Page:Our Indian Stewardship.pdf/3

 decision of such a tribunal upon the charges now brought forward. For when we look into history we find that the renewals of the Charter were the epochs when abuses were checked, when great reforms were initiated, and the most valuable principles asserted for the governance of our great Eastern Empire. In this way the commercial monopoly was removed, India was opened to the private enterprise of Englishmen; while for natives were secured the rights of citizens, and a claim to a fair share in the administration of their own country. Further, by means of these debates a salutary feeling of responsibility with regard to India was maintained among English public men, who kept a watchful eye upon the doings of their countrymen in the East, recognising the fact that the Company could not be trusted to carry out in practice the mandates of the English people. Accordingly, when complaints were made, strong men were found ready to insist that justice should be done, and the offender was brought to public trial, even though his services were as illustrious as those of Lord Clive, and though he was as highly placed as Warren Hastings. Now, unfortunately, since the old Company has disappeared, and the Crown has taken its place, this periodical stock-taking, this day of reckoning and of judgment has been lost to India. As there is no Charter to be renewed, there is no Parliamentary inquiry, and the Indian administration drifts on from year to year without independent scrutiny or control. Thus it happens that since 1858, when the Crown took over charge, a quarter of a century has elapsed without any independent audit of this great Indian trust, this estate of 576 millions of acres and 200 millions of souls. The actual management remains in the same hands as before. And the practical effect of the change is simply to relieve the Indian officials of their responsibility to Parliament, and to make perpetual the temporary lease of power which they before enjoyed. Moreover, the change from the Company to the Crown, though in many respects a mere change of name, has had a mischievous effect in lulling the wholesome jealousy and watchfulness of our public men in England, so that people are apt to indulge in a careless optimism, trusting that all is well, and that our great official hierarchy is administering India with singleness of heart for the good of the people, unswayed by personal interests or by the prejudices of class and race.

If a formal Parliamentary inquiry, such as was considered essential at each renewal of the Charter, is not now practicable, what is the substitute in the existing order of things? What are the resources at the disposal of the English nation for testing the results of the Indian administration during the last quarter of a century, and for controlling its future action? I will try to indicate what these resources are, as they appear to one of the outside public deeply interested in the welfare of India. I will also submit some suggestions, in the hope that the question of an independent check