»~do,

- the lndiai tranfacrlions from t - beginning, and had produced many ' mitchiefs.

9841 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1773.

that f0 numerous a body of people as the prelicnt ilockholders would receive in their property, by the propofed rellrifitions, was iirongly pointed out; and the chairman of the India Company, was called upon in his place to anfwer, whe- ther he had not declared at a gene- m] court, that the propofed increafe of dividend, before the participa- tion of profits took place between government and the Company, would have been agreed to? The chairman acknowledged that he had made fuch a declaration, and thought himfelf authorized (o to from feveral converfations which had pafied between the firll lord of the treafury and him upon the (object; feveral parts of which he then repeated. The noble lord declared, that he had given no fuch promife or hopes to the gen- tleman, at any interview, in which he confidered him as afting in his oflicial capacity of chairman to the Company; I and that he had re- peatedly cautioned him, that what- ever paffed in private converfation was to be buried in oblivion, and

ynever to be quoted as authorizing ~him ‘Thefe reltriétions, however, upon

to any meafure swhatloever.

the converliations of public perfons

' ~~on public bufinefs, leerns to defeat

the end of thofe conterfations; A

- corporate body can have no infor- -maticn oherwife authenticated; ~ fince mefiiages in writing are not

ufually delivered.

Such miiatipre-

a henlions or mifrepreientations on

one hand, or retraciion of’promi(e on the other, had been frequent in

the

Jtwas irrfidled, that theCom- pany ltad‘ not exceeded itslegal powers in regard to the bond debt,

though terrific threats upon that {object had frequently been held out; and itwas declared, that they were ready to meet government upon that glound, whenever it thought proper. To conclude, it was requeiled, that a matter which afl-‘ecled the property of f0 great a. number of people, as the propofed reliriritions did, fhould not be haf- tily entered into; and that afew clays at leall might be allowed, t0 confider coolly of its confequences ; that it fhould be remembered, that the proprietary had agreed to treat with adminillration upon a fuppo- fition that a dividend of eight per cent. would meet with its fupport, and that to refufe it now, was to lend the aid of government to de- ceive a Tet of men, who had al- ready fuliered extremely, by being too greatly and too frequently im- pofed upon. -

To this propolal it was replied, that nothing could he more unjufl, or even monlirous, than, the idea of railing a dividend, till the Com- panfs debts were difcharged ; that the pollponing the refolutions, even for a few days, could anfwer no ulieful purpolie; the rellricition of the Company’s dividend to fix per cent. was either a proper or anim- proper meafure; if it was an im- proper mealiure, the fooner it was difcufiedand laid alide, the better; if, on the contrary, it was a proper meafure, why pollpone it ?_

This inflexibility of the minillers, brought on much cenfure from the otherfide. It ivas infifled that the Ealt-India Company were not be- fore the Houfe. That the a€t of the Company was contained in the whole of the propofals that were laid before them; that the Houfe was to treat with the Compcny in

1E3