The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-08 00:00:00

THE COUNCIL OF INDIA.

Yesterday the members of the Indian Council
sat in committee at the India-house, Leadenhall-
street. One of the first acts devolving on Lord
Stanley, as the Secretary of State and President of
the Council, was to divide the Council into commit-
tees for the more convenient transaction of business,
assigning to each a specific department of affairs in
relation to the government of India, and that he did
at the meeting of the Council on Friday last. We
are now enabled to state how the several commit-
tees have been constituted, and the different depart-
ments under which they will range themselves.
Those departments are three in number, viz., first,
Finance, Home, and Public Works ; second, Politi-
cal and Military ; third, Revenue, Judicial, and
Legislative. The members appointed to servo on
the Committee of Finance, Home, and Public Works
are Mr. C. Mills, Mr. E. Macnaghten, Mr. J. Shep-
herd, Sir P. Cautley, and Mr. Arbuthnot—the first
three being elected members of the Council, and
the last two nominees of the Crown. To the Po-
litical and Military Committee have been asssigned
Sir John Lawrence, Major-General Sir Robert
Vivian, Sir Henry Rawlinson, Mr. Willoughby,
and Captain Eastwick. The first four belong
to the category of nominated members of the
Council, and the last, Capt. Eastwick, to that of
elected members. The [members constituting the
Revenue, Judicial, and Legislative Committee are
Sir 3-. W. Hogg, Mr. Mangles, Sir F. Currie, Mr.
Prinsep, and Sir H. C. Montgomery, the first four
being elected and the last a nominated member.
The Council is composed of 15 members, besides the
President, so that they have been equally spread
over the committees. In some cases it will be ob-
served that the nominated members preponderate
in the committees, and in others the fact is the re-
verse ; but there is really nothing in that, for a
glance at the names of the gentlemen appointed to
serve on each will be sufficient to convince any one
conversant with the history and character of each
individual member that they have all been selected
by the Secretary of State with a rigid regard to
their special experience and aptitude for the busi-
ness in the departments to which they have been
assigned. It may be stated that the Secretary of
State is expressly empowered to rearrange the com-
mittees from time to time, and generally to direct
the manner in which the business shall be trans-
acted.

The whole of the business of the home govern-
ment appears now to be transacted at the house in
Leadenhall-street, and little or none at the Boar!, of
Control. The official apartments heretofor,:, occu-
pied by the Chairman of the Court of Directors have
been assigned to the use of Lord Stanley, the Secre-
tary of State, and he attends at the India-house for
the transaction of business from day to day. There,
too, Sir G. Clerk and Mr. Baillie, M.P., now the
Under-Secretaries, and until lately joint-secretaries
of the Board of Control, have removed their quar-
ters ; so that the new Council, with its necessary
adjuncts, may now be said to have got fairly into
working order.

The scheme of consolidation bf the establishments
in Leadenhall-street and at the Board of Control,
propounded by Sir J. Melvill and Mr. Leach, is
still under consideration, and little or nothing is
known out of doors in respect to it. an
the meantime, until it shall have been sett'ed and
made public, some natural anxiety is f‘,:it by the
employes in the different departments; whose inte-
rests it will materially affect.
The old Court of Proprietors held a meeting on
Monday, but it had no public interest. We under-
stand they elected Mr. Orawford, of the treasury
department of the establishment in Leadenhall-
street, to be their secretary, but whether this is a
provisional or permanent appointment is not at
present known.