degree, the incredible weight of influence which it will create. I will bring to the teft the confiftency of the great Whig families, of whofe fupport we have heard fo much from the right honourable Secretary; and I doubt not of the effectual affistance of every independent character in the Houfe. I do not, however, despair of the total rejection of the present bill. I will only add, that if we do not ftrangle the monster in its birth, it will deftroy the freedom both of the Parliament and People.

Mr. Wilkes, Dec. 1, 1783.

WITH regard to the prodigality and abuse that have of late marked the conduct of the Company's fervants, and brought on the embarraffments under which the Company avowedly labour, what rational ground of expectation is there for the House to form an opinion upon, that the fame prodigality and abuse will not continue, and any relief about to be given will prove efficacious? How is the House to know what the real ftate of the Company's affairs is at this moment? and without knowing it, how is it poffible to apply measures of relief adequate to the neceffity of the cafe? The statement of the Directors in their Report is one continued fyftem of fallacy, omiffion, and error. The letter of Mr. Haftings, dated Fort William at Bengal, December 16, 1783, with the three statements annexed, are equally imperfect and delufive. In order to convince the Houfe that this is not merely affertion, let us go into an examination of the Report of the Directors, and of the letter and statements fent over by Mr. Haftings, dated 16th of December, 1783, and the letter from the Governor General and Council, dated Bengal, Feb. 7, 1784, and examine the statements given in the different papers, and we fhall clearly perceive that the over credits taken, or the charges omitted or under-rated by the Directors in the estimate of their commercial fund for fix years, ending in March 1790, amount to more than three millions; other calculations

culations made by gentlemen, who understand the fubject better, carry the deficiency much higher, even to the amount of millions more than I have stated.

The Directors, in their eftimate of the charges in India, have under-rated those charges to the amount of 882,080l, a year, which in fix years would amount to 5,292,480l., they have omitted to provide for the interest of their bond debt in India, to the amount of 400,000l. a year; which in fix years come to 2,400,000l.; and they have taken credit for an increase of revenue from Benares, and from the Calcutta Customs, to the amount of 292,500l., which I am convinced will never be realized, and which in fix years will amount to 1,755,000l. These feveral fums taken together come to 9,747,4801.; from which it will result, that instead of having an annual furplus in India, of 1,091,5461., as the Directors have stated, the annual balance against their Indian revenue will be 1,624,5801., and yet nothing allowed for victualling the King's fships and pay of regiments, which already amount to 782,3911.-The whole over credit taken by the Directors in the above two eftimates, amount to 12,747,480l. on the estimated period of fix years.

The bills already drawn, or expected by the Company, amount to 4,819,2361.; the provision made by the Directors, for bills to be drawn in the whole period of fix years, is only ∙5,655,6681.; of which so great a part is already absorbed, that only 836,4321, is left to answer all the bills that may be drawn in the last four of the estimated years.

The bond debt in India amounts to 6,192,2071., and this was to be discharged, partly by the appropriation of certain debts, charged upon fome ruined princes and infolvent renters, whose debts the Directors faid themselves were good for nothing, at the fame moment that they took credit for them: and partly by the fuppofed favings out of a fuppofed annual furplus in India, ftated at 1,091,5461., which ought to be converted into -an annual deficiency of 1,624,5801.; that in this statement of

the

the bonded debt, nothing was charged for outstanding debts at Bombay, which must be confiderable, and of which there was no account produced; that the bonds of that Presidency (bearing nine per cent. intereft) were at fifty per cent. difcount, and that this government had no money to pay even the intereft.

All the calculations of the Directors in their eftimate are grounded on the affumption, that India is in a state of profound peace, and is likely to continue fo for fix years to come. Upon what authority is that affumption built? It appears by no authentic document, that India is yet in a state of peace; on the contrary, in the very laft difpatches that arrived from Bengal, the direct reverfe is allowed.

Mr. Haftings, who always writes currente calamo, and whose powers of the pen are infinite, is carried away by the rapidity. with which his quill runs, and in a paragraph much better written than I could pretend to have done, fays, with all imaginary felf-importance,

"During a period of five years, we have maintained a con“tinued and desperate state of war in every part of India; we "have fupported your other Prefidencies not by fcanty and "ineffectual fupplies, but by an anxious anticipation of all "their wants, and by a moft prompt and liberal relief of "them; we have affifted the China trade, and have provided larger investments from this Prefidency than it has ever fur"nifhed in any given period of the fame length, from the first "hour of its eftablishment to the prefent time. In the per"formance of these fervices we have fought but little pecu"niary affiftance from home; unwilling to add to the domestic

66

embarraffments of our honourable employers, we have "avoided drawing on you for fupplies, upon many occafions "that would have juftified us in feeking fuch affiftance. In "all the exertions of this government, great and fuccessful as

they haye been, it has upheld itself with its own resources: thefe, indeed, are not now fo unincumbered as at the com

66 mencement

"mencement of our difficulties; yet, confidering the various "purposes to which they have been applied, they are but in"paired, and require only a fhort interval of peace to restore "them to more than their former vigour and abundance."

The Chancellor of the Exchequer may have his hopes, that the Company will go on more profperously in future, than it has done hitherto; paft experience leads me to think the contrary. If therefore the right honourable gentleman carries his hopes with him, my fears remain, and I fee no reason to part with them for more pleasant sensations.

Having acquired the independency I poffefs in the fervice of the Eaft-India Company, it may be thought my conduct this day favours of ingratitude to my benefactors. To fuch an arrangement I beg leave to plead not guilty; no one of the fervants of the East-India Company wishes better to its real interests than I do. But I make a great diftinction between the Eaft-India Company and its component parts. For the Company I feel every poffible emotion of gratitude and respect. Towards the Court of Directors and the Court of Proprietors, I am impressed with very different fentiments. The first has uniformly honoured me with their oppofition; and, indeed, I believe Mr. Haftinge does not confider himself much more. obliged to them than I do. For the Court of Proprietors alfo I entertain no very eminent degree of respect. Having thus cleared myfelf from one imputation, another I yet remain liable to, requires that I should say something on that head. I mean with regard to Mr. Haftings, whofe name I have frequently had occafion to mention in the courfe of what I have faid, and undoubtedly not always with the most profound re-fpect. To Mr. Haftings, however, I feel no enmity; I have held a conteft with him for fix years together, but we are both men of too warm paffions to harbour any refentments against each other. The object of our conteft is now at an end, and fo ought the temporary impreffion of it to be. I can very fafely fay, I am not actuated by any unfriendly motive against

Mr.

Mr. Haftings perfonally, and I am perfectly ready to acquit him of feeling any against me. Every thing that I have faid this day relative to Mr. Haftings, I would have faid had Mr. Haftings been present. Indeed he may be faid to be present by his Representatives. [A loud laugh.] Mr. Haftings however knows, that I never was very anxious of concealing any opinion oppofite to his own, that he might happen to hold. I have uniformly convinced Mr. Haftings, while in India, that I had not that foible among the many others that might mark my character.

Mr. Haftings has great talents, but he is a man, whofe warmth of imagination, and force of feeling, diminishes, and in a great degree destroys the operation of his judgement, whence in a variety of inftances his predictions have proved untrue, and his opinions have been contradicted by events. In proof of the truth of this character, when I ftated in Council at Bengal the probability of Hyder Ally's invading the Carnatic, Mr. Haftings treated the idea as fanciful and improbable, and roundly afferted that the circumstance could not happen. How much Mr. Haftings was deceived, the world but too well knows. Again, Mr. Haftings placed a blind confidence in Modajee Boofla, and upheld him as the faft friend of the Company and their fervants, contrary to the advice and opinion of every other Member of the Council of Bengal, at the very time, as it afterwards appeared, that Modajee Boofla was most bufy in plotting and conducting intrigues with the other Indian powers, big with danger to the Company's interefts. In various inftances alfo Mr. Haftings, from the fanguine propenfity of his mind, fell a dupe to men much lefs able than himfelf, and was made the tool of the country princes. The great forte of Mr. Haftings is his power of the pen, by dint of which alone he can cover falfhood with plausibility, and almost lay fufpicion afleep. A greater proof of this faculty need not be fought after, than the letter of the Governor General, dated Bengal, December 16, fuggefts; in that letter, we had aniVOL. II.

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mated