intimated that its members are occupied in further enquiries, which will result in the issue of additional Orders. It is manifest that permanent officialism captured Mr John Burns, who manifested a dogged determination to stifle any discussion of Poor Law subjects in Parliament. It is to be hoped that in his new office he will show less rigidity. As things are, every reform is made in piecemeal fashion, at the pleasure of a department, and in accordance with its unbending traditions. The interests of the public, the welfare of the poor, the growing and galling burden of rates, and the time and labour gratuitously bestowed by 643 Boards of Guardians are subordinated to the rigid system of Whitehall.

Three other notable instances, out of many, may be given, in order to complete the indictment of the modern bureaucratic system. Two recent grants of 200,0007. each, for apportionment by the Local Government Board among Distress Committees, follow the dangerous precedent set by the Treasury years ago, of making arbitrary grants-in-aid of local rates, or for the benefit of particular districts, classes, or trades. The example has been imitated by the Board of Agriculture, and, more frequently, by the Education Department. The doles to Distress Committees show the futility of all attempts to make work that is not needed and cannot become productive, and to provide at the public charge employment for the unemployable. The London Distress Committee, with its gigantic failure of a colony at Hollesley, is only an extreme form of the evils resulting from this absurd policy. Another instance of ineptitude in the existing bureaucratic system is the present speed-limit of twenty miles an hour for motor vehicles, which is causing so much trouble and danger to the public and the sacrifice of hundreds of lives every year. The origin of the limit

is found in a mere Order of the Local Government Board, without whose express leave-which is rarely granted-no deviation can be made by local authorities. Why do not magistrates deal with these numerous cases on the old and safe legal ground of furious driving to the common danger, instead of regarding the edict of some unknown official, who is sheltered under the ægis of a mythical Board? A third instance is furnished by

the County Councils Act of 1888, which is a flagrant specimen of the custom of inserting clauses in recent Statutes with the object of protecting, confirming, or extending the powers of these phantom Boards. It bristles with official checks and restrictions. Provisional Orders can be issued, transferring powers under local Acts or from other authorities. By a single stroke of the pen many additional functions were imposed upon County Councils, to their great bewilderment. Some seventy times in all, such phrases occur in the Act as 'with the consent of the Local Government Board,' 'the leave of the Local Government Board being first obtained,' 'in such manner as the Local Government Board shall direct,' as prescribed by the Local Government Board.' On the other hand, official consent is required at every turn. Protests were raised in Parliament and in the Press at the time of the passing of the measure, but it was brought on suddenly, and adequate time for discussion was not secured. The Associations of County Councils and of Municipal Corporations have sought to obtain modifications and concessions, but without success, except in a few minor details. The practice of foisting into Acts of Parliament clauses to maintain and extend official supervision, and conferring not only administrative, but legislative and interpretative powers, has been adopted to a dangerous extent. No wonder that the Local Government Board has a parliamentary agent to protect its usurped authority.

The wide subject of bureaucratic government is not exhausted, but the specific instances presented above, and the criticisms offered, must suffice. The prevalent system, exhibited in varying degrees in nearly every public department, is the accretion of many years. It has been widened and strengthened with every opportunity, aided by the congested state of parliamentary business, by the ignorance or the indifference of the public, or by its inability to cope with a growing danger. When Sir Charles Dilke was President of the Local Government Board in 1883, he brought in a Bill to decentralise the office, and to transfer many of its powers to local bodies, but the measure was crowded out. He was one of the few Cabinet Ministers in recent years who possessed the capacity and the courage to deal with

such admitted and glaring evils. They have increased and been accentuated since that time. New authorities recently constituted, such as the Port of London Authority, the Water Board, the Public Trustee, the Insurance Commissioners, and the Labour Bureau, have made large additions to the Civil Service, at great cost, and have extended the sway of officialism. The less there is of central government in London, and the more local affairs are conducted in the light of day by qualified persons duly chosen by the ratepayers and responsible to them, the better will it be for the country.

Nor does the evil stop here. The multiplication of officials opens up a grave political danger. The 16,000 panel doctors are to a large extent State officers. The office of the Public Trustee began in 1908 with a staff of five clerks. There are now 310, and it is proposed to open branch offices in large provincial towns. Projects of what passes under the convenient euphemism of 'social legislation' will assuredly increase the number of officials. A solidarity of interests exists among them. They have their own organs in the Press, and their own trade unions, imperial, departmental, and local, for the protection of their supposed rights and privileges, especially for extorting more pay, larger pensions, shorter hours and longer holidays. Irrespective of other considerations of a commercial or an economic character, the illegitimate use of the leverage of votes, whether Imperial or municipal, is a valid reason for resisting demands for the nationalisation of land and mines, of railways and of traffic generally, or for taking over water, gas, and electric undertakings, or for control by the State of the means of production and distribution, about which social sciolists discourse so fluently and dogmatically. It is appalling to contemplate the possibility of several millions of men and women receiving salaries and wages from the Exchequer or from the rates, and using electoral influence for personal benefit.

Art. 4. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

1. The English Factories in India: a Calendar of documents in the India Office, etc., 1618-1645. By William Foster. Nine vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906-1913. 2. A Calendar of the Court Minutes, Etc., of the East India Company, 1635-1654. By Miss E. B. Sainsbury. Four vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907-1914.

3. A Geographical Account of Countries round the Bay of Bengal. By Thomas Bowrey. Edited by Sir Richard Temple. London: Hakluyt Society, 1909.

4. New Account of East India and Persia. By John Fryer. Edited by W. Crooke. Two vols. London: Hakluyt Society, 1909-1912.

5. The Constitution and Finance of English, Scottish and Irish Joint-Stock Companies, to 1720. By Dr W. R. Scott. Three vols. Cambridge University Press,

1910-1912,

6. A Pepys of Mogul India; being an abridged edition of the Storia do Mogor' of Niccolao Manucci. Translated by W. Irvine. London: Murray, 1913.

And other works.

*

IN a recent article we endeavoured to sketch the early and somewhat obscure progress of the East India Company towards political power, before the acquisition of Bengal had suddenly manifested the extraordinary destiny of England in the East. But the political progress of the Company can hardly be profitably studied without reference to the economic causes which created and maintained the Company; and in the following pages we propose to complete our review of early Anglo-Indian history by a brief examination of matters from an economic standpoint.

The fullest information regarding the East India Company is naturally to be found in the excellent calendars which are now being prepared by Mr William Foster and Miss Ethel Sainsbury.† Especially during the

* See Quarterly Review,' No. 437, Oct. 1913, British History before Plassey.'

+ Besides these, there are of course the Public Record Office Calendars, Colonial-East Indies; and certain records published in extenso,--Stevens'

first century of the East India Company's existence, their records combine in a remarkable degree the importance of State documents with the human interest of private papers, and form a series of manuscripts that can hardly be rivalled among the official records of the modern world for importance of subject and variety of content. These India Office Calendars are fuller and more abundant in quotation than the somewhat arid abstracts of the Public Record Office; and the change is entirely for the better. The student could hardly desire a more satisfactory guide to the India Office records; and, as the series grows to completion, he will be able, with a month's reading and a few days among the manuscripts, to form surer conclusions than if he had spent laborious years in the record-room without such a guide.

The Hakluyt Society also has recently provided us with two valuable documents- The Travels of Thomas Bowrey,' edited by Sir R. Temple, and Fryer's New Account,' edited by Mr W. Crooke. The first is certainly the more important, for it previously existed only in manuscript, whereas the second has always been wellknown in the 17th-century folio. But, though Fryer is not new, he has long stood in need of an editor and annotator; so both works merit attention. In many ways also the two works are complementary. Save for a brief visit to Masulipatam and Fort St George, Fryer spent all his time in Western India; while Bowrey lived on the coast of Coromandel and was a frequent visitor to all the Eastern ports. Fryer was a man of learning, a doctor of medicine and a member of the Royal Society; Bowrey was an unlettered seaman, a skipper of country ships that plied into the Bay of Bengal and the Malay Archipelago. Thus differing in position, training and experience, these authors, taken together, give a tolerably complete description of the English in India in the third quarter of the 17th century.

While scholars are thus liberally endowing us with new knowledge, it is exceedingly gratifying to note signs

6

'Dawn of British Trade to the East Indies' (Stevens, 1886); Birdwood & Foster's First Letter Book of the East India Company' (Quaritch, 1893); and the Letters received by the East India Company from its Servants in the East,' 6 volumes (Sampson Low, 1896-1902).