with a smile, that "his ingenious friend"[1] had been so rapid in his flight that it was scarcely possible for a common observer to follow him. He then entered into a justification of the treaty intended to have been made in 1767 with the East India Company by Shelburne, and stated the wisdom and comprehensiveness of the measures then projected, and their probable consequences had they been given fair-play. It was true that Mr. Burke had often given his friends a good basting for those negotiations, but he was conscious they did not deserve it. He contended that their failure was owing not, as Burke had said, to a general sense of the injustice and inexpediency of the territorial revenue being assumed to itself by the State, but to the factious conduct of some of "the honestest men" of the kingdom who had then just left Administration, owing to the interior intrigues of the Court of Directors, as much as to the open opposition of their enemies. He then went on to state the difference between the measures pursued at the end and at the beginning of 1767; the vexatiousness and inconsequential oppression of the latter as meriting censure if not impeachment, as did the subsequent neglect of India. The sense of impending ruin, he said, had alone called the attention of the Government to the subject; but their interposition, though late, was commendable; the reports of the Committee had merit if well followed up; suspicions of malversation were abroad, and arose from publications in the hands of every one; the eyes of Parliament must not be shut to delinquents on the one hand nor to extraordinary merits on the other; both should be weighed and justice should strike the balance; public examples were requisite to check the spirit of extortion and inhumanity prevailing in Bengal; if it was intended to take the revenue and patronage into the hands of the Crown and Houses of Parliament, a stand would have to be made against a step so highly dangerous to the constitution; the finger of Government to direct, aid, and control upon extraordinary occasions might be useful, but the strong hand of Government would ruin all; on the
- ↑ Burke.
