Page images
PDF
EPUB

had disappeared altogether. Yet we had now nearly twice the number of European soldiers that we used to keep in those days. No doubt some apprehension might be felt as to some of the warlike nations on our north-west frontier. In that part a large European force-25,000 or 30,000 men, must always be maintained. But as to all the rest of India, and above all the experience since the mutiny demonstrated that nothing more serious than a local riot need be feared from the unarmed Native population. In short, the only enemy whom we need really fear, the only enemy who could seriously threaten the Indian empire, was the Sepoy force, armed and trained by ourselves. But now it was a most important fact that this Sepoy force had in the last two years been reduced by no less than 220,000 men. It now stood at only 130,000, including a large body of military police, from whom no danger could arise, owing to the absence of regimental organization among them. It was considered, he might add, by most Indian statesmen that it would be quite safe to have three or four Sepoys to one European soldier. The Commission, however, had placed the proportion at five Natives to two Europeans; but at that rate 130,000 Native troops would only require about 52,000 European troops to keep them in check. The result, then, of a minute examination of the subject showed that we had far less need than formerly to apprehend attack. And not only was the strength of our only possible enemy so greatly reduced, but we should also remenber that in other respects our power of suppressing insurrection had been greatly increased since the mutiny of 1857. Taught by that lesson, we no longer intrusted to Native hands our forts and our arsenals, without the possession of which no mutiny or rebellion could stand for a week. The artillery force had been greatly augmented, and amounted last March to 11,760 Europeans, a portion of the army which he, for one, had no wish to reduce. The troops throughout were supplied with the Eufield rifle, with which no weapon that any rebels could obtain could compete for a moment. At the same time, the immense extension of railways and telegraphs would enable the Government to concentrate our troops upon any point where alarm arose, with a rapidity unknown before; so that nothing but the most scandalous folly and neglect on the part of the authorities could prevent us,

even with a force of one-third of that now maintained, from instantly bringing to bear, at any threatened point, an overwhelming force of Europeans that could drive any rebel force to the winds. And let them remember the experience given by the mutiny, and indeed by the whole history of our Indian Empire with regard to the impossibility of any of the Natives of that country resisting our arms in whatever numbers they might contend with us. When they remembered the prodigious exploits performed during that mutiny, when they remembered how in many cases the rebels, though armed by ourselves, though equipped by ourselves, though trained to warfare by ourselves, yet were invariably overthrown by a force, in many cases not one-tenth, in some cases not one-twentieth of their own amountremembering all that, he thought it was not prudence but timidity to keep up an army so largely in excess of any Native force that could possibly take arms against us. Now, were he asked how much he would suggest that the European force might be reduced, he should reply that he only presumed to call the attention of the Government to the facts he had referred to, but could not venture to express an opinion upon that point. He would only say that he confidently expected some day to see an expenditure of only £10,000,000 instead of £13,000,000 per annum on the army of India. He would now show how disastrous was the maintenance of so vast a force, both to India and ultimately also to England. The cost of our army, both European and Native, amounted, according to Mr. Laing last year, to no less than £12,800,000-a much larger amount than was, not many years ago, thought necessary for the defence of England herself, with all her colonies, notwithstanding the proximity of her mighty rival across the Channel, and notwithstanding the enormous claims upon her strength arising in every quarter of the globe. The effect of this extravagant outlay upon the finances of India was most disastrous. There might, perhaps, be some justification for it, if the treasury of India were overflowing; but they had to remember that in the last twenty years the national debt of India had increased by fifty millions; that in scarcely one of those years had they es caped a deficit; that in the three years ending with 1860 the deficit amounted to £36,000,000 (taking the three years together); while, to use Mr. Laing's words,

"all the efforts of the Government, aided | we raised last year three-and-a-half milby the imposition of new taxes which con- lions sterling, the tax being no less in vulsed Indian society, had still left them in Bengal than eight guineas per ton; and 1861 with an apparently hopeless deficit Colonel Cotton had shown that the result estimated at six millions." It was true was, that whereas the people required at that, according to Mr. Laing's budget, the very least about 20lbs. weight per head, it had been expected that this year at any they in reality only obtained, upon an averrate we should at length have arrived at a age, 7lbs. weight per head. In fact, he surplus; but they were now informed by gave reason for believing that a large the Secretary of State for India, the sur- proportion of the population did not get a plus proved to be a deficit, estimated at tenth part of the salt really necessary not no less than a million. Now, he was sure for their comfort alone, but for their health; that no one worthy of the name of states- and that while in England it was not anyman could look upon such a state of things, thing like so great a necessary of life as in which the income of the country was it was in India, the lowest price in India regularly and to a very great extent ex- for salt was thirty-five times what it was ceeded by its expenditure, without alarm; in England, and the people, of course, and the result was that we were in every pos- would be far less able even to pay the same sible way pressing upon the impoverished in- price as that which people paid here. But habitants of India to endeavour to squeeze again he saw that Mr. Laing proposed, from them more money; and no less than and he believed that the Secretary of £5,000,000, according to Mr. Laing him. State for India had agreed to lower the self, was raised now by taxes recently im- customs duties from 10 to 5 per cent. posed. This was a most important point This would be an immense boon, not only to observe, that in the last few years they to India, but to England. Even 5 per had added taxes that drew no less than cent, however, upon her cotton goods £5,000,000 out of the pockets of the placed England at a serious disadvantage, Indian people. These new taxes mainly because this was a customs duty upon an consisted of the income tax, which had article manufactured in the country withbeen found to be doing an incredible out any excise to correspond with it in amount of harm in the country; and again the interior of the land; and it was obvious of the enhanced duties on salt, on stamps, at once that a duty, even a duty of 5 per and on customs. Now, every one who cent, must operate in such a case as a was acquainted with Indian matters was direct protective duty to the Native manuaware of the immense evil it was to the facturer, and must have all the injurious people of India to have any salt tax at all, effects which a protective tax could never insomuch as one could hardly conceive fail to engender. In this case they had how, under British rule-professedly and this strongest possible reason for a still intentionally a benevolent one-a tax that further reduction if possible, that now the cut so deeply into the daily comfort of people in the manufacturing districts were the people could be maintained; much in such deep distress-to which he feared less could one have expected that it would there was no reason to hope a speedy terin the last year or two have been largely mination-and that if they could extend enhanced. They all knew that to a people the market for their cotton goods in India, living, as the Natives of India mainly did, it would be an invaluable boon to those upon rice, salt was one of the very first suffering people and to the whole of this essentials to health, and strength, and country, while of course it would create a happiness; the want of it inevitably created reciprocal traffic in the productions of India serious indigestion, and all the multitude itself with England. He would not detain of diseases which indigestion was liable to the House by dwelling upon the great cause; and the consequence was that the evils that followed from the other taxes, people of India had a sort of craving for all of which might be diminished, some of salt, of which people in England were al- which might be repealed, if they could but most unable to form any conception. There make a considerable reduction in our micould be no question whatever that if the litary expenditure. But it was not merely people of India could obtain salt at a much in the pernicious influence of the taxes lower price than they now did, the health which it involved that this military exand strength of the people would be largely penditure did such infinite harm. It stayed augmented; and yet upon this vital ne- the hand of the Government in conductcessary of life, vital as bread itself to them, ing those improvements in the country

had occurred this Session regarding the precise number of European troops to be maintained in India, he hoped the House would allow him to offer a few observations on this occasion. In doing so he could not help expressing the feeling of alarm with which he regarded the course which was being pursued by the hon. Member for Maidstone (Mr. Buxton) and his hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Aberdeen (Colonel Sykes) to effect a reduction of the European force in India. For his own part, he frankly confessed that he was not one of those who were carried away by the wild and utopian notion that India could be governed and held without a strong European force. On the contrary, it ap

from which such mighty results might be expected. It not only wasted so great an amount of our present wealth, but its most serious effect was in hindering us from opening up those vast sources of wealth by which one might else believe that our Indian revenue would, in the course of a few years, be doubled or possibly trebled. There was one other of the many evils arising from the maintenance of so great a force, to which he could not forbear calling the attention of the House, and that was the frightful amount of loss of life and of health which was inevitable in such a body of European troops quartered in that country. He did not believe it was at all generally known in England how fearful the mortality was amongst the Eng-peared to him that those who entertained lish soldiers stationed in India. As one of the witnesses stated to the Commission, "The sacrifices in men and money caused by the climate are astounding ;" and again, "The medical statements would almost stagger belief." In fact, the statistics laid before the Commission showed that out of a force of 80,000 Europeans, nearly 6,000 would perish every year; while the permanent loss of health to thousands upon thousands more was not less painful to reflect upon. He would not, however, go so fully as he was tempted to do into the unbounded mischiefs inevitably engendered by the maintenance of so vast a European army. To sum up briefly, he thought the Government ought not to submit their judgment to the ipse dixitbased neither on evidence nor on reasonof the Commission to which he referred. If they examined for themselves what enemy they had to provide against, they would perceive that there was but one enemy from whom peril could really arise -namely, the Sepoy force-and that had been immensely reduced, at the same time that our military position had been greatly improved. Consequently the time had come when we might effect a reduction of our European force, which, besides causing a fearful waste of life amongst those European troops themselves, cut deep, by its expense, into the prosperity of India, without in the slightest degree endangering our Indian empire. If that course were adopted, the prosperity of India would, he believed, be greatly enhanced, and the 130,000,000 of people under the rule of England would find their daily comfort greatly increased.

MR. VANSITTART said, that as he had taken no part in the discussions which

were

that opinion were not sufficiently mindful
of the circumstances of India and its past
history, and that their amiable but mis-
taken views were calculated to provoke
another rebellion similar to that which
occurred in 1857. Looking to the enor-
mous extent of our Indian territories, over
which were scattered so many unprotected
stations, occupied by mere handfuls of our
countrymen, their wives and their children,
and to the warlike character of the in-
habitants of Oude and the Punjab; look-
ing to the fact that the Artillery in future
was to be composed wholly of Europeans,
and the arsenals to be manned by them;
looking, again, to the, comparatively
speaking, large Sepoy army we
obliged to keep in our pay, and to the vast
levies of Native police, which required to be
controlled more or less by Europeans; and,
lastly, to the unfinished state of the rail-
ways, it seemed to him, he confessed, a
somewhat hazardous proceeding to reduce
the European force at the present moment.
It should not be forgotten that the mutiny
which occurred in 1857 was in no small
degree attributable to the Government of
that day diminishing the number of Euro-
pean. troops, contrary to the earnest en-
treaties and remonstrances of those dis-
tinguished and deeply-lamented noblemen,
the late Marquess of Dalhousie and Earl
Canning. It appeared to him that the
opinion of an individual Member of that
House as to the proper amount of force to
be maintained must necessarily be wholly
speculative; he could not possess the same
accurate information as the Secretary for
India and his Council, who were re-
sponsible for the safety of that country,
and who probably arrived at their decision
after a conference with the local Govern-

ment. The House knew, upon the autho- | the experience of those who had studied rity of the right hon. Baronet, that in the the question, who had themselves lived in summer of 1861 the Indian Government the country, who knew the Native characsent in an estimate for 92,000 men; that ter, and who were better acquainted than the military Members of the Home Council the hon. Gentleman could possibly be with reported that a less number than 80,000 the arguments and necessities for the emwould not be sufficient; and that the right ployment of so large a force. The hon. hon. Baronet, on his own responsibility, Gentleman had drawn a beautiful picture of had cut down these two Estimates to happy and peaceful India, but he appeared 70,000 men. It seemed that the Native to have forgotten what had occurred within army was to be gradually reduced to the last few months; and though he (Mr. 124,000 men. Assuming, therefore, Kinnaird) trusted that by an adherence to 80,000, as proposed by the Council, to be a conciliatory policy towards the Natives, the correct number, the proportion of two to that policy which Lord Canning during Europeans as against three Natives would the last years of his administration had be still unbalanced by 2,666 Europeans. carried out, they might look forward to a Knowing full well the hate and the fana- reduction in the European army, he thought ticism of the Mohammedan population, and that to force such a course upon the Gothe impossibility of calculating for any vernment now would neither be wise nor length of time on the preservation of peace economical in the end. Great and sudden in a country so full of combustible ma reductions entailed, in moments of necesterials as India, fringed by such savage sity, a very great cost in order to recoand fiery tribes, as was now exemplified by ver that which a wise expenditure would the war raging on the north-eastern have maintained. It was true that in past boundary, he had always maintained that years there had been great loss of life the European force for all India should in the Indian army; but he believed that consist of not less than 80,000 men; and through the sanitary measures taken by if we allowed the English army to be re- the Government, with the assistance of the duced as it was before the mutiny of 1857, railroads, by which they were enabled to and neglected the sacred duty of affording keep the troops in healthy districts, there the same protection to our brethren out would not in future be that fearful mortality there as we did to those in England and in of which his hon. Friend spoke. Lookour colonies, we were unworthy to be in-ing, moreover, to the circumstances of our trusted any longer with the possession of colonial possessions, and particularly to our India. Under these circumstances, with- relations with China, he did not think that out entering into the financial part of the question, which might be more conveniently reserved for the debate on Mr. Laing's budget, he would conclude by protesting against the dangerous policy of the hon. Members for Maidstone and Aberdeena policy which, if carried out, would, he believed, have the effect of not only imperilling the lives of those who were so earnestly and devotedly engaged in the discharge of their public duties, but compromising most unjustly the honour of Her Most Gracious Majesty, in whose name our magnificent Indian territories were now governed.

MR. KINNAIRD agreed with every word that had fallen from the hon. Gentleman who had just sat down; and with regard to the views of the hon. Member who introduced the subject, although he believed that his intention was good, and that his only wish was to economize the resources of India, he was inclined to think that the time had not arrived when they could with safety act contrary to

it was any disadvantage to this country to have in India a body of acclimatized troops ready to perform any service that might be required of them. He believed that at present 80,000 men were necessary for the maintenance of our Indian Empire; and he trusted that the Secretary of State would not be induced by the temptation of adopting the more popular course of reduction, to abandon the line of conduct which had been recommended by the experience of so many great and able men.

LORD STANLEY said, that as a member of the Commission which sat four years ago to consider whether, and in what manner, the Royal and Company's armies in India should be amalgamated, he then expressed the opinion, which he did not now hesitate to repeat, that no great importance could be attached to vague general estimates of the number of troops which might be required some years hence, perhaps in totally different circumstances, for the defence of India. If there was one time at which it was especially difficult to

make such an estimate, it was during the height of the Indian insurrection, when almost every one was more or less excited, and when, more than at any other moment, it was difficult to obtain a dispassionate judgnient. At the same time, he did not entirely agree with the statement of the hon. Member (Mr. Buxtou), that India was now exposed to no serious danger either from within or from without. It was true that there was no power on the frontier of India at all equal to cope with the force which we could bring to bear; but semi-barbarous tribes did not always calculate the consequences of their actions, and we might at any moment have disturbances in Affghanistan, in Nepaul, or in the territories of the Nizam, which, although they might not permanently endanger the security of our empire, might, if they were not immediately suppressed, occasion much mischief before they were put an end to. Then again, although all agreed as to the necessity of governing India, as far as possi. ble, upon a conciliatory system, it was impossible to speak of a country containing 180,000,000 of population a country which we had acquired by the sword, and which we governed, as Asiatic nations were governed in the main, by the sword-as if it were perfectly free from all danger of internal disturbance. We really knew very little of what was passing in the Native mind. If he gave an opinion, he should be inclined to say that for the present, after the exhibition of British power, and after the measures which had been taken to conciliate the Native chiefs, we were in a position of greater security than we had occupied for a long time past. At the same time, however, he knew that for years before the insurrection of 1857 the same feeling of security existed, and experience had shown how unfounded were the opinions then entertained. Allusion had been made to the pacific character of the people; that was undoubtedly true of Bengal, and might be true, perhaps, of the greater part of India; but there were particular districts which from time immemorial had been inhabited by races whose chief occupation and pleasure consisted in war. And therefore he protested against any general conclusion that because the country was now peaceable there was no longer any danger of serious disturbance. At the same time, a reduction of expenditure might fairly be looked forward to, when, by the completion of the telegraph between England and India, the military

[ocr errors]

reserve at home would be nearer by one half to the seat of operations, while the railways would enable a smaller force to act with greater efficiency. Something had been said about financial dangers; but although this was not a financial debate, he must observe that in the worst times of difficulty he had never desponded, and he certainly did not now despond of the future of Indian finance. Bearing in mind the extent of the population, and the very slight degree to which, comparatively speak ing, the enormous natural resources of that country had hitherto been developed, it appeared to him that in future years India would not only be able to bear her present liabilities, but, twenty or twentyfive years hence, if no great wars intervened, she would be able to bear a much heavier burden than that which, he admitted, now taxed all her energies. The population directly subject to British sway, was more than four times that of the British islands; while if the native States, who contributed to the customs duties, were added, the number would amount up to 180,000,000 nearly six times the amount of the British popula tion. The whole debt of India, excluding the advances to railroads, which were reproductive in their character, was about £100,000,000, or one-eighth of the British national debt, and the pressure which it inflicted upon the people per head was about 1-30th or 1-40th of that which was felt at home. It should be remembered that for the last fifty years India had been engaged in almost continual warfare; it was impossible to point to a period when a sufficient interval of peace was given for the full development of the resources of any one district. Even with the present amount of revenue the Indian debt did not amount to more than three year's income, while that of England amounted to twelve years' income. These figures showed, that whatever the present pressure of Indian finance, there was reasonable ground for supposing that a few years of prosperity would enable that country to bear much heavier burdens. Though he believed it might be possible in time to come to diminish the number of European troops in that empire, he should be sorry, either in that House or anywhere else, to lay down prospectively any fixed number as that which should be maintained. And against the saving by this probable diminution he was afraid the House must set the cost of various sanitary reforms which

« PreviousContinue »