ment by this infamous procedure, being, through the in terest of his friend fir Thomas Dundas, chofen member for the borough of Kirkwall, in the Orkneys; on which occafion Mr. Pitt, in the height of his exultation, gratified his feelings by a farcaftical delineation of his antagonist, as a man on whom a fort of fentence of banishment had paff ed-who had been-driven by the efforts of patriotic indig nation as an exile from his native clime, and forced to seek for refuge on the stormy and defolate shores of the "Ul tima Thule.”

On the 24th of May a refolution was moved by Mr. Lee, late attorney general, " that the high bailiff of Westminster on the day upon which the writ of election expired ought to have returned two citizens to serve in par liament for that city." A violent debate ensued; and the previous question having been moved by fir Lloyd Kenyon, it was ordered that the high bailiff should attend the house on the day following. The sole pretext on which that officer rested his defence was, that having ground to suspect the validity of many votes taken in the course of a poll of fix weeks duration, he had granted a fcrutiny, till the termination of which he could not in confcience make the return. To this an obvious and decisive answer pre-. sented itself. The scrutiny is nothing more than a revifion of the poll by the returning officer; and if fuch revision is not, and cannot be, completed previous to the period at which the writ is returnable, the officer is bound, by the nature of his office, and the tenor of his oath, to make the return agreeably to the poll as it was actually taken. For if vague prefumptions of the nature now alleged were admitted as just causes of procrastination, elections would be thrown entirely into the hands of the returning officer, who, if gained over by the court, might for any indefinite term prevent thofe who were obnoxidus to the administration for the time being from taking their feats in parliament; and the representation of the king

dom

dom would be thus rendered flagrantly corrupt, partial, and imperfect. Had the high bailiff really felt those foru ples of confcience by which he pretended to be thus embarraffed, the law of parliament allowed him to include all the candidates in the fame return, which would at once have transferred the task and burden of the decision from his own conscience to the confcience of the house. After long pleadings by counsel at the bar of the house on either part, the motion was renewed, " that the high bailiff be directed forthwith to make the return." To the disgrace of the new administration, this motion was vehemently opposed, and on a division finally negatived-the ayes being 117, the noes 195. It was then moved and carried, "that the high bailiff do proceed in the scrutiny with all practicable dispatch." Thus was this business laid at rest during the present seffion; but the character of the new minister suffered, in consequence of the part which he took in the conduct of it, an indelible stain. Though as yet of years immature and unhacknied in the ways of men, he was indignantly perceived capable with alacrity and eagerness to justify injustice, and to become an active and voluntary instrument of mean and infidious revenge.

On the 16th of June a motion was made by Mr. alder. man Sawbridge, and feconded by Mr. alderman Newenham, both of them representatives of the city of London, that a committee be appointed to enquire into the present state of the representation of the commons of Great Britain in parliament. The measure itself had the concurrence and fupport of Mr. Pitt, though the new minister profeffed in the usual language of minifters that the time was improper; and indeed the motion appears to have been calculated and defigned rather to embarrass the minister than to promote the proposed object. Mr. Dundas, who had fupported the former propofition of Mr. Pitt, luckily found a distinction which enabled him to oppofe

the

the present motion, without in the least diminishing his reputation for consistency. His objection was, that the committee now moved for was a select committee, whereas the committee for which he had formerly voted was a committee of the whole house. On the divifion upon the previous question, the numbers were 201 to 127.

The grand business of the present session, however, was the arrangement of a plan for the future government of India. For this purpose, Mr. Pitt on the 6th of July brought in a bill, founded on the general principles of that rejected by the former parliament, and to which the company had now given their flow and reluctant assent. By this bill a BOARD of CONTROL, composed of a certain number of commissioners of the rank of privy counfellors, was established, the members of which were to be appointed by the king, and removeable at his pleasure. This board was authorized to check, superintend, and control the civil and military government and revenue of the company. The dispatches tranfmitted by the court of directors to the different presidencies were to be previously subjected to the inspection of the fuperior board, and counter-figned by them; and the directors were enjoined to pay due obedience to the orders of the board, touching civil and military government and revenues; and in case such orders do at any time in the opinion of the directors relate to points not connected therewith, they are empowered to appeal to his majesty in council, whose decifion is declared final. The bill moreover enacted, that the appointment of the court of directors to the office of governor-general, president or counsellor in the different presidencies, shall be fubject to the approbation and recall of his majesty. As to the zemindars, or great hereditary land-holders of India, who had been violently difpoffefsed of their property, and who, agreeably to the generous and decisive tenor of Mr. Fox's bill, were to have been univerfally,

and

and peremptorily reinstated in their zemindaries, the present bill provided only that an enquiry should be insti tuted in order to restore such as should appear to have been irregularly and unjustly deprived. Lastly, an high tribunal was created for the trial of Indian delinquents, confifting of three judges, one from each court, of four peers and fix members of the House of Conimons, who were authorized to judge without appeal to award in case of conviction the punishments of fine and imprifonment and to declare the party convicted incapable of ferving the East India Company. These were the grand and leading features of the bill, and the most tranfient observation fufficed to shew that the objectionable parts of Mr. Fox's bill had been anxiously and completely avoided. The management of their commercial concerns was left in the hands of the Company, who were divested only of

that political power which they had fo grofsly abused, and of that civil authority to the due exercise of which they were so manifestly incompetent. And this authority was not transferred to persons who like the commiffioners of Mr. Fox might attempt to establish an unconstitutional influence in parliament, not merely independent of, but in direct oppofition to, the regular and constitutional authority of the crown; but in the effort to steer clear of the rock of Scylla, it was evident that Mr. Pitt had plunged into the gulph of Charybdis, and that by this bill a vast accession of influence refulted to the crown, already possessing a dangerous, formidable and increasing afcendancy over the other branches of the legislature.

Mr. Fox, with his usual powers of difcrimination, attacked the weak and exceptionable parts of this bill, although the utmost energy of his eloquence was found inadequate to excite the general attention of the public to the merits or demerits of the measure in question-prepoffefsed as they now almost univerfally were in favor of the minifter

minister with whom it originated, and in whom they placed the most entire and unlimited confidence. Mr. Fox urged with great force and animation, that this bill established a weak and inefficient government, by dividing its powers. To the one board belonged the privilege of ordering and contriving measures; to the other, that of carrying them into execution. It was a system of dark intrigue and delusive art. By the negative vested in the commiffioners, the CHARTERED RIGHTS of the company, on which such stress had been laid, were infidioufly undermined and virtually annihilated. If it were right to vest such powers in a board of privy counsellors, let it be done explicitly and openly, and shew the company and the world, that what they dared to do they dared to juftify. Founded on principles so heterogeneous, how could such a government be other than the constant victim of internal distraction? The appeal allowed from the decisions of the board of control to the privy council was affirmed by Mr. Fox to be palpably nugatory and ridiculous. The bill he had introduced, exhibited at the first blush the features of openness, fairness, and responsibility. The present plan was full of darkness and disguise. In a covert and concealed mode, an immense patronage was transferred to the crown, which, instead of correcting abuses, opened a door to every species of collufion and corruption. It was calculated to establish an Indian government of the island of Great Britain. Against the clauses of the bill respecting the zemindars, Mr. Fox entered his strongest protest. The zemindars ought, in his opinion, to be rated by a fixed rule of past periods, and not of a vague and indefinite future enquiry. The new tribunal Mr. Fox stigmatized as a screen for delinquents; as a palpable and unconstitutional violation of the facred right of trial by jury. Since no man was to be tried but on the accufation of the company or the attorney-general, he had only to conciliate government in order to his remaining in perfect security. It was a part of the general VOL. II. system