Speeches on Questions of Public Policy, vol 1 | Page 6

that time to this, various rumours were afloat, and
everybody was confident one week that there would be no legislation,
or only a postponement; in another week it was thought that there was
to be a very sweeping measure (which last report, I must say, I never
believed); and the week after that people were again led to the

conclusion that there would be a measure introduced such as the one
this night submitted to the House. Again, it was understood so lately as
last Saturday that there would be no legislation on the subject,
excepting a mere temporary measure for a postponement. I confess that
I was myself taken in by that announcement. On Monday the hon.
Member for Poole (Mr. Danby Seymour) gave notice of a question on
the same subject, and he was requested not to ask it till Tuesday. On
Tuesday there was a Cabinet Council, and whether there was a change
of opinion then I know not, but I presume that there was. The opinion
that was confidently expressed on Saturday gave way to a new opinion,
and the noble Lord announced that legislation would be proceeded with
immediately. All this indicates that there was a good deal of vacillation
on the part of the Government. At last, however, has come the speech
of the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Control.
There were some good things in it, no doubt. I do not suppose that any
man could stand up, and go on speaking for five hours, without saying
something that was useful. But as to the main question on which this
matter rests, I do not believe that the plan which the Government
proposes to substitute will be one particle better than that which exists
at the present moment.
With regard to the question of patronage, I admit, so far as that goes,
that the plan proposed by the right hon. Gentleman will be an
improvement on the present system. But I do not understand that the
particular arrangement of the covenanted service is to be broken up at
all. That is a very important matter, because, although he might throw
open the nominations to the Indian service to the free competition of all
persons in this country, yet if, when these persons get out to India, they
are to become a covenanted service, as that service now is constituted,
and are to go on from beginning to end in a system of promotion by
seniority--and they are to be under pretty much the same arrangement
as at present--a great deal of the evil now existing will remain; and the
continuance of such a body as that will form a great bar to what I am
very anxious to see, namely, a very much wider employment of the
most intelligent and able men amongst the native population.
The right hon. Gentleman has, in fact, made a long speech wholly in

defence of the Indian Government; and I cannot avoid making some
remarks upon what he has stated because I wholly dissent from a large
portion of the observations which he has made. But the right hon.
Gentleman, above all things, dreads that this matter should be delayed.
Now I will just touch upon that point. The right hon. Gentleman has
said that he has not met any one who does not consider it highly
desirable that the House should legislate upon the subject of the
Government of India this year; and that it will be a great evil if such
legislation is postponed. In support of this view he produces a private
letter from Lord Dalhousie upon the subject. Now I do not consider
such evidence as by any means conclusive, because the House knows
that Lord Dalhousie has been connected with the system that now
exists. That noble Earl is also surrounded by persons who are
themselves interested in maintaining the present system. From his
elevated position also in India--I do not mean his location at
Simlah--but from his being by his station removed from the mass of the
European population, and still more removed from the native
population, I do not think it at all likely that Lord Dalhousie will be
able to form a sounder opinion upon this question than persons who
have never been in India. In my opinion, no evil can possibly arise
from creating in the minds of the population of India a feeling that the
question of Indian Government is considered by the House of
Commons to be a grave and solemn question; and I solemnly believe
that if the decision on the question be delayed for two years, so as to
enable Parliament to make due inquiries as to the means of establishing
a better form of government in India, it will create in