THE EAST INDIA BILLS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 589, 26 June 1858, Page 4

THE EAST INDIA BILLS.

In the 'Spectator' of the 10th April, we find the report of the Lord Mayor's Easter banquet to her Majesty's Ministers according to custom.; Lord Mayor Garden in proposing the health*.1 of Lord Derby, said that it had always been hitprayer, as it was now his pride, that when he" became the head of the City of London he might have: the honour of entertaining the Earl of Derby as Prime Minister of England. He was thankful that=his-prayer had been answered, for he most sincerely believed that the Conservatives would save the country. Lord Derby amply repaid the compliment, and also elaborately the '"East India Company at the present moment when it appears to be on its political deathbed.* [Aery of " No J" was raised, and some persons irreverently laughed.] Lord Derby touched upon the difficulties of the measure to replace the authority of the Company.

That problem is no less than this—how, if the* change is to take place, it is possible at the same time to secure the necessary undivided responsibility of .a Minister of the Crown and to surround him with that knowledge and .experience with reference to all the mighty and varied in- ! terests of that vast empire which are so necessary to any Minister dealing with such complicated and diversified affairs. That is the problem which Parliament has to solve, and I think he would be a bold, not to say a presumptuous Minister, who could hope by himself, or ■with the aid of his colleagues, with the notice of a few days, or even a few weeks, to strike out a -• scheme which would not be liable to grave objections, or which in its progress would not require serious modifications. We have been called upon suddenly and unexpectedly, as your Lorship has stated, to undertake the duties of Government, and among others the one to which I have alluded, which is not the least pressing. We have not the presumption to suppose that we can be preeminently successful. We have deemed it our duty to bring forward a measure which, as we believe, may effect some of the objects to which I have referred. We laid that measure before the country, purposely and intentionally, previously to the recess, in order that it might be subjected to public investigation and inquiry. We do not deprecate, but, on the contrary, we court discussion. We court suggestions. We court the cooperation and advice of Parliament and of the country, with the view of rendering the change which we propose as safe and beneficial as we earnestly desire that it may prove to be. The one thing which we alone deprecate —and which we deprecate, not for the sake of the Government of the day, but on account of the important interests involved both in this country and in India—is that a question involving such mighty interests, aud of such overwhelming importance, should he made the sport of political parties or the battle-field of rival disputants. We shall approach this great question m no such presumptuous or controversial spirit; and for the sake both of this country and - -In^ ia IJ :rust that the measure we have sub nutted to Parliament will be discussed by those who object to it, and by those who give it their support, not in a spirit of political controversy n£L ♦ / &nd, dl. s Passioaate argument, with the object of rendering the great change which is proposed as safe and efficient as possible. A special general Court of the East India Company was heid on the 7th April. The directors having resolved to confer a pension of fcIUUO per annum upon the eldest son of the k*i. i?? Lavvrence > with reversion to his brother should he die without heirs, the resolution ww submitted to the court by Mr. Mangles, the Chairman, and, after some trifling opposition from Mr. Jones, adopted, Mr. Mangles then presented a report from

the Court of Directors to the Court of Proprietors, on the two India Bills now before Parliament; aud it was read by the Secretary. The directors begin by remarking that they have felt bound to draw up this report because, departing from the practice of former occasions, neither the present nor the late Government officially communicated the substance of the measures to them. They point with " feelings of satisfaction" to "the altered tone which public discussion has assumed with reference to +he character of the East India Company." "So far the stand made by the Company against the calumnies with which they have been assailed may be considered to have been successful." After this they take up the bills and criticize them. Only the Roman Empire and the East India Company have surmounted tlie difficulties of governing a people separated by half the globe from the governing race and unlike it in everything. " The means winch the bills provide for overcoming these difficidties consist of the unchecked power of a Minister." The Minister is to have a Council; but despots have Councils. By the first bill the whole Council is nominated by him. The functions to be intrusted to it are left, in both, with some slight exceptions, to the Minister's own discretion. The control which Parliament and the nation will exercise over the Minister will not be salutary. They will be, as they have been, indifferent and inattentive to Indian affairs. When they do interfere, it will be in exceptional cases, such as when some Indian malcontent interests the public in his favor. The government of dependencies by a Minister lost the United States, and had nearly lost all our colonies of importance. India should be governed by persons who possess a knowledge of India, and feel an interest in its affairs. The check upon the Government should be found within the governing body itself. Forms of business are another security for good government. " The forms of business are the real constitution of India." The Council may consist of persons having a knowledge of India; the Minister, except in rare cases, can have little or none. One man cannot be trusted, and good government will depend upon the influence of the Council. But the Minister will have the deciding voice; the Council only moral power. Unless they can exercise their judgment and consider all questions in the initiatory stage, they will have no more weight and influence than an equal number of clerks. The first bill does not establish any forms of business, but leaves them to te determined by the Minister tand Council, in other words by the Minister. -"The second bill, unlike the first, does establish informs of business, but such alone as would effectually prerent the Council from being a reality, and render it a useless pageant. The. directors are bound to admit that the first of the bills contains several provisions indicative oi a wish to assure to the Council a certain though small amount of influence. The administration is to be carried on in the name of the. President in Council, and not as by the second, till in that of the Secretary of State alone. The_ Council as well as the President has a _r.ice in the appointment of the home establishment, while in the. second bill all promotions, and all appointments .to the principal offices under the Councilrest with the Secretary •of State exclusively; a provision which divests the Council of all control or authority over their own establishment.

Again by section 12 of the bill, no grant involving increase of expenditure, and no appointment, to office or admission to service, can be made without the concurrence of half the Council. /This as far as it goes is a real power; but its yalue is much diminished by the consideration that those by whom it is to be exercised are'the nominees of the Minister, dependent on him for their continuance in office after a few years.

In some other points the provisions of the second bill seem to have the advantage. Its Council is more numerous, to which, however, little importance can be attached if the Council has no substantial power. It also recognises that the whole of the Council ought not to be nominated by the Minister, and that some part of it should' be elected by a constituency specially qualified by knowledge of India. But even in these the best points of the bill it is the opinion of the directors very far from unexceptionable. The nomination of even half the Council by the Minister takes away all security for an independent majority. It may indeed be doubted whether there is any sufllcient reason for the Minister's nominating any portion except the supposed reluctance of some eligible persons *„to encounter a canvass. The proportion of one-third, whom the Minister now nominates to the Court of Directors, seems the largest which, consistently with full security for independence, can be so.appointed. The directors object to the proposal that the Crown should select members as representatives of some branch of service in India, because it would preclude the nomination of the most distinguished man, if the seat he could fill were not vacant. They regard the proposal to give five members to five great towns "with feelings of amazement." They object to the plan of allowing the Governor-General and the' Governors of Presidencies to nominate their own Councils.. They "cannot believe"'that the project of sending a Commission to India will be persisted in, as it would undermine the authority of the local Government.

As fo the course which the directors will pursue-, they will oppose both bills. " But that if one or other should be determined on, for the purpose of transferring the administration, in name, from the East India Company to the Crown, every exertion should be used in its passage through Committee to divest it of the mischievous features by which both bills are now deformed, and to maintain, as at present, a really independent Council, having the initiative of all business, discharging all the duties and possessing all the essential powers of the Court of directors. And it is the Court's conviction that measures might be so framed as to obviate whatever may be well-founded in the complaints. made against the present system, retaining the initiative of the Council and that independence ot action on their part which should be regarded as paramount and indispensable."

The Chairman moved that the report should be printed and circulated. A debate arose thereon, and it was adjourned.