Wednesday, Jan. 27, 1813.

There is an irritability manifested at the present moment, by those who are intimately united in interest with the East India Company, which appears strongly indicative of an unhealthy case. It is well known, that the revenues of the Company, far from being able to contribute to the revenues of the State that augmentation which was made the condition of the Company's present Charter, have, from causes which the Directors could not control, been so deficient, that they have been obliged, at different times, to apply to Parliament for pecuniary aid; that they are burdened with a debt of not less than forty-two millions; and that they are now unable to discharge their engagements, without again coming to Parliament to obtain the means. Yet, "an Old Proprietor" feels no uneasiness from this state of the Company's affairs; and this, we must suppose, proceeds from an opinion, that the dividend he now receives is secured to him for the time to come.

But Parliament has never, directly nor indirectly, made itself a collateral security to the Proprietors, for the payment of a dividend of 10½ percent. The aids, at different times granted by Parliament, have proceeded from a mixed principle, of equity and of liberal support. Of equity, in so far as the embarrassments of the Company have been occasioned by political events; of liberal support, in so far as those embarrassments may have been caused by disappointment in trade. If the Proprietors should not discriminate between these two principles which have actuated Parliament, but claim the whole of the succours afforded, upon a ground of positive right, they might impose upon Parliament the necessity of requiring the East India Company to bring their affairs to a final settlement; in order that it may be accurately determined, how far the Public are equitably pledged to the Proprietors, and how far the Proprietors must be left to settle their own accounts with the Company alone. And it is possible, that the result might not afford that confidence of a well-secured dividend of ten and a half per cent., which an Old Proprietor considers it an attack upon private property even to question.

Such an issue, however, does not appear to be very likely to occur, unless the Managers of the East India Company's concerns, from any ill-advised determination in their counsels, should take some steps, by which their affairs should be abruptly brought to a settlement: in which event, any disappointment or loss sustained by the Proprietors will be chargeable upon those Managers, who thus desert their duty to their Constituents; and not on the Public, or the Government. The Managers of the East India Company, having so clear and responsible a duty binding upon them, ought to be most scrupulous of failing in that duty, through any capricious or speculative "adherence to points not essential to their existence;" for, if they should sacrifice the interest of the Proprietors by now attempting to convert their temporary grants into a perpetual right; although the disappointed Proprietors may arraign the Public, yet the Public at large will, with justice, impeach the Managers of the East India Company.

In order to open the eyes of the Proprietors to the simple fact of their actual position, their attention was called by Gracchus, on the 13th inst. to the consideration, whether the Company, loaded with a debt of 42,000,000l. and being unable to discharge the sum of four millions becoming due, could reasonably expect, that if Parliament should now come to their immediate relief, it would engage itself, in all future time, for the payment of a dividend of ten and a half per cent.; especially, if, upon any contingent winding up of the Company's affairs, called for by their own pertinacity, their remaining resources should be found inadequate to secure that dividend to the Proprietors? And the possible case was suggested, of some guardian of the public purse deeming it equitable, that in the event of Parliament being disposed to come to the relief of the Proprietors, under such circumstances, the latter should be called upon, on their part, to submit to some condition of accommodation.

"An Old Proprietor" discovers in this argument of caution, only a direct menace from the Executive Government to the purses of the Proprietors;—a plain and intelligible threat, that payment of their just claims shall be withheld; and he "thanks God, that he lives in a country, where such language will be treated with merited scorn." This Old Proprietor should have known, that Government has never declined to settle any accounts with the East India Company, which had been properly authenticated: under present circumstances, it is not to be expected, that Government should incur the responsibility of applying the public money to discharge claims which have not been sufficiently investigated. So far, however, is Government from having evinced any disposition to throw unnecessary difficulties in the way of the Company's pecuniary arrangements, that, in the midst of the present contest with the Directors, it has granted to the Company a suspension of the payment of between 8 and 900,000l. of tea duties, which the Company had actually received from the buyers of the tea. It is perhaps not generally known, that the Company formerly paid the duties upon tea upon its being imported and landed; by which means the amount of duties was immediately drawn into the Exchequer. To accommodate the Company, a change of practice was allowed by Government, and the Company have been permitted to sell their teas, in the first instance, without the interference of the Officers of the Customs, upon condition of the Company afterwards remitting the gross amount of duties to the Board of Revenue. Thus they actually make their own profits upon the tea, and receive into their own hands the Government duties, before they are called upon to pay them. The duties actually so received by the Company, amount to the sum above stated; and the Old Proprietor will probably deem it no slight proof of a wish on the part of Government to render an accommodation to the Company, that, during the pending discussion, it has made arrangements for allowing the Company an extended period, for transferring the very considerable sum of which they have actually received the beneficial use.

It should be always remembered, by the Company, and by the Public, as parties in a great compact, that the privilege of an exclusive trade to India and China has never been granted to the Company without reserve; or, as if their possession of that exclusive benefit was, in itself, the most advantageous arrangement for the public interest. The grant has always proceeded upon a principle, of bargain and covenant; and on the consideration of a pecuniary, advance, to be made by the Company to the Public, as the condition for the renewal of the lease of the public rights in the India trade. Upon this principle alone, has the exclusive trade ever been conceded to the East India Company; either under its present form, or under any of its former denominations.

To shorten the discussion, however, let the Proprietors and the Company take the following compressed view, of the probable consequences which would severally result, from a compliance with, or rejection of, the proposition made by Government, as the basis of a new Charter; and let them consider, in which of the two they foresee the greatest security for their own future interests.

If, upon maturely weighing the case before them, the Company should accede to the proposition of Government; and if an arrangement, founded upon that proposition, should receive the sanction of Parliament;

1. The Company will preserve the entire China trade; and this principal sphere of their commercial profit, will remain undisturbed.

2. They will possess advantages for continuing to carry on the India trade, so far superior to those of all private competitors, from their territorial and commercial revenues, that, with a moderate exertion of their activity, they may preserve almost the whole of that trade.

3. They will possess the regulation and control of the India trade, so far as depends upon the Indian Governments; and as those Governments will continue in the exercise of the executive power, all the private Merchants, who may repair to the ports and harbours within the extensive limits of their jurisdiction, will of course be subject to the authority of their Government.

4. They will retain the whole patronage and expenditure of a revenue of upwards of Fifteen Millions sterling per annum in India, together with very extensive establishments at home, depending upon that revenue.

5. The accounts between the Public and the Company, being brought to no sudden and violent crisis of settlement, may be amicably and leisurely adjusted, with a view to mutual convenience.

On the other hand, should the Company incautiously drop the substance to pursue the shadow, and refuse the proposition of Government; and should Parliament, upon a full and deliberate consideration of the actual circumstances of the Company, deem it more advisable to bring their accounts with the Public to a thorough investigation and final settlement, than to admit the Company's new pretensions to a perpetual monopoly;

1. The Company will lose as much of the China trade as may fall into the hands of the private merchants, who think they shall be able to sell tea 85 per cent. cheaper than the Company.

2. They will lose the control of the India commerce, and will carry on their traffic in India as subjects, in common with the private British merchants.

3. By that loss, voluntarily incurred, they may throw the greatest part of the trade into the hands of the private traders.

4. They will lose the patronage of India, and the establishments depending upon it; which they will thus compel Parliament, contrary to the disposition of Government, to place under different arrangements.

5. The accounts between the Public and the Company must be referred for investigation to Commissioners of Inquiry, to be finally settled and adjusted.

It is now for the Proprietors, after well considering these two alternatives, to determine, under which of the two their dividend will be most secure.

With regard to Constitutional objections against taking the Government of India out of the hands of the Company (upon which objection their confidence in their present pretensions chiefly reposes), it is difficult to conceive that the wisdom of Parliament, after the experience of so many years, is unequal to the task of devising a system as good as that of the Company, without incurring the evil which those Constitutional objections suppose. The Company's Government, it must be recollected, has been a production of chance, and has grown by the progress of accidental events. It has, indeed, answered far better in practice than could have been expected, if we consider its origin; and therefore, it is not desirable that it should be materially altered; neither is it likely that any such alteration of the system should be contemplated, unless the indiscretion of the Company should impose upon Parliament the necessity of resorting to that measure. But it certainly does not seem to be a measure insuperably difficult, to preserve whatever is really good in the present system, and even to remedy some of its defects, without departing from the path of experience, and resorting to improvements of theory and experiment.

There is one point of view, however, in which such a system would acquire an evident advantage over that which has hitherto obtained: viz. that it would, in every Session, be liable to the revision of Parliament, and to the immediate correction of every error which might be observed, and to such further continual improvements as experience might direct; not being embarrassed by the compact of a Charter.

GRACCHUS.