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staff of the army, or to the personal staff of the
governor-general.

104. With regard to the imputation of contumacious disobedience of orders in this case, it is perfectly evident, from the facts and arguments as herein stated, that the governor-general in council acted under a sincere conviction that the military business of the council could not proceed if the court's order were carried into execution. In such a case the situation of the governor general in council would be dangerous indeed, if he should be deemed guilty of disobedience of orders under the law.

105. In the 27th paragraph of the letter in the military department, dated the 30th September, 1801, the governor-general in council informed the court of directors that he had appointed captain Merrick Shawe to be military secretary to the governor-general, and to the captain-general and commander-in-chief of the forces. Since that period of time captain Shawe performed the duties of military secretary to the governorgeneral, and to the captain-general, with great diligence, zeal, and ability, but without receiving any salary in either of the capacities until the month of May, 1802.

106. At the period when captain Shawe was appointed to these situations, (on the 29th of July, 1801) the governor general was preparing to proceed to the upper provinces, and although his lordship, at that time, had it in contemplation to establish a salary for the military secretary proportionate to the increased duties of the situation, he was unavoidably prevented, by the pressure of other public business, from stating and recording in council the sum which he deemed to be adequate to the augmented labour and responsibility

of the office.

107. The governor-general deemed it to be advisable to consolidate the duties and authority of the captain-general as far as might be practicable, with the duties and authority of the governor-general in council, and he had accordingly directed various returns, reports, and informations, on several points respecting his majesty's troops in India, to be transmitted to the governor-general in council, in the military department; a variety of references and applications however must be made to the captain-general, which it is unnecessary to record on the proceedings of government, but to which the public service requires immediate attention.

108. The governor-general, at an early period of time, found it impracticable to carry on the duties relative to the army, which the station of captaingeneral necessarily imposed, without constituting military office of record under an officer immediately attached to his person. The governor-general, since that time, found the duties which devolved on him by the appointment of captain-general, particularly du ring his progress to the upper provinces, and during his residence at the military stations, considerably to exceed his first expectations in that respect.

109. The nature of the duties to be performed by

the

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OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURT'S DRAFT,
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the military secretary to the captain-general, requires, that the person holding the office shall possess not only an extensive knowledge of military details, but also those qualifications which shall entitle him to that decree of confidence which must necessarily be placed in the person entrusted with the duties of such a sta tion. It is, therefore, an object of importance to the public service, and to the governor-general, that he should be able to command the services of an officer properly qualified to fill the station of military secretary; and as the officer, holding the appointment of military secretary of the captain-general, must necessa→ rily devote his whole time and attention to the duties of that situation, and cannot receive, from any source, those allowances which the extent of his duties, and the responsibility of his station, so strongly demand; the governor-general in council had no hesitation in stating that this officer ought to be placed, with regard to allowances, on a respectable footing.

110. The salary hitherto allowed to the military secretary to the governor-general was only 300 rupees, 361. a month, exclusive of the pay of his regimental rank, and the batta of major. When the duties and responsibility of the person holding the office are considered, the low scale on which the salary was esta blished can be ascribed only to the circumstance of the military secretaries of former governor generals having generally, if not invariably, at the same time, held other offices of considerable emolument.

111. The governor-general in council deemed it to be reasonable and proper that a consolidated salary of 1500 rupees per mensum, 1851. should be granted to the military secretary of the governor-general and captain-general, and that the separate salary of 300 rupees a month, as military secretary to the governorgeneral, should be abolished. The salary of the military secretary was accordingly fixed at that amount, exclusive of the pay of his military rank, and the governor-general further directed that captain hawe, the actual secretary, should receive the increased salary of 1500 rupees per month, from the period of the commencement of his augmented duties as secretary to the governor-general, and to the captain-general of

the forces.

112. The minute of the governor general, on the subject of the augmentation of the salary of his mili. tary secretary, is recorded on the precedings of the 6th of May, 1801.

113. The court of directors, however, having, ia their general letter of the 20th of June, 1804, disapproved of the salary established for the military secretary to the governor and captan-general, the governor-general in council, in the month of May, 1805, rescinded his former orders on this subject, and directed the salary of the military secretary to the governor and captain-general, to be reduced to the sum of 1003 rupees, 1251, per mensum, exclusive of his military pay; the scale which has been fixed by the court of directors.

114. Oa

450

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No. 128. 114. On reviewing all the circumstances of the case, with reference to the extended, laborious, and impor. tant duties performed by the military secretary to the governor-general and captain-general, and to the amount of salaries established by the court, for offices, under the presidency of Bengal, no doubt can be entertained, that the salary established by the court for the military secretary to the governor and captaingeneral is inferior to the general standard," and consequently inadequate to the extended responsibility of the duties performed. In fact, the salary, as established by lord Wellesley in May, 1802, was considered to be inferior to the amount at which it ought to have been permanently fixed, with reference to the laborious and increasing duties of the office.

115. It is difficult to understand how this transaction can be stated to involve a question of such importance, as to have required previous reference to the court; the order of the court was executed when received, and the difference of salary to the military

secretary was as follows, under the two plans, Allowances to the military secretary, previously to lord Wellesley's arrangement. Military secretary to governor-gen. If the military secretary be a lieut. col. Established allowance 914 | Established allowance

314 Fulbatta of major

Full batta of lieutenant-colonel 600 Allowance for writer and station- Writer and stationary, as above 150

ary, drawn by major Ross, secretary to lord Cornwallis 150

Rupees 1064 or 1331. per month, exclusive of pay,

Rupees 914 gratuity, &c. or 1141. per month, exclusive of pay, gratuity, &c. Allowances as fixed by lord Wellesley, 1500 rupees,or 1871.pr month exclusive of pay. Ditio as fixed by the court's last order, 1000 rupees, or 1251.pr. month exclusive of pay.

10th. Allowance to co- 116. The governor-general in council having dislonels Harcourt and Mon- patched lieutenant-colonel Monson to Europe, in son, charged with dis- charge of advices to the court of directors, considered patches to Europe, and it to be reasonable to allow lieutenant-colonel Monpleading the case of capt. son the pay and allowances of his regimental rank, to Madan as a prece lent, be drawn in India by his agent, on producing a certinotwithstanding the oro ficare of lieutenant-colonel Monson being alive. The ders of the court, that governor-general in council, however, restricted the captain Madan's case authority for paying those allowances to the period of should not be considered twelve months from the date of lieutenant-colonel Monas a precedent.

aon's embarkation for Europe. At the same time it was deemed to be proper, consistently with the general principle established with respect to staff-officers proceeding to Europe, that the extraordinary allowance, drawn by lieutenant-colonel Monson, as commanding officer of his majesty's 76th regiment, should not be drawn by him during his absence ; such allowance was of course drawn by the officer in the actual command of the regiment.

Pay per month. Establishment per month. Adjutant-gen. king's troops

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11th. Postponing the dissolution of the college, with the express design of obtaining a reversal of the order for its abolition. The court observe, that there was no necessity for an instant decision on this subject: the institution ought to have been referred to their consideration, as the natural guardians of the young men who were to become students; and, therefore, that, by the establishment of the

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117. The rule above prescribed, in the case of lieutenant-colonel Monson, is similar to the rule established by lord Cornwallis, by his lordship's minutes, recorded on the proceedings of the 3d August, 1792, on the occasion of his lordship having deputed captain Madan to proceed to Europe with public dispatches.

118. The same rule was applied to lieutenantcolonel Harcourt, of his majesty's 12th regiment, who proceed to Europe overland in charge of the governorgeneral's public dispatches. Lieutenant-colonel Harcourt was accordingly considered to be entitled to the pay and allowances of his regimental rank only, for twelve months from the date of his embarkation at Bombay.

119. The preceding arrangements cannot be deemed irregular, since it would be unjust to deprive officers, employed on public duties, of the pay and allowances which they are entitled to receive in any part of the world, as long as they may be employed in the public service. The court of directors resolved, on the 4th of May, 1803,* to defray colonel Monson's passage to Bengal, according to the regulations established for officers of his rank, and in reply to colonel Monson's application to have his pay and allowances as commandant of the 76th regiment continued to the day of his arrival in Bengal, directed the government of Bengal to decide the question by the regulations of his majesty's and of the company's military service. The governor-general certainly was of opinion, that the public service required the care of the officers specially appointed to take charge of the dispatches in question; and that the importance of the dispatches demanded such special care. It cannot justly be inferred, as a proof of a systematic design to assume irregular authority, that he fixed the scale of their allowances for that service. The court's proceedings upon the case of colonel Monson, would have induced the governor-general to believe, that no material objection had occurred to that arrangement.

120. The reasons which induced the governorgeneral in council to found the college at Fort William, are fully stated in his notes, under date the 18th August, 1800. It was impossible for the governorgeneral to suppose, that such an institution could prove otherwise than satisfactory to the court of directors; and the mode of providing for the expenses of the college was stated in the letter from the governor-general in council, 30th July, 1801.

121. The motives of public duty which induced the governor-general in council to direct, that the order passed by the government of Bengal for the abolition of the college of Fort William, should not take full effect until the 31st December, 1805, are fully stated in the public proceedings of the government, and in the governor-general's letterf to the chair

man,

Vide letter to Bengal, Public Department, par. 4, 5, and 6. †This letter, together with various important official documents relative to the

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College without reference to them, it appears to have been lord Wellesley's intention to supercede the deliberation of the court. The court also observe, that no regular statement of the annual expense has been sent home; but that they find, from the annual estimates, that the establishment and the expenditure were excessively great.

12th. Ordering the permanent settlement of the revenues at Fort St. George, without the previous sanction of the court, against which reference no necessity or expediency could justly be pleaded.

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man, dated August, 5, 1802. Par. 110 to 129, both
inclusive.

122. It is only necessary, therefore, to observe in this place, that in consequence of the governor-general's letter of the 5th August, 1802, the court of directors, in a letter under date the 2d September, 1803, state, that "they had given the most serious attention to this subject, and after maturely weighing all the arguments adduced by his lordship, although they differed from him in several of the positions he had laid down, yet, having in their former orders left a reserve for the future re-establishment of a college, and their finances being not then under a pressure equally severe as they were at the former period, they, on these considerations, and under all the circumstances of the case, were led so far to acquiesce in his lordship's desire, as to direct that the institution be continued until further orders."

123. Adverting to the final determination of the court for continuing the college, it appears that the suspension of the original order admitted that result, which was the ultimate effect of the court's mature deliberation. It seems extraordinary to impute contumacy to the governor-general in this transaction.

124. The expenses of the college during the first year, ending on 31st October, 1801, were stated by the governor-general in his letter to the chairman of the 5th August, 1802, to be 6,30,000 rupees, or 78,8501. and the future annual expenses were estimated at from three and a half lacs to four lacs of rupees per annum. By a letter from the governor-general in council, dated 5th June, 1805, relative to the college, it appears that the expenses of the college had been gradually reduced to rupees 3,38,988, or 42,375/. per annum, and that a further revision took place previously to lord Wellesley's departure, by which the future annual expenditure was paid at rupees 2,07,660, or 25,9571. These reductions arose principally from the separation of the writers of Madras and Bombay, from the institution under the court's orders.

125. In the general letter, judicial department, dated 254 May, 1798, from the court of directors to the governor-general in council, the court observes, "that from the experience which they had had of the good effects of the judicial and revenue arrangements established at the presidency of Bengal, they were extremely desirous, as far as local circumstances would admit, of seeing the same system introduced upon the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar. They were sensible, however, that the defective knowledge of the real resources of those countries, the turbulent disposition of the principal rajahs, and the little progress that had been made in establishing the company's authority, so as to make it felt and esteemed, rendered it improbable that the completion of that important object should be obtained as soon so was to be wished, for the prospe

rity

college, may be seen by reference to a book printed by Cadell and Davies, eptitled, College of Fort William in Bengal,"