the Ministry might safely be trusted to get the upper hand in a governing body where each member would have an equal vote. For the vice of the old system re-appeared in the new; and the first Governor-General of British India found his hands tied yet more effectively than the erewhile Governor of Bengal. The new Councillors were formally enjoined to cultivate all good-will and harmony in the discharge of their appointed duties. But the sequel was soon to show what sort of value they attached to a form of words so little consonant with their own prejudices, or with the spirit of some other rules laid down for their especial guidance.
The Act of 1773 may be said i fact to have settled nothing save the right of Parliament to control the political management of the Company's affairs. It certainly curtailed in various ways the powers and patronage of the Court of Directors. It improved the internal economy of Leadenhall Street. It applied to British subjects in India those regular principles of law and justice which prevailed at home. But it served only to inflame, instead of allaying, the old conflict of rival authorities and unsettled jurisdictions; it reduced the Governor-General to a mere cipher, threw all his foreign policy out of gear, and gave birth to a long and violent quarrel between the Calcutta Council and the Supreme Court. The machinery designed for 'the better government of India' was all there; but the means of putting it together, and the power to make it work properly, had been forgotten.
