I have often wondered upon what principle of policy one of our two great commercial companies should be the enfant galé, the spoilt child of every administration whilst the other was treated like the step-son of the state, with every mark of jealousy and unkindness. The merits of the East-India Company towards the nation are great and notorious. Whilst every other country has been taxing their subjects, in order to support their East-India trade, the English East-India Company has been the support, to a good extent directly, and in a very great and eminent degree indirectly, of the British finances; and in the late war the Company maintained alone, in their dominions and enterprises, the superiority which usually attended the British arms in every quarter of the globe; and at last, in the acquisitions made by the Company's arms, the material indispensable sacrifices to procure a necessary peace were found. Indeed, their expences in the reduction of Pondicherry, and the value of it, and of the other restitutions made to the French by the definitive treaty of peace, seem to me a very onerous and most just debt on Britain, and why they are not stated as such by the Company, I cannot see any shadow of a reason.
It was under the direction of their own proprietary, uncontrouled by parliament, that the Company rose to an unexampled height of wealth and prosperity: since the interference of parliament, their affairs have declined. Possibly now the patronage is so valuable and extensive, their constitution may be defective, by the too immediate dependence of the directors on the proprietors, who, by their brigues and cabals, overawe, and often make abortive the best intentions of the directors. But matters of charter and property are of so difficult and delicate a nature, that it is hard to say, whether any attempt to remedy this might not do more harm than good.
It is related, that Monsieur Colbert, Lewis the Fourteenth's very able minister of commerce and finance, and to whose memory France stands much indebted, called an assembly of the most eminent men in the French king's dominions in the commercial line, to whom he proposed the consideration, if any, and what advantages might accrue to commerce by the interference of Government. The unanimous answer of the assembly was, Laisser le faire, let it alone.
A new doctrine has been likewise attempted to be established in favour of the late India Bill, viz. That measures are not to be so fully and fairly canvassed as they ought, but are to rely and be supported by the responsibility of the proposer of them. The presumption and absurdity of such a proposition is too great to require an answer. The responsibility of the proposer often would not procure him ten pounds; and as to any thing sanguinary, God knows! the hazard is very, very trifling. Indeed, the persons who avowedly, first by denial of justice to America, plunged us into a war, and afterwards, by obstinately persevering in it, when experience had evinced the success was impracticable, and who by so doing have irretrievably (I fear) undone their country, enjoy in pomp and serenity, even to ostentation, the honours and lucrative employments heaped upon them. If justice is demanded for glory, for wealth, for dominion lost, they pay you with an ideal jest: if you want more, a ready vote of acquittal is at hand from a packt majority, united on the most sordid principles, to promote each other's advantage, in open and abandoned violation, on one part of the coalition, of the faith a thousand times pledged to bring delinquents to justice, who now are not only protected, but represented, with a falsehood and inconsistency that degrades human nature, as great, wise, and virtuous ministers, by those very men who not very many months stigmatized them as the base undoers of their country.
His Majesty has, however, been pleased to nominate a new ministry: they are young and untried: I wish them well; and my poor support shall be theirs, if they deserve it. I hope their real essential bond of union is at least less dangerous than that of their predecessors, viz. through violation of charters to obtain the plunder of India for themselves and adherents.
I should have thought a dissolution of Parliament necessary to have preceded, in order to procure any stability in the settlement of a new ministry. The reason offered against this measure was quite trifling, viz. the delay of public business; for the Parliament would have been dissolved, and a new one elected, in little more than the period of usual recess at this time of the year; which recess was not intended to have been shortened, if the late overthrow of the ministry had not taken place. Should the indecent interruption of every thing that does not promote their own continuance, still prevail in a majority of the House of Commons, the delay of public business will be well compensated by the facilities a new election will probably afford, and by the rapid progress of measures beneficial and necessary to the public that will take place hereafter, which, under the present jarring situation and equipoise of parties, cannot, in my poor opinion, ever be carried on with either certainty or dispatch.
But I still dread the continuance of the present distractions. The politics of St. James's have had ill luck for common, and, by some fatal ascendancy, have generally backwards trod the very paths they most anxiously sought to shun. The faction has emissaries spread far and wide to pluck allegiance from men's hearts. It will demand, on the part of the King, an active, unremitting attention to replace himself in that state of pre-eminence and influence the constitution allows, and even requires. Let this never be out of mind. When his Majesty hunts the stag, let him reflect that he is himself the hunted stag, the royal hart held at bay by a fierce, unrelenting faction, who deny, or mean to explain away, his dearest, clearest prerogatives. A prince so virtuous, who never was even suspected to mean any foul play to the state, ought to command in every honest service, and he will command no other, those servants whom he is now obliged to sue to, and often is refused. The onward path, ingenuous openness of fair sincerity and prudent œconomy in private life, lead to peace of mind, and to heaven's best gift, independence; they martial kings to greatness, to awe, and affectionate veneration. I know the delicate ground I tread; but I owe much to my sovereign, and, above all, TRUTH; and I will pay the debt, tho' the most ungrateful office, yet the surest pledge of real love and respect that I can give. What have I to fear? I have lived too long; I never wished to survive the glory of my country; and I cannot form a wish so mean as to survive its liberties. Whig as I am, if liberty must expire, I hold its Cuthanaria to be in a mild despotism. But in all the bills of mortality, of human grandeur, never sure was so strange a catastrophe recorded, as a king taken prisoner, and a great and glorious constitution squirted to death, by the sportings of a set of prodigal, undone, gambling, friblish, impudent Eton boys.
Jan. 1. 1784.
FINIS.