The Fortnightly Review: No. CCCCLXIII, New Series [‎605r] (100/239)

THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE.
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Kingdom. He also was most anxious to see Sir Raymond
West’s Bill to suppress gambling become law; especially per
nicious was the practice of betting upon the rainfall prevalent
amongst the Marwari merchants of the Western Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. .
But the East was not yet awake. Lord Lansdowne laboured
also to improve the lot of the industrial toilers. Lord Shaftes
bury first brought the discreditable state of the Indian Factories
before Parliament in 1879. Two years later the Indian
Factory An East India Company trading post. Act, 1881, was added to the statute-book. It provided
for the appointment of inspectors and certifying medical
officers, the fencing of machinery, and prohibited the employ
ment of any child under seven years of age, and children under
twelve for more than nine hours a day : each should have one
hour’s interval daily for rest, and four days’ holiday in
each month. This excellent measure had, however, serious
defects :—no protection was afforded to women, or to young
persons over twelve years of age. The period, too, of work
ing the mills was unrestricted : in many instances they were kept
going for fifteen hours a day. Notwithstanding tremendous oppo
sition by the Calcutta, Bombay, and other mill-owners, Lord
Lansdowne’s amending Bill became law, and he saw its satisfac
tory working before he left India.
For many years the cruelty of Indian child-marriages had
shocked the mind and conscience of all right-thinking Anglo-
Indians. Criminal records showed that child-wives were fre
quently done to death by the exercise of marital rights. Anglo-
Indians, however, could never hope unaided to effect a change in
practices sanctioned by religion and custom for centuries. Re
form in this direction could only be effected from within.
Within yourselves deliverance must be sought
Each man his prison makes.
It was not until Mr. Malabari, a rich Parsee, publicly inveighed
against child-marriages that reform came within the region of
practical politics. The outcome was the passing of the Viceroy’s
age of Consent Bill of 1890, which fixed the minimum age of con
sent at twelve years.
His attitude towards the Indian Congress was that of a shrewd
statesman. Representative government in India is not in sight.
The land of the Moguls will not be fit probably for centuries for
the slowly developed constitution of England, which is the envy
of the civilised world. But Lord Lansdowne did not share Lord
Dufferin’s contempt for the “ microscopic minority ” who advo
cated the Congress. Of late years it appears to have been both
large and representative. As early as 1891 it contained 965
Hindus, 221 Mohammedans, 22 native and 15 European Chris-