The Express.
London, England, 1858-02-12 00:00:00

TO OUR READERS.

A DOUBLE NUMBER of the EXPRESS will
be published TO-MORROW.

MIKA the various assertions Or insinuations
which have recently appeared in certain ministerial
journal to the effect that exaggerated anticipations
Mae beat formed of the amount of change com-
prehsaded is the new India Bill, the public will
bonny be glowed to learn that in the measure
white Lord PALXIMETON is this evening to rtCOM-
Mend to the favourable consideration of Parliament,
are involved not merely changes in name and
changes in form, but an entire subversion of all
those principles which have hitherto been the very
life of our system of Indian government. That
system, doubtless, has its defects : but there are
certain constitutional checks in which reside

the elements of safety—safety both to the De-
pendency and to the parent State. But all these
checks are DOW to be removed. There be to be
an Indian Minister, with a Council or Board
appointed by the Crown, or, in other were, by
himself. This Council is to be composed of sight
Members—not, as was originally intended, from
among the present Court of Directors, but, nadir
certain conditions of qualification, from the comas-
pity at large. The conditions, we believe, are that
the nominee shall have been a Member of the Court
of Directoes, or shall have resided for a certain
number of years in India. The Members of the
Council are to be appointed, in the first instance,
generally for four, six, eight, or ten years; and, as
subsequent vacancies arise, fora fixed period of eight
years. They are to enjoy a salary of 1,0001. a year;
and the patronage of all that portion of the army
which is not transferred to the immediate and inde-
pendent guardianship of the Horse Guards is to be
confided to their hands.

In return for this conceinion of individual patron-
age, the Council, u a body, are to be deprived of the
moat important of the privileges powered by the
Court of Directors, namely, the nomination of the
Members of the Indian Councils and the right of re-
calling an obnoxious Governor-General. The Mem-
bers of the Council of India are henceforth, if the
Bill be carried, to be nominated by the Governor-
General of India ; and the Members of the
minor Councils, in the same way, by the very
persons whom they were originally appointed
to check. As regards the appointment of
the Governor-General and the minor Go-
vernors, this is to rest absolutely with the
Crown. And several important miscellaneous ap-
pointments—in the Marine, the Legal, and other
Departments, at present in the hands of the Court of
Directors---are to be transferred to the Crown or to
the Crown nominees at the head of the Governments
in India.

The relations between the Indian Minister and
his Council, and the precise definition of their respec-
tive powers, have not, perhaps, as yet been laid down
or determined by the Government. In general terms,
however, it may be stated that the Bill pro-
poses to render the Minister absolute in everything
but in matters of Finance. In this department it is
necessary that his measures should have the con-
currence of four Members of Council. In one very
important point—probably because the framers of
the Bill had no knowledge of its importance—the
revelations of this evening will, we believe, be de-
fective. It will not appear whether the initiation of
the administrative business of the Hams Govern-
ment of India will rest with the Minister or with
the CounciL But it appesn to us that in its real
practical bearing upon the efficiency of the adminie-
tration this is too important a matter to be left to
subsequent arrangement.

We do not, however, purpose, at the present time,
to enter into any detailed criticism of the provisions
of the proposed Bill. We simply desire to call
public attention to the dangerom encroachments of
the Crown. In the existing " Double Government"
of India there is an Imperial element; and there is
what may be described, in a limited sense, as a
popular element. The majority of the Court of Di-
rectors are elected by a Constituency ; and the body
so elected, standing between the Crown Minister and
the people of India, is en essential check upon the
Smarr. Again, if we regard the system of govern-
ment in India, we see a Governor-Gensral,, or a Go-
vernor appointed virtually by the Crown, checked by
a Council appointed by the Court of Directors. In
England and in India, therefore, there are inde-
pendent bodies, performing important functions, not
appointed by the Crown, and not bound in any way
to support its de:isions. We are of opinion that
upon the maint. nonce of these independent bodies
the safety of our Indian Empire depends. But it is
now proposed to sweep them away. It is now pro-
posed to make the Councils, both in England and
in India, the nominees and dependents, if possible
the tools, of the Minister of the day. This is not
merely a change in the name and in Use femme, the
government of India; it is, we emphatically relpett,
an utter subversion of the principle to which w• ewe
the very existence of our power in India. Ileace-
forth, if this Bill be oarritd, there will be nothing
between India and the Minister of the day, or, in
other words, between India and a Parliamentary