§ SIR EDWARD GROGANsaid, he rose to bring under the consideration of the House the position of the Civil Servants of the Crown in India who shall have entered into covenants to serve in that country. Under the nomination system there were two classes of examinations—one of a literary character, and another as to special qualifications; and those who passed those examinations had an absolute right to appointments in India. Under the former system a successful candidate entered into what was called a deed of covenant with the Secretary of State for India as to the nature of his services. The special matters to be done and left undone were set forth in that deed; but added to the deed was a penalty attached to dereliction of duty. He complained that young men thus becoming entitled to nomination, did not receive pay until they joined the presidency, to appointments to which they were nominated. He thought they should receive special pay from the time they signed the deed, and that an allowance should be made to carry them out to their destination. Such a rule was in force in the army, and ought not to be ignored in the Civil Service.
§ SIR CHARLES WOODsaid, that the practice complained of was only that which formerly existed with regard to writers who were nominated for India under the East India Company, the rule being that Indian service should be paid for in India, and not 168 elsewhere. In 1858 those appointments were thrown open to competition, and the successful candidates were placed on the same footing as the servants nominated under the old system, with the difference that a sum of £100 was allowed to them to defray their expenses between the first and second examination, and towards the payment of the expenses of their journey, and as, even on the hon. Baronet's own showing, so far from there being any want of candidates, there were at least two for every vacancy, he could not see any ground for altering the existing regulations.
§ MR. VANSITTARTsaid, he could confirm the statement of the right hon. Baronet as to the expenses of the old system. His anxious parents sent him to Haileybury College, where he spent the required time and passed the necessary examination, and yet he never received a single rupee from the Indian Government until he arrived in India. He could not, therefore, see what claim those poverty-stricken members of the Universities of Dublin, who were not compelled to enter the service, and who were not half so good as the Haileybury men, had on the Government for payment before their arrival in India.
§ Main Question put, and agreed to.