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tors, shall purpose to be sent or given, shall be by them previously laid before the said board, and that within the space of two months after the receipt of such proposed orders, instructions, despatches, official letters, or communications, the said board shall either return the same to the said court of directors or committee of directors, with their approbation thereof, signified under the hand of one of the secretaries of the said board, by the order of the said board; or, if the said board shall disapprove, alter, or vary in substance any of such proposed orders, instructions, despatches, official letters, or communications, in every such case the said board shall give to the said directors, in writing, under the hand of one of the secretaries of the said board, by order of the said board, their reason in respect thereof, together with their directions to the said directors in relation thereto; and the said directors shall, and they are hereby required, forthwith to send the said orders, instructions, despatches, official letters, or communications, in the form approved by the said board, to their proper destinations. Provided always, that it shall be lawful for the said board, by minutes from time to time to be made for that purpose, and entered on the records of the said board, and to be communicated to the said court, to allow such classes of orders, instructions, despatches, official letters, or communications as shall in such minutes be described to be sent or given by the said court, without having been previously laid before the said board.

XXXI. And be it enacted, that whenever the said court of directors shall omit to prepare and submit for the consideration of the said board any orders, instructions, despatches, official letters, or communications, beyond the space of fourteen days after requisition made to them by order of the said board, it shall and may be lawful to and for the said board, to prepare and send to the said directors any orders, instructions, despatches, official letters, or communications, together with their directions relating thereto; and the said directors shall, and they are hereby required, forthwith to transmit the same to their proper destinations.

XXXII. Provided always, and be it enacted, that nothing herein contained, shall extend, or be construed to extend, to restrict or prohibit the said directors from expressing, within fourteen days, by representation in writing, to the said board, such remarks, observations or explanations as they shall think fit, touching or concerning any directions which they shall receive from the said board and that the said board shall, and they are hereby required to take every such representation, and the several matters therein contained or alleged, into their consideration, and to give such further directions thereupon, as they shall think fit and expedient, which shall be final and conclusive upon the said directors.

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XXXIII. And be it enacted, that if it shall appear to the said court of directors, that any orders, instructions, despatches, official letters or communications, except such as shall pass through the said board as aforesaid, are contrary to law, it shall be in the power of the said board and the said court of directors, to send a special case, to be agreed upon by and between them, and to be signed by the president of the said board and the chairman of the said company, to three or more of the judges of his majesty's court of king's bench, for the opinion of the said judges; and the said judges are hereby required to certify their opinion upon any case so submitted to them, and to send a certificate thereof to the said president and chairman, which opinion shall be final and conclusive.

XXXIV. Provided always, and be it enacted and declared, that the said board shall not have the power of appointing any of the servants of the said company, or of directing or interfering with the officers and servants of the said company, employed in the home establishment, nor shall it be necessary for the said court

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of directors to submit for the consideration of the said board, their communications with the officers or servants employed in their said home establishment, or with legal advisers of the company.

XXXV. And be it enacted, that the said court of directors shall, from time to time, appoint a secret committee, to consist of any number not exceeding three of the said directors, for the particular purposes in this act specified; which said directors so appointed shall, before they or any of them shall act in the execution of the powers and trusts hereby reposed in them, take an oath of the tenor following: (that is to say),

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"I, (A.B.) do swear, that I will, according to the best of my skill and judgment, faithfully execute the several trusts and powers reposed in me as a member of the secret committee appointed by the court of directors of the India company; I will not disclose or make known any of the secret orders, instructions, despatches, official letters, or communications which shall be sent or given to me by the commissioners for the affairs of India, save only to the other members of the said secret committee, or to the person or persons who shall be duly nominated and employed in transcribing or preparing the same respectively, unless I shall be authorised by the said commissioners to disclose and make known the same. "So help me God."

Which said oath shall and may be administered by the several and respective members of the said secret committee to each other; and being so by them taken and subscribed, shall be recorded by the secretary or deputy-secretary of the said court of directors for the time being, amongst the acts of the said court. XXXVI. Provided also, and be it enacted, that if the said board shall be of opinion, that the subject matter of any of their deliberations concerning the levying war or making peace, or treating or negotiating with any of the native princes or states in India, or with any other princes or states, or touching the policy to be observed with respect to such princes or states, intended to be communicated in orders, despatches, official letters, or communications to any of the governments of presidencies in India, or to any officers or servants of the said company, shall be of a nature to require secrecy, it shall and may be lawful for the said board to send their orders, despatches, official letters, or communications to the secret committee of the said court of directors, to be appointed as is by this act directed, who shall thereupon, without disclosing the same, transmit the same according to the tenor thereof, or pursuant to the directions of the said board, to the respective governments and presidencies, officers and servants, and that said governments, presidencies, and officers and servants, shall be bound to pay a faithful obedience, hereby in like manner as if such orders, despatches, official letters, or communications had been sent to them by the said court of directors.

XXXVII. And be it enacted, that the said court of directors shall, before the twenty-second day of April, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, and afterwards, from time to time, so often as reduction of the establishment of the said court or other circumstances may require, frame and submit to the said board an estimate of the gross sum, which will be annually required for the salaries of the chairman, deputy-chairman, and members of the said court, and the officers and secretaries thereof, and all other proper expenses fixed and contingent thereof, and of general courts of proprietors; and such estimate shall be subject to reduction by the said board, so that the reasons of such reduction to be given to the said court of directors; and any sum, not exceeding the sum mentioned in such estimate, or (if the same shall be reduced) in such reduced estimate, shall be annually applicable, at the discretion of the court of directors, to the payment of the said salaries and expenses; and it shall not be lawful for the said board to interfere with or control the particular application thereof, or

to direct what particular salaries or expenses shall from time to time be increased or reduced; provided always, that such and the same accounts shall be kept and rendered of the sums to be applied in defraying the salaries and expenses aforesaid as of the other branches of the expenditure of the said company.

XXXVIII. And be it enacted, that the territories now subject to the government of the presidency of Fort William in Bengal, shall be divided into two distinct presidencies, one of such presidencies, in which shall be included Fort William aforesaid, to be styled the presidency of Fort William in Bengal, and the other of such presidencies to be styled the presidency of Agra; and that it shall be lawful for the said court of directors, under the control by this act provided, and they are hereby required, to declare and appoint what part or parts of any of the territories under the government of the said company shall from time to time be subject to the government of each of the several presidencies now subsisting or to be established as aforesaid, and from time to time, as occasion may require, to revoke and alter, in the whole or in part, such appointed, and such new distribution of the same, as shall be deemed expedient. XXXIX. And be it enacted, that the superintendence, direction, and control of the whole civil and military government of all the said territories and revenues in India, shall be and is hereby vested in a governor-general and counsellors, to be styled "The governor-general of India in council.”

XL. And be it enacted, that there shall be four ordinary members of the said council, three of whom shall from time to time be appointed by the said court of directors from amongst such persons as shall be or shall have been servants of the said company, and each of the said ordinary members of council shall there at the time of his appointment have been in the service of the said company for at least ten years; and if he shall be in the military service of the said company, he shall not during his continuance in office as a member of council, hold any military command or be employed in actual military duties; and that the fourth ordinary member of council shall, from time to time, be appointed from amongst persons who shall not be servants of the said company, by the said court of directors, subject to the approbation of his majesty, to be signed in writing by his royal sign manual, countersigned by the president of the said board; provided that such last-mentioned member of council shall not be entitled to side or vote in the said council, except for meetings thereof for making laws and regulations: and it shall be lawful for the said court of directors to appoint the commander-in-chief of the company's forces in India ; and if there shall be no such commander-in-chief or the offices of such commander-in-chief and of governor-general of India shall be vested in the same person, then the commander-in-chief of the forces on the Bengal establishment to be an extraordinary member of the said council, and such extraordinary member of council shall have rank and precedence at the council board next after the governor-general.

XLI. And be it enacted, that the person who shall be governor-general of the presidency of Fort William in Bengal, on the twenty-second day of April, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, shall be the first governor-general of India under this act, and such persons as shall be members of council of the same presidency on that day, shall be respectively members of the council constituted by this act.

XLII. And be it enacted, that all vacancies happening in the office of governor-general of India, shall, from time to time, be filled up by the said court of directors, subject to the approbation of his majesty, to be signified in writing by his royal sign manual, countersigned by the president of the said board.

XLIII. And be it enacted that the said governor-general in council shall have power to make laws or regulations for repealing, amending, or altering

any laws or regulations whatever, now in force or hereafter to be in force in the said territories, or any part thereof, and to make laws and regulations for all persons, whether British or natives, foreigners or others, and for all courts of justice, whether established by his majesty's charters or otherwise, and the jurisdictions thereof, and for all places and things whatsoever, within and throughout the whole and every part of the said territories, and for all servants of the said company within the dominions of princes and states in alliance with the said company, save and except that the said governor-general in council shall not have the power of making any laws or regulations which shall in any way repeal, vary, suspend, or affect any of the provisions of this act, or any of the provisions of the acts for punishing mutiny and desertion of officers and soldiers, whether in the service of his majesty or the said company, or any provisions of any act hereafter to be passed in any wise affecting the said company or the said territories or the inhabitants thereof, or any laws or regulations which shall in any way affect any prerogative of the crown, or the authority of parliament, or the constitution or rights of the said company, or any part of the unwritten laws or constitution of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, whereon may depend in any degree the allegiance of any person to the crown of the United Kingdom, or the sovereignty or dominion of the said crown over any part of the said territories.

XLIV. Provided always, and be it enacted, that in case if the said court of directors, under such control as by this act is provided, shall signify to the said governor-general in council their disallowance of any laws or regulations by the said governor-general in council made, then and in every such case, upon receipt by the said governor-general in council, of notice of such disallowance, the said governor-general in council shall forthwith repeal all laws and regulations so disallowed.

XLV. Provided also, and be it enacted, that all laws and regulations made as aforesaid, so long as they shall remain unrepealed, shall be of the same force and effect within and throughout the said territories, as any act of parliament would or ought to be within the same territories, and shall be taken notice of by all courts of justice whatsoever within the same territories, in the same manner as any public act of parliament would and ought to be taken notice of; and it shall not be necessary to register or publish in any court of justice, any laws or regulations made by the said governor-general in council.

XLVI. Provided also, and be it enacted, that it shall not be lawful for the said governor-general in council, without the previous sanction of the said court of directors, to make any law or regulation whereby power shall be given to any court of justice, other than the courts of justice established by his majesty's charters, to sentence to the punishment of death any of his majesty's natural born subjects born in Europe, or the children of such subjects, or which shall abolish any of the courts of justice established by his majesty's charters.

XLVII. And be it enacted, that the said court of directors shall forthwith submit, for the approbation of the said board, such rules as they shall deem expedient for the procedure of the governor-general in council in the discharge and exercise of all powers, functions, or duties imposed on or vested in him by virtue of this act, or to be imposed or vested in him by any other act or acts; which rules shall prescribe the modes of promulgation of any laws or regulations to be made by the said governor-general in council, and of the authentication of all acts and proceedings whatever of the said governor-general in council; and such rules, when approved by the said board of commissioners, shall be of the same force as if they had been inserted in this act; provided always, that such rules shall be laid before both houses of parliament in the session next after the approval thereof.

XLVIII. Provided always, and be it enacted, that all laws and regulations shall be made at some meeting of the council at which the said governor-general and at least three of the ordinary members of council shall be assembled, and that all other functions of the said governor-general in council may be exercised by the said governor-general and one or more ordinary member or members in council, and that in every case of difference of opinion at meetings of the said council, where there shall be an inquiry of voices, and the said governor-general shall have two votes or the casting vote.

XLIX. Provided always, and be it enacted, that when and so often as any measure shall be proposed before the said governor-general in council, whereby the safety, tranquillity, or interests of the British possessions in India, or any part thereof, are or may be in the judgment of the said governor-general, essentially affected, and the said governor-general shall be of opinion either that the measure so proposed ought to be adopted or carried into execution, or that the same ought to be suspended or wholly rejected; and if the majority in council then present shall differ in and dissent from such opinion, the said governor-general and members of council are hereby directed forthwith mutually to exchange with and communicate to each other in writing under their respective hands, to be recorded at large in their secret consultations, the grounds and reasons of their respective opinions; and if after considering the same the said governor-general and the majority in council shall still differ in opinion, it shall be lawful for the said governor-general, of his own authority, and on his own responsibility, to suspend or reject the measure so proposed, in part or in whole, or to adopt and carry the measure so proposed into execution as the said governor-general shall think fit and expedient.

L. And be it enacted, that the said council shall, from time to time, assemble at such place or places as shall be appointed by the said governor-general in council within the said territories, and that as often as the said council shall assemble within any of the presidencies of Fort St. George, Bombay, or Agra, the governor of such presidency shall act as an extraordinary member of council.

LI. Provided always, and be it enacted, that nothing herein contained shall extend to affect in any way the right of parliament to make laws for the said territories, and for all the inhabitants thereof; and it is expressly declared that a full, complete, and constantly existing right and power is intended to be reserved to parliament, to control, supersede, or prevent all proceedings and acts whatsoever of the said governor-general in council, and to repeal and alter at any time any law or regulation whatsoever made by the said governor-general in council, and in all respects to legislate for the said territories and all the inhabitants thereof, in as full and ample a manner as if this act had not been passed; and the better to enable parliament to exercise at all times such right and power, all laws and regulations made by the said governor-general in council shall be transmitted to England, and laid before both houses of parliament, in the same manner as now by law provided concerning the rules and regulations made by the several governments in India.

LII. And be it enacted, that all enactments, provisions, matters, and times, relating to the governor-general of Fort William in Bengal alone, respectively, in any other act or acts contained, so far as the same are now in force, and not repealed by or repugnant to the provisions of this act, shall continue and be in force, and be applicable to the governor-general of India in council, and to the governor-general of India alone, respectively.

LIII. And whereas it is expedient that, subject to such special arrangements as local circumstances may require, a general system of judicial establishments and police, to which all persons whatsoever, as well Europeans as natives, may

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