OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT'S DRAFT, No 128. arrangements, as well as the nature of the details of it; he begs leave to suggest that a separate assistant be appointed to this department, and that the person nominated be a military officer. "The governor-general in council approving of the suggestion of the secretary, resolves, that lieutenant L. Hook be appointed first-assistant in the military department in the office of the secretary to the govern ment. 74. From these extracts it appears, that previously to the year 1787, a military officer was established as a distinct secretary to the government for conducting the details of the business of the government in the military department. The arrangement, therefore, which was adopted by the government in 1796-7, and pursued in the arrangement of 1798 9, was only a revival of the principie, which had previously been established, but which had been suspended for a time in the year 1793; and was not the establishment of a new principle. 75. It may also be observed, that during the administration of lord Cornwallis, the governorgeneral in council, on the 21st of January, 1788, recorded his opinion, that the separate office of subsecretary to the government in the military department was necessary, and that it was then resolved, "that whenever colonel Kyd shall vacate his present office, his successor shall receive no other appointment than sub-secretary to the military department, with the same allowances as the sub-secretaries to the other departments. The nature of the business transacted in it suggests the propriety of its being filled by a military officer." 76. The government on the decease of lieutenantcolonel Kyd, deemed it necessary to carry into effect the arrangement determined on by the resolutions of the 31st January, 1788, as far as related to the appoint ment of a sub-secretary for the conduct of the busi ness in the military department, and accordingly, on the third July, 1793. that appointment was also abolished, and the secretary-general was instructed to take charge of the records in the office of the late lieutenant-colonel Kyd. 77. From that period of time (July, 1799) the performance of the duties of the military department devolved, in a great measure, conformably to the resolutions above adverted to, upon the secretary to the government, until the month of December, 1796, when it was found indispensably necessary to the due and proper performance of the details of the duties in the military department of the government, which had been greatly increased by the military arrangements, to revert to the original established principle, by which the conduct of the details of the business of the government in the military department was committed to a military officer, (the propriety of adhering to which principle is formally recorded by lord Cornwallis, in his minute in council of the 81st of January, 1788,) and accordingly to call in the assistTM COURT'S DRAFT, OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT'S DRAFT, assistance of a military officer. It is, therefore, obvious, 78 The experiment of having the duties performed without the assistance of a military officer was continued the greater part of the time during the same administration, which, after a trial of nearly four years, found it indispensably necessary to require the assistance of a military officer for the conduct of the duties of the military department. The measure was not, therefore, carried into execution without the fullest consideration, and without the fullest convic tion, that its adoption was essentially necessary to the proper performance of the public business, and the adoption of the measure and revival of the original principle were dictated by practical experience. The adoption of the measure, therefore, could not have been postponed by the governor general in council in 1796, without a dereliction of public duty. 79. On the arrival of the governor-general, lord Wellesley, in Bengal, from Europe, in the month of May, 1798, his lordship found a military officer acting in the secretary's office, and conducting the details of the duties in the military department. This officer was promoted to the situation of sub-secretary in the military department on the 31st of August, 1798, on the grounds stated in the following extract of the governor-general's minute, recorded in council on that date. "The great increase of the details in the military department, renders it necessary that this department should be separated from the secret and political depart ments, and that an additional sub-secretary should be appointed for the immediate superintendence of those details." "The governor-general accordingly proposed, that lieutenent L. Hook, head assistant in the military department, be appointed sub-secretary in that depart ment." $80. In pursuance of the same principle, the subsecretary in the military department was promoted with the other sub-secretaries to the government, to the situation of secretary to the government in the military department, in the arrangements of the 29th of October, 1799. 81. The original appointment of the present secretary, in the military department, to the office of the secretary to the government, was not a matter of favour; it was founded on direct public grounds, and on the absolute necessity of the measure, with a view to the performance of the public business in the military department, which experience had fully proved to the government, could not be properly performed COURT'S DRAFT, OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT'S DRAFT, No. 128. performed without the assistance of a military officer. 82. The appointment was not solicited by captain' Hook; on the contrary, when it was first proposed to that officer to accept of a situation in the office of the secretary to the government, he held an appointment in the office of the adjutant-general, and requested permission to decline the proposed appointment. The reasons, however, which occasioned the proposal to be made to captain Hook to accept of a situation in the office of the secretary to the government, had considerably increased, and had become of an urgent nature. The proposal was consequently renewed, in consequence of which captain Hook relinquished the situation which he held in the adjutant-general's office, and consequently his views of preferment in that branch of the service, for the purpose of affording his assistance in the performance of the business in the military department of the government. Every fact now detailed to exhibit the grounds of the proceedings of the governor-general in council, affords additional proof of the necessity of the measure of employing a military officer in the situation to secretary of the government in the military department. 83. The court, in their orders for captain Hook's removal, had observed, that the "reasons stated in lord Cornwallis's letter of the 6th of March, 1788, which induced the court to yield to his lordship's recommendation in favour of a military officer being appointed secretary to the military board, do not apply to the case of the secretary to the government in the military department, particularly as the returns of the army and lists which where formerly transmitted to Europe, by the late lieut.-col. Kyd, are now transmitted by the adjutant-general and town-major." 84. It does not appear that the letter from lord Cornwallis, referred to by the court, was recorded on the proceedings of the government. Similar reasons, however, to those assigned by his lordship in council în his minute, recorded on the proceedings of the 7th September, 1792, for recommending the late captain Humphreys to be secretary to the military board, are perfectly applicable to the case of the military secretary to the government, the duties of which situation are certainly of much more importance to the public service, and to the interests of the honourable company, than that of preparing lists and returns of the troops, which are now prepared in another department. 85. Some of the most important parts of the duty of the secretary to the government in the military department, are intimately connected with assisting and enabling the government to diminish the military expenses. It is his duty to point out to the notice of government charges in the military branch of expenditure, not authorized by existing regulations; also such contingent charges as are either inadmissable, or which ought to be reduced, from being unreasonably or unusually high. 86. It may appear that those duties belong to the * C 2 military COURT'S DRAFT, OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT'S DRAFF, military board, and military auditor-general. Is 87. It is of the greatest importance to the governor-general in council, and to the finances of the honourable company, that the government, by whom all these charges are ultimately passed or rejected, should have the assistance of a secretary capable of giving the fullest information upon this important part of his duty The due and faithful performance of this part of the secretary's duty is unavoidably of a most invidious nature. 88. It is an undoubted fact, that the governorgeneral, and the members of council, must depend more upon the military secretary (provided the military secretary be perfect master of his duties) for information respecting the duties which devolve upon the government in its military capacity, (particularly those connected with the military charges and with the discipline of the army) than upon the secretaries in any of the other departments, on the conduct and execution of the duties of those departments respecsively. This species of dependence for information upon the military secretary will be found not to be much diminished by the presence of the commander in chief, who, from various causes, cannot be expected to furnish information upon points of detail, chiefly of a local nature, not immediately within the province of his general duties. 89. The situation in which the company's civil servans are employed from the time of their arrival in India, and the habits which they unavoidably and necessarily acquire in those employments, render it impossible for them to possess that knowledge of the military branch of the service which is essentially necessary to the proper performance of the duties of secretary to the government in the military department. It is no imputation on the character of the civil servants to declare, that they are not qualified to perform those duties, a knowledge of which can only be obtained in situations, from which they are precluded, and in which they would not desire to serve. 90. It can scarcely be the intention of the court that the conduct and management of the details of the duties COURT'S DRAFT, No. 128. OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT'S DRAFT, duties of the supreme government in the military de partment, should be entrusted to a person not qualified to perform them. But in what manner is the civil covenanted servant to acquire the knowledge indispensably necessary to enable him to discharge his duty as secretary in the military department? He must attach himself to the army, and appropriate ten or twelve years of his time in acquiring a knowledge of the military regulations, and particularly of those complicate, and intricate, and fluctuating, rules for the conduct of military finance, applicable to the peculiar nature of the army of Bengal, in all its branches. 91. It would also be necessary that several of the civil servants should be employed and educated in the manner above-described, otherwise the government would not possess a succession of civil servants, properly qualified to fill the situation of secretary to government in the military department. 92. No length of service, in the usual duties of civil servants, nor eyen in the office of secretary to the government in the military department, can give a civil servant a thorough knowledge of the details indispensably necessary to the proper performance of the duties of the secretary in the military department; nor cau a military officer conduct those duties properly, unless he has previously studied the voluminous and varying code of military regulatious, particularly those conected with military expenses. 93. To qualify a civil servant for the proper performance of the duties of secretary to the government in the military department, he must be furnished with a military commission, to enable him to attach himself to the army, and to be placed in those situations in which alone he can acquire that knowledge, which could render him competent to the discharge of the duties of secretary Q the government in the military department. 94. The duties of the secretary to the government in the military department, have formerly been conducted without the assistance of a military officer; but the proceedings of government, which led to the revi val of the employment of a military officer in the secretary's office, in the latter end of the year 1796, conformably to the principle originally established by the supreme government, and particularly adverted to by lord Cornwallis, in council, on the 31st January, 1788, furnish proofs of the necessity of the change, founded on a suffi ient trial of a contrary system. 95. The reasons which compelled the government, in 1796, to evert to the principle above adverted to, are not specified in detail on the records. It is stated, in general terms, that the nature of the duties, and the great increase of business, in consequence of the new military arrangements, suggested the propriety of employing a military officer, 96. The particular and constant difficulties which occurred to render the adoption of the measure necessary, unquestionably were of a nature to preclude all hope of conducting the business of government in the Military |