MR. LYGONI beg, Sir, to put a question to the Secretary of the Board of Control whether it is possible to furnish a Return of the number of private letters received from the Governor General of India and transmitted to the Board of Control or to the India Office to persons then in office or supposed to be in office, together with the weight, the dates, the number, and the persons to whom such letters have been so addressed?
§ MR. BAILLIESir, in answer to the question of my hon. Friend, I beg to state that there is no record kept at the Board of Control of any private letters received there. As soon as any such letters are received there they are at once forwarded to their destinations. I may state, however, that since the present Government came into office, being a period of about three months, no private letter or private communication has been received by or shown to the Government, or has been received at the Board of Control until Saturday night last. On Saturday night, however, the post arrived from India, and brought three private letters from Lord Canning, all addressed to the President of the Board of Control, the Earl of Ellenborough. Lord Canning had, therefore, received information that the Earl of Ellenborough had accepted office, and the fact of his having addressed those private letters to him is a sufficient proof that the noble Lord, as Governor General of India, was in the habit of corresponding, by means of private letters, with the President of the Board of Control.