overcome the repugnance which, from prejudice and false pride, half-casts were supposed to entertain against any description of manual labour except that of copyists and accountants; and, for that purpose, to give to master tradesmen other inducements to taking apprentices than those supplied by the existing demand for the objects of their several trades. It was certain, however, that all sober tradesmen would regulate their proceedings in that respect exclusively by calculations founded on the increasing, stationary, or decreasing nature of their trades, and by the comparative qualities and expense of different descriptions of workmen. It was at the same time highly probable that the pride of half-casts would easily be subdued by the pressure of poverty and the prospect of independence, provided an effectual demand existed or could be created for their services. To this last point the society directed none of its attention or influence. It took no notice of the laws which incapacitate Europeans from enlarging the demand for labourers and artificers of every description. Accordingly, with the exception of one or two of their members, whose wants happened to coincide with the recommendations of the society, they have found no masters willing to burden themselves with a superfluous apprentice, and

have nearly restricted their operations to the establishment of a marine school, by the hire of a ship, wherein a number of boys are fed and clothed at the expense of the society. Such a project had been started some years ago, but it has owed its execution to the failure of a different and more comprehensive scheme; and, though its objects might, perhaps, be attainable by a less expensive process, it is likely to be productive of considerable utility. Whether the contributors will long continue to be satisfied that the advantage compensates for the expense is doubtful.

205

CHAPTER VI.

ON THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS IN INDIA.

As the exclusion of British subjects from the right of holding land in India is maintained on different grounds from those on which it was originally decreed, so the arbitrary control exercised over the Indian press results from the application of a prerogative granted for a dif ferent purpose. In both cases Government has been silently and accidentally put in possession of powers of which it cannot be divested without a protracted struggle and reiterated appeals to public opinion: and there is so intimate a connexion between the rights claimed in each case that they will probably both be conceded at the

same moment.

It is usual with the Attorney-General and with judges to introduce their censure of the particular libel by expatiating on the advantages of the

liberty of the press in general. In like manner, Sir John Malcolm, the most strenuous opponent of a free press in India, affects great zeal for giving publicity in England to papers regarding the administration of the Indian Government. "No GOOD government," he says, can wish "for mystery or concealment; such can be de"sirable only as veils to weakness and mis

management. There never was a state to which publicity is calculated to be of more benefit, both as a check and as an encouragement to those by "whom it is administered, than that we have es"tablished for India." There is nothing in these unqualified propositions, nor in the immediate context, to limit their application to publications in England, so that they stand in manifest contradiction to his endeavours to prove that, in India, mystery and concealment may be subservient to good government, and are even indispensable to its safety. The most despotic Governments of Europe never could prevent animadversions on their proceedings from being published in foreign countries, and are satisfied if they prevent such things from being printed and published within their territories. Before exposure and comment can come from a distance the position of individuals may be materially changed, and the public attention is occupied

with the occurrences of the day. So it is with respect to the publicity which Sir John Malcolm would allow for India. As a check it would be utterly inefficient, for the measures animadverted upon would long ago have been executed, and the functionaries concerned would feel that they were subject to no check but that of official responsibility, however desirous they might be of receiving light from other quarters. Even as an encouragement, the effect of remote, tardy, and partial publicity, which may come when a man is" old, and cannot enjoy it,-solitary, and can"not impart it," must be feeble compared with the animation of contemporaneous applause.

Though a free press never for a moment existed in India since the local Governments were armed with the power of deportation, by the act of 1793, yet, at different times, before the imposition and since the discontinuance of a censorship at Calcutta, individual editors of newspapers have ventured, at their own peril, and to their own ruin, to try how far they might give publicity to facts and opinions respecting public affairs and public men. That any evil of a peculiar and local nature ever resulted from such attempts we have no evidence whatever, nor the slightest grounds of presumption for believing. Of the great disorders produced by conflicting