verdict of not guilty. The company gave him a pension of £4,000 a for twenty-eight and a half years, accompanying it with a loan, without in terest, for eighteen years, of £50,000, to defray the expenses of the trial. What a commentary on the prompt justice and cost of the law! In 1780, the exports of the company amounted to £386,152 only; being but one thirty-second part of the whole foreign trade of England. The exports for three years, ending in 1793, of British produce and manufac tures, varied from £928,783 to £1,031,262. The increase was owing to the reduction of the duty on tea, and its consequently increased consumption; but for this, the amount would not have exceeded that of 1780. The charter was renewed in 1781, and in 1793 extended to 1814, on certain pecuniary conditions favorable to the government. The ministry succeeded in carrying into effect the important point, that all despatches of the company, before sent to India, should be examined by them, and that the company should obey their directions in all that pertained to peace and war, or negotiations with other powers. The discussions upon the affairs of the company were of unusual interest at this period; the several East India bills proposed by Mr. Dundas, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Pitt, so far as connected with the history of those distinguished men, must be too well remembered to justify minute examination, important as they are to a full understanding of the political events of that interesting epoch in English history. Mr. Dundas, afterwards Lord Melville, did not press his bill, because he received no aid from the ministry, to whom he was opposed. The king entertained such a vehement aversion to the bill of Mr. Fox, the object of which was to abolish the court of directors and proprietors, and vest the government in seven commissioners appointed by parlia ment, that he took the extraordinary course of informing many of the peers he should consider those his enemies who voted for it. It was lost in the house of lords-one cause of its unpopularity being the unnatural coalition of Fox and Lord North; and the dissolution of the ministry followed. Pitt became minister, and the bill called by his name, was enacted in 1784. The prominent innovation introduced by it, was the organization of a board of control, composed of six members of the privy council, chosen by the king, of whom the chancellor of the exchequer and one of the principal secretaries of state were to be two; one of these officers was to act as president. The powers of the board were very extensive, embracing the whole civil and military government of the company. There was also a board of directors; this body, in effect, was the instrument by which the board of control carried out the details of plans adopted by it. The two boards, notwithstanding the subordinate character of one of them, have performed their duties with much harmony. The king had the right to appoint the commander-in-chief; the company to appoint the governorgeneral, subject to the concurrence of the crown. Lord Cornwallis assumed the command in India in 1786, and though the expectations of suc cess formed upon the accession to office of one so diligent and patriotic were not fully realized, his benevolence and well-intentioned zeal cannot be questioned. Sir John Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, succeeded Cornwallis, and resigned in 1798. Sir John was appointed because of his pacific views and financial knowledge; his successor, Lord Mornington, was selected because he had recently made a fine speech against Jacobinism, though there were other and better reasons, of "a peculiar nature," for mysteriously said at the time. He arrived at almost immediately found himself engaged in war. against Tippoo Sultan. Seringapatam was taken by a sault, Tippoo slain while gallantly fighting in its defence, and ritory divided." The administration of the Marquis Wellesley was signalized by accessions to the British empire in India of the territories of Tippoo, and of the Mahratta chiefs, the capture of Delhi, and other tracts of country. Du ring the same period, the revenue was nearly doubled; but, unfortunately, the expenses and interest on the debt of the government increased faster than the revenue; so that, in 1805, they amounted to over £17,000,000; leaving a deficit of £2,269,000. Indeed there was a contraction of new debts, and an excess of expenditure, down to 1812. In 1805, Lord Wellesley resigned the government to Lord Cornwallis. The policy of the former was to enlarge the British power by conquest and subsidiary alliances, in which he was eminently successful; though its sagacity and utility were well questioned by the public, and by all those who saw that it entailed interminable wars upon the company, and was at variance with the views by which it professed to be governed. It was in the belief that a pacific line of conduct could be pursued, and a flowing treasury be the consequence, that the venerable and infirm Cornwallis was urged to accept the government. As might have been anticipated, he survived but a very few months, and the duties of the office devolved upon Sir John Barlow, who expressed his determination to adhere to the policy of his predecessor, and abandon all connection with the petty states. He in turn was succeeded, in 1807, by Lord Minto," a prudent and intelligent nobleman, who endeavored in his general system to maintain the pacific policy recommended by the company." In 1813, the Marquis of Has. tings commenced his administration. He was evidently inclined to revive the plans and policy of the Marquis Wellesley; the fact that the company selected a military governor, seems to force the belief that they were dissatisfied with the mild and peaceful system which had been previously ad vocated and tried. In the same year, the charter was renewed, but modified in its extent by the more liberal notions in regard to free trade, which then had acquired a vigor and potency not to be resisted. The monopoly of the China trade was continued to the company, but they were obliged to consent to the opening of the India trade, under certain limitations. It will strike most persons with surprise, yet it is an admitted truth, that the company lost by the India trade, though it may have gained something by its monopoly of the tea trade; as was happily remarked, a company that maintained armies and retailed tea, that carried a sword in one hand and a leger in the other, could not trade with success. The company, under such circumstances, could not interpose any adequate objec tion to taking away their privilege of trading, when the renewal of the charter was under discussion in 1832-3. Accordingly, the act of William IV, for continuing the charter to 1854, provided that the company's trade to China should ceas in 1834, and, of course, the commercial character of the company is now ended. The trade to India, China, and the east generally, is now for the first time open in England; the monopoly being removed, her merchants and statesmen are sanguine in the belief that the trade to the east will assume a magnitude far exceeding any past calculation. The new act confers on the East India Company nothing beyond politi. cal powers and duties. All the real and personal property belonging to it on the twenty-second of April, 1834, is vested in the crown, to be managed by the company, subject to all debts, &c., that exist, or may hereafter be incurred by competent authority. The debts and liabilities of the company are charged on India. The dividend is to be at ten and a half per cent, to be paid in England, out of the revenues of India, and a security fund is provided for its discharge. The company's stock is £6,000,000. The proprietors, in general court, may pass by-laws. A general court is to be held in each quarter of the year, at which no one can be present unless he own £500 of stock, &c. In 1825, there were 2,003 proprietors. A court of directors, of twenty-four members, for the despatch of execu tive details, is chosen from the proprietors, each of whom must own £2000 of stock. The directors choose annually, from their body, a chairman and deputy-chairman. The company's officers, at home and abroad, are appointed by the court of directors. There is also a secret committee, from the same body, to whom all confidential matters between the board of control and the company are referred; the directions of the board, as to political affairs, may be sent to India through the committee, without having been seen by the other directors. It will be remembered that Pitt proposed the board of control; the act of 1834 provided that the company should act under the supervision of a board bearing the same name. In 1814, the first year of the free trade to India, the exports of cotton amounted to 817,000 yards, of which only about 170,000 yards, valued at £17,778, were exported by the company; from that year, the amount regularly increased, until, as appears by a table showing the progress of the trade down to 1832, the yards of printed cottons exported in that year from Great Britain to all parts of the east, except China, reached to 18,291,650. Of plain cotton, 39,276,511 yards. Their declared value, including lace, hosiery, and small wares, £1,531,393. Of cotton twist, 4,295,427 pounds; declared value, £309,719. The value of the imports during the same year was as follows: : Among the imports of that year were 79,090 pieces of cotton piece-goods, white calicoes, and muslins; 227,226 pieces of cotton piece-goods, dyed cotton, and grasscloths; also, 35,219,504 pounds of cotton wool. In the aboye is included the private trade. The territorial charges of the East India Company during the official year 1827-8 were Their territorial revenues were Nett charge, or excess of expenditure over revenue VOL. IV.NO. IV. 40 £26,139,896 Abstract View of the Revenues and Charges of India for the years 1831-2, 1832-3, 1833-4, and (by estimate) 1834–5, taken from M'Culloch's Com. Dict., Am. ed., 1840. REVENUE. 1831-2. 1832-3. 1833-4. 1834-5. £9,474,084 £9,487,778 £8,844,241 £5,445,100 3,657,900 3,222,155 2,969,956 3,235,233 3,301,980 1,401,916 1,497,308 1,600,691 1,503,782 The debts of the company, in India, on the 30th April, 1834, amounted to £34,463,483, bearing an interest of £1,754,545 a year. (Parl. paper, No. 380, Sept. 1836.) In 1830 the army in India consisted of 170,062 cavalry; 19,539 artillery; 1,084 engineers, with pioneers, &c. : in all, 223,476 men. Of these, 187,068 were natives, and 37,376 Europeans; the latter were divided between the king's and the company's services, in the proportion of 20,292 to the former, and 17,084 to the latter. The cost of these establishments during the same year was £9,461,953. Efforts at retrenchment and economy have since been made, and the army reduced to about 190,000 men. The population of British India is not accurately known; the total under British control has been computed at 126,000,000; the Europeans, and those of European descent, were but 40,000. The following extract, probably from the pen of Captain Dalrymple, one of the authors of the history of British India, comprised in Harper's Family Library, gives an accurate account of the equipments of the company's ships and an insight into the character of its naval service. "The East India Company have now about 50 noble ships of 1200 tons burden and upwards, employed in their trade to India and China. They are manned as follows: 1 captain, 6 officers, 6 midshipmen, 1 surgeon, 1 purser, &c. in all, 130. "They are always well armed, carrying in time of peace 20 eighteen pounders on their main-deck, and 6 thirty-two pound canonnades on the upper deck. During war the number of guns is increased to 32. In addition to great guns, each ship carries 100 muskets, 50 pistols, 50 cutlasses, and 100 pikes, with all needful ammunition, and a magazine fitted for action. The company have two classes of ships, in their regular service. The ships of the first class, eight in number, are the private property of the company. In these ships all the appointments are in the gift of the East India directors, and promotion is according to seniority. A captain is allowed to retain the command for five years, when he must retire. The other class of ships are let to hire to the company for a certain number of voyages by private owners. The captains and officers in these hold the same rank in the company's service, as the captains and officers of the company's own ships, and are subject to the same laws as to qualification, &c.; but the appointments of both captains and officers are in the gift of the private owners, and the rule of seniority is observed. The most rapid promotion which can take place, would be this: one voyage as midshipman; one as sixth or fifth officer; one as third; one as second or first; and then captain. The captain, first, second, third, and fourth officers, each take an oath of fidelity to the company every voyage. No person can be sworn in as fourth officer without producing certificates that he has performed two voyages to India; that he is 21 years of age, &c. Every officer is examined each time he advances a step. No person is permitted to act as a surgeon, who shall not have performed one voyage in a company's ship, or served twelve months in this service in hot climates. The surgeon and his mate must produce certificates from the royal college of surgeons and from the company's physician of their qualifications. The ships are well stored and provisioned. The discipline is strict, and according to the established system. They always sail on the day appointed, the orders on this point being rigidly enforced by the company. In a ship so appointed, a voyage to India must be full of interest and pleasure; one can hardly resist the wish to be of those, who, in the lines of Milton, "sail Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past Sabean odors from the spicy shore Of Araby the blest; with such delay Well pleased, they check their course, and many a league, Having arrived at the haven where we would be, if properly introduced to some smooth-headed, hospitable native merchant, we might have an oppor |