sessed of all the powers which they at present exercise to enable them to discharge with honour to themselves, and with benefit to India, the great and important trust of its administration; and having stated that in my judgment the pecuniary interests of the proprietors are amply secured in the projected arrangement, I cannot but be prepared at the proper season to recommend to my constituents (under the confident hope that some of the modifications urged on the attention of the Legislature will yet be conceded) to confirm the compromise by placing their chartered commercial rights in abeyance. East-India House, 26th July 1833. (Signed) J. R. CARNAC. The petition was approved at a General Court held on the 26th July, and was presented to the House of Commons by R. C. Fergusson, Esq., who moved that the Company's counsel should be called; which was not acceded to. Letter from the CHAIRMAN and DEPUTY CHAIRMAN to the Right Honourable CHARLES GRANT. SIR: East-India House, 30th July 1833. In reference to the 21st clause of the East-India Bill, and to the observation thereon which accompanied our letter of the 10th instant, we have the honour, at the request of the Court of Directors of the East-India Company, to transmit to you the accompanying Case and Opinion, from which you will perceive that Sir James Scarlett (who has been consulted in the absence of the Company's standing Counsel) considers that by the Bill as it now stands, the restriction in the Act of the 53d Geo. III. cap. 155, which limits the total expenses of the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India to £26,000 per annum, is removed. The Court therefore submit to you that a clause should be introduced into the Bill continuing that restriction. We have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient humble servants, The Right Honourable Charles Grant, &c. &c. &c. C. MARJORIBANKS. DISSENT by WILLIAM STANLEY CLARKE, Esq., from the COURT'S RESOLUTION of the 19th July. Concurring generally in the view taken by Mr. Wigram in his Dissent of the 19th instant, of the advantages which would arise in the realization of the assets by the temporary employment of the ships under contract to the Company, I hereby record my Dissent from the adoption of the recommendation contained in the letter from the Right Honourable the President of the Board of Commissioners of the 13th instant, by which the Company abandon forthwith all further commercial operations. East-India House, 31st July 1833. (Signed) WM. STANLEY CLARKE. Extract of a Letter from the CHAIRMAN and DEPUTY CHAIRMAN to the Right Honourable CHARLES GRANT. SIR: East-India House, 6th August 1833. The Court of Directors of the East-India Company observe, that whilst the East-India Bill was passing through its last stage in the House of Commons, Asiat. Jour.N.S.VOL.12 No.45. H an addition was made to the sixth clause which prevents the grant of any compensation, superannuation, or allowance to persons whose interests may be affected by the discontinuance of the Company's trade, from taking effect "until the expiration of two calendar months after particulars of the compensation, superannuation, or allowance proposed to be so granted shall have been laid before both Houses of Parliament." Upon this proviso the Court must in the first place submit. that it involves a departure from that part of the agreement between His Majesty's Government and the Company which declared, "that a sufficient power shall be retained over the commercial assets to enable the Court of Directors to propose to the Company, and ultimately to the Board for their confirmation, a plan for making suitable provision for outstanding commercial obligations, and for such of the commercial officers and servants of the Company as may be affected by the proposed arrangement." The Court can have no objection, on the contrary they are very desirous, that Parliament should be fully informed of all their proceedings, whether relating to compensations or to any other of the matters entrusted to them; and the Court consider that the Company, in applying a portion of those funds to making a provision for servants reduced in consequence of a change of system, ought not to be subjected to any other control than that which exists at present. AT A COURT OF DIRECTORS held on the 12th August 1833. The Court proceeded to take into consideration the Bill as amended on the Report in the House of Lords on Friday last, and having deliberated thereon, The following motion was submitted, viz. "That having unfortunately failed in their endeavours to obtain those mo difications of the East-India Bill which are essential to enable the Company satisfactorily to conduct the Territorial Government of India, this Court regret that they cannot recommend to the Proprietors to place their Commercial Rights in abeyance, with a view to their being continued in that Government under the arrangements embodied in the said Bill, and must therefore, without expressing any further opinion, refer it to the Proprietors, to exercise their discretion upon this most important occasion." Whereupon it was proposed to amend the said motion by leaving out all the words after the word "That" for the purpose of inserting the following: viz. "the East-India Bill having arrived at its last stage in the House of Lords, it becomes the duty of the Court of Directors to submit to their Constituents a final opinion regarding that Bill as it now stands, and "Whilst the Court are still impressed with the belief that the cessation of the Company's Trade will greatly weaken its position in this country, and consequently impair its efficiency in the administration of the Government of India; whilst also they regard with much anxiety the increase of powers given by the said Bill to the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, and greatly regret that Parliament has not provided some rule of publicity, to act as a salutary check both upon the Board and the Court; and whilst, further, the Court entertain the most serious apprehensions of the injurious effect upon the Finances of India which must result from the loss of the Trade as a source of direct profit, and as a safe and beneficial channel of remittance, and from the new charges which the Bill imposes; yet reviewing all the correspondence which has passed with his Majesty's Ministers upon this subject, trusting that the extensive powers of the Board will be exercised with moderation, and so as not to interfere with the independence of the Company, as a body acting intermediately between the King's Government and the Government of India, which independence all parties have admitted it to be of vital importance to maintain, and relying with confidence that Parliament will interpose for the relief of any financial difficulties into which the Company may unavoidably be cast through the operation of the extensive changes which the Bill proposes to effect, the Court of Directors cannot do otherwise than recommend to the Proprietors to defer to the pleasure expressed by both Houses of Parliament, and to consent to place their right to trade for their own profit in abeyance, in order that they may continue to exercise the government of India for the further term of twenty years upon the conditions and under the arrangements embodied in the said Bill." And the question that the words proposed to be left out stand part of the question, being put by the Ballot, It passed in the negative. The question that the words proposed by way of amendment stand part of the question being then put by the Ballot, The same passed in the affirmative. Campbell Marjoribanks, Esq. (Chairman), and William Wigram, Esq. (Deputy Chairman), then delivered in their Dissent from the foregoing resolution, which was read, the same being as follows. Dissent by the CHAIRMAN (CAMPBELL MARJORIBANKS. Esq) and the DEPUTY CHAIRMAN (WILLIAM WIGRAM, Esq) Differing from the majority of the Court of Directors, who have this day passed a resolution recommending the proprietors to place their charter in abeyance, we record our Dissent from that proceeding, and shall briefly state our reasons for doing so. It is impossible for us to contemplate the annihilation of the basis upon which the East-India Company was originally incorporated, without reflecting that Great Britain owes to their exertions the valuable trade with India and China, as well as its maintenance during two centuries, amidst great embarrassment at home and the powerful opposition of European and native enemies abroad, and that in its prosecution the Company laid the foundation of the British empire in India. The extension of the Company's territorial possessions became matter of great national interest, and led to political power under Parliamentary regu lation being engrafted upon their commercial character. The union of government and trade being thus considered the system best calculated to preserve the stability of our rule in India, and at the same time to secure the greatest benefits to that country and to England. The opinion of those statesmen who took the leading part in the proceedings of 1793 and 1813, prove that they were governed by the same principles in proposing the arrangements concluded at each of those periods, between the public and the Company; and the following extracts from the last Report of the Parliamentary Committee printed in August 1832, appear to us to establish the fact that these joint functions have hitherto produced the most beneficial effects. "That the British sway has conferred very considerable benefits on India can hardly be doubted, since under our government the people enjoy advantages which all history shews they never possessed under their own princes, protection from external invasion, and the security of life and property." Again, "The finances of India have derived advantage from their existing connexion with the commerce of the Company, "1st. Through the direct application of surplus commercial profit; "2d. By the rates of exchange at which the territorial advances from commerce in England have been repaid to commerce in India; "3d. In consequence, as is alleged, of the remittances from India annually required for the payment of those territorial charges defrayed in England having been made through the Company's commerce." With these admitted results, we consider that, although deprived of their monopoly of the China trade, but at the same time relieved from all the legal obligations by which their transactions have hitherto been fettered, the Company might have continued to trade with great advantage, especially as regards the question of remittance. It was therefore with much surprise that we first perused the Hints sub mitted by his Majesty's Government, containing the proposition that the Company should henceforth abandon all commercial operations, and transfer to territory the whole of their assets at home and in India. We nevertheless felt it to be our duty to give our best consideration to the proposed scheme,-we did so with an anxious desire that the Company, who had already secured such great advantages to their country, should not disappoint even its further expectations, but consent to waive the exercise of the commercial rights which they possess in perpetuity, if the proprietors were fully secured in the regular receipt of their present dividend, and in the ultimate payment of their capital, and provided that such a plan were devised as would enable the Company efficiently to administer the Government of India for a further term with credit to themselves and with advantage to that empire." 66 It was with these views that we became parties to the Resolution passed by the proprietors at the ballot on the 3d May last, which formed the basis of the proposed compromise. Two of the points contended for in that resolution were the extension of the Guarantee Fund to three millions, and the provision for publicity as a rule. To the first we still consider the proprietors entitled, both in justice and in equity, from the proceeds of their commercial assets. The latter provision we deem indispensable to the independence of the Court of Directors. Neither point has been conceded, whilst other provisions have been introduced into the Bill which render the scheme, in our judgment, still more objectionable. We consider that although some important modifications have been made in the Bill introduced into Parliament, subsequently to the resolution of the Court of Proprietors of the 3d May, particularly as regards the retention of councils at the subordinate presidencies, the measure as it stands involves an unnecessary departure from the principles upon which the governments of those Presidencies have hitherto been conducted, and by which they were made directly responsible to the authorities at home. This change, so far from preventing the recurrence of the delay upon which much stress was laid in the late Parliamentary inquiry, will, in point of fact increase the evil, and instead of relieving the Governor General from a portion of those duties which are now complained of as too multifarious, it will impose upon him additional labour and responsibility. It will, moreover, admit of the existence at the same time of six distinct executive authorities, which may lead to much embarrassment. We think the provisions of the Bill will create a considerable additional charge upon India without conferring any adequate benefit, whilst that country will by the same measure be deprived of those resources, without which her financial means, as regards both income and remittance, will be put to great hazard. Upon the point of remittance, we are at a loss to imagine how the same is to be effected to the requisite extent, and if effected we fear it will be at a very unfavourable rate of exchange, and, consequently, at a great loss to the Indian finances. We are likewise of opinion that the Bill leaves the assets transferred to territory to be applied and disposed of in a manner which we much fear will occasion not only a serious deterioration of property, but great disappointment and distrust; and lastly, We consider that the Court of Directors, instead of being placed by the present Bill in the position in which alone they can independently, and consequently advantageously, discharge their duties, will be converted into little else than a mere instrument for the purpose of giving effect to the acts of the controlling Board, and it would consequently have been far better that his Majesty's Government should have openly and avowedly assumed the direct administration of India, than have attempted to maintain an intermediate body, in deference to those constitutional principles which led to its original forma tion under Parliamentary regulation, but deprived of its authority and rendered inefficient by the present measure, and which will become, in our opinion, a mere useless charge upon the revenues of India. In thus stating our sentiments, we discharge a painful, but at the same time what we feel to be an imperative, duty, and with this feeling we cannot consent to incur the responsibility of recommending to our constituents to confirm the compromise, by consenting to place their chartered rights in abeyance under the provisions of the present Bill. East-India House, the 12th August 1833. (Signed) C. MARJORIBANKS, PAPER by HENRY ST. GEORGE TUCKER, Esq., containing a review of the Considerations which prevented him from assenting to the proposition of the CHAIRS, on the 12th August, for declining to recommend to the Proprietors to put their Commercial Rights in abeyance. We are now called upon to decide on the momentous question of accepting or rejecting the plan of his Majesty's Ministers for the future administration of British India, and the decision in favour of either alternative is full of difficulty and embarrassment. The plan, as a whole, seems to me to be liable to many objections; but we have advanced so far that we cannot now retrace our steps without serious inconvenience. It is much to be regretted, that the entire plan was not at once submitted to the consideration of those who have so deep an interest in the result. The Proprietors of East-India Stock had, in the first instance, a boon held out to them in the shape of a beneficial annuity. This was accepted, and I fear too eagerly, because from that moment all power of resistance on their part was virtually surrendered. The public concluded that we were satisfied; that we acted in full concurrence with the views of his Majesty's Government; and the public itself apparently concurred in the projected changes. Even if circumstances had arisen to excite distrust, the jealous feeling with respect to the British Constitution, which at a former period produced such memorable events, would seem no longer to have existence in this country. Without insisting that it was intended, or desired, to take any undue advantage of our position, we have been placed, or we have placed ourselves, in a situation of great disadvantage. We have had little time to examine the measure in its rapid progress through its different stages. The plan was framed originally without concert with us. We have urged various objections to it with more or less success. Indeed, it is but fair to admit, that attention has been paid to our representations, and that some very objectionable clauses in the Bill have been modified and amended: but still the leading features of the plan, both commercial and political, remain unchanged; and questions of vast magnitude and importance have been disposed of, in opposition to the views and opinions of those most interested in their proper solution, and most competent, I may presume to think, to form a correct judgment on their merits. The plan of the Indian Minister has at length assumed a determinate shape, and we are now in a condition to pronounce finally on its general character and tendency. Viewed in its commercial and financial relations and bearings, it impresses me with the most serious apprehension. A more sudden or violent change in the commercial policy of a country has rarely been witnessed; and although it may not be attended with permanent evil, it must produce temporary derangement. The accustomed channel of commerce has been broken up, the stream has been diverted from its course, and those noble establishments which flourished on its banks are now doomed to desolation and ruin. We ought to have made a stand at the threshold, and to have insisted, as a preliminary condition, that time should at least be allowed us to wind up the commercial concerns of the Company, and to prepare for the gradual introduction of those changes in our commercial system, which may have so extensive an in |