of farms to Europeans was meant only to exclude such as could not possibly, in their own persons, come under the jurisdiction of the Duanne courts of Adawlet, because, upon any failure of engagements, upon any complaint of unjust oppression, or other cause of discontent whatever, it was supposed an European might screen himself from the process of the country judicature.  But it was never supposed that an European of credit and responsibility was absolutely incapable from holding certain tenures under the sanction and authority of the country laws, or from becoming security for such native farmers, contractors, &c., &c., as he might protect and employ.”

Your Committee have opposed this construction of Mr. Barwell’s to the positive order which the conduct it is meant to color has violated.  “Europeans of credit and responsibility,” that is, Europeans armed with wealth and power, and exercising offices of authority and trust, instead of being excepted from the spirit of the restriction, must be supposed the persons who are chiefly meant to be comprehended in it; for abstract the idea of an European from the ideas of power and influence, and the restriction is no longer rational.

Your Committee are therefore of opinion that the nature of the evil which was meant to be prevented by the above orders and regulations was not altered, or the evil itself diminished, by the collusive methods made use of to evade them,—­and that, if the regulations were proper, (as they unquestionably were,) they ought to have been punctually complied with, particularly by the members of the government, who formed the plan, and who, as trustees of the Company, were especially answerable for their being duly carried into execution.  Your Committee have no reason to believe that it could ever have been generally understood “that the Company’s prohibition of farms to Europeans was meant only to exclude such as could not possibly, in their own persons, come under the jurisdiction of the Duanne courts”:  no such restriction is so much as hinted at.  And if it had been so understood, Mr. Barwell was one of the persons who, from their rank, station, and influence, must have been the principal objects of the prohibition.  Since the establishment of the Company’s influence in Bengal, no Europeans, of any rank whatever, have been subject to the process of the country judicature; and whether they act avowedly for themselves, and take farms in their own name, or substitute native Indians to act for them, the difference is not material.  The same influence that screened an European from the jurisdiction of the country courts would have equally protected his native agent and representative.  For many years past the Company’s servants have presided in those courts, and in comparison with their authority the native authority is nothing.