Ai A 0! 0! 0! o; Oi 1 4 4 7 2 East-India Question, Sub- stance of a report .. .contain ing Observations on the Pe- titions to Parliament from the Outports against the India Company's Exclusive Privileges . UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES EAST-INDIA QUESTION. SUBSTANCE OF A REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE COURT OF PROPRIETORS BY THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE, CONTAINING OBSERVATIONS OS THE PETITIONS TO PARLIAMENT FROM THE OUTPORTS AGAINST THE EAST- INDIA COMPANY'S EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGES. lonnon : Printed ly E. Cox and Son, Great Queen Steeet, Lincoln's- Inn-Fields. 1813. I > VttwD - . ** * it* ^ ** c R StADiNG ROOM: (TNLYr "nii if,- - T^-rrTA\fitt*i_mi The following is the SUBSTANCE of : the REPORT which was submitted to the Court of Proprietors by the Committee of Correspondence, and ivhich, for the accom- 5 modation of the Public, and at the desire ( ? of several Individuals, it has been thought i A x advisable to reduce to a more convenient size and form. v:t TV .:- ?e>>:r : . * .r/ Sfj - "Jo SUBSTANCE, fyc. fyc. THE Court of Directors, in their late correspon- dence with the President of the India Board, expressed a wish to be further informed, as to those representations which had satisfied , His Majesty's Ministers that the import trade from the East-Indies .should no longer.be confined to the Port of London . They were referred by his Lordship, in his letter of the 4th January, to the petitions presented to Parliament, in the course of the last session, from the merchants and ma- nufacturers connected with the Outports. It soon appeared, that this examination must neces- sarily be extended to every petition, without exception, which had been preferred against a renewal of .the Company's Charter j because the 6 arguments in favour of the Outports are dispersed through those petitions, and because those argu- ments are, many of them, precisely the same as are directed against the whole of the Company's exclusive commercial privileges. The right of the Outports to a participation in the trade, is derived by the Petitioners from those general principles, which arraign monopolies of every kind and degree. Now it is distinctly allowed by His Majesty's Ministers, that these sweeping ' 1 ' ' ; principles are, by no means, to be admitted, as .. furnishing a proper measure of the claims set up against the Company : it is presumed, therefore, that, in the opinion of the same Ministers, no arguments, deduced solely from such principle?, . in support of any part of those claims, can be considered as establishing the case of the Pcti- . tioners. -fc* The few remaining arguments on this question ' relate principally to the facility and certainty with which the revenue rnay be collected at the Outports, and the safety with which the mer- chants of this country may be admitted to all the settlements of the East. Now these are nothing 7 more than opinions, unsupported by proof : and even if they were proved, they would still leave the vast complication of interests, which are in- volved in the question, totally unprovided for. It remains, therefore, still to be explained, how " a claim against an absolute restriction of the " import trade to London" can be recommended . to His Majesty's Government, by arguments resting on principles which that Government does not admit These remarks will receive the most effectual confirmation from a review of the principal state- ments contained in the petitions: and though it cannot reasonably be expected, that such an examination should disclose any new topics of defence, yet it will, at least, shew the readiness of the East- India Company patiently to meet every charge, however frequently and success- fully repelled already. The material objections which appear in the petitions may be comprized under the following heads. I. That experience and principle unite to condemn commercial monopolies, as per- / 8 nicious and Unjust, and as unavoidably lead- ing to a careless and wasteful system of management. II. That the monopoly of the East-India Company has been deeply injurious to the commercial prosperity of this nation : that it has locked up capital, strangled .competi- tion, and abridged commercial enterprize : that it has crippled, beyond all .calculation, the energies of our manufacturers : that there is no hope whatever of participation by the Public in the profits of the monopoly : that eVenthebeneficial consequences of open- ing the trade must be defeated, by entrusting the Company with any control over the private-trade : that the continuance of the present system must ruin the Indian com- merce, arid transfer it to other states ; and that, therefore, the monopoly is nothing less than a public nuisance and disgrace. III. Thatj with the increase of their territory, the trade of the Company 'has diminished : that, since 1793, they have -dded greatly to their debt : that, instead of contributing to the resources of the country, they have only multiplied its em- barrassments, by repeated claims on the public purse and credit : and that their impending difficulties, at this moment/ re- quire additional pecuniary assistance. IV. That freedom of trade (especially with countries acquired and maintained by the valor of His Majesty's forces) is the birthright of the people of this empire, and necessary to the prosperity of its commerce : that the confinement of the Eastern trade to London is a violation of this right, unnecessary, unjust, and impolitic. Un- necessary, because the duties may be col- lected with greater ease and safety at the Outports ; unjust, because every mercantile |;H' place in the kingdom is entitled to the same privilege; and impolitic, because the supe- rior economy and dispatch of the Outports are requisite, to secure an equality with foreign nations. i V.' That there is no reasonable ground tw>0. B , a vast change has taken place in the whole Indian system ; a change which has given it the cha- racter ascribed to it by Lord Melville, of a regu- Tated and qualified monopoly. Notwithstanding this revolution, the Petitioners either quarrel with these concessions and relaxations, as utterly insignificant ; or else, in the warmth of their impatience for a brighter order of things, they forget those concessions altogether, and return to the charge, with the most ancient and approved topics of complaint against the abominations of a strict monopoly. That the government of the Indian territory should remain with the Company has not been denied : it will, consequently, not be disputed, that they should be entrusted with the means of sustaining so weighty a responsibility. Now the Company maintain, that a further abridgement of their commercial privileges will disable them for the execution of this trust. The Petitioners , do not appear, however, to consider this de- . partment of the question as worth their con- 15 sideration. On the means which are to be substituted for the government of India they are entirely silent : perhaps they have done wisely. They might, in truth, find that inquiry somewhat difficult and embarrassing : but of this they are quite sure, that the Indian trade must be a desirable object, and accordingly, in- stead of losing time in the contrivance of schemes for the public safety of Hindostan, they resort, as usual, to popular invective against the mon- strous grievance of commercial exclusion. But " it is proved by undeniable documents," that the present system must transfer the trade to other States, and impair the private wealth and public resources of this country. Of these do- cuments your Committee have never yet heard, and they find some difficulty in conceiving that they exist.. It is not improbable, that the hopes of the Petitioners may have sharpened their in- genuity, and drawn from the statements of the Company itself, conclusions directly opposite to those which would occur to impartial examina- tion. In answer to F.ll such conclusions, the Company appeal confidently to their correspond- 16 cnce with their servants abroad, for proof that, m a long course of years, they have made more numerous, persevering, and costly experiments, for the introduction of British commodities to the East, than can ever be expected from the resources or the activity of private merchants. They moreover do not hesitate to assert, that their institution, instead of mutilating the na- f tional prosperity, has advanced the wealth and greatness of the empire, to a degree not easily to be estimated. In support of this assertion, they intreat the attention of all who would form a fair judgment, to the history of British India. In these illustrious annals they will find, that the energies of the Company first opened a new commerce, which gave impulse to the manufac- turers, and augmented the navigation of the country: that they maintained a share of tti is trade against the rfvalship of the Portuguese and Dutch : that they preserved it from total ruin, amidst the convulsions of the civil wars, and the . . more dangerous innovations or subsequent pe- riods : that they upheld the national interests in India against European enemies and native .%>e ed* or*A 17 ,TC-.- powers, and hare acquired, chiefly at their owft expence, an empire for the mother country., which has exalted her rank in the scale of na- tions. They have since expelled every European nation, except our ally. Portugal, from the Indian Continent and Ocean, and given a better go- vernment to their dominions than the East ever saw before. If to these particulars be added the high desert of her naval and military officers, the importance of her marine, and the influx of 1 - private wealth through their channel into Britain, some notion may be formed of the alleged injury and degradation which the East-India Company liave brought upon this country. III. Of the charges under the third head, all, except one, have been repeatedly answered ; and that one is founded on a mis-statement. It is not true, that the Company's imports have decreased, although the sales have, in some years, fallen of by the exclusion of British goods from the Eu~ ropean continent : an evil common to the mer- cantile interest of the vrhole country, but now converted into a charge against the Company. As to the accession of territory, it can have no c . immediate or necessary tendency to enlarge the trade. If the sale in Europe be but limited, what benefit can be derived to trade from the expulsion - f rivals and enemies from the Indian ocean ? And if the inhabitants of those regions of India, where the Company has been settled for generations back, have no relish for British commodities, how is a market to be expected in the exhausted and unsettled provinces of recent acquisitions? As to the stipulation of 1793, for pecuniary participation by the Public, it was a conditional stipulation, which has been defeated by the ruin- ous wars which followed. The applications of the Company to Parliament have never been for aid to support their establishments : such appli- cations have been either for the reimburse- ment of sums expended by them in national en- terprises, or to enable them to meet the transfer of the Indian debt to this country ; a debt which it never can be possible to discharge out of the Company's commercial funds, and which is there r fore juost unjusly mixed up with the subject o/ their supposed commercial delinquencies. 19 IV. To the claim of a free trade, as a right belonging, by inheritance, to every subject of the realm, it may be sufficient to reply, that this, in common with every other abstract right, must be liable to those limitations which may be re- quired by the public interest. The whole con- troversy is thus reduced to this one question, Whether the public interest will be better con- sulted by maintaining the Indian empire under a system which has hitherto preserved and im- proved it, or by a change which, at least, endan- gers the security both of the empire and the trade together ? No solution of this question has been produced by the Petitioners : and until it is solved, it is clear that the claim of inherent birthright cannot be listened to for a moment. The " efforts and valour of His Majesty's forces'* may be safely allowed, without conceding to them the power of affecting the state of the ques- tion with regard to any of the countries under discussion. The territories held by the Com- pany were acquired under exclusive powers and privileges received from the Legislature ; how, then, can the rights of the Company, be altered, . by the nature or quality of the troops employed in the acquisition ? It is said, however, that the Government pur* poses that some of the Outports only, and not the whole, should be opened to the importation from India. With regard to this intended limi- tation, it may be observed, that it discards, afc once, the claim of inherent right; .that it admits the danger which would result from the exercise^ of it ; and that it would only change the forni and extent of the monopoly. So much for the principle of the measure. In its operation it would be as certain, though not perhaps so spec* dily ruinous, as the grant of indiscriminate li- berty to all the ports in the kingdom. It would immediately derange the periodical sale of the Company, which is the master wheel in the me- chanism of their import trade ; and it would, in- fallibly, encourage the efforts of the remaining i. *. j. ^i -i ports to obtain the same privilege. But whatever may be the justice of confining the trade of London, it is asserted, at all events, . , ' ... to be unnecessary and impolitic. To prove it unnecessary, the Petitioners resort J idt v$ to the knowtj safety and dispatch with which the duties are collected at the Outports. With equal Confidence it may be demanded, what compart son there can be between the collection of duties at any port, and the collection of du- ties, with perfect certainty, facility, arid a very trifling expence, at the India-House? But whatever may be the result of this comparison, it leaves another, much more important point, un- touched, the danger of smuggling. On this danger the Court have enlarged in their letters to the President of the India Board, of 13th of Ja- nuary 1809, and the 15th and 29th of April 1812. It would be needless to repeat their objections ; objections which remain, to this moment, with- out any sound answer. They cannot however ob- serve without satisfaction, that the opinions of the Court are decidedly confirmed, by the re* ports recently made by the .Boards of Customs and Excise to His Majesty's Ministers, respect- ing the danger which the new system would Y}> WIlJlIO:) 1O fpJi.?>it} ;. 4 *Vj[ /, ,/. . i ! occasion to the revenue, and which, in their judgment, would be inevitable. As to the remaining argument, which ascribes to the Outports such superior economy and dis- 22 patch, as must be important in securing ah equa- lity with foreign nations, your Committee is of opinion, that the Company is but little interested in disputing this supposed advantage. Even if this superiority were granted, the impolicy of ne- glecting it can never be much dreaded by those who, with your Committee, are persuaded, that the trade on which it is to operate is not likely to attain any considerable magnitude. It is impossible to retire from this part of the subject, without remarking that the petitioners, in. the contemplation of their own interests, appear to have forgotten the " injustice and policy" of consigning to inevitable ruin, the immense inte- rests and establishments which must be sacrificed by a removal of the imports from the metropolis* It is impossible, without a very voluminous de- tail, to do justice to the importance of these con- siderations. It may, however, be seriously ask- ed, whether the case is equal between the people of London, who have a perfectly destructive loss to apprehend, and those of the Outports, who have only the expectation of a possible addition to their present advantages ? . ba j i > HP ' It is maintained by the Petitioners, that the disadvantages of opening the China trade are vi- sionary ; another assertion, which exemplifies the surprizing deficiency of information, witU which these important questions are approached. Can it be necessary to remind the Petitioners of m the jealousy and the despotism of the Chinese Government ; of their contempt for foreign trade, and the suspicious treatment of strangers? are they yet to learn, that European ships are con- fined to a single port; and that, even there, no constant residence is allowed to any foreigner, without credentials from his Sovereign ? The O vexatious customs and insolent caprices of that Government are, in fact, such as place the Bri- tish subjects there in a state of constant embarrass- ment and difficulty. The Company's agents fre- quently submit to humiliations, which the honor of a Sovereign would not allow any representa- tive of his to endure. If, then, it is so difficult, by every art of submission and regularity, to se- cure the confidence of this singular nation, what is to be expected from the indiscriminate approach of unconnected unaccredited Europeans ? Even sup- posing them to be admitted at first, can it be doubtetl, tbat their irregularities would soon ex- cite the resentment of the Government, and would end in the spee !y expulsion of foreigners, and the utter destruction of the trade ? It is idle to rely for a continuation of the commerce on the honourable character of Britons. The integrity of the traders would be defeated by the licentious habits of the British seamen : habits which, un- fortunately, the discipline, even of the Compa- ny's ships, cannot always effectually control. If the example of the Americans be insisted on, it may be replied, that their freedom from molestation is owing partly to their greater so- briety of demeanour, but chiefly to the sanction afforded them by the British establishments, with which their language and manners appear to give them some connection. Nothing, indeed, but the prudence of -the Company's Representatives, and the extent and probity of their dealings, would have reconciled this haughty and suspi- cious people even to the limited intercourse which now exists. But the principles now proposed would utterly disable the establishment of the 25 Company from maintaining its credit or its posi- . . tion. They would, at any rate, expose to im- minent risk the whole system of the China . trade, with all its numerous train of establish- ments ; and, even on the supposition that the commerce itself should survive, would fearfully endanger the revenue which would be due from, it to this country : for how would it be possible to prevent the smuggling of tea on the coasts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, while there ex- ists such facility of taking it on board in many of the Eastern Islands, together with the temp- . tation of evading a duty of ninety-five per cent ? On these important points the Petitioners are silent. It may, however, be. well worth their while to consider them seriously. Let them remember, that by their intrusion the trade MAY be ruined ; and that, even if it survives, it will probably be incapable of much extension : for the Chinese now take our woollens only in barter for tea, and the present importations of tea are as large as the country requires. VI. It is extremely important, that correct * , - * . , , '. 4 j - notions should be obtained, relative to the sup- 26 , , f ., . - . ., T ,. posed advantages of the Americans in the Indian trade, which is the subject of complaint under the sixth head. The vessels of the American states made their appearance in the Indian Seas about the year 1785, and as they were then admitted to the other European settlements, the Bengal Govern- ment thought it impolitic to exclude them from the British ports. In 1/9 4 a direct trade be- tween their own ports and those of British India was allowed by treaty to the United States, a privilege which, in l/97> was extended to all friendly nations. The length of the war which followed the French revolution, rendered these concessions highly valuable to the Americans. They did not, however, confine themselves to the stipulated trade between America and India : in violation of the treaty they visited the ports of Europe, supplied the West Indian and North American colonies with Eastern goods, and were enabled to engage actively in the China trade by their supposed relation to the British. Of this trade, however offensive, it may fairly be said, that it was favorable to British India. It carried large and seasonable supplies of bullion to that country, not a seventh part of its imports being in goods ; and, in other respects, only occupied that place in Indian commerce, from which the war had unavoidably driven the mer- chants of England. It is equally clear, that the cause of this trade is not to be looked for in the activity and intelligence of private adventure, as contrasted with the monopoly of the Com- pany, but in the advantages which always belong to the neutral character. To this circumstance the Americans owe their access to ports which * are shut against belligerents, and tbeir ability to navigate with incomparably greater ease, cheap- ness, and expedition. Had this commerce been vested in an American East-India Company, it must still have necessarily possessed those advan- tages which have made it so eminently success- ful ; and there is not the slightest doubt, that the return of peace will destroy all these advan- tages, and drive them at once from all compe- tition with British commerce. This part of the subject will be powerfully illustrated by the striking fact 5 that the intri*- D 2 28 sion of these neutrals has not been confined to the trade of India. Every one is familiar with the complaints excited by the very general trans- fer of the colonial and carrying trade to the Americans, during their neutrality. Now, in this case, there, was no monopoly to cripple the exertions of British commerce, or to drive it forcibly into the hands of foreign adventurers : yet was this entire liberty insufficient to exclude the Americans, or to save us from becoming tributary to them for a vent to the produce of British industry. What was the cause of this? Beyond all question, the condition of the world, and the exigencies and difficulties of extended warfare. Now the Americans have done for the manufactures and produce of India, precisely what they have been doing for those of Britain. Why, then, should a different solution be re- sorted to, for the explanation of effects entirely similar ? The reasonings or the prejudices on this subject may be stated thus. Under a per- fect freedom of trade, the Americans make use of their neutrality, in largely engrossing the circulation of British goods. The causes of this 29 are, clearly, the facilities of neutral, and the embarrassments of belligerent commerce. The Americans intrude, in a similar manner, into the trade of India. The reasons were evident^ the .monopoly of the East-India Company, and the superiority of individual adventure. It is hoped that the manifest inconsistency of these conclusions will create some distrust of the popu- lar logic on this subject, and that the foregoing statements will be sufficient to shew, with how little justice the prosperity of the American trade with India is connected with the question of the Company's exclusive privileges. VII. It is asserted, that a free trade to the East would open an unbounded [field to British capital and enterprise, and afford incalculable relief to the distresses of British commerce and manufac- turers. The most extravagant notions are entertained of this new world of commercial adventure. The language of all the Petitioners on this subject is abundantly animated. The manu- facturers of Sheffield, in particular, profess, that such are the energies of British capital 30 and adventure, that they will not only supply wants where they exist, but create them where they do not. The Company, on the other hand, appeal to the experience of successive ages, and to the knowledge of numbers who are best in- formed on the subject, for the truth of the oppo- site assertion, that it is not possible greatly to extend, among the inhabitants of the East, the consumption of British productions ; or, in this country, the sale of Asiatic commodities. Jt has, indeed, been asserted by Dr. Adam Smith, that " the East Indies offered a market for the tc manufactures of Europe, greater than both " Europe and America together." The expe- rience of forty years has proved, that this great master of political economy was not infallible. The exertions of all Europe and America have made no discovery of this boundless market ; and if the sagacity of another profound enquirer may , be trusted, they never will. "The Indians," says the President Montesquieu, " have their " arts, which are adapted to their manner of life. " What is luxury to us, never can be so to them. *' Their climate neither requires nor permits the 31 fl use of almost any of our commodities. Ancient " authors, who have written on India, represent " the country precisely such as we now find it. " As to police^ to manners, and to morals, India " always has been, and always will be, what it is " now ; and those who trade to India will carry " money thither and bring none back." What market for European luxuries can be expected among a people, the earnings, and con- sequently the expences of whose labouring classes, at a liberal estimate, do not exceed .'4. 10s. per annum ? Indolent by nature, frugal by habit, enslaved by their religion, how are they to be converted into a nation of wealthy, curious, and enterprising purchasers ? Even the most opulent among them have adopted none of our tastes and fashions ; except, perhaps, in a few articles of jewellery, hardware, looking glasses, and car- riages, with the use of a mantle of broad-eloth in the cold season. The climate of the north of India, indeed, is somewhat more similar to our own, but the habits of the people are equally dissimilar to ours ; and, besides this, Europeans have no conception of the difficulty, 32 expense, and insecurity of conducting any trade beyond the boundaries of the Company's Govern- ment. With respect to China, it may be grant- ed that many of our manufactures might be taken off by that country, if the government would allow their circulation. But the jealousy of its practice has been already stated : a jealousy which has not been mitigated by the splendour of a Mostly embassy, or the address of an accomplish- ed diplomatist. If instead of that approved orgai* of the European traders, the Company's Canton establishment, a swarm of unconnected adven- turers were to be let loose upon that coast, it has been shewn, that the immediate abridgment, nay the utter loss of that trade, would be the most probable consequence. The destructive influence of the monopoly is, in the opinion of the Petitioners, very dis- astrously exhibited in the circumstances, that the whole exports of the Company to the im- mense regions of the East : -do not amount to a fifth part of the exports of this Country to North America. The Company cannot be very soli- citous to repel this charge, while it is notorious that the exports from Britain to the vast con- tinent of Africa do not equal her exports to the American colonies which still remain to us. The same cause will explain these strange ef- fects in either case. The North Americans are the same people as ourselves, live under a climate nearly similar, and have a large and effective demand for our productions. The Africans and Hindoos live under tropical suns, and are im- perfectly civilized : for these reasons they want few of our productions ; and if they did, they are, in geweral too poor lo purchase them. Nothing, surely, but total ignorance, could have tempted the Petitioners to appeal to the experience of the time of Cromwell. It is now clearly ascertained, that although the competition brought Indian goods to England remarkably cheap, yet this ended speedily in the ruin of the adventurers engaged in it, several of whom ac- tually joined in memorials to the Protector, that he would restore the Company, in order to save the trade of India to the nation. But the private trade, it is said, produces a prpfit, while the Company has been trading to a 34 loss. At certain times, and with some articles, this may perhaps have been the case ; but the Committee have substantial reason to believe, that very large importations of other articles have repeatedly sold to a loss, or have remained long on hand for want of sale. Even to the officers of the Company's ships their privilege has ge- nerally been of a small and uncertain value. With all the advantages of exemption from freight and commission, they find it, on the ' whole, a precarious, unproductive business. Now if these persons fail, who can hope to suc- ceed ? That persons should still be found to embark in the private trade, and that it should still pro- gressively have increased, must be accounted for, hy the necessity the manufacturers of indigo are under of sending their produce to England, as almost the only market; by the practice of trans- mitting fortunes from India, in the shape of goods ; by the great increase of Europeans and their descendants, who must, of course, be sup- plied with European luxuries and conveniences ; by the necessity of returns in the productions of 35 the country (since specie would, in general, be a losing remittance) ; and by the occasional spe- culation of large capitalists. It is, however, an undoubted fact, that these larger adventures have failed, at least as often as they have succeeded. The amount of private goods remaining from time to time in the Company's warehouses, either without a sale, or uncleared after sale, will afford some notion of the real state of the private trade. On the first of January 1813 this amount was no less than < 3 ,419,000. The great and striking conclusion to be de- rived from a review of the trade since 1 793 is this ; that during a period of twenty years from that time to the present, not one new article for the consumption of India has been exported ; and there is but a very trifling augmentation in the amount of articles exported before. That this cannot fairly be ascribed to the restrictions of the Company is clearly ascertained, by the failure of the privilege trade granted to their commanders and officers. And although the private trade has increased, from the causes stated above, yet it should never be forgotten, that of 2 7 36 54,OOO tons allotted to it since 1793, only 21,806 tons have been actually used by private merchants, and these filled wholly with commo- dities for the use of Europeans. With regard to the imports from India, it should be remarked, that the enterprize of two centuries has been employed with a view to their augmentation : it can, therefore, be scarcely reasonable, at the present day, to hope for any material improvement of this branch of the trade. Of the articles already imported, it is notorious that the excellence of the British manufactures has greatly limited the demand for cotton piece goods, and that the raw cotton of ~ India cannot enter into a competition with the > cottons of Georgia and Brazil. Of sugars it is idle to speak. It is in this state of things, when the East is without any demand for our produc- tions, when the warehouses of the Company are filled with Indian commodities, and when they, in common with the mercantile interest of Bri- tain, are suffering from the continental restric- tions ; at this time it is, that the Petitioners, in the same breath, complain of the stagnation of 37 trade, and stigmatize the Company for not en- larging it. VlII. The measures by which the ruinous ef- fects of the proposed experiment are to be cor- rected, appear to have occupied very little of the Attention of the Petitioners. The Company are naturally rather more anxious on this point: They cannot but remark with pain and alarm, that nothing like an adequate scheme of compensa- tion is proposed for the inevitable destruction of the London establishments. The plan of re- paration for the claims of the Company by an equal impost on the " Indian trade," is surely remarkable neither for its wisdom or its justice; It takes for granted the point in dispute, that the trade will be very extensive ; and it offers only a small part, as a compensation for the whole. From the failure of the experiment, the worst evil anticipated by the petitioners is, tf that " matters would return to their present state." It is hoped, that there are not many persons courageous enough to dispose of this fearful part 354693 . \ of the question in so unceremonious a manner. Those, indeed, who petition for the change, will disdain any anxiety that may be expressed for /.- v< the peril to be incurred by theru. The Com- mittee, therefore, will confine themselves to a de- claration of their own conviction, that the di- version of the trade from its present course will bring with it the speedy and certain demolition of a vast mass of interests and establishments connected with the Company. It is surely, then, little better than mockery, to refer them to the possible restoration of the present order of things ; an event which must come too late, to repair the fatal effects of one ruinous mistake. If nothing but an experiment will satisfy the Public, a large and ample one may be made, by means of an open export trade from the Outports, with return however to the port of London : an experiment which will sufficiently ascertain the possibility of extending the Indian commerce, without the destruction of present establishments, or the hazard of disastrous consequences to the empire in case of failure. At this safe point. therefore, it is humbly hoped that the wisdom . of the Legislature will see fit to rest, in spite of the rashness and impatience which may have been chiefly excited by the temporary difficul- ties of the commercial world, ' 8 r V j*> 9CC i i euo LONDON : Printed by E. Cox and Son, Great Queen Street, JJucoln's-Inn-Fields. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 6 7 19 3 8 APJ RECE MAIN 10/>N DESK 1964 A.M. 71819110111112 IV ED P.M. II 21 31.4' S I 6_ - Form L9-32m-8,'58(5876s4)444 \LJFORNU AT LOS ANGELES IJRRARY UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL L BRARY ACILITY