Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/835

811 HISTORY.] INDIA 811 The Mutiny sealed the fate of the East India Company, after a life of more than two and a half centuries. ( i- The Company received its original charter of incorpora- 1 y s tion from Elizabeth in 1600. Its political powers, and the ters&amp;gt; constitution of the Indian Government, were derived from the Regulating Act of 1773, passed by the ministry of Lord North. By that statute the governor of Bengal was raised to the rank of governor- general ; and, in conjunction with his council of four other members, he was entrusted with the duty of superintending and controlling the governments of Madras and Bombay so far as regarded questions of peace and war ; a supreme court of judicature was appointed at Calcutta, to which the judges were appointed by the crown ; and a power of making rules, ordinances, and regulations was conferred upon the governor-general and his council. Next came the India Bill of Pitt (1784), which founded the board of control, strengthened the supremacy of Bengal over the other presidencies, and first authorized the historic phrase &quot;governor-general-in-council.&quot; The Act which abolished the Company s monopoly of trade (1833) also introduced several reforms into the constitution of the Indian Government, and added to the council an additional member, who might not be chosen from among the Company s servants, and was entitled to be present only at meetings for making laws and regulations ; it gave the authority of Acts of Parliament to the laws and regulations BO made, subject to the disallowance of the court of directors; it appointed a law commission ; and it gave the governor- general-in-council a control over the other presidencies in all points relating to the civil or military administration. The charter of the Company was renewed for the last time in 1853, not for a definite period of years, but only for so long as parliament should ordain. On this occasion the number of directors was reduced, and their patronage as regards appointments to the civil service was taken away, to make room for the principle of open competition. I nsfer The Act for the better government of India (1858), which rown. finally transferred the entire administration from the Company to the crown, was not passed without an eloquent protest from the directors, nor without acrimonious party discussion in parliament. It enacts that India shall be governed by, and in the name of, the sovereign of England through one of the principal secretaries of state, assisted by a council of fifteen members. The governor-general received the new title of viceroy. The European troops of the Company, numbering about 24,000 officers and men, were amalgamated with the royal service, and the Indian navy was abolished. By the Indian Councils Act (1861) the governor-general s council and also the councils at Madras and Bombay were augmented by the addition of non-official members, either natives or Europeans, for legislative purposes only ; and by another Act passed in the same year nigh courts of judicature were constituted out of the existing supreme courts at the presidency towns. It fell to the lot of Lord Canning both to suppress the Mutiny and to introduce the peaceful revolution that followed. As regards his execution of the former part of his duties, it is sufficient to say that he preserved his equanimity undisturbed in the darkest hours of peril, and that the strict impartiality of his conduct incurred alternate praise and blame from the fanatics on either side The epithet then scornfully applied to him of &quot;Clemency&quot; Canning is now remembered only to his honour. On November 1, 1858, at a grand darbdr held at Allahdbdd the royal proclamation was published which announced that the queen had assumed the government of India. This document, which has been called the Magna Charta of the Indian people, went on to explain the policy of political justice and religious toleration which it was her royal pleasure to pursue, and granted an amnesty to all except those who had directly taken part in the murder of British subjects. Peace was proclaimed throughout India on July 8, 1859; and in the following cold weather Lord Canning made a viceregal progress through the upper provinces, to receive the homage of loy.l princes and chiefs, and to guarantee to them the right of adoption. The suppression of the Mutiny increased the debt of India by about 40 millions sterling, and the military changes that ensued augmented the annual expenditure by about 10 millions. To grapple with this deficit, Mr James Wilson was sent out from the treasury as financial member of council. He reorganized the customs system, imposed an income tax and licence duty, and created a state paper currency. The penal code, originally drawn up by Macaulay in 1837, passed into law in 1860, together with a code of civil and criminal procedure. Lord Canning left India in March 1862, and died before recent he had been a month in England. His successor, Lord ailminis- Elgin, only lived till November 1863, when he too fell a tration - victim to the excessive work of the governor-generalship, dying at the Himalayan station of DharmsaU, where he lies buried. He was succeeded by Sir John Lawrence, the saviour of the Punjab. The chief incidents of his ad ministration were the Bhutan war and the terrible Orissa famine. Lord Mayo, who succeeded him in 1869, carried on the permanent British policy of moral and material progress with a special degree of personal energy. The AmbalA (Umballa) darbar, at which Shere Ali was recognized as amir of Afghanistan, Chough in one sense merely the completion of what Lord Lawrence had begun, owed much of its success to the personal influence of Lord Mayo himself. The same quality, combined with sympathy and firmness, stood him in good stead in all his dealings both with native chiefs and European officials. His example of hard work stimulated all to their best. While engaged in exploring with his own eyes the furthest corners of the empire, he fell by the hand of an assassin in the convict settlement of the Andaman Islands in 1872. His successor was Lord Nor thbrook, whose ability showed itself chiefly in the depart ment of finance. During the time of his administration a famine in Lower Bengal in 1874 was successfully obviated by Government relief and public works, though at an enormous cost; the gaikwar of Baroda was dethroned in 1875 for rnisgovernment and disloyalty, while his dominions were continued to a nominated child of the family ; and the Prince of Wales made a tour through the country in the cold weather of 1875-76. Lord Lytton followed Lord Northbrook in 1876. On January 1, 1877, Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India at a darbdr of unequalled magnificence, held on the historic &quot; ridge &quot; overlooking the Mughal capital of Delhi. But, while the princes and high officials of the country were flocking to this gorgeous scene, the shadow of famine was already darkening over the south of India, Both the monsoons of Famine 1876 had failed to bring their due supply of rain, and the 1876-78 season of 1877 was little better. The consequences of this prolonged drought, which extended from the Deccan to Cape Comorin, and subsequently invaded northern India, were more disastrous than any similar calamity since the introduction of British rule. Despite unparalleled importa tions of grain by sea and rail, despite the most strenuous exertions of the Government, which incurred a total expenditure on this account of 11 millions sterling, the loss of life from actual starvation and its attendant train of diseases was lamentable. The total number of deaths from disease and want in the distressed tracts in excess of the normal mortality for the two years 1876-78 is estimated to have raised the death-rate by 40 percent., or 5} millions. In tlie autumn of 1878 the affairs of Afghanistan again forced themselves into notice. Shere Ali, the amir, who