consequent
have followed upon it.--I shall not trouble your Lordships with any
further observations on this system of gradation.

I must, however, remark, before I go further, that there is something in
the representation of the East India Company in their Oriental territory
different from that, perhaps, of any other nation that has ever
transported any part of its power from one country to another. The East
India Company in India is not properly a branch of the British nation:
it is only a deputation of individuals. When the Tartars entered into
China, when the Arabs and Tartars successively entered into Hindostan,
when the Goths and Vandals penetrated into Europe, when the Normans
forced their way into England, indeed, in all conquests, migrations,
settlements, and colonizations, the new people came as the offset of a
nation. The Company in India does not exist as a national colony. In
effect and substance nobody can go thither that does not go in its
service. The English in India are nothing but a seminary for the
succession of officers. They are a nation of placemen; they are a
commonwealth without a people; they are a state made up wholly of
magistrates. There is nothing to be in propriety called people, to
watch, to inspect, to balance against the power of office. The power of
office, so far as the English nation is concerned, is the sole power in
the country: the consequence of which is, that, being a kingdom of
magistrates, what is commonly called the _esprit du corps_ is strong in
it. This spirit of the body predominates equally in all its parts; by
which the members must consider themselves as having a common interest,
and that common interest separated both from that of the country which
sent them out and from that of the country in which they act. No control
upon them exists,--none, I mean, in persons who understand their
language, who understand their manners, or can apply their conduct to
the laws. Therefore, in a body so constituted, confederacy is easy, and
has been general. Your Lordships are not to expect that that should
happen in such a body which never happened in any body or
corporation,--that is, that they should, in any instance, be a proper
check and control upon themselves. It is not in the nature of things.
The fundamental principle of the whole of the East India Company's
system is monopoly, in some sense or other. The same principle
predominates in the service abroad and the service at home