31*] ANNUAL

nate, when driven from all confi- dence in public finch, and the laws of their country, they lhould find no fecurity for their charter- privileges even in thofe very mi- nillers, under whole fanEtion they had every poflible reafon to believe tlte}; were acting.

ltwas much objected to, that the bill was brought in at a fealon, when the Houfc is always ill at- tended, and hurried through with a violent, and, it was faid, inde- cent precipitation. That a reafon of fact was alledged in the pream- ble, Rating the expence of the commillion to be very conliderable: and they had not before them any account or eltimate of the expen- ces aélual or probable, nor were fupplied with any accounts tending to thew the prelent ability or in- ability of the Company to bear it; fo that the Lords were to alTert facts, and on thofe farfts to ground a law, altering the condition, and impending the charter-rights of the company, without a poflibility of knowing whether the facts were true or falfe; and that with ade- termination to continue uninform- ed, it had been refufed t0 call for the evidence of the directors con- cerning the expence; or in a mat- ter of fuch importance, both in it- felf, and its example, to follow the ancient fettled parliamentary courfe of defiring a conference with the Commons, in order to be acquaint-

.ed with the evidence which they

received as the grounds of their proceedings.

'It was faid, that it mull be a matter of allanilhment to the pub- lic. who had for a long time ear- nelllv and anxioully looked to the Company, or to parliament, for Iedrefsofthe grievances in India,

REGISTER, 1773.

to find at length, that the latter is only employed in preventing the former from doing its duty; that inliead ofcorre€ting the abulie, they oppofe themfelves to the reforma- tion; that when it was expected, that thofe who had wronged the Company fhould have been brought to exemplary punilhment, the fuf- fering Company itlielf is deprived of its rights; and, inllead of calling

delinquents to account, the perfons _

legally empowered to correft or re- llram them, are by parliament fuf- pended from their ollicc.

On the other fide, befides many of thofe arguments ivhich we have before feen fiated in fupport of the bill, it is laid, that the charge upon adminillration, of having at one time given a fan€tion to the commillion for fuperintending the Company’s affairs, was pofitively denied with refpect to fuch of its members as belonged to that Houfe; and reafons were brought to lhew, why it could not be well founded with refpect to others. As to the dangers that were appre-

hended from this meafure with re- _

fpeEt to the national credit, they xvere reprefented as merely ima- ginary; and, it was‘ faid, that it would have atotally contrary effeft, as the Dutch, who had much more money in our public funds, than any other foreigners, would think themfelizes much fafcr, when ' they found that the India Company was under the care and protection of parliament, than if they had been abandoned to their own wild fchemes of regulation and manage- ment.

That they had no evidence that this bill was contrary to the Com- pany’s inclinations, any more than to their interells; that the petition

they