly at his
post in the devoted discharge of his important public duties," is in his grave. Mr. Wilson's, and not Sir Charles Trevelyan's plan of finance is in operation. The gigantic indiscretion of the ex- Governor of Madras had been swept out of sight by the tide of events flowing so rapidly in Europe, in Asia, on the American continent. It is Sir Charles himself, who has come again on the scene like a ghost who can find no rest, and who invites us to go back upon his case by handing us, which luckily ghosts do not, a thick pamphlet containing a "justification" of his misdeeds. For a moment we are willing to go back and look at that Madras blunder again, because the principle it involves is of great public importance, being nothing more nor less than this—whether a subordinate shall be a subordinate, or whether he shall give him- self the airs and exercise the authority of a superior. Sir Charles wants us to consider whether he is right or wrong upon the ques- tion of public policy, and thus blink the real issue—shall a sub- ordinate set himself up as head of an imperinm in imperio ? From the moment of Mr. Wilson's arrival in India, Sir Charles Trevelyan appears to us to have mistaken his own position. He writes as if he were responsible for the Government of the whole of British India. He dictates on financial polity, not as it would affect Madras only, but as it would affect the whole country. He poses in the attitude of Governor-General, and lays down the law from that point of view. He regards himself as responsible for the whole Indian empire, and we are persuaded it was this, per- haps unconscious mistake, that led him to commit the offence which deprived him of office. We are not exaggerating in the least. "When," writes Sir Charles, "it was announced that great and hazardous changes were to be made in the space of two months, I saw that, at all risks to myself, and at any amount of personal sacrifice, I ought to secure for the Government and Par- liament of England time to consider and express their opinion upon the proposed taxes before they became law." This sentence involves the whole question at issue. Was Sir Charles Trevelyan bound by any obligation whatever, to secure by any means he chose, time for the Home Government and Par-
liament to consider Mr. Wilson's plan ? Was he sent to India as Governor of Madras, or to act as a sort of "Dutch Deputy" in
his relations with the Calcutta Government ? In our opinion, the mere assumption that he had any sort of veto upon the measures of the Supreme Government, pending the decision of the Home Government, is sufficient to show that he never rightly appre- ciated his duties as a subordinate. He altogether forgets that Mr. Wilson had just come out fresh from the Home Government, and that it would be absurd to suppose he went out without ever indicating his views, or obtaining from the Cabinet some idea of what would be sanctioned. Overcome by a sense of his own portance, blinded by a misapprehension of his duties, Sir Charles took the monstrous step of fulminating a sweeping censure upon the Government plan, and sending it to the newspapers before he sent it to the Calcutta Government. It was, and it was intended to be, a revolutionary proceeding. Unable to stop the bills by the ordinary methods, Sir Charles took this extraordinary method, and to gratify a morbid sense of duty he imperilled the peace of an empire,. Sir_ Charles says the people of India care less about what we say than about what we do. Possibly. Butthe Native press, in the interval between the publication of the Madras Minutes and the recall of Sir Charles, showed pretty plainly that its conductors knew how to make use of what Sir Charles Trevelyan said ; and the ex-Governor, pleading for an acquittal, and ridiculing the idea of exciting turbulence among the Natives, forgets that the act which mainly calmed the rising opposition was, not the mo- dification of the schemes, but the prompt recall of himself. There was in India at the time a living example of proper con- duct. Lord Elphinstone was a man with a sense of duty as keen at least as that of Sir Charles Trevelyan. He was animated by a desire, as strong, to rule for the .welfare of the community. Lord Elphinstone bad performed inestimable services during the mutiny, and he, if any one in India, might have thought himself entitled to plead for a remission of the question home. Lord Elphinstone felt as much objection to the new taxes as Sir Charles Trevelyan, but he did not adopt the monstrous course of making those objec- tions public, not even after they had been remitted to Calcutta. It is a pity that Sir Charles Trevelyan did not take his view of the (114 of a Governor on such an occasion from the example of the able and distinguished ruler of Bombay ; and that he was not content, like Lord Elphinstone, with the modest and dignified course of calmly stating his objections in despatches to the Supreme Government, leaving the responsibility of action with them. In- stead of this, Sir Charles constituted himself and the Madras Council a Committee of Public Safety, and acted accordingly with revolutionary vigour. The slightest hesitation at Calcutta, and it is clear that the whole machinery of Government might have been thrown into confusion. -Luckily there was no hesitation, and, as we have said, it was the prompt deposition of the Governor of Madras, and not the subsequent alterations of the scheme, which mainly tranquillized the Native mind. It is of the greatest moment that acts of insubordination and mutiny, like that committed by Sir Charles Trevelyan, should be branded as such, and held up as examples to deter.- What would be the effect in India if Magistrates objected to the plans of Governors, published their objections in the market-place, and appealed to Calcutta or Whitehall ? What would Sir Charles Trevelyan himself have done had a clerk in the Treasury appealed from him to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on some matter of business ?
But the self-complacency of Sir Charles is invincible, and he now seeks to justify himself, by referring all the modifications in the Indian budget to his own misconduct, and almost holds it up as a bright example to Governors and subordinates all over the world. We trust it will not be followed. The pamphlet is an explana- tion, but not a justification of the great Madras mutiny, and it ought to operate as a warning to discourage all others, t.igli and low, from assuming duties that do not belong to their position, and adopting revolutionary methods of fulfilling them.
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