"tical and commercial, from the year 1793 to the year "1810."

After entering very fully into the receipts and disbursements comprised under the head "Extraordinary," derived from the two-fold source, viz. credit in India and by supplies from the treasury in England, in consignments of goods, stores, and bullion, or payment of bills of exchange, and which amounted to not less than £52,293,289, the Committee remark :

"Combining then the whole application of the funds "according to the view now given, it will appear that "the total expenditure of the extraordinary funds, "both in the advance for which property might be said "to remain in England or India, and in direct charge, is found to amount to the sum of £52,293,289;

which, though less than the amount of these funds

by £16,135, your Committee do not doubt will be "considered by the House as a display of order, re"gularity, and precision, as satisfactory as could be "expected, in the management of the extensive and "complicated finances of this great empire, from embracing at the same time both the political and "commercial branches of its government and ma"nagement."

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In adverting to the general result of the affairs in India in a financial point of view, by the various operations of a political and commercial nature between April 1792 and April 1809, the Committee point out the increase in debt beyond the assets to amount to £12,590,393, and then remark, that "as "the details of the several items contained in this ac"count have already been explained, your Committee "need only advert, at present, to the total of them, "and which will be found as near to accuracy as, upon

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upon full consideration of the general principles by which the inquiry has been directed, could possibly be expected, when it is considered that "that inquiry embraces the receipt and application "of a sum approaching two hundred and forty-five "millions sterling."

The Committee then, alluding to the Indian debt, "considered it as due to those intrusted with the "government of India, to state that the growing "amount of the debt has, from a very early period, "been the subject of their anxious observation, and that "it has always been an object of their earnest solici"tude to devise practicable plans for its reduction."

The fourth report was laid before the House and printed in April 1812,* one year immediately preceding the discussion in the House of Commons in 1813, when the Company's privileges were last renewed; it enters into the Home concerns of the Company. In the early part of this report the Committee make the following remarks with reference to the China trade :

"The trade with China has for a very long period “formed a part of the exclusive privilege of the Com

pany, and has been carried on upon principles con"ducive, in a very eminent degree, not only to the "advantage of those embarked in it, but likewise to "the interests of the British empire, in its revenue, in "the employment of its shipping, and in a steady and "continued demand for its manufactures."

Alluding to the aggregate of the several heads of receipt in the Home Treasury, between the years 1793-4 and 1809-10, including the balance of cash on the 1st March 1793, and the balance of tea duties in

* Also presented by Mr. Wallace.

March

March 1805, the Committee stated, "that it appeared "to have amounted to the sum of £143,593,248. Deducting from this sum the amount borrowed or "raised on the credit of the Company, the tea duties, "and the sum advanced by government for the pur"chase of hemp, it will be found that the affairs of "the Company, partly political but mostly commer"cial, produced the receipt of monies into the Home Treasury to the amount of £115,643,987; and that "the revenue drawn by the state during the seven"teen years amounted to £39,348,358.

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A reference to the detailed proceedings which took place at the several periods alluded to, viz. 1773, 1784, 1793, and 1813, of which the foregoing is an outline, will satisfy any impartial inquirer, that so far from the agreement between the East-India Company and the public at those periods having been entered into without due deliberation, no subject ever engrossed more of the attention of the Government and of Parliament; and certainly there are no affairs on which the public possess more full and more ample information. It is rather a redundancy, than paucity of information, which is generally complained of.

The next point which was insisted upon in the debate on the 17th June last on the Stamp question, is the inefficient mode in which the East-India Company have administered the government of the country entrusted to them. It was remarked:

"Our grand error has been, that we apply the "maxims of factories to the government of a mighty

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empire. As we have never calmly examined the "whole of our system at once, we have never purified "ourselves from these paltry and peddling principles.

"We have borrowed the little policy of the chiefs of a few obscure factories, who trembled at the frown "of the Hindoo or Mahomedan tyrants by whom they were surrounded; and we continue, in some "measure, to be influenced by them in the most powerful empire between Austria and China. It is "on this ground that the East-India Company have "acted."

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It will not be denied, that the judicial administration of every civilized state forms one of its most important features, the course pursued by the East-India Company with reference to that branch of their government consequently falls under the foregoing condemnation. It may therefore be expedient to quote the opinion of Parliament in 1773, as it is one of the periods pointed out to shew the little attention paid by Parliament to the subject of India administration. The Committee of Secresy appointed by the House of Commons to examine into the affairs of India, adverting to the ancient native system of judicature in Bengal, state:

They cannot conclude this part of the subject "without observing, that so far as they are able "to judge from all the information laid before

them, the subjects of the Mogul empire in that "" province derived little protection or security from any of these courts; and that, in general, though "forms of judicature were established and preserved,

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the despotic principles of the government ren"dered them the instruments of power rather than

of justice, not only unavailing to protect the people, "but often the means of the most grievous oppres“sions under the cloak of the judicial character.”

Such was the state of things before the East-India Company took any part in the administration of justice

in

in India. The condition of the natives at the period of the Company's assuming the administration is des cribed in the following extract from the fifth report, submitted to the House of Commons in the year 1812,* a report shewing that the most laborious and extensive research was devoted to the subject. The Committee enter into a full review of the systems introduced from the time of Lord Cornwallis; and they remark:

"The internal government was in a state of dis"order, and the people suffering great oppression. "These evils were imputed to the nature of the "former administration. It is observed, that the Na"zims exacted what they could from the zemindars "and great farmers of the revenue, whom they left "at liberty to plunder all below, reserving to them"selves the prerogative of plundering them in their "turn, when they were supposed to have enriched "themselves with the spoils of the country. The "whole system thus resolved itself, on the part of "the public officers, into habitual extortion and injustice, which produced on that of the cultivator "the natural consequences, concealment and evasion, by which Government was defrauded of a consider"able part of its just demands."

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The same Committee, after referring to their former reports, which have been already noticed, containing some detail of the extensive establishments for the internal administration of justice, remarked, that "they have felt it their duty to offer some ac"count of the nature and history of those establish"ments, and of the circumstances under which they "have been augmented to their present scale, trusting

*Presented by Mr. Wallace.

"that