1801.] On Eaſt-India Trade: 4093

alarm, provided that number can be kept from increaſing; but in the propoſed ſyſtem, there would be a principle of progreflive increaſe, and this, your Committee fear, might juſtly be con- ſidered as the firſt principle of a colonial ſyſtem.

< A continual courſe of detached commercial adventurers would entail the reſidence of greater numbers of Europeans abroad; many others would be tempted to reſort thither, in the hope of eſtabliſhing themſelves; gradually, in conſequence of theſe changes, they would be enabled to ſtrike out new modes of em- ployment, and ſpread themſelves in the country. Even now, the ſociety of Merchants in India diſcover a wiſh to be emancipated from every material reftraint: that ſpirit would live and be more powerful in the larger ſociety. Governments, then, would find it a new and arduous taſk, to maintain order and ſubordination. Every port in India would be accuſtomed to the viſits of adventuring Europeans; connections between them and the Country Powers could hardly be prevented; part might go into the ſervice of thoſe Powers; all could not expe fortunes to return z and thoſe who ſaw no proſpe& of this kind, would naturally commence colonization. That the rights and uſages of our native ſubje&s might not be encroached upon in this pro- grefſs, that theſe people, though paſſive, might not be at length exaſperated, and that they might not, from example, gradually loſe their habits of ſubmiſſion to Government, no man can be warranted to deny: nor is it leſs probable, that a vaſt maſs of native ſubjeâs, thus put into a new ſtate of agitation, a numerous European community progreſſively enlarging its views with its importance, and the combinations of India politics influenced by, and influencing theſe circumſtances, might render it ex- tremely difficult for this country to maintain in that remote quarter, a Government ſufficiently ſtrong and energetic to con- tain all theſe intereſts within their due bounds.

« For theſe reaſons, the enquiry concerning the principle by which our Indian Poſſeſſions may be beft preſerved, though it appertain to the preſent ſubje(, need not be a long one. That ſyſtem cannot be beſt, which, by the adoption of colonial prin- ciples of free ingreſs and reſidence, would expoſe us to all the bazards juſt deſcribed, and through them, to the loſs of the Indian Empire. The Legiſlature has already determined to maintain the dependency of that Empire, not on colonial principles, but through the medium of that body by which it was acquired, the FEaft-India Company, who are therefore conftituted the ſole national organ for its local government, and its communication with this country. The rights of that Company, who through a long ſucceſlion of years ſuſtained alone the expences and perils which ended in the acquiſition of territorial dominion, have not been ſacr ficed to the unfounded claims(et up for every Britiſh ſub- Jed as ſuch, to enter into the free enjoyment of what had coſt them