The National Register.
London, England, 1816-12-23 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTrn.

EAST INDIA HOUSE.

Quarterly general court of the proprietors of East-India
Sioe k was held WetNewby, at the Company's house in Lead.
culiall-street.

The chairman stated, the Court was assembled for the pur-
pose of having laid before theta the Resolntion of the Court
or Directors of the preceding day, decla►ing a dividend of
Li per cent. on the Company's capital stork, fur the half year
commencing 6th July last and ending sth January next.
On the motion being put—" That the Court do approve of
the said Resolution,"
Mr. Lowudes ruse, and inquired how the interest of the
unclaimed dividends was disposed of?
The chairman answered, that na advantage was derived by
any officer of the house from the unclaimed dividends; they
remained in the Company's coffers, and, undoubtedly, aided
their funds; but a very large reterve was always made to '
meet any demand that might occur.
The Resolution was then agreed to, and the chairman in-
formed the proprietors that their dividends would be paid by
tth January next.
The chairman then submitted to the Court a motion for
" allowing Mr. G. Templer, late of the Bengal civil establish
moat, to return with his rank to India.

On this motion a discussion of etstasiderable length took
play( in consequence of the introduction of the case of a gen-
tleman, named Mitchell, who, Mr. K. Smith stated, had ap-
plied for lease to return to India idler an absence of 22
years, but was refused prratission on account of the length of
the time that bad elapsed. Mr. Templer, it apperred, had
been 33 years ftom India, and he (Mr. Smith) could see no
reason why any partiality should be shewn to hin► more than
to Mr. Mitchell.

The chairman and the Hon. W. E. Elphinstoise stated, that
the character of Mr. Templer, and the unmerited misfortune
that had assailed him, induced the directors to recommend
his Case to the proprietors.
Mr. Home and Mr. R. Jackson expressed their objections
*to granting permission to individuals to return to India, ex-
cept in extreme cases.
The Resolution, aßer some observations, was agreed to,
and the ballot on the return of Mr. Templer *as fixed for the
Bth Jannary.
The chairman then stated,that nue part of the business which
the court had been made special to. consider was, a Eesoln-
tion of the Court of Directors, granting to Mager-General
Fawcett an allow:nice of 6001. per annum for a limited per
riod. The directors had, however, received private informa-
tion that the events. which would reader it necessary to make
that allow-ince were not likely to occur; and, therefore, it
was proper that the Resolution should be postponed for the
present.
The chairman next proposed, that u the court de approve
of the Rellol4l4ioll of the Court of Directors of the 30th ult.
for appointing another European to assist in the Oriental
Department of die Test-India College, with a salary of 4001.
per annum, and au allowance cf 1001. a year for house rent."
Mr. Home entered at great length into the history of }krt.'
lord College, contending that it bad not answered the ends
proposed, and that as the youths placed there learned little
else but licentiousness and immorality, it ought to be
abolished.

Mr. Randle Jackson felt no common anxiety to deliver his
sentiments on thetabject of the Hertford College; as lie was
instrumental in leading iss its establishment. When he op-
posed the school of Calcutta, and voted for its suppression, he
did so, not because it was a school, but because it was a uni-
versity, and because a university was not theie an institution
suited to the object to be obtained. At the sametilnethat
lie did not wonder at its establishment, or that a nobleman of
the most brilliant talents, and of the highest attainments, in
his enthusiasm for the promotion of science and learning. of
which lie was the glory, shoukl, in one of his bright visions,
conceive, that the objects to be attained could be answered
by It, he could not see that it could; it was not a fit institu-
tion to prepare the Company's servants for their duties.
Young wen, provided with masters in philosophy, political
economy, jurisprudence, mathematics, 'natural philotiophy, '
the law of nations, and other high branches of bunion know-
ledge, and stimulated to literary ambition by rewards and ho-
nours, could not be expected to descend from their exalted
eminence of literary glory, and to leave the rostrum of decla-
mation to count bales, and to measure muslin,. (4 Mack). It
was not proper to make young men doctors and magistrates
before they acquired a knowledge of trade, or of the Com-
pany's concerns and interests, nor could profound learning or
great eloquence be required in the counting-house. He bad
another reason the opposing the college of Calcutta, in addi-
tion to that arising fromits unsuitableness to combine the use-
ful practical knowledge required in the Company's servants,
with the proper kind and degree of literary attainment, and
that was, that he thought the three years to be devoted to the
the necessary education would be better spent at home under
the eye of their parents, and among the institutions of their
country, till their bodies and minds acquired strength to with-
stand the Influence of a new climate and of different manners,
rather than be spent in India, in a climate debilitating both
to their moral and physical powers; where young men of
their connexions and prospects could always borrow money
to gratify their vices independent of their guardians. He
therefore did vote for the suppression of the college of the
noble Marquis; not front its expense, but from a regard to
higher interests; not from views of economy, but from views
of education : and lie proposed the Hertford Establishment,
with time design of accompli,hing that by it which he was
convinced /Add not be attained in the other. His proposi-
tion of a school at home was approved of nithin the bar; but
his idea of its plan was not to:lowed. The Directors acted
on 1113 I epicowmation, but they destroyed, by the injudicious
mode of carrying the object into effect, all advantages and
benefits it was intended to produce. They should have erected
a school, but they erected a university. They endowed pro-
fessorships of all kinds, of philosophy, of jurisprudence, of
rhetoric, and of history ; they created a splendid establish-
mania of India seemed to have invaded England—
and they prepared to send out young Grotitises and Putfim-
dot If. to pertiain the duties of the counting-house. The re-
solution which Mr. J. propo+ed, and which was agreed to,
pledged the Court to ino specific establishment, but to the
erection of a school, in which the young men intended for the
civil service should he instructed in tl-e branches of know-
ledge required in the duties of their subsequent lite, while se.
the same time they were grounded in the religion of their
coniiiry, acquired a veneration for its constitution, and a
knowledge of its laws. He was convinced that u school esta-
blished in this country might have been so modelled and re-
gulated as to answer all the purposes that could be anticipated
ruin the best system of t lineation ; communicating a suitabli
and proper degree at' classical learning along with eastv.li
guagc6 and literature, while at the seine time the echAris

DECEMBEft

enjoyed advantagr s, in point of attention to their lit old) and
morals, which could net be expected to he found in India.
But what did the Court do? They erected a splemiiii esta-
blishment; they clothed the students in the costume of Cam-
bridge and Oxford, making thein men at once, giving them an
idea Inconsistent with their situation, inspiring them with
pride and indepeudeilee, inconsistent with proper order and
due subordination. He w.is surprised that these learned :tor-
porations did not object, through the legislature, to the mw-
pation of their distinctions, to the use of those relies that
covered manhood and leaning, and were connected w.th so
many reco:lccliOns by boys and children at school. If they
could have any other feeling but emitenspt, it was true that
could be expiesseil by a good-natured smile at the Aoki'.
lousuess of the as. pt. . Although lie objected to the
manner in which this college had been constituted, he would
not vote for its alroliC ;he would only eonnsel reform ; lie
would advise the Conn to retrace its steps—to deprive lite
boys of their fopperies, and to treat them as buys; lie mould
advise them to be placed on the mane footing with the ca-
dets of the military school, and their belies iuur would be
equally meritorious.
Mr. Lowniles took the same line of argument.
The chairman observed, that the questien before the court
related merely to the appointment of an additional professor,
and did not embrace the geueral course of proceeding
adopted at the College.
The Resolution was then tarried.
Mr. R. Jackson gave notice, that at a (ranee court he should
move, that the Resolution of the Court of Directors for grant-
ing honorary medals to the officers engaged in the Nepali!
war, should have a retrospective effect, so as to extend to
the gallant commanders who signalised themselves in the
Marhatta war. The learned gentleman afterwards took oc-
casion to request of the proprietors and the public, that they •
would suspend their judgment en the case of Major Hart,
until that gentleman had an opportunity of answeriug a letter
that had been written by a gallant general (Macaulay) to •
Lord Harris, in which he directly charged Major Hart with
peculation. The court then adjourned.

The PRINCE REGENT: ANSWER to the CITY.
A Court of Common Coimrii was holden on Friday, for the
parpow of taking into considerationthe mum er of his Royal
Highness to the Address presented on the state of the na-
tion.

Sir Wm. Curtis and Mr. Waithman rose stt the same time;
and both persevering, it was referred to the Lord Mayor to
whom the priority belonged, when his Lordship declared in
favour of the worthy alderman. The hon. Baronet then
moved, that the gracious Answer of his Royal Highness to
the AdJress, be entered on the Journals of the Court, which
having been seconded by Mr. Dixon,
Mr. Waldman rove to oppose it. He said that he never •
recollected such an Answer to have been placed,. en ,tlse re-
cords of the Court. It was a reprimand to the Corporation of
London for as..erting its right of petitioning the throne ; nod •
it was the first step that had been taken to abolish that right.
He read the answer which had been made to an Address
voted DUI, conceived in terms stronger than those which had
been agreed to on the late occasion, and he contra•ted the re.
ply which had then been given with the present. After much
explanatory observation, he concluded with moving an amend-
ment.

Resolved, That the Answer of his Royal Highness the
Prince Regent be entered upon the Journals of this Court ;
at the same time this Court cannot refrain from expressing
•' its surprise and regret" that at a moment of such acl.now.
hedged distress and difficulty, when the nation Is labouring
tinder aggravated and accumulating grievances, and when.
this Court was so necessarily exercising the undoubted right
of petitioning for a redress of those grievances, the Ministers
of the Crown should have advised his Royal Highness to kayo
returned such an answer to an incontrovertible statement of
grievances and well grounded complaints.
That his Majesty's Ministersin the said answer have ad.
vised his Royal Highness to convey an imputation upon those
who have been anxiously petitioning throughout the country•
against the corruptions and abuses of the state, of attempting
to irritate and mislead the people; and having also advised
his Royal Highness to state, " that the severe trials they sus-
tain are cldetly to be a ttri bated to unavoidable causes ;" when.
it is self.evident, that the present deplorable state of the"
country is to be attributed to a long muse of profuse, incon-
siderate, and extravagant expeifilitisre of the public treasure,,
sanctioned by the dependant and corrupt ►tate of Parlia-
ment.

That it is therefore mere incumbent than ever upon the,
country to persevere in their endeavours to obtain a rectrese
of the numerous existing grievances, and most especially a. •
ieform in the parliamentary representation of the people..
This Court do therefore earnestly invite the respective coun-
ties, cities,and towns throughout the kingdom, by a general •
and constitutional expression of national feeling, to endeavour 4;
to avert impending calamities, by a timely reformation of all
•
abuses.

Mr. Fayell, in seconding the atnendnient,. remarked that
there was a time when without hesitation the people would
have gone up to the throne with a remonstrance on the re-
ceipt of so migracious an answer.
Sir W. Curtis had many objections to the amendment.
He insisted that the answer of the Prince, was most gracious, •
moat dignified, and that a more suitable reply could not have
beta given to the Court, which had so improperly interposed,
and had acted so inconsistently with the character of the
City of London.
Mr. Dixon would not say that it was a gracious answer.
No man wished mere for reform than he did, but it musk be
such a reform as was dictated by good sense and moderation.
He was much surprised that such respectable characters as
Mr. Hunt and the Lord Mayor, were so desirous to identify
themselves with such a corrupt body as the Hume of Com-
mons. The speaker being called to miler by Mr. Wailliman,
he begged that he might he heard with patience, as to-
morrow was St. 11 bonus's Day, (the election day with the
Common Cotuu:11), and this might bo his last harangue in
that Court.

Mr. Harvey observed, that the name reasons that induced
him to object to the Address on a former occasion. led him
to object to. the Amendment on the present, and in some
measure to the original motion, as he did not consider the
answer a gracious one. With respect to the question of re-
form, he contended, tlist there wan a great deal more cor-
ruption in the people than in* Howie of Commons, and he
would advise them to ii,!•tlit theniselsCll before they attempt-
ed any thing else. It could not be expected that a different
answer could be given to such an Address; it entered into,
subjects %tiff and milatlionnt:lle, instead of being confined In
those topics to which it ought to have been restricts I.
‘llCl' a fires words from 11Ir. Slade, Mr. Wait Milan, and Mr.
Dixtm, the quebtiuu 1,540 put; cud the macadamia