The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-23 00:00:00

E_l;q' LYDIA DOUSE.

The quarterly court of the East India Company was
held at the India House yesterday (Wednesday) ; Major
Oliphant, the deputy chairman, in the absence of the
chairman, Russell Ellice, Esq., presiding.
The minutes of the previous court having been read,
the meeting was made special, at the desire of nine pro-
prietors, to consider the claims of the Calcutta Steam
Company.
Mr. LEwEN \rho had given notice of two motions,
complained of the special business being first taken.
The CHAIRMAN said that that was the invariable
practice.
Sergeant GAZELEE protested against such director-
made law, and immediately left the room.
Mr. LEwEN, being informed that the other business
would be allowed to come on afterwards waived his
objection.

THE CALCUTTA STEAM COMPANY.
Mr. ROBERT BOURNE, who had given notice of the
following motion :—" That referring to the papers
laid before the Court of Proprietors, in accordance
with the resolution of the quarterly court of October
last, regarding the claim of the Calcutta Steam
Company for the public services rendered by their
steamer the India, it is the opinion of this court
that those services should be acknowledged by payment
of the sum claimed, namely, 20,0001."—proceeded to
state that twenty-five years ago attention was diretted,
in India and in England, to the establishing regular
steam communication between Calcutta, Madras, and
Suez, and large sums of money were subscribed for the
purpose of encouraging attempts to extend steam navi-
gation. Public meetings were held in various parts of
India, the Governor of Madras presiding at one of them,
and it was the loudly-expressed wish of natives that
assistance towards that great object should be afforded.
Lord William Bentinck, when Governor-General, took
a great interest in the subject ; and in reply to a letter
addressed to the court by Mr. Cutler, in 1840, the di-
rectors expressed themselves as fully sensible of the ad-
vantage of steam communication with India, and as-
sured that gentleman that their efforts had been and still
were directed to the accomplishment of that object. They
also stated they should be disposed to afford encourage-
ment by a pecuniary grant to any well-devised scheme for
the purpose. Under those circumstances several gen-
tlemen connected with the East India Company pro-
jected the Calcutta Steam Company, and the India
was ordered out in Sept., 1840, to run between Calcutta and
Suez. In February, 1841, the Oriental and Peninsular
Steam Company made overtures to the Court of Direc-
tors, in a letter, in which they requested to know-whe-
ther the Court would give remuneration in some shape'
for the proposed services. In answer to that communir
cation, on• the .19th of March, the Court of Directors
offered 20,0001. a year, for a period of five years, in aid
of the measures projected. That arrangement was com-
pleted, and preparations were made for carrying it into
effect. In the meantime the India steamer had been
sent to India, in the full conviction that she would be
admitted into any arrangement that would be made, and
that conviction was retained by the Calcutta Company.
Well knowing that the Peninsular and Oriental Com-
pany could not commence operations until 1843, and in
the full belief that the India would be included in the ar-
rangement, or that, if not, they could trustto the justice
and liberality of this Court, the Calcutta Company de-
termined upon the immediate commencement of the ser-
vices required. They made arrangements for sending
the India at once from Calcutta to Madras and Suez ' •
they incurred all the preliminary expenses which such
an enterprise naturally involved ; and as it was acknow-
ledged that no private party could undertake such ser-
vices without ruin, it could not be supposed respectable
gentlemen in Calcutta would be such a parcel of incapa-
ble fools as to undertake them without expecting aid
from the public purse. It was arranged that the steamer
should start on her first voyage from Calcutta on the
17th of September ; but while the India was under-
going some repairs, news arrived that the Sove-
reign of Ava was advancing with a powerful army
on Rangoon. The governor of the Martaban pro-
vinces applied for immediate aid. Tho company had
no steamer, their own war steamers being in their way
to assist in the China war, and there was no other al-
ternative but to ask for the services of the India. The
Calcutta Company thought it deranged their plans and
involved great loss, and seeing the emergency of the case,
consented to abandon their intention, and placed the I
India at the disposal of the G overnor-G eneral. Within
a few days the 50th Regiment was conveyed by the India
to Moelmyn, and the steamer was thence sent to take
up a position before Rangoon. The King of Ava, ob-
serving the promptitude with which forces had been sent
to the provinces he threatened, retired, and probably an
impending war was at that moment averted ; at a mo-
ment, too, when grave and perilous events in the north
of India were occurring. It might be said that it was
only by accident the India was engaged in such an im-
portant service ; but it was a very fortunate accident
for the Government of India. lie did not mention it for
the purpose of fastening upon it a substantive claim,
but in dealing with a general claim he thought it de-
served consideration. On the return of the India from
Rangoon, the original arrangement was resumed, and
she left on her first voyage for Suez on the 10th of Jan.,
1842. She performed the service better than could have
been expected, and enabled important communications
to be made to the Government at home, concerning the
state of affairs in Affghanistan. She performed four
voyages before the Peninsular and Oriental Company
had a single vessel on the line ; and inasmuch as the
Oriental Company would have been entitled to 20,0001.
if one of their vessels had made a single voyage in 1842
the Calcutta Company thought they might fairly claim
that sum for the services rendered by the India. At one
time the Peninsular and Oriental Company seemed to have
entertained the idea of taking up the India ; but the
moment they heard of the formation of the steam com-
pany at Calcutta they withdrew from their proposal, in
order to secure to themselves the undivided benefits
which accrued from the arrangement with the Court
of Directors. Having stated the broad and general
grounds of the claim of the Calcutta Company, lie
did not hesitate to assert that the claim was just and
equitable. There was no attempt to deny that the India
did perform the services which were so eagerly sought
by the Court of Directors, and he could only suppose
the court came to a summary and unfavourable conclu-
sion with regard to that claim, merely because it was
' treated in a strictly legal manner. If the Calcutta
Company had had legal rights, he should not have been
there pleading for them—the strong arm of the law
would have given them justice • but, he submitted, the
court had not always been guided, in the distribution of
money, by strictly legal considerations. It was the in-
firmity of great bodies, as of individuals, to be ungrateful
for services when they had been performed ; but he
hoped he should not appeal in vain to the generosity
and liberality of this court. He was not insensible to
the difficulties which surrounded the board, and had,
therefore, modified his motion in these terms, " that re-
ferring to the papers laid before the Court of Proprie-
tors, in accordance with the resolution of the quarterly
court of October last, regarding the claim of the Calcutta
Steam Company for the public services rendered by their
steamer the India, this court, having given considera-
' tion to the claim, believes it to deserve the equitable and
liberal consideration of the directors, and this court
accordingly, recommends it to their favourable re-con-
sideration."
Mr. MACKILLOP seconded the motion.
The CHAIRMAN said, if it was intended by this motion
to obtain a larger sum of money than had already been de-
cided upon, he could not amree to it. If the hon. pro-
prietor liked to move that the claim be referred to the di-
rectors for reconsideration that might be done, but be
could not hold out any hope that the directors would go
further than they had already said they would. A very good
answer might be made to this case, particularly as it was
admitted that the steam company had no legal claim.
(Hear, hear.) He would not enter into that, as the
papers had been laid before the proprietors, andfurther
e
honourable proprietor could not consent to
modify his motion he should be under the necessity of
moving the previous question .
111 r. JONES thought that if it was one of the positive
duties of Government to provide public communication
by roads, it was equally their duty to provide good sea
communication where it was absolutely required, and
that, as the services rendered bad been for the benefit
of the people of India, it would be a proper application
of the Indian revenue to protect the steam company
against loss.
Mr. DENT (a director) observed that he had taken
great interest in promoting steam communication be-
tween India and the mother country, and if he had not
joined what was then called the comprehensive com-
pany, he should most likely have shared the loss of the
gentlemen who had established the Calcutta Company.
When the India was put on the line, as he was return-
ing to England, he took passage in her. He bad no
doubt the Government of that day would have employed
one of the Government steamers to bring the intelli-
gence of disasters in Affghanistan home ; but the India,
being on the point of sailing, the Government took ad-
vantage of her to put despatches on board. He could
bear testimony to the praiseworthy zeal with which
Captain Henderson, on landing at Suez, posted off to
Cairo, and induced the Pacha to charter a vessel to take
these despatches to England. The intelligence fortu-
nately arrived in anticipation of the Bombaymail, which
enabled the Government in this country to send out to
the Governor-General of India despatches on which
he issued instructions to General Nutt, giving him
full discretion to advance on Cabul if necessary. He
believed the gentlemen who had engaged in the Cal-
cutta Steam Company had been actuat 34 by purely dis-
interested considerations; and he sympathised with them,
the more perhaps because he himself narrowly escaped
being a participator in their losses.
Mr. LEVIER. firmly believed the court wain under a
moral obligation to this company, if not a legal one ;
and he trusted those parties who were entitled to wake