HOME RULE FOR INDIA.

Evening Star, Issue 8267, 12 July 1890, Page 3 (Supplement)

HOME RULE FOR INDIA.

There has been a great deal lately in the Home papers about the Indian Congress, whose aim is to get Home Rule for India by makiDg the Legislative Council an elected body instead of, as at present, being composed of members, European and Native, nominated by the Viceroy. One can imagine what this would lead to, for the Natives of India being a very conservative people, Europeans would stand very little chance of being elected amongst 000,000,000 Natives, so tViti.t the Council -would be almost, if Tiot entirely, composed of native members. The point is : are the Natives fitted, as yet at any rate, to have the entire control of India ? If they are, the English had better buck out of the country. I should like to give your readers some idea of the kind of people who are agitating on the subject. The Bengali Baboo is the great backbone of the Congress agitation, being backed by a few Europeans who are anxious to gain notoriety, and who take up the question as a peg to hang their hats on. The Bengali Baboo is shrewd and clever, excellent at figures, good at spouting Shakespeare, and capital at cram examinations, etc. ; but he is wanting in that solidity required by a statesman lit to guide the deßtinies of so great a country as India. Physically he is the lowest of the Indian races, and exists simply by the favor and protection of the British Government. Should British rule be at any time removed, the Bengali would assuredly sink to be the slave of the more powerful Northern races. Let me give an extract from Macaulay on the subject:—" The physical organisation of the Bengali is feeble even to effeminacy. He lives in a constant vapor bath. His pursuits are sedentary, his limbs delicate, his movements languid. During many ages he ha 3 been trampled upon by men of bolder and more hardy breeds. Courage, independence, veracity arc qualities to which his constitution and his situation are equally unfavorable. His mind bears a singular analogy to his body. It is weak even to helplessness for purposes of manly resistance ; but its suppleness and its tact move the children of sterner climates to admiration, not unmingled with contempt. All those arts which are the natural defence of the weak are more familiar to this subtle race than to the lonian of the time of ,1 uvenal or to the Jew of the dark ages. What the horns are to the buffalo, what the paw is to the tiger, what the sting is to the bee, what beauty, according to the old Greek song, is to woman, deceit is to the Bengali. Large promises, smooth excuses, elaborate tissues of circumstantial falsehood, chicanery, perjury, forgery are the weapons, offensive and defensive, of the people of the Lower Gauges. All those millions do not furnish one Sepoy to the armies of "the company. But as userers, as moneychangers, as sharp legal practitioners, no class of human beings can bear comparison with them. With all his softness, the Bengali is by no means placable in his enmities or prone to pity. The pertinacity with which he adheres to his purposes yields only to the immediate pressure of fear." That is a part of what Macaulay says of the Bengali in his essay on Warren Hastings. Since ijacaulay's day no doubt the Bengali has advanced greatly ; but as his physique has not improved, the manly qualities of truth and honor are still greatly deficient ; and as it has taken ages of serfdom to reduce him to his present condition, it will, in my opinion, be a long time before he is fitted to have the destinies of all India, with its enormous responsibilities, entrusted to his tender mercies.

The following extract from a petition to the Privy Council which I lately culled from an Knglish paper will amuse you, and illustrate the sort of men who are candidates for the Legislative Council. The ex-Ranee3 of Gond prayed for the restitution of certain lands or for an equivalent in money. The petition itself is of course too long to give in full. It was drawn up by a Native anxious to show his knowledge of Knglish and his powers of versification iu that language. Possibly the gentleman has eaten his mutton at one of our Innß of Court, or at any rate he is sure to have some sort of law certificate, as otherwise the high dames of Gond would not have employed him in their case. The following is the extract: —" The Raj* did make serious and determined complaint, though not as early as he might have done, having regard to the potent proverb which inllnences most Indian races, viz.— Durya men rclmi, Muggnr ko durrm, which may be freely translated thus :—• II in tue river stretch your home, In fear of Saurinns ever roaui. Thus every unprejudiced mind will own that we have clearly established our claim," etc., etc.

I think every unprejudiced mind will want to know how the Saurians came into the petition ; why the Raja should live in a river and be afraid of them ''. The proprietor of the verses was evidently anxious to give them to the world, and dragged them into the petition apropos of nothing. Mr A. O. Hume, who is the European guiding star of the Congress, rose, from length of service as a Bengal civilian, to a high position. But Mr Hume also rose to eminence as the great follower and dupe of Madame Blavatzky. Messrs Hume and Sinnet (the sub-editor of the ' Pioneer' newspaper) were her two great supporters in India, and it was at Hume's house that most of her spiritualistic tricks were performed, the reality and genuineness of which he vouched for. I ask is this the sort of leader on the soundness of whose judgment much reliance can be placed, and if this is the head what are we to expect from the tail ? It is possible that, the head being so light, the tail may be wagging it. Sir W. Hunter, who supported the Congress aspirations in the Imperial Parliament, is now backing out, whilst Sir Richard Temple has presented a petition from the representatives of fifty million Mahomedans objecting to the Congress proposals, and saying they are quite satisfied with things as they are. The great cry of the present day is that "one man's as good as another"; but in each country it is qualified with an exception. In America, although the North fought and bled for his colored brother of the South, they seem now to have had quite enongh of him, and talk of shipping him back to Africa. But at any rate the permanent exception to equality is Ah Sin, with the occasional exception of Pat Murphy, when the latter emigrates too quickly. Here in New Zealand the exception is China John and the non-union man or " blackleg." In Ireland they have long past the point of equality, and the improved cry there ib " One man's as good as another and better too " ; but there too they make exceptions in the landlord and his agent. In Natal they are crying out for responsible government, but with control over the Natives. And so in India, though one man may be as good as another, the European is decidedly better and the Bengali worse. The Bengalis make first-class accountants and copying clerks, but you must see that your rough draft is not turned into utter nonsense in the copy. I shall never forget the dismay of a candidate for a clerkship when the following quotation was dictated for examination in spelling :—" Whate'orhe sees npon the seas they seize upon it.' Most of our boys would, I am afraid, be spun. There is a story in India of a tailor making a coat from a pattern that was patched. When the new coat was presented it was an exact copy—holes, and patches, and all. They say imitation is the sinoereßt flattery, but I am afraid the owner of that ooat was not pleased with the form his

tailor's flattery took. In the same way, though our Bengali friends may flatter us by wishing to imitate our English form of representative government, I hope we shall not easily have our heads turned, but elect to continue, for the present at any rate, the form of government which has answered so well—viz., the Legislative Council, nominated by the Viceroy. DIGAMMA.