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resource (says he) cannot last; it must cease "at a certain period, and that perhaps not far "distant."

He was not mistaken in his prognostick. Loans now becoming the regular resource for retrieving the investment, whose ruin was inevitable, the council enabled the board of trade, in April 1781, to grant certificates for government bonds at eight per cent. interest for about £.650,000. The investment was fixed at £.900,000.

But now another alarming system appeared. These new bonds overloaded the market: those, which had been formerly issued, were at a discount; the board of trade was obliged to advance, therefore, a fourth more than usual to the contractors. This seemed to satisfy that description of dealers. But as those, who bought on agency, were limited to no terms of mutual advantage; and the bonds on the new issue falling from three to eight, nine, and ten per cent. discount, the agents were unable to furnish at the usual prices. Accordingly a discount was settled on such terms as could be made; the lowest discount, and that at two places only, was at four per cent.; which, with the interest on the bonds, made (besides the earlier advance) at the least twelve per cent. additional charge upon all goods. It was evident, that as the investment, instead of being supported by the revenues, was sunk by the fall of their credit, so the net reveIes were diminished by the daily accumulation of an interest accruing on account of the investment. What was done to alleviate one complaint thus aggravating the other, and at length proving pernicious to both, this trade on bonds likewise came to its period.

Your committee has reason to think, that the bonds have since that time sunk to a discount much greater even than what is now stated. The board of trade justly denominates their resource for that year the sinking credit of a paper currency, la"bouring, from the uncommon scarcity of species, "under disadvantages scarcely surmountable." From this they value themselves "on having "effected an ostensible provision, at least for that "investment." For 1783 nothing appears even

ostensible.

It is impossible, in reporting this revolution to the house, to avoid remarking with what fidelity Mr. Hastings and his council have adhered to the mode of transmitting their accounts, which your committee found it necessary to mark and censure in their first report. Its pernicious tendency is there fully set forth. They were peculiarly called on for a most accurate state of their affairs, in order to explain the necessity of having recourse to such a scheme, as well as for a full and correct account of the scheme itself. But they send only the above short minute by one dispatch over land, whilst the copy of the plan itself, on which the directors must form their judgment, is sent separately in another dispatch over land, which has never arrived. A third dispatch, which also contained the plan, was sent by a sea-conveyance, and arrived late. The directors have, for very obvious reasons, ordered by a strict injunction, that they should send duplicates of all their dispatches by every ship. The spirit of this rule, perhaps, ought to extend to every mode of conveyance. In this case, so far from sending a duplicate, they do not send even one perfect account. They announce a plan by one conveyance, and they send it by another conveyance, with other delays and other risks.

At length, at nearly four months distance, the plan has been received; and appears to be substantially that which had been announced, but developing in the particulars many new circumstances of the greatest importance. By this plan it appears, that the subscription, even in idea or pretence, is not for the use of the company; but that the subscribers are united into a sort of society for the remitting their private fortunes: the goods indeed are said to be shipped on the company's account, and they are directed to be sold on the same account, and at the usual periods of sale; but, after the payment of duties, and such other allowances as they choose to make, in the 11th article they provide" that the remainder of "the sales shall revert to the subscribers, and "be declared to be their property, and divided "in proportion to their respective shares." The compensation, which they allow in this plan to their masters for their brokerage, is, that if (after deducting all the charges, which they impose) "the amount of the sales should be found to ex"ceed two shillings and twopence for the current

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rupee of the invoice account, it shall be taken by the company." For the management of this concern in Bengal they choose commissioners by their own authority. By the same authority they form them into a body; they put them under rules and regulations; and they empower them also to

make regulations of their own. They remit, by the like authority, the duties, to which all private trade is subject; and they charge the whole concern with seven per cent. to be paid from the net produce of the sales in England, as a recompense to the commissioners; for this the commissioners contract to bear all the charges on the goods to the time of shipping.

The servants having formed this plan of trade, and a new commission for the conduct of it, on their private account,—it is a matter of consideration to know who the commissioners are. They turn out to be the three senior servants of the company's board of trade, who choose to take upon them to be the factors of others for large emoluments, whilst they receive salaries of two thousand pounds, and fifteen hundred pounds, a year from the company. As the company have no other fund than the new investment, from whence they are to be paid for the care of their servants' property, this commission and those salaries being to take place of their brokerage, they in effect render it very difficult, if not impossible, for them to derive advantage from their new occupation.

As to the benefit of this plan: besides preventing the loss, which must happen from the company's ships returning empty to Europe, and the stopping of all trade between India and England, the authors of it state, that it will " open a new "channel of remittance, and abolish the practice, "by precluding the necessity, of remitting private fortunes by foreign bottoms; and that it may "lead to some permanent mode for remittance of private fortunes, and of combining it with the "regular provision of the company's investment. "That it will yield some profit to the company "without risk; and the national gain will be the same as upon the regular trade.'

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As to the combination of this mode of remittance with the company's investment, nothing can be affirmed concerning it until some satisfactory assurance can be held out, that such an investment can ever be realized. Mr. Hastings and the gentlemen of the council have not afforded any ground for such an expectation. That the Indian trade may become a permanent vehicle of the private fortunes of the company's servants is very probable; that is, as permanent as the means of acquiring fortunes in India; but that some profit will accrue to the company is absolutely impos

* ESTIMATE of the Sale Amount, and net Proceeds in England, of the Cargoes to be sent from Bengal, agreeable to the plan, received by Letter dated the 8th April 1782.

sible.

The company are to bear all the charge outwards, and a very great part of that homewaras; and their only compensation is the surplus commission on the sale of other people's goods. The nation will undoubtedly avoid great loss and detriment, which would be the inevitable consequence of the total cessation of the trade with Bengal, and the ships returning without cargoes. But if this temporary expedient should be improved into a system, no occasional advantages to be derived from it would be sufficient to balance the mischiefs of finding a great parliamentary corporation turned into a vehicle for remitting to England the private fortunes of those, for whose benefit the territorial possessions in India are, in effect and substance, under this project to be solely held.

By this extraordinary scheme the company is totally overturned, and all its relations inverted. From being a body concerned in trade on their own account, and employing their servants as factors, the servants have at one stroke taken the whole trade into their own hands, on their own capital of £.800,000, at their own risk; and the company are become agents and factors to them, to sell by commission their goods for their profit.

To enable your committee to form some judgment upon the profit, which may accrue to the company from its new relation and employment, they directed, that an estimate should be made of the probable proceeds of an investment conducted on the principles of that intended to be realized for 1783. By this estimate, which is subjoined, it appears to your committee, that so far from any surplus profit from this transaction, the Bengal adventurers themselves, instead of realizing 2s. 2d. the

rupee, (the standard they fix for their payment,) will not receive the 1s. 9d. which is its utmost value in silver at the mint; nor probably above 1s. 5d. With this certain loss before their eyes, it is impossible that they can ever complete their subscription, unless, by management among themselves, they should be able to procure the goods for their own account, upon other terms than those on which they purchased them for their masters, or unless they have for the supply of the company, on their hands, a quantity of goods, which they cannot otherwise dispose of. This latter case is not very improbable from their proposing to send ten sixteenths of the whole in

a 1. The sale amount is computed on an average of the sales of the two last years' imports.

2. The custom is computed on an average of what was paid on piece goods and raw silk of said imports, adding additional imposts

3. The ships going out of this season (1782) by which the above investment is expected to be sent home, are taken up at £.47. 59. per ton, for the homeward cargo; this charge amounts to £35,815 each ship; the additional wages to the men, which the company pay, and a very small charge for demurrage, will encrease the freight, &c. to £.40,000 per ship, agreeable to above estimate.

d 4. The duty of 5 per cent. is charged by the company on the gross sale amount of all private trade licensed to be brought from India; the amount of this duty is the only benefit the company are likely to receive from the subscription investment.

5. This charge is likewise made on private trade goods, and is little (if any thing) more than the real expence the company are at on account of the same; therefore no benefit will probably arise to the company from it on the sale of the said investment. 16. This is the sum, which will probably be realized in England, and is only equal to Is. 5d. per rupee, on the 80 lacks subscribed.

vestment in silk which, as will be seen hereafter, the company has prohibited to be sent on their account, as a disadvantageous article. Nothing, but the servants being overloaded, can rationally account for their choice of so great a proportion of so dubious a commodity.

On the state made by two reports of a committee of the general court in 1782, their affairs were even then reduced to a low ebb. But under the arrangement announced by Mr. Hastings and his colleagues, it does not appear, after this period of the servants' investment, from what fund the proprietors are to make any dividend at all. The objects of the sale, from whence the dividend is to arise, are not their goods: they stand accountable to others for the whole probable produce. The state of the company's commerce will therefore become an object of serious consideration; an affair, as your committee apprehends, of as much difficulty as ever tried the faculties of this house. For on the one hand it is plain, that the system of providing the company's import into Europe, resting almost wholly on an investment from its territorial revenues, has failed: during its continuance it was supported on principles fatal to the prosperity of that country. On the other hand, if the nominal commerce of the company is suffered to be carried on for the account of the servants abroad, by investing the emoluments made in their stations, these emoluments are therefore inclusively authorized, and with them the practices from which they accrue. All parliamentary attempts to reform this system will be contradictory to its institution. If, for instance, five hundred thousand pounds sterling annually be necessary for this kind of investment, any regulation, which may prevent the acquisition of that sum, operates against the investment, which is the end proposed by the plan.

On this new scheme, (which is neither calculated for a future security, nor for a present relief to the company,) it is not visible in what manner the settlements in India can be at all upheld. The gentlemen in employments abroad call for the whole produce of the year's investment from Bengal; but for the payment of the counterinvestment from Europe, which is for the far greater part sent out for the support of their power, no provision at all is made: they have not, it seems, agreed that it should be charged to their account, or that any deduction should be made for it from the produce of their sales in Leadenhall-street. How far such a scheme is preferable to the total suspension of trade, your committee cannot positively determine. In all likelihood extraordinary expedients were necessary; but the causes, which induced this necessity, ought to be more fully enquired into; for the last step in a series of conduct may be justifiable upon principles that suppose great blame in those which preceded it.

After your committee had made the foregoing observations upon the plan of Mr. Hastings and his colleagues, transmitted to the court of directors,

an extract of the Madras consultations was a few days ago laid before us. This extract contains a letter from the governour-general and council of Bengal to the presidency of Fort SaintGeorge, which affords a very striking, though to your committee by no means an unexpected, picture of the instability of their opinions and conduct. On the 8th of April the servants had regularly formed and digested the above-mentioned plan, which was to form the basis for the investment of their own fortunes, and to furnish the sole means of the commercial existence of their masters. Before the 10th of the following May, which is the date of their letter to Madras, they inform Lord Macartney, that they had fundamentally altered the whole scheme. "Instead (say they) of allowing the subscribers to retain an interest in the goods, they are to be provided entirely on account of the company, and transported at their risk; and the subscribers, in"stead of receiving certificates payable out of the produce of the sales in Europe, are to be granted receipts on the payment of their advances, bearing an interest of eight per cent. per an"num, until exchanged for draughts on the court "of directors, payable 365 days after sight, at "the rate of two shillings per current rupee; "which draughts shall be granted in the proper "time of 3-8ths of the amount subscribed on the "31st of December next; and the remaining "5-8ths on the 31st of December 1783."

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The plan of April divests the company of all property in Bengal goods transported to Europe; but in recompense they are freed from all the risk and expence; they are not loaded with interest; and they are not embarrassed with bills. The plan of May reinstates them in their old relation; but in return their revenues in Bengal are charged with an interest of eight per cent. on the sum subscribed, until bills shall be drawn. They are made proprietors of cargoes, purchased under the disadvantage of that interest at their own hazard. They are subjected to all losses; and they are involved in Europe for payments of bills to the amount of eighty lacks of rupees, at two shillings the rupee, that is, in bills for eight hundred thousand pounds sterling. It is probably on account of the previous interest of eight per cent. that the value of the rupee on this scheme is reduced. Mr. Hastings and his colleagues announce to Lord Macartney no other than the foregoing alteration in their plan.

It is discouraging to attempt any sort of observation on plans thus shifting their principle, whilst their merits are under examination. The judgment formed on the scheme of April has nothing to do with the project of May. Your committee has not suppressed any part of the reflections, which occurred to them, on the former of these plans; first, because the company knows of no other by any regular transmissions; secondly, because it is by no means certain, that before the expiration of June the governour-general and council may not revert to the plan of April. They speak of that plan as