The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-29 00:00:00

lourable pretext, threatened a general rising of the
native Princes, the result of a preconcerted plan, as
the only means of preserving themselves from the fate
which had overtaken and overwhelmed their neigh-
bours. Lord Brougham, on hearing the announcement
of Lord Ellenborough's recal from Lord Ripon, first
questioned the right of the Court of Directors to do
what they had done ; and next alleged haste and
oversight, in successive Parliaments, as the origin
of a right in the Court of Directors to remove
a Governor-General without ths concurrence of the
Government. We have referred to the Act by which
the power is conferred, which we find was passed
on the 28th of August, 1833, " for effecting an ar-
rangement with the East India Company for the
better government of his Majesty's Indian territories,
till the 30th April, 1854." It enacts, " that the go-
vernment of the Company shall continue until the
30th April, 1854; and that all the privileges and
powers granted or continued to the Company by the
Act 53d George 111., cap. 155, or any other Act,
shall continue and be in force, subject to the super-
intendence, direction, and control provided by any
former Acts or by that Act." This Act, after various
other provisions, contains the following enactments :
" Sec. 74.—And be it enacted, That it shall be lawful
for his Majesty, by any writing under his sign manual,
countersigned by the President of the said Board of
Commissioners (the Board of Control), to remove or dis-
miss any person holding any office, employment, or com-
mission, civil or military, under the said Company in
India, and to vacate any appointment or commission of
any person to any such office or employment, provided
that a copy of every such writing, attested by the said
President, shall within eight days after the same shall
be signed by his Majesty, be transmitted or delivered to
the Chairman or Deputy Chairman of the said Company."
" Sec. 75. Provided always, and be it enacted, that
nothing in this Act contained shall take aw Ly the power
of the said Court of Directors to remove or dismiss any
of the officers or servants of the said Company, but that
the said Court shall and may at all times have full liberty
to remove or dismiss any of such officers or servants at
their will and pleasure. Provided, that any servant of
the said Company appointed by his Majesty through
the default of any appointment by the said Court of
Directors, shall not be dismissed or removed without his
Majesty's approbation, as hereinbefore is mentioned."

The present Governor-General was appointed by
the Company, and therefore the provision at the end
of the last section does not apply ; and, assuming that
the former Acts gave the Company the power to
remove that high officer, it is evidently continued in
them by this Act. It will be seen that the powers of
the Crown are defined by one sectiorrof the Act, and
those of the Company by another, which immediately
follows it. This appears to justfy the statement of
the Marquis of Lansdowne—that, "so far from its
being an oversight, it was the subject of long and
serious deliberation under different Governments,
and at different times ; and that it was the deli-
berate conviction of Parliament, that the East India
Company should have the power to recal the Gover-
nor-General whenever they were of opinion that his
continuance in office was inconsistent with the welfare
of the dominions committed to his charge." The re-
sult of this manifest rupture between the Court of
Directors and her Majesty's Ministers will be looked
for with great anxiety. the Ministry throw its
shield around. the Governor-General, and take the
responsibility of his acts upon themselves ; or will
they submit to the fiat issued for his recal, and sur-
render his Lordship to the fate which his conduct, as
Governor-General, so well deserves ? Whatever may
be the decision of the Government, a blow has been
struck at its existence, under which it must reel, if it
does not fall.

STANDARD.—It was stated last night in the
House of Lords by the Earl of Ripon, and in the
House of Commons by Sir Robert Peel, that the
Court of Directors of the East India Company have
issued an order for the recal of Lord Ellenborough
from the Government of India. The Earl of Ripon
did not hesitate to accompany the announcement by
an explanation that to this most extraordinary pro-
ceeding. her Majesty's Government is riot a party,
and, therefore, it is but reasonable to infer the
step is disapproved of by the Cabinet. The
Company has, even in its last charter, pre-
served the right to recal a Governor-General at its
pleasure, though the policy of conceding the right
was strongly disputed at the time when the charter
was renewed ; and though its continuance with the
Court was for some time obstinately resisted by the
Whig Government of the day. There is so much ob-
scurity in the history of the Government of British
India, down almost to the close of the last century, that
it is difficult to point to a precedent for the exer-
cise of this right by the Company that may
not be considerably modified by circumstances of
which we are not aware ; but so distinct an exer-
cise of the power now exercised by the Court of Di-
rectors can hardly be traced; the nearest approach
that we find to it is the refusal, in 1806, of the
Court•to allow the appointment of the Earl of Lau-
derdale to be Governor-General, but a refusal is a
very different matter from a recal. By the Act of 1794,
the Crown possesses the power of recalling a Gover-
nor-General, but this affords no analogy, because
such a power is inherent in the sovereignty, and the
Directors either of England, or of India. To us, it
appears, we own a gross and a dangerous anomaly,
that any body of subjects, how respectable soever, shall
have the power of interrupting, if not directing, the
Government of a large portion of the empire. The
fact, however, is beyond dispute; the Court of Directs-
ors have the power by law, and with them it must
remain until they shall be deprived of it by an act of
the Legislature. This momentous power they have
peremptorily exercised, but upon what grounds
no one even pretends to conjecture. These
grounds, it is quite plain, can have no reference to
Lord Ellenborough's public administration of the
affairs of the country, for an Administration more
glorious, more successful, more promising of future
strength and prosperity to the territory governed,
cannot be found in the history of British India. Let
any one read the precis of Lord Ellenborough's Indian
Wgvernment, and then say whether Clive, Hastings, or
ellesley ever accomplished so much in equal time as
Lord Ellenborough has accomplished for the British
empire in India, and for the security and profit of the
possessions of the East India Company. Why, then,
has he been removed ? Why is India exposed to
those inconveniences—some of them great, and per-
haps even dangerous—which always must attend
an abrupt change in the government of a coun-
try so extensive and so delicately circumstanced
as British India? The Directors have, in the
history of the last century7imperfect as that
history is—ample proof of the heavy penalty.
paid by the Company for the not unfre-
quent nor always innocent caprices of their pre-
decessors ; they must therefore feel the heavy re-
sponsibility to their constituents, the Court of Pro-
prietors, and to the country generally, under which
they have exercised the power with which they
are invested a power, we must repeat it,
that seems to us too great for any body of
subjects, when we consider the vast extent and un-
speakable importance of the British empire in India;
indeed, we can scarcely, with propriety, call it a
" British empire," while such power rests in the
hands of any Corporation It may be that
the Court of Directors reserves the reasons for the
Governor-General's recal, from considerations of
delicacy, until the Noble Lord shall be on the
spot to answer the charges upon which these rea-
sons rest; but still Lord Ellenborough is ex-
posed to a great injury by remaining under
the stigma of a punishment— that, if they
who have inflicted it, and by inflicting it de-
ranged the economy and endangered the safety of
the empire, are not downright madmen—must be
inflicted for some grave offence. It is true,
the disapprobation of the recal expressed by the
Queen's Government, to whom all the circumstances
are necessarily known, is an assurance that there
has been nothing criminal or disgraceful in the con-
duct of the Governor-General—a guarantee that must
be gratifying to the friends of the Noble Lord, and
which, at the same time, adds to the burthen of re-
sponsibility that weighs upon the Court of Direc-
tors. The Morninc, Chronicle surmises that the
Court has taken offence at Lord Ellenborough's
language, as not sufficiently respectful. This is,
however, altogether incredible. Whatever the faults
of the Noble Lord—and we ourselves were not
slow to display them until his admirable Indian
Government fairly conquered prejudice—whatever
his Lordship's faults, defect of manners, or of tem-
per, was never imputed to him. It would be diffi-
cult to find anywhere a more polished gentleman
or a man of milder demeanour. Such a man
could never give offence by the style of his cor-
respondence. And yet, what else is there to sur-
mise, that would not place the Court of Directors
in suspicion of acting with insane caprice, or with a
purpose of protecting some of those many abuses in
Indian Government, which Lord Ellenborough undis-
guisedly set himself to reform. We are, however,
altogether in the dark ; and though the prima facie
case is clearly on the side of the Governor-General, we
will not run the risk of doing injustice to the Court
of Directors by prosecuting further guesses.

SOUTH-EASTErN RAILWAY.—The Dover terminus
buildings of this line are now rapidly progressing to-
wards completion, and when finished, they will combine
elegance and symmetry of architecture with comfort
and accommodation, in a manner at once highly cre-
ditable to the architect, Lewis Cubitt, Esq., and the
spirit of the company. We have before us an excellently
executed engraving of these buildings as they will pre-
sent themsel /es from the South Pier. It must be ob-
vious to the most casual observer that the railway works
have much improved that portion of the sea front of
Dover they at present occupy ; and when the noble
buildings and the lofty clock and bell-tower that will
o'er-top them (with which they are to terminate at the
eastern extremity) are completed, they will give a finish
to the whole that cannot fail to produce a most striking
and beautiful effect. The waiting-rooms and other
apartments at this terminus are to be such in point of
splendour, as:may well accommodate even Royalty itself.
—.Dover Chronicle,