tottering state, and preserved their government in the midst of war and desolation; millions of ingenious manufacturers and mechanics; millions of the most diligent, and not the least intelligent, tillers of the earth.-Here are to be found almost all the religions professed by men; the braminical, the musselmen, the eastern and the western christians. If I were to take the whole aggregate of our possessions there, I should compare it, as the nearest parallel I can find, with the empire of Germany. Our immediate possessions I should compare with the Austrian dominions, and they would not suffer in the comparison. The nabob of Oude might stand for the king of Prussia. The nabob of Arcot I would compare as superior in territory, and equal in revenue, to the elector of Saxony. Cheyt Sing, the rajah of Banares, might well rank with the prince of Hesse, at least; and the rajah of Tanjore (though hardly equal in extent of dominion, superior in revenue) to the elector of Bavaria. The polygars, and the northern zemindars, and other great chiefs, might well class with the rest of the princes, dukes, counts, marquisses, and bishops, in the empire; all of whom I mention to honour, and surely without disparagement to any or all of those most respectable princes and grandees.

All this vast mass, composed of so many orders and classes of men, is infinitely diversified by manners, hy religion, by hereditary employment, through all their possible combinations. This renders, the handling of India a matter in a high degree critical and delicate. But oh it has been handled rudely indeed. Even some of the reformers seem to have forgot that, they had any thing to do but to regulate the tenants of a manor, or the shopkeepers of the next country town. ba

It is an empire of this, extent, of this complicated nature, of this dignity and importance, that I have com pared it to Germany, and the German government; not, for an exact resemblance, but as a sort of a middle term, by which India might be approximated to our understandings, and, if possible, to our feelings; in order to awaken something of sympathy for the unfortunate natives, of which, I am afraid, we are not perfectly susceptible, whilst we look at this very remote object through. a false and cloudy medium. 372

1

LVII. Lord North, on addressing his majesty, and

on the coalition.

I AM Sorry to differ, in many points, from my honourable friend who spoke last, who undoubtedly may be said to be independent, as far as a person's standing singular in his opinion is independent of every person wi has argued on either side of the question. My honourable friend has conceived that a right honourable gentle man on the floor (Mr. Fox) intends to cram the India bill, under another name, down the throats of the house of lords. The honourable gentleman is mistaken in calling him the right honourable secretary; for, sorry I am to say, that, to the misfortune of this country, it is a name which no longer belongs to him. But I will call him by a name which, I trust, will ever belong to him→ a name which it is my pride to boast of, since I knew him best. I will henceforth call him by the name of my right honourable friend; by that word I mean in future to describe him, and I hope that by that name he will in future be known in the house, Our intimate connec tion was founded on principles of honour. When the great points on which we differed were no more, we thought we might act together with cordiality, and without inconsistency: we were not mistaken; we tried the experiment, and it succeeded; no meanness, no dishonour, no jealousy discovered itself: all was inviolable adherence to honour and good faith, on one part;—all was confidence, on the other. No mean concessions were made on either side. I appeal to my right honourable friend, if I ever sacrificed any one opinion which I formerly seriously held upon principle, unless when reason and argument might have pointed out the propriety of it: and, in justice to my right honourable friend, I mast declare, that he never sacrificed to me any principle which he ever held when in opposition to my government. The necessity of the state called for that which has been so often called a cursed coalition; nay, the very circumstances of the present day demonstrate that necessity; for where could an administration be formed without a coalition? There are at present two cabinet ministers; and if coalition was a cursed thing, then this ministry of

two men is a cursed ministry; for it is formed in a coa. lition of two persons who differed formerly on essential points. The difference, however, of the two coalitions is this: the coalition between my right honourable friend and myself, was a coalition of whole parties blended into one, for the purpose of forming a stable and permanent government; whereas the coalition between the present first lord of the treasury, and the lord president (earl Gower), is a coalition of shreds, of ends, and remnants; a coalition of small parts of parties, but not of the parties themselves. Why, then, is it the fashion to call the one a cursed coalition, and yet take no notice of the other? I cannot tell, unless it is that one is suf ficiently strong to form a strong government; while the former cannot muster more, as yet, than two cabinet ministers. The experience of time has justified the coalition, and rendered it a blessing to the country. When parliament put an end to my administration, by the address against the American war, it was succeeded by another, which appeared to be strong but it carried in its own bosom the seeds of its own weakness, in the disunion which appeared in several parts of it, which soon shewed itself by their splitting asunder, and a secession of part of it from the cabinet. The next administration

was but weak, because it was ill connected; and it had lost the support of those who formerly acted with it: the members of it, therefore, fell off one after another, till losing the confidence of the house, the poor remnant of it was obliged to yield to the voice of the parliament, and retire. From this experience it appeared necessary, for the good of the state, that a permanent government should be formed; and it was clear that it could not possibly be formed, unless a coalition should take place among those who, though once enemies upon points which could no longer come into debate, might act together, very cordially, in every other respect. Such a coalition was formed; but then it was charged with having seized upon government: this is, indeed, a charge that I do not understand; for the public waited for six weeks for a ministry; and every means were tried for a new one, without the assistance of the coalition: but failing in every attempt, the ministers all quitted the cabinet before the coalition were sent for. The cabinet

was then empty; so that, if we seized upon it, it was by marching in after the garrison which ought to have defended it had fled, and who, as they were going out, cried, "What a terrible cursed thing is this coalition, that is, driving us from our situations." But if we be-came possessed of government, we are at worst charged with having carried it by storm, bravely, in the face of the enemy, not by sap; we carried on our advances regularly, and above ground, in view of the foe; not by mining in the dark, and blowing up the fort, before the garrison knew there was an intention to attack it. It has been said, on a former day, that a starling ought to be brought, placed in this house, and taught to speak the words," Coalition! coalition! cursed coalition!" Now, for my part, I think that, while there is in this house an honourable gentleman who never fails, let what will be the subject of debate, to take an opportunity to curse the coalition, I think there will be no occasion for the starling and while he continues to speak by rote, and without any fixed idea, I think what he says will make just as much impression as if the starling himself was to utter his words. As to the coalition, and the abuse which was so often thrown upon it, they always bring to my mind two persons, for whom I felt no inconsiderable share of concern; these were two men who were shut up in the Eddistone light-house, to mind the fire. They were both of different principles; and there fore, though they were shut in from all intercourse with the rest of mankind, and though they might, by their conversation, have amused one another, yet they never exchanged a word with each other for six weeks; and they had rather let the fire go out, and see all the navy of England dashed to pieces under them, than that one should consent to give up the most trivial point to the other. The enemies of the coalition would have had my honourable friend and me resemble the two men in the light-house: but we have acted more wisely for the public good; we considered the safety of the public our principal care and duty; and, in order to save the ship of state from running ashore, or dashing against the rocks, we all agreed, at all events, that the fire in the light-house should not be extinguished; but that, let who would stir it, it was to be kept in: thus, what

some affected to call a curse, was, in reality, a blessing to the nation. I will not charge the right honourable gentleman at present at the head of his majesty's affairs, with being an enemy to coalitious; on the contrary, he likes them so well, that he has formed one himself with the noble lord who sits with him in the cabinet. The right honourable gentleman has endeavoured to imitate our coalition, but he has bungled the business; for, as I said before, he has coalesced with the remnant of parties, and not with the parties themselves: therefore I may apply to them the expression of the Roman orator, Placuisse, sed non tetigisse. But to return from my digression, my honourable friend behind me (governor Johnstone) says that my right honourable friend means to cram down the throats of the house of lords, a bill which they had already rejected: but surely he cannot be in earnest, for he knows my right honourable friend is no longer in a situation to cram any thing down their throats; and the honourable member over the way (Mr. Banks) says that a bill, totally different from that which was rejected, inasmuch as it is free from all those objections which are said to have made so many enemies to the bill that is lost, is to be presented by the new minister: and therefore, as one person has it not in his power to present the same bill again, and another person will present a totally different one, there is no danger that the old bill will be crammed down the throats of the house of lords; and, consequently, there is no danger that the event should take place, which, in my honourable friend's opinion, would justify a dissolution of the present parliament. My honourable friend has been mistaken in another point: he says, that my right honourable friend said, before he resigned, that he would bring in again the same bill. This is, indeed, a capital mistake; for my right honourable friend did not resign, he was turned out; I was turned out; we were all turned out: not the merit of having voted against the bill, could preserve the lord president of the council from the mortification of being turned out, with all his. As to the assurances given to the committee, on the part of the right honourable gentleman now at the head of his majesty's affairs, that no dissolution or prorogation will take place through his advice, I am very well in.