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Rh frequently disregarded; orders from home were frequently disobeyed. It was necessary to surround the Governor-General with coadjutors, who would put an effectual curb on personal idiosyncrasy, especially on the idiosyncrasy of disobedience. The Act of 1773 was an attempt to found a system which should render independence on the part of the Governor-General impossible. The Government was to be carried on by the Governor-General and a Council. The Governor-General had a casting-vote, but in other respects had no superior powers to the members of his Council. A combination of three members — such as that which Sir Philip Francis and his two allies effected against Warren Hastings — rendered the Governor-General powerless. Experience soon showed the futility of the hope that the policy of an Empire could be directed by the fluctuating majority of a Board. Warren Hastings made no secret of his disgust at the unworkable system which he was called to administer, and of the difficulties which, owing to it, beset him in his attempt to guide the ship of State through the tempests of that troubled epoch.

In 1784 Mr. Pitt's Act was designed to mitigate the evil by reducing the number of Councillors to three, with the result that, if the Governor-General had but a single supporter in his Council, he would command a majority. Lord Cornwallis was sagacious enough to perceive that, even thus enhanced, the Governor-General's supremacy was precarious and to insist, as a condition of his acceptance of the post, that the