influence of another surgeon, a Mr. Hamilton, who had cured the Mogul of a dangerous disease. The system of uniting the separate factories under larger jurisdictions, named presidencies, was now fully established: Madras had been the eastern presidency from the middle of the century to 1682, when Bengal was separated; and Surat had held supremacy over the western coast from 1660 until 1687, when Bombay was made the head of all the establishments in India. By the end of the century the three presidencies, Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, were distinguished as they still are, with the exception that Bengal was not then the seat of the Supreme Government, a distinction which was given to it by an Act passed in 1773, when Warren Hastings was made Governor-General.

The Home Government of the Company consists of, 1st. The Court of Proprietors, or General Court; 2nd. The Court of Directors, selected from the proprietors; and 3rd. The Board of Commissioners, usually called the Board of Control, nominated by the Sovereign.

The Court of Proprietors, or General Court, as its name imports, is composed of the owners of India Stock. It appears that, in the seventeenth century, every stockholder had a voice in the distribution of the funds of the Company: the act of 1693 provided that no person should vote in the General Courts who had less than 10007. of stock, and that larger owners should have as many votes as they held thousands; but that no person should have more than ten votes. The qualification for one vote was, by the act of 13th April, 1689, lowered to 500, and the number of votes limited to five, which was the number allowed to a holder of 4000l. stock. By the act of 5th September, 1698, every owner of 5007. stock was allowed one vote, and the greatest owners had no more. By the law now in force, which was made in 1773, the possession of 1000l. gives one vote, although persons having only 5007. may be present at the Court: 30007. entitles the owner to two votes, 6000l. to three, and 10,000l. to four votes. All persons whatever may be members of this Court, male or female, Englishman or foreigner, Christian or unbeliever. The Court of Proprietors elects the Court of Directors, frames bye-laws, declares the dividend, controls grants of money exceeding 600l., and additions to salaries above 2007. It would appear that the executive power of this Court, having been delegated to the Court of Directors, may be considered as extinct; at all events it never now interferes with acts of government, although instances have formerly occurred where acts of the Court of Directors have been revised by it. Its functions in fact are deliberative: they are like those of influential public meetings in the English constitution, and its resolutions are supposed to be respectfully attended to by the Directors, and even by the Legisla ture. It is always called together to discuss any proceedings in Parliament likely to affect the interests of the Company. It may, at any time, call for copies of public documents to be placed before the body for deliberation and discussion; and is empowered to confer a public mark of approbation, pecuniary or otherwise, on any individual whose services may appear to merit the distinction, subject however to the approbation of the Board of Control, in cases where the sum shall exceed 6007.

The meetings of this Court have much the appearance of those of the House of Commons, and its discussions are conducted by nearly the same rules.

:

The Chairman of the Court of Directors presides ex-officio, and questions are put through him as through the Speaker. There is occasionally a display of eloquence which would not disgrace the Senate, though more frequently perhaps the matters debated are hardly of sufficient general interest to produce so much excitement. Amendments are proposed, adjournments are moved, the previous question is put, the Court rings with cries of "Hear, hear," "Oh, oh!" &c. &c., and a tedious speaker is coughed down as effectually as he would be on the floor of the House of Commons. At the conclusion of a debate the question is often decided by a show of hands; but if any Proprietor doubts the result, he may call for a division, when tellers are appointed, and the Court divides accordingly. In especial cases any nine members may call for an appeal to the general body of Proprietors, to whom timely notice is sent, and the vote is by ballot. The meetings always take place at twelve o'clock, and generally close at dusk in cases of great interest they are much later, and in a recent instance the debate continued until two o'clock in the following morning. The number of members of the Court of Proprietors, in 1843, is 1880, of whom 333 have two votes, 64 three, and 44 four votes. In 1825 there were 2003 proprietors. In 1773, when all owners of stock amounting to 500l. had each one vote, and none had a plurality, the number of proprietors was 2153, of whom 812 held stock to the amount of more than 1000l. each. The interest taken by the public in Indian affairs was much greater then than is the case at present, and the proceedings of the Court of Proprietors, as described by one who has made the affairs of India his study, were "stormy and even riotous-the debates indecently virulent." He adds:"All the turbulence of a Westminster election, all the trickery and corruption of a Grampound election, disgraced the proceedings of this assembly on questions of the most solemn importance. Fictitious votes were manufactured on a gigantic scale."* It is said that during Clive's visit to his native country, in 1763, he laid out a hundred thousand pounds in the purchase of India stock, which he then divided among nominal, proprietors whom he brought down at every discussion; and other wealthy persons did the same, though not to an equal extent. The whole of the Directors were at this period appointed annually. At present each Director is elected for four years, and six retire yearly, and are not re-eligible until they have been a year out of office. The chairman and deputy-chairman are elected annually, and generally the deputy becomes chairman after being a year in the deputy-chair. They are the organs of the Court, and conduct all communication requiring a personal intercourse with the Ministry and Board of Commissioners. It is believed that by far the greater share of the labour of the Court falls on the chairs; and that, great as is the patronage connected with the offices, they are by no means objects of ambition to the majority of the members.

The functions of the Court of Directors pertain to all matters relating to India, both at home and abroad; subject to the control of the Board of Commissioners, and, in some cases, to the concurrence of the Court of Proprietors, with the exception always of such high political matters as require secrecy, which

*Edinburgh Review,' No. 142.

are referred to a select committee of their body. This Court has the power to nominate the Governors of all the Presidencies, subject to the approval of the Crown. They have also the patronage of all other appointments, without control from the Board. The Committee of Secrecy, first appointed in 1784, consists of three members of the Court, who receive the directions of the Board on subjects connected with peace, war, or negotiations with other powers, and send dispatches to India under their directions, without communication with the rest of the Court. This Committee also receive dispatches from India sent in the Secret department, and communicate them immediately to the Board. The duties of the Court of Directors are extensive, and for their ready dispatch it is divided into three Committees, whose departments are indicated by their appellations—the Finance and Home Committee; the Political and Military Committee; and the Revenue, Judicial, and Legislative Committee.

*

The Board of Control, whose proper designation is "the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India," was established by the Act of 1784. The Board is nominated by the sovereign: it consists of an unlimited number of members, all of whom, except two, must be of the Privy Council, and must include the two principal Secretaries of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Practically, all the Commissioners are honorary, except three, who alone are paid. All the members of the Board vacate office upon changes of ministry, but the unpaid ones are often re-appointed. The Board receive from the Court, and may confirm, alter, or disallow all minutes, orders, and dispatches; they may not only keep back dispatches prepared by the Court, but may compel the Court to send others prepared without the Court's concurrence. They have access to all books, papers, and documents in the East India House, and may call for accounts on any subject. They communicate with the Secret Committee, and direct it to send secret dispatches to India, the responsibility resting with the Board. In fact, since the abolition of the trade, with which the Board had nothing to do, the Court of Directors must be considered simply as the instrument of the Board.

The routine of business as transacted between the Court and Board is simple. On the receipt of a dispatch from India, it is referred to the Committee in whose province it lies, and from it to the proper department; the chief of which causes a draught of a reply to be made under his superintendence, which he first submits to the Chairs; the Chairman brings the draught before the Committee, by whom it is considered and approved, or revised, and then laid before the Court. The draught is there discussed, and, when approved, sent to the Board. If the Board approve the draught, it is returned, and dispatched forthwith by the Court: if altered, the alterations may become a subject of correspondence and remonstrance with the Board, with whom, however, the final decision lies. If the Chairs judge that any serious discussion is likely to arise upon any dispatch, they make, unofficially, a previous communication to the Board, and the matter is discussed before it is laid before the Court.

Since the functions of the Company have become wholly political, the esta

* They were limited to six by the Act of 1784, but this clause was repealed in 1793.

blishment at the East India House is necessarily much reduced from what it was when, in addition to other duties, it had the direction and control of commercial concerns which required the constant employment of nearly four thousand men in its warehouses. Before the closing of its trade the number of clerks of all grades was above four hundred.* This number was not more than was really necessary. The duties of no public office in England can give a fair notion of what was required at the East India House, from the circumstance that the latter was a compendium of all the offices of government, including a department for the transfer of stock; and was in addition a great mercantile establishment. The departments were necessarily numerous. The military department superintended the recruiting for the Indian army, the embarkation of troops for India, the management of military stores, &c. There was a shipping department and master-attendant's office, whose functions are obvious from their appellations : an auditor's office to conduct all financial matters relative to India-a sort of Indian exchequer. The examiner's office managed the great political concerns of the Company. There were an accountant's office, a transfer office, a treasury, to investigate all matters relating to bills and certificates granted in India, China, or elsewhere on the Company, and to compare advices with bills when presented; to prepare estimates and statements of stock, &c. for the Lords of the Treasury, the Parliament, and the Courts; to conduct all business relating to the sale and transfer of stock; to provide for the payment of dividends and of interest on bonds, to negotiate loans, to purchase bullion, and to manage sales of specie from India or China. The office of buying and warehouses managed the whole of the trade, both export and import: its functions were to prepare orders for India and China produce so as to suit the home markets, and to provide goods here for sale in India and China; to superintend the purchase and export of military stores, and to manage the business of fifteen warehouses, employing nearly four thousand men, and in the article tea alone containing often fifty millions pounds weight (above 22,000 tons!) The Committee, of which this was the chief office, had also the superintendence of the sales. The value of goods sold in the year 1834-5 amounted to 5,089,777. Those of tea were the most extensive, and they are yet remembered with a sort of dread by all who had anything to do with them. They were held only four times a-year-in March, June, September, and December; and the quantity disposed of at each sale was in consequence very large, amounting on many recent occasions to 8 millions of pounds, and sometimes. much higher they lasted several days, and it is within our recollection that 1,200,000 lbs. have been sold in one day. The only buyers were the tea-brokers, composed of about thirty firms; each broker was attended by the tea-dealers who engaged his services, and who communicated their wishes by nods and winks. In order to facilitate the sale of such large quantities, it was the practice to put up all the teas of one quality before proceeding to those of another; and to permit each bidder to proceed without much interruption so long as he confined his biddings to the variation of a farthing for what was technically

* A parliamentary document of 1835 gives the number of persons in the home establishment at 494, at salaries amounting to 134,451. This includes door-porters, fire-lighters, watchmen, messengers, &c. The number of clerks now in the House is about 150.

called the upper and under lot; but as soon as he began to waver, or that it appeared safe to advance another farthing, the uproar became quite frightful to one unaccustomed to it. It often amounted to a howling and yelling which might have put to shame an O. P. row, and, although thick walls intervened, it frequently was heard by the frequenters of Leadenhall Market. All this uproar,

which would induce a stranger to anticipate a dreadful onslaught, was usually quelled by the finger of the chairman pointing to the next buyer, whose biddings would be allowed to go on with comparative quietness, but was sure to be succeeded by a repetition of the same noise as at first. At the indigo sales much the same sort of scene took place.

The above and several minor departments usually kept the establishment fully engaged; and, though there were days in which a smaller body might have done the current work of the House, there were many in which the whole force of the establishment was absolutely necessary. The mere reading through, and commenting on, the voluminous explanatory matter received from the Indian Governments, in addition to the dispatches, was no small labour. Of such matter there were received, from 1793 to 1813, 9094 large folio volumes, or 433 per annum; and from that year to 1829 the number was 14,414, or 776 a-year. Facility in composition is as necessary a qualification in public men in India, as speaking to a politician at home; and it has been observed that, while the latter is often too much of a talker, in India he is rather too much of an essayist. Testimony to the industry and ability of the East India clerks was borne by Mr. Canning, in a debate on the 14th March, 1822. This statesman, who had been several years President of the Board of Commissioners, said, "He had seen a military dispatch accompanied with 199 papers, containing altogether 13,511 pages; another, a judicial dispatch, with an appendage of 1937 pages; and a dispatch on the revenue, with no fewer than 2588 pages by its side. Much credit was due to the servants of the East India Company. The papers received from them were drawn up with a degree of accuracy and talent that would do credit to any office in the State. The Board could not, with all the talents and industry of the President, the Commissioners, or their tried Secretary, have transacted the business devolved upon it, without the talents and industry with which that business was prepared for them at the India House."

6

We shall conclude with a description of the East India House. It does not appear to be ascertained where the Company first transacted their business, but the tradition of the House is, that it was in the great room of The Nag's Head Inn,' opposite Bishopsgate Church, where there is now a Quakers' Meeting House. The maps of London, constructed soon after the great fire, place the India House in Leadenhall Street, on a part of its present site. It is probably the house, of which an unique plate is preserved in the British Museum, surmounted by a huge, square-built mariner, and two thick dolphins. In the Indenture of Conveyance of the Dead Stock of the Companies, dated 22nd July, 1702, we find that Sir William Craven, of Kensington, in the year 1701, leased to the Company his large house in Leadenhall Street, and a tenement in Lime Street, for twenty-one years, at 1007. a-year. Upon the site of this house what is called the old East India House was built in 1726; and several portions of this old