VOL. IX. No. 16.]

[PRICE 10D.

545]

SUMMARY OF POLITICS. AFFAIRS OF INDIA. (Continued from pages 171, 197, 237, 303, 368, 460, and 530.) In page 531, being part of the article last referred to, the history of Mr. HUDLESTONE'S intended motion for laying before the House of Commons a Dispatch of the East India Directors, was given. It was, in conclusion, stated, that there was no doubt entertained, that Mr. Hudlestone's motion would now be made. But, from what has since passed in parliament, this opinion appears to have been too sanguine; for, it is ascertained, that Mr. H. has abandoned his intention. From what motive this abandonment has taken place, I shall not pretend to determine; and, indeed, the thing itself is immaterial, except as another proof of the state in which the East India Directors are held by the ministry of the day; fer, it I am rightly informed, the Dispatch has gotten abroad, and will shortly make its appearance in print, which circumstance. however, is not to abate our sentiments with regard to the efforts that have been made to keep it from the eye of the parliament and of the people, who are now called upon for such immense sums of money to make up for the wasteful expenditure in India.

Of the propriety of producing this paper to the House of Commons, there can, I think, be no doubt, in the mind of any man, whose faculty of judging has not been completely perverted by the long habit of en- deavouring to screen men from the effects of real responsibility.The East India Company make (as we have before seen) a contract with the nation, according to which contract, the Company, in consideration of vast advantages secured to them at the nation's expense, are to pay to the nation 500,000 a year. They have paid this sum but one year out of thirteen; and, instead of paying the rest, they come to the nation for money to aid them. Three millions have the ministers already raised upon us in taxes to give them; and, no one denies that much more will be wanted, in order to rescue the Q

[546 Company from that "brink of beggary," one of the Directors has represented them to be in at this moment, though two of the millions, observe, have been long ago received by them from us. In this state of things certain members of the House of Commons wish to obtain information as to the causes which have led to this result, and the more especially, because the affairs of the India Company have, during the whole of the 13 years, been annually represented to the parliament as increasing in prosperity. One member of parliament, in particular, imputes the blame to the late Governor General, who, he has repeatedly asserted, has involved the Company and the country in these difficulties, by having undertaken unnecessary and unauthorised wars, and by having made great waste of the money of his employers. The ministers, or, at least,' some of them, assert, that the Governor General acted with the approbation of those employers; and, in more than one instance, such assertions have been accompanied with motions for papers to shew that the assertions were true. The East India Company, by their representatives, the Directors, make contrary assertions; and, in order to prove, that the Governor General acted, in the cases alluded to, not only without their approbation, and against their wishes and their will, but, in many instances, against their positive orders conveyed to and received by him, one of them; Mr. Hudlestone, gives

notice of his intention to move for the important dispatch in question, and which dispatch the reader will find described in the preceding sheet, page 531 Now, I ask the reader, what can be more just and more reasonable than this? And, can he possibly be at a loss to determine, what must be the principal motive, on the other side, for wishing to prevent this paper from seeing the light? I beg him, too, to bear in mind, that Lord Temple, and other defenders of Lord Wellesley, have repeatedly boasted, that, such was the goodness of his cause, his friends wished for the production

establishments in India; that they never authorised the expending of more than a quarter of a million upon a palace for the late Governor General; that they never authorised the disbursement of the great sums thrown away upon the wild project of an Indian college; and, in short, that they dis approved, and expressed their disapprobation, of all the measures, civil as well as milltary, by which their inability to make good their bargain was produced. But, did they, agreeably to the law, make a representation of their inability, to parliament, through the ministry? No: they kept the state of their affairs a profound secret between the ministry of the day and themselves; by which means they prevented the parliament and the nation from discovering the evil in time, and from putting a stop to it. And, shall they now, now that it is too late to remedy it; shall they now come to us for an exemption from the debt which they owe us; a debt, which exists only because they kept the causes of their inability to pay from the sight of those, to whom, by law, they were bound to state them, in order to be entitled to any indulgence on their account? J. S. W. seems, though with superabundant caution, to admit, that there may have been transactions, among the Company and their servants, sufficient to destroy the plea of unavoidable inability; but, one would gather from the whole of his letter, that he would have us give them money first, and enquire into the cause of their poverty after wards. I am for a precisely opposite mode of proceeding; and, beseeching J. S. W. to lay aside, for a little, his Leadenhall-Street jargon about assets and investments, I beg him to give me a plain answer to this plain question: does he think, that the East India Company are exonerated from the demands which the nation had upon them, in conse quence of the act of the 33rd Geo. III. chapter 52nd? Leaving him to answer this question, I shall proceed to state what has, since my last number, occurred, relative to the affairs of India. Mr. Paull has given notice of a motion for further papers, which motion will have been made previous to the appearance of this present number. Mr. Hudlestone has (on Tuesday the 15th inst.) said, in his place in the House of Commons, that the paper (the dispatch above spoken of), for the production of which he had intended to move, having been produced in another place (the India House), so as fully to answer the purpose intended, his motion for that paper was no longer necessary. Mr. Paull has given notice, that, on Tuesday next, the 22d instant, he shall bring forward the first charge, which it is his intention to

and the publicity of every document at all connected with his conduct!- Here, before I proceed to state what has, since my last, occurred, with regard to this great subject, I must stop to notice letter, which will be found in page 600 of this number, signed J. S. W. The writer, in adverting to my repeated representation that the East India Company is indebted to the nation to the amount of 6 millions, together with the interest thereon accruing, at the rate of 15 per centum per annum, says that I am in error; because, says he, the bargain, for the payment to the nation, of half a million a year, was net positive, but conditional and, the condition was, that the said half million a year should be paid out of the surplus, after other named charges had been duly defrayed. Agreed, as far as he goes; but, was there no other condition Did the act, by which the bargain was sanctioned (33 Geo. III. chap. 52), leave it to the East India Company to say when they had a sur plus and when not? Did it, in short, give them the power of refusing to fulfil this part of the bargain whenever they pleased? Were not the possible causes of inability to pay clearly pointed out by that act? And was there not also a mode, a regular modeof representing the cause of the inability to parliament, duly provided for? JS. W. has thought proper to pass over all this; but, does he think that I, whose cbject it is to obtain justice for the burdened people, and myself among the rest, have passed it over? Upon certain conditions the Company were to be indulged with a postponement of the annual demand upon them; these conditions, amongst others, were, the occurrence of unavoidable wars and expences, and the regularly representing, to parliament, through the ministers, the state of inability, and also the causes of it. Have these conditions been complied with? Have the ministers, from the passing of the act to this present day, communicated any such representations to the parliament? Have the Company ever made any such representations to the ministers? J. S. W. if he be not much, yea very much indeed, more ignorant than the person, to whom he has thought proper to impute error, knows that they have not; and, he must, of course, know, that the Company is not, and never has been, either in law or equity, entitled to one moment's postponement of the half million a year, and that they are, to all intents and purposes, indebted to the nation in the above-said amount.The Company, by their represenatives, the Directors, will tell us, that they disapproved of the wars; that they dis ipproved of the enormously expensive

547]

after repeated notices, declined to move for, because it had been produced elsewhere' This reason did not appear satisfactory to his lordship, and, therefore, in a manner be coming his rank and character, he instantly gave notice of his intention to move for it. I have before congratulated the public upon the appearance of several young and independent politicians; and, amongst them, Lord Archibald Hamilton occupies a distinguished place. His brother, the Marquis of Douglas, acted a most excellent part upon the question of a monument to the memory of Mr. Pitt; and, biind indeed must such men be, if they do not perceive, that this is the road to valuable renown. They have seen enough of the miserable fruits of intrigue and of mere party politics. They have seen the pursuers in that chase hunt one another down. They have seen them, each in his turn, shouting victory; and, each in his turn, defeated and disgraced. They have, though their life has not yet been very long, seen enough, and more than enough, to convince them, that an abandonment of principle leads to dishonour in public, and to remorse and anguish in private, as surely as time leads to the grave. This lesson the world has, indeed, at all times, been taught; but, never, perhaps, in accents so persuasive as at present; and, let us hope, that the effect will be, in some cases at least, proportioned to the means.- -The debate of Wednesday was upon a motion of Mr. FRAN CIS, relative to a bill, just brought in by Mr. Hobhouse, respecting the payment of creditors, or pretended creditors, of the Nabob of Arcot. The reader will remember, that this Nabob was one of the unfortunate princes, with whom Lord Wellesley had to do. He will also remember, that the cause of this prince was espoused by Mr. Sheridan, who, so early as 1802, moved for a great quantity of papers, whereon to proceed to an inquiry into that affair. These papers were printed; they have, for more than two years, been before the House of Commons; and yet no motion relating to them has been made by that gentleman. This was what Mr. Francis alluded to when he said, that "it was his misfortune to act almost alone upon those subjects hitherto. Neverthe"less, he would still venture to hope for "the aid of some gentlemen who, upon the "former investigation of India affairs, had

acquired some celebrity by their exertions on that occasion, and several of whom "were still members of this house. If it were orderly, he would now call on them by name; but he hoped, however, to designate them so, as without any violation of parliamentary order, to arrest their at

&

[552

"tention, and induce, if possible, their at "tention and aid in the discussion of Wed"nesday next. One of them was an hon. "member for Norwich; another was a

right hon. friend of his, conspicuous for "the brilliancy of his eloquence on a former celebrated subject. In regretting the "absence of that right hon. gent. Le was "conscious that he only expressed the com"mon feeling of that house, which he had "not of late illumined by the light of his "countenance. He hoped the right hon. gent. had not passed into infinite space, never to return to that house again, for " he had the highest opinion of his cha racter, his spirit, and integrity, and trust. "ed he would be induced to accept this his " earnest invitation, to attend once more in "his place on Wednesday, and take part "in a discussion which he was so competent "to elucidate by his knowledge, and en"liven by the vivid splendour of his elo

66

quence."It is proper to say, how ever, that, if I am rightly informed, it was, without this summons, Mr. Sheridan's resolution to attend upon all questions relating to the Nabob of Arcot. That he will at tend, and will do justice to the subject, I, for my own part, have little doubt; and, baving been confidently assured, that this was his resolution before the speech of Mr. Francis was made, I have thought it quite proper to state the substance of my information.

MILITARY AFFAIRS.In the preceding sheet, p. 513 and the following ones, some remarks were offered upon the new military measures proposed to be adopted. In the same page reference was made to all the several articles, which, upon the subject of the army, had appeared in the present VoInme of this work. Pages 534 and 539 contained two other letters, which may be con sidered as making part of the discussion; and, in the present Number will be found, 1. A letter, signed PUBLIUS, in commendation of the plan of Brigadier General Stew. art, which was noticed in a previous sheet, and of which Publius has not been able to induce me to change my opinion. And, 2. A letter from " A COUNTRY-GENTLE66 MAN AND A VOLUNTEER OFFICER,

commenting upon what was said by me, in page 520, upon that part of Mr. Windham's measure which relates more particularly to the Volunteer officers and corps.. Upon this last letter, as a sort of defence of the Volun teer establishment, and as coming very op portunely to be illustrated by the present conduct of some, at least. of the Volunteer corps, I propose to make a few remarks, begging the reader first to turn to the letter itself, and, after these remarks, there is a