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CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 RKLATJVE TO 
 
 THE INDIA QUESTION. 
 
CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 ARISING OUT OF 
 
 THE LATE PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT 
 
 RELATIVE TO THE 
 
 INDIA QUESTION 
 
 LONDON : 
 J. HATCHARD AND SON, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1830. 
 

 .M^vMO:.SKSTrPHEH3 
 
 HEMP 
 
 LONDON! 
 jui\-i-tD tr J. L. tox, encAT queen street. 
 
TO THE 
 
 RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 CHARLES ARBUTHNOT, M.P. 
 
 CHANCELLOR OF THE DUCHY OF LANCASTER, 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 TO WHOM THE PUBLIC ARE INDEBTED 
 
 CLEAR AND ABLE SUMMARY 
 
 CONTAINED IN 
 
 THE REPORT DRAWN UP BY HIM OF THE LATE 
 PARLIAMENTARY ENQUIRY INTO THE TRADE 
 BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN, THE EAST- 
 INDIES, AND CHINA ; 
 
 THE FOLLOWING PAGES 
 
 INSCRIBED. 
 
 864822 
 
It is the peculiar province of Parliament to Preliminary 
 legislate upon all matters of national interest. 
 When the details of any question are so com- 
 plicated and extensive as to render a prelimi- 
 nary enquiry expedient, Select Committees have 
 been appointed for that special purpose. Such 
 was the course adopted in the last session, w^ith 
 respect to w^hat has been generally denominated 
 the India Question. 
 
 Select Committees of both Houses were 
 chosen on the 9th February last, '* to enquire 
 ** into the present State of the Affairs of the East- 
 ** India Company, and into the Trade between 
 '* Great Britain, the East-Indies, and China.'* 
 
 The dissolution of Parliament consequent 
 upon the demise of his late Majesty terminated 
 the proceedings of the Committees. The result 
 of their labours has been preserved in a series 
 of printed evidence and accounts, and in a Re- 
 port from the Select Committee of each House, 
 
Smi'timfs. "^ ^^^^^ ^^^ 'leading' points that respectively 
 engaged their attention are noticed. 
 
 As it was stated in the House of Commons on 
 the appointment of the Committee, that '' the 
 " result of the enquiry was to guide the future 
 " proceedings," it has been expected, and not 
 perhaps without reason, that a Report upon the 
 subject would have been made by the Court of 
 Directors to their Constituents. 
 
 We have, however, been given to understand, 
 that the Directors, feeling that the East-India 
 Company were no parties to the enquiry, deter- 
 mined to meet without reserve every call for 
 information, whether oral or documentary, which 
 the promoters of the investigation might deem 
 necessary to their purpose, but resolved to await 
 the usual Parliamentary notice, before they came 
 forward with a statement of the grounds for a 
 continuance of such of their present exclusive 
 privileges, as are indispensable to an efficient 
 discharge of the important trusts now confided 
 to them. 
 
 We think the determination of the Directors 
 was both proper and judicious. 
 
 In the absence, therefore, of any official re- 
 view, we have been induced to submit the foUow- 
 mg considerations upon the general question. 
 It is on all sides admitted to be one of deep na- 
 tional importance ; and it involves interests so 
 
9 
 
 vast, so complicated, and so novel in all their Preliminary 
 bearings, that we enter upon the subject with ^ ^^^"^^ ^°"^* 
 an earnest desire to arrive at sound and just 
 conclusions, unbiassed by any preconceived no- 
 tions of our own, and anxious to do justice to 
 the motives of the several parties, whose interests 
 have led them to step forward in opposition to 
 the present system. 
 
 Indian subjects possess little attraction, at 
 any time, to the public at large, and they have 
 not been more fortunate in exciting the interest 
 of Parliament. 
 
 It was scarcely to be expected that Members 
 would devote their attention, at a period when 
 they hourly anticipated being sent back to 
 their constituents, to the mass of matter con- 
 tained in the evidence and documents already 
 noticed ; still less is it to be supposed, that the 
 Members of the new Parliament will be inclined 
 to enter upon a subject which, without some 
 previous knowledge of its outline and object, 
 they could neither hope to master or compre- 
 hend. 
 
 We propose, therefore, to notice the circum- 
 stances under which the late parliamentary 
 enquiry was instituted — the parties to that en- 
 quiry — the mode in which it was conducted — 
 the evidence brought forward — the results esta- 
 blished by such evidence — and the situation in 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 which the East- India Company stand with refe- 
 rence to the general question. 
 Charge against We must make a momentary digression for the 
 
 tlie Company of , , . 
 
 interfering at purposc of noticing somc Statements which have 
 
 Elections. :[ • i i • i i n- ^ 
 
 been circulated, with no common share oi indus- 
 try, that the East-India Company exerted, in 
 1 the course of the late General Election, all their 
 
 influence to defeat the return of members who 
 were known to entertain sentiments adverse to 
 the Company's privileges, and to promote the 
 choice of others who were supposed to be 
 favourable to their continuance. 
 
 It might have sufficed to have permitted the 
 absurdity of such a charge to be its refuta- 
 tion, had not the Committee of the Liverpool 
 Association, in their resolutions in support of Mr. 
 Woolryche Whitmore's election at Bridgnorth, 
 urged such alleged interference on the part of the 
 East-India Company, as a reason for the more 
 strenuous exertion of the friends of free-trade 
 in procuring the return of that gentleman; 
 and when his election was secured, there ap- 
 peared a paragraph in the most influential 
 and widely- circulated daily journal, congra- 
 tulating the country on the defeat of such an 
 attempt on the part of the Company. The Edi- 
 tor, subsequently aware how utterly without 
 foundation the assertion had been put forth, 
 honourably and promptly contradicted it. The 
 
11 
 
 impression, however, had been made ; and we 
 have lived long enough to know the difficulty 
 which attends the attempt to disabuse the pub- 
 lic mind of an opinion, however erroneously 
 formed, when such opinion is in accordance 
 with sentiments cherished and promulgated 
 under an ignorance of facts, and a belief that 
 the general weal would be promoted by tlie 
 annihilation of rights and privileges, no matter 
 at what cost or by what means the effort be 
 made and carried forward. 
 
 The East-India Company have no occasion to 
 resort to any such means for the purpose of 
 defending their rights and privileges. Whatever 
 may be the determination of the Legislature as 
 to the future intercourse with India, or the trade 
 with China, or the system under which the 
 affairs of the British Empire in that country shall 
 be administered, the Company have rights, pro- 
 perty, and possessions, which are indisputable 
 and interminable. 
 
 We proceed to notice the circumstances under Origin of 
 which the late Parliamentary investigation was 
 instituted. 
 
 At the close of the session of 1829, the expe- 
 diency of enquiry into the Indian and China 
 Trade was strongly pressed upon the attention 
 of the Government by those who sought for a 
 removal of the remaining restrictions, which they 
 
 enquiry. 
 
12 
 
 represented to exist upon the trade and inter- 
 course with India, and by the advocates of a 
 free trade with China. 
 
 The motion for the appointment of a Com- 
 mittee at that time was withdrawn, upon an 
 understanding that His Majesty's Ministers 
 would themselves propose such a measure in the 
 following session. 
 Appointment In redemption of such pledge a Select 
 
 of Committee. _, . ^ _ _ ^ _ , . , 
 
 Committee was moved lor and chosen m each 
 House on the 9th February 1830. On that 
 occasion Mr. Peel acknowledged the vast im- 
 portance of the subject. He disclaimed the 
 idea of a Committee being proposed ** for the 
 *' purpose of ratifying any engagement existing 
 " between the Government and the Company," 
 and declared " no such thing is in existence;" 
 and, as has been already noticed, he stated that 
 *' in any future proceedings we must be guided 
 ** by the result of the enquiry." 
 Objections to Notwithstanding this frank declaration of the 
 answered. Right Hou. Gentleman, it was attempted to 
 be shewn at the outset, that partiality had 
 been manifested in the selection of the Com- 
 mittee, *' and objections were taken especially 
 '* to the names of three Directors of the 
 *' Company being included, because they had too 
 '' great an interest in the question to be able to 
 *' go into the Committee with impartiality." 
 
13 
 
 If such an objection was worth any thing, and 
 if a strictly disinterested Committee was to have 
 been chosen, — a Committee composed of mem- 
 bers having no one predilection, either in fa- 
 vour of, or against the Company, but what 
 might be produced by the evidence brought 
 forward in the course of the enquiry, — theii 
 an objection should have been taken, and we 
 think with much greater reason, to the choice 
 of other gentlemen, who had, on every op- 
 portunity, declared most unequivocal and de- 
 cided hostility to the Company ; to those who, 
 in truth, held their seats by the tenure of an 
 uncompromising support of the opinions of their 
 constituents, which were known to be directly 
 opposed even to a modified continuance of the 
 Company's privileges ; and to those who were 
 members of houses of India agency, and of 
 mercantile firms, whose interests would be pro- 
 moted, in exact proportion as the rights and 
 privileges of the Company were either cir- 
 cumscribed or totally abolished. But whilst 
 such parties were to have their representatives 
 in the persons of Right Honourable and Honour- 
 able Gentlemen of the first talent and character 
 in the political and commercial world, with 
 what propriety, with what fairness, could it be 
 denied to the East-India Company to have, out 
 of thirty-five members of the Committee, three 
 
14 
 
 Directors, to watch and take cognizance of 
 proceedings, which might affect a capital of 
 twenty -one millions sterling, embarked in the 
 acquisition and maintenance of possessions and 
 commercial privileges, which in the hands of 
 the Company have been made at all times 
 subservient to the interests and welfare of the 
 State. 
 
 Of the thirty-five members, two were members 
 of the Government ; four were members of the 
 Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India ; 
 one, the Secretary of that Board ; thirteen re- 
 presented places, from whence petitions had 
 been presented against the Company, or who 
 had individually expressed themselves op- 
 posed to the continuance of their privileges ; 
 twelve may be viewed as having in no way com- 
 mitted themselves in reference to the general 
 question, but certainly had given no reason to 
 believe that they were supporters of the Com- 
 pany; and three were Directors. 
 
 Such was the constitution of the Committee 
 chosen by the House of Commons for the pur- 
 pose of prosecuting the important investigation. 
 
 It would be difficult for the most fastidious to 
 raise an objection to such a Committee, on the 
 score of its members having a too favourable 
 leaning towards the East- India Company, who 
 were, in truth, as perfect strangers to the mea- 
 
15 
 
 sure as the writer of these pages. The official 
 accounts presented to Parliament by the King's 
 command, through the President of the India 
 Board, to facilitate the enquiry, were framed, not 
 by the officers of the Company, but by those of 
 the Board. It was upon these accounts that 
 the officers of the Company were examined ; 
 and they stated in the course of their evidence, 
 that they then saw them for the first time, 
 and that it was impossible for them to bear 
 testimony to the soundness of deductions drawn 
 from documents, of the accuracy of which they 
 were previously entirely ignorant. 
 
 The parties to the late enquiry are: — The Parties to tiK 
 Petitioners for a free and unrestricted resort to, 
 and residence in India, and the withdrawal of 
 the Company from the trade ; and the Petitioners 
 for a free intercourse with India, and the total 
 abolition of the Company's monopoly of the 
 China trade. 
 
 We shall take the petition from the Merchants 
 of London and that from the Merchants of Liver- 
 pool, as the two prominent bodies who may be 
 supposed to speak the general sense of the re- 
 spective interests advocating a change of the 
 existing system. The Merchants of London in 
 their petition, desire, "that in any renewal of 
 " the charter to the East-India Company, due 
 " provision shall be made to allow such free in- 
 " tercourse of British subjects with India, and 
 
16 
 
 " to give them such right of settling therein, as 
 '' shall (consistently with the security of the 
 *' British Government and the w^elfare of the 
 ** native population) be best calculated to pro- 
 " mote the full development of the internal re- 
 *' sources of that country, and by the application 
 *' of British skill and capital, improve its various 
 ** products, especially those of sugar, cotton, 
 " silk, and tobacco, these being the principal 
 '' means by which, in the opinion of the Peti- 
 " tioners, a further extension of the valuable 
 ** trade with India, now obstructed by the diffi- 
 *' culty of obtaining returns, may be facilitated." 
 The Petitioners further state it to be '' most im- 
 '* portant to the mercantile prosperity of India, 
 " that the government of that country should be 
 " entirely restricted from all commercial deal- 
 " ings, save and except, in reference to the 
 '* export trade from India to Europe, it be ab- 
 '* solutely necessary to bring produce in open 
 *' market for the purpose of remittance, in aid 
 " of the territorial demands on the London 
 ** Treasury, when no other means of supply can 
 *' be obtained." The Petitioners afterwards go 
 on to state, that they ** refrain at this time from 
 *' making any declaration on the important 
 <* question of the monopoly in the supply of tea 
 ** to this country, now vested in the East-India 
 ** Company, because, in their opinion, that sub- 
 ** ject is interwoven with various other consi-/ 
 
17 
 
 derations besides those purely commercial, 
 which render a full investigation indispensably- 
 necessary for establishing a fair and just deci-. 
 sion, as to the course it may be wise to pursue 
 in furtherance of the common interests of the 
 country." 
 
 The Petitioners from Liverpool state their 
 object at present is to draw the attention of 
 the House more particularly to the trade be- 
 tween this country and the empire of China, 
 of greater importance than all the rest of the 
 Company's present monopoly. The Peti- 
 tioners submit, that there is no reason why the 
 trade of this country to the empire of China, 
 so far as respects the acts of our Legislature, 
 should not be as free to His Majesty's subjects 
 in general as the trade to the empire of 
 Brazil, or any other country ; still less that 
 they should be excluded from carrying our 
 manufactures to China, when foreigners in 
 their own ships enter our ports, receive British 
 goods, and traffic with them in that empire ; 
 or that our merchant- ships should be debarred 
 from all carrying trade between foreign coun- 
 tries and China, and our ships obliged to de- 
 cline charters, which the vessels of the United 
 States accept with advantage." 
 Our attention was first directed to the "Re- Proceedings of 
 port from the Committee of the Lords. We \heTwdL'' 
 were struck both with the variety and ex- 
 
18 
 
 Committee of tent of the subjects to which their Lordships' 
 enquiry had been (we presume advisedly) di- 
 rected, and also with the brief and bald summary 
 which the Report contains of the important 
 points brought under the consideration of the 
 Committee, 
 ^n^^ui^ °^ The enquiry comprised the finances of India, 
 embracing the joint operations of territorial and 
 commercial means ; — the inadequacy of the 
 revenues, and the diminution of the civil and 
 military charges; — the constitution of the lo- 
 cal governments, with a view to their efficient 
 control over expenditure ; — the internal Revenue 
 arrangements, and the advantages of the differ- 
 ent kinds of settlements, and the expediency of 
 direct or indirect taxation; — the comparative 
 advantage of the management of the Native 
 States with those under the British rule ; — the 
 operation of the monopolies of opium, of salt, 
 and of the internal transit duties ; — the supplant- 
 ing of Indian by British manufactures, and the 
 possibility of improving the former in silk, cot- 
 ton, sugar, tobacco, and other articles of Indian 
 produce ; — the residence of Europeans ; — the 
 exercise of judicial functions in the interior by 
 competent persons servants of the Company, 
 and by natives ; — the police of the country, and 
 the fitness of the natives for such functions as 
 judges, assessors, and jurymen, and for general 
 civil employments, to raise them to higher sta- 
 
19 
 
 tions, to elevate their character, and to give the committee oj 
 country a cheaper and more popular govern- 
 ment ; — the best means of native education, and 
 also of the European servants of the East-India 
 Company, both in England and in India; — the 
 laws as to the Half-castes ; — ^the state of the 
 country now and in former times, and the con- 
 dition of the people ; — the state of slavery in 
 Malabar and other parts of India ; — the practice 
 of Suttee ; — the China Trade. 
 
 Such is an epitome of the variety of matter 
 which was brought before the Committee. We 
 appreciate the zeal, and we would by no means 
 undervalue the powers possessed by their Lord- 
 ships to enter upon so extensive a field of Indian 
 research which has thus been opened to them ; 
 but we confess, that when we had perused the 
 Report, strong doubts arose in our minds as to 
 the possibility of their Lordships acquiring, in 
 the course of an investigation which occupied 
 scarcely thirty days, and little more than four 
 hours in each day, sufficient information to 
 arrive at a right and just conclusion on the 
 subjects brought under review. And yet we 
 are left to conclude, that as their Lordships did 
 not proceed to the China Question until they 
 had closed the evidence on the other mat- 
 ters, enough had been elicited to have enabled 
 them, had they seen fit, to have offered a de- 
 
20 
 
 Committee of cidcd ODinion upon the multifarious matter 
 already specified. 
 
 We pass by the evidence on the finances of 
 India, and on the China Question, as we shall 
 have occasion to advert to it when we take up the 
 Report from the Committee of the Commons. 
 The remainder of the evidence has reference to 
 the general questions connected with the internal 
 state of the possessions under the government 
 of the Company and those of the Native States. 
 We had not the same opportunity of wit- 
 nessing the course of examination as we were 
 indulged with by the Committee of the Com- 
 mons : but we conjecture from the nature of the 
 majority of the questions put to the witnesses, that 
 such questions were propounded by the Noble 
 Lord at the head of the India Board. We are 
 by no means disposed to disparage that Noble 
 Lord's capacity for readily acquiring a know- 
 ledge of the outline of our Indian system ; but the 
 limited information which he must necessarily 
 possess, as to internal Eastern policy and rule, ill 
 qualifies any man for forming schemes of govern- 
 ment, or laying down principles of action, as ap- 
 plicable to countries and inhabitants, possessing 
 , peculiarities and prejudices, which differ from 
 each other as widely as light from darkness. 
 Patient investigation, calm deliberation, and 
 much caution, are required previously to the in- 
 
21 
 
 troduction of what may seem to be an improve- 
 ment upon an existing system, however opposed 
 that system may be to our received notions 
 of what is wise or expedient in a European 
 state, advanced in arts, science, and religion. 
 
 We discover, in the shaping and bearing of 
 the questions, a desire to draw forth evidence 
 to establish preconceived notions and crude 
 theories, wholly inapplicable to the number and 
 varieties of countries, and of their inhabitants, 
 of which our Indian empire is composed. 
 
 We will notice, for example, a question put 
 to that eminent servant of the Company, the 
 Hon. M. Elphinstone, late governor of Bombay, 
 who had previously filled various important offi- 
 cial situations in all parts of India : 
 
 *' Do you think it would be found quite impracticable 
 " to apply one comnwn code to the whole of the Indian 
 " territories? — I think it would. There might be a 
 " general correspondence, such as may be found in coun- 
 ** tries in Europe, the laws of which are founded on the 
 *' Roman law ; but there must also be very great points 
 " of difference. 
 
 " Subject to those differences, do you think that such 
 " a regulation might be attended with advantage ? — Per- 
 " haps at some remote period it might; but in the present 
 " state of our knowledge of India, I think it is desirable 
 " to abstain from all attempts to introduce uniformity.'' 
 
 We are led to imagine that the Code Napoleon 
 must have suggested this contemplated improve- 
 ment upon the existing judicial systems of India. 
 
22 
 
 Committee of From the evidence of Mr. Fortescue, who was 
 th^ Lords: commissioner in the district of Delhi, we find 
 that the people were well satisfied with the ad- 
 ministration of justice according to the Moha- 
 medan law, modified by the spirit of the Regu- 
 lations of the Government. 
 
 We also find from the examination of Mr. 
 Courteney Smith, who was judge of the Sudder 
 Adawlut in Bengal from 1819 to 1827, that sub- 
 stantial justice was administered to the people 
 in the Provincial Courts, where there were efii- 
 cient officers. 
 
 Mr. Elphinstone considered 
 
 « the natives are satisfied with the administration of 
 
 " justice, as far as protecting innocence ; but they com- 
 " plain very much of its inadequacy to punish guilt. 
 " I am not certain that their complaints are well-founded, 
 " for their notions of justice are very summary, and they 
 " are not able to comprehend the difficulties we find in cri- 
 " minal procedure.^' 
 
 We are. far from saying that the judicial 
 system is incapable of improvement, and we are 
 amongst the last of those who would deprecate 
 the gradual introduction of judicious and well- 
 advised amendment and amelioration in the 
 mode of administering justice to our native sub- 
 jects; but it is to the adoption of measures so 
 visionary, and with such imperfect information, 
 that we entertain the strongest objections. 
 
 This opinion is confirmed by that late eminent 
 
23 
 
 man, Sir Thomas Munro, who observes : " One 
 " great error in this country, during a long 
 " course of years, has been too much precipita- 
 " tion in attempting to better the condition of 
 " the people, with hardly any knowledge of the 
 " means by which it was to be accomplished, 
 ** and indeed without seeming to think that any 
 " other than good intentions were necessary. 
 *' It is a dangerous system of government, in a 
 *' country of which our knowledge is very im- 
 " perfect, to be constantly urged by the desire 
 " of settling every thing permanently — to do 
 " every thing in a hurry, and in consequence 
 *' wrong, and in our zeal for permanency, to put 
 *' the remedy out of our reach."* 
 
 In comparing this state of the administration 
 of justice in the territories under the Company's 
 Government with that existing in the Native 
 States, to which reference has been made in the 
 Report of the Lords, we find Mr. Jenkins, late 
 Resident at the court of Nagpoor, giving it as 
 his opinion, that the system of civil and crimi- 
 nal justice (beyond the Company's rule) "could 
 " scarcely be said to be any system at all." 
 From the same authority we further learn, that 
 under the native administration, 
 —''latterly there was very little security of person or'' 
 " property. The country was overrun by Pindarries, 
 " and the Rajah himself, being reduced to distress, by 
 
 * Life of Sir T. Munro, vol. iii. p. 381. 
 
24 
 
 Committee of " keeping up larger bodies of troops than his finances 
 " could sustain, turned plunderer himself, and employed 
 " robbers to take away the property of every person who 
 " had any ; and this was not only all over the country 
 " where it might be unobserved, but in the city of Nag- 
 " poor itself;^ 
 
 If a similar comparison be made, as to the ad- 
 vantages derived from the superintendence of 
 British rule, it will be found in the evidence of 
 Mr. Jenkins, the result of his observations during 
 a residence of nearly twenty years, that 
 
 — -'^ he had scarcely arrived at Nagpoor, in the begin- 
 *' ning of 1807, before he saw the whole country in a 
 " blaze, and almost every village burning within a few 
 " miles of the city of Nagpoor, and this going on from 
 ** year to year." 
 
 He adds, that the people were far from satis- 
 , fied with the native government, 
 
 — " for they had little protection from foreign invasion. 
 " The Pindarries were constantly ravaging the country ;. 
 " and the Rajah''s troops, if they were sent to suppress 
 " them, plundered them." 
 
 I After the. year 1818^ when the government 
 
 was administered to a certain degree by British 
 functionaries, Mr. Jenkins's evidence shews, that 
 i the country increased under it in population and 
 
 ; in revenue ; — that the improvement in the state 
 
 [ of the country was very considerable and very 
 
 I sensible; — that the people were in general very 
 
 ! well satisfied both with the administration of 
 
 the government and of justice whilst under Bri- 
 
25 
 
 tish authority ; and that when he undertook Committee of 
 the management of the Nagpoor territory, the 
 finances were greatly embarrassed ; but that 
 when he surrendered the government into the 
 hands of the Rajah, 
 
 — '^the revenue was about forty-seven lacs of rupees, 
 *' and the expenditure about forty-four, subsequently 
 *' reduced to about forty-two, before he gave up the 
 ** country to the Rajah, producing a surplus of near five 
 '' lacs of rupees." 
 
 A testimony to the same effect is borne by 
 Mr. Elphinstone with respect to the tributary 
 states in Guzzerat connected with the govern- 
 ment of Bombay. 
 
 Sir Thomas Munro wrote from India, in 
 August 1826, to his friend Mr. Halliburton, 
 now in this country, and who was formerly a 
 distinguished servant on the Madras establish- 
 ment : "It is needless to speak to you of any 
 ** body in this country, for I shall not in my 
 *' circuit see a single person you know, or any 
 ** very old acquaintance of my own ; but not- 
 " withstanding this, there is a great pleasure in 
 *' passing through countries enjoying profound 
 " peace, and full of industrious inhabitants, 
 " which I formerly saw desolate and laid waste 
 ** by a destructive enemy."* 
 
 Again, in another letter : — " The atrocious 
 '* crimes of murder and gang-robbery are much 
 
 * Life of Sir T. Munro, vol.iii. p. 432. 
 D 
 
26 
 
 Committee of ** Icss commoii in districts which have been long 
 *' under the Company's government than in 
 *' those of more recent acquisition, and are 
 ** everyv^here gradually diminishing."* 
 
 The possibility of indirect taxation was also 
 touched upon ; and in the examination of Mr. 
 Mangles before their Lordships, that gentleman 
 was asked, 
 
 — " whether from the state of society in the lower pro- 
 " vinces, it would be possible to raise any more revenue 
 " by means of indirect taxation ?"" 
 
 To which he replied : 
 
 — " The wealth is in existence ; but I cannot speak, on 
 *' the spur of the moment, of any means by which it 
 " could be got at by indirect taxation, — their wants are 
 "so few." 
 
 Mr. Christian gave evidence to the same effect. 
 
 '' How long have you been in the upper provinces ? — 
 *' About nineteen years. I was about four years and a 
 '' half on the Special Commission, and the greater part 
 " of the time I was collector of land revenue. 
 
 " Did the condition of some provinces appear to im- 
 ** prove from that period ? — Certainly. 
 
 '^ From your knowledge of the state of the population 
 " of Bengal, and the territories subject to the Bengal Go- 
 '' vemment, do you think there are means of raising the 
 '' revenue by indirect taxation to any extent ? — Any 
 " change from established custom in India gives rise to a 
 '' great deal of dissatisfaction. The land-rent is what 
 " they readily pay : although it may appear exorbitant, 
 
 * Life of Sir T. Munro, vol. iii. 
 
27 
 
 " yet it is a revenue that is paid without much difficulty. Committee of 
 " and a tax in any other shape, however small, is com- '^^ ^^^^' 
 " paratively disliked, I think." 
 
 Colonel Briggs, in his interesting work on 
 the Land Tax of India, quotes some obser- 
 vations of Mr. Elphinstone on the introduction, 
 since 1816, of Tallaties, or village-accountants, 
 in conducting the village settlements, rather 
 than direct by Patels. 
 
 " There can be no doubt," says Mr. Elphinstone, " of 
 *' the excellence of this regulation, both as promoting 
 '' the advantage of the Government and of the Ryots ; 
 *• but it must not be overlooked, that it has a tendency 
 " to extinguish the authority of the Patels, already much 
 *' weakened by other parts of our management ; and 
 '' care should be taken, when the necessary information 
 ** has been acquired, which can only be done by a 
 " regular and scientific survey, to bring the Tallatty's 
 '' power within its natural bounds, and to withdraw it 
 '' from all interference with the immediate duties of the 
 " Patel." 
 
 It is by extracts of this nature. Col. Briggs 
 justly observes, that one "is able to perceive how 
 " extremely difficult it is for us in India to 
 '* change, in however slight a degree, the insti- 
 " tutions of the people, without deranging the 
 *' whole frame of society." 
 
 With reference to those parts of the evidence 
 which touch upon the internal improvement of 
 our territorial possessions, by the larger intro- 
 
28 
 
 Committee of ductiou of British agency and capital, we do not 
 hesitate to say, that we would accord the most 
 liberal permission to the resort of British sub- 
 jects to India, under proper and defined regu- 
 lations. 
 
 We quote Mr. Elphinstone on this point with 
 great pleasure, because we attach to his opinion 
 peculiar weight and authority, coming as it does 
 from a gentleman universally respected for the 
 liberality of his sentiments, and thoroughly con- 
 versant, as he is admitted by all to be, with 
 questions of Indian policy and legislation. 
 
 " Do you think that the general prosperity of the coun^ 
 " try, or the moral improvement of the people, would be 
 *' advanced by the more general residence of Europeans 
 *^ amongst them ? — A more general residence of Euro- 
 '* peans would be certainly attended with great advan- 
 " tages, if they carried capital or skill with them to 
 *' India ; but I think that any unrestricted residence of 
 " Europeans in India would be productive of more harm 
 '' than good. 
 
 " Would not a greater resort of Europeans to the coun- 
 " try tend to keep down the native population, and to 
 '' prevent the natives rising to the possession of those 
 '' offices in which you think it would be desirable to place 
 " them ? — I think it certainly would. If Europeans were 
 " allowed to go without restraint to India, I think many 
 " would go at first, some without capital, and others on 
 " speculations which would soon reduce them to poverty; 
 ^' that from the compassion of their countrymen in India, 
 *' and their greater fitness for office, they would be intro- 
 -*' duced into employments to which we have been of late 
 
29 
 
 •* endeavouring to introduce the natives ; and that if Committee of 
 ** they formed friendships with the Europeans in power, ^'** ^rds. 
 *' which they have greater means of doing than the na- 
 " tives, they would get advantages in other ways. 
 
 " So that the elevation of the native character appears 
 *' to be inconsistent with the more general resort of Eu- 
 " ropeans to the country ? — Inconsistent with the unre- 
 '' stricted resort ; but I conceive that the resort of Eu- 
 ^' ropeans might probably be extended without intro- 
 *' ducing any other than beneficial results. 
 
 " The greater the number of Europeans in the country, 
 '' would not the difficulties thrown in the way of the 
 " advancement of natives be greater.? — If none went to 
 " India but such as had capital to employ in commerce 
 " or agriculture, no bad effects would follow from their 
 '' residence. There would be some competition, no 
 " doubt, between them and the natives ; but I think the 
 " balance of advantage would be greater than that of 
 " disadvantage. 
 
 " In your opinion, would it be necessary to subject the 
 " Europeans residing in India to restrictions, as well as 
 *' to impose restrictions on their resort thither ? — I do 
 " not know that any of the present restrictions could be 
 " dispensed with. It would be sufficient if the govern- 
 " ment had the power of sending them out of the country, 
 '' and of sending them from one district to another, in 
 " case of their being guilty of any oppression, or creating 
 " any great disturbance in any particular district, as has 
 " happened sometimes. I am always supposing they 
 '' are not so numerous as to form a very considerable 
 '' community in India. Such a community would be 
 <« very unruly, and very difficult to manage on the part 
 '' of a government which must be always arbitrary in 
 " its character. If there were a great body of discon- 
 
30 
 
 ^ Committee of '^ tented colonists, such as at the Cape for instance, I 
 the J^rds. « think their clamours would probably weaken the go- 
 " vernment very much with the natives. Their disagree- 
 " ments with the natives would also be dangerous; and 
 " I think there would be a great increase of the feeling 
 " which there is now only among the lower orders of 
 " Europeans in India, of contempt and dislike for 
 " blacks. There would be a more marked distinction 
 " between blacks and whites, as there is in all regular 
 " colonies." 
 
 We would aid by every possible means the 
 introduction of whatever might tend to revive 
 the internal manufactures of India, which have 
 been supplanted by those of our own coun- 
 try. We trust that we shall yet see the day 
 when India will again export with advantage 
 her muslins, her cotton (raw and manufac- 
 tured), her sugar, her silk, and her indigo ; and 
 to effect these benefits, we would bespeak in 
 her behalf the sympathy of our Legislators, to 
 induce them to relax in the fiscal regulations, 
 which have hitherto borne so heavily upon our 
 j Eastern productions, as to be almost tantamount 
 
 to a total prohibition. 
 
 As Sir Thomas Munro justly remarks, in a 
 letter to Mr. Finlay, dated Madras, August 
 1825 : *' India is the country that has been 
 *' worst used in the new arrangement. All her 
 " products ought undoubtedly to be imported 
 *' freely into England, upon paying the same 
 " duties, and no more, which English products 
 
31 
 
 *' pay in India. When I see what is done in 
 ** Parliament against India, I think that I am 
 " reading about Edward the Third and the 
 '' Flemings."* 
 
 There are other opinions in the same letter, 
 in the greater part of which we fully concur, 
 for we are amongst those, and greatly mistake 
 if we may not add to the number the East-India 
 Company themselves, who are disposed to afford 
 every possible facility to trade and commerce, 
 consistently with what they conceive to be best 
 calculated to promote the public interests and 
 welfare. 
 
 We cordially concur with the views of Mr. 
 Elphinstone, as to improving the means of 
 justice for the poorer class of natives, and of 
 introducing native juries, which he thinks 
 
 — " would tend very much to the improvement of the 
 *^ people, by drawing their attention to public business ; 
 '' but he doubts whether they would promote the imme- 
 " diate objects of obtaining either a speedy or an im- 
 '' proved administration of justice. 
 
 We also entirely agree with him as to the ex- 
 pediency of extending the means of education 
 to the natives as far as possible. 
 
 With respect to the employment of natives in 
 the management of the land revenue. Sir Tho- 
 mas Munro observes, that " juster views have 
 " of late years been taken of this subject, and 
 " the Court of Directors have authorized the 
 
 * Life of Sir T. Munro, vol. iii. p. 429. 
 
S2 
 
 Commitiesof '* employment of the natives on higher salaries, 
 
 '^ ^ ' <« and in more important offices. There is true 
 
 ** economy in this course, for by it they will 
 
 " have better servants, and their affairs will be 
 
 ** better conducted."* 
 
 We attach considerable weight to the opinions 
 expressed by Sir Edward Hyde East, as to the 
 incompetency of the Europeans to enter with 
 effect upon judicial functions, at the early age 
 at which they are sometimes introduced ; and 
 we think benefit would result from their being 
 educated with more immediate reference to 
 employ in the judicial branch of the service, 
 with w^hich, however, it is to be recollected 
 the revenue branch is materially connected. 
 
 The inhuman and idolatrous practice of Suttee 
 has already been abolished. We anxiously 
 anticipate that the crime of infanticide will soon 
 cease to exist. We look forward to the unfortu- 
 nate inhabitants of Malabar being raised from 
 their state of native slavery, and freed from a 
 bondage so incompatible with the principles of 
 British government ; principles which, we have 
 reason to believe, govern the instructions from 
 the Home Authorities to their servants in India. 
 
 It may be said, that had it not been for the 
 desultory enquiry of the Committee of the 
 Lords, the subjects would have remained un- 
 thought of; that the time for iifiprovement 
 would, in the opinion of the East-India Com- 
 * Life of Sir Thomas Munro, vol. iii. p. 357. 
 
33 
 
 pany, have been the future and not the present. Committee of 
 To this we will reply, by referring such objectors 
 to the voluminous printed records which are 
 within the reach of every individual who has 
 taken a part in the late proceedings, and which 
 will shew the attention already given to these 
 subjects. It will indeed be found, that since 
 the limited period within which the vast addi- 
 tions have been made to our Indian empire, the 
 Home authorities appear to have been actuated 
 by a desire to obtain a thorough knowledge of 
 all the internal relations and capabilities of the 
 several countries as they have been acquired, 
 and to introduce such amendments in the modes 
 of administration as seemed best calculated to 
 secure the welfare of the people. 
 
 It must be recollected, that little more than Late period 
 thirty years have elapsed since the largest of our aequisiu^ml 
 territorial acquisitions were made. It was only 
 in 1799 that the treachery of Tippoo led to our 
 acquisition of the kingdom of Mysore. The 
 powerful attitude and jealousy of the Mahrattas, 
 and the indisposition of the Paishwa to an alli- 
 ance with us, was the cause of our treaty with 
 the Nizam in 1800. The war which followed 
 with Scindia and Holkar, in the beginning of 
 1801, led to the means of our establishing our 
 interests at Poonah, through the statesman- 
 like measures of the Marquess Wellesley, which 
 ended in the treaty of Bassein. We were at 
 
 E 
 
34 
 
 Committee of the Same time engaged in sending troops to 
 Egypt, and likewise a mission to Persia, to in- 
 duce them to attack Khorassan, for the purpose 
 of drawing off Zemaun Shah from our frontier. 
 It was only in 1803, through the instrumentality 
 of General Wellesley, that a coalition between 
 Scindia, Holkar, and the Rajah of Berar, against 
 the Nizam, was defeated. These operations were 
 followed by hostilities with Holkar, the retreat 
 of Colonel Monson, and the failure against 
 Bhurtpore. It was the battle of Deig, with the 
 capture of Chandah, which obliged Holkar to 
 retreat across the Chumbul. It must be also 
 well known to our Indian readers, that the 
 Carnatic was only brought under the British 
 government in 1801. 
 
 When Lord Cornwallis succeeded Lord 
 Wellesley, in 1805, a new line of policy was 
 adopted, which led to a dissolution, on our part, 
 of the connexions which we had formed with 
 the states of Gwalior, Gohud, and Jeypoor. It 
 was also contemplated, in following up the 
 same line of policy, called for at the moment, 
 in the judgment of Lord Cornwallis, by the 
 necessity of economy, although diametrically 
 opposed to the brilliant course pursued by Lord 
 Wellesley, to have disposed of the conquered 
 countries southward and westward between the 
 Rajahs of Macherry and Bhurtpore. These par- 
 ticular points are brought forward, to shew how 
 
36 
 
 utterly ineffectual any attempt would have been Committee of 
 at that time to acquire a sufficient knowledge of 
 the internal state of those countries, by which 
 alone effectual measures of improvement and 
 amelioration could have been successfully intro- 
 duced, on their subsequent repossession by us* 
 
 It is needless to dwell on the successive 
 events which have so recently followed, and 
 which have ended in the extension of the Bri- 
 tish power during the administration of Lords 
 Hastings and Amherst, from the Indus to the 
 Himaylah Mountains and Arracan, and from 
 Cape Comorin to Lahore. 
 
 The wonder, then, must be, not that so little, 
 but that so much has been done. 
 
 ** When we compare other countries with 
 ** England, we usually speak of England as 
 *' she now is ; we scarcely ever think of going 
 " back beyond the Reformation ; and we are 
 ** apt to regard every foreign country as igno- 
 " rant and uncivilized, whose state of improve- 
 ** ment does not in some degree approximate 
 " to our own, even though it should be higher 
 " than our own was at no very distant period. 
 " We should look upon India not as a tem- 
 ** porary possession, but as one which is to be 
 *' maintained permanently, until the natives 
 *' shall, in some future age, have abandoned 
 " most of their superstitions and prejudices, 
 " and become sufficiently enlightened to frame 
 
36 
 
 Committee of ** ^ regular government for themselves, and to 
 theLnrds. tf conduct and preserve it.* 
 
 We entirely accord in these sound and en- 
 lightened views, which we are satisfied would 
 be of incalculable benefit to India, were they 
 more fully understood by those, to whom the 
 task is in part delegated of superintending the 
 government of that country. 
 
 When we reflect that in this country it has only 
 been of late years, by the indefatigable and en- 
 lightened zeal of the Right Hon. Sir Robert 
 Peel, that our criminal code has been cleared 
 from laws which were declared to be a disgrace 
 to our statute-book, it manifests but a narrow 
 acquaintance with the vast and extensive sub- 
 jects embraced in our Indian history to imagine 
 that an inquiry of a few days, conducted with 
 particular objects, could qualify any one to pass 
 a judgment on a system so imperfectly under- 
 stood or appreciated. 
 
 We are quite sure that their Lordships, in 
 the course which they followed, were governed 
 by an anxious desire to advance the prosperity 
 and happiness of the people of India ; but we 
 much question whether the terms of the mo- 
 tion under which the Committee was appoint- 
 ed, embraced the various and extensive sub- 
 jects which have occupied their time and atten- 
 tion. 
 
 * Life of Sir T. Munro, vol. iii. p. 388, 
 
37 
 
 The state of the East-India Company, and Committer o/ 
 of the India and China trade, were the leading ' 
 
 points ; and had it been deemed expedient, 
 after disposing of those heads of enquiry, to 
 have entered into the internal administration of 
 our varied and extensive possessions in the East, 
 we should have suggested a course of proceed- 
 ing certainly differing from the one that has been 
 adopted. 
 
 The objects which the Committee have had suggested 
 in view, we think, would have been more ef- enquiry, 
 fectually attained, had a series of well-digested 
 questions on the several points touched upon in 
 the investigation been framed and laid before some 
 of the most eminent of the Company's servants, 
 and other gentlemen of character and respec- 
 tability, who have resided in the several parts 
 of India, and who have been employed in the 
 various branches of the public service, or who 
 have been engaged in commercial and other 
 occupations. These gentlemen, instead of being 
 subjected to a desultory and diffuse course of 
 examination, by parties ill informed on the 
 matters under investigation, by which no clear, 
 connected, or satisfactory result has been 
 elicited, would have been prepared to have 
 offered their deliberate opinions upon such que- 
 ries as might have been submitted to them ; 
 and the body of valuable information so obtained 
 would have proved of the greatest advantage 
 
38 
 
 in guiding the judgment of those on whom the 
 decision upon the momentous points at issue 
 must ultimately devolve. 
 
 Proceedirufs of We HOW tum to tho proceediuffs of the Com- 
 
 the Committee ^ ^ 
 
 ofthe MiTTEE OF the CoMMONs. It appears that 
 
 Commons. , . ^ 
 
 With the exception of the first day of that Com- 
 mittee's meeting, and those ofthe 7th and 17th 
 of June, which were devoted to points of finance, 
 and of the two last days which were given to a 
 consideration of the Half-caste petition, the re- 
 maining thirty days were occupied in the exa- 
 minations connected with the China Trade. 
 Report. When the report of the Committee was laid 
 
 before the House of Commons by Mr. Ward, 
 their Chairman, that gentleman disclaimed 
 being the author of it, but bore testimony to the 
 unanimous opinion of the Committee as to the 
 ability and impartiality with which it had been 
 drawn up. We understand that the public are 
 indebted to Mr. Arbuthnot for this able summary 
 of the conflicting evidence on the China Trade. 
 It was a task undertaken by him at the request 
 of the Committee, and we do not remember any 
 Parliamentary Report in which the expression 
 of an opinion has been purposely avoided, that 
 has presented greater claims to attention, from 
 the importance ofthe matter touched upon, than 
 that now before us. 
 
39 
 
 It is to the same Hight Hon. Gentleman we Commute^ of 
 owe a debt of obligation for having drawn forth, ^''^ o^^^ns. 
 by a series of pertinent and judicious questions, 
 some valuable and interesting information from 
 one of the most intelligent of the witnesses who 
 appeared before the Committee, to whose evi- 
 dence we shall have occasion to advert at con- 
 siderable length. 
 
 It will be perceived on reference to the Re- 
 port, that although the Committee were in the 
 first instance anxious to confine their attention 
 to the China Trade, they were unavoidably 
 compelled to touch upon the financial branch, 
 in order to render the results of that trade, 
 as affecting the operations of the Company in 
 the joint character, clear and comprehensive to 
 the general reader. 
 
 We propose in the first place, therefore, briefly 
 to notice the financial part of the question. 
 
 The East- India Company from the acquisition Finances, 
 of the Dewanny in 1765, have acted in the com- 
 bined character of sovereigns and merchants ; 
 Their opponents have grounded one of their 
 strongest objections to the Company upon 
 their acting in this joint capacity, — and have 
 invariably asserted that territory has been 
 drained for the purposes of commerce, and that 
 had a distinct and separate account been kept 
 of the territorial revenue, such fact would have 
 been fully established. 
 
the Commons. 
 Finances. 
 
 40 
 
 Committee of So decidcdly had this opinion gained ground, 
 that in the Act of 1813, commonly called the 
 last Charter Act, a separation of accounts was 
 accordingly provided for, under the two heads 
 of TERRITORIAL and COMMERCIAL receipts 
 and charges. Under one or other of these 
 branches the whole of the receipts and payments 
 of the East-India Company, both at home and 
 abroad, since the 30th April 1814, will be 
 found. 
 
 It is important to remark, that the plan which 
 describes the several items chargeable to each 
 branch, was approved by the Board of Com- 
 missioners for the Affairs of India, and laid 
 before Parliament. 
 
 It appears in evidence that the claims of 
 commerce on territory, previously to 1780, 
 
 amounted to £3,616,000 
 
 from 1780 to 1793 to 6,829,557 
 
 from 1793 to 1814 to 1,559,377 
 
 arising out of supplies and expenditure made 
 out of the commercial means of the Company, 
 beyond what territory has repaid or returned. 
 
 It moreover appears, that since 1814 the gross 
 territorial receipts to the latest period to which 
 the accounts can be made up, comprising a pe- 
 riod of fourteen years, have been £284,804,815 
 The charges 304,188,859 
 
 Leaving a deficiency of 19,384,774 
 
41 
 
 against the territorial branch Of the charges Commtun of 
 £278,911,469 has been expended in India.* '''«^"'»"'™»- 
 
 ' ' i^ Finances. 
 
 The average disbursements in England on 
 account of territory since 1814 has been about 
 £3,000,000 annually. This large advance or 
 payment in England on account of territory has 
 been in part repaid by remittances from India 
 and China. f 
 
 The rate at w^hich these repayments have 
 been made in India for the disbursements on 
 account of territory by the Company in England 
 v^as fixed by the Board, under the powers vested 
 in them by the Act of 53 Geo. III. c. 155. 
 
 The accounts in Bengal are kept in sicca rupees, 
 these are converted into current rupees, w^hich 
 rupee is sixteen per cent, less valuable than the 
 sicca; J in consequence of such mode of calcula- 
 tion the territorial account gained by exchange in 
 the fourteen years £7, 187, 178. In the same Act 
 of Parliament it was provided that the surplus 
 
 * Civil Establishments £117,606,336 
 
 Military 137,253,467 
 
 Interest Indian Debt 24,051,666 
 
 St. Helena 1,362,256 
 
 In England 23,915,134 
 
 t Through India £12,920,937 since 1814 
 
 China.... 11,417,113 
 
 24,338,050. 
 
 X Sicca Rupee 2. 3^^ 
 
 Current do 2. 
 
 F 
 
42 
 
 Aid from 
 commerce to 
 territory. 
 
 Commiuee of Commercial profits of the Company in England 
 
 the Commons. i • i • i r» • n • i 
 
 Finances. ^1^1^11 remamcd alter paymg all commercial 
 charges and a dividend of ten and a half per 
 cent, to the Proprietors on the capital stock, 
 amounting to £630,000 per annum, should be 
 applied to the benefit of territory in such manner 
 as the Court of Directors, with the approbation 
 of the Board of Commissioners, might deter- 
 mine. 
 
 During the fourteen years a sum of £4,923,020 
 has been accordingly applied from the surplus 
 commercial profits to the aid of territory, mak- 
 ing with the sum gained by the rate of exchange 
 a total benefit derived by territory from com- 
 merce of £12,110,198 during the last fourteen 
 years, besides which there is an additional sum 
 of £3,184,000 due from territory to commerce 
 in account-current. 
 
 We think that these facts fully confirm the 
 statement made by Lord Ellenborough on pro- 
 posing the appointment of the Committee in 
 the House of Lords, and presenting accounts 
 which he stated had been prepared '' for the 
 *' purpose of dissipating the fallacy which has 
 " arisen out of doors, and which has been 
 " most industriously propagated in this coun- 
 " try, namely, that the territorial finances of 
 " India have derived no benefit from the com- 
 *' mercial funds and profits of the Company. 
 '* The case is far otherwise. It will appear 
 
43 
 
 *' from the documents which have been laid Comndtteeof 
 
 ** before Parliament, that during the course of '1. 
 
 ** the sixteen years which have now elapsed 
 
 ** since the renewal of the Company's charter, 
 
 *• in point of fact, the territorial finances of 
 
 '* India have appropriated to themselves, either 
 
 *' directly or indirectly, as large a sum of the 
 
 ** commercial profits of the Company, as has 
 
 *' been appropriated to the payment of divi- 
 
 ** dends to the Proprietors of East-India Stock; 
 
 " and, in fact, since the renewal of the char- 
 
 *' ter, the monopoly of the China trade has 
 
 ** rather been administered by the Company for 
 
 *' the benefit of the finances of India, than for 
 
 ** their own." 
 
 A short summary of the whole of the com- 
 mercial concerns of the Company from 1814, 
 laid before the Committee of the Commons on 
 the 17th June, will shew at one view the results 
 to the year 1828-29, viz, 
 India investments, costs and "I 
 
 charges ,..f • •••••J 
 
 Sale amount 27,109,120 
 
 331,120 
 
 Charges in India, sea losses, &c 31 8,662 
 
 649,782 
 Profit on exports from England . . . <£*430,294 
 
 Do. on Saltpetre 9,206 
 
 439,500 
 
 Nett loss on India trade since 1814 .£'210,282 
 
44 
 
 Committee of Chinainvestments,costsan(lchargeSd£'3959535371 
 Sale amount 56,140,981 
 
 the Commons, 
 Finances. 
 
 16,187,610 
 Ded uct charges and sea losses 773,1 96 
 
 Nett profit ^15,414,414 
 
 From which if £210,282, the Tiett loss on the 
 India trade since 1814, be deducted, there will 
 be left a nett profit of £15,204,132 on the India 
 and China trade. 
 
 Had the accounts been made up at the mer- 
 cantile rate of exchange, ascertained from the 
 rates at which bills have been drawn from Lon- 
 don on Calcutta in each year, instead of the 
 rates fixed by the Board of Commissioners as 
 regards the repayment of territorial advances, 
 the foregoing account of their India trade would 
 have exhibited a profit of £2,313,825, instead 
 of a loss of £210,282, making a difference 
 of £2,524,107 
 
 The profit on the China trade -^ 
 would have been increased in the VI, 556,902 
 same period by the sum of J 
 
 Making a total difference of £4,081,009 
 
 It is nevertheless true that one witness, than 
 whom we do not believe there is a more amiable 
 man in private life, still pertinaciously contends, 
 in the face of every official proof, and of the 
 concurrent opinion of every authority who has 
 
Finances. 
 
 4& 
 
 presided over the affairs of the Company, either Committee of 
 in India or in England, that commerce derives ^ ^"""^"*' 
 its pecuniary means from the territorial reve- 
 nue. We give the evidence of Mr. Rickards, 
 to whom we refer, which is as follows : — 
 
 '' You say the profits on the China trade are small ? 
 « — According to my view of the documents, there would 
 *' seem to be a small profit on the China trade, but not 
 '^ after paying dividends and interest on home bond- 
 " debt. 
 
 " And yet you say that this payment of .^3,000,000 
 '' a year is made from the proceeds of that trade .'*— 
 *' From the proceeds of the sale of goods, for which the 
 " revenues of India appear to me to have furnished 
 *' funds. 
 
 " But stiU it is through the medium of that trade only 
 *' that those territorial charges are defrayed ? — From the 
 *^ sale proceeds of the goods, not from the profit. 
 
 '' Then you still persist in the opinion that the terri- 
 *' tory supports the trade ? — I do. 
 
 '' Would your opinion remain unaltered if it were 
 *' shown to you that Lord Melville, Mr. Canning, Mr 
 *' Bathurst, Mr. Williams Wynn, and Lord Ellenbo- 
 *' rough, in their offices severally, as presidents of the 
 *' India Board ; that the Marquis of Hastings, Lord 
 *' Amherst, and Lord William Bentinck, as Govemors- 
 ** general ; that the several Chairmen, Court of Directors 
 " of the East-India Company ; and that all the Ac- 
 *' countants of the India Board, of the Bengal Govem- 
 *« ment, and of the Company, totally differ from you in 
 *' that conclusion, and unite in agreeing that since the 
 *^ accounts were separated the territory has derived re- 
 " sources and aid from the trade ? — The question, I 
 
46 
 
 i' Committee of " admit, Contains a host of most respectable authorities 
 the Commons, u against the conclusion I have drawn, but opinions on 
 " either side do not amount to proof." 
 
 We notice this circumstance, because it shews 
 how strong a prejudice still exists against the 
 Company's commercial system, and the singular 
 attempts that are still made to maintain a posi- 
 tion so manifestly absurd, and so utterly unte- 
 nable upon any rational ground of proof or de- 
 monstration. 
 
 China Trade. In proceeding to consider the China Question, 
 it is important to bear in mind that of the remit- 
 tances made from abroad to meet territorial 
 
 ; payments in this country on account of India, 
 
 £11, 4 17, 133 was made through the China chan^ 
 nel of remittance, the only one which, in fact, 
 produces at the present time a favourable com- 
 mercial out-turn. It is likewise the source 
 from whence the Company derive the means of 
 paying the dividends upon their stock, amount- 
 ing to £630,000 per annum, which is about 
 3i per cent, on the capital embarked of 
 £21,731,869. 
 
 It is on this account that the East-India 
 Company contend for the continuance of their 
 exclusive privileges, so far at least as that in 
 tea is concerned, which alone enables them to 
 meet all the pecuniary demands arising out of 
 the combined trust reposed in them. 
 
47 
 
 To this exclusive privilege the Liverpool mer- Committee o 
 chants and others object, in their petitions to chinHrade 
 Parliament. 
 
 We proceed to notice the evidence brought 
 forward in support of those objections. The two 
 first witnesses examined were gentlemen be- 
 longing to the Company's factory in China. 
 
 It must not be inferred from this circum- 
 stance that they were called forward to make 
 out any case on behalf of the Company. It 
 was at the instance of the Committee that 
 they attended to give evidence, and the ad- 
 vantage that the opponents of the Company 
 derived from the fact will be apparent, from 
 the means which it afforded them of fram- 
 ing and bringing forward witnesses, who were 
 examined with the direct view of rebutting 
 or oversetting such evidence, and of establish- 
 ing the necessity and importance of throwing 
 open the trade with China to the public at 
 large. 
 
 Messrs. Marjoribanks and Davis, the two gen- Super-Carg 
 
 Evidence. 
 
 tlemen alluded to, appear to have given their 
 evidence with great clearness and impartiality ; 
 there was no desire to magnify the risque which 
 they conceive would be incurred by a repeal of 
 the existing restrictions. They considered that 
 the security of the trade would be endangered 
 by the resort of a greater number of British 
 ships to Canton ; that a very active competition 
 
48 
 
 Committee of would soon arisc, aiid have a tendency to induce 
 them to undersell each other in imports, and to 
 give higher prices for the productions of China 
 than are now given by the Company ; that smug- 
 gling, which had much increased in China of late, 
 would be still further extended, and prove ano- 
 ther cause of endangering the trade ; they stated 
 that the East-India Company's servants set their 
 face decidedly against all illegal traffic ; that 
 the Company's representatives in China possess 
 a superior influence over other foreigners from 
 the magnitude of their trade, the regularity 
 
 ^ with which their affairs are conducted, and the 
 
 good faith which is universally observed by the 
 Factory in all their transactions. They did not 
 consider that an increased consumption of 
 British manufactures would take place, as the 
 Chinese markets have of late years been fully 
 supplied with them at most reasonable prices, 
 but upon which prime cost could not be 
 realized. They stated that some of the impe- 
 diments would arise out of the limits which the 
 Chinese have set to foreign trade ; that there is 
 only the port of Canton, situated in a southern 
 corner of the kingdom, open to the foreign 
 trade, with the exception of that of Amoy 
 partially to Spaniards : which the Spaniards 
 have been obliged to abandon from their 
 inability to cope with the Mandarins. It ap- 
 pears that the articles which we import into 
 
49 
 China, are carried to the northern provinces. Committee oj^ 
 
 , . , , . 1 1 • 1 n .the Commons, 
 
 which being cold is where woollens are prin- 
 cipally used. Those provinces are situated 
 twelve hundred miles from Canton ; the mode 
 of conveyance is by canals, and is expensive ; 
 heavy duties are charged on foreign importations, 
 and the laws of the country prohibit the use of 
 strange and foreign things ; and that the Chinese 
 have arrived at a very great perfection in their 
 own manufactures. They stated that the 
 Company have the pre-emption of all the 
 black teas ; that in some classes of the green 
 teas they experience competition with the Ame- 
 ricans, who frequently give higher prices than 
 the Company's standard; but that even the 
 green tea merchants, who are in number about 
 four hundred, and men of small capital, always 
 shew a greater wish to trade with the Company 
 than with individual merchants, as they consider 
 the Company a better customer and a better 
 paymaster, and that the Company's large 
 amount of trade gives their representatives in 
 China great influence with the Hong merchants, 
 (with whom alone they deal), as well as with all 
 the government authorities any way connected 
 with the Foreign Trade. That it has been 
 through the exertion of their influence that a 
 rise in the price of teas, as well as a closer 
 monopoly, by the establishment of a co-hong, 
 was successfully opposed and prevented; and 
 
50 
 
 that the Company's representatives are the only 
 persons in China who possess the right acknow- 
 ledged by the government, of addressing them 
 in the language of China. British ships from 
 every port in Asia are permitted to resort to 
 China, and British merchants have been allowed 
 by the Company to remain in China, and every 
 encouragement has been given to British com- 
 merce there; and that under the Company's 
 protection the British trade generally at Canton 
 originated and has been preserved, whilst the 
 American trade has decreased. That although 
 the Company have the exclusive right of trading 
 with the dominions of the Emperor of China, 
 they have given tea licenses to country ships to 
 proceed from different ports in India to carry 
 teas there and to New South Wales ; and that 
 with reference to the term Monopoly, the Com- 
 pany's servants have never shewn the least wish 
 unnecessarily to restrict the limits of British 
 commerce, or to interfere with the fair trader, 
 as long as he conducted himself in a manner 
 that could not endanger the general trade in 
 Canton. 
 
 Without attempting to place any undue 
 weight upon the evidence of the Company's 
 supercargoes, and admitting that the access to 
 the port of Canton and the facilities of trade are 
 as great or greater than at any other foreign 
 
51 
 port, we shall shew that the supercargoes are Committee ^ 
 
 ^ ,, , . , . f, t . . the Common 
 
 fully borne out in the greater part oi their evi- 
 dence by that which was brought forward on 
 the part of the private merchants. 
 
 W. BROWN, Esa. 
 the head of an eoctensive mercantile establishment at Evidence in 
 Liverpool; trading with America^ and from ^^^* yate^trade/! 
 country to China. 
 
 " Stated that latterly the speculations from this country 
 " in goods shipped on account of Americans to China 
 " have been very unprofitable. The direct trade of the 
 " Americans from Canton to Europe has not been profit- 
 « able lately." 
 
 Me. R. MILNE, 
 
 resides in Philadelphia ; has carried on a trade with 
 China for a considerable period, and to India. 
 
 " The importation of tea into America has been over- 
 " done. There have been very large losses, which he 
 " attributes to the love of gain of persons who have got 
 " embarked in the thing, conceiving that if they got a 
 " larger quantity of goods they might recover themselves. 
 " He never shipped goods for China, but carried out 
 " specie, as the difficulty in trading in goods would 
 " certainly have been greater. He left off the trade 
 " because he did not find it profitable. He did not 
 " make much, or rather did not make any thing. — When 
 " he left the China trade he turned his attention to the 
 " cotton trade, in which his friends and connexions in 
 " Lancashire were quite at home, but he did not better 
 " himself much." 
 
52 
 
 fcm^ttee of W. CARTWRIGHT, Esq. 
 
 ,^/ie Commons- ^ merchant at Buenos Ayres for the last eleven years, 
 
 " Had only one adventure to China, in the year 1822 ; 
 '*^ it was not a very profitable one, in consequence of the 
 '' high freight. It was a joint adventure amongst a 
 '' great number of British merchants there ; the amount 
 " vested was from 100,000 to 150,000 dollars. It was 
 " the only adventure." 
 
 CAPTAIN ABEL COFFIN, 
 
 a citixen of the United States ; has commanded a ship 
 of 397 tons in the China Trade. 
 
 " Several of the New York merchants connected 
 " with the China trade have failed. — Thinks the profits 
 " now realized by the merchants generally in the United 
 " States considerably less than some years ago. There is 
 '' a difference of from five to ten per cent, in favour of 
 " the teas purchased by the Company. — Cannot say 
 " whether he has heard that the East-India Company's 
 '' factory have communications with the Chinese govem- 
 " ment, but believes the Americans have not." 
 
 Mr. JOHN AKEN, 
 commanded a ship trading between India and China 
 
 in 1817, 1818, 1819. 
 " The commission on the consignment to the American 
 " merchant at Canton three and a half per cent, on the 
 " sale price ; at Canton, two and a half on the invoice 
 " price ; one for negociating bills. — The outside mer- 
 " chants are people that you can scarcely ever tell what 
 '' character they are of, unless you have dealt with them 
 '' once or twice : if you deal with a stranger it requires 
 " caution, and you may be minus. — Knows nothing of 
 " the trade since 1819. — The Company's factors do not 
 
53 
 
 *< interfere in the least, they are not at all vexatious, Committee ^f 
 
 " they are very liberal, they behave exceedingly well to 
 
 " all the country captains. They were not any protec- 
 
 '* tion to me in carrying on the trade. If the hong 
 
 ** merchants had been guilty of any fraud, or anything 
 
 " of the kind, I believe the supracargoes would take it 
 
 '* up and assist me in that particular, and perhaps inter- 
 
 " fere with the Viceroy. — Thinks he did not buy his teas 
 
 " as advantageously as the Company, who could pur- 
 
 " chase their teas cheaper because they had great facilities, 
 
 " and because they contract for them a year before.'* 
 
 JOSHUA BATES, Esq. 
 an American, ten years in this country^ a partner in 
 the house of Baring, Brothersy and Co., and manager 
 of the business of an American hou^e connected with 
 the China Trade. 
 
 " Thinks the trade of the Americans, as compared 
 '' with that of the Company, to be almost two-thirds less. 
 " — The trade has been overdone by the Americans, 
 " and the return in teas to Europe not profitable, not- 
 " withstanding the Americans had the advantages of 
 " outfit and victualling with foreign provisions." 
 
 This will further appear from the following 
 answers to questions put to Mr. Bates : 
 
 " Would it put the British ships more upon an equality, 
 " if those ships for long voyages might be victualled at the 
 " price of provisions on the Continent of Europe ? — It 
 " would make a very great difference. 
 
 " If, for instance, they could be suppUed with bread 
 '' and other provision-stores at the price of the bond- 
 " ed warehouse com, would that make a considerable 
 " difference ? — It would make a very great difference. 
 
§4 
 
 Committee of '' It was the case that they could be so supplied some 
 the ommons. <j ^^^^ ^^^ . j fjjjpQj-ted some beef from America to 
 
 " supply that demand, and they altered the law here to 
 
 " prevent it ; that was about the year 1826. 
 
 '' Your object being to victual your ship with foreign 
 
 '' provisions ? — That was the object of bringing the beef 
 
 " here." 
 
 It must, we think, strike our readers as an ex- 
 traordinary circumstance, that it should have 
 been necessary to introduce a parliamentary 
 provision to protect British interests against the 
 operations of British merchants, in promoting 
 the advantages of our greatest competitors in 
 commercial enterprizes. 
 
 The Company buy their teas at great advan- 
 tage. 
 
 W. S. DAVIDSON, Esa. 
 
 resided at Canton as a merchant in 1807, and from 
 
 1811 to 1822. 
 
 " Supposing the trade to be thrown open to other 
 *' Englishmen, if the Company continue to trade, he 
 '' foresees that many difficulties may arise, and believes 
 " that individuals would conduct themselves so irregu- 
 " larly that they would be soon embroiled with the 
 ** Chinese. — Comparing the time when he arrived at 
 " Canton with the time when he came away, he conceives 
 " unquestionably that there were greater facilities for 
 " trade at the termination caused by the privileges 
 " obtained by the exertions of the East-India Company's 
 " Select Committee ; and that it apphed to the Ameri- 
 " cans as well as to all foreigners trading there. That 
 " supposing the trade were thrown open, and the Com- 
 
55 
 
 << pany to exist as a Company without exclusive privileges, Conmiitee of 
 
 *' and supposing a consul, with perhaps a council on the 
 
 <' part of the crown, with powers to regulate the conduct 
 
 *' of every Englishman visiting Canton, he should say 
 
 << — that unless judicious and energetic diplomatic 
 
 " arrangements preceded such a change, the British trade 
 
 <« would not exist at Canton two seasons without the most 
 
 *' violent and serious interruption. His reasons for 
 
 <' thinking so were these. The Company possess the 
 
 *' twofold character of trading merchants and of a great 
 
 *' controlling power : they can temporise, as they have 
 
 *' done before ; but if the representatives of Great Britain 
 
 " emanated directly from the government of this country, 
 
 '' he conceives they would be placed precisely in the same 
 
 ** situation as the men-of-war have always been in, that 
 
 *' is to say, they would stickle for the honour of their 
 
 *' government, and they would not be able to recede from 
 
 '' their first demands, by which means the trade would 
 
 *' be lost for two seasons at least ; many individuals would 
 
 *' be thereby entirely ruined, and the country would be 
 
 *^ unable to reinstate their commercial intercourse with 
 
 *^ China without incurring a vast cost." 
 
 In reply to a question in which Mr. Davidson 
 was requested to state the advantages and 
 disadvantages resulting from the British trade 
 generally in China, under the existing regulations 
 by the East-India Company, he states that the 
 influence of the East-India Company, who can 
 and do act with unity and vigour, forms a coun- 
 terpoise of inestimable value against the Hong 
 monopoly, which individuals could not form. 
 The absence of this would have the direct effect 
 
I 56 
 
 ' STco^^^ ^^ ^^ decreasing the prices given for all the imports, 
 and of increasing the prices demanded for all 
 the exports. Another benefit is the facility of 
 remittance through bills on their Indian govern- 
 ments, and security of person and property to 
 British subjects. The disadvantages he con- 
 sidered to be both few and unimportant. 
 
 Mr. Davidson in the course of his examination 
 adverted to the possibility of future changes in 
 our intercourse with China, and he was asked to 
 state to the Committee — 
 
 " What is your idea of this perfect state of the trade 
 " with China which you should wish to see established ? — 
 " In doing so, I feel that I must consider China as a civi- 
 *' lized nation; and I therefore can entertain no doubt that 
 *' vigorous negociation would obtain Great Britain all the 
 '* privileges she can seek to enjoy in such a distant and 
 '' peculiar country. The only basis on which, I think, the 
 '' trade with that country could be carried on with safety 
 *' to this country, and with comfort to the individuals who 
 <^* embark, is that of a treaty of commerce, wherein the 
 " duties of the foreigners who visit China shall be clearly 
 *' and distinctly defined, wherein their rights, in return, 
 " shall be acknowledged, and the whole connexion proceed 
 " upon the sanction of such laws and regulations as I 
 " cannot doubt (it being always assumed that China is 
 '' civilized) this country is in a state to exact. At the 
 " present moment the government of China admit us to 
 *' hold intercourse with them. We take to them those 
 '' articles which they require, and we receive in return 
 " the surplus of their productions ; a state of things which 
 " I hold to be the most wholesome and consonant possible 
 
57 
 
 " with the interests of both countries ; and I read in an 
 " author of celebrity, under the head of ' Right of all 
 " nations against one that openly despises justice,' that 
 '* if by her constant maxims, and by the whole tenour 
 '' of her conduct, she evidently proves herself to be 
 *' actuated by that mischievous disposition, if she regards 
 " no right as sacred, the safety of the human race requires 
 " she should be repressed C and again, ' to despise 
 " justice in general, is doing an injury to all nations.' 
 *' Vattel is my authority. 
 
 " And you are of opinion that this better state of 
 " things in China might be brought about by a more 
 *' vigorous exercise of authority on the part of this 
 *' country ? — I do not entertain a doubt of it. 
 
 " Do you think it might be brought about by a mere 
 " withholding of trade, or that it would require any more 
 " vigorous measure to produce it ? — I consider that a 
 " vigorous negociation, accompanied by a threat that the 
 " King of England would no longer consent to hold 
 " intercourse with China on the degrading footing on 
 " which it has hitherto been carried on, would altogether 
 " alter the tone of the government of Pekin.*" 
 
 The gravity of the Committee must have been 
 somewhat disturbed at this curious dissertation 
 on the law of nations, and the writings of Vattel, 
 by one who had contravened the existing laws 
 of the state, which tolerated his residence on its 
 shores, where, acting as an agent for smuggling 
 opium, he describes himself as " having been 
 involved in a constant sea of troubles." From 
 this state he would now, by coercive means, 
 
 H 
 
58 
 Committee of exact concessioHS, which we might deem best 
 
 the Commons. i i > i 
 
 calculated to promote our own mterests ! 
 
 Charge by j^ the coursc of the examinations on the 
 
 Mr. Bates of 
 
 exorbitant China trade, Mr. Bates, to whose evidence we 
 
 profit on tea. 
 
 have already had occasion to advert, stated that 
 he should say 
 
 " — the teas cost the country about a million and a 
 " half more than they would if bought on private account. 
 " and that consequently the East-India Company derive 
 '' a profit of a million and a half beyond what he consi- 
 " dered to be a fair mercantile profit. That he should 
 " suppose 25 per cent, would be a fair mercantile profit 
 " on the Canton cost on the finer teas. The coarser teas 
 " would bear rather more. And that he could venture 
 " to contract to deliver it for one-third less than the 
 " Company's sale prices in London.' 
 
 A statement made in such decided terms, by 
 a member of so highly respectable a firm as 
 that of Messrs. Barings, and involving a charge 
 against the Company of a profit so enormous, 
 and so far beyond what the act of Parliament, 
 under which the upset price of tea at the Com- 
 pany's sales is fixed, could be supposed to au- 
 thorize, led to the further examination of Mr. 
 Bates as to the value put upon the tale, the 
 Calculation of Cliinesc coin by which the ori2:inal cost of the 
 
 the tale. . , , i 
 
 tea is calculated. 
 
 On the 3d March, in reply to a question 
 as to the rate of exchange between Canton 
 
59 
 and this country, Mr. Bates stated that the Committee oj 
 
 the Commons, 
 
 latest data was from newspaper authority, but 
 was probably correct, and gave it at 3^. \\d. 
 sterling the dollar for bills at six months, and 
 with such a bill for £100,000 on a house of 
 credit in England, teas could be purchased 
 which would be at the rate of k>s, 5^d. per tale. 
 The average of the last five years he consi- 
 dered to have been about 4^. Id. or 4^. 2d, the 
 dollar. The latter would give the tale 5^. 2^d. 
 Thus, according to Mr. Bates, the tale calcu- 
 lated at the exchange of the day for bills 
 was worth only 6s. 6d., and consequently the 
 value put upon it by the Company of 6s. Sd. 
 led to an increase on the prime cost of nearly 
 twenty per cent., which was a contravention of 
 the Act of the 24 Geo. III. cap, 38, which Act 
 provides, that upon all teas put up for sale by the 
 Company, the upset price shall not exceed the 
 prime cost thereof, with the freight and charges 
 o importation, together with lawful interest, 
 from the time of the arrival of such tea in Great 
 Britain, and the common premium of insurance, 
 as a compensation for the sea risque incurred 
 therein. 
 
 Mr. Bates being asked for the calculation 
 upon which he came to the conclusion that 
 the Company gained £1,500,000 more profit 
 than would remunerate the private trader, re- 
 plied 
 
60 
 
 '* I have no calculation made, but I can give the 
 " Committee the materials for making one. I can give 
 " the cost of a given quality of tea at Canton, and 
 '' taking the freight and charges, and the sale price here, 
 " the profit is ascertained ; and I should state, that in 
 " these times ten per cent, is considered a fair mercantilt^ 
 " profit, and all gain beyond that would be so much 
 " gained by the Company beyond a fair profit ; that is, 
 " private traders would sell their teas at a price so low 
 " that would leave only 10 per cent, profit, and probably 
 " even at less, and be satisfied. 
 
 " What allowance ought to be made for wastage of 
 " the teas ? — Very little. 
 
 " As much as 5 per cent. ? — I should think not, per- 
 " haps 2^ per cent. 
 
 " Will you have the goodness to state to the Com- 
 " mittee some of the materials of your calculation? — Take 
 " congou tea of the past year ; I find the contract price 
 " of the highest quality is 29 tales, that would be about 
 " IS^d, per lb. I would add for the freight 3c?. per 
 " pound, there would then be about 2J per cent, loss of 
 " interest, as I am calculating for it to be paid for with 
 " the proceeds of bills drawn at six months' sight, and 
 " the teas would arrive here before the bills would be 
 ' presented, and I suppose the charges here are about 
 " 2J per cent. There would be another 2J per cent. 
 " for the insurance, making altogether 7^ per cent., 
 " which upon IS^d. would be 101-hundredths of a penny, 
 '' and then you have 17t%Vc?. as the cost and expenses 
 " of bringing the tea here ; I add lOJ for profit. 
 
 " Have you made any allowance for wastage ? — That 
 " is embraced in the calculation of the cost per pound 
 " in converting the peculs into pounds, and the tale 
 " into pence ; I include that in the IS^d. The total 
 
61 
 
 *' comes to 18^-^j^d. I find that the highest sale-price Committee of 
 " of congou was Qs, \^d. Perhaps it would be safer ^''" (^^"^nmU. 
 '^ to take the second price of congou, that is ^s. 7c?., 
 " that is the price obtained at the last sale of the East- 
 " India Company. 
 
 " In making this calculation do you calculate upon 
 " having a profit upon the outward cargo ? — None what- 
 " ever. I have taken the freight at which ships can be 
 " chartered for the voyage out and home. 
 
 " Do you consider 10 per cent, a sufllcient profit upon 
 " an adventure of that kind ? — Ten per cent. I should 
 " consider a brilliant profit. 
 
 " You mean 10 per cent, beyond interest of money ? — 
 " I have estimated interest of money in the charges."" 
 
 The opponents of the Company felt that they charge of uie. 
 had now ample grounds for establishing a charge fite company 
 against the Company for having contravened 
 the law under which they enjoyed the trade in 
 tea, and that they had forfeited the exclusive pri- 
 vilege, which had consequently become null and 
 void. In the course of the examination, for the 
 purpose of establishing this charge, the late Right 
 Hon. Member for Liverpool supposed an adventure 
 in which the Company were to lose 500 per cent., 
 and gravely asked, whether they should feel 
 that the Act was not strained by charging the 
 tale at a rate which should cover that loss ? 
 
 We have heard of a man losing all he had 
 embarked, but we have still to learn, how a man 
 can lose 500 per cent, beyond the value he may 
 have risked ! 
 
Mr. Bates'. 
 
 62 
 
 , Committee of We havG HO caiisG to regrct the protracted 
 
 the Commons. , , . . i • i i • i 
 
 and close examination to which this charge gave 
 
 rise. We owe to the questions put by Mr. 
 
 Mr. Meiviii's Arbuthuot, the clear and comprehensive expo- 
 evidence In . . 
 opposition to sition by Mr. Melvill, ** the Auditor of Indian 
 
 Accounts/' of the principle upon which the 
 calculation is made for fixing the upset price of 
 teas at the Company's sales. 
 
 The evidence of this officer fully developes 
 the combined operations for effecting remit- 
 tances through China in part payment of the 
 political outlay in this country on account of 
 India, and for securing the commercial funds 
 from which the surplus profits of £15,294,192 
 already shewn to have been applied since 1814 
 in aid of the Indian territory, has been derived.* 
 We give, therefore, at greater length than we 
 otherwise should, the evidence of Mr. Melvill 
 upon a subject hitherto little understood, and 
 yet forming one of the most important features 
 in the present system of administering the affairs 
 of our Eastern Empire. 
 
 " The first point that the Company have to consider 
 " in carrying the law into effect is, how they are to com- 
 " pute the prime cost of their teas. All the Company's 
 " consignments and remittances to China are made 
 " entirely with a view to, and do in fact terminate in, 
 " supplying their treasury at Canton with funds for the 
 " provision of tea. The course of proceeding which 
 
 * Vide page 42. 
 
63 
 
 " the Company adopt each season is this : they first take Committee oj 
 
 " a view of the state of the market, and of the probable ^^ ommotis. 
 
 " demand for tea, and according to that view frame 
 
 " their indent for a quantity of tea to be brought from 
 
 " China sufficient to keep up a year's consumption before- 
 
 " hand, as required by law, and estimate the probable 
 
 " cost of that tea in tales. The next step is to provide 
 
 " the means of paying for the tea. With that view they 
 
 " buy cotton in India for consignment to China, which 
 
 " is paid for in rupees, received in reimbursement of 
 
 " sums disbursed in sterling, on account of that portion 
 
 " of the territorial charges of India which is incurred 
 
 '' in England. They direct the supercargoes to receive 
 
 " dollars in China in exchange for bills upon India, 
 
 " which are paid in rupees, received in like manner 
 
 " They purchase British manufactures for consignment 
 
 " to China, which are of course paid for in sterling- 
 
 " A very small portion, about one-sixteenth of the 
 
 " whole, in 1828-9, was provided by bills drawn in 
 
 " China upon the Company in London. The prime cost 
 
 " of the tea brought to England under these arrange- 
 
 " ments is the sum expended in sterling in providing 
 
 " the tales with which the tea was bought, including 
 
 " freight and charges upon the outward consignments, 
 
 " which are in fact remittances, and upon the homeward 
 
 " investment of tea. 
 
 " Does it also include the charge of interest.? — Interest 
 " forms a necessary part of the charges. The Company, 
 " as merchants, are entitled to charge interest from the 
 " date of expending the money in making the remittances 
 " until the period when, if they were free from the re- 
 " striction of the Commutation Act, they would be in 
 *' the situation to sell the tea. That Act, however, 
 " restrains the Company from selling their tea imme- 
 
G4 
 
 '* diately upon its arrival, by requiring that they should 
 " keep a considerable stock on hand ; and in order that 
 " they may suffer no loss on that account, it is provided 
 " that the Company shall add to the prime cost of the 
 " tea lawful interest from the time of its arrival in Great 
 " Britain. Combining, therefore, ordinary usage, as 
 " respects interest being included in the invoice charges, 
 " with the parliamentary enactment, the upset price of 
 " the tea should include interest from the time of the first 
 " expenditure to the time when the sale proceeds of the 
 " teas are realized. 
 
 " Can you state what proportion of the funds required 
 " for the purchase of tea in China is raised by bills in 
 " India, or by consignments of merchandize from 
 " India .'^ — The whole portion remitted from India 
 " amounts to about two-thirds of the whole, including 
 " consignments of merchandize from India to China, as 
 " well as bills drawn from China upon India. 
 
 " That proportion which has been raised by being re- 
 " mitted from India being raised in dollars in exchange 
 " for rupees, how is the sterling value of the rupees calcu- 
 " lated.? — At the intrinsic par of the rupee, computing 
 " the value of fine silver at the old mint standard of 
 " 5s. ^d. an ounce. 
 
 " Butjthere is at present no such standard in silver ? — 
 " I am perfectly aware of that circumstance. The stand- 
 " ard in this country being gold, there is no such stand- 
 " ard as 5s. 9.d. ; nor can there, I apprehend, be any 
 ^' accurate standard for silver, but the market-price, 
 " in a country where the standard is gold. 
 
 " What is the market-price of silver at present .'* — 
 " 4^. lie?, an ounce. 
 
 " The market value appears then to be ^d. per ounce 
 " less than the amount observed in the Company's calcu- 
 
65 
 
 •* lations, has not there been an over-valuation in your Comvutiee of 
 
 " computation of the tale to that extent ?— If the Com- ^^ Commons. 
 
 " mittee were to restrict their view to the two or three 
 
 '' last years, undoubtedly there would appear to have 
 
 "been an over-valuation of the tale in that respect; 
 
 '* but in former years of the present charter the market 
 
 " price of silver considerably exceeded the old mint stan- 
 
 " dard of 6s. 9d.y and I have ascertained that upon an 
 
 *' average of all the years since 1814<-155 there is only a 
 
 " fractional difference between the value of the rupee at 
 
 " the market price and at the old standard. 
 
 " Then, from your statement, it would appear that 
 *' upon an average of years there has not been any over- 
 " valuation of the tale by the system the Company have 
 " observed of bringing the rupees into dollars ? — That is 
 " what I meant to say ; and I would beg leave to add, 
 " that the Board of Control, acting upon the authority 
 '' given to them by Parliament, compel the Company to 
 " credit the Indian territory with the rupee at more 
 " than twelve per cent, above the old standard of 5s. 2c?., 
 " which valuation being one to which the Company, as 
 " advised, are bound by law to submit, they would have 
 " been perfectly justified in applying to their transactions 
 " with China. 
 
 '*• That being the case, how do you account for their 
 " not having proportionately increased the upset price 
 ** of tea ? — The Company have never acquiesced in 
 " the rates of exchange prescribed by the Board, but 
 " have persevered up to the present time in earnestly 
 " remonstrating against the observance of those rates, 
 " and in entreating a revision of them. The China 
 " accounts are not legally within the control of the 
 '' Board; and therefore, although the Company must 
 *' submit to the loss by this exchange, yet they havt3 
 
 T 
 
66 
 
 Committee of " been unwilling to give the least sanction to the rates 
 " by introducing them into the valuation of the tale in 
 " computing the cost of tea, the more especially as, if 
 " they had done so, it would have had the effect, which 
 " I trust I may be permitted to say the Company 
 " always deprecate, of raising the upset price of tea. 
 
 " Do not the Company adopt a different mode of valu- 
 '" ing the tale in their account of profit and loss from that 
 " which vou have explained with reference to the upset 
 " price of tea ? — Yes. In their profit and loss accounts 
 " they adopt the fixed rate of 6s. Sd. as a medium rate ; 
 " and the Committee will see that the Company are com- 
 " pelled to use a different rate in this account, as the 
 " effect of the Board's rates must be adjusted in the profit 
 " and loss. With respect to this old rate of 6s. 8d., I 
 " find that it was recognized in the year 1781, in a paper 
 " appended to the Ninth Report of a Select Committee 
 " of the House of Commons on East-India Affairs. 
 
 '' Can you state to the Committee what has been the 
 " average cost of the tale to the Company since 1814, 
 " upon the principle which you have been explaining ? — 
 " The average cost of the tale to the Company since 
 " 1814-15, upon the principle which I have explained, 
 « has been 6s. 7-502d 
 
 " What has been the average rate per tale since 1814 
 " at which bills have been drawn upon the Company 
 
 y " in England from Canton ? — The average rate per tale 
 
 " at which the Company have been drawn upon from 
 " Canton since 1814-15 is 6s. S'lld. The Committee 
 " will see that if that principle had been observed, the 
 '' charge of interest in the computation would be for 
 " twelve months less than that included in the Com- 
 " pany's calculation, because bills of exchange would 
 *' comprise the interest for that period; but, on the other 
 
67 
 
 ** hand, the Company's calculation includes charges that Committee of 
 
 *' would be incurred if supplies were obtained by bills. ^^^ Com^^ 
 
 " Adjusting both sides of the calculation, I find that 
 
 <* the rate at which the tale would have been computed 
 
 '*" in the upset price of tea, if the bill of exchange rate 
 
 *' had been the principle of computation, would have 
 
 *' been 6s, 8d. -949 decimals. 
 
 '' I am perfectly aware it is the ordinary usage to 
 *< value the coin of a foreign country expended in the 
 '^' purchase of consignments to England in sterling at the 
 ^^ current rate of exchange. In ordinary cases it very 
 *' frequently happens that the cargo abroad is purchased 
 *' with funds raised by bills of exchange, and the cost 
 ^' of those goods in sterling would, in such a case, be the 
 ^' sterling amount of the bills ; but the adoption of any 
 *' such system by the Company in their present circum- 
 *' stances, even were it practicable, would defeat the 
 ^' financial provisions of the Legislature in respect of 
 *' India. If the Company were to buy their teas by 
 ^' means of bills upon themselves, they would have to pay 
 ^' those bills out of the proceeds of the teas, and then 
 <' there would not be funds for the territorial charges of 
 <' India, which comprise the reimbursement to the public 
 ^' of that portion of the expenditure of Great Britain 
 " which is incurred in respect of His Majesty's troops 
 ^' serving in India. They also embrace the furlough 
 *' and retired allowances of officers in the Company's 
 *' army, the cost of territorial stores sent to India, poli- 
 " tical freight and demurrage, and also a portion of the 
 *' interest of the Indian debt. The aggregate of those 
 " several charges may be stated to amount, upon the 
 *' average, to 6£'3,000,000 per annum, which is remitted 
 *' by the Company principally through their India and 
 *^ China trade ; and the Indian territory has the import- 
 
68 
 Committee of " aiit benefit of effecting this remittance at advantageous 
 
 the CotnmoHS. ., n i 
 
 " rates oi exchange. 
 
 " In what mode does the territory obtain this advan- 
 " tage ? — The territory obtains this advantage by remit- 
 " ting the three millions annually at the Board rates of 
 '^ exchange, 2s. S-S4<d. per sicca rupee. — At present the 
 " remittance, about one million sterling per annum, is 
 ^' effected through the China trade. It has been, and it 
 " continues to be, the policy of the Company to increase 
 " the remittances through that mode. 
 
 " At what rate do the Company credit the Indian ter- 
 *' ritory with the sums so remitted ? — At 2s. S'S4id. the 
 " sicca rupee. 
 
 " Instead of Is. lie?., for the reasons you have stated ? 
 " — 1*. lid is, I believe, the market rate now. 
 
 " Can you state to the Committee what is the present 
 " rate of exchange in India for bills upon England,'^ — The 
 '* last quotation I have seen is Is. lid. per sicca rupee. 
 
 " Can you state to the Committee at what rate, upon 
 " the average, since 1814, the Company have placed 
 " the tale in China by means of bills upon India ? — 
 " 5s. 1004d 
 
 " Can you also state at what rate by consignments of 
 " merchandize from India ? — At 6s. l[-26d, 
 
 '^ It would then appear that the consignments of mer- 
 " chandize have been a much less prc*fitable mode of re- 
 '* mittance than that of bills ; how do you account for 
 " the Company having continued to adopt that mode ? 
 '* — The rate I have mentioned for merchandize of 
 " 6s. 7-S6d. includes freight, which, had the funds been 
 " raised by bills, must have been charged upon the tea; 
 " omitting freight, the cost of the tale by consignments 
 " of merchandize from India to China is reduced to 
 '^5*. 7-76U 
 
69 
 
 «^ Then you mean to state that the upset price has Committee of 
 «' been rather kept down than otherwise by the practice '^^ <^ommons. 
 "^^ of the Company in sending merchandize from India to 
 *' China ? — Clearly so ; and encouragement has at the 
 *' same time been given by the Company to the trade in 
 '' an important article of Indian produce. 
 
 " Can you state at what rate the tale has been placed 
 '' in China by consignments of British manufactures ? 
 " —At 7*. 0'49d 
 
 "You take the average since 1814? — Since 1814; 
 '' the rate would be lower if we took an average for a 
 " smaller period of years. 
 
 " Then you are of opinion that the most disadvanta- 
 *' geous mode which the Company can adopt for provid- 
 *' ing funds for the purchase of teas is by sending British 
 '' manufactures ? — I think that must be admitted. 
 
 " That being the case, can you explain why the Com- 
 *' pany have continued to adopt that mode, that being 
 " so disadvantageous ? — The Committee must of course 
 '' be aware that the Company have always from policy 
 " been desirous of exporting the produce and manufac- 
 " tures of Great Britain to places to which they have an 
 *' exclusive privilege of trading, and I believe I may 
 ** say that the Company have felt themselves under 
 *' something of a moral obligation to do so. This policy 
 *' has at different times been not only sanctioned, but 
 " enjoined in the charters granted to the Company and 
 '' in legislative enactments. At the period of the last 
 ^' renewal of the charter, the trade with India being 
 " then opened, of course the Company ceased to feel it 
 '' obligatory upon them then to send British manufac- 
 " tures to India, although they determined not to cease 
 " doing so until it should become absolutely necessary; 
 " but as they had the exclusive privilege of trading to 
 
70 
 
 Committee of 
 ,$he Commons. 
 
 China, they felt the force of the old obligation still 
 binding upon them, as relating to exports to that 
 country; and it was well understood between the King's 
 Ministers in 1813, and the representatives of the Com- 
 pany, that these exports to China were to be continued. 
 I may add, that when in 1826 the Company found 
 it necessary, from the state of the trade, materially to 
 restrict exports of British manufactures to India, Mr. 
 Williams Wynn, then President of the Indian Board, 
 remonstrated against that determination ; and as that 
 related to exports to India, I think the Company 
 were entitled to conclude that the remonstrance would 
 have been much more decided if it had had reference 
 to exports to China. But independently of the policy 
 which has actuated these exports of British produce 
 and manufactures, it by no means appears to me that 
 the tale has been valued more highly than it would 
 have been if all the funds for buying tea had been pro- 
 vided in either of the other modes ; for I cannot ima- 
 gine that the Company could have materially increased 
 their supplies of cotton to India, or their demand 
 upon the Canton market for money in exchange for 
 bills, without immediately either lessening the value 
 of the cotton in China, or raising the exchange for the 
 bills. I would further state, that in a concern of so 
 much magnitude and importance as that of the Com- 
 pany's in China, it is necessary that they should be 
 secure against the possible failure of funds there, whicli 
 might be the consequence of their having recourse to 
 only one method of remittance. The Company act 
 upon a system ; and I would submit that one good test 
 by which that system might be tried would be, whe- 
 ther the valuation of the tale, by all the combined 
 methods which the Company have pursued, is or is not 
 
71 
 
 " as good for the public as if the Company had sup- Committee of 
 " plied their treasury by consignments of bullion. *^* Commons. 
 
 '* Are you able to state to the Committee what, upon 
 " the average since 1814, would have been the cost of the 
 " tale, if the consignments had been entirely in bullion? 
 " — 6s. 6-278C?., which, by the addition of the charges 
 " now included in the valuation of the tale produced by 
 " consignments of merchandize to China, would be in- 
 " creased to 6s. 10*490c?., which is 2*988d in the excess 
 " of the cost, at which, by the Company's combined 
 " operations, the tale has been placed in China. 
 
 "It has been stated in evidence to the Committee, 
 " that a very large sum, amounting to two millions ster- 
 " ling, might be obtained in exchange for bills upon 
 " England. Do you think, to that extent, it would be 
 " possible so to obtain money in exchange upon Eng- 
 *' land ? — Any opinion I can give upon that point must 
 *' be formed from a perusal of the official despatches of 
 "the Company's Select Committee in China ; and from 
 " what they have at different times reported of the state 
 " of the money market at Canton, I must be permitted 
 *' to entertain very great doubts whether so large a sum 
 " as two millions sterling could be raised by bills upon 
 " England in any one year, and I am quite convinced 
 " that it could not be done consecutively from year to 
 " year ; were it otherwise, the rate of exchange would 
 " be so enhanced by the demand as to make the tale 
 " much more expensive than under the present system, 
 " Besides, if the Company were known to depend on 
 " that mode of supply, they would be at the mercy of 
 " a few merchants at Canton, who would have it in their 
 " power to combine and dictate the rate of exchange, 
 " which inconvenience is not merely speculative ; it is 
 " one which the Company's servants in China have some- 
 
72 
 
 " times mentioned in reference to their limited demands) 
 " for money in exchange for bills. I would again re- 
 " mind the Committee, that the Company cannot grant 
 " the bills, or rather if they were to grant them the law 
 " would be defeated. 
 
 " Will you explain in what manner the law would be 
 " defeated ? — I refer especially to the 56th section of the 
 " Act of the 53d, which enacts, that a sum equal to the 
 " actual payments made from the commercial funds at 
 " home, on account of territorial charges in the year pre- 
 " ceding, shall in each and every year be issued in India 
 " for the purpose of the said Company's China or India 
 " investments. The Company must pay the demands 
 " upon them on account of the Indian territory, and 
 " they could not pay those demands if they drew those 
 " bills. 
 
 " Do you think it would be imprudent to risk the 
 " non-provision of funds at Canton, which would be the 
 " case if the exchange at Canton was exclusively relied 
 " on ?—l do. 
 
 " Do not you think that the probability would be, 
 " that there would be a more regular exchange between 
 " England and China, if it were not for the Company ""s 
 " monopoly, and if a free trade existed between this 
 " country and China ? — I think it must be admitted 
 " that, if the trade were free, there would be a regular 
 " exchange between this country and China, as there is 
 " between this country and India. The parties who 
 " engaged in that free trade would not be under any 
 " obligation to make it a channel of remittance from 
 " India, which the Company are compelled to do. If free 
 " traders to China were able, through the demand in 
 " India for remittance to Europe, to buy their teas with 
 " funds obtained more cheaply than the Company now 
 
73 
 
 " obtain them, all such advantage would be dmved Committee of 
 
 , , the Commotis. 
 
 ** at the expense or India, because, unless the connec- 
 
 " tion of this country with India were dissolved, India 
 
 " would still have to transfer that large amount of 
 
 ** capital, estimated at .£'4,000,000 sterling per annum, 
 
 " (three-fourths of which is now brought by the Com- 
 
 " pany at a favourable exchange,) which must be 
 
 *' transferred in some way through trade, although it 
 
 ** is wholly distinct from commercial returns. It ap- 
 
 " pears to me that this circumstance presents a formi- 
 
 *' dable obstacle to the growth of a profitable export trade 
 
 " from this country either to India or to China, and ex- 
 
 " plains the difficulty (which I see stated in the evidence 
 
 " given to this Committee) of effecting returns for the 
 
 '' exports of manufactured goods to India. 
 
 " You have stated before, that the average amount of 
 " remittance from India, charged to be paid in England 
 ^' for stores, half-pay, and so on, amounts to =£'3,000,000; 
 " how do you reconcile that with your statement noW, 
 " that a remittance of .£^4,000,000 would be necei^ 
 " sary ? — ^3,000,000 is the government remittance ; in 
 " addition to that there is an accumulation of private 
 " fortunes and there aire the allowances for families 
 " in England of persons resident in India, which I 
 « estimate at <;ei,000,000. 
 
 " Do you conceive that the Legislature, in speaking of 
 " prime cost, could not have intended such a mode of 
 " computation ? — I have great reluctance in presuming 
 " to give an opinion upon that point. Independently of 
 " my statement, that the clause in the Commutation Act 
 " was prepared by the Court of Directors, who, a 
 *' short time previously to preparing it, had themselves 
 " expressed a view of what constituted prime cost, ac- 
 " cordant with the principle now adopted, and which was 
 
 K 
 
74 
 
 Committee of « before Parliament when the Act was passed, it strikes 
 ommons. ^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ Legislature, in speaking of prime cost, 
 *' must have meant a computation founded upon fact, 
 " which the rate of exchange would not in this case show. 
 " Besides, if the Committee will be pleased to refer to 
 " the Acts of the 13 Geo. III. c. 64, 19 Geo. III. c. 61, 
 " 20 Geo. III. c. 56, 21 Geo. III. c. 65, they will find 
 " that about the time when the Commutation Act was 
 " in progress. Parliament was in the habit of con- 
 " trolling, and in some cases absolutely prohibiting the 
 " Company from accepting bills of exchange. I would 
 " also venture to suggest one other point deserving of 
 " some attention : if Parliament intended that the cal- 
 " culation of prime cost should invariably be go- 
 " verned by the rate of exchange, they would not have 
 '' authorized interest from the time of the arrival of 
 " the tea in England ; because bills being drawn at six 
 " months' sight, there would have been in that case a 
 " double allowance of interest for the period the bill 
 " had to run after the arrival of the tea." 
 
 Mr. Melviirs 
 refutation of 
 Mr. Bates's 
 charge of the 
 Company's 
 exorbitant 
 profit. 
 
 We now come to that part of the Evidence 
 which has immediate reference to the Statement 
 made by Mr. Bates, that the Company derived 
 a profit of £1,500,000 per ann. beyond what he 
 could supply the market at. 
 
 "It has been stated in evidence to this Committee, that 
 " the public could be supplied with the same quantity of 
 " teas as are sold at the Company's sales for the sum of 
 " c^'l, 500,000 less than the Company receive ; do you 
 " agree to that, or can you give any reasons for differing 
 " from that calculation ? — I trust that in answering that 
 
75 
 
 "• question I may be allowed to premise, that as the cal- Committee of 
 
 " culations upon that subject which have been submitted 
 
 '' to this Committee have reference to a trade in tea alto- 
 
 '' gether different from that which the law has prescribed 
 
 *' for the conduct of the East-India Company, the result 
 
 *' of those calculations must be totally fallacious when 
 
 " viewed as a test of the past management of a public 
 
 *' trust ; and if the result of the calculations in question 
 
 *' be intended as a hypothetical view of the future, it 
 
 *' strikes me that it can be of little value, unless it be deter- 
 
 " mined by Parliament that the system under which the 
 
 " Company now administer their combined trust may be 
 
 " dispensed with. Independent, however, of these con- . 
 
 ^' siderations, it appears to me, upon an examination of 
 
 " the calculations, that one fallacy attends most of them. 
 
 ^' Mr. Bates takes the valuation of the tale according to 
 
 " the rate of exchange at the period of unusual depres- 
 
 ^' sion ; making the tale, according to Mr. Bates, 5s. 5^d.; 
 
 " according to Mr. Thornley, 5s. 6§d. ; and according to 
 
 " Mr. Rickards, 5s. 6f d These rates are all lower than 
 
 *' any at which the Company hav€ been drawn upon, and 
 
 ** they are also lower than any which I have seen quoted. 
 
 " I hold in my hand the Canton Price-current of April 
 
 " 1829 (and which is the latest period to which a rate 
 
 " could be applied to the transactions to which these cal- 
 
 " culations refer), which quotes the exchange upon Lon- 
 
 *' don from 4^. to 4*. 2d. the dollar ; whilst these gentle- 
 
 *' men compute the tale by a supposed late rate of ex- 
 
 *' change, they compute the Company's charge for tea 
 
 ^ at the prices realized in periods during most of which 
 
 ** the exchange value of the tale was infinitely higher. 
 
 *' 1 think the Committee will see that, in order to make 
 
 *' a fair comparison, the valuation of the talc^ and the 
 
Committee of ' pi'ice of the tea, should have reference to the s^nx? 
 % Commons, u periods. Besides this general objection to all these 
 I " computations, I find that with respect to that sub^ 
 
 " mitted by Mr. Bates, he is mistaken arithmetically. 
 
 " Mr. Bates selects contract congo tea, estimates its price 
 in China at 29 tales per pecul, and states its cost in 
 
 " sterling at IS^d. a lb. Now, after making the deduction 
 I " which Mr. Bates allows and states that he has himself 
 
 i *' made for wastage, and reckoning the tale at the lowest 
 
 t " rate of exchange which has been assumed, viz. 5s. 5^^d. 
 
 \ " the cost in sterling, instead of being IS^d. is 14 Jc?., to 
 
 I ** which adding Sd. per lb. for freight, l^d. per cent, for 
 
 " charges, and 10 per cent, for profit, those being the rates 
 
 " stated by Mr. Bates, the price per pound is 2Q-03d. 
 i " instead of 18-86d The whole quantity of tea sold by 
 
 I " the Company in 1829-30, was 27,455,068 lbs. weight. 
 
 " If that quantity of contract congo, the tea selected by 
 
 " Mr. Bates, were sold at the price assumed by Mr. Bates, 
 I « as now corrected, it would produce d^2,291,353 
 
 '' And at the average price realized for such 
 I " teas at the Company's sales in 1829-30... 3,238,781 
 
 « The difference being 947,428 
 
 ! *' Which is, even upon Mr. Bates''s data, one-third less 
 
 I *' than the amount which he has stated is overpaid by the 
 
 I *' public under the present system. Of this sum of 
 
 « <^947,428, £S50,9.80 results from the biddings at the 
 I '' Company's sales beyond the price at which the Company 
 
 " offered to sell the tea ; so that the real excess of the 
 ; " Company's charge beyond that assumed by Mr. Bates is 
 
 " reduced to 6^*597,148, whereof one-third is ascribable to 
 ' '* the difference in exchange, and most of the remainder to 
 
 " the items of freight and interest, the Company's charges 
 I ''of which are necessarily in excess of those which a 
 
77 
 
 ** private merchant would incur, owing to the laws which Committee of 
 " regulate their shipping, and make it obligatory upon 
 *' them to have a large stock of tea on hand. 
 
 " Are you aware that Mr. Bates states in his evidence, 
 " when he takes the last sale price at 9^s. 7d., ' that is the 
 *' price obtained at the last sale of the East-India Com- 
 " pany?' — Y'es, but that is not the fact ; the average 
 " price was 9^. M, 312 decimals, instead of 9s. Id., as 
 " taken by Mr. Bates. 
 
 " Will you be good enough to give in a statement of 
 " your calculation, by which you make the price of tea in 
 « 1829 come out to 14^^ instead of 13 Jd .?— My calcu- 
 " lation is simply this ; a pecul of tea, 133J lbs., losing 
 " two and a half per cent, by wastage, purchased for 29 
 " tales, each tale being worth 5^. 5j^d. costs 14^d 
 ** per lb. 
 
 " You have said that the average sale price received 
 " last year was 2^. 4c?., and in correcting Mr. Thornley's 
 " computation you state it at 2^. 9d. ? — Mr. Bates''s 
 ** evidence applies to congo tea, Mr. Thomley*'s applies 
 ^' to all descriptions of tea ; that accounts for the differ- 
 ** ence between these two prices. 
 
 *' From Mr. Bates''s calculations you have deducted a 
 ^* sum of about £250,000, as excess obtained by the 
 " Company in the sale of tea in the price at which they 
 *' put up their teas ; do not you consider that as a profit 
 *< by the Company.'*-— Undoubtedly it is profit; but my 
 " distinction is this, it is not what they demanded, it is 
 '' the result of a fair competition in a market abundantly 
 " supplied. 
 
 " Will you explain what you mean by a fair competi- 
 " tion ?— I mean that any one may go and bid for the 
 " teas. 
 
 " That is according to the supply which the Company 
 
78 
 Committee of « put into the market ? — I will explain how the Company 
 
 the Commons. , i -r» • i i • i 
 
 " manage their supply. Previously to making the tea de- 
 " claration every quarter, they look at the amount of the 
 " deliveries during the previous quarter; they look also at 
 " the quantities sold in the previous sales, and they always 
 " put up at the sale a larger quantity than the average 
 '' amount of the deliveries at the previous sales of the 
 " year, increasing the quantities of those sorts of tea 
 *' which there appears to have been the greatest demand ; 
 " that is also the principle which governs the Com- 
 " pany's orders to China for tea. The Committee are 
 '' also perhaps aware that, as a proof of the market 
 " being abundantly supplied, very large quantities have 
 " been rejected. 
 
 " That is to say, left unsold at the upset price ? — 
 " Exactly.'' 
 
 We find Mr. Melvill again questioned on the 
 10th May with reference to the answer which 
 he gave on the 29th April, on the assertion of 
 Mr. Bates as to the profit of one million and a 
 half beyond what he could supply the market. 
 
 *' You state that the price of the contract congou in 
 " 1829 was Wd. -03 per pecul ; is not that the highest 
 " price ? — It was necessary for me, in examining Mr. 
 " Bates's calculation, to take the price which he assumed. 
 " 29 tales per pecul ; and on reference to the prices 
 " actually paid by the Company, I find that the average 
 " price of contract congou was within 140 decimals of 29 
 " tales. 
 
 " Is not a great proportion of the tea very much inferior 
 " to the contract congou ? — Yes ; but my answer was 
 " given to meet the hypothetical calculation of Mr. Bates. 
 
79 
 
 " Are you aware of the quantity of opium which is sent Committee of 
 « at the present moment from India to China ?— I know '^^ Commons. 
 " that it is very considerable. 
 
 " Are you aware of the fact of its having increased very 
 " much ? — I believe it has ; but at the same time that 
 " trade is subject to certain contingencies. The super- 
 " cargoes have reported twice or three times during the 
 " present charter, that owing to some new exercise of 
 " rigour on the part either of the Emperor of China 
 " or of the local authorities, to check the contraband 
 " trade in opium, they have been unable to rely with con- 
 " fidence upon the proceeds of that opium for the supply 
 " of their treasury. 
 
 " Supposing that trade to have considerably increased, 
 " would it not thereby afford considerable facilities in 
 " carrying on the rest of the China trade ? — The Com- 
 " pany always take up two-thirds of their funds in 
 " China, by either bills upon India or consignments 
 *' from thence ; and therefore it can only affect, so far 
 '' as the Company are concerned, the difference between 
 " that and the total amount of the prime cost. 
 
 " Are you acquainted with the present price of opium 
 " in China : has not it diminished in proportion to thein- 
 " creased quantity ? — I am not acquainted with that fact. 
 
 " In answer to question 4356, relative to the difficulty 
 *' of obtaining bills in Canton upon England, you 
 '^ stated that you would obtain the particulars there in- 
 '* quired after for the information of the Committee; 
 " have you obtained that information ? — I have. In 
 " the year 1815-16, the supercargoes of China having 
 " occasion to draw .£'841,716 in dollars, opened their 
 '* treasury in China for bills at the rate of 5s, 6d. a dollar, 
 " at which they obtained 391,823 dollars ; they then 
 " increased the rate to 5s, 9c?., at which they obtained 
 
80 
 Committee of «< 337,073 ; and they then further found it necessary to 
 
 the Commons. • i /^ i 
 
 " increase the rate to o*., at which they obtained 112,820 
 " dollars ; and they ultimately were obliged to get specie 
 " from Bengal. 
 
 " What was the first rate ? — 5s. 6d, 5s. 9^., and 65. 
 " So far as respects the question of facility for raising 
 " money in China for bills in England, I will read an 
 " extract of a secret letter from China, dated 28th of 
 . " January 1826, in which the supercargoes say, * the 
 '' ' great and sudden falls in the value of bills on Eng- 
 " ' land, and the absence of any distinct ground on which 
 " ' to infer that bills will in the next season recover their 
 " ' rate, lead us to hesitate in offering an opinion that so 
 *^ 'large a sum as 1,000,000 of dollars may be procured 
 " ' next winter by bills issued at any rate of exchange, 
 " ' equivalent to the cost of a remittance of dollars from 
 " ' London to Canton on account of the Company.' 
 
 " What was the result in the following year? — In 1826 
 '« they drew 73,169 dollars, and 79,168 dollars. 
 
 " Were they able in the subsequent year to draw to 
 " the amount of 1,000,000 of dollars, about which they 
 " expressed some doubt ? — In the year 1827-8, they 
 " drew 1,700,000 dollars at 4s. 3d. the dollar. 
 
 " Were the fears anticipated in that letter actually 
 " realized ? — It would appear not ; but the apprehensions 
 " of the supercargoes probably arose from anticipating 
 " an interruption to the opium trade, which might or 
 " might not take place. 
 
 " Three years have since elapsed ; has any other let- 
 '' ter from the supercargoes been received expressing 
 " similar fears .? — The supercargoes are not allowed now 
 " to draw upon England, and they have obtained their 
 " supplies by bills upon India, and by consignments from 
 " India and from England. 
 
81 
 
 " Has there frequently been great difficulty in ob- Committee of 
 « taining bills upon India at Canton ?— There may have '^' Commons. 
 '' been. The supercargoes have sometimes felt difficul- 
 '^ ty in negociating their bills upon India. 
 
 " Has there been any other mode of remittance resort- 
 '' ed to in consequence of that difficulty ? — Yes ; bul- 
 '^ lion has been exported from Canton to India. 
 
 " Would the rate of exchange show a difficulty of 
 " getting bills ; has not the rate fallen from 4<s. Sd. to 
 « 4iS. ? — It would appear so from the Canton Regis- 
 " ter. I believe the quotation in that document of 
 *' the low rate is accompanied by the observation ' No 
 « Bills.' 
 
 " If the East-India Company in their trade with 
 '' China, think it necessary to employ all the different 
 " circuitous modes, which you have described, of main- 
 " taining the exchange in Canton, so as to bring the tale 
 " out, as you have stated, at 6s. 8d. to the Company; 
 " and if under that protection which the Company 
 '' are giving to exchange, the foreigners are availing 
 '' themselves of that circumstance to draw their bills 
 " as low as 5s. 6d. the tale ; is it not clear that the 
 *' Company are working for the benefit of the foreigners 
 *^ in that instance ? — I could not arrive at any such 
 *' conclusion by looking at the exchange in one year. 
 " No just conclusion can, I apprehend, be formed, 
 *' but by looking at it upon the average of year^ ; and 
 *' upon the average I find that the Company's valuation 
 " has been less than that of the exchange rate at 
 *' Canton, and therefore less than that at which a fo- 
 " reigner can draw.'^ 
 
 It was naturally to be expected that Mr. Bates 
 would feel called upon to offer some explana- 
 
 L 
 
82 
 
 aommtfeeof tlon of thc extraordinary discrepancy between 
 his evidence and that given by Mr. Melvill. 
 
 We accordingly find Mr. Bates stating to the 
 Committee, on the 3d June, in reply to the 
 question, w^hether he had any observations to 
 make on Mr. Melvill's remarks : 
 
 " There are some slight errors in my evidence, which, 
 
 " with the permission of the Committee, I will correct; 
 
 ^' and in doing that will make those observations that 
 
 " occur to me upon the evidence of Mr. Melvill. On 
 
 " my first examination, my answer to interrogatory 
 
 " 3430 should have been, that the freight was included in 
 
 " the twenty-five per cent, gross profit, which would leave 
 
 " from five to ten per cent, net profit, according to the 
 
 " description of tea composing the cargo. On my second 
 
 " examination, in answering interrogatory 3989, in 
 
 ^* order to save the time of the Committee I gave from 
 
 '' memory the sterling price of a pound of congou tea ; 
 
 " on revising my evidence I found I had committed an 
 
 " error, which I corrected, giving the true cost of tea at 
 
 " twenty-nine tale, exchange Ss. lid. 14rf. a. 19. From 
 
 " this I deducted, for fourteen months'* interest from the 
 
 *' date to the maturity of the bills, five per cent., or 
 
 " seventy, leaving the cash cost at Canton ISd. a. 49- 
 
 "As to wastage, there can be none on tea. I had sup- 
 
 " posed interrogatories 3987 and 3988 related to the 
 
 " difi'erence in net weight here and in China arising from 
 
 " different allowances, which I was aware varied in diffe- 
 
 " rent markets. On inquiry I found that the Company's 
 
 " purchases and sales were by real tare, throwing up to 
 
 " the buyer the half pounds, and sometimes the odd 
 
 " pounds, which allowances I thought more than compen- 
 
 " sated by the gain in weight which is invariable on tea 
 
 " brought to a moist climate. Mr. Lloyd states the real 
 
83 
 
 " difference in net weight to be two per cent. He is pro- Committee of 
 
 « bably right; but I do not think it worth while to disturb ^''^ Co^^^ims, 
 
 " my figures, as I have overrated the freight very much. 
 
 " I had supposed that for so large an amount of tonnage 
 
 " many ships must go out in ballast ; but Canton forms 
 
 *' so natural a link in the commercial chain of operations 
 
 " with India, that a great portion of the tonnage would 
 
 " come from Bengal and Bombay to Canton, and would 
 
 " not cost over ^d. per lb. ; and from experience, since 
 
 " my last examination, I am convinced that 2^c?. and 
 
 " 2Jc?. per lb. is high enough to fix the freight for the 
 
 " present time, or any time within three years. Mr. Mel- 
 
 " vill states that the exchange is taken at too favourable 
 
 " a rate, and that the Company have not been drawn on 
 
 " at that rate : he has not stated at what rate the Com- 
 
 " pany were drawn on. By the statement of Mr. Lloyd 
 
 " it appears that more than 4,000,000 of tales of the 
 
 " 6,000,000 required for the year 1828-9 were derived 
 
 " from bills on Bengal, and the sale of British manu- 
 
 " factures, near 2,000,000 being for bills on Bengal. 
 
 " The official valuation prevents my getting at the rate 
 
 " of exchange at which these bills were drawn ; but I 
 
 " have here a Canton Price-current , of the 20th of 
 
 " February, which gives it at 202 
 
 « of March 200 
 
 "and of April 202 
 
 " If 202 sicca rupees per 100 dollars be taken as the pro- 
 " bable rate at which the Company negociated their bills, 
 " theexchangeat Calcutta being atl*. 10|d, the exchange 
 " in London would have been established at a fraction un- 
 " der 3s. \0d. Bills in Calcutta are drawn at thirty days' 
 " sight from Canton ; the interest gained would therefore 
 " compensate for the expense of passing the operation 
 " through Bengal. Mr. Melvill states that the Company 
 
84 
 
 Committee of " have sold, in 1829-30, only 27,455,063 lbs. of tea ; but 
 " in the general account of imports and exports I find 
 " the quantity of tea retained for consumption, deduct- 
 " ing exports to colonies, &c. in 1828, was 29,305,757, to 
 " this should be added upwards of 200,000 exported to 
 " the colonies, making 29J millions, which corresponds 
 " with Paper No. 38, signed T. G. Lloyd, by which it 
 I " appears that the quantity sold 
 
 *' In 1826 was 29,409,251 lbs. 
 
 « 1827 30,327,166 
 
 "1828 29,982,080 
 
 " This amount includes the private-trade, which, as now 
 " carried on in teas, is only a branch of the monopoly. 
 " Taking 29J millions, therefore, as the present consump- 
 " tion of those that are compelled to obtain their supply 
 " through the Company, and the difference between the 
 " price at which I have stated the tea could be sold and 
 " yield a profit, if free, and the Company's sale price, 
 " which is 12^Vo 5 ^he total difference for the year 1829-30 
 " would be .£'1,492,208. Since my last examination I 
 " have procured from Holland a sample of the tea which 
 '' cost 29 tale, and also of that which sold at Qs. \^d, and 
 " 25. 7cZ. at the last sale of the Company; in my judgment, 
 " the Company's highest priced tea has the preference 
 " in quality, but that which sold at 2.<f. 7d is barely equal 
 " to the sample from Holland. Mr. Melvill states that 
 the average cost of the Company's congo tea, 1828-9, 
 " was 29 tales and a fraction. The Committee will un- 
 derstand that he probably speaks in the language of the 
 " India-House, which means that the cost of the tea in 
 tales, the expenses of the factory, loss on adventures in 
 cotton, &c. &c. all added together, make that cost; for I 
 cannot bring myself to believe that the Company's 
 " agents, who are clever men, would have bought congo 
 
Bo 
 
 " tea at the prime cost, on the average (in the common Committee of 
 
 " acceptation of the term prime cost), of twenty-nine tales '^^ Commons. 
 
 " and a fraction, when the highest contract price was 
 
 " twenty-nine to private traders, and teas of nearly equal 
 
 " quality were 60-1 at tale eighteen in April, and the 
 
 " general prices-current quote it from fifteen to twenty 
 
 " tales, with a heavy stock from December to that time. 
 
 *' I never intended to state that the Company gained the 
 
 " sum of a million and a half, and can readily believe 
 
 " what Mr. Melvill states in regard to that. 
 
 " At what did the tea, which you state cost twenty- 
 " nine tales, sell in Holland ? — In Holland it will not 
 " fetch the cost at present. I beg to state that I have 
 " with me the prices-current to which I have referred. 
 
 " Do any other observations occur to you upon Mr. 
 " Melvill's remarks upon your evidence? — I have no 
 " other observations to make." 
 
 Mr. Melvill on' the 17th June was again ques- Mr. Meiviu 
 tioned as to the statement made by him of the bSs mi'sre- 
 twenty-nine tales ivithin 140 decimals; on the p''^^^"*^^'^"* 
 10th May, as the average price of contract 
 Congo per pecul. 
 
 " You stated that the average cost to the Company in 
 " the year 1828-29 of congo tea, was twenty-nine tales 
 " within one hundred and forty decimals per pecul; but 
 " it appears that in the last evidence given by Mr. Bates, 
 " he states that you had given the average price per pecul 
 " at twenty-nine tales and a fraction. In saying within 
 " one hundred and forty decimals, did you mean below 
 " the twenty-nine tales, because if you meant below the 
 " twenty-nine tales it would appear that Mr. Bates has 
 " misunderstood you : will you explain that ? — I am 
 " very glad I have an opportunity of noticing Mr. 
 
86 
 
 Committee of " Bates's last evidence. My only statement upon the 
 " price in China of the Company's contract congo tea, 
 " was in answer to question 4963, in which it will be 
 " seen that I stated the price to be within one hundred 
 *' and forty decimals of twenty-nine tales per pecul. Mr. 
 " Bates says, that I stated the average cost of the Com- 
 " pany's congo tea in 1828-29, was twenty-nine tales 
 " and a fraction. That is totally different from what 
 " I said, from what I ever meant to say, or from what 
 " I think my words will admit of being construed to 
 " mean. This correction appears to me to be of import- 
 " ance, because Mr. Bates twice repeats his assertion, 
 '' and reasons upon it as if it were fact. Mr. Bates 
 " seems also to think that in the twenty-eight tales and 
 " eight hundred -and sixty decimals I have included 
 " charges not usually comprised in prime cost ; in that 
 " respect also Mr. Bates is mistaken. I only include the 
 " commission on buying the tea, and the charge of ship- 
 " ping it, which I apprehend every merchant would 
 *' include in his prime cost. Mr. Bates also still calcu- 
 <' lates 2s. 7c?. per pound as the price paid to the Com- 
 " pany for the tea. I must take the liberty of referring 
 " the Committee to the answer which I gave in reply to 
 '' question 4363, and repeat, that the average price paid 
 " to the Company for their contract congo tea, in the 
 " sale to which Mr. Bates refers, was not 2s. 7d as he 
 " states it, but 2*. 4d. 312 decimals ; and I would refer 
 ** to the official returns upon the table of this Committee, 
 " to prove that Mr. Bates has no authority whatever for 
 " assuming the price of 2s. Id. as that paid to the Com- 
 " pany. Mr. Bates also speaks, in his estimate of the 
 " Company's contract tea, of the Company's congo tea, 
 " of the Company's winter tea, and of the Company's tea, 
 *' as if they were all synonimous, from which a casual 
 
87 
 
 " and uninformed reader might infer that the average Committee of 
 " price paid by the Company for the whole of their teas * ommons. 
 " was twenty-nine tales and a fraction, whereas the 
 " average price paid by the Company for their congo 
 " teas, including the winter teas, was only twenty-five 
 " tales and a fraction."*'' 
 
 It cannot fail, we think, to impress every im- Remarks on 
 partial reader of the evidence given by Mr. Mn Mdvm 
 Bates on the one side and that of Mr. MelvilP"*^ ^'- ^^*^'- 
 on the other, that the former gentleman has, in 
 a manner not the most ingenuous, endeavoured 
 to tv^ist and torture Mr. Melvill's explanations. 
 
 Mr. Bates stated on the 10th of May, that 
 25 per cent, was ** what the Company obtained 
 *' beyond the fair mercantile profit." He was 
 asked, '* Do you mean includmg freight and 
 '* insurance V — ''After,'' said he, ''paying 
 " freight and insurance.'' Here is no hasty 
 declaration, but a deliberate and decided answer 
 of a mercantile man, well acquainted with the 
 purport of the question, as well as of the answer 
 he was about to give upon the point to which 
 it had particular reference. On the 3d of 
 June, we find Mr. Bates correcting what he 
 called some slight errors, one involving the 
 twenty-five per cent, profit just alluded to, and 
 the freight which he had before deliberately ex- 
 cluded, thus virtually reducing the twenty-five 
 per cent, to between five and ten per cent, 
 profit ! but still misrepresenting Mr. Melvill's 
 
88 
 
 Committee of evidciice Oil the 10th of May, by stating that 
 he, Mr. Melvill, had said the average cost of the 
 Company's Congo tea in 1828-9, was twenty- 
 nine tales, and a fraction, whereas what Mr. 
 Melvill stated was within 140 decimals of 
 twenty-nine tales ! And, as Mr. Melvill very 
 justly observed, the correction appeared to be 
 of more importance, because Mr. Bates twice 
 repeated his assertion, and reasoned upon it as 
 if it were fact;— and only fell into further mis- 
 statements in his attempt to correct his former 
 errors. 
 
 We are at a loss to imagine what could be 
 the motives of a witness of the presumed 
 respectability of Mr. Bates, other than a desire 
 to establish the position he originally advanced, 
 that the East-India Company derived an ex- 
 orbitant and unauthorized profit on tea, in- 
 volving a breach of the law, under which they 
 exercise their exclusive privilege of trading to 
 China. Which charge has been so clearly and 
 satisfactorily refuted. 
 
 One of the causes which has, in a consi- 
 derable degree, ^lugmented the price of tea, is 
 the rate of freight at which the East-India 
 Company have been obliged to engage their 
 shipping. 
 
 Upon this point Mr. Melvill was asked : 
 
89 
 
 " Do you think that the Company might conduct Committee o/ 
 " the trade at a lower rate of freight than what appears '*^ ommons. 
 to be the freight paid for the East-India Company's 
 ships ? — ^The Company take up their ships under the 
 provisions of an Act of the Legislature. I allude to 
 the 39th Geo. III. c. 89, the provisions of which were 
 re-enacted in 1818, in an Act carried through by the 
 late Mr. Canning, when President of the India Board. 
 ' The Act provides, that the Company, in contracting 
 for ships, shall make it a condition of the contract that 
 those ships shall be applicable to trade and to warfare. 
 The Act also requires that the Company shall take up 
 " the ships for a certain number of voyages, and although 
 *' that may be an arrangement which, generally speak- 
 ing, is at least as beneficial to the contractor as to the 
 Company, yet when it happens, as it has done to the 
 Company, that contracts have been entered into in 
 periods of high prices, followed by periods of unusually 
 low prices, it is quite clear that the Company's shipping 
 system must suffer in comparison with that of the 
 private merchant ; that is the case at present. The 
 existing contracts for the ships now in the service were 
 most of them entered into six and seven years ago. 
 That the Company can engage .ehips, if they act solely 
 as merchants, as cheaply as individuals, is evinced in 
 the fact that when, under the authority which that 
 Act gives them, they have taken up ships for only one 
 voyage, they have got them quite as cheap as a mer- 
 chant could. The difference in the rate of freight 
 between the average period, when the Company made 
 the contracts for large ships now in the service and 
 the present time, cannot be less than 18 or 20 per 
 
 " cent. 
 
 M 
 
Shipping. 
 
 90 
 
 Committee of " Do you mean to state that if it were not for the 
 the Commons, u ^^^^^^^^^ t^^ East-India Company would freight to 
 
 " India as cheap as a private trader ? — If the Company 
 " were unfettered by law, and were not compelled to 
 " make their ships applicable to political services, I have 
 ^' no doubt that they would engage them upon as good 
 *' terms as individuals. 
 
 " When it has happened that there has been a great 
 ^' rise in price instead of a depression, did they make an 
 " allowance to the contractors ? — That was done by a 
 " special Act of Parliament ; and I believe the late Mr. 
 " Canning, who carried that bill through, took occasion 
 distinctly to guard against its being construed into any 
 " thing like a precedent." 
 
 There can be no doubt that had the Com- 
 pany been unfettered by the legislative pro- 
 visions under vv^hich they have been constrained 
 to act, they would have necessarily supplied 
 the tea at a less cost to the public. 
 
 It would be needlessly extending these 
 pages to enter at any length into the shipping 
 system of the East- India Company, which 
 is not without its advantages, however it may 
 appear objectionable on a mere superficial view 
 of the question. We shall content ourselves 
 with the following extract from a useful work 
 relating to the Company,* in which we find the 
 question touched upon at considerable length : 
 
 '" The class of ships, and the system under 
 
 * Auber's Analysis of the Constitution of the East-India 
 Company. 
 
91 
 
 " which they have been maintained for the shipping. 
 
 *' service of the East-India Company, has 
 
 " presented a resource in times of emergency 
 
 '' which has proved of most essential impor- 
 
 ** tance to the national welfare. In the early 
 
 ** part of 1795, Mr. Dundas addressed a letter 
 
 *' to the Court of Directors, signifying that, in 
 
 *' the then exigency of affairs, a great and 
 
 ** immediate addition to the naval strength of 
 
 *' the kingdom was of infinite importance; 
 
 ** that such consideration led his Majesty's 
 
 " servants to turn their attention to the large 
 
 " ships in the service of the East-India Com- 
 
 '' pany, which from their size and construc- 
 
 ** tion could be speedily converted into very 
 
 ** useful ships of war ; also enclosing the copy 
 
 *' of a resolution of the ship-owners (to whom 
 
 " Mr. Dundas had addressed a letter,) stating 
 
 *' that they could not treat with Government 
 
 ** but through the Court of Directors, as the 
 
 *' ships actually belonged to the Company. 
 
 *' The Court of Directors immediately re- 
 *' solved to exonerate the owners from their 
 ** engagements, at the same time giving leave 
 ** for other ships of the same dimensions to be 
 '* built on the bottoms of those taken by Go* 
 ** vernment, thus keeping up the size and class 
 " of such ships. Six of the large ships then 
 " afloat were surveyed and accepted. Sir 
 
92 
 
 ' Andrew S. Hammond, the Comptroller of 
 ' the Navy, intimated to the Court, that as 
 ' no alteration was intended in the masts and 
 ' yards of those ships, they would be soon 
 ' ready for the service of the state. Eight 
 
 * other ships, which were then building for 
 ' the Company, were also assigned over to 
 ' Government, making an addition to the 
 
 * naval force of the country of fourteen large 
 
 * ships. To render the same effective with 
 ' the least burthen to the state, the General 
 
 * Court, on the 13th March, unanimously 
 resolved to authorize and empower the Court 
 of Directors to raise three thousand men for 
 the service of his Majesty's navy, at the cost 
 and charge of the Company. The expen- 
 diture on that account was £57,000. Again, 
 in the month of July in the same year, Mr. 
 Dundas represented to the Court of Directors 
 that a very considerable quantity of tonnage 
 would be wanted by Government early in 
 September, for a special service, to the exe- 
 cution of which the Indiamen were peculiarly 
 well adapted, and that it would therefore be 
 of the utmost consequence to his Majesty's 
 service to know whether the Company's 
 ships could be made available to carry 
 troops from Great Britain, Ireland, and from 
 Gibraltar, to the West-Indies. The Court 
 
93 
 
 '* made arrangements the same day, whereby shipping. 
 ** fourteen ships were made applicable to the 
 ** service in question. 
 
 *' In September 1803, the East-India Com- 
 *^* pany unanimously resolved, in order to 
 ** contribute towards the aid of the state, to 
 '' authorize the Court of Directors to engage 
 *' for six months, and to charter for the use of 
 '' Government, 10,000 tons of shipping: the 
 *' expense incurred by the Company on that 
 '' account was £67,000. 
 
 '' The expediency of maintaining vessels of 
 '* the size, and found in the manner of those 
 ** employed by the East-India Company, has 
 *' been supported on the grounds, that it is 
 " essential that the Company should at, all 
 *' times have a fleet of ships at their command ; 
 ** that on their outward voyage, they are 
 " employed in the transport of troops and 
 *' stores to a very large extent, and are pecu- 
 '* liarly fitted to bring home, at the least ex- 
 *' pense, the valuable return cargoes from 
 ** China. The Company's ships partake of a 
 '* political as well as a commercial character; 
 ** on sudden emergencies, both in India and 
 ** Europe, they have been found of the most 
 '* important aid in promoting the welfare of 
 " the state ; in time of war, although greatly 
 ** distressed by the impress of men by his 
 
94 
 
 Shipping. 
 
 Situation of 
 the East- India 
 Company. 
 
 Majesty's navy in India (repeated repre- 
 sentations having proved ineffectual to check 
 that practice), and that at periods when the 
 naval force of the country could ill afford 
 convoy for such valuable fleets, Indiamen 
 sailing in company, and commanded by 
 officers of known character and qualifica- 
 tions, have defeated the attempts of the 
 enemy to surprise and capture them, in one 
 memorable instance* beating off a first-rate 
 French ship of eighty guns under Admiral 
 Linoi's, accompanied by two heavy frigates, 
 a corvette, and a brig." 
 It is proved beyond all doubt, that the East- 
 India Company can hire ships at lower rates of 
 freight, and in any future arrangement it would 
 tend materially to reduce the charge on tea. 
 
 We proceed briefly to notice the situation in 
 which the East-India Company stand with re- 
 ference to the enquiry. 
 
 Nearly two centuries and a half have elapsed 
 since the Company first established a commer- 
 cial intercourse with India. Unawed by the 
 difficulties which they have had to encounter, 
 and surmounting by indefatigable perseverance, 
 embarrassments which on various occasions 
 threatened their very existence, they have pre- 
 
 * In 1804, the Company's China fleet under Sir N. Dance, 
 near Malacca. 
 
95 
 
 served the trade to this country, amidst the situation of 
 great and important changes that have taken company. 
 place w^ithin that eventful period. 
 
 In the prosecution of that trade the Com- 
 pany laid the foundation of that immense em- 
 pire in the East, which has been described by 
 our statesmen as one of the brightest jew^els in 
 the British crown. 
 
 It has been made apparent that the Company, 
 in their commercial capacity, have realized, since 
 1765, those pecuniary means, by which they 
 have been enabled to maintain the character of 
 sovereigns, without drawing on the British public 
 in any direct way for permanent financial aid 
 in administering the government of India. 
 
 From 1765 to 1814, the Company's demand 
 on the territory amounts, as has been already 
 shewn, to £12,044,934, and forms a distinct 
 claim, whenever the period may arrive that a 
 settlement with the public shall take place. 
 
 Since 1814, at which time the Company's 
 transactions were separated under the two heads 
 of territory and commerce, the gross receipts 
 and disbursements appear by the evidence to 
 have amounted to the sum of £478,103,911. 
 Within the same period the state has received 
 a revenue from tea duties of £57,125,882, at a 
 charge of only £10,000 per annum. 
 
 India has also received aid from the surplus 
 commercial profits of the Company, and in the 
 
96 
 
 Situation of ratcs of cxchange as fixed by the Board, of 
 
 the East- India ^-_ ,,^ __. i •! i • i i • 'n i 
 
 Company. tl2,l 10,198; besides which there is still due 
 £3,184,000 from territory to commerce, exclu- 
 sive of interest; making a total of £15,294,198 
 since 1814; within which period the Company 
 have received a dividend at the rate of 3^ per 
 cent, upon their capital actually employed in 
 the joint concern of territory and trade. 
 
 For this dividend, and the patronage of the 
 original appointment of writers, cadets, and 
 assistant-surgeons, the East- India Company 
 have administered, through their executive body 
 the Court of Directors, the foreign and domes- 
 tic affairs connected with the existing India 
 system, subject, in matters of civil and military 
 government and revenues, to the control of the 
 Board of Commissioners. 
 
 We apprehend that the nature and extent of 
 the duties arising out of this trust, far exceed 
 any notion that may have been formed of them 
 by a mere casual observer. 
 
 If it shall be determined to separate the go- 
 vernment from the trade, we can scarcely per- 
 suade ourselves that the East-India Company 
 will be prepared, under every prudential consi- 
 deration, to continue the political trust, at the 
 risk of their capital and character, after it has 
 been so clearly demonstrated in the course of 
 the enquiry, that one million annually beyond 
 the ordinary receipts must be secured in this 
 
 Supposed 
 separation of 
 trade and 
 government. 
 
97 
 
 country, to enable them to discharge, under supposed 
 
 . . separation of 
 
 the most economical arrangement consistently trade and 
 with efficiency, the government of India. 
 
 That sum is now derived, in a great measure, 
 from the China trade. If that trade be laid 
 open, the sum above-mentioned must be se- 
 cured out of the public purse, or, as it appears 
 to us, the Company must withdraw from the 
 discharge of those duties which they now per- 
 form through the Court of Directors, and the 
 country must be prepared to adjust those im- 
 mense claims which, so long as the means are 
 secured to the Company of acting politically 
 without detriment to their commercial capital, 
 are left in abeyance, and made subservient 
 to the common benefit. We will suppose for a 
 moment that the onerous task of administering 
 the government of India, with all its various de- 
 tails, be thrown on his Majesty's ministers. 
 We have seen how the business of the country 
 was impeded, perhaps unavoidably, but ne- 
 vertheless to a very serious degree, in the last 
 session, from the multiplicity of matter brought 
 under discussion : so much so, as to call forth 
 a remark, that Parliament must sit throughout 
 the greater part of the year to get through the 
 whole of the questions, to the great injury 
 of the public service: and we would ask 
 those who are at all conversant with the vast 
 and important details now discharged by the 
 
 N 
 
98 
 
 Court of Directors under Ministerial control, 
 and subject to the minutest investigation, and 
 open also to discussion in the General Court of 
 Proprietors, with accounts laid periodically be- 
 fore Parliament, what would be the effect of 
 this additional labour to the already too much 
 occupied time of the House, embracing all the 
 details of the India system, without, we con- 
 fess, any apparent redeeming benefit accruing 
 therefrom to the country ! 
 
 Nor is the important question of the Public 
 Revenue, so intimately interwoven with the ex- 
 isting system, to be entirely passed over. We re- 
 member the discussion on the Sugar question in 
 the last session. The difficulties of the proposed 
 graduated scale of duties were pointedly placed 
 before the House, and other remarks were at 
 the same time made, which proved that the 
 framing a scheme, with which the public would 
 be satisfied and the revenue at the same time 
 secured, was a task of no easy accomplish- 
 ment. 
 
 The duty on tea, as already stated, amounting 
 to £3,808,392 annually, is paid by the Company 
 to the Crown at a cost to the public of only 
 £10,000 a year. This duty arises out of rates 
 varying according to the several sorts of tea, 
 which are very numerous. 
 
 If any one was allowed to trade in tea, which 
 would necessarily be the case if such trade is 
 
99 
 
 thrown open, we do not see how, or in what supposed 
 
 sepanition of 
 
 way, the revenue would be secured to anything trade and 
 
 ,.i , 1 1 -i • government. 
 
 like the present extent : and we have the evi- 
 dence of Mr. Layton, an eminent tea-broker, 
 that teas are mixed after the chests leave Lon- 
 don, that a considerable adulteration takes place, 
 " and that he could no more point out the por- 
 ** tion of the different qualities of mixed teas, 
 '* than he could tell, as to a pipe of wine, whe- 
 *' ther it was all of the right kind. He could 
 ** tell whether it was good if he tasted it." 
 
 The Company's ships are under such perfect 
 control, as to the safety of the cargo, and not 
 breaking bulk on their voyage, that the tea 
 arrives in the same state as when laden at 
 Canton. It is brought into warehouses set apart 
 for the purpose, and is immediately placed under 
 the keys of His Majesty's customs, and is put 
 up to sale in the same state and chests in which 
 it was packed in China, and upon which the im- 
 mense revenue is now drawn. 
 
 In the event of an open trade, what is to pre- 
 vent a ship laden with teas of various qualities 
 and prices, unshipping part or the whole of her 
 cargo at any intermediate port, there mixing and % 
 repacking the tea, with the view of evading the 
 higher duty, and thus defrauding Government to 
 a very considerable amount : a circumstance ex- 
 tremely undesirable in the present falling off in 
 our exciseable articles of revenue. 
 
100 
 
 We have thrown out these observations more 
 as matter worthy the attention of His Majesty's 
 Ministers than of the East-India Company, who 
 would, in truth, have little reason to deplore the 
 division of that capital, to which they have as 
 indisputable a right, as any gentleman to his 
 freehold, or merchant to his bale of goods, for 
 which he has paid the price in the market. The 
 East-India Company have also territorial acqui- 
 sitions and rights yielding a large annual revenue 
 in the respective Presidencies in India, wholly 
 free and distinct from those to which the Crown 
 lays claim, and which if retained by the Com- 
 pany might materially aid the commercial enter- 
 prizes they still prosecute, to the detriment of the 
 private merchant. 
 
 We would ask, have the merchants engaged 
 in the India trade, since it was opened, found it 
 answer their expectations ? Have they realized 
 the prime cost of their exports, and have they 
 been enabled to secure a profitable return? 
 Have the Petitioners for a free trade with China, 
 and the abolition of the Company's exclusive 
 privilege in that of tea, made out any thing of a 
 case, to induce the country to put to hazard the 
 positive advantages derived under the present 
 system, for the possible benefits expected to re- 
 sult from the adoption of untried experiments, 
 and overdrawn pictures, of visionary theorists ? 
 We may confidently answer that they have not 
 
made out their case, if such case be bottomed supposed 
 on the evidence brought forward by the advo- Srand 
 cates themselves for a free and open trade in ^®^®^"™^" * 
 tea. 
 
 If, notwithstanding this failure of proof as 
 to the wisdom and policy of such a measure, 
 such a concession shall be determined upon, we 
 predict, in the words of Mr. Davidson, whose 
 evidence will be found in the preceding part of 
 these pages, that the British trade at Canton 
 would not last two seasons, without the most 
 violent and serious interruption. Many indivi- 
 duals would be thereby ruined, and the country 
 would be unable to reinstate their commercial 
 intercourse with China without incurring a vast 
 cost. 
 
 We have, in common with many who have Opponents ( 
 devoted their time and attention to subjects con- company, 
 nected with India, long felt, that the most 
 formidable opponents the East-India Company 
 have to contend with are. Ignorance and Mis- 
 representation. 
 
 It is with unfeigned regret, that we number Mr. Broughi 
 among them the learned and lately elected 
 Member for Yorkshire. We have followed that 
 learned gentleman through his political career, 
 from his entrance into parliament as an append- 
 age of the Whig Aristocracy. Were we to refer 
 to the period of his becoming the adherent of 
 
[r. Bfotigham. Mr. Canning, after he had charged that highly- 
 gifted man with having been guilty of the 
 grossest political tergiversation, and to whose 
 bold rebuke he silently submitted, rather than 
 risk his character for discretion ; — were we to 
 animadvert upon the circumstance of the learned 
 gentleman coming down to the house flushed 
 with the hospitable cheer of one of his noble 
 patrons, and declaiming in terms of the coarsest 
 invective against his Majesty's Ministers and 
 their supporters, and then silently permitting the 
 Right Honourable Baronet to make that apology 
 for him which he had neither the good taste or 
 good feelings to offer for himself; — were we to 
 allude to the call made upon the learned gen- 
 tleman at the close of the late election, by his 
 unsuccessful opponent, and the assurance with 
 which he answered the call, that he had drunk 
 so deep of Lethe's stream, as to have forgotten all 
 that he had uttered on the hustings, we might 
 incur the charge of having entered upon matter 
 foreign to the subject upon which we had ven- 
 tured to submit the foregoing considerations. 
 But when we find the learned gentleman, on the 
 day of his being proposed as a candidate for the 
 honour since conferred upon him, attempting to 
 support his pretensions to that honour by ad- 
 vancing statements wholly at variance with facts, 
 and in a place where the parties whom he 
 attacked had no opportunity of defending them- 
 
103 
 
 selves, it is important that such a course ofMr.Broguha 
 misrepresentation should be exposed. In order 
 that the learned gentleman may not have the 
 plea of ignorance, we insert the following extract 
 from the Leeds Mercury of the 7th August, 
 which gives at full length the speech made by 
 Mr. Brougham on the 5th of that month. The 
 Editor, who appears to be one of the ardent 
 admirers of the learned gentleman, makes the 
 following remarks in alluding to that speech ; 
 
 " Yorkshire has discharged the debt due by Eng- 
 " land to this champion of right and liberty, this illus- 
 " trious friendofknowledge and humanity. Mr. Brough- 
 " am's speech on Thursday was splendid, and in some 
 " passages there was a power and grandeur which pro- 
 " duced the most thrilling effect on his audience." 
 
 When I saw (said Mr. Brougham), in my visit 
 to the West Riding, thousands of industrious and 
 " skilful men, and at the same time I saw ware- 
 " houses after warehouses filled with the produce 
 " of their industry and skill, could I but be in- 
 dignant that the markets of the East were closed 
 against them, whence might come so much wealth to 
 " them, and to which so much by them might be ex- 
 " ported ; and when I asked myself for whose benefit it 
 was that the industrious artizans of Leeds, and those 
 " of Huddersfield, who are receiving less than one-third 
 of their ordinary wages, were excluded from markets 
 " of such promise, I first asked myself, is it for the 
 " benefit of the land-owners ? for if it were, it would 
 ' be some consolation that they were benefited by it. 
 " I then asked; is it for the other trades of the country? 
 
104 
 
 " for it would be some satisfaction, that what the indus- 
 " trious classes of Yorkshire lost, others of our own 
 " countrymen gained. But nothing of the sort — it was 
 " to benefit four-and-twenty East-India Directors, the 
 " ready tools of every government, the obsequious voters 
 " in support of all administrations ; men who are ready 
 " upon any given day, up to half past two o'clock in 
 " the morning, to vote with any government in favour 
 " of what they may deem the Constitution in Church 
 " and State, — men who will hark away down to hear 
 " a king's speech, expecting to bawl " No Popery" 
 " till their voices were cracked, and they themselves 
 " black in the face ; and then, when to their astonish- 
 " ment, the King's speech calls out — an end to Proscrip- 
 " tion — Catholic Emancipation — Civil and Religious 
 " Liberty for ever — swift they wheel about with the 
 " same alacrity as they came to bawl forth their 
 " senseless cry of ' No Popery.* Yes, with the same 
 " voice, and with the same throats, and almost on 
 " the same day, they bawl lustily for that measure 
 " for which we have been placed under their anathemas 
 " ever since Lord Milton broke the chains of this 
 " county in the castle-yard twenty-one years ago. 
 " And if by chance any one of these twenty-four Direc- 
 tors, following in the career — for as fine writing has 
 " been described as right words in right places, so right 
 politics may be described as right votes in right 
 ' places — if, I say, any one of these four-and-twenty 
 gentlemen, after sitting for much borough, and voting 
 for much job, and for building much palace, and for 
 ' sending out much ambassador, and for triumphing 
 over much liberty, should be found, not in the 
 Commons House of Parliament, but among the 
 
105 
 
 * Peers of the realm, the hereditary counsellors of the Mr. Brougham 
 
 " crown ** *"** '*'^ 
 
 ^*"^"- manufacturers 
 
 We have given this extract unbroken, in order ^ ' ' 
 
 that our readers may see the bearing and tenden- 
 cy of the whole, and appreciate the good taste 
 with which Mr. Brougham so unsparingly dealt 
 out his denunciations against the members of 
 the Court of Directors who had seats in Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 Had the learned gentleman availed himself of 
 the means within his reach, he would have found 
 ample cause for that satisfaction which he states 
 he should have derived from knowing that what 
 the " industrious classes of Yorkshire lost, others 
 *' of our own countrymen had gained." 
 
 We will now put the learned gentleman's since- 
 rity to the test. It appears that on the 9th March, 
 Mr. Dixon, a foreign commission agent residing at 
 Leeds, was examined before the Committee, for 
 the purpose of shewing that the system under 
 which the East-India Company bought cloths 
 for exportation was objectionable in point of 
 economy, and injurious to the manufacturers. 
 
 *' Will you state in what mode the East-India Com- 
 ** pany make their purchases of cloth ? — Always by 
 *' tender and contract. 
 
 " Do you consider that to be an advantageous mode 
 *' of dealing ? — No, I do not. In consequence of the 
 " objectionable clauses which are in those contracts, the 
 " parties tendering for the cloth, in order to saye them- 
 
 o 
 
106 
 
 Mr. Brougham " Selves, must make an addition to the price, in order 
 
 and the a ^^ cover the reiections which they are subject to, and 
 manufacturers «^ j j ^ 
 
 of Yorkshire. « other inconveniences and expenses which they are at. 
 
 " Is the decision of the overlooker of the Company 
 " upon the goods which are sent up final, or is there 
 " any appeal from it ? — There is no appeal whatever 
 *' from it. 
 
 " In the rejection of their cloths you stated that the 
 '' overlooker's decision was final ; is that decision often 
 " made on trifling grounds ? — I have understood that the 
 " overlookers have strict orders to attend to the contract, 
 " which states, in speaking of the fine cloths, that each 
 " cloth must weigh thirty-two pounds, and that if it is 
 " under that weight he has a power of rejecting it. 
 
 " Then, though the rejection must be according to 
 " the strict letter of the contract, it still may be on 
 " very vexatious grounds to the manufacturer ? — Cer- 
 " tainly. 
 
 " Is it the case to such a degree, that manufacturers 
 '' generally exhibit a decided preference for dealing with 
 *' any other customer rather than the East-India Com- 
 " pany ? — It is. A great many of the most extensive 
 ^' manufacturers in Yorkshire will not enter into con- 
 *' tracts with the East-India Company, nor supply them 
 " with cloth under those contracts. 
 
 " You consider this, then, to be a vexatious ground 
 " of rejection on the part of the Company ? — Certainly. 
 
 " Yet to this sort of rejection their overlookers are 
 " tied down by their rules, and they can exercise no 
 " discretion ? — I believe not."" 
 
 To this evidence of Mr. Dixon of Yorkshire, 
 we shall oppose that of Mr. Walford. 
 
 " Are the conditions of contract imposed by the Com- 
 
107 
 
 " pany so vexatious as to raise the price ? — I never con- Mr. Broughun^ 
 " sidered them vexatious ; I always considered them as manufacturers. 
 *' necessary to preserve the quality of the goods they 
 " exported. 
 
 " Did you ever experience any inconvenience from 
 " having cloths that you had furnished to the Company 
 " rejected ? — I have had them rejected. 
 
 " Do they not often reject them for being a little 
 « lighter ? — They do. 
 
 " Is not it very difficult to act up to the exact letter 
 "of the Company's contract in a large order? — Not 
 « at all. 
 
 " In cases where goods have been returned to you by 
 " the East-India Company, on what terms have you 
 " been able to part with them ? — It depended entirely 
 " upon how inferior they were to the standard they 
 " ought to have been ; it varies from five to ten per 
 ^' cent. ; perhaps not more than ten per cent. 
 
 " Are the conditions imposed by the Company, upon 
 " a preparation of those goods under the contracts, such 
 « as to render the manufacture of them much more diffi- 
 " cult than for a private merchant .?— I should think 
 " not ; I have known one manufacturer have 10,000 long 
 ** ells looked over or inspected, and not more than four 
 *' or five pieces rejected. 
 
 " Was there any difference between the tenders you 
 ** made to private merchants and those to the Company, 
 *' in point of price ? — There was no material difference. 
 " We would rather sell to the Company, and perhaps 
 " would sell cheaper to them than to private merchants, 
 *' because we were more secure of our money ; and be- 
 *' cause at a private merchant's, where credit is given, I 
 " charge two and a half per cent, for a guarantee. 
 
 " Then the conditions imposed by the Cq^ipany, you 
 
108 
 
 Mr. Brougham " conceive, have no effect in raising the price of the ma- 
 manl/facturers. " nufactures ? — I never heard them complained of, till 
 " within these four or five years. 
 
 " Have the Company been endeavouring to supply 
 " themselves from Yorkshire within your knowledge ? — 
 ** I have known them make two experiments in pur- 
 " chasing long ells in Yorkshire; one year they con- 
 " tracted for 20,000 pieces, and I believe, they did not 
 " find the contract completed." 
 
 We find this evidence of Mr. Walford corro- 
 borated by that of Mr. William Ireland, a part- 
 ner in the respectable firm of William Ireland 
 and Co., carrying on business in London and in 
 Gloucestershire. 
 
 " What is the mode of supplying the East-India 
 
 " Company ? — By contract. 
 
 " Is it under contract oiFered to your house only, or 
 
 " to the public ? — ^To all the respectable manufacturers 
 either in Yorkshire or Gloucestershire. I have a cir- 
 cular v^rhich I received from the Company for a con- 
 
 " tract, inviting tenders from all the manufacturers. — 
 
 " [ The witness produced the same.li 
 
 " Is it sent to all the respectable manufacturers ? — I 
 
 " never knev^^ it refused to any respectable manufacturer 
 
 " who made an application for it. 
 
 " How long have you been in the habit of supplying 
 
 " cloths to the Company ? — Eleven years in my own 
 firm : but I was seven years with Messrs. Fryer and 
 
 " Telford. 
 
 " In this circular are there any clauses more or less 
 objectionable in your opinion ? — I do not apprehena 
 there are ; at least I have not had any complaint from 
 my connections respecting the clauses. 
 
109 
 
 *' Particularly with reference to the 3d, 6th, 7th, 8th, Mr. Brougha 
 " and 1 1th ; do you apprehend they are essential to pro- manufacturen 
 " tect the Company from being imposed upon, and put 
 " to great inconvenience ? — I think they are; the third 
 " clause respects the weight and length of the cloth. 
 
 " All of which is ascertained by overlookers appointed 
 " by the Company ? — It is. 
 
 " Do you consider that they are judges of cloth ? — I 
 " consider them very good judges of cloth. 
 
 " Do they ever reject without proper cause, in your 
 " opinion ? — I think there is frequently cause for a great 
 " many more rejections than there are. 
 
 " In the event of a trifling difference in quality being 
 " found, is it the practice of the Company to take it, 
 " giving the turn to the manufacturer? — It has been 
 " the practice with me and my connexions. 
 
 " In the event of any cloths being rejected by the 
 " Company, how have you disposed of them ? — I think 
 " the first serious objections were in 1819 and 1820; 
 " they were Spanish stripes ; and I disposed of them to 
 " Mr. Henry Hughes, who afterwards disposed of them 
 " to Mr. Everett for shipping through the Americans to 
 " China. 
 
 " Were they inferior in quality ? — They were inferior 
 " in quality ; and we sold them at a considerable loss. 
 
 At what loss ? — The contract price of the Com- 
 " pany at that time was £13. 15^. per piece; and I 
 " sold the rejected cloths to Mr. Everett and Mr. 
 " Hughes at that period at £11. 14^., which was 
 " £2. Is. per piece loss upon them. 
 
 " Is not the mode of payment by the Company in 
 " ready money at a certain time after delivery? — We 
 *' consider the Company's payment preferable to any 
 
110 
 
 ;Mr. Brougham 'f other, because we can calculate to an hour on getting' 
 manufacturers. " the money, provided we fulfil our part of the contract. 
 
 " Do you find that those contracts in any way give 
 '' you more trouble in selling to the Company than in 
 " selling to individuals ? — I do not ; in fact, I had a very 
 " recent instance to the contrary, by the last fleet that 
 I " went out to China ; I had a great deal more difficulty 
 
 ' "in supplying 200 ends of cloth to an individual that 
 
 " shipped them for one of the captains, than I ever 
 " had vdth the Company. 
 
 " Do you know whether the Company have increased 
 " or decreased their orders of late ? — When I first com- 
 " menced the business in 1819, the Company shipped 
 " 7,000 pieces, which is 14,000 ends ; they used to buy 
 " them at that period in whole cloths, now they buy 
 " them in ends ; they have increased their purchase of 
 " Spanish striped cloths to 24,000 ends ; they first 
 " increased about the year 1824 to 10,000 pieces, and 
 " since that period they have increased to 12,000 pieces. 
 " There was also an increase of the supers at that period ; 
 " there were 2,000 pieces of supers contracted for ; there 
 " are now 3,000 contracted for, which go to China. 
 
 *' All those articles have been supplied from Glouces- 
 "tershire? — The greater part of those articles were 
 " supplied from Gloucestershire ; some few from the 
 " Yorkshire manufactories, but very few. 
 
 " Have you found the Company arbitraiy in their 
 " deahngs with you ? — I have had no reason to complain 
 *' of the Company. I find them just in their dealings ; 
 " and I am satisfied that if we had not the restrictions in 
 " the circulars we have, the Company would be very 
 much imposed upon. 
 
 " What restrictions do you mean ? — I mean with 
 " respect to weight and length. 
 
Ill 
 
 " Is it your opinion, that the Company buy under an ^^r- Brougi 
 *' open competition at the lowest possible price ? — I am njanufacturt 
 " satisfied of it. I have been cut out of supplying 
 *' many hundred pieces of 34 yards, by Id. or 2c?. per 
 *' piece of cloth." 
 
 We think this evidence is conclusive against 
 the complaints preferred by Mr. Dixon, as to 
 the mode of purchasing, and restrictions imposed 
 by the East-India Company on the weight and 
 goodness of the article. 
 
 The next point is that of dyeing the cloths ; 
 and here we perceive that the Gloucestershire 
 manufacturers are able to surpass those of 
 Yorkshire. 
 
 ^' Do you know whether they can dye as cheap in 
 ** Gloucestershire as they can in Yorkshire? — I think 
 *^ quite as cheap, because the Yorkshire people com- 
 ^* peted with us, and we have beaten them out of the 
 
 market. The last contract they did not get a single 
 
 yard of it ; and one of the principal Yorkshire con- 
 *' tractors, whom I met this morning, told me that he 
 *' should not compete at all the next contract. 
 
 " Will you look at the statement given by Mr. Dixon, 
 <' of the Yorkshire prices, and make any observations 
 *' which occur to you respecting it ? — In the first place, 
 *' I observe that the first colour mentioned here is higher 
 " by 9s. a piece than the Gloucestershire price. For 
 " the black also ; we pay 6s. a piece for dyeing blacks, 
 " and I see the Yorkshire price is ll^. 4d 
 
 " Are you aware of the fact that the woollen trade is 
 '' to a certain degree leaving Gloucestershire, and going 
 " to Yorkshire ? — Some of the fine trade is, but a portion 
 
112 
 
 ^ir. Brougfmm " ^^ ^^ ^^s come back again. With respect to the 
 tianuluciurers. " scarlet, the Gloucestershire price is 37*., and I find 
 
 *' that the Yorkshire price is 48*. ^d. 
 
 " Will you prepare a statement of the Gloucestershire 
 
 " prices of dyeing, for the information of the Committee, 
 
 " similar to that furnished by Mr. Dixon o^ the Yorkshire 
 
 " prices ? — I will." 
 
 From the statement which was given in, it 
 appears that the cost of dyeing one hundred 
 Spanish striped cloths in Gloucestershire was 
 £139, whilst in Yorkshire the cost was 
 £157, \6s, 2d, making a difference, in point of 
 economy, in favor of Gloucestershire of 
 £18.16^.2^. 
 
 We trust that sufficient cause has been 
 afforded to the learned gentleman, to yield him 
 that satisfaction which he declared he should 
 experience from finding that ** other of our 
 " industrious countrymen had gained, although 
 " those of Yorkshire should have lost." 
 
 That satisfaction, we hope, will be increased 
 by the following additional evidence of Mr. 
 Ireland. 
 
 " Has not this increase of the Company's exports 
 " been very beneficial to the labouring classes and the 
 " manufacturers ? — I can only speak as to my own 
 " district. Had it not been for the Company's trade 
 " last winter, I am perfectly satisfied that some hundreds 
 '' of our people must have starved, for the poor''s-rate 
 " would not have supported them at all. I am speak- 
 " ing of the parish of Bisley. 
 
113 
 
 How little the learned gentleman really knew Mr. Brougha 
 m the facts connected with the subject upon manutacturer 
 which he declaimed with so much confidence 
 and assurance ! 
 
 We predict that experience will satisfy the 
 manufacturers of Yorkshire that they have 
 derived greater benefit from the East- India 
 Company than they will ever experience from 
 the declamatory harangues of their new repre- 
 sentative. 
 
 The next point in the learned gentleman's Mr. Brough- 
 
 ^ . am's charges 
 
 speech is that in which he states the exclusion against the 
 
 Directors. 
 
 of the manufactures of Yorkshire was "Vto 
 ** benefit the four-and-twenty Directors, the 
 *' ready tools of every government — " 
 
 We put it to the learned gentleman, whether 
 with all his ingenuity (and it is no small portion 
 that he possesses) he can shew that the Directors 
 of the East-India Company, either individually 
 or collectively, derived, or cbuld derive, the 
 smallest benefit by rejecting the work of the 
 incompetent or extravagant manufacturers of 
 Yorkshire, in order to accept the more moderate 
 and equally good, if not superior, manufactures 
 of Gloucestershire ? 
 
 If it be meant by the learned gentleman that 
 the trade of the East is generally shut against 
 the manufacturers of Yorkshire to benefit the 
 Directors, we then tell him that it is no such 
 
 p 
 
114 
 
 thing. The whole of India is open to them ; 
 and if China is still partially closed, it is because 
 the Chinese do not see fit to suffer themselves 
 to be inundated with the manufactures of 
 England to the detriment of their own, as is 
 the case with the poor natives of India ; which, 
 as has been justly observed, is the worst used 
 country on earth, as respects the prohibitory 
 duties levied upon the importation of her native 
 produce into the ports of the united kingdom. 
 
 If the learned gentleman alludes to the 
 patronage of the Directors, we will tell him 
 that they are as much entitled to that only 
 reward for their labour and services, as the 
 learned gentleman is to the fee which he re- 
 ceives for the legal advice and opinion he may 
 bestow upon the cause of his client. 
 
 As to the Directors voting for, and being the 
 ready tools of every government, has the learned 
 gentleman forgotten the memorable chastisement 
 which his Whig predecessor, Mr. Fox, received 
 in the rejection of his celebrated India Bill, on 
 which occasion the Directors came forward, and 
 opposed by every means in their power the 
 Minister and his measure, which had for its 
 object the despoiling the Company of their 
 rights and privileges ? If the Directors have not 
 opposed as a body any subsequent Minister, it 
 may most probably be attributed to the circum- 
 
115 
 
 stance of the country having been spared the Mr. Brough- 
 infliction of a Whig Administration. a^inst*th?^ 
 
 With regard to the Catholic Question, so far 
 from the twenty- four Directors having, to use 
 the learned gentleman's elegant phrase, " harked 
 ** away and bawled ' no popery !' at the bid- 
 *' ding of the Minister," only nine out of the 
 twenty-four Directors were members ; and of 
 those, five voted, as they always had voted, 
 against the claims of the Catholics, whilst the 
 four supported the concession, as they had done, 
 with only one exception, on every previous 
 debate upon the subject. So much for the accu- 
 racy of the learned gentleman's statement on the 
 three points in his speech ! 
 
 We next come to the charge brought against 
 the Directors, of sitting for Much-borough, 
 voting for Much-embassy, &c. Out of the nine 
 members who sat in the last Parliament, only 
 one represented what might be termed a close- 
 borough, the other gentlemen sitting either for 
 counties or open-boroughs. 
 
 Was it for the learned gentleman, who from 
 his first entrance into Parliament to the period 
 when he uttered the speech to which we now 
 advert, was the political dependant of a noble 
 patron, for one of whose *' Much-borough" 
 he sat from Parliament to Parliament, to taunt 
 the Directors of the East- India Company with 
 sitting for Much-borough. Was it for that 
 
116 
 
 learned gentleman to charge the Directors with 
 having voted for ** Much-ambassador," when 
 he himself had become the obsequious abettor 
 of Mr. Canning, who had been so notable a 
 part and partion of this ** Much-ambassador' 
 to the court of Lisbon, in support of which 
 memorable mission we find the name of Lord 
 Milton, the learned gentleman's predecessor in 
 representing Yorkshire, and whose conduct he 
 so highly eulogized in the speech upon which 
 we are now remarking ? And in order to com- 
 plete the picture which his imagination had 
 sketched, the learned gentleman elevates the 
 Director to the peerage in reward for the base 
 and servile part he had hitherto acted. 
 
 We ask him to point out one Director who has 
 had that honour conferred upon him, throughout 
 the existence of the present United Company. 
 
 The learned gentleman appears to have 
 uttered, withotit the shadow of foundation or 
 authority, a series of charges and imputations 
 against a set of gentlemen, who we undertake 
 to assert are as honourable in point of cha- 
 racter, and as independent in point of princi- 
 ple, — we will not say as the learned member 
 himself, for it would be no complimentary com- 
 parison, — but as any gentleman who has the 
 honour of a seat in the Legislature. 
 
 The following passage from a popular author. 
 
117 
 
 in allusion to some speeches in parliament, is 
 so much in point with reference to the proceed- 
 ings we have been noticing, that we cannot 
 refrain from quoting it : '* When I observe 
 " what passes for wit and what for wisdom, 
 ** what fallacies pass undetected, what absur- 
 *^ dities are advanced, and listened to and 
 *' applauded, what confident mistatements are 
 ** hazarded in the fearlessness of ignorance 
 ** and dupery, what falsehoods are asserted in 
 *' the hardihood of design, I cannot but think 
 " there is no place in which a demagogue well 
 *' armed with impudence, would feel more 
 '* conscious of the strength which audacity 
 " supplies, nor where he could be so mis- 
 *' chievous and dangerous." 
 
 It would be well were the speeches of such 
 demagogues confined to the House of Commons. 
 We might hope that the house would impose 
 its authority to check a repetition of such mis- 
 chievous harangues, or at least to neutralize 
 their effects, which it is impossible to do when 
 addressed to the heated imagination of an 
 electioneering multitude. 
 
 The learned gentleman, not content with at- 
 tacking at the election the Directors of the East- 
 India Company, in which attack he has so lamen- 
 tably failed, attempted to fasten upon the Duke 
 of Wellington the imputation of having counte- 
 
118 
 
 nanced the proceedings of the late French 
 Ministry, which led to the abdication of the 
 bigotted but unfortunate monarch Charles the 
 Tenth. The learned gentleman's new con- 
 stituents did not respond to this unworthy- 
 attack, and we rejoice at it. We know his 
 leviathan powers ; we are aware that he leaves 
 no strain of oratory untouched, however wild, 
 which is calculated to impress the people with 
 the belief that he and his associates are alone 
 capable of steering the helm of the state, and car- 
 rying the country through the difficulties which 
 the gathering storm in foreign Europe we fear 
 portends. 
 
 The learned gentleman has told his friends 
 in Yorkshire, that he has but a small property 
 amongst them, and little any where. We are 
 not disposed to place an undue reliance upon 
 the pretensions which mere wealth, irrespective 
 of other qualifications, gives to public confi- 
 dence or respect; but where its possession is 
 accompanied by unparalleled service to the 
 state, by a devotion to the interest and welfare 
 of the country, at the sacrifice of all personal 
 ease, after a life of the most arduous and un- 
 ceasing activity, the most irresistible claims 
 are presented to public gratitude and sup- 
 port ; and the country can repose with con- 
 fidence on the well-intentioned efforts of such 
 
119 
 
 a man, fully assured that he has every tie 
 by which the human heart can be actuated, to 
 pursue with singleness of purpose the welfare 
 and happiness of his fellow citizens, whose 
 interests and prosperity, as well as the honour 
 of his country, he feels to be identified with, 
 and inseparable from his own. 
 
 We have such a Minister in the Duke of 
 Wellington ; and we trust that the learned gen- 
 tleman will find his attempt to pluck from his 
 Grace's brows the laurels which he has so nobly 
 won, for the purpose of casting them at the 
 feet of the ** schoolmaster now abroad," to be 
 vain and futile. We suggest to Mr. Brougham 
 that he had better rest contented with conti- 
 nuing to be the laudatory usher of so enlight- 
 ened a preceptor. 
 
 We know not what the opinion of the Duke 
 of Wellington, or that of the rest of His Ma- 
 jesty's Ministers, may be on the India Question. 
 Much as we are interested in its settlement 
 (not for the paltry consideration of whether the 
 dividend is to be £5 or £5. 10^. per cent., but 
 because we believe the welfare of millions de- 
 pends upon it), we feel that our first and para- 
 mount duty is to our country at home ; and we 
 have adverted to this sentiment in connexion 
 with the question of India, because the same 
 spirit which would cinnihilate, upon such un- 
 
' 120 
 
 founded and perverted statements, the East- 
 India Company, is at work, and would equally 
 level all distinctions in society, sanctioned, as 
 we are prepared to shew such distinctions are, 
 by the highest of all authority ; and would also 
 destroy our happily constructed constitution, 
 for the purpose of raising upon its ruins a sys- 
 tem more in accordance with the liberalism of 
 the day, and with that of "a man " whose ears 
 cannot brook the sound of ^^ my Lord," as ap- 
 plied to the hereditary legislators of our highly 
 privileged, and we trust still happy land. 
 We hope that we are not fast approaching 
 the last step in the progress of nations, which 
 having been established by the sword, have 
 subsequently enjoyed the blessing of good laws 
 and rational freedom, but insensible to those 
 advantages, have at last become the victim of 
 popular opinion and revolutionary principles. 
 
 It is a just observation, *' that the more loudly 
 " that opinion is expresed, with the more rea- 
 ^' son it ought to be always distrusted ; the 
 *' more powerful it becomes, the more easily 
 '* it is misled, and the more its predominance 
 ** and its tyranny are to be dreaded." 
 
 LONDON 
 PRINTED BY J. L. COX, GREAT QUEEN STREET. 
 
■'^. 
 
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