dered to the Government of India is, in this in. advance the end at which we all aim-the mostance, well judged, or that to adopt it would ral and social improvement of the Indian people."

in India with Lord Frederick Fitzelarence not think that the advice which they have tenhe had an opportunity of secing the way in which the Native army was conducted, and he became acquainted with the causes which produced mutinies among the Sepoys. Those mutinies, in his opinion, were in After such an expression of opinion, the some degree referable to the withdrawal of House of Commons could not grant this European officers from native regiments to inquiry without passing a vote of censure perform civil functions. Even when these on the Governor General. At the same regiments had their full complement of time he should be very sorry, and he officers there were only one colonel, one thought it would be a matter of deep major, seven captains, eleven lieutenants, regret to all who were interested in the and five ensigns, to a regiment of 1,000 civilization and Christianization of India, men. There being only seven captains, that any proposition should be rejected on five lieutenants were charged with the the supposed ground that it was promoted duties of captains, leaving only six lieute, by the supporters of Christian missions in nants and five ensigns, or half a lieutenant that country. and half an ensign per company, to do regimental duty. From these numbers of officers must be deducted those who were employed in civil duties, and those who were on sick leave, or on furlough, which latter were in a much larger proportion than in an European climate. He had not mentioned the native officers, because he did not think they were of much value. They were promoted from the ranks by seniority, and, being frequently sixty or seventy years of age, were of about as much use as a superannuated Chelsea pensioner would be in a regiment of the line. It was true that in the Bombay army this state of things had been altered, and the native officers were now not appointed entirely by seniority.

MR. A. MILLS hoped that the hon. Member (Mr. Kinnaird), would be satisfied with this discussion, and would not press his Motion to a division. If he did so he should, after hearing the speeches of the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Control and of the hon. Member for Guildford (Mr. Mangles), vote against it. Lord Canning, in a Minute dated October 6, 1856, thus characterised the question raised by the memorial of the missionaries-

"A wide and vague field of inquiry, inviting discussion and difference upon such subjects as rents, wages, fixity of tenure, and the relations of

poor and rich; class made to testify openly against class; the weaker remanded when their task is done to the vindictiveness of the stronger, against which no interposition could effectually protect them; wild and extravagant expectations of immediate advantage raised in the minds of a whole

MR. AYRTON said, that the hon. Member for Perth, carried away by feelings of religion, had adopted a course the most embarrassing with reference to the subject before the House. It was hardly possible to suggest a more inconvenient proceeding than to ask the House to come to a decision at the request of the missionaries of Bengal. Nothing was more likely to be injurious in the eyes of the Natives of India than a Resolution based on statements such as were contained in that petition, which prayed for inquiry on the ground of the ignorance and idolatry of the Natives, in order, as alleged in the petition, to promote the spread of Christianity in India. No one would be more pleased than himself to see every native of India embrace the Christian faith; but no one circumstance, at the present moment, tended more to retard the progress of Christianity in India than the disposition manifested by those engaged in its ministration, to intermeddle in political affairs. This petition was an evidence that these missionaries sought to add to the weight which they ought to derive from their spiritual office alone, the influence which sprang from secular power. On that ground he should feel it his duty to meet the hon. Gentleman's Motion by moving the previous question. No doubt the Resolutions stated facts to which no man could offer an unqualified denial. Nobody would dispute that numerous evils marked the system of administration in India; but, from what had fallen from the President of the Board of

people only to be disappointed; the examination Control, the Government would appear to of the share which the memorialists had in caus-, have become conscious of the existence ing the social evils which they deplore, and the of those evils, and to be taking measures investigation of those delicate and dangerous ques- for their redress. The defects requiring tions confided to persons whose responsibility would cease with the inquiry. With every sincere Correction were not only those which lay respect and admiration for the character of the upon the surface, but they were interwoven body from which this memorial proceeds, I can- with the very basis of our power. If the

natives of India were like any nation of justice. Ile (Mr. Ayrton) might not enEuropeans, they could not be kept under tirely subscribe to these views, but they the rule of some 30,000 or 40,000 English- indicated what large questions had yet to men. The population of Bengal were a be solved, and how much lay behind the peculiar people, even in India, and incapable subject which the hon. Member had only of either governing or taking care of them- touched upon. The land tenure of Bengal selves under any system of administration. was different from that of the rest of India. The affairs of India turned upon an infi- It was based on a fatal error-that of a nite mass of minute and complicated de- permanent settlement, and a fixed paytails, and could not be summarily dealt ment from a given locality; but the same with upon any one general principle. The error had been almost simultaneously commore he examined the complex machinery mitted by the Government and Parliament of the Indian Executive, the more he was of England in regard to the adjustment overwhelmed with the difficulties which of the land-tax under Mr. Pitt. The table surrounded every step that could be taken of the House was covered with petitions for its improvement. The most perplexed from both natives and Europeans in all question in English affairs was simplicity the three Presidencies, relative to the itself compared with the entangled web of administration of justice, and if that quesIndian administration. In dealing with tion were remitted to the Legislative CounIndia we had to regard the interests, not cil of India, without allowing the Imperial of tribes of savages, or a race unaccus- Parliameut an opportunity of pronouncing tomed to any forms of law or govern- an opinion upon it, the greatest dissatisment, but of a civilized and most religious faction would be produced. He hoped people-a people far more religious, in that, when the President of the Board fact, though mistaken in their creed, than of Control should have determined on the Englishmen themselves. They had a ven- course which he intended to pursue with reerable system of law which they respected, gard to India, he would submit his scheme and manners and institutions which were to the House, as well as all the docuancient when the kingdom of England ments bearing on the subject. The right had no existence. It was a remark of hon. Gentleman had said that the LegisMontesquieu that no tyranny could be lature could reverse or alter any scheme worse than that which undertook to legis- which he might set up in India without their late for a people without regard to their concurrence, if it should be found to work customs, usages, feelings, and even their mischievously; but it was idle to say that, prejudices. We could not deal off-hand, after expensive establishments had been according to some new idea of our own, set up in India to carry the new system with the various races of Hindostan. They into operation, Parliament could rescind or had been referred to the opinions of Mr. reform the laws by which the change had Halliday, a high authority, and a man of been effected. Partial discussion like the superior intelligence; but when they ex-present would be unnecessary if the right amined his views, they would be found to hon. Gentleman would give a distinct assuresemble closely those expressed by Lord rance that, in the forthcoming recess, he Dalhousie at the end of his Government; would apply himself to the preparation of and, therefore, after much experience of a scheme likely to meet the complaints of Indian affairs, the remedy of Mr. Hal- the discontented in India; but, whatever liday was to sweep away the whole sys- improvements might be introduced into tem of the Mofussil, or provincial admi- the system of government in India, he nistration, and to supplant it by a system believed that no satisfactory result could more in keeping with Oriental notions. be arrived at until there was also some This plan proceeded on the considera- improvement in the system of government tion that the Asiatic did not understand in this country with reference to India. the minute subdivision of our European polity; he could not comprehend why there should be more than one judge; and when he went before a judicial functionary, (whom he usually designated as "a father") whatever might be the nature of his grievance, whatever the position of his adversary, he expected that he would be capable of rendering him VOL. CXLV. [THIRD SERIES.]

The time had come when that unintelligible absurdity-the East India Companyshould be put an end to, and when the name of the Queen should be made to appear in the Government of India, for the people of that country were essentially loyal, and had for ages been accustomed to sovereign power. An opportunity should now be afforded them of manifesting their 3 G

sense of loyalty to the Sovereign of the British Empire.

MR. KINNAIRD: After the appeal made to me by the noble Lord the Member for the City of London, it is not my intention to divide the House. I do not think that I ought to put the House to the trouble of a division after the explicit statements made by the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Control and the Chairman of the East India Company, and the assurances that have been given that attempts will be made to remove these grievances as speedily as possible. I do not, however, regret that I brought forward this Motion, because it has led to a very valuable discussion.

MR. HADFIELD objected to the withdrawal of the Motion. The question was of far too great importance to be dealt with in that summary manner. He hoped that it would be adjourned with the view of being brought on again in conjunction with the intended Motion of his hon. Friend the Member for Stockport with respect to the financial affairs of India. The debate had taken a very extraordinary turn. The hon. Gentleman (Mr. Kinnaird) had taken upon himself to say that the Motion ought not to be pressed, without having had the slightest consultation with those hon. Members who had been attending the debate all night, and who supported him in that critical moment when, but for their presence, the House would have been counted out, but who would now have no opportunity of recording their votes on the subject. The President of the Board of Control had said that he felt no surprize at the thinness of the House during this discussion; but did not the right hon. Gentleman recollect that when his predecessor addressed the House three years ago with respect to the finances of India for two hours, there were no more than fourteen Members present to listen to his statement. But how happened it that on the present occasion the House was SO thin? Where were those honourable and valuable servants of Her Majesty, the whips of the House? What were they doing? He asked that question in the presence of Her Majesty's Government. Were they not employed in thinning the House? Was it not a fact that they were at the door keeping Members out? Were they not employed in seducing Members out of the House? Except the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Control there was not a Member of the

Government on the Ministerial bench, and even he walked out of the House. [Mr. VERNON SMITH: That is not the fact.] An hon. Gentleman said he saw him walk out, but after the right hon. Gentleman's denial, of course he (Mr. Hadfield) could say no more; and now he begged to recall the attention of the House to the great seriousness of the question which was under consideration, being no less than that of the administration of justice in a country containing a sixth of the entire population of the world. It had not been and could not be denied that the people of India had been most unjustly treated by their rulers. All that the President of the Board of Control and the hon. Member for Guildford had said amounted to nothing more than a plea of guilty. When an offence was committed in India, the first object of suspicion was the policeman; and, as that was the sad way in which justice was administered there, he should insist on a division being taken on the Motion. The time for mere inquiry had passed, and now was the time for the House to insist on justice being done to the down-trodden people of India, who were the worst governed nation on earth. Fifty Christian missionaries concurred in describing the manner in which the people of India were governed to be so barbarous and corrupt, that the people's minds had become slaves to the most appalling fatalism. They cared for nothing but a mere miserable subsistence, and looked upon moral and social improvement as not destined for them. Attempts had been made to asperse the missionaries. Who were they? Fifty clergymen of all denominations-not of the Church only, but of the Kirk of Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland, and various other classes of Christians. It was not until 1818 that missionaries were allowed to enter India; and he (Mr. Hadfield) was surprized to hear them spoken of as they had been. The advocates of the Company were obliged to plead guilty to the charge of injustice to the people of India, and he thought that the opinion of the House in reference to these statements ought to be placed on record, and he should therefore object to the Motion being withdrawn without a division.

MR. LIDDELL thought it would be unwise, looking to the impression which the Vote might produce in India to press for the division, which could not now be taken under favourable circumstances,more particularly after the statements of

{LORDS} Mr. Stuart-Question.

to what extent the persecution of Protestants was to be permitted? The noble Earl (who was very indistinctly heard) suggested that the police had been withdrawn from watching this Gentleman's tem. Some of the scenes that had taken house because he had given a vote adverse to the candidate of the Irish Government in the late election; and expressed his opinion that no Lord Lieutenant had ever taken so strong a part in politics as the Earl of Carlisle.