Wednesday, January 13, 1813.

It is a distinguishing character appertaining to Britons, to express forcibly their feelings, whenever they think they discover any disposition to encroach upon their rights. It is not therefore to be wondered at, that the communication of the papers, on the subject of the East India Company's Charter, which was made by the Directors to the Proprietors, on the 5th instant, should have produced the effect which was then manifested; of an almost unanimous disposition, to support the Directors in their resistance of a measure, which, at the time, was regarded as an invasion, on the part of the Government, of the established rights of the East India Company.

But now that the momentary ebullition of that spirit has had time to subside, and to give place to cool and sober reflection, it may not be unacceptable to the Proprietors at large to look calmly and attentively into the subject; and to examine its bearings on their own substantial interests.

It must be manifest to every man, who will only refer to the accounts which have been published in the Reports of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, that, from the magnitude of the Company's debt, it would be impossible to calculate the time at which the Proprietors could contemplate any augmentation of their present dividends of 10½ per cent.; even though the Charter, instead of being within one year of its expiration, had an extended period of twenty years to operate.

It is equally manifest, from the correspondence of the Court of Directors with Government, that, in agreeing to the proposition of opening the Export Trade to the out-ports of the United Kingdom, they were free from any apprehension, that the continuance of the present dividend could be endangered by their conceding that point. And, therefore, although the Proprietors were precluded from entertaining any reasonable expectation of an increase to their dividends, they were perfectly warranted to consider the continuance of that which they now receive, as free from any hazard, in consequence of the extension proposed to be granted to the Export Trade.

Whether they may remain in the same confidence, under all existing circumstances, is a question which the Proprietors are now earnestly solicited to examine. The point at issue (if I may apply that expression to a case, in which the Company are upon the disadvantageous ground of petitioning for the renewal of a privilege, now about to expire) is, whether the ships which shall be permitted to clear out from the out-ports of the United Kingdom, ought to be allowed to return to any given description of those ports, or whether they should all be compelled to enter at the Port of London? And upon this point is made to hinge a question, which may affect (not the British Empire and Constitution, but) the main interest of the Proprietors, namely, their dividends. For no man can be so inconsiderately sanguine as to suppose, that the Company, under the present pressure of their pecuniary embarrassments, (whatever may have been the causes from whence they have arisen;) embarrassments proceeding from a debt, in India and in England, of more than forty-two millions; nearly four millions of which are in accepted bills on England, which will shortly become due, and for the payment of which there are not funds at the India House; no man can be so inconsiderately sanguine as to suppose, that the dividend may not become a little precarious, under such circumstances. It must be evident to the most superficial observer, that the credit of the Company with the Public can only be sustained by the prompt and liberal aid of Parliament; and it will hardly be maintained, that it is a propitious mode of soliciting that aid, to connect with the solicitation an avowed determination to oppose a measure, which Government represent it to be their duty to recommend to Parliament, for the general benefit of the community; a measure, founded on, and growing out of, the principle of the Charter of 1793, which first opened the private trade between India and this country; the provisions respecting which trade have been progressively extended at subsequent periods, and of which trade the Public will now call for a further enlargement and participation, as a just and necessary qualification to the proposed renewal of the Company's Charter.

The City of London, indeed, is now an exception, and apparently a very weighty one, to this general call; but it will lose much of that weight with the Public, and must fall into the scale of an interested party, when it is recollected, that so long as the question between the Company and the Public was, whether the commerce with India should remain a strict monopoly, or whether a participation in it should be granted to individuals, under the restriction of importing to London the commercial interest of the metropolis was powerfully incited against the Company; and that, to that great commercial interest, supported by the weight of Mr. Dundas's opinion, and to the more enlarged view which Lord Wellesley took of the subject, the extension that has hitherto been given to the private trade with India is to be attributed. The experience of twelve years has now proved, that both India and the parent state have greatly benefited by that extension; and it has followed, as a necessary consequence of that experience, that the active and intelligent merchants of the other large ports of the United Kingdom, have urged their fair pretensions, to be admitted to a share in the profits of that widely diffused trade; by sending their merchandise from their own ports, and by receiving the returning cargoes into their own warehouses, in those ports.

A reference to the printed papers (as has already been signified) will show, that the Court of Directors were prevailed upon to concede the first of those points, but that they have been immoveable with respect to the second; although their own commercial knowledge must have made it evident to them, that the concession of the first, that is, a free export, would be nugatory, unless supported by the benefit arising from the freedom of import; which is not only in the proportion of four to one in amount to the export, but is requisite to give that unity to the concern, without which great commercial establishments cannot be kept up.

Such is the state of the question, or, as it has been called, by some strange perversion of ideas, the negotiation, between the Company, as applicants for a renewal of their Charter which is about to expire, and the Government, through whose aid it is to be solicited, or at least, without whose concurrence it is certainly very questionable, whether they would be able to obtain it. These are the circumstances, under which the affairs of the East India Company must necessarily, and speedily, be brought forward, for the consideration of Parliament. Can it, then, be considered an exaggerated view of the hazards of such a situation, to suppose, that some guardian of the public purse may deem it requisite to inquire, whether the application for pecuniary aid from Parliament ought not to be preceded by a substantial proof, not of concession, for they have in fact nothing to concede, but of something like accommodation on the part of the Proprietors? And in that event, might it not be questioned, whether, since the dividend of 10 per cent. was sanctioned upon an assumption, that the revenue of the Company yielded a surplus of upwards of a million; now, when instead of a surplus, a deficit is admitted to exist, the dividend ought not to be reduced, not merely to the standard from which it had been raised under the supposed prosperous state of the Company's affairs, but to a standard to be regulated by the amount of the ascertained profits upon their own trade, under whatever circumstances it may hereafter be conducted?

It is not meant to insinuate, that any condition of the kind alluded to is likely to be imposed, in granting the relief so pressingly required by the present exigencies of the Company; but if a necessity for the winding up of their affairs, as an exclusive Company, should arrive, and if their own resources, with the profits they may derive from their commerce as a Corporate Body, should not be adequate to the payment of a dividend of 10½ per cent.; could it reasonably be expected, that Parliament would, in all future times, extend its liberality towards the Proprietors of India stock, to the extent of securing to them a continuance of their present dividend?

It is to be feared, that those who may have calculated upon such a result, have taken a false measure of their prospective situation; and it is on account of this apprehension, that it appears highly important to call the attention of the Proprietors to the care of their own substantial interest in the dividend; an interest, which to them is, and must be paramount.

GRACCHUS.