freedom and security of our constitution to their own personal aggrandizement and ill-directed ambition. I remain equally satisfied as to the propriety of continuing a monopoly of the trade in the hands of the East India Company. Those who maintain the reverse, appear to me to be misled by general theory without attending to the peculiar circumstances of the trade they are speaking of. "The great interest to be attended to on the part of the Company, is, that no goods come from India that are not deposited in the Company's warehouses, and that the goods so imported are disposed of at the Company's Sales, agreeably to the rules prescribed for that purpose." Lord MELVILLE, in his Letter to dated the 21st March, 1801, says, "The preservation of the monopoly of the East India Company is essentially requisite for the Security of every important interest connected with our Indian Empire: and so deeply am I impressed with the truth of this proposition, that I am prepared explicitly to declare, that although the first formation of an East India Company proceeded from purely Commercial considerations, the magnitude and importance to which the East India Company has progressively advanced, is now so interwoven with the Political interests of the Empire, as to create upon my mind a firm conviction that the maintenance of the monopoly of the East India Company, is even more important to the political interests of the state, than it is to the commercial interests of the Company." My Lord Castlereagh's opinion in the debate on the Indian Budget, 18th July, 1806, was as follows: "It seemed, however, unjust to describe the Company's commerce as carried on at a loss. To what precise extent it might be profitable, after providing a liberal dividend to the proprietors, might be a matter of more difficult calculation, and must, like all commercial results, be in its nature fluctuating; but, in reasoning upon this branch of the Company's affairs, the worthy Alderman, (Mr. Prinsep) must establish several preliminary facts, before he can expect to persuade Parliament that the commercial existence of the Company is to be considered merely on grounds of mercantile profit. He must be prepared to show that individuals would be as likely to carry on steadily the commerce of India, under all the fluctuations to which such a trade is liable, where the outgoings are great, and the returns distant, as a great trading Corporation. He must be prepared to dispel the apprehensions which must be entertained with respect to the injurious influence on the prosperity of India, which may be the consequence of an unsteady and unequal demand for their produce, before he can expect to satisfy Parliament that an intercourse, perfectly unrestrained, is preferable to that qualified intercourse, partly free and partly restricted, which now prevails. If he assumes, that individuals, by using an inferior description of tonnage, could carry on the trade at less expense, and consequently at greater profit, he must be prepared to show, that this is not merely by throwing the difference of the expense on the public, by rendering numerous and expensive convoys requisite to protect their feeble vessels in time of war, whilst the Company's ships, with a comparatively slight aid from our navy, are competent to protect each other, and to set the enemy's ships of war, even when in considerable force, at defiance. He must be prepared to show, that such an establishment as that of the Company, could be kept up without the protection of a qualified monopoly; or that such a system is in itself unnecessary to the political existence of the company, and the management of large territorial revenues, when both in peace and in war funds must be transferred through the medium of commerce from India to Europe, and from Europe to India. He must also show, before he can establish that the interest of the manufacturer at home is interested in such a change, that individual speculators would be disposed to send out British manufactures, even at some loss, as the Company have frequently done, or that there is any other limit to the amount of this description of Export, on the part of the Company, than the utmost quantity the Indian market can take off, which they have not hitherto been able, with their most strenuous efforts and some sacrifices, to carry beyond £2,000,000 a-year. These, and many other important doubts must be solved, before any satisfactory or sound conclusion can be come to, on the great practical question (Private Trade), to which the worthy Alderman, somewhat out of time, had been solicitous to point the attention of the Committee." The authorities here mentioned, my Lord, go directly to state that the trade and government of India are interwoven, and ought not to be separated: and the select committee of the House of Commons on Indian affairs, in July, 1812, reports as follows, viz. The Committee, after declaring that they felt it a part of their duty to offer some account of the nature and history of the extensive establishments for the internal administration of India, "trust that such an account will be acceptable to the House, not only as showing the importance and utility of the establishments themselves, to the welfare and order of the country, but as evincing the unremitting anxiety that has influenced the efforts of those to whom the government of our Indian possessions has been consigned, to establish a system of administration best calculated to promote the confidence, and conciliate the feelings of the native inhabitants, not less by a respect for their own institutions, than by the endeavour gradually to engraft upon them such improvements, as might shield, under the safeguard of equal laws, every class of the people from the oppressions of power, and communicate to them that sense of protection and assurance of justice, which is the efficient spring of all public prosperity and happiness." Is it possible for opinions to be expressed more decidedly, and in language less ambiguous, than those here quoted? They are such opinions, my Lord, as I trust will bear the company out in the firm stand which they are obliged to make in defence of their liberties and interest as well as those of their country. My Lord, you have a duty to perform of no common nature; you have to stem the torrent of popular clamor, which increases in proportion as its exorbitant demands are opposed; you have a duty to perform to your country, which is paramount to any other consideration. It is utterly impossible, my Lord, that any man deliberating calmly on the subject can form an erroneous opinion: it is not a temporary relief to his Majesty's Treasury that can justify au acquiescence in an ill-founded demand; common reason forbids us to renounce a positive benefit in favor of a theoretical advantage; so must a sense of duty command your Lordship, not to leave the interest of those who have a claim equally well-founded to the protection of the Legislature, and on whom the employment and subsistence of thousands, and the existence of millions depend, to the uncertain issue of SPECULATION and EXPERIMENT. The very existence of the Company at the present moment, after struggling through two centuries of difficulty and embarrassment, must excite wonder; and when we contemplate the revolutions in India, which have obliged the Company to act as a Warlike as well as a Commercial Body, and which revolutious have thrown into their hands such a large portion of territory, as places them at least on a level in respect of the number and opulence of the people living under their government, with the greatest Sovereigns of Asia, we cannot refrain from expressing our admiration of the councils and abilities which have directed the Company through such struggles; and we must feel disposed to rest with perfect security the continuance of such powers in that body which has already exercised them with so much benefit to Great Britain, and to the natives of India who are freed from the calamities of war, by the government of the Company, and exempt from the extortions and perpetual convulsions which they suffered under their former Mahomedan governments. The character of the natives of India requires the most delicate attention, and no feature in that character is so strongly marked as their attachment to their established opinions. It has been truly observed by a venerable governor of India, that "the touch of chance, or the breath of opinion might dissolve the British power in India." In the event of the annihilation of the Company's power, that respect which the natives at present entertain towards the Company would be lost. It could not be explained to them, nor could they comprehend how a conqueror could experience the vicissitude of being reduced to nothing, by a mandate from a foreign land: they would conceive the power which had sent such a mandate equally fleeting and dissolving in its character. If I were at a loss for an apology for thus addressing your Lordship, I know no Nobleman to whom I could appeal with a greater hope of forgiveness for the liberty I have taken, more particularly when I assure your Lordship that I have been actuated solely by the view of benefiting my country. London, 9th February, 1813. FABIUS. |