The National Register. — London, England, 1813-01-24 00:00:00

E NATIONAL REGISTER. . • Cur Wing, Constitution,. anD tatvg. PUBLISHED AT NO. 11, NEWCASTI.F.-STREE'r• STRAND. PRME 94. TH] No 2(L. DISC USI In the coi n place, and a important su to our stock N AY:JANUARY et, hsvt.. POLITICAL DIS2UISITION. ON THE EAST INDIA QUESTION. rse of the week several meetings have taken great many speeches have been made, on this lbject These may have had the effect of adding of information, but they have not satisfied us on which side most reasortAs to be found. The cause of the Company has been injured, in our opinion, by what has oc curred, but it would be unfair to decide against them alto gether till it is known what their opponents arc about, as it may be, that while the Company are losing ground through the exertions of their partisans in London, the cause of the Out-ports is being ruined by the eloquence of its friends in the country. It would be dealing harshly by the supporters of the East India Company to suppose no set of persons can injure the party of whose interests they become the advo cates but themseles, and it is, therefore, imreriously de manded by candour, on the part of these Gentlemen, that sentence should at least be deferred till those on the other side of the question have had an opportunity of appearing equally ridiculous. We shall, however, in the present in stance, take some notice of the conduct of the friends to the East India Company, in order that we may be the more at leisure to attend to the proceedings of the Out-ports when they come before us. At some of the meetings to which we allude there have been found persons, silly enough to talk of the right of the East India Company to a renewal of thoir Charter. Such language no man of common sense can hesitate one moment to pronounce to be stark nonsense. Because, for some ins. portant consideration, a body of men have been indulged in monopoly fcr a certain number of years, it would be the height of absurdity to suppose that at the expiration of that }period they were entitled to a new grant. The grant itself was the reward given for the previous consideration. For that consideration then, it is presumed, the Company have been remunerated ; and to suppose a right to a new benefit can arise out of that remuneration, or out of the considera tion for which such remuneration was granted, is an idea which we should think no man can seriously entertain who is not fit to be an inmate of that noble edifice now rising in St. George's-fields. Right they have none. Their lease is out, and it is for those who granted it to consider on what terms they will renew it, or'whether or not they will renew it,at all. It may he the interest of the nation that it Should be renewed, and all the Company's privileges continued and even extended, but this resolves itself into a question of . ex• pectiency and not of right. • Mr. Alderman ATKINs thinks the great establishments which have ri!;on within these few years ought' to be consi- Vol. VI. No CCL•Tr. tiered, and the situation of those individuals who have risked immense sums of money in forming them, be seems to regard as an argument for the renewal of the Charter. We are astonished.to find a man of his good sense and respectability capable of hazarding %uch an opinion. Admit the principl mace and to what extent may it not be carried ? It goes to all monopolies perpetual, however fatal to the intere.sts of the country in which they are established. lf the existence of one great monopoly is to be upheld, because smaller mo nopolies depend upon it, whenever the first which is com plained of is endangered, those interested in its preservation will only have to set up new establishtneuts, and they will be secure by thus incr easin g the evil, and adding to the nuisance it is in contemplation to remove. We do not mean to characterize the East India Company and the establish ments alluded to as evils or nuisances, but this we say is that which the argument of Mr. ATKINS may lead to, though he would not he disposed to p ush it to such an extent. I f the East India Company should not get this Charter renewed, it may be a very serious thing to those who have embat ked their property in those establishments which have grown out of it ; but . what is this to the public ? • The indduals affect ed were aware at the time they engaged in this speculatinn that the Charter of the East India Company vas not perpe tual. Doubtless they took this into their c onsideration ;it they did not it was their fault, and them y ust take the con. quenees. ft is too much to expect the public to pay the pe• nalty of th e i r fogy. But what t oost distinguishes the proceedings of the friends to the East India Company is their great indisposition to hear any sentiments but their own. ach seems to take for his text. " whoever is not f or me is against me," and to un derstand it remarkably well. They convene public meetings for private (or as they call them, specific) purposes, where nothing is to be done but on one side of the question. They call a meeting of all persons interested in the trade to China, to hear a set of resolutions•read expressing alarm at the in tentions of (love, nmeni, and declaring it to b their opinion that the lots of the Indian Empire must f o llow the extension of the trade. Then a few speeches arc to be made enlarging on the resolutions , a nd setting forth that as twenty or thirty thousand persons are em ployed b no y the tha Eanst tr India Compmany their families must amount to less eble that nu ber ; and hence it may be concluded, that from ane hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand will be sufferers from the re moval of the trade ! The dangerous effects of coloniz:.tion a re next brought forwar d, and we are told that if the trade is opened a class of persons will come here and " intermix with our females and spoil the good old English breed.'' Thanks are then to he voted to the Chairman for his " able and impartial conduct in the chair," and signatures