after the Easter recess no one could be found to defend it 1. Mr. Disraeli grasped eagerly at a suggestion by Lord John Russell that the Bill should be laid aside, to be succeeded by another based on resolutions of the House. In the meantime Lord Ellenborough had been compelled to resign in consequence of disapproval of his dispatch censuring Lord Canning's Oudh proclamation, and had been succeeded by Lord Stanley, on whom devolved the charge of introducing and piloting through the House the measure which eventually became law as the Act for the better government of India 2. This Act declared that India was to be governed directly by and in the name of the Crown, acting through a Secretary of State, to whom were to be transferred the powers formerly exercised either by the Court of Directors or by the Board of Control. Power was given to appoint a fifth principal Secretary of State for this purpose. The Secretary of State was to be aided by a council of fifteen members, of whom eight were to be appointed by the Crown and seven elected by the directors of the East India Company. The major part both of the appointed and of the elected members were to be persons who had served or resided in India for ten years, and, with certain exceptions, who had not left India more than ten years before their appointment. Future appointments or elections were to be so made that nine at least of the members of the council should hold these qualifications. The power of filling vacancies was vested in the Crown as to Crown appointments, and in the council itself as to others. The members of the council were to hold office during good behaviour, but to be removable on an address by both Houses of Parliament, and were not to be capable of sitting or voting in Parliament ". It was to this Bill that Lord Palmerston applied the Spanish boy's remark about Don Quixote, and said that whenever a man was to be seen laughing in the streets he was sure to have been discussing the Government of India Bill. 2 21 & 22 Vict. c. 108. 3 These provisions have been modified by subsequent legislation. See Digest, s. 4. The council was charged with the duty of conducting, under the direction of the Secretary of State, the business transacted in the United Kingdom in relation to the government of India and the correspondence with India. The Secretary of State was to be the president of the council, with power to overrule in case of difference of opinion, and to send, without reference to the council, any dispatches which might under the former practice have been sent through the secret committee 1. The officers on the home establishment both of the Company and of the Board of Control were to form the establishment of the new Secretary of State in Council, and a scheme for a permanent establishment was to be submitted. The patronage of the more important appointments in India was vested either in the Crown or in the Secretary of State in Council. Lieutenant-governors were to be appointed by the governor-general subject to the approval of the Crown. As under the Act of 1853, admission to the covenanted civil service was to be open to all natural-born subjects of Her Majesty, and was to be granted in accordance with the results of an examination held under rules to be made by the Secretary of State in Council with the assistance of the Civil Service Commissioners. The patronage to military cadetships was to be divided between the Secretary of State and his council. The property of the Company was transferred to the Crown. The expenditure of the revenues of India was to be under the control of the Secretary of State in Council, but was to be charged with a dividend on the Company's stock and with their debts, and the Indian revenues remitted to Great Britain were to be paid to the Secretary of State in Council and applied for Indian purposes. Provision was made for the appointment of a special auditor of the accounts of the Secretary of State in Council 2. 1 Digest, ss. 6–14. 2 Ibid. 22, 30. The Board of Control was formally abolished. With respect to contracts and legal proceedings, the Secretary of State in Council was given a quasi-corporate character for the purpose of enabling him to assert the rights and discharge the liabilities devolving upon him as successor to the East India Company 1. Indian It has been seen that under the authority given by various The Acts the Company raised and maintained separate military Army. forces of their own. The troops belonging to these forces, whilst in India, were governed by a separate Mutiny Act, perpetual in duration, though re-enacted from time to time with amendments 2. The Company also had a small naval force, once known as the Bombay Marine, but after 1829 as the Indian Navy. The Act of 1858 transferred to the service of the Crown all the naval and military forces of the Company, retaining, however, their separate local character, with the same liability to local service and the same pay and privileges as if they were in the service of the Company. Many of the European troops refused to acknowledge the authority of Parliament to make this transfer. They demanded re-engagement and bounty as a condition of the transfer of their services 3, and, failing to get these terms, were offered their discharge. In 1860 the existence of European troops as a separate force was put an end to by an Act (23 & 24 Vict. c. 100) which, after reciting that it is not expedient that a separate European force should be continued for the local service of Her Majesty in India, formally repealed the enactments by which the Secretary of State in Council was authorized to give directions for raising such forces. In 1861 the officers and soldiers formerly belonging to the Company's European forces were invited to join, and many 1 Digest, s. 35. 2 The first of these Acts was an Act of 1753 (27 Geo. II, c. 9), and the last was an Act of 1857 (20 & 21 Vict. c. 66), which was repealed in 1863 (26 & 27 Vict. c. 48). 3 In 1859 they made a 'demonstration' which, from the small stature of the recruits enlisted during the Indian Mutiny, was sometimes called the Dumpy Mutiny.' Pritchard, Administration of India, i. 36. Legislation of 1861. Indian Civil Service of them were transferred to, the regular army under the authority of an Act of that year (24 & 25 Vict. c. 74). Thus the European army of the late East India Company, except a small residue, became merged in the military forces of the Crown 1. The naval force of the East India Company was not amalgamated with the Royal Navy, but came to an end in 1863, when it was decided that the defence of India against serious attack by sea should be undertaken by the Royal Navy, which was also to provide for the performance of the duties in the Persian Gulf which had been previously undertaken by the Indian Navy 2. The change effected by the Government of India Act, 1858, was formally announced in India by the Queen's Proclamation of November 1, 1858. In 1859 the Government of India Act, 1859 (22 & 23 Vict. c. 41), was passed for determining the officers by whom, and the mode in which, contracts on behalf of the Secretary of State in Council were to be executed in India 3. Three Acts of great importance were passed in the year 1861. Under the Charter Act of 1793 rank and promotion in the Company's civil service were strictly regulated by seniority, Act, 1861. and all offices in the civil line' of the Company's service. in India under the degree of councillor were strictly reserved to the civil servants of the presidency in which the office was held. But by reason of the exigencies of the public service, numerous civil appointments had been made in Under existing arrangements all the troops sent to India are placed on the Indian establishment, and from that time cease to be voted on the Army Estimates. The number of the forces in the regular army as fixed by the annual Army Act is declared to be 'exclusive of the number actually serving within Her Majesty's Indian possessions.' As to the constitutionality of employing Indian troops outside India, see the debates of 1878 on the employment of Indian troops in Malta, Hansard, ccxl. 187, 194, 213, 369, 515; and Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution, pt. ii. p. 361 (2nd ed.). 2 See Sir Charles Wood's letter to the Admiralty of Oct. 20, 1862. India in disregard of these restrictions. The Indian Civil Service Act, 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 54), validated all these irregular appointments in the past, but scheduled a number of appointments which, in the future, were to be reserved to members of the covenanted civil service 1. At the same time it abolished the rule as to seniority and removed all statutory restrictions on appointments to offices not in the schedule. And, even with respect to the reserved offices, it left a power of appointing outsiders under exceptional circumstances. This power can only be exercised where it appears to the authority making the appointment that, under the circumstances of the case, it ought to be made without regard to statutory conditions. The person appointed must have resided for at least seven years in India. If the post is in the Revenue or Judicial Departments, the person appointed must pass the same examinations and tests as are required in the case of the covenanted civil service. The appointment is provisional only, and must be forthwith reported to the Secretary of State in Council with the special reasons for making it, and unless approved within twelve months by the Secretary of State it becomes void 2. Councils The Indian Councils Act, 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 67), modi- Indian fied the constitution of the governor-general's executive council and remodelled the Indian legislatures. A fifth ordinary member was added to the governorgeneral's council. Of the five ordinary members, three were required to have served for ten years in India under the Company or the Crown, and one was to be a barrister or advocate of five years' standing. Power was retained to appoint the commander-in-chief an extraordinary member 3. Power was given to the governor-general, in case of his absence from headquarters, to appoint a president of the council, with all the powers of the governor-general except those with respect to legislation. And, in such case, the 1 This schedule is still in force. 2 This provision still exists. Digest, s. 93. 3 Ibid. 39, 40. |