But it was not dropped. On the 30th March, Mr. Sulivan, who was then Deputy Chairman of the Court of Directors, moved for leave to bring in a bill "for the better regulation of the affairs of the East India Company, and of their servants in India, and for the due administration of justice in Bengal." He said that the object of the bill was to restrain the Governor and Council from all trade; and to establish a proper mode of administering justice, by extending the authority of the Court of Justice at Calcutta over all Bengal. It was alleged by those who supported the motion, that the bad state of our affairs in India was owing to the little power which the Court of Directors had to punish their servants, either for disobedience of orders, or for malpractices in the country; that the power of trading that had been granted to the Governors, when we had mere factories on the sea-coast, was no longer suitable to their duties, now that they were called upon to govern our wide and important dominions; that their interests and duties had become inconsistent; and that the system for the administration of public justice in Bengal was quite insufficient for its objects: and, in the course of the debates, many reflections were cast out, and charges made or insinuated, against former Governors of the country. On the other hand, it was contended that inquiry should precede legislation; that the House was not in possession of facts to guide it aright; that inquiry would probably show that the evils were too deep-seated to be remedied by the proposed bill; and, especially, that the Court of Directors, and the General Courts of Proprietors, were themselves much to blame for many of the evils complained of; that the sending out a few persons, learned in the laws of England, as judges, to such a country, was quite inadequate to the end in view; above all, as it was not yet determined by what laws the inhabitants were to be governed.[175] Many of the most important changes in the bill had long before been suggested by Lord Clive to the Company. But he disapproved of others of its details, and still more of the arguments by which it was supported. He had long been an object of attack and hostility to those by whom the bill was introduced. The late communication from the Court of Directors left him no doubts of their feelings; and, as he saw himself not obscurely aimed at, both in the motion and in the speeches in support of it, he took occasion to enter into a long justification of his conduct from the charges that had been recently brought against him. These charges were known to the public; and he wished to take the most public and solemn mode of answering them.