William Augustus Miles

“ Whereas, the British empire is now established over the richest and most populous regions of [Pg 71] India, and its influence is extended even further than its dominion; the manufactures of the United Kingdom have attained a degree of perfection, which never has been equalled; they can be fashioned to the tastes, the wants, and the caprices of every nation and climate; and certainly, the interests of the country call for the cultivation of every channel, which can be opened for the enlargement of our commerce. ”

“ Hence it is manifest, that the perpetuity conferred by the Charter was not perpetuity of exclusive trade, or political power, but of corporate succession. But perpetual succession in a body corporate, does not imply perpetuity of duration, but merely uninterrupted succession of the individuals who compose it; which every corporate body must possess, whatever may be the term of its duration, in order that it may become, and may be able to perform the acts of, a legal person. ”

“ The evidence which has been produced demonstrates, that neither the manners, raiments, nor prejudices of Hindostan, are of a nature to impede the introduction of articles of European manufacture; and it thus proves, that the causes assigned for the limitation of our export trade, are not calculated to impose any such limitation. What, then, it may be asked, are the causes, why the consumption of the manufactures of Europe in India has in no degree kept pace with the extension of our territories, and of their population? ”

“ With regard to Constitutional objections against taking the Government of India out of the hands of the Company (upon which objection their confidence in their present pretensions chiefly reposes) , it is difficult to conceive that the wisdom of Parliament, after the experience of so many years, is unequal to the task of devising a system as good as that of the Company, without incurring the evil which those Constitutional objections suppose. The Company's Government, it must be recollected, has been a production of chance, and has grown by the progress of accidental events. ”

“ Having thus seen, that the natives of India are in no respect averse to engage in commercial dealings with strangers, and that no prejudices exist among them of a nature to prevent them from using our manufactures; we cannot but be forcibly struck with the reflection, that no systematic plan has ever been adopted by the East India Company, to attract the attention of the Hindoos to the various articles of our home manufacture, or to stimulate their speculation in the traffic of them. ”

“ The building a fort is an act done, in its nature, by virtue of a sovereign authority, and is therefore the dereliction of the private right of property for a public and general purpose. In asserting for the Company a private right to forts and fortifications, the Company's advocates have therefore fallen into an extreme error, from not discriminating between the rights which necessarily belong to their delegated sovereignty, and those which can alone be annexed to their commercial corporation. ”

“ There is in this pretension so radical an ignorance of the nature of sovereignty, that it is inconceivable how it could have been entertained by any one, who had ever given a thought to the subject of law or government. ”

“ What these causes are he thus explains:—"The export trade to India can never be extended to any degree, proportionate to the wealth and population of the Indian Empire; neither can the returns upon it be very profitable to individuals. Those [Pg 72] who attend to the manners, the manufactures, the food, the raiment, the moral and religious prejudices of that country, can be at no loss to trace the causes why this proposition must be a true one." ”

“ The crisis, at which the affairs of the East India Company are now arrived, is one which involves the most important interests of the British Empire. It would be unnecessary to prove a proposition which is so universally acknowledged and felt. ”

“ The powers here enumerated, are essential prerogatives of sovereignty; which may indeed be delegated for a time by authority of Parliament, but can never be granted in full property by the Crown. In order to appoint governors, it is first necessary to be invested with the power of government. The same power is manifestly necessary, in order to be able legally to raise or muster any force by sea or land, either for [Pg 96] defence, or for any other military service. And it is acknowledged, that the power of government has never been granted to the East India Company, but with limitation. ”

“ To give perfection to the great object here sketched out, it will be indispensably necessary that the local authorities in India should direct their most serious attention to this subject. As our Indian empire is our only security for our Indian trade, so our Indian trade must be rendered an object of vigilant concern to those who administer the Government of that empire. From the multiplicity and importance of their other avocations, that trade has not hitherto received all the consideration to which its high value is entitled ”

“ It must be evident to the most superficial observer, that the credit of the Company with the Public can only be sustained by the prompt and liberal aid of Parliament; and it will hardly be maintained, that it is a propitious mode of soliciting that aid, to connect with the solicitation an avowed determination to oppose a measure, which Government represent it to be their duty to recommend to Parliament, for the general benefit of the community; a measure, founded on, and growing out of, the principle of the Charter of 1793, which first opened the private trade between India and this country ”

“ The General Society possessed the privilege of an export and import trade with India, with the power of bringing their import cargoes from India to the OUT-PORTS of the kingdom, in the same manner as is proposed by Government at the present day; with this only difference, that the General Society of Merchants were not restricted as to the ports at which they should enter, whereas Government have now proposed, that merchants should be restricted to such ports as can best afford the means of guarding against the depredations of smuggling. ”

“ From all that has been stated, it would appear, that instead of the exaggerated picture of distress, which the advocates for a close monopoly to the Port of London have represented as the necessary consequence of relieving commerce from its present restrictions, we ought to entertain a well-founded expectation; that every class and description of persons, who now find employment in the Indian Trade, will continue to have their industry called into action in the same line of [Pg 40] employment, and even to a greater extent, in some instances, than is now experienced. ”

“ The renewal of an expired privilege cannot be pursued upon a ground of right. The exclusive Charter of the Company is a patent, and their patent, like every other patent, is limited as to its duration. But though the patentee cannot allege a ground of right for the renewal of his patent, he may show such strong pretensions, such good claims in equity, such weighty reasons of expediency for its renewal, as may ensure its attainment. Such are the claims and the pretensions of the East India Company to a renewal of their Charter ”

“ But it is NOT SO with regard to the chief seats of Indian commerce; they will find, that they cannot arbitrarily exclude British subjects from those seats, beyond a limited time; that they cannot debar the nation the beneficial use of them; and that they will not be suffered to render them unavailable, or unprofitable. As soon as the India Trade shall be thrown open, the ports of India will necessarily become open; and, if the Company should then search for their private right to close them, they will find, that it is merged in the public right to use them ”

“ It is very observable, that the objections which have been made by the East India Company to the admission of ships, returning from India, to import and dispose of their cargoes at any other place than the Port of London, are not founded so much upon any statement of the injury which the trade of the Company would sustain by admitting them, as upon a provident regard for the adventurers themselves, and a caution held out to them not to entertain an expectation of benefiting by any commercial speculation in India ”

“ In the infancy of the European intercourse with India, the sole object of those who engaged in its commerce was, to procure the produce and commodities of the East. In this pursuit, so far were the natives from opposing any obstacles to their endeavours, that they were found disposed to afford every facility to a traffic, which brought them specie in exchange for their manufactures, and for the productions of their soil. ”

“ That the poverty of a large majority of the native subjects of our Indian Empire is such, as to disable them from acquiring our manufactures, is certainly true; but it is no less true, that a very considerable portion of that population possess the means of indulging in every article of convenience and luxury, both native and European. It has [Pg 70] been very generally stated, that there are only two classes of people in India, the very rich and the very poor. ”

“ But the progress of society, during a long course of years, is of a nature to produce a considerable alteration in the general state of things; the state of things must, therefore, naturally be called into consideration, upon the expiration of the term of years which determines the exclusive Charter of the East India Company ”

“ But it was not till the year 1730, the third year of the late King, that the Company obtained a true and positive perpetuity of duration for their Body Corporate; at which time an Act was passed, empowering them to continue to trade to the East Indies, as a Company of Merchants, although their exclusive right to the trade, and their power of administering the government and revenues of India, should be determined by Parliament. ”

“ In virtue of this right, the East India Company were empowered to settle "factories and plantations," within the limits of their exclusive trade. The Charter of William, indeed, adds also "forts," with the power of "ruling, ordering, and governing them;" but that this privilege cannot attach upon their corporate and permanent capacity, will presently be made to appear. Fortresses and fortifications cannot, from their nature and use, become absolute private property ”

“ That the natives of India do not want a taste for porcelaine, and other elegant wares; that they require vast quantities of metallic vessels, and of hardware; that, considering the greatness of the population, and the disposition of the natives to use European manufactures, it cannot be doubted, that a great vend might be found, and that the demand will increase with the restoration of wealth. ”

“ Who will be chargeable, before the country, with "the loss and waste of establishments which have cost upwards of a million sterling—of shipping, to the amount of many millions—of a numerous and respectable class of warehouse-keepers, clerks, and superior servants, joined to three thousand labourers, and their families—of tradesmen of various descriptions, who have incurred a very great expense for the conduct of their business?" ”

“ It is at all times an object equally interesting and instructive, to trace the origin of laws and institutions, and to follow them in the progress of their operation; but this inquiry becomes more powerfully attractive, when the pursuit is stimulated by an anxiety to defend a supposed right, or to acquire an extension of advantages which are already possessed. ”