for nearly all the important offices, the choice must be made from among the Covenanted Civil Servants. The function here was not so much that of patronage as of jealously watched selection. There was indeed a goodly number of appointments open to military officers, to Europeans belonging to what was then styled the Uncovenanted Service, and to Natives of India — in all which cases the power of appointing did in some degree resemble patronage. Below these, in the lesser appointments, which were very numerous and which were open to the Natives, the patronage was vested in the local officers, generally Covenanted Civil Servants — subject always to the control of the Lieutenant-Governor.
His government was almost entirely civil; it had nothing to do with the troops stationed within its territory, or with cantonments, or with forts. The public works, comprising the trunk roads, canals and other large works of irrigation, were not under him, but were managed by a body styled the Military Board. Such were the primitive arrangements of that day for the department of public works, which was indeed in its infancy. Railways and electric telegraphs had not as yet been thought of practically. There was no local legislature in these Provinces. Indeed, the idea of legislative councils had not been formed for any part of India. Legislation had been conceived only as a branch of the executive government of India, and was conducted not at all in public, but in camerâ or inside the cabinet. Nevertheless, there were laws thus framed
