wer, renders them responsible
to the party from whom all their immediate and consequential powers are
derived. As they have emanated from the supreme power of this kingdom,
the whole body and the whole train of their servants, the corporate body
as a corporate body, individuals as individuals, are responsible to the
high justice of this kingdom. In delegating great power to the East
India Company, this kingdom has not released its sovereignty; on the
contrary, the responsibility of the Company is increased by the
greatness and sacredness of the powers that have been intrusted to it.
Attempts have been made abroad to circulate a notion that the acts of
the East India Company and their servants are not cognizable here. I
hope on this occasion your Lordships will show that this nation never
did give a power without annexing to it a proportionable degree of
responsibility.

As to their other powers, the Company derives them from the Mogul empire
by various charters from that crown, and from the great magistrates of
that crown, and particularly by the Mogul charter of 1765, by which they
obtained the _dewanny_, that is, the office of lord high-steward, of the
kingdoms of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. By that charter they bound
themselves (and bound inclusively all their servants) to perform all the
duties belonging to that new office, and to be held by all the ties
belonging to that new relation. If the Mogul empire had existed in its
vigor, they would have been bound, under that responsibility, to
observe the laws, rights, usages, and customs of the natives, and to
pursue their benefit in all things: for this duty was inherent in the
nature, institution, and purpose of the office which they received. If
the power of the sovereign from whom they derived these powers should by
any revolution in human affairs be annihilated or suspended, their duty
to the people below them, which was created under the Mogul charter, is
not annihilated, is not even suspended; and for their responsibility in
the performance of that duty, they are thrown back upon that country
(thank God, not annihilated) from whence their original power, and all
subsequent derivative powers, have flowed. When the Company acquired
that high office in India, an English corporation became an integral
part of the Mogul empire. When Great Britain virtually assented to that
grant of office, and afterwards took advantage of it, Great Britain
guarantied the performance of