The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-10 00:00:00

THE PENSION TO LORD DALHOUSIE.

Sir E. PERRY would not have trespassed on the
house after what had fallen from the right hon. member
for Oxford -University, but that the' matter to which he
was about to refer would be decided next week. He
wished to know whether the attention of the right hon.
the President of the Board of Control had been called to
the resolution of the Court of Directors granting a pen-
sion of 5,0001. a year to the Marquis of Dalhousie, and
to the legality of the grant. It appeared to him that the
East India Company had no power to make such a grant.
Under the provision of Mr. Pitt's act, passed in the last
century, they could not grant any pension to a servant ex-
ceeding 3001. a year without the consent of the Board of
Control, and he apprehended there was no subsequent act
which would empower them to grant a pension of 5,0001
to one not a servant of the company. By the act of 1833
their revenues and territorial possessions were vested in
the Crown, and they clearly had no right to make a grant
from those revenues without the consent of the Crown.
The act of 33 Geo. 111. enabled the company in its trading
capacity to make certain grants, but as it had lost its cha-
ranter of a trading company that act no longer applied. Ten
years ago, when the Court of Directors granted an an-
nuity of 5,000/. to Lord Hardinge, it was sanctioned by
an act of Parliament ; but even that was no precedent
for the present case, as his lordship was then a servant
of the company. Laying aside the question of legality,
he wished to call the attention of the house to the consti-
tutional propriety of granting such pensions. Parliament
had fixed the salary of the Governor-General at 240,000
rupees —about'26,ooo/. a year, If that was not enough,
let it be increased. Lord Dalhousie might have been a I
most excellent Governor-General, but he protested against
a course which might in a few years fill the Cabinet with
pensioners of the Court of Directors. It was very possible
that in a year or two some cabinet might have to decide
on the powers of the Court of Directors, and the people
of India could have no confidence in the decision of a
cabinet which counted among its members four or five
of their pensioners. He begged to ask the Presidept of
the Board of Control whether his attention had been
called to the legality of the power claimed by the
East India Company to confer annuities out of the re-
venues of India on persons not in the service of the
East India Company ; and whether, under the present
constitution of the home government of India, such an-
nuities, in the opinion of the President, ought to be
granted without the sanction of Parliament ?
Mr. V. SMITH said his hon. and learned friend bad
claimed exemption from the general rule against such
desultory motions, on the ground that something final
was to be done next week, but he would soon cut that
ground from under his feet; it was true, the Court of
Directors had passed a resolution granting a pension to
Lord Dalhousie, but that resolution should by law be
submitted to two Courts of proprietors—the second of
whom would not be held until Wednesday week, after
the house had met again, and the grant must then be
submitted to Parliament ; so that the hon. and learned
gentleman's excuse for bringing on the subject at such
aninconvenient time entirely failed. (Hear.) The hen.
and learned gentleman had raised a legal question ; of
coarse, if he (Mr. V. Smith) felt any doubt be would
refer the subject to the law officers of the Crciwn, but at
that moment he must decline to enter into the grounds