The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-31 00:00:00

THE NEW GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL.

(From, the Daily Nevis.)
The partisans of the late Ministry have opened in
full cry upon the scent of the " Government of
India Bill, No. 2." They declare that it is bad,
and that it is incapable of being mended. They
proclaim its approaching rejection, and the conse-
quent resignation of its authors. And this is the
secret of their clamour. They care not for India ;
the India Bills are for them only so much political
capital. The lowing herd who were driven with
so much reluctance and recalcitration from the fat
pastures of Downincf-sreet already fancy they see
the gates of these rich fields again opened to them,
and give vent to their joy in sufficiently characteris-
tic utterances. _ .

But the people of England feel that legislation
which is to decide the future fate of the millions of
Hindostan is a matter of too vital consequence to
be staked on the dice of isolitical hazard. The in-
terest which England has in the prosperity of
India, the deep national responsibility incurred by
assuming the empire of so vast a region, render the
decision of the question how it is in future to be
governed one of the most anxious problems ever
submitted for solution to a nation or its legislators.
TL • task of legislating for India must be approached
in dispassionate mood, under that deep sense of
moral responsibility which befits so momentous an
undertaking.
The bill presented to the House of Commons by
Lord Palmerston is the first that calls for notice.
The radical vice of that measure is the immense

amount of irresponsible power and patronage which
it entrusts to the Ministers of the Crown for the
time being and the inadequate security it affords for
the appointment of capable men in India. The bill
proposes that the Home Government of India shall
be exclusively vested in a Council, composed of a
President and eight members, nominated by a e
Crown—the Presi lent to hold office during pleasure,
the other Councillors cor a certain term of years.
This Council and its President are to be a corpora-
tion for the management of Indian affairs. In them
are to becombined.°all the power at present exercised
by the Directors of the
.East India Company and
the Board of Control conjointly. Except with re-
gard to suck affairs as are at present conducted by
the Secret Committee, all business is to be trans-
acted in Council. But when the President is pre-
sent he may disregard the opinion of the majority
of the Council, and follow his own if in opposition
to it. And he may do the same with regard to any
resolution adopted by a majority of the Council in
his absence, on the condition of putting his own and
their reasons upon record. In two cases only is it
necessary that his determination should be sanc-
tioned by the assent of four other members of
Council ; -when matters of finance, or when the
exercise of patronage is in question. Thus, the
whole administration and patronage of India—
with some inconsiderable exceptions—is proposed
to be vested iiu nine nominees of the Crown, on.
holding office so long as it suits the arrangements
of his political party, the rest for a term o years.
Neither the public of India nor of England are to
have any voice in the nomination of this Council.
It is indeed liable to be calleile to account for its
actions in Parliament, and 510..7n a view to this it is
proposed that the President and one Secretary ap-
pointed by him may have seats in the House of
Commons. But Parliament has always had the
power of examining into and controlling the Go-
vernment of India ; and how many days of each
session, on an average, have been given to the
affairs of. India since India was ours I It i 3 an
arrant farce to speak of the dread of Parliamentary
responsibility as likely in the slightest degree to in-
fluence the proceedings of the proposed Council for
India. The common sense of the nation has de-
clared that the only way to prevent the President
and his Council from becoming mere tools of the
Crown and its Ministers is to resort to the elective
principle for the appointment of at least a moiety
of the Council. It is also felt that for the purposes
of intelligent and independent deliberation—as
also for an adequate supply of working committees
—eight Councillors and a President are toe few.
These defects the Government, which has suc-
ceeded Lord Palmerston's profess to have remedied
in their amended bill. They certainly have recog-
nised the principle of election by an independent
constituency as regards a moiety of the Council,
and they have increased the number of Councillor?.
So far good ; but they have at the same time en-
grafted other modifications on the original bill
which more than neutralise the benefits of these
concessions. The Council for India, according to
Lord Palmerston's bill, however objectionable the
mode of its appointment, would have been a reality.
It would have had duties to perform and power to
perform them. But the Council for India accord-
ing to the " Government of India Bill, No. 2," is
a mere excrescence. Lord Palmerston proposed to
vest the government of India in a President and
Council. The President could only act in Council.
Lord Ellenborough proposes to vest the govern-
ment of India in a fifth Secretary of State. The
Secretary of State can act without the Council.
The Council in fact can only assemble when he
summons it, or complies with its petition to allow
it to meet ; and when met it can only talk. The
Secretary of State does not need to be supported by
a majority of its members even on questions of
finance or patronage. Indeed, whereas the greater
part of the patronage is by Lord Palmerston's bill
vested in the President and Council, the whole*f
the patronage is by Lord Ellenborough's bill vested
in the Crown—that is, in the Secretary of State for
India and his colleagues of the Cabinet. It is ales)
worthy of remark that while provision is made in
Lord Palmerston's bill for the presence of an accre-
dited mouthpiece of the Council for India in the
House of Commons—a member who can be inter-
rogated as to its doines, and compelled to explain
or defend them—nothing of the kind ie to be found
in Lord Ellenborough's. The latter bill declares
that of the five principal Secretaries of State, only
four can sit at one time in the House of Commons.
The Secretary for India may therefore be at any
time excluded from that house, and no substitute
is provided for him when that shall happen. It
is a trifle, and yet worthy of note, that
while Lord Palmerston's bill declares that
the President and Council may sue and be sued,
Lord Ellenborough's Bill exempts the Secretary of
State from this conjoint liability with the Council.
The inference we draw from this review of the
two measures is, that it would be dangerous to
allow Lord Palmerston's Bill to become law, be-
cause it vests the entire power and patronage of
India in a small and managealle body of nominees
of the Crown ; and that it would be equally dan-
gerous to allow Lord Ellenborough's to become
law, because it vests the whole powerand petronlge
of India in a Secretary of State, whose tenure of
office depends upon that of his party—the Council
attached to him, although in part the offspring of
popular election, being utterly powerless to do or
prevent anything. Both of the Cabinets who have
tried their hands at the experiment of constructing
a good Government for India have lamentably
failed. Were the issue in our power we should
say to Patliament, postpone legislation till a really
unexceptionable measure shall be submitted to you.
You already have a Government in India which
all parties concur in saying has worked not amiss.
Why change it before you have a tolerable certain y
of obtaining something decidedly better in lieu of
it ? But we are told that Parliament, having
already declared that it will legislate for India this
session, must keep its word. The declaration ap-
pears to belong to the rash and ill-considered class
which there is more in abandoning than in adhering
to. But if Parliament will fetter itself by a rale•
taken pride in unreasonable consistency, let it al
least avoid adopting an objectionable bill for
no other reason than that it is offered as a snb-
etitute for another equally objectionable. The
great fault of Lord Palmerston's bill is that it
places India at the mercy of a few irresponsible
nominees. The great fault of Lord,Ellenborough's
bill is, that the Council, though sufficiently nu-
" 011-3 and not exclusively composed of nominees,
is utterly, powerless. If no party in the House
of Commons •
tsh e
i
prepared to offer a third and
better bill, let L
to combine the louse at least make an attempt
other better features of both the
bills before it in one. Let the two bills be re-
mitted to a Seleist Committee, with instructions to
retain that part 01 Lord Palmerston's Bill which
delegates the Government of India to a President
and a real council ; to enlar
a'n the council to the
number proposed in Lord Ellenborough's Bill • to
adopt the elective principle embodied in Lord
Ellenborough'e Bill, with an improved consti-
tuency ; to retain the provisions in Lord Palmer-
ston's Bill for ensuring the presence of an official
representative of the Council of India in the House
of Commons ; and to make whatever amen lments
on this combination of the best parts of both
measures may appear to the said Committee
advisable.

Lord Derl4P''s.°74 DatteQlW"ni7'
great new India India Bili%'':.°ll,l,l e9affuneroatidd_.)_eiv that the
provement upon the e-:.r°garded
In all its deitZlsintr°4Z:l
Palmerston.
rd
with such prominence and Ital'ot,ifa'" ataYndl4 out
3%
attempt to struggle against it becollm":',„tllat
possible. Doubtless censorious critics
will go to
any lengths, and hazard assertions of the mcst
traordinary character in order to prop up their de-
clining cause, as well as to gratify their resent-
ment. Of this we have abundant evidence in the
nature of the objections urged against tile new
India Bill. One authority gravely assures ti 0
public that it is too popular, and that it °reit to
be resisted becaure it is a fair and judicious settle-
ment of an extremely difficult question. This is