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was really founded on the resolutions which the House had seen in the public newspapers, and he acted in concurrence with the sentiments of the general proprietary. He had not dared to digest a bill without consultation, which was to violate chartered rights sanctified by parliamentary acts; he had not ventured to conceive that any plan, which should erect in this country a system unknown to the constitution, would be ever embraced by any House of Commons; or that a scheme of new and uncontrollable influence in the hands of new and unconstitutional characters, would be suffered to have an establishment, since such a scheme must give the death-blow to our frame of government. He had taken notice of the objections started by the right honourable gentleman, before he had heard his plan, and accepted by his followers with the same haste and the same decency; he had heard him allege, that his plan was calculated to give as much or more influence to the crown than the bill which had been rejected; and that it was not calculated to produce the salutary consequences to this country, or to India, which his bill would have certainly done. These were the imputations which had been brought against it before it was known, and the House were now to enquire into the truth of the assertion. He wished to be tried by comparison. He challenged the trial by that test; and he trusted to the candour of the House, even circumstanced as it now was; he trusted to their fairness and impartiality, that if they found the provisions of his bill as effectual, with less violence, affording as vigorous a system of control, with less possibility of influence, — securing the possessions of the East to the public, without confiscating the property of the company,and beneficially changing the nature of this defective government without intrenching on the chartered rights of men, they would give him a manly, liberal, and successful support, without enquiring what party of men, or what side of the House, was to be maintained on the occasion. He trusted they would not approve his plan the less for being without violence, for being destitute of the rapidity, the grasping principle, the enormous influence, the

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was really founded on the resolutions which the House had seen in the public newspapers, and he acted in concurrence with the sentiments of the general proprietary. He had not dared to digest a bill without consultation, which was to violate chartered rights sanctified by parliamentary acts; he had not ventured to conceive that any plan, which should erect in this country a system unknown to the constitution, would be ever embraced by any House of Commons; or that a scheme of new and uncontrollable influence in the hands of new and unconstitutional characters, would be suffered to have an establishment, since such a scheme must give the death-blow to our frame of government. He had taken notice of the objections started by the right honourable gentleman, before he had heard his plan, and accepted by his followers with the same haste and the same decency; he had heard him allege, that his plan was calculated to give as much or more influence to the crown than the bill which had been rejected; and that it was not calculated to produce the salutary consequences to this country, or to India, which his bill would have certainly done. These were the imputations which had been brought against it before it was known, and the House were now to enquire into the truth of the assertion. He wished to be tried by comparison. He challenged the trial by that test; and he trusted to the candour of the House, even circumstanced as it now was; he trusted to their fairness and impartiality, that if they found the provisions of his bill as effectual, with less vio-4) lence, affording as vigorous a system of control, with less possibility of influence, securing the possessions of the East to. the public, without confiscating the property of the company,and beneficially changing the nature of this defective government without intrenching on the chartered rights of men, they would give him a manly, liberal, and successful support, without enquiring what party of men, or what side of the House, was to be maintained on the occasion. He trusted they would not approve a his plan the less for being without viol the rapidity, the grasping principl

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which had been rejecied. He trusted also they would find, that he had not objected to the bill of the right honourable gentleman from motives of capricious, or of personal opposition, or that he was now to seduce them into the approbation of a measure more speciously coloured, but in truth stolen from that to which he had denied his assent.

He was not much affected with the clamour, that his was to be a half-measure—a palliative — although he had so loudly deprecated half-measures and palliatives on the first day of the session. Half-measure was the watch-word of the day. He should not be affected with this charge, if by that was meant, that every measure, which did not proceed to the violation of charters, and the confiscation of property, was a half-measure. If he could only avoid the imputation of erecting a system of power new and unknown in the country, to the extinction of the company, and the danger of the constitution, he would not be displeased to hear his plan receive the appellation of a half-measure. But he trusted that in the exposition of the principles of his plan and of the provisions, they would find reasons to go with him in thinking, that without materially intrenching on the company, and without deviating from the practice of the constitution, a scheme of government might be framed, less overbearing, and equally efficacious. Whatever might be its reception, however, he should have the heart-felt pleasure of knowing that he had discharged his duty conscientiously; and he professed that he was infinitely more eager to see a fair, solid, and effectual system established, than that he should be the person to propose it, as he was really more anxious for the welfare of his country than for the aggrandizement of himself.

The general objects to be looked to, and provided for, in the formation of a system for India, were chiefly these:

The concerns of this country in India, in the various considerations to which they branched; the civil and military government: the revenues; the commerce; the vast territorial possessions, which, though they had been long acquired, had never yet been finally settled: there were claims to be ascertained, and in

terests to be divided. The happiness of the natives was to be studied; the connection between the commerce and the territorial government was to be maintained; and, last of all, they were to consider what were likely to be the effects of the government of India on the government of Great Britain; how it might affect our constitution in point of influence, and how it might be rendered at once vigorous and unalarming.

These were the objects to be considered, and surely the House would go with him in saying, they were most important. The possessions in India were great and ample; they could not be maintained but with broad and extensive establishments; they contained an immense number of the human race, for whose happiness it behoved us, by every call of humanity and policy, to provide; and there was the utmost necessity of framing a system, which should at once preserve the connection and the distinction between the territories and the commerce. This was particularly difficult, and indeed the whole business was of so complicated a kind, that it required all the wisdom, all the experience, and all the consideration of parliament.

Any plan which he or any man could suggest for the government of territories so extensive and so remote must be inadequate; nature and fate had ordained in unalterable decrees, that governments to be maintained at such a distance must be inadequate to their end. In the philosophy of politics such a government must be declared irrational; it must be declared at the best, to be inconvenient to the mother and supreme power, oppressive and inadequate to the necessities of the governed. In such a scene there could be formed, there could be imagined no theoretical perfection - it must be a choice of inconveniences; and therefore he trusted that, in the examination of the ideas which he should throw out, the House would take into their view the difficulties, and always remember, that whatever was suggested, however specious, however promising it might be, must be tried by the event rather than by speculation. The general ideas which he had thrown out, and the objects which he had de

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