COURT'S DRAFT, he was not present, which 6th. The appointment of Col. Murray, to command in Guzerat, independently of the authority of the government of Bombay; and the orders to Gen. Wellesley to communicate, at such time as he might think proper, to the government of Bombay, the resolutions for commencing hostilities against Holkar. Paragraph 12. 7th. That the letters from the government of Bengal are addressed to the court of directors in the third person singular, instead of the first person plural. Paragraph 13. 1st. Separate correspondence with the subordinate government.-Paragraph 2 and 3. OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT'S DRAFT, No. 128. nication must exist in the formation, as well as the execution of measures; otherwise the utmost confusion must arise. 6. On this point, however, as well as on the subject of the separate correspondence with Mr. Wellesley and with Generals Lake and Wellesley, as well as with regard to the mode of conducting the public business, of issuing the orders for attacking Holkar, and of communicating those orders to Bombay, it will be sufficient to refer to the letter from the governor-general in council to the court of directors, dated 20th May, 1805, of which the following are extracts.* "The orders for the commencement of hostilities against Jesswunt Rao Holkar were issued by the governor-general in his own name, in conformity to the practice which has prevailed in this government during a long course of years. On reference to the proceedings of the governor-general in council in the secret department, your honourable court will observe, that since the accession of the Marquis Cornwallis to the charge of this government in the year 1786, until the appointment of the Marquis Wellesley, the correspondence with the political agents, and frequently with the military officers of the government, has been conducted by the governor-general in his own name, and not in the name of the governor-general in council. "The governor-general in council is not aware that your honourable court, at any period of time, has expressed your disapprobation of this mode of conducting these branches of the public correspondence. All other branches of the public correspondence have been conducted, during the administration of the Marquis Wellesley, in the ordinary manner, by letters signed by the governor general and the members of the supreme council, or by letters signed by the secretary to the government, by order of the governor-general in council. "The practice described in the second paragraph having so long prevailed in the political branch of the public correspondence, and having, apparently, received the sanction of your honourable court, the governor-general would have considered himself to be acting in perfect conformity to the wishes of your honourable court, if he adhered to this practice to the degree in which it was observed, during the administration of his two immediate predecessors. "But, by a reference to the proceedings of the secret department, your honourable court will observe, that, during the administration of the Marquis Wellesley, his lordship has not pursued this mode of correspondence with the uniformity observed under the two preceding administrations. On the contrary, the conduct of this branch of the correspondence of the Letter from the governor-general in council, dated May 20th, 1805. (Signed) WELLESLEY, COURT'S DRAFT, OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT'S DRAFT, the government has been gradually approximated more "The instructions to the political and military officers have seldom been signed by the Marquis Wellesley separately, (especially since the year 1799) excepting in cases in which the great importance of the subject, or the high official rank of the officer to whom the instructions were addressed, demanded that the instructions should be signed by the governorgeneral. Both these considerations necessarily operated with regard to all instructions addressed to the commander in chief. It is not consistent with the esta blished usage of the government, nor with the forms of respect due to the commander in chief, as being a member of the government, that instructions to the commander in chief should be addressed to him under the signature of the secretary to the government. All instructions addressed personally to the commander in chief were accordingly signed by the governor-general. The same purposes, (as far as regarded the observance of forms, and of due respect to the commander in chief) would, undoubtedly, have been answered, if all these instructions had been signed by the governorgeneral, and the members of the supreme council; and this mode of issuing instructions to the commander in chief has been frequently observed. this mode of issuing instructions, if generally adopted, would often have occasioned considerable delay in a crisis of the public affairs, when any protraction of the dispatch of instructions might have been fatal to the most important interests of the state. By issuing the instructions to the commander in chief, under the signature of the governor-general, established forms were observed, the evils of delay were obviated, and the respect due to the official situation of the commander in chief was maintained. But "Independently of the delay which must also have arisen in issuing all the instructions communicated to general Wellesley, under the signature of the governorgeneral, and the members of the supreme council, it would have been inconsistent with the established usages of the government, and with the subordinate official relation in which that officer stood towards the govern ment, to have conducted all the correspondence with that officer under the signature of the governorgeneral and the members of the council. In special cases, and for special purposes, letters have been addressed to officers of the official rank of general Wellesley, and holding situations similar to the situa tion in which he was employed, under the signatures of the governor-general and the members of the council. But the usual channel of correspondence with officers of the rank of major-general Wellesley, and employed in situations similar to that of majorgeneral Wellesley, is the governor-general separately, or the secretary to the government. Your honourable court will accordingly find, that the correspondence with general Wellesley was ordinarily conducted by COURT'S DRAFT, No. 128. OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT'S DRAFT, by the secretary to the government, by order of the "With regard to the general correspondence with the political and military officers and agents of the government, and particularly the residents at the foreign courts, your honourable court will observe, by a reference to the proceedings, that the letters to these officers, instead of being signed separately by the governor-general, (as was uniformly the practice during the two preceding administrations) have been usually dispatched in the name, and by the order, of the governor-general in council, under the signature of the secretary to the government, as in the other departments of the government. "It has frequently occurred, however, that orders and instructions to political and military agents have been issued under the signature of the secretary, in the name of the governor-genera'; and this practice appears to the governor-general in council to be entirely consistent with the nature of the executive duty assigned to the secretary for the secret department, in his capacity of secretary in the office of the governor-general, established by the orders of government, under date the 10th March, 1801, and submitted to your honourable court; but orders and instructions proceeding immediately from the office of the governor-general, under the signature of the secretary, are equally submitted to the approbation of the members of the council, as those which are specifically stated to issue from the authority of the governor-general in council. "All these letters, whether signed by the governorgeneral, and the members of the council, or by the secretaries to the government, are recorded upon the public proceedings, and have always been deemed, agreeably to established usage, to be the regular and formal acts of the governor-general in council, for which the governor general, and the members of the council, are responsible according to law. "The act of the 35d year of his majesty's reign requires, that all orders and proceedings of the governor-general in council shall be signed by the chief secretary by the authority of the governorgeneral in council A literal execution of this part of the law would have precluded the possibility of carrying on the ordinary business of the government in the several departments. In each department, the ordinary business has been uniformly transacted, and the orders and proceedings signed by the sub-secretaries, (previously to the appointment of secretaries in each department in the year 1799) and, since that time, by each secretary in his proper department, the chief secretary occasionally acting in any department, in which his services have been found requisite; to have compelled the chief secretary to sign every order and proceeding COURT'S DRAFT, OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT'S DRAFT, proceeding issued or held in each department, would "In the present extended scale of our dominion, and of our political relations in India, the corres pondence and the duties of every branch of the administration, and especially in the military, secret, and political departments, have increased in such a degree, as to render it indispensably necessary to establish a plan for the due discharge of the functions of the government, by dividing the labour of the public business between the governor-general and the other members of the administration. The system adopted . for this purpose corresponds with that arrangement established by your honourable court, under which the conduct of various branches of the administration have been placed respectively under the personal control and superintendance of the members of the supreme council. Under this system the ordinary duties and details of the public, commercial revenue, and judicial departments, are transacted under the immediate guidance and control of the members of the council, upon principles previously determined by the collective authority of the government, and these proceedings are all conducted in constant, and almost hourly, personal communication with the governorgeneral. Any questions, originating in those depart ments, which are of peculiar importance, or which are not within the limits of the ordinary course of business, are more particularly referred to the ultimate decision of the governor-general, aided by the opinions of the members of council. The governorgeneral exercises a more special and immediate personal superintendance over the executive duties of the military, secret, and political departments; but it has been the invariable rule of the governor-general to consult, in the most confidential manner, with the members of his council, not only upon the general principles of our policy and military arrangements, but also on the practical application of those principles to every case which may have arisen practical transaction of the business of this great state, it must frequently happen, that, although the general principles of any orders or instructions upon questions of importance may have formed the subject In the of OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT'S DRAFT, 7 of repeated discussion between the governor-general "These observations will, it is hoped, satisfy your honourable court, that the circumstance of the orders and letters, to which your honourable court refers, being signed by the governor-general separately, affords no ground for the conclusion, that they ha e been issued without the sanction of the members of the council, and that such letters and orders have always been considered (unless where it is otherwise stated on the proceedings) as flowing from the regular authority of the go vernment. "With respect to the orders for the commencement of hostilities against Jesswunt Rao Holkar, these orders were issued with the full concurrence of the members of the supreme council, after long and repeated discussions on the subject. It was the unanimous opinion of the governor-general, and the members of the supreme council, as well as of his excellency the commander in chief, that the unprovoked aggression of that lawless freebooter, and the dangerous consequences to be apprehended to the British interests, and to every state in India, from allowing him to prosecute, unmolested, the hostile course of policy which he had avowed, admitted of no other proceeding but that of reducing his power. The grounds on which this opinion was formed, have been stated in the dispatches of this government to the secret committee of your honourable court. "A sense of public duty, as well as the respect which the governor-general entertains for the members of the supreme council, would have precluded the governorgeneral from adopting any measure of importance without a full discussion of the subject with them; and the members of the supreme council would have considered it to be their duty to have formally objected to any such course of proceeding. "Your honourable court is pleased to observe, that if the governor-general had directed hostilities to be commenced on his single authority without the concur rence of his council, such an assumption of authority could not be justified by any existing act of the legislaBy the act of the 33d of his Majesty's reign, chap. 52d, sec. 47, it is provided, that whenever any measure shall be proposed or agitated in the supreme ture. council |