but what had that to do with the motion, or his reasoning in support of it? It was the principle, and not the facts, that had grown out of it, that he wished to attack; and it was in order to come at the principle, that he had moved to have the letter laid upon the table. Major Scott said, he was no agent for the directors, but he spoke as a proprietor, desirous not to see the Company's stock depressed as it formerly had been, by misrepresentation; and he avowed that the accounts brought forward by the chairman, of the expenses of 1776, compared with 1783, were probably very proper for a court of directors to consider and to analyze; but they were so absurd, if considered as actual accounts, that he believed no man would dare to put them on the table of the House; and they would naturally be enumerated article by article, before they were given in that House as authentic. Mr. Samuel Smith confirmed what major Scott said, and remarked that the hon. mover, by his own account, had infinitely the advantage of the court of directors, as they laid their accounts before the House, to which they were pledged; but that the hon. gentleman merely threw out insinuations without asserting any thing positively. Mr. Smith warned the House to beware of such insinuations; for if they were well founded, the House might be sure the hon. gentleman would venture to assert, and not insinuate, which was generally the case; and that it was by such insinuations that the credit of the Company was attempted to be wounded; which might have some effect when coming from a gentleman who lately held a high situation in the Company's service. Mr. Fox rose to remark, that all the invective with which the hon. gentleman had loaded his speech, applied solely to himself and the rest of the court of directors, because if the stating the charge of the civil establishment of Bengal was false, fallacious, and absurd, the whole of the absurdity, the fallacy, and the falsehood, lay with the court of directors, who had so stated the charge in the paper then on their table. Mr. Fox put this very pointedly, and said, he rose merely to shew how unjust it was to charge his hon. friend with wishing to mislead, when he was at the very moment calling for papers to explain a difference in two accounts, each of which had been presented by the court of directors themselves, and consequently it was the court of directors against whom alone such a charge was relevant. Mr. Burke reiterated Mr. Fox's remark, but carried it still farther. He said, at last they had got a director of the Company to talk to them, and the very first time they were able to obtain this mark of favour, the director tells the House openly and unreservedly, that the account which he and his brother directors had presented to the House was false, fallacious, and absurd. If this were true, the hon. gentleman was a criminal, but he would not suffer him so to criminate himself, nor would he upon his own confession deem him guilty to the extent that he said he was. Mr. Burke proceeded to question the authority under which major Scott acted in that House. He said, the hon. gentleman had formerly been known to the House as the agent of Mr. Hastings, and had been stated to have his authority for acting in that capacity. He wished, therefore, to know, whether Mr. Hastings still continued him as his agent, and furnished him with proper instructions from time to time how to act. If he did, that House knew that he spoke a language of authority, and would be able to distinguish what degree of confidence and credit was due to what he said; but, if Mr. Hastings had withdrawn his agency, and no longer continued to invest the hon. gentleman with his authority, and to furnish him with instructions from India, then the hon. gentleman spoke merely as an individual, and a private member of parliament. Mr. Burke here moved, "That the Appendix to Mr. Dundas's Report, or the Report of the Secret Committee, p. 372, might be read;" it was read accordingly, and contained a letter from Mr. Hastings to the board of directors, informing them, that he had given major Scott full authority to act as his agent, and should from time to time furnish him with instructions upon all the events of India. Mr. Burke said, he really thought Mr. Hastings acted wisely in putting himself in curia, and appearing in that House by his attorney, if the fact were so; but what he wished to know was, whether it was so or not, and therefore he should move, that the authority and instructions under which major Scott acted in that House, as the agent of Mr. Hastings, be laid upon the table. He added a variety of pointed remarks on major Scott's situation, and on the two accounts the directors had presented to the House, reminding the House that they had the authority of a director, sitting in his place on the India bench, that the statement last given in, and which was laid before them in compliance with the positive direction of an act of parliament, was false, fallacious, and absurd. He concluded his speech with putting his question relative to the parliamentary character of major Scott in the form of a motion. Major Scott said, he knew not by what right or authority the right hon. gentleman questioned him in the character of Mr. Hastings's agent. He gloried in his connexion with Mr. Hastings; but in that House he sat as an Englishman, as a man who had served sixteen years in India, and who, from his family, had just as good a right to sit in the House as any member As well, the major said, might he talk of the right hon. gentleman sitting in the House as agent of the rajah of Tanjore. He had waited on the late chairman, Mr. Sulivan, in behalf of the rajah, and his near relation was actually in that character at the present moment. Having said this, the major avowed, that his connexion with Mr. Hastings was not altered, and that there was no event in his life in which he so much gloried, as in the unbounded confidence Mr. Hastings had been pleased to repose in him; but in that House he sat as an Englishman, and he looked upon it, he was just as competent, in point of family and fortune, to have the honour of a seat in the House as the right hon. gentleman, or any honourable gentleman on either side of the House. Mr. Burke said, the hon. gentleman was perfectly welcome to question him. He wished that every part of his character, every circumstance of his life, and every situation he stood in, should be known and made as public as the noon-day sun; he did therefore assure the hon. gentleman, upon his honour, that he was not agent to the rajah of Tanjore, nor had any connexion with him whatever. He entered into a discussion of the nature of an agency, and declared his surprise that any man should be ashamed to act in that character. The hon. gentleman opposite to him had been known to be the agent of Mr. Hastings, and a more active, zealous, and able agent, he would venture to say, no man ever had. He had acted in the character with spirit and with honour; but it was no disgrace to him to stand in that light in that House, and to be known to the House as such. He had not the same honour; but he supposed the hon. [VOL. XXV.] gentleman's asking him, whether he was the rajah's agent, arose from the hon. gentleman's idea, that no man could take a zealous and active part in the interests of another, without being paid for it. This was an idea natural enough to any gentleman who had been in India; but the fact was otherwise. He had acted with all the zeal of an agent for many, but never had received money from any one of those, in whose affairs he had taken the most conspicuous and assiduous part. Not that it was any disgrace to a gentleman to confess himself an agent, and to stand as an agent within those walls. He had for. merly stood in that character, when he was agent to the province of New York; as such he had negociated the concerns of the province with the King's ministers, in that House and in the other; and had but the language of the province, through him, been heard and attended to, perhaps he might still have been the agent of the province, and the province been a part of the British empire. He said, he had stood up the agent of the nabob of Oude, of the rajah of Benares, and of all the various potentates and princes of India, whom he thought injured and oppressed, because he wished with all his heart and soul to restore happiness to every individual native of India. "Homo sum," said Mr. Burke, "et humani nil a me alienum puto." For that reason, and for that alone, because he felt as a man, because the cause of human nature was the common cause of all who breathed, he had been assiduous, and forward upon Indian affairs so often; but he never received money for his agency, nor did he desire it. He should think himself richly rewarded if he obtained his end, and was the happy instrument of relieving the oppressed, and rejoicing the miserable. It was, however, not a little singular, he said, that he should be attacked on the ground of the wealth he was supposed to possess, in consequence of the money he was suspected of having received from India, and at the same time reproached for his poverty. The hon. gentleman boasted of his fortune. God knew how little he had to boast of, nor if he had possessed an ample one, should he have thought his riches his honours. After some further conversation, the House divided on Mr. Francis's motion: Yeas, 16; Noes, 41. Debate on Mr. Fox's Motion for Papers relative to the Directions for charging the [M] Nabob of Arcot's Private Debts to Euro- servants of the crown. How such a mode peans, on the Revenues of the Carnatic.] of secreting from the nation an object thus Feb. 28. Mr. Fox said, the House was important, would suit the humour of the well acquainted with the motion which he House, he would not pretend to say; but was now about to propose. The public he saw it would produce infinite trouble were also apprised in some measure of its to individuals, as well as much general intent and consequences. Whether the speculation. Within these few years the papers he meant to call for would be public attention had naturally been much granted or not, he would not determine; turned to the affairs of India, which were but it was pretty obvious how the denial so involved with those of Great Britain, would be relished by the people in general. that whoever felt an interest in the former, It seemed to be a maxim with his Ma- could not regard the latter with indifferjesty's ministers to grant no species of in- ence; in consequence, therefore, of this formation which the House had any right general curiosity and interest, three difor reason for urging. An hon. friend of ferent plans had been proposed for better his had moved for a letter, in which it was regulating the affairs of India. These roundly asserted, or rather avowed, that plans he specified as having Mr. Dundas, a conduct had been lately preferred by Mr. Pitt, and himself, for their respective the Company's servants abroad, which was authors. The one proposed by the Chanin direct defiance of all the acts of par cellor of the Exchequer had alone reliament which had been enacted on the ceived the sanction of the legislature. subject. Here was not only a gross viola- But he mentioned this only, to remark tion of the order of the legislature, but this circumstance to the House, that maan unequivocal avowal of that violation. terially as all of them differed in most of When, therefore, a paper of such an ex- the topics, and chiefly in the principle to traordinary tendency was thus formally which they were directed, yet on the subdemanded, his Majesty's servants would ject of the Nabob of Arcot's debts, they not grant it for this simple reason, that the so far coincided as to express almost the substance of that letter was still under the same language, the same ideas. The Bill consideration of the board of control. brought in by the Chancellor of the ExWhatever weight this might have with the chequer provided, that whatever debts House in that instance, it could have none were due to the servants of the Company in the present. For the object of his by any of the Indian princes, should be motion was specifically different, as it re-investigated, and made an object of special garded papers, which recorded not any inquiry, prior to any step whatever being thing under contemplation, but that which taken to effect payment. The whole prowas finished and complete. He augured vision to this purpose was highly deserving ill of the board of control, from the mo- the attention of the House. ment they appeared thus peculiarly shy of their communications; and every ill omen which had presented itself to his mind, their conduct had literally justified. Why this aversion to submit their actions to the inspection of their countrymen? Why thus treat the House, who had treated them with so much distinction, as to place the whole of this trust unconditionally in them? Did such a proceeding tend to conciliate attachment, or promote confidence? Or, was it not natural to all honest men, from the aspect which marked the whole of their conduct, that something was wrong, or at least doubtful? That no intelligence of any kind whatever, relating to the state of a country so remote, and so momentous to the British empire, had transpired in the speech from the throne, had a very suspicious appearance, and marked strongly the tenor of conduct adopted by the board of control, and the He then said, that the motion he was now about to urge, went to a direct crimination of the new board of commissioners, as acting in flat opposition to the late act of parliament, which, in this instance, at least, whatever otherwise he might think of the Bill, was wise and unexceptionable. It was calculated to put a check where it was most wanted, and where it would certainly operate to most advantage. He did not think it necessary to state for the information of those who knew the history of India, what however would surprise those who did not. Nothing was more common, than for many persons who left this country, when nei ther in a condition to borrow great sums nor lend them, on their arrival in India, to become all at once creditors to the first princes in that country, and that to a very considerable amount. This well-known fact would naturally lead to many conjec tures. Thus much, at least, was obvious Arcot. He desired this fact might be seriously considered; he desired that it might be coupled with a variety of things which had since taken place, and especially with the order of the new board of commissioners, which his motion was intended to bring under the cognizance of the public and of the House. strengthening the old government, en- He next went into a statement of the Nabob of Arcot's debt, with a view, by illustrating the several articles of which it It had always appeared to him, and he consisted, separately to shew which of had always stated it as one of the greatest these were most intitled to immediate preventives to the authority of the direcpayment. This, he contended, was in tion operating with dignity and effect, that perfect conformity to the spirit of the late the servants had, by peculation and inAct, which instituted that inquiry should trigue, acquired a sovereignty over their precede payment. And whatever should masters. Here, then, was the same dreadbe the fate of the present motion, or the ful and prevailing evil still predominatcomplaisance of the minister to the requi-ing: and this additional board, instead of sition, and the necessity of the House with respect to the information required, he was happy, as he trusted every member who wished well to the public would be, that a copy of the identical papers which he called for was before the public, and that Mr. Debrett had done that for the public, which the board of control, as well as his Majesty's ministers, had refused, though urged with great propriety, and from motives of necessity, to do either for the Company or parliament. To this publication he referred, as containing an accurate and systematic view of the subject. It was an inquiry, he said, to which every well-principled mind would unavoidably press to discover the origin, occasion, and the justice of those debts which were due to individuals from the nabob of Arcot. The board of directors, as they had often done, had ordered a strict inquisition to be made; and from the facts which should be brought forward, in consequence of that inquisition, some plan of arrangement might take place. But this new board of control had overruled the resolution of the directors; and in flat defiance of what the directors had thus formally enacted, had resolved forthwith to admit that the claims, which were at best suspicious, or unknown, should supersede those which were known and valid. This was the great question to which he begged the attention of the House, as also to the various papers which he should read on the subject. It was a circumstance which could hardly escape the attention of the House, that many of these debts bore date from the time when the presidency of Madras entered the Carnatic by an army, and attacked the kingdom of Tanjore, as it was well known, at the express instance of the nabob of In urging this question, therefore, he was not hastily attacking either individuals, the nabob of Arcot, or the commissioners, but pleading the cause of the public. The arrangement of the debts due to individuals he selected chiefly under those of the old debts, the new debts, and the debts of the Company. With the first of these he agreed in substance, and should not make any animadversions on that part of the matter. He was more peculiarly interested in those which were denominated the new consolidated debt, and the pretensions on which the payment of them was demanded. He concurred with all who had given any deliberation to the subject, in thinking something doubtful or unaccountable in the accruing of them. He mentioned the directors and the board of commissioners particularly, as holding the same language; it struck him forcibly that, after stating their reasons for hesitating on the matter with great plausibility, and laying down a variety of premises, which led to quite an opposite conclusion, they came all at once to the absurd, or at least most unexpected one, which he trusted this House would reprobate. They allowed that those debts were not recommended by the same forcible reasons which operated in the other case. They owned themselves much at a loss concerning their authenticity. They stated strong dislike, as if truth extorted it from them, whenever these debts were mentioned; but what would the House expect should be the result of all this? That they consequently inclined to defer the settlement of debts thus hypothetical only, till such as were not could be fully and satisfactorily discharged. This, one might imagine, would have been the conclusion of their statement. But it was quite the reverse. They ordered indiscriminate payment of all. The motives for such a decision were singular and various. One was, that the nabob's debts be no longer kept afloat. But how this discharge would prevent that consequence, he was at a loss to conceive. However, he owned himself struck by what follows: "When we consider how much the final conclusion of this business will tend to promote tranquillity, credit, and circulation of property in the Carnatic." All this he perfectly understood. It was precisely in the spirit of the general character which had distinguished the conduct. of the Company's servants in the Asiatic settlements. This order would naturally prove to them satisfactory, and consequently promote tranquillity. It would have a similar effect, he presumed, on circulation in the Carnatic, as it would take out of the nabob's pocket, and put into that of the Company's servants. They added, "When we consider that the debtor concurs with the creditor in establishing the justice of these debts consolidated in the year 1777, into gross sums, for which bonds were given, liable to be transferred, different from the original creditors." On this it was concluded, that no good can result from an unlimited investigation. This was dispatching the wisdom of the legislature in a very summary way, as it was saying in effect-We know the act of parliament says so and so; but this also we know, that the provision is useless and unnecessary. At the same time they order that complaints which they limit, be admitted, these are directed to originate only with the nabob himself, or such of his other creditors as by this arrangement may deem themselves injured. These were substantial reasons in abundance, which would always render the nabob's complaints sufficiently accommodating, not to create any alarm or uneasiness whatever; but the creditor which was most injured, and which had actually preferred her complaint, was the East India Company. Her case was well known to the public, and especially to every individual who had made her affairs any object of his attention; and he virtually barred the claim of these debts, even supposing it valid. This was the purport of the motion, to impress the House with the absurdity and injustice of the preference which had been given to private, where public interest was so notorious and urgent. He then stated the consequences of this false step; it went to an implicit acquiescence with all the fraudulent conduct which had brought so much disgrace upon this country in that part of the world: he would not impute any bad intention to the gentlemen of the board; but the decision which, on this very pressing matter, had been come unto, filled him with astonishment and concern: he knew not how to account for it; but it would undoubtedly be considered abroad as encouraging and patronizing all those mal-practices and peculations for which the servants of the Company have been so much blamed. It did not adopt the maxim in so many words, but, however, indulged the principle: it would prove the truth of his observations by its future operations, as it would furnish a precedent to men of a certain description, which would have all the force of a statute, and which it would not be very easy for any board of direction or control henceforth to dispute. Such, he said, were the consequences which this inauspicious measure, both for India and Great Britain, seemed calculated to effect; it therefore seemed, in his mind, a very proper subject for the interference of the House; it was an instance which plainly shewed how wisely the power of cognizance was lodged by the constitution in the House of Commons. Concerning that part which respected the crop of 1775, it was evident that the rajah of Tanjore paid the nabob of Arcot the arrears and the tribute, with the interest due thereon; but it was a matter of justice, that the man who sowed should reap, or that he should have the profits of his own harvest. The right hon. gentleman then entered again on the first topic of his argument, and added a farther observation on the debts of the nabob of Arcot. He said, that the faction, though sometimes supported by the directors, and |