Thus the enormities
formerly practised, which the Company sent him to correct, became a
sacred standard for his imitation.
Your Lordships will observe that he slips in the word _sovereignty_ and
forgets compact; because it is plain, and your Lordships must perceive
it, that, wherever he uses the word sovereignty, he uses it to destroy
the authority of all compacts; and accordingly in the passage now before
us he declares that there is an invalidity in all compacts entered into
in India, from the nature, state, and constitution of that empire. "From
the disorderly form of its government," says he, "there is an invalidity
in all compacts and treaties whatever." "Persons who had no treaty with
the Rajah wished," says he, "to rob him: therefore I, who have a treaty
with him, and call myself his sovereign, have a right to realize all
their wishes."
But the fact is, my Lords, that his predecessors never did propose to
deprive Bulwant Sing, the father of Cheyt Sing, of his zemindary. They,
indeed, wished to have had the dewanny transferred to them, in the
manner it has since been transferred to the Company. They wished to
receive his rents, and to be made an intermediate party between him and
the Mogul emperor, his sovereign.
Pages:
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330