1781.

Book V. provisions: That, whereas the Company, since the 24th of June, 1778, when they had paid their loan to the public, and reduced their bond debt to the preappointed limits, had been in possession of all the profits arising from the Indian territory, exempt from participation with the public, they pay 400,000l. to the public, in discharge of all claims upon that account previous to the 1st of March, 1781 That all the former privileges granted to the Company be continued to them, till three years notice after the 1st of March, 1791: That the Company pay out of their clear profits, a dividend of eight per cent. per annum on the capital stock, and of the surplus, three-fourths to the public, reserving the remainder to their own use: And that the claims with respect to the territory, on the part both of the Crown and the Company, remain unaffected by the present act. Of the propositions, thrown out by the minister, for the introduction of reforms into the government of India, only one was carried into effect; namely, that regarding the powers of ministers over the political transactions of the Company. It was ordained that they should communicate to ministers all dispatches which they sent to India, with respect to their revenues, and their civil and military affairs; and that in all matters relative to war and peace, and transactions with other powers, they should be governed by the directions which ministers might prescribe.*

Appointment of the Select Committee.

Secret Committee.

On the 12th of February, 1781, petitions from the Governor-General and Council, and from a number of British subjects residing in Bengal, and from the United Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies, against the pretensions and proceedings of the Supreme Court of Judicature, were read in the House of Commons; and after a debate it was agreed, that a Select Committee should be chosen to whom they were referred. This was that celebrated committee who were afterwards instructed to take into consideration the administration of justice, in the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa; and in what manner that country might be governed with greatest advantage to the people both of Great Britain and of India. In this Committee was included Mr. Francis, who had obtained a seat in parliament upon his return to England; and the most conspicuous, as well as the most laborious of its members, was Mr. Edmund Burke.

The Select Committee was moved for by General Smith, who belonged to what is called the opposition party in the House; and it was chiefly composed of members who acted not in concert with the minister. That a want of equal zeal for the elucidation of Indian delinquency might not be imputed to his party, the

* 21 Geo. III. сар. 65.

1782.

minister, on the 30th of April, immediately after the arrival of news of the CHAP. IX. irruption of Hyder Ali into Carnatic, moved for the formation of a Secret Committee, who should inquire into the causes of the war, then subsisting in the Carnatic, and into the state of the British possessions on that coast. This Committee was composed almost entirely of persons connected with the minister ; and Mr. Henry Dundas, then Lord Advocate of Scotland, was its presiding and

most active member.

The first of these Committees presented the House with twelve Reports, the other with six; and the public is deeply indebted to them for the publication of the most important documents of the Indian government, during the period to which their inquiries applied. Any considerable desire for the welfare of India, guided by any considerable degree of intelligence, would have taken a grand lesson from that example. An adequate plan for a regular, and successive, and still more perfect publication of the most material documents of the Indian administration would be one of the most efficient of all expedients for improving the government of that distant dependency.

Supreme

On the 23d of May, a report from the Select Committee on the petitions Bill for restraining the against the Supreme Court was read; and leave given to bring in a bill, for the better administration of justice in Bengal, for the relief of certain persons im- Court. prisoned at Calcutta under a judgment of the Court, and for indemnifying the Governor-General and Council for resisting its process. The subject was debated on the 19th of June, Mr. Dunning being the most remarkable of the opponents of the bill. It was passed without delay; and exempted from the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court the Governor-General and Council, all matters of revenue, and all Zemindars, and other native farmers and collectors of the

revenue.

Lord North resigned the office of minister in the month of March, 1782; and was succeeded by the Marquis of Rockingham and party, the hostility of whom to the present managers in India was sufficiently known.

Mr. Dundas against Indian

On the 9th of April, 1782, Mr. Dundas moved that the reports which he had Proceedings of presented as Chairman of the Secret Committee should be referred to a Committee of the whole House; and, in a speech of nearly three hours in length, delinquency. unfolded the causes and extent of the national calamities in the East. He expatiated on the misconduct of the Indian Presidencies, and of the Court of Directors; of the former, because they plunged the nation into wars for the sake of conquest, contemned and violated the engagement of treaties, and plundered and oppressed the people of India; of the latter, because they blamed misconduct 4 T

VOL. II.

1783.

BOOK V. only when it was unattended with profit, but exercised a very constant forbearance towards the greatest delinquency, as often as it was productive of a temporary gain. The speech was followed up by a number of propositions, which he moved in the shape of resolutions. Beside the reproaches which these resolutions cast upon the general strain of the Company's administration in India, they pronounced a condemnation, so strong, upon the measures of the Presidency of Madras, that nothing less than criminal proceedings against the authors of them could accord with so vehement a declaration of their guilt. The resolutions were solemnly voted; articles of charge against Sir Thomas Rumbold and other Members of the Madras Council were adopted; and a bill of pains and penalties, for breaches of public trust, and high crimes and misdemeanours, committed by Sir Thomas Rumbold, was introduced by Mr. Dundas. The bill was read a first time. Before the second reading, Sir Thomas Rumbold was heard in his defence. The session drew to a close, before a great progress was made. In the beginning of 1783, the state of the ministry was unsettled. And, as if, when ministry is unsettled, parliament were inadequate to its functions, the bill was neglected till the middle of the session. After the middle of the session, the members soon began to be remiss in their attendance.* And on the 19th of December, immediately after the dismission of Mr. Fox's coalition ministry, a motion was made and carried for adjourning the further consideration of the bill till the 24th day of June next, by which the prosecution was finally dropped. Sir Thomas consented to accept of impunity without acquittal; his judges refused to proceed in his trial, after they had solemnly affirmed the existence of guilt; and a black stain was attached to the character of both.

* On the 2d of May, 1783, "The Lord Advocate complained of the very thin attendance that he had hitherto found, whenever the bill of pains and penalties against Sir Thomas Rumbold became the subject of discussion. He wished to know whether it was seriously intended to pursue the business to the end or not? If it was the intention of the House to drop it, he wished to be made acquainted with that circumstance, and then he would not move for another hearing on the subject; for it was a mockery to go into the evidence on the bill, when there could not be kept together a sufficient number of members to make a house.-Mr. Fox declared, that, to drop the bill would be productive of the most fatal consequences; for it would convince the world, that the most atrocious misconduct in India would meet with impunity in parliament. And, therefore, he requested gentlemen would for the credit, honour, and interest of the country, attend to the evidence for and against the bill. If the bill should be lost for want of attendance, it would not clear the character of Sir. T. Rumbold. On the other hand, it would hold out this idea to the people of India, that it was in vain for them to expect redress of their grievances in England.-Mr. W. Pitt thought, that some mode might be devised to enforce attendance, as in the case of ballots for election committees." Cobbett's Parliamentary History, xxiit. 805.

1783.

Beside his prosecution of Sir Thomas Rumbold, Mr. Dundas proceeded to CHAP. IX. urge the legislature to specific propositions against Mr. Hastings, and Mr. Hornby, the presiding members of the other Presidencies. Against Mr. Hastings, in particular, he preferred a grievous accusation, grounded on the recent intelligence of the ruin brought upon the Rajah Cheyte Sing. On the 30th of May, 1782, he moved, and the House adopted, the following resolution, “That Warren Hastings, Esq. Governor-General of Bengal, and William Hornby, Esq. President of the Council of Bombay, having in sundry instances acted in a manner repugnant to the honour and policy of this nation, and thereby brought great calamities on India, and enormous expenses on the East India Company, it is the duty of the Directors of the said Company to pursue all legal and effectual means for the removal of the said Governor-General and President from their respective offices, and to recall them to Great Britain." The Marquis of Rockingham was still minister; and his party appeared to have firmly determined upon the recall of Mr. Hastings. The vote of the House of Commons was therefore followed by a similar proceeding on the part of the Directors. But the death of the Marquis, which happened at this critical period, gave courage and strength to the friends of that Governor, and in a Court of Proprietors of East India Stock on the 31st of October, 1782, the order of recall which had been made by the Court of Directors was rescinded by a large majority.

On the 24th of April, 1782, the Chairman of the Select Committee presented Resolutions a series of resolutions, which referred to little more than two points. Mr. Sulli- Chairman of moved by the van, who was Chairman of the East India Company, had mis-stated a con- Committee.

ference held between him and certain Members of the House of Commons; and the consequence had been, that the relief intended to certain persons confined in the common gaol at Calcutta, had been considerably delayed: Mr. Sullivan had also postponed the transmission of the act of parliament for the remedy of the evils arising from the proceedings of the Supreme Court of Judicature: And Mr. Sullivan had, moreover, bound a clerk at the India House, peculiarly qualified to give information, by an oath of secrecy, from communicating evidence to the Select Committee. A series of resolutions were, therefore, moved and carried for the censure of Mr. Sullivan. This is the first of the points to which the resolutions moved on the part of the Select Committee referred. The second was the conjunct transaction of Mr. Hastings and Sir Elijah Impey, in making the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court head of the Sudder Duannee Adaulut. The purport of them on this point was, That the dependance of the Chief Justice, created by holding emoluments at the pleasure of the

the Select

1783.

Book V. executive government, was inconsistent with the faithful administration of justice: That the Governor-General and Chief Justice were highly culpable in that transaction: And that the appointment should be immediately vacated and annulled. To these resolutions were added other two: The first, "That the powers given to the Governor-General and Council by the East India Act of 1773, ought to be more distinctly ascertained: " The second, The second," That it will be proper to reduce into one act the several acts of parliament made to regulate the East India Company, and further to explain and amend the same, and also to make new regulations and provisions to the same end." The whole of these resolutions were carried; and upon those which related to the dependence, in other words the corruption, of the Chief Justice, was founded a resolution voted on the 3d of May, for an address to the King that he would recall Sir Elijah Impey to answer for his conduct in that transaction.

Petition of the E. I. C. for relief.

The vote of the Court of Proprietors, in opposition to the recall of Mr. Hastings, was severely reprobated by Mr. Dundas, at the beginning of the next session of parliament; when he moved, that all the proceedings in relation to it should be laid before the House; and pronounced it an act both dangerous in principle, and insulting to the authority of parliament.

On the 5th of March, 1783, a petition from the United Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies was presented to the House of Commons and referred to a Committee. It set forth, that having paid 300,000l. of the sum imposed upon them, for the benefit of the public, by the late act, they were unable to pay the 100,000l. which remained; that the advances which had already been received by the public "were made under mistaken ideas of the petitioners' pecuniary abilities;" that the aid necessary to carry on their affairs only to the 1st of March, 1784, would upon the most moderate calculation be 900,000l., even if excused the payment of the sum of 100,000l., due upon the late agreement; and they prayed, that, if re-imbursement be not made to them, they be allowed to increase their bond debt, without diminishing their dividend, which would affect their credit; that they be not required to share any thing with the public, till the increase thus made of their bond debts be again wholly reduced; that the term of their exclusive privileges, a short term being injurious to their credit, should be enlarged; and that the petitioners be relieved from that share of the expense attending the service of the King's troops and navy which according to the late act they were bound to afford. Two acts were passed for their relief; the first allowing more time for the payment of the taxes for which they were in arrear, and enabling them to borrow money on their