ght seem to
require,) that "there are abuses in the Company's government." If that
were all, the scheme of the mover of this bill, the scheme of his
learned friend, and his own scheme of reformation, (if he has any,) are
all equally needless. There are, and must be, abuses in all governments.
It amounts to no more than a nugatory proposition. But before I consider
of what nature these abuses are, of which the gentleman speaks so very
lightly, permit me to recall to your recollection the map of the country
which this abused chartered right affects. This I shall do, that you may
judge whether in that map I can discover anything like the first of my
conditions: that is, whether the object affected by the abuse of the
East India Company's power be of importance sufficient to justify the
measure and means of reform applied to it in this bill.

With very few, and those inconsiderable intervals, the British dominion,
either in the Company's name, or in the names of princes absolutely
dependent upon the Company, extends from the mountains that separate
India from Tartary to Cape Comorin, that is, one-and-twenty degrees of
latitude!

In the northern parts it is a solid mass of land, about eight hundred
miles in length, and four or five hundred broad. As you go southward, it
becomes narrower for a space. It afterwards dilates; but, narrower or
broader, you possess the whole eastern and northeastern coast of that
vast country, quite from the borders of Pegu.--Bengal, Bahar, and
Orissa, with Benares, (now unfortunately in our immediate possession,)
measure 161,978 square English miles: a territory considerably larger
than the whole kingdom of France. Oude, with its dependent provinces, is
53,286 square miles: not a great deal less than England. The Carnatic,
with Tanjore and the Circars, is 65,948 square miles: very considerably
larger than England. And the whole of the Company's dominions,
comprehending Bombay and Salsette, amounts to 281,412 square miles:
which forms a territory larger than any European dominion, Russia and
Turkey excepted. Through all that vast extent of country there is not a
man who eats a mouthful of rice but by permission of the East India
Company.

So far with regard to the extent. The population of this great empire is
not easy to be calculated. When the countries of which it is composed
came into our possession, they were all eminently peopled, and eminently
productive,--though at that time considerabl