The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-18 00:00:00

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF INDIA.

Mr. EWART inquired of the President of the Board
of Control, whether the Legislative Council, which it
was intended to appoint in India, would be a Council
open to the public, or having its proceedings made
known by being reported to the public.
Sir C. WOOD said he did not think there was any
necessity to introduce a provision into his bill on that
subject.

BURMESE WAR.
Mr. COBDEN, in rising to ask the President of the
Board of Control when and by whom the papers
respecting the Burmese war were prepared to be
laid before Parliament, and who was responsible for

.-._
the selection of the extracts said, on looking over
the documents, he found that the more important

of them were not given fully, but merely in
extracts. It was for the interest of the public as well
as for the sake of the character of the parties engaged
in the transactions that the whole of the papers should
be laid before the house, unless they would prove in-
jurious to the public service, would supply information
to the enemy, or were calculated to give offence to any
foreign power. Neither of those objections applied to
the Burmese war, and therefore he thought the house
was not properly treated in having been presented with
only garbled extracts. This process of garbling the docu-
ments relating to the Affghanistan war was performed
by high public men now living, and the house could not
be too early or too careful in preventing similar occur-
rences in future. _

Mr. B.IILLIE would not discuss the policy of cutting
out extracts from public documents, but there was no
doubt that in the case of the Affghan papers, they were
so much garbled that they conveyed an entirely dif-
ferent. impression to what the writers intended. He
complained that no notice had been given of this ques-
tion to the late President of the Board of Control,

who was, no doubt, responsible for the state of the
papers which had been produced in the Burmese case.
(Hear, hear.)
Mr. HUME said that many papers were unjustifiably
kept back in the Affghan case, and he thought it was
the duty of the house to take care that similar suppres-
sions of truth did not take place in future. He sug-
gested that the house should appoint a committee to in-
quire into all cases where public documents, ordered to
be produced, had been garbled by the Government or
their subordinates.

Sir C. WOOD said the papers were prepared by the
Board of Control, and the President of that Board was
responsible for them. They were, however, prepared
by the late Board, and therefore no blame could attach
to him. There could be no doubt, however, that the
President of the Board of Control was responsible for
these papers.
Mr. COBDEN had no wish to throw blame any-
where, but he wanted to clear up the doubt as to where
the responsibility rested.
Mr. BRIGHT said he had seen a private letter from
Burmab, stating that the British troops there were in a
most wretched condition. One regiment, it was said,
had lost 400 men from the badness of the climate, while
the other regiments were reduced to perfect skeletons.
(Hear, hear.) Now he wanted to know what they were
about in this matter that so many valuable lives were
to be sacrificed ; and he wished to know if the Govern-
ment had received any information on the subject ?
(Hear, hear.)
Sir C. WOOD was sorry to say that considerable
mortality had prevailed amongst the troops, but he was
not prepared with any information on the subject.
Mr. BLACKETT wished to know whether it was the
intention to lay a correct statement of the profit and loss
of these newly-acquired territories before the house?
Lord J. RUSSELL was not prepared to answer the
question without notice.
SOAP DUTIES.

Mr. A. PELLATT wished to take that opportunity
of asking a question respecting the soap duties. There
were many large stocks on hand which had paid a duty
of 141. 14s. per ton, and which would be entitled to
drawback on exportation. Now, ho wished to know
whether, in the event of such soap being re-imported, it
would be admitted at the same duty as foreign soap,
viz., Sd. a cwt.?
Mr. WILSON replied in the negative, and said steps
would be taken by the Excise to prevent such a pro-
ceeding. •

OATHS AND AFFIRMATIONS. 4'
Mr. S. WORTLEY said the Common Law Commis-
sion had reported in favour of allowing a man to make