INDIA.
APPOINTED VICEROY OP INDIA--FOREBODINGS--VOYAGE TO INDIA--INSTALLATION--
DEATHS OF MR. RITCHIE, LORD CANNING, GENERAL BRUCE--THE HOT SEASON--
BUSINESS RESUMED--STATE OF THE EMPIRE--LETTERS: THE ARMY; CULTIVATION OP
COTTON; ORIENTALS NOT ALL CHILDREN; MISSIONARIES; RUMOURS OF DISAFFECTION;
ALARMS; MURDER OF A NATIVE; AFGHANISTAN; POLICY OF LORD CANNING;
CONSIDERATION FOR NATIVES.
From this time forward the story of Lord Elgin's life is no longer a record
of stirring incidents, of difficulties triumphantly overcome, or novel and
entangled situations successfully mastered. The career indeed is still
arduous, and the toil unremitting, but the course is well-defined. Compared
with the varied conflicts and anxieties of the preceding period, there is
something of the repose of declining day, after the heat and dust of a
brilliant noon; something even, young as he was in years, of the gloom of
approaching night. It seems almost as if a shadow, cast by the coming end,
rested upon his path.
[Sidenote: Vice-royalty of India.]
He had not been more than a month at home when the Vice-royalty of India,
about to be vacated by Lord Canning, was offered to him, in the Queen's
name, by Lord Palmerston. The splendid offer of the most magnificent
Governorship in the world was accepted, but not without something of a
vague presentiment that he should never return from it. This feeling was
expressed with his usual frankness and simplicity, when in the course of an
address delivered at Dunfermline, some months before his departure, after
referring to former partings, uniformly followed by happy meetings, he
said:--
[Sidenote: Forebodings.]
But, Gentlemen, I cannot conceal from myself, nor from you, the fact
that the parting which is now about to take place is a far more
serious matter than any of those which have preceded it; and that the
vast amount of labour devolving upon the Governor-General of India,
the insalubrity of the climate, and the advance of years, all tend to
render the prospect of our again meeting more remote and uncertain.
Independently of any such forebodings, there were sorrows on which it is
hardly necessary to dwell, but which were felt keenly by one so devoted to
'that peaceful home-life towards which he was always aspiring;'[1] the pain
of tearing himself again from the children now growing up to need in an
especial manner a father's presence, and of leaving the mother of these
children, for a time at least, to contend alone with cares and anxieties
from which it would have been his greatest happiness to shield and protect
her. Something, too, there may have been of the depression which breathes
in the poet's complaint, 'the roll of mighty poets is made up'--a feeling
that the work of pacifying and settling India had been so thoroughly
accomplished by Lord Dalhousie and Lord Canning, that the field no longer
contained any laurels to be reaped by their successor. 'I succeed,' he used
to say, 'to a great man and a great war, with a humble task to be humbly
discharged.'
[Sidenote: Visit to Osborne.]
[Sidenote: Sails for India.]
But these thoughts and feelings, though they may have dimmed the brightness
of his anticipations, could not for long overcloud that 'unfailing
cheerfulness' which contributed much to make him throughout life so
successful himself, and so helpful to others: still less could they for a
moment check the alacrity with which he set himself to prepare for his new
duties. For some time he remained in London; after which he spent several
pleasant months in Scotland, laying up a store of happy recollections to
which his thoughts in after days often turned. Early in January 1862,
accompanied by Lady Elgin, he went to Osborne on a visit to the Queen; who
even in those early days of widowhood, roused herself to receive the first
Viceroy of India ever appointed by the sole act of the Crown. On the 28th
of the same month he quitted the shores of England; and, after a rapid and
uneventful journey, reached Calcutta on March 12. As Lady Elgin was unable
to accompany him, he resumed the habit of conversing with her, so to speak,
through the medium of a journal; from which some brief extracts are here
given, less for the sake of the few incidents which they record, than for
the glimpses which they give into the mind and heart of the writer:-
[Sidenote: Man overboard!]
_H.M.S. 'Banshee.'--Marseilles.--January 31st._--Only think of my
writing again from Marseilles! I was breakfasting yesterday, when
there was a cry of 'A man overboard!' We went on deck. After a while,
the man--who had enormous water-boots on, but who was fortunately a
good swimmer--appeared on the surface, caught hold of a life-preserver
which had been thrown out to him, was picked up by a boat, and hoisted
on board. After a bumper of brandy, he seemed none the worse. But in
the meantime we had sprung our _rudder-head_ (the same sort of
accident as befell the 'Great Eastern'). It must have been bad, or it
could not have gone as it did. The captain said to me: 'We may go on
for a few hours, and see what we can do, and then return if
necessary.' I did not see the fun of this plan, and suggested that we
had better at once find out what was the matter. We returned to port,
and, after a long deliberation, a scheme of patching was resolved
upon.... It is most vexatious to be doing nothing, when my moments
have been of late so precious and so hurried.
* * * *
_'Ferooz.'--Gulf of Suez.--February 9th._--When I got on board this
morning my heart smote me a little for having discouraged your coming
out with me, for nothing can be more comfortable than this ship has
been made, with a view to the accommodation of poor Lady Canning and
you. _Eight P.M._--It is very lonely to be spending this Sunday
evening by myself, after the many happy ones I have enjoyed with you
and the children during the past three months; and yet I would not
forego the recollection of those happy days though it deepens the
gloom of the present. Surely, whatever may happen to us all, it is
something gained to have this retrospect in store.
[Sidenote: Old MSS.]
_February 12th._--Going on as smoothly as ever.... I have been reading
over some old manuscript books, written from twenty to twenty-five
years ago, and containing a record of my thoughts and doings at that
remote time. It is very interesting and useful to look back. I was
working very hard during those years, searching after truth and right,
with no positive occupation but that of managing the Broomhall
affairs, and riding at a sort of single anchor with politics. Would it
have been better for me if I had had more engrossing positive work?
There is something to be said on both sides in answering that
question. However, these books will not be again read by me, for I
shall consign them to the Red Sea.
_February 13th._--The breeze is freshening and dead ahead.... I have
been thinking of the past, and remembering that just twenty years ago,
at this same season, I set out on my first visit to the Tropics. What
a strange career it has been! How grateful I should be to Providence
for the protection I have enjoyed! How wild it seems, to be about, at
the close of twenty years, to begin again.
[Sidenote: A gale.]
_Sunday, February 16th._--A bad time since I last wrote. We have had a
very strong gale.... There is less motion to-day, probably because we
are under the lee of the Arabian coast. I could not wish that you had
been with me while we were undergoing this misery; and we have made
slow progress, but may reach Aden to-morrow. It has been a sad
time.... I could not read, and have been lying down, thinking over so
many things!... But there may, please God, be a good time beyond. I
have been thinking of the little party in your room on this day, and
endeavouring to join with you all.
[Sidenote: A moonlight night.]
_February 19th.--Gulf of Aden.--Seven A.M._--I have just had my first
walk on deck for this day. It is fine, and the head wind keeps up a
cool draught of air for us. The night was pleasant and cool, and I
spent an hour before I went to bed, walking up and down the bridge,
between the paddle-boxes, looking at a great moon, a little past the
full, climbing up the heavens before us, and (as Coleridge says, I
think in the notes to the _Ancient Mariner_, of the stars) entering
unannounced among the groups of stars as a guest certainly expected
--and yet there is a silent joy on her arrival.
_February 27th.--Near Ceylon._--According to the account of our
captain, who hails from Bombay, the Governor there must be very well
off as regards climate. He has the sea air at Bombay itself; 2,000
feet of elevation at Poonah; and 5,000 on a mountain accessible in two
days from Bombay. So that his family may always live in a cool
climate, and he can join them when business permits. Perhaps at some
future time the convenience of the situation of Bombay, its greater
vicinity to England, &c., may place the Governor-General there; but
this will not happen in our time.
[Sidenote: White ants.]
As I went into my cabin yesterday before dinner, I observed a swarm of
white flies with long wings, by the side of one of my open ports. I
found out that they were white ants which had burst through the wood-
work, and which seem to be provided with wings under such
circumstances, in order that they may migrate. The wood-work inside
near the place from which they burst out, was completely destroyed by
them, and reduced to a pulp. It appears that there are quantities of
these creatures in this ship. It is believed that they are only in the
scantling or upper wood-work. It is to be hoped that this may be so;
for they devour timber with wonderful rapidity, and ships have been
lost by their eating away portions under water.
[Sidenote: Madras.]
_March 7th.--Madras._--Reached the anchorage at 4.30 P.M. We soon got
into one of the country boats made for landing in the surf (without
nails, and all the planks sewn together). We were hoisted by the waves
upon the beach, and found there a considerable crowd, with the
Governor, Sir W. Denison; Sir H. Grant, etc., and a guard of honour,
to receive us; Sir W.D. drove me out to this place, Guindy, which is
about eight miles from the town, and consists of a charming airy
house, in a large park. There was a full-dress dinner party and
reception last night.... I have decided to proceed to Calcutta to-
morrow.
_'Ferooz.'--March 9th.--Sunday._--It was very hot during the service
under the awning. But you and the little ones were remembered on this
sweltering Bengal sea.... My visit to Madras was pleasant, and an
agreeable change.... And I collected there papers and official
documents enough to keep me going till I reach Calcutta.
[Sidenote: Calcutta.]
[Sidenote: Installation.]
It was on the evening of March 11th that the 'Ferooz' anchored in 'Diamond
Harbour,' the same anchorage at which, in the 'Shannon,' he had spent the
night of August 8, 1857. The following day he was formally installed as
Viceroy and Governor-General; receiving every kindness from Lord Canning,
whom he describes as not looking so ill as he expected to find him, 'but,'
he adds, 'those about him say he is far from right in health.' Six days
later Lord Canning took his departure, and Lord Elgin was left to enter
upon his new duties.
[Sidenote: Death of Mr. Ritchie.]
He had not been a fortnight in office when the uncertainty of life in
Calcutta was brought home to him in a striking and ominous manner by the
sudden death of an esteemed member of his Legislative Council, Mr. Ritchie.
Writing on March 23 to Sir Charles Wood, who was then Secretary of State
for India, he said:--
We are truly here in the case of the women grinding at the mill. Who
would have supposed a few days ago that poor Ritchie would have been
the first summoned? About two days before Canning's departure, I asked
him to come and see me; he talked with me for an hour. In the evening
a note was received from his wife to say that they could not dine at
Government House, as he was seriously indisposed. He appears to have
felt the first symptom of his malady while he was sitting with me.
This afternoon I attend his funeral. He is a great loss; he seems to
have been very much liked and esteemed.
The death of Mr. Ritchie, followed by the appointment of Sir B. Frere to
the Government of Bombay, the promotion of Mr. Beadon to the Lieutenant-
Governorship of Bengal, and the retirement of Mr. Laing owing to ill
health, left only Sir R. Napier remaining of the five members of Council
whom Lord Elgin found in office; and, though the vacant places were soon
afterwards most ably filled, the change of councillors necessarily added to
the labours of a new Governor-General. He did not, however, during the
first comparatively cool months, find the work too much for him. 'On the
contrary,' he wrote, 'time would be heavy on hand if I had not enough to
fill it.'
[Sidenote: Mode of Life.]
The days (he wrote to Lady Elgin) are very uniform in their round of
occupations, so I have little to record that is interesting. As long
as one has health, it is easy to do a good deal of work here, because
for twelve hours in the day (from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M.) there is no
inducement to leave the house. I have hitherto had a little exercise
before and after those hours. I rush into the garden when I awake, and
return when the sun appears, glowing and angry, above the horizon.
In another letter he describes the plan, characteristic of his sociable and
genial temperament, which he adopted in order at once to get through his
work, and to obtain a competent knowledge of persons whose opinions were
worth having.
I have two or three people to dine with me on every day on which I
have not a great dinner. By this means I get acquainted with
individuals, and if my bees have any honey in them I extract it at the
moment of the day when it is most gushing.[2] It is very convenient,
besides, because it enables me to converse by candlelight with persons
who want to talk to me about their private affairs, instead of wasting
daylight upon them. Unless I get out of sorts, I hope to become
personally acquainted in this way with everyone, whose views may be
useful to me, before I leave Calcutta, even to go to Barrackpore.
As the season went on, the heat became greater. 'For the last few days,' he
wrote on June 1, 'it has been _very_ hot; quite as hot, they say, as it
ever is. I am longing for the rains, which are to cool us, I am told.' The
rains came, and, so long as they continued to fall, the temperature was
lower: but 'the heavy, dull, damp, calm heat between the falls,' he found
most trying.
[Sidenote: Death of Lord Canning.]
On July 6 came a fresh shock to his feelings--a fresh omen of evil to
himself--in a telegraphic report of the death of the friend whose place he
had so recently taken. At first he could hardly bring himself to credit the
news.
Is it indeed true (he wrote to Lady Elgin)? The last rumour of the
kind was the report of my death, when I was mistaken for Eglinton; but
this time I fear it is only too true! It will add to the alarm which
India inspires. But poor Canning certainly never gave himself a good
chance; at least not during the last year or two of his reign here. He
took no exercise, and not even such relaxation of the mind as was
procurable, though that is not much in the situation of Governor-
General. When I told him that I should ask two or three people to dine
with me daily, in order to get acquainted with all the persons I ought
to know, and to talk matters over with them by candlelight, so as to
save daylight for other work, he said: 'I was always so tired by
dinner-time that I could not speak.' Perhaps he was only referring to
his later experience; but still it was enough to break down any
constitution, to wear oneself out for ever by the same train of
thought, and the same routine of business. I think there was more in
all this than met the eye, for work alone could not have done it. We
shall have no confirmation of this rumour in letters for a fortnight
or more.... Poor Canning! He leaves behind him sincere friends, but no
one who was much dependent on him.
In another letter he wrote:--
So Canning and his wife, as Dalhousie and his, have fallen victims to
India! Both however ruled here in stirring times, and accomplished
great things, playing their lives against a not unworthy stake. I do
not think that their fate is to be deplored.
A few days later he wrote from Barrackpore, where he had gone to seek the
change of air which his health now began imperatively to require:--
This place looks wonderfully green. At the end of the broad walk on
which I am gazing from my window, is Lady Canning's grave; it is not
yet properly finished. Who will attend to it now? Meanwhile, it gives
a melancholy character to the place, for the walk which it closes is
literally the only private walk in the grounds. The flower garden,
park, &c., are all open to the public.... Although Canning did not die
at his post, I thought it right, as his death took place so soon after
his departure from India, to recognise it officially, which I did by a
public notification, and by directing a salute of minute guns to be
fired.
While still oppressed with these sad thoughts, he received a blow which
went even deeper home, in the intelligence of the death of his brother
Robert, so well-known and so highly valued as Governor of the Prince of
Wales.
[Sidenote: Death of General Bruce.]
_Barrackpore.--July 26th._--I went into Calcutta on the morning of the
23rd, in time to write by the afternoon packet; but I did not write,
for I was met on my arrival by a telegraphic rumour, which quite
overwhelmed me.... I should hardly have allowed myself to believe that
the sad report could be true, had it not been for the account of
Robert's illness, which your last letters had conveyed to me.... Next
day another telegram by the Bombay mail of the July 3rd left no doubt
as to the name.... A week, however, must elapse before letters arrive
with, the intelligence.... I hurried over my business, and came back
here yesterday evening. It is more quiet than Calcutta; and sad, with
its _one_ walk terminating (as I have told you) at Lady Canning's
grave. Poor Robert, how little did I think when we parted that I was
never to see him again! How little at least, that he would be the
defaulter! He has left few equals behind him: so true, so upright, so
steady in his principles, and so winning in his manners. Of late years
we have been much apart, but for very many we were closely together,
and perhaps no two brothers were ever more mutually helpful. Strange,
that with Frederick and me in these regions, he should have been
carried off first, by a malady which belongs to them.[3]... I write at
random and confusedly, for I have nothing to guide me but that one
word. And yet how much in that one word! It tells me that I have lost
a wise counsellor in difficulties; a stanch friend in prosperity and
adversity; one on whom, if anything had befallen myself, I could
always have relied to care for those left behind me. It tells, too, of
the dropping of a link of that family chain which has always been so
strong and unbroken.
In writing to his second boy he touched the same chords in a different
tone.
You have lost (he said) a kind and good uncle, and a kind and good
godfather, and you are now the only Robert Bruce in the family. It is
a good name, and you must try and bear it nobly and bravely, as those
who have borne it before you have done. If you look at their lives you
will see that they always considered in the first place what they
ought to do, and only in the second what it might be most pleasant and
agreeable to do. This is the way to steer a straight course through
life, and to meet the close of it, as your dear Uncle did, with a
smile on his lips.
[Sidenote: The hot season.]
From this time his journal contains more and more frequent notices of the
oppressive heat of the weather, and its effects upon his own health and
comfort. He remained, however, at his post at Calcutta, with the exception
of a brief stay at a bungalow lent to him by Mr. Beadon at Bhagulpore; his
pleasantest occupation being the arrangement of plans for smoothing the
path of Lady Elgin, who had settled to join him in India.
_August 2nd._--Yesterday, I received your letter, with all the sad
details.... It was truly a lovely death, in harmony with the life that
preceded it.... It is indeed a heavy blow to all.... This is a sad
letter, but my heart is heavy. It is difficult to make plans, with
such a break-down of human hopes in possession of all my thoughts.
_Calcutta.--August 8th._--It is now dreadfully hot.... In search of
something to stay my gasping, I mounted on to the roof of the house
this morning, to take my walk there, instead of in my close garden,
where there are low shrubs which give no shade, but exclude the
breeze. I made nothing, however, by my motion, for no air was stirring
even there. I had a solitary and ghastly stroll on the leads,
surrounded by the _adjutants_,--a sort of hideous and filthy vulture.
They do the work of scavengers in Calcutta, and are ready to treat one
as a nuisance, if they had a chance.... There is much sickness here
now.
_August 9th._--... The 'Ferooz' will not reach Suez till about the
middle of November, so you had better not arrive there till after that
time. You will have the best season for the voyage, and time to rest
here before we go up the country.
_Calcutta.--August 17th._--... I told you that I was feeling the
weather.... I am going to-morrow for change of air, to a place about
300 miles from Calcutta, on the railway. It is not cooler, but drier,
and the doctor strongly recommends the change. This is our worst
season, and I suppose we may expect six weeks more of it. If this
change is not enough, I may perhaps try and get a steamer, and go over
to Burmah. But there is some difficulty in this at present.
[Sidenote: Bhagulpore.]
_Bhagulpore.--August 19th._--We made out our journey to this place
very well yesterday. The morning was cloudy, with drizzling rain, and
much cooler than usual, and we had the great advantage of little sun
and no dust all day. At the station of Burdwan, the inhabitants of the
station, some of them ladies, met us, and in a very polite manner
presented flowers. We kept our time pretty well in our special train,
and reached our abode at about 7 P.M. The air here is sensibly fresher
than at Calcutta.... The house is a regular bungalow,--a cottage, all
on the ground-floor. It is situated on a mound overlooking the Ganges.
There is no garden about it, but a grass field, with a few trees here
and there. Between the window at which I am writing and the river is
an open shed, in which two elephants are switching their tails, and
knocking about the hay which has been given them for their breakfast.
This is a much more quiet and rural place than any which I have
visited since I have been in India; for Barrackpore is a great
military station, and the park, &c., there are quite public. Here
there are not altogether above five or six European families.... We
have a train twice a day from Calcutta, so I can get my boxes as
regularly as I do there.
[Sidenote: Monghyr.]
_Bhagulpore.--August 25th._--On Saturday, we made an expedition to a
place called Monghyr, about forty-five miles from here, where there is
a hot spring, and something like _hills_. (I am told also, that on a
particularly clear day I can see from here the highest mountain in the
world.) We did not leave this till 3 P.M., and were back again by 8
P.M., having travelled some ninety miles by rail, and driven in
carriages about ten or twelve more,--the fastest thing, I should
think, ever done in India. There has been a good deal of rain, and I
still feel well here, but I suppose on the 29th I must return to the
Calcutta steam-bath. This forenoon I paid a visit to a school, one of
the Government schools. The boys (upwards of 200) are not of the
lowest class. They all read English very well and when asked the
meaning of words, gave synonymes or explanatory phrases with
remarkable readiness. During their early years, I should certainly say
that they are quicker than English children. They fall off when they
get older.
_August 31st.--Calcutta._--We returned to this place on Thursday. It
is cooler than when I left, but I fear we have not done with the heat
yet. All agree that September is about the worst month in the year
here.
_Calcutta.--September 8th._--I do not think that Dr. M. is
particularly proud of the way in which I am bearing up against this
oppressive and depressing season.... I wish that we were going to the
Neilgherries instead of to Simla. The climate is, I believe, better,
and the place more agreeable, but it is entirely out of the way of
business for me now, whereas Simla is a natural stage to the most
important part of my government.
_September 17th._--... I have given up my morning walks. It is now
always sultry before sunrise, and the dullness of pacing up and down my
garden at that hour is intolerable. So I walk till daylight in my
verandah....
_September 23rd._--... It seems strange to think that this is one of
the last letters which you will receive from me in England, but yet it
is still a long time before I can hope to see you here. The poor boys!
You will be preparing to part from them, and all will be sad. Give
them my love and blessing.
[Sidenote: Business revived.]
In the month of November the sittings of the Legislative Council, which had
been suspended during the hot weather, were resumed, and the monotonous
routine of the autumn was exchanged for more active, though hardly more
laborious, work in maturing legislative measures. As President of this
Council Lord Elgin threw himself with his usual zeal and assiduity into the
discussion of the various administrative questions which demanded solution.
As the cold weather came on, he suffered much from the transition. Writing
on the 4th of November to Sir C. Wood, he says: 'At the commencement of the
cool season, on which we are now entering, we suffer from all manner of
minor ailments; so I hope you will excuse a short letter.' And again on the
9th: 'I am half blind and rather shaky from fever still, so that again I
shall be brief in my epistle to you.' Soon, however, these ailments
disappeared, and in the cooler temperature he regained to a great extent
his usual health.
[Sidenote: Arrival of Lady Elgin.]
A few weeks later the long dreary months of separation from all that he
most loved were happily ended by the arrival of Lady Elgin, who with his
youngest daughter, Lady Louisa Bruce, reached Calcutta on the 8th of
January 1863.
[Sidenote: State of India.]
In passing from the personal narrative of these months, to their public
history, it is necessary to bear in mind what was the state of the Indian
Empire at the moment when Lord Elgin undertook its government.
[Sidenote: Peace.]
'India,' to use his own words, 'was at peace; at peace in a sense of
the term more emphatic and comprehensive than it had ever before borne
in India. The occurrences which had taken place during the period of
Lord Dalhousie's government had established the prestige of the
British arms as against external foes. Lord Canning's Vice-royalty had
taught the same lesson to domestic enemies. No military operations of
magnitude were in progress, to call for prompt and vigorous action on
the part of the ruling authority, or to furnish matter for narrations
of thrilling interest. On the contrary, a hearty acquiescence in the
belief that no such opportunities existed, and that it was incumbent
upon him, by all practicable means, to prevent their recurrence, was
the first duty which the situation of affairs prescribed to a new
Governor-General.'
[Sidenote: Questions to be solved.]
There were indeed grave questions awaiting solution; questions of great
perplexity and embarrassment, though of a domestic and peaceful character;
some of them the more perplexing because they bore upon 'those jealousies
of race which are the sources of almost all our difficulties in India.' But
as regards such questions his habitual caution, as well as the philosophic
turn of his mind, led him to study very carefully all the conditions of
each problem before attempting to propound any solution of his own; and in
the meantime he felt that his duty was to employ any personal influence
which he could acquire in smoothing the course of such measures as had been
set in operation by the authority of others. 'The first virtue,' he said to
one of his colleagues, 'which you and I have to practise here at present is
Self-denial. We must, for a time at least, walk in paths traced out by
others.'
But though, for the reasons above stated, it would be a mistake to look in
the records of the time for any great measures, executive or
administrative, on which he had set his mark, his various speeches and
letters, more especially the full and frank communications which he
addressed from time to time to the Secretary of State for India, Sir
Charles Wood, show with what keenness of interest, as well as with what
sagacity, he approached the study of Indian questions. A few extracts from
his correspondence are here given to illustrate this; and as affording some
indication of the unremitting industry with which he laboured at this
period, searching into and maturing his views upon one difficult subject
after another, as well as the whole plan of Indian government.
_To Sir Charles Wood._
Calcutta, April 9th, 1862.
[Sidenote: The Army.]
Now for the Army. I must observe, in the first place, that in the
reasoning employed here in favour of the maintenance of a large army,
native and European, there is a good deal that is circular, and
puzzling to a beginner.
When I ask why so considerable a native army is required, I am told
that the native must bear a certain proportion to the European force;
that Europeans cannot undertake cantonment duties, or, speaking
generally, any of the duties which the military may from time to time
be called to render in support of the civil power, during peace; that
in war, again, they are admirable on the battle-field, but that they
cannot turn their victories to account by following up a discomfited
foe, unless they have the aid of native troops, nor perform many other
services which are not less indispensable than great battles to
success against an enemy who knows the ground and is inured to the
climate.
This line of argument very naturally raises the question, wherefore
then is the maintenance of so large a European army necessary?
Rebellion has been crushed, and European troops are not suited for the
repression of such local disturbances as occasionally occur. There is
little present prospect of war from without, though Persia is moving
towards Herat, and apparently preparing for Dost Mohammed's death. The
answer which I invariably receive is this--'You cannot tell what will
happen in India. Heretofore you have held the Sikhs in subjection by
the aid of the Sepoys, and the Sepoys by means of the Sikhs. But see
what is happening now. The Sikh soldiers are quartered all over India.
They are fraternising with the natives of the South--adopting their
customs and even their faith. Half the soldiers in a regiment lately
stationed at Benares were converted to Hindooism before they left that
holy place. Beware, or you will shortly have to cope in India with a
hostile combination more formidable than any of those which you have
encountered before.' If you draw from all this the inference that what
you really dread is your native army, you get into the vicious circle
again.
Do not suppose that I am tempted by these logical paradoxes to run to
hasty conclusions. I am aware that for many reasons we must now
entertain, and probably shall long find it necessary to entertain, a
large army, native and European, in India. Practically, what we have
to do is to endeavour, by a judicious system of recruiting,
organisation, and distribution, to render our army as serviceable and
as little a source of peril as may be. But I do think that they go far
to prove that, notwithstanding our vast physical superiority to
anything which can be brought against us, we should find it a
difficult task to maintain our authority in India by the sword alone;
and that they justify a very jealous scrutiny of all schemes of
expenditure for military objects which render necessary the imposition
or maintenance of taxes which occasion general discontent, or deprive
the Government of the funds requisite for carrying on works of
improvement that have the double advantage of stimulating the growth
of wealth in the country, and increasing the efficiency of the means
of self-defence which we possess.
* * * * *
_To a Friend in Scotland, interested in the Cultivation of Cotton._
Calcutta, May 21st, 1862.
[Sidenote: Cultivation of cotton.]
I beg to assure you that I do not yield to yourself in my desire to
promote the extension of cotton cultivation in India, and, above all,
improvement in the quality of the staple. I consider that the
interests of India are involved in this improvement to a greater
degree even than those of Great Britain; for, no doubt, if the quality
of the Indian product were so far raised as to admit of its competing
on terms approaching to equality with that of America, it would obtain
a permanent footing in the great market to which it has access now
only at moments of extraordinary dearth.
Moreover, I do not scruple to confess to you that I am not so bigoted
in my adhesion to the dogmas of political economy, as to be unwilling,
at a season of crisis like the present, to entertain proposals for
accelerating this result, merely because they contravene the
principles of that science. On the contrary, I receive thankfully
suggestions for accomplishing an object which I have so much at heart,
more especially when they emanate from persons deeply interested and
thoroughly conversant with the subject, like yourself--even when they
fall within the category of what you style 'extraordinary measures.'
But you will surely allow that the _onus probandi_ lies very heavily
on a Government which adopts measures of this class; and that if, by
abnormal interference, it checks the natural and healthy operation of
the laws of demand on capitalists and cultivators, it incurs a weighty
responsibility.
Even as regards the specific recommendation which you have made, and
which has much to justify it in my eyes--because I would go great
lengths in the direction of aiding the Ryots to improve their staple,
if I could see my way to effect this object without doing more harm
than good--I must observe that there are questions which have to be
very gravely and carefully examined before it can be acted upon.
In the first place, it is right that I should tell you that the
opinion which obtains here respecting the result of recent operations
in Dharwar, in so far as the case furnishes a precedent for the
interference of Government officers in such matters, differs widely
from that entertained by you.
But, setting this point aside, and assuming for the sake of argument
that the interposition at Dharwar was attended by unmixed benefit to
all concerned, does it follow that corresponding success would
accompany the mission of fifty military officers to the cotton
districts of India for the purpose of inducing the Ryots to substitute
exotic for native cotton in their cultivation?
In order to do this exotic cotton justice, it must be treated with
some care, especially at the time of its introduction into districts
where it has been previously unknown. Conditions of climate as well as
of soil must be taken into consideration in determining the time and
method of cultivation. The climate of Dharwar, where the monsoons
meet, differs widely from that of many parts of India, where the
seasons are divided between a deluge of rain and a period of baking
heat. Am I likely to find fifty young military officers who would be
competent to advise the Ryots on points of so much delicacy? And if
the Ryots, following their counsels, were disappointed in the
expectations which they had been led to form, what would be the effect
on the prospects of cotton cultivation in India?
I do not say all this in condemnation of your scheme, but in order to
point out to you how much has to be thought of before it can be acted
upon.
Meanwhile there are measures for promoting the interests of cotton
cultivation in India, which the Government can adopt without
abandoning its proper sphere of action; not only without danger, but
with a high probability, perhaps I might say a certainty, of benefit
to the great cause which we have in hand.
We can facilitate the establishment in India of European cultivators
and landholders, who are the natural and legitimate advisers of the
native peasantry on such questions as those to which I have been
referring.
We can improve communication so as to render the transport of the raw
material to the ports of shipment more cheap and rapid.
To these and similar measures the attention of the Government of India
is earnestly directed; with every disposition to take such further
means of stimulating production as prudence may justify.
I have written at some length, but the importance of the subject and
my respect for your opinion are my excuse.
* * * * *
_To Sir Charles Wood._
Calcutta, May 9th, 1862.
[Sidenote: Orientals not satisfied with show of power.]
I know that it is customary with certain people whose opinions are
entitled to respect, to act on the assumption that all Orientals are
children, amused and gratified by external trappings and ceremonies
and titles, and ready to put up with the loss of real dignity and
power if they are only permitted to enjoy the semblance of it. I am
disposed to question the correctness of this assumption. I believe, on
the contrary, that the Eastern imagination is singularly prone to
invest outward things with a symbolic character; and that relaxations
on points of form are valued by them, chiefly because they are held
necessarily to imply concessions on substantial matters.
* * * * *
_To Sir Charles Wood._
Calcutta, June 21st, 1862.
[Sidenote: Imprudence of a missionary.]
You may be interested by reading a letter (of which I enclose a copy)
written by the officer commanding the cavalry at Delhi on the subject
of an alleged assault by a native trooper on a missionary. I should
think that the cause of Christian truth and charity would be as well
served by preaching in a church or a building of some sort, as by
holding forth in the streets in a city full of fanatical unbelievers.
If I am told that the Apostles pursued the latter course, I would
observe that they had the authorities as well as the mob against them,
and took not only the thrashings of the latter, but also the judicial
penalties inflicted by the former, like men. It is a very different
matter when you have a powerful Government to fall back upon, and to
quell any riots which you may raise. However, these are burning
questions, and one must handle them cautiously.
* * * * *
_To Mr. Edmonstone, Lieut.-Governor of the N.W. Provinces._
Calcutta, May 27th, 1862.
[Sidenote: Rumours of disaffection.]
I am much obliged to you for your letter of the 19th inst., and I beg
that you will make a habit of writing to me whenever anything occurs
respecting which you may desire to communicate with me confidentially.
I do not, I confess, attach any great importance to such incidents as
the circulation of the prophecy which you have enclosed to me. It is
quite as probable that it may be the act of some mischievous person
who desires to keep alive excitement in the popular mind, as the
indication of an excitement already existing.
It must, moreover, be observed that the English press throughout India
has taken advantage of the advance of Sooltan Jan on Furrah to
descant, at great length and with much fervour, on all perils, present
and prospective, to which British rule in India is, or may be,
exposed. That the Mahommedan mind, thus stimulated and encouraged,
should altogether eschew such speculations, could hardly be expected.
It is impossible, however, to be too vigilant in watching these
manifestations of opinion; and I trust that you will not fail to put
me in possession of all the symptoms of disquietude which may reach
you, however trivial they may seem to be.
I need hardly point out to you how important it is that your inquiries
should be so conducted as to give no countenance to the impression
that they are prompted by any nervous anxiety, or that we should be
much discomposed even if the 12th Imaum himself were to make his
appearance.
For my own part, I am firmly resolved to put down with promptitude and
severity any attempt at disturbance which may be made in any part of
India, and I do not care how generally my determination on this point
is known. I shall pursue this policy, not because I fear for the
stability of our empire in the East, but because tranquillity is
essential to the progress of the country, and because lenity to the
guilty originators of such machinations leads invariably to the
severest punishment and suffering of misguided followers.
* * * * *
_To Sir Charles Wood._
Calcutta, June 17th, 1862.
[Sidenote: Groundless alarms at Delhi.]
The follies which are committed by the military panicmongers in the
North-west are very vexatious, and pregnant with mischief of all
kinds.... I made up my mind yesterday to set off in person and go
straight to Delhi, if the thing goes on. As a rising of troops against
us in places where the Europeans have all the artillery, and at least
equal the native forces in number, is rather too strong a dose even
for the weakest nerves, the stock in trade now is the existence of
designs for the assassination of Europeans.... These topics are
probably the conversation at every mess-table, indulged in before the
native servants, who would be the agents in such plots if they were to
be carried out. It is a remarkable fact that, although secret murder
by poison and otherwise is not unknown among natives between
themselves, as directed against Europeans, it is, I believe, almost
entirely unexampled. It is not impossible, however, that constant
discussions on the subject may familiarise the native mind with the
idea.
But talking is not all. The commanding officer at Agra has acted on
these suspicions, and, in the face of the native population, taken
extraordinary precautions on the assumption that the wells are
poisoned. We have no report as yet on the subject. All we know is from
the newspapers; but of the fact, I fear, there can be little doubt. If
there be disaffected persons in that locality (and no doubt there are
many such), it will be strange indeed if they do not profit by so
broad a hint. Then again, this panic beginning with the officers
spreads to the men. Some cases of terrorism have occurred at Delhi
which are a disgrace to our race. And of course we know what follows.
Cowardice and cruelty being twins, the man who runs terror-stricken
into his barrack to-night because he mistook the chirp of a cricket
for the click of a pistol, indemnifies himself to-morrow by beating
his bearer to within an inch of his life.
All this is very bad, and very difficult to control. After the lesson
of 1857 it will not do for me to adopt the happy-go-lucky tone, and to
pooh-pooh what professes to be information. To preach common sense
from a safe distance is equally futile. It therefore occurred to me
that the only thing practically to do, would be to go to the head-
quarters of the panic, surround myself by native troops, and put a
stop to the nonsense by example.
If I had been anywhere else except in India, I should have acted upon
this determination at once; but here there are such enormous physical
difficulties in the way, that one is obliged to think twice before
setting out on such an expedition. However, I have not abandoned the
intention, and shall certainly carry it out, if this sort of thing
goes on. We cannot afford to have the progress of the country arrested
by such _misères_. The alarmists succeeded in bringing down the price
of our stocks a few days ago.
By the bye, last night was fixed upon by my anonymous correspondents
for my own assassination.
* * * * *
_To Sir Charles Wood._
Calcutta, June 22nd, 1862.
[Sidenote: The murder of a native.]
I have had, this week, a very painful matter to deal with. A man of
the name of Budd, a soldier who had obtained his discharge in order to
accompany an officer of the name of ---- to Australia, killed a native
in the Punjâb some months ago under the following circumstances. He
was desired by ---- to procure a sheep for him. He went to a native,
from whom he appears to have procured sheep before, and took one. The
native protested against his taking this particular sheep, because it
was with lamb, but said he might take any other from the flock. Budd
paid no heed to this remonstrance, put the sheep on the back of
another native, and marched off. The owner followed, complaining and
protesting. On tins Budd first fired two barrels over his head, then
threw stones at him, and finally went into the house, brought out
another gun, fired at him, and killed him on the spot. Besides
imploring that his sheep might be restored to him, it does not appear
that the native did anything at all to provoke this proceeding.
The perpetrator of this outrage being a European, the case could not
be tried on the spot. It was accordingly transferred to Calcutta;
witnesses, &c., being sent 1,000 miles at the public expense. Before
it came on, however, the counsel for the defence requested a
postponement in order to obtain further evidence. The request was
granted, and the trial deferred till another term.
[Sidenote: Punished by death.]
The trial came on a few days ago, and the jury, much to their honour,
found the prisoner guilty. On this an agitation was got up to obtain a
commutation of the sentence of death which had been passed by the
judge. A petition, with a great number of signatures, was presented in
the first instance to the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal; but he was
advised that, the crime having been committed in the Punjab, he had
nothing to do with the case. It was then transmitted to me. There was
quite enough doubt as to my power of acting, to have justified me in
referring the case to the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjâb. But I
felt that the delay, and, above all, the appearance of a desire to
shrink from the responsibility of passing a decision on the case,
which this step would involve, would be so mischievous, that, having
obtained from the Advocate-General an opinion that I had the requisite
authority, I determined to take the matter into my own hands. The
verdict was clearly borne out by the evidence. The sentence was in
accordance with the law, and the judge, to whom I referred, saw no
reason to question it. The decision of the Governor-General in Council
was, that the law must take its course.
[Sidenote: Little value put on native life.]
It is true that this murder was not committed with previous
preparation and deliberation. It had not, therefore, this special
quality of aggravation. But it was marked by an aggravation of its
own, not less culpable, and unfortunately only too frequently
characteristic of the homicides perpetrated by Europeans on natives in
this country. It was committed in wanton recklessness, almost without
provocation, under an impulse which would have been resisted if the
life of the victim had been estimated at the value of that of a dog.
Any action on my part which would have seemed to sanction this
estimate of the value of native life, would have been attended by the
most pernicious consequences.
It is bad enough as it is. The other day a station-master, somewhere
up country, kicked a native who was, as he says, milking a goat
belonging to the former. The native fell dead, and the local paper,
without a word of commiseration for the victim or his family,
complains of the hardship of compelling the station-master to go to
Calcutta, in this warm weather, to have the case inquired into. Other
instances in which the natives have died from the effect of personal
chastisement administered by Europeans have occurred since I have been
here.
I have gone at some length into this case, both because you may hear
of it, and also because it exemplifies what is really our greatest
source of embarrassment in this country--the extreme difficulty of
administering equal justice between natives and Europeans.
* * * * *
_To Sir Charles Wood._
July 16th, 1862.
[Sidenote: Against interference in Afghanistan.]
I am very much averse to any interference on our part in the quarrel
which is now on foot in Afghanistan; and, indeed, I do not very well
see my way as to how any such interference can be managed without
entailing responsibilities which we may regret at a later period. You
are doubtless aware that we have no agent with the Dost. He
particularly requested that no one should be sent to his court in that
capacity, and we assented to his views on this point. All we know of
what is going on there is derived from the reports of a native vakeel,
who reports more or less faithfully what he hears and sees, but who is
not, and I apprehend, could not be employed to speak on our behalf to
the Ameer. In order, therefore, to communicate with him, we must
either send a special agent, or write. Now it must be observed that in
this affair the Dost has not been the aggressor. The Herat chief
attacked him without any provocation. We offered him no assistance,
made no remonstrance, and left him to take care of himself. He has
asked us for nothing, and we have given him nothing. It is now
proposed that we should inform the Dost that if he goes beyond a
certain point, and Persia comes into the field to support Herat, he
must not expect any assistance from us. If we had an agent there it
would be easy to instruct him to make such an intimation; and if the
Dost were to ask us for any support, an answer which would convey this
hint might be given. But situated as we are, we must move cautiously
in this matter. If the Dost stops on our suggestion, and if (as is
frequently the case with Orientals), the enemy, ascribing his
moderation to weakness, presses him with increased vigour, what are we
to do then? Are we to stand by and laugh at our dupe, telling him that
though our advice got him into the scrape, he must find his own way
out of it? or are we to set to work to check his opponents? and if we
undertake the latter task, how far will it lead us?
It is quite impossible in these affairs, and with people of this
description, to say what an hour may bring forth. A shower of rain may
convert a victorious army into a baffled one, and an advance into a
retreat. The death of a man of eighty years of age will probably throw
all Afghanistan into confusion, convert friends into foes and _vice
versâ_. Instructions framed in Calcutta to meet one set of
circumstances may arrive in Afghanistan when the whole scene has
changed. I own that I am strongly of opinion that our true policy is
to leave these kinds of neighbours as much as possible alone; to mix
ourselves up as little as may be in their miserable intrigues, which
generally entail obligations which bind us and not them, and not
unfrequently lead to most unexpected issues. We should only speak when
we have a case of self-interest so clear that we can speak with
determination, and follow up our talk if necessary with a blow.
* * * * *
_To Sir Charles Wood._
August 9th, 1862.
[Sidenote: Withdrawal of vakeel.]
After a good deal of consideration as to how I can, with least risk of
getting this Government into trouble, put a spoke into the Dost's
wheel in his progress towards Herat, I have despatched to Sir R.
Montgomery the telegram of which I enclose a copy. The order sent to
our vakeel, desiring him to leave the Ameer's camp, and return to
India, if the Dost proceeds to extremities against Herat, will
sufficiently show that we discountenance any such proceeding; while at
the same time the measure commits us to nothing, gives the Dost no
such claim upon us as he would naturally have if we tendered advice to
him, and induced him to abandon his own projects in order to follow
it, and leaves us free to shape our policy as the shifting current of
events may prescribe. I pointed out to you in my letter of July 16,
that we are awkwardly situated for interfering with the Ameer. He is
our friend, and we said nothing when he was attacked. He has set to
work to redress his own injuries, asking us for no aid, and paying his
own way. We are quite entitled to say, 'Your hostile advance on Herat
has not our approval, and we must show that you are making it without
our sanction.' This we do in the most emphatic manner, by withdrawing
the only British official who is with him. But I do not like to go
farther in the direction of interference. It is impossible to say how
matters may terminate in Afghanistan. It is possible that the Ameer
may get the whole country into his hands. It is possible that he may
come to an understanding with Sultan Jan, who is his connection by
marriage. It is very desirable that we should be free to accept the
_status in quo_, whatever it may be.
* * * * *
_To Sir Charles Wood._
Calcutta, September 9th, 1862.
[Sidenote: Lord Canning's policy.]
A doubt naturally suggests itself as to whether the received notion
respecting the relations which Canning sought to establish between the
native chiefs and the British Government in India be altogether
correct, or, (as it perhaps would be more accurate to say) altogether
complete--whether, in short, that portion of it which was a policy of
circumstance has been duly distinguished from that which was a policy
of principle: a doubt by no means unimportant, now that this policy,
whatever it be, is crowned by the double aureole of success and death;
so that while, on the one hand, it is naturally set up as an example
for imitation, on the other, we have not the author to refer to when
difficulties arise respecting its application.
[Sidenote: (1) Clemency.]
In approaching the consideration of this very momentous question we
must, in the first place, be careful lest we suffer ourselves to draw
erroneous conclusions from the warm expressions of gratitude and
affection lavished upon Canning by the natives generally. If I were to
venture to compare great things with small, I should say that their
feelings towards him were due to causes somewhat similar to those
which earned for me the good will and confidence of the French
Canadians in Canada. Both he and I adopted on some important points
views more favourable to the subject races than those which had been
entertained by our respective predecessors. So far we established
legitimate and substantial claims on their regard. But it was not so
much the intrinsic merit of those views, still less was it the extent
to which we acted upon them, which won for us the favour of those
races; we owed that mainly to the uncompromising hostility, the bitter
denunciations, and the unmeasured violence which the promulgation of
those views provoked from those who were regarded by them as their
oppressors. I used often to say to my Scotch friends in Lower Canada,
when they were heaping every indignity upon me, and even resorting to
open violence (for there they did not hold their hands off), 'You are
playing my game. I want to win the confidence of the French Canadians;
but I know the nature of that people: they are touchy and suspicious
as races who feel that they are inferior, and believe that they are
oppressed; invariably are. By measures of simple justice towards them
(and beyond that line I do not intend to proceed an inch), I despair
of being able to effect my object; but if you continue for a year to
act as you are now acting, denouncing me as your enemy and their
friend, and proving the sincerity of your belief by outrage and
violence, you will end by convincing them that I am to be trusted, and
I shall win the day.'--The result proved the accuracy of this
prediction.
The feeling of the natives of India towards Canning was in some
measure due to a similar cause. The clamour for blood and
indiscriminate vengeance which raged around him, and the abuse poured
upon him because he would not listen to it, imparted in their eyes to
acts which carried justice to the verge of severity the grace of
clemency.
[Sidenote: (2) Consideration for native chiefs.]
I could give you plenty of proofs of this.... The following sentences
occur in a letter written from Delhi during our recent panic, by an
officer.... 'The native force here is much too small to be a source of
anxiety, and unless they take the initiative it is my opinion that
there can be no important rising. The Mussulmans of Delhi are a
contemptible race. Fanatics are very rare on this side of the Sutlej.
The terrors of that period when every man who had two enemies was sure
to swing are not forgotten. The people declare that the work of Nadir
Shah was as nothing to it. His executions were completed in twelve
hours. But for months after the last fall of Delhi, no one was sure of
his own life or of that of the being dearest to him for an hour.' The
natives not unnaturally looked with gratitude to the man who alone had
the will and power to put an arrest on this course of proceeding, and
to prevent its extension all over the land. No doubt, as I have said,
Canning earned a substantial claim to the gratitude of the native
chiefs by adopting a more liberal and considerate policy towards them
than that pursued by his predecessor. It was perhaps not surprising
that he should have done so. Situated as we are in this country--a
small minority ruling a vast population that differs from us in blood,
civilisation, colour and religion, monopolising in our own territories
all positions of high dignity and emolument, and exercising even over
States ostensibly independent a paramount authority--it is manifest
that the question of how we ought to treat that class of natives who
consider that they have a natural right to be leaders of men and to
occupy the first places in India, must always be one of special
difficulty. If you attempt to crush all superiorities, you unite the
native populations in a homogeneous mass against you. If you foster
pride of rank and position, you encourage pretensions which you cannot
gratify, partly because you dare not abdicate your own functions as a
paramount power, and, partly, because you cannot control the arrogance
of your subjects of the dominant race. Scindiah and Holkar are
faithful to us just in proportion as they are weak, and conscious that
they require our aid to support them against their own subjects or
neighbours: and among the bitterest of our foes during the Mutiny were
natives who had been courted in England.... Canning saw the evils
which the crushing policy of his predecessor was entailing, and he
reversed it. It was a happily timed change of policy. The rebellion
broke out while it was yet recent; and no doubt, the hopes and
gratification inspired by it had their effect in inducing a certain
number of chiefs to pause and to require more conclusive proof that
the British Raj was to kick the beam, before they cast their weight
into the opposite scale of the balance.
After the rebellion was suppressed, the inducement to persevere in
this line of policy was still more stringent. To grant to native
Potentates who were trembling in their shoes, and ready to receive the
boon on any terms which you might prescribe, the reversion of States
which had become vacant because you had, of your own authority and
mere motion, hanged their chiefs, and declared them to be escheated,
was a wise, a graceful, and under the circumstances a perfectly safe
policy. The same may be said of the measures taken to put the
talookdars of Oude on their legs, and which were preceded by the
confiscation of all their properties. I believe that this policy, like
the policy of Clemency, was sound and right in principle; but in
forming a just estimate of its success and of its applicability to all
seasons and emergencies, it is necessary to take into account the
specialities of the time to which I have referred.
[Sidenote: (3) Assertion of British sovereignty.]
What then was the scope and extent of application which Canning in
action was prepared to give to this policy? Here is the important
question, and it is not altogether an easy one to answer. For like
most wise administrators, Canning dealt with the concrete rather than
the abstract, and it would not be difficult to cull from his decisions
sentiments and sentences which seem to clash. When you meet with an
individual ruling which appears not to tally with what you have
assumed to be his general principles, you say it is 'unnatural.' This
is one way out of the difficulty. But is it the right way? My own
opinion is, that Canning never intended to let the chiefs get the bit
into their mouths, or to lose his hold over them. It is true that he
rode them with a loose rein, but the pace was so killing during the
whole of his time, that it took the kick out of them, and a light hand
and silken thread were all that was required. His policy of deference
to the authority of native chiefs was a means to an end, the end being
the establishment of the British Raj in India; and when the means and
the end came into conflict, or seemed likely to do so, the former went
to the wall. Even in the case of the chieftainship of Amjherra, he
looked, as the Yankees say, 'ugly,' when Scindiah, having got what he
wanted, showed a disposition to withhold the grants to loyal
individuals which he had volunteered to make from the revenues of the
chieftainship. It is true that the ostensible ground of Canning's
dissatisfaction was the violation of a promise, but what title had he
to claim this promise, or to exact its fulfilment, if the escheat
belonged as of right to Scindiah? Again, when I came to this country,
I found that he was walking pretty smartly into a parcel of people in
Central India who were getting up a little rebellion on their own
account, a tempest in a teapot, not against us, but against their own
native rulers. In this instance he interfered, no doubt, as head
policeman and conservator of the peace of all India. But observe, if
we lay down the rule that we will scrupulously respect the right of
the chiefs to do wrong, and resolutely suppress all attempts of their
subjects to redress their wrongs by violence, which, in the absence of
help from us, is the only redress open to them, we may find perhaps
that it may carry us somewhat far--possibly to annexation--the very
bugbear from which we are seeking to escape. Holkar, for instance,
unless common fame traduces him, has rather an itching for what Mr.
Laing calls 'hard rupees.' His subjects and dependents have decided,
and not altogether unintelligible, objections to certain methods which
he adopts for indulging this propensity. When they--those of them more
especially who have Treaty claims to our protection, come to us to
complain, and to ask our help--are we to say to them:--'We have too
much respect for Holkar's independence to interfere. Bight or wrong
you had better book up, for we are bound to keep the peace, and we
shall certainly be down upon you if you kick up a row'? In the
anomalous position which we occupy in India, it is surely necessary to
propound with caution doctrines which, logically applied, land us in
such dilemmas.
[Sidenote: Problems for a time of peace.]
At a future time, if I live, and remain here, it is possible that I
may take the liberty of submitting to you some views of my own on
these questions. It may perhaps turn out that a time of peace is
better fitted than one of revolution for the discovery of the true
theory according to which our relations with native States ought to be
conducted; or, it may be, for the discovery that no theory can be
framed sufficiently elastic to fit all those relations and the
complications which arise out of them, and that, after all, we must in
a great measure rely on the rule of common sense and of the thumb.
When the circumstances of the time are such that it is deemed right
and proper to abrogate all law, and to establish over the land a reign
of terror and of the sword--to pour out, in deference to the paramount
claims of the safety of the state, public money, whether obtained from
present taxation or the mortgage of posterity, with profusion
absolutely uncontrolled--to decree confiscation on a scale of
unprecedented magnitude; it is obvious that a reputation for clemency,
economy, and respect for the native rights of property, is obtainable
under conditions that are not strictly normal. If you want to
ascertain whether your system will stand in all weathers, you must
test it when the rule of law and order have replaced that of arbitrary
will--when men present themselves, not as the scared recipients of
bounty, but as the assertors of admitted rights. We shall see how far,
in such piping times, it may be possible for the Governor-General to
enforce on the British local authorities the claims of public economy,
without resorting to any interference which can be supposed to
militate against the hypothesis that the said authorities understand a
great deal better than he does what their wants are, and how they
ought to be supplied; or to maintain the peace of India without
questioning the indefeasible title of the native chiefs to do what
they like with their own.
Meanwhile all I want as regards this matter is, to learn what
Canning's policy really was, and to follow it out faithfully. It is
neither fair to him nor to the cause, that we should misjudge its
character by founding our estimate of it on a partial or incomplete
induction.
* * * * *
_To Sir Charles Wood._
Calcutta, December 23rd, 1862.
[Sidenote: Consideration of the natives.]
As to consideration of the natives, I can only say that during a
public service of twenty years I have always sided with the weaker
party, and it is so strongly my instinct to do so, that I do not think
the most stringent injunctions would force me into an opposite course
of action. But I am quite sure that it is not true kindness to the
weaker party, to give the stronger an excuse for using to the utmost
the powers of coercion which they possess, by seeming to be unwilling
to listen to any statement of grievances which they may desire to
make, or to suspect their motives when they suggest remedies.... It is
quite possible that such views as you instance may prevail to a
considerable extent with our agitating people; but it is equally
certain that many who join them would indignantly repudiate the
imputation of being actuated by any motives of the kind. My study
always is, to keep those who _profess_ moderate and reasonable views
right, and to prevent them from going over arms and baggage to the
enemy, by taking for granted that they mean what they profess, and,
when they propose objectionable remedies, arguing against them on
their own premises. Some, of course, would rather abandon their sound
premises than their illogical conclusions, when they are driven in
this way to the wall; but a large number come over to the right side
when they find that the consideration of their alleged grievances is
approached without any prepossession against them. Of course, this is
all a matter of tact, and cannot be reduced to any definite formula.
But you speak of our Press as hopeless on some of these subjects. Have
you observed the comparative mildness of its tone lately,
notwithstanding the action of Government in the matter of the Waste
Lands, and Contract Law? Does not that argue a better state of feeling
in the European Community; and do not you think that it is for the
benefit of the Ryots, that their interloping landlords should not be
in a humour to employ vindictively the vast powers which, whether you
disallow Contract Laws or not, they, as proprietors, possess over
them?
[1] Vide _supra_, p. 329.
[2] It was sometimes complained that on these occasions he was so
little communicative: drawing out the opinions of others, without
expressing his own. But it requires very little reflection to see that
this complaint is really a commendation.
[3] He died in London from the effects of a fever caught in the
East.