The event has been such as might be expected.  But if it had been otherwise constituted, had it been constituted even as I wished, and as the mover of this question had planned, the better part of the proposed establishment was in the publicity of its proceedings, in its perpetual responsibility to Parliament.  Without this check, what is our government at home, even awed, as every European government is, by an audience formed of the other states of Europe, by the applause or condemnation of the discerning and critical company before which it acts?  But if the scene on the other side of the globe, which tempts, invites, almost compels, to tyranny and rapine, be not inspected with the eye of a severe and unremitting vigilance, shame and destruction must ensue.  For one, the worst event of this day, though it may deject, shall not break or subdue me.  The call upon us is authoritative.  Let who will shrink back, I shall be found at my post.  Baffled, discountenanced, subdued, discredited, as the cause of justice and humanity is, it will be only the dearer to me.  Whoever, therefore, shall at any time bring before you anything towards the relief of our distressed fellow-citizens in India, and towards a subversion of the present most corrupt and oppressive system for its government, in me shall find a weak, I am afraid, but a steady, earnest, and faithful assistant.

FOOTNOTES: 

[1] Right Honorable Henry Dundas.

[2] Sir Thomas Rumbold, late Governor of Madras.

[3] Appendix, No. 1.

[4] The whole of the net Irish hereditary revenue is, on a medium of the last seven years, about 330,000_l._ yearly.  The revenues of all denominations fall short more than 150,000_l._ yearly of the charges.  On the present produce, if Mr. Pitt’s scheme was to take place, he might gain from seven to ten thousand pounds a year.

[5] Mr. Smith’s Examination before the Select Committee.  Appendix, No. 2.

[6] Appendix, No. 2.

[7] Fourth Report, Mr. Dundas’s Committee, p. 4.

[8] A witness examined before the Committee of Secrecy says that eighteen per cent was the usual interest, but he had heard that more had been given.  The above is the account which Mr. B. received.

[9] Mr. Dundas.

[10] For the threats of the creditors, and total subversion of the authority of the Company in favor of the Nabob’s power and the increase thereby of his evil dispositions, and the great derangement of all public concerns, see Select Committee Fort St. George’s letters, 21st November, 1769, and January 31st, 1770; September 11, 1772; and Governor Bourchier’s letters to the Nabob of Arcot, 21st November, 1769, and December 9th, 1769.

[11] “He [the Nabob] is in a great degree the cause of our present inability, by diverting the revenues of the Carnatic through private channels.”  “Even this peshcush [the Tanjore tribute], circumstanced as he and we are, he has assigned over to others, who now set themselves in opposition to the Company.”—­Consultations, October 11, 1769, on the 12th communicated to the Nabob.