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No. 128. performed without the assistance of a military officer.

82. The appointment was not solicited by captain Hook;

on the contrary, when it was first proposed to that officer to accept of a situation in the office of the secretary to the government, he held an appointmen in the office of the adjutant-general, and requested permission to decline the proposed appointment. The reasons, however, which occasioned the proposal to be made to captain Hook to accept of a situation in the office of the secretary to the government, had considerably increased, and had become of an urgent nature. The proposal was consequently renewed, in consequence of which captain Hook relinquished the situation which he held in the adjutant-general's office, and consequently his views of preferment in that branch of the service, for the purpose of affording his assistance in the performance of the business in the military jepartment of the government. Every fact now detailed to exhibit the grounds of the proceedings of the governor-general in council, affordə additional proof of the necessity of the measure of employing a military officer in the situation to secretary of the government in the military department.

83. The court, in their orders for captain Hook's removal, had observed, that the “reasons stated in lord Cornwallis's letter of the 6th of March, 1788, which induced the court to yield to his lordship's recommendation in favour of a military officer being appointed secretary to the military board, do not apply to the case of the secretary to the government in the military department, particularly as the returns of the army and lists which where forinerly transmitted to Europe, by the late lieut.-col. Kyd, are now transmitted by the adjutant-general and town-major.”

84. It does not appear that the letter from lord Cornwallis, referred to by the court, was recorded on the proceedings of the government. Similar reasons, however, to those assigned by his lordship in council in his minute, recorded on the proceedings of the 7th September, 1792, for recommending the late captain Humphreys to be secretary to the military board, are perfectly applicable to the case of the military secretary to the government, the duties of which situation are certainly of much more importance to the public service, and to the interests of the honourable company, than that of preparing lists and returns of the troops, which are now prepared in another department.

85. Some of the most important parts of the duty of the secretary to the government in the military department, are intimately connected with assisting and enabling the government to diminish the military expenses. It is his duty to point out to the notice of government charges in the military branch of expenditure, not authorized by existing regulations; also such contingent charges as are either inadmissable, or which ought to be reduced, from being unreasonably or unusually high. 86. It may appear that those duties belong to the • C 2

military

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military board, and military auditor-general. £
checking and controlling the expenses of an establish-
ment of such magnitude and extent, involving such a
variety of details and military charges, which are
brought under the notice of the governor-general in
council from various quarters, and often through other
channels than the military board or military auditor-
general, the daily services of a secretary competent to
point out the nature of every charge, are absolutely
required. In matters which may have come under
the examination of the officers employed in the subor
di: ate offices, much may escape the notice of those
officers. But were it possible that nothing material
should escape their notice, still it is of importance, and
absolutely necessary, that the secretary to the govern
ment in the military department should thoroughly
understand the nature of the details of the business,
which it is his duty to submit to the government.

87. It is of the greatest importance to the gover nor-general in counci!, and to the finances of the honourable company, that the government, by whom all these charges are ultimately passed or ejected, should have the assistance of a secretary capable of giving the fullest information upon this important part of his duty The due and faithful performance of this part of the secretary's duty is unavoidably of a most invidious nature.

88. It is an undoubted fact, that the governor general, and the members of council, must depend more upon the military secretary (provided the military secretary be perfect master of his duties) for informa tion respecting the duties which devolve upon the government in its military capacity, (particularly those connected with the military charges and with the discipline of the army) than upon the secretaries in any of the other departments, on the conduct and execution of the duties of those departments respecsively. This species of dependence for information pon the military secretary will be found not to be much siminished by the presence of the commander in shief, who, from various causes, cannot be expected to furnish information upon points of detail, chiefly of a local nature, not immediately within the province of his general duties.

89. The situation in which the company's civil servanis are employed from the time of their arrival in Judia, and the habits which they unavoidably and necessarily acquire in those employments, render it impossible for them to possess that knowledge of the military branch of the service which is essentially ne cessary to the proper performance of the duties of secretary to the government in the military department. It is no imputation on the character of the civil servants to declare, that they are not qualified to perform those duties, a knowledge of which can only be obtained in situations, from which they are pre cluded, and in which they would not desire to serve. 90. It can scarcely be the intention of the court that the conduct and management of the details of the

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duties of the supreme government in the military department, should be entrusted to a person not qualified to perform them. But in what manner is the civil covenanted servant to acquire the knowledge indispensably necessary to enable him to discharge his duty as secretary in the military department? He must attach himself to the army, and appropriate ten or twelve years of his time in acquiring knowledge of the military regulations, and particularly of those complicated, and intricate, and fluctuating, rules for the conduct of military finance, applicable to the peculiar nature of the army of Bengal, in all is branches.

91. It would also be necessary that several of the civil servants should be employed and educated in the manner above-described, otherwise the government would not possess a succession of civil servants, properly qualified to fill the situation of secretary to government in the military department.

92. No length of service, in the usual duties of civil servants, nor even in the office of secretary to the government in the military department, can give a civil servant a thorough knowledge of the details indispensably necessary to the proper performance of the duties of the secretary in the military department; nor can a military officer conduct those duties properly, unless he has previously studied the voluminous and varying code of military regulations, particularly those connected with military expenses.

93. To qualify a civi: servant for, the proper performance of the duties of secretary to the government in the military department, he must be furnished with a military commission, to enable him to attach himself to the army, and to be placed in those situations in which alone he can acquire that knowledge, which could render him competent to the discharge of the duties of secretary to the government in the military department.

94. The duties of the secretary to the government in the military department, have formerly been conducted without the assistance of a military officer; but the proceedings of government, which led to the revival of the employment of a military officer in the secretary's office, in the latter end of the year 1796, conformably to the principle originally established by the supreme government, and particularly adverted to by lord Cornwallis, in council, on the 31st January, 1788, furnish proofs of the necessity of the change, founded on a sufficient trial of a contrary system.

95. The reasons which compelled the government, in 1796, to revert to the principle above adverted to, are not specified in detail on the records. It is stated, in general terms, that the nature of the duties, and the great increase of business, in consequence of the new military arrangements, suggested the propriety of employing a military officer.

96. The particular and constant difficulties which occurred to render the adoption of the measure necessary, unquestionably were of a nature to preclude all hope of conducting the business of government in the

military

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military department without the assistance of a mili-
tary officer.

97. It is proper, however, to state, that, previously to the month of December, 1796, the period at which a military officer was employed to conduct the details of the business in the military department, it was frequently necessary to send privately many of the current papers which had been received by the government in the military department to the officers of the general staff, and other staff-officers at the presidency, with a view to obtain information and assistance, for the purpose of enabling the government to pass orders upon the subject of those papers. The references which were thus made for information and assistance to the staff and other officers, must have frequently involved the consideration of subjects in which those officers were directly or remotely concerned, and upon which they had previously given an official opinion in their capacity of members of the military board, or as the heads of some departments or officers. To have recourse, therefore, to those officers for assistance, under such circumstances, was not only attended with delay, but was highly objectionable in its principle: but there was no remedy for this serious evil, excepting that which the government adopted, by employing a military officer for the conduct of the details of the business in the military department.

98. The ground of the proceedings of the supreme government, adverted to in the preceding paragraphs, for employing a military officer for the conduct of the details of the duties of the government in the military department, and the principles upon which those proceedings are founded, have been justified and corfirmed by subsequent practice and experience: and the public service, and the interests of the honourable company, have derived the most substantial and important advantages from the measure, particularly with respect to the diminution at the close of the last war, in the year 1801-2, and on other occasions, of the military expenses of the presidency of Bengal, and to the constant revision of those expenses. But the court, in the 147th paragraph of the general letter to the supreme government in the military department, dated the 20th of June, 1804, observed, that the appointment of a military officer to be secretary to the government in the military department, was contrary to the spirit of the 57th section of the act of the 33d of his present majesty, cap. 52d.

99. The spirit of that act is to prevent unqualified persons from being appointed to discharge the duties of civil offices and employments, &c. It is doubtful whether the office of secretary to the government in the military department comes within the letter of the act, as expressed in that clause, and is included in the description of officers, places, or employments, in the civil line of the company's service enumerated in the clause.

100. It may also be doubted, whether the legislature had the office of secretary to the government in the

military

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No. 128. military department in contemplation in framing that clause : It is evident that the legislature, in describing the persons to fill offices of great trust and responsibility in India, could not intend to restrict the government of India to that class of the servants of the honourable company, which cannot, at any period of their service, in the civil branch of the service, be qualified to discharge properly the duties of secretary to the government in the military department.