- Why, the very
Proprietors
who are excluded from all management, for the abuse of their power.
Edmund Burke
?
?
SPEECH ON MR.
FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
511
dred and fifty of your children as his hostages for
your good behavior; and loaded for years, as he
has been, with the execrations of the natives, with
the censures of the. Court of Directors, and struck
and blasted with resolutions of this House, he still
maintains the most despotic. power ever known in
India. He domineers with an overbearing sway in
the assemblies of his pretended masters; and it is
thought in a degree rash to venture to name his
offences in this House, even as grounds of a legislative remedy.
On the other hand, consider the fate of those who
have met with the applauses of the Directors. Colonel Monson, one of the best of men, had his days
shortened by the applauses, destitute of the support,
of the Company. General Clavering, whose panegyric was made in every dispatch from England,
whose hearse was bedewed with the tears and hung
round with the eulogies of the Court of Directors,
burst an honest and indignant heart at the treachery
of those who ruined him by their praises. Uncommon patience. and temper supported Mr. Francis a
while longer under the baneful influence of the commendation of the Court of Directors. His health,
however, gave way at length; and in utter despair,
he returned to Europe. At his return, the doors of
the. India House were shut to this man who had been
the object of their, constant admiration. He has, indeed, escaped with life; but he has forfeited all expectation of credit, consequence, party, and following. He may well say, "Me nemo ministro fur erit, atque
ideo nulli comes exeo. " This man, whose deep reach
of thought, whose large legislative conceptions, and
whose grand plans of policy make the most shining
? ? ? ? 512 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
part of our Reports, from whence we have all learned
our lessons, if we have learned any good ones, - this
man, from whose materials those gentlemen who
have least acknowledged it have yet spoken as from
a brief, -this man, driven from his employment, discountenanced by the Directors, has had no other reward, and no other distinction, but that inward
" sunshine of the soul " which a good conscience can
always bestow upon itself. He has not yet had so
much as a good word, but from a person too insignificant to make any other return for the means with which he has been furnished for performing his share
of a duty which is equally urgent on us all.
Add to this, that, from the highest in place to the
lowest, every British subject; who, in obedience to
the Company's orders, has been active in the discovery of peculations, has been ruined. They have been driven from India. When they made their appeal at
home, they were not heard; when they attempted to
return, they were stopped. No artifice of fraud, no
violence of. power, has been omitted to destroy them
in character as well as in fortune.
Worse, far worse, has been the fate of the poor
creatures, the natives of India, whom the hypocrisy
of the Company has betrayed into complaint of oppression and discovery of peculation. The first women
in Bengal, the Ranny of Rajeshahi, the Ranny of
Burdwan, the Ranny of Ambooah, by their weak and
thoughtless trust in. the Company's honor and protection, are utterly ruined: the first of these women,
a person of princely rank, and once of correspondent
fortune, who -paid above two hundred thousand a year
quit-rentto the state, is, according to very credible information, so completely beggared as to stand in need
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 513
of the relief of allns. - Mahomed Reza Khan, the second Mussulman in Bengal, for having been distinguished by the ill-omened honor of the countenance and protection of the Court of Directors, was, without
the pretence of any inquiry whatsoever into his conduct, stripped of all his employments, and reduced to
the lowest condition. His ancient rival for power,
the Rajah Nundcomar, was, by an insult on everything which India holds respectable and sacred,
hanged in the face of all his nation by the judges
you sent to protect that people: hanged for a pretended crime, upon an ex post facto British act of
Parliament, in the midst of his evidence against Mr.
Hastings. The accuser they saw hanged. The culprit,
without acquittal or inquiry, triumphs on the ground
of. that murder: a murder, not of Nundcomar only, but
of all living testimony, and even of evidence yet unborn. From that time not a complaint has been heard
from the natives against their governors. All the.
grievances of India have found a complete remedy.
Men will not look to acts of Parliament, to regulations, to declarations, to votes, and resolutions. No,
they are not such fools. They will ask, What is the
road to power, credit, wealth, and honors? They
will ask, What conduct ends in neglect, disgrace, poverty, exile, prison, and gibbet? These will teach
them the course which they are to follow. It is your
distribution of these that will give the character and
tone to your government. All the rest is miserable
grimace.
When I accuse the Court of Directors of this habitual treachery in the use of reward and punishment,
I do not mean to include all the individuals in that
court. . There have been, Sir, very frequently men
VOL. II 33
? ? ? ? 514 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
of the greatest integrity and virtue amongst them;
and the contrariety in the declarations and conduct
of that court has arisen, I take it, from this, -- that
the honest Directors have, by the force of matter of
fact on the records, carried the reprobation of the evil
measures of the servants in India. This could not
be prevented, whilst these records stared them in the
face; nor were the delinquents, either here or there,
very solicitous about their reputation, as long as they
were able to secure their power. The agreement of
their partisans to censure them blunted for a while
the edge of a severe proceeding. It obtained for
them a character of impartiality, which enabled them
to recommend with some sort of grace, what will
always carry a plausible appearance, those treacherous expedients called moderate measures. Whilst
these were under discussion, new matter of complaint
came over, which seemed to antiquate the first. The
same circle was here trod round once more; and
thus through years they proceeded in a compromise
of censure for punishment, until, by shame and despair, one after another, almost every man who preferred his duty to the Company to the interest of their servants has been driven from that court.
This, Sir, has been their conduct: and it has been
the result of the alteration which was insensibly made
in their constitution. The change was made insensibly; but it is now strong and adult, and as public
and declared as it is fixed beyond all power of reformation: so that there is none who hears me that is
not as certain as I am, that the Company, in the
sense in which it was formerly understood, has no
existence.
The question is not, what injury. you may do to the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 515
proprietors of India stock;. for there are no such men
to be injured. If the active, ruling part of the Company, who form the General Court, who fill the offices
and direct the measures, (the rest tell for nothing,)
were persons~ who held their stock as a means of
their subsistence, who in the part they took were only concerned in the government of India for the rise
or fall of their dividend, it would be indeed a defective plan of policy. The interest of the people who
are governed by them would not be their primary object, - perhaps a very small part of their consideration at all. But then they might well-be depended on, and
perhaps more than persons in other respects preferable, for preventing the peculations of their servants to their own prejudice. Such a body would not easily
have left their trade as a spoil to the avarice of those
who received their wages. But now things are totally reversed. The stock is of no value, whether it
be the qualification of a Director or Proprietor; and
it is impossible that it should. A Director's qualification may be worth about two thousand five hundred pounds, -- and the interest, at eight per cent, is about
one hundred and sixty pounds a year. Of,what value is that, whether it rise to ten, or fall to six, or to nothing, to him whose son, before he is in Bengal two
months, and before he descends the steps of the Council-Chamber, sells the grant of a single contract for forty thousand pounds'? Accordingly, the stock is
bought up in qualifications. The vote is not to protect the stock, but the stock' is bought to acquire the vote; and the end of the vote is to cover and support,
against justice, some man of power who has made an
obnoxious fortune in India, or to maintain in power
those who are actually employing it in the acquisition
? ? ? ? 516 SPEECHE ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
Of such a fortune, - and to avail themselves, in return,
of his patronage, that he may shower the spoils of the
East, "barbaric pearl and gold," on them, their families, and dependants. : So that all the relations of the
Cbmpany are not only changed, but inverted. The servants in India are not appointed by the Directors, but
the Directors are chosen by them. The trade is carried on with their capitals. To them the revenues of
the country are mortgaged. The seat of the supreme
power is in Calcutta. The house in Leadenhall Street
is nothing more than a'change for their agents, factors, and deputies to meet in, to take care of their
affairs and support their interests, - and this so avowedly, that we see the known agents of the delinquent
servants marshalling and disciplining their forces, and
the prime spokesmen in all their assemblies.
Everything has followed in this order, and according to the natural train of events. I will close what
I have to say on the incorrigible condition of the
Company, by stating to you a few facts that will leave
no doubt of the obstinacy of that corporation, and of
their strength too, in resisting the reformation of
their servants. By these facts'you will be enabled to
discover the sole grounds upon which they are tenar
cious of their charter.
It is now more than two years, that upon account
of the gross abuses and ruinous situation of the Company's affairs,'(which occasioned the cry of the whole
world long before it was taken up here,) that we instituted two committees to inquire into the mismanagements by which the Company's affairs had been brought to the brink of ruin. These inquiries had been pursued
with unremitting diligence, and a great body of facts
was collected and printed for general information.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 517
In the result of those inquiries, although the committees consisted of very different descriptions, they were
unanimous. They joined in censuring the conduct
of the. Indian admiinistration', and enforcing the responsibility upon two men, whom this House, in consequence of these reports, declared it to be the duty of the Directors to. remove from their stations, and
recall to Great Britain, --" because they had acted in
a manner repugnant to the honor and policy of this nation, and thereby brought great calamities on India and
enormous expenses on the East India Company. ".
Here was no attempt on the charter. Here was
no question of their privileges. To. vindicate their
own honor, to support their own interests, to enforce
obedience to their own orders,- these were the sole
object of the monitory resolution of this House. But
as soon as the General Court could. assemble, they
assembled to demonstrate who they really were.
Regardless of the proceedings of this House, they
ordered the Directors not to carry into effect any
resolution they might: come to for the removal df
Mr. - Hastings and Mr. Hornby. The Directors, still
retaining some shadow of respect to this House, instituted an inquiry themselves, which continued from
June to October, and, after an attentive perusal and
full consideration of papers, resolved to take:steps for
removing the persons who had been the objects of
our resolution, but not. without a violent struggle
against evidence. Seve4 Directors went so far as to
enter a protest against the vote of their court. Upon
this the General Court takes the alarm: it reassem*bles; it orders the Directors to rescind their resolution, that is, not to recall Mr. Hastings and Mr.
Hornby, and to despise the resolution of the House
? ? ? ? 518 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
of Commons. Without so much as the pretence of
looking into a single paper, without the formality
of instituting any committee of inquiry, they superseded all the labors of their own Directors and of
this House.
It will naturally occur to ask, how it was possible
that they should not attempt some sort of examination into facts, as a color for their resistance to a
public authority proceeding so very deliberately, and
exerted, apparently at least, in favor of their own.
The answer, and the only answer which can be
given, is, that they were afraid that their true relation should be mistaken. They were afraid that
their patrons and masters in India should attribute
their support of them to an opinion of their cause,
and not to an attachment to their power. They
were afraid it should be suspected that they did not
mean blindly to support them in the use they made
of that power. They determined to show that they
at least were set against reformation: that they were
firmly resolved to bring the territories, the trade, and
the stock of the Company to ruin, rather than be wanting in fidelity to their nominal servants and real masters, in the ways they took to their private fortunes. Even since the beginning of this session, the same
act of audacity was repeated, with the same circumstances of contempt of all the decorum of inquiry on
their part, and of all the proceedings of this House.
They again made it a request to their favorite, and
your culprit, to keep his post, -and thanked and
applauded him, without calling for a paper which,could afford light into the merit or demerit of the
transaction, and without giving themselves a moment's time to consider, or even to understand, the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 519
articles of the Mahratta peace. The fact is, that for a
long time there was a struggle, a faint one indeed,
between the Company and their servants. But it is
a struggle no longer. For some time the superiority
has been decided. The interests abroad are become
the settled preponderating weight both in the Court
of Proprietors and the Court of Directors. Even the
attempt you have made to inquire into their practices and to reform abuses has raised and piqued them to a far more regular and steady support.
The Company has made a common cause and identified themselves with the destroyers of India. They have taken on themselves all that mass of enormity;
they are supporting what you have reprobated;
those you condemn they applaud, those you order
home to answer for their conduct they request to
stay, and thereby encourage to proceed in their practices. Thus the servants of the East India Company triumph, and the representatives of the people of
Great Britain are defeated.
I therefore conclude, what you all conclude, that
this body, being totally perverted from the purposes
of its institution, is utterly incorrigible; and because
they are incorrigible, both in conduct and constitution, power ought to be taken out of their hands, - just on the same principles on which have been made
all the just changes and revolutions of government
that have taken place since the beginning of the
world.
I will now say a few words to the general principle
of the plan which is set up against that of my right
honorable friend. It is to recommit the government
of India to the Court of Directors. Those who would
commit the reformation of India to the destroyers of
? ? ? ? 520 SPEECH;ON BMR. FOX'S. EAST INDIA BILL.
it are the enemies to that reformation. They would
make a distinction between Directors and Proprietors,
which, inl the present state of things, does not, cannot exist. But. a right honorable gentleman says, he would keep the present government of India in the
Court of Directors, and would, to curb them, provide salutary: regulations. Wonderful! That is, he would appoint the old offenders to correct the old
offences; and he would render the vicious and the
foolish wise and virtuous by salutary regulations.
He would appoint the wolf as guardian of the sheep;
but he has invented a curious muzzle, by which this
protecting wolf shall not be able to open his jaws
above an inch or two at the utmost. Thus his work
is finished. But I tell the right honorable gentleman, that controlled depravity is not innocence, and that it is not the labor of delinquency in chains that
will correct abuses. Will these gentlemen of the
direction animadvert on the partners of their own
guilt? Never did a serious plan of amending of any
old tyrannical establishment propose the authors and
abettors of the abuses as the reformers of them. If
the undone people of India see their old oppressors in
confirmed power, even by the reformation, they will
expect nothing but what they will certainly feel,a continuance, or rather an aggravation, of all their former sufferings. They look to the seat of power,
and to the persons who fill it; and they despise
those gentlemen's regulations as much as the gentlemen do who talk of them.
But there is a cure for everything. Take away,
say they, the Court of Proprietors, and the Court. of
Directors will do their duty. Yes, - as they have
done it hitherto. That the evils in India have solely
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 521
arisen from the Court of Proprietors is grossly false.
In many of them the Directors were heartily concurring; in most of them they were encouraging, and
sometimes commanding; in all they were conniving.
But who are to choose this well-regulated and reforming Court of Directors?
- Why, the very Proprietors who are excluded from all management, for the abuse of their power. They will choose, undoubtedly, out of themselves, men like themselves; and
those who are most forward in resisting your authority, those who are most engaged in faction or interest
with the delinquents abroad, will be the objects of
their selection. But gentlemen say, that, when this
choice is rade, the Proprietors are not to interfere in
the measures of the Directors, whilst those Directors
are busy in the control of their common patrons and
masters in India. No, indeed, I believe they will not
desire to interfere. They will choose those whom
they know may be trusted, safely trusted, to act in
strict conformity to their common principles, manners, measures, interests, and connections. -They will
want neither monitor nor control. It is not easy to
choose men to act in conformity to a public interest
against their private; but a sure dependence may be
had on those who are chosen to forward their private
interest at the expense of the public. But if the
-Directors should slip, and deviate into rectitude, the
punishment is in the hands of the General Court, and
it will surely be remembered to them at their next
election.
If the government of India wants no reformation,
but gentlemen are amusing themselves with a theory, conceiving a more democratic or aristocratic
mode of government for these dependencies, or if
? ? ? ? 522 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
they are in a dispute only about patronage, l;he dispute is with me of so little concern that I should not
take the pains to utter an affirmative or negative to
any proposition in it. If it be only for a theoretical
amusement that they are to propose a bill, the thing
is at best frivolous and unnecessary. But if the Company's government is not only full of abuse, but is
one of the most corrupt and destructive tyrannies
that probably ever existed in the world, (as I am
sure it is,) what a cruel mockery would it be in me,
and in those who think like me, to propose this kind
of remedy for this kind of evil!
I now come to the third objection,- that this bill
will increase the influence of the crown. An honorable gentleman has demanded of me, whether I was'in earnest when I proposed to this House a plan for the reduction of that influence. Indeed, Sir, I was
much, very much, in earnest. My heart was deeply
concerned in it; and I hope the public has not lost
the effect of it. How far my judgment was right, for:what concerned personal favor and consequence to
myself, I shall not presume to determine; nor is its
effect upon me of any moment. But as to this bill,
whether it increases the influence of the crown, or
not, is a question I should be ashamed to ask. ' If I
am not able to correct a system of oppression and
tyranny, that goes to the utter ruin of thirty millions.
of my fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects, but by
some increase to the influence of. the crown, I am
ready here to declare that I,. who have been active to
reduce it, shall be at least as active and strenuous to
restore it again. I am no lover of names; I contend
for the substance of good and protecting government,
let it come from what quarter it will.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 523
~But: I am not obliged to have recourse uo this
expedient. Much, very much, the contrary. I am
sure that the influence of the crown will by no
means aid a reformation of this kind, which can
neither be originated nor supported but by the uncorrupt public virtue of the representatives of the people of England. Let it once get into the ordinary course of administration, and to me all hopes of reformation are gone. I am far from knowing or
believing that this bill will increase the influence of the crown. We all know that the crown- has ever
had some influence in the Court of Directors, and that it has been extremely increased by the acts
of 1773 anid 1780. The gentlemen who, as part of their reformation, propose " a more active control on the part of the crown," which is to put the Directors under a Secretary of State specially named for that purpose, must know that their project will increase
it further. But that old influence has had, and the
new will have, incurable inconveniences, which cannot happen under the Parlianientary establishment proposed in this bill. An:-honorable gentleman,* not
now in his place, but who is well acquainted with
the India Company, and by no means a friend to this
bill, has told you that a ministerial influence has
always been predominant in that body, - and that to
make tile Directors pliant to their purposes, ministers generally caused persons meanly qualified to be chosen Directors. According to his idea, to secure
subserviency, they submitted the Company's affairs
to the direction of incapacity. 'This was to ruin the
Company in order to govern it. This was certainly
influence in the very worst form in which it could
* Governor Johnstone.
? ? ? ? 524 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
appear. . At: best it was clandestine and irresponsible. Whether this was done so much upon system as that gentleman supposes, I greatly doubt. But
such in effect the operation of government on that
court unquestionably was; and such, under a similar
constitution, it will be forever. Ministers must be
wholly removed from the management of the affairs
of India, or they will have an influence in its patronage. The thing. is inevitable. Their scheme of a new Secretary of State, " with a more vigorous control," is' not much better than a repetition of the measure which we know by experience will not do.
Since the year 1773 and the year 1780, the Company
has been under the control of the Secretary of State's
office, and we had then three Secretaries of State.
If more' than this is done, then they annihilate the
direction which they pretend to support;, and they
augment the influence of the crown, of whose growth
they affect so great an horror. But in truth this
scheme of reconciling a direction really and truly
deliberative with an office really and substantially
controlling is a sort of machinery that -can be kept
in order. but a very short, time. Either the Directors
will dwindle into clerks, or the Secretary of State, as
hitherto has been the course, will leave everything to
them, often through design, often through neglect.
If both should affect activity, collision, procrastination, delay, and, in the end, utter confusion, must ensue.
But, Sir, there is one kind of influence far greater
than that of the nomination to office. This gentlemen in opposition have totally overlooked, although it now exists in its full vigor; and it will do so, upon
their scheme, in at least as much force as it does
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 525
now. That influence this bill cuts up by the roots.
I mean the influence of protection. I shall explain
myself. - The office given to a young man going to
India is of trifling consequence. But he that goes
out an insignificant boy in a few years returns a
great nabob. Mr. Hastings says he has two hundred
and fifty of that kind of raw materials, who expect
to be speedily manufactured into the -merchantable
quality I mention. One of these gentlemen, suppose,
returns hither laden with odium and with riches.
When he comes to England, he comes as to a prison,
or as to a sanctuary; and either is ready for him,
according to his demeanor. What is the influence
in the grant of any place in India, to that which is
acquired by the protection or compromise with such
guilt, and with the command of such riches, under
the dominion of the hopes and fears which power is
able to hold out to every man in that condition? '
That man's whole fortune, half a million perhaps,
becomes an instrument of influence, without a shilling of charge to the civil list: and the influx of
fortunes which stand'in need of this protection is
continual. It Works both ways: it influences the
delinquent, and it may corrupt the minister. Compare the influence acquired by appointing, for instance, even a Governor-General, and that obtained by protecting him. I shall push this no further. But
I wish gentlemen to roll it a little in their own
minds.
The bill before you cuts off this source of influence.
Its:design and main scope is, to regulate the administration of India upon the principles of a court of
judicature,- and to exclude, as far as human prudence can exclude, all possibility of a corrupt partial
? ? ? ? 526 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
ity, in appointing to office, or supporting in office, or
covering from inquiry and punishment, any person
who has abused or shall abuse his authority. At
the board, as appointed and regulated by this bill,
reward and punishment cannot be shifted. and reversed by a whisper. That commission becomes fatal
to cabal, to intrigue, and to secret representation,
those instruments of the ruin of India. He that cuts
off the means of premature fortune, and the power
of protecting it when acquired, strikes a deadly blow
at the great fund, the bank, the capital stock of Indian influence, which cannot be vested anywhere, or
in any hands, without most dangerous consequences
to the public.
The third and contradictory objection is, that this
bill does not increase the influence of the crown; on
the contrary, that the just power of the crown will be
lessened, and transferred to the use of a party, by giving the patronage of India to a commission nominated by Parliament and independent of the crown. The
contradiction is glaring, and it has been too well exposed to make it necessary for me to insist upon it.
But passing the contradiction, and taking it without
any relation, of all objections that is the most extraordinary. Do not gentlemen know that the crown has
not at present the grant of a single office under the
Company, civil or military, at home or abroad? So
far as the crown is concerned, it is certainly rather a
gainer; for the vacant offices in the new commission
are to be filled up by the king.
It is argued, as a part of the bill derogatory to the
prerogatives of the crown, that the commissioners
named in the bill are to continue for a short term
of years, too short in my opinion, - and because, dur
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 527
ing that time, they are not at the mercy of-every predominant faction of the court. Does not this objection
lie against the present Directors, -none of whom are
named by the crown, and a proportion of whom hold
for this very: term of four years? Did it not lie
against the Governor-General and Council named in
the. act of 1773, - who were invested by name, as the
present commissioners are to be appointed in the
body of the act of Parliament, who were to hold their
places for a term of years, and were not removable at
the discretion of the crown? . Did it not lie against
the reappointment, in the year 1780, upon the very
same terms? Yet at none of these times, whatever
other objections the scheme might be liable to, was
it supposed to be a derogation to the just prerogative
of the crown, that a commission created by act of
Parliament should have its members named by the
authority which called it into existence. This is
not the disposal by Parliament of any office derived
from the authority of the crown, or now disposable
by that authority. It is so far from being anything
new, violent, or alarming, that I do not recollect, in
any Parliamentary commission, down to the commissioners of thle land-tax, that it has ever been otherwise.
- The objection of the tenure for four years is an
objection to all places that are not held during pleasure; but in that objection I pronounce the gentlemen, from my knowledge of their complexion and of their principles, to be perfectly in earnest. The party
(say these gentlemen) of the minister who proposes
this scheme will be rendered powerful by. it; for he
will name his party friends to the commission. This
objection against party is a party objection; and in
? ? ? ? 528 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
this, too, these gentlemen are perfectly serious. They
see, that, if, by any intrigue, they should succeed to
office, they will lose the clandestine patronage, the
true instrument of clandestine influence, enjoyed in
the name of subservient Directors, and of wealthy,
trembling Indian delinquents. But as often as they
are beaten off this ground, they return to it again.
The minister will name his friends, and persons of
his own party. Whom should he name? Should
he name his adversaries? Should he name those
whom he cannot trust? Should he name those to
execute his plans who are the declared enemies to
the principles of his reform? His character is here
at stake. If he proposes for his own ends (but he
never will propose) such names as, from their want
of rank, fortune, character, ability, or knowledge, are
likely to betray or to fall short of their trust, he is in
an independent House of Commons, -in an House
of Commons which has, by its own virtue, destroyed
the instruments of Parliamentary subservience. This
House of Commons would not endure the sound of
such names. He would perish by the means which
he is supposed to pursue for the security of his power.
The first pledge he must give of his sincerity in this
great reform will be in the confidence which ought to
be reposed in those names.
For my part, Sir, in this business I put all indirect considerations wholly out of my mind. My sole question, on each clause of the bill, amounts to
this: --Is the measure proposed required by the
necessities of India? I cannot consent totally to lose
sight of the real wants of the people who are the
objects of it, and to hunt after every matter of party
squabble that may be started on the several provis
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 529
ions. On the question of the duration of the commission I am clear and decided. Can I, can any one
who has taken the. smallest trouble to be informed
concerning the affairs of India, amuse himself with so
strange an imagination as that the habitual despotism
and oppression,: that the monopolies, the peculations,
the universal destruction of all the legal authority of
this kingdom, which have been for twenty years maturing to their present enormity; combined with the distance of the scene, the boldness and artifice of delinquents, their combination, their excessive wealth, and the faction they have made in England, can be
fully corrected in a shorter term than four years?
None has hazarded such an assertion; none who has
a regard for his reputation will hazard' it. '
Sir, the gentlemen, whoever they are, who shall be
appointed to this commission, have an undertaking
of magnitude on their hands, and their stability must
not only'hbe, but it must be thought;:real; and who
is it will believe that anything' short'of an establishment made, supported, and fixed in its duration,
with all the authority of Parliament, can be thought:
secure of a reasonable stability? The plan of my
honorable friend is the reverse of that of reforming
by the authors of the abuse. The best we could
expect from them is, that they should not continue
their ancient, pernicious activity. To those we could
think of nothing but applying control; as we are sure
that even a regard to their reputation. (if any such
thing exists in them) would oblige them to cover, to
conceal, to suppress, and consequentlyto' prevent all
cure of the grievances of India. For' what can be'discovered which' is not to their disgrace? Every attempt to correct an abuse would be:a satire on
VOL. II. 34
? ? ? ? ,530 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
their former administration. Every man they should
pretend to call to an account would be found their
instrument, or: their accomplice. They can never
see a beneficial -regulation, but with a view to defeat
it. The shorter the tenure of such persons, the better
* would be the chance of some amendment.
But the system of the bill is different. It calls in
persons in no wise concerned with any act censured
by Parliament, - persons generated with, and for, the.
reform, of which they are themselves the most essential part. To these the chief regulations in the bill
are helps, not fetters: they are authorities to sup-.
port, not regulations to restrain them. From these
we look for much more than innocence. From these:
we expect zeal, firmness, and unremitted activity. :
Their duty, their character, binds them to proceedings of vigor; and they ought to have a tenure in
their. office which precludes all fear, whilst they are,
acting up to the: purposes of their trust, -- a tenure
without which none will undertake plans that require a series and system of acts. When they know
that they cannot be whispered out of their duty, that
their public conduct cannot be censured without a
public discussion, that the schemes which they have
begun will not be committed to those who will have
an interest and credit in defeating and disgracing:
them, then we may entertain hopes. The tenure is,
for four years, or during their good behavior. That
good behavior is as long as they are true to the principles of the bill; and the judgment is in eitherHouse of Parliament. This is the tenure of your judges; and the valuable principle of the bill is to:
make a judicial administration for India. It is to.
give confidence in the execution of a duty whichre-,
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 581
quires as much perseverance and fortitude as can
fall to the lot'of any that isborn of woman.
As to the gain by party from the right honorable
gentleman's bill,,let it be shown that this supposed
party advantage is pernicious to its object, and the
objection is of weight; but until this is done, (and
this has not been attempted,) I shall consider the sole
objection from its tendency to: promote the interest
of a party as altogether contemptible. The kingdom
is. divided into parties, and it ever has been so divided, and it ever will be so divided; and if no system for. relieving the subjects:of this kingdom from oppression, and snatching its affairs from ruin, can
be adopted, until it is'demonstrated that no party can
derive an advantage from it,. no good can ever be
done in this country.
dred and fifty of your children as his hostages for
your good behavior; and loaded for years, as he
has been, with the execrations of the natives, with
the censures of the. Court of Directors, and struck
and blasted with resolutions of this House, he still
maintains the most despotic. power ever known in
India. He domineers with an overbearing sway in
the assemblies of his pretended masters; and it is
thought in a degree rash to venture to name his
offences in this House, even as grounds of a legislative remedy.
On the other hand, consider the fate of those who
have met with the applauses of the Directors. Colonel Monson, one of the best of men, had his days
shortened by the applauses, destitute of the support,
of the Company. General Clavering, whose panegyric was made in every dispatch from England,
whose hearse was bedewed with the tears and hung
round with the eulogies of the Court of Directors,
burst an honest and indignant heart at the treachery
of those who ruined him by their praises. Uncommon patience. and temper supported Mr. Francis a
while longer under the baneful influence of the commendation of the Court of Directors. His health,
however, gave way at length; and in utter despair,
he returned to Europe. At his return, the doors of
the. India House were shut to this man who had been
the object of their, constant admiration. He has, indeed, escaped with life; but he has forfeited all expectation of credit, consequence, party, and following. He may well say, "Me nemo ministro fur erit, atque
ideo nulli comes exeo. " This man, whose deep reach
of thought, whose large legislative conceptions, and
whose grand plans of policy make the most shining
? ? ? ? 512 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
part of our Reports, from whence we have all learned
our lessons, if we have learned any good ones, - this
man, from whose materials those gentlemen who
have least acknowledged it have yet spoken as from
a brief, -this man, driven from his employment, discountenanced by the Directors, has had no other reward, and no other distinction, but that inward
" sunshine of the soul " which a good conscience can
always bestow upon itself. He has not yet had so
much as a good word, but from a person too insignificant to make any other return for the means with which he has been furnished for performing his share
of a duty which is equally urgent on us all.
Add to this, that, from the highest in place to the
lowest, every British subject; who, in obedience to
the Company's orders, has been active in the discovery of peculations, has been ruined. They have been driven from India. When they made their appeal at
home, they were not heard; when they attempted to
return, they were stopped. No artifice of fraud, no
violence of. power, has been omitted to destroy them
in character as well as in fortune.
Worse, far worse, has been the fate of the poor
creatures, the natives of India, whom the hypocrisy
of the Company has betrayed into complaint of oppression and discovery of peculation. The first women
in Bengal, the Ranny of Rajeshahi, the Ranny of
Burdwan, the Ranny of Ambooah, by their weak and
thoughtless trust in. the Company's honor and protection, are utterly ruined: the first of these women,
a person of princely rank, and once of correspondent
fortune, who -paid above two hundred thousand a year
quit-rentto the state, is, according to very credible information, so completely beggared as to stand in need
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 513
of the relief of allns. - Mahomed Reza Khan, the second Mussulman in Bengal, for having been distinguished by the ill-omened honor of the countenance and protection of the Court of Directors, was, without
the pretence of any inquiry whatsoever into his conduct, stripped of all his employments, and reduced to
the lowest condition. His ancient rival for power,
the Rajah Nundcomar, was, by an insult on everything which India holds respectable and sacred,
hanged in the face of all his nation by the judges
you sent to protect that people: hanged for a pretended crime, upon an ex post facto British act of
Parliament, in the midst of his evidence against Mr.
Hastings. The accuser they saw hanged. The culprit,
without acquittal or inquiry, triumphs on the ground
of. that murder: a murder, not of Nundcomar only, but
of all living testimony, and even of evidence yet unborn. From that time not a complaint has been heard
from the natives against their governors. All the.
grievances of India have found a complete remedy.
Men will not look to acts of Parliament, to regulations, to declarations, to votes, and resolutions. No,
they are not such fools. They will ask, What is the
road to power, credit, wealth, and honors? They
will ask, What conduct ends in neglect, disgrace, poverty, exile, prison, and gibbet? These will teach
them the course which they are to follow. It is your
distribution of these that will give the character and
tone to your government. All the rest is miserable
grimace.
When I accuse the Court of Directors of this habitual treachery in the use of reward and punishment,
I do not mean to include all the individuals in that
court. . There have been, Sir, very frequently men
VOL. II 33
? ? ? ? 514 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
of the greatest integrity and virtue amongst them;
and the contrariety in the declarations and conduct
of that court has arisen, I take it, from this, -- that
the honest Directors have, by the force of matter of
fact on the records, carried the reprobation of the evil
measures of the servants in India. This could not
be prevented, whilst these records stared them in the
face; nor were the delinquents, either here or there,
very solicitous about their reputation, as long as they
were able to secure their power. The agreement of
their partisans to censure them blunted for a while
the edge of a severe proceeding. It obtained for
them a character of impartiality, which enabled them
to recommend with some sort of grace, what will
always carry a plausible appearance, those treacherous expedients called moderate measures. Whilst
these were under discussion, new matter of complaint
came over, which seemed to antiquate the first. The
same circle was here trod round once more; and
thus through years they proceeded in a compromise
of censure for punishment, until, by shame and despair, one after another, almost every man who preferred his duty to the Company to the interest of their servants has been driven from that court.
This, Sir, has been their conduct: and it has been
the result of the alteration which was insensibly made
in their constitution. The change was made insensibly; but it is now strong and adult, and as public
and declared as it is fixed beyond all power of reformation: so that there is none who hears me that is
not as certain as I am, that the Company, in the
sense in which it was formerly understood, has no
existence.
The question is not, what injury. you may do to the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 515
proprietors of India stock;. for there are no such men
to be injured. If the active, ruling part of the Company, who form the General Court, who fill the offices
and direct the measures, (the rest tell for nothing,)
were persons~ who held their stock as a means of
their subsistence, who in the part they took were only concerned in the government of India for the rise
or fall of their dividend, it would be indeed a defective plan of policy. The interest of the people who
are governed by them would not be their primary object, - perhaps a very small part of their consideration at all. But then they might well-be depended on, and
perhaps more than persons in other respects preferable, for preventing the peculations of their servants to their own prejudice. Such a body would not easily
have left their trade as a spoil to the avarice of those
who received their wages. But now things are totally reversed. The stock is of no value, whether it
be the qualification of a Director or Proprietor; and
it is impossible that it should. A Director's qualification may be worth about two thousand five hundred pounds, -- and the interest, at eight per cent, is about
one hundred and sixty pounds a year. Of,what value is that, whether it rise to ten, or fall to six, or to nothing, to him whose son, before he is in Bengal two
months, and before he descends the steps of the Council-Chamber, sells the grant of a single contract for forty thousand pounds'? Accordingly, the stock is
bought up in qualifications. The vote is not to protect the stock, but the stock' is bought to acquire the vote; and the end of the vote is to cover and support,
against justice, some man of power who has made an
obnoxious fortune in India, or to maintain in power
those who are actually employing it in the acquisition
? ? ? ? 516 SPEECHE ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
Of such a fortune, - and to avail themselves, in return,
of his patronage, that he may shower the spoils of the
East, "barbaric pearl and gold," on them, their families, and dependants. : So that all the relations of the
Cbmpany are not only changed, but inverted. The servants in India are not appointed by the Directors, but
the Directors are chosen by them. The trade is carried on with their capitals. To them the revenues of
the country are mortgaged. The seat of the supreme
power is in Calcutta. The house in Leadenhall Street
is nothing more than a'change for their agents, factors, and deputies to meet in, to take care of their
affairs and support their interests, - and this so avowedly, that we see the known agents of the delinquent
servants marshalling and disciplining their forces, and
the prime spokesmen in all their assemblies.
Everything has followed in this order, and according to the natural train of events. I will close what
I have to say on the incorrigible condition of the
Company, by stating to you a few facts that will leave
no doubt of the obstinacy of that corporation, and of
their strength too, in resisting the reformation of
their servants. By these facts'you will be enabled to
discover the sole grounds upon which they are tenar
cious of their charter.
It is now more than two years, that upon account
of the gross abuses and ruinous situation of the Company's affairs,'(which occasioned the cry of the whole
world long before it was taken up here,) that we instituted two committees to inquire into the mismanagements by which the Company's affairs had been brought to the brink of ruin. These inquiries had been pursued
with unremitting diligence, and a great body of facts
was collected and printed for general information.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 517
In the result of those inquiries, although the committees consisted of very different descriptions, they were
unanimous. They joined in censuring the conduct
of the. Indian admiinistration', and enforcing the responsibility upon two men, whom this House, in consequence of these reports, declared it to be the duty of the Directors to. remove from their stations, and
recall to Great Britain, --" because they had acted in
a manner repugnant to the honor and policy of this nation, and thereby brought great calamities on India and
enormous expenses on the East India Company. ".
Here was no attempt on the charter. Here was
no question of their privileges. To. vindicate their
own honor, to support their own interests, to enforce
obedience to their own orders,- these were the sole
object of the monitory resolution of this House. But
as soon as the General Court could. assemble, they
assembled to demonstrate who they really were.
Regardless of the proceedings of this House, they
ordered the Directors not to carry into effect any
resolution they might: come to for the removal df
Mr. - Hastings and Mr. Hornby. The Directors, still
retaining some shadow of respect to this House, instituted an inquiry themselves, which continued from
June to October, and, after an attentive perusal and
full consideration of papers, resolved to take:steps for
removing the persons who had been the objects of
our resolution, but not. without a violent struggle
against evidence. Seve4 Directors went so far as to
enter a protest against the vote of their court. Upon
this the General Court takes the alarm: it reassem*bles; it orders the Directors to rescind their resolution, that is, not to recall Mr. Hastings and Mr.
Hornby, and to despise the resolution of the House
? ? ? ? 518 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
of Commons. Without so much as the pretence of
looking into a single paper, without the formality
of instituting any committee of inquiry, they superseded all the labors of their own Directors and of
this House.
It will naturally occur to ask, how it was possible
that they should not attempt some sort of examination into facts, as a color for their resistance to a
public authority proceeding so very deliberately, and
exerted, apparently at least, in favor of their own.
The answer, and the only answer which can be
given, is, that they were afraid that their true relation should be mistaken. They were afraid that
their patrons and masters in India should attribute
their support of them to an opinion of their cause,
and not to an attachment to their power. They
were afraid it should be suspected that they did not
mean blindly to support them in the use they made
of that power. They determined to show that they
at least were set against reformation: that they were
firmly resolved to bring the territories, the trade, and
the stock of the Company to ruin, rather than be wanting in fidelity to their nominal servants and real masters, in the ways they took to their private fortunes. Even since the beginning of this session, the same
act of audacity was repeated, with the same circumstances of contempt of all the decorum of inquiry on
their part, and of all the proceedings of this House.
They again made it a request to their favorite, and
your culprit, to keep his post, -and thanked and
applauded him, without calling for a paper which,could afford light into the merit or demerit of the
transaction, and without giving themselves a moment's time to consider, or even to understand, the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 519
articles of the Mahratta peace. The fact is, that for a
long time there was a struggle, a faint one indeed,
between the Company and their servants. But it is
a struggle no longer. For some time the superiority
has been decided. The interests abroad are become
the settled preponderating weight both in the Court
of Proprietors and the Court of Directors. Even the
attempt you have made to inquire into their practices and to reform abuses has raised and piqued them to a far more regular and steady support.
The Company has made a common cause and identified themselves with the destroyers of India. They have taken on themselves all that mass of enormity;
they are supporting what you have reprobated;
those you condemn they applaud, those you order
home to answer for their conduct they request to
stay, and thereby encourage to proceed in their practices. Thus the servants of the East India Company triumph, and the representatives of the people of
Great Britain are defeated.
I therefore conclude, what you all conclude, that
this body, being totally perverted from the purposes
of its institution, is utterly incorrigible; and because
they are incorrigible, both in conduct and constitution, power ought to be taken out of their hands, - just on the same principles on which have been made
all the just changes and revolutions of government
that have taken place since the beginning of the
world.
I will now say a few words to the general principle
of the plan which is set up against that of my right
honorable friend. It is to recommit the government
of India to the Court of Directors. Those who would
commit the reformation of India to the destroyers of
? ? ? ? 520 SPEECH;ON BMR. FOX'S. EAST INDIA BILL.
it are the enemies to that reformation. They would
make a distinction between Directors and Proprietors,
which, inl the present state of things, does not, cannot exist. But. a right honorable gentleman says, he would keep the present government of India in the
Court of Directors, and would, to curb them, provide salutary: regulations. Wonderful! That is, he would appoint the old offenders to correct the old
offences; and he would render the vicious and the
foolish wise and virtuous by salutary regulations.
He would appoint the wolf as guardian of the sheep;
but he has invented a curious muzzle, by which this
protecting wolf shall not be able to open his jaws
above an inch or two at the utmost. Thus his work
is finished. But I tell the right honorable gentleman, that controlled depravity is not innocence, and that it is not the labor of delinquency in chains that
will correct abuses. Will these gentlemen of the
direction animadvert on the partners of their own
guilt? Never did a serious plan of amending of any
old tyrannical establishment propose the authors and
abettors of the abuses as the reformers of them. If
the undone people of India see their old oppressors in
confirmed power, even by the reformation, they will
expect nothing but what they will certainly feel,a continuance, or rather an aggravation, of all their former sufferings. They look to the seat of power,
and to the persons who fill it; and they despise
those gentlemen's regulations as much as the gentlemen do who talk of them.
But there is a cure for everything. Take away,
say they, the Court of Proprietors, and the Court. of
Directors will do their duty. Yes, - as they have
done it hitherto. That the evils in India have solely
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 521
arisen from the Court of Proprietors is grossly false.
In many of them the Directors were heartily concurring; in most of them they were encouraging, and
sometimes commanding; in all they were conniving.
But who are to choose this well-regulated and reforming Court of Directors?
- Why, the very Proprietors who are excluded from all management, for the abuse of their power. They will choose, undoubtedly, out of themselves, men like themselves; and
those who are most forward in resisting your authority, those who are most engaged in faction or interest
with the delinquents abroad, will be the objects of
their selection. But gentlemen say, that, when this
choice is rade, the Proprietors are not to interfere in
the measures of the Directors, whilst those Directors
are busy in the control of their common patrons and
masters in India. No, indeed, I believe they will not
desire to interfere. They will choose those whom
they know may be trusted, safely trusted, to act in
strict conformity to their common principles, manners, measures, interests, and connections. -They will
want neither monitor nor control. It is not easy to
choose men to act in conformity to a public interest
against their private; but a sure dependence may be
had on those who are chosen to forward their private
interest at the expense of the public. But if the
-Directors should slip, and deviate into rectitude, the
punishment is in the hands of the General Court, and
it will surely be remembered to them at their next
election.
If the government of India wants no reformation,
but gentlemen are amusing themselves with a theory, conceiving a more democratic or aristocratic
mode of government for these dependencies, or if
? ? ? ? 522 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
they are in a dispute only about patronage, l;he dispute is with me of so little concern that I should not
take the pains to utter an affirmative or negative to
any proposition in it. If it be only for a theoretical
amusement that they are to propose a bill, the thing
is at best frivolous and unnecessary. But if the Company's government is not only full of abuse, but is
one of the most corrupt and destructive tyrannies
that probably ever existed in the world, (as I am
sure it is,) what a cruel mockery would it be in me,
and in those who think like me, to propose this kind
of remedy for this kind of evil!
I now come to the third objection,- that this bill
will increase the influence of the crown. An honorable gentleman has demanded of me, whether I was'in earnest when I proposed to this House a plan for the reduction of that influence. Indeed, Sir, I was
much, very much, in earnest. My heart was deeply
concerned in it; and I hope the public has not lost
the effect of it. How far my judgment was right, for:what concerned personal favor and consequence to
myself, I shall not presume to determine; nor is its
effect upon me of any moment. But as to this bill,
whether it increases the influence of the crown, or
not, is a question I should be ashamed to ask. ' If I
am not able to correct a system of oppression and
tyranny, that goes to the utter ruin of thirty millions.
of my fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects, but by
some increase to the influence of. the crown, I am
ready here to declare that I,. who have been active to
reduce it, shall be at least as active and strenuous to
restore it again. I am no lover of names; I contend
for the substance of good and protecting government,
let it come from what quarter it will.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 523
~But: I am not obliged to have recourse uo this
expedient. Much, very much, the contrary. I am
sure that the influence of the crown will by no
means aid a reformation of this kind, which can
neither be originated nor supported but by the uncorrupt public virtue of the representatives of the people of England. Let it once get into the ordinary course of administration, and to me all hopes of reformation are gone. I am far from knowing or
believing that this bill will increase the influence of the crown. We all know that the crown- has ever
had some influence in the Court of Directors, and that it has been extremely increased by the acts
of 1773 anid 1780. The gentlemen who, as part of their reformation, propose " a more active control on the part of the crown," which is to put the Directors under a Secretary of State specially named for that purpose, must know that their project will increase
it further. But that old influence has had, and the
new will have, incurable inconveniences, which cannot happen under the Parlianientary establishment proposed in this bill. An:-honorable gentleman,* not
now in his place, but who is well acquainted with
the India Company, and by no means a friend to this
bill, has told you that a ministerial influence has
always been predominant in that body, - and that to
make tile Directors pliant to their purposes, ministers generally caused persons meanly qualified to be chosen Directors. According to his idea, to secure
subserviency, they submitted the Company's affairs
to the direction of incapacity. 'This was to ruin the
Company in order to govern it. This was certainly
influence in the very worst form in which it could
* Governor Johnstone.
? ? ? ? 524 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
appear. . At: best it was clandestine and irresponsible. Whether this was done so much upon system as that gentleman supposes, I greatly doubt. But
such in effect the operation of government on that
court unquestionably was; and such, under a similar
constitution, it will be forever. Ministers must be
wholly removed from the management of the affairs
of India, or they will have an influence in its patronage. The thing. is inevitable. Their scheme of a new Secretary of State, " with a more vigorous control," is' not much better than a repetition of the measure which we know by experience will not do.
Since the year 1773 and the year 1780, the Company
has been under the control of the Secretary of State's
office, and we had then three Secretaries of State.
If more' than this is done, then they annihilate the
direction which they pretend to support;, and they
augment the influence of the crown, of whose growth
they affect so great an horror. But in truth this
scheme of reconciling a direction really and truly
deliberative with an office really and substantially
controlling is a sort of machinery that -can be kept
in order. but a very short, time. Either the Directors
will dwindle into clerks, or the Secretary of State, as
hitherto has been the course, will leave everything to
them, often through design, often through neglect.
If both should affect activity, collision, procrastination, delay, and, in the end, utter confusion, must ensue.
But, Sir, there is one kind of influence far greater
than that of the nomination to office. This gentlemen in opposition have totally overlooked, although it now exists in its full vigor; and it will do so, upon
their scheme, in at least as much force as it does
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 525
now. That influence this bill cuts up by the roots.
I mean the influence of protection. I shall explain
myself. - The office given to a young man going to
India is of trifling consequence. But he that goes
out an insignificant boy in a few years returns a
great nabob. Mr. Hastings says he has two hundred
and fifty of that kind of raw materials, who expect
to be speedily manufactured into the -merchantable
quality I mention. One of these gentlemen, suppose,
returns hither laden with odium and with riches.
When he comes to England, he comes as to a prison,
or as to a sanctuary; and either is ready for him,
according to his demeanor. What is the influence
in the grant of any place in India, to that which is
acquired by the protection or compromise with such
guilt, and with the command of such riches, under
the dominion of the hopes and fears which power is
able to hold out to every man in that condition? '
That man's whole fortune, half a million perhaps,
becomes an instrument of influence, without a shilling of charge to the civil list: and the influx of
fortunes which stand'in need of this protection is
continual. It Works both ways: it influences the
delinquent, and it may corrupt the minister. Compare the influence acquired by appointing, for instance, even a Governor-General, and that obtained by protecting him. I shall push this no further. But
I wish gentlemen to roll it a little in their own
minds.
The bill before you cuts off this source of influence.
Its:design and main scope is, to regulate the administration of India upon the principles of a court of
judicature,- and to exclude, as far as human prudence can exclude, all possibility of a corrupt partial
? ? ? ? 526 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
ity, in appointing to office, or supporting in office, or
covering from inquiry and punishment, any person
who has abused or shall abuse his authority. At
the board, as appointed and regulated by this bill,
reward and punishment cannot be shifted. and reversed by a whisper. That commission becomes fatal
to cabal, to intrigue, and to secret representation,
those instruments of the ruin of India. He that cuts
off the means of premature fortune, and the power
of protecting it when acquired, strikes a deadly blow
at the great fund, the bank, the capital stock of Indian influence, which cannot be vested anywhere, or
in any hands, without most dangerous consequences
to the public.
The third and contradictory objection is, that this
bill does not increase the influence of the crown; on
the contrary, that the just power of the crown will be
lessened, and transferred to the use of a party, by giving the patronage of India to a commission nominated by Parliament and independent of the crown. The
contradiction is glaring, and it has been too well exposed to make it necessary for me to insist upon it.
But passing the contradiction, and taking it without
any relation, of all objections that is the most extraordinary. Do not gentlemen know that the crown has
not at present the grant of a single office under the
Company, civil or military, at home or abroad? So
far as the crown is concerned, it is certainly rather a
gainer; for the vacant offices in the new commission
are to be filled up by the king.
It is argued, as a part of the bill derogatory to the
prerogatives of the crown, that the commissioners
named in the bill are to continue for a short term
of years, too short in my opinion, - and because, dur
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 527
ing that time, they are not at the mercy of-every predominant faction of the court. Does not this objection
lie against the present Directors, -none of whom are
named by the crown, and a proportion of whom hold
for this very: term of four years? Did it not lie
against the Governor-General and Council named in
the. act of 1773, - who were invested by name, as the
present commissioners are to be appointed in the
body of the act of Parliament, who were to hold their
places for a term of years, and were not removable at
the discretion of the crown? . Did it not lie against
the reappointment, in the year 1780, upon the very
same terms? Yet at none of these times, whatever
other objections the scheme might be liable to, was
it supposed to be a derogation to the just prerogative
of the crown, that a commission created by act of
Parliament should have its members named by the
authority which called it into existence. This is
not the disposal by Parliament of any office derived
from the authority of the crown, or now disposable
by that authority. It is so far from being anything
new, violent, or alarming, that I do not recollect, in
any Parliamentary commission, down to the commissioners of thle land-tax, that it has ever been otherwise.
- The objection of the tenure for four years is an
objection to all places that are not held during pleasure; but in that objection I pronounce the gentlemen, from my knowledge of their complexion and of their principles, to be perfectly in earnest. The party
(say these gentlemen) of the minister who proposes
this scheme will be rendered powerful by. it; for he
will name his party friends to the commission. This
objection against party is a party objection; and in
? ? ? ? 528 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
this, too, these gentlemen are perfectly serious. They
see, that, if, by any intrigue, they should succeed to
office, they will lose the clandestine patronage, the
true instrument of clandestine influence, enjoyed in
the name of subservient Directors, and of wealthy,
trembling Indian delinquents. But as often as they
are beaten off this ground, they return to it again.
The minister will name his friends, and persons of
his own party. Whom should he name? Should
he name his adversaries? Should he name those
whom he cannot trust? Should he name those to
execute his plans who are the declared enemies to
the principles of his reform? His character is here
at stake. If he proposes for his own ends (but he
never will propose) such names as, from their want
of rank, fortune, character, ability, or knowledge, are
likely to betray or to fall short of their trust, he is in
an independent House of Commons, -in an House
of Commons which has, by its own virtue, destroyed
the instruments of Parliamentary subservience. This
House of Commons would not endure the sound of
such names. He would perish by the means which
he is supposed to pursue for the security of his power.
The first pledge he must give of his sincerity in this
great reform will be in the confidence which ought to
be reposed in those names.
For my part, Sir, in this business I put all indirect considerations wholly out of my mind. My sole question, on each clause of the bill, amounts to
this: --Is the measure proposed required by the
necessities of India? I cannot consent totally to lose
sight of the real wants of the people who are the
objects of it, and to hunt after every matter of party
squabble that may be started on the several provis
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 529
ions. On the question of the duration of the commission I am clear and decided. Can I, can any one
who has taken the. smallest trouble to be informed
concerning the affairs of India, amuse himself with so
strange an imagination as that the habitual despotism
and oppression,: that the monopolies, the peculations,
the universal destruction of all the legal authority of
this kingdom, which have been for twenty years maturing to their present enormity; combined with the distance of the scene, the boldness and artifice of delinquents, their combination, their excessive wealth, and the faction they have made in England, can be
fully corrected in a shorter term than four years?
None has hazarded such an assertion; none who has
a regard for his reputation will hazard' it. '
Sir, the gentlemen, whoever they are, who shall be
appointed to this commission, have an undertaking
of magnitude on their hands, and their stability must
not only'hbe, but it must be thought;:real; and who
is it will believe that anything' short'of an establishment made, supported, and fixed in its duration,
with all the authority of Parliament, can be thought:
secure of a reasonable stability? The plan of my
honorable friend is the reverse of that of reforming
by the authors of the abuse. The best we could
expect from them is, that they should not continue
their ancient, pernicious activity. To those we could
think of nothing but applying control; as we are sure
that even a regard to their reputation. (if any such
thing exists in them) would oblige them to cover, to
conceal, to suppress, and consequentlyto' prevent all
cure of the grievances of India. For' what can be'discovered which' is not to their disgrace? Every attempt to correct an abuse would be:a satire on
VOL. II. 34
? ? ? ? ,530 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
their former administration. Every man they should
pretend to call to an account would be found their
instrument, or: their accomplice. They can never
see a beneficial -regulation, but with a view to defeat
it. The shorter the tenure of such persons, the better
* would be the chance of some amendment.
But the system of the bill is different. It calls in
persons in no wise concerned with any act censured
by Parliament, - persons generated with, and for, the.
reform, of which they are themselves the most essential part. To these the chief regulations in the bill
are helps, not fetters: they are authorities to sup-.
port, not regulations to restrain them. From these
we look for much more than innocence. From these:
we expect zeal, firmness, and unremitted activity. :
Their duty, their character, binds them to proceedings of vigor; and they ought to have a tenure in
their. office which precludes all fear, whilst they are,
acting up to the: purposes of their trust, -- a tenure
without which none will undertake plans that require a series and system of acts. When they know
that they cannot be whispered out of their duty, that
their public conduct cannot be censured without a
public discussion, that the schemes which they have
begun will not be committed to those who will have
an interest and credit in defeating and disgracing:
them, then we may entertain hopes. The tenure is,
for four years, or during their good behavior. That
good behavior is as long as they are true to the principles of the bill; and the judgment is in eitherHouse of Parliament. This is the tenure of your judges; and the valuable principle of the bill is to:
make a judicial administration for India. It is to.
give confidence in the execution of a duty whichre-,
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 581
quires as much perseverance and fortitude as can
fall to the lot'of any that isborn of woman.
As to the gain by party from the right honorable
gentleman's bill,,let it be shown that this supposed
party advantage is pernicious to its object, and the
objection is of weight; but until this is done, (and
this has not been attempted,) I shall consider the sole
objection from its tendency to: promote the interest
of a party as altogether contemptible. The kingdom
is. divided into parties, and it ever has been so divided, and it ever will be so divided; and if no system for. relieving the subjects:of this kingdom from oppression, and snatching its affairs from ruin, can
be adopted, until it is'demonstrated that no party can
derive an advantage from it,. no good can ever be
done in this country.
