HC Deb 28 February 1842 vol 60 cc1176-7
Mr. Hutt

begged to ask whether Lord Ellen-borough would continue to receive the compensation for the office formerly held by him, at the same time that he received his salary as Governor-general of India.

Sir R. Peel

said, he apprehended there was no doubt whatever, that the compensation which Lord Ellenborough received for the office to which he was appointed by his father, then Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench, must, under the law, be continued. But a question might arise whether, under the act, which passed at the time of granting the new charter to the East India Company, a corresponding reduction ought not to be made in the salary of Lord Ellenborough, as Governor-general of India. That, however, would be a question between the East India Company and the Governor-general. If it was decided that the compensation paid to his noble Friend was within the scope of the act of Parliament, a corresponding reduction would be made in the salary; but the benefit would be, not to the consolidated fund, but to the revenue of the East India Company. The subject was at present under the consideration of the East India Company. When he proposed to his noble Friend, then a Cabinet Minister and President of the Board of Control, for this appointment, his noble Friend pointed out to his notice the act of Parliament, and said it would be hard in the performance of a public duty, in accepting the office which he offered him as the person best qualified to succeed Lord Auckland, that his compensation, together with his office as President of the Board of Control, should be given up. But his noble Friend said, that as he accepted office from a sense of public duty, even though the office which he held fell within the provisions of that act, still it would not prevent him from accepting the office of Governor-general. It was now entirely a question for the decision of the East India Company. He looked at the act, and he apprehended the Treasury could not stop the compensation.