The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-21 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY-

EAST INDIA HOUSE, 20TH JAstuAirr, 1858.
THE COURT of DIRECTORS of the EAST
INDI3. COMPANY DO ITEREBY GIVE NOTICE, That
a Special General Court of the said Company will be held by ad-
journment, at their House, in Leadenhal -street, on WEDNESDAY,
the 27th instant, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon for the purpose
of continuing the consideration of the following roposed Resolution,
which was moved at the .leneral Court, held on the 13th last, viz.:—
" That the proposed tr +nsfer of the governing powers of the East
India Company to the Crown is opposed to the rights and
Privileges of the East India Company, is fraught with
danger to the constitutional interests of England, is perilous
to the safety of our Indian Empire, and cabs for the resist-
ance of the Corporation by all constitutional means."
JAMES C. MELVILL, Secretary.

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NORWICH UNION. LIFE INSURANCE
'IETY.
Instituted 1808. Invested capital exceeding £2,:'00,000 sterling.
This 'octet y is one of the very few purely mutual insurance offices,
the whole of the profits being divided among the policy holders.
The rates are considerably below those usually charged. Thus at the
age of 40 the sum of 32/. 19s. 2d which. at the ordinary premium,
will insure 1,0 ,01.—with the Norwich Union will insure 1,0951. 45.,
giving an immed ate bonus in addition to subsequent accumulations.
Annuities and special risks undertaken on favourable terns.
For forms of proposal and prospectuses apply to ihe society's offices,
6, Crescent, New Bridge-street, Blackfriars,E.C., and Surrey-street,
Norwich.

EAST INDIA COMPANY.

[A portion of the following appeared in our late editibn
of last evening :]—

The adk)urned meeting of the proprietors for the con
sideration of the resolution discussed last week, was
held this morning. The meeting was also made special
to consider the communication from Government and
the Directors reply relating to the future government of
India. Mr. Mangles, the Chairman of the Board of
Directors, in the chair.

The CHAIRMAN, before proceeding with the debate,
said the court had received an answer from her Majesty's
Government to their communication, referred to at the
last meeting, and with the permission of the court he
directed the correspondence that had passed between
her Majesty's Government and ►the Court of Directors,
on the proposed change of Indian Government, to be
read. (Hear, hear.)

The fullowing lettere were then read by the Secre-
tary :

" East India House, Dec. 31.
"My Lord,—lt has been our duty to communicate to
the Court of Directors and to the Court of Proprietors
the intimation which your Lordship has made to us of
the intention of her Majesty's Government to propose to
Parliament a bill for the purpose of placing the govern-
ment of her Majesty's E et Indian dominions under the
direct authority of the Crown.

" The contemplated change involves of necessity the
abolition, as an instrument of government, of the East
India Company, the body by whom, and at whose
sola expense, without any demand on the national
exchequer, the British empire in India has been acquired
and is maintained ; and, although the Court of Directors
have not been furnished with information as to the
grounds on which her Majesty's Ministers have arrived
at their determination, or as to the details of the scheme
by which it is proposed to supersede the existing Home
Government of India, they nevertheless feel it due to
themselves, and to the constituent body which they
represent, to lose no time in offering a few observations
which immediately suggest themselves ; and they are
persuaded that a frank expression of their sentiments
cannot be otherwise than acceptable to her Majesty's
Ministers, in their further consideration of this impor-
tant t-ulject,

" Ih;Court were prepared fo expect that a searching
inquiry would be instituted into the causes—remote as
well as immediate—of the mutiny in the Bengal native
army. They have themselves issued instructions to the
Government Of India ti appoint a commission, in view
to finch an inquiry, and it would have been satisfactlry
to them if it had been proposed to Parliament, not oily
to do the samp' but to extend the scope of inaujxy to th
r
conduct of the R..— - fu MO pt pose of
ascertaining whether the mutiny could, wholly or
partially, be a,cribed to mismanagement on the part of
the (3 urt acting under the carat.-1 of the Board of
Commissioners. But it has surprised the Court to hear
that her Majesty's Government, not imputing —so
far as the Court are informed—any blame to the
home authorities in connexion with the mutiny, and
without intending any inquiry by Parliament, or awaiting
be result of inquiry by the local government, should,
even before the mutiny was quelled, and while consider-
able excitement prevailed throughout India, determine
to propthe the immediate supercession of the authority
of the East India Company, who are entitled at least to
the cr.dit of having so administered the government of
India that the heads of all the native States and the mass
of the population, amid the excitement of a mutinous
soldiery, inflamed by unfounded apprehensions of danger
to their relicion, have remained true to the Company's
rule. _ __ _

"The Court would fail in their duty to your Lordship
and to the country if they did not txpress their serious
apprehension that so important a change will be mis-
understood by the people t f India. The Court are by no
means insensible to the value attached to the name of
the Crown. But the company are already trustees for the
Crown ; and the announcement of a great change in
the ystem of government which has existed from the
first moment of our possession of India is calculated to
excite alarm, the more especially if inaugurated at a
time when the Government on the spot finds it difficult
to give free action to the retributive justice so emi-
❑ently due to the guilty, without endangering the
innocent, and also when public opinion in this country
has been so excited as to press for the abandonment
of the policy which the company have stric ly ob-
served of abstaining from a'l a►uthoritative interference
with such of the religious customs and prejudices of the
natives as are not abhorrent to humanity.
" The Court submit that if any such change as that
which your lordship has indicated be thought desirable
it should bo introduced in a time of tranquillity, when
the circumstancee of India and its population could be
regarded without prejudice and with calm and deliberate
consideration, and when It would not in the minds of the
natives be directly connected with the recent calamitous

events.
" In approaching the question of the necessity of mak-
ing a change we are requested to state that the Court
would most gladly co-operate with her Majesty's
Go-
vernment in introducing any reforms into the existing
system which might tend to greater simplification and
promptitude with equal security. The Court have always
sho ven themselves ready to acquiesce in any changes
which were deemed likely to prove conducive to the
general welfare, although such changes may have in-
volved impertant sacrifices to themselves. They need
only refer to their partial relinquishment of trade is
1813; to its total abandonment, and the placing of tae
Company's commercial charier in abeyance in 1833 ; to
the ttan,ter then to India of a,l large commercial assets,
and of their undoubted teiritorkl claims and rssessions;
and more to the concurrence in the measure by
which their body was nconstituted and reduced to its
present number. Although four years have not yet
elaped since the last change, yet the Court, animated by
the same anxiety for
°the welfare of India, would be p-e.
pared without a murmor to relinquish their trust alto-
.4ether, if satisfies; that a system could be 'devised better
calculate than the present to advance the interests of
the British empire there. They would, however, remark
that in the inquiry width took place in 1852 and 1853,
before tile iegisiatt,ll of the latter year, the question of
the constitution and working of the Home Govern-
ment was thoroughly sifted and completely exhausted,
and that ,therefore it was not unreasonable to
expect that the arrangement of 1853 would have been
subjected to the test of a more lengthened experience.
"The details of the measure which her Majesty's
Government have in contemplation have not yet been
theT hgeoyvetrrnumstenthtabtyitmweialnlanoott
bineacalte
ekmopotae,dn
tt:o
administer
.
a single functionary. Such a proposal would, in their
judgment, involve a practical impossibility. Tne mars
of business perpetually arising requires much knowledge,
long experience, and a division of labour ; and so far as
the Court can form an opinion the duties would not be
safely discharged if subject only to the oheck of Parlia-
ment.
" The Court are aware that the double government of
the Company and the Board of Control is deemed to be
objectionable ; but whatever may be its defeats, and
although its working may be clogged by a control of all
the details, so minute as hardly to have been contem-
plated I.y the Legislature, yet in its results they sincerely
believe that the system, possessing, as it does, a moral
check, works, on the whole, advantageously for India.
The Court do not deny that the system is susceptible of
improvement, but they think it important to bear in
mind that there can be no effective check without a
second authority of some kind ; and further, that the
objection which is taken to the pri▪
nciple of double
government is more nominal than real in the case of the
Company, whose duties are rather those of a deliberative
than of an executive body.
" It is the opinion of the Court that an intermediate,
non-political,
and perfectlyindependent
body, in concur-
rence with her Majesty's Government, m•
an indispensable
necessity, without which there can be no adequate secu-
rity for good government ; and, as at present advised,
the Court do not see that it will be possible to form such
a body if its members are to be wholly nominated by the
Crown. They abstain, however, from offering any further
observations to your Lordship, until they are placed in
possession of the details of the proposed measure, which

they trust may be communicated to them at the earliest
possible period.—We have, &c.,
" Ross D. 11 ANGLES,
" F. CURRIE.
"The Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston, &c.

" 94, Piccadilly, Jan. 18.
"Gentlemen
,—I have had the honour of receiving
your j,:int letter of the 31st December upon the subject
of the measure which it is the intention of her Maje,ty's
Government to propose with reference to the future
system to be established fir the government of India ;
and I beg to assure you. that the observations and
opinions which you have therein expressed wilt be duly
considered by her Majesty's Government.
"I forbear front entering at present into any exaini-
nation of those ebservatious and opinions—first, because
any correspondence with you on such matters would he
most conveniently carried on through the usual official
channel of the President of the India Bard; and,
secondly, because the grounds on which the intentions
of her Majesty's Government have been formed, and the
detailed arrangements of the measure which they mean
to propose, wilt best be explaihed when that measure
shall be submitted to the consideration of Patliamont.
" I have the honour to be, gentlerne,,, your obedient
servant, "PALMBRSTON.
"IL D. Mangles, Lei, •
Sir Frederick Currie, &c."
The reading of the letter written
"
on behal of the
Company was frequently ieterrupted by applause.
The CIIAIRDfAN then sail that that letter did nut
represent all they had done. It was very clear that
his lordship did not give them much infirmation in his
reply. (A laugh,) The directors, however, had prepared
a patio's to the Legislature against the measure; and if
it were the wish of the Court to have it read, the
directors were quite willing 4,0 indulge them in that
respect. (Cries of " Read, read.")
The SEORETART then read the .follow;ng petition :
" To the eon. the Commons of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled,
"The bumble petition of the East India Company,
" She s eth, —That your petitioners, at their own
expense, and by the agency of their own civil and
military servants, originally
acquired for this country
its magnificent eoipire in the East.
" That the foundations of this empire were laid by
your petitioners, at that time neithtr aided nor controlled
by Parliament, at the same period at which a succession
of administrations under the c,Jztfrol of Parliament were
losing to the Crown of Great Britain another great
empire on the opposite side of the Atlsmtic.
" That, during the period of about a century which
has since elapsed, t he Indian possessions t.f this country
nave been governed and defended from the resources of
those possessions, without the smallest cost ti the British
exchequer, which, to the lest of your petitioners'
knowledge and belief, cann,,t be said of any other of
the numerous foreign dependencies of the Crown.
improper that the adminis
oftra‘tiTonhatt being
iaisyßrimtisahnie
prosystslession should be independent
of the general government of the empire, Parliament
provided in 1783 that a department of the Imperial
Government should have full cogeizance of, and power
of coatr 1 over, the acts of your petitioners in the
administration of India ; since which time the home
branch of the In,lian Government has been conducted
by the joint counsels and on the joint respon-ibilitx of
your petitioners and of a Minister of the Crown.
" That this arrangement has at subsequent periods
undergone reconsideration from the Legislature, and
various comprehensive and careful Pat li amentary inquiries
have been made into its practical operation ; the result
of which has been, on each occasion, a renewed grant to
your petitioners of the powers exercised by them in the
administration of India.
"That the last of these occasions was so recent as
1853, in which year the arrangements which had existed
for nearly three-quarters of a century were, with certain
modifications, re-enacted, and still subsist.
"That, notwithstanding, your, petitioners have re-
ceived an intimation from her Majesty's Ministers of
their intention to propose to Parliament a bill for the
purpose of placing the government of her Majesty's East
Indian dominions under the direct authority of the
Crown, a change necessarily involving the abolition of
the East India Company as an instrument of govern-
ment.

" That your petitioners have not been informed of the
reasons wnich have induced her Majesty's Ministers,
without any preview; if.qW.ry, to come to the resolution
of putting an end to a system of administration which
Parliament, after inquiry, deliberately confirmed and
sanctioned less than five years ago, aid which in its
modified form has not been in operation quite four years,
and cannot be considered to have undergone a sufficient
trial during that snort period.
"That your petitioners do not understand that her
c—ia'alrg‘eb, a,p,sl.la, dog itrr.a ng e-
nlYoeuui petitioners. But the time at which the proposal is
made compels your petitioners to regard it as arising
from the calamitous events which have recently occurred
in India.

"That your petitioners challenge the most searching
investigation into the mutiny of the Bengel army, and
the causes, whether re note or immediate, which pro
duced that mutiny. They have instructed the Go-
vernment of India to appoint a commission for con-
ducting such au inquiry on the spot ; and it is their
most anxious wish that a similar inquiry may be
instituted in this country by your honourable house,
in order that it may be ascertained whether any
thing, either in the constitution of the Home Govern-
ment of India, or in the conduct of those by whom it has
been administered, has had any 'Mare in producing the
mutiny, or has in any way impeded the measures for its
suppression ; and whether the mutiny itself, or any
circumstance connected with it, affords any evidence of
the failure of the arrangements under which India is at
present administered.
" That were it even true that these arrangements had
failed, the failure could constitute no reason for divesting
the East India Company of its functions, and transferring
them to her Majesty's Government ; for under the existing
system her Majesty's Government have the deciding voice.
The duty imposed upon the Court of Directors is to origi-
nate measures and frame drafts of instructions. Even had
they been remiss in this duty, this remissness, however
discreditable to themselves, coil' ld in no way absolve the
responsibility of her Majesty's Government, since the Mi-
nister for India poseesses, and has frequently exercised, the
power of requiring that the Court of Directors should take
any subject into consideration, and prepare a draft des-
patch for his approval. Her Majesty's Government are
thus in the fullest sense accountable for all that has been
done, and for all that has been forborne or omitted to be
done. Your petitioners, on the other hand, are account-
able only in so far as the act or omission has been pro-
moted by themselves,
"That, under these circumstances, if the administration
of India had been a failure, it would, your petitioners
submit, have been somewhat unreasonable to expect that
a remedy would be found in Annihilating the branch of the
ruling anthorit Which could not be the one principally in
fault, and might be
altogether blameless, in order to con-
centrate all powers in the branch which had necessarily the
decisive share in every error real or supposed. To believe
Y
that the administration oflndia would have been more
free from error if it, had been conducted by a Minister of
the Crown, without the aid of the Court of Directors,
would be to believe that the Minister, with full power to
govern India as he
plcved , hasgoverned
ill because he has
g
had the assistance of experienced and responsible ad-
visers.
" That your petitioners however do not seek to vindicate
themselves at the expense of any other authority ; they
claim their full share of the responsibility of the manner
in which India has been practically governed. That re-
sponsibility is to then not a subject of humiliation, but of
pride. They are conscious that their advice and initiative
have been, and have deserved to be, a great and potent
element in the conduct of affairs in India. And they feel
complete assurance that the more attention is bestowed,
and the more light thrown upon India and its administra-
tion, the more evident it will become that the Government
in which they have borne a part has been not only one of
the purest in Intention, but one of the most beneficent in
act, ever known among mankind ; that during the last, and
present generation in particular, it has been in all dep trt-
ments one of the most rapidly improving Governments in
the world ; and that at that !me when this change is pro-
posed a greater number a important imprayements are in
a state of more rapid progress than at aey former period ;
and they are satisfied that whatever further improvements
may be hereafter effected in ludia can only consist in the
development of germs already planted, and in building
on foundations already laid, under their ,authority, and in
a great measure by their express instructions.
" That such, however, is not the impression likely to be
made on the public mind, either in England or in India,
by the ejection of your petitioners from the place they fill
in the Indian Administration. It is not usual with states-
men to propose the complete abolition of a system of go-
vernment of which the practical operation is not con-
demned, and it might be
generally inferred from the pro-
posed measures, if carried into effect at the present time,
that the East India Company having been entrusted with
an important portion of the Administration of India, have
so abused their trust as to have
produced a sanguinary in-
surrection, and nearly lost India to the British empire ;
and that, having thus crowned a long career of misgovern-
ment, they have, in deference to pablio indignation, been
deservedly cashiered for their misconduct.
" That if the character of the East India Company were
alone concerned, your petitioners might be willing to await
the verdict of history. They are satisfied that posterity
will do them justice. And the
are confident tliat, even
now, justice is done to them in the minds not onl of her
Majesty's Ministers, but of all who have any claim to be
competent judges of the subject. But though your peti-
tioners could afford to wait for the reversal of the verdict
of condemnation which will be believed throughout the
world to have been passed on them and itheir government
by the British nation, your petitioners cane it look without
the deepest uneasiness at the effect likely to be produced on
the minds of the people of India. To them—however in-
correctly the name may express the fact—the British G o-
vernment in India is the Government of the East India
Company. To their minds the abolition of the company,
will for some time to come mean the abolition of the whole
system of
administration with which the company is iden-
tified. The measure introduced simultaneously with the in-
flux of an overwhelming British force, will be coincident
with a general eatery, in itself most alarming to their fears,
from most of the organs of opinion in this country, as well
as of English opinion in India, denouncing the past policy
ent on the express ground that it has
of the government been
too forbearing, and too considerate towards the natives.
The people of India will at first feel no certainty that the
new Government, or the Government under a new name,
which it is proposed to introduce, will bold itself bound

21, 1858.

by the pledges of its predecessors. They will be slow to b
Hey! that a Government has 'been destroyed, only to be
followed by another which will act on the same principles,
and adhere to the same measures. They cannot suppose
that the existing organ of administration would be swept
away without the intention of reversing any part of its
policy. They will see the authorities both at home and in
India, surrounded by persons vehemently urging radical
changes in many parts of that policy; and interpreting, as
they must do,the change in the instrument of government as
a concession to these opinions and feelinc,s, they can hardly
fail to believe that, whatever else may be intended, the Go-
vernment will no lunge, be permitted to observe that strict
impartiality between those who profess its own creed end
those who hold the creeds of its native subjects, which
hitherto chacterised it ; that their strongest and most
deeply root d feelings wil henceforth be treated with much
less regard than heretofore ; and that a directly aggressive
policy towards everything in their habits, or in their
usages and customs, which Euglishmsn deem objection-
able, will no longer be confined to individuals and private
associations, but will be backed by all the power of
Government.
" And here your petitioners think' it important to ob-
serve, that in-abstaining as they have lone from all inter-
ference with any of the religious practices of the people of
India, except such aware abhorrent to humanity, they have
acted not only from their own conviction of what is just
and expedient, but in accordance with the avowed inten-
tions and express enactments of the Legislature, framed
in order that regard should be bad to the civil and re-
ligious usages of the natives,' and also that suits, civil or
criminal, against the natives' should be conducted accord-
ing to such rules as may accommodate the sumo to the
religion and manners of the natives.' That their policy in
this respect has been successful is evidenced by the fact
that, during a military mutiny, said to have been caused
by unfounded apprehensions of danger to religion, the heads
of the native State and the masses of the population have
remained faithful to the British Government. Your
petitioners need hardly observe how very different would
probably have been The issue of the late eventslf the native
princes, instead of aiding in the repression of the rebellion,
had put themselves at its head, or if the general popubtion
had joined in the revolt; and how probable it is that both
these contingencies would have occurred, if any real ground
had been given for the persuasion that the British Govern-
ment iuteuded_tosidentify itself with proselytism ; and it
is the honest conviction of your petitioners that any
serious apprehension of a change of policy in this respect
would he likely to be followed, at no distant period, by a
general rising throughout India.
" That your petitioners have seen with the greatest pain
the demonstrations of in liscriminate animosity towards the
natives of India on the part of our countrymen in India
and at home, which have grown up since the late unhappy
events. They believe these sentiments to be fundamen-
tally unjust; they know them to be fatal to the possibility
of good government in India. They feel that if such de-
monstrations should continue, and especially if weight be
added to them by legislating under their supposed influ-
ence, no amount of wisdom or forbearance on the part of
the Government will avail to restore that confidence of
the governed in the intentions of their rulers without
which it is vain even to attempt the improvement of the
people.
" That your petitioners cannot contemplate without dis-
may, the doctrine now widely promulgated, that India
should be administered with an especial view to the benefit
of the English who reside there, or that in its administra-
tion any advantages should be sought for her Majesty's
subjects of European birth, except that which they will
necessarily derive from their superiority of intelligence,
and from the increased prosperity of the people, the im-
provement of the productive resources of the country, and
the extension of commercial intercourse. Your petitioners
regard it as the most honourable characteristic of the go-
vernment of India by England, that it has acknowledged
no such distinction as that of a dominant and a subject
race, but has held that its first duty was to the people of
India. Your petitioners feel that a great portion of the
hostility with which they are assailed is caused by the be-
lief that they are peculiarly the guardians of this principle,
Bed that, so long as they have any voice in the administra
tion of India, it cannot easily be infringed ' • and your peti-
tioners will not conceal their belief that their exclusion
from any part in the Government is likely, at the present
time, to be regarded in India as a first successful attack on
that principle.
" That your petitioners, therefore, most earnestly repre-
sent to your honourable house that even if the contem-
plated change could be prove-i to be in itself advisable, the
present is a most unsuitable time for entertaining it; and
they most strongly and respectfully urge on your honour-
able house the expediency of at least deferring any such
change until it can be effected at a period when it would
not be, in the minds of the people of India, directly con-
nected with the recent calamitous events, and with the feel-
ings to which those events have either given rise or have
afforded an opportunity of manifestation. Such postpone-
ment, your petitioners submit, would allow time for a more
mature consideration than has yet been given, or can be
given in the present excited state of the public mind, to
the various questions connected with the organisation of a
Government for India, and would enable the most comps.
tent minds in the nation calmly to examine whether any
now arrangement can be devised for the Home Govern-
ment of India uniting a greater number of the conditions of
good administration than the present, and if so, which
among the numerous schemes which have been or may be
proposed possesses those requisites in the greatest degree.
"That your petitioners have always willingly acquiesced
in. WE chanereswhicheaftear eliscussien hr. P,arlie.rnegt. aurcal
changes may have involved iniports.nt, sacrifices to them-
selves. They would refer to their partial relinquishment of
trade in 1813; to its tosal abandonment, and the placing of
their commercial charter in abeyance in 1833; to the trans-
fer to India of commercial assets, amounting to 15,858,0001.,
a sum greatly exceeding that ultimately repayable to them
in respect of their capital, independent of territorial rights
and claims; and to their concurrence, in 1851, in the
aseasure by which the Court of Directors was reconstruct-
ed, sad reduced to its present number. In the same spirit,
your petitioners would most gladly co-operate with her
Majesty's Government in correcting any defects which may
be considered to exist in the details of the present system ;
and they would be prepared, without a murmur, to relin-
quish their trust altogether if a better system for the con-
trol of the Government of India can be devised. But as
they believe that, in the construction of such a system,
there are conditions which cannot, without the most dan-
gerous consequences, be departed from, your petitioners
respectfully and deferentially submit to the judgment
of your honourable house their view of those condi-
tions, in the hope that, if your honourable house should
see reason to agree in that view, you will withhold your
legislative sanction from any arrangement of the Govern-
ment of India which does not fulfil the conditions in ques-
tion in at least an equal degree with the present.
"That your petitioners may venture to assume that it
will not be proposed to vest the home portion of the admi-
nistration of India in a Minister of the Crown, without the
adjunct of a Council composed of statesmen experienced in
Indian affairs. Her Majesty's Ministers cannot but be
aware that the knowledge necessary for governing a foreign
country, and in particular a country like India, requires as
much special study as any other profession, and cannot
possibly be possessed by any one who has not devoted a
considerable portion of his life to the acquisition of it.
" That in constituting a body-of experienced advisers to
be associated with the Indian Minister, your petitioners
consider it indispensable to bear in mind that this body
should not only be qualified to advise the Minister, but
also, by its advice, to exercise, to a certain degree, a moral
check. It cannot be expected that the Minister, as a gene-
ral rule, should himself know India ; while he will be ex-
posed to perpetual solicitations from individuals and bodies
either entirely ignorant of that country, or knowing only
enough of it to impose on those who know still less than
themselves, and having very frequently objects in view other
than the interests or good government of India. The influ-
ences likely to be brought to bearon him through the organs
of popular opinion will, in the majority of cases, be equally
misleading. The public opinion of England, itself neces-
sarily unacquainted with Indian affairs, can only follow the
promptings of those who take most p sins to influence it ;
and these will generally be such as have some private in-
terest to serve. It is, therefore, your petitioners submit, of
the utmost importance that any council which may form a
part of the Home Government of India should derive a suffi-
cient weight from its constitution, and from the relation it
occupies to the Minister, to be a substantial barrier against
those inroads of self-interest and ignorance in this country
from which the Governmentof India has hitherto been com-
paratively free, but against which it would be too much to
expect that Parliament should of itself afford a sufficient
protection.
" That your petitioners cannot well conceive a worse
form of government for India than a Minister with a coun-
cil whom he should be at liberty to consult or not at his
pleasure, or whose advice he should be able to disregard
without giving his reasons in writing, and in a manner
likely to carry conviction. Such an arrangement, your
petitioners submit, would be really liable to the objections,
in their opinion, erroneously urged against the present
system. Your petitioners respectfully represent that any
body of persons associated with the Minister, who is not
check, will be a screen. Unless the council is so constituted
as to be personally independent of the Minister; unless it
feels itself responsible for recording an opinion on every
Indian subject, and pressing that opinion on the Minister,
whether it is agreeable to him or not; and unless the
Minister, when he overrules their opinion, is bound to re-
cord his reasons, their existence will only serve to weaken
his responsibility, and to give the colourable sanction of
prudence and experience to measures in the framing of
which those qualities have had no share.
" That it would be vain to expect that a new council
could have as much moral influence, and power of asserting
its its opinion with effect, as the Court of Directors.
body can no more succeed to the feelings and authority
which their antiquity and their historical antecedents gv
to the Esst India Company, than a Legislature,undera
new name, sitting in Westminster, would have the moral
One of
ascendancy of the Houses of Lords and Commons.
the most important elements of usefulness
will thus be
necessarily wanting in any newly-constituted India' coun-
cil, as compared with the present.
" That your petitioners find it difficulttocowncbeiievbe that
the same independence, in judgment and act,
cha-
racterises the Court of Directors, will be found in any
council all of whose members are nominated by themCarnoywnnf.
Owing their nomination to the same authority,
them probably to the same individual MinistelOnrwehm
are appointed to check, and looking to him e
reappointment, their desire of recommending
themselvestthheeithey
to him, and their unwillingness to riskwihnisbdeispraleeatisvueree
too
any serious resistance to his wishes,
strong not to be in danger of exercising powerful and in-
jurious influence over their conduct. Nor are your peti-
tioners aware of any mode in which that
conferring theninsinfluence
could be guarded against, except by
ap-
pointments, like those of the Judges, during good be-
haviour ; which, by rendering it impossible to correct an
error once committed, would be seriously objectionable.
" That your petitioners are equally unable to perceive
how, if the controlling body is entirely nominated by the
Minister, that happy independence of parliamentary and
party influence which has hitherto distinguished the ad-
ministration of India, and the appointment to situations
of trnst and importance in that country, can be expected to
continue. Your petitioners believe that in no government
known to history have appointments to offices, and especi-
ally to high offices, been so rarely bestowed on any other
considerations than those of personal fitness. This charac-
teristic, but for which in all probability India would longsince have been boat to this country, is, your petitioners