his practices to hide that concern from the pu the liberal protection which he has received fr ister. If this chain of circumstances do n necessarily to conclude that the minister has avarice of Benfield the services done by Be nexions to his ambition, I do not know anyth the confession of the party that can persuade guilt. Clandestine and collusive practice can of by combination and comparison of circumstance such combination and comparison is to reject th of detecting fraud: it is indeed to give it a pat licence to cheat with impunity.

I confine myself to the connexion of ministe or immediately, with only two persons conce debt. How many others, who support their greatness within and without doors, are concern or by transfers of these debts, must be lef opinion. I refer to the reports of the select c the proceedings of some of the agents in thes their attempts, at least, to furnish ministers wit of buying general courts, and even whole parlia gross.1

I know that the ministers will think it little quittal, that they are not charged with havi themselves some part of the money of whic made so liberal a donation to their partisans, charge may be indisputably fixed upon the corrup politics. For my part, I follow their crimes to which legal presumptions and natural indicati without considering what species of evil motive to aggravate or to extenuate the guilt of th But if I am to speak my private sentiments, in a thousand cases for one it would be far less to the public, and full as little dishonourable to to be polluted with direct bribery, than thus standing auxiliary to the oppression, usury, tion, of multitudes, in order to obtain a corr to their power. It is by bribing, not so ofte bribed, that wicked politicians bring ruin on man rice is a rival to the pursuits of many. It finds 1 Second Report of Select (General Smith's) Comm

of checks, and many opposers, in every walk of life. But the objects of ambition are for the few; and every person who aims at indirect profit, and therefore wants other protection than innocence and law, instead of its rival becomes its instrument. There is a natural allegiance and fealty due to this domineering, paramount evil, from all the vassal vices, which acknowledge its superiority, and readily militate under its banners; and it is under that discipline alone that avarice is able to spread to any considerable extent, or to render itself a general, public mischief. It is therefore no apology for ministers, that they have not been bought by the East-India delinquents, but that they have only formed an alliance with them for screening each other from justice, according to the exigence of their several necessities. That they have done so is evident; and the junction of the power of office in England with the abuse of authority in the East, has not only prevented even the appearance of redress to the grievances of India, but I wish it may not be found to have dulled, if not extinguished, the honour, the candour, the generosity, the good nature, which used formerly to characterize the people of England. I confess, I wish that some more feeling than I have yet observed for the sufferings of our fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects in that oppressed part of the world, had manifested itself in any one quarter of the kingdom, or in any one large description of men.

That these oppressions exist, is a fact no more denied, than it is resented as it ought to be. Much evil has been done in India under the British authority. What has been done to redress it? We are no longer surprised at anything. We are above the unlearned and vulgar passion of admiration. But it will astonish posterity, when they read our opinions in our actions, that after years of inquiry, we have found out that the sole grievance of India consisted in this, that the servants of the Company there had not profited enough of their opportunities, nor drained it sufficiently of its treasures; when they shall hear that the very first and only important act of a commission specially named by act of parliament is to charge upon an undone country, in favour of a handful of men in the humblest ranks of the public service, the enormous sum of perhaps four millions of sterling money. It is difficult for the most wise and upright government

to correct the abuses of remote, delegated pow of unmeasured wealth, and protected by the strength of the same ill-got riches. These a their own wild native vigour, will grow and mere neglect. But where the supreme autho tent with winking at the rapacity of its inferio is so shameless and corrupt as openly to give premiums for disobedience to its laws, when it to the activity of avarice in the pursuit of i when it secures public robbery by all the ca and attention with which it ought to protect such violence, the commonwealth then is beco verted from its purposes; neither God nor endure it; nor will it long endure itself. In t is an unnatural infection, a pestilential taint the constitution of society, which fever and some kind or other must throw off; or in v powers, worsted in an unequal struggle, are upon themselves, and, by a reversal of their w fester to gangrene, to death; and, instead of just now the delight and boast of the creation cast out in the face of the sun, a bloated, p carcass, full of stench and poison, an offenc lesson to the world.

In my opinion, we ought not to wait for th struction of calamity to inquire into the abuse upon us ruin in the worst of its forms, in t fame and virtue. But the right honourable ge in answer to all the powerful arguments of friend-"that this inquiry is of a delicate na the state will suffer detriment by the exposure action." But it is exposed; it is perfectly k member, in every particle, and in every way which may lead to a remedy. He knows that correspondence are printed, and that they are

He and delicacy are a rare and a singular thinks that to divulge our Indian politics, n dangerous. He! the mover! the chairman! t the committee of secrecy! he that brought fo most detail, in several vast printed folios, the

parts of the politics, the military, the revenues of the British
empire in India! With six great chopping bastards,' each as
lusty as an infant Hercules, this delicate creature blushes at
+
the sight of his new bridegroom, assumes a virgin delicacy;
or, to use a more fit, as well as a more poetic, comparison,
the person so squeamish, so timid, so trembling lest the
winds of heaven should visit too roughly, is expanded to
broad sunshine, exposed like the sow of imperial augury,
lying in the mud with all the prodigies of her fertility about
her, as evidence of her delicate amours-Triginta capitum
fœtus enixa jacebat, alba solo recubans albi circum ubera nati.
Whilst discovery of the misgovernment of others led to
his own power, it was wise to inquire; it was safe to pub-
lish: there was then no delicacy; there was then no danger.
But when his object is obtained, and in his imitation he has
outdone the crimes that he had reprobated in volumes of re-
ports, and in sheets of bills of pains and penalties, then con-
cealment becomes prudence; and it concerns the safety of
the state, that we should not know in a mode of parliament-
ary cognizance, what all the world knows but too well, that
is, in what manner he chooses to dispose of the public reve-
nues to the creatures of his politics.

The debate has been long, and as much so on my part, at least, as on the part of those who have spoken before me. But long as it is, the more material half of the subject has hardly been touched on; that is, the corrupt and destructive system to which this debt has been rendered subservient, and which seems to be pursued with at least as much vigour and regularity as ever. If I considered your ease or my own, rather than the weight and importance of this question, I ought to make some apology to you, perhaps some apology to myself, for having detained your attention so long. I know on what ground I tread. This subject, at one time taken up with so much fervour and zeal, is no longer a favourite in this House. The House itself has undergone a great and signal revolution. To some the subject is strange and uncouth, to several harsh and distasteful, to the reliques of the last parliament it is a matter of fear and apprehension. It is natural for those who have seen their friends sink in

1 Six Reports of the Committee of Secrecy.

the tornado which raged during the late shift of the monsoon, and have hardly escaped on the planks of the general wreck, it is but too natural for them, as soon as they make the rocks and quicksands of their former disasters, to put about their new-built barks, and, as much as possible, to keep aloof from this perilous lee shore. But let us do what we please to put India from our thoughts, we can do nothing to separate it from our public interest and our national reputation. Our attempts to banish this importunate duty will only make it return upon us again and again, and every time in a shape more unpleasant than the former. A government has been fabricated for that great province; the right honourable gentleman says, that therefore you ought not to examine into its conduct. Heavens! what an argument is this! We are not to examine into the conduct of the direction, because it is an old government: we are not to examine into this board of control, because it is a new one. Then we are only to examine into the conduct of those who have no conduct to account for. Unfortunately the basis of this new government has been laid on old, condemned delinquents, and its superstructure is raised out of prosecutors turned into protectors. The event has been such as might be expected. But if it had been otherwise constituted, had it been constituted even as I wished, and as the mover of this question had planned, the better part of the proposed establishment was in the publicity of its proceedings; in its perpetual responsibility to parliament. Without this check, what is our government at home, even awed, as every European govern ment is, by an audience formed of the other states of Europe, by the applause or condemnation of the discerning and critical Company before which it acts? But if the scene on the other side of the globe, which tempts, invites, almost compels, to tyranny and rapine, be not inspected with the eye of a severe and unremitting vigilance, shame and destruction must ensue. For one, the worst event of this day, though it may deject, shall not break or subdue me. The call upon us is authoritative. Let who will shrink back, I shall be found at my post. Baffled, discountenanced, subdued, discredited, as the cause of justice and humanity is, it will be only the dearer to me. Whoever therefore shall at any time bring before you anything towards the relief of our