The Press. — London, England, 1853-06-11 00:00:00

JuNE 11, 1853. Directors. The Presideut of the hoard of Control ought to be the Minister for India. Ile would raise his position. t Hear, hear.) If tho Chancellor of the Exchequer were VI Will Y saliwy of 10.001. a yetu . , the President of the Itoeml of Control ought whe worth as much. lle would raise his position tit the i'% , 's of the world, and make him responsible . for his atiministrat w ith the. Court of Ihreetors its a Connell and it ehee k ' upon hint. k !leer, hedr.y Mr. Hume then warnei the house that India would be utterly lost. if we persevered in misgovern ing it, and, characterising the plan befori, them as a mad declamt his int.mtion of opposing it ut every stage. Lea e Willi then given to bring in the bill. THE INCOME-TAX 1111,1.. The third reading of this bill NMI affirmed on Monday, after a brief conversation, by a majority 1)1 Is 9 ayes to 11 noes. On the question that the bill do pass, two clauses were moved by Sir F. One of these was to reduce the tax from la. to 30. in the p o und on i n . conies ranging between 1001. and !!..00/. per a l umni and to tied. upon those exceedingl.ool., but less than :100/. By the second clause he proposed to take five per cent. front the amount of the tax paid by any individual in respect of every child born in wedlock, and both remaining unmarried and under twenty-one years of age. The classes en whose behalf these re• missions were asked were " the poorer clergymen and curates who hail to support in a respectable position of life ten very s lender means. Also the smaller close of tradesuion and small farmers, the latter of whom had had their incomes reduced one•half by recent legislation. '!'he Chancellor of the Es• cheer hail conceded the principle to WIWI ext, he had p qurovided that the texon incomes under 130/. eut should be' in the pound." The CitAXl'l:l.l.olt of the ExenElVEli declared it impossible to adopt, these propositions. The great danger of the inetime tax lay in the exemptions it involved, and the course pursued with regard to it ever since the impost was first established by Mr. Pitt had been gradually simplifying the tax by abo lishing class exemptions and privilege*, by getting rid of the system of gradations, and making the dit• auctions as few and broad as possible. 11 regard to the special principle involved in the two suggested clauses, he regarded it us particularly dangerous. It went much further than Radicalism. Now were they to fix 40(11. us the mark above which every man was rich, and below it poor ? If they once opened the door an unexpected and undesired multitude would be found rushing through it. Atter some further discussion the first clause was put and negatived by a majority of 144 to ; and the second without a division. Sir A. Another clause, move d b y CAmeam.i., and providing that in charging the duty under schedule A, in respect of lands, tenements, hereditament*, and heritages, an allowance or deduction should he made for the amount of all parochial and comity rates, taxes, and assessments paid by the owner thereol,was also opposed by Mr. 111,mocrosr, who affirmed that it would destroy the whole structure of the tax. It was likewise negatived upon a division. The last touches being given to the scheme by the addition of some new clauses proposed by the Ous t:Eu.oa of the ExenEtiont, the income-tax Bill passed its last stage in the Nouse of Commons. TILE WAR IN The Earl of ELLEsuoitovint, on Monday, while putting some queries touching the information lin this subject possessed by the Uoverument, took the opporttunty of detailing many of the incidents and weighing the probable rehalts of the our. He con demned the policy in which it ”atli originated, the conduct and expenditure by which it had been car ried on, and drew a vivid picture of the hazard which it had bright around our Indian empire id tt., . MC4 iIIeMCBS. Earl li RANY I LLE declined to enter upon the subject, pleading that the tiovennnent had no further infor mation than WAR in the hands of the house and country generally. The Earl of ALBEMARLE strongly reconnuended the cessation of hostilities upon the lust prudent and h ono urable occasion. Especially he deprecated the annexation of any new territory in Humid', or the pursuance of any course which might render that step a matter of painful neceasity. Nothing but danger or pecuniary loss could result front the acquisition :- - There was ao one of their lordships who could ever hope to owe the day when the annexed Uertitory would pay its town expenses; the seaport WWI five Windt eil miles distant from the nearest portion of our old tetTitory, and the film• tier was Open Ulld wish', on any point of which an arrogant, barbarous, awl implacable toe might Initc.; his whole tort'', whenever it suited him to do so. What he would suggest was that the province id l'egu should la' converted into an independent state, under au independent sioverripi, who might Ist chosen from tunongst the Pegiatui chiefs. At tithe e close of the last Burmese war the Veguans did elect chief to govern them, and under him they made a ‘ery respectable stand against their lturnattle couquenom out our assistance o r advice, which it' they had had, it wow with vary THE PRESS Scotch Church to O.IXII. sail othl, the Roman Catholic Church to 500/. In the year 1'.430 there were I ltt missimary stations, and in 10440 there were 403 unissioonuannary s tmt ions. (Hear , hear.) With regard to the P Catholic Church, the cost, it would be seen, hail inervased from 1,6091. to near 6,000/., and at every station ht India, where there was a European regiment a p a yment was made to a Boman Catholic priest. (Hear, hear.)" Earnestly &Ong the charge that the directors felt no sympathy for India, he declared that they enter tained a most sincere conviction of the sacredness of that duty which had devolved upon them, and that while they cared little, as regarded themselves, what might be the determination of Parliament, their earnest wish anti anxious prayer were that the Supreme Disposer of Events might so direct the councils of Parliament that it might select that form of government, and those instrumen ts of govern ment, that were best calculated to advance the interests and happiness of the people of Idia, and the honour and glory of this great cou n ntry. (Cheerer. ) The discussion was resumed on Thursday by that r. IILACKETT, who advocated th e broad principle the East India Company should not be in any degree an organ of administration in India. Of all the in stances that had been cited respecting benefits eon ferred or improvements effected in that empire, the whole credit must be assigned to the India Govern ment, while it was the Company which was now on its trial. Following Sir Charles Wood and Sir J. W. Hogg through various departments of the financial, judicial, and administrative systems, patronage, Ax., Mr. Blacken drew a conclusion contrary to theirs, and contended that the tokens of advance were less, and the proofs of mismanagement far greater, than they had asserted or acknowledged, and that the remedy provided by the bill of the Government was altogether insufficient. Remarking upon the inconsistencies that prevailed between the assertions and the plans of the Minister for India, he observed " The President of the Board of Control had called the Indian empire all anomaly, but in saying so he was only confessing, not Ida incompetenee, but his rehtetance to grapple with the subject. (Hear, hear.) If there was au anomaly anywhere it was to be found in their determina tion to govern 150,000,000 of Asiatics by a handful of efficials, and to persist in administering a great e earmpire by the newt • 'ry of a joint-stock company. (H, hear-) The speech of the tight honourable baronet was tilled with details resiwcting the good administration of the Comptuiy, amid with lavish praises of the director'; but the directors would prefer a little solid pudding to all this empty praise. (Hear, hear.) He said the Government was working well, lint still he proposed to introduce six nominees into that Government. He expressed his approval of the directors, yet he asked them to suppress one-half of their number. (Hear, hear.) If he (Mr. Blackett I had the felicity to agree with the right honourable gentleman the Presidentof the Board of Control in the opinion he e ntertained resh the pect ing the company, he had also the felicity to agree wit Comptuly in its opinion of the Board of Control. They had heard the speech of the honourable baronet the mem ber for Honiton, and they had never heard a fuller or more able statement, but he did not say one word in praise of any single alteration that had been recom men hear.) ded He by th did e President of the Board of Control. (Hear, not express any very hearty welcome for the six Govern ment gentlemen who were to be invited to join them, or for the change that would take all the civil patronage from them ; he did not express his intention to share in the great suttee which the President of the Board of Control had invited the directors to celebrate in Leadenhall-street —(laughter)—or offer his tiuudts fur the 4/. a week which the right honourable baronet coolly oTa fferect hint ieasun return liar his patronage. (liter, hear.) king tie" re of the President of the Board of Control, and the speech of the honourable baronet the member for Honittm, he could not think the two parts of the double govennnent would go on happily together. (Hear, hear.)" Turning to the subject of patronage, Mr. ',Hackett, after citing many facts, declared that the conduct of the Company in this respect pmved their total unfit ness for even the humblest responsibilities of govern ment : `• He especially wished to impress on the house the manlier in which the Company had distributed their pa t xmage, because that was the only point on which they had exercised an a bsolute and unlimiteddiscrtiou, and on the exercise of which they could base their claim to a renewal of the confidence of the English people. (Hear.) He had shown that they had exercised that vast prerogative in the precise tawnier mo st calculated t oa cal. o be n .tit. their own family connee s—(H) —and le c dated either to economise the resources of the c ountry, or to strengthen the social system of the natives of India. He had shown that th e y had deliberately betrayed the trust r -posed in them by the. Parliament of hsss. He was told the privileges of the directors were limited by this bill; bat surely it was not enough to withdraw the mere posses sion of the patronage which they hail shown themselves so grossly to have u'isapplied. Surely it would be intolerable that the administration of the humblest native village should be left to the discretion of men who had shown themselves incapable , of distributing a few writerships IL year without yivithw.; to such melancholy and humiliating temptations (liter, hear.)" Mr. T. BAIUNti insisted upon the dangers of delay. That the committee was s t ill sitting was no valid mason for postponing legislation, because there were many things they had to inquire mtu which/lay quite beside the points whereon the Legislature had now to decide. If they hung up the question for a year two, while advertising for a scheme of policy, pro or tracting uncertainty and promoting agitation in India and England, they might do more Inuin than the best possible government, if they succeeded in get ting it could afterwards retrieve. Ito then enlarged upon the advantages, constituting in his mind an absolute necessity, of the double government. It was not wise to leave hags to be governed by a private company nueontrolled , but it would be extremely un wise to render that Government wholly dependent upon political influences and associations, and render the seem ity and welfare of India subordinate to the ephemeral exigencies of party : " Since sitting as chairman of the committee on Indian affairs he had learnt among other things to value the great importimee of caution in introducing changes with regard to India. and the great necessity then' was that they should not falter in their desire to give that country the very host possiiile form of gover n ment ; awd, aboVe all, he had learnt the necessity there was to preserve this great quest' from the blasting influence of party s trife, party objects, and p a rty triumphs. 'heers.l" Sir 11EIZBERT .Ammo; maintained a contrary pro position. Delay he considered highly beneficial to the pro er solption of the question, and believed that it would be favourably interpreted in India. Agains s,t the double system he raised many objection urging that both government and justice should be administered in India as in England—in the name of the Queen. Mr. pitons SEvitour. contrasted the British management of her Eastern dependencies with that. of Russia, deviating that the comparison told lamentably against us. The frontiers o f the two powers in Asia would one day touch, and when the day came, as come it must, that the inhabitants of India would have to choose between England and Russia, it could not be doubted for a moment that they would prefer the latter. Statements founded upon the official papers furnished to that. house were utterly fallacious, since everything which told salts the Company was invariably suppressed. Even the writers of some historical works, he had occasion to suspect, bad been paid by the directors because they praised their sulministration. Declaring that the British rule was detested in India, and that it had pauperised the country; and contravening the argu ments of the defenders who had stood up for the Company in Parliament and the press, Mr. Seymour called on Lord .lohn ltussell not to retrograde from his ancient Liberalism for the sake of a measure which many even of the ministers themselves knew to be only a temporary makeshift designed to break the inevitable fall of the East Indio. directors. Mr. ItlssnE interposed a brief suggestion that before destroying one system of government they ought to be prepared with another. Innumerable faults had been found with the present Board and Court of Directors, hut no one had ventured to say a word about a substitute. Mr. HUME deprecated premature legislation. Ile found much to say on behalf of the present Court of Directors, who bad done more than some parties wore willing to admit, though ho confessed that much was left undone. Still it was necessary, ► before legislating, to find out where the fault lay, to put the saddle on the right horse. Deliberate inquiry on the spot was necessary for this ; but. at home ich ther e w ere some changes to b e affected by wh th ' Court of Directors might be improved instead of being destroyed. For this p ur p ose he suggested s ome enlargement in the constituencies, by giving votes on the election of directors to holders of 5001. stock, and insisted espe ciall y upon the necessity of ensuring full publicity, not as a favour, but as a rule, to all the acts and intentions of the Indian G ovent ment. At present everything wall wrapped in mystery between the Secret Committee and the Board of Control:— " The secret committee, eousisting of the chairman, deputy-chairman, and senior director, were consulted upon questions of peace and war by the Board of Control, bat an oath was a dministered to them not to divulge what transpired without permissiiin of the President of tint Lenard, teal as be IleVer gave his permission nothing could be known. The 1.1 111Setinel We was that the twenty-one other directors were kept in utter ignorance, and orders were sent out to waste the resources of the Company, con trary perhaps to the express advice of the Court of Direr tors, and without their sanction. How it was t h e Ministry did not propose to alter such a state of things was to hint quite incomprehensible. That had been the lame and the ruin of India—the cause of roads, irrigation, teal canals being neglected, and all improvements delayed. lie coin tended that no single umn—irresponsible as was the Presi dent of the Board of Control —ought ever to have the power of destrling the resources of a great country like India. hi India itself the tiovernorA ieneral had to take the advice of every one of his Council, and if they differed from him in opinion they registered the reasons why they differed, to be sent home and judged of here ; but if, after hearing all their opinions, the Governor-Genered total en tertained the same views, he was at liberty to carry them out upon his own responsibility ; and the woe system should be established iu the home ciovernment between the President of the Board of Control and the Court of 1 1