if

district alone of this country as extending | Government, which had taken pains to over 25,000 square miles. Mr. Laing was spread the information that the price of the of opinion that one-third of India was waste. article had increased in England, and had Besides the 25,000 square miles above al- urged the expediency of growing it; but luded to, there were other tracts of sur- he should like to know what information passing fertility, the cultivation of which and advice of the same kind had been cirhad been neglected. In the Terai, at the culated among the native population of foot of the Himalayas, there were 400 or India. He believed that not a single des500 miles of the richest land in all India, patch had been written by the right hon. and bearing traces of ancient cultivation. Gentleman on that subject. How different No doubt it was insalubrious, but its fer- was the conduct of the right hon. Gentletility was very remarkable. A gentleman man to that of the noble Lord opposite who applied to the India Board on the (Lord Stanley) when he was Secretary for subject of irrigation works in Scinde, and India. The noble Lord took the most who went to the country to make his cal- prompt steps when in office to encourage culcations, estimated that 20,000,000 acres the growth of cotton in India; but during in Scinde might be irrigated at 1s. per acre the whole time the right hon. Gentleman proper works were erected. In the Pun- had been in office it did not appear that jab, also, he calculated that there were he had made a single effort in that direc47,000,000 acres, only 14,000,000 of which tion. It took the Southern States of were assessed. He thought he had said America a great many years and great exenough to show that there was quite a penditure in the shape of bounties to bring sufficient extent of waste land in India to the old Indian plant to the improved pitch afford a field to any number of European of the present staple; and if they wished settlers who might go to that country. An- to improve on the Indian staple, they must, other unfortunate result, he might add, he maintained, adopt a similar course. Sir which had flowed from sending out the George Bowen, the Governor of Queensland, despatch to which he referred was that it had offered 1,000 acres free to those who tended to destroy in a great degree the would go out to that colony and cultivate cotprestige of the Government of India by up- tan; and he was sorry to see that there was setting the Regulations that had been come so wide a discrepancy in the matter between to by that Government. The tendency of the action of the Secretary for India and that despatch was to induce the people of the head of the Colonial Office. The only India to look to the Home Government for remedy proposed by the right hon. Gentleinstructions rather than to the Governor man was a permanent settlement in India; General. A short time ago a meeting was the probable cost of a permanent settleheld in Calcutta, which was presided over ment in Madras alone being, in his opinion, by an eminent Queen's counsel, and at that likely to be three-quarters of a million. If meeting speeches were made and resolu- that were so, it was quite clear it would tions passed condemnatory of the despatch cost several millions for the whole of India, of the right hon. Gentleman on the grounds while it would take twenty or thirty years he had stated, and expressing the opinion, to accomplish such an assessment as the that if the views contained in that docu- right hon. Gentleman proposed. From ment were persevered in, the reputation of what he had stated it would appear that the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary the opinions of the chief authorities in for India would be sadly impaired. It was India were favourable to the proposal of unnecessary to show that India was a great Earl Canning and the noble Lord opposite, cotton-growing country. Forty years since while they were unfavourable in the main a far larger quantity of cotton was exported to that of the right hon. Gentleman. His from India than at the present day, and it object in making the Motion was, not to was quite clear, therefore, that there was lay before the House a Bill of indictment no good reason why it should not again against the right hon. Gentleman, but produce that commodity to a considerable simply to show what the state of things extent if the necessary steps were taken was in reality. Was the right hon. Genfor the purpose. He should like to know, tleman going to leave the ordinary suphowever, what had been done by the Se-porters of the Government in the false posicretary of State for India for the promotion of having to wait for liberal measures tion there of the cultivation of cotton. Its until the Conservative party came into production had last year been increased a power? No one could believe that the thousand-fold by the action of the Turkish existing system could survive the right

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the occupation of Waste Lands in India by settlers, and the redemption of a portion of the Land Tax of India, are desirable objects, especially with a view to the present state of the Cotton industry in this Country; and that it is expedient that Her Majesty's Government take further steps to carry them out."

hon. Gentleman. Surely, then, it would | India during the mutiny, and had witnessbe better for him to make the necessary ed with admiration the calmness and comalterations rather than to allow the credit posure which that noble Lord displayed in of them to be taken by a political oppo- times of great peril and at periods of unnent? He earnestly hoped the right hon. manly panic. But it should not be forGentleman would give a further considera- gotten that those who now spoke of Earl tion to the subject, adopting such measures Canning in terms of fulsome adulation then as would relieve the distressed districts at attacked him with the utmost bitterness, home, and unite in closer ties to this coun- pursued him with rancour, and for years try that great empire of India which their endeavoured to drive him from the high forefathers conquered by their courage and position which he then occupied, and energy, but which they could retain only which they said, most untruly, he had by establishing enlightened laws and insti- discredited. It was only at the eleventh tutions suited to the present age. hour, when he lent his reputation to some acts of a questionable nature, that he was described as a great statesman. The organ of the agitation in this country was Mr. Laing, who, in his speeches at Manchester and Glasgow, as well as in his written addresses to sympathizing friends in India, had been constantly in the habit of asserting that the cherished policy of his noble Friend Earl Canning had been altogether subverted by the Secretary of State. He did not pretend to be acquainted with Earl Canning's cherished policy, but this he did know, that it formed no part of the original programme of his administration to promote the sale of waste lands in fee simple or to permit the redemption of the land tax. These measures were suggested by the noble Lord the Member for King's Lynn, in a despatch of the 31st of December 1858, in which the difficulties and dangers which were supposed to surround these questions were largely discussed, information was asked for, and a report was ordered to be sent to this country in order that the matters might be sifted, discussed, and determined here by the Secretary of State in Council. The years 1859, 1860, and the greater part of 1861 were consumed in inquiries, and no report was sent to this country. Suddenly, on the 17th of October 1861, there appeared in the Calcutta Government Gazette a proclamation which set forth the rules and regulations under which persons might purchase waste lands in India in fee simple and these rules and regulations did not appear to have been much read by the hon. Gentleman who opened the debate. They were for the most part suggested to Earl Canning by an irresponsible association in Calcutta, called the Landowners' Association, the Secretary of which was as much surprised as any one to find that the crude suggestions which he had made had been almost literally adopted without any inquiry. That proclamation was sent to England. It

MR. SMOLLETT said, he was glad that the hon. Member for Poole had brought the subject forward. The House always rejoiced to hear a racy attack upon the India Office by a Gentleman who was once connected with that Department, and who, if he had an opportunity, would doubtless be very glad to connect himself with it again. He was also glad that the Motion had been brought forward, because it would give the right hon. Baronet the Secretary of State for India an opportunity of defending the conduct of his office in the House, instead of going down to Halifax, as he was obliged to do last winter. The Resolution itself was harmless enough, and as the Parliamentary termination of an agitation out of doors, in the course of which the impeachment of the right hon. Baronet was demanded, it was somewhat ludicrous. During the whole of last winter a great outcry was kept up against the right hon. Baronet, who was accused of ignorance, incapacity, and breach of faith, for the course he had pursued with respect to the sale of waste lands in India, and he and those who entertained similar opinions were said by the press in India, which favoured the agitation, to have made cowardly attacks upon the memory of a great statesman. It now suited the purpose of some gentlemen, and was part of the tactics of the scurrilous press of India, to speak of Earl Canning as a great statesman whose attempts to wrest the land of India from the grasp of the despots of the India Office had been foiled and thwarted. Ile was not about to attack the memory of Earl Canning. He served in

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received a long and dispassionate considera- | of State required that considerable alteration at the hands of the Secretary of State tions should be made in the details of the and the Indian Council; and on the 9th of rules by which effect was given to that July 1862 a despatch was sent to India policy. In the first place, he disapproved of which he would say that the amend- of the uniform price fixed by the proclaments which it made in Earl Canning's pro- mation, and, observing that the land must clamation were conceived in a just and necessarily vary in value according to its liberal spirit, and that its tone and language situation, the facilities for its cultivation were quite unexceptionable. What was it and irrigation, and its natural fertility, he that Earl Canning proposed to do? He directed that the lands which were conproposed to give to every one the fullest sidered salable should be classified, that permission to purchase waste lands in a minimum price of each class should be British India. There was, indeed, a re- fixed in the districts by the local officers, striction that the grants should not in and that when application was made for the first instance exceed 3,000 acres ; the purchase of any land, it should be put but that was set aside and treated as a up for sale by auction at that minimum nullity by the officials. There was no re- price. He could not see the force of the servation of mines, minerals, or the rights objections which had been taken to that of the Crown to forests. The Government mode of proceeding. Much of the land of did not even reserve the right to make India was not worth, and would not be roads through the country which they were valued at, 5s. an acre. The Secretary of about to give away. Each person was to State also directed that the survey should be served in the order of his application. precede instead of following the sale. That There was to be no preliminary survey, was an alteration which would be recombut only some superficial survey after the mended by common sense, if for no other sale, in order to fix the boundaries. If reason, ou account of the propriety of asafter possession had been taken, some party certaining before the land was sold that it should spring up, claiming rights in the was really unoccupied, and that there were soil or ownership in the land, the Govern- no persons who claimed a beneficial interment undertook to eject him and put the est in the soil. The Secretary of State allottee in possession, making, as they said, disallowed so much of Earl Canning's procompensation to the owner, but how that clamation as altered and over-rode the law was to be done did not appear. The pro- of the land. The Secretary of State inclamation went even further than that. sisted, and with great propriety, if an It stated that no authority, nor any court alteration was needed in the law of limitaof law, was to entertain any claims con- tion connected with the occupation of land, nected with the ownership of these lands that the law should be altered by an Act unless they were made within twelve months introduced and discussed in the Legislative after the time of allotment; and, as if to Council, and not by means of a Proclamaprevent the real owners from knowing any. tion issued without notice. The illegality thing about what was going on, it was of this course of action by the Viceroy provided that those who obtained allotments was sufficiently clear. The redemption of should not be required to exercise any right the land tax was a measure impossible to of ownership. It was to be left to their be carried out under present circumstances discretion to do anything or nothing with in India, particularly in districts where the that for which they had given the Govern- individual settlement system prevailed, for ment a fair price. That fair price was there the purchase of small plots of land fixed at 5s. an acre all over India, allowing, piecemeal would, in his opinion, be an unhowever, a deduction of one-fourth, on the mitigated nuisance. The measures origitheory that in grants of 3,000 or 4,000 acres uated by the Secretary of State were one-fourth would be found to be useless and conceived in a spirit of equity; but imvalueless to the purchaser. What was mediately on their promulgation a great the action of the Secretary of State upon outcry was raised by a set of land jobthis proclamation? It had been stated bers, who fancied that under the reguover and over again that the whole policy lations which Earl Canning had hastily of Earl Canning was subverted. There adopted they would be able to obtain large was no truth whatever in that statement. tracts of country at wholly inadequate The policy of Earl Canning, which was to prices. One large estate, the extent of sell the land in fee simple, was confirmed which was unascertained, but was supposed in the fullest manner; but the Secretary to contain 16,000 acres, was sold, not at

sale of jungle land in fee simple was a small ed was that the boundaries of his piece measure, unworthy of the commendations of land should be marked out before the put upon it; that the regulations of Earl sale. In order to obviate delay, why Canning were hastily adopted and incapable should not the Government have a staff of of being properly carried out; that the young surveyors at Calcutta, the expense amendments of the Government in July of their operations being defrayed by the 1862 were just and salutary; and lastly, settler? He saw no reason why an even he had expressed his contempt of the out- less expensive process should not be cry which had been raised against the adopted. Why should not the collector policy of the Secretary of State by an of the district send one of the native offiagitation which was, in his opinion, at once cials to go with the settler and mark out ignorant and selfish. the ground? He quite concurred in the MR. BUXTON said, he hoped that the opinion that the survey should precede, strong feeling, which formerly prevailed and not follow the sale. A printed adamong those who had passed their lives vertisement might not be a sufficient noin India, against the colonization of that tice to the natives; but if they saw an country by English settlers was dying official going over the ground and markaway. Every reasonable man at that day ing it out, and if any previous proprietor wished to see India colonized by those had any claims upon the land, he would who would bring capital, skill, and enter- know what was going on, and could put prise into that country. A belief pre-in an appearance. The difficulty of per

vailed in some quarters that a contest sons coming in at the last moment and was going on between a body of spirited purchasing lands, marked out by first Englishmen, who wished to colonize India, and some narrow-minded and hard-hearted official in the India Office, who was determined not to stir out of the usual official routine. A little study of the subject would, however, soon dissipate that notion. A few capitalists had seen a sudden chance of making great profits; while, on the other hand, it was the duty of the Secretary of State to look to the interests of the 130,000,000 who were consigned to his charge. He believed that such was the nature of the contest between the Secretary of State for India and those who were so strongly opposed to him on the question. There were, he thought, solid reasons for some of the modifications which the Secretary of State had introduced into the plan proposed by Earl Canning. It was, however, supposed that there was some insecurity of tenure in the scheme which would not have been there if the plan proposed by Earl Canning had been adopted. It was, however, inaccurate, to represent, as was sometimes done, that under the scheme of the right hon. Gentleman (Sir Charles Wood) a settler who had bought land in India might be disturbed in the possession of his estate. The difference was, that under the scheme of the right hon. Gentleman the survey was to begin the process. There was a fear in some quarters that the settler would lose a great deal of time before he got the survey made; and it was, no doubt, important that he should get into the possession of his land at once. But all that was want

settlers, over their heads, occurred in New South Wales, because the auctions were held in the metropolis; but these auctions would be local, and there would be no probability of its happening in India. As to selling by auction instead of at a fixed price, the Government, acting on behalf of the Indian community, was bound to get the real market value of the land, and to apply the produce to the diminution of taxation. With regard to the redemption of the land tax, the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State refused to assent to Earl Canning's proposal to allow of a general redemption, because it involved an immediate permanent settlement; and in some parts, which were rapidly improving, the present assessment was too low. But if, on the one hand, the contingent advantage of an increased assessment would be lost by a present permanent settlement; on the other, the redemption at 5 per cent would enable the Government to extinguish a part of the present debt, on which the interest was 6 per cent; would save the cost of collecting the land tax, which amounted to 20 per cent; would render unnecessary the immense expense of a future new assessment; and would diminish the cost of managing so much of the debt as would be extinguished. Moreover, the abolition of the land tax would greatly enhance the wealth of the people, by getting rid of the extortion of native collectors, and encouraging the people to improve the cultivation of the soil; and, in a political point of view, would