they form a vast number, variety, and
succession
of judges
and, jurors.
and, jurors.
Edmund Burke
By these intrigues they have weakened,
if not destroyed, the clear assurance which his Majesty's people, and which all nations, ought to have of
what are and what are not the real acts of his government.
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM THE THRONE. 557
If it should be seen. that his ministers may continue in their offices' without any signification to. them of his Majesty's displeasure at-any of their
-measures, whilst persons considerable for their rank,
and known to have had access to his Majesty's sacred
person, can with impunity abuse that advantage, and. employ his Majesty's name to disavow and counteract the proceedings of his official servants, nothing but distrust, discord, debility, contempt of all authority, and general confusion,: can prevail in his government.
*This we lay before his Majesty, with humility and
concern, as the inevitable. effect of a spirit of intrigue
in his executive government: an evil'which we have
but too much reason to be persuaded exists and increases. During the course of the last session it
broke out in a manner the most alarming. This evil
was infinitely aggravated by the unauthorized, but
not disavowed,. use which has been made of his Majesty's name, for the. purpose of the most unconstitutional, corrupt, and dishonorable influence on the minds of the members of Parliament that ever was
practised in this kingdom. No attention even to
exterior decorum, in the practice of corruption and
intimidation employed on peers, was observed: several peers were obliged under menaces to retract
their declarations and:to recall their proxies.
The Commons have the deepest interest in the
purity and integrity of the Peerage. The Peers dispose of all the property in the kingdom, in the last
resort; and they dispose of it on their honor, and not
on their oaths, as all the members of every other
tribunal in the kingdom must do, - though in them
the proceeding is not conclusive. We have, there
? ? ? ? -558 MOTION RELATIVE TO THE
fore, a right to:demand that no application shall be
made to peers of such a:nature as may give room. to
call in question, much less, to attaint, our sole security for all that we possess. This corrupt proceeding appeared to the House of Commons, who are the natural guardians of the purity of Parliament,
and of the. purity of every branch of judicature, a
most reprehensible and dangerous practice, tending
to shake the very foundation of the. authority of the
House of Peers; and they branded it as such by their
resolution.
The House had not sufficient evidence to enable
them legally to punish this practice, but they had
enough to caution them against all confidence in the
authors and abettors of it. They performed their
duty in humbly advising his Majesty against the employment of such' ministers; but his Majesty was
advised to keep those ministers, and to dissolve that
Parliament. The House, aware of the importance
and urgency of its duty with regard to the British
interests in India, which were and are in the utmost
disorder, and in the utmost peril, most humbly requested his Majesty not to dissolve the Parliament
during the course of their very critical proceedings
on that subject. His Majesty's gracious condescension to that request was conveyed in the royal faith,
pledged to a House of Parliament, and solemnly
delivered from the throne. It was but a very few
days after a committee had been, with the consent
and concurrence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, appointed for an inquiry into certain accounts
delivered. to the House by the Court of Directors,
and then actually engaged in that inquiry, that the
ministers, regardless of the assurance given from the
? ? ? ? SPEECHi FROM THE THRONE. 559
crown:to a House of Commons, did dissolve that
Parliament. We most humbly submit to his Majesty's consideration the consequences of this their
breach of public faith.
Whilst the members of the House of Commons,
under that security, were. engaged in his Majesty's
and:the national business,:endeavors were industriously used to calumniate those whom it was found
impracticable to corrupt. The reputation of the
members, and. the reputation of the Ho-use itself,
was. undermined in every part of the kingdom,
In the speech from the throne relative to India, we
are cautioned by the ministers "not to lose sight of
the: effect any measure may have on the Constitution
of our country. ":We are apprehensive that a calumnious report,: spread:abroad, of an attack upon his
Majesty's prerogative by the late House of Commons,
may have' made an impression on his royal mind, and
have given occasion to this unusual admonition to the
present. This attack is charged to have been made
in the late Parliament by a bill which passed the
House of Commons, in the late session of fthat Parliament, for the regulation of the affairs, for the preservation of the commerce, and for the amendment of the government of this nation, in the East Indies.
That his Majesty and his people may have an opportunity of entering into the ground of this injurious charge, we beg leave humbly to acquaint his
Majesty, that, far from having made any infringement whatsoever on any part of his royal prerogative,
that bill did, for a limited time, give to his Majesty
certain powers never before possessed by the crown;
and;fr this his present ministers (who, rather than
fall short in the number of their calumnies, employ
? ? ? ? 560 MOTION RELATIVE TO THE
some that are contradictory) have slandered this
House, as aiming at the extension of an unconstitutional influence in his Majesty's crown. This pretended attempt to increase the influence of the crown they were weak enough to endeavor to persuade' his
Majesty's people was amongst the causes which excited his Majesty's resentment against his late ministers.
Further, to remove the impressions of this calumny concerning an attempt in the House of Commons
against his prerogative, it is proper to inform his Majesty, that the territorial possessions in the East Indies
never have been declared by any public judgment,
act, or instrument, or any resolution of Parliament
whatsoever, to be the subject matter of his Majesty's
prerogative; nor have they ever been understood as
belonging to his ordinary administration, or to be
annexed or united to his crown; but that they are
acquisitions of a new and peculiar description,* unknown to the ancient executive constitution of this
country.
From time to time, therefore, Parliament provided
for their government according to its discretion, and
to its opinion of what was required by the public ne* The territorial possessions in the East Indies were acquired to
the Company, in virtue of grants from the Great Mogul, in the nature
of offices and jurisdictions, to be held under him, and dependent upon
his crown, with the express condition of being obedient to orders from
his court, and of paying an annual tribute to his treasury. It is true
that no obedience is yielded to these orders, and for some time past
there has been no payment made of this tribute. But it is under a
grant so conditioned that they still hold. To subject the King of
Great Britain as tributary to a foreign power by the acts of his subjects; to suppose the grant valid, and yet the condition void; to
suppose it good for the king, and insufficient for the Company; to
suppose it an interest divisible between the parties: these are some
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM THE THRONE. 561
cessities. We do not know that his. Majesty was entitled, by prerogative, to exercise any act of authority
whatsoever in the Companys affairs:, or that, in effect,
such authority has ever, been exer6cised. His Majesty's patronage was not takenii. awalby that bill; because it'is notorious that hi:MIjtesty never originally
had the appointment of a single officer, civil or military, in the Company's establishment in India: nor
has the least degree of patronage ever been acquired
to the crown in any other manner or measure than
as the power was thought expedient to be granted by
act of Parliament, - that is, by the very same authority by which the offices were disposed of and regulated
in the bill which his Majesty's servants have falsely
and injuriously represented as infringing upon the
prerogative of the crown.
Before the year 1773 the whole administration of
India, and the whole patronage to office there, was in.
the hands of the East India Compafiy. The East India Company is not a branch of his Majesty's prerogative administration, nor does that body exercise any
species of authority under it, nor indeed from any
British title that does not derive all its legal validity
from acts of Parliament.
few of the many legal difficulties to be surmounted, before the Common Law of England can acknowledge the East India Company's Asiatic affairs to be a subject matter of prerogative, so as to bring it within the verge of English jurisprudence. It is. a verv anomalous species of power and property which is held by the East: India Company.
Our English prerogative law does not furnish principles, much less
precedents, by which it can be defined or adjusted. Nothing but the
eminent dominion of Parliament over every British subject, in every
concern, and in every circumstance in which he is placed, can adjust
this new, intricate matter. Parliament may act wisely or unwisely,
justly or unjustly; but. Parliament alone is competent to it.
VOL. II. 36
? ? ? ? 562 MOTION RELATIVE TO THE
~ When a claim was asserted to the India territorial
possessions in the occupation of the Company, these
possessions were not claimed as parcel of his Majesty's
patrimonial estate, or as a fruit of the ancient inheritance of his crown: they were claimed for the public. And when agreements were made with the East
India Company concerning any composition for the
holding, or any participation of the profits, of those
territories, the agreement was made with the public;
and the preambles of the several acts have uniformly
so stated it. These agreements were not made (even
nominally) with his Majesty, but with Parliament:
and the bills making and establishing such agreements always originated in this House; which appropriated the money to await the disposition of Parliament, without the ceremony of previous consent from the crown even so much as suggested by any of his
ministers: which previous consent is an observance
of decorum, not indeed of strict right, but generally
paid, when a new appropriation takes place in any
part of his Majesty's prerogative revenues.
In pursuance of a right thus: uniformly recognized
and uniformly acted on, when Parliament undertook
the reformation of the East India Company in 1773,
a commission was appointed, as the commission in the
late bill was appointed; and it was made to continue
for a term of years, as the commission in the late bill
was to continie; all the commissioners were named
in Parliament, as in the late bill they. were named.
As they received, so they held their offices, wholly
independent of the crown; they held them for a
fixed term; they were not removable by an address
of either House or even of both Houses of Parliament, a precaution observed in the late bill relative
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM THE THRONE. 563'to the commissioners proposed therein; nor were they bound by the strict rules of proceeding which
regulated and restrained the late commissioners
against all possible abuse'of a power which could
not fail of being diligently and zealously watched by the ministers of the crown, and the proprietors of the stock,. as well as by Parliament. Their proceedings were, in that bill, directed to be of such a nature as easily to subject them to the strictest revision of both, in case of any malversation.
In the year 1780, an act of Parliament again made
provision for the government of those territories for
another four years; without any sort of reference to
prerogative; nor was the least objection taken at the
second, more than at the first of those periods, as if
an infringement had been made upon the rights of
the crown: yet his Majesty's ministers have thought-'fit to represent the late commission as an entire inno-,vation on. the Constitution, and the setting up a new order and estate in the nation, tending to the subversion of the monarchy itself.
If the government of the East Indies, other' than
by his Majesty's prerogative, be in effect a fourth order in the commonwealth, this order has long existed; because the East India Company has. for many years.
enjoyed it in the fullest extent, and does at this day
enjoy the whole administration of those provinces,
and the patronage to offices throughout that great
empire, except as it is controlled by act of Parliament.
It was the ill condition and ill administration of
the Company's affairs which induced. this House
(merely as a temporary establishment) to. . vest the
same powers which the Company did before possess.
? ? ? ? 564 MOTION RELATIVE TO THE
(and no other,) for a -limited time, and under very,strict directions,'in proper hands, until they could be
restored,'or further provision made concerning them.
It was therefore no creation whatever of a new power,
but the removal of an old power, long since created,
and then existing, from the management of those
persons who had manifestly and dangerously abused
their trust. This House, which well knows the Parliamentary origin of. all the Company's powers and
privileges, and is -not ignorant or negligent of the
authority which may vest those powers and: privileges in others, if justice and. the public safety so
require, is conscious to itself that it no more creates
a new order in the state, by making occasional
trustees for the direction of the Company, than it
originally did in giving a much more permanent
trust to the Directors or to the General Court of that
body. The monopoly of the East India Company
was a derogation from the general freedom of trade
belonging to his Majesty's people. The powers of
government, and of peace and war, are parts of prerogative of the highest order. Of our competence to
restrain the rights of all his subjects by act of Parliament, and to vest those high and eminent prerogatives even in a particular company of merchants, there has been no question. We beg leave most
humbly to claim as our right, and as a right which
this House has always used, to frame such bills for
the regulation of that commerce, and of the territories held by the East India Company, and everything relating to them, as to our discretion shall seem fit; and we assert and maintain that therein
we follow, and do not innovate on, the Constitution.
That his Majesty's ministers, misled by their am
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM THE THRONE. 565
bition, have endeavored, if possible, to form a faction
in the country against the popular part of the Constitution; and have therefore thought proper to add to
their slanderous accusation against a House of Parliament, relative to his Majesty's'prerogative, another
of a different nature, calculated for the purpose of
raising fears and jealousies' among the corporate bodies of the kingdom, and of persuading uninformed
persons 1~elonging to those corporations to look to
and to make addresses to them, as protectors of. their
rights, under their several charters, from the designs
which they, without any ground, charged the then
House of Comlnons to have formed against charters
in general. For this purpose they have not scrupled
to assert that the exertion of his Majesty's prerogative in the late precipitate change in his administration, and the dissolution of the late Parliament, were
measures adopted in order to rescue the people and
their rights out of the hands of the House of Commons, their representatives.
We trust that his Majesty's subjects are not yet so
far deluded as to believe that the charters, or that
any other of their local or general privileges, can
have a solid security in any place but where that
security has always been looked for, and always
found, -- in the House of Commons. Miserable and
precarious indeed would be the state of their franchises, if they were to find no defence but from
that quarter from whence they have always been attacked! But the late House of Commons, in pass* The attempt upon charters and the privileges of the corporate bodies of the kingdom in the reigns of Charles the Second and James
the Second was made by the crown. It was carried on by the ordinary course of law, in courts instituted for the security of the prop
? ? ? ? 566 MOTION'RELATIVE TO THE
in g that bill, made no attack upon any powers or
pivileges, except such as a House of Commons has
frequently attacked; and will attack, (and they trust,
in the end, with their wonted success,) - that is, upon
those which are corruptly and oppressively adminiserty and franchises of the people. This attempt made by the crown
was attended with complete success. The corporate rights of the city
of London, and of all the companies it contains, were by solemn judgment of'law declared forfeited, and all their franchises, privileges, properties, and estates were of course seized into the hands of the
crown. The injury was fiom the crown: the redress was by Parliament. A bill was brought into the House of Commons, by which the judgment against the city of London, and against the companies,
was reversed: and this bill. passed the House of Lords without any
complaint of trespass on their jurisdiction, although the bill was for a
reversal of a judgment in law. By this act, which is in' the second of
William and Mary, chap. 8, the question. of forfeiture of that charter.
is forever taken out of the power of any court of law: no cognizance
can be taken of it except in Parliament.
Although the act above mentioned has declared the judgment
against the corporation of London to be illegal, yet Blackstone
makes no scruple of asserting, that, "perhaps, in strictness of law,
the proceedings in most of them [the Quo Warranto causes] were
sufficiently regular," leaving it in doubt, whether this regularity did
not apply to the corporation of London, as well as to any of the rest;
and he seems to blame the proceeding (as most blamable it was) not
so much on account of illegality as for the crown's having employed
a legal proceeding for political purposes. He calls it "an exertion
of an act of law for the purposes of the state. "
The same security which was given to the city of London would
have been extended to all the corporations, if the House of Commons
could have prevailed. But the bill for that purpose passed but by a
majority of one in the Lords; and it was entirely lost by a prorogation, which is the act of the crown. Small, indeed, was the security which the corporation of London enjoyed before the act of William
and Mary, and which, all the other corporations, secured by no statute, enjoy at this hour, if strict law was employed against them. The use of strict law has always been rendered very delicate by the
same means by which the almost unmeasured legal powers residing
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM THE THRONE. . 567
tered. ; and this House do faithfully assure his Majesty, that we will correct, and, if necessary for the
purpose, as far as in us lies, will wholly destroy, every
species of power and authority exercised by British
subjects to the oppression, wrong, and detriment' of
(and in-many instances dangerously residing) in' the crown are. kept
within due bounds: I mean, that strong superintending power in. -the
House of Commons which inconsiderate people, have been prevailed
on to condemnn as trenching on prerogative. Strict law is by no
means such a friend to the rights of the subject as they have been
taught to believe. They who have been most conversant in this
kind of learning will be most sensible of the. danger of submitting
corporate. rights of high political importance to these subordinate
tribunals. The general heads of law on that subject are vulgar and
trivial. On them there is not much question. But it is far from
easy to determine what special acts, or what special neglect of action,
shall subject corporations to a forfeiture. There is so much laxity
in this doctrine, that great room- is left: for favor or prejudice, which
might give to the crown an entire dominion' over those corporations.
On the other hand, it is undoubtedly true'that every subordinate
corporate right ought to be subject to'control, to superior direction,
and even to forfeiture upon just cause. In this reason and law agree.
In every judgment given on a corporate right of great political importance, the policy. 'and prudence make no small part of the question. To these' considerations a court of law is not competent; and, indeed, an attempt at the least intermixture of such ideas with the
matter of law could have no other effect than Wholly to corrupt the
judicial character of the court in which such a cause should come to
be tried. It is besides to be remarked' that, if, in virtue of a legal
process, a forfeiture should be adjudged, the court of' law has no
power to modify or mitigate. The whole franchise is annihilated,
and the corporate property goes into the hands of the crown. They
who hold the new doctrines concerning the power of the House of
Commons ought well to consider in such a case by what means the
corporate' rights could, be revived, or the property could be recovered
out of the hands of'the crown. But Parliament can do what the
courts' neither can do nor ought to attempt. Pa~liament is competent to give due weight to all political considerations. It may modify,
it may mitigate, and it may render perfectly'secure, all that it does
? ? ? ? 568 MOTION RELATIVE TO THE
the:people, and to, the impoverishment and desolation
of the coun1ries subject to it.
The propagators. of the calumnies against that
House of Parliament have been indefatigable in exaggerating the supposed injury done to the East
not think fit to take away. It is not likely that Parliament will ever
draw to itself the cognizance of questions concerning ordinary corporations, farther than to protect them,. in case attempts are made to induce. a forfeiture of their franchises. . The case of the East India Company is different even from that of the greatest of these corporations. No monopoly of trade, beyond
their own limits, is vested inj the corporate body of any town or city
in the kingdom. Even within:these limits the monopoly is, not general. . The Company has the: monopoly of the trade of halt the world.
The first corporation of the kingdom has for the object of its jurisdiction only a few matters of subordinate police. ,. The East India
Company governs an empire, through all its concerns and all its
departments, from the lowest office of economy to the highest councils
of state, - ar empire to which Great Britain is in comparison but a
respectable province. To leave these concerns without superior cognizance would be madness; to leave them to be judged in the courts
below, on the principles of a confined jurisprudence, would be folly. It
is well, if the whole legislative power is competent to the correction of
abuses which are commensurate to the immensity of the object they
affect. The idea of an absolute power has, indeed, its terrors; but
that objection lies to every Parliamentary proceeding; and as no other
can regulate the abuses of such a charter, it is fittest that sovereign authority should be exercised, where it is most likely to be attended with
the most effectual correctives. These correctives are furnished by the
nature and course of Parliamentary proceedings, and by the infinitely
diversified characters who compose the two Houses. ~ In effect and
virtually,.
they form a vast number, variety, and succession of judges
and, jurors. The. fulness, the freedom, and publicity of discussion
leaves it easy to distinguish what are acts of power, and what the de-'terminations of equity and reason. There'prejudice corrects prejudice,
and the different asperities of party zeal mitigate and neutralize each
other. So far from violence being the general characteristic of the
proceedings of Parliament, whatever the beginnings of any Parlia-. mentary process may be, its general. fault in the end is, that it is found
incomplete and ineffectual.
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM THE THRONE. 569
India Company by the suspension of the authorities
which they have in every instance abused, -- as if
power had been wrested by wrong and violence
from just and prudent hands; but they have, with
equal care, concealed the weighty grounds and reasons on which that House had adopted the most moderate of all possible, expedients for rescuing the
natives of India from oppression, and for saving the
interests of the real and honest proprietors of their
stock, as well as that great national, commercial concern, from imminent ruin.
The ministers. aforesaid have-also caused it to be
reported that the House of Commons have confiscated
the -property of the East India Company. It is the
reverse of truth. The. whole management was a
trust for the proprietors, under their own inspection,
(and it was so provided for in the bill,) and under
the inspection of Parliament. That bill, so far from
confiscating the -Company's property, was the only
one which, for several years: past, did not, in some
shape or other, affect their property, or restrain them
in the disposition of it.
HIt is proper that his Majesty and all his people
should be informed that the House of Commons
have proceeded, with regard to the East India Company, with a degree of care, circumspection, and deliberation, which has not been equalled in the history of Parliamentary proceedings. For sixteen years the state and condition of that body has never been
wholly out of their view. In the year 1767 the House
took those objects into consideration, in a committee
of the whole House. The business was pursued in
the following year. In the year 1772 two committees
were appointed for the same purpose, which exam-;
? ? ? ? e570 -MOTION RELATIVE TO THE
ined into their affairs'with much diligence, and made
very ample reports. In the year 1773 the proceedings were carried to an act of Parliament, which
proved ineffectual to its purpose. The oppressions
and abuses' in India have since rather increased than
diminished, on account of the greatness of the temptations,' and convenience of the. opportunities, which
got the better of the legislative provisions calculated
against ill practices then in their beginnings; insomuch that, in 1781, two committees were again instituted, who have made seventeen reports. It was upon the most -minute, exact, and'laborious collection and
discussion of facts, that the late House of Commons
proceeded in the reform which they attempted in the.
administration of India, but which has been frustrated
by ways and means the most dishonorable to his Majesty's government, and. the most pernicious to the
Constitution of this kingdom. His Majesty was so.
sensible of the disorders in the Company's administration, that the consideration of that subject was no
less than six. times,. recommended to this House in
speeches from the throne.
The result of the Parliamentary inquiries has been,
that the East India Company was found. totally corrupted, and totally perverted from. the purposes of
its institution, whether political or commercial; that
the powers of war and peace given by the charter
had been abused, by kindling -hostilities in every
quarter for the purposes of rapine; that almost all
the treaties of peace they have made have only given
cause to so many breaches of public faith; that countries once the most flourishing are reduced to a state
of indigence, decay, and depopulation, to the diminufion of our strength, and to the infinite dishonor of
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM THE THRONE. 571
our national character; that the laws of this kingdom are notoriously, and almost in every instance,
despised; that the servants of the Company, by the
purchase of qualifications to *vote in the General
Court, and, at length, bygetting the Company itself
deeply in-their'debt, have obtained the entire and
absolute mastery in the body by which they ought to
have been ruled and coerced. Thus their malversations in office are supported, instead of being checked
by the Company. The whole of the affairs of that body
are reduced to a most perilous situation; and many
millions of innocent and deserving men, who are under the protection of this nation, and who ought. to be
protected by it, are oppressed by a most despotic and
rapacious tyranny. The Company and their servants, having strengthened themselves by this confederacy, set at defiance the authority and admonitions of this House employed to reform them; and when
this House had selected certain principal delinquents,
whom they declared it the duty of the' Company to
recall, the Company held out- its legal privileges
against all reformation, positively refused to recall
them, and supported those who had fallen under the
just censure of this House with new and stronger
marks of countenance and approbation.
The late House, discovering the reversed situation
of the Company, by which the nominal servants are
really the masters, and the offenders are become their
own judges, thought fit to examine into the state of
their commerce; and they have also discovered that
their commercial affairs are in the greatest disorder;
that their debts have accumulated beyond any present or obvious future means of payment, at least
under the actual administration of their affairs; that
? ? ? ? 572 MOTION RELATIVE TO' TIE
this condition of the East India Company has begun
to affect the sinking fund itself, on which the public
credit of the kingdom rests, - a million and upwards
being due to the customs, which that House of
Commons whose intentions towards the Company
have been so grossly misrepresented were indulgent
enough to respite. And thus, instead of confiscating
their property, the Company received without interest (which in such a case had been before charged) the use of a very large sum of the public money.
The revenues are under the peculiar care of this
House, not only as the revenues originate from us,
but as, on every failurQ {of the funds set apart for the
support of the national. credit, or to provide for the
national strength and safety, the task of supplying
every deficiency falls upon his Majesty's faithful
Commons, this House must, in effect, tax the people:.
The House, therefore, at every moment, incurs the
hazard of becoming obnoxious to its constituents.
The enemies of the. late' House of Commons resolved, if possible, to bring on that event. They therefore endeavored to misrepresent the provident
-means adopted by the House of Commons for keeping
off this invidious necessity, as an attack on the rights
of thle East India Company: for they well knew, that,
on the one hand, if, for want of proper regulation and
relief,: the Company should become insolvent, or even
stop payment, the national credit and commerce
would sustain a heavy blow; and that calamity
would be justly imputed to Parliament, which, after
such long inquiries, and such frequent admonitions
from his Majesty, had neglected so essential and so
urgent an article of their duty: on the other hand,
they knew, that, wholly corrupted as the Company is,
? ? ? ? SPEECH PROM THE THRONE. 573
nothing effectual could be'done to preserve that interest from ruin, without taking for a time the national. objects of their trust out of their hands; and
then a cry would be industriously raised against the
House of Commons, as depriving British subjects of
their legal privileges. The restraint, being plain'and
simple, must be easily understood by those who would
be brought with great difficulty. to comprehend the
intricate detail of matters of fact which rendered this
suspension of the administration of India absolutely
necessary on:motives of justice, of policy, of public
honor, and' public safety. . The House of Commons had not. been able to devise a method by which the redress of grievances
could be effected through the authors -of those grievances; nor could they imagine how. corruptions could
be purified by the corrupters and the corrupted; nor. do we now conceive how any reformation can proceed
firom the known abettors and supporters of the persons
who have been guilty of the misdemeanors which Par-! liament has reprobated, and who for their own ill pur-. poses have'given countenance to a false and delusive
state of the Company's affairs, fabricated to mislead
Parliament and to impose upon. the nation. *
Your Commons feel, with a just resentment, the inadequate estimate which your ministers have formed
* The purpose of the misrepresentation being now completely answered,. there is no doubt but the. committee in this Parliament, appointed by the ministers themselves,, will justify the grounds upon which the last Parliament proceeded, and will lay open to the world
the dreadful state of the Company's affairs, and the grossness of their
own calumnies upon this head. By delay the new assembly is come
into the disgraceful situation of allowing a dividend of eight per cent
by'act of Parliament, without the least'matter before'them to justify
the granting of any dividend at all.
? ? ? ? 5'74 MOTION:. RELATIVE TO THE
of the importance of this great concern. They call
on us to act:upon the principles of t! hose who have
not inquired'into the subject, and to condemn those
who with the most laudable diligence have examined
and scrutinized every part of it. The deliberations
of Parliament have been broken; the season of the
year is unfavorable; many of us are new members.
who must be wholly unacquainted with the subject,
which lies remote from the ordinary course of general
information. :'We are cautioned against an infringement of the
Constitution; and it is impossible to know what the. secret advisers'of the crown, who have driven out
the late ministers for their conduct in Parliament,
and have dissolved the late Parliament for a pretended attack upon prerogative, will consider as such an
infringement. We are not furnished with a rule,
the observance of which can make us safe from the
resentment of the crown, even by an implicit obedience to the dictates of the ministers who have
advised that speech; we know not how soon those
ministers may be disavowed, and how soon the members of this House, for our very agreement with them,
may be considered as objects of his Majesty's displeasure. Until by his Majesty's goodness and wisdom the late example is completely done away, we are not free.
We are well aware, in providing for the affqirs of
the East, with what an adult strength of abuse, and
of wealth and influence growing out of that abuse,
his Majesty's Commons had, in the last Parliament,
and still have, to struggle. We are. sensible that the
influence of that wealth, in a much larger degree
and measure than at any former period,-may have
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM'THE THRONE. 575
penetrated into the very quarter from whence alone
any real reformation can be expected. *
If, therefore, in the arduous affairs recommended
to us,:our proceedings should be ill adapted, feeble,
and ineffectual,- if no delinquency should be prevented, and no delinquent should be called to account,
and raised in power, in proportion to the enormity of
>his offences,-if no relief should be given to any of
the natives unjustly dispossessed of their rights, jurisdictions, and properties, - if no cruel and unjust
exactions should be forborne, -- if the source of no
peculation or oppressive gain should be. cut off, --if,
by the omission of the opportunities that were in our
hands, our Indian empire should fall into ruin irretrievable, and in its fall crush the credit and over* This will be evident to those. who consider the number and description of Directors and servants of the East India Company chosen into the present Parliament. The light in which the present
ministers hold the labors of the House of Commons in searching
into the disorders in the Indian administration, and all its endeavors
for the reformation of the government there, without any distinction
of times, or of the persons concerned, will appear from the following
extract from a speech of the present Lord Chancellor. After making
a high-flown panegyric on those whom the House of Commons had
condemned by their resolutions, he said: - Let us not be misled by
reports from committees of another House, to which, I again repeat,
I pay as much attention as I would do to the history of Robinson Crusoe.
Let the conduct of the East India Company be fairly and fully inquired into. Let it be acquitted or condemned by evidence brought
to the bar of the House. Without entering very deeply into the
subject, let me reply in a few words to an observation which fell from
a noble and learned lord, that the Company's finances are distressed,
and that they owe at this moment a million sterling to the nation.
When such a charge is brought, will Parliament in its justice forget
that the Company is restricted from employing that credit which its
great. andflourishing situation gives to it "
if every person should be caressed, promoted,
? ? ? ? 576 MOTION RELATIVE TO SPEEC'FROM THRONE.
whelm the revenues of. this country,-we stand
acquitted to our honor and to our conscience, who
have reluctantly seen the weightiest interests of our
country, at times the most critical to its dignity and
safety, rendered the sport of the inconsiderate and
unmeasured ambition of individuals, and by that
means the wisdom of his Majesty's government degraded in the public estimation, and the policy and character of this renowned nation rendered contemptible in the eyes of all Europe.
It passed in the negative. END OF VOL. II.
? ? ?
The works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke.
Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797.
Boston : Little, Brown, and company, 1869.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/miun. aba1206. 0004. 001
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? ? ? THE
WVORKS
OF
THE RIGHT HONORABLE EDMUND BURKE.
THIRD EDITION.
VOL. IV.
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. I869.
? ? ? ? CONTENTS OF VOL. IV.
PAOu
LETTER TO A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, IN ANSWER TO SOME OBJECTIONS TO HIS BOOK ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. . . . .
APPEAL FROM THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS. . . 57 LETTER TO A PEER OF IRELAND ON THE PENAL LAWS AGAINST IRISH CATHOLICS. 217
LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, ON THE SUBJECT OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND. . . 241
HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL TO BE DELIVERED TO MONSIEUR DE M. M. . . . 0 307
THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. . 313 HEADS FOR CONSIDERATION ON THE PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS. . . . . . . . . 379
REMARKS ON THE POLICY OF THE ALLIES WITH RESPECT TO FRANCE: WITH AN APPENDIX. 403
? ? ? ? A
LET T E R
TO
A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, IN
ANSWER TO SOME OBJECTIONS TO HIS BOOK ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
I79'.
VOL. IV. I
? ? ? ? LETTER.
SIR, -I had the honor to receive your letter of
the 17th of November last, in which, with some
exceptions, you are pleased to consider favorably the
letter I have written on the affairs of France. I shall
ever accept any mark of approbation attended with
instruction with more pleasure than general and unqualified praises. The latter can serve only to flatter
our vanity; the former, whilst it encourages us to
proceed, may help to improve us in our progress.
Some of the errors you point out to me in my
printed letter are really such.
if not destroyed, the clear assurance which his Majesty's people, and which all nations, ought to have of
what are and what are not the real acts of his government.
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM THE THRONE. 557
If it should be seen. that his ministers may continue in their offices' without any signification to. them of his Majesty's displeasure at-any of their
-measures, whilst persons considerable for their rank,
and known to have had access to his Majesty's sacred
person, can with impunity abuse that advantage, and. employ his Majesty's name to disavow and counteract the proceedings of his official servants, nothing but distrust, discord, debility, contempt of all authority, and general confusion,: can prevail in his government.
*This we lay before his Majesty, with humility and
concern, as the inevitable. effect of a spirit of intrigue
in his executive government: an evil'which we have
but too much reason to be persuaded exists and increases. During the course of the last session it
broke out in a manner the most alarming. This evil
was infinitely aggravated by the unauthorized, but
not disavowed,. use which has been made of his Majesty's name, for the. purpose of the most unconstitutional, corrupt, and dishonorable influence on the minds of the members of Parliament that ever was
practised in this kingdom. No attention even to
exterior decorum, in the practice of corruption and
intimidation employed on peers, was observed: several peers were obliged under menaces to retract
their declarations and:to recall their proxies.
The Commons have the deepest interest in the
purity and integrity of the Peerage. The Peers dispose of all the property in the kingdom, in the last
resort; and they dispose of it on their honor, and not
on their oaths, as all the members of every other
tribunal in the kingdom must do, - though in them
the proceeding is not conclusive. We have, there
? ? ? ? -558 MOTION RELATIVE TO THE
fore, a right to:demand that no application shall be
made to peers of such a:nature as may give room. to
call in question, much less, to attaint, our sole security for all that we possess. This corrupt proceeding appeared to the House of Commons, who are the natural guardians of the purity of Parliament,
and of the. purity of every branch of judicature, a
most reprehensible and dangerous practice, tending
to shake the very foundation of the. authority of the
House of Peers; and they branded it as such by their
resolution.
The House had not sufficient evidence to enable
them legally to punish this practice, but they had
enough to caution them against all confidence in the
authors and abettors of it. They performed their
duty in humbly advising his Majesty against the employment of such' ministers; but his Majesty was
advised to keep those ministers, and to dissolve that
Parliament. The House, aware of the importance
and urgency of its duty with regard to the British
interests in India, which were and are in the utmost
disorder, and in the utmost peril, most humbly requested his Majesty not to dissolve the Parliament
during the course of their very critical proceedings
on that subject. His Majesty's gracious condescension to that request was conveyed in the royal faith,
pledged to a House of Parliament, and solemnly
delivered from the throne. It was but a very few
days after a committee had been, with the consent
and concurrence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, appointed for an inquiry into certain accounts
delivered. to the House by the Court of Directors,
and then actually engaged in that inquiry, that the
ministers, regardless of the assurance given from the
? ? ? ? SPEECHi FROM THE THRONE. 559
crown:to a House of Commons, did dissolve that
Parliament. We most humbly submit to his Majesty's consideration the consequences of this their
breach of public faith.
Whilst the members of the House of Commons,
under that security, were. engaged in his Majesty's
and:the national business,:endeavors were industriously used to calumniate those whom it was found
impracticable to corrupt. The reputation of the
members, and. the reputation of the Ho-use itself,
was. undermined in every part of the kingdom,
In the speech from the throne relative to India, we
are cautioned by the ministers "not to lose sight of
the: effect any measure may have on the Constitution
of our country. ":We are apprehensive that a calumnious report,: spread:abroad, of an attack upon his
Majesty's prerogative by the late House of Commons,
may have' made an impression on his royal mind, and
have given occasion to this unusual admonition to the
present. This attack is charged to have been made
in the late Parliament by a bill which passed the
House of Commons, in the late session of fthat Parliament, for the regulation of the affairs, for the preservation of the commerce, and for the amendment of the government of this nation, in the East Indies.
That his Majesty and his people may have an opportunity of entering into the ground of this injurious charge, we beg leave humbly to acquaint his
Majesty, that, far from having made any infringement whatsoever on any part of his royal prerogative,
that bill did, for a limited time, give to his Majesty
certain powers never before possessed by the crown;
and;fr this his present ministers (who, rather than
fall short in the number of their calumnies, employ
? ? ? ? 560 MOTION RELATIVE TO THE
some that are contradictory) have slandered this
House, as aiming at the extension of an unconstitutional influence in his Majesty's crown. This pretended attempt to increase the influence of the crown they were weak enough to endeavor to persuade' his
Majesty's people was amongst the causes which excited his Majesty's resentment against his late ministers.
Further, to remove the impressions of this calumny concerning an attempt in the House of Commons
against his prerogative, it is proper to inform his Majesty, that the territorial possessions in the East Indies
never have been declared by any public judgment,
act, or instrument, or any resolution of Parliament
whatsoever, to be the subject matter of his Majesty's
prerogative; nor have they ever been understood as
belonging to his ordinary administration, or to be
annexed or united to his crown; but that they are
acquisitions of a new and peculiar description,* unknown to the ancient executive constitution of this
country.
From time to time, therefore, Parliament provided
for their government according to its discretion, and
to its opinion of what was required by the public ne* The territorial possessions in the East Indies were acquired to
the Company, in virtue of grants from the Great Mogul, in the nature
of offices and jurisdictions, to be held under him, and dependent upon
his crown, with the express condition of being obedient to orders from
his court, and of paying an annual tribute to his treasury. It is true
that no obedience is yielded to these orders, and for some time past
there has been no payment made of this tribute. But it is under a
grant so conditioned that they still hold. To subject the King of
Great Britain as tributary to a foreign power by the acts of his subjects; to suppose the grant valid, and yet the condition void; to
suppose it good for the king, and insufficient for the Company; to
suppose it an interest divisible between the parties: these are some
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM THE THRONE. 561
cessities. We do not know that his. Majesty was entitled, by prerogative, to exercise any act of authority
whatsoever in the Companys affairs:, or that, in effect,
such authority has ever, been exer6cised. His Majesty's patronage was not takenii. awalby that bill; because it'is notorious that hi:MIjtesty never originally
had the appointment of a single officer, civil or military, in the Company's establishment in India: nor
has the least degree of patronage ever been acquired
to the crown in any other manner or measure than
as the power was thought expedient to be granted by
act of Parliament, - that is, by the very same authority by which the offices were disposed of and regulated
in the bill which his Majesty's servants have falsely
and injuriously represented as infringing upon the
prerogative of the crown.
Before the year 1773 the whole administration of
India, and the whole patronage to office there, was in.
the hands of the East India Compafiy. The East India Company is not a branch of his Majesty's prerogative administration, nor does that body exercise any
species of authority under it, nor indeed from any
British title that does not derive all its legal validity
from acts of Parliament.
few of the many legal difficulties to be surmounted, before the Common Law of England can acknowledge the East India Company's Asiatic affairs to be a subject matter of prerogative, so as to bring it within the verge of English jurisprudence. It is. a verv anomalous species of power and property which is held by the East: India Company.
Our English prerogative law does not furnish principles, much less
precedents, by which it can be defined or adjusted. Nothing but the
eminent dominion of Parliament over every British subject, in every
concern, and in every circumstance in which he is placed, can adjust
this new, intricate matter. Parliament may act wisely or unwisely,
justly or unjustly; but. Parliament alone is competent to it.
VOL. II. 36
? ? ? ? 562 MOTION RELATIVE TO THE
~ When a claim was asserted to the India territorial
possessions in the occupation of the Company, these
possessions were not claimed as parcel of his Majesty's
patrimonial estate, or as a fruit of the ancient inheritance of his crown: they were claimed for the public. And when agreements were made with the East
India Company concerning any composition for the
holding, or any participation of the profits, of those
territories, the agreement was made with the public;
and the preambles of the several acts have uniformly
so stated it. These agreements were not made (even
nominally) with his Majesty, but with Parliament:
and the bills making and establishing such agreements always originated in this House; which appropriated the money to await the disposition of Parliament, without the ceremony of previous consent from the crown even so much as suggested by any of his
ministers: which previous consent is an observance
of decorum, not indeed of strict right, but generally
paid, when a new appropriation takes place in any
part of his Majesty's prerogative revenues.
In pursuance of a right thus: uniformly recognized
and uniformly acted on, when Parliament undertook
the reformation of the East India Company in 1773,
a commission was appointed, as the commission in the
late bill was appointed; and it was made to continue
for a term of years, as the commission in the late bill
was to continie; all the commissioners were named
in Parliament, as in the late bill they. were named.
As they received, so they held their offices, wholly
independent of the crown; they held them for a
fixed term; they were not removable by an address
of either House or even of both Houses of Parliament, a precaution observed in the late bill relative
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM THE THRONE. 563'to the commissioners proposed therein; nor were they bound by the strict rules of proceeding which
regulated and restrained the late commissioners
against all possible abuse'of a power which could
not fail of being diligently and zealously watched by the ministers of the crown, and the proprietors of the stock,. as well as by Parliament. Their proceedings were, in that bill, directed to be of such a nature as easily to subject them to the strictest revision of both, in case of any malversation.
In the year 1780, an act of Parliament again made
provision for the government of those territories for
another four years; without any sort of reference to
prerogative; nor was the least objection taken at the
second, more than at the first of those periods, as if
an infringement had been made upon the rights of
the crown: yet his Majesty's ministers have thought-'fit to represent the late commission as an entire inno-,vation on. the Constitution, and the setting up a new order and estate in the nation, tending to the subversion of the monarchy itself.
If the government of the East Indies, other' than
by his Majesty's prerogative, be in effect a fourth order in the commonwealth, this order has long existed; because the East India Company has. for many years.
enjoyed it in the fullest extent, and does at this day
enjoy the whole administration of those provinces,
and the patronage to offices throughout that great
empire, except as it is controlled by act of Parliament.
It was the ill condition and ill administration of
the Company's affairs which induced. this House
(merely as a temporary establishment) to. . vest the
same powers which the Company did before possess.
? ? ? ? 564 MOTION RELATIVE TO THE
(and no other,) for a -limited time, and under very,strict directions,'in proper hands, until they could be
restored,'or further provision made concerning them.
It was therefore no creation whatever of a new power,
but the removal of an old power, long since created,
and then existing, from the management of those
persons who had manifestly and dangerously abused
their trust. This House, which well knows the Parliamentary origin of. all the Company's powers and
privileges, and is -not ignorant or negligent of the
authority which may vest those powers and: privileges in others, if justice and. the public safety so
require, is conscious to itself that it no more creates
a new order in the state, by making occasional
trustees for the direction of the Company, than it
originally did in giving a much more permanent
trust to the Directors or to the General Court of that
body. The monopoly of the East India Company
was a derogation from the general freedom of trade
belonging to his Majesty's people. The powers of
government, and of peace and war, are parts of prerogative of the highest order. Of our competence to
restrain the rights of all his subjects by act of Parliament, and to vest those high and eminent prerogatives even in a particular company of merchants, there has been no question. We beg leave most
humbly to claim as our right, and as a right which
this House has always used, to frame such bills for
the regulation of that commerce, and of the territories held by the East India Company, and everything relating to them, as to our discretion shall seem fit; and we assert and maintain that therein
we follow, and do not innovate on, the Constitution.
That his Majesty's ministers, misled by their am
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM THE THRONE. 565
bition, have endeavored, if possible, to form a faction
in the country against the popular part of the Constitution; and have therefore thought proper to add to
their slanderous accusation against a House of Parliament, relative to his Majesty's'prerogative, another
of a different nature, calculated for the purpose of
raising fears and jealousies' among the corporate bodies of the kingdom, and of persuading uninformed
persons 1~elonging to those corporations to look to
and to make addresses to them, as protectors of. their
rights, under their several charters, from the designs
which they, without any ground, charged the then
House of Comlnons to have formed against charters
in general. For this purpose they have not scrupled
to assert that the exertion of his Majesty's prerogative in the late precipitate change in his administration, and the dissolution of the late Parliament, were
measures adopted in order to rescue the people and
their rights out of the hands of the House of Commons, their representatives.
We trust that his Majesty's subjects are not yet so
far deluded as to believe that the charters, or that
any other of their local or general privileges, can
have a solid security in any place but where that
security has always been looked for, and always
found, -- in the House of Commons. Miserable and
precarious indeed would be the state of their franchises, if they were to find no defence but from
that quarter from whence they have always been attacked! But the late House of Commons, in pass* The attempt upon charters and the privileges of the corporate bodies of the kingdom in the reigns of Charles the Second and James
the Second was made by the crown. It was carried on by the ordinary course of law, in courts instituted for the security of the prop
? ? ? ? 566 MOTION'RELATIVE TO THE
in g that bill, made no attack upon any powers or
pivileges, except such as a House of Commons has
frequently attacked; and will attack, (and they trust,
in the end, with their wonted success,) - that is, upon
those which are corruptly and oppressively adminiserty and franchises of the people. This attempt made by the crown
was attended with complete success. The corporate rights of the city
of London, and of all the companies it contains, were by solemn judgment of'law declared forfeited, and all their franchises, privileges, properties, and estates were of course seized into the hands of the
crown. The injury was fiom the crown: the redress was by Parliament. A bill was brought into the House of Commons, by which the judgment against the city of London, and against the companies,
was reversed: and this bill. passed the House of Lords without any
complaint of trespass on their jurisdiction, although the bill was for a
reversal of a judgment in law. By this act, which is in' the second of
William and Mary, chap. 8, the question. of forfeiture of that charter.
is forever taken out of the power of any court of law: no cognizance
can be taken of it except in Parliament.
Although the act above mentioned has declared the judgment
against the corporation of London to be illegal, yet Blackstone
makes no scruple of asserting, that, "perhaps, in strictness of law,
the proceedings in most of them [the Quo Warranto causes] were
sufficiently regular," leaving it in doubt, whether this regularity did
not apply to the corporation of London, as well as to any of the rest;
and he seems to blame the proceeding (as most blamable it was) not
so much on account of illegality as for the crown's having employed
a legal proceeding for political purposes. He calls it "an exertion
of an act of law for the purposes of the state. "
The same security which was given to the city of London would
have been extended to all the corporations, if the House of Commons
could have prevailed. But the bill for that purpose passed but by a
majority of one in the Lords; and it was entirely lost by a prorogation, which is the act of the crown. Small, indeed, was the security which the corporation of London enjoyed before the act of William
and Mary, and which, all the other corporations, secured by no statute, enjoy at this hour, if strict law was employed against them. The use of strict law has always been rendered very delicate by the
same means by which the almost unmeasured legal powers residing
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM THE THRONE. . 567
tered. ; and this House do faithfully assure his Majesty, that we will correct, and, if necessary for the
purpose, as far as in us lies, will wholly destroy, every
species of power and authority exercised by British
subjects to the oppression, wrong, and detriment' of
(and in-many instances dangerously residing) in' the crown are. kept
within due bounds: I mean, that strong superintending power in. -the
House of Commons which inconsiderate people, have been prevailed
on to condemnn as trenching on prerogative. Strict law is by no
means such a friend to the rights of the subject as they have been
taught to believe. They who have been most conversant in this
kind of learning will be most sensible of the. danger of submitting
corporate. rights of high political importance to these subordinate
tribunals. The general heads of law on that subject are vulgar and
trivial. On them there is not much question. But it is far from
easy to determine what special acts, or what special neglect of action,
shall subject corporations to a forfeiture. There is so much laxity
in this doctrine, that great room- is left: for favor or prejudice, which
might give to the crown an entire dominion' over those corporations.
On the other hand, it is undoubtedly true'that every subordinate
corporate right ought to be subject to'control, to superior direction,
and even to forfeiture upon just cause. In this reason and law agree.
In every judgment given on a corporate right of great political importance, the policy. 'and prudence make no small part of the question. To these' considerations a court of law is not competent; and, indeed, an attempt at the least intermixture of such ideas with the
matter of law could have no other effect than Wholly to corrupt the
judicial character of the court in which such a cause should come to
be tried. It is besides to be remarked' that, if, in virtue of a legal
process, a forfeiture should be adjudged, the court of' law has no
power to modify or mitigate. The whole franchise is annihilated,
and the corporate property goes into the hands of the crown. They
who hold the new doctrines concerning the power of the House of
Commons ought well to consider in such a case by what means the
corporate' rights could, be revived, or the property could be recovered
out of the hands of'the crown. But Parliament can do what the
courts' neither can do nor ought to attempt. Pa~liament is competent to give due weight to all political considerations. It may modify,
it may mitigate, and it may render perfectly'secure, all that it does
? ? ? ? 568 MOTION RELATIVE TO THE
the:people, and to, the impoverishment and desolation
of the coun1ries subject to it.
The propagators. of the calumnies against that
House of Parliament have been indefatigable in exaggerating the supposed injury done to the East
not think fit to take away. It is not likely that Parliament will ever
draw to itself the cognizance of questions concerning ordinary corporations, farther than to protect them,. in case attempts are made to induce. a forfeiture of their franchises. . The case of the East India Company is different even from that of the greatest of these corporations. No monopoly of trade, beyond
their own limits, is vested inj the corporate body of any town or city
in the kingdom. Even within:these limits the monopoly is, not general. . The Company has the: monopoly of the trade of halt the world.
The first corporation of the kingdom has for the object of its jurisdiction only a few matters of subordinate police. ,. The East India
Company governs an empire, through all its concerns and all its
departments, from the lowest office of economy to the highest councils
of state, - ar empire to which Great Britain is in comparison but a
respectable province. To leave these concerns without superior cognizance would be madness; to leave them to be judged in the courts
below, on the principles of a confined jurisprudence, would be folly. It
is well, if the whole legislative power is competent to the correction of
abuses which are commensurate to the immensity of the object they
affect. The idea of an absolute power has, indeed, its terrors; but
that objection lies to every Parliamentary proceeding; and as no other
can regulate the abuses of such a charter, it is fittest that sovereign authority should be exercised, where it is most likely to be attended with
the most effectual correctives. These correctives are furnished by the
nature and course of Parliamentary proceedings, and by the infinitely
diversified characters who compose the two Houses. ~ In effect and
virtually,.
they form a vast number, variety, and succession of judges
and, jurors. The. fulness, the freedom, and publicity of discussion
leaves it easy to distinguish what are acts of power, and what the de-'terminations of equity and reason. There'prejudice corrects prejudice,
and the different asperities of party zeal mitigate and neutralize each
other. So far from violence being the general characteristic of the
proceedings of Parliament, whatever the beginnings of any Parlia-. mentary process may be, its general. fault in the end is, that it is found
incomplete and ineffectual.
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM THE THRONE. 569
India Company by the suspension of the authorities
which they have in every instance abused, -- as if
power had been wrested by wrong and violence
from just and prudent hands; but they have, with
equal care, concealed the weighty grounds and reasons on which that House had adopted the most moderate of all possible, expedients for rescuing the
natives of India from oppression, and for saving the
interests of the real and honest proprietors of their
stock, as well as that great national, commercial concern, from imminent ruin.
The ministers. aforesaid have-also caused it to be
reported that the House of Commons have confiscated
the -property of the East India Company. It is the
reverse of truth. The. whole management was a
trust for the proprietors, under their own inspection,
(and it was so provided for in the bill,) and under
the inspection of Parliament. That bill, so far from
confiscating the -Company's property, was the only
one which, for several years: past, did not, in some
shape or other, affect their property, or restrain them
in the disposition of it.
HIt is proper that his Majesty and all his people
should be informed that the House of Commons
have proceeded, with regard to the East India Company, with a degree of care, circumspection, and deliberation, which has not been equalled in the history of Parliamentary proceedings. For sixteen years the state and condition of that body has never been
wholly out of their view. In the year 1767 the House
took those objects into consideration, in a committee
of the whole House. The business was pursued in
the following year. In the year 1772 two committees
were appointed for the same purpose, which exam-;
? ? ? ? e570 -MOTION RELATIVE TO THE
ined into their affairs'with much diligence, and made
very ample reports. In the year 1773 the proceedings were carried to an act of Parliament, which
proved ineffectual to its purpose. The oppressions
and abuses' in India have since rather increased than
diminished, on account of the greatness of the temptations,' and convenience of the. opportunities, which
got the better of the legislative provisions calculated
against ill practices then in their beginnings; insomuch that, in 1781, two committees were again instituted, who have made seventeen reports. It was upon the most -minute, exact, and'laborious collection and
discussion of facts, that the late House of Commons
proceeded in the reform which they attempted in the.
administration of India, but which has been frustrated
by ways and means the most dishonorable to his Majesty's government, and. the most pernicious to the
Constitution of this kingdom. His Majesty was so.
sensible of the disorders in the Company's administration, that the consideration of that subject was no
less than six. times,. recommended to this House in
speeches from the throne.
The result of the Parliamentary inquiries has been,
that the East India Company was found. totally corrupted, and totally perverted from. the purposes of
its institution, whether political or commercial; that
the powers of war and peace given by the charter
had been abused, by kindling -hostilities in every
quarter for the purposes of rapine; that almost all
the treaties of peace they have made have only given
cause to so many breaches of public faith; that countries once the most flourishing are reduced to a state
of indigence, decay, and depopulation, to the diminufion of our strength, and to the infinite dishonor of
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM THE THRONE. 571
our national character; that the laws of this kingdom are notoriously, and almost in every instance,
despised; that the servants of the Company, by the
purchase of qualifications to *vote in the General
Court, and, at length, bygetting the Company itself
deeply in-their'debt, have obtained the entire and
absolute mastery in the body by which they ought to
have been ruled and coerced. Thus their malversations in office are supported, instead of being checked
by the Company. The whole of the affairs of that body
are reduced to a most perilous situation; and many
millions of innocent and deserving men, who are under the protection of this nation, and who ought. to be
protected by it, are oppressed by a most despotic and
rapacious tyranny. The Company and their servants, having strengthened themselves by this confederacy, set at defiance the authority and admonitions of this House employed to reform them; and when
this House had selected certain principal delinquents,
whom they declared it the duty of the' Company to
recall, the Company held out- its legal privileges
against all reformation, positively refused to recall
them, and supported those who had fallen under the
just censure of this House with new and stronger
marks of countenance and approbation.
The late House, discovering the reversed situation
of the Company, by which the nominal servants are
really the masters, and the offenders are become their
own judges, thought fit to examine into the state of
their commerce; and they have also discovered that
their commercial affairs are in the greatest disorder;
that their debts have accumulated beyond any present or obvious future means of payment, at least
under the actual administration of their affairs; that
? ? ? ? 572 MOTION RELATIVE TO' TIE
this condition of the East India Company has begun
to affect the sinking fund itself, on which the public
credit of the kingdom rests, - a million and upwards
being due to the customs, which that House of
Commons whose intentions towards the Company
have been so grossly misrepresented were indulgent
enough to respite. And thus, instead of confiscating
their property, the Company received without interest (which in such a case had been before charged) the use of a very large sum of the public money.
The revenues are under the peculiar care of this
House, not only as the revenues originate from us,
but as, on every failurQ {of the funds set apart for the
support of the national. credit, or to provide for the
national strength and safety, the task of supplying
every deficiency falls upon his Majesty's faithful
Commons, this House must, in effect, tax the people:.
The House, therefore, at every moment, incurs the
hazard of becoming obnoxious to its constituents.
The enemies of the. late' House of Commons resolved, if possible, to bring on that event. They therefore endeavored to misrepresent the provident
-means adopted by the House of Commons for keeping
off this invidious necessity, as an attack on the rights
of thle East India Company: for they well knew, that,
on the one hand, if, for want of proper regulation and
relief,: the Company should become insolvent, or even
stop payment, the national credit and commerce
would sustain a heavy blow; and that calamity
would be justly imputed to Parliament, which, after
such long inquiries, and such frequent admonitions
from his Majesty, had neglected so essential and so
urgent an article of their duty: on the other hand,
they knew, that, wholly corrupted as the Company is,
? ? ? ? SPEECH PROM THE THRONE. 573
nothing effectual could be'done to preserve that interest from ruin, without taking for a time the national. objects of their trust out of their hands; and
then a cry would be industriously raised against the
House of Commons, as depriving British subjects of
their legal privileges. The restraint, being plain'and
simple, must be easily understood by those who would
be brought with great difficulty. to comprehend the
intricate detail of matters of fact which rendered this
suspension of the administration of India absolutely
necessary on:motives of justice, of policy, of public
honor, and' public safety. . The House of Commons had not. been able to devise a method by which the redress of grievances
could be effected through the authors -of those grievances; nor could they imagine how. corruptions could
be purified by the corrupters and the corrupted; nor. do we now conceive how any reformation can proceed
firom the known abettors and supporters of the persons
who have been guilty of the misdemeanors which Par-! liament has reprobated, and who for their own ill pur-. poses have'given countenance to a false and delusive
state of the Company's affairs, fabricated to mislead
Parliament and to impose upon. the nation. *
Your Commons feel, with a just resentment, the inadequate estimate which your ministers have formed
* The purpose of the misrepresentation being now completely answered,. there is no doubt but the. committee in this Parliament, appointed by the ministers themselves,, will justify the grounds upon which the last Parliament proceeded, and will lay open to the world
the dreadful state of the Company's affairs, and the grossness of their
own calumnies upon this head. By delay the new assembly is come
into the disgraceful situation of allowing a dividend of eight per cent
by'act of Parliament, without the least'matter before'them to justify
the granting of any dividend at all.
? ? ? ? 5'74 MOTION:. RELATIVE TO THE
of the importance of this great concern. They call
on us to act:upon the principles of t! hose who have
not inquired'into the subject, and to condemn those
who with the most laudable diligence have examined
and scrutinized every part of it. The deliberations
of Parliament have been broken; the season of the
year is unfavorable; many of us are new members.
who must be wholly unacquainted with the subject,
which lies remote from the ordinary course of general
information. :'We are cautioned against an infringement of the
Constitution; and it is impossible to know what the. secret advisers'of the crown, who have driven out
the late ministers for their conduct in Parliament,
and have dissolved the late Parliament for a pretended attack upon prerogative, will consider as such an
infringement. We are not furnished with a rule,
the observance of which can make us safe from the
resentment of the crown, even by an implicit obedience to the dictates of the ministers who have
advised that speech; we know not how soon those
ministers may be disavowed, and how soon the members of this House, for our very agreement with them,
may be considered as objects of his Majesty's displeasure. Until by his Majesty's goodness and wisdom the late example is completely done away, we are not free.
We are well aware, in providing for the affqirs of
the East, with what an adult strength of abuse, and
of wealth and influence growing out of that abuse,
his Majesty's Commons had, in the last Parliament,
and still have, to struggle. We are. sensible that the
influence of that wealth, in a much larger degree
and measure than at any former period,-may have
? ? ? ? SPEECH FROM'THE THRONE. 575
penetrated into the very quarter from whence alone
any real reformation can be expected. *
If, therefore, in the arduous affairs recommended
to us,:our proceedings should be ill adapted, feeble,
and ineffectual,- if no delinquency should be prevented, and no delinquent should be called to account,
and raised in power, in proportion to the enormity of
>his offences,-if no relief should be given to any of
the natives unjustly dispossessed of their rights, jurisdictions, and properties, - if no cruel and unjust
exactions should be forborne, -- if the source of no
peculation or oppressive gain should be. cut off, --if,
by the omission of the opportunities that were in our
hands, our Indian empire should fall into ruin irretrievable, and in its fall crush the credit and over* This will be evident to those. who consider the number and description of Directors and servants of the East India Company chosen into the present Parliament. The light in which the present
ministers hold the labors of the House of Commons in searching
into the disorders in the Indian administration, and all its endeavors
for the reformation of the government there, without any distinction
of times, or of the persons concerned, will appear from the following
extract from a speech of the present Lord Chancellor. After making
a high-flown panegyric on those whom the House of Commons had
condemned by their resolutions, he said: - Let us not be misled by
reports from committees of another House, to which, I again repeat,
I pay as much attention as I would do to the history of Robinson Crusoe.
Let the conduct of the East India Company be fairly and fully inquired into. Let it be acquitted or condemned by evidence brought
to the bar of the House. Without entering very deeply into the
subject, let me reply in a few words to an observation which fell from
a noble and learned lord, that the Company's finances are distressed,
and that they owe at this moment a million sterling to the nation.
When such a charge is brought, will Parliament in its justice forget
that the Company is restricted from employing that credit which its
great. andflourishing situation gives to it "
if every person should be caressed, promoted,
? ? ? ? 576 MOTION RELATIVE TO SPEEC'FROM THRONE.
whelm the revenues of. this country,-we stand
acquitted to our honor and to our conscience, who
have reluctantly seen the weightiest interests of our
country, at times the most critical to its dignity and
safety, rendered the sport of the inconsiderate and
unmeasured ambition of individuals, and by that
means the wisdom of his Majesty's government degraded in the public estimation, and the policy and character of this renowned nation rendered contemptible in the eyes of all Europe.
It passed in the negative. END OF VOL. II.
? ? ?
The works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke.
Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797.
Boston : Little, Brown, and company, 1869.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/miun. aba1206. 0004. 001
Public Domain
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? ? ? THE
WVORKS
OF
THE RIGHT HONORABLE EDMUND BURKE.
THIRD EDITION.
VOL. IV.
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. I869.
? ? ? ? CONTENTS OF VOL. IV.
PAOu
LETTER TO A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, IN ANSWER TO SOME OBJECTIONS TO HIS BOOK ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. . . . .
APPEAL FROM THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS. . . 57 LETTER TO A PEER OF IRELAND ON THE PENAL LAWS AGAINST IRISH CATHOLICS. 217
LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, ON THE SUBJECT OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND. . . 241
HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL TO BE DELIVERED TO MONSIEUR DE M. M. . . . 0 307
THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. . 313 HEADS FOR CONSIDERATION ON THE PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS. . . . . . . . . 379
REMARKS ON THE POLICY OF THE ALLIES WITH RESPECT TO FRANCE: WITH AN APPENDIX. 403
? ? ? ? A
LET T E R
TO
A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, IN
ANSWER TO SOME OBJECTIONS TO HIS BOOK ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
I79'.
VOL. IV. I
? ? ? ? LETTER.
SIR, -I had the honor to receive your letter of
the 17th of November last, in which, with some
exceptions, you are pleased to consider favorably the
letter I have written on the affairs of France. I shall
ever accept any mark of approbation attended with
instruction with more pleasure than general and unqualified praises. The latter can serve only to flatter
our vanity; the former, whilst it encourages us to
proceed, may help to improve us in our progress.
Some of the errors you point out to me in my
printed letter are really such.
