le tending to the prevention or remedy of abuses,--but to point
out the probable failure of any future regulations which do not apply
directly to the grievance, but which may be taken up as experiments to
ascertain theories of the operation of councils formed of greater or
lesser numbers, or such as shall be composed of men of more or less
opulence, or of interests of newer or longer standing, or concerning the
distribution of power to various descriptions or professions of men, or
of the election to office by one authority rather than another.

[Sidenote: Court of Directors.]

The second object of the act was the Court of Directors. Under the
arrangement of the year 1773 that court appeared to have its authority
much strengthened. It was made less dependent than formerly upon its
constituents, the proprietary. The duration of the Directors in office
was rendered more permanent, and the tenure itself diversified by a
varied and intricate rotation. At the same time their authority was held
high over their servants of all descriptions; and the only rule
prescribed to the Council-General of Bengal, in the exercise of the
large and ill-defined powers given to them, was that they were to yield
obedience to the orders of the Court of Directors. As to the Court of
Directors itself, it was left with very little regulation. The custom of
ballot, infinitely the most mischievous in a body possessed of all the
ordinary executive powers, was still left; and your Committee have found
the ill effects of this practice in the course of their inquiries.
Nothing was done to oblige the Directors to attend to the promotion of
their servants according to their rank and merits. In judging of those
merits nothing was done to bind them to any observation of what appeared
on their records. Nothing was done to compel them to prosecution or
complaint where delinquency became visible. The act, indeed, prescribed
that no servant of the Company abroad should be eligible into the
direction until two years after his return to England. But as this
regulation rather presumes than provides for an inquiry into their
conduct, a very ordinary neglect in the Court of Directors might easily
defeat it, and a short remission might in this particular operate as a
total indemnity. In fact, however, the servants have of late seldom
attempted a seat in the direction,--an attempt which might possibly
rouse a dormant spirit of inquiry; but, satisfied with an interest