Substance of the speech of Lord Grenville on the motion made by the Marquis Wellesley, in the House of Lords, on Friday, the 9th of April, 1813, for the production of certain papers on Indian affairs

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UKIVERS//

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OF THE

OP

LORD GRENVILLE,

BY THE

MARQUIS WELLESLEY,

3[n t&e C;ou0e of £.ort>0f
ON FRIDAY, THE 9th OF APRIL, 1313,

FOR THE

PRODUCTION OF CERTAIN PAPERS

INDIAN AFFAIRS.

Hontson t

MISTED BY C. H. REYNELL NO. 21, PICCADILLY.

endeavour to commit to paper from
recollection, and at some distance of time, the
substance of the following Speech, it is prolable
that not only the turn of the expressions, lat
also in some instances the arrangement of the
^ topics may have leen varied : and one or two
points have been introduced, which were ad-
verted to, not in thai Delate, lut in the pre-
ceding discussions connected with the same subject.
But there is no deviation from the general course
of argument and opinion pursued on those occa-
sions.

OF

THE SJPEECH,

MY LORDS,

W HATEVER differences of opinion may ulti-
mately be found among us relative to this great
question of Indian Government and Commerce,
We must all feel ourselves indebted to my Noble
Friend* for the opportunity which he has afforded
us of discussing it in this stage of the business,
when discussion may be truly useful, instead of
postponing out deliberation, as commonly hap-
pens, till the very moment of final decision. We
have also great obligations to him for the lights

* Marquis Wellesley.
B

2

which he has thrown on every part of the question.
No man is better qualified to do so, not only by
his brilliant eloquence, and extensive information,
but also by personal experience, and peculiar local
knowledge, the results of the distinguished part
which he has borne in the Government of British
India. I ought therefore to distrust my own judg-
ment when I profess myself not wholly satisfied
cither by his reasoning, or on the other hand, by
the conclusions with which my Noble Friend
who followed him* has supported the resolutions
now on your table. My attachment, however, to
those principles of public policy, on which my doubts
in this case are founded, and my solicitude to con-
tribute all that is in my power to the right deci-
sion of this great question, induce me to offer to
your Lordships such suggestions upon it as have
presented themselves to my mind. I do so with
no other predilection, but for the cause of truth, with
no other desire, but that my own individual conduct
and, what is much more important, the ultimate de-
cision of Parliament, maybe such as shall best pro-
mote the great interests now exclusively committed
fo our charge.

I , A-. -', , x . ^ ^

tor the Noble Earl to whom I last alluded has,
iii my judgment, with great propriety pointed out
the real nature of the duty which is now cast upon

*

* Earl of Buckinghamshire.

8

us. He has reminded us (I think it has been fre-
quently overlooked in discussing the subject else-
where) that our present deliberation embraces the
whole question of our future relations with India ;
the Government of a vast empire, and the regulation
of the British Commerce with every port and country
between the southern promontories of Africa and
America. It is a deception to speak of any existing
rights, by which this immense and momentous con-
sideration can now be circumscribed. The Charter
of the East India Company was granted only for a
limited period ; for limited periods it has ever since
been renewed, with the express purpose, that at their
expiration the matter should revert entire to the free
disposition and deliberative wisdom of Parliament.
The trusts and duties of that great Corporation, its
commercial and its political monopolies, will all
expire together, on the lapse of the term for which
they were created. All public right, all public in-
terest in the subject will thenceforth devolve On the
British Legislature, exercising an unrestrained but
sound discretion ; bound by no previous grant, fettered
by no existing law, and having regard only to the
principles of Moral Duty, and to the rules of a wise
Policy and enlightened Government.

-i-f ' rt>it ff ."Hwqqs v/ou i.«/n •> f

On precedents we can here have no reliance.

The situation is new ; the subject on which we are to

legislate knows no example. Our former measures

would be deceitful guides. They were experiments,

B2

not always successful, and at the best calculated only
for limited duration ; never permanent, nor ever
meant for permanence ; temporary in their nature,
and continually varying with the progressive varia-
tions of our interest and power in a country, where
our situation has never yet been stationary. To the
extent, and to the condition of our present Asiatic
empire, they appear to me utterly inapplicable. And
so far from wishing with my Noble Friend* (who
opened this discussion) to perpetuate those anoma-
lous and imperfect arrangements, I am persuaded that
we are not yet arrived at the period when any final
regulation on the subject can safely be established.
Whatever we may now do, I deprecate the idea of
placing it out of the reach of revisal. I object even to
that part of the Resolutions on your table, which would
establish them, by an irrevocable compact, unchange-
able for twenty years. Twenty years would at any
time be much too long a period for farming out the
commerce of half the, globe, and the sovereignty of
sixty millions of men. Those who advised the last
renewal of the Charter had ample reason, during its
continuance, to regret that they had placed out of
the hands of Parliament so considerable a portion of
the national interests. How much more inexcusable
would such an error now appear, when the events,
not of the next twenty years, but of the next twenty
months, may be decisive of the whole fate and for-
; -A » .-••!=,. : .:> on efitf.i'-'

Marquis Wellesley.

tunes of the British Empire? This improvidence, I
trust, we shall avoid. Whatever plan we now adopt,
all men must surely admit the necessity of limiting
it to the return of Peace, to be then re-considered
with reference to the final arrangements both in India
and in Europe, of that important and decisive sera.

With respect to our present measure, temporary as
I think it ought to be, permit me to observe, that
both the Resolutions proposed by the King's Minis-
ters, and the speech of my Noble Friend, able and
eloquent as it was, appear to me, I speak it with
deference, to labour under one fundamental and
radical defect. They have both, I think, treated as
principal, what is in its nature subordinate ; both
considered as secondary, what is in truth the primary
and paramount object for the consideration of Parlia-
ment. The plan which is on our table sets out with
a pledge for the maintenance of the East India Com-
pany, as a fit instrument for administering the Com-
merce and Government of India ; and the very first
Resolution continues to this exclusive Corporation,
in one sweeping grant, and by the most comprehen-
sive words of reference, all the privileges and all the
powers which it before enjoyed, and which are not
specially enumerated in the succeeding exceptions.
This seems to be regarded as the leading question
which we are first to decide. All other matters are
left for subsequent consideration. To the same point
also my Noble Friend's arguments were all directed ;

aqd every part of the extensive information which he
gave us on the subject of our Indian interests, was
stated always with reference to the renewal or discon-
tinuance of the Company's authority. To me it
appears, that we should first determine the character
of the duty which we undertake, and the general
objects which we seek to attain ; and that having
established these, we shall then more properly enquire
by what course of conduct such purposes should be
pursued, and by what instruments they may be best
accomplished. This remark, if it applied only to
the form in which the subject is brought before us,
or to the logical arrangement of the discussion, would
be a minute criticism, unworthy both of the place
and the occasion. But it affects, in truth, the very
essence of this proceeding. If the interests of the
East India Company, its privileges, and its monopo-
lies, are really the first objects of our care, the pri-
mary concern in this deliberation, let that principle
govern our resolutions. But if there is a preferable
and higher duty, which we must first discharge, let
us also first acknowledge and declare it ; disguising
neither from ourselves nor from the world the prin-
ciples in which it originates, and the nature of the
obligations which it imposes.

.?i{u;;^ •}.<:- L;:»K •^i-.jMii <>iiJ .in [>c>.

Consider, then, the relation in which we stand to

jndia. The British Nation is now sovereign in that
country. To the Imperial Crown of this United King-
dom, whatever we there possess of interest, terri-

tory, or dominion, is of right annexed. To argue
the fact of the British Sovereignty in India would be
an insult on the understanding of my hearers. To
ask whether any territory, dominion, or political au-
thority, in any quarter of the globe, can be con-
quered by British arms, or acquired by British ne-
gotiators, otherwise than to the British Crown, is
simply to ask whether we live under a Monarchy or
a Republic. Our Government knows no regal power
but in the King ; in Him, alone, all Sovereignty is
vested — with Him it indefeasibly resides ; tq be ex-
ercised not by His individual and personal discretion,
as in despe&ic Monarchies, but under the sanction
and limit of the laws, through the channels of His re-
gular Government, and with the advice and consent
of His necessary and constitutional Councils. It is
from this principle alone that we ourselves derive any
authority to make laws for India. No territories to
which the King's Sovereignty did not extend, could,
by any possible pretence, be subjected to the legis-
lative authority of His Parliament.

If this principle be too clear for argument, let us
not therefore think that its assertion is indifferent : it
is, on the contrary, a point of the highest and most
pressing importance. A manly and distinct avowal
of the Sovereignty of the British Crown in India is
the only sure foundation on which our Government
can stand — the only solid principle on which we can
either discharge our Duties or maintain our Rights.

8

Much evil has already arisen from the neglect of this,
essential measure ; much evil to the natives of India,
still more to the British interests in that Country.
Governments of mixed and ambiguous origin — exe-
cutive and judicial functions, flowing from different
sources — military and civil powers not subjected to
the same controul— and armies joined in the same
service, but recognizing distinct command — have al-
ready too much distracted our Indian Empire : they
have repeatedly led to confusion and civil discord ;
they have broken out (I grieve to say it) into mili-
tary resistance and bloodshed ; and if I am not
greatly deceived, their continuance menaces the ex-
istence of our Empire with dangers yet more formi->
dable.

Nor is it only in this view, important as it must
appear to every reflecting mind, that the public as-
sertion of the Sovereignty of the British Grown in
India has become a measure of urgent necessity.
There is no other possible remedy against the dangers
which my Noble Friend has pictured, not more for-
cibly than justly, as resulting from the unexplained
situation of your Government in that quarter of the
Globe, with respect to the other nations of Europe.
We are exhorted by the advocates of the East India
Company to guard against the indiscriminate inter-
course of Englishmen with India ; and some persons
have even considered this danger alone as a sufficient
motive for excluding the subjects of the British

Grown from the Commerce of half the World. Yet
the misconduct of our own people within our own
dominions we may controul, as, we have hitherto
controuled it. But will foreign Nations acknowledge
the same restraints ? Will they submit themselves
to a similar exclusion at the will of a trading com-
pany, claiming despotic Power over that vast Empire,
not as the delegates of their own King, but as the
pretended Ministers of a deposed Mogul, — a feigned
authority, derived from an extinct dominion ? You
know by experience that they will not. The
Peace of Amiens left this matter, unexplained. . I
urged the danger then, with all the earnestness
which it is so truly calculated to inspire. But my
representations of it were light and feeble in com-
parison with those of your Government in Bengal.
The alarm there was instantaneous, the mischief im-
minent. And had not the War been first rekindled
by European interests, the claims and views of France
in India, the lofty pretensions which she derived
from her former transactions, both with the native and
the British Governments, and the determined pur-
pose which she already manifested of re-establishing
in that Country a political and military Power to the
subversion of your own, must in six months have
involved us in renewed hostilities.

What, then, must we now do to avert this evil ? —
Our course is plain. The British Crown is de facto
Sovereign in India. How it became so, it is needless

10

to enquire. This sovereignty cannot now be re-
nounced without still greater evils both to that Coun-
try and to this, than even the acquisition of Power
has ever yet produced. It must be maintained. Let
it, therefore, be found whenever we shall treat for
Peace, not tacitly existing, but openly assumed, and
unambiguously established : it will then rest, at least,
on the same foundation with all the other de facto
Governments created by this great convulsion of the
World. But if we now omit to declare our Right, we
must then negotiate for it ; or if this also be neglected,
we must prepare to meet the evils which recent ex-
perience has taught us to anticipate.
yjii iull .'j-;:gRfl^o1 J>3>fiiir)i£.o y>

In the mean time, that Sovereignty which we he-
sitate to assert, necessity compels us to exercise.
Parliament, in the discharge of its highest functions,
'must now once more give Laws to India ; pronounc-
ing not on any single and separate question of general
or local regulation, but on the whole principle and
frame of Government under which the British Domi-
nion in that Country shall henceforth be administered.
Such is the task which the awful Revolutions of Em-
pire in Asia have now cast upon the British Nation.
What, let me once more ask you, are the Duties
which it imposes ; and what the order in which they
should be discharged ? The very reverse of that in
which, I am sorry to say it, they have hitherto been
most commonly regarded.

Must we not. in the first instance, consult the
Welfare of the Country for which we undertake to
legislate ? Are we not bound, above all other con-
siderations, to provide for the Moral Improvement of
its People, and for their social Happiness ; for the
security of their property and personal freedom ; for
the undisturbed enjoyment of the fruits of their in-
dustry ; for the protection and extension of their
Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce; the peace
and good order of their Provinces ; and the impartial
administration of their Laws ? These are duties
which attach on Government in all its forms ; the
price and the condition of obedience ; sacred obliga-
tions from which no Sovereign Power can ever be
released, due from all who exact, to all who pay
allegiance.

Next to these objects, but far below them in the
scale of Moral Duty, is the attention which we must
also pay to the interests of our own Country, deeply
implicated in this discussion. Nor let us hastily sup-
pose that these duties, however apparently distinct,
are really at variance with each other. Far from it. —
Pursued with sincerity, and on the principles of a
just and liberal Policy, there exists between them a
close connection, a necessary and mutual dependence.
The attachment of conquered Provinces can be se-
cured only by good Government: the resources which
they can furnish to the Metropolis must be propor-
tioned to the Prosperity which they themselves enjoy.

12

How then shall we best discharge these mixed and
concurrent obligations ? What system of British Go-
vernment in India shall carry to its highest pitch of
attainable advantage our connection with those vast
Dominions? In what manner shall it enrich the Me-
tropolis without impoverishing the Province, render
the increase of our own Commerce an extension, not.
a transfer of theirs, and draw from them, without
injury to their Prosperity, a just proportion of Re-
venue, not as a tribute wrung from misery, but as the
willing retribution of Gratitude, for Protection and
good Government, enjoyed in substance and not in
name? By what Laws, what Judicatures, what re-
sponsibility, shall we prevent the oppression of dis-
tant Subjects, submissive to all Power, and incapable,
in the present state of their manners, habits, and opi-
nions, utterly incapable, of political freedom? How
reconcile with their progressive improvement, with
the gradual diffusion of Light and Knowledge, the
deference due to their subsisting institutions ? How
shall we teach them to bless the hour which subjected
them to the British Crown, to venerate as the source
of all their happiness the dominion of a Nation just,
because it is free, careful of the rights of others in
proportion as it is jealous of its own, and displaying
the pre-eminence of superior knowledge in its best
and noblest form, the dignity of superior Virtue ?

For the accomplishment of all these just and ho-
nourable purposes, my Noble Friend is$ I am sure,

13

not less solicitous than myself. Nor would the mag-
nitude of the duty deter him from its discharge. The
labour of research, the difficulty of deliberation, the
hazard of decision, I know he would not shun. But
he hopes to supersede them all by a compendious
and summary proceeding. All, and more than all
that we seek to accomplish may, he thinks, be found
in a measure simple indeed in its proposal, and easy
of execution, were it but equally beneficial in its
result. It is his opinion, that we should re-estab-
lish the now expiring system under which these great
interests have lately been administered. He desires
us to revest in the East India Company, by a fresh
legislative grant, all its former Monopolies, both
commercial and political ; varied indeed in some
inconsiderable particulars, but retaining unaltered all
their prominent and characteristic features. The
whole operation of this System he thinks so great a
practical good, that all other considerations must be

sacrificed to its continuance.

/

' wftKj -oteifJtifJ.- • ottf s:'

To this proposal the King's Ministers do not ac-
cede. They are justly desirous to open a free com-
petition in the Trade of India. They recognize the
irresistible claim of all the Subjects of this Empire
to participate in the Commerce of every part of its
Dominions. They are well apprized, that, to de-
prive India of the resources of foreign trade, would
be to violate our first duties towards that Country,
and to cut off one of the few remaining sources of

14

its Prosperity; and they think with reason that it
would be an indignity as well as an injury to the
British Merchants and, Manufacturers to exclude
them from advantages to which we invite all other
Nations. The Monopoly f>f the China Trade they
Would however, with my Noble Friend, regrant to
the Company; its political functions they would re-
establish entire and unimpaired; and they would
preserve if possible that complicated system under
which it exercises its joint, but as I fear, irrecon-
cilable characters of Sovereign and Merchant. I
speak of their plan as I collect it from these Resolu-
tions, laid upon our table without any comment. I
trust that I cannot have mistaken its leading outlines,
but I sincerely regret that they have not themselves
done more justice to it 'by explaining to your Lord-
ships the Principles on which it is grounded, and the
general views which they have taken of this exten-
sive question.

Such then are the two proposals hitherto submitted
to our consideration. And I am compelled to ac-
knowledge, that as far as I am yet informed, they
both of them appear to me highly questionable. That
of my Noble Friend rests, as I think, on a Policy di-
rectly adverse to all the best established principles of
Legislation and Government. That of the Noble
Lords opposite to me is, I fear, irreconcilably at
variance with itself. I cannot encourage myself to
hope that such competition as they propose can

really so subsist as to deserve the character of a free
Trade, or to ensure its advantages ; a competition
where the whole Government, and Territory, and Re-
venues of India will be thrown into one scale, and in
the other nothing but the unprotected enterprize of
individual adventurers. To the fullest admission of
British skill and capital into the Trade of India, I
readily assent; I desire it for the interests of that
Country, yet more than for our own. 1 applaud the
principle, I rejoice in the attempt ; we owe it to our
own People, we owe it to the Natives of our Indian
provinces ; and every measure which I can persuade
myself is really calculated to give effect to it possesses
a strong recommendation, an irresistible claim to my
support. In the attainment of this great object, it is
my earnest wish to give to the King's Ministers all
possible assistance which it can be in my power to
afford them. Nor do the difficulties of which I am
apprehensive belong to this branch of their proposal ;
they are superadded to it by the other resolutions
with which it is combined.

On this last point indeed I am supported even by
the authority of my Noble Friend who originated
this Debate. There is in this respect a perfect agree-
ment between us. He thinks with me, that the
option must be made between the free and the ex-
clusive System. The advantages of both cannot be
combined. The complicated powers of Governfnettt
and Trade now vested in the Company are, as I fear,

16

more than sufficient to enable it at its pleasure ttf
overwhelm all private enterprize. The free compe-
tition of British merchants in the Trade of India, if
it could really be established, would by a necessity
equally inevitable, as he thinks, incapacitate them
from the discharge of those political functions which
this plan endeavours to continue to them. Such also
appears to be the opinion of the Company itself.
Nor can I differ from them. If then we have really
decided in the very outset of these enquiries, to re-
establish the present Frame of Indian Government, as
already producing all practical and attainable good,
we must make with resolution the sacrifices which
it unavoidably requires. But if your Lordships
should judge that the auspicious moment is ar-
rived for improving all our relations with India, to'
the unspeakable benefit of that Country, and to our
own inestimable profit, you will then undoubtedly
regard the liberation of British Commerce as no in-
considerable feature among the advantages of such a
change.

I have already said, that I wish not to pronounce
definitively on any part of this extensive subject.
This discussion is preliminary in its nature ; I state
my thoughts for enquiry and deliberation, not to
convince others, but to receive information for my
own guidance. But the strong impression of my mind
is, that after having first asserted the Sovereignty of

the Crown over India, our next step should be this —

r

17

To separate its government from all intermixture with
mercantile interests, or mercantile transactions.

The very existence of this blended character of
Merchant and Sovereign, on which our whole Indian
system is now built up, appears to me an anomaly
inconsistent with all true principles of Government,
reprobated by all authority, and condemned by all
experience. No Sovereign, I confidently believe
has ever yet traded to profit; no Trading Company,
I greatly fear, has ever yet administered Government
for the happiness of its subjects.

But all theory and speculation in this case my
Noble Friend decidedly rejects. He will not con-
sent to try it by any general principles. There is
something so singular in the present question, as to
put it beyond the reach of all the ordinary rules of
political wisdom. To what then would he resort ?
To partial views, to temporary expedients, to that
wretched policy which knows no rule of Government
but the supposed convenience of the moment ? Very
different I am certain are his sentiments. He knows,
no man better, that it is in general conclusions, col-
lected by experience and methodized by reason, that
all science invariably consists, and most especially
that science, which has for its object the happiness of
Nations. He knows that in all public councils these
digested and embodied maxims are the true guides
and luminaries by which our course is to be steered;

c

18

that this accumulated treasure of political wisdom \a
the great storehouse of the knowledge of a Statesman,
from which all his practical decisions must ever be
supplied. Its application indeed may be erroneous,
as in what human science, may not just principles be
misdirected ? But shall we therefore tread back our
steps in knowledge, close our eyes against the lights
we have acquired, and exclude from political delibe-
ration all the established principles and all the ele-
mentarv rules of Government ? Better would it be

V

at once to renounce all use of Reason, to submit to
blind chance ourselves, bur actions, and our fortunes,
and with the functions of Legislation to disclaim also
its character and its authority.

But in this case we cannot err. Our conclusion*
are here supported not by speculation only, but also
by experience : the experience not of parallel cases,
but of the very circumstance to which we apply it.
Never before were the unerring maxims of political
(Economy so fully illustrated, as in the history of the
British East India Company.

That great Corporation has now for near fifty years
exercised Dominion in India. Over Countries whose
commerce enriched their predecessors as it before
enriched so many other European Nations. They
possess there all the power and all the instruments of
Sovereignty ; Governments and Councils, Fleets and
Armies, Allies and Subject-princes : they have an im-

mense territory, Royal tributes, an Imperial revenue.
But have they a profitable Commerce ? My Noble
Friend* who presides over that department has anti-
cipated the question, has more than answered the
enquiry. He has told us, and I can well believe it,
that since the last renewal of their Charter they have
lost on this trade above four millions sterling. Four
millions sterling ! in trading with one of the richest
countries of the East ; a country whose Government
they administer, and whose Commerce they monopo-
lize ! and if at this hour they do in fact realize a
profit on any part of their vast concerns, where only
is that profit found? Not on their Export trade from
England ; that trade is a monopoly, and on that it is
their boast to lose. Not on their Import trade from
India, where they exercise unrestricted Power ; that
trade my Noble Friend has characterised, and the
impression of his statement will not I am sure be
speedily effaced from our remembrance. In China
alone they trade to profit. In China, where they
have no Sovereignty, no monopoly, no preference of
trade, where they have not even the common benefit
of free access. In China, where they are banished
like outcasts to a remote and narrow corner of the
Empire, there to reside under a perpetual quaran-
tine!

But it is not for Commerce that my Noble Friendf

J»"r;*T.'i! •?.

* Earl of Buckinghamshire. f Marquis W«ll«sley.
c 2

20

would re-establish those Commercial Monopolies*
With the nature of Commerce he is too well ac*
quainted : his object is political, He thinks, extra-
ordinary as it must appear, that this Trading Company
is the only instrument through which the King and
Parliament of Great Britain can safely administer
their Indian Empire ! and if he urges us once more
to shut out our merchants and manufacturers from
their best hopes of new and successful enterprise, to
close against them all India, all China, the Indian
Seas, the Eastern Seas, the Pacific Ocean, and the
whole Western side of the great continent of Ame-
rica, extending from the Northern almost to the
Southern Pole, it is not because their competition
would ruin the Commerce of the Company, but be-
cause it would embarrass its Government. So mixed,
so blended, so inseparably embodied, he assures us,
are the jarring and incompatible functions of this
anomalous Institution ! so strange is the necessity of
this unprecedented case, that we must carry on our
Commerce at a loss, in order to govern our Empire

to advantage !

b^ligiftt^ JIG vadl '3V«{**.-- r i »f'~f I -» •»

He compels me then to ask, what is in truth this
practical and experienced good to which all specula-
tive Wisdom must give way ? And he answers me by
an eloquent and splendid enumeration of political
benefits conferred during the last thirty years upon
the Natives of our Indian Provinces. Their general
situation improved, their interests consulted, their

wealth advanced, their coasting trade encouraged, their
landed property made permanent, and their criminal
and civil justice administered on principles more
pure and upright than ever yet were witnessed in
Asiatic Judicatures. I heard him with delight. My
heart warmed at the recital. Not merely because
the person making it had himself borne no small
part in the execution and extension of these noble
works ; not merely because 1 also had the happiness
to concur both in their preparation and final esta-
blishment with men of far more talent and authority
than myself. No, my Lords, my feelings were not
personal. Higher and better were the emotions of
my mind when I looked back to the real source in
which these inestimable blessings had originated. I
called to my remembrance the Wisdom and Justice of
parliament, the public Councils, and the public
Virtues of my country, which had extended them-
selves to the remotest regions of the East, and erected
there to the British character a Monument of imper
rishable splendour,

But the East India Company ! Are we to give
power to them because India has been well govern-
ed J Are we to bind our trade in fetters that they
may exercise political authority ? I have no wish, I
pan have no motive, to speak injuriously of any men;
neither of bodies nor of individuals. But I appeal
to the fact. For near twenty years after the acqui-
sition of the Dewannee, the East India Company

c 3

22

did really administer the Political Government of
India. During that period, scarce five years, scarce
three years can be found, in which the inherent
vices of that form of administration, and the conse-
quent oppression and misery of its subject provinces,
did not forcibly compel the interposition of Parlia-
ment. It would betray the profoundest ignorance of
Men and Governments^ to suppose that this necessity
so long subsisting, so constantly recurring, could
originate in the uniform misconduct of individuals.
The Directors, the Governors, and the Servants of
the Company, in the course of that long period, were
necessarily men of various character ; but the system
jtself was; radically vicious, which vested the Govern-
ment of an Empire in bodies utterly unfit to exercise
any political authority. I say this not merely on my
own conviction ; it is the recorded judgment, the
unanimous opinion of Parliament, formed upon long
investigation, minute enquiry, and mature reflection.
When I first entered into public life, party violence
raged with unusual fury, and the course of events
directed it peculiarly to this question. It was on
this very ground that the Government of the Empire
\va§ disputed between the greatest Statesmen of our
age. Yet in on,e sentiment all men were even then
unanimous. No one doubted, and after the experi-
ence of twenty years no one could doubt, that the
political direction of India must be transferred from
the East India Company, and placed under the com-
plete controul of the public Councils.

23

Accordingly the Law which passed in 1784, the
source of all these benefits, the very line of demar-
cation from which commences the good Government
of India, did actually commit this whole authority
to Commissioners appointed by the Crown. In the
Public Board so constituted by the wise and neces-
sary interposition of Parliament, and continued
with slight variations by succeeding Acts, has ever
since resided a complete and effective superintend-
ance over every part of the political Affairs of India.
That Government has still been exercised indeed in
the name of the Company, as the Company also has
used the name of the Asiatic Powers whose misrule
it superseded ; but both the controul and the responsi-
bility of all political Measures are vested by Law in
the public Servants of the State. The Commerce
and the patronage of the Company are alone except-
ed ; points of which I shall presently speak ; but on
all other matters which any way concern the public
Interests in India, it is the office and the duty of the
King's Commissioners at tfyeir discretion to exercise
a complete and unqualified political Controul. It is
their function to erase, to add, to alter, and in the
default of the Directors to originate those instructions
which by Law the Public Servants in India are bound
implicitly to obey.

If therefore praise be justly due, as I trust it is, to
those who for the last thirty years have administered
these high interests, to the Servants of the State, both

24

here and in India, that praise is due, and most es-
pecially due to one individual, a Noble Viscount*, of
whose memory no man in treating of any Indian question
ean justly speak but with sincere and merited respect.

.

What a delusion would it then be to relinquish any
just hopes of extending the Commerce of our Country
from the fear of embarrassing the Company's political
functions ! If you really wish that Body to reassume
the political Government of India, you must not
continue but repeal the present Laws ; you must re-
place them not by the successive improvement of
new provisions, in principle still more liberal, in ope-
ration still more beneficial, but by a recurrence to
exploded errors, by the re-establishment of that fruitful
source of all the former evil, by the re-enactment of
that ruinous and oppressive System, which thirty years
ago was unanimously annulled by Parliament.

The Company's commercial concerns, it is true,
do not fall under the superintendance of the King's
Commissioners ; in the loss or profit which have ac-
crued on these, in their prosperous or adverse issue,
the Board of Controul has had no participation.
And it is singular that my Noble Friend who is
desirous of maintaining, as He expresses it, to the
Company those functions of which they have long
been substantially divested, would at the same time
by a new interference with their Authority extend
rho-j .o-'*J?srfj ioVifs^'-MlJ QJ,{*:^:^ffc rk::i a&dr
* Lord Melville.

25

the controul of the King's Government to the only
branch of their affairs of which they have hitherto retain*
ecjthe exclusive direction. lalways feel pain in differ-
ing from Him on any subject, and most of all on this
where I should so much more willingly defer to hig
authority. But for my own part I object as much
to limit the Power of a Trading Corporation in the
conduct of its own concerns, as to extend it to politi*
cal matters to which it is incompetent. I see as
little reason for placing the Company's Commerce
under the management of Ministers, as for vesting
in its Directors the Government of an Empire, From
this union of Merchant and Sovereign, in any form, my
judgment revolts ; they are characters every where
incompatible ; in a Cabinet as much as in a Trading
Company ; as repugnant to each other at Whitehall as
they can possibly be in Leadenhall-street, or at
Calcutta.

Great stress is laid, however, on the subject of •
patronage, and with great reason. I have never
altered the opinion which I entertained in 1784, that
if the influence which then belonged to the East-
India Company were vested in the Crown, or in any
political party, it must weigh down the balance of
our Government. Much more is this my opinion
now, when the patronage, both foreign and domestic,
of that mighty Corporation, has been unmeasurably
increased. But is there no other course ? la it telf-
evident, that because we fear to give this vast influ-

36

ence to a party, we must therefore vest it in an ex*
elusive Corporation ? Is it so manifestly desirable
to raise up within our own Government, and in the
very heart of its Metropolis, another Government of
more extended influence ? Has the East-India Com-
pany itself been always found quite disconnected with
the political divisions of the State ? or is it absolutely
certain, that in their hands the patronage of India can
never be abused ? Parliament, at least, has decided
otherwise. By the Act of 1784, the whole Com-
mercial patronage did indeed remain with the Direc-
tors ; and with them, large as it is, it must undoubt-
edly be left. It is by far the most considerable source
of the great political influence, of the Company in this
Country; and its abuse, if abuse there is, would in no
way be so well controuled as by the competition of a
free trade. But on the exercise of the political patron-
age, provident and effective limitations are already im-
posed by Law. And it is, as I think, one of the most
important branches of our present deliberation to ex-
amine the nature and effect of these; to ascertain whe-
ther they have, as I am inclined to hope, been on the
whole sufficient for the prevention of abuse ? Whe-
ther they are not still susceptible of improvement in
India ? Whether they are fit to be extended to the
other parts of our Eastern Empire, to Ceylon, to the
Isles of France, and to the Eastern Islands, where
the Establishments are as yet unregulated by Law,
and the patronage of the Crown unlimited ? And
most of all to enquire whether it be true, as we are

27

so frequently assured, that these Securities against
abuse are inseparably connected with the present
form of Government in India ; or, whether they
might not, asl confidently believe, be applied with
equal, perhaps with greater efficacy, to the same
service, administered under the Constitutional Au-
thority of the Grown.

Let us then examine the fact. It is well known
how great the influence of the King's Ministers
already is in the appointment of those who are to
exercise the supreme authorities in India, whether
Civil or Military. The reason of the case has here
confronted the strict letter of the Law. And it would,
in my judgment, be far more constitutional that the
responsibility of the nomination should openly attach
on those, who have in almost every instance for thirty
years discharged the duty of selection. But with
respect to the Offices of inferior trust in India, in-
cluding all below the Councils, the general course of
promotion there both in the Civil and in the Military
line has rested, as I apprehend where unquestionably
it ought to rest, with the Governments on the spot.
They are best qualified to discriminate the characters
of those who act under their inspection ; they are
most immediately concerned to reward the merit, to
discountenance the misconduct of those who -are to
execute their orders. Such then, I trust and I be-
lieve, is now the established practice ; and few who
are conversant with the affairs of India will deny, that

28

more inconvenience than advantage is likely to arise
from an occasional interference with it. But un-
doubtedly this power, in itself so considerable, and
administered at so great a distance, cannot be, nor is
it, left without limitation. The Law has done much
to remove the opportunity and with it the temptation
to abuse. By the Act of 1793, fixed classes and grada-
tions of Office have been established in India, of rank
and value proportioned to the seniority of those who
alone are qualified to hold them. Within these limits
all exercise of Patronage is restrained, and the effec-
tive operation of this Principle has been considerably
extended by a judicious but perhaps still imper-
fect separation of the lines of Civil Service, But
by far the most important provision, without which
no other could be effectual, is found in those clauses
of the Act of 1784, which corrected the aJbuse of
appointing to high stations in India persons new to
that Service. No Office under the Government of our
Indian Empire can now be conferred except upon its
regular Servants, sent out in early youth, and trained
to superior trust by the correct discharge of subordi-
nate employments. When your Lordships consider
therefore the jealousy with which the execution of
these regulations is watched by a whole Body of Pub-
lic Servants whose prospects depend on their obser-
vance ; and when you further reflect that the persons
among whom the selection must in every case he
made, have originally been named in the outset of
their life by various choice, unmixed with Politics,

29

and from different classes of society, it will no longer
surprise us to be assured that the political divisions
of the State have, under this System, found no ad-
mission into the exercise of Indian Patronage.

But how can it possibly be shewn that these wise
provisions of the Law, this salutary course and grada-
tion of Public Service, depend upon the East India
Company's authority ? The King's Civil Service in
India, should such be its future appellation, would
equally subsist under the same regulations, secured
in the same prospects, animated to the same exer-
tions, protected by the same just interposition of the
Law against the noxious influence of political intrigue,
and deriving only fresh distinction to themselves, and
fresh respect among the Powers of India, from the
stamp and sanction of Royal Authority.

To blend, indeed, as has been sometimes recom-
mended, into one indiscriminate mass the general
Army of the Crown and the local force of India, would
be the inevitable ruin of the Empire. I have no doubt
of it. The Military Patronage of the Crown, already
so great, would then exceed all bounds ; we should
lose the inestimable advantages of local education,
knowledge, and habits, so necessary for the command
of Native Troops : and the unjust partialities, prefe-
rences, and supercessions to which the distant Ser-
vice would infallibly be exposed, must soon break
down its Military Character ; must, too, probably re-

new, I shiidder to pronounce it, the criminal scenes,
which we have so lately witnessed, of Mutiny and
public Rebellion*

Very different is the System on which I am dis-
posed to hope that this valuable Army might be taken
as a distinct force, under the King's immediate pro-
tection and command. Preserving to it all its local
character, and local advantages ; securing to it a
complete parity of rank and promotion with the King's
general Army ; and blending only the Staff of both
into one Body of General Officers, qualified by Com^
mission, as well as by Merit and Service, and called
by habitual and indiscriminate appointment, to exer-
cise command over British Troops in every quarter
of the world. These details however are not for this
day's discussion. It is sufficient for our present pur-
pose to remark, that the rules of gradation now actu-
ally existing in that Service must be broken down,
before it can become* in the hands of the Crown
any more than in those of the Company, an object of
political Patronage. And if these rules are thought
insufficient, let them be strengthened and enforced.
The nature and composition of an Indian Army, its
duties, its rewards, and its prospects, will be found,
by those who consider the question attentively, to ad-
mit and to require rules of succession much stricter
than are consistent with the general principles of
military advancement.

51

It remains then only to speak of the appointment
of the Youths by whom these Services must be re-
cruited : the Writers, as they are called, and the
Cadets, who are to rise successively to the highest
functions of Civil and Military trust. They are now
named by private Patronage ; nor would I ever con-
sent to vest this influence in the King's Ministers.
Not merely because it is itself greatly too large to be
so given without necessity, but much more because
all possible security for the due exercise of Patronage
in India depends on the disconnection of the great
Body of the Public Servants there from the domestic
Parties in our State. But is it therefore necessary
that these appointments should be made by the East
India Company ? Or does not the very same prin-
ciple apply, though doubtless in a less degree, as an
objection against their exercise of such a trust ? In
whatever hands the Government of India shall now
be placed, it is just, it is necessary, to provide some
new course of impartial, and what is not less impor-
tant, of mixed selection, for keeping up your Civil
and Military Service in that Country. Nor can the
task be difficult. Innumerable are the modes in
which it might be accomplished. The most obvious
course would be, to chuse the young men who are
destined for the Civil Service by free competition and
public examination from our great Schools and Col-
leges : to name the Cadets not by the choice of any
man, but by some fixed course of succession from
the Sons of Officers who have fallen in the Public

32

Service. In this manner would the Patronage of
India, instead of contributing to political influence,
or to private gratification, serve as a reward of merit,
as an encouragement of Valour, Learning, and Reli-
gion, and as an honourable discharge of public Grati-
tude: and the Persons destined hereafter to administer
the Government of Millions would be those only who,
even in their earliest youth, had afforded some pro-
mise of superior talent, diligence, and Virtue.

•

On this branch of the subject your Lordships will
think that I have too long detained you; But it is
only by such details that loose and general assertions
can be brought to issue, that imaginary fears and
groundless prejudices can be dispelled. It must I
think be clear to every one, that the apprehensions
entertained on this point are of that description.
Your Lordships may doubt on other grounds whe-
ther or not to separate the Commerce from the Go-
vernment of India, This at least is certain, that their
union contributes nothing to the security of the Bri-
tish Constitution.

fu ,J*9bofil 3<ll '*• ;; f>i':(i.-"->,

But is it compatible with the Prosperity and good
Government of your Indian Provinces, or with that
free competition in their Trade which our Fellow
Subjects claim on grounds justly pronounced irre-
sistible? For these are the questions which we are
now to examine, and very closely are they connected
with each other.

33

What is then the true nature of this Union, so often
described to us as indissoluble? What necessary,
what real connection subsists between functions so
different in their character and object, and which in
every other instance we always find so carefully dis-
criminated? The Commercial and political accounts
of the Company have, indeed, long since been blended
into one texture, so complicated in its fabric, so arti-
ficially and intricately interwoven* that in their pre-
sent form, the separation is perhaps impracticable.
After long investigation the Committee of the House
of Commons, whose Report is on your Table, judged
it impossible that they ever should be unravelled.
And that Report accordingly has presented to our
view not an Account but an Estimate of profit and
loss on the Commerce of the Company since the last
renewal of the Charter. An Estimate of the future
is a thing familiar to all our minds, but an Estimate
of past transactions, an Estimate of matters of account,
an Estimate of commercial dealings long since closed,
has little to recommend it but its singularity. Let
not however this remark be misunderstood as applied
in any invidious sense. I have no such meaning;
the fault is in the system, not in the individuals, who
conduct it according to the forms which they have
found established. But no real necessity can exist
for their continuance. In whatever manner your
Lordships shall finally arrange the great outlines of
Indian Government, this confusion of account I

34

have no doubt you will prevent in future. Should
the Resolutions now on our Table be adopted, and
much more should you agree with my Noble Friend's
proposal, you will undoubtedly make it imperative
on this great trading Corporation to keep clear and
distinct accounts of commercial loss and gain, un-
mixed with any other source of receipt or payment.
This is expected from every just trader even in his
own concerns, it is the bounden Duty of all who
conduct Commerce in trust for others.

But 1 have already said that in my view of the sub-
ject we are called upon to go much farther: to sepa-
rate not merely the accounts, but the dealings ; and
to discriminate the Exchequer from the Counting
House in India, not on paper only, but in practice,
and as widely as they always are discriminated in
every other well ordered Government. By one of
the Resolutions now upon your Table it is directed
in substance, that the Public Revenues of the State in
India, after defraying the charges of Government and
interest of debt there, shall next be applied to the pur-
chase of the Company's investment. And it is this ap-
propriation of Revenue to Trade which forms, underthe
present circumstances, the principal link of connection
between the Company's political and its commercial
character. To its continuance therefore my Noble
Friend, who wishes the permanence of the present
System, naturally sees no objection; but I must
confess it is of all the provisions of the plan before us,

35

that, to which I should with most difficulty assent.
I know not how to reconcile it with either of the
objects which we seek to accomplish ; it seems to
me equally adverse to the good Government and
prosperity of our Provinces, and to the just claims of
the British merchant to a free participation in their
Commerce. The limits of this discussion will not
admit of my entering at large into this extensive
question. Some other opportunity may possibly be
afforded for its detailed examination. In such an en-
quiry it will be necessary to trace through all their
different stages, the course and operation of an invest-
ment provided by issues from the Public Treasury in
India, and sold to realize a remittance to the Com-
pany in Europe. One striking feature occurs in the
very outset of the transaction. It is that to which
my Noble Friend adverted as affording in his view a
gratifying and satisfactory proof of the advantages re-
sulting to your Indian Subjects from a Government
which combines the functions of Merchant and Sove-
reign. He reminded us that for the very purpose of
manufacturing the Cloths of which the Investment is
afterwards to be composed, advances are in the first
instance made to the Weavers from the public Trea-
suries in India. I own I was surprised to hear this
practice relied on as beneficial to the Country. It
may have become necessary. I do not deny it.
But in that case how much must we abate of the
confidence which we should all so gladly have
reposed in the glowing representations of Indian

D 2

36

prosperity ! What, let me ask you, what is the real
condition of an Empire whose industry is supported
only by advances made from its Revenues ? In Coun-
tries impoverished and exhausted by a long course of
public calamity, and in those where no commercial
capital has ever yet grown up, Commerce I am well
aware is sometimes carried on solely by the credit
and resources of the exporting Merchant. And in
those cases a gradual accession of wealth will, in the
ordinary course of trade, accrue to the nation which
thus attracts the capital of others ; and the very evil
itself, such are the beneficent dispensations of Pro-
vidence, will finally remedy the distress in which it
had originated. But how widely different from this
is the case where the capital which sets to work the
industry of a People, is furnished only from the
Taxes which they pay : where the Sovereign, Him-
self the exporting Merchant, sends out their manu-
facture without return; Himself the internal trader,
purchases it only from their own resources; Himself
the Master Manufacturer, maintains the Artisan at
the cost of the Labourer, and claiming to be himself
also the paramount Proprietor of the Soil, actually
collects in kind the raw material in payment of
his territorial Revenue. By what part of such a
Trade can the Country profit ? What freedom, what
security, what competition can exist in Commerce
so conducted? What health or vigour in the commu-
nity which thus draws from its own veins the only
nourishment by which the vital circulation is main-

37

tained r We may hope indeed, I speak it not in flattery,
but in the sincere conviction of my heart, thatthespirit
which pervades our Indian Service, the liberal and en-
lightened principles on which the public interests are
there considered, and the anxious solicitude displayed
on every occasion for the prosperity of the People whose
Government we administer, do afford in the execu-
tion of this System every possible alleviation which
from its nature it is capable of receiving. Nor am I
unapprized that under still greater discouragements
than these, such is the elastic force of human indus-
try, when secured in Peace and protected by Law,
the population, the products, and the wealth of any
country will increase : and most especially of one so
highly favoured in soil and climate. But the system
itself, unless I greatly misconceive it, is fruitful only
in evil. It exhibits the hand of Government not
fostering the improvement of its people, but press-
ing on their industry in every stage, interfering with
all their occupations, and meeting them in every
market with the public purse. It raises and depresses
arbitrarily the sale of their produce and manufactures,
by transactions too large for counteraction, too un-
certain for private speculation; founded on no just
combination of mercantile adventure, but regulated
solely by principles of political convenience, the state
of the Public Treasury, and the estimated increase or
diminution of the National Expenditure.

I know indeed that a portion of the Revenues of

38

the State in India must be remitted to this Country,
Some contribution perhaps we may hereafter expect
from thence to the general expences of the Empire ;
but for this I think we should not be impatient ; the
prosperity of a dependent Province we ought to value
far beyond its Tribute. Present provision must how-
ever be made for the interest and gradual reduction
of political Debts, contracted in that Country, and
transferred to England under the sanction of the
King's Commissioners, and the authority of Parlia-
ment. We must also secure the due payment of
allowances granted in retribution of Public Service,
and the means of defraying regularly other charges of
various descriptions which must be incurred at home
for purposes of Indian Government. These no doubt
are obligations binding on the Sovereign of India ;
and my Noble Friend, while he attaches that charac-
ter to the East India Company, is justly apprehensive
pf any competition which could interfere with their
punctual discharge.

The speculations of private Traders, he says, would
anticipate the Company's Sales, derange their esti-
mated Receipts, and expose their Public Credit to
great hazard, I answer, that if the separation of
Government and Commerce were duly made, this
difficulty would cease at once. Against commercial
disappointment, commercial prudence would pro-
vide, and no man would propose to burthen the Com-
pany with the expences of Indian Government, if

39

they no longer disposed of its resources. But let us
suppose the contrary decision taken. Let Parliament
determine still to administer our Indian Empire in
the name of the Company, and under their ostensible
authority. The case will then be different ? Un-
doubtedly it will. To them, on their account, and
to support their payments, these Remittances must
then be made. I admit it. For these purposes they
will represent the Government of India. But it will
not follow of necessity that the Remittances must
even then be made through their investments. We
may still ask, what would in truth be the most pro-
fitable mode of conducting these transactions ? We
may enquire on what ground it is thought advan-
tageous that any Government, be it the King's or
the Company's, should issue money from the public
Treasury for the purchase of Goods within its own
dominions, to be resold on Government account in
the Country to which its Remittances are to be made ?
If I am not greatly deceived, this is a proceeding not
less objectionable in India than in England. The
principle of the transaction is not varied by its place.
If the Noble Earl* opposite to me should this year be
required to remit a Subsidy to Hamburgh or to Stock-
holm, is this the course he will pursue ? Will he
send his Agents into oar Ports and Manufactories to
purchase the Sugar or the Woollens in which the
Remittance will really be made ? And will he then

* Earl of Liverpool.

40

throw these articles in a mass into the foreign Mar-
ket, solicitous only to realize the sum he wishes to
obtain there, and comparatively indifferent to the
profit or loss of the transaction ? Undoubtedly not.
He will contract as cheaply as he can, and probably
by open competition, with Merchants for their Bills;
through them his whole purpose will at once be
accomplished ; and with them it will remain to com-
plete the transaction, in the successive operations of
their own Commerce, carefully adjusted by private
interest to the perpetual fluctuations of demand. A
similar course, it should seem, may with similar
advantage be pursued in India. The Treasury at CaU
cutta may, like the Treasury at Whitehall, discon-
nect itself wholly from the transactions of the Count-
ing House ; this might be done with equal facility
even though both should be continued under the
same supreme direction. The Company's Trade
would then be conducted on true mercantile prin-?
ciples of profit and loss ; and its Government would,
according to the same maxims of public (Economy
which are pursued by other Governments, make its
Remittances by fair competition on public tender,
open to all alike, in India as in England, to the Com-
pany's commercial Agents, or to the well accredited
Houses of private Individuals.

No doubt such Remittances, like any tributary
payment made in whatever mode, must still in some
degree be detrimental to the prosperity of India. It

41

is a drain for which no return is made but in protec-
tion and good Government. Yet if conducted through
the channel of an open Trade, and limited most scru-
pulously in their amount by a due consideration of
the condition of the Country which supplies them, I
see no reason to believe them inconsistent with its
rapid and permanent improvement. This is the ordi-
nary condition of a dependent and tributary Province.
What I object to is that peculiar course of Policy
which not only exacts the Tribute, but monopolizes
the Commerce : compels the payment and forestalls
the resources which should provide it. And this too
in a Country where few and inconsiderable Offices of
Civil trust, where no Office of Military trust, is as
yet in the hands of the Natives : where the fortunes
realized by all who govern, and by almost all who
trade, are at no distant period remitted also to the
Metropolis. It is indeed this last circumstance which
is, in my judgment, by far the most alarming in the
nature of our connection with India. How the pres-
sure which this produces can ever be resisted is a
fearful consideration.

What a powerful motive does it then suggest to us
for throwing open the Ports and Markets of India to
British Capital and enterprize, for inviting to her Har-
bours the Ships and Merchants of every quarter of
the Globe, and securing to her, as far as Legis-
lation can secure it, the fullest benefit of the most
unqualified Commercial freedom ! If some evil must

43

unavoidably result to her from her subjection to a
distant Sovereignty, let it at least be compensated by
the unrestricted enjoyment of all her local advantages.
The anxiety which I feel (I have already so stated it),
is not for the transfer but for the extension of Indian
Commerce ; not, as some have expressed it, to give
to Englishmen the benefit of that Trade which
foreigners now enjoy, but to give to India the benefit
both of British and of foreign Trade. To administer
those vast possessions on colonial principles would
be impracticable if it were just, would be unjust if it
were practicable. In a British House of Lords I
trust we are not deliberating on the means of ruling
Sixty Millions of Men in sole subserviency to our own,
advantage ; nor if this were our object, should I con-
sider the establishment of colonial principles of Com-
merce and Government in India as in any manner cal-
culated to promote it. But it is as much the moral
duty of a British Statesman to consult the prosperity
of that, as of every other Portion of our Empire. Sub-
jects of the same Sovereign, Members of the same
Community, we submit ourselves with equal obedience
to the same Legislature, and we are entitled to receive
from it the same protection : varied indeed in form,
and adapting itself in its regulations to the differences
of local situation and moral character ; but directed
always with an impartial hand to the same common
object, that of promoting the strength and greatness
of the whole by carrying to the utmost practicable
height the Prosperity of every part.

43

To our own Merchants an open competition is
sufficient. They ask no more. To this, and not to
any exclusive privilege the King's Ministers have
recognized their just pretensions. But still more
powerful is the appeal which reason and nature urge
to us, in behalf of the People of India. Irresis-
tible indeed is their claim to a free Trade limited by
no corporate rights, no national Monopoly : a free
Trade not merely with their Fellow Subjects in
Europe, but also with every friendly Nation through-
out the habitable Globe. It is the glory of our An-
cestors, that in the first moments of recovered free-
dom, in the hour when Commerce and Legislation
were but as yet beginning to dawn on Europe, they
recognized the Rights of commercial interchange
between mankind, proclaimed to foreign Nations a
secure and unmolested intercourse with the Ports
and Markets of our Country, and sanctified this just
and beneficent principle to all succeeding times by
incorporating it into the great Charter of their own
Liberties. By what different rule shall We, their
descendants., in this more liberal and enlightened age,
with Morals humanized by knowledge, and benevo-
lence animated by purer Religion, administer the
interests of this vast Empire, which the unsearchable
decrees of Providence have subjected to our domi-
nion ? Provinces whose industry, and arts, and Com-
merce are far more antient than our own ! Kingdoms
which by the free exercise of these their natural
advantages had already risen to opulence and refine-
ment, while we were yet sunk in barbarism !

44

Never therefore shall I regret, never shall I remem-
ber but with heartfelt satisfaction that my name is sub-
scribed to that Treaty which opened to our East Indian
territories the Commerce of America. I adopted the
measure on the conviction of my own judgment,
and with the full concurrence of the Person* to whose
immediate superintendance the public interests in
India were then committed : nor did he, I am cer-
tain, omit to communicate upon it with those who
had then the principal direction of the Company's
Affairs. But I rest on no participation of Councils ;
submitting myself willingly to the whole responsibility
of that decision ; and were the happy moment now
arrived when Peace shall be restored between two
Nations not more closely united in origin than interest,
I should be found an earnest advocate for re-establish-
ing the Commerce of America with India.

But if we admit these principles we must act
upon them to their just extent. If we are really
desirous of imparting to that valuable Portion of
our Empire the benefit of universal Commerce,
or even if with more limited views we seek only
to open to our own Merchants the advantage of a
Trade with India, we must establish it on equal
competition. This is its natural foundation, on this
alone can it stand secure. Of the effects which the
present system appears to me too likely to produce on
the internal Prosperity of our Provinces, I have already

* Lord Melville.

45

spoken ; very imperfectly indeed, and much more with
the view of suggesting matter for future consideration,
than of entering at this time into the numerous topics
of so large and interesting an enquiry. But for the
full examination of this- great question it will be
necessary that we should also consider in what man-
ner the continuance of that System would probably
affect the transactions of the British Merchant : Lest
in the very moment in'which we recognize his Rights
we should substantially defeat them, and with the
purpose of conferring new benefits upon Him, find in
the result that we have only deluded Him to his
ruin. The extent to which the Americans had
carried on their Trade in India before they were at
War with us, is the example to which the mercan-
tile interests in England look with the greatest con-
fidence. It has been ascribed by the Company to
the peculiar privileges which that People enjoyed
as Neutrals; their opponents attribute it to the
general advantages of private over corporate ma-
nagement. Both causes doubtless contributed to
produce it. But the first has already ceased ; and
were it revived, it could be temporary only, nor
could it in any case apply to the British Merchant.
Will, then, the latter -be sufficient, on the return of
Peace, to protect his private Trade against the ope-
ration of the present System ? I greatly doubt it. I
will not dwell on the unequal footing on which the
Parties will meet in India : The Agents of Indivi-
duals in competition with the Servants of the Sove-

46

reign, and this in transactions with a People by
whom, as my Noble Friend has emphatically told us,
the intimation of a wish from a superior is always
received as a command. I will suppose in the Com-
pany itself, I will suppose in all its Agents, even the
most distant from the seat of Power — a forbearance
almost miraculous — a perpetual self command, sub-
duing all the ordinary feelings and passions of man-
kind. Habit, interest, jealousy, the love of power,
the desire of recommending themselves to their su-
periors, and the wish to assert their own consequence
over importunate Rivals ; let all these be kept in
perpetual subjection. In dealing with the Natives,
even with the Weavers, whose labour the public
Treasury now engrosses by anticipated payments, I
will suppose that the private Trader finds himself
henceforth completely on a level with the Company.
Is he so in the nature of his adventure ? The Com-
pany now trades to loss in India ; the future propor-
tion of that loss cannot even be conjectured by the
Merchant who is to maintain a competition with it.
It depends on no commercial principle. Equally fo-
reign to his speculations, and inapplicable to his
concerns are the resources which supply this losing
Trade, the necessity which compels it, and the ad-
vantages by which it is Supposed to be compensated.
To the Company, the profits of the China Trade
will more than cover the deficiency ; but from that
trade you shut out the Merchant. His trade
with India will be a Trade of barter, for

47

profit on his own commercial capital ; the Com-
pany's a Trade of Remittance ; to be supplied from
the surplus Revenue of the State, aided (as it
has already been in failure of that surplus) by
the public Credit of the Sovereign of India, and
that again upheld by the public Credit of the
British Legislature. To the Merchant a profit is
indispensable, to the Company's Treasury in Eng-
land we might almost call the loss itself a source of
profit ; if it defeats the speculations of their rivals,
and enables them by the sacrifice often per Cent, on
the Remittance of Revenue to realize ninety. In the
Merchant's hands a losing trade must stop ; in the
Company's, it produces as we see no abandonment,
not even a suspension of the concern. For twenty
years thislosingTradehasbeen unremittingly pursued;
for twenty years longer it will most probably continue
if these Resolutions are adopted. Those political ex-
pences of the Indian Government which are trans-
ferred to England, if blended with the Commerce of
the Company, must through its Commerce be dis-
charged : the Revenues of the State in India, if appro-
priated there to the purchase of investment, must by
the sale of investment be realized at home : to meet
the payments already engaged for, the goods must be
sold, if not at profit then at loss ; if not at the pre-
sent rate of loss, then at whatever increased propor-
tion of deficiency may enable the Company to defeat
the competition of their Rivals, and to prove to
future Parliaments that the experiment of a free Trade
with India has been found impracticable !

48

It is true, that under the operation of this system.}
and with much superadded difficulty from restraints
imposed by the Company, a large private Trade has
been carried on through their intervention from India by
British Subjects. A pleasing proof, no doubt, of the in-
compressible force of Commerce wherever the natural
power of demand is suffered to operate, even under
the most harassing restrictions. But no decisive ar-
gument can be drawn from this experience to justify
the expectation of success to separate and unconnect-
ed British adventure. It must be considered that this
Trade also has been a Commerce of Remittance ; car-
ried on not for profit on British capital embarked in
a traffic of mutual return, but to supply to the Public
Servants in India the necessary means of bringing
home their fortunes.

Let it also be remembered, that this principle of
loss is not confined to the Sale of Goods received
from India. It pervades both branches of the Com-
pany's Indian Trade. Their losses on Export from
this Country are not even disguised ; their advocates
proclaim the fact, and boast of it. So habituated are
Men in considering the complicated relations of this
great Company to confound all principles of Govern-
ment and Policy, that this annual waste of Property
is actually urged on their behalf as a sacrifice which
they make to the national interests, and as a claim
upon the gratitude of Parliament. Yet, if loss is
incurred in this case, by whom is it sustained ?
Not by the Directors themselves, that would be

49

wholly unreasonable; not by the Proprietors of India
Stock, they receive, and must receive, their undi-
minished Dividends : The loss falls on the Public
Treasury — on the People of England, whose partici-
pation of Indian Revenue must be still farther post-
poned by every fresh embarrassment in the Company's
Affairs ; and whose Representatives are called upon
year after year to supply in Loans, in forbearances,
and in facilities of Public Credit, the deficiencies of
this uncommercial system.

But let us admit, if it be necessary, the merit of
this proceeding ; its effects will still remain the
same. If, in fact, the export of British Manufactures
is now carried on to loss, with what hope of advan-
tage can we invite our Merchants to participate in it ?
To them it can be rendered profitable only by bringing
back to just commercial principles the commercial
transactions of that great Body with which they must
maintain a competition. Let this be done, and the
result will not be doubtful. Let th«2 vigilance of
self interest, let the skill and enterprise of private
Traders be fairly opposed to the routine of corporate
management, and in that contest we know before-
hand which side will triumph. Remove the restraint
of Law, deliver us from the competition of the
public purse, and the British Merchant will make
his own cause good.

To what extent his Trade may then be carried,

£

50

presumptuous indeed would be the man who shall
now venture to pronounce. On what evidence;
what conjecture, would he found his judgment?
What present knowledge, what past experience of
India could possibly decide that question? No Com-
merce, Trebatius or Quintus Cicero returning from a
Campaign in Britain would probably have informed
the Roman Senate, no Commerce can ever be carried
on with that uncivilized, uncultivated Island, divided
absolutely from the whole world by tempestuous and
unnavigable Seas, and inhabited only by naked and
houseless Barbarians. No Commerce, some sage
Councillor of Henry or Elizabeth might with equal
authority have assured those Monarchs, can ever be
opened with the dreary wilderness of North America,
a land covered with impenetrable forests, the shelter
only of some wandering tribes of the rudest and most
ferocious Savages. Yet of these predictions the folly
might be palliated by inexperience. In the defect of
better knowledge such conjectures might even pass
for wisdom. But what shall we say of those who
deny the possibility not of opening new sources for
the Commerce of mankind, but of enlarging its pre-
sent channels ? Who tell us that the Trade which
we now carry on with India must in all future time
be limited to its actual amount ? Strange and un-
precedented necessity ! which has thus set bounds
to human industry and enterprize, arrested the pro-
gress of commercial intercourse, and by some blast-
ing and malignant influence blighted the natural in-

51

crease of social improvement ! With full and con-
fident assurance may we repel" these idle appre-
hensions. By Commerce, commerce will increase,
and Industry by Industry. So it has ever happened,
and the great Creator of the World has not exempted
India from this common law of our Nature. The
supply, first following the demand will soon extend
it. By new facilities new wants and new desires
will be produced. And neither Climate nor Religion,
nor long established habits, no, nor even Poverty itself,
the greatest of all present obstacles, will ultimately
refuse the benefits of such an intercourse to the na-
tive Population of that Empire. They will derive
from the extension of Commerce, as every other
People has uniformly derived from it, new comforts
and new conveniencies of life, new incitements to
Industry, and new enjoyments in just reward of in-
creased activity and enterprize.

But it is a very narrow view of this question to
confine it to the direct Trade of India with Great
Britain, or even to the whole Commerce, British and
foreign, of that vast Empire. Other objects of still
larger scope, other benefits of still more extended
operation, are necessarily included in this decision.
The first which presents itself, is the Trade with
China. This it is proposed again to place in the ex-
clusive possession of the Company. Such a deter-
mination I should deeply lament, as inconsistent, in
my judgment, both with the principle on which the

E 2

,52

Trade to India is opened, and also with the fair en-
joyment of that concession. It is only by the China
Trade that the Company now profits. Shall we, then,
invite our Merchants and Manufacturers to partici-
pate in loss, to struggle against unproductive pur-
chase and depreciated sale, but where the just gains
of Commerce present themselves shall we there raise
new barriers against their Industry ? Shall we admit
them to the Commerce of our own dominions, be-
cause foreigners must also trade there, and shall we,
in the same breath, refuse to them the liberty of
trading to a foreign Country ? And on what foot-
ing will this refusal place them in respect even
of the Indian Trade ? Is it meant to close against
them all liberty of trading with China ? To fo-
reigners that liberty cannot be refused. Is it in-
tended only to prohibit them from bringing China
Goods from thence to England ? That privilege the
Company is to monopolize. How then can they
maintain a competition in India, either with the
Company or with foreigners, by both of whom su-
perior advantages are enjoyed ? Let us represent to
ourselves two Traders in India, carrying on their rival
business ; not as in this case, the Sovereign in com-
petition with those who reside under his Govern-
ment, a mighty Corporation against an unaided indi-
vidual, the public Exchequer against the funds of
private Trade, let -us suppose them both British
Merchants, in all other respects on a footing of com-
plete equality, except that the one is limited to

43

make all his returns direct to Europe, whale to the
other you give the option of a circuitous Trade
through China. Could it be doubtful on which side
the balance would preponderate ? Especially after
what my Noble Friend has told us of the great
amount and profitable nature of the present Trade of
our Indian Territories with that Country.

But were it desirable to exclude the whole Body
of our Merchants from all share in the Trade with
China, how could this regulation be executed ? Its
object is understood to be the security of our own
Revenue. No man, I am sure, is less disposed than
I am to interfere with that essential object. Could I
be satisfied (hat the safety of the public Revenue
does really require this sacrifice, great as it is I
should still say it must be made. But were it So, I
repeat it, how then could the provision be enforced ?
The Trade of the British Merchant with the Eastern
Islands we know must be free. This admits of no
doubt : to a Monopoly in that quarter the Company
could scarcely urge even the insufficient claim of past
possession. Let us then suppose the private tradet
admitted there to free Navigation and Commerce, bul
excluded by these Resolutions from direct access to
China. What follows ? Every article of the Com-
merce of China which he wishes to procure, its Cot-
tons, its Silk, its Tea, will be brought to him in
Country Vessels to whatever Port he chuses of the
Eastern Archipelago. Against this danger, as torn*

54

would call it, against this great advantage as I con-
sider it, what precaution would the spirit of mono-
poly devise ? Shall we meet it with the Revenue
System by which the British Coasts are guarded ?
Can we establish along the whole extent of Java,
and Sumatra, and Malacca, our entries and clearances,
our bonds and certificates and dockets, as in the Port
of London ? Can we build British Custom-houses
in all that vast chain of countless Islands which en-
circles the Seas of China, placed there as if in moc»
kery of such a vain imagination, and stretching in
uninterrupted continuance from Ava almost to New
Holland, and thence again northward by Borneo
and the Philippines to the very boundaries of the
Russian Empire ? It would be to consider such a
project too seriously to remind your Lordships, that
the whole Army of Revenue Officers no.w employed
throughout the British Empire, with all their ex-
pence, and patronage, and influence, would not
suffice to execute the smallest part of such a pro-*
vision, which if it fails even in a single instance, is
defeated in the whole ; where if any one channel of
escape remains unclosed, the whole dyke with all
its difficulty, and cost, and labour, becomes only afl
useless burden to the earth.

To Europe therefore, not indeed by lawful trade
but in despite of all your prohibitions, and by that
very contraband, if contraband it could be called,
against which your exclusion is directed, every ar-

55

tide of China Produce and Manufacture will easily
be brought. But you may at least prohibit your
Merchants from bringing them into the British Ports.
You may so. And whenever Peace is restored to
Europe, the consequence will be the same as the
same prohibition has before produced. Ostend,
Calais, Boulogne, the whole Coast of the Narrow
Seas, will again be lined with depots of Tea for smug-
gling, with tea brought there by British Trade from
the Eastern Islands, or by Foreign Trade direct from
China.

But in truth, my Lords, not only is the provision
impracticable, the object itself is hopeless. Our past
experience teaches us with unerring certainty, that
in Peace the Revenue which we raise on Tea cannot
at its present rate of duty be collected. In 1735
the Company's Monopoly was in full vigour ; and the
Revenue had the whole unqualified benefit of every
security which that system could provide. No Bri-
tish Vessel could at that time, without the express
permission of the Company, enter into the Seas of
India, or of China, into the Ethiopi.c, or the Pacific
Ocean ; yet Parliament was even then compelled to
reduce the duty, and we commuted it for a burden-
some tax on our own houses. How much greater
will now be the difficulty of collecting this Revenue,
after you shall have opened to British Vessels, as
even these Resolutions purport, all the Ports of the
East except those of China alone.

The rate of Duty must, therefore, again be dimi-
nished whenever Peace returns. No man questions
it. But it is of great importance to remark, tbat the
necessary amount of this reduction will very much
depend on the System by which the Trade is carried
on. Beyond a certain standard the price of this Com-
modity cannot be carried. If you exceed it, the ad-
vantage which you give to contraband destroys the
lawful Trade, and undermines the Revenue. Of that
price, the prime cost forms comparatively a small
part, the commercial charges and the Duty consti-
tute the remainder. In proportion therefore as the
one is augmented the other must be reduced. Import
cheaper, and you may levy a higher Tax ; increase
the cost at which you receive the Commodity, and
you can add less to it in the form of Duty. And
if it be true in this case as in every other, that a
Trade of Monopoly will be carried on less ceconomi-
cally than a trade of competition, the conclusion is
irresistible. The reduction of Duty must be greater,
and the defalcation of Revenue must be made good,
as it was before, by other and more burdensome tax*
ttion,

•vV VaJmrihflS'jV/

But in speaking, however imperfectly, of these
various branches of this extensive question, I have as
yet not, even touched upon that point which is in my
view by far the greatest object of advantage to this
Country, in opening to the British Merchant that
vast tract of Land . and Ocean, from which he has

47

been hitherto shut out by the Company's exclusive
Charter. To anticipate with too much confidence
the course of any Commerce as yet untried is not less
hazardous in political than in mercantile speculation.
But if there ever were two Countries apparently
destined and formed by nature for commercial inter-
course, those Countries are the Southern Provinces
of Asia, and the Western Shores of South America.
The precious metals in which the one abounds have
always, from the remotest antiquity down even to
the present hour, been the staple article of Import
into the other ; the produce and the manufactures of
which are again peculiarly suited to the consumption
of climates so congenial to their own.

This copious, this inexhaustible source of trading
enterprize and profit must, unless you prohibit it, be
available principally to your own People. British
Legislation can alone refuse this great advantage to
British Commerce. To your Merchants it would be
invaluable. And if in the consumption of South
America the industry of the British Manufacturer
should establish, as we may justly hope, no unsuc-
cessful competition even with that of his Fellow Sub-
jects in Bengal, how much would the direct inter-
course of that Continent with India facilitate to him
also the returns of such a Trade.

Those who understand as your Lordships do the
real nature of Commerce, and the true principles of
its wise Administration, well know that all its iiite-

rests are interwoven, all its branches inseparably con-
nected. It is the Union, not of Commerce with Go-
vernment, but of Commerce with Commerce, that a
provident Legislature will respect. Numerous are
the commercial enterprizes which would be of small
benefit if limited to the direct intercourse of one
Country with another, but which by intermediate or
subsequent transactions in other Markets, and in dis-
tant regions, become highly advantageous both to
private and to national interests. It is in this view
that I feel an undescribable anxiety to secure to our
Merchants their full participation, not of parts and
portions only, but of the whole of the Commerce of
the East. I wish to grant and guaranty to them not
that alone, of which, with my limited views and im-
perfect knowledge, I can already discern, and define
the immediate, and infallible benefit, but that also
which shall be the ulterior and unforeseen effect, the
natural though unpremeditated conquest of their own
skill and enterprize following up their advantages
with ardour, and deriving from every successful ope-
ration both the spirit and the means of new exertion.

For the encouragement of such hopes no moment
was ever yet more favourable. The barrier of preju-
dice is shaken; the spirit of monopoly, is rapidly
giving way to juster principles of Trade ; and the
change of public opinion in this country is seconded
by the great Revolutions of the World. Why should
we then delay to grant to the British Merchant all

for which he now contends ; all that the exclusive
Charter of the East India Company has hitherto closed
against him ; all and more than all that these Resolu-
tions propose to open to the People of this Empire ?
A free Trade with India, a free Trade with China ;
with the Eastern Islands, the latest acquisition of
British Valour ; and through them with the rich
Kingdoms of South America ; a country hitherto in-
deed barred against us as much by the Monopolies of
its Parent Government as by our own, but now at
last by the course of events no longer within the con-
troul of man, opened, in every case I trust infallibly
opened, to the Commerce of the World.

What a scene does this present to our imagination I
We are told that when the Spanish discoverers first
overcame, with labour and peril almost unspeakable,
the mighty range of Mountains which divides the
Western from the Atlantic Shores of South America,
they stood fixed in silent admiration, gazing on the
vast expanse of the Southern Ocean, which lay
stretched before them in boundless prospect. They
adored, even those hardened and sanguinary adven-
turers adored, the gracious Providence of Heaven,
which after the lapse of so many centuries, had
opened to mankind so wonderful a field of untried
and unimagined enterprize. They anticipated in pro-
phetic enthusiasm the glory of their Native Country,
the future extent of its Sovereignty and Power, and
the noble prize presented to its ambition. But theirs

60

was the glory of Conquest, the ambition of War, the
prize of unjust dominion. As vast as theirs, but in-
finitely more honourable, far higher both in purpose
and in recompense, are the hopes with which the same
prospect now elevates our hearts. Over countries
yet unknown to Science, and in tracts which British
Navigation has scarcely yet explored, we hope to
carry the tranquil Arts, the social . enjoyments, the
friendly and benevolent intercourse of Commerce.
By the link of mutual interest, by the bond of reci-
procal good will, we hope to connect together tho
remotest regions of the earth ; humble, and weak,
but not rejected instruments of that great purpose of
our Creator, by which He has laid, in the reciprocal
necessities both of individuals and of Nations, the
firmest ground- work of all Human Society. Let this
be our Glory, and what Conqueror will not have
reason to envy it ?

And here, my Lords, I might properly close this
statement, already extended far beyond my wish.
But I would not wholly pass over one or two other
points which 1 think of great importance, though they
do not, perhaps, relate so much to the general ques-
tions which we have this night discussed, as to sepa-
rate arrangements which might be adopted under any
form of Indian Government. I shall speak of them
very briefly. Some of them must probably, in the
progress of this business, be again brought under our
view.

61

The most considerable among the benefits which
my Noble Friend enumerated as having been con-
ferred by the British Government on the Natives of
India, was that arrangement which is technically
called the permanent Settlement. Your Lordships
are well aware that this consisted in fixing the amount
of Territorial Revenue, to be annually collected from
the Landholders of our Provinces, instead of leaving
it to be varied from year to year at the discretion of
Government, on the reports of its Officers, and ac-
cording to the supposed ability of the person assessed.
This certainty of taxation, which would be so im-
portant in every country, was of the utmost possible
value in Provinces where so much the largest part of
the Public Revenue is. raised from the Proprietors of
the Soil: bearing a proportion to its produce, which
has been differently estimated by persons the best in-
formed, but which even by the lowest calculation is
of frightful amount. The measure was first adopted
in the Bengal Provinces, and it has since been
extended to some other parts of our possessions in
India. To enlarge upon its advantages before a Bri-
tish audience, would seem superfluous. Until very
lately I thought they had been generally admitted ;
but the late Report of a Committee of the House of
Commons has filled me with anxiety on this subject.
That Report treats of the question of applying the
same beneficial principle to the more recent acquisi-
tions by which our Territory in India has been so

largely extended ; and no Man, I fear, can read
what is there said without perceiving its tendency, if
not to discredit the original measure, at least to dis-
countenance its proposed extension. My Noble
Friend * agreeing with me in principle, but not fully
partaking of my alarm, has nevertheless Himself de-
scribed the expressions of this paper as ambiguous.
Be it so. I will only then remark, that in former
times, the Reports of Parliament were not expressed
with ambiguity when they enforced the Duties of
protection and justice towards our Native Subjects.
I would, if it were possible, most willingly persuade
myself, that not the language of this Report alone,
but also the language of the public dispatches which
it quotes, is really ambiguous. To my understanding
they too plainly speak their purpose. Rut most sin-
cerely shall I rejoice in the assurance that my appre-
hensions are ill founded. If they are so, it is of easy
proof. No one can then object to the proposal which
I shall hereafter submit to your Lordships ; a proposal
to obtain from Parliament, in the Law which we are
now to pass, the same interposition, couched in the
same terms, and directed to the same object, which
in the Act of 1784 has proved so eminently benefi-
cial. To remind us that so important a measure as
this cannot be duly executed but after some previous
deliberation and enquiry, and on such information as

* Marquis Wellesley.

63

is really necessary to enable our Indian Government
to do justice to those for whose benefit it is intended,
is only to say of this what is equally true of every
other momentous and extensive arrangement. I wish
it to be so proceeded in. But it is now, I think, be-
tween seven and eight years since Peace was restored
to India. A considerably longer term has elapsed
since the acquisition of some of the Provinces in
question. The Settlement itself, whenever it shall
be made, will probably be established in the first in-
stance, as was done by Lord Cornwallis, in Bengal,
for ten years only, to be then made permanent after
an experience of its effects. And if it be not yet
time to begin upon such a work, when is it to be
concluded ? To obtain theoretic perfection in these
arrangements is manifestly impossible. It was the
opinion of Lord Cornwallis, a sentiment I think not
less wise than humane, that less evil was to be feared
from the partial errors of such a measure than from its
delay. And such, I am persuaded, is the experience
of the fact.

But my "present object is only to declare the prin-
ciple, such as it was declared in 1784; to place by
our new Law the future Government of India, be it
what it may, under the same injunction which was
imposed by the former Act on the King's Commis-
sioners ; and to apply to the ceded and conquered
Provinces the same benevolent interposition which
Parliament before applied to the Provinces then

under our dominion. Above all, it is my wish, by
this solemn and authoritative declaration, renewed
after the experience of so many years, to prove to
our Native Subjects the permanency of our principles
of right, and to impress them with the unalterable
conviction, that a British Legislature estimates the
security of their Property far above the possible in-
crease of its own Revenue.

For the state of our Military Service in India, some
new provision must also, I think, be made by Par-
liament, in every event. What I have already said
on that subject, was applied to the supposed separa-
tion of the Government and Commerce of India.
But if the ostensible authority in that Country be
continued on its present footing, I admit that the
Army cannot be disconnected from it. The Military
Power is in every State inseparable from the Civil ;
united, they support each other — divided, they can-
not exist together. In India our situation peculiarly
requires their union; it is already too weak, increase
the separation, and you destroy your Government.
Your fate will probably, in that case, too soon re-
semble that of so many of the Native Princes, whose
loss of Sovereignty has followed so fast on their re*
nunciation of Military Power.

But it is for this very reason that Parliament ought
not, at least if my impressions are correct, to leave
that matter in its present situation ; one of much ac-

65

knowledged and experienced danger. For my own,
part, I freely confess, that I know no other remedy
against that danger, except by the proposal which I
have already submitted to your Lordships ; openly to
establish the King's authority, both Civil and Military,
over that as over every other part of His dominions ;
but with such strict and scrupulous limitation of Pa-
tronage as we know by experience, or may con-
clude by reason, to be effectual against abuse. And
I regard the difficulty of settling the Military Esta-
blishment of India on any other secure or satisfactory
footing, as a most powerful recommendation of that

arrangement.

But if this be not done, you must consider of other
securities. You cannot here say, as my Noble
Friend has said on other parts of the subject, that
the actual enjoyment of a state of undisturbed and
fearless security may justify you in leaving all things
exactly on their present footing. If this be a good
argument in one case, the opposite conclusion must
equally result from contrary premises. Our task in
this branch of our deliberation is, indeed, one of the
most difficult of all that belong to Government and
Legislation. We have to uphold the discipline, obe-
dience, and military character of an Army, no longer
called into frequent action to subdue our foreign
Enemies (for what foreign Enemy can now mee us
in the field in India ?) but employed almost exclu-
sively to support the civil institutions of our Sove-

F

66

reign ty. It is by War, as your Lordships well know,
that the character of Armies is formed ; by War it is
maintained. Labour and peril are the stern guar-
dians of all the military virtues, security and repose
are their corrupters. Great as are in every other view
the blessings of Peace, yet Peace is the true period
of danger to a Government not rooted in the manners
and affections of its people, but resting on the adven-
titious support of an armed force.

I am trespassing too bong upon your Lordships'
indulgence : I will therefore not touch even sum-
marily upon some other considerations of which I
should have wished to speak. I will say nothing of
the inconsistency of committing so large a part of our
Asiatic Empire to the management of a trading Com-
pany, while we leave the remainder to be administered
under the authority of the Crown ; thus breaking
down the union and subordination even of the civil
Power, and establishing on distinct and opposite
principles the foundations of your Government, in
Provinces so distant from the Metropolis. Nor will
I enter into the defects of your judicial system in
those Provinces, or into the present state of their
internal Legislation and Police, providing (as it too
plainly appears from the Reports upon our Table)
in no adequate manner for the personal protection
and security of your people. Neither will I discuss
the question of taxation. Though I trust in the
ultimate conclusion of our measure, it cannot happen

67

that this Power should in any part of the British
Empire be left to the discretion of the Executive
Government, to be exercised without the authority,
without even the knowledge of Parliament, and to
extend over the whole property and dealings, both
of your Native Subjects and even of British Mer-
chants resorting to that Country.

But on one point more I must still detain you for a
few moments. My Noble Friend to whose arguments I
have on this occasion so often alluded, among the many
other brilliant and important services which he ren-
dered to his Country in India, has the peculiar merit
of having first called the attention of the Public to the
education of the Young Men who go out there in the
civil Service of the Company. He proposed, and
actually carried into execution, an extensive and
well digested plan for this necessary object. He has
adverted to it this night, and the Minute in which
he described and recommended that measure is, 1
believe, among the Papers for which he has moved.
Those of your Lordships to whom it is new, will read
it, I am certain, with the highest admiration ; in
those to whom the subject is in some degree familiar,
that feeling will not be unmixed with regret, in rcr
collecting the reception which this measure expe-
rienced in England. The Company which has
afforded in twenty years to lose Millions on its Com-
merce-—the Company which collects in India, under
different forms, above fifteen millions of annual Re-

F2

venue, could not stand, it was said, against the ex-
pence of this Establishment. Public oeconomy is
no doubt, at all times, a Virtue. The well ordered
disposition, the just apportionment of the expences,
the resources, and the burthens of a State, is the
surest foundation of its Prosperity and Power. But
directly opposed to that manly and honourable Virr
tue, is the parsimony which interferes with the public
duties of the Government towards the Community
whose interests it administers. No obligation (I sub-
mit it to the judgment of your Lordships) no obli-
gation could, in my opinion, be more binding on the
British Sovereign of Ino!ia, than that which my Noble
Friend had thus discharged ; no application of the
public Revenues of those Provinces could have a
juster claim to be held inviolable and sacred than that
which was allotted to the purposes of this institution.
What better service could be rendered to that coun-
try, or to our own, than to train up to knowledge
and virtue those men who in a few years are to be
entrusted with the highest interests, not of the
Company only, but also of the Public ? those men
who are to exhibit the British character to India ; to
preside in its Tribunals, to collect its, Revenue, to
watch over its tranquillity and good Government,
and, in one word, to administer to the happiness of
millions of its inhabitants. The King's Commis-
sioners forbore to interpose for the protection of this
admirable institution. Why they did so I know not,
and I greatly lament it. The plan was therefore li-

mited and mutilated ; and it exists now only as &
wreck of its first noble design.

The deficiency was, however, acknowledged ; and
a separate. College has been established in England
for the education of the young men destined for
India.

If I speak of this plan, as I think of it, with strong
disapprobation and regret, let it not be inferred, that
I object to any degree of attention -which can be
given even to the earliest instruction and discipline
of those who are destined for Indian Service. Far
from it. No man will more rejoice in this than I
shall — no man more zealously contend for its advan-
tage. But I can never persuade myself that it was
justifiable to form for that purpose a separate esta-
blishment in England. It may be doubted at
what age these youths may most advantageously
be sent to India. But up to the latest moment
pf their continuance in this country, be that pe-
riod what it may, I see the strongest possible
reasons against their being separated in education
from the young men of their own age, and sta-
tion in life. Instead of forming them beforehand
into an exclusive class, into something resembling
a distinct cast of men, destined to administer
Government in remote Provinces, they ought above
all other Public Servants to receive, so long as
they continue in England, an education purely Eng-

70

lish. Instead of rejecting, we should, I think, have
embraced with eagerness the advantage which our
great Schools and Colleges would have afforded to
them for this purpose : that they might learn there, I
trust with not less facility than elsewhere, the elements
of whatever Sciences you could wish, them to possess :
that in addition to these they might find there, and
there only could they find, that best of a}l education
to a public man which forms the mirid to manly exer-
tion and honourable feeling, the education which
young men receive from each other in the numerous
and mixed society of their equals, collected from va-
rious classes of our Community, and destined to
Tarious ways of life : that they might there be imbued
with the deepest tincture of English manners, and
English attachments, of English principles, and I am
not afraid in this case to say also English prejudices:
and that they might carry out with them from thence
to India remembrances and affections, not local only
but personal ; recollections not merely of the scenes
but of the individuals endeared to them by early
habit ; mixed with the indelible impression of those
high sentiments and virtuous principles which, I am
happy to think it, float in the very atmosphere of our
public places of education, and contribute much
more, I think, than is commonly supposed, to all on
which we most value ourselves in our national cha-
racter.

I have now finished what I had to submit to your

71

Lordships in this discussion. I am well aware how
much remains behind : How many are the topics,
how large and interesting the questions which I have
left wholly untouched. Vain indeed would have
been the endeavour in the compass of a single Speech,
on an incidental motion, to place under your view
even in the faintest sketch, all the objects that must
«engage your attention in the course of this vast en-
quiry. Other Questions'more deeply interesting to
our own domestic concerns, affecting more nearly the
prosperity or the safety of these Islands, may have
occupied the deliberations of Parliament: one of such
large and almost boundless extent has certainly never
yet been brought before us. For my share in the
discharge of this awful duty I have endeavoured to
qualify myself by study and reflection : Imperfect as
my notions certainly are, erroneous as they may too
probably be, they are at least not brought before your
Lordships without long, diligent, and repeated con-
sideration. That there are many to whom my opi-
nions will not be acceptable I well know. But even
They I think must be convinced that one only motive
can by possibility exist for the part which 1 have
taken on this most important Question ; a strong and
irresistible impulse of Public Duty. To shock the
prejudices, to oppose, as it will be thought, the inte-
rests, of many individuals whom I personally respect,
and of Public bodies of the greatest weight, authority,
and influence in the Community to which I belong,
cannot be a pleasing task. But these, and every other

72

consideration, must at once give Way, when the Ques-
tion on which I was called upon to speak, and on which
I have now ventured to submit to you my present
thoughts, was nothing less than this; By what politi-
cal, by what commercial institutions can the British
Parliament best provide for the Happiness of the
People of India ?

MUjrittll, Printer, si, Piccadilly, Londo:

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