The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-12 00:00:00

court would be vilifier this bill, to work harmoniously
together. It was all very well to talk of low salaries and
high characters, but it was palpable that the office would
be greatly sought after, and it was as palpable that the ten-
dency of the men appointed would be to support the mini-
ster to whom they were indebted for the post. The effect
of the introduction of non-elected men into the court would
be to lower the character and prestige of the elected body;
for, pro tanto, it was a declaration by Parliament that the
proprietors did not elect the best men ; while, on the other
hand, there would always be the suspicion attaching to the
nominees that they were mere Government partisans, so
that, on the whole, the whole body would suffer in public
estimation. Very likely their legislation led to the com-
plete deprivation of the holders of stock of all power ; but,
at least, while the Court of Directors was maintained, let
it be maintained in all honour and credit. These were
obvious objections to the ministerial plan. They seemed
not to have been weighed sufficiently by the right hon.
gentleman (Sir C. Wood), and had certainly not yet been
removed. He must therefore earnestly beg of her Ma-
jesty's Government that they would consider this matter.
Mr. LOWE argued, from what had occurred in other
cases, that a right of sanction would practically become a
right of appointment, and that nothing would be gained
by making these directors appear to be elected by the
Court of Directors, while they were really nominated by
the Board of Control. The effect would be to minimize
the responsibility of the President of the Board, while
actually leaving the power in his hands. But if the
amended plan were worked out as desired, the veto of the
Crown would not improve the character of the candidates,
unless it were extended to every election until the desired
man were presented, and this would amount to Crown
nomination. The tendency of things under the act was
to increase the influence of the directors, in regard to elec-
tions, as compared with that of the proprietors ; and it
might therefore not be wise to increase this tendency. The
object of the measure of Government was to obtain the
best men for the directors ; and under the proposed system
there would be an emulation between the Crown and the
company as to whose directors should do the most credit
to their constituents.
Mr. El-4LIOT did not think that the hon. gentleman
(Mr. Lowe) had made out a case to show that the system
proposed by Government would render the Board of Direc-
tors more independent, or its opinion of more authority
than at the present moment. It did not appear plain to
him that the alterations proposed by the Government
would render a seat at the Board of Directors acceptable
to that class of men to which the hon. gentleman referred.
The number was to be reduced from 25 to 18 ; now, when
there were 25 directors, the amount of labour cast upon
each was not too onerous ; as, however, the number was to
be reduced, more would be cast upon each director than
gentlemen in the position adverted to by the hon. member
(Mr. Lowe) would be anxious to undertake. If this part
of the bill were carried the house would not stop until the
government of India would be absorbed by the Crown.
The effect of this would be, that the house would continu-
ally intermeddle in Indian affairs—a thing by no means to
be desired, for there were not two of its members who really
understood the subject. Even those members who had
evidently worked hard upon the subject had made state-
ments which were far from being accurate.
Lord STANLEY said that the committee ought to con-
fine itself to the question immediately before it—that ques-
tion being whether the plan of the Government or the plan
of the right hon. gentleman was best calculated to secure
the most efficient and independent men on the Board of
Directors. The plan of the right hon. gentleman was that
of self election, for which there was no precedent. His
objection to that plan was that it tended to give perma-
nence, if not perpetuity, to that very system which it
was the object of the bill to do away with. Neither did
he altogether approve of the Government plan, and he
thoughethat, without trenching on the principle on which
it was founded, it was susceptible of improvement. When
these members were appointed by the crown, and had seats
in that house, they would- become, he would not say the
tools, but the allies of the Government. Now he thought
that if these directors were appointed for a term of ten or
twelve years, and were not re-eligible at the end of that
period, they would have a sufficient guarantee for their in-
dependence. (Hear.) He offered, this as an improvement
on the plan of the Government, which, however, he would
support in preference to the plan of the right hon. gentler
man. (Hoar.)
Mr. HUME said he should vote for the principle of elec-
tion in preference to the principle of nomination, which he
was altogether opposed to ; but the election which he
should prefer was that kind of election by which the East
India Company had been and was now maintained.
(Hear.) The right lion. gentleman the President of the
Board of Control had so strongly painted all the advan-
tages which accrued from the system as it stood, that he
felt at a loss to understand the reasoning on which lie made
the proposition in the bill. They might remove the defects
which existed in the present system, by making the Court
of Directors really responsible to the proprietors, but they
had no right to destroy rights which had been secured to
the East India Company ey the bill of 1333 till 1574. They
were giving the president of the Board of Control a greater
power than was possessed by her Majesty in this country,
because ho had the power of making war and spending the
revenues of India to any amount without letting the Court,
of Directors know anything about it- He thought they
should increase the power of the Court of Directors, and
compel them to keep a record of those points on which they
differed from the Board of Control. (Hear.)
Sir X. HOGG said it appeared to him that the house was
agreed as to the expediency of selection which was the
principle of the bill. He was sure the sole object of the
Government and of the committee was to have tho'se gen-
tlemen in the Court of Directors who could give the best
information on India, and who were best qualified to dis-
charge their duties. They must either give the selection
to the Crown, or to the Court of Directors. If they gave
it to the Crown, what gentlemen would be candidates for
Cie office? Every gentleman who thought himself fit for
the appointment would put himself forward as one of the,
six to he selected. And they would thus narrow and de-
teriorate the class of men who would come forward as can-
didates. (Hoar, hear.) As far as his experience of the
Court of Directors went, it did not at all accord with the
opinions of those persons who expressed. so greztt a horror
of. the system of canvassing. (hear, hear.) Did not the
members of that house, who spoke of not condescending to
canv.Lss, go about themselves at every election to canvass
for votes ? (Hear, hear.) And there was this distinction
in favour of the Court of Directors, that when a member
was once elected and discharged his duties with ability,
efficiency, and honour, he was elected for life. (Hear,
hear.) Ho could only say for himself and for his colleagues
on the board, that if there had been anything dishonour-
able or humiliating in the canvass, neither he nor they
would have condescended to it. (Hear, hoar.) It appeared
to him that there were strong objections to the plan of the
Government and also to the plan of the right hon. gentle-
man, and it was for the committee to determine on which
side the balance of advantage lay. Against the nomina-
tion by the Crown of the six directors the objection was
urged, and with some weight, that those directors would
be under the influence of the feeling that they were so
nominated in the discharge of their duties. But for him-
self,
he felt bound to say that he entertained no such
apprehension. He believed that those gentlemen who
had passed their lives in the civil or military service of
India, would, when appointed to a seat in the direction,
discharge their duties there honourably, independently, and
uninfluenced by any consideration of the persons who ap-
pointed them. (Hear.) He thought that the suggestion
of the noble lord (Stanley) would make the proposition of
the Government worse than it was, because it would ex-
clude those gentlemen from being re-eligible when, from
the experience they had acquired, their services would
be most useful and beneficial. (Hear, hear.) He under-
stood the noble lord to say also that he would exclude those
gentlemen from sitting in that house, but he did not think
that the Government or the committee would ever support
a scheme of that kind. He admitted that the principle
of self election was also liable to objection, but the Court
of Directors must at all events have a better knowledge of
the men who wore most fit to be appointed than the Presi-
dent of the Board of Control could possibly have. (Hear,
hear.) But whether the appointment rested with the one
or the other, he had no fears on the subject of the practical
working of the plan. It was said it was desirable to have
such men as Lord Metcalfe and Mountstuart Elphinstone
in the board of direction. To be sure it was, and he had
no doubt that if either of those gentlemen expressed a wish
to be members, they would be elected without canvass on
the next vacancy that occurred. (Hear, hear.) But such
men as Lord Metcalfe and Mountstuart Elphinstone were
not to be picked like blackberries. Sir G. Clerk, who was
a man of great talent and distinguished services in India,
stated before the committee that it had been intimated to
him that if he wished he might be elected to the Court
of Directors without a canvass. Heretofore the Court of
Directors had been regarded as the fountain of all honours,
at least of all appointments, and all the servants of the
Company looked up to them on that account. But what
would bo the case now, when the Court of Directors
were themselves partly condemned by having some of
their numbers curtailed. (Hear, hear.) They were-ex-
cluded from all the nominations to the higher offices.
(Hear, hear.) In the civil service the appointments were to
be made by public competition. (Hear, hear.) It was the
same with regard to the medical appointments. With re-
gard to scientific appointments in the engineers and artil-
lery these were not made by the Court of Directors. With
regard to Addiscombe, the pupils there underwent a half-
yearly examination and were appointed according to merit.
The great mass of youths who had attained the standard
which fitted them for the artillery went out as cadets—not
as direct cadets but as infantry cadets—and with the ad-
vantage of a good education. For his own part he con-
fessed that he wished to see Addiscombe extended ; ho
wished to see a greater number of young men proceed to
India with the advantages of a superior education. Under
the bill the whole of their prestige was taken from the
Court of Directors, all their patronage was trans-
ferred to other hands, and the government appeared
desirous to make the situation of director as little as pos-
sible an object of ambition or solicitation. He would urge
the government to make the offide of director as important
as they could. A salary 5001. a-year was not half so much
as one given to a commissioner of customs or excise ; and
he did hope that either by position, by influence, or by
salary—by some means or other, the office of director
would be made an object of honourable ambition to emi-
nent men who had returned from India.

Mr. C. BRUCE said it appeared ta him that there was
no clause in the bill which would lewd more directly or
more distinctly to the extinction of the Court of Direc-
tors, and of the system of government which had hitherto
preserved India to this country, than the clause then
under consideration, The speech of his honourable friend
(Sir J. Hogg) had clearly proved the disadvantage of
this rash and tinkering treatment of India. (Hear, hear.)
A great deal had been said about the evils of canvagsing,
and the obstacle which it presented to men of eminence
who wished to attain the office of director. He could
not see the force of the objection, and for his own part, he
would rather canvass such a body as the Court of Pro-
priotors than wait about the Board of Control. (Hear,
hear.) It seemed to be forgotten that the Court of Pro-
prietors had the great advantage of not being a political
body ; and the plan of nomination would, in his opinion,
take away that quality. When the number was reduced
to 13, and the Goverment had six nominees, there would
be an end of all hope of seeing the directors act as an
effectual check on the Government at home. What was
wanted was a body as free as possible from political Mas—
a body which would have a single eye to the good
government of India, and which would not blindly follow
the lending of the President of the Board of Control ; and
such a body could not exist under the operation of this
clause. The clause would. in fact, aggravate an hundred-
fold the tTespotic system of government which prevailed in
India. Public opinion could not check it for want of
adequate information ; the House of Commons could not
usefully e:ercise controlling functions; the Ministry could
not be trusted in the matter because it was liable to con-
stant change. He would trust no ministry with the power
ticthat there
was patronage of India. Let him not be
was no. cause for apprehension in times of Parliamentary
government. He had not forgotten how Lord Hoytesbury
was recalled in 1835. Lord Heytesbury was appointed
Governor-General.by Sir Robert Peel, his baggage was on
board, his suite had embarked. In this state of things a
Whig Government succeeded to that of Sir Robert Peel ;
the appointment of Lord Heytesbykry was cancelled, and a