AePa 
 leiz, 
 
 Considerations on Colo- 
 nial Policy, with Relation to 
 the Renewal of the 3*3 t India 
 Company's ~
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 COLONIAL POLICY, &c.

 
 CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 COLONIAL POLICY 
 
 WITH RELATION TO 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EAST INDIA COMPANY'S 
 
 Charter. 
 
 BY AN IMPARTIAL OBSERVER. 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD, 
 
 BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER, 190, OPPOSITE ALBANY* 
 PICCADILLY. 
 
 1813.
 
 Printed by J. R ret tell, 
 Rupert Street, Ha) market, London.
 
 CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 ON THI 
 
 RENEWAL OF THE 
 
 S EAST INDIA COMPANY'S 
 
 >- 
 
 at 
 
 Charter. 
 
 THAT every nation, in the establishment of 
 o distant possessions, has in contemplation 
 ~ its own progressive welfare and ultimate 
 o aggrandizement, will be universally ad- 
 mitted. It may happen, indeed, that the 
 primary intercourse between them has 
 originated in views purely commercial : 
 either the importation of some raw ma- 
 terial calculated to give employment to 
 the population of the mother-country ; or 
 the increased export of her existing rnanu- 
 ^factures; or her natural produce. Never- 
 theless, the result uniformly produces an 
 
 B 
 
 ,'i5468K
 
 augmentation of her political strength and 
 commercial importance ; provided the con- 
 nexion remains unimpaired, and an ami- 
 cable intercourse continues to be carried 
 on. Were it otherwise, the colonial system 
 would only cause embarrassment, and oc- 
 casion a display of extended territory and 
 multiplied population, without any increase 
 of national energy. Unproductive territo- 
 rial possessions, and unemployed manufac- 
 turers, are dead weights upon society, and 
 must eventually sink the most powerful 
 communities. 
 
 The national superiority of states, consi- 
 dered physically, is to be estimated by the 
 number of their inhabitants, and their abi- 
 lity to support an increasing population. 
 The means of employment must conse- 
 quently be sought for, and, if possible, ob- 
 tained ; for on this the subsistence of the 
 main body of the people must depend. 
 Now this is chiefly to be found in the ex- 
 tension of the manufacturing principle, 
 which will furnish employment for thou- 
 sands of those whose labours are not re- 
 quired by the agricultural interest. It is 
 this consideration which renders foreign
 
 5 
 
 possessions so extremely valuable, nay even 
 necessary, to the well-being of states yield- 
 ing an increase of population. In pro- 
 portion, therefore, to the extent of their 
 colonies, and in so far as they are made 
 subservient to the population at home, have 
 nations acquired additional strength and 
 consequence ;* these, however, have not 
 continued beyond the period of taking away 
 from those colonies necessary restraining 
 regulations, and abolishing the sovereign 
 controul of the mother-country. 
 
 Colonies may be thus classed : those 
 which are founded by means of emigration 
 from the mother-country ; such as have been 
 planted in consequence of the cession of 
 the natives; colonies which are the fruits of 
 conquest ; or, lastly, those which owe their 
 origin to varied combinations of these se- 
 veral circumstances. It is of great impor- 
 
 * It is obvious that the author supposes a due proportion 
 to be observed between the population at home and the colo- 
 nies planted abroad. The case of Spain, where the mother- 
 country has been exhausted and reduced to a state of imbe- 
 cility by improvident and profuse colonization, affords a sole- 
 cism in politics; and as the Spanish colonies draw no supplies 
 from the mother-country, they may be deemed ip every- 
 thing, but name, independent upon her.
 
 tance to bear these distinctions in mind ; 
 for they must ever be attended to in 
 the granting of privileges, the prescribing 
 of restrictions, and the framing of laws 
 adapted to the peculiar cast, character, and 
 circumstances of each. Dissimilar as they 
 are in their very nature, one unvaried form 
 of government cannot, with propriety, be 
 applied to them all. Those indulgences 
 and encouragements which are necessary 
 to some of them may prove prejudicial to 
 others : nor have they an equal claim on the 
 parent state. Those persons who cannot 
 mark those statistical differences which must 
 necessarily determine their several constitu- 
 tions, and the quantum of their immuni- 
 ties, have yet much to learn concerning 
 the true principles of colonial legisla- 
 tion. 
 
 The progress of colonies in all the arts of 
 civil society, as well as in gradual advances 
 towards independence, is natural, and per- 
 haps unavoidable ; particularly in those 
 instances where the inhabitants retain their 
 original language, and live under the 
 same laws, observe the same customs, and 
 have been trained up in a participation of
 
 the same ideas of civil liberty which prevail 
 in the mother-country. Colonies have their 
 state of infancy and pupillage ; after a 
 while, they attain maturity, imbibe no- 
 tions of independence, and become uneasy 
 under those restraints which guarded their 
 infantile state. In this we may distinguish 
 a marked similarity between the natural 
 and the political world. After a certain 
 period, those establishments begin to make 
 attempts at procuring independence; and 
 fatal experience has proved, from what 
 has already taken place in the western 
 hemisphere, that these attempts are at last 
 crowned with success. From the very 
 commencement of jealousies and animo- 
 sities, the parent state derives a diminish- 
 ing beneBt from her settlements, in exact 
 proportion as they less require her aid, and 
 give less employment to her manufacturers 
 in furnishing the articles which the colonists 
 
 o 
 consume. 
 
 Millions may have been expended, and 
 heavy taxes wllingly paid, by the mother- 
 country in support of her colonies struggling 
 for existence : but notwithstanding all this, 
 and even the impartition of patronage, and
 
 the necessary aids afforded to the com- 
 mercial credit d<f the colonists in cases of 
 emergency ; the whole has too often ended 
 rather in promoting than impeding their 
 ultimate independence, and has rendered 
 nugatory all the measures hitherto pre- 
 cribed by the most refined policy to render 
 them, for as long a period as possible, in- 
 strumental to the welfare, and subsidiary to 
 the prosperity, of the parent state. 
 
 These considerations, suggested by bit- 
 ter experience, have been hitherto very 
 little attended to in managing distant 
 possessions. The general benefit of the 
 colonies has been consulted as the pri- 
 mary, and almost the sole object; but 
 at last, when public expenditure and pri- 
 vate exertion, lavishly combined, have ren- 
 dered them independent, we have only to 
 lament our unhappy mistakes. 
 
 Let any thinking man but advert to the 
 sumslaid out upon our American settlements, 
 looking simply at the documents of yearly 
 expenditure preserved in the tables re- 
 corded in the Annual Register; let him 
 reflect upon the wars in which we engaged 
 for the sake of our colonies, particularly
 
 * 
 
 when Lord Chatham undertook to con- 
 quer America in Germany ; let him look 
 at the blood and treasure spent in expelling 
 the French from Canada, which in 1759 
 was thought a most fortunate (as it surely 
 was a glorious) achievement, though sub- 
 sequent events have proved the fallacy of 
 such an idea, and he must necessarily see, 
 if he do not wilfully shut his eyes, that all 
 this liberality, and martial prowess, did but 
 hasten the catastrophe of July 4, 1776, 
 when the Thirteen Colonies declared them- 
 selves independent. 
 
 It may be deemed too late, when the 
 Rubicon is passed, to deprecate impolicy 
 of this sort, or to indulge in unavailing 
 complaints. It will however serve to pre- 
 vent a repetition of such distressful circum- 
 stances in after times, to point out this 
 most important fact, that by not adhering 
 firmly to wholesome regulations, and proper 
 restrictions, there can be but a small chance 
 of prolonging that period during which colo- 
 nies are of advantage to the mot her- country. 
 Take away the restraints of sound policy, 
 and a premature separation must neces- 
 sarily be produced, extemely detrimental
 
 to the latter, and leaving the former in a 
 state hardly equal to the protection of their 
 growing commerce, unable to repel aggres- 
 sion, and a prey to all the evils which 
 invariably vex and harass a weak govern- 
 ment. The experience of past ages will 
 no doubt furnish many examples of a 
 like description ; and in consequence of 
 our treading in the footsteps of those 
 who before us have deviated from the 
 path of true policy, a similar result must 
 necessarily follow: and it will be found, 
 that in the instance of colonies formed 
 by emigration from the parent state, con- 
 fidence has been reposed in them, con- 
 cessions have been liberally made, and 
 encouragements of every kind have been 
 held out to them ; till the colonists have 
 taken advantage of the bounteous disposi- 
 tion of their fellow-subjects at home ; and 
 have ultimately used the strength which 
 they have attained, to break asunder those 
 links of grateful amity, which should have 
 held them attached to the land of their fa- 
 thers as firmly as chains of adamant. Au- 
 thentic history proves, that from the era of 
 the Grecian colonies planted in Asia Minor,
 
 to the memorable event of the American 
 revolution, the removal of restrictions has 
 occasione d a lengthened series of expense, 
 bloodshed, and vexation, till a final separa- 
 tion has taken place between a mother, 
 foolishly fond, and her ungrateful off- 
 spring. 
 
 Whatever sentiments may be entertained 
 concerning the equity or the policy of 
 granting indulgences to colonies of this class; 
 are we to assume it as a general maxim, that 
 to colonized territories obtained by cession, 
 similar privileges and benevolences are to 
 be granted ? Or at least, when conquest has 
 added provinces or islands to the ancient 
 dominion of existing states, ought not the 
 entire frame of the government and the 
 scale of commerce, devised for these new 
 acquisitions, (unless otherwise settled by the 
 terms of their surrender), to depend wholly 
 upon the cultivation of those interests 
 which may best promote the welfare and 
 prosperity of the country by whose sword 
 they have been gained, and to whose 
 empire they are become appendages ? 
 
 Conquests achieved in distant parts of the 
 globe are but of questionable importance,
 
 10 
 
 and productive of small benefit to any 
 country, com pared with those colonies which 
 owe their origin to emigration. The scale 
 of refinement and civilisation may be as 
 high in the reduced provinces, as in the 
 victorious state. They may have advanced as 
 far in the perfection of mechanical arts, as 
 the nation which has subdued them ; they 
 may equal the more powerful country in the 
 richness of their natural productions; they 
 may even excel it in the variety, the delicacy, 
 or the utility of their manufactures. It will 
 therefore derive little or no advantage from 
 the export trade with the acquired territories, 
 and they may even rival their new mistress 
 in supplying other nations with the neces- 
 saries or the elegancies of life ; a competi- 
 tion which must be fraught with many 
 dangers to the sovereign state, whose well- 
 being it were absurd to place in any cir- 
 cumstances of hazard. This were only to 
 conquer political ruin, and prematurely to 
 accelerate statistical decay. That country 
 must be ignorant of every principle which 
 tends to cherish the prosperity, or secure the 
 wealth of nations, that should thus foster 
 destruction under the wings of victory.
 
 11 
 
 The most obvious advantages springing 
 from colonization, are derived from the 
 interchange of such commodities as furnish 
 employment to the population of the 
 parent state. The commercial connexion 
 will prove less and less advantageous to 
 her, in proportion as she is rivalled by her 
 colonies, and as they take off in a reduced 
 ratio the produce and manufactures sup- 
 plied by the mother-country. 
 
 From what has been said, it is perfectly 
 reasonable, that all British settlers in co- 
 lonies which have been formed through 
 cession of territory or conquest, and the 
 whole of their commercial concerns, should 
 be rendered subservient to the interests and 
 welfare of their native country, to whose 
 laws they owe a sacred obedience, and 
 whose supremacy they are bound to ac- 
 knowledge and respect ; nor can any thing 
 absolve them from allegiance to their So- 
 vereign, although it is apprehended that 
 they too frequently persuade themselves 
 that distance cancels duty. 
 
 In every case of colonization, whether 
 by emigration, by cession, or by conquest, 
 regulations adapted to every exigency
 
 are indispensably necessary ; and these 
 should never be suffered to grow obso- 
 lete, but, from time to time, be new- 
 moulded, and unremittingly enforced, in 
 proportion as the infant settlement rises in 
 the scale of political importance; in order 
 to preserve unimpaired the authority of the 
 parent and superior kingdom, and to secure 
 to it all the beneficial results of well-orga- 
 nized colonial polity ; dtherwise the most 
 ruinous consequences may be expected, 
 arising out of the very nature of things, 
 and evidenced by the testimony of ages. 
 
 These restrictions, however deemed op- 
 pressive by colonists, if viewed in a true 
 light, will be found perfectly reasonable, 
 and every way consistent with the rules of 
 equity. The colonists are in a great degree 
 exonerated from the operation of those 
 taxes levied on their fellow-subjects at 
 home, for the general support and de- 
 fence of the empire; at the same time that 
 they participate in the commercial ad- 
 vantages of the mother-country. These 
 they will notwithstanding endeavour con- 
 tinually to appropriate to themselves. De- 
 mand after demand will be made, and every
 
 IS 
 
 concession will only stimulate fresh requi- 
 sitions. In proportion, however, as they 
 diminish the commercial prosperity of the 
 parent state, the less equal will it be to 
 sustain the fiscal burdens necessary to en- 
 sure national defence. Its sources of profit 
 from abroad being cut off, it will not be 
 able to support the expenses of the home 
 establishment, and must of course dwindle 
 into insignificance, or sink under its ene- 
 mies. From these premises, this conclu- 
 sion must unquestionably follow : That, to 
 make the establishment, the maintenance, 
 and the prosperity of colonial appendages, 
 primary objects ; to promote their interests, 
 without keeping in view the relation in 
 which they stand to the mother-country ; 
 and to give facility to their intercourse with 
 foreign nations, would be to adopt prin- 
 ciples of government as repugnant to true 
 policy as to common sense. 
 
 The advantages enjoyed by settlers are 
 various and considerable : the market of 
 the parent state is ever open to them ; and 
 through this medium, the marts of other 
 nations with whom she is in amity. The 
 colonists, as has been already observed,
 
 escape the burden of those local taxes 
 which are often severely felt by their fellow- 
 subjects at home ; and so long as the set- 
 tlers conduct their affairs on the basis of 
 probity and honour, they will always have 
 credit at their command, and enjoy the be- 
 nefit of commercial preference, arising out 
 of a natural partiality which must pervade 
 all bosoms, far exceeding any sensations that 
 can be felt for the most favoured foreign na- 
 tions. Advantages such as these must pre- 
 sent a full compensation for any restrictive 
 regulations under which they may lie ; 
 and it should always be remembered, that 
 regulations of this sort must be instituted 
 ex necessitate rei ; nor can it be too often 
 or too seriously pressed, that a firm adhe- 
 rence to a restrictive policy alone can se- 
 cure the allegiance of the colonists, and the 
 advantages which they bring to the mother- 
 country ; for surely it were outrageously 
 absurd, and altogether unnatural, that the 
 prosperity of the original nation should be 
 sacrificed to the well-being of her scions 
 grafted on a foreign stock. 
 
 These principles and deductions appear- 
 ing too obviously founded in truth and
 
 15 
 
 sound policy to be controverted by reflect- 
 ing and considerate statesmen, it shall now 
 be the author's business to apply them im- 
 partially to a case of prodigious and vital 
 importance to Great Britain, the renewal 
 of the East India Company's Charter ; in 
 the pure hope that the research into the 
 fundamental principles of colonial trade, 
 and the extended view which has here been 
 taken of the subject, (different as it is from 
 that of the partisans of either side, and 
 clear of all irritation), may be deemed, 
 generally, as disinterested and unbiassed as 
 it is meant to be ; and that the author's 
 real object will be discerned by all his 
 readers, viz. the paramount and lasting 
 welfare of Great Britain. 
 
 So much prejudice has been excited, and 
 so much harm has arisen, by an improper 
 application of terms, that a considerate 
 mind will endeavour to divest itself of 
 their influence, on the examination of any 
 important question. Great hostility has 
 been created against the East India Com- 
 pany, by applying to their concerns the 
 term monopoly, in its most invidious sense,
 
 16 
 
 viz. the securing to a few, by means of 
 arbitrary restrictions, those advantages 
 which it is presumed might, with public 
 benefit, be enjoyed by many. But if it 
 shall appear, that the benefits of the India 
 trade may be as considerable, and as widely 
 distributed, under the Company's Charter, 
 as they would have been, had no exclusive 
 right existed ; the privileges which it con- 
 fers cannot be considered as injurious to 
 the public. The advantages of oriental 
 commerce hare not been confined to the 
 Proprietors of India Stock alone, but have 
 been shared by the whole community; and 
 be it ever remembered, that if the com- 
 mercial funds of the Company had not 
 been dedicated to the maintenance of the 
 Indian Empire, and the security and con- 
 solidation of our possessions in that quarter 
 of the globe, there would have been no- 
 thing left, at this moment, to dispute 
 about. 
 
 Let us riot be the dupes of vulgar errors ; 
 for on the subject of monopolies, it should be 
 considered, that any trade whatever, must, 
 to a certain extent, be monopolised ; for it
 
 17 
 
 is just as impossible to preserve commer- 
 cial as political equality.* Capital, supe- 
 rior information and intelligence, influence 
 and connexions, possessed by a few mer- 
 chants, will always prevent the advantages 
 of any trade from being enjoyed by all 
 who may be inclined to embark in it; and 
 the more remote the country shall be with 
 which that trade is carried on, the fewer 
 will be the hands into which the profits 
 must fall. It should also be recollected, 
 that no persons can fully enjoy the profits 
 of a trade, without the employment of an 
 adequate capital, and the labour of consi- 
 derable application. The mode of en-, 
 suring the beneficial returns of com- 
 merce, is the same in all cases, simplex 
 duntaxat et unum, whether that commerce 
 be open tp essays of general speculation, or 
 whether it be guarded by legal provisions. 
 In the latter case, the means of obtaining 
 a share in its proceeds are more precisely 
 
 * The disturbances in France commenced with the po- 
 pular cry for liberty of trade ; and let it be remembered, 
 that they have ended in the most bloody war that has ever 
 desolated the world ; undertaken for the specific purpose of 
 destroying all commercial freedom. 
 
 D
 
 18 
 
 defined, and adventurers are less exposed 
 to risk ; the public, however, are in no way 
 sufferers. 
 
 Divesting ourselves, therefore, of all pre- 
 judice, the expediency of renewing the 
 Charter of the East India Company will 
 manifestly appear, by showing that the 
 country could not derive more or greater 
 advantages from an open trade with India, 
 than it certainly may, under proper regu- 
 lations of the present system. The ques- 
 tion, in a national point of view, in which 
 Parliament ought to consider it, is not, 
 whether the out-ports will receive additional 
 benefit by an open and unrestrained com- 
 merce with India ? but, whether the great 
 interests of the country will be promoted ; 
 and whether those advantages will be en- 
 joyed, in a more extensive degree^ by those 
 individuals who compose the trading divi- 
 sion of the community ? 
 
 The benefits which Great Britain derives 
 from the trade with India are not solely to 
 be estimated by the returns which pass into 
 the treasury of the Company ; but by the 
 employment, the remuneration, the profit, 
 and advantages of those who are in any
 
 19 
 
 way, immediately or indirectly, connected 
 with it. The freighting of an outward- 
 bound Indiaman puts trade in motion 
 through the remotest districts of the United 
 
 o 
 
 Kingdom. The matt-rid (if such a word 
 may be used in this sense) of a fleet, the 
 vessels and rigging, the stores, guns, am- 
 munition, and provisions, are found at 
 home ; and with respect to cargoes, in ad- 
 dition to those parts of them which turn to 
 a. profitable account, the Company export 
 large quantities of the produce and manu- 
 factures of this nation, on which, as mer- 
 chants, they receive no profit, and in nume- 
 rous instances suffer a loss. Will it there- 
 fore be contended, that from a trade of 
 this sort no advantage accrues to the 
 country, except that which flows into the 
 coffers of the Company ; when we consider 
 that the thousands engaged in the manu- 
 facture of commodities, or concerned in the 
 transit of merchandise, have obtained a 
 profit, and that the King's Exchequer has 
 received an accession of revenue directly, 
 or by the operation of collateral taxes ? . 
 Can it be expected, therefore, (and it is a 
 most serious consideration to the laborious
 
 20 
 
 classes of the people of England), that any 
 private merchant will conduct his business on 
 this extended scale, and on this liberal prin- 
 ciple ? It may be urged that he will re- 
 duce the expence of freight, in order to 
 enable him to secure a profit on his goods 
 in the India market ; but this can only be ac- 
 complished by his appropriating to himself 
 a part of those profits enjoyed by a great 
 number of persons now employed in the 
 transit. Unless, therefore, the demand for 
 British produce and manufactures shall be 
 increased by an open trade, or an higher 
 price shall be obtained for them in India 
 than they fetch at present, which can- 
 not be deemed very probable when there 
 shall be such a competition of venders; 
 we must assume it as a point demonstrated, 
 that the export trade to India may afford 
 full as great advantages under the manage- 
 ment of the East India Company, as can 
 possibly arise from an unrestrained com- 
 munication. The. supply of a distant 
 country, like India, with British manufac- 
 tures, is best to be accomplished by an 
 uniform system, well digested, and steadily 
 administered ; and it is only to be effected
 
 21 
 
 by a large company, or by the efforts of 
 a few principal merchants, influenced by 
 an intercommunity of sentiment, and uni- 
 ting to furnish the necessary commodities, 
 and to give regular employment to the 
 manufacturers of this kingdom; who, on 
 their part, aware of the stated calls for 
 their goods at the proper seasons, and ma- 
 king their purchases at the best advantage, 
 without the hurry and confusion incident 
 to an uncertain sale, could enable such 
 merchants as we have described, with no 
 loss of profit to themselves, to carry on an 
 export trade to India, at a cheaper rate, 
 and with articles of a more uniform qua- 
 lity, than they possibly could, if left to the 
 desultory and fluctuating exertions occa- 
 sioned by the private (and not seldom 
 clashing) speculations of individuals. 
 
 It is of great consequence that the views 
 and projects of the merchants of any 
 country, concerned in a specific trade 
 should be confided to those who are en- 
 gaged in the same traffic. A just equipoise 
 is thus maintained in the markets at home 
 and abroad. In the East India Company,
 
 this is perfectly understood, and is ma- 
 naged with admirable precision. The 
 conquests recently made in the different 
 islands of the Indian Sea, will provoke no 
 ruinous paroxysm of wild adventure: very 
 different from what so lately took place on 
 the shores of the Atlantic! How many 
 merchants fell sacrifices to the mania that 
 prevailed in the commercial world on the 
 taking of Buenos Ay res and Mo nteVideo! 
 Lord Valentia gives us a true picture of the 
 wretched effects arising from the jealous 
 competition of the Americans trading to 
 Mocha. One or two ships, having carried 
 coffee to America, disposed of it there 
 to very good advantage. This was whis- 
 pered about, and the American merchants 
 having no confidence in each other, pri- 
 vately fitted out a great number of vessels 
 for Mocha, on the return of the season. 
 To the surprise of the captains and super- 
 cargoes, ship after ship entered the har- 
 bour; Arabia was inundated with American 
 commodities, and the price of coffee was 
 so much enhanced by this most injudicious 
 competition, that the market was totally
 
 m 
 
 spoiled. Mischiefs like this cannot occur 
 under the auspices of the East India Com- 
 pany ; but how they can be prevented, 
 in case the out-ports should be admitted 
 into the trade, it will be for the favourers 
 of innovation to demonstrate. 
 
 If the advantages already derived from 
 India shall not be rendered more consi- 
 derable by risking the experiment of an 
 open trade, is it perfectly clear, or is it 
 probable, that they will be more widely 
 diffused amongst the inhabitants of Great 
 Britain, than we find them to be at present? 
 Or, is it not rather to be expected that the 
 principal benefits will be confined to a few 
 merchants and their dependents ; and thus 
 a monopoly of a truly dangerous species 
 will be established, instead of a trade li- 
 mited by legal, and consequently known 
 restrictions ? * The benefits accruing from 
 the India trade are not engrossed by a few ; 
 
 * It should be remembered, that the measure proposed by 
 hi* Majesty's Ministers does not go to destroy the principle 
 of monopoly, although it will do away many of the advan- 
 tages resulting from the present system ; for the trade will be 
 as much a monopoly in principle when confined to six port*, 
 MS when restricted to the port of London.
 
 they are divided amongst many. To sup- 
 pose* that a limited number of those now 
 engaged in the trade share the principal 
 advantages amongst them, is a gross error. 
 Of the numbers who embark in the present 
 system, many reap profits extremely dispro- 
 portionate to the capital they employ, and 
 the exertions they make. The case is the 
 same with the Proprietors ; the quantum of 
 whose dividends has not been, nor can be, 
 augmented beyond what it now is. The 
 surplus would go to the state in the first 
 instance ; but it has been absorbed by the 
 expenses which have been incurred from 
 the necessity of repelling aggression; the 
 taking up arms to maintain the internal 
 peace of India (continually endangered or 
 molested by the intrigues of the great 
 enemy of British commerce with the native 
 powers) ; and, lastly, by the necessity of ex- 
 pelling the French, and other nations under 
 their influence, from the oriental islands, the 
 ports of which, for so long a time, sent forth 
 continual annoyance to the trade. But 
 for the immense sums thus expended, in 
 securing what are nothing less than national 
 benefits, the debt which now oppresses the
 
 25 
 
 Company would not have been incurred. 
 With respect to the officers of the establish- 
 ment either at home or abroad, it is noto- 
 rious that many years must elapse before 
 any of them can realise a moderate 
 fortune; and it was correctly stated by 
 the Edinburgh Reviewers, that the progress 
 towards independence of those young men 
 who go to India, is not so rapid as that of 
 the same number who, with equal talents, 
 remain at home. Of those engaged in the 
 shipping concern, many of them receive 
 no interest on their capital, and none more 
 
 than a small one. The commanders and 
 
 . \ 
 
 subordinate officers, a class of men of ac- 
 knowledged talent, tried integrity, and 
 great respectability in society, are justly 
 entitled to consideration in these pages ; 
 but it is lamentable to think how few of 
 them, considering their numbers, obtain the 
 means of retiring from their laborious em- 
 ployments at that period of life which most 
 requires, if not affluence, at least ease, re- 
 pose, and a fair competency. Where then 
 are we to look for the signs and tokens, the 
 morbid symptoms of that bloated mono- 
 poly, which so frequently furnishes a sub-
 
 ject for vulgar declamation or popular 
 harangues ? It must be observed, too, that 
 every article used or exported by the Com- 
 pany is bought by contract, and that all its 
 imports are disposed of by public sale ; and 
 being brought to one market, a great 
 emporium is thus constituted for Indian 
 goods ; and although nothing should appear 
 to be gained by the Indian trade, abstrac- 
 tedly considered, this measure secures a 
 great demand for British manufactures, of 
 vast importance to the country. And is 
 this a system to break up, to demolish, and 
 to throw into inextricable confusion, in the 
 hope of making some fancied, someUtopian 
 improvement ? Is fact to give way to 
 supposition ? is reality to be bartered for 
 hope ? is theory to supersede experience ? 
 It is hard to say of what sort the waking 
 dreams indulged in by the advocates of an 
 open and unguarded trade may have been ; 
 but this is clear, that however limited the 
 profits of those' who employ the largest 
 capitals in the affairs of the East India 
 Company may be, the sources of general 
 advantage (if advantage it may be deemed 
 or styled) are as freely open to every indi-
 
 p ...... 
 
 vidual, as those of any trade whatsoever; 
 India stock may be purchased by any one ; 
 the contracts are open to all who choose to 
 send in proposals ; the doors of the Com- 
 pany's sale-rooms are shut to none ; and 
 offices of responsibility or trust are attain- 
 able under the Company, as in every de- 
 partment of the active world, by the usual 
 steps ; by the assiduities and zeal of friend- 
 ship, by the exercise of industry, by the 
 display of talent and the proof of integrity. 
 The word monopoly, in its odious and re- 
 volting sense, is altogether inapplicable to 
 the system of commerce maintained by the 
 Honourable East India Company. 
 
 If the country in general reaps advan- 
 tages from the Indian trade under its pre- 
 sent wise limitations ; unless it can pre- 
 viously be proved that superior benefits 
 will result from an alteration of system, 
 compensating the distress, and overwhelm- 
 ing confusion, that must inevitably attend 
 the forcing of the trade into new channels, 
 after it has flowed in its present bed with a 
 fertilising stream for more than two cen- 
 turies ; so tremendous a change ought not 
 to be attempted, so hazardous an experi-
 
 28 
 
 ment ought not to be tried. The Pro- 
 prietors, and all who are connected with 
 the Company, from the Chairman to the 
 humblest labourer in the warehouses at 
 home; from the Govenor-General to the 
 servant that supports his palanquin in 
 India; are justified in the confidence which 
 they repose in the collective wisdom of the 
 Legislature, and the hope which they en- 
 tertain that their interests will neither be 
 sacrificed at the shrine of popularity ; nor 
 compromised in order to establish a pre- 
 ponderant interest in the out-ports ; nor 
 abandoned to the scramble of those who 
 certainly do not compose a larger, or a 
 more respectable, or a more trust-worthy 
 part of the community than themselves, in 
 their several classes. 
 
 That the East India Company should be 
 allowed to possess territory gained by right of 
 conquest, is a subject which has been often 
 discussed. This, abstractedly considered, 
 is a question for publicists to decide. There 
 can be no doubt, however, that if the con- 
 quered provinces belong to the State, the 
 Company has an equitable claim on the 
 Empire for a reimbursement of the ex>
 
 29 
 
 penses which have been incurred by adding 
 to, or preserving and defending, her do- 
 minions. With regard to the demesnes 
 which the Company holds in consequence 
 of grants from the native princes, or pur- 
 chases from the oriental possessors, it is 
 clear that these princes, and others, had the 
 right of ceding lands, and conferring autho- 
 rity to rule them, or of parting with territory 
 or power for a valuable consideration ; and 
 that if the terms on which these grants^ 
 purchases, or surrenders were made, cannot 
 any longer be complied with by the Com- 
 pany, the lands, and the prerogatives at- 
 tached to them, ought to revert to the 
 aboriginal proprietors, unless it appear 
 that the Company are invested with power 
 to make them over to the State for a just 
 and fair equivalent. Such property, derived 
 from the munificence of Sovereigns, has 
 been deemed sacred in England ; and it 
 were a libel on the Legislature to suspect 
 that Parliament will invade it. The pro- 
 perty of the East India Company will 
 surely be as much respected as that of the 
 meanest subjects of the King. 
 
 Jt may be proper, however, to look at
 
 so 
 
 this part of the argument in another light. 
 The Company possess invaluable territorial 
 property in India, ceded in the way of ne- 
 gociation, or granted in free gift, by the 
 sovereign proprietors of the soil. Posses- 
 sions of this nature are exactly of the same 
 sort with those which in Europe arise out 
 of the bounty of crowned heads to indivi- 
 duals; whether bestowed as rewards for ser- 
 vices rendered, or encouragement to merit, 
 or simply as marks of royal favour and 
 princely liberality. If property of this 
 nature is to be wrested out of the hands of 
 the Company, for whom is it destined ? Is 
 it to be given to strangers? Is it to be 
 restored to the representatives of the original 
 granters ? Or, lastly, is it to be confiscated 
 for the use of the State ? If the State is to 
 seize it, then it will become us to advert to 
 the principle on which this is to be perpe- 
 trated. Will the necessities of the State 
 afford a sufficient apology for a strong 
 measure like this ? Then will many great 
 landholders in the United Kingdom be 
 placed in a perilous situation ; for the prin- 
 ciple is equally as applicable to multitudes 
 of them at home, as to the Company, in its
 
 remote possessions. The old maxim, nul- 
 lum tempus occurrit regi, may be expected 
 to revive : what is now deemed indefeasible 
 property, may turn out to be held on the 
 frail tenure of caprice; the forest of In- 
 glewood, and many old English parks, 
 forests, and chases, bestowed by our an- 
 cient monarchs as the rewards of valour, 
 the honourable requitals of political wis- 
 dom, or the tokens of affection, may be 
 resumed at the pleasure of Administra- 
 tion. And be it ever remembered, that 
 the princes of India have far more power 
 over their domains, than any king of 
 England possesses over the property of 
 the Crown, in the limited monarchy which 
 is the glory, and the boast, and the bless- 
 ing of England. 
 
 With respect to revenue, which is ad- 
 mitted to be rather an affair of Govern- 
 ment than of the Company, although it is 
 equally clear that every body must feel an 
 interest in the fair and just collection of 
 legitimate duties, as every evasion of them 
 is an injury to the advantages of the ho- 
 nourable merchant, and all must contribute 
 to make up the deficiency ; let us ask
 
 32 
 
 how, or in what manner, this branch 
 of the public service can be better admi- 
 nistered, can be made more productive, or 
 performed at less expense, than at pre- 
 sent? It is self-evident that frauds 
 must be fewer, and the establishment of 
 revenue officers on a smaller scale, when 
 the trade is confined to one port, and to a 
 single dock, than if it were scattered round 
 the country. The walls which surround 
 the East India Dock afford no less secu- 
 rity against pilferers and plunderers, than 
 against smugglers, and those who are mas- 
 ters of a thousand contrivances to defraud 
 the revenue. Shall we look for greater 
 security in the bays, creeks, and inlets 
 which indent an extended line of coast on 
 each side of our islands ; many of them 
 affording convenient landing-places in dis- 
 tricts which are thinly inhabited ? The 
 size of the India ships now at once points 
 out to the revenue-cutters those vessels, 
 amongst a number, that require attention ; 
 but when vessels of only four hundred 
 tons burthen, freighted with Indian pro- 
 duce, are floating along our coasts, what 
 written intructions can possibly suggest
 
 S3 
 
 whence they come. In the bosom of the 
 port of London, the greatest emporium in 
 the world, where the principles of trade 
 are so thoroughly understood, and where 
 there are so many eyes to detect offenders, 
 who can only expect safety in solitude and 
 darkness, every possible method has been 
 devised, and put in force, to place the re- 
 venue in such a situation as almost to bid 
 defiance to the artifices of the most ingeni- 
 ous dishonesty. The erection of the East 
 India dock, the publicity of the Commer- 
 cial Road, and the covered caravans which 
 convey goods from the docks to the Com- 
 pany's warehouses, have completed a sys- 
 tem which has occupied the attention of 
 Government, employed for many years in 
 attempts to extinguish smuggling. Can 
 it be consistent with common prudence, or 
 can it meet with the approbation of that 
 class of the King's Ministers charged with 
 the care of the revenue, to abandon the 
 securities which have been devised ? And, 
 surely, it will not be asserted that any system 
 more lax, or less rigid, should be adopted ; 
 or that fewer precautions will ensure what 
 is tine to the Customs of the Excise.
 
 34 
 
 Now, let us ask, are there docks at the 
 out- ports on the principle of those at Black- 
 wall, prepared to receive .the commerce of 
 India within their inclosure? If they do not 
 yet exist, let the projectors of the unlimited 
 system calculate the surns it will require, 
 and the labour it will ,demand, and the 
 time it will take to form <them. Let them 
 next consider how they shall frame and 
 establish departments within those docks, 
 filled with experienced functionaries, the 
 guardians of public and private property, 
 attending to the most minute concerns 
 either of revenue or trade ; and it will be for 
 those who manage the affairs of the Ex- 
 chequer to consider the armies of Custom- 
 House and Excise Officers which must be 
 marshalled in the out-ports ; and for those 
 senators who watch over the public expen- 
 diture, to estimate the expenses which 
 must be incurred by the folly of doing that 
 in many places, at great risk, and probably 
 very inadequately, which at present is done 
 so perfectly, and so economically, in one. It 
 will also afford matter of serious reflection 
 for those members of Parliament, in either 
 House, who look with a jealous eye to the
 
 35 
 
 extension of ministerial influence ; to weigh 
 well, whether the proposed alteration will' 
 not increase that preponderancy of power, 
 in one of the three estates of the realm; 
 which, in their judgment, has already too 
 great a sway in directing the affairs of the 
 nation. This is not urged in the spirit of 
 hostility to the present Ministers ; far from 
 it. The author respects them much ; but 
 he knows human nature too well, not to be 
 alarmed at the increase of power which* 
 in the event of adopting the new plan of 
 conducting the Indian trade, must needs 
 be thrown into hands prepared to grasp 
 and wield, to their own advantage, an ac- 
 cession of strength. To all these sources of 
 influence must be added that arising out 
 of the patronage annexed to the fleets of re- 
 venue-cutters, and other vessels, filled with 
 officers of different descriptions, which must 
 cruise without intermission along our coasts, 
 in order to prevent, or check, if it be possible, 
 the attempts of those concerned in contra- 
 band enterprises. Out of all this arises an ar- 
 gument of considerable importance : If in 
 the memorable contest which took place 
 in 1783, between the country at large,
 
 36 
 
 (which at that time espoused the cause of 
 the India Company), and the then Admi- 
 nistration, the patronage of Leadenhall 
 Street was not allowed, on constitutional 
 grounds, to be transferred to the disposal 
 of the King's Ministers, nor yet of Parlia- 
 ment itself; is it to be expected that the 
 fancied, certainly not the real, interests of 
 a few of the out-ports, will induce the 
 country to connive at the weight of patron- 
 age which the new experiment on com- 
 merce will cast into the ministerial scale ? 
 Mr. Rose published, with laudable pride,an 
 account of the reduction of revenue-officers 
 effected by Mr, Pitt. Could the disembodied 
 spirit of Mr. Pitt take cognizance of the 
 projected re-appointment, and the prodigi- 
 ous increase of those people, (always odious 
 in a free state), for no other reason except 
 the hope of appeasing some unquiet persons 
 who have involved themselves in tempo- 
 rary difficulties in their own immediate 
 lines of commerce ; would he not (together 
 with his great colleague, Lord Melville, a 
 consummate master of every circumstance 
 connected with the India Company) re- 
 probate the conduct of his successors ; who
 
 nevertheless have often professed to tread 
 in his steps, and adhere, to his counsels " 
 When the Company's Charter was renewed 
 under the controul of those two great 
 statesmen, the trade was continued in the 
 same channels in which they found it, 
 after the most minute investigation of the 
 measure in all its points, and a degree of 
 serious consideration, far surpassing any, 
 that has taken place on the present occa- 
 sion. This assertion may. be made with 
 truth ; and it is hoped that it will be re- 
 ceived, in a certain quarter, with candour. 
 Now, we would ask, whether any, and 
 what, mighty alterations have taken place 
 in the condition or the conduct of the 
 Company, or in the relation in which it 
 stands to the country, which can justify an 
 innovation so portentous in itself, and so 
 replete with hazard to the community ? 
 And, appealing to the honourable sense of 
 justice, which pervades the hearts of Bri- 
 tons, we would further ask, whether the 
 Company, after having fought the nation's 
 battles in every quarter of the East, exr 
 pelled the enemy from the Continent, and 
 driven him from the, islands of India, and 
 
 354688
 
 38 
 
 having on this account incurred a debt 
 amounting to twenty millions sterling; 
 have not a fair claim on the Legislature 
 to continue to them the possession of their 
 ancient privileges ? 
 
 Although it has been urged, in popular 
 reasoning, that the East India Company 
 must always have been aware of the limited 
 duration of their chartered rights; and 
 that, therefore, whatever plans were adopt- 
 ed, or expenses were risked, still they 
 should have contemplated the termination 
 of their exclusive trade at the end of 
 twenty-one years from the date of their 
 Charter : Yet after charters had been 
 confided to them for two hundred years ; 
 after the decisive opinion of the most ce- 
 lebrated statesmen had been repeatedly 
 expressed, that the Company afforded the 
 most legitimate and safe channel of com- 
 mercial communication with India ; could 
 any suspicion arise, that a renewal of the 
 Charter, and a continuation of the Com- 
 pany's privileges, could take the form of a 
 question, or become a matter of doubt? 
 Had the East India Company acted on 
 such narrow motives, or had it been swayed
 
 by such contracted counsels, when sum- 
 moned to prepare for warlike operations; 
 or had the Company, at that moment, sat 
 down to a cold-blooded calculation of 
 profit aud loss depending on the brief 
 duration of the present Charter, instead of 
 putting their troops and ships in motion, 
 and their stores and treasures in requisition, 
 they would have merited contempt, and 
 deserved abandonment. Had they consi- 
 dered, in that exigency, their own interests 
 as separated, or separable, from the interests 
 of the British Empire, they had earned 
 disgrace, and might expect to be paid with 
 reprobation. On the contrary, with a 
 patriot ardour, scarcely equalled, certainly 
 not excelled by any class of their fellow- 
 subjects, however opulent, however digni- 
 fied ; they dedicated all the energies of 
 their commercial capital to the great 
 national object of preserving the British 
 Empire in the East: and with a liberal 
 spirit, the reverse of monopoly, they con- 
 ceded to the merchants of this country the 
 general navigation of the Eastern seas ;* 
 
 * See the late concessions of trading as far as to the me-
 
 40 
 
 excepting only those districts in which 
 strangers might trench on certain peculiar 
 branches of the Company's immediate com- 
 merce with the peninsula and China ; with a 
 view of preventing that impolitic intrusion 
 into the interior of the country, which 
 might endanger the civil authority vest- 
 ed in the Company. On a principle of 
 public spirit, and actuated by a sense 
 of public duty, they gave every pos- 
 sible facility to the measures of Go- 
 vernment, and they paid the navy and 
 army appropriated to the defence of In- 
 *lia; a circumstance in which the Com- 
 pany stand alone ; for there is no other 
 instance on record, in which a military ex- 
 pedition, undertaken by a nation, has been 
 supported and paid by a commercial body 
 of its liege subjects. Nor is this all ; for it 
 must not be forgotten that the Company, 
 at these eventful periods, and at all times, 
 furnished tonnage for stores, troops, and 
 naval equipments, not only without limit, 
 but without charge. They have also given 
 ships of the line to the state, and have pro- 
 
 ridian of the Persian Gulf, and, south of the equator, to any 
 exttfnt eastward.
 
 41 
 
 vided and maintained three regiments for 
 the preservation of the metropolis, and the 
 defence of this country, if required. When 
 the Gazettes which recorded the glorious 
 result of the Company's exertions, were 
 hardly dry from the press ; will posterity 
 believe, or will our contemporaries credit, 
 that then, even then, plans were maturing, 
 petitions were preparing, and interest was 
 making, to wrest out of the Company's 
 hands a trade which has enabled them to 
 render such important services to the com- 
 mon-weal ; or that the King's Ministers 
 should entertain an idea of granting a par- 
 ticipation in the Company's privileges to 
 those who, without contributing a farthing 
 to them, have a share, with the nation at 
 large, in all the beneficial consequences 
 arising from the burdens so nobly borne 
 by the Company? 
 
 From the most impartial view, therefore, 
 of this great subject; from the most dis- 
 passionate consideration of which so in- 
 teresting a question will admit ; from a 
 diligent perusal of what has been urged 
 to the Legislature and the public, through 
 the medium of the press ; after many con- 
 
 G
 
 42 
 
 vcrsations with the well-informed, and 
 after much patient attention to public 
 debate this most reasonable conclusion 
 may fairly be drawn, that any violent alter* 
 ation of the present system, or any material 
 trespass upon it, will assuredly occasion, 
 either immediately or ultimately, the most 
 serious injuries and eventful consequences 
 which can befal any country. They will 
 be felt throughout the Empire ; and pro- 
 bably in the following order, London will 
 be the first sufferer ; the speculators in the 
 out-ports will next sink in the vortex of 
 ruin ; and, what is a most tremendous 
 consideration, the whole of India, (from the 
 mouths of the Indus to the confines of 
 Aracan, from Thibet to Cape Comorin), with 
 all its islands and dependencies, will exhibit 
 a horrible scene of insubordination, confu^ 
 sion, and revolt; for however trivial the be- 
 ginning may appear, the seeds of all this 
 mischief will be sown by the intrusion of 
 speculative adventurers. Wherever many 
 are ruled or restrained by a few, the rawest 
 student in the science of politics will inform 
 us, that all authority is founded on opinion, 
 The writer of these sheets would not will-?
 
 43 
 
 ingly alarm the public mind further than 
 is necessary to rouse it to a due examination 
 of the Indian controversy ; but he thinks 
 it his duty to state, that already, owing to 
 the interposition of a power superior to that 
 residing for such a length of time in the 
 East India Company, (an innovation which 
 has been felt and reasoned upon in India), 
 the native princes and states are at a 
 pause ; and are beginning to doubt the 
 stability of the present Government, and 
 to question the permanency of existing 
 treaties. Staggered in their confidence by 
 the deference paid to the King's autho- 
 rity,* and the King's servants (for this has 
 not escaped their penetration) ; observing 
 that some of the highest offices, the Com- 
 mander -in-Chief, the Judges and Admirals, 
 
 * It is not meant to be denied that the King's authority is, 
 and must be, supreme ; and that his Majesty** appointment 
 of the great officers employed in the Government of India, 
 is legal, having the sanction of the Parliament, and the force 
 of a law ; but, so far as opinion weighs with the millions 
 of the Indian population, it had been a wise and politic mea- 
 sure, if the Legislature thought it necessary to fix such ap- 
 pointmenU in the Crown, that they should still take place 
 through the ostensible medium of the Company ; for it must 
 ever be deplored that the co-existence of two authorities 
 should have been erected in the teeth of Indian prepossessions,
 
 44, 
 
 are all appointed by the British Government; 
 and that since the commencement of this 
 change, and through the instrumentality of 
 these personages, the whole peninsula has 
 been subjugated, and a constant succession 
 of wars has taken place, contrary to the 
 policy of a commercial Company, influ- 
 enced ever by the dictates of prudence 
 and economy ; remarking that all the poli- 
 tical affairs of their country are guided by 
 a power in England superior to that of the 
 Company the native princes can only look 
 upon the Court of Directors as the Dewan 
 of the English Government ; and may na- 
 turaHy be induced to expect that the as- 
 sumption of the Company's authority into 
 other hands, will be followed by that of 
 their territory, and by the cancelling of 
 every treaty subsisting between them and 
 the Company, at the pleasure of the higher 
 power. 
 
 The transfer of a native army of 150,000 
 men will not be very easily effected. 
 The attempt will be hazardous, and may 
 occasion such a convulsion as will shake 
 our Indian possessions to their centre ; 
 considering the interest which every prince
 
 45 
 
 in the country must naturally feel in 
 prompting a struggle, and promoting dis- 
 cord. Arid this is another matter which 
 demands most serious attention. 
 
 When we consider the great importance 
 attaching on the connexion subsisting be- 
 tween this country and India, and how 
 much the peace, and prosperity, and manu- 
 facturing interest, of the British Empire, de- 
 pend upon it; no minor motive of policy 
 ouo-ht to induce us to risk an' alteration in 
 
 o 
 
 the form of the Indian Government, or the 
 mode of conducting the commerce carried 
 on between the mother-country and her 
 Oriental colonies. No topic applying to 
 this subject can be irrelevant to the ques- 
 tion. Let us therefore advert to another 
 circumstance which may endanger the 
 tranquillity of the two countries. Should 
 unlimited access to the ports of India be 
 allowed to adventurers, attracted thither 
 from many quarters by the hope of en- 
 riching themselves ; it appears not very 
 difficult to predict the consequences. 
 The Company's Government, shorn, as it 
 has been, of authority, and diminished hi 
 power, could exercise no very efficient
 
 46 
 
 controul over the shoals of people who will 
 find their way to India. Having sailed 
 from the out-ports without licence from the 
 Company, it is not to be supposed that 
 they would yield obedience to the regula- 
 tions prescribed by the Court of Directors, 
 or acknowledge any jurisdiction in the 
 accredited officers of the Company, esta- 
 blished in the different presidencies of India. 
 They would traverse the country in all 
 directions, rivals of each other, and all of 
 them rivalling the Company. The cou/se 
 of trade would be thrown into confusion ; 
 the markets would contend with each other, 
 to their mutual destruction ; jealousies 
 would arise between district and district, 
 inflamed by the artifices of a set of people 
 whose sole object must be to accumulate 
 fortunes with rapidity ; whose views can 
 only be temporary and selfish ; who can 
 have no interest in the permanence of 
 Indian prosperity ; and upon whom, in 
 a short space of time, (succeeded, as they 
 would be, by fresh adventurers), no orders 
 of the Court of Directors, no resolutions 
 of the Board of Controul, nor any vote 
 of Parliament itself, would have any effect*
 
 47 
 
 We should consider here the distance 
 of space intervening between the seat of 
 Government at home, and the scene of 
 operation chosen by these eager votaries 
 of wealth ; and we must also take into the 
 account the magnitude of India and its 
 immense population, compared with those 
 of the British islands. 
 
 If any alteration should take place in the 
 existing laws under which the affairs of 
 India are administered, enough has been 
 urcred already, to prove that such alteration 
 should be of a nature calculated to render 
 that country more dependent upon Britain ; 
 or, if possible, more useful to her. The 
 changes petitioned for, must be, of all others, 
 the most dangerous : the loss of our Ame- 
 rican colonies should have taught us 
 wisdom ; and the explosion occasioned by 
 the French Revolution, produced by the 
 endeavour of theorists, professedly to better 
 the condition of the country, and indeed 
 that of the human race generally, should 
 make us very cautious how we venture upon 
 any measure which may raise a fermentation 
 amongst the myriads of India. That some 
 Codifications of the trade, to a certain
 
 48 
 
 degree, may be proper, will not be denied ; 
 but, as to the propriety of adopting the 
 sweeping changes proposed, since the wisest 
 and greatest statesmen have already depre- 
 cated them, it may be asked, whom shall 
 we account the best judges of the question 
 as it stands at present the ill-informed 
 petitioners for ruin at the out-ports ; his 
 Majesty's present Ministers ; or the India 
 Directors, whose peculiar interests would 
 not be injured by the proposed changes ; 
 for their patronage and emoluments will 
 not be touched, and none of them are large 
 holders of India Stock. The Directors have 
 for many years contemplated and managed 
 the concerns of India, and are in posses- 
 sion of a mass of experience which has 
 been accumulating ever since the year 
 1600, the forty-third of Queen Elizabeth, 
 when the first Charter of the Company 
 was granted. We should remember,' too, 
 that the opinion of the Directors is founded 
 on the judgment of those great statesmen, 
 Messrs. Pitt, Dundas, and Fox; and is sup- 
 ported by that of the merchants of London, 
 who trade to all parts of the globe, and who 
 must be deemed, what they are in fact,
 
 49 
 
 the most accomplished traders, and best 
 informed commercial characters, in the 
 world. 
 
 Independently of commerce, let even the 
 enemies of this country declare, what a 
 degree of political importance arises to 
 Britain from her possessions in the East, 
 under all the disadvantages, as some people 
 might be disposed to say, of the existing 
 monopoly. The weight and consequence 
 which India (triumphant as the Company 
 has been of late in that quarter of the 
 world) gives to Britain in the balance of 
 power, are so great that they ought not to 
 be endangered by adopting the schemes of 
 interested projectors. The dismemberment 
 of the Anglo-Indian Empire would be a 
 most awful, if not a fatal event ; and that 
 government which paves the way leading 
 to such a catastrophe, incurs most serious 
 and deep responsibility. 
 
 It has been held forth that the proposed 
 alteration in the Indian system, will tend 
 to promote the general welfare. It is pre- 
 sumed, that what is contained in these 
 pages, has shewn such a supposition to be 
 a mere pretext, set up ad captandum, to 
 
 H
 
 50 
 
 impose upon many for the ideal advantage 
 of a few. It is incumbent upon the par- 
 tisans of change to substantiate their asser- 
 tions by proof. Parliament has hitherto, 
 and with incalculable benefit to the public, 
 proceeded upon solid grounds. The Acts of 
 Parliament arise out of a basis of evidence ; 
 the clamours of the out-ports will not avail 
 at the bar of the House of Commons, or 
 above-stairs in a committee-room. There, 
 declamation passes for nothing ; and there 
 it is, or in the Upper Chamber of Parliament 
 and its apartments, under the sagacious 
 presidency of the Chancellor of Great 
 Britain, or that of Lord Walsingham (from 
 whose indefatigable labours and consum- 
 mate knowledge of business, the public has 
 derived innumerable advantages) ; there it 
 is, that Lord Buckinghamshire will learn 
 " whether the nation -is without an alterna- 
 " tive" respecting the government and the 
 commerce of India ; whether the welfare 
 of the country will be secured by laying 
 open the Peninsula to the speculations of 
 adventurers ; whether the tranquillity of the 
 factories and other settlements will be 
 maintained amidst the shock of contending
 
 interests ; and whether Parliament will not 
 determine it to be inexpedient, impolitic, 
 and unwise, to disturb the Company in the 
 possession which it jet holds, and the 
 degree of authority which it is yet permitted 
 to retain in India ? 
 
 That the British colonies in other parts 
 of the world, in North America, for in- 
 stance, and the West Indies, are open to all 
 classes of the King's subjects engaged in 
 trade, is most true, and is readily admitted. 
 But these colonies are, and have been al- 
 ways, under the immediate jurisdiction of 
 the Crown. The King appoints their go- 
 vernors, and all the officers, civil and mili- 
 tary ; the constituted authorities hold direct 
 communication with the sovereign power 
 at home ; they administer justice with 
 vigour, they meet every emergency with 
 promptitude, and can at will enforce obe- 
 dience to their lawful commands. Com- 
 pared with the remoteness of India, those 
 colonies are in a manner before our doors, 
 and under the eyes of Government, with 
 which they have at all times a speedy in- 
 tercourse. The authority exercised over 
 Europeans throughout the extended dis-
 
 tricts of India, is in comparison but 
 shadowy and unsubstantial. The people 
 of England are not aware of this. The 
 governing power in India is sui generis; 
 for we may recognise there first, The 
 authority of the native princes; secondly, 
 that of the Company, erected upon grants 
 from those princes, or treaties with them, 
 or delegated, by virtue of the Charter, 
 from the King ; and, thirdly, the imperial 
 sovereignty of the Crown of Great Bri- 
 tain. All these are curiously blended to- 
 gether, and form a singular species of po- 
 lity, sanctioned, partly by law, and partly 
 by prescription, and supported by opinion. 
 With regard to Europeans, however, all 
 residents in India enter into covenants 
 with the Company, finding security for 
 their good conduct ; and contempt of the 
 Company's authority can only be punished 
 by sending the offending party from the 
 country. But, during the continuance of 
 peace, he will have abundant opportunity of 
 sheltering himself under a neutral flag ; or, 
 at any rate, may occasion, as has been 
 already the case, tedious and expensive 
 investigations in our courts of law.
 
 53 
 
 It has been observed, that in consequence 
 of the wise provisions of the Navigation- 
 Act, the intercourse of foreign nations with 
 our western colonies is restrained ; whereas, 
 on the contrary, with regard to India, it is 
 said, and probably truly, that British capital 
 has often been employed in trading with 
 India, under the cover of foreign flags. 
 But it is to be feared, that in the event of 
 conceding the prayer of their petitions to 
 the out-ports, after the disappointed adven- 
 turers shall have parted with the sanguine 
 hopes which at present cause their bosoms 
 to pant; after their golden dreams shall have 
 ended in positive and actual losses the pii- 
 vileges with which they will be invested may, 
 t no great distance of time, present that 
 anomalous prodigy in the trading world, 
 the converse of the last mentioned case, 
 foreign capital embarked under British flags. 
 Thus Englishmen will degenerate into car- 
 riers of Indian produce from their own set- 
 tlements to their own ports, for the benefit 
 of foreigners ; much in the way that the 
 Spanish galleons bring the precious metals 
 of Peru and Potosi to Cadiz ; not on the 
 account of Spanish, but British and other
 
 merchants. Sic vos, non votis,fertis aratra t 
 boves, $-c. 
 
 The Government in India having availed 
 itself of the treasure shipped by the Com- 
 pany at home for commercial purposes, 
 and having appropriated it to the liqui- 
 dation of the expenses attending war- 
 like operations, and having retained the 
 formidable vessels belonging to the Com- 
 pany, and employed them in the defence 
 of India ; a question naturally arises out 
 of the probability that the same measures 
 may be resorted to again, on a similar 
 emergency. In this event, when the 
 Company's ships shall be fitted out for 
 the general service of the public, is the 
 trade of the out-ports to continue without 
 a check, whilst the Company is to stand 
 the brunt of battle ; and their ships, built 
 for commercial purposes, shall be freighted 
 with British thunder ? The Company's pa- 
 triotism is well known to the country ; but 
 will the country assign honour to the India 
 Company merely, whilst their rivals in 
 the out-ports shall be in the quiet possession 
 of the whole commerce ? The dividends of 
 India Stock must probably suffer diminu-
 
 55 
 
 tion, whilst the Company covers itself with' 
 glory. Will the country allow it to sit 
 under the barren and deleterious shade of 
 the laurels it has earned ; whilst a tide- of 
 wealth sets into the out-ports, with its cur- 
 rents quickened by the Company's exertion, 
 to its own assured loss, and their sole gjain ? 
 
 ' O 
 
 The merchants at the out-ports are no doubt 
 honourable men; and as their ships will not 
 be applicable to the service of the nation, on 
 the recurrence of such difficulties, it is to 
 be hoped that they will not object to 
 compensate the Company for the treasure 
 with which they may furnish the state, and 
 the vessels they may place at its disposal. 
 
 In fact, the whole measure is replete 
 with difficulties, and pregnant with many 
 evils. It does not seem possible to main- 
 tain any intercourse with India, beneficial 
 to Great Britain, except through the me- 
 dium of the East India Company. 
 
 However, it is not intended in these 
 pages to assert, or to insist, that the Com- 
 pany has never erred, or has done every 
 thing, numerically, which the country had 
 a right to expect. A friend, as the author 
 avowedly is, to the first trading company
 
 56 
 
 in the world, he cannot but deplore that 
 truth and candour oblige him to record 
 some of the vacillations in council and 
 in system which they have betrayed. In 
 Mr. Pitt's and Lord Melville's time, re- 
 peated complaints were made to those 
 eminent characters, that the East India 
 Company did not give due encouragement 
 to the export of British goods, or the im- 
 port of raw materials for our manufactu- 
 rers ; and that the remittance of private 
 fortunes from India had not that facility 
 which ought to have been afforded. Hence, 
 in the year 1793* the supply of a given 
 quantity of tonnage was stipulated for with 
 the Company, and enjoined by the Act of 
 Parliament which was then passed ; and a 
 specific rate was agreed upon for freight 
 on a peace-transit. In case the Company's 
 tonnage in India should eventually prove 
 inadequate to the demands upon it, the 
 governments there were empowered to 
 grant licences to country-ships, which were 
 allowed by an Act of Parliament to import 
 produce during the continuance of the 
 war, and for the space of eighteen months 
 subsequent to the termination of hostilities.
 
 57 
 
 The complaints which had been then pre- 
 ferred were thus remedied, yet in such a 
 way as to preserve the rights of the Com- 
 pany inviolate; the imports and exports 
 being confined to the port of London, and 
 every thing passing under the eye of the 
 Company. London, and the Company's 
 warehouses, afforded, as they had done 
 for the space of two hundred years, a 
 depot for all the produce of India; and 
 as a matter productive of mutual benefit to 
 every one concerned, the goods were all to 
 be sold by the Company at the usual sales. 
 The introduction of India shipping, thus 
 legalized, afforded an opportunity, eagerly 
 embraced by the residents in India, to send 
 their goods home in their own vessels ; and 
 although the ostensible reason for this 
 choice was the high war-freight of the 
 Company's shipping, yet there is abun- 
 dant proof on record,* that other motives 
 existed in their minds, and helped to swaj 
 them to the preference given. The ships, 
 on their return to India, were laden by the 
 several houses to which they had been 
 
 See," A Review of the Shipping System of the East 
 India Company," published 1798. 
 
 I
 
 58 
 
 consigned ; but with a very small propor- 
 tion of the manufactures of this country ; as 
 may be evinced by the statement of a cargo 
 in the Third Report of the Court of Directors 
 in the year 1801. Thus a monopoly was 
 established by the residents in India, em- 
 bracing both the transit and trade. The 
 consequence of this indulgence, and the 
 
 exclusion of British merchants and Bri- 
 
 % 
 
 tish shipping, produced a most serious 
 controversy between his Majesty's Govern- 
 ment and the East India Company; which 
 ended in an engagement, on the part of the 
 Company, to furnish a description of ship- 
 ping for the sole purpose of private trade ; 
 and permission was given to the India 
 ship-owners to supply a proportion, subject 
 to the same conditions as those furnished 
 by British owners ; of which permission 
 they have never availed themselves. These 
 vessels were to be so completely equipped 
 as to surpass any private ships whatever; 
 and the Court, in order to give every faci- 
 lity to the merchants, engaged that the 
 ships should never be detained more than 
 three months unemployed after delivery of 
 their cargo from India, if competent to
 
 59 
 
 proceed : they further undertook to furnish 
 the dead- weight ; and in case the mer- 
 chants should not lade the ships, they en- 
 gaged to do it on their own account ; and, 
 in consequence, some ships were taken up 
 at 12/. per ton, and none higher than 15/. 
 peace-freight, out and home. This ar- 
 rangement, if fully acted on, was one of 
 those liberal concessions which will ever do V 
 honour to the East India Company ; but it 
 is to be regretted that the Company did 
 not follow up and act upon this principle 
 in a more ample degree, by furnishing 
 freight to all descriptions of persons requir- 
 ing it; by giving notice of the quantity of 
 tonnage provided, and confining this spe- 
 cies of shipping, as was originally planned, 
 to direct voyages without detention ; and 
 by continuing this cheap system of employ- 
 ing extra ships, instead of garbling and 
 tampering with so excellent a plan, by 
 the appropriation of those ships to other 
 purposes, and taking up temporary vessels 
 at higher rates of freight. Had they perse- 
 vered in the intended system, every cause 
 of dissatisfaction would have been sup- 
 pressed. The employment of ships of 400
 
 60 
 
 tons burthen, equipped as they are at the 
 out-ports, can never furnish an adequate 
 transit for cargoes from such a distant 
 market as India. Shipping of this sort 
 may suit the American nation, which has 
 never till lately encountered a maritime 
 war. Convoys cannot be afforded, as is 
 the case with fleets bound to the West 
 Indies ; and although the smaller ships of 
 the out-ports may now safely navigate the 
 Indian seas, through the exertions of the 
 Company, at whose expense they have 
 been cleared of hostile flags, yet still the 
 risk of homeward-bound vessels continues 
 very great. 
 
 The exclusion of all the subjects of this 
 realm from the Eastern hemisphere, (ex- 
 cepting the immediate servants of the 
 Company, the licenced residents, and his 
 Majesty's forces), is a constituent part of 
 the tenure by which the Charter is held ; 
 and it is highly expedient that it should be 
 so. As the Proprietors, by continued 
 grants and repeated Charters, have been 
 so singularly favoured in their enterprises, 
 it was natural to expect that the Court of 
 Directors, and their servants in India,
 
 should be extremely solicitous to promote, 
 amongst the natives of that country, the in- 
 terests of British commerce, and the con- 
 sumption of home-manufactures. It was 
 reasonable to hope that the agents of the 
 Company would do their utmost to dis- 
 courage any rivalry with British com- 
 modities; that the export from hence to 
 India, of British produce, and British 
 goods, would have suffered no diminu- 
 tion through any improvident encourage- 
 ment of Oriental productions, either natural 
 or manufactured; that a predilection for 
 their native land, and the force of custom, 
 would have secured, with all Europeans 
 in our Indian settlements, a marked 
 preference for every article exported from 
 Britain; in a word, that British and In- 
 dian commodities could never have come in 
 competition with each other in the East, 
 but that either the feelings of nationality, 
 or of patriotism, would have preserved to 
 the former every possible commercial 
 advantage. It is but too truly to he ap- 
 prehended that the reverse of all this 
 is the fact; and that throughout India, 
 colonized as it is by the natives of these
 
 62 
 
 islands, Oriental productions have been 
 encouraged, the manufactures of Britain 
 copied and rivalled, her commercial ex- 
 ports diminished, and the interests of the 
 Indian settlements have been chiefly con- 
 sidered, with a marked preference to those 
 of the mother country. Lord Chatham 
 averred that America should not be allowed 
 to make a hob-nail whilst England could 
 supply her. However difficult the accom- 
 plishment of this might be in the case of 
 America, the principle is a wise one ; and 
 is surely applicable to India, where every 
 person taught to imitate an article of Eu- 
 ropean manufacture, learns his craft to the 
 detriment of a British artisan. 
 
 It is now asserted, and with truth, that 
 India stands in need of few articles which 
 this country can supply. This cessation 
 of demand for home-productions in the 
 Indian market, is the lamentable result 
 of the culpable infatuation which has pro- 
 moted, in the districts of Ilindostan, the 
 manufacturing arts of Europe. This evil, 
 so destructive of the prosperity of Great 
 Britain, has increased with the enlargement 
 of our settlements; but what will be the
 
 63 
 
 consequence of an open trade ? The out- 
 ports, and even London itself, will in 
 coarse of time send out multitudes of 
 adventurers; extensive manufactories will 
 be established in every part of India ; the 
 British looms, forges, and potteries, will 
 presently suffer under the effects of this 
 mistaken system; our Oriental colonies 
 will feel themselves independent on Bri- 
 tain ; our exportation of the produce of 
 British labour will suffer vast diminution ; 
 and money will probably become the only 
 medium of commerce from this country 
 bullion our only export. The cotton mills 
 of Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, and 
 Scotland, will experience the ill effects of 
 the projected communication with India. 
 At all events, it is to be hoped, that in 
 the new Charter some prudential regula- 
 tions will be introduced to secure the wake- 
 ful attention of the Court of Directors to 
 the manufacturing interests of this country. 
 It is by no means a matter of difficulty 
 to substantiate these observations by evi- 
 dence. Indeed, proof has become hardly 
 necessary; for it is notorious that India 
 has made rapid advances in the produc-
 
 tion of European manufactures, and the 
 adoption of British improvements in me- 
 chanics. In many articles they have al- 
 ready established a rivalry with us; and, 
 it is possible, (nay, if an open trade should 
 be conceded, it is probable), that they will be 
 able to supply themselves with those goods 
 which we yet are able to export. India is 
 not without copper, iron., lead, and other me- 
 tals ; and what must astonish every one who 
 has the least smattering of the policy of 
 commerce, iron works are about to be estab- 
 Y lished in India under the sanction of Govern- 
 ment ; and samples of steel have been trans- 
 mitted home, equal to any made in Britain. 
 Thus will some of the most essential ar- 
 ticles of British manufacture, in a short 
 time, produce no commercial benefits to 
 our country, so far as India is concerned, 
 through the competency of the natives to 
 fabricate them, instructed by the mistaken 
 zeal of Englishmen, and supported by the 
 East India Company, and by Government 
 itself. 
 
 It behoves the public to look narrowly 
 into the probable consequences of the pro- 
 jected innovations. The Court of Direc-
 
 65 
 
 tors, themselves, have not secured to their 
 country all the advantages that she might 
 have enjoyed from the wholesome restric- 
 tions which they had it in their power to 
 lay upon trade ; and they have connived 
 at, if not encouraged, attempts in manu- 
 factures, from which we could only look 
 for contingent and remote benefits, whilst 
 the detriment occasioned by them is direct 
 and immediate. 
 
 Were a list of the articles formerly ex- 
 ported to India made out, and compared 
 with the goods which that country now 
 takes from us, we should be utterly asto- 
 nished at the various manufactures of 
 which she no longer stands in need ; Asia, 
 at this day, preparing for her own use, and 
 the consumption of many of our coun- 
 trymen, resident in her territories, what 
 formerly was supplied by the skill and 
 industry of Europe. The very stores and 
 equipment of their shipping, canvas, cor- 
 dage, &c. have attained their present ex- 
 cellence from the inquiries, investigations, 
 experiments, and improvements, suggested 
 by the East India Company and their 
 servants. But while the naval department
 
 66 
 
 of Government at home (actuated by short- 
 sighted and false principles of economy) 
 has overlooked the claims of this country 
 to the employment of her manufacturers ; 
 is it to be expected, that the residents in the 
 peninsula of India will be swayed by any 
 motives to a different policy in favour of 
 Great Britain? Unwise as we are in thus 
 devising, for temporary purposes, the 
 means of our own abasement, if not ruin, 
 at some future day ; let us look at the 
 crisis to which such mismanagement must 
 needs reduce our native country. It must 
 continue to sink lower and lower, till at 
 length India, once the cause of British 
 prosperity; will become the instrument of 
 its degradation. 
 
 We have, as yet, only contemplated ma- 
 nufactures of a minor class; it is now neces- 
 sary to call the attention of the public to 
 others not simply commercial, but such as 
 have been always considered of the first im- 
 portance to the well-being, and even the ex- 
 istence of Great Britain as an independent 
 power. It is hardly possible to conceive a 
 measure more impolitic, or more pregnant 
 with detriment and danger to this country,
 
 67 
 
 than the building of ships in India on the 
 scale now adopted. This novel practice is 
 encouraged by every possible influence. 
 It is a plan, the evils of which are already 
 perceptibly felt; and if it be not restrained 
 by some specific regulations, it must super- 
 induce the most ruinous consequences. 
 It visits with distress not only those opu- 
 lent men who (relying on the maintenance 
 of the principles on which the Navigation- 
 Act is founded), have formed and kept up 
 large establishments ; but multitudes of in- 
 dustrious men, forming the numerous class 
 of shipwrights and artificers, trained to their 
 business, and depending for subsistence on 
 the maritime exertions of Great Britain. 
 On the river Thames, in the immediate 
 
 j . i . ! . r^ i) - j 
 
 vicinity of the metropolis, there are no less 
 than six of these great establishments, com- 
 petent to the building not only vessels 
 suited to the trade of the East India Com- 
 pany, but line of battle ships. These 
 dock-yards, in the space of a few years, 
 have supplied fifty sail of the line; whilst 
 the King's yards have been appropriated 
 to giving the navy those necessary repairs 
 which are constantly and inevitably requi-
 
 68 
 
 site in time of war. The furnishing em- 
 ployment to about five thousand men, here- 
 tofore engaged in the dock-yards on the 
 Thames, has already become a matter of 
 such urgency, that several new frigates 
 have been put on the stocks by Govern- 
 ment, with a view of enabling these in- 
 dustrious and valuable men to support 
 themselves and families. The immediate 
 cause of all this misery, which may be 
 regarded but '* as the beginning of sor- 
 rows," is the strange policy of building 
 Indiamen at Bengal, and other places in 
 the East. Thus another branch of manu- 
 facture, and that of supreme importance, is 
 slipping out of our hands. Are people 
 jet, at this hour of the day, to learn that 
 labour is wealth ? Let us look for a mo- 
 ment at the bearing of this argument on 
 the conduct of the East India Company. 
 The Company itself enjoys, by the favour 
 of this nation, an exclusive privilege of 
 trading to India ; now is it not a matter 
 to be deplored, that the Company should 
 employ the natives of India in building 
 their ships, to the actual injury and posi- 
 tive loss of this nation, from which they
 
 69 
 
 received their Charter. Mistaken as the 
 Company have been in this particular, 
 it is not very difficult to divine what will 
 take place, if an unrestrained commerce 
 shall be permitted : if British capital shall 
 be carried to India by British speculators, 
 we may expect a vast increase of dock- 
 yards in that country, and a proportional 
 increase of detriment to the artificers of 
 Britain. 
 
 If it be supposed that India-built ships 
 may be hired upon more favourable 
 terms to the Company than vessels con- 
 structed at home : this is not the case ; 
 although the repairs of .ships built with 
 teak cannot cost a tithe of the charges 
 incurred by repairing those built in this 
 country. 
 
 Disputes on the subject of freight have 
 subsisted for thirty years past, and have 
 occasioned many misunderstandings, and 
 much ill-will. The favourite ideas con- 
 cerning India-built vessels, and other ideas, 
 about to be noticed, have inspired un- 
 pleasant jealousies on one side, and have 
 prompted many complaints on the other. 
 That the freight paid to British ships will
 
 70 
 
 not produce an interest of 51. per cent, on 
 the capital embarked,* has been made evi- 
 dent by the calculations of the Company's 
 own officers. The eagerness to obtain 
 commands, however, has produced, under 
 the shew of free and open competition, a 
 ruinous speculation. Commands may be 
 said to be actually purchased, under the 
 colour <)f reduced freight. There is a cir- 
 cumstance which is decidedly in favour of 
 the ships built in India (and equally de- 
 structive to the interests of the British 
 artificer, or British owner), and this is, that 
 the India-built vessels have the advantage 
 of an entire freight home, before a contract 
 for general freight is made. All these 
 things make against the mother country, 
 and are contrary to the principles of wise 
 colonial policy. It is not, however, in the 
 nature of things, that errors of this magni- 
 tude can subsist much longer, without 
 producing a convulsion. These manifold 
 trespasses on British rights, will lead to 
 consequences, which it is clearly the duty 
 of the Company and Government seriously 
 to weigh, with all the attention which the 
 subject demands. In contending for the
 
 71 
 
 renewal of an exclusive Charter, and the 
 continuance of the India trade to the port 
 of London, it may be reasonably asked 
 of the Company, if they are to sacrifice 
 none of their prejudices to the interests of 
 this country ? If they are to divest them- 
 selves of the power with which the nation 
 entrusts them, by surrendering to the 
 Oriental residents such advantages as serve 
 to ripen their independence, and to make 
 them rivals to Great Britain ; it becomes 
 a duty to contend for our, country and 
 our countrymen against Asiatic interlopers, 
 although the changes in the Indian system 
 petitioned for, those blind suggestions of 
 sanguine ignorance, cannot be too strongly 
 deprecated. Impartiality and equity com- 
 pel the author to remonstrate with the 
 Company, and to demand for England her 
 just share in the advantages resulting from 
 the Indian trade. That India and Britain 
 should reciprocate in these benefits, is right 
 and proper ; but it is neither fair nor 
 politic that the " reciprocity should be all 
 on one side." 
 
 Are the merchants' yards to be shut up, 
 or reduced in their establishments, to suit
 
 72 
 
 the erroneous policy of the India Company ; 
 when they have been admitted by the 
 Court of Directors to be so competent to 
 assist Government under all the exigencies 
 of the state ? Or can the British land- 
 holder hear, without emotions of appre- 
 hension and repugnance, that from the 
 abundance of teak in the forests of India, 
 his timber is to suffer a reduction in value ? 
 In the first place, the shipwrights in India 
 will defraud our own artificers of their 
 birthright ; employment, and the profits 
 arising from the combination of labour and 
 skill ; and, secondly, the raw material of 
 the Oriental colonies will be brought in 
 competition with that which is of home 
 growth. Thus both in manufacture and 
 produce the colonies will injure the mo- 
 ther country. This inversion of every prin- 
 ciple of sound policy must operate to the 
 discouragement of the growth of timber. 
 Can it be expected that noblemen and 
 gentlemen will pay so much attention as 
 heretofore to the inclosing and the pre- 
 servation of their woods ? This may pro- 
 duce, in the end, that very scarcity of 
 timber, which the patrons of India ship-
 
 73 
 
 building, and teak importation, would per- 
 suade us already exists ; and this scarcity 
 may prove fatal to Great Britain at a pe- 
 riod when we shall no longer have the op- 
 tion of felling teak at our own pleasure. 
 It is not true that a scarcity exists at pre- 
 sent in any degree to the extent stated; 
 but the alarm has had the good effect of 
 giving a stimulus to the public mind, and 
 has excited fresh attention to the culti- 
 vation of timber. The arguments of Mr. 
 Evelyn, formerly Treasurer of Greenwich 
 Hospital (whose excellent work, entitled 
 Sylva, or a Discourse on Forest Trees, 
 first appeared in 1664), and the excellent 
 arrangements of Mr. Pepys, * his great 
 contemporary, Secretary to the Admiralty 
 in the reigns of Charles II. and James II. 
 have not failed of their effect. From that 
 time, planting has become more and more 
 general, and the growth of timber, both 
 for private and national use, has been pro- 
 moted in the woods of individuals, and in 
 the King's forests. Let us not close our 
 eyes to facts. Fifty sail of the line have 
 
 Pepyg died in 1703, and Evelyn in 1706. 
 L
 
 been launched within three or four years, 
 and at this moment there are 90,000 loads 
 of timber in the King's yards, and as much 
 more contracted for ; and there is an abun- 
 dance in those of the merchants. And is 
 it for this asserted deficiency of timber, 
 that the natives of India are to wrest em- 
 ployment out of the hands of British 
 shipwrights, and that Indian capital is to 
 have a preference to that of Great Britain ? 
 Surely some plan may be devised to avert 
 the anticipated evil; and since a participa- 
 tion in those benefits that belong to British 
 subjects, is the point contested at present 
 between the Company and the out-ports, a 
 paramount duty falls upon the Legislature 
 to provide that the interests of this country 
 should be secured to its own people ; and 
 this as well for the reasons already given, 
 as for some others, which it remains to 
 state. 
 
 When we look at Java, our late acquisi- 
 tion, an island abounding with teak, it is 
 clear that ships may be built there in any 
 quantity. Under the direction of a fore- 
 man-shipwright and smith, with the help
 
 75 
 
 of the artificers and labourers of the coun- 
 try, one of the finest ships in the Com- 
 pany's service, of 1200 tons burthen, was 
 built in its vicinity, at Penang. Similar 
 efforts will doubtless be made at an island 
 affording greater facilities, unless some 
 restrictions be devised, and some protec- 
 ting regulations in favour of British ships 
 and seamen take place, under the autho- 
 rity of the Legislature. In the marine yard 
 at Bombay, there is not a single European 
 workman ; and if the skill of the native 
 artificers may be estimated by the specimen 
 which they have given us in the Minden, of 
 74 guns, it is very evident that they cannot 
 fail to attain celebrity, encouraged and ap- 
 plauded as they have been by very high 
 characters, and allowed to supersede the 
 shipwrights of Great Britain, as though our 
 artificers had become ignorant of the science 
 to which they were bred ; or as though it 
 were more beneficial to this country to pay 
 Indian workmen, than to throw business 
 into the hands of our own people. A pro- 
 cedure this, which militates against every 
 principle of policy and patriotism. 
 
 Not many years ago, when Indiamen
 
 7(5 
 
 had completed their number of voyages in 
 the Company's employments, they were 
 frequently sold for the country service ; 
 being then nearly the largest vessels in that 
 trade. The case is now altered. Those 
 noble structures, which were once ac- 
 counted the boast of Europe, have been 
 reared throughout India. Without that 
 grave deliberation, or that reference to fu- 
 ture consequences, which an innovation so 
 momentous obviously demanded ; dock- 
 yards and arsenals have been established 
 there, by those who are resident in that 
 country, through 'the permission of the 
 East India Company ; and a race of men, 
 remarkable for the want of mental energy 
 and physical strength, have been taught to 
 excel in a branch of mechanics which they 
 never could have carried to such a pitch 
 of perfection, without the impolitic tuition 
 of a class of people who should have re- 
 served to Europeans an art which has so 
 powerfully contributed to the subjugation 
 of the Asiatic provinces. At present, 
 individual ships are built there ; but whole 
 fleets may be furnished if required, and 
 hereafter may be disposed of to those
 
 with whom Britons may one day have to 
 contend for their maritime rights, and the 
 empire of the sea. 
 
 How far such measures can be recon- 
 ciled with those which prudence would 
 dictate ; how far it may be thought proper 
 to continue, or to limit them will be, it is 
 hoped, the subjects of the most attentive 
 consideration ; and will not fall to the 
 decision of those whose predilections in 
 favour of Indian exertion and talent, 
 have excited and encouraged such sur- 
 prising and such alarming efforts. Least 
 of all, should the discussion of these points 
 be left to those governments in India which, 
 in decided opposition to British interests, 
 have indiscreetly afforded the means of 
 bringing us to a crisis so replete with 
 danger. 
 
 The question of building ships in India 
 is a measure which may furnish employ- 
 ment for the most vigorous intellects of 
 our first statesmen, who should coolly view 
 it in all its bearings, and contemplate its 
 ultimate issue. It is not yet too late to 
 attend to it. It will yet admit of some 
 wholesome modifications.
 
 78 
 
 At all events, our naval resources here 
 should not suffer diminution, nor should 
 the means of rendering them useful to the 
 state be crippled. They are of vital im- 
 portance in all their ramifications. None 
 of them should be suffered to fall into 
 decay. They may all be put in requisition 
 on some great emergency. This is the era 
 of political changes. We must be pre- 
 pared against all hostile attempts. It will 
 be too late to set about renewing our 
 establishments at the moment when our 
 entire force mav be called into action. 
 
 / 
 
 Having noticed the rivalry that subsists 
 between this country and India in those 
 objects of commerce which may be deemed 
 British manufactures ; and the unnatural 
 preference given to those goods now fabri- 
 cated in India, originally of British inven- 
 tion, and brought to their present perfection 
 by British labour and ingenuity ; it may 
 not be amiss to attempt the solution of so 
 strange a circumstance. It is certainly 
 the duty of the governing power at home 
 to encourage the colonists abroad ; but 
 this must never be done to the prejudice of 
 the native subjects of any country. But if
 
 Government has been inattentive to this 
 principle, can it be expected that the 
 residents in the Peninsula and its depen- 
 dencies should much regard them ? Many 
 of those persons have quitted the British 
 islands in early life ; they have formed 
 new habits, and are become partial to the 
 people amongst whom they live ; they are 
 proud of the ingenuity manifested by the 
 natives, and regard it as a proof of their 
 own efficiency, and the fruit of their own 
 patronage ; the} 7 are not uninfluenced by 
 certain motives of economy ; and at last 
 they become rivals of their fellow-subjects, 
 and cultivate interests ultimately detri- 
 mental to the well-being, and destructive 
 of the mercantile prosperity of the land of 
 their nativity. On the return of such per- 
 sons to Great Britain, can we wonder that 
 they retain those habits which have thus 
 generated a second nature ? Can we won- 
 der, that in the capacity of opulent indi- 
 viduals, or, eventually, Directors of the 
 India Company, or members of the Legis- 
 lature, they should praise the adroitness 
 of the natives of India in the fabrication 
 of manufactures, the competency of the
 
 80 
 
 country and its inhabitants to produce 
 them, and the cheapness of labour in our 
 Oriental provinces. This discussion, ope- 
 rating in a certain way on the human 
 mind, may be deemed metaphysical and 
 impertinent to the subject of these pages ; 
 but it is presumed that it has a practical 
 bearing on the whole of the argument. 
 The more of truth it may discover, the 
 more should it put the executive govern- 
 ment on its guard against the probable 
 consequences of these predilections, and 
 impel our statesmen to adopt such mea- 
 sures as may secure to this country all the 
 advantages derivable from the employment 
 of its artisans in their respective branches 
 of manual labour. It is granted that gen- 
 tlemen who have long resided in India 
 must have acquired much valuable general 
 information ; of this it is most proper that 
 the country should avail itself: but it must 
 ever take care to fence round its manufac- 
 turing interests with such barriers as may 
 resist the efforts of those, who, without any 
 criminal intention, and swayed merely by 
 habitual partialities, may be induced to 
 place them in circumstances of hazard.
 
 81 
 
 - ^w 
 
 If ships are to be built throughout India, 
 and are to be entitled to British registers, 
 they will be numerous beyond all ex- 
 pectation ; the artificers of this country 
 must either emigrate or starve; and the 
 revenue will suffer most serious diminu- 
 tion. By way of elucidating this argu- 
 ment, let us examine the single article of 
 hemp. This, in its raw state, pays a duty 
 of 9^. per ton ; but it is obvious that in 
 consequence of the improvement and con- 
 sumption of Indian canvas and cordage, 
 whilst our home-manufacturers are in- 
 jured, the duties must be lessened, and the 
 deficiency must be made up by other taxes ; 
 at the same time, it is obvious that the re- 
 venue must suffer an additional loss in the 
 amount of those indirect taxes paid by 
 the labourers in all they consume. The 
 same reasoning applies to every other 
 case of manufactures encouraged in the 
 colonies, of whatsoever nature they may 
 be. 
 
 One might be induced to cherish a hope, 
 that facts so self-evident as these could not 
 be overlooked by our statesmen ; but ex- 
 perience too plainly proves the contrary ; 
 
 M
 
 as is most evident from what has been 
 already pointed out. The naval depart- 
 ment has but too industriously seconded 
 the endeavours of the Indian residents to 
 supply those articles manufactured in the 
 colonies, which ought to have been fur- 
 nished by Great Britain : dangerous and 
 most erroneous system, to be deplored by all 
 true patriots ; and to be amended, curbed, 
 or altered without loss of time, if it be not 
 grown too inveterate to be meddled with. 
 If the evils attending it cannot be removed, 
 at least care should be taken that they 
 may not be aggravated or increased. It 
 is easier, however, to prevent mischiefs of 
 this kind, than to suppress them. 
 
 The war has been urged as a plea for the 
 adoption of measures confessedly impolitic; 
 and it is held out that they are but of a 
 temporary nature. Arrangements of this 
 kind, however, are commonly more per- 
 manent than the generality suppose, or 
 some people will admit. When trade has 
 taken a determinate course, it is difficult to 
 shut up those channels which have been 
 formed. But the existence of war fur- 
 nishes a strong argument against the inno-
 
 rations complained of: for how is it pos- 
 sible that those who are obliged to contri- 
 bute to its support, directly or indirectly, 
 can enter into competition with the colo- 
 nists, who may follow all sorts of trades 
 ad libitum, without being burthened by an 
 hundredth part of those imposts which the 
 inhabitants of the mother-country are 
 bound to pay. It has been computed 
 that they are obliged to part with half 
 their income to the state. Dr. Price esti- 
 mated their contributions at ios. in the 
 pound ; and however aggravated his cal- 
 culation once appeared, subsequent events 
 have proved it to be correct. When we 
 take the increase of population into the 
 account; the impolicy of those measures 
 which, by depriving thousands of employ- 
 incut, render it impossible for them to pay 
 taxes, is most evident ; and one cannot 
 but be astonished at the infatuation which 
 occasions a loss of 151. per cent, in the 
 payments of the bulk of the laborious 
 classes to the Exchequer. It may be granted 
 that certain articles of Indian manufacture 
 may be purchased at a lower rate than the 
 higher price of labour, occasioned by the
 
 84 
 
 taxes which Government receives, will per- 
 mit this country to charge; but it is to be 
 considered that by throwing multitudes 
 out of employment, the country is so far 
 from gaining by all this, that it is demon- 
 strably a loser : and at the same time it 
 ought to be remembered, that the money 
 lost to the mother-country is gained by the 
 colonies, who are thus in a more alarming 
 degree enabled to rival that state whose 
 support should be the joint object of all its 
 subjects at home and abroad 
 
 It is also matter worthy of consideration, 
 that in every beneficial undertaking in this 
 country, Government becomes, as it were, 
 a partner without risk, sharing in the pro- 
 portion of 10/. per cent, on the profits ; 
 whence an immense sum accrues to the 
 revenue ; still further increased, when the 
 accumulation of money descends from the 
 original merchant to his representatives, 
 direct, collateral, or more remote. The 
 amount of the legacy-duty is prodigiously 
 great. But before this final distribution 
 of acquired property takes place, we must 
 form an estimate of the sums resulting to 
 the state from the legal securities required
 
 for the use of large portions of this money, 
 in the form of bonds, leases, and agreements 
 of various sorts, which are all legalized 
 and rendered obligatory by stamps of va- 
 rious sorts, which pay a duty ad valorem, 
 Can such substantial benefits as these be 
 given up without due consideration ? Will 
 the revenue be increased by rashly transfer- 
 ring the employment of our manufactories 
 to the natives of India ? 
 
 If the object be economy ; and we are 
 merely to look at the primary cost of ma- 
 nufactured articles ; let us pursue this ar- 
 gument a little farther, and let us see to 
 what conclusions it will lead us. If it be 
 right that India is to supply us with ship- 
 ping at a cheap rate ; by the same rule 
 Russia may furnish us with canvas, cord- 
 age, leather, and soap ; Germany may send 
 us linens ; Italy and France may fill our 
 markets with wrought silks ; and Spain, in- 
 stead of supplying us with wool, may have 
 the wisdom to put its looms in motion, 
 and send us broad-cloths. We know from 
 sad experience the perfection to which 
 France has brought her woollen manufac- 
 tures, and the brilliance and excellence of
 
 her dyes ; and we have already suffered 
 
 from her exertions in that traffic which was 
 
 
 
 once called the Staple of England, by 
 means of which she shut us out from that 
 mine of wealth the Levant and Turkey 
 trade. If it be right to import manufac* 
 tured articles of prime importance from 
 India, it must be equally so to import 
 them from the countries here enumerated, 
 and other nations on the continent of Eu* 
 rope. If cheapness is to be counted the 
 first object, we can freight foreign vessels 
 with foreign goods at a lower rate than we 
 can lade British bottoms ; and if so, what 
 will become of the nursery for our seamen ? 
 All those great points now at issue between 
 us and the Scourge of the civilized world 
 must be given up; the object of the pre- 
 sent war must be conceded to our unre- 
 lenting enemy ; the continental system of 
 Bonaparte, as far as we are concerned, 
 must be assumed for good policy ; the sun 
 of British prosperity must set for ever; our 
 wooden walls must rot in our ports ; and 
 we shall soon become so poor as to require 
 no importation of any sort, and so sunk in 
 an utter prostration of national energy, as
 
 87 
 
 to furnish no exports whatever. It cannot 
 surely be necessary to add a syllable more 
 on this part of the argument. 
 
 However attached any man may be to 
 the interests of the East India Company, 
 however zealous in support of their inde- 
 pendence; however he may advocate the 
 renewal of their Charter, and the security 
 of their ancient immunities and privileges : 
 it must be his bounden duty to protest 
 against the prevailing errors of the times, 
 which cannot fail, if persisted in, to endan- 
 ger the prosperity of the Company, and to 
 lead to the disorganization of those colo- 
 nies which have been the envy of other 
 nations, and the source of immense advan- 
 tage to Great Britain. 
 
 Respecting the operation of those causes 
 which may lead to the eventual indepen- 
 dence of our Indian colonies, it may be 
 permitted to add a few words. The pro- 
 spect of returning to their native land, 
 after having realized a competency abroad, 
 has always induced the residents in India 
 to look homeward with affection, and to 
 respect the stability of that country's pro- 
 sperity which is to- be their resting place
 
 
 88 
 
 after the fatigues of active life. To keep 
 up in the minds of their servants an affec- 
 tionate feeling towards Britain, was long 
 an object of the wise policy pursued bjr 
 the Company. This cement is now dis- 
 solved ; this tie is now broken. The 
 Company has been obliged to reduce the 
 emoluments of its servants, and administer 
 its affairs on a more contracted, not to call 
 it a parsimonious scale. The urgency of 
 affairs, which has induced the Company to 
 adopt these measures, has been unques- 
 tionably great ; but it must ever be de- 
 plored, that any temporary pressure should 
 have caused them to narrow their remu- 
 nerations to such a degree, as to hazard a 
 disunion of interest between the parent 
 state and her Indian colonies. The late 
 minister for India always relied upon the 
 strong bond of affection which the hope 
 of returning home maintained between the 
 colonists and their native land. May India 
 never become to England what South 
 America is to Spain ! The ancient libe- 
 rality and enlarged policy, observed by 
 the Government of India, are at an end ! 
 The impoverished state of the Indian
 
 89 
 
 finances made some retrenchment neces- 
 sary ; but the civil servants of the Com- 
 pany have undergone such privations as 
 have lowered their consequence and au- 
 thority in the estimation of the natives. 
 They have even incurred debts which re- 
 duce them to a state of dependency on 
 those who ought to look up to them for 
 protection. The servants of the Company 
 must consequently grow lukewarm in their 
 affection for Britain. The residents feel 
 themselves almost expatriated. Their num- 
 ber, which is perhaps already too great, 
 must certainly increase, if the flood-gates 
 of the out-ports shall be opened ; this will 
 only tend the more to lessen the legitimate 
 opportunities of realizing fortunes ; home 
 will be less and less thought of, and every 
 inducement to separate the colonies from 
 the mother country will act with the greater 
 force. 
 
 Thus the economy so urgently pressed 
 in this country, and carried rigidly into 
 effect in Asia, had produced most distress- 
 ing effects. It has created a sensation of 
 disaffection and estrangement, which it will 
 be very difficult to remove. 
 
 N
 
 90 
 
 The general principles of colonization 
 have been laid down, and their bearing 
 on our Indian policy examined. A case 
 has been made out, claiming the consi- 
 deration of Parliament, which, it is pre- 
 sumed, will secure to the Proprietors of 
 East India Stock a renewal of their Charter, 
 with certain modifications. The errors of 
 the Court of Directors have been noted, it is 
 hoped, without asperity ; and the deviation 
 from the wise system established in 1802. 
 for the cheap transit of goods to and from 
 India, has been explained. The incal- 
 culable injury sustained by the revenue, 
 and the British artificers and manufactu- 
 rers, by employing the natives of Hindostan, 
 and the unrestrained introduction of Indian 
 shipping, together with the probable conse- 
 quences of this most dangerous measure, has 
 been clearly set forth. It is therefore with 
 confidence that the author looks to the 
 united wisdom of the Legislature for such 
 enactments as will secure the government 
 of India on sound colonial principles, and 
 preserve the advantages derived from the 
 present system ; such as will give to the 
 British merchant ami manufacturer every
 
 91 
 
 facility (compatible with higheradvantages) 
 in the transit of goods to and from India, 
 and the remittance of private fortunes, by 
 the permanent establishment of a class of 
 ships on the principles laid down in 1802 ; 
 and, at the same time, will protect the in- 
 terests of the British ship-owner, manufac- 
 turer, and artisan, and provide for the con- 
 sequent prosperity of the country, by such 
 duties on the Indian shipping and manu- 
 factures, as are equivalent to the taxes, 
 direct or indirect which affect the same 
 manufactures in this country. 
 
 The French East India Company once 
 partook of the commercial advantages 
 derivable from their settlements in the 
 Peninsula. The laying open their trade 
 occasioned first the ruin of the Company, 
 and was afterward followed by that of the 
 private adventurers who sought, on plau- 
 sible grounds, an admission to their exclu- 
 sive privileges. The British East India 
 Company have now gained possession of 
 the factories once held by their ancient 
 enemies, and have likewise driven from 
 the East every competitor for the trade 
 of Hindustan. May no delusive schemes
 
 92 
 
 of wild speculation place our acquisitions 
 in jeopardy ! May the events of past times, 
 and the misfortunes of other nations, make 
 us wise ere it be too late! Nothing is so 
 dangerous as to try experiments on states. 
 Let us know when we are well off, and let 
 us be admonished by the victim of empi- 
 ricism, who, though dead, speaks most sen- 
 sibly from the tomb : 
 
 
 " I was well ; 
 I would be better ; 
 1 took physic; 
 And here I lie." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 J 
 
 J. Kitttdl, Printer, 
 Rupert Street, Haymarket, London,
 
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