The Proper Limits of the Government's Interference with the Affairs of the East-India Company: Attempted to be Assigned with some few Reflections Extorted by, and on, the Distracted State of the TimesStair, John Dalrymple, Earl of
History
The Proper Limits of the Government's Interference with the Affairs of the East-India Company: Attempted to be Assigned with some few Reflections Extorted by, and on, the Distracted State of the Times
Stair, John Dalrymple, Earl of
East India Company -- Finance; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1789
wrongs and injustice predominate, who are to restore the golden age in
India? We know the late Ministry, their habitudes, and connections; from
Brooks's, then, it is fair to suppose the daring Argonauts were to have
sailed in search of the Golden Fleece: from Almack's our bold Pizarros
must have taken their course to civilize our new-acquired ministerial
Peru. Determined minds used to set fame and fortune on the dies
uncertain cast: soft souls, overflowing with Christian forbearance, and
the milk of human kindness suckt in at the gaming-table, from such
apostles, alas! I rather should suspect,
With Atè by their side, come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines, with a monarch's voice,
Cry havoc! and let slip the dogs of war.
Yet I readily agree that it may be proper to send out a well-chosen
commission of visitation and inspection, with adequate and efficient
powers from Parliament; though I am greatly deceived, if they do not
find that matters are much exaggerated. The Reports to the House of
Commons from Committees are generally very false mediums to view the
object they treat of through: they are moved for common by persons
interested in the event, sedulously attended by them, and the materials
are too often modelled and made up according to their views, and to
serve their purposes. I have therefore ever greatly regretted the
abolition of the board of trade, the fair, candid judges in these
matters, or who might be made so. The argument from the abuse to the
use, is not a fair consequence; and I sincerely and earnestly recommend
the re-establishment of that board. From the revenues of the Duchy Court
of Lancaster now vacant, and a small gleaning from the enormous
overgrown sine-cures in the Exchequer, this may be done without expence,
and with great emolument to the Crown and to the public.
It is, besides, the height of absurdity, to think the Indians are
unhappy because they do not live under the same constitution as the
inhabitants of this island. The government in that country, for a very
long period of time, has been so unsettled, that no form of it that has
any stability, or affords any degree of protection to the subjects that
live under it, can be pronounced to be a bad one: in every other case,
the weaker are almost sure to be exterminated by those that are
stronger.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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