§ SIR HARRY VERNEY moved for copies of all papers not already presented to the House, connected with the various annexations of territory in India, including minutes by individual directors, since the annexation of Sattarah; account of all sums paid to Hindoo or Mahomedan shrines, or in any way in honour or support of the religion or religious institutions of the native inhabitants of India, which were collected or disbursed by the agency of the East India Company's servants during the year 1857; copies of the petition of the inhabitants of Calcutta for the recall of the Governor General, together with any observations which he might have made thereon; and, of any despatches from the Court of Directors of the East India Company to the Government of India respecting the appointment of commissioners to inquire into the causes of the military mutiny in that country, and the means of reorganizing the Bengal army.
MR. VERNON SMITHsaid, that he had no objection to produce the papers asked for; but with respect to the petition from Calcutta for the recall of the Governor General, he must make a short statement. That petition had been sent home to be presented to the Queen by his noble Friend at the head of the Government, He (Mr. Vernon Smith) stated at the time, and he begged to repeat now, that that was, according to all colonial doctrine, an informal manner of presenting a petition, and that it ought to have come through the Governor General. Being informal, his noble Friend had taken the usual course of returning it to the petitioners, to be forwarded again, if they thought fit, through the Governor General, when the Governor General would send a detailed communication on the subject, addressed 806 probably to the Court of Directors. In the meantime, however, hearing that such a petition was in course of signature, the Governor General had procured a copy of it, and had sent it to the Court of Directors, accompanied with a few hasty observations. That was a public document, and if the hon. Baronet wished to have it he should not object to produce it; but he wished the House to consider that those observations of the Governor General were only in the nature of hasty notes written on a petition casually brought up to his notice, and that they did not contain that detailed information which his noble Friend would willingly have given if the petition had been presented in due form.
§ Motion agreed to.
§
Account ordered,—
Of all sums paid to Hindoo or Mahometan Shrines, or in any way in honour or support of the Religion or of Religious Institutions of the native inhabitants of India, which were collected or disbursed by the agency of the East India Company's Servants during the year 1857.
And copies of the Petition of the Inhabitants of Calcutta for the recal of the Governor General, together with any observations he may have made thereon.
§ House adjourned at a quarter after Eight o'clock.