The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-29 00:00:00

the day always shares a part with them.

They

nominate also the Governor-General and the
Governors of the Presidencies, but as these
nominations must have the approval of the
Crown, they are considered as belonging to it.
The Board of Directors has also the absolute and
unquestioned power to recal any of these func-
tionaries; a power indeed but rarely used. it
was, however, employed in the case of Lord
ELLENBOROUGH in 1844, much against the wishes
of Sir R. PEEL'S Ministry. These sober gentle-
men could not understand his Lordship's Som-
nauth Gates Proclamation, and his fondness for
military display ; it did not look business-like
enough, so they ordered him home The prompt
appointinent of Sir HE Rl' HARDING; however,
gave full satisfaction to all parties.
But, doubtless, our readers are aware that

the East India Company has now done with
trading ; and some may have occasion to ask,
Who and what are the proprietors of India Stock

who elect these Directors ? And thereby hangs a
tale. In 1833 it was found that previous par-
tial openings of the trade had successively demon-
strated so clearly the vast superiority of the pri-
vate trader to the Company in energy and skill,

that it was impossible to think of allowing the lat-
ter to retain any longer any portion of its mono-
poly. It is worth mentioning, as an illus-
tration of the mischiefs of monopolies, that
in 1814, when the trade to all places east-
ward of the Cape of Good Hope (except China)
was freely opened to the private trader, that
in that year the Company's own exports, including
stores, amounted to 826,558/. ; those of private
traders to 1,874,6901. By 1832 the Company's
trade had so decreased, and that of the private
merchants increased, that the exports of the former
had sunk to 149,1931., and those of the
latter risen to 3,750,2861. To renew any
portion of the commercial charter in the
face of such facts was, of course, out of the ques-
tion. It might have been supposed, then, that
the Company would have been told to dispose of
its commercial stock, or employ it in trade in
unrestricted competition with the private mer-
chant, and that the Government would have
taken the political administration solely into its
own hands.. Such, however, was not the plan
adopted. Their capital stock was reckoned by
what it amounted to in 1708, which was
6,000,000/. ; although, owing to the subscriptions
being made above par, the Company had received
7,780,0001. On the six millions Government
undertook to pay the Company's dividends, which
were reckoned at about 10f per cent., with
liberty to the Government ultimately to pay it off
as 5 per Cent. Stock ; that is, to cease paying
dividends which have averaged about 630,0001.
per annum, on paying the Company 12,000,000/.
This, however, cannot be done till thirty years
hence. It is, however, now quite open to Par-
liament to do away with the double system of
Government, and to place everything directly
under a Minister, immediately responsible to
itself. The advantages of the present system are
certainly not easy for the public to comprehend.
It is not easy to see what particular in-
terest the proprietors of Stock, who are now
mere Government Annuitants, have in the good
government of India. They are secure of their
dividends ; and the British nation generally,
upon whom the burden of the Indian debt is sure
ultimately to fall, appear to be far more con-
cerned iu the administration of Indian affairs
than a set of men sure, in any case, of
their dividends or their principal. To us it ap-
pears that it must be for the advantage both of
India and England to be clear of such a compa-
ratively irresponsible body as the Court of Direc-
tors. True, Sir CHARLES WOOD has full power to
inspect all the correspondence of the Directors of
a political nature, and to deal with it as he pleases;
also to send his own dispatches when he pleases,
and, if marked " secret and political," they can be
seen in England only by three Directors sworn to
secrecy, and the Company's servants in India must
obey them. It is, however, impossible not to
anticipate serious neglects, abuse of patronage, and
mismanagement from such a divided and some-
times conflicting government.

Our natural expectations are, however, fullyI
confirmed by the tenour of the petitions, both from
natives and resident British, to our Parliament
which have lately arrived. One request we think
most important in the present state of Parliamen-
tary knowledge of India, that the Act of this
year shall not be in force for more than ten years.
It is obvious that twenty years is 'too long a
licence for so many probable errors as will be
made, and too long a furlough for the many
abuses which will remain untouched. These peti-
tions are characterised - by every quality which
ought to command attention. That from Bombay
is from an association there, formed expressly to
ascertain the real wants of India, and to make
them known to the Home Government ; it has
3,000 highly-respectable native signatures, and
perhaps everything it points out would strike all
men of common sense here as having every pre-
sumption in its favour. Its complaints and its
suggestions betray nothing of the fervent zeal of
Reformers ; they are all the most moderate, both in
language and substance, which canwell be conceived,
and they read like the simple language of daily
experience, and must, we think, have their weight
with every fair-minded man in our Legislature. Sir
CHART.Rs is indeed a sad routine official ; and he
who found it impossible to make the Income Tax
one shade less unjust, may well be bewildered in
Indian politics. We only hope that, profiting by
his miserable Income-tax reputation, he will be
anxious to obtain a better Indian one ; and we
can assure him that, if he would do so, he must
believe that Indians, like Income-tax payers, un-
derstand their own affairs better than he does.
They give him Much useful information. They
tell him, that while the Act of 1833, in the most
explicit language, declares that from that time all
natives of India should be equally admissible
to office with the English, they are as yet, in
practice, excluded from the Grand Juries, from the
Commission of the Peace, in all but two instances
from very low Judgships, and that they have no
share in the Local Councils ; that all the appoint-
ments are conferred on the British—pn young
men trained at Haylebury instead of in India,
who are nominated in England, and sent over
to administer law, or collect the revenue, among
a people to whose habits and modes of thought,
to whose customs and traditionary usages they
are strangers except by report. Hence, the ad-
ministration of law is most wretched, and the
cost of real justice enormous. The state of the
roads and want of railroads, and the extortions
of the practically irresponsible tax-gatherers,
are also mentioned ; and amongst suggestions
for the better, besides asking for an undivided
government, the retrenchment of European sa-
laries, the employment of natives in offices
of trust, and _the appropriation of 5 per
cent. of the land revenue to the improvement of
the district in which it is raised, they most rea-
sonably propose the formation of an Indian Coun-
cil, partly at least elected by some body composed
of persons having a substantial interest in the good
government of India; that the Council should be
directly responsible to Parliament, that its mem-
bers should have been resident in India, and
should be presided over by a Minister of the Crown,
forthey do not ask such a qualification.
Well, whomE England
I
is responsible for the good govern-
ment of 150 millions of Asiatics, and Sir CHAS.
WOOD is its agent for showing how alive it is to
that duty.
We shall be obliged no doubt fre-
quently to revert to.him and to India.