SPEECH, &c.

THE times we live in, Mr. Speaker, have been diſtinguiſhed by extraordinary events. Ha⯑bituated, however, as we are, to uncommon com⯑binations of men and of affairs, I believe nobody recollects any thing more ſurpriſing than the ſpec⯑tacle of this day. The right honourable gentle⯑man^*, whoſe conduct is now in queſtion, formerly ſtood forth in this houſe, the proſecutor of the worthy baronet ^† who ſpoke after him. He charged him with ſeveral grievous acts of mal⯑verſation in office; with abuſes of a public truſt of a great and heinous nature. In leſs than two years we ſee the ſituation of the parties reverſed; and a ſingular revolution puts the worthy baro⯑net in a fair way of returning the proſecution in a recriminatory bill of Pains and Penalties, grounded on a breach of public truſt, relative to the go⯑vernment of the very ſame part of India. If he ſhould undertake a bill of that kind, he will find no difficulty in conducting it with a degree of ſkill and vigour fully equal to all that have been ex⯑erted againſt him.

But the change of relation between theſe two gentlemen is not ſo ſtriking as the total difference [2] of their deportment under the ſame unhappy cir⯑cumſtances. Whatever the merits of the worthy baronet's defence might have been, he did not ſhrink from the charge. He met it with man⯑lineſs of ſpirit, and decency of behaviour. What would have been thought of him, if he had held the preſent language of his old accuſer? When ar⯑ticles were exhibited againſt him by that right honourable gentleman, he did not think proper to tell the Houſe that we ought to inſtitute no en⯑quiry, to inſpect no paper, to examine no witneſs. He did not tell us (what at that time he might have told us with ſome ſhew of reaſon) that our concerns in India were matters of delicacy; that to divulge any thing relative to them would be miſchievous to the ſtate. He did not tell us, that thoſe who would enquire into his proceedings were diſpoſed to diſmember the empire. He had not the preſumption to ſay, that for his part, having ob⯑tained in his Indian preſidency, the ultimate object of his ambition, his honour was concerned in executing with integrity the truſt which had been legally committed to his charge. That others, not having been ſo fortunate, could not be ſo diſin⯑tereſted; and therefore their accuſations could ſpring from no other ſource than faction, and envy to his fortune.

Had he been frontleſs enough to hold ſuch vain vapouring language in the face of a grave, a de⯑tailed, a ſpecified matter of accuſation, whilſt he violently reſiſted every thing which could bring the merits of his cauſe to the teſt; had he been wild enough to anticipate the abſurdities of this day; that is, had he inferred, as his late accuſer has thought proper to do, that he could not have been guilty of malverſation in office, for this ſole and curious reaſon, that he had been in office; had he argued the impoſſibility of his abuſing his power on this [3] ſole principle, that he had power to abuſe, he would have left but one impreſſion on the mind of every man who heard him, and who believed him in his ſenſes—that in the utmoſt extent he was guilty of the charge.

But, Sir, leaving theſe two gentlemen to alter⯑nate, as criminal and accuſer, upon what principles they think expedient; it is for us to conſider, Whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Treaſurer of the Navy, acting as a Board of Control, are juſtified by law or policy, in ſuſ⯑pending the legal arrangements made by the Court of Directors, in order to transfer the pub⯑lic revenues to the private emolument of certain ſervants of the Eaſt India Company, without the enquiry into the origin and juſtice of their claims, preſcribed by an act of Parliament?

It is not contended, that the act of parliament did not expreſsly ordain an enquiry. It is not aſ⯑ſerted that this enquiry was not, with equal pre⯑ciſion of terms, ſpecially committed under particular regulations to the Court of Directors. I conceive, therefore, the Board of Control had no right what⯑ſoever to intermeddle in that buſineſs. There is nothing certain in the principles of juriſprudence, if this be not undeniably true, that when a ſpecial authority is given to any perſons by name, to do ſome particular act, that no others, by virtue of general powers, can obtain a legal title to intrude themſelves into that truſt, and to exerciſe thoſe ſpecial functions in their place. I therefore conſider the intermeddling of miniſters in this affair as a downright uſurpation. But if the ſtrained con⯑ſtruction, by which they have forced themſelves into a ſuſpicious office (which every man, delicate with regard to character, would rather have ſought conſtructions to avoid) were perfectly ſound and per⯑fectly legal, of this I am certain, that they cannot be [4] juſtified in declining the enquiry which had been preſcribed to the Court of Directors. If the Board of Control did lawfully poſſeſs the right of executing the ſpecial truſt given to that court, they muſt take it as they found it, ſubject to the very ſame regu⯑lations which bound the Court of Directors. It will be allowed that the Court of Directors had no au⯑thority to diſpense with either the ſubſtance, or the mode of enquiry preſcribed by the act of parliament. If they had not, where, in the act, did the Board of Control acquire that capacity? Indeed, it was im⯑poſſible they ſhould acquire it.—What muſt we think of the fabric and texture of an act of par⯑liament which ſhould find it neceſſary to preſcribe a ſtrict inquiſition; that ſhould deſcend into minute re⯑gulations for the conduct of that inquiſition; that ſhould commit this truſt to a particular deſcription of men, and in the very ſame breath ſhould enable an⯑other body, at their own pleaſure, to ſuperfede all the proviſions the legiſlature had made, and to defeat the whole purpoſe, end, and object of the law? This cannot be ſuppoſed even of an act of parliament conceived by the Miniſters themſelves, and brought forth during the delirium of the laſt ſeſſion.

My honourable friend has told you in the ſpeech which introduced his motion, that fortunately this queſtion is not a great deal involved in the laby⯑rinths of Indian detail. Certainly not. But if it were, I beg leave to aſſure you, that there is nothing in the Indian detail which is more difficult than in the detail of any other buſineſs. I admit, becauſe I have ſome experience of the fact, that for the in⯑terior regulation of India, a minute knowledge of India is requiſite. But on any ſpecific matter of delinquency in its government, you are as capable of judging, as if the ſame thing were done at your door. Fraud, injuſtice, oppreſſion, peculation, en⯑gendered in India, are crimes of the ſame blood, [5] family, and caſt, with thoſe that are born and bred in England. To go no farther than the caſe before us; you are juſt as competent to judge whether the ſum of four millions ſterling ought, or ought not, to be paſſed from the public treaſury into a private pocket, without any title except the claim of the parties, when the iſſue of fact is laid in Madras, as when it is laid in Weſtminſter. Terms of art, indeed, are different in different places; but they are gene⯑rally underſtood in none. The technical ſtyle of an Indian treaſury, is not one jot more remote than the jargon of our own exchequer, from the train of our ordinary ideas, or the idiom of our common lan⯑guage. The difference therefore in the two caſes, is not in the comparative difficulty or facility of the two ſubjects, but in our attention to the one, and our total neglect of the other. Had this attention and neglect been regulated by the value of the ſe⯑veral objects, there would be nothing to complain of. But the reverſe of that ſuppoſition is true. The ſcene of the Indian abuſe is diſtant indeed; but we muſt not infer, that the value of our intereſt in it is decreaſed in proportion as it recedes from our view. In our politics, as in our common con⯑duct, we ſhall be worſe than infants, if we do not put our ſenſes under the tuition of our judgment, and effectually cure ourſelves of that optical illuſion, which makes a briar at our noſe of greater magni⯑tude, than an oak at five hundred yards diſtance.

I think I can trace all the calamities of this coun⯑try to the ſingle ſource of our not having had ſtea⯑dily before our eyes a general, comprehenſive, well-connected, and well-proportioned view of the whole of our dominions, and a juſt ſenſe of their true bearings and relations. After all its reductions, the Britiſh empire is ſtill vaſt and various. After all the reductions of the Houſe of Commons, (ſtripped as we are of our brighteſt ornaments, and [6] of our moſt important privileges) enough are yet left to furniſh us, if we pleaſe, with means of ſhew⯑ing to the world, that we deſerve the ſuperintend⯑ance of as large an empire as this kingdom ever held, and the continuance of as ample privileges as the Houſe of Commons, in the plenitude of its power, had been habituated to aſſert. But if we make ourſelves too little for the ſphere of our duty; if, on the contrary, we do not ſtretch and expand our minds to the compaſs of their object, be well aſſured, that every thing about us will dwindle by degrees, until at length our concerns are ſhrunk to the dimenſions of our minds. It is not a predilection to mean, ſordid, home-bred cares, that will avert the conſequences of a falſe eſtimation of our intereſt, or prevent the ſhameful dilapidation into which a great empire muſt fall, by mean reparations upon mighty ruins.

I confeſs I feel a degree of diſguſt, almoſt lead⯑ing to deſpair, at the manner in which we are act⯑ing in the great exigencies of our country. There is now a bill in this houſe, appointing a rigid inqui⯑ſition into the minuteſt detail of our offices at home. The collection of ſixteen millions annu⯑ally; a collection on which the public greatneſs, ſafety, and credit have their reliance; the whole order of criminal juriſprudence, which holds toge⯑ther ſociety itſelf, have at no time obliged us to call forth ſuch powers; no, nor any thing like them. There is not a principle of the law and conſtitution of this country that is not ſubverted to favour the execution of that project ^*. And for what is all this apparatus of buſtle and terror? Is it becauſe any thing ſubſtantial is expected from it? No. The ſtir and buſtle itſelf is the end propoſed. The eye-ſervants of a ſhort-ſighted maſter will em⯑ploy [7] themſelves, not on what is moſt eſſential to his affairs, but on what is neareſt to his ken. Great difficulties have given a juſt value to oeconomy; and our miniſter of the day muſt be an oeconomiſt, whatever it may coſt us. But where is he to exert his talents? At home to be ſure; for where elſe can he obtain a profitable credit for their exertion? It is nothing to him, whether the object on which he works under our eye be promiſing or not. If he does not obtain any public benefit, he may make regulations without end. Thoſe are ſure to pay in preſent expectation, whilſt the effect is at a diſtance, and may be the concern of other times, and other men. On theſe principles he chooſes to ſuppoſe (for he does not pretend more than to ſuppoſe) a naked poſſibility, that he ſhall draw ſome reſource out of crumbs dropped from the trenchers of penury; that ſomething ſhall be laid in ſtore from the ſhort allowance of revenue officers, overloaded with duty, and famiſhed for want of bread; by a reduction from officers who are at this very hour ready to batter the treaſury with what breaks through ſtone walls, for an increaſe of their appointments. From the marrowleſs bones of theſe ſkeleton eſtabliſhments, by the uſe of every ſort of cutting, and of every ſort of fretting tool, he flatters himſelf that he may chip and raſp an empirical alimentary powder, to diet into ſome ſimilitude of health and ſubſtance the languiſhing chimeras of fraudulent reformation.

Whilſt he is thus employed according to his po⯑licy and to his taſte, he has not leiſure to enquire into thoſe abuſes in India that are drawing off mo⯑ney by millions from the treaſures of this country, which are exhauſting the vital juices from mem⯑bers of the ſtate, where the public inanition is far more ſorely felt than in the local exchequer of England. Not content with winking at theſe [8] abuſes, whilſt he attempts to ſqueeze the laborious ill-paid drudges of Engliſh revenue, he laviſhes in one act of corrupt prodigality, upon thoſe who never ſerved the public in any honeſt occupation at all, an annual income equal to two thirds of the whole collection of the revenues of this king⯑dom.

Actuated by the ſame principle of choice, he has now on the anvil another ſcheme, full of dif⯑ficulty and deſperate hazard, which totally alters the commercial relation of two kingdoms; and what end ſoever it ſhall have, may bequeath a legacy of heart-burning and diſcontent to one of the countries, perhaps to both, to be perpetuated to the lateſt poſterity. This project is alſo under⯑taken on the hope of profit. It is provided, that out of ſome (I know not what) remains of the Iriſh hereditary revenue, a fund at ſome time, and of ſome ſort, ſhould be applied to the protection of the Iriſh trade. Here we are commanded again to taſk our faith, and to perſuade ourſelves, that out of the ſurplus of deficiency, out of the ſavings of habitual and ſyſtematic prodigality, the miniſter of wonders will provide ſupport for this nation, ſinking under the mountainous load of two hundred and thirty millions of debt. But whilſt we look with pain at his deſperate and laborious trifling; whilſt we are apprehenſive that he will break his back in ſtooping to pick up chaff and ſtraws, he recovers himſelf at an elaſtic bound, and with a broad-caſt ſwing of his arm, he ſquanders over his Indian field a ſum far greater than the clear pro⯑duce of the whole hereditary revenue of the king⯑dom of Ireland ^*

[9]Strange as this ſcheme of conduct in miniſtry is, and inconſiſtent with all juſt policy, it is ſtill true to itſelf, and faithful to its own perverted order. Thoſe who are bountiful to crimes, will be rigid to merit, and penurious to ſervice. Their penury is even held out as a blind and cover to their prodi⯑gality. The oeconomy of injuſtice is, to furniſh reſources for the fund of corruption. Then they pay off their protection to great crimes and great criminals, by being nexorable to the paltry frailties of little men; and theſe modern flagellants are ſure, with a rigid fidelity, to whip their own enormities on the vicarious back of every ſmall offender.

It is to draw your attention to oeconomy of quite another order; it is to animadvert on offences of a far different deſcription, that my honourable friend has brought before you the motion of this day. It is to perpetuate the abuſes which are ſubverting the fabric of your empire, that the motion is oppoſed. It is therefore with reaſon (and if he has power to carry himſelf through, I commend his prudence) that the right honourable gentleman makes his ſtand at the very outſet; and boldly refuſes all parliamentary information. Let him admit but one ſtep towards enquiry, and he is undone. You muſt be ignorant, or he cannot be ſafe. But before his curtain is let down, and the ſhades of eternal night ſhall veil our eaſtern dominions from our view, permit me, Sir, to avail myſelf of the means which were furniſhed in anxious and inquiſitive times, to demonſtrate out of this ſingle act of the preſent Miniſter, what advantages you are to derive from permitting the greateſt concern of this nation to be ſeparated from the cognizance, and exempted [10] even out of the competence, of parliament. The greateſt body of your revenue, your moſt nume⯑rous armies, your moſt important commerce, the richeſt ſources of your public credit, (contrary to every idea of the known ſettled policy of Eng⯑land) are on the point of being converted into a myſtery of ſtate. You are going to have one half of the globe hid even from the common liberal curioſity of an Engliſh gentleman. Here a grand revolution commences. Mark the period, and mark the circumſtances. In moſt of the capital changes that are recorded in the principles and ſyſtem of any government, a public benefit of ſome kind or other has been pretended. The re⯑volution commenced in ſomething plauſible; in ſomething which carried the appearance at leaſt of puniſhment of delinquency, or correction of abuſe. But here, in the very moment of the converſion of a department of Britiſh government into an Indian myſtery, and in the very act in which the change commences, a corrupt, private intereſt is ſet up in direct oppoſition to the neceſ⯑ſities of the nation. A diverſion is made of mil⯑lions of the public money from the public treaſury to a private purſe. It is not into ſecret negoci⯑ations for war, peace, or alliance, that the Houſe of Commons is forbidden to enquire. It is a mat⯑ter of account; it is a pecuniary tranſaction; it is the demand of a ſuſpected ſteward upon ruined te⯑nants and an embarraſſed maſter, that the Com⯑mons of Great Britain are commanded not to in⯑ſpect. The whole tenor of the right honourable gentleman's argument is conſonant to the nature of his policy. The ſyſtem of concealment is foſtered by a ſyſtem of falſehood. Falſe facts, falſe colours, falſe names of perſons and things, are its whole ſupport.

Sir, I mean to follow the right honourable gen⯑tleman [11] over that field of deception, clearing what he has purpoſely obſcured, and fairly ſtating what it was neceſſary for him to miſrepreſent. For this purpoſe, it is neceſſary you ſhould know with ſome degree of diſtinctneſs, a little of the locality, the nature, the circumſtances, the magnitude of the pretended debts on which this marvellous dona⯑tion is founded, as well as of the perſons from whom and by whom it is claimed.

Madras, with its dependencies, is the ſecond (but with a long interval, the ſecond) member of the Britiſh empire in the Eaſt. The trade of that city, and of the adjacent territory, was, not very long ago, among the moſt flouriſhing in Aſia. But ſince the eſtabliſhment of the Britiſh power, it has waſted away under an uniform gradual de⯑cline; inſomuch that in the year 1779 not one mer⯑chant of eminence was to be found in the whole country^*. During this period of decay, about ſix hundred thouſand ſterling pounds a year have been drawn off by Engliſh gentlemen on their private account, by the way of China alone ^†. If we add four hundred thouſand, as probably re⯑mitted through other channels, and in other me⯑diums, that is, in jewels, gold, and ſilver directly brought to Europe, and in bills upon the Britiſh and foreign companies, you will ſcarcely think the matter over-rated. If we ſix the commencement of this extraction of money from the Carnatic at a period no earlier than the year 1760, and cloſe it in the year 1780, it probably will not amount to a great deal leſs than twenty millions of money.

During the deep ſilent flow of this ſteady ſtream of wealth, which ſet from India into Europe, it [12] generally paſſed on with no adequate obſervation; but happening at ſome periods to meet rifts of rocks that checked its courſe, it grew more noiſy, and attracted more notice. The pecuniary diſcuſ⯑ſions cauſed by an accumulation of part of the for⯑tunes of their ſervants in a debt from the Nabob of Arcot, was the firſt thing which very particularly called for, and long engaged, the attention of the Court of Directors. This debt amounted to eight hundred and eighty thouſand pounds ſterling, and was claimed, for the greater part, by Engliſh gen⯑tlemen, reſiding at Madras. This grand capital, ſettled at length by order, at ten per cent. af⯑forded an annuity of eighty-eight thouſand pounds ^*.

Whilſt the Directors were digeſting their aſto⯑niſhment at this information, a memorial was pre⯑ſented to them from three gentlemen, informing them that their friends had lent likewiſe, to mer⯑chants of Canton in China, a ſum of not more than one million ſterling. In this memorial they called upon the Company for their aſſiſtance and interpoſition with the Chineſe government for the recovery of the debt. This ſum lent to Chineſe merchants, was at 24 per cent. which would yield, if paid, an annuity of two hundred and forty thou⯑ſand pounds ^†.

Perplexed as the Directors were with theſe de⯑mands, you may conceive, Sir, that they did not find themſelves very much diſembarraſſed, by being made acquainted that they muſt again exert their influence for a new reſerve of the happy parſimony of their ſervants, collected into a ſecond debt from [13] the Nabob of Arcot, amounting to two millions four hundred thouſand pounds, ſettled at an inte⯑reſt of 12 per cent. This is known by the name of the Conſolidation of 1777, as the former of the Nabob's debts was by the title of the Conſolidation of 1767. To this was added, in a ſeparate parcel, a little reſerve called the Cavalry Debt, of one hundred and ſixty thouſand pounds, at the ſame intereſt. The whole of theſe four capitals, amounting to four millions four hundred and forty thouſand pounds, produced at their ſeveral rates, an⯑nuities amounting to ſix hundred and twenty-three thouſand pounds a year; a good deal more than one third of the clear land-tax of England, at four ſhillings in the pound; a good deal more than double the whole annual dividend of the Eaſt India Company, the nominal maſters to the proprietors in theſe funds. Of this intereſt, three hundred and eighty-three thouſand two hundred pound a year ſtood chargeable on the public revenues of the Carnatic.

Sir, at this moment, it will not be neceſſary to conſider the various operations which the capital and intereſt of this debt have ſucceſſively undergone. I ſhall ſpeak to theſe operations when I come par⯑ticularly to anſwer the right honourable gentleman on each of the heads, as he has thought proper to di⯑vide them. But this was the exact view in which theſe debts firſt appeared to the Court of Directors, and to the world. It varied afterwards. But it never appeared in any other than a moſt queſtionable ſhape. When this gigantic phantom of debt firſt appeared before a young miniſter, it naturally would have juſtified ſome degree of doubt and apprehenſion. Such a prodigy would have filled any common man with ſuperſtitious fears. He would exorciſe that ſhapeleſs, nameleſs form, and by every thing ſacred would have adjured it to tell by what means [14] a ſmall number of ſlight individuals, of no con⯑ſequence or ſituation, poſſeſſed of no lucrative offices, without the command of armies, or the known adminiſtration of revenues, without pro⯑feſſion of any kind, without any ſort of trade ſuffi⯑cient to employ a pedlar, could have, in a few years (as to ſome even in a few months) have amaſſed treaſures equal to the revenues of a re⯑ſpectable kingdom? Was it not enough to put theſe gentlemen, in the noviciate of their adminiſ⯑tration, on their guard, and to call upon them for a ſtrict enquiry (if not to juſtify them in a re⯑probation of thoſe demands without any enquiry at all) that when all England, Scotland, and Ireland, had for years been witneſs to the immenſe ſums laid out by the ſervants of the Company in ſtocks of all denominations, in the purchaſe of lands, in the buy⯑ing and building of houſes, in the ſecuring quiet ſeats in parliament, or in the tumultuous riot of conteſted elections, in wandering throughout the whole range of thoſe variegated modes of inventive prodigality; which ſometimes have excited our wonder, ſometimes rouſed our indignation; that after all India was four millions ſtill in debt to them? India in debt to them! For what? Every debt for which an equivalent of ſome kind or other is not given, is on the face of it a fraud. What is the equivalent they have given? What equivalent had they to give? What are the articles of com⯑merce, or the branches of manufacture which thoſe gentlemen have carried hence to enrich India? What are the ſciences they beamed out to en⯑lighten it? What are the arts they introduced to chear and to adorn it? What are the religious, what the moral inſtitutions they have taught among that people as a guide to life, or as a conſolation when life is to be no more, that there is an eternal debt, a debt "ſtill paying, ſtill to owe," which muſt [15] be bound on the preſent generation in India, and en⯑tailed on their mortgaged poſterity for ever? A debt of millions, in favour of a ſet of men, whoſe names, with few exceptions, are either buried in the obſcurity of their origin and talents, or dragged into light by the enormity of their crimes?

In my opinion the courage of the miniſter was the moſt wonderful part of the tranſaction, eſpe⯑cially as he muſt have read, or rather the right ho⯑nourable gentleman ſays, he has read for him, whole volumes upon the ſubject. The volumes, by the way, are not by one tenth part ſo numerous as the right honourable, gentleman has thought proper to pretend, in order to frighten you from enquiry; but in theſe volumes, ſuch as they are, the miniſter muſt have found a full authority for a ſuſpicion (at the very leaſt) of every thing relative to the great fortunes made at Madras. What is that authority? Why no other than the ſtanding authority for all the claims which the Miniſtry has thought fit to provide for—the grand debtor— the Nabob of Arcot himſelf. Hear that Prince, in the letter written to the Court of Directors, at the preciſe period, whilſt the main body of theſe debts were contracting. In his Letter he ſtates himſelf to be, what undoubtedly he is, a moſt competent witneſs to this point. After ſpeaking of the war with Hyder Ali in 1768 and 1769, and of other meaſures which he cenſures (whether right or wrong it ſignifies nothing) and into which he ſays he had been led by the Company's ſervants; he proceeds in this manner— ‘If all theſe things were againſt the real intereſts of the Company, they are ten thouſand times more againſt mine, and againſt the proſperity of my country, and the happineſs of my people; for your intereſts and mine are the ſame. What were they owing to then? to the private views of a few individuals, who have [16] enriched themſelves at the expence of your influence, and of my country; for your ſervants HAVE NO TRADE IN THIS COUNTRY; neither do you pay them high wages, yet in a few years they return to England, with many lacks of pagodas. How can you or I account for ſuch immenſe fortunes, acquired in ſo ſhort a time, without any viſible means of getting them?’

When he aſked this queſtion, which involves its anſwer, it is extraordinary that curioſity did not prompt the Chancellor of the Exchequer to that enquiry which might come in vain recom⯑mended to him by his own act of parliament. Does not the Nabob of Arcot tell us in ſo many words, that there was no fair way of making the enormous ſums ſent by the Company's ſervants to England? and do you imagine that there was or could be more honeſty and good faith in the de⯑mands, for what remained behind in India? Of what nature were the tranſactions with himſelf? If you follow the train of his information you muſt ſee, that if theſe great ſums were at all lent, it was not property, but ſpoil that was lent; if not lent, the tranſaction was not a contract, but a fraud. Either way, if light enough could not be furniſhed to authoriſe a full condemnation of theſe demands, they ought to have been left to the parties who beſt knew and underſtood each others proceedings. It was not neceſſary that the authority of government ſhould interpoſe in favour of claims, whoſe very foundation was a defiance of that authority, and whoſe object and end was its entire ſubverſion.

It may be ſaid that this letter was written by the Nabob of Arcot in a moody humour, under the influence of ſome chagrin. Certainly it was; but it is in ſuch humours that truth comes out. And when he tells you from his own knowledge, what every one muſt preſume, from the extreme [17] probability of the thing, whether he told it or not, one ſuch teſtimony is worth a thouſand that contradict that probability, when the parties have a better underſtanding with each other, and when they have a point to carry, that may unite them in a common deceit.

If this body of private claims of debt, real or de⯑viſed, were a queſtion, as it is falſely pretended, be⯑tween the Nabob of Arcot as debtor, and Paul Benfield and his aſſociates as creditors, I am ſure I ſhould give myſelf but little trouble about it. If the hoards of oppreſſion were the fund for ſatisfy⯑ing the claims of bribery and peculation, who would wiſh to interfere between ſuch litigants? If the demands were confined to what might be drawn from the treaſures which the Company's records uniformly aſſert that the Nabob is in poſſeſſion of; or if he had mines of gold or ſilver, or diamonds (as we know that he has none) theſe gentlemen might break open his hoards, or dig in his mines, without any diſturbance from me. But the gentlemen on the other ſide of the Houſe know as well as I do, and they dare not contradict me, that the Nabob of Arcot and his creditors are not adverſaries, but colluſive parties, and that the whole tranſaction is under a falſe colour and falſe names. The litigation is not, nor ever has been, between their rapacity and his hoarded riches. No; it is between him and them combining and con⯑federating on one ſide, and the public revenues, and the miſerable inhabitants of a ruined country, on the other. Theſe are the real plaintiffs and the real defendants in the ſuit. Refuſing a ſhilling from his hoards for the ſatisfaction of any demand, the Nabob of Arcot is always ready, nay, he earneſtly, and with eagerneſs and paſſion, contends for de⯑livering up to theſe pretended creditors his territory and his ſubjects. It is therefore not from trea⯑ſuries [18] and mines, but from the food of your unpaid armies, from the blood withheld from the veins, and whipt out of the backs of the moſt miſerable of men, that we are to pamper extortion, uſury, and peculation, under the falſe names of debtors and creditors of ſtate.

The great patron of theſe creditors (to whoſe honour they ought to erect ſtatues) the right ho⯑nourable Gentleman ^*, in ſtating the merits which recommended them to his favour, has ranked them under three grand diviſions. The firſt, the creditors of 1767; then the creditors of the Ca⯑valry Loan; and laſtly, the creditors of the Loan in 1777. Let us examine them, one by one, as they paſs in review before us.

The firſt of theſe loans, that of 1767, he inſiſts, has an indiſputable claim upon the public juſtice. The creditors, he affirms, lent their money publicly; they advanced it with the expreſs knowledge and approbation of the Company; and it was contract⯑ed at the moderate intereſt of ten per cent. In this loan the demand is, according to him, not only juſt, but meritorious in a very high degree; and one would be inclined to believe he thought ſo, becauſe he has put it laſt in the proviſion he has made for theſe claims.

I readily admit this debt to ſtand the faireſt of the whole; for whatever may be my ſuſpicious concerning a part of it, I can convict it of no⯑thing worſe than the moſt enormous uſury. But I can convict upon the ſpot the Right honour⯑able Gentleman, of the moſt daring miſrepreſenta⯑tion in every one fact, without any exception, that he has alledged in defence of this loan, and of his own conduct with regard to it. I will ſhew you that this debt was never contracted with the know⯑ledge [19] of the Company; that it had not their ap⯑probation; that they received the firſt intelligence of it with the utmoſt poſſible ſurprize, indignation, and alarm.

So far from being previouſly apprized of the tranſaction from its origin, that it was two years before the Court of Directors obtained any official intelligence of it. ‘The dealings of the ſervants with the Nabob were concealed from the firſt, until they were found out, (ſays Mr. Sayer, the Company's council) by the report of the country.’ The Preſidency, however, at laſt thought proper to ſend an official account. On this the Directors tell them, ‘to your great reproach it has been con⯑cealed from us. We cannot but ſuſpect this debt to have had its weight in your propoſed aggran⯑dizement of Mahomed Ali [the Nabob of Arcot]; but whether it has or has not, certain it is, you are guilty of an high breach of duty in con⯑cealing it from us.’

Theſe expreſſions, concerning the ground of the tranſaction, its effect, and its clandeſtine na⯑ture, are in the letters, bearing date March 17, 1769. After receiving a more full account on the 23d March 1770, they ſtate, that ‘Meſſrs. John Pybus, John Call, and James Bour⯑chier, as truſtees for themſelves and others of the Nabob's private creditors, had proved a deed of aſſignment upon the Nabob and his ſon of FIFTEEN diſtricts of the Nabob's coun⯑try, the revenues of which yielded, in time of peace, eight lacks of pagodas [£.320,000, ſter⯑ling] annually; and likewiſe an aſſignment of the yearly tribute paid the Nabob from the Rajah of Tanjore, amounting to four lacks of rupees [£.40,000].’ The territorial revenue, at that time poſſeſſed by theſe gentlemen, without the knowledge or conſent of their maſters, amounted [20] to three hundred and ſixty thouſand pound ſter⯑ling annually. They were making rapid ſtrides to the entire poſſeſſion of the country, when the Directors, whom the right honourable gentleman ſtates as having authoriſed theſe proceedings, were kept in ſuch profound ignorance of this royal acquiſition of territorial revenue by their ſervants, that in the ſame letter they ſay, ‘this aſſign⯑ment was obtained by three of the members of your Board, in January 1767, yet we do not find the leaſt trace of it upon your Conſultations, until Auguſt 1768, nor do any of your letters to us afford any information relative to ſuch tranſac⯑tions, till the 1ſt of November 1768. By your laſt letters of the 8th of May 1769, you bring the whole proceedings to light in one view.’

As to the previous knowledge of the Com⯑pany, and its ſanction to the debts, you ſee that this aſſertion of that knowledge is utterly un⯑founded. But did the Directors approve of it, and ratify the tranſaction when it was known? The very reverſe. On the ſame 3d of March, the Directors declare, ‘upon an impartial examination of the whole conduct of our late Governor and Council of Fort George (Madras) and on the fulleſt conſideration, that the ſaid Governor and Council have, in notorious violation of the truſt re⯑poſed in them, manifeſtly preſerred the intereſt of private individuals to that of the Company, in per⯑mitting the aſſignment of the revenues of certain valuable diſtricts, to a very large amount, from the Nabob to individuals’ —and then highly aggra⯑vating their crimes, they add ‘we order and direct that you do examine, in the moſt impartial man⯑ner, all the above-mentioned tranſactions; and that you puniſh by ſuſpenſion, degradation, diſ⯑miſſion, or otherwiſe, as to you ſhall ſeem meet, all and every ſuch ſervant or ſervants of the Com⯑pany, [21] who may by you be found guilty of any of the above offences.’ ‘We had (ſay the Di⯑rectors) the mortification to find that the ſervants of the Company, who had been raiſed, ſupported, and owed their preſent opulence to the advantages gained in ſuch ſervice, have in this inſtance moſt unfaithfully betrayed their truſt, abandoned the Company's intereſt, and proſtituted its influence to accompliſh the purpoſes of individuals, whilſt the intereſt of the Company is almoſt wholly neglected, and payment to us rendered extremely preca⯑rious.’ Here then is the rock of approbation of the Court of Directors, on which the right ho⯑nourable gentleman ſays this debt was founded. Any Member, Mr. Speaker, who ſhould come into the Houſe, on my reading this ſentence of condemnation of the Court of Directors againſt their unfaithful ſervants, might well imagine that he had heard an harſh, ſevere, unqualified invective againſt the preſent miniſterial Board of Control. So exactly do the proceedings of the patrons of this abuſe tally with thoſe of the actors in it, that the expreſ⯑ſions uſed in the condemnation of the one, may ſerve for the reprobation of the other, without the change of a word.

To read you all the expreſſions of wrath and in⯑dignation fulminated in this diſpatch againſt the meritorious creditors of the right honourable gen⯑tleman, who according to him have been ſo fully approved by the Company, would be to read the whole.

The right honourable gentleman, with an addreſs peculiar to himſelf, every now and then ſlides in the Preſidency of Madras, as ſynonymous to the Company. That the Preſidency did approve the debt, is certain. But the right honourable gentle⯑man, as prudent in ſuppreſſing, as ſkilful in bring⯑ing forward his matter, has not choſen to tell you [22] that the Preſidency were the very perſons guilty of contracting this loan; creditors themſelves, and agents, and truſtees for all the other creditors. For this the Court of Directors accuſe them of breach of truſt; and for this the right honourable gentleman conſiders them as perfectly good autho⯑rity for thoſe claims. It is pleaſant to hear a gentleman of the law quote the approbation of creditors as an authority for their own debt.

How they came to contract the debt to them⯑ſelves, how they came to act as agents for thoſe whom they ought to have controlled, is for your enquiry. The policy of this debt was announced to the Court of Directors, by the very perſons con⯑cerned in creating it. ‘Till very lately, (ſay the Preſidency) the Nabob placed his depen⯑dence on the Company. Now he has been taught by ill-adviſers, that an intereſt out of doors may ſtand him in good ſtead. He has been made to believe that his private creditors have power and intereſt to over-rule the Court of Directors ^*.’ The Nabob was not miſin⯑formed. The private creditors inſtantly qualified a vaſt number of votes; and having made them⯑ſelves maſters of the Court of Proprietors, as well as extending a powerful cabal in other places as important, they ſo completely overturned the au⯑thority of the Court of Directors at home and abroad, that this poor baffled government was ſoon obliged to lower its tone. It was glad to be ad⯑mitted into a partnerſhip with its own ſervants. [23] The Court of Directors eſtabliſhing the debt which they had reprobated as a breach of truſt, and which was planned for the ſubverſion of their authority, ſettled its payments on a par with thoſe of the pub⯑lic; and even ſo, were not able to obtain peace or even equality in their demands. All the conſe⯑quences lay in a regular and irreſiſtible train. By employing their influence for the recovery of this debt, their orders, iſſued in the ſame breath, againſt creating new debts, only animated the ſtrong deſires of their ſervants to this prohibited prolific ſport, and it ſoon produced a ſwarm of ſons and daugh⯑ters, not in the leaſt degenerated from the virtue of their parents.

From that moment, the authority of the Court of Directors expired in the Carnatic, and every where elſe. ‘Every man, ſays the Preſidency, who oppoſes the government and its meaſures, finds an immediate countenance from the Na⯑bob, even our diſcarded officers, however un⯑worthy, are received into the Nabob's ſervice ^*.’ It was indeed a matter of no wonderful ſagacity to determine whether the Court of Directors, with their miſerable ſalaries to their ſervants, of four or five hundred pound a year, or the diſtributor of mil⯑lions, was moſt likely to be obeyed. It was an in⯑vention beyond the imagination of all the ſpecu⯑latiſts of our ſpeculating age, to ſee a govern⯑ment quietly ſettled in one and the ſame town, compoſed of two diſtinct members; one to pay ſcantily for obedience, and the other to bribe high for rebellion and revolt.

[24]The next thing which recommends this particu⯑lar debt to the right honourable gentleman, is, it ſeems, the moderate intereſt of ten per cent. It would be loſt labour to obſerve on this aſ⯑ſertion. The Nabob, in a long apologetic letter ^* for the tranſaction between him and the body of the creditors, ſtates the fact, as I ſhall ſtate it to you. In the accumulation of this debt, the firſt intereſt paid was from thirty, to thirty-ſix per cent. it was then brought down to twenty-five per cent. at length it was reduced to twenty; and there it found its reſt. During the whole proceſs, as often as any of theſe monſtrous intereſts fell into an ar⯑rear (into which they were continually falling) the arrear, formed into a new capital^†, was added to the old, and the ſame intereſt of twenty per cent. accrued upon both. The Company, having got ſome ſcent of the enormous uſury which prevailed at Madras, thought it neceſſary to interfere, and to order all intereſts to be lowered to ten per cent. This order, which contained no exception, though it by no means pointed particularly to this claſs of debts, came like a thunder-clap on the Nabob. He conſidered his political credit as ruined; but to find a remedy to this unexpected evil, he again ad⯑ded to the old principal twenty per cent. intereſt accruing for the laſt year. Thus a new fund was formed; and it was on that accumulation of va⯑rious principals, and intereſts heaped upon intereſts, [25] not on the ſum originally lent, as the right ho⯑nourable Gentleman would make you believe, that ten per cent. was ſettled on the whole.

When you conſider the enormity of the intereſt at which theſe debts were contracted, and the ſe⯑veral intereſts added to the principal, I believe you will not think me ſo ſceptical, if I ſhould doubt, whether for this debt of £. 880,000, the Nabob ever ſaw £. 100,000 in real money. The right honourable gentleman ſuſpecting, with all his abſolute domi⯑nion over fact, that he never will be able to defend even this venerable patriarchal job, though ſanctified by its numerous iſſue, and hoary with preſcriptive years, has recourſe to recrimination, the laſt reſource of guilt. He ſays that this loan of 1767 was provided for in Mr. Fox's India bill; and judging of others by his own nature and principles, he more than inſi⯑nuates, that this proviſion was made, not from any ſenſe of merit in the claim, but from partiality to General Smith, a proprietor, and an agent for that debt. If partiality could have had any weight againſt juſtice and policy, with the then miniſters and their friends, General Smith had titles to it. But the right honourable gentleman knows as well as I do, that General Smith was very far from looking on himſelf as partially treated in the ar⯑rangements of that time; indeed what man dared to hope for private partiality in that ſacred plan for relief to nations?

It is not neceſſary that the right honourable gentleman ſhould ſarcaſtically call that time to our recollection. Well do I remember every circum⯑ſtance of that memorable period. God forbid I ſhould forget it. O illuſtrious diſgrace! O victo⯑rious defeat! May your memorial be freſh and new to the lateſt generations! May the day of that ge⯑nerous conflict be ſtamped in characters never to be cancelled or worn out from the records of time! [26] Let no man hear of us, who ſhall not hear that in a ſtruggle againſt the intrigues of courts, and the perfidious levity of the multitude, we fell in the cauſe of honour, in the cauſe of our country, in the cauſe of human nature itſelf! But if Fortune ſhould be as powerful over Fame, as ſhe has been prevalent over Virtue, at leaſt our conſcience is beyond her juriſdiction. My poor ſhare in the ſupport of that great meaſure, no man ſhall raviſh from me. It ſhall be ſafely lodged in the ſanctuary of my heart; never, never to be torn from thence, but with thoſe holds that grapple it to life.

I ſay, I well remember that bill, and every one of its honeſt and its wiſe proviſions. It is not true that this debt was ever protected or inforced, or any revenue whatſoever ſet apart for it. It was left in that bill juſt where it ſtood; to be paid or not to be paid out of the Nabob's private treaſures, ac⯑cording to his own diſcretion. The Company had actually given it their ſanction; though always re⯑lying for its validity on the ſole ſecurity of the faith of him ^* who without their knowlege or conſent entered into the original obligation. It had no other ſanction; it ought to have had no other. So far was Mr. Fox's bill from provid⯑ing funds for it, as this miniſtry have wickedly done for this, and for ten times worſe tranſac⯑tions, out of the public eſtate, that an expreſs clauſe immediately preceded, poſitively forbidding any Britiſh ſubject from receiving aſſignments upon any part of the territorial revenue, on any pretence whatſoever ^†.

You recollect, Mr. Speaker, that the Chan⯑cellor of the Exchequer ſtrongly profeſſed to retain every part of Mr. Fox's bill, which was [27] intended to prevent abuſe; but in his India bill, which (let me do juſtice) is as able and ſkilful a performance for its own purpoſes, as ever iſſued from the wit of man, premeditating this ini⯑quity—hoc ipſum ut ſtrueret Trojamque aperiret Achivis, expunged this eſſential clauſe, broke down the fence which was raiſed to cover the pub⯑lic property againſt the rapacity of his partizans, and thus levelling every obſtruction, he made a firm, broad, highway for ſin and death, for uſury and oppreſſion, to renew their ravages throughout the devoted revenues of the Carnatic.

The tenor, the policy, and the conſequences of this debt of 1767, are, in the eyes of Miniſtry, ſo excellent, that its merits are irreſiſtible; and it takes the lead to give credit and countenance to all the reſt. Along with this choſen body of heavy-armed infantry, and to ſupport it, in the line, the right honourable gentleman has ſtationed his corps of black cavalry. If there be any advantage between this debt and that of 1769, according to him the cavalry debt has it. It is not a ſubject of defence; it is a theme of panegyric. Liſten to the right ho⯑nourable gentleman, and you will find it was con⯑tracted to ſave the country; to prevent mutiny in armies; to introduce oeconomy in revenues; and for all theſe honourable purpoſes, it originated at the expreſs deſire, and by the repreſentative autho⯑rity of the Company itſelf.

Firſt, let me ſay a word to the authority. This debt was contracted not by the authority of the Company, not by its repreſentatives (as the right honourable Gentleman has the unparalleled con⯑fidence to aſſert) but in the ever-memorable period of 1777, by the uſurped power of thoſe who re⯑belliouſly, in conjunction with the Nabob of Ar⯑cot, had overturned the lawful government of Madras. For that rebellion, this Houſe unani⯑mouſly [28] directed a public proſecution. The delin⯑quents, after they had ſubverted Government, in order to make to themſelves a party to ſupport them in their power, are univerſally known to have dealt jobs about to the right and to the left, and to any who were willing to receive them. This uſurpation, which the right honourable Gentleman well knows, was brought about by and for the great maſs of theſe pretended debts, is the authority which is ſet up by him to repre⯑ſent the Company; to repreſent that Company which from the firſt moment of their hearing of this corrupt and fraudulent tranſaction, to this hour, have uniformly diſowned and diſavowed it.

So much for the authority. As to the facts, partly true, and partly colourable, as they ſtand record⯑ed, they are in ſubſtance theſe.—The Nabob of Arcot, as ſoon as he had thrown off the ſuperio⯑rity of this country by means of theſe creditors, kept up a great army which he never paid. Of courſe, his ſoldiers were generally in a ſtate of muti⯑ny ^*. The uſurping council ſay that they laboured hard with their maſter the Nabob, to perſuade him to reduce theſe mutinous and uſeleſs troops. He conſented; but as uſual, pleaded inability to pay them their arrears. Here was a difficulty. The Na⯑bob had no money; the Company had no money; every public ſupply was empty. But there was one reſource which no ſeaſon has ever yet dried up in that climate. The ſoucars were at hand; that is, private Engliſh money-jobbers offered their aſſiſt⯑ance. Meſſieurs Taylor, Majendie and Call, pro⯑poſed to advance the ſmall ſum of £. 160,000 to pay off the Nabob's black cavalry, provided the Company's authority was given for their loan. This was the great point of policy always aimed [29] at, and purſued through a hundred devices, by the ſervants at Madras. The Preſidency, who them⯑ſelves had no authority for the functions they pre⯑ſumed to exerciſe, very readily gave the ſanction of the Company, to thoſe ſervants who knew that the Company, whoſe ſanction was demanded, had poſitively prohibited all ſuch tranſactions.

However, ſo far as the reality of the dealing goes, all is hitherto fair and plauſible; and here the right honourable Gentleman concludes, with commend⯑able prudence, his account of the buſineſs. But here it is I ſhall beg leave to commence my ſup⯑plement: for the gentleman's diſcreet modeſty has led him to cut the thread of the ſtory ſomewhat abruptly. One of the moſt eſſential parties is quite forgotten. Why ſhould the epiſode of the poor Nabob be omitted? When that prince chuſes it, no body can tell his ſtory better. Excuſe me, if I apply again to my book, and give it you from the firſt hand; from the Nabob himſelf.

‘Mr. Stratton became acquainted with this, and got Mr. Taylor and others to lend me four lacks of pagodas towards diſcharging the arrears of pay of my troops. Upon this, I wrote a letter of thanks to Mr. Stratton; and upon the faith of this money being paid immediately, I ordered many of my troops to be diſcharged by a certain day, and leſſened the number of my ſervants. Mr. Taylor, &c. ſome time after acquainted me, that they had no ready money, but they would grant teeps payable in four months. This aſtoniſhed me; for I did not know what might happen, when the ſepoys were diſmiſſed from my ſervice. I begged of Mr. Tay⯑lor and the others to pay this ſum to the officers of my regiments at the time they mentioned; and deſired the officers, at the ſame time, to pacify and perſuade the men belonging to them, [30] that their pay would be given to them at the end of four months; and that till thoſe arrears were diſcharged, their pay ſhould be continued to them. Two years are nearly expired ſince that time, but Mr. Taylor has not yet entirely diſcharged the arrears of thoſe troops, and I am obliged to continue their pay from that time till this. I hoped to have been able, by this expedient, to have leſſened the number of my troops, and diſcharge the arrears due to them, conſidering the trifle of intereſt to Mr. Taylor, and the others, as no great matter; but inſtead of this, I am oppreſſed with the burthen of pay due to thoſe troops; and the intereſt, which is going on to Mr. Taylor from the day the teeps were granted to him.’ What I have read to you is an extract of a Letter from the Nabob of the Carnatic to Governor Rumbold, dated the 22d, and received the 24th of March 1779 ^*.

Suppoſe his highneſs not to be well broken in to things of this kind, it muſt indeed ſurpriſe ſo known and eſtabliſhed a bond-vender, as the Nabob of Arcot, one who keeps himſelf the largeſt bond warehouſe in the world, to find that he was now to receive in kind; not to take money for his obliga⯑tions, but to give his bond in exchange for the bond of Meſſieurs Taylor, Majendie and Call, and to pay beſides, a good ſmart intereſt, legally 12 per cent. [in reality perhaps twenty, or twenty-four per cent.] for this exchange of paper. But his troops were not to be ſo paid, or ſo diſbanded. They wanted bread, and could not live by cutting and ſhuffling of bonds. The Nabob ſtill kept the troops in ſer⯑vice, and was obliged to continue, as you have ſeen, the whole expence, to exonerate himſelf from which he became indebted to the ſoucars.

Had it ſtood here, the tranſaction would have [31] been of the moſt audacious ſtrain of fraud and uſury, perhaps ever before diſcovered, whatever might have been practiſed and concealed. But the ſame authority (I mean the Nabob's) brings before you ſomething if poſſible more ſtriking. He ſtates, that for this their paper, he immediately handed over to theſe gentlemen, ſomething very different from paper; that is, the receipt of a territorial re⯑venue, of which it ſeems they continued as long in poſſeſſion as the Nabob himſelf continued in poſſeſſion of any thing. Their payments there⯑fore not being to commence before the end of four months, and not being compleated in two years, it muſt be preſumed (unleſs they prove the contrary) that their payments to the Nabob were made out of the revenues they had received from his aſſignment. Thus they condeſcend to accumulate a debt of £. 160,000, with an intereſt of 12 per cent. in com⯑penſation for a lingering payment to the Nabob, of £.160,000 of his own money.

Still we have not the whole: about two years after the aſſignment of thoſe territorial revenues to theſe gentlemen, the Nabob receives a remonſtrance from his chief manager, in a principal province, of which this is the tenor— ‘The entire revenue of thoſe diſtricts is by your highneſs' order ſet apart to diſcharge the tuncaws [aſſignments] granted to the Europeans. The gomaſtahs [agents] of Mr. Taylor, to Mr. De Fries, are there in order to collect theſe tuncaws; and as they receive all the revenue that is collected, your high⯑neſs's troops have ſeven or eight months pay due, which they cannot receive, and are thereby re⯑duced to the greateſt diſtreſs. In ſuch times, it is highly neceſſary to provide for the ſuſte⯑nance of the troops that may be ready to exert themſelves in the ſervice of your highneſs.’

Here, Sir, you ſee how theſe cauſes and effects [32] act upon one another. One body of troops mutinies for want of pay; a debt is contracted to pay them; and they ſtill remain unpaid. A territory deſtined to pay other troops, is aſſigned for this debt; and theſe other troops fall into the ſame ſtate of indi⯑gence and mutiny with the firſt. Bond is paid by bond; arrear is turned into new arrear; uſury engenders new uſury; mutiny ſuſpended in one quarter, ſtarts up in another; until all the re⯑venues, and all the eſtabliſhments are entangled into one inextricable knot of confuſion, from which they are only diſengaged by being entirely deſtroyed. In that ſtate of confuſion, in a very few months after the date of the memorial I have juſt read to you, things were found, when the Nabob's troops, famiſhed to feed Engliſh ſoucars, inſtead of defend⯑ing the country, joined the invaders, and deſerted in entire bodies to Hyder Ali ^*.

The manner in which this tranſaction was carried on, ſhews that good examples are not eaſily forgot, eſpecially by thoſe who are bred in a great ſchool. One of thoſe ſplendid examples, give me leave to mention at a ſomewhat more early period, be⯑cauſe one fraud furniſhes light to the diſcovery of another, and ſo on, until the whole ſecret of myſte⯑rious iniquity burſts upon you in a blaze of de⯑tection. The paper I ſhall read you, is not on re⯑cord. If you pleaſe, you may take it on my word. It is a letter written from one of un⯑doubted information in Madras, to Sir John Cla⯑vering, deſcribing the practice that prevailed there, whilſt the Company's allies were under ſale, during the time of Governor Winch's adminiſtration.

— ‘One mode (ſays Covering's correſ⯑pondent) of amaſſing money at the Nabob's [33] coſt is curious. He is generally in arrears to the Company. Here the Governor, being caſh-keeper, is generally on good terms with the banker, who manages matters thus: The Governor preſſes the Nabob for the balance due from him; the Nabob flies to his banker for relief; the banker engages to pay the money, and grants his notes accordingly, which he puts in the caſh-book as ready money; the Nabob pays him an intereſt for it at two and three per cent. per menſem, till the tunkaws he grants on the particular diſtricts for it are paid. Matters in the mean time are ſo managed, that there is no call for this money for the Company's ſer⯑vice, till the tuncaws become due. By this means not a caſh is advanced by the banker, though he receives a heavy intereſt from the Nabob, which is divided as lawful ſpoil.’

Here, Mr. Speaker, you have the whole art and myſtery, the true free-maſon ſecret of the profeſſion of ſoucaring; by which a few innocent, inexpe⯑rienced young Engliſhmen, ſuch as Mr. Paul Ben⯑field, for inſtance, without property upon which any one would lend to themſelves a ſingle ſhilling, are enabled at once to take provinces in mortgage, to make princes their debtors, and to become cre⯑ditors for millions.

But it ſeems the right honourable Gentleman's favourite ſoucar cavalry, have proved the payment before the Mayor's court at Madras! Have they ſo? Why then defraud our anxiety and their cha⯑racters of that proof? Is it not enough that the charges which I have laid before you, have ſtood on record againſt theſe poor injured gentlemen for eight years? Is it not enough that they are in print by the orders of the Eaſt India Company for five years? After theſe gentlemen have borne all the odium of this publication, and all the indignation [34] of the Directors, with ſuch unexampled equanimity, now that they are at length ſtimulated into feel⯑ing, are you to deny them their juſt relief? But will the right honourable Gentleman be pleaſed to tell us, how they came not to give this ſatisfaction to the Court of Directors, their lawful maſters, during all the eight years of this litigated claim? Were they not bound, by every tie that can bind man, to give them this ſatisfaction? This day, for the firſt time, we hear of the proofs. But when were theſe proofs offered? In what cauſe? Who were the parties? Who inſpected? Who conteſted this be⯑lated account? Let us ſee ſomething to oppoſe to the body of record which appears againſt them. The Mayor's court! the Mayor's court! Pleaſant! Does not the honourable Gentleman know, that the firſt corps of creditors (the cre⯑ditors of 1767) ſtated it as a ſort of hardſhip to them, that they could not have juſtice at Madras, from the impoſſibility of their ſupporting their claims in the Mayor's court. Why? becauſe, ſay they, the members of that court were themſelves creditors, and therefore could not ſit as judges ^*. Are we ripe to ſay that no creditor under ſimilar circumſtances was member of the Court, when the payment which is the ground of this cavalry debt was put in proof ^†? Nay, are we not in a manner [35] compelled to conclude that the Court was ſo con⯑ſtituted, when we know there is ſcarcely a man in Madras, who has not ſome participation in theſe tranſactions? It is a ſhame to hear ſuch proofs men⯑tioned, inſtead of the honeſt vigorous ſcrutiny which the circumſtances of ſuch an affair ſo indiſpenſably calls for.

But his Majeſty's miniſters, indulgent enough to other ſcrutinies, have not been ſatisfied with au⯑thorizing the payment of this demand without ſuch enquiry as the Act has preſcribed; but they have added the arrear of twelve per cent. intereſt, from the year 1777 to the year 1784, to make a new capital, raiſing thereby 160 to £. 294,000. Then they charge a new twelve per cent. on the whole from that period, for a tranſaction, in which it will be a miracle if a ſingle penny will be ever found really advanced from the private ſtock of the pretended creditors.

In this manner, and at ſuch an intereſt, the Mi⯑niſters have thought proper to diſpoſe of £. 294,000 of the public revenues, for what is called the ca⯑valry loan. After diſpatching this, the right ho⯑nourable gentleman leads to battle his laſt grand diviſion, the conſolidated debt of 1777. But having exhauſted all his panegyric on the two firſt, he has nothing at all to ſay in favour of the laſt. On the contrary, he admits that it was contracted in defiance of the Company's orders, without even the pretended ſanction of any pre⯑tended repreſentatives. Nobody, indeed, has yet been found hardy enough to ſtand forth avowedly in its defence. But it is little to the credit of the age, that what has not plauſibility enough to find an advocate, has influence enough to obtain a pro⯑tector. Could any man expect to find that pro⯑tector any where? But what muſt every man think, when he finds that protector in the Chair⯑man [36] of the Committee of Secrecy ^*, who had pub⯑liſhed to the Houſe, and to the world, the facts that condemn theſe debts—the orders that forbid the incurring of them—the dreadful conſequences which attended them. Even in his official letter, when he tramples on his parliamentary Report, yet his general language is the ſame. Read the preface to this part of the miniſterial arrange⯑ment, and you would imagine that this debt was to be cruſhed, with all the weight of in⯑dignation which could fall from a vigilant guar⯑dian of the public treaſury, upon thoſe who at⯑tempted to rob it. What muſt be felt by every man who has feeling, when, after ſuch a thunder⯑ing preamble of condemnation, this debt is or⯑dered to be paid without any ſort of enquiry into its authenticity? without a ſingle ſtep taken to ſettle even the amount of the demand? without an attempt ſo much as to aſcertain the real perſons claiming a ſum, which riſes in the accounts from one million three hundred thouſand pound ſterling to two million four hundred thouſand pound prin⯑cipal money ^†? without an attempt made to aſcer⯑tain the proprietors, of whom no liſt has ever yet been laid before the Court of Directors; of proprietors who are known to be in a colluſive ſhuffle, by which they never appear to be the ſame in any two lifts, handed about for their own parti⯑cular purpoſes?

My honourable Friend who made you the mo⯑tion, has ſufficiently expoſed the nature of this debt. He has ſtated to you that its own agents in the year 1781, in the arrangement they propoſed to make at Calcutta, were ſatisfied to have twenty-five per cent. at once ſtruck off from the capital of a [37] great part of this debt; and prayed to have a pro⯑viſion made for this reduced principal, without any intereſt at all. This was an arrangement of their own, an arrangement made by thoſe who beſt knew the true conſtitution of their own debt; who knew how little favour it merited ^*, and how little hopes they had to find any perſons in authority abandoned enough to ſupport it as it ſtood.

But what corrupt men, in the fond imaginations of a ſanguine avarice, had not the confidence to propoſe, they have found a Chancellor of the Ex⯑chequer in England hardy enough to undertake for them. He has cheered their drooping ſpirits. He has thanked the peculators for not deſpairing of their commonwealth. He has told them they were too modeſt. He has replaced the twenty-five per cent. which, in order to lighten themſelves, they had abandoned in their conſcious terror. Inſtead of cutting off the intereſt, as they had themſelves conſented to do, with the fourth of the capital, he has added the whole growth of four years uſury of twelve per cent. to the firſt over-grown principal; and has again grafted on this meliorated ſtock a perpetual annuity of ſix per cent. to take place from the year 1781. Let no man hereafter talk [38] of the decaying energies of nature. All the acts and monuments in the records of peculation; the conſolidated corruption of ages; the patterns of exemplary plunder in the heroic times of Roman iniquity, never equalled the gigantic corruption of this ſingle act. Never did Nero, in all the inſolent prodigality of deſpotiſm, deal out to his praetorian guards a donation fit to be named with the largeſs ſhowered down by the bounty of our Chancellor of the Exchequer on the faithful band of his Indian Sepoys.

The right honourable gentleman ^* lets you freely and voluntarily into the whole tranſaction. So per⯑fectly has his conduct confounded his underſtand⯑ing, that he fairly tells you, that through the courſe of the whole buſineſs he has never con⯑ferred with any but the agents of the pretended creditors. After this, do you want more to eſta⯑bliſh a ſecret underſtanding with the parties? to fix, beyond a doubt, their colluſion and parti⯑cipation in a common fraud?

If this were not enough, he has furniſhed you with other preſumptions that are not to be ſhaken. It is one of the known indications of guilt to ſtag⯑ger and prevaricate in a ſtory; and to vary in the motives that are aſſigned to conduct. Try theſe Miniſters by this rule. In their official diſpatch, they tell the Preſidency of Madras, that they have eſtabliſhed the debt for two reaſons; firſt, becauſe the Nabob (the party indebted) does not diſpute it; ſecondly, becauſe it is miſchievous to keep it longer afloat; and that the payment of the European creditors will promote circulation in the country. Theſe two motives (for the plaineſt reaſons in the world) the right honourable gentleman has this day thought fit totally to abandon. In the firſt place, he rejects the authority of the Nabob of Arcot. [39] It would indeed be pleaſant to ſee him adhere to this exploded teſtimony. He next, upon grounds equally ſolid, abandons the benefits of that circu⯑lation, which was to be produced by drawing out all the juices of the body. Laying aſide, or for⯑getting theſe pretences of his diſpatch, he has juſt now aſſumed a principle totally different, but to the full as extraordinary. He proceeds upon a ſuppoſition, that many of the claims may be fic⯑titious. He then finds, that in a caſe where many valid and many fraudulent claims are blended together, the beſt courſe for their diſcrimination is indiſcriminately to eſtabliſh them all. He truſts (I ſuppoſe) as there may not be a fund ſufficient for every deſcription of creditors, that the beſt warranted claimants will exert themſelves in bring⯑ing to light thoſe debts which will not bear an en⯑quiry. What he will not do himſelf, he is perſuad⯑ed will be done by others; and for this purpoſe he leaves to any perſon a general power of excepting to the debt. This total change of language, and prevarication in principle, is enough, if it ſtood alone, to fix the preſumption of unfair dealing. His diſpatch aſſigns motives of policy, concord, trade, and circulation. His ſpeech proclaims diſ⯑cord and litigations; and propoſes, as the ultimate end, detection.

But he may ſhift his reaſons, and wind, and turn as he will, confuſion waits him at all his doubles. Who will undertake this detection? Will the Nabob? But the right honourable gen⯑tleman has himſelf this moment told us, that no prince of the country can by any motive be pre⯑vailed upon to diſcover any fraud that is prac⯑tiſed upon him by the Company's ſervants. He ſays what, (with the exception of the complaint againſt the cavalry loan) all the world knows to [40] be true; and without that Prince's concurrence, what evidence can be had of the fraud of any the ſmalleſt of theſe demands? The Miniſters ne⯑ver authorized any perſon to enter into his ex⯑chequer, and to ſearch his records. Why then this ſhameful and inſulting mockery of a pretended conteſt? Already conteſts for a preference have ariſen among theſe rival bond creditors. Has not the Company itſelf ſtruggled for a preference for years, without any attempt at detection of the na⯑ture of thoſe debts with which they contended? Well is the Nabob of Arcot attended to in the only ſpecific complaint he has ever made. He com⯑plained of unfair dealing in the cavalry loan. It is fixed upon him with intereſt on intereſt; and this loan is excepted from all power of litigation.

This day, and not before, the right honoura⯑ble gentleman thinks that the general eſtabliſhment of all claims is the ſureſt way of laying open the fraud of ſome of them. In India, this is a reach of deep policy. But what would be thought of this mode of acting on a demand upon the Trea⯑ſury in England? Inſtead of all this cunning, is there not one plain way open, that is, to put the burthen of the proof on thoſe who make the de⯑mand? Ought not Miniſtry to have ſaid to the creditors, ‘The perſon who admits your debt ſtands excepted to as evidence; he ſtands charged as a colluſive party, to hand over the public re⯑venues to you for ſiniſter purpoſes? You ſay, you have a demand of ſome millions on the In⯑dian treaſury; prove that you have acted by lawful authority; prove at leaſt that your money has been bonâ fide advanced; entitle yourſelf to my protection, by the fairneſs and fulneſs of the communications you make.’ Did an honeſt creditor ever refuſe that reaſonable and honeſt teſt?

[41]There is little doubt, that ſeveral individuals have been ſeduced by the purveyors to the Nabob of Arcot to put their money (perhaps the whole of honeſt and laborious earnings) into their hands, and that at ſuch high intereſt, as, being condemn⯑ed at law, leaves them at the mercy of the great managers whom they truſted. Theſe ſeduced creditors are probably perſons of no power or inte⯑reſt, either in England or India, and may be juſt objects of compaſſion. By taking, in this arrange⯑ment no meaſures for diſcrimination and diſco⯑very; the fraudulent and the fair are in the firſt inſtance confounded in one maſs. The ſubſe⯑quent ſelection and diſtribution is left to the Na⯑bob. With him the agents and inſtruments of his corruption, whom he ſees to be omnipotent in England, and who may ſerve him in future, as they have done in times paſt, will have precedence, if not an excluſive preference. Theſe leading inte⯑reſts domineer, and have always domineered, over the whole. By this arrangement the perſons ſeduced are made dependent on their ſeducers; honeſty (comparative honeſty at leaſt) muſt become of the party of fraud, and muſt quit its proper character, and its juſt claims, to entitle itſelf to the alms of bribery and peculation.

But be theſe Engliſh creditors what they may, the creditors, moſt certainly not fraudulent, are the natives, who are numerous and wretched indeed: by exhauſting the whole revenues of the Carnatic, nothing is left for them. They lent bonaâ fide; in all probability they were even forced to lend, or to give goods and ſervice for the Nabob's obligations. They had no truſts to carry to his market. They had no faith of alliances to ſell. They had no nations to be⯑tray to robbery and ruin. They had no lawful go⯑vernment ſeditiouſly to overturn; nor had they a [42] Governor, to whom it is owing that you exiſt in India, to deliver over to captivity, and to death, in a ſhameful priſon^*.

Theſe were the merits of the principal part of the debt of 1777, and the univerſally conceived cauſes of its growth; and thus the unhappy natives are deprived of every hope of payment for their real debts, to make proviſion for the arrears of unſatis⯑fied bribery and treaſon. You ſee in this inſtance, that the preſumption of guilt is not only no ex⯑ception to the demands on the public treaſury; but with theſe miniſters it is a neceſſary condition to their ſupport. But that you may not think this pre⯑ference ſolely owing to their known contempt of the natives, who ought with every generous mind to claim their firſt charities; you will find the ſame rule religiouſly obſerved with Europeans too. At⯑tend, Sir, to this deciſive caſe.—Since the begin⯑ning of the war, beſides arrears of every kind, a bond debt has been contracted at Madras, uncertain in its amount, but repreſented from four hundred thouſand pound to a million ſterling. It ſtands only at the low intereſt of eight per cent. Of the legal authority on which this debt was contracted, of its purpoſes for the very being of the ſtate, of its publicity and fairneſs, no doubt has been en⯑tertained for a moment. For this debt, no ſort of proviſion whatever has been made. It is rejected as an outcaſt, whilſt the whole undiſſipated atten⯑tion of the Miniſter has been employed for the diſcharge of claims entitled to his favour by the merits we have ſeen.

I have endeavoured to find out, if poſſible, the amount of the whole of thoſe demands, in order to ſee how much, ſuppoſing the country in a con⯑dition to furniſh the fund, may remain to ſatisfy [43] the public debt and the neceſſary eſtabliſhments. But I have been foiled in my attempt. About one-fourth, that is about £. 220,000 of the loan of 1767, remains unpaid. How much intereſt is in arrear, I could never diſcover; ſeven or eight years at leaſt, which would make the whole of that debt about £. 396,000. This ſtock, which the Miniſters in their inſtructions to the Governor of Madras ſtate as the leaſt exceptionable, they have thought proper to diſtinguiſh by a marked ſeverity, leaving it the only one, on which the intereſt is not added to the principal, to beget a new intereſt.

The cavalry loan, by the operation of the ſame authority, is made up to £.294,000, and this £. 294,000, made up of principal and intereſt, is crowned with a new intereſt of twelve per cent.

What the grand loan, the bribery loan of 1777, may be, is amongſt the deepeſt myſteries of ſtate. It is probably the firſt debt ever aſſuming the title of conſolidation, that did not expreſs what the amount of the ſum conſolidated was. It is little leſs than a contradiction in terms. In the debt of the year 1767, the ſum was ſtated in the act of conſoli⯑dation, and made to amount to £. 880,000 capi⯑tal. When this conſolidation of 1777 was firſt an⯑nounced at the Durbar, it was repreſented authenti⯑cally at £. 2,400,000. In that, or rather in an higher ſtate, Sir Thomas Rumbold found and con⯑demned it ^*. It afterwards fell into ſuch a terror, as to ſweat away a million of its weight at once; [44] and it ſunk to £. 1,400,000 ^*. However, it never was without a reſource for recruiting it to its old plumpneſs. There was a ſort of floating debt of about 4 or £. 500,000 more, ready to be added, as occaſion ſhould require.

In ſhort, when you preſſed this ſenſitive plant, it always contracted its dimenſions. When the rude hand of enquiry was withdrawn, it expanded in all the luxuriant vigour of its original vegetation. In the treaty of 1781, the whole of the Nabob's debt to private Europeans is by Mr. Sullivan, agent to the Nabob and the creditors, ſtated at £ 2,800,000, which (if the cavalry loan, and the remains of the debt of 1767, be ſubtracted) leaves it nearly at the amount originally declared at the Durbar, in 1777. But then there is a private inſtruction to Mr. Sullivan, which it ſeems will re⯑duce it again to the lower ſtandard of £. 1,400,000. Failing in all my attempts, by a direct account, to [45] aſcertain the extent of the capital claimed (where in all probability no capital was ever advanced) I en⯑deavoured, if poſſible, to diſcover it by the intereſt which was to be paid. For that purpoſe, I looked to the ſeveral agreements for aſſigning the territories of the Carnatic to ſecure the principal and intereſt of this debt. In one of them ^* I found in a ſort of Poſtſcript, by way of an additional remark, (not in the body of the obligation) the debt repreſented at £. 1,400,000. But when I computed the ſums to be paid for intereſt by inſtalments in another paper, I found they produced the intereſt of two millions, at twelve per cent. and the aſſignment ſuppoſed, that if theſe inſtalments might exceed, they might alſo fall ſhort of the real proviſion for that intereſt ^†.

Another inſtalment bond was afterwards granted. In that bond the intereſt exactly tallies with a ca⯑pital of £. 1,400,000 ^‡. But purſuing this capital through the correſpondence, I loſt ſight of it again, and it was aſſerted that this inſtalment bond was con⯑ſiderably ſhort of the intereſt that ought to be com⯑puted to the time mentioned ^§. Here are, therefore, two ſtatements of equal authority, differing at leaſt a million from each other; and as neither perſons claiming, nor any ſpecial ſum as belonging to each particular claimant, is aſcertained in the inſtruments of conſolidation, or in the inſtalment bonds, a large ſcope was left to throw in any ſums for any perſons, as their merits in advancing the intereſt of that loan might require; a power was alſo left for reduc⯑tion, in caſe a harder hand, or more ſcanty funds, might be found to require it. Stronger grounds for a preſumption of fraud never appeared in any [46] tranſaction. But the miniſters, faithful to the plan of the intereſted perſons, whom alone they thought fit to confer with on this occaſion, have ordered the payment of the whole maſs of theſe unknown unliquidated ſums, without an attempt to aſcertain them. On this conduct, Sir, I leave you to make your own reflexions.

It is impoſſible (at leaſt I have found it im⯑poſſible) to fix on the real amount of the pretended debts with which your miniſters have thought proper to load the Carnatic. They are obſcure; they ſhun enquiry; they are enormous. That is all you know of them.

That you may judge what chance any ho⯑nourable and uſeful end of government has for a proviſion that comes in for the leavings of theſe gluttonous demands, I muſt take it on myſelf to bring before you the real condition of that abuſed, inſulted, racked, and ruined country; though in truth my mind revolts from it; though you will hear it with horror; and I confeſs, I tremble when I think on theſe awful and confounding diſpenſa⯑tions of Providence. I ſhall firſt trouble you with a few words as to the cauſe.

The great fortunes made in India in the begin⯑nings of conqueſt, naturally excited an emulation in all the parts, and through the whole ſucceſſion of the Company's ſervice. But in the Company it gave riſe to other ſentiments. They did not find the new channels of acquiſition flow with equal riches to them. On the contrary, the high flood-tide of private emolument was generally in the loweſt ebb of their affairs. They began alſo to fear, that the fortune of war might take away what the fortune of war had given. Wars were accordingly diſcouraged by repeated injunctions and menaces; and that the ſervants might not be bribed into them by the native princes, they were ſtrictly forbidden [47] to take any money whatſoever from their hands. But vehement paſſion is ingenious in reſources. The Company's ſervants were not only ſtimulated, but better inſtructed by the prohibition. They ſoon fell upon a contrivance which anſwered their purpoſes far better than the methods which were forbid⯑den; though in this alſo they violated an ancient, but they thought, an abrogated order. They reverſed their proceedings. Inſtead of receiv⯑ing preſents, they made loans. Inſtead of carrying on wars in their own name, they contrived an autho⯑rity, at once irreſiſtible and irreſponſible, in whoſe name they might ravage at pleaſure; and being thus freed from all reſtraint, they indulged themſelves in the moſt extravagant ſpeculations of plunder. The cabal of creditors who have been the object of the late bountiful grant from his Majeſty's mi⯑niſters, in order to poſſeſs themſelves, under the name of creditors and aſſignees, of every country in India, as faſt as it ſhould be conquered, inſpired into the mind of the Nabob of Arcot (then a de⯑pendant on the Company of the humbleſt order) a ſcheme of the moſt wild and deſperate ambition that I believe ever was admitted into the thoughts of a man ſo ſituated ^*. Firſt, they perſuaded him to conſider himſelf as a principal member in the political ſyſtem of Europe. In the next place, they held out to him, and he readily imbibed the idea of the general empire of Indoſtan. As a preliminary to this undertaking, they prevailed on him to pro⯑poſe a tripartite diviſion of that vaſt country. One [48] part to the Company; another to the Marattas; and the third to himſelf. To himſelf he reſerved all the ſouthern part of the great peninſula, comprehend⯑ed under the general name of the Decan.

On this ſcheme of their ſervants, the Company was to appear in the Carnatic in no other light than as a contractor for the proviſion of armies, and the hire of mercenaries for his uſe, and under his direction. This diſpoſition was to be ſecured by the Nabob's putting himſelf under the guarantee of France; and by the means of that rival nation, preventing the Engliſh for ever from aſſuming an equality, much leſs a ſuperiority in the Carnatic. In purſuance of this treaſonable project (treaſon⯑able on the part of the Engliſh) they extinguiſhed the Company as a ſovereign power in that part of India; they withdrew the Company's garriſons out of all the forts and ſtrong holds of the Car⯑natic; they declined to receive the ambaſſadors from foreign courts, and remitted them to the Nabob of Arcot; they fell upon, and totally de⯑ſtroyed the oldeſt ally of the company, the king of Tanjore, and plundered the country to the amount of near five millions ſterling; one after another, in the Nabob's name, but with Engliſh force, they brought into a miſerable ſervitude all the princes, and great independent nobility of a vaſt country ^*. In proportion to theſe treaſons and violences, which [49] ruined the people, the fund of the Nabob's debt grew and flouriſhed.

Among the victims to this magnificent plan of univerſal plunder, worthy of the heroic avarice of the projectors, you have all heard (and he has made himſelf to be well remembered) of an In⯑dian chief called Hyder Ali Khan. This man poſſeſſed the weſtern, as the Company under the name of the Nabob of Arcot does the eaſtern di⯑viſion of the Carnatic. It was among the leading meaſures in the deſign of this cabal (according to their own emphatic language) to extirpate this Hyder Ali ^*. They declared the Nabob of Arcot to be his ſovereign, and himſelf to be a rebel, and publicly inveſted their inſtrument with the ſo⯑vereignty of the kingdom of Myſore. But their victim was not of the paſſive kind. They were ſoon obliged to conclude a treaty of peace and cloſe alliance with this rebel, at the gates of Ma⯑dras. Both before and ſince that treaty, every principle of policy pointed out this power as a na⯑tural alliance; and on his part, it was courted by every ſort of amicable office. But the cabinet coun⯑cil of Engliſh creditors would not ſuffer their Nabob of Arcot to ſign the treaty, nor even to give to a prince, at leaſt his equal, the ordinary titles of re⯑ſpect and courteſy ^†. From that time forward, a continued plot was carried on within the divan, black and white, of the Nabob of Arcot, for the deſtruction of Hyder Ali. As to the outward members of the double, or rather treble govern⯑ment of Madras, which had ſigned the treaty, they were always prevented by ſome over-ruling [50] influence (which they do not deſcribe, but which cannot be miſunderſtood) from performing what juſtice and intereſt combined ſo evidently to en⯑force ^*.

When at length Hyder Ali found that he had to do with men who either would ſign no conven⯑tion, or whom no treaty, and no ſignature could bind, and who were the determined enemies of hu⯑man intercourſe itſelf, he decreed to make the coun⯑try poſſeſſed by theſe incorrigible and predeſtinated criminals a memorable example to mankind. He reſolved, in the gloomy receſſes of a mind capa⯑cious of ſuch things, to leave the whole Carnatic an everlaſting monument of vengeance; and to put perpetual deſolation as a barrier between him and thoſe againſt whom the faith which holds the moral elements of the world together was no protection. He became at length ſo confident of his force, ſo collected in his might, that he made no ſecret whatſoever of his dreadful reſolution. Having terminated his diſputes with every enemy, and every rival, who buried their mutual animoſities in their common deteſtation againſt the creditors of the Nabob of Arcot, he drew from every quarter, whatever a ſavage ferocity could add to his new rudiments in the arts of deſtruction; and compounding all the materials of fury, havoc, and deſolation, into one black cloud, he hung for a while on the declivities of the mountains. Whilſt the authors of all theſe evils were idly and ſtupidly gazing on this menacing meteor, which blackened all their horizon, it ſuddenly burſt, and poured down the whole of its contents upon the plains of the Carnatic.—Then enſued a ſcene of woe, the like of which no eye had ſeen, no heart conceived, and which no tongue can adequately tell. All the [51] horrors of war before known or heard of, were mercy to that new havoc. A ſtorm of univerſal fire blaſted every field, conſumed every houſe, de⯑ſtroyed every temple. The miſerable inhabitants flying from their flaming villages, in part were ſlaughtered; others, without regard to ſex, to age, to the reſpect of rank, or ſacredneſs of function; fathers torn from children, huſbands from wives, enveloped in a whirlwind of cavalry, and amidſt the goading ſpears of drivers, and the trampling of purſuing horſes, were ſwept into captivity, in an unknown and hoſtile land. Thoſe who were able to evade this tempeſt, fled to the walled cities. But eſcaping from fire, ſword, and exile, they fell into the jaws of famine.

The alms of the ſettlement, in this dreadful ex⯑igency, were certainly liberal; and all was done by charity that private charity could do: but it was a people in beggary; it was a nation which ſtretched out its hands for food. For months together theſe creatures of ſufferance, whoſe very exceſs and luxury in their moſt plen⯑teous days, had fallen ſhort of the allowance of our auſtereſt faſts, ſilent, patient, reſigned, with⯑out ſedition or diſturbance, almoſt without com⯑plaint, periſhed by an hundred a day in the ſtreets of Madras; every day ſeventy at leaſt laid their bodies in the ſtreets, or on the glacis of Tanjore, and expired of famine in the granary of India. I was going to awake your juſtice towards this un⯑happy part of our fellow citizens, by bringing be⯑fore you ſome of the circumſtances of this plague of hunger. Of all the calamities which beſet and waylay the life of man, this comes the neareſt to our heart, and is that wherein the proudeſt of us all feels himſelf to be nothing more than he is: but I find myſelf unable to manage it with decorum; theſe details are of a ſpecies of horror ſo nauſeous [52] and diſguſting; they are ſo degrading to the ſufferers and to the hearers; they are ſo humiliating to human nature itſelf, that, on better thoughts, I find it more adviſeable to throw a pall over this hideous object, and to leave it to your general con⯑ceptions.

^* For eighteen months, without intermiſſion, this deſtruction raged from the gates of Madras to the gates of Tanjore; and ſo compleatly did theſe maſters in their art, Hyder Ali, and his more fe⯑rocious ſon, abſolve themſelves of their impious vow, that when the Britiſh armies traverſed, as they did the Carnatic for hundreds of miles in all direc⯑tions, through the whole line of their march they did not ſee one man, not one woman, not one child, not one four-footed beaſt of any deſcription whatever. One dead uniform ſilence reigned over the whole region. With the inconſiderable excep⯑tions of the narrow vicinage of ſome few forts, I wiſh to be underſtood as ſpeaking literally. I mean to produce to you more than three witneſſes, above all exception, who will ſupport this aſſertion in its full extent. That hurricane of war paſſed through every part of the central provinces of the Carnatic. Six or ſeven diſtricts to the north and to the ſouth (and theſe not wholly untouched) eſcaped the general ravage.

The Carnatic is a country not much inferior in extent to England. Figure to yourſelf, Mr. Speaker, the land in whoſe repreſentative chair you ſit; figure to yourſelf the form and faſhion of your ſweet and cheerful country from Thames to Trent, north and ſouth, and from the Iriſh to the German ſea eaſt and weſt, emptied and embowelled (May God avert the omen of our crimes!) by ſo accompliſhed a deſolation. Extend your imagina⯑tion [53] a little further, and then ſuppoſe your miniſ⯑ters taking a ſurvey of this ſcene of waſte and de⯑ſolation; what would be your thoughts if you ſhould be informed, that they were computing how much had been the amount of the exciſes, how much the cuſtoms, how much the land and malt tax, in order that they ſhould charge (take it in the moſt favourable light) for public ſervice, upon the relicks of the ſatiated vengeance of re⯑lentleſs enemies, the whole of what England had yielded in the moſt exuberant ſeaſons of peace and abundance? What would you call it? To call it tyranny, ſublimed into madneſs, would be too faint an image; yet this very madneſs is the principle upon which the miniſters at your right hand have proceeded in their eſtimate of the revenues of the Carnatic, when they were providing, not ſupply for the eſtabliſhments of its protection, but rewards for the authors of its ruin.

Every day you are fatigued and diſguſted with this cant, ‘the Carnatic is a country that will ſoon recover, and become inſtantly as proſperous as ever.’ They think they are talk⯑ing to innocents, who will believe that by ſow⯑ing of dragons teeth, men may come up ready grown and ready armed. They who will give themſelves the trouble of conſidering (for it re⯑quires no great reach of thought, no very profound knowledge) the manner in which mankind are in⯑creaſed, and countries cultivated, will regard all this raving as it ought to be regarded. In order that the people, after a long period of vexation and plunder, may be in a condition to maintain government, government muſt begin by maintain⯑ing them. Here the road to oeconomy lies not through receipt, but through expence; and in that country nature has given no ſhort cut to your ob⯑ject. Men muſt propagate, like other animals, by [54] the mouth. Never did oppreſſion light the nup⯑tial torch; never did extortion and uſury ſpread out the genial bed. Does any of you think that Eng⯑land, ſo waſted, would, under ſuch a nurſing at⯑tendance, ſo rapidly and cheaply recover? But he is meanly acquainted with either England or India, who does not know that England would a thou⯑ſand times ſooner reſume population, fertility, and what ought to be the ultimate ſecretion from both, revenue, than ſuch a country as the Carnatic.

The Carnatic is not by the bounty of nature a fertile ſoil. The general ſize of its cattle is proof enough that it is much otherwiſe. It is ſome days ſince I moved, that a curious and intereſting map, kept in the India Houſe, ſhould be laid before you^*. The India Houſe is not yet in readineſs to ſend it; I have therefore brought down my own copy, and there it lies for the uſe of any gentleman who may think ſuch a matter worthy of his attention. It is indeed a noble map, and of noble things; but it is deciſive againſt the golden dreams and ſan⯑guine ſpeculations of avarice run mad. In addition to what you know muſt be the caſe in every part of the world (the neceſſity of a previous proviſion of habitation, ſeed, ſtock, capital) that map will ſhew you, that the uſe of the influences of Heaven itſelf, are in that country a work of art. The Carnatic is refreſhed by few or no living brooks or running ſtreams, and it has rain only at a ſeaſon; but its product of rice exacts the uſe of water ſubject to perpetual command. This is the national bank of the Carnatic, on which it muſt have a perpetual credit, or it periſhes irre⯑trievably. For that reaſon, in the happier times of India, a number almoſt incredible of reſervoirs have been made in choſen places throughout the whole country; they are formed, for the greater [55] part, of mounds of earth and ſtones, with ſluices of ſolid maſonry; the whole conſtructed with admi⯑rable ſkill and labour, and maintained at a mighty charge. In the territory contained in that map alone, I have been at the trouble of reckoning the reſervoirs, and they amount to upwards of eleven hundred, from the extent of two or three acres to five miles in circuit. From theſe reſervoirs cur⯑rents are occaſionally drawn over the fields, and theſe watercourſes again call for a conſiderable ex⯑pence to keep them properly ſcoured and duly le⯑velled. Taking the diſtrict in that map as a mea⯑ſure, there cannot be in the Carnatic and Tanjore fewer than ten thouſand of theſe reſervoirs of the larger and middling dimenſions, to ſay nothing of thoſe for domeſtic ſervices, and the uſe of reli⯑gious purification. Theſe are not the enterprizes of your power, nor in a ſtyle of magnificence ſuited to the taſte of your miniſter. Theſe are the monu⯑ments of real kings, who were the fathers of their people; teſtators to a poſterity which they embraced as their own. Theſe are the grand ſepulchres built by ambition; but by the ambition of an unſatiable benevolence, which, not contented with reigning in the diſpenſation of happineſs during the con⯑tracted term of human life, had ſtrained, with all the reachings and graſpings of a vivacious mind, to ex⯑tend the dominion of their bounty beyond the limits of nature, and to perpetuate themſelves through generations of generations, the guardians, the pro⯑tectors, the nouriſhers of mankind.

Long before the late invaſion, the perſons who are objects of the grant of public money now be⯑fore you, had ſo diverted the ſupply of the pious funds of culture and population, that everywhere the reſervoirs were fallen into a miſerable decay ^*. But after thoſe domeſtic enemies had provoked [56] the entry of a cruel foreign foe into the coun⯑try, he did not leave it until his revenge had compleated the deſtruction begun by their avarice. Few, very few indeed, of theſe magazines of water that are not either totally deſtroyed, or cut through with ſuch gaps, as to require a ſerious attention and much coſt to re-eſtabliſh them, as the means of preſent ſubſiſtence to the people, and of future revenue to the ſtate.

What, Sir, would a virtuous and enlightened miniſtry do on the view of the ruins of ſuch works before them? on the view of ſuch a chaſm of de⯑ſolation as that which yawned in the midſt of thoſe countries to the north and ſouth, which ſtill bore ſome veſtiges of cultivation? They would have re⯑duced all their moſt neceſſary eſtabliſhments; they would have ſuſpended the juſteſt payments; they would have employed every ſhilling derived from the producing to reanimate the powers of the un⯑productive parts. While they were performing this fundamental duty, whilſt they were celebrat⯑ing theſe myſteries of juſtice and humanity, they would have told the corps of fictitious creditors, whoſe crimes were their claims, that they muſt keep an awful diſtance; that they muſt ſilence their inauſpicious tongues; that they muſt hold off their profane unhallowed paws from this holy work; they would have proclaimed with a voice that ſhould make itſelf heard, that on every coun⯑try the firſt creditor is the plow; that this ori⯑ginal, indefeaſible claim ſuperſedes every other de⯑mand.

This is what a wiſe and virtuous miniſtry would have done and ſaid. This, therefore, is what our miniſter could never think of ſaying or doing. A miniſtry of another kind would have firſt im⯑proved the country, and have thus laid a ſolid [57] foundation for future opulence and future force. But on this grand point of the reſtoration of the country, there is not one ſyllable to be found in the correſpondence of our miniſters, from the firſt to the laſt: they felt nothing for a land deſolat⯑ed by fire, ſword, and famine; their ſympathies took another direction; they were touched with pity for bribery, ſo long tormented with a fruit⯑leſs itching of its palms; their bowels yearned for uſury, that had long miſſed the harveſt of its returning months ^*; they felt for peculation which had been for ſo many years raking in the duſt of an empty treaſury; they were melted into compaſ⯑ſion for rapine and oppreſſion, licking their dry, parched, unbloody jaws. Theſe were the objects of their ſolicitude. Theſe were the neceſſities for which they were ſtudious to provide.

To ſtate the country and its revenues in their real condition, and to provide for thoſe fictitious claims, conſiſtently with the ſupport of an army and a civil eſtabliſhment, would have been impoſſi⯑ble; therefore the miniſters are ſilent on that head, and reſt themſelves on the authority of lord Ma⯑cartney, who in a letter to the Court of Directors, written in the year 1781, ſpeculating on what might be the reſult of a wiſe management of the countries aſſigned by the Nabob of Arcot, rates the revenues as in time of peace, at twelve hundred thouſand pound a year, as he does thoſe of the king of Tanjore (which had not been aſſigned) at four hundred and fifty. On this lord Macartney grounds his calculations, and on this they chooſe to ground theirs. It was on this calculation that the miniſtry, in direct oppoſition to the remon⯑ſtrances of the Court of Directors, have compelled that miſerable, enſlaved body, to put their hands [58] to an order for appropriating the enormous ſum of £. 480,000 annually, as a fund for paying to their rebellious ſervants a debt contracted in defiance of their cleareſt and moſt poſitive injunctions.

The authority and information of Lord Macart⯑ney is held high on this occaſion, though it is to⯑tally rejected in every other particular of this buſi⯑neſs. I believe I have the honour of being almoſt as old an acquaintance as any Lord Macartney has. A conſtant and unbroken friendſhip has ſubſiſted between us from a very early period; and, I truſt, he thinks, that as I reſpect his character, and in general admire his conduct, I am one of thoſe who feel no common intereſt in his reputation. Yet I do not heſitate wholly to diſallow the cal⯑culation of 1781, without any apprehenſion, that I ſhall appear to diſtruſt his veracity or his judgment. This peace eſtimate of revenue was not ground⯑ed on the ſtate of the Carnatic as it then, or as it had recently ſtood. It was a ſtatement of former and better times. There is no doubt, that a pe⯑riod did exiſt, when the large portion of the Car⯑natic held by the Nabob of Arcot might be fairly reputed to produce a revenue to that, or to a great⯑er amount. But the whole had ſo melted away by the ſlow and ſilent hoſtility of oppreſſion and miſ⯑management, that the revenues, ſinking with the proſperity of the country, had fallen to about £. 800,000 a year, even before an enemy's horſe had imprinted his hoof on the ſoil of the Carnatic. From that view, and independently of the deciſive effects of the war which enſued, Sir Eyre Coote conceived that years muſt paſs before the country could be reſtored to its former proſperity and pro⯑duction. It was that ſtate of revenue, (namely, the actual ſtate before the war) which the Directors have oppoſed to Lord Macartney's ſpeculation. They refuſe to take the revenues for more than [59] £. 800,000. In this they are juſtified by Lord Macartney himſelf, who, in a ſubſequent letter, in⯑forms the Court, that his ſketch is a matter of ſpe⯑culation; it ſuppoſes the country reſtored to its antient proſperity, and the revenue to be in a courſe of effective and honeſt collection. If there⯑fore the miniſters have gone wrong, they were not deceived by Lord Macartney: they were deceived by no man. The eſtimate of the Directors is nearly the very eſtimate furniſhed by the right honourable gentleman himſelf, and publiſhed to the world in one of the printed Reports of his own Committee^*; but as ſoon as he obtained his power, he choſe to abandon his account. No part of his official conduct can be defended on the ground of his parliamentary information.

In this claſhing of accounts and eſtimates, ought not the miniſtry, if they wiſhed to preſerve even appearances, to have waited for information of the actual reſult of theſe ſpeculations, before they laid a charge, and ſuch a charge, not condi⯑tionally and eventually, but poſitively and authori⯑tatively, upon a country which they all knew, and which one of them had regiſtered on the records of this Houſe, to be waſted beyond all example, by every oppreſſion of an abuſive government, and every ravage of a deſolating war. But that you may diſcern in what manner they uſe the correſpondence of office, and that thereby you may enter into the true ſpirit of the miniſterial Board of Control, I deſire you, Mr. Speaker, to remark, that through their whole controverſy with the Court of Directors, they do not ſo much as hint at their ever having ſeen any other paper from lord Macartney, or any other [60] eſtimate of revenue, than this of 1781. To this they hold. Here they take poſt; here they en⯑trench themſelves.

When I firſt read this curious controverſy be⯑tween the miniſterial Board and the Court of Di⯑rectors, common candour obliged me to attribute their tenacious adherence to the eſtimate of 1781, to a total ignorance of what had appeared upon the records. But the right honourable gentleman has choſen to come forward with an uncalled-for de⯑claration; he boaſtingly tells you, that he has ſeen, read, digeſted, compared every thing; and that if he has ſinned, he has ſinned with his eyes broad open. Since then the miniſters will obſtinately ſhut the gates of mercy on themſelves, let them add to their crimes what aggravations they pleaſe. They have then (ſince it muſt be ſo) wilfully and corrupt⯑ly ſuppreſſed the information which they ought to have produced; and for the ſupport of peculation, have made themſelves guilty of ſpoliation and ſup⯑preſſion of evidence^*. The paper I hold in my hand, which totally overturns (for the preſent at leaſt) the eſtimate of 1781, they have no more taken notice of in their controverſy with the Court of Directors than if it had no exiſt⯑ence. It is the Report made by a Committee appointed at Madras, to manage the whole of the ſix countries aſſigned to the Company by the Nabob of Arcot. This Committee was wiſely inſtituted by Lord Macartney, to remove from himſelf the ſuſ⯑picion of all improper management in ſo invidious a truſt; and it ſeems to have been well choſen. This Committee has made a comparative eſtimate of the only ſix diſtricts which were in a condition to be let to farm. In one ſet of columns they ſtate the groſs and net produce of the diſtricts as let [61] by the Nabob. To that ſtatement they oppoſe the terms on which the ſame diſtricts were rented for five years, under their authority. Under the Nabob, the groſs farm was ſo high as £. 570,000 ſterling. What was the clear produce? Why, no more than about £. 250,000; and this was the whole profit to the Nabob's treaſury, under his own management, of all the diſtricts which were in a condition to be let to farm on the 27th of May 1782. Lord Macartney's leaſes ſtipulated a groſs produce of no more than about £. 530,000: But then the eſtimated net amount was nearly double the Nabob's. It how⯑ever did not then exceed £. 480,000; and lord Ma⯑cartney's commiſſioners take credit for an annual revenue amounting to this clear ſum. Here is no ſpeculation; here is no inaccurate account clandeſ⯑tinely obtained from thoſe who might wiſh, and were enabled to deceive. It is the authorized re⯑corded ſtate of a real recent tranſaction. Here is not twelve hundred thouſand pound, not eight hun⯑dred. The whole revenue of the Carnatic yielded no more in May 1782 than four hundred and eighty thouſand pounds; nearly the very preciſe ſum which your miniſter, who is ſo careful of the public ſecurity, has carried from all deſcriptions of eſta⯑bliſhment to form a fund for the private emolu⯑ment of his creatures.

In this eſtimate, we ſee, as I have juſt obſerved, the Nabob's farms rated ſo high as £. 570,000. Hitherto all is well; but follow on to the effective net revenue: there the illuſion vaniſhes; and you will not find nearly ſo much as half the pro⯑duce. It is with reaſon therefore lord Macartney invariably throughout the whole correſpondence, qualifies all his views and expectations of re⯑venue, and all his plans for its application, with this indiſpenſable condition, that the management is not in the hands of the Nabob of Arcot. Should [62] that fatal meaſure take place, he has over and over again told you, that he has no proſpect of realizing any thing whatſoever for any public purpoſe. With theſe weighty declarations, confirmed by ſuch a ſtate of indiſputable fact before them; what has been done by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his accomplices? Shall I be believed? They have de⯑livered over thoſe very territories, on the keeping of which in the hands of the Committee, the de⯑fence of our dominions, and what was more dear to them, poſſibly, their own job depended; they have delivered back again without condition, without arrangement, without ſtipulation of any ſort for the natives of any rank, the whole of thoſe vaſt countries, to many of which he had no juſt claim, into the ruinous miſmanagement of the Nabob of Arcot. To crown all, according to their miſerable practice whenever they do any thing tranſcendent⯑ly abſurd, they preface this their abdication of their truſt, by a ſolemn declaration that they were not obliged to it by any principle of policy, or any de⯑mand of juſtice whatſoever.

I have ſtated to you the eſtimated produce of the territories of the Carnatic, in a condition to be farm⯑ed in 1782, according to the different managements into which they might fall; and this eſtimate the miniſters have thought proper to ſuppreſs. Since that, two other accounts have been received. The firſt informs us, that there has been a recovery of what is called arrear, as well as of an improvement of the revenue of one of the ſix provinces which were let in 1782 ^*. It was brought about by making a new war. After ſome ſharp actions, by the reſolution and ſkill of Colonel Fullarton, ſeveral of the petty princes of the moſt ſoutherly of the unwaſted pro⯑vinces were compelled to pay very heavy rents and [63] tributes, who for a long time before had not paid any acknowledgment. After this reduction, by the care of Mr. Irwin, one of the Committee, that province was divided into twelve farms. This ope⯑ration raiſed the income of that particular province; the others remain as they were firſt farmed. So that inſtead of producing only their original rent of £. 480,000, they netted in about two years and a quarter £. 1,320,000 ſterling, which would be about £. 660,000 a year, if the recovered arrear was not included. What deduction is to be made on account of that arrear I cannot determine, but certainly what would reduce the annual income conſiderably below the rate I have allowed.

The ſecond account received, is the letting of the waſted provinces of the Carnatic. This I un⯑derſtand is at a growing rent, which may or may not realiſe what it promiſes; but if it ſhould an⯑ſwer, it will raiſe the whole, at ſome future time, to £. 1,200,000.

You muſt here remark, Mr. Speaker, that this revenue is the produce of all the Nabob's do⯑minions. During the aſſignment, the Nabob paid nothing, becauſe the Company had all. Suppoſing the whole of the lately aſſigned territory to yield up to the moſt ſanguine expectations of the right ho⯑nourable gentleman; and ſuppoſe £. 1,200,000 to be annually realized (of which we actually know of no more than the realizing of ſix hundred thou⯑ſand) out of this you muſt deduct the ſubſidy and rent which the Nabob paid before the aſſignment, namely, £. 340,000 a year. This reduces back the revenue applicable to the new diſtribution made by his Majeſty's Miniſters, to about £. 800,000. Of that ſum five-eighths are by them ſurrendered to the debts. The remaining three are the only fund left for all the purpoſes ſo magnificently diſplayed in the letter of the Board of Control; that is for [64] a new-caſt peace eſtabliſhment; a new fund for ord⯑nance and fortifications; and a large allowance for what they call "the ſplendour of the Durbar."

You have heard the account of theſe territories as they ſtood in 1782. You have ſeen the actual re⯑ceipt ſince the aſſignment in 1781, of which I reckon about two years and a quarter productive. I have ſtated to you the expectation from the waſted part. For realizing all this, you may value yourſelves on the vigour and diligence of a Gover⯑nor and Committee that have done ſo much. If theſe hopes from the Committee are rational—re⯑member that the Committee is no more. Your Miniſters, who have formed their fund for theſe debts on the preſumed effect of the Committee's ma⯑nagement, have put a complete end to that Com⯑mittee. Their acts are reſcinded; their leaſes are broken; their renters are diſperſed. Your Miniſ⯑ters knew when they ſigned the death-warrant of the Carnatic, that the Nabob would not only turn all theſe unfortunate farmers of revenue out of employ⯑ment, but that he has denounced his ſevereſt ven⯑geance againſt them, for acting under Britiſh au⯑thority. With a knowledge of this diſpoſition, a Bri⯑tiſh Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Treaſurer of the Navy, incited by no public advantage, impelled by no public neceſſity, in a ſtrain of the moſt wan⯑ton perfidy which has ever ſtained the annals of mankind, have delivered over to plunder, impriſon⯑ment, exile, and death itſelf, according to the mercy of ſuch execrable tyrants as Amir al Omra and Paul Benfield, the unhappy and deluded ſouls, who, un⯑taught by uniform example, were ſtill weak enough to put their truſt in Engliſh faith ^*. They have gone farther; they have thought proper to mock [65] and outrage their miſery by ordering them protec⯑tion and compenſation. From what power is this protection to be derived? and from what fund is this compenſation to ariſe? The revenues are delivered over to their oppreſſor; the territorial juriſdiction, from whence that revenue is to ariſe, and under which they live, is ſurrendered to the ſame iron hands: and that they ſhall be deprived of all refuge, and all hope, the Miniſter has made a ſolemn, voluntary declaration, that he never will interfere with the Nabob's internal government^*.

The laſt thing conſidered by the Board of Con⯑trol among the debts of the Carnatic, was that ariſing to the Eaſt India Company, which after the proviſion for the cavalry, and the conſolidation of 1777, was to divide the reſidue of the fund of £. 480,000 a year with the lenders of 1767. This debt the worthy Chairman, who ſits oppoſite to me, contends to be three millions ſterling. Lord Ma⯑cartney's account of 1781, ſtates it to be at that pe⯑riod £. 1,200,000. The firſt account of the Court of Directors makes it £. 900,000. This, like the private debt, being without any ſolid exiſtence, is incapable of any diſtinct limits. Whatever its amount or its validity may be, one thing is clear; it is of the nature and quality of a public debt. In that light nothing is provided for it, but an eventual ſurplus to be divided with one claſs of the private demands, after ſatisfying the two firſt claſſes. Never was a more ſhameful poſtponing a public demand, which by the reaſon of the thing, and the uniform practice of all na⯑tions, ſuperſedes every private claim.

Thoſe who gave this preference to private claims, conſider the Company's as a lawful de⯑mand; [66] elſe, why did they pretend to provide for it? On their own principles they are condemned.

But I, Sir, who profeſs to ſpeak to your under⯑ſtanding and to your conſcience, and to bruſh away from this buſineſs all falſe colours, all falſe appellations, as well as falſe facts, do poſitively deny that the Carnatic owes a ſhilling to the Com⯑pany; whatever the Company may be indebted to that undone country. It owes nothing to the Company, for this plain and ſimple reaſon—The territory charged with the debt is their own. To ſay that their revenues fall ſhort, and owe them money, is to ſay they are in debt to themſelves, which is only talking nonſenſe. The fact is, that by the invaſion of an enemy, and the ruin of the country, the Company, either in its own name or in the names of the Nabob of Arcot and Rajah of Tanjore, has loſt for ſeveral years what it might have looked to receive from its own eſtate. If men were allowed to credit themſelves, upon ſuch prin⯑ciples any one might ſoon grow rich by this mode of accounting. A flood comes down upon a man's eſtate in the Bedford Level of a thouſand pounds a year, and drowns his rents for ten years. The Chancellor would put that man into the hands of a truſtee, who would gravely make up his books, and for this loſs credit himſelf in his account for a debt due to him of £. 10,000. It is, how⯑ever, on this principle the Company makes up its demands on the Carnatic. In peace they go the full length, and indeed more than the full length, of what the people can bear for current eſtabliſhments; then they are abſurd enough to conſolidate all the calamities of war into debts; to metamorphoſe the devaſtations of the country into demands upon its future production. What is this but to avow a reſolution utterly to deſtroy their own country, and to force the people to pay for [67] their ſufferings, to a government which has proved unable to protect either the ſhare of the huſhand⯑man or their own? In every leaſe of a farm, the invaſion of an enemy, inſtead of forming a de⯑mand for arrear, is a releaſe of rent; nor for that releaſe is it at all neceſſary to ſhow, that the inva⯑ſion has left nothing to the occupier of the ſoil; though in the preſent caſe it would be too eaſy to prove that melancholy fact^*. I therefore ap⯑plauded my right honourable friend, who, when he canvaſſed the Company's accounts, as a prelimi⯑nary to a bill that ought not to ſtand on falſehood of any kind, fixed his diſcerning eye, and his de⯑ciding hand, on theſe debts of the Company, from the Nabob of Arcot and Rajah of Tanjore, and at one ſtroke expunged them all, as utterly irrecove⯑rable; he might have added as utterly unfounded.

On theſe grounds I do not blame the arrange⯑ment this day in queſtion, as a preference given to the debt of individuals over the Company's debt. In my eye it is no more than the preference of a fiction over a chimera; but I blame the preference given to thoſe fictitious private debts, over the ſtanding de⯑fence and the ſtanding government. It is there the public is robbed. It is robbed in its army; it is robbed in its civil adminiſtration; it is robbed in its credit; it is robbed in its inveſtment which forms the commercial connection between that country and Europe. There is the robbery.

But my principal objection lies a good deal deeper. That debt to the Company is the pretext under which all the other debts lurk and cover themſelves. That debt forms the foul putrid mucus, in which are engendered the whole brood of creeping aſcarides, [68] all the endleſs involutions, the eternal knot, added to a knot of thoſe inexpugnable tape-worms which de⯑vour the nutriment, and eat up the bowels of India^*. It is neceſſary, Sir, you ſhould recollect two things: Firſt, that the Nabob's debt to the Company carries no intereſt. In the next place you will obſerve, that whenever the Company has occaſion to borrow, ſhe has always commanded whatever ſhe thought fit at eight per cent. Carrying in your mind theſe two facts, attend to the proceſs with regard to the public and the private debt, and with what little appear⯑ance of decency they play into each other's hands a game of utter perdition to the unhappy natives of India. The Nabob falls into an arrear to the Company. The Preſidency preſſes for payment. The Nabob's anſwer is, I have no money. Good. But there are ſoucars who will ſupply you on the mortgage of your territories. Then ſteps forward ſome Paul Benfield, and from his grateful com⯑paſſion to the Nabob, and his filial regard to the Company, he unlocks the treaſures of his virtuous induſtry; and for a conſideration of twenty-four or thirty-ſix per cent. on a mortgage of the territorial revenue, becomes ſecurity to the Company for the Nabob's arrear.

All this intermediate uſury thus becomes ſanc⯑tified by the ultimate view to the Company's pay⯑ment. In this caſe, would not a plain man aſk this plain queſtion of the Company; If you know that the Nabob muſt annually mortgage his ter⯑ritories to your ſervants, to pay his annual arrear to you, why is not the aſſignment or mortgage made directly to the Company itſelf? By this ſimple obvious operation, the Company would [69] be relieved and the debt paid, without the charge of a ſhilling intereſt to that prince. But if that courſe ſhould be thought too indulgent, why do they not take that aſſignment with ſuch intereſt to themſelves as they pay to others, that is eight per cent.? Or if it were thought more adviſeable (why it ſhould I know not) that he muſt borrow, why do not the Company lend their own credit to the Nabob for their own payment? That credit would not be weakened by the collateral ſecurity of his territorial mortgage. The money might ſtill be had at eight per cent. Inſtead of any of theſe honeſt and obvious methods, the Company has for years kept up a ſhew of diſintereſtedneſs and mo⯑deration, by ſuffering a debt to accumulate to them from the country powers without any intereſt at all; and at the ſame time have ſeen before their eyes, on a pretext of borrowing to pay that debt, the revenues of the country charged with an uſury of twenty, twenty-four, thirty-ſix, and even eight-and-forty per cent. with compound intereſt ^*, for the benefit of their ſervants. All this time they know that by having a debt ſubſiſting without any in⯑tereſt, which is to be paid by contracting a debt on the higheſt intereſt, they manifeſtly render it neceſſary to the Nabob of Arcot to give the pri⯑vate demand a preference to the public; and by binding him and their ſervants together in a com⯑mon cauſe, they enable him to form a party to the utter ruin of their own authority, and their own affairs. Thus their falſe moderation, and their affected purity, by the natural operation of every thing falſe, and every thing affected, becomes pan⯑der and bawd to the unbridled debauchery and li⯑centious lewdneſs of uſury and extortion.

In conſequence of this double game, all the ter⯑ritorial [70] revenues have, at one time or other, been covered by thoſe locuſts, the Engliſh ſoucars. Not one ſingle foot of the Carnatic has eſcaped them; a territory as large as England. During theſe operations what a ſcene has that country pre⯑ſented^*! The uſurious European aſſignee ſuperſedes the Nabob's native farmer of the revenue; the farmer flies to the Nabob's preſence to claim his bargain; whilſt his ſervants murmur for wages, and his ſoldiers mutiny for pay. The mortgage to the European aſſignee is then reſumed, and the native farmer replaced; replaced, again to be removed on the new clamour of the European aſſignee ^†. Every man of rank and landed fortune being long ſince extinguiſhed, the remaining miſerable laſt cultivator, who grows to the ſoil, after having his back ſcored by the farmer, has it again flayed by the whip of the aſſignee, and is thus by a rave⯑nous, becauſe a ſhort-lived ſucceſſion of claimants, laſhed from oppreſſor to oppreſſor, whilſt a ſingle drop of blood is left as the means of extorting a ſingle grain of corn. Do not think I paint. Far, [71] very far from it; I do not reach the fact, nor approach to it. Men of reſpectable condition, men equal to your ſubſtantial Engliſh yeomen, are daily tied up and ſcourged to anſwer the multiplied demands of various contending and contradictory titles, all iſſuing from one and the ſame ſource. Tyrannous exaction brings on ſervile concealment; and that again calls forth tyrannous coercion. They move in a circle, mutually producing and produced; till at length nothing of humanity is left in the government, no trace of integrity, ſpirit, or manlineſs in the people, who drag out a precarious and degraded exiſtence under this ſyſtem of outrage upon human nature. Such is the effect of the eſtabliſhment of a debt to the Company, as it has hitherto been managed, and as it ever will remain, until ideas are adopted totally different from thoſe which prevail at this time.

Your worthy miniſters, ſupporting what they are obliged to condemn, have thought fit to renew the Company's old order againſt contracting private debts in future. They begin by rewarding the vio⯑lation of the antient law; and then they gravely re-enact proviſions, of which they have given bounties for the breach. This inconſiſtency has been well expoſed ^*. But what will you ſay to their having gone the length of giving poſitive directions for contracting the debt which they poſitively for⯑bid?

I will explain myſelf. They order the Nabob, out of the revenues of the Carnatic, to allot four hundred and eighty thouſand pounds a year, as a fund for the debts before us. For the punctual payment of this annuity, they order him to give ſoucar ſecurity^†. When a ſoucar, that is a money [72] dealer, becomes ſecurity for any native prince, the courſe is, for the native prince to counterſecure the money dealer, by making over to him in mortgage a portion of his territory, equal to the ſum annually to be paid, with an intereſt of at leaſt twenty-four per cent. The point fit for the Houſe to know is, who are theſe ſoucars, to whom this ſecurity on the revenues in favour of the Nabob's creditors is to be given? The majority of the Houſe, unaccuſtomed to theſe tranſactions, will hear with aſtoniſhment that theſe ſoucars are no other than the creditors themſelves. The Miniſter, not content with au⯑thorizing theſe tranſactions in a manner and to an extent unhoped for by the rapacious expectations of uſury itſelf, loads the broken back of the Indian revenues, in favour of his worthy friends the ſou⯑cars, with an additional twenty-four per cent. for being ſecurity to themſelves for their own claims; for condeſcending to take the country in mortgage, to pay to themſelves the fruits of their own ex⯑tortions.

The intereſt to be paid for this ſecurity, accord⯑ing to the moſt moderate ſtrain of ſoucar de⯑mand, comes to one hundred and eighteen thouſand pounds a year, which added to the £.480,000 on which it is to accrue, will make the whole charge on account of theſe debts on the Carnatic revenues amount to £.598,000 a year, as much as even a long peace will enable thoſe revenues to produce. Can any one reflect for a moment on all thoſe claims of debt, which the Miniſter exhauſts himſelf in con⯑trivances to augment with new uſuries, without lifting up his hands and eyes in aſtoniſhment of the impudence, both of the claim and the adjudication? Services of ſome kind or other theſe ſervants of the Company muſt have done, ſo great and eminent, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer cannot think that all they have brought home is half enough. [73] He halloos after them, ‘Gentlemen, you have forgot a large packet behind you, in your hurry; you have not ſufficiently recovered yourſelves; you ought to have, and you ſhall have, intereſt upon intereſt, upon a prohibited debt that is made up of intereſt upon intereſt. Even this is too little. I have thought of another charac⯑ter for you, by which you may add ſomething to your gains; you ſhall be ſecurity to yourſelves; and hence will riſe a new uſury, which ſhall efface the memory of all the uſuries ſuggeſted to you by your own dull inventions.’

I have done with the arrangement relative to the Carnatic. After this it is to little purpoſe to ob⯑ſerve on what the Miniſters have done to Tanjore. Your Miniſters have not obſerved even form and ceremony in their outrageous and inſulting robbery of that country, whoſe only crime has been, its early and conſtant adherence to the power of this, and the ſuffering of an uniform pillage in conſequence of it. The debt of the Company from the Rajah of Tanjore, is juſt of the ſame ſtuff with that of the Nabob of Arcot.

The ſubſidy from Tanjore, on the arrear of which this pretended debt (if any there be) has accrued to the Company, is not, like that paid by the Nabob of Arcot, a compenſation for vaſt countries obtained, augmented, and preſerved for him; not the price of pillaged treaſuries, ran⯑ſacked houſes, and plundered territories.—It is a large grant, from a ſmall kingdom not obtained by our arms; robbed, not protected by our pow⯑er; a grant for which no equivalent was ever given, or pretended to be given. The right honourable Gentleman, however, bears witneſs in his Reports to the punctuality of the pay⯑ments of this grant of bounty, or, if you pleaſe, of fear. It amounts to one hundred and ſixty thou⯑ſand [74] pound ſterling net annual ſubſidy. He bears witneſs to a further grant of a town and port, with an annexed diſtrict of thirty thouſand pound a year, ſurrendered to the Company ſince the firſt donation. He has not borne witneſs, but the fact is, (he will not deny it) that in the midſt of war, and during the ruin and deſolation of a conſider⯑able part of his territories, this prince made many very large payments. Notwithſtanding theſe me⯑rits and ſervices, the firſt regulation of miniſtry is to force from him a territory of an extent which they have not yet thought proper to aſcertain, for a military peace eſtabliſhment, the particulars of which they have not yet been pleaſed to ſettle.

The next part of their arrangement is with re⯑gard to war. As confeſſedly this prince had no ſhare in ſtirring up any of the former wars, ſo all future wars are completely out of his power; for he has no troops whatever, and is under a ſtipu⯑lation not ſo much as to correſpond with any fo⯑reign ſtate, except through the Company. Yet, in caſe the Company's ſervants ſhould be again involved in war, or ſhould think proper again to provoke any enemy, as in times paſt they have wantonly provoked all India, he is to be ſubjected to a new penalty. To what penalty?—Why, to no leſs than the confiſcation of all his revenues. But this is to end with the war, and they are to be faithfully returned?—Oh! no; nothing like it. The country is to remain under confiſcation until all the debt which the Company ſhall think fit to incur in ſuch war ſhall be diſcharged; that is to ſay, for ever. His ſole comfort is to find his old enemy, the Nabob of Arcot, placed in the very ſame con⯑dition.

The revenues of that miſerable country were, before the invaſion of Hyder, reduced to a groſs annual receipt of three hundred and ſixty thou⯑ſand [75] pound ^*. From this receipt the ſubſidy I have juſt ſtated is taken. This again, by payments in advance, by extorting depoſits of additional ſums to a vaſt amount for the benefit of their ſoucars, and by an endleſs variety of other extortions, pub⯑lic and private, is loaded with a debt, the amount of which I never could aſcertain, but which is large undoubtedly, generating an uſury the moſt completely ruinous that probably was ever heard of; that is, forty-eight per cent, payable monthly, with compound intereſt ^†.

Such is the ſtate to which the Company's ſervants have reduced that country. Now come the re⯑formers, reſtorers, and comforters of India. What have they done? In addition to all theſe tyrannous exactions with all theſe ruinous debts in their train, looking to one ſide of an agreement whilſt they wilfully ſhut their eyes to the other, they withdraw from Tanjore all the benefits of the treaty of 1762, and they ſubject that nation to a perpetual tribute of forty thouſand a year to the Nabob of Arcot; a tribute never due, or pretended to be due to him, even when he appeared to be ſomething; a tribute, as things now ſtand, not to a real potentate, but to a ſhadow, a dream, an incubus of oppreſſion. Af⯑ter the Company has accepted in ſubſidy, in grant of territory, in remiſſion of rent, as a compenſation for their own protection, at leaſt two hundred thouſand pound a year, without diſcounting a ſhil⯑ling for that receipt, the Miniſters condemn this haraſſed nation to be tributary to a perſon who is himſelf, by their own arrangement, deprived of the right of war or peace; deprived of the power of the ſword; forbid to keep up a ſingle regiment of ſoldiers; and is therefore wholly diſabled from all [76] protection of the country which is the object of the pretended tribute. Tribute hangs on the ſword. It is an incident inſeparable from real ſo⯑vereign power. In the preſent caſe to ſuppoſe its exiſtence, is as abſurd as it is cruel and oppreſſive. And here, Mr. Speaker, you have a clear exem⯑plification of the uſe of thoſe falſe names, and falſe colours, which the Gentlemen who have lately taken poſſeſſion of India chooſe to lay on for the purpoſe of diſguiſing their plan of oppreſſion. The Nabob of Arcot, and Rajah of Tanjore, have, in truth and ſubſtance, no more than a merely civil authority, held in the moſt entire dependence on the Company. The Nabob, without military, with⯑out federal capacity, is extinguiſhed as a poten⯑tate; but then he is carefully kept alive as an in⯑dependent and ſovereign power, for the purpoſe of rapine and extortion; for the purpoſe of perpetuat⯑ing the old intrigues, animoſities, uſuries, and cor⯑ruptions.

It was not enough that this mockery of tribute, was to be continued without the correſpondent protection, or any of the ſtipulated equivalents, but ten years of arrear, to the amount of £. 400,000 ſterling, is added to all the debts to the Company, and to individuals, in order to create a new debt, to be paid (if at all poſſible to be paid in whole or in part) only by new uſuries; and all this for the Nabob of Arcot, or rather for Mr. Benfield, and the corps of the Nabob's creditors, and their ſou⯑cars. Thus theſe miſerable Indian princes are con⯑tinued in their ſeats, for no other purpoſe than to render them in the firſt inſtance objects of every ſpecies of extortion; and in the ſecond, to force them to become, for the ſake of a momentary ſhadow of reduced authority, a ſort of ſubordinate tyrants, the ruin and calamity, not the fathers and cheriſhers, of their people.

[77]But take this tribute only as a mere charge (without title, cauſe, or equivalent) on this people; what one ſtep has been taken to furniſh grounds for a juſt calculation and eſtimate of the proportion of the burthen and the ability? None; not an at⯑tempt at it. They do not adapt the burthen to the ſtrength; but they eſtimate the ſtrength of the bearers by the burthen they impoſe. Then what care is taken to leave a fund ſufficient to the future reproduction of the revenues that are to bear all theſe loads? Every one, but tolerably converſant in Indian affairs, muſt know that the exiſtence of this little kingdom depends on its control over the river Cavery. The benefits of Heaven to any community, ought never to be con⯑nected with political arrangements, or made to depend on the perſonal conduct of princes; in which the miſtake, or error, or neglect, or diſtreſs, or paſſion of a moment on either ſide, may bring famine on millions, and ruin an innocent nation perhaps for ages. The means of the ſubſiſtence of mankind ſhould be as immutable as the laws of Nature, let power and dominion take what courſe they may.—Obſerve what has been done with regard to this important concern. The uſe of this river is indeed at length given to the Rajah, and a power provided for its enjoyment at his own charge; but the means of furniſhing that charge (and a mighty one it is) are wholly cut off. This uſe of the water, which ought to have no more connexion than clouds and rains, and ſunſhine, with the politics of the Rajah, the Na⯑bob, or the Company, is expreſsly contrived as a means of enforcing demands and arrears of tri⯑bute. This horrid and unnatural inſtrument of extortion had been a diſtinguiſhing feature in the enormities of the Carnatic politics that loudly called for reformation. But the food of a whole [78] people is by the reformers of India conditioned on payments from its prince, at a moment that he is overpowered with a ſwarm of their demands, with⯑out regard to the ability of either prince or people. In fine, by opening an avenue to the irruption of the Nabob of Arcot's creditors and ſoucars, whom every man who did not fall in love with oppreſſion and corruption on an experience of the ca⯑lamities they produced, would have raiſed wall before wall, and mound before mound, to keep from a poſſibility of entrance, a more deſtructive enemy than Hyder Ali is introduced into that kingdom. By this part of their arrangement, in which they eſtabliſh a debt to the Nabob of Arcot, in effect and ſubſtance, they deliver over Tanjore, bound hand and foot, to Paul Benfield, the old be⯑trayer, inſulter, oppreſſor, and ſcourge of a coun⯑try, which has for years been an object of an un⯑remitted, but unhappily an unequal ſtruggle, be⯑tween the bounties of Providence to renovate, and the wickedneſs of mankind to deſtroy.

The right honourable gentleman ^* talks of his fairneſs in determining the territorial diſpute between the Nabob of Arcot and the prince of that country, when he ſuperſeded the determi⯑nation of the Directors, in whom the law had veſted the deciſion of that controverſy. He is in this juſt as feeble as he is in every other part. But it is not neceſſary to ſay a word in refutation of any part of his argument. The mode of the proceeding ſufficiently ſpeaks the ſpirit of it. It is enough to fix his character as a judge, that he never heard the Directors in defence of their adjudication, nor either of the parties in ſupport of their reſpective claims. It is ſufficient for me, that he takes from the Ra⯑jah of Tanjore, by this pretended adjudication, or [79] rather from his unhappy ſubjects, £. 40,000 a year of his and their revenue, and leaves upon his and their ſhoulders all the charges that can be made on the part of the Nabob, on the part of his creditors, and on the part of the Company, without ſo much as hearing him as to right or to ability. But what principally induces me to leave the affair of the territorial diſpute between the Nabob and the Rajah to another day, is this, that both the parties being ſtripped of their all, it little ſignifies under which of their names the un⯑happy undone people are delivered over to the mercileſs ſoucars, the allies of that right honourable gentleman, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In them ends the account of this long diſpute of the Nabob of Arcot, and the Rajah of Tanjore.

The right honourable gentleman is of opinion, that his judgment in this caſe can be cenſured by none but thoſe who ſeem to act as if they were paid agents to one of the parties. What does he think of his Court of Directors? If they are paid by either of the parties, by which of them does he think they are paid? He knows that their deciſion has been directly contrary to his. Shall I believe that it does not enter into his heart to con⯑ceive, that any perſon can ſteadily and actively intereſt himſelf in the protection of the injured and oppreſſed, without being well paid for his ſervice? I have taken notice of this ſort of diſcourſe ſome days ago, ſo far as it may be ſuppoſed to relate to me. I then contented myſelf, as I ſhall now do, with giving it a cold, though a very direct con⯑tradiction. Thus much I do from reſpect to truth. If I did more, it might be ſuppoſed, by my anxiety to clear myſelf, that I had imbibed the ideas, which, for obvious reaſons, the right honourable gentleman wiſhes to have re⯑ceived [80] concerning all attempts to plead the cauſe of the natives of India, as if it were a diſreputable employment. If he had not forgot, in his preſent occupation, every principle which ought to have guided him, and I hope did guide him, in his late profeſſion, he would have known, that he who takes a fee for pleading the cauſe of diſtreſs againſt power, and manfully performs the duty he has aſſumed, receives an honourable recompence for a virtuous ſervice. But if the right honourable gen⯑tleman will have no regard to fact in his inſinua⯑tions, or to reaſon in his opinions, I wiſh him at leaſt to conſider, that if taking an earneſt part with regard to the oppreſſions exerciſed in India, and with regard to this moſt oppreſſive caſe of Tanjore in particular, can ground a preſumption of inte⯑reſted motives, he is himſelf the moſt mercenary man I know. His conduct indeed is ſuch that he is on all occaſions the ſtanding teſtimony againſt himſelf. He it was that firſt called to that caſe the attention of the Houſe: The Reports of his own Committee are ample and affecting upon that ſubject ^*; and as many of us as have eſcaped his maſſacre, muſt remember the very pathetic picture he made of the ſufferings of the Tanjore country, on the day when he moved the unwieldy code of his Indian reſolutions. Has he not ſtated over and over again in his Reports, the ill treatment of the Rajah of Tanjore, (a branch of the royal houſe of the Marattas, every injury to whom the Marattas felt as offered to them⯑ſelves) as a main cauſe of the alienation of that people from the Britiſh power? And does he now think, that to betray his principles, to contradict his declarations, and to become himſelf an active in⯑ſtrument [81] in thoſe oppreſſions which he had ſo tragi⯑cally lamented, is the way to clear himſelf of having been actuated by a pecuniary intereſt, at the time when he choſe to appear full of tenderneſs to that ruined nation?

The right honourable gentleman is fond of pa⯑rading on the motives of others, and on his own. As to himſelf, he deſpiſes the imputations of thoſe who ſuppoſe that any thing corrupt could influence him in this his unexampled liberality of the public treaſure. I do not know that I am obliged to ſpeak to the motives of miniſtry, in the arrange⯑ments they have made of the pretended debts of Arcot and Tanjore. If I prove fraud and collu⯑ſion with regard to public money on thoſe right honourable gentlemen, I am not obliged to aſſign their motives; becauſe no good motives can be pleaded in favour of their conduct. Upon that caſe I ſtand; we are at iſſue; and I deſire to go to trial. This, I am ſure, is not looſe railing, or mean inſinuation, according to their low and degenerate faſhion, when they make attacks on the meaſures of their adverſaries. It is a regular and juridical courſe; and, unleſs I chooſe it, nothing can compel me to go further.

But ſince theſe unhappy gentlemen have dared to hold a lofty tone about their motives, and affect to deſpiſe ſuſpicion, inſtead of being careful not to give cauſe for it, I ſhall beg leave to lay before you ſome general obſervations on what I conceive was their duty in ſo delicate a buſineſs.

If I were worthy to ſuggeſt any line of pru⯑dence to that right honourable gentleman, I would tell him, that the way to avoid ſuſpicion in the ſettlement of pecuniary tranſactions, in which great frauds have been very ſtrongly preſumed, is, to attend to theſe few plain principles:—Firſt, To [82] hear all parties equally, and not the managers for the ſuſpected claimants only.—Not to proceed in the dark; but to act with as much publicity as poſſible.—Not to precipitate deciſion.—To be religious in following the rules preſcribed in the commiſſion under which we act. And, laſtly, and above all, not to be fond of ſtraining con⯑ſtructions, to force a juriſdiction, and to draw to ourſelves the management of a truſt in its nature invidious and obnoxious to ſuſpicion, where the plaineſt letter of the law does not compel it. If theſe few plain rules are obſerved, no corruption ought to be ſuſpected; if any of them are violated, ſuſpicion will attach in proportion. If all of them are violated, a corrupt motive of ſome kind or other will not only be ſuſpected, but muſt be vio⯑lently preſumed.

The perſons in whoſe favour all theſe rules have been violated, and the conduct of miniſters towards them, will naturally call for your conſideration, and will ſerve to lead you through a ſeries and combi⯑nation of facts and characters, if I do not miſtake, into the very inmoſt receſſes of this myſterious bu⯑ſineſs. You will then, be in poſſeſſion of all the materials on which the principles of ſound juriſ⯑prudence will found, or will reject the preſump⯑tion of corrupt motives; or if ſuch motives are indicated, will point out to you of what particular nature the corruption is.

Our wonderful miniſter, as you all know, form⯑ed a new plan, a plan inſigne recens alio indictum ore, a plan for ſupporting the freedom of our conſti⯑tution by court intrigues, and for removing its corruptions by Indian delinquency. To carry that bold paradoxical deſign into execution, ſufficient funds and apt inſtruments became neceſſary. You are perfectly ſenſible that a Parliamentary Reform occupies his thoughts day and night, as an eſ⯑ſential [83] member in this extraordinary project. In his anxious reſearches upon this ſubjeſt, natural inſtinct, as well as ſound policy, would direct his eyes, and ſettle his choice on Paul Benfield. Paul Benfield is the grand parliamentary reformer, the reformer to whom the whole choir of reformers bow, and to whom even the right honourable gentleman himſelf muſt yield the palm: For what region in the empire, what city, what borough, what county, what tribunal, in this kingdom, is not full of his labours? Others have been only ſpeculators; he is the grand practical reformer; and whilſt the Chancellor of the Exchequer pledges in vain the man and the miniſter, to increaſe the provincial members, Mr. Benfield has auſpiciouſly and prac⯑tically begun it. Leaving far behind him even Lord Camelford's generous deſign of beſtowing Old Sarum on the Bank of England, Mr. Ben⯑field has thrown in the borough of Cricklade to reinforce the county repreſentation. Not con⯑tent with this, in order toſtation a ſteady phalanx for all future reforms, this public-ſpirited uſurer, amidſt his charitable toils for the relief of India, did not forget the poor rotten conſtitution of his native country. For her, he did not diſdain to ſtoop to the trade of a wholeſale upholſterer for this houſe, to furniſh it, not with the faded ta⯑peſtry figures of antiquated merit, ſuch as decorate, and may reproach ſome other houſes, but with real, ſolid, living patterns of true modern virtue. Paul Benfield made (reckoning himſelf) no fewer than eight members in the laſt parliament. What copious ſtreams of pure blood muſt he not have transfuſed into the veins of the preſent!

But what is even more ſtriking than the real ſer⯑vices of this new-imported patriot, is his modeſty. As ſoon as he had conferred this benefit on the conſtitution, he withdrew himſelf from our ap⯑plauſe. [84] He conceived that the duties of a member of parliament (which with the elect faithful, the true believers, the Iſlam of parliamentary reform, are of little or no merit, perhaps not much better than ſpecious ſins) might be as well attended to in India as in England, and the means of refor⯑mation to Parliament itſelf, be far better provided. Mr. Benfield was therefore no ſooner elected than he ſet off for Madras, and defrauded the long⯑ing eyes of parliament. We have never enjoyed in this Houſe the luxury of beholding that minion of the human race, and contemplating that viſage, which has ſo long reflected the happineſs of na⯑tions.

It was therefore not poſſible for the miniſter to conſult perſonally with this great man. What then was he to do? Through a ſagacity that never failed him in theſe purſuits, he found out in Mr. Benfield's repreſentative, his exact reſemblance. A ſpecific attraction by which he gravitates towards all ſuch characters, ſoon brought our miniſter into a cloſe connection with Mr. Benfield's agent and attorney; that is, with the grand contractor (whom I name to honour) Mr. Richard Atkinſon; a name that will be well remembered as long as the Records of this Houſe, as long as the Records of the Britiſh Treaſury, as long as the monumental debt of England, ſhall endure.

This gentleman, Sir, acts as attorney for Mr. Paul Benfield. Every one who hears me, is well acquainted with the ſacred friendſhip, and the ſteady mutual attachment that ſubſiſts between him and the preſent miniſter. As many members as choſe to attend in the firſt ſeſſion of this par⯑liament, can beſt tell their own feelings at the ſcenes which were then acted. How much that honourable gentleman was conſulted in the origi⯑nal frame and fabric of the bill, commonly called [85] Mr. Pitt's India Bill, is matter only of conjecture; though by no means difficult to divine. But the public was an indignant witneſs of the oſtentation with which that meaſure was made his own, and the authority with which he brought up clauſe after clauſe, to ſtuff and fatten the rankneſs of that cor⯑rupt act. As faſt as the clauſes were brought up to the table, they were accepted. No heſitation; no diſcuſſion. They were received by the new miniſter, not with approbation, but with implicit ſubmiſſion. The reformation may be eſtimated, by ſeeing who was the reformer. Paul Benfield's aſſociate and agent was held up to the world as legiſlator of Indoſtan. But it was neceſſary to authenticate the coalition between the men of in⯑trigue in India and the miniſter of intrigue in Eng⯑land, by a ſtudied diſplay of the power of this their connecting link. Every truſt, every honour, every diſtinction, was to be heaped upon him. He was at once made a director of the India Com⯑pany; made an alderman of London; and to be made, if miniſtry could prevail (and I am ſorry to ſay how near, how very near they were pre⯑vailing) repreſentative of the capital of this king⯑dom. But to ſecure his ſervices againſt all riſque, he was brought in for a miniſterial borough. On his part, he was not wanting in zeal for the common cauſe. His advertiſements ſhew his motives, and the merits upon which he ſtood. For your miniſ⯑ter, this worn-out veteran ſubmitted to enter into the duſty field of the London conteſt; and you all re⯑member, that in the ſame virtuous cauſe, he ſub⯑mitted to keep a ſort of public office or counting-houſe, where the whole buſineſs of the laſt general election was managed. It was openly managed by the direct agent and attorney of Benfield. It was managed upon Indian principles, and for an Indian intereſt. This was the golden cup of abominations; [86] this the chalice of the fornications of rapine, uſury, and oppreſſion, which was held out by the gorgeous eaſtern harlot; which ſo many of the people, ſo many of the nobles of this land, had drained to the very dregs. Do you think that no reckoning was to follow this lewd debauch? that no pay⯑ment was to be demanded for this riot of public drunkenneſs and national proſtitution? Here! you have it here before you. The principal of the grand election manager muſt be indemnified; ac⯑cordingly the claims of Benfield and his crew muſt be put above all enquiry.

For ſeveral years, Benfield appeared as the chief proprietor, as well as the chief agent, director, and controller, of this ſyſtem of debt. The wor⯑thy chairman of the Company has ſtated the claims of this ſingle gentleman on the Nabob of Arcot, as amounting to five hundred thouſand pound ^*. Poſ⯑ſibly at the time of the chairman's ſtate, they might have been as high. Eight hundred thouſand had been mentioned ſometime before^†; and according to the practice of ſhifting the names of creditors in theſe tranſactions, and reducing or raiſing the debt itſelf at pleaſure, I think it not impoſſible, that at one period, the name of Benfield might have ſtood before thoſe frightful figures. But my beſt information goes to fix his ſhare no higher than four hundred thouſand pounds. By the ſcheme of the preſent miniſtry for adding to the principal twelve per cent. from the year 1777 to the year 1781, four hundred thouſand pounds, that ſmalleſt of the ſums ever mentioned for Mr. Benfield, will form a capital of £. 592,000, at ſix per cent. Thus, beſides the arrears of three years, amounting to £. 106,500 (which, as faſt as received, may be legally lent out at 12 per cent.) Benfield has received by [87] the miniſterial grant before you, an annuity of £. 35,520 a year, charged on the public revenues.

Our mirror of Miniſters of finance, did not think this enough for the ſervices of ſuch a friend as Benfield. He found that Lord Macartney, in order to frighten the Court of Directors from the project, of obliging the Nabob to give ſou⯑car ſecurity for his debt, aſſured them, that if they ſhould take that ſtep, Benfield ^* would in⯑fallibly be the ſoucar; and would thereby become the entire maſter of the Carnatic. What Lord Macartney thought ſufficient to deter the very agents and partakers with Benfield in his iniquities, was the inducement to the two right honourable gentlemen to order this very ſoucar ſecurity to be given, and to recal Benfield to the city of Madras, from the ſort of decent exile, into which he had been relegated by Lord Macartney. You muſt therefore conſider Benfield as ſoucar ſecurity for £. 480,000 a year, which at twenty-four per cent. (ſuppoſing him contented with that profit) will, with the intereſt of his old debt, produce an an⯑nual income of £. 149,520 a year.

Here is a ſpecimen of the new and pure ariſto⯑cracy created by the right honourable gentleman^†, as the ſupport of the crown and conſtitution, againſt the old, corrupt, refractory, natural intereſts of this kingdom; and this is the grand counterpoiſe againſt all odious coalitions of theſe intereſts. A ſingle Benfield outweighs them all; a criminal, who long ſince ought to have fattened the region kites with his offal, is, by his majeſty's miniſters, en⯑throned in the government of a great kingdom, and enfeoffed with an eſtate, which in the compa⯑riſon effaces the ſplendor of all the nobility of Europe. To bring a little more diſtinctly into [88] view the true ſecret of this dark tranſaction, I beg you particularly to advert to the circumſtances which I am going to place before you.

The general corps of creditors, as well as Mr. Benfield himſelf, not looking well into futurity, nor preſaging the miniſter of this day, thought it not expedient for their common intereſt, that ſuch a name as his ſhould ſtand at the head of their liſt. It was therefore agreed amongſt them, that Mr. Benfield ſhould diſappear by making over his debt to Meſſrs. Taylor, Majendie, and Call, and ſhould in return be ſecured by their bond.

The debt thus exonerated of ſo great a weight of its odium, and otherwiſe reduced from its alarming bulk, the agents thought they might ven⯑ture to print a liſt of the creditors. This was done for the firſt time in the year 1783, during the duke of Portland's adminiſtration. In this liſt the name of Benfield was not to be ſeen. To this ſtrong negative teſtimony was added the further teſtimony of the Nabob of Arcot. That Prince^* (or rather Mr. Benfield for him) writes to the Court of Directors a letter ^† full of complaints and accu⯑ſations againſt Lord Macartney, conveyed in ſuch terms as were natural for one of Mr. Benfield's ha⯑bits and education to employ. Amongſt the reſt, he is made to complain of his Lordſhip's endea⯑vouring to prevent an intercourſe of politeneſs and ſentiment between him and Mr. Benfield; and to aggravate the affront, he expreſsly declares Mr. Benfield's viſits to be only on account of reſpect [89] and of gratitude, as no pecuniary tranſactions ſub⯑ſiſted between them.

Such, for a conſiderable ſpace of time, was the outward form of the loan of 1777, in which Mr. Benfield had no ſort of concern. At length intelli⯑gence arrived at Madras, that this debt, which had always been renounced by the Court of Directors, was rather like to become the ſubject of ſomething more like a criminal enquiry, than of any patronage or ſanction from Parliament. Every ſhip brought accounts, one ſtronger than the other, of the preva⯑lence of the determined enemies of the Indian ſyſ⯑tem. The public revenues became an object deſpe⯑rate to the hopes of Mr. Benfield; he therefore re⯑ſolved to fall upon his aſſociates, and, in viola⯑tion of that faith which ſubſiſts among thoſe who have abandoned all other, commences a ſuit in the Mayor's Court againſt Taylor, Majendie, and Call, for the bond given to him, when he agreed to diſ⯑appear for his own benefit as well as that of the common concern. The aſſignees of his debt, who little expected the ſpringing of this mine, even from ſuch an engineer as Mr. Benfield, after recover⯑ing their firſt alarm, thought it beſt to take ground on the real ſtate of the tranſaction. They divulged the whole myſtery, and were prepared to plead, that they had never received from Mr. Benfield any other conſideration for the bond, than a transfer, in truſt for himſelf, of his demand on the Na⯑bob of Arcot. An univerſal indignation aroſe againſt the perſidy of Mr. Benfield's proceeding: The event of the ſuit was looked upon as ſo cer⯑tain, that Benfield was compelled to retreat as precipitately as he had advanced boldly; he gave up his bond, and was reinſtated in his original de⯑mand, to wait the fortune of other claimants. At that time, and at Madras, this hope was dull in⯑deed; but at home another ſcene was preparing.

[90]It was long before any public account of this diſcovery at Madras had arrived in England, that the preſent miniſter, and his Board of Control, thought fit to determine on the debt of 1777. The recorded proceedings at this time knew no⯑thing of any debt to Benfield. There was his own teſtimony; there was the teſtimony of the liſt; there was the teſtimony of the Nabob of Arcot againſt it. Yet ſuch was the miniſter's feel⯑ing of the true ſecret of this tranſaction, that they thought proper, in the teeth of all theſe teſtimo⯑nies, to give him licence to return to Madras. Here the miniſters were under ſome embarraſſment. Confounded between their reſolution of reward⯑ing the good ſervices of Benfield's friends and aſſociates in England, and the ſhame of ſending that notorious incendiary to the court of the Nabob of Arcot, to renew his intrigues againſt the Britiſh government, at the time they authorize his return they forbid him, under the ſevereſt penalties, from any converſation with the Nabob or his Miniſters; that is, they forbid his communication with the very perſon on account of his dealings with whom they permit his return to that city. To overtop this contradiction, there is not a word reſtraining him from the freeſt intercourſe with the Nabob's ſecond ſon,the real author of all that is done in the Nabob's name; who, in conjunction with this very Ben⯑field, has acquired an abſolute dominion over that unhappy man, is able to perſuade him to put his ſignature to whatever paper they pleaſe, and often without any communication of the con⯑tents. This management was detailed to them at full length by Lord Macartney, and they cannot pretend ignorance of it ^*.

I believe, after this expoſure of facts, no man [91] can entertain a doubt of the colluſion of miniſters with the corrupt intereſt of the delinquents in In⯑dia. Whenever thoſe in authority provide for the intereſt of any perſon, on the real but con⯑cealed ſtate of his affairs, without regard to his avowed, public, and oftenſible pretences, it muſt be preſumed that they are in confederacy with him, becauſe they act for him on the ſame fraudulent principles on which he acts for himſelf. It is plain, that the Miniſters were fully appriſed of Benfield's real ſituation, which he had uſed means to conceal whilſt concealment anſwered his pur⯑poſes. They were, or the perſon on whom they relied was, of the cabinet council of Benfield, in the very depth of all his myſteries. An honeſt magiſtrate compels men to abide by one ſtory. An equitable judge would not hear of the claim of a man who had himſelf thought proper to re⯑nounce it. With ſuch a judge his ſhuffling and pre⯑varication would have damned his claims; ſuch a judge never would have known, but in order to an⯑imadvert upon proceedings of that character.

I have thus laid before you, Mr. Speaker, I think with ſufficient clearneſs, the connection of the miniſters with Mr. Atkinſon at the general election; I have laid open to you the connection of Atkinſon with Benfield; I have ſhewn Benfield's employment of his wealth, in creating a parlia⯑mentary intereſt, to procure a miniſterial protection; I have ſet before your eyes his large concern in the debt, his practices to hide that concern from the public eye, and the liberal protection which he has received from the miniſter. If this chain of circumſtances do not lead you neceſſarily to con⯑clude that the miniſter has paid to the avarice of Benfield the ſervices done by Benfield's connections to his ambition, I do not know any thing ſhort of the confeſſion of the party that can perſuade [90] [...] [91] [...] [92] you of his guilt. Clandeſtine and colluſive practice can only be traced by combination and compariſon of circumſtances. To reject ſuch combination and compariſon is to reject the only means of detecting fraud; it is indeed to give it a patent and free licence to cheat with impunity.

I confine myſelf to the connection of miniſters, mediately or immediately, with only two perſons concerned in this debt. How many others, who ſupport their power and greatneſs within and with⯑out doors, are concerned originally, or by transfers of theſe debts, muſt be left to general opinion. I refer to the Reports of the Select Committee for the proceedings of ſome of the agents in theſe affairs, and their attempts, at leaſt, to furniſh mi⯑niſters with the means of buying general courts, and even whole parliaments, in the groſs ^*.

I know that the miniſters will think it little leſs than acquittal, that they are not charged with hav⯑ing taken to themſelves ſome part of the money of which they have made ſo liberal a donation to their partizans, though the charge may be indiſputably fixed upon the corruption of their politics. For my part, I follow their crimes to that point to which legal preſumptions and natural indications lead me, without conſidering what ſpecies of evil motive tends moſt to aggravate or to extenuate the guilt of their conduct. But if I am to ſpeak my private ſentiments, I think that in a thouſand caſes for one it would be far leſs miſchievous to the public, and full as little diſhonourable to themſelves, to be polluted with direct bribery, than thus to become a ſtanding auxiliary to the oppreſſion, uſury, and peculation of multitudes, in order to obtain a cor⯑rupt ſupport to their power. It is by bribing, not ſo often by being bribed, that wicked politicians [93] bring ruin on mankind. Avarice is a rival to the purſuits of many. It finds a multitude of checks, and many oppoſers, in every walk of life. But the objects of ambition are for the few; and every perſon who aims at indirect profit, and therefore wants other protection than innocence and law, inſtead of its rival, becomes its inſtrument. There is a natural allegiance and fealty due to this domineering paramount evil, from all the vaſſal vices, which acknowledge its ſuperiority, and rea⯑dily militate under its banners; and it is under that diſcipline alone that avarice is able to ſpread to any conſiderable extent, or to render itſelf a general public miſchief. It is therefore no apology for miniſters, that they have not been bought by the Eaſt India delinquents, but that they have only formed an alliance with them for ſcreening each other from juſtice, according to the exigence of their ſeveral neceſſities. That they have done ſo is evident; and the junction of the power of office in England, with the abuſe of authority in the Eaſt, has not only prevented even the appearance of re⯑dreſs to the grievances of India, but I wiſh it may not be found to have dulled, if not extinguiſhed, the honour, the candour, the generoſity, the good-nature, which uſed formerly to characteriſe the people of England. I confeſs, I wiſh that ſome more feeling than I have yet obſerved for the ſuf⯑ferings of our fellow-creatures and fellow-ſubjects in that oppreſſed part of the world, had manifeſted itſelf in any one quarter of the kingdom, or in any one large deſcription of men.

That theſe oppreſſions exiſt, is a fact no more de⯑nied, than it is reſented as it ought to be. Much evil has been done in India under the Britiſh authority. What has been done to redreſs it? We are no longer ſurprized at any thing. We are above the unlearned and vulgar paſſion of ad⯑miration. [94] But it will aſtoniſh poſterity, when they read our opinions in our actions, that after years of enquiry we have found out that the ſole grievance of India conſiſted in this, That the ſer⯑vants of the Company there had not profited enough of their opportunities, nor drained it ſuffi⯑ciently of its treaſures; when they ſhall hear that the very firſt and only important act of a com⯑miſſion ſpecially named by act of parliament, is to charge upon an undone country, in favour of a handful of men in the humbleſt ranks of the pub⯑lic ſervice, the enormous ſum of perhaps four mil⯑lions of ſterling money.

It is difficult for the moſt wiſe and upright go⯑vernment to correct the abuſes of remote delegated power, productive of unmeaſured wealth, and pro⯑tected by the boldneſs and ſtrength of the ſame ill-got riches. Theſe abuſes, full of their own wild native vigour, will grow and flouriſh under mere neglect. But where the ſupreme authority, not content with winking at the rapacity of its inferior inſtruments, is ſo ſhameleſs and corrupt as openly to give bounties and premiums for diſobedience to its laws; when it will not truſt to the activity of avarice in the purſuit of its own gains; when it ſe⯑cures public robbery by all the careful jealouſy and attention with which it ought to protect property from ſuch violence; the commonwealth then is be⯑come totally perverted from its purpoſes; neither God nor man will long endure it; nor will it long endure itſelf. In that caſe, there is an unnatural infection, a peſtilential taint fermenting in the con⯑ſtitution of ſociety, which fever and convulſions of ſome kind or other muſt throw off; or in which the vital powers, worſted in an unequal ſtruggle, are puſhed back upon themſelves, and by a reverſal of their whole functions, feſter to gangrene, to death; and inſtead of what was but juſt now the delight [95] and boaſt of the creation, there will be caſt out in the face of the ſun, a bloated, putrid, noiſome carcaſs, full of ſtench and poiſon, an offence, a horror, a leſſon to the world.

In my opinion, we ought not to wait for the fruitleſs inſtruction of calamity to enquire into the abuſes which bring upon us ruin in the worſt of its forms, in the loſs of our fame and virtue. But the right honourable gentleman ^* ſays, in anſwer to all the powerful arguments of my honourable friend— ‘that this enquiry is of a delicate nature, and that the ſtate will ſuffer detriment by the expoſure of this tranſaction.’ But it is expoſed; it is per⯑fectly known in every member, in every particle, and in every way, except that which may lead to a remedy. He knows that the papers of correſpon⯑dence are printed, and that they are in every hand.

He and delicacy are a rare and a ſingular coa⯑lition. He thinks that to divulge our Indian po⯑litics, may be highly dangerous. He! the mover! the chairman! the reporter of the Committee of Secrecy! He that brought forth in the utmoſt de⯑tail, in ſeveral vaſt printed folios, the moſt recon⯑dite parts of the politics, the military, the revenues of the Britiſh empire in India. With ſix great chopping baſtards ^†, each as luſty as an infant Her⯑cules, this delicate creature bluſhes at the ſight of his new bridegroom, aſſumes a virgin delicacy; or, to uſe a more fit, as well as a more poetic compariſon, the perſon ſo ſqueamiſh, ſo timid, ſo trembling leſt the winds of heaven ſhould viſit too roughly, is expanded to broad ſunſhine, expoſed like the ſow of imperial augury, lying in the mud with all the prodigies of her fertility about her, as evidence of her delicate amours — Triginta ca⯑pitum [96] foetus enixa jacebat, alba ſolo recubans albi circum ubera nati.

Whilſt diſcovery of the miſgovernment of others led to his own power, it was wiſe to enquire: it was ſafe to publiſh; there was then no delicacy; there was then no danger. But when his object is obtained, and in his imitation he has outdone the crimes that he had reprobated in volumes of Re⯑ports, and in ſheets of bills of pains and penalties; then concealment becomes prudence; and it con⯑cerns the ſafety of the ſtate, that we ſhould not know, in a mode of parliamentary cognizance, what all the world knows but too well, that is, in what manner he chooſes to diſpoſe of the public revenues to the creatures of his politics.

The debate has been long, and as much ſo on my part, at leaſt, as on the part of thoſe who have ſpoken before me. But long as it is, the more mate⯑rial half of the ſubject has hardly been touched on; that is, the corrupt and deſtructive ſyſtem to which this debt has been rendered ſubſervient, and which ſeems to be purſued with at leaſt as much vigour and regularity as ever. If I conſidered your eaſe or my own, rather than the weight and importance of this queſtion, I ought to make ſome apology to you, perhaps ſome apology to myſelf, for hav⯑ing detained your attention ſo long. I know on what ground I tread. This ſubject, at one time taken up with ſo much fervour and zeal, is no longer a favourite in this Houſe. The Houſe it⯑ſelf has undergone a great and ſignal revolution. To ſome the ſubject is ſtrange and uncouth; to ſeveral harſh and diſtaſteful; to the reliques of the laſt parliament it is a matter of fear and apprehen⯑ſion. It is natural for thoſe who have ſeen their friends ſink in the tornado which raged during the late ſhift of the monſoon, and have hardly eſcaped on the planks of the general wreck, it [97] is but too natural for them, as ſoon as they make the rocks and quickſands of their former diſaſ⯑ters, to put about their new-built barks, and, as much as poſſible, to keep aloof from this perilous lee ſhore.

But let us do what we pleaſe to put India from our thoughts, we can do nothing to ſeparate it from our public intereſt and our national reputa⯑tion. Our attempts to baniſh this importunate duty, will only make it return upon us again and again, and every time in a ſhape more unpleaſant than the former. A government has been fabri⯑cated for that great province; the right honour⯑able Gentleman ſays, that therefore you ought not to examine into its conduct. Heavens! what an argu⯑ment is this! We are not to examine into the con⯑duct of the Direction, becauſe it is an old govern⯑ment: we are not to examine into this Board of Control, becauſe it is a new one. Then we are only to examine into the conduct of thoſe who have no conduct to account for. Unfortunately the baſis of this new government has been laid on old condemned delinquents, and its ſuperſtructure is raiſed out of proſecutors turned into protectors. The event has been ſuch as might be expected. But if it had been otherwiſe conſtituted; had it been conſti⯑tuted even as I wiſhed, and as the mover of this queſ⯑tion had planned, the better part of the propoſed eſtabliſhment was in the publicity of its proceed⯑ings; in its perpetual reſponſibility to parliament. Without this check, what is our government at home, even awed, as every European government is, by an audience formed of the other States of Europe, by the applauſe or condemnation of the diſcerning and critical company before which it acts? But if the ſcene on the other ſide of the globe, which tempts, invites, almoſt compels to tyrannny and rapine, be not inſpected with [98] the eye of a ſevere and unremitting vigilance, ſhame and deſtruction muſt enſue. For one, the worſt event of this day, though it may deject, ſhall not break or ſubdue me. The call upon us is authoritative. Let who will ſhrink back, I ſhall be found at my poſt. Baffled, diſcountenanced, ſubdued, diſcredited, as the cauſe of juſtice and humanity is, it will be only the dearer to me. Whoever therefore ſhall at any time bring before you any thing towards the relief of our diſtreſſed fellow-citizens in India, and towards a ſubverſion of the preſent moſt corrupt and oppreſſive ſyſtem for its government, in me ſhall find, a weak I am afraid, but a ſteady, earneſt, and faithful aſſiſtant.