INDIA. 



495 



after setting Abdurrahman on the Afghan 

 throne, and then withdrawing the English 

 troops from Afghanistan, in accordance with 

 the verdict of the English voters in the general 

 election, he turned his attention to the ques- 

 tion of finance and taxation. Partly relieved 

 of the charges of the war by the British Par- 

 liament, the difficulties of the Indian Treasury 

 were not so great as was supposed. With the 

 aid of Sir Evelyn Baring he worked out a plan 

 of fiscal reform which permitted between 2,- 

 000,000 and 3,000,000 of taxation to be lifted 

 in 1882 from the overburdened Indian people. 

 The abolition of import duties was not popu- 

 lar. It had the appearance of being dictated 

 by English manufacturing interests. The re- 

 duction of the salt-tax, however, was an une- 

 quivocal and important benefit, and was so rec- 

 ognized by the grateful Hindoos. So oppres- 

 sive was this cruel impost that people were 

 reduced to lick salt from the earth like beasts 

 or substitute unwholesome alkalies. Now the 

 consumption has so increased that the tax has 

 begun to recoup itself, and promises in a few 

 years to stand at as high a figure as before. 

 Commissions were set at work to elaborate a 

 scheme of primary education and plans for 

 extending the principle of local self-govern- 

 ment and giving representative native bodies 

 a voice in the expenditure of public moneys 

 for local purposes. To confer on the Indian 

 people a share in their own government, a 

 return to the policy of Lord Lawrence and 

 Lord Mayo was given out as the liberal pro- 

 gramme for India. Although applied only in 

 a few timid and tentative measures, it aroused 

 the fiercest opposition of the Anglo-Indian 

 official class, and excited hope, enthusiasm, and 

 gratitude in the native population. The insig- 

 nificant reform embodied in the Ilbert bill of 

 1884 was chosen by the opponents of Lord 

 Ripon's policy as a gauge of battle. The effect 

 of that would have given the half dozen na- 

 tive gentlemen who have risen to the grade of 

 district magistrates jurisdiction over criminal 

 offenses committed by white persons. Since 

 the last Conservative Administration lowered 

 the maximum age for the examinations held in 

 England for the covenanted civil service from 

 twenty-one to nineteen, there is no prospect of 

 natives again attaining positions in the higher 

 judiciary. The Ilbert bill clearly presented 

 the question at issue, which was frankly taken 

 up by the Anglo-Indians. In the words of 

 Justice Stephen, the Anglo-Indian Government 

 " is essentially an absolute government, founded 

 not on consent, but on conquest," representing 

 "a belligerent civilization." The Anglo-In- 

 dian press echoed this sentiment, and insisted 

 that the security of the English raj depended 

 upon crushing under the heel of the conqueror 

 every aspiration for liberty. Because a pau- 

 perized and vicious class of whites has be- 

 come numerous in India, while a multitude 

 of natives have acquired a European educa- 

 tion, this seemed a reason for emphasizing and 



widening the distinction between the "supe- 

 rior " and the " inferior " races. The very in- 

 telligence and accomplishments of the "Ben- 

 galee Baboo " were made the subject of coarse 

 taunts. The native press hailed with fervid 

 rhetoric the lifting of the despotic yoke indi- 

 cated by the new policy. Public opinion be- 

 came greatly excited. The English press re- 

 flected the views of the Anglo-Indian official 

 world ; and popular sentiment, engrossed with 

 other questions, and alarmed by the vague 

 terrors excited by the official experts, to whose 

 opinion the English public has always deferred 

 in Indian matters, gave the government no 

 encouragement to persist in the liberal policy. 

 The Ilbert bill was modified by giving to Eu- 

 ropean prisoners a special right of appeal that 

 rendered nugatory the jurisdiction conferred 

 on native judges. Lord Ripon was no longer 

 in place as Viceroy, and when the Afghan 

 question loomed up was superseded by Lord 

 Dufferin. 



The Bengal Tenancy Act. The new land law 

 for Bengal was passed after four years of dis- 

 cussion in March, 1885, and went into opera- 

 tion Nov. 1. The bitter antagonism of the 

 zemindars, or landlord class, to the measure 

 was kept up after its enactment. After the 

 accession of the Conservatives a strong effort 

 was made to have it rescinded or its operation 

 postponed. They succeeded during the prep- 

 aration of the act in having it modified in their 

 favor in important particulars, obtaining more 

 than they ought to have in the opinion of Lord 

 Kipon. The proprietor class was created by 

 the permanent settlement of 1793, in which the 

 Government reserved the right to legislate for 

 the protection and welfare of the cultivators. 

 The zemindars gained the upper hand in the 

 long struggle with their tenants, and gained 

 advantages not contemplated in the original 

 settlement, and in some respects without legal 

 authority. They enhanced the rents in excess 

 of their lawful rights, and obtained the sum- 

 mary power of distraint for rent. In most 

 cases the ryots submitted to extortion, but in 

 some districts they refused to pay even their 

 legal rent. The Bengal tenancy act aims to 

 rectify the illegalities committed on both sides, 

 and to establish tenant right. The bill, as mod- 

 ified in the interests of the zemindars in the 

 Legislative Council, was entirely unsatisfactory 

 to the ryots and their friends. One of the ob- 

 jects of the act is to secure an accurate sys- 

 tem of accounts and receipts, and thus diminish 

 litigation. After much discussion it was de- 

 cided not to make tenant rights transferable by 

 private sale. Local customs of transferability 

 are preserved, and a general right of subletting 

 is recognized. Thus, as a substitute for the 

 principle of free sale, which is one of the prime 

 conditions of tenant right, a system was estab- 

 lished which will multiply unproductive mid- 

 dle-men. In Bengal a powerful class of mid- 

 dle-men already exists, which has been able to 

 cope with the landlords, and in turn oppress 



