From these letters, it is evident that Lord Chatham had been yet able to form no plan on the vast subject of Indian affairs; that he was disposed to let matters take their course for some time longer through the intervention of the Company, and that the recent extension of their dominions probably rather embarrassed him; that he was alive, as he had always been, to Lord Clive's splendid merits, and an advocate for the rewards the gratitude of the country ought to bestow. At the same time he was cautiously guarded not to commit himself by any opinions, but rather disposed to gain time and watch what the progress of events might produce. It could hardly fail to gratify him to see all parties contending for his favour, and laying the information they possessed, and a tender of their services, at his feet.
Lord Chatham's administration was formed in the last days of July, and it was in September that the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Company were sent for to the Council, and informed that it was likely that the affairs of the Company would be taken into consideration when the Parliament met. The same notice was soon after communicated in writing.
The Directors, thus put upon their guard, looked eagerly to what was to follow. The movement began in the House of Commons, where Mr. Beckford gave notice of a motion for an inquiry into the affairs of the East India Company[141]; and in the course of his speech, adverting to the burdens laid on the landed interest, and to the rich acquisitions of the Company in the East, congratulated his brother landholders that they should no longer be hewers of wood and drawers of water. The very exaggerated statements of the revenues of Bengal, published by Mr. Holwell and others, had induced the public to look to them for at least a partial relief from their burdens. The Ministers, however, cautiously concealed their intentions, if they had any, and proposed nothing. Lord Chatham was constantly confined by the gout, remained chiefly in the country, and showed himself but little; and his colleagues did not venture, in his absence, to propose any important measure. Matters went on languidly. Indeed, the symptoms of disunion very soon became visible in the motley cabinet which had been formed, and was supported chiefly by Lord Chatham's great name.
His opinions on the Indian question were veiled in impenetrable mystery. Committees were, however, appointed to examine into the state of the Company, and votes were passed that copies of their charters, their treaties with native princes, statements of their Indian revenues, and their correspondence with their servants in India, should be laid before the Committees. On a motion for printing these papers[142], the Directors being alarmed, presented a petition showing the dangers and inconveniences likely to result from making public some part of the papers, especially the private correspondence; when, after a warm debate, that part of the order was discharged. Almost every person of eminence who had been in India, or connected with it, was, however, examined on oath before the House of Lords.
These inquiries inevitably led to the important question of the Company's right to their territorial acquisitions, which a strong party insisted must belong to the Crown. "The Crown," says Mr. Dudley[143], the Chairman of the Directors, "claims a right to all the Company's acquisitions, possessions, and revenues that have been obtained by conquest, which the Cabinet Council, with Lord Chatham at their head, say is the case with respect to every thing we have got from the King, the Nabobs, or other princes of the country for some years past, both at Bengal and Madras."—"We have been, and still are under the dilemma of studying the wants of the Administration, for they themselves will not open their mouths to utter one syllable. They seem to me to determine in their own minds that the right is in the Crown; and, therefore, if the Company have a desire to preserve a share in it, they must acknowledge that right, and pay largely for it." In the numerous debates on Indian affairs that took place in the course of the session, Mr. Beckford, Colonel Barré, and Mr. Nugent pressed upon the Company, while Mr. George Grenville and Mr. Charles Yorke strongly supported its rights, and pleaded the injustice of making any demands upon it in consequence of its conquests, as long as the term of its charter was unexpired. The lawyers were, in general, in favour of the Company; but neither the Ministry nor the Directors wished the dry question of law to be decided: neither party were altogether prepared for its consequences; both rather wished for a compromise, as more favourable to their present ease and their future views. Sir Matthew Fetherstonehaugh, a considerable proprietor of India stock, in a letter to Lord Clive[144], describes some of these debates. "In a question like this," says he, "about the right of property and the forfeiture of a charter, one would have thought that the opinion of almost all the lawyers in the house might have been attended to; but they were called by Colonel Barré 'a sort of heavy artillery, which did very little execution;' for which the Master of the Rolls called him, instead of the honourable gentleman, the valiant gentleman. Mr. Grenville, on both days, defended the Company's rights with a force that was unanswerable, always declaring that, if the Company wanted the renewal of their term, or any other favour from the public, they should be made to pay for it in the best bargain which could be made for the public; but protesting against extorting money from them by the terror and threats of parliamentary power."—"But the finest piece of oratory was Mr. Burke's (late secretary to Lord Rockingham). After pointing out the ill effects which so violent a measure might have on the public credit; 'but, perhaps,' said he, 'this house is not the place where our reasons can be of any avail. The great person who is to determine on this question, may be a being far above our view; one so immeasurably high, that the greatest abilities (pointing to Mr. Townshend), or the most amiable dispositions that are to be found in this house (pointing to Mr. Conway), may not gain access to him; a being before whom 'thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers' (waving his hand all this time over the treasury bench, which he sat behind), 'all veil their faces with their wings. But though our arguments may not reach him, possibly our prayers may.' He then apostrophised into a solemn prayer to the Great Minister above, that rules and governs over all to have mercy upon us, and not to destroy the work of his own hands; to have mercy on the public credit, of which he had made so free and large a use:—'Doom not to perdition that vast public debt, a mass of 70,000,000l. of which thou hast employed in rearing a pedestal for thy own statue.' Here Augustus Harvey called him to order to the regret of many." After a long series of debates, the Directors were finally frightened into a temporary compromise, agreeing to pay to the Government 400,000l., by half-yearly payments, for one year; and an act to that effect passed the house[145], and soon after received the royal assent.[146] A similar agreement was renewed the year after.
It was some time before that the vote of the Court of Proprietors raising the dividend to 12½ per cent. had been passed[147]; on which occasion a message from the Ministry had been read to the General Court, recommending that no augmentation should take place till their affairs, then under the view of Parliament, were considered. The Court having proceeded nevertheless, a bill was introduced, by which this order was rescinded, and the Company prevented from dividing more than 10 per cent. before the next meeting of Parliament.
While these various proceedings were in progress, a measure was proposed that much more immediately concerned Lord Clive's interests. During the discussions that had recently taken place in Parliament, however much the public mind had been excited and disgusted by the reported behaviour of the Company's servants in Bengal, all parties had concurred in loudly praising his conduct and services. When the news of his distinguished success in restoring the Company's affairs reached England, and when the negotiations between the Directors and the Government had begun, many of his friends considered that the proper time had arrived for proposing that some suitable reward should be conferred upon him for his extraordinary services; and accordingly, to prevent his interests from being injured by any subsequent agreement that might be made in the negotiation then depending, a motion was made at a General Court of Proprietors[148], "That it is the opinion of this Court, that the important services rendered to the Company by Lord Clive merit a grateful acknowledgment and return; and that a grant to his Lordship, and his personal representatives, of an additional term in the jaghire of ten years, commencing from the determination of his Lordship's present right therein, would be a proper acknowledgment and return for such important services: and that it be recommended to the Court of Directors, that, upon any future propositions being made, either to Parliament, or to His Majesty's Ministers, this resolution of the General Court be humbly represented."
On this motion being made, Mr. George Dempster, who was one of the leaders of the opposition to the Directors, moved an adjournment, which was negatived by 243 to 170. The main question was then put; when a ballot was demanded by Sir George Colebrooke in favour of it, and by Mr. Dempster in opposition; when Sir George Colebrooke's question was carried by 456 to 264.
The Proprietors having now formed themselves into a general court, Mr. Dempster moved to reconsider the question concerning the additional term of ten years proposed to be granted to Lord Clive in his jaghire, and which was to be considered on the 24th of March. This motion, after some opposition, was finally carried.
On the appointed day, a ballot having taken place, the original motion was carried by 361 to 332. The majority of 29 was small; but some misunderstanding had, unluckily, taken place among the friends of Lord Clive.