every Englishman. But, Sir, there may be, and there are, charters, not
only different in nature, but formed on principles _the very reverse_ of
those of the Great Charter. Of this kind is the charter of the East
India Company. _Magna Charta_ is a charter to restrain power and to
destroy monopoly. The East India charter is a charter to establish
monopoly and to create power. Political power and commercial monopoly
are _not_ the rights of men; and the rights to them derived from
charters it is fallacious and sophistical to call "the chartered rights
of men." These chartered rights (to speak of such charters and of their
effects in terms of the greatest possible moderation) do at least
suspend the natural rights of mankind at large, and in their very frame
and constitution are liable to fall into a direct violation of them.
It is a charter of this latter description (that is to say, a charter of
power and monopoly) which is affected by the bill before you. The bill,
Sir, does without question affect it: it does affect it essentially and
substantially. But, having stated to you of what description the
chartered rights are which this bill touches, I feel no difficulty at
all in acknowledging the existence of those chartered rights in their
fullest extent. They belong to the Company in the surest manner, and
they are secured to that body by every sort of public sanction. They are
stamped by the faith of the king; they are stamped by the faith of
Parliament: they have been bought for money, for money honestly and
fairly paid; they have been bought for valuable consideration, over and
over again.
I therefore freely admit to the East India Company their claim to
exclude their fellow-subjects from the commerce of half the globe. I
admit their claim to administer an annual territorial revenue of seven
millions sterling, to command an army of sixty thousand men, and to
dispose (under the control of a sovereign, imperial discretion, and with
the due observance of the natural and local law) of the lives and
fortunes of thirty millions of their fellow-creatures. All this they
possess by charter, and by Acts of Parliament, (in my opinion,) without
a shadow of controversy.
Those who carry the rights and claims of the Company the furthest do not
contend for more than this; and all this I freely grant. But, granting
all this, they must grant to me, in my turn, that all political power
which is set over men, and that all privilege claimed or exercised in
exclusion of them, being wholly artificial, and for so much a derogation
from the natural equality of mankind at large, ought to be some way or
other exercised ultimately for their benefit.
If this is true with regard to every species of political dominion and
every description of commercial privilege, none of which can be
original, self-derived rights, or grants for the mere private benefit of
the holders, then such rights, or privileges, or whatever else you
choose to call them, are all in the strictest sense _a trust_: and it is
of the very essence of every trust to be rendered _accountable_,--and
even totally to _cease_, when it substantially varies from the purposes
for which alone it could have a lawful existence.
This I conceive, Sir, to be true of trusts of power vested in the
highest hands, and of such, as seem to hold of no human creature. But
about the application of this principle to subordinate _derivative_
trusts I do not see how a controversy can be maintained. To whom, then,
would I make the East India Company accountable? Why, to Parliament, to
be sure,--to Parliament, from whom their trust was derived,--to
Parliament, which alone is capable of comprehending the magnitude of its
object, and its abuse, and alone capable of an effectual legislative
remedy. The very charter, which is held out to exclude Parliament from
correcting malversation with regard to the high trust vested in the
Company, is the very thing which at once gives a title and imposes a
duty on us to interfere with effect, wherever power and authority
originating from ourselves are perverted from their purposes, and become
instruments of wrong and violence.
If Parliament, Sir, had nothing to do with this charter, we might have
some sort of Epicurean excuse to stand aloof, indifferent spectators of
what passes in the Company's name in India and in London. But if we are
the very cause of the evil, we are in a special manner engaged to the
redress; and for us passively to bear with oppressions committed under
the sanction of our own authority is in truth and reason for this House
to be an active accomplice in the abuse.
That the power, notoriously grossly abused, has been bought from us is
very certain. But this circumstance, which is urged against the bill,
becomes an additional motive for our interference, lest we should be
thought to have sold the blood of millions of men for the base
consideration of money. We sold, I admit, all that we had to sell,--that
is, our authority, not our control. We had not a right to make a market
of our duties.
I ground myself, therefore, on this principle:--that, if the abuse is
proved, the contract is broken, and we reënter into all our rights, that
is, into the exercise of all our duties. Our own authority is, indeed,
as much a trust originally as the Company's authority is a trust
derivatively; and it is the use we make of the resumed power that must
justify or condemn us in the resumption of it. When we have perfected
the plan laid before us by the right honorable mover, the world will
then see what it is we destroy, and what it is we create. By that test
we stand or fall; and by that test I trust that it will be found, in the
issue, that we are going to supersede a charter abused to the full
extent of all the powers which it could abuse, and exercised in the
plenitude of despotism, tyranny, and corruption,--and that in one and
the same plan we provide a real chartered security for _the rights of
men_, cruelly violated under that charter.
This bill, and those connected with it, are intended to form the _Magna
Charta_ of Hindostan. Whatever the Treaty of Westphalia is to the
liberty of the princes and free cities of the Empire, and to the three
religions there professed,--whatever the Great Charter, the Statute of
Tallage, the Petition of Right, and the Declaration of Right are to
Great Britain, these bills are to the people of India. Of this benefit I
am certain their condition is capable: and when I know that they are
capable of more, my vote shall most assuredly be for our giving to the
full extent of their capacity of receiving; and no charter of dominion
shall stand as a bar in my way to their charter of safety and
protection.
The strong admission I have made of the Company's rights (I am conscious
of it) binds me to do a great deal. I do not presume to condemn those
who argue _a priori_ against the propriety of leaving such extensive
political powers in the hands of a company of merchants. I know much is,
and much more may be, said against such a system. But, with my
particular ideas and sentiments, I cannot go that way to work. I feel an
insuperable reluctance in giving my hand to destroy any established
institution of government, upon a theory, however plausible it may be.
My experience in life teaches me nothing clear upon the subject. I have
known merchants with the sentiments and the abilities of great
statesmen, and I have seen persons in the rank of statesmen with the
conceptions and character of peddlers. Indeed, my observation has
furnished me with nothing that is to be found in any habits of life or
education, which tends wholly to disqualify men for the functions of
government, but that by which the power of exercising those functions is
very frequently obtained: I mean a spirit and habits of low cabal and
intrigue; which I have never, in one instance, seen united with a
capacity for sound and manly policy.
To justify us in taking the administration of their affairs out of the
hands of the East India Company, on my principles, I must see several
conditions. 1st, The object affected by the abuse should be great and
important. 2nd, The abuse affecting this great object ought to be a
great abuse. 3d, It ought to be habitual, and not accidental. 4th, It
ought to be utterly incurable in the body as it now stands constituted.
All this ought to be made as visible to me as the light of the sun,
before I should strike off an atom of their charter. A right honorable
gentleman[54] has said, and said, I think, but once, and that very
slightly, (whatever his original demand for a plan might seem to
require,) that "there are abuses in the Company's government." If that
were all, the scheme of the mover of this bill, the scheme of his
learned friend, and his own scheme of reformation, (if he has any,) are
all equally needless. There are, and must be, abuses in all governments.
It amounts to no more than a nugatory proposition. But before I consider
of what nature these abuses are, of which the gentleman speaks so very
lightly, permit me to recall to your recollection the map of the country
which this abused chartered right affects. This I shall do, that you may
judge whether in that map I can discover anything like the first of my
conditions: that is, whether the object affected by the abuse of the
East India Company's power be of importance sufficient to justify the
measure and means of reform applied to it in this bill.
With very few, and those inconsiderable intervals, the British dominion,
either in the Company's name, or in the names of princes absolutely
dependent upon the Company, extends from the mountains that separate
India from Tartary to Cape Comorin, that is, one-and-twenty degrees of
latitude!
In the northern parts it is a solid mass of land, about eight hundred
miles in length, and four or five hundred broad. As you go southward, it
becomes narrower for a space. It afterwards dilates; but, narrower or
broader, you possess the whole eastern and northeastern coast of that
vast country, quite from the borders of Pegu.--Bengal, Bahar, and
Orissa, with Benares, (now unfortunately in our immediate possession,)
measure 161,978 square English miles: a territory considerably larger
than the whole kingdom of France. Oude, with its dependent provinces, is
53,286 square miles: not a great deal less than England. The Carnatic,
with Tanjore and the Circars, is 65,948 square miles: very considerably
larger than England. And the whole of the Company's dominions,
comprehending Bombay and Salsette, amounts to 281,412 square miles:
which forms a territory larger than any European dominion, Russia and
Turkey excepted. Through all that vast extent of country there is not a
man who eats a mouthful of rice but by permission of the East India
Company.
So far with regard to the extent. The population of this great empire is
not easy to be calculated. When the countries of which it is composed
came into our possession, they were all eminently peopled, and eminently
productive,--though at that time considerably declined from their
ancient prosperity. But since they are come into our hands!----!
However, if we make the period of our estimate immediately before the
utter desolation of the Carnatic, and if we allow for the havoc which
our government had even then made in these regions, we cannot, in my
opinion, rate the population at much less than thirty millions of souls:
more than four times the number of persons in the island of Great
Britain.
My next inquiry to that of the number is the quality and description of
the inhabitants. This multitude of men does not consist of an abject and
barbarous populace; much less of gangs of savages, like the Guaranies
and Chiquitos, who wander on the waste borders of the River of Amazons
or the Plate; but a people for ages civilized and
cultivated,--cultivated by all the arts of polished life, whilst we
were yet in the woods. There have been (and still the skeletons remain)
princes once of great dignity, authority, and opulence. There are to be
found the chiefs of tribes and nations. There is to be found an ancient
and venerable priesthood, the depository of their laws, learning, and
history, the guides of the people whilst living and their consolation in
death; a nobility of great antiquity and renown; a multitude of cities,
not exceeded in population and trade by those of the first class in
Europe; merchants and bankers, individual houses of whom have once vied
in capital with the Bank of England, whose credit had often supported a
tottering state, and preserved their governments in the midst of war and
desolation; millions of ingenious manufacturers and mechanics; millions
of the most diligent, and not the least intelligent, tillers of the
earth. Here are to be found almost all the religions professed by
men,--the Braminical, the Mussulman, the Eastern and the Western
Christian.
If I were to take the whole aggregate of our possessions there, I should
compare it, as the nearest parallel I can find, with the Empire of
Germany. Our immediate possessions I should compare with the Austrian
dominions: and they would not suffer in the comparison. The Nabob of
Oude might stand for the King of Prussia; the Nabob of Arcot I would
compare, as superior in territory, and equal in revenue, to the Elector
of Saxony. Cheit Sing, the Rajah of Benares, might well rank with the
Prince of Hesse, at least; and the Rajah of Tanjore (though hardly equal
in extent of dominion, superior in revenue) to the Elector of Bavaria.
The polygars and the Northern zemindars, and other great chiefs, might
well class with the rest of the princes, dukes, counts, marquises, and
bishops in the Empire; all of whom I mention to honor, and surely
without disparagement to any or all of those most respectable princes
and grandees.
All this vast mass, composed of so many orders and classes of men, is
again infinitely diversified by manners, by religion, by hereditary
employment, through all their possible combinations. This renders the
handling of India a matter in an high degree critical and delicate. But,
oh, it has been handled rudely indeed! Even some of the reformers seem
to have forgot that they had anything to do but to regulate the tenants
of a manor, or the shopkeepers of the next county town.
It is an empire of this extent, of this complicated nature, of this
dignity and importance, that I have compared to Germany and the German
government,--not for an exact resemblance, but as a sort of a middle
term, by which India might be approximated to our understandings, and,
if possible, to our feelings, in order to awaken something of sympathy
for the unfortunate natives, of which I am afraid we are not perfectly
susceptible, whilst we look at this very remote object through a false
and cloudy medium.
My second condition necessary to justify me in touching the charter is,
whether the Company's abuse of their trust with regard to this great
object be an abuse of great atrocity. I shall beg your permission to
consider their conduct in two lights: first the political, and then the
commercial. Their political conduct (for distinctness) I divide again
into two heads: the external, in which I mean to comprehend their
conduct in their federal capacity, as it relates to powers and states
independent, or that not long since were such; the other
internal,--namely, their conduct to the countries, either immediately
subject to the Company, or to those who, under the apparent government
of native sovereigns, are in a state much lower and much more miserable
than common subjection.
The attention, Sir, which I wish to preserve to method will not be
considered as unnecessary or affected. Nothing else can help me to
selection out of the infinite mass of materials which have passed under
my eye, or can keep my mind steady to the great leading points I have in
view.
With regard, therefore, to the abuse of the external federal trust, I
engage myself to you to make good these three positions. First, I say,
that from Mount Imaus, (or whatever else you call that large range of
mountains that walls the northern frontier of India,) where it touches
us in the latitude of twenty-nine, to Cape Comorin, in the latitude of
eight, that there is not a _single_ prince, state, or potentate, great
or small, in India, with whom they have come into contact, whom they
have not sold: I say _sold_, though sometimes they have not been able to
deliver according to their bargain. Secondly, I say, that there is not a
_single treaty_ they have ever made which they have not broken. Thirdly,
I say, that there is not a single prince or state, who ever put any
trust in the Company, who is not utterly ruined; and that none are in
any degree secure or flourishing, but in the exact proportion to their
settled distrust and irreconcilable enmity to this nation.
These assertions are universal: I say, in the full sense, _universal_.
They regard the external and political trust only; but I shall produce
others fully equivalent in the internal. For the present, I shall
content myself with explaining my meaning; and if I am called on for
proof, whilst these bills are depending, (which I believe I shall not,)
I will put my finger on the appendixes to the Reports, or on papers of
record in the House or the Committees, which I have distinctly present
to my memory, and which I think I can lay before you at half an hour's
warning.
The first potentate sold by the Company for money was the Great
Mogul,--the descendant of Tamerlane. This high personage, as high as
human veneration can look at, is by every account amiable in his
manners, respectable for his piety, according to his mode, and
accomplished in all the Oriental literature. All this, and the title
derived under his _charter_ to all that we hold in India, could not save
him from the general _sale_. Money is coined in his name; in his name
justice is administered; he is prayed for in every temple through the
countries we possess;--but he was sold.
It is impossible, Mr. Speaker, not to pause here for a moment, to
reflect on the inconstancy of human greatness, and the stupendous
revolutions that have happened in our age of wonders. Could it be
believed, when I entered into existence, or when you, a younger man,
were born, that on this day, in this House, we should be employed in
discussing the conduct of those British subjects who had disposed of the
power and person of the Grand Mogul? This is no idle speculation. Awful
lessons are taught by it, and by other events, of which it is not yet
too late to profit.
This is hardly a digression: but I return to the sale of the Mogul. Two
districts, Corah and Allahabad, out of his immense grants, were reserved
as a royal demesne to the donor of a kingdom, and the rightful sovereign
of so many nations.--After withholding the tribute of 260,000_l._ a
year, which the Company was, by the _charter_ they had received from
this prince, under the most solemn obligation to pay, these districts
were sold to his chief minister, Sujah ul Dowlah; and what may appear to
some the worst part of the transaction, these two districts were sold
for scarcely two years' purchase. The descendant of Tamerlane now stands
in need almost of the common necessaries of life; and in this situation
we do not even allow him, as bounty, the smallest portion of what we owe
him in justice.
The next sale was that of the whole nation of the Rohillas, which the
grand salesman, without a pretence of quarrel, and contrary to his own
declared sense of duty and rectitude, sold to the same Sujah ul Dowlah.
He sold the people to utter _extirpation_, for the sum of four hundred
thousand pounds. Faithfully was the bargain performed on our side. Hafiz
Rhamet, the most eminent of their chiefs, one of the bravest men of his
time, and as famous throughout the East for the elegance of his
literature and the spirit of his poetical compositions (by which he
supported the name of Hafiz) as for his courage, was invaded with an
army of an hundred thousand men, and an English brigade. This man, at
the head of inferior forces, was slain valiantly fighting for his
country. His head was cut off, and delivered for money to a barbarian.
His wife and children, persons of that rank, were seen begging an
handful of rice through the English camp. The whole nation, with
inconsiderable exceptions, was slaughtered or banished. The country was
laid waste with fire and sword; and that land, distinguished above most
others by the cheerful face of paternal government and protected labor,
the chosen seat of cultivation and plenty, is now almost throughout a
dreary desert, covered with rushes, and briers, and jungles full of wild
beasts.
The British officer who commanded in the delivery of the people thus
sold felt some compunction at his employment. He represented these
enormous excesses to the President of Bengal, for which he received a
severe reprimand from the civil governor; and I much doubt whether the
breach caused by the conflict between the compassion of the military and
the firmness of the civil governor be closed at this hour.
In Bengal, Surajah Dowlah was sold to Mir Jaffier; Mir Jaffier was sold
to Mir Cossim; and Mir Cossim was sold to Mir Jaffier again. The
succession to Mir Jaffier was sold to his eldest son;--another son of
Mir Jaffier, Mobarech ul Dowlah, was sold to his step-mother. The
Mahratta Empire was sold to Ragobah; and Ragobah was sold and delivered
to the Peishwa of the Mahrattas. Both Ragobah and the Peishwa of the
Mahrattas were offered to sale to the Rajah of Berar. Scindia, the chief
of Malwa, was offered to sale to the same Rajah; and the Subah of the
Deccan was sold to the great trader, Mahomet Ali, Nabob of Arcot. To the
same Nabob of Arcot they sold Hyder Ali and the kingdom of Mysore. To
Mahomet Ali they twice sold the kingdom of Tanjore. To the same Mahomet
Ali they sold at least twelve sovereign princes, called the Polygars.
But to keep things even, the territory of Tinnevelly, belonging to their
nabob, they would have sold to the Dutch; and to conclude the account of
sales, their great customer, the Nabob of Arcot himself, and his lawful
succession, has been sold to his second son, Amir ul Omrah, whose
character, views, and conduct are in the accounts upon your table. It
remains with you whether they shall finally perfect this last bargain.
All these bargains and sales were regularly attended with the waste and
havoc of the country,--always by the buyer, and sometimes by the object
of the sale. This was explained to you by the honorable mover, when he
stated the mode of paying debts due from the country powers to the
Company. An honorable gentleman, who is not now in his place, objected
to his jumping near two thousand miles for an example. But the southern
example is perfectly applicable to the northern claim, as the northern
is to the southern; for, throughout the whole space of these two
thousand miles, take your stand where you will, the proceeding is
perfectly uniform, and what is done in one part will apply exactly to
the other.