UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 THE 
 
 LETTERS 
 
 GRACCHUS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 EAST INDIA QUESTION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD, 
 
 BOOKSELLER ANB PUBLISHER, 
 
 NO. 190, OPPOSITE ALBANY, PICCADILLY. 
 1813.
 
 Printed by S. Gosnkll, Little Queen Street, London.
 
 7 $ i 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The following Letters appeared in the Mokning 
 Post, at the dates which are annexed to them. 
 The impartial Reader will find in them a strong 
 determination, to uphold the public rights of the 
 Country, with respect to the India Trade ; but he 
 will not discover any evidence of a desire to lower 
 
 o 
 
 the just, and well-earned honours, of the East 
 Z India Company, nor any symptom of a disposi- 
 o tion hostile to their fair pretensions. 
 
 ?V^ 

 
 LETTERS 
 
 OF 
 
 GRACCHUS. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF THE EAST INDIA QUESTION. 
 
 Tuesday, January 12, 1813. 
 
 The crisis, at which the affairs of the East India 
 Company are now arrived, is one which involves 
 the most important interests of the British Em- 
 pire. It would be unnecessary to prove a propo- 
 sition which is so universally acknowledged and 
 felt. It has happened however, that, in our ap- 
 proaches towards this crisis, the Public understand- 
 ing has been but little addressed upon the subject; 
 so that the appeal which is now suddenly made to 
 their passions and imaginations, finds them un- 
 prepared with that knowledge of the true circum- 
 stances of the case, which can alone enable them 
 to govern those passions, and control those ima- 
 ginations. Let ua then endeavour to recover the 
 
 s
 
 time which has been lost, by taking a deliberate 
 view of the circumstances which produce this 
 
 crisis. 
 
 The crisis, is the proximity of the term which 
 may conclude the East India Company's rights, to 
 the exclusive trade with India and China, and to 
 the powers of government now exercised by them 
 over the Indian Empire. 
 
 The rights of the East India Company are two- 
 fold ; and have long been distinguished as, their 
 permanent rights, and their temporary rights. 
 Those rights are derived to them from distinct 
 Charters, granted to them at different times by 
 Parliament. By the former, they were created a 
 perpetual Corporate Society of Merchants, trading 
 to India *. By the latter, they obtained, for a 
 limited period of time, the exclusive right of trading 
 with India and China, and of executing the powers 
 of government over those parts of the Indian ter- 
 ritory, which were acquired either by conquest or 
 by negotiation. The Charter conveying the latter 
 limited rights, is that which will expire in the 
 course of the ensuing year IS 14 ; on the expira- 
 tion of which, the exclusive trade to the East will 
 be again open to the British population at large, 
 and the powers of the India Government will lapse 
 
 * The rights and pretensions of the Company are fully con- 
 sidered in the Tenth Letter.
 
 in course to the Supreme Government of the Bri- 
 tish Empire, to be provided for as Parliament in 
 its wisdom may judge it advisable to determine. 
 
 The renewal of an expired privilege cannot' be 
 pursued upon a ground of right. The exclusive 
 Charter of the Company is a patent, and their 
 patent, like every other patent, is limited as to 
 its duration. But though the patentee cannot al- 
 lege a ground of right for the renewal of his pa- 
 tent, he may show such strong pretensions, such 
 good claims in equity, such weighty reasons of 
 expediency for its renewal, as may ensure its at- 
 tainment. Such are the claims and the preten- 
 sions of the East India Company to a renewal of 
 their Charter; and as such they have been promptly 
 and cheerfully received, both by the Government 
 and the country at large. 
 
 But the progress of society, during a long 
 course of years, is of a nature to produce a consi- 
 derable alteration in the general state of things ; 
 the state of things must, therefore, naturally be 
 called into consideration, upon the expiration of 
 the term of years which determines the exclusive 
 Charter of the East India Company ; in order to 
 inquire, whether that Charter should be renewed 
 precisely in the same terms, and with the same 
 conditions, as before ; or whether the actual state 
 of public affairs demands, that some alteration, 
 
 k 2
 
 some modification, of terms and conditions, should 
 be introduced into the Charter or System which is 
 to succeed. 
 
 The arduous task of this investigation must ne- 
 cessarily fall upon those persons, who chance to 
 be in the Administration of the Country, at the 
 latest period to which the arrangements for the 
 renewal of the Charter can be protracted ; and it 
 is hardly possible to imagine a more difficult and 
 perplexing position, for any Administration. Those 
 persons, if ihey have any regard for the duties 
 which they owe to the Public, will consider them- 
 selves as standing between two interests ; the inte- 
 rest of those who are about to lose an exclusive 
 right, and the interest of those who are. about to 
 acquire an open and a common one. They will 
 be disposed to listen, patiently and impartially, to 
 the pretensions of both parties ; of those who pray 
 for the renewal of an exclusive privilege, and of 
 those who pray that they may not be again wholly 
 excluded from the right which has reverted. And 
 although they may amply allow the preference 
 which is due to the former petitioners, yet they 
 will endeavour to ascertain, whether the latter 
 may not, with safety to the public interest, receive 
 some enlargement of the benefits, which the op- 
 portunity opens to them, and from which they 
 have been so long excluded.
 
 While they thus look alternately to each of these 
 interests, and are engaged in striving to establish 
 a reconciliation between the two, it will be neither 
 equitable nor liberal for one of the interested par- 
 ties to throw out a doubt to the Public, whether 
 they do this Cf from a consciousness of strength, 
 " and a desire of increasing their own power and 
 " influence, or from a sense of weakness and a 
 * c wish to strengthen themselves by the adoption 
 <c of popular measures *." And the author of the 
 doubt may find himself at length obliged to deter, 
 mine it, by an awkward confession, that Ministers 
 do not do it u with any view of augmenting theijp 
 " own patronage and power -j~." 
 
 It is thus that the Ministers of the Crown have 
 conducted themselves, in the embarrassing crisis 
 into which they have fallen. Fully sensible of the 
 just and honourable pretensions which the East 
 India Company have established in the course of 
 their long, important, and distinguished career, 
 they have consented to recommend to Parliament, 
 to leave the whole si/stem of Indian Government and 
 Revenue to the Company, under the provisions of 
 the Act of 1793 ; together with the exclusive trade 
 to China, as they have hitherto possessed them ; 
 but, at the same time, considering the present 
 
 * Considerations on the Danger of laying open the Trade 
 with India and China, p. 13. 
 t Ibid. p. iy.
 
 state of the world, and its calamitous effects upon 
 the commercial interest in general, they are of opi- 
 nion, that some participation in the Indian trade, 
 thus reverting, might possibly be conceded, under 
 due regulations, to British merchants not belong- 
 ing to the East India Company ; which would not 
 impair the interests either of the Public or of the 
 Company. 
 
 In this moderate opinion, they are fully jus- 
 tified, by the consent of the Company, to admit 
 the Merchants of the out-ports to a share in the 
 Indian trade. And thus far, all is amicable. But 
 the out-port Merchants having represented to 
 Government, that the condition, hitherto an- 
 nexed to a Licensed Import Trade, of bringing 
 back their Indian Cargoes to the port of London, 
 and of disposing of them solely in the Company's 
 Sales, in Leadenhall Street, would defeat the ob- 
 ject of the concession ; and that the delay, em- 
 barrassment, and perplexity, which such an ar- 
 rangement would create, would destroy the simple 
 plan of their venture; and having therefore de- 
 sired, that they might be empowered to return 
 with their cargoes to the ports from whence they 
 Originally sailed, and to which all their interests 
 are confined ; Government, being convinced of 
 the justice of the representation, have proposed 
 that the Import Trade may be yielded to the Out- 
 ports, under proper regulations, as well as the Ex-
 
 port Trade. To this demand the Court of Di- 
 rectors peremptorily refuse their consent; and 
 upon this only point the parties are now at issue. 
 This question alone, retards the final arrangements 
 for the renewal of their Charter. 
 
 Yet it is this point, which one of the parties 
 interested affirms, to be " a question of the last 
 " importance to the safety of the British Empire 
 " in India, and of the British Constitution at 
 " home ;" and therefore undertakes to resist it, 
 with all the determination which the importance 
 of so great a stake would naturally inspire. But, 
 when we compare the real measure in question 
 with the menacing character which is thus at- 
 tempted to be attached to it, we at once perceive 
 something so extravagantly hyperbolical, some- 
 thing so disproportionate, that it at once fixes the 
 judgment ; and forces upon it a suspicion, that 
 there is more of policy and design, than of truth 
 and sincerity in the assertion. That objections to 
 the measure might arise, capable of distinct state- 
 ment and exposition, is a thing conceivable ; and, 
 these being stated, it would be a subject for con- 
 sideration, how far they were removable. But to. 
 assert, in a round period, that the safety of the 
 empire in Europe and Asia is fundamentally af- 
 fected in the requisition, that a ship proceeding 
 from Liverpool or Bristol to India, might return 
 from India to Liverpool or Bristol, instead of to
 
 the Port of London, is calculated rather to shake, 
 than to establish, confidence in those who make 
 the assertion. Yet this is the question which the 
 country is now called upon to consider, as one 
 tending to convulse the British Constitution. 
 Surely, if the foundations of the empire in both 
 hemispheres have nothing more to threaten them, 
 than whether the out-port shipping shall carry their 
 cargoes home to their respective ports, or repair 
 to the dock-yards in Lheport of London, the most 
 timid politician may dismiss his alarms and resume 
 his confidence. When the East India Company, 
 by conceding a regulated Export Trade, have at 
 once demonstrated the absurdity of all the predic- 
 tions which foretold, in that Trade, the overthrow 
 of the Indian Empire ; we may confidently be- 
 lieve, that the Import Trade will prove as little de- 
 structive, and that its danger will be altogether as 
 chimerical as the former. 
 
 Whether the Court of Directors endeavour to 
 fix that menacing character upon the proposed Im- 
 port Trade, as a bar against any further requisi- 
 tion, is a question which will naturally occur to 
 any dispassionate person, who is not immediately 
 and personally interested in the conditions of the 
 Charter ; and he will be strongly inclined to the 
 affirmative in that question, when he finds, that the 
 reason which they have rlleged for their resistance, 
 is their apprehension of the increased activity which
 
 the practice of smuggling would acquire, from the 
 free return of the out-port ships from India to 
 their respective ports. It is not a little extraordi- 
 nary, that they should so strenuously urge this 
 argument against those persons, who, while they 
 propose the measure, are themselves responsible 
 for the good management and protection of the 
 revenue ; and who must therefore be supposed to 
 feel the necessity of providing means and regula- 
 tions, adapted to the measure which they propose. 
 The Ministers of the Crown have not failed to in- 
 form the Court of Directors, that, in consequence 
 of the communications which they have had with 
 the Commissioners of the Customs and Excise upon 
 the subject, they find that the Directors have 
 greatly over-rated the danger which they profess 
 to entertain; and they acquaint them, that new re- 
 gulations will be provided to meet the new occa- 
 sion ; and that the out-port ships and cargoes will 
 be subject to forfeiture upon the discovery of any 
 illicit articles on board. Yet the Court of Direc- 
 tors still persist in declaring, that the hazard of 
 smuggling is the reason why they will not grant to 
 the out-ports an import trade ; and this, through 
 a fear of compromising " the safety of the British 
 " Empire in India, and the British Constitution 
 " at home." 
 
 A calm and temperate observer, who scrupu- 
 lously weighs the force and merits of this reason- 
 
 c
 
 10 
 
 ing, will naturally be forced into so much scep- 
 ticism as to doubt, whether there may not be some 
 other reasons, besides the safety of the Empire, 
 which may induce the East India Company to stand 
 so firm for the condition of bringing all the import 
 Indian trade into the Port of London? Whether 
 there may not be some reasons, of a narrower 
 sphere than those of the interests of the Empire ? 
 In searching for such reasons, it will occur to 
 him, that the Port of London is the seat of the 
 Company's immediate and separate interests ; and 
 he will shrewdly suspect, that those interests are 
 the real, while those of the Empire are made the 
 ostensible, motive for so vigorous a resistance. 
 When he reflects, that it is proposed to leave the 
 Company in the undisturbed possession of all the 
 power of Government over the Indian Empire, which 
 they have hitherto enjoyed ; that they are to remain 
 possessed, as heretofore, of the exclusive trade to 
 China, from ivhence four-fifths of their commercial 
 profit is derived ; that they themselves have virtually 
 admitted thefalsitvof the theoretical mischiefs, fore- 
 told as the certain results of an out-port trade, by 
 having agreed to concede that trade, to the extent 
 required by Government ; that they equally allow, 
 an import trade for the merchants of the out-ports; 
 but make their resistance upon the single point, 
 that the import trade should be all brought together 
 into their own warehouses, and should be disposed 
 of in their own sales in Leadeuhall Street : when
 
 11 
 
 he combines all these considerations, he will think 
 that he plainly discovers, that the interests of the 
 Empire at large are not quite so much involved in 
 the question as they proclaim ; and that, if any in- 
 terests are more pressingly calculated than others. 
 it must be their own, and not the Public's. If 
 their interests are to be affected by the measure, 
 let them fairly state it, and show the extent ; but 
 let them not endeavour to defend them covertly, 
 under an artful and factious allegation of the ruin 
 of the British Constitution. And if they really do 
 apprehend that the Constitution would be endan- 
 gered, let them not hazard such consequences by 
 their own proceedings. Let them not come for- 
 ward as advocates for the preservation of the 
 Empire, if their rhetoric is to sink into a threat, 
 of " shutting up the great shop of the India 
 " House." 
 
 It may be well to call to the recollection of the 
 East India Company, that they owe their present 
 state to an assertion of those very rights to 
 open trade which have now been brought forward; 
 for, when the first, or London East India Com- 
 pany had experienced certain disappointments and 
 failures, various a,d venture it. came forward with 
 claims similar to those which have been alleged by 
 the merchants of the present day, and obtained an 
 incorporation, to the prejudice of the old Com- 
 pany ; and although the old, or London East 
 
 c 2
 
 12 
 
 India Company, afterwards effected an union with 
 the new, or English East India Company, and 
 with them gave origin to the present Company, 
 yet the Unites East India Company should 
 not forget, how much the activity of the Indian 
 trade was stimulated by the assertion of the rights 
 of their predecessors, to participate in the trade 
 which had been granted exclusively to a former 
 Company. 
 
 GRACCHUS. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 JVednesday, January 13, 1813. 
 It is a distinguishing character appertaining to 
 Britons, to express forcibly their feelings, when- 
 ever they think they discover any disposition to 
 encroach upon their rights. It is not therefore to 
 be wondered at, that the communication of the 
 papers, on the subject of the East India Company's 
 Charter, which was made by the Directors to the 
 Proprietors, on the 5th instant, should have pro- 
 duced the effect which was then manifested; of an 
 almost unanimous disposition, to support the Di- 
 rectors in their resistance of a measure, which, at 
 the time, was regarded as an invasion, on the part 
 of the Government, of the established rights of 
 the East India Company.
 
 53 
 
 But now that the momentary ebullition of that 
 spirit has had time to subside, and to give place to 
 ct>ol and sober reflection, it may not be unaccept- 
 able to the Proprietors at large to look calmly and 
 attentively into the subject ; and to examine its 
 bearings on their own substantial interests. 
 
 It must be manifest to every man, who will only 
 refer to the accounts which have been published in 
 the Reports of the Select Committee of the House 
 of Commons, that, from the magnitude of the 
 Company's debt, it would be impossible to calcu- 
 late the time at which the Proprietors could con- 
 template any augmentation of their present divi- 
 dends of 10J percent. ; even though the Charter, 
 instead of being within one year of its expiration, 
 had an extended period of twenty years to operate. 
 
 It is equally manifest, from the correspondence 
 of the Court of Directors with Government, that, 
 in agreeing to the proposition of opening the Ex- 
 port Trade to the out-ports of the United King- 
 dom, they were free from any apprehension, that 
 the continuance of the present dividend could be 
 endangered by their conceding that point. And, 
 therefore, although the Proprietors were precluded 
 from entertaining any reasonable expectation of 
 an increase to their dividends, they were perfectly 
 warranted to consider the continuance of that 
 which they now receive, as fre from any hazard,
 
 u 
 
 in consequence of the extension proposed to be 
 granted to the Export Trade. 
 
 Whether they may remain in the same confi- 
 dence, under all existing circumstances, is a 
 question which the Proprietors are now earnestly 
 solicited to examine. The point at issue (if I may 
 apply that expression to a case, in which the 
 Company are upon the disadvantageous ground of 
 petitioning for the renewal of a privilege, now about 
 to expire) is, whether the ships which shall be 
 permitted to clear out from the out-ports of the 
 United Kingdom, ought to be allowed to return 
 to any given description of those ports, or whe- 
 ther they should all be compelled to enter at the 
 Port of London ? And upon this point is made to 
 hinge a question, which may affect (not the Bri- 
 tish Empire and Constitution, but) the main inte- 
 rest of the Proprietors, namely, their dividends. 
 For no man can be so inconsiderately sanguine as to 
 suppose, that the Company, under the present pres- 
 sure of their pecuniary embarrassments, (whatever 
 may have been the causes from whence they have 
 arisen ;) embarrassments proceeding from a debt, 
 in India and in England, of more than forty-two 
 millions ; nearly four millions of which are in ac 
 cepted bills on England, which will shortly become 
 due, and for the payment of which there are not 
 funds at the India House ; no man can be so 
 inconsiderately sanguine as to suppose, that the 
 2
 
 15 
 
 dividend may not become a little precarious, under 
 such circumstances. It must be evident to the 
 most superficial observer, that the credit of the 
 Company with the Public can only be sustained by 
 the prompt and liberal aid of Parliament ; and it 
 will hardly be maintained, that it is a propitious 
 mode of soliciting that aid, to connect with the 
 solicitation an avowed determination to oppose a 
 measure, which Government represent it to be 
 their duty to recommend to Parliament, for the 
 general benefit of the community ; a measure, 
 founded on, and growing out of, the principle of 
 the Charter of 1793, which first opened the private 
 trade between India and this country ; the provi- 
 sions respecting which trade have been progres- 
 sively extended at subsequent periods, and of 
 which trade the Public will now call for a further 
 enlargement and participation, as a just and ne- 
 cessary qualification to the proposed renewal of 
 the Company's Charter. 
 
 The City of London, indeed, is now an excep- 
 tion, and apparently a very weighty one, to this 
 general call ; but it will lose much of that weight 
 with the Public, and must fall into the scale of an 
 interested party, when it is recollected, that so 
 long as the question between the Company and 
 the Public was, whether the commerce with India 
 should remain a strict monopoly, or whether a 
 participation in it should be granted to individuals,
 
 
 1(3 
 
 under the restriction of importing to London^ tl>2 
 commercial interest of the metropolis was power- 
 fully incited against the Company ; and that, to 
 that great commercial interest, supported hy the 
 weight of Mr. Dundas's opinion, and to the more 
 enlarged view which Lord Wellesley took of the 
 subject, the extension that has hitherto been 
 given to the private trade with India is to be attri- 
 buted. The experience of twelve years has now 
 proved, that both India and the parent state have 
 greatly benefited by that extension ; and it has 
 followed, as a necessary consequence of that expe- 
 rience, that the active and intelligent merchants 
 of the other large ports of the United Kingdom, 
 have urged their fair pretensions, to be admitted 
 to a share in the profits of that widely diffused 
 trade ; by sending their merchandise from their 
 own ports, and by receiving the returning cargoes 
 into their own warehouses, in those ports. 
 
 A reference to the printed papers (as has already 
 been signified) will show, that the Court of Direc- 
 tors were prevailed upon to concede the Jirst of 
 those points, but that they have been immoveable 
 with respect to the second ; although their own 
 commercial knowledge must have made it evident 
 to them, that the concession of the first, that is, a 
 free export, would be nugatory, unless supported 
 by the benefit arising from the freedom of import ; 
 which is not only in the proportion of four to one
 
 in amount to the export, but is requisite to give 
 that unity to the concern, without which great 
 commercial establishments cannot be kept up. 
 
 Such is the state of the question, or, as it has 
 been called, by some strange perversion of ideas, 
 the negotiation, between the Company, as appli- 
 cants for a renewal of their Charter which is about 
 to expire, and the Government, through whose 
 aid it is to be solicited, or at least, without whose 
 concurrence it is certainly very questionable, whe- 
 ther they would be able to obtain it. These 
 are the circumstances, under which the affairs 
 of the East India Company must necessarily, and 
 speedily, be brought forward, for the consideration 
 of Parliament. Can it, then, be considered an ex- 
 aggerated view of the hazards of such a situation, 
 to suppose, that some guardian of the public purse 
 may deem it requisite to inquire, whether the ap- 
 plication for pecuniary aid from Parliament ought 
 not to be preceded by a substantial proof, not of 
 concession, for they have in fact nothing to con- 
 cede, but of something like accommodation on the 
 part of the Proprietors ? And in that event, might 
 it not be questioned, whether, since the dividend 
 of 10 per cent, was sanctioned upon an assump- 
 tion, that the revenue of the Company yielded a 
 surplus of upwards of a million ; now, when in- 
 stead of a surplus, a deficit is admitted to exist, 
 the dividend ought not to be reduced^ not merely 
 
 D
 
 18 
 
 to the standard from which it had been raised 
 under the supposed prosperous state of the Com- 
 pany's affairs, but to a standard to be regulated 
 by the amount of the ascertained profits upon their 
 own trade, under whatever circumstances it may 
 hereafter be conducted ? 
 
 It is not meant to insinuate, that any condition 
 of the kind alluded to is likely to be imposed, in 
 granting the relief so pressingly required by the 
 present exigencies of the Company ; but if a ne- 
 cessity for the winding up of their affairs, as an 
 exclusive Company, should arrive, and if their 
 own resources, with the profits they may derive 
 from their commerce as a Corporate Body, should 
 not be adequate to the payment of a dividend of 104 
 per cent. ; could it reasonably be expected, that 
 Parliament would, in all future times, extend its 
 liberality towards the Proprietors of India stock, 
 to the extent of securing to ihem a continuance 
 of their present dividend ? 
 
 It is to be feared, that those who may have 
 calculated upon such a result, have taken a false 
 measure of their prospective situation ; and it is 
 on account of this apprehension, that it appears 
 highly important to call the attention of the Pro- 
 prietors to the care of their own substantial interest 
 in the dividend ; an interest, which to them is, 
 and must be paramount. 
 
 GRACCHUS.
 
 i& 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Thursday, January 14, 1813. 
 
 It is at all times an object equally interesting and 
 instructive, to trace the origin of laws and institu- 
 tions, and to follow them in the progress of their 
 operation ; but this inquiry becomes more power- 
 fully attractive, when the pursuit is stimulated by 
 an anxiety to defend a supposed right, or to ac- 
 quire an extension of advantages which are already 
 possessed. 
 
 Such an investigation appearing to be a ne- 
 cessary sequel of the subject treated of in a 
 former communication, let us now take a succinct 
 view of those provisions of the Act of 1793, by 
 which the East India Company, upon the last re- 
 newal of their Charter for a fixed time, were call- 
 ed upon to relax from the exclusive restrictions of 
 the monopoly which they had so long enjoyed. 
 Taking that Act as the source and origin from 
 whence the present India Question arises, let us 
 briefly follow the subject in its progress, down to 
 the propositions that are now before the Public. . 
 
 It is necessary to premise, that the Company . 
 had, from an early period of their commerce, 
 granted as a favour and indulgence to the Captains 
 
 d 2
 
 20 
 
 and Officers of their ships, permission to fill a 
 regular portion of tonnage with certain pre- 
 scribed articles, upon their private account, subject 
 to the condition ; that those privileged articles 
 should be lodged in the warehouses of the Com- 
 pany, that they should be exposed by them at 
 their sales, and that they should pay from 7 to 5 
 per cent, to cover the charge of commission and 
 merchandise. 
 
 The Act of J 793, relieved the trade carried on 
 under this indulgence, by reducing the rates of 
 charge to 3 per cent. ; which was established as the 
 rate, at which the more enlarged trade, for the 
 first time allowed by that Act to private merchants 
 unconnected with the Company, should pay to 
 the Company ; which trade was then limited to 
 3000 tons, the shipping for which was to be pro- 
 vided by the Company, who were to be paid 
 freight for such tonnage, and were to have the 
 same control over the goods which might be im- 
 ported, as they already exercised over the trade of 
 their Captains and Officers. 
 
 It was soon found, that the conditions, under 
 which this trade was opened, changed its operations, 
 o as to render the privilege of little value. The re~ 
 sidents in India, for whose benefit it was professed 
 to have been principally intended, presented me- 
 morials upon the subject to the Governments 
 . abroad ; mid the merchants of London represented
 
 21 
 
 to the authorities in England, the necessity of an 
 enlargement of the principle, as well as a correc- 
 tion of the regulations. It is not necessary, to go 
 into any detail of the reasons upon which those 
 applications were supported ; because Mr. Dundas, 
 who then presided over the affairs of India, and 
 who had introduced and carried through Parlia- 
 ment the Bill of 1793, did in the most explicit terms 
 inform the Court of Directors, in his letter of 
 the 2d April, 1800, that " he should be uncandid, 
 41 if he did not fairly acknowledge, that experience 
 *' had proved it to be inadequate to the purposes 
 " for which it was intended and that therefore 
 " he was clear, that the clause in the Act ought to 
 (S be repealed, and in place thereof a power be given 
 " to the Governments abroad, to allow the British, 
 *' subjects, resident in India, to bring home their 
 "funds to Britain on the shipping of the country;' 
 that is to say, on ships built io India. This letter, 
 of the President of the Board of Control, was re- 
 ferred by the Court of Directors to a special Com- 
 mittee of their body ; who, in a very elaborate 
 Report, dated 2/th Jan. 1801, that is to say, after 
 the deliberation of eight months, declared that it 
 was impossible for them to acquiesce in the propo- 
 sition then made by Mr. Dundas. They support- 
 ed their opposition by a variety of arguments, 
 from which the following short passage need alone 
 be selected : " The proposals which have been 
 " brought forward by certain descriptions of men, 
 
 3
 
 22 
 
 u both in India and in England, for the admission 
 " of their ships into the trade and navigation be- 
 ** tween India and Europe, proposals which extend 
 tf to the establishment of a regular and systematic 
 " privilege in favour of such ships, appear, when 
 " maturely weighed, and followed into all their ope- 
 " rations, to involve principles and effects dangerous 
 t{ to the interests both of the Company and of the na- 
 4< tion ; that the adoption of those principles would, 
 " immediately and essentially, affect both the system 
 " of policy which the Legislature has established for 
 f( maintaining the connexion and communication be- 
 " tween this country and British India, and the char- 
 <e tered privileges of the East India Company. And 
 " the introduction of any practice of this nature, 
 ( * ( would tend to widen gradually, and indefinitely, 
 " the channel of intercourse between India and Bri- 
 " tain ; to multiply the relations between the two 
 " countries ; and to pour Europeans of the lower 
 (t sort into India, and Indian sailors into this coun- 
 " try ; to lessen, by both these means, the respect 
 " for the European character ; to disturb and shake 
 " our government there ; and, in a word, to lead 
 " progressively but surely to colonization." 
 
 The language employed by the Court of Direc- 
 tors at the present day, in opposition to the pro- 
 position for allowing private ships returning from 
 India to import to the places from whence they 
 had sailed upon their outward voyage, is feeble
 
 23 
 
 and languid ; in comparison with the passage which 
 has been just now recited, from the Keport of their 
 Special Committee, made upwards of twelve years 
 ago, upon the proposition then submitted by Mr.- 
 Dundas. That Minister, in his reply of the 21st 
 March, 1801, to the Court of Directors, observed, 
 " I have reviewed my own opinions with the most 
 "jealous attention, and I have iveighed, with the 
 e( most anxious care, the arguments of those who 
 Ci suppose that the system which I have recommended, 
 t( is likely to produce any inconvenience or danger to 
 " the rights, privileges, and exclusive interests of the 
 " East India Company : but it is my misfortune to 
 (f view the subject in an opposite light. If any thing 
 tf can endanger that Monopoly, it is an unneces- 
 
 " SARY ADHERENCE TO POINTS NOT ESSENTIAL 
 
 a TO ITS existence." Mr. Dundas then ad- 
 verted to a letter of the 30th September, recently 
 received from the Governor-General, Marquis 
 Wellesley, which, he said, " had with clearness 
 *' and precision ably detailed and demonstrated the 
 " grounds of those opinions," 
 
 But, the judgment and reasoning of Mr. Dundas, 
 elucidated by the arguments of Marquis Wellesley, 
 (which were founded on the knowledge of what, at 
 the time, was passing under the eye of the Gover- 
 nor-General,) had not influence upon the Court of 
 Directors, sufficient to make them adopt the pro- 
 position of the President of the Board of Ccntrol ; 
 and still less, the enlargement of that proposition,
 
 24 
 
 as suggested by Lord Wellesley; who represented, 
 u the great advantages that would result to the 
 " Sovereign State, byencouraging the shipping and 
 "exportation of India; and, that if the capital of 
 " the Merchants in India, should not supply funds 
 " sufficient for the conduct of the whole private 
 " Export Trade from India to Europe, nodangerous 
 " consequences could result from applying, to this 
 '* branch of commerce, capital drawn directly from 
 " the British Empire in Europe :" thereby taking 
 that trade from foreign nations, whose participation 
 in it was become " alarmingly increasing.'* 
 
 These distinct and concurring opinions, of the 
 President of the Board of Control and the Gover- 
 nor-General, could not prevail upon the Court of 
 Directors to " alter the opinion they had deliver- 
 " ed." They accordingly drew up paragraphs, to 
 be sent to the Governments in India, conveying 
 their Jinal resolutions and instructions. " ThQ 
 u British residents in India," they said, "aided by 
 " those who take up their cause here (viz. the 
 " King's Ministers and the Merchants of London), 
 " tlesire to send their own ships to Britain, with 
 " private merchandise; and the principle of em- 
 " ploying British capital in this trade, is also con- 
 " tended for. This trade, although it might for 
 " a time be carried on through the existing forms 
 " of the Company,, would at length supersede 
 " them ; the British commerce with India, instead 
 " of being, as it is now, a regulated monopoly,
 
 25 
 
 *' would deserve, more properly, the character of 
 " a regulated free trade ; a title, which it is to be 
 " feared would not suit it long." 
 
 Such is the substance of the paragraphs which 
 the Directors had prepared, upon the propositions 
 we have been considering ; although both the one 
 and the other of those propositions explicitly pro- 
 vided, that all the private trade with India, export 
 as well as import, should be confined to the Port of 
 London. The Board of Control, though no 
 longer presided at by Mr. Dundas, interposed its 
 authority; and, on the 2d June, 1801, the Direc- i 
 tors were enjoined not to send those paragraphs to 
 India. 
 
 The language of the Court of Directors in 181 3, 
 upon the question of the Import *Trade, is, as has 
 been already affirmed, feeble and languid in com- 
 parison with that which the same body employed 
 in 1800 and 1801, with regard to the admission of 
 India-built ships in the carrying trade between 
 Britain and India ; but Indian-built ships have, 
 from that time to the present, been employed in 
 that trade, and none of the alarming consequences, 
 which the Directors had predicted, have resulted 
 from that practice, 
 
 May it not therefore be reasonably assumed, that 
 ihe alarm under which they now profess themselves 
 
 K
 
 26 
 
 to be, would prove to be equally unfounded ; that 
 the direful influence upon the Constitution and 
 Empire, which the Directors tell us is to be appre- 
 hended, from any change in the existing system 
 that shall admit private ships returning from India 
 to import at the places whence they had clear- 
 ed out, would be found to be as little entitled 
 to serious consideration ; and that neither the 
 public revenue, nor the immediate interests of the 
 Company, would be endangered by an experiment, 
 which the Government and the Company would 
 be equally bound to watch ; and which Parliament 
 could at all times control, and if necessary, abso 
 lutely bring to a termination ? 
 
 GRACCHUS. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 Saturday, Jan. \6, 1813. 
 Having hitherto taken a view of those parts of 
 the India Question, which more immediately relate, 
 to the commercial interests of this country, and to 
 the Proprietors of East India Stock ; let us now ad- 
 vert to the deportment of the Directors towards the 
 Ministers of the Crown, in their last communica- 
 tion made to the Court of Proprietors. 
 
 It appears, from the printed papers, that as long
 
 27 
 
 back as the month of April, the President of the 
 Board of Control put the Court of Directors in 
 full possession of the final opinion of His Majesty's 
 Ministers ; concerning the privileges of trade which, 
 they conceived, it would be their duty to submit to 
 Parliament, as the basis of a Charter. Early in the 
 month of December, a deputation from the Court 
 of Directors appears to have been admitted, by spe- 
 cial appointment, to a conference ; in which it is 
 known to every clerk and messenger about the 
 offices, as well as to every member of that deputa- 
 tion, that the three Secretaries of State, the First 
 Lord of the Treasury, and the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer attended. And it is equally notorious, 
 that two subsequent meetings were held, between 
 the same parties. We are warranted to infer, from 
 the letter of Lord Buckinghamshire, that the dis- 
 cussions which took place at those several confer- 
 ences, were declared to be open and unreserved ; 
 with a view that the Members of Government, and 
 the Members of the Deputation, might freely, and 
 without restraint of form, deliver their reasons for 
 the opinions which they respectively held. 
 
 The impression which the Court of Directors re- 
 ceived, from the conduct of the Ministers of the 
 Crown, in those conferences, is manifested in the 
 Letter from the Chairman and Deputy Chairman 
 to the President of the Board of Control, of the 
 30th December, in which " they return sincere 
 
 E 2 
 
 J
 
 28 
 
 ** acknowledgments for the atteution with which 
 " their representations had been listened to, in the 
 " various interviews with which they had been 
 " honoured by his Lordship, and His Majesty's 
 " Ministers, who attended." 
 
 In conferences of this nature, and between 
 parties thus relatively circumstanced, all that was 
 to be expected from the Ministers of the Crown 
 was, that they should listen with attention to the 
 representations made to them, and should reply to 
 those representations, so as to command the ac- 
 knowledgment of the inferior party. If, in the 
 issue, (to use the words of Air. Dundas to the 
 same authorities in 180J,) " after having reviewed 
 " their opinions with the most jealousattention, and 
 " after having weighed, with the most anxious care, 
 " the arguments brought forward, it was still their 
 # f misfortune to view the subject in an opposite light" 
 to that which presented itself to the judgment of 
 ' the Directors ; it was not to be expected, that they 
 should surrender their own judgment to that of 
 the Directors, who stood in the anomalous cha- 
 " racier of defendants and judges in their own cause. 
 
 At the time that these conferences were ter- 
 minated, the Ministers appear to have entertained 
 an expectation, that the subject would not be 
 further agitated, until an official communication 
 should be made upon it from Government. The
 
 29 
 
 Court of Directors, however, met on the 1 8th 
 December, and entered something very like a pro- 
 test, by anticipation, against the measure, which 
 they knew, (from what appears to have passed at the 
 conferences,) would be the subject of that official 
 communication ; and they transmitted it to the 
 India Board. By the irregularity of this proceed- 
 ing ; which bore upon the face of it the appearance 
 of a design, either of intimidating Government 
 from coming to the final decision which they had 
 signified, or of creating a bar against future 
 discussion ; they precluded Government from 
 going into any detail of argument, and conse- 
 quently, the reply of the President of the Board of 
 Control appears to have been principally intended, 
 to convey officially to the Court of Directors that 
 result, which the Members of the Deputation were 
 already in possession of; namely, " those conditions, 
 (t upon which alone, consistently with their public 
 " duty, the King's Servants could submit a proposi- 
 4t tion to Parliament for the renewal o( the Charter." 
 
 To this official communication, the Chairman 
 and Deputy Chairman* of the East India Company 
 sent a reply, wherein they offer some explanation 
 of the irregularity ; but, in their opposition to the 
 ultimate determination of Government, they call 
 upon the King's confidential servants, to impart to 
 them all the reasons which had determined them 
 to think, that " the privilege of Eastern coin- 
 
 i
 
 30 
 
 " merce should be extended to British merchants ;" 
 and also, the specific regulations which they may 
 propose to adopt, for giving additional security to 
 the revenue against smuggling. 
 
 The President of the Board of Control, thus 
 called upon to step out of his sphere, or to admit 
 the Court of Directors to Cabinet discussions, was 
 constrained to acquaint them, that " the duty of 
 " Ministers had been performed, by communicating 
 " to the Company the conditions on which they were 
 " disposed to submit the business toParliament;" at 
 the same time informing them, that they would 
 find most of the reasons, which had determined the 
 judgment of Ministers to yield to the representa- 
 tions of the out-port merchants, stated " in the 
 " petitions presented by those merchants to the 
 " Houses of Parliament." And he finally referred 
 them, with confidence, to the '' justice and wisdom 
 " of Parliament, for obtaining a due regard to their 
 " interests." 
 
 If the Court of Directors did not entertain feel- 
 ings and views very different from those of the 
 community at large, in consequence of that peculiar 
 position which renders them defendants, and judges, 
 in their own cause, they could not fail to contem- 
 plate with applause, the temper, patience, and re- 
 gard to public engagements, which mark the whole 
 proceedings of Government on this arduous occa-
 
 31 
 
 sion. But, being at one and the same moment, 
 petitioners and arbitrators, and having their judg- 
 ments biassed under those clashing characters, 
 they have not always kept themselves within the 
 capacity, in which alone they can consistently treat 
 with the Government of the country. In their 
 communications with the Servants of the Crown, 
 respecting the renewal of their Charter, all that 
 they are authorized to pretend to, is to have a 
 distinct knowledge of the conditions, on which the 
 Government think they shall be justified in the 
 sight of the country, in proposing to Parliament 
 the renewal of their Charter ; and, in the course of 
 obtaining this information, they have experienced 
 the utmost consideration, and have received the 
 most ample and unreserved communications from 
 His Majesty's confidential servants ; who have given 
 their attention to every argument urged by those 
 who appeared as representatives of the Court of 
 Directors, and have put them in possession of all 
 the grounds upon which they differ from them in 
 opinion. After having done this, they have dis- 
 charged their highly responsible duty to the Public ; 
 and if " they have the misfortune to view the subject 
 " in an opposite light," the Company's records 
 will show them, that this is not the first time a ra- 
 dical difference of opinion had subsisted, concern- 
 ing their pretensions, between the King's Ministers 
 and the Court of Directors,
 
 32 
 
 Such being the true state of the case, it becomes 
 a subject of grave inquiry, why the Directors, in 
 the Court of Proprietors held at the India House 
 on the 5th instant, took, no step whatever for mo- 
 derating the spirit which was then shown ; or for 
 rectifying the false impressions which were there 
 testified, respecting the deportment of His Majesty's 
 Ministers. It does not appear, that any one of the 
 Directors who were parties in those various con- 
 ferences, in which they acknowledge to the Presi- 
 dent of the Board of Control that they experienced 
 so much attention, took any forward step to set 
 right the misrepresentations which were delivered ; 
 or to repel the charges, implied or declared, of 
 contempt, neglect, encroachment, &c. which were 
 so freely imputed to the Servants of the Crown. 
 But they left the spirit which had improperly been 
 excited, to act by the impulse of an erroneous im-r 
 pression ; omitting to render to the Government 
 that justice, which the frankness of their proceed- 
 ings strongly called for. 
 
 A review of the debate at the India House, 
 with the Directors, either silently withholding 
 what they were enabled to impart in justification 
 of the Government, or by the rhetoric of some of 
 them tending to blow wider the flames of discord, 
 would almost authorize a suspicion, that the Direc, 
 tors were not displeased at the fever which their
 
 33 
 
 silence nourished* It is therefore earnestly to be 
 hoped, for the honour of the East India Com- 
 pany, and more especially for the interest of the 
 Proprietors, that some Director, or other indivi- 
 dual, may, at the next General Court, strive to 
 efface the memory of the last ; who may call upon 
 the Deputation, to render to the Ministers of the 
 Crown whatever justice is due to them, for their 
 conduct in the late discussions ; and who may re- 
 commend a revision of the statement, in which 
 they represent to those Ministers, that the terms 
 on which Government have offered to the Com- 
 pany a Charter, are such as may " leave their 
 " dividend unprovided for " and " create a neces- 
 " sity for their going to Parliament /" For, unless 
 they have brought themselves to a state to suppose, 
 that Ministers and the Public have lost all intel- 
 ligence, they must know, that both Ministers and 
 the Public are well aware, that they are actually 
 under a necessity of going to Parliament for aid, 
 as soon as Parliament shall be assembled ; and 
 that, at the present moment, their dividend may, 
 in strictness, be considered as unprovided for. 
 
 GRACCHUS.
 
 u 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Tuesday, January 19, 1813^ 
 
 1 he writers, who have recently undertaken to de- 
 fend and justify the opposition of the Court of Di- 
 rectors to any extension of the Import Trade 
 from India to the out-ports of the kingdom, have 
 laid a peculiar stress upon an opinion conveyed in 
 that part of Mr. Dundas's Letter of the 2d of 
 April 1800, in which that Minister was consider- 
 ing " the agents to be employed at home ; to 
 " manage the private trade of individuals from In- 
 " dia, and to take care of their interests in the 
 " cargoes of the returning ships." He states his 
 opinion, that " there is no use of any interference 
 " by the Company ; that the great interest to be 
 " attended to on the part of the Company, is, that 
 <{ . no goods come from India that are not depo- 
 " sited in the Company's warehouses ; and that 
 " the goods, so imported, be exposed at the Com- 
 ' c pany's sales, agreeably to the rules prescribed for 
 " that purpose." 
 
 In taking ground upon any principle, it is ne- 
 cessary to ascertain whether it applies to the case 
 in point. That it was a great interest to the East 
 India Company to watch and control the trade
 
 3$ 
 
 carrying on under their own licenses, is obvious; 
 and this the Company could not effectually do, 
 unless that Trade, on its return from India, was 
 brought under their own eye, and collected within 
 the sphere of their own control ; which is con- 
 fined to the Port of London. But the case, to 
 which this argument is now applied by the advo- 
 cates for the Company, is so essentially deficient, 
 that the principles appear to be wholly inapplicable. 
 In this new case, the extended trade would be car- 
 ried on, not under the Company's licenses, but 
 under the provision of Parliament ; and the pro- 
 tection and control of that trade would become the 
 care, not of the Company, but of the executive 
 fjrovernment. Here then the determination of 
 that trade would be governed, not by the separate 
 interest of the Company (which alone came within 
 the scope of Mr. Dundas's argument), but by the 
 combined interests of the Company and the Public 
 at large. To this combined interest, Mr. Dun- 
 das's argument was not directed ; and it is a fal- 
 lacy in reasoning, to apply a partial argument to a 
 general case. 
 
 But, let us grant what these advocates assume; 
 that the opinion here delivered by Mr. Dundas, 
 does really apply to the case in question. May 
 not that have happened at the present day, which 
 actually did happen with regard to the regulations 
 of the Charter of 1793 ? Might not new light be 
 
 F 2 
 
 V
 
 56 
 
 thrown upon a subject in 1813, which was sup- 
 posed to have been thoroughly investigated in 
 1800? And, as the candour ano openness of 
 Mr. Dundas caused him, in 1800, to avow, that 
 the provisions of 17Q3 were inadequate, and 
 prompted him strenuously to recommend the 
 adoption of a new principle', is it not possible that, 
 taking into his view all the circumstances which 
 bear upon the question at the present day, he 
 might, had his life been spared, have been con- 
 vinced, that the extraordinary and unforeseen 
 changes which have taken place in the political and 
 commercial world, might have now rendered it, 
 not only expedient but, necessary to relax, in some 
 degree, upon the point of the import trade from, 
 India ? 
 
 At an early period of the present discussion, 
 Ministers appear to have entertained the same 
 maxim, of confining the import trade from India 
 to the Port of London. They were afterwards led, 
 by a full exposition of all the various interests 
 which remonstrated against that close restriction, 
 to deem it just and expedient to propose (and 
 wise and politic for the East India Company to 
 consent), that such of the principal out-ports as 
 possessed the means whereby smuggling could best 
 be guarded against, should participate with Lon- 
 don in the import trade from India ; reserving 
 exclusively to London, the whole of the trade from
 
 China. This alteration of their original plan was 
 suggested by them to the Court of Directors, not 
 as a relaxation of the existing privileges of the 
 Company (which was the nature of Mr. Dundas's 
 proposition in 1 800), but as a qualification to take 
 place under a new Charier. 
 
 V 
 
 When Mr. Dundas suggested to the Directors 
 the new principle, of admitting Indian-built ships 
 as the vehicle for carrying on the private trade, he 
 was not treating with them concerning the renewal 
 of their Charter ; for they had then an unexpired 
 term of fourteen years, in the privileges conferred 
 upon them by the Act of 1 793. His proposition, 
 as has been just observed, went to a relaxation of 
 an important part of those subsisting privileges ; for r \ 
 which he sought to gain their acquiescence ; and 
 as his opinion was decided and avowed, % * that the 
 ft ostensible form of Government for India, with 
 " all its consequent detail of patronage, must re- 
 t( main as it now is, and that the monopoly of that 
 ff trade ought properly to continue in the hands of 
 Si the East India Company ;" it was prudent and 
 seasonable in him to dwell upon that point. 
 
 Have not the Ministers of the present day 
 evinced the same opinion ? Have they not pro 
 posed, to leave the patronage of India, and the ex^ 
 elusive profits of the China Trade, with the Com^ 
 pany ? Does not the China Trade ensure the env
 
 3S 
 
 ployment of all the large ships in the service of the 
 Company ; together with the continued engage- 
 ment, in that line of service, of the Commanders 
 and Officers of those ships ; and also, of every 
 other description of person now connected with 
 that (the largest) branch of the Company's con- 
 cerns ? Have not Ministers proposed to confine 
 the private trade with India to ships of four hun- 
 dred tons and upwards ; thereby leaving to the 
 owners of such of the smaller ships now in the ser- 
 vice of the Company, as by possibility may not be 
 required for their commerce, the advantage (which 
 establishment in any line of business must always 
 give) of finding employment from those who, 
 under the proposed extension, may engage in that 
 trade ? Have not Ministers, in proposing that the 
 Government of India should continue to be admi- 
 nistered through the organ of the Company, pro- 
 posed to them the continuance of the peculiar and 
 great benefit, of carrying on their commerce by 
 means of the revenue of that Government ? 
 Whereas, the private adventurers must trade upon 
 their own capitals, or at an heavy charge of inte- 
 rest. 
 
 How is it, then, that we hear so much of the 
 loss which our Navy must sustain, from the large 
 ships of the Company being withdrawn from the 
 Eastern Trade ; of the distress to which the Com- 
 manders and Officers, and the numerous classes
 
 39 
 
 of artificers and others connected with those ships., 
 are to be exposed ? Why are we told, that the 
 East India Docks will be left empty, and the Pro- 
 prietors be reduced to apply to Parliament for an 
 indemnification ? Can it possibly happen, that all 
 these calamities, so heavily denounced, should 
 arise out of a permission to be granted to private 
 ships, returning from India, to proceed to certain 
 ports to be designated ; more advantageously si- 
 tuated for their trade than the Port of London ? 
 A permission, which the Directors themselves are 
 of opinion will not long be made use of to any 
 great extent ; for they have told us, that the ad- 
 venturers in those private ships will be disappointed 
 in their speculations ; and they have adverted to 
 the mass of individual loss, which must ensue from 
 the delusion, as furnishing a strong argument, 
 why Government ought not to yield to the impor- 
 tunity of the Merchants of the out-ports. 
 
 From all that has been stated, it would appear^ 
 that instead of the exaggerated picture of distress, 
 which the advocates for a close monopoly to the 
 Port of London have represented as the necessary 
 consequence of relieving commerce from its pre- 
 sent restrictions, we ought to entertain a well- 
 founded expectation ; that every class and descrip- 
 tion of persons, who now find employment in 
 the Indian Trade, will continue to have their in- 
 dustry called into action in the same line of em-
 
 40 
 
 ployment, and even to a greater extent, in some 
 instances, than is now experienced. For, unless 
 the union of interests i which has so recently taken 
 place between the City of London and the East 
 India Company, should have the effect of pre- 
 venting all competition between the Merchants of 
 London (formerly so eager to participate in the 
 trade with India), and the Merchants of the out- 
 ports ; it cannot fail to happen, from the spirit of 
 enterprise which has uniformly distinguished the 
 Metropolis, that the Port of London, to which 
 the whole India Trade would be generally open, 
 will furnish its full proportion of the new adven- 
 turers ; and thus amply fill up that void, which 
 the East India Company affirm would be created in 
 the Port of London, by diverting so much of the 
 Indian Trade to the out-ports : more especially, 
 as all the houses of Indian agency, which have been 
 formed since the Act of 17 Q3, are established 
 within the Metropolis. 
 
 Since this is the just prospect, which the adop- 
 tion of the conditions proposed by Government as 
 the terms for the renewal of the Company's Char- 
 ter, opens to our view ; since the share which the 
 London Merchants may take in the enlargement 
 of the trade, would not fail to supply employment 
 for all that industry, which the Court of Directors 
 assert will be interrupted and suspended ; while, 
 at the same time, the extension of that advantage
 
 41 
 
 will create new sources of industry in various parts 
 of the kingdom, without impairing or diminishing 
 that of London ; whose will be the awful respon- 
 sibility, if, by an obstinate rejection of terms ca- 
 pable of yielding consequences so extensively be- 
 neficial to the community, the Charter of the 
 Company should not be renewed ; and if the dis- 
 astrous effect should in consequence be produced, 
 in London and its vicinity, of " a suspended in- 
 (l dustry, interrupted employment," and all the 
 train of sufferings and calamities which has been 
 drawn out ? Who will be chargeable, before the 
 country, with " the loss and waste of establish- 
 " ments which have cost upwards of a million 
 " sterling of shipping, to the amount of many 
 " millions of a numerous and respectable class 
 " of warehouse-keepers, clerks, and superior ser- 
 " vants, joined to three thousand labourers, and 
 " their families of tradesmen of various descrip- 
 tc tions, who have incurred a very great expense 
 " for the conduct of their business ?" Who will 
 be chargeable, in fact, with all this destruction ? 
 Will it be the Government, who desire the East 
 India Company to keep their Indian Empire, and 
 their exclusive China trade? Or will it be the 
 Conductors of the East India Company, who shall 
 suffer this great machine suddenly to stop its ac- 
 tion, because their limited exclusive privileges are 
 not made perpetual? 
 
 GRACCHUS, 
 o
 
 42 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Friday, January 22, 1813, 
 
 (jtkacciius is charged, by some of the champions* 
 of the East India Company, with error and a vvant- 
 of candour, btrrUise he has represented the Di- 
 rectors to have maintained, that opening the im- 
 port trade from India to the out-ports of the king- 
 dom, involves a question of the last importance 
 to the British Empire in India, and to the British 
 Constitution at home ; and those writers affirm, 
 that the Directors do not deduce the danger of 
 those great interests from the question of the out- 
 port trade, but from the question of disturbing the 
 present system of administering the Government 
 q{ India. 
 
 Yet he can discover, neither error nor want of 
 candour in his statement. If those advocates will 
 take the pains to follow the whole argument of the 
 Directors, on the present occasion, throughout, 
 they must be sensible, that his statement cannot 
 be controverted. The Directors, indeed, a\oid 
 expressing their proposition in the fair and dis- 
 tinct form in which it is here drawn out ; yet 
 such is the pioposition in effect. For, if the
 
 43 
 
 whole of it be reduced into a form of syllogism, it 
 is no other than this : 
 
 " Whatever shall cause the subversion of the 
 " present system of Indian Government, will cause 
 " danger to the Empire and Constitution. 
 
 " But, pressing the extension of an import 
 4f trade from India to tJie out-ports, will cause the 
 " subversion of the present system of Indian Go- 
 " vernment. 
 
 " Therefore, pressing the extension of an im- 
 iC port trade to the out-ports, will cause danger to 
 (i .the Empire and Constitution.'''' 
 
 If we question the minor proposition, and ask, 
 Why, pressing an import trade for the out-ports, 
 should necessarily cause the subversion of the exist- 
 ing system of Indian Government ? the answer 
 of the Directors is already given : Because they 
 will not continue to carry on that Government, if 
 an import trade from India should be granted to 
 the out- ports. Thus, the original statement is 
 demonstrably established ; and all the logic of the 
 City cannot overturn it. 
 
 The Directors must permit the words l< will 
 fi not ;" for, with the record of the East India 
 Company's history before us, it is impossible to 
 say they cannot. In proof of this assertion, let us 
 take a review of that history, and let us examine, 
 
 r, '1
 
 44 
 
 what evil resulted to the Company, during the pe- 
 riod that the impoit trade from India was ac- 
 tually extended to the out-ports of Great Britain, 
 
 When the first, or London East India Com- 
 pany, had incurred the forfeiture of their Charter 
 in J 693, by the non-payment of a stipulated sum 
 of money, their privileges were immediately re- 
 stored to them, and confirmed by letters patent, 
 granted by King William III. upon this express 
 ground : " Considering how highly it imports 
 V the honour and welfare of this our kingdom, 
 " and our subjects thereof, that a trade and traffic 
 " to the East Indies should be continued ; and 
 '* being well satisfied that the same may be of 
 tf great and public advantage ; and being also de- 
 " sirous to render the same, as much as in us 
 " lies, more national, general, and extensive, than 
 " hitherto it hath been," &c. 
 
 This principle, of promoting a more national, 
 general, and extensive trade to India than had sub- 
 sisted under the then existing Company's exclusive 
 (Charter,gave rise to a new measure in the year 1 698, 
 in an Act passed in the 9th and 10th year of the same 
 king, entitled, An Ar,t for raising a sum not er- 
 ceeding two millions, &c. and for settling the trade 
 to the East Indies. The parties subscribing to- 
 wards that loan, were formed into a Society, called 
 The General Society of Merchants, &c. ; and such
 
 45 
 
 of them as chose to unite their subscriptions, and 
 to form a joint-stock, were incorporated under the 
 name of The English East India Company, 6fc. 
 The General Society possessed the privilege of an 
 export and import trade with India, with the 
 power of bringing their import car goes, from. Indict 
 fo the out-ports of the kingdom, in the same man^ 
 ner as is proposed by Government at the present 
 day ; with this only difference, that the General 
 Society of Merchants were not restricted as to the 
 ports at which they should enter, whereas Go- 
 vernment have now proposed, that merchants 
 should be restricted to such ports as can best afford 
 the means of guarding against the depredations of 
 smuggling. 
 
 The regulations, which were adopted for ships 
 importing from India to the out-ports, are to be 
 found in the Act 9 and 10 William III. c. 44. 
 s. 69. and were as follows : 
 
 " Provided always, and it is here enacted, that 
 
 ii no Company, or particular person or persons, 
 
 ^ who shall have a right, in pursuance of this Act, 
 
 '* to trade to the East Indies, or other parts with- 
 
 iC in the limits aforesaid, shall be allowed to trade, 
 
 " until sufficient security shall be first given (which 
 
 l( the Commissioners of the Customs in England, 
 
 il or any three or more of them for the time 
 
 " being, are hereby authorized and required to 
 
 j
 
 46 
 
 " take, in the name and to the use of His Ma- 
 " jesty, his heirs and successors), that such Com- 
 " pany, or particular persons, shall cause all the 
 *' goods, wares, merchandise, and commodities, 
 " which shall at any time or times hereafter, du- 
 <c ring the continuance of this Act, be laden by or 
 u for them, or any of them, or for their, or any of 
 " their accounts, in any ship or ships whatsoever, 
 iC bound from the said East Indies, or parts within 
 " the limits aforesaid, to be brought (without 
 " breaking bulk), to some port of England or 
 iC Wales, and there be unladen and put to land, &c. 
 " And that all goods and merchandises belonging 
 *' to the Company aforesaid, or any other traders 
 " to the East Indies, and which shall be imported 
 " into England or fVales, as aforesaid, pursuant 
 " to this Act, shall by them be sold openly and 
 <c - publicly, by inch of candle, upon their respective 
 K accounts, and not otherwise." 
 
 Upon this Act of the 9th and 10th of William 
 III. was built, in the following year, that famous 
 Charter of the Company, upon which they rest the 
 weight of their pretensions ; and that very Charter, 
 as is here rendered incontestable by the Act itself, 
 comprehended the principle, of an Import Trade 
 from India /o ///e out-ports of the kingdom. 
 
 The form and condition of the security which 
 was to be given by the out-port merchants, will 
 
 2
 
 47 
 
 be found in the Act, 6th Anne, c. 3. entitled, v" 
 " An Act for better securing the duties on East In- 
 " dia goods." By that Act, the security to be 
 given was fixed " at the rate of 2500/. sterling for 
 " every hundred ton their ships or vessels shall be 
 " respectively let for ;" and the only restriction im-' 
 posed upon the import trade from India was, that 
 it should be brought " to some port in Great 
 " Britain." 
 
 Thus, then, any man who looks but a little be- 
 yond the objects which lie accidentally before his 
 eyes, may see, that the measure now suggested by 
 Government, instead of being a wild and airy spe- 
 culation, a theoretical innovation, a new, untried, 
 and dangerous experiment, on which we have no 
 ground to reason from experience (as it has been 
 ignorantly and falsely asserted), is nothing more 
 than reverting to an ancient principle, involved in 
 the Company's applauded Charter of the 10th of 
 William the Third, and to the practice of our 
 forefathers in the brightest period of our domestic 
 history; a period, in which the British Constitu- 
 tion received its last perfection, and from which 
 the present power and greatness of the British 
 Empire, in the East and in the West, dates its 
 origin. 
 
 Having sufficiently proved and established this 
 great fact, let us next inquire, what history reveals
 
 43 
 
 to us, of the consequences of that import trade 
 to the out-ports, that can tend, in any degree, to 
 justify, or give support to, the Company, in deter- 
 mining to resort to an alternative which, they ac- 
 knowledge, will subvert the system of Indian Go- 
 vernment (and thereby shake the Constitution at 
 home), rather than renew the measure of a regu- 
 lated trade to the out-port?. 
 
 We have not to deduce these consequences 
 from abstract hypothesis, but from historical testi- 
 mony, let us, then, observe what that testimony 
 unfolds. No evil, of any kind whatever, resulted 
 to the incorporated, or Joint Stock Company, from 
 the privilege enjoyed by the out ports. On the 
 contrary, that Joint Stock Company, issuing out of 
 the General Society of Merchants (which, as has 
 been above stated, soon became the English East 
 India Company), rose above all their competitors, 
 notwithstanding the power of importing, without li- 
 mitation, to any of the ports of the kingdom; and 
 such was the rapidity of their progress, that they 
 overcame the former, or London Company ; they 
 obtained a surrender of all their rights to St. He- 
 lena, Bombay, and all their other islands and 
 settlements in India ; they at length received that 
 ancient Company into their own body ; and finally 
 became the United East India Company of the 
 present day. And so little did the competition and 
 free import of the general merchants tend to ob-
 
 struct the growth of the United Company, even in 
 the age of its infancy; and so " superior were the 
 " advantages they derived from trading with a 
 " joint-stock (to use the words of one of the 
 " Company's most strenuous champions), that at 
 " the time of the union of the two Companies, 
 " out of the whole loan of two millions, only 
 " 7000/. then remained the property of the sepa- 
 " rale traders of tlie General Society ; and this 
 " sum also was soon absorbed in the United 
 " Company*." If then the Company, starting 
 originally with only a joint' stock, against a com- 
 petition in the out-ports of the kingdom, with a 
 power to import to those out-ports, outstripped 
 and overcame all their competitors; what can they 
 seriously apprehend from a renewal of the same 
 experiment, in the present momentum of their 
 power, and when they are able to unite with their 
 joint-stock, the whole of the revenues of their 
 present empire in the East ? 
 
 But it may be" asked, if no better success is 
 likely to attend the commercial speculations of the 
 out- ports, why is so strong an effort made, to ad- 
 mit tlicm to a share in the India trade ? The an- 
 swer is obvious. When Mr. Dundas, in the year 
 1 800, so forcibly expressed his opinion against 
 any such admission, he did not ground that opi- 
 
 * A Short History of the East India Company. 
 H
 
 50 
 
 nion upon a question of ports, but of commercial 
 capital. He considered the capital of the Com- 
 pany as sufficient for all the advantage which the 
 Public, in the aggregate, could derive from the 
 India Trade ; and he maintained, that the aggre- 
 gate interest of the Public would suffer from any 
 measure, tending " to divert any larger proportion 
 " of the commercial capital of the country from a 
 " more advantageous and more profitable use." 
 But the circumstances of the world are become 
 materially altered, since the period of 1800. The 
 commercial capital, of which Mr. Dundas then 
 reasoned, is deprived of that advantageous and 
 profitable employment which his argument sup- 
 posed, and is therefore without application or di- 
 rection; from whence it has resulted, that the 
 operation of commerce is interrupted, and its ac- 
 tivity suspended. The allowing that capital to be 
 partially directed to the markets of India, would 
 therefore, under present circumstances, have the 
 great national advantage, of recovering the activity 
 and spirit of commerce, and of encouraging an 
 extensive public interest which is at present disap- 
 pointed, if not dormant ; and, whenever a more 
 prosperous state of things should return, the capi- 
 tal so engaged for a time, would, from the nature 
 of commerce, unquestionably recall itself, and seek 
 again a more profitable market, if any such should 
 open. In the mean time, the East India Com- 
 pany, adding to their joint-stock all the revenues
 
 51 
 
 of India, need hardly know, because they could not 
 feel, that they had any competitors in the markets 
 of India. And, as the Executive Government was 
 able to guard the out-ports against smuggling in 
 the period of the infancy of the Company, they 
 might and ought to feel a perfect confidence, that 
 the same authority can guard them equally now, 
 in the present period of their maturity. 
 
 Thus, since history renders it indisputable, that 
 an import trade from India to the out-ports of the 
 kingdom has been heretofore exercised under 
 Acts of Parliament, and that it may be perfectly 
 compatible with the highest prosperity of the East 
 India Company ; since the Executive Government 
 can guard it against smuggling at the present day, 
 as well as in the reigns of King William and Queen 
 Anne ; and since a great and urgent national 
 interest reasonably demands it, both from Parlia- 
 ment and the Company ; the present moment 
 furnishes a most fit occasion for the Company to 
 consider, Mr. Dundas's solemn call upon " their 
 " wisdom, policy, and liberality," made by him to 
 them in the year 1-800 ; and also, his weighty ad- 
 monition, that iC if any thing can endanger their 
 " monopoly, it is an unnecessary adherence to 
 4f POINTS NOT ESSENTIAL TO their existence." y 
 
 It has been called illiberal, to question the 
 motives of the Directors, in refusing their consent 
 
 H 2
 
 51 
 
 to an import trade to the out-ports. Cut, with 
 the facts of history, which have been here pro- 
 duced, staring us and them in the face, it would 
 be impossible not to question those motives. No 
 man can entertain a higher respect for the East 
 India Company, as a body politic and corporate, 
 or contemplate with higher admiration the dis- 
 tinguished career which it has run, than Grac- 
 chus; but, at the same time, no one is better per- 
 suaded of the operation of policy, in a body cir- 
 cumstanced as they are.^ And it is more especially 
 necessary to watch that policy, and to be free to 
 interpret political motives, at the present crisis, 
 because, at the eve of the expiration of the Com- 
 pany's last Charter, in 179%, certain rights were 
 anxiously alleged on their behalf, in a work enti- 
 tled, "A Short History of the East India Company % 
 &c." rights absolutely unmaintainable, and utterly 
 incompatible with the sovereignty of the Empire, 
 and the freedom of the Constitution ; and the alle- 
 gations then made, appear now to assume the form 
 of a practical assertion. To those alleged rights, 
 therefore, it will be advisable early to call the at- 
 tention of Parliament and of the nation. 
 
 GRACCHUS.
 
 53 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 Wednesday, Jan. 27, 1813. 
 
 I here is an irritability manifested at the present 
 moment, by those who are intimately united in in- 
 terest with the East India Company, which appears 
 strongly indicative of an unhealthy case. It is 
 well known, that the revenues of the Company, 
 far from being able to contribute to the revenues 
 of the State that augmentation which was made 
 the condition of the Company's present Charter, 
 have, from causes which the Directors could not 
 control, been so deficient, that they have been 
 obliged, at different times, to apply to Parliament 
 for pecuniary aid ; that they are burdened with a 
 debt of not less than forty-two millions ; and that 
 they are now unable to discharge their engage- 
 ments, without again coming to Parliament to 
 obtain the means. Yet, ' f an Old Proprietor'* 
 feels no uneasiness from this state of the Com- 
 pany's affairs ; and this, we must suppose, pro- 
 ceeds from an opinion, that the dividend he now 
 receives is secured to him for the time to come. 
 
 But Parliament has never, directly nor indi- 
 rectly, made itself a collateral security to the Pro-
 
 54 
 
 prietors, for the payment of a dividend of 10| 
 percent. The aids, at different times granted by 
 Parliament, have proceeded from a mixed prin- 
 ciple, of equity and of liberal support. Of equity, 
 in so far as the embarrassments of the Company 
 have been occasioned by political events ; of liberal 
 support, in so far as those embarrassments may 
 have been caused by disappointment in trade. If 
 the Proprietors should not discriminate between 
 these two principles which have actuated Parlia- 
 ment, but claim the whole of the succours af- 
 forded, upon a ground of positive right, they 
 might impose upon Parliament the necessity of re- 
 quiring the East India Company to bring their 
 affairs to a final settlement ; in order that it may 
 be accurately determined, how far the Public are 
 equitably pledged to the Propiietors, and how far 
 the Proprietors must be left to settle their own ac- 
 counts with the Company alone. A.nd it is pos- 
 sible, that the result might not afford that confi- 
 dence of a well-secured dividend of ten and a half 
 per cent., which an Old Proprietor considers it 
 an attack upon private property even to question. 
 
 Such an issue, however, does not appear to be 
 very likely to occur, unless the Managers of the 
 East India Company's concerns, from any ill-ad- 
 vised determination in their counsels, should take 
 some steps, by which their affairs should be 
 abruptly brought to a settlement : in which event,
 
 55 
 
 any disappointment or loss sustained by the Pro r 
 prietors will be chargeable upon those Managers, 
 who thus desert their duty to their Constituents ; 
 and not on the Public, or the Government. The 
 Managers of the East India Company, having so 
 clear and responsible a duty binding upon them, 
 ought to be most scrupulous of failing in that duty, 
 through any capricious or speculative " adherence 
 (i . to points not essential to their existence ;" for, if 
 they should sacrifice the interest of the Proprietors 
 by now attempting to convert their temporary 
 grants into a perpetual right ; although the disap- 
 pointed Proprietors may arraign the Public, yet 
 the Public at large will, with justice, impeach the 
 Managers of the East India Company. 
 
 In order to open the eyes of the Proprietors to 
 the simple fact of their actual position, their atten- 
 tion was called by Gracchus, on the 13th hist. 
 to the consideration, whether the Company, 
 loaded with a debt of 42,000,000/. and being un- 
 able to discharge the sum of four millions be- 
 coming due, could reasonably expect, that if Par- 
 liament should now come to their immediate relief, 
 it would engage itself, in all future time, for the 
 payment of a dividend often and a half per cent. ; 
 especially, if, upon any contingent winding up of 
 the Company's affairs, called for by their own 
 pertinacity, their remaining resources should be 
 found inadequate to secure that dividend to the
 
 56 
 
 Proprietors ? And the possible case was suggested, 
 of some guardian of the public purse deeming it 
 equitable, that in the event of Parliament being 
 disposed to come to the relief of the Proprietors, 
 under such circumstances, the latter should be 
 called upon, on their part, to submit to some con- 
 dition of accommodation. 
 
 " An Old Proprietor" discovers in this argu- 
 ment of caution, only a direct menace from the 
 Executive Government to the purses of the Pro- 
 prietors ; a plain and intelligible threat, that pay- 
 ment of their just claims shall be withheld ; and 
 he " thanks God, that he lives in a country, 
 " where such language will be treated with merit- 
 " ed Scorn." This Old Proprietor should have 
 known, that Government has never declined to 
 settle any accounts with the East India Company, 
 which had been properly authenticated : under 
 present circumstances, it is not to be expected, 
 that Government should incur the responsibility 
 of applying the public money to discharge claims 
 which have not been sufficiently investigated. So 
 far, however, is Government from having evinced 
 any disposition to throw unnecessary difficulties in 
 the way of the Company's pecuniary arrangements, 
 that, in the midst of the present contest with the 
 Directors, it has granted to the Company a sus- 
 pension of the payment of between S and 
 9,00,000/. of tea duties, which the Company had
 
 57 
 
 actually received from the buyers of the tea. It 
 is perhaps not generally known, that the Company 
 formerly paid the duties upon tea upon its being 
 imported and landed ; by which means the amount 
 of duties was immediately drawn into the Exche- 
 quer. To accommodate the Company, a change 
 of practice was allowed by Government, and the 
 Company have been permitted to sell their teas, 
 in the first instance, without the interference of 
 the Officers of the Customs, upon condition of 
 the Company afterwards remitting the gross 
 amount of duties to the Board of Revenue. 
 Thus they actually make their own profits upon 
 the tea, and receive into their own hands the Go- 
 vernment duties, before they are called upon to 
 pay them. The duties actually so received by the 
 Company, amount to the sum above stated ; and 
 the Old Proprietor will probably deem it no 
 slight proof of a wish on the part of Government 
 to render an accommodation to the Company, 
 that, during the pending discussion, it has made 
 arrangements for allowing the Company an ex- 
 tended period, for transferring the very consider- 
 able sum of which they have actually received the 
 beneficial use. 
 
 It should be always remembered, by the Com- 
 pany, and by the Public, as parties in a great 
 compact, that the privilege of an exclusive trade 
 
 i
 
 58 
 
 to India and China has never been granted to the 
 Company without reserve ; or, as if their posses- 
 sion of that exclusive benefit was, in itself, the most 
 advantageous arrangement for the public interest. 
 The grant lias always proceeded upon a principle, 
 of bargain and covenant ; and on the consideration 
 of a pecuniary, advance, to be made by the Com- 
 pany to the Public, as the condition for the renewal 
 of the lease of the public rights in the India trade. 
 Upon this principle alone, has the exclusive trade 
 ever been conceded to the East India Company ; 
 either under its present form, or under any of its 
 Former denominations. 
 
 To shorten the discussion, however, let the 
 Proprietors and the Company take the following 
 compressed view, of the probable consequences 
 which would severally result, from a compliance 
 with, or rejection of, the proposition made by Go- 
 vernment, as the basis of a new Charter ; and let 
 them consider, in which of the two they foresee 
 the greatest security for their own future in- 
 terests. 
 
 If, upon maturely weighing the case before 
 them, the Company should accede to the proposi- 
 tion of Government ; and if an arrangement, 
 founded upon that proposition, should receive the 
 sanction of Parliament ;
 
 59 
 
 1. The Company will preserve the entire China 
 trade ; and this principal sphere of their commer- 
 cial profit, will remain undisturbed. 
 
 2. They will possess advantages for continuing 
 to carry on the India trade, so far superior to 
 those of all private competitors, from their terri- 
 torial and commercial revenues, that, with a mode- 
 rate exertion of their activity, they may preserve 
 almost the whole of that trade. 
 
 3. They will possess the regulation and control 
 of the India trade, so far as depends upon the 
 Indian Governments ; and as those Governments 
 will continue in the exercise of the executive 
 power, all the private Merchants, who may repair 
 to the ports and harbours within the extensive li- 
 mits of their jurisdiction, will of course be subject 
 to the authority of their Government. 
 
 4. They will retain the whole patronage and 
 expenditure of a revenue of upwards of Fifteen 
 Million s sterling per annum in India, together with 
 very extensive establishments at home, depending 
 upon that revenue. 
 
 5. The accounts between the Public and the 
 Company, b. ! b r o'igbt lo no sudden and vio- 
 lent cubia oi sUlkMicnt, may be amicably and 
 
 i 2
 
 00 
 
 leisurely adjusted, with a view to mutual conve- 
 nience. 
 
 On the other hand, should the Company in- 
 cautiously drop the substance to pursue the sha~, 
 dow, and refuse the proposition of Government ; 
 and should Parliament, upon a full and deliberate 
 consideration of the actual circumstances of the 
 Company, deem it more advisable to bring their 
 accounts with the Public to a thorough investiga* 
 tion and final settlement, than to admit the Com-* 
 pany's new pretensions to a perpetual monopoly ; 
 
 1. The Company will lose as much of the 
 China trade as may fall into the hands of the pri- 
 vate merchants, who think they shall be able to sell 
 tea 85 per cent, cheaper than the Company, 
 
 2. They will lose the control of the India com- 
 merce, and will carry on their traffic in India as 
 subjects, in common with the private British mer* 
 chants. 
 
 3. By that loss, voluntarily incurred, they may 
 throw the greatest part of the trade into the hands 
 of the private traders. 
 
 4* They will lose the patronage of India, and 
 the establishments depending upon it ; which they 
 will thus compel Parliament, gontrary to the dis-r
 
 61 
 
 position of Government, to place under different 
 arrangements. 
 
 5. The accounts between the Public and the 
 Company must be referred for investigation to 
 Commissioners of Inquiry, to be finally settled 
 and adjusted. 
 
 It is now for the Proprietors, after well consi- 
 dering these two alternatives, to determine, under 
 which of the two their dividend will be most 
 secure. 
 
 With regard to Constitutional objections against 
 taking the Government of India out of the hands 
 of the Company (upon which objection their con- 
 fidence in their present pretensions chiefly re- 
 poses), it is difficult to conceive that the wisdom 
 of Parliament, after the experience of so many 
 years, is unequal to the task of devising a system 
 as good as that of die Company, without incurring 
 the evil which those Constitutional objections sup- 
 pose. The Company's Government, it must be 
 recollected, has been a production of chance, and 
 has grown by the progress of accidental events. 
 It has, indeed, answered far better in practice 
 than could have been expected, if we consider its 
 origin ; and therefore, it is not desirable that it 
 should be materially altered ; neither is it likely 
 that any such alteration of the system should be
 
 62 
 
 ontemplated, unless the indiscretion of the Com- 
 pany should impose upon Parliament the necessity 
 of resorting to that measure. But it certainly does 
 not seem to be a measure insuperably difficult, to 
 preserve whatever is really good in the present 
 system, and even to remedy some of its defects, 
 without departing from the path of experience, 
 and resorting to improvements of theory and ex- 
 periment. 
 
 There is one point of view, however, in which 
 such a system would acquire an evident advantage 
 over that which has hitherto obtained : viz. that 
 it would, in every Session, be liable to the revision 
 of Parliament, and to the immediate correction of 
 every error which might be observed, and to such 
 further continual improvements as experience 
 might direct ; not being embarrassed by tlte com- 
 pact of a Charter. 
 
 GRACCHUSw
 
 63 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Wednesday, February l?, 1813. 
 
 It is very observable, that the objections which 
 have been made by the East India Company to the 
 admission of ships, returning from India, to import 
 and dispose of their cargoes at any other place than 
 the Port of London, are not founded so much 
 upon any statement of the injury which the trade 
 of the Company would sustain by admitting 
 them, as upon a provident regard for the adven- 
 turers themselves, and a caution held out to them 
 not to entertain an expectation of benefiting by 
 any commercial speculation in India; since the 
 long experience of the Company has enabled them 
 to show, that it must be ultimately ruinous to the 
 speculator. The sum of the experience, alleged 
 by those who have come forward to defend this 
 point, is, " That it is not practicable to extend the 
 (t consumption of European manufactures generally 
 " in India ;" and the facts which they have asserted 
 in support of this experimental argument, and 
 upon which they rest its strength, are these four 
 following : 
 
 1. That the natives of India entertain a strong 
 characteristic aversion, to engage in commercial 
 transactions with foreigners.
 
 64 
 
 2. That their religious prejudices, customs, ha- 
 bits, and tastes, render it impossible that they 
 should ever become consumers of our manufac- 
 tures, to any extent. 
 
 3. That their poverty opposes an insuperable bar 
 to such consumption. 
 
 4. That these facts and their consequences are 
 demonstrated in the examples of the Portuguese 
 and the Dutch, who were not able to carry their 
 export commerce with India to any considerable 
 extent. 
 
 Let us take these several propositions in their 
 order ; and examine, how far they possess that 
 force of truth, which the Company has supposed 
 to belong to them. 
 
 1. In the infancy of the European intercourse 
 with India, the sole object of those v ho engaged 
 in its commerce was, to procure the produce and 
 commodities of the East. In this pursuit, so far 
 were the natives from opposing any obstacles to 
 their endeavours, that they were found disposed 
 to afford every facility to a traffic, which brought 
 them specie in exchange for their manufactures, 
 and for the productions of their soil. This fact, 
 which is established by every writer who treated 
 upon the subject of the India commerce during 
 that period, would of itself constitute a complete 
 answer to those who advance the proposition, that 
 
 1
 
 65 
 
 the natives of India are averse, through an esta- 
 blished prejudice, to engage in commercial trans- 
 actions with foreigners. 
 
 When the ingenuity of the French and German 
 artists enabled the speculators in this traffic to in- 
 troduce ivorks of fancy, we learn from Tavernier, 
 who made six several journeys, between the years 
 1645 and J 6/0, from France to India, by various 
 routes, that the Rajahs of Hindostan and of the 
 Deccan, as well as the Mahomedan princes of those 
 countries, admitted him into their states; that the 
 articles of manufacture which he introduced were 
 received and purchased with an avidity which en- 
 couraged him to continue, for so many years, the 
 pursuit of that commerce ; that he found the na- 
 tives of India, spread over the whole range of 
 country from the Indus to the Caspian Sea, en- 
 gaged in the active prosecution of foreign traffic; 
 and that the number of Banyans (the chief com- 
 mercial cast of Hindoos) at that time established 
 at Ispahan, were not less than ten thousand* 
 Forster, who, in a more recent period, followed 
 Tavernier in one of the routes which he had tra- 
 versed, informs us, that, in the year J 783, he 
 found Banyans established at Astrachan, within 
 the Russian empire. And we further learn from 
 Bruce, that the principal agents of commerce at 
 Mocha and Jedda, in the Red Sea, were Banyans; 
 and that they had even extended themselves into 
 
 K
 
 60 
 
 Abyssinia. No stronger evidence, therefore, can 
 be required to make it manifest, that foreign as 
 well as internal trade has been in all ages, and 
 still continues to be at the present day, a common 
 practice, and a favourite pursuit of the Hindoos. 
 
 2. With regard to the restrictive operation of 
 the religious prejudicesand customs of theHindoos, 
 against the adoption of foreign articles of manufac- 
 ture ; Mr. Colebrooke, lately a Member of the 
 Supreme Council, and an eminent Oriental scholar, 
 has furnished us with information upon this sub- 
 ject, equally important and decisive. In an un- 
 published work, on the Agriculture and Commerce 
 of Bengal, cited in The Edinburgh, Review, for 
 November 1812, that gentleman observes, that, 
 according to the sentiments of the Hindoos, (C All 
 " things come undcfiled from the shop ;" or, in 
 the words of Menu, " The hands of an artist 
 '_' employed in his art are always pure ; and so is 
 " every vendible commodity when exposed to sale: 
 " that woollens ar-e purified by a single exposure 
 '* to air, while water is necessary to purify other 
 " clothes." Proceeding with these principles, he 
 further informs us, " That the rainy season and 
 " winter of India afford real occasion for the use 
 " of woollens ; that the fabrics of Europe are al- 
 " ways preferred ; and, if the articles were adapted 
 (( in the manufacture to the Indian use, and the 
 *' price reduced, the consumption would descend
 
 67 
 
 f from the middle even to the more numerous 
 " classes. That the natives of India do not want 
 " a taste for porcelaine, and other elegant wares ; 
 <c that they require vast quantities of metallic ves- 
 ' ' sels, and of hardware ; that, considering the 
 " greatness of the population, and the disposition 
 <f of the natives to use European manufactures, it 
 u cannot be doubted, that a great vend might be 
 f( found, and that the demand will increase with 
 " the restoration of wealth." 
 
 The authority of Mr. Colebrooke on this sub- 
 ject would be conclusive, even if it stood alone : 
 but it may be supported by a reference to the 
 opinion of many persons, who have been resident 
 in the great cities of India. Those persons would 
 be found to testify, that at Delhi, at Lucknow, at 
 Hydrabad, Mysore, and Tanjore, in all the capi- 
 tals, whether Hindoo or Mahomedan, a taste pre- 
 vails amongst the natives for a variety of articles of 
 European manufacture. The late Nabob of Oude, 
 was known to have affected the European dress ; 
 as may be seen by the costume of his picture, in 
 the possession of the Marquis Wellesley. 
 
 A large assortment of cut glass lustres has been 
 provided by order, for the Soubahdar of the Dec- 
 can ; and a person is now proceeding to India, 
 with the license of the Company, for the express 
 
 K 1
 
 68 
 
 purpose of arranging them, when they shall have 
 reached his palace of Hydrabad. 
 
 The Rajah of Mysore (and, in the same manner, 
 many of the Serdars of that state), is frequently 
 clothed in scarlet cloth ; his servants are generally 
 dressed in woollen of that colour ; and he often 
 travels in an English carriage, driven by postil- 
 lions, who are habited in the English costume. 
 The Rajah of Tanjore exhibits in his palace a co- 
 lossal marble statue of himself, wrought by the 
 hand of Flaxman ; and the monument of his re- 
 vered Mentor, the late celebrated missionary 
 Swartz, sculptured by the same eminent artist, 
 was executed and sent to Tanjore, at the express 
 and urgent desire of that enlightened Prince. 
 
 We must further observe, that so far are the 
 religious and civil habits of the Hindoos from ob- 
 structing the intercourse of trade, that their policy 
 has connected trade with religion ; and the great 
 festivals of their worship, are at the same time 
 the appointed periods and scenes of their most 
 active commerce. Jaggernaut, Ramisseram, Tri- 
 petty, are the most celebrated places of Hindoo 
 devotion within the British dominions ; and every 
 one who has resided in India must know, that 
 fairs are held at those places at the periods, when 
 the greatest concourse of pilgrims is drawn to 
 them by the celebration of their religious rites
 
 69 
 
 and ceremonies. In further illustration of the 
 disposition of the natives to traffic, in every way by 
 which profit can be derived, the following fact 
 may be stated; which can be attested by every 
 officer who served with the army under Sir Arthur 
 Wellesley (now Marquis of Wellington), against v 
 the Mahrattas, in 1803. The distant and severe 
 service in which that army had been engaged, had 
 exhausted the store of European necessaries with 
 which it had advanced against the enemy ; and the 
 officers arrived at Poonah, almost destitute of those 
 comforts and accommodations. But they found 
 the native merchants of that capital provided with 
 the most essential of those several articles,- and 
 they were soon supplied, through the agency of 
 those merchants, with every thing for which they 
 had occasion. Poonah is the capital of a Brahmin 
 government ; and, therefore, this single fact would 
 serve to furnish a complete answer to every thing 
 that has been asserted, against the practicability 
 of introducing and extending the manufactures of 
 Europe into every part of Hindostan. 
 
 3. That the poverty of a large majority of the 
 native subjects of our Indian Empire is such, as to 
 disable them from acquiring our manufactures, is 
 certainly true ; but it is no less true, that a very 
 considerable portion of that population possess the 
 means of indulging in every article of convenience 
 and luxury, both native and European. It has
 
 70 
 
 been very generally stated, that there are only two 
 classes of people in India, the very rich and the 
 very poor. But a minute investigation into the 
 society of India, would discover the error of this 
 statement, and would show, that there exists a 
 third and middle class, far removed from the con- 
 dition of either of the others ; greatly exceed- 
 ing in number the former of these, and falling far 
 short of the latter. This class, as they certainly 
 possess the means, would, if proper steps were 
 taken, materially contribute to the demand and 
 consumption of many of our home manufactures. 
 
 4. With respect to the evidence, attempted to be 
 drawn from the ill success of the Portuguese and 
 Dutch traders, we are to observe, that the situa- 
 tion of the Portuguese and the Dutch, during the 
 period when they were in possession of the Euro~ 
 pean trade with India, was so exceedingly differ- 
 ent from that of the British nation at the present 
 moment, that it is scarcely possible to draw a 
 sound comparison between them. The native 
 Governments were at that time powerful ; and the 
 establishments of the Portuguese, and afterwards 
 of the Dutch, extended but a short distance from 
 the sea-coast ; the manufactures of Europe were, 
 in a manner, in their infancy ; and neither Portu- 
 gal nor Holland were manufacturing countries. 
 Whereas, the British empire is now established 
 over the richest and most populous regions of In-
 
 71 
 
 dia, and its influence is extended even further than 
 its dominion ; the manufactures of the United 
 Kingdom have attained a degree of perfection, 
 which never has been equalled ; they can be fa- 
 shioned to the tastes, the wants, and the caprices 
 of every nation and climate ; and certainly, the in- 
 terests of the country call for the cultivation of 
 every channel, which can be opened for the en- 
 largement of our commerce. 
 
 We cannot better conclude these observations, 
 
 than by applying the circumstantial evidence which 
 
 they afford, to Mr. Dundas's letter of the 2d April 
 
 1800; in which that Minister admitted the fact, of 
 
 a progressively increasing consumption ; but, at 
 
 the same time, conceived, that the customs of the 
 
 natives would prescribe limits to its extension. 
 
 " I do not mean to say," says he, " that the ex- 
 
 " ports from this country to India have not been 
 
 " very considerably increased of late years ; and I 
 
 ({ make no doubt that, from recent circumstances, 
 
 " they may be still considerably increased. But the 
 
 " prospect, from the causes 1 have already referred 
 
 " to, must always be a limited one." What these 
 
 causes are he thus explains : " The export trade 
 
 " to India can never be extended to any degree, 
 
 " proportionate to the wealth and population of 
 
 " the Indian Empire ; neither can the returns 
 
 " upon it be very profitable to individuals. Those 
 
 2
 
 72 
 
 *' who attend to the manners, the manufactures, 
 " the food, the raiment, the moral and religious 
 " prejudices of that country, can be at no loss to 
 " trace the causes why this proposition must be 
 " a true one."* 
 
 The evidence which has been produced demon- 
 strates, that neither the manners, raiments, nor 
 prejudices of Hiudostan, are of a nature to impede 
 the introduction of articles of European manufac- 
 ture; and it thus proves, that the causes assigned 
 for the limitation of our export trade, are not cal- 
 culated to impose any such limitation. What, 
 then, it may be asked, are the causes, why the 
 consumption of the manufactures of Europe in 
 India has in no degree kept pace with the exten- 
 sion of our territories, and of their population ? 
 The examination of this branch of our subject 
 would carry us to too great a length on the present 
 occasion, and will therefore best be reserved for a 
 separate communication. 
 
 GRACCHUS.
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 Saturday, March 20, 1813. 
 
 In searching for the causes, .which have prevented 
 an extensive introduction of the British manufac- 
 tures into the countries subject to the dominion or 
 influence of the British Crown in India, it natu- 
 rally occurs ; that no measure appears ever to have 
 been concerted, for the general purpose of alluring 
 the attention of the natives of India to the articles 
 of European importation. This neglect, has evi- 
 dently arisen from the opinions which have been 
 so erroneously entertained, concerning the civil 
 and religious prejudices of the Hindoos. 
 
 The evidence of Mr. Colebrooke has been ad- 
 duced, to prove that those opinions are wholly uiw 
 founded ; the following extracts from the Travels 
 of Forster, in the years 1782-3, will further 
 evince, that the Hindoos, far from entertaining 
 any indisposition to engage in commercial dealings 
 with strangers, have widely extended themselves 
 in different foreign countries for that express 
 purpose. 
 
 Hekat.t-" At Herat, I found in two Karavaiv- 
 (t seras about one hundred Hindoo merchants, 
 " who, by the maintenance of a brisk commerce, 
 
 j.
 
 u 
 
 u and by extending a long chain of credit, have 
 ** become valuable subjects to the Government, 
 " When the Hindoos cross the Attock, they 
 " usually put on the dress of a northern Asiatic, 
 " being seldom seen without a long cloth coat, 
 " and a high cap *," 
 
 Turshish.: Cf About one hundred Hindoo fa- 
 
 * milies, from Moultan and Jessilmere, are esta- 
 < blished in this town, which is the extreme limit 
 1 of their emigration on this side of Persia. They 
 ' occupy a quarter in which no Mahomedan is 
 f permitted to reside ; and I was not a little sur- 
 ' prised to see those of the Bramin sect distin- 
 ' guished by the appellation of Peerzadah, a title 
 ' which the Mahomedans usually bestow on the 
 ' descendants of their Prophet. Small companies 
 f of Hindoos are also settled at Meschid, Yezd, 
 1 Kachin, Casbin, and some parts of the Caspian 
 ' shore ; and more extensive societies are esta- 
 
 * blished in the different parts of the Persian Gulf, 
 ' where they maintain a navigable commerce with 
 ' the western coast of India -j~." 
 
 Baku u A society of Moultan Hindoos, 
 
 " which has long been established at Baku, con- 
 *' tributes largely to the circulation of its com- 
 *' merce ; and, with the Armenians, they may be 
 
 * Forster's Travels, p. 1356. + P. 160.
 
 f5 
 
 " accounted the principal merchants of Shirwari. 
 u The Hindoos of this quarter usually embark at 
 u Tatta, a large insular town in the lower tract of 
 ({ the Indus ; whence they proceed to Bassorah, 
 " and thence accompany the caravans, which are 
 u frequently passing into Persia : some also travel 
 " inland to the Caspian Sea, by the road of Can- 
 " dahar and Herat; I must here mention, that 
 " we brought from Baku five Hindoos; two of 
 " them were merchants of Mdultan, and three 
 M were mendicants, a father, his son, and a Su- 
 " nyassee (the name of a religious sect of Hindoos, 
 " chiefly of the Brahmin tribe). The Hindoos 
 u had supplied the little wants of the latter, and 
 " recommended him to their agents in Russia, 
 w whence, he said, he should like to proceed with 
 " me to England. The Moultanee Hindoos were 
 " going to Astrachan, merely on a commercial 
 ** adventure*." 
 
 Astrachan. " The Hindoos also enjoy at 
 ** Astrachan every fair indulgence. They are not 
 " stationary residents, nor do they keep any of 
 " their females in this city ; but, after accumu* 
 " lating a certain property, they return to India, 
 '* and are succeeded by other adventurers. Being 
 " a mercantile sect of their nation, and occupied 
 4< in a desultory species of traffic, they have neg- 
 
 Forster's Travels, p. 228. 
 
 L 2
 
 7<J 
 
 " lected to present any record of their first settle* 
 * ment, and subsequent progress, in this quarter of 
 " Russia ; nor is the fact ascertained, with any ac- 
 " curacy, by the natives of Astrachan *." 
 
 Having thus seen, thr.t the natives of India are 
 in no respect averse to engage in commercial deal- 
 ings with strangers, and that no prejudices exist 
 among them of a nature to prevent them from 
 using our manufactures ; we cannot but be forcibly 
 struck with the reflection, that no systematic plan 
 has ever been adopted by the East India Company, 
 to attract the attention of the Hindoos to the various 
 articles of our home manufacture, or to stimulate 
 their speculation in the traffic of them. Whereas, 
 ill Europe, the Company have always found it 
 necessary, for the disposal of their Indian Imports, 
 to take active measures for drawing the attention 
 of the nations of the European Continent to their 
 sales in London. 
 
 The Directors, in their letter to Lord Bucking- 
 hamshire, under date of the J 5 th of April, J812 f 
 (adverting to their sales in Europe,) observe, 
 " That, the Foreign Buyers repose confidence in 
 ( - s the regularity and publicity with which the 
 *f Company's sales are conducted ; that the parti- 
 " culars of their cargoes are published immediately 
 
 * Fowter'* Travels, p. 250*
 
 77 
 
 u on the arrival of the ships, and distributed all 
 " over the Continent. That notices of the quan- 
 u tities to be sold, and periods of sale, are also 
 " published for general distribution ; and that the 
 *' sales of each description of goods are made at 
 *' stated periods, twice in the year." 
 
 No measure of this nature has ever been projected 
 for India ; and yet, the predilection of the natives 
 of India, both Hindoo and Mahomedan, for pub- 
 lic shows, scenes of general resort, and exhibitions 
 of every kind, is so well known, that we may con- 
 fidently affirm, that nothing could have a surer 
 tendency to draw them together, than a display, at 
 periodical fairs, of our various manufactures. Fairs 
 of this kind, for the sale of their home manufac- 
 tures, have been held from time immemorial, in 
 every part of India. The Company, therefore, 
 needed only to engraft, upon an established usage 
 of the Hindoos, a regular plan of periodical fairs ; 
 and, by thus adopting in India a course analogous 
 to that which they have found it necessary to em- 
 ploy in Europe, they might generally have arrived 
 at giving to Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, at- 
 tractions of curiosity and mercantile interest, which 
 would most probably have drawn to those settle- 
 ments the wealthy natives from every part of the 
 East ; and have rendered the capital cities of Bri- 
 tish India, what Amsterdam, Frankfort, and 
 Leipsic have long been in Europe, the resorts of
 
 all descriptions of people, and the repositories of 
 every European article of use and luxury. From 
 th st different centres of commerce, the markets 
 of the interior of India, and especially those held 
 at the scenes of religious assembly, might be fur- 
 nished with supplies ; and, under the fostering* 
 encouragement of a wise and provident Govern- 
 ment, the intelligence and enterprise of the natives 
 of India might be called into action, and be sti- 
 mulated, by a powerful motive, to exert in their 
 own country those commercial talents that have 
 obtained for them the encouragements, which, 
 upon the unimpeachable testimony of Mr. Forster^ 
 they have long received in Persia, and in parts of 
 Russia. 
 
 The advantage of collecting together, at stated 
 periods and in established points, the productions 
 of human industry and ingenuity, has been so 
 universally felt by all nations ; that there is scarce- 
 ly a country, advanced to any degree of civiliza- 
 tion, in which the practice has not prevailed. To 
 effect this object, with a view to the extension of 
 our export trade in India, active encouragement 
 is alone requisite ; but, in order to give it stability, 
 native agency must be called forth into action. 
 The supplies which (as was mentioned on a former 
 occasion) were found at Poonah, were obtained 
 from that source alone. The Parsee merchants at 
 Bombay, are the principal agents of the Command-
 
 79 
 
 ers and Officers of the Company's ships; such 
 parts of their investments as are not disposed of 
 among the European population, are purchased, 
 and circulated in the interior, by the Parsees. The 
 6mall supplies of European manufactures which 
 find their way into the principal cities of the Dec- 
 can, proceed from this source : but there is reason 
 to believe, that the articles which arrive at those 
 places are too, frequently of an inferior sort, or such 
 as have sustained damage in the transit from 
 Europe. 
 
 To give perfection to the great object here 
 sketched out, it will be indispensably necessary 
 that the local authorities in India should direct 
 their most serious attention to this subject. As 
 our Indian empire is oar only security for our In- 
 dian trade, so our Indian trade must be rendered 
 an object of vigilant concern to those who admi- 
 nister the Government of that empire. From the 
 multiplicity and importance of their other avoca- 
 tions, that trade has not hitherto received all the 
 consideration to which its high value is entitled ; 
 but, whenever an adequate regard shall be paid to 
 it, it will become a duty of the Governments to 
 take active and effectual steps, for drawing the at- 
 tention of the natives to our exported commodities, 
 and for promoting the dispersion of those commodi- 
 ties, within the sphere of their influence or power.
 
 60 
 
 We now discern one operative cause of the com- 
 paratively small demand for, and consumption of, 
 our European articles, in the Indian empire; a 
 cause, however, which it is within our capacity to 
 control, or to remove. And, after what has been 
 summarily exposed, in this and in the preceding 
 communication, it can be no difficult point to de- 
 termine, whether this cause, or the alleged preju- 
 dices of the Hindoos, have most contributed to limit 
 J.he extent of our Export Trade to India. 
 
 GRACCHUS. 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 THE BIGHTS AND PRETENSIONS OF THE EAST 
 INDIA COMPANY. 
 
 Monday, March 8, 1813, 
 
 It is now become a matter of the most solemn 
 importance, that the public attention should be 
 called to a clear and deliberate survey of the 
 Rights and Pretensions of the East India Com- 
 pany; and that thejudgment of Parliament should 
 be directed to, and its sense declared upon, the 
 subject of those pretensions, which have generated 
 A new Constitutional Question, and are now 
 carried to an height to affect the supreme Sove- 
 reignly of the State. To discuss those Rights and
 
 81 
 
 Pretensions at large, would demand a far more 
 extended space than the present occasion can sup- 
 ply ; but it would be altogether unnecessary to 
 enter into a more enlarged discussion ; because, 
 in order to obtain the end here proposed, of draw- 
 ing and fixing the attention of Parliament and the 
 Public upon the subject, little more is required, 
 than to bring those several Rights and Pretensions 
 into one compressed and distinct point of view ; 
 and to leave it to the legislative wisdom to deter- 
 mine finally upon their validity. 
 
 The rights of the East India Company, are 
 usually distinguished into their temporary rights, 
 and their perpetual or permanent rights. 
 
 I. The temporary rights of the Company are : 
 
 1 . A right to the exclusive trade with all the 
 countries lying eastward J'rom the Cape of Good 
 Hope to the Straits of Magellan. This right is a 
 lease of all the public right to the trade of those 
 parts of the world ; which lease has been renewed 
 to the Company, from time to time, in considera- 
 tion of a varying premium to be paid by them to 
 the Public. 
 
 1. A right to administer the government and re- 
 venue of all the territories in India acquired by 
 
 M
 
 82 
 
 them during their term in the exclusive trade. This 
 is a right delegated from the Crown, with the assent 
 of Parliament ; and which can be possessed by the 
 Company no longer, than the authority from 
 which it emanates has, or shall prescribe. 
 
 Upon the expiration of these temporary rights, 
 which determine, as the law at present stands, in 
 the ensuing year, 1814, the East India Company 
 will remain in possession of whatever permanent 
 rights shall be found to pertain to them. 
 
 II. The perpetual, or more properly, the per- 
 manent, rights of the Company, must be consi- 
 dered under two distinct heads, viz. admitted and 
 alleged. 
 
 ^ 1. The admitted permanent rights are, 
 
 1 . To be a Body Politic and Corporate, zvith 
 perpetual succession. This right has been con-* 
 firmed by various succeeding Charters and Statutes. 
 But there are some observations, which it is im- 
 portant to make upon this subject. The first 
 Charter, granted by Queen Elizabeth, in l6oi, 
 to the first or London East India Company, creat- 
 ed both its corporate capacity and its exclusive privi- 
 lege, to continue for a term of fifteen years \ but it 
 provided, that, in case it should not prove bene- 
 ficial to the Public, the whole of the grant might
 
 83 
 
 at any time be determined, upon two years no- 
 tice given to the Company. The succeeding 
 Charters of James I. Charles II. James II. and 
 William and Mary, conferred, in the same manner, 
 both the corporate capacity and the exclusive pri- 
 vilege ; and though they did not, like the former, 
 fix a term for their duration, yet they rendered 
 the whole grant determinable upon three years 
 notice. No provision is introduced into any of 
 these Charters, to make the corporate capacity 
 outlast the exclusive trade. When the principle 
 of " a more national, general and extensive trade 
 (i to India,'" declared in the Charter of the 5th of 
 William and Mary, had been followed by the 
 meagre of creating a General Society of Mer- 
 chants, and of erecting a Neiv Company, the 
 advocates for that measure took particular care to 
 show, " That the Old Company, in reciting their 
 " Charters, had forgot to mention the provisos 
 ''therein, viz. that the respective Kings of Eng- 
 " laud, who granted them, reserved a discretion- 
 " ary power to make them void on three years 
 " warning *." This observation did not apply to 
 their exclusive privilege only, but extended equal- 
 ly to their corporate capacity ; both being deter- 
 minable by the same warning, because both were 
 derived from the same grant, the whole of which 
 grant was made liable to that determination, not- 
 
 * Anderson's Hist, of Commerce (1698), vol. ii. p. 221, foK 
 
 M 2
 
 84 
 
 withstanding their corporate capacity was to enjoy 
 "perpetual succession." Hence it is manifest, 
 that the perpetuity conferred by the Charter was 
 not perpetuity of exclusive trade, or political 
 power, but of corporate succession. But perpetual 
 succession in a body corporate, does not imply 
 perpetuity of duration, but merely uninterrupted 
 succession of the individuals who compose it ; 
 which every corporate body must possess, what- 
 ever may be the term of its duration, in order that 
 it may become, and may be able to perform the 
 acts of, a legal person. 
 
 The Statute of 9 and 10, and the Charter of JO 
 William III. which created both the corporate ca- 
 pacity and the exclusive privilege of the Neiu, or 
 English Company, followed the example of the 
 former Charter, granted to the Old Company, 
 and rendered the whole grant determinable by the 
 same process. But, in the 10th year of Queen 
 Anne, after the two Companies had become Unit- 
 ed, they represented the great hazard they should 
 encounter, by engaging in any considerable ex- 
 penses for securing the Pepper Trade, under the 
 limitation of that clause ; in consequence of which 
 representation the clause was repealed, and the 
 limitation was left open. The Company from 
 thence inferred, that they had acquired a perpe- 
 tuity of duration, both for their corporate capacity 
 and their exclusive privilege ; the continuance of
 
 85 
 
 both of which had ever been subjected to the same 
 rule of determination. They soon, however, .be- 
 came sensible that such could not be the true in- 
 tention of the Act, and they " submitted them- 
 " selves to Parliament*" on the subject; in conse- 
 quence of which a limited term of exclusive trade 
 was assigned them, without any limitation being 
 imposed upon the negative perpetuity of duration, 
 which they had acquired for their Corporation by 
 the repeal of the determining clause. But it was 
 not till the year 1730, the third year of the late 
 King, that the Company obtained a true and/>osz- 
 tive perpetuity of duration for their Body Corpo- 
 rate ; at which time an Act was passed, empower- 
 ing them to continue to trade to the East Indies, 
 as a Company of Merchants, although their exclu- 
 sive right to the trade, and their power of admi- 
 nistering the government and revenues of India, 
 should be determined by Parliament. From that 
 time only, the Incorporation and the Exclusive 
 Privilege become distinguished. The distinctions 
 here made will be found of material importance, 
 in another part of this statement. 
 
 1. A right to acquire and possess lands, tene- 
 ments, and property of every kind; and to dispose 
 of the same, under a Common Seal. This right 
 was conferred by the Charter of the 10th of King 
 
 * A Short Hist, of the East India Company, p. 6. 
 
 V
 
 86 
 
 William ; but by Stat. 3 G. 2. c. 14. 14. the 
 Company's estates in Great Britain were limited 
 to the value of 10,000/. per annum. In virtue of 
 this right, the East India Company were em- 
 powered to settle "factories and plantations," 
 within the limits of their exclusive trade. The 
 Charter of William, indeed, adds also "forts" 
 with the power of " ruling, ordering, and govern- 
 " ing them ;" but that this privilege cannot attach 
 upon their corporate and permanent capacity, will 
 presently be made to appear. Fortresses and for- 
 tifications cannot, from their nature and use, be- 
 come absolute private property ; being part of the 
 public defences of the Empire, they are (to speak 
 with Lord Hale) " affected with a public interest, 
 t( and therefore cease to be juris privati only *." 
 The building a fort is an act done, in its na- 
 ture, by virtue of a sovereign authority, and is 
 therefore the dereliction of the private right of 
 property for a public and general purpose. In as- 
 serting for the Company a private right tc forts and 
 fortifications, the Company's advocates have there- 
 fore fallen into an extreme error, from not discri- 
 minating between the rights which necessarily be- 
 long to their delegated sovereignty, and those 
 which can alone be annexed to their commercial 
 corporation. And this brings us to the considera- 
 tion of 
 
 * De Portibus Maris, p. 2. c. 6. p. 77.
 
 87 
 
 2. The alleged permanent rights of the Com- 
 pany, which require to be considered under two 
 descriptions, viz. rights alleged for them at the ex- 
 piration of their last exclusive Charter, and rights 
 alleged by them at the present moment, with a view 
 to the renewal of their present Charter. These are 
 the rights, or more properly the pretensions, which 
 have been pronounced by Gracchus, " absolutely 
 " unmaintainable, and incompatible with the free- 
 " dom of British subjects ;" and not their true le- 
 gitimate rights, as the writer of a letter under the 
 signature of Probus has chosen to assume. 
 
 The rights alleged for them were these : 
 
 1. Aright to possess in perpetuity certain ex- 
 tensive territories and seaports in India, after their 
 right to the exclusive trade with those places shall 
 cease. In consequence of different ancient Char- 
 ters, granting to the Company an exclusive trade, 
 together with certain powers of Government, they 
 have acquired, and actually possess, various islands, 
 seaports, forts, factories, settlements, districts, and 
 territories in India, together with the island of St. 
 Helena ; either by grants from the Crown, by con- 
 quest, purchase, or by grants from the native 
 powers in India. The nature and extent of their 
 property in these several possessions, is an import- 
 ant public question. By grants from the Crown 
 to the original or London Company, and by con-
 
 88 
 
 veyance from that Company, they possess St. 
 Helena and Bombay. By purchase, conquest, or 
 by Indian grants, they possess Calcutta and Fort 
 William, Madras, and Fort St. George, and various 
 other important seats of trade ; of all of which, for 
 a long course of time; they have enjoyed the ex- 
 clusive benefit. 
 
 With respect to the first of these; it is evident, 
 that the Old Company could only convey the places 
 which they held of the Crown as they themselves 
 held them, and subject to the same principles of 
 policy and state under which they themselves had 
 received them. The Grants of Charles II., which 
 conceded Bombay and St. Helena to the first Com- 
 pany, refer to the Charter of the J 3th of the same 
 reign, which Charter refers to, and confirms the 
 preceding Charters of Elizabeth and James I., mak- 
 ing them the ground of the Giants. The Charter 
 of Elizabeth declares its principle to be, " the ten- 
 " dering the honour of the nation, the wealth of 
 te the people, the increase of navigation, the ad- 
 i( vancement of lawful traffic, and the benefit of 
 " the Commonwealth." The principle declared 
 in the Charter of James I. is, " that it will be a 
 (: very great honour, and in many respects profit- 
 <f able, to the Ceown and the Commonwealth." 
 By a reference to, and confirmation of, these se- 
 veral Charters, in the Charter of Charles II., and in 
 the grants of St. Helena and Bombay, these prin- 
 
 3
 
 89 
 
 ciples are virtually adopted ; the end and purpose 
 of the Grants is declared ; and their ground is pro- 
 claimed to be, the honour of the British Crown, 
 and the welfare of the British Nation. It was those 
 great public interests, and not the separate interests 
 of the Company, that the Crown had in view, in 
 conceding the property of those distant depend- 
 encies. 
 
 By grants from the native powers, the Company 
 are in actual possession of many extensive and va- 
 luable territories. The doctrine of the law of Eng- 
 land, in regard to the operation of these Grants, 
 was distinctly and officially declared in the Report 
 of the Attorney- General Mr. Pratt, and Solicitor- 
 General Mr. Charles Yorke, in the year 1 757, viz. 
 That the moment the right of property vested in 
 the Company by the Indian Grants, the right of 
 sovereignty vested necessarily in the Crown of Eng- 
 land. " The property of the soil (said those emi- 
 11 nent lawyers) vested in the Company by the In- 
 " dian Grants, subject only to Your Majesty's right 
 ft of sovereignty over the settlements, and over 
 " the inhabitants as British subjects ; who carry 
 " with them Your Majesty's laws, wherever they 
 " form colonies, and receive Your Majesty's pro- 
 " tection by virtue of your Royal Charters*." 
 In considering this head of right, the case of ths 
 
 * Short Hist, of East India Company, p. 1 1.
 
 90 
 
 Jive Northern Circars, to which the Company lay 
 claim in their Petition, demands a particular atten- 
 tion ; because, the advocates of the Company's 
 pretensions are under a manifest error, with respect 
 to their tenure of those territories. They main- 
 tain, that the Circars are held by the Company in 
 perpetuity, under a military service, as tributaries 
 to the Indian Power or Powers by which they were 
 originally ceded ; and that the Crown of England 
 has no title to interfere, between them and their 
 supposed Indian Chief. This pretension renders 
 it absolutely necessary, to take a general view of 
 the situation of the Company with respect to the 
 Circars. 
 
 In the year 1753, the French were in the con- 
 firmed possession of the five Circars, together with 
 the adjoining fort and dependencies of Masulipa- 
 tarn ; of all of which they declared themselves to 
 have obtained " the complete sovereignty for ever" 
 by a grant from the Subah of the Deccan, a Prince 
 nominally dependent on the Imperial Crown of the 
 Mogul. " So that these territories (says Mr. 
 u Orme), rendered the French masters of the 
 <( greatest dominion, both in extent and value, that 
 " had evor been possessed in Indostan by Euro- 
 6i peans, not excepting the Portuguese when at the 
 " height of their prosperity *." The establish- 
 
 * History oflndostan, vol. i. p. 335.
 
 91 
 
 ment of the French power in these important pro- 
 vinces, during the war between England and 
 France, excited the most serious alarm in the 
 Company, by threatening their settlements and 
 possessions in Bengal ; and called forth the vigorous 
 and splendid exertions of Lord Clive, who, in the 
 year \75Q, sent a military force against Conflans, 
 the French Commander, under the command of 
 Colonel Forde. That gallant Officer succeeded in 
 defeating the enemy in a pitched battle at Peddi- 
 pore ; and, pursuing him from one extremity of 
 the Circars to the other, terminated the campaign 
 by the capture of Masulipatam : and thus, by ob- 
 liging the French to abandon the Circars, the right 
 of conquest was made good against the French. 
 For it is not necessary that every part of a con- 
 quered country should be acquired by a separate 
 victory, if the enemy is compelled to evacuate his 
 territory in consequence of any decisive operation ; 
 and the retention of Masulipatam, was the evidence 
 of the triumph of the British arms over the French. 
 That this was the object of the campaign, is dis- 
 tinctly shown in the declaration made by Lord 
 Clive before the Select Committee of the House of 
 Commons, in the year 1772. Lord Clive stated 
 to the House, " That soon after his appointment 
 " of President of the Company's affairs in Bengal, 
 " in 17^8, he took into his most serious considera- 
 " tion the situation of affairs upon the coast of 
 (C Coromandel. Monsieur Lally was arrived with 
 
 N 2
 
 92 
 
 " such a force, as threatened not only the dcstruc- 
 '' tion of all the settlements there, but of all the 
 " East India Company's possessions. That he 
 " thought it was his duty to contribute his mite 
 " towards the destruction of the French, and there- 
 iC fore projected the scheme of depriving the French 
 " of the Northern Circars, contrary to the inclina- 
 " tion of his whole Council. That this expedition 
 il succeeded completely , for the French were totally 
 " driven out by Col. Forde, with the Company } s 
 " troops, whose conduct and gallantry upon that 
 " occasion was equal, if not superior, to any thing 
 " that had happened during the whole course of 
 " the war *." This evidence of Lord Give proves, 
 that the scheme was entirely military, and that the 
 
 \f success was the success of arms. By the Treaty of 
 Peace concluded at Paris in 1763, (Art. 11,) " the 
 " Crown of France renounced all pretensions to 
 " those territories," which thus devolved, by an 
 indisputable right of conquest, to the Crown of 
 
 /V England. The Company, indeed, in the same 
 year obtained a grant of Masulipatam from the 
 Subah of the Deccan, which they now set forth in 
 their Petition to Parliament : but yet, their most 
 strenuous advocates admit, that Masulipatam be- 
 longs to the Crown of England, by right of con- 
 quest over the French j\ And the same argument, 
 that proves a right of conquest to Masulipatam, 
 
 * Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xxxiii. p. 811. 
 f Short Hist, of the East India Company.
 
 Q3 
 
 proves also a similar right to the Northern 
 Circars. 
 
 In 1765, however, the Company being desirous 
 of acquiring the form of an Indian title to the Cir- 
 cars, against he Subah, who might reclaim them, 
 negotiated for a grant of those provinces at Delhi, 
 over the head of the Subah ; which grant they 
 obtained. But the pretensions of the Subah, who 
 was close at hand, might disturb them in their at- 
 tempts to occupy the provinces ; they therefore 
 thought it expedient, to temporize with the Subah, 
 and to enter into a separate negotiation with him, to 
 induce him to surrender them ; and they agreed 
 to hold the provinces of him also, under an engage- 
 ment to supply him with a contingent aid of military 
 force, when called upon ; and moreover, to pay 
 him annually a tribute in money. By thus con- 
 fusing their titles (which, instead of confirming, 
 mutually defeated each other), they fully demon- 
 strated the inefficacy and impotency of the Mogul's 
 grant, in the present fallen state of that Empire. 
 But the Company could only engage themselves 
 for military service, so far as they possessed the 
 ability ; and their ability, is limited by the extent 
 of their military power ; which, being a part of 
 their sovereign power, must necessarily determine 
 with their sovereign capacity : as will be shown in 
 the next article. Whenever that capacity ceases, 
 they will be unable to furnish a single soldier, be-
 
 94 
 
 cause they will be unable to raise a single soldier 
 for the defence of the provinces. In that event, 
 the Crown must of necessity interfere, to maintain 
 and defend the territories ; and then, the original 
 cause which led to the acquirement of the Circars, 
 namely, the expulsion of the French by force of 
 arms, and their exclusion by the influence of the 
 same arms in the Treaty of 17^3, will be the true 
 ground on which to rest the question of right : a 
 right in the Crown of England, which had exist- 
 ence, prior to the form of the Mogul's grant, and 
 prior also to the expedient of the grant from the 
 Subah. And here we must keep in mind, that all 
 territories possessed by the Company in India, by 
 whatever means they have been acquired, are ne- 
 cessarily incorporated into the British Empire, and 
 become subject to its Imperial Crown ; conform- 
 ably to the resolution of the House of Commons, 
 in the year 1773 : " That all acquisitions made 
 " under the influence of a military force, or by treaty 
 t( with foreign Princes, do of right belong to the 
 " State." And as the whole fabric of British 
 India grew out of a principle of advancing the 
 public welfare, and was not an edifice raised merely 
 for the separate welfare of the Company, every 
 private interest comprehended in that fabric is, by 
 every acknowledged maxim of State, public right, 
 and consistency, subordinate ; and must be deter* 
 mined by the security of the public good.
 
 95 
 
 1. A right to retain in perpetuity certain essen- 
 tial rights of sovereignty, after the present dele- 
 gated sovereignty of the Company shall have re- 
 verted to the Crown. Although this pretension is 
 a' contradiction in terms, yet the assertors of it en- 
 tertained no doubts of its reality. They claimed 
 for the Company, in their permanent capacity of a 
 trading body corporate, a right " to appoint go- 
 " vernors, to build and maintain forts, to muster 
 '* forces by sea and land, to . coin money, and 
 " to erect Courts of Judicature*," even after 
 they shall have lost their power of administering 
 the Government of India ; and this claim is re- 
 newed for the Company at the present day-f-. 
 There is in this pretension so radical an ignorance 
 of the nature of sovereignty , that it is inconceiv-* 
 able how it could have been entertained by anyone, 
 who had ever given a thought to the subject of 
 law or government. The powers here enume- 
 rated, are essential prerogatives of sovereignty ; 
 which may indeed be delegated for a time by au- 
 thority of Parliament, but can never be granted in 
 full property by the Crown. In order to appoint 
 governors, it is first necessary to be invested with 
 the power of government. The same power is 
 manifestly necessary, in order to be able legally to 
 raise or muster any force by sea or land, either for 
 
 * Short Hist, of the East India Company, p. 56. 
 
 f Morning Post, Jan. 15, 1813, Letter, signed Probus,
 
 90 
 
 defence, or for any other military service. And it 
 is acknowledged, that the power of government has 
 never been granted to the East India Company, 
 but with limitation. In the grants of Bombay and 
 St. Helena, the Company is certainly empowered 
 to erect forts, and to raise and employ forces ; but 
 by the same grants they are invested with the 
 powers of Captain General in order to that end j 
 virtually in the first, and expressly in the second. 
 Will it be imagined, that they are to retain the au- 
 thority of Captain General, after their powers of 
 government shall cease ? And if not, it must be evi- 
 dent, that their authority over forts, and all their 
 military power, must determine, whenever their 
 delegated power of Captain General shall deter- 
 mine. It would be an insult to any reader, who 
 has ever cast his eye even on the elementary Com- 
 mentaries of Sir William Blackstone, to insist upon 
 a truth so obvious and simple. With regard to 
 the erecting of Courts, no such power is given in 
 any of the Charters produced in evidence. The 
 Crown erects the Court, and the power granted to 
 the Company is, and necessarily must be, limited 
 and subordinate. The true cause of that extraor- 
 dinary error, is plainly this : the Charters of King 
 William and Queen Anne, upon which they rest 
 these pretensions, conferred at one and the same 
 time (as has been already observed), both their 
 corporate capacity and their exclusive privilege. 
 The assertors of those permanent sovereign rights,
 
 97 
 
 nondiscriminating, by the principles of things, be- 
 tween the several powers conferred in those Char r 
 ters, have confused the provisions ; and have con- 
 strued all the powers above enumerated, which by 
 their nature could only appertain to them as dele- 
 gated Sovereigns, to belong to their capacity of an 
 incorporated Company, And, under this illusion, 
 they have imagined, that those powers are annexed 
 to that perpetuity of their corporate body which 
 was first enacted in 1730, and confirmed in the 
 33d year of the present reign ; and that they do 
 not constitute a part of those powers of govern- 
 ment, which have been conferred upon them, from 
 time to time, by their exclusive Charters. As 
 this construction is entirely arbitrary on the part 
 of the Company, and as it is unsupported by the 
 principles either of law or sound reason, it will be 
 best refuted by the authority of Parliament. 
 
 3. A right to exclude all British subjects from 
 the Company 1 s Indian ports, after their own exclu- 
 sive privilege shall be eapired. This right has 
 been claimed in the following words : " Al- 
 " though their exclusive right to the trade, and 
 " their power of administering the government 
 {( and revenues of India, were to be determined, 
 " they would still remain an incorporated Com- 
 " pany in perpetuity, with the exclusive property 
 " and possession of Calcutta and Fort W illiam, 
 " Madias and Fort St. George, Bombay, Ben- 
 
 o
 
 98 
 
 et coolen, and St. Helena, and various other 
 " estates and settlements in India. Whether, in 
 " the event of the sole trade being determined, 
 " individuals would be able to carry on a success- 
 " ful trade to India, if the Company were to debar 
 " them the use of their ports and factories, may 
 require a serious consideration*." 
 
 This is a claim, not only to a practical exclusive 
 trade, after the right to exclusive trade expressly 
 granted by Parliament shall cease and determine, 
 but involves also claims of perpetual sovereignty. 
 It is incomprehensible, how it could be alleged by 
 a writer who, in the preceding page, had pointedly 
 excepted from their powers, that of converting the 
 trade into " a mischievous monopoly -f~ ;" for, what 
 more mischievous form could monopoly, or an hos- 
 tile sovereignty, assume, than that of excluding 
 all British individuals from the chief ports and seats 
 of trade in India ? By this alleged right, the grants 
 of Charters and the provisions of Parliament 
 would be reduced to an absurdity. But as this is, 
 a claim of private right to cause a public wrong, 
 jt cannot fail particularly to engage the considera- 
 tion of Parliament. 
 
 The rights alleged by the Company at the pre- 
 sent day, are these : 
 
 * Short History of the East India Company, p. 38. 
 f Ibid. p. 37.
 
 99 
 
 1. A right to all the ports and territories in 
 India, possessed by the Company, of the same kind 
 and extent as the right by which they hold their 
 freeholds in London. This right has been solemnly 
 asserted for the Company, by the Chairman and 
 Deputy Chairman of the Court of Directors, in 
 these words : " The Company are as much 
 " owners of the chief seats of European trade 
 " in the Indian Empire, as they are of their free- 
 " holds in London *." This is an open and un- 
 reserved declaration of the East India Company, 
 renewing and asserting the preceding allegations, 
 made on their behalf at the expiration of their last 
 exclusive Charter ; and the same allegation is now 
 repeated in their Petition to Parliament, though in. 
 terms somewhat more qualified than those which 
 they addressed to the Government; viz. " that 
 <c 110 person can have a right, except with the 
 te consent of the proprietors of India stock, to use 
 te the seats of trade which the stockholders have . 
 " acquired." But they must bring an oblivion 
 over all the reasons of state and policy by which 
 they exist at all, before they can carry in the face 
 of the nation the proud assertion, that they stand 
 equally circumstanced, in regard of private right, 
 with respect to " the chief seats of European com- 
 " merce in the Indian Empire" and with respect 
 to " their freeholds in London." They wili as- 
 
 Letter to Lord Buckinghamshire, Dec. 30, 13 
 
 o 2 / 
 
 Qf: -
 
 100 
 
 suredly be told by Parliament, that they may not 
 exercise the same arbitrary authority over the 
 chief seats of Indian commerce, which they may 
 over their freeholds in London. With regard to 
 their freeholds in London, they may exclude all 
 persons from entering them, they may desert them 
 themselves, or they may let them fall to ruin. 
 But it is not so with regard to the chief seats of 
 Indian commerce; they will find, that they can- 
 not arbitrarily exclude British subjects from those 
 seats, beyond a limited time; that they cannot 
 debar the nation the beneficial use of them ; and 
 that they will not be suffered to render them un- 
 available, or unprofitable. As soon as the India 
 Trade shall be thrown open, the ports of India 
 will necessarily become open ; and, if the Com- 
 pany should then search for their private right to 
 close them, they will find, that it is merged in the 
 public right to use them; or, to use the words of 
 Lord Hale, that " their j us privatum is clothed and 
 " superinduced with ajus publicum *." 
 
 2. The last right alleged by the Company at the 
 present crisis, which forms the climax of their 
 pretensions, and is the key to all their late proceed- 
 ings, is that of a perpetual union and incorporation 
 with the Supreme Government of the Indian Em- 
 
 * De Portibus Maris, p. 2. c. 7. p. 84.
 
 101 
 
 pire ; so that the Indian trade and government 
 must ever continue to be united in them, and can- 
 not now be separated, without endangering " the 
 '* British Empire in India, and the British Con- \ 
 <s stitution at home." This pretension renders 
 the question of a temporary exclusive trade entirely 
 nugatory, because it is the unqualified assertion of 
 a perpetual one ; not to be received any more as 
 a grant from Parliament, as hitherto it has been, 
 but to be extorted from Parliament through fear 
 of the subversion of Parliament. This pretension 
 is founded upon the Company's interpretation of 
 an observation, made by a late eminent Minister 
 to the Managers of the Company's affairs, in the 
 year 1800; viz. that " the Government and the 
 " trade of India are now so interwoven toge- 
 " ther" as to establish an indissoluble " con- 
 " nexion of government and trade" This dictum, 
 is assumed by the Company for an incontestable 
 maxim of State, as applicable to their own Corpo- 
 ration ; and for an eternal principle, connecting 
 that Body Corporate with all future Indian Go- 
 vernment. This they denominate, " the system, 
 " by which the relations between Great Britain 
 " and the East Indies are now regulated" and, 
 in their sanguine hopes of gaining perpetuity for 
 their system, they already congratulate themselves 
 upon their Incorporation into the Sovereignty, as 
 a new, and fourth estate of the Empire. 
 
 2
 
 102 
 
 It is that maxim, evidently embraced for this 
 construction at the present crisis, that has embol- 
 dened the conductors of the Company's concerns 
 to assume so lofty a demeanour towards the King's 
 servants; and to venture to represent the cautious 
 proceedings of Government in a great political 
 question (in which it appears only as a moderator 
 between two conflicting interests), to be an ag- 
 gression against their indisputable rights. It has 
 been asked in the Court of Proprietors, " whether 
 " the Ministers of the present day are become so 
 " far exalted above their predecessors, or the 
 " Company so newly fallen, that adequate com- 
 " munications should not be made to the latter, 
 " of the plans and intentions of the former ?'* It 
 is neither the one nor the other ; but it is, that 
 the Company are become so elated and intoxi- 
 cated by the ambitious expectation of being incor- 
 porated as a perpetual Member of the Supreme 
 Government, that they conceive they have no 
 longer any measures to keep with the Ministers of 
 the Crown. 
 
 And can the British people now fail to open 
 their eyes, and to discern the strait to which 
 the ancient crown and realm of England would be 
 reduced, by submitting to acknowledge this new 
 t-state in the Empire ? Greatly as it would be to be 
 lamented that any thing should disturb the present 
 internal tranquillity of our political system, yet, if
 
 103 
 
 such should be the necessary result of a resistance 
 to the ambitious views of the East India Com- 
 pany, it ought to be manfully and cheerfully en- 
 countered ; rather than admit, by a temporizing 
 concession, a claim which shall bend Parliament 
 to the will of, and degrade the Crown to an alli- 
 ance with, a Company of its own subjects; which 
 owes its recent existence to the charters of the 
 Crown, and the enactments of Parliament, and 
 yet aspires to seat itself for ever, side by side, by 
 its own supreme Government. , 
 
 The Company have carried too far their confi- 
 dence in the constitutional defence by which they 
 hoped to ride in triumph over the Executive Go- 
 vernment. Their exorbitant pretensions have 
 bred a new constitutional question, to which the 
 public mind is now turning. In their solicitude 
 to fortify themselves with constitutional jealousies, 
 they have constructed a formidable fortress, which 
 threatens to embarrass the Citadel of the State, 
 and must therefore of necessity awaken its jea- 
 lousy. A change in the Administration of the 
 Indian Government (should the Company finally 
 provoke such a change), need not necessarily throw 
 the patronage of India into the hands of the 
 Crown ; means are to be found, by which that po- 
 litical and constitutional evil may be effectually 
 guarded against. But if, through a precipitate 
 assumption, that no such adequate substitute can be
 
 104 
 
 provided for the present system, Parliament should, 
 at this critical moment, unguardedly yield to 
 the demands of the Company, and give its 
 sanction to their claims to a perpetuity of those 
 privileges which they have hitherto been con- 
 tented to receive with limitation, what difficulties 
 would it not entail upon its own future proceed- 
 ings ? If the corporate sovereignty of the Company 
 is once absolutely engrafted upon the Sovereignty 
 nf the State, it cannot be extracted without lace- 
 rating the ancient stock, and convulsing the 
 general system. 
 
 The Company would have done wisely, if, in- 
 stead of resting their case upon pretensions erro- 
 neous in fact, inadmissible in law, and deroga- 
 tory of the authority addressed, they had rested 
 it wholly upon their own endeavours to promote 
 the original purpose of their incorporation : 
 namely, the honour of the Crown, and the advan- 
 tage of the commonwealth. Upon that ground the 
 Company might have stood strong ; and all that 
 would then have remained for the consideration of 
 Parliament, would have been a question, how 
 those great interests could, under existing cir- 
 cumstances, be best advanced; either by conti- 
 nuing the present arrangement without alteration, 
 or by modifying it in such particulars, as Parlia- 
 ment in its wisdom might judge to be necessary. 
 But instead of this, they have taken ground upon
 
 J 05 
 
 high pretensions of Right, which must necessa- 
 rily provoke investigation ; and we have disco- 
 vered, in the foregoing inquiry, how far those 
 pretensions are supported. 
 
 The determination of this great question, how- 
 ever, is now reserved for Parliament ; and, upon 
 the wisdom of Parliament, the Country may with 
 confidence rely, for a full consideration of all the 
 public rights, commercial as well as political ; and 
 likewise, for the final adoption of such an arrange- 
 ment for the government and trade of India, as 
 shall appear to be the best calculated to advance 
 the real interests, and to promote the general 
 prosperity of the Empire, both in the East and 
 West. 
 
 GRACCHUS. 
 
 I'Uli VND.
 
 HI 
 
 , t ni. 
 
 S. Gosnell, Punter, Little Queen Street, London,
 
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