If the Opposition were startled at their defeat, and Rigby did repent his precipitancy, Mr. Conway was not a little startled too. He saw Lord Chatham would stand, whether he quitted or not. He had declared against going into opposition; nor was it his inclination. Should he quit in those circumstances, he would become a cypher, and remain divested of his profession. I saw his difficulties and felt them. I told him that he had lately asked me whether I would advise him to stay and be turned out with disgrace with a falling Administration? I reminded him that in those circumstances I had acquiesced, and had allowed that he could not stay, nor support alone a system that hung on Lord Bute. But the case was altered now: it was plain the Opposition was too weak to demolish Lord Chatham; and therefore, as Lord Chatham was likely to continue in power, I wished him to stay in place likewise. At the same time I sent Lord Hertford to beg his Majesty would press Mr. Conway not to quit. The King said he had just written to Mr. Conway, and told him his Government depended on _his_ conducting the business of the House of Commons. Lord Hertford replied, he believed his brother was more inclined to stay than he had been. The King said, eagerly, “How have you brought it about? I am sure you and Mr. Walpole have done it.” On the 9th, Beckford proceeded on the East Indian plan, and moved for inspection of their charters, treaties, revenue in Bengal, and an account of what they had expended. He expatiated justly on the devastation the Company’s servants had committed, and urged that new adventurers, not old proprietors of India Stock, were the men who profited of this accession of wealth, and who were practising all arts to convert into a selfish job a source of riches that ought to be conducted to national advantage. The Opposition treated the plan as chimerical. Could Bengal, they asked, be stated as a permanent possession? Cust, the Speaker’s brother, concerned in the Company, admitted that the Government was entitled to expect a return from the Company, as their settlements had been preserved by the navy, and depended on the protection of the public. But though his confession was candid, he was faithful too to the interests of the Company, and started many difficulties. No proposal, he said, could be made but to the General Court of Proprietors. Many proprietors would object, not intending to continue so. The revenue was not so large as pretended. Lord Clive computed it at one million seven hundred thousand pounds: Sumner’s account settled it at one million four hundred thousand; himself did not believe it exceeded twelve hundred thousand. The Company, on their forts, armaments, &c., had expended five millions. Senegal and Goree, while in private hands, were maintained for eight thousand pounds a year; since the public had taken them under their own direction, they had cost twenty-six thousand pounds a year. Burke, in