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

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
stmt 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 payment 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 instruments 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 counntry.
(Cheerer. )
The discussion was resumed on Thursday by
that
r.
IILACKETT, who advocated the 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 entertained 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 absolute 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 toa cal.
o be-
n .tit. their own family connee s—(H)—and le
c dated either to economise the resources of the country,
or to strengthen the social system of the natives of India.
He had shown that they 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 still 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 government ; awd, aboVe all, he had learnt
the necessity there was to preserve this great quest' from
the blasting influence of party strife, party objects, and
party 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 of 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 homeich there
were some changes to be affected by wh th '
Court of Directors might be improved instead of
being destroyed. For this purpose he suggested
some enlargement in the constituencies, by giving
votes on the election of directors to holders of 5001.
stock, and insisted especially upon the necessity of
ensuring full publicity, not as a favour, but as a
rule, to all the acts and intentions of the Indian
Goventment. 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 administered 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 the 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