Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/81

Rh a summary of those internal and executive reforms which were to occupy so much of his time and attention, and to leave behind them such good and lasting effects.

'I must acknowledge that I am happy to hear that the principles of that plan were still under deliberation, and that it was only upon the supposition that the commercial branch might be left to the Company, and the other departments taken into the hands of Government, that you had stated these queries. Many weighty objections occur to the separation that you propose, for it is almost beyond a doubt with me that no solid advantages would be derived from placing the civil and revenue departments under the immediate direction of the King's Government; and I am perfectly convinced that if the fostering aid and protection and, what is full as important, the check and control of the governments abroad, are withdrawn from the commercial departments, the Company would not long enjoy their new charter, but must very soon be reduced to a state of actual bankruptcy.

'I am not surprised that, after the increased and vexatious contradictions which you have experienced from the Court of Directors, you should be desirous of taking as much of the business as possible entirely out of their hands; but I know that great changes are hazardous in all popular governments, and as the paltry patronage of sending out a few writers is of no value to such an administration as Mr. Pitt's, I