REMOVAL OF THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT IN INDIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 94, 5 March 1862, Page 7

REMOVAL OF THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT IN INDIA.

(7w;;« /.'(« Times of India.-) The beginning of the end has conic, as. Sir Charles Wooo. has ordered the transfer of the scat of Government in India from Calcutta to some other locality better fitted for the residence of Europeans. We say only " the beginning" of the end; for though'the transfer has been undoubtedly ordered, and Lord Canning has acted so far upon it as to suspend the election of puhlic buildings in Calcutta, yet the date of removal is not yet] fixed, aud it appears that even the site ofthe future capital is not vet decided on. We have ourselves little doubt wliat that site will ultimately bo, when the question has been thoroughly gone into by the Home Government, and when it is no longer considered from a Bengal point of view. We have little doubt that Bombay will be fixed upon to be '< the future political metropolis, as it is now tbe first commercial city of India. But as yet the question has not advanced further, according to ' the Friend of India, than this that the rival claims of the Himalayas ancl of Poona arc being weighed in the balance. In Sir Charles Wood's order, we see tho fruit.—proximately of Mr. Laing's presence in England on sick leave from Calcutta, and his representations to the car of the Secretary of state—and ultimately of tho speculations of Mr. George Campbell. This writer, whose work, entitled England as it may be, made a considerable impression in England in 1853, has treated more scientifically than any one else the question as to "the permanent location of the Supreme Government." Since Mr. Campbell wrote, new conditions have exhibited themselves ; the relative position of Presidencies is in a great manner changed ; nndj certain political lessons bef'oic ignored havo revealed themselves with terrible distinctness. Yet still, though we think that these additional facts!• vitiate Mr. Campbell's ultimate conclusions, we ' must allow that up to a certain point in the argument his reasons arc valid. And many of the principles he lays clown are so important, that we need make no apology for reproducing them, as it I is our desire that the question at this particular crisis should be again treated in a scientific spirit. ' Mr. Campbell argues that Calcutta is not con- ' tral, that it is too far from England, that in regard to climate it is very unfavorable to European health, and that "at no place where it would be proposed to fix the Government is there a worse climate." " I conclude then," says he, " that Calcutta, as tbe seat of government, presents several most important and fatal disadvantages, and no advantage except the saving of the expense 1 involved in the change. I believe that in fact the supreme Government of India will never he efficiently carried o at that place ; that it is merely a question of time ; that the time is now come, when the sooner we make up our miuds to the change tbe better." ] Thus far Sir. Campbell's predictions have been . entirely verified. lie next proceeds to examine the fitness and compare the merits of other pos- < sible sites which might be recommended. He I considers the choice to lie between Bombay, < Agra and Mussoorie, and decides (we think erroneously) In favor of the last. We shall endeavor " to point out hereafter the objections to Agra and Mussoorie, and also to Simla and all places of the ' kind, but in the meanwhile gladly avail ourselves , of Mr. Campbell's comparison between Bombay , and Calcutta, which, considering that it was ' written by a Bengal civilian at least nine years , ago, does great credit to his discernment. After 1 pointing out the importance of Bombay's situation relatively to England, and its advantages as an island from a strategical point of view, be adds :—" We must not decide a matter of this kind on any mere temporary considerations ' We must have a capital which may be still a ' capital a hundred years hence. For instance, no one can doubt that the great lines of railway will eventually be completed. It is only ' a question of a few years sooner or later ; and I think that in discussing the merits of Bombay, . Agra, or Mussoorie, I am fully justified in assuming that there will be a railroad between those places, aud that the traffic: between Northern India anel England will take the most direct route t < to the Western Coast. It is quite certain that as j goon as we have a system of railways and goods and passengers are carried by rail instead of byriver, Bombay will be almost exclusively the port of Northern and Central India, arfd Calcutta only ' that of Bengal, Bokar, and perhaps Benares. We . have but to look to the man to be sure of this ' fact, the more so us Bombay is an infinitely more ' convenient and cheaper harbor than Calcutta. The latter is situated «i long way up a most un- c certain river, which involves much risk ancl ex- " pense, and a freak of the Ganges may any day make it an inland town. Indeed, the tendency : of the river is quite in that direction, for where the British fleets once manoeuvred, the navigation is now confined to flat river boats. We may, therefore reckon without our host, if we fix on Calcutta as a continuing city," Mr. Campbell's just observations put Calcutta quite out of" tlie question as the permanent ; capital of the Indian Empire. And what was ( theoretically demonstrated in 1853, has now , issued in a practical order from the Secretary ] of State. The reasons which Mr. Campbell i gives for finally preferring Mussoorie to Bom- \ bay are partly based on a state of things wliich has since been modified, whilepart iy they ignore principles wliich were brought j to light in' the mutinies. Were Mr. Campbell to j write at the present moment, we are confident he \ would argue differently. All he says against j Bombay is, that the town itself is as tropical us | Calcutta, and that Poona would require expensive fortifications ; that the Bombay territories i are comparatively unimportant ; unci, in short, I that in the delightful climate of Mussoorie, there ( are advantages ancl charms not to be resisted ' AVell, we see at once, that a different story would be told now-a-days about the prosperity and im- ; portanee ofthe Bombay territories. With re- ' gard to climate also, a reply might be made to Mr. Campbell. But the most important thing at. the present juncture is to point out the entire! unfitness of any station in the Himalayas, or in-1, deed of Agra, or any similarly situated place, to] be the capital of India. In this work we receiver the able assistance of the Friend of India, who|: argues not without reason that " the Hills will! prove India's Capua ;" that the Government and! all its officers will become isolated from the country, and will lose their knowledge of the. people whom they have to govern ; that the most: important officials will by this arrangement be! put a great deal too far from the scene .of action, j, in case of any emergency occurring ; and that thei natives will lose their proper awe and respect for' a Sirkar tbat never appears amongst them. All this seems to us to contain a great deal of truth. It surely appears a very delettuntc proposal to talk of fixing the actual, c very-day, official, seat of Government among the romantic peaks of Simla, or Mussoorie. It sounds like a suggestion to move the House of Commons during August and September to a watering place. "Ambition should bo made of sterner stuff" Ancl though we donot ask the Supreme Government to continue to encounter the muggy heat of Calcutta, we still have a right to demand that they should not think of taking themselves off to the Himalayas. We do not, however, think that the chief objection to this proposal is stated when Simla is stigmatised as the possible •' Capua of India." Critics indeed tell us that it is very doubtful whether the luxuries of Capua really produced such a beneficial effect on the army of Hannibal as is commonly ascribed to them, or whether the whole is not a piece of rhetorical declamation. On one point, however, with regard to the decline of Hannibal's power in Italy, there is no doubt. " He was now," says Niobuhr, "in the strangest position, he had not in reality a single ;eaport town ; and although he was a general of maritime state, yet he was in the midst of it foreign country, and shut out from the gca." And this it seems to us i 3 the real danger and disadvantage to be apprehended from the selection of any inland station for the capital of India, namely, the danger of its being cut oft'from the sea. The helpless condition of Agra in the time ofthe mutiny, shows us what would have to be apprehended for a capital co situated. Similar dangers would have always to be apprehended and guarded against, and the capital instead of being a depot of troops to ba sent out in all directions (which is the ease as long as the capital rests upon the sea, and is garrisoned hy war-ships) would have to retain its

forces for its own defence ; aud not only this, but would have anxiously to provide for keeping open communications with the sea. These considerations are sufficient to show that the removal of the seat of Government to the Himalayas would not only be an unpractical measure, involving great expense and endless inconveniences, but nk.o that it is op-oosed by political reasons of the a-ravest kind. We shall take an en-, ly opportunity of reverting to the subject, and of pointing out that a transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Bombay would be the most natural solution of the present question, and that it, would ensure all the 'advantages which nndor the circumstances arc I practically attainable.