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APPOINTMENT OF MR. HENRY WELLESLEY.

121

misrule, dignified with the name of government at Lucknow, was not only unreasonable, but financially impracticable. The fidelity of the troops depended on punctual pay, and this punctuality required the solid basis of territorial revenues, honestly administered by British officers. This is the sinew of the argument by which this high-handed-or as the natives would call it, zuburdust—proceeding has been vindicated, and it will be readily conceded that it is by no means deficient in strength. Nor should it be forgotten that the kingdom of Oude fell to the Company by right of conquest in 1763, and was restored to the reigning family as a matter of grace; and that according to the prescriptive maxims of eastern policy, it was considered ever after subject to the control, if not even at the disposal, of the British Government, who had accordingly made and unmade Nabobs at its own pleasure. It was doubtless on this principle that Lord Wellesley told the Nabob on one occasion during these negotiations, that he had a right to take over, not a part only, but the whole of his country.

Appointment and dismissal

of Mr. Henry Wellesley, 1801.

The settlement of the districts ceded by the Nabob Vizier was entrusted to a commission consisting of the Company's civil servants, of which Mr. Henry Wellesley, the brother of the GovernorGeneral, who combined great administrative talent with much firmness and discretion, was made President. In announcing this arrangement to the Court of Directors, Lord Wellesley stated that the labours of the commission would probably be completed within a twelvemonth, perhaps in a shorter period, and that his brother would receive no allowance beyond the salary of his post as private secretary. The Directors expressed their cordial approbation of the terms of the treaty, which was calculated to promote their interests, and which created thirty new appointments for their civil service, but they denounced even the temporary appointment of Mr. Wellesley as "a virtual supersession of the jus rights" of that favourite service, and they hastened to give vent to their jealous feeling in a despatch, which peremptorily ordered his dismissal. The

122

REFORM OF THE SUDDER COURT.

[CHAP. President of the Board of Control, Lord Wellesley's personal friend, Lord Castlereagh, drew his pen across the despatch and returned it to the India House, with the remark that the appointment was not in the fixed and ordinary line of the Company's service; that it was only decent to await an explanation from the Governor-General, and that Mr. Wellesley would probably have relinquished the office before the despatch could reach India. The labours of the commission were in fact completed, and Mr. Wellesley had resigned the office, even before the despatch was drafted.

The Sudder On Lord Wellesley's return from the Coast, he Court, 1800. devoted his attention to various measures of internal administration with his accustomed ardour. Of these, one of the most important was the reconstruction of the Sudder Court at Calcutta. This was not only the highest local court of appeal, but was charged with the duty of superintending the administration of justice, and the operations of the police throughout the whole of the Presidency. Under the native governments, the prince had always united the legislative, executive, and judicial powers of the state in his own person. The Company acted on the principle of introducing as few changes as possible in the existing system of administration, and it was accordingly provided that the GovernorGeneral in Council should, in like manner, exercise the highest judicial functions, in addition to those of the executive government and of legislation. The Sudder Court was accordingly held in the Council Chamber, and without the presence either of the pleaders. The proceedings of the lower courts were translated into English and read to the members of Council, and the decisions they passed in each case, were recorded and promulgated by the registrar. To this system of procedure, Lord Wellesley saw many grave objections. The translation of the papers occasioned a vexatious delay, and the union of the judicial and the legislative functions in the same body was repugnant to sound principle; a conscientious discharge of

with closed doors, suitors or of their

xx.]

COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM.

123 the duties of the Sudder Court would absorb all the time of the Governor-General, while the administration of justice with closed doors deprived it of one of its most important safeguards, and impaired the confidence of the country. On the other hand, to throw open the Council Chamber while suits were under examination, would not be without its disadvantages. The presence of the Governor-General on the bench would necessarily interfere with the freedom of advocacy; few native pleaders would be found to contest his opinions, and his will, rather than the law, would too often be the rule of decision. It was resolved, therefore, to divest the Governor-General and Council of their judicial functions, and to select the ablest judicial officers' in the service to preside in the Court. Lord Wellesley was anxious that the chief judge should be invested with the same emblem of dignity which the chief justice of the Crown Court enjoyed, but he was unable to procure the distinction of knighthood for him. The Sudder Court, however, was rendered illustrious by the appointment of Mr. Henry Thomas Colebrooke, the most profound Oriental scholar of the day, and one of the most distinguished of the public servants, to preside over its proceedings.

The College of

1800.

It became evident, moreover, to Lord WellesFort William, ley's mind, that there could be no substantive improvement in the administration of the country, without providing a succession of men, sufficiently qualified to conduct it. The civil service had produced not a few men of first-rate ability, but it was in its origin only a mercantile staff, and it had not been deemed necessary to accommodate the training of the civilians, as a body, to the more important duties which now devolved upon them. India was still considered rather in the light of a commercial factory, than an imperial domain. For men who were to act as magistrates, collectors, judges, political agents, and ambassadors, it was still deemed sufficient if they were well versed in the mysteries of the counting-house, understood book

124

ITS MAGNIFICENT ESTABLISHMENT.

[CHAP. keeping by double entry, and wrote a hand which the Directors could read. The system which Burke had reprobated fifteen years before was still unchanged, and lads of fifteen were sent out to the Indian service before their education was finished, with no opportunity or inducement after their arrival, to complete it. Of the languages of the people, whose affairs they were to administer, they were not required to know even the rudiments. To supply these palpable deficiencies in the system of government, Lord Wellesley was determined to found a College in Calcutta, and assemble in it the young writers, as the embryo civilians were designated, from the three Presidencies, and set them to continue and complete their European education, and to study the laws, literature, and languages of the people they were to govern. The institution was projected on that scale of magnificence which marked all Lord Wellesley's plans, and in the medal which was struck on the occasion, the date of its establishment was thrown back a twelvemonth, to associate it with the memorable event of the capture of Seringapatam. A provost and vice-provost were appointed, with salaries of Indian magnitude, and the sum of 5,000 rupees a-month was allotted for the public table of the collegians. Learned men were invited to join it from all parts of India, and in the minds of the natives the halcyon days of the great Mahomedan and Hindoo princes, who had sought to render their courts illustrious by the assemblage of the literati, appeared now to be revived in the metropolis of British India. Four disputations were to be held annually in the grand edifice which Lord Wellesley had erected, "in an august assembly," composed of the natives of rank and learning, pundits and moonshees, rajas and foreign ambassadors. Such an institution was at the time essentially necessary to give the stamp of efficiency to the institutions of the British Government; but it was very costly, and, it was erected without the sanction, or even the cognizance, of the Court of Directors. Accordingly, on the 29th January, 1802, they passed a

xx.]

IMPOSITION OF TRANSIT DUTIES.

125

peremptory order for its immediate abolition. Lord Wellesley was mortified to an extreme degree by this subversion of one of his most cherished schemes, which exposed him to the contempt of India, and he gave vent to his feelings in a passionate appeal to his friends in the Ministry. He likewise placed on the records of the Council an elaborate minute, in which he combated the arguments of the India House, and maintained the necessity of such an institution with irresistible force. The objection which the Court of Directors had raised, on the ground of expense, had been obviated, he said, by the imposition of a new tax, which would produce a sum equal to the charge of the College establishment. This was no other than the renewal of the transit duty on the conveyance of produce from district to district, which Hindoo and Mahomedan Governments had been in the habit of imposing. At the present day it appears incredible, that one of the most liberal and enlightened statesmen of that period, should have taken credit to himself for the establishment of one of the most barbarous and mischievous taxes ever devised, and sought to make provision for his noble college by the interruption of inland commerce. He proceeded to pass an order for the abolition of the College, 66 as an act of necessary submission to the controlling authority of the Court," but immediately after, issued a second order directing that the abolition should be gradually effected, in the next eighteen months. At the same time, he entreated Lord Castlereagh to use his utmost endeavours to save from destruction the institution which he regarded with feelings of greater exultation, than even the kingdom he had built up in the Deccan, and to the consolidation of which he vowed to devote his political life. Under the pressure of the Board of Control, the Court of Directors were induced to qualify their orders, and permit the continuance of the College, but on a reduced scale, limiting its agency to the students of the Bengal Presidency, and to the cultivation of the native languages. To complete the European education of the students, and impart to them the