splendid actions, the tables of results and their dates may be useful both to those who have the advan tage of consulting ample histories of the corresponding period as far as the respective works have proceeded, and those who will find information even in a brief outline of the territories which have been acquired in India during the last sixty years. TABLE I.-Stages in the Company's Domestic History. Without reverting to privileges under old charters of institution and confirmation remaining in perpetual force by the last prolongation of the East India Company's tenure of an exclusive commerce, granted by Parliament in 1744-to a subsisting term, which would not expire until 1766, fourteen years had been added, which left a term subsisting at the accession of George III. which, with three years' notice, would last until Lady-day 1783. 1762.-Government granted the Company £20,000 in lieu of furnishing a regiment to protect their settlements in India. 1763. After the conclusion of the peace with France, the Company demanded from Government payment for the following disbursements on the national account. Subsistence of French five years, ending May 1766, although the surplus in Bengal was considerable, the deficiencies in Madras, Bombay, and Bencoolen outweighed this; so that, on the total account, the excess of expenditure was £1,628,000. In 1767 a Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to inquire into the affairs of the Company. During the inquiry, the Company declared a dividend of 12 per cent; Government hereupon introduced three bills, which passed into laws. Acts of 7th Geo. III., cap. 48. and cap. 49, made the qualification for vot ing in General Courts to depend on six months' possession of stock, and controlled the declaration of dividends. Cap. 57, bound the Company to pay to the public £400,000 for two years, in consideration of their territorial acquisitions. 1769. A compact between the Company and the Administration was confirmed by Parliament, binding the Company to pay £400,000 per annum for five years, which was to cease if their dividends should fall to six per cent. On the other hand, by a gradual rise of one per cent., the dividends might reach 12 per cent, as a maximum. The Company sent out Commissioners for superintending their governments in India. The Aurora frigate, in which they sailed, is supposed to have been lost at sea, as unfortunately it was never after21,447 wards heard of. 139,877 prisoners in India... £260,687 Expenses incurred on the expedition to Manilla. Hospital charges on account of His Majesty's forces...... Making a total of.... £422,011 Of which they afterwards received from the Lords of the Treasury £28,366, leaving £393,645 deficient. 1766.-Almost before arrangements could be made for collecting the newly acquired revenues in Bengal, a claim was instituted on the part of the public to participate in the advantage of a presumed surplus of the general revenue of the Company's presidencies in India above the expenditure. By accounts laid before Parliament for 1770.-Act of 10 Geo. III. cap. 47, raised the penalty payable to the Company on India goods illicitly imported under foreign commissions to 100 per cent. The sane act made such of the Company's servants as should commit acts of oppression in India, amenable to the court of King's Bench in England. Ensuing dividend declared at 12 per cent. And up to Midsummer 1772, at 124. 1772.-The Company were prohibited from building ships at home, or employing ships built at home, until their tonnage be reduced under 45,000 tons; but they might build any vessel in India or the colonies, or charter any vessel so built. Act of 13 Geo. III. cap. 9, restrained the Company for a limit ed time from sending out the five Commissioners to India just before appointed. The Midsummer dividend is reduced to 6 per cent. 1773.-June 16. Lord North's two new bills for regulating the Company's affairs passed into laws. By 13 Geo. III. cap. 64, £500 shares of stock now ceased to qualify a proprietor to vote; 1,246 shares were disfranchised by raising the qualification for a single vote to £1,000. At this moment 487 proprietors had this qualification. The annual election of twentyfour new Directors having made the administration of the Company's affairs too fluctuating and unstable, it was enacted that they should in future remain four years in office, and six Directors go out by rotation every year. The Company's dividends were restricted to six per cent., until the loan of £1,400,000, then advanced by Parliament, be repaid. By 13 Geo. III. cap. 63, the system of governing the territorial acquisitions in India received the first modification from the Legislature. For a notice of some of the points, see Table III. anno 1773. 1774.-From the auditor's accounts, made up at the India-house, of the revenues and disbursements of Bengal, Madras, Bombay, and Bencoolen, from May 1766 to April 1774, the net surplus for the eight years was found to amount to £3,877,000. The surplus for Bengal, alone, exceeded £6,000,000; but the deficiencies of the other presidencies reduced the general balance. 1777. The Company having now paid off the loan of. £1,400,000 advanced by Government in 1773, raised their dividends from 6 to 7 per cent.; declaring the halfyearly dividend at 34. 1779.-The Company having reduced their bond debt to minus £1,500,000, the public had become entitled to participate in the surplus revenues accruing in India. Parliament, however, continued to the Company the enjoyment of them entire, until the 1st of April 1780; the dividends made to the proprietors meanwhile not to exceed 8 per cent. The Company this year expended a large sum in two patriotic and magnificent contributions to the naval force of the country. They gave an aggregate bounty sufficient to raise 6,000 seamen for the public service; and they built for his Majesty's navy three ships of 74 guns each, which were called the Bombay Castle, Carnatic, and Ganges. The House of Commons petitioned his Majesty to direct the Attorney General to to prosecute George Stratton, Henry Brooke, Charles Floyer, and George Mackay, Esquires, for confining Lord Pigot, the Governor of Madras. They were tried, found guilty, and fined £1,000 each. Dec. 1780.-By an act of 20 Geo. III. cap. 56, the Company were to retain the entire revenue of their territories in India until 8th April 1781. Aug. 9-The Company sustained a severe loss in shipping. The Godfrey, Hillsborough, Glatton, Royal George, and Mount Stuart, were taken by the combined fleets of France and Spain. 1781. An account of the profits of the Company's trade, and the surplus of their territorial revenues, made up to 1st March 1781, was exhibited to Parliament. These amounted to £688,025 17s. 10d. After paying £400,000 to the public, according to a compact with Government, confirmed by two acts of parliament, the Company were authorized to divide the residue, £288,025 17s. 10d. among the proprietors but they preferred em ploying it in trade, and this capital has been annually credited with interest in a distinct account under the title of the Separate Fund. The Company to pay the above £400,000, by four instalments, as a compensation for all claims on the part of the public, until the 1st of March 1781. Their exclusive trade, and the possession of their Indian territories, to remain entire until the 1st of March 1791, and thereafter until Parliament should give three years' notice of an intention to discontinue them, and to pay off the capital debt of £4,200,000 due to the Company, with all arrears of interest, &c. Should their exclusive privileges be thus terminated, the act declares their vested right to remain a corporation, and to trade with their joint stock in common with other British subjects. The public henceforward to receive three-fourths of the annual surplus of the net profits and revenues of the Company, which should remain after reserving a dividend of 8 per cent. comput ed upon the capital stock of £3,200,000. The fourth part of the surplus, together with a sum to be allowed for victualling his Majesty's ships in India, the Company were at liberty to apply in enlarging their dividends, by a gradual augmentation not exceeding 1 per cent. in a year, and the maximun to be 12 per cent. The Company to pay two lacs of rupees annually, for every regiment of the King employed in India at their request. To victual his Majesty's ships employed in India at their request; to be paid one-fourth of the expense during the war: after the peace to sustain the whole. Notwithstanding many foreign ers are included in the proprietors of stock, the Company's ships to be considered British ships. To prevent British subjects from being concerned with foreigners in Asiatic Journ.-No. 55. India, it is illegal to lend them money directly or indirectly. 1782.-The Company lost six ships in the course of this year! viz. Jume, the Fortitude, taken by the French; the Earl of Dartmouth, lost off Cape Nicobar; the Major, burnt at Calpee, in the Hoogly-August, the Grosvenor, lost off the east coast of Africa ; the Brilliant, lost at Johanna.-Oct. the Earl of Hertford, lost in Madras Roads. Act of 22 Geo. III. cap. 51, gave the Company time to pay arrears of customs, with permission to divide meanwhile 8 per cent. 1783.-Act of 23 Geo. III. cap: 36, repealed the act of last year, and authorized the Company to borrow £500,000 upon bonds. Another act, cap. 78, postponed the payment of customs. Government advanced the Company £300,000 upon Exchequer Bills. This year the Company sustained another heavy loss in ships, viz.; Jan. the Blandford, taken off Gaujam.-April, the Hinchinbrooke, lost in the Hoogly; the Duke of Athol, burnt in Madras Roads.— June, the Fairford, burnt at Bombay.-Aug. the Duke of Kingston, burnt off Ceylon. 1784.-Mr. Fox's India bill, after much opposition, passed the Commons, but was rejected by the Lords; which produced a change of administration. By act of 24 Geo. II. cap. 25, the superintendence and control over all the Company's territories in India were vested in a Board of Commissioners, with powers nearly similar to those contained in the subsequent act of 33 Geo. III. cap. 52. This act also provided for the occasional erection of a special tribunal, consisting of three judges, four peers, and six members of the Commons. The Company's losses of every description, occasioned by the war just ended, were estimated in acVOL. X. .C counts laid before Parliament at £3,858,666. By the commutation Act, the duty of 50 per cent. on teas, was commuted for a tax upon windows, and a reduced duty of 12 per cent. 1786.-Act of 26 Geo. III. cap. 37, enlarges the powers of the Governor-Gen. ; establishes new regulations for the trial of offences committed in India; and empowers the Governors on the part of the Company to seize the persons and property of interlopers, and proceed to judgment against them. Another act, cap. 62, empowered the Company, for the extension of their commerce, to borrow money at 3 per cent., the whole annual interest not to exceed £36,266 16s. Another section enabled them to add to their capital stock £800,000, at the rate of £160 to be received for every £100 subscribed for, making the whole capital stock of the Company £400,000. With their hands thus strengthened, the Company reduced the interest on their bonds from 5 to 4 per cent., if the holders preferred this to receiving the principal. Jan. 6. The Halsewell was lost in the Channel. April 4.-Mr. Burke exhibited his first charges against Warren Hastings, Esq., late Governor-general of Bengal. As we have given a memoir of Mr. Hastings (vol. vi. p. 561), with corrections and additions in a subsequent volume, it will be unnecessary to notice the stages or result of the trial in this article. pany, not exceeding 12,000 men, including officers, to be defrayed out of the territorial revenues of India., Act of 28 Geo. III. cap. 29, empowered the Company to borrow £1,200,000 upon bonds. The Company this season, to encourage British manufactures, enlarged their exports by 2,500 tons, and gave increased facilities to enable their marine commanders and officers, and the licensed merchants residing in India, to extend the permitted branches of private trade. On such a principle, the commerce with maritime India is capable of gradual but indefinite expansion, with corresponding profit to the country at large. But when a thousand inexperienced adventurers, unconnected, and governed by no enlightened regard to a common interest, rush with impatient avarice and blind competition, to glut for years the markets of another hemisphere, with a supply out of all proportion in excess above the demand, where is the country so rich and prosperous as to be able long to bear up against the united evils of such an infatuated course? So far from this prodigality of speculation increasing the demands for our manufactures, even a large proportion of the old annual orders are discontinued in consequence of this field for exportation being rendered unproductive by too many plants. Under this precarious system, stable and circumspect houses are undersold; and the new traders, whose ardour is only bounded by their misapplied and soon exhausted capital, and not long surviving credit, are paralized by the want of returns, and cannot perpetually repeat a circle of operations in which the severe disappointment of not making a sudden fortune is not often mitigated by recovering the prime cost of the article and the incidental charges of the voyage. 1788.-Doubts having arisen whether the Company were liable to bear the expense of troops sent to. India, without a request from them, the act of 28th George III. cap. 8, declares that the Board of Control were empowered to order the expense of raising, transporting, and maintaining any number of his Majesty's forces, not exceeding 8,045 men, including officers; or of the European forces of the Company with all interest should be 1791. The House of Commons gave notice, that on the 31st March 1794, the debt owing to the Com paid off, that Parliament should be at liberty to open the trade to India. 1792.-August 29, the Winterton was lost off Madagascar. 1793. Since 23 Geo. III. cap. 22, the Company had sold annuities at 3 per cent, secured on the debt due to them by the public, to the amount of £2,992,440 5s. which were known by the name of India annuities. These as well as the annuities still held by the Company, as the interest on the balance of the same public debt, were now transferred from the Company's management, to that of the Bank of England, and engrafted upon the fund called Three per cent. annuities. By this arrangement, that part of the original debt of £4,200,000 due from the public, which had been sold for the annuities transferred, was considered as paid off. The part remaining in the Company's hands, was to be repaid them at par before the Legislature could divest them of their exclusive trade. The Company were further authorized to increase their present stock of five millions by opening a subscription for another million, the proprietors having a preference of subscribing to the amount of 50 per cent on their present stock; and if the subscriptions of proprietors availing themselves of this option exceed the proposed million, each sum to be reduced in proportion. The Company to reduce their bond debts at home to £1,500,000, nor afterwards to exceed it, unless sanctioned by the Board of Control. 1793.-Act of 33 Geo. III. cap. 52, for continuing in the Company for twenty years, the territorial possessions and for prolonging their exclusive privileges under certain limitations, This act comprehended such provisions of former acts as had not been repealed. On the other hand, several clauses of this act have been repealed or modified by the sub- › sequent act of 53 Geo. III. cap. 155. 1794. By act 34 Geo. III. cap. 41, the Company were released from the obligation of keeping their bond debt within the amount of £1,500,000 and permitted to issue bonds to the amount of £2,000,000; and they were also empowered, with the consent of the Board of Control, to increase their bonds to the amount of £1,000,000 more, for the general purposes of their trade. June 26. The Company's saltpetre warehouses in Ratcliffe Highway were burnt. By the treaty of amity, commerce and navigation concluded between America and Great Britain, ou the 19th of Nov. 1794, it was stipu lated that American vessels should bave liberty to trade in all articles not prohibited in the British Settlements in India, and to pay the same duties as British subjects; but should only carry the articles exported by them from India to their own ports in America. The Company in a loyal address to the King offered to raise and clothe three regiments of 1000 men each, for his Majesty's service during the war; but Government preferred their giving a bounty to seamen, a contribution to the state in which their patriotic zeal was accordingly displayed. In the years 1792, 1793, and 1794, were conveyed to India, in the Company's ships 10,400 troops of their own and the King's. Among this number, the total mortality was only 194 men, and some of those returned" deceased" were lost by accident. This forms contrast to the losses which have been incurred in Government transports in voyages of much shorter duration, and places in a striking point of view the safety and strength of the Company's shipping. 1795. August.-In consequence of the scarcity of grain which at that time prevailed in England, and the probability of its continuance, the |