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Petition was presented from the East-India Company, setting forth, that finding themselves under a necessity of applying to parliament for relief, they hoped they should be esteemed worthy of receiving it, in the manner, and upon the terms, specified in several propositions, which were included therein. The principal of these, were a requisition for a loan of 1,500,0001. for four years, at four per cent. interest, with liberty of repaying the same, as soon as the Company was able, in payments of not less than 300,000l. and that the Company should not make a dividend of more than six per cent. until the loan should be reduced to 750,000l. that then they might raise their dividend to eight per cent. ; and after the whole loan was discharged, that the surplus of the nett profits arising in England, above the said dividend, should be appropriated to the payment of the Company's bond debt, until it was reduced to 1,500,000l. and from thence, that the surplus profits should be equally divided be

tween the public and the Company. It was also requested, that the Company should be released from the heavy penal interest incurred by the non-payment of money, owing in consequence of the late acts for the indemnities on teas, and discharged from the annual payment of the 400,000l. to the public for the remainder of the five years specified in the agreement.

It was farther proposed, on the side of the Company, that the accounts of the Duannee revenues, of the charges of collection of the civil and military expences of Bengal, together with the amount of the Company's sales, charges, debts owing, bills drawn upon them, and goods in their warehouses, should be delivered annually to parliament; and it was desired, that leave might be given to export teas, free of all duty, to America, and to foreign parts.

Some reports from the secret committee had also been received at this time; and as designs upon the Company's territorial possessions were apprehended to be in

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contemplation, a gentleman who had been chancellor of the Exchequer in a former administration, moved that several papers, which had passed between the English and French ministers, previous to the late peace, relative to the affairs of the India Companies of both nations, should be laid before the House. These papers tended to shew, that so far as the sentiments of the crown at the time of the peace could be collected from those of its ministers, it was understood that the East-India-Company had an exclusive and undoubted right to those territories it possessed, whether acquired by conquest or other wise. In one of them was read the following remarkable passage: Respecting those territorial acquisitions the English East-India Company have made in Asia, every dispute relative thereto must be settled by that Company itself, the crown of England having no right to interfere, in what is allowed to be the legal and exclusive property of a body corporate belonging to the English nation."

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After the East-InMarch 9th. dia petition had been read, the first lord of the treasury, in introducing the subject of the loan, observed, that the granting of relief to the Company was a matter of necessary policy and expediency, but in no degree a claim of right or of justice, as had been represented; and having taken notice of the various methods that had been suggested for that purpose, proposed the following resolutions, which were agreed to, viz. That it is the opinion of this House, that the affairs of the East-India Company are in such a state as to require parliamen

tary assistance. That a loan of a sum of money is necessary to reinstate the Company's affairs. That a supply of 1,400,0001. be granted to the Company. Provided at the same time, due care shall be taken that the necessary regulations be adopted, to prevent the Company's experiencing the like exigencies in future.

The minister, upon this occasion, though he waved, for the present, any particular discussion of the point, not only called in question the Company's claim of exclusive right to its territorial possessions, but insisted upon a prior right in the state; from whence he inferred the justice and legality of its interposing its authority in all cases in that Company's affairs. He observed, that this doctrine was not peculiar to himself; and that several persons of great knowledge in the laws, had declared it as their opinion, "that such territorial possessions as the subjects of any state shall acquire by conquest, are virtually the property of the state, and not of those individuals who acquire them."

Though this was a matter rather of conversation than debate, such an avowal, from that quarter, was thought too dangerous to be passed over without animadversion. It was said, that the relation which those opinions could have to the Company, depended solely upon the manner of stating the question; that in certain circumstances they were very just, and were not to be contested, when territorial possessions were acquired under the authority of the state; but that when the state, (as in the present instauce) has in the most solemn and authentic manner, delegated that

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authority to a distinct and separate body, it can never, without a breach of the conditions on which it was granted, be resumed, without the most manifest injustice and flagrant violation of public faith; that such doctrines were subversive of all true commercial principles, and were equally inconsistent with the high rights of the royal prerogative, the faith and honour of parliament, and that right of confirmed property, which every man, and every body of men, have, or ought to have, in their legal acquisitions. It was further observed, that the Company's possessions in India were not in strictness conquests; that they were farms held from the prince who was their proprietor and rightful owner; but that a question of property of that nature was to be decided in a court of justice, and was not a proper subject of discussion there, where the public, who were themselves interested parties, would thereby become the judges in their

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more than eight per cent. before the participation of profits between the public and the Company should take place."

As these restrictions were contrary to the terms proposed by the Company in its petition to the House, they were productive of considerable debates. They were supported, on the undoubted right which every creditor had, previous to his parting with his money, to exact such conditions and stipulations from the borrower, as he thought necessary for his own security; and it was insisted, upon the foundation of the reports made by the secret committee, of the state of the Company's affairs, that it could not with justice to the public, and a due attention to the welfare of the proprietary, afford to make a greater increase of dividend. It was hinted, that the Company had been guilty of an act of delinquency, by exceeding its legal powers in the amount of its bond debt; and it was intimated, that it probably would hereafter be thought necessary to agitate the question of Right, as to the territorial possessions in parliament. As a salvo, however, to the apprehensions excited by these dangers, it was also thrown out, that when the proposed reduction of the bond debt had taken place, and the loan was repayed to the public, the treasury might then, perhaps, contribute a moiety of its share of the participation, entirely to reestablish the affairs of the Com-. pany.

On the other hand, the repre sentations of the Company's affairs, that had been made by the secret committee, were declared to be extremely erroneous; the injury [*G]

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that so numerous a body of people as the present stockholders would receive in their property, by the proposed restrictions, was strongly pointed out; and the chairman of the India Company was called upon in his place to answer, whether he had not declared, at a gene ral court, that the proposed increase of dividend, before the participation of profits took place between government and the Company, would have been agreed to? The chairman acknowledged that he had made such a declaration, and thought himself authorized so to do, from several conversations which had passed between the first lord of the treasury and him upon the subject, several parts of which he then repeated. The noble lord declared, that he had given no such promise or hopes to the gentleman, at any interview, in which he considered him as acting in his official capacity of chairman to the Company; and that he had repeatedly cautioned him, that whatever passed in private conversation was to be buried in oblivion, and never to be quoted as authorizing him to any measure whatsoever. These restrictions, however, upon the conversations of public persons on public business, seems to defeat the end of those conversations. A corporate body can have no information otherwise authenticated; since messages in writing are not usually delivered. Such misapprehensions or misrepresentations on one hand, or retraction of promise on the other, had been frequent in the India transactions from the beginning, and had produced many mischiefs.

It was insisted, that the Company had not exceeded its legal powers in regard to the bond debt,

though terrific threats upon that subject had frequently been held out; and it was declared, that they were ready to meet government upon that ground, whenever it thought proper. To conclude, it was requested, that a matter which affected the property of so great a number of people, as the proposed restrictions did, should not be hastily entered into; and that a few days at least might be allowed to consider coolly of its consequences; that it should be remembered, that the proprietary had agreed to treat with administration upon a supposition that a dividend of eight per cent. would meet with its support, and that to refuse it now, was to lend the aid of government to deceive a set of men, who had already suffered extremely, by being too greatly and too frequently imposed upon.'

To this proposal it was replied, that nothing could be more unjust, or even monstrous, than the idea of raising a dividend, till the Company's debts were discharged; that the postponing the resolutions, even for a few days, could answer no useful purpose; the restriction of the Company's dividend to six per cent. was either a proper or an improper measure; if it was an im proper measure, the sooner it was discussed and laid aside, the better; if, on the contrary, it was a proper measure, why postpone it?

This inflexibility of the ministers, brought on much censure from the other side. It was insisted that the East India Company were not before the House. That the act of the Company was contained in the whole of the proposals that were laid before them; that the House was to treat with the Company in

its corporate capacity, and to accept or reject the whole of its acts; that to accept of part of the Company's proposals, reject the rest, and ingraft new proposals of its own upon those offered by the Company, was to drop the idea of a treaty between parliament and a corporate body, and to destroy the charter rights of the Company.

It was asserted, that all the late treaties between government and the Company, and particularly the present, were in the highest degree iniquitous on the side of the former; that the artifice, duplicity, and treachery used in conducting them, were as shameful as the terms were unfair, and the ultimate designs wicked; and that if ever the Company were before the House, they had either been compelled there by violence, circumvented by fraud, or impelled by menaces. In some time after, April 5th. the following resolutions were moved, and carried by the minister, viz." That it is the opinion of this House, it will be more beneficial to the public, and the East-India Company, to let the territorial acquisitions remain in the possession of the Company for a limited time, not exceeding the term of six years, to commence from the agreement between the public and the Company.""That no participation of profits shall take place between the public and the Company, until after the repayment of the 1,400,000l. advanced to the Company, and the reduction of the Company's bond debt, to 1,500,000l." That, after the payment of the loan advanced to the Company, and the reduction of their bond debt to the sum specified, three fourths of the

net surplus profits of the Company at home, above the sum of eight per cent. upon their capital stock, shall be paid into the Exchequer, for the use of the public, and the remaining one fourth shall be set apart, either for further reducing the Company's bond debt, or for composing a fund for the discharge of any contingent exigencies the Company may labour under."

The right of the state to the territorial possessions was now insisted upon; but that from motives of policy, expediency, and mutual advantage, it was thought better to wave that right for the present, and to suffer the Company to enjoy them for some time longer; the limitation for six years was accounted for by the expiration of the Company's charter, which would take place in the year 1780.

The measure of assuming and establishing a right, without any legal decision, or juridical discussion, or so much as hearing the party on the matter of his right, was, without question, a very extraordinary proceeding. The other side cried out against it, but in vain. It was to as little purpose to declare, that the whole conduct, with respect to the Company, was equally contradictory to every principle of general law, of equity, and of the policy of nations, as it was impolitic, un wise, and entirely repugnant to the letter as well as spirit of the laws, to the liberties, and to the constitution of this country. For what purpose, said they, do you assert this right, when in the very same breath you admit that it is not proper to exercise it? Nobody was then contesting it. It was no part of any question then before the House. If there was not some

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