from a tenure during good behaviour to a term of ten years. It also transferred to the Crown from the Secretary of State in Council the right of filling vacancies in the offices of the members of the councils in India.

The Indian Councils Act, 18691, still further extended the legislative powers of the governor-general's council by enabling it to make laws for all native Indian subjects of Her Majesty in any part of the world, whether in India or not.

A very important modification in the machinery for Indian legislature was made by the Government of India Act, 1870 2. It has been seen that for a long time the governor-general believed himself to have the power of legislating by executive order for the non-regulation provinces. The Indian Councils Act of 1861, whilst validating rules made under this power in the past, took away the power for the future. The Act of 1870 practically restored this power by enabling the governorgeneral to legislate in a summary manner for the less advanced parts of India 3. The machinery provided is as follows. The Secretary of State in Council, by resolution, declares the provisions of section 1 of the Act of 1870 applicable to some particular part of a British Indian province. Thereupon the Governor in Council, lieutenant-governor, or chief commissioner of the province, may at any time propose to the Governor-General in Council drafts of regulations for the peace and good government of that part, and these drafts, when approved and assented to by the Governor-General in Council, and duly gazetted, have the same force of law as if they had been formally passed at sittings of the Legislative Council. This machinery has been extensively applied to the less advanced districts of the different Indian provinces, and numerous regulations have been, and are constantly being, made under it.

3 This restoration of a power of summary legislation was strongly advocated by Sir H. S. Maine. See Minutes by Sir H. S. Maine, pp. 153, 156.

The same Act of 1870 contained two other provisions of considerable importance. One of them (s. 5) repeated and strengthened the power of the governor-general to overrule his council. The other (s. 6), after reciting the expediency of giving additional facilities for the employment of natives of India of proved merit and ability' in the civil service of Her Majesty in India, enabled any native of India to be appointed to any office, place, or employment' in that service, notwithstanding that he had not been admitted to that service in the manner directed by the Act of 1858, i. e. by competition in England. The conditions of such appointments were to be regulated by rules made by the GovernorGeneral in Council, with the approval of the Secretary of State in Council 2. The result of these rules was the ' statutory civilian,' who has now been merged in or superseded by the 'Provincial Service.'

Two small Acts were passed in 1871, the Indian Councils Act, 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 34) 3, which made slight extensions of the powers of local legislatures, and the Indian Bishops Act, 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 62), which regulated the leave of absence of Indian bishops.

An Act of 1873 (36 Vict. c. 17) formally dissolved the East India Company as from January 1, 1874.

The Indian Councils Act, 1874 (37 & 38 Vict. c. 91), enabled a sixth member of the governor-general's council to be appointed for public works purposes.

The Council of India Act, 1876 (39 & 40 Vict. c. 7), enabled the Secretary of State, for special reasons, to appoint any person having professional or other peculiar qualifications to be a member of the Council of India, with the old tenure, 'during good behaviour,' which had been abolished in 1869 4.

1 See Digest, s. 44. It will be remembered that Lord Lytton acted under this power when he exempted imported cotton goods from duty in 1879. 2 See ibid. 94.

3 This Act was passed in consequence of the decision of the Bombay High Court in R. v. Reay, 7 Bom. Cr. 6. See note on s. 79 of Digest.

4 This power was exercised in the case of Sir H. S. Maine, and was probably conferred with special reference to him.

In the same year was passed the Royal Titles Act, 1876 (39 & 40 Vict. c. 10), which authorized the Queen to assume the title of Empress of India.

The Indian Salaries and Allowances Act, 1880 (43 & 44 Vict. c. 3), enabled the Secretary of State to regulate by order certain salaries and allowances which had been previously fixed by statute 1.

The Indian Marine Service Act, 1884 (47 & 48 Vict. c. 38), enabled the Governor-General in Council to legislate for maintaining discipline in a small marine establishment, called Her Majesty's Indian Marine Service, the members of which were neither under the Naval Discipline Act nor under the Merchant Shipping Acts 2.

The Council of India Reduction Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 65), authorized the Secretary of State to abstain from filling vacancies in the Council of India until the number should be reduced to ten.

The Indian Councils Act, 1892 (55 & 56 Vict. c. 14), authorized an increase in the number of the members of the Indian legislative councils, and empowered the GovernorGeneral in Council, with the approval of the Secretary of State in Council, to make rules regulating the conditions under which these members are to be nominated 3. At the same time the Act relaxed the restrictions imposed by the Act of 1861 on the proceedings of the legislative councils by enabling rules to be made authorizing the discussion of the annual financial statement, and the asking of questions, under prescribed conditions and restrictions.

The Act also cleared up a doubt as to the meaning of an enactment in the Indian Councils Act of 1861, modified some of the provisions of that Act about the office of additional members' of legislative councils, and enabled local legislatures, with the previous sanction of the governor-general, to repeal 2 See ibid. 63.

1 See Digest, ss. 80, 113.

3 See ibid. 60, 71, 73.

or alter Acts of the governor-general's council affecting their province 1.

The Madras and Bombay Armies Act, 1893 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 62), abolished the offices of commanders-in-chief of the Madras and Bombay armies, and thus made possible a simplification of the Indian military system which had been asked for persistently by four successive viceroys 2.

The Contracts (India Office) Act, 1903 (3 Edw. VII, c. 11), declared the mode in which certain contracts might be made by the Secretary of State in Council 3.

The Indian Councils Act, 1904 (4 Edw. VII, c. 26), while continuing the power to appoint a sixth member of the GovernorGeneral's Council, removed the necessity for appointing him specifically for public works purposes.

1 See Digest, s. 76. In the absence of this power the sphere of action of the new legislature for the North-Western Provinces and Oudh was confined within an infinitesimal area.

2 Administrative reforms in India are not carried out with undue precipitancy. The appointment of a single commander-in-chief for India, with four subordinate commanders under him, was recommended by Lord William Bentinck, Sir Charles Metcalfe, and others in 1833. (Further Papers respecting the East India Company's Charter, 1833.) 4 See Digest, s. 39.

3 See Digest, s. 32.

[The authorities which I have found most useful for this chapter are, Reports of Parliamentary Committees pussim; Calendar of State Papers, Colonial. East Indies; Shaw, Charters of the East India Company, Madras, 1887; Birdwood, Report on the Old Records of the India Office, 2nd reprint, 1891; Morley's Digest, Introduction; Stephen (J. F.), Nuncomar and Impey, 1885; Forrest (G.), Selections from State Papers, India, 1772-85; and, for general history, Hunter (Sir W. W.), History of British India (only 2 vols. published); Lyall (Sir A. C.), British Dominion in India; Lecky, History of England in the 18th century; Hunt (W.), Political History of England, 1760-1801; and Mill's History of British India, with its continuation by Wilson.]

CHAPTER II

SUMMARY OF EXISTING LAW

THE administration of British India rests upon English Acts of Parliament, largely supplemented by Indian Acts and regulations 1.

of State.

At the head of the administration in England is the Home GovernSecretary of State, who exercises, on behalf of the Crown, ment. the powers formerly exercised by the Board of Control and Secretary Court of Directors, and who, as a member of the Cabinet, is responsible to, and represents the supreme authority of, Parliament 2.

of India.

He is assisted by a council, the Council of India, originally Council fifteen in number, but now, under an Act of 1889, being gradually reduced to ten. The members of the council are appointed by the Secretary of State, and hold office for a term of ten years, with a power of reappointment under special circumstances for a further term of five years. There is also a special power to appoint any person having professional or other peculiar qualifications' to be a member of the council during good behaviour. At least nine members of the council must be persons who have served or resided in British India for not less than ten years, and who have left British India not more than ten years before their appointment. A member of the council cannot sit in Parliament 3.

The duties of the Council of India are to conduct, under the direction of the Secretary of State, the business transacted in the United Kingdom in relation to the government of

The best authorities for the existing system of administration are Sir John Strachey's India (3rd ed., 1903), Sir W. Hunter's Indian Empire, Chesney's Indian Polity (3rd ed., 1894), and the latest of the Decennial Reports on the Moral and Material Progress of India (1904).