Star.
London, England, 1811-09-05 00:00:00

INDICATION OF THE LATE CONDUCT OF THE COMPANY
IN THE DISCHARGE OF THEIR LOANS IN THE EAST
•
TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR.
Sin,—No Measure ever adopted by the Company
has created such a sensation in, the minds of indivi-
duals connected with India, as the late payment of
their loans in our Eastern possessions: No measure
certainly ever was more strictly justifiable, and yet
none has been distinguished by such expressions of
disapprobation. To combat these expressions of dis-
approbation, proceeding from the more opulent classes
of the late creditors of the Company, who feel them-
selves disappointed and aggrieved by that measure,
is the object of the present address.
The East India Company is a body of opulent and
honourable men, who have united their capitals for
the purposes of mercantile profit, and their finances,
like those of every private merchant, are subject to
various and constant fluctuations ; they are sometimes
in a declining state, and at other times improving ;
and if when they are in the former condition, they
are obliged to ta,:e money on loan from individuals
at the high interest of 8 or 10 per cent.; surely when
a change takes place by their affairs wearing a better
aspect, or by the general state of trade preventing
them from employing to advantage the money so bor-
rowed, they are at perfect liberty to pay'off those con-
tracts, and to save themselves the unnecessary bur-
then of high interest.
The principal cause of complaint is the sudden and
unexpected manner in which this step has been taken.
The impossibility for creditors in this country to with-
draw their principal in proper time, so very short a
notice of the Company's intentions having been pub-
lished in the Indian papers, is forcibly urged against
them. But the loss and disappointment felt from this
step arise, in truth, principally horn the neglect of
the persons concerned (and in men of business, as the
majority of them is, an unpardonable neglect) in not
having previously given proper instructions to th,ir
agents, This neglect of, on their part, can hardly
be attributed to the Company as their fault.
Those who have lost interest to the gre.ateL(amount,
and who have mest.loudly proclaimed the injustice
of the Company, have in fact the le;.st right to com-
plain; first, because the magnitude of their principal
enables them better to bear the loss ; and next, as their
property was most probably acquired in India, and
funded by themselves, they can plead no ignorance
of the customs of the Company, or the conditions of
the loan. To these persons, therefore, benefited as
they must have been for the length of time during
which they have enjoyed such high interest on their
large properties, and opulent as they still remain, the
Court can not certainly be expected to grant any
redress p nor can those individuals, under such cir-
eumstances, come before them with any degree of
propriety.
In truth, the only real and distressed sufferers, are
those persons, the whole or chief part of whose small
dependance resulted from the interest of money in the
Company's funds abroad, and those who not having
been on the spot when their principal was invested,
and not having. made their own lodgements, may have
been entirely ignorant of the uncertain footing on
which their dependance stood, and consequently of
the propriety of appointing agents to reinvest their
money on such an event taking place. To such
claimants as these, the Court of Directors, ever ready
to succour the cause of misfortune, and commiserating
the situation of these who by an act of theirs have
been so seriously injured through the failure of their
'Usual and expecte/ remittances, would no doilbt be
very ready to grant relief; hut to the other parties,
these would be no end to affording redress : for the
Court, by complying with claims for large as well as
for small sums, and by attending to general cases as
well as particular ones, would lose so much, that they
might als well xestind the orders which they have
issued. AN EAST INDIA STOCK-HOLDER.
Madame DE GENUS' new Work is entitled ge Mt-
leirr Fanner Francais(' its halos Celebes., ;ti 1s leer
Influence cur Its Litterature," &c. It is highly interest-
ing on several accounts, and contains numerous ori-
ginal anecdotes as well as criticisms upon the works
of the most popular French female writers.
A great number of silver coins, of different sizes,
of the reigns of Henry VI. and VII. was lately found
on clearing away the rubbish to work the marble
rock opposite Mount Edgecumbe. They are in high
preservation.
The late *hey rains have occasioned considerable
damage in Dumbartonshire. Some of the rivulets
swollen almost instantaneously, by the excessive dis-
charge from the adjoining mountains, forced them-
selves from their former channels, deluging and de,
stroying the neighbouring corn fields. A bridge on
the road near Dunglas, was carried away by the im-
petuosity of the current, as was also a considerable
part of the ford, which was, in consequence, rendered
quite impassable.

Monday, the 19th ult. the Broughton Tower, Capt.
Wm. Campbell, laden with lime, came into Balcarry
Bay. In the evening, the Captain told his crew, three
in number, to turn in, and he would keep the watch.
About eleven o'clock. he supposed he heard the boy
making an unusual noise, and, upon going into the
cabin, he found the whole of them speechless. With ,
great difficulty and exertion he succeeded in bringing
them upon deck successively. The boy and one of the
men recovered upon being brought into the air, but
. the third was gone past recovery. It appeared that
the lime had heated in the coisive of the voyage, and
the crew having shut down the door of the companion
behind them, the smoke bad proceeded from the hold
along the cieling nun the cabin, and thus produced
this afflicting event.
A Court-martial was hell on Saturday, at Ports-
mouth, ont Mr. Jeitur Hall, boatswain of his Majesty's
ship Primrose, for the constant practice of gaming,
and drinking with the ship's company, and for having
used seditious words, an.: encouraged others to desert,
and for disobedience of orders. He was sentenced to
be dismissed from the Primrose; rendered incapable
of ever serving as an Officer again ; and to serve in
any other situation the Commander-in-Chief shall di-
sect,R.ear.Adiniral HAR4OO.IO President.
•

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EAT! INDIA compaNr.