The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-04 00:00:00

THE SUN,

in.?. That was an estimate of the price.: which the Bri-1
.1 1: tJI ji ~-r),Mei,Z,
10 .to justice to tt:eir tellow-subjects in lucia. By the Act
of 1833 a compromise was effected between the two govern-
ing bodies of India. It gave the Court of Directors absolute
power within the Indian territory, and the Board of
Control was expressly prohibited from meddling with
the internal regulation of India. But the Board of Con-
trol received such extraordinary powers that Mr. Hope
Melieezie and Sir Cbarles Cochrane had retired,from it
with de•gust. In fact it could not be called a board. He
called it a commission, the whole of the powers being
virtually absorbed by the president. That was the na-
ture of the compromise effected by the Bill which the
House, in 1833, so hastily and improvidently passed.
The patronage of India was divided between the Presi-
dent of the Board of Control and the secret committee
of the Court of Directors, and, in fact, nobody in the
world exercised such powers as the Hon. Member for
Honiton had done in India, and Lord Broughton had at
home. Well, then, he asked the House whether they
would not institute an inquiry before they renewed such
a compromise? He thought the time had come when
the Government should retain the patronage of India in
its own hands; and they might safely take steps to abo-
lish:the Court of Directors and the Board of Control. The
East India Company were originally a corporation of
merchants, having exclusive privileges of trading; but
now circumstances had greatly altered, and there existed
no monopolies in the trade with India but one. The
Hon. Member concluded by moving as above.
Mr. SCHOLEFIELD seconded the motion.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL thought the House was
hardly in a state to enter into a discussion of all the
various measures on which the Hon. and Learned Gen-
tleman had touched, or into the whole question of the
government of India. It appeared to him that the
Hon. Gentleman had mistaken the position of the Go-
vernment and the House on this subject. A Noble
Friend of his had already stated that it was not the in-
tention of the Government to move for a Committee in
the present year to consider this important subject,
adding that every information that could be procured
would be laid before the House previously to the re-
newal of the Act of 1833. His Noble Friend did not
say, end it certainly was not the. intention of the Go-
vernment to say, that when that information was ready,
the liaise, if it thought fit, should not appoint, as on
former occasions, a Select Committee, which might
inquire into the whole of this subject before
the Act was renewed. His Noble Friend said that
the Government had no such alterations as were pro-
posed in 18r2 and 1833, of snob vast magnitude that'
they themselves should think it necessary to appoint a
Committee with the view of considering those altera-
tions; but that if the House, previously to the settlement'
of this great question for another term of years, should
think fit not only to have opinions before them, but to
refer those opinions to a Committee, and institute an
inquiry into the mode of governing India, there would
certainly be no objection on the part of the Government
to such an inquiry. The Hon. Gentleman had gone into
an immense detail of various measures relating to the
finance, law, and government of India; he had made
many statements and proposals, which on a review of
them would be found to relate, in many cases, to ar-
rangements that had been abandoned and were now ob-
solete, to exclusions that no longer existed, and to re-
forms which had been already carried into execution.—
(Hear, hear.) Of course it was not desirable that there
should be a debate in that House respecting all those
various subjects without more information being laid be-
fore them than they now possessed. But the Hon. Gen-
tleman said that the best mode of obtaining that infor-
mation was to send out a Commission to India, in order
to inquire on the spot into all those topics. Now, he
entirely differed from the Honourable and Learned
Gentleman on that point. He believed that to send out
such a Commission would be the worst step the Crown
could adopt, or which that House could advise the Crown
to adopt, previously to the renewal of the Act of
Charter. With regard to the present Government of
India, the Hon. Gentleman himselt had stated nothing
to show either that Lord Dalhousie was incompetent to
conduct it, or that any measures had been already taken
which the Government considered to be doubtful, or fit
subjects of inquiry. But he was sure that if, setting
aside the authority of the Government of India, they
were to send out a set of Commissioners there, who
were to make inquiry into all these things—who were to
set out with an announcement—for that would be the
effect of it—that the salt monopoly, that the laws re-
lating to opium and tobacco, and in short all branches of
finance, law, and government were about to be changed
owing to the report of those Commissioners—they would
only produce great excitement throuuhout India, and
would for the time destroy all authority in that country.
He owned he thought it would be far better, if the House
should think fit to make inquiries, that they should take
place, as on previous occasions, before a Committee of
that House, and that, at all events, the House should not
assent to the proposal to pray her Majesty to appoint a
Commission to go to India. A question of much less
compass than the present, relating to the growth of cot-
ton in India, was under the consideration of the House
no longer ago than last year. The House did not think
proper to adopt the proposal then made; but if there
were objections even to that proposition, there were ten-
fold greater objections to such a motion as had just been
made. The Hon. Gentleman, in the last place, as an
encouragement to appoint such a Commission, said that
they might govern India without the Court of Directors,
without the Court of Proprietors, and without the Board
of Control; he meant, therefore, to propose some en-
tirely new Government for India, Now, he contended
that that was not a question which should be submitted
to any Commission—
Mr. ANSTEY—On the contrary, I did not propose
anything of the kind.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL—WeII, that was a question
which they could not now consider, but when it came
duly before the House, and Parliament was called upon
to legislate in respect to the renewal of the Act now ex-
isting, under which India was governed, it would be
competent for the Honourable and Learned Gentleman
to propose a substitute for the present system. As far
as his own belief went, he thought that whatever might
have been the case in former times, the gqvernment of
India was now an enlightened government. As far as
he was acquainted with their proceedings, he regarded
the Court of Directors as a body of very able and expe-
rienced men; and for his part he should not approve that
change in the mode of governing India which the Hon.
and Learned Gentleman proposed. In the present state
of the House it was not fit to adopt such a proposition,
and he certainly could not on the part of the Government
give his assent to it.
Mr. HUME was very much obliged to the Hon. and
Learned Gentleman for bringing forward the subject,
though he did not agree with him on many of the points
touched upon. He should be the last man to propose
to govern India without the Court of Directors, or some
other competent authority. Undoubtedly he should say
that the greatest errors since the last charter bad been
committed by the Board of Control. He was decidedly
of opinion that an inquiry should take place. When
the last renewal was made in 1833 a very important and
extensive inquiry took place into the various depart-
ments of the subject, which were all examined with great
attention, and the evidence of men of the first talents
and experience was taken. By the arrangement then
made the Company ceased to be traders, and on that
ground alone ho thought an inquiry was needed, in order
that the consequences of the change should be ascer-
tained. In the courts of justice he believed great im-
provements had been made, but there was room for
more. He, should, however, certainly not recommend
a Commission to proceed to,lndia. He believed that
some of the ablest men among the servants of the East
India Company were now in England, and from them
they might obtain information concerning the presi-
dencies of the utmost importance. There was only one
department for information as to which it was necessary
to proceed to India; he meant the relations between the
Company and the native princes. A great number of
treaties regulating those relations existed, and it was of
great importance that we should not lose the character
we had hitherto held in India as faithful observers of
compacts; but he was afraid this was gradually happen-
ing. Acts of injustice, had been perpetrated which had
made a very bad impression on the natives of India. An
instance of this was the deprivation of the right vested
in Indian princes of appointing their own heirs, in de-
fault of relatives, to succeed them. He could not think
it either wise or just in Lord Dalhousie to have made
such an unprincipled regulation, for so he must call it
it being contrary to all treaties, and that merely for the,
purpose of taking possession of Sattara. There were
other points on which the opinion of a committee would
be useful; for instance, whether the practice of allowing
a Governor-General to proceed to the bill country for a
stay of six or eight months in the year, remaining
isolated during all that time and remote from the.
seat of Government, was a wise one or not. He cer-
tainly thought objection could not fairly be made to
functionaries filling offices of great labour and responsi-
bility availing themselves of an interval of repose in
order to shake off the lassitude induced by the climate
of India and to recruit their energies. But, in the pre-
sent year, he understood that Lord Dalhousie had pro-
ceeded into the mountains, ou the way to China—he did
not know how far off—but at an immense distance. He
saw by a paper which had been put into his hands that
the very moving of the Governor-General required
eleven thousand coolies, who were brought from eighty
miles distance, in order to provide means of transport.
And for what object ? To remove Lord Dalhousie so
far from the seat of his government. Why, that was a
number sufficient to employ at making a military road
from Kurnaul to the Punjaub, an improvement which
was almost indispensable. It was not on the ground of
expense merely that he objected to this, but because
Lord Dalhousie was thereby removed from the neigh-
bourhood of functionaries filling highly important
offices, with whom he should be in communication.
The Commander-in-Chief, too, was said to be follow-
ing the example. He bad great doubt whether it was
wise to allow their officers thus to absent them-
selves from the scene of their duties. There was the Go-
vernor of Bombay, too, who was away for half a year.'
In saying this, he did not wish to offer any opinion or
to cast blame, he merely mentioned them as matters de-
serving serious consideration. Many matters enume-
rated by the Hon. Gentleman had not' much practical
bearing on present circumstances. There was Mr.
Aloetgomery Martin's theory, for example, which would
not bear a momenta
.examination. He wanted to know
as a
which c ee k
w e
was
how far the Board of
the Indian Government,
reallyoal acted
the proceedings of th
the purpose of its creation? The system which had
existed was eneugh to ruin any country. There was the
stretroliln Dg, ir
tehcotuogrsh,
Affghnn war, which bad been begun, conducted, and
closed, without the knowledgle2
f h
who were required to pay 00t ,oeoCu
0/o.
they knew nothing about it until after all the mischief
had been done. Then these was the Burmese wilt.,
which entailed a debt of 9,000,000/. on the Company,
owing to an improper and incompetent person being
sent out. The secret committee, consisting of three of
the directors, might at any time send out orders to cona.
I many g war, which would be carried on at the cost and