60] 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813. 



having been taken up with this 

 matter, that the general business 

 of parliament was interrupted, 

 lord Castlereagh moved for the 

 appointment of a select commit- 

 tee for the further inquiry into the 

 affairs of the East India Company. 

 A debate ensued on the subject, 

 which ended in a division, when 

 the noble lord's motion was carried 

 by 95 against 37. The examina- 

 tions were then carried on before 

 the select committee for a consi- 

 derable time longer ; and in the 

 mean time some of the same indi- 

 viduals were examined before the 

 House of Lords. The mass of 

 fact and opinion thus produced, 

 was of a bulk sufficient to fill a 

 volume, and will not admit of an 

 abridgment compatible with our 

 limits that could afford any idea of 

 its substance. It stands upon re- 

 cord as a curious document relative 

 to the state of India, though occa- 

 sionally marked with the particular 

 views and prepossessions of the 

 persons contributing to it. 



The examinations in the House 

 of Lords were soon concluded by 

 a motion of the Marquis of JVet- 

 lesley for the production of certain 

 papers on East India affairs. In 

 his speech introductory to the mo- 

 tion, his lordsliip charged the mi- 

 nisters with having brought in 

 their resolutions unexplained, un- 

 considered, undcbated ; and he 

 thought that their lordships were 

 called upon to retrace their steps, 

 and to revert to the general sources 

 of the principles upon which they 

 were to legislate on this arduous 

 question. He deprecated any at- 

 tempt to decide it upon the prin- 

 ciple that it was an anomalous state 

 of things that the same person 

 should be merchant and sovereign. 



If it were an anomaly, it had beew 

 found very good in practice. Pro- 

 ceeding to particulars, he said he 

 was of opinion that the India trade 

 was essential to the Company in a 

 commercial point of view ; and on 

 considering the resolutions, he 

 dwelt upon the evils that would 

 arise from admitting British sub- 

 jects to trade to all the countries 

 within the Company's charter. He 

 remarked upon various omissions 

 of important points in the resolu- 

 tions ; and concluded with moving 

 for a number of papers which he 

 specified. 



The Marquis was replied to by 

 the Earl of Buckinghamshire who 

 produced several arguments for the 

 advantage to be derived from 

 opening the India trade to indivi- 

 duals. 



Lord Grenville then rose, and 

 delivered his opinion at length on 

 the general subject. He thought 

 that the manner in which it had 

 been taken up laboured under one 

 fundamental defect, that of treating 

 as principal what was in its own 

 nature subordinate. The interests 

 of the East India Company were 

 made the first object of conside- 

 ration, whereas that of the British 

 crown, as sovereign of our Indian 

 possessions, ought to be regarded 

 as paramount. It was now become 

 a measure of absolute necessity to 

 make a public assertion of the 

 sovereignty of the crown in India, 

 and parliament must give laws for 

 India, pronouncing not upon a sin- 

 gle and separate question of gene- 

 ral or local legislation, but upon 

 the whole principle and frame of 

 government under which the Bri- 

 tish dominion in that country shall 

 henceforth be administered. On( 

 this enlarged idea his lordship 



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