THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 33Z
 
 HINTS ' 
 
 REGAnDINO THE 
 
 EAST INDIA MONOPOLY; 
 
 RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED 
 
 %xit\%\) ILecfillature. 
 
 BY DAVID LAURIE. 
 
 GLASGOW: 
 
 PRINTED BY Bl. Cfiapman, TRONGATE, 
 jpor Gale and Cutties, Patcrnostcr-Roiv, London. 
 
 1813.
 
 HINTS 
 
 licfi-arcliiifr the 
 
 *EAST INDIA MONOrOLY. 
 
 *T HEN an important and deeply interesting que^iou 
 lias been long agitated and discussed, and the facts and cir- 
 cumstances ])y winch it may l>e affected have been examined 
 and considered in their various relations to, and bearings 
 upon its object, ^ve are not always best prejiared for decid- 
 ing upon its merits, or for acting conformably to its import. 
 In many instances, investigation blunts our finest and high- 
 est perceptions, and the details which it brings to light orei- 
 whelm our clearest and most sublime views of duty and of 
 interest. In this way, the animated feelings, which the 
 prospect of a free trade to India had excited, have already 
 been worn away, and our minds have been so exhausted and 
 ])erplexed by the intricate labyrinth into which the Com- 
 pany ""s aifairs liave brought the general question, that those 
 paramount considerations, those insuperable obligations, 
 which the question itself implies, are in danger of being, if 
 not absolutely forgot, at least generally overlooked. It is 
 for the purpose of recalling these first and paramount im- 
 pressions that the following hints are respectfully offered. 
 
 A 2
 
 CoxcERNiNG the value of the trade, that must arise from 
 . direct intercourse with 450 millions of human beings, in 
 different stages of civilization, and under every variety of 
 circumstances, it is evidently unnecessary to descant. Every 
 one who can think independently on the subject must be satis- 
 fied, that this value to such a commmercial and industrious 
 nation as ours now is, must be immense beyond our present 
 comprehension. In the present state of Europe, it presents 
 itself to our view under every advantage. It is against our 
 trade that the animosity of this important quarter of the 
 world is chiefly directed ; if this can be placed beyond their 
 reach, we may hope that their hostilities against us will be 
 paralyzed, and their minds prepared to accept of the boon 
 of commercial intercourse with us on free and equitable 
 conditions ; but until we can shew ourselves independent of 
 their good-will in regard to this essential advantage, our 
 suit for their favour willpin all human probability, be as in- 
 effectual as it has been incessant. 
 
 It is customary for writers in service of the East India 
 Company to set forth, as a counterbalancing consideration 
 to these views, the peculiar character and dispositions of the 
 inhabitants of the East, who, it is held, are so repugnant to 
 change, and so tenacious of their own manners and customs, 
 that all the blandishments of European intercourse would 
 be lost upon them. To this, however, let it be answered, 
 that the East India Company have no right whatever to 
 limit our calculations by the present appearances of tliat 
 trade. These have heretofore been formed under their in- 
 fluence, and circumscribed by their restrictive policy. At 
 present, we have no other way of coming at the truth on 
 this point but a scanty experience. From this, however, 
 and from the enlarged apprehensions of the subject that a- 
 rise out of its stupendous character, we perceive, that in 
 truth, the field for commercial interprize in these remote re- 
 gions is not only vast, but every way suited to our circum-
 
 stances. It is a maxim tliat cannot be too strongly impres- 
 sed on our minds, that it is only by exciting industrious 
 propensities that wealth is to be procured ; these propensi- 
 ties require free and equitable commerce for their excitation 
 and support; and amidst nations in the most opposite cir- 
 cumstances and in the most different degrees of civilization, 
 commerce, peculiarly lucrative and advantageous, cannot 
 but take place the instant that their respective powers and 
 resources can be made to bear elfectually upon each other. 
 
 What %vonderfal changes have taken place in these re- 
 gions within our own days, and may not changes still more 
 wonderful speedily follow ? These nations, let it be re- 
 membered, are all deficient in the rudiments of improve- 
 ment, particularly in tlie tools and instruments of agricul- 
 ture, and we cannot but suppose, that emulous as they are 
 of our attainments, they would refuse competent supplies of 
 these. Such supplies, let it be noticed, it is a great and im- 
 portant branch of our national industry to produce. Out of 
 the advantages resulting from such invaluable acquirements, 
 may we not expect an aggregation of wealth and of means 
 favourable to improvement, and conducive to greater and 
 higher commercial intercourse? Would not our industry 
 gradually become concatenated with this progression of 
 things, and the productions of these regions be rendered 
 more and more subservient to our commercial wants ? In 
 the end might not a chain of trade every way correspondent 
 to the wants and circumstances of each be produced .^ This 
 comprizes no presumptuous view of our character ; it is 
 Britain that now gives to the world the standard of all that 
 is excellent — it is to British manners and customs that all 
 nations now conform themselves — Britain leads the fashion 
 and gives the law, not merely in the tinsel of dress, but in 
 the whole frame of social acquirements. 
 
 In order to get quit of these powerful objections to their
 
 fnoriopoliiiiii^ system, It has become customary with the 
 partisans of the East India Company, to employ the cant 
 •word meihodism to every project that implies improvement ; 
 and unhap[)ily a false pride, arising from disgust at this e- 
 pithet, has made many individuals stand off from their do- 
 ty, when every moral and political consideration would have 
 inclined them to advance. As I, for my part, am not at all 
 concerned about this matter, I shall state my sentiments 
 moral, civil or political, without any other apprehensions, ex- 
 cept those which a profound reverence for the law and will 
 of God, and the most ardent attachment to the best inte- 
 rests of my country necessarily suggest, and in place of 
 eluding the difficulty that seems thus produced, I shall ven- 
 ture to meet it most steadily in the face. 
 
 Tkosk who promulgate those alarms, which methodism 
 and colonization are held to imply, must contend for one 
 of three things — either that individuals, of a dangerous cast 
 of character, will attach themselves to the native princes, and 
 through their means and influence attempt to overthrow the 
 British empire in the East — or, that the British population 
 in a mass will, when greatly advanced in riches and strength, 
 endeavour to dissever this empire from the parent state — 
 or, that in consequence of the headstrong turbulence of fac- 
 tious individuals, the tranquillity and prosperity of the ge- 
 neral empire will be endangered, if wealth and improvement 
 should ever become general in India. As these grounds of 
 alarm are all directly repugnant to each other, it is impossi- 
 ble to set them forth otherwise than as apart. British sub- 
 jects are not apt to throw up the invaluable blessings of 
 their civil constitution, and to adventure their lives, fortunes 
 and characters on a loose scale of action ; and no one has 
 any right to calculate on contingencies, that are inconsistent 
 with the ordinary rules of human procedure. 
 
 Let it be supposed, in the fiist place, that certain evil
 
 disposed Britons were io go over to tlie native princes, nnd 
 by tlieir intrigues and raana^uvres, engage these in tlieir pro- 
 ject of expelling their countrymen from the peninsula , and 
 as this is su])posing a degree of perversity in the character 
 «f our countrymen, that lias not heretofore been exemplifi- 
 ed, it is certainly a bold supposition. Let us, however, sup- 
 pose such a thing to have taken place, to an extent sufficient 
 to e«cit<3 botli danger and dismay. What would be the 
 consequence ? If we look at the fate of Tippoo Saib, we 
 have our answer. Such an attempt would kindle every latent 
 principle of honor and jKitriotism in the hearts of oUr fel- 
 low subjects ; these -would spurn from their hearts every sym- 
 pathetic and enfeebling regard, and rush into the fields of 
 contest with the most enthusii stic valour. Tij>poo had e-* 
 very advantage of this kind that he could desire, without 
 the allay of the renegado principle here supposed ; he Imd 
 an immense empire, was in the zenith of military and poli- 
 tical glory, was backed by all the influence that French prin- 
 ciples and European tactics could afford. His fate, with all 
 these advantages, will never be forgot in Hindostan. If, 
 kowever, on some particular prince its influence should be 
 lost, he, like Tippoo, would only bring down on bifl^self tliat 
 destruction that he meant to have hurled against us, antl 
 contribute to the exaltation of that empire which he vainly 
 expected to have overthrown. 
 
 Let us now advert to the second supposition, and admit 
 for a moment that tbe whole British population in India 
 might coalesce their own divided interests, and succeed in 
 erganiiing these vast regions under one independent sway. 
 We are apt to give way to such a suspicion, because when- 
 America had begun to feel her strength and importance, sh& 
 served us in this very way. But the British residents in 
 Hindostan are not at all in the same circumstances with the 
 American colonists. They may bear some resemblance to 
 Mur countrymen in the West Indies, and to the Ocolos in
 
 South America, where the European population has always 
 more to fear from the indigenous inhabitants than from the 
 misgovernance of the mother country. British subjects in 
 India, however, have little in common with the American 
 revolutionists. America from the first was peopled by a ro- 
 bust intrepid race of men, all of one high independent cast 
 of character : their climate, their employments, and their 
 circumstances all served to unfold their inherent qualities, 
 and to prepare them for one ^reat revolutionary develope- 
 ment. But the condition of residents in Hindostan, like 
 their character, is the very reverse of all this. Before any 
 great revulsion can take place amongst them, deep contri- 
 vance, and a thorough preparation would be necessary, all 
 of which our immense contiguous settlements and possessions, 
 joined to our established and consolidated power in these 
 regions, would be ready to circumvent and traverse. 
 
 But it may be said, our expatriated brethren would be 
 able to make the indigenous inhabitants form a common 
 cause with them. This, with due submission, is inferring, 
 that Britons will thi'ough time so degrade themselves, as to 
 prefer the tameness of Indian existence, to the noble bold- 
 ness of their native regions — that they will run the risk of 
 having their high pretensions set aside, and that of being 
 absorbed under Indian institutions — that they will content- 
 edly plunge themselves into a desperate conflict, for the sake 
 of unbridled Asiatic indulgence, and in order to get rid of 
 those ennobling exercises, in which their higli character 
 consists^ coalesce with a race of men whom they now despise 
 — and that with such dispositions so debased and so enervat- 
 ed, they will retain energy sufficient to lay the foundation 
 of a vast empire, to endow its incongruous parts with one 
 national impulse, and to bring forth its resources under one 
 redoubted sway. All this, let it be remarked, is to be done 
 in the view of dissevering themselves from their parent stem, 
 in whose unlimited resources alone their peculiar prowess
 
 9. 
 
 resides, a prowess so potent, t!iat wMlo acting under its iii- 
 lluciicc, every man uf tiieni possesses vigor suflicieiU tt» 
 coiuniand U»e services of the thousands, by whom he is be- 
 sft. AVhat but infatuated efleininacy could contemplate 
 such a revulsion without horror ! and what energy is there 
 to bu dreaded in such deplorable infatuation ! 
 
 Tjie alarms, implied in the third supposition, have parti- 
 sans even among the advocates for a tree trade. It is not, 
 these say, the treachf ry nor the revulsion of their country- 
 men, ii' placed under auspices favourable for improvement, 
 that they dread, but the corruption and imbecillity of our 
 own executive government, and the headstrong turbulence 
 to which, British residents may thereupon be driven. 
 These, they alledge, would, if not most imperiously res- 
 trained, throw the affairs of the nation into disorder, and 
 embroil the best interests of the country. This is a theme 
 which too many of our countrymen are disposed to chime, 
 but it is one, in which the topics for reprehension lead to 
 conclusions the most opposite from what is here intended. 
 Every one knows that there is a vast difference betwixt 
 the temperamcHt of an Indian and that of a Briton, but few 
 make the allowances that are necessary to ascertain the 
 character and the consequences of this difference ; the as- 
 perity of the cue grates upon our ears, the timidity of the 
 other beguiles our senses. The first, however, is bold and 
 generous, the last perfidious and distrustful ; he will neither 
 give nor receive those kind offices that indicate a sound dis- 
 position of mind, while the other, amidst all his inequalities, 
 is incessantly giving powerful displays of the strength and 
 v.orth of his essential endowments. This is a conclusive, 
 and it is an irresistible argument in favour of a liberal poli- 
 cy in regard to our own countrymen ; and when it is duly 
 v»eighed, it must inspire confidence alike in our brethren 
 abroad, our government, and our establishments. It suits 
 the views of certain partizans, as well as it docs those of 
 
 H
 
 10 
 
 tlic East India Compaijy, to repel such inferences ; but this 
 cannot be done, without denying the existence of all those 
 blessings and advantages that we individually and nationally 
 enjoy, and giving the preference to a system of things which 
 none of us can contemplate without disgust. 
 
 These remarks may be held to be a sufficient answer to 
 mere cavillings and surmises, that have their foundation in 
 jealousy and misapprehension. It is the business of but too 
 many to vilify the peculiarities of our countrymen, that 
 tliereby they may degrade our peculiar institutions in the 
 eyes of the world. To reason with such is unnecessary; it 
 is enough to appeal to facts that cannot be disputed. What 
 is it that upholds the whole frame of society in which we 
 are enveloped, that amidst turmoils and difficulties elicits 
 the most sublime indications of human character ? Is it not 
 our holy religion, and the institutions by which its influen- 
 ces are diffused ? We must not suppose, that because the 
 doctrines of Christianity are so generally treated with dis- 
 respect, that therefore their power has ceased to unfold it- 
 self. There is scarcely a person amongst us, the most profli- 
 gate and the most impious, whose character has not been 
 affected by it, and who is not, though in spite of himself, 
 made instrumental in diffusing its best blessings. Every 
 thing around us has at one time or other been subjected to 
 the power and influence of Christianity, and retains more 
 or less of its powerful impress: the provisions for education 
 as well as those for the maintenance of the helpless ; the 
 laws and usages of polite society, as well as the forms and 
 ceremonies of religious worsliip, all partake of its mild bene- 
 ficent character, and diffuse advantages that are conformable 
 to its laws. By these things the conduct of men is neces- 
 sarily regulated, by them also their temper and character is 
 generally formed ; they have raised the character and cir- 
 cumstances of the European community above those of all 
 the other nations of the world, and all the nations of anti-
 
 11 
 
 qnity, and tliey'ai^^' i^^ccssary to uphold these in their exalt 
 ed situation. 
 
 That the influences here referred to have entered deeply 
 into the temperament of our countrymen, cannot he doubl- 
 ed. It was these that moderated the various revolutions of 
 Britain, so opposite both in their operations and in their 
 results to the revolution? of other countries. With the fol- 
 lies, but not with the crimes that attended these revolutions 
 the fatuities of religionists may be char;:jeable ; for it is a 
 fact, that deserves our most serious regard, that even amidst 
 the height of delusion, the restraints laid on the passions of 
 men by our holy fciith were obviously the j)reservatives from 
 much mischief. No such scenes as those that took place in 
 France, in St. Domingo ; no St. Bartholomew's Day, no 
 Sicilian Vespers cloud our history : ebulitions of mistaken 
 loyalty, of undue devotion to a particular party and to par- 
 ticular tenets, took place then, as they take place daily under 
 our eye, but unless the star of infidelity shall rear its head, 
 and the sunshine of Christian truth set in the shade, we 
 will continue to find, as we have always heretofore found, 
 that not only genuine contrition will defecate occasional per- 
 versity, but that sympathetic and benevolent feelings will 
 predominate even in our most infuriate dissentions. These 
 characteristic sentiments, let it be laoticed, are not confined 
 to one class of men, they pervade the whole community. 
 The fatuous Turks and the bigotted Spaniards and Portu- 
 guese are witnesses of the fact, and in their harmonious co- 
 operation with our meanest hinds, acknowledge the superior 
 lustre of British boni:^;iIly. Can we then seriously dread 
 revulsion irom the mild and placid tribes of Hindostan, co- 
 alesced under our governance, who have so much cause to 
 venerate our institutions, and so many inducements to con- 
 fide in our national character ? We perceive our name and 
 nation looked up to with respectful homage by those who 
 are nationally most averse both from these and from our
 
 12 
 
 religion and national policy ; and will we fenr lest the grat- 
 ings of our peculiar asperities, the uncouthness of our per- 
 sonal manners, sink that magnanimity and power out of 
 sight, while the blessings that are connected with them are 
 so fully enjoyed? 
 
 TiiERH is one way of securing the good-vviU and riveting 
 the affections of our fellow-subjects in the East, and there 
 is but one, and that is, by making them duly sensible of the 
 blessings that they enjoy under our protection. It is not 
 by impressing them with an idea that we will at all events 
 respect and nurture their prejudices and their institutions; 
 that rather than be deficient in complacency to these, we 
 will like the Dutch trample the ensign of our own peculiar 
 faith at their feet, or like the Americans plead our abortion 
 from the European commonwealth. If we should thus bend 
 all that is peculiarly our own at their feet, every act and 
 circumstance of our lives would disclose the hoUowness of 
 oiu' pretensions ; our tameness would provoke their abject 
 hostility, an<i give unbounded effect to that subtle line of po- 
 licy that is so suitable to their character. It is by govern- 
 ing wisely and exercising our authority with fidelity, reso- 
 lution and intrepidity, that our institutions and our inter- 
 ests will come to be all alike respected, and not by dropping 
 tlie one in favour of the other; it is by limiting our power 
 by maxims drawn from discrete, magnanimous and extend- 
 ed views of our whole circumstances and obligations, that 
 this respect, and that correspondent good-will, which are so 
 much coveted, will be alike procured. Whatever the in- 
 habitants of these distant regions may think of us, let us be- 
 ware, that they never entertain the idea that we are bound 
 to lower ourselves under their feeble phantasies ; for if thev 
 shovdd, while we forfeited our character for courage and 
 candovtr,. we would place these phantasies in that very throne 
 which we, and all that is our own, are called to occupy. It 
 was not by sacrificing their own peculiar tenets to the pre-
 
 •IS 
 
 jutiices ol llie multitude that tlie T\Ialiometan's dynasty be- 
 came cstaUliahed ; and it is not by so doing that our security 
 is to be obtained. These bickerings and dissensions that sound 
 so lotid and appear so threatening when religion is named, 
 form no part of its pure essence; tliey are ebulitions from 
 its surface, but they feel the restraints of its influence, and 
 like the ragings of the windy storm, they alarm those most 
 who are least implicated in their consequences — like the 
 tempest, too, as they tend to pass off impurities tliat might 
 become pestilential, they excite alarms that will presently 
 subside and be at rest. 
 
 I HAVE l)cen the more particular on this point, because it 
 seems to be much misapprehended. We are alarmed lest 
 Christianity and civilization, by making too rapid progress 
 in India, endanger the stability of our empire, while the 
 tact is, that we have too iv.nch reason to fear, that though 
 our utmost efllbrts were used, the progress of these would be. 
 hut tardy. It is above two hundred years since we began 
 the civilization of the Irish under similar prejudices, and 
 though our national exertions thereto have been immense, 
 we have no reason to vamit of our success. Improvement 
 presupposes high mental as well as great and incessant cor- 
 poreal exercise ; it subsumes a sense of the value, and a 
 taste for the enjoyments of refined life, and it subsumes also 
 a disposition and a predetermination to submit to the exer- 
 cises and privations that are necessary for their attainment. 
 For these reasons, in spite of all the blessings felt to be con- 
 nected with it, we are tardy in our progress towards im- 
 provement ; nay, we frequently fall back in the way. Have 
 we any rea^son to believe that the Hindoo forms any excep- 
 tion to (he gei^eral rule ? Quite the reverse. Mahometan- 
 ism, with all its allurements, has not in the course of manr 
 centuries received any considerable accession of sUength. 
 
 We are accordingly brought bark to the point from which
 
 14 
 
 we started, the institution of a good general system. To 
 appoint proper deputies for exercising the powei-s of legiti- 
 mate authority, is an important object, and it is one in 
 which perhaps, there has been seldom much to complain of; 
 but it is a matter of still greater importance, to institute a 
 proper plan of superintendance, to secure vigilance, and en- 
 force accountability. I have sometimes been of opinion, 
 that this matter v/as in a manner prepared to our hands. 
 Our own plan of executive government seems to have arisen 
 out of the regular exercise of its ordinary functions, and some 
 such plan might be adopted in India. Let our object he 
 not so much the punishment, as the prevention of evil ; let 
 the council of each Governor General, those whom he was 
 bound to consult, and whose advice he was under the neces- 
 sity of following, in all extraordinary occasions, besides com- 
 prizing some of his confidential friends, comprehend the 
 heads of the departments of finance, of the army and navy, 
 of the colonial and commercial interests, of the justiciary 
 and civil authority, and then we may rest assured, that he 
 never can act without competent information ; and let the 
 heads of these departments be amenable not only to govern- 
 ment, both abroad and at home, but to the legislature for 
 their transactions, and then too I apprehend we can have few- 
 fears about the execution of their respective duties. 
 
 I AM far, however, from setting down this or any other 
 plan as a general rule, I mention this plan merely because 
 it exhibits one, wherein, the exact fulfilment of every obliga- 
 tion, and tlie most complete accountability can be comprised, 
 and one that is alike simple in its apprehension, and in its 
 application. IVIy object, at present, is not to exhibit a mo- 
 del, but to evince the fact, that there is nothing in the cir- 
 cumstances of the case that can make the changes about to 
 be induced by a free trade, either momentous or alarming; 
 and if the pviis to be dreaded do not render an abolitioij of
 
 the monopoly impolitic, surely the advantages obviously to 
 be derived thereiVom ought to lead to that measure. 
 
 The greatest difficulty consists in adjusting the claims of 
 the East India Company. Here too there is one way, and 
 but one of meeting the objection. We must, and we may 
 admit them in their full legitimate extent ; but we must 
 (jualify the admission with declaring, that all these claiins, 
 whatever they are, are mere matters of indemnity and com- 
 pensation. Without this qualification, we must be contending, 
 tJjat British subjects may institute sovereignties, independent 
 of tlie state, and that the East India Company is one of these 
 sovereignties. But we all know that no British subject has 
 any right so to do, nor any ground of claim whatever, 
 that stands on a higher footing thfin that of indemnity ; 
 .and that with this right held in security, he can insist on 
 the most ample amends. Tiie right of resolving claims in 
 this way, it is evident, can be exercised by the state alone 
 — only for the sake of great and substantial public advan- 
 tage, and no farther than this advantage imperiously re- 
 quires. In those cases, wherein the exercise of this power is 
 necessary, it is no less the duty of the state to accord, than 
 of the individual to claim, not only complete indemmty, but 
 the most absolute deference to all his personal rights which 
 still remain in reserve. 
 
 This point, I apprehend, must be held to be incontroverti- 
 ble, and being thus determined, the adjustment of every otli- 
 er matter becomes both easy and simple. The first thinn- that 
 demands our regard is the claims which the British nation 
 now set forth, v.hat is their limits, and what the extent of 
 the concessions that the company must be prevailed on to 
 accord. That the exercise of sovereignty in all its ramifi- 
 cations must be resumed by the king, in case of a free trade 
 is sell-evident — for British residents in India, in that case, 
 will not be the servants of the Company as they now
 
 1(3 
 
 nre, ami governeil l)y res irlctive regulations, but llie subjects^ 
 of the crown, dnd as siicii governed by the esUiblisljed lawaH 
 of Britain. Thrft this fi'ee trade ought to be exercised iavr 
 ^11 its branches is in my opinion equally manifest, from)? 
 our circumstances and obligations. Giirnatioilal trada andj^ 
 indu;^try are sunk into depend^ce on rival' 'and hostik iiai-fi 
 tions, and they have at length become paralysed froaathftij 
 miiRitude of misfortunes under which they bav^^falleo, and by i^ 
 ■which they are still incessantly beset. Our wliole populationv V 
 and tlie value of all our national resources are in conseqiiencei , 
 falling off' rapidly, both in real efficiency and inpoilticaUm--.',. 
 portance. Duties, that call for our greatest strength, omr. 
 liighest exertions, in the meantime press upon us ; and we are ^ 
 in a manner driven to the East for an excitation and 3up-».- 
 port to our industrious propensities. There, an unbounded ; 
 field for commercial enterprise presents itselr", there, wealth; • 
 unexplored, and means ascertained sufficient to I'eauimato 
 all our faculties, and to keep them for ages in full exercise, 
 present themselves ; and there too, the interposition of pri- 
 vate capital, and of private traders, has called in the assis- 
 tance of foreigners to meet duties and enjoy advantages 
 that are peculiarly our own. 
 
 I^f betaking ourselves to this resource, vvc are only avail- 
 ing ourselves of an advantage that has been long with-held 
 from us. This defalcation of ours has not only excluded us 
 for a""es from the exercise of many indisputable and essen- 
 tial rights, but it has armed the individuals who have availed 
 themselves of it, with much dangerous and hurtful power ; 
 thev have not only drawn up these unalienable rights, and 
 the transcendent prowess that has resulted from them, un- 
 der banners hostile to our best interests ; but they have in- 
 verted the energy thus procured, against ourselves ; and so 
 immured themselves in privileges, that we dare not, or can- 
 not bring them to the bar of common equity, for their mis- 
 application of our resources. This is a matter that cannot
 
 17 
 
 he ilisguisctl. Nay, such i« the patronage enjoyed by 
 the East India Company, that in all ordinary cases, the 
 renovation of its charter uould have passed again. At 
 length, however, its linancial ditiiculties have nmde it ne- 
 cessary for it to throw itself in the arms of the country : 
 the necessities of the landed, the connnercial, and the funded 
 interests now loudly call for relief: to these the wants of the 
 state and of the community at large, give redoubled efficacy. 
 In the meantime the monopolists paralyzed, giving way, and 
 yielding up powers that are unprofitable, and even hurtful, per- 
 ceive that though by abandoning their power, they alter their 
 condition, they are under no necessity, either to lower their 
 character, or to forfeit any of those honors and privileges, that 
 are really estimable, and that they can exercise with advan- 
 tage to themselves or the country. This, I apprehend, is 
 the real state of things, at present, and, under these views, 
 the value and the extent of the claims and j>leas of all parties 
 mav, I think, be satisfactorily adjusted. The interest of all 
 parties are prepared to coalesce ; they are kept asunder by 
 certain feelings and misconceptions, but these ought not to 
 prevent an equitable arrangement. 
 
 I.v my opinion, the situation of tlie East India Company, 
 at this moment, is somewhat analogous to that of the feu- 
 dal aristocracy, when civil improvement first made way for 
 the advancement of the lower class of the community. Like 
 this body of men, at that eventful epoch, they have before 
 them a change which no exertions of their own can obviate 
 or prevent. The mass of the people are struggling for a par- 
 ticipation in that wealth and influence which the company 
 has so long enjoyed, and the government is anxious to re- 
 sume that power and j)atronage, irom which it has heretofore 
 l)een excluded. The Company is exceedingly lotlie to part 
 with possessions and dignities that have in a sense become . 
 prescribed in its hands ; part with these, however it must, 
 or greater evils will ensue. If its struggles are sj hematic 
 and successful, it may preserve to itself something like the
 
 J8 
 
 feudal domination, that in the end obtained the ascendancy in 
 Poland and Germany; wherein, the jiatrician order, by depres- 
 sing alike the supreme power and the people, contrived to 
 maintain their predominancy at the expence of the welfare 
 of the nation. But if the matter is compromised in the way 
 that was done in regard to that domination in England 
 ^nd in France, the interests of all parties may be promoted 
 and not at all repressed by the change. 
 
 At present an opportunity of meeting the exigencies of 
 the country, and of obtaining effectual relief to themselves, 
 U laid open to the East India proprietors. The country 
 demands access to those regions of enterprise that are locked 
 up under their hands. The certain consequence of ob- 
 taining this access is the introduction of improvement, wealth 
 and security into their territorial domains. It is necessa- 
 ry that the state lay hold of the reins of this vast emj)ire, 
 not so much for the sake of the change that is apprehended, 
 as of that which has been already induced. But, in thus 
 depriving these proprietors of their honors and immunities, 
 the state relieves them of their burdens, extends its strong 
 arm around their possessions, and gives redoubled efficacy to 
 that spirit of enterprise v/hich there, as in England and A- 
 mevica, must necessarily augment and substantiate the value 
 of their immense possessions. In such circumstances, is it 
 the duty oris it the interest of the proprietors to be tenacious 
 of their prescribed superiority, or to let it fall into the hands 
 of the state, for the sake of the equivalent that will thereby 
 be prepared to their hands ? In being tenacious, they risk 
 their own immeiliate Concerns, they incur double responsi_ 
 bility in the eyes of the country, and they contribute to 
 the general calamity of the nation, a calamity, in which 
 they themselves nuist ultimately participate. On" the other 
 hand, by letting their prescribed honors fall into the hands 
 of those who are disposed to make the best use of them, they 
 relieve themselves from a mass of cares and burdens, they re-
 
 19 
 
 .solve all these, ami all their hazards into those of the state, 
 they will call for the thanks, and they will merit the gratitude 
 of tlieir country, and eontrII)ule thereby to raise it, and 
 all their connexions, to a condition that will enable and dis- 
 ])ose them, and all {)arties to seek their welfare as benefac- 
 tors. By followintr out this latter train of conduct, the East 
 India proprietors, like the ancient English barons, must un- 
 questionably find the value of all those possessions, and of 
 all those privih^ges that it is competent for them regularly to 
 enjoy, augmented beyond all calculation. Thereby, also, 
 they may obtain financial relief and territorial revenue from 
 subjects, that would have otherwise been unproductive. 
 If the Company could take a clear and extended view of its 
 own situation and advantages, I apprehend, that it would 
 view the denouement that is thus prepared for it, as a 
 consummatiou every way most desireable. 
 
 TfiERE are a variety of stations in a system so vast, that 
 might give occupation to a body so great, so rich, and so pow- 
 erful, as the East India Company. India has a territorial 
 interest particularly her own, which an aristocracy so great 
 might well devote itself to the charge of The commerce, 
 thence induced, must require tlie interposition of a financial 
 establishment furnished with resources both at home and a- 
 broad, thus redoubted and thus extended. The vast national 
 enterj)rises, martial, maritime and political, of an empire so 
 imj)ortant and inmicnse, could not be better disj)osed of, than 
 in charge to a political body, so deserving of confidential re- 
 gard. In all or in any of these, the talents and resources 
 of the company might find employment, much more suitable 
 and much more lucrative, than that of conquering and go- 
 verning countries which must sooner or latter be taken out 
 of its hands. It is by these very means, (it must be noticed,) 
 that the value and the importance of all its assets and in- 
 vestments would be most successfully substantiated, realized 
 and resolved into tangible and divisible efl'ects, and that 
 
 c 2
 
 20 
 
 a species of political p'oner and iiiiportaiicc, with coiumcH- 
 surate wealth and means, would result from its chauacter 
 vft^djsjttuation, most consistent with iadividual interest- . 
 
 As to the commercial and political difficulties that may 
 be devolved upon the nation, by unrestrained intercourse 
 to the East, these, whatever they may turn out to be, ou2^ht 
 not to discompose us. There is a season when nations like 
 individuals may put forth their whole strength, not only 
 without danger, but with manifest advantage ; and surely 
 the vigor and energy of the British governanent and people, 
 exhibited by them on every suitable occasion, cannot make 
 us estimate any difficulties that can here present themselves, 
 matters of" much importance. Patriotism and loyalty, courage 
 and perseverance, the qualities of all others the most neces- 
 sary for surmounting obstacles and resolving advantages, in- 
 to general good, were never so prevalent, and never so suc- 
 cessfully displayed in our nation as at present. Our capital 
 and ingenuity, our industry and interprize, and our resour- 
 ces, faculties and powers, abetted by our naval prowess and 
 military force, and by the exalted character of our govern- 
 ment, and supported by the immense territorial acquisitions 
 and resources that have at length been subjected to our 
 sway in those very legions, ought to raise us above all sus- 
 picions on this head. Such means and such powers must 
 bear down every appearance of obstruction, and nothing but 
 a restricted and perverse line of policy can prevent their 
 raising our name and nation to the highest pitch of advance- 
 ment. . These attainments are immense, but as they are no- 
 ways incommensurate with our innate staminal vigor, they 
 may be exercised without abatement. Holland and Portu- 
 gal, Venice and Genoa severally, had possessions every way 
 more disproportionate to their native power j and it was not 
 by their extension, but by their corruption and oppression 
 that I heir fate was blighted. It becomes us, like Rome, to 
 assimulate to our character all that has become our own ;
 
 21 
 
 an.il then, like Rome, tliougli tlie whole eailh should fall 
 under our sway, its improvement and our own radical 
 strenf^th and siijieriority would only' be the more effectually 
 established and confirmed. 
 
 '<eTfT>'isinotfatidll'fi*e^rt'l^ say, tliat nothing like difficulty, 
 or ohstaclp, or disappointment will appear in the expansion 
 ofcommeice and industry, that is here supposed. On the 
 contrary, in such an extended scale of action, we must ex- 
 pect that these will increase ; but unless our character shall 
 rapidly degenerate, obstruction will only be the prelude to 
 triumph, difficulty to higher attainments, and disappoint- 
 ment to more severe and arduous preparations. Let it be 
 recollected, that every new commercial attainment will not 
 only constitute a trophy to the British name, but form the 
 means for farther attainments, — that every new indication 
 of improvement thus procured will not only augment our 
 resources, but tend to the stability of those already obtain- 
 ed, and thus confirm our commercial ascendency amongst 
 the nations, — and that every developement of this ascendency 
 will prove a spring to the advancement of our personal char- 
 acters. It is not for a moment to be admitted, that our 
 constituted powers are incompetent to the formation of a 
 system of regulations suited to such increasing power, nor 
 that imbecillity of mind and feebleness of conception will 
 prevent the Jiation from availing itself fully of such advan- 
 tages, as is but too frequently admitted. On the contrary, 
 taking for my rule, those high displays of personal prow- 
 ess, and of force of character, that have taken place in the 
 navy and other fields of enterprize, and wherever a fair and 
 full opportunityhas offered, I must'contend, that our national 
 character has not yet sufficiently developed itself, that it is 
 Btill in a state of pupilage, and that a more ample range is, 
 necessary for its full exercise and denouement. 
 
 I AM aware that these remarks will alarm a certain clas'^
 
 22 
 
 of the commuiutj, respectable alike for t'.ieir character and 
 for their influence. It maybe apprehended, thact the na- 
 tional means and the national power will be squandered away 
 under presumptuous ideas of our importance, in wild attempts 
 at fanciful reformation ; that unprofitable and unwarranted 
 undertakings will become prevalent ; or at any rate that our 
 strength and potency, now so consolidated and so stable, 
 may be exhausted and attenuated from the effects of mere 
 extension. It must be remembered, however, that all this 
 time it must be held that the arm and authority of one go- 
 vernment surmounts the whole, that these will not be idle or 
 listlessly set aside, but on the contrary, be proportionally 
 active and vigilant, and be strenuously and incessantly ex- 
 ercised in repressing unlawful and unwarranted undertak- 
 ings. Undue assumptions of wealth and pretensions to im- 
 portance will in this way be immediately exposed. 
 
 In the case supposed, however, there is a check upon un- 
 warranted speculation that can exist in no other instance. 
 In a trade that admits of exchanges in a manner under one''s 
 eye, the prospect of factitious support, from obligations that 
 are transmissable, may decoy the unwary into various im- 
 proper transactions. It is well known, that extensive ship- 
 ments of invaluable commodities have been frequently made, 
 for the sake of the financial accommodation to be obtained 
 from drawbacks of debentures and from advances on consig- 
 nation ; and that these, in certain instances, have been contin- 
 ued to such an extent, that the wealth of particular commu- 
 nities have been consigned to destruction, in the pursuit of fi- 
 nancial relief. In the case before us, however, every thing 
 of this kind is impossible: no financial accommodation can 
 be drawn from a trade, wherein a couple of years must in- 
 tervene betwixt the outset and the return. A person en- 
 gaging in it must be possessed of a capital equal to the whole 
 amount that is adventured, and this capital he must have 
 completely under his command. As this arises from the 
 Tiature of the case, it forms a bar to unwai-ranted enterprize
 
 23 
 
 that OanHpt ne obviated. Nor is this all: as this very cir- 
 cusnstance must induce caution and mature preparation, it 
 will drive mere adventurers out of the trade, and it uijl al- 
 lure men of real capital and experience into it. These will 
 not rashly consign their properly into an improper channel 
 of trade^ noji'Uicreas?. .its extent beyond its due bounds. 
 
 Of the effects, resiHtuig from such extended intercourse, 
 upon the character and general circumstances of the state 
 and nation, some ajiprehensions may be obtained from view- 
 ing our peculiar attainments and situation. Our nation is 
 in every sense founded on the sea ; we are an immense mari- 
 time, mercantile, industrious people, connected together by 
 the instrumentality of naval and commercial influence. Our 
 native isle is placed in the centre betwixt our North Amer- 
 ican and Eastern territories. These countries, so opposite 
 to each other in character and circumstances, while they 
 supply us with their peculiar riches, are governed and sub- 
 jected not less by superior policy and incessant intercourse, 
 than by our established sovereignty and paramount influ- 
 ence. A vast navy, and vast territorial advantages, resources 
 and energies are necessary to us, and they are prepared fof 
 us, but they are only to be obtained in the way of free un- 
 restrained commerce, and as they are to be obtained, so they 
 must be diflused and possessed in this way, and in no other. 
 "With the advantage of such a navy, such intercourse, ex- 
 tended and invigorated by such means and resources, we ap- 
 proximate the most distant corners of our empire to each 
 other ; we make each feel and enjoy the strength and ad- 
 vantages of the whole ; we consolidate their aggregate pow* 
 ers, under our immediate authority. 
 
 These remarks are set down, because they bring into 
 view a variety of inn)ortant considerations in regard to the 
 true value of unrestricted commercial intercourse. It is by 
 it, and by it alone, that the invaluable productions of our
 
 2i 
 
 Asiatic territories are to be accaminodatcd to oifr service, 
 and produced of such qualities and iu sucii <]uautities as to 
 befit our purposes. Silk, cotton, indigo, and a variety of 
 precious gums and dyewoods, fitted for our manufactures ; 
 hemp, saltpetre, and other naval and warlike stores } for 
 competent supplies of wliich we are at present dependent on 
 foreign powers, mifi;ht be all obtained within our own do- 
 mains, if a free trade, supported by a liberal and extended 
 line of policy in regard to our distant possessions, were a- 
 dopted. At present, the quality of Indian productions is ge- 
 nerally mari-ed through want of skill and attention, and the 
 quantity produced nov/ays commensurate to that which in 
 requisite to meet our manufacturing exigencies. Nothing 
 but the solicitude and perseverance of the resident Brit- 
 ish capitalist can reach the source of the evil here noticed ; 
 and such a personage cannot exist and exercise his amelio- 
 rating functions, without perfect freedom and security in 
 regard to his personal and political interests. Here, the ciy 
 of methodism and colonization may again be raised ; but 
 will any one say, that there is more danger in binding the 
 inhabitants of these countries to us by a sense of interest, 
 than by the repulsive fetters of constraint ; in inspiring them 
 with love and confidence in our paternal solicitude for their 
 concerns, than in compressing them under our authority by 
 means of distrustful and alienating restrictions. At present, 
 notwithstanding the improved state of our own manufac- 
 tures, the old round of fabricating silk and cotton goods, 
 without abatement and without I'eserve, is kept agoing in 
 India, although these, so far from supplying our wants, ma- 
 terially traverse and interfere with the most necessary means 
 for their supply. How in such circumstances can commer- 
 cial intercourse become profitable.'* It belongs to the inge- 
 nuity and industry of the British capitalist, informed by 
 science and impelled by system, to divert trade from this 
 unnatural channel, to resolve its whole force against hostile 
 competitor^?, and to rer^.der it necessary for our neigbboiiJ-s
 
 and for foreign connexions, to subject their commercial syar\ 
 tern to fair and equitable principles.up ti;:.- ' \>rfr. 
 
 B©?j i)esides the advantages resulting from improving the.r 
 native productions of India, and accommodating these to 
 our purposes, direct intercourse with India would prepare 
 the natives for higher exercises under our iininediate influ- 
 ence. ■ For my part, I can see no good reason for debar- 
 ring ourselvejj from their services in the army, in every 
 dep:>rtment of foreign duty that offers. What consumpt of 
 British subjects, does the garrisoning of our West India Is- 
 lands occasion .'' How mauy thousand brave warriors might 
 be at our disposal, if our colonial expeditions could be sup- 
 ported by recruits from llindostan ? In this way we might 
 infuse the ardor and zeal of loyalty into the hearts of our 
 dusky fellow subjects; these we might make beat with en- 
 thusiasm in our common cause ; we might exercise the 
 zeal and ardor thus produced, towards great common ob- 
 jects under one great influence, and by advancing them ef- 
 fectually in our own system, exalt our general system in the 
 scale of nations. This is no trifling consideration. Every 
 Kussian Emperor may not be as magnanimous as Alexander. 
 If a Bonaparte should ever sit on the throne that commands 
 the source of our supplies of naval stores, he might feel as 
 little difliculiy in advancing over the Scandinavian territory 
 to the Northern seas, as Bonaparte himself felt in crossing 
 the states on the Rhine. In such a case, the dernier resort 
 here referred to, would be invaluable ; but it would only be 
 invaluable in so far as attachment to us was secured by kin- 
 dred regaids. If in this point we are deficient, in some cri- 
 tical posture of our affairs, the j)ower or influence of our 
 enemy may invert against ourselves, the whole force thus in 
 reserve, with more ease than we could manage it. At pre- 
 sent a fair and a full opportunity of drawing it forth, and or- 
 ganizing it under our own influence is within our grasp ; this 
 opportunity lost, another equally favourable may never return.
 
 26 
 
 I HAVE been the more particular upon the subject of civi- 
 lizing India, because it appears to me to form the key-stone 
 of all our attainments If we can accomplish this object, 
 we will have effectually brought under our sway, an empire e- 
 very way superior to that of Bonaparte ; its population 
 and its territory being alike invaluable in themselves, and 
 correspondent to our circumstances. Let India but be ci- 
 vilized, or rather identified with the parent system, and we 
 have at once direct and complete access to all the wealth and 
 commerce of the whole Eastern world. India, however, must 
 in the first place, be exercised under this character ; its indus- 
 try must be concatenated with ours, and its hopes and fortunes 
 linked with the results of this connexion. Our manufactu- 
 rers derive immense advantage from Jews and pedlars on 
 the European continent. Our merchants may have a simi- 
 lar advantage in Asia where this is necessary ; but by fol- 
 lowing out the outline now drawn, our commerce in this 
 quarter will come to rest on higher ground. 
 
 But say they, there is a difficulty and a danger in attempt- 
 ing or even abetting the civilization of India. There is 
 manifest danger in trusting one's self in a bark upon the 
 waves, or to guidance derived from information drawn from 
 the magnetic needle ; similar danger is produced in explod- 
 ing a cannon, and in condensing steam ; but by observing in 
 each particular case the necessary rules, every danger is so 
 completely dispelled, that the merest novice will not startle. 
 When the powers thus obtained have been duly improved, 
 arranged, extended, concentrated and properly directed, 
 they give the most momentous results. It was by dint of 
 power derived from the successful application of steam to 
 useful purposes, that the national wealth and power, by 
 which Britain has been able to impede the progress of 
 French principles, has been procured. It was by dint of 
 the force, derived from the application of gun-powder to 
 warlike puqioses, that Mahometanism was by the Divine
 
 27 
 
 goodness nrrested in its progress westward ; and, it is by 
 the superior prowess that results from a concentiation of all 
 the improvements made in naval tactics, that the blessings 
 of peace and security are now and have been so often pre- 
 served to the world by the power of liritain. There is a 
 danger no doubt in attempting to civilize India, and if we 
 manage the business violently and remissly by turns, as the 
 French revolutionists managed the ebulitions that took place 
 in France twenty years ago, the danger may be great ; but 
 shall we therefore say, with our eyes open to the conse- 
 quences, with our government, our institutions, our resour- 
 ces, and every man at his post, that the civilization of In- 
 dia gradually rising up under our hands, will create any 
 thing like peculiar danger or difficulty ? 
 
 I^ET us next direct our attention to the advantages and. 
 consequences that must (low to our China trade, from the a- 
 doption of a liberal system, in regard to Hindostan- It U 
 proposed to reserve the China trade to the East India Com- 
 pany, which it must be noticed, is not only a trade that is 
 most lucrative, but one that is most susceptible of extension 
 and im])rovement, provided only a liberal policy in regard 
 to our general trade be resorted to. It is said that the cha- 
 racter of the Chinese, and the principles of their government, 
 render this reservation on the whole both prudent and ad- 
 vantageous. The matter, I apprehend, briefly stands thus. 
 The government of China is as systematically repugnant 
 to our nation, and to all intercourse with it, as that of Bor 
 naparte, and it tol(Mates no more foreign trade, than what in 
 existing circumstances is indispensibly necessary. On the 
 other hand, the inhabitants of that country arc as alert in 
 the pursuit of gain, and as friendly to trade as any other 
 people on the face of the gl()))e. On our part, neither the 
 government nor the nation conceal their partiality to thi? 
 trade. The question with us accordingly turns out to be— r 
 how are we to remove these jealousies, and that captiousne*?! 
 
 D 2
 
 28 
 
 «n the part of the Chinese government, whicij is the great 
 bar to this intercourse ? The question is no doubt important, 
 and somewhat delicate, but as I do not pretend to be pos- 
 sessed of the means that are necessary to make all its cir- 
 cumstances bear upon their object, I shall content my- 
 self with adverting to a few particulars, that in my opinion, 
 ought to set the matter at rest, wliatever way the general ten- 
 dency of circumstances may happen to point. 
 
 We have an immense and invaluable empire in the East; 
 this empire is supported by our national character, and by 
 our maritime prowess. How are these to be maintained 
 in full vigor ? Is it by lowering ourselves in a way, that we 
 w^ould not do in regard to France, Russia, or America ? The 
 government of China no doubt does not invade our territo- 
 ry, or those of our allies ; it does not preclude our commerce, 
 by sweeping spoliative decrees ; but it lays bonds on our ex- 
 ercise of a general right, which no other power has as yet 
 attempted ; it tolerates no more intercourse with us, than 
 suits its own occasions, it represses with a high hand what 
 transgresses these limits, and it respects neither our per- 
 sons nor our properties, when these become obnoxious to 
 its views. These are assumptions of sovereignty that per- 
 haps we ought not and will not impugn. They are beacons 
 to our progress ; but they must not prevent us from avail- 
 ing ourselves of every fair and law'ful advantage that comes 
 in our way. There is no friendship shewn to us that can 
 embarrass our movements, or paralyze our efforts in the 
 course to which by the above circumstances we are impelled. 
 
 What wouldthe most conciliating dispositions lead us to do? 
 That we must have a free trade of some kind in the neigh- 
 bourhood of China is a point, about which none can cavil, 
 seeing that the possessions of the British crown in that quar- 
 ter have become so important as to render this unavoidable. 
 How then are we, in the way of giving effect to a monopo-
 
 29 
 
 \y of the Clana trade, to preclude Intercourse betwixt these 
 settlements and Cliina ? It must be recollected tluit it is not 
 enough to prechule intercourse betwixt British residents 
 and the port of Canton ; the inchgenous inhabitants of all 
 these settlements, tlie Chinese themselves, and every foreign 
 nation must be laid under a similar restraint, in order to 
 put a stop to indirect trade with China. As no restrictions 
 to be enforced ashore that can be devised, though executed 
 in the most strenuous manner, couhl elTectually preserve 
 the monopoly to our privileged Company from infraction, 
 unless along with these, the right of search at sea was es- 
 tablished ; shall we, or can we, transfer to the Company this 
 right ? Let it be recollected, that this search must be in- 
 stituted in the view of conciliating the Chinese. Will it 
 have this tendency ? Just the reverse : it will exasperate 
 their animosity and jealousy almost to distraction. It will 
 fill their minds, and the minds of every other nation of the 
 East with frenzy against our naval power. Into what ef- 
 fects such exasperations might lead, it is impossible to con- 
 jecture i it affects the tenderest part of national honor, as well 
 as the most essential interests of the people. Animosity of 
 this kind is seldom restrained by forms ; for it is not so much 
 the sense of the privation that is inflicted, as the acrimony 
 that must be engendered by constant efforts to traverse the 
 enjoyment of natural rights for a pitiful object, which nei- 
 ther equity nor sound policy can justify. 
 
 It may be explained, that no other trade will be included 
 in the monopoly, but that betwixt the parent country and 
 China ; that all other trade will be left to its course, and 
 that this restricted trade being confined to the port of Lon- 
 don, no infraction can be made upon this monopoly. 
 
 Before this explanation is received, I would ask two 
 questions. First, what is to become of the solicitude to 
 conciliate the Chinese government that was advance^ so pro-
 
 30 
 
 minently ? What provisions are to be made to prevent di*,- 
 sentions betwixt British subjects in the East, and that vin- 
 dictive government ? Would it not be more consistent with 
 British honor and safety, to preserve the whole charge of its 
 whole affairs in its own hands, amenable to law, and responsi- 
 ble to the authority of the state, and to lay down such rules 
 and regulations as would implicate all the matters to be taken 
 charge of, those of the parent state, as well as those of our 
 fellow subjects abroad ? This surely could be done merely 
 by instituting a board or factory at Canton, as is done in 
 other countries ; one laid under most precise discipline, so 
 as in effect to bring every British subject and all his af- 
 fairs to the requisite extent, under most absolute control : 
 the regulations thereto necessary being enforced by penal- 
 ties, prompt and severe, which would be every way appro- 
 priate and commensurate with the circumstances of the case. 
 Reports to the proper boards, and a refusal of protection or 
 connexion, would be severe punishments in that quarter of 
 the globe ; yet by means of these alone, if it was necessary, a 
 set of sumptuary enactments, as precise as those adopted in 
 the army or navy might, under such authority, be most ex:- 
 actly maintained. Can the Company do more than this ? It 
 certainly cannot. The drift of the explanation- set up is 
 not therefore the removal of the superinduced difficulty, 
 but the adaptation of it to the views of the East India Com- 
 pany. Nothing is thereby proposed for conciliating the 
 good-will of the Chinese government and people, that is not 
 much more completely attainable under the direct manage- 
 ment of the crown. The honour and interests of the vast 
 contiguous domains of Britain are left as unprotected as 
 when they consisted of a few solitary forts. Let it not bo 
 pretended, therefore, that it is on account of any necessity 
 in the case, or because there is no alternative, when the mat- 
 ter is so evidently arranged to suit the views of this great 
 mercantile body. While we remember that the stake which 
 we have in this business is most important, let us consider
 
 that it is not by a timid deference to a fanciful importance, 
 it is not by nurturing capricious prejudices, that the cordial 
 good-will or friendship of this jrovernment is to be obtained ; 
 it is by exhibiting in a true and full light, the loyalty, gene- 
 rosity, benignity, and intrepidity of our character, and by 
 illustrating at once the sincerity and the strength of the 
 principles out of which these qualities arise. This must be 
 done directly by the state and nation themselves, and not 
 through the medium of mercantile and interested agents. 
 Thereby we will merit esteem, and if after all, jealousy and 
 prejudice should prevail, we will be able to bear up under 
 it in a way becoming our national dignity and fortitude. 
 
 The second question I would ask those who propose this 
 explanation is, do they really know the value of the sacrifice 
 that they are demanding of us, and have the India proprie- 
 tors substantial grounds tor such a demand ? I am far from 
 questioning their right or title to every valuable considera- 
 tion that can be resolved into property of any kind ; what 
 I wish to know is, if there is any thing in their circumstan- 
 ces that can merit or constitute a ground of claim for such 
 sacrifices. It must be admitted that there is nothing. 
 
 It is proposed too to preclude the out-ports from the prin- 
 cipal advantages of this trade, for the sake of the public re- 
 venue. It may be very true, that in the port of London, 
 where this business has been long and thoroughly established, 
 a variety of facilities and advantages will be found j)repared 
 for the collection of public imposts, that exist nowhere else, 
 liut is there any peculiar diiliculty in collecting the taxes 
 on tea, and inforcing all the enactments regarding this trade, 
 in Liverpool, Glasgow or Cork, that may not be obviated? 
 No one can maintain that there is. AVhy then are the out- 
 ports to be deprived of this trade? The port of London 
 will certaiidy draw into it its own proportion of the tea trade, 
 without the aid of any monopoly ; why therefore would we
 
 deprive- tlic out-ports of a similar, xulvantage ? There caij,^ 
 be no good reason given. Having thus repelled their plea,^,* 
 we have a right to notice, that in these arrangements, the 
 East India Company drop the question about methodism 
 and colonization, and substitute that about the revenue. 
 They are prepared to let the civilization of India take its 
 course, and persons, objects and commodities to be shipped 
 ofF thither according as the matter can be arranged betwixt 
 government and isdividuals, provided only that the consigna- 
 tions homewards come under their influence. This simple 
 illusion of theirs throws the light of day on all their fears 
 about methodism, and anxieties about his Majesty's revenue. 
 Their hue and cry is seen to be of the same cast of charac- 
 ter with i]onaparte''s zea! about the freedom of the seas, a 
 bugbear to ward off investigations that would lead into the 
 most mortifyhig results. 
 
 The great advantage of a fx-ee trade to Britain is its ten- 
 dency to draw forth her resources, and to exercise on these 
 her energies, and this can only be obtained by admitting 
 trade freely into every quarter of the nation, and scattering its 
 advantages over the land, and thus bringing forward under 
 its influences all our various faculties of improvement. It 
 is not at all necessary that each port should be directly em- 
 barked in it ; this, from the extensive custom-house arrange- 
 ments which in such trade is requisite, we know to be im- 
 possible ; but it is necessary that direct trade should be laid 
 open to all the great commercial avenues, so that no one 
 set of our great national resources, and no one description 
 of our capitalists may be excluded from it. In this way, 
 our whole trade will be enlarged, and if one port gets more 
 East India trade than the rest, it will most probably drop 
 some part of its other trade in their favour. Every one of 
 us sees aggregations of capital and ingenuity of resources antl 
 energies either hopelessly thrown aside, or inconsiderately 
 dashed against each other from the mere want of an appro-
 
 li6 
 
 priate destination. This evil can only l>e remedied by ex- 
 tending the market, and hy mikinijf that market bear with 
 full and direct force on these invaKia])le objects. This evil, 
 however, we are called on to submit to, to suit the views of 
 the East India Company. Let us consider the value of the 
 advantage to be thus abandoned for their sake. 
 
 ^rTE landed interests are deeply concerned in this matter. 
 As things now stand with us, the welfare and security of the 
 landed interest, comprizing our whole peerage and indepen- 
 dent local interest, is completely identified with that of the 
 commercial and manufacturing part of the comrnunity. 
 There is a vast proportion of the landed interest directly 
 concerned in trade, and in investments tliat derive their 
 whole value from the support that they receive from trade. 
 Of those landholders who are not thus involved in business, 
 perhaps there is not one who has not friends, dependents 
 and connexions who are engaged in trade, to an extent suf- 
 ficient to interest him. These things constitute a ligument 
 of attachment betwixt this important class of the community 
 and the trading class, that is of no slender description. But 
 besides this, the increased value, that must be permanently 
 attached to their lands from an increase of trade, is such as 
 to render this class in fact the main parties in the matter 
 now under consideration. The effect of a stable trade on 
 the value of land is wonderful, for it is not only powerful 
 but permanent. Perhaps a perpetual lease of the whole e- 
 moltiments of the Governor General would not, to many 
 landholders, compensate for the loss of the stake that is in 
 depejidence on the present question. To all, this stake is 
 immense ; for if the final arrangement of the business now 
 under consideration shall be such, that nothing but sheer loss 
 lo those who stand in front of commercial enterprize can 
 ensue, the annual revenue of landholders might in coiise- 
 (pience sink so low ; or if, on the other hand, matters shall 
 be so adjusted, that every accessible advantage shall be sc- 
 
 F
 
 34 
 
 Qiirt'd to. die nation, this revenue^ as the result of national 
 prosperity, may rise so high, that the ditrerence itself may 
 equal or even exceed all the rest. The interest, therefore, 
 that the members of the legislature and the state (consider- 
 ed as a great political body, having a dependence for its re- 
 venues on commercial enterprize) have ail severally in this 
 business, is most important. The situation of the country 
 is such, as to press these considerations strongly on them. 
 Something must be done. The East India Company itself 
 must admit this. Let it be recollected, how'ever, that like 
 every other class of merchants, when buoyed out of their 
 station, this Company presses on towards its object, what- 
 ever sacrifices it may cost others. When the love of gain has 
 steeled the mind against contrition, there is no assumption 
 and no pretence too much not to be ventured on in the vvay 
 of the attainment of advantage. 
 
 The India question is posed upon the public on grounds 
 that are altogether unwarranted, and in a manner that is 
 both unfair and unbecoming. The East India Company 
 comprizes three distinct classes of functions. First, it holds 
 certain rights of sovereignty over an extensive empire ; se- 
 condly, it possesses in property invaluable territorial re- 
 venues, assets, ships, stoi*es, and other efiects ; and lastly, it 
 enjoys a monopoly of our trade to the East. In all these 
 three characters, the operations of the Company are momen- 
 tous and interesting, both in regard to its own and in regard 
 to the public interest, but each of them rests on grounds pe- 
 culiar to itself, and each in its own light ought according- 
 ly to be regarded. It suits the Company, however, to draw 
 up the whole under one view, to class all their operations 
 under one train, and to attach the interest of the whole sub- 
 jects under their ciiarge to each particular part of this train. 
 In this way, the British legislature is called upon to judge 
 of matters the most complex under one general view, and to 
 give its sanction to matters of the most opposite import.
 
 The great end looked to in submiUing India affairs to par- 
 liament is, the procuring of necessary su])plies : the im- 
 portant objects to be provided for are unfolded, and th(> 
 means at hand for meeting these are laid before it, but as 
 the upshot of tht whole is known to be tin's, that parliament 
 must make up the deficiency, whatever it maybe, and how- 
 ever it may arise, the very perplexity itself is an advantage 
 in fwwarding the object of the report ; for under the shade of 
 emergency, a sanction may be obtained for the greatest abuse. 
 In this way, the British legislature is made — to give its ap- 
 probation at once to the state of political connexions, and the 
 establishment of manufactures that traverse the interests of 
 Britain — to recognize the advantages resulting from the fa- 
 tuity and debasement of the natives, and to docquet the ac- 
 counts given in of the profits of the tea trade — to analyze 
 the necessary exiTcnditure of the general government, and 
 the petty disbursements peculiar to mercantile affairs. If 
 any exceptionable clause catch attention, is it not, in such 
 circumstances, easy to resolve it into new intricacies ? Can- 
 not a variety of expedients, neither difficult nor dangerous. 
 be made to shroud whatever it is desireable to conceal ? 
 
 EvERV one must see, that intricacy so obviously reme- 
 diable is a loud call for some general improvement of the 
 system, and that it is no less nugatory than absurd to con- 
 sider the Directors as under any great degree of accountabi- 
 lity, until this intricacy and perplexity be removed. For my 
 part, if the point could be held as ascertained and fixed, 
 that it was dangerous and improper to allow British sub- 
 jects to visit the East except under the restrictions of the 
 Company, 1 would at once propose to divide the Company 
 into three separate bodies, in one of which the sovereignty 
 would be vested, in another the territorial revenue and fixed 
 eftects, and in the thinl the monopoly of the trade to the East . 
 by such means, regular accounts could be kept, and a .system 
 of accountability maintained, and these, from thn state of 
 
 r.2
 
 36 
 
 our affairs, would be no inconsiderable attainments. The 
 present confusion has no doubt grown out o£ .events that 
 have unexpecteilly taken place. It has, however^ continued 
 long enough to exhibit its character and tendency, and it 
 ought not to be continued, when the means of preventing it 
 are obviously within our power. 
 
 That U^ rights of sovereignty, still exes^ise^ }^y the 
 
 Company, may be laid hold of by the Crown, to whatever 
 extent the legislature may appoint, without the consent or 
 advice of the East India Company, I apprehend to be a 
 point that ftw will attempt to controvert. To a certain ex- 
 lent the sovereignty has already been withdrawn from the 
 Company, and if it is now necessary to lay hold of the re- 
 mainder, I can see no ground in which the proprietors can 
 start objections. "Will they say that their policy and their 
 prowess have produced this sovereignty ? With much greater 
 propriety, might the representatives of the illustrious Nelson, 
 (the least of whose great victories throv/ all their atchiev- 
 ments, both in point of lustre and of advantage into the shade,) 
 claim the Empire cf the ocean, or some modification of it 
 in his right. Will they say that their means, as well as their 
 policy and prowess have contributed to our aggrandize-f 
 ment in the East ? The answer is, that their means were 
 procured under the influence of the state, and are entirely 
 circumscribed by the authority of its laws. 
 
 That the territorial revenues, ships, stores, effects, and 
 other subjects, held in property by the East India Com- 
 pany, rest on very different grounds from the rights of 
 sovereignty aforenoticed, is very obvious. These they have 
 acquired under the authority of the established laws of the 
 nation, and for these they may claim respect, equal to that 
 bestowed on every other description of property. The pro- 
 tection due to property accordingly is held to be extended 
 around these, and the authority cf the state and nation, jis
 
 37 
 
 pledged for their defence. These possessions, and these alone, 
 are properly their own, and tliey are well warranted to usr 
 them in every lawful way that their interest or caprice di- 
 rects. It must however be remarked, that these possessions, 
 like the possessions oF every other British subject, are ob- 
 jects of taxation, and as amenable to the state in the 
 way of public impost as any other, and that in the circum- 
 stances in which they stand, the legislature has a good right 
 to lay its hand very heavy on these in this very way. Nay, 
 it must be farther remarked, that a great part of the terri- 
 torial possessions of the Company, are burdened in the 
 most direct manner Avith the expence of sovereignty, and of 
 consecpience, must either in whole or in part, revert to the 
 state, the instant that the state assumes the full burdens of 
 sovereignty. Compensation in certain cases to a certain 
 extent will no doubt appear to be due to the Company; 
 but the adjustment of t!ie nature and extent of this com- 
 pensation ought not for a moment to impede government in 
 this assumption. It is an invariable maxim in our law, 
 that the claims of the state must always be preferable, and 
 this maxim extends with peculiar force to the present instance. 
 
 The monopoly of the East India Company, stands on 
 a very different footing from both the rights above no- 
 ticed It arose out of the circumstances of the times, it is 
 to be exercised during a definite period, and it can continue 
 no longer, and be exercised no farther, than the limits assign- 
 ed to it. It is in this point that the nation at large is 
 most interested. We are thereby debarred from the exer- 
 cise of a right, which every free nation but ourselves lays 
 claim to, and the party in whose favor this right is drawn 
 up are allowed to lord it over us in the best half of the globe, 
 in a way that we would not tolerate in any other class of 
 the community, not even in the sovereign himself — in a way 
 in fact, which, if but attempted on the part of any foreign 
 nation, would be considered as a good ground of war. For
 
 38 
 
 this monopoly the Company have not a single plea to ad- 
 duce that can on the ground of right be listened to. It 
 has been attempted to bewilder us with statements and a- 
 vermeuts, in order to shew that there is something like good 
 policy in this as a general measure ; but when the light of 
 day has been passed through these, the whole fabric has ap- 
 peared to be without substance. 
 
 Is it not ridiculous to hear the East India proprietors 
 crowing over the taxes which they pay to government, 
 while in truth, they are but the instruments of drawing 
 these from the people, and when they discharge these no 
 farther than Iheir own circumstances render expedient. Do 
 not the West India merchants pay much heavier imposts, 
 and what is more to the purpose, do they not but too fre- 
 quently pay these out of their own pockets, without ever 
 requiring government to advance its millions for their ad- 
 vantage, or to indemnify them either directly or indirectly 
 at the national expence .'* Is it not equally absurd to hear 
 them talk of their investments in manufactured goods, when 
 it is well known that these never are purchased but in the 
 view of advantage, and only to that extent which their 
 own interest requires. The merchants of Britain are nei- 
 ther destitute of capital, nor of the spirit of commei'cial en- 
 terprise, and it is altogether irrelevant to adduce extensive 
 transactions in the way of trade, as an argument for re- 
 stricting it. The magnitude of the East India Company's 
 transactions, their sacrifices, and their exertions in the way 
 of business are only deserving of public regard, in so far as 
 they contribute to promote the general interests of the na- 
 tion ; and if there be any deficiency in the case, a few parti- 
 cular or solitary instances to the contrary are not to be list- 
 ened to. This matter is to be determined by the character 
 and tendency of their whole range of enterprise, and it may 
 fee illustrated in several particulars.
 
 39 
 
 The primary object of all trade anil industry is a plenti- 
 ful supply of productions and commodities, suitable to our 
 circumstances. The exertions thereto made by the East 
 India Company, in proportion to their advantages and o])por- 
 tunities in the field that has been allotted to them, have been 
 extremely slender ; witness the high price and scarcity of 
 silk, cotton, and indigo. The imperfect state in which 
 these commodities have becH introduced into our markets, 
 joined to this scarcity and high price, have operated as a 
 premium on foreign manufactures, and as an impost on our 
 own. We can scarcely cast our eyes abroad, without per- 
 ceiving the mischief that thence results to our national in- 
 lluence and convenience, and the advantages that would 
 result from supplies under a tree system. 
 
 A SECOND object, scarcely less important than the foregoing 
 is, that of animating and exercising our national faculties. 
 It might be very possible for us to obtain all the supplies that 
 we can personally appropriate and consume, while yet from 
 the want of due excitation and support, our condition might 
 nevertheless be very uncomfortable. We have faculties and 
 talents that must be exercised and matured, and it is in the 
 discipline induced for their exercise, that our individual im- 
 provement, and our social advancement consists. We 
 might all of us have the most profuse supplies administered 
 to all our wants, by means of systematic arrangement, on the 
 purest principles of national reconomy, and yet the great 
 ends of trade and industry might not be ansAvered. Our 
 laculties lead us to seek out our appropriate gratifications, 
 and to pursue these in our own way, and according to our 
 own vie^v3 of what is best for us, and we thank no one who 
 will relieve us of the burden, by binding up or annihilating 
 our propensities to exertion. The East India Company 
 might ini,titute immense establishments for manufacturing 
 muslins at Glasgow, cloths at Leeds, and calicoes at Man- 
 chester, so as to absorb all the trade of these places in their
 
 40 
 
 own lianils, and to destroy the stimulus tor enteqmze, that 
 is frequently so ruinous in these places. In this way every 
 hand mij^ht be employed, and imparnlleled displays of skill 
 and talent might be exhibited. But where would all that in- 
 dividual talent, enjoyment, and capital, in such a case, be, 
 that excites and brings forward the general character and 
 industry of tlie people, that augments their capacities for 
 enjoyment, that extends thf? sphere of human excellence, of 
 social and individual gratification ? What would become of 
 the landed inteFCst, and of the monied interest, and of all who 
 are dependent on energetic competition, and exercised on 
 local resources and advantages ? Where would be the na- 
 tional energies and resources themselves, the first fruits of 
 our exertions, and the spring of our national character.^ 
 Would not such a system, if followed out in every particu- 
 lar, in the end convert the British nation into a community- 
 of fatuists, as stupid, and as bigotted, as the most debased 
 tribes of the Hindoos ? Yet such it must be noticed, is the 
 precise character and tendency of the East India system, 
 and such its known operation and effects. 
 
 I SHALL only point out a third aspect, under which this 
 subject may be regarded, and that is its influence on the 
 transactions of the state and of the community with for- 
 eign nations. The East India Company professes merely 
 to supply a certain part of our wants, and to recruit its 
 own finances ; but the nation and the government have to 
 draw supplies from other nations for many important 
 wants, which the East India Company cannot meet, and 
 to discharge many duties which the aggrandizement of the 
 Company cannot comprehend These are matters of the 
 very lirst magnitude to us as a nation, and we must not as 
 Ave value our existence, overlook them. Our industry and 
 our means must unable us to meet these duties. These are 
 now traversed by the unavoidable contingencies of war, and 
 we have nothing before us and our posterity, but a cot)-
 
 41 
 
 tiuuetl (wogressive, train in the same course. To all this, ns 
 far as we are individually ccincerned, we do submit without 
 murmuring, because it is our duty so to do, and because we 
 jierceive tiuit any attempt to witjulraw ourselves from the 
 sjreat cause, for which these sacrifices are made, would not 
 only be unmanly, but impolitic. I would ask, however, 
 whence are the means to be procured for enabling us to per- 
 severe in our duty, lo uphold our friends, to frustrate our 
 competitors, to combat our enemies ? Our establishments for 
 industry are j)aralyzcd, our coffers are fast exliausting, and 
 every avenue whence effectual relief can be obtained, is shut 
 against us but one, and that one is in the hands of the 
 monopolists. I am aware of the advantages that have re- 
 cently risen into our hands, l)y the success of the Russians, 
 and of others thiit may be expected to follow ; but we must 
 keep this in our eye, that these advantages are held on a 
 most precarious fitting ; precarious perhaps, not so much 
 from the late of war, as from the wayward measures of 
 foreign cabinets, when fortune gives them any peculiar as- 
 cendencv. If we can sheAv our independence of the good 
 will of these cabinets, their sense of fi'iendship takes its duo 
 course ; but the moment a proud nation like ours, lays open 
 her distresses, her wants, and her expectations, a new set 
 of feelings arise. If our intercourse with the East wero 
 laid open, on a footing that would insure competent relief, 
 at once to our general, our commercial, and our financial 
 (iiiHculties, we might calculate with some degree of certain- 
 ty on the continuance of this good will, on the part of our 
 neighbours, and derive from intercourse with them, advantages 
 ihat are not at present so much as thought of. Is it pro- 
 per, is it wise, to permit ourselves to be divested of this ad- 
 vantage, or rather chain of advantages ? 
 
 What do the favoured proprietors say to all this ? They 
 have recoMrse to the complexity of the subject. They talk, 
 of their martial atchievcmcnts and territorial acquisition*!
 
 4.<i 
 
 After the seas had been swept <?f the enemies fleets, and the 
 best troojjs and generals of Britain,, placed under their ban- 
 ners, had, through the merciful protection of Iieaven, obtain- 
 ed possession of extensive domains, these, it seems the results 
 of our blood and treasure, are to be held as props to their ab- 
 ject domination. They next point to their inflated wealth, 
 their navies crowned with pomp, (the result of high prices for 
 their commodities, unfeelingly extracted from our nation by 
 dint of their monopoly,) and contrasting these with the deep 
 depression and calamity, under which our resources are in- 
 veloped, (and they do this with the very breath, that they 
 come forward to demand the supplies necessary to avert their 
 own destruction,) they then ask us where we have means to 
 support such a trade as this ! Nor is this all ; when the lease 
 of their monopoly is about to expire, and when they are about 
 to submit it to our legislature, whether it shall be continued 
 or not, they scruple not to exhibit their contempt of our na- 
 tional religion, character, and civil constitution. Surely 
 they do not consider that it is, at least for this time, their 
 business to sooth our jealousies ; they cannot suppose our" 
 august legislature is to be dragooned into their measures ! 
 
 The subject is certainly too serious to be treated of in 
 the way of banter ; and yet as the East India proprietors, 
 (who taken in the aggregate muit have feeliiigs as just and 
 as independent as any of their countrymen,) have not here- 
 tofore opened their eyes to the strangeness of their situa- 
 tion, it is but fair to place their pretensions in the strongest 
 and fullest light. The fact is, they are loth, exceedingly 
 loth, to part with the insignia of sovereignty, and they see 
 in their predominancy, charms that outweigh their best in- 
 terests. Let them, however, call to mind, the evils and mis- 
 fortunes inlo which their fatuous pursuit of advantage has led 
 the nation, and by these, measure their claims to supremacy. 
 When the Scotch nation had exhausted itself in the view 
 of planting a colony at Darien, that would have given to
 
 4'S 
 
 Great Britain, the command of the Eastern and Western 
 Hemispheres, it was the intrigues of the Company that 
 blasted their design — it was that Company too that grappled 
 Avith our now gigantic cotton manufactures, Avhenhutin the 
 cradle ; and it was only jirevented by the superior prowess 
 of machinery, from giving them at that time their death- 
 blow. Our assessed taxes were doubled to secure the inter- 
 ests of its monopoly of tea — and it was inforcing for its be- 
 hoof this commodity on America, that that vast empire was 
 lost. The truth is, wherever the Company appears as a so- 
 vereign, there a callousness to all that is excellent, and a 
 blind rage for advantage, is most conspicous. 
 
 But this is not all ; the Company has long intervened its 
 powers and its terrors against the propagation of our holy 
 faith, and it shields with its influence, superstitions, the 
 most ghastly, and the most horrid ; its policy stands the 
 rampart of ignorance and debasement, and it is not asham- 
 ed to owe part of its revenues and authority to a connec- 
 tion with rites and ceicmonies, more shameful than any 
 that have existed since the power of Christianity was felt 
 In this globe. It becomes us not, however, to shake our- 
 selves loose from this guilt. It is but of yesterday, that we 
 gave our veto to the trade in human flesh. We ourselves 
 and our government are perhaps even here the most guilty; 
 for our influence has at all times been competent to the 
 prevention of such crimes. We might have done much for 
 t'iie propagation of the truth that we have not done ; and it 
 is only through the mercy and goodness of God, that severe 
 as our restrictions h;tve been, tliey have not jirevented the 
 Germans, Danes, Americans, and some of the best disposed 
 amongst oursehes, from difl'using tlie light and power of our 
 holy faith amidst such darkness. 
 
 I coNsmEa it necessary to express my sentiments thus 
 clearly and fully, because cxj)erleiice has at lengih proved 
 
 I.- 9
 
 44- 
 
 that though tlie India Directors be now, in a mar.ncj-, strip- 
 ped of their sovereign authority, yet tliey can exercise an 
 iniluence over the whole train of India transactions, that can 
 impress in the fullest manner, tliC character of their system, 
 on objects the highest and most important, and because it it 
 now evident, that the evil cannot be remedied, until the 
 monopoly itself be brought to an end. The power of the 
 state, and the influence of the nation, have in part mode- 
 rated that fatuous love of gain, which at a former period 
 was productive of frightful ci'iraes and calamities. The East 
 India proprietors and directors form a most respectable and 
 highly estimable part of our community, (some of these do 
 honor not only to our name and nation, but to the age in 
 which we live, and are as illustrious in a moral and rtligi- 
 ous point of character, as others of our countrymen are in a 
 martial and political,) yet even these, under the influence 
 of a system, which reduces every consideration, the highest 
 and the purest, as well as the most ordinary, into its value 
 in pounds sterling, are made instrumental in pushing forward 
 a train of measures which tend directly to level our attain- 
 ments with their pecuniary value. The evil, as things now 
 stand, cannot but be incurable, for when the criterion of all 
 that is excellent, is the impulse of the annual dividends, and 
 the evil that is of all others the most dreaded, a defalcation 
 in the results of mercantile enterprise, where can the finer 
 and the nobler sympathies and endowments of our nature, 
 those in which the protection of the helpless, and the ad- 
 vancement of the excellent disclose themselves ? How can 
 these reach their object, or exercise themselves towards its 
 attainment ? 
 
 This state of things is more to be lamented, because in 
 their own proper department, the India Company and all 
 its agents exhibit a sense of duty, and a correspondent de- 
 portment, that indicates the strongest sense of propriety. 
 Nowhere, I believe, have the particular objects of every de-
 
 4,7 
 
 partnu 111 oi office been followed up willi ir.ore fidelity, care, 
 and attention,' tlisin in the alFairs ol" the East India Com- 
 pany ; the line of dussifieation has no doubt generally run in 
 the order, which a regard to pecuniary import has drawn for 
 it, but a degree of fidelity, >:eal and discretion, in the ma- 
 nagement of affairs committed in trust, has resulted from 
 this method, that does the higliest honour to the character 
 of the Company. This very property, however, certainly 
 contributes to disqualify them for those enlarged appre- 
 Jicnsions of things that are necessary on the part of those 
 who have stupendous objects under their control. It con- 
 tracts the views and diminishes the powers of the mind ; it 
 envelopes the great leading objects in mists and obscurity, 
 and raises t!ie most minute affairs out of their place. So 
 long, therefore, as this great political body is beset with 
 such vague impulses, in the discharge of its duty, so long 
 will it, thcu;^ii possessed of vast resources and energies, and 
 endowed with faculties and propensities that are accustom 'jd 
 to most in the most direct manner their proper object, exhibit 
 nothing but a continued train of base and sordid measures, al- 
 together, unbecoming its situation. These measures, may 
 be influenced by various impulses and be moderated in their 
 results as well as in their appearances ; still, however, they 
 will partake of the common character of the system, and 
 tend rather to the confirmation of what is wrong, than to 
 its amendment. 
 
 TuE evil lies in the system, but the system itself let it be 
 noticed, arises out of circumstances that are under our con- 
 trol. The East India Company is an active, a highly effi- 
 cient, and most estimable branch of our civil polity, and it 
 has functions to dischargeof much higher import, than those 
 resulting from its monopoly. It is possessed of extensive 
 domains, invalual)le ships, stores and effects ; it is possessed 
 also of the confidential regard of the commercial part of the 
 community. From its means and resources it is entitled 
 to the highest mercantile confidence ; for its property is im-
 
 4(5 
 
 niense, through thcvalue of this properly will never be known, 
 until it is unfolded under a proper system. The means and 
 resources of this great Company require nurture and pro- 
 tection, and this nurture and protection are provided the mo- 
 ment the monopoly is at an end. The spirit of enterprise and 
 industry that is to attracted to the East must bring this pro- 
 vision tothe Company's resources, from whence supplies are to 
 be drawn, and the stimulus to be obtained, Avhereby the real 
 value of all its real effects is to be exhibited. This is in truth 
 the Company's situation ; its interest, audits duty are linked 
 together. The main object of solicitude and attention to the 
 Ivast India Company ought to be to draw forth and uphold 
 the superinduced industry and enterprise, and to bear these 
 directly to those objects ; and its ultimate end, to advance 
 the value, and augment the price of those investitures, where- 
 by its own wealth is constituted. In short, the Eiist India 
 Company must have the improvement of its territorial reve- 
 nue chiefly or rather solely in view. For the sake of 
 this object, it must strip itself of every other avocation, and 
 T/ithout at all involving itself in the transactions of trade, it 
 must be its business to draw towards it the floating means 
 of the country ; and this cannot be done more effectually, 
 and iv.oYS expeditiously, than by devoting its best offices, 
 indiscriminately to the service of commercial adventurers, 
 and without excluding itself as a body, by the most positive 
 obligations from all concern whatever with the business of 
 importer export. The v.hole circumstances of the trade 
 point directly to this, as an indispensible step in the way of 
 obtaining the great and leading objects of the new arrange- 
 ment. For if the Company continue to dabble in affairs 
 that admit of rivalry and competition, it will effectually 
 blight the fair advantages of the ordinary trader. It is only 
 by devolving on others all the various hazards of adventure, 
 that the advancement of territorial possession, the grand ulte- 
 rior design to be prosecuted, can be promoted ; it is only by 
 resolving as expeditiously as prudence will admit of it, every 
 description of these that imply detail and complicated
 
 47 
 
 management into sutyccts of revenue, ihat the Interests, that 
 must l)y this means become estahlishetl, can be held to have 
 reached their ultimate resolution. 
 
 IJesidks the various objects of re;;ar(l that are connected 
 tvith its territorial possessions, and its ships aiul naval pro- 
 visions, there arises in favor of the East India Company, 
 from the situation of all parties, a special function, which 
 it alone can execute, and which it is imperiously called upon 
 to assume. It demands the utiYiost attention of this august 
 body at this vei'y moment; for it regards the Jinancial con- 
 cerns of this vchule trade^ and of all that is embarked in it. 
 This is a vast object, and it has always created much dif- 
 ficulty. It occurs to me that government might easily give the 
 East India Company ix compensation this way, that would 
 forever remove these difiiculties. Let the East India Direc- 
 tors be vested with power to issue in India, in a regular and 
 suitable manner, by means of promissory notes, the whole 
 amount of the compensation, at which their whole claims 
 may be valued ; let these notes, after being twelve months 
 current in India, be resoluble into drafts at par on the Court 
 of Directors at home ; and in order to enable these Directors to 
 meet these drafts at maturity, let them be vested with pow- 
 er to issue promissory notes to be current in this kingdom 
 for a conj)le of years. Let our own government be held to 
 be responsible for this wiiole range of transactions, aiul for 
 this purpose affix a proper docquet on each note ; and let the 
 funds thus created and circulated be declared by authority to 
 be of equal value and import with those of the Bank of 
 England. The nation has betaken itself to a paper cur- 
 rency, and though the Bank of P'ngland should be obliged to 
 receive and pass these notes indisciiminately Avith its own, 
 the security held by t!ie nation for this currency, would not 
 be diminished, but greatly increased by the arrangement. 
 No ultimate evil could take place, for the amount, the ob- 
 ject, the term of currency, arc definitely fixed and limited.
 
 46. 
 
 This scbeme miglit pei iiaps move long on its own basis, but 
 if it did not, the extent of the evil is seen ; for government 
 could interpose itself at any time, and takeup theimpledge^, 
 ments. This is a brief idea of the employment tliat I ^vo^j[d 
 devolve on the Company... CijrqunijStances ,\voj.iU pre^j^|j§pi^, 
 selves on its at£^nt,ioJij to fill up the wl^ole plan^ .inghjd'tu, 
 
 :•.• rlAlha oil; 
 The East India Directors would thereby .p0ujc,$liaftci^. 
 relief into their Indian territories, and enable and dispose 
 the occupant of these not only to improve their possessions, 
 but to purge off, in the way of compensation, the various 
 incumberances under wdiich their possessions may be laid; 
 an alternative we may rest assured, that they would betake 
 themselves to as soon as the value of free unincumbered pro- 
 property and industry should, in the way of unrestricted com- 
 merce and industry, be fully disclosed to them. I3y this means 
 too, adventurers to India would obtain a variety of facilities 
 in realizing their effects, that would be otherwise unat- 
 tainable ; and the general industry and improvement of the 
 Avhole community would go on, in the most direct and efli- 
 cient course. In Britain, the support and excitation there- 
 by provided for our commercial transactions, end for rear- 
 ing and supporting establishments and manufactories suited 
 to the India trade, would go on with every advantage, and 
 the East India Company, in the increased value of their of- 
 reign possessions, would perceive resources whence ample re- 
 turns for all the sacrifices, and for all the solicitude, that on 
 their part, are now required would be drawn. 
 
 It is by such means as these, and by such alone, that our 
 Indian Empire is to rise to its proper place in our system. 
 Thereby its invaluable resources will be developed, and the 
 faculties and energies of its population extricated from the 
 debasing superstition under which they are at present bent. 
 Thereby, also, the country at large will be bound to us as 
 with a chain of adamant, and its whole strength and sub- .
 
 49 
 
 stance resolve itself easily into general good. These are mos t 
 important considerations, and tliey are not to be rejected be- 
 cause they arc the result of a theory that has been misap- 
 plied. In France, it was paper money (there the guise of 
 treachery) that drew out the country in the service of the 
 turbulent; it was the same instrument that consolidated 
 the British settlement at the revolution. In India, the 
 power thus introduced must be doubly efficient, for it will 
 exercise the population under our influence for their own 
 advantage, and thus discover to them a source of blessings 
 arising from subjection to our influence of the most estima!)le 
 kind ; it will raise them above tlie influence of their feeble 
 phantasies — it will fit them for those great duties, those 
 high subjects of contemplation and regard that are so exci- 
 tative of ennobling sentiments, which are common to all the 
 subjects of the general empire, and it will make them not on- 
 ly faithful but useful and valuable members of this great 
 community. 
 
 O.v the whole therefore, it is manifest, that though as so- 
 vereigns the East India proprietors have no claims on our 
 regard, and as monopolists governed by a' fatuous love of 
 gain are deserving of the severest reprehensions, yet they 
 are well entitled to maintain a high, honourable and author- 
 itative place in our system. Their conduct, as instruments 
 for carrying forward any great and laudable design, has 
 seldom been otherwise than meritorious in this view. The 
 fault is in placing them in a situation that does not become 
 them, and in expecting from them blessings wliich they have 
 not faculties to bestow. This fault can only be I'emedied 
 by giving them their proper place in our system, and by 
 maintaining and preserving them in this place. Let us next 
 advert to the whole consequences of this arrangement. 
 
 The advantages, resulting from the civilization of Hin- 
 (lostan and a free unrestricted trade to China, appear in their 
 
 o
 
 m 
 
 tall importance, wiien we view them as connected witli un- 
 restrlctetl intercourse with ail the other nations of the Eqst. 
 Commerce, with the shores of Africa and Arabia, the em« 
 pires of Persia, Siam, Agra, and Japan, could be of littlq 
 importance, if we had not the means and assistance to be 
 procured from these advantages. The Hindoos in tliis way- 
 may become our legs and arms in caiTying on this trade, 
 and they will feel their importance and their advantage in 
 being thus employed, Tliey will, under our sljade and pro- 
 tection, bring home and realize riches, of which the best 
 fruits will again arise into our hands. They will highly 
 prize their improvements and attainments under our influ- 
 ence, and become proud of opportunities of disjdaying and 
 diffusing them ; they will thus gradually rise out of their 
 prostrate condition, and bless the hand that has helped to 
 upraise them. They v/ill become the means of disseminating 
 the knowledge and the advantages that they have obtained 
 amongst the wide extended realms of Asia and Africa, and 
 under British sway become the centre and spring of the re- 
 generation of these realms. The advantages, political and 
 commercial, that Great Britain will thus acquire, must be 
 proportionate. Her empire on the seas will become eon- 
 lirmed. Apart from the rest of the world, she will, through 
 the medium of her settlements in Canada, the Cape and 
 Hindostan, maintain her influence over the whole — not a 
 blasting, crushing, overv.helming influence, but one that en- 
 ters benignly into the character, and invigorates while it 
 supports the energies of every tiling great and gootl in ev- 
 ery nation. 
 
 These views are grand and glorious, but they are neither 
 unseemly for the occasion, nor in the least illusive ; they 
 have Ijeen powerful springs of action with the greatest na- 
 tions and with the greatest heroes — but to none of them, as 
 to us, have the means for realizing them been so extensive 
 and so appropriate. By having the command of the ocean,
 
 ;^1 
 
 w6 liave ilirect rtccess to every country ; by having under 
 our jiowcr n&t only territorial riciies and strength of the 
 most extraordinary kind, but processes and establishincnts 
 and means iot increasing these and their value and impor- 
 tance imUieasureably, while tve can make our access sure, 
 we render our intercourse most desireable. Nor is this all : 
 our religious institutions and civil advantages are prepared 
 to give full efTect to the civilizing processes that may be in- 
 duced. Commercial intercourse itself is a most powerful 
 stimulant an<l supporter of such a process, it excites indus- 
 try, it administers to its wants, it relieves it of its burdens, 
 it rewards its exertions, and it crowns it with riches and 
 honour. Industry, informed and supported by science and 
 political poT^'er, is the precursor atid the parent of improve- 
 ment of mind as well as of outward estate ; it enables and 
 it obliges us all t6 bestir ourselves in the way of duty, to get 
 tjuit of foul prejudices, to keep under our violent propensi- 
 ties, and to make real progress in every valuable and sub- 
 stantial acquirement; it puts it into our power to amelio- 
 rate the condition of others, not only without at all impair- 
 ing, but in the direct way of ameliorating our own. It 
 produces in fact all that is excellent, and it places it, when 
 obtained, in the place that is most seemly ; it prepares man 
 for the services of religion, and when properly disciplined 
 under its mild and beneficent principles, industry itself be- 
 comes an act of devotion, a sacrifice of time and of labour 
 to the highest objects of human solicitude, grateful to Heav- 
 en, and supremely beneiicent to our fellow-creatures. 
 
 It appears to me that there is something in our national 
 character and condition that fits us for this exalted station. 
 I think too, that there is a kind of destination of this char- 
 acter and condition to these very services. It was the pri- 
 vilege of liritain to receive the first and the purest beams of 
 the reformed religion, and under a peculiar system of disci- 
 pline to have her institutions for these, and for administer-
 
 52 
 
 ing tiie functions of civil government, piuified and endowed 
 with the most ameliorating liinctions. Britain became ob- 
 noxious to the enemies of religion and of liberty, on accomit 
 of the appropriate support that she administered to these. 
 The most tremendous naval armament that ever set to sea 
 was prepared for her destruction, but the hand of God, seeu 
 and acknov/ledged by all parties, saved her from even tast- 
 ing of this destruction. A similar miracle, the disclosure of 
 the plot, snatched iier whole constituted authorities from a 
 death still more awful. Britain saw tiie race of sovereigns, 
 -that was lukewarm or untrue to her proper cause, inglo- 
 riously dethroned. The defalcation of this race began in 
 abandoning their presumptuous son-in-law, the zealous ally 
 of their faith, to ruin ; and their punishment was completed 
 when the descendents of that high-minded, ill-fated prince, 
 wei'e peacefully seated in their vacated throne. The indus- 
 try and the sobriety of Britons were for above a century 
 disciplined by intercourse with their exjiati'iated brethren 
 abroad. When this empire had withdrawn , its allegiance 
 from the common sovereign, a new one sprung up in the 
 East, more fitted to receive her good offices and to diffuse 
 her high advantages. When we come closser to our situa- 
 tion, and contemplate the various interferences of providence 
 at the commencement and during the continuance of the 
 French revolution, the character, the importance and the 
 obligancy of our great national duties, that of protecting and 
 diffusing the truth, appear most Conspicuous. When Ire- 
 land was in a state of rebellion, when the navy had mutin- 
 ied, was not our preservation evidently the work of that 
 Hand that has prescribed to us this duty? ' When Austria 
 had sunk at Uim, how seasonably did Nelson's last victory 
 take place ! When the v/hole shores of Iberia and its im- 
 mense resources had fallen under Bonaparte's sway, and thus 
 in a manner had rendered our naval predominancy nugatory, 
 how seasonably did her revulsion wrest this advantage from 
 under his hand ! When glutted with conquest ar^d good
 
 53 
 
 fortune, this man supposed he had nothing to do but to find 
 some appropriate employment for liimself, until we, by 
 ivorking out our strengtli, had prepared ourselves for l>e-. 
 coming his easy prey in Spain — how wonderfully was he in- 
 fatuated to betake himself and all his means to an expedition 
 that could not but end in his overthrow ! In all these events 
 we mark the hand of God preserving our nation, its means 
 of intercourse, its faculties of ameliorating the circumstances 
 and character of our race. AVe perceive that nothing has 
 been too great for us to achieve, in the way of following out 
 this destination ; that no state of affuirs has been too des- 
 perate to make us lose sight of it ; and that no disaster that 
 could mar this grand object has ever been allowed to over- 
 whelm us. 
 
 ■ This is a service to which we do not come unprepared, 
 and in advancing towards it do not presume to trespass on 
 the rules of discretion. The elements of civil as well as of 
 natural power are, to a certain extent, subjects of calculation 
 and control. The successive means that broke the bands of 
 superstition — the invention of printing, the dissemination of 
 the properties of the magnetic needle, and other qualities of 
 natural bodies, the discovery of America, and the passage 
 round the Cape, are known and perceived by all of us to be 
 direct steps in the way of blasting and destroying these dis- 
 graceful bands. The concentration of all previous discover- 
 ies in the arts of navigation, of warfare, and of improvement 
 in industry and in social life — and the advancement of the 
 British to a high command over a system, in which all these 
 rae prepared and laid to hand as appropriate and immediate 
 instru.nients, have qualified the British government for rescu- 
 ing the Eastern world from the deplorable delusions of I'^rench 
 prophanity and oppression. At length various discoveries and 
 various acquisitions have put it in the power of Britain to push 
 tills advantage farther, to raise as it were a phalanx, com- 
 prizing the nations at large drawn up in support and de-.
 
 54 
 
 fence 6f the cause that is her own. Nor is this all : DritaiH 
 is jm|wriously called upon to exercise this power. The time 
 was, when maintaining the balance of Europe consisted in 
 trimming thfe possessions of a few states on the Rlilite, and 
 on the North of Italy. By and bye, this system of bdlaric- 
 irtg embraced all Europe. Europe tiavf bleeds under afi 
 Usurper, and it is hard to say what mat be her ultimate 
 fate. It trill cotitribilie to her recovery, Jf we can plant 
 and mature the principles of improvement in the other parts 
 of the world. T© plant these we are in a manner necessi- 
 tated, from our dependence on commercial excitation and 
 support; Improvements in education, in the modes of dis- 
 seminating useful and importaht knowledge, and a high spir- 
 it in the body of the nation, constitute a new set of means 
 and new principles of action, springing forward and urging 
 us to do our duty in this instance, and thereto offering their 
 assistance. In the mean time, commercial influence, the 
 strongest influence that can be exercised on nieh acting in- 
 dependently in a progressive state of social advancement- 
 financial connexions, the most powerful ligumerit of social 
 relationsj and the most effectual restraint on every thing vi- 
 olent arid irregular in civil polity that we know of, and a high 
 .sense of character to give to these their full effect, together 
 with a range and Opportunities commensurate with our highest 
 wishes and expectations-^are all hi present within our pow- 
 er. We are in a manner not only introduced into, but push- 
 ed along the highest line of national duty. Shall we take 
 half measures .f* It was not by half measures that Russia 
 saved herself, and it is not by half measures that an object 
 every way so great and glorious is to be obtained. 
 
 Let it be supposed, that while the exploits which now 
 irradiate with so much lustre and potency the Russian name^ 
 was a doing or projecting (it is the greatest that was ever 
 achieved in any age by any nation, whether the depth of 
 cotitrivancej the scale on which it was executed, the quali-
 
 o5 
 
 ties .ofheaa and of heart which it elicited, the multitude the 
 grandeur and ilie valup of the objects whieh it embraced, 
 the end to which it tended, or tjie consequences that have 
 followed — be considered), let it be supposed, that at this 
 very crisis, some individuals or some body of individuals 
 had possessed iniluence sufficient to paralyze the arm of 
 tl)e state with their fears and their doubts and their jealous- 
 ies respecting the bearings of this event on their own pecu- 
 liar interests, and on their special class of advantages ; what 
 would have been the result ? Where would have been the 
 independence of Europe ? Its high-minded citizens might 
 have been bound hopelessly under the chains of its dcsoiator, 
 and their only prospect of relief have consisted in projecting, 
 a renewed series of warfare and turmoil. 
 
 The case now before the llritish I.egislature, may not 
 seem to run quite parallel v.-ith tliat whicli is above stated, 
 nor the crisis and urgency appear so alarming and so great. 
 Let us, however, take into account our situation and our 
 advantages, and the correspondence of the duties and services 
 that are before us with these, and say, whether or not, views 
 equally exalted and extensive, principles equally pure and 
 magnanimous, and conduct equally heroic and determined, be 
 not as imperiously demanded on our part at present, as they 
 were at that time in Russia. The fate of millions as nu-* 
 merous, aiul points of that fate as important hang upon our 
 decision. The glory and the advantage that may follow, are 
 noways less momentous, and lliough our national existence 
 be not so nearly airected, advantages to us the greatest, arc 
 as completely at stake. If through fatality of councils, our 
 Indian I'.mpire should become a real burden to us, the illu- 
 sion gf our grcat«.iess will soon disappear. AVhat the envy and 
 jealousy of neighbours might, in such circumstances, attempt 
 to do against the sovereigns of the ocean, thus crestfallen 
 and denuded, their conduct, when America deserted our 
 standards, enables us too plalidy conjecture. WMIe our re-
 
 66 
 
 sources are entire, and our spirits unbroken, we can bear up 
 under privations and exertions that appear to be extreme. 
 What would follow if things were reversed, no human be- 
 ins: can foretell. If in Heaven we have full confidence, in 
 doing our duty and exercising ourselves on our advantages, 
 we will fear nothing so much as to forfeit its favour, or ta 
 incur its displeasure. Happily, no sacrifices that need ap- 
 pal us, nor exertions from which we must shrink, are requir- 
 ed. It is chiefly with our own prejudices and misconcep- 
 tions that we struggle, and in this we have advantages that 
 ought to remove every alarm. It is the same principles on 
 which our security has been founded, and the same maxim.s 
 on which our attainments have been built up, that we are 
 called upon to follow out and obey — enlarged indeed, and 
 expanded with their appropriate objects, but every way as 
 correspondent to our circumstances as before. 
 
 Chapman, Printer, Glangmc.
 
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