JULY — SEPT. 1857.] 



for India* 



205 



and personal influence ; in the same manner in short, as the intro- 

 duction of European literature and science, or Christian ethics, 

 I would submit however that the cases are not parallel ; we must 

 wait for the one, we cannot wait indefinitely for the other. In the 

 one case the Government has no right to compel the adoption of 

 their views, however correct and beneficial ; in the other, it 

 becomes a positive duty of the State to insist upon a just and defi- 

 nite mode of dealing among its subjects, and to introduce a new 

 and uniform system, not merely because they have found a bet- 

 ter one than any which exists in India, but because the existing 

 ones are radically bad, and open a door to every kind of uncer- 

 tainty, evasion, and fraud. 



It does not require much argument to show that the Natives of 

 India will not of their own accord do what the people of England 

 would not do without a legal enactment, and if there is a Law, it 

 must be compulsory, or it will be a dead letter. It would have 

 been deemed useless to attempt the introduction of a uniform Me- 

 trical system by a Proclamation in the Gazette, or by official in- 

 fluence, in England, where all classes of people admitted the in- 

 convenience of so much diversity, and it is not likely that such 

 measures will be successful in India, where the people do not 

 admit such inconvenience, and the petty dealers are directly in- 

 terested in a continuance of the present irregularity. If official 

 influence is to be exerted, it will probably end in that kind of in- 

 fluence which is virtually compulsion ; a species of argument not 

 unknown to official subordinates in India, and which it would not 

 be wise to encourage. 



It may be thought that as it is already a'penal offence to use false 

 Weights and Measures, the public are sufficiently secured ; but there 

 is little use in testing them as long as the Standards are not defined 

 by law. I may mention a few instances that have come under my 

 own knowledge, of the inconvenience arising from this laxity. 



The first case was one, where the Land Revenue having been 

 fixed originally with reference to the produce and price of grain, 

 complaints were made of its pressure, in consequence of a con- 

 tinued fall (as it was asserted) of price. To ascertain the truth of 



