The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VIII | Page 9

the receipt laid before the Secretary of State, and everything that related
to the management of the revenues was to be laid before the
Commissioners of the Treasury. In fact, both description of these
papers have been generally communicated to that board.
[Sidenote: Defects in the plan.]
It appears to your Committee that there were great and material defects
in both parts of the plan. With regard to the approbation of persons
nominated to the Supreme Council by the Court of Directors, no
sufficient means were provided for carrying to his Majesty, along with
the nomination, the particulars in the conduct of those who had been in

the service before, which might render them proper objects of
approbation or rejection. The India House possesses an office of record
capable of furnishing, in almost all cases, materials for judging on the
behavior of the servants in their progress from the lowest to the highest
stations; and the whole discipline of the service, civil and military,
must depend upon an examination of these records inseparably
attending every application for an appointment to the highest stations.
But in the present state of the nomination the ministers of the crown are
not furnished with the proper means of exercising the power of control
intended by the law, even if they were scrupulously attentive to the use
of it. There are modes of proceeding favorable to neglect. Others excite
inquiry and stimulate to vigilance.
[Sidenote: Proposition to remedy them.]
Your Committee, therefore, are of opinion, that for the future
prevention of cabal, and of private and partial representation, whether
above or below, that, whenever any person who has been in the service
shall be recommended to the King's ministers to fill a vacancy in the
Council-General, the Secretary of the Court of Directors shall be
ordered to make a strict search into the records of the Company, and
shall annex to the recommendation the reasons of the Court of
Directors for their choice, together with a faithful copy of whatever
shall be found (if anything can be found) relative to his character and
conduct,--as also an account of his standing in the Company's service,
the time of his abode in India, the reasons for his return, and the
stations, whether civil or military, in which he has been successively
placed.
With this account ought to be transmitted the names of those who were
proposed as candidates for the same office, with the correspondent
particulars relative to their conduct and situation: for not only the
separate, but the comparative merit, probably would, and certainly
ought, to have great influence in the approbation or rejection of the
party presented to the ministers of the crown. These papers should be
laid before the Commissioners of the Treasury and one of the
Secretaries of State, and entered in books to be kept in the Treasury and

the Secretary's office.
[Sidenote: Appointment of Counsellors, &c.]
[Sidenote: Macpherson's appointment.]
[Sidenote: Stables's.]
These precautions, in case of the nomination of any who have served
the Company, appear to be necessary from the improper nomination
and approbation of Mr. John Macpherson, notwithstanding the
objections which stood against him on the Company's records. The
choice of Mr. John Stables, from an inferior military to the highest civil
capacity, was by no means proper, nor an encouraging example to
either service. His conduct, indeed, in the subaltern military situation,
had received, and seems to have deserved, commendation; but no
sufficient ground was furnished for confounding the lines and
gradations of service. This measure was, however, far less
exceptionable than the former; because an irregular choice of a less
competent person, and the preference given to proved delinquency in
prejudice to uncensured service, are very different things. But even this
latter appointment would in all likelihood have been avoided, if rules of
promotion had been established. If such rules were settled, candidates
qualified from ability, knowledge, and service would not be
discouraged by finding that everything was open to every man, and that
favor alone stood in the place of civil or military experience. The
elevation from the lowest stations unfaithfully and negligently filled to
the highest trusts, the total inattention to rank and seniority, and, much
more, the combination of this neglect of rank with a confusion
(unaccompanied with strong and evident reasons) of the lines of service,
cannot operate as useful examples on those who serve the public in
India. These servants, beholding men who have been condemned for
improper behavior to the Company in inferior civil stations elevated
above them, or (what is less blamable, but still mischievous) persons
without any distinguished civil talents taken from the subordinate
situations of another line to their prejudice, will despair by any good
behavior of ascending to the dignities of their own: they will be led to
improve,