and by receiving the returning cargoes into their own warehouses, in those ports.

A reference to the printed papers (as has already been signified) will show, that the Court of Directors were prevailed upon to concede the first of those points, but that they have been immoveable with respect to the second; although their own commercial knowledge must have made it evident to them, that the concession of the first, that is, a free export, would be nugatory, unless supported by the benefit arising from the freedom of import; which is not only in the proportion of four to one in amount to the export, but is requisite to give that unity to the concern, without which great commercial establishments cannot be kept up.

Such is the state of the question, or, as it has been called, by some strange perversion of ideas, the negotiation, between the Company, as applicants for a renewal of their Charter which is about to expire, and the Government, through whose aid it is to be solicited, or at least, without whose concurrence it is certainly very questionable, whether they would be able to obtain it. These are the circumstances, under which the affairs of the East India Company must necessarily, and speedily, be brought forward, for the consideration of Parliament. Can it, then, be considered an exaggerated view of the hazards of such a situation, to suppose, that some guardian of the public purse may deem it requisite to inquire, whether the application for pecuniary aid from Parliament ought not to be preceded by a substantial proof, not of concession, for they have in fact nothing to concede, but of something like accommodation on the part of the Proprietors? And in that event, might it not be questioned, whether, since the dividend of 10 per cent. was sanctioned upon an assumption, that the revenue of the Company yielded a surplus of upwards of a million; now, when instead of a surplus, a deficit is admitted to exist, the dividend ought not to be reduced, not merely to the standard from which it had been raised under the supposed prosperous state of the Company's affairs, but to a standard to be regulated by the amount of the ascertained profits upon their own trade, under whatever circumstances it may hereafter be conducted?

It is not meant to insinuate, that any condition of the kind alluded to is likely to be imposed, in granting the relief so pressingly required by the present exigencies of the Company; but if a necessity for the winding up of their affairs, as an exclusive Company, should arrive, and if their own resources, with the profits they may derive from their commerce as a Corporate Body, should not be adequate to the payment of a dividend of 10½ per cent.; could it reasonably be expected, that Parliament would, in all future times, extend its liberality towards the Proprietors of India stock, to the extent of securing to them a continuance of their present dividend?

It is to be feared, that those who may have calculated upon such a result, have taken a false measure of their prospective situation; and it is on account of this apprehension, that it appears highly important to call the attention of the Proprietors to the care of their own substantial interest in the dividend; an interest, which to them is, and must be paramount.

GRACCHUS.

LETTER III.

Thursday, January 14, 1813.

It is at all times an object equally interesting and instructive, to trace the origin of laws and institutions, and to follow them in the progress of their operation; but this inquiry becomes more powerfully attractive, when the pursuit is stimulated by an anxiety to defend a supposed right, or to acquire an extension of advantages which are already possessed.

Such an investigation appearing to be a necessary sequel of the subject treated of in a former communication, let us now take a succinct view of those provisions of the Act of 1793, by which the East India Company, upon the last renewal of their Charter for a fixed time, were called upon to relax from the exclusive restrictions of the monopoly which they had so long enjoyed. Taking that Act as the source and origin from whence the present India Question arises, let us briefly follow the subject in its progress, down to the propositions that are now before the Public.

It is necessary to premise, that the Company had, from an early period of their commerce, granted as a favour and indulgence to the Captains and Officers of their ships, permission to fill a regular portion of tonnage with certain prescribed articles, upon their private account, subject to the condition; that those privileged articles should be lodged in the warehouses of the Company, that they should be exposed by them at their sales, and that they should pay from 7 to 5 per cent. to cover the charge of commission and merchandise.

The Act of 1793, relieved the trade carried on under this indulgence, by reducing the rates of charge to 3 per cent.; which was established as the rate, at which the more enlarged trade, for the first time allowed by that Act to private merchants unconnected with the Company, should pay to the Company; which trade was then limited to 3000 tons, the shipping for which was to be provided by the Company, who were to be paid freight for such tonnage, and were to have the same control over the goods which might be imported, as they already exercised over the trade of their Captains and Officers.

It was soon found, that the conditions, under which this trade was opened, changed its operations, so as to render the privilege of little value. The residents in India, for whose benefit it was professed to have been principally intended, presented memorials upon the subject to the Governments abroad; and the merchants of London represented to the authorities in England, the necessity of an enlargement of the principle, as well as a correction of the regulations. It is not necessary, to go into any detail of the reasons upon which those applications were supported; because Mr. Dundas, who then presided over the affairs of India, and who had introduced and carried through Parliament the Bill of 1793, did in the most explicit terms inform the Court of Directors, in his letter of the 2d April, 1800, that "he should be uncandid, if he did not fairly acknowledge, that experience had proved it to be inadequate to the purposes for which it was intended—and that therefore he was clear, that the clause in the Act ought to be repealed, and in place thereof a power be given to the Governments abroad, to allow the British subjects, resident in India, to bring home their funds to Britain on the shipping of the country;" that is to say, on ships built in India. This letter, of the President of the Board of Control, was referred by the Court of Directors to a special Committee of their body; who, in a very elaborate Report, dated 27th Jan. 1801, that is to say, after the deliberation of eight months, declared that it was impossible for them to acquiesce in the proposition then made by Mr. Dundas. They supported their opposition by a variety of arguments, from which the following short passage need alone be selected:—"The proposals which have been brought forward by certain descriptions of men, both in India and in England, for the admission of their ships into the trade and navigation between India and Europe, proposals which extend to the establishment of a regular and systematic privilege in favour of such ships, appear, when maturely weighed, and followed into all their operations, to involve principles and effects dangerous to the interests