The Sun.
London, England, 1825-12-22 00:00:00

EAST INDIA HOUSE.

Yesterday a General Court of Proprietors was
held at the East India House. CAMPBELL MA..
JoainANKs, Esq. Chairman : Sir G. A. RowN-
sox, Deputy Chairman.
HALE-VEARLY DIVIDEND.
The CHAIRMAN stated that • the Court of Directors had
come to a resolution of paying a dividend of five and quarter per
cent., for the half-year commencing in July, 1825.
Mr. HUME wished to know from the HMI! Chairman if that

-4ividend was founded upon, and arose out of the commercial
.rofita. of _the Company ? • Notwithstanding the mystery in which
it was the policy of the Directors to involve the affairs of the
Bengal Government, it was stilt sufficiently notorious that their
Expenditure for the present year had exceeded their income, in
consequence of . the ruinous war now carrying on so unneces
by that Government. He, therefore repeated his wish
to. know from what sources the dividend of the present half
year was derived, and also whether there was any and what
surplus ?
The CHAIRMAN said, it was well known that the dividends
must arise out of the commercial profits of the Company. An
• • -account of that dividend was submitted every half year to Par-
. liarnent, from which the lion. Proprietor would obtain the in-'
formation he required.
Mr. Hu ME said, that the last account which had been laid:
'before Parliament was only for the past year.
-• The CHAIRMAN said, that some delay must necessarily in-
tervene between the arrival of the balance sheet from India and
laying it before the Court of Proprietors. When that balance.
sheet was prepared, it should bp laid before them.
Mr. Hums: expressed his dissatisfaction that the Hon.
Chairman had not thought fit to give a more explicit answer
to his question. When they considered the evils which had
- resulted from a want of confidence in this country, he need
need not impress upon the minds of the Proprietors the abso-
lute necessity there was for avoiding similar evils in India,
by laying before the Proprietors a statement of the affairs of
she Company, and thus relieving the public mind at once from'
-any apprehension of its stability. It had for years been the.
-custom' to make up the balance sheet in India, on the 30th of
April. Unless that custom had been departed from in the.
present instance, he thought there was ample time to have.
had that balance sheet forthcoming.
• The DEPUTY CHAIRMAN said, that the Court was already
.in possession of the balance sheet up to May, 1024 ; that to
May, 1825, he believed was on board the Larkin.
The motion was then agreed to.
GRANT. TO mit ARNOIT.
The CHAIRMAN moved, that the grant or 1,8001. which had
been awarded to Mr. Arnott at the last General Court, should
be confirmed.
Mr. RANDLE JACKSON said, that he. had been absent when
this question had been discussed upon a former occasion, or he
• would not, as far as he was concerned, have allowed it to pass
.ra3 silentio. He approved most cordially of the grant which
the Company, under the influence of feelings highly honour-
' able to themselves, had made to a suffering individual. lie did
not wish' to enter into the merits of Mr. Arnott's case,

much less to discuss the question of the freedom of the
press in India, although no man was a greater advocate
of a free press than himself. To that blessing we owed
every.- thing that was Valuable to us, and not to uphold
the Liberty of the Press was not to he an Englishman.-,
On the other hand, however, .he was an enemy to the licen-
tiousness of the Press, and was well aware that it required
occasionally to be kept within proper bounds. On the pre-
sent occasion; he saw no,necessity for entering into so wide a
His approval of the grant to Mr. Arnott was founded
upon motives, in which all who heard him syould participate,
Muse of eynripathy for the individual.
Mr. D. KINNAI4D said that he seldom had heard a laboured
eulogium pronounced upon the benefits to be derived from the
freedom of the Press, that it was not followed by some measure
hostile to that very freedom which it professed to uphold. Upon
the present occasion, he differed entirely with his Hon. Friend
who spoke last. Ile (Mr. D. Kinnaird) approved of the grant
-,to Mr. Arnott, not as a boon conferred upon him by their gene-
„rusity, but as a compensation for grievous and cruel injuries in-
liicted upon him by the Governor-General (Lord Amherst) and.
the Bengal .Government.—( Hear, bear !)---He thought it a wan-
ton and unnecessary aggravation of the miseries which Mr. A.
had already been made to suffer to tell him now when they were
doling out to him a measure of tardy justice, that he was to
consider it not as a compensation for injuries inflicted, and that
instead of claiming it as a right, he was to be indebted for it to
their compassion. He thought nothing could be less fair than
this ungracious Manner of repairing an act of gross injustice.
Dr. Gir.can approved 'of the grant, because he conceived
that tardy justice was better than none at all. Had Mr. Arnott,
however, hada Scotch cousin amongst the Directors—(as laugh)
ehis wrongs, he was certain, would have been sooner redressed,
.and The amount of compensation Which he would have.to receive
Would be much larger. Ruling, as the Company did, over a
mighty Empire, there-was nothing which they should so care-
'fully guard against as acts of injustice, even eowards the mean-
est of their subjects. A Persian poet had so well expressed him
self upon this subject that he (Dr. G.) would, with the permis-
sion of the Court, quote a_ few lines from him. (The worthy
Doctor then, in a sonorous voice, and with proper emphasis, re.:
,pasted the line.S.t6 which he alluded, in the original Persian, to
the great apparent satisfaction of those who understood him.)—
For the benefit of occidental Gentlemen, he would give them a
translation of those adMirable lines.. They were supposed to be
addressed by a Persian PrinCii(who, although a despot himself,
seemed to understand the value of liberty) to his son.
Should'et thou desire a monument, my. son,
Of fortune's smiles on earth, injustice shun :
With patience hear the poorest who complain . •
Lest those- oppressed invoke thy name in vain.
Proud 'tyran ts here, man's JUDGE SUPREME will try,
And spurn them too, when suppliants, from the sky.'
Mr. Humes could not allow the present question to pass
without deprecating in the strongest language the syStematie
cruelty and oppression of which. Mr. Arnott had been the vic-
tim. He had been seized by the order of Lord Amherst,
dragged by a military guard (and this, too, under a Civil Go-
vernrnent) to prison, where he would have languished, perhaps,
till now, or till death had put an end to hie sufferings, had it
not been for the interference of the Chief Justice, Sir Francis
M‘Naghten, who declared his arrest illegal and unjust, and
forced the military tyrant to restore him to liberty. He then
wen; to a foreign Colony, in the vain hope that he would there'
Ise secure from oppression ; but in this
_hope he was mistaken,
for he was seized, put on board a ship going to England by the
circuitous and unhealthy route of Bencoolen, when there were
twenty-five ships in the harbour bound directly for this country.
Wit y was he sent to Bencoolen, a place where felons and con-
victs were transported, and which was so unhealthy that it was
almost a miracle that his life had been preserved there! Why
did the Bengal Government pay 800 rupees for his passage in
the ship ,Fame, when he was entitled to a free passage ? One
or two acts of the Marquis of Hastings had been seized on to
form matter of accusation against him ; but this was only one
•out of fifty of the oppressive and arbitrary acts committed by
• Lord Amherst with impunity, and without animadversion.
Mr. LowernEs did not think that a free press was at all
suited-to the climate of India. In hot climates, to use a French
expresssion, " la tete monte' " and it was difficult to keep the
imagination in proper bounds. That this must be the case was
.evident to those who considered in what alarming excesses the
press of this country, notwithstanding its cold climate and mo.
derate Government, had lately indulged. The Hon. Proprietor
then entered into a long history of the evils which had, in his
opinion, resulted from the encouragement given to stock job-
.hing and speculations of various sorts by the press. The very
distresses under which the country at that moment laboured,
and which came too home to them all to. need further allusion,
had been created and aggravated by a portion of that press. If',
then, in this country, under a popular Government, such evils
flowed from the liberty of the press, was it not natural, under
similar circumstances, to anticipate much greater evils in India,
where the government, it was well known., was not so very po-
pular, and where there were so many discontented spirits ready
to take advantage of any alarm. The Hon. Proprietor, after
some further observations, expressed his cordial concurrence in
the vote to Mr. Arnott. The resolution was then confirmed,
lIINUOSTANEE LANGUAGE. .

The CIfitIRM A N said, that the Court had been made special
for the purpose of hearing two distinct propositions to be sub-
mitted to them by three lion. Proprietors (Mr. Hume, Mr. D.
Kinnaird, and Dr. Gilchrist). The first was, that all cadets
should in future previously to their going out to India, acquire
a knowledge. of the Hindostanee language; and the second was
for an inquiry into the case of Mr. J. S. Buckinghrun. With
respect to the first proposition, as it was intended (we under-
stood the Hon. Chairman to say) on the next Court day to dis-
cuss the propriety of confirming a resolution which imposed
upon officers in the Civil Service the necessity of being ac-
quainted;-with Hindostanee before they embarked, it would
perhaps save the time of the Court, if both positions were dis-
cussed together.
Air. Hums assented, with an understanding that his propo-
sition, although discussed upon the same day, was to be consi-
dered distinct from that alluded to by the Hon. Chairman, and
was to stand or fall by its own merits.

MOTION volt THE RECALL •OF LORD AMHERST-

MR. BUCKINGHAM.

The CARAIRIICAN was then going to put the question respect-
ing Mr. Buckingham when
HagE said, that before the cage of Mr. Buckingham
aulesiodo he felt it his duty to submit to the Coat another

question, which, without meaning to undervalue the import-
ance of that gentleman's case, was of infinitely more moment
to the Proprietors and to the country at large, than any in-
stance, however great, of individual hardship or oppression.
He alluded to the conduct of the Governor-General himself.—
(1Icar:!)---He was sorry that in introducing- this important
qnestion to their notice, that be should' have to, complain of a
tsvant of courtesy, if not 'a denial of justice, upon the part of
'the Court of Directors. It was well known- that there were
four General Courts of Proprietors held within the year, at
each of which it was competent for any Proprietor, without
previous notice, to originate any motion which he pleased. But
it had always been the practice, at least 'during the 18 years in
which he had been a Proprietor, previously. to send to the
Directors a notice of any particular motion, which notice it
had been the uniform custom of the- Directors hitherto to
advertise in the public papers. He (Mr. Hume) had some
time since sent in notices of three distinct propositions, the
two which had been just disposed of, .and the third calling for
the recal of Lord Amherst. The two former the Directors had
thought proper to advertise. With ,respect however to the
third, he bad received a letter from the Chairman, conveying to
him thedetermination of the Directors not to advertise it, but
informing him (Mr. Hume) that he-might notwithstanding, if
he pleased, bring forward his proposition at the General Court,
there being no necessity that it should be made special for that
purpose. He now called upon the Hon. Chairman to explain
why he had chosen to deviate from the practice of his prede-
crotorit, and to account,. if he could, for conduct which he
(Mr. Hume) could not help thinking was as illegal as it was
uncourteous.

The CHATit MAX, disclaimed the intention of any want of
courtesy towards the lion. Proprietor, on the part of himself
and his brother Directors. They had, however, a duty to per-
form
to the great body of their constituents, and that duty they
conceived had been best fulfilled by declining to comply with
his request. When they considered the high and important
station which *as filled by Lord Amherst, and tharduous war
in which he was now engaged, they did not wish to embarrass
his operations, by having it go forth to the seat of his Govern-I
ment,-that he was to be put on his trial at home: Under this
impression the Court of Directors had taken upon themselves
the respoUsibility of not acceding to the lion. Gentleman's re-
quest, and they were perfectly ready to submit the :propriety of
their conduct in this instance to the good sense of the Court of
Proprietors.—(Hear, hear!)
Sir C. Fotinrs rose for the purPose of saying, that under-
standing that the, conduct of. Lord Amherst was to be
brought under the consideration of the Court, he had tra.
'veiled from Scotland, a distance of seven hundred miles, much
to his personal inconvenience, in order to be present at 'the
discussion. [ Here some interruption was occasioned by a
Gentleman, who rtiSe in the body of the Court, and requested
to be heard. His request havitag been acceded to under the
impression that he was a Proprietor, :he proceeded to state
that his name was Strachan, that he' had entered the Company's
service in 1799, as a Cadet, and had perved until 1805, when,
by the sentence of a Court Marshal, he was cashiered.—
He conceived, however, that he 'bad been the victim of an
unjust sentence, and therefore claimed the rank of Lieutenant-
Colonel, and arrears of pay up to the present time. He had ap-
plied 16 years ago to Mr. Astell (ths then Chairman), who told
him that if he would acknowledge that he had been guilty of
disobedience of orders, he should be restored to his rank ; but,
knowing his innocence, he had refused to do so, and had never
called upon Mr. Astell since, and after enduring every species
of privation, and having ineffectually petitioned the Directors,
he now threw himself upon the compassion of the Court, in the
hope that his case would be investigated.l
A Proprietor expressed his hope that that Court would not
think of revising the sentence of a Court Martial,against which
not even the Gentleman himself had shown any just grounds of
impeachment.
Mr. A sTEr.r. said that although he recollected neither the
person nor the name of the Gentleman who had addressed
them, he thought upon his own shewing, that every indul.
genre would have been extended to him had he chosen -to
avail himself of it. He agreed, however, entirely with the Ho-
nourable Gentleman who had spoken last, that that Court had
quite enough to do without erecting themselves into a tribunal
! to revise the sentence of a Court Martial, particularly after a
lapse of 16 years.
Mr. H umE could not help entering his protest against
what had fallen from the Honourable 'Director who spoke last.
God forbid that Court should ever so far yield themselves up
to a military despotism, as to waive their undoubted privilege
of revising or annulling the proceedings of any Court;Martial,
if founded upon injustice. He for one was ready to assist
the individual who had appealed to them, in the investigation
of his case.