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

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 increasing 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 push 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 consideration ;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 their fogy.
But what toost 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 for 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 follow the extension
of the trade. Then a few speeches arc to be made enlarging
on the resolutions, and setting forth that as twenty or thirty
thousand persons are employed 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
are next brought forward, 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