Thursday, January 14, 1813.

It is at all times an object equally interesting and instructive, to trace the origin of laws and institutions, and to follow them in the progress of their operation; but this inquiry becomes more powerfully attractive, when the pursuit is stimulated by an anxiety to defend a supposed right, or to acquire an extension of advantages which are already possessed.

Such an investigation appearing to be a necessary sequel of the subject treated of in a former communication, let us now take a succinct view of those provisions of the Act of 1793, by which the East India Company, upon the last renewal of their Charter for a fixed time, were called upon to relax from the exclusive restrictions of the monopoly which they had so long enjoyed. Taking that Act as the source and origin from whence the present India Question arises, let us briefly follow the subject in its progress, down to the propositions that are now before the Public.

It is necessary to premise, that the Company had, from an early period of their commerce, granted as a favour and indulgence to the Captains and Officers of their ships, permission to fill a regular portion of tonnage with certain prescribed articles, upon their private account, subject to the condition; that those privileged articles should be lodged in the warehouses of the Company, that they should be exposed by them at their sales, and that they should pay from 7 to 5 per cent. to cover the charge of commission and merchandise.

The Act of 1793, relieved the trade carried on under this indulgence, by reducing the rates of charge to 3 per cent.; which was established as the rate, at which the more enlarged trade, for the first time allowed by that Act to private merchants unconnected with the Company, should pay to the Company; which trade was then limited to 3000 tons, the shipping for which was to be provided by the Company, who were to be paid freight for such tonnage, and were to have the same control over the goods which might be imported, as they already exercised over the trade of their Captains and Officers.

It was soon found, that the conditions, under which this trade was opened, changed its operations, so as to render the privilege of little value. The residents in India, for whose benefit it was professed to have been principally intended, presented memorials upon the subject to the Governments abroad; and the merchants of London represented to the authorities in England, the necessity of an enlargement of the principle, as well as a correction of the regulations. It is not necessary, to go into any detail of the reasons upon which those applications were supported; because Mr. Dundas, who then presided over the affairs of India, and who had introduced and carried through Parliament the Bill of 1793, did in the most explicit terms inform the Court of Directors, in his letter of the 2d April, 1800, that "he should be uncandid, if he did not fairly acknowledge, that experience had proved it to be inadequate to the purposes for which it was intended—and that therefore he was clear, that the clause in the Act ought to be repealed, and in place thereof a power be given to the Governments abroad, to allow the British subjects, resident in India, to bring home their funds to Britain on the shipping of the country;" that is to say, on ships built in India. This letter, of the President of the Board of Control, was referred by the Court of Directors to a special Committee of their body; who, in a very elaborate Report, dated 27th Jan. 1801, that is to say, after the deliberation of eight months, declared that it was impossible for them to acquiesce in the proposition then made by Mr. Dundas. They supported their opposition by a variety of arguments, from which the following short passage need alone be selected:—"The proposals which have been brought forward by certain descriptions of men, both in India and in England, for the admission of their ships into the trade and navigation between India and Europe, proposals which extend to the establishment of a regular and systematic privilege in favour of such ships, appear, when maturely weighed, and followed into all their operations, to involve principles and effects dangerous to the interests both of the Company and of the nation; that the adoption of those principles would, immediately and essentially, affect both the system of policy which the Legislature has established for maintaining the connexion and communication between this country and British India, and the chartered privileges of the East India Company. And the introduction of any practice of this nature, would tend to widen gradually, and indefinitely, the channel of intercourse between India and Britain; to multiply the relations between the two countries; and to pour Europeans of the lower sort into India, and Indian sailors into this country; to lessen, by both these means, the respect for the European character; to disturb and shake our government there; and, in a word, to lead progressively but surely to colonization."

The language employed by the Court of Directors at the present day, in opposition to the proposition for allowing private ships returning from India to import to the places from whence they had sailed upon their outward voyage, is feeble and languid; in comparison with the passage which has been just now recited, from the Report of their Special Committee, made upwards of twelve years ago, upon the proposition then submitted by Mr. Dundas. That Minister, in his reply of the 21st March, 1801, to the Court of Directors, observed, "I have reviewed my own opinions with the most jealous attention, and I have weighed, with the most anxious care, the arguments of those who suppose that the system which I have recommended, is likely to produce any inconvenience or danger to the rights, privileges, and exclusive interests of the East India Company: but it is my misfortune to view the subject in an opposite light. If any thing can endanger that Monopoly, it is AN UNNECESSARY ADHERENCE TO POINTS NOT ESSENTIAL TO ITS EXISTENCE." Mr. Dundas then adverted to a letter of the 30th September, recently received from the Governor-General, Marquis Wellesley, which, he said, "had with clearness and precision ably detailed and demonstrated the grounds of those opinions."

But, the judgment and reasoning of Mr. Dundas, elucidated by the arguments of Marquis Wellesley, (which were founded on the knowledge of what, at the time, was passing under the eye of the Governor-General,) had not influence upon the Court of Directors, sufficient to make them adopt the proposition of the President of the Board of Control; and still less, the enlargement of that proposition, as suggested by Lord Wellesley; who represented, "the great advantages that would result to the Sovereign State, by encouraging the shipping and exportation of India; and, that if the capital of the Merchants in India, should not supply funds sufficient for the conduct of the whole private Export Trade from India to Europe, no dangerous consequences could result from applying, to this branch of commerce, capital drawn directly from the British Empire in Europe:" thereby taking that trade from foreign nations, whose participation in it was become "alarmingly increasing."

These distinct and concurring opinions, of the President of the Board of Control and the Governor-General, could not prevail upon the Court of Directors to "alter the opinion they had delivered." They accordingly drew up paragraphs, to be sent to the Governments in India, conveying their final resolutions and instructions.—"The British residents in India," they said, "aided by those who take up their cause here (viz. the King's Ministers and the Merchants of London), desire to send their own ships to Britain, with private merchandise; and the principle of employing British capital in this trade, is also contended for. This trade, although it might for a time be carried on through the existing forms of the Company, would at length supersede them; the British commerce with India, instead of being, as it is now, a regulated monopoly, would deserve, more properly, the character of a regulated free trade; a title, which it is to be feared would not suit it long."

Such is the substance of the paragraphs which the Directors had prepared, upon the propositions we have been considering; although both the one and the other of those propositions explicitly provided, that all the private trade with India, export as well as import, should be confined to the Port of London. The Board of Control, though no longer presided at by Mr. Dundas, interposed its authority; and, on the 2d June, 1801, the Directors were enjoined not to send those paragraphs to India.

The language of the Court of Directors in 1813, upon the question of the Import Trade, is, as has been already affirmed, feeble and languid in comparison with that which the same body employed in 1800 and 1801, with regard to the admission of India-built ships in the carrying trade between Britain and India; but Indian-built ships have, from that time to the present, been employed in that trade, and none of the alarming consequences, which the Directors had predicted, have resulted from that practice.

May it not therefore be reasonably assumed, that the alarm under which they now profess themselves to be, would prove to be equally unfounded; that the direful influence upon the Constitution and Empire, which the Directors tell us is to be apprehended, from any change in the existing system that shall admit private ships returning from India to import at the places whence they had cleared out, would be found to be as little entitled to serious consideration; and that neither the public revenue, nor the immediate interests of the Company, would be endangered by an experiment, which the Government and the Company would be equally bound to watch; and which Parliament could at all times control, and if necessary, absolutely bring to a termination?

GRACCHUS.