Page:Future of England - Peel.djvu/226

214 whom the supreme executive and legislative power yonder was vested. But under the Indian Councils Act of 1861, the governor-general was directed to nominate certain members "additional" to this council, for purposes of legislation only. It is material to observe that half of these additional members were to be non-officials, and that, as a matter of practice, most of these non-officials were always natives of India. Presumably, it is mainly to this statute that the King-Emperor referred in signifying that, from the first, representative institutions had been recognised in principle. Further, it is to be seen that the old executive council began to acknowledge a division of its functions by widening its personnel for legislative occasions.

The Act of 1892 went further, but on the same lines. The numbers and the powers of the legislative council were increased. Thus gradually the legislative council asserts itself, and becomes, in a certain modified measure, representative.

And now we arrive at the Indian Councils Act of 1909. Under this measure the viceroy's legislative council loses its name altogether to become the Imperial Council. It is now to have no less than sixty additional members, of whom thirty-five are nominated by the governor-general. But the remaining twenty-five are to be actually elected by specified electorates, and every three years there is to be a general election. Evidently, representative institutions of a species have been definitely inaugurated, especially as the general principles animating