hundred and twenty millions,-states which yield taxes to the amount of £17,000,000, and maintain an army of four hundred thousand men. All the business of government has passed into English hands. There is still a Nabob of the Carnatic, but he is a British pensioner on the revenues of the land which his ancestors once ruled. There is still a Mogul who plays the sovereign, but the substance of his power has passed away. Youths from Haileybury College, and from the Military School at Addiscombe, rising by regular gradations, have succeeded to the power once wielded by the Mohammedan conquerors of Hindustan, and which they exercise in a manner far more beneficial to the people. They are carefully educated for judicial, financial, diplomatic, and military offices, and are expected to be versed in the language of the people of whose welfare they are to be the guardians. This is a noble field for talent and ambition.

The progress of good government is nowhere more evident at the present time than in the administration of India. Half a century ago, the voyage to or from India was seldom accomplished in less than six months, and often occupied a much longer time: a year and a half was calculated as the average period between the despatch of a report from Calcutta and the receipt of the adjudication thereon by the Directors in Leadenhallstreet. Slow, tedious, uncertain, and unfrequent as was the intercourse of the servants of the East India Company with the mind of England in those days, what could be expected but that it should produce strong effects on those who went out in youth and spent thirty years of their life in India, and that at their return they should exhibit some rich peculiarities of character, easily assailable by the light shafts of ridicule, if not open to the violent attacks of those who suspected them of dark crimes committed in their distant pro-consulships while amassing their wealth? Steam navigation has done and will do much to elevate the character and objects of our Indian policy, and to imbue its functionaries with more enlarged views of their duties; for rapidity and certainty of communication is gradually bringing the eyes of the people upon this distant part of our empire. Steam has placed Bombay within five weeks' distance of London, and the seat of the Supreme Government in India has been reached in six weeks from the seat of the Imperial Government. Private intercourse is rapidly increasing in consequence of these great improvements.

In 1833 the Act was passed by which the Company is now governed. This Act has made greater changes in the state of affairs than all the former ones. It continues the government of India in the hands of the Company until 1854, but takes away the China monopoly, and all trading whatever. As the Proprietors were no longer a body of merchants, their name was necessarily changed, and it was enacted that 'The East India Company' should be their future appellation. The Home Government of the Company consists of, 1st. The Court of Proprietors, or General Court; 2nd. The Court of Directors, selected from the Proprietors;

and 3rd. The Board of Commissioners, usually called the Board of Control, nominated by the Sovereign. The Court of Proprietors, or General Court, as its name imports, is composed of the owners of India Stock. It appears that, in the seventeenth century, every stockholder had a voice in the distribution of the funds of the Company. By the law now in force, which was made in 1773, the possession of £1,000 gives one vote, although persons having only £500 may be present at the Court: £3,000 entitles the owner to two votes, £6,000 to three, and £10,000 to four votes. All persons whatever may be members of this Court, male or female, Englishman or foreigner. The Court of Proprietors elects the Court of Directors, frames by-laws, declares the dividend, controls grants of money exceeding £600, and additions to salaries above £200. It would appear that the executive power of this Court, having been delegated to the Court of Directors, may be considered as extinct; at all events it never now interferes with acts of Government, although instances have formerly occurred where acts of the Court of Directors have been revised by it. Its functions, in fact, are deliberative: they are like those of influential public meetings in the English constitution, and its resolutions are supposed to be respectfully attended to by the Directors, and even by the Legislature. It is always called together to discuss any proceedings in Parliament likely to affect the interests of the Company. It may, at any time, call for copies of public documents to be placed before the body for deliberation and discussion; and is empowered to confer a public mark of approbation, pecuniary or otherwise, on any individual whose services may appear to merit the distinction,-subject, however, to the approbation of the Board of Control, in cases where the sum shall exceed £600.

The meetings of this Court have much the appear. ance of those of the House of Commons, and its discussions are conducted by nearly the same rules. The Chairman of the Court of Directors presides ex-officio, and questions are put through him as through the Speaker. There is occasionally a display of eloquence which would not disgrace the Senate. Amendments are proposed, adjournments are moved, the previous question is put, the Court rings with cries of 'Hear, hear! Oh, oh!' and a tedious speaker is coughed down as effectually as he would be on the floor of the House of Commons. At the conclusion of a debate the question is often decided by a show of hands; but if any Proprietor doubts the result, he may call for a division, when tellers are appointed, and the Court divides accordingly. In especial cases any nine members may call for an appeal to the general body of Proprietors, to whom timely notice is sent, and the vote is by ballot. The meetings always take place at twelve o'clock, and generally close at dusk. Each Director is elected for four years, and six retire yearly, and are not re-eligible until they have been a year out of office. The Chairman and Deputy-chairman are elected annually, and generally the deputy becomes

chairman after being a year in the deputy-chair. They are the organs of the Court, and conduct all communication requiring a personal intercourse with the Ministry and Board of Commissioners. It is believed that by far the greater share of the labour of the Court falls on the chairs; and that, great as is the patronage connected with the offices, they are by no means objects of ambition to the majority of the members.

The functions of the Court of Directors pertain to all matters relating to India, both at home and abroad; subject to the control of the Board of Commissioners, and, in some cases, to the concurrence of the Court of Proprietors, with the exception always of such high political matters as require secrecy, which are referred to a Select Committee of their body. This Court has the power to nominate the Governors of all the Presidencies, subject to the approval of the Crown. They have also the patronage of all other appointments, without control from the Board. The Committee of Secrecy, first appointed in 1784, consists of three members of the Court, who receive the directions of the Board on subjects connected with peace, war, or negotiations with other powers, and send despatches to India under their directions, without communication with the rest of the Court. This Committee also receive despatches from India sent to the Secret Department, and communicate them immediately to the Board. The duties of the Court of Directors are extensive, and for their ready dispatch it is divided into three Committees, whose departments are indicated by their appellations: -the Finance and Home Committee; the Political and Military Committee; and the Revenue, Judicial, and Legislative Committee.

The Board of Control, whose proper designation is 'the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India,' was established by the Act of 1784. The Board is nominated by the Sovereign: it consists of an unlimited number of members, all of whom, except two, must be of the Privy Council, and must include the two principal Secretaries of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Practically, all the Commissioners are honorary, except three, who alone are paid. All the members of the Board vacate office upon changes of Ministry, but the unpaid ones are often re-appointed. The Board receive from the Court, and may confirm, alter, or disallow all minutes, orders, and despatches; they may not only keep back despatches prepared by the Court, but may compel the Court to send others prepared without the Court's concurrence. They have access to all books, papers, and documents in the East India House, and may call for accounts on any subject. They communicate with the Secret Committee, and direct it to send secret despatches to India, the responsibility resting with the Board. In fact, since the abolition of the trade, with which the Board had nothing to do, the Court of Directors must be considered simply as the instrument of the Board.

The routine of business as transacted between the Court and Board is simple. On the receipt of a despatch from India, it is referred to the Committee in

whose province it lies, and from it to the proper department; the chief of which causes a draft of a reply to be made under his superintendence, which he first submits to the Chairs; the Chairman brings the draft before the Committee, by whom it is considered and approved, or revised, and then laid before the Court. The draft is there discussed, and, when approved, sent to the Board. If the Board approve the draft, it is returned, and despatched forthwith by the Court: if altered, the alterations may become the subject of correspondence and remonstrance with the Board; with whom, however, the final decision lies. If the Chairs judge that any serious discussion is likely to arise upon any despatch, they make, unofficially, a previous communication to the Board, and the matter is discussed before it is laid before the Court.

It does not appear to be ascertained where the East India Company first transacted their business, but the tradition of the House is, that it was in the great room of The Nag's Head Inn,' opposite Bishopsgate Church, where there is now a Quakers' Meeting-house. The maps of London, constructed soon after the great fire, place the India House in Leadenhall-street, on a part of its present site. It is probably the house, of which an unique plate is preserved in the British Museum, surmounted by a huge, square-built mariner, and two thick dolphins. In the Indenture of Conveyance of the Dead Stock of the Companies, dated 22nd July, 1702, we find that Sir William Craven, of Kensington, in the year 1701, leased to the Company his large house in Leadenhall-street, and a tenement in Limestreet, for twenty-one years, at £100 a year. Upon

the site of this house what is called the old East India House was built in 1726.

The façade of the existing building is 200 feet in length, and is of stone. The portico is composed of six large Ionic fluted columns on a raised basement, and it gives an air of much magnificence to the whole, although the closeness of the street makes it somewhat gloomy. The pediment is an emblematic sculpture by Bacon, representing the Commerce of the East protected by the King of Great Britain, who stands in the centre of a number of figures, holding a shield stretched over them. On the apex of the pediment stands a statue of Britannia: Asia, seated upon a dromedary, is at the left corner; and Europe, on horseback, at the right. (Cut, No. 6.)

The ground-floor is chiefly occupied by court and committee-rooms, and by the Directors' private rooms. The Court of Directors occupy what is usually termed the Court Room,' while that in which the Court of Proprietors assemble is called the 'General Court Room.' The Court Room is said to be an exact cube of 30 feet: it is splendidly ornamented by gilding and by large looking-glasses; and the effect of its too great height is much diminished by the position of the windows near the ceiling. Six pictures hang from the cornice, representing the three Presidencies, the Cape, St. Helena, and Tellichery. A fine piece of sculpture, in white marble, is fixed over the chimney.