somewhat reconciled you to poetry, and he is
an able advocate. For the rest, I can only tell
your grace, that ****** 5
EDMUND BURKE, ESQ., TO THE MARQUIS OF
ROCKINGHAM.
Broad Sanctuary, Thursday, Nov. 19, 1772.
MY DEAR LORD,
I cannot attribute the opening of my letter to
mere curiosity, except it were the interested
curiosity of some base politician. I should think
the villain might be traced, and in some way or
6 Here the draft breaks off; the letter has been sought
for without success.
384 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE
other, the principal or the instrumental delinquent
punished. A few days before I had received your
lordship's by Mr. Thesiger, I wrote pretty largely
by the same conveyance, on the subject of my
conversation at Pall Mall, and on the opinions of
such other friends as I could collect. They were,
on the whole, adverse to the idea I suggested to
them. As I have stated this matter so much at
large, and as your lordship has received Mr.
Dowdeswell's long and able letter, it is not neces-
sary to say more by this unconfidential convey-
ance.
I am somewhat anxious about your lordship's
presence at the meeting. This wish is always in
subordination to the demands of your health.
But as I hope you have not lately gone backward,
I incline to flatter myself, that a journey hither
would do you more good than harm. It would
free us from a great awkwardness of situation.
If this meets your lordship at Wentworth, it will
be rather late for my purpose, which I might
indeed have considered, when I sat down to write.
If however, unluckily, I have not blundered so
much as I hope I have, I have just to mention to
your lordship that the East India Company had
yesterday received a message from the treasury,
the report of whose contents immediately sunk
the stock, I was told, seven per cent. : as the
message, which desired to know what plans for
RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 385
their relief the company had to lay before parlia-
ment, conveyed in the end very strongly, an
implication that they would not be permitted
to make any dividend. This is all the news I
hear. My respectful compliments to Lady Rock-
ingham ; and believe me, with the greatest truth
and affection,
My dear lord,
Your lordship's most obedient, and
obliged humble servant,
EDM. BURKE.
EDMUND BURKE, ESQ., TO THE MARQUIS OF
ROCKINGHAM.
Beconsfield, Monday, November 23, 1772.
MY DEAR LORD,
I came hither this day, in order to settle some
little affairs, having been rather disagreeably de-
tained in town for about a fortnight. A few
hours after my arrival your lordship's messenger
brought me your most obliging letter of the 20th.
I am pleased that you have taken your final
resolution of spending your holidays at Went-
worth. As the session approaches, I see the proba-
bility of a full attendance of your friends almost
vanish. Mr. Dowdeswell will not be in town at
VOL. i. c c
386 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE
the meeting. I think it rather likely that the
Duke of Richmond will continue in the country.
On the whole, I am satisfied that your presence
in London, with danger to your health, would
hurt us all much more, both in our feelings and
our interests, than a temporary absence which
may tend to give us a longer, a more effectual,
and a more satisfactory use of your counsel and
assistance. We will do the best we can, that is,
we will do as little as we can. For, in truth,
what is there left for us to do? In the present
state of the popular opinions, of the designs of
the court, of the distractions of the company,
what can one or two effect, utterly unsupported,
if not directly thwarted, by nine-tenths of those
who upon common occasions are the only friends
we have to rely upon? This is our state, and
we must submit to it.
Your lordship sees I confine my present con-
sideration entirely to the affairs of the East India
Company, because I am persuaded that, for the
present, ministry does not mean to bring any
other before us. Sir George Colebrooke has at
last lent me, for a day or two, copies of the
papers which have been demanded by the trea-
sury. I have looked them over as carefully as
the time would admit. I am more convinced
than ever of the very flourishing state of their
affairs, and that their present embarrassment is
RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 387
not from a defect of substance, but merely from
a difficulty with regard to cash. Into this difficulty
they never could have fallen by the mismanage-
ments of their servants abroad ; though these
o
have been, I make no doubt, very considerable
and very culpable. It is the rapine of parliament,
covered under the name of two agreements ; one
for revenues in India, which never have existed,
as a matter of profit, to either of the claimants;
another for a speculation upon teas, which had no
foundation, and which it is downright extortion
in the government to exact, that has given theirs
and public credit such a shock. In all the con-
versations I have had both with Colebrooke and
with a person of very opposite character and
designs (Mr. Gregory), I have no kind of doubt
with myself that a million might and ought to
be borrowed, and that there will then be suffi-
cient fund for pnyment of interest at five per
cent., leaving also an ample provision for sinking
the principal, provided parliament can prevail
upon itself to give up a claim, which, while it has
an existence, will never suffer the company or
the nation to enjoy a moment's quiet or security.
If this loan were authorized by parliament, and
the senseless claims abandoned, the proprietors
could, with great safety to their capital, divide
twelve and a half per cent., and continue to do so,
while events suffer their trade to continue in its
c c 2
388 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE
present situation. It is true, I was originally of
another opinion ; but a view of the papers, which
have been demanded for purposes wholly adverse
to the company, and the most serious considera-
tion of the affair, have made me alter my senti-
ments. If I do not misapprehend Mr. Dowdes-
well, who first gave my mind this turn, he does
not object to the reduction of dividend, as sup-
posing it a coercive measure of government, but
as a step dangerous to the rights of the company,
though taken by themselves ; for by this measure
the stock, already very low, will fall to the ground;
and government, under pretence of a composition
or purchase, may with the greatest facility, and
without any appearance of arbitrary power, take
into their own hands the charter, and, with it,
all the rights and possessions of the company.
It was the high dividend and high price of stock
in 3767, that rescued the company out of
their clutches. I would not have your lord-
ship mistake me so far, as to think I would
represent the keeping up the dividend at twelve
and a half per cent., as a measure that, in the
present disposition of ministry, I conceive to be
at all practicable. I only speak of it as what
I seriously think appears, on the face of the papers,
to be the only means of supporting public credit
on a proper foundation ; and of keeping the com-
pany out of the hands of any court projector, who
RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 389
may think of decorating the crown with the col-
lected spoils of the East. The proprietors, how-
ever, who see no other way of getting rid of the
incumbrance of the 400,000, are, I think, in
general prepared to acquiesce in the reduction to
six per cent. The court, I believe, have for the
present given up all sort of hope of receiving that
sum ; and, therefore, have rejected the first, and I
really think the only propositions, that can be
made for the relief of the company in the present
exigency. They are so far from meaning, there-
fore, to keep up a forced dividend, either to them-
selves or to the proprietors, by improper borrowing,
that I am apprehensive they have fallen into the
very opposite extreme. They seem resolved to
admit of no dividend whatsoever. Lord North
sent a treasury letter to the court of directors,
calling on them to lay before him their ideas of a
method of relief, and concluded with desiring to
know "upon what foundation they intended to
declare any dividend." This message came during
some sales; and the purport of it having been
spread about, I hear caused a fall of seven per
cent, in the price of stock. If this wicked project
should be carried into execution, it is easy to see
that there is an end of the company ; and a be-
ginning of such a scene of frauds, impositions, and
treasury jobbing of all sorts, both here and in
390 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE
India, as will soon destroy all the little honesty
and public spirit we have left.
I am not governed in my present opinions by
any idea of our being tied down to a servile ad-
herence to the maxims which we supported in
1767 ; since it is obvious, that, when we have no
interest one way or other in the point, we might
be allowed, without any suspicion of deserting our
principles, to alter an opinion upon six years'
experience, if six years' experience had given us
reason to change it. But the fact is, that we
never denied, on the contrary, we always urged
it to be the province and duty of parliament to
superintend the affairs of this company, as well as
every other matter of public concern ; but we
considered it as a very different business to enter
a house in order to regulate it, from breaking in
in order to rob it. We considered it as the duty
of parliament to see that the company did not
abuse its charter privileges, or misgovern its Asia-
tic possessions ; but w r e thought it abominable to
declare their dividends in the House of Commons,
and to seize their revenues into the hands of the
crown. These, I am sure, were our opinions then,
and I see no sort of reason for altering them si ace
that time.
On foreign politics, I shall not trouble your
lordship, until I hear something more of facts.
RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 391
I do not hear that they intend to engage us that
way, at least not directly, on the meeting. Nor
does the reduction of the seamen to 20,000, nor
the ministerial attempts on the company, look
like an intention of making war.
I am infinitely obliged to Lady Rockingham
for her ladyship's intention of honouring me with a
letter. Nobody can be more sensible of her lady-
ship's goodness and condescension, or more willing
to obey her commands.
I will detain your messenger no longer ; I have,
indeed, little to say, but what I never say but with
the greatest truth, that I am,
My dear lord,
Your affectionate and obliged humble servant,
EDM. BURKE.
On casting my eye over what I have written, I
find I have expressed myself equivocally in one
part. It might seem as if Sir George Colebrooke
and Mr. Gregory had approved my ideas of bor-
rowing, dividend, &c. This I do not know. I
only mean to say that after conversing with them
abundantly on the subject of the papers, &c., I
am exceedingly confirmed in my opinion of what
would be best to do, if I had in my choice what
ought to be done.
392 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE
THE DUKE OF RICHMOND TO EDMUND BURKE, ESQ.
Goodwood, November 25, 1772.
MY DEAR BURKE,
Although it would have been more inconvenient
to me to go to London than I can well describe,
I had nevertheless, at your desire, settled every
thing here as well as I could, and intended setting
off to-day. Your letter, which arrived last night,
was like a reprieve, and I shall make use of it.
At the same time, I see that it is not clever to
let parliament meet without our friends having
previously met, and having agreed upon some
plan ; and, in the absence of both Lord Rocking-
ham and Dowdeswell, I don't know any body that
would take the pains of getting people together
but myself; and if there was time, I really believe
I should have gone up to town for this end. But,
as I have drove my journey off too far, there is not
now time to do any real good. Under these cir-
cumstances, I mean to defer, at least, my journey
to London. As you will be in town, I will beg of
you to let me know what passes the first day;
which will, I suppose, let us a little into the plan
or no-plan of administration ; and then I shall see
whether it be necessary to go up the beginning of
next week, or later, or not at all.
Your opinion, and still more your wishes, will
RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 393
have great weight with me ; but, I confess, I could
wish not to stir from hence till after Christmas ;
but I most of all wish to be at some certainty, as
I have engaged a large party, some months ago, to
come here on the first of December, and stay a
month to fox-hunt. Now I must either put them
off, or let them know that I expect them : it would
be unpleasant to do the latter, and then leave
them, or the former, and then be here. Pray
therefore let me hear from you soon.
As to East India business, I think your scheme
is such, that ministers will never consent to : what,
give up 400,000 for the good of the company?
By no means ; on the contrary, they certainly wish
to drive the company to such distress, as to make
them throw themselves upon government ; and
the only way to parry this is to lower the dividend
to six per cent. But I wait to hear from you what
they will open to-morrow; and if there is any
thing really worth my attending, you may depend
upon me.
Adieu, I am, my dear Burke,
Ever yours most sincerely,
RICHMOND, &c.
P.S. I have ordered my servant to stay in
London till Friday noon to bring your letter. I
cannot sufficiently thank you for the very pleasant
letter you wrote me before : it was long, but not
half long enough.
394 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE
EDMUND BURKE, ESQ., TO THE MARQUIS OF
ROCKINGHAM.
Broad Sanctuary, November 26, 1772.
MY DEAR LORD,
Lest no other friend should give your lordship an
account of this day 6 , I venture a line by the post.
In the House of Lords, nothing. In the House
of Commons, mover, Mr. Fitzpatrick ; seconder,
Dr. Burrell. The speech of the first, decent ; and
let no more of the court-cat out of the bag, than
that the company were to have no dividend,
agreeably to my Lord North's letter to the direc-
tors. Dr. Burrell bullied, threatened directors,
servants, proprietors, and the charter itself. Lord
North moved for a secret committee of thirteen,
for which we are to ballot. General Burgoyne
gave notice that he would move for the revival of
his committee, which, though select was not
secret. Lord North at first seemed to give counte-
nance to that committee ; but from the ridicule of
having two committees for what in effect was one
matter, and that one of them was to keep the
secret, and the other open to disclose it, and indeed
could not avoid disclosing it, I observed by con-
8 The opening of parliament.
RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 395
versation on the floor, after the House was up,
that they intended to restrain Burgoyne's com-
mittee, which will bring on new absurdity.
Lord North stated the company's basis as very
solid, and their distress but accidental. Yet he
could countenance a proposition which, at one
stroke, decides the beggary of thousands.
The speech is above all comment. I am per-
fectly pleased that your lordship has fixed in
Wentworth, for the holidays. Lord G. Germain
is quite satisfied ; Sir Charles Saunders and I paid
him a visit yesterday. I saw the Duke of Port-
land. Poor Keppel very indifferent. I am with
the truest regard, ever, my dear lord,
Your lordship's most obedient and
humble servant,
EDM. BURKE.
We dined at the club. Tolerably full, and in
great good humour.
THE DUKE OF RICHMOND TO EDMUND BURKE, ESQ.
Goodwood, Wednesday, December 2, 1772.
MY DEAR BURKE,
The Duke of Portland's servant arrived here
this morning with your letter of last night. I
ordered my post-chaise immediately, and went to
396 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE
Uppark to my friend Sir Matthew Fetherstone,
to whom I communicated the contents of your
letter. I found that all idea of getting him to
London was vain. He has been in a very
dangerous illness for several months. He is now
better, is taking a medicine which does him great
good ; but he fears, and with great reason, that if
he was to venture out he might catch cold, and
in his situation it might cost him his life. His
property in India stock is very considerable, and
he is by no means inattentive to the transactions
that relate to it. He agrees with you in thinking,
that many things look like government's having
some bad design ; but he says that, in the present
moment, till that design, whatever it is, appears, he
does not see what can be done. Indeed, when it
does appear, he thinks it will be very difficult to
resist ; but till then, nothing can be done. To
resist a committee of inquiry might even not be
right ; for though we may guess it means more, till
that appears, the mere inquiry is plausible. Sir
Matthew rather thinks, upon the whole, that
government only mean to get their money, the
400,000, or as much of it as they can, and will
agree to any thing that will do this for them ; at
the same time, if they can hook in any job or
patronage they will. His ideas of putting things
on a better footing, are, by a more permanent
direction for at least three or five years, the re-
RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 397
cruiting-bill, and the punishment of servants, by
some more easy "way than a bill in chancery.
I suppose this committee will make some report
soon ; but it must take them some time to make
themselves masters of so intricate a subject. I
think there cannot be time to do any thing in
consequence of this report, by a bill in parliament,
before Christmas. There is not time. I suppose,
therefore, that if any thing hostile is intended, the
only thing that can be done will be to postpone
the declaration of a dividend till after Christmas.
Whether a short bill may do this, or how, I cannot
tell ; but I think it impossible to digest any thing
reasonable upon so great an object, in so short
a time as the three weeks there is to Christmas ;
and till some method is agreed upon to enable the
company to get the money, I think the dividend
cannot be fixed.
I am clearly of opinion, that the company should
make no propositions to government, but stand
merely on the defensive ; and if they will be but
united on this point, and divide six per cent., they
may defy all the powers of administration, and
will soon be in a flourishing condition.
o
Now, as to the part our friends should take in
this business, I think we shall not act wisely to
be over eager in taking a part. We have been
much too ready in taking up the cudgels for every
body the ministers please to attack ; and the con-
398 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE
sequence of our readiness has been, that people
think we attack only for the sake of opposition,
and to get ourselves into place. As soon as we
have begun, the world grows to look upon the
matter as a political squabble, between a majority
and a minority, and do not interest themselves
about it. Now, in my opinion, the only way to
cure this stupefaction, is to lie by, and let people
fight their own battles a little. I would look on
quietly, and let the ministers alone ; they will
then do some crying injustice, and when indivi-
duals begin to feel, they will cry out, and come to
us to implore our assistance. Then will be the
time for us to stir; but, first, to make people
understand that without general support we can
do no good. Indeed, I would not enter into
action again, till I was lugged out by those who
now leave us to ourselves.
Having given you this my opinion of the India
business, the progress I think it will take, and the
part I think we should take, you will not wonder
that I should stay in the country. I see by your
letter the eagerness you feel in this affair, and
that you will blame my coldness ; it is not that
I feel less than you, but my plan of operation is
different.
You laugh at me for staying a fox-hunting. I
would give that up, or any thing else, to do real
public good ; but to do none, I am unwilling to
RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 399
break up a party of my friends and neighbours,
which is met and will stay here some time ; and
I might add, that my health is not in a good con-
dition ; for, only going to Uppark in this easterly
wind, has made me quite ill. Adieu !
I am ever yours most sincerely,
RICHMOND, &c.
EDMUND BURKE, ESQ., TO A PRUSSIAN
GENTLEMAN.
1772.
SIR,
Permit me to return you my most sincere thanks
for the honour of your very obliging letter. No-
thing can be more polite than the offer of your
correspondence, and nothing more acceptable than
your specimen of it.
I hope you will not look on the long delay of
my acknowledgments, as a proof that I want the
fullest sense of the great favour I have received.
I owed you the best considered and the best in-
formed judgment I could make, on the question
which you proposed. The answer might affect
your property, which you will give me leave to
regard as a matter far from indifferent to me.
After all, I am obliged to own to you, that the
more I have inquired, and the more I have re-
400 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE
fleeted, the less capable I find myself of giving you
any advice on which I can venture to confide. I
have never had any concern in the funds of the
East India Company, nor have taken any part
whatsoever in its affairs, except when they came
before me in the course of parliamentary proceed-
ings. Of late years, the intervention of the claims
and powers of government, the magnitude of the
possessions in the East, which have involved the
concerns of the company with the contentions of
parties at home, and with the mass of the politics
of Asia and Europe, together with many other
particulars, have rendered all reasonings upon
that stock a matter of more intricacy and deli-
cacy, than whilst the company was restrained
within the limits of a moderate commerce. How-
ever, one advantage has arisen from the magni-
tude of this object, and the discussions which have
grown from its importance, that almost every
thing relative to it is become very public. The
proceedings in parliament arid in the India House,
have given as many lights to the foreign stock-
holders as to the inhabitants of this kingdom.
Many persons on the continent, as well as here,
are more capable of giving you good information
than I am ; I dare not risk an opinion. I am
persuaded you will have the goodness to excuse a
caution, which has its rise from my extreme ten-
derness towards your interest.
RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 401
With regard to general politics, you judge very
properly that we are more removed from them
than you are, who live in the centre of the political
circle. However, though situated in the circum-
ference, we have our share of concern and curiosity.
I am happy to receive that information which I
have no right to expect, and no ability to requite.
My situation is very obscure and private, and I
have scarce any thing to do, but with the minute
detail of our own internal economy. To this I
confine myself entirely. As to the grand machine,
I admire its effects, without being often able to
comprehend its operations, or to discover its
springs. I look on these events as historical. The
distance of place, and absence from management,
operate as remoteness of time. I am obliged to
you for your account of his Prussian majesty's
military arrangements. T make no doubt that a
prince so wise and politic will improve his new
acquisitions (for I am not to call them conquests)
to the best advantage for his power and greatness.
I agree no less with your observation, that it was
extremely fortunate the three great allied powers
were able to find a fourth which was utterly
unable to resist any one of them, and much less
all united. If this circumstance had not concurred
with their earnest inclinations to preserve the
public tranquillity, they might have been obliged
to find a discharge for the superfluous strength of
VOL. i. D d
402 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE
their plethoric habits in the destruction of the
finest countries in Europe.
One great branch of the alliance has not been
quite so fortunate. Russia seems to me still to
retain, though under European forms and names,
too much of the Asiatic spirit in its government
and manners to be long well poised and secure
within itself; and without that advantage, nothing
I apprehend can be done in a long struggle.
Turkey is not prey, at least, for those whose mo-