A Letter to the Right Hon- 
 urable Kdround Burke, Paymaster 
 f his Majesty's Forces 
 
 By 
 John Scott
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES

 
 LETTER 
 
 TO THE 
 RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 EDMUND BURKE, 
 
 PAYMASTER GENERAL 
 
 OF HIS 
 
 MAJESTY'S FORCES- 
 
 B y 
 
 MAJOR JOHN SCOfT. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. STOCKDALE, OPPOSITE 
 
 BVRLINGTON HOUSE, PICCADILLY.

 
 ' 
 
 LETTER 
 
 T O T H E 
 RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 Right Honourable Sir, 
 
 IN the diftribution of different parts to the minif- 
 terial orators who fnpport the new India bill, in the 
 application of their different powers to this one im- 
 
 Iportant objeft, it was natural that all the topics 
 which afforded play to a wandering imagination, and 
 to tragic defcription, Ihould have been allotted to 
 Mr. Burke. The field of fancy is alrnoft exclu- 
 fively your's , and when it was refolved, that in or-
 
 der to palliate the intended invafion of our charter 
 and our property, the atrocious a<5b of barbarity 
 and cruelty committed by the fervants of the Eaft- 
 India Company abroad, Ihould be held up to the 
 deteftation of the Houfe, and of the public, and 
 form one grand engine of the attack, your talents 
 both for the pathetic and the fabulous^ gave you a 
 double claim to this branch of the fervice. Your 
 feelings are fo tremblingly acute, your nerves are 
 fo flrung to companion, your language is fo attuned 
 to lamentation, that forms of horror and diflrefs, 
 fcenes of deftruftion and defolation, feem to arife 
 Jpontaneoufly in your mind, and to occupy that por- 
 tion of the fenforium, which, in men of irritable 
 habits, is the province of reafon, of judgment, and of 
 common fenfe. I am, therefore, one of thofe who 
 were exceedingly furprifed that the right honourable 
 framer of the new bill Ihould fo palpably have en- 
 croached upon your privilege in his late harangues, 
 as to exhibit a very glowing and highly-coloured pic- 
 ture of the inhumanities of our countrymen in In- 
 dia. There is honour among thieves : furely it 
 cannot be wanting among Miniflers. But I fliall 
 hereafter be kfs inclined to wonder at any unwar- 
 rantable attempt to invade the prerogatives of the 
 
 fubjecl,
 
 [ 3 3 
 
 fubjev.% fince I have feen, among yourfelves, fo 
 glaring an invafion of your's! 
 
 If avarice and rapacity were fubjedts open to the 
 eloquence of Mr. Fox, the tortures, the bloodflied 
 that accompanied them were themes that appertained 
 folely to Mr. Burke. The right honourable Secre- 
 tary might inveigh as he pleafed on the manner in 
 which the debts due to the Company had been con- 
 traded -but it belonged to the right honourable 
 Paymafter to expatiate on the ieverities neceflary for 
 extorting payment of them. In fhort, Sir, you 
 have been fuperfeded' in your functions : The Minif- 
 ter, who is foon to unite in his own perfon the rights 
 of the Company, the powers of the Crown, and 
 the riches of the Eaft, has begun his career of in- 
 jultice by excluding you from the path in which you 
 hoped to have trodden without a rival. He fnatched 
 from your hands Colonel Boujour's letter He told 
 the piteous tale of Cheyt Sing, the woes of Afophrul 
 Dowla, and the misfortunes of his grandmother ! 
 I wonder you can ever forgive him. To take your 
 long prepared victim out of your clutches, to go ouc 
 of his way, and againft his own repeated profeflions, 
 for the fake of abufing the Governor General of 
 B 2 Bengal,
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
 Bengal, and to abufe him too for a fanguinary, mur- 
 derous difpofition, of which till that moment-you had 
 prided yourfclf (and with reafon) as the fole difco- 
 verer, was a hard trial of your patience. But to 
 drive you from every ftrong hold of your Commit- 
 tee, to leave you nothing but the dale defence of 
 Shah Allum, the expulfion of that virtuous monarch 
 Coffim Ally, and the defraudation of that difmte- 
 refted Plenipotentiary, Omichund, whereon to erect 
 your plea of participation in the fpoils of Hindoftan, 
 muft engage your very opponents in your behalf. 
 They cannot but have beholden with an eye of pity 
 the fhifts to which you were driven, the diftrefs in 
 which you were involved by the neccflity of a vague 
 and iminterefling retrofpection. 
 
 To plunge into the forgotten abyfs of diftant revo- 
 lutions, to revive the convicted (lander of artificial 
 famines, to tread on the tender ground of injurious 
 monopolies previous to the year 1772, (with your 
 friend General Smith at your elbow) was indeed a bit- 
 ter pill but gilded as it is with five and twenty 
 thoufand a year from Government to yourfelf and 
 your relations, you contrived fomehow or other to 
 fwallow it : and even now that it is down, it cannot 
 
 fail,
 
 [ 5 1 
 
 .{ail, I think, to excite a few qualms for you muft. 
 at times be apprehenfive that your language and your 
 conduct on former ftruggles with refpect to India, 
 fliould live in the world's recollection : that it Ihould 
 be whifpered how ftrenuous and how loud an advo-. / 
 cate you were in the year 1772 for the chartered 
 rights of the Eafl-India Company. How you then 
 reprobated the minifterial iniquity of your now-no- 
 ble friend Lord North How warmly you defended 
 the innocence of the Company's fervants of that day "* 
 and how quickly, upon a proper application, pul- 
 veris exigui jaftu, you can " renounce your princi- 
 " pies, and eat your words." 
 
 In this fcrmal recantation of your un-penfioned ha- 
 bits of thinking and fpeaking, Mr. Woodfall has 
 particularly cautious not to omit that you wrre up 
 your legs upwards of two hours. This is a -rorfc ; 
 information for us out of doors only. The meinbr 
 who retired to dinner when you got up, kn^w H- 
 had full two hours of fpare time ; and when 
 returned, you had not fat down. But as \o. 
 only fomewhat more than two hours to dif^ 
 you had taken in during three years of bar 
 and as in that time you contrived to unfay e
 
 [ 6 - ] 
 
 that you had been heard to utter on the difcuflion of 
 the Regulating Aft of the i3th of the King, I muft 
 allow that you performed it with great expedition ; 
 with an expedition proportioned to the neceffuics of 
 the times, and to the hurry of the whole tranfaftion. 
 The fpeeth which Mr. Woodfall has made for you in > 
 Tuefday's Chronicle, deals fo exceedingly in generals, 
 that I cannot follow up with that accuracy and clofe- 
 nefs which I am inclined to beftow upon the fubjeft 
 your < c prodigious detail of the conduct of the Com- 
 pany in Afia, from their firft eftablifhment there." 
 But I muft be permitted to remark, that it is fome- 
 what extraordinary to obferve you oftentatioufly 
 vaunting your late three-years courfe of ftudy, as the 
 ground of your claim to the attention of the Houfe, 
 when it is notorious to the moil fuperficial obferver 
 of your Reports, that every objedl of enquiry in your 
 committee, has been religioufly confined to the fmgle 
 period of Mr. Haftings's administration, and when 
 it is evident, from the whole tenour of your oration, 
 that you had been almoft expreflly referred, by a mi- 
 niilerial mandate, to events antecedent to that ad- 
 iTiin '(Iration. One article was indeed generouily given 
 up to you, wherein there was a poffibility of implicat- 
 ing the Governor General : a hiflory of that pomp- 
 ous
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
 ous non-entity, the mildeft of Monarcbs, that Allum, 
 Hismildnefs however I (hall leave in your quiet pof- 
 leffion ; for that quality has been feldom disputed to 
 Monarchs who were without fubjects. But that 
 he is " the moil beneficent, humane," (i. e. mild 
 once more) Cf generous," (i. e. beneficent) " wife, 
 philofophical," (wife again) <c and religious of men," 
 I muft a little conteft with you, notwithstanding 
 your ingenious reduplication of epithets. Of his 
 beneficence I cannot at once recollect an inftance, 
 except a donation (hardly gratuitous) of two lacs of 
 rupees and that portion of his merits you mould 
 have left to the panegyric of General Smith. la 
 wifdom I hold him greatly inferior to the Raja of 
 Tanjore; for in the cbcice of friends , which is one 
 great criterion of judgement, the latter has infinitely 
 the advantage. His religion, as it is that of a Ma- 
 hometan, is of little confederation in a Chriftian 
 affembly ; and you had better have given him a good 
 (hare of morality ; however, I mult acknowledge 
 to have heard, that his Majefty is famous for copy- 
 ing the Koran with peculiar neatnefs of character, 
 and that he is not much interrupted in this auguft 
 employment by attention to the management of his 
 extenfive empire, and to the welfare of his innume- 
 rable
 
 rablc fubjects. Between ourfelves, Sir He is a 
 weak man. Lord Clive gave him the provinces of 
 Corah and Illahabad, which would afford him a 
 handfome maintenance, and were five times as much 
 as he could ever have acquired in any part of India 
 without us : and we alfo allowed him twenty-fix lacs 
 of rupees yearly from Bengal for the fupport of his 
 dignity. But he was too much of a philofopher to 
 attach himfelf to the good things of this world, fo 
 threw himfelf into the arms of his natural, here- 
 ditary, and conftitutional enemies theMarattasj ceded 
 to them, without our conjent, the provinces we had 
 given him, and undertook a chimerical expedition to 
 Dehli. Are you furprifed that we took thofe provin- 
 ces back again, when the King could nor, or would 
 
 V not, keep them ? or that we did not continue him 
 the fubfidy of twenty-fix lacs of rupees to be lavifhed 
 away among Marattas? Self-prefervation forced 
 upon us the conduct we obferved on that occafion ; 
 it was warmly approved at borne, by both ends of 
 the town , and it certainly has contributed more than 
 
 /v any other caufe, to keep Bengal ftill in our hands. 
 1 hope the new Commiffioners will now afford this 
 great and virtuous Prince fome folid inftance of their 
 companion and that they will reftore him thofe 
 
 provinces,
 
 [ 9 3 
 
 provinces, or fome others in their Head, as well as 
 his fubfidy by way of contrail to the meafures of 
 Mr. Haftings. In the te Magna Charta of Hindof- 
 " tan," it would be a miferable overfight to omit the 
 Great Mogul ; and furely he has a claim upon the 
 juiliceof the ftate, and ftill more upon the gratitude 
 of individuals, for restitution of his countries and 
 revenues. 
 
 It does not indeed perfectly meet my comprehen- 
 fion how you could explain the circumftance of the 
 Jale of this monarch to Sujah Dowla, nor the fate 
 of Sujah Dowla to bimfelf. No doubt you made 
 this matter perfectly clear to your fcanty remnant of an 
 audience, but Mr. Woodfall has funk the particulars. 
 I know very well, that when his beneficent and 
 philofophical Majefty ran away, we re-affumed the 
 provinces which he chofe to evacuate. I know that 
 as they were too difficult to be managed by us, we 
 parted with them for a valuable confideration to Sujah 
 Dowla j by which means we ftrengthened our own 
 frontier againft the Marattas. I know alfo, that 
 upon various occafions on which we afforded power- 
 ful military afiiftance, or important political fervices 
 to Sujah Dowla, we endeavoured to balance the ac- 
 C count
 
 [ '- J 
 
 count in fonie degree, by flipulations for a pecuniary 
 return. If, however, that Vifier purchafed himfelf 
 by. any of thofe t ran fad: ions, he certainly thought 
 himfelf a gainer by the bargain : and as there is evi- 
 dence before the Select Committee, that he lived and 
 died in perfeft indepenence, it is manifeft that, in this 
 in (lance at lead, the Company broke through the 
 fyftem of treachery, dimonefty, and injuftice,. with 
 which you have charged them, by leaving Sujah 
 Dowla in full and quiet poffeffion of himfclf, after 
 they had thus fold him to himfelf. 
 
 So you have afierted that ct that they fold Ragobato 
 " the Marattas, and the Marattas to Ragoba." What 
 a childifh play upon words ! Did we not in the fame 
 manner fell America to France and France to Ame- 
 rica ? What is there in the refolutions refpecYmg Ra- 
 goba to juftify fuch indecent puerilities ? Our Bom- 
 bay Council had fcen that Chief the oftenfible and 
 the avowed head of the Maratta government. A 
 revolution difptaced him, and he threw himfelf un- 
 der our protection. It was natural he mould make 
 liberal offers for our aid in re-eflablifhing his affairs: 
 it was politically juft that we fhould accept them. 
 
 Was
 
 r " i 
 
 Was it ever imputed as a crime to the French Court 
 that King James was received and protected there 
 after his abdication? or can it be doubted that he 
 had bound himfelf to the performance of moft am- 
 ple conceflions, in cafe of a reftoration through the 
 means of France ? On that firft treaty with Ragoba' 
 you mean, I prefume, (for I have no data) to ground 
 the fale of the Marattas to kirn ; on the treaty of 
 Poorunder you mud of courfe fix the fale of Ragoba 
 to the Marattas But here, a vote of the Houfe of 
 Commons authorifes the fale, by an approbation of 
 that treaty. But the fecond and late treaty of peace 
 which provides a refidence and a ftipend in the Ma- 
 ratta dominions for Ragoba, nearly the fame as was 
 done by the treaty of Poorunder, has another article, 
 by which " the Englifh and the Pefliwa mutu- 
 * { ally agree, that neither will afford any kind 
 " of afiiftance to the enemies of the other;" and this 
 inclines you to tremble for the fafety of Ragoba. 
 Had you turned to the fixth article of the fame 
 treaty, you would have feen that Ragoba's quiet 
 abode, comfortable fupport, and perfect fecurity, 
 is exprefsly provided for ly name: and therefore if 
 the Pemwa, or any of his people, offer any in- 
 to Kagoba as long as he continues quiet, /.. 
 
 C 2
 
 have infringed the fixth article; and confequently the 
 fourteenth, on which your objection is founded, will 
 have become void of courfe. 
 
 The other Rajas and Princes whom the Company 
 may have Jold, are all packed up by the dozen or 
 grofs in Woodfall's paper, fo that it is not in my 
 power to go into the merits of each particular bar- 
 gain : but from the general purport of your fpeech 
 I am led to conclude, that let who will have been 
 guilty of this general auction, this fak of Hindoftan, 
 the Crown (or rather the prefent Miniftry) is under- 
 flood to have a right to all the benefits of a purcha- 
 fer. I am not indeed yet exactly clear whether the 
 prefent pofiefilons, territories, and fovereignties be- 
 longing to the Eaft-India Company, be liable to be 
 ranked among the lots bought, or the lots fold; 
 but I am fure that Government exhibits at once 
 the mod interefled eagernefs in appropriating the 
 whole to itfelf, and the moft perfect indifference as 
 to the validity of the title by which they are now 
 held. To me it appears very little confonant to juf- 
 tice, that the Crown mould profit by the iniquities 
 of the Company. Nothing can be more evident, 
 than that the Crown was not concerned in the acqid- 
 a Jition
 
 [ 3 3 
 
 fttion of the Company's prefent eftates : on vvliat 
 plea fhould it now afTume them? If there were ra- 
 pacity, or treachery, or fraud, or barbarity, in the 
 manner by which they were firft gotten, nothing fhort 
 of reflitution can repair the mifchief. Is it lefs 
 rapacious, or treacherous, or barbarous, for a Go- 
 vernment to feize the property of its own fubjefts, 
 guaranteed to them by frequent acts of its own, than 
 for thofe fubjccts to have originally feized it in the 
 fame manner from the then lawful owners ? Of the 
 180,000 fquare miles, which this Bill is to veft 
 
 in the hands of I know not whom 
 
 much has been granted by public and authoritative 
 deeds of ceffion to the Eaft-India Company : and 
 fuch is indifuputably the tenure of the twenty-four 
 Pergunnahs near Calcutta, and of the province of 
 Gauzipoor and Benares. Thefe are held by grant from 
 the Nabob of Bengal, and the Vizier of Oude, who 
 were then fovereigns, prcprii juris y and competent 
 to the grant. The Dewanny of Bengal, Bahar, and 
 Orifla reds on a very different title, on a firmaun 
 from the prefent Mogul, whofe power was never ac- 
 knowledged in any of thofe provinces, and who by 
 that act gave away what he never could have the 
 
 fmalleft
 
 [ '4 ] 
 
 fmalleft hope of making his own. The Dewanny 
 itfelf, confidered as a Mogul eftablilhment, con- 
 fers nothing more than the appointment to collect the 
 revenues for the Emperor's ufe. The internal 
 government, the military command, are offices 
 totally diftincl:, and were never, that I know or . 
 fufpecl, granted to the Company at all. Thefe are 
 branches of the Nizamut ; and a part of them at 
 leaft is ilill exercifed under the name, and on the 
 authority, of the Soubadar of Bengal. Surely a 
 Bill brought into Parliament for the exprcfs difplay 
 of national jnftice, for the declared purpofe of doing 
 away former acts of violence and oppreffion, a Bill 
 which is to benefit both the Company and the Pub- 
 lie at home, and to be the Magna Charta of H\n- 
 doftan, mould have paid fome attention to thefe dif- 
 ferences in the tenures of the Company's pofleflions. 
 A plea of political neceflity may perhaps be fuffici- 
 ent to wren: from them the exercife of fovereignty: 
 but their private property fhould at leaft be invio- 
 * late. Even that defpotic monarch, the Vizier of Oude, 
 did not at once confifcate to his own ufe the nett 
 collections of all the Jaghires which he took out of 
 the hand of the Jaghiredars. There is a medium for 
 tyranny itfelf to obferve and if the Company were 
 
 to
 
 -5 'I 
 
 to. be deprived of all power, of all credit, of all ex- 
 iftence abroad, it would at leaft have been decent to 
 have left them their houfe and warehoufes at home 
 untouched. A whole province forcibly feized in 
 Afia would have excited lefs murmur and indigna- 
 tion, than the burfting of a fingle door in Leadenhall- 
 ftreet: and though yourcoufm may hector and domi- 
 neer in the palace of the Rajah of Tanjore, I truft 
 in God that the fag-ends of Mr. Fox's miniftry will 
 have the modefty to wait a few months before they 
 a{Tert their fuperiority over all the dukes and peers of 
 the realm. It cannot however be doubted, but that 
 as foon as this bill is pafled, the very fecretary of a 
 fecretary, the very deputies of thofe who will then 
 be the matters of the Crown with the title of its 
 fervants, will have more real importance, more 
 weight, more efficacy in the government of this de- 
 voted country, than the firft independent members of 
 the Houfe of Lords, 
 
 Much has been faidof the infufficiencyof theprefent 
 Court of Directors to manage the Company's affairs; 
 I believe it indeed to have been but indifferently fcrved 
 by fome few of them : and the public is at no loJs 
 to difcover fomething more than fufpicious traces of 
 
 underhand
 
 t: . O ement. But in fact, the objections, 
 
 I find, went not fo much to the incapacity of the 
 perfons, as to the imperfection of their powers : and I 
 think the four and twenty gentlemen of the prefent 
 lift might have been as competent to the better di- 
 rection of the Company's concerns, as your fixteen 
 new Directors, had you but given them the fame 
 enlarged authority. I would not be perfonal and 
 therefore I avoid all comparifon of the prefent objects 
 of preference with the reft of their brethren ; as a 
 Proprietor, however, I have fomething of a plea 
 for knowledge of their feveral merits, and I own I ana 
 in fome inftances at a lofs to divine the motives for 
 their felection. You, Sir, have afcribed much of 
 * the evils which have defolated India, to the fort 
 " of perfons fent out by the Company. Young men 
 without education, and with no other talents than 
 " fuch as matured to rapacity and barbarity. A 
 <f grey-headed Engli/hman is a .phenomenon unknown 
 in India" (Vide Morning Chronicle.) Mr. 
 Hornby, furely, who has been at Bombay forty-two 
 years, muft have a wonderfully green old age, if he 
 be not yet grey. But perhaps the grey-beaded Re- 
 ceiver in the city is not fatisficd with his prefent 
 pickings, and ihis fpeech is preparatory to his Indian 
 
 appoint-
 
 [ '7 ] 
 
 appointment. And why object, Sir, to young men ? 
 Is there not fomething to be learnt, is there not fome 
 apprenticelhip neceffary in every fphere of life? 
 Would you have the trade, and the revenue, and 
 the government of all our affairs in India turned 
 over at once to blockheads who have not the fmallefl 
 idea of the principles of commerce, or of the laws, or 
 the cuilom. 1 ;, or the language of the country,, 
 merely becaufe they can difplay a few grey hairs ? 
 Nor do the young men who are ufually fent to India \ 
 wan education fo much as you would infmuate. 
 That error perhaps you may have adopted on the 
 obfervation of fome claffical deficiencies in one of the 
 luminaries of your Committee: but He has figured 
 mo ft in a military line ; and few foldiers, you know, 
 pride themfelves in an attachment to the belles let-, 
 tres. 1 mult beg leave to inform you, Sir, that the 
 Company's fervice in India is of itfelf a fyftem (and 
 no bad one) of education for a man of bufinefs : 
 and that if you were in habits of converting with 
 thofe gentlemen who have come from thence, you | 
 would find them at leaft on a par in liberal and claf- I 
 fical accompiimments with any of their home-bred 
 neighbours. Let me add, that Mr. Haftings is, in 
 the ftricleft fenfe of the word, a Scholar That his 
 D know-
 
 [ '8 ] 
 
 knowledge of the Perfian and Hindoftanic diale&s 
 is fuperior to that of moft of his countrymen, that 
 in fchool proficiency he excelled moft of his contem- 
 poraries at Weftminfter, and that his ftyle of com- 
 petition in his native language is fuch as few writers 
 by profeffion can emulate. Mr. Roufe, one of your 
 Committee, who (though he went young to India, and 
 continued there feveral years) had previously received 
 the bed of educations, will, I doubt not, corroborate 
 my aflertion. ?' This rapid fucceffion of boys" to 
 which you impute fo much of our calamities, i3 
 another creature of your own imagination. A mo- 
 ment's glance at the printed lifts of the Company's 
 civil and military fervants at the different prefiden- 
 cies would have proved the contrary. In Bengal, 
 exclufive of the Governor General, whofe fervices 
 are of more than thirty years {landing, the feniors 
 on the civil line take date from 1762 at Madras 
 are feveral who have been there upwards of twenty 
 five years at Bombay there are fix whofe refidence 
 is of thirty years duration. But it fuited the pur- 
 pofe of the moment that they Ihould all be thought 
 boys and one of the ufual figures of your rhetoric 
 made them fo -I wifh there had been no other un- 
 qualified aflertion'! But your doctrine of monopo- 
 lies
 
 [ '9 ] 
 
 lies (as given away in India,) was equally unwar- 
 rantable " A monopoly of opium" you are made 
 to fay " was fold on the moment of the contract en* 
 " tered into for 40,000!. the next moment it was fold 
 " for another profit j and in the courfe of a fhort fm- 
 " gle day, with an almoft equal enormity of advan- 
 ee tage, was fent through a variety of hands." By 
 this account here muft have been upwards of five lacks 
 of rupees, perhaps ten lacks, made at once by the 
 mere transfer of a contract from hand to hand ; than 
 which nothing was ever more remote from reafon, 
 from probability, from fact. The whole of your 
 information in this bufinefs arifes from the evidence 
 of Mr. Higginfon given before your Select Commit- 
 tee, who mentions it as a current report at Calcutta 
 that the opium contratft granted to Mr. Sulivan had 
 been by him difpofed of to another. Mr. Higgin- 
 fon could not afcertain the truth of the report j and 
 I have very good grounds for believing it to be faife. 
 After all, the monopoly of opium, and fome other 
 monopolies, muft of neceffity fubfift in forne fhape or 
 other, as your new Directors, and new Sub-Direc- 
 tors, and new Governor General and Council will 
 find or the trade xvill go rapidly to ruin. I do not 
 indeed pretend to dive into the fyltem by which the 
 D 2 Deipots
 
 Defpots of the prefent bill will render their appoint- 
 ments a benefit to the Proprietors and the Public ; 
 but I am fare if they tamper with the eftablifhed rou- 
 tine of the trade, if they unhinge the bufmefs of the 
 inveftment, and try experiments in the commercial 
 line, as is the famion in the political, the Company's 
 threatened infolvency will exceedingly anticipate the 
 clofe of their prefent commiffion. 
 
 < w L/C n ?. J . 1. . . .' 
 
 Iris curious to obfcrve the different grounds 
 on which the, prefent bill has been fupported : the 
 Right Honourable Secretary admitted that it was a 
 violation of charter, but pleaded a precedent in the 
 act of 1773 in that aft* which you at the time fo 
 manfully oppofed on the very principle that ic was 
 a violation. You now take the oppofite line, and 
 deny this a& (which is a thoufand times more groffly 
 fubverfive of our rights, than the former was) to be 
 any violation at all You fofcen it down to <c the 
 " generous modelling of charters that had been 
 " ftriftly forfeited for delinquency" You fay " the 
 " equity of the prefent bill is unparallelled." And 
 you add that " the rights and property of the 
 " India Company are fafe as merchants, but their 
 .*' government is juftly taken from them, as incom- 
 
 " petent 
 
 * See Mr. Burkc's fpceches in the Parliamentary Rcgifter of 1773, 
 printed by Almon.
 
 C ] 
 
 *' petent politicians." Facts are utterly againft you 
 in the whole of thefe aflertions. The company is 
 no longer free ; its rights no longer fubfift, either 
 to the merchant, to the proprietor, or the politician. 
 This I undertake to prove. The accurfed act of 
 1773 cramped them in all thefe capacities, and the 
 prefent bill rivets their chains. It is the nature and 
 efience of commerce to deal more or lefs upon credit. 
 The merchant who fells upon truft, takes up money 
 upon bills. His real capital fupplies him with the 
 means to raife, and authorifes him to ufe a fiftitious 
 capital. He borrows money upon the ftrength of 
 his Hock : and if that ftock be clearly refponfible, 
 and if his trade be extenfive, his requifitions for a 
 loan are almoft fure of fuccefs. Former acts have 
 deprived the Company of this neceflary refource, of 
 this refource which is open to every merchant. The 
 Company cannot borrow but of Parliament. Let its 
 ftock be ever fo large, let its commerce be ever fo 
 flourifliing, let its affets be ever fo demonftrably 
 fatisfactory, it is not permitted to avail itfelf of any 
 or all of thefe advantages to procure an occafional 
 fupply of cafli. This is the true foundation, Sir, of 
 all the Company's calamities. The goods in the 
 warehoufes muft lie unfold, until the ftated times of 
 
 fate
 
 C ] 
 
 fale bring together the cuftomary purchafers : a glut 
 of the market, or any other accidental caufe, may 
 cccafion a temporary deficiency in the amount of 
 the fales. But the export trade muft in the mean 
 time go on, the current demands muft be difcharged, 
 the dividends muft be regularly paid. Here credit 
 would naturally ftep in to their relief. Goods are 
 not /0/?, merely becaufe they are nQtfold: though a 
 man who does not want them, may not chufe to 
 purchafe them, it is not impofllble but he may lend 
 money at intereft upon their fecurity. Parliament 
 has arbitarily locked up that fecurity, has annihilated 
 that credit: which if it were to apply as a general 
 law to the tranfacYions of individual merchants, 
 would moft afTu redly bring the whole city of Lon- 
 don t% bankruptcy in fix months. Thus, then, in 
 this firft prohibition to borrow money, are contained 
 the true feeds of the Company's prefent diftrefies, 
 the deftruction of their rights in a mercantile capa- 
 city. As the influenza of experiment is at this 
 period particularly epidemic, I wilh to my foul this 
 abfurd prohibition were fufpended for a fhort time 
 by way of trial. The afflux of cam which would 
 come into the Treafury, would quickly convince 
 you of the extent, of the (lability of the Com- 
 pany's
 
 [ '3 1 
 
 pany's credit, and fpeak more forcibly to the real 
 profperity df their affairs, than a thoufand unfup^ 
 ported affertions in a certain Houfe can depreciate 
 them. If this clog be deftructive of the rights of 
 trade, there are hardfliips no lefs grievous impofed 
 upon the proprietary. In General Courts was origi- 
 nally, and by charter, lodged the whole power and 
 authority of the Company ; every holder of 500!. 
 (lock had a right to vote in this aflembly, and its 
 meetings were regulated only by expediency. 
 Twenty-four perfons were yearly chofen from amcng 
 jbemfelves, to manage the current bufmefs, fubject at 
 all times to the controul of the General Court. The 
 Proprietor of 500!. flock has now no vote j fix 
 Directors are now elected yearly, inftead of twenty- 
 four, and for four years inftead of one. No fooner 
 has a Director carried his election, than he flies in 
 the face of his conftituents, holds up the act of 
 1773 as the bulwark of his quadrennial dictatorfhip, 
 and perhaps negociates with the Minister, behind the 
 fkreen, for the erection of a new and unconftitu- 
 tional tyranny on the ruin of the Company's privi- 
 leges. Your frefeni edict, which is fo gensroufy to 
 model the charter, will precifely effectuate this falu- 
 itary purpofe. The General Court will now have 
 
 no
 
 no controul whatfoever. It will no longer elect its 
 own u^.nagers j they will be no longer chofen from 
 its own body -, they will no longer be refponiible to 
 it. Even the nine JJjadows, the make-weights of 
 the directorial office, will be alike indifferent to the 
 Proprietors' cenfure and applaufe : They are re- 
 movable only by their matters, THE MIGHTY 
 SEVEN. The very books of accounts, fo efiential 
 to the fatisfaction of the Proprietor, fo neceflary to 
 his fecurity, are no more to be open to his infpec- 
 tion. The report of the Company's property is to 
 be made by the Commijfiomrs, (I cannot bring my- 
 felf to call them Directors, till they have made their 
 triumphal entry into Leadenhall-flreec) and from 
 that report there is no appeal. The fervile Proprie- 
 tor may attend at the Quarterly General Court, like 
 a ftarved Parifian at the Hotcl-de-Ville, gaping for 
 his annuity, to hear fuch a ftatement of the general 
 affairs, as his high and mighty Lords the Septemviri 
 fhall be gracioufly plealed to honour him withal. 
 But no queftions no whifpering no remonftrances. 
 " Such, as we have laid before you, is the Com- 
 <{ pany's actual fituation; here are our accounts 
 " according to act of Parliament, and here is your 
 " dividend. Pafs your vote of thanks to my Lords 
 
 Com-
 
 r =5 i 
 
 " Commlfiloners, and dare no more approach this 
 '* place, till this day three months" A very generous 
 model this ; a very pleafant found to the ears of an 
 Englifhman ! But it is at beft a very accurate fketch 
 of the fubftance of what will be uttered ex cathsdrd 
 at the new General Courts. As the commercial and 
 proprietorial rights of the Company have been thus 
 effentially infringed by former acts of Parliament, 
 their political power has been no lefs cauuoufly re- 
 ftricted. The original Regulating Aft of 1773 en- 
 joined the Directors of the Eaft India Company to 
 communicate to his Majefty's Secretaries of State, 
 all the information they mould receive refpecting the 
 politics of India, and all the orders they meant to 
 iffue in confequence. The acts of their govern- 
 ments, the ftate and management of their revenues, 
 their whole fyftein of adminiftration ,at large and in 
 detail, have been regularly fubmitted to the infpec- 
 tion, and (as may be prefumed from two fingular 
 inflames of dijap probation to particular paragraphs 
 in the Company's propofed letters to Bengal) to 
 the controi.il of his Msjefty's Minifters. The Court 
 of Directors can neither have approved, nor cenfured 
 any particular meafure of their fcrvants abroad, can 
 neither have advifed nor prohibited any plan of policy 
 E or
 
 [ ^6 J 
 
 or any act of government from home, but in confor- 
 mity to minifterial fentiments, but with the implied ap- 
 probation of the cabinet. It fhould feem then that we 
 muft admit one of the two following propositions ; 
 Either, that his Majefty's Minifters, in not correcting 
 the errors, or reforming the plans of the Company's 
 fervants, as laid before them for examination, were 
 no lefs incompetent politicians than the Court of Di- 
 rectors; or, that adminiftration, by purpojely conceal- 
 ing its lighxs and with-holdi_ng : its corrections, paved 
 the way for its own violent aflumption of the power 
 and patronage of India, on a plea of the Company's 
 imbecility. If the Miniflry could fugged no better 
 mode of action than that fubmitted to them by the 
 prefent managers, they are alike inadequate to the truft. 
 If their opinions were ftifled, if their advice was 
 difiembled, and their right of approbation infidi- 
 oufly proftituted to ferve their own ends, they are 
 unworthy of it. You have taken upon you to prove, 
 that the India Company have forfeited their charter, 
 and therefore that the prefent bill, which is a modi- 
 fication, a modelling of that charter, is lenient, is ge- 
 nerous > is equitable^ beyond parallel. I will not afk you 
 -bow the charter has been forfeited, becaufe you will 
 run over your black catalogue of rapine, plunder, 
 
 robbery,
 
 C *7 ] 
 
 robbery, inhumanity, extortion, injuftice, oppref- 
 fion, and murder upon which I fliall not join iflue 
 with you, until evidence be brought to the bar of 
 the Houfe. But I wifli to know when, at wbaffpe- 
 cified time, the charter was forfeited ? If previoujly to 
 the year 1773, all your eloquence at that period was 
 thrown away : your abuie of the noble Lord now in 
 office for his famous Regulating Aft, will be deemed 
 to have had no more connection with truth than with 
 decency:* your vociferous exclamations againft the 
 violation of all chartered rights in general^ as included 
 in the violation of this one charter of the Company, 
 were not only daring and intemperate, but falfe, 
 fiandalous, and feditious : your defence of the Com- 
 pany's fervants of that day, your pamphlets, your 
 fpeeches in their behalf, and in that of the great 
 body they fervcd, were mere convenient, catch- penny 
 contrivances, infidious baits to hook in popularity. 
 " Regulation" you could then difcover to be-f- " injuf- 
 tice" and " reform' " robbery." Have words altered 
 their quality, has negation taken the place of affer- 
 tion, fince that memorable asra ? I much fufpecl it. 
 If you date the Company's forfeiture of their charter 
 
 *' See Mr. Burke's fpeeches in the year 1773, on the India 
 Regulating Aft Pubiflied by Almou. 
 
 f Ditto. 
 
 E 2 fubje-
 
 fubfequcntly to the year 1772, for what purpofe did 
 you go back into the annals of their firft eftablifh- 
 ment in Ada, and to the treaty of Illahabad ? Every 
 thing, upon your own -principles, was right and juft 
 and legal'up to that year.* " It was neceffity, not 
 " choice, that had involved -the Haft-India Company 
 " in war" ft The/ bore their own expences, but 
 they conquered for the ftate," (i. e. the prefent Miniftry ; 
 and that part of your fentence has the merit of pro- 
 phecy:) you cannot however deny, that the power 
 of controul over all the politics of the Company's 
 territories abroad has virtually refted with his Ma- 
 jefty's Minifters ever fince 1773 : fo that they feem 
 implicated in all the caufes of forfeiture from thence 
 up to the prefent day. But as a happy knack of re- 
 conciling inconfiftent afltrtions may be one indifpen- 
 iable qualification to a minillerial appointment, I. will 
 admit the doctrine of neceffity, in palliation of your 
 palpable felf~contradictions : wifhing at the lame 
 time that they had been confined to objeds of leis 
 national magnitude. In your allufion to the Bank, you 
 {land, I think, alone, at leaft on the miniflerial fide of 
 the Houfe. Much has, no doubt, been faid and felt 
 \vithout doors refpecling the danger to which the char- 
 ter of that foulcftbejlate would be expofed, if the pre- 
 fent bill fhould afford fo glaring a precedent for its vio- 
 
 * See Mr. Burke's fpeeches in 1783 Publifhcd by Almon. 
 
 lation.
 
 C *9 ] 
 
 lation. But your happy facility of putting a queftion is 
 to filence all our murmurs, and to calm all our appre- 
 henfions. c( If the Governors, (fays WoodfaH for you) 
 ' ifthe clerks, or other fervants of the Bank, had mif- 
 " applied the public money ; if they had abufed the 
 " tru(t repofed in them, if they had almott brought 
 " the nation to ruin, would it be unjuft to ufe legif- 
 " lative interference for the public protection ?" No 
 furely ; but then you ihould firfl bring evidence of 
 this mifapplication and breach of truft to the bar of 
 the Houfe: you mould prove not only that the 
 Bank had done wrong, but that it had poffefled 
 within itfelf the means of doing right; you mould 
 prove that its acts had been all its own, and not 
 liable to revifion, to reformation, or fupprefiion, by 
 any fuperior authority; you mould prove the faff 
 both of the Bank's mifbehaviour, and of the injury 
 fuftained by the public ; you mould prove that your 
 legislative interference in behalf of the public would 
 more than counterbalance the damage that would 
 refult to public credit by that very interference. 
 Now, Sir, permit me the indulgence of a queftion ; 
 it fhall be as fhort as your's. If the rioters in 1780 
 had fucceeded in their attack on the Bank ; if in 
 fpite of all refiftance made by the Directors, a mob 
 had broken in and carried off two or three millions 
 
 in
 
 t 3 ] 
 
 in hard cam, would the confequent diftrefs of that 
 body have juftified the legiflature in violating or 
 annulling its charter ? Such is exactly the diftrefs of 
 the Eaft-Iridia Company, arifing principally frfem 
 the lofles of trade and heavy expences incidental to 
 the late national war. It wants nothing but a little 
 ready money, which the legiflature will not fuffer it 
 to raife upon its own credit ; it is, therefore, by this 
 cruel act, laid at the mercy of Parliament, and 
 Parliament now ufes its power, acquired by a for- 
 mer ftretch of power, in moft unmercifully abridging 
 the rights of the Proprietors, and new model- 
 ling (that is, annulling) the charter. 1 am 
 
 within bounds when I hint at the damage which will 
 refult to public credit by this bill. Damage has 
 already refulted. India ftock has fallen twenty per 
 cent : Bank flock (the moft folid and the mod un- 
 fiuiftuating of all our funds) four per cent- the three 
 per cents above two. Is not this a clear lofs to the 
 whole rnonied intereft of the nation ? a lofs, which 
 you can never make up from the revenues of India. 
 I repeat what I have faid in another place that the 
 pro 'uce of our territorial acquisitions in Afia^ can 
 never be realized here but through the medium of 
 the India trade. Until you can import more goods, 
 
 and
 
 [ 3' ] 
 
 and cnfure their fale in Europe, the country gentle- 
 men may gape for a decreafe of the land-tax, and 
 the traders may petition for a recal of the {tamps, 
 |>ut you will not be able to alleviate in the fmalleft 
 degree, the burthen of either. It is demonftrable, 
 that the Company already import as much merchan- 
 dize as they can poffibly difpofe of ; and that if more 
 were brought to market, their price would fo excee- 
 dingly diminilh, as not only to abforb all the profits 
 of the trade, but *ven the capital. Twenty acts upon 
 the prefent plan will neither fo much benefit the Pro- 
 prietors nor the public, as one which would decifi-uek 
 and effectually eradicate the practice of fcnuggling. 
 In the article of tea cnly, the Company is faid to 
 be defrauded of i, 000,000 per annum. Here is a 
 fubject for the difplay of patriotifm, for the exercife 
 of talents. Prevent this fraudulent occupation, and 
 you will then have done fomewhat towards deferving 
 the wonderful falaries which yourfelf and your rtr 
 lations enjoy from the public purfe. 
 
 You have been pleafed to confider the oppofition 
 which has been made to the propofed India bill, as 
 proceeding rather from an eager defire to overfet the 
 prefent Miniftry, than from a conviction of the vio- 
 lence
 
 [ 3* ] 
 
 lence of the meafure. " to effecl: their removal,'* 
 fay you, (I quote from Woodfall) tc no means, 
 " however unjuftifiable, no acts, however unprece- 
 " dented, have been fcrupled to be praftifed, or 
 ** left untried." I moft humbly conceive, Right ho- 
 nourable Sir, that it is very poffible to oppofe a mi- 
 nifterial bill in Parliament upon principle, upon 
 confcience, upon conviction : that it is very decent, 
 perfectly juftifiable, and by no means unprecedented, 
 to prefent an account at the bar, when a matter of 
 account is to be argued: and that thofe perfons who 
 think their fortunes or privileges endangered by the 
 operation of a new bill, are at liberty to publifh 
 their thoughts upon the fubjecl:, pending the difcuf- 
 fion of the bill in either houfe. Unjuftifiablc means, 
 and unprecedented afis, I take to be fuch as the fol- 
 k-wing ; an infidious advertifement promifing 1000 
 guineas for a writer's place at Bengal The offer 
 "of i col. for difcovery of the writer of an incendiary 
 letter, which moft afluredly was never written 
 The induftrious circulation of idle and groundlefs 
 ftories of the Governor General's death, of his being 
 crowned king of Bengal, or of his having involved 
 the nation in a new war An exclufion of impar- 
 tial (or if you will, and-minifterial) difcuffions on 
 
 fubjcts
 
 [ 33 1 
 
 fubjecls of national importance, from the daily pa fc 
 pers, by money. By whom, and for what purpofe, 
 fuch acts have been applied (and the fads alluded 
 to are of the moft open and barefaced notoriety) it 
 becomes not me to conjecture; but I will whifper in 
 your ear, that they do not come from the oppofers of 
 the bill. 
 
 As it is perfectly underitood, Sir, by the public^ 
 that in the prefent addrefs I am not guilty of an un- 
 necefTary, voluntary, or officious prefumpdon, that 
 I now write merely in conformity to the known func- 
 tions of my minion, and from no perftnal motive 
 whatever, I cannot lay dowli my pen without advert- 
 ing to a few circumftances, which, though not imme- 
 diately contained in the fpeech I have juft done my- 
 felf the honour to difcufs, are yet intimately con- 
 nected with the fubjedt before us, are of the ut- 
 rrioft confequence to my Principal, and are generally 
 allowed to proceed from you. A moment's reflection = 
 will inform you that I allude to the eleventh Report >/ 
 from the Sekft Committee. So criminatory a perfor- 
 mance, fo artfully interwoven with hints of myfteri- 
 ous concealment, with infinuations of guarded cor- 
 ruption, with mutilated extracts, and partial deduc- 
 F tions,
 
 [ 34 ] 
 
 tions, has not, I believe, been frequently expofed to 
 public notice. It is not without concern, Sir, that 
 I have perufed this fingular production, becaufe, as 
 you pointedly ftate in the work itfelf, " Mr. Scott 
 " profeffed himfelf perfectly nninftrufted upon almofl 
 *' every part of the fabjeff" I now again afifure you 
 in the moft folemn manner, that I have never re- 
 ceived the fmalleft inftruction upon the tranfactions 
 alluded to in your Eleventh Report, and that this 
 total filence of Mr. Haftings to me on the feveral 
 articles there exhibited, conveys to my mind an irre- 
 
 , fiftible conviction of his perfect innocence. As you 
 have obligipgly recorded my incapacity to defend my 
 Principal on points where he never expected an at- 
 taek, it would have been worthy of Mr. Burke's 
 known humanity to have furniihed the pub4ic with at 
 
 . leaft all thofe (lender documents that do fubjift, to 
 have generoufly aflifted my incapacity by the com- 
 munication of thofe lights which .enabled birqtQ fee 
 his way fo clearly through the mift of the prefent 
 bufmefs, to have publifoed the Appendix together with 
 the Report. At fuch a critical moment to with-hold 
 
 . fo confiderable and fo neceflary a part of the evi- 
 dence, for twelve days already, and I know not how 
 iraich longer the delay may endure, would in any 
 
 other
 
 [ 3 3 
 
 ther here or abroad that no grounds have ever 
 been traced on which to found a plaufible fufpicion 
 of any fuch tranfadtion, and that I will ftake my life 
 upon his integrity. 
 
 I fhall now, Sir, take my leave, with profound 
 acknowledgements for the very polite and liberal man- 
 ner in which you were pleafed yefterday to turn me 
 out of that mod humane, impartial, juft, and free 
 aflembly, the Seleff Committee. My intrufion pro- 
 ceeded from the miftaken notion that Tour's was an 
 Committee. 
 
 I am, with all refpeft, 
 Right Honourable Sir, 
 Your moft obedient, 
 Humble Servant, 
 
 JOHN SCOTT, 
 
 LONDON, 
 
 December 6, 1783*
 
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