the advocates of the Company in language of unjustifiable intemperance and exaggeration. Thus Mr. Charles Grant,

in the course of the debate in the House of Commons, dwelt

on the danger of letting loose among the people of India a host of desperate needy adventurers, whose atrocious conduct in America and in Africa afforded sufficient indication of the evil they would inflict upon India.

The controversy was eventually compromised by allowing Europeans to resort to India, but only under a strict system of licences.

Closely connected with the question of the admission of independent Europeans into India was that of missionary enterprise. The Government were willing to take steps for the recognition and encouragement of Christianity by the appointment of a bishop and archdeacons. But a large number of excellent men, belonging mainly to the Evangelical party, and led in the House of Commons by Wilberforce, were anxious to go much further in the direction of committing the Indian Government to the active propagation of Christianity among the natives of India. On the other hand, the past and present servants of the Company, including even those who, like Lord Teignmouth, were personally in sympathy with the Evangelical school, were fully sensitive to the danger of interfering with the religious convictions or alarming the religious prejudices of the natives.

The proposals ultimately submitted by the Government to Parliament in 1813 were embodied in thirteen resolutions 1.

The first affirmed the expediency of extending the Company's privileges, subject to modifications, for a further term of twenty years.

The second preserved to the Company the monopoly of the China trade and of the trade in tea.

The third threw open to all British subjects the export and import trade with India, subject to the exception of tea, and to certain safeguards as to warehousing and the like.

1 Printed in an appendix to vol. vii. of Mill and Wilson's British India.

The fourth and fifth regulated the application of the Company's territorial revenues and commercial profits.

The sixth provided for the reduction of the Company's debt, for the payment of a dividend at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum, and for the division of any surplus between the Company and the public in the proportion of one-sixth to the former and five-sixths to the latter.

The seventh required the Company to keep their accounts in such manner as to distinguish clearly those relating to the territorial and political departments from those relating to the commercial branch of their affairs.

The eighth affirmed the expediency, in the interests of economy, of limiting the grants of salaries and pensions.

The ninth reserved to the Court of Directors the right of appointment to the offices of governor-general, governor, and commander-in-chief, subject to the approbation of the Crown.

Under the tenth, the number of the king's troops in India was to be limited, and any number exceeding the limit was, unless employed at the express requisition of the Company, to be at the public charge. This modified, in a sense favourable to the Company, Pitt's declaratory Act of 1788.

Then followed a resolution that it was expedient that the church establishment in the British territories in the East Indies should be placed under the superintendence of a bishop and three archdeacons, and that adequate provision should be made from the territorial revenues of India for their maintenance.

The twelfth resolution declared that the regulations to be framed by the Court of Directors for the colleges at Haileybury and Addiscombe ought to be subject to the regulation of the Board of Control, and that the Board ought to have power to send instructions to India about the colleges at Calcutta 1 and Madras.

The college at Calcutta had been founded by Lord Wellesley for the training of the Company's civil servants.

It was round the thirteenth resolution that the main controversy raged, and its vague and guarded language shows the difficulty that was experienced in settling its terms. The resolution declared that it is the duty of this country to promote the interest and happiness of the native inhabitants of the British dominions in India, and that such measures ought to be adopted as may tend to the introduction amongst them of useful knowledge, and of religious and moral improvement. That in the furtherance of the above objects, sufficient facilities shall be afforded by law to persons desirous of going to and remaining in India for the purpose of accomplishing these benevolent designs, provided always, that the authority of the local Governments, respecting the intercourse of Europeans with the interior of the country, be preserved, and that the principles of the British Government, on which the natives of India have hitherto relied for the free exercise of their religion, be inviolably maintained.' One discerns the planter following in the wake of the missionary, each watched with a jealous eye by the Company's servants.

The principles embodied in the Resolutions of 1813 were developed in the Act of the same year 1. The language of the preamble to the Act is significant. It recites the expediency of continuing to the Company for a further term the possession of the territorial acquisitions in India, and the revenues thereof, without prejudice to the undoubted sovereignty of the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in and over the same 2.' The constitutional controversy of the preceding century was not to be reopened.

6

The Act then grants the Indian possessions and revenues to the Company for a further term of twenty years, reserves to them for the same time the China trade and the tea trade, but throws open the general India trade, subject to various restrictive conditions.

1 55 Geo. III, c. 155.

2 The sovereignty of the Crown had been clearly reserved in the charter of 1698. But at that time the territorial possessions were insignificant.

The thirty-third section recites the thirteenth resolution, and the expediency of making provision for granting permission to persons desirous of going to and remaining in India, for the purposes mentioned in the resolution (missionaries) ' and for other lawful purposes' (traders), and then enables the Court of Directors or, on their refusal, the Board of Control, to grant licences and certificates entitling the applicants to proceed to any of the principal settlements of the Company, and to remain in India as long as they conduct themselves properly, but subject to such restrictions as may for the time being be judged necessary. Unlicensed persons are to be liable to the penalties imposed by earlier Acts on interlopers, and to punishment on summary conviction in India. British subjects allowed to reside more than ten miles from a presidency town are to procure and register certificates from a direct court.

A group of sections relates to the provision for religion, learning, and education, and the training of the Company's civil and military servants. There is to be a Bishop of Calcutta, with three archdeacons under him. The colleges at Calcutta and elsewhere are placed under the regulations of the Board of Control. One lac of rupees in each year is to be 'set apart and applied to the revival and improvement of literature and the encouragement of the learned native of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories in India.' The college at Haileybury and the military seminary at Addiscombe 1 are to be maintained, and no person is to be appointed writer unless he has resided four terms at Haileybury, and produces a certificate that he has conformed to the regulations of the college.

1

Then come provisions for the application of the revenues 2, for keeping the commercial and territorial accounts distinct,

1 The names of these places are not mentioned.

2 An interesting discussion of these provisions is to be found in the correspondence of 1833 between Mr. Charles Grant and the Court of Directors. According to Mr. Grant the principle established by the Acts of 1793 and 1813 was that the profit accruing from the Company's commerce should,

and for increasing and further defining the powers of superintendence and direction exercised by the Board of Control.

The patronage of the Company is preserved, subject to the approval of the Crown in the case of the higher offices, and of the Board of Control in certain other cases.

The number of king's troops to be paid for out of the Company's revenues is not to exceed 20,000, except in case of special requisition. In order to remove doubts it is expressly declared that the Government in India may make laws, regulations, and articles of war for their native troops, and provide for the holding of courts-martial.

The local Governments are also empowered to impose taxes on persons subject to the jurisdiction of the supreme court, and to punish for non-payment.

Justices of the peace are to have jurisdiction in cases of assault or trespass committed by British subjects on natives of India, and also in cases of small debts due to natives from British subjects. Special provision is made for the exercise of jurisdiction in criminal cases over British subjects residing more than ten miles from a presidency town; and British subjects residing or trading, or occupying immovable property, more than ten miles from a presidency town are to be subject to the jurisdiction of the local civil courts.

And, finally, special penalties are enacted for theft, forgery, perjury, and coinage offences, the existing provisions of the common or statute law being apparently considered insufficient for dealing adequately with these offences.

tion

The imperial legislation for India during the interval between Legisla1813 and 1833 does not present many features of importance. between An Act of 18141 removed doubts as to the powers of the 1813 and Indian Government to levy duties of customs and other taxes.

in the first instance, be employed in securing the regular payment of dividends to the proprietors of stock, and should then be applied for the benefit of the territory. The last-mentioned applications to be suspended only so long as the burden of debt on the territory continued below a certain specified amount.

1833.