BOOK clared the present bill "to be a most atrocious vioXXI. lation of private property, in justification of which 1783. if the plea of political necessity were urged, that

necessity must be proved by evidence at the bar of the house, and not by reports from a committee, to which he should pay as much attention as to the romance of Robinson Crusoe. They were told, that the finances of the Company were much de. ranged; but could parliament in justice forget that the Company were restricted from employing that credit which resulted from its great and flourishing situation and that, if those restrictions were taken off to-morrow, every demand to the state would be discharged? Could parliament forget that the poli tics of this country had involved the Company in an extensive and ruinous war? and that, while we encountered loss, misfortune, and disgrace, in every other quarter of the globe, this delinquent Com pany had surmounted the most astonishing diffi culties in India? Would parliament forget, that, when peace was restored to this unfortunate coun try, the conquests of this delinquent Company were given up, to prevent further sacrifices of our more favorite possessions?"

The second reading of the bill took place on the 15th of December*, when counsel was heard

*During this interval, the regular business of the session was proceeding in the usual manner in the house of commons; and on the 12th of December, amongst the ordinary estimates

XXI.

1788.

at the bar of the house in behalf of the Company. BOOK At eleven o'clock, the counsel requested of the house an adjournment for the conclusion of their evidence; and a motion being made, it was carried in opposition to the ministers by 87 to 79 voices.

On the 17th it was moved, That the bill be REJECTED. On this occasion lord Camden distinguished himself by a most able and eloquent speech against a measure which his lordship affirmed to be in the highest degree pernicious and unconstitutional. "To divest the Company of the ma nagement of their own property and commercial concerns was (his lordship said) to treat them as IDIOTS; and he regarded the bill not so much in the light of a commission of bankruptcy as of lunacy.

of the year, eighteen thousand pounds were charged for the purchase of the princely mansion of sir Gregory Page, on Blackheath, as a royal military academy--a sum not more than equal to the value of the materials. And as several thousand pounds would by this means be saved in the repair of the old incommodious building at Woolwich, and likewise an allowance of five hundred pounds per annum for lodgings to the officers, who would henceforth be accommodated in the new academy, the expence was reduced to a mere nothing, whilst the purchase would have done honor to the taste and magnificence of the nation; yet was it opposed with most preposterous obstinacy by some weak and perverse members of the house, as a wanton and scandalous waste of the public money; and the chancellor of the exchequer had the injudicious complaisance to consent. to omit it on the report.

BOOK But as the means of throwing an enormous addi-
XXI. tion of weight into the scale, not of regal but
1783. ministerial influence, it was still more alarming.

Were this bill to pass into a law (his lordship for-
cibly declared) we should see the king of England
and the king of Bengal contending for superiority
in the British parliament." After a vehement de
bate, the motion of rejection was carried by 95
against 76 voices. As the first divisions in the
upper house were favorable to this bill, it will
readily be imagined that some powerful cause,
adequate to the extraordinary and unexpected effect
produced, must have intervened. The solution of
the phænomenon was indeed sufficiently obvious.

On the 11th of December, earl Temple had held
a conference with the KING, in the course of which
his lordship clearly and fully explained to his ma-
jesty the nature and tendency of a bill which had
been hitherto honored with the king's entire appro-
bation. The royal indignation was in consequence
of this discovery excited in a very high degree.
The monarch considered himself as having been
DUPED and DECEIVED. A card was immediately
written, stating, "That his majesty allowed earl
Temple to say, that whoever voted for the India
Bill was not only not his friend, but would be con-
sidered by him as his enemy. And if these words
were not strong enough, carl Temple might use

99

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.1783.

whatever words he might deem stronger or more to BOOK. the purpose. This interposition becoming a matter of public notoriety, Mr. William Baker, member for Hertford, moved the house of commons on the very day the bill was rejected by the lords, "That it was now necessary to declare, that to report any opinion or pretended opinion of the king upon any bill, or other proceeding, depending in either house of parliament, with a view to influence the votes of the members, was a high crime and misdemeanor." Mr. Pitt treated the motion lightly, and represented it as unworthy of the dignity of the house to found any resolutions upon rumors and hearsays. But earl Nugent, father-in-law to earl Temple, with more seriousness and firmness declared, "That the resolutions before them went to the utter annihilation of sovereignty. What! 'were not peers by their rank and situation hereditary counsellors of the crown?-Would that house dare to derogate from the high dignity. which the constitution had annexed to their station? Every peer, and indeed every commoner, under certain restrictions, had a right to address the sovereign. But the tendency of these resolutions was to make the monarch a kind of prisoner of state, and to shut him up from every species of information unacceptable to the existing administration. Were any relation of his, in a crisis of difficulty and danger, to con

I

1783.

BOOK vey truths to his sovereign of high importance to XXI. be known, though at the risk of incurring the utmost punishment which the indignation of that house could inflict, he should consider his conduct not merely as justifiable, but transcendently meritorious, and such as would transmit his name with honor to the latest posterity." Other members acknowledged something of irregularity in these proceedings, and wished that a measure so dangerous might have been counteracted in a mode more open and constitutional; but a great good had been obtained, and in this case it were not wise to examine into the cause with too accurate a discrimination and too severe a scrutiny. The resolution moved by Mr. Baker passed nevertheless by a great majority.

The quarrel between the crown and the ministers, supported as they were by a decided majority of the house of commons, having now become public and palpable, an entire change of administration Sudden dis- was at all hazards determined upon. At midnight on the 18th of December, a royal message was sent to the secretaries of state, demanding the seals of their several departments; and early the next morning letters of dismission, signed TEMPLE, were sent to the other members of the cabinet.

mission of

tion ministers.

Mr. Pitt

In a few days Mr. Pitt was declared first lord first mini- of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer ;

ster.