Charter
Act of

1853.

ment of a lieutenant-governor for the North-Western Provinces 1. The project of establishing an executive council for the Bengal and North-Western Provinces was abandoned.

An Act of 1840 (3 & 4 Vict. c. 37) consolidated and amended the Indian Mutiny Acts, and empowered the GovernorGeneral in Council to make regulations for the Indian Navy. An Act of 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 21) enacted for India a law of insolvency, which is still in force in the presidency towns. In 1853, during the governor-generalship of Lord Dalhousie, it became necessary to take steps for renewing the term of twenty years which had been created by the Act of 1833, and accordingly the last of the Charter Acts (16 & 17 Vict. c. 95) was passed in that year.

It differed from the previous Charter Acts by not fixing any definite term for the continuance of the powers, but simply providing that the Indian territories should remain under the government of the Company, in trust for the Crown, until Parliament should otherwise direct.

The Act reduced the number of the directors of the Company from twenty-four to eighteen, and provided that six of these should be appointed by the Crown.

It continued indefinitely, until the Court of Directors and Board of Control should otherwise direct, the suspension of the division of the Bengal Presidency contemplated by the Act of 1835, but authorized the appointment of a separate governor for that presidency, distinct from the governorgeneral 2. However, the Act went on to provide that, unless and until this separate governor was appointed, the Court of Directors and Board of Control might authorize the appointment of a lieutenant-governor of Bengal. The power of appointing a separate governor was never brought into

1 The first appointment was made in 1836.

2 Under the Act of 1833 the Governor-General of India was also Governor of Bengal, but during his frequent absences from Calcutta used to delegate his functions in the latter capacity to the senior member of his council. See the evidence of Sir Herbert Maddock and Mr. F. Millett before the select committee of the House of Lords in 1852.

operation, but the power of appointing a lieutenant-governor was exercised in 1854, and has been continued ever since. By the following section, power was given to the directors either to constitute one new presidency, with the same system of a governor and council as in the Presidencies of Madras and Bombay, or, as an alternative, to authorize the appointment of a lieutenant-governor. In this case also the former power was never exercised, but a new lieutenant-governorship was created for the Punjab in 1859.

Further alterations were made by the Act of 1853 in the machinery for Indian legislation. The fourth' or legislative member of the governor-general's council was placed on the same footing with the older or ordinary' members of the council by being given a right to sit and vote at executive meetings. At the same time the council was enlarged for legislative purposes by the addition of legislative members, of whom two were the Chief Justice of Bengal and one other supreme court judge, and the others were Company's servants of ten years' standing appointed by the several local Governments. The result was that the council as constituted for legislative purposes under the Act of 1853 consisted of twelve 1 members, namely—

The governor-general.

The commander-in-chief.

The four ordinary members of the governor-general's council.

The Chief Justice of Bengal.

A puisne judge.

Four representative members (paid) 2 from Bengal, Madras, Bombay, and the North-Western Provinces.

The sittings of the legislative council were made public and their proceedings were officially published.

1 Power was given by the Act of 1853 to the governor-general to appoint, with the sanction of the Home Government, two other members from the civil service, but this power was never exercised.

2 They received salaries of £5,000 a year each.

Establishment of chief commissioner

ships.

The Indian Law Commission appointed under the Act of 1833 had ceased to exist before 1853. It seems to have lost much of its vitality after Macaulay's departure from India. It lingered on for many years, published periodically ponderous volumes of reports, on which, in many instances, Indian Acts have been based, but did not succeed in effecting any codification of the laws or customs of the country, and was finally allowed to expire 1. Efforts were, however, made by the Act of 1853 to utilize its labours, and for this purpose power was given to appoint a body of English commissioners, with instructions to examine and consider the recommendations of the Indian Commission 2.

And, finally, the right of patronage to Indian appointments was by the Act of 1853 taken away from the Court of Directors and directed to be exercised in accordance with regulations framed by the Board of Control. These regulations threw the covenanted civil service open to general competition 3.

In 1855 an Act was passed (18 & 19 Vict. c. 53) which prohibited the admission of further students to Haileybury College after January 25, 1856, and directed the college to be closed on January 31, 1858.

In 1854 was passed an Act administrative results in India.

which has had important Under the old system the

As to the proceedings of the commission, see the evidence given in 1852 before the select committee of the House of Lords on the East India Company's charter by Mr. F. Millett and Mr. Hay Cameron. Mr. Millett was the first secretary, and was afterwards member of the commission. Mr. Cameron was one of the first members of the commission, and was afterwards legislative member of the governor-general's council.

2 The commissioners appointed under this power were Sir John (afterwards Lord) Romilly, Sir John Jervis (Chief Justice of Common Pleas), Sir Edward Ryan, C. H. Cameron, J. N. Macleod, J. A. F. Hawkins, Thomas Flower Ellis, and Robert Lowe (Lord Sherbrooke). They were instructed by the Board of Control to consider specially the preparation of a simple and uniform code of procedure for Indian courts, and the amalgamation of the supreme and sadr courts. (Letter of November 30, 1853, from the Board of Control to the Indian Law Commission.)

3 They were prepared in 1854 by a committee under the presidency of Lord Macaulay.

only mode of providing for the government of newly acquired territory was by annexing it to one of the three presidencies. Under this system of annexations the Presidency of Bengal had grown to unwieldy dimensions. Some provision had been made for the relief of its government by the constitution of a separate lieutenant-governorship for the North-Western Provinces in 1836. The Act of 1853 had provided for the constitution of a second lieutenant-governorship, and, if necessary, of a fourth presidency. These powers were, however, not found sufficient, and it was necessary to provide for the administration of territories which it might not be advisable to include in any presidency of lieutenantgovernorship 1.

This provision was made by the Act of 1854, which empowered the Governor-General of India in Council, with the sanction of the Court of Directors and the Board of Control, to take by proclamation under his immediate authority and management any part of the territories for the time being in the possession or under the government of the East India Company, and thereupon to give all necessary orders and directions respecting the administration of that part, or otherwise provide for its administration 2. The mode in which this power has been practically exercised has been by the appointment of chief commissioners, to whom the Governor-General in Council delegates such powers as need not be reserved to the Central Government. In this way chief commissionerships were established for Assam, the Central Provinces, Burma, and other parts of India. But the title of chief commissioner was not directly recognized by Act of Parliament 4, and the territories under the administration of chief commissioners are technically under the immediate authority

1 See preamble to Act of 1854.

2 See Digest, s. 56.

3 Assam has now been amalgamated with Eastern Bengal under a Lieutenant-Governor, and Burma has been constituted a lieutenant-governor

ship.

It has since been recognized by the Act of 1870 (33 Vict. c. 3), ss. 1, 3.

The Government of

and management' of the Governor-General in Council within the meaning of the Act of 1854.

The same Act empowered the Government of India, with the sanction of the Home authorities, to define the limits of the several provinces in India; expressly vested in the Governor-General in Council all the residuary authority not transferred to the local Governments of the provinces into which the old Presidency of Bengal had been divided; and directed that the governor-general was no longer to bear the title of governor of that presidency.

The Mutiny of 1857 gave the death-blow to the system of double government,' with its division of powers and India Act, responsibilities. In February, 1858, Lord Palmerston intro1858. duced a Bill for transferring the government of India to the Crown. Under his scheme the home administration was to be conducted by a president with the assistance of a council of eight persons. The members of the council were to be nominated by the Crown, were to be qualified either by having been directors of the Company or by service or residence in India, and were to hold office for eight years, two retiring by rotation in each year. In other respects the scheme did not differ materially from that eventually adopted. The cause of the East India Company was pleaded by John Stuart Mill in a weighty State paper, but the second reading of the Bill was carried by a large majority.

Shortly afterwards, however, Lord Palmerston was turned out of office on the Conspiracy to Murder Bill, and was succeeded by Lord Derby, with Mr. Disraeli as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Lord Ellenborough as President of the Board of Control. The Chancellor of the Exchequer promptly introduced a new Bill for the government of India, of which the most remarkable feature was a council consisting partly of nominees of the Crown and partly of persons elected on a complicated and elaborate system, by citizens of Manchester and other large towns, holders of East India stock, and others. This scheme died of ridicule, and when the House assembled