Men and Events of My Time in India
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MEN AND EVENTS OF MY TIME IN INDIA. BY SIR RICHARD TEMPLE, BART., G.C.S.I., C.I.E., D.C.L. LATE FINANCE MINISTER OF INDIA; LIEUTENANT - GOVERNOR OF BENGAL, AND GOVERNOR OF BOMBAY. 1882. Reproduced by: Sani H. Panhwar California 2014 To Her Most Gracious Majesty The Queen, Empress of India, This Imperfect Narrative, Relating To Some Among The Most Illustrious Of Her Majesty’s Servants And Subjects In The East, And To Many Of The Great Results Achieved, During Her Majesty’s Auspicious Reign, In The Indian Empire, Is With Her Majesty’s Permission Humbly Dedicated By The Author. PREFACE. This work presents to the world a picture of the men and events that have passed before me during the thirty years of my life in India. The objects and limits of the undertaking are set forth in the beginning of the introductory chapter, and therefore the preface may be brief. My last book, ‘India in 1880,’ related to external things, to measures of national improvement, to results produced by diverse trains of causes, to the character and disposition of the Natives in masses. But it rarely or never comprised any delineation of individual character. This book, on the contrary, is mainly devoted to the description of particular men in their public capacities, or to summaries of their official conduct, and of their idiosyncrasies as displayed in the manner whereby they served the country. More or less of space is allotted according to the importance of the parts they played, or the magnitude of the sphere in which their powers found employment. The account given of them is derived from personal knowledge, and not from annals or records. It therefore is not absolutely complete as a chronicle either of them or of the circumstances in which they moved. For I cannot pretend to know everything about the many persons who are noticed in this work, or to have been acquainted with all the men and affairs of a whole generation, in so wide an empire as India. Consequently some well-known events, or some affectionately remembered episodes may be found to have been omitted from the narrative, and may therefore be missed by those who are familiar with the time to which it refers. But unless I have actual cognizance of these cases, I do not trouble the reader with any history of them, however interesting they may be. Still, having been thrown into many arenas of labour, and been brought into contact with many men who have since become famous, I am necessarily conversant with much that may well be stated for the general good. At a time like the present, when the British people take a conscientious interest in the Eastern empire, it behoves every Englishman who possesses knowledge to communicate it to his countrymen in as popular and readable a form as possible. Though I trust that the story, so far as it extends, will be found correct by critics already acquainted with India, yet it is absolutely free from technicalities or from any local expressions which might not be intelligible to the public in England. Though the composition will, I think, stand the tests which Indian readers may apply, yet it has been studiously designed to suit the English reader. While I hope that my work contains much that will be pleasing to those concerned, I am confident that there is nothing to cause pain to any one. Those have been chosen for mention who from greatness in deed or in station, from nobility of disposition, from proved service, or from excellence of conduct, deserve to be remembered. As I am writing from recollection —verified wherever necessary by reference to records—it is to such characters that my memory clings, and it is the career of such persons that can be most readily recalled. On the other hand, men of types different from the above doubtless have at various times passed along the stage. But I cannot undertake to describe them, or to recollect the faults into which they may have fallen, and the errors which they may have committed. Certainly some national mistakes or shortcomings have to be acknowledged upon a comprehensive retrospect of affairs. In such instances I have endeavored to explain how these deviations happened, in order that the explanation may help in establishing sign-posts for the future. The most salient feature of the book perhaps is the description of several among the greatest Governors-General that have ever held supreme command in India. Chapters VI., VIII., XIV., and XVI. afford a succinct, though I trust a tolerably full, analysis of the administration and the official character of four Governors- General, namely the Marquis of Dalhousie, Earl Canning, Sir John Lawrence, and the Earl of Mayo. My intimate connection officially with John Lawrence, first as his Secretary in the Panjab, next as the Foreign Secretary to his Government of India, and then as his Financial Councilor, may perhaps impart the character of a monograph to my account of him; and this account comprehends not only chapter XIV. mentioned above, but also chapters IV. and V. Further, in chapter IV. there is included a portrait of his celebrated brother Henry. Some portions of the administration of three Governors-General, namely Viscount Hardinge, the Earl of Northbrook and Earl Lytton, are set forth in chapters II., XVII. and XX. The careers of two provincial Governors, namely James Thomason and Sir Bartle Frere, are mentioned with some fullness in chapters III., and XII., and considerable reference is made to that of a third, namely Sir George Campbell, in chapter XVIII. In chapters IX. and X. the financial policy is explained of two Finance Ministers who, after having acquired a reputation in England, were appointed to direct the finances of India, namely James Wilson and Samuel Laing, under both of whom I had the advantage of serving in a confidential capacity. My official intimacy with Wilson during his, too brief, service in India, has enabled me to portray accurately the closing passages of his most useful life. Allusion, in some detail, is made to other men of distinction, namely Sir Robert Montgomery in chapters IV., V. and VII., Sir Arthur Phayre in chapter X., Sir Philip Wodehouse in chapter XX., Sir Henry Durand in chapter XVI., Sir John Strachey in chapters XV. and XVI., Bishop Cotton in chapters XI. and XIV., and Sir Seymour Fitzgerald in chapter XX. Throughout the book there are many scattered notices of those whose names will hereafter be inscribed in the roll of Anglo-Indian worthies. Some tribute is paid, in chapters XIV. and XVI., to the services rendered to India by two English jurists, Sir Henry. Sumner Maine and Sir James Fitzjames Stephen. Several of the missionaries whose talents were equal to their zeal and piety, namely Alexander Duff, William Smith, Stephen Hislop, John Wilson, and Bishop Sargent, are duly mentioned in chapters II., III., XI., XII. and XIX. Emphatic testimony is borne to the efficacy and success of the Christian missions in India. Further, in the belief that my countrymen desire to know something in regard to the character of those Native princes, who have proved themselves the loyal feudatories of the empire, I have given a sketch of the Maharaja of Pattiida, the Maharaja of Mind, the Nizam of the Deccan, and the Maharaja of Jyepur —all deceased—in chapters VII. and XIII. Some portraiture also is included, in the same chapters, of eminent Native statesmen, namely Sir Salar Jang, Sir Dinkar Rao, Sir Madhava Rao, and Jang Behadur. Interspersed throughout the book, are notices of Native worthies who are well known to the European community in India, namely the. Rev. Krishna Mohan Banerji, the Rev. Lal Behan Dey, Keshab Chunder Sen, Karsundas Mulji of Bombay, Kristo Das Pal of Calcutta and many others. Thoughtful Englishmen will readily perceive that in a vast and progressive community like that of India, there must be numerous individuals among the Natives, who, though unknown to fame in England, are exercising a potent influence among their countrymen and upon the society in which they move. For all names and topics, whether European or Native, an index has been prepared which will, it is hoped, be found sufficiently copious to help the reader in referring to particular points without looking through any chapter entirely. The chapters depicting the life, which is really lived in the interior of India, are VII. on the war of the Mutinies, XI. on the Central Provinces, XIII. on the Indian Foreign Secretary-ship, and XVIII. on the administration of Bengal. Chapter XIII. also portrays the court and camp in a Native State of the first rank. Although the book is not written at all for the purpose of describing the beauties of nature or of art, which have been already described in ‘India in 1880,’ still there are some delineations of the scenery in the vale of Cashmir, the eastern Himalayas, the river kingdom of Bengal and the Western Ghat mountains. Lastly, although the work is meant to comprise narrative rather than disquisition, yet there is in the introductory chapter a summary of the progressive results achieved during the last generation, and of the evils which still remain to be remedied; while the concluding chapter XXI. contains a specific discussion of the questions, social and political, which most nearly concern the welfare of the Natives and the position of the British Government. R. T. THE NASH, KEMPSEY near WORCESTER, January 27th, 1882. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. - CONTRAST BETWEEN THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF INDIA IN THE YEARS 1847 AND 1881.