the

quired a very different mode of proceeding. He would not have gentlemen to be led aftray with the idea, that the pub lic had no right to take upon themselves to check or control government of the Company's fettlements: for his part, he knew too well the great intereft the public had in the welfare of the Company, ever to fubfcribe to any fuch doctrine. What was the whole amount of the dividend to the proprietors? About 256,000l. And what fum did the nation derive from the cuftoms paid by the Company? Above 1,300,000l. The people of England therefore had a much greater ftake in the bufinefs than the proprietors of the Company. If the bills for two millions, which were fhortly ex. pected, fhould return protefted, what would all Europe, Afia, and the world fay, but that the people of England were bankrupts, or they would not have fuffered the bankruptcy of a Company, which paid them 1,300,000l. a year? The conclufion would be natural; and therefore the credit of the nation was deeply interefted in the support of that of the Company. It was his intention, then, in the bill or bills that he should have the honour to move for leave to bring in, to authorise the Lords of the Treafury to confent that the Directors fhall accept the bills for 2,000,000l. that are on their way to England: the public on this occafion muft give effectual fupport to the Company; and therefore he would have it understood that the nation by these means would become a collateral fecurity, and be liable to pay the whole, if the Company fhould not be able to take up or pay all its debts. Thus he hoped to fave the finking credit of the Company for the prefent; but it would not be fufficient to do this, without taking fuch fteps, as fhould guard it in future against the fame eaufes, that had reduced it nearly to a ftate of bankruptcy.

If he was totally unacquainted with the tranfactions in India, which had brought on the Company's calamities, he was of opinion that he could argue, a priori, that they would happen; because, from the conftitution of the Company, nothing elfe could happen. But with the mass of evidence that the Secret Committee had laid on the table, it would be madness to perfevere in a fyftem of government that had been attended with fuch fatal confequences. It had been truly remarked by a learned gentleman last year, (the late Lord Advocate) that if a man wifhed to read the fineft fyftem of ethics, policy, and humanity, he would find it in the letters of the Court of Directors to the Company's

fervants

fervants abroad; but if the reverfe of all this fhould be looked for, it might be found in the manner in which the orders of the Directors were observed in India; for there, inhumanity, falfe policy, peculation, and brutality were to be discovered in almost every ftep; orders were given on one fide; they were difobeyed on the other; and the whole was crowned with inspunity.

When the House thought proper to condemn the fyftem pursued in India, it was a neceffary corollary that fome mark of difapprobation fhould be expreffed relative to men as well as measures; it was not however his intention to enter into a detail of charges against any man; accufation was by no means his object; but it was not poffible to illuftrate his obfervations without occafionally mentioning names. With respect to disobedience of orders, there were two very fingular inftances, which he could not pafs over unnoticed. The Supreme Council of Bengal had, by a vote on which the Governor General had been left in a minority resolved to fend two gentlemen, Mr. Fowke and Mr. Briftow, to refide, the one at the court of the Rajah of Oude, the other at that of the Rajah of Benares. The Governor General, however, refused to fend these two gentlemen to the places to which they had been deftined; the Directors tranfmitted to him the moft pofitive orders to fend them. Mr. Haftings thought proper to disobey them; and went fo far as to fay, that he could not employ them in negotiations, because he had no confidence in them. Mr. Scott, agent in England for Mr.. Haftings, faid, on his examination before the Committee of that Houfe, that to force these two gentlemen on Mr. Haftings, was much the fame as if oppofition in Parliament fhould force a Minifter of the Crown to fend abroad an Ambaffador, in whom he could not repofe confidence: fo that, according to this doctrine, the Court of Directors, who were in fact Mr. Haftings' mafters, were to be confidered in the light of an oppofition, and refifted accordingly. What, he faid, muft be the ftate of that government, when the fervants are bold enough to confider the power by which they are invefted with authority, as an oppofition inimical to them? But the fubfequent conduft of Mr. Haftings towards one of those gentlemen, in whom he could place no confidence, was curious indeed; for he was pleased to give a contract to Mr. Fowke for furnishing oats, with a commiffion of 15 per cent. which he obferved in one of his letters was a great fam,, and might operate as a temptation on him to protract

protract the negotiation of peace; but, added he, "The entire confidence I have in the integrity and honour of Mr. Fowke, are a full and perfect fecurity on that head."

To evince the difficulty of recalling their fervants, he ftated, that in 1776 it was the refolution of the Company to recall Mr. Haftings; but his agent ftanding up, and in his name announcing his refignation, it was accepted as a milder mode of difiniffion or recall. It afterwards happened that Mr. Haftings difavowed the affertion of his agent, and thus two or three years elapfed, and the recall was never effected. As a proof of the difobedience of the Company's fervants with refpect to the orders of the Court of Directors, Mr. Fox mentioned various cafes that were well known.

The affair of the Rajah, Prince, or Zemindar of Benares afforded an inftance of breach of public faith, which wouldfor ever be a blot upon the character of the British nation. The territories of this Prince had been declared to be vefted in him, on condition of paying to the Vizier a certain fixed and ftipulated tribute. The Vizier thought proper afterwards to enter into an agreement with the Company's fervants, by virtue of which the vaffalage of the Rajah of Benares was ceded to the Company; fo that he thereby became tributary to it, but precifely on the fame terms that he held his terri tories of the Vizier; the tribute, and the conditions on which it was to be paid, were precifely the fame; fo that the Company food on no better grounds than the Vizier, and the Rajah did not ftand on worfe. Mr. Haftings, on that occafion, writ to the English refident at Benares, and authorifed him to affure the Rajah that no farther tribute fhould be exacted, nor fhould it on any future change of government be enlarged. The Governor General's letter on this occafion was a perfect model of elegance; it breathed hu manity, juftice, and hontor in every line; but, alas! the humanity, juftice, and honour of Mr. Haftings towards Cheyt Sing, the name of this unfortunate Prince, were to be found only in his letter; his conduct difclaimed them: the tribute was regularly paid; and yet, contrary to the very tenour of his letter, Mr. Haftings called upon Cheyt Sing during the war for five lacks of rupees they were paid; a fecond requifition for a fimilar fum was made, and complied with; as was alfo a third: the Governor General made a fourth de mand of five lacks; but the Prince was not able this time to comply with it: and the Governor hearing that the mo ney could not be procured by fair means, went in perfon

into

into the territories of Benares, feized them for the Company's ufe; and the unfortunate Prince, Cheyt Sing, driven from his dominions, was at this moment a wanderer and a vagabond in the world.This unfortunate Rajah referred to the Governor General's letter, to fhew that the demands that had been made upon him were contrary to the affurance contained in that letter; but Mr. Haftings, difclaiming his letter, referred to the inftrument, by which he promised to pay the tribute; in that there was no mention of an affurance that the tribute fhould never be higher; to this it was replied, that a claufe had been at firft inferted in the inftrument to annul all former agreements, and confequently the original argreement by which the Rajah of Benares bound himself to pay tribute to the Vizier, and which agreement had been made over to the Company; to this clause the Ra jah objected; and it was ftruck out; confequently he had a right to conclude, that the original treaty with the Vizier, by which the quantum of the tribute was afcertained, and which he affigned over to the Company, remained still in full force; and he was the more founded in this opinion, as the Governor General's letter was as explicit on this subject as Cheyt Sing could have wifhed; but Mr. Haftings ftill fheltering himself behind the letter of the inftrument, faid, with Shylock, "I do not fee it in the bond.' Here was a

moft flagrant breach of national faith; for he (Mr. Fox) held the faith of the Company to have been as ftrongly pledged to Cheyt Sing, by the Governor's letter, as it was poffible to pledge it. The affairs of the Begums of Oude was another circumftance in which the honour of the nation had been wounded. These two Princeffes were the mother and the grandmother of the Vizier of Oude, and the lands affigned to them for their fupport had been guarantied to them by the Company; and yet, notwithstanding this guarantee, the Vizier was permitted by Mr. Haftings to dispos fefs the Princeffes, and ftrip them of their dower.

It appeared from all the letters and orders of the Court of Directors, that the uniform tenour of their inftructions to their fervants abroad, was to conduct their affairs, with a view folely to commercial purposes, and not with any view to aggrandifement; whereas it was evident that the latter had been the chief object of the Company's fervants. In proof of this, he mentioned the Rohilla war, as another inftance of the lengths that the Company's fervants may carry injuftice; the Rajah of that country was perfecuted with fire and sword,

and

and his territories laid wafte, for no other reason, that he could discover, but that his country had always been, what it always would be, a perfect garden. The Mahratta war was another fource of calamity to the Company, and another inftance of the disregard which was paid to the fpirit of the fyftem laid down by the Directors, of purfuing commerce, and not acquifition. He would not fay that it was begun by Mr. Haftings; it certainly took its rife from the prefidency of Bombay; but it was adopted by him; and he would not fay that the terms of the peace with that people were fuch, as the merit of having made it, ought to outweigh the demerits of having engaged in the war; certain it was, that this new treaty was infinitely lefs advantageous to us than that of Poorunder, which had been broken. He added a case, if poffible, ftill more inhuman; and declared, that in the statement of thefe particulars, he had been ac tuated by no perfonal enmities, nor did he aim at any retrofpective views. His eloquence in this part of his fpeech was truly great and masterly.

Having ftated thefe various grievances and abuses in the government of India, his next object was to point out the remedies that he intended to apply to them. He declared, nothing but ftrong measures could poffibly be expected to effect a thorough reform. Strong, however, as the fyftem was which he should have the honour to propose; abundantly too harsh as he was aware it would be thought by fome, it was a palliative! an emollient! an half measure! compared to the idea of leaving things in their prefent condition. He hoped, therefore, the Houfe would, on this occafion, take the advice given by a right honourable gentleman on a former day; that they would look their real fituation with regard to India in the face; that they would examine it thoroughly, view its deformity, and proceed with firmness to adopt and enforce that application, and that remedy, which the inveteracy of the cafe required.

With regard to the existence of great defects in the prefent fyftein of governing India, and the dangerous and de plorable extent of the mischiefs and abuses arifing from those defects, the House, Mr. Fox obferved, were well acquainted. The great difficulty lay in chufing the mode of remedying the defects that had been fo fully ascertained. On former occafions, doubts had been started on this question; To whom belong the territorial acquifitions in India? Many, and grave perfons, were of opinion, that they belonged VOL. XII

Opinion