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thets, nor paffionate declamation in this House, nor all the fordid efforts of interested men out of this House, (of men whose acts in the Eaft have branded the British name, and whofe illgotten opulence, working through a thousand channels to delude and debauch the public understanding) can faften odium upon this measure, or draw an obloquy upon the authors of it. We have been tried in the cause of the public; and until we defert that cause, we are affured of public confidence and protection.

The Honourable Gentleman (Mr. Powys) has supposed for me a foliloquy, and has put into my mouth fome things which I do not think are likely to be attributed to me: he infinuates that I was incited by avarice, or ambition, or party spirit. I have failings in common with every human being, beside my own peculiar faults: but of avarice I have indeed held myself guiltless. My abufe has been, for many years, even the profeffion of several people; it was their traffic, their livelihood; yet until this moment, I knew not that avarice was in the cataogue of the fins imputed to me. Ambition I confess I have, but not ambition upon a narrow bottom, or built upon paltry principles. If, from the devotion of my life to political objects, if from the direction of my industry to the attainment of fome knowledge of the Conftitution, and the true interests of the British empire, the ambition of taking no mean part in thofe acts that elevate nations, and make a people happy, be criminal, that ambition I acknowledge. And as to party fpirit-that I feel it, that I have ever been under its impulse, and that I ever fhall, is what I proclaim to the world. That I am one of a party, a party never known to facrifice the interefts, or barter the liberties of the nation for mercenary purpofes, for perfonal emolument or honours; a party linked together upon principles which comprehend whatever is dear and most precious to free men, and effential to a free Conftitution, is my pride and my boast.

The Honourable Gentleman has given me one affertion, which it is my pride to make: he fays that I am connected

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with a number of the firft families in the country. Yes, Sir, I have a peculiar glory that a body of men, renowned for their ancestry, important for their poffeffions, diftinguifhed for their perfonal worth, with all that is valuable to men at ftake, hereditary fortunes and hereditary honours, deem me worthy of their confidence. With fuch men I am fomething-without them, nothing. My reliance is upon their good opinion; and in that refpect, perhaps, I am fortunate. Although I have a just confidence in my own integrity, yet as I am but man, perhaps it is well that I have no choice but between my own eternal difgrace and a faithful difcharge of my public duty; whilst these kind of men are overfeers of my conduct, whilst men, whose uprightness of heart and spotlefs honour are even proverbial in the country, (looking at Lord John Cavendish) are the vigils of my deeds, it is a pledge to the public for the purity and rectitude of my conduct. The profperity and honour of the country are blended with the profperity and honour of these illustrious perfons. They have so much at stake, that if the country falls, they fall with it; and to countenance any thing against its intereft, would be a fuicide upon themselves. The good opinion and protection of these men is a security to the nation for my behaviour, because, if I lose them, I lose my all.

Having faid so much upon the extraneous subjects introduced by the Hon. Gentleman into the debate, I fhall proceed to make some observations upon the bufinefs in queftion. When the learned Gentleman brought in his Bill last year, the House faw its frightful features with just horror; but a very good method was adopted to foften the terrors of the extravagant power that Bill vested in the Governor-General. The name of a Noble Lord (Lord Cornwallis) was fent forth at the fame time, whose great character lent a grace to a propofition, which, deftitute of such an advantage, could not be liftened to for one moment. Now, Sir, obferve how differently we have acted the fame occafion.

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Earl Fitzwilliam has been spoken of here this day in those terms of admiration with which his name is always mentioned. Take notice, however, that we did not avail ourfelves of the fame of his virtue and abilities in paffing this Bill through the House.

If fuch a thing were to have taken place as the institution of an Indian Secretaryship, (according to the fuggeftions of fome Gentlemen) this Noble Lord would certainly have been the very person whom, for my part, I fhould have advised his Majefty to inveft with that office. Yet, although his erect mind and spotless honour would have held forth to the public the fulleft confidence of a faithful execution of its duties, the objections in regard to influence upon a removeable Officer, are tenfold in comparison with the present scheme. The House must now fee, that with all the benefits we might derive from that Noble Lord's character-that although his name would have imparted a fanctity, an ornament, and an honour to the Bill, we ushered it in without that ceremony, to ftand or fall by its own intrinfic merits, neither fhielding it under the reputation, nor gracing it under the mantle, of any man's virtue. Our merit will be more in this, when the names of those are known whom we mean to propofe to this Houfe, to execute this commiffion. (Name them, faid Mr. Arden, across the House.) I will notI will not name them; the Bill shall stand or fall by its own merits, without aid or injury from their character. An Hon. Gentleman has faid thefe Commiffioners will be made up of our "adherents and creatures." Sir, there is nothing more eafy than to use disparaging terms; yet I should have thought the name of Earl Fitzwilliam would have given a fair prefumption, that the colleagues we shall recommend to this House for the co-execution of this bufinefs with that Noble Lord, will not be of a description to merit these unhandsome epithets. I affure the Hon. Gentleman they are not. I affure him they are not men whofe faculties of corrupting, or whofe corruptibility, will give any alarm to this Houfe, or to this country: they are men

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whose private and public characters ftand high and untainted; who are not likely to countenance depredation, or participate the spoils of rapacity. They are not men to fcreen delinquency, or to pollute the fervice by difgraceful appointments. Would fuch men as Earl Fitzwilliam fuffer unbecoming appointments to be made? Is Earl Fitzwilliam a man likely to do the dirty work of a Minifter? If they, for inftance, were to nominate a Paul Benfield to go to India in the Supreme Council, would Earl Fitzwilliam fubscribe to his appointment? This is the benefit of having a commiffion of high honour, chary of reputation, noble and pure in their fentiments, who are fuperior to the little jobs and traffic of political intrigue.

But this Bill, Sir, prefumes not upon the probity of the men ; it looks to the future poffibility of diffimilar fucceffors, and to the morality of the present Commiffioners, who are merely human, and therefore not incapable of alteration. Under all the caution of this Bill, with the responsibility it impofes, I will take upon me to fay, that if the aggregate body of this Board, deter mined to use all its power for the purpose of corruption, this House, and the people at large, would have lefs to dread from them, in the way of influence, than from a few Afiatics who will probably be displaced in confequence of this arrangement; fome of whom will return to this country with a million, fome with seven hundred thoufand, fome with five, befide the three or four hundred thousand of others, who are cut off in their career by the hand of fate. An inundation of fuch wealth is far more dangerous, than any influence that is likely to spring from a plan of Government fo conftituted as this proposedwhether the operation of such a mass of wealth be confidered in its probable effects, upon the principles of the Members of this House, or the manners of the people at large, more especially when a reflection that Orientalists are in general the most exemplary class of people in their morals, and in their deportment the most moderate, and correfponding with the diftinction of their high birth and family, furnishes a very reasonable presumption,

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tion, that the expenditure of their money will be much about as honourable as its acquirement.

I fhall now, Sir, conclude my speech with a few words upon the opinion of the Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Pitt.) He fays," he will stake his character upon the danger of this Bill." I meet him in his own phrafe, and oppofe him, character to character: I risk my all upon the excellence of this Bill; I risk upon it whatever is most dear to me, whatever men most value, the character of integrity, of talents, of honour, of present reputation and future fame; these, and whatever elfe is precious to me, I stake upon the constitutional fafety, the enlarged policy, the equity, and the wisdom of this measure; and have no fear in saying, (whatever may be the fate of its authors) that this Bill will produce to this country every bleffing of commerce and revenue; and that by extending a generous and humane Government over those millions whom the infcrutable deftinations of Providence have placed under us in the remoteft regions of the earth, it will confecrate the name of England amongst the nobleft of nations.

Mr. Fox, Dec. 1, 1783.

I HAVE ventured to confider ourfelves as re-affembled this day, after the neceffary adjournment of the feafon, under his Majefty's folemn promife, that we should not be interrupted in our deliberations on the affairs of the Eaft-Indies, and the fupport of the public credit, by any prorogation or dissolution of the Parliament: for, if his Majefty's Answer to our late Addrefs means any thing fhort of that, his Ministers, who have advised and perused it, have not only abused his Royal confidence, but grofsly deceived and infulted this House. For the Antwer in acknowledging the urgency of those objects, mentioned in the Address, as reasons against diffolving, and likewise the expediency of proceeding on them with vigilance, most undoubtedly conveys, that the House will be permitted not merely to meet, but to meet for the furtherance of thofe objects. On the

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