The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-27 00:00:00

Cbtrri _iibttton

THE FUNDS-(CLOSING PRICES.)

BRITISH FUNDS.
Bank Stock
3 per Cent. Red l9 Ditto Bonds ...
3 per Cent. Cons
3s per Cent. Re 1
New 3% per Cent IO2P Ex. Bills, 1,0001. 1%(d... 75 pm.
New 5 per Cent.... .......
Long Annuities to expire Ditto Small 77 pm.
Jan. 1860 ~.... ..... . 12 7.16 Bank Stock for Acct —
Oct. 1659 - ' Consols for •Acct 99%
Jan. 1660 ..... —.....— India Stock for Acct —
FOREIGN FUNDS.

-
- pm

Austrian, 5 per Cent — Portuguese, 5 per Cent
Belgian, 5 per Cent. ..... ...... 104% Ditto New Ditto
Brazilian Bonds ... .. . . ......• 81 Prussian, 5 per Cent
Buenos Ayres, 6 per. ent... :Russian 5 per Cent '17%
.-Chllian, 6 per Cent 'Ditto, Sietallic
Colombian, 6 per Cent
Ditto, 1824 Ditto, 3 per Cent 36
Cuba Bonds, 6 per Cent 93 !Ditto, Deferred 15%
Danish, 3 per Cent ~.......... IFiench, 5 i.er Cent —t. —c.
Greek, 18 5, 5 per Cent — 'Exchange
Mexican, 5 per Cent
Ditto, 6 per Cent., 1837 — Dutch, 2% per Cent. 61%
Peruvian, 1825, 6 per Cent — .Ditto, 5 per Cent lOO%
SHARES.
Birmingham and Derby (100 paid) 61%
Ditto Half Shares (25 paid)
Birmingham and Gloucester (100 paid) 92
Ditto New (17% daid)
Bristol and Exeter (70 paid) 743
Caledonian, 5 paid
Chester and Holyhead ( 5 paid) 6%
Dublin and Cashel (2% paid)
Eastern Counties (2.3 papd.)
Ditto Registered (8/6s Eid paid)
Edinburgh and Glasgow (50 paid)
Great Western (75 paid)
Ditto Half Shares (50 paid)
Ditto Fifths (12 paid) 2O
Harwieh (Braithwaite) (2 paid)
. Lancaster and Carlisle ( 5 paid) 6%
London and Birmingham (Stock)
Ditto Quarter Shares (2 paid) 271
London and Blackwall (161. 13s. 4(11) 6%
London and Brighton (50 paid)
London and Greenwich (121. 15s. 4d. paid)
Ditto, Preference or Privilege (131. 17s. 2d. pd) 16%
Londe. and South Western (411. 6s. 10d. paid) 84%
Ditto Eighths (15s. paid)
London and Croydon (Trunk) lB
Manchester and Leeds (70 paid;
Ditto Half Shares (30 paid)
Manchester and Birmingham 57
Newcastle and Darlington Junction (18 paid)
North Midland (100 paid)
Ditto H..lf Stares (40 paid)
Norwich and Brandon ( 2 paid) 7%
South Eastern and Dover (3312 s 44 paid)
Ditto New Shares ( 4 paid)
York and Scarborough Branch (42 paid)
Paris and Orleans (20 paid)
Paris and • Rouen (20 paid) 37%
Rouen and Havre ( 8 paid) ~. 1654

A

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 p'ssesses 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 Direct-
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
government, and then say whether Clive, Hastings, or
Wellesley 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 century—imperfect 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
Queens 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 Mornin.. 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.