CAPPER'S THREE PRESIDENCIES OF INDIA..
THIS title is inaccurate : the three Presidencies are not treated distinctly as such, but embraced in an account of the whole of India. The historical précis of the Himdoo, Mahometan, and English periods, does not greatly differ in plan from the nume- rous other compilations on Indian history. Neither, perhaps, does the exposition of manners, customs, productions, and art, though the narrative may be fuller and more circumstantial. The late discussions on the India Government Bill have pretty fully brought before the public the nature, economy, and character of the Company's civil and military services ; so that much originality was not to be looked for in that direction. Mr. Capper, however, has executed a task which, as regards the past, has been done to often to admit of much novelty, with skill and spirit. He has collected and abridged the matter of our best Indian his- torians with judgment. He has in like manner presented sum- mary views of the other subjects connected with an account of India,—as its physical geography, its arts, manufactures, produc- tions, religions, and customs. The great events of late years— the Scinde, Sikh, and Burmese wars—are embraced in his history ; which gives it a completeness that no other work of the same kind possesses. The picture of modern Anglo-Indian commerce, its reckless not to say criminal speculations, and its gigantic failures, has novelty of subject. Perhaps the greatest freshness arises from the living knowledge of the author. His compilation is the work of a man who has evidently been in India, and who speaks of the people and the country with the certainty and verity which actual observation induces.
Like many other independent writers on Indian affairs, Mr. Cap- per is a strong opponent of the Company and its rule ; giving but an indifferent account of its " covenanted" servants, and Anglo- Indian society in general—at least of all those classes that are "presentable" at the respective Government houses. The late ex- posures of all kinds would appear to justify anything that may be said upon the subject. But the tone of our censor seems strong ; and though he may make exceptions in fact, those exceptions are, so to speak, not felt. The Company, originating in a commercial corporation, and looking to money as their primary object, introduced a confined if not a sordid spirit into their government, which it has never altogether got rid of. The patronage to the greater part of • The Three Presidencies of India: a History of the Rise and Progress of the British Indian Possessions, from the Earliest Records to the Present Time. With an Account of their Government, Religion, Manners, Customs, Education, &c. By John Capper, F.R.A.S., late Editor of the Ceylon Examiner. Illustrated by nume- rous Engravings, and a Map by Wyid. Published by Ingram, Cooke, and Co. the offices being substantially in the hands of the holders of stock, and they being of an inferior-minded class, it followed that a low as well as a loose set of persoas went out to India. Still, some Directors were conscientious men of ability, ,and many were well- intentioned. The mass of the civil and military servants were pro- bably grasping, corrupt, and immoral. They, perhaps more truly than any other branch of the public service, represented the middle class of Great Britain, with its aristocratic prejudices and aspira- tions, and its democratic energy. Men of considerable accomplish- ments, of great resolution and resource, and of very varied ability, have sprung from their ranks, however they may be considered as exceptions. Indeed, without those exceptions the acquisition and retention of such an empire would have been impossible. This is probably seen by Mr. Capper, and is indeed admitted occasionally; but it does not pervade the exposition or judgment.
No doubt, abuses call for censure ; and, rife everywhere, they are the staple crop of Company-ridden India, according to all but unanimous accounts. Mr. Capper has some novelty in his expo- sure, however. Other writers fix their attention on the civil or military services : without overlooking them, Mr. Capper directs attention to legal and commercial eireles,—,which, sooth to say, are as bad as the others, if not worse. Perhaps in no other country could such an accumulation of incompatible offices as the following be found in one person in a new and important department. " This Secretary is a striking illustration of the manner and the extent to which offices are heaped upon favourites by an Indian Government. Besides being a member and the Secretary of the Council of Education, and having in consequence to conduct the correspondence °fall the colleges and schools under the Government of Bengal, he is a- Professor in the Medical College, the Secretary of that College, Government Book-agent, Inspector of Schools, and First Physician to the new Fever Hospital. " In this way, should any professor of one of the colleges feel aggrieved at the conduct of the school-inspector, or hampered by any of his regulations, he must forward his complaints to the man who, being both secretary and inspector, has to decide upon all complaints thus brought against himself. In the same manner, the sale of books by the secretary becomes a source of great evil ; for this functionary not only reaps a large personal profit by the unrestricted price he places upon all books supplied to the various educa- tional establishments, but keeps them furnished with such books as pay him best, and which are precisely those least desired by the professors. Yet to complain is out of the question ; for any such matter must be submitted to the book-agent in his capacity of secretary ; who would not only decide in his own favour, but in his third capacity of inspector of schools, manage to show any such rebellious professor the exceeding irapdlicy, not less than the utter inutility, of raising any such complaints:'.
This is a picture from the Hindoo College at Calcutta, drawn from the life, but perhaps withoutsuffiCient allowance for forms and customs. The best Native school in-Asia would not furnish a more lively scene.
"On any ordinary day the visitor will see, on• a table in the midst of a small room, one of the ' professors' sitting in Oriental fashion, after the manner of tailors : his head is bare, his shoulders are bare ; the day is hot, and the roll of muslin which envelops his body out of doors has been re- moved ; the ample rotundity of the stomach heaves regularly above the mus- lin folds which encircle the loins and thighs: The shaven crown of the worthy 'professor,' and his broad ' quivering back, glow with the heat ; whilst a disciple, standing him plies the fan vigorously to and fro, and produces a current of wind that keeps the huge mass partially cool. Around the table are squatted numbers of dirty-looking youths, carefully enveloped in their muslin dresses, as prescribed by the rules, and droning, one by one, over a manuscript page, which is haided from one to another in succession. The majority are dozing ; and well they may, for it is sleepy work—the same verses nasally intoned by one after another with unvarying monotony, and doubtless with similar errors. The professor' seldom speaks, for he too is dozing heavily on the table, anxiously awaiting the bell that is to release him to liberty and dinner. The same scene is being repeated in other similar rooms, where other 'professors' are similarly dozing and teach- ing, and other youths similarly shut up from the light of God's sun, which shines without, and of his soul, which should shine within them."
The sketch of commercial fraud—for-it is nothing better—is a subject that would have borne a fuller; development, with more specific treatment. Mr. Capper is more general here than he is in historical particulars ; but the leading results of the crash of 1830- '31 are specific enough.
" Foremost among these stood the respectable firm of Alexander and Com- pany; who, scorning to' pull up' for any insignificant amount, earned for themselves the title of Alexanders the Great, by failing for a round sum of four millions sterling. The most fitting commentary upon the career of this truly princely house is the fact of its dividend amounting to precisely six per cent of its liabilities ! In other words, the whole amount saved out of this gigantic wreck was 240,000/. • the sum irrevocably lost, and the greater prt of which was the property of? other and innocent parties, was therefore 3,760,0001.!
"Ferguson and Company's liabilities were 3,600,0001.; Palmer and Com- pany failed for something under 3,000,0001. sterling; and Mackintosh and Company were involved to the extent of 2,500,0001. ; but these three firms rather astonished the mercantile world of those days, by paying 36l per cent, 30 per cent, and 14 per cent, respectively. Altogether, the six 'great houses' of Calcutta failed for an aggregate amount of nearly 15,000,0001. sterling; paying among them an average of five shillings in the pound ; and consequently entailing on their creditors losses to the extent of 11,250,000/. sterling.
"What it may be asked, was the immediate result of this state of things ? I have said that, personally, the great defaulters passed comfortably through the wide and friendly portals of the Calcutta Insolvent Court. Their social position remained as good as ever; the world termed them unfortunate; from the Governor-General downwards, they were greeted with all the sympathy which men usually show to martyrs."
In this country, the judgment-seat and the men employed under it have clean hands; or if some of them are dirty, they are gene- rally hidden, or put out of the way. They manage differently in India.
" The bar of Calcutta, the attornies of the courts, the very officials of the Supreme Court were infected ; and so strong has the feeling with regard to the legal practitioners become amongst the Natives and independent Euro- peans, that few place any degree of confidence in them. "What must be the state of society in India, when we find the majority
of the officers of the highest judicial tribunal in the country lending them- selves to the most glaring improprieties, and in not a few cases to the most scandalous and heartless transactions ? First in the list of these official de- falcators is the late Registrar and Official Administrator and Trustee of the Court ; who, after becoming involved in a .variety of joint-stock gambling, wound up by resigning his office, leaving his accounts many months in ar- rears, and his cash-balance deficient to the extent of 70,0001. Next comes the Official Assignee and Receiver of the Court, who closely followed in the fi- nancial steps of his brother officer : he too resigned, leaving a deficiency of 60,0001., and a corresponding arrears of accounts : this man'is still retained in active employment by the Court. The Taxing Officer of this tribunal took the benefit of the Insolvent Court in 1847: whilst the Master in Equity, and the Prothonotary of the Court wero both constantly occupied in bank mat- ters and speculations to a great extent, and with ruinous results, in bank shares.
" The string of disclosures made before the Chief Justice relative to some of these transactions were so glaringly iniquitous, that, sliellted beyond the endurance of even a Calcutta judge, he indignantly expressed a wish that a retrospective law could be passed to insure the pumshnimit of ,these guilty men. This was, however, but a single opinion ; 'the. voice of one crying in the wilderness ' fell not more dead and unheeded on the'stones and sandi of the desert places, than did this solitary, indignant protest of an upright, conscientious judge, go forth amongst the cold, stony hearts of the European community of Calcutta.
" The misdoers stood unabashed before their brethren, for their name was 'legion '; they went about, and were greeted with smiles and open houses. i They continued to give good dinners, and to receive invitations in return ; the elite of the Indian world threw wide their portals to do honour to them; and we even find these men seated high up at the table of the Governor- General."
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