proceedings are subject to the supervision of the second department, entitled the "Board of Control" – a body that changes with every change of Ministry in this country, and exercises a paramount power over the Court of Directors, with the authority and by the advice of the Imperial Parliament.[1]
The third department of this unwieldy Government is composed of the Governor-General and Council of Bengal, including the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, and sitting at Calcutta. These are assisted by the local Governments of Bombay, Madras, Agra, Hyderabad in Sindh, and Lahore in the Punjaub, which are all subordinate to the Governor-General in council at Calcutta; and this last authority is controlled by the powers above-mentioned in England.
It has been very much the fashion of late, and with great appearance of reason, to decry the Governments of India, both at home and abroad, because they have not effected all that they might have done under a different system to improve the magnificent empire that Providence has intrusted to their charge. They have been accused of reducing it to a private monopoly, of devoting its vast resources to family patronage, and appropriating its boundless wealth to their own individual emolument, without any reference to the national good, or the amelioration of the country itself.
But let us be just while we are critical; and if we must censure the errors of omission and commission, let us, at least, give our humble testimony to the good that has really been effected. The Indian Governments, it is true, have hitherto done but little towards the complete development of the rich and varied resources of the country;
- ↑ "In the hands of the Board of Control rests absolutely and entirely the administration of Indian affairs. It consists of a President and Secretaries, two members of the Administration – the first receiving 3,500l. a year, and the others 1,500l. each – and some score of permanent irresponsible clerks, on whom they must be absolutely dependent for information and counsel. The cost of the establishment amounts to about 25,000l. a year." – Dr. Buist. "Tract on India.""The charges of the India House amount to from a hundred to a hundred and fifty thousand pounds a year; their dinner-bills for the past eighteen years being set down in the accounts as an extra item of 53,000l." – Dr. Buist. "Tract on India."
