§ Mr. Stuart Wortley moved that there be laid before the House three letters, addressed by the Court of Directors of the East-India Company to the Governors and Councils of the three Presidencies, dated March 10th, 1830, and relating to the territorial finances of the East-India Company.
§ Mr. Humewished to take that opportunity to ask a question, to which he trusted some hon. Member present connected with the Board of Control would give a satisfactory answer. It had been stated in the public prints, that considerable alarm had been excited in India in consequence of orders which had been sent out by the Government here, forbidding Lord William Bentinck to give those facilities for settling and taking land which his Lordship had been so willing to afford, with a view to encourage and facilitate the settlement of Europeans in India. He (Mr. Hume) wished to know whether that statement was correct, and whether such orders had been transmitted to Lord Wm. Bentinck?
Mr. Stuart Wortleysaid, he supposed the hon. Member referred to the statement which had appeared in the papers that morning, and in that case he could assure 712 the hon. Member that great misconception existed on the subject. The facts of the case were simply these. There appeared in an unofficial periodical publication in the summer of last year, an article which purported to be an order from Lord Wm. Bentinck, holding out encouragement to Europeans to settle in India, to take lease of lands, &c. The Board of Directors never received an official copy of any such order; but seeing this article, they transmitted a letter to Lord Wm. Bentinck, apprising him of the publication of such document. The Board of Directors took that opportunity to refer his Lordship to the resolution which had been adopted by the Board on the subject, and which had been issued to Lord Amherst in 1824, and they at the same time intimated to his Lordship that he must abide by the terms of that Resolution. The Directors, in their communication to his Lordship, in no other respect altered the regulations which were in existence as to the settlement of Europeans in India; they merely intimated to him that he must abide by the terms of the Resolution of 1824. It appeared that this order, attributed to Lord Wm. Bentinck, was entirely unknown to the department of the Government of this country especially connected with India, and that circumstance was sufficient to create a suspicion that it had never been issued by his Lordship, and in confirmation of that suspicion he (Mr. Stuart Wortley) might state, that though this order had been published in this country so long ago as last July, no official copy of it had been received by the Board of Directors up to the present moment. The letter of the Directors, to which he had already referred, merely intimated to Lord Wm. Bentinck that he must abide by the terms of the Resolution issued to Lord Amherst, and there would be no objection whatever to laying a copy of that letter before the House. Returns ordered.