§ MR. WISEsaid, he would beg to ask the President of the Board of Control, Why 556 Her Majesty's Government have declined to present to Her Majesty the Memorial from the British inhabitants of Calcutta; and what precedent there is for requiring such petitions to be transmitted through the medium of the Governor General?
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONSir, as the Memorial to which my hon. Friend refers was addressed to me, probably I am the proper person to answer that question. Finding that it was the invariable rule—and a very proper rule, as I think—that any complaint made against the conduct of a Governor abroad should be transmitted through that Governor, in order that it might be accompanied with such observations and explanations as he might think proper to offer, so that the Government at home might be made acquainted at once with all the matters upon which a decision should be come to, I deemed it my duty to return that petition to those who sent it to me, requesting that they would observe the invariable practice, and transmit it through the Governor General.