The Press.
London, England, 1855-06-23 00:00:00

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tribution of his patronage has to consult
nothing but his own personal interests and
wishes. He may provide for his sons, and
nephews, and relations, and connections to the
remotest degree, without let or hindrance, and
whatever appointments he has no direct use
for he may barter with the holders of other
kinds of patronage or interest for such equi-
valent as he requires. He may legally dispose
of his appointments for any valuable consi-
deration except money ; and, though the sale
of Indian appointments for money be pro-
hibited, there is little to prevent a Director
converting them into cash if he pleases. We
have no present acquaintance with the state
of the market in respect to these things; but,
till very lately, at any rate, they were pro-
curable without difficulty by any one who
knew how to set about it. Like the purchase
of game out of season, the thing was illegal,
but there was little danger attached to the
proceeding.
Under such a system, the claims of service
or of merit go, of course, for nothing. At the
Horse Guards, an honourable career in the
army never fails to procure a commission for
a son without purchase ; but the merits of the
most distinguished officer who ever bled or died
for his country in India would be held to con-
vey no earthly claim for his children on the
Direction. Nay, so strenuously do the Direc-
tors insist on their personal interest in these
appointments being maintained, that some
assistant - surgeons, who had been sent on
emergency by the Government of India to fill
vacancies during the Sciude and China wars,
and who had served some three or four years
with distinguished credit, were refused confir-
mation of their commissions, and were turned
adrift after the war was over. In the same
way, sergeants in the company's service, who
have won their ensigncy on the field of battle,
are invariably removed from their regiments,
and permanently shelved. The plea in both
cases has been, that assistant-surgeoneies and
ensigncies are the private perquisite of the
Directors, and that they are not to have their
property diminished by granting commissions
for services to men whom they neither know
nor care for. Incredible as it may seem,
officers with Scinde and China medals on their
breasts have been driven forth to starve in
order to make way for nominees of the Direc-
tors, in the shape of personal relatives, or of
men who had surreptitiously purchased com-
missions from them in London.

Nor has the evil of the Indian system of
patronage rested here, for the consequence of
filling Indian appointments with the sons, and
nephews, and friends of the Directors has
caused a waste of the public resources, in the
shape of salaries and allowances, that is
driving 'lndia daily nearer and nearer the
verge of bankruptcy; while the frightful
abuses and misgovernment it has been the
occasion of are beyond belief. But what
rational being could expect anything but
abuses and misgovernment to prevail in a
land where the controlling authorities are the
fathers, and uncles, and relatives of the pei -
petrators of these abuses, and are the very
persons who profit by the (misgovernment
against which all the rest of the world cries
out Talk of ,the evils arising from the ne-
potism of the Whigs, why it is the merest
trifle compared with the evils arising from the
nepotism of the Directors in their appoint-
ments to India. To realise the idea of the
latter one must supposo the ELLIOTS, and