EAST INDIES.

BOOK I.

BENGAL, MADRAS, AND BOMBAY.

CHAPTER I.

GOVERNMENT (ENGLISH AND INDIAN) OF BENGAL, MADRAS,,

AGRA AND BOMBAY THE COURTS OF DIRECTORS-AND PROPRIETORS- THEIR RELATIVE AUTHORITY-BOARD OF CONTROL DUTIES OF THE CIVIL SERVANTS-LAW COURTS, &c. &c.

THE government of the British possessions on the continent of Asia, is vested at home in two powers with co-ordinate authority,-viz. the East India Company, and a Ministerial Board, termed Her Majesty's Commissioners for the affairs of India, the latter being devised by Mr. Pitt as a check upon the political proceedings of the former. A few words will be requisite to explain this complex authority.

THE COURT OF DIRECTORS.-The more immediate governing power of British India, and consequently the patronage attached thereto, is vested in the Court

EAST INDIES.-VOL. II.

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of Directors, or executive body of the East India Company. The capital stock of this company is 6,000,000Z. sterling, which is divided according to a recent calculation, among 3,579 proprietors, of whom 53 have four votes1; 54, three; 347, two; 1,454, one; and 221 hold only 500l. stock, and are not qualified to vote but merely to debate on any question; 396 proprietors hold stock under 500l. and are not qualified to vote or speak, and 220 have not held their stock a sufficient time to enable them to vote. The stock must be bonâ fide in the proprietor's possession for twelve months, to enable him or her to vote; a regulation adopted to prevent collusive transfers of stock for particular occasions. The total number of voters is estimated at 2,000, and of the votes about 1,500 are comprised within four miles of the General Post Office. Women as well as men, foreigners as well as Englishmen, if holding stock sufficient, are empowered to vote and debate. A late classification of the votes gave of gentry, bankers, merchants, traders, shipowners, shopkeepers, &c. 1836; of women (married, widows, and spinsters), 43; of officers in the Queen's and East India Company's army, 222; of the clergy, 86; of officers in the royal navy, 28; of medical men, 19; of the nobility, 20. The following is said to be the state of the votes of the Court of Proprietors in 1832-Peers, 20; members of parliament, 10; directors, 50; clergymen, 86; medical men, 19; military officers,

A proprietor of not less than 1000l. has one vote; of 3000l. two; of 6000l. three; and of 10,000l. and upwards, no more than four votes.

222; naval ditto, 28; minor, 1; other gentlemen, 1775; male votes, 2211; female ditto, 372; total, 2583. The proprietors meet as a court regularly every quarter, and especially when convened to discuss particular business. The number of quarterly and special courts held from 1814 to 1830-31 was 212. The powers vested in this Court are, the election of qualified proprietors as their delegates, or representatives, to form a Court of Directors; to frame bye-laws for the regulation of the Company-provided they do not interfere with acts of parliament; to control salaries, or pensions, exceeding 2007. a year, or gratuities above 6007. It may confer pecuniary rewards on any eastern statesman, or warrior, above the latter named sum, subject, however, to the confirmation of the Board of Control; it can demand copies of public documents to be laid before it for discussion and consideration, but it is prevented interfering with any order of the Court of Directors, after the same shall have received the approval of the Board of Control. The Court of Proprietors did interfere, and with effect, in the case of the maritime compensations, on the ground that their concurrence had not been obtained previously to the application of the Board. The chairman of the Court of Directors is ex-officio chairman of the Court of Proprietors ;-debates are regulated as in the House of Commons, and all questions and elections are decided by the ballot. Absent proprietors may vote at elections by power of attorney.

The Court of Directors, or Representatives of the foregoing body of Proprietors, consists of twenty