Page:History of India Vol 8.djvu/266

226 But the essence of executive government is to be one and indivisible, so that the machine will not run unless all the driving power centres ultimately under one prime mover, whether it be an autocratic prince or a democratic assembly. In Bengal, the outcome of this divided responsibility after Clive's departure was masterless confusion. The magistracy, the police, and the revenue officers, being diverse bodies working upon different systems, with conflicting interests, and under no common head, vied with each other in mismanagement; there were no positive laws and there was very little justice in the country.

Moreover, the three Presidencies made wars and alliances independently of each other; the Company's standing army in Bengal amounted to over eleven thousand men; and the increased civil and military establishments involved expenditure that encroached greatly upon the funds for commercial investment. Fortunately, this dilapidation of the Honourable Company's revenue produced a fall of their stock, which brought home to them a conviction that they were on the downward path to some distressing predicament. They applied for financial assistance to the Ministers, who referred the Company to Parliament, and in January, 1772, the king's speech gave notice of an intention to look into their affairs. The result was the appointment of two Select Committees "to inquire into the state, nature, and condition of the Company, and of British affairs in the East Indies."

It is true that Parliament had hitherto been much