It is very proper, that in England, a good share of the produce of the earth should be appropriated to support certain families in affluence, to produce senators, sages, and heroes for the service and defence of the state, or, in other words, that great part of the rent should go to an opulent nobility and gentry, who are to serve their country in parliament, in the army and navy, departments of science and liberal professions. The leisure, independence, and high ideas, which the enjoyment of this rent affords, has enabled them to raise Britain to the pinnacle of glory. Long may they enjoy it;—but in India that haughty spirit, independence, and deep thought, which the possession of great wealth sometimes gives, ought to be suppressed. They are directly adverse to our power and interest. The nature of things, the past experience of all governments, renders it unnecessary to enlarge on this subject, We do not want generals, statesmen, and legislators; we want industrious husbandmen (The Fifth Report from the Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India Company p. 990).
The Fifth Report from the Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India Company, “Appendix, No. 31.“ House of Commons, Select Committee on the East India Company, 1812, pp. 908-1008.