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minded persons in this country. For two years the cause of Education among the Natives had been left to work its way, destitute of the patronage of the head of the Government. Sir Henry, however, has attended the various Educational institutions of Calcutta-has personally distributed the prizes, and addressed the language of encouragement to pupils and teachers and, in the Minute below, has given the most decided proof of his intention to advance, by every proper means, the cause of intellectual improvement. The following is the document to which we have referred :

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"The Governor-General, having taken into his consideration the existing state of Education in Bengal, and being of opinion that it is highly desirable to afford it every reasonable encouragement by holding out to those who have taken advantage of the opportunity of instruction afforded to them, a fair prospect of employment in the public service, and thereby not only to reward individual merit, but to enable the State to profit as largely and as early as possible by the result of the measures adopted of late years for the instruction of the people, as well by the Government as by private individuals and societies, has resolved, that in every possible case a preference shall be given in the selection of candidates for public employment, to those who have been educated in the institutions thus established, and especially to those who have distinguished themselves therein by a more than ordinary degree of merit and attainment.

"The Governor-General is accordingly pleased to direct. that it be an instruction to the Council of Education, and to the Local Committees and other authorities charged with the duty of superintending Public Instruction throughout the Provinces, subject to the Government of Bengal, to submit to that Government at an early date, and, subsequently, on the 1st of January in each year, returns (prepared according to the form appended to this Resolution) of students who may be fitted, according to their several degrees of merit and capacity, for such of the various public offices as, with reference to their age, abilities, and other circumstances, they may be deemed qualified to fill.

"The Governor-General is further pleased to direct, that the Counci of Education be requested to receive from the Governors or Managers of all Scholastic Establishments, other than those supported out of the public funds, similar returns of meritorious students, and to incorporate them, after due and sufficient enquiry, with those of the Government institutions; and also that the managers of such establishments be publicly invited to furnish returns of that description, periodically, to the Council of Education.

"The returns, when received, will be printed and circulated to the heads of all Government offices, both in and out of Calcutta, with instructions to omit no opportunity of providing for and advancing the candidates thus presented to their notice, and in filling up every situation, of whatever grade, in their gift, to shew them an invariable preference over others not possessed of superior qualifications.

The appointment of all such candidates to situations under the Government, will be immediately communicated by the appointing officers to the Council of Education, and will by them be brought to the notice of Government, and the public, in their annual reports. It will be the

British Friend of India Mag. Vol. VI. No. 36.

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duty of controlling officers, with whom rests the confirmation of appointments made by their subordinates, to see that a sufficient explanation is afforded in every case in which the selection may not have fallen upon an educated candidate, whose name is borne on the printed returns. "With a view still further to promote and encourage the diffusion of knowledge among the humbler classes of the people, the GovernorGeneral is also pleased to direct, that even in the selection of persons to fill the lowest offices under the Government, respect be had to the relative acquirements of the candidates, and that in every instance, a man who can read and write, be preferred to one who cannot.

"Ordered, that the necessary instructions be issued for giving effect to the above Resolution, and that it be published in the official Gazettes for general information."

In reference to this document the Friend of India makes the following remarks:-

"One of the ablest writers on Indian affairs, the late lamented Edw. Bannerman, who honoured us with so many of his "detached thoughts," always maintained, that although Government might possess but limited means for promoting education among the people, it had the most abundant motives at its disposal, which might be made eminently subservient to the cause, and in a great measure supply the deficiency of means. In common with our contemporaries, we have for years laboured diligently to impress this truth on the public authorities, and we have now the happiness of seeing it fully recognised and acted upon. The notification gratifies the warmest desires of the friends of education. It provides an ample reward for those who have acquired distinction in the public seminaries, by introducing them into the public service of their country, and it makes provision for giving the public administration the benefit of the highest intellectual endowments which may be developed in the course of instruction. It is, perhaps, the most powerful impulse which the cause of education has received during the last twenty-five years. It makes the seminaries the nursery of the

service; and the service the stimulant of the seminaries. It introduces into our Indian administration the enlightened principles adopted by European Governments, of recruiting the public service in every department from those who have earned distinction in the public schools. At the same time it will be found instrumental in the highest degree in the general elevation of the country. It will transplant into the interior that European knowledge and science which have hitherto been confined to Calcutta, and diffuse their influence through every district. It will gradually place men of enlarged minds in situations of the highest trust and responsibility throughout the country, and provide willing and well instructed agents to assist in the task of Mofussil improvement."

The intelligence from India by the last mail is, upon the whole, gratifying. The country is tranquil; its resident ruler seems anxious for peace, and the improvement of the condition of the people. Various schemes for promoting commerce and facilitating communication, are occupying the minds of the Europeans of Calcutta and Bombay; add to this that there seems no near prospect of war, and then we think the news we have received may be pronounced, as we have said, of a gratifying character.

227

EAST INDIA HOUSE.

A General Quarterly Court of Proprietors of East India Stock was held at the Company's House, in Leadenhall Street, on Wednesday December 18th, 1844.

At 12 o'clock precisely, the chair was taken by JOHN SHEPHERD, Esq., (Chairman of the Court of Directors.) On the Directors' side of the bar we noticed-Sir Henry Willock (Deputy-Chairman of the Court of Directors), Sir James Law Lushington, G.C.B., Sir Richd. Jenkins, G.C.B., Wm. Astell, Esq. M.P. (Senior Director), Lieut.-Col. Sykes, W. C. Plowden, Esq., Macnaghten, Esq., Whiteman Esq., J. W. Hogg, Esq., M.P., Major-General A. Robertson, Major Oliphant, John Cotton, Esq., Francis Warden, Esq.,M.T.Smith, Esq., Major-Gen. Galloway, W. B. Bayley, Esq., H. St.G.Tucker, Esq., G. Lyall, Esq.,M.P., John Masterman, Esq., M.P., &c.

CASE OF THE EMPEROR OF DELHI.

The Minutes having been read, and a Notice of Motion, by John Poynder, Esq., having been disposed of,

Mr. GEORGE THOMPSON rose to call the attention of the Court to the treatment of his Majesty the Emperor of Delhi. He said :

Mr. Chairman, The duty I have to discharge on this occasion, is to review the treatment which, through forty years, the members of the royal family of Delhi have received at the hands of the British Government in India, and at the same time to state what appears to me to be the claims which the present Emperor and his family have upon the good faith and justice of the East India Company. I shall occupy no more of the time of the Court than may be necessary to state the facts of the case, with simplicity, brevity, and completeness. I entreat a patient hearing, and an impartial consideration of the merits of the This, Sir, I feel confident I shall receive from you, and I trust also, from every member of this Court. That I may deserve that which I solicit, I will cautiously refrain from the introduction of any irrelevant matter, and from the use of a single word likely to give offence.

case.

Sir, That I may not take you by surprise, I will confine the statement I have to make to such points as are embodied in the papers which I have reason to know have been for some time under your consideration; and I will refer to no documents or authorities which are not referred to in those papers.

Sir, I do not know that I can do better on this occasion, than quote, as a motto for the regulation of our deliberations and decisions

on the question before us, a few words from a pamphlet which has just fallen into my hands, entitled "India and Lord Ellenborough." I do not know whether I speak in the presence of the author, although I suspect he is well known to some here. The words are these: "When

that great man, whose glory will be to future ages the landmark of our time ;—when the Duke of Wellington, then Sir Arthur Wellesley, during his distinguished service in India, was remonstrating against what he conceived to be an undue extension of an article in a treaty which he had concluded with Scindia, he said "I would sacrifice Gwalior, or every frontier of India, ten times over, in order to preserve our credit for scrupulous good faith." Shortly afterwards, he asks, "What brought me through many difficulties in the war, and the negociations for peace? THE BRITISH GOOD FAITH, and nothing else." Sir, my object in rising to day is to claim on behalf of the imperial family of Delhi, the fulfilment of a solemn and binding engagement— an engagement voluntarily and deliberately entered into by the British Government, and one which it appears to me that government is morally, politically, and religiously bound to fulfil.

Sir, his Majesty the Emperor of Delhi is, as you know, one of a line of kings, who for three hundred and eighteen years have sat upon the throne of Hindostan. That throne was first filled by the illustrious Baber, the sixth in descent from the great Timour. Baber was pro

claimed Emperor in 1556, and it is not too much to say, that he was one of the most enlightened, as well as successful potentates the world has ever seen. His present Majesty is universally admitted to be a descendant in a direct line from that renowned prince, and to have an undoubted right,according to the law of legitimacy,to the rank, dignity, and station which he claims. I need not dwell upon the character and deeds of the Emperors of Delhi; their fame has gone into all lands. The histories of Baber, and Akbar, and Shah Jehan, and Aurungzebe, are familiar to all who have but even superficially acquainted themselves with the narrative of the rise and fall of empires in India. I think there will be no disposition to contradict me when I say, that for a hundred and fifty years the East India Company were indebted for their prosperity, and even their existence in India, to the favour and protection extended to their servants by the Mogul Emperors of Delhi. Lest, however, there should be any here who have forgotten the obligations of this Company to the ancestors of the present Emperor, I will venture to specify a few of the special favours which have been conferred upon this body in years that are past.

In 1600, her Majesty Queen Elizabeth addressed a letter to the Emperor Akbar, soliciting for her subjects the privilege of trading within the limits of his dominions. Her request was granted.

In 1614, according to Wilson's edition of the historian Mill, an agent of the Company repaired to the Mogul Court, where he was well received, and obtained a royal firmaun for a general and perpetual trade. In 1615, Sir Thomas Roe landed in India, as an ambassador from King James I. to the Court of Jehangeer. He also was well received, and for two years was entertained with the respect and attention due to his rank. He obtained redress of some of the grievances of which the English merchants complained, and concluded a treaty, in which liberty was given of trading, and establishing factories in any part of the Mogul dominions.*

On the 2nd of February, 1634, a Firmaun was obtained from the Emperor Shah Jehan, granting the Company liberty to trade in Bengal, without any other restriction than that English ships were to resort only to the Port of Pipley, which was then a great resort of European commerce on the Ganges, though now nearly washed away.†

In 1645, the Company sent certain of their servants on another mission to the Court of Delhi, to solicit important favours at the hands of Shah Jehan. While the deputation was at the Capital, the favourite daughter of the Emperor met with a severe accident, and was cured by Mr. Gabriel Broughton, one of the Company's surgeons. In gratitude for this service, the Emperor granted to the disinterested request of Mr. Broughton, several additional and very valuable privileges to the Company in Bengal. By the subsequent intercessions of the same gentleman, permission was obtained to establish factories at Balasore and Hoogley.‡

In 1700, the Company obtained from Aurungzebe the grant of a zemindary on the Hoogley, comprising the present site of Calcutta, and at the same time permission to strengthen Fort William.

In 1713, the Company sent another mission to Delhi, and obtained from the Emperor Ferook seer the privilege of exemption from the payment of custom dues, and permission to purchase thirty-seven villages in the neighbourhood of Calcutta.

In 1759, the Company obtained from the Emperor Alumgeer the Second, an assignment of territory for the maintenance of the imperial fleet; and their own agent at Surat was appointed the admiral.

In 1765, Lord Clive obtained from the Emperor Shah Alum the whole of Bengal, and a confirmation of the Company's possessions in Burdwan, Midnapore, Chittagong, the Twenty-four Purgunnahs, the Carnatic, and the five Northern Circars in the Deccan. At the same time, his Lordship compelled the Emperor to relinquish a debt of more

* Wilson's Edition of Mill, vol. 1, book 1, chap. 3, pp. 32, 33.
† Hamilton's E. I. Gazetteer, vol. 2, p. 404.

Thornton's Summary of the History of the East India Company, p. 3.

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