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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 414: EAST INDIA AFFAIRS.
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

EAST INDIA AFFAIRS.

On the 31st of March Mr. Dundas presented to the house an account of the financial state of India. He announced a great increase of revenue in Bengal; which he looked upon as the strongest proof of the prosperity and good government of the country. Dundas said, that in a few years he trusted the company would be enabled to pay off the whole of their arrears, and that the British possessions in India would be more flourishing in wealth, commerce, and manufactures, than any other part of Hindustan. In the present state of things, he remarked, we had nothing to fear from any European nation: Holland was our ally, and France was in no condition to disturb our foreign possessions. Tippoo Saib, he acknowledged, was an enemy; but without European auxiliaries, and the support of other native powers, he could never become formidable to the British empire. Dundas, indeed, indulged himself in the pleasing vision that this country was likely long to enjoy an undisturbed peace at home and abroad.