The minuteness with which these accounts appear to have been kept, and the precision with which the date of each particular, sometimes of very small sums, is stated, give them the appearance of authenticity, as far as it can be conveyed on the face or in the construction of such accounts, and, if they were forgeries, laid them open to an easy detection.  But no detection is easy, when no inquiry is made.  It appears an offence of the highest order in the Directors concerned in this business, when, not satisfied with leaving such charges so long unexamined, they should venture to present to the king’s servants the object of them for the highest trust which they have to bestow.  If Mr. Stuart was really guilty, the possession of this post must furnish him not only with the means of renewing the former evil practices charged upon him, and of executing them upon a still larger scale, but of oppressing those unhappy persons who, under the supposed protection of the faith of the Company, had appeared to give evidence concerning his former misdemeanors.

This attempt in the Directors was the more surprising, when it is considered that two committees of this House were at that very time sitting upon an inquiry that related directly to their conduct, and that of their servants in India.

[Sidenote:  Mr. Sulivan’s situation at the time of his appointment.]

It was in the same spirit of defiance of Parliament, that at the same time they nominated Mr. Sulivan, son to the then Chairman of the Court of Directors, to the succession to the same high trust in India.  On these appointments, your Committee thought it proper to make those inquiries which the Court of Directors thought proper to omit.  They first conceived it fitting to inquire what rank Mr. Sulivan bore in the service; and they thought it not unnecessary here to state the gradations in the service, according to the established usage of the Company.

The Company’s civil servants generally go to India as writers, in which capacity they serve the Company five years.  The next step, in point of rank, is to be a factor, and next to that a junior merchant; in each of which capacities they serve the Company three years.  They then rise to the rank of senior merchant, in which situation they remain till called by rotation to the Board of Trade.  Until the passing of the Regulation Act, in 1773, seniority entitled them to succeed to the Council, and finally gave them pretensions to the government of the Presidency.

The above gradation of the service, your Committee conceive, ought never to be superseded by the Court of Directors, without evident reason, in persons or circumstances, to justify the breach of an ancient order.  The names, whether taken from civil or commercial gradation, are of no moment.  The order itself is wisely established, and tends to provide a natural guard against partiality, precipitancy,