THE
LETTERS
GRACCHUS
ON THE
EAST INDIA QUESTION.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD,
BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER,
NO. 190, OPPOSITE ALBANY, PICCADILLY.
1813.
Printed by S. Gosnell, Little Queen Street, London.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The following Letters appeared in the Morning Post, at the dates whichare annexed to them. The impartial Reader will find in them a strongdetermination, to uphold the public rights of the Country, with respectto the India Trade; but he will not discover any evidence of a desire tolower the just, and well-earned honours, of the East India Company, norany symptom of a disposition hostile to their fair pretensions.
LETTERS
OF
GRACCHUS.
LETTER I. GENERAL VIEW OF THE EAST INDIA QUESTION.
Tuesday, January 12, 1813.
The crisis, at which the affairs of the East India Company are nowarrived, is one which involves the most important interests of theBritish Empire. It would be unnecessary to prove a proposition which isso universally acknowledged and felt. It has happened however, that, inour approaches towards this crisis, the Public understanding has beenbut little addressed upon the subject; so that the appeal which is nowsuddenly made to their passions and imaginations, finds them unpreparedwith that knowledge of the true circumstances of the case, which canalone enable them to govern those passions, and control those[Pg 2]imaginations. Let us then endeavour to recover the time which has beenlost, by taking a deliberate view of the circumstances which producethis crisis.
The crisis, is the proximity of the term which may conclude the EastIndia Company's rights, to the exclusive trade with India and China, andto the powers of government now exercised by them over the IndianEmpire.
The rights of the East India Company are two-fold; and have long beendistinguished as, their permanent rights, and their temporaryrights. Those rights are derived to them from distinct Charters, grantedto them at different times by Parliament. By the former, they werecreated a perpetual Corporate Society of Merchants, trading toIndia[1]. By the latter, they obtained, for a limited period of time,the exclusive right of trading with India and China, and of executingthe powers of government over those parts of the Indian territory, whichwere acquired either by conquest or by negotiation. The Charterconveying the latter limited rights, is that which will expire in thecourse of the ensuing year 1814; on the expiration of which, theexclusive trade to the East will be again open to the British population[Pg 3]at large, and the powers of the India Government will lapse in courseto the Supreme Government of the British Empire, to be provided for asParliament in its wisdom may judge it advisable to determine.
The renewal of an expired privilege cannot be pursued upon a ground ofright. The exclusive Charter of the Co