defperate boldnefs of a few obfcure young men, who, having obtained, by ways which they could not comprehend, a power, of which they faw neither the purposes nor the limits, toffed about, fubverted, and tore to pieces, as if it were in the gambols of a boyish unluckiness and malice, the most established rights, and the most ancient and most revered inftitutions, of ages and nations. Sir, I will not now trouble you with any detail with regard to what they have fince done with thefe fame lands and landholders; only to inform you, that nothing has been fuffered to fettle for two feafons together upon any bafis; and that the levity and inconftancy of thefe mock legiflators were not the least afflicting parts of the oppreffions fuffered under their ufurpation; nor will any thing give ftability to the property of the natives, but an adminiftration in England at once protecting and ftable. The country fuftains, almost every year, the miferies of a revolution. At prefent, all is uncertainty, mifery, and confufion. There is to be found through these vaft regions no longer one landed man, who is a refource for voluntary aid, or an object for particular rapine. Some of them were, not long fince, great princes; they pof- . feffed treasures, they levied armies. There was a zemindar in Bengal, (I forget his name) that, on the threat of an invafion, fupplied the Soubah of these provinces with the loan of a million fterling. The family this day wants credit for a breakfaft at the bazar. I fhall now fay a word or two on the Company's care of the commercial intereft of those kingdoms. As it appears in the Reports, that persons in the highest stations in Bengal have adopted, as a fixed plan of policy, the deftruction of all intermediate dealers between the Company and the manufacturer, native merchants have difappeared of courfe. The spoil of the revenues is the fole capital which purchafes the produce and manufactures; and through three or four foreign companies transmits the official gains of individuals to Europe. No other commerce has an exiftence in Bengal. The tranfport of its plunder plunder is the only traffic of the country. I wish to refer you to the Appendix to the Ninth Report for a full account of the manner in which the Company have protected the commercial interefts of their dominions in the East. In effect, Sir, every legal, regular authority in matters of revenue, of political administration, of criminal law, of civil law, in many of the most effential parts of military difcipline, is laid level with the ground; and an oppreffive, irregular, capricious, unsteady, rapacious, and peculating defpotifm, with a direct difavowal of obedience to any authority at home, and without any fixed maxim, principle, or rule of proceeding, to guide them in India, is at present the state of your charter government over great kingdoms. As the Company has made this ufe of their truft, I fhould ill discharge mine, if I refused to give my most chearful vote for the redress of these abuses, by putting the affairs of fo large and valuable a part of the interests of this nation, and of man kind, into some steady hands, poffeffing the confidence, and affured of the support of this House, until they can be restored to regularity, order, and consistency. I have touched the heads of fome of the grievances of the people, and the abuses of government. But I hope and truft you will give me credit, when I faithfully affure you, that I have not mentioned one fourth part of what has come to my knowledge in your Committee; and farther, I have full reason to believe, that not one fourth part of the abuses are come to my knowledge, by that or by any other means. Pray confider what I have faid only as an index to direct you in your inquiries. If this then, Sir, has been the use made of the trust of political powers internal and external, given by you in the charter, the next thing to be feen is the conduct of the Company with regard to the commercial truft. And here I will make a fair offer:-If it can be proved that they have acted wifely, prudently, and frugally, as merchants, I fhall pass by the whole mafs mafs of their enormities as Statesmen. That they have not done this, their present condition is proof fufficient. Their diftreffes are faid to be owing to their wars. This is not wholly true. But if it were, is not that readiness to engage in wars which distinguishes them, and for which the Committee of Secrecy has fo branded their politics, founded on the falsest principles of mercantile fpeculation?.... [This he illustrated by various inftances, and concluded thus:].... Now I ask, whether they have ever calculated the clear produce of any given fales, to make them tally with the four million of bills which are come and coming upon them, fo as, at the proper periods, to enable the one to liquidate the other? No, they have not. They are now obliged to borrow money of their own fervants to purchase their investment. The fervants ftipulate five per cent. on the capital they advance, if their bills fhould not be paid at the time when they become due; and the value of the rupee on which they charge this interest is taken at two fhillings and a penny. Has the Company ever troubled themselves to inquire whether their fales can bear the payment of that intereft, and at that rate of expence? Have they once confidered the dilemma in which they are placed; the ruin of their credit in the Eaft Indies, if they refuse the bills; the ruin of their credit and existence in England, if they accept them? Indeed no trace of equitable government is found in their politics; not one trace of commercial principle in their mercantile dealing; and hence is the deepest and matureft wifdom of Parliament demanded, and the best refources of this kingdom must be ftrained to restore them; that is, to restore the countries deftroyed by the misconduct of the Company, and to restore the Company itself, ruined by the confequences of their plans for destroying what they were bound to preserve. If they had not constantly been apprized of all the enormi❤ ties committed in India under their authority; if this state of things had been as much a discovery to them as it was to many of us, we might flatter ourfelves that the detection of the abufes abufes would lead to their reformation. I will go farther: if the Court of Directors had not uniformly condemned every act which this Houfe or any of its Committees had condemned; if the language in which they expressed their difapprobation against enormities and their authors had not been much more vehement and indignant than any ever used in this Houfe, I fhould entertain fome hopes. If they had not, on the other hand, as uniformly commended all their fervants who had done their duty and obeyed their orders, as they had heavily cenfured those who rebelled, I might fay, These people have been in an error, and when they are fenfible of it, they will mend. But when I reflect on the uniformity of their fupport to the objects of their uniform cenfure; and the state of infignificance and difgrace to which all of thofe have been reduced whom they approve; and that even utter ruin and premature death have been among the fruits of their favour; I must be convinced, that in this case, as in all others, hypocrify is the only vice that never can be cured. Attend, I pray you, to the fituation and profperity of Benfield, Haftings, and others of that fort. The last of these has been treated by the Company with an asperity of reprehenfion that has no parallel. They lament, "that the power of difpofing of their property for perpetuity fhould fall into fuch hands." Yet for fourteen years, with little interruption, he has governed all their affairs, of every defcription, with an abfolute fway. He has had himfelf the means of heaping up immense wealth; and, during that whole period, the fortunes of hundreds have depended on his fmiles and frowns. He himfelf tells you he is incumbered with two hundred and fifty young gentlemen, fome of them of the best families in England, all of whom aim at returning with vaft fortunes to Europe in the prime of life. He has then two hundred and fifty of your children as his hoftages for your good behaviour; and loaded for years, and he has been, with the execrations of the natives, with the cenfures of the Court of Directors, and ftruck and blafted blafted with refolutions of this Houfe, he ftill remains the most defpotic power known in India. He domineers with an overbearing fway in the affernblies of his pretended mafters; and it is thought in a degree rash to venture to name his offences in this House, even as grounds of a legislative remedy. On the other hand, confider the fate of those who have met with the applaufes of the Directors. Colonel Monfon, one of the best of men, had his days shortened by the applaufes, destitute of the support, of the Company. General Clavering, whose panegyric was made in every difpatch from England, whofe hearse was bedewed with the tears, and hung round with eulogies of the Court of Directors, burst an honest and indignant heart at the treachery of thofe who ruined him by their praises. Uncommon patience and temper fupported Mr. Francis a while longer under the baneful influence of the commendation of the Court of Directors. His health however gave way at length; and, in utter despair, he returned to Europe. At his return the doors of the India Houfe were fhut to the man, who had been the object of their conftant admiration. He has indeed efcaped with life, but he has forfeited al expectation of credit, confequence, party, and following. He may well fay, Me nemo miniftro fur erit, atque ides nuili comes exeo. This man, whofe deep reach of thought, whose large legislative conceptions, and whofe grand plans of policy, make the most fhining part of our Reports, from whence we have all learned our leffons, if we have learned any good ones; this man, from whofe materials thofe gentlemen who have least acknowledged it have yet fpoken as from a brief; this man, driven from his employment, difcountenanced by the Directors, has had no other reward, and no other diftinction, but that inward funfline of the foul" which a good confcience can always bestow upon itfelf. He has not yet had fo much as a good word, but from a perfon too infignificant to make any other return for the means with which he has been fur nifhed |