tary, Secret and Political, and Foreign and Public; the duties of which are thus defined1. 1. The Accountant's Department.—To examine the accounts of the finances at home and abroad: control the correspondence between the Court of Directors and the Indian Governments, in the departments of finance, and mints, and coinage: also, occasional correspondence in most of the other departments of the Company's affairs requiring calculation, or bearing a financial character. 2. The Revenue Department.-Principally revision of despatches proposed to be sent to the several governments of India, reviewing the detail proceedings of those governments, and of all the subordinate revenue authorities, in connexion with the adjustment of the land assessments, the realization of the revenue so assessed, and the general operation of the revenue regulations on the condition of the people, and the improvement of the country. Besides the land revenue, the detailed proceedings of the local authorities in the salt, opium, and custom departments, come under periodical revision. 3. The Judicial Department.-Examination of all correspondence between the Court of Directors and the local governments, on subjects connected with the administration of civil and criminal justice and police in the interior of India, such as, the constitution of the various courts, the state of business in them, the conduct and proceedings of the judges, and all proposals and suggestions which from time Evidence before Parliament in 1832. to time come under discussion, with the view of applying remedies to acknowledged defects. The King's Courts at the three presidencies, are not subject to the authority of the Court of Directors, or of the Board of Control; but, any correspondence which takes place in relation to the appointment or retirement of the judges of those courts, or to their proceedings (including papers sent home for submission to the King in council, recommendations of pardon, &c.), passes through this department. 4. The Military Department.-Attention to any alterations which may be made in the allowances, organization, or numbers of the Indian army at the three presidencies; to the rules and regulations affecting the different branches of the service; to the general staff, comprehending the adjutant and quartermaster general's department; the commissariat (both army and ordnance); the pay, building, surveying, and clothing departments; and, in fact, to every branch of Indian administration connected with the Company's army. It also embraces so much of the proceedings, with respect to the Queen's troops, as relate to the charge of their maintenance in India, recruiting them from this country, and the periodical reliefs of regiments. 5. The Secret, Political, and Foreign DepartmentExamines all communications from or to the local governments, respecting their relations with the native chiefs or states of India, or with foreign Europeans, or Americans. It is divided into the following branches :— I. The Secret department containing the corres pondence between the Indian Governments and the secret committee of the Court of Directors. Under the provisions of the act of Parliament, such confidential communications as, in the opinion of the local governments, require secresy, are addressed by them to the secret committee. Any directions, also, to the local governments, relating to war or negotiation, which, in the judgment of the Board of Control, require secresy, are signed by the secret committee; and the local governments are bound to obey those directions in the same manner as if they were signed by the whole body of Directors. II. The Political department, comprising all correspondence not addressed to the secret committee, or sent through that committee to the local governments, respecting the native chiefs, or states, with whom those governments are in alliance or communication, or whose affairs are under their political superintendence, or who are in the receipt of pecuniary stipends in lieu of territory. III. The Foreign department, including all correspondence relating to communications between the local governments and the several foreign Europeans who have settlements in India or the Eastern Islands; and embracing, in fact, all the proceedings of the local governments in relation to foreign Europeans or Americans, resorting to India. The proceeding of the local governments, with respect to their residents and political agents, and to any other officers and their respective establishments, through whom communications with native states and chiefs, or with foreigners, may be main tained, are also reported in the several departments in which those officers are respectively employed. 6. The Public Department.—The business of this department comprises the examination of all despatches to and from India upon commercial or ecclesiastical subjects, and of those which, being of a miscellaneous character, are distinguished by the general appellation of "Public." The commercial and ecclesiastical despatches, which are considered as forming two branches of correspondence distinct from the "Public," are united with the latter in the same department, only on account of the conve. nience of that arrangement, with reference to the distribution of business in the establishment of the Board of Control. The Public correspondence comprises all those despatches which do not belong specifically to any of the branches of correspondence hitherto enumerated. They relate to the education of the natives and of the civil servants; to the appointment of writers and of the civil service generally, and to their allowances; to the several compassionate funds; to the grant of licenses to reside in India; to the press; to public buildings; to the Indian navy and the marine department; to the affairs of Prince of Wales' Island, Singapore, Malacca, and St. Helena; and to various miscellaneous subjects. Some of these being closely connected with the business of other departments, are reported upon in them, although the whole pass through, and are recorded in, the public depart ment. The Ecclesiastical despatches contain every thing relating to the appointment of chaplains, archdeacons, and bishops; to their allowances; to their conduct; to the building and repair of churches, or other places used for public worship; and to all questions respecting the affairs of the churches of England and Scotland in India, or that of Rome, so far as public provision is made for their maintenance. Any papers treating of ecclesiastical or miscellaneous topics, though they are not despatches to or from India, are likewise recorded and reported upon in this department. The cost of the Board of Control is about 30,0007. a year. The salary of the President of the Board is 3500l. per annum; of each of the paid Commis.sioners, 12007.; and of the Secretary 1500l. to be raised to 18001. after three years' service. The Charter of 1833 authorizes two secretaries for the Board. THE FOREIGN GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, is divided into three Presidencies, viz. Bengal, Madras, Bombay, and a Lieutenancy at Agra, or rather at Allahabad; the chief at each presidency is assisted and partly controlled by a council of two of the Company's senior civil servants, and the Commander-inChief of the army. The government of Bengal is termed the Supreme Government, and the head thereof is styled the Governor General of India; he is necessarily possessed of much local independence, exercising some of the most important rights of sovereignty, such as declaring war, making peace, 1 I believe there is now no Commissioner, the Board consisting of the President and Secretaries.-R. M. M., Aug. 1837. |