CHAP. 1783. Debate. Mr. Erskine. Division. 1st December. Debate on the Speaker leaving the chair. Celebrated Mr. Fox had blamed the temerity of the Company in producing their accounts in a state exceedingly fallacious; and had asked what indignation and censure was due to those who had dared thus to trifle with truth, decency, and the dignity of the House? What, then, should be said of a minister who ventured to rise in his place and impose on the House a statement every way absurd and erroneous? He moved an adjournment till the morrow only. In the debate which ensued, and which engaged the House till half-past four in the morning, the principle of the bill, the state of India and of the Company, the motives of those who promoted and opposed it, their political consistency, their hopes, fears, expectations, and designs, with many other topics, were brought into discussion. The required delay, although so very moderate, was strenuously resisted; Mr.Erskine, observing that it would be vain for the House to adjourn until those gentlemen had informed themselves who seemed to set all information at defiance, asked Mr. Pitt whether, if he were allowed to efface all the figures in the account, and substitute any others, he would, as a man of honour, say that any possible state of the Company's affairs which he could form out of figures would bring him round to vote for the bill. not, it was a palpable, self-evident plan of procrastination, to desire time to know whether those observations on the accounts were true, which, whether true or false, he could not pretend to say would change any one of his ruling sentiments on the subject. If The division, the first which had occurred on the bill, gave the minister a majority of one hundred and nine*. A discussion of equal length occurred on the question that the Speaker should leave the chair, and the House resolve itself into a committee. It was rendered memorable by one of those astospeech of Mr. nishing effusions of eloquence by which Mr. Burke has elevated the character of the British senate, and Burke. * 229 to 120. adorned the pages of British literature. It is impossible by any extract to give an adequate idea of this composition*, in which deep research, accurate information, and enlarged general views and principles, are equally conspicuoust. 66 66 66 'I am concerned," he said, "to perceive the spirit "and temper in which the debate has been pursued on "one side of the House. The declamation of the "gentlemen who oppose the bill has been abundant "and vehement; but they have been reserved, and “even silent, about the fitness or unfitness of the plan to "attain the direct object it has in view. By some gentlemen it is taken up (by way of exercise, I presume) as a point of law, on a question of private property "and corporate franchise; by others it is regarded "as the petty intrigue of a faction at court, and argued merely as it tends to set this man a little higher, or "that a little lower in situation and power. All the "void has been filled up with invectives against coali"tion, with allusions to the loss of America, with the "activity and inactivity of ministers. The total silence "of these gentlemen concerning the interest and well"being of the people of India, and concerning the in66 terest which this nation has in the commerce and revenues of that country, is a strong indication of the "value which they set upon these objects." 66 66 The Charter under consideration could not, like Magna Charta, be denominated one of those rights which are to be held sacred, but merely as one to establish monopoly and create power. 66 "I admit," he said, " to the East India Company "their claim to exclude their fellow-subjects from the commerce of half the globe; I admit their claim to "administer an annual territorial revenue of seven mil"lions sterling; to command an army of sixty thousand "men; and to dispose of the lives and fortunes of thirty See it at length, Burke's Works, 8vo, vol. iv. p. 3; Hansard's Debates, vol. xxiii. p. 1312. + It is described by an author,-whose impartiality may be questioned, but whose ability to form a judgment cannot,-as a speech which could admit of no improvement, and required no amendment. Dr. Parr: Preface to Bellendenus, Works, vol. iii. p. 157; Beloe's translation, p. 89. СНАР. LV. 1783. CHAP. 1783. 66 66 66 66 "millions of their fellow creatures. But all political power which is set over men, and all privilege claimed "or exercised in exclusion of them, being wholly arti"ficial and a derogation from the natural equality of mankind, ought to be exercised ultimately for their "benefit. Such grants, for the mere private benefit of "the holders, are, in the strictest sense, trusts; and it is "of the very essence of every trust, to be rendered ac"countable, and even totally to cease when it substantially varies from the purposes for which alone it could "have a lawful existence. He then described accurately the extent and population of the British dominion, held either in the Company's name, or in the name of princes absolutely dependant upon them, as extending from the mountains that separate India from Tartary to Cape Comorin, that is, twenty degrees of latitude. Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, with Benares (now unfortunately in their immediate possession) form a territory considerably larger than France. Oude, with its dependant provinces, is not a great deal less than England. The Carnatic, with Tanjore and the Circars, is considerably larger than England; and the whole of the Company's dominions, comprehending Bombay and Salsette, amounts to two hundred and eighty-one thousand four hundred and twelve square miles; a territory larger than any European dominion, Russia and Turkey excepted. The population he rated at thirty millions; more than four times the number of persons in the island of Great Britain. Our interventions in the tenure of lands, and in authorities, had been mere sales. In Bengal, Surajah Dowlah was sold to Mir Jaffier, Mir Jaffier to Mir Cossim, and Mir Cossim to Mir Jaffier again. The succession to Mir Jaffier was sold to his eldest son; another son of Mir Jaffier, Mobarech ul Dowlah was sold to his step-mother. The Mahratta empire was sold to Ragobah, and Ragobah was sold and delivered to the Peishwa of the Mahrattas. Both Ragobah and the Peishwa were offered to sale to the Rajah of Berar. Scindia, the chief of Malva, was offered to sale to the same Rajah, and the Subah of the Decan was sold to the great trader Mahomed Ali, Nabob of Arcot. To him they also sold Hyder Ally and Mysore. They twice sold the kingdom of Tanjore. To the same Mahomed Ali they also sold at least twelve sovereign princes called polygars; but, to keep things even, the territory of Tinnevelly, belonging to their Nabob, they would have sold to the Dutch; and to conclude the account of sales, their great customer, the Nabob of Arcot himself, and his lawful succession, had been sold to his second son Amir ul Omrah. 66 66 He next adverted at great length to the breach of treaties and abuse of the right of war and peace, and was thus led to animadvert on the wealth acquired by these events, and the persons who gained it. "There " is nothing," he said," in the boys we send to India, "worse than in the boys whom we are whipping at school, or that we see trailing a pike or bending over a desk at home. But as English youth in India "drink the intoxicating draught of authority and "dominion before their heads are able to bear it, and "as they are full-grown in fortune long before they are ripe in principle, neither nature nor reason has an opportunity of exerting itself for remedy of the "excesses of their premature power. Their prey "is lodged in England, and the cries of India are given to seas and winds, to be blown about, in every breaking up of the monsoon, over a remote and "unhearing ocean." 66 66 66 66 The impassioned orator afterward reviewed the whole government of Mr. Hastings in glowing terms of censure, asking whether, with this map of misrule before them, they could, on any principle of pretended public faith, consent to leave the management of those countries in the Company's hands. He censured, with much asperity, their acts with respect to Mr. Hastings, Colonel Monson, General Clavering, and particularly Mr. Francis; accused them of habitual treachery in the use of reward and punishment, and of contempt of public opinion, and disregard of the orders of the House. "Even since the beginning of this session," he said, they have again made it a request to their favourite 66 CHAP. LV. 1783. CHAP. 1783. Division. 66 66 66 "and your culprit, to keep his post, and thanked and applauded him, without calling for a paper to afford a light on the transaction, or taking a moment's time to "consider, or even to understand, the articles of the "Mahratta peace. I therefore conclude," he said, “ that "this body, being totally perverted from the purposes "of its institution, is utterly incorrigible, both in "conduct and constitution; power ought to be taken out "of their hands, on the same principles on which have "been made all just changes and revolutions of govern"ment since the beginning of the world. It has been "said, if you violate this charter, what security has the "charter of the Bank, or of London? I answer, in the "like case they have no security at all-no-no security "at all. If the Bank should, by mismanagement, fall "into a state similar to that of the East India Company, "or if the City of London had the means and will of destroying an empire, and of cruelly oppressing and tyrannizing over millions of men as good as them"selves, the charter of the City should prove no sanc"tion to such tyranny and oppression." 66 66 Having answered many objections to the bill, and shewn the good effects to be expected from it, Mr. Burke, in his happiest manner, pronounced, at considerable length, an eulogy on the character of Mr. Fox; and, in conclusion, said, “ I have spoken what I think, and what I feel, of the mover of this bill. An honourable friend of mine, speaking of his merits, was charged with having made a studied panegyric: I don't know what his was; mine, I am sure, is a studied panegyric, the fruit of much meditation, the result of the observation of nearly twenty years. For my own part, I am happy that I have lived to see this day; I feel myself overpaid for the labours of eighteen years, when, at this late period, I am able to take my share, by one humble vote, in destroying a tyranny that exists to the disgrace of this nation, and the destruction of so large a part of the human species. At the conclusion of the debate, which was extremely animated, and in which many members spoke, |
