432 



INDIA. 



works, fixed at 49,940,000 rupees, is not 

 charged against the revenue. The revenue in 

 1887-'88 exceeded the first estimates by 15,- 

 000,000 rupees: but there was an unexpected 

 increase in the civil expenditures of almost that 

 amount, while the military expenditures as 

 usual went far beyond the estimates. To avoid 

 a deficit, the Government raised the salt duty 

 and imposed a new import duty on petroleum, 

 expecting to obtain from both sources an in- 

 creased income of 17,900,000 rupees. The 

 petroleum duty is a specific duty, the rate of 

 which is about eight per cent. The salt duty 

 is raised to one rupee in Burmah and two and 

 a half rupees in other parts of India per maund 

 of eighty-two pounds. The additional tax is 

 expected to bring in 15,000,000 rupees in India 

 and 1,250,000 rupees in Burmah. 



The National Congress. The first Indian Xa- 

 tional Congress met in Bombay in 1885, and 

 consisted of 50 delegates. The second was 

 held in Calcutta in 1886, and numbered 436 

 delegates. A third Congress appointed by a 

 more developed system of electoral bodies, and 

 intended to present with the force of a gen- 

 eral consensus the opinion of the educated na- 

 tive community on the political needs of the 

 country, assembled in Madras in December, 

 1887. It was composed of 603 delegates, of 

 whom 311 were appointed at public meetings 

 and 292 were sent by organized associations. 

 Some of the public meetings were great gather- 

 ings at the capitals of presidencies, and others 

 concourses of representatives from the towns 

 and villages of a province or revenue circle. 

 The local associations represented at the Con- 

 gress were of the most varied character, and 

 included race societies of Hindoos, Mohamme- 

 dans, Eurasians, native Christians, Jains, and 

 Parsees, mercantile corporations, associations 

 of agriculturists, landholders, tenants, and ar- 

 tisans, and a committee of native journalists. 

 The Mohammedan community had taken no 

 part in former congresses and was represented 

 by 83 delegates in this one, which chose a Mo- 

 hammedan, who had been a member of the 

 council of the Governor of Bombay, for its presi- 

 dent. The delegates represented widely differ- 

 ent classes. There were Rajahs, Mohammedan 

 nobles, members of legislative councils, officials 

 of various grades, the prime ministers of native 

 states, merchants, bankers, editors, professors, 

 manufacturers, and even a Hindoo abbot, who 

 represented his monastery, and a high-priest. 



The Congress adopted resolutions for aperma- 

 nent organization, providing for twelve stand- 

 ing committees distributed among the great ter- 

 ritorial divisions of the Indian Empire, for the 

 preparation of the business to be brought before 

 the Congress at the end of each year, and for the 

 submission of the conclusions of the Congress to 

 the Viceroy and the Secretary of State. Four 

 of the resolutions of the Congress relate to the 

 expansion or modification of the existing in- 

 stitutions of civil government. One of these is 

 a proposal for the separation without delay of 



the judicial from the executive branch of the 

 administration. The higher judicial and exec- 

 utive functions were divided in the early part 

 of the century, and the separation has been 

 gradually carried into the lower grades until it 

 is almost complete in some of the provinces. 

 The collector magistrate, however, is a relic of 

 the system preserving its faults in an obnoxious 

 form. He is the executive head, the collector 

 of revenue, the chief of the police administra- 

 tion, and the judicial magistrate for a large 

 area embracing sometimes as many as 2,000,- 

 000 inhabitants. As collector he must move 

 about his district, and suitors and witnesses 

 must follow him in his journeys, and submit 

 often to postponements when his fiscal duties 

 are pressing. The Government in some places 

 has appointed a joint magistrate to hear crim- 

 inal cases, with appeal to the collector. The 

 unruly state of the country was formally plead- 

 ed as a reason for abolishing the combination 

 of judge and executive officer in the same per- 

 son, but now the main obstacle is the expense. 

 Another subject on which the Congress laid 

 much stress is the need of technical education 

 to enable India to compete with Europe and 

 America in modern industries. The 6,287 stu- 

 dents under instruction in technical schools and 

 colleges are confined almost exclusively to medi- 

 cine and engineering, whereas schools in the 

 mechanical arts, such as exist in European 

 countries, and also schools of husbandry, are 

 needed. Another proposal was to raise the 

 limit of incomes on which the income-tax is 

 levied from 500 to 1,000 rupees. The extor- 

 tions and oppressions of subordinate officials 

 which are mainly practiced on the poor, render 

 the tax odious, and its severity was acknowl- 

 edged by the Government, which proposed to 

 exempt incomes of persons in public employ 

 below 1,000 rupees, but abandoned its purpose 

 on account of the opposition shown to such an 

 unfair distinction. A fourth resolution sug- 

 gests the expansion and reform of the legisla- 

 tive councils. The functions of the Viceroy's 

 Legislative Council should embrace the exami- 

 nation and discussion of the budget, in the 

 opinion of the native community, as represent- 

 ed in the Congress, which is sustained by the 

 views of the Anglo-Indian community. Eng- 

 lish statesmen have often deplored the ex- 

 penditure of Indian public money without 

 criticism or control, except the farce of a dis- 

 cussion in Parliament before empty benches. 

 The last new rules of parliamentary procedure 

 deprive members of the right of raising ques- 

 tions of general Indian administration in the 

 debate on the Indian budget, which must now 

 be confined to financial and economic subjects, 

 and consequently there is no opportunity of 

 presenting Indian grievances. The Congress 

 asked also for the restoration of the right of 

 interpellation in the Legislative Council, which 

 was conceded to the earlier body in 1854, in 

 regard to all questions of internal civil admin- 

 istration. The Congress desired the increase 



