313 but in the cause of truth he should not be 'deficient in boldness. He knew he expressed himself warmly on this subject; but during the last six years, and more particularly during the last three years, he had exhibited, as every one must allow, no small stock of patience. He did not pretend to be so callous as not to feel indignation) when the honourable baronet who brought those charges said, that lord Wellesley's conduct in India had been, such as to convince him that no man could retain honour or honesty in that country. The honourable baronet,' in thus expressing himself, only uses his parliamentary privilege of freedom of speech, but he had gone to the full extent of that privilege in using, language which he dared not use elsewhere. He contended that the judgment of the house, however pronounced, after the discussion and investigation that had taken place, would be decisive of the case. If the decision should be unfavour able to lord Wellesley, he would bow to it as a fair condemnation; if it should be favourable, he would rely on it as a full and fair acquittal. He was convinced that lord Wellesley had been actuated by no principles but á regard to the honour and interest of his country and his employers; and in this conviction he boldly met those accusations, which, if he thought them at all founded in fact, he should shrink from, and hide his face at a distance from this house and from the society in which he had the honour to mix.

Mr. Sheridan regretted the honourable gentleman had so totally misconceived him. He had never said that that honourable gentleman, or any of his friends, were anxious to blink the question; but he had said the very reverse. He said too what he would repeat, that moving the previous question was not the way to obtain for the noble marquis the honourable and satisfactory investiga tion so much wished for by his friends. It was not di rectly meeting the very serious charges brought against that noble lord. As to the part he took in the present question, the honourable gentleman knew well that he could not be influenced by any other motive than a sense of public duty. As to the fraternal intemperance of the honourable gentleman, he was willing, if not to approve it, at least to overlcok it; at the same time that he denied that any thing had ever fallen from him that went to impeach the private moral character of the noble marquis; VOL. III.-1808. 28

though he always thought, and was still of opinion, that that noble lord betrayed too often a mischievous ambition that might be ultimately ruinous to the British interests in the East. He would repeat his wish, that the worthy baronet would wave his antecedent resolutions, and come at once to the immediate point at issue, as to lord Wellesley's conduct with respect to the Carnatic.

Mr. Wellesley Pole stated, that when the honourable baronet had opened his resolutions, an honourable friend of his (Mr. Wallace) gave notice that he would move the previous question on the resolutions apart, and a direct negative on the criminating resolutions, for which he proposed to substitute a resolution of approbation.

Sir John Anstruther thought it a most extraordinary proceeding, that after the course just stated should have been laid down in the presence of the right honourable gentleman a fortnight since, and he had heard it, and was ready to speak on it without exception, he all at once came forward this night to reverse all that had been done, and substitute a general question. Nothing but the previous question would be a proper proceeding on some of the resolutions. The others were to be met directly in the most decided manner.

Mr. Wallace felt himself warranted by the practice of parliament in proposing the previous question on the resolutions of fact. To the criminatory resolution he proposed a direct negative, to be followed up with a resolution of approbation. There could be no question that a decision on these resolutions would fully convey the sense of the house. The honourable baronet who opened the charges, and every other person who spoke on the question, treated of it in its full extent.

Sir Thomas Turton considered that his resolution ought to be agreed to without a question. On the fourth resolution, which was criminating, he thought the house ought to go into a committee. Finding that the resolutions were to be met in this manner, he should divide the house on every one of them; and on the fourth, criminating lord Wellesley, not personally, but in his acts, he should again state to the house his reasons for confirming the resolution.

The question being called for, the house divided on the first resolution:

Majority

Lord Castlereagh addressed the majority in the lobby, entreating them to continue in attendance, as sir Thomas Turton intended dividing the house on all the resolutions. On the second resolution the numbers were,

When strangers were admitted, Mr. Johnstone was on his legs. He contended, that if we had supported the sovereigns of Oude, the obligation was mutual, for they had supported us when we were only a miserable factory. The deposition, he affirmed, had not a shadow of justice: and the experience of the affair at Vellore, amongst other circumstances, was a proof that the policy was bad, and that nothing would, by this transaction, be added to our revenue or security.

Mr. Whitshed Keene opposed the resolution.

Mr. C. Grant stated the three points of defence, viz. that the nabobs were our vassals and we might depose or set them up as we pleased, that the government of the Carnatic was badly managed, and that a treasonable cor, respondence had been carried on by Wallajah and Omdut ul Omrah with our enemies. With respect to the first he entered into a detail of the transactions in India since our first establishment there, and contended that there was nothing in the whole that could give the least counte nance to the assertion that the nabobs were our vassals. With regard to the second, admitting that the govern ment was badly conducted, many ways might be found to ameliorate that without a deposition. With respect to the last, the correspondence had been carried on with the knowledge and under the direction of the Madras government, for the purpose of preserving the peace that had been concluded with Tippoo Saib. Marquis Wellesley had besides exceeded his authority in deposing a sovereign. Upon the whole, therefore, he perfectly concurred in the general scope of the resolution.

Mr. S. R. Lushington. Mr. Speaker, differing as I do entirely from the honourable member who has just

sat down, from the honourable baronet who opened the debate on a former night, and from the honour able member. (Mr. G. Johnstone) who spoke from the floor, I shall state the reasons for that difference, for the consideration of the house. Without following each of those honourable members through the lengthened detail of their speeches, I shall endeavour to reply to the propositions they have laboured to establish, and which were, I believe, in abstract these: that in the beginning of the connexion between the East India company and the family of Mahomed Ally, the company were indebted to them for their preservation and protection in the Carnatic: that in the progress of that connexion, the company re ceived from Mahomed Ally repeated proofs of kindness and generosity; but that his government and that of his son and successor, Omdut ul Omrah, was distracted by the interference of the company, and that war and misery resulted to the people from the ambition and usurpation of their governments: that after a long course of faithful and honourable alliance on the part of those nabobs, their posterity have been degraded without cause or jus◄ tice that this act of violence has carried its own punishment, for that we receive fewer resources by our possession of the Carnatic than we formerly derived from the willing hands of the nabob. Sir, believing, as I consci. entiously do, that the exact reverse of these propositions is the truth; that the company owe nothing to the father of Mahomed Ally; that to himself they were uniformly benefactors and protectors; that all the faith in the alli ance with him was on their part, and all the treachery on his; and that after a long course of suffering and distress from his evil counsels, they have done what true policy, a just construction of the law of nations, and humanity to the people of the Carnatic, fully support; I shall explain to the house the grounds of this opinion. The misrepresentation which has been made of our situation on the coast of Coromandel during the administration of Anwar ud deen Cawn, renders it necessary for me to trouble the house with a short reference to our condition at that early period. Whoever has any knowledge of the records of the East India company, or of our general history in India, must know, that for more than a century before the arrival of Anwar ud deen Cawn in the Carnatic, the company had carried on a lucrative commerce

:

on the coast of Coromandel. The emperor had granted to them a few villages in the vicinity of Madras and fort St. David; and his local officer, the nabob of Arcot, was bound by the emperor's sunnuds to protect, and did act ually protect, them in their peaceful occupations. The integrity of their dealings excited the confidence of the natives, and the security enjoyed in their possessions soon attracted a numerous population; occupied in this tranquil manner, the company coveted no other possessions; trade was the sole object of their institution, and their endeavours were confined to its advancement. But when Anwar ud deen Cawn arrived in the province, the company were drawn from these peaceful pursuits, and compelled to engage in the turbulent scenes of war. Anwar ud deen Cawn, the father of Mahomed Ally, was charged by the nizam with the guardianship of the minor nabob of Arcot, Seed Mahomed Cawn. This youth was basely murdered in his palace, in midday, in a very few months after he was confided to the protection of Anwar ud deen Cawn; and this atrocious act of violence so soon succeeding the murder of Abdalla, cast a yet deeper stain upon the cha racter of Anwar ud deen Cawn. The people of Arcot beheld this action with horror; they recurred with gra titude and affection to the mild and generous administration of the family of Seed Mahomed Cawn; and they saw in the violent death of this beloved youth, the termi nation of that fostering care which had so long protected them; they apprehended from the intrusion of a stranger into the government of the province, that spirit of ravage which too commonly distinguishes a violent and unjust possession. Unfortunately for the unoffending people of the Carnatic, these fears proved too true; for from that moment until the hour in which lord Clive signed the treaty which is now the subject of our deliberations, a period of near sixty years, the people of the Carnatic have been scourged with the plagues of war, famine, neglect, and oppression: but to the English East India company the succession of Anwar ud deen Cawn proved, in its very beginning, nearly fatal. Dupleix, governor of Pondicherry, soon discovered that avarice was the ru ling passion of Anwar ud deen Cawn, and he succeeded in obtaining his connivance in an attack upon Madras, which terminated in its capture by the French, when a large treasure, a vessel laden with valuable cloths, and