That the Indian trade may become a permanent vehicle of the private fortunes of the Company's servants is very probable,--that is, as permanent as the means of acquiring fortunes in India; but that some profit will accrue to the Company is absolutely impossible.
Burke expresses skepticism about the profitability of the Indian trade for the Company, suggesting that while individual fortunes may be made, the Company itself will not benefit.
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More from Edmund Burke
We procure reverence to our civil institutions on the principle upon which Nature teaches us to revere individual men: on account of their age, and on account of those from whom they are descended.
The House of Lords, for instance, is not morally competent to dissolve the House of Commons,--no, nor even to dissolve itself, nor to abdicate, if it would, its portion in the legislature of the kingdom.
This is the spirit of our Constitution, not only in its settled course, but in all its revolutions.
Their objects would be enlarged with their elevation; but their disposition, and habits, and mode of accomplishing their designs must remain the same.
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