Star.
London, England, 1812-03-26 00:00:00

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sit.sting restrietbn shall be tontiOnea, *IA gush alterations as
mil be requbi.e in 'die new art" of trade.
iptb. number of his Maje Aets force's to be maintained by
ow East-10,1.T Conwany may, w tb..rut inconvenience, be limited
fohere.„ surge- ted It will be necessary, however, in consequence
of 0,, irtr.eil extent of the Territories in India, slime
thr i.f die _sec by width Pre number is at present regu..
Intel, that a to osiderable adcl, io- ,Itould be made to ir.
ob. It seih nct•soary, that th- prevent system of account-
fro. bef,s„,, ihe sr.inclia Company and the Paymaster-General
nelet.l be abolished, 2,,,i new rogulatb,.i enacted
cor. I.hr s- demands must necessarily 4.1. f a, ragged on the prtz-
i:r3 sergeested by •he Controttc el of the I-lintse of Commons,
!,,ve reply; ted 111)0.7 the sue et of the arrentints herein re-
;nod to. If j! i.ecessiry ur pro;Ter, riis:ussing the future
I,otions which it may be •:eenied ativiiett!lte to establish, re-
r.ctin; the alfstrs or the East.lni.a Cinmiany, there would be
ro dif9tory in demonstrati:Tg, that amount of rarer main-
tained in India ista not gone beyond what was requistte for the
oe,ence and secsttly of the Company's possessions, and for other
ratitrs mtinutely and inseparably conner-ted with those
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ea jecto•
gal. The Proprietors ought to be secured, as at present, in their
dividend of ten and a half per cent.
es& The whole of the surplus funds of the East-India Com-
pany at home and abroad, ought to be applied, in the lint in-
stanc to the reduction of debt, tilt it is reduced in India to the
sum of ten milions, andbond debt at home to the sum of
three millions, alter providing for a proportionate increase of the
capital stock of the Company, if they shall think tit to avail
themselves of the power now vested in them by law to that effect.
94th. It is intended to submit to Parliament a proposition to
that effect, or similar in substance.
gals. If the object adverted to in this proposition can be ob-
tained by ezeueian from the dominioni of the k.ntperor of China,
and a prohibition to import the produce of that country without
herofrom the Company, it will be preferable to the mode
heron suggested. There seems to bt: no reason for excluding the
private trade from the Spice Islands.
No. XXIX.

Letter from the Right I-Linoarable Lord Viscount Melville to
tke Chairman and Deputy Chairman.
Castrcrmest, India Board, Match 2.3, 1812.
I hate had the honour to receive the two letters which the De-
putati.n from the Court of Directors addressed to me, on the
36th Add 19th instant.
It is undoubtedly reasonable, that the further term now pro-
posed to be gruted to the Fast India Company of their privi-
leges of exclusise trade and the government of the British terrir
torlal posscssions in India, should be for such a period, as may
be sufficient, if unforeseen contingencies do not arise, to produce
a considerable reduction of the debt, Loth in India acid at home.
'lke experience, however, of the last twenty years, has sufb-
saintly deniousirate :, that it is Impossible to calculate, with any
degree of accuracy, on what may be the state of the Company 3
affairs in India at the expiry of another period of the same dura-
tion. it they are prosperous, the same term as was granted in
1793 will b,: suflictent for the purpose. described in your letter
of tbe istli--but in untoward evens shall occur, and the Corn-
pug shall be again engaged in expensive wars, it will be desira-
bk that Pattie:nein bhould Lave the opportunity of reconsidering
the subject, and of making suet new provisions as the case may
appear to require. Under these circumstances, I do not think it
with be sivisable to prep ose a lung .r term than what was granted
by die Act of 1793, via. twenty years front the cavity of the ex-
isting period, wi:li three years presious notice.
I bore no hesitation in adiantitig that the suggestion in your
letter of the 19th instals:, relative to the Lent:nuance of the di-
si,irnd of ten alt Dings per tarn. on the extstin; capital of the
hart India Company, after the separate aunt stall he exhausted,
is reasonable, anti that it will be proper to cone* with it.
l'cur proposition. in rezird to the payment of the Property-
tic reqcirei much more consideration, and I cannot, at.present,
king myself to concur in the expediency of agreeing to submit
:to Parliament A confident rxpecta'ion may be entertained,
hum the state of the :„.'orntwiny's revenues in India, end trims the
redavion of espence which has already taken place, or which
may still lie effected, both at home an abroad, by means coin-
lively within your power, that a large annual surplus will be
scalable towards the reduction of debt ; but wh•rt it is recollect-
ed, that tlsough the amount of the debt In ladia has recently been
emsiderably diminished, it has been proportionably encrea.ed at
home; and coosidering also, that provision must be made for
die pues.ble contingency of the Company having to pay, in
this couutry, the interest, not only of their large debt at home,
but also of the vdhole debt of India, I do not think that it
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would be wise or prudent, at least till of er the experen re
of a tew ran, to make an addition to the permanent charges
of the Company at home, t e the amount of the Property-tax opon
titter dirldends.-1 am, Gentlemen, your most obed.ent bumble
stream, (.Atned) MELVILLE.

These communications having been read, the
Chairman (Mr. BOSANQUET), after some prefatory
remarks, observed that the existence of the Last In-

-.mod

dia Company exhibited, perhaps, one of the most ex-
traordinary phenomena which has appeared in the
world. That a company of private merchants, ris.l
ing from small beginnings, should ultimately have
raised themselves to such importance in the world as
not only to give law to the greatest part of the penin-
sula of India, but to have completely conquered all
the Dutch, French, and other European possessions
in the large expanse of country which extends from,
the Cape of Good Hope to the China Seas; and by
these conquests deprived the enemy of this country
of the resources they would have drawn from them,
would, if the fact had not been before our eyes, have
been considered to be almost impossible. But it
would have appeared a still more extraordinarycir-
eumstance; if a Company of Merchants,— posseosing
only a very limited capital, and enjoying no advan-
tage over their fellow-subjects, except an exclusive
trade, and even that in latter times opened to the
public in a certain degree,—should have performed
these things out of their own private stock, and with-
out the smallest expense to that public of which they
form a part. Nevertheless, this had been dope by
the East India Company ; and when these circum.
stances are fully weighed and considered, lie should
thick it hardly possible, that the servants of the Com-
pany, both civil and military, through whom these
things have been done, should fail of receiving that
tribute of thanks which they have •so justly acquired
at the hands of a just and generous public. When
in ire year 1793, the Charter of the East India Corn.
?any was last renewed, the state of the Company's
aicon was, as he conceived, as follows :—The Mi-
nister who there conducted the affairs of India, with-
out solicitation, thought it just, and proposed that
the old Proprietors of East India Stock should re-
ceive an increase of dividend of 2 per cent. and a half
per cent. was afterwards added to this dividend, not
as an increase of interest out of the general funds of
she Company, but payable out of a fund which the
Minister admitted, that if they had chosen so to do,
/ILY would have been entitled to divide at once
orictig themselves. A sum of £500,000 per annnm
its next set apart for the gradual liquidation of the
it
this, .
t'°f the Company, anci if any surplus arose after
w.ts, as far as ‘5;?0,000, to go to the public.
•ouoit never was in the most distant manner in con-
tce r"PitiLon, that if war or other casualties prevented
to receipt ~f this surplus, that the Company %sere in
anyt way to be accountable to the public for it. He
th"glic he might fairly appeal to the recollection of
!dose whom he had the hoi.our of addressing, what
"" been the state of affairs in Europe, and in India,
„since that period.—an alinont uninterrupted state of
• 'ld a con‘equent pressure upon the fintaces of
t
_ he co,lntry, and of Ole East India Company; it would
11.7 hero extraordinary indeed if some partial inconve-
Poona. liad-not beqn occasioned to both; and if, while
entiz kingclonis hive almost been erased from the list

of independent nations, the Company or the public
should not even have suffered temporary embarrass-
ment. It would only, perhaps,be at prescnt,wasting
the time of the Court, were he to dwell upon the vari-
ous occurrences which have taken place in India since
that period. The fall of Seringapatam —the re-
moval from the service of the Nizam a body of French
troops, ready to join the sr.indard of the first invader
of the country—the almost entire cl,•struction of Scin-

dia—of the Raja of Berar, and Holkar's power—the
successful conquests of Ce) lon—of the French Islands

of Mauritius and Bourbon—of Java and the rolucca
islands. But the Court would feel at once that it

WAS. impossible for the East India Company to con-
e= or even to hold when conquered, these various
possessions, without a very considerable disbursement,
and at the same time to carry on a trade equal in
outlay to the whole of their capital in stock and in
bonds. In fact, a large debt was of necessity created
in India, and as the money wat wanted in very cri-
tica• moments, it was raised upon very high rates of
interest, at 6, at 10, some even as high as 12 per cent.
he thought he might venture to state with confidence,
that had the rate of interest been moderate, say only
.5 per cent. the difference paid by the Company be-
tween that and the interest actually incurred, would
have lett their Treasury with a very inconsiderable
burden of debt upon it, and would have enabled the.
Company to pour, even at this moment, its direct
contribution into the Exchequer of the State ;—but

during wars, and preparations for wars, it was impos-
sible for the Company to avoid this ruinous pressure,
occasioned by this heavy weight of interest upon their
affairs. As soon, however, as the moment of peace
arrived, and the periods Aar which the money was
raised expired, Lord Minto seized the circumstances
that presented themselves with avidity ; and having
first provided the treasuries with bullion to the
amount of more than ten millions sterling, his Lord-
ship gave the holders of these loans the option of
having their loans discharged in India, transferred
successively to a loan at eight per cent. interest, and
then to six per cent. ; or of having the loans, confor-
mably with their original terms, transferred to Eu-
rope. Whether, perhaps, these operations were not
performed with a little too much celerity—whether,
perhaps, one might not have wished some circittn•
stances attending the alteration different from what
they were, he apprehended it was not necessary to
stop and enquire. But he thought there could be no
doubt of the zeal of the undertaking, while the pecu-
niary advantages to the Company, from the altera-
tion, might be fairly stated not to fall short of from
sto i 600,000 per annum. A sum of 14. millions of
these loans had been sent, however, for payment to this
country, from 1807 ; which payment the holders of the
loans might call for if they pleased ; of which, 8 mil-
lions had been discharged ; and a sum of six millions,
payable at various periods, expected to be drawn in the
course of about two years, still remains undischarged.
—.He would ask, whether it be too much for the
Company to expect, that embarked as they have bum,
and even in many cases contrary to their inclinatat:ons,
in enterprizes so much beyond their strength, they
should receive the assistance of Government to raise
the sums, so transferred from the Indian to the Eu-
ropean Treasury, upon the most economical terms :
in ordinary times the Company, he imagined, would
not have wanted even this assistance. The Company
ask no contributions whatever from the State ; they
are ready to take the most efficacious Leans for the
discharge of that interest which may become an an-
nual charge upon them, and appropriate any sum
that may be required to the gradual extinction of the
capital. Was this too much for them to ask Iron: the'
State, when out of their Indian Treasury they have
ab eady disbursed sums which render the public deb-
tors to them to a considerable amount, and can spew
that the whole of a King's European Establishment
has been charged to their account, with which the
Crown has executed all its dispersed and extensive
conquests ; and was this too much for the Company
to ask at the hands of that public who has already
dealt out to the Company such a scanty measure of
justice upon the past demands which they have made
against them ? He forbore to enter into a discussion
of those conditions which have been held out to the
Company as a consideration for this assistance, and
for a renewal of their other exclusive privileges, which
he imagined it is equally the interest of the public,as
of the Company, not to put to an unnecessary hazard,
by a change that might bring great loss and incon-
venience, but could hardly be expected to produce
real advantage. He forbore to expatiate upon that
extension of the trade with India, because this point
must become the matter of full debate hereafter. He
trusted only in the meanwhile, that upon that future
enquiry, it would be found that the Directors had
been true to their trust, and only given .way when
opposition might be perceived to be of no avail.—
Alter some farther observations, the Chairman con-
cluded by moving, " That the farther consideration
of the business be adjou'ned till Thursday, the `2sl of
April."—After some remark, from Mr. G. JouN.
wrons and Mr. LOWNZ.E., the motion of the Chairman
was carried unanimously, and the meeting broke up.