THE ORIENTAL HERALD.

No. 13.-JANUARY 1825.-VOL. 4.

ANTICIPATED CHANGES IN THE INDIAN ADMINISTRATION.

THE channels of information which are open to us in this country, as well as in India, admit of our hearing and knowing more than the advocates of secrecy and the planners of intrigue would wish :-and as the most effectual mode of preventing the evils of future imbecility, is to speak plainly on the weaknesses of the present and the past, so as to put both rulers and subjects on their guard, and prevent either from reposing an undue confidence in men who have not been well tried and proved to be deserving of their esteem and regard; we shall communicate to the readers of The Oriental Herald all that has reached us, from the best authority, on the subject of the changes in question.

It is beyond a doubt that his Excellency the Governor-General of India, Lord Amherst, will be removed from his high station, with as little delay as may be consistent with the preservation of those appearances of courtesy and form, which public men, for the reputation of the body to which they belong, generally endeavour to maintain, even in removals of inferior importance to the present. The cause of this intended dismissal or recall is not, however, to be ascribed to the arbitrary and un-English conduct of his Excellency, in the sudden and forcible banishment without trial, of Mr. Arnot, from Calcutta, and Mr. Lamb, a partner of the house of Palmer and Co. from Hyderabad; nor to his ready adoption of all the hatreds and antipathies of his temporary predecessor, Mr. John Adam. Neither is it to be attributed to his sanctioning, without due examination, the monstrous acts of injustice done to an establishment of British mer chants in the territories of an independent Prince, where Englishmen have been driven to bankruptcy and ruin by the cruelty and oppression of a Government formed of their own countrymen, from whom they ought to have received every assistance and protection. But Lord Amherst's descent from his unmerited elevation is generally (we suppose it would be held libellous to say justly, however truly that might be pronounced) attributed to the opinion entertained by Ministers at home of his manifest incapacity, as evinced more particularly in the conduct of the existing War in India, and from the disapprobation of the same high personages as to the part taken by him in those transactions which have given Sir Edward Paget so much reason to complain, and which led, indeed, to the Commander-inChief expressing his desire to be recalled. It is understood, however, that Lord Amherst had been made sufficiently sensible of his errors in this respect to tender the amende honorable to Sir Edward Paget; and Oriental Herald, Vol, 4.

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that a temporary reconciliation had taken place: but incapacity is not to be remedied by any acts of courtesy, and therefore such a reconciliation could effect no change in the views of men in power at home, as to the safety or policy of suffering India to be still ruled by one who had commenced his career in so unpropitious a manner.

The Commander-in-Chief, it is certain, is also coming home from India, but not in consequence of dissatisfaction at his proceedings existing in any quarter. His retirement will be an act of his own choice. It will not take place, however, until the termination of the Burmese war, which he will no doubt consider himself bound in honour to bring to a successful conclusion. Some persons in England are sanguine enough to hope that this is ere now accomplished: we think it probable, however, for reasons before stated, that it will be more obstinate and more protracted than persons in general seem to apprehend.

The postponement of Sir Edward Paget's return until the termination of war, and the uncertainty as to the exact period at which this may happen, has occasioned some confusion and embarrassment in the antechamber here, as to the nomination of a successor. Had it so happened that the high offices of Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief had become vacant at the same period of time, an effort would have been made to join again these offices in one, as in the case of Lord Cornwallis and the Marquis of Hastings, by whom both were filled. In such a case Lord William Bentinck, who is pointed out by the general voice, and by all true friends of India, would probably have been nominated to the distinguished posts. What other officer, indeed, of adequate rank, can pretend to vie with this honest and liberal English nobleman in united civil and military qualifications? His Lordship cannot, however, on the other hand, be much beloved by a particular section of the political party in power, namely, the Holy Alliance, or Londonderry School, of which, in the British Cabinet, his Grace the Duke of Wellington is understood to be at the head. Neither would his compassionate consideration for some of the Indian exiles of 1809, when he had the power of employing them during their temporary proscription in the fury of party-hate, have made his Lordship a favourite with the unforgiving section of the governing body in Leadenhall-street. Notwithstanding all this, the claims of Lord William Bentinck appear to us to be so far above those of all other probable candidates for the joint offices of Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief, that if the two should be united, we think he cannot be otherwise than chosen to fill them.

In the mean time, Sir Thomas Munro has written home to retract his meditated resignation of the Madras Government, or, at least, to postpone it for another year, while the Honourable Mr. Elphinstone is equally content to prolong his stay at Bombay. By these delays, a little breathingtime is afforded to the competitors for office at home, and their respective partisans, the Malcolms and Lushingtons, with the patrons on either side, the Ministers and the East India Company: and if the lengthened labours of Sir Charles Stuart at the Court of the august head of the Bourbon race, in the cause of social order and legitimacy, were to have been rewarded, as is generally believed, by permitting him to carry off the Madras prize from the two contending parties already named, that reward must now be deferred, or exchanged for the higher prize of the Governor-Generalship, with a peerage annexed, provided the office.

of Governor-General be kept distinct from that of Commander-in-Chief, and not united with it, as before supposed.

In this case, the disposal of the place of Commander-in-Chief will be a matter of much greater difficulty. It is now clear, that the command in question is no sinecure office, but one requiring not only military talents of a high order,-as the present wholly unexpected war, and the equally unlooked-for campaigns of Lord Hastings show, but also great general knowledge, steady powers of close attention to the organization, good government, discipline, morale, and what may be called the civil condition, of an army exceeding in numerical strength even that of England, and marked by peculiarities which require the greatest care to

manage.

Whether it be from his surpassing all his competitors in the undoubted possession of all these rare and difficult qualifications, or from more occult causes, that Lord Combermere is generally spoken of as the future Commander-in-Chief for India, it would be difficult to say. He has at least one surpassing merit, besides those possessed in common with almost every British officer-he has had the good fortune to render himself peculiarly acceptable to his Grace the Duke of Wellington.

It has been said that Lord Combermere's appointment, supposing it to be quite decided on, is not wholly unconnected with intrigues and politics nearer home than India. Should the high Tory party obtain the victory in the present cabinet debates on the alarming state of Ireland,the people of which, have been driven by the persevering folly and bigotry of" wise and tolerant" England to the very verge of separation from her for ever, it is believed that the Duke of Wellington will go over to the Sister Island, to force the blessings of the Orange-system down the throats of his uncivilized and ungrateful countrymen, at the point of the bayonet and at the foot of the gallows, should milder methods be found unavailing to drown their ignorant and impatient clamours. In this case, his Grace will have carte blanche, as Lord-Lieutenant and Military Captain-General. How much more desirable to the friends of humanity would it be, to see the Marquis of Hastings removed from the palace at Malta to the castle at Dublin: his very weaknesses might be turned to a profit and advantage there.

Should, however, the moderate party in the Cabinet get the better of their opponents in these hot and stormy debates, it is then determined. no longer to suffer a handful of men to engross all the honours, emoluments, and power of place, and thus to ride on the necks of the vast majority of the people. In such case, it is said, Lord Bristol (a name not very familiar to our ears as that of a public man) will go over to Ireland to pave the way for more effectual measures, by improving the impression which Lord Wellesley has certainly made, by dint of perseverance in the conciliatory system,-at the cost of much personal comfort, no doubt, and in opposition to the views of a divided Cabinet here, and one more acrimonious and equally divided in Ireland.

How deeply these Irish changes are likely to affect India may be seen, not only by their connexion with the meditated appointment of Lord Combermere to the chief command of the Indian Army, but what is of infinitely greater importance, by their leading to certain changes in the Board of Control, and through that channel, perhaps, exerting a powerful influence on the future destinies of India.

Lord Wellesley, on his retirement from Ireland, must be provided for at home, and nothing less than a cabinet-seat could be offered to him after the devotion with which he has given himself up to the perplexing and ungracious duties of his present post. In the mean time, Mr. Manners Sutton desires to retire from the burthens of his office; and Mr. Wynn, the President of the Board of Control, has long been known to sigh for the supposed dignities of the wig, the robe, and the chair, of the House of Commons, of which he has been always ambitious to become the Speaker. It is well known how this gentleman has been baffled in his object, from his being heretofore suspected of some tinge of liberality, while it suited the interests of His Grace, the head of the party, to stand out for better terms from the Ministers. Times, however, as well as places, are changed with Mr. Wynn'; or, rather, he is like Dr. Southey's man, standing still and unchanged, while every thing else has been turning round in the progress of the earth's revolving motion. As a reward for his not suffering himself to be contaminated with the increasing liberality which marks the spread of knowledge in every other circle, Mr. Wynn is no longer suspected of any undue love of freedom, and may be Speaker of the House of Commons as soon as he pleases, and that, we have reason to believe, will be almost immediately.

His place, at the head of the Board of Control, will then be vacant for Lord Wellesley, who is likely, for many substantial reasons, to accept it without hesitation. Mr. Canning has before shown, in his own person, that he thought it no descent, to pass from being Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to preside at the India Board: and Lord Wellesley will at least escape the mortification, which must have been felt, however affected to be hidden, by his brilliant friend, in accepting a second-rate place under one, of whom he had often before expressed the most contemptuous opinions. It will be no easy task, however, even for Lord Wellesley, to contend against the bigotry of some of his old acquaintances of 1812, who still maintain their seats and their influence in the Cabinet almost unimpaired.

On these last named changes, as far as India is concerned, we shall take another early opportunity of expressing our opinion. For the present we must content ourselves with remarking, that the removal of Mr. Wynn from the post of President of the Board of Control, must be decidedly advantageous to the true interests of India,'let him be succeeded by almost any one that can be named. Even if his political scene-shiftings had not shown him in his true colours to the public eye, he is not a noun substantive: he is, to all appearances, incapable of standing by himself; and must lean on some abler and better informed man for support, most probably, on some ambitious Director, with party and corporation partialities to gratify, and ready to go all lengths to effect his purposes. Let any man of the most ordinary understanding look at a late production of Captain Seely, (or rather a second manufacture of some old letters that had already appeared in the Sun Newspaper, and now put forth under the title of A Voice from India,') dedicated by especial permission to Mr. Wynn, and he will then be able to appreciate the intellect, and determine what

The contrast between the low and sepulchral tones of the present Speaker, and the harsh and shrill notes of his aspiring successor, will be heard to great advantage in the well-known sentence, "The Ayes have it."

manner of man is the President of the Board of Control-nothing liberal, nothing conciliatory, nothing enlightened, nothing elevated, no aspirations after the advancement of his fellow-men, or the moral and political improvement of the remote country committed to his responsibility. From such a man, made up of prejudices and precedents, with whom "the wisdom of our ancestors" is all in all, what good can reasonably be expected?

Lord Wellesley is a man of a very different description-of a much higher class—and with a mind of quite another order. He has, perhaps, been over-rated in his best days; and, moreover, he is not now so young and vigorous as he was when he first appeared in India, and astonished every body there by his energy and his foresight. It is impossible, however, to read some of his state-papers and minutes, without seeing at once that he is a powerful and active-minded man. If time may have somewhat abated his vigour and activity, it may also have advantageously altered him in another respect, in which such sobering effects would be unequivocally beneficial. We speak not of private or personal failings, but of Lord Wellesley's disposition to carry every thing with a high hand; and, when surrounded by flatterers and sycophants, to consider himself an absolute Jupiter, entitled to hurl his bolts against any one who might dare to oppose his will in the most minute particular.

It would be premature to enlarge on this topic, until we see the measures that are likely to be undertaken by the men of whom we speak. But it cannot, at least, be considered certain, that because Lord Wellesley considered an arbitrary despotism and a fettered press best suited to India twenty-five years ago, under the old and close monopoly of the Company's system, he should still approve of the same iron rule, now that a newly-modified charter has thrown open the trade, and that our eastern settlements have advanced, in many respects, in spite of the paralyzing influence of those who oppose all such advancement at home. It is satisfactory, at least, to remember that Lord Wellesley was the founder of the College at Fort William; that he was always friendly to education; that he resisted, with all his might, the haughty and engrossing spirit of the elder branches of the Civil Service, while he kept down all their attempts at the exercise of an exclusive influence, by the introduction of qualified persons to suitable employments, whenever no regular servant could be found of sufficient talents to fill the vacant post. His Lordship's well-founded contempt for the imbecility which then, as well as now, occasionally characterized the proceedings of the Directors; his spirited resistance to many of their arbitrary and monopolizing dictations on many subjects of great public importance, are fresh in the memory of all Indians, as well as his encouragement of the free trade and shipbuilding in India; and his liberal notions, of returning all surplus revenue to the country which produced it, in the shape of public edifices, roads, quays, bridges, canals, and institutions of every useful kind, instead of wringing the last shilling from the oppressed natives, merely to remit, without compensation, the amount of such tribute to the greedy devourers of the surplus revenue in London. We know how all this terminated in the defeat of these statesman-like views, and the momentary triumph obtained by Mr. Charles Grant and the party that supported Lord Cornwallis. But the influence of that leader, and his few remaining followers,