The motives for such a decision were singular and various. One was, that the nabob's debts might be no longer kept a-float. But how this discharge would prevent that consequence, he was at a loss to conceive. However, he owned himself struck by what follows: "When we consider how much the final conclusion of this business will tend to promote tranquillity, credit, and circulation of property in the Carnatic:" All this he perfectly understood. It was precisely in the spirit of the general character which had distinguished the conduct of the company's servants in the Asiatic settlements. This order would naturally prove to them satisfactory, and consequently promote tranquillity. It would have a similar effect, he presumed, on circulation, in the Carnatic, as it would take out of the nabob's pocket, and put into that of the company's servants. They added, "When we consider that the debtor concurs with the creditor in establishing the justice of these debts consolidated in the year 1777, into gross sums, for which bonds were given, liable to be transferred, different from the original creditors." On this it was concluded, that no good can result from an unlimited investigation. This was dispatching the wisdom of the legislature in a very summary way, as it was saying in effect We know the act of parliament says so and so; but this also we know, that the provision is useless and unnecessary. At the same time they order that complaints which they limit, be admitted, these are directed to originate only with the nabob himself, or such of his other creditors as by this arrangement may deem themselves injured. These were substantial reasons in abundance, which would always render the nabob's complaints sufficiently accommodating, not to create any alarm or uneasiness whatever; but the creditor who was most injured, and who had actually preferred her complaint, was the East-India company. Her case was well known to the public, and especially to every individual who had made her affairs any object of his attention; and he virtually barred the claim of these debts, even supposing it valid.

This was the purport of the motion, to impress the House with the absurdity and injustice of the preference which had been given to private, where public interest was so notorious and urgent. He then stated the consequences of this false step; it went to an implicit acquiescence with all the fraudulent conduct which had brought so much disgrace upon this country in that part of the world: he would not impute any bad intention to the gentlemen of the board; but the decision which, on this very pressing matter, had been come into, filled him with astonishment and concern: he knew not how to account for it; but it would undoubtedly be considered

abroad as encouraging and patronising all those mal-practices and peculations for which the servants of the company have been so much blamed. It did not adopt the maxim in so many words, but, however, indulged the principle; it would prove the truth of his observations by its future operations, as it would furnish a precedent to men of a certain description, which would have all the force of a statute, and which it would not be very easy for any board of direction or control henceforth to dispute, Such, he said, were the consequences which this inauspicious measure, both for India and Great Britain, seemed calculated to effect; it therefore seemed, in his mind, a very proper subject for the interference of the House; it was an instance which plainly shewed how wisely the power of cognizance was lodged by the constitution in the House of Commons.

Concerning that part which respected the crop of 1775, it was evident that the rajah of Tanjore paid the nabob of Arcot the arrears and the tribute, with the interest due thereon; but it was a matter of justice, that the man who sowed should reap, or that he should have the profits of his own harvest. The right honourable gentleman then entered again on the first topic of his argument, and added a farther observation on the debts of the nabob of Arcot. He said, that the faction, though sometimes supported by the directors, and sometimes by the proprietors, yet still kept up their friendship for him; perhaps it might be their fear of him, or of the servants in India; for it was clearly evident, that the orders of the company were never enforced, and that the culprits were not brought to justice, even by the most factious of the proprietors, or the most daring of the directors; nor did they attempt to have any legal authority whatsoever, under which it was their duty to act. The board of control was now suspected, and there were certain papers in the possession of his majesty's ministers, which would either bring home the criminality, or exculpate those suspected persons. The point thus lying between the directors and the board, it was certainly become an easy matter for government to prove to the House whether those charges were founded in falsehood or in truth, and whether the spirit of the act of parliament had been attended to, and its letter obeyed. It was, in fact, the only mode by which the legislature could arrive at an authenticated information, whether those into whose hands they had given the business of India had betrayed their trust or not. It was the duty of the House to watch those servants whom they had employed, and to judge of the measures which were adopted by the fruit they produced; as it was evident, that nothing but the most

effectual and coercive acts would tend to do any service in India. The gentlemen in administration knew this to be the fact, and they confessed it when their bill was brought into parliament. He begged, therefore, of the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Dundas) to come forward and defend his measures, on producing the papers called for. But he trusted that, as the subject was a matter of consequence to the kingdom, he should not be answered by invective, and told, that which you have done is worse than what we have done."

He requested the House to consider, that if his bill had any merit, which could not be controverted even by sophistry itself, it was the merit of making the House judges in all cases, and hiding no transaction whatever from the view of the public: this undoubtedly was, and in the end it would be found so, the only way of truly governing the people of India. Darkness was the shelter under which all the iniquities of the servants of the company were hid; and to make visible the conduct was the true method of correcting their vices, and doing justice to the public. A detail of India business, it was true, came but with a bad prospect of attention at present. Men's minds were taken up on much more important subjects. Their dearest interests, their most valuable privileges were now at stake, and engrossed their principal thoughts; but still it must be recollected, that India, though removed at a great distance, yet, in its present state, and from the late alarming accounts of the system of plunder, peculation, and resistance to legislative authority continuing, it became a matter of importance. If the papers which he should call for were produced, he pledged himself not to shrink from the inquiry; and that he would so far do justice to the public, to the directors, to the board of control, to his majesty's ministers, and to the servants of the company, as to obtain from the House a decision which should either exculpate or criminate. Should it prove an acquittal, then all the glory, and let them have it, would be to the framers of the late bill; and surely if the inquiry was not dreaded, the motion he intended to make would be acceded to. There was a large arrear of authentic intelligence due to the House, and the public looked for it. They looked for it, because a kind of jealousy arose on account of the many eager, warm, anxious, and zealous supporters of the servants of the company in India, who sat in parliaBut this phalanx did not deter him, nor was he afraid of the present House of Commons. Five hundred and fiftyeight gentlemen would not be deaf to reason, nor shut their eyes and their ears to truth. They would listen to the voice

of truth; they had done so on a late occasion, and he had no fears for their determination on the present. However partial they might be to the general politics of the minister, yet on particular occasions, they would not fail to recollect that they were the representatives of the people.

He again repeated his intreaties that ministers would open their minds, judge by the merits of the case, and therefore not withhold that information from the House, which it was so very requisite the House should have. There was a connection between the public revenue of this country and the India company, which bound us in such a manner to pay their debts, that common honesty required ministers not to deny those papers, which were necessary to prove what had been done in consequence of the act passed in the last session of parliament. He begged that the House would look to the debt of two million and a half, due to the Bombay presidency, which at present was not put into any mode of payment, and the bonds in consequence were so reduced, that they sold at 6ol. per cent. discount; districts indeed had been given as security, but those districts, by the hand of power, were taken away; and the claim of a number of suspicious private creditors were preferred to the public debt, against which there was not any proof whatever, nor even the smallest idea of fraud. This surely was a most serious object of inquiry, and it was a matter which he wished the whole court of directors to hear. The chairman, he observed, was behind him, and it made him happy to find him there, because he could give his opinion whether he thought this new board of control had acted with fidelity or not, to that trust which the House had so confidentially committed to their care. Matters of accounts could not be made too public; and this was an aphorism well known to the House. There were two purposes to which his motion tended, and he wished the House to consider them well-The crimination of the board of control, or an amendment of the act of parliament. He then moved, "That the proper officer do lay before this House, copies or extracts of all letters and orders of the court of directors of the united East India company, in pursuance of the injunctions contained in the 37th and 38th clauses of the act passed in the last session of parliament, for the better regulation of India."

The motion was seconded by Mr. Francis, and supported by Mr. Burke, in a speech, which, notwithstanding the unpromising nature of the subject, was supposed to be one of the most eloquent that was ever made in either House of parliament. The task of opposing the motion and defending the board of control,

was undertaken by Mr. Dundas. On a division, the numbers

PREVIOUS to the

February 22.

to the meeting of the Irish parliament, in January 1785, the British cabinet, in concert with commissioners appointed on the part of Ireland, had formed a plan for regulat ing and finally adjusting the commercial intercourse between the two kingdoms. On the 7th of February, Mr. Orde, the secretary to the lord lieutenant, announced this system to the House of Commons, and on the 11th, a set of resolutions, which he had before laid on their table, were moved and agreed to by the House without much discussion, and without any material alterations. The concurrence of the House of Peers being soon after obtained, these resolutions were immediately transmitted to England, as the proposed basis, on the part of that country, for an equitable and final adjustment. Almost immediately after their arrival, the business was opened in the British House of Commons, by Mr. Pitt, who, on the 22d of February, moved, "That the House will immediately resolve itself into a committee of the whole House, to consider of so much of his majesty's speech to both Houses of parliament, upon the 25th of January last, as relates to the adjustment of the commercial intercourse between Great Britain and Ireland." This motion being carried, the various papers on the table relative to Ireland, were referred to the committee; and the Speaker having left the chair, Mr. Gilbert took his seat at the table. The eleven resolutions agreed to by the Irish parliament were then read as follow:

"Resolved, 1. That it is highly important to the general interest of the British empire, that the trade between Great Britain and Ireland be encouraged and extended as much as possible; and for that purpose, that the intercourse and commerce be finally settled and regulated on permanent and equitable principles for the mutual benefit of both countries.

2. "That towards carrying into full effect so desirable a settle ment, it is fit and proper, that all articles, not the growth or manufacture of Great Britain or Ireland, should be imported into each kingdom from the other, reciprocally, under the same regulation, and at the same duties, if subject to duties, to which they are liable when imported directly from the place of the growth, product, or manufacture; and that all duties originally paid