India. This bill had no fmaller objects in view, than the reftraining of the governor and council from all manner of trade, and the making of a total alteration in the court of judicature, and in the mode of adminiftring juftice in Bengal; befides greatly enlarging the company's powers with respect to its fervants, and the laying of many other new reftric tions upon them.

The reafons urged in fupport of the motion were, that the bad ftate of our affairs in India was owing to the little power the court of directors had to punish their fervants, either for difobedience to their orders, or for malpractices in their feveral departments; that nothing could contribute more to those enormities, than that folecifm in reafon and policy, of allowing the governors of diftant countries to become traders and merchants; and that the judicature of Bengal was established when we had only a fmall territory, and was totally unequal to the adminiftration of juftice, in fo vaft a dominion as we now poffefs in that part of the world. It was faid on the other fide, that it was unparliamentary to bring in a bill to redress a grievance, without fome prior proof that the grievance exifted; that the houfe ought first to enter into an enquiry concerning our prefent fituation in India, and the caufes that led to it; that it was to be feared the enquiry would fhew, that the evils lay too deep to be remedied by the propofed bill; that it would be almoft impoffible to prevent the company's fervants from trading, directly or indirectly; that the fending out a few perfons learned in the laws of England, as judges, was very inadequate to the purpofe of executing the laws in fo vaft a tract of country; and that the measure would be premature, as we had not yet determined by what laws the inhabitants fhould be governed. The motion was however carried, and a bill was fome time after brought in accordingly.

As this bill was totally laid by after the fecond reading, we only take notice of it, to fhew in what manner it led to the equiry that was immedi ately begun into the affairs of the company, and probably in fome measure to the great revolution which has fince taken place in them.

In the debates upon this occasion, much altercation arofe, and many long charges and defences were made between fome gentlemen who were leaders of parties, or had confiderable influence in the India courts, and fome others that had acquired vast fortunes in the company's fervice abroad. Thefe matters would have been of little confequence to the public, if through the heat that attended them, and perhaps, the animofity from whence they proceeded, the conduct and affairs of the company, and the tranfactions of her fervants, had not been laid open in fuch a manner, as evidently fhewed, that they merited a ftrict enquiry, and wanted much regulation. It alfo afforded an handle to its enemies, which was not neglected, of attempting to fhew the infufficiency of the company for the government of fuch great deminions, and the neceflity that government fhould take the whole under its immediate jurifdiction.

On the day of bringing in the bill, a motion Apr. 13th. was accordingly made for a felect committee of thirty-one members to enquire into the nature and ftate of the East India company, and of the affairs in the East Indies. The necellity of fuch an enquiry was ftrongly urged from a variety of confiderations, among which were the following: the prefent very precarious fituation of affairs in India; the late diftreffes of the natives, and the depopulation of the country; the oppreflive and arbitrary conduct of the company's fervants; the great decreate of the nett revenues in Bengal, from various mifmanagements, as well as from great and unneceffary

ex

expences; the immenfe confequence to this nation of preferving and well governing thofe countries; and that this could only be done, by making a full enquiry into their nature and itate, and then establish a regular and permanent form of juflice and govern

ment.

Though the neceffity of fome enquiry and regulation was evident, many objected to the beginning of fuch enquiry fo late in the feffion; fummer was already appearing, and its magnitude was fuch, and the difficulties attending it were fo great, that it was evident the twentieth part of it could not be gone through during the fitting of parliament. Many objected to the mode of enquiry by a felect committee; and though the gentleman who made the motion was unconnected with adminiftration, it was known that the minifter would have the virtual nomination of the members who compofed the committee. It was befides urged, that the felect committee was not accountable for its conduct; that an enquiry therefore, by the board of trade or privy council would be preferable, as they are amenable to juftice; and that as the proceedings of fuch committees often are fecret, and never entirely published, they are in no fear of public cenfure, and are thereby free from that controul, to which the whole houfe is liable, all its tranfactions being quickly known to the world. Befides it was urged, that no plan had been mentioned; fo that the house which was about to vote this very delicate enquiry, could not judge to what objects it was directed, or what ends it propofed to compals.

Notwithbanding thefe objections, the motion for a felect committee was carried without a divifion, and thirty one members were accordingly chofan by balor. The fubject of their inquifition was fo various, and of fo great an extent, that they were obliged to apply for leave to continue That fittings duringtha fuammer. The

refult of these, and of the other enquiries that were made into the state of the Eaft India affairs, will appear in their proper place, in the hiftorical article for the enfuing year.

The ill temper which had fo unaccountably taken place between the two houfes in the preceding feffion, was continued during the whole courfe of the prefent, and except in the tranfmitting of bills from one to the other, there was no more communication between them, than if they had been the jealous councils of two rival ftates.

In this ftate of things, the lords having, contra- Apr. 30th. ry to cuftom, fent a bill to the commons by a master in chancery and a clerk affiftant, the whole. houfe feemed to take fire at the indignity, and would not accept the meffage till they had examined the journals, to know if there were any precedents for fending bills in such a manner. In the courfe of a hafty and paffionate debate which enfued upon this occafion, feveral gentlemen mentioned, that on the first day of the feffion, they had been rudely turned out of the house of lords, even before the speaker got out of the door. A motion was accordingly made for a committee to fearch for precedents of the manner of bills being fent from the lords, and alfo of the improper behaviour of the lords to the commons. Exceptions were however taken to the word improper, as if it carried an appearance of prejudging the cafe, and after a warm debate, the word was left out upon a divifion.

Upon the report of the committee being given in, which contained refolutions of improper behaviour and a want of refpect, which ought to be refented, a motion was made to fend back the bill to the lords, aligning as a reafon, that it had been fent by improper mesengers. This was eppoted by adminitration, as it was faid it might lay a foundation for a quarrel, which might not be eafily

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accommodated; and after a confiderable debate, the motion was overruled upon a divifion, by 107, against 53. A motion was then made for a conference with the lords, which was over-ruled in the fame manner, and after long debates, and feveral propofed amendinents, the matter ended in a meffage to the lords, in which the impropriety of the meffengers was the only complaint ftated, which it was hoped would not be drawn into precedent; this produced an answer, that the bill had been ordered in the ufual manner, and that the matter of complaint was occafioned by the illnefs of one of the perfons who fhould have prefented it; that a good correfpondence was withed for, and that it was not meant to introduce any precedent contrary to established ufage. Thus the fore was covered, if not skinned, for the prefent.

The inefficacy of the temporary corn bills which had been paffed in every feflion, for examining into, and confidering the whole ftate of the corn trade, and of the corn laws, and for framing fuch refolutions thereon, as might be the bafis of a comprehenfive and permanent law, which should take in all poffible cafes, with refpect to exportation, importation, prices and bounties, and thereby fuperfede the neceffity of temporary and imperfect regulations. Several refolutions were then paffed and approved of upon this fubject, and the latenefs of the feafon only, prevented its being carried farther.

A bill was now

brought in upon the fame principles, and paffed through the Houfe of Commons, the former refolutions being in a great measure the foundation

of it.

This bill, together with another, for the levying of penalties on the killing of game, were returned by the lords with fome alterations. This matter, in the prefent temper, occafioned a great ferment; it was urged, that the lords had no right to make the smallest alteration in any money

bill; and that it was telling the people by their reprefentatives, that they were no longer to tax themfelves: it was however faid, that money levied by way of penalty could not poffibly be confidered in that light, but it was replied, that it was not the fum to be levied, nor the manner of levying it, bat the precedent whichit might eftablifh, and the doctrines and principles it might hereafter maintain, that were the matter of confideration; and that it was not for 40s. the glorious Hampden contended, but for the properties, privileges, and liberties of his countrymen. The bills were thrown out with extraordinary marks of contempt.

In the fpeech from the throne, acknowledgments were made of the temper and prudence which had governed all their deli- June 9. berations; and particular thanks was returned for the fresh proof they had given of their affectionate attachment in the additional fecurity they had provided for the welfare and honour of the royal family. They were informed of the pacific difpofition of other powers, and that there was the ftrongest reafon to believe, that the tranquillity of this nation was not in danger of being ditturbed. They were hearti ly thanked for the chearfulness and difpatch with which they had granted the fupplies, the ample provifion that had been made for every branch of the public fervice; and that it was feen with pleasure and approbation, that they had at the fame time been able, by a proper difpofition of the public money, to make fome farther progrefs in reducing the national debt. No doubt was made but they would carry to their refpective counties the fame principles, and the fame zeal for the public good, which they had already manifefted; and that they would cultivate a fpirit of harmony and confidence among all ranks of the people, to convince them, that, without a due reverence for the laws, B b

neither

neither their civil or religious rights could be enjoyed in comfort or fecurity; and to allure them that their interefts are confidered as infeperably connected with thofe of the crown; and that his majefty is and ever was perfuaded, that the profperity and glory of his reign muft depend on his poff fling the affection and maintaining the happinefs of the people.

Extract from Obfervations on the Power of Climate over the Policy, Strength, and Manners of Nations.

ing a feudatory impofed upon them, too proud and too powerful to be dependent upon the crown; the art of war through neceffity was their chief ftudy, and their wonderful atchievements in Italy and Sicily fhew the great excellence of Norman difcipline; by force they became masters of England, and force was to be used in preferving it: the Scotch, who had efpoufed the intereft of the Saxon royal family, were to be held in obfervation; a defcent of the Danes was with reafon to be apprehended; the Saxons, whom they had taken by fur

with the chapter in which the author defcribes the influence of the enervating caufes, on the inhabitants of South Britain, fome ages after the Norman conqueft.

The glorious reigns of the kings of the Plantagenet race prefent an hoftile countenance to that people which I had endeavoured to establish from the effects of foil and fituation upon the inhabitants of Great Britain. I have wifhed to convey to my reader an idea, that the temperature, of our climate is favourable to the growth of every virtue, but our foil and fituation are enemies to the prefervation of them, ever working to their corruption as they rife to maturity; that if accidents, lucky events, or good policy, fhall remove the embarraffiments of the enervating circumftances, and reftore to climate a freedom of acting, its genuine force will then disclose itself, and virtue again be the characteristic of South Britain. What were the caufes which reftored this power to climate, and continued it almoft without interruption, from the Conqueft until the time of Henry VII. I fhall now endeavour to fhew.

The Norman barons, from the time their ancestors had feized upon the province of Neuftria, were obliged to wage almoft perpetual wars with the kings of France, who were piqued, and with good reason, at fee

ted with the victors; brave by nature as themselves, they foon catched their noble ardour, and became mafters of their difcipline. The encreafe of territory accruing to our fovereigns by intermarriages with the houfes of Anjou and of Aquitaine, enlarged their intercourfe with the continent, and the claims upon the entire kingdom of France, which devolved upon Edward III. inright of his mother, opening that intercourfe ftill wider, laid a foundation for almoft continual wars, and gave fo bright a glow to the military fpirit of England as to dazzle the eyes of all Europe. When the profecution of thofe claims was at any time remitted, the great ftruggles with the crown, the civil wars of York and Lancaster, kept up the national attention to arms; and when thefe principal caufes were quiefcent, the inroads from Scotland, the infurrections of the Welch, or the trobles of Ireland, conftantly agitating the people, made them ever warlike and alert: these were no feasons to fit down to a luxurious enjoyment of the things the country afforded; they could not hug themselves in the fecurity which the fea prefented them; ftrong continental connections had broken their infularity of fituation; inattention to the fchemes of foreign courts was fhaken off; the want of a due information, which want had left the politics of England, during

the

the Saxon period, in a ftate of grofs imperfection, was fupplied; and thefe will, I hope, be admitted as fufficient reafons why England through thefe ages could not, by yielding to the circumstances of foil and fituation fink into the foft down of floth and luxury; fhe was then a body healthy and athletic from temperance and exercife, by the abfence of which invigorating caufes, fhe became in fucceeding ages languid, fwoollen, urwieldy and diftempered.

The civil wars of York and Lancafter had fo called home the attention of the English, that Lewis XI. feized the opportunity of rendering their re-establishment in France impracticable for the future, for the duke of Burgundy was deftroyed; they began to feel the influence of trade however remote, and although Henry VII. was a narrow minded, contemptible, avaricious tyrant, yet not a spark of their former fpirit could his oppreffions ftrike out of the nation; as to the important change of property occafioned by laws enacted in his reign, it could not as yet have operated to the humiliation of the nobles, for Oxford difmiffed his retainers through fear of Henry, not thro' want of means to fupport them; and if the commons had acquired property, it did not add to their refolution, for they endured the unwarrantable exactions of Dudley and Empfon with a patience unexampled in former reigns in short, fo foon as peace, together with that commercial turn which Europe had then taken, had furnished the English with the means of indulgence and eafe, they would nor run the hazard of immediately lofing them, by attempting to give a check to this first of the Tudor race; nor did the defpotifm of this family arife from any extraordinary courage in them, but from the abject fubmiffion of the people: and here impartiality muft allow, that although the former active periods had kept up the courage of the English, yet did

all their domeftic contention fpring from implicit obedience to their great barons before the battle of Evesham, or from attachment to particular branches of the reigning family, until the diftinction was loft in the union of the contending houfes; it never arose from a juft notion of civil liberty, which hath not the aggrandizement of barons, the pretenfions of particular families to a crown, for its concern, as the above caufes being removed, we fee them tamely fubmitting to Henry VIII. the moft bloody and bru tal tyrant that ever deformed the annals of a nation; we cannot point out one well regulated effort in favour of liberty through the long course of his reign; the religious prejudices of a bigotted nation given up, the property of the church peaceably transferred to the crown and to a part of the laity, the fortreffes of fuperftition entirely difinantled under him and his fucceffor; and to prove that the nation did not fubmit from conviction, we have only to obferve that what was done in his and Edward's reign was immediately reverfed, with the like confent of the people in the reign of Mary, whofe gloomy and horrid cruelties were fuffered until death removed her: thefe all are marks not of national patience but of national infenfibility. As to Elizabeth, her greatest admirers must allow her to be no better than a fenfible defpot; fhe had occafion for the affection of her people, and he had the addrefs to cajole them; but it is evident from what they had borne from her predeceffors, that if he had Philip for her friend, inftead of his being her enemy, the might not only have offended, but oppreffed them with impunity: as to the boafted glories of her reign, it is true the preferved the peace of England, but what figure would fhe have made, if the had a principal part to maintain upon the continent, like fome of our former monarchs? had fhe their extenfive dominions France to preferve? the who in the

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