СНАР. 9. 1769. act of parliament having expired which limited the BOOK IV amount of dividend in 1767, the Directors exclaimed against a renewal of the restriction, as transferring the powers of the Company to parliament, subverting the privileges of their charter, and rendering insecure the property of every commercial and corporate body in the kingdom. They even presented to parliament a petition, in which these arguments were vehemently enforced; and so well by this time were they represented in that assembly, that a sufficiency of orators was not wanting, who in both Houses supported their claims. Opposite views, notwithstanding, prevailed; and an act was passed to prevent the increase of the dividend beyond ten per cent. till the 1st day of February, 1769. Before the expiration of this term, the Company, who were anxious to evade the question respecting the public claim to the sovereignty of the Indian territory, very assiduously negotiated with the minister a temporary arrangement. After a great deal of conference and correspondence, an act was passed, in April, 1769, to the following effect: That the territorial revenues in India should be held by the Company for five years to come; that in consideration of this benefit they should pay into the exchequer 400,000l. every year; that if the revenues allowed, they might increase the dividend, by augmentations not exceeding one per cent. in one year, to twelve and a half per cent.; that if, on the other hand, the dividend should fall below ten per cent., the payment into the exchequer should obtain a proportional reduction, and entirely cease if the dividend should decline to six per cent.; that the Company should, CHAP. 9. 1679. BOOK IV during each year of the term, export British merchandise, exclusive of naval and military stores, to the amount of 380,8371.; and that when they should have paid their simple contract debts bearing interest, and reduced their bonded debt to an equality with their loans to government, they should add to these loans the surplus of their receipts at an interest of two per cent. This agreement between the public and the Company, was made, it is obvious, upon the same supposition, that of a great surplus revenue, upon which succeeding agreements have been made, and with the same result. In the mean time, the grievous failure in the annual treasures, which they had been so confidently promised; and which, with all the credulity of violent wishes, they had so fondly and confidently promised themselves; excited, both in the Company, and in the nation, the most vehement complaints against the managers in India, to whose misconduct was ascribed the disappointment of hopes which no conduct could have realized. A grand investigation and reform were decreed. And for the performance, after great consultation, it was resolved ; that three persons should be chosen, whose acquaintance with Indian affairs, and whose character for talents, diligence, and probity, should afford the best security for the right discharge of so important a ' Act 9, Geo. III. c. 24. "The manner in which Clive, to enhance the merit of his own services, had puffed the importance of the Indian territory, and inflamed the hopes of treasure which it was to produce, misled the Company. The perpetually recurring interests of their servants to delude them with these hopes, and their perpetual readiness to believe flattering accounts, has been a perennial fountain of misgovernment. Mr. CHAP. 9. 1769. trust and that they should be sent out, in the name BOOK IV and with the character of Supervisors, and with powers adapted to the exigence of the case. Vansittart, the late Governor of Bengal, Mr. Scrafton, and Colonel Ford, were recommended as the three commissioners; and it was proposed to invest them with almost all the powers which the Company themselves, if present in India, would possess; a power of superseding the operations and suspending the authority of the Presidents and Councils, of investigating every department of the service, and establishing such regulations as the interests of the Company might seem to require. The scheme was indeed opposed with great vehemence, by all those who favoured the persons now invested with the governing powers in India; by all those who had any pique against the individuals proposed; and by all those who disliked the accumulation of exorbitant authority in a small number of hands. But though they formed no inconsiderable party, the disappointment of the golden dreams of the Proprietors prevailed in the General Court; and supervisors with extraordinary powers, it was resolved, were the very remedy which the maladies of the Indian government required. But the pretensions of the ministry again interfered. Not only was the legality disputed of the commission by which the supervisors were appointed; but a share was claimed in the government of India, which the Directors regarded with alarm and abhorrence. As an accession to their power and influence in India, which they imagined would be of the utmost importance, they had applied to CHAP. 9. BOOK IV government for two ships of the line, and some frigates. No aversion to this proposition was be 1769. trayed by the ministry; but when the Company were elated with the hopes which a compliance was calculated to inspire, they were suddenly informed that the naval officer whom the Crown should appoint to command in India, must be vested with full powers to adjust all maritime affairs; to transact with the native princes; and, in short, to act the principal part in the offensive and defensive policy of the country. The Directors represented this proposal as affecting the honour, and the very existence of the Company. The General Court was adjourned from time to time to afford sufficient space for the consideration of so important a subject; and the Proprietors were entreated to consider the present moment as the very crisis of their fate; and to devote to the question a proportional share of their attention. To vest the officers of the Crown in India with powers independent of the Company, was in reality, they said, to extrude the Company from the government; to lay the foundation of endless contests between the servants of the King and those of the Company; and to prepare the ruin of the national interests in that part of the world; If the Company were incapable of maintaining their territorial acquisitions, to surrender them to the powers of the country, upon terms advantageous to their commerce, was better, it was averred, than to lie at the mercy of a minister: And the fatal effects of the interference of the servants of the Crown in the affairs of a Company, formed for upholding a beneficial intercourse with India, were CHAP. 9. 1769. illustrated by contrasting the ruin of the French BOOK IV East India Company, the affairs of which the ministers of the French King had so officiously controlled, with the prosperity of the Dutch East India Company, the affairs of which had been left entirely to themselves. The grand argument, on the other side, was furnished by Clive and the Directors themselves; who had used so many and such emphatical terms to impress a belief that the unprosperous state of their government was wholly produced by the rapacity and misconduct of those who conducted it in India. In the first place, the authority of a King's officer was held up as an indispensable security against the vices of the Company's servants; and in the next place the dignity of the master whom he served was represented as necessary to give majesty to the negotiations which a company of merchants might be required to conduct with the potentates of India. After long and 'These debates are reported in various periodical publications of the time. A good abstract of them is presented in the Annual Register for 1769. A variety of pamphlets was produced by the dispute; of those which have come under the author's inspection, the following are the titles of the more remarkable; "An Address to the Proprietors of India Stock, showing, from the political State of Indostan, the Necessity of sending Commissioners to regulate and direct their Affairs abroad; and likewise the Expediency of joining a Servant of Government in the Commission. Printed for S. Bladon in Paternoster Row, 1769;" "A Letter to the Proprietors of East India Stock, containing a brief Relation of the Negotiations with Government, from the Year 1767 to the present Time, respecting the Company's Acquisitions in India, together with some Considerations on the principal Plans for Adjusting the Matters in dispute, which have been discussed in the General Court of Proprietors. Printed for B. White, at Horace's Head, in Fleet Street, 1769;" "A Letter to the Proprietors of India Stock, containing a Reply to some Insinuations in AN OLD PROPRIETOR'S LETTER TO THE PROPRIETORS on the 13th Inst. relative to the Ballot of that Day. Printed for W. Nicholl, No. 51, St. Paul's Church Yard, 1769;" "A Letter to the Proprietors of E. I. Stock, |