§ Order for second reading read.
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTON, on rising to move that the order for the second reading of this Bill be discharged said, he quite agreed with what had fallen from the Chancellor of the Exchequer on a former evening, that the course of this measure through Parliament was an instance of the way in which upon great questions party feelings and party differences were made to yield to the wishes of the nation. The late Government, after mature consideration, had proposed to Parliament a measure of great importance, to transfer the government of India from the East India Company to the Crown. That measure when first proposed met with resistance from the leading members of the then Opposition and now of Her Majesty's Government. When the change of Government took place the present Administration, not insisting upon the opinions which they had 1242 formerly entertained, yielded to a sense of public duty, and handsomely and creditably adopted the measure which their predecessors had proposed. They had certainly proposed certain alterations in its machinery, and those alterations had been modified from time to time, and the Bill which had now passed that House with the exception of that portion relating to the Council, contained many clauses which were word for word the same as in the measure be now asked leave to withdraw, and many which, if not literally copied from it, were still substantially the same. He might say that this great measure for transferring the Government of India from the Company to the Crown was a legacy of the late Government. Their executors hod somewhat altered the details of the Bill, but he still hoped the bequest would be conducive to the order and tranquillity of the Indian empire.
§ Order discharged.
§ Bill withdrawn.