The resolution of Ministers to call the public attention to Indian affairs was sufficiently indicated in the Speech from the Throne[174], in which the affairs of the East India Company were plainly alluded to. "The concerns of this country," his Majesty was made to say, "are so various and extensive, as to require the most vigilant and active attention; and some of them, as well from remoteness of place as from other circumstances, are so peculiarly liable to abuses and exposed to danger, that the interposition of the Legislature for their protection may become necessary. If in any such instances, either for supplying defects or remedying abuses, you shall find it requisite to provide any new laws, you may depend upon my ready concurrence in whatever may best contribute to the attainment of these salutary ends." Mr. Vane, who seconded the Address in the House of Commons, insisted that the malversation of the East India Company's servants called loudly for interposition; that new laws and regulations were become necessary; that at present the Company had not sufficient powers over their servants to enforce obedience to their orders, or to prevent them from accumulating enormous fortunes at the expense of their masters; and that their exorbitances in other respects might, in their consequences, occasion the entire loss of those distant dominions to Great Britain. The subject was not, however, immediately taken up by any Member, and some time passed without any further reference to that part of his Majesty's Speech.
But it was not dropped. On the 30th March, Mr. Sulivan, who was then Deputy Chairman of the Court of Directors, moved for leave to bring in a bill "for the better regulation of the affairs of the East India Company, and of their servants in India, and for the due administration of justice in Bengal." He said that the object of the bill was to restrain the Governor and Council from all trade; and to establish a proper mode of administering justice, by extending the authority of the Court of Justice at Calcutta over all Bengal. It was alleged by those who supported the motion, that the bad state of our affairs in India was owing to the little power which the Court of Directors had to punish their servants, either for disobedience of orders, or for malpractices in the country; that the power of trading that had been granted to the Governors, when we had mere factories on the sea-coast, was no longer suitable to their duties, now that they were called upon to govern our wide and important dominions; that their interests and duties had become inconsistent; and that the system for the administration of public justice in Bengal was quite insufficient for its objects: and, in the course of the debates, many reflections were cast out, and charges made or insinuated, against former Governors of the country. On the other hand, it was contended that inquiry should precede legislation; that the House was not in possession of facts to guide it aright; that inquiry would probably show that the evils were too deep-seated to be remedied by the proposed bill; and, especially, that the Court of Directors, and the General Courts of Proprietors, were themselves much to blame for many of the evils complained of; that the sending out a few persons, learned in the laws of England, as judges, to such a country, was quite inadequate to the end in view; above all, as it was not yet determined by what laws the inhabitants were to be governed.[175]
Many of the most important changes in the bill had long before been suggested by Lord Clive to the Company. But he disapproved of others of its details, and still more of the arguments by which it was supported. He had long been an object of attack and hostility to those by whom the bill was introduced. The late communication from the Court of Directors left him no doubts of their feelings; and, as he saw himself not obscurely aimed at, both in the motion and in the speeches in support of it, he took occasion to enter into a long justification of his conduct from the charges that had been recently brought against him. These charges were known to the public; and he wished to take the most public and solemn mode of answering them.
"It is with great diffidence," said he, "that I attempt to speak to this House; but I find myself so particularly called upon, that I must make the attempt, though I should expose myself in so doing. With what confidence can I venture to give my sentiments upon a subject of such national consequence, who myself stand charged with having been the cause of the present melancholy situation of the Company's affairs in Bengal? This House can have no reliance on my opinion, whilst such an impression remains unremoved. The House will, therefore, give me leave to remove this impression, and to endeavour to restore myself to that favourable opinion which, I flatter myself, they entertained of my conduct before these charges were exhibited against me. Nor do I wish to lay my conduct before the members of this House only; I speak, likewise, to my country in general, upon whom I put myself, not only without reluctance, but with alacrity."
After mentioning the critical and dangerous situation of the Company's affairs, when in 1764 he was called upon, by a General Court, to leave his family and the enjoyment of wealth and ease, to take upon himself the management of their affairs in a distant and unhealthy climate (an undertaking in which he engaged from a point of honour, and from a principle of gratitude), he observes, that on his arrival in Bengal he found his powers disputed by the Council; that in the discharge of his difficult duty three paths lay before him: the first, to take the government as he found it, and carry it on upon the same principles; by which he might have returned to England with an immense fortune, but condemned by justice and honour: the second, to have given up the commonwealth, and to have left Bengal without an effort to save it. "The third path," says he, "was intricate. Dangers and difficulties were on every side. But I resolved to pursue it. In short, I was determined to do my duty to the public, although I should incur the odium of the whole settlement. The welfare of the Company required a vigorous exertion, and I took the resolution of cleansing the Augean stable.
"It was this conduct," he exclaims, with truth and boldness, "which has occasioned the public papers to teem with scurrility and abuse against me, ever since my return to England. It was that conduct which occasioned these charges. It was that conduct which enables me now to lay my hand upon my heart, and most solemnly to declare to this House, to the gallery, and to the whole world at large, that I never, in a single instance, lost sight of what I thought the honour and true interest of my country and the Company; that I was never guilty of any acts of violence or oppression, unless the bringing offenders to justice can be deemed so; that as to extortion, such an idea never entered into my mind; that I did not suffer those under me to commit acts of violence, oppression, or extortion; that my influence was never employed for the advantage of any man, contrary to the strictest principles of honour and justice; and that, so far from reaping any benefit myself from the expedition, I returned to England many thousand pounds out of pocket,—a fact of which this House will presently be convinced."
He then entered into a detail of the charges themselves, and of the strange way in which they had been communicated to him by the Directors. The charges, it appears, were four. The first was, a monopoly of cotton. "Trade," says he, "was not my profession. My line has been military and political. I owe all I have in the world to my having been at the head of an army; and as to cotton, I know no more about it than the Pope of Rome."
The second charge was for a monopoly of diamonds. He observes, that at that period there were only two ways by which a servant of the Company could, with propriety, remit his fortune to England; by bills on the Company, or by diamonds: that, in consequence of his own successful endeavours, the Company's treasury was so rich, that it did not receive money for such bills: that he, therefore, sent an agent into a distant and independent country to purchase diamonds, that he might be able to remit the amount of his jaghire. "These diamonds," says he, "were not sent home clandestinely. I caused them to be registered; I paid the duties upon them; and these remittances, upon the whole, turned out 3 per cent. worse than bills of exchange upon the Company. This is all I know of a monopoly of diamonds."
The third charge was, frauds in the exchange, and in the gold coinage. This, he said, was a subject very much out of his sphere, as he was totally unacquainted with the proportion of alloy and the mixture of metals. That the Select Committee was apprehensive of the country being drained of silver, and, knowing that there was much gold in different quarters, hoped to make it circulate as coin. "Hence the establishment of the gold currency," he continues. "Whether it answered our purpose or not, I cannot say, as I did not remain in Bengal long enough to experience the effect of it; but this I know, that the assay and mint-master, by whose judgment we were guided, was a very able and a very honest man, and has, I understand, given a full and satisfactory explanation of his plan to the Court of Directors. With regard to myself, I shall only assert, that I did not receive a farthing advantage from it, and that I never sent a single rupee or gold mohur to be coined in my life.
"The fourth charge has this extraordinary title, 'A monopoly of salt, betle-nut, and tobacco, and other commodities, which occasioned the late famine.' How a monopoly of salt, betle-nut, and tobacco, in the years 1765 and 1766 could occasion a want of rain and scarcity of rice in the year 1770, is past my comprehension. I confess I cannot answer that part of this article; and as to the other commodities, as they have not been specified, I cannot say any thing to them." He then entered into an explanation regarding the monopoly of salt, its origin, objects, and effects, and defended his conduct and that of the Select Committee in every circumstance, ascribing the opposition which their measures met with to ignorance, prejudice, and mistaken views. He contended that, in the circumstances of the country, it was the only fund left for adequately paying the higher servants; that it was faithfully and judiciously applied to that purpose; and that it was attended with no injury or increase of taxation to the people, who, by the plan of the society, were to receive it at as moderate a rate as they had ever done in former times. Finally, he showed that he had strictly conformed to a resolution made before leaving England,—not to return in any degree enriched by his expedition to India; and for that purpose had exhibited the state of his whole receipts as Governor, including his share in the Society of Trade, as well as his expenditure; by which it appeared, that of the proceeds one portion was divided among Mr. Maskelyne, Mr. Strachey, and Mr. Ingham, three gentlemen who had accompanied him to India, the two latter his private secretary and family surgeon; and all the residue applied in part payment of his necessary expenses as Governor; and that, so far from returning home with any pecuniary benefits, he had really incurred a loss of 5,816l. 16s. 9d.