The house then divided on the question, that lord Sidmouth's motion be now put:

Contents

Not contents

Majority

16

36

20

And, on the fourth resolution, which applied to the ships which had previously been ordered by the admiralty courts to be restored, another division took place:

16

57

21

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

TUESDAY, MAY 17.

A message from the lords announced their lordships assent to the three millions, and one and a half millions, exchequer bills bills.

Mr. Owen from the East India company, presented certain accounts relative to the Carnatic.

Lord Barnard gave notice, that he should on Thursday move for leave to bring in a bill to empower the grand juries in Ireland, to sell or exchange certain lands and tenements occupied in courts and jails.

On the motion of the Lord Advocate of Scotland, the court of session stock bill was read a second time.

A bill for granting an additional duty on copper was brought up, read a first, and ordered to be read a second time to-morrow.

Mr. Huskisson moved for leave to bring in a bill for continuing the powers of the commissioners of military inquiry, the present bill expiring on the first of June next. He should make the present application a notice or a motion, as it should be agreeable to the house.

After a few words, from Mr. N. Calvert, and Mr. Shaw Lefevre, approbatory of the conduct and exertions of the commissioners of military inquiry, leave was given to bring in the bill.

The cork duty bill went through a committee, and was ordered to be reported to-morrow.

:. Mr. Huskisson postponed till to-morrow his motion for the improvement of the land revenue.

Mr. Perceval gaye notice for Monday, of a motion for altering or explaining the warehousing acts, to the effect of allowing goods warehoused on importation for home consumption, to be exported, in certain cases.

CARNATIC QUESTION.

Sir Thomas Turton rose to move his promised resolu tions respecting the deposition of the nabob of the Carnatic. He began by requesting the indulgence of the house, unconnected as he was with any party, and unsupported by any influence except what might be expected from the strength of the cause. Before he had become a member of the house, his attention had been turned to the subject by different motions for papers which had been made, and he was then anxious that the matter should be thoroughly investigated; feeling, in common with many others, for the honour and good faith of the country. When he came into parliament, he found the question still floating, and did every thing in his power to induce some other member to bring it forward, preferring to be the seconder rather than the mover: no choice, however, was left him. The right honourable gentleman (Sheridan) to whom he had particularly looked, had found himself in circumstances that prevented his urging the question, as it might have much embarrassed those with whom he acted. He had no doubt, however, that that honourable gentleman was convinced that he had just grounds for what he did. He did not mean to impeach his public spirit, which certainly, on many occasions, had shewn itself superior to any private motive or consideration whatever and even on this subject, the honourable gentleman had seized the occasion of a motion for papers to declare, that a more inhuman, a more atrocious, and a more disgraceful act never had disgraced any government. He had every disposition to think well of the politics of the marquis Wellesley, who had been educated in the same school with Mr. Pitt, and had for some time followed his steps; but at the same time he had no hesitation to de clare, that if he was guilty of the acts detailed in these papers, he was a most improper minister for this country, as he might bring into our councils that tyranny which had disgraced his Indian government.

The honourable baronet gave a brief historical view of the progress of the company's interference with the Carnatic, from the beginning of the war that ended in 1754, when they supported one candidate for the musnud in opposition to another supported by the French, down to the treaty of 1796 with Omdut ul Omrah, by which the payment of a certain kist was secured to the company. That treaty continued till the death of Omdut ul Omrah, in 1801, when those disgraceful transactions commenced which the honourable gentleman opposite had not cofoured more strongly than they deserved. On the 5th of July 1801, colonel M'Neil advanced to the palace of Arcot, with troops, under pretence of preventing com motion at the death of Omdut ul Omrah. On their entrance the old monarch, labouring under the disorder which in eight days after terminated his existence, sprung from his bed and begged of major Grant not to expose him to the contempt of his subjects, by penetrat ing into the interior of his palace; and major Grant applied for instructions to colonel M'Neil, who from motives of humanity did not enter. The troops, however, re mained, surrounding the palace from the 5th to the 15th, when Omdut ul Omrah died, to all appearance in perfect amity with the company. At no period were our dominions in India more quiet and secure than at the time when this outrage was committed, under the pretence of guarding against a petty commotion. On the same day on which the old monarch died, the prince, his heir, was dragged from his apartment, and called upon to answer to certain interrogatories, on a charge of treachery preferred against his father. He was told that his father and grandfather had carried on a treacherous correspondence with Hyder Alli and Tippoo sultaun, and that he, though innocent, was to be deprived of his dominions and reduced to the situation of a private person, where he expected to be a sovereign; that his succession would be set aside, and another placed on the musnud, unless he complied with certain requisitions, which were, that he should give up the civil and military administration of his possessions, and accept of an indefinite sum to keep up his dignity, and of a body guard furnished by the com pany. The honourable baronet gave a minute detail of the various conferences between the commissioners of our Indian government and the prince, who, with the advice VOL. III.-1808.

E

of two old cawns, appointed regents by his father, refused to accede to these conditions; though these cawns were willing to give any reasonable security for the payment of the kist. Among the expedients tried in order to procure the prince's consent, intimidation was one. Troopers with drawn swords paraded before the tent in which one of the conferences was held, and the prince was told that the propositions did not solely originate with lord Clive, but that they were sanctioned by the governor-general, by the court of direc'ors, and by the British government. If the directors had sanctioned this conduct, their letters of approbation would, no doubt, have appeared; and it was incumbent on those who had been members of the British government at the time to clear themselves, and to declare that they knew nothing of this transaction. But, if they were silent, he would prove that they could not have known it. The prince, however, still continued to rely upon the faith and protection of the company, and was at last told to prepare to receive the final resolution of the governor-general, which was, that his future situation would be that of a private person con..sidered as hostile to the British interests. Where was British justice then? From the year 1798, when lord Wellesley had landed in India, the kist had been paid with a fidelity almost unprecedented, and yet this was the result. When the commissioners had set aside the prince, one would have thought that they would have applied to the next in succession; but no: they passed over two, and opened a negociation with Azum ul Dowlab, who from his situation, they imagined would, be most likely to comply with all their requisitions. He, as was usual in that country, had been kept in confinement, and, when taken out, was greatly frightened lest they were going to ki him. They found him, however, wonderfully well qualified to undertake the government, and the conferences with him ended in his acknowledging that the whole right was in the company, his ancestors having forfeited it by their treacherous correspondence. The honourable baronet declared that he should have been much surprized if this had not been the result. Azum would no doubt be willing to believe that his ancestors had been capable of acting very improperly, since they confined him. This puppet was presented in form to lord Clive, on the 26th of July, and on the 28th was installed in the musnud, on

which occasion, none of the nobles attended, except one, who was now an outcast from all parties. A treaty was executed on the 31st, in which it was stated that the hereditary right of Azum Ul Dowlah to the throne of his ancestors had been acknowledged by the company. But this being communicated to the governor-general, this expression of right was objected to, and a direction sent to lord Clive to get the words altered, if he conveniently could, and to have it stated, that Azum had been established in the possessions of his ancestors by the liberality and moderation of the company's government, which liberality extended to the provision of a guard of their own for him, and a promise of a sum to support his dignity. But what was remarkable in this treaty was, that it in one part gave these possessions, and in another took them away. The rightful prince was, from the 15th of July, 1802, to the day of his death, confined with his mother in the palace of Chapanke, which was his own private property; but where, notwithstanding, Azum resided. The honourable baronet dwelt upon the imprudence and indecency of placing the prince in the same palace with the usurper, and stated that as soon as Mr. Addington heard of it, orders had been sent out to remove him. He would not charge the persons concerned in this with murder, such as which that was sometimes proved at the Old Bailey; he would not say that lord Clive could have had an intention to have the prince assassinated; but he affirmed that those who placed him in such a dangerous situation with their eyes open were, in foro conscientiæ, in a great degree implicated. The honourable baronet here adverted to a pamphlet, entitled (if we heard right) The Carnatic Question stated, and said that he never read so disgraceful a defence of any transaction, or one which was more calculated to condemn the party in whose favour it was written. With regard to what had been said of himself in it, he pitied the author if he wrote from neces sity; if not, he despised him. He had scarcely ever scen a production on any political question that contained such monstrous, he might say, such villainous doctrines. Was it tali auxilio, defensoribus istis, that marquis WelJesley was forced to be protected? Reverting to the situation of the prince, he stated, that the unhappy man, after several ineffectual petitions to be removed, had written a letter, in which he strongly pleaded for being sent to ano