No More Learning

An exterior administration, chosen for its impo tency, or after it is chosen purposely rendered impo tent, in order to be rendered subservient, will not be obeyed. The laws themselves will not be respected, when those who execute them are despised: and they will be despised, when their power is not immediate from the crown, or natural in the kingdom. Never were ministers better supported in Parliament. Par liamentary support comes and goes with office, totally regardless of the man, or the merit. Is government strengthened? It grows weaker and weaker. The popular torrent gains upon it every hour. Let us learn from our experience. It is not support that is wanting to government, but reformation. When ministry rests upon public opinion, it is not indeed built upon a rock of adamant ; it has, however, some stability. But when it stands upon private humor,
its structure is of stubble, and its foundation is on
? ? ? ? or THE PRESENT n1scosrrmrs.
_ 523
quicksand. I repeat it again, -- He that supports ev ery administration subverts all government. The reason is this: The whole business in which a court usually takes an interest goes on at present equally well, in whatever hands, whether high or low, wise or foolish, scandalous or reputable; there is nothing therefore to hold it firm to any one body of men, or to any one consistent scheme of politics. Nothing interposes, to prevent the full operation of all the ca prices and all the passions of a court upon the ser vants of the public. The system of administration is open to continual shocks and changes, upon the prin ciples of the meanest cabal, and the most contemptible intrigue. Nothing can be solid and permanent. All good men at length fly with horror from such a ser vice. Men of rank and ability, with the spirit which ought to animate such men in a free state, while they decline the jurisdiction of dark cabal on their actions and their fortunes, will, for both, cheerfully put themselves upon their country. They will trust an inquisitive and distinguishing Parliament; because it does inquire, and does distinguish. If they act well, they know, that, in such a Parliament they will be supported against any intrigue; if they act ill, they know that no intrigue can protect them. This situa tion, however awful, is honorable. But in one hour, and in the self-same assembly, without any assigned or assignable cause, to be precipitated from the high est authority to the most marked neglect, possibly in to the greatest peril of life and reputation, is a situa tion full of danger, and destitute of honor. It will be shunned equally by every man of prudence, and every man of spirit.
Such are the consequences of the division of court
? ? ? ? 524
ruoucnrs on rnn causn
from the administration; and of the division of pub lic men among themselves. By the former of these, lawful government is undone ; by the latter, all oppo sition to lawless power is rendered impotent. Gov ernment may in a great measure be restored, if any considerable bodies of men have honesty and resolu tion enough never to accept administration, unless this garrison of king's men, which is stationed, as in a citadel, to control and enslave it, be entirely broken and disbanded, and every work they have thrown up be levelled with the ground. The disposition of pub lic men to keep this corps together, and to act under
or to co-operate with touchstone by which every administration ought in future to be tried. There has not been one which has not sufficiently ex
the utter incompatibility of that faction with the public peace, and with all the ends of good government: since, they opposed they soon lost every power of serving the crown; they submitted to they lost all the esteem of their country. Until ministers give to the public full proof of their entire alienation from that system, however plausible their pretences, we may be sure they are more intent on the emoluments than the duties of office. If they re fuse to give this proof, we know of what stuff they are made. In this particular, ought to be the elec tors' business to look to their representatives. The electors ought to esteem no less culpable in their member to give single vote in Parliament to such an administration, than to take an office under to endure than to act in it. The notorious. infidelity and versatility of members of Parliament, in their
opinions of men and things, ought in particular manner to be considered by the electors in the in
? perienced
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quiry which is recommended to them. This is one of the principal holdings of that destructive system, which has endeavored to unhinge all the virtuous, honorable, and useful connections in the kingdom.
This cabal has, with great success, propagated a doctrine which serves for a color to those acts of treachery ; and whilst it receives any degree of coun tenance it will be utterly senseless to look for a vig orous opposition to the court party. The doctrine is this: That all political connections are in their na ture factious, and as such ought to be dissipated and destroyed ; and that the rule for forming administra tions is mere personal ability, rated by the judgment of this cabal upon and taken by draughts from every division and denomination of public men. This decree was solemnly promulgated the head of the court corps, the Earl of Bute himself, in speech
which he made, in the year 1766, against the then administration, the only administration which he has ever been known directly and publicly to oppose.
indeed in no way wonderful, that such persons should make such declarations. That connection and faction are equivalent terms, an opinion which has been carefully inculcated at all times by unconstitu tional statesmen. The reason evident. Whilst men are linked together, they easily and speedily communi cate the alarm of any evil design. They are enabled to fathom with common counsel, and to oppose with united strength. Whereas, when they lie dis persed, without concert, order, or discipline, commu nication uncertain, counsel difficult, and resistance
? Where men are not acquainted with each other's principles, nor experienced in each oth er's talents, nor at all practised in their mutual habi
impracticable.
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tudes and dispositions by joint efforts in business; no personal confidence, no friendship, no common inter est, subsisting among them; it is evidently impossible that they can act a public part with uniformity, per severance, or efficacy. In, a connection, the most in considerable man, by adding to the weight of the whole, has his value, and his use; out of the great est talents are wholly unserviceable to the public. N man, who not inflamed by vainglory into enthusi asm, can flatter himself that his single, unsupported, desultory, unsystematic endeavors are of power to de feat the subtle designs and united cabals of ambitious citizens. When bad men combine, the good must as sociate else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in
? contemptible struggle.
It not enough in situation of trust in the com
monwealth, that man means well to his country; not enough that in his single person he never
did an evil act, but always voted according to his conscience, and even harangued against every design which he apprehended to be prejudicial to the inter ests of his country. This innoxious and ineffectual character, that seems formed upon plan of apology and disculpation, falls miserably short of the mark of public duty. That duty demands and requires, that what right should not only be made known, but made prevalent that what evil should not only be detected, but defeated. When the public man omits to put himself in situation of doing his duty with effect, an omission that frustrates the purposes of his trust almost as much as he had formally be trayed it. It surely no very rational account of man's life, that he has always acted right; but has taken special care, to act in such manner that his
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endeavors could not possibly be productive of any consequence.
I do not wonder that the behavior of many par ties should have made persons of tender and scrupu lous virtue somewhat out of humor with all sorts of connection in politics. I admit that people frequently acquire in such confederacies a narrow, bigoted, and proscriptive spirit ; that they are apt to sink the idea of the general good in this circumscribed and par tial interest. But, where duty renders a critical sit uation a necessary one, it is our business to keep free from the evils attendant upon it; and not to fly from the situation itself. If a fortress is seated in an un wholesome air, an officer of the garrison is obliged to be attentive to his health, but he must not desert his station. Every profession, not excepting the glori ous one of a soldier, or the sacred one of a priest, is liable to its own particular vices; which, however, form no argument against those ways of life ; nor are the vices themselves inevitable to every individual in those professions. Of such a nature are connections in politics; essentially necessary for the full perform ance of our public duty, accidentally liable to de generate into faction. Commonwealths are made of families, free commonwealths of parties also ; and we
may as well affirm, that our natural regards and ties of blood tend inevitably to make men bad citizens, as that the bonds of our party weaken those by which
? we are held to our country.
Some legislators went so far as to make neutrality
in party a crime against the state. I do not know whether this might not have been rather to overstrain the principle. Certain it the best patriots in the greatest commonwealths have always commended
? ? is,
? 528 ruoucnrs on THE causn
and promoted such connections. Idem sentire de republica, was with them a principal ground of friend ship and attachment ; nor do I know any other capa ble of forming firmer, dearer, more pleasing, more honorable, and more virtuous habitudes. The Ro mans carried this principle a great way. Even the holding of offices together, the disposition of which arose from chance, not selection, gave rise to a rela tion which continued for life. It was called necessi tudo sortie; and it was looked upon with a sacred reverence. Breaches of any of these kinds of civil relation were considered as acts of the most distin guished turpitude. The whole people was distributed into political societies, in which they acted in support of such interests in the state as they severally affect ed. For it was then thought no crime to endeavor by every honest means to advance to superiority and power those of your own sentiments and opinions. This wise people was far from imagining that those
connections had no tie, and obliged to no duty; but that men might quit them without shame, upon every call of interest. They believed private honor to be the great foundation of public trust ; that friend ship was no mean step towards patriotism; that he who, in the common intercourse of life, showed he regarded somebody besides himself, when he came to act in a public situation, might probably consult some other interest than his own. Never may we become plus sages que les sages, as the French comedian has happily expressed wiser than all the wise and good men who have lived before us. It was their wish, to see public and private virtues, not dissonant and jar ring, and mutually destructive, but harmoniously combined, growing out of one another in noble
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and orderly gradation, reciprocally supporting and supported. In one of the most fortunate periods of our history this country was governed by a connection ; I mean, the great connection of Whigs in the reign of Queen Anne. They were complimented upon the principle of this connection by a poet who was in high esteem with them. Addison, who knew their senti ments, could not praise them for what they considered as no proper subject of commendation. As a poet who knew his business, he could not applaud them for a thing which in general estimation was not highly reputable. Addressing himself to Britain,--
" Thy favorites grow not up by fortune's sport,
Or from the crimes or follies of a court.
On the firm basis of desert they rise,
From long-tried faith, and friendship's holy ties. "
The Whigs of those days believed that the only proper method of rising into power was through hard essays of practised friendship and experimented fidel ity. At that time it was not imagined, that patriot ism was a bloody idol, which required the sacrifice of children and parents, or dearest connections in pri vate life, and of all the virtues that rise from those relations. They were not of that ingenious paradox ical morality, to imagine that a spirit of moderation was properly shown in patiently bearing the sufier ings of your friends; or that disinterestedness was clearly manifested at the expense of other people's fortune. They believed that no men could act with effect, who did not act in concert ; that no men could act in concert, who did not act with confidence ; that no men could act with confidence, who were not bound together by common opinions, common affec
? tions, and common interests. vor. . i. 84
'
? ? ? 530 THOUGHTS on rnn causn
These wise men, for such I must call Lord Sunder land, Lord Godolphin, Lord Somers, and Lord Marl borough, were too well principled in these maxims upon which the whole fabric of public strength is built, to be blown off their ground by the breath of every childish talker. They were not afraid that they should be called an ambitious junto; or that their resolution to stand or fall together should, by placemen, be interpreted into a scuffle for places.
Party is a body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavors the national interest upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed. For my part, I find it impossible to conceive, that any one believes in his own politics, or thinks them to be of any weight, who refuses to adopt the means of having them reduced into practice. It is the busi ness of the speculative philosopher to mark the proper ends of government. It is the business of the poli tician, who is the philosopher in action, to find out proper means towards those ends, and to employ them with effect. Therefore every honorable con nection will avow it is their first purpose, to pursue every just method to put the men who hold their opinions into such a condition as may enable them to carry their common plans into execution, with all the power and authority of the state. As this power is attached to certain situations, it is their duty to con tend for these situations. Without a proscription of others, they are bound to give to their own party the preference in all things; and by no means, for pri
vate considerations, to accept any offers of power in which the whole body is not included ; nor to suffer themselves to be led, or to be controlled, or to be overbalanced, in office or in council, by those who
? ? ? ? or rnn rnnsnnr DISCONTENTS. 531
contradict the very fundamental principles on which their party is formed, and even those upon which every fair connection must stand. Such a generous contention for power, on such manly and honorable maxims, will easily be distinguished from the mean and interested struggle for place and emolument.
The very style of such persons will serve to discrim inate them from those numberless impostors, who have deluded the ignorant with professions incompat ible with human practice, and have afterwards in censed them by practices below the level of vulgar rectitude.
It is an advantage to all narrow wisdom and nar row morals, that their maxims have a plausible air: and, on a cursory view, appear equal to first princi ples. They are light and portable. They are as cur rent as copper coin; and about as valuable. They serve equally the first capacities and the lowest; and they are, at least, as useful to the worst men as to the best. Of this stamp is the cant of Not men, but meas ures ; a sort of charm by which many people get loose from every honorable engagement. When I see a man acting this desultory and disconnected part, with as much detriment to his own fortune as prejudice to the cause of any party, I am not persuaded that he is right; but I am ready to believe he is in earnest. I respect virtue in all its situations; even when it is found in the unsuitable company of weakness. I la ment to see qualities, rare and valuable, squandered away without any public utility. But when a gentle man with grcat visible emoluments abandons the party in which he has long acted, and tells you, it is
because he proceeds upon his own judgment; that he acts on the merits of the several measures as they
? ? ? ? 532 THOUGHTS ON THE causn
arise; and that he is obliged to follow his own con science, and not that of others; he gives reasons which it is impossible to controvert, and discovers a character which it is impossible to mistake. What shall we think of him who never differed from a cer tain set of men until the moment they lost their power, and who never agreed with them in a single instance afterwards? Would not such a coincidence of interest and opinion be rather fortunate ? Would it not be an extraordinary cast upon the dice, that a
man's connections should degenerate into faction, precisely at the critical moment when they lose their power, or he accepts a place? When people desert their connections, the desertion is a manifest fact, upon which a direct simple issue lies, triable by plain men. Whether a measure of government be right or wrong, is no matter offact, but a mere affair of opin ion, on which men may, as they do, dispute and wran gle without end. But whether the individual thinks the measure right or wrong, is a point at still a greater distance from the reach of all human decis
? ion. It is therefore very convenient to politicians, not to put the judgment of their conduct on overt acts, cognizable in any ordinary court, but upon such matter as can be triable only in that secret tribunal, where they are sure of being heard with favor, or where at worst the sentence will be only private whip ping.
I believe the reader would wish to find no sub stance in a doctrine which has a tendency to destroy all test' of character as deduced from conduct. He will therefore excuse my adding something more, towards the further clearing up a point, which the great convenience of obscurity to dishonesty has been
? ? ? OF THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS.
able to cover with some degree of darkness and doubt.
In order to throw an odium on political connec tion, these politicians suppose it a necessary incident to that you are blindly to follow the opinions of your party, when in direct opposition to your own clear ideas; degree of servitude that no worthy man could bear the thought of submitting to; and such as, believe, no connections (except some court factions) ever could be so senselessly tyrannical as to
Men thinking freely, will, in particular in stances, think differently. But still as the greater part of the measures which arise in the course of
impose.
? business are related to, or dependent on,
public
some great, leading, general principles in govemmervt, man must be peculiarly unfortimate in the choice of his political company, he does not agree with them at least nine times in ten. If he does not concur in these general principles upon which the party founded, and which necessarily draw on concur rence in their application, he ought from the begin ning to have chosen some other, more conformable to his opinions. When the question in its nature doubtful, or not very material, the modesty which becomes an individual, and, (in spite of our court moralists) that partiality which becomes well-chosen friendship, will frequently bring on an acquiescence in the general sentiment. Thus the disagreement will naturally be rare will be only enough to in dulge freedom, without violating concord, or disturb
And this all that ever was re quired for character of the greatest uniformity and
steadiness in connection. How men can proceed with out any connection at all, to me utterly incompre
ing arrangement.
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hensible. Of what sort of materials must that man be made, how must he be tempered and put together, who can sit whole years in Parliament, with five hun dred and fifty of his fellow-citizens, amidst the storm of such tempestuous passions, in the sharp conflict of so many wits, and tempers, and characters, in the agitation of such mighty questions, in the discussion of such vast and ponderous interests, without seeing any one sort of men, whose character, conduct, or disposition, would lead him to associate himself with them, to aid and be aided, in any one system of pub
lic utility?
I remember an old scholastic aphorism, which says,
"that the man who lives wholly detached from others, must be either an angel or a devil. " When "I see in any of these detached gentlemen of our times the an gelic purity, power, and beneficence, I shall admit them to be angels. In the mean time we are born only to be men. We shall do enough if we form our selves to be good ones. It is therefore our business carefully to cultivate in our minds, to rear to the most perfect vigor and maturity, every sort of gener ous and honest feeling, that belongs to our nature. To bring the dispositions that are lovely in private life into the service and conduct of the commonwealth; so to be patriots, as not to forget we are gentlemen. To cultivate friendships, and to incur enmities. To have both strong, but both selected : in the one, to be placable ; in the other immovable. To model our principles to our duties and our situation. To be fully persuaded, that all virtue which is impracticable is spurious ; and rather to run the risk of falling into faults in a course which leads us to act with effect and energy, than to loiter out our days without blame,
__
? ? ? ? OF THE PRESENT DISGONTENTS.
and without use. Public life is a situation of power and energy ; he trespasses against his duty who sleeps upon his watch, as well as he that goes over to the enemy.
There however, time for all things. It not every conjuncture which calls with equal force upon the activity of honest men; but critical exigencies now and then arise; and am mistaken, this be not one of them. Men will see the necessity of hon est combination; but they may see when too late. They may embody, when will be ruinous to themselves, and of no advantage to the country; when, for want of such timely union as may enable them to oppose in favor of the laws, with the laws on their side, they may at length find themselves under the necessity of conspiring, instead of consulting. The law, for which they stand, may become
?
weapon in the hands of its bitterest enemies; and they will
be cast, at length, into that miserable alternative be tween slavery and civil confusion, which no good man can look upon without horror an alternative in which impossible he should take either part, with conscience perfectly at repose. To keep that situation of guilt and remorse at the utmost distance is, therefore, our first obligation. Early activity may prevent late and fruitless violence. As yet we work in the light. The scheme of the enemies of public tranquillity has disarranged, has not destroyed us.
If the reader believes that there really exists such faction as have described; faction ruling the private inclinations of court, against the general
sense of the people; and that this faction, whilst pursues scheme for undermining all the founda tions of our freedom, weakens (for the present at
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least) all the powers of executory government, ren dering us abroad contemptible, and at home distract ed ; he will believe also, that nothing but a firm com bination of public men against this body, and that, too, supported by the hearty concurrence of the peo ple at large, can possibly get the better of it. The people will see the necessity of restoring public men to an attention to the public opinion, and of restoring the constitution to its original principles. Above all, they will endeavor to keep the House of Commons from assuming a character which does not belong to it. They will endeavor to keep that House, for its existence, for its powers, and its privileges, as inde pendent of every other, and as dependent upon them selves, as possible. This servitude is to a House of Commons (like obedience to the Divine law) "per fect freedom. " For if they once quit this natural,
rational, and liberal obedience, having deserted the only proper foundation of their power, they must seek a support in an abject and unnatural depend ence somewhere else. When, through the medium of this just connection with their constituents, the genuine dignity of the House of Commons is re stored, it will begin to think of casting from with scorn, as badges of servility, all the false ornaments of illegal power, with which has been, for some time, disgraced. It will begin to think of its old of fice of CONTROL. It will not suffer that last of evils to predominate in the country: men without popular confidence, public opinion, natural connection, or mutual trust, invested with all the powers of govern ment.
When they have learned this lesson themselves, they will be willing and able to teach the court, that
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? OF THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS.
537
it is the true interest of the prince to have but one administration ; and that one composed of those who recommend themselves to their sovereign through the opinion of their country, and not by their obsc quiousness to a favorite. Such men will serve their sovereign with affection and fidelity; because his choice of them, upon such principles, is a compliment to their virtue. They will be able to serve him effect ually ; because they will add the weight of the coun try to the force of the executory power. They will be able to serve their king with dignity; because they will never abuse his name to the gratification of their private spleen or avarice. This, with allow ances for human frailty, may probably be the general character of a ministry, which thinks itself accounta ble to the House of Commons; when the House of Commons thinks itself accountable to its constituents. If other ideas should prevail, things must remain in their present confusion, until they are hurried into all the rage of civil violence, or until they sink into the dead repose of despotism.
END OF VOL. I.
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The works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke.
Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797.
Boston : Little, Brown, and company, 1869.
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? ? ? THE
WORKS
OF
THE RIGHT HONORABLE EDMUND BURKE.
THIRD EDITION.
VOL. III.
BOSTON.
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. I869.
? ? ? ? CONTENTS OF VOL. III.
PAGE
SPEECH ON THE NABOB OF ARCOT'S DEBTS, February 28,
1785; with an Appendix. . . . . . 1
SUBSTANCE OF SPEECH ON THE ARMY ESTIMATES, February 9, 1790. . 211 REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE. 231
? ? ? ? SPEECH
ON THE
MOTION MADE FOR PAPERS
RELATIVE TO THE
DIRECTIONS FOR CHARGING THE NABOB OF ARCOT'S
PRIVATE DEBTS TO EUROPEANS ON THE
REVENUES OF THE CARNATIC,
FEBRUARY 28, 1785.
WITH AN APPENDIX,
CONTAINING SEVERAL DOCUMENTS. 'EvTcaOc Tt 1rp4TeLv Zxpiv v~pxL 673v IlUa'covog Kca'ApLt7roroAovT 57XAT7qv 0oyuaTWV; apa 7reptopcLV avOp(7rov; &OVTov; 7ToS KXe7ratL et8oLSoevovT, KaTa 8Vva'lLv aorov'o al 4VELV, oLgtaL, &c s T 7b iKVKVeLOV ea8ovoaT 8&a 7o OeoLEuo' epyaoCTiptov T7cv
TOiLOOTwv;'Etolt peLv obv aCo'Xpbv etvaLL 8oKeZ To;! iev XtLtApXo0V,'oLav AeLr(o,' Tv
rat4v, KlTaSLKeLLV. . . . . ve &,rap aoXicov avOpcjrwv b7roe1etrrv TctSw, 6av Zin
7rpos KXl~c~~s &ywvCseoOua TOLO1TOV9 I KaL aDTOa ToD eoV X 7U. LLV, JO Tep
o0v eTateV.
JuuiNI Epist. 17.
VOL. III. 1
? ? ? ? ADVERTISEMENT.
HAT the least informed reader of this speech may
be enabled to enter fully into the spirit of the
transaction on occasion of which it was delivered, it
may be proper to acquaint him, that, among the princes dependent on this nation in the southern part of
India, the most considerable at present is commonly
known by the title of the Nabob of Arcot.
This prince owed the establishment of his government, against the claims of his elder brother, as well
as those of other competitors, to the arms and influence of the British East India Company. Being thus
established in a considerable part of the dominions he
now possesses, he began, about the year 1765, to form,
at the instigation (as he asserts) of the servants of
the East India Company, a variety of designs for the
further extension of his territories. Some'years after, he carried his views to certain objects of interior
arrangement, of a very pernicious nature. None of
these designs could be compassed without the aid of
the Company's arms; nor could those arms be employed consistently with an obedience to the Company's orders. He was therefore advised to form a more secret, but an equally powerful, interest
among the servants of that Company, and among
others both at home and abroad. By engaging
them in his interests, the use of the Company's
power might be obtained without their ostensible
? ? ? ? 4 ADVERTISEMENT.
authority; the power might even be employed in
defiance of the authority, if the case should require,
as in truth it often did require, a proceeding of that
degree of boldness.
The Company had put him into possession of
several great cities and magnificent castles. The
good order of his affairs, his sense of personal dignity, his ideas of Oriental splendor, and the habits
of an Asiatic life, (to which, being a native of India,
and a Mahometan, he had from his infancy been
inured,) would naturally have led him to fix the
seat of his government within his own dominions.
Instead of this, he totally sequestered himself from
his country, and, abandoning all appearance of state,
he took up his residence in an ordinary house, which
he purchased in the suburbs of the Company's factory
at Madras. In that place he has lived, without removing one day from thence, for several years past.
He has there continued a constant cabal with the
Company's servants, from the highest to the lowest,
- creating, out of the ruins of the country, brilliant
fortunes for those who will, and entirely destroying
those who will not, be subservient to his purposes.
An opinion prevailed, strongly confirmed by several passages in his own letters, as well as by a combination of circumstances forming a body of evidence which cannot be resisted, that very great sums have
been by him distributed, through a long course of
years, to some of the Company's servants. Besides
these presumed payments in ready money, (of which,
from the nature of the thing, the direct proof is very
difficult,) debts have at several periods been acknowledged to those gentlemen, to an immense amount,
that is, to some millions of sterling money. There is
? ? ? ? ADVERTISEMENT. ,5
strong reason to suspect that the body of these debts
is wholly fictitious, and was never created by money
bond fide lent. But even on a supposition that this
vast sum was really advanced, it was impossible that
the very reality of such an astonishing transaction
should not cause some degree of alarm and incite
to some sort of inquiry.
It was not at all seemly, at a moment when the
Company itself was so distressed as to require a suspension, by act of Parliament, of the payment of bills drawn on them from India,-and also a direct tax
upon every house in England, in order to facilitate
the vent of their goods, and to avoid instant insolvency,-at that very moment, that their servants
should appear in so flourishing a condition, as, besides ten millions of other demands on their masters, to be entitled to claim a debt of three or four millions more from the territorial revenue of one of
their dependent princes.
The ostensible pecuniary transactions of the Nabob
of Arcot with very private persons are so enormous,
that they evidently set aside every pretence of policy
which might induce a prudent government in some
instances to wink at ordinary loose practice in illmanaged departments. No caution could be too
great in handling this matter, no scrutiny too exact.
It was evidently the interest, and as evidently at least
in the power, of the creditors, by admitting secret
participation in this dark and undefined concern, to
spread corruption to the greatest and the most alarming extent.
These facts relative to the debts were so notorious,
the opinion of their being a principal source of the
disorders of the British government in India was so
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undisputed and universal, that there was no party,
no description of men in Parliament, who did not
think themselves bound, if not in honor and conscience, at least in common decency, to institute a
vigorous inquiry into the very bottom of the business, before they admitted any part of that vast and
suspicious charge to be laid upon an exhausted country. Every plan concurred in directing such an inquiry, in order that whatever was discovered to be corrupt, fraudulent, or oppressive should lead to a
due animadversion on the offenders, and, if anything
fair and equitable in its origin should be found, (nobody suspected that much, comparatively speaking,
would be so found,) it might be provided for, -- in
due subordination, however, to the ease of the subject and the service of the state.
These were the alleged grounds for an inquiry,
settled in all the bills brought into Parliament relative to India, -and there were, I think, no less than
four of them. By the bill commonly called Mr. Pitt's
bill, the inquiry was specially, and by express words,
committed to the Court of Directors, without any reserve for the interference of any other person or persons whatsoever. It was ordered that they should make the inquiry into the origin and justice of these
debts, as far as the materials in their possession ena
bled them to proceed; and where they found those
materials deficient, they should order the Presidency
of Fort St. George (Madras) to complete the inquiry.
The Court of Directors applied themselves to the
execution of the trust reposed in them. They first
examined into the amount of the debt, which they
computed, at compound interest, to be 2,945,6001.
sterling. Whether their mode of computation, either
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of the original sums or the amount on compound
interest, was exact, that is, whether they took the
interest too high or the several capitals too low, is
not material. On whatever principle any of the calculations were made up, none of them found the debt
to differ from the recital of the act, which asserted that the sums claimed were "very large. " The
last head of these debts the Directors compute at
2,465,6801. sterling. Of the existence of this debt
the Directors heard nothing until 1776, and they say,
that, "although they had repeatedly written to the
Nabob of Arcot, and to their servants, respecting the
debt, yet they had never been able to trace the origin
thereof, or to obtain any satisfactory information on the
subject. "
The Court of Directors, after stating the circumstances under which the debts appeared to them to
have been contracted, add as follows: -" For these
reasons we should have thought it our duty to inquire
very minutely into those debts, even if the act of Parliament had been silent on the subject, before we concurred in any measure for their payment. But with the positive injunctions of the act before us to examine into their nature and origin, we are indispensably
bound to direct such an inquiry to be instituted. "
They then order the President and Council of Madras
to enter into a full examination, &c. , &c.
The Directors, having drawn up their order to
the Presidency on these principles, communicated the
draught of the general letter in which those orders
were contained to the board of his Majesty's ministers, and other servants lately constituted by Mr.
Pitt's East India Act. These ministers, who had
just carried through Parliament the bill ordering a
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specific inquiry, immediately drew up another letter,
on a principle directly opposite to that which was
prescribed by the act of Parliament and followed by
the Directors. In these second orders, all idea of an
inquiry into the justice and origin of the pretended
debts, particularly of the last, the greatest, and the
most obnoxious to suspicion, is abandoned. They
are all admitted and established without any investigation whatsoever, (except some private conference
with the agents of the claimants is to pass for an investigation,) and a fund for their discharge is assigned
and set apart out of the revenues of the Carnatic.
To this arrangement in favor of their servants, servants suspected of corruption and convicted of disobedience, the Directors of the East India Company were ordered to set their hands, asserting it to arise from
their own conviction and opinion, in flat contradiction to their recorded sentiments, their strong remonstrance, and their declared sense of their duty,
as well under their general trust and their oath as
Directors, as under the express injunctions of an act
of Parliament.
The principles upon which this summary proceeding was adopted by the ministerial board are stated
by themselves in a number in the appendix to this
speech.
By another section of the same act, the same Court
of Directors were ordered to take into consideration
and to decide on the indeterminate rights of the Rajah
of Tanjore and the Nabob of Arcot; and in this, as in
the former case, no power of appeal, revision, or alteration was reserved to any other. It was a jurisdiction, in a cause between party and party, given to the Court of Directors specifically. It was known that the
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