ABSTRACT
A T T H E IN D IA O FFIC E-CA STLEREAG H A N D W ELLESLEY
C a s t l e r e a g h was not allowed to remain long w ithout official employment. In July 1802 he joined, with P itt’s entire approval, the A ddington Ministry as President o f the Board o f Commissioners for the Affairs o f India. In October he was admitted, to his own satisfaction, and to the great advantage o f the State, to the Cabinet. ‘It is Mr. A .’s [A ddington’s] intention on Wednesday to propose my being o f the Cabinet to the K ing, which I am principally desirous of, from the present complexion o f our politics, it being always satisfactory in critical times to participate in Councils, to the support o f which you are associated. W hat will be the issue o f the present discussions it is difficult to say, but I think the chances preponderate o f a renewal o f hostilities [with France] at no distant period.’ 1 So Castlereagh wrote to Cornwallis on 19th O ctober 1802. His new office was the creation o f P itt’s India A c t o f 1784.2 Avowedly a compromise the Act established a system which was not intended to be more than temporary. In fact it endured as long as the East India Company itself-until, under the A c t o f 1858 the governm ent o f British India was transferred from the Company to the Crown.
