The Letters of Gracchus on the East India Question — Background and Themes

_EAST INDIA QUESTION_.

PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD,

BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER,

NO. 190, OPPOSITE ALBANY, PICCADILLY.

Printed by S. GOSNELL, Little Queen Street, London.

The following Letters appeared in the MORNING POST, at the dates which are annexed to them. The impartial Reader will find in them a strong determination, to uphold the public rights of the Country, with respect to the India Trade; but he will not discover any evidence of a desire to lower the just, and well-earned honours, of THE EAST INDIA COMPANY, nor any symptom of a disposition hostile to their fair pretensions.

GENERAL VIEW OF THE EAST INDIA QUESTION.

_Tuesday, January 12, 1813._

The crisis, at which the affairs of the East India Company are now arrived, is one which involves the most important interests of the British Empire. It would be unnecessary to prove a proposition which is so universally acknowledged and felt. It has happened however, that, in our approaches towards this crisis, the Public understanding has been but little addressed upon the subject; so that the appeal which is now suddenly made to their passions and imaginations, finds them unprepared with that knowledge of the true circumstances of the case, which can alone enable them to govern those passions, and control those imaginations. Let us then endeavour to recover the time which has been lost, by taking a deliberate view of the circumstances which produce this crisis.

The crisis, is the proximity of the term which may conclude the East India Company's rights, to the exclusive trade with India and China, and to the powers of government now exercised by them over the Indian Empire.

The rights of the East India Company are two-fold; and have long been distinguished as, their _permanent_ rights, and their _temporary_ rights. Those rights are derived to them from distinct Charters, granted to them at different times by Parliament. By the former, they were created a _perpetual_ Corporate Society of Merchants, trading to India[1]. By the latter, they obtained, for a _limited period of time_, the exclusive right of trading with India and China, and of executing the powers of government over those parts of the Indian territory, which were acquired either by conquest or by negotiation. The Charter conveying the latter limited rights, is that which will expire in the course of the ensuing year 1814; on the expiration of which, the exclusive trade to the East will be again open to the British population at large, and the powers of the India Government will lapse in course to the Supreme Government of the British Empire, to be provided for as Parliament in its wisdom may judge it advisable to determine.

The renewal of an _expired_ privilege cannot be pursued upon a ground of _right_. The exclusive Charter of the Company is _a patent_, and their patent, like every other patent, is limited as to _its duration_. But though the patentee cannot allege a ground of right for the renewal of his patent, he may show such strong pretensions, such good claims in equity, such weighty reasons of expediency for its renewal, as may ensure its attainment. Such are the claims and the pretensions of the East India Company to a renewal of their Charter; and as such they have been promptly and cheerfully received, both by the Government and the country at large.

But the progress of society, during a long course of years, is of a nature to produce a considerable alteration in the general state of things; the state of things must, therefore, naturally be called into consideration, upon the expiration of the term of years which determines the exclusive Charter of the East India Company; in order to inquire, whether that Charter should be renewed precisely in the same terms, and with the same conditions, as before; or whether the actual state of public affairs demands, that some alteration, some modification, of terms and conditions, should be introduced into the Charter or System which is to succeed.