The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-06 00:00:00

THE NEW GOTEBNMEIVT OF INDIA

BILL.

(From lee Morning Herald.)
We proceed to redeem our pledge of instituting
a comparison.between the two India bills submitted
to Parliament by Lord Palmerston and the Earl of
Derby. Both contemplate the same end, but the
means of arriving at this are different. The East
India Company are to be deposed, and the govern-
ment of the territories over which they hold sway
is to be vested in the Crown. In both plans a
council is to be established for the future direction
and management of the affairs of India. Accord-
ing to Lord Palmerston, the council is to consist of
a president and eight members : according to Lord
Derby, of a secretary of state and eighteen mem-
bers. It is objected to both schemes that each
contains the vicious element of divided responsi-
bility, the council being a screen for the president
or secretary of state, in the same sense as the East
India directors were a screen to the Board of Con-
trol. It may be asked of those who reason after
this fashion whether there is any individual fit to
be trusted with the government of 180 millions
of people, speaking 75 languages or dialects, and
scattered over a territory containing 1,300,000
square miles. Were any such man to present
himself, and volunteer to undertake a task so ardu-
ous, most competent persons would pronounce him
disqualified on account of the excess of his egotism.
No other argument need be adduced to show the
necessity of the chief of the department being
assisted by able advisers. Whether the preferable
number should be eight or eighteen is entirely
one of degree, to be regulated by a comprehen-
sive review of all the circumstances of the case;
but if it be maintained as a principle that com-
plete responsibility can only be secured where
supreme and uncontrolled power is lodged in
the hands of a single individual, then both Lord
Palmerston and Earl Derby must be equally con-
demned, since both their plans involve a departure
from unity.
. The eight members of council, in the measure
proposed by Lord Palmerston, are to be chosen
from persons who have been directors of the East
India Company, or who have been for ten years at
least in India, in the service either of the Crown or
of the Company, or who have resided at least 15
years in India. It appears strange that the selec-
tion of the future council should be made from
the directors of a company which this bill is ex-
pressly designed to extinguish. They are con-
demned, and still they are to be trusted. If they
are not fit to rule how are they qualified to advise?
A residence of 15 years in India is certainly a strong
presumption in favour of local knowledge, which is
the basis of official aptitude ; but it is a serious de-
fect in the plan that the range of choice should be
so narrowly restricted. Athough old Anglo-Indians
may be fully conversant with the wants and wishes
of the natives, it is highly probable they may have
contracted inveterate prejudicesond Lord Palmer-
ston has not provided any check. In this respect
his scheme lacks comprehensiveness. It may he
presumed that his council would be all of one mind
and view all subjects through one medium, and
this unanimity would be fatal to the extension and
sifting of ideas. Debateable topics ought to be dis-
' cussed with a combination of European and Asiatic
minds, but the former element is excluded.
We will now place in contrast the composition of
the council recommended by the Earl of Derby. It
bas already been stated that it will consistof eighteen
members, nine of whom are to be nominated by the
Crown, while nine are to be elected by constituen-
cies ; but as the Crown will only be able to choose
out of classes clearly defined, and possessing cert'*in
qualifications, Mr. Disraeli declared, with truth,
That the whole council would consist of " represen-
tative men." It has been object-d by professing
Liberals that a body partly nominated and partly
elected cannot work well together, but no r essous
have been assigned for such a decision. It is simp'y
cs.ptiens, and is hire only noticed to be dismissed,
fur the combination is plainly in harmony wish the
usage of the constitution, since an elected House of
Commons and an hereditary peerage, the latter
derived originally from Royal nomination, are co-
equal and co-ordinate institutions, and form the
common council of the realm; while experience has
shown that their united action, so far from throw-
ing the machinery of government out of gear, pre-
vents disturbance and maintains order. It may be
that the querulous Whigs, aware of the frivolity
of their argument, have been induced to urge it
from vexation at the Conservatives having intro-
duced the elective element into the construction of
the Indian Council. Any recognition of that prin-
ciple by the Conservatives must be to them gall and
wormwood, for their past ascendancy was gained by
falsely describing their opponents as sworn enemies
to popular rights and rational progress. That de-
lusion has nearly passd away, and if it still linger
on the minds of any earnest and candid politicians,
we would recommend them to read carefully and
compare Lord John Russell's "Essay on the Bri-
ti,h Constitution " and Mr. Disraeli's " Coningsby"
and " Sybil."
In our first remarks on the two India bills we
expressed it as our opinion that the test of their
relative merits was, which of the two was better
adapted to confer benefits on the natives of India
without injury to the rights and liberties of Eng-
land. Under that view, let us inquire into the qua-
lificsti ,ns required in the nine members of the
council to be nominated by the Crown. It is made
a condition absolute that they shall have resided in
India, and there been employed either in the civil
or military service. *Here, then, at once, is a gua-
rantee for official aptitude, while none is afforded
in the plan of Lord Palmerston. The North
Western Provinces, Lower Bengal, Madras, and
Bombay, will each have one representative mem-
ber in council, and no person. is to be eligible un-
less he bas been engaged in the civil service for
ten years within the territories designated. It is
plain that such an arrangement must be beneficial
to the natives of India, since gentle Men so selected
must be perfectly familiar with -their wants and
wishes, able to point our grievances and defects,
and recommend appropriate remedies. The. fifth
member must also have resided ten years in India,
in the service of the Government of India, and
during five years at least of such period have
served as political agent or resident in some one or
more of the native States. This is a most im-
portant condition, and were we to move au
amendment it would not be against the prin-
ciple involved, but in favour of its extension, for
two suet. representatives might be preferable to
one. It may be well here to observe that the native
princes of India still govern with more or less
au,horrity, over 717,000 out of the 1,30 ),000 square
miles vvhich form the area of Hindostin, and rule
53,000,000 of the inhabitants. They are our allies,
the relations between us and them being either
sulridiary or protective. We have bound them
down strictly to the exclusion of Europeans and
Americana from their service. By the terms of
alliance the native states relinquish the right of
self-defence and that of maintaining diplomatic re-
lations among.each other or with foreign nations,
while the arbitrement of all disputes among each
other is vested in the Company as the paramount
power. The aggregate revenue of the native princes
(at least before the annexation of Oude) was ten
millions sterling, and ;hey paid one-tenth of that
sum as tribute to the• British Government, besides
being bound to maintain a military contingent of
32;311 men, commanded by British officers and
available, on demand, by the Company. Their
collective military resources are estimated at 12,962
artillery, 68,303 cavalry, and 317,653 infantry—a
grand total of 698,918 men.
These facts' abundantly prove the sound judg-
ment of Lord Derby in providing that one of the
members of the council should be familiar with the
usages of the native courts and the general character
of their princes. The qualification of the sixth
member is to have served for five years at least in
her Majesty's army in India ; while the seventh,
eighth, and ninth members respectively must have
served for ten years at least in the Bengal, Madras,
and Bombay armies. A distinction is here
made which perhaps will be reconsidered, for
unless some special reasons can be adduced it
does not appear equitable or expedient to require
only five years' service from a Queen's officer, and
ten years from the officers of the company. On the
whole, however, it is difficult to believe that any
unprejudiced politician can raise a valid objection
to the mode of appointing the first nine members of
the council, or to the qualifications required from
them ; moreover, with most honourable and unre-
served frankness, Mr. Disraeli has announced to
Parliament the names of the nine gentlemen who
Wind E., rain. will be the first nominated. We shall enter more
er, from Jersey; Havre, fully into the merits of the elective portion of the
Arrived.—Courier, steam
steamer, Havre-
plan on an early day.
for New York; Norman,
Alliance, steamer, Havre ;
steamier,
Despatch, Sailed
saStpeaesxmo°f
rGi o'joedsr to
Hee ayom. peer ;
LIVERPOOL, Tuesday vcrniug.
Wind E. ; strong breeze.
(Arrived.—Loochristie, from Ghent.
'Sailed, April 4.—Glengary, for Singapore.
Sailed, April s.—Therese, for Sydney ; Woodfield, for
Montreal ; Idas, for Ba,rbadoes.
The Morning Light, from Melbourne, drove from her
anchors at ten o'clock last night, and grounded off Sea-
combs Point. Two steamtugs went to her assistance and
towed her in safety into the stream. Wind at the time,
E.S.E., a gale.

LLOYD'S SMPPING.—(This Day.)

LONDON, April 6.—Wind this day at noon, E. by S.E.;
fresh breeze, with rain.
JERSEY, April 4.—Wind S.SE.— Sailed—Fib:tan,
for West Indies.
Drumm, April s.—Arrived Medina, from Porto
Rico.
MONTROSE, April s,—Wind S. E. —A rrived —East
Lothian, from Callao. Sailed—Emigrant, for Quebec.
Simi.ns, April s.—Wind S.—Sailed—Thomasine, for
Montreal. . _

SOUTHAMPTON, April s.—Sailed--Norman (e), for Cape
of Good Elope.

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
BoutuAmProN, Tuesday Morning.

(From the Morning Chronicle)

Her Majesty's Opposition have at rength made
up their minds what to do about the proposed mea-
sure for the Government of India. They intend to
run through Palmerston's scheme against Lord
Ellenborough's bill. The former, as it happens,
stands for a second reading on Thursday, the E2d
inst., that day having been fixed by the noble lord
hiinselt previously to the introduction of the Mi-
nisterial measure. The latter takes nearly' a week's
precedence on the notice-paper, the second reading
being a; k, A l 16. S,

1 -.8 appointed for Friday week, __ pri. Jome
(BY SUBMARINE AND BRITISH TELEGRAPH.) `Parliamentary contrivance will, however, easily
GRAVESEND, Tuesday Morning.. i get over this technical difficulty, and place the two
Wind S.E. ,• tide, three hours' ebb ; cloudy and fresh.
y,
-Arrived—Harriet, end Speedwell, from Antwerp; bills side by aide before the House of Commons,.
Sacbrimmer, from Dram. ' for discussion and judgment on theirnie,its.
Sailed—Blackburn, for Calcutta; Adelaide, for Demo- Acceptance is challenged for Lord Palmerston's
rare; Albion, steamer, for Boulogne.
1 proposition by the partisans of the late Minister,
DEAL, Tuesday Morning. ,
chiefly on two grounds. First, that it has already
as they allege, received the sanction of a large ma-

Wind E.S.E., fresh.
No arrivals.