November 18, 1783.
Mr. Fox this day called the attention of the house to the important subject of a total revolution in the system of the government of India; and concluded his speech with moving for leave to bring in a bill, "for vesting the affairs of the East India Company in the hands of certain Commissioners, for the benefit of the proprietors and the public:" And also, a bill, "for the better government of the territorial possessions and dependencies in India.”
Mr. PITT then rose and said, that he could not refrain from noticing the singular manner in which the right honourable secretary(*), had deprecated the charge of indolence, a charge which had never been imputed to the right honourable gentleman, though it had ever been considered as a leading feature in that part of the present administration, of which the honourable gentleman had been once thought to be no great admirer; nor could he, at the same time, avoid remarking the claim that he had made, that parliament would never recur to a certain connexion of principle and patriotism, which had so much excited surprise and discussion in the last session, and that they would grant the coalition a perpetual amnesty. But how ready parliament might be to accede to the right honourable gentleman's desires, he would not pretend to determine. Indeed he knew not how far it might be adopted on the present occasion. For his own part, he could not avoid so far recurring to the present very extraordinary coincidence of sentiment and conduct of men, who were known to have acted and professed principles so diametrically opposite, as to testify his astonishment at it. He could not but observe, that the business which had been now laid before them, convinced him that there no longer subsisted a disagreement of sentiment. For could he have presumed to have anticipated the conduct of the right honourable secretary, from the principles he had always opposed in his noble colleague(↑) when in opposite situations, he should have said, that he would have been the first to reprobate, not to propose, the system he had just divulged.
Had this bill been brought forward at a former period, he should have expected to have heard it deprecated with all that warmth of sentiment and that astonishing eloquence for which he had been so justly admired. Although his noble colleague was indisposed, he did not conceive it a material interruption to public business for the house had now a demonstration that the right honourable secretary had industry and inclination sufficient to perform, not only his own share of administration, but that of the noble lord likewise.