framing treaties, to a certain extent forgiving criminals, and enacting laws. The Governor General's Council consists of five counsellors-three to be servants of the Company of ten years' standing, and to be appointed by the directors; the fourth to be appointed by the directors also, subject to the approbation of the King, but not from among the East India Company's servants, and with power to sit and vote in council only at meetings for making laws and regulations. The Commander-in-Chief forms the fifth member, with precedence after the Governor General.

On all questions of state policy, excepting in a judicial capacity, the Governor General is independent of his council; if the council are dissentient, the members record in their minutes the cause, which being submitted to the Governor General and he still remaining of his original opinion, the discussion is adjourned for forty-eight hours, when the Governor General may proceed to execution, first assigning his reasons for dissenting from the council. The whole of the documents relative to the difference are then instantly transmitted to the Court of Directors and Board of Control; and the Court have the power, should they deem fit, of appointing new members of council to succeed the dissentient ones, or of recalling the Governor General.

The Governor General, in virtue of his commission as Captain General', may head the military operations in any part of India. He has also the power

1 This power was first granted to the Marquess Wellesley in 1802. See vol. ii. of his Lordship's despatches.

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of suspending the governors of the other presidencies, or of proceeding thither and taking the supreme authority in their councils, in the execution of any of which acts he is subject to the vigilant supervision of the home authorities. The Governors of Madras and Bombay are in a similar manner independent of local control, but for the sake of obtaining unity in foreign transactions, on matters of general and internal policy, or in expending money, they are subject to the authority of the Governor General, who, on proceeding to either of the presidencies, may assemble his council there and sit as president.

Regulations for the good government of the British possessions in India are passed by the Governor General in council; they immediately become effective, but are transmitted home and subject to the revision of the Court of Directors and Board of Control; heretofore ordinances for the good government of the presidency capitals were not valid until publicly exposed for fourteen days, then registered by the Supreme (Queen's) Court; put in force, but subject to a further ordeal at home: by the new charter these checks on the Governor General are removed, and that authority in council can now make laws for the regulation of even her Majesty's supreme courts. Such is the legislative department of the government, the executive is generally exercised by means of Boards, of which in Bengal there are five', at at Madras three 2, and at Bombay one. Any of these

1, Revenue; 2, Customs, salt and opium; 3, Trade; 4, Military; 5, Medical.

2 1, Revenue; 2, Military; 3, Medical.

boards make suggestions or present drafts of regulations in their respective departments to government : the boards also receive from their subordinates suggestions, either for their own information or for transmission to the Governor General in Council; by this means the local knowledge of the inferior officers is brought under the knowledge of the chief executive, and their talents and industry appreciated : indeed, a leading feature in the duties of the Indian Governments is that of noting down every transaction, whether as individual chiefs of departments or as Boards: thus habits of business are generated, combined with a moral check of supervision, no matter what distance a servant may be from the Presidency, or what period of time may elapse, should an enquiry be necessary. All minutes of the boards' proceedings are laid before the government monthly, and then transmitted home. The objection alleged to this is that it creates delay; but as correctly observed by the Court of Directors in their letter to the Board of Control, 27th August, 1829, the Government of India may in one word be described as a Government of Checks. The Court thus judiciously remark- Now whatever may be the advantage of checks, it must always be purchased at the expense of delay, and the amount of delay will generally be in proportion to the number and efficiency of checks.' The correspondence between the Court of Directors and the governments of India is conducted with a comprehensiveness and in a detail quite unexampled; every, the minutest proceedings of the

local governments including the whole correspondence respecting it which passes between them and their subordinate functionaries, is placed on record, and complete copies of the Indian records are sent annually to England for the use of the home authorities. The despatches from India are indexes to those records, or what a table of contents is to a book, not merely communicating on matters of high interest, or soliciting instructions on important measures in contemplation, but containing summary narratives of all the proceedings of the respective governments, with particular references to the correspondence and consultations thereon, whether in the political, revenue, judicial, military, financial, ecclesiastical or miscellaneous departments. In the ordinary course of Indian administration much must always be left to the discretion of local governments; and unless upon questions of general policy and personal cases, it rarely occurs that instructions from hence can reach India before the time for acting upon them is gone by. This is a necessary consequence of the great distance between the two countries, the rapid succession of events in India, which are seldom long foreseen even by those who are on the spot, and the importance of the ruling authorities there acting with promptitude and decision, and adopting their measures, on their own responsibility, to the varying exigencies of the hour. These circumstances unavoidably regulate, but do not exclude, the controlling authority of the Court of Directors. Without defeating the intentions of Par

liament, they point out the best and indeed the only mode in which these intentions can be practically fulfilled. Although, with the exceptions above adverted to, a specific line of conduct cannot often be prescribed to the Indian governments, yet it seems to indicate any other rather than a state of irresponsibility, that the proceedings of those governments are reported with fidelity, examined with care, and commented upon with freedom by the home authorities; nor can the judgments passed by the Court be deemed useless whilst, though they have immediate reference to past transactions, they serve ultimately as rules for the future guidance of their servants abroad. The knowledge, on the part of the local governments, that their proceedings will always undergo this revision, operates as a salutary check upon its conduct in India; and the practice of replying to letters from thence, paragraph by paragraph, is a security against habitual remissness or accidental oversight on the part of the Court, or their servants at home. From a perusal of the Indian records, the Court also obtain an insight into the conduct and qualifications of their servants, which enables them to judge of their respective merits, and to make a proper selection of members of council.'

The duties of the British functionaries in India may be gathered from the following detail of the chief stations and offices of the civil servants in Bengal'. The duties of Territorial Secretary, in one

1 Evidence before Parliament in 1832.