XXII. 1784. BOOK management of their commercial concerns was left in the hands of the Company, who were divested only of that political power which they had so grossly abused, and of that civil authority to the due exercise of which they were so manifestly incompetent. And this authority was not transferred to persons who, like the commissioners of Mr. Fox, might attempt to establish an unconstitutional influence in parliament, not merely independent of, but in direct opposition to, the regular and constitutional authority of the crown; but in the effort to steer clear of the rock of Scylla, it was evident that Mr. Pitt had plunged into the gulph of Charybdis, and that by this bill a vast accession of influence resulted to the crown, already possessing a dangerous, formidable, and increasing ascendency over the other branches of the legis lature. Mr. Fox, with his usual powers of discrimination, attacked the weak and exceptionable parts of this bill, although the utmost energy of his eloquence was found inadequate to excite the general attention of the public to the merits or demerits of the measure in question-prepossessed as they now almost universally were in favour of the minister with whom it originated, and in whom they placed the most entire and unlimited confidence. Mr. Fox urged with great force and animation, that this bill established a weak and XXII. 1784. inefficient government, by dividing its powers. BOOK To the one board belonged the privilege of or dering and contriving measures; to the other, that of carrying them into execution. It was a system of dark intrigue and delusive art. By the negative vested in the commissioners, the CHARTERED RIGHTS of the Company, on which such stress had been laid, were insidiously undermined and virtually annihilated. If it were right to vest such powers in a board of privy counsellors, let it be done explicitly and openly, and shew the Company and the world, that what they dared to do they dared to justify. Fountled on principles so heterogeneous, how could such a government be other than the constant victim of internal distraction? The appeal allowed from the decisions of the board of control to the privy-council was affirmed by Mr. Fox to be palpably nugatory and ridiculous. The bill he had introduced exhibited at the first glance the features of openness, fairness, and responsibility. The present plan was full of darkness and disguise. In a covert and concealed mode, an immense patronage was transferred to the crown, which, instead of correcting abuses, opened a door to every species of collusion and corruption. It was calculated to establish an Indian government of the island of Great Britain. Against the clauses of the bill respecting the zemindars, Mr. Fox entered his 1784. BOOK strongest protest. The zemindars ought, in his XXII. opinion, to be rated by a fixed rule of past periods, and not of a vague and indefinite future enquiry. The new tribunal Mr. Fox stigmatized as a screen for delinquents; as a palpable and unconstitutional violation of the sacred right of trial by jury. Since no man was to be tried but on the accusation of the Company or the attorney-general, he had only to conciliate government in order to his remaining in perfect security. It was a part of the general system of deception and delusion, and he would venture to pronounce it a "bed of justice," where justice would for ever sleep. On the motion of commitment, the numbers were 276 to 61; and it was carried in triumph to the house of peers, where, after an opposition vigorous in point of exertion, but feeble in regard of numbers, the bill passed August 9, 1784. It was accompanied by a protest, in which it was severely branded as a measure ineffectual in its provisions, unjust in its inquisitorial spirit, and unconstitutional in its partial abolition of the trial by jury. Zeal of Mr. the reform India. Amongst those who had chiefly distinguished Burke for themselves in the investigation of Indian affairs, of abuses in and whose indignation had been most strongly awakened at the discovery of the enormous oppression exercised in those distant regions, was Mr. Burke. Agreeably, indeed, to the general XXII. 1784. cast of his character and genius, Mr. Burke's BOOK acuteness of research, and that extensive knowledge of the subject which he had acquired by long and indefatigable attention, was obscured and rendered in a great measure useless, and even pernicious, by the violence of his passions, and the obstinacy of his prejudices. Not satisfied with exhibiting facts sufficiently atrocious in their own nature in the language of plainness and simplicity, Mr. Burke was eager upon all occasions to impress the public mind and heighten the general effect, by all the arts of rhetorical amplification and embellishment. So little of philosophy, however, entered into the oratory of this famous speaker, that the effect produced upon the public mind was directly opposite to that which he himself expected and intended. Amidst the blaze of declamation, and the thunders of invective, the ingenuous enquirer after TRUTH found it insuperably difficult to ascertain with precision those points on which the charge of' criminality rested. To the most careless observer, it was apparent that in numerous instances facts were distorted and disguised; that the most invidious construction was invariably annexed even to the most indifferent actions; that every thing was seen through the medium of false and artificial colourings; that the dignified candour which gives weight to an accusation was wholly want XXII. 1784. BOOK ing. His calmness was settled rancor; his warmth, the phrensy of rage and revenge. Mr. Burke had long singled out Mr. Hastings, late governor-general of India, as the object of his most furious attacks; but from the circumstances now enumerated, the feelings of the public were in a considerable degree excited in his favor. Added to this, the successes of the late war in India, contrasted with the defeats and disasters sustained by the nation in all other parts of the globe, cast a certain splendor around the character of Mr. Hastings, who had acquired the popular appellation of the Saviour of India; while to appreciate the real merits of his long and eventful administration required a sagacity and diligence of research for which the inclination and ability were, to speak in general terms, equally wanting. Mr. Burke had also entirely lost the degree of credit which he once possessed with the public, by standing forward as the avowed advocate and champion of the detested coalition, of which he was indeed more than suspected to have been the original projector, although the bitterness of his former invectives against the late minister lord North could not be exceeded by his most virulent effusions against the more recent object of his intemperate abuse, Mr. Hastings. In a word, Mr. Burke appeared in the view of the public at this period, as a man of talents indeed, but to |