Volume II Part 19 (1/2)
But we have arrived at a most remarkable crisis now, first in the occurrence of this most terrible famine, and, second, in the revolution in the India Office Lord Salisbury will think for himself in spite of an Indian Council composed--with only the exception of Sir B Frere--of men of incurable old Indian bias” Sir Arthur Cotton's inventive genius has left a permanent impress upon India; but he was now _en disponibilite_, and he was one of those enthusiasts hen out of office and unable to carry on their plans, conceive the world to be in wilful conspiracy against the the case for canals, he overstated it by too unco years Sir Arthur Cotton was one of the ale's correspondents She was fully alive to the faults of manner which hindered the acceptance of his ideas, and from time to time she pleaded with him for more moderation and less asperity She herself was sometimes blamed, by Mr Jowett and others, for over-eht of Sir Arthur Cotton who gave the public ”strong alcohol,” in co of hers was but ”watered ation question before she perceived that it was intimately bound up with the Land question Who was to pay for irrigation? Were the ryots willing to pay a water-rate? Could they pay it? Were not the Zemindars rapacious? Was not the cultivator at the e Caale proceeded, with his assistance, to master the intricacies of Land tenure in various parts of India, and especially of the ”Peral One subject led her on to another, and she became deeply interested in the questions of representation, land, education, usury
She becaitator, at large
V
Her imation In view alike of the poverty of India, and of the ever present danger of famine, she held that it was the duty of the Governreat works as well as sreat and s private capital as well as by rants and loans The Indian tax-payer was poor, it was said to her; the way to ate his land
Miss Nightingale began her Irrigation can with an appeal to Lord Salisbury, and she approached hiround She knew that he was of a scientific turn ofneedful was to obtain complete and trustworthy statistics She sent hiation works already carried out, and the financial results accruing therefroreat difficulty in obtaining the figures ”I have been too long on the search for such returns myself,” he replied (May 10, 1875), ”not to syth to enuorous exhibit,” and to state the questions which seeeneral; for instance, ”Is irrigation,” he asked, ”the creation or etable wealth, which but for it would never have existed, or does it crowd into a few years the enjoyment of the whole productive power of the soil?” Meanwhile he had her figures submitted to critical annotation at the India Office, directed various Papers to be sent to her, and promised to see whether fuller returns could be obtained As nothing definite resulted, Miss Nightingale suggested the appointate and report The suggestion elicited a characteristic reply from Lord Salisbury ”As for a Commission,” he wrote (Nov 1, 1875), ”I doubt its efficiency
Commissions are very valuable to collect and summarize opinion, and they are often able to decide one or two distinct issues of fact But they are too unwieldy for the collection and digestion of a great variety of facts and figures With the best intentions, their work is slow and _routinier_, and in their report they gloss over the weak places with generalities As a rule, administrative force is in the inverse proportion of the nu as toas four Boards and Co ed Lord Salisbury's elbow, asking whether he had yet been able to obtain trustworthy figures, and beseeching hiation policy ”Do not for a otten the question The o into it, the deeper the ht to entertain an opinion on it vindicates that right by entertaining a different one frohbour General Strachey and Sir Barrow Ellis have been engaged upon the matter for years Both of these assert with confidence that one set of statements is true, while the Government of India, backed by Mr Thornton, our excellent Public Works Secretary, assert it with no less confidence to be false When I a as et nearer certainty than I am now” As Lord Salisbury was disinclined to a Coed him to procure returns from India, and she drew up a ht be asked of the extent of cultivated land in each district, the aation, the cost of annual repairs, and so forth, and so forth Lord Salisbury took the suggestion into consideration, and so caale then tried to obtain information in another way There were, she was told, masses of data in the India Office itself, which only needed analysis and tabulation to yield valuable results Lord Lawrence had introduced to her Mr Edward Prinsep (late Settlement Commissioner, Punjab) as a man likely to be helpful in such work She ave facilities, and Mr Prinsep began ale's behalf Unfortunately for her success, she had the correctitude to ask Lord Salisbury's permission Lord Salisbury referred her request to the Revenue Department, who in a solemn minute represented the serious precedent that would be set by allowing an outsider to delve in official archives, and Mr Prinsep had to discontinue his researches ”You are doubtless aware,” Sir Louis Mallet told her dryly, ”that in the India Office opinions diametrically opposed are usually entertained on every subject which is discussed” There was only one certainty, he added, that any decision taken at one tiood deal of information was collected by a Select Committee of the House of Commons on Public Works in India (1878) and by Faale asked for, are now regularlythese years,[170] but no great forward policy in that direction was instituted The ”forward policy” presently adopted was of a very different sort The thoughts of the politicians were absorbed in other things; the opinions of the bureaucrats were divided, and there was stringency in Indian finance If the experts could not agree on the proper basis of estiation, still less were they at one on the kind of irrigation work that was desirable Every one was agreed in favour of irrigation ”in principle”; but as soon as it beca, there were as many opinions as there were experts One school said, ”Borrow the money and the land will be so enriched that the ryot will be able to pay increased taxation” Another school retorted, ”But he will be squeezed out of existence first; therefore, retrench all round, and wait for better tiineering difficulties were raised One school said, ”Make navigable canals,” but that meant fulness of water in theation,” but that meant depletion And so the controversy continued, with no decided impulse from the men in office
Famines came and went; soreat preventive policy was established
[170] _Eg_ the ”Buckingha the canals N and S of Madras ( ”under consideration” for a quarter of a century) Miss Nightingale celebrated this tardy achieveraphy A, No 99
Miss Nightingale was much disheartened, but she persevered She corresponded with everybody of importance whom she could hope to influence With Lord Lytton, who had succeeded Lord Northbrook as Viceroy in 1876, she was not acquainted; and Lord Beaconsfield she never approached, except on another ement on his part[171] In April 1878 Lord Salisbury becan Secretary, and was succeeded at the India Office by Mr Gathorne-Hardy (Lord Cranbrook), Mr Edward Stanhope beco Under-Secretary Mr Stanhope ca year she sent hiures of mortality in the last Indian fareat labour from various sources of information, and correspondence ensued She saw and corresponded largely with Sir Jalish representative on the Fahton on the subject of Indian grievances She saw and corresponded with Mr Fawcett She saw Mr Bright She kept up a large and regular correspondence with officials in India She supplied land; and, with skilled assistance, she had soraved, to show the principal works which ht be constructed These ale also wrote repeatedly in newspapers andout districts which faation, and others where siht be expected to prevent fa the cost of relief and prevention; urging the i attention to oppression in for to arouse public interest at hos of the voiceless istrar-General retired, and Miss Nightingale wrote to Lord Beaconsfield urging the clailish statisticians, and as the senior in the Registrar-General's office, he would have been the right es Henniker
Dr Farr thereupon retired fro year he was h Sir Stafford Northcote)
[172] The title of an article by Miss Nightingale in _Good Words_ For it, and other Indian writings, see Bibliography A, Nos 82, 84, 90, 92, 97-100
The piece by Miss Nightingale which attracted most attention was an article on ”The People of India” in the _Nineteenth Century_ for October 1878 Sir Jaazine was then in the early days of its influence, and he gave the first place to this article, in which Miss Nightingale administered a wholesome shock to British complacency ”We do not care for the people of India,” she exclaiht in the world” was to be seen in the British Eave pitiable facts and figures of Indian famines, and passed on to describe in more detail the evils of usury in the Bombay Deccan ”I cannot tell you,” she wrote to a correspondent in the following year,[173] ”the intense interest that I take in the subject: how to raise the indebted poor cultivators of India out of their wretched bondage of poverty, whether by _monts de piete_, by some National Bank, such as you propose, by some co-operative systeale's article was received as a kind of manifesob those who syht a large accession to her Indian correspondence
In official circles it caused some flutter ”I have read your article,”
wrote a friend in the India Office (Aug 8), ”with the greatest interest and admiration The official mind is nates (not in the present Government) in which the article was described as a shriek, and the question hether so could not be done to counteract the i the article, sent to Miss Nightingale an elaborate criticis that she had exaggerated the shadows With Lord Salisbury's successor at the India Office there was the following correspondence:
(_Miss Nightingale to Lord Cranbrook_) _August_ 10 [1878]
DEAR LORD CRANBROOK--Very meekly I venture to send you a poor little article of mine on the People of India in the _Nineteenth Century_ I hope if you read it you will not call it a shriek (I am astonished at my own moderation) I am not so troublesome as to expect that you can find time to read it, but the India Office has untold treasures (which it does not know itself) in Reports on these subjects which will engage your busy time; and especially the Deccan Riots Commission Report, on the relation of the ryots and the extortionate money-lenders in the Bombay Deccan, will, I am sure, call for your attention Can there be any private enterprise in trade or commerce, in uaranteed by our own Courts the profits, the enormous and easy profits, which no enterprise of the kind that India most wants can rival? What are the practical remedies for extortionate usury in India, and principally in the Boislature at Simla does not seem to promise much Does it? The whole subject is, I know, before you
Pray believe me (with sorateful servant, FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
(_Lord Cranbrook to Miss Nightingale_) INDIA OFFICE, _August_ 13 [1878] DEAR MISS NIGHTINGALE--Having been out of town for two days your note only reachedI read your article last ith riefs of India, I think you generalise too h to stir the heart and mind in search of remedies for admitted evils--Yours very sincerely, CRANBROOK
[173] Mr Francis William Fox; he had sent to her his pa _inter alia_ a National Agricultural Bank Miss Nightingale's letter of three sheets (June 18, 1879) is eloquent both of her profound knowledge of Indian conditions and of her enthusiastic interest in Indian problems
The Secretary of State wrote to the Viceroy, Lord Lytton, in ale's article, saying that she had generalized too islation can afford a remedy”[174] The Viceroyalty of Lord Lytton was hanistan than for internal reforale, as a disciple of Lord Lawrence, holly opposed to an aggressive policy which,retrenchment in all departments except the military
[174] The letter to Lord Lytton is printed in vol ii p 80 of Mr A E Gathorne-Hardy's _Meale in her propagandist zeal now turned to Mr Gladstone
She made an article of his, called ”Friends and Foes of Russia,” which appeared in the _Nineteenth Century_ (January 1879), the occasion of a letter to him In this article he had incidentally referred to the loss of ”1,400,000 lives” in the last Indian famine She pointed out to hiht to enlist him in a crusade for the Indian causes dear to her heart:--
(_Mr Gladstone to Miss Nightingale_) HAWARDEN, _Jan_ 26 [1879]
How many years have elapsed since your name used to sound daily in my ears, and how many sad events, events of varied sadness, have happened in the very place where I used to hear it! All through this Eastern controversy, the most painful of my life, it has been a consolation to know that I was in sy declaration about the war against Turkey I alad that you approve of lad that the error you notice is one of under-statement I had not the means of complete reference when I sent off the sheets, and 1,400,000 seemed toThe first correction I received put four her still[175]