do these Ministers apprehend that justice to the East India Company, the preservation of the rights and privileges belonging to them, or the inviolability of their property, do not form a part, and a very essential part, of those "important national interests ?" If they do entertain such sentiments, it is high time they should be undeceived. Conse It has been rendered evident to the meanest capacity that an extension of the liberty of trade to India, such as is now contended for, is not only incompatible with the best interests of the British Empire; but that it would prove the immediate ruin of those individuals, who are most vociferous in its favor. quently, could it for a moment be believed that the gratification of those petitioners was the real motive, which induced His Majesty's Ministers to persist in the measure of laying open the trade to India from the Out-ports, they would resemble the indiscreet nurse, who, in order to appease a froward child, should put into its hands some sharp or pointed instrument, of which the first use it should make might be to wound itself. But this, I think, would be underrating their abilities. To have expected that the East India Company should be so insensible to their rights, or possess so little firmness, as, without an equivalent, and without a struggle, to surrender what they consider the key to all their privileges, would be to argue a greater want of penetration in His Majesty's Ministers, than can perhaps be fairly imputed to them. It seems much more probable that they had anticipated, and were desirous of producing, the result, which has actually happened, with the view of creating a pretext for transferring to themselves the whole power and patronage of India, and by these means of retaining their ministerial situations for life! This transfer, to the crown, of the power and patronage, incident to the government of sixty millions of the inhabitants of Asia, which could not fail to enable its servants more commodiously to rule sixteen millions of British-born subjects at home, appears to be the 'grand measure, by which the ministers of the Prince Regent' propose to effect a change in the East Indian system, "rendered necessary," they say, "by the decision of the East India Company," that shall be " compatible with the interests and security of the British Constitution!" But Parliament, it cannot be doubted, when this great question comes before them, will take an enlarged and unbiassed view of all the grand national interests involved in the controversy. They will not, to gratify the blind or criminal ambition of any set of Ministers, suffer the East India Company to be despoiled of their property, the Crown of its revenue, the people of a necessary of life, and the nation of its freedom. 62, Hatton Garden, It is somewhat remarkable, that Lord Buckinghamshire, although he generally designates himself and his colleagues, " His Majesty's government,” whenever he means to bear peculiarly hard upon the East India Company, calls them "the Ministers of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent." Vide his Letter of the 4th Jan. 1813, published in the Papers respecting the Negociation for the renewal of the East India Company's exclusive Privileges, p. 182. CONSEQUENCES OF LAYING OPEN THE TRADE Το INDIA, &c. FROM the establishment of the East India Company, as territorial sovereigns in Asia, it has been the usual practice, previous to the introduction of a Bill into Parliament, for the further extension of the term of their exclusive privileges, that the conditions upon which their Charter was to be renewed, and the principles upon which the Indian empire was to be governed, should be made the subject of arrangement between the Ministers of the Crown, on the part of the Public, and the Court of Directors, on the part of the East India Company. And these arrangements have generally undergone but few, or unimportant modifications, in receiving the sanction of the Legislature. By the great extension of territory, and increase of trade, which have been progressively effected, under the judicious management of the Company, these negociations have, at each successive renewal, acquired additional importance. Since the Bill of 1793, the population, the territory, and the commerce, under their jurisdiction, have been more than doubled: and the civil and military establishments of their vast dominions, as well as the ties between them and the mother country, have been augmented in the same VOL. I. No. I. N ratio. When to these is added the immense trade carried on by the Company with the empire of China, they form altogether the grandest and most stupendous, and it may truly be said, the most singular, political, and commercial edifice the world ever saw. In its now splendid state, it is not only the brightest jewel in the British Crown, but the fairest portion of the British empire. How, then, are we to characterize a measure, which must obviously destroy the unity of the approved system, by which our Asiatic possessions and commerce have, in that period, risen to such prosperity and splendor? By impartial men, and men of experience, it will be viewed as an unjustifiable experiment on the integrity and safety of the British empire;-an experiment made too at a season of peculiar political peril; and risked (if the avowed be the real motive) in mere compliment to unfounded clamors, which do not even arise from the effervescence of popular discontent, but have been excited, with much art and industry, by the unenlightened selfishness of some commercial and manufacturing bodies. Under these circumstances, it may be considered most fortunate, for the nation, for the East India Company, and more especially for those who were most active in petitioning Parliament for an unrestrained intercourse with India, that the renewal of the Company's Charter did not come under discussion last year; but that a measure so highly important to the best interests of the State has been delayed, until the delusive expectations, which had been excited, and the erroneous conclusions which had been formed, should have time to subside, or be rectified by a perusal of the very able official correspondence, which has taken place between the Court of Directors and his Majesty's Ministers on the subject. At the various periods of the renewal of the term of the Company's exclusive privileges, and before the system of East Indian government had attained its present almost perfect form, many speculative notions were afloat, respecting the sort of constitution which would best suit our Indian territories, consistently with the spirit and preservation of our own. Various plans were of course -projected. Some were for depriving the Company of the territories, and leaving them in exclusive possession of the trade; others for depriving them of the trade, and leaving them in posSession of the territories. It does not, however, appear, that, |