Note 655 — THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. (continued 4)
Reading edition
Six days earlier the Lord-Advocate Dundas had brought in a bill for the Regulation of the Government of India. Hastings, he said, should be recalled. His place should be filled by 'a person of independent fortune, who had not for object the repairing of his estate in India, that had long been the nursery of ruined and decayed fortunes.' Parl. Hist. xxiii. 757. Johnson wrote to Dr. Taylor on Nov. 22 of this year:—'I believe corruption and oppression are in India at an enormous height, but it has never appeared that they were promoted by the Directors, who, I believe, see themselves defrauded, while the country is plundered; but the distance puts their officers out of reach.' Notes and Queries, 6th S. v. 482. See ante, p. 66.