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diff --git a/old/10956.txt b/old/10956.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fabc182 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10956.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4384 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Indian speeches (1907-1909) +by John Morley (AKA Viscount Morley) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Indian speeches (1907-1909) + +Author: John Morley (AKA Viscount Morley) + +Release Date: February 6, 2004 [EBook #10956] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIAN SPEECHES (1907-1909) *** + + + + +Produced by Josephine Paolucci, and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team. + + + + + +INDIAN SPEECHES + +(1907-1909) + +BY VISCOUNT MORLEY + +OM + + +_The modern and Western spirit is assuredly at work in the Indian +countries, but the vital question for Indian Governments is, How far +it has changed the ideas of men_?--SIR HENRY MAINE. + +1909 + + + + +NOTE + +A signal transaction is now taking place in the course of Indian +polity. These speeches, with no rhetorical pretensions, contain some +of the just, prudent, and necessary points and considerations, that +have guided this transaction, and helped to secure for it the sanction +of Parliament. The too limited public that follows Indian affairs with +coherent attention, may find this small sheaf of speeches, revised as +they have been, to be of passing use. Three cardinal State-papers have +been appended. They mark the spirit of British rule in India, at three +successive stages, for three generations past; and bear directly upon +what is now being done. + +_November_, 1909. + + + + +CONTENTS + +I. ON PRESENTING THE INDIAN BUDGET. (House of Commons, June 6, 1907) + +II. TO CONSTITUENTS. (Arbroath, October 21, 1907) + +III. ON AMENDMENT TO ADDRESS. (House of Commons, January 31, 1908) + +IV. INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE. (London, July, 1908) + +V. ON PROPOSED REFORMS. (House of Lords, December 17, 1908) + +VI. HINDUS AND MAHOMETANS. (January, 1909) + +VII. SECOND READING OF INDIAN COUNCILS BILL. (House of Lords) + +VIII. INDIAN PROBATIONERS. (Oxford, June 13, 1909) + + +APPENDIX + +THREE STATE-PAPERS: 1833, 1858, 1908 + + + + +INDIAN SPEECHES + + +I + + +ON PRESENTING THE INDIAN BUDGET + +(HOUSE OF COMMONS. JUNE 6, 1907) + +I am afraid I shall have to ask the House for rather a large draft +upon its indulgence. The Indian Secretary is like the aloe, that +blooms once in 100 years: he only troubles the House with speeches +of his own once in twelve months. There are several topics which the +House will expect me to say something about, and of these are two or +three topics of supreme interest and importance, for which I plead for +patience and comprehensive consideration. We are too apt to find that +Gentlemen both here and outside fix upon some incident of which they +read in the newspaper; they put it under a microscope; they indulge +in reflections upon it; and they regard that as taking an intelligent +interest in the affairs of India. If we could suppose that on some +occasion within the last three or four weeks a wrong turn had been +taken in judgment at Simla, or in the Cabinet, or in the India Office, +or that to-day in this House some wrong turn might be taken, what +disasters would follow, what titanic efforts to repair these +disasters, what devouring waste of national and Indian treasure, and +what a wreckage might follow! These are possible consequences that +misjudgment either here or in India might bring with it. + +Sir, I believe I am not going too far when I say that this is almost, +if not quite, the first occasion upon which what is called the British +democracy in its full strength has been brought directly face to face +with the difficulties of Indian Government in all their intricacies, +all their complexities, all their subtleties, and above all in their +enormous magnitude. Last year when I had the honour of addressing the +House on the Indian Budget, I observed, as many have done before me, +that it is one of the most difficult experiments ever tried in human +history, whether you can carry on, what you will have to try to carry +on in India--personal government along with free speech and free right +of public meeting. This which last year was partially a speculative +question, has this year become more or less actual, and that is a +question which I shall by and by have to submit to the House. I want +to set out the case as frankly as I possibly can. I want, if I may +say so without presumption, to take the House into full confidence so +far--and let nobody quarrel with this provision--as public interests +allow. I will beg the House to remember that we do not only hear one +another; we are ourselves this afternoon overheard. Words that may be +spoken here, are overheard in the whole kingdom. They are overheard +thousands of miles away by a vast and complex community. They are +overheard by others who are doing the service and work of the Crown in +India. By those, too, who take part in the immense work of commercial +and non-official life in India. We are overheard by great Indian +princes who are outside British India. We are overheard by the dim +masses of Indians whom, in spite of all, we shall persist in regarding +as our friends. We are overheard by those whom, I am afraid, we must +reluctantly call our enemies. This is the reason why everybody who +speaks to-day, certainly including myself, must use language that is +well advised, language of reserve, and, as I say again, the fruit of +comprehensive consideration. + +The Budget is a prosperity Budget. We have, however, to admit that +a black shadow falls across the prospect. The plague figures are +appalling. But do not let us get unreasonably dismayed, even about +these appalling figures. If we reviewed the plague figures up to last +December, we might have hoped that the horrible scourge was on the +wane. From 92,000 deaths in the year 1900, the figures went up to +1,100,000 in 1904, while in 1905 they exceeded 1,000,000. In 1906 +a gleam of hope arose, and the mortality sank to something under +350,000. The combined efforts of Government and people had produced +that reduction; but, alas, since January, 1907, plague has again +flared up in districts that have been filled with its terror for a +decade; and for the first four months of this year the deaths amounted +to 642,000, which exceeded the record for the same period in any past +year. You must remember that we have to cover a very vast area. I do +not know that these figures would startle us if we took the area of +the whole of Europe. It was in 1896 that this plague first appeared in +India, and up to April, 1907, the total figure of the human beings who +have died is 5,250,000. But dealing with a population of 300,000,000, +this dire mortality, although enormous, is not at all comparable with +the results of the black death and other scourges, that spread over +Europe in earlier times, in proportion to the population. The plague +mortality in 1904 (the worst complete year) would only represent, +if evenly distributed, a death-rate of about 3 per 1,000. But it is +local, and particularly centres in the Punjab, the United Provinces, +and in Bombay. I do not think that anybody who has been concerned in +India--I do not care to what school of Indian thought he belongs--can +deny that measures for the extermination and mitigation of this +disease have occupied the most serious, constant, unflagging, zealous, +and energetic attention of the Indian Government. But the difficulties +we encounter are manifold, as many Members of the House are well +aware. It is possible that hon. Members may rise and say that we are +not enforcing with sufficient zeal proper sanitary rules; and, on the +other hand, I dare say that other hon. Members will get up to show +that the great difficulty in the way of sanitary rules being observed, +arises from the reluctance of the population to practise them. That +is perfectly natural and is well understood. They are a suspicious +population, and we all know that, when these new rules are forced +upon them, they constantly resent and resist them. A policy of severe +repression is worse than useless. I will not detain the House with +particulars of all the proceedings we have taken in dealing with +the plague. But I may say that we have instituted a long scientific +inquiry with the aid of the Royal Society and the Lister Institute. +Then we have very intelligent officers, who have done all they could +to trace the roots of the disease, and to discover if they could, any +means to prevent it. It is a curious thing that, while there appears +to be no immunity from this frightful scourge for the natives, +Europeans enjoy almost entire immunity from the disease. That is +difficult to understand or to explain. + +Now as to opium, I know that a large number of Members in the House +are interested in it. Judging by the voluminous correspondence that I +receive, all the Churches and both political Parties are sincerely and +deeply interested in the question, and I was going to say that the +resolutions with which they have favoured me often use the expression +"righteousness before revenue." The motto is excellent, but its virtue +will be cheap and shabby, if you only satisfy your own righteousness +at the expense of other people's revenue. + +Mr. LUPTON: We are quite ready to bear the expense. + +Mr. MORLEY: My hon. friend says they are quite prepared to bear the +expense. I commend that observation cheerfully to the Chancellor of +the Exchequer. This question touches the consciences of the people of +the country. My hon. friend sometimes goes a little far; still, he +represents a considerable body of feeling. Last May, when the opium +question was raised in this House, something fell from me which +reached the Chinese Government, and the Chinese Government, on the +strength of that utterance of mine, made in the name of His Majesty's +Government, have persistently done their best to come to some sort +of arrangement and understanding with His Majesty's Government. In +September an Imperial decree was issued in China ordering the strict +prohibition of the consumption and cultivation of opium, with a view +to ultimate eradication in ten years. Communications were made to +the Foreign Secretary, and since then there has been a considerable +correspondence, some of which the House is, by Question and Answer, +acquainted with. The Chinese Government have been uniformly assured, +not only by my words spoken in May, but by the Foreign Secretary, that +the sympathy of this country was with the objects set forth in their +decree of September. Then a very important incident, as I regard +it, and one likely by-and-bye to prove distinctly fruitful, was the +application by the United States Government to our Government, as to +whether there should not be a joint inquiry into the opium traffic by +the United States and the other Powers concerned. The House knows, +by Question and Answer, that His Majesty's Government judge that +procedure by way of Commission rather than by way of Conference is the +right way to approach the question. But no one can doubt for a moment, +considering the honourable interest the United States have shown on +previous occasions, that some good result will come with time and +persistence. + +I will not detain the House with the details, but certainly it is a +true satisfaction to know that a great deal of talk as to the Chinese +interest in the suppression of opium being fictitious is unreal. I was +much struck by a sentence written by the correspondent of _The Times_ +at Peking recently. Everybody who knows him, is aware that he is not +a sentimentalist, and he used remarkable language. He said that +he viewed the development in China of the anti-opium movement as +encouraging; that the movement was certainly popular, and was +supported by the entire native Press; while a hopeful sign was that +the use of opium was fast becoming unfashionable, and would become +more so. A correspondence, so far as the Government of India is +concerned, is now in progress. Those of my hon. friends who think we +are lacking perhaps in energy and zeal I would refer to the language +used by Mr. Baker, the very able finance member of the Viceroy's +Council, because these words really define the position of the +Government of India-- + + "What the eventual outcome will be, it is impossible to foresee. + The practical difficulties which China has imposed on herself are + enormous, and may prove insuperable, but it is evident that the + gradual reduction and eventual extinction of the revenue that + India has derived from the trade, has been brought a stage nearer, + and it is necessary for us to be prepared for whatever may + happen." + +He added that twenty years ago, or even less, the prospect of losing a +revenue of five and a half crores of rupees a year would have caused +great anxiety, and even now the loss to Indian finances would be +serious, and might necessitate recourse to increased taxation. But if, +as they had a clear right to expect, the transition was effected +with due regard to finance, and was spread over a term of years, the +consequence need not be regarded with apprehension. + +When I approach military expenditure, and war and the dangers of +war, I think I ought to say a word about the visit of the Ameer of +Afghanistan, which excited so much attention, and kindled so lively an +interest in great parts, not only of our own dominions, but in Asia. +I am persuaded that we have reason to look back on that visit with +entire and complete satisfaction. His Majesty's Government, previously +to the visit of the Ameer instructed the Governor-General in Council +on no account to open any political questions with the Ameer. That was +really part of the conditions of the Ameer's visit; and the result +of that policy has been to place our relations with the Ameer on an +eminently satisfactory footing, a far better footing than would have +been arrived at by any formal premeditated convention. The Ameer +himself made a speech when he arrived at Kabul on his return, and I +am aware that in this speech I come to a question of what may seem +a Party or personal character, with which it is not in the least my +intention to deal. This is what the Ameer said on 10th April-- + + "The officers of the Government of India never said a word on + political matters, they kept their promise. But as to myself, + whenever and wherever I found an opportunity, I spoke indirectly + on several matters which concerned the interests of my country and + nation. The other side never took undue advantage of it, and + never discussed with me on those points which I mentioned. His + Excellency's invitation (Lord Minto's) to me was in such a proper + form, that I had no objection to accept it. The invitation which + he sent was worded in quite a different form from that of the + invitation which I received on the occasion of the Delhi Durbar. + In the circumstances I had determined to undergo all risks (at the + time of the Delhi Durbar) and, if necessary, to sacrifice all my + possessions and my own life, but not to accept such an invitation + as was sent to me for coming to join the Delhi Durbar." + +These thing are far too serious for me or any of us to indulge in +controversy upon, but it is a satisfaction to be able to point out +to the House that the policy we instructed the Governor-General to +follow, has so far worked extremely well. + +I will go back to the Army. Last year when I referred to this subject, +I told the House that it would be my object to remove any defects that +I and those who advise me might discover in the Army system, and more +especially, of course, in the schemes of Lord Kitchener. Since then, +with the assistance of two very important Committees, well qualified +by expert military knowledge, I came to the conclusion that an +improved equipment was required. Hon. Gentlemen may think that my +opinion alone would not be worth much; but, after all, civilians have +got to decide these questions, and, provided that they arm themselves +with the expert knowledge of military authorities, it is rightly their +voice that settles the matter. Certain changes were necessary in +the allocation of units in order to enable the troops to be better +trained, and therefore our final conclusion was that the special +military expenditure shown in the financial statement must go on for +some years more. But the House will see that we have arranged to cut +down the rate of the annual grant, and we have taken care--and this, +I think, ought to be set down to our credit--that every estimate for +every item included in the programme shall be submitted to vigilant +scrutiny here as well as in India. I have no prepossession in favour +of military expenditure, but the pressure of facts, the pressure of +the situation, the possibilities of contingencies that may arise, seem +obviously to make it impossible for any Government or any Minister to +acquiesce in the risks on the Indian frontier. We have to consider +not only our position with respect to foreign Powers on the Indian +frontier, but the exceedingly complex questions that arise in +connection with the turbulent border tribes. All these things make +it impossible--I say nothing about internal conditions--for any +Government or any Minister with a sense of responsibility to cancel +or to deal with the military programme in any high-handed or cavalier +way. + +Next I come to what, I am sure, is first in the minds of most Members +of the House--the political and social condition of India. Lord Minto +became Viceroy, I think, in November, 1905, and the present Government +succeeded to power in the first week of December. Now much of the +criticism that I have seen on the attitude of His Majesty's Government +and the Viceroy, leaves out of account the fact that we did not come +quite into a haven of serenity and peace. Very fierce monsoons had +broken out on the Olympian heights at Simla, in the camps, and in the +Councils at Downing Street. This was the inheritance into which +we came--rather a formidable inheritance for which I do not, this +afternoon, attempt to distribute the responsibility. Still, when we +came into power, our policy was necessarily guided by the conditions +under which the case had been left. Our policy was to compose the +singular conditions of controversy and confusion by which we were +faced. In the famous Army case we happily succeeded. But in Eastern +Bengal, for a time, we did not succeed. When I see newspaper articles +beginning with the preamble that the problem of India is altogether +outside party questions, I well know from experience that this is too +often apt to be the forerunner of a regular party attack. It is said +that there has been supineness, vacillation and hesitation. I reply +boldly, there has been no supineness, no vacillation, no hesitation +from December, 1905, up to the present day. + +I must say a single word about one episode, and it is with sincere +regret I refer to it. It is called the Fuller episode. I have had the +pleasure of many conversations with Sir Bampfylde Fuller since his +return, and I recognise to the full his abilities, his good faith, and +the dignity and self-control with which, during all this period of +controversy, he has never for one moment attempted to defend himself, +or to plunge into any sort of contest with the Viceroy or His +Majesty's Government.[1] Conduct of that kind deserves our fullest +recognition. I recognise to the full his gifts and his experience, but +I am sure that if he were in this House, he would hardly quarrel with +me for saying that those gifts were not altogether well adapted to the +situation he had to face. + +[Footnote 1: An unhappy lapse took place at a later date.] + +What was the case? The Lieutenant-Governor suggested a certain course. +The Government of India thought it was a mistake, and told him so. The +Lieutenant-Governor thereupon said, "Very well, then I'm afraid I +must resign." There was nothing in all that except what was perfectly +honourable to Sir Bampfylde Fuller. But does anybody here take up this +position, that if a Lieutenant-Governor says, "If I cannot have my own +way I will resign," then the Government of India are bound to refuse +to accept that resignation? All I can say is, and I do not care who +the man may be, that if any gentleman in the Indian service says +he will resign unless he can have his own way, then so far as I +am concerned in the matter, his resignation shall be promptly and +definitely accepted. It is said to-day that Sir Bampfylde Fuller +recommended certain measures about education, and that the Government +have now adopted them. But the circumstances are completely changed. +What was thought by Lord Minto and his Council to be a rash and +inexpedient course in those days, is not thought so now that the +circumstances have changed. I will only mention one point. There was +a statement the other day in a very important newspaper that the +condition of anti-British feeling in Eastern Bengal had gained in +virulence since Sir Bampfylde Fuller's resignation. This, the Viceroy +assures me, is an absolute perversion of the facts. The whole +atmosphere has changed for the better. When I say that Lord Minto was +justified in the course he took, I say it without any prejudice to +Sir Bampfylde Fuller, or the slightest wish to injure his future +prospects. + +Now I come to the subject of the disorders. I am extremely sorry to +say that some disorder has broken out in the Punjab. I think I may +assume that the House is aware of the general circumstances from +Answers to Questions. Under the Regulation of 1818 (which is still +alive), coercive measures were adopted. Here I would like to examine, +so far as I can, the action taken to preserve the public interests. It +would be quite wrong, in dealing with the unrest in the Punjab, not to +mention the circumstances that provided the fuel for the agitation. +There were ravages by the plague, and these ravages have been cruel. +The seasons have not been favourable. A third cause was an Act then on +the stocks, which was believed to be injurious to the condition of a +large body of men. Those conditions affecting the Colonisation Act +were greatly misrepresented. An Indian member of the Punjab Council +pointed out how impolitic he thought it was; and, as I told the House +about a week ago, the Viceroy, declining to be frightened by the +foolish charge of pandering to agitation and so forth, refused assent +to that proposal. But in the meantime the proposal of the colonisation +law had become a weapon in the hands of the preachers of sedition. I +suspect that the Member for East Nottingham will presently get up and +say that this mischief connected with the Colonisation Act accounted +for the disturbance. But I call attention to this fact, in order that +the House may understand whether or not the Colonisation Act was the +main cause of the disturbance. The authorities believe that it was +not. There were twenty-eight meetings known to have been held by the +leading agitators in the Punjab between 1st March, and 1st May. Of +these five only related, even ostensibly, to agricultural grievances; +the remaining twenty-three were all purely political. The figures seem +to dispose of the contention that agrarian questions are at the root +of the present unrest in the Punjab. On the contrary, it rather +looks as if there was a deliberate heating of the public atmosphere +preparatory to the agrarian meeting at Rawalpindi on the 21st April, +which gave rise to the troubles. The Lieutenant-Governor visited +twenty-seven out of twenty-nine districts. He said the situation +was serious, and it was growing worse. In this agitation special +attention, it is stated, has been paid to the Sikhs, who, as the House +is aware, are among the best soldiers in India, and in the case of +Lyallpur, to the military pensioners. Special efforts have been made +to secure their attendance at meetings to enlist their sympathies +and to inflame their passions. So far the active agitation has been +virtually confined to the districts in which the Sikh element is +predominant. Printed invitations and leaflets have been principally +addressed to villages held by Sikhs; and at a public meeting at +Ferozepore, at which disaffection was openly preached, the men of the +Sikh regiments stationed there were specially invited to attend, and +several hundreds of them acted upon the invitation. The Sikhs were +told that it was by their aid, and owing to their willingness to +shoot down their fellow countrymen in the Mutiny, that the Englishmen +retained their hold upon India. And then a particularly odious line of +appeal was adopted. It was asked, "How is it that the plague attacks +the Indians and not the Europeans?" "The Government," said these men, +"have mysterious means of spreading the plague; the Government spreads +the plague by poisoning the streams and wells." In some villages the +inhabitants have actually ceased to use the wells. I was informed only +the other day by an officer, who was in the Punjab at that moment, +that when visiting the settlements, he found the villagers disturbed +in mind on this point. He said to his men: "Open up your kits, and let +them see whether these horrible pills are in them." The men did as +they were ordered, but the suspicion was so great that people insisted +upon the glasses of the telescopes being unscrewed, in order to be +quite sure that there was no pill behind them. + +See the emergency and the risk. Suppose a single native regiment had +sided with the rioters. It would have been absurd for us, knowing we +had got a weapon there at our hands by law--not an exceptional law, +but a standing law--and in the face of the risk of a conflagration, +not to use that weapon; and I for one have no apology whatever to +offer for using it. Nobody appreciates more intensely than I do the +danger, the mischief, and a thousand times in history the iniquity of +what is called "reason of State." I know all about that. It is full of +mischief and full of danger; but so is sedition, and we should have +incurred criminal responsibility if we had opposed the resort to this +law. + +I do not wish to detain the House with the story of events in Eastern +Bengal and Assam. They are of a different character from those in the +Punjab, and in consequence of these disturbances the Government of +India, with my approval, have issued an Ordinance, which I am sure the +House is familiar with, under the authority and in the terms of an Act +of Parliament. The course of events in Eastern Bengal appears to have +been mainly this--first, attempts to impose the boycott on Mahomedans +by force; secondly, complaints by Hindus if the local officials stop +them, and by Mahomedans if they do not try to stop them; thirdly, +retaliation by Mahomedans; fourthly, complaints by Hindus that the +local officials do not protect them from this retaliation; fifthly, +general lawlessness of the lower classes on both sides, encouraged by +the spectacle of the fighting among the higher classes; sixthly, more +complaints against the officials. The result of the Ordinance has been +that down to May 29th it had not been necessary to take action in any +one of these districts. + +I noticed an ironical look on the part of the right hon. Gentleman +when I referred with perfect freedom to my assent to the resort to the +weapon we had in the law against sedition. I have had communications +from friends of mine that, in this assent, I am outraging the +principles of a lifetime. I should be ashamed if I detained the House +more than two minutes on anything so small as the consistency of my +political life. That can very well take care of itself. I began by +saying that this is the first time that British democracy in its full +strength, as represented in this House, is face to face with the +enormous difficulties of Indian Government. Some of my hon. friends +look even more in sorrow than in anger upon this alleged backsliding +of mine. Last year I told the House that India for a long time to +come, so far as my imagination could reach, would be the theatre +of absolute and personal government, and that raised some doubts. +Reference has been made to my having resisted the Irish Crimes Act, as +if there were a scandalous inconsistency between opposing the policy +of that Act, and imposing this policy on the natives of India. That +inconsistency can only be established by anyone who takes up the +position that Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, is exactly on the +same footing as these 300,000,000 people--composite, heterogeneous, +with different histories, of different races, different faiths. Does +anybody contend that any political principle whatever is capable +of application in every sort of circumstances without reference to +conditions--in every place, and at every time? I, at all events, have +never taken that view, and I would like to remind my hon. friends that +in such ideas as I have about political principles, the leader of my +generation was Mr. Mill. Mill was a great and benignant lamp of wisdom +and humanity, and it was at that lamp I and others kindled our modest +rushlights. What did Mill say about the government of India? Remember +he was not merely that abject and despicable being, a philosopher. He +was a man practised in government, and in what government? Why, he was +responsible, experienced, and intimately concerned in the government +of India. What did he say? If there is anybody who can be quoted as +having been a champion of representative government it is Mill; and in +his book, which, I take it, is still the classic book on that subject, +this is what he says-- + + "Government by the dominant country is as legitimate as any other, + if it is the one which, in the existing state of civilization of + the subject people, most facilitates their transition to a higher + state of civilization." + +Then he says this-- + + "The ruling country ought to be able to do for its subjects + all that could be done by a succession of absolute monarchs, + guaranteed by irresistible force against the precariousness of + tenure attendant on barbarous despotisms, and qualified by their + genius to anticipate all that experience has taught to the more + advanced nations. If we do not attempt to realize this ideal we + are guilty of a dereliction of the highest moral trust that can + devolve upon a nation." + +I will now ask the attention of the House for a moment while I examine +a group of communications from officers of the Indian Government, and +if the House will allow me I will tell them what to my mind is the +result of all these communications as to the general feeling in India. +That, after all, is what most concerns us. For this unrest in the +Punjab and Bengal sooner or later--and sooner, rather than later, I +hope--will pass away. What is the situation of India generally in the +view of these experienced officers at this moment? Even now when we +are passing through all the stress and anxiety, it is a mistake not to +look at things rather largely. They all admit that there is a fall in +the influence of European officers over the population. They all, or +nearly all, admit that there is estrangement--I ought to say, perhaps, +refrigeration--between officers and people. There is less sympathy +between the Government and the people. For the last few years--and +this is a very important point--the doctrine of administrative +efficiency has been pressed too hard. The wheels of the huge machine +have been driven too fast. Our administration--so shrewd observers +and very experienced observers assure me--would be a great deal more +popular if it was a trifle less efficient, a trifle more elastic +generally. We ought not to put mechanical efficiency at the head of +our ideas. I am leading up to a practical point. The district officers +representing British rule to the majority of the people of India, are +overloaded with work in their official relations, and I know there are +highly experienced gentlemen who say that a little of the looseness of +earlier days is better fitted than the regular system of latter days, +to win and to keep personal influence, and that we are in danger of +creating a pure bureaucracy. Honourable, faithful, and industrious the +servants of the State in India are and will be, but if the present +system is persisted in, there is a risk of its becoming rather +mechanical, perhaps I might even say rather soulless; and attention to +this is urgently demanded. Perfectly efficient administration, I need +not tell the House, has a tendency to lead to over-centralisation. It +is inevitable. The tendency in India is to override local authority, +and to force administration to run in official grooves. For my own +part I would spare no pains to improve our relations with native +Governments, and more and more these relations may become of potential +value to the Government of India. I would use my best endeavours to +make these States independent in matters of administration. Yet all +evidence tends to show we are rather making administration less +personal, though evidence also tends to show that the Indian people +are peculiarly responsive to sympathy and personal influence. Do not +let us waste ourselves in controversy, here or elsewhere, or in mere +anger; let us try to draw to our side the men who now influence the +people. We have every good reason to believe that most of the people +of India are on our side. I do not say for a moment that they like us. +It does not come easy, in west or east, to like foreign rule. But in +their hearts they know that their solid interest is bound up with the +law and order that we preserve. + +There is a Motion on the Paper for an inquiry by means of a +Parliamentary Committee or Royal Commission into the causes at the +root of the dissatisfaction. Now, I have often thought, while at +the India Office, whether it would be a good thing to have the +old-fashioned parliamentary inquiry by committee or commission. I have +considered this, I have discussed it with others; and I have come +to the conclusion that such inquiry would not produce any of the +advantages such as were gained in the old days of old committees, and +certainly would be attended by many drawbacks. But I have determined, +after consulting with the Viceroy, that considerable advantage might +be gained by a Royal Commission to examine, with the experience we +have gained over many years, into this great mischief--for all the +people in India who have any responsibility know that it is a great +mischief--of over-centralisation. It seemed a great mischief to so +acute a man as Sir Henry Maine, who, after many years' experience, +wrote expressing agreement with what Mr. Bright said just before or +just after the Mutiny, that the centralised government of India was +too much power for any one man to work. Now, when two men, singularly +unlike in temperament and training, agreed as to the evil of +centralisation on this large scale, it compels reflection. I will not +undertake at the present time to refer to the Commission the large +questions that were spoken of by Maine and Bright, but I think that +much might be gained by an inquiry on the spot into the working of +centralisation of government in India, and how in the opinions of +trained men here and in India, the mischief might be alleviated. That, +however, is not a question before us now. + +You often hear people talk of the educated section of the people of +India as a mere handful, an infinitesimal fraction. So they are, +in numbers; but it is fatally idle to say that this infinitesimal +fraction does not count. This educated section is making and will make +all the difference. That they would sharply criticise the British +system of government has been long known. It was inevitable. There +need be no surprise in the fact that they want a share in political +influence, and want a share in the emoluments of administration. Their +means--many of them--are scanty; they have little to lose and much to +gain from far-reaching changes. They see that the British hand works +the State machine surely and smoothly, and they think, having no fear +of race animosities, that their hand could work the machine as surely +and as smoothly as the British hand. + +And now I come to my last point. Last autumn the Governor-General +appointed a Committee of the Executive Council to consider the +development of the administrative machinery, and at the end of March +last he publicly informed his Legislative Council that he had sent +home a despatch to the Secretary of State proposing suggestions for +a move in advance. The Viceroy with a liberal and courageous mind +entered deliberately on the path of improvement. The public in India +were aware of it. They waited, and are now waiting the result with +the liveliest interest and curiosity. Meanwhile the riots happened +in Rawalpindi, in Lahore. After these riots broke out, what was the +course we ought to take? Some in this country lean to the opinion--and +it is excusable--that riots ought to suspend all suggestions and talk +of reform. Sir, His Majesty's Government considered this view, and in +the end they took, very determinedly, the opposite view. They held +that such a withdrawal would, of course, have been construed as a +triumph for the party of sedition. They held that, to draw back on +account of local and sporadic disturbances, however serious, anxious, +and troublesome they might be, would have been a really grave +humiliation. To hesitate to make a beginning with our own policy of +improving the administrative machinery of the Indian Government, would +have been taken as a sign of nervousness, trepidation, and fear; and +fear, that is always unworthy in any Government, is in the Indian +Government, not only unworthy, but extremely dangerous. I hope the +House concurs with His Majesty's Government. + +In answer to a Question the other day, I warned one or two of my +hon. friends that, in resisting the employment of powers to suppress +disturbances, under the Regulation of 1818 or by any other lawful +weapon we could find, they were promoting the success of that +disorder, which would be fatal to the very projects with which they +sympathise. The despatch from India reached us in due course. It was +considered by the Council of India and by His Majesty's Government, +and our reply was sent about a fortnight ago. Someone will ask--Are +you going to lay these two despatches on the Table to-day? I hope the +House will not take it amiss if I say that at this stage--perhaps at +all stages--it would be wholly disadvantageous to lay the despatches +on the Table. We are in the middle of the discussion to-day, and it +would break up steady continuity if we had a premature discussion +_coram populo_. Everyone will understand that discussions of this kind +must be very delicate, and it is of the utmost importance that they +should be conducted with entire freedom. But, to employ a word that +I do not often use, I might adumbrate the proposals. This is how +the case stands. The despatch reached His Majesty's Government, who +considered it. We then set out our views upon the points raised in +the despatch. The Government of India will now frame what is called a +Resolution. That draft Resolution, when framed by them in conformity +with the instructions of His Majesty's Government, will in due course +be sent here. We shall consider that draft, and then it will be my +duty to present it to this House if legislation is necessary, as it +will be; and it will be published in India to be discussed there by +all those concerned.... + +The main proposal is the acceptance of the general principle of +a substantial enlargement of Legislative Councils, both the +Governor-General's Legislative Council and the Provincial Legislative +Councils. Details of this reform have to be further discussed in +consultation with the local Governments in India, but so far it is +thought best in India that an official majority must be maintained. +Again, in the discussion of the Budget in the Viceroy's Council the +subjects are to be grouped and explained severally by the members of +Council in charge of the Departments, and longer time is to be +allowed for this detailed discussion and for general debate. One more +suggestion. The Secretary of State has the privilege of recommending +to the Crown members of the Council of India. I think that the time +has now come when the Secretary of State may safely, wisely, and +justly recommend at any rate one Indian member. I will not discuss the +question now. I may have to argue it in Parliament at a later stage, +but I think it is right to say what is my intention, realising as we +all do how few opportunities the governing bodies have of hearing the +voice of Indians. + +I believe I have defended myself from ignoring the principle that +there is a difference between the Western European and the Indian +Asiatic. There is vital difference, and it is infatuation to ignore +it. But there is another vital fact--namely, that the Indian Asiatic +is a man with very vivid susceptibilities of all kinds, and with +living traditions of a civilisation of his own; and we are bound to +treat him with the same kind of respect and kindness and sympathy that +we should expect to be treated with ourselves. Only the other day I +saw a letter from General Gordon to a friend of mine. He wrote-- + + "To govern men, there is but one way, and it is eternal truth. Get + into their skins. Try to realize their feelings. That is the true + secret of government." + +That is not only a great ethical, but a great political law, and we +shall reap a sour and sorry harvest if it is forgotten. It would be +folly to pretend to any dogmatic assurance--and I certainly do not--as +to the course of the future in India. But for to-day anybody who takes +part in the rule of India, whether as a Minister or as a Member of +the House of Commons, participating in the discussion on affairs in +India--anyone who wants to take a fruitful part in such discussions, +if he does his duty will found himself on the assumption that the +British rule will continue, ought to continue, and must continue. +There is, I know, a school,--I do not think it has representatives in +this House--who say that we might wisely walk out of India, and that +the Indians would manage their own affairs better than we can manage +affairs for them. Anybody who pictures to himself the anarchy, the +bloody chaos, that would follow from any such deplorable step, must +shrink from that sinister decision. We, at all events--Ministers and +Members of this House--are bound to take a completely different view. +The Government, and the House in all its parties and groups, is +determined that we ought to face all these mischiefs and difficulties +and dangers of which I have been speaking with a clear purpose. We +know that we are not doing it for our own interest alone, or our own +fame in the history of the civilised world alone, but for the interest +of the millions committed to us. We ought to face it with sympathy, +with kindness, with firmness, with a love of justice, and, whether the +weather be fair or foul, in a valiant and manful spirit. + + + + +II + + +TO CONSTITUENTS + +(ARBROATH. OCTOBER 21, 1907) + +It is an enormous satisfaction to me to find myself here once more, +the first time since the polling, and since the splendid majority that +these burghs were good enough to give me. I value very much what the +Provost has said, when he told you that I have never, though I have +had pretty heavy burdens, neglected the local business of Arbroath and +the other burghs. The Provost truly said that I hold an important and +responsible office under the Crown; and I hope that fact will be the +excuse, if excuse be needed, for my confining myself to-night to a +single topic. When I spoke to a friend of mine in London the other day +he said, "What are you going to speak about?", and I told him. He is a +very experienced man and he said, "It is a most unattractive subject, +India." At any rate, this is the last place where any apology is +needed for speaking about India, because it is you who are responsible +for my being the Indian Minister. If your 2,500 majority had been +2,500 the other way, I should have been no longer the Indian Minister. +There is something that strikes the imagination, something that +awakens a feeling of the bonds of mankind, in the thought that you +here and in the other burghs--(shipmen, artificers, craftsmen, and +shopkeepers living here)--are brought through me, and through your +responsibility in electing me, into contact with all these hundreds +of millions across the seas. Therefore it is that I will not make any +apology to you for my choice of a subject to-night. Let me say +this, not only to you gentlemen here, but to all British +constituencies--that it is well you should have patience enough to +listen to a speech about India; because it is no secret to anybody who +understands, that if the Government were to make a certain kind of bad +blunder in India--which I do not at all expect them to make--there +would be short work for a long time to come, with many of those +schemes, upon which you have set your heart. Do not dream, if any +mishap of a certain kind were to come to pass in India that you can +go on with that programme of social reforms, all costing money and +absorbing attention, in the spirit in which you are now about to +pursue it. + +I am not particularly fond of talking of myself, but there is one +single personal word that I would like to say, and my constituency is +the only place in which I should not be ashamed to say that word. You, +after all, are concerned in the consistency of your representative. +Now I think a public man who spends overmuch time in vindicating +his consistency, makes a mistake. I will confess to you in friendly +confidence, that I have winced when I read of lifelong friends of +mine saying that I have, in certain Indian transactions, shelved the +principles of a lifetime. One of your countrymen said that, like the +Python--that fabulous animal who had the largest swallow that any +creature ever enjoyed--I have swallowed all my principles. I am a +little disappointed at such clatter as this. When a man has laboured +for more years than I care to count, for Liberal principles and +Liberal causes, and thinks he may possibly have accumulated a little +credit in the bank of public opinion--and in the opinion of his party +and his friends--it is a most extraordinary and unwelcome surprise to +him, when he draws a very small cheque indeed upon that capital, to +find the cheque returned with the uncomfortable and ill-omened words, +"No effects." I am not going to defend myself. A long time ago a +journalistic colleague, who was a little uneasy at some line I took +upon this question or that, comforted himself by saying. "Well, well, +the ship (speaking of me) swings on the tide, but the anchor holds." +Yes, gentlemen, I am no Pharisee, but I do believe that my anchor +holds, and your cheers show that you believe it too. + +Now to India. I observed the other day that the Bishop of Lahore +said--and his words put in a very convenient form what is in the minds +of those who think about Indian questions at all--"It is my deep +conviction that we have reached a point of the utmost gravity and of +far-reaching effect in our continued relations with this land, and I +most heartily wish there were more signs that this fact was clearly +recognised by the bulk of Englishmen out here in India, or even by our +rulers themselves." Now you and the democratic constituencies of this +kingdom are the rulers of India. It is to you, therefore, that I come +to render my account. Just let us see where we are. Let us put the +case. When critics assail Indian policy or any given aspect of it, I +want to know where we start from? Some of you in Arbroath wrote to +me, a year ago, and called upon me to defend the system of Indian +Government and the policy for which I am responsible. I declined, for +reasons that I stated at the moment. I am here to answer to-night, +when the time makes it more fitting in anticipation all those +difficulties which some excellent people, with whom in many ways I +sympathise, feel. Again, I say, let us see where we start from. Does +anybody want me to go to London to-morrow morning, and to send a +telegram to Lord Kitchener, the Commander-in-Chief in India, and tell +him that he is to disband the Indian army, to send home as fast as we +can despatch transports, the British contingent of the army, and bring +away the whole of the Civil servants? Suppose it to be true, as +some people in Arbroath seem to have thought--I am not arguing the +question--that Great Britain loses more than she gains; supposing it +to be true that India would have worked out her own salvation without +us; supposing it to be true that the present Government of India has +many defects--supposing all that to be true, do you want me to send +a telegram to Lord Kitchener to-morrow morning to clear out bag and +baggage? How should we look in the face of the civilised world if we +had so turned our back upon our duty and sovereign task? How should we +bear the smarting stings of our own consciences, when, as assuredly +we should, we heard through the dark distances the roar and scream of +confusion and carnage in India? Then people of this way of thinking +say "That is not what we meant." Then what is it that is meant, +gentlemen? The outcome, the final outcome, of British rule in India +may be a profitable topic for the musings of meditative minds. But we +are not here to muse. We have the duty of the day to perform, we have +the tasks of to-morrow spread out before us. In the interests of +India, to say nothing of our own national honour, in the name of duty +and of common sense, our first and commanding task is to keep order +and to quell violences among race and creed; sternly to insist on the +impartial application of rules of justice, independent of European or +of Indian. We begin from that. We have got somehow or other, whatever +the details of policy and executive act may be, we are bound by the +first law of human things to maintain order. + +There are plenty of difficulties in this immense task in England, and +I am not sure that I will exclude Scotland, but I said England in +order to save your feelings. One of the obstacles is the difficulty of +finding out for certain what actually happens. Scare headlines in the +bills of important journals are misleading. I am sure many of you must +know the kind of mirror that distorts features, elongates lines, makes +round what is lineal, and so forth. I assure you that a mirror of that +kind does not give you a more grotesque reproduction of the human +physiognomy, than some of these tremendous telegrams give you as to +what is happening in India. Another point is that the Press is very +often flooded with letters from Indians or ex-Indians--from _Indicus +olim_, and others--too oftened coloured with personal partisanship and +deep-dyed prepossessions. There is a spirit of caste outside the Hindu +sphere. There is a great deal of writing on the Indian Government by +men who have acquired the habit while they were in the Government, +and then unluckily retain the habit after they come home and live, or +ought to live, in peace and quietness among their friends here. That +is another of our difficulties. Still, when all such difficulties +are measured and taken account of, it is impossible to overrate the +courage, the patience and fidelity, with which the present House of +Commons faces what is not at all an easy moment in Indian Government. +You talk of democracy. People cry, "Oh! Democracy cannot govern remote +dependencies." I do not know; it is a hard question. So far, after +one Session of the most Liberal Parliament that has ever sat in Great +Britain, this most democratic Parliament so far at all events, has +safely rounded an extremely difficult angle. It is quite true that in +reference to a certain Indian a Conservative member rashly called out +one night in the House of Commons "Why don't you shoot him?" The whole +House, Tories, Radicals, and Labour men, they all revolted against any +such doctrine as that; and I augur from the proceedings of the last +Session--with courage, patience, good sense, and willingness to learn, +that democracy, in this case at all events, has shown, and I think is +going to show, its capacity for facing all our problems. + +Now, I sometimes say to friends of mine in the House, and I venture +respectfully to say it to you--there is one tremendous fallacy which +it is indispensable for you to banish from your minds, taking the +point of view of a British Liberal, when you think of India. It was +said the other day--no, I beg your pardon, it was alleged to have been +said--by a British Member of Parliament now travelling in India--That +whatever is good in the way of self-government for Canada, must be +good for India. In my view that is the most concise statement that +I can imagine, of the grossest fallacy in all politics. It is a +thoroughly dangerous fallacy. I think it is the hollowest and, I am +sorry to say, the commonest, of all the fallacies in the history of +the world in all stages of civilisation. Because a particular policy +or principle is true and expedient and vital in certain definite +circumstances, therefore it must be equally true and vital in a +completely different set of circumstances. What sophism can be more +gross and dangerous? You might just as well say that, because a fur +coat in Canada at certain times of the year is a truly comfortable +garment, therefore a fur coat in the Deccan is just the very garment +that you would be delighted to wear. I only throw it out to you as +an example and an illustration. Where the historical traditions, the +religious beliefs, the racial conditions, are all different--there to +transfer by mere untempered and cast-iron logic all the conclusions +that you apply in one case to the other, is the height of political +folly, and I trust that neither you nor I will ever lend ourselves to +any extravagant doctrine of that species. + +You may say, Ah, you are laying down very different rules of policy in +India from those which for the best part of your life you laid down +for Ireland. Yes, but that reproach will only have a sting in it, if +you persuade me that Ireland with its history, the history of the +Rebellion, Union and all the other chapters of that dismal tale, is +exactly analogous to the 300 millions of people in India. I am not at +all afraid of facing your test. I cannot but remember that in speaking +to you, I may be speaking to people many thousands of miles away, but +all the same I shall speak to you and to them perfectly frankly. I +don't myself believe in artful diplomacy; I have no gift for it. There +are two sets of people you have got to consider. First of all, I hope +that the Government of India, so long as I am connected with it and +responsible for it to Parliament and to the country, will not be +hurried by the anger of the impatient idealist. The impatient +idealist--you know him. I know him. I like him, I have been one +myself. He says, "You admit that so and so is right; why don't you do +it--why don't you do it now?" Whether he is an Indian idealist or a +British idealist I sympathise with him. Ah! gentlemen, how many of +the most tragic miscarriages in human history have been due to the +impatience of the idealist! (Loud cheers.) I should like to ask the +Indian idealist, whether it is a good way of procuring what everybody +desires, a reduction of Military expenditure, for example, whether it +is a good way of doing that, to foment a spirit of strife in India +which makes reduction of Military forces difficult, which makes the +maintenance of Military force indispensable? Is it a good way to help +reformers like Lord Minto and myself, in carrying through political +reform, to inflame the minds of those who listen to such teachers, to +inflame their minds with the idea that our proposals and projects are +shams? Assuredly it is not. + +And I will say this, gentlemen. Do not think there is a single +responsible leader of the reform party in India, who does not deplore +the outbreak of disorder that we have had to do our best to put down; +who does not agree that disorder, whatever your ultimate policy may +be--must be with a firm hand put down. If India to-morrow became a +self-governing Colony--disorder would still have to be put down with +an iron hand; I do not know and I do not care, to whom these gentlemen +propose to hand over the charge of governing India. Whoever they might +be, depend upon it that the maintenance of order is the foundation +of anything like future progress. If any of you hear unfavourable +language applied to me as your representative, do me the justice to +remember considerations of that kind. To nobody in this world, by +habit, by education, by experience, by views expressed in political +affairs for a great many years past, to nobody is exceptional +repression, more distasteful than it is to me. After all, gentlemen, +you would not have me see men try to set the prairie on fire without +arresting the hand. You would not blame me when I saw men smoking +their pipes near powder magazines, you would not blame me, you would +not call me an arch coercionist, if I said, "Away with the men and +away with the pipes." We have not allowed ourselves--I speak of the +Indian Government--to be hurried into the policy of repression. I +say this to what I would call the idealist party. Then I would say +something to those who talk nonsense about apathy and supineness. We +will not be hurried into repression, any more than we will be hurried +into the other direction. This party, which is very vocal in this +country, say:--Oh! we are astonished, and India is astonished, and +amazed at the licence that you extend to newspapers and to speakers; +why don't you stop it? Orientals, they say, do not understand it. +Yes, but just let us look at that. We are not Orientals; that is the +root of the matter. We are in India. We English, Scotch, and Irish, +are in India because we are not Orientals. We are representatives, not +of Oriental civilisation, but of Western civilisation, of its methods, +its principles, its practices; and I for one will not be hurried into +an excessive haste for repression, by the argument that Orientals do +not understand patience or toleration. + +You will want to know how the situation is viewed at this moment in +India itself, by those who are responsible for the Government of +India. This view is not a new view at all. It is that the situation is +not gravely dangerous, but it requires serious and urgent attention. +That seems for the moment to be the verdict. Extremists are few, but +they are active; their field is wide, their nets are far spread. +Anybody who has read history knows that the Extremist often beats the +Moderate by his fire, his heated energy, his concentration, by his +very narrowness. So be it; we remember it; we watch it all, with that +lesson of historic experience full in our minds. Yet we still hold +that it would be the height of political folly for us at this moment +to refuse to do all we can, with prudence and energy, to rally the +Moderates to the cause of the Government, simply because the policy +will not satisfy the Extremists. Let us, if we can, rally the +Moderates, and if we are told that the policy will not satisfy the +Extremists, so be it. Our line will remain the same. It is the height +of folly to refuse to rally sensible people, because we do not satisfy +Extremists. I am detaining you unmercifully, but I doubt whether--and +do not think I say it because it happens to be my department--of all +the questions that are to be discussed perhaps for years to come, any +question can be in all its actual foundations, and all its prospective +bearings, more important than the question of India. There are many +aspects of it which it is not possible for me to go into, as, for +example, some of its Military aspects. I repeat my doubt whether there +is any question more commanding at this moment, and for many a day to +come, than the one which I am impressing upon you to-night. Is all +that is called unrest in India mere froth? Or is it a deep rolling +flood? Is it the result of natural order and wholesome growth in +this vast community? Is it natural effervescence, or is it deadly +fermentation? Is India with all its heterogeneous populations--is it +moving slowly and steadily to new and undreamt of unity? It is the +vagueness of the discontent, which is not universal--it is the +vagueness that makes it harder to understand, harder to deal with. +Some of them are angry with me. Why? Because I have not been able to +give them the moon. I have got no moon, and if I had I would not part +with it. I will give the moon, when I know who lives there, and what +kind of conditions prevail there. + +I want, if I may, to make a little literary digression. Much of this +movement arises from the fact that there is now a large body +of educated Indians who have been fed, at our example and our +instigation, upon some of the great teachers and masters of this +country, Milton, Burke, Macaulay, Mill, and Spencer. Surely it is a +mistake in us not to realise that these masters should have mighty +force and irresistible influence. Who can be surprised that educated +Indians who read those high masters and teachers of ours, are +intoxicated with the ideas of freedom, nationality, self-government, +that breathes the breath of life in those inspiring and illuminating +pages. Who of us that had the privilege in the days of our youth, at +college or at home, of turning over those golden chapters, and seeing +that lustrous firmament dawn over our youthful imaginations--who of us +can forget, shall I call it the intoxication and rapture, with which +we strove to make friends with truth, knowledge, beauty, freedom? Then +why should we be surprised that young Indians feel the same movement +of mind, when they are made free of our own immortals. I would only +say this to my idealist friends, whether Indian or European, that for +every passage that they can find in Mill, or Burke, or Macaulay, +or, any other of our lofty sages with their noble hearts and potent +brains, I will find them a dozen passages in which history is shown to +admonish us, in the language of Burke--"How weary a step do those +take who endeavour to make out of a great mass a true political +personality!" They are words much to be commended to those zealots +in India--how many a weary step has to be taken before they can form +themselves into a mass that has a true political personality! My +warning may be wasted, but anybody who has a chance ought to try to +appeal to the better, the riper, mind of educated India. Time has gone +on with me, experience has widened. I have never lost my invincible +faith that there is a better mind in all civilised communities--and +that this better mind, if you can reach it, if statesmen in time to +come can reach that better mind, can awaken it, can evoke it, can +induce it to apply itself to practical purposes for the improvement +of the conditions of such a community, they will earn the crown of +beneficent fame indeed. Nothing strikes me much more than this, when +I talk of the better mind of India--there are subtle elements, +religious, spiritual, mystical, traditional, historical in what we may +call for the moment the Indian mind, which are very hard for the most +candid and patient to grasp or to realise in their full force. But our +duty, and it is a splendid duty, is to try. I always remember a little +passage in the life of a great Anglo-Indian, Sir Henry Lawrence, a +very simple passage, and it is this, "No one ever ate at Sir Henry +Lawrence's table without learning to think more kindly of the +natives." I wish I could know that at every Anglo-Indian table to-day, +nobody has sat down without leaving it having learned to think a +little more kindly of the natives. One more word on this point. Bad +manners, overbearing manners are disagreeable in all countries: India +is the only country where bad and overbearing manners are a political +crime. + +The Government have been obliged to take measures of repression; they +may be obliged to take more. But we have not contented ourselves with +measures of repression. Those of you who have followed Indian matters +at all during the last two or three months are aware there is a reform +scheme, a scheme to give the Indians chances of coming more closely +and responsibly into a share of the Government of their country. The +Government of India issued certain proposals expressly marked as +provisional and tentative. There was no secret hatching of a new +Constitution. Their circular was sent about to obtain an expression +of Indian opinion, official and non-official. Plenty of time has been +given, and is to be given, for an examination and discussion of these +proposals. We shall not be called upon to give an official decision +until spring next year, and I shall not personally be called upon for +a decision before the middle of next Session. One step we have taken +to which I attach the greatest importance. Two Indians have for the +first time been appointed to be members of the Council of India +sitting at Whitehall. I appointed these two gentlemen, not only to +advise the Secretary of State in Council, not only to help to keep him +in touch with Indian opinion and Indian interests, but as a marked +and conspicuous proof on the highest scale, by placing them on this +important and ruling body, that we no longer mean to keep Indians at +arm's length or shut the door of the Council Chamber of the paramount +power against them. Let me press this important point upon you. + +The root of the unrest, discontent, and sedition, so far as I can make +out after constant communication with those who have better chances of +knowing the problem at first hand, than I could have had--the root of +the matter is racial and social not political. That being so, it is +of a kind that is the very hardest to reach. You can reach political +sentiment. This goes deeper. Racial dislike is a dislike not of +political domination, but of racial domination; and my object in +making that conspicuous change in the constitution of the Council +of India which advises the Secretary of State for India, was to do +something, and if rightly understood and interpreted to do a great +deal, to teach all English officers and governors in India, from the +youngest Competition wallah who arrives there, that in the eyes of the +ruling Government at home, the Indian is perfectly worthy of a place, +be it small or great, in the counsels of those who make and carry on +the laws and the administration of the community to which he belongs. +We stand by this position not in words alone; we have shown it in act +and shall show it further. + +There is one more difficulty--there are two difficulties--and I must +ask you for a couple of minutes. I only need name them--famine and +plague. At this moment, when you have thought and argued out all +these political things, the Government of India still remains a grim +business. If there are no rains this month, the spectre of famine +seems to be approaching, and nobody can blame us for that. Nobody +expects the Viceroy and the Secretary of State to play the part of +Elijah on Mount Carmel, who prayed and saw a little cloud like a man's +hand, until the heavens became black with winds and cloud, and there +was a great rain. That is beyond the reach of Government. All we can +say is that never before was the Government in all its branches and +members found more ready than it is now, to do the very best to face +the prospect. Large suspensions of revenue and rent will be granted, +allowances will be made to distressed cultivators. No stone will be +left unturned. The plague figures are terrible enough. At this season +plague mortality is generally quiescent; but this year, even if the +last three months of it show no rise, the plague mortality will still +be the worst that has ever been known, I think, in India's recorded +annals. Pestilence during the last nine months has stalked through +the land, wasting her cities and villages, uncontrolled and +uncontrollable, so far as we can tell, by human forethought or care. +When I read some of these figures in the House of Commons, a few +perturbed cries of "Shame" accompanied them. These cries came from the +natural sympathy, horror, amazement, and commiseration, with which we +all listen to such ghastly stories. The shame does not lie with the +Government. If you see anything in your newspapers about these plague +figures, remember that they are not like an epidemic here. In trying +to remedy plague, you have to encounter the habits and prejudices of +hundreds of years. Suppose you find plague is conveyed by a flea upon +a rat, and suppose you are dealing with a population who object to +the taking away of life. You see for yourselves the difficulty? The +Government of India have applied themselves with great energy, with +fresh activity, and they believe they have got the secret of this fell +disaster. They have laid down a large policy of medical, sanitary, and +financial aid. I am a hardened niggard of public money. I watch the +expenditure of Indian revenue as the ferocious dragon of the old +mythology watched the golden apples. I do not forget that I come +from a constituency which, so far as I have known it, if it is most +generous, is also most prudent. Nevertheless, though I have to be +thrifty, almost parsimonious, upon this matter, the Council of India +and myself will, I am sure, not stint or grudge. I can only say, in +conclusion, that I think I have said enough to convince you that I +am doing what I believe you would desire me to do--conducting +administration in the spirit which I believe you will approve; +listening with impartiality to all I can learn; desirous to support +all those who are toiling at arduous work in India; and that we shall +not be deterred from pursuing to the end, a policy of firmness on the +one hand, and of liberal and steady reform on the other. We shall not +see all the fruits of it in our day. So be it. We shall at least have +made not only a beginning, but a marked advance both in order +and progress, by resolute patience, and an unflagging spirit of +conciliation. + + + + +III + + +AN AMENDMENT TO THE ADDRESS + +(HOUSE OF COMMONS. JAN. 31, 1908) + + DR. RUTHERFORD (Middlesex, Brentford) rose to move as an Amendment + to the Address, at the end to add,--"But humbly submits that the + present condition of affairs in India demands the immediate and + serious attention of his Majesty's Government; that the present + proposals of the Government of India are inadequate to allay the + existing and growing discontent; and that comprehensive measures + of reform are imperatively necessary in the direction of giving + the people of India control over their own affairs." + +MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER, I think the House will allow me in the remarks +that I wish to make, to refer to a communication that I had received, +namely, the decision arrived at by the Transvaal Government in respect +to the question of Asiatics. Everybody in the House is aware of the +enormous interest, even passionate interest, that has been taken in +this subject, especially in India, and for very good reasons. Without +further preface let me say, this is the statement received by Lord +Elgin from the Government of the Transvaal last night:--"Gandhi and +other leaders of the Indian and Chinese communities have offered +voluntary registration in a body within three months, provided +signatures only are taken of educated, propertied, or well-known +Asiatics, and finger-prints of the others, and that no question +against which Asiatics have religious objections be pressed. The +Transvaal Government have accepted this offer, and undertaken, pending +registration, not to enforce the penalties under the Act against all +those who register. The sentences of all Asiatics in prison will be +remitted to-morrow." Lord Selborne adds, "This course was agreed to by +both political parties." I am sure that everybody in the House will +think that very welcome news. I do not like to let the matter drop +without saying a word--I am sure Lord Elgin would like me to say +it--in recognition of the good spirit shown by the Transvaal +Government. + +In reference to the Amendment now before the House, I have listened +to the debate with keen, lively, and close interest. I am not one of +those who have usually complained of these grave topics being raised, +when fair opportunity offered in this House. On the whole, looking +back over my Parliamentary lifetime, which is now pretty long, I think +there has been too little Indian discussion. Before I came here there +were powerful minds like Mr. Fawcett and Mr. Bradlaugh and others, who +constantly raised Indian questions in a truly serious and practical +way, though I do not at all commit myself to the various points +of view that were then adopted. But, of course, this is a vote of +confidence. I am not going to ask members to vote for the Government +on that ground. But I must submit that His Majesty's present +Government in the Indian department has the confidence both of the +House and of the country. I believe we have. An important suggestion +was made by my hon. friend now sitting below the gangway, that a +Parliamentary Committee should sit--I presume a joint committee of the +two Houses--and my hon. friend who spoke last, said that the fact of +the existence of that committee would bring Parliament into closer +contact with the mind of India. Well, ever since I have been at the +India Office I have rather inclined in the direction of one of the old +Parliamentary Committees. I will not argue the question now. I can +only assure my hon. friend that the question has been considered +by me, and I see what its advantages might be, yet I also perceive +serious disadvantages. In the old days they were able to command the +services on the Indian committees, of ex-Ministers, of members of this +House and members of another place, who had had much experience +of Indian administration, and I am doubtful, considering the +preoccupations of public men, whether we should now be able to call a +large body of experienced administrators, with the necessary balance +between the two Houses, to sit on one of these committees. And then I +would point out another disadvantage. You would have to call away from +the performance of their duties in India a large body of men whose +duties ought to occupy, and I believe do occupy, all their minds and +all their time. Still it is an idea, and I will only say that I do not +entirely banish it from my own mind. Two interesting speeches, and +significant speeches, have been made this afternoon. One was made by +my hon. friend, the mover, and the other by the hon. Member for East +Leeds. Those two speeches raise a really important issue. My hon. +friend the Member for Leeds said that democracy was entirely opposed +to, and would resist, the doctrine of the settled fact.[1] My hon. +friend tells you democracy will have nothing to do with settled facts, +though he did not quite put it as plainly as that. Now, if that be so, +I am very sorry for democracy. I do not agree with my hon. friend. I +think democracy will be just as reasonable as any other sensible form +of government, and I do not believe democracy will for a moment +think that you are to rip up a settlement of an administrative or +constitutional question, because it jars with some abstract _a priori_ +idea. I for one certainly say that I would not remain at the India +Office, or any other powerful and responsible Departmental office, on +condition that I made short work of settled facts, hurried on with my +catalogue of first principles, and arranged on those principles +the whole duties of government. Then my hon. friend the Member for +Brentford quoted an expression of mine used in a speech in the country +about the impatient idealists, and he reproved me for saying that some +of the worst tragedies of history had been wrought by the impatient +idealists. He was kind enough to say that it was I, among other +people, who had made him an idealist, and therefore I ought not to be +ashamed of my spiritual and intellectual progeny. I certainly have no +right whatever to say that I am ashamed of my hon. friend, who made +a speech full of interesting views, full of visions of a millennial +future, and I do not quarrel with him for making his speech. My hon. +friend said that he was for an Imperial Duma. The hon. Gentleman has +had the advantage of a visit to India, which I have never had. I think +he was there for six whole long weeks. He polished off the Indian +population at the heroic rate of sixty millions a week, and this makes +him our especially competent instructor. His Imperial Duma was to be +elected, as I understood, by universal suffrage. + +[Footnote 1: The Secretary of State had on an earlier occasion spoken +of the Petition of Bengal as a settled fact.] + +Dr. RUTHERFORD: No, not universal suffrage. I said educational +suffrage, and also pecuniary suffrage--taxpayers and ratepayers. + +Mr. MORLEY: In the same speech the hon. Gentleman made a great charge +against our system of education in India--that we had not educated +them at all; therefore, he excludes at once an enormous part of the +population. The Imperial Duma, as I understood from my hon. friend was +to be subject to the veto of the Viceroy. That is not democracy. We +are to send out from Great Britain once in five years a Viceroy, +who is to be confronted by an Imperial Duma, just as the Tsar is +confronted by the Duma in Russia. Surely that is not a very ripe idea +of democracy. My hon. friend visited the State of Baroda, and thought +it well governed. Well, there is no Duma of his sort there. I will +state frankly my own opinion even though I have not spent one single +week-end in India. If I had to frame a new system of government for +India, I declare I would multiply the Baroda system of government, +rather than have an Imperial Duma and universal suffrage. The speech +of my hon. friend, with whom I am sorry to find myself, not in +collision but in difference, illustrates what is to my mind one of the +grossest of all the fallacies in practical politics--namely, that you +can cut out, frame, and shape one system of government for communities +with absolutely different sets of social, religious, and economic +conditions--that you can cut them all out by a sort of standardised +pattern, and say that what is good for us here, the point of view, the +line of argument, the method of solution--that all these things are to +be applied right off to a community like India. I must tell my hon. +friend that I regard that as a most fatal and mischievous fallacy, and +I need not say more. I am bound, after what I have said, to add that I +do not think that it is at all involved in Liberalism. I have had the +great good fortune and honour and privilege to have known some of the +great Liberals of my time, and there was not one of those great men, +Gambetta, Bright, Gladstone, Mazzini, who would have accepted for one +single moment the doctrine on which my hon. friend really bases his +visionary proposition for a Duma. Is there any rational man who +holds that, if you can lay down political principles and maxims +of government that apply equally to Scotland or to England, or to +Ireland, or to France, or to Spain, therefore they must be just as +true for the Punjab and the United Provinces and Bengal? + +Dr. RUTHERFORD: I quoted Mr. Bright as making the very proposal I have +made, with the exception of the Duma--namely, Provincial Parliaments. + +Mr. MORLEY: I am afraid I must traverse my hon. friend's description +of Mr. Bright's view, with which, I think, I am pretty well +acquainted. Mr. Bright was, I believe, on the right track at the time, +when in 1858 the Government of India was transferred to the Crown. +He was not in favour of universal suffrage--he was rather +old-fashioned--but Mr. Bright's proposal was perfectly different from +that of my hon. friend. Sir Henry Maine, and others who had been +concerned with Indian affairs, came to the conclusion that Mr. +Bright's idea was right--that to put one man, a Viceroy, assisted as +he might be with an effective Executive Council, in charge of such +an area as India and its 300 millions of population, with all its +different races, creeds, modes of thought, was to put on a Viceroy's +shoulder a load that no man of whatever powers, however gigantic they +might be, could be expected effectively to support. My hon. friend and +others who sometimes favour me with criticisms in the same sense, +seem to suggest that I am a false brother, that I do not know what +Liberalism is. I think I do, and I must even say that I do not think I +have anything to learn of the principles or maxims or the practice of +Liberal doctrines even from my hon. friend. You are bound to look at +the whole mass of the difficulties and perplexing problems connected +with India, from a common-sense plane, and it is not common sense, if +I may say so without discourtesy, to talk of Imperial Dumas. I have +not had a word of thanks from that quarter, in the midst of a shower +of reproach, for what I regard, in all its direct and indirect results +and bearings, as one of the most important moves that have been made +in connection with the relations between Great Britain and India for +a long time--I mean, the admission of two Indian gentlemen to the +Council of the Secretary of State. An hon. friend wants me to appoint +an Indian gentleman to the Viceroy's Executive Council. Well, that +is a different thing; but I am perfectly sure that, if an occasion +offers, neither Lord Minto nor I would fall short of some such +application of democratic principles. In itself it is something that +we have a Viceroy and a Secretary of State thoroughly alive to the +great change in temperature and atmosphere that has been going on in +India for the last five or six years, and I do not think we ought to +be too impatiently judged. We came in at a perturbed time; we did not +find balmy breezes and smooth waters. It is notorious that we came +into enormous difficulties, which we had not created. How they were +created is a long story that has nothing whatever to do with the +present discussion. But what I submit with the utmost confidence +is that the situation to-day is a considerable improvement on the +situation that we found, when we assumed power two years ago. There +have been heavy and black clouds over the Indian horizon during +those two years. By our policy those clouds have been to some extent +dispersed. I am not so unwise as to say that the clouds will never +come back again; but what has been done by us has been justified, in +my opinion, by the event. + +Some fault was found, and I do not in the least complain, with the +deportation of two native gentlemen. I do not quarrel with the man +who finds fault with that proceeding. To take anybody and deport him +without bringing any charge against him, and with no intention of +bringing him to trial, is a step that, I think, the House is perfectly +justified in calling me to account for. I have done my best to account +for it, and to-day, anyone who knows the Punjab, would agree that, +whatever may happen at some remote period, its state is comparatively +quiet and satisfactory. I am not going to repeat my justification of +that strong measure of deportation, but I should like to read to the +House the words of the Viceroy in the Legislative Council in November +last, when he was talking about the circumstances with which we had to +deal. He said, addressing Lord Kitchener-- + + "I hope that your Excellency will on my behalf as Viceroy and as + representing the King convey to His Majesty's Indian troops + my thanks for the contempt with which they have received the + disgraceful overtures which I know have been made to them. The + seeds of sedition have been unscrupulously scattered throughout + India, even amongst the hills of the frontier tribes. We are + grateful that they have fallen on much barren ground, but we can + no longer allow their dissemination." + +Will anybody say, that in view of the possible danger pointed to in +that language of the Viceroy two or three months ago, we did wrong in +using the regulation which applied to the case? No one can say what +mischief might have followed, if we had taken any other course than +that which we actually took. + +Let me beseech my hon. friends at least to try for some sense of +balanced proportion, instead of allowing their wrath at one particular +incident of policy to blot out from their vision all the wide and +durable operations, to which we have set firm and persistent hands. +After all, this absence of a sense of proportion is what, more than +any other one thing, makes a man a wretched politician. + +Now as to the reforms that are mentioned in my hon. friend's +Amendment. It is an extraordinary Amendment. It-- + + "submits that the present condition of affairs in India demands + the immediate and serious attention of His Majesty's Government." + +I could cordially vote for that, only remarking that the hon. member +must think the Secretary of State, and the Viceroy, and other persons +immediately concerned in the Government of India, very curious people +if he supposes that the state of affairs in India does not always +demand their immediate and very serious attention. Then the Amendment +says-- + + "The present proposals of the Government of India are inadequate + to allay the existing and growing discontent." + +I hope it is not presumptuous to say so, but I should have expected a +definition from my hon. friend of what he guesses these proposals are. +I should like to set a little examination paper to my hon. friend. I +have studied them for many months, yet would rather not be examined +for chapter and verse. But my hon. friend after his famous six weeks +of travel knows all about them, and the state of affairs for which our +plans are the inadequate remedy. I do not want to hold him up as a +formidable example: but in his speech to-day he went over--and it +does credit to his industry--every single one of the most burning and +controversial questions of the whole system of Indian Government and +seemed to say, "I will tell you how far this is wrong and exactly what +ought to be done to put what is wrong right." I think I have got from +him twenty _ipse dixits_ on all these topics on which we slow dull +people at the India Office are wearing ourselves to pieces. When it is +said, as I often hear it said, that I, for example, am falling +into the hands of my officials, it should be remembered that those +gentlemen who go to India also get into the hands of other people. + +Dr. RUTHERFORD: I was in the hands both of officials and of Indians. + +Mr. MORLEY: Then let me assure him, perhaps to his amazement, that he +came out of the hands of both of them still with something to learn. +I wonder whether, when this House is asked to condemn the present +proposals of the Government of India as being inadequate to allay the +existing and growing discontent, it is realised exactly how the case +stands. I will repeat what I said in the debate on the Indian +Budget. The Government of India sent over to the India Office their +proposals--their various schemes for advisory councils and so forth. +We at the India Office subjected them to a careful scrutiny and +laborious examination. As a result of this careful scrutiny and +examination, they were sent back to the Government of India with the +request that they would submit them to discussion in various quarters. +The instruction to the Government of India was that by the end of +March, the India Office was to learn what the general view was at +which the Government of India had themselves arrived upon the plans, +with all their complexities and variations. We wanted to know what +they would tell us. It will be for us to consider how far the report +so arrived at, how far these proposals, ripened by Indian opinion, +carried out the policy which His Majesty's Government had in view. +Surely that is a reasonable and simple way of proceeding? When you +have to deal with complex communities of varied races, and all the +other peculiarities of India, you have to think out how your proposals +will work. Democracies do not always think how things will work. +Sir Henry Cotton made a speech that interested and struck me by its +moderation and reasonableness. He made a number of remarks in perfect +good faith about officials, which I received in a chastened spirit, +for he has been for a very long time a very distinguished official +himself. Therefore, he knows all about it. He went on to talk of +the great problem of the separation of the executive and judicial +functions, which is one of the living problems of India. I can only +assure my hon. friend that that is engaging our attention both in +India and here. + +Another of the subjects to which the attention of the Indian +Government has been specifically directed has regard to the mitigation +of flogging, the restriction of civil flogging, and the limitation of +military flogging to specific cases. In this we are making a marked +advance in humanity and common sense,--which is itself a kind of +humanity. + +My hon. friend appeals to me saying that all will be well in India, +if the Secretary of State will make a statement which will show the +Indian people that, in his relations with them, his hopes for them, +and his efforts for them, he is moved by a kindly, sympathetic, and +friendly feeling, showing them that his heart is with them. All I have +got to say is that I have never shown myself anything else. My heart +is with them. What is bureaucracy to me? It is a great machine in +India, yes a splendid machine, for performing the most difficult task +that ever was committed to the charge of any nation. But show me where +it fails--that it is perfect in every respect no sensible man would +contend for a moment--but show me at any point, let any of my hon. +friends show me from day to day as this session passes, where this +bureaucracy, as they call it, has been at fault. Do they suppose it +possible that I will not show my recognition of that failure, and +do all that I can to remedy it? Although the Government of India is +complicated and intricate, they cannot suppose that I shall fail for +one moment in doing all in my power to demonstrate that we are moved +by a kindly, a sympathetic, a friendly, an energetic, and what I +will call a governing spirit, in the highest form and sense of that +sovereign and inspiring word. + + + +IV + + +INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE + +(LONDON. JULY 1908) + +GENTLEMEN,--I have first of all to thank you for what I understand is +a rare honour--and an honour it assuredly is--of being invited to +be your guest to-night. The position of a Secretary of State in the +presence of the Indian Civil Service is not an entirely simple one. +You, Gentlemen, who are still in the Service, and the veterans I see +around me who have been in that great Service, naturally and properly +look first of all, and almost altogether, upon India. A Secretary of +State has to look also upon Great Britain and upon Parliament--and +that is not always a perfectly easy situation to adjust. I forget who +it was that said about the rulers of India in India:--"It is no easy +thing for a man to keep his watch in two longitudes at once at the +same time." That is the case of the Secretary of State. It is not +the business of the Secretary of State to look exclusively at India, +though I will confess to you for myself that during the moderately +short time I have held my present office, I have kept my eye upon +India constantly, steadfastly, and with every desire to learn the +whole truth upon every situation as it arose. + +But there must be a thorough comprehension in the mind of the +Secretary of State of two things--first of all, of the Indian point of +view; and, secondly, the point of view as it appears to those who are +the masters of me and of you. Do not forget that adjustment has to be +made. It would be impertinent of me to pay compliments to the Civil +Service, to whom I propose this toast--"The Health of the Indian +Civil Service." You might think for a moment, that it was an amateur +proposing prosperity and success to experts. I have had in my days a +good deal to do with experts of one kind and another, and I assure +you that I do not think an expert is at all the worse when he gets a +candid-minded and reasonably well trained amateur. + +Now, this year is a memorable anniversary. It is fifty years within a +month or two, since the Crown took over the Government of India from +the old East India Company. Whether that was a good move or a bad +move, it would not become me to discuss. The move was made. (A voice, +"It was a good move.") My veteran friend says that it was a good move. +I hope so. But at the end of fifty years we are at rather a critical +moment. I read in _The Times_ the other day that the present Viceroy +and Secretary of State had to deal with conditions such as the British +in India never before were called upon to face. (A voice, "That is +so.") Now, many of you sitting around me at this table are far better +able to test the weight of that statement, than I can pretend to be. +Is it true that at the end of fifty years since the transfer to the +Crown, we have to deal with conditions such as the British in India +never before were called upon to face? ("Yes.") I cannot undertake to +measure that; but what is clear is that decidedly heavy clouds have +suddenly risen in our horizon, and are darkly sailing over our Indian +skies. That cannot be denied. But, gentlemen, having paid the utmost +attention that a man can in office, with access to all the papers, and +seeing all the observers he is able to see, I do not feel for a moment +that this discovery of a secret society or a secret organisation +involves any question of an earthquake. I prefer to look upon it, to +revert to my own figure, as clouds sailing through the sky. I do not +say you will not have to take pretty strong measures of one sort and +another. Yes, but strong measures in the right direction, and with the +right qualifications. I think any man who lays down a firm proposition +that all is well, or any man who says that all is ill--either of those +two men is probably wrong. Now this room is filled, and genially +filled, with men who have had enormous experience, vast and wide +experience, and, not merely passive experience, but that splendid +active experience which is the real training and education of men +in responsibility. This room is full of gentlemen with these +qualifications. And I will venture to say that the theories and +explanations that could be heard in the palace of truth from all of +you gentlemen here, would be countless in their differences. I hear +explanations of the present state of things all day long. I like to +hear them. You think it may become monotonous. No: not at all; because +there is so much, I will not say of random variety, but there is so +much independent use of mind upon the facts that we have to deal with, +that I listen with endless edification and instruction. But, I think, +and I wish I could think otherwise with all my heart--that to sum up +all these theories and explanations of the state of things with which +we have to deal, you can hardly resist a painful impression that there +is now astir in some quarters a certain estrangement and alienation of +races. ("No no.") Gentlemen, bear with me patiently. It is our share +in the Asiatic question. + + +A DIFFICULT PROBLEM. + +I am trying to feel my way through the most difficult problem, the +most difficult situation that a responsible Government can have to +face. Of course, I am dependent upon information. But as I read it, +as I listen to serious Indian experts with large experience, it all +sounds estrangement and alienation even though it be no worse than +superficial. Now that is the problem that we have to deal with. +Gentlemen, I should very badly repay your kindness in asking me to +come among you to-night, if I were to attempt for a minute to analyse +or to prove all the conditions that have led to this state of things. +It would need hours and days. This is not, I think, the occasion, nor +the moment. Our first duty--the first duty of any Government--is to +keep order. But just remember this. It would be idle to deny, and I am +not sure that any of you gentlemen would deny, that there is at this +moment, and there has been for some little time past, and very likely +there will be for some time to come, a living movement in the mind of +the peoples for whom you are responsible. A living movement, and a +movement for what? A movement for objects which we ourselves have all +taught them to think desirable objects. And unless we somehow or other +can reconcile order with satisfaction of those ideas and aspirations, +gentlemen, the fault will not be theirs. It will be ours. It will mark +the breakdown of what has never yet broken down in any part of the +world--the breakdown of British statesmanship. That is what it will +do. Now I do not believe anybody--either in this room or out of this +room--believes that we can now enter upon an era of pure repression. +You cannot enter at this date and with English public opinion, mind +you, watching you, upon an era of pure repression, and I do not +believe really that anybody desires any such thing. I do not believe +so. Gentlemen, we have seen attempts, in the lifetime of some of us +here to-night, attempts in Continental Europe, to govern by pure +repression. Has one of them really succeeded? They have all failed. +There may be now and again a spurious semblance of success, but in +truth they have all failed. Whether we with our enormous power and +resolution should fail, I do not know. But I do not believe anybody +in this room representing so powerfully as you do dominant sentiments +that are not always felt in England--that in this room there is +anybody who is for an era of pure repression. Gentlemen, I would just +digress for a moment if I am not tiring you. ("Go on,") About the same +time as the transfer, about fifty years ago, of the Government of +India from the old East India Company to the Crown, another very +important step was taken, a step which I have often thought since +I have been concerned with the Government of India was far more +momentous, one almost deeper than the transfer to the Crown. And what +do you think that was? That was the first establishment--I think I +am right in my date--of Universities. We in this country are so +accustomed to look upon political changes as the only important +changes, that we very often forget such a change as the establishment +of Universities. And if any of you are inclined to prophesy, I should +like to read to you something that was written by that great and +famous man, Lord Macaulay, in the year 1836, long before the +Universities were thought of. What did he say? What a warning it is, +gentlemen. He wrote, in the year 1836:--"At the single town of Hooghly +1,400 boys are learning English. The effect of this education on the +Hindus is prodigious.... It is my firm belief that if our plans of +education are followed up, there will not be a single idolater among +the respectable classes in Bengal thirty years hence. And this will be +effected merely by the natural operation of knowledge and reflection." +Ah, gentlemen, the natural operation of knowledge and reflection +carries men of a different structure of mind, different beliefs, +different habits and customs of life--it carries them into strange and +unexpected paths. I am not going to embark you to-night upon these +vast controversies, but when we talk about education, are we not +getting very near the root of the case? Now to-night we are not in the +humour--I am sure you are not, I certainly am not--for philosophising. +Somebody is glad of it. I will tell you what I think of--as I have for +a good many months past--I think first of the burden of responsibility +weighing on the governing men at Calcutta and Simla and the other main +centres of power and of labour. We think of the anxieties of those in +India, and in England as well, who have relatives in remote places and +under conditions that are very familiar to you all. I have a great +admiration for the self-command, for the freedom from anything +like panic, which has hitherto marked the attitude of the European +population of Calcutta and some other places, and I confess I have +said to myself that if they had found here, in London, bombs in the +railway carriages, bombs under the Prime Minister's House, and so +forth, we should have had tremendous scare headlines and all the other +phenomena of excitement and panic. So far as I am informed, though +very serious in Calcutta--the feeling is serious, how could it be +anything else?--they have exercised the great and noble virtue, in all +ranks and classes, of self-command. Now the Government--if you will +allow me for a very few moments to say a word on behalf of the +Government, not here alone but at Simla--we and they, for after all we +are one--have been assailed for a certain want of courage and what is +called, often grossly miscalled, vigour. + +We were told the other day--and this brings us to the root of +policy--that there had been a momentary flash of courage in the +Government, a momentary flash of courage when the Government of India +and we here assented to the deportation of two men, and it is made a +matter of complaint that they were released immediately. Well, they +were not released immediately, but after six or eight months--I forget +exactly how many months--of detention. They were there with no charge, +no trial, nor intention of bringing them to trial. How long were we to +keep them there? Not a day, I answer, nor one hour, after the specific +and particular mischief, with a view to which this drastic proceeding +was adopted, had abated. Specific mischief, mind you. I will not go +into that argument to-night: another day I will. I will only say one +thing. To strain the meaning and the spirit of an exceptional law like +the old Regulation of the year 1818 in such a fashion as this, +what would it do? Such a strain, pressed upon us in the perverse +imagination of headstrong men, is no better than a suggestion for +provoking lawless and criminal reprisals. ("No.") You may not agree +with me. You are kindly allowing me as your guest to say things with +which perhaps you do not agree. (Cries of "Go on.") After all, we +understand one another--we speak the same language, and I tell you +that a proceeding of that kind, indefinite detention, is a thing that +would not be endured in this country. (A voice of "Disorder.") Yes, if +there were great and clear connection between the detention and the +outbreak of disorder, certainly; but as the disorder had abated it +would have been intolerable for us to continue the incarceration. + +Last Monday, what is called a Press Act, was passed by the Government +of India, in connection with, and simultaneously with, an Explosives +Act which ought to have been passed, I should think, twenty years ago. +What is the purport of the Press Act? I do not attempt to give it +in technical language. Where the Local Government finds a newspaper +article inciting to murder and violence, or resort to explosives for +the purposes of murder or violence, that Local Government may apply to +a Magistrate of a certain status to issue an order for the seizure of +the Press by which that incitement has been printed; and if the owner +of the Press feels himself aggrieved, he may within fifteen days ask +the High Court to reverse the order, and direct the restoration of the +Press. That is a statement of the law that has been passed in India, +and to which I do not doubt we shall give our assent. There has been +the usual outcry raised--usual in all these cases. Certain people say, +"Oh, you are too late." Others say, "You are too early." I will say to +you first of all, and to any other audience afterwards, that I have no +apology to make for being a party to the passing of this law now; and +I have no apology to make for not passing it before. I do not believe +in short cuts, and I believe that the Government in these difficult +circumstances is wise not to be in too great a hurry. I have no +apology to make for introducing executive action into what would +normally be a judicial process. Neither, on the other hand, have I any +apology to make for tempering executive action with judicial elements; +and I am very glad to say that an evening newspaper last night, which +is not of the politics to which I belong, entirely approves of that. +It says: "You must show that you are not afraid of referring your +semi-executive, semi-judicial action to the High Court." This Act +meddles with no criticism, however strong, of Government measures. It +discourages the advocacy of no practical policy, social, political, or +economic. Yet I see, to my great regret and astonishment, that this +Act is described as an Act for judging cases of seditious libel +without a Jury. It is contended by some--and I respect the +contention--that the Imperial Parliament ought to have been consulted +before this Act was passed, and ought to be consulted now. (Cries +of "No, no.") My veteran friends lived before the days of household +suffrage. Well, it is said that the voice of Parliament ought to +be heard in so grave a matter as this. But the principles of the +proposals were fully considered, as was quite right, not only by the +Secretary of State in Council, but by the Cabinet. It was a matter of +public urgency. I stand by it. But it is perfectly natural to ask: +Should the Imperial Parliament have no voice? I have directed the +Government of India to report to the Secretary of State all the +proceedings taken under this Act; and I undertake, as long as I hold +the office of Secretary of State, to present to Parliament from time +to time the reports of the proceedings taken under this somewhat +drastic Act. + +When I am told that an Act of this kind is a restriction on the +freedom of the Press, I do not accept it for a moment. I do not +believe that there is a man in England who is more jealous of the +freedom of the Press than I am. But let us see what we mean. It is +said, "Oh, these incendiary articles"--for they are incendiary and +murderous--"are mere froth." Yes, they are froth; but they are +froth stained with bloodshed. When you have men admitting that they +deliberately write these articles and promote these newspapers with +a view of furthering murderous action, to talk of the freedom of the +Press in connection with that is wicked moonshine. We have now got a +very Radical House of Commons. So much, the better for you. If I were +still a member of the House of Commons, I should not mind for a moment +going down to the House--and I am sure that my colleagues will not +mind--to say that when you find these articles on the avowal of those +concerned, expressly designed to promote murderous action, and when +you find as a fact that murderous action has come about, it is +moonshine to talk of the freedom of the Press. There is no use in +indulging in heroics. They are not wanted. But an incendiary article +is part and parcel of the murderous act. You may put picric acid in +the ink and pen, just as much as in any steel bomb. I have one or two +extracts here with which I will not trouble you. But when I am +told that we should recognise it as one of the chief aims of good +Government that there may be as much public discussion as possible, I +read that sentence with proper edification; and then I turn to what I +had telegraphed for from India--extracts from _Yugantar_. To talk of +public discussion in connection with mischief of that kind is really +pushing things intolerably far. + +I will not be in a hurry to believe that there is not a great body +in India of reasonable people, not only among the quiet, humble, +law-abiding classes, but among the educated classes. I do not care +what they call themselves, or what organisation they may form +themselves into. But I will not be in a hurry to believe that there +are no such people and that we can never depend on them. When we +believe this--that we have no body of organised, reasonable people +on our side in India--when you gentlemen who know the country, say +this--then I say that, on the day when we believe that, we shall +be confronted with as awkward, as embarrassing, and as hazardous a +situation as has ever confronted the rulers of any of the most complex +and gigantic States in human history. I am confident that if the +crisis comes, it will find us ready, but let us keep our minds clear +in advance. There have been many dark and ugly moments--see gentlemen +around me who have gone through dark and ugly dates--in our relations +with India before now. We have a clouded moment before us now. We +shall get through it--but only with self-command and without any +quackery or cant whether it be the quackery of blind violence +disguised as love of order, or the cant of unsound and misapplied +sentiment, divorced from knowledge and untouched by any cool +consideration of the facts. + + + + +V + + +ON PROPOSED REFORMS + +(HOUSE OF LORDS. DECEMBER 17, 1908) + +I feel that I owe a very sincere apology to the House for the +disturbance in the business arrangements of the House, of which I have +been the cause, though the innocent cause. It has been said that in +the delays in bringing forward this subject, I have been anxious to +burke discussion. That is not in the least true. The reasons that made +it seem desirable to me that the discussion on this most important and +far-reaching range of topics should be postponed, were--I believe the +House will agree with me--reasons of common sense. In the first place, +discussion without anybody having seen the Papers to be discussed, +would evidently have been ineffective. In the second place it would +have been impossible to discuss those Papers with good effect--the +Papers that I am going this afternoon to present to Parliament--until +we know, at all events in some degree, what their reception has been +in the country most immediately concerned. And then thirdly, my +Lords, I cannot but apprehend that discussion here--I mean in +Parliament--would be calculated to prejudice the reception in India +of the proposals that His Majesty's Government, in concert with the +Government of India, are now making. My Lords, I submit those are +three very essential reasons why discussion in my view, and I hope +in the view of this House, was to be deprecated. This afternoon your +Lordships will be presented with a very modest Blue-book of 100 or 150 +pages, but I should like to promise noble Lords that to-morrow morning +there will be ready for them a series of Papers on the same subject, +of a size so enormous that the most voracious or even carnivorous +appetite for Blue-books will have ample food for augmenting the joys +of the Christmas holidays. + +The observations that I shall ask your Lordships to allow me to make, +are the opening of a very important chapter in the history of the +relations of Great Britain and India; and I shall ask the indulgence +of the House if I take a little time, not so much in dissecting the +contents of the Papers, which the House will be able to do for itself +by and by, as in indicating the general spirit that animates His +Majesty's Government here, and my noble friend the Governor-General, +in making the proposals that I shall in a moment describe. I suppose, +like other Secretaries of State for India, I found my first, idea +was to have what they used to have in the old days--a Parliamentary +Committee to inquire into Indian Government. I see that a predecessor +of mine in the India Office, Lord Randolph Churchill--he was there for +too short a time--in 1885 had very strongly conceived that idea. On +the whole I think there is a great deal at the present day to be said +against it. + +Therefore what we have done was in concert with the Government of +India, first to open a chapter of constitutional reform, of which I +will speak in a moment, and next to appoint a Royal Commission to +inquire into the internal relations between the +Government of India and all its subordinate and co-ordinate parts. +That Commission will report, I believe, in February or March +next,--February, I hope,--and that again will involve the Government +of India and the India Office in Whitehall in pretty laborious and +careful inquiries. It cannot be expected--and it ought not to be +expected--that an Act passed as the organic Act of 1858 was passed, +amidst intense excitement and most disturbing circumstances, should +have been in existence for half a century without disclosing flaws +and imperfections, or that its operations would not be the better for +supervision, or incapable of improvement. + +I spoke of delay in these observations, and unfortunately delay has +not made the skies any brighter. But, my Lords, do not let us make +the Indian sky cloudier than it really is. Do not let us consider the +clouds to be darker than they really are. Let me invite your Lordships +to look at the formidable difficulties that now encumber us in India, +with a due sense of proportion. + +What is the state of things as it appears to persons of authority and +of ample knowledge in India? One very important and well-known friend +of mine in India says this-- + +"The anarchists are few, but, on the other hand, they are apparently +prepared to go any length and to run any risk. It must also be borne +in mind that the ordinary man or lad in India has not too much +courage, and that the loyal are terrorised by the ruthless +extremists." + +It is a curious incident that on the very day before the attempt to +assassinate Sir Andrew Fraser was made, he had a reception in the +college where the would-be assassin was educated, and his reception +was of the most enthusiastic and spontaneous kind. I only mention +that, to show the curious and subtle atmosphere in which things now +are at Calcutta. I will not dwell on that, because although I have a +mass of material, this is not the occasion for developing it. I will +only add this from a correspondent of great authority-- + +"There is no fear of anything in the nature of a rising, but if +murders continue, a general panic may arise and greatly increase +the danger of the situation. We cannot hope that any machinery will +completely stop outrages at once. We must be prepared to meet them. +There are growing indications that the native population itself is +alarmed, and that we shall have the strong support of native public +opinion." + +The view of important persons in the Government of India is that in +substance the position of our Government in India is as sound and as +well-founded as it has ever been. + +I shall be asked, has not the Government of India been obliged to pass +a measure introducing pretty drastic machinery? That is quite +true, and I, for one, have no fault whatever to find with them for +introducing such machinery and for taking that step. On the contrary, +my Lords, I wholly approve, and I share, of course, to the full the +responsibility for it. I understand that I am exposed to some obloquy +on this account--I am charged with inconsistency. That is a matter +on which I am very well able to take care of myself, and I should be +ashamed to detain your Lordships for one single moment in arguing +about it. Quite early after my coming to the India Office, pressure +was put on me to repeal the Regulation of 1818, under which men are +now being summarily detained without trial and without charge, +and without intention to try or to charge. That, of course, is a +tremendous power to place in the hands of an Executive Government. But +I said to myself then, and I say now, that I decline to take out of +the hands of the Government of India any weapon that they have got, in +circumstances so formidable, so obscure, and so impenetrable as are +the circumstances that surround British Government in India. + +There are two paths of folly in these matters. One is to regard all +Indian matters, Indian procedure and Indian policy, as if it were +Great Britain or Ireland, and to insist that all the robes and apparel +that suit Great Britain or Ireland must necessarily suit India. The +other is to think that all you have got to do is what I see suggested, +to my amazement, in English print--to blow a certain number of men +from guns, and then your business will be done. Either of these paths +of folly leads to as great disaster as the other. I would like to +say this about the Summary Jurisdiction Bill--I have no illusions +whatever. I do not ignore, and I do not believe that Lord Lansdowne +opposite, or anyone else can ignore, the frightful risks involved in +transferring in any form or degree what should be the ordinary power +under the law, to arbitrary personal discretion. I am alive, too, to +the temptation under summary procedure of various kinds, to the danger +of mistaking a headstrong exercise of force for energy. Again, I do +not for an instant forget, and I hope those who so loudly applaud +legislation of this kind do not forget, the tremendous price that you +pay for all operations of this sort in the reaction and the excitement +that they provoke. If there is a man who knows all these drawbacks +I think I am he. But there are situations in which a responsible +Government is compelled to run these risks and to pay this possible +price, however high it may appear to be. + +It is like war, a hateful thing, from which, however, some of the most +ardent lovers of peace, and some of those rulers of the world whose +names the most ardent lovers of peace most honour and revere--it is +one of the things from which these men have not shrunk. The only +question for us is whether there is such a situation in India to-day +as to warrant the passing of the Act the other day, and to justify +resort to the Regulation of 1818. I cannot imagine anybody reading the +speeches--especially the unexaggerated remarks of the Viceroy--and the +list of crimes perpetrated, and attempted, that were read out last +Friday in Calcutta--I cannot imagine that anybody reading that list +and thinking what they stand for, would doubt for a single moment that +summary procedure of some kind or another was justified and called +for. I discern a tendency to criticise this legislation on grounds +that strike me as extraordinary. After all, it is not our fault that +we have had to bring in this measure. You must protect the lives of +your officers. You must protect peaceful and harmless people, both +Indian and European, from the blood-stained havoc of anarchic +conspiracy. We deplore the necessity, but we are bound to face the +facts. I myself recognise this necessity with infinite regret, and +with something, perhaps, rather deeper than regret. But it is not +the Government, either here or in India, who are the authors of this +necessity, and I should not at all mind, if it is not impertinent and +unbecoming in me to say so, standing up in another place and saying +exactly what I say here, that I approve of these proceedings and will +do my best to support the Government of India. + +Now a very important question arises, for which I would for a moment +ask the close attention of your Lordships, because I am sure that both +here and elsewhere it will be argued that the necessity, and the facts +that caused the necessity, of bringing forward strong repressive +machinery should arrest our policy of reforms. That has been stated, +and I dare say many people will assent to it. Well, the Government of +India and myself have from the very first beginning of this unsettled +state of things, never varied in our determination to persevere in the +policy of reform. + +I put two plain questions to your Lordships. I am sick of all the +retrograde commonplaces about the weakness of concession to violence +and so on. Persevering in our plan of reform is not a concession to +violence. Reforms that we have publicly announced, adopted, and worked +out for more than two years--how is it a concession to violence, to +persist in those reforms? It is simply standing to your guns. A number +of gentlemen, of whom I wish to speak with all respect, addressed a +very courteous letter to me the other day that appeared in the public +prints, exhorting me to remember that Oriental countries inevitably +and invariably interpret kindness as fear. I do not believe it. The +Founder of Christianity arose in an Oriental country, and when I am +told that Orientals always mistake kindness for fear, I must repeat +that I do not believe it, any more than I believe the stranger saying +of Carlyle, that after all the fundamental question between any two +human beings is--Can I kill thee, or canst thou kill me? I do not +agree that any organised society has ever subsisted upon either of +those principles, or that brutality is always present as a fundamental +postulate in the relations between rulers and ruled. + +My first question is this. There are alternative courses open to us. +We can either withdraw our reforms, or we can persevere in them. Which +would be the more flagrant sign of weakness--to go steadily on with +your policy of reform in spite of bombs, or to let yourself openly +be forced by bombs and murder clubs to drop your policy? My second +question is--Who would be best pleased if I were to announce to your +Lordships that the Government have determined to drop the reforms? +Why, it is notorious that those who would be best pleased would be the +extremists and irreconcilables, just because they know well that for +us to do anything to soften estrangement, and appease alienation +between the European and native populations, would be the very best +way that could be adopted to deprive them of fuel for their sinister +and mischievous designs. I hope your Lordships will agree in that, and +I should like to add one reason which I am sure will weigh very much +with you. I do not know whether your Lordships have read the speech +made last Friday by Sir Norman Baker, the new Lieutenant-Governor of +Bengal, in the Council at Calcutta, dealing with the point that I am +endeavouring to present. In a speech of great power and force, he said +that these repressive measures did not represent even the major part +of the true policy dealing with the situation. The greater task, he +said, was to adjust the machinery of government, so that their Indian +fellow-subjects might be allotted parts which a self-respecting people +could fill, and that when the constitutional reforms were announced, +as they would be shortly, he believed that the task of restoring order +would be on the road to accomplishment. For a man holding such +a position to make such a statement at that moment, is all the +corroboration that we need for persisting in our policy of reform. I +have talked with Indian experts of all kinds concerning reforms. I +admit that some have shaken their heads; they did not like reforms +very warmly. But when I have asked, "Shall we stand still, then?" +there is not one of those experienced men who has not said, "That is +quite impossible. Whatever else we do, we cannot stand still." + +I should not be surprised if there are here some who say: You ought to +have some very strong machinery for putting down a free Press. A long +time ago a great Indian authority, Sir Thomas Munro, used language +which I will venture to quote, not merely for the purpose of this +afternoon's exposition, but in order that everybody who listens and +reads may feel the formidable difficulties that our predecessors have +overcome, and that we in our turn mean to try to overcome. Sir Thomas +Munro said-- + + "We are trying an experiment never yet tried in the + world--maintaining a foreign dominion by means of a native army; + and teaching that army, through a free Press, that they ought to + expel us, and deliver their country." + +He went on to say-- + + "A tremendous revolution may overtake us, originating in a free + Press." + +I recognise to the full the enormous force of a declaration of that +kind. But let us look at it as practical men, who have got to deal +with the government of the country. Supposing you abolish freedom of +the Press or suspend it, that will not end the business. You will +have to shut up schools and colleges, for what would be the use of +suppressing newspapers, if you do not shut the schools and colleges? +Nor will that be all. You will have to stop the printing of unlicensed +books. The possession of a copy of Milton, or Burke, or Macaulay, +or of Bright's speeches, and all that flashing array of writers and +orators who are the glory of our grand, our noble English tongue--the +possession of one of these books will, on this peculiar and puerile +notion of government, be like the possession of a bomb, and we shall +have to direct the passing of an Explosives Books Act. All this and +its various sequels and complements make a policy if you please. But +after such a policy had produced a mute, sullen, muzzled, lifeless +India, we could hardly call it, as we do now the brightest jewel in +the Imperial Crown. No English Parliament will ever permit such a +thing. + +I do not think I need go through all the contents of the dispatch +of the Governor-General and my reply, containing the plan of His +Majesty's Government, which will be in your Lordships' hands very +shortly. I think your Lordships will find in them a well-guarded +expansion of principles that were recognised in 1861, and are still +more directly and closely connected with us now by the action of Lord +Lansdowne in 1892. I have his words, and they are really as true a key +to the papers in our hands as they were to the policy of the noble +Marquess at that date. He said-- + + "We hope, however, that we have succeeded in giving to our + proposals a form sufficiently definite to secure a satisfactory + advance in the representation of the people in our legislative + Councils, and to give effect to the principle of selection as far + as possible on the advice of such sections of the community as are + likely to be capable of assisting us in that manner." + +Then you will find that another Governor-General in Council in India, +whom I greatly rejoice to see still among us, my noble friend the +Marquess of Ripon, said in 1882-- + + "It is not primarily with a view to the improvement of + administration, that this measure is put forward, it is chiefly + desirable as an instrument of political and popular education" + +The doctrines announced by the noble Marquess opposite, and by +my noble friend, are the standpoint from which we approached the +situation and framed our proposals. + +I will not trouble the House by going through the history of the +course of the proceedings--that will be found in the Papers. I believe +the House will be satisfied, just as I am satisfied, with the candour +and patience that have been bestowed on the preparation of the scheme +in India, and I hope I may add it has been treated with equal patience +and candour here; and the end of it is that, though some points of +difference arose, though the Government of India agreed to drop +certain points of their scheme--the Advisory Councils, for example--on +the whole there was remarkable agreement between the Government of +India and myself as to the best way of dealing with these proceedings +as to Legislative Councils. I will enumerate the points very shortly, +and though I am afraid it may be tedious, I hope your Lordships will +not find the tedium unbearable, because, after all, what you are +beginning to consider to-day, is the turning over of a fresh leaf +in the history of British responsibility to India. There are only a +handful of distinguished members of this House who understand the +details of Indian Administration, but I will explain them as shortly +as I can. + +This is a list of the powers which we shall have to acquire from +Parliament when we bring in a Bill. I may say that we do not propose +to bring in a Bill this session. That would be idle. I propose to +bring in a Bill next year. This is the first power we shall come +to Parliament for. At present the maximum and minimum numbers of +Legislative Councils are fixed by statute. We shall come to Parliament +to authorise an increase in the numbers of those Councils, both the +Viceroy's Council and the Provincial Councils. Secondly, the members +are now nominated by the head of the Government, either the Viceroy or +the Lieutenant-Governor. No election takes place in the strict sense +of the term. The nearest approach to it is the nomination by the +Viceroy, upon the recommendation of a majority of voters of certain +public bodies. We do not propose to ask Parliament to abolish +nomination. We do propose to ask Parliament, in a very definite way, +to introduce election working alongside of nomination with a view to +the aim admitted in all previous schemes, including that of the noble +Marquess opposite--the due representation of the different classes of +the community. Third. The Indian Councils Act of 1892 forbids--and +this is no doubt a most important prohibition--either resolutions +or divisions of the Council in financial discussions. We shall ask +Parliament to repeal this prohibition. Fourth. We shall propose to +invest legislative Councils with power to discuss matters of public +and general importance, and to pass recommendations or resolutions +to the Indian Government. That Government will deal with them as +carefully, or as carelessly, as they think fit--just as a Government +does here. Fifth. To extend the power that at present exists, to +appoint a Member of the Council to preside. Sixth. Bombay and +Madras have now Executive Councils, numbering two. I propose to ask +Parliament to double the number of ordinary members. Seventh. +The Lieutenant-Governors have no Executive Council. We shall ask +Parliament to sanction the creation of such Councils, consisting of +not more than two ordinary members, and to define the power of the +Lieutenant-Governor to overrule his Council. I am perfectly sure there +may be differences of opinion as to these proposals. I only want your +Lordships to believe that they have been well thought out, and that +they are accepted by the Governor-General in Council. + +There is one point of extreme importance which, no doubt, though it +may not be over diplomatic for me to say so at this stage, will create +some controversy. I mean the matter of the official majority. The +House knows what an official majority is. It is a device by which the +Governor-General, or the Governor of Bombay or Madras, may secure +a majority in his Legislative Council by means of officials and +nominees. And the officials, of course, for very good reasons, just +like a Cabinet Minister or an Under-Secretary, whatever the man's +private opinion may be, would still vote, for the best of reasons, +and I am bound to think with perfect wisdom, with the Government. +But anybody can see how directly, how palpably, how injuriously, an +arrangement of this kind tends to weaken, and I think I may say +even to deaden, the sense both of trust and responsibility in the +non-official members of these councils. Anybody can see how the system +tends to throw the non-official member into an attitude of peevish, +sulky, permanent opposition, and, therefore, has an injurious effect +on the minds and characters of members of these Legislative Councils. + +I know it will be said--I will not weary the House by arguing it, but +I only desire to meet at once the objection that will be taken--that +these councils will, if you take away the safeguard of the official +majority, pass any number of wild-cat Bills. The answer to that is +that the head of the Government can veto the wild-cat Bills. The +Governor-General can withhold his assent, and the withholding of the +assent of the Governor-General is no defunct power. Only the other +day, since I have been at the India Office, the Governor-General +disallowed a Bill passed by a Local Government which I need not name, +with the most advantageous effect. I am quite convinced that if that +Local Government had had an unofficial majority the Bill would never +have been passed, and the Governor-General would not have had to +refuse his assent. But so he did, and so he would if these gentlemen, +whose numbers we propose to increase and whose powers we propose to +widen, chose to pass wild-cat Bills. And it must be remembered that +the range of subjects within the sphere of Provincial Legislative +Councils is rigorously limited by statutory exclusions. I will not +labour the point now. Anybody who cares, in a short compass, can grasp +the argument, of which we shall hear a great deal, in Paragraphs 17 +to 20 of my reply to the Government of India, in the Papers that will +speedily be in your Lordships' hands. + +There is one proviso in this matter of the official majority, in which +your Lordships may, perhaps, find a surprise. We are not prepared to +divest the Governor-General in his Council of an official majority. +In the Provincial Councils we propose to dispense with it, but in the +Viceroy's Legislative Council we propose to adhere to it. Only let +me say that here we may seem to lag a stage behind the Government of +India themselves--so little violent are we--because that Government +say, in their despatch--"On all ordinary occasions we are ready +to dispense with an official majority in the Imperial Legislative +Council, and to rely on the public spirit of non-official members to +enable us to carry on the ordinary work of legislation." My Lords, +that is what we propose to do in the Provincial Councils. But in the +Imperial Council we consider an official majority essential. It may be +said that this is a most flagrant logical inconsistency. So it would +be, on one condition. If I were attempting to set up a Parliamentary +system in India, or if it could be said that this chapter of reforms +led directly or necessarily up to the establishment of a Parliamentary +system in India, I, for one, would have nothing at all to do with it. +I do not believe--it is not of very great consequence what I believe, +because the fulfilment of my vaticinations could not come off very +soon--in spite of the attempts in Oriental countries at this moment, +interesting attempts to which we all wish well, to set up some sort +of Parliamentary system--it is no ambition of mine, at all events, to +have any share in beginning that operation in India. If my existence, +either officially or corporeally, were prolonged twenty times longer +than either of them is likely to be, a Parliamentary system in India +is not at all the goal to which I would for one moment aspire. + +One point more. It is the question of an Indian member on the +Viceroy's Executive Council. The absence of an Indian member from the +Viceroy's Executive Council can no longer, I think, be defended. There +is no legal obstacle or statutory exclusion. The Secretary of State +can, to-morrow, if he likes, if there be a vacancy on the Viceroy's +Council, recommend His Majesty to appoint an Indian member. All I want +to say is that, if, during my tenure of office, there should be a +vacancy on the Viceroy's Executive Council, I should feel it a duty +to tender my advice to the King that an Indian member should be +appointed. If it were on my own authority only, I might hesitate to +take that step, because I am not very fond of innovations in dark and +obscure ground, but here I have the absolute and the zealous approval +and concurrence of Lord Minto himself. It was at Lord Minto's special +instigation that I began to think seriously of this step. Anyhow, this +is how it stands, that you have at this moment a Secretary of State +and a Viceroy who both concur in such a recommendation. I suppose--if +I may be allowed to give a personal turn to these matters--that Lord +Minto and I have had as different experience of life and the world as +possible, and we belong I daresay to different schools of national +politics, because Lord Minto was appointed by the party opposite. It +is a rather remarkable thing that two men, differing in this way in +political antecedents, should agree in this proposal. We need not +discuss what particular portfolio should be assigned to an Indian +member. That will be settled by the Viceroy on the merits of the +individual. The great object, the main object, is that the merits of +individuals are to be considered and to be decisive, irrespective and +independent of race and colour. + +We are not altogether without experience, because a year ago, or +somewhat more, it was my good fortune to be able to appoint two Indian +gentlemen to the Council of India sitting at the Indian Office. Many +apprehensions reached me as to what might happen. So far, at all +events, those apprehensions have been utterly dissipated. The concord +between the two Indian members of the Council and their colleagues has +been unbroken, their work has been excellent, and you will readily +believe me when I say that the advantage to me of being able to ask +one of these two gentlemen to come and tell me something about an +Indian question from an Indian point of view, is enormous. I find +in it a chance of getting the Indian angle of vision, and I feel +sometimes as if I were actually in the streets of Calcutta. + +I do not say there are not some arguments on the other side. But this, +at all events, must be common sense--for the Governor-General and the +European members of his Council to have at their side a man who knows +the country well, who belongs to the country and who can give him the +point of view of an Indian. Surely, my Lords, that cannot but prove an +enormous advantage. + +Let me say further, on the Judicial Bench in India everybody +recognises the enormous service that it is to have Indian members of +abundant learning, and who add to that abundant learning a complete +knowledge of the conditions and life of the country. I propose at +once, if Parliament agrees, to acquire powers to double the Executive +Council in Bombay and Madras, and to appoint at least one Indian +member in each of those cases, as well as in the Governor-General's +Council. Nor, as the Papers will show, shall I be backward in +advancing towards a similar step, as occasion may require, in respect +of at least four of the major provinces. + +I wish that this chapter had been opened at a more fortunate moment: +but as I said when I rose, I repeat--do not let us for a moment take +too gloomy a view. There is not the slightest occasion. None of those +who are responsible take gloomy views. They know the difficulties, +they are prepared to grapple with them. They will do their best to +keep down mutinous opposition. They hope to attract that good will +which must, after all, be the real foundation of our prosperity and +strength in India. We believe that this admission of the Indians to a +larger and more direct share in the government of their country and in +all the affairs of their country, without for a moment taking from +the central power its authority, will fortify the foundations of our +position. It will require great steadiness, constant pursuit of the +same objects, and the maintenance of our authority, which will be all +the more effective if we have, along with our authority, the aid and +assistance, in responsible circumstances, of the Indians themselves. + +Military strength, material strength, we have in abundance. What we +still want to acquire is moral strength--moral strength in guiding +and controlling the people of India in the course on which time is +launching them. I should like to read a few lines from a great orator +about India. It was a speech delivered by Mr. Bright in 1858, when the +Government of India Bill was in another place. Mr. Bright said-- + + "We do not know how to leave India, and therefore let us see if we + know how to govern it. Let us abandon all that system of calumny + against natives of India which has lately prevailed. Had that + people not been docile, the most governable race in the world, how + could you have maintained your power there for 100 years? Are they + not industrious, are they not intelligent, are they not, upon the + evidence of the most distinguished men the Indian service ever + produced, endowed with many qualities which make them respected by + all Englishmen who mix with them?... I would not permit any man + in my presence without rebuke to indulge in the calumnies and + expressions of contempt which I have recently heard poured forth + without measure upon the whole population of India.... The people + of India do not like us, but they would scarcely know where + to turn if we left them. They are sheep, literally without a + shepherd." + +However, that may be, we at least at Westminster here have no choice +and no option. As an illustrious Member of this House wrote-- + + "We found a society in a state of decomposition, and we have + undertaken the serious and stupendous process of reconstructing + it." + +Macaulay, for it was he, said-- + + "India now is like Europe in the fifth century." + +Yes, a stupendous process indeed. The process has gone on with +marvellous success, and if we all, according to our various lights, +are true to our colours, that process will go on. Whatever is said, I +for one--though I am not what is commonly called an Imperialist--so +far from denying, I most emphatically affirm, that for us to preside +over this transition from the fifth European century in some parts, in +slow, uneven stages, up to the twentieth--so that you have before you +all the centuries at once as it were--for us to preside over that, and +to be the guide of peoples in that condition, is, if conducted with +humanity and sympathy, with wisdom, with political courage, not only a +human duty, but what has been often and most truly called one of the +most glorious tasks ever confided to any powerful State in the history +of civilised mankind. + + + + +VI + + +HINDUS AND MAHOMETANS + +(AT THE INDIA OFFICE. JANUARY, 1909) + +[A deputation of the London Branch of the All-Indian Moslem League +waited upon the Secretary of State, in order to represent to him the +views of the Mussulmans of India on the projected Indian reforms.] + +I am delighted to meet you to-day, because I have always felt in my +political experience, now pretty long, that it is when face answers +to face that you come best to points of controversial issue. I have +listened to the able speech of my friend Mr. Ameer Ali and to the +speech that followed, with close attention, not merely for the sake +of the arguments upon the special points raised, but because the +underlying feeling and the animating spirit of the two speeches are +full of encouragement. Why? Because instead of any hostile attitude +to our reforms as a whole, I find that you welcome them cordially and +with gratitude. I cannot say with what satisfaction I receive that +announcement. If you will allow me, I will, before I come to the +special points, say a few words upon the general position. + +It is only five weeks, I think, since our scheme was launched, and I +am bound to say that at the end of those five weeks the position may +fairly be described as hopeful and promising. I do not think that the +millennium will come in five more weeks, nor in fifty weeks; but I do +say that for a scheme of so wide a scope to be received as this scheme +has been received, is a highly encouraging sign. It does not follow +that because we have launched our ship with a slant of fair wind, this +means the same thing as getting into harbour. There are plenty of +difficult points that we have got to settle. But when I try from my +conning-tower in this office, to read the signs in the political +skies, I am full of confidence. The great thing is that in every party +both in India and at home--in every party, and every section, and +every group--there is a recognition of the magnitude and the gravity +of the enterprise on which we have embarked. I studied very closely +the proceedings at Madras, and the proceedings at Amritsar, and in +able speeches made in both those places I find a truly political +spirit in the right sense of the word--in the sense of perspective and +proportion--which I sometimes wish could be imitated by some of my +political friends nearer home. I mean that issues, important enough +but upon which there is some difference, are put aside--for the time +only, if you like, but still put aside--in face of the magnitude of +the issues that we present to you in these reforms. On Monday, in _The +Times_ newspaper, there was a long and most interesting communication +from Bombay, written, I believe, by a gentleman of very wide Indian +knowledge and level-headed humour. What does he say? He takes account +of the general position as he found it in India shortly after my +Despatch arrived. "I might have dwelt," he says, "upon the fact that +I have not met a single official who does not admit that some changes +which should gratify Indian longings were necessary, and I might have +expatiated upon the abounding evidence that Lord Morley's despatch +and speech have unquestionably eased a tension which had become +exceedingly alarming." That is a most important thing, and I believe +Parliament has fully recognised it. + +We cannot fold our arms and say that things are to go on as they did +before, and I rejoice to see what this gentleman says. He is talking +of officials, and I always felt from the beginning that if we did not +succeed in carrying with us the goodwill of that powerful service, +there would be reason for suspecting that we were wrong upon the +merits, and even if we were not wrong on the merits, there would +be reason for apprehending formidable difficulties. I have myself +complete confidence in them. I see in some journals of my own party +suspicions thrown upon the loyalty of that service to his Majesty's +Government of the day. It is absurd to think anything of the kind. If +our policy and our proposals receive the approval of Parliament and +the approval of officials, such as those spoken of in _The Times_ the +other day, I am perfectly sure there will be no more want of goodwill +and zeal on the part of the Indian Civil Service, than there would +be in the officers of his Majesty's Fleet, or his Majesty's Army. It +would be just the same. I should like to read another passage from +_The Times_ letter:--"It would probably be incorrect to say that +the bulk of the Civil Service in the Bombay Presidency are gravely +apprehensive. Most of them are not unnaturally anxious"--I agree; +it is perfectly natural that they should be anxious--"but the main +officials in whose judgment most confidence can be placed, regard the +future with the buoyant hopefulness without which an Englishman in +India is lost indeed." All that is reassuring, and no sign nor whisper +reaches me that any responsible man or any responsible section or +creed, either in India or here, has any desire whatever to wreck our +scheme. And let me go further. Statesmen abroad showing themselves +capable of reflection, are watching us with interest and wishing us +well. Take the remarkable utterance of President Roosevelt the other +day at Washington. And if we turn from Washington to Eastern Europe, I +know very well that any injustice, any suspicion that we were capable +of being unjust, to Mahomedans in India, would certainly provoke a +severe and injurious reaction in Constantinople. I am alive to all +these things. Mr. Ameer Ali said he was sure the Secretary of State +would mete out just and equitable treatment to all interests, if their +views were fairly laid before him. He did me no more than justice. + +The Government are entirely zealous and in earnest, acting in thorough +good faith, in the desire to press forward these proposals. I may tell +you that our Bill is now quite ready. I shall introduce it at the +first minute after the Address is over, and, when it reaches the +Commons, it will be pressed forward with all the force and resolution +that Parliamentary conditions permit. These are not mere pious +opinions or academic reforms; they are proposals that are to take +Parliamentary shape at the earliest possible moment; and after taking +Parliamentary shape, no time will, I know, be lost in India in +bringing them as rapidly as possible into practical operation. + +Now the first point Mr. Ameer Ali made was upon the unfairness to the +members of the Mahomedan community, caused by reckoning in the Hindu +census a large multitude of men who are not entitled to be there. I +submit that it is not very easy--and I have gone into the question +very carefully--to divide these lower castes and to classify them. +Statisticians would be charged with putting too many into either one +or the other division, wherever you choose to draw the line. I know +the force of the argument, and am willing to attach to it whatever +weight it deserves. I wish some of my friends in this country would +study the figures of what are called the lower castes, because they +would then see the enormous difficulty and absurdity of applying to +India the same principles that are excellent guides to us Westerns who +have been bred on the pure milk of the Benthamite word--one man one +vote and every man a vote. That dream, by the way, is not quite +realised even in this country; but the idea of insisting on a +principle of that sort is irrational to anybody who reflects on this +multiplicity and variety of race and castes. + +Then there is the question of the joint electorate--what is called the +mixed electoral college. I was very glad to read this paragraph in the +paper that you were good enough to send to me. You recognise the very +principle that was at the back of our minds, when we came to the +conclusion about mixed electoral college. You say:--"In common with +other well-wishers of India, the Committee look forward to a time when +the development of a true spirit of compromise, or the fusion of +the races, may make principles indicated by his Lordship capable of +practical application without sacrificing the interests of any of +the nationalities, or giving political ascendency to one to the +disadvantage of the others. But the Committee venture to think that, +however ready the country may be for constitutional reforms, the +interests of the two great communities of India must be considered +and dealt with separately." Therefore, to begin with, the difference +between us in principle about the joint electorate is only this: we +are guilty of nothing worse than that we were premature, in the views +of these gentlemen--we were impatient idealists. You say to me, "It is +very fine; we hope it will all come true; but you are premature; +we must wait." Still, though premature, I observe that your own +suggestion in one of those papers adopts and accepts the principle of +the scheme outlined in our despatch. It is quite true to say, "Oh, +but you are vague in your despatch." Yes, a despatch is not a Bill. +A Minister writing a despatch does not put in all the clauses and +sections and subsections and schedules. It is the business of a +Minister composing a despatch like mine of November 27, 1908, to +indicate only general lines--general enough to make the substance and +body of the scheme intelligible, but still general. I should like to +say a word about the despatch. It is constantly assumed that in the +despatch we prescribed and ordered the introduction of the joint +electoral college. If any of you will be good enough to look at the +words, you will find that no language of that sort--no law of the +Medes and Persians--is to be found in it. If you refer to paragraph 12 +you will see that our language is this:-- + +"I suggest for your consideration that the object in view might be +better secured, at any rate in the more advanced provinces in India, +by a modification of the system of popular electorate founded on the +principle of electoral colleges." + +You see it was merely a suggestion thrown out for the Government of +India, not a direction of the Mede and Persian stamp. You say, "That +for the purpose of electing members to the Provincial Councils, +electoral colleges should be constituted on lines suggested by his +Lordship, composed exclusively of Mahomedans whose numbers and mode of +grouping should be fixed by executive authority." This comes within +the principle of my despatch, and we shall see--I hope very +speedily--whether the Government of India discover objections to its +practicability. Mark, electoral colleges "composed exclusively of +Mahomedans whose members and mode of grouping should be fixed by +executive authority"--that is a proposition which is not outside the +despatch. Whether practicable or not, it is a matter for discussion +between us here and the Government in India. + +The aim of the Government and yours is identical--that there shall +be (to quote Mr. Ameer Ali's words) "adequate, real, and genuine +Mahomedan representation." Now, where is the difference between us? +The machinery we commended, you do not think possible. As I have +told you, the language of the despatch does not insist upon a mixed +electoral college. It would be no departure in substance from the +purpose of our suggestion, that there should be a separate Mahomedan +electorate--an electorate exclusively Mahomedan; and in view of +the wide and remote distances, and difficulties of organisation in +consequence of those distances in the area constituting a large +province, I am not sure that this is not one of those cases where +election by two stages would not be convenient, and so there might be +a separate electoral college exclusively Mahomedan. That is, I take +it, in accordance with your own proposal. There are various methods by +which it could be done. In the first place, an election exclusively +Mahomedan might be direct into the legislative council. To this it +may be said that it would be impossible by reason of distance. In the +second place, you could have an election by separate communities to a +local board, and the local board should be the electoral college, the +Mahomedans separating themselves from the other members of the board +for that purpose. Thirdly, the members of the local board, the +communities being separate in the same way, could return a member for +the electoral college. Fourthly, you might have a direct election to +an electoral college by the community, and this electoral college +would return a representative to the legislative council. These, you +see, are four different expedients which well deserve consideration +for attaining our end. + +I go to the next point, the apprehensions lest if we based our system +on numerical strength alone, a great injustice would be done to +your community. Of course we all considered that, from the Viceroy +downwards. Whether your apprehensions are well founded or not, it is +the business of those who call themselves statesmen to take those +apprehensions into account, and to do the best we can in setting up +a working system to allay and meet such apprehensions. If you take +numerical strength as your basis, in the Punjab and Eastern Bengal +Mahomedans are in a decisive majority. In the Punjab the Moslem +population is 53 per cent. to 38 per cent. Hindu. In Eastern Bengal 58 +per cent. are Moslem and 37 per cent. are Hindu. Therefore, in those +two provinces, on the numerical basis alone, the Mahomedans will +secure sufficient representation. In Madras, on the other hand, +the Hindus are 89 per cent. against 6 per cent. of Moslems, and, +therefore, numbers would give no adequate representation to Moslem +opinion. In Bombay the Moslems are in the ratio of 3-3/4 to 14 +millions--20 per cent. to 77 per cent. The conditions are very complex +in Bombay, and I need not labour the details of this complexity. I am +inclined to agree with those who think that it might be left to +the local Government to take other elements into view required or +suggested by local conditions. Coming to the United Provinces, there +the Moslems are 6-3/4 millions to 40-3/4 Hindus--14 per cent. to 85 +per cent. This ratio of numerical strength no more represents the +proportion in the elements of weight and importance, than in Eastern +Bengal does the Hindu ratio of 37 per cent. to 58 per cent. of +Moslems. You may set off each of those two cases against the other. +Then there is the great province of Bengal, where the Moslems are +one-quarter of the Hindus--9 millions to 39 millions--18 per cent. to +77 per cent. + +We all see, then, that the problem presents extraordinary difficulty. +How are you going in a case like the United Provinces, for example, to +secure that adequate and substantial representation, which it is the +interest and the desire of the Government for its own sake to secure. +No fair-minded Moslem would deny in Eastern Bengal, any more than a +fair-minded non-Moslem would deny it in the United Provinces, that +there is no easy solution. You see, gentlemen, I do not despair +of finding a fair-minded man in a controversy of this kind. From +information that reaches me I do not at all despair of meeting +fair-minded critics of both communities, in spite of the sharp +antagonism that exists on many matters between them. But, whatever may +be the case with Mahomedans and Hindus, there is one body of men +who are bound to keep a fair mind, and that is the Government. The +Government are bound, whatever you may do among yourselves, strictly, +and I will even say sternly, to insist on overcoming all obstacles +in a spirit of absolute equity. Now, what is the object of the +Government? It is that the Legislative Councils should represent truly +and effectively, with a reasonable approach to the balance of real +social forces, the wishes and needs of the communities themselves. +That is the object of the Government, and in face of a great problem +of that kind, algebra, arithmetic, geometry, logic--none of these +things will do your business for you. You have to look at it widely +and away from those sciences, excellent in their place, but not of +much service when you are solving awkward political riddles. I think +if you allow some method of leaving to a local authority the power of +adding to the number of representatives from the Mahomedan community, +or the Hindu community, as the case may be, that might be a possible +and prudent way of getting through this embarrassment. Let us all be +clear of one thing, namely--and I thought of this when I heard one +or two observations that fell from Mr. Ameer Ali--that no general +proposition can be wisely based on the possession by either community, +either of superior civil qualities or superior personal claims. If you +begin to introduce that element, you perceive the perils to that peace +and mutual goodwill which we hope to emerge by-and-by, though it may +take longer than some think. I repeat that I see no harm from the +point of view of a practical working compromise, in the principle +that population, or numerical strength, should be the main factor in +determining how many representatives should sit for this or the other +community; but modifying influences may be both wisely and equitably +taken into account in allotting the numbers of such representatives. + +As regards Indian members on the Executive Council, if you will allow +me to say so, I think it was dubious tactics in you to bring that +question forward. We were told by those who object, for instance, +to my recommending to the Crown an Indian member of the Viceroy's +Executive--that it will never do; that if you choose a man of one +community, the other will demand a second. The Executive Council in +all--this will not be in the Bill--consists of six members. Suppose +there were to be two vacancies, and I were to recommend to the Crown +the appointment of one Mahomedan and one Hindu, the effect would be +that of the six gentlemen one-third would be non-English. You may +think that all right, but it would be a decidedly serious step. +Suppose you say you will bring in a Bill, then, for the purpose of +appointing an extra member always to be an Indian. That is much more +easily said than done. I am talking perfectly plainly. You would not +get such a Bill. I want to talk even more plainly. I want to say +that reference to the Hindu community or the Mahomedan community, in +respect to the position of the Viceroy's Executive, is entirely wide +of the mark in the view, I know, both of the Viceroy and of myself. +If, as I have already said I expect, it may be my duty by-and-by to +recommend to the Crown the name of an Indian member, it will not be +solely for the sake of placing on the Viceroy's Executive Council an +Indian member simply as either a Hindu or a Mahomedan. Decidedly we +are of opinion that the Governor-General in Council will be all the +more likely to transact business wisely, if he has a responsible +Indian adviser at his elbow. But the principle in making such +a recommendation to the Crown, would be to remove the apparent +disability in practice--for there is no disability in law--of an +Indian holding a certain appointment because he is an Indian. That is +a principle we do not accept; and the principle I should go upon--and +I know Lord Minto would say exactly the same--is the desirability +of demonstrating that we hold to the famous promise made in the +proclamation of Queen Victoria in 1858, that if a man is fully +qualified in proved ability and character to fill a certain post, he +shall not be shut out by race or religious faith. There is a very +great deal more to be said on this most important subject; but to-day +I need only tell you--which I do with all respect, without complaining +of what you have said, and without denying that in practical +usage some day there may be means of alternation for meeting your +difficulty--I see no chance whatever of our being able to comply with +your present request. + +I have endeavoured to meet you as fairly as I possibly could. I assure +you again we are acting in earnest, with zeal and entire good faith; +and any suggestion that any member of the Government, either in this +office or the Government of India, has any prejudice whatever against +Mahomedans, for the purposes of political administration in India, is +one of the idlest and most wicked misapprehensions that could possibly +enter into the political mind. I am greatly encouraged by having met +you. I am sure that you speak in the name of important bodies of your +own countrymen and of your own community. I am sure that you are going +to look at our proposals in a fair and reasonable spirit, and give +us credit for a desire to do the best that we possibly can in the +interests of all the communities in India, including also the +interests of the British Government. I can only tell you further, that +if this action of ours fails, miscarries, and is wrecked, it will be +a considerable time before another opportunity occurs. You will never +again--I do not care whether the time be long or be short--you will +never again have the combination of a Secretary of State and a +Viceroy, who are more thoroughly in earnest in their desire to improve +Indian government, and to do full justice to every element of the +Indian population. + + + + +VII + + +SECOND READING OF INDIAN COUNCILS BILL + +(HOUSE OF LORDS, FEBRUARY 23, 1909) + +MY LORDS. I invite the House to take to-day the first definite and +operative step in carrying out the policy that I had the honour of +describing to your Lordships just before Christmas, and that has +occupied the active consideration both of the Home Government and of +the Government of India for very nearly three years. The statement was +awaited in India with an expectancy that with time became impatience, +and it was received in India--and that, after all, is the point to +which I looked with the most anxiety--with intense interest and +attention and various degrees of approval, from warm enthusiasm to +cool assent and acquiescence. + +A few days after the arrival of my despatch, a deputation waited upon +the Viceroy unique in its comprehensive character. Both Hindus and +Mahomedans were represented; and they waited upon the Viceroy to offer +warm expressions of gratitude for the scheme that was unfolded +before them. A few days later at Madras the Congress met; they, too, +expressed their thanks to the Home Government and to the Government +of India. The Moslem League met at Amritsar; they were warm in their +approval of the policy which they took to be foreshadowed in the +despatch, though they found fault with the defects they thought they +had discovered in the scheme, and implored the Government, both in +India and here, to remedy those defects. So far as I know--and I do +beg your Lordships to note these details of the reception of our +policy in India--there has been no sign in any quarter, save in the +irreconcilable camp, of anything like organised hostile opinion among +either Indians or Anglo-Indians. + +The Indian Civil Service I will speak of very shortly. I will pass +them by for the moment. Lord Lansdowne said truly the other night that +when I spoke at the end of December, I used the words "formidable and +obscure" as describing the situation, and he desired to know whether +I thought the situation was still obscure and formidable. I will not +abandon the words, but I think the situation is less formidable and +less obscure. Neither repression on the one hand, nor reform on the +other, could possibly be expected to cut the roots of anarchical crime +in a few weeks. But with unfaltering repression on the one hand, and +vigour and good faith in reform on the other, we see solid reason to +hope that we shall weaken, even if we cannot destroy, those baleful +forces. + +There are, I take it, three classes of people that we have to consider +in dealing with a scheme of this kind. There are the extremists, who +nurse fantastic dreams that some day they will drive us out of India. +In this group there are academic extremists and physical force +extremists, and I have seen it stated on a certain authority--it +cannot be more than a guess--that they do not number, whether academic +or physical force extremists, more than one-tenth, or even three per +cent. of what are called the educated class in India. The second +group nourish no hopes of this sort; they hope for autonomy or +self-government of the colonial species and pattern. The third +section in this classification ask for no more than to be admitted to +co-operation in our administration, and to find a free and effective +voice in expressing the interests and needs of their people. I believe +the effect of the reforms has been, is being, and will be, to draw the +second class, who hope for colonial autonomy, into the ranks of the +third class, who will be content with admission to a fair and workable +co-operation. A correspondent wrote to me the other day and said:-- + + "We seem to have caught many discontented people on the rebound, + and to have given them an excuse for a loyalty which they have + badly wanted." + +In spite of all this, it is a difficult and critical situation. Still, +by almost universal admission it has lost the tension that strained +India two or three months ago, and public feeling is tranquillised, +certainly beyond any expectation that either I or the Viceroy ventured +to entertain. + +The atmosphere has changed from dark and sullen to hopeful, and I am +sure your Lordships will allow me to be equally confident that nothing +will be done at Westminster to overcloud that promising sky. The noble +Marquess the other day said--and I was delighted to hear it--that +he, at all events, would give us, with all the reservations that +examination of the scheme might demand from him, a whole-hearted +support here, and his best encouragement to the men in India. I +accept that, and I lean upon it, because if anything were done at +Westminster, either by delay or otherwise, to show a breach in what +ought to be the substantial unity of Parliamentary opinion in face of +the Indian situation, it would be a marked disaster. I would venture +on the point of delay to say this. Your Lordships will not suspect me +of having any desire to hurry the Bill, but I remember that when Lord +Cross brought in the Bill of 1892 Lord Kimberley, so well known and so +popular in this House, used language which I venture to borrow from +him, and to press upon your Lordships to-day-- + + "I think it almost dangerous to leave a subject of this kind hung + up to be perpetually discussed by all manner of persons, and, + having once allowed that, at all events, some amendment is + necessary in regard to the mode of constituting the Legislative + Councils, it is incumbent upon the Government and Parliament + to pass the Bill which they may think expedient as speedily as + possible into law." + +Considerations of social order and social urgency in India make that +just as useful to be remembered to-day, as it was useful then. + +The noble Marquess the other day, in a very courteous manner, +administered to me an exhortation and an admonition--I had almost said +a lecture--as to the propriety of deferring to the man on the spot, +and the danger of quarrelling with the man on the spot. I listened +with becoming meekness and humility, but then it occurred to me that +the language of the noble Marquess was not original. Those noble Lords +who share the Bench with him, gave deep murmurs of approval to the +homily that was administered to me. They forgot that they once had a +man on the spot, the man then being that eminent and distinguished +personage whom I may be allowed to congratulate upon his restoration +to health and to his place in this Assembly. He said this, which +the noble Marquess will see is a fair original for his own little +discourse; it was said after the noble Lord had thrown up the reins-- + + "What I wish to say to high officers of State and members of + Government is this, as far as you can trust the man on the spot. + Do not weary or fret or nag him with your superior wisdom. They + claim no immunity from errors of opinion or judgment, but their + errors are nothing compared with yours." + +The remonstrance, therefore, of Lord Curzon, addressed to the noble +Lords sitting near him, is identical with the warning which I have +laid to heart from the noble Marquess. + +The House will pardon me if for a moment I dwell upon what by +application is an innuendo conveyed in the admonition of the noble +Marquess. I have a suspicion that he considered his advice was needed; +he expressed the hope that all who were responsible for administration +in India would have all the power for which they had a right to ask. +Upon that I can--though I am half reluctant to do it--completely +clear my character. In December last, shortly before I addressed your +Lordships, Lord Minto, having observed there was some talk of my +interference with him and his Council, telegraphed these words, and +desired that I should make use of them whenever I thought fit-- + + "I hope you will say from me in as strong language as you may + choose to use, that in all our dealings with sedition I could not + be more strongly supported than I have been by you. The question + of the control of Indian administration by the Secretary of State, + mixed up as it is with the old difficulties of centralisation, we + may very possibly look at from different points of view. But that + has nothing to do with the support the Secretary of State gives + to the Viceroy, and which you have given to me in a time of great + difficulty, and for which I shall always be warmly grateful." + +The MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE: I think the noble Viscount will see from +the report of my speech, that the part he has quoted had reference to +measures of repression, and that what I said was that justice should +be prompt, that it was undesirable that there should be appeals from +one Court to another, or from provincial Governments to the Government +in Calcutta, or from the Government at Calcutta to the Secretary of +State for India. I did not mean to imply merely the Viceroy, but the +men responsible for local government. + +VISCOUNT MORLEY: I do not think that when the noble Marquess refers to +the report of his speech he will find I have misrepresented him. At +all events, he will, I do believe, gladly agree that, in dealing with +sedition, I have on the whole given all the support the Government of +India or anybody else concerned had a right to ask for. + +I will now say a word about the Indian Civil Service. Three years +ago, when we began these operations, I felt that a vital condition of +success was that we should carry the Indian Civil Service with us, and +that if we did not do this, we should fail. But human nature being +what it is, and temperaments varying as they do, it is natural +to expect a certain amount of criticism, minute criticism, and +observation, I have had that, but will content myself with one +quotation from the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, well known to the +noble Lord opposite. What did he say, addressing the Legislative +Council a few weeks ago?-- + + "I hold that a solemn duty rests upon the officers of Government + in all branches, and more particularly upon the officers of the + Civil Service, so to comport themselves in the inception and + working of the new measures as to make the task of the people and + their leaders easy. It is incumbent upon them loyally to accept + the principle that these measures involve the surrender of some + portion of the authority and control which they now exercise, and + some modifications of the methods of administration. If that task + is approached in a grudging or reluctant spirit, we shall be + sowing the seeds of failure, and shall forfeit our claim to + receive the friendly co-operation of the representatives of the + people. We must be prepared to support, defend, and carry through + the administrative policy, and in a certain degree even the + executive acts of the Government in the Council, in much the same + way as is now prescribed in regard to measures of legislation; and + we must further be prepared to discharge this task without the aid + of a standing majority behind us. We will have to resort to the + more difficult arts of persuasion and conciliation, in the place + of the easier methods of autocracy. This is no small demand to + make on the resources of a service whose training and traditions + have hitherto led its members rather to work for the people, than + through the people or their representatives. But I am nevertheless + confident that the demand will not be made in vain. For more than + a hundred years, in the time of the Company and under the rule of + the Crown, the Indian Civil Service has never failed to respond + to whatever call has been made upon it or to adapt itself to the + changing environment of the time. I feel no doubt that officers + will be found who possess the natural gifts, the loyalty, the + imagination, and the force of character which will be requisite + for the conduct of the administration under the more advanced form + of government to which we are about to succeed." + +These words I commend to your Lordships. They breathe a fine and high +spirit; they admirably express the feeling of a sincere man; and I do +not believe anybody who is acquainted with the Service doubts that +this spirit, so admirably expressed, will pervade the Service in the +admittedly difficult task that now confronts them. + +The Bill is a short one, and will speak for itself. I shall be brief +in referring to it, for in December last I made what was practically +a Second-Reading speech. I may point out that there are two rival +schools, and that the noble Lord opposite (Lord Curzon) may be said +to represent one of them. There are two rival schools, one of which +believes that better government of India depends on efficiency, and +that efficiency is in fact the main end of our rule in India. The +other school, while not neglecting efficiency, looks also to what is +called political concession. I think I am doing the noble Lord no +injustice in saying that, during his remarkable Vice-royalty, he did +not accept the necessity for political concession, but trusted to +efficiency. I hope it will not be bad taste to say in the noble Lord's +presence, that you will never send to India, and you have never sent +to India, a Viceroy his superior, if, indeed, his equal, in force of +mind, in unsparing and remorseless industry, in passionate and devoted +interest in all that concerns the well-being of India, with an +imagination fired by the grandeur of the political problem that India +presents--you never sent a man with more of all these attributes than +when you sent Lord Curzon. But splendidly designed as was his work +from the point of view of efficiency, he still left in India a state +of things, when we look back upon it, that could not be held a +satisfactory crowning of a brilliant and ambitious career. + +I am as much for efficiency as the noble Lord, but I do not +believe--and this is the difference between him and myself--that you +can now have true, solid, endurable efficiency without what are called +political concessions. I know the risks. The late Lord Salisbury, +speaking on the last Indian Councils Bill, spoke of the risk of +applying occidental machinery in India. Well, we ought to have thought +of that before we applied occidental education; we applied that, and a +measure of occidental machinery must follow. Legislative Councils once +called into existence, then it was inevitable that you would have +gradually, in Lord Salisbury's own phrase, to popularise them, so as +to bring them into harmony with the dominant sentiments of the +people in India. The Bill of 1892 admittedly contained the elective +principle, and our Bill to-day extends that principle. The noble Lord +(Viscount Cross) will remember the Bill of 1892, of which he had +charge in the House of Commons. I want the House to be good enough to +follow the line taken by Mr. Gladstone, because I base myself on that. +There was an amendment moved and it was going to a division, but Mr. +Gladstone begged his friends not to divide, because, he said, it was +very important that we should present a substantial unity to India. +This is upon the question of either House considering a Bill like the +Bill that is now on the Table--a mere skeleton of a Bill if you like. +I see it has been called vague and sketchy. It cannot be anything +else, on the broad principle set out by Mr. Gladstone-- + + "It is the intention of the Government [that is, the Conservative + Government] that a serious effort shall be made to consider + carefully those elements which India in its present condition may + furnish, for the introduction into the Councils of India of the + elective principle. If that effort is seriously to be made, by + whom is it to be made? I do not think it can be made by this + House, except through the medium of empowering provisions. The + best course we could take would be to commend to the authorities + of India what is a clear indication of the principles on which we + desire them to proceed. It is not our business to devise machinery + for the purpose of Indian Government. It is our business to give + to those who represent Her Majesty in India ample information as + to what we believe to be sound principles of Government: and it + is, of course, the function of this House to comment upon any case + in which we may think they have failed to give due effect to those + principles." + +I only allude to Mr. Gladstone's words, in order to let the House know +that I am taking no unusual course in leaving the bulk of the work, +the details of the work, to the Government of India. Discussion, +therefore, in Parliament will necessarily not, and cannot, turn +substantially upon details. But no doubt it is desirable that the main +heads of the regulations, rules, and proclamations to be made by the +Government of India under sanction of the India Office, should be more +or less placed within the reach and knowledge of the House so far as +they are complete. The principles of the Bill are in the Bill, and +will be affirmed, if your Lordships are pleased to read it a second +time. The Committee points, important as they are, can well be dealt +with in Committee. The view of Mr. Gladstone was cheerfully accepted +by the House of Commons then, and I hope it will be accepted by your +Lordships to-day. + +There is one very important chapter in these regulations, which I +think now on the Second Reading of the Bill, without waiting for +Committee, I ought to say a few words to your Lordships about--I mean +the Mahomedans. That is a part of the Bill and scheme that has no +doubt attracted a great deal of criticism, and excited a great deal of +feeling in that important community. We suggested to the Government of +India a certain plan. We did not prescribe it, we did not order it, +but we suggested and recommended this plan for their consideration--no +more than that. It was the plan of a mixed or composite electoral +college, in which Mahomedans and Hindus should pool their votes, so to +say. The wording of the recommendation in my despatch was, as I soon +discovered, ambiguous--a grievous defect, of which I make bold to hope +I am not very often in public business guilty. But, to the best of +my belief, under any construction the plan of Hindus and Mahomedans +voting together, in a mixed and composite electorate, would have +secured to the Mahomedan electors, wherever they were so minded, the +chance of returning their own representatives in their due proportion. +The political idea at the bottom of this recommendation, which has +found so little favour, was that such composite action would bring +the two great communities more closely together, and this hope of +promoting harmony was held by men of high Indian authority and +experience who were among my advisers at the India Office. But the +Mahomedans protested that the Hindus would elect a pro-Hindu upon it, +just as I suppose in a mixed college of say seventy-five Catholics and +twenty-five Protestants voting together, the Protestants might suspect +that the Catholics voting for the Protestant would choose what is +called a Romanising Protestant, and as a little of a Protestant +as they could find. Suppose the other way. In Ireland there is an +expression, a "shoneen" Catholic--that is to say, a Catholic who, +though a Catholic, is too friendly with English Conservatism and other +influences which the Nationalists dislike. And it might be said, if +there were seventy-five Protestants against twenty-five Catholics, +that the Protestants when giving a vote in the way of Catholic +representation, would return "shoneens." I am not going to take your +Lordships' time up by arguing this to-day. With regard to schemes +of proportional representation, as Calvin said of another study, +"Excessive study of the Apocalypse either finds a man mad, or makes +him so." At any rate, the Government of India doubted whether our plan +would work, and we have abandoned it. I do not think it was a bad +plan, but it is no use, if you are making an earnest attempt in good +faith at a general pacification, to let parental fondness for a clause +interrupt that good process by sitting obstinately tight. + +The Mahomedans demand three things. I had the pleasure of receiving +a deputation from them, and I know very well what is in their minds. +They demand the election of their own representatives to these +councils in all the stages, just as in Cyprus, where I think, +the Mahomedans vote by themselves. They have nine votes and the +non-Mahomedans have three, or the other way about. So in Bohemia, +where the Germans vote alone and have their own register. Therefore we +are not without a precedent and a parallel, for the idea of a separate +register. Secondly, they want a number of seats somewhat in excess of +their numerical strength. Those two demands we are quite ready and +intend to meet in full. There is a third demand that, if there is a +Hindu on the Viceroy's Executive Council--a subject on which I will +venture to say something to your Lordships before I sit down--there +should be two Indian members on the Viceroy's Council and one should +be a Mahomedan. Well, as I told them and as I now tell your Lordships, +I see no chance whatever of meeting their views in that way. + +To go back to the point of the registers, some may be shocked at +the idea of a religious register at all, a register framed on the +principle of religious belief. We may wish--we do wish--that it +were otherwise. We hope that time, with careful and impartial +statesmanship, will make things otherwise. Only let us not forget +that the difference between Mahomedanism and Hinduism is not a mere +difference of articles of religious faith or dogma. It is a difference +in life, in tradition, in history, in all the social things as well as +articles of belief, that constitute a community. Do not let us forget +what makes it interesting and even exciting. Do not let us forget +that, in talking of Hindus and Mahomedans, we are dealing with, and +are brought face to face with, vast historic issues. We are dealing +with the very mightiest forces that through all the centuries and +ages have moulded the fortunes of great States and the destinies of +countless millions of mankind. Thoughts of that kind, my Lords, +are what give to Indian politics and to Indian work extraordinary +fascination, though at the same time they impose the weight of an +extraordinary burden. + +I come to the question which, I think, has excited, certainly in this +country, more interest than anything else in the scheme before you--I +mean the question of an Indian member on the Viceroy's Executive +Council. The noble Marquess said here the other day that he hoped an +opportunity would be given for discussing it. "Whether it is in order +or not--am too little versed in your Lordships' procedure to be quite +sure--but I am told that the rules of order in this House are of an +elastic description and that I shall not be trespassing beyond what is +right, if I introduce the point to-night." I thoroughly understand Lord +Lansdowne's anxiety for a chance of discussion. It is quite true, +and the House should not forget it, that this question is in no +way whatever touched by the Bill. If this Bill were rejected by +Parliament, it would be a grievous disaster to peace and contentment +in India, but it would not prevent the Secretary of State the very +next morning from advising His Majesty to appoint an Indian member of +the Viceroy's Executive Council. + +The noble Marquess the other day fell into a slight error, if he will +forgive me for saying so. He said that the Government of India had +used cautious and tentative words, indicating that it would be +premature to decide at once this question of the Indian member until +after further experience had been gained. I think the noble Marquess +must have lost his way in the mazes of that enormous Blue-book which, +as he told us, caused him so much inconvenience, and added so much to +his excess luggage during the Christmas holidays. The despatch, as far +as I can discover, is silent altogether on the topic of the Indian +member of the Viceroy's Council, and deals only with the Councils +of Bombay and Madras and the proposed Councils for the +Lieutenant-Governorships. + +Perhaps I might be allowed to remind your Lordships of the Act of +1833--certainly the most extensive and important measure of Indian +government between Mr. Pitt's famous Act of 1784, and Queen Victoria's +assumption of the government of India in 1858. There is nothing more +important than that Act. It lays down in the broadest way possible the +desire of Parliament that there should be no difference in appointing +to offices in India between one race and another, and the covering +despatch written by that memorable man, James Mill, wound up by saying +that-- + + "For the future, fitness is to be the criterion of eligibility." + +I need not quote the famous paragraph in the Queen's Proclamation of +1858. Every Member of the House who takes an interest in India, knows +that by heart. Now, the noble Marquess says that his anxiety is that +nothing shall be done to impair the efficiency of the Viceroy's +Council. I share that anxiety with all my heart. I hope the noble +Marquess will do me the justice to remember that in these plans I have +gone beyond the Government of India, in resolving that a permanent +official majority shall remain in the Viceroy's Council. Lord +MacDonnell said the other day:-- + + "I believe you cannot find any individual native gentleman who is + enjoying general confidence, who would be able to give advice and + assistance to the Governor-General in Council." + +Well, for that matter, it has been my lot twice to fill the not very +exhilarating post of Chief Secretary for Ireland, and I do not believe +I can truly say I ever met in Ireland a single individual native +gentleman who "enjoyed general confidence." And yet I received at +Dublin Castle most excellent and competent advice. Therefore I am not +much impressed by that argument. The question is whether there is no +one of the 300 millions of the population of India, who is competent +to be the officially-constituted adviser of the Governor-General in +Council in the administration of Indian affairs. You make an Indian +a judge of the High Court, and Indians have even been acting Chief +Justices. As to capacity, who can deny that they have distinguished +themselves as administrators of native States, where a very full +demand is made on their resources, intellectual and moral? It is said +that the presence of an Indian member would cause restraint in the +language of discussion. For a year and a half we have had two Indians +on the Council of India, and we have none of us ever found the +slightest restraint. + +Then there is the question, What are you going to do about the Hindu +and the Mahomedan? When Indians were first admitted to the High +Courts, for a long time the Hindus were more fit and competent than +the Mahomedans; but now I am told the Mahomedans have their full +share. The same sort of operation would go on in quinquennial periods +in respect of the Viceroy's Council. Opinion amongst the great +Anglo-Indian officers now at home is divided, but I know at least one, +not at all behind Lord MacDonnell in experience or mental grasp, who +is strongly in favour of this proposal. One circumstance that cannot +but strike your Lordships as remarkable, is the comparative absence of +hostile criticism of this idea by the Anglo-Indian Press, and, as I +am told, in Calcutta society. I was apprehensive at one time that it +might be otherwise. I should like to give a concrete illustration of +my case. The noble Marquess opposite said the other day that there was +going to be a vacancy in one of the posts on the Viceroy's Executive +Council--that is, the legal member's time would soon be up. Now, +suppose there were in Calcutta an Indian lawyer of large practice and +great experience in his profession--a man of unstained professional +and personal repute, in close touch with European society, and much +respected, and the actual holder of important legal office. Am I to +say to this man--"In spite of all these excellent circumstances to +your credit; in spite of your undisputed fitness; in spite of the +emphatic declaration of 1833 that fitness is to be the criterion +of eligibility; in spite of the noble promise in Queen Victoria's +Proclamation of 1858--a promise of which every Englishman ought to be +for ever proud if he tries to adhere to it, and ashamed if he tries to +betray or to mock it--in spite of all this, usage and prejudice are +so strong, that I dare not appoint you, but must instead fish up a +stranger to India from Lincoln's Inn or the Temple?" Is there one of +your Lordships who would envy the Secretary of State, who had to hold +language of that kind to a meritorious candidate, one of the King's +equal subjects? I press it on your Lordships in that concrete way. +Abstract general arguments are slippery. I do not say there is no +force in them, but there are deeper questions at issue to which both I +and the Governor-General attach the greatest importance. My Lords, I +thank you for your attention, and I beg to move the Second Reading. + + + + +VIII + + +INDIAN PROBATIONERS + +(OXFORD. JUNE 13, 1909) + +[The Vice Chancellor of Oxford University and the teachers of the +Indian Civil Service probationers gave a dinner to the probationers +on Saturday at the New Masonic Hall, Oxford, to meet the Secretary of +State for India. The Vice Chancellor was in the chair] + +It is a great honour that it should fall to me to be the first +Secretary of State to address this body of probationers and others. +Personally I am always delighted at any reason, good or bad, that +brings me to Oxford. A great deal of Cherwell water has flowed under +Magdalen Bridge, since I was an undergraduate here, and I have a +feeling of nostalgia, when I think of Oxford and come to Oxford. The +reminiscences of one's younger days are apt to have in older times an +ironical tinge, but that is not for any of you to-day to consider. I +am glad to know that of the fifty odd members of the Civil Service who +are going out this autumn, not less than half are Oxford men, nearly +all of them, Oxford bred, and even the three or four who are not +Oxford bred, are practically, so far as can be, Oxford men. Now I will +go a little wider. An Indian Minister is rather isolated in the +public eye, amid the press and bustle of the political energies, +perplexities, interests, and partisan passions that stir and +concentrate attention on our own home affairs. Yet let me assure you +that there is no ordinary compensation for that isolation in the +breast of an Indian Minister. He finds the richest compensation in +the enormous magnitude and endless variety of all the vast field of +interests, present and still more future, that are committed to his +temporary charge. Though his charge may be temporary, I should think +every Secretary of State remembers that even in that fugitive span he +may either do some good or, if he is unhappy, he may do much harm. + +This week London has been enormously excited by the Imperial Press +Conference. I was rather struck by the extraordinarily small +attention, almost amounting to nothing, that was given to the Dominion +that you here are concerned with. No doubt an Imperial Conference +raises one or two very delicate questions, as to whether common +citizenship is to be observed, or whether the relations between India +and the Colonies should remain what they are. I am not going to +expatiate upon that to-night, but it did occur to me in reading all +these proceedings that the part of Hamlet was rather omitted, because +India after all is the only real Empire. You there have an immense +Dominion, an almost countless population, governed by foreign rulers. +That is what constitutes an Empire. I observed it all with a rather +grim feeling in my mind, that, if anything goes wrong in India, the +whole of what we are talking about now, the material and military +conditions of the Empire as a whole, might be strangely altered and +convulsed. One of the happy qualities of youth--and there is no +pleasure greater than to see you in that blissful stage, for one who +has passed beyond, long beyond it--is not to be, I think I am right, +in a hurry, not to be too anxious either for the present or future +measure of the responsibilities of life and a career. You will forgive +me if I remind you of what I am sure you all know--that the civil +government of 230,000,000 persons in British India is in the hands of +some 1,200 men who belong to the Indian Civil Service. Let us follow +that. Any member of a body so small must be rapidly placed in a +position of command, and it is almost startling to me, when I look +round on the fresh physiognomies of those who are going out, and the +not less fresh physiognomies of those who have returned, to think of +the contrast between your position, and that, we will say, of some of +your Oxford contemporaries who are lawyers, and who have to spend ever +so many years in chambers in Lincoln's Inn or the Temple waiting for +briefs that do not come. Contrast your position with that of members +who enter the Home Civil Service, an admirable phalanx; but still for +a very long time a member who enters that service has to pursue the +minor and slightly mechanical routine of Whitehall. You will not +misunderstand me, because nobody knows better than a Minister how +tremendous is the debt that he owes to the permanent officials of +his department. Certainly I have every reason to be the last man to +underrate that. Well, any of you may be rapidly placed in a position +of real command with inexorable responsibilities. I am speaking in the +presence of men who know better than I do, all the details, but it +is true that one of you in a few years may be placed in command of a +district and have 1,000,000 human beings committed to his charge. He +may have to deal with a famine; he may have to deal with a riot; he +may take a decision on which the lives of thousands of people may +depend. Well, I think that early call to responsibility, to a display +of energy, to the exercise of individual decision and judgment is what +makes the Indian Civil Service a grand career. And that is what +has produced an extraordinary proportion of remarkable men in that +service. + +There is another elevating thought, that I should suppose is present +to all of you. To those who are already in important posts and those +who are by-and-by going to take them up. The good name of England is +in your keeping. Your conduct and the conduct of your colleagues in +other branches of the Indian Service decides what the peoples of India +are to think of British government and of those who represent it. Of +course you cannot expect the simple villager to care anything or to +know anything about the abstraction called the _raj_. What he knows is +the particular officer who stands in front of him, and with whom he +has dealings. If the officer is harsh or overbearing or incompetent, +the Government gets the discredit of it; the villager assumes that +Government is also harsh, overbearing, and incompetent. There is this +peculiarity which strikes me about the Indian Civil servant. I am not +sure that all of you will at once welcome it, but it goes to the root +of the matter. He is always more or less on duty. It is not merely +when he is doing his office work; he is always on duty. The great men +of the service have always recognised this obligation, that official +relations are not to be the beginning and the end of the duties of an +Indian administrator. It has been my pleasure and privilege during the +three or four years I have been at the India Office, to see a stream +of important Indian officials. I gather from them that one of the +worst drawbacks of the modern speeding up of the huge wheels of the +machine of Indian government is, that the Indian Civil servant has +less time and less opportunity than he used to have of bringing +himself into close contact with those with whose interests he is +concerned. One of these important officials told me the other day this +story. A retired veteran, an Indian soldier, had come to him and +said, "This is an odd state of things. The other day So-and-so, a +commissioner or what not, was coming down to my village or district. +We did the best we could to get a good camping-ground for him. We were +all eagerly on the look-out for him. He arrived with his attendants. +He went into his tent. He immediately began to write. He went on +writing. We thought he had got very urgent business to do. We went +away. We arrived in the morning soon after dawn. He was still writing, +or he had begun again. So concerned was he both in the evening and in +the morning with his writing that we really had nothing from him but a +polite _salaam_." This may or may not be typical, but I can imagine +it is possible, at all events. That must be pure mischief. If I were +going to remain Indian Secretary for some time to come, my every +effort would be devoted to an abatement of that enormous amount of +writing. You applaud that sentiment now, and you will applaud it more +by-and-by. + +Upon this point of less time being devoted to writing and more time to +cultivating social relations with the people, it is very easy for us +here, no doubt, to say you ought to cultivate social relations. Yet I +can imagine a man who has done a hard day's office work--I am sure I +should feel it myself--is not inclined to launch out upon talk and +inquiries among the people with whom he is immediately concerned. It +may be asking almost in a way too much from human nature. Still, that +is the thing to aim at. The thing to aim at is--all civilians who +write and speak say the same--to cultivate social amenities so far as +you can, I do not mean in the towns, but in the local communities with +which many of you are going to be concerned. I saw the other day a +letter from a lady, not, I fancy, particularly sentimental about the +matter, and she said this: "There would be great improvement if only +better social relations could be established with Indians personally. +I do wish that all young officials could be primed before they came +out with the proper ideas on this question." Well, I have no illusions +whatever as to my right or power of priming you. I think each of us +can see for himself the desirability of every one who goes out there, +having certain ideas in his head as to his own relations with the +people whom he is called upon to govern. That is the mission with +which we have to charge you, and it is as momentous a mission as +was ever confided to any great military commander or admiral of the +fleet--this mission of yours to place yourself in touch with the +people whom you have to govern. I am under no illusions that I can +plant new ideas in your minds compared with the ideas that may be +planted by experienced heads of Indian Government. The other day I saw +a letter of instructions from a very eminent Lieutenant-Governor to +those of the next stage below him, as to the attitude that they were +to take to the new civilians when they arrived, and you 24 or 25 +gentlemen will get the benefit of those instructions if you are going +to that province. I do not think there is any reason why I should +not mention his name--it was Sir Andrew Fraser, the retired +Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal--and those instructions as to the temper +that was to be inculcated upon newcomers, were marked by a force, a +fulness, and a first-hand aptitude that not even the keenest Secretary +of State could venture to approach. I know that exile is hard. It is +very easy for us here to preach. Exile is and must be hard, but I feel +confident that under the guidance of the high officers there, under +whom you will find yourselves, you will take care not to ignore the +Indian; not to hold apart and aloof from the Indian life and ways; +not to believe that you will not learn anything by conversation with +educated Indians. And while you are in India, and among Indians, and +responsible to Indians, because you are as responsible to them as you +are to us here, while you are in that position, gentlemen, do not live +in Europe all the time. Whether or not--if I may be quite candid--it +was a blessing either for India or for Great Britain that this great +responsibility fell upon us, whatever the ultimate destiny and end +of all this is to be, at any rate I know of no more imposing and +momentous transaction than the government of India by you and those +like you. I know of no more imposing and momentous transaction in the +vast scroll of the history of human government. + +We have been within the past two years in a position of considerable +difficulty. But the difficulties of Indian government are not the +result--be sure of this--of any single incident or set of incidents. +You see it said that all the present difficulties arose from the +partition of Bengal. I have never believed that. I do not think well +of the operation, but that does not matter. I was turning the other +day to the history of the Oxford Mission to Calcutta. In 1899--the +partition of Bengal, as you know, was much later--what did they +say? "There exists at present"--at present in 1899--"an increasing +hostility to what is European and English among the educated classes." +"No one can have," this Oxford report goes on, "any real knowledge of +India without a deep sense of the splendid work done by the Indian +Civil Service. The work is recognised by the Indian people. They +thoroughly appreciate the benefits of our rule, they are bound to us +by self-interest, but they do not like us." It is intelligible, but +that is a result to be carefully guarded against by demeanour, by +temper, by action--to be guarded against at every turn. Every one +would agree that anything like a decisive and permanent estrangement +between the Indians and the Europeans would end in dire failure and an +overwhelming catastrophe. I am coming to other ground. The history of +the last six months has been important, anxious, and trying. Eight +months ago there certainly was severe tension. That tension has now +relaxed, and the great responsible officials on the spot assure me +that the position of the hour and the prospects are reassuring. We +have kept the word which was given by the Sovereign on November 1 last +year in the message to the people of India commemorating the 50th +anniversary of the assumption of the powers of government in India +by the Crown, the transfer of the power from the old Company to the +Crown. We have kept our word. We have introduced and carried through +Parliament a measure, as everybody will admit, of the highest order +of importance. It was carried through both Houses with excellent +deliberation. I have been in Parliament a great many years. I have +never known a project discussed and conducted with such knowledge, +and such a desire to avoid small, petty personal incidents. The whole +proceeding was worthy of the reputation of Parliament. + +You are entering upon your duties at a stage of intense interest. Sir +Charles Elliott, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, wrote the +other day, that this is "the most momentous change ever effected by +Parliament in the constitution of the Government of India since 1858." +He goes on to say that no prudent man would prophesy. No, and I do not +prophesy. How could I? It depends upon two things. It depends, first +of all, upon the Civil Service. It depends on the Civil Service, and +it depends on the power of Indians with the sense and instincts +of government, to control wilder spirits without the sense or the +instincts of government. As for the Civil Service, which is the other +branch on which all depends, it is impossible not to be struck with +the warmest admiration of the loyal and manful tone in which leading +members of the Civil Service have expressed their resolution to face +the new tasks that this legislation will impose upon them. I have not +got it with me now, but certain language was used by Sir Norman Baker, +who is now the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. I think I quoted it in +the House of Lords, and, if I could read it to you, it would be far +better than any speech of mine in support of the toast I am going to +propose to you. There never was a more manful and admirable expression +of the devotion of the service, than the promise of their cordial, +whole-hearted, and laborious support of the policy which they have now +got to carry through. I am certain there is not one of you who will +fall short, and I am speaking in the presence of those who are not +probationers, but persons proved. There is not one of you who, when +the time comes, will not respond to the call, in the same spirit in +which Sir Norman Baker responded. + +I am now going to take you, if you will allow me, for a moment, to a +point of immediate and, I can almost say, personal interest. Everybody +will agree, as I say, that we have fulfilled within the last six or +eight months the pledges that were given by the Sovereign in November. +An Indian gentleman has been placed on the Council of the Viceroy--not +an everyday transaction. It needed some courage to do it, but it was +done. Before that, two Indians were placed on the Council of India +that sits in my own office at Whitehall. We have passed through +Parliament, as I have already described to you, the Councils Act. + +Those are great things. But I am told great uneasiness is growing in +the House of Commons as to the matter of deportation. You know what +deportation means. It means that nine Indian gentlemen on December 13 +last were arrested and are now detained--arrested under a law which is +as good a law as any law on our own statute-book. You will forgive me +for detaining you with this, but it is an actual and pressing point. +Some of the most respected members of my own party write a letter to +the Prime Minister protesting. A Bill has been brought in, and the +first reading of it was carried two or three days ago, of which I can +only say--with all responsibility for what I am saying--that it is +nothing less, if you consider the source from which it comes, and if +you consider the arguments by which it is supported, than a vote of +distinct censure on me and Lord Minto. The Bill is also supported by +a very clever and rising member of the Opposition. Now words of an +extraordinary character have been used in support of this severe +criticism of the policy of myself and Lord Minto. In a motion, not in +connection with the Bill, but earlier in the Session, words were read +from _Magna Charta_, with the insinuation that the present Secretary +of State is as dubious a character as the Sovereign against whom +_Magna Charta_ was directed. Gloomy references were actually made to +King Charles I., and it was shown that we were exercising powers that, +when attempted to be exercised by Charles I., led to the Civil War and +cost Charles I. his head. This was at the beginning of the present +Session. I doubt if they will get through to the end of the Session, +whenever that may be, without comparisons being instituted between the +Secretary of State, for example, and Strafford or even Cromwell in his +worst moments, as they would think. If Cromwell is mentioned, I shall +know where to point out how Cromwell was troubled by Fifth Monarchy +men, Praise-God Barebones, Venner, Saxby, and others. In historical +parallels I am fairly prepared for the worst. I will take my chance. + +Let us look at this seriously, because serious minds are exercised by +deportation, and quite naturally. On December 13 nine Indians were +arrested under a certain Indian Regulation of the year 1818, and they +who reproach us with violating the glories of 1215 (which is Magna +Charta) and the Petition of Rights, complain that 1818 is far too +remote for us to be at all affected by anything that was then made +law. Now what is the Regulation? I will ask you to follow me pretty +closely for a minute or two. The Regulation of 1818 says:--"Reasons +of State occasionally render it necessary to place under personal +restraint individuals, against whom there may not be sufficient +grounds to institute any judicial proceedings, and the +Governor-General in Council is able for good and sufficient reasons to +determine that A.B. shall be placed under personal restraint." There +is no trial; there is no charge; there is no fixed limit of time of +detention; and in short it is equivalent to a suspension of _habeas +corpus_. That is a broad statement, but substantially that is what it +is. Now I do not deny for a moment that if proceedings of this kind, +such as took place on December 13 last year, were normal or frequent, +if they took place every day of the week or every week of the month, +it would be dangerous and in the highest degree discreditable to our +whole Government in India. It would be detestable and dangerous. But +is there to be no such thing as an Emergency power? I am not talking +about England, Scotland, or Ireland. I am talking about India. Is +there to be no such thing as an emergency power? My view is that the +powers given under the Regulation of 1818 do constitute an emergency +power, which, may be lawfully applied if an emergency presents itself. +Was there an emergency last December? The Government of India found in +December a movement that was a grave menace to the very foundations of +public peace and security. The list of crimes for twelve months +was formidable, showing the determined and daring character of the +supporters of this movement. The crimes were not all. Terrorism +prevented evidence. The ordinary process of law was no longer +adequate, and the fatal impression prevailed that the Government could +be defied with impunity. The Government of India did not need to pass +a new law. We found a law in the armoury and we applied it. Very +disagreeable, but still we should have been perfectly unworthy of +holding the position we do--I am speaking now of the Government of +India and myself--if we had not taken that weapon out of the armoury, +and used it against these evildoers. + +It was vital that we should stamp out the impression that the +Government of India could be defied with impunity, not in matters of +opinion, mark you, but in matters affecting peace, order, life, and +property--that the Government in those elementary conditions of social +existence could be defied with impunity. I say, then--it was vital in +that week of December that these severe proceedings should be taken, +if there was to be any fair and reasonable chance for those reforms +which have since been laboriously hammered out, which had been for +very many months upon the anvil, and to which we looked, as we look +now, for a real pacification. It was not the first time that this +arbitrary power--for it is that, I never disguise it--was used. It was +used some years ago--I forget how many. I was talking the other day to +an officer who was greatly concerned in it in Poona, and he described +the conditions, and told me the effect was magical. I do not say the +effect of our proceedings the other day was magical. I do not say that +bombs and knives and pistols are at an end. None of the officers in +India think that we may not have some of these over again, but at any +rate for the moment, and, I believe, for much more than the moment, +we have secured order and tranquillity and acquiescence, and a warm +approval of, and interest in, our reforms. I have said we have had +acceptance of our reforms. What a curious thing it is that, after the +reforms were announced, and after the deportations had taken place, +still there came to Lord Minto deputations, and to me many telegrams, +conveying their appreciation and gratitude for the reforms, and other +things we have done. Our good friends who move a vote of censure upon +us, are better Indians than the Indians themselves. I cannot imagine a +more mistaken proceeding. + +Let me say one more word about deportations. It is true that there is +no definite charge that could be produced in a court of law. That is +the very essence of the whole transaction. Then it is said--"Oh, but +you look to the police; you get all your evidence from the police." +That is not so. The Government of India get their information, not +evidence in a technical sense--that is the root of the matter--from +important district officers. But it is said then, "Who is to decide +the value of the information?" I heard that one gentleman in the +House of Commons said privately in ordinary talk, "If English country +gentlemen were to decide this, we would not mind." Who do decide? Do +you think this is done by a police sergeant in a box? On the contrary, +every one of these nine cases of deportation has been examined and +investigated--by whom? By Lord Minto, by the late Lieutenant-Governor +of Bengal, by the present Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, by two or +three members of the Viceroy's Executive Council. Are we to suppose +for a minute that men of this great station and authority and +responsibility are going to issue a _lettre de cachet_ for A.B., C.D., +or E.F., without troubling themselves whether that _lettre de cachet_ +is wisely issued or not? Then it is said of a man who is arrested +under this law, "Oh, he ought not to be harshly treated." He is not +harshly treated. If he is one of these nine deported men, he is not +put into contact with criminal persons. His family are looked after. +He subsists under conditions which are to an Indian perfectly +conformable to his social position, and to the ordinary comforts and +conveniences of his life. The greatest difference is drawn between +these nine men and other men against whom charges to be judicially +tried are brought. All these cases come up for reconsideration from +time to time. They will come up shortly, and that consideration will +be conducted with justice and with firmness. There can be no attempt +at all to look at this transaction of the nine deported men otherwise +than as a disagreeable measure, but one imposed upon us by a sense of +public duty and a measure that events justify. What did Mr. Gokhale, +who is a leader of a considerable body of important political +opinion in India, say? Did he move a vote of censure? He said in the +Legislative Council the other day in Calcutta, that Lord Minto and the +Secretary of State had saved India from drifting into chaos. I owe you +an apology, Mr. Vice-Chancellor and gentlemen, for pressing upon your +attention points suggested by criticisms from politicians of generous +but unbalanced impulse. But they are important, and I am glad you have +allowed me to say what I have said upon them. + + + + +APPENDIX + + +A + + +_Extract from the dispatch of the Board of Directors of the East India +Company to the Government of India, December 10, 1834, accompanying +the Government of India Act_, 1833.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Tradition ascribes this piece to the pen of James Mill. +His son, J.S. Mill, was the author of the protest by the Company +against the transfer to the Crown in 1858.] + +103. By clause 87 of the Act it is provided that no person, by reason +of his birth, creed, or colour, shall be disqualified from holding any +office in our service. + +104. It is fitting that this important enactment should be understood +in order that its full spirit and intention may be transfused through +our whole system of administration. + +105. You will observe that its object is not to ascertain +qualification, but to remove disqualification. It does not break down +or derange the scheme of our government as conducted principally +through the instrumentality of our regular servants, civil and +military. To do this would be to abolish or impair the rules which +the legislature has established for securing the fitness of the +functionaries in whose hands the main duties of Indian administration +are to be reposed--rules to which the present Act makes a material +addition in the provisions relating to the college at Haileybury. But +the meaning of the enactment we take to be that there shall be no +governing caste in British India; that whatever other tests of +qualification may be adopted, distinctions of race or religion shall +not be of the number; that no subject of the king, whether of Indian +or British or mixed descent, shall be excluded either from the posts +usually conferred on our uncovenanted servants in India, or from +the covenanted service itself, provided he be otherwise eligible +consistently with the rules and agreeably to the conditions observed +and exacted in the one case and in the other. + +106. In the application of this principle, that which will chiefly +fall to your share will be the employment of natives, whether of the +whole or the mixed blood, in official situations. So far as respects +the former class--we mean natives of the whole blood--it is hardly +necessary to say that the purposes of the legislature have in a +considerable degree been anticipated; you well know, and indeed have +in some important respects carried into effect, our desire that +natives should be admitted to places of trust as freely and +extensively as a regard for the due discharge of the functions +attached to such places will permit. Even judicial duties of magnitude +and importance are now confided to their hands, partly no doubt from +considerations of economy, but partly also on the principles of a +liberal and comprehensive policy; still a line of demarcation, to some +extent in favour of the natives, to some extent in exclusion of them, +has been maintained; certain offices are appropriated to them, from +certain others they are debarred--not because these latter belong +to the covenanted service, and the former do not belong to it, +but professedly on the ground that the average amount of native +qualifications can be presumed only to rise to a certain limit. It is +this line of demarcation which the present enactment obliterates, or +rather for which it substitutes another, wholly irrespective of the +distinction of races. Fitness is henceforth to be the criterion of +eligibility. + +107. To this altered rule it will be necessary that you should, both +in your acts and your language, conform; practically, perhaps, no +very marked difference of results will be occasioned. The distinction +between situations allotted to the covenanted service and all other +situations of an official or public nature will remain generally as at +present. + +108. Into a more particular consideration of the effects that may +result from the great principle which the legislature has now for the +first time recognised and established we do not enter, because we +would avoid disquisition of a speculative nature. But there is +one practical lesson which, often as we have on former occasions +inculcated it on you, the present subject suggests to us once more to +enforce. While, on the one hand, it may be anticipated that the range +of public situations accessible to the natives and mixed races will +gradually be enlarged, it is, on the other hand, to be recollected +that, as settlers from Europe find their way into the country, this +class of persons will probably furnish candidates for those very +situations to which the natives and mixed race will have admittance. +Men of European enterprise and education will appear in the field; and +it is by the prospect of this event that we are led particularly to +impress the lesson already alluded to on your attention. In every view +it is important that the indigenous people of India, or those among +them who by their habits, character, or position may be induced to +aspire to office, should, as far as possible, be qualified to meet +their European competitors. + +Thence, then, arises a powerful argument for the promotion of +every design tending to the improvement of the natives, whether by +conferring on them the advantages of education, or by diffusing among +them the treasures of science, knowledge, and moral culture. For these +desirable results, we are well aware that you, like ourselves, are +anxious, and we doubt not that, in order to impel you to increased +exertion for the promotion of them, you will need no stimulant beyond +a simple reference to the considerations we have here suggested. + +109. While, however, we entertain these wishes and opinion, we must +guard against the supposition that it is chiefly by holding out +means and opportunities of official distinction that we expect our +Government to benefit the millions subjected to their authority. +We have repeatedly expressed to you a very different sentiment. +Facilities of official advancement can little affect the bulk of +the people under any Government, and perhaps least under a good +Government. It is not by holding out incentives to official ambition, +but by repressing crime, by securing and guarding property, by +creating confidence, by ensuring to industry the fruit of its labour, +by protecting men in the undisturbed enjoyment of their rights, and +in the unfettered exercise of their faculties, that Governments best +minister to the public wealth and happiness. In effect, the free +access to office is chiefly valuable when it is a part of general +freedom. + + +B + + +_Proclamation by the Queen in Council, to the Princes, Chiefs, and +People of India, November_ 1, 1858.[1] + +[Footnote 1: This memorable instrument, justly called the Magna Charta +of India, was framed in August, 1838, by the Earl of Derby, then the +head of the Government. His son, Lord Stanley, the first Secretary of +State for India, had drafted a Proclamation, and it was circulated to +the Cabinet. It reached the Queen in Germany. She went through the +draft with the Prince Consort, who made copious notes on the margin. +The Queen did not like it, and wrote to Lord Derby that she "would +be glad if he would write himself in his excellent language." The +specific criticisms are to be found in Martin's _Life of the Prince +Consort_ (iv 284-5). Lord Derby thereupon consulted Stanley; saw the +remarks of some of the Cabinet, as well as of Lord Ellenborough, upon +Stanley's draft; and then wrote and re-wrote a draft of his own, and +sent it to the Queen. It was wholly different in scope and conception +from the first draft. The Prince Consort enters in his journal that it +was now "_recht gut_." One or two further suggested amendments were +accepted by Lord Derby and the Secretary of State; experts assured +them that it contained nothing difficult to render in the native +languages; and the Proclamation was launched in the form in which it +now stands. One question gave trouble--the retention of the Queen's +title of Defender of the Faith. Its omission might provoke remark, +but on the other hand Lord Derby regarded it as a doubtful title, +"considering its origin" [conferred by the Pope on Henry VIII] and as +applied to a Proclamation to India. He was in hopes that in the Indian +translation it would appear as "Protectress of Religion" generally, +but he was told by experts in vernacular that it was just the title to +convey to the Indian mind, the idea of the special Head and Champion +of a creed antagonistic to the creeds of the country. Lord Derby was +inclined to omit, but he sought the Queen's own opinion. This went the +other way. The last sentence of the Proclamation was the Queen's. The +three drafts are all in the records at Windsor.] + +Victoria, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain +and Ireland, and of the Colonies and Dependencies thereof in Europe, +Asia, Africa, America, and Australasia, Queen, Defender of the Faith. + +Whereas, for divers weighty reasons, we have resolved, by and with the +advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, +in Parliament assembled, to take upon ourselves the government of the +territories in India, heretofore administered in trust for us by the +Honourable East India Company. + +Now, therefore, we do by these presents notify and declare that, by +the advice and consent aforesaid, we have taken upon ourselves the +said government; and we hereby call upon all our subjects within the +said territories to be faithful, and to bear true allegiance to us, +our heirs and successors, and to submit themselves to the authority of +those whom we may hereafter, from time to time, see fit to appoint to +administer the government of our said territories, in our name and on +our behalf. + +And we, reposing especial trust and confidence in the loyalty, +ability, and judgment of our right trusty and well-beloved cousin +Charles John, Viscount Canning, do hereby constitute and appoint +him, the said Viscount Canning, to be our first Viceroy and +Governor-General in and over our said territories, and to administer +the government thereof in our name, and generally to act in our name +and on our behalf, subject to such orders and regulations as he shall, +from time to time, receive through one of our Principal Secretaries of +State. + +And we do hereby confirm in their several offices, civil and military, +all persons now employed in the service of the Honourable East +India Company, subject to our future pleasure, and to such laws and +regulations as may hereafter be enacted. + +We hereby announce to the native princes of India, that all treaties +and engagements made with them by or under the authority of the East +India Company are by us accepted, and will be scrupulously maintained, +and we look for the like observance on their part. + +We desire no extension of our present territorial possessions, and, +while we will permit no aggression upon our dominions or our rights to +be attempted with impunity, we shall sanction no encroachment on those +of others. + +We shall respect the rights, dignity, and honour of native princes as +our own; and we desire that they, as well as our own subjects, should +enjoy that prosperity and that social advancement which can only be +secured by internal peace and good government. + +We hold ourselves bound to the natives of our Indian territories by +the same obligations of duty which bind us to all our other subjects, +and those obligations, by the blessing of Almighty God, we shall +faithfully and conscientiously fill. + +Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity, and +acknowledging with gratitude the solace of religion, we disclaim alike +the right and the desire to impose our convictions on any of our +subjects. We declare it to be our royal will and pleasure that none be +in any wise favoured, none molested or disquieted, by reason of their +religious faith or observances, but that all shall alike enjoy the +equal and impartial protection of the law; and we do strictly charge +and enjoin all those who may be in authority under us that they +abstain from all interference with the religious relief or worship of +any of our subjects on pain of our highest displeasure. + +And it is our further will that, so far as may be, our subjects, of +whatever race or creed, be freely and impartially admitted to offices +in our service the duties of which they may be qualified by their +education, ability, and integrity duly to discharge. + +We know, and respect, the feelings of attachment with which natives of +India regard the lands inherited by them from their ancestors, and we +desire to protect them in all rights connected therewith, subject to +the equitable demands of the State; and we will that generally, in +framing and administering the law, due regard be paid to the ancient +rights, usages, and customs of India. + +We deeply lament the evils and misery which have been brought upon +India by the acts of ambitious men, who have deceived their countrymen +by false reports, and led them into open rebellion. Our power has been +shown by the suppression of that rebellion in the field; we desire +to show our mercy by pardoning the offences of those who have been +misled, but who desire to return to the path of duty. + +Already, in one province, with a desire to stop the further effusion +of blood, and to hasten the pacification of our Indian dominions, our +Viceroy and Governor-General has held out the expectation of pardon, +on certain terms, to the great majority of those who, in the late +unhappy disturbances, have been guilty of offences against our +Government, and has declared the punishment which will be inflicted +on those whose crimes place them beyond the reach of forgiveness. We +approve and confirm the said act of our Viceroy and Governor-General, +and do further announce and proclaim as follows:-- + +Our clemency will be extended to all offenders, save and except those +who have been, or shall be, convicted of having directly taken part +in the murder of British subjects. With regard to such the demands of +justice forbid the exercise of mercy. + +To those who have willingly given asylum to murderers, knowing them to +be such, or who may have acted as leaders or instigators of revolt, +their lives alone can be guaranteed; but in apportioning the penalty +due to such persons, full consideration will be given to the +circumstances under which they have been induced to throw off their +allegiance; and large indulgence will be shown to those whose crimes +may appear to have originated in too credulous acceptance of the false +reports circulated by designing men. + +To all others in arms against the Government we hereby promise +unconditional pardon, amnesty, and oblivion of all offences against +ourselves, our crown and dignity, on their return to their homes and +peaceful pursuits. + +It is our royal pleasure that these terms of grace and amnesty should +be extended to all those who comply with these conditions before the +1st day of January next. + +When, by the blessing of Providence, internal tranquillity shall be +restored, it is our earnest desire to stimulate the peaceful industry +of India, to promote works of public utility and improvement, and to +administer the government for the benefit of all our subjects +resident therein. In their prosperity will be our strength, in their +contentment our security, and in their gratitude our best reward. And +may the God of all power grant to us, and to those in authority under +us, strength to carry out these our wishes for the good of our people. + + +C + + +_Proclamation of the King-Emperor to the Princes and Peoples of India, +the 2nd November, 1908._ + +It is now 50 years since Queen Victoria, my beloved mother, and my +August Predecessor on the throne of these realms, for divers weighty +reasons, with the advice and consent of Parliament, took upon herself +the government of the territories theretofore administered by the East +India Company. I deem this a fitting anniversary on which to greet the +Princes and Peoples of India, in commemoration of the exalted task +then solemnly undertaken. Half a century is but a brief span in your +long annals, yet this half century that ends to-day will stand +amid the floods of your historic ages, a far-shining landmark. The +proclamation of the direct supremacy of the Crown sealed the unity of +Indian Government and opened a new era. The journey was arduous, and +the advance may have sometimes seemed slow; but the incorporation of +many strangely diversified communities, and of some three hundred +millions of the human race, under British guidance and control has +proceeded steadfastly and without pause. We survey our labours of the +past half century with clear gaze and good conscience. + +Difficulties such as attend all human rule in every age and place, +have risen up from day to day. They have been faced by the servants +of the British Crown with toil and courage and patience, with deep +counsel and a resolution that has never faltered nor shaken. If errors +have occurred, the agents of my government have spared no pains and no +self-sacrifice to correct them; if abuses have been proved, vigorous +hands have laboured to apply a remedy. + +No secret of empire can avert the scourge of drought and plague, but +experienced administrators have done all that skill and devotion are +capable of doing, to mitigate those dire calamities of Nature. For +a longer period than was ever known in your land before, you have +escaped the dire calamities of War within your borders. Internal peace +has been unbroken. + +In the great charter of 1858 Queen Victoria gave you noble assurance +of her earnest desire to stimulate the peaceful industry of India, to +promote works of public utility and improvement, and to administer the +government for the benefit of all resident therein. The schemes that +have been diligently framed and executed for promoting your material +convenience and advance--schemes unsurpassed in their magnitude and +their boldness--bear witness before the world to the zeal with which +that benignant promise has been fulfilled. + +The rights and privileges of the Feudatory Princes and Ruling Chiefs +have been respected, preserved, and guarded; and the loyalty of their +allegiance has been unswerving. No man among my subjects has been +favoured, molested, or disquieted, by reason of his religious belief +or worship. All men have enjoyed protection of the law. The law itself +has been administered without disrespect to creed or caste, or to +usages and ideas rooted in your civilisation. It has been simplified +in form, and its machinery adjusted to the requirements of ancient +communities slowly entering a new world. + +The charge confided to my Government concerns the destinies of +countless multitudes of men now and for ages to come; and it is a +paramount duty to repress with a stern arm guilty conspiracies that +have no just cause and no serious aim. These conspiracies I know to be +abhorrent to the loyal and faithful character of the vast hosts of my +Indian subjects, and I will not suffer them to turn me aside from my +task of building up the fabric of security and order. + +Unwilling that this historic anniversary should pass without some +signal mark of Royal clemency and grace, I have directed that, as was +ordered on the memorable occasion of the Coronation Durbar in 1903, +the sentences of persons whom our courts have duly punished for +offences against the law, should be remitted, or in various degrees +reduced; and it is my wish that such wrongdoers may remain mindful +of this act of mercy, and may conduct themselves without offence +henceforth. + +Steps are being continuously taken towards obliterating distinctions +of race as the test for access to posts of public authority and power. +In this path I confidently expect and intend the progress henceforward +to be steadfast and sure, as education spreads, experience ripens, +and the lessons of responsibility are well learned by the keen +intelligence and apt capabilities of India. + +From the first, the principle of representative institutions began to +be gradually introduced, and the time has come when, in the judgment +of my Viceroy and Governor-General and others of my counsellors, that +principle may be prudently extended. Important classes among you, +representing ideas that have been fostered and encouraged by +British rule, claim equality of citizenship, and a greater share in +legislation and government. The politic satisfaction of such a +claim will strengthen, not impair, existing authority and power. +Administration will be all the more efficient, if the officers who +conduct it have greater opportunities of regular contact with those +whom it affects, and with those who influence and reflect common +opinion about it. I will not speak of the measures that are now being +diligently framed for these objects. They will speedily be made known +to you, and will, I am very confident, mark a notable stage in the +beneficent progress of your affairs. + +I recognise the valour and fidelity of my Indian troops, and at the +New Year I have ordered that opportunity should be taken to show +in substantial form this, my high appreciation, of their martial +instincts, their splendid discipline, and their faithful readiness of +service. + +The welfare of India was one of the objects dearest to the heart of +Queen Victoria. By me, ever since my visit in 1875, the interests of +India, its Princes and Peoples, have been watched with an affectionate +solicitude that time cannot weaken. My dear Son, the Prince of Wales, +and the Princess of Wales, returned from their sojourn among you with +warm attachment to your land, and true and earnest interest in its +well-being and content. These sincere feelings of active sympathy and +hope for India on the part of my Royal House and Line, only represent, +and they do most truly represent, the deep and united will and purpose +of the people of this Kingdom. + +May divine protection and favour strengthen the wisdom and mutual +goodwill that are needed, for the achievement of a task as glorious as +was ever committed to rulers and subjects in any State or Empire of +recorded time. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Indian speeches (1907-1909) +by John Morley (AKA Viscount Morley) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIAN SPEECHES (1907-1909) *** + +***** This file should be named 10956.txt or 10956.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/9/5/10956/ + +Produced by Josephine Paolucci, and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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