66 "them from the wet ground; in which condition they were continued for many hours, until the "said Richard Barwell thought proper to remove "them into a far worse state, if possible, as if studying to exercise the most cruel acts of barbarity on them, &c.—And that during their imprisonment they were frequently carried to, and "tortured in, the stocks, in the middle of the day, "when the scorching heat of the sun was insup"portable, notwithstanding which they were de"nied the least covering." These men assert, that they had served the company without blame for thirty years a period commencing long before the power of the company in India. It was no slight aggravation of this severity, that the objects were not young, nor of the lowest of the people, who might, by the vigour of their constitutions, or by the habits of hardship, be enabled to bear up against treatment so full of rigour. They were aged persons. They were men of a reputable profession. 66 66 | verance of individuals. Mr. Barwell might possibly be generous enough to take no advantage of his eminent situation but these unfortunate people would rather look to his power than his disposition. In general, a man so circumstanced, and so charged, (though we do not know this to be the case with Mr. Barwell,) might easily contrive, by legal advantages, to escape. The plaintiffs being at a great distance from the seat of government, and possibly affected by fear or fatigue, or seeing the impossibility of sustaining with the ruins of fortunes, never perhaps very opulent, a suit against wealth, power, and influence, a compromise might even take place, in which circumstances might make the complainants gladly acquiesce. But the publick injury is not in the least repaired by the acquiescence of individuals, as it touched the honour of the very highest parts of government. In the opinion of your committee some means ought to have been taken to bring the bill to a discussion on the merits; or supposing, that such decree could not be obtained by reason of any failure of proceeding on the part of the plaintiffs, some process, official or juridical, ought to have been instituted against them, which might prove them guilty of slander and defamation, in as authentick a manner as they had made their charge, before the council as well as the court. The account given by these merchants of their first journey to Calcutta, in July 1774, is circumstantial and remarkable. They say," that, on their "arrival, to their astonishment, they soon learned, "that the governour, who had formerly been vio- | lently enraged against the said Richard Barwell for different improprieties in his conduct, was now reconciled to him; and that, ever since there By the determination of Mr. Hurst, and the was a certainty of His Majesty's appointments resolutions of the board of trade, it is much to be taking place in India, from being the most in-apprehended, that the native mercantile interest "veterate enemies they were now become the most "intimate friends; and that this account soon taught them to believe they were not any nearer "justice from their journey to Calcutta, than they had been before at Dacca." 66 66 66 66 When this bill of complaint was, in 1776, laid before the council, to be transmitted to the court of directors, Mr. Barwell complained of the introduction of such a paper, and asserted, that he had answered to every particular of it on oath about eighteen months, and that, during this long period, no attempt had been made to controvert, refute, or even to reply to it. He did not, however, think it proper to enter his answer on the records along with the bill, of whose introduction he complained. On the declarations made by Mr. Barwell in his Minute (September 1776) your committee observe, that, considering him only as an individual under prosecution in a court of justice, it might be sufficient for him to exhibit his defence in the court where he was accused; but that, as a member of government, specifically charged before that very government with abusing the powers of his office in a very extraordinary manner, and for purposes (as they allege) highly corrupt and criminal, it appears to your committee hardly sufficient to say, that he had answered elsewhere. The matter was to go before the court of directors, to whom the question of his conduct in that situation, a situation of the highest power and trust, was as much at least a question of state, as a matter of redress to be solely left to the discretion, capacity, or perse must be exceedingly reduced. The above-men- 66 No such rivalship does exist: the policy practised and avowed is directly against it. The reason assigned in the board of trade's letter of the 28th of November 1778, for its making their advances early in the season, is, to prevent the foreign merchants and private traders interfering with the purchase of their (the company's) assortments. "They also refer to the means taken to prevent "this interference in their letter of the 26th January 1779." It is impossible, that the small part of the trade should not fall into the hands of species of the poppy, is of extensive consumption those, who with the name and authority of the in most of the Eastern markets. The best is progoverning persons have such extensive contracts induced in the province of Bahar: in Bengal it is of their hands. It appears in evidence, that natives an inferiour sort, though of late it has been imcan hardly trade to the best advantage (your com- proved. This monopoly is to be traced to the very mittee doubt whether they can trade to any advan-origin of our influence in Bengal. It is stated to tage at all) if not joined with or countenanced by British subjects. The directors were, in 1775, so strongly impressed with this notion, and conceived the native merchants to have been even then reduced to so low a state, that, notwithstanding the company's earnest desire of giving them a preference, they" doubt whether there are at this time "in Bengal native merchants possessed of pro"perty adequate to such undertaking, or of credit "and responsibility sufficient to make it safe and "prudent to trust them with such sums as might "be necessary to enable them to fulfil their engagements with the company." The effect, which so long continued a monopoly, followed by a pre-emption, and then by partial preferences supported by power, must necessarily have in weakening the mercantile capital, and disabling the merchants from all undertakings of magnitude, is but too visible. However, a witness of understanding and credit does not believe the capitals of the natives to be yet so reduced as to disable them from partaking in the trade, if they were otherwise able to put themselves on an equal footing with Europeans. have begun at Patna so early as the year 1761, but it received no considerable degree of strength or consistence until the year 1765; when the acquisition of the Dûanny opened a wide field for all projects of this nature. It was then adopted, and owned as a resource for persons in office; was managed chiefly by the civil servants of the Patna factory, and for their own benefit. The policy was justified on the usual principles on which monopolies are supported, and on some peculiar to the commodity, to the nature of the trade, and to the state of the country: the security against adulteration; the prevention of the excessive home consumption of a pernicious drug; the stopping an excessive competition, which by an over-proportioned supply would at length destroy the market abroad; the inability of the cultivator to proceed in an expensive and precarious culture without a large advance of capital; and lastly, the incapacity of private merchants to supply that capital on the feeble security of wretched farmers. These were the principal topicks, on which the monopoly was supported. The last topick leads. The difficulties at the outset will however be to a serious consideration on the state of the considerable. For the long continuance of abuse country; for in pushing it the gentlemen argued, bas in some measure conformed the whole trade that, in case such private merchants should adof the country to its false principle. To make vance the necessary capital, the lower cultivators a sudden change, therefore, might destroy the few" would get money in abundance." Admitting advantages, which attend any trade, without securing those, which must flow from one established upon sound mercantile principles, whenever such a trade can be established. The fact is, that the forcible direction, which the trade of India has had towards Europe, to the neglect, or rather to the total abandoning, of the Asiatick, has of itself tended to carry even the internal business from the native merchant. The revival of trade in the native hands is of absolute necessity; but your committee is of opinion, that it will rather be the effect of a regular progressive course of endeavours for that purpose, than of any one regulation, however wisely conceived. this fact, it seems to be a part of the policy of this monopoly to prevent the cultivator from obtaining the natural fruits of his labour. Dealing with a private merchant he could not get money in abundance, unless his commodity could produce an abundant profit. Further reasons, relative to the peace and good order of the province, were assigned for thus preventing the course of trade from the equitable distribution of the advantages of the produce, in which the first, the poorest, and the most laborious producer ought to have his first share. The cultivators (they add) would squander part of the money, and not be able to complete their engagements to the full; law suits, and even battles, would ensue between the factors, contending for a deficient produce; and the farmers would discourage the culture of an object, which brought so much disturbance into their districts. This competition, the operation of which they endeavour to prevent, is the natural corrective of the abuse, and the best remedy which could be applied to the disorder, even supposing its probable existence. Upon whatever reasons or pretences the monopoly of opium was supported, the real motive appears to be the profit of those, who were in hopes to be concerned in it. As these profits promised to be very considerable, at length it engaged the attention of the company; and after many discus sions, and various plans of application, it was at | which ought never to appear but to protect, is felt length taken for their benefit, and the produce of the sale ordered to be employed in the purchase of goods for their investment. In the year 1773 it had been taken out of the hands of the council of Patna, and leased to two of the natives; but for a year only. The contractors were to supply a certain quantity of opium at a given price. Half the value was to be paid to those contractors in advance, and the other half on the delivery. The proceedings on this contract demonstrated the futility of all the principles, on which the monopoly was founded. The council, as a part of their plan, were obliged, by heavy duties, and by a limitation of the right of emption of foreign opium to the contractors for the home produce, to check the influx of that commodity from the territories of the nabob of Oude and the rajah of Benares. In these countries no monopoly existed; and yet there the commodity was of such a quality and so abundant, as to bear the duty, and even with the duty in some degree to rival the monopolist even in his own market. There was no complaint in those countries of want of advances to cultivators, or of law suits and tumults among the factors; nor was there any appearance of the multitude of other evils, which had been so much dreaded from the vivacity of competition. On the other hand, several of the precautions inserted in this contract, and repeated in all the subsequent, strongly indicated the evils, against which it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to guard a monopoly of this nature, and in that country. For in the first contract entered into with the two natives, it was strictly forbidden to compel the tenants to the cultivation of this drug. Indeed, very shocking rumours had gone abroad, and they were aggravated by an opinion universally prevalent, that even in the season immediately following that dreadful famine, which swept off one third of the inhabitants of Bengal, several of the poorer farmers were compelled to plough up the fields they had sown with grain, in order to plant them with poppies for the benefit of the engrossers of opium. This opinion grew into a strong presumption, when it was seen, that in the next year the produce of opium (contrary to what might be naturally expected in the year following such a dearth) was nearly doubled. It is true, that, when the quantity of land necessary for the production of the largest quantity of opium is considered, it is not just to attribute that famine to these practices, nor to any, that were or could be used: yet, where such practices did prevail, they must have been very oppressive to individuals, extremely insulting to the feelings of the people, and must tend to bring great and deserved discredit on the British government. The English are a people, who appear in India as a conquering nation; all dealing with them is therefore, more or less, a dealing with power. It is such when they trade on a private account; and it is touch more so in any unauthorized monopoly, where the hand of government, as the instrument in every act of oppression. Abuses must exist in a trade and a revenue so constituted, and there is no effectual cure for them but to entirely cut off their cause. Things continued in this train, until the great revolution in the company's government was wrought by the regulating act of the thirteenth of the king. In 1775 the new council general, appointed by the act, took this troublesome business again into consideration. General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, expressed such strong doubts of the propriety of this, and of all other monopolies, that the directors, in their letter of the year following, left the council at liberty to throw the trade open, under a duty, if they should find it practicable. But General Clavering, who most severely censured monopoly in general, thought, that this monopoly ought to be retained; but for a reason, which shews his opinion of the wretched state of the country; for he supposed it impossible, with the power and influence which must attend British subjects in all their transactions, that monopoly could be avoided; and he preferred an avowed monopoly, which brought benefit to government, to a virtual engrossing, attended with profit only to individuals. But in this opinion he did not seem to be joined by Mr. Francis, who thought the sup- Vide Mr. pression of this and of all monopolies to be practicable; and strongly recommended their abolition in a plan sent to the court of directors the year following. Francis's plan in Appendix, No. 14, to the Select Com- mittee's 6th The council, however, submitting to the opinion of this necessity, endeavoured to render that dubious engagement as beneficial as possible to the company. They began by putting up the contract to the highest bidder. The proposals were to be sealed. When the seals came to be opened, a very extraordinary scene appeared. Every step in this business develops more and more the effect of this junction of publick monopoly and private influence. Four English and eight natives were candidates for the contract; three of the English far out-bid the eight natives. They, who consider that the natives, from their superiour dexterity, from their knowledge of the country and of business, and from their extreme industry, vigilance, and parsimony, are generally an over-match for Europeans, and indeed are, and must ultimately be, employed by them in all transactions whatsoever, will find it very extraordinary, that they did not by the best offers secure this dealing to themselves. It can be attributed to this cause, and this only, that they were conscious, that without power and influence to subdue the cultivators of the land to their own purposes, they never could afford to engage on the lowest possible terms. Those, whose power entered into the calculation of their profits, could offer, as they did offer, terms without comparison better; and therefore one of the English bidders, without partiality, secured the preference. The contract to this first bidder, Mr. Griffiths, was prolonged from year to year; and as during that time frequent complaints were made by him to the council board on the principle, that the years answered very differently, and that the business of one year ran into the other, reasons or excuses were furnished for giving the next contract to Mr. Mackenzie for three years. This third contract was not put up to auction as the second had been, and as this ought to have been. The terms were indeed something better for the company; and the engagement was subject to qualifications, which, though they did not remove the objection to the breach of the company's orders, prevented the hands of the directors from being tied up. A proviso was inserted in the contract, that it should not be in any wise binding, if the company by orders from home should alter the existing practice with regard to such dealing. Whilst these things were going on, the evils, which this monopoly was, in shew and pretence, formed to prevent, still existed; and those, which were naturally to be expected from a monopoly, existed too. Complaints were made of the bad quality of the opium; trials were made, and on those trials the opium was found faulty. An office of inspection at Calcutta, to ascertain its goodness, was established; and directions given to the provincial councils at the places of growth to certify the quantity and quality of the commodity transmitted to the presidency. | which does not divulge the misery of the natives; when the former are in harmony, all is well with the latter. This monopoly, continuing and gathering strength through a succession of contractors, and being probably a most lucrative dealing, grew to be every day a greater object of competition. The council of Patna endeavoured to recover the contract, or at least the agency, by the most inviting terms; and in this eager state of mutual complaint and competition between private men and publick bodies, things continued until the arrival in Bengal of Mr. Stephen Sulivan, son of Mr. Sulivan, chairman of the East India company, which soon put an end to all strife and emulation. To form a clear judgment on the decisive step taken at this period, it is proper to keep in view the opinion of the court of directors concerning monopolies, against which they had uniformly declared in the most precise terms; they never submitted to them but as to a present necessity; it was therefore not necessary for them to express any particular approbation of a clause in Mr. Mackenzie's contract, which was made in favour of their own liberty. Every motive led them to preserve it. On the security of that clause they could alone have suffered to pass over in silence (for they never approved) the grant of the contract which contained it, for three years. It must also be remembered, that they had from the beginning positively directed, that the contract should be put up to publick auction; and this not having been done in Mr. Mackenzie's case, they severely reprimanded the governour-general and council in their letter of the 23d December, 1778. The court of directors were perfectly right in shewing themselves tenacious of this regulation; not so much to secure the best practicable revenue from their monopoly whilst it existed, but for a much more essential reason, that is, from the corrective which this method administered to that monopoly itself: it prevented the British contractor from becoming doubly terrible to the natives, when they should see, that his contract was in effect a grant, and therefore indicated particular favour and private influence with the ruling members of an absolute government. In 1776, notwithstanding an engagement in the contract strictly prohibiting all compulsory culture of the poppy, information was given to a member of the council general, that fields green with rice had been forcibly ploughed up to make way for that plant; and that this was done in the presence of several English gentlemen, who beheld the spectacle with a just and natural indignation. The board, struck with this representation, ordered the council of Patna to make an enquiry into the fact; but your committee can find no return whatsoever to this order. The complaints were not solely on the part of the cultivators against the contractor. The contractor for opium made loud complaints against the inferiour collectors of the landed revenue, stating their undue and vexatious exactions from the cultivators of opium; their throwing these unfortunate people into prison upon frivolous pre- On the expiration of Mr. Mackenzie's term, and tences, by which the tenants were ruined, and the but a few months after Mr. Sulivan's arrival, the contractor's advances lost. He stated, that, if the governour-general (as if the contract was a matcontractor should interfere in favour of the culti-ter of patronage, and not of dealing) pitched upon vator, then a deficiency would be caused to appear in the landed revenues, and that deficiency would be charged on his interposition; he desired, therefore, that the cultivators of opium should be taken out of the general system of the landed revenue, and put under "his protection." Here the effect naturally to be expected from the clashing of inconsistent revenues appeared in its full light, as well as the state of the unfortunate peasants of Bengal between such rival protectors; where the ploughman, flying from the tax-gatherer, is obliged to take refuge under the wings of the monopolist. No dispute arises amongst the English subjects Mr. Sulivan as the most proper person for the management of this critical concern. Mr. Sulivan, though a perfect stranger to Bengal, and to that sort, and all sorts, of local commerce, made no difficulty of accepting it. The governour-general was so fearful, that his true motives in this business should be mistaken, or that the smallest suspicion should arise of his attending to the company's orders, that far from putting up the contract (which on account of its known profits had become the object of such pursuit) to publick auction, he did not wait for receiving so much as a private proposal from Mr. Sulivan. The secre tary perceived, that in the rough draught of the | of the directors wholly excluded. Mr. Hastings contract the old recital of a proposal to the board declared the reserved condition to be no longer was inserted as a matter of course, but was con- necessary," because the directors had approved trary to the fact he therefore remarked it to Mr. "the monopoly." Hastings. Mr. Hastings, with great indifference, ordered that recital to be omitted; and the omission, with the remark that led to it, has, with the same easy indifference, been sent over to his mas ters. The chiefs and councils at the principal factories had been obliged to certify the quantity and quality of the opium before its transport to Calcutta ; and their controul over the contractor had been assigned as the reason for not leaving to those factories the management of this monopoly. Now things were changed. Orders were sent to discontinue this measure of invidious precaution; and the opium was sent to Calcutta, without any thing done to ascertain its quality or even its quantity. An office of inspection had been also appointed to examine the quality of the opium on its delivery at the capital settlement. In order to ease Mr. Sulivan from this troublesome formality, Mr. Hastings abolished the office; so that Mr. Sulivan was then totally freed from all examination or controul whatsoever, either first or last. The governour-general and council declare themselves apprehensive, that Mr. Sulivan might be a loser by his bargain upon account of troubles, which they supposed existed in the country, which was the object of it. This was the more indulgent, because the contractor was tolerably secured against all losses. He received a certain price for his commodity: but he was not obliged to pay any certain price to the cultivator, who, having no other market than his, must sell it to him at his own terms. He was to receive half the yearly payment by advance; and he was not obliged to advance to the cultivator more than what he thought expedient: but if this should not be These extraordinary changes in favour of Mr. enough, he might (if he pleased) draw the whole Sulivan were attended with losses to others, and payment before the total delivery: such were the seem to have excited much discontent. This disterms of the engagement with him. He is a con- content it was necessary in some manner to aptractor of a new species, who employs no capital pease. The Vendue master, who was deprived of whatsoever of his own, and has the market of com- his accustomed dues on the publick sales of the pulsion at his entire command. But all these opium by the private dealing, made a formal comsecurities were not sufficient for the anxious atten- plaint to the board against this as well as other tion of the supreme council to Mr. Sulivan's wel- proceedings relative to the same business. He fare: Mr. Hastings had before given him the attributed the private sale to "reasons of state;" contract without any proposal on his part; and and this strong reflection both on the board of to make their gift perfect, in a second instance trade and the council board was passed over withthey proceed a step beyond their former ill prece-out observation. He was quieted by appointing dent, and they contract with Mr. Sulivan for four years. him to the duty of these very inspectors, whose office had been just abolished as useless. The house will judge of the efficacy of the revival of this office by the motives to it, and by Mr. Hastings giving that to one as a compensation, which had been executed by several as a duty. However, the orders for taking away the precautionary inspection at Patna still remained in force. Nothing appears to have been considered but the benefit of the contractor, and for this purpose the solicitude shewn in all the provisions could not be exceeded. One of the first things, that struck Mr. Hastings as a blemish on his gift, was the largeness of the penalty, which he had on former occasions settled as the sanction of the contract; Some benefits, which had been given to former this he now discovered to be so great as to be contractors at the discretion of the board, were no likely to frustrate its end by the impossibility of longer held under that loose indulgence, but were recovering so large a sum. How a large penalty secured to Mr. Sulivan by his contract. Other can prevent the recovery of any, even the small-indulgencies of a lesser nature, and to which no est part of it, is not quite apparent. In so vast a concern as that of opium, a fraud, which at first view may not appear of much importance, and which may be very difficult in the discovery, may easily counter-balance the reduced penalty in this contract, which was settled in favour of Mr. Sulivan at about £. 20,000. Monopolies were (as the house has observed) only tolerated evils, and at best upon trial; a clause therefore was inserted in the contracts to Mackenzie, annulling the obligation, if the court of directors should resolve to abolish the monopoly; but at the request of Mr. Sulivan, the contract was without difficulty purged of this obnoxious clause. The term was made absolute; the monopoly rendered irrevocable, and the discretion considerable objection could be made, were on the application of a Mr. Benn, calling himself his attorney, granted. Your committee examining Mr. Higginson, late a member of the board of trade, on that subject, were informed, that this contract, very soon after the making, was generally understood at Calcutta to have been sold to this Mr. Benn; but he could not particularize the sum, for which it had been assigned; and that Mr. Benn had afterwards sold it to a Mr. Young. By this transaction it appears clearly, that the contract was given to Mr. Sulivan for no other purpose than to supply him with a sum of money; and the sale and re-sale seem strongly to indicate, that the reduction of the penalty, and the other favourable conditions, were not granted |