importance entrusted to the Committee of Secrecy); but its proceedings are subject to various acts of parliament ; to the superintendance of the Board of Control, and in several matters to the approval of the General Court, as before detailed. For the better fulfilment of these multifarious duties, the Court is divided into departmental committees, with distinct subordinates: a plan which the Board of Control was necessitated to imitate, and which is now seriously proposed for adoption in the House of Commons, from the clearness and facility which it occasions in the despatch of business. The subdivision of the Court is as follows:1. Secret Committee. 2. Correspondence ditto. 3. Treasury ditto. 4. Government Troops and Stores ditto. 5. Legal Proceedings ditto. 6. Military ditto. 7. Accounts ditto. 8. Buying ditto. 9. Warehouses ditto. 10. India House ditto. 14. Military College ditto. Although the duties of each Committee are partly defined by the title thereof, a few words explanatory of each may be advisable. 1. Committee of Secrecy.-The cabinet council of the Company-functions ministerial-defined by Act of Parliament,* composed of the chairman, deputy chairman, and * 33 Geo. III. c. 52, § 59. F senior director, who receive and deliberate on all despatches of the highest importance, relative to peace, war, or negogotiation abroad, and all matters of a delicate nature at home; confer with the Board of Control thereon, and officially sign private despatches from the Board, the responsibility and power remaining with the latter; the members and transcribers of documents are sworn to secresy; and transactions which took place in 1814, have never yet been communicated to the body of the Court. 2. Committee of Correspondence.-Standing committee for the transaction of general proceedings in India. The voluminous records and despatches connected with the foreign governments, whether received from India, or emanating from the Board of Control, are under its jurisdiction; the number of ships, writers, cadets, and assistant surgeons required for the year, and their destination, are prepared by this committee for the decision of the Court. Members: chairs,* and nine senior Directors. 3. Treasury Committee.-Preside over payments and receipts of the Company in England, negotiate loans and all money matters at home. Members: as in the foregoing committee. 4. Government Troops and Stores Committee.-Superintend whatever relates to the employment of his Majesty's land and naval forces in India, liquidating accounts, &c. Members as above. 5. Legal Proceedings Committee.-Attend to any liti gation at home or abroad in which the Company may be parties, consult with legal advisers, and submit their opinions, &c. to the Court of Directors. Members as above. 6. Military Committee.-Hear the application of military invalided officers of the Indian army, or the widows and * The chairman and deputy-chairman are thus termed for abbreviation; they preside over all committees. children of such as have fallen in the Company's service; all accounts relative to the fund named after Lord Clive are submitted to it, and reported to the Court. Members : chairs, nine senior, and three junior Directors. 7. Accounts Committee.-Inspect bills drawn on the Company at home and abroad; examine all pecuniary demands, and prepare statements of the concerns of the Company for the Courts of Directors and Proprietors, and for Parliament. Members: chairs, and six first junior Direc tors. 8. Buying Committee.-Contract for, and purchase, various commodities for India and China. Members as the foregoing. 9. Warehouse Committee.-Mercantile affairs at home and abroad are prepared for the ultimate decision of the Court, and certain military stores purchased by it. Members as above. 10. India House Committee.-Have the charge, repair, &c. of the extensive building in Leadenhall Street, and the departments attached thereto; inferior servants are appointed by it and rules framed for the clerks, &c. Members as before. 11. Shipping Committee. Distribution of outwardbound vessels, embarkation of troops, repair of ships and packets owned by the Company; examines naval officers; arranges all points relating to freight, maritime contingencies and charter-parties; superintends marine stores; the character of marine officers, and hires ships when required. Members: the chairs and seven last junior Directors. 12. Private Trade Committee.-Principal business to see that the privilege trade granted to the Company's officers be not fraudulently exceeded; to examine private ships' journals, and superintend the direction of small craft employed by the Company's shipping. Members as above. 13. Civil College Committee.-Regulates the management of the Company's College at Haileybury in all its details. Members: the chairs, six senior and four junior Directors. - 14. Military College Committee. Performs similar duties at Addiscombe College. Members: chairs, five senior and six junior Directors. It will be observed that several committees are composed of the same members, but the advantage of the division consists, it is alleged, in the simplification of accounts and details, each committee being provided with officers trained up from an early age in all the routine of business which comes under their specific department, and who are thus rendered perfectly conversant with its affairs. All persons aware of the machinery by which governments are worked, will admit the great practical benefits which attend on an utter absence of confusion amidst the most complicated business; on the utility derived from an undiminished attention being bestowed on minor circumstances, amidst the agitation of the most distracting events.* It has been lamented that the mode in which the committees are divided is injurious to the well-being of the whole; a gentleman, for instance, obtaining a seat in the direction with all his knowledge of India fresh about him, is placed in one of the minor committees, and shut out of all chance of a share in the executive part, viz. the Secret and Correspondence Committees, until his faculties become torpid by age; but, on the other hand, it is stated that all documents not coming under the sole cognizance of the Secret Committee are read in open court, and according to the nature of the subject to which they relate, referred to the committee having charge of the subject; if important merely The Board of Control, Mr. Courtenay says, was obliged, for the sake of business, to adopt the India House plan of departments. to examine into alleged facts and to report thereon ;—that every Director has full power to call for any despatch when he pleases;—that when a despatch to India in reply is approved by the Committee of Correspondence, it remains a week, a fortnight, or even longer on the table of the Court, at the wish of a Director;-that a junior Director may move in court, and carry a reversal of the decisions and views of the Committee of Correspondence;-that with regard to despatches, &c. he has likewise the privilege of entering his dissent upon the minutes of the Court, which dissent is sent to the Board of Control the very next day;—that, practically speaking, the youngest Director may take an active part in the government of India ;—that rising by seniority gives a general knowledge of the whole, and that, in fact, every gentleman upon his first admission is eligible to the situation of Chairman or Deputy Chairman, who sit on every Committee, and whose offices are vacated annually. The reader will decide in his own mind as to which side the advantage remains with. I cannot close this section of my subject without adverting to Mr. Rickards' plan of reform for the India House ;* more particularly as "This is the patent age of new inventions, For killing bodies and for saving souls- and Mr. Rickards is a reformer on a grand scale : 2d." All important questions to be brought before the Court of Proprietors for public examination and debate." The opponents to this say that the Court formerly exercised this power, but that it caused confusion, delay, and * Letter to the Board of Control, 22d June 1832. |