mahals; so that I have not now one fingle servant about me ; fhould I mention to what farther difficulties I have been reduced, it would lay me open to contempt.'

He would make no comments on this letter, he would leave it to the feelings of the House. All thefe debts from this Nabob, and from all the Nabobs and Rajahs, he wished at once to ftrike off; and he believed that the feelings and the magnanimity of the country would go with him in saying, that they would rather be doomed to pay all that the Company owed, ill as they could at this time bear it; ill as their finking-fund could fuftain the fhock, they would apply to that, rather than wring it from the princes of the country, by aiding them in wars on their innocent people. In this part of his fpeech, all fides of the House joined in the exclamation of hear him! hear him!" as the teftimony of their approbation.

The next article was, debts by the Company in Bengal, on bond and otherwife, 2,367,1161. Upon this he only obferved, that from the word otherwife, it might be imagined that there were confiderable debts not on bond-whereas the whole amount was on bond except 100,000l. With this obfervation to mark the ftile of the account, he allowed` the fame. But there was a very curious and fingular matter occurred here. It ftated that the arrears due to the army did not appear; but by a fubfequent minute it did appear, that the arrears up to March 1783, amount to 502,1741.This they ftate to come by the laft difpatches. Would it not be imagined that at leaft they would bring this 500,000l. to account? Not one figure of it. He asked the House what they would think of Government, if having accounts from abroad of arrears due to the army, they failed to bring half a million forward-Would they not impeach the defaulter? He wifhed, therefore, to rescue the affairs of the Eaft from a Company capable of fuch a crime, for a crime he declared it was.

Before he left the article of the quick ftock of Bengal, he muft observe, there was an omiffion entirely of 130,000l. due by the Company to the Military Fund eftablished by Lord Clive, and the Nabob Afoph ul Dowla, and a confiderable part of which fum must be paid to the heirs of Lord

Clive.

The quick flock at Madras came next; and here again he objected to the article of ftores, military and naval, unexpended, which was 264, 110l. and on the faine account that VOL. XII:

T

he

he objected to the fum due from Afoph ul Dowla, he objected to the charge of 968,0121. ftated to be due by the Nabob of Arcot-to 158,250l. due from the Rajah of Tanjore-and to 993,804, due from the renters of fundry diftricts.

He faid, the Nabob could not attempt to pay his debt, without attempting to take it from the Rajah, nor the Rajah, without taking it from fome neighbouring power, and all this with the affiftance of the Company's troops, and at the expence of the Company's treafure. As to the renters of fundry diftricts of land; how could money be recovered from those who had none to give? Had not these people been driven from their poffeffions, and made the victims of cruel and unjust wars? And how could it be expected that they fhould be able to answer this enormous demand? At the end of the account of these debts, there was a curious obfervation, contained in a Nota Bene, to the following effect :--"The war in the Carnatic will delay the payment of thefe debts, and must have rendered many others of them precarious, fo that the exact value of them cannot be afeertained." After this beginning, faid Mr. Fox, would not the House imagine that the account was going to fay that fome particular part of the fum, fuch as a 5th, an 8th, or a 10th of thefe fums might be recovered; but the account, inftead of faying any fuch thing, goes on, and fays, "but the above fums are undoubtedly due to the Company." Thefe debts, put together, would amount to 2,822,310l. and to this fum he was refolved to object, as unfit to be inferted in an account of means to answer the Company's preffing demands. The ridicule, the abfurdity, and the determination to impofe, contained in this annotation, drew from him a vein of irony and attack that we scarcely remember to have heard equalled even by Mr. Fox. He once more dwelt upon the fcandalous conduct of those who had dared to produce to Parliament an account fo full of impofition and abfurdity; particularly with regard to the ftating these desperate and ruinous debts, more ruinous in recovering than abandoning, as a fund, and the unparalleled impudence of this conclufion of the N. B. that the above fums were undoubtedly due to the Company. No doubt they were due; and if the Company were to go on for five years more, five times the fum might, and probably would, from the experience of paft times, be as fairly due; and from thence it would be in the power of thofe who had the hardinefs to impofe upon the public by fuch an account, to fhew

the

the Company in a better fituation every year, as their debts encreased. That they would foon have it in their power to prove the flourishing ftate of the Company, by ftating the debts of the Nabob at twice 900,000l. and thofe of Afoph ul Dowla at double the prefent fum. But he defired the House to recollect, that it was their bufinefs to interfere to prevent that species of profperity from gaining farther than it had hitherto gone, and to ftem thofe torrents of blood which muft flow, if the attempt was made to procure them; an attempt which muft end in wafting more money (fetting confiderations of humanity afide) than the amount of them would repay. To eftimate the property of the Company in this way was moft fallacious. In proportion as they oppreffed-as they racked--as they were guilty of weakness in the firft inftance, and of violence in the fecond, their debts would encrease; and even when they were more deeply involved, they might by fuch accounts, fhew themselves to be on paper more flourishing. But fuch debts were not available property, and could not be estimated.

Debts due by the Company in Madras, 31ft Aug. 1782, including arrears to the military, 821,1641."

He ftated to have encreased fince, that the right honourable gentleman oppofite [Mr. Pitt] knew it, it was a fecret difclofed to the Treafury, of which he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and he doubted not, he would not deny it.

By thefe difallowances, he reduced the balance of quick ftock at Madras 2,078,0781. to little more than 500,000l. "Of the quick ftock at Bencoolen, confifting of the difference between cash and effects, and the debts owing by the Company, amounting on the 19th of March, 1783, to a balance in favour of the Company of 189,0361.'

He allowed only the odd 89,000l. the other 100,000l. being exhaufted in the expence of the establishment, and therefore on the footing of warehouses. Not convertible, unless they give up trade confequently not applicable to prefent relief.

The quick ftock at St. Helena, 27,6181. difallowed on the fame principle.

The quick ftock in China, 132,5961. he allowed, because confifting of goods, and there we had no territories nor eftablishment to maintain.

"Quick ftock at Bombay, 15th Sept. 1782, valuing the rupec at 2s. 6d. Cash and bills 24,6631. he allowed."

T2

"Goods

"Goods provided for Europe, 95.1451." Of this he dif allowed 32,000l. put on board two fhips that failed after the date here taken, and which was included in the prior statement of goods in warehouses, and he alfo took the freight and demurrage, to be paid on their arrival in England. 148,003l. for military and naval ftores, difallowed for reafons formerly given.

The debts due to the Company of 891,0691. he doubted of as much as of the unfecured part of Ragobah's debt, for the reasons already ftated. By thefe deductions, the debt due by the Company at Bombay amounted to 2,000,000l. inftead of 1,790,000l.

There was an additional arrear to be taken as due to the army in India, beyond what the account ftated of 140,000l. They alfo owed to the Nizam, 30 lacks of rupees, which was 300,000l. totally omitted. Belades thefe fums, which amount in the whole to 9,400,000l. there was to be added the fum due to the Proprietors of 3,200,000l. which made the fum in the whole more than 12,000,000l. which he pledged himself to exhibit in objection to their account.

There were other inaccuracies in their ftatement, which made confiderable difference in its truth, but into which he had not particularly entered. It was alledged that the fum of 400,000l. lately paid by the Company to Government, was as a price for the renewal of their charter. It was no fuch thing. They paid it as a debt due to the country, and fo it was confidered.

The

In confequence of these objections to the statement exhibited by the Company, the Court of Directors prepared the following Paper of Obfervations on their Account:

Eafl-India Houfe, Dec. 3, 1783.

At a General Court of the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies, held here by Adjournment this Day, the following Report from the Court of Directors was read:

PURSUANT to the recommendation of the General Court of Proprietors of the Eaft-India Company, held the 28th November laft, to their Court of Directors, to prepare fuch additions to the ftate of the Company's affairs "then laid before the faid General Court, as might, in their opinion, tend the

moft fully to elucidate the fame, and to report fuch ftate to the General Court at its adjourned meeting;" the Court of Directors have revised the said state of the Company's affairs laid before the last General Court; and finding the faid account to be fubftantially right, fubmit the fame to the General Court, with explanatory notes to elucidate the fame, as follows:

STATE

The right honourable gentleman then went into a train of moft admirable and eloquent deductions from his premifes,

and

STATE of the AFFAIRS of the EAST-INDIA COMPANY in England, on the 19th November, 1783, and according to the latest Advices

from their Settlements Abroad.

The capital stock of the Company confifts of 2,800,000l. paid by the Proprietors into the Company's Treafury, being after the rate of 87 per cent. upon the nominal capital of 3,200,000l. fubfcribed. The Proprietors are liable to a call, at the discretion of the General Court, for the remaining 12 per cent. upon the fum fubfcribed, amounting to 400,000l. The Property of the Company confifts of the following articles, viz. The debt from Government, for money lent in confideration of the grant of their charter, and renewals of their exclusive right of trade

The history of this debt, and the Company's right to be paid the fame in money, on the expiration of the right to exclufive trade, ftand as follow:

In 1698, the Company lent 2,000,000l. at 8 per cent. to government, in confideration of the charter of incorporation, and the right to exclufive trade until three years notice after the 29th Sept. 1711, and until re-payment of the 2,000,000l. fo lent.

In 1707, 1,200,000l. more was lent, at 5 per cent. and the intereft on the former 2,000,000l. was reduced to 5 per cent. in confideration of extending the period for redemption of the right of exclufive trade till three years after the 26th of March, 1726, and with condition, upon fuch redemption, to repay the whole 3,200,000l.

In 1712, “To encourage the Company to proceed in their trade, and make lasting fettlements for the fupport and maintenance thereof for the benefit of the British nation," the power of vacating the charter, and redeeming the exclufive trade was repealed, and the term for payment of the 3,200,000l. was enlarged, until three years notice after the 25th of March 1733. In 1719, 1721, and 1723, three feveral acts were paffed, confirming, enlarging, and fecuring the Company's rights under the preceding acts and charters.

In 1729, the intereft of the debt of 3,200,000l. was reduced from 5 to 4 per cent. the fum of 200,000l. was given to Government, and the Company's right, under the act of 1712, to a perpetuity of exclufive trade, was given up in confideration that the same should continue until three years notice after the 25th March 1766, and until repayment of the debt of 3,200,000l. and that, after such redemption of the exclufive right of trade, the Company fhould for ever remain a body

4,200,000

corporate,