GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL. (Hansard, 12 August 1853)

§ LORD MONTEAGLE

said, that in pursuance of the notice that he had given, he rose for the purpose of proposing the three clauses which had been presented, and were in the hands of their Lordships. He did so for the purpose of recording his own opinion, and having his proposition entered on their Lordships' journals, rather than with any intention of occupying their time, or of dividing the House. The latter course, in respect to these three clauses, would be inexpedient as well as unnecessary, after the reply made to him on a former night by the President of the Council (Earl Granville). In relation to the most important of these clauses—that which declared and enacted that the Natives of India should hereafter be considered as eligible by law to all offices whatever, as well in the covenanted as in the uncovenanted service—he understood his noble Friend to have fully assented to the principle for which he then contended; but to have objected to the clause only as being unnecessary, the exclusion having arisen solely from the right of nomination existing heretofore, but now modified by the present Bill. He admitted the force of this argument, and thanked his noble Friend for the admission; but recollecting what had been the conduct of the Home Government in relation to the Act of 1833, and how widely they had departed from the intention of its framers, he would have wished to have inserted a clause making such a course hereafter impossible. By another clause, he sought to guard against a power which had been used by the Home Government in restraining the functions of the Legislature of India, in cases where no such limitations were prescribed or contemplated in the Charter Act. This was stated in evidence to have been done contrary to law. Such a power exercised from home, prohibiting the Legislative Council from entertaining subjects not included within the list of subjects specifically reserved in Section 43 of the Charter of 1833, he held to be wholly without excuse and without defence. After the evidence given, however, he did not feel that there was much risk that this would be repeated by the Court, or permitted by the India Board. The 3rd Clause proposed to place the 1674 East India Company, in one important respect, on the same footing with all the chartered and Crown colonies. From each of these colonies, annual statistical returns were required to be made, in the form commonly called the Colonial Blue Book. These returns were corroborated by the Secretary of State and presented to Parliament. As it was now intended to leave the question of India open to the annual review and legislative authority of Parliament; and as it was not even suggested that the present Bill did more than continue, with certain modifications, the Government of India; and as the great questions of finance, commerce, agriculture, public works, and the administration of justice, had not even been touched upon by Parliament—his object was to secure to Parliament from time to time the fullest information that could be required to guide their future judgment. This, he was aware, could be done without any statistical authority, by direction of the Board of Control and the Directors, in whose hands he was willing to leave it after recording his own opinion.