state of the world, and its calamitous effects upon the commercial interest in general, they are of opinion, that some participation in the Indian trade, thus reverting, might possibly be conceded, under due regulations, to British merchants not belonging to the East India Company; which would not impair the interests either of the Public or of the Company.

In this moderate opinion, they are fully justified, by the consent of the Company, to admit the Merchants of the out-ports to a share in the Indian trade. And thus far, all is amicable. But the out-port Merchants having represented to Government, that the condition, hitherto annexed to a Licensed Import Trade,—of bringing back their Indian Cargoes to the port of London, and of disposing of them solely in the Company's sales, in Leadenhall Street,—would defeat the object of the concession; and that the delay, embarrassment, and perplexity, which such an arrangement would create, would destroy the simple plan of their venture; and having therefore desired, that they might be empowered to return with their cargoes to the ports from whence they originally sailed, and to which all their interests are confined; Government, being convinced of the justice of the representation, have proposed that the Import Trade may be yielded to the Out-ports, under proper regulations, as well as the Export Trade. To this demand the Court of Directors peremptorily refuse their consent; and upon this only point the parties are now at issue. This question alone, retards the final arrangements for the renewal of their Charter.

Yet it is this point, which one of the parties interested affirms, to be "a question of the last importance to the safety of the British Empire in India, and of the British Constitution at home;" and therefore undertakes to resist it, with all the determination which the importance of so great a stake would naturally inspire. But, when we compare the real measure in question with the menacing character which is thus attempted to be attached to it, we at once perceive something so extravagantly hyperbolical, something so disproportionate, that it at once fixes the judgment; and forces upon it a suspicion, that there is more of policy and design, than of truth and sincerity in the assertion. That objections to the measure might arise, capable of distinct statement and exposition, is a thing conceivable; and, these being stated, it would be a subject for consideration, how far they were removable. But to assert, in a round period, that the safety of the empire in Europe and Asia is fundamentally affected in the requisition, that a ship proceeding from Liverpool or Bristol to India, might return from India to Liverpool or Bristol, instead of to the Port of London, is calculated rather to shake, than to establish, confidence in those who make the assertion. Yet this is the question which the country is now called upon to consider, as one tending to convulse the British Constitution. Surely, if the foundations of the empire in both hemispheres have nothing more to threaten them, than whether the out-port shipping shall carry their cargoes home to their respective ports, or repair to the dock-yards in the port of London, the most timid politician may dismiss his alarms and resume his confidence. When the East India Company, by conceding a regulated Export Trade, have at once demonstrated the absurdity of all the predictions which foretold, in that Trade, the overthrow of the Indian Empire; we may confidently believe, that the Import Trade will prove as little destructive, and that its danger will be altogether as chimerical as the former.

Whether the Court of Directors endeavour to fix that menacing character upon the proposed Import Trade, as a bar against any further requisition, is a question which will naturally occur to any dispassionate person, who is not immediately and personally interested in the conditions of the Charter; and he will be strongly inclined to the affirmative in that question, when he finds, that the reason which they have alleged for their resistance, is their apprehension of the increased activity which the practice of smuggling would acquire, from the free return of the out-port ships from India to their respective ports. It is not a little extraordinary, that they should so strenuously urge this argument against those persons, who, while they propose the measure, are themselves responsible for the good management and protection of the revenue; and who must therefore be supposed to feel the necessity of providing means and regulations, adapted to the measure which they propose. The Ministers of the Crown have not failed to inform the Court of Directors, that, in consequence of the communications which they have had with the Commissioners of the Customs and Excise upon the subject, they find that the Directors have greatly over-rated the danger which they profess to entertain; and they acquaint them, that new regulations will be provided to meet the new occasion; and that the out-port ships and cargoes will be subject to forfeiture upon the discovery of any illicit articles on board. Yet the Court of Directors still persist in declaring, that the hazard of smuggling is the reason why they will not grant to the out-ports an import trade; and this, through a fear of compromising "the safety of the British Empire in India, and the British Constitution at home."

A calm and temperate observer, who scrupulously weighs the force and merits of this reasoning, will naturally be forced into so much scepticism as to doubt, whether there may not be some other reasons, besides the safety of the Empire, which may induce the East India Company to stand so firm for the condition of bringing all the import Indian trade into the Port of London? Whether there may not be some reasons, of a narrower sphere than those of the interests of the Empire? In searching for such reasons, it will occur to him, that the Port of London is the seat of the Company's immediate and separate interests; and he will shrewdly suspect, that those interests are the real, while those of the Empire are made the ostensible, motive for so vigorous a resistance. When he reflects, that it is proposed to leave the Company in the undisturbed possession of all the power of Government over the Indian Empire, which they have hitherto enjoyed; that they are to remain possessed, as heretofore, of the exclusive trade to China, from whence four-fifths of their commercial profit is derived; that they themselves have virtually admitted the falsity of the theoretical mischiefs, foretold as the certain results of an out-port trade, by having agreed to concede that trade, to the extent required by Government; that they equally allow, an import trade for the merchants of the out-ports; but make their resistance upon the single point, that the import trade should be all brought together into their own warehouses, and should be disposed of in their own sales in Leadenhall Street: when he combines all these considerations, he will think that he plainly discovers, that the interests of the Empire at large are not quite so much involved in the question as they proclaim; and that, if any interests are more pressingly calculated than others, it must be their own, and not the Public's. If their interests are to be affected by the measure, let them fairly state it, and show the extent; but let them not endeavour to defend them covertly, under an artful and factious allegation of the ruin of the British Constitution. And if they really do apprehend that the Constitution would be endangered, let them not hazard such consequences by their own proceedings. Let them not come forward as advocates for the preservation of the Empire, if their