The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry 1853 - 1953 A Centenary Survey

In his presidential address he reminded the Congress that it was Disraeli as Leader of the Tory opposition in the House of Commons who critic pecl Lord Palmerston's original India Bill of 1858 on the grounds that it made no provision for the expression of the views! of the inhabitants of the country and who thus became in a sense the spiritual father of the Congress. [...] German philosopher wrote thus about the British pioneers of world trade the forebears and contemporaries of the men who inaugurated the BENGAL and other CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE in this country : The material existence of the English is based on commerce and industry and the English have undertaken the weight and responsibility of being the missionaries of civilisation to the world; for their comme [...] Of major significance in the present story this petition of which a facsimile is reproduced as the centre-piece to this book is the only original document relating to the genesis of the chamber which has survived the passing of the years and the destructive effects of the climate of Bengal. [...] For the rest of its existence the Company was henceforth an administrative agency acting for Parliament and the Crown and this was the position until its abolition in 1858."( 20 ) long covering letter accompanies a petition to the GovernoGeneral in Council being the humble memorial of the undersigned British subjects within the limits of the Presidency of Fort William" on the subject of the d [...] Briefly the constitutional results of the Mutiny were the abolition of the ramshackle and dependent Moghul Court at Delhi the disappearance of the last vestige of sovereignty other than British within British India and the termination of the remaining powers and privileges of the East India Company.