^{page 64 note 1} He was appointed to the Bengal Civil Service in 1765, and served until about 1779. Details of his career are not available; but we know that he presided at Calcutta over the celebrated suit which formed the basis of the charge of forgery on which Nandkumar was afterwards hanged, and that from about 1775 he was Chief at Dacca. Rouse was also a Persian scholar, and translated parts of the Ain-i-Akbari for his friend Major Rennell, who in return dedicated to him one of the maps in the Bengal Atlas. He gave assistance of a similar character to Robert Orme, the historian. In the year of his retirement from the India Board, Rouse published a Dissertation concerning the Landed Property of Bengal, dedicated to Henry Dundas. As a reward for his services, he was created a baronet in July 1791; and in February 1794, on the death of his brother, he succeeded to the family baronetcy of Boughton of Lawford, whereupon he changed his surname to Boughton. He sat in the House of Commons as member for Bramber, 1796–99, and died in February 1821.

^{page 65 note 1} In the report of the Select Committee of 1832 reference is made to a suggestion (by Sir John Malcolm) that one or two of the Commissioners should always be persons who had been employed in the Company's civil or military service abroad. Questioned on this point, the Board's Assistant Secretary pointed out that it was already open to the Government to appoint members with those qualifications; while to go further, and lay down such a requirement by law, might imply that special attention was to be given to the views of such a member. He added that soon after the establishment of the Board there was a secretary who had had Indian experience (Rouse is evidently meant), and that ‘the President found himself frequently annoyed by the obtrusion of opinions to which perhaps the party offering them was inclined to attach more weight and importance than properly belonged to them, from the mere circumstance of his having been in India.’

^{page 68 note 1} In his Administration of the East India Company (p. 129)Google Scholar, Sir John Kaye prints a letter written by Beaufoy, in which he says that in the hands of his predecessors (sic) the office of Chief Secretary had been practically a sinecure, as papers were usually signed in circulation and the Board seldom met. The latter statement is certainly erroneous.

^{page 70 note 1} We may note in passing that the alterations made by the Board in the Company's drafts were always written in red ink. This was doubtless the origin of the present India Office convention by which the Secretary of State uses red ink in making comments or corrections on the documents placed before him.

^{page 76 note 1} There had evidently been some idea of moving the Foreign Office thither, for the Times of February 29, 1816, states that ‘the new building now erecting in Cannon Row, Parliament Street, which, was intended for the Transport Office, is, in consequence of the abolition of that department, to be used as the Secretary of State's office for Foreign Affairs, which will be removed from Downing Street, the lease of the premises at present occupied having nearly expired.’

^{page 76 note 2} The Revenue branch was separated from the Judicial in 1826, and by 1838 there was a fresh branch for financial business, under the Accountant. Legislative business was transacted by the Judicial branch, Marine and Ecclesiastical by the Public.

^{page 79 note 1} In his diary (under date of March 18,1837) Hobhouse mentions giving a dinner party at which the youth was present. ‘The Rajah,’ he says, ‘is really a very superior young fellow. He gave us a very entertaining account of a walking tour in Scotland. On one occasion he went up to an old woman who was working in a field and asked his way; the woman raised her head suddenly, and exclaiming “The de'il! the de'il!” ran away,’ (Recollections of a Long Life, vol. v. p. 68.)Google Scholar

^{page 81 note 1} The names of the various Presidents will be found in the India Office List and other works of reference. A full list of the Commissioners is given at p. 367 of the Thirty-first Report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records (1870), but it starts only from 1790. Another list (omitting ex officio members) is contained in Haydn's Book of Dignities, together with a chronological list of the Secretaries.

^{page 83 note 1} It is interesting to note that Mr. B. S. Jones, Assistant Secretary to the Board, when giving evidence before the Select Committee of 1832, mentioned that at the time of the renewal of the Company's charter in 1813 he had suggested to the then President the expediency of creating the post of Secretary of State for India (to include the charge of the Cape, Ceylon, and Mauritius).

^{page 85 note 1} When the Bill of 1853 was under consideration, Mr. Bright unsuccessfully moved a clause enacting that the business of both Board and Company should be transacted in one building, and empowering the Directors to sell the Leadenhall Street house to provide funds for a new office.