or Commander-in-Chief, or member of the Councils of any of the Presidencies in India, shall be deemed to be valid, unless the same be made by an instrument in writing under the hand of the officer resigning the same.

(29) No order or resolution of any general Court of the Proprietors of the Company shall be available to revoke or rescind, or in any respect to affect, any act or proceeding of the Court of Directors by this Act authorised to be done by the Court, after the same shall have been approved by the Board.

(31) The Governor-General and Council of Fort William shall have authority to control the several Presidencies and governments in the East Indies in all transactions with the country powers, or the application of the revenues or forces of such Presidencies in time of war, or any such other points as shall be specially referred by the Court of Directors to their control.

(32) Notwithstanding any doubt which may be entertained by the Presidencies to whom such orders or instructions shall be given, respecting the power of the Governor-General and Council to give such orders, yet the Presidencies shall be bound to obey such orders in all cases whatever, except only where they shall have received positive orders from the Court of Directors, or from the Secret Committee, repugnant to the orders of the Governor-General and Council, and not known to the Governor-General and Council at the time of dispatching their orders.

(34) And whereas to pursue schemes of conquest and extension of dominion in India, are measures repugnant to the wish, the honour, and policy of this nation; be it therefore further enacted, That it shall not be lawful for the GovernorGeneral and Council without the express command of the Court of Directors, or of the Secret Committee, in any case (except where hostilities have actually been commenced, or preparations actually made for the commencement of hostilities against the British nation in India, or against some of the princes or states whose territories the Company shall be engaged by any subsisting treaty to defend or guarantee) either to declare war or commence hostilities, or enter into any treaty for making war, against any of the country princes or states in India, or any treaty for guaranteeing the possessions of any country, princes or states . . . and in all cases where hostilities shall be commenced or treaty made, the Governor

General and Council shall, by the most expeditious means they can devise, communicate the same unto the Court of Directors, together with a full state of the information upon which they shall have commenced such hostilities, or made such treaties, and their motives and reasons for the same at large.

(35) It shall not be lawful for the Governors or Presidents and Councillors of Fort Saint George and Bombay, to issue any order for commencing hostilities or to negotiate any treaty with any Indian prince or state (except in cases of sudden emergency or imminent danger, when it shall appear dangerous to postpone such hostilities or treaty) unless in pursuance of express orders from the Governor-General and Council, or from the Court of Directors, or from the Secret Committee; and every such treaty shall, if possible, contain a clause for subjecting the same to the ratification or rejection of the Governor-General and Council of Fort William aforesaid. . . .

(36) Presidents and Councillors who shall wilfully refuse to pay due obedience to such orders and instructions as they shall receive from the Governor-General and Council of Fort William shall be liable to be suspended from the exercise of their offices by order of the Governor-General and Council. . . .

(37 contains instructions to the Directors to deal with the Nawab of Arcot's debts; and 38 to deal with the disputes between the Nawab of Arcot and the Raja of Tanjore.)

(39) And whereas complaints have prevailed, that divers rajas, zemindars, and other native landholders have been unjustly deprived of their lands, jurisdictions, and privileges, or that the tribute, rents, and services required to be by them paid or performed for their possessions to the Company, are become grievous and oppressive: And whereas the principles of justice and the honour of this country require that such complaints should be forthwith enquired into and fully investigated, and if founded in truth effectually redressed: Be it therefore enacted, That the Court of Directors shall forthwith take the said matters into their serious consideration, and adopt such methods for enquiring into the truth of the complaints as they shall think best adapted for that purpose; and thereupon give orders to the several Governments and Presidencies in India, for effectually redressing, in such manner as shall be consistent with justice and the laws and customs of the country, all injuries and wrongs which the rajas, zemindars, and other native landholders may have sustained, and for the

settling, upon principles of moderation and justice, according to the laws and constitution of India, the permanent rules by which their tributes, rents, and services shall be in future rendered and paid to the Company.

(40) The Directors shall take into their immediate consideration the establishments, civil and military, of their settlements in India, and give orders for every practicable retrenchment; and shall also require full and particular lists of all the offices and employments on the civil establishment of the Company in India, and of all the forces in the pay or service of the Company, together with the opinions of the respective governments and Presidencies, what method or system can be adopted for introducing a just and laudable economy in every branch of the civil and military departments : And the Court of Directors shall, as soon as may be, declare what offices, as well civil as military, will in their judgment be adequate to the support of the honour and dignity of this kingdom in the East Indies, and the safety, defence, and security of the British possessions there; and specify the rate of the salaries and emoluments to be hereafter allowed in respect thereof: And the Court of Directors are hereby required, within fourteen days after the commencement of every session of parliament, to bring before the two houses of parliament a perfect list of all offices, places, and employments, in the civil and military establishments, with the salaries and emoluments belonging thereto.

(41) Until the lists of the offices, places, and employments shall have been made the Court of Directors shall be prohibited from appointing or sending to India any new servant, civil or military, under the degrees of the Councillors and Commanders-in-Chief; and after such lists shall have been perfected and established, the Court of Directors shall in no wise appoint or send out any greater number of persons to be cadets or writers, or in any other capacity, than will be actually necessary, in addition to the persons on the spot, to keep up the proper complement contained in the said lists.

(42) From and after the commencement of this Act, all promotions as well civil as military, under the degrees of the respective Councillors and Commanders-in-Chief, shall be made according to seniority of appointment, in a regular progressive succession.

(43) From and after the passing of this Act, no person shall be capable of being appointed by the Court of Directors to the

East Indies, in the capacity of a writer or cadet, whose age shall be under fifteen years, or shall exceed the age of twentytwo years.

(44) All His Majesty's subjects are hereby declared to be amenable to all courts of justice (both in India and Great Britain) of competent jurisdiction to try offences committed in India, for all acts done in any of the territories of any native prince in the same manner as if the same had been done within the territories directly subject to the British government in India.

(The whole remainder of the Act is devoted to elaborate provisions for the prevention and punishment of corruption, misgovernment or disobedience on the part of servants of the Company. A few of the more striking clauses only are excerpted.)

(45) The demanding or receiving of any sum of money, or other valuable thing as a gift by any British subject holding any office under His Majesty or the Company in the East Indies, shall be deemed to be extortion, and shall be proceeded against and punished as such.

(52) And, for the remedying of the abuses which have prevailed in the collection of the revenues of the Company, be it further enacted, That every person (being a British born subject) who is authorised to collect the rents or revenues due to the Company, shall take and subscribe the following oath.

(55) Every person in the service of the Company in India, shall, within the space of two calendar months after his returning to Great Britain, deliver in upon oath, before the Lord Chief Baron of His Majesty's Court of Exchequer in England, duplicates of an exact inventory of all real and personal property as well in Europe as in Asia, or elsewhere, which such person was possessed of, at the time of his arrival in Great Britain.

(Clauses 56-62 relate to the stringent enforcement of this requirement, and impose severe penalties for evasion. Clauses 64-82 provide in an extraordinarily elaborate way for the prosecution of servants of the Company for misdemeanours in India, especially by the establishment of a Commission of members of both Houses of Parliament to deal with such charges. The procedure of this Quaestio Repetundarum is very minutely regulated.)

(83) Provided always, That nothing herein contained shall prejudice the rights or claims of the public, or the Company, respecting the said territorial acquisitions and revenues.

N

(84) And be it further enacted, That this Act shall take place and have commencement, in Great Britain, immediately after the same shall have received His Majesty's royal assent; and shall take place and have commencement, in the several Presidencies aforesaid, and in the territories thereunto belonging, from the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five.

65. INDEPENDENT POWERS OF GOVERNORS, 1793

(33 George III. Cap. XXXII.)

(The provision herein contained forms a sort of Appendix to the Act of 1784. The power of independent action which it confers on the Governor had been advocated by Warren Hastings (see above, No. 39), and demanded by Cornwallis.)

(10) And whereas it will tend greatly to the strength and security of the British possessions in India, and give energy, vigour and despatch to the measures and proceedings of the executive government within the respective presidencies, if the Governor-General of Fort William in Bengal, and the several Governors of Fort Saint George and Bombay, were vested with discretionary power of acting without the concurrence of their respective councils, or forbearing to act according to their opinions in cases of high importance, thereby subjecting themselves personally to answer to their country for so acting; be it enacted, that when any measure shall be proposed whereby the interests of the Company, or the safety or tranquillity of the British possessions in India, may in the judgment of the Governor-General, or of the said Governors respectively, be essentially affected, and the Governor-General, or such Governors respectively, shall be of opinion that it will be expedient either that the measure ought to be adopted or that the same ought to be suspended or wholly rejected, and the other members of such council shall dissent from such opinion, the Governor-General or such Governor, and the other members of the Council, shall forthwith mutually communicate in Council to each other, in writing, the reasons of their respective opinions; and if, after considering the same, the Governor and the other members of the Council shall retain their opinions, it shall be lawful for the Governor-General in the Supreme Council of Fort William, or either of the said Governors in their respective Councils, to make any order for suspending or rejecting the measure in part or in the whole,