The India Bill was read a second time without a division.38 Lord Stanley made a clear and vigorous exposition of its spirit and provisions; Mr Bright delivered a powerful oration on the condition of India—its past government and future prospects; the rest of the discussion weak and desultory.
No serious opposition apprehended in Committee, which the Chancellor of the Exchequer has fixed for this day (Friday)39 and almost hopes that he may conclude the Committee on Monday. He proposes to proceed with no other business until it is concluded.
When the Bill has passed, the temper of the House, and its sanitary state,40 will assist him in passing the remaining estimates with rapidity; and he contemplates an early conclusion of the Session.
It will be a great thing to have carried the India Bill, which Mr Thomas Baring, to-night, spoke of in terms of eulogy, and as a great improvement on the project of the late Government. It is, the Chancellor of the Exchequer really thinks, a wise and well-digested measure, ripe with the experience of the last five months of discussion; but it is only the antechamber of an imperial palace; and your Majesty would do well to deign to consider the steps which are now necessary to influence the opinions and affect the imagination of the Indian populations. The name of your Majesty ought to be impressed upon their native life. Royal Proclamations, Courts of Appeal, in their own land, and other institutions, forms, and ceremonies, will tend to this great result.
Footnote 38: This was the third Bill of the Session, and was founded on the Resolutions, ante, [p. 279]. The Government of India was transferred from the dual jurisdiction of the Company and the Board of Control, to the Secretary of State for India in Council, the members of the Council (after the provisions for representing vested interests should have lapsed) to be appointed by the Secretary of State. A certain term of residence in India was to be a necessary qualification, and the members were to be rendered incapable of sitting in Parliament, and with a tenure of office as assured as that of judges under the Act of Settlement.
Footnote 39: The letter is ante-dated. The 24th of June was a Thursday.
Footnote 40: In consequence of the polluted condition of the Thames, the Government carried a measure enabling the Metropolitan Board of Works, at a cost of £3,000,000, to purify "that noble river, the present state of which is little creditable to a great country, and seriously prejudicial to the health and comfort of the inhabitants of the Metropolis."—Extract from the Queen's Speech, at the close of the Session.
Queen Victoria to the Earl of Derby.
INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE
Osborne, 8th July 1858.