The British government in India being a subordinate and delegated power,
it ought to be considered as a fundamental principle in such a system,
that it is to be preserved in the strictest obedience to the government
at home. Administration in India, at an immense distance from the seat
of the supreme authority; intrusted with the most extensive powers;
liable to the greatest temptations; possessing the amplest means of
abuse; ruling over a people guarded by no distinct or well-ascertained
privileges, whose language, manners, and radical prejudices render
not only redress, but all complaint on their part, a matter of extreme
difficulty; such an administration, it is evident, never can be made
subservient to the interests of Great Britain, or even tolerable to
the natives, but by the strictest rigour in exacting obedience to the
commands of the authority lawfully set over it.