tary control, will be limited to the invefti gation and correction of the error which I remarked to have been adopted by Mr. Dundas; but fortunately nothing in the prefent act appears to establish or confirm it. The curfory obfervations which I made in the introductory pages, were fuch as occurred after perufing Mr. Dundas's fpeech, and the third chapter of a Short Hiftory of the Eaft-India Company+; they were printed before I faw the fupplemental or 15th chapter, in the fecond edition ‡, to which the initials of Mr. Ruffell's name are inferted. "The queftion as between the Crown and the Eaft-India Company, in refpect to the property of the town, port, and diftrict of Mafulepatam; and alfo in refpect to the Northern Circars, on the coaft of Coromandel, ftated and difcuffed," by a gentleman so respectable, and his argument and calculation adopted by Mr. Dundas in

Introduction, page XXXIX.

+ Short Hiftory of the East-India Company, by an Eaft-Indian Proprietor, Feb. 1793.

Short History, &c. 2d edit. F. R. 1793. Francis Ruffell, Efq. Solicitor to the Board of Control.

Parliament, ceased to be of little magnitude; and having exceeded the limits I had originally given to my investigation, I am induced to make fome reference to the history of those treaties which are now fo pathetically recommended to the faith of Great Britain, and fo nearly connected with the prosperity of the natives of British India*.

It is not for the purpose of invalidating the principle or practice of humanity and honour, that I bring forward these subjects. In the plans for British India, we have a certain evidence, that Mr. Lind, diftinguifhed by his Letters on Poland, with the circumstances of which country he was converfant, having educated the King of Poland's nephew, when he was engaged by Lord North to unravel the principle by which India could be connected with Great Britain, was obliged to confefs, that the posite statements and disputes, which divided the various parties in England and India, were irreconcilable. Mr. Bruce, felected

op

* Introduction, page xxxII. and Plans for India.

for his ability and character to the most confidential trufts by Mr. Dundas, having been engaged to profecute the fame refearch, has fhewn much ability in selecting, out of the chaos of records, an appearance of system; but the circumftances of the natives, and of the English, at the periods under confideration, do not justify the conclufions, and the ethical arrangements in which he appears to be authorised by official records. To fubftitute a perfect system would require more ability than I am poffeffed of; and the information relative to British India, as yet, is not fufficiently dif tinct to affume the form of a perfect system. This object can only be attained by afcertaining the real circumstances of Great Britain and of British India; deductions arifing from paft experience, at any rate, will prove fafer guides than fpeculative statements and fpeculative opinions, particularly when a neglect of known principles is required, previous to the admiffion of the new theories.

In the first place, therefore, I fhall examine how far humanity and honour can Qq

I

be applied to British India from precedent, which will connect what is neceffary to adduce in oppofition to Mr. Bruce and to Mr. Ruffell on this point. I fhall be led to a more diffuse and general review, by the obfervations which arife from contemplating the extent of Mr. Ruffell's affertions. fhould have looked on this fubject with great delicacy, if this gentleman's opinion, from his public fituation and communications, had not, in many respects, deservedly great weight in the public estimation; and if there did not appear a confiderable degree of fyftematic pertinacity in keeping afloat a question pregnant with mischief to the natives, derogatory to the rights of the ftate, and, in my opinion, not founded on a review of the proceedings of Parliament, or of treaties and grants, by which, de jure &facto, the rights of the Crown ftand para-' mount to the privileges of the Company.