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

THE NEW GOTERNMENT OF INDIA BILL.

(prom, the Daily News.)
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 Downing-street 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 political 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.
TLe task of legislating for India must be approacbe I
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
Lard 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 lndiashall
be exclusively vested in a Council, composed of a
President and eight members, nominated by tl e
Crown—the Presi lent to hold office during pleasure,
the other Councillors for 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 ti ans-
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 in nine nominees of the Crown, one
holding office so long as it suits the arrangements
of his political party, the rest for a term of year..
Neither the public of India nor of England are t•
have any voice in the nomination of this Council.
It is indeed liable to be called to account for its
actions in Parliament, and with 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. gut Parliament Ins 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 1 It is an
arrant farce to speak of the dread of Parliamentai y
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 too 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 numlur 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 Conned.
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. Tha
Secretary of State does not need to be supported by
a majority of ita 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 of
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 alio
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 doings, and compelled to explain
or defend them—nothing of the kind is to bb 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 Palmer ston'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 manageable 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 power and patronage
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 Parliament, 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 mis-
taken pride in unreasonable consistency, let it a,';
least avoid adopting an objectionable bill for
no other reason than that it is offered as a sub-
stitute for another equally objectionable. The
treat 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
bin is, that the Council, though sufficiently nu-
111ftous and not exclusively composed of nominees,
1$ utterly powerless. If no party in the House
.or Commons is prepared to offer a third and
better bin, let the house at least make an attempt
to combine the other better features of both the
bills before it in one. Let the two bills be re-
mitted to a Select Committee, with instructions to
retain that part of Lord Palmerfton's Bill which
delegates the Government of India to a President
and a real council ; to enlarge the council to the
number proposed in Lord Ellenborougb.'s Bill • to
adopt the elective principle embodied in Lord
Ellenborough's Bill, with an improved consti-
tuency; to retain the provisions in Lord Palmer-
ato4's Bill for enuring the prer.ence of an official
representative of the Council of India in the House
of Commons ; and to make whatever amen t s
on thin tornbinat',, best puts of both n of the
;Mu:Z. appear to the said Committee

(From. 44 --`,...-----
nugroatidalLe LIZ that the
Lord Derby's --D.," :::"t, in, il
new India Bill °liintiVi-ta4. caj
a a, et
provement upon the me -,;:vi`Narded
Palmerston. In all its deilisitr tiedgi,i7it'iniu:
with such prominence and boichla%"tau‘s°„:"l
attempt to struggle against it becomes
possible. Doubtless censorious critics Wilirlt
o to
any lengths, and hazard assertions of the meat .z_
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 a e new
India Bill. One authority gravely assures tl e
public that it is tao popular, and that it ought to
be resisted becaure it is a fair and judicious settle-
Meat of au extremely difficult question. This is I

not, of course, set forth in plain and intelligible
language, but such are the legitimate conclusions
to be derived from the arguments employed.
Another sapient commentator upon public men
and Parliamentary measures declares that Lord
Derby and his colleagues have no right whatever
to govern upon sound principles, and. to administer
the affairs of the country with credit and success.
Certain favoured individuals are, according to the
views of this luminary of the nineteenth century,
alone entitled to hold office. If, when in posses-
sion of the same, they show themselves arrogalt
and incompetent,' a reprimand is considered suf-
ficient punishment, and they are on no acc.ount
whatever to be dismissed and replaced.
" Ministers have played out their trump card,"
cries another caviller, " and have done
so well in this matter that it is necessary to get rid
of them as soon as possible. As they have displayed
statesmanship and impartiality in their proposal
for the settlement of the Indian difficulty, the House
of Commons must reject their budget. It is utterly
impossible for the country to go on much longer
with a Government that works harmoniously and
with such remarkable ability."
Such objections—and the above are, in honest
truth, all that have hitherto been urged against the
new India Bill—will not carry much weight. The
public perceive plainly enough that opponents who
cannot adduce more substantial grounds for oppo-
sition are merely seeking to throw obstructions in
the way of the Government, to gratify personal
animosity and to further factious aims. Office is
not the heritage or the right of any particular party.
The Whigs have during the last twenty years been
tried in every conceivable way, and failure and
disaster have been the results. The Conservatives,
during short intervals of power, have managed to
do much good, and their interference once more
restores confidence at home and abroad. Aware of
this, their antagonists desire to thrust them from
their present position before the benevolent charac-
ter of their policy is thoroughly established, and all
grades and classes of the community perceivJ more
fully who are their real friends, and who aro the
best protectors of national interests in their various
ramifications. Hence the vials of wrath at e poured
out upon the heads of the new ministers. First it
was stated that Lord Derby could not form a Go-
vernment. Then followed a rumour respecting dis-
sensions in the Cabinet. This was succeeded by
ominous whispers, to the effect that ministers would
not face Parliament. All these idle predictions have
been disproved. Lord Derby and his colleagues
have not only triumphed over opposition, but they
have gained respect, and
,re popular in the country.
In five weeks they have accomplished more than
their predecessors did in as many months. It is,
therefore, vain for calumniators to assert that
they are unable to govern with dignity and
success ; the results furnish the best refutation
to such a charge. Consequently a dif-
ferent line of argument is attempted, and
the public are assured that the new Ministers are
doing their duty bravely, but that such conduct is
against their antecedents. It was never intended
—that is to say by their opponents—that they
should discharge their functions so happily, and
detractors endeavour, with a wonderful display of
sophistry, to show that the Conservatives oulht to
be obstructions, and not that which they have
always been—temperate yet earnest and enlight-
ened reformers.

The new India Bill is in all respects an admirable
solution of a difficult problem, and we are not in
the least degree surprised at the straits to which
cavillers are reduced. The first thing that must
strike most people is its thorough honesty. There
is not the slightest attempt at the evasion of a diffi-
culty or the introduction of a deceit in one of its
provisions. The authors have evidently laboured
to do a great act of justice. In their measure both
power and patronage are placed beyond the reach
of arrogant officials, and while the most practical
form of government is secured for India the object
is achieved in the best manner possible. Nor is this
accomplished by any improper sacrifices. The re-
sponsibility of the Ministers of the day is quite as
direct in this measure as in its predecessor ; and
while they are rendered fully amenable for every-
thing that is done or left undone, proper guaran-
tees have been introduced to guard against abuses
both in the appointment of councillors and the dis-
tribution of patronage. The balance is adjusted
with admirable skill, and rulers will have every in-
centive to administer the affairs of India with dili-
gence and impartiality. Lord Palmerston's council
was objected to both from the smallness of the num-
ber of the members of which it was compose 1, and
the absolute power which, as regarded their ap-
pointment, was vested in the hands of the minister.
Both of these defects are remedied in the new mea-
sure. The council will consist of 18 membe s, and
the method of their appointment leaves nothing to
be desired. The nine members to be nominated by
the Crown will be required to possess distinct and
special , qualifications. Each nominee will re-
present an important interest connected with
o*r Indian empire. Four more, to be elected by
the Indian constituency, must either have served
ten years in some official capacity in India, or have
been fifteen years resident in that country. The
remaining five members of the council will receive
their appointment from the Parliamentary consti-
tuencies of London, Manchester, Liverpool, Glas-
gow, and Belfast. No person will be eligible as a
candidate unless he has been during five years at
least engaged in commerce between England and.
India, or in the manufacture of goods for exporta-
tion to India, or has been ten years at least resi
dent in India. A council thus constituted will be
fully competent to deal with every branch of Indian
legislation. Some objections have been raised in
interested quarters against what, is termed the re-
presentative element in this new scheme. One
would have thought that in days when so much is
spoken and written about Parliamentary reform
and an extension of the suffrage, that advocates of
the popular cause would have hesitated ere they
denounced this as one of the worst means of obtain-
ining honest and useful administrators. If it would
be dangerous to allow five members out of eighteen
of which the Council for India is to be composed to
be chosen in this manner, what shall be said of a
House of Commons of which all the members are
elected by popular vote ? The argument cuts both
ways. Those who contend that it would be un-
wise to have five legislators for India thus elected
must admit that it is equally unwise to have a
House of Commons created by such means. It is
impossible for Parliamentary reformers, and advo-
cates of popular changes, to escape from this
dilemma. They must either allow that the element
is healthy and beneficial in both cases, or renounce
all kinds of agitation for its extension in Parlia-
mentary government.
Some have rased objections because the cuancil
does net possess, as they pretend, sufficient power.
It was, however, essential to render Ministers
solely responsible, in order to do away with
that much maligned system, the double govern-
ment. Had Ministers attempted to retain the
slightest semblance of this system, which has
been most perseveringly denounced in all quarters,
they would have been charged with proposing
mockery of a change instead of an honest and a
thorough reform. In fact, we imagine that censo-
rious critics are sorely disappointed at the discri-
mination shown upon this point. They hoped that
some scheme for retaining the double government
in reality, though perhaps not in name, would have
afforded them the opportunity for which they long.
In the constitution of the council the elective an i
the representative elenaents are both called into
operation. Thus the selection of the ablest and
best qualified men, without reference to party or
government influences, will be secured. Members
of a council thus constituted will be really inde-
pendent men ; not, as under Lord Palmerston's
bill, the creatures of the Minister of the dey.
Moreover, by proposing to include the names of
the first council in the bill itself, Ministers obtaie
all the weight and influence of Parliamentary sanc-
tion in their favour.

Instead, therefore, of denouncing a Conserva-
tive Cabinet for framing and bringing before Par-
liament an impartial, stat-smanlike, and complete
settlement of the Indian question, the people of
this country will receive the boon with acclama-
tion. They understand its real value, and are not
to be deluded by the shallow diatribes of interested
critics. Freedom of action is one of the great safe-
guards of our representative institutions ; and the
doctrine that a party in power are only to do
exactly what the party in opposition desires, is
quite a new theory. The Conservatives are no',
and never have been, obstructives. Narre 4.-
minded opponents have described them as such,
but their object was self-evident. The Conerva-
tives are, indeed, the only true and clnstitutional
reformer., because with them reform does not
mean destruction, but progression. They know ho 'V
to protect tlia,t which is valuable in our free insti-
tutions, and, while discarding what is bad, do net
seek to undermine foundations. Had it not been
for their interference our time-honoured c •nstta-
tion must long since have been destroye I. Against
agitators and demagogues the y have ever lna;11
tattled a hold front, and have always oppose 1
iezaugt:stwe=ioriginated in an uneasy Lye ef
change, and which co Ull not .
_ ______ by any possibility

Great
c.O (Prom, the Morn
servatii.ree, :ta IV by the Con-
/movie:Lens
inlouibera jean:ltl:: Inn:ll3g the Palmeraton
Whip, at 'aft:ream°, exists
Chronicle)
Bill. The speerZein
constituency of 5,000
progosition—to elcrreriew India
or to give to five great towns,n cm' a ".' lOral 4 new
bi4.19,---
aierce with India, the right teco°:lneeetetfid 131
Icclrc.
Tors—does not so much really ozeupy theei:nre".
ads,

as might be inferred from their frequent attacks.
What they regard with alarm is the spirit of bold
innovation implied by such proposals, when coming
from a Conservative Ministry. They ask themselves
—cc Are we about to be deprived of our monopoly
of public virtue ?"
They need not fear. Their turn will come round
again. But they must submit, with a good grace,
to a suspension, for a time, of their functions. Such
political offences as were committed by Lord Pal-
merston's Ministry must in some way or other be
expiated. A great nation like the English cannot
submit to be trifled with. The whole country was
convulsed to give to a particular statesman a grea`,
majority, but it was accompanied, in the return of
Lord John Russell for London, with a warning.
The power was given to Lord Palmerston, not to
be abused vaingloriously, but for the advancement
of the great interests of progress. He was also
plainly told, that he must propose a thorough mea-
sure of Parliamentary Reform. No sooner was he
installed, with his great majority cheering at his
back, than he began to show his contempt for the
previous compact. Towards the House of Commons
he conducted himself as no minister has ever done,
within historical memory. " L'Etat, c'est Mei !"
was stamped on every word, act, and gesture. His
measures—when he offered them—were conceived
in any spirit rather than that of progress ; the
question of Parliamentary Reform he treated with
cool contempt. Now, it may be a very bad
state of things, in the eyes of those who sit to the
left of the Speaker's chair, that a Conservative
Ministry should be in office, but they will have
to perform quarantine some considerable time,
ere they regain the other side. Of this they appear
to be secretly conscious, and hence their dread of
certain symptoms in the tactics of the Ministers.
For, suppose the Conservatives should have
found wisdom in misfortune. Suppose they have
not either " learned nothing," or forgotten no-
thing ;" and that they have the sense to see that
their Restoration is anything but the result of Re-
action. Charges of tergiversation of principle they
can afford to despise. The majority by which their
opponents believe themselves able, at any moment,
to turn them out, could not be got to act together
except at sacrifices of principle quite as glaring.
There is more congeniality of sentiment and simi-
larity of opinion between the advanced Conserva-
tive Chiefs and the Whig Leaders of the Opposition,
than there is between the latter and certain sec-
tions of their followers. Assume, then, that the
" cold shade of opposition" has taught its lessons
—that during the last eight or ten years the Con-
servatives have been in the position of the man
with the turned head, marching one way but look-
ing the other—that while the "Protection" con-
ferred by monopoly of office has rendered their
antagonists indolent and forgetful, Competition
has sharpened their own powers and appetites. If
they be allowed, under such circumstances, to get
warm in their seats, it is impossible to say what
might happen. Think of the frightful blow to
vested interests, if "the Tories," as oblivious
enemies still call them, should become the " popu-
lar" party in the State !
The crowning sin of the new India Government
Bill appears to be, that it throws open the choice
of Councillors to a species of popular election, and
confers the right of nominating five of the number
on certain great commercial towns. This is obvi-
ously a fault in the Now Ministers. They had no
right to poach on their antagonists' peculiar manor.
They had no right to be untrue to the traditions of
their party, but ought to have acted exactly in the
spirit of Lord Castlereagh or Lord Liverpool.
We do not stop to argue whether the proposed
change is the best that could have been made, but
only amuse ourselves with noticing its effect on the
friends of Lord Palmerston. They are indignant
at such innovations on established custom. At first
they tried to laugh at the new measure, but they
met with no sympa,hisers ; and now they devote,
ins'ead, columns of heavy argument to the annihi-
lation of the monstrous propositions of Lord Ellen-
borough and Mr. Disraeli. This is all promiQing
enough. It shows that certain Whigs and others,
who had begun to forget that they were trustees
for the public, and only thought of their class in-
terests, ara at last aroused to muse of their danger,
if not of their duty. Conscience evidently has
something to do with the metmorphosis. They
lou sly complain that the Conservatives are going to
give one-fourth of the Indian patronage for the
purpose of corrupting five great Parliamentary
cons ituencies. This is a touching sensitiveness.
We were not aware that large constituencies were
so easily corrupted, and had rather supposed that
the applications for places came from members re-
turned by the small boroughs, where a narrow-cast
majority carries the day, and every individual
voter is known to the representative. _

Covert threats of ejection are renewed against
the Ministers, upon the strength of the supposed
wildness and impracticability of the scheme of elec-
tion proposed by the India Bill. Mr. Bright struck
the key-note, when he said the Parliamentary-con-
atitueney election of councillors savoured. of " clap-
trap," and those who need the hon. gentleman's
support, in order to form a Liberal majority, have
carefully sung since t. the same tune. There must
have been some peculiar motive for a lino of con-
duct so opposed to Mr. Bright's usually liberal
views. Birmingham is not among the " favoured
five" towns representative of Indian commerce.
Strange to say, this eminently " popular" proposal
of the Government, which is certainly gaining
favour with the public, is also considered as fatal
to the prospect of a good budget from Mr.
Disraeli. Surely this is rather too bad. A Mi-
nistry, seemingly powerful, makes an unheard-of
mess of its afftirs, and is suddenly driven with
ignominy from the helm. Its successor is
compelled to take up its fragments of legislation,
and to fulfil pledges against which it had vainly
protested. It converts an arbitrary scheme into a
constitutional measure of government, and because
that measure has struck the public with surprise,
and secured some favour, its authors are to be ob-
structed in their endeavours to arrange the finances
of the country. Considering the state of involve-
ment in which these finances were left by the late
Government, and the difficult task they have im-
po2ed on the new Chancellor of the Exchequer,
common decency would have suggested the choice
of 5,1113 other battle-field. If, however, the Con-
aervaHves have really resolved on abandoning their
traditional policy, and mean to place themselves in
the van of national sentiment, they ought to hail
with welcome the angry strictures bestowed on the
novelties of their India Government Bill. If they
have not, it will be a matter of very little conse-
quence to the nation whether they are fairly or un-
fairly treated on bill or budget, because they must
speedily pass from the scene, after having done
enough to deitroy their distinctive political charac-
ter, without having laid the foundation on which
they might constitute themselves a really national
party.

HEALTH OA LONDON DURING VIE WEEK,

(Prom the Report of the Registrar General.)

Under the influence of fine weather the mortality
is much reduced. The deaths in London were in
two previous weeks 1,487 and 1,431 ; last week
they fell to 1,268. In the ten years 1848-57 the
average number of deaths in the weeks correspond-
ing with last week was 1,217; but as the deaths
returned for last week returned in-an increased
population, they should be compared with the aver-
age after that latter is raised in proportion to the
increase, a correction which will make it 1,339. The
present return is, therefore, so far favourable, that
it shows the number of deaths loss by 71 than that
which the average rate of mortality towards the
end of March would have produced.
There is a decrease of the deaths of last week as
compared with these of the preceding week, in each
of the five classes of disease to which they are re-
ferred, pith the exception of the last class. Zymotic
diseases were fatal in the two weeks in 286 and 270
cases ; constitutional in 281 and 217 ; the local
(which include bronchial affections) in 628 and 566,
and developmental disease in 170 and 145. Deaths
by violence, the registration of which b comes more
active towards the end of the quarter, increased
from 35 to 50. Of these 50, 39 were accidental, and
we chi( fly from fractures and burns, and suffoca-
tion of children in bed ; 4 were cases of infanticide,
and 7 of suicide.
Bronchitis has declined in the number of fatal
cases from 192 to 152—the corrected average for
last week is 137. Peeumonia, from which 109
persons died, slinws little excess on the average.
Whooping-cough declined from 83 to 7.2 in the two
weeks ; scarlatina from 40 to 29 ; typhus with
common fever from 41 to 26. Tly,ire were 12 deaths
last week from diarrhces (all, exc3pt 4, amongst
Maws) ; and a young worn in died in Pent• riville
from "eho era biliosa," after 5 days' illness. 'Arco
e'dldren died of measles in the workhouse, Gray's
Inn-lane. Ten cases of cliptheria are recorded, in
which it was either the primary or the snondary
cause of death. Seven persons, the victims of intem-
perance, are included in this re• urn, besides 3 who
died of (I_l ritrna tremens. Four women and a man
had arrived at the advanced age of 90 years or up-
ward smAagst whom was a widow whose years
had been extended to 97.

Lis` week the birth of 1,000 boys and 924 girls,
in all 1,924 children, were registered in London,
In the ten corresponding 'weeks of the years
1848-57, the average number was 1,610.

The
Scinde Railway Company have paid to the East
Pn Company 350,000/. on accunt of capital for tile
wahitailway from Mooltan to Lahore and Ualritalr