THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE EMPIRE.
Jr the English nation had any degree of sensitiveness on the score of theoretical propriety, it never could endure the anomalous absurdities which exist in its scheme of government. With the most extensive empire in the world, it has within the scope of its authority every sort of government, from the purely military rule of Aden to the democratic monarchy of Canada. But the variation does not correspond with the variation of the subject races. There is, for example, no difference in the constituent population between Jamaica with its complete representation and Guiana with its mockery of representation. The scheme of go- vernment for the whole Colonial empire and that for India afford a still wider contrast.
India is governed in London by a twofold authority—the Court of Directors and the Board of Control. The Board of Control is a branch of the ordinary Executive Government ; but the Court of Directors is remarkably constituted. All persons having any kind of interest in Indian affairs may qualify themselves, by the Purchase of India Stock, to vote in the election of the Directors ; who are thus obliged to possess some sort of qualification to en- gage the predilections of the voters. Take the latest example. Mr. Wodehouse Currie asks the suffrages of the proprietors, and sets forth his claims. He is partner in a well-known banking-house, and therefore a man personally responsible for promoting the order and wellbeing of the empire. He has made a three-years tour of India, becoming acquainted with its actual condition, its practical wants, and its mode of government ; his tour has extended to out- lying provinces seldom visited by the European—for Mr. Currie is the traveller whose informing and animated letters from Rajpoo- tana enriched our pages about a twelvemonth ago. He has tra- versed India from Ceylon to the Himalayah mountains; spending months in the society of the Natives, speaking their language, and familiarizing himself with their usages : he has in such mode studied Cachmire, the Punjaub, and Rajpootana, and finished his education as a future candidate for governing in the society of officials in India. He knows India from top to bottom geographically, socially, and politically. These are the qualifications on which Mr. Wodehouse Currie relies. It is true that every candidate for election to the Court of Directors cannot hold out qualifications so studiously complete and ex- tended ; but at least every candidate must be able to show some reason why the addition of his name to the list of Directors will be advantageous to the government of India and to the interests of persons connected with India.
Contrast this with the London government of the Colonies, by a Secretary of State and his clerks. There is no Colonial Council like the Indian Council which the Directors consti- tute. What voice have the Colonies, or any of them, or any of their connexions, in appointing a single clerk ? What knowledge of the Colonies is required to an appointment ? What candi- date for office thinks it incumbent on him to traverse the whole Colonial empire, from Stewart's Island to the Lake of the Woods, from Hongkong to Demerara? Most Secretaries for the Colo- nies have visited Paris and Rome ; but it is not necessary that any of the department should have been even to the Cape of Good Hope. A direct connexion with a colony, indeed, is a dis- qualification for office, because few colonists are " gentlemen." No, you need not know much about the Colonies, to share in their government : the great point is, that you should be an opponent of "systematic colonization," and a systematic supporter of the Anti-Colonial Office.
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