But it was never supposed _that an
European of credit and responsibility_ was absolutely incapable from
holding certain tenures under the sanction and authority of the country
laws, or from becoming security for such native farmers, contractors,
&c., &c., as he might protect and employ."
Your Committee have opposed this construction of Mr. Barwell's to the
positive order which the conduct it is meant to color has violated.
"Europeans of credit and responsibility," that is, Europeans armed with
wealth and power, and exercising offices of authority and trust, instead
of being excepted from the spirit of the restriction, must be supposed
the persons who are chiefly meant to be comprehended in it; for abstract
the idea of an European from the ideas of power and influence, and the
restriction is no longer rational.
Your Committee are therefore of opinion that the nature of the evil
which was meant to be prevented by the above orders and regulations was
not altered, or the evil itself diminished, by the collusive methods
made use of to evade them,--and that, if the regulations were proper,
(as they unquestionably were,) they ought to have been punctually
complied with, particularly by the members of the government, _who
formed the plan_, and who, as trustees of the Company, were especially
answerable for their being duly carried into execution.
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