"vileges, but elevated, if it is desired to render "it a useful and efficient branch of the Indian

government: if not, the sooner it is abolish"ed the better." (II. 102.) "Considering "that of all governments that is least likely to "command respect and gain strength, over "which a sword is always suspended, and "which holds existence under respite, it would "be better either to abolish the Company as a "medium of governing India, or to give to that

body a broader, more solid, and more perma"nent foundation." (II. 115.) But if the only expedient suggested by Sir John Malcolm for

elevating" the Court of Directors, and giving to them a broader, more solid, and more permanent foundation, be utterly incapable of producing such consequences, he must admit that "the sooner it is abolished the better." To the attainment of his object some enlargement of the power of the Court of Directors would be indispensable, but he does not propose to grant any such enlargement. He leaves the Board of Control in the undisputed possession of their present plenitude of sovereignty. He regrets that patronage should form the principal motive in seeking the direction, and the chief reward after having attained it, yet offers no worthier object to their ambition. His sole remedy-the

D

only change which he proposes in the existing system-is that the leading Directors and Members of the Board of Control should be men who have acquired local experience in some branch of the public service in India; an arrangement which could have no perceptible effect in elevating and strengthening the position of the Directors.

Nor would his deprecation of the too frequent interposition of the Board's authority, his argument, ad misericordiam, be more effectual. "If "the interference of the Board," he observes, "descends into every minute question, and its

power of dictation is in frequent exercise, the "Court of Directors will either sink into a mere "channel for its orders, or the respect for the "Board will be diminished, and there will be

an end of that feeling and good understanding "which it is essential should subsist between "these two authorities. In such case we might

apprehend the complete fulfilment of Mr. "Burke's prediction of the result of the present "form of our Indian administration: that can "alone be averted by the temper, moderation, " and knowledge of those at the head of its

separate branches." Now, Mr. Burke's "pre"diction" was of that sort the fulfilment of which is past praying for. It was as if one

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should predict that, on a particular day, there should be rain, or snow, or fair weather, viz. "The scheme of reconciling a direction really " and truly deliberative with an office really and "substantially controlling, is a sort of machi

nery that can be kept in order only a short "time. Either (1) the Directors will dwindle "into clerks, or (2) the Secretary of State, as "has hitherto been the case, will leave every "thing to them, often through design, and "often through neglect. (3) If both should "affect activity, collision, procrastination, delay, "and, in the end, utter confusion must ensue. For a long period the President of the Board of Control did leave every thing to the Directors; subsequently the Directors have dwindled into clerks, and I have already stated my reasons for thinking that they will never recover any part of their power. Sir John Malcolm admits that they have "ceased to be rulers," and has failed in prescribing any thing which could have the smallest tendency to improve their situation. But collision, procrastination, delay, and con

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fusion," could never be the consequence of both affecting activity, unless they possessed coordinate authority, each having a veto on the other but since that is not the case, the activity

of the Directors, if they can keep it up, must be equally harmless and fruitless :

Cum rota posterior curras, et in axe secundo.

Sir John Malcolm does not seem to have been aware how widely, and, indeed, diametrically opposite were the conclusions he wished to establish from the positions which Mr. Burke irrefragably maintained. Mr. Burke affirmed that the government of India ought to be confided to one authority, since there could not be a useful co-operation of both. Sir John Malcolm contends that a direction, really and truly deliberative, may be reconciled with an office really and substantially controlling, if the latter can be persuaded to submit to an indefinable degree of forbearance and self-denial. If it cannot be charmed into due moderation, if its power of dic"tation is in frequent exercise, the Court of "Directors will either sink into a mere channel "for its orders, or the respect for the Board will "be diminished, and there will be an end of "that feeling and good understanding which it " is essential should subsist between these two "authorities." As if the Court could resist the dictation of the Board, and avoid sinking

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into a channel for the transmission of its orders; or, as if the Board had adequate motives for conciliating the Court by a compromise of its just authority!

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No adversary of the Company has ever expressed himself with greater severity than Sir John Malcolm has done in the first sentence of the following passage. If we had to establish an administration for British India, as it now "exists, the man would justly be deemed insane "who should propose the present system. But "the case is widely altered when we recollect "that it has grown with our empire; that the

managing partners of a body of merchants "have gradually risen from the details of a

factory to the charge of kingdoms; that their "departments in every branch of Government "have kept pace with their enlarged functions; " and that the result of the whole has been

success and prosperity." In all this there is as little consistency as precision. If the result has been so prosperous, and the means so adequate to its progressive expansion, why should the man be deemed insane who should propose the system which had produced it? If these managing partners have really risen to the charge of kingdoms, why are we afterwards told that they have ceased to be rulers, and lost the consi