We regret to notice the death of Sir Barnes Peacock,
first known as a great black-letter lawyer, and afterwards one of the ablest Legislative Members ever sent to India. He had the honour of causing an Act of Parliament to be passed for his suppression. He dominated the Legislative Council devised by Lord Dalhousie, a body of singular efficiency, and it became so independent, refusing absolutely on one occasion to pass a. Bill ordered from home, that Sir Charles Wood, alarmed for Ministerial responsibility, obtained an Act radically changing its constitution. Sir Barnes Peacock fought the battle chiefly on the ground that a legislator must legislate on his honour and conscience, and could not take orders ; but he thought, we believe, that a certain independence in the Indian Legislature would be a useful check on the House of Commons, which knows nothing, and may in a fit of philanthropy pass ruinous votes. He was perhaps wrong, as absolute power over the Empire must lodge somewhere ; but it was the error of a statesman who wished well to India and to England.
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