rty of the princes and free cities of the Empire, and to the three
religions there professed,--whatever the Great Charter, the Statute of
Tallage, the Petition of Right, and the Declaration of Right are to
Great Britain, these bills are to the people of India. Of this benefit I
am certain their condition is capable: and when I know that they are
capable of more, my vote shall most assuredly be for our giving to the
full extent of their capacity of receiving; and no charter of dominion
shall stand as a bar in my way to their charter of safety and
protection.

The strong admission I have made of the Company's rights (I am conscious
of it) binds me to do a great deal. I do not presume to condemn those
who argue _a priori_ against the propriety of leaving such extensive
political powers in the hands of a company of merchants. I know much is,
and much more may be, said against such a system. But, with my
particular ideas and sentiments, I cannot go that way to work. I feel an
insuperable reluctance in giving my hand to destroy any established
institution of government, upon a theory, however plausible it may be.
My experience in life teaches me nothing clear upon the subject. I have
known merchants with the sentiments and the abilities of great
statesmen, and I have seen persons in the rank of statesmen with the
conceptions and character of peddlers. Indeed, my observation has
furnished me with nothing that is to be found in any habits of life or
education, which tends wholly to disqualify men for the functions of
government, but that by which the power of exercising those functions is
very frequently obtained: I mean a spirit and habits of low cabal and
intrigue; which I have never, in one instance, seen united with a
capacity for sound and manly policy.

To justify us in taking the administration of their affairs out of the
hands of the East India Company, on my principles, I must see several
conditions. 1st, The object affected by the abuse should be great and
important. 2nd, The abuse affecting this great object ought to be a
great abuse. 3d, It ought to be habitual, and not accidental. 4th, It
ought to be utterly incurable in the body as it now stands constituted.
All this ought to be made as visible to me as the light of the sun,
before I should strike off an atom of their charter. A right honorable
gentleman[54] has said, and said, I think, but once, and that very
slightly, (whatever his original demand for a plan mi