^Halifax to Ripon, 11 January 1883* B*M*Add*M5* 43530* fols. 145-7*
Government in India
The Charter Act of 1833* introduced a large degree cf centralization into the governing authorities in India* In executive government it stopped short of subordinating the minor presidencies to the authority of Calcutta* It left the governors of Madras and Bombay with Executive Councils of three members, and with the right to continue their separate corres** pondence with the home government* However, the provincial governments were stripped of their legislative powers* The Governor**GeneralMinmCouncil was to be the lawmaking authority for the whole of India* The Supreme Council at Calcutta brought together the Governor~General f the Commander~in»»Chief, a military officer, and two civil officers, who were, by custom, chosen from the Bengal presidency* When the Council met for legislative
purposes, it would, in future, be joined by a "law membern, appointed from England* Whether it met as an executive or as a legislature, the Governor~General might impose his will upon the Council, though Councillors had the right to record dissents*
It was hoped that the addition of the law member would enable the Council to pass bills for the reform of laws and legal procedures throughout India*
In October 1 8 3 2, as the term of the Charter Act approached
its expiry, Lord Dalhousie considered the forms of government
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in India in a long memorandum* He recommended that "the principle upon which the general government of India was con* structed in the fCharterJ Act •*• should be adhered to", but that the impending legislation should give "full effect to the
principle *•• by clearing away doubts, and by removing obstructions*" In short, a new act should provide for "unity of authority and of purpose" in the government of India* In the first place, the
"powers of the Governor*General ••• must be supreme over all, his personal authority •*• absolute and uncontrolled", except by
his responsibility to the government at home* Secondly, the centralizing tendency of the Charter Act should be developed in both the executive and legislative branches of government* He favoured abolishing the provincial Councils, and reducing the governorships of Madras and Bombay to the status of lieutenant* governorships* Hitherto, the governors had been English statesmen appointed from home* In future, they should be men of local
experience appointed by the Governor*General* Madras and Bombay should become explicitly responsible to the jurisdiction of an improved Supreme Council at Calcutta, which should contain an official with "local knowledge"of each presidency* This might
be achieved by replacing one of the Bengal members and the military officer with officials from the minor presidencies*
2 . . . .
Paper headed "Government of India", dated 13 October 1 8 5 2, and signed by Dalhousie, W*P* 1 1*
Dalhousie regarded "the provisions • •• for legislation11
as "the least satisfactory portion of the Indian Constitution* 19
He observed that the addition of the law member had been
insufficient to render the Council an adequate legislative body for the whole of India* It lacked experience of local conditions, and the law member arrived from England without any knowledge of Indiavs legal problems* The first deficiency would be supplied by Dalhousie#s proposed reform of the Supreme Council* In
substitution for an English lawyer, Dalhousie recommended the recruitment of a number of further legislative councillors - the Chief Justice of Bengal or a Supreme (Queen*s) Court Judgef one of the Judges of the Sadr (Company9s) Court, a member of the Revenue Board and the Advocate-General• But he also contemplated a quite new departure in the form of the lawfeaking authority* He remarked that "the legislative body ••• £had] hitherto India been made identical with the executive Government", and proposed "the introduction of a new principle" - the creation of a
separate "Legislative Council", to which the Governor-General
might, subject to approval from home, appoint non-official members* He thought that this "infusion of additional elements *** £was] required for giving to the legislative council the power and
weight which it ought to command*" The inclusion of non-official persons, first of Englishmen, but later of Indians also, would give the lawmaking body the benefit of the advice of outsiders with "experience of our government and *** extensive and minute
knowledge of Indian details*"
Dalhousie*s memorandum was a statesmanlike contribution to the theory of government in India* Its emphasis was upon the development at Calcutta of authorities which would be competent to govern all India* He would draw power away from the provinces and concentrate or centralize it at Calcutta, creating, at the same time, a structure of government so imposing that the home authorities would find it difficult to resist* For the moment, he regarded the absolute power of the Governor-General as a necessity* However, his plans for a Legislative Council marked a departure from the principle of despotic government* Though
he did not, at this stage, enter into details concerning procedures for the new body, he did envisage that "it should be competent to any member to bring forward a draft Act", and that the Governor- General *s power would be limited to a veto over drafts which had been passed*
Wood received Dalhousie's memorandum from his predecessor
3
in January 1853* Baring summarized its recommendations for him and Wood placed them besides summaries of the opinions which had been expressed by witnesses called before the parliamentary
committees on the 1833 Act* The weight of testimony was against abolishing the local Executive Councils and reducing the status 3
J*C* Harries to Wood, 2 January 1853y W*P* 4
5
of the governorships* This was probably to be expected* Many of the witnesses had served in senior posts at the minor
presidenciesf whilst others were home officials of the East India Company* The former group might have been expected to prefer the
system with which they had been associated, the latter to value the separate correspondence with local English governors* Vood had been strongly opposed to centralization of government in England and Ireland, and he had a high regard for the English gentleman statesman* He decided against centralizing executive authority at Calcutta, leaving the governorships and the (Councils of Madras and Bombay intact* His only change in the executive was to provide for the law member to attend all meetings of the
Supreme Council9 an arrangement with which Dalhousie, revising
6
his earlier opinion, expressed his concurrence* Vood preferred to improve the administration of the minor presidencies by
sending out governors of a higher calibre* Among those to whom he offered governorships in 1853 vere Sir George Comewall
7
Lewis, later to become Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Lord 3
Elgin, a future Viceroy* In the end, he appointed Lord Elphinstone to Bombay and Lord Harris to Madras*
As for the existing arrangements for making laws, it was e
Pari* Pap* (H*C*), 1852-3t xxx-xxxi, passim* ^Dalhousie to Vood9 21 March 18531 V*P*
7
Vood to Lewis, 15 and 2 0 August 1853, Halifax Pap*, B*M*Add* MS. 49531, fols. 207, 213-16*
3
generally conceded that they were defective* The hopes of 1 8 3 3 9
had been disappointed* Wood accepted Dalhousie's recommendations for the recruitment of officials with knowledge of local conditions and with legal experience* In his Bill, he provided for the
legislative body to consist of the Supreme Council, appointees from Bengal, Madras, Bombay and the North-West Provinces, the
10
Chief Justice and a Supreme Court Judge* In addition, subject to the approval of the Court, the Governor-General might appoint two further members* However, Wood did not share Dalhousie*s vision of a separate Legislative Council* The Act referred to
the lawmaking body as '*the Council of India for making laws and regulations"• The tfCouncil of India" connoted the Supreme Council, and the additional members for whom Wood provided were to be
"distinguished as legislative councillors thereof*” Wood regarded his Act as providing simply for the enlargement of the Supreme Council when it sat for legislative purposes* He conceived that the additional members would be "constantly employed as a Committee of Council in working at Calcutta in the revision of ••• laws and
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regulations*" He did not realize that his scheme was far less 12
grand than that which Dalhousie had proposed* He could never
Q "
Pari* Pap*(H»C*)« 1 8 5 2-3* xxx-xxxi, passim* See, e*g*, the evidence of D* Hill (para* 3217) end J* McLeod (Para* 2822)*
1$ & 17 Vic., c. 95.
11Wood to Dalhousie, 8 July 1853* W*P*
*^Wood to Dalhousie, 8 April 1 8 5 3, W*P* The exchange of letters between Wood and Dalhousie suggested that they were in agreement as to the nature of the changes required (e*g* Wood to Dalhousie, 24 March 1 8 3 3 and Dalhousie to Wood, 16 May 1 8 3 3, W*P*)*
have read carefully Dalhousie's recommendation for the enactment of a flnew principle*1 in recasting the legislative body* For he became aware that he disagreed with it only when the Governor- General began to construct what he described as "our young
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Parliament*** The first clash occurred in April 1854, when
Dalhousie asked for **permission to nominate1* the two extra members for whom Wood's Act had provided, and sought "instructions as to
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