y a whisper. That commission
becomes fatal to cabal, to intrigue, and to secret representation, those
instruments of the ruin of India. He that cuts off the means of
premature fortune, and the power of protecting it when acquired, strikes
a deadly blow at the great fund, the bank, the capital stock of Indian
influence, which cannot be vested anywhere, or in any hands, without
most dangerous consequences to the public.

The third and contradictory objection is, that this bill does not
increase the influence of the crown; on the contrary, that the just
power of the crown will be lessened, and transferred to the use of a
party, by giving the patronage of India to a commission nominated by
Parliament and independent of the crown. The contradiction is glaring,
and it has been too well exposed to make it necessary for me to insist
upon it. But passing the contradiction, and taking it without any
relation, of all objections that is the most extraordinary. Do not
gentlemen know that the crown has not at present the grant of a single
office under the Company, civil or military, at home or abroad? So far
as the crown is concerned, it is certainly rather a gainer; for the
vacant offices in the new commission are to be filled up by the king.

It is argued, as a part of the bill derogatory to the prerogatives of
the crown, that the commissioners named in the bill are to continue for
a short term of years, too short in my opinion,--and because, during
that time, they are not at the mercy of every predominant faction of the
court. Does not this objection lie against the present Directors,--none
of whom are named by the crown, and a proportion of whom hold for this
very term of four years? Did it not lie against the Governor-General and
Council named in the act of 1773,--who were invested by name, as the
present commissioners are to be appointed in the body of the act of
Parliament, who were to hold their places for a term of years, and were
not removable at the discretion of the crown? Did it not lie against the
reappointment, in the year 1780, upon the very same terms? Yet at none
of these times, whatever other objections the scheme might be liable to,
was it supposed to be a derogation to the just prerogative of the crown,
that a commission created by act of Parliament should have its members
named by the authority which called it into existence. This is not the
disposal by Parliament of any office derived from the authority of the