The popular opposition has' developed further in the shape of many' meetings, protests and flowery, impassioned speech es, culminating in' the "Swadeshi" movement' to boycott British manufactures, and especially "Manchester piece-goods. The "Swadeshi" organisation professes to permeate all lasses of society, and to bind together. all. castes and: classes of true Hindus, and to them came the brilliant idea of punishing the Government for going contrary to their wishes, and forcing the Home Government to notice their grievances, by dealing a slashing blow at the British manufacturer, For two or three days the excitement was intense among the natives of Calcutta and other large. towns. English costumes,. so much affected by the enterprising Babu, were exchanged for the flowing diaphanousmuslins of olden, days; students and schoolboys flung away their caps and dearly-loved patent-leather shoes, and tore about in bands, knocking of bhats from the heads of their compatriots and tearing away cigarettes from the hands of others, who vain might protest that the article in question was of French manufacture. Pho fun was too good to forego; Benga for the Bengalis" was the motto, and "Swadeshi". (own country) the ory. Evoryono must dress in Indian muslins, cat only curry and tice, and chew " pin-pan" (betel nut), eschewing London fashions and cigarettes. If the movement should lead to a revival of Indian manufactures, the agitators might pride themselves on having achieved so thing for their native land, but already the movement seems fizzling out. The fow "Swadesh " stores and shops which sprang into being are of no account wh: ever, and quite unable to supply -the needs of a people, accustomed all their lives to better und cheaper pice goods than can be produced by the looms of India in the present day. If the agitation is to effect any permanent rosult, there must be a practical, patient, and careful setting to work, far different from the present frothy demonstration, which reveals ts weakness in declaring the vengeful motives which have inspired its Anglo-Indian officials would seo Indian industries revived, but the matter cannot be achieved in a moment. At the outset a difficulty arises, as the Indian looms{provide only the coats cloths, such aware worn by labourers in the remoter villages, or oxq\ very costly make which can only be purchased by the rich. In ancient days, the city of Dacca, destined to be the capital of the new Province of Eastern: Bengal and Assam, was the contre of the muslin weavers, and strange to say, the effects of the French Revolution shattered the trade with this erstwhile splendid residence ofa Moghul Governor. The beautiful fabrics of Dacca and Delhi, known "running water," " woven air" and " evei ing dew" had been highly prized at the French Court, but alas for the trade of Bengal, fashions changed and the French custom was lost. If pictures of our gr grandmothers msy be trusted, ladies in those days strolled in pleasure grounds in a sunny hour, clad sparsely, in finest musiing, their movements hampered by airy, fascinating scarves' which wound round their limbs'and floated casually on to the prosenit generation. We find'stout tweeds and serviceable, golf capes more suited tothe' rigours of the' climate in the British Isles, and even East of Suez. the same useful garments ap slightest "hint of the cold. weather,' or when the dews of evening fall is to be feared on' behalf. of the Indian muslin trade that the elegant "priouimonis" costumes of olden days will never be tolerated again, even in the sunny East.
The Travancore Planter's Case which has just been concluded in the High Court, Madras, is one that has been watched with absorbing interest in planting circles and has excited much notice in circles far beyond the limits of the native State of Travancore. The case is but the climax of a long series which have arisen in late years, as the result of the temper of the present government in India, who have determined quite rightly to put down any oppression of the natives with a stern hand, But one unforeseen result of this system has: been to give the unlettered native an undue idea of his own power, resulting in frivolous. and sometimes false charges being' brought against those who are: pat in authority over him. The present is a' case in point, A quite trivial complaint was brought before the local magistrate about the death of a coolie—one Jacob—who shad just died of pneumonia, but it was darkly hinted that the death was really due to a beating and kicking received from his master, a planter, To' this there were no eye-witnesses. Mr. Leo, the planter in question, having a clear conscience, at first regarded the affair in a light-hearted manner, but soon found himself, much to his astonishment, under arrest and accused of "culpable homicide not amounting' to. murder the coolie in question had, some aay smart cuts over the hands with a fly switch for inciting others to bolt from the estate, the accused admitted. Afterwards the coolie Jacob bad sickened, and been attended in the usual course by ehestate apothecary, a most competent medical man with a long experience, and it. was certified truly that Jueob. died of pneumonia, The Travancore officials, however, in conducting the case, partly. through ignorance and incompetence when dealing with the post-mortem, soon caused the; affair to reach such alarming proportions that the case, originally a privi one and quite within the jurisdiction of the lower Court, was transferred to the High Court Sessions. The case ended, after a patient hearing extending over six days, in an unanimous verdict of " not. guilty" by a jury composed -of five Europeans and four Indians, the. jury appending a rider to-the verdict that "the jury are unanimously of opinion that Inspector Nainan and Apothecary De Lamas have perjured themselves in this court and are responsible for this case." Thereafter warrants were issued for the arrest of these two men, the police: ins-poeter, and the apothecary who conducted the post-mortem and who appeared for the recruiting kang any Moses, who was one of the first to bring the complaint before the magistrate, but whose'evidence, like theirs, was a tissue of. lies and, contradictions. The police: inspector, it was shown in Court, had wilfully exaggerated the case, in hopes of obtaining heavy bribes from Mr. Lee and others. Ho is said to have escaped to Travancore to appeal to his. own Government for protection, but. it is.to be hoped:-that he will be caught and made an example of, for perjury, conspiracy, and attempts to extort, bribes. The apothecary, Do. Lamas, is out on, bail pending; his trial; his post-mortem report, which, was nearly, being such a serious report for Mr. Lee, was drawn up with the evident intention of proving that the coolie's death was, due to violence, and was, shown, in court to be a most ludicrous document, displaying an amount of professional ignor-anes which does not say, much. for the amount of medical. knowledge, expected from her apothecaries. by., the State of Travancore. It. is hoped that one result of this case may be to throw a flood of light on the incompetence and corruption which undoubtedly, exists among certain grades of native officials, and that, the authorities may be led to take such action as will prevent the arising in' the future.of such serious charges from such slight grounds of complaint.
The Indian Coolie Man cannot quite he lot off his share in the clift culties which surround the planter in his struggle for existence, and it may be thst the happy conclusion of the cnse against Mr. Lee will have a salutary effect in dotering the ignorant native, who is usually only too realy to avenge any discovery of his own roguery by trumping up some charge against his master, A planter's life, in India at least, at the present day, to be successful one, requires exceptional practical abilities, and a certain amount of efficiency in several departments, usually filled by men professionally trained. For instance he may be called of to act as surveyor to mon sure his land, as engineer to road and bridge it, as arch tect to build a factory, a-bungalow or lines, as agriculturist to fell, clear, drain, and cultivate his clearings, where after many years of unremitting toil, tle product, be it tea, coffee, cinchona or fashionable rubber, is expected to flourish and yield a profit. Woo betide the luck-Joss planter whose clearings are a failure in_any or all respects speedily noted failure in the planting world and must go under. Besides having a suilicient practical knowledge of many trades, the planter must be a past master in the art of tact, for it must be remembered that all his works—with the aid perhaps occasionally of ab engineer or mechanic to supervise the machinery of the- factories—must be performed by the coolie, the ignorant, lazy, scheming, half-civilised coolie man, who' has never done an honest day's work in is life. mid, if shirking and idling will sult ice, aever will, Recruited for the most part from. tive lowest dregs of the rural population, unaccustomed to regular work of any kindy and quite unskilled in the use of any tool, ving " hand to mouth existence at the merey of the higher-castes in his village, the low caste coolie is tempted by the hope of bettering himself and by the higher wages promised in the hills; he listens to the voice of the tempter.in the shape of a recruiting " kang any," and joins a gang sturting for the estates. is with the assistance of this feckless creature, who hates his work and loath the climate, that the planter must get all his work done at the lowest possible cost, and. that conclusion can only be reached by the exercise of the greatest pationcoand tact in dealing with the haman element on an estate. Men are not machines, and the untrained, unskilled article oan never. be treated as such with any hope'of sue-cess; even the down-trodden pariah who has been for centuries the slave and despised outcast in his own village, develops, on transplantation to: the hills, an extraordinary amount of likes atid
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.