Conclusion

Summary

it is time for us to Consider whether there be in gt. Brit. A fundamental Force equal to the Tenure of unbounded acquisitions at this distance from the seat of Empire or whether we are now arrived at a point at which common prudence dictates to us to fix once and for all the limits of our Dominion. If my Judgement were to prevail it should be our object to contract them.

Philip Francis, member of the supreme Council, Fort William, 7 June 1779.

It may answer the greatness of a state to possess a foreign Territory in India and suffer the whole revenue to be absorbed by the Military, but it will never suit the purposes of a Commercial Company trading on a joint stock …

Lord Macartney (Governor of Madras) to J. Huddlestone (Resident at Tanjore), 13 April 1785.

the administration of the British Government in Bengal, distant as it is from the reach of more than general instruction from the source of its authority, and liable to daily contingences, which require instant decision and a consistency of system, cannot be ruled by a body of men variable in their succession, discordant in opinion, each jealous of his colleagues and all united in common interest against their ostensible leader.

Hastings, Journal, on the voyage home, 1785.