THE HOME GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 687, 13 November 1852, Page 4

THE HOME GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

[From (In " K\ itnincr 'J Including artillery, engineers, cavalry, infantry, and medical staff, (ho Indian army has j,80."> ofliccis, and, lo rocruit Ihcsc, requires an uniiiai supply of about 1 8f> youths. The cadets :>f artillery, engineers and inlantry arc of about liie s.mie value or estimation as an ensignry in her Majesty's inarching regiments, vt/., J.ASO, mid their number being taken at 130, (ho whole sum wilt come to ifJB,f>oo. The number oft cadets of cavalry annually appointed is about twenty-one ; and his being a snug bit of patronage kept by the directors in Ihoir own hands (every preferred youth considered, by virtue of his nomination, an endowed or heaven-born cavalier,) each appointment is equal in value to a cornetcy in a dragoon regiment of her Majesty's forces, or worth iBiO. This makes the cavalry patronage, worth £17,040. The recruiting of the medical stair requires about [hirly-five appointments ; and, taking each of Ihese at ,1500, we have a further sum of £17,rJ00. The whole military patronage, then, will come to J. 95,6/40 a-year ; and we arc of opinion that the Duke of Wellington, or any other honest, independent, and responsible man would exercise it at least as conscientiously and constitutionally as the board of four-and-lwcnly in Leadenhall-slreet, to whose patriotism and love of freedom it is consigned, and which is responsible to no one — not even individual members of it lo the whole body. The proceeds ought to go into the Indian treasury and the patronage which would remain lo the Crown would be confined to that of selection. The military patronage is unnecessarily expanded by multiplication of superfluous establishments. Thus, there are three distinct Indian armies, with three distinct comman-ders-in-chief, and six distinct general starts, one set of the latter being for the East ! India Company's and one for her Majesty's forces. The main portion of the civil government of India, is so far as European agency is concerned is carried on by a class of privileged officers, usually called " civil servants" or ""covenanted servants" By prescription, this class has a vested interest in every civil office of trust or emolument, their salaries ranging, according to seniority, merit, or fortune, irom J3GO a-year up lo (10,000. After twenty-two years' actual residence in this country, every man of this service, beside what he may have saved from his salary, is furnished by the Stale, directly or indirectly, with the means of retiring from the service on a pension of life of i 1,000 a-year; and of pensioners coming under this head, there are at present 240, a burden on the Indian revenue of .1240,000 a year. For the first ten his Indian service the " covenanted" officer is precluded by act of Parliament from holding any other than second-rate situations as lo responsibility or emolument, and may be said to be, more or less, undergoing education at the public charge. If he retire at the prescribed lime, his effective services will have been, therefore, of no more than 12 years' duration ; and for this, with economy, he may return to his own country with a competent private fortune, and a pension of 14,000 a year. Early extravagance no doubt, often bailies this expectation , but still the principle is, thai a youth may go out at eighteen and return home at foily with a competent fortune. A judge with us, for example, educates himself, and may serve his country for thirty-live mature years ; but, in India, a judge is trained at the public cost, and serves little more than one third part of that time. There is something like equality, it must he a'lded, in the rcmunrialion of all the different departments of the service. Collectors of landlax or customs, or the member of a board of revenues, or of the salt and opium monopolies, arc rewarded on a similar scale with judges of first instance, or judges of appellate jurisdictions or secretaries of state, or ambassadors. The pension of XI, OOO a year is, in like manner, the same for a collector of customs as for a secretary of slate, and for a chief justice of the highest appellate jurisdiction ; which is the same thing as if, in this country, we were to give the same retiring pension to a clerk in one of our public departments as to the lord chancellor of England. A director might send out three sons to India, and all, however different their capacities and conduct, would beentilled lo similar emoluments while serving, and to exactly the same pension when retiring. This looks wonderful as if salaries and pensions were made for men and not for duties— not for good government, but for fat patronage. No wonder that an Indian writership should be valuable. The well known Lord Casllereagh avowed, in his place in the House of Commons with too much indescretion even for his unscrupulous day, that as president of the Indian board he had bartered one for a seal in parliament. At present the value of Ihe writership may be reckoned at < 3,000; and as there are usually about forty such appointments yearly, the total value of this branch of patronage will be ./ 200,000. The " covenanted" civil service is a raiment of the old commercial monopoly, borrowed from the Dutch, whose example in all mercantile mailers we followed in the seventeenth century, from the herring fishery to the spice trade. Down to 1834, indeed, the members of it were classed according lo seniority by the commercial designations of writers or clerks factors, junior merchants, and senior merchants ; now given up for six classes numerically arranged according to yers of service. The total number of civil covenanted officers in India is 81 fi, which for the performance of all duties, fiscal, judical, magisterial, arid administrative, will give about one man for a million and a half of inhabitants. This system, based on a vicious monopoly of patronage, is an intolerable nuisance, and cannot be continued. Indeed, successive governors-general have, from sheer necessity, already made large inroads upon it, by the appointment of natives, military officers, " unconvenled" Europeans, and their descendants. Perhaps the very worst feature of this, the chief branch of Indian patronage, is the bold effrontery with which the abuse itself is put forward as a cogent argument for continuing it in the same hands. The whole Indian patronage, with the exception of the appointments of the governors and judges of the Queen's courts, and bishops named virtually by the crown, and of members of the Indian councils, chaplains, and the numerous establishment at the India House by the directors, will amount in value, according to our compulation, lo j 292,640. This is divided into twenty-eight shares, in the proportion of one share for each ordinary director, two for each oflhe chairmen, and two also for the president of the India board. The money value of each director's patronage exceeds therefore J. 4 0,000 a-ycar, and that of the chairs x 20,000, which will account, easily enough, for the otherwise surprising fact 9 of directors and chairs being contented with, the humble salaries of ,i3ot) and* X3QO a-ycar.