I CORRESPONDENCE AND PROCEEDINGS THE NE GO CI ATI ON tOR A RENEWAL THE EAST-INDIA COMPANY'S CHARTER. LONDON : Printed for BLACK, PARRY, and Co, Leadenhall Strec 1812. Undo!) ;— Fi.iittd l>v C. 'Lin. t and Ba\Us75, Great Queen Stc jln's Inn Fields. uni. ice The Publisher trusts he performs a Serv not unacceptable to the Public, in offering to them a Cheap Edition of these important Pa- pers, upon a Subject involving the dearest Interests of the Nation, and of the East- India Company. CONTENTS. Letter from the Rt. Hon. Robert Dnndas to the Chairman and Deputy Chairman, dated 3luh Sepiember 1808 . . l - Letter from the Chairman and Deputy Chairman to the Rt. Hon. Robert Dundas, dated lath October 1808 . . . • ~ Letter from the Chairman and Deputy Chairman to the Rt. Hen. Robert Dundas, dated loth December 1808 . . . .3 Letter from the Rt. Hon. Robert Dundas, to the Chairman and Deputy Chairman, dated 28th December 1S08 . . .6 Letter from the Chairman and Deputy Chairman to the Rt, Hon. Robert Dundas, dated 13th January 180g . . . .12 Minute of a Secret Committee of Correspondence, 28th February 1809 '• 35 Letter from the Chairman and Deputy Chairman to the Rt. Hon. Robert Dundas, dated 5th December 1809 • • • • «''^ Letter from the Rt. Hon. Lord Viscount Melville to the Chairman and Deputy Chairman, dated 17th December 1811 . . .37 Letter from tiie Chairman and Deputy Chairman to the Rt. Hon. Lord Viscount Melville, dated 4lh March 1812 . - . 40 Letter from the Rt. Hon. Lord Viscount Melville to the Chairman and Deputy Chairman, dated 21st March 1812 . . . .48 Hints submitted to the Consideration of the Rt. Hon. Lord Melville bv the Deputation of the Court of Directors, the 4th March 1812, and his Lordship's Observations thereon, dated 21st March 1812 . .01 Minutes of a General Court of Proprietors, held on Thursday, 2d April 1812 .'<<) Is-.nri from the Deputation to the Rt. Hen. Firl of Ruckingbnm- •! irr, datvd l r >tb April 1812 6<) CONTENTS. Page Minutes of a Secret Court of Directors, held on Tuesday, 28th April 1812 <9 Letter from" theTltt. K'on. Ear' of Buckinghamshire to the Chairman and Deputy Chairman, dated 27th April 18 IV, noticed In the preceding Minutes . • ^ Letter from the Deputation to the lit. Hon. Ear! of Buckingham- shire, dated 29th April 1812 . • • • • . • -^ Resolutions of a General Coi.rt of Proprietors, held on Tuesday the 5th May 1812 CORRESPONDENCE PROCEEDINGS, fyc. Letter from the Rt. Hon. Robert Dunda3 to the Chairman and Deputy Chairman. Gentlemen, Melville Castle, 30th September, 1 808. The propriety and expediency of applying to Par- liament for a renewal of the privileges of exclusive trade enjoyed by the East-India Company, with such modifica- tions as may be deemed necessary, and for the continu- ance of the system of government in the British Terri- tories in India on its present basis, but with such amend- ments, also, as the experience of its effects may appear to demand, having lately been the subject of frequent consideration and discussion, you will probably concur with me in opinion, that it is advisable now to ascertain, whether the Court of Directors are desirous cf agitating the question at present, and of submitting it, in all its details, to the early consideration of Parliament. I have tiie honor to be, Gentlemen, Your most obedient and humble servant, (Signed) Robert Dun das. To the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the East-India Company. •2 EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE Letter to the Rt. Hon, Robert Dundas, from the Chairman and Deputy Chairman. (Secret.) Sir, East-India House, 1 2th October, 1 808 . We now propose to do ourselves the honour of re- plying to your letter of the 30th of lust month. From the communications we have at different times had with the Members of the Court of Directors, we are well assured it is the general sense of that body, that it will be for the interest of the Public and the Company, that the Charter should be early renewed. Convinced that this is their opinion, and apprehensive lest incon- venience rnight be produced, by setting this important subject afloat before it was in some degree matured, we have not thought it necessary formallv to resort to the Court for a declaration of their judgment upon the ques- tion you are pleased to propose to us; but we have, in order to obtain what we conceive to be, with the know- ledge we before possessed, sufficient warrant to us to give an answer to your preliminary enquiry, laid your letter before a Secret Committee of -Correspondence : and we are authorized to state it to be their opinion, as it is our own, not only that the interests of the Public, as well as of the Company, wiil be best consulted, by con- tinuing the present system of Indian administration, but that it is material the Charter should be speedily re- newed. With respect to any modifications which you or His Majesty's Government may have it in contemplation to propose, we shall be happy to be made acquainted with them, and to bring them under the most serious consi- deration of this House. We can at present only state, that we trust there will be no disposition to introduce any change, that would alter or weaken the main principles and substance of the present system, which, in the opi- nion of the Company, is essential to the due management and preservation of British India ; and that, with respect to minor points, as far as they may be really compatible with those essential objects, the Court will not be influ- enced by any partial views to withhold from them the fair consideration due to them. Glad AND PROCEEDINGS. 3 Glad that you have seen it proper to bring forward this weighty subject, and desirous to be favored with your further communications upon it, as soon as may suit your convenience, We have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedient humble servants, (Signed) Edward Parry, Charles Grant. The Rt. Hon. Robert Dundas, &c. &.c. &c. Letter from the Chairman and Deputy Chair- man to the Right Honorable Robert Dcjndas. Sir, East-India House, 16 th December, 1808. In consequence of a conference which we lately had the honor to hold with you, we have laid before the Court of Directors the letter which you were pleased to write to us, under date the 30th September last, on the subject of renewing the Company's Charter, together with the answer which we returned to that letter, on the 12th October following ; and we are now instructed by the Court to state to you, that thev approve of that an- swer, and are ready to enter with you, through the me- dium of their Committee of Correspondence, into a con- sideration of the various objects to which it may oc pro- per to attend, in bringing forward so important a mea- sure. At the present moment it would, in the opinion of the Court, be premature in them, to proceed to any do- tailed specification of those object;., to which it may be proper, on the part of the Company, to attend, or to anticipate any discussions which it may be t ;e wish of His Majesty's Ministers to propose ; but the Court beg leave to offer some suggestions of a general nature, as the principal foundations on which a ..ew agreement between the Public and the East-India Company may be placed. 1st. The system by which the Legislature lias conti- nued to the Company the government of trie territories acquired by it in the Ea^t, with a regulated monopoly of the trade, has been held by the most eminent persons B 2 conversant 4- EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE conversant with that quarter and its affairs, to be the most expedient, both for the foreign and domestic in- terests of this country. Under it, those territories have been improved, and the security and happiness of the vast population they contain have been signally increased. It is also a system which establishes salutary checks for the exercise of the authority lodged in this country over the Indian administration, and for all the local details of that administration, in its political, judicial, financial, and commercial departments ; and provides with singular felicity for a succession of a body of able and honorable European servants, who yield in general character and utility to no class of public functionaries under the Em- pire. In like manner, the constitution of the Indian army has proved itself calculated to produce a body of officers of high military spirit, and of very distinguished skill and conduct. The Court, therefore/ trust that no material change in this system ; — no change which would affect its principles or impair its efficiency, will be pro- posed. 2d. In this case, it will be unnecessary to enter into any discussion of the right of the Company to the ter- ritorial possessions ; a right which they hold to be clear, and must always maintain, as flowing from their acquisi- tion of those territories, under cue authority, and after long hazards and vicissitudes, and great expense. 3d. The situation of the Company is, at this time, very different from what it was at the last renewal of the Charter, in 1793. European war, with hardly any in- termission, through the whole of the period that has since elapsed, has exceedingly increased the expenses, and re- duced the profits of the Company at home ; and has like- wise enlarged the scale of expenses abroad ; where, more- over, wars with the Native Powers have been repeatedly carried on, to the vast accumulation of the Indian debt, now advanced from eight millions sterling, at which it stood in 1793, to about thirty-two millions. Without meaning at ali to advert, in this place, to the question' concerning the policy of some of those wars with the Princes of India ; it is safe and proper to affirm, that they were nor, in any degree, directed by the Executive Body of the Company, but proceeded from causes which that body could not control. As, in consequence of all the events which have happened since the year 1793, the be- nefits AND PROCEEDINGS. 5 nefits intended to the Proprietors of East-India Stock, by the Charter then passed, have not been realized ; so the Court trust, thai in the formation of a new Charter, due care will be taken to secure their proper share of advantage in any future amelioration of the Company's affairs, and especially that no measure will be adopted, which can have the effect of reducing the value of their capital stock. The dividend on that stock, which is only equi- valent to the legal interest of money, is all that the Pro- prietors have ever received from the united sources of Indian revenue ana Indian commerce, whilst the country has oeen enriched by the long continued influx of private wealth, and raised in the scale of nations by the political importance of the Indian empire. 4th. The liquidation of the Indian debt is, on all hands, agreed to be a measure of indispensable necessity. From the magnitude to which the debt has now risen, and the circumstances of the present unexampled time, the aid of the Public will probably be necessary to the attain- ment of this most desirable object. For the aid that may thus be afforded, the Court conceive that sufficient means of reimbursement from the Indian territory and revenue may be found ; and the arrangement of a plan, for these purposes, might, as the Court conceive, form a very material part of the provisions oi the new Charter. 5th. To apportion duly between the Public and the Company the military expenses of the Indian empire, is another measure now become unavoidable. For wars growing out of the Indian system, or out of sources pure- ly Indian, the revenues and other means of the Company were long made to suffice, including even the charges of occasional attacks upon the Indian settlements of Euro- pean nations ; but the influence ol European war has, in the present protracted period of hostility, extended itself more and more to India, occasioning the expense of va- rious distant expeditions, and the increase of the military establishment, particularly in the European troops of his Majesty, which from being twenty years ago only a very few regiments now amount to above twenty thousand men, and those of the most expensive description of troops composing the military force of British India : nor is it at all improbable, that from the avowed design »i France to invade our Indian possessions with great armies by find, it may be necessary still largely to augment our Euro- pean S EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE pean force in that quarter. For a war of this description the Indian revenues, if unincumbered with debt, would be very inadequate. It would be an European war for European objects ; a struggle between Great-Britain and France, on the soil of India, for the maintenance and support of their power in Europe. For such an object, to which the national funds only are commensurate, the national funds undoubtedly ought to provide ; and as we tnow that, in this, we state only what, your own mind has already perceived and approved, we the more con- fidently hope, that in a new Charter proper attention will be paid to the due regulation of so important a concern. 6th. As the early renewal of the Charter will serve to strengthen the hands of the Company in the transaction of their affairs, and improve their credit, so its renewal, for the like period as the present one run, and from the time of its expiration, would conduce to the same ends ; and the Court are not aware of any objection to the pro- position of this term. We have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedient humble servants, (Signed) Edward Parry, The Rt. Hon. Robert Dundas, Charles Grant, &e. &c. &c. Letter from the Rigid Honorable Robert Dundas, dated the 2Sth December 1808, to the Chairman and Deputy. Gentlemen, Downing Street , 28 th December 1803. In submitting to your consideration such observations as hare occurred to me on your letter of the 16th instant, it is necessary that you should understand them to be merely 'preliminary, in contemplation of future discussi- ons, and by no means as the result of an}' plan or pro- jected system, matured in concert with His Majesty's confidential Servants. It. will depend on the judgment which the Court of Directors may form on the propriety or necessity of adhering to the present system of their Indian trade and administration in all its parts, whether 1 shall be enabled to hold out to them any expectation, that their application to Parliament for a renewal of the Company's AND PROCEEDINGS. 7 Company's Charter will meet with the concurrence of Government. I shall follow the order adopted in your letter, in respect to the subjects which you have particularl)' mentioned, and shall offer some additional remarks on any other im- portant branches of the present system, in which altera- tions may probably be deemed indispensably necessary. 1st. Concurring in substance with the proposition con- tained in the first article, I shall not enlarge upon its de- tails. I have not yet heard or read any arguments against the continuance of the system under which the British Possessions in India are governed, of sufficient weight to counterbalance the practical benefits which have been derived from it, in their increased and increasing prospe- rity, and the general security and happiness of their in- habitants. It is possible that the same effects might have been produced under a government immediately depen- dent on the Crown ; but for the attainment of those objects, the experiment is, at least, unnecessary, and it might be attended with dangers to the Constitution of this Country, which, if they can be avoided, it would be unwise to encounter. Any alteration, therefore, winch may be suggested in this part of the system, will proba- bly be only in its details. It may, however, be deemed advisable, to extend the controlling authority of the Board of Commissioners to such proceedings of the Court of Directors in England, as are immediately connected with the government or revenues of the Company's ter- ritorial possessions in India, mure especially if the sug- gestion contained in your fourth article should be adopted. 2d. In the view which I have already taken of the pro- position contained in the preceding article, it is certainly unnecessary to discuss the question of the Company's right to the permanent possession of the British territories in India. It is impossible that this right should be relin- quished on the part of the Public, or that a claim can be admitted on the part of the Company, to the extent which has sometimes been maintained, and to which you seem to have adverted in the second article. 3d. It is equally impossible to acquiesce in all the reasoning, though I am perfectly willing to concur in the conclusion deduced from it in the third article. I think it very desirable, that no measure should be adopted, in the renewal S EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE renewal of the Charter, which would have the effect of reducing the value of the capital stock of the East-India Company, and that due care shou'd he taken to secure their proper share of advantage, in any future ameliora- tion of their affairs; but as the law has regulated the mode in which those affairs, at home and abroad, should be administered, I cannot enter into the distinction which is stated in this article, and which I have met with on other occasions, as to the equitable claim of the Company to any remuneration from the Public, or other benefit, on account of wars, or other events which, as represented in your letter, did not originate in " the Executive Body «« of the Com pan v, but proceeded from causes which " that Body could not control." It would be premature, in this stage of the discussion, to enter into any details, as to the proportion of benefit to be derived by the Company or the Public, respectively, from any future amelioration in the state of your finances; and any contingent expectation of that nature must, at all events, be postponed, till a large portion of the Indian debt has been discharged. 4th. The liquidation of that debt is undoubtedly a measure of indispensable necessity, not only to the Com- pany but to the Public. If we were now called upon to discuss the right of the Public to the territorial revenues which have been obtained in India, cither by cession^ or conquest, it would be impossible to relieve the question from the fair claims of the Company and their creditors to a reimbursement of the expenccs which have been incurred, and the discharge of the debts which have been contracted, in the acquisition and maintenance of those possessions. Entertaining that opinion, and convinced thatthe liquidation of the Indian debt, in the most speedy aud effectual mode, would be a measure of mutual inte- rest and advantage, I do not suppose that your suggestion in the fourth article would be objected to by Government, provided the necessity, or at least the expediency of such an interference, on the part of the Public, is made ob- vious and apparent, and provided, also, that sufficient security is afforded for the punctual payment of the in- terest, and of an adequate sinking fund, for the liquida- tion of the principal of any sums advanced for that pur- pose. I need not remind you, however, that any such aidfroru.the Public will be unavailing, and the relief. af- forded AND PROCEEDINGS, forded by it will be temporary and delusive, unless by the zealous exertions of your Governments abroad, and the minute and detailed investigation and unremitting atten- tion of the Court of Directors, the ordinary expenditure in India, including the interest of debt, shall be brought within the limit of your annual income. The most san- guine expectations of a result even more favorable, and of a large surplus revenue above your ordinary expences in time of peace, have recently been conveyed to you by Lord Minto ; but I trust that the Court of Directors will not be induced by those hopes, however well founded, to relax in their exertions. Every item of those, or any other estimates, which the Court may exhibit, must be strictly scrutinized and compared with the actual results of former years, and with the. detailed account of any reduc- tions which may have been ordered or carried into effect. •5th. I can have no hesitation in acceding, with some limitations, to the principle for which yon contend in voii'r firth article. It \± absurd and unreasonable to suppose, that the East-India Company, out of their own revenues ' can long maintain a contest against the power of France aided by the greater part of Europe and a bt'rge portion of Asia. If the principal theatre of the war between European nations is to be transferred to H'indostan, it' niu&t be supported, to a considerable extent, by European resources; and if our empire in India is an object worth/ preserving, this country must contribute to its defence; against any attack of the description which we have been taught to expect. The extraordinary expences incurred in the necessary preparations for such a warfare, or in the actual contest, ought not, in justice, to be imposed as a burthen on the Company alone, even if they were able to sustain it. oth. lam not aware of any reason for extending the duration of the Charter beyond such a limit, as, with the unexpired term, will be equal to the period granted in 1793 ; but I state this merely on the first consideration of ♦ he subject : and if the general question is to be discussed, I shall pay due attention to any suggestions which the Court may think it right to offer on that particular point. Having thus adverted, at greater length perhaps than was necessary, to the various topics introduced into your k-ttcr, I shall proceed to state such observations as appear c to 16 EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE to me necessary to be submitted to the consideration of the Court of Directors, for the purpose of enabling them finally to decide, whether, under the circumstances of the present situation of the Company's arlairs, and of the expectations which will probably be entertained by the Public, and sanctioned by Government, they will adhere to their intention of applying now to Parliament for a re- newal of the Company's Charter. It will readily occur to the Court, that whenever an op- portunity is afforded of deciding in Parliament on the propriety of continuing in the Company any privileges of a commercial nature, it will be important to consider, whether the system established by the Act of 1793, for the trade of private individuals between Britain and India, has answered the expectations, or fulfilled the intentions of the Legislature. It is wholly unnecessary for me, at present, to enter into any detail of the various discussion? which have taken place on that subject. The arguments on both sides of the question must be familiar to the Court, and the opinions of those persons who have turned their attention to it, have, in all probability, been long since fixed and settled : it is fit, therefore, that the Court should now understand distinctly, that I cannot hold out to them the expectation, that His Majesty's IVlinisters will concur in ail application to Parliament for a renewal of any privileges to the East-India Company, which will prevent British merchants and manufacturers from trading to and from India, and the other countries within the present limits of the Company's, exclusive trade (the dominions of the Empire of China excepted), in ships and vessels hired or freighted by themselves, in- stead of being confined, as at present, to ships ij) the service of the Company, or housed by the Court of Directors. In the detail of any legislative provisions which it might be expedient to enact on this -subject, it would be absolutely necessary to guard a^inst the abuses which would arise,' from facilities thus ahbrded'to persons attempting to settle and reshie in the British territories, without a iicensc from the Company, or without the sanc- tion or knowledge of the local Governments. There are various other point; to which it would also •fee necessary to pay due attention, not only as being important to the Company and ;o the general trade ot the country, but essential to the y.-curi.ty and easy col- lccuo» AND PROCEEDINGS. 11 lection of the public revenue. It would obviously, how- ever, be premature, on this occasion, to enter into any further detail, and I have confined myself to a mere statement of the general proposition. Another point, which would probably be deemed in- dispensable, is an alteration in the military system in India, for the removal of those jealousies and divisions, which have unfortunately been too prevalent, between the different branches of the military service in that quarter, and which must, at all times, be highly pre- judicial to the public interest ; and for the correction of the anomalous system of divided responsibility, which prevails at present in this country, in every thing that relates to the military defence of India. The only ef- fectual remedy for these evils will, probably, be found in arrangements for consolidating your Indian army with the King's troops, founded upon the plan so strongly recommended by Lord Cornwallis, with such modifica- tions as the actual constitution of your service may render expedient or necessary. These arrangements need not be attended with any alteration in the svstcm of promotion now in operation among the officers of the native branch of the service, or with any diminution (they might more probably produce an increase) of any other professional advantages which those officers now enjoy ; neither would they, in any degree, interfere with the general authority now possessed by the Court of Directors and the Governments in India over all His Majesty's forces serving in those parts, or with their control over all disbursements of a military nature. I am, moreover, not aware of any reason against continuing m the Court of Directors the nomination of all cadets, destined to hold commissions in the Indian army. Having thus stated to you, for the consideration of the Court of Directors, the principal points to which I was desirous of drawing their attention upon this oc- casion, I bave only to assure yon, that it will be the earnest desire of His Majesty's Government to suggest to Parliament such a system onlv, as shall be conformable to the principles on which the regulations of 11S4* and .179.5 were founded, as will secure to this kingdom all the benefit that can practicably be derived from its trade with our possessions in India, and to the natives of those countries a government, and an administration of laws, c 2 suited 12 EAST-Ifc'DIA CORRESPONDENCE suited to their customs, habit?, and prejudices, and con- sistent with the British character, and which shall also be. strong and efficient, without adding unnecessarily to the authority of the Executive Government at home, or increasing, to any dangerous extent, the influence of the Crown. I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, Your most obedient humble servant, (Signed) Roeert Dundas. To. the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the East-India Company. Letter from the Chairman and Deputy Chairman to the lit. Hon. Robert Dundas. Sir, East-India House, \Zth January 1809. The letter winch you did us the honor to address to us, on the 28th of last month, on the important sub- ject of a renewal of the Company's Charter, has re- ceived the most serious consideration of the Court of Di- rectors, and we are, by their unanimous resolution, in- structed to submit to you the following answer to it. The Court having, in the letter which we had the honor to address to you on the lGth of last month, thought it sufficient to sketch the outlines of those principles and propositions which should, in their opinion, form the basis of a new Charter, and the reply you have been pleased to make to it, declaring the same intention of stating observations merely preliminary, and " not the " result of any plan, or projected system, matured in " concert with His Majesty's confidential Servants," our present letter will abstain from any discussion of minor points, those especially relating to the proceedings of the Court of Directors with servants of the Company returned from India, to which article your letter is understood to allude ;and likewise from some other points, connected with the exercise of their authority at home, which may be found to require revision and modification. Neither can it be necessary to go now into the subject of the Indian Ex- penditure, although it is impossible, after the notice taken of it in your letter, to omit saying, that the Court feel with the. liveliest solicitude, how indispensable it is to AND PROCEEDINGS. 13 to reduce that article far below the income, and are de- termined to act accordingly. The attention or' the Court wilt, therefore, be con- fined, at present, to two propositions of the highest importance, contained in your letter; the one suggesting such an enlargement of the trade of individuals with British India, as shall admit into it indiscriminately the merchants and the ships of this country ; and the other, the transfer of the Company's Indian army to His Ma- jesty. Ii these propositions had not been accompanied by the declaration with which your letter concludes, they would have filled the Court with the deepest concern ; but you are pleased to close the whole of your observa- tions with an assurance, " that it will be the earnest desire- " of His Majesty's Government to suggest to Parliament " such a system only, as shall be conformable to the tc principles on which the regulations of 1734 and 1793 " were founded, as will secure to this kingdom all the " benefit that can practicably be derived from its trade " with our possessions in India, and to the natives of " those countries a government and an administration of " laws, suited to their customs, habits, and prejudices^ " and consistent with the British character, aiui which '* shall also be strong and efficient, without adding unnc- if cessarily to the authority of the Executive Govcrn- '•'* ment at home, or increasing, to any dangerous extent, " the influence of the Crown." Satisfied, by' this dc claration, that His Majesty's Government understand the interests of this country and of British India too well, to intend any alteration that would subvert or endanger the system by which those vast possessions have been ac- quired, governed, and improved, and by which alone they can be held, to the mutual uenefit of their immense population and of the paramount state, the Court must, of course, believe, that the propositions which have just been quoted, are supposed to be compatible with the con- tinuance oi that system, or reducible to a consistency with it. These suppositions the Court are now called upon to examine, and they will endeavour to do so with the respect due to the authority with which thev have to treat, with the duty which they owe to their consti- tuents, and with that regard for the interests of their country, which they do not intend, nor icei tltemselves required j4 EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE required to sink, in supporting the integrity of the pre* sent Indian system. _. If either of die two propositions, respecting the Indian trade and the Indian army, were to be acted upon, m the sense .which the terms of it seem obviously, to convey, the Court have no hesitation in declaring their decided conviction, that it would effectually supercede and des- troy, not merely the rights of the East-India Company, but 'the system of Indian administration, established by the Acts of 1784 and 1793 ; and with respect to the lat- ter proposition, for the transfer of the native army, it appears to be incapable of any modification, which would not still make the overthrow of the present system the certain consequence of it. The Court will take the li- berty to state the reasons on which these opinions are founded, with as much fulness as the bounds of a letter, and the' dispatch necessary at this period, will permit, premising onlv, that in the time and space to which they must now confine themselves, many things, belonging to the consideration of both subjects, must be omitted. With respect to the Private Trade, the Company are not governed by narrow- considerations of commercial profit or commercial iealousy ; and, in fac 1 :, the Indian trade, as an object of gain, has gradually ceased to be of importance either to the Company or to individuals. The admission into it already accorded to British resi- dents in India, with trie prodigious increase of the cotton manufactures of Europe, the changed circumstances ot the European Continent, and the almost incessant wars which have prevailed for the last sixteen years (wars still without any near prospect of termination) have reduced the value of that trade to a very low point. The Court are actuated by a thorough persuasion, that the unlimited freedom, for which some persons have, of late, years, contended, would have political consequences more m- Vurious to the power of this country and of British India, than the advantages anticipated by sanguine minds, from an enlargement of the commerce, could compensate, if those adantages were to be realized ; and that, moreover, the expectation of such advantages is unfounded, resulting from general presumptions, which are contradicted by the nature of the Indian people, climate, and produc- tions and by the experience of more than two centuries.- In any scheme of intercourse, purely commercial, be- AND PROCEEDINGS. 15 twee.) this Country and India, the leading objects must be to export as many as possible of our home manu- factures, and to import those commodities, which would either beneficially supply our own consumption, or the demand of other countries, European or Transatlantic: and it. is, no doubt, imagined by many persons, that if the trade to India were perfectly free, these objects could be attained,, in a degree extending far beyond its present scale. The ardour of individual enterprise, it will* be thought, could nnd out channels, which the settled rou- tine of a Company cannot explore, and carry on com- mercial operations more economically and expeditiously than suits with the habits of monopoly, whilst our most active rivals in the Indian trade would thus be best coun- teracted. The present times, it will also be said, pe- culiarly demand new attempts and discoveries in com- merce, and His Majesty's Government may vetynatural- iy wish, at such a crisis, to procure for the country every possible facility for the exertion of its commercial spirit, and the "employment of its commercial capital. But before a change in its principle alton-ether novel, and obviously connected with national interests of the highest importance, is adopted, it ought to be seen, not oniy on what rational grounds the expectation of advan- tages entertained from it rests, but to what consequences so material a change might expose the country and its Indian dependencies. Now, with respect to the benefits supposed to be de- rivable from opening the trade with India, it is, in the iirst place, to be observed, that no material enlargement, if any enlargement at all, is to be expected in the ex- ports of our manufactures to that quarter. The records of the Company, for two centuries, are filled with ac- counts of their endeavours to extend the sale of British products in India, and of the little success which has attended them. The French, Dutch, and other Euro- pean nations trading thither, have equally failed in in- troducing the manufactures of Europe there. This was not owing to their trading chiefly in the form of Com- panies ; the Americans, who within the last twenty years have entered into the Indian commerce, and traded large- ly, not as a Company, but by numerous individuals, each ptfrsuing' Tiis own scheme in his own way, in which course nd part of the East is left unexplored, carry hardly any European le EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE European manufactures thither, their, chief article fox the purchase of Indian goods being silver ; an 1 :ach has.beeu the stauof the trade from Europe .to I^dia.. sjjice. th$ time of the Romans. Tins state results from the nature cf the'ftdian people, their climate, and their usages. The articles of first necessity their own , country furnishes, more abundantly and more cheaply than it is possible for Europe to supply them. The labour of the great body of the common people" only enables them to subsist on rice, a: id to wear a slight covering of 'cotton cloth ; thev, therefor, , can .purchase none of the superfluities we offer them. The comparatively few in oetter circum- stances, restricted, like the rest, by. numerous religious and civil customs, of which all are remarkably. tenacious, find few of our commodities to their taste, and their cli- mate, so dissimilar to ours, renders many of than un?uj.t- t able to their use; so that a commerce between them and us cannot proceed far upon the principle of supplying mutual wants. Hence, except woollens, in a very limit- ed' degree, for mantles in the cold ea'son, and metals, on a scale also very limited, to be worked up by their own artizans for the few ut-nsiis they need, hardly any of bur staple commodities find a vent among the Indians ; the other exports which Europe sends to India being chiefly consumed by the European population there, and some of the -descendants of the early Portuguese settlers, all of whom, taken collectively, form but a smallbody, in view to any question of national commerce. What is here said does not relate only to those ,par& ,' of India where the Company have settlements or factories, but tb all the shores that embrace the Indian Seas, from the Gulfs of Persia and Arabia to the Eastern Archipelago. Many advocates for a free trade may suppose, that hv SCT vast a ranfe, numerous positions, favorable for the vent of European commodities, are still unexplored ; but they are not aware, that in the British settlements, which themselves extend on the west to Cambay, and on the east to China, there arc a number ot merchants, native and European," who carry on what is called the coasting trade of India, wrth i! great spirit, sending their ships to every rirart, insular or continental, where any profitable" corttniodities can be either sold "or bought. At all- those matts, Ktitdpeancommoditie.s have been tried by the en- terpri20 bf^ individuals. • The Kttle demand that hii been ►Vv •...-'-•...,:..;:: '.- *- - ■ ; - .found' AttD PROCEEDINGS, 17 found for them has been supplied ; and residents, settled in India, can carry into such parts the trade in European commodities, which it is now open to them to receive from this country, with more facility and advantage than merchants settled in England. To these facts and observations, arising from the nature and circumstances of the people and countries of India, one remarkable argument may be added, furnished by our own experience at uome. In the Charter of 1793, provision was made for the export of British manufactures to India, by any individuals who might choose to embark in that trade. The Company were required to find them tonnage to a certain extent, which has always been allotted at a rate of freight cheaper outward, as well as for the returns, than the Company themselves pay, or, as the Court think, than private ships could furnish it. But, in all the time that has elapsed since, very few appli- cations, and these to a small extent, have been made, for leave to export the woollens, metals, and other staples of this country, on private account, the chief applications having been for the freight of wine, for the consumption of Europeans : and this is not properly a British produc- tion, nor is it so much an increase in the trade, as a trans- fer of it to the private merchants from the commanders and officers of the Company's ships, part of whose advantage used to arise from being the carriers of this commodit}-. All these circumstances, to which other corroborations might be added, the Court trust will fully evince, that the entire opening of the Indian trade to the merchants of this country, would not, in reality, extend in any considerable degree, if at all. the consumption of British manufactures. Let it be inquired, in the next place, whether the adop- tion of so great a change in our Indian system, would be followed by the discovery of such new and valuable pro- ductions of the East, as would serve materially to aug- ment the trade of this country with the Continents of Europe and America ; for, with regard to the supply of our home consumption of Indian commodities, it cannot be asserted, that the importations already made by the Company and individuals do not abundantly suffice for it, or may not, at any time, be extended to the exigencies of the market; in which, it may be noted, that a prefe- rence is yiven to the cotton and silk manufactures of our 18, EAST-I>vD.iA..C<>RfcKSro.NI)ENCfe ow»i cpuiitr}', and to some of the tropical productions brought from our West-Indian Colonies. Nor can it be asserted, that new; adventurers in the Eastern trade, fitting out from Great-Britain, could, with any profit to them- selves, furnish the home consumption on cheaper terms than it is now supplied; for both the Company, and British individuals resident in India, must have an advan-* tage over such adventurers in the provision of goods there (British residents in the freight also), and yet, of late, the great Indian staple of cotton piece goods has been a losing article in this country. . Now, as to the productions of India valuable for foreign commerce, the trade of Europeans, of different nations, jto all parts of it, in the course of the last three centuries, may well he presumed to have left little for discovery in that way, The Portuguese, who, in their early time, spread themselves along all the shores of the Fast, explor- ed every considerable part of it, and they were followed by, the Dutch, English, and French Companies, with their numerous establishments, some of which extended inland to the Upper India. But the modern European merchants, resident in the East, who have long been the chief navigators and adventurers in what is called the coasting trade, have become well acquainted with the commercial capacity of every region washed by the Indian .Seas ; so that many countries supposed here to be little known, because little visited by the ships of Europe, are /amiliar to them, and whatever articles those countries -furnish;, valuable for the commerce of the West, are jalready conveyed, through the medium of private or foreign trade, to Europe. > ■ The chief commodities suited to the European market, which India has hitherto been found to produce, are spices, pepper, drugs, sugar, coffee, raw-silk, saltpetre, indigo, raw cotton, and above all, cotton manufacture* .of singular beauty and in endless variety. These last have, its already intimated, formed, from time immemorial, dfrbe_gran.d staple of India; but from the rise and excel- lence of similar manufactures in Europe, particularly' in our own country, and from the general impoverishment which wars, and revolutions have brought upon the.Corfoj- rient of Europe, .with the obstructions opposed* in much the greater part, of it. to our commerce, the con^umpfcioit of ttie luH'fabricKs], of India has considerably decreased* >.,..' i and "AJrtJf PRd'CETE DINGS. ' 19 and it is not likely that it can be restored to its former t^andard. Spices, sugar, and coffee, have been furnished chiefly from the Moluccas and Java, Dutch islands not in our possession, nor, in a commercial view, worth the expense of conquering and keeping them. The cinnamon of Ce}'lon, now ours, may be brought, in sufficient quan- tity for the supply of all Europe, in one or two of the Company's ships. Pepper is a very losing article. Sugar has been, of late, imported from our territories ; but the necessary expense of conveyance from so great u distance, prevents it from being profitable, and it can be much encouraged only at the expense of our West-India colo- nies. Raw silk and indigo, now produced in great per- fection in Bengal an I its dependencies, have been brought to that state, by the expense incurred, and the support afforded by the Company. Both are articles occupying little space, in proportion to their value. The factories where tiie former is collected atjd prepared are in the hands of the Company, who have, in the course of many years, established them with great labour and expense. They can furnish not only all the raw-silk this country requires, but much for the consumption of the Continent^ if :t was possible to bring it there into competition with the ra-v' silk ol Italy, and the tonnage already employed by t!.e Company is quite sufficient for its importation from India. The iftd.go produced in Bengal and the adjacent Provinces is equal, probabiy, to three-fourths of the demand ;f all Europe, and may easily be raised to the whole demand ; but tiie manufacture of t his article h entirely, and the trade in it chiefly, m the hands of indi- viduals, who need and require no shipping from this eountry, except what tli3 Company provide, to convey to Europe, all that Europe can consume of it, Saltpetre, furnished only from Bengal, is, fur political reasons, prohibited to foreigners, and exported exclusively in the ships of the Company : for the same reasons, it couki heter be prudent to allow the private ships of this country to carry it away at pleasure. Where then is the scope tor the admission of new shipping and new adventurers, without limitation, into the trade of India with Great- Britain? In general, it may be observed, that the com- modities Which have hitherto come from that country, in vjsstate prepared for use, such as ihe great staple of cotton ^ftece £oodf. r being articles of luxury, can Irtive only 4 - 'a v 'J limited 20: EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE limited consumption, and that the demand for them could not be increased, at all in proportion to tke number of rtew^ competitors that should enter into the trade. The same may be said of all kinds of spices and drugs, which, from their nature, have a limited consumption ;" and, with Regard to the important articles of raw-silk and indigo, which require a further preparation before they are'used, there, is already abundant provision made for their impor- tation, to the utmost extent of demand. - There remains then to be considered, of all the com- modities above enumerated, only the raw material of cotton; and to this maybe added another, of high impor- tance, which India is in time likely to produce abun- dantly, namely, hemp. Now, with respect to the for- mer of these, trie Company have formerly imported it, and permitted private merchants to do so ; but it was found, that the cotton of India could not enter into om- pet'ition with that produced nearer home, in the Brazils, the West-Indies, and North America. Of late, since the interruption of our trade with the last mentioned Country, the Company have themselves commissioned cotton from India, and have been willing to encourage individuals to export it from thence ; but that it can support a competition with the cotton of Georgia, when the American embargo is taken off, or become an article of extensive demand in this country, supplied with it from so many nearer quarters, is not very likely. The culture of hemp in India is yet in its infancy. A change in the circumstances of Europe may check it; but if ius not checked, years must elapse, before the quantity pro- duced can form a considerable article of exportation. And with regard to both these commodities of cotton and hemp, it is to be observed, first, that cargoes for Europe cannot be composed-, of them only, some other, more ponderous for its uuik, being necessary for dead weight, and sugar, almost the only article of this nature that India can supply, must generally be rather a losing one : •secondly, it is to be observed, that the private ship^ready to be employed in India, mus. be abundantly sufficient tor -the supply of all the tonnage that can be required for these articles, which could hardly absorb any very large amount of capital. Thus, then,' it is also apparent, that the country and productions of India afford no new field ' * -. ,7 ;-: . ■ .■) '-vfcf AND PROCEEDINGS. 21 of importance for the commercial enterprize of the mcr- chants of Great Britain. Bat were it indeed otherwise, where, in the present circumstances of the European Continent, could new commodities, imported into this country from India, find a vent, when many of those already made, and of articles which the Continent used to take off, remain in. our warehouses ? And hence may appear the inappli- cability of that argument, which has sometimes been urged in favor of enlarging, or rather opening the Indian trade to individuals, " that they should be allowed to " bring home the surplus produce of India which the * l Company did not require." There can be no room for additional importations, when the ordinary scale proves too large, But in the use of this plausible plea, respect- ing surplus, produce, there was a] ways a great fallacy. It seemed to imply, that there was a stock of commo- dities in India which continually remained undisposed of, whereas nothing is more evident, than that the produc- tions of any country will be regulated by the demand, and that no agriculturists or manufacturers will go on from year to year to produce that for which they have no sale. The term, as connected with the Company, might also convey the idea, that they were the only punbas^.s, in the country ; whereas, at that very time, British residents; and foreign nations had the privilege -of xpou * ; goods to the western world, and there was a gre.it -oa;ting a;;d internal trade from one part of India to . ;other. But the argument for permitting individuals to xpoi he surplus produce, included fully, thougii ik* professedly, tne principle of transplanting British capital to Ii.dia, in order to raise produce there ; a principle which, it may be thought, this country has already carried suffi lently far in its other distant depen- dencies, and which could not be applied to India without political consequences. But it has been alleged, that the refusal of the Com- pany to make a concession, which appeared to them to be claimed on unbound pictures, and to be pregnant with danger, threw that trade, which might have been brought into the Thames, into the hands of foreigners, particularly the Americano, whose great progress in the Indian trade, of late years, has been charged to an erro- neous policy on the part of the Company. Nothing can 23 EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE can be more mistaken than the whole of this statement. Several European nations having from the native sove^. reigns of India the right of possessing settlements and carrying on trade there, a right which we had confirmed, ■we could not interrupt the- exercise of it whilst they remained at peace with us ; nor, therefore, divert from them whatever portion of the trade their means enabled them to embrace. And, with respect to the Americans, they owe their advancement and success in the Indian trade to the treaty made with them by our Government in 1794, to the belligerent state of Europe since that time, and, above all, to the neutral character they possessed, which enabled them to navigate more cheaply, more ex- peditiously, as well as more safely than our merchants or the Compatvy could, and to supply many parts of the European Continent and of South America, to which our ships had no access. These, with the increase of the consumption of eastern commodities among them- selves, are the true causes of the growth of the American trade with India ; and even the abolition of the Com- pany's privileges would not have transferred the share they acquired of it to our merchants, because it could not have lessened the advantages under which the Ame- ricans then carried it on, nor have gained us either the supply of their internal demand, or admission to many ports which were open to them. What the Company could do, in the way of regulation, to reduce the ine- quality between the American traders and our own mer- chants, you know, Sir, was effected, as soon after the expiration of the treaty of 1794 as His Majesty's Go- vernment thought expedient. - Among the speculations of the present day, the idea may perhaps be suggested, of carrying the production's r>f India directly to the ports of Portuguese and Spanish America; and eagerness for relief from the pressure winch our commerce now feels, may be ready to "make so great a sacrifice of the navigation laws. But such a measure would essentially exclude the mother country from being the medium and emporium of our Indian trade ; and whilst it served to enrich India, rather than Britain, would facilitate the progress of the former to independence. If, however, so dangerous an innovation were not adopted into our commercial code, it is altogether probable that English ships, admitted without limitation ■'■■■'.-. . .... into AND PROCFF. DINGS. 23 into 'the Indian Seas, would take the: liberty of' sailing to those markets which would be thought the most promis- ing ; so that, in effect, the opening of the Indian trade would he not solely or chiefly for this country alone, but for other, perhaps for all parts of the world. Having thus shewn, that the opening of the Indian trade to the subjects of Great Britain could not materially increase, either the export of the manufactures of this country, or its commerce in the productions of India, it will next he proper to consider, what the effects of the proposed change would be upon the East- India Company and upon British India. And, in the first place, it would, in substance and in form, entirely abolish the qualified monopoly which the Company still enjoys of the Indian trade. The admission of all private merchants, at their pleasure, and of their ships, into that trade, would make it as perfectly free as the trade to our American or West-Indian colonies. There would, as to India, be an end of all exclusive privilege of trade. This would not be any modification of the Act of 1793, but an essential departure from it. That act permitted only the export of British manufac- tures, and intended only to provide for the returns to them, and for the remittance ', in good*, of British fortunes fro)ri India ; both on the ships of the Company. The pro- posed measure must, in the nature of it, make the trade irom India not merely a vehicle for the remittance of fortunes acquired there, or the produce of British manu- factures, but a general trade; and what is a still mora radical change, instead of a limited amount of tonnage not incompatible with the Company's system, it admits -.ill sinus, without any limitation, or option on the part of the Company: it throws all India open to those ships, and runs sets aside the Company from being the sole channel und medium of the trade, through their own shipping, or •shipping engaged by them, which completely diverts them of the labt remnant of exclusive privilege in' that trade. It would be no argument to say, that in a trade, by which they now gain iiftic, they might admit, without much sacrifice, the rest of tiie commercial world tosha; : The loss of tin- Indian monopoly, such as it was let* by the Act of il'J'S, would lead, l>v no slow process: <» the entire subversion of the Company", both in- theij? eomuieiciul ** EAST-rNDlA CORRESPONDENCE 2 ' £ i u t ) g,S atUre bas "Planted for tlie government of Br.tish Irnha, of which system the Company fo^ri integral- and essential part. P J If the Indian trade were thrown open, ships Would at first no doubt, swarm into it, a,/ there would be ar ruinous competition in the markets, both abroad and at home Goods would be enhanced',,, cost EsftS well as deteriorated in quality: the . S rllin«r pr ,e es at home, already too low, 'reduced still lower, *X the of Oliver r" u t! ?^ing open the trade ,„ the time or Oliver Cromwell, who, after the experience of a few >ears, revived the Company. The same efFeCf followed from the collision of the Old and New Compart in JESS'S? oi the ,ast cem Tt *■** *& 332 S unite, and their union received the sanction of Govern ment. It ,s not sufficient to say, on this head, that inl creased demand abroad will produce increased supp y and the diminished price of goods at home increase^ find thdrdt . m , 1g %- Vl!J ' f ,en e th » in boU > -entries, het Hi i d * P r ° m the natl,re of the h ^™* and their division into castes, it is not so easy anion- them as in Europe, to meet an increased demand by increaS production : and it is still l ? s easy, when they Z ub- «*-by furnishing thing, of low or ordinary quality, to make them a,m at excellence, wMch the supposition of ncreased sales at home would require. But of such an increase, ,n the present and prospective state of the trade ij, Indian imports, enough has been above said to she the improbab.hty ; and before that supposition could m any case be realised, the ruin of the parties immed.atey embarked in the trade (a trade so distant! requiring large capitals, and making slow returns) mio-ht be completed, with the ruin also of the Company whose establishments would have been deranged by this g eat change. If the change itself did not occasion the fall of trie-Company, the disappointments which the private ad- venturers could not fail to experience would, bv them, be charged to the influence of the remaining' privileges of he Company, and they would not rest until the m hole were extinguished. But it may be observed here, and it is j-jnobsenration^'hiel, might be urged more forta' ally and fnlly, that although the Company have, the just- est^aUnifcoUhose territories, . ,whjch ; the powers yeste^riiv them. by the laws of. this, land,, the. ability of their; isftf* vants, and the hazards they - .have eflcounttrred, ' hav£ i$pav? bled them to acquire, and that this right; was never quesn tipned,. until the acquisitions, and consequently 'ithqunerit of making them, became great j yet that, in a more pe- culiar sense, all the principal marts.and factories of Bri- tish India are their property, acquired in- their purely commercial period, either with their money or by grants from the native princes of the country, and that the power of admitting settlers and traders to them strictly beipngs to the Company. . > , .-One part ©f the present system, and a beneficial one for all parties, is to have only one place of sale for Indian goods, that is London \ to make ail sales by public auc- tion at stated periods, and these sales to be regulated and conducted by the -Company. With the proposed en- largements, it would seem hardly possible to continue that -practice. Different towns would have their own salps, at -their own- times. Individuals might frequently chuscto dispose of their goods by private bargain. The geoe/al resort of buvers which the sales were wont to brjng to, London, a. resort often productive of other com- mejrvial speculations, would thus be at an end ; and the benefit r derived from public auction, when that was the salt; lapae, would be lost, in the midst of many private sajcs'ujwl competitions: but to dispose of the goods of thej Company by private negoeiation, might open a door, toi, many abuses, which would render that mode to- tally- unsuitable for their business. The Company, with such a competition, could not go on to purchase the goods of India. With the cessation of their Indian trade, their Indian subordinate factories, which have been, rear- ed in the course of more than a century, and which are, the, seats of the best manufactures produced;. in- the country, must be abandoned, f and all the commercial braueh of their civil servants be thrown out of employ* Their purchases of goods at home K for,,the /Indian mark- ec, must also cease, with- the circulation of money which . ha* enabled them to support their credit in England,- and to provide for the pay merit, of bills^ ,which it bas c been long andj necessarily the practice t^o draw an them from India ; a practice which, under such, a change of cir- cumstances, -could, not be continued: and, in, [general, e' ' " the 26 EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE the great aid which the political affairs of British India have, at all times, derived from the commercial credit and resources of the Company with the reciprocally bene- ficial co-operation of the different parts of the Company's system, must thus be destroyed. In like man nety the Company must cease to employ the numerous class of excellent ships they have engaged for the Indian trade, ships constructed for warlike defence as well as for com- merce, and rendered expensive only, by being necessa- rily destined and fitted for the performance of political services. Those ships the Company have contracted to employ for the term of their duration : there is a large capital embarked in them, and they can be employed in no other way than in that for which they were buile. When they can no longer be kept up, the means of con- veyance they have hitherto so well afforded for troops, and the large supplies of naval and military stores annu- ally sent to India, must be lost. But there is no reason to believe the evils would end here. The monopoly of the China trade, which it k proposed to continue, would not be safe. British ships, when permitted to range at pleasure through the Indian seas, however interdicted from that trade, would attempt to participate in it, either by resorting to it as the country ships do, under color of carrying on the coasting trade, or by other means obtaining teas, and the other produc- tions of China, at the most convenient Indian ports. Love of gain, disappointments in other ways, the hope of im- punity, would stimulate their conductors to break through restrictions imposed in this country. British subjects, who now navigate the Indian Seas, sail from some one of our established settlements there, and are amenable to the laws of it: it would not be so with men having no do- micile in India. In ranging the numerous islands and coasts of the Eastern Seas, where they would be unknown, and whence they could not be followed to England by complaints, the probability of impunity might tempt them to commit upon the weak natives, accustomed to repose confidence in Englishmen, acts of injustice and licentious- ness, which would wound the national character, raise complaints throughout India,, and set the people against us. In this manner the Portuguese formerly rendered them- selves odious in the East, and contributed to the dowrifall of their own power. In China, where the effects of such a spirit - .AND .PROCEEDINGS. 27 fttiirk woukrbemosttobe .feared, we could eKercise no au- thority, sufficient to control men not within the reach o* the Indian Governments . or to defeat their schemes and as^ sociations for eluding the laws. Practice would embolden them, and time increase their numbers. It is hardly con- ceivable they would not venture upon irregularities .which would offend the Chinese Government, who, whilst the delinquents escaped to England with impunity, would doubtless take satisfaction of the national factory ; and die pride and jealousy of that government, alarmed by repeated instances of this nature, from the desultory visit* of a new order of Englishmen, insubordinate to the -representatives of the nation, might determine to dismiss the whole together. If this extreme case be not apposed, which however is too probable and too mo- mentous in its consequences to be hazarded, can it be doubted, that whilst the duties on. tea continue at even the fourth part of what they are at present, private English ships adventuring to the Eastern Seas will not by means of country vessels and intermediate ports, it by no other means, procure teas, and revive the pract.ee of smuggling them into this kingdom ? The consequence seems in- evitable, and the ships of our own country, especially il allowed to chuse their port of discharge, as the pro- posed change seems to require, would have facilities, which those of foreign Europe or America could not com- mand. In these ways, the China monopoly of the Com- pany, reduced in its profits, would be rendered like- wise* insecure, and in the end untenable ; and the noble fleet of ships, employed' in that trade by the Com- pany, must be also laid aside. How the immense revenue, now derived by Government from the very hioh duties on tea, could, under such circumstances, be realized, or a substitute found for them, may be an im- portant, and, to all appearance, a most difficult subject ^Sre serious consequence than all these would still remain. A free trade to India would, unavc .idably draw after it the residence of numerous arid continually increasing Europeans there, whatever prohibitions m.gh , at first, be opposed to their settling m the country. WU all restraints the importation of ships and goods, taken oil, ,nen must be allowed to follow their prop ,u, andtorem.mattiie place where they land it till hey 28 EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE have disposed of it : they must be allowed to navigate the Inaiafr y §eas, ana.^o' return to the sanie place when, their tnismess calls them : they Mill thus, insensibly, and with hardly reasonable grounds for opposition, domiciliate themselves; nor would an unsuccessful trade prevent them, but many Would seek to indemnify themselves on shore" for their losses by the voyage. The instances of such settlements will be numerous, and it will be impos- sible for any police to follow up the cases of individuals, and continually to exercise a rigorous system of exclu- sion. This has not hitherto been done, though attended with comparatively little difficulty ; and the attempt voald soon, under the new order of things, be aban- doned as hopeless. Colonization must, in such case, fol- low. Large communities of Europeans will struggle for popular rights : new feelings with respect to the mother country, new interests and attachments will then spring up; and in a region so remote, so rich and populous, and so accustomed to yield to the ascendancy of the European character, the tendency and process of these things cannot be difficult to conceive. With the prospect of all these consequences, commer- cial and political, before the Court, it is impossible that they, as faithful guardians of the interest committed to their care, or as men truly solicitous for the welfareof their country, which they profess themselves to be, can advbe tlieir constituents to seek a renewal of their Char- ter, on conditions which would despoil it of all its solid advantages, deprive the Company of their most valua- ble privileges, and incapacitate them from performing, for themselves and the nation, the part hitherto assigned to the.ii in the Indian system. Such a further enlarge- ment of the Indian trade, in favor of individuals, as may be compatible with the preservation of these essen- tial objects, the Court will, in present circumstances, certainly be disposed to recommend. They will be ready to enter into a serious enquiry concerning the concessions which may be made, without trenching upon the prin- ciples established by the Act of 119 '■■ ; and they trust that the justice and wisdom of His Majesty's Ministers - will not require the Company to make essential sacrifices, for the sake of giving to the Public what would, after all, be more an ideal than a real benefit, and be, in other respects, productive of incalculable disadvantages. The AND PROCEEDINGS. 29 The other important proposition which is next to be considered, is the transfer of the Indian Army to the King. The reasons assigned for this proposition are, that an end may be put to the jealousies and divisions which have too much prevailed, between the officers. of His Majesty's army and those employed by the Company, and that the responsibility in the country, of providing for the military defence of India, may be ascertained and strengthened. The Indian army is the. main instrument by which the Company have acquired and retained the territorial possessions they have added to the British Empire. The people of those countries submitted more easily to an authority exercised by means of a body formed from, among themselves. We fought battles and governed provinces as the native powers did ; and our new subjects, undisgusied with the sight of a foreign conquering army, supposed the government to continue substantially the same, and the principal change to be in the individuals who exercised it. The constitution and character which this Indian army has acquired, have been the subject of just admiration. These have been owing, essentially to the happy mixture of bravery and generosity, of firmness and kindness, exercised towards the Sepoys by their European officers. The superior lights and energy of the European character have directed the powers and conciliated the prejudices of the native troops ; but it ■was because the officers knew the people and their preju- dices well. These officers had been trained up among them from an early age: the nature, the usages, and the language of the natives, were become familiar lo them ; and the natives, remarkably the creatures of habit, in return, from being accustomed, became attached to them. Without such knowledge, however, on the part of the officers, they might every day have revolted the minds of so peculiar a race, and have alienated them from our ser- vice and government. An Indian military education, from an early age, is essential to the formation of a good Sepoy officer, and gradual rise in the service by seniority, is no less indis- pensable. In this way, the Indian army h;is been eonsti- tuted and rendered eminently efficient; and all measures, tending to change or weaken the constituent par Is of this fabric, are to he deprecated. Wh^e, excepting a lew regiments SO EAST-IN0-IA CORRESPONDENT regiments of European artillery and infantry, the whole military force of British India was composed of Sepoy corpse the officers of that army, of course, possessed en- tire the emoluments and advantages which the service afforded. The introduction of European troops from His Majesty's army into India altered this state of things. Young officers, of no Indian experience, who had ob- tained their commissions by purchase, took rank of men of long and tried service : the King's officers were thought to come in, also, for too large a share of employments and advantages. To redress the complaints which the Com- pany's officers made of supercessions and partialities, and to give them a better share of the benefits of the service, was the leading object of Lord Cornwalhs's Military Plan of 1794, and with him a principal motive for proposing to transfer the Indian army to the King, no other practicable means having then occurred to him. But the object was, in substance, attained by the Military Regulations of 1796, passed in concert with His Majesty's Government, without that transfer, of which his Lordship did not revive the idea; on his last return to India, those regulations having o-iven increased rank and retiring pay to the officers of the Company's army. The causes of complaint, Iioav- ever, did not entirely cease. To avoid the collision of authorities, the Company had adopted the usage of ap- pointing the Commander-in-Chief of the King's troops, jil§0 their Commander-in-Chief ; and one consequence of this-' -has been, that the Company's officers, resident from cariv youth in India, possessing little influence in England, unknown to officers of high rank in His Majesty's service, have-thought themselves created with less favour and dis- tinction, than younger officers of that service recently arrived, but better patronized. You know, Sir, that there have hecn instances of this sort, which the Court, with' -the sanction of your Board, have interposed to repress : but as long as the British force in India is made op of two armies, so differently constituted, with so large a-' portion- of King's officers, the whole commanded hy generals of His Majesty's service, there will, probably, be rbal or apnrehended ground for the like complaints. They do -not arise because one army has the honour to •belong to His Majesty and the other serve?, the Company, but because the constitution of the two armies are radi- s-alU'- different, and must continue so, whether tie armies are AND P-ROCE.EBI.NGS. - Si are under one head or two. The Indian ar-my eaTOiet^s maintained without officers attached to it from art earl yagENC£ have been sufficient to allow of a moderate dividend to the "Pfopf k'tbrs of* East-India Stock. Over and above this dividend, a surplus sum has been applied, arising from this source, towards the extension of that territory, the acquisition of which has been under the immediate direct tion of His Majesty's Ministers. But the Court are persuaded, that the magnitude of the affairs which the Company have had to manage, has been little known and little attended to, otherwise it would, at once,, have been seen, that one of the principal difficulties with which the Company have had to contend, is a capital, not in any respect equal to the great extent, va* riety, and importance of those affairs. The disbursement of the Company upon the single article of commerce in goods and wares, &c. or of articles necessary for its management, a disbursement of ^ums going from and returning to the Company, from one moment to another, was, at the close of the year 1811, not less than about ^14,347,673- To this must be added, the amount of ad- vances in India and at home, for stores of various kinds, applicable to the purposes of Government, and in constant use for mili- tary equipments, &c. ; of cash, arms, &c. ; and of debts due to the Company from va- rious states and princes, ike. ; and other articles, making, at the close of the Indian year 1810, about 21,282,279 If to these sums be subjoined the absolute expenditure made by the Company, for the acquirement of a territory, with forts, am- munition, &c. and the actual purchase of many factories and territories, building of docks, purchase of forests, &c. including a considerable sum which has been paid "by them, at various times, to the Public, or disbursed for expeditions, and the mainte- nance of captures afterwards surrendered up to the enemy, viz 15,052,170- They form altogether an aggregate of *£5 1,1 82,127 Aggregate X'tf'D PROCEEDINGS. 43 Aggregate disbursements brought forward ^51,132.1^ The capital or the Company is : — In money advanced by the ad- venturers, about .£7,780.000 Ami they receive from the aid of bonds at home . , 7,000,000 And from other contingent Credits, at home and abroad, about "7,787,953 Together — — — 22,567,9o3 Leaving a balance of . . . . £28 ,6 hi, Hi Constituting, at this moment, a permanent debt in India and in Europe. (Sec C) This aggregate of e@5 1,1 82, 127, a part of which sum only has been employed upon the territorial acquisitions of the Company, forms an outlay, beyond the capital of the Company, of so large an amount, as to make it more matter of wonder, how the Company have hitherto been able to carry on the concern at all, than to render it extraordinary that they should have been constrained, respectfully an J at various times, to represent the urgency of their affairs, and to press upon the Public for the mere return of those sums, which had been fairly expend- ed by the Company abroad for the public service; a return which has never 3~et been granted to the Company, to the extent to which, in justice, it ought to have, reach- ed. In every war which has taken pi, ice since the Com- pany became possessed of the territorial acquisitions, large siims of money have been expended in capturing the settlements of the French, Dutch, and Danes, and heavy expenses incurred in keeping the same, till the political views of the Public occasioned these settlements to be restored, in return for other objects, in which the Com- pany had no particular interest. The Company have also been compelled to pay part of the expense of capturing and maintaining an island, afterwards reserved for the ex- clusive benefit of the Crown ; to disburse a considerable sum for a force, of which the Public have derived all the benefit at home ; and even to contribute to the Egyp- tian expedition, the whole of which expenses the Com- pany have always thought ought to have fallen upon the State. This 45 EAST-INDIA. CORRESPONDENCE This large and necessary outlay, in fact, now consti- tutes the source of the Company's embarrassment. A considerable part of the money raised in India upon pe- riodical loans, to meet this outlay, has (as your Lordship welt knows) bv the terms of these loans, which made them payable, if required, in England, and in consequence of a oeneral reduction of interest from eight to six per cent., "been at once thrown upon the Company for imme- diate payment in Europe ; a sum which, without the aid of Parliament, it is impossible for the Company to dis- rhircrr 1 Of this large expenditure, sanctioned, and in many cases specifically directed by the Ministers of the Crown, it may with justice be asked, what part has been incurred for the partial or exclusive advantage of the Company ? —It is evident, that the whole concern has been begun and continued by private exertions alone ; nor have the Proprietors received, by any means, an adequate rfiebnt- pence for those exertions: they have scarcely derived more benefit than the common interest of money. And If India be an object of regard to the world, the Com- pany may have the satisfaction of thinking, that they, at their own risk and expense, have rescued it from contending Nations, and may claim the merit of having laid it at = the feet of their country ; acquired and pre- served, it is true, at a great pecuniary expense, and by such abilities and such exertions, both civil and military, as not only to reflect the highest credit upon the East- India Company, but also to raise, as the page of history will testify, the national character. They venture to hope, that when all the great political relations or this acquisition are considered, the price paid for it will not be deemed as out of proportion to its intrinsic value. The wisdom of Parliament will, the Court make no doubt, be applied to preserve what has been so acquired, and finally do justice to those, at whose risk it has been obtained ; and not be induced to barter positive and Very large immediate advantages, against speculative notions and theoretical plana. In the second place, it has been often urged, that the Company have been favoured, during these exertions, With an exclusive trade, and that the nation has thereby lost an opportunity of extending their commercial cnter- fu-izes over a large' quarter of the globe. It is true, that ■' the AND PROCEEDINGS. 47 the Company have been favoured with tins exclusive trade; but it may fairly be asked, would India have .v °t ng | e ? ™ Gre ^. Bnta ] n if thi * exclusive trade had not existed? lhat this trade would have been of Greater magnitude in the hands of individuals, is yet a^matter that remains to be proved : but it is obvious, that during SI! = of . th ® a bove period, viz. from the year 1768 to 1812 the Public have received, in direct contributions from the Company, a sum not falling short of £5, 135 310 as will appear by the accompanying Account (D) With respect to the immediate produce of this trade to the Public, the Court believe it will bear a comparison with that arising from any other distant possession. It produced last year to the Public the lar*e sum of A )2 a 1 MH W'™*: ™ customs .£759,595, and in excise ~.3,45.,,SoO; and though this return to the Public be larger, as the Court have reason to think, in respect to the capital employed, than the return from any oWer trade, it has, at the same time, been collected with a facility unknown to other concerns ; an advantage which has beer, obtained, partly by the progressive enactment or regulations tne fruit of many wars experience, and partly by the concentration of the trade in a single oort and the prevention of smuggling, which has been' the consequence of it. But what has never yet been fairly estimated in the existence of the East-India Company is, that the whole or these returns have been brought into the exchequer of the Public, without the Public having been called upon tor any direct contribution fur the preservation of the source irom whence they have had their rise, whilst the possessions of the Crown, in every quarter of the globe, have drawn from them a considerable sum for thei? sup- port in troops. What has been saved to the State has thus, the Court conceive, been gamed by the Public, and would amount, as the Court are satisfied, in only twenty years, to a sum of a very great magnitude. From the Navy, indeed, the East-India Company have received important assistance; but such assistance, it must be recollected, has been afforded to them onlyiri common with the rest of His Majesty's subjects That the trade of the Company has been highly bene- fic.al to the Public, in affording a nursery for seamen in tnpy of war, and employment for them in time of j peace, id 41 EAsT^rtwaaiawupsissdrfrHnENcs ^#^*h^4toaafnii^s*«n^ ^s s£ntf tested appreh^t^te^bbaeki;:* ear fcb^fe^^'We^sfl^'^HsJ- BV^ dteiff ^imdtftopystaiiAMKeclJOBs under -xhfy&ojpippflitf* jwotlfetfo*V> har« gradually conuibaJ&?d jto/tl^iM^irftHJa- tib«% -of ttjatT public stock' of national wealth,, which has enabled this country to stand, almost alone, -against the cmited exertions or' nearly all Europe.; jgaim-Kj iisdl ymz-: --«aViWg tiered these cursory c»bsery*i**^&ttpoft Slattern of such 'obvious importance,., we are-- directed;, bjrltt^c t^jurtto state, that as the pecuniary arraugtffflefljtecSQSSS- sat-y for'-the support of the Company cannot, with pfqptfjeiy ovVitlr effect, he made the subject of eanespondence, ri>ey f heg, to "refer these points, as well as all tY&a&j&f inferior "detail, of which there are a great many, to a personal conference between your Lordship and^thfbDft- putation of the Court, which had the honor to watfefaa your Lordship this morning. ■K:j^vs»i fir* ;\\^ have the honor to be, MydLord, ns o\\du c i Your Lordshi p's most obedient humble seryaiitSi - (Signed) - Jacob HpsANQUiiT, - . . Hugh In-gxi** nomitn The Rt. Hon. Lord Viscount Mekille, I k> sb&i* &e.~ &e. &c. *ai v I bnod3J£& :•■; ■".:. _■. /TlflUO: Letter from the Ri^ht Honorable Lord Vj^P^T " M el v i lle to theCii a i r man and Dep u t y Cki«^* .,-.vj - - Mun »rb MAN. Gentlemen, ] India Board, 2\ si March i3f&L^ I have delayed answering your letter of the 4th instep* (received the 6th) until I could transmit to you, at $&&&£ time, replies to the several propositions brought forward,}*? the Deputation of the Court of Director*, a^uut ipvfegffm ©n the 4th instant. In submitting to you these observations, however, I b§£ tg> be distinctly understood, as conveying to you only, the present sentiments of His Majesty's Government 09 jfe several points to which the propositions relate. Public dis- ctasi©oon such an important question, may possibly prod^ge ait alteration of opiaion on some of- the details ; .and though the »abjcct has been fudy coasideied, k mjiy^.dj^me&t^ tessarV, AN» PROCEEDINGS.' 4£ Pessary',- In the further progress of the measure, to propose, •'■oil- 'some points, regulations of a different description from those which are suggested in the enclosed observations* The Court of Directors are perfectly correct in supposing •that it is how, as it has been for a considerable time past, rhe fixed intention of His Majesty's Government, to withhold their concurrence from any proposition which might be sub- knitted to Parliament for continuing to the East-India Com* pany their privileges of exclusive trade on their present foot- ing. It is unnecessary now to discuss, whether the provisions of the Act of 1793 (by which the Company's monopoly was- so far relaxed, as to admit the goods of private mer- chants to be conveyed in the Company's ships) have in any degree fulfilled the expectations or intentions of the Legis- laturei It will not be denied, that the facilities granted by that act have not been satisfactory, at least to the merchants, either of this country or of India. They have been the source of constant dispute, and they have even entailed a lieavy expense upon the Company, without affording to the Public any adequate benefit from such a sacrifice. You will do me the justice to recollect, that in all our discussions on this subject, both recently and on former occasions, the ad- mission of the ships of merchants in this country into the trade of India, in concurrence with those of the Company, has never been urged as a measure, from which much imme- diate benefit would, in my opinion, be derived, either to the country or to the individuals who might embark in the speculation ; and 1 certainly am not without considerable apprehension, that, at least on the first opening of the trade, the public expectation, as to the British territories in India affording any considerable outlet for British manufactures, be- yond the amount of our present exports, may be disappoint- ed. On that admission, however, and on the necessity of guarding against the unrestrained intercourse of Europeans With the territories of the Company, or of the native State. 1 ? m India (in which also I fully concur), nearly the whole ojf the arguments adduced by the Court of Directors, agajnst any opening of the trade are founded. But it must. be- fe- oollected, that in determining the question, as to continuing the whole or a part of the Company's monopoly, it wi.U;fae the duty of Parliament to consider, not merely whethe5"k may be safe to prolong it, but whether it may be qrtfafe»{A abridge or abolish it. As far as relates to the trauWviifc iodia, and several othef countries included within tlwjlwry^t ii of 50 EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE of the Compaq's Charter, the Court do not appear to have succeeded in establishing the proposition, that any detriment will -arise to the public interest, either in this country or in India, or ultimately even to the interest of the Company themselves, from the introduction of private adventurers. If the Company carry on their trade more expensively and with less activity and industry than private individuals, it is unjust to the country, as well as to the inhabitants of British India, that the exclusive monopoly should be continued ; and in such a state of things, the trade is more likely to be ad- vantageous to the country, and beneficial to the individuals in iheir hands, than in those of the Company : but if the lat- ter shall conduct it with skill and enierprize, and with due and unremitting attention to economy, the extent of their capital, and the superior facilities which they must continue to possess, of providing their investment in India at the cheapest rate, will undoubtedly afford them the means of suc- cessful rivalship with all other competitors. In adverting, in your letter of the 4th instant, to the state- ment contained in mine of the 17th December, on the pro- posed transfer of the Company's army to the Crown, you do not appear to have understood accurately the purport of my .suggestion. I entertained no doubt, as to the expediency of continuing to the Company's Governments in India the supremacy of their military, as well as civil authority : but though various regulations may possibly be necessary, with a view to promote *he discipline and efficiency of the army in India, I am not aware, that any legislative enactments are requisite, except as to the amount of force which His Ma- jesty may be empowered to maintain in India, at the expense of the Company, and perhaps also some provisions, in re- gard to the relative powers of the Board of Commissioners and the Court of Directors. In your letter of the 4th instant, you advert to the ques- tion as to how far it may be expedient to admit into the trade with this country, ships built in India and manned with In- dian seamen.' This is undoubtedly an important considera- tion, as it involves in it, to a certain extent, a departure from the principles on which the navigation system of this country has hitherto been conducted. As far as the East- India Company is concerned, it will probably be necessary to leave the matter on its present footing, during the con- tinuance of the war ; but if the trade with India is to be opened to all British ships, in the manner already pointed out, there AND PROCEEDItt-GS 5 . 51 there seems to be no sufficient reason for breaking in "upori the system of our navigation laws, by permitting any other than British ships, with a due proportion of British seamen, to import colonial prodrce into the United Kingdom. I have not thought it requisite, in this letter, to trouble you with any observations on several points adverted to in your's of the 4th instant, which are also noticed in the en- closed paper of hints and of replies to the several proposi- tions. I shall abstain, also, from any remarks on the cal- culations detailed in your letter, and which a-e introduced more with the view, as I conceive, to • vindicate the Com- pany in their past management of the exclusive trade to India and the government of their territorial possessions, than to any practical results to be derived from your statement, in Relation to the matters at present in discussion between His Majesty's Government and the Couit of Directors. The Committee of the House of Commons on Last-India Af- fairs have already submitted to the House detailed statements on that part of the subject, and in any further reports which they may present they will probably complete the investiga- tion. I am, Gentlemen, Your most obedient humble Servant, (Signed) Melville. To the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the East-India Company. Hints submitted to the Consideration if the Jit. Hon. Lord Mel- ville by the Deputa- tion of the Court of Directors, the 4t/i March, 1812. That the renewal of the Charter shall proceed upon the basis of the Act of \1'J'i y and that no greater exten- sion of the trade shall be granted than what was al- lowed by that Act ; but the Tpep'uValibii are ready to rr- eomme:;d Lord Melville's Q,c- sEtRVations on tlt-e Hints submitted to fits- Consideration by the Deputation of t he Court of Directors, 21st March, 1812. 1st. 9 \ 52 *- k§£ W? »fc*J>aA CafcRISPONDENCE Ob$e)~ja(io?n r * ■ ' 6th. 1st, 2d, and- -3d* It is deemed advisable, with a view to the security of the revenue and to other objects connected with the trade to China, to leave it on its pro- sent footing, and to guard, by proper regulations, against any encroachment on that branch of the Company's exclusive privilege. 4th. This proposition ought to be acceded to ; with the reservation, however, that the Governments in In- dia ought to be restricted from imposing new duties, without the previous sanc- tion of the authorities in England. 5th. The Company are understood to have, in some degree, the power of regu- lating the internal trade of saltpetre: in India ; it ap- pears, therefore, to be scarce- ly necessary to impose any other restrictions on the 'ex- portation of- saltpetre ■' from India, than such as may be deemed AND PROCEEDINGS. Hints, 6th. The whole of the In- dian trade to be brought to the port of London, and the goods sold ac the Company's sales, and to be, as at pre- sent, under the Company's management. 7th. The three per cent, now paid to the Company by the private traders, for the warehousing and manage- ment of the private trade, to be increased to five per cent. 8th. No private ship to be permitted to sad for In- dia, except from the port of London. 9th. No ship to be per- mitted to sail, except under a licence from the East-India Company. Ships obtaining this licence, to deliver one copy of their journals at the East-India House; and the licence to contain such clauses, as may be likely to prevent an unlimited or im- proper intercourse of indivi- duals with India. I Oth. Fire-arms, military and nava? stores, to be pro- hibited articles. ■.. :■■;•>, Uth. 58 Ob&ifaations. deemed expedfent'fbl^bli- ticai objects, especially in time of war. 6th. The adoplidrtibrHhe regulation suggested in this proposition, will probably tend to the security and ad- vantage of the puulfc reve- nue, in collecting the duties on all articles imported from the East-Indies and China, as well as other countries to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope. 7th. The Company ought at least to be indemnified from the charges incurred by this management. 8 th. There does not appear to exist any sufficient reason for preventing ships from clear- ing out for the East- Indies from other ports of the United Kingdom besides the port of London. 9th. It will be necessary, either by the regulations sug- gested in this proposition, or by others of a similar descrip- tion, to guard against the evil therein described. 10th. It will probably be necessary to regulate the ex- portation of military stores to the 54 EAST-INblA CO ;mf! luc Li. yJU/J 1 tth. Existing restrictions*. «r«h respect to the article of piece gfoocfe, ta be continued. 12th. It being desirable, as well for the Public as for the Company, that the qua- lity of the silk grown in In- dia should not be deteriorat- ed, it is submitted that this article be confined to the Company. 13th. The ships of private persons to be subject to the same regulations, in respect to convoys, &c. as those be- longing to the Company. '■ 14th. -No private ship to be permitted to sail, either from Great Britain to India, e* ' from India to Great Bri- '•-".,'- tain, RRESP0NJ5ENCE - Obs&Y i vatiojis. the East-Indies, and also di naval stores in time of war. 11th. It is understood that the object of this proposition is to secure to the manufac- turers of piece goods in India the continuance of regular and constant employment, un- der the same system of local management, for their bene- fit, which prevails at present. If that object is likely to be attained, without continuing the restrictions mentioned in this proposition, it certainly would be desirable that they should cease, except in so far as it may be necessary to regulate the importation of Indian piece goods, with a view to the protection of Bri- tish manufactures. 12th. As no such restric- tion exists at present in the 1 importation of silk by private- merchants, and as the rea- sons which have hitherto been adduced, on the part of the Court of Directors, for es- tablishing such a regulation, though entitled to much con- sideration, do not appear to- be conclusive, it will scarcely be deemed expedient to agree to this proposal. 13th. -This suggestion ap- pears to - be perfectly reason- able. • 1 4th. It is understood, that this proposition is Founded on a principle of guarding against the dangers to which vessels of Hints. tain, of a less, burthen than four hundred tons. . 1 5th. The Company to bo subject to no obligation With respect to Exports to India, except in common with the private traders. 16th. The Lascars and Chinese sailors brought home in private ships to be placed under proper regu- lations. Not, upon any ac- count, to be suffered to wander about the streets of London. Good treatment to be secured to them, and the Company to be enabled, by some summary process, to recover the expences to which they shall be subject- ed, in the event of neglect on the part of the owners of such ships in these respects. 17th. The Company to be indemnified for their un- expired engagements for ex- tra shipping, provided for the accommodation of the private traders. 18th, AND PROCEEDINGS. .-* , , a $$. Observations. of less burthen than four hun- dred tons would be exposed on a voyage to die East- Indies, and also of providing for the security of die reve* nue, which might be affected by permitting importations in smaller vessels. These rea- sons, though entitled to due .;,;,-- consideration, do not appear to be sufficiently strong to justify the proposed restric- tion, or the making a distinc- tion, in that respect, between ships trading to the East- Indies and to other countries. 15th. This seems to be reasonable. 16th. It will be necessary to provide, by proper regu- lations, for the care and main-, tenance of these persons, and for their return to the East- Indies. 17th. This proposal would be wholly inadmissible, un-, less it were limited to such "unexpired engagements as do not extend beyond March 1 8 14, when the Company's present term of exclusive prU vilcires -1/ : - $iu1v\ srfJ -; — -231 - feiidsias qj ." '•■rax 3 ?fb 1c :•:'.■. fcfuow y*3fi: ' ;f>£9 "di a corr.es pont>e k ce . , 1 8th. An unrestrained in- tercourse with India to be jjrejrented, and the existing restrictions, with respect to residence in India, to be con- tinued. tSfcb. The number of His Majesty's forces in India to be in future maintained by the East-India Company to be now fixed, and any troops sent beyond that number (except^tthe express requi- sition of the East-India Company) to be at the charge of the Public. •^h r: The Company to bi released from any future account with the Pay Office, and |o be henceforward charged,; either so much per regiment of a given force, or so much per man.. 21st: Tt^He present heavy current and -postponed de- mands of the Pay Office against the Company to be arranged upon some tooting of general equity, and some adwertance in settling this account Obsertdtwm, vileges •will expire ; but the public may fairly look to tlic. Company to bear this bur-', then, as a compensation, to a certain extent, ior the con- tinuance of the excUisjvc^ trade to China. ISth. It will beindispensa-' bly necessary,; for the pur- pose of guarding against the inconvenience herein alluded to, that the existing restric- tions shall be continued, with such alterations as may be re- quisite, in the new system of trade. . ■ 19th., The number of His., Majesty's forces to be main-', tained by the Eait-lndiaV Company may, without j£- ^ convenience, be limited, as herein suggested. It will be" necessary, however, in Con- sequence of the increased ex- tent of the "British ierrit6Vie|^ in India, Vince the passing of the Act by which the nuinbfer is. at presgntf^lated, tnat^ 4 ' t considerable 'addition" should be made to it. 20th. It will be necessary, that the present system of ac- counting between the East- India Company and the Pay- master General should be abo- lished, and new regulations enacted. 21st. These demands must necessarily be arranged on the principles suggested by the Committees ot the House or Commons, who have report- ed upon the subject of theac- • counts herein referred to." If it 57 AND PROCEEDINGS. Hints. VZWZSRGZ -'zmsmaUans. acpoun| fliade 'to the share it were necnSsfy^ or proper, which the Company ha^e been obliged to "bear in foreign captures no't "retain* ed by them, and to their ha- ving been constrained" to"" maintain an JEumpeknancl' native forccj larger than what was required for the defence of the Peninsula, and other heavy expences. t: ■-•■ ' • ■ -.-..• • -'31 J'J \f )o a. ■ 22d. The Proprietors to be secured, as at present, in the receipt of their di- vidend of ten am c^rjt., upon wjijcli, djvidend the capital in libs was raised, J34 '"iW wHoJe of the su rpl ns of '. the , Easulndia Company to be appropriated to a diminution of tlVeirdefits, miti) the debts be reduced to the sum often millions sterling:. in discussing the future regu- lations which it may be deem- ed advisable to establish, res* pecting the affairs of the East- India Company, there would be no difficulty in demon- strating, that the amount of force mamtaihe'd" ftvlndla^as not gone beyond what ^/i^ requisite for the defence 'S.n&' security^ of the Company's ' possessions, and for other "ope* « rations, intimately and inse- parably connected with those objects. ^2d. The Proprietors ought to be secured, as'at presirlt, in their dividend of terYani-i'* la half per. half per cent, the faith of ung .'"■:•■ :?y.*n rti f»i» i ;>fij tr h bets ,3 ,itobe funded by the Minister, the interest of which sh4li.be regularly paid into His Majesty's Ex- chequer, by the Company, together .with any such per ventage,, for the gradual li- ..qui.datiou of the capital or redemption of the fund, as shall be deemed proper by .; His Majesty's Ministers. The twenty-fifth .article did not form a part of the propositions submitted to . Lord Melville, but is now introduced by the Commit- tee of Correspondence, and is as follows, viz. 25th. That, in order to give the utmost possible ex- tension to the commerce of private merchants, and at the same time to secure the Company's exclusive trade to and from China, private ships be not permit- ted to go farther eastward .than Point Romania, at the ; entrance of the China Seas, and to the northward not beyond the equinoctial line. N.B. Should it be the intention of Government 3; that private traders shall be excluded from the Spice ;J Islands, the limits ought then to be for them not to go- to the eastward of the Straits q£ Bally, nor to the north- ;wa*d of the Line. ■;. run:, ■ ■■■■ ' . ■ ■ :■ . . :■ - - Observations* 25th. If the object advert- ed to in this proposition taw be obtained by exclusion fnom the dominions of the Em- peror of China, and a pro- hibition to import the produce of that country without li- cense from die Company, it will be preferable to the mode herein suggested. There seems to lie no reason for excluding the private trade from th& Spice Islands. ATJD PROCEEDINGS. 59 At a General Court of the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East~I?idies, held on Thursday, the 2d April 18 12. Minutes of the last Court of the 25th ultimo were read. The Chairman acquainted the Court that it was assem- bled for the purpose of taking into consideration the papers which were laid by the Court of Directors before the General Court on the 25th ultimo. It was then moved, and after a mature deliberatioi>, " Resolved Unanimously, That this Court having perused the papers laid before them at the last General Court, desire to express the high sense which they entertain of the great ability, zeal, and fidelity, with which the Directors have maintained the interest of the East-India Company. They return them thanks for the powerful •and convincing arguments by which they have shewn the danger which would await the British empire, from open- ing the trade of India, and the immense advantages which ? the nation has derived, in strength, revenue, territory, £tsd character, from the capital and the exertions of this Corporation. That although this Court will feel it their duty, on all ■occasions, to how to the determination of the Legisla- ture, they cannot but observe with extreme concern, that no proposition is suggested of an increased or further dividend, either now or hereafter, or advantage of any kind whatever, to the Proprietors of East-India Stock ; notwithstanding the negotiation for the renewal of ihe •^Charter, in 1793, begun with a proposal for an increase of dividend of two per cent., which Charier opened the trade but in a limited and partial degree ; and notwith- standing that, while such great and progressive advan- tages have been obtained for the public at large, the Proprietors themselves have made little more than com- mon interest of their money. That now to be callod upon to part with an undefined proportion of a trade thus established, and maintained hitherto at their yole expence, without any consideration for the same, seems to them to be whollv inequitable. Under these impres- sions, this Court conudi s to the Honorable Court of Directors the care of its interests in the farther negotia- tion for a new Charter, trusting to the justice of their follow citizens, as well a." lf "> Hi- Majesty's Government : 2 :\\)i\ EAST-IXJ>JA;, S p&«XlPONBEKC£ and ; tO: Parliament, that theyashdi receive that liberal-! cntitifatDftt th© hands of their.coan'tVy. £}i ^ViKl that, the Directors be-, reqmsttkj .to report their' Proceedings, from time to time, to this Court. ? ^inat tbis Court ean not contemplate the essential cfcnge. proposed in the constitution of the Company bv" an unrestrained trade to and from India, witfeo^S cpucern and. apprehension ; not so much on accoj ft the injury to winch it will subject the Company in the ir commerczal privileges and profits, as on account o Z tendency which such a change must have tc X Ju system established by the Lecture, fo tl e crW a^ political government of the Company's territorial pos^ s! sujns, whilst h , s not at all likely to afford to heTom jgffitf interests of this country the advantages expend ~ ^hould, therefore, the opening of the trade to India' takef to' ., P U ■ h ° pe ,» that aij dlle c " ,e *M be- gi-yen to individuals m the Indian trade, with such"iw % fr s ^ch a to most e f ctuaiI ^ ^ uard *** Sf da, : gM? v Aft. which those enlargements might expose the' e^tmg system of Indian administration. P "1 ^^ petition to the Honorable House of Com, tki^ *' ' / mt thlS C ° Urt d0 a iWo the 'above' pei ...Tne Court then, on the question adjourned. Letter / m;2 ft. Deputation appointed by the Court' of Directors to the Right Honorable' the Earl of ■ Buckinghamshire. I he correspondence between the P.oftlcnt of the Board-' of Commissioners, on the part of His Majesty's Govern-' mem,. and the Court of Directors of the EasUidia Co»U papy on the subject of the renewal of the Company'*: Charter, haying been laid before the General Court of Pro,; .Vmm: we now, m eonseau.er.ae of the resolution, of thai: ' ' : ' bodv. AND PROCEEDINGS. : ' 6't Ht&pti propose to ourselves the honor of continuing the cor- 1 q£pQodence with yoor Lordship, and especially tp "reply***- the letters of the late President, dated the 2 rst and 1 23d of Ma^ch, and to his Observations. accompanying ihe fo>ni>ei/ v of these letters. ' In the first place, however, permit us to offer some remarks oftjthe outlines of the negociation, as far as it has hitherto advanced, ami on the opposition which has begun to shew Hi' s$lf tP* certain propositions, respecting the necessity and inY- Pfirtance of which His Majesty's Government and the East--' l^dja -Company appear to have entertained similar sentiments.- 3(lt is manifest, from the letters written on the part of the' Qpurt of Directors, that they have contemplated with-' -the - Uttnost reluctance such an enlargement of the trade to India^ ' as, seemed to be desired by His Majesty's Ministers, because tb/sy believed that the commercial advantages expected from it to this country would not be realized, and feared that it might : eventually endanger the security of the British possessions in the East. We must desire on the part of the Court of D£-- r rectors, distinctly, and in the face of the country, ro state this opinion, not as advanced without conviction, to serve a' cause* but as the genuine result of such knowledge and expe- rience as the Court possess, upon a subject respecting which they have better means of infoimation, than any of those as- sociations who are now eager to take full possession of the Eastern trade, and upon which also it is certainly material that the Public should form just ideas. We hive, indeed,-' yet seen no arguments advanced, in answer to those reasons which the Court have offered against the opening Of the trade, and particularly against the expectation of the great ' increase to be produced by such a measure in the exports from this country to India, and the imports thence. Lord Melville has signified his concurrence with the Court, in thinking that the public will be disappointed, at least at first, in this ex-\ pectation , and though his Lordship has said, that "the " Court do not appear to have succeeded in establishing the " proposition, that any detriment will arise to the Public *' interest, either here or in India, or ultimately even to the " interest of the Company themselves, from the introduc- faCfice eminently .useful. If, therefore, the commercial part -Wf* that. sv item were now to be destroyed, the -political tunc- tions AND PROCEEDINGS. 6$ iions exercised by the Company would be so weakened, a* necessarily to bring into view questions of the last importance to the safety of the British empire in India, and of the British constitution at .home. We hence assuredly rely, that the wisdom of Parlia- ment, and the good sense of the nation in general, will re- sist those rash and violent innovations upon the system of the Company, which the merchants of different towns, pro- ceeding upon theoretical ideas, and overlooking most material facts, now appear to intend, without any certainty, even of extending the commerce of this country, but to the un- avoidable detriment of its political interests abroad and its financial interest at home. , , It was in contemplation of dangers less immediate and .alarming than the designs now avowed threaten,- that the "Court so earnestly proposed, that the renewal of the Charter should proceed, with certain modifications, upon the basis t?t{ e «i,rure4 W^tjtp^iV;, .from me, a ££yiese . government* , to $jjnft? a£,rep£e.sqnt^iye b . Qf.;His,,|\4a}esty. i;ouW s'nbmit. ,-;)«£ i%l^M^4 e ?'»i4 1 ^efofe, iW- T-Qi'd, tHat r Such provisions .will ^^FQciuced into the. "hew Charter, as will effectually 'secure tfe,,gr§at branch of trade, to the Company, and the nation, in the manner; u has -hitherto been £njoye, India to the port of London is an article of esr ^S^al Jn^'fK>rraocc on the whole of the present question, hi-, v^ving. the, safety of the Company, it may be expedient, thax we{6t^esoniewl>at fully the various and powerful coasidera^ tioj4s-CH> which the propriety and necessity of the measure toff} ; — ^These. considerations relate to the usages resulting^ una>'c|i4ably, from the nature of the Company,, which for r^it$eaL;asvwell as commercial purposes, it is. so material* tor|)ria&?fye ; ; from the law of the land , the existing lights- of^ij^i vidua Is.; the conveniency . of the re-exportation of. In;di?ft. commodities ; and the security of the public -je*- vfljgflojs r 3 .:<*,'.: ~*£rom toe first institution of the East-India Company,, theynbave^used the port of London only; and the practice, of selling their imports by public auction only, is also al-. mostteoevat with the Company. t'^Xhe, utility which dictated the first of these practices is; obvi^ws 5 a Utile consideration will shew the other to be .yet iftote -necessary *• If private hargaining and trafficking with- iutlividoals, -and from day to day, were allowed, in the sales.. of >tf\& gxpati imports of the Company, how : many ..doprsr W<>uJflil)e.7ppen for collusion, imposition, and abu^e .1. . It ; ^V^l&lfe; impossible the.., business could go on in ■ that. way,. ; ao4.-dbc.very liability of k- to suspicion, would be en^ugpta. destroy^ thcr .confidence; of- the proprietors and -the. uuhlii;,^ I^siiiei, /the importations of the. Company ^cnajngatf ife'ets?, ae^dWed; seasons*., it. suited, :the ^ convenience of ; -.oih ^ttks^ : > thrtsrfie sales should also be" only at Stated" season;, and K public, 6& EAiT-ltfDlA CORRESPONDENCE public, - which would . ; affor4 M oppor tunity to buyers to resort from all parts, foreign as well as domestic, to those sales.-' ' ". ■ ' :;••■ •••-- -vs -■-" rr , In the ninth and tenth years of King ; William the Thrrd, the Legislature interposed to prohibit the sale of East-India goods, otherwise than by public auction » and in the next year of that prince it was also enacted, that East-India goods should be sold only in London, Thus the law at present stands. The immediate object of the legislature, in these enact- ments, appears to have been the security of the revenue, then appointed to be derived from the customs laid on Indian goods imported : And nothing so effectual could be devised for that security. To bring the imports to one place ; to have them lodged under the keys of the Govern- ment officers ; to have them sold publicly, in the presence of those officers j and, finally, to have the duties, thus carefully ascertained, collected through the medium of the Company, with hardly any charge: the whole of this practice is the most complete provision that can be imagined, against defect, fraud or expense, in realising this branch of revenue to the public. _ ■■ But if this was material in the time Of King William-, -when perhaps the revenue from East-India goods, -intru- ding China, did not exceed «£ioo,ogo, how essential most it be at present to die State, when that revenue exceeds four millions ! ■ . u Widi alt the care now taken, and when London is the only lawful place of importation, it is well known that teas, shawls, silks (prohibited, for the encouragement of our own manufactures), and other articles, are at the present time, to some extent, smuggled on shore from the East- India ships, notwithstanding the penalties of the law ; and when, in addition to the legal penalties, the offending par- ties, if the Company's servants, are liable to further fines and mulcts on all illicit trade. But the hope of evading the heavy duties will ever continue to operate on persons, who look no further than their own immediate prorit or conve- nience. < • , c Every deviation from the established usage would so tar destroy its simplicity and efficiency, and open the way to abuses. Suppose the importations to be allowed to go only to one outport, a new establishment, new expence, new trouble, would be created, and a channel dpe.ieu tor smug- ging;. AND PROCEEDINGS. 6 1 ■ - ' r - , tfne, fraud, and abuse. What would it be, then, if se- veral outports were opened for the landing and sale of In- dian and Chinese goods ? • 1 r •, ir £l ■ jftirt-thw st.llsupppses. the Company, either for it self or for private traders, to be the only medium of importation. If however, all individuals were to be allowed to import, and into all he ports of the United ' Kingdom," especially if ft were aLwed P to' employ ships of small burthen/nvhich drawing little water, could run into obscure ports in the re- mote pfrts of England, Scotland, and reland, g™™** be the practicability of any safe control? Legions of Lus- iom-House and Excise officers must be appointed, at a very great expense; and after all, where the duties a* , so high ^ they are, especially on the articles of tea, silk, and fine muslins smuggling without end must be expefcted. If pn, "te hps-r S e S allo g wedto go to ^ Eastern Is^dstl^ could find means to procure tea ; and ,f also allowed £ .re- turn to the outports, smuggling in that article would be by far the most gaining trade. , > Al A present the duties upon East-India goods are collected and paid in London, at a very smaH gg^^^ST ment, and to the full extent to which thfey -ought to be paid. Thi follows, because the value of the goods is ascertained by competition at the Company's sales. Were every. Lport to havTits India House, where would be tins general com- mon > The same goods which pay theduty ad valors S be liable to oiAmount of duty at Fbwey to a no he at Dublin, to a third at Fort Q*W"*£ ^I^J^u each other and from that paid at London. 1 here WouU Te no tmedy for this inconvenience, whoever may be -d bv interested persons to the contrary. The endless v arte, V 2 ^commodities, renders it impossible dtflAq ^ generally pay what are called ^ doues, o s<, ^F r & H^ ^ r" SVJeight ; but the Spfe ar^ie^V piece goodj.and I many other, muster be rated bv the value, quantity being no U ««S^ It therefore follows, from what has been above observe , that were tlie trade to be carried to the outports of the United JCnXn he" venue drawn from Indian goods must be ^?i& and the .barges ' of collecting it. greatly "fbe n**t lnni;,rf;^t^*»-to Hie t** .of sucn a clKn,, en dfe^W^ tl* persons .already possessed 63 EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE possessed of valuable property employed for the Indian t^^e,'Vri i e iI e^porjters / ! of India commodities from this coun- try, and on the East-India Company itself ? '"'/'The City of London, in their corporate capacity, as con- servators' of the Thames, and all classes of persons in the rrieiropjblis; -who are engaged in the building and outfit of ships'; in the carriage, warehousing, sorting, buying, and selling of the Company's goods, have also a direct interest in the present discussion. The East-India Dock Company have likewise a very great and obvious interest in keeping the Indian trade in the Port of London. With respect to the re-export trade in Indian commodities, at least three fourths of the imports from India have hitherto been for the supply of the continental markets. The foreign buyers repose confidence in the regularity and publicity with wliich the Company's sales are conducted. When the trade was solely in the hands of the Company, the particulars of their cargoes were published immediately on the arrival of the- ships, and distributed all over the continent. Notices of the quantities to be sold, and periods of sale, were also pubf hshed for the like distribution, The sales of each descrip- tion of goods were made at stated periods, twice in the year. The buyers, of course, knew the state of the market at the time of coming to the sale, and the purchases were made un- der an assurance, that no more goods, of such description, would be disposed of before the next sale. Hence they had a certainty of the market for six months. This established a solid confidence, which very much benefited the sales. Such confidence has, no doubt, been much weakened since 1 793> when private persons were partially admitted into the trade. The chief object of the private trader being, as it always must be, to obtain prompt sales to meet the payment of bills, East-India goods are frequently resold, while they remain in the Company's warehouse, merely by a transfer of vouchers. The goods, when so sold, will produce from five to ten per cent. more B than when in the hands of individuals. This is particularly the case as to drugs, which are subject to great adulteration. The confidence that has been entertained of the Compa- ny's regularity and fair dealing has been such, that the fo- reign buyers have given their orders to their correspondents in London, on the faith merely of the descriptive marks ; and goodsj AND PROCEEDINGS. 69 goods, on their arrival on the Continent, frequently pass through various hands, before they are finally unpacked. By the mode proposed, it is to be feared the foreign buyer will cease to be at any certainty as to his purchases and the quality of the commodities, and this may, eventually, lead foreigners to look, directly to India, for the supply that has hitherto been famished through the medium of this country. , To speak now of the effects ol the proposed change upon the interests of the Company. And first, with respect to- the East-India trade, properly so called, as contradistinguished from the imports from China. If the mode of private sale of Indian goods in every town in the kingdom were intro- duced, would not the stated and the public sales, to which the Company are restricted, be continually anticipated, and consequently the supply of the foieign markets be so also ; though on the whole, these markets could not take off more ? Could these sales, then, secure a general assemblage of buyers? Could it be reckoned upon, that the Company's goods would go off, as they usually 'nave hitherto done, at the sales ? Could the prices be expected to indemnify the Company, when the market should be lowered by the neces- sity or impatience of private importers ? Could the realiza- tion, in money, of the Company's Indian imports be de- pended on : that realization, so necessary to the finances of the Company ? and if not, how could the currency of their affairs be preserved? how could they pay for exports to India? how could they maintain the fleet of ships they now employ in their Indian commerce ; a fleet so necessary for the transportation of troops and stores and warlike services in India ? And if the Company's Indian coinmticc failed, and so much ot the Indian imports were transferred to outports, what must become of many of the Company's wharfs, ware houses, and other articles of dead stock, formed at a vast expense, in consequent e of this Indian trade? And what would be the benefit to the nation by the change ? Would it be any tiling else but transferring to Bristol, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Dublin, that which London now has ; Would it be really any accession of benefit to the empire .it large J And what, to look towards India, would be rh -. effect of an unlimited trade from the out ports ol Great Bii- taiu and Ireland to all those regions ? Would it be possible. to enforce the regulations which I lis Majesty's Ministers think absolutely necessary, for preventing an uncontrolled intcrcour&c *J0 EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE intercourse with the East, and for averting the evils that would ensue from it ? These questions, to add no more, ought to be yery clearly and satisfactorily answered, before so great a change is at- tempted, before an order of things that has subsisted so long, and done so well, is subverted and destroyed. If great and sudden innovations ought, at ah times, to be regarded with caution and distrust, surely ought those in particular, which are proposed by men for their own immediate advantage. But what are the arguments with which the merchants of the outports may be supposed to enforce their claim r Natural right;— the freedom of trade; allowing every man to carry on his own business in Ins own way , tlie odium of the principle of monopoly ; the disadvantage with which they would carry on the trade, ir they were obliged to bring back their ships to London, instead ot their, own ports; the disadvantage to the country con- sumers. . , u 1^ To all this it may be replied, that supposing the whole true, are these arguments of weight and value sufficient to overturn the present long established system ot the Com- panv, and to endanger so large a port.on of the public revenue f As to the arguments from natural right, $c, such arguments must always be limited by considerations of practical good. The only practical arguments that occur in favor of the outports, arc the advantage to the Rierchants themselves and to the country consumers. Now what is the amount of this advantage ? Let it not be forgotten, that at present it is problematical at teas*, whether any great Indian trade can be established by the private merchants; that, at any rate, the chier part ot Indian goods imported into England is intended tor re-ex- portation ; that London is the fittest port and mart for the foreign trade, especially since the Warehousing Act; that there is really little consumption of Indian goods in the interior of this country ; and that if no great accession of trade should be Drought to the country by the private merchants, then they will have sacrificed the existing sys- tem, without obtaining even the object for which ttic sacrifice was made. . -^ ! It mav perhaps be said, that the Hudson's Bay Company has public sales, and that yet there are sales on account or individuals of. the same articles the Company import. But this will form no parallel case as to the Companies, AND PROCEEDINGS. *U "nor is there any great question of revenue concerned. The only article imported by the Hudson's Bay Company h furs. The sales of this article, on private account, are also by auction, and it is believed contined to London. The whole is comparatively a small affair, and can be of no weight in the present question. Upon the whole, therefore, it seems most certain, that on such slender-grounds, with respect to advantage (and advantage as before mentioned only to be taken from London for the outports), with so little certainty of estab- lishing any great trade to or from India, with such immi- nent hazard to the East-India Company and to the reve- nue, it would be contrary to the prudent policy which this nation has generally observed, and most unwise in itself, to venture upon so great an innovation, some of the ■ effects of which were pointed out to the President of the Board of Commissioners three years ago (printed papers, page 30), effects, which, by his silence, he seems to have admitted: and, in a word, it may be appre- hended, that they would amount to the destruction of the Company's Indian trade, their Indian commercial estab- lishments, their Indian shipping-, and finally leave the China monopoly so insulated and unsupported, as to bring that arso, at length, to its fall, and with it, the whole fabric of the Company, and the great revenue now so easily realized through its medium ; nor can it be at all doubted that, in such case, the China trade would also be lost to the nation. It is not irrelevant to this subject to advert to a passage in the historv of the Dutch East- India Company, under the year 1602. " The plurality of East-India partner- *' ships or societies, at this time, formed in Holland, '" creating much disorder and clashing in that commerce;, " the States-General summoned before them the Direc- " tors of all those Companies, and obliged them to unite, " for the future, into one, to which United Company " the states granted the sole commerce to East- 1 rub. t '* for twemv-onc years from the 20th March Ui02." They had, in consequence, several Ckambn's or East- Iu.liu Commerce in Holland, as Amsterdam, Middieburgh, &c. but they were all under oil: united Direction. '* {AriicU * See Anderson's Commerce, arid Mac]ihcrso;>'s Ar.nii!? o" Com- merce, under 100?. *J2 EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE (Article 1.) In tffe time of King William, the Com- pany were allowed five pfcr cent, on the private-trade. (Article 8.) Many remarks made upon the sixth article will also apply to this which mi gilt have properly form- ed a part of it*. We need, therefore, only observe here-, that the permitting of ships to sail from the outports, will go very ■ materially to injure the interests of those who Were let into the Indian trade by the act of 1793 ;-— to increase the danger of colonization abroad ; — and of in- jury to the revenue, by smuggling, at home, as well as another danger to be noticed in the next article. {Article 10.) It is not only to all our Indian posses- sions that the exportation of military stores ought always to be prohibited, but also to the numerous inlands in the Eastern S_>as, inhabited by a vindictive race of people, who may be ready, not only to buy warlike stores, but to engage Europeans in their quarrels, and the sailing of ships from the outports will certainly increase the danger of these evils. (Article 11.) The existing law, as to piece goods, enables the Company to confine the importation of that article to shemselves. They have never availed them- selves of this privilege ; but yet it may be proper to continue it, because " trie regular and constant employ - " merit of the manufacturers 1 ,' under the existing system " of local management," is a matter of consequence, not likely to be otherwise so well guarded, and that great importations of piece goods would operate against the home manufactures, whilst a smaller select importation would be useful. (Article 12.) There is a new reason for the same restriction in favor of the Company in the article of raw-silk, because such a general competition is now to be opened against them, and because they have, at great expense in a long course of years, by means of their own establishments, brought the raw-silk of Bengal, which they export, to a high state of perfection; — and if that article is left to the' competition of individuals, who will often have to resort to the agency of indolent natives, the quality of the article may be expected materially to fall, and the silk manufacturers of this country to be much worse supplied than they arc at present. It is proper to add, on this subject, that. the restriction in favour of the Company, in the article of piece goods, is AND, PROCEEDINGS.. 73. is by .^qjpeans pfthe value it was at first, the demand for that, Indian staple being now greatly diminished in this country. (Article \\.) — Lord Melville has observed, on the rea- sons which he apprehends had influenced the. Court, in proposing that ships. of less than lour hundred tons should not be allowed to sail to India, that "though entitled to '* due consideration, they, do not appear to be sufficiently" " strong to justify the proposed restriction, or the mak-' (i ing a distinction, in that respect, between ships trad- " ing to the East-Fiidies and to other countries:" it is therefore deemed necessary to discuss the proposition more at length. In examining the subject of the sixth proposition, the facility which small ships would afford to smuggling* were the outpqrts opened for the disposal of the home- ward cargoes, has already been considered. In further support of the fourteenth proposition, respecting the least size of ships that should be permitted to go to India' on account of individuals, the practice of the India Com- pany, In the early part of their intercourse with the East, might be adduced, for they soon dropped the smaller class of ships for one of five hundred tons ; but as this country, in its improved state of navigation and commerce, has few ships of that burthen, except those employed by the East-India Company, the limiting of ships to be now em- ployed in the private-trade to India to four hundred tons, Avas supposed to afford facility to the most respectable houses, to benefit by the proposed enlargement of the trade. Every one wiil admit, that there is more of respecta- bility i;i the larger class of ships ; and this circumstance should not altogether be lost sight of with the inhabitants of India. The impression of the superiority of our ma- ritime strength to that of other nations, and particularly of the Americans, who speject_ in ques- tion ; and Lord Buckinghamshire having accordingly ad- dressed a letter to the Cruirman and Deputv Chairman, dated the 27th instant, that letter is now laid before the Court. Letter from the Right Honorable the Earl of Buck- inpdiam^ire to the Chairman and Deputy Chair- man, referred to in the preceding Minute, • Gentlemen, India Board, April 27th 1812. In communicating to vou the sentiments of His Majesty's Government, after a full consideration of the several points which have been brought under their view, inconsequence of the conferences and explanations I have had with you and the Deputation, since 1 had the honor of receiving your note of the 3d instant, it is unnecessary for me to enter upon the discussion cf the Hints and Observations which have been the subject of the correspondence between the late President of the Board of Control and yourselves, as far as those Hints and Observations have been sanctioned by the General Court. It was to have been expected, that upon a question in- volving the various interests of so large a body as the mer- chants and manufacturers of die United Kingdom, as well 35 of 'die East-India Company, that considerable differences •■••'■*'. of AND PROCEEDINGS. SI of opinion should arise, and that reasons should be alleged of sufficient weight, to suggest the propriety of revising any plan which might originally have been conceited. Under such an impression, Lord Melville, in his letter oi the 2 1 st ultimo, deshed if to be distinctly understood, that public discussion, in the further progress of the measure, rhight possibly produce an alteration in some of the details, as well as regulations of a different description horn those which were then suggested. You wou'd, therefore, not have been wholly unprepared for the communicat; 1 nude by me to the Chairman at a personal interview, when he was inf mned that the repre- sentations which had been brought before His Majesty's Go- vernment, sinee the publication of the correspondence already referred o, had led them to entertain an opmion, that they would best consult the public interest, by not confining the import trade from th. East- indies to the pert of London The arguments adduced by you and the other members of the Deputation, and which had been urged with much ability, and at considerable length, in your letter of the 15th instant, have received the most serious attention of His Majesty's Government ; but I have to acquaint you, that although they think that the great interest of policy and of revenue, as well as of the East-India Company, will render it their duty to propose to Parliament, that the existing restraints, respect- ing the commercial intercourse with China, should continue, and that the exclusive trade in tea should be preserved to the Company, for whatever term the charter may be renewed, yet that they remain of opinion that the import trade from the East-Indies should n.-it be confined to the port of London. They are not, however, insensible to the danger and mis- chief which the revenue, as well as the East-India Com- pany, might suffer, if under the cover of that trade, an illicit commerce in tea were to be successfully carried on ; but they conceive, that regulations, both in India aud at home, may be so framed, as to guard against that danger, and to protect the Company and the revenue, whose interests in this respect equally requite such protection, from the eliects of it. In submitting, therefore, the propositions to Parliament in this shape, the Government are persuaded, that 'whilst they would thus be supporting interests justly entitled to public con- sideration, they would, at the same time, be pursuing a course, essential to the collection of a revenue of nearly four millions M veiling, SJ EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE sterling, without breaking in upon that system, under which the salutary provisions of the Commutation Act secure the people of the United Kingdom at-ainst any failure in the re- gular and constant supply of an article, vvhich has become a necessary of life. In considering the terms proposed for the renewal ot the Charter, as they would stand, should the suggestions I have conveyed to you in this letter be adopted, you will be sensi- ble of the high importance of bringing to a conclusion an arrangement in which the interests of the Company and the nation at lanre are so deeply implicated, with as little delay as may be dee ned compatible with a mature consideration, and satisfactory adjustment, of the several claims and pre- tensions of the parties concerned. 1 have the honor to be, Gentlemen, Your most obedient humble servant, (Sio-ned) Buckinghamshire. To the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Court of Directors. Letter from the Deputation to the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Buckinghamshire. My Lord, East-India House, ityh April 1812. The letter which the Chairman and Deputy Chair- man had the honour of receiving from your Lordship on the 27th instant, was the day following laid before the Court of Directors, and engaged "their most serious attention. It has again been considered by them this day, and we have now to submit to your Lordship the answer which they have instructed us to make to it : an answer which, from having before well reflected on the principal subject of your Lordship's letter, delivers their mature opinion, and as they presume to hope, in the least time possible, being sensible with your Lordship that, in the present critical period oi the negotiation, all unnecessary delay is to be avoided. It iifwith extreme concern the Court find, that since the publication of the rorrespomience between the President of the Board of Commissioners and the Court of Directors on the momentous question of the renewal ot the Company's Charter, his Majesty's Ministers have been led, by the re- presentations which 'have been made to tlK-111, " to entertain AND PROCEEEINGS. S3 " tin opinion, that they would best consult the public in- *' terest, by not confining the import trade fr< .n the East- *' Indies to the Port of London," and that they still hold this opinion. Not having been made acquainted with the particulars of those representations, and havi.ig urged various arguments which remain unanswered, against the measure of opening the outports to the trade from India, the Court, unJer the disadvantages of such a situation, are imperiously called to the consideration of the circumstances in which the Com- pany are now placed, and in which, according to the best judgment they can form, the Company would be placed, if the new Charter should open the outports of the United Kingdom to the returns of the Indian trade. Whatever may be thought, my Lord, by the merchants of this country, of their right to eater into the possession of a trade, acquired and maintained through long struggles and vicissitudes, at immense expense, by the East-India Com- pany ; a trade still intimitely connected with the security of the va^t empire which the same Company have gained, and administer for the benefit of the nation at large ; the Court of Directors are of opinion, that the sacrifices they agreed to make of that trade to the public feeling, or if they may be permitted to exp r ess their idea more accurately, the public prejudice, were very large ; and they yieldedto them undoubt- edly in a firm belief, not at that time discouraged by His Majesty's Ministers, that the importations from India would be confined to London, as we'll as that tire exclusive privilege ot the China trade would becarefuliv secured to the Company. J3ut the concessions frankly made bv the Court of Directors and Proprietors, who regard themselves always as a part of the Public, and wish, as much a possible, to be in unison witii it, have, it appears, only encouraged farther demands ; and if the tide of prejudice, of popular clamour, of most ex- travagant expectation and unbound.: 1 pretension, which have been more industriously than fairly excited, were now to de- termine the public counsels, not a vestige would remain of that great fabric, which has been reared in the course of two centuries, uniting with commerce an imperial dominion, which would be shaken to Us foundation by the destruction ot that system which has acquired and preserved it. It is no surprise, my Lord., to the Court, though it is un- doubtedly a great consolation, that His Majesty's Ministers unite with the " great interests of policy and of revenue," M 2 those 84 EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE those of the East-India Company, and that it must hence be their' object to continue the political functions of the Com- pany, -nd the means, which are necessary for the maintenance of those functions. On tins b*sis, the Court are happy to have the hono. of meeting His Majesty's Ministers, and to continue the present discussion. It is perfectly known, that for a series of years past, since the Indian territory has been loaded with an im- mense political deot, the Company have derived, no sur- plus from the revenues. They have carried on the cur- rency of their home affairs, they have even aided the poli Cdl concerns of India, and, above all, they have made good the dividends to the Proprietors from the profits on their commerce ; and, of Lite years, these pro- tits have been derived chiefly from the China trade. From the still existing territorial debts of the Company, and the scale of their In. dan expenditure, alter ad endeavours to reduce it, the Court of Directors have no prospect of pecuniary acquisitions, except through the same medium of commerce, far many years to come; and, as already intimated, it is the commercial profits of the Company which enable them to uncharge the political functions assigned to them in the management of the Indian empire. Without this resource, or some equivalent one, not within their power, the dividends could not be continued, the value of the stock would diminish, and the Company be brought, to a state of dissolution. It is the extinction, or material diminution of the com- mercial profits, arising chiefly, as we have said, from the China trade, that we apprehend from the opening of the outports to the returns of the Indian commerce, if this extinction or diminution were to take place, your Lord- ship will doubtless agree with the Court, in admitting, that the fatal consequences they eontemplate, would fol- low ; and that, after going on a few years on the new plan, the Company would be so impaired in its resources, as to be inadequate to the important part allotted to it in the system of Indian administration. When the Court of Directors thus view the consequen- ces of opm.ig the outports, His Majesty's Ministers will* not blame the anxiety with which they respectfully con- tend against teat measure. The duty they owe to their- Constituents, to t heir own characters, and to the Public-, requires them, in such a case, to act with the greatest • circuni- AND PROCEEDINGS. SJ circumspection, in order to obtain a reasonable asurance, that the terms of the new Charter will be such, as will enable the Company to go on efficiently in the perform- ance of the political functions it has hitherto discharged. We do not apprehend, my Lord, that there is any dif- ference in principle oh these points, between His Ma- jesty's Ministers and the Court of Directors. The main difference, in respect to the question of opening the out- ports, is as to the practical effects of that measure. It appeared, in the conference we had the honour of hold- ing with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and your Lord- ship, to be his opinion, that checks could be devised to pre- vent an indefinite extent of smuggling tea, ruinous to the Companv, which wj tear from opening theoutports to the Indian trade. We have already given many reasons for thinking, that the practice of smuggling would, in such case, be uncontrolaoie. Those reasons, which need not be repeated here, we believe it will be difficult for the parties moit adverse to the Company to refute ; but the subject being so important in the present discussion, we beg leave to add a few more observations on it. J' is n fact notorious, that tea has been smuggled, by the way of India, into this Country, even when the duty was comparatively small ; when the Indian import trade was co.ihned to eight or ten Company's ships, and to the river Thames. How much more, then, is smuggling, beyond all bounds, to be expected, when the ships shall be unlimited in number and size, and may resort to the outports of England, Sco land, and Ireland? This practice w mid be much facilitated, because, in the nu- merous Eastern Islands, n )t s ioi. t to any European power, where we have said tea might be brought for English shios from China, tlvre is no usage of clearing out vessels, or giving them papers or manifests. It would thence be easy for them to break bulk in the passage home, and as they approached the coasts of Britain and Ireland, to put tea, as well as other articles chargeable with duty, on board of ships and cutters, destined e.tiier fo r tiie ports of the Continent, ur the remote coasts of Scotland and Ireland, on which, for a hundred miles together, every where accessible from the sea, there is scarcely a custom- house, and where custom-houses could not lie sufficiently multiplied. Vessels of very small size being allowed in the Indian trade, they could enter into ports and bays little £6 EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE little frequented, and run goods to be carried inland and there dispersed. In some of the northern and western ports of the United Kingdom, we have heard that collu- sive practices between the revenue officers and the smug- glers are not unusual. If this is the case in respect to articles winch pay a comparatively small duty, what would it be, where the articles of tea and Indian goods were in question ? Ships might stop at intermediate ports for orders, and there smuggle ; as those bouna to the Western coast, at Cork and Falmouth ; those to the eastern coast, at Falmouth and the Downs ; those going north about, on the Irish and Scotch coasts Ships bay- W several ports of discharge, would thereby ootain fa- cilities in smuggling ; and the state of relations between this country ana parts of Northern Europe may be such as to afford the means of running goods into those parts, which, from their proximity, may again be able to smug- ale the goods into our remote ports, In a word, we are fed to apprehend, that the means and the temptation of smu-riui tea, when an unlimited trade is permuted to InduTand"the Eastern Islands, must be, in a very great decree, uncontrolableby any checks winch His Majesty s Government can, in such circumstances interpose. Not is it to be overlooked, tnat a class or Indian goods, sty ed in the revenue language prohibited, because excluded altogether, as interfering with tae manufactures ot this country, will, by all the openings winch the new trade will produce, be every where unavoidably brought into use. It is true, that even if the return trade of- India were confined to the Channel, as we proposed, smuggling mio-ht be expected, but certainly, not, m our opinion, at alfto the same extent. And had we conceived other- wise, the same objection we now advance against opening the outports, would have been urged against that en- largement of trade, in which the Court have acquiesced., and for the same reason, to prevent the rum ot tae Com- pany ; which did His Majesty's Ministers apprehend, (hey would doubtless, in either case, have desired to pre- vent, even by refusing the required concessions to the British merchants. , With these views, my Lord, deeply impressed on the minds of the Directors, acting as they are in a most responsible situation, is it too much tor them to expect and to request, that they may be honored with the kow AND PROCEEDINGS. 8? ledge of those means which his Majesty's Government may think would be effectual to prevent the practice of smuggling, under the new circumstances, to any ruinous or great extent? — could they have a reasonable persua- sion of the practicability of such prevention, that would undoubtedly, so far lessen their fears and the arguments on which the} 7 now feel it their duty to insist. They hope not to be misunderstood in this proposition. As- sured both of the desire of His Majesty's Ministers, as well on account of the Company as of the revenue, to prevent smuggling, and of their belief of the practica- bility of doing so; feeling also, as the Court do, the de- licacy of seeming to interfere in any of the revenue regulations of Government, they arc yet so circumstan- ced, in the present critical conjuncture, as to find this enquiry most interesting to the cause of the Company. It is indeed true, that the Public appear to have a greater concern at stake here than the Company. The Public may lose the greater part of a revenue of four millions per annum, whilst the Company can have only to the extent of one million at hazard. Rut then this one million is all the Company's certain income : if they lose that, they lose the foundation on which their effi- ciency rests ; unless, in the new arrangements, some other resource should be provided, which should secure the dividend to the Proprietors ; a provision which, un- doubtedly, would also materially alfect the views the Court of Directors now entertain from contemplating the dangers of the Company's China trade. And suffer us, my Lord, since the assailants of the Company's pri- vileges are so loud in representing their interests as those of the nation at large, to add this remark concerning the national interest in the present question, that if the re- venue of nearly four millions, now so easily collected from tea, should fail, or fail to the extent of only two millions, other taxes must be laid upon the Public, to compensate for that loss : and whether the nation will gain so much otherwise, by the proposed enlargements ol trade, may be a serious question with those who have to decide on this momentous concern ; with us it is none. It may deserve also to be recollected, that with the fall of the Company's China trade will fall the exports of woollens and metal;, to the extent of a million annually, by which the prosperity of the counties of Cornwall-, 1 >evou. .fS EAST-mDLlA- CORRESPONBEIn^E Devon, Somerset, Dorset, and Gloucester, and Nor-- foikan^ome measure, have beqi upheld, during the ar- .44tfH>? $tr ; u^|e of ^gjitcenye^s m winch the countty "has been engaged"; tiie e:-;ceUenii}eet of sh.ps. employed ,^^e, 5 lG©mpany, : with all the long detail of interests connected with .them, must decay ;. whilst the nation will lesa^thut .certain, aivj regular -supply furnisbad by, ..tlie Company of the article of tea,, .m article, as. youfXord- ,'.*hj ^-justly observes, now become a necessary of life. ^ Before we dismiss this topic, may we be .allowed to bfiug under your Lordship's inspection a succinct view of the capital and interests concerned in the Indian and. Cdtfiia trade from the port of London. • : • There are about fourteen hundred commanders and officers belonging to the ships of the Last-India Company (besides the seamen, who may be about eight thousand'). The trade, men engaged in. the supply of the Company's shipping in the river Thames are about twelve, thousand, and the labourers employed in their warehouses are about three -thousand. All these, with their families and depend- ants, making an aggregate of upwards of thirty thousand persons, would, by the removal of the Indian trade from the port of London, 'be generally reduced to great distress, and manv of them become burthensome to their parishes. The capital now employed in the Indian trade may be moderately computed as follows. The Company's capital stock of ,£6,000,000, at the price at which many Proprietors purchased, will amount to - - -a£l0,800,000 Capital in warehouses - - - 1 ,000,000 Capital in shins - - 3,800,QOO Capital in docks ----- 400,000 Capital of individuals in the metropolis may be moderately estimated at 5,000,000 £1 1 ,000,000 The trade in which this large capital is employed pro- duces, as we have had occasion repeatedly to observe, an annual revenue to Government of more than four millions sterling ; and the net saving to Government, from the present mode of collecting the duties, may, we conceive, be fairly 'estimated at <£i 50,000 per annum. By means of direct' and indirect taxation, the capital itself, AND PROCEEDINGS. 89 itself, and the profits upon it, yield a farther sum of large amount to Government ; but the productiveness of the capital, in this respect, depends wholly upon the solidity of the basis on which it rests. These, my Lord, are the sentiments and observations ■which we are directed to communicate to your Lordship. The reflection upon them has, we trust, been mature, though the expression of them, in the shortest time allowed for the preparation of this letter* may require indulgence. But we are further specially directed to add, that this is a concern of too great moment for the Court to trust to its own judgment, or to act on its own responsibility ; the Directors have therefore summoned a General Court of Proprietors to meet on Friday next, when the correspondence with your Lordship, including this letter, will be laid before them for their consideration. We have the honor to be, my Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient humble servants, (Signed) Hugh Inglis, Robert Thornton, Jacob Bosanquet, W. F. Elphinstone, Edward Parry, Charles Grant, George Smith, William Astell. The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Buckinghamshire, &c. &c. &.C. At a General Court of the United Company of Mer- chants of England trading to the East-Indies, held on Tuesday, the bth May, 1812. Resolved Unanimously, That this Court has learnt with deep concern and sur- prize, that His Majesty's Ministers have been induced to change the view they first entertained of the propriety of confining to the Port of London the returns ot' the Trade to India, now to be permilted to all British subjects. — That the measure of opening the Outports to vessels of all descriptions from India, comprehending in that term the Eastern Islands, appears to this Court to be fraught with consequencesruinous to the Company, and all the long train ■< of 90 EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE . af interests connected with it; by removing from the Port - of London the greater part of the Indian Trade, which it has hitherto enjoyed; by rendering useless many of the •extensive establishments formed there for the Merchandize -and Shipping of that trade, and throwing out of bread -nSany thousands of persons who now derive constant em- ployment from it ; by deranging the practice and frus- trating the end of stated Public Sales which are useful and .important both to the Country and the Company, who are -necessarily restricted to this practice ; but, above all, by affording facilities for the Smuggling of Teas into the •Ports and Harbours of England, Scotland, and Ireland, to ah -extent unlimited, and as this Court apprehend, un- eontroteble — That the consequences of this must be the destruction of the Company's China Trade, their best source of commercial profit ; the failure of their Dividend, the depreciation of their Stock, and unless a fund is pro- vided from some other source for the payment of the Di- vidend, inability on their part to continue to perform the functions assigned to them in the Government of British India.— That if the constitution by which the Indian Em- pire is now administered should thus be subverted, the ex- cellent system of Civil and Military Service formed under the Company, and maintainable only by such a body, will be broken down, the tranquillity and happiness of the vast population which that Empire contains, the Interests of this Country in Asia, and its Constitution at home, Will be imminently endangered. That the professed object for which the proposed charges are to be made, and such immense sacrifices hazarded,, namely, the increase of the Commerce of this Kingdom, cannot be in any great degree attained ;^ there being no practicability of extending materially the use of our Manufactures among the^Inciian people, the tonnage allotted by the Company, or afforded by Indian Ships in the management of individuals, for such exports, not having been fully occupied ; neither does it appear prac- ticable largely to augment the importation of profitable commoditres'rVom thence; of all which the example of the American Trade to the East is a proof, British Manu- factures, which they could easily have procured, making no part of it, nor their returns exhibiting any new articles of importance. — That therefore the Trade now enjoyed by the Company and individuals will be the only certain trade AND PROCEEDINGS. " ©i to which new adventurers can have recourse; and this will be no addition to the Commerce of the Country, buton- ly a transfer from one set of hands to another ; so- that, Old Establishments will be subverted, without substituting any thing equally good in their place ; and to all appearance with great detriment to the Nation, particularly in the Defalcation of a large part of the Duties now collected on Tea, to the amount of Four Millions sterling per an- num ; for all which Defalcation, whether one, or two, or three millions, New Taxes must be laid on tne people.—*" That the Cause of the Company has been deeply injured by prejudice, ignorance, erroneous assumptions, and of late by extensive combinations, and by unfair represen- tation, canvas, and intimidation — in all which the merits and rights of tiie Company, the Political Interests of British India, and of this Country as connected with them, have been left out of sight, and the single object of the Extension of Commerce, an object too only of speculation, in opposition to past experience, is the go- verning principle. This Court however confidently hope, that Parliament will not decide the fate of the Company, on the represen- tations and demands of private interests, but on just and comprehensive views of National Policy ; and the Court must also believe that His Majesty's Ministers are too en- lightened and equitable finally to adopt any measure calcu- lated to destroy the commercial profits of the Company, and thereby to disable them from performing their political functions. This Court, therefore, entirely approving, both cf the firmness which their Directors have shewn in maintaining the interest of the Company, and of the man- ner in which they have, in the papers now produced by them, defended those interests, doth recommend it to them to persevere in the Negociation with His Majesty's Ministers upon the same principles; assured of the de- termination of this Court to support them to the utmost in maintaining the permanence of the Company and the National Interest, which are involved in their sta- bility. Resolved Unanimously, That the thanks of this Court be given to Handle Jackson, Esq. for his very luminous and excellent speech this day ; for the great /e;d, ability and industry lie has on various occasions, and particularly on 92 EAST-INDIA CORRESPONDENCE. on this, displayed for the honor and advantage of this Company. Resolved Unanimously, That the warmest thanks of this General Court be offered to the Chairman, Deputy Chairman, and Court of Directors of this Company, for their very able conduct in the Negociation with Go- vernment for the Renewal of the Charter ; alike evincing the most luminous ideas of the best Interests of this Com- pany, and their most honorable conduct in the manage* nient of so important a concern. (Signed) William Ramsay, Secretary, f:\n1cd by Coi and Bay lis, No. 75> Gie*i tSueer. iwxtj Lincoln'£-Inu-Jrie!i'.s. 1