in the courfe of this enquiry. A. mong others the right of the company to their territorial acquifitions was called in queftion. It was argued that they had no right by their charters to any conqueft: that fuch poffeffions in the hands of a trading corporation were improper and dangerous; and that if it were even legally and politically right that they should hold thefe territories, yet the vaft expenditure of government, in the protection of that company, gave it a fair and equitable title to the revenues arising from the conquefts. Those who maintained the rights of the company, denied that the crown had made any refervation of fuch requifition as had been made by it. That it was a dangerous infrigement on property and public faith to question them, as the company had purchafed its charters from the public, and that they were confirmed by act of parliament. That if the crown had any right to the poffeffions of that body in India, the courts were open for the trial of that claim; that the houfe of commons was not, by the conftitution, the interpreter oflaws, or the decider of legal rights: that it would be of the most fatal confequence to the liberties of Great Britain, if ever they fhould af fume it. That as to the equitable right pretended from the expences of government, the company food as fair in that light as the crown, they having expended much greater fums in acquiring the difputed territories and revenues.

Upon thefe topics, this great point was debated; and though it was frequently taken up, the houfe appeared difinclined to the determination of a queftion teeming with fuch important confe

quences. A great man, then at the head of the finances, declared fully against the trial of fuch a right, in fuch a court as the house of commons, and ftrenuously recommended an amicable agreement with the company.

On the other fide, a large party of the proprietors of Eaft India ftock, though they ftrenuously maintained, that the company was fully entitled by law to enjoy the benefit of the territorial acquifitions it had made in India, during the remaining term of its charter; yet thought it would be happy, by a reafonable compofition to prevent all doubtful events. Many meetings were held to this purpofe, and many fchemes and propofals, by the directors and others, were laid before the company.

In the mean time a

general court was held, May 6th. wherein the dividend for the enfuing half year, to commence at Midfummer, was declared to be fix and a quarter per cent. and about the fame time, a fcheme of propofals for an accommodation was agreed to. These were laid before the miniftry, which by this time was publicly known to have unfortunately fallen into a state. of fuch diftraction, that they had no opinions in common. Accordingly they fhifted the propofals from one to another, aud could come to no determination upon them, what to accept, or what to refufe. So that the miniftry declining to take any part in the negotiation out of the houfe, a petition was prefented to parliament, which contained two fets of May 20th. propofals for a temporary agreement, which was to laft for three years.

By

By the first of thefe propofals, the government were to grant the company fome advantages with refpect to the inland duties on their teas, and a drawback on the exportation of them to Ireland and the colonies, and fome others refpecting raw filk, calicoes, muflins, the recruiting fervice, and military ftores. That in return, after deducting 400,000l. a year, in lieu of the company's former commercial profits; the nett produce of all the remaining revenues and trade, after deducting all charges, were to be equally divided between the government and the company; provided that the company's property in the new acquifitions continued for three years.

By the fecond propofals, the company offered, upon the fame terms, to pay the fpecific fum of 400,000l. a year, for three years, by half-yearly payments; and to indemnify the public for any lofs the revenue might be at, by granting the advantages which they required in the tea trade; if the advanced confumption of it, taken at an average of five years, did not answer that end. The petition concluded with a pathetic remonftrance to the house, to entreat they would confider the imminent dangers to which, in many critical conjunctures, their properties had been often expofed; the very large fums they had expended fince the commencement of the wars in India, in which they had never been the aggreffors; the low dividends which, notwithftanding their few loffes at fea, they had received during a courfe of years; whilft the public remained in the uninterrupted poffeffion

of an annual revenue, arifing from the company's trade, of the full value of one-third of their capital.

They laftly appealed to the favour and protection of the house, and flattered themfelves, that the circumftances mentioned would entitle them to that candour and juftice, which have ever been the characteristics of the British fenate.

Thefe latter propofals were accepted by the house, with this difference only, that the agreement was limited to two in

ftead of three years, June 12th

and a bill was accordingly paffed upon thefe terms.

A meffage from the miniftry had been read at the general court, which declared the laft increafe of dividend, recommended to the company to make no augmentation of it, till their affairs were further confidered of. This meffage not producing the defigned effect, two bills were brought in.. to the house, one for regulating the qualifications of voters in trading companies, and the other for further regulating the making of dividends by the Eaft India com

pany.

By the laft of thefe bills the late act of the company was refcinded, and they were tied down from raifing their dividends above ten per cent. till the next meeting of parliament. This bill met with great oppofition; the former debates were renewed with more warmth than ever, and the company ineffectually petitioned against it.

The company alfo made a propofal, that if this bill, which struck fo immediately at their privileges, was laid afide, they would bind themfelves from any farther increafe of dividend, during the time [c] 2

of

of the temporary agreement. This propofal was as ineffectual as the petition.

The advocates for the bill, befides many of thofe arguments, which have already appeared in the courfe of the former difputes, between the members of the company, feemed to ground their motives on the following principles. To prevent the payment of a higher dividend than the circumftances of the company could afford, with. out endangering their credit. To regulate the dividend in fuch a manner, as to put an end to the Aluctuation of that flock, which, if allowed to go on, was not only likely to introduce a pernicious fpirit of gaming, but would alfo tend to keep down the other ftocks, the rife of which is a great means of reducing the intereft of the national debt. That no encroachment might be made by any dividend of the company, upon the revenue of its late territorial acquifitions, fo that the claim of the public may fuffer no lofs, till that affair was finally decided.

On the other fide, the oppofers to the bill fhewed, that, by the tate of the company's affairs, which were laid before the parliament, it was evident that they were in circumstances able to make a much greater increase of dividend, without in any degree affecting their credit; as it appeared that they had effects not only amply fuficient to difcharge every juit demand, but that, after even repaying their capital, a prodigious furplus would fill remain; and that a doubt of their being able to divide 80,000l. among them. felves, when they were allowed to be in circumftances to pay the government 4co,cool. a year, would

fcarcely deferve a ferious confideration.

It was faid, that if a bill for reftraining the future dividend of the company were proper, upon the ideas of fixing and preventing a fluctuation in the price of its ftock; that end required only that the dividend should be fixed, without any regard to the quantum of it, and may be as well attained by a dividend of 12 as of 10 per cent. That this is fo far from being any part of the real purpose of the prefent bill, that the fhort period to which the reftriction is confined, cannot but increase, inftead of preventing that fluctuation; and encourage, inftead of checking the infamous practices of the alley. For that the paffions of men would be warmly agitated during the fummer, in fpeculatingon the probability of this reftriction being fuffered to expire on the opening of the next feffion, or of its being farther continued. That the propofal made by the company, of fubmitting to a reftriction of dividend of 12 per cent. during the temporary agreement, would have obviated all thofe mifchiefs, and fecured every good end which might have been propofed, but cannot be attained by the prefent bill; with this additional advantage, that as it would have been done with their confent, it would have been liable to no objection of injustice or violence.

That the arguments which had been made ufe of, on a fuppofition that the right to the territorial acquifitions in the Eaft Indies was not lodged in the company, but in the public; if admitted as one of the grounds of the bill, was a precedent of the most dangerous nature; for the company being in poffeffion,

poffeffion, and no claim against them being fo much as made, much lefs established, it would be highly dangerous to the property of the fubject, and extremely unbecoming the juftice and dignity of parliament, by extrajudicial opinions, to call into queftion the legality of fuch a poffeffion.

Many other objections were made, as well to the form of this bill, as to the principles on which it was founded; and the probable confequences that might attend it, were placed in a strong point of view. Among the reft it was obferved, that a legiflative interpofition controlling the dividend of a trading company, which had been legally voted and declared by thofe to whom the power of doing it was entrusted, and to whom there was no ground to impute an abufe of that power; who had lent their money to the public upon the exprefs ftipulation that they might exercife their difcretion with regard to the dividends, provided that their effects, undivided, were fufficient to anfwer their debts; was altogether without example. That, as it tend ed to leffen the idea of that fecurity and independence of the power of the ftate, which had 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. All these reasons, and many others which were given, proved entirely ineffectual; the bill was carried through a great oppofition in both houfes; in the upper June 26th. houfe, 59 lords voted for it, and 44 against it; and a ftrong and nervous proteft was entered against it, figned by 19 lords.

An end was at length put to this tedious feffion of July 2d. parliament; after it had fat almoft the whole fummer...

The great hopes which had been formed, in the beginning, of the ftrength and confidence of the new miniftry, which it was fuppofed would act entirely under the guid. ance of the late great commoner, now a noble earl, began very early to wear off. Though the noble lord in queftion had loft much of his popularity by the acceptance of a peerage, and fome other parts of his conduct; yet many were ftill inclined to expect great national advantages from his being at the head ofan adminiftration of his own forming. Thefe hopes, whether well or ill founded, were nipped in the bud; the noble lord, in fome time after the opening of the feffion, fell into fo bad a ftate of health, that, after an unfuccefsful trial of the Bath waters, he was obliged to relinquish all attention to bufinefs; in which fituation he feems to have continued ever fince.

This misfortune loofened the bands that should have cemented the other members of adminiftration: They had moft of them, upon late occafions, publicly acknowledged their inability as indi viduals to undertake the arduous task of government; and centered their whole hopes upon the fuperior abilities of the nobleman we have mentioned. His incapacity having now left them without a head, there was no weight left to preserve a proper union or fubordination, fo that they difagreed both in meafures and opinions; and the public were at a lofs where to look for the minifter.

CHRONICLE.

JANUARY.

This majefty's royal powder-mills at Feverfham, this morning about five minutes after the clock ftruck twelve, a stove, in which were 25 barrels of gunpowder, blew up; happily no perfon was near at the time. The explofion was fo great, as to be heard 20 miles diftant. Many windows of the houses in town are shattered in pieces; and the violence of the fhock occafioned the floor of a room to give way, in which was a poor man in bed, but he received no damage.

At night, about a quarter paft ten, a moft uncommon change of weather happened. The evening, which till then had been a bright ftar-light, and remarkably ferene, varied on a fudden to cloudy, and in an inftant a moft terrible burst of wind was heard, attended with a furious form of hail from the 'north-eaft. During this hurricane, windows fhook, houfes trembled, and a strange rushing was perceived, as if in the infide of the buildings, by the perfons who inhabited them. Many, doubtlefs, were too much engaged to perceive it, but fuch as did, particularly thofe who, by their fituation lay expofed to the north and the north-eaft, were not lefs furprised than alarmed. Happily the ftorm did not laft

longer than two minutes, other. wife its effects must have been dreadful; and we did not hear of any damage being done, except the throwing down the gable end of one houfe in Westminster, with fome chimnies there and in other parts of the town.

2d.

Great damages were done by the high wind and tide, in the river Thames, by goods being fpoiled and damaged in cellars and warehouses on both fides of the river. Several boats were overfet, and twenty-feven perfons loft their lives. The whole damage is eftimated at 50,000l.

Near Rochford Hundred, in Effex, two fmall islands were entirely overflowed, the tide ran over the tops of the highest fea walls, and the low grounds and marshes fuffered confiderably.

At Eyemouth the fea breached over many of the houses, the high street was like a little fea, and the confternation of the inhabitants was inexpreffible.

At Aldborough in Suffolk, the fea flowed in at the windows of feveral houses, bore down a few, and damaged many. The inhabitants were driven to the greatest diftrefs. A large breach was made in the chalk wall near Ipfwich, the marshes laid under water, and damages done to a large amount.

The navigation of the ri5th. ver Thames was ftopt at Fullham