Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 1).djvu/478

452 of the exclusive trade. This led me to state shortly my opinion of the situation of the Company, arising from the misconduct of servants, directors, and acting proprietors; the necessity for the interference of Parliament, in behalf both of the honest proprietors as well as the public. The Duke of Richmond chose to reply, that the Company are in a very good state; which required as little the interference of Parliament, as their conduct did its censure, and made some apologies for the part I took. This began an altercation between his Grace and me, which lasted almost the whole of that and the two following days. He gave me repeated opportunities of stating my own conduct; my endeavours, in and out of the House, to promote a real inquiry in 1767; my reasons for the Restraining Bill then passed to save the prize from plunder, &c. The Duke of Grafton afterwards told me, in conversation, that he could witness what I had said as to myself, and that I could do him justice as to what his wishes were.

"When we came to the clause which contained the new appointments, the House suffered me to go into a very large discussion of it. To prevent misrepresentation, as well as because all that passed in the House of Commons had left no very distinct impression, I stated three modes of proceeding, which were all that occurred to me as possible: first, to take the whole into the hands of Government; which could not be, as it would certainly be subversive of the charter, as well as of very questionable policy; secondly, to leave it entirely in the hands of the Company, making them as responsible as possible; and, thirdly, to send out a Commission to report to Parliament as to men and things; which I proposed, as appearing to me far more eligible than the present appointments, which partook of the inconveniences of all three, without any of the advantages.

"It is in vain to attempt communicating to your Lordship all that passed; but I concluded the last day by giving my vote for the Bill, very much upon the general reasoning of your Lordship's letter, which I was honoured