The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-09 00:00:00

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GOVRIZN,.4IEII

" Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage,"

The India Bill was read a third time and passes
in the House of Commons last night. No opposi-,
tion is expected in the Lords, and we may accord-
ingly consider
sthato ft .Ihdes n
thees sgurreea
twEi I
;11
st _tawfew
ia Cdo-iwy.
I becorueparry. It is impossible to c 'Lite/rig-date the extinc-
tion of so mighty and historical a corp,T.tion with-
out a feeling similar t, that with which Gibbon
heard the monks chanting in the Fleviati Amphi-
theatre, and beheld the cows feeding in the Roman
Forum. Forgood or evil, a power has passed away
from the earth. After an existence of nao;•0
two centutits.anl a-half the corporation whieh we's -
called into -Wing by a charter of Elizabeth he
extinguished by the Royal assent expressed by the
Com inissioners of Victoria. In any case we should
bc 'disposed -to. observe the maxim of speaking
nothing but, good of the deal, and even if the Com-
pany had been no more distinguished than that
which hunts for furs in the Wilds of British Ame-
ric tor which in past years traded with the Levant.
we should feel bound to respect a corporatii..nwhich
traces back its orig,in to the close of the sixteenth
century. But tne Ea:st India Company .has a right
to something more than a decorous and respectful
epitaph. For a hundred years it has boeu a con-
itig Power, and now that its. time is drawing to
a clasp it leaves the mother count: y possessedot an
empire which eurrouuding n atious may and du
envy. The East Lucia Company is -a type of the
agencies which have transforms! the Eug'and of
the Tudors into the England of the present time. It
has been from our earliest memory one of the chitf
boss s of this country, and the subject of jealousy
and admirivion among those nations of the Conti-
nent whose dad s 'of colonisation and conquest have
had their trial and their failure. Great exploits and
great crimes have marked its h'story in the
times when it was iudependeir, and really
was what it only pretended to be in atter . days
corporation trading, acquiring tort,-
tory, and carrying on wars in foreign lands
with but the slightest control from its own Govern-
ment. Some sptakers have dwelt.upon its usurpa-
tions, which Were at times flagrant, and its iejus-
tice to individuals, which was often undeniable, but
we are content to allow the evil to be buried with
the generations which Tr ,ducetl it, and to remelt -
ber only the genius, valour, and per severance of the
men who converted a little factory on the Hooghly
and two stations - on the Corowandel and Malabar
Coes' s into the capital cities of the greatest Asiatic
Empire which now exists. We think that with
every succeeding year, and with every advance of
s iinid inquiry, the spirit which found a gratifica-
tion in to. meriting Cliveiand Hastings, and in carp-
ing at Wellesley, will be more and more repro-
bated. Tnere have been instances of its revival at
the present day, but whether it be that a Burke or
a Sheridan is wanting, or -that a better judgment
prevails in the community, certain it is t -rat the
shafts of censure. have fallen powerless upon those
who have vigotously upheld 'the supremacy of their
countrymen in distant regions.
England may, then, justly honour the name and
memory of the great; Company which is associated
with the most extraordinary conquest ever achieved
by arms or policy. We may all feel a pang at hear-
ing of the last meeting in Leadeehall-s.reet, btu
our regret is rather historical and traditional than.
practical. Every one must feel that the East India
Company had lived its allotted term, and tira •if
it now descends full of years. and houours into the
grave, it is best for its own reputation and the pub-
lic good. In fact, the East India Company hart for
many years ceased to exist as an independentpo wer.
What was called by the name of the Company was
an apparatus by which a certain number of Illell iii
some degree cunveraant with Indian affairs were
brought together and allowed a voice in the govern-
ment of the British possessions in Asia. Since the
act of William Pitt the independence of the Carnpany
has be enb uta shado w. Legislationwithinthepres.nt
c y took away the exclusive trade to Itioia and
China, then prohibite ttra le altogether, and within
the last few years has given the Crown the non
nation of a portion of the directors. The other di-
rectors have been elected by the stockholders, a
body whose dividends are guaranteed, and who have
no. more connection with India than the holders of
Consols or of rail way shares. In fact, the so-
cailed company has been only a cumbrous machine
of double government, having a nominal identity
with the corporation which sent out Clive und Coate
to conquer. Any friend of tee company who does
not wish it to realize the line--

might well be glad that its existence has been
brought to.x close at a period when it has become
powerless-for good, and can only exist as the in-
strument of intriguers and tho obstacle of efficient
administra, ion.
And yet it has cost a g cod. deal to abolish the E
India Company. To lay that ghost of agie et cor-
peratiou has exercised the skill of the leaders of two
parties during six months of Parliamentary debates.
Let no man despise a vested interest, however
small, or its posses-4)r, however humble, obscure,
or foolish. Men will tight for their own, and tierce
is the conflict when the public storms. the ti ads-1
of self-interest. The Court of Directors and their
partssus have waged an obstinate and not entirely
unsuccessful war against two successive Ministries
and the gloat mass of the nation. That the Com-';
p my, or rather the system which went by that
name, was felt to have forfeited the confidence of
the country by the catastrophe of 18b7, can hardly
be deaied. if the Company were the, Loids of
India they bad lost. it, and the British people; by
unheard-of effor,e, and the display ot merry with-
out parallel, are just reconquering the dominion
which had fallen from the grasp ot tue,e,olporation.
India had become, as it were, the property of the
salvors, and it was within the right ot the nation to
assign to it an efficient Government for the
time to come. The abolition of the company

was resolved on, and so generrdly accepted-
that
the transference of its power to the Crown
has hardly been seriously resisted iu the
House of Commons. Yet private iLterest and the
power of an interested clique have been sufficient
to overthrow one Ministry and to modify the con-
duct of another, it has required the assiduou. atten-
tion of Parliament and the press to carry thiougli
a b ll which no one op my ventured to °pose.
Happily, public opinion is now too powerful to he
withotood by any body of men, however wealthy
and strong iu social position and united by complex
ramifications with a large Parliamentary brigade.
It has Leen reserved f ,r the Ministry of Lord Derby
to carry out the long-expected change iu O, Ge-
verntnent of India, and tie President of the Board
of Control deserves no little credit fir bisetcrt:ons
and the success which has attended them. He has
fought the bill with skill and firmness through coin-
mittee. Amid the comptaiuts of.a dearth of genius
it is gratifying to find a man little over Minty years
of age who has shown hinr,el fide t for rho Lit ilt St
posts in a Parliamentary (government.—Tintes.

THE BEJEt TION OF
ILL. TE CR ÜBCH- SATE
BH

Although the bill did not leave the Commons till
the Oth of June, by the 2d of July above 1,8t.t0
petitions were presented, and on Friday, prior to
the debate, as many as 921. were laid on their lord-
ships' table. Only 400 have been presented on the
other side.

The division list, taken in connection with the
list of pairs, shows an apparent determiantion
the part of the Whigs t..) repair the,error into which
mai:y of the membeis of the party fell in the lower
house. Not only did the late ministerial leader
in the Lords, Earl Granville, strenuously back
the Duke of Bomenet, by voice and vote, but the
Dukes of Bedford and A,gyl.l, and Lords Be!per,
Cheshain, Ebury, Foley, Wodehouse, BeFsborough,
irorteseue, Macin!ay, Fitzwilliarn, and Truro, are
fonod amon,, the snpporters of the bill, and the
Marquis of Lansdowne and Lord Clarendon, though
in the house that night, were absent from the
division.
The bishops, including the lately promoted Evan-
gelicals, almost to a man supported the continuance
of the tax. Sixteen crew present, and eight sent
posies. Those who neither voted nor sent probes
were the Atclibishop:.4 of York and Dublin,.and
the Bishops of S. David's, Ely, and Chester.

WS Pi