§ MR. CRAWFORD,according to private Notice, asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether his attention has been drawn to the report of the proceedings of the Court of Proprietors of the East India Company a few days ago, from which it appears that exception is taken to the immediate transfer to the Secretary of State for India of the Security Fund which was set up by the Act of 1833, in anticipation of the time when the proprietors would be repaid the amount of their stock, which would be the 30th of June next year?
MR. GRANT DUFFSir, in reply to my hon. Friend I have to say that my attention has been drawn to the matter to which he has alluded. The principal objection taken to the Bill as it originally stood has been met in its essential features by an Amendment which was inserted the night before the Recess on the Motion of the hon. Member for Chippenham (Mr. Goldney); and, with reference to the closing of the books and the possibility of requiring services from the Company without expressly providing for their cost, my hon. Friend will, I hope, take my assurance that nothing will be done by the Secretary of State in Council which will not be both just and considerate towards the last representatives of so august a body as the great old East India Company.