although when in 1793-4 the revenues were only eight millions per annum, there was a surplus of 1.1,600,000, now that the revenues are fifteen millions per annum, there is a deficit of .1,019,097. "What is most obvious and striking in this statement, is the increase not of the charges only but also of the debt, as the revenues increased, and not merely in proportion to the increase of the revenues; for, whilst from the year 1793-4 to the year 1805-6, the amount of the revenues has not been quite doubled, that of the charges has been increased as five to two, and that of the debt nearly quadrupled, besides a very large sum of debt transferred in the course of that period to England.

"After all allowances and adjustments, which, according to the best knowledge of the court, comprehend every thing the account ought to contain, the balance is in favour of England, or of the Company at home, 1.5,691,689.

"Before concluding, the executive body of the Company think it may be proper for them to declare, that they are not conscious of having, by improvidence or mismanagement, contributed to bring the Company's affairs into the embarrassments in which they are now involved. They may be placed in a very material degree to the vast increase of the Indian debt the consequence of various measures adopted abroad under the administration of controul exercised by his Majesty's government since the year 1784. Those embarrassments proceed also in part from causes which it has not been in the power of this country to controul. An unexampled European war, which has already continued fourteen years, has in every way aggravated the expences, and diminished the profits, of the Company at home and abroad. The increased charges of freight and demorage alone, očcasioned by this war, bave amounted, since its commencement, to more than seven millions sterling. Whenever Great Britain is involved in European war, the effects are always felt in India in increased military expences, even when no European enemy in the field there; but that war appears has been carried into India; and, at the desire of his Majesty's government, the Company have bad to sustain the expence of various foreign expeditions against the French, Dutch, and Spanish possessions in India, and to Egypt, all chiefly on the national account, in which, as is

well known, the Company expended very large sums, borrowed at high Indian interest, to the prejudice of their general credit and affairs, in ways which cannot be made matter of account. This war moreover has occasioned a gradual rise in the cost of home manufactures and metals, which the Company, consulting the national interest, have continued to export for many years to the extent of 1.2,200,000 annually, notwithstanding the known disadvantage under which they prosecuted that trade; for the increased cost could not be compensated by a corresponding increase in the sel ling prices abroad, nor by a decrease in the prices of goods purchased for Europe, and has therefore been attended with positive and considerable loss to the Company. The progressive diminutions of profit on their Indian importations here, have been already shewn. AU these evils are now followed by a stagnation in the home sales of the Company. In this they suffer with the nation, and with Europe at large, but the consequences, as already described, fall with peculiar severity upon them in the other circumstances of their affairs; for the Indian finances, which are become of im mense importance in the system of the Company, instead of affording relief, are in a state that imperiously calls for instant and effectual regulation. It is by no means to be concluded, however, that affairs would now have been better under any other supposable mode of Indian administration; it is perfectly within the power of this country to afford the aids which are now required for the relief of the Company's finances, both at home and abroad, for consolidating the credit of the Company, and strengthening the hands of the authorities at home, so ne cessary to the well-being of the Company's affairs.

"The expected deficit for 1808-9, of 1.2,433,185, was supplied by receipts beyond the estimate from the following sources, viz.

Sales of imports - 1.851,345
Charges and freight

on private trade 168,813

Received on account of Coin

7.1,020,158

pany's claims on the public, on report of the committee 1,500,000

1.2,520,158

SUPPLEMENTARY

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

ROM the communication which you permitted me to make to the public, on the virtues of stramonium, I have derived that sincerest of all gratifications which arises from the consciousness of having been instrumental in " doing good." The number of letters which I have received on the subject, from persons who have discovered my address, added to that of Mr. Willis, which appeared in your last Number, render it incumbent upon me to make more gene rally known the method of raising this plant of divine virtue, which has hitherto been considered as a noxious weed, difficult to eradicate where it has once taken root; but which I hope will be seen growing, in the course of another year, in every garden in the empire.

When I first inquired for it at a herb shop in Covent-garden, I obtained a large bundle for three-pence; and I now learn, with equal surprise and indignation, that it bas of late been sold at the enormous

rate of twenty-four shillings per pound. I have experienced, Mr. Editor, in the course of a mingled life of business and amusement many instances of baseness, and I have heard of many others. . I never, however, met with such an imposition as I am about to notice. I had with infinite difficulty procured some seed of the stramonium, which I gave to the proprietor of a large nursery garden, in the immediate neighbourhood of Tavistock-square, and agreed with him to cultivate it; its produce exceeded 1000 fine plants, and it was almost weekly shewn to nie and my servants by the master, who congratulated me upon the prospect of the crop. I remained perfectly satis fied that I should have an abundant supply, so much so, that I promised a portion of it to half the poor suffering invalids that I had heard of in London. Will you believe, Sir, that this man, hearing of my coinmunication to your Magazine, and having numerous applications for it, has actually sold the major part of it, at twenty-four shillings per lb. and has refused to deliver me any of it, expecting (as no more can be procured till next year) to exact a still more extravagant price for it. I am happily placed beyond the reach of the intended injury, by a supply from the kind friends who undertook to raise the small portion of the seed I luckily reserved and gave them. But, for public, benefit, I beg leave to make it known, hat the seed is to be sown in the months

of March and April, on light rich earth, exposed to the sun; that it arrives at ma turity the latter end of August or beginning of September, and is called the THORN APPLE. It grows spontaneously, is reckoned a common weed in many gardens, and has hitherto been universally thrown away. I have been frequently asked as to the method of smoking it. It requires merely to be dried gradually, the mould brushed off, the roots cut into small pieces, and put into a common tobaccopipe, the smoke to be forced into the stomach by swallowing, without holding the nostrils, or any other effort; and I continue, by the blessing of Providence, to experience its excellent effects, even in an increased degree, so much so, that at this moment I am in the habit of riding backwards and forwards to a rural resi dence in Essex, a happiness which I had long ago lost sight of. I ought not to omit to state that the stalk proves equally efficacious with the root. VERAS

London, December 7, 1810.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine,

SIR,

N answer to a query in the Maga

Iz

zine for April, concerning the detection of sulphuric or vitriolic acid in vinegar, I send you the following: A servant of mine bought a gallon of very strong vinegar for pickling; the pickles proved. unpalatable, and soon became unfit for the table. Suspecting this to be occasioned by the adulteration of the vinegar, I put a portion thereof, which remained in the bottle, into a wine glass. I also diluted to about the same degree of acidity as the vinegar, a like portion of sulphuric acid; and into a third glass I put vinegar of known purity.

I then dissolved in water a small quantity of acetite or sugar of lead, and dropped into each of the three glasses containing the acids some drops of the clear solution; the result was that a copious white precipitate turned the suspected vinegar and the diluted sulphuric acid as opaque and white as milk, while the pure vinegar, for reasons obvious to the chemist, remained unchanged and transparent.

Acetite or sugar of lead is therefore a simple, easy, and pleasing, test of sulphuric or vitriolic acid, &c. in vinegar, spirits, &c. and such as ought to be generally known and kept in every family, since the practice of adulterating vinegar with sulphuric acid prevails.

On