"I put your public letters into the hands of Lord Camden, who, doubtless, showed them to Lord Chatham. Both one and the other, I am certain, are well satisfied with the confidence. Mr. Grenville has had all the papers laid before him, and part of them, particularly those relative to the conduct of the servants, have been communicated to others."
From these letters, it is evident that Lord Chatham had been yet able to form no plan on the vast subject of Indian affairs; that he was disposed to let matters take their course for some time longer through the intervention of the Company, and that the recent extension of their dominions probably rather embarrassed him; that he was alive, as he had always been, to Lord Clive's splendid merits, and an advocate for the rewards the gratitude of the country ought to bestow. At the same time he was cautiously guarded not to commit himself by any opinions, but rather disposed to gain time and watch what the progress of events might produce. It could hardly fail to gratify him to see all parties contending for his favour, and laying the information they possessed, and a tender of their services, at his feet.
Lord Chatham's administration was formed in the last days of July, and it was in September that the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Company were sent for to the Council, and informed that it was likely that the affairs of the Company would be taken into consideration when the Parliament met. The same notice was soon after communicated in writing.
The Directors, thus put upon their guard, looked eagerly to what was to follow. The movement began in the House of Commons, where Mr. Beckford gave notice of a motion for an inquiry into the affairs of the East India Company[141]; and in the course of his speech, adverting to the burdens laid on the landed interest, and to the rich acquisitions of the Company in the East, congratulated his brother landholders that they should no longer be hewers of wood and drawers of water. The very exaggerated statements of the revenues of Bengal, published by Mr. Holwell and others, had induced the public to look to them for at least a partial relief from their burdens. The Ministers, however, cautiously concealed their intentions, if they had any, and proposed nothing. Lord Chatham was constantly confined by the gout, remained chiefly in the country, and showed himself but little; and his colleagues did not venture, in his absence, to propose any important measure. Matters went on languidly. Indeed, the symptoms of disunion very soon became visible in the motley cabinet which had been formed, and was supported chiefly by Lord Chatham's great name.