want of place has left not only our fortunes but our minds unimproved. Let them, then, exert some of those rare talents, which they inherit from nature and from office, for the public good, and perform that duty for which the caprice of fortune has left us unqualified.

BILL TO RESTRAIN THE EAST INDIA COMPANY FROM APPOINTING SUPERVISORS IN INDIA.

December 7.

THIS HIS day Mr. Alderman Harley reported from the committee of secrecy appointed to enquire into the state of the East India Company, that it was the opinion of the committee, that a bill should be brought in for restraining the East India Company, for a time to be limited, from making any appointment of commissioners for superintending and regulating the Company's affairs at their presidencies in the East Indies. Lord North said it was the wish of government to make the East India Company a great and glorious Company, and to settle it upon a permanent foundation. They were going into an expensive commission, at a time when they were considerably in arrears to government, at an expence of 120,000l. Surely, then, it was the duty of parliament to preserve them from ruin. The noble lord said he was sure no hostile intentions were conceived against the Company; but the committee had judged it expedient a restraint should be laid; and as no such restraint could possibly be laid but by an act of parliament, a bill was to be brought in for that purpose.

Mr. BURKE said:

Sir; I rise up to thank the noble lord in office for his extreme bounty in assuring us, that no hostile intentions. are designed against the East India Company, and that he wishes to make it a great and glorious company-for

permanen tooting. Thres kings have entered an unformat kingdon wi, hr, and sword, in order, I presume, to lak, ⚫ aboz grew; an glorious kingdom, and secure 4. His liberties an. They have published a manifesto THE DETnose, whit the noble lord has perhaps just ale. He gives, to you: to-day, lest it might be

L

b. Su, ie, as examine ate this extraordinary matter: iconimiter sapolate last year; a fair and open

Select which have produce nothing. This was the

* publicty avowe: nn finding her barren, they & bea: httk snag om, which they call a secret 2 tiks is he first-born. Indeed, from the

1401 of this extraordinary delivery, I am

**** was pregnant hetore wedlock. Yet, after *epor. burt & drect invasion of the com

7 S. & hil to suspend a law of the Chore for less; and we are, after disabom te sot then, of their charter, KA KUSINI. The noble lord does

14 means to preserve the company 4. & previous't have told you, that // conseguener of his blunders.

tom pirmdered the company A to bave occasioned their preA Mia bill to pass, we shall, in 1 Mmerly; and you. Sir, will candle. The most with will be the bayers and on Woh * wide hammer by an inch of

4 "

upon such proceedingst

The senate will become

an auctione potuthy teen slut gent all auctioneer. Shame and public faith. Pubi turite reling that has long been ** H end to confidence given up; that has not bean whatuled to for some years! However, I hope the House will is this report lie upon the table, until the secret committee shall have furnished us with more substantial reasons than have yet appeared for invading the charter of that company.

The House divided on the motion, That leave be given to bring in the said bill: Yeas 114: Noes 45. On the third read. ing of the bill, upon the 18th of December,

Mr. BURKE said:

Sir; the counsel have so ably performed their part, that I shall not attempt to measure over again the legal ground which they have trod. The bill, however, is of so unconstitutional and dangerous a complexion, that it demands something more than a silent vote; and I should think myself unworthy of the trust reposed in me by a part of the people, were I to sit an idle hearer on such an occasion. I know, indeed, that the same qualifications now a-days make a good member of parliament that formerly made a good monk. "Tria faciunt monachum Bene loqui de superiore ·legere breviarium taliter qualiter — et sinere res vadere ut vadunt." In English, "Speak well of the minister-Read the lesson he sets you, taliter qualiter, and let the state take care of itself- -sine res vadere ut vadunt." These for the other side of the House must recognize the picture - these are the first and best recommendations of a modern senator. Ability, integrity, knowledge of business, a judgment of your own. But why do I talk of such antiquated accomplishments? These and a thousand other perfections are included in the two words "passive obedience."

The recollection, Sir, of this House's repeated acts of passive obedience and non-resistance has in me destroyed the active influence of two of the most powerful passions of the human mind-surprise and indignation. Formerly I have upon the passing of some votes and resolutions sat here fixed in amazement, not able to account to myself for the strangeness of your conduct in sacrificing a permanent to a temporary interest. I have passed many a sleepless night in alternate fits of contempt and wrath, meditating with myself some scheme of reformation, some remedy to the evils with which I saw such pernicious measures threatened my country. But, Sir, the heat of youth has

Time, that

subsided, its keener feelings are blunted. softens every calamity, has laid his headlong hands upon me, and rendered me less tremblingly alive to the wounds aimed at liberty. In spite of what is said by a gentleman at the door, who tells us that we are as young as ever, I feel age coming upon me, and with it I feel that the constitution is not growing younger. Hopeless, however, as I am, I cannot help calling to mind the Roman maxim, De respublica non desperandum. Though all human institutions, being born with the seeds of mortality in their very frame, must perish; yet, as the body politic is not in every respect similar to the human body, let us cherish the idea, if not of its immortality, at least of its renovation and long continuance in health and vigour.

Sir, this bill is grounded upon the report of your secret committee. Now, if the report itself be not well grounded, neither can the bill, which is the superstructure. That the report is ill founded is clear from hence, that the expence of the commission is the only reason stated, and that reason is by no means valid. Your committee asked"Might not the savings intended for the payment of your commissioners be applied to the use of the Company?" "Yes," was the answer. But had they, as in justice bound, proceeded one step farther, and asked, "Can these savings be made without the commission," the answer would have been "No;" and the foundation of the report would have given way, and the whole fabric of this bill tumbled to the ground.

Equally absurd, Sir, is the objection to the commission drawn from its giving the governor and council a vote in the deliberation of the supervisors, and from the eventual death of one or two of the supervisors. The commission requires the actual presence of three supervisors in every resolution; and the casting vote is in the first of the three; the governor, the commander in chief, and the second in council, making the other three inferior assessors. Hence the supervisors have power, if they see cause, to dismiss the governor and the whole council; and in every case

they have the controul in their hands. Nor can death, except four, or above one half die, prevent them from acting with effect; and in that case they cannot act at all. Thus it appears, that the ministerial arguments on this head proceed from inattention to the subject from absolute ignorance of the tenour and purport of the commission.

Sir, the commission being thus free from those inconsistencies and absurdities with which it has been charged by some respectable but ill informed members, where is the wonder that the proprietary, when solicited, did not rescind their resolution of sending out supervisors? Sir, the Company dares not imitate this House; it dares not undo today what it did yesterday; to enact and repeal alternately is the exclusive privilege of this assembly

"Diruit, ædificat, mutat quadrata rotundis."

Such levity and inconsistence would be too presumptuous an usurpation in the East India Company.

Sir, when the Company is thus tender of encroaching upon any of our rights, is it not cruel, is it not ungenerous, in administration to harass it with two committees: with a committee of secrecy founded on the principles of the inquisition, and with a select committee, which is declared by one of its friends to be a mockery of the Company? A gentleman, who generally votes with administration, finds the bill to be illegal, inexpedient, and alarming; and he finds the secret committee to be an inquisition too rapid and violent in its motions. Another friend of the minister declares the select committee so slow in its progress as to be a perfect mockery. What is to become of the Company between both? I protest I can compare them to nothing but a jack. The select committee is the slow-moving weight, the secret committee is the flyer; and what with the slow motion of the one, and the rapid motion of the other, the Company is effectually roasted.

But, Sir, this is not the first instance of the tender mercies of parliament to the East India Company. In the