The Sun. — London, England, 1812-04-04 00:00:00

PAPERS RESPECTING the NAG'OCIATION FOR A RENEW 4L OF THE EAST-INDIA COMPANY'S EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGES. No. yin!. • , SECRET COURT OF DIRECTORS. LETTER PR. - •M.T.1413 CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY CHAIR- MAN T' THE , RIGHT H(iN. R. DUNDAS, NOTICLD IN THE PRErEDING MINUTE. [Continued from Yestordayl East India House, lan. 13, 1539. An Indian military education, from an early age, is essential to the formation of a good Sepoy officer, and gradual rise in the service by sentority is no less indispensable. In this way, the Indian army has been constituted and rendered em i nen tly effi cient ; and all measures, tending to change or weaken the constituent parts of this fabric, ate to be deprecated. When, excepting a few regiments of European artillery and infantry, the whole mili tary force of British India was composed of Sepoy corps, the officers of that army, - of course, possess ed entire the emoluments and advantages which the service afforded. The introduction of European troops from his Majesty's arrny into India altered : this state of things. • Young officers, of no Indian experience, who had obtained their commissions by purchase, took rank of men of long and tried ser vice : the King's officers were thought to come in, also, for too large a share of employments and ad-, •vantages.' , To redress the coMpliiuts which the' Company's officers made of supersessions and par-, tialities, and to give them a better share of the be nefits of the service, was the leading .ohjeet of Lord Cornwallis's Military Plan-of 1794, and with him a principal motive for proposing to transfer the Indian arnry to the:King, no other praCticable means hay ing then occurred to him. Bat the object was, in substance-, attained by the Military Regulations of 1796, passed in concert with his Majesty's Govern ment, without that transfer, of which his Lordship did trot revive the idea on his last return to India, those regulations having given increased rank, and retiring pay to the. officers of the Company's army. The causes of complaint, bowel er, did not entirely cease. To aveid the collision of authorities,. the Coarpariy had adopted the usage of appointing the Commander-in-Chief of the King's troops also their Cotninander-in,Chief: and one consequence of this . has been, that the Company's officers, resident from early youth in India,_ possessing little influence in 'England, unknown to officers of high rank in his Majesty's service, have thought themselves treated with less favour and distinction, than younger offi cers of that service recently arrived, but better pa tronised. You know, Sir, that there have been in stances of this sort,, which the Court, with the aandion of your Board, have interposed to rePress: but as long as the British force in' India is made up of two armies, so differently constituted, with so large a portion of King's-- officers, the whole com manded by Generals of his Majesty's service, there will, probably, be real or apprehended ground for .the like complaints. They do not arise because one army has the honour to belong to his Majesty and 'the other serves the Company, but because the coo stiturion of the two armies ate radically different, nd must continue so, whether the armies are un der one head or two. The -Indian army canna be maintained without officers attached to "it from an early age, and rising by seniority. Frequent changes of King's regiments serving in India, and the conse qunt frequent arrival of young men, promoted in them by porch use, cannot -, be avoided: the former class will t-e.comparatively unknow n to the King's commanders; the latter will have among' them the connections of those commanders, or of men of in fluehce in England. , It is not difficult to see, there fbre,, to .which side the exercise of military pa tronage will lean ; and to prevent causes of com plaint, .and to keep the- balance even, most be an important obje3 in the Government of India. It does pot seem the Way to effeat this, to put the Indian army wholly in tire power of the Com mander-in-Chief. It is of the partiality of that s , a,_ Lion of which the Company's Officers have some- times 'complained ; and the Court .see no reason whatever to suppose, that their jealousy and disa tlof.inttion would be - I , ..moved, by putting them en tirely under its contrail ; and, indeed, by placing t wo,armitis, of such different races ; and so differently constitu - led, under the same master, it would seem dif ficult to avoid attaching the idea of permanent in fed uritY to that which was - Indian. Nor is it a thing to be, taken for granted, that the Sepoys, 'so much, as alreadt observed, under the inflUence of habit, would elitist to be transferred from that service to which they lyave beet; always accustomed,-ta one 61 which they have lit, le experience, and that experience not al ways of .a conciliatory kind. To.place the officer 4 of the Indian army wholly under that authority of which they lulve hitherto compl a i ne d; d oes not cep _ ttinly appear to be the way to render :them easy. o itheci - tntrary, lead to serious discontent ; and tlit'u,i) the Court would be •far from counte nancing that spirit among their officers, or yielding to any irregular • tosertion of it, yet it must be.said, un the other hand, that those officers are a body of ttien who have. deserved too well of the Company tit& their country, to have real causes of discontent ; and thi4 it would be impolitic to.adopt any system likely to generate such causes, either among tlis:m or the n?yn,they command. With regard to the other reason assigned for the propos - td change, the Court begleave to observe, in the firm place, that they do not-'perceive the. neces mtrycouneaion: between the inconvenience which is alleged, and the remedy suggested for it ; since, if it were true that the question of responsibility in England, respe6ting the appointment of Commander in Chief, lay under an obscurity and.uncertainty'de trimental to the public service, it does not appear to tohow that the Indian army ought to be transferred to thr King:to remedy this deieM. But, in the humble apprehension of the Couri, no obscurity hangs over that question. The appointinent'of Commanders in Chief of the King's forces th ere rests w i t h his Majesty, and the otbcer chosen by him will, by vir tue -of his Commission,• . generAly command the .Company's army on service. The appointment Of Commander in Chief for the Company's army is phiced, bylaw in the first instance, in the, Court of Di;'eaors, but with a power vested in his Majesty to ;annul such appointments. This necessarily pain .o an agreement between his , Maiesty's Go- Vernment and the Court of Dire4ors, in.respea to those appointments; and the Court are not aware, that they have, on any oc c as i o n;, use d the share of power left to +herb by this arrangement,' for the exercise of which they feel that they arc responsible, to the prejudice of the public service. They must, at the same time; humbly e xpr e ss- th e ir ottnion, that the , law, as it now stands, is wisely conceived,.since it does not halve the responsib:lity, but double making both his Majesty's Government and , the Court of DireaorS fully answerable for the appoint ment of the Company's CommandetS, in Chief ; and if it should still be said, that,' point, of Baca,' the seleenon of a Commander in Chief for his Majes ty's forces may be' rendered' difficult, by reluelance, on the part of the Court, to /accept of the, same officer for the' command, of the Company's In my, it msy be justly .replied, that they make a sacrifice to the public Interest, in agreeing that' the Commander in Chief of his Majesty's shall also be the Coin pany's; and when he is riot only to command their army, bet expeas to be made a Member of their civil and political Government, it cannot be deemed unreasonable, that they'should possess ,'he right of satisfy ing themselves as to his competency for filling, those high offices : neither is it, as they think, to , be shewn from theoretical reasoning, or by an v.- . peal to facts, that the service Will suffer, or has suf -lered, by their assertion of thiS right. But the strongest ObjeCtions of the Court to the proposed transfer arise from political consideratiOus. They conceive the continuance of the Indian army in the hands of. the Company to be essential 'to the administration of the civil, financial, and• political affairs of British India, according to the present sys tem. The Company's Government has hi , herto been resPeaed,•both by its own subjeas and foreign powers, because it possessed a great military force. Organizing this force, 'enlarging or reducing it at pleasure, appointing its officers, rewarding merit, punishing the unworthy,. providing for the cotn tort4ble retirement of the veteran soldier and Officer, and, in short, exercising all the (tine , lions of a governing power Over a very numerous body of men hign military spirit,' it has poSsessed all the respeaability and• the benefit of their attach- Meta and fidelity. taaeking upon the Members of the civil Government and the body of civil servants as belonging to the same neaster with• themselves, and as the first order in the State, they have paid a willing obedience to their ,:uthority, and-have there- by upheld their internal administration and Oen. 'consequence abroad. The introduCtion of certain King's regiments has been understood, as it was tended, to be merely in support of the public TtereSt :under the existing system ; but if the. Company were to be divested of the whole of their military force and power ; if they were to be no longer mas ters of a single regiment, no longer capable of en tertaining any soldiers, nor, of giving ono subaltern's Comntissiou,; if the immense body. of men, who have so long looked upon th em , were to b e trans ferred hem them, the people must consider their. power as fallen and drawing rapidly to a close:--- Continuing still to Governments a general con trout over the employment of the army, and to their civil servants the internal administration of their affairs, would give th e p eo pl e no assurance to the con trary. Those servants in the discharge of their dif ferent functions ofijudges, magistrates, colledors, could not expeEt the same respeat' and suppOtt, either from public opinion or the attachment of the native troops, as when all 16oked to the - sante head for protection, patronage, and reward. Indeed, to make so wide,a separation of the military front t he civil power ; to take away the organization, the interior tegulation, and with these, the patronage of the army, from the local Government; to pike all those powers in the hands of the Commander-in-Chief, subjecl only, in the exercise of them, to an autho rity at the distance of half the globe, would throw the means and-the temptation of a dangerous ascen dancy into the scale of the military department, which, constituted by his Majesty, might' easily be led to slight the, Civil servants of a'meaner master, and their chance of distant redress. Among' the natives of India it has been usual to consider' the Military pawer, and those possessing it, as pre-emi nent ; and they see, in some examples of the pre sent day., that potver, under the idea of assisting the civil and political administration, actually connoting it, The Company's Gbvernment, in short, lower ed and over-shado - Wed in this way, would not, in the opinion of the Court, continue to• possess the au thority necessary for the. proper administration of the atnirs of that great empire ; and it might then be conceived, that a further change .only could sup ply what was defeetive. But this'is not the only way in which the mea sure in question appears to the Court to be 'pregnant with danger. it proposes to 'place in the entire (list posal of the Crown, a regular army, amounting to one hundred and folly thousand men, commanded by above three thousand European othceis, having a, great variety of places of honour and emolument -; and all the vast patronage attaching to such an army, (saving the nomination of cadets) would, mediate!) , or immediately, be under, the influence controul of some of the,Members of his Majesty's ;Govern ment. This would be a signal departure from the spirit and letter of the Acts of 1784 and 1793 ; a professed principle 'of which' was, that - the Indian patronage, civil and military, should be kept entirely out of the hands of the servants .of the Crown. It is not for the Court to enlarge upon a proposition is t . . _ . so momentous ; but they beg leave, with the utmoit ,deference, testate, that they would deem it a dere- . li6tion of their duty, to which no consideration could induce them to spbtnit, to recommend any measure of this description to their constituents.-- Knowing however, Sir, yoUr concern for the promo tion of the public interest, a concern which we have frequently witnessed; the Court still flatter them- selves, that the consideration of the r e n ewa l o f the Company's Charter, a measure which they believe to be for the interest of the nation as well as of the Company, will go on without your insisting on this proposition, or any further on the other which has been been above discussed, than may. be really compatible with the preservation of the Indian sys tem. We have the honour to be, 3.:c. (Szned) EDWARD PARRY, CHARLES GRANT. The Right Hon. Robert Dundas, &c. . To be continued.] IMDAJ.OZ. Badajoz, fire capital of The province of Estrerha dura, in Spain, stands on an eminence on the south side of the liver, Guadiana, over which it has a stone bridge seven hundred paces long and.fourteen built by the Romans. It is 1/5 miles S. by W. oflladrid, lalittide 38:32. north, !orig. 6. 50, west, 170 N. of Cadiz, 120 N. by W. of Seville and 140 E, of Lisbon. Hadajoz contains six. monasteries, the same rtin ber of nunneries, and a population of./ or 8000per tons. The fortificatious are partly ancient and partly modern : the fine Roman bridge over the Guadiara . is dcf-nded . by a lisle de-pont, On which a few gins , were mounted: On the right bank of the river stands the tort of St. Christoval, which commands the city. Badajoz was :twice. besteged-by the Portuguese, but never, taken. . At the close of the first revolutionary war, Rada joz .became- remarkable for being the seat of the, negociations bet %veer) Spain and Portugal,. previously to tlie . peace of Amiens which- terminated' in -a treaty, obliging Spain to withdraw the troops senf to invade Portugal,. on condition of the cess'on of the province of J.)!ivenza by the Crown of Portu gal: This treaty is commonly called the treaty' of Badaj , z. • - In the present war, Bad ijuz became the quarters of a considerable part of the -British army in Odober, 1809, after the retreat ,from Talavera. Some ladies of d:stindion opened their houSes every evening to the British officers. The eniertaiuments on these occasions, called thelertullia, were similar to the fa shionable routs of London, with a mixture of music and singing. Itt the month of January, 1811, in pursuance of a combine.' plan of operation's between the French Commanders, pre ibusly to the commencement of Massena'S retreat, from Santarem, Marshals Mortier and Soult advanced troth the south of Spain to Me rida, and:nailer laid siege to Bad4oz, having pre- Viously obtained possession of Oltvenza. A Spanish corps of from 12 to 20,000 met:,.- under General Mendizabel, sent to Ow relief of Badajoz, was sur prised and - totally defeated by the French, 'who had . _ to cross two great rivers, the Gebora and Guadiana, to come to .t hem. • The French Commander being . now at•lit:erty to proseCtne the siege without liver naution, effected a breach by the I oth of February, when the Lieutenant-Grirernor,lmaz, who had suc ceeded as the Governor, Menachb being killed, 'sur rendered the place. - • • Marshal Bc-resfbrd, who was advancing to' the re lief of Badajoz, having .had the mortification to ar rive too late to save it, retook 'Campo Mayor airy Olivenza, which the enemy abandoned ; and on the 7th . of May invested Badajoz in' turn, in conjunelF on with a Spanish corps under that,gallant and able patriot. General Don Carlos icrE3Tiana ; taut intelli gence having been received of the id. mice' of Soult, with all his force from Seville, to raise the siege, it Was . though_t. Kudent to send back the besieging tr tillery to Elvas, and . leavini; a corps . •to keep the garrison of Badajoz in cheek, _to c:.:; , ch to give the enemy battle. The result was the g:.:ious but dear bought victory of Aibuera,' gained 'ay the British arms on the 17th of May, 1811. S - 91tly after this victory, the siege of Badajoz was ...:sumed . , Lard Wellington having previously joire:. sod taken the command of the army in person; On the 2d of June, the batteries were again opened against Fort - St. ChristoVal, t fence of Badajoz ; and on' the 6th, a -reach being effetled which was reported praelicable, an assault was made, and the assailants were repulsed with loss. • A simitar,attempt was made in the night of the gth, but with - no better success, the enemy hav-. ing Cleared the ditch of the rubbish., and thus ren dered the breach inaccessible; The combined French army, - under Marmont, (Who had succeeded to Massena,,Soult, 8:c.) having now advanced to the relief of the place, • the siege was'finally raised, and Soult entered the place on the 20th. General' Philippon, the Governor, was highly commended Lay Soult, who is the Commander in Chief in Spain, since the retreat of Nassena. Souk went so far as to say in.his report, "1 demand for him!) (Philippoo) the title of Count, with a suitable appanage;" but Buonaparte has never complied with his demand, nor conferred any r e w ar d or ma rk 'of favour o n Philippon. Since that period Badajoz has continued.untnolested, down to the commence meat of the present siege. FORGED NO T ES.—The following is an account of the total value of the Forged Notes presented at the Bank of England for payment, and refused, from being forged, for the eleven years, from Ist Jan. I'Bol, to 31st Dec. 1811: • The Nominal Value of the 'Forged Notes, presented for payment, and refused, within the above•mentioned period, is 101,6611. Link of England,'/6th March, 1812:' 11. HASE, Chief Cashier. •, N. B. The above_Return includes a Il' Forged Notes, sup. p?sed to have been fabricated on the Continent, and pre - sented within the aforesaid per:od. Although the mysteries of Lill work are pretty well understood in this country, the following ap pears to be.a refinement :—By a law in Virgiuia i if any Bill of exchange is drawn for any sum of mo ney, and such bill is protested for non-acceptance or non-payment, it carries interest from its _date alter the rate of ten per cent. per annum ,- unt il t h e money be fully satisfied and paid. A very curious instance. occurred stime time ago at Williarnsburgh usurer, not satisfied with 5 per cent. le g al interest, refused to advance a suit) of Money to aGentleman, unless, by 'way of security, he'would:give him a bill_ of Exchange, that should be returned protested, by which 'he Would be entitled to ten pounds- - par cent. • The Gentleman, who had •immediate occasion fiir the money, drew a bill upon a capital merchant in London, with whom he had never had any7transac- Lion, or carried on the least correspondence. The merchant, on the receipt of the bill, observing the name.of the drawer, very readily honoured it, know ing theGentleinan to be a person of great property, and concluding that he meant to enter into a corres pondence with him. The usurer upon this, became entitled to 'only five pounds per cent.- He-was ex ceedingly enraged, therefore, at being; as he called it, thus [ricked, an complained very heavily to, the . Gentleman of his having given bun a good bill in stead of a bad one ! POLICO,. Bank Stock, shut Navy ; per Cent' 9ai 4 per Cent. shut, 't per c elli..lAed. shut 3 per Cent. Cons. 6o i 9 ; I Itagk L. „Auti. shut • India Stock, LONDON: Printed by 1 HOMAS WOOD; of No. 3s, Maiden-lane, Covent-garden; and Published by Wil LIAM Alt MIG Elt SCRIPPS, south m o it o n_street, Gnsve vo r- square, At the SUN O FFICE , N o , 112, S tran d, w h ere ildvertisiments, Ordrs for the Paper, Leiters for the Editor, &c. (post-paid), must be addressed. OttatjaAr.t. —Yesterday fqmes Henley. tv brought up-before the sitting Magistrate, Mr. Al. dermas DO-MVILLE, for re-ex ainination,' char ;ed with embezzling a quantity of linens and other arti cles to a considerable amount,' the property of late mAer, Mr. Borne,. an extensive. wholesale it berdasher and 'linen-draper, in Al.ierinatiburY., The ,prisoner had been porter to Mr. :Burnt! for sevea - ,il years,' and (yid lately set up a public-house in tie neighbourhood of the Mansion HOuse; w here „Ale prbperty in Option, was fotind, concealed in a' deal, box ;in an upper apartment of the hoUse, by Haw , kins, one of the City bacers; to vvh2m the pit Sorter had in some degree confessed that the property wog stolen. After a long . investigation, Mr. Borne nut being able to identify any part of the properiy, And there being no, o, her evidence' of the 'felony, tlitt prisoner was discha,ged ; but the wcirthk Magistratd direaed the property should be detained in the haitdd ofthe Officer, and a'civil.action to be brought to ascertain the real owner. • . HATTON- GA R Ira/ Forstali was brought up,• chaiged on suspicion with having stolen several candlesticks and other. articles from a sale on the premises. of the Crown public house, B Clcrken well, the property of Mr. Goddy;, when, owing to the absence of, a material witness, the prisoner was committed.for re-examination. Three boys, of the names of Berdamin - Hobty, Henry Withers, and' John, Pool, underwent an exa mination, being charged on suspiCion of stealing 3 Silver watch, gold chain, am) three seals,. in the premises of Mr. Hood, St. John's-square, Clerken well, where the prisoners were employed,' when they were committed for re-exatnination. MARLBOROUGH - STR EET.— MIS. Flannigan, - alias Best, connected with tlit. person who statids com mitted for trial for passing forged, notes, was .re exaniined on a similar cliuge of uttering. It ap peared that the prisoner was present with 'Flannigan when the latter passed a forged two-potind note at the shop of a Mi . . Smyrthwaite,under chm n eustaces which implicated boar, a fictitious address had been given at the time of uttering ihe note. ThPre' are other charges against the prisoner, and she was again remanded. At Derby assizes, James , Tomlinson, Percevot Cook, and JOhn England; were. Mound guilry of oat outrage conneeted with the frame-breaking aysterta • that of forcibly entering the hOuie of Mr. Si4a l a t f Hunt, at Ockbrook Mill, on the '23d of Decembet last, compelling him to sign a paper that he a ()aid lower the price of corn and flour, and robbing his house of a considerable sum in. bank bills and other • effeEts.—They were all sentenced to death, and're peatedly assured by the Judge that no hope of mercy remained to them. • ' John Thompson was found guilty of a similar of- • fence, at the house of Thomas Theobalki, at Wils ttilpinornpehimT, w he a4 . l l; d e g a e calyst in passing sentence O f deafia impressive, and very tnat,cli at - fatled. His Lordship said he un d erstood that a!).e. prisoner's father had ten or eleven children.; awl that his grand-father now Jay dead in tile house ; of a broken heart, on account of the prisoner's'abandon cd conduel, and the fate that hung, over him. The. ' Judge gave him hopes of mercy, in consequence off - 1 " some important discoveries he' had made respethng; the desperate gang with which he had associated. ,Captain Barclay's pedestrian powers seem to Ira hereditary, for, it.is said that his father, who repre sented Kincardine, used to walk.every Sesaiocl, of Parliament from Scotland to London, E nd-could perform this journey as soon as the ordinary stagers of that time. With. so much ease did he-rneve, that he frequently deviated from his dyed road,- in order to attend any fairs which happened to be held at the. time. He used to dress like a plain far Mer, anti mingled freely in all the -rural sports usual at. suck meetings, particularly cudgel-playing aod wrestling, and won many a prize hat' in his progress to the great Council of the Nation. —Caledonian Afertury. • On Thursday last, at - his Lordship's house in Grosvenor. square, the Lady Viscountess Grimston, of a Son. Yesterday, at his house in Fitzroy-square,.Lady airies Smith, Esq. Gra Daughter. AMRRLED.. On the . 3otts ult. William Hooper, Esq. of Ross, Hare- . fordshire, to Miss S. Symot:l4s, niece of T. I'. Symonds, Esq. M. P. DIED. On the 3d i ns t. i n the zist year of her.aze, Caroline Chin nery, only daughter of WilliamChinnery, Esq, r egrette d by all who had the pleasure to •kno w her for accomplish ments, hut ninch more deeply by her hmily for her virtues. Oil Tuesday the 25th of February last, after a lorigand• severe aflifetion, which:he bore with fortitude and resigna tion; Mr. Frederic. Bell, third stn of Henry Bell, Esq. of Wallington, in Norfolk. On the at the Banks of I‘,luirage, Mr. Thonias Bell, aged 94 years. On the r tth Ult. at Wooburn;House, Buckinghamshire. John Osiwr, Esq. many year s Captain.iwthe (Word 'Milt tia, very touch regretted by a numerous circle of friends. On Saturday the zest tilt, At the Red..iry, qtullwelf, 'aged 83; the Rev, Thomas Stanser, A,tbl, formerly of Brazen nose College, Oxford.. On Tuesthiy se'nnight, at Crowiand,„ aged 7.s,yeais, Mr. Thomas Carrington, farmer, Of that place. Lately, at his house in Colemart.strect, Mr. Robert Law-• son,,Oil-merchant. On ThuiSday evening, at his honse in Wnsfield-street. Sir John Cal lentlar, hart. of Westerton, Stirlingshire, Crichton and Preston..Flall, in Mid Lothian, arid 'in East Lothian. • The sante day, at Chelsea,. Edward Read, Esq, aged Sz, one of the Magistrates for tne•County • . • The same night, at Morihner.Hmise Grop the Hon. ilOrtinier..Harvey, the infant , on s of the Earl of OxhKd. ' Ott the ad inst. of a cancerated breast, Mrs. Hammond, wife of Mr. Edivard Hammond, late of 'Fottenhana-court. road. • . COAL MARKET, APRILj Ships at Markct. Ships sold. 33 Nexvastle . . . 28i 2 Sunderland . . , 2 Price. • 4x;.. 6(1. to cp. 94. ▪ 435. '6,1. to 445. cd. . PRIC'E OE STOCKS YESTERDAY. _ India I3onds, 3S. 4s. pr. Excheq. 131115, par, 35. jar: Omniwn, I Imperial 3 per Cent. Data Ann. Cons. for loth April, 6o 59 i IliGli ‘VATER AT LONDON ; BRIDGE TO.MOR. ROW. Morning, 41 min. 'after Evening, 6 min. after 8.