The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-12 00:00:00

detail, and do not require an entire alteration in the
system. Now, my lords, we have not been told what
re the grounds which have induced the Government to
:
ems to the conclusion that an alteration should be made
iu the constitution of the Indian Government ; but
-4.71,„ we remember that the subject was carefully con-
- sldereci so lately as the year 1353 by a cabinet contain-
ing many members of the present ministry, and that
that cabinet renewed the charter of the East India
Company, we must assume that it is something which
has occurred since then which has led to the conclusion
that the existing mode of government ought no longer
to continue. Those new circumstances can only be the
mutinies which have occurred in India. I must say,
my lords, that I am at a loss to understand in what
manner the mutinies can have rendered it expedient to
adopt the course which it is understood is contemplated
by the Government. I think that the argument of the
etitieners is unanswerable, that if those mutinies are to
he laid at the door of the Government of Yndia it is at
the door of that portion of it which has had supreme
control that it should be laid, and not at thdevi door
o body,
fdthe
petitioners', who have been merely
red whose advice, has not unfrequentlyanbeaendisre*gardey,
disregarded.
The branch of the administration in which the affairs of
India have been best managed is that portion with which
the ex- oyrn, and the officers of the crown, have the least
concern. On the other hand, the management of the army
has been more directly under the control of the ministers
of the crown. The ministry has appointed the Corn.
tiler-in-Chief, it has virtually appointed the Gover-
nor-General, and, in fact, the general control of the army
has been more with the ministry than with the Board of
Directors. Bearing these things in mind, it appears that
we are to come to this extraordinary conclusion, that
whereas one administration has been good and another
evil, we are to take away the authority of that which has
discharged its trust efficiently, and commit it to those
who, it appears by the result, hate mismanaged the
duties confided to them. What may be the paramount
causes of the mutiny I cannot pretend to say'; but no
man can doubt that it sprang immediately from two
causes ; first, that the demands upon the service of the
:British troops have been of late years very largely in-
creased ; and, secondly, that the native army has been
'kept up to a scale dangerously large when compared with
that of the European troops. (Hear.) Why is it that the
duties of British troops have been of late years so largely
Increased i My lords, lam bound to say that the cause
of it has been the restless and aggressive policy which
has been pursued with regard to the powers with whom
the Indian Government has been brought into contact.
in these wars millions and millions have been expended,
which might have been far more wisely employed in the
internal improvements of Hindustan, thereby adding to
:the resources and power of the state. This aggressive
policy has been the true source of our difficulties, and let
me add, that with this policy the government has bad
nothing to do. The constitution of the Secret Committee
enables the government of the day to give what orders
they please relating to war and diplomacy without the
:knowledge of the Court of Directors. It is notorious
that the directors have always opposed the policy of
agoression, and it is no less notorious that most of the
recant wars have been commenced without their know-
ledge, and continued without their approval. We know
they disapproved of the war in Affghanistan, that they
disapproved of the Burmese war, and that they were not
consulted in the war with Persia. And because these
proceedings have ended in the calamities of the last 12
menthe, we are now to be asked to hand over the govern-
ment from those who disapproved of those proceedings
and hand it to those through whose instrumentality they
were set on foot. I cannot see—l think your lordships
will have a difficulty in seeing—the policy or the justice
of such a step, and I therefore concur with the petitioners
in thinking that the principle of the present system of
government ought to be maintained. And, ray lords, if
you retain the principle, I concur with the petitioners
in thinking that it would net be well to constitute some
fresh consultative board to advise the government. The
petitioners say, and with justice, that a newly created
board would want that moral influence which an esta-
blished body, like the Court of Directors, now possess.
And I also concur with the petitioners in thinking that
even supposing it desirable that some alteration should
be made in the existing state of things, the present is not
'the time for making it. I own that this seems so just
and plain a proposition that I am at a loss to see how it
can be met. It seems to me most extraordinary that we
should be called upon to attempt to alter the system of
government of an empire, while the whole of that empire
is torn by an internal conflict. I have now, my lords,
tated in what I concur with the petitioners, but before
I conclude it is necessary that I should say a few words
won a point with regard to which I am bound to say
that I cannot agree with them. The petitioners pray
your lordships not to pass the proposed bill during the
continuance of the present disturbances, or, at all events,
not without further inquiry. They urge that before such
a step is taken, there should be a full and complete
inquiry into the subject by your lordships' house. From
this I must say I entirely dissent. If Parliament should
be of opinion that the present system should endure no
longer, and that the East India Company should be abo-
lished, I think that that opinion should be put into
practice with the least possible delay. I see no occasion
for inquiry ; because, though it might be incomplete
an other respects, the inquiry made in the year 1853
as to the mode of conducting the government of India
Lae afforded us all the information which we can require
-with reference to the home government. Besides, I think
that an inquiry of this kind would have a very bad effect.
The inquiry would necessarily be directed against the
company by the government, and yet during the time
that it was going on the company would have to act
-with government in the administration of the affairs of
India. If we are to have a change, let it be made as
speedily as possible, and let the statute which enacts it
cams into force with as little delay as the subject would
allow. Before I sit do n, let me remark that I was
wrong in saying that the East India Company have not
been consulted by the government in reference to this
bill about to be proposed. I ought to have said that
they have at last been consulted. About Mn hour before
I came down to this house I received information to the
effect that this morning the Prime Minister had an inter-
view with the Chairman of the Court of Directors, and
communicated to him the heads of the bill. As, how-
ever, the bill is to come before the House of Commons
to-morrow, I presume that no very essential mcdifica-
Cons can take place in the interval ; and I own I do
not see what an vantage can arise from the communica-
tion which has just been made. If anything, I think
this makes rather more marked than it was before the
insulting want of courtesy shown towards the Cuurt of
Directors.
The Duke of ARGYLL said he was sure their lordships
would all admit that in following the noble earl he was
placed at considerable disadvantage, and that his position
might have been far better had he risen after the head of
the government had introduced the bill in another place.
Be would appeal to the candour of the noble earl himself
'whether it were not possible that many of the objeotions
he had urged to this proposed change might have been re-
moved by an examination of the measure about to bo sub-
emitted to parliament. He could not anticipate the
contents of that bill, and his observations would therefore
take the form rather of a statement, than of a reply to the
speech of his noble friend. He must, however, first refer
for a moment to his noble friend's enlogium on the
petition of the East India Company. He need hardly
say that in the whole of that eulogium it was impossible
for the government to concur. They thought that some
of the arguments in the petition were purely traditional,
and were inapplicable under existing circumstances; that
some parts of it contradicted each other ; and that some of
the statements, though true in themselves, did not warrant
the conclusions in support of which they were made. On
one point there could be but one opinion in that house;
they must all feel that the tone and temper of this docu-
ment were worthy of the great historical body from which
it emanated, and worthy of the subject treated ; and he
earnestly hoped that in the debates which would take place
in parliament, there would be an abstinence from
every-
thing
of a recriminative character, and that they would all
give credit to each other for a desire to secure th 3 best pos-
sible government for India. He must also express best
hope that the two able and distinguished men who
were understood to have been mainly instrumental in the
drawing up of that petition might continue to give to any
future government that might be provided for India that
üble assistance which they had for so many years given to
the government of the East India Company. Now, hav-
ing thus referred to the petition, he entreated their lords
whips to consider in what position the government would
have been placed if they had not proposed a change of sys-
tem. The act of 1853 made changes of very considerable
Liao:titled° in the government of India, and all these
thaasnges were in the direction of that consummation which
now proposed. The house would recollect the circum-
stances under which the measure of 1853 was brought for-
and by Lord Aberdeen. The transfer of the powers of ;
g )yernment from the East India Company to the Crown
was urged upon thaegovernment from different quarters,
inclading if not
r trty in parliament large at all events a very influential
Lag„, in Lord Ai)4aanel, he might appeal to all his col-
their impression at the time whether it was not
'Lately be inevitable.
le_he
referred
of the immediate effects of the
change then ma reed more especially to the sub-
stitution for a periodical renewal of the charter of a simple
provision that the governme
itetaeyr
alteration in the
parliament
India should remain as
ent determined ether-
was then constituted until
Fdsia.of that change vise—one of the inamediate efifieft
p mn y
that it kept the affairs of
rongie
eViraZis,
: and it
and constantly under the attention of Prnarl'e
ight arise
was foreseen by every one that circumstances
'which would naturally lead to a further
government of India. During the last three or
they had had almost constant discussions in Parliament, in
the press, and above all, among the great commercialnbo body
in the country, with regard to many of those great '-
ques-
tions of internal government which were of most interto all connected with India. The Chief Justice and other
noble lords had repeatedly called attention to the defective
administration of justice in India; and there had:also been
a great deal of discussion with regard to the tenure
land, the growth of cotton, the
annexation
ti policy oforl
Dilhousie, this last subject involving one of the most d€ Ii
seta of all questions, namely, the relations which subsisted
between the government of India and the native states
was a remarkable feature of these discussions that all *the'
complaints which bad been made of the defective state of
affairs, or of errors which had been committed, were
almost always committed by the opponents of the Indian
government with the form and structure of that govern-
+nt. Whether this subject were agitated in England or
is India, in the commercial cities of this country or in
Parliament, it was constantly assumed that the defective
action of the government was owing to its faulty structure,
and that the existing system, instead of being a source of
et rength, was a perpetual fountain of embarrassment, mis-
toderstanding, and weakness. Ho was sure the house
would agree with him that there could be nothing more
ngerous for it, govern
t than to have its errors of policy
men
eif tributed to defects in its organic structure, And was it
a+ all surprising that there should be a very great amount
of prejudice against the government of the East India
Company Let them consider for a moment what that
governmen t was believed to be. India was even now-,-
st., change ',would be made by the bill in that respect -
,der the dominion of the Crown. Parliament long ago de-
li that Leila formedpart of the eropito of thecrown, Thu