for which various causes may be assigned. The rivals of the Company, the Dutch and Portuguese, made use of every expedient their malice and treachery could suggest, to impede their success; besides which, we may add, the erroneous principles on which the different voyages were undertaken. Instead of the trade being conducted upon a jointstock, on account of the whole Company, every individual was privileged by the charter, to subscribe as much or as little as he pleased, or nothing at all, for every voyage. The inconvenience and absurdity of this principle had become obvious; and, in 1613, it was determined to have no more separate voyages, but to open a subscription for a joint capital. to continue for four years. Under this system the affairs of the company assumed a new aspect; and in a very short time they had established more than twenty factories, in different parts of the Mogul's dominions, and the islands in the Indian seas.

In 1616, when they proposed to raise a new capital, all ranks crowded into the subscription, which, at the time of closing it, amounted to £1,629,040, being the largest capital that had ever been subscribed in any part of Europe, for a joint-stock trade. Among the subscribers were 15 dukes and earls, 13 countesses, 82 knights, including judges and privy counsellors, 18 widows and maiden ladies, besides clergymen, physicians, merchants, tradesmen, and others without any denomination; in the whole 954 subscribers. The stock of the Company sold for 203 per cent. The total value of their property, at this time, was estimated at £400,000. And it was stated by the deputy-governor, that they gave employment to 10,000 tons of shipping, 2500 seamen, 500 ship carpenters, and 120 factors in India.

In 1669 the Company received two canisters containing 143 pounds of tea, which is supposed to have been the first importation of this article from any part of the Indies. It was partly given away in presents, and partly consumed in the India-House for the refreshment of the committees.

In 1676, the trade of the Company having been very successful for many years, they were enabled, out of their accumulated profits, to double their capital to £739,782, upon which the market price of their stock, which had been under par, immediately rose to £245 per cent. The ships in their employ amounted to from 30 to 35, of from 300 to 600 tons, and carrying from 40 to 70 guns. In the year 1680, the company sent a ship to trade with China. The whole of that trade had heretofore been monopolized by the Dutch and Portuguese. About this time they acquired the privilege to coin money, not resembling British money, at Bombay and other places in India. The Company consisted of 600 members, who were entitled to votes in proportion to their shares; hence it happened that some had to the amount of sixty votes: -every member, moreover, had liberty to carry on trade on his own private account, to the extent of one-fifth of his stock in the Company's capital.

In 1698, the English factory obtained permission to purchase three small villages, extending in all about three miles along the east bank of

the Ganges, and about one mile back from it, for which they agreed to pay annually to the Nabob 1195 rupees. This paltry acquisition was the commencement of the territorial aggrandizement of the Company, by which they were afterwards enabled, assisted by fraud and force, to extend themselves over the whole Mogul empire. The ground on which these villages stood forms the site of the great city of Calcutta, containing 600,000 inhabitants.

Some jealousy, about this time, began to be entertained at the increasing power of the Company; and the Government intimated to the association, that a large sum would be expected for the public service, in consideration of a parliamentary confirmation of their privileges. They offered to advance £700,000 at an interest of 4 per cent. provided their charter were fully confirmed by parliament. Meanwhile several opulent individuals offered to advance £2,000,000, provided they were invested with all the privileges of the India trade, as heretofore enjoyed by the Company. Parliament accepted the larger sum, though at double interest, and a bill was ordered to be prepared for incorporating the subscribers. The Company, not to be outdone by their opponents, then proposed a loan of £2,000,000, but this availed them nothing. The government was favourable to the opposing interest, and they prevailed. So great were the advantages anticipated by the nation from the new association, that the subscription of two millions was filled up within a few days after the books were opened. The greatest part of this sum was subscribed by foreigners. The king himself was an adventurer to the extent of £10,000.

The charter of the original Company had not yet expired, and a most ruinous contest ensued betwixt the rival associations. More than sixty ships are said to have been employed by the contending interests in the India trade. The glut of India goods, joined to other causes, produced by this rivalship, reduced the value of the stock of the old Company, which had been as high as 500 per cent., to 39 per cent. Both parties at length seem to have discovered the ruinous tendency of this contest, and an union was effected in 1702, by a tripartite indenture, wherein Queen Ann, the old Company, and the new Company were partners. According to this instrument, the two Companies bind themselves to have at least one-tenth of their exports in English manufactures, and after the expiration of seven years they are to be called "The United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies," which is their present designation.

In 1766, the Company, in consequence of their territorial acquisitions, raised their dividends from 6 to 10 per cent. and shortly after to 12} per cent. In 1779, the time for the renewal of the charter approaching, the company prudently prepared for that event, by a present to the public of three seventy-four gun ships, besides a large sum of money in bounties to 6000 seamen. Notwithstanding this bonus, in 1780 notice was given to the Company, by Government, that, on the expiration of their charter, their exclusive privileges should cease, unless they would agree to pay £1,000,000 into the exchequer, restrict their future divi

dend to 8 per cent. and pay three-fourths of the surplus profits, over and above that dividend, into the exchequer. After much discussion, the demand for the renewal of their charter was reduced to £600,000. This renewal was to continue till the 1st day of March, 1791, when, on the payment of the debt due by Government to the Company, their exclusive privileges should expire.

The affairs of the East-India Company, and the transactions in Hindustan, began deeply to interest the public, and every session of parliament produced some new investigation on this important subject. From merchants, the company had risen into sovereign princes, and, instead of being occupied with the ginger and pepper trade, they were wholly absorbed in schemes of territorial aggrandisement. Occupied unceasingly in war-buying and exchanging territory-making treaties of partition hiring troops to the native princes-establishing monopolies -and fomenting hostilities among the nabobs and subahdars, that these short-sighted princes, after weakening each other by their mutual animosities, might fall an easy prey to the superior policy of the common invader. These avocations ill comported with the commercial character, and it was a little inconceivable how men, whose knowledge, it may be supposed, was principally confined to making out invoices, bills of lading, or book-keeping by double entry, could discharge these royal functions.

In 1783, Mr. Fox introduced his famous India Bills, the general objects of which were to divest the company of their administrative functions to prohibit them from making war, unless in self-defence— from making treaties of partition-hiring troops to the native princesand every illegal present was to be recoverable by any person for his own benefit. These provisions sufficiently indicate the prevalent abuses. They were opposed by Mr. Pitt, then out of place, an oppositionist and reformer. The question agitated the whole nation; and such was the outcry raised by the company against the pretended violation of their charter-representing such a precedent as endangering the security of all the corporations in the kingdom,-that they finally prevailed, and the bills, though passed in the Commons, were rejected by the Lords.

Next year a dissolution of parliament and change of ministers having taken place, Mr. Pitt introduced a new bill for the better government of India. Many of the provisions of this bill were similar to those of Mr. Fox's. The most important difference related to the appointment of the Board of Control. The commercial affairs and territorial possessions of the Company, were to continue in their hands, subject to the superintendence of a board of commissioners appointed by the Crown.

The next subject of any interest is the trial of Warren Hastings. This gentleman had presided over India thirteen years, and arrived in England on the 16th of June, 1785. On the 26th of the same month, Mr. Burke, who had brought heavy accusations against him in the preceding session, gave notice of his intention to impeach him for high crimes and misdemeanours, alleged to have been committed in India. After long debates in this and succeeding sessions, the prosecution was

sanctioned by the Commons, and, in 1787, articles of impeachment were sent to the Lords. The trial was protracted from year to year, till 23d of April, 1795, when the accused was acquitted, on the payment of his fees, of all the charges preferred against him. The Company, in consideration of the services of this officer, discharged the expenses he had incurred by the prosecution, amounting to upwards of £70,000, and settled upon him an annuity of £5000.

In 1793 the charter of the Company was renewed, and their exclusive privileges continued to them until the first day of March, 1814. In this act a clause was inserted to restrain the belligerent propensities of the Company's servants, but it appears not to have been much regarded. In 1792 Tippoo Saib was despoiled of half his dominions, and compelled to deliver two of his sons into the hands of the Marquis Cornwallis, as hostages for the performance of a treaty by which he engaged to pay £1,600,000 in money to the Company. In 1799 this prince was again attacked by Lord Mornington, now Marquis Wellesley, under pretext of having entered into negotiations with the French, and some of the native princes, for the entire expulsion of the English from India. This war completed the destruction of the sultan. His capital of Seringapatam was taken by assault, himself slain in its defence, and his dominions dismembered. His descendants are now supported by pensions payable by the ci-devant dealers in mace and cloves.

The Company having obtained possession of the different members of the Mogul empire, in 1803, completed their conquests by attacking the Mogul himself in his captital of Delhi. This monarch and his family were also placed upon the pension-list of the Company.

We shall only mention a few more facts connected with the Company's history till the opening of the trade in 1814. By the 29 Geo. III. c. 65, they were authorised to add one million to their capital stock. The new stock being subscribed at 174 per cent. produced £1,740,000, which raised their joint-stock to five millions. In 1793, they were authorized to add another million to their capital by subscription, making it £6,000,000, its present amount. This additional stock produced £2,000,000, being subscribed at 200 per cent.

In 1797, valuable concessions were made to the Americans, with regard to the India trade. They were permitted to carry on trade with the Company's territories in India, in articles not prohibited by law, on paying only the duties paid by British vessels. These advantages were not neglected by the Americans. In a few years the trade of the United States in India equalled nearly one-half the trade of the Company. It was singular policy to admit a foreign state to the participation of the India trade while our own merchants were excluded.

In 1803, during the alarm of an invasion, the Company, at a general court, came to a resolution to present to government 10,000 tons of shipping to guard the coast, and to be maintained at their own expense. In the years 1808 and 1809, the Company lost four outward-bound and six homeward-bound ships. The value of the ships and cargoes was estimated at two millions.

We have now mentioned the most important facts in the history of the East-India Company till the year 1813, when the exclusive privileges of this association were in part abolished. Prior to that time, private traders were not wholly excluded from the India trade. By the 17th clause of the act of 1793, the Company were obliged to appropriate 3000 tons of shipping for carrying out goods belonging to private merchants and manufacturers. The act of 1813 continues to the Company the revenue and territorial acquisitions in India, and the exclusive monopoly of the China trade; but the trade to India, subject to certain restrictions and regulations, is thrown open to the enterprise of individuals. These immunities were conceded to the Company until 10th of April, 1831, absolutely, and afterwards, until three years' notice be given by parliament, and the debt due from the public to the Company be paid.

TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS AND INDIAN WARS.

No external dominion in the East can endanger the security of the Anglo-Indian empire. All the native princes have either been absolutely conquered, reduced to a state of dependence, or have been so completely humiliated and divested of offensive power, as to render entirely hopeless every chance of successful opposition to the British government. In 1815, the Ghorkas, who possess the kingdom of Nepaul on the northern frontier of Hindustan, made a show of contesting the sovereignty of the Company, but they were completely defeated by lord Hastings, and compelled to purchase peace by the cession of a large tract of territory. The Burmese were the last nation who gave us any uneasiness. They have been represented as a warlike people, and at one time meditated nothing less than an eruption into the province of Bengal. Rangoon, their capital, was occupied by a British force; and, in 1826, after a teasing warfare, they submitted to the terms imposed by the invading army, by which the Company has become possessed of the provinces of Arracan and Tenasserim, including nearly the whole line of coast which previously belonged to the Burman empire.

Of the Mahratta chiefs, Scindia alone retains the full military as well as civil government of his territory. The courts of Holkar, of the Guicowar; rajah of Berar and of the smaller principalities exercise the civil functions of royalty, but are not tolerated in the possession of an armed force. They have each, by the cession or conquest of a part of their territories, purchased military protection from the Company. The Rajpoot chiefs, who occupy the north-west frontier of Hindustan, are tributary either to the Company or to the states of Scindia and Holkar. Of the Mahometan governments, the king of Oude, the Nizam, the rajahs of Mysore and Travancore, and the nabob of Bhopaul, are the principal states whose civil independence is recognized, and these are in such a defenceless condition as to be entirely dependent on the forbearance of the Company for the continuance of their sovereignty.

From foreign rivalry and interference the English have no cause of apprehension. The only colonies which now belong to other European