The Press.
London, England, 1853-07-30 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Mr. VERNON SMITH moved a clause by which the
salary of the President of the Board of Control
should be fixed at an equality with that of one of the
principal Secretaries of State, namely. 5,000/. per
annum. lie also proposed to enttet that only one of
the Secretaries of the India Board should be capable
of sitting in Parliament. A high salary he believed
indispensable to secure the services of an able man ;
anti he ti ght one ►ennanent Seeretary infinitely
preferable at the board to two political Secretaries, as
at present.
Lora PALMERRTON urged various reasons, founded
chiefly on etiquette, why the President of the Board
of Control should not hold the title anti dignity of a
Secretary of State, whose function it may be to re-
eeive anti execute the commands of the S:wereign.

With regard to the salary, however, he had no objec-
tion to an equality, and heartily concurred in the
proposition that one Secretary of the hoard should
be n►ade non-political, and therefore permanent. It
was impossible to overestimate the advantage which
the services of a permanent. Secretary would confer
on any public department.
Sir .1. W. Howl also approved of the suggestion,
which encountered no opposition in debate, and eli-
cited only from Mr. WILL!Aws a sarcastic remark
that of all the amendments proposed Goveniment
had supported but one, which increased the salary of
the President.

A division took place, itt whieh the clause w 11.4 car-
ried by n majority ot• 1 In to '29.
Mr. WISE afterwards moved a clause to the effect
that one third of tho persons admitted to Athliseombe
should be selected from the sons of ()Ulcers in the
civil or military service of the Company, sneh melee-
tion to be made by the Governor-tietteral of India.
Upon a division this clause was negatived by 101
to '29.

The bill then passed through committee.
Being brought up on Thursday "to be consi
tiered as amended,"
Sir J. PAsiNwros moved the insertion of a clause
eivicting that the manufacture or sale of salt, which
hail hitherto been reserved by the Company as a
special monopoly, should be thrown open, and that
will`rols it in expedient the said malt monopoly should 1111$41-
lately cease and determine: lie it enacted, that from noel after
the first day of May, 18511, it than be unlawful for the said Kant
India patty to cent tttttt • the manufaet ore of salt an at present
carried on by them In the prov 'nee of lb.ngal, alai that 'omit
manufacture should absolutely cease, whether carried an by the
East India I'umpauy or tot the account gild under the control
of the maid company. and that the no faeture and sale of salt in
India shall be absolutely tree, subject only to noel excise or
other as may now or from time to time be levied upon
such snit so mattufactured.-
This question, he contended, was intimately con-
nected with the health and welfare of the natives of
India, with the commerce of England, and the con-
sistency of our legislation. As long since as Is3ll a
committee had pronounced sentence of extinction
upon the salt monopoly ; but that sentence was still
unexecuted, and the time had come when Parlia-
ment itself must interfere. The injurious conse-
quences which that monopoly produced were manifold.
Tested by health, it, was shown that the Indian popu-
lation, living almost exclusively upon a vegetable
diet, required an increased lallowance of salt, and
any scarcity of that condiment occasioned frightful
diseases. Tested by quantity, returns which he cited
showed that the consumption of salt in Prussia anti
Austria, in spite of the tiovernment monopoly,
amounted to 10 lbs. per head of population ; in Eng-
land it was about 25 lbs., and in America 27 lbs.,
while in India the average fell below 12 ll,s. per head.
And tested by price, it was proved that the cost of
manufacture on the spot, amounting to 4(ls. per ten,
was so exorbitantly increased by the monopolising
system, that the consumer paid 251. per ton for an
adulterated article, consisting, in a great measure, of
sand and ashes. This, tot►, occurred in regard of an
article which could he byught in Cheshire for las. a
ton, and imported into India at a freightage of 255.
Credible witnesses hail asserted that the expense of
this single article to a ryot and his family amounted
to eight per cent.. on his usual earnings, orextracted
one month's wages out of the year. Detailing some
of the expedients to which the Company had resorted
in order to preserve a practical monopoly in the face
of public opinion, acts of Parliament, and commer-
cial enterprise at home, Sir .1. l'akington contended
that the recent increase in the import of the commo-
dity had but changed the source of supply without
benefiting the consumers. He concluded :
" Would the house and the country helievt• that now, in
11453, he was appealing to the friends nod followers of Sir
R. Peel, the great advocate of commercial freedom, and
the great enemy of eommerchd restriction, to put an end
• to a monopoly which Was fatal to the health and even to
the lives of the people of India—l Hear, hear)—and which
Was injurious to nt least one important branch of trade in
this country ? (Hear, hear.) He believed that there was
no loan who would defend this monopoly in the abstract,
but he supposed he should he met by the one argument of
money. He should be told that the revenue of India could
not dispense with the income derived from this salt mono-
►oly, and that upon this account we could not afford to )n
just, to relieve the distress of the unhappy Indian, and to
set commerce free in this respect. Now, he had two