In Bengal, Surajah Dowlah was sold to Mir Jaffier; Mir Jaffier was sold to Mir Cossim; and Mir Cossim was sold to Mir Jaffier again.  The succession to Mir Jaffier was sold to his eldest son;—­another son of Mir Jaffier, Mobarech ul Dowlah, was sold to his step-mother.  The Mahratta Empire was sold to Ragobah; and Ragobah was sold and delivered to the Peishwa of the Mahrattas.  Both Ragobah and the Peishwa of the Mahrattas were offered to sale to the Rajah of Berar.  Scindia, the chief of Malwa, was offered to sale to the same Rajah; and the Subah of the Deccan was sold to the great trader, Mahomet Ali, Nabob of Arcot.  To the same Nabob of Arcot they sold Hyder Ali and the kingdom of Mysore.  To Mahomet Ali they twice sold the kingdom of Tanjore.  To the same Mahomet Ali they sold at least twelve sovereign princes, called the Polygars.  But to keep things even, the territory of Tinnevelly, belonging to their nabob, they would have sold to the Dutch; and to conclude the account of sales, their great customer, the Nabob of Arcot himself, and his lawful succession, has been sold to his second son, Amir ul Omrah, whose character, views, and conduct are in the accounts upon your table.  It remains with you whether they shall finally perfect this last bargain.

All these bargains and sales were regularly attended with the waste and havoc of the country,—­always by the buyer, and sometimes by the object of the sale.  This was explained to you by the honorable mover, when he stated the mode of paying debts due from the country powers to the Company.  An honorable gentleman, who is not now in his place, objected to his jumping near two thousand miles for an example.  But the southern example is perfectly applicable to the northern claim, as the northern is to the southern; for, throughout the whole space of these two thousand miles, take your stand where you will, the proceeding is perfectly uniform, and what is done in one part will apply exactly to the other.

My second assertion is, that the Company never has made a treaty which they have not broken.  This position is so connected with that of the sales of provinces and kingdoms, with the negotiation of universal distraction in every part of India, that a very minute detail may well be spared on this point.  It has not yet been contended, by any enemy to the reform, that they have observed any public agreement.  When I hear that they have done so in any one instance, (which hitherto, I confess, I never heard alleged,) I shall speak to the particular treaty.  The Governor General has even amused himself and the Court of Directors in a very singular letter to that board, in which he admits he has not been very delicate with regard to public faith; and he goes so far as to state a regular estimate of the sums which the Company would have lost, or never acquired, if the rigid ideas of public faith entertained by his colleagues had been observed.  The learned gentleman[55] over against me has, indeed, saved me much trouble.  On a former occasion, he obtained no small credit for the clear and forcible manner in which he stated, what we have not forgot, and I hope he has not forgot, that universal, systematic breach of treaties which had made the British faith proverbial in the East.