legislature has a power of preferibing rules to marriage, as well as to every other fpecies of contract, yet there is an effential difference between regulating the mode in which a right may be enjoyed, and establishing a principle which may tend entirely to annihilate that right. To disable a man during his whole life from contracting marriage, or what is tantamount, to make his power of contracting fuch marriage dependent neither on his own choice, nor upon any fixed rule of law, but on the arbitrary will of any man, or set of men, is exceeding the power permitted by the divine providence to human legislatures: it is directly against the earlieft command, given by God to mankind, contrary to the right of domestic fociety and comfort, and to the defire of lawful pofterity; the firft and best of the inftincts planted in us by the Author of our nature, and utterly incompatible with all religion, natural and revealed; and therefore a mere act of power, having neither the nature nor obligation of law. It concluded with faying, "we cannot therefore, on the whole, avoid expreffing our ftrong disapprobation of an act, which shakes fo many of the foundations of law, religion, and public fecurity, for ends wholly difproportioned to fuch extraordinary efforts, and in favour of regulations fo ill calculated to answer the purposes for which they are made: and we make this proteft, that it may stand recorded to that posterity, which may fuffer from the mischievous confequences of this act, that we have no part in the confufions and calamities brought upon them."

Another proteft, which chiefly objected to the bill as a violation of the natural rights of mankind, and contrary to every principle of religion and humanity, was figned by fix other peers*.

Viz. Temple, Radnor, Clifton, Lyttelton, Abingdon, and Craven.

The

The oppofition to the bill was yet ftronger in the houfe of Commons. The preamble to the act was much objected to, as acknowledging and confirming the preroga tive of the crown afferted in the meffage. A motion was made to omit that declaratory clause, when, after a very long debate, the motion was rejected by a majority of thirty-fix only, when the houfe confifted of three hundred and fixty-four members.

A motion was then made to infert a claufe," that the act fhould continue in force during the reign of his prefent majefty, and three years after his demife, but no longer," but it was rejected, by a majority of eighteen only. Sir Jofeph Mawby remarked, that the title of the bill was not fufficiently expreffive; to remedy which, he proposed that it fhould run," An act" for enlarging and extending the prerogatives of the crown, and for the encouragement of adultery and fornication, under pretence of "regulating the marriages of the royal family."

The bill continued for three weeks to engage the attention of the house, but was then paffed without any material alteration, by a majority of fifty †•

Mr. Sullivan, deputy chairman of the Eaft India Company, made a motion in the houfe of Commons, March 30, for leave to bring in a bill for the better regulation of the company's fervants and concerns in India; the object of which bill, was, to establish a great variety of new and important regulations in thofe remote territories. It aimed at reftraining the governor and council of Bengal from all concerns in trade, and went entirely to change

† March 24. One hundred and fixty-five to one hundred and fifteen.

the court of judicature, and the manner of administering juftice there, and gave the court of directors a fuller control over their fervants. This drew from Lord Clive a long and laboured defence of his conduct, during his last expedition to India. He declared, that the fole motive which led him to expose his feeble conftitution, broken as it was, in the fervice of the company, to the fultry climate of Hindoftan, and to the fatigues and dangers of war, was, a defire of doing effential fervice to the company, under whofe aufpices he had acquired his fortune and his fame. That, instead of increafing his fortune, he was feveral thousands poorer thereby. He had been charged with eftablishing a most destructive monopoly of falt, beetle-net, tabacco, and other commodities in Bengal, which was a principal cause of a dreadful famine and sickness which prevailed there, and swept away fome millions of the inhabitants. In fpeaking to this charge, he confined himself to the duties laid upon falt; which, according to the population which he reckoned to be in the country, and the proportion each individual paid towards the tax, furnished data to calculate the yearly produce, which appears to have been the enormous fum of 437,500l. fterling. The reafon he affigned for these impofts was, that the company's fervants might receive an equivalent for the deductions made from their incomes, by the directors having absolutely forbidden the receiving of presents, and being deprived of a lucrative trade in falt. He acknowledged to have received 5-56th fhares, which yielded him 32,000l. which fum he diftributed among his fecretary, furgeon, and another gentleman, together with 5000l. more. The establishing of a new gold currency in Bengal, during his lordfhip's prefidency, had been reprefented as a measure calculated to enrich thofe concerned, to the great lofs and injury of the province, as well as of the company. He

exculpated

exculpated himself, by saying, that he knew nothing of the mixture of metals, and folemnly declared that he reaped not a fhilling profit by the coinage. He charged the directors very roundly with having, either through ob ftinacy or ignorance, deranged and fruftrated the best concerted plans of regulation in Bengal. He attributed the unlooked for embarraffments of the company's affairs to four caufes; a negligence in adminiflration; the mifconduct of the directors; the outrageous behaviour of general courts; and the difobedience of the company's fervants in the Eaft Indies. When the bufinefs of the company came before parliament fome years before, the object, he said, was not how to fecure fo beneficial a trade, and fo great an empire, for a perpetuity, but to make an immediate dividend of 400,000l. to the public, and 200,000l. to the proprietary. The directors fuddenly stopped profecutions, restored the suspended, and undid every thing that had been done; and yet, by the bill which was then moved for, they were willing to difable themfelves from ever withdrawing profecutions for the future. They had erred likewife in being fo eager to fecure their annual election: the first half of the year, he faid, has been confumed in freeing themselves from the obligations contracted by their laft election, and the fecond half has been wafted in incurring new obligations, and forming an intereft among the proprietors; but in fpite of all these manoeuvres, the direc tion has been fo fluctuating and unfettled, that fresh and contradictory orders have been fent out with every fleet: had they been lefs fickle and abfurd, their concerns would' have been much more confiftently and uniformly managed. The malverfation of their fervants may juftly be charged upon the Auctuation of their own councils: had they not concurred in reftoring fufpended and perfecuted men, the governor and council would never have deliberated whe

ther they should obey or not, the orders of the direction. Fundamental principles being thus overturned, the whole fyftem tumbles to the ground.

His lordship stated, that the clear net revenue of Bengal, for 1771, amounted to no more than 171,000l. whilst the claim of government was 400,000l. During his prefidency, the largest net fum was brought into the treasury. The expences of the military establishment, as it is called, fince that period, has gradually encreased, until it rose to the prefent enormous fum of 1,800,000l. per annum. The company's fervants having found out the way of making fortunes by charging exorbitantly in all contracts for furnishing of troops, with provifions and other neceffaries. Hence the revenue falls fhort, though the fum levied amounts to little lefs than four millions. The temptations to amafs wealth, by indirect means, he faid, were fo great, that flesh and blood could not withstand them. He concluded with obferving, that Bengal was the brighteft jewel in the British crown.

Governor Johnstone replied to Lord Clive's defence, in which he very ably arraigned his lordship's conduct, expofed the flimfinefs and futility of the arguments brought in defence of it. He ftated, that the highest duties that ever were collected on falt in Bengal, were 72,000l. a year; the general medium was 40,000l. The whole had been farmed for 32,000l. a year. The company, he infinuated, loft 300,000l. in the progrefs of the frauds, as he called them, in the coinage. He did not mean, he faid, to impeach his lordship's veracity, but he always understood, that the prefident had a certain per centage on all coinage; no doubt, as his lordship had faid it, he made no profit of the great opportunity that occurred, but that

he