n attracted great attention. After observing that parliament
took the state of the company's trade into consideration, in 1767 for
the maintenance of the public faith and public credit; for the
increase of its commerce and revenues, and for the security of
its stockholders--a bargain with which the eyes of the house were
dazzled--he thus descanted on the distress of the company and the
iniquity of the bill:--"The distress of the company," said he, "arises
from the improvidence of administration and the short-sightedness of
parliament, in not forming for it a system of government suitable to its
form and constitution. Or am I mistaken? Were the directors left without
any effectual control over delinquent servants? Was the collection
of the revenue left without any check? Was the tyranny of a double
government, like our double cabinet, tolerated with a view of seeing
the concerns of the company become an absolute chaos of disorder, and
of giving to government a handle for seizing the territorial revenue?
I know that this was the original scheme of administration, and I
violently suspect that it never has been relinquished. If the ministry
have no sinister view, if they do not mean by this unconstitutional
step to extend the influence of the crown, they will now speak out,
and explicitly declare their intentions: their silence may be justly
construed into a confession of such a design, and they will thenceforth
be considered as the determined enemies of the liberty of their country.
God knows, that the places and pensions, and expectancies, furnished
by the British establishment, are too powerful for the small remains of
patriotism and public spirit that remain in our island. What then
will become of us, if Bengal, if the Ganges, pour in a new tide of
corruption? Should the evil genius of British liberty so ordain it, I
fear this house will be so far from removing the corruption of the East,
that it will be corrupted by it: I dread more from the infection of that
place than I hope from the virtue of this house. Was it not the sudden
plunder of the East that gave the final blow to the freedom of
Borne? What reason have we to expect a better fate? I conjure you, by
everything which man ought to hold sacred--I conjure you by the spirits
of your forefathers, who so nobly fought and bled for the cause for
which I now plead--I conjure you by what includes everything, by your
country, not to yield to the temptations which the East,