pofed indulgence, it was willed to transfer to Great Britain. Francis Baring, Mr. Lufhington With regard to agents, provided they were licenced by the company, and fubjected themfelves to the regulations, which the company might fee caufe to eftablify for the conduct of the agents of India, he faw no reafon, why thofe agents might not be permitted to exercise their agency for the behoof of their conftituents, and even of foreigners, in any of the territories of India. It was clearly beneficial for the interefts of India,, that foreigners fhould rather employ British agents, refiding under the protection of the company in India, than that thofe foreign nations fhould eftablish, in any part of India, agents of their own. In the former cafe, they would be under the control of the company, and bound to adhere to fuch rules as the company might, think proper to lay down for the conduct of agency; but there could Of thefe refolutions, the first fe not exift any fuch control or reftraint cond, third, fourth, ninth, tenth, ele over the agents of the other defcrip- venth, and twelfth, entirely accorded tion. As to the agents to be em- with Mr. Dundas's opinions, as he deployed at home, in the manage clared in a letter to the chairman, 21st ment of the private trade of indi- March, 1801, Itisonly of the remain viduals from India, and taking care ing refolutions, therefore, that it may of their interefts in the cargoes of be proper briefly, to ftate the im the returning (hips, he did not fee port. The fifth refolution bore, that the use of any interference on the the company, as far as confifted, part of the company. The great, with the neceffary courfe of their intereft to be attended to on their own affairs, political and commerpart, was, that there should be no cial, had given effect to the regu goods from India, that were not lations eftablifhed by the legislature depofited in the company's ware, in 1793, though at a confiderable houses; and that the goods fo im- expenfe to themfelves; and that all, ported, thould be expofed at the allegations of the growth of the company's fales, agreeably to the foreign trade with India, by means rules prefcribed for that purpofe.? of any mifapplication or evasion of thofe regulations, on the part of the company, were unfounded. The fixth, that the clandeftine trade had hot, of late years, increased, but diminished; and that the amount Mr. Dundas's letter, of which, we have here given the fubftance, was fubmitted to the confideration of a committee of nine of the direc, tors: Mr. Inglis, Mr. Scott, fir of of the clandeftine trade of Bengal could not, on an average of four years, ending with 1798-9, reafonably be estimated to have exceeded twenty-five lacks of rupees per annum. The feventh, that hence, as well as from a variety of other evidence, it might be fafely concluded, that any increafe which had taken place in the courfe of the war, in the trade of foreigners with dar fettlements, was the increase of a trade carried on, bona fide, for their own account, and, in a great degree with specie, which they imported to India, and with which they paid for the goods they exported: a trade which ought, in found policy, to be permitted. The eighth, that the trade carried on with Europe, from the Indian fettlements of our enemies, the French, Dutch, and Spaniards, which was laid to have greatly increafed through the late mifmanagement of the company, flourished, long before the prefent times, in a greater degree than it does now; that it could not have been depreffed by any means within the company's power, and that it would not be a wife policy, under the notion of bringing that trade to our ports to nourish, as we thus fhould, the fource from whence it proceeded. With regard to thefe refolutions, Mr. Dundas only paufed in giving his opinion, from not having before him the particular documents and materials on which they were founded. The thirteenth refolution contained the principles and details of the meafure on which the court of directors were disposed to act with the government or nation. They agreed in opinion with Mr. Dundas, as to the expediency of affording to British residents, who might choofe to convey their property to Europe in goods, whatever means, in addition to thofe already fubfifting, might be fairly fufficient to induce them to confign those goods immediately to the mother-country. For bringing the whole trade, formed by that aggregate capital, as well as by the confignments of European manufactures, directly to the port of London, they made feveral propofitions: among which the principal were, that, in addition to the quantity of three thoufand tons of fhipping, now annually allotted to the exports of individuals from India, four or five thousand tons more, or as much as might be wanted, fhould be affigned, and that the thipping thus annually employed, fhould be wholly applied to the pri vate traders, and fail from India directly for the port of London, at fixed periods, within the fair-wea ther feafon. That all commodities, of the produce of the continent, or of the British territories in India, fhould be permitted to be laden on thofe fhips, excepting only piecegoods, raw filk, and faltpetre, which fhould not be laden, except by fpecial licence, from the company, or their fervants abroad. That the goods exported on private account, from India, thould be brought to the company's warehoufes in London, and thence to their fales, in the rcgular order, fubject to the charge of three per cent: now allowed to the company, for lading, warehou fing, and felling private goods.That the thips to be employed in that fervice fhould be built for the purpose by the company, and thould be of the defeription beft calculated for the propofed trade. The rate of freight to be the fame with that, of the hips chartered for the year [04] current current to the company. That when the private goods provided for exportation from India should not ferve to fill all the fhips fent out for them, the company fhould put grofs goods into thofe hips on their own account. That if, at any time, the tonnage provided by the company for private exports fhould not be fufficient for all the goods prepared for exportation, it should be allow able for the governments abroad, on the part of the company, to freight Indian fhips for the convey. ance of fuch goods as could not be otherwife accommodated; and, finally, that no perfon fhould be admitted to embark in this trade, who fhould not be licenced by the company to refide in India. Mr. Dundas, in his letter of the 21ft of March, already quoted, admitted, "That if the bafis on which this refolution proceeded were admitted to be good, the details feemed to be aptly devised for the due execution of the principle; but, on this point, he differed in opinion from the directors. He was ftill an advocate for the admiffion of private and India-built fhips into the commerce between that country and Great Britain, It was his intention to have entered, in his letter, at large into the fubject; but fince he had begun to write, he had received, and carefully perufed, a letter of the 30th of September, 1800, recently tranfmitted to the court of directors from the government-general of India; and, as that letter had, with clearnefs and perfpicuity, ably detailed and demonftrated (meaning the propriety of) thofe opinions which he had, from time to time, taken the liberty of laying before the court of directors, on the fubject of Indian trade, he should confider it as an unnecessary wafte of time, if he were to trouble the directors with a repetition of the to pics therein ftated "On the fours teenth and fifteenth refolutions, Mr. Dundas did; not make any observa tions. tee expressed, in ftrong terms, their In the former, the commit conviction, that the proposals that had been brought forward by cer tain defcriptions of men for the admiffion of their fhips into the trade and navigation between India and Europe, would involve principles and effects dangerous to the interests both of the company and nation. In the latter, they fated that the fourteen preceding refolutions would be justified by documents, fome of arrived from India, and not yet pethem before them, others but lately rufed, they fappofed, by Mr. Dundas, with whom they propofed to have a full difcuffion of the fubject. ter, to which Mr. Dundas referred, The marquis of Wellesley's letdetailed the particular circumstances that rendered it expedient and neceffary to admit private traders into a participation of the Eaft-India commerce. and freighters in India, had conProprietors of hips, fidered it to be for their mutual advantage, that they should be left to make their arrangements with each other. Both parties were equally averfe to the intervention of the company's agency. On the 5th of October, 1798, was published, in an advertisement, a plan, by which the proprietors of fhips were enabled to make a more perfect affortment of the cargoes, to load their fhips in the most advantageous and expeditious manner, to dispatch them at the most favourable periods of the feason, and, to prevent the lofs, which, under the plan adopted in conformity comformity to the orders of the dis rectors, 25th of May, 1798, the proprietors of fhips fuftained, by unavoidable delays in the adjuft ment of accounts, and in the pay ment of the freight by the company in England. The advantages at tending the governor-generals plan, are enumerated. He had enter tained a confident expectation, that he should have received, at an early period of the season, the fane tion of the court for reverting to the plan of October, 1798, or for adopt ing fome arrangement equally calculated to facilitate and encourage the private trade between India and England. But he had been idisappointed in his expectations of receiving an early and seasonable notification of their final commands; fo that, at the ufual; season for exportation from the port of Calcutta to Europe, the deficiency of the tonnage provided by the company and expected from Europe, reduced him to the abfolute neceffity of providing a large proportion of Indian tonnage for the fervice of 18001, in order to fecure the conveyance of the heavy articles of the company's -invefiment, and to fulfill their legal obligations. pangala But this plan of the governorgeneral's was not intended by him merely to anfwer a temporary exigency. It was his opinion that it fhould be rendered permanent. From the quantity of private tonzage now in the port of Calcutta, from the ftate of perfection to which the art of ship building had already sattained in Bengal, promifing a fill more rapid progrefs, and fupported by abundant and increafing fupplies of timber, it was certain, that that port would always be able to furnish tonnage, to whatever extent requi ed; for conveying to the port of London the trade of the private British merchants of Bengal. Thei wife policy, the just pretensions,” and the increasing commercial refources and political power of Great Britain in India, claimed for her fubjects, the largest attainable fhare" in the valuable and extentive commerce of fuch articles of Indian produce and manufacture, as were neceffarily excluded from the come pany's investment. If the extenfion of indulgences to the British meru chants neceflarily involved the admiffion of numerous Briti mer chants into India, the company's government could always, with lefs difficulty, controul the operations of the British, than those of foreign agents: while the dangers to be apprehended from the views and defigns of foreigners of every defcription, would be greater than any that could poffibly arife from an increafed refort of British fub jects, under fuch limitations and reftraints as the wildom of the directors might frame, and the vi dance of their governments in India be enabled to enforce. The rapid growth of the foreign trade, during the laft feafon; the number of toreign fhips actually in the ports of Calenta; the alicrity, enterprife, and kill of the foreign agents nowaffiduously employed in providing cargoes, and the necellary inaction and languor of the British private trade, embarraffed by the reftraints of the exifting law, created in the mind of lord Wellesley, a ferious apprehenfion, that any farther delay in the decition of that momentous queftion, might occafion evils, of which the remedy might become hereafter, confiderably difficult, if not abfolutely impracticable. Under Under these impreffions, the go vernor-general, reverting to the plan of October, 1798, published in an advertisement above noticed, republifh ed it on the 19th of September, 1800, at Fort William, and ordered the governments of Fort St. George and Bombay to publifhcorrefponding advertisements, at thofe prefidencies, with fuch modifications as local circumftances might render indifpenfably necellary. It would reft with the honourable court whether the plan contained in that advertifement, fhould be rendered per manent. The committee appointed to take Mr. Dundas's fecond letter into confideration, objected to the fyftematic establishment of any clafs of private fhips, in the commerce and navigation between Great Britain and India, on the fame grounds, on which they had difapproved it, as formerly propofed by Mr. Dundas. But the governor-general's plan, they obferved, was wider in its extent, and involved ftill more dangerous confequences than that of the prefident of the board of controul. It had been hitherto held, that the legitimate and only confiderable object, in enlarging the private trade, ought to be the remittance of the fortunes of British refidents. Mr. Dundas, in his letter of the 21ft of March, fully acceded to this doctrine. But, the governor general, they obferved, on the other hand, diftinctly afferted, in one of the 76 paragraphs into which his letter was divided, "That if the capital of the merchants in India, and the remittance of the fortunes of individuals, thould not fupply funds fufficient for the conduct of the whole private export trade from India to Europe, no dangerous confequence could refult from applying to this branch of commerce, capital drawn directly from the British empire to Europe." If the committee could not accede to the principle of Mr. Dundas's plan, much lefs could they accede to that of the marquis of Wellesley's. The genius of the India commerce, according to his plan, must progreffively tend, more. and more, towards an unrestrained, and colonial fyftem. With the fame views that influenced fir William Pulteney in the houfe of commons, Mr. Henchman, in a general court of proprietors of India ftock, May 28th, in confequence of a letter fubfcribed by forty-three proprietors, moved the following refolution, That this court is highly fenfible of the very great importance of the general trade between India and Europe to the political and commercial intereft of Great Britain, as well as of the Eaft-India-company; that they lament the wide difference of the opinions entertained on the subject by the court of directors on one fide, and the late prefident of the board of commiffioners and the governor-general of India on the other. And anxious that the meafures finally to be adopted may be formed on the fulleft information and matureft deliberation, and thinking that it may effentially conduce to that defirable end, if the court were affifted by the wifdom and experience of the late governorsgeneral, they recommend to the court of directors to transmit a copy of the printed papers to marquis Cornwallis, carl Macarteney, lord Teignmouth, fir John Macpherfon, and Warren Haftings, efq with a requeft that they will feverally fa vour the company with a communication of their advice and opinion on |