of C richer: for that is the fum to which, at a medium, that revenue would now have amounted: but the gentlemen have been too much employed in fecuring an inte reft among the Proprietors, to regard fo trifling a confideration. Of this_monopoly I, as Governor, had a share, Lord C's Speech in the H means. Thus deprived of their two main ftays at once, of the falt trade and of prefents, how were they to he fupported? I faw and felt that fome plan must be adopted and none prefented itself that feemed more effectual, or lefs expenfive to the Company, than the appropriation of the money raised by the and the rest of the fervants their due trade of beetle-nut, falt and tobacco, proportion. But how did I dispose of put under proper regulations. In pur- my fhare? I diftributed it among men fuance of this idea, I established this of merit, men who deferved well of me monopoly, for a monopoly it undoubt and their country. Three gentlemen I edly was. I fixed the customs and the carried out with me, promifing to make prices which it was to pay in the diffe- provifion for them. One of them, Mr. rent parts of Bengal, as far as human Mafkelyn, my Secretary, was the comforefight and regulation could go. Nor panion of my youth, the companion of does it appear to me that the measure my toils and dangers. We both served on proved oppreffive. Suppofe the inhabi- the coaft, we were both taken together, tants of Bengal to be fifteen millions, we both made our escape, we both fought according to the general calculation: under Bofcawen at the fiege of Pondithe quantity of maunds of falt fold is cherry. Ill health obliged him to return known from the money which they pro- home, and to relinquish all his profpects. duced, and from the books of the mo- When fortune had proved fo kind to nopoly. At Calcutta the maund of falt my endeavours, I thought it my duty to fold at one price, at Patna at another, aflift him out of my affluence. I did and at Mongheer at another, increasing fo: but fomething more feemed to be in its price the farther it was carried wanting. He attended me to Hindoftan: up the river, or into the country. After and the whole of the thirty-two thoua due allowance for every circumftance, fand pounds accruing to me from the I find, that at a medium each perfon monopoly of beetle-nut, falt, and tobac 'did not pay in the courfe of the whole co, was thared between him, the other year, above one and ninepence for falt, gentleman, and my furgeon, who left an equal quantity being allowed to every feven hundred pounds a year to ferve me: individual. Now can this fum be thought and I do not think them too amply reexceffive, in a country where a labour- ́warded. Upon the whole, I disbursed, er's wages amounts to fix fhillings a week, where almost no cloaths are worn, where no ftrong liquors are drank, where rice and milk, the fober food of the inhabitants, are comparatively cheap ----The idea is abfurd.---Believe me, the monopoly did not bear hard upon the people but upon the merchants. Thoufands and thoufands of them were thrown out of trade, and reduced to distress: nor do I deny that the country agents exacted unreasonable profits, and enchanced the price of the commodity. Of that abufe the Select Committee was entirely guiltlefs: the duties eftablished by them were moderate and reasonable. Inftead of adhering to this plan, what did the Directors do? They reftored the trade to the natives, and continued the duties without collecting them. Had this object been properly attended to, the Treafury would have been this day a million and half the : you fee, five thousand pounds more that I received and all this I did, that I might not be taxed with partiality, in order to advance my friends over the heads of other men. Nor is this all that I refigned. If ever Muffulman loved a Chriftian, Meer Jaffier had a fincere affection for me. Finding himfelf near his end, he called his minifters, and in their prefence declared, that as a mark of his attachment, be bequeathed 70,000l. to Col. Clive. This fum I might have retained as my legal right as I have been advised by the honourable Speaker, and by another perfonage, no lefs honourable, that does not fit in this Houfe. This I formed into a fund for the fupport of officers, and disbanded and difabled foldiers: an establishment, by which they will now be enabled to return into their own country, and to live as comfortably as if they were penfioners of Chelfca hofpital. This inftitu 142 Lord C's Speech in the H of C tion was the only thing wanted to put the military of the East India Company upon a refpectable footing, and to remove the gloomy profpects from the mind of the old worn-out foldier. Before I enter on the direct difcuffion of the prefent state of the Eaft-India Company, permit me to make a fhort apology for their fervants. Now-a-days every youth possessed of any intereft endeavours to go out as a writer to the Company. No matter how ill qualified he is by education: writing and cyphering are thought fufficient. The fame talents which were deemed neceffary when the Company was only a trading body, are required now that they have become fovereigns of an empire as large as all Europe. The fame hands that flourished a pen, are held capable of fwaying a fceptre: and accordingly no other queftions are propofed at their examination, but "can you cypher, can you write and keep accounts:"A fpecimen of their penmanship is produced, together with a certificate from fome writing-mailer, that they have under him learned the true art of book-keeping, after the Italian manner. Nothing farther is wanting: they are put upon the lift. Being equipt, they receive their leffons from friends and relations. My dear boy, fays the father, I have done my part: I have fet you in the way of fortune, and it will be your own fault if you are not a made man. what a fortune has been made by this Lord, and that Lord, by Mr. fuch-a-one and fuch-a-one: what hinders you to be as fuccefsful? Thus are their paffions enfiamed, and their principles corrupted, before they leave their native country. What is the confequence of their landing in Bengal? One of thefe raw boys walks out into the streets of Calcutta, for his income will not allow him to ride. He fees writers, who are not greatly his feniors, marching in ftate on ne prancing horfes, or carried along at their eafe in a palanquin. He comes home and tells his Banyan what a figure his acquaintance made. And what hinders you to equal him in fplendour? returns the Banyan. I have money enough, and you have nothing to do but to receive, for you need not ask, Well, - money is advanced by the generous Muf See fulman: the youth takes the bait, he has his horfes, his coach, his palanquin, his haram and, while in purfuit of one fortune, fpends three. But how is the Banyan in the mean time indemnified? Under the fanction of the young man, who is rifing in the state, and making a quick progrefs towards a feat in council, he rifes likewife, and commits various oppreffions with impunity, the practice being fo general, as to afford him perfect fecurity. I can affure you, that native Britons are not the persons that directly opprefs, but the Indians who have paved their way to all exemption from controul by pecuniary obligations. Human nature is frail, and the defire of wealth is as ftrong a paffion as ambition. Where then is the wonder that men thould fink under the temptations to which they are expofed? Flesh and blood cannot refift them. An Indian comes to you with his bag of filver, and entreats you to accept it as a prefent. If your virtue be proof against this trial he comes next day with the fame bag filled with gold. Shou'd your ftoicifm ftill continue, he returns with it stuffed with diamonds: and if, for fear of detection, you refufe even this temptation, he difplays his bales of merchandize, a trap into which a trader readily falls. He takes them at a low price, and fends to a diftant market, where he gains 500 per cent. Hence a new plunderer is let loofe upon the fociety: but he is a plunderer whom we owe to the badnefs of our own regulations. The fer vants of the Company yield only because they are men: prefents are so common and fo prevailing in India, that it is almoft impoffible not to be carried along by the torrent. Meer Jaffer told me, that in the courfe of a year he received three hundred thousand pounds in this way, and I might have received as much while Governor. Judge, then, how difficult is it for men of common minds to return with unpolluted hands. Now let us turn our attention to the ftate of the Company. Hindostan, and Bengal in particular, has been from time immemorial the center of commerce and wealth. The people are numerous and induttrious, the foil is fertile and well cultivated, and the fobriety of the inhabitants makes riches flow in from Lord C's Speech in the H of C : from all quarters. Nature has been upon the whole fo bountiful to this part of the world, that it is in want of nothing, but has many fuperfluities, and may accordingly be called with propriety the Terrestrial Paradife. Hence it has been the object of mens defires in all ages, and they have in general no fooner defired than they obtained. The inhabitants, unnerved by the climate and other caufes, are a conftant prey to invaders: at present the struggle feems to be between us and the French, for I can by no means perfuade myself that ambi tious nation has dropt the defigns which it was evidently meditating fome years ago. For what purpofe were ten thoufand men kept at Mauritius, if no fcheme of conqueft was laid? I am fatisfied that they have not yet abjured this plan. They will employ their troops in firmly establishing their new colony at Madagafcar, and, when the critical moment comes, they will pour them into Hindoftan, and wreft the whole out of our hands and believe me, if they once conquer Bengal, the reft of the Mogul's empire will follow: and nothing will contribute fo much as that event to their acquifition of univerfal monarchy. These confiderations did not efcape my attention more than a twelvemonth ago, and, ever anxious for the welfare of the Company, with whofe intereft I know that of my country to be interwoven, I fubmitted a plan of defence to the infpection of the Minifter, but I have hitherto found it attended with no good effect. The East Indies, notwithstanding all their importance, were left to the protection of chance. This leads ine to confider the caufes of the prefent bad ftate of the Eaft-India Company. In my opinion, this is owing to four caufes: to the negligence of Administration, to the mifconduct of the Direction, to the outrageous behaviour of General Courts, and to the difobedience of the Company's fervants in the EaitIndics. Adininiftration, inftead of cttablishing a general plan of permanent government, feems, like the Directors and the Company's fervants, to have had nothing in view but the loaves and fi.: es. When this bufinefs came before Parliament fome years ago, the question was not how to fecure To beneficial a trade, 143 and fo great an empire for a perpetuity but to make an immediate dividend of 400 thousand pounds to one party, and two hundred thousand to another. In fhort, the loaves and fishes were the only confideration. The Directors by no means purfued the vigorous plan chalked out by me. They fuddenly stopped profecutions, rettored the fufpended, and undid every thing that had been done: and yet by this bill they are willing to difable themfelves from ever withdrawing profecutions for the future: a clear proof that they are fenfible of their own mifconduct in that particular. Nor is this the only point in which they have confeffedly erred. They have been fo eager to fecure their annual election, that the first half of the year has been confumed in freeing themselves from the obligations contracted by their laft eleetion, and the fecond has been watted in incurring new obligations, and forming an intereft among the proprietors. But, in fpite of all thefe manoeuvres, the Direction has been fo fluctuating and unfettled, that fresh and contradictory orders have been fent out with every fleet. Hence the fervants in Bengal are in fome measure excufable, if they have fometimes ventured to follow their own opinion, in oppofition to that of the Directors. The Governor and Coun cil certainly underftood the intereft of the Company in Bengal much better than the Direction. The proprietors, however, have no body but themselves to charge with the evil confequences. Had they been lefs fickle and "abfurd, their concerns would have been much more confiftently and uniformly managed. The malverfation of their fervants may be justly charged upon the fluctuation of their own Councils. Had they not concurred in restoring fufpended and profecuted men, the Governor and Council would never have deliberated whether they thould obey or not the orders of the Direction. Fundamental principles being once overturned, the whole fyftem tumbles to the ground. Such, in my opinion, are the causes of the prefent bad ftate of the Company. That it is bad I can clearly prove, and it is in vain that the Directors, in order to palliate their own misconduct, endea vour to fet a glofs upon the matter. They do 144 ·Defcription of do not poffefs a state of the revenues of Bengal for the last year, but I do, having received it a few days ago from a member in the Council: and the clear net revenue amounts for 1771 only to 171 thousand pounds. Now Government is to receive 400 thousand pounds, and the Proprietors 200 thousand: and all this is to proceed from the revenues of Bengal. What a falling off is here! and yet you fee the revenue has not greatly decreased. The net fum that came into the Treafury was greatest during my prefidency. Since that period the expences of the military eftablishment, as it is called by themfelves, has gradually encreased, till now it amounts to the enormous fum of one million eight hundred thoufand pounds per annum. The power of receiving prefents and the privilege of free trade in beetle-nut, falt, and tobacco, being taken away, the Company's fervants have found out the way of making fortunes by charging exorbitantly in all contracts for furnishing the troops with provifions and other neceffaries and hence it is that the revenues fall fhort, and do not come into the Treafury, though the fum levied does not fall greatly fhort of four millions. To me a curious Bird. it is evident, that the great decrease of the revenue is owing to this caufe, and to the fupineness and indolence of the Go-, vernors who fucceeded me.-----Had they followed my plan with vigour, the country would have ftill flourished, and this, kingdom might have received an annual advantage of a million and a half, Mr., Verelft was, after the matureft confideration, the propereft perfon that I could pitch upon as my fucceffor, though I had fome ominous feelings of what would happen but not without a previous protest against all weak lenity, as you will find from the extract of a letter fent by me to Mr. Verelft, before I embarked for Europe. Hence you will perceive that I augured almost all the evils that have enfued. Having detained you fo long, and exhaufted, I fear, your patience, let me conclude by obferving, that Bengal is the brightest jewel in the British Crown, though at prefent in a rude and unpolished itate: that if it be once properly improved and burnished, it will eclipfe every thing of the kind that has been yet feen in the world but that if it be once fuffered to drop out and be loft, the Crown will lofe half its fplendor and dignity. For the OXFORD MAGAZINE. HE bird is reprefented on the fize. The upper mandible of the bill, at the point, croffes over the lower, fometimes on the right-fide, and fometimes on the left. The bill, which is pretty thick and long, is of a dufky colour: the eye is of a dark hazel colour. The head, neck, breaft, back, and rump, are of a full red: the upper fides of the tail and wings are of a dark brown, the edges of the wings and tail a little lighter. The infide of the wings and under-fide of the tail are of an afh colour. The thighs, lower-belly, and covert-feathers beneath the tail, are whitish, with fome dufky fpots. The legs and feet are of a tawny flesh colour. Thefe birds fometimes appear in the neighbourhood of London in large flights. at particular feafons of the year, but. rather accidentally, and from caufes unknown: fometimes they are neither feen nor heard of for feveral years together. They are found as far north as Greenland, and frequent the northern parts of America, as well as those of Europe. Thefe birds vary in colour from one another, though the fame colours, but differently blended, tincture the plumage of them all. When with us, they frequent the pine-trees, and feed on the feeds of the cones. And as thefe trees are found in most of the northern parts of Europe and America, it is very probable that these feeds are their principal food. |