unless for
some urgent case to be transmitted to the directors; and each government
was empowered to apprehend all persons guilty of carrying on an illicit
correspondence, and either bring them to trial in India or send them to
England. In order to prevent ambitious projects, the supreme government
was not permitted to enter into an offensive treaty, or to make war,
without the command of the directors, against any power which had not
commenced, or given full proof of its intention to commence hostilities.
Provisions were also inserted in this bill relative to the settlement
of disputes with the Nabob of Arcot, and the redress of complaints of
injustice and oppression, exercised against the Zemindars, or great
hereditary landholders of India, who had either been dispossessed of
their lands, or subjected to exorbitant demands, by the officers of the
East India Company. This part of Pitt's bill also regulated the ages
at which writers and cadets should be appointed, as well as the number
proper to be sent out; prohibited the acceptance of presents; and
required that all servants of the company should, after the 1st of
January, 1787, deliver an oath within two months after their arrival in
England, respecting what part of their property was, and what was not,
acquired in India.

In the third part of Pitt's bill, he proposed that a high tribunal
should be created for the trial of Indian delinquents, which tribunal
was to consist of three judges, one from each court; of four peers, aad
six members of the House of Commons, who were authorised to act without
appeal; to award, in case of conviction, fine or imprisonment; and to
declare the party convicted incapable of again serving the company. No
person, holding any office under the crown during pleasure, or who had
ever been in the Indian service could become a member of this court.

Such were the three grand features of Pitt's India Bill. As might have
been expected, his opponents were sedulous in pointing out its defects.
Burke, who had no mean share in the composition of Fox's India Bill, the
great outcry against which had been that it went to increase, in a most
dangerous degree, the influence of the minister, said, that Pitt's bill,
in reality, vested in the crown an influence paramount to any that had
been proposed by the bill of his opponent. On this subject, also, Fox
remarked:--"By whom is this board of superintendants to be appointed? Is
it not by his majesty? And