 When the crown proposed to take direct control over the colonies in India, he was tasked with defending Company rule, penning "Memorandum on the Improvements in the Administration of India during the Last Thirty Years" among other petitions.He was offered a seat on the Council of India, the body created to advise the new Secretary of State for India, but declined, citing his disapproval of the new system of rule.In 1851, Mill married Harriet Taylor after 21 years of intimate friendship.