Perhaps it may be convenient to explain briefly the official relation which exists between the Viceroy of India and the Members of his Council. All the orders of the Government of India issue in the name of the Viceroy, and the language of the official letters is so couched, that the uninstructed public believe that each subject has received the personal consideration of the Viceroy. But in reality, the work that comes before the Government of India is divided into several departments—the Political, Financial, Home, Legislative, Military, and so on. The Viceroy usually takes direct cognisance of only one department, viz. the Political; a separate Member of Council has the immediate control of each of the other departments. The official papers are submitted to the Viceroy and to each member of the Council in boxes, after they have been duly cooked and noted on by the departmental secretary and his underlings. In all ordinary matters of business, the member in charge of the department passes his own orders, which is usually done by signing his initials in approval of the secretary’s proposals, and these orders issue in the Viceroy’s name. In any difficult or doubtful cases, the member directs that the papers are to be circulated to the Viceroy and his colleagues, and under this division of labour the work of the country is easily carried on. Subjects on which there is any considerable difference of opinion, or of very great importance, are reserved for oral discussion by the Viceroy and his colleagues at their weekly or special meetings in the Council Chamber. As the Viceroy is held to be personally responsible to Parliament for the administration of India, his opinions usually prevail in Council, and those Councillors who are wise in their generation concur with their lord and master, whilst there remains to the unconvinced and independent Councillor the privilege of recording his dissent, for his own satisfaction, and sometimes in the pleasing hope that his minute may be laid before Parliament and read by a sympathising British public. Notwithstanding all this, there are some who have entertained a doubt whether the use of each member of the Council is altogether equivalent to the amount of his salary, and have accordingly dared to recommend the abolition of some of these appointments. But such persons are obviously little better than heretics and infidels.