required to examine the person upon oath, and to imprison him till he shall have answered the questions put to him to their satisfaction. Any neglect or concealment is punished by imprisonment and forfeiture, and incapacity of ever serving again. Lastly, for the more speedy prosecution of crimes committed in the East Indies, a new court of justice is erected; consisting of three judges, appointed by the three courts, four peers, and six members of the house of commons: the four peers to be taken by lot out of a list of twenty-six; the six commons out of a list of forty ; and both lists to be chosen by ballot. Liberty is given to the party accused, and to the prose cutor, to challenge a certain number of these. All depositions of witnesses taken in India, and all writings received by the directors, with copies of those sent out by them, shall be received as legal evidence. The judgment of the court is made final, and extends to fine, imprisonment, and declaring the party incapable of ever serving the company. This bill was most strenuously opposed in every stage of its progress through both houses. The extension of the power of the board of control was objected to, as incongruous to the principle, and insufficient for the purposes of the bill. The enlarged powers conferred on the governor general were obiected to, as an inversion of the order of government, which re quires that authority exercised at a distance from the controlling power, and subject to almost insuperable temptations, should be as limited as possible. In the second part, the clauses, it was said, respecting disobedience, the commencing of wars, and the succession to offices by seniority, were rendered nugatory by exceptions and limitations. The inefficiency of the clause relative to oppressed native landholders, the ruinous delay in the mode of proceeding for their relief, and the abuses to which it was liable, were strongly objected to: but these clauses were all defended on the necessity of precautions against events, wherein a discretionary power might be neeessary. But the last part of the bill met with the most violent opposition. The obligation to swear to the amount of property, and the powers granted to courts of putting interrogatories, to force persons to criminate themselves, were inquisitorial proceedings unknown to Britons. The minister was, however, supported in referring the bill to a committee of the whole house, by 276 against sixty-one : and, in the discussions which took place in the committee, Mr. Pitt acted in a manner, which, on after occasions distinguished his mode of conducting the national business. He did not come forward like the head of a party, with a measure complete in every part, confident of the support of his followers; but, while he himself proposed some essential alterations, he also adopted those suggested by others, from whatever side of the house they came. Thus, from the observations of Mr. Dempster, Mr. Eden, and lord North, the clause requiring persons returning from India to give an account of their property upon oath, was relinquished by Mr. Pitt; and there were no fewer than twenty-one new clauses added to the bill in the committee. The whole afterwards suffered very severe animadversions from Mr.

Sheridan and Mr. Fox; but the bill passed both houses by very large majorities.

On the 30th of June Mr. Pitt opened the budget, which consisted of new taxes on candles, coals, bricks, hats, horses, linens, cottons, ribands, ale and beer licenses, game licenses, paper, hackney coaches, gold and silver plate, lead, postages, and silk, all of which passed with little opposition, except the additional duty on coals, which was rejected. These taxes Mr. Pitt calculated to produce £930,000. On the 30th of July Mr. Burke, after a long speech on East India affairs, wherein he mentioned the famine in Oude, the murder of Almas Ali Cawn, a native of rank, who had been, by order of governor Hastings, betrayed, seized, and put to death, without any charge, trial, or condemnation, and the treatment of the princesses of Oude, who had been seized, plundered of their property, and turned into the streets in misery, with a variety of other cruelties practised by the chief servant of the company, moved that there be laid before the house copies of all papers relative to the seizing and putting to death of Almas Ali Cawn,' which was seconded by Mr. Sheridan, and agreed to. Mr. Burke next moved that there be laid before the house copies of all papers relative to the money demanded of the princesses of Oude in 1782;' which was seconded by major Scott. He then moved, that there be laid before the house the produce of the sale of the jewels, &c., taken from these princesses; which was objected to by Mr. Pitt, who moved the order of the day, which was carried. On the 2d of August, Mr. Henry Dundas, after a suitable introduction respecting the bravery and loyalty of the Scots Highlanders, moved for 'leave to bring in a bill to repeal the act, 25th Geo. II., which confiscated certain estates in Scotland, and to empower the crown to restore them to the right heirs, under certain restrictions.' This popular motion met with universal approbation from the whole house. The only opposition the bill received was in the upper house from lord Thurlow and lord Loughborough; whose chief objection was founded upon its not extending to the estates forfeited in 1715. On the 3d of August Mr. Dempster moved for leave to bring in a bill for the abolition of the remains of vassalages in Scotland; which was granted : and on the 20th of August the session was closed with the usual formalities,

The second session of this parliament was opened, January 25th, 1785, by a speech from the throne, wherein his majesty particularly recommended the final adjustment of the commercial intercourse between Britain and Ireland, and the further suppression of smuggling. The first business of importance that came before the house was the Westminster election, the contest about which occasioned repeated discussions and divisions. At last, upon a motion of Mr. Alderman Sawbridge, that the high bailiff be ordered to make a return forthwith, which was agreed to by a majority of 162 to 124, the scrutiny was quashed, and lord Hood and Mr. Fox returned on the 4th of March. On the 16th of February Mr. Francis called the attention of the house to the civil establishment of Bengal, which, he said

had risen from £126,000 (the sum in 1774) to the enormous sum of £927,945 a year (a sum greater than the civil list establishment of Britain), in consequence of the whole power having devolved on governor Hastings. He therefore moved, that a statement be laid before the house, of the salaries and emoluments of the officers of revenue in Bengal, in 1776, 1782, and 1783; with a probable estimate of the expenditure from the 30th of April 1784, to the 16th of May 1785. The motion, after some opposition from major Scott and Mr. Pitt, was agreed to.

On the 18th of February, the earl of Carlisle made a motion in the house of lords, respecting the nabob of Arcot's debt. So early as April 1782 Mr. Dundas, in the house of commons, had moved a resolution relative to the suspicious nature of these debts, and their mischievous influence upon the government of the Carnatic. In Mr. Pitt's bill, passed in last session, it was enacted, respecting the origin and justice of these claims, that the court of directors shall give such orders to their presidencies and servants abroad, for completing the investigation thereof, as the nature of the case shall require; and for establishing in concert with the said nabob such funds, for the discharge of those debts which shall appear justly due, as shall be consistent with the rights of the said united company, the security of the creditors, and the honor and dignity of the said nabob.' The court of directors, in consequence of the trust reposed in them, prepared orders to be sent to their council at Madras, in which, after stating the suspicious circumstance under which many of the debts appeared to have been contracted, they direct them, in obedience to the positive injunctions of the act, to proceed to a complete investigation of their nature and origin. These orders, however, were rejected by the board of control, and a new letter drawn up, in which the claims of the creditors were all, with some little limitation, established, and a fund for their discharge assigned out of the revenues of the Carnatic. These orders were publicly read at a meeting of the nabob's creditors in England; and, on this ground, the earl of Carlisle moved, that there be laid before the house copies or extracts of all letters or orders issued by the court of directors, in pursuance of the injunctions in the regulating act.' The dangerous consequences of suffering the board of control to supersede the authority of an act of parliament, and the suspicious circumstances of its clandestinely interfering in an enormous money transaction, the management of which was delegated by the act to other persons, were strongly urged by the noble mover, and by lord viscount Stormont. Lord Loughborough insisted, that, even allowing the board of control not to have been guilty of an arbitrary assumption of power, yet their orders authorise transactions of a most corrupt and nefarious nature, highly injurious to the company, and ruinous to the country. Lords Sydney, Walsingham, and lord chancellor, opposed the motion and lord Rawdon was afraid the papers called for might convey dangerous information to our enemies. The motion was rejected without a division.

On the 28th a similar motion was made by

Mr. Fox in the house of commons, when Mr. Dundas himself opposed it, and defended the board of control, insisting that they are enabled, by a clause in the act, to originate orders in cases of urgent necessity, and transmit them to India. He also justified the debts themselves, and cautioned the house not to imbibe prejudices against a board of control but newly instituted. Mr. Smith, chairman of the court of directors, admitted that some debts, ordered by the board to be paid, were just, but that others were of a very different complexion. Mr. Burke, in a long and eloquent oration, entered fully into the subject. He contended, that the board of control had no right to intermeddle in the business; but, even admitting such right, they were bound to make the same enquiries as the directors. He stated, that ever since the establishment of the British power in India, Madras and its dependencies, which before that time were among the most flourishing territories of Asia, had wasted away and declined so much, that in 1779 not a single merchant of eminence was to be found in the whole country. During this period of decay, nearly a million had been drawn from it annually by English gentlemen, on their own private account only. Mean time the nabob had contracted a debt with the company's servants, to the amount of £880,000; which, in 1767, was settled at ten per cent interest: 1,000,000 sterling had been lent by British subjects to the merchants of Canton, in China, at 24 per cent. In 1777 a second debt of £2,400,000, and a third of £160,000, called the cavalry debt, were settled by the nabob of Arcot at twelve per cent. The whole of these four capitals, amounting to £4,440,000, produced annuities of £623,000 a-year, more than one-half of which stood chargeable on the public revenues of the Carnatic. These annuities, equal to the revenues of a kingdom, were possessed by a few individuals of no consequence, situation, or profesion.' Mr. Burke then examined the particular grounds of these debts.

Mr. Burke next called the attention of the house to the ruined condition of the country; entered into a statement of the internal politics of the Carnatic, and the causes of the war with Hyder Ali; describing its desolate ravages, while it raged for eighteen months without intermission, from Madras to Tanjore; and the redoubled horrors of the famine that ensued, insomuch that when the British armies traversed the central provinces for hundreds of miles in all directions, in their whole march they did not see one man, woman, child, or fourfooted beast of any description! And what, added he, would a virtuous, an enlightened ministry do, on the view of such ruins of such a chasm of desolation as yawned in the midst of those once flourishing countries?—They would have reduced their most necessary establishments; they would have suspended the justest payments; they would have employed every shilling derived from the productive parts, to re-animate the powers of the unproductive. While performing this fundamental duty to justice and humanity, they would have ordered the corps of fictitious creditors, whose crimes were their claims, to keep an awful distance, to silence

their inauspicious tongues, to hold off their profane unhallowed paws from this holy work; they would have proclaimed with a voice that should make itself heard, that on every country the first creditor is the plough; that this original indefeasible claim supersedes every other demand. This is what a wise and virtuous ministry would have done and said. They would thus have laid a solid foundation for future opulence and strength. But, on this grand point of the restoration of the country, there is not one syllable in the correspondence of the ministers. They felt nothing for a land desolated by fire, sword, and famine; their sympathies took another direction; they were touched with pity for bribery, so long tormented with a fruitless itching of its palms; their bowels yearned for usury, that had long missed its monthly harvest; they felt for peculation, which had been for so many years raking in the dust of an empty treasury; they were melted into compassion for rapine and oppression, licking their dry, parched, unbloody jaws. These were the objects of their solicitude. As to the public debt, he afterwards said, nothing was provided for it, but an eventual surplus to be shared with one class of the private demands after satisfying the two first classes. Never was there a more shameful postponing of a public demand, which, by the practice of all nations, supersedes every private claim. By the mode of settling between the nabob and the company, the public and private debts are made to play into each other's hands a game of utter perdition to the unhappy natives. The nabob falls into an arrear to the company. The presidency presses for payment. The nabob answers I have no money. Good: but the soucars (bankers) will supply you on the mortgage of your territories.' Then steps forward some Paul Benfield, and from his grateful compassion to the nabob, and his filial regard to the company, unlocks the treasures of his virtuous industry; and for twenty-four or thirty-six per cent., on a mortgage of the territorial revenue, becomes security to the company for the nabob's In consequence of this double game, the whole Carnatic has, at one time or other, been covered with these locusts, the English soucars. Far from painting, Mr. Burke added, he did not reach the fact, nor approach it. This tyrannous exaction brought on servile concealment, and that again called forth tyrannous coercion; till nothing of humanity was left in the government; no trace of integrity, spirit, or manliness in the people, who drag out a precarious and degraded existence, under such a system of outrage upon human nature. The motion, however, was rejected by a majority of 194 to ninety-seven.

arrear.

On the 22nd February Mr. Pitt moved, that the propositions laid before the Irish parliament by Mr. Orde, for adjusting the intercourse between Britain and Ireland, be read; after which he remarked on the illiberal treatment of Great Britain to her sister kingdom in former times, and inveighed much against that narrow spirit which tended to exalt or enrich one people of the same empire at the expense of another. After obviating many objections to the proposi

tions, he moved a resolution, That it is highly important, and for the general interest of the British empire, that an intercourse be finally settled between Great Britain and Ireland on equal terms; and that each country should have a like participation of trade, on Ireland securing that she will pay, in proportion to her growing wealth, such share of the public expense as may arise from the surplus of her revenue in time of peace.' Mr. Marshman thought Britain for seven years past had been giving too much. Lord North protested against a full participation of our trade with Ireland. Mr. Dempster approved of the propositions as just, and Mr. Fox spoke chiefly against beginning the business in Ireland.

On the 3rd March, Mr. Pitt brought forward the propositions, which were objected to by Sir W. Cunningham, as hurtful to the landed interest of Scotland, and ruinous to the corn trade and farmers. On the 8th a petition from the inhabitants of Glasgow was presented by the lord advocate against them; as well as from Manchester, Liverpool, and several other towns in England. A petition likewise from Manchester, Warrington, and some other towns in Lancashire, and Cheshire, subscribed by 80,000 persons, was presented by Mr. Stanley, against the late tax on fusti ans, calicoes, &c., which, after examining witnesses on the subject, was repealed. In the course of receiving these various petitions, it was agreed to revive the act of 1689, against receiving any petition not sub. scribed by all the petitioners.

Mr. Pitt, on the 18th of April, once more brought forward the popular subject of a parliamentary reform. Having formerly pledged himself to exert all his official weight in favor of it, he now employed his utmost abilities in recommending it to the house; and, after a speech of nearly three hours, moved, That leave be given to bring in a bill to amend the representation of the people of England in parliament.' The plan he now proposed was founded on the same principles with his former one, but differed in several particulars. He proposed to transfer the right of election from thirty-six of such boroughs as had already fallen, or were falling, into decay, to the counties, and to such chief towns and cities as were not represented : that a fund should be provided for giving the owners and holders of such disfranchised boroughs, an appreciated compensation: that the taking of this compensation should be a voluntary act of the proprietor; and, if not now accepted, the money should be laid out at compound interest, until it became an irresistible bait to such proprietors. He also proposed to extend the right of voting for knights of the shire to copy-holders. Mr. Fox approved of the spirit of the motion, but objected to the mode, particularly the purchasing of the boroughs; though he was not against transferring the right of electing representatives from them to the counties, and chief towns and cities. The principal arguments in favor of a reform were derived from the present partial and defective representation of the kingdom at large. It was argued, that an active, reforming, and regulating princi

ple, which kept pace with the alterations in the state, was necessary to preserve the constitution in its strength and vigor: that, as any part of the constitution decayed, it had always been the wisdom of the legislature to renovate and restore it, by such means as were most likely to answer the end proposed: and that hence had arisen the frequent alterations that had taken place, with regard to representation, both before and at the Revolution. The chief objections to a reform, were, that it was not called for by the people in general; nor in particular by the unrepresented large towns and cities, which had the best right to claim the benefit of such a measure; that, if innovations in name of reform were once introduced, men's minds differed so much on the subject, that none could know to what extent they might be carried: that what were called rotten boroughs were often represented by gentlemen who had the greatest stake in the country; and consequently were as much interested in its welfare, and that of the constitution, as any other representatives, in whatsoever manner they were chosen, could be; and, in fine, that while the rights and liberties of the people were secure under the present representation, it was hazardous to make any alteration. The motion, after many extraneous arguments, and much personal animosity on both sides, was negatived by 248, against 174.

Previous to the opening of the budget Mr. Pitt called the attention of the house to the national finances; of which he gave a very favorable view, from the increase of the revenue both from the old and new taxes. The whole of the public expenditure he estimated at £14,400,000 per annum. He then gave a comparative statement of the produce of the taxes ending 5th of January and 5th of April 1784, and of those ending at the same periods in 1785. The first of these he stated at £2,585,000; the second at £2,198,000; the third at £2,738,000; and the fourth at £3,066,000. From the increased produce of the taxes in these quarters, he made various calculations on their probable amount for the whole year: the highest of which he stated at £12,600,000, and the lowest at £12,000,000 per annum. The produce of the taxes, supposing them to continue stationary, would, on the average of the last quarter, amount to £12,264,000. The land and malt tax, £2,500,000, added to this, would make £14,764,000. Hence he expected an overplus of about £1,000,000 annually, which he would purpose to be appropriated as a sinking fund, to be applied to the discharge of the national debt. As he considered this estimate to be very low, he congratulated the public on the pleasing prospect. But, though he wished the house to consider the measure now announced, he did not intend to put it in execution till the ensuing year. To afford proper information, however, he moved, that the increase of the amount of the taxes, from 1783 to 1784, be laid before the house. His calculations, however, were much objected to. Mr. Sheridan doubted if the new taxes would be so productive as Mr. Pitt alleged, and moved that there be laid before the house the nett produce of taxes imposed last session, up VOL. X.

to the latest accounts. Mr. Dempster congratulated the minister upon his plan of appropriating a sum to liquidate the national debt. But he hoped this would be done so as to place it beyond the reach of any ministry, and exempt from all changes in administration: £1,000,000, he said, with compound interest, would in fifty years, pay off £218,000,000. The aggregate amount of the supplies, voted in 1785, was stated by Mr. Pitt at £9,737,868. The subjects of the new taxes, imposed to raise the sum of £413,000, were male and female servants, retail shops, post horses, gloves, pawn-brokers, and coach-makers licenses, game certificates, bachelors, wheel carriages, and attorneys. Of these the tax on maid servants, and the shop tax, were the most unpopular. On the 14th of June almost the whole shop-keepers of London and Westminster unanimously expressed their displeasure at the latter, by shutting the windows of their shops during the whole day, as well as by many satirical inscriptions on the window shutters. The example of London was followed at Bath, Bristol, Norwich, and many other places.

On the 27th of April, the lord advocate introduced a bill for diminishing the number and increasing the salaries of the judges of the court of session in Scotland. The former branch of it, being opposed in the committee, on the 3rd of June, by lord Maitland, Mr. Eden, and Sir James Johnston, was withdrawn, and the bill for increasing their salaries was passed by the house. On the 12th of May the Irish propositions were brought under the consideration of the house, and occasioned a number of warm debates from that day to the 30th, when several amendments, suggested by opposition, were admitted by ministry. On the 31st a committee was appointed to confer with the lords on them, and present to their lordships the twenty resolutions, to which the house had agreed, on the commercial intercourse with Ireland, along with the evidence.

On the 25th of June Mr. Pitt moved an address to his majesty, which after a violent debate was agreed to, and presented on the 29th by the lord chancellor, the speaker of the house of commons, and members of both houses. The address represented, that the two houses had

taken into their most serious consideration the important subject of the commercial intercourse between Britain and Ireland, recommended in his majesty's speech, and the resolutions of the parliament in Ireland; and, after a careful investigation of the various questions arising out of the subject, had come to the resolutions now presented, which they trusted would form the basis of an advantageous and permanent settlement between the two kingdoms: that they had proceeded on the foundation of the rights of the parliament of Ireland, but had found it necessary to introduce some modifications, and to add such conditions as appeared necessary in establishing the proposed agreement as just and equitable; and for securing to both countries those advantages, to an equal enjoyment of which they are to be entitled.' The address concluded, by expressing their trust, that in the whole of its progress, reciprocal interests and

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