The Sun.
London, England, 1812-05-25 00:00:00

UN.

At a MEETING (convened by public Advertisement) of the
COMMANDERS .of SHIPS in the Service of thenonour-
able the EAST INDIA.C-OMPANY, held at the Jerusalem.
Coffee-house, on Monday the 21st day of May,'lBl2,
Captain the Hon. HUGH LINDSAY in the Chair;

. It was unanimously resolved,
Ist. rr I LIT it appears to this Meeting that the
IL public mind is and has been greatly agitated upon
the subject of the East India and China "iYades, and that er-'
rodeous opinions prevail among Merchants and Manilla&
turers of this Kingdom as to the advantages to be derived to
themselves if these Trades should be laid open.
This Meeting deem it therefore incumbent upon them to
declare, that if such a Measure should take place, from their
own experience as Merchants carrying on this Trade, under
the auspices of the East India company, with advantages
which nu others can enjoy, no additional benefit will arise to
the Nation, but that the numerous body of persons brcmght
up in the Maritime Service of the Company will be ruined..

That the Naval Service of the East India Company has
borne the marks of a National Establishment for more than a
century; that in consequence the Sons. of respectable Fami-
lies have sought employment in it as the honourable means
of support to themselves and those depending upon them.
That time served in it formerly was taken as a part of six
Years required to be served in the Royal Navy to qualify a
youth for a Lieutenancy : accordingly great numbers of young
men have been reared in the Company's Service, who have
become distinguished Officers in his Majesty's; and many
Naval Officers when paid off from his Majesty's Service have
found employment in the Company's.

3d. That the East India Company's Ships have many times
had the honour to assist his Majesty's Forces, and have &e-
-l:ready been engaged alone, in making important Conquests
from the Enemy, and have been employed upon other Ser-
vices purely national, on which occasions the Company's Ma-
ritime Servants have cheerfully sacrificed their private interest
to the public good; and in defending the Ships and Property
entrusted to their charge, they have often gained the ap-
plause and sometimes the admiration: of their country.
4th. That the Company's Officers, by the liberal education ge-
nerally bestowed upon them, have been enabled to perfect, in
a great measure, all those discoveries which the learning and
industry of Mathematicians, Astronomers, and Mechanics,
have offered to the world within the last fifty years ; and suc-
cessfully to practise and apply them to the Art of Navigation,
perfecting the Geography, and ascertaining the course of the
prevailing winds and currents in the Indian Ocean.

sth. That the regulations of the Company have, at all
times, required a length of service before a youth could be-
come a sworn Officer, and the station of Commander (which
is his ultimate hope, and the only one that can remunerate
him for hit expences, or afford a chance of his acquiring a mo-
derate provision for his family), cannot be attained until he is
25 years of agejat which period it has often happened that his
necessary exptncea, in passing through the inferior staions,
have consumed more than his patrimony. •

6th. That the frequent Renewals of the Company's privi-
legei of exclusive trade, and the circumstance of the experi-
ment of opening the trade haviAg been once tried and. after-
Wards abandoned, warranted a belief, that so old an establish-
ment would, under any circumstance, be protected, and
which alone could induce the parents and guardians of youth
to place their relatives in the service of the. Company; should,
therefore,
_the Company's exclusive privileges be annihilated,
or materially intruded upon, the Naval service must fall into
decay, to the utter ruin of the numerous class of persons who
have so long depended for support upon the shipping of the.
Company.
7th. That two-fifths of a ship's crew consist of Officers,
-Petty Officers, and Artificers, who are mostly paid by the
Company's permitting them -to participate in their trite.—
That such permission being granted to so large a proportion
of them, by the interest it creates, enables the Officers to
support discipline in their ships without the aid of Martial
Law, and is an effectual bar to the successful commission of
piracy in a country so far distant, affording, from its nume-
rOtlS Islands and independent States, temptations to commit
that crime with impunity, of which hi: Majesty's ship Bounty
affords an instance, many of the offenders remaining undis-
covered, and consequently unpunished by the laws of their
country.
That the number of persons allowed this privilege in the
Company's Service may fairly be stated at from 2500 to 3000,
and the tonnage annually allotted for theieuse, free from any
charge for freight, is about 3000 tons ; it has happened, there-
fore, that every article of British manufacture has been ex-
ported in as large quantities as the demand required, and- fre-
quently in a much greater, which has often caused the bank-
ruptcy of the adventurers.

sth. That Chins affords no materials useful to the. English'
Manufacturer except Raw Silk, the exportation of which is
partly prohibited by the Chinese Government. The manu-
factures of the country are abundant, and of the finer kinds,
as well as of the coarser, with which the whole of the Eastern
Islands, from Malacca on the west, to, the Spice Islands on
the east, are supplied at a very cheap rate by Chine;e trading
vessels.

9th. That the manufactures from China might at all times,
and were formerly, imported into this country by the Com-
pany's Maritime Servants, but the wisdom of Parliament has
thought fit, in tenderness .to the Manufacturers of this Coun-
try, to prohibit the use of them in many instances, and, in
others, to load them with excessive duties, which, in effect,
give to the Manufacturers a monopoly in supplying the
home market, of which other orders Lin the State might rea-
sonably complain.
10th. That Tea, Nankeen, Cloth, and Raw Silk, are the
only articles of any consequence that are brought from China.
Some kinds of Drugs, not exclusively the produce of China,
used to be imported to an inconsiderable amount, great part
of which were exported to the Continent of Europe but that
Trade has failed from various Causes and the Company's.
Maritime Servants have beets compelled to make their returns
to England in a great measure by lending money to the Com-
pany at China for Bills-upon the Court of Directors.

iith: That from the experience the persons composing this
Meeting have obtained in their character of Merchants, hav-
ing had advantages under the East-India Company,which no
others can possibly have; who trade altogether on their own
accounts, and having been always intent upon finding out
new articles of Export and Import without success, they are
confident the Manufactures of this Country cannot 1..! advan-
tageously:exported to a greater extent than under the present
system Of trade; and it may reasonably be concluded, that no
new one can be devised which will give such encouragement
to speculation in articles, as one which has appropriated one
twelfth of the whole Shipping employed to such a nurn,:;er of
Individuals, free from any -charge for freight, who are all in-
tent upon making the greatest advantage of-the indulgence
given to them, and pursue their own schemes.

rlth. That the great prosperity of the China Tradedepends
principally on the article of Tea, which has become almost a
necessary of life to the Inhabitants of this Empire, and which
is now paid for, not as formerly, by Bullion, but partly by
Tin,, Lead, and' Woollens, from England (exported by the
East India Company upon terms that yield no commercial
profit), and partly by Opium, Cotton, and other articles, the
produce of India. The article of Tea, moreover, yields a
prodigious revenue at home, collected with little expense to
Govei nraent, and with the greatest ease; and maintains an
effective Fleet of Ships ready at all times to be added to the
strength of the State.. These advantages have been obtained,
and are secured by a well-regulated monopoly, which never
could have been acquired, nor can they be continued, if an
open trade with China thall be allowed.
13th. That the Maritime Servants of the East-India Com-
pany might if the Trade were thrown open, carry it on with
advantages superior to others must he admitted, uniting, as
they do, the two-fold character of Seamen and Merchants
bred to both from Infancy, and possessing local knowledge on
the subject, that Strangers in the Trade cannot have; but so
fully arc they irnprestsed with the impolicy and inutility of
the measure of an unrestrained intercourse with India and
China, that they look not to any benefit to themselves from
it, and they humbly trust that his Majesty's Government,
meeting fairly and fully the important subject, will not be in-
duced to change the present System of Commercial - Inter-
course with India and China.

14th. That Petitions be hereafter presented to both Houses
of Parliament, praying that the East India Companfs mitt-