INDIAN PUBLIC WORKS.*
AMONG the more serious questions which really beset Anglo- Indian administrators on all sides is that of public works. What principles should regulate expenditure, how much should be spent, where and upon what objects? These are queries which the Supreme and Provincial Governments are constantly obliged to consider, answer, or defer to a more convenient season. Under the system which prevailed until Lord Mayo established the long- discussed scheme of provincial budgets, all plans for public works, no matter how small, which threw any charge upon the Imperial revenue, had to be referred for sanction to Calcutta. Every officer who aspired to "illustrate his reign)," or who acted up to what he considered the standard of his duty towards the territory or department over which he was placed, besieged his local superiors with projects ; and they, again, assailed the Supreme Government with something like importu- nity. As it was uncertain how much money would be supplied, the rule was to ask for a large amount, to be applied to many schemes, on the calculation that perhaps, one-third or one-fourth would be sanctioned, just as a capitalist applies for ten times the amount of a new loan, in order that he may secure the largest attainable proportion. Thus a local Government would send up proposals not only for bridges, court-houses, gaols, asylums, roads, costing tens of thousands, but for what were called "big things" in the way of railways, canals, bunds, docks, the "estimates" of which alone reached several millions. Thus, bombarded every year by audacity and ingenuity, the Supreme Government was led to sanction ever larger and larger totals ; while, in addition to Indian demands proper, the Home Government, moved by philanthropy or other motive, ordered "palatial barracks," or "transports," or "docks," which devoured the elastic fund devoted to public works. The consequence was a series of so-called deficits in the budget accounts, which, disclosed during the summer of 1869, brought about considerable retrenchment in the "Luxury Department," as Sir Richard Strachey called it, and a sharp overhauling of the whole question. The revived Income-tax was the offspring of a policy bent on "improving the public estate," regardless of ex- Indian Public Works and Cognate Indian Topics. By W. T. Thornton, C.B. London: Macmillan and Co.
pense, and to the discontent which that impost created may be traced the final adoption of an idea, long debated officially and publicly, whereby the Supreme Government sought relief by granting the Provincial Governments fixed sums, out of which they were to carry on their own purely local public works. But while this method removes a crowd of details from the central offices, and gets rid of much irritating friction between subordi- nate and controlling departments, it leaves the question of cost and all the burden of deciding on "magnificent ideas" just where it was in 1868. Sounder views on what are ironically called "reproductive works," and the opinion that not what we desire, but what we can afford, is the better rule, may prevail for the moment, but the continuance of such wholesome sentiments
is entirely dependent on the quality of mind which may happeix to reach the supreme seats of government in England and India.. If the 'Viceroy and Secretary of State are cool, hard, and resolute men, then the chance is great that public-works expenditure will be moderate, but a weak vessel in Downing Street, and a fervid devotee of "magnificent ideas" in Calcutta, would moon upset the- financial equilibrium, mortgage the revenue, and necessitate- harassing taxation, to make good an expenditure incurred in pursuing the dazzling prospects revealed by a mirage of reproduc- tive works.
Mr. Thornton's volume on "Indian Public Works" is an in- structive treatise, composed by one who certainly understands. the subject as few can pretend to understand it, either in India, or England. He has, indeed, attained to a just distinction in the home branch of a great department, and he superadds to accurate official knowledge the freedom of an enlightened, independent critic_ Moreover, the book, considering the specific gravity of its contents, is written with a welcome liveliness, while the style, always lucid, is bright and entertaining. Those who know nothing of Indian) Public Works, and those who are familiar with them, may read with profit Mr. Thornton's extensive survey, which will impart exact information to the one, and furnish suggestive commentaries. to the other. -In a field presenting such strong temptations to. men of a dogmatical turn, our author rarely lays down the law, although he once or twice indulges in speculations which appear more like the offspring of a generous imagination than of a sober judgment. In this category we are disposed to place the fervid sketch of a future supposed to result from the "Anglicising" of' Ilindoos, which would be literally a turning of the East upside down, and the notion that we, as a nation, are bound to spend, generations of valuable lives and invest millions of capital in s comprehensive attempt to create an Indian nationality able to stand and run alone. Happily the sound management of a Public- Works Department is quite independent of schemes which, if reduced to practice, would make us the principal agents in de- stroying our own Empire, and responsible for leaving behind am anarchy worse than any existing in the peninsula when we set foot on its shores. We prefer Mr. Thornton's statements and reasonings concerning the present, to his dream of a polity which would certainly quench his own bright forecast of an Indian future in blood and ruin.
At the very outset, he removes an impression which prevailedl extensively thirty years ago, and still lingers among us. It was once a settled article of belief that the English had found India well supplied with all kinds of public works, provided by bene- volent despots, and that these had been neglected and allowed to disappear by rude interlopers, animated by a thirst for gold, for territory, and military renown. No idea was ever more erroneous. Admitting that "Public Works have always formed a weak side of Anglo-Indian administration," Mr. Thornton caustically re- marks that "since the fall of the Roman Empire there never has- been a government whose strong side was public works ;" and adds that in no country "in which the State has done most in- this direction has it done nearly as much within an equal period as the British rulers of India have done within the last twenty years." Since 1855, irrespectively of a similar amount devoted to railways, the Indian Public Works Department has expended ninety millions sterling, "a very liberal tithe of the entire revenues of the State during the same period." But it may be said, this expenditure represents a tardy recognition of obligations. Not so. Before 1855 we had not obtained possession of the country so as to. keep the peace and command its resources. Moreover, if in remote times genuine public works abounded, they had vanished before our advent, and "the programme of constructional opera- tions which the English in India found awaiting them, as soon as they bad time to look around after becoming masters there, was of unprecedented length, so that within the period which has since elapsed the utmost energy on their part must have failed to discharge its obligation." The truth is that the country was bridgeless, roadless, absolutely wanting in maritime appliances, and greatly needing edifices "suitable and available for the pur- poses of administration according to European notions." Under- lying the diffieultits thus presented to a race not deficient in enterprise was a relative scarcity of money, which could only be sapplied by loans or taxation, financial processes, especially the latter, very likely to create sullen discontent among a people who do not like to be taxed even for their own good at the pleasure of intrusive strangers. Narrowly scanning the terms of the problem, we are, therefore, more disposed to wonder that so much, than that so little has been done ; nor, considering -the pressure applied from home by a powerful, restless, and often ignorant eddy of public opinion, insatiate in its demands, can we be fairly surprised at the errors in policy and practice which have occurred. Viceroys and Secretaries of State entered on a career of experiment in a line of business rarely practised by govern- ments, and if they committed grave blunders in irrigation, rail- way construction, barrack-building, some allowance must be made for inexperience. Mr. Thornton is very severe on Lord Dalhousie, far more so than is warranted by the facts on which the great Governor-General alone could act ; but the art of pass- ing judgment apres coup is, we suppose, one which no critic could safely neglect. His railway policy, with all its defects, has at least given railways to India ; and it is not fair to determine its merits by the light of scientific knowledge and experience subse- quently obtained. Without a guarantee no ikon ways would have scored the surface of India, for public opinion twenty years ago would have scoffed at the bare notion of Indian State Railways ; while as to the selection of a broad gauge, the error is entirely due to grass neglect on the part of Mr. Fairlie, -who did not get himself born into the world until, so far as India was concerned, he was too late by a generation. Apart from the harsh mode of dealing with Lord Dalhousie, there is much that is excellent and suggestive in the chapter on Communications." In like manner, the author, as might be anticipated, treats the vexed question of " Irrigation " in a sober and business-like manner, and justly discredits the tendency towards "big works,', and the arbitrary doctrines of the despotic school, respecting compulsory water supply. Mr. Thornton, as he should be, is at once vigorous and subtle in his criticism of "Establishments," an -endless theme, gifted with perpetual youth, among all men and nations. A very good map enriches the book, and shows at a glance the principal railway works of which it treats, as well as the light-houses on the wide-stretching coasts of British India and Burmah.
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