Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin Part 41

Roorkee: March 19, 1863.

[Sidenote: Value of training at headquarters.]

I confess I think it very important that the heads of the local Governments should have had some training at headquarters. It is much easier for an intelligent officer who has been so trained, to supply a lack of local knowledge, than for one who has been constantly employed in a particular province to grasp in a sufficiently comprehensive spirit the general interests of the Empire, and duly to appreciate the relative claims of its component parts. Already, among the high officers in the Provinces, there is a considerable disinclination to face the climate and labour of Calcutta. Situations in the Provinces, where the work is lighter, where the summers can be spent on the Hills, and where the holders are in a much greater degree monarchs of all they survey, are naturally preferred to the sweltering metropolis.

This preference would be strengthened if it were supposed that this provincial career was the road to the Lieutenant-Governorship.

Moreover, it is to be remembered that the patronage exercised by these Lieutenant-Governors is very great indeed. It is important that it should not fall too absolutely into the hands of the same local cliques. So much on the abstract question of general _versus_ local experience.

_To Sir Charles Wood._

Simla: May 6, 1863.

In a general way, I must say that I am inclined to give a preference, in disposing of these high offices, to persons who have served in the offices of the Supreme Government or in the Governor-General's Legislative Council. I would not, of course, exclude men of proved and eminent qualities because they had been employed only in the Provinces or minor Presidencies; but my impression is that the work is lighter, and that reputations are more easily won, in the service of the minor than in that of the Supreme Government. Moreover, I think it desirable that the best men should be attracted to the latter service; and I observe a growing disinclination to abandon good opportunities under local governments for those which the Supreme Government has to offer.

A local Government, with plenty of hill stations, &c., has many attractions for persons who can contrive to be on good terms with the Lieutenant-Governor. I think that something is due to those who face the climate and the compet.i.tion of Calcutta; not to mention the fact, that they have opportunities of becoming conversant with the general business of the country, beyond those which are enjoyed by persons whose service has been confined to any one locality.

I think that the Legislative branch of the Governor-General's Council should be a channel through which officers of the other Presidencies may be introduced into the Secretariat and Council at Calcutta.

_To Sir Charles Wood._

Simla: May 21, 1863.

[Sidenote: Aristocracies.]

I have no objection _prima facie_ to an aristocracy, and I am quite ready to admit that conflicting claims of proprietorship in the same lands are an evil; but I also know that, even in our old Christian Europe, there are not many aristocracies that have had salt enough in them to prevent them from rotting. And when I consider what Oriental society is; when I reflect on the frightful corruption, both of mind and body, to which the inheritors of wealth and station are exposed--the general absence of motives to call forth good instincts, or of restraints to keep bad in check--I own that I do not feel quite sure that, even if we could sweep away all rights of sub-proprietors or tenants, and subst.i.tute for the complications incident to the present system an uniform land-tenure of great proprietors and tenants at will, we should be much nearer the millennium than we are now....

[Sidenote: Against intermeddling in foreign politics.]

I am wholly opposed to that prurient intermeddling policy which finds so much favour with certain cla.s.ses of Indian officials. It is constantly thrusting us into equivocal situations, in which our acts and our professions of respect for the independence of other nations are in contradiction, and in which our proceedings become tainted with the double reproach of inconsistency and selfishness. Nothing, in my opinion, can be more fatal to our prestige and legitimate influence.

My modest ambition for England is, that she should in this Eastern world establish the reputation of being all-just and all-powerful; but, to achieve this object, we must cease to attempt to play a great part in small intrigues, or to dictate in cases where we have not positive interests which we can avow, or convictions sufficiently distinct to enable us to speak plainly. We must interfere only where we can put forward an unimpeachable plea of right or duty; and when we announce a resolution, our neighbours must understand that it is the decree of fate.

_To Sir Charles Trevelyan._

Simla: June 17, 1863.

[Sidenote: Council to meet at Lah.o.r.e.]

On the first occasion of transferring the Council from Calcutta to another place, we ought to select some considerable town--the capital of a Province or local Government, if possible. What we wish to do is to give effect to the scheme embodied in the ninth clause of the Councils Act, and we should do so in such a manner as to carry public opinion with us. If the plan answers, we may exercise a greater liberty of choice on future occasions.

I adhere to the opinion which I first expressed, that, on the whole, Lah.o.r.e is the place which unites the greatest number of advantages. It is the capital of a province which is loyal, which is under the Government of India, and which, moreover, has a good many special characteristics of its own, with which it may be well that the Supreme Legislature should acquaint themselves on the spot. Against these recommendations is to be set the greater distance from Calcutta, which does not affect communication by telegraph, and, for more bulky communications, as compared with Delhi, is only a question of a few hours.

I have no wish to legislate at a purely military station; my object is to select a place of meeting where we may obtain some knowledge of local and native feeling, which does not reach Calcutta.

_To Sir Charles Wood._

Simla: August 30, 1863.

After reaching this place, I soon came to the conclusion that the reasons for meeting at Lah.o.r.e were much more forcible than those which could be advanced in favour of any other place; and circ.u.mstances which have occurred since then have tended strongly to confirm me in this opinion. Independently of the prestige which attaches to the province of which it is the capital, and to the Sikh population which inhabit it, the state of affairs in Afghanistan, and on our frontier, would render a demonstration which would at once afford evidence of our military strength and gratify the pride and self-importance of the Sikh chiefs, at this moment especially opportune.

I have arranged with the Commander-in-chief to hold his camp of exercise there; the Lieutenant-Governor is to have a great Agricultural Exhibition, which I am to open; and if we mean to establish ourselves for a couple of months there in our legislative capacity while all this is going on, I think that it will have an excellent effect both on our own people and on our neighbours.

[Sidenote: Sitana fanatics.]

Late in the month of September, during the last days of Lord Elgin's stay at Simla, occurred the only break in the otherwise peaceful tenor of his government, in the shape of an outburst of certain Wahabee fanatics inhabiting a frontier district in the Upper Valley of the Indus. The outburst is not without historical interest, as connected with similar disturbances which have a.s.sumed more serious proportions; but it is noticed here chiefly as ill.u.s.trating the view which Lord Elgin took of the policy and duty of the British Government in such cases.

It was not without the greatest reluctance that he was induced to take up the quarrel at all: for he had the strongest aversion for warlike operations in the existing state of India, and particularly on the frontiers of Afghanistan; and he had no small distrust of those military tendencies and that thirst for opportunities of distinction which are apt to characterise the ablest Governors of frontier provinces. But he had prevented a Sitana expedition in the previous year; he was a.s.sured that the recent inroads of the fanatics were the direct consequence of his last year's supineness; and he was told that if he again held back, the disturbances would be renewed another year with usury. Moreover, he was a.s.sured that the projected expedition would secure the peace of the frontier for a long period; and that the operation would be little more than a military promenade, and would be over before his camp reached Peshawur.

It was scarcely possible for a civil Governor to resist such a pressure of professional opinion; and he consented to take measures of repression.

Writing to Sir Charles Wood on the subject, he said:--

The overt acts charged consist in the return of the fanatics to Sitana, whence they were driven out by us some years ago; and the frontier tribes in question are held to be guilty because they have allowed them to return to this place, although bound by treaty with us to refuse to admit them.... On a review of all the circ.u.mstances, and looking to the well-known character and designs of the Sitana fanatics, I came to the conclusion that the interests both of prudence and humanity would be best consulted by levelling a speedy and decisive blow at this embryo conspiracy.

Accordingly it was arranged that the Punjab Government should at once take the necessary measures for expelling the fanatics from Judoon, where they had congregated, and then, if circ.u.mstances permitted, proceed to destroy their place of refuge at Mulka.

But it is well known that in India, to use Lord Elgin's own expression, 'rising officials are instinctively in favour of a good row.' Some of those around him were urgent that the expedition should be deferred until the spring, and should then be organised on a larger scale, and with more comprehensive objects. Lord Elgin set his face decidedly against this.

I wish (he wrote) by a sudden and vigorous blow to check this trouble on our frontier while it is in a nascent condition. The other plan would give it several months to fester and to extend itself; and, if there be among the Mohammedan populations in these regions the disposition to combine against us which is alleged, and which is indeed the justification of the measure proposed, how far might not the roots of the conspiracy stretch themselves in that time? The Afghans in their distracted state might furnish sympathisers; we should be invited to interfere in their internal affairs, in order to oppose those among them who were abetting our Mohammedan adversaries; in short, there is no end to the complications in which this postponement of active operations might involve us. Everything is more or less uncertain in such affairs; but in the absence of any very palpable blunder, what we actually propose to do would appear to be a pretty safe proceeding. The main purpose is to expel the fanatics from Judoon; and it is hardly possible that we should fail in this, as they are within easy reach of us there. The further objects--of punishing other tribes, and destroying the refuge of the fanatics at Mulka--may be abandoned if it be deemed advisable, without any loss of prestige, though of course with some abatement of the completeness of the movement. I therefore thought it necessary to adhere to my original resolution.

[Sidenote: The Himalayas.]

On the 26th of September Lord Elgin left Simla _en route_ for Sealkote, where he was to rejoin his camp and proceed with it to Peshawur, the most distant station on the North-West frontier, before making his way to the great _rendezvous_ at Lah.o.r.e. On the way to Sealkote he was to traverse the upper valleys of the Beas, the Ravee, and the Chenab, and the mountains that divide them; his main object being to inspect the great tea plantations, public and private, recently set on foot in those parts, and to ascertain for himself what facilities or possibilities the country afforded for commercial intercourse with Ladak and China.

For the first week his route lay nearly northwards, through scenes very similar to those which he had left at Simla. 'We are going through a beautiful country,' he wrote on the 4th of October, 'and the people seem cheerful and well-to-do.' Shortly afterwards, having pa.s.sed over the Sutlej at Komha.r.s.en, he crossed a considerable range of mountains by the Jalouri Pa.s.s, and found himself in the fertile basin of the Beas. Directing his course still northwards, he followed this river up to its source among the hills; and thence crossed by the steep and high Rotung Pa.s.s from the valley of the Beas into that of the Chenab--from the rich and smiling country of Kuloo into a rugged and inhospitable tract called Lahoul. He did not, however, remain long in these desolate regions; but, after crossing the Twig Bridge across the Chandra, an affluent of the Chenab, and inspecting a wooden bridge which had just been constructed to take its place, he retraced his steps southwards to Sultanpore, on the Beas river. From thence, on the 18th of October, he wrote as follows to Sir Charles Wood:--

[Sidenote: Kuloo.]

[Sidenote: Rotung Pa.s.s.]

[Sidenote: Twig Bridge.]

Thus far our expedition through the mountains has been very pleasant and interesting. The scenery has been magnificent and the climate enjoyable, though the changes of temperature have been considerable.

We are now at Sultanpore, in Kuloo, at an elevation of about 4,000 feet above the sea. But a few days ago we (the men of the party) scaled the Rotung Pa.s.s, which divides Kuloo from Lahoul, and attained in so doing a height of 13,000 feet, with a temperature low in proportion. This pa.s.s is on the road from these provinces to Ladak and China, and I visited, on the other side of it, a new bridge over the Chandra, which will be a great convenience to traders. Hitherto, if the traders used mules or other animals of this magnitude, they could cross the river with them only by making them swim; or, if sheep were their beasts of burden, by driving them over a twig bridge, through the meshes of which many fell into the river. I crossed the twig bridge myself; and I found it about the most difficult job I ever attempted. The new bridge will be completed in a few weeks. This road, however, useful though it will doubtless be when improved, leads through Ladak, and the merchandise transported along it becomes subject to the exactions of the ruler of Cashmere. The desideratum would be a road which would be clear of his territory altogether.

The people in these regions seem good-humoured and merry-hearted, producing for themselves all that they want; growing their own food, making their own clothes; not much given to exchanges, and extremely averse to labour. I asked a manager of a tea plantation the other day how he was off for labour. He said that he contrived to induce labourers to come to his plantation for a few days at a time, chiefly for the purpose of earning money enough to pay the Government a.s.sessment of their land; but his opinion was that, if there were no a.s.sessment, no labour would be procurable. We have not yet come across much tea. The plantations we have seen are on a very small scale, and in a nascent condition; but they are promising. There seems no reason to doubt that the climate and a certain portion at least of the soil in this district are suited to the growth of tea. The climate, too, does very well for the European const.i.tution, though it is hardly as healthy as I expected to find it. Both natives and Europeans are subject to fever at certain seasons, especially in the valleys; but I have no doubt that the latter may do well as employers of labour. This place (Sultanpore) is only about 4,000 feet above the level of the sea, and I have little doubt that, were the state of cultivation and trade to justify the outlay, a cart road might be made to it without great difficulty from the plain. This would greatly develop both its natural resources and its capabilities as a commercial route.

The state of the forests which we have encountered during our route has also engaged my attention. It is sad to see how they have been neglected, and how much waste of valuable timber has ensued. The natives have a practice of girdling fine trees, at a few feet from the root, in order to strip off as much of the bark as they can conveniently reach. It is rather a difficult practice to check; but, if we can manage to draw a line between the woods in which the villagers have rights and the public forests, we may impose heavy penalties on the perpetrators of such offences.... The deodar forests cease at the Rotung Pa.s.s. There are no forests of any value in Lahoul and Spitti--scarcely indeed any wood at all.

We are now proceeding towards the Kangra Valley, where we expect to find tea plantations in a more advanced condition.

[Sidenote: Illness.]

In this letter, and others of the same date, there is no hint of suffering or of ill-health; but when they were written he had already received the stroke which was to lay him in the grave. Before the departure of the next mail symptoms had appeared of serious disease of the heart, probably long lurking in his const.i.tution, and now brought out into fatal activity by fatigue and the keen mountain air; and on the 4th of November, having with difficulty reached Dhurmsala, a station in the Kangra Valley,[3] he wrote to Sir Charles Wood in an altered tone, yet still hopeful and cheerful; and intent to the last in India, as at the first in Jamaica, and afterwards in Canada and China, on mitigating so far as lay in his power the evils which man brings on man.