HC Deb 19 April 1861 vol 162 cc802-21
MR. LAYARD

said, he rose, pursuant to notice to ask the Secretary of State for India Whether, notwithstanding the Minute of the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal upon the Report of the Indigo Commission dated 17th December last, a Bill has been introduced into the Legislative Council of India to enforce contracts for the delivery of agricultural produce; and, if so, whether such measure has been introduced with the sanction of the Government of India? And, Whether he will lay upon the Table of the House Copies of that Report and Minute, and of the Act XL of 1860 of the Indian Legislature, together with the Correspondence thereon between the Governor General of India, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, and the Indigo Planters' Association, and other Documents and Papers relating to the cultivation of Indigo in Bengal? He was glad to see the right hon. Gentleman again present in the House, and, therefore, in asking the question of which he had given notice last week, he would accompany it by a statement. He wag well aware of the inconvenience of making these statements upon occasions like the present, and he had to apologize for intruding one upon the House that evening. He would not have done so, did he not believe the question to be one of great importance. Upon the answer to which might turn the fate of interests of the greatest moment to India. We were rightly informed upon the course which the right hon. Gentleman might take would depend whether or not an outbreak took place in Bengal. He, therefore, earnestly but respectfully called the attention of the House to the question. When Parliament transferred the Government of India from the East India Company to the Crown, it had—while taking, in his opinion, a wise step—assumed, at the same time, a great responsibility. It was bound to see that justice was done to the vast population of India—a duty which he regretted to say did not, in the case of a considerable portion of that population, seem to have been faithfully discharged. The facts by which the justice of that view was supported were, he might add, of such an appalling nature that, unless he were in a position to verify them by a reference to official records, he should scarcely have ventured to submit them to the consideration of the House. When, two or three years ago, on his return from India, he had called attention to the treatment to which the Natives of that country were, in many instances, subjected, he had been assailed by all that vituperation in which the Indian press knew so well how to indulge; but he should not be deterred by that circumstance from seizing the present opportunity to draw the attention of the House to what, he repeated, he could not help regarding as a question of the greatest importance. And what, he would ask, was the nature of the case to which he was about to invite their attention? Last year an outbreak had taken place in that part of Bengal in which indigo was extensively cultivated, the native ryots refusing to cultivate that plant. The authorities had interfered, a riot had ensued, and bloodshed had been the consequence. It appeared that a Bill was then introduced into the Legislative Council of India making the non-fulfilment of indigo contracts a criminal offence, the cultivation of indigo being, he believed, of so peculiar a nature that unless it took place within a very short period of the year, extending over one or two weeks—a failure, and great consequent loss to the planter, was likely to ensue. Be that, however, as it might, the extraordinary Bill to which he had adverted had been introduced, and it enacted that any cultivator of indigo who should not fulfil his contract would be liable to a heavy fine or three months' imprisonment, the law to be administered by magistrates and deputy-magistrates, with no appeal from their decision, at the same time a Commission to inquire into the whole subject was promised. The Commission had been issued composed of Mr. Seton Karr, Mr. Temple, Mr. Sale, and a very intelligent native named Chatterjee, and Mr. Fergusson, the Secretary to the Indigo Planters' Association. It had held many sittings in Calcutta, had examined a large number of witnesses of all classes of the population—planters, clergymen, officers of the Civil Service, and Natives, and had taken down more than 4,000 answers. The Report of the Commission, in a large folio volume, larger even than one of our blue books, had subsequently been published and submitted to the Legislature of India. The Commissioners, he might add, had held their sittings with open doors, and every opportunity had been afforded for the contradiction of the statements which were made before them. He had read their Report from beginning to end, and he must say had risen from its perusal, as well as that of the other papers connected with the subject, with mingled feelings of pity, shame, and. indignation which he could find no words to express. The evidence taken before the Commission described the cultivation of indigo as being conducted by means of a system of advances, many of those advances having been made many years ago to the fathers, and even the grandfathers of the present ryots, while very few had been made of recent years. The ryot, he might add, was a tenant with a kind of tenant-right, and was, to all intents and purposes, owner of the soil, or, as the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal called him, "a small capitalist;" but, the advances once made, he became attached to the soil, and was nothing more than a slave. The planter occupied the land of the unhappy man; armed men entered upon his property, destroyed his house, cut down his trees, rooted up his garden, murdered those who attempted resistance and seized others, carrying them off and confining them in prisons built by themselves; a state of reckless lawlessness prevailing which, he ventured to say, was never equalled in any civilized country in the world. He would not trust himself to make any statement not derived from official sources, but would read one or two extracts from the evidence given before the Commission. Mr. Latour, a civil and sessions Judge, told the Commissioners that in his district the hand of the planter was systematically lifted up against the life and property of the ryot—a system which, he said, appeared to him to recognize neither the existence of magistrates on earth nor that of a God in heaven. Considerable odium, he added, had been thrown upon the missionaries for saying that not a single chest of indigo reached England without being stained with human blood; but that expression was his, and he adopted it in its broadest and fullest sense, for he had seen ryots who had been speared through the body, and others who had been shot down at the instigation of planters. The evidence of the Hon. A. Eden was no less important. That gentleman said he believed that deeds of this violence were not frequent, but still they were such as to keep up and perpetuate a feeling of terrorism, without which the cultivation of indigo could not be carried on for one day. Any act of great violence committed in any district, such as a certain attack in which three villages were gutted, three cultivators killed, and six wounded, would be enough to strike terror into the hearts of the ryots in that part of the country for many years. He believed there were many planters who did all in their power to avoid having recourse to such expedients, but it would be found that one or two outrages of the most serious description had occurred within the remembrance of men in every district and with every concern. Mr. Eden added, that prosecutions were scarcely ever attempted, partly because Mofussil magistrates knew the difficulty of procuring a conviction in the supreme court, partly from great unwillingness among prosecutors and witnesses to subject themselves to the liability of going to Calcutta to attend the court, and partly owing to the bias in favour of the planters, which had been too frequently displayed by men in all positions. The witness gave a list of forty-nine cases of outrage, some of the most horrible description, including not only the destruction of villages, but the actual murder of the villagers, and all reported as having occurred within the last few years. Similar evidence was given by clergymen and others. A great number of ryots were also examined before the Commissioners; but their evidence might be thought to be prejudiced, and, therefore, he would not trouble the House with it. One thing came out very clearly during the inquiry —namely, that nothing on earth would induce the people to cultivate indigo any more on any terms. The Commissioners made a very moderate and impartial Report, in which they stated that the relations between the planters and the zemindars, of which the former had complained, were on the whole satisfactory; but that the relations between the planters and the ryots were not satisfactory and required considerable change. They reported that the planters as a body stood acquitted of the grosser and more violent forms of outrage which had occurred of late years; but that they were not acquitted of kidnapping and illegally confining individuals. They condemned the appointment of honorary magistrates, a body which included many indigo planters, who were thus constituted judges in their own causes; and they recommended that the compulsory Act of 1860 should be abandoned and not renewed, concluding their Report by stating that our character as a nation was at stake, and that at all risks we were bound to see justice done to the ryots. The Report of the Commissioners, including the evidence taken before them, was presented to the Legislative Council, and a minute was made upon it by Mr. John Peter Grant, Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. A more impartial, a more able, or a more statesmanlike document than that minute it had rarely been his good fortune to read. Mr. Grant deserved the utmost credit for the moral courage he had shown in the matter, and that no small amount of moral courage was required on his part would be apparent, when he stated that the minute had no sooner been published than all the phials, he would not say of wrath but of filth of the Indian press were poured out upon Mr. Grant and those who had given evidence before the Commission. The indigo planters pretended to show great indignation; they denied the truth of the statements made against them, but they offered no proof in support of their denial. No expense was spared to intimidate Lord Canning, Mr. Grant, and the other authorities in India considered unfavourable to the indigo planters, and everything was done that could be done to influence public opinion in this country. A costly pamphlet had been circulated among the Members of that House, but he would not refer to it further than to say that a work which comprised more mendacity and audacity he had never seen before in the whole course of his life. Mr. Grant recommended that the Act of 1860 should not be renewed, and, although he did not agree with the Commissioners that honorary magistrates should not be appointed, he expressed the opinion that they should not be allowed to decide in their own causes. In a second minute submitted to the Governor General he answered the complaints of the indigo planters, and then Lord Canning—who, during a most critical period, had shown a courage worthy of an English gentleman and an English Christian in opposing an unreasoning cry for blood—published a minute approving all that Mr. Grant had done, with one unimportant exception, and assuring that gentleman of his warmest and most entire support. He accepted the recommendation that honorary magistrates should be appointed, with the reservation, that they should not be allowed to decide in their own cases—a very plain and simple maxim of justice. The House might wish to know what had been the actual operation of the Act of 1860. The evidence which had been published was conclusive upon that point. Mr. Long, a clergyman, said that the clauses added, upon the suggestion of Mr. "Wilson, made the Act essentially a slave law, and the working of it virtually an attempt to sow indigo at the point of the bayonet. The administration of the Act was entrusted to a large number of young, inexperienced men, sent up to the indigo districts. The alarm created by their proceedings led to an inquiry. It was found that hundreds of agreements between planters and ryots were forgeries, that great numbers of ryots were in prison, and that, in short, the indigo districts presented one horrible scene of reckless injustice and oppression. In an official letter of the 17th of August, mention was made of a ryot who had been in prison for three months, though no judgment had ever been given against him; and there was another man, who had had all his property seized, without any award. The Indigo Commission found two ryots imprisoned under this law, who were stone blind, and therefore could not be cultivators. Such was the haste with which these cases had been adjudicated upon, that one magistrate disposed of seventy-nine cases in four days, and assessed the damages at double the rate set forth in the alleged agreement. At one time and in one gaol, there were no less than 588 prisoners, criminally convicted under this Act, which made a common civil default a criminal offence. One poor man was made to pay 217 rupees, when he had only had an advance of six rupees; and another, who had got an advance of two rupees, was ordered to pay 161 rupees. He had said that many of these agreements were actually forged. That had been denied by the planters; but it was proved by the evidence of Mr. Bell, who, in a letter to Mr. Seton Karr, declared that those agreements bore internal evidence of forgery. For example, in a decision purported to have been given in July, 1860, the documents on which it was ostensibly founded were dated in December, six months afterwards. Mr. Bell said, that— From a review of numerous cases he had arrived at the conclusion that to meet the particular exigencies of the time, and to coerce the ryots, a vast number of agreements had been called into existence, to which the ryots were not assenting parties; and to do this, documents had been fabricated, and details of account entered in written books prepared for the occasion. The execution of these deeds was of course solemnly sworn to by the agents of the factory. The same gentleman, after referring to an instance in which it was proved that the ryot, who was named, had actually died some time before the date of his alleged agreement, proceeded to say— Such then were the cases I had to try; and, besides these, I could enumerate others equally false, in which loathsome lepers, infants, men bedridden from age and disease, and who, being unable to walk, were brought up in carts and doolies, and propped up because they could not stand in court, when their cases came under trial, were charged with having received advances under covenant to sow and to deliver indigo. A letter from Mr. Lushington, dated in January last, related that in one factory 609 of these agreements were put into court, of which forty-two were written on stamped paper, bearing forged endorsements. Mr. Lushington justly spoke of this as an "appalling fact," and he added that there were good grounds for believing one-third of the whole number to be inscribed on stamped paper with a forged endorsement. A magistrate much respected, Mr. Herschel, stated that between 200 and 300 were prepared by the same hands, seven or eight forgers having been employed on the work. And what were these indigo contracts? He had that morning received an official statement from India mentioning a case in which by a contract an unhappy ryot bound himself and his heirs never to pay back his advance in money or in any other way than by continuing to cultivate indigo. The date of this agreement was so recent as the 29th of November, 1859. It was a forged agreement. The poor ryot was thrown into prison upon this forged agreement which bound himself and his heirs to be for over a slave to the soil of which an indigo planter had thus virtually obtained possession. The planter's books in which the contract and advances were entered, contrary to all law, were received in evidence against the ryots without further inquiry. Of one of these books the Commissioner, Mr. Lushington, pays:— It was to all appearances as if it were only a week old, with clear edges and unruffled red cloth cover; while the writing looked as if it had been written continuously, instead of the entries being jotted down opposite each name as payments were made. Some of the Native residents of Calcutta, hearing of the horrible injustice thus perpetrated against their unhappy fellow subjects, the ryots, determined to send legal assistance to them, and employed a Native councillor to go and advocate their cause. But would it be believed that the magistrate, at least in one district, taking advantage of a clause in the Act which made any one aiding or abetting its violation liable to a fine, or six months' imprisonment, condemned a legal adviser to imprisonment and fine. Such a state of things was perfectly horrible. One mooktar or lawyer was sentenced by Mr. Betts, for the offence which was no offence at all, to six months' imprisonment and a fine of 200 rupees—the Act being alternative, and, in default of payment, to a further imprisonment of six months. Of course, after that, the unhappy ryots could get no legal assistance and the prosecutors had it all their own way. Did not such a stale of things as regards the ryots demand an expression of sympathy from that House? They could not be surprized to find that a general feeling of discontent prevailed throughout the indigo districts. In any other country in the world such a system would already have raised a general rebellion. The state of things in Bengal was most alarming, and they might by any mail hear of an outbreak in southern Bengal, entailing on the country the most grievous calamities. In Mr. J. P. Grant's minute, dated 17th of September, 1860, he said— On my return, a few days afterwards, along the same two rivers (the Koomar and Calligunga), from dawn to dust, as I steamed along these two rivers for some sixty or seventy miles, both banks were literally lined with crowds of villagers claiming justice in this matter (the forced cultivation of indigo). Even the women of the villages on the banks were collected in groups by themselves; the males, who stood at and between the riverside villages in little crowds, must have collected from all the villages at a great distance on either side. I do not know that it ever fell to the lot of an Indian officer to steam for fourteen hours through a continued double street of suppliants for justice. All were most respectful and orderly, but all were plainly in earnest. It would be folly to suppose that such a display on the part of tens of thousands of people, men, women, and children, had no deep meaning. The organization and capacity for combined and simultaneous action in the cause, which this remarkable demonstration over so large an extent of country proved, are subjects worthy of much consideration. In the most urgent terms Mr. Grant besought the Governor General not to renew the Act that had led to such terrible injustice. He received from the Secretary to the Government of Bengal a proclamation to be addressed to the ryots in these words— It is not the intention of the Government of India to re-enact the temporary law for the summary enforcement of indigo contracts by the magistrates, which law will expire on the 4th of October next, corresponding with the 19th Assin. After that date actions for breach of existing contracts will be cognizable as before by the civil courts. But it is the intention of the Government to provide as soon as possible for the more speedy adjudication of such cases by increasing the number of courts and by simplifying procedure. That proclamation was sent with a despatch, by which Mr. Grant was instructed to explain it to the ryots. It was translated into Bengalee, and circulated through the indigo districts. Last May, too, the right hon. Gentleman, the Secretary of State for India, in reply to a question asked of him by the hon. Member for Perth, said that the Act complained of was only a temporary Act. After those pledges and promises, what must be the indignation and consternation of the ryots and of their fellow-countrymen in India to find that a Bill precisely similar had been introduced into the Legislature of India. True, by a subterfuge, the Act did not appear altogether the same, as it was extended to all articles of produce, but it was only the indigo planters of certain districts that asked for such protection for his special and petty interests. Neither sugar, jute, rice, nor any other article of Indian produce required it. He was glad to find from the despatch of the Secretary of State for India on this subject for which he had moved that he disapproved this procedure. It was monstrous to suppose that such an act was required, putting aside the fact that it was such a breach of good faith as must shake for ever the confidence of the Natives in our word. In the Bengal districts the export of every article of produce but one had increased within the last twenty years a hundredfold; indigo alone had remained nearly stationary because it was a forced cultivation, and was not a paying crop. As an instance of the feelings of the Natives upon the subject of indigo, he would refer to the evidence of Mr. Morrell, who lived among them and had won their confidence, but his gardener having planted by chance some indigo seeds, which came among others from Calcutta, the Natives when they heard of it became so much excited that a riot was nearly taking place. It was true that to some extent British capital was embarked in the indigo cultivation; but he was informed that a large portion of the cultivation was carried on with borrowed capital advanced by Natives at 16 or 20 per cent interest. It was only in Lower Bengal that there was any necessity for such an act as he referred to, and the produce of this district formed, it is stated, only one-fourteenth of the indigo cultivation of India. It was not needed in the North West Provinces, nor in Madras. He wished to say one word more as to our treatment of the Native race. When he was in India he had been often shocked at the injustice the Natives met with at the hands of Europeans, and when he remonstrated he was told in reply that they wore only "niggers." He remembered that when in Persia and in Turkey he had heard officers of the Indian Army and Civil Service apply the same epithet to the inhabitants of those countries who were nearly as white as ourselves. It would, he thought, be useful to know how the term "niggers" was applied; did it apply to those who differed in colour from us, or in religion, or in language, or in country. Because if we are to have one measure of justice for the nigger and another for those who are not niggers, it is important to know who niggers are. What might be expected to ensue from such conduct towards the Natives of India? The last accounts from India stated that the ryots were repudiating payment of their rents. Such proceedings were not unnatural, but he hoped the intelligent native gentlemen of Bengal who would read with interest the account of that night's discussion would prevent their fellow-countrymen from engaging in what would undoubtedly be an illegal proceeding. The rents should be paid, and if they were not they should be enforced by civil process, but this was no justification for an act making the breach of a contract to grow indigo a criminal offence. He had heard that the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for India had expressed disapproval not only upon the general principles involved in this compulsory act, but also of the particular act itself. He hoped that what he had heard was true, and, if so, the right hon. Gentleman would have rendered eminent service to India and to this country. If, however, the right hon. Gentleman still hesitated, he (Mr. Layard) would earnestly entreat him to repudiate an act which would be fatal to our credit, destroy the confidence of the Natives in us, and annihilate that respect for the Englishman's aye or nay which had heretofore made the British name venerated in India. If the right hon. Gentleman had repudiated that act he had done an act of justice, of humanity, and of true policy. The hon. Gentleman concluded by putting his questions.

MR. VANSITTART

said, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been drawn to the Report of the Indigo Commission with the Minutes of Evidence taken before them, and Appendix dated Calcutta, April 27, 1860, and, if so, whether he has taken any steps to carry out the recommendations contained therein? He had seen the despatch of the right hon. Gentleman, dated the 8th of this month, to the Governor General, which had been placed on the table since the notice of his Motion; but, as it appeared to him to be incomplete, and it did not allude at all to the separate report of Messrs. Temple and Fergusson, the minority, he was obliged to proceed with his question. He thought the statements of the hon. Member for Southwark were so unfair, so illiberal, and so one-sided, that if they were allowed to go forth to the public uncontradicted they would do serious injury to an enterprising body of Englishmen—the indigo planters of India. With respect to the charges of forgery which had been urged against the planters he might observe that in one case where a planter was tried his innocence was proved, and Mr. J. P. Grant had recognized the fact by conferring an appointment under the Income Tax Act upon a member of the firm. With regard to the disputes between the indigo planters and ryots of Lower Bengal, he had read the whole of the voluminous papers and reports connected with the question, and was bound to say that the planters had been acquitted of the grave charges which had been brought against them, and that the Lieutenant Governor, Mr. Grant, had also admitted that fact in the 19th paragraph of his Minute on the Report of that Commission. Although he was aware that the system which prevailed in Lower Bengal and the terms which were offered by the planters to the ryots were different to and contrasted unfavourably with those which prevailed in Tirhoot and the North Western Provinces, yet he must confess he thought that had Mr. Grant displayed greater tact in the first instance, instead of giving way to his inordinate love of writing long and unnecessary despatches—a habit in which old Indians were too apt to indulge—these serious disturbances would not have occurred. In corroboration of that view he referred to a Report which was made a few months since to the Indian Government by Mr. Yule, the Commissioner of the Bhaugulpore division. A more practical man than Mr. Yule was not to be found in India. That gentleman was thoroughly acquainted with the habits, prejudices, and language of the people. Mr. Yule in passing sentence on some misguided ryots who had been convicted of plundering and burning some factories in one of the districts which formed a part of his Commissionership, recorded that they confessed all they wanted was a hakim, or special commissioner, to be deputed to inquire into their grievances, and had that been done no disturbances would have occurred. Instead of adopting that course, Mr. Grant appeared to have prejudged the case, as he threw the whole weight of his official influence and authority into the scale against the planters, instructing the magistrates to transmit to him their decisions in all cases between planters and ryots, reprimanding those who decided in favour of the planters, and applauding those who favoured the ryots. In point of fact, he had abdicated the dignified position of a Lieutenant Governor for that of a Superintendent of Police. What had been the result? The planters of Lower Bengal were ruined and crushed, and there was now scarcely a factory left standing in that province. But, unfortunately, that was not all. It so happened that the planters were in the habit of taking putni leases of the zemindars. A putni, as stated in the glossary of terms used in the evidence and the appendix, meant— An estate within an estate, created by the voluntary act of the zemindar. The tenure is created in perpetuity, and the holder obtains the full and entire rights of the zemindar, paying only the due rent to the latter. The zemindar's connection with the land ceases when a putni is created. The great disadvantage under which the planter laboured by that arrangement was that he had to pay down the first year three times the amount of his annual rent to the zemindar. For instance, if a planter took a putni at a rental of £10,000 a year he was obliged to pay £30,000 the first year to the zemindar. Many of the zemindars were rich, money-making people living in Calcutta, and were what would be called in this country "absentee" landlords. They were fully aware of the feeling of hostility which, unhappily, existed between the Government of Bengal and the great mass of the European community at present, and they very adroitly availed themselves of it to ruin the planters and to break the putnis. They had induced the ryots, through their agents, to combine together so successfully that even those ryots who were under engagements to sow other crops besides indigo refused to pay a single rupee to the planters. The zemindar at the same time pressed him for a quarter's rent. He was unable to pay, and the collector was compelled by the regulations in force to put the estate up to auction to meet the Government arrears. This was exactly what the zemindar wanted, because he ousted the planter, broke the putni, and enriched himself by £30,000. The evil had reached such a height that the very existence of Europeans was said to be at stake in the Mofussil, and the ryots now threatened to withhold the payment of their rents both to Government and their native landlords. With regard to the general subject, he would merely add that affairs had been brought to that sad state that, although that enterprising body of our countrymen, the indigo planters, had been already subjected to a loss of property estimated at several millions of pounds sterling, yet he feared that they would be driven out of Bengal altogether if they did not adopt the recommendation of Mr. Temple and Mr. Fer- gusson. These two gentlemen dissented from the majority of the Commission, and drew up a separate Report. It should be borne in mind that Mr. Fergusson was one of themselves, an indigo planter, and Secretary to the Indigo Planters' Association. In paragraph 13 of their Report they stated— An apprehension that considerable concessions by the planter to the ryots would be necessary in several districts, or nothing short of actual force would induce them to sow. In such places, any attempt to perpetuate the present system the ryots would resist by force. Judicious concession was the best policy. Again, in paragraph 15, they said that— The deductions now made, which cause so much dissatisfaction to the ryot, should be discontinued. The charges for cutting, weeding, carryings stamp-paper, seed, &c., should all, or nearly all, be borne by the factory. He could not understand the policy of destroying the indigo interest in Lower Bengal. It was acknowledged by all impartial authorities that by their skill, energy, and capital, if properly directed, the material well-being of the zemindar and ryots was considerably improved, and that they added to the security of the tenure of India. He found that no less than eighteen commissioners and collectors of the North-Western Provinces bore willing testimony to this fact. He would read a few extracts of their Reports on the subject, dated August, 1860. Mr. Gubbins, the Commissioner of Benares, wrote— The planters were almost invariably a blessing to the surrounding country. In eleven years he had never heard of any oppression on the part of the planters, whom, on the contrary, he always found firm supporters of the law, and ever ready to assist in looking after the peace of the district, and in caring for the roads and public thoroughfares. Mr. Alexander Ross, Officiating Commissioner of the Agra Division, stated that— The cultivation of indigo appeared to be highly popular both with the zemindars and the cultivators. Affrays were unknown, and litigation was comparatively rare. Mr. Court, the collector of Allahabad, and Mr. Thornhill, the collector of Etawah, and the collectors of Azimghur, Juanpore, Mirzapore, Ghazeepore, Cawnpore, Furruckabad, Agra, Mynpooree, and elsewhere, all reported in a similar strain; and their Reports would be found to be contained within pages from 114 to 125 of the Appendix, No. 26, referred to in the question which he now begged to put to the right hon. Baronet.

MR. KINNAIRD

said, he also would beg to ask the Secretary of State for India, Whether he has received a Copy of the Correspondence regarding the cultivation of Indigo, between the Government of India and the Government of Bengal, which took place between July and November, 1860; also of the Correspondence connected with the issue of the Indigo Proclamation, dated September, 1860; and whether he had any objection to lay the same on the Table of the House? He felt deeply indebted to his hon. Friend the Member for Southwark (Mr. Layard) for the full and able statement he had made to the House, and deeply grieved that such a statemant had been called for by what had so unexpectedly occurred in the Legislative Council of India. Strong, however, as was that statement, his hon. Friend had not exaggerated the case. Had it not been for the assurance of the right hon. the Secretary of State for India, last Session, that the Act introduced into the Legislative Council, in March, 1860, for summary jurisdiction was a temporary and exceptional measure; accompanied by the promise of the Commission to inquire into the relations between the ryots and the planters, he should not have allowed the question to drop last year. But he very much feared, that the little attention given to the subject in this House had emboldened those whose interests were antagonistic to the ryots, to put a pressure upon the Supreme Government of India, which they had not had the firmness or moral courage to resist. Bad as the proposed law was, he hoped that the House would not be blind now to the extreme gravity of the question, and that the recommendations of the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal would be acted upon, and his warnings not disregarded. When they read, on the highest authority, of "burning indignation," and "bitter hostility to the ruling authorities," on the part of the labouring population, it would be nothing short of madness to trifle with this matter. The fact was, that the present system of indigo cultivation in Bengal was a forced cultivation, utterly unprofitable to the cultivator, and under it, it was false to consider the ryots as free men: and as to the contracts talked of, they were often blank paper signed under compulsion; and were they to institute criminal proceedings if they were broken? Let the planters go to the civil courts and enforce them, if they were lawful con- tracts, which he much doubted in most oases; but it was perfectly monstrous to bolster up an unjust system of forced cultivation, by the power of tyrannical laws, and in the face of pledges to the contrary. What would they think, if the hop planters were to come to them, and ask for a law to compel the farmers of their districts to grow hops, even though its cultivation should be unprofitable? And yet that was what had been done in India in regard to the cultivation of indigo. They had undertaken the Government of India, and he trusted that the House would not only support the Secretary of State for India in his disapproval of these compulsory acts, but that they would appoint a Committee to inquire into the truth of the facts which were disputed.

SIR JAMES ELPHINSTONE

said, he rose merely for the purpose of stating, according to information he had received from India, what the grounds were on which the Government had based their proceedings of the planters. Mr. Lane had said, in bringing in the Bill, it was only to be had recourse to in cases of absolute refusal on the part of the ryots to carry out their contracts, and that it was not to be expected that Europeans would come into the country and invest their capital if contracts were to be repudiated with impunity. Certain punishment of fraud was essential to the true progress of the people, and it was only by false sentimentality at home that fraudulent debtors had been treated with lenity to the great evil of public credit. The same sentiments wore uttered by Sir E. Napier and other members of the Legislative Council, and they had pointed out the great loss that would be occasioned if in a climate like that of India the cultivation of indigo, rice, or sugar, could only be proceeded with after the settlement of Chancery suits arising out of contracts, long before the determination of which the land would become a vast jungle.

MR. DANBY SEYMOUR

said, he did not think that the hon. Member for Southwark had taken a fair view of the subject. The case of the indigo planters was a special one, and required special legislation. Indigo must be sown during a single shower. If the ryot neglected his duty during one day the advances were lost; and it was not for the ryot to take the advances and neglect to deliver the produce. The House should remember that this special legislation was no new thing. It was introduced by Lord William Bentinck, than whom there had been no truer friend to the people of India, and it had existed till it was repealed by the Home Government under the influence of a false sentimentality. The fact was that there could be no greater injury to the ryots of Bengal than to drive British planters and British capital out of the country, and believing that that effect might be produced unless some measures were adopted by the Government, he approved the course which the Legislative Council had taken.

SIR CHARLES WOOD

said, he was very sorry that he had been unable for some time to make his appearance in the House, and he thanked his hon. Friends for their courtesy in postponing their questions until he was better able to answer them. With regard to the papers which had been asked for, the fact was that they had been for some time on the table of the House, and the first part had been actually delivered, and, therefore, there was no need for a Motion on the subject. He could not, however, allow the occasion to pass without a few observations in reference to what had fallen from hon. Gentlemen. With regard to the cases which had been brought forward by the hon. Member for Southwark (Mr. Layard) though he was willing to believe that they were exceptional cases, every syllable uttered by the hon. Gentleman was literally true. Of course, he did not wish to throw blame upon the indigo planters as a body. Many of them, he believed, were honourable and good men. There was not the slightest doubt that in many instances the owners of factories were perfectly ignorant of what had happened. In one of the worst cases which had occurred, the planter (Mr. Hill) was in England at the time, and had been there for three or four years. So, in other instances, no doubt, the indigo planters were not cognizant of what had been done on the part of the establishment with which they were connected. Kay, more, many of them had done their best to mitigate the evils of the existing system, and to bring about better relations between themselves and the ryots; but the truth was that the present generation of planters had inherited evils which were the result of a long-existing and a vicious system, and, however well-disposed individual planters might be, everybody could see how difficult it was to root out a system of this kind which had continued for so many years. Although the abuses—the gross abuses— which were perpetrated a short time ago might have been mitigated of late years, it was indisputable that instances like those quoted by the hon. Member (Mr. Layard) had occurred during the last three or four years,—ay, within the last few months. It was admitted on all hands that the kidnapping, confining, and removing the ryots from place to place were offences of no uncommon occurrence up to a very recent date. It was indisputable that only last year one of these unfortunate ryots was moved from place to place, and had never been heard of since. These circumstances really reduced the cultivation of indigo in Lower Bengal to a system of forced labour. He was afraid that many of the indigo planters had been subjected to considerable loss. For them as individuals he was very sorry, and everything which could be done to mitigate their loss ought to be clone. But this consideration was the only justification for the temporary Act which had been passed last year on this subject. The storm, if such it could be called, broke out unexpectedly, and the Government of India, under the pressure of circumstances, passed an Act which he thought would be perfectly unjustifiable under other circumstances than those actually existing. He had already expressed that opinion in the House, and in writing to India he stated that it was only in consequence of those exceptional circumstances that he was induced to sanction that Act. The hon. Member for Poole (Mr. Danby Seymour) said the growth of indigo was an exceptional case, and that, therefore, there must be special legislation. No doubt, to a certain extent, the growth of indigo was exceptional; but it was not more exceptional than the cultivation of many other products, and he knew no reason why it should be subjected to a different course of legislation. The very argument used by the hon. Gentleman had been urged on behalf of the West India planters. It was said that the making of sugar was an operation which, if interrupted for an hour, entailed the most serious injury on the planter, spoiling his whole produce; and then it was added, that as there would be no inducement to the free negro to work when slavery is abolished, it will be impossible to cultivate sugar in the West Indies. The special circumstances of sugar cultivation were the argument for the East. He did not think that a case could be made out in regard to indigo for any departure from the or- dinary law. The cultivation at present was a forced one, because the price given to the ryot in these particular districts was perfectly inadequate. If that were not the case there would be no difficulty in obtaining the proper cultivation of the plant. The proof of that was furnished by the fact that elsewhere in India indigo was grown with the greatest facility. In Behar and other districts the relations between the indigo planters and the ryots were perfectly good. No difficulty was experienced in obtaining the delivery of the crop from the ryots there. In Madras, also, indigo was grown to a considerable extent, and was grown successfully. Why? Why, because the planters paid a fair price for the produce. But, in three or four districts of Bengal—and only in three or four—the old and vicious system prevailed; contracts were forced upon the ryots; they were seldom entered into voluntarily, and in some instances these contracts were forged. Even last year there were cases in which contracts were produced and were declared to have been entered into by those who at the time alleged were bedridden, blind, and dead. The extraordinary rise in the price of other produce having made it more profitable to grow rice and other crops, the ryots, not unnaturally, refused to grow indigo, and, considering what an uneducated class they were, he must say he thought they deserved great credit, upon the whole, for the little violence that had taken place. A more striking scene never occurred than that which was described when Mr. Grant went into the district. The whole population turned out as he went up the river and asked for relief without the slightest appearance of violence. The fact was that we had escaped a great calamity. Earl Canning had assured him that since the siege of Delhi he had never been in such a state of alarm as when these disturbances took place. By very judicious conduct on the part of the authorities, from the Lieutenant Governor downwards, a general outbreak was avoided; but still a very serious crisis had been gone through. Since then the advice of Mr. Fergusson to the planters, that they should endeavour to establish better relations with the ryots, had been acted on, and a great deal of indigo had been sown. In a large extent of country a much better state of feeling existed, and if matters were left to be arranged between the parties in the ordinary course of things, the same good relations would prevail in the disturbed districts as prevailed elsewhere than in these few districts of Bengal. Then he was asked if it were true that the Government of India had sanctioned the introduction of the Bill to enforce by criminal procedure these contracts between the planters and the ryots. He was extremely sorry to say that such was the case. He thought it a great mistake, because he believed that the ryot was just as susceptible of the principles of profit and loss and amenable to the process of the ordinary courts in matters of this kind as any other person. He had, therefore, very distinctly stated, in a despatch which was before the House, that he did not consider that sufficient reason had been shown for applying to the Legislature to enact a law for the summary enforcement by the criminal courts of the country of contracts for the delivery of agricultural produce. It was not a question which arose now for the first time. There was a similar Act in 1830, which was abused to the gross injury of the ryot immediately after it was passed, and which was abolished by orders from homo in 1835. The Government of India was not in possession of that despatch when they had introduced the Bill, and he trusted that when they did receive it they would of their own accord withdraw the Bill; but, at any rate, he had written a second despatch, expressing his desire that if not withdrawn before, it should be withdrawn immediately on the receipt of the second despatch.