armies of the Emprefs of Ruffia, dovechi, in the 58th year of his at Petersburg. Right Hon. Lord Defart, at Defart in Ireland. 26. Right Hon. the Countess of Northampton. Decemb. 1. Right Hon. Henry David, Earl of Buchan, Lord Auchterhoufe; Cardrofs, and Glen APPENDIX to the CRONICLE. PROTEST against the refcind- Not Contents 44. Diffentient', ECAUSE the bill con ift, Btaining, in appearance, confideration of private juftice or public utility. 3dly, Because, confidering the Eaft India company as a national object, and the members of it as bound to attend to the interest of the public, as well as their own, the dividend they had voted, and which is by this bill to be refcinded, appears to be liable to no ob tion in the company's power to divide, is, that the fum total of all the debts which they shall owe, do not exceed the value of the principal or capital stock or stocks, which thall be and remain undivided; and it appears by the clearest evidence, that the company's effects are amply fufficient, not only to discharge every juft demand, but that, after even repaying their capital, there will remain a very great furplus. nothing but matter of future reguJation, is fo contrived as to operatejection; for the only legal reftricretrospectively, and refcind a dividend actually declared by a general court of the East India company on the 6th of May laft, of fix 1-4th per cent. for one half year, ending at Christmas next; this was, in the argument, avowed to be the principal object of the bill, though the bill itself does not even mention that act, or fuggest any reason for refcinding it. And we conceive, that if the measure had been fubftantially right, yet this manner of doing it is unbecoming the dignity of parliament, which hould in all cafes go openly and directly to its object. 2dly, Because this measure appears to us to be as exceptionable in the fubftance as in the form, being an ex poft facto law, refcinding a legal act of the company, in the exercife of its dominion over its own property, notwithstanding their application and earnest entreaties to the contrary, without neceffity or occafion, from any 4thly, Because it alfo to appears us, that the dividend declared on the 6th of May is expedient; for the dividend being in fact the only medium whereby to fix and compute the price of the stock, as between buyer and feller, juftice to both requires fuch a dividend as will fix that price as near as may be to the real value. And the dividend of 12 1-half is in that refpe&t preferable to a dividend of 10 per cent. to which this bill has arbitrarily restrained it. 5thly, Because it appears to us to have been a dividend regularly declared, the objections which have been made to it upon this head being manifeftly void of all foundation. We admit, that the court did proceed without an account actually before them; but the want of this account, fo far as relates to the propriety of the dividend, appears to have been fufficiently fupplied. The directors, in their negotiations with the government, and their declarations at former courts, had themselves propofed fuch a dividend, and acknowledged the ability of the company to make it. The proprietors, by thefe and other means, had full reason to be fatisfied of that ability. And the account now produced, examined, and proved, does fully warrant their proceedings, and verify the ideas they then entertained and acted on. 6thly, Because the dividend appears to have been voted by a very numerous court, and fo nearly unanimous, that no ballot was taken, because none was demanded; and no ballot was demanded, because there was not a competent number of proprietors who difapproved the measure; and though, for that reafon, the fenfe of the members prefent only was taken, by holding up of hands, it now appears to be, beyond a doubt, the confirmed deliberate sense of the company; having been reconfidered at no less than three fubfequent courts, convened for the purpose of concerting the proper measures to fupport it; at the two laft of which the votes of the company at large were taken by a regular ballot, and the dividend previously voted was approved and ratified by a large majority. To the vali dity of the act of the 6th of May no objection could be fupported, though attempted. It was clearly a valid act; and, if not valid, the bill to refcind it would be unneceffary, for the act of itself would be void. 7thly, Becaufe every argument ufed to fhew the impropriety of dividing twelve 1-half applies with equal force to a dividend of ten per cent. which the bill allows, and indeed to any dividend at all; and would, if admitted to be a proper ground for refcinding this dividend, be equally fo for refcinding every dividend the company has ever made, or probably will ever make. For it is hardly poffible, that during the existence of the company, their debts can be açtually paid off, or their cath in hand fuffice to difcharge those debts, and pay a dividend; and at the fame time the trade be carried on to that extent, as will yield to the company and the public the moft ample returns. The whole argument in favour of the bill being reduced to these two propofitions, that the company ought to difcharge its debts before a dividend can be allowed to take place; and that a dividend ought to be made upon a cash account; principles contradicted by the uniform practice of the company from its commencement. 8thly, Because this bill cannot be meant for the interests of either the company's creditors, or of the proprietors; for it is obfervable that the latter, as far as they may be fuppofed to understand, and may be permitted to judge of their own interefts. entertain, and have ftrenuously expreffed a very [M] 3 dif different fenfe of that matter. And as to the creditors, it is remarkable, that none of them appear to have called for their money, nor have any of them, by any petition to this houfe, or otherwife, made any complaint, or fignified any defire of fuch an interpofition in their favour. On the contrary, it appeared on evidence, from the crofsexamination of the principal witnefs for the bill, that fo far from doubting of the fufficiency of the fecurity, the greatest evil the company's bond creditors apprehend, is, the being paid off; and that their bonds, which fome time fince bore an high premium, though they carry only three per cent. bear at prefent a premium confiderably lower, merely from that apprehenfion. 9thly, Because a legislative interpofition controuling the dividend of a trading company, legally voted and declared by thofe to whom the power of doing it is in trufted, and to whom there is no ground to impute an abuse of that power, and who lent their money to the public upon the exprefs ftipulation that they might exercife their difcretion with regard to the dividends, provided their effects, undivided, were fufficient to anwer their debts; is altogether without example. And as it tends to leffen the idea of that fecurity and independence of the power of the ftate, which have induced all Europe to depofit their money in the funds of Great Britain, the precedent may be attended with the moft fatal confequences to public credit. othly, Becaufe, if a bill retraining the future dividend of the company were proper, as has been argued, upon any ideas of fixing and preventing a fluctuation in the price of its stock, that end requires only, that the dividend fhould be fixed, without any regard to the quantum of it, and may be as well attained by a dividend of 12 1-half as of 10 per cent. and confequently affords no argument for the retrofpective part of this bill, or for fixing the future dividend below the value of the stock. But this is in truth so far from being the real object of any part of the prefent bill, that the fhort peried to which the reftriction is confined, cannot but increase, instead of preventing that fluctuation, and encourage, instead of checking, the infamous practices of the alley. The paffions of men will be warmly agitated during the fummer, in fpeculating on the probability of this reftriction being fuffered to expire at the opening of the next feflions of parliament, or being continued further. The ignorant and unwary are fore to be the dupes of thofe who have the good luck to be in the fecret, and are wicked enough to employ it to their own advantage. But the propofal made by the company, of fubmitting to a reftriction of dividend at the rate of 12 1-half per cent. and extending that restriction during the temporary agreement, would have obviated all thofe mifchiefs, and fecured every good end which may have been propofed, but can't be attained by this bill and as fuch reftriction, with their confent, would have been liable to no objections of injuftice or violence. fith, Becaufe, if at the opening. of the next feffion of parliament, the reftriction is permitted to ex pire, the whole effect of the bill, except the mischiefs it may produce, will be the keeping back for four or five months, from the pockets of those to whom it be longs, a fum of 40,000 1. the dif. ference between the dividend the company wishes, and that which it is allowed to make by the bill; this fum is ridiculously difproportioned to any real purpose of paying off and reducing the company's debts; but if, on the other hand, the restriction is then to be continued, and the parliament hence forward to regulate the dividends of the company, and the whole of their affairs for that purpofe is to be from time to time laid open to public examination, it is not difficult to foresee the ruinous confequences to the company; and as the precedent will go to the fubjecting every other company to the fame fort of controul, the speedy diffolution of them all will be perhaps the happiest event the public can wish, that they may not be come fo many engines of power and influence, the confequences of which it is eafy to conceive, and unneceffary to describe. 12th, Because, the argument in favour of this limitation, drawn from a fuppofition, that the company had exceeded their legal power of borrowing on their bonds, appears to us to be neither well founded nor conclufive; it appears on the plain and exprefs words of the engrafting act, that they had a power thereby to borrow five millions; fo they have always understood; and fo parliament underflood and declared in a fubfequent act; and we cannot comprehend the juftice, the policy, or the decorum, of cavilling at this particular time, at the exercise of a power publicly exerted, and which has come frequently within the cognizance, without incurring the cenfure of parliament; and as this doubt never was started before, the objection feems to arise not from the company's having exceeded their power of borrowing upon bond, but from the neceffity of fuch a fuppofition, in order to find a pretence, however infufficient, for this limitation. 13th, Because the inability of the company, to make the dividends refcinded by this bill, has been argued, on a fuppofition that the right to the territorial acquifitions of the company in the East Indies, is not in that company, but in the public; which method of arguing, if admitted as one of the grounds of the bill, we conceive to be inconclufive as to the fubject matter, and highly dangerous as to the precedent; for the company being in poffeffion, and no claim against them being fo much as made, much less established, we hold it highly dangerous to the property of the fubject, and extremely unbecoming the juftice and dignity of this house, by extrajudicial opinions, to call into queftion the legality of fuch a poffeffion, and to act without hearing, as if the house had decided against it, 14th, Because, the forms of proceeding upon this bill have been contrary to precedent, inafmuch as it appears by our journals, that whenever a bill, judicial in its nature, as affecting legal rights and private property, has come up from the commons, ftating no facts, as a ground for that bill, or ftating facts, the evidence of which [M] 4 does |