of India, if they spoke by my mouth, have to complain of? They would
tell the House that, as a rule, throughout almost all the Presidencies,
and throughout those Presidencies most which have been longest under
British rule, the cultivators of the soil, the great body of the
population of India, are in a condition of great impoverishment, of
great dejection, and of great suffering. I have, on former occasions,
quoted to the House the report of a Committee which I obtained ten years
ago, upon which sat several members of the Court of Directors; and they
all agreed to report as much as I have now stated to the House--the
Report being confined chiefly to the Presidencies of Bombay and Madras.
If I were now submitting the case of the population of India I would say
that the taxes of India are more onerous and oppressive than the taxes
of any other country in the world. I think I could demonstrate that
proposition to the House. I would show that industry is neglected by the
Government to a greater extent probably than is the case in any other
country in the world which has been for any length of time under what is
termed a civilized and Christian government. I should be able to show
from the notes and memoranda of eminent men in India, of the Governor of
Bengal, Mr. Halliday, for example, that there is not and never has been
in any country pretending to be civilized, a condition of things to be
compared with that which exists under the police administration of the
province of Bengal. With regard to the courts of justice I may say the
same thing. I could quote passages from books written in favour of the
Company with all the bias which the strongest friends of the Company can
have, in which the writers declare that, precisely in proportion as
English courts of justice have extended, have perjury and all the evils
which perjury introduces into the administration of justice prevailed
throughout the Presidencies of India. With regard to public works, if I
were speaking for the Natives of India, I would state this fact, that in
a single English county there are more roads--more travelable roads--
than are to be found in the whole of India; and I would say also that
the single city of Manchester, in the supply of its inhabitants with the
single article of water, has spent a larger sum of money than the East
India Company has spent in the fourteen years from 1834 to 1848 in
public works of every kind throughout the whole of its vast dominions. I
would say that the real activity of the Indian Government has been an
activity of conquest and annexation--of conquest and annexation which
after a time has led to a fearful catastrophe which has enforced on the
House an attention to the question of India, which but for that
catastrophe I fear the House would not have given it.
If there were another charge to be made against the past Government of
India, it would be with regard to the state of its finances. Where was
there a bad Government whose finances were in good order? Where was
there a really good Government whose finances were in bad order? Is
there a better test in the long run of the condition of a people and the
merits of a Government than the state of the finances? And yet not in
our own time, but going back through all the pages of Mill or of any
other History of India we find the normal condition of the finances of
India has been that of deficit and bankruptcy. I maintain that if that
be so, the Government is a bad Government. It has cost more to govern
India than the Government has been able to extract from the population
of India. The Government has not been scrupulous as to the amount of
taxes or the mode in which they have been levied; but still, to carry on
the government of India according to the system which has heretofore
prevailed, more has been required than the Government has been able to
extract by any system of taxation known to them from the population over
which they have ruled. It has cost more than 30,000,000_l_. a-year
to govern India, and the gross revenue being somewhere about
30,000,000_l_., and there being a deficit, the deficit has had to
be made up by loans. The Government has obtained all they could from the
population; it is not enough, and they have had to borrow from the
population and from Europeans at a high rate of interest to make up the
sum which has been found to be necessary. They have a debt of
60,000,000_l_.; and it is continually increasing; they always have
a loan open; and while their debt is increasing their credit has been
falling, because they have not treated their creditors very honourably
on one or two occasions, and chiefly, of course, on account of the
calamities which have recently happened in India. There is one point
with regard to taxation which I wish to explain to the House, and I hope
that, in the reforms to which the noble Lord is looking forward, it will
not be overlooked. I have said that the gross revenue is
30,000,000_l_. Exclusive of the opium revenue, which is not,
strictly speaking, and hardly at all, a tax upon the people, I set down
the taxation of the country at something like 25,000,000_l_. Hon.
Gentlemen must not compare 25,000,000_l_. of taxation in India with
60,000,000_l_. of taxation in England. They must bear in mind that
in India they could have twelve days' labour of a man for the same sum
in silver or gold which they have to pay for one day's labour of a man
in England; that if, for example, this _l_.25,000,000 were expended
in purchasing labour, that sum would purchase twelve times as much in
India as in England--that is to say, that the 25,000,000_l_. would
purchase as many days' labour in India as 300,000,000_l_. would
purchase in England. [An Hon. Member: 'How much is the labour worth?']
That is precisely what I am coming to. If the labour of a man is only
worth 2_d_. a-day, they could not expect as much revenue from him
as if it were 2_s_. a-day. That is just the point to which I wish
the hon. Gentleman would turn his attention. We have in England a
population which, for the sake of argument, I will call 30,000,000. We
have in India a population of 150,000,000. Therefore, the population of
India is five times as great as the population of England. We raise in
India, reckoning by the value of labour, taxation equivalent to
300,000,000_l_., which is five times the English revenue. Some one
may probably say, therefore, that the taxation in India and in England
appears to be about the same, and no great injury is done. But it must
be borne in mind that in England we have an incalculable power of steam,
of machinery, of modes of transit, roads, canals, railways, and
everything which capital and human invention can bring to help the
industry of the people; while in India there is nothing of the kind. In
India there is scarcely a decent road, the rivers are not bridged, there
are comparatively no steam engines, and none of those aids to industry
that meet us at every step in Great Britain and Ireland. Suppose steam-
engines, machinery, and modes of transit abolished in England, how much
revenue would the Chancellor of the Exchequer obtain from the people of
England? Instead of 60,000,000_l_. a-year, would he get
10,000,000_l_.? I doubt it very much. If the House will follow out
the argument, they will come to the conclusion that the taxes of the
people of India are oppressive to the last degree, and that the
Government which has thus taxed them can be tolerated no longer, and
must be put an end to at once and for ever. I wish to say something
about the manner in which these great expenses are incurred. The
extravagance of the East India Government is notorious to all. I believe
there never was any other service under the sun paid at so high a rate
as the exclusive Civil Service of the East India Company. Clergymen and
missionaries can be got to go out to India for a moderate sum--private
soldiers and officers of the army go out for a moderate remuneration--
merchants are content to live in the cities of India for a percentage or
profit not greatly exceeding the ordinary profits of commerce. But the
Civil Service, because it is bound up with those who were raised by it
and who dispense the patronage of India, receive a rate of payment which
would be incredible if we did not know it to be true, and which, knowing
it to be true, we must admit to be monstrous. The East India Government
scatters salaries about at Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Agra, Lahore, and
half a dozen other cities, which are up to the mark of those of the
Prime Minister and Secretaries of State in this country. These salaries
are framed upon the theory that India is a mine of inexhaustible wealth,
although no one has found it to be so but the members of the Civil
Service of the East India Company. The policy of the Government is at
the bottom of the constant deficit. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has
twice recently declared that expenditure depends upon policy. That is as
true in India as in England, and it is the policy that has been pursued
there which renders the revenue liable to this constantly recurring
deficit.
I have come to the conclusion, which many hon. Members probably share
with me, that the edifice we have reared in India is too vast. There are
few men now, and least of all those connected with the East India
Company, who, looking back to the policy that has been pursued, will not
be willing to admit that it has not been judicious but hazardous--that
territories have been annexed that had better have been left
independent, and that wars have been undertaken which were as needless
as they were altogether unjustifiable. The immense empire that has been
conquered is too vast for management, its base is in decay, and during
the last twelve months it has appeared to be tottering to its fall. Who
or what is the instrument--the Cabinet, the Government, or the person--
by whom this evil policy is carried on?
The greatest officer in India is the Governor-General. He is the ruler
of about one-fifth--certainly more than one-sixth--of the human race.
The Emperors of France and Russia are but the governors of provinces
compared with the power, the dignity, and the high estate of the
Governor-General of India. Now, over this officer, almost no real
control is exercised. If I were to appeal to the two hon. Gentlemen who
have frequently addressed the House during these debates (Colonel Sykes
and Mr. Willoughby), they would probably admit that the Governor-General
of India is an officer of such high position that scarcely any control
can be exercised over him either in India or in England. Take the case
of the Marquess of Dalhousie for example. I am not about to make an
attack upon him, for the occasion is too solemn for personal
controversies. But the annexation of Sattara, of the Punjab, of Nagpore,
and of Oude occurred under his rule. I will not go into the case of
Sattara; but one of its Princes, and one of the most magnanimous Princes
that India ever produced, suffered and died most unjustly in exile,
either through the mistakes or the crimes of the Government of India.
This, however, was not done under the Government of Lord Dalhousie. As
to the annexation of Nagpore, the House has never heard anything about
it to this hour. There has been no message from the Crown or statement
of the Government relative to that annexation. Hon. Members have indeed
heard from India that the dresses and wardrobes of the ladies of its
Court have been exposed to sale, like a bankrupt's stock, in the
haberdashers' shops of Calcutta--a thing likely to incense and horrify
the people of India who witnessed it.
Take, again, the case of the Burmese war. The Governor-General entered
into it, and annexed the province of Pegu, and to this day there has
been no treaty with the King of Burmah. If that case had been brought
before the House, it is impossible that the war with Burmah could have
been entered upon. I do not believe that there is one man in England
who, knowing the facts, would say that this war was just or necessary in
any sense. The Governor-General has an army of 300,000 men under his
command; he is a long way from home; he is highly connected with the
governing classes at home; there are certain reasons that make war
palatable to large classes in India; and he is so powerful that he
enters into these great military operations almost uncontrolled by the
opinion of the Parliament and people of England. He may commit any
amount of blunders or crimes against the moral law, and he will still
come home loaded with dignities and in the enjoyment of pensions. Does
it not become the power and character of this House to examine narrowly
the origin of the misfortunes and disgraces of the grave catastrophe
which has just occurred? The place of the Governor-General is too high--
his power is too great--and I believe that this particular office and
officer are very much responsible--of course under the Government at
home--for the disasters that have taken place.
Only think of a Governor-General of India writing to an Indian Prince,
the ruler over many millions of men in the heart of India, 'Remember you
are but as the dust under my feet' Passages like these are left out of
despatches, when laid on the table of the House of Commons:--it would
not do for the Parliament or the Crown, or the people of England to know
that their officer addressed language like this to a Native Prince. The
fact is that a Governor-General of India, unless he be such a man as is
not found more than once in a century, is very liable to have his head
turned, and to form ambitious views, which are mainly to be gratified by
successful wars and the annexation of province after province during the
period of his rule. The 'Services' are always ready to help him in these
plans. I am not sure that the President of the Board of Control could
not give evidence on this subject, for I have heard something of what
happened when the noble Lord was in India. When the Burmese war broke
out, the noble Lord could no doubt tell the House that, without
inquiring into the quarrel or its causes, the press of India, which was
devoted to the 'Services', and the 'Services' themselves, united in
universal approbation of the course taken by the Governor-General.
Justice to Pegu and Burmah and the taxes to be raised for the support of
the war were forgotten, and nothing but visions of more territory and
more patronage floated before the eyes of the official English in India.
I contend that the power of the Governor-General is too great and the
office too high to be held by the subject of any power whatsoever, and
especially by any subject of the Queen of England.
I should propose, if I were in a position to offer a scheme in the shape
of a Bill to the House, as an indispensable preliminary to the wise
government of India in future, such as would be creditable to Parliament
and advantageous to the people of India, that the office of Governor-
General should be abolished. Perhaps some hon. Gentlemen may think this
a very unreasonable proposition. Many people thought it unreasonable in
1853 when it was proposed to abolish the East India Company; but now
Parliament and the country believe it to be highly reasonable and
proper; and I am not sure that I could not bring before the House
reasons to convince them that the abolition of the office of Governor-
General is one of the most sensible and one of the most Conservative
proposals ever brought forward in connection with the Government of
India. I believe the duties of the Governor-General are far greater than
any human being can adequately fulfil. He has a power omnipotent to
crush anything that is good. If he so wishes, he can overbear and
overrule whatever is proposed for the welfare of India, while, as to
doing anything that is good, I could show that with regard to the vast
countries over which he rules, he is really almost powerless to effect
anything that those countries require. The hon. Gentleman behind me
(Colonel Sykes) has told us there are twenty nations in India, and that
there are twenty languages. Has it ever happened before that any one man
governed twenty nations, speaking twenty different languages, and bound
them together in one great and compact empire? [An hon. Member here made
an observation.] My hon. Friend mentions a great Parthian monarch. No
doubt there have been men strong in arm and in head, and of stern
resolution, who have kept great empires together during their lives; but
as soon as they went the way of all flesh, and descended, like the
meanest of their subjects, to the tomb, the provinces they had ruled
were divided into several States, and their great empires vanished. I
might ask the noble Lord below me (Lord John Russell) and the noble Lord
the Member for Tiverton (the noble Lord the Member for King's Lynn has
not as yet experience on this point), whether, when they came to appoint
a Governor-General of India, they did not find it one of the most
serious and difficult duties they could be called on to perform? I do
not know at this moment, and I never have known, a man competent to
govern India; and if any man says he is competent, he sets himself up at
a much higher value than those who are acquainted with him are likely to
set him. Let the House look at the making of the laws for twenty nations
speaking twenty languages. Look at the regulations of the police for
twenty nations speaking twenty languages. Look at the question of public
works as it affects twenty nations speaking twenty languages; where
there is no municipal power and no combinations of any kind, such as
facilitate the construction of public works in this country. Inevitably
all those duties that devolve on every good government must be neglected
by the Governor-General of India, however wise, capable, and honest he
may be in the performance of his duties, because the duties laid upon
him are such as no man now living or who ever lived can or could
properly sustain.
It may be asked what I would substitute for the Governor-Generalship of
India. Now, I do not propose to abolish the office of Governor-General
of India this Session. I am not proposing any clause in the Bill, and if
I were to propose one to carry out the idea I have expressed, I might be
answered by the argument, that a great part of the population of India
is in a state of anarchy, and that it would be most inconvenient, if not
dangerous, to abolish the office of Governor-General at such a time. I
do not mean to propose such a thing now; but I take this opportunity of
stating my views, in the hope that when we come to 1863, we may perhaps
be able to consider the question more in the light in which I am
endeavouring to present it to the House. I would propose that, instead
of having a Governor-General and an Indian empire, we should have
neither the one nor the other. I would propose that we should have
Presidencies, and not an Empire. If I were a Minister--which the House
will admit is a bold figure of speech--and if the House were to agree
with me--which is also an essential point--I would propose to have at
least five Presidencies in India, and I would have the governments of
those Presidencies perfectly equal in rank and in salary. The capitals
of those Presidencies would probably be Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Agra,
and Lahore. I will take the Presidency of Madras as an illustration.
Madras has a population of some 20,000,000. We all know its position on
the map, and that it has the advantage of being more compact,
geographically speaking, than the other Presidencies. It has a Governor
and a Council. I would give to it a Governor and a Council still, but
would confine all their duties to the Presidency of Madras, and I would
treat it just as if Madras was the only portion of India connected with
this country. I would have its finance, its taxation, its justice, and
its police departments, as well as its public works and military
departments, precisely the same as if it were a State having no
connection with any other part of India, and recognized only as a
dependency of this country. I would propose that the Government of every
Presidency should correspond with the Secretary for India in England,
and that there should be telegraphic communications between all the
Presidencies in India, as I hope before long to see a telegraphic
communication between the office of the noble Lord (Lord Stanley) and
every Presidency over which he presides. I shall no doubt be told that
there are insuperable difficulties in the way of such an arrangement,
and I shall be sure to hear of the military difficulty. Now, I do not
profess to be an authority on military affairs, but I know that military
men often make great mistakes. I would have the army divided, each
Presidency having its own army, just as now, care being taken to have
them kept distinct; and I see no danger of any confusion or
misunderstanding, when an emergency arose, in having them all brought
together to carry out the views of the Government. There is one question
which it is important to bear in mind, and that is with regard to the
Councils in India. I think every Governor of a Presidency should have an
assistant Council, but differently constituted from what they now are. I
would have an open Council. The noble Lord the Member for London used
some expressions the other night which I interpreted to mean that it was
necessary to maintain in all its exclusiveness the system of the Civil
Service in India. In that I entirely differ from the noble Lord. [Lord
J. Russell here indicated dissent.] The noble Lord corrects me in that
statement, and therefore I must have been mistaken. What we want is to
make the Governments of the Presidencies governments for the people of
the Presidencies; not governments for the civil servants of the Crown,
but for the non-official mercantile classes from England who settle
there, and for the 20,000,000 or 30,000,000 of Natives in each
Presidency.
I should propose to do that which has been done with great advantage in
Ceylon. I have received a letter from an officer who has been in the
service of the East India Company, and who told me a fact which has
gratified me very much. He says--
'At a public dinner at Colombo, in 1835, to the Governor, Sir
Wilmot Horton, at which I was present, the best speech of the
evening was made by a native nobleman of Candy, and a member of
Council. It was remarkable for its appropriate expression, its
sound sense, and the deliberation and ease that marked the
utterance of his feelings. There was no repetition or useless
phraseology or flattery, and it was admitted by all who heard him
to be the soundest and neatest speech of the night.'
This was in Ceylon. It is not, of course, always the best man who can
make the best speech; but if what I have read could be said of a native
of Ceylon, it could be said of thousands in India. We need not go beyond
the walls of this House to find a head bronzed by an Indian sun equal to
the ablest heads of those who adorn its benches. And in every part of
India we all know that it would be an insult to the people of India to
say that it is not the same. There are thousands of persons in India who
are competent to take any position to which the Government may choose to
advance them. If the Governor of each Presidency were to have in his
Council some of the officials of his Government, some of the non-
official Europeans resident in the Presidency, and two or three at least
of the intelligent Natives of the Presidency in whom the people would
have some confidence, you would have begun that which will be of
inestimable value hereafter--you would have begun to unite the
government with the governed; and unless you do that, no government will
be safe, and any hurricane may overturn it or throw it into confusion.