which the hon. gentleman had uttered. The hon. gentlemen had talked of the wool, because it suited his purpose in throwing out his insinuations; but he (Mr. E.) was not to be borne down by that hon. gentleman. He would not be put down by him, for he assured him he entertained a different sort of feeling. Having spoken the truth, he should certainly never suffer any man to put words in his mouth which he had not uttered.

Mr. Bosanquet. He confessed that he was disposed to have given his vote in favor of the proposition of the committee of by-laws, with some trifling alteration in it, but after what he had heard this day his determination was completely altered; and if he was the only man in the court who felt the same way, he should divide against the proposition of the committee of by-laws. Hon. gentlemen might make use of what statement they pleased, but he confessed this appeared to him to be nothing more or less than an attack upon the integrity, character, and credit of the court of directors. This was the way he certainly felt it. An hon. gentleman had gone farther than this, for he had charged against the directors that they were either fools, or knaves.

To be

sure that was not said in direct terms, but certainly it was said by strong implication; so strong, that he had accused them of having neglected to take up ships for the Company at £15 per ton, whilst at the same time they were paying £26: now he (Mr. B.) must say, that if the directors had rot sense enough to know that they could get the freight of the Company at £15, and they gave £26, they were either fools or knaves. This was the way that he felt the hon. gentlemau's commentary. He sincerely hoped that the hon. gentleman would take some early opportunity of bringing before the court of proprietors the question of freight. It certainly was not a subject with which he (Mr. B.) was very conversant; but he understood that there was no position more clearly established, than that a ship of 1200 tons burthen must have a certain price paid for its freight in order to enable the owner to sail, whereas a ship of smaller burthen could afford to sail at a much smaller freight, on account of the proportionate diminution of its outfit. But the hon. gentleman seemed to have forgotten that the East India Company had an empire to protect as well as a trade to carry on, and that they had troops to carry out in their ships in order to enable them to maintain their dominion in India; and that it was imprac. ticable, and indeed impossible, to attain these two objects without ships of a certain size, for which the Company must pay an adequate price. All that he threw out on the present occasion was merely Asiatic Journ.-No. 26.

for the purpose of stating to the proprie tors that it was his opinion they ought not to run away with the idea, that because an hon. gentleman had given it as his decid ed opinion they might get freight at £15 that the directors were extravagant and unmindful of their duty. He must say, without the least difficulty, that on the present occasion the matter was placed before the proprietors in a point of view, and the case was stated in such a manner, that it was impossible to adopt this bylaw without its being considered as a direct impeachment of the integrity of the directors, whatever other construction it might be subject to. He had always considered it his duty to act towards the East India Company as if he were acting for himself, and he had always felt, that if he lost sight of his individual capacity in the direction, he should neglect a most essential part of his character; and he flattered himself that his conduct would bear the most rigid investigation. Certainly his own conscience approved his conduct, and he was quite willing to undergo the test of public enquiry. His conduct had ever been, what he hoped it ever would be, faithful to the Company and creditable to himself.

Mr. Twiss was opposed to the bylaw, because the object of it seemed to him to be to place the directors (like bees in a glass hive) in such a situation as that all their motions might be watched.

Mr. Lowndes said, that if he had been apprized of the circumstance stated by his hon. friend (Mr. Hume), that the Company had taken up fresh ships at £28 per ton, he certainly should not have voted in favor of the ship-owners' claim the other day. With respect to the by-law proposed, he thought it bad in principle, because he was of opinion that the mode of purchasing by open contract, or public advertisement, would be injurious ta the Company's trade, inasmuch as it would give an opportunity to private dealers to forestall the market, and buy up those commodities which the Company wanted. He was quite persuaded that another evil would arise from this system, namely, that it would enable owners of small ships to take the hint, and send off their vessels with cargoes of the very commodity exported by the Company, and thereby anticipate the wants of the market, by the greater facility they had in outrunning the Company's large ships. It behoved the court, therefore, to be a little more cautious of bringing áhout their ears a host of private capitalists.

Mr. Howorth said, he much regretted the turn which this day's discussion had taken. It gave him real uneasiness, because nothing could be more remote from the intention of the committee of by VOL. V.

Ꮓ

laws than to give occasion for uneasiness to any individual connected with the Company. Their sole intention was to suggest such regulations as were thought advisable for the Company to adopt. It seemed that there were two objections to the regulations now proposed: one was, that it tended to cast reflection upon the court of directors. Such an argument would have no weight if the object of the law was calmly looked at. The object was to give support to the authority of the directors, and prevent the possibility of events occurring which might be injurious to their control in the affairs of the Company. The second objection was, that it imposed upon the directors a very extraordinary and unnecessary restriction. Now it should be recollected that this law was proposed at the suggestion of the directors themselves, and it was probable that it would not have been proposed at all but for that suggestion. It should seem, that if it had not been for the angry discussion which had taken place the directors would now have given the law their support. But was it becoming that respectable body to start such an objection to a law founded upon principle, and calculated for the public good? Was it because the committee of by-laws had put the directors and the court of proprietors in possession of such a law, that therefore it ought not to be supported? Now he called upon the court of directors-he called upon their character (if their wish was to maintain that highly honorable and respectable character which they had hitherto maintained), to point out in this by-law an iota of objection which it was not in their own power to correct. An hon. gentleman had said, that the principle of open contract would ruin the Company. Why the law did not insist upon that principle being adopted in ali cases; it distinctly left the committee of buying and selling a discretion, which they were at liberty to exercise in all cases where they thought it might be to the advantage of the Company to depart from the usual course. It was absolutely impossible to put into the hands of the directors a law better calculated to promote the interests of the Company. Public competition was the primary principle of the law proposed, but it left the committee the power of departing from that -principle on suitable occasions. But after the ingenious speech of his hon. friend (Mr. Kinnaird), which was full of sound argument, it would be quite unnecessary for him to add any thing in recommendation of the law. As to the suggestion of another hon. friend (Mr. Jackson) to adjourn this question to a future day, he certainly could not accede to it, because he conceived the subject to be already thoroughly understood. He put it as a

question between the public and the directors. The latter might negative it, but he felt it his duty to move that this by-law be adopted.

The Chairman said, he should be guilty of a dereliction of his duty if he did not say a few words upon this subject. First of all, as to the claret: that subject was introduced in such a way as certainly to implicate the judgment of the court of directors in the part they took in that transaction. He would do the committee of by-laws the justice to say that they did not mean to insinuate any corrupt motive to the directors, but they certainly did mean to implicate their judgment by the introduction of the proposed by-law. With respect to the other impressions that might go abroad, from its being said by an hon. gentleman that the whole two thousand chests were sent off at once, he had only to state, as a positive fact, that it was sent at different seasons, in different portions-for instance, in the seasons 1814-15 and 1815-16; and the quan tity sent at each time was about a fourth of the whole. As to what had been said about the great extent of the order, he had only to observe, that for a series of years the captains and officers were in the habit of carrying out to India four or five thousand chests per annum; therefore there was nothing extraordinary in the order given for two thousand chests, under the circumstances when this wine was sent out. No one could have anticipated that the private traders could have been so infatuated as to run at once into the India trade. It was to have been expected that a great many would, but the mania was beyond all imagination : the consequence of which was, that when this claret arrived in India the market was glutted, and in fact the ill success of the venture was principally to be attributed to the circumstance of the market being overstocked. With respect to the by-law itself, the leading feature of it was, that all purchases for exportation should be made by open contract, i. e. by advertisement, and then there were certain exceptions. Now he (Mr. Bebb) must maintain, from the experience he had in the Company's commerce, and from having seen that system tried abroad, (where great part of the Company's stores were purchased by public advertisement) that the principle of open contract was most ruinous. It was tried in India, and it produced a host of pedlars, and was attended with the most unfortunate consequences. It was soon laid aside, and for the last thirty years the business had been done by agency. The fact was, that the Company must go to market in the same way as private merchants, or they must be inevitably exposed to ruin. Private merchants

never advertised. They always went to the immediate manufacturers of the articles they wanted, and having ascertained the character of the person they intended to deal with, they made their arrangements, and obtained their goods at the lowest price. This was precisely the plan upon which the Company acted, and in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of one thousand they never thought of purchasing by public advertisement articles of a certain description. Why, if private merchants were in the habit of purchasing by public advertisement, the court would see the newspapers swarming with advertisements; but the fact was that no advertisement of that kind was ever seen in a newspaper. The rule laid down by the by-law, as to excepted cases, was not new, for it only gave the power of doing what was now the practice; but still, feeling no very strong objection to the preamble of the by-law, he conceived it might safely be adopted with some verbal amendments. He had already objected to the word reasons, which might be substituted by the word opinions, and that amendment the hon. mover seemed himself ready to adopt. To require a detail of reasons upon record might produce a great deal of cavil, besides loading the minutes of the court with a recital of reasons, which might or might not be satisfactory. It now rested with the court to determine what should be done; and if the honorable mover would propose the law, subject to such verbal amendments as should appear to be necessary, the question would soon be decided.

Mr. Howorth explained. The hon. director seemed to argue as if the law was compulsory upon the committee to purchase by open contract in all cases; it certainly was not. It was no more than a declaratory law, for it was discretionary in the court to act upon that principle only in such cases as appeared to them to be necessary to adopt it. Nothing was farther from the intention of the committee of by-laws, than to cast the least imputation upon the direc

tors.

Mr. Wigram bore testimony to the impolicy of purchasing by open contract, and he decidedly objected to the provision which required the committee of by-laws to state their reasons for purchases made contrary to that principle.

Mr. Inglis suggested the propriety of altering the law proposed in some of its provisions, and substituting the following, as one likely to meet the wishes of all parties.

"New Law, chap. 1. sect. 1. page 13.-Item, it is ordained, that all purchases, for exportation, excepting in bullion, by the court of directors, or any

committee thereof, be made by fair open competition, excepting in cases where the court shall be of opinion that this mode cannot be adopted beneficially for the Company; and that in all such cases no private contract shall be completed without the concurrence and approval of the court of directors to such contract."

Mr. Howorth said he should adopt with pleasure the amendments proposed by the hon. gent.

Mr. Kinnaird begged leave to second the motion for adopting the law, thus amended, and at the same time took occasion to explain.

After mutual explanations between Mr. Hume, the Deputy Chairman and Mr. Bosanquet who gave up his former declared opposition to the law,

The question was put, and upon the shew of hands the law thus amended was carried in the affirmative.

"Old Law proposed to be repealed.Chap. 7, sect. 6, page 45.-Item, it is ordained, that a list shall be published, thirty days before the annual election of directors, containing the names of such proprietors, qualified agreeable to law, as shall signify in writing to the secretary their desire of becoming candidates for the direction thirty-two days before such annual election."

Upon the question being put whether this law should stand upon the code, it was carried in the affirmative, and consequently this law remained unaltered.

"Observations of the Committee.Your committee have recommended for your adoption a by-law on the subject of your annual elections, which has in view the two-fold object of facilitating the execution of the duties of the scrutineers, and of bringing to the notice of the electors the names of all the candidates, whilst it secures to those of the ex-directors that fair and proper priority of attention to which their tried pretensions are fully entitled."

"New Law.-Item, it is ordained, that at every annual election of directors, balloting lists shall be printed for the use of the proprietors, containing the names of all such proprietors who may have notified to the court of directors, seven days previous to the annual election, their intention of becoming candidates; that the names of the ex-directors be placed at the head of the said list, and that the several names be printed at such a distance from each other as may leave sufficient room to insert the name or names of any other proprietor or proprietors duly qualified.

That such lists shall contain on the face

of them the names of the candidates only, the said lists to be ready for delivery six days previous to the said annual election, and that all printed lists other than those

printed as this by-law directs, be rejected at the scrutiny."

Mr. Howorth, in pursuance of his previous notification already mentioned, proposed to withdraw this law.

The Chairman put the question for leave to withdraw it, which being carried in the affirmative, this law was accordingly withdrawn.

"Old Law proposed to be repealed.Chap. 10, sect. 4, page 55.-Item, it is ordained, that all bullion which shall have been licensed shall be brought to the bullion office, and there viewed, weighed, and packed up."

The question being put for repealing this law it was carried in the affirmative, and the law was accordingly repealed.

"Old Law, chap. 7, sect. 8, p. 47.Item, it is ordained, that the 4th, 5th, and 6th sections of this chapter shall be inserted at the end of every printed list delivered to the proprietors at or before the annual election."

This law, upon the question being put, was ordered to remain unaltered.

The whole of the report of the committee of by-laws having been thus gone through, the confirmation of this day's

proceedings was ordered to take place at

the next court.

INTEREST ON INDIA BONDS.

The Hon. D. Kinnaird wished to know from the hon. the chairman, whether it was in the power of the directors by law to reduce the interest on India bonds? He only meant that in his opinion there was no necessity for a reduction, and he wished to suggest it to the consideration of the court of directors whether it was in their power so to do.

The Chairman said, he was not now prepared to enter into the consideration of this question: but whenever the interest was reduced, the court of directors did what appeared to them most judicious. Whenever they did do it, they did it upon mature deliberation.

MAJOR HART.

Mr. R. Jackson, after a preliminary remark upon the hardship of this gentleman's case, gave notice that he should, in the next season, bring the subject again under the consideration of the court.

Adjourned till Wednesday next.

1

CALCUTTA, JULY 3, 1817.

On Monday the 30th June, being the day appointed by His Excellency the most Noble the Marquis of Hastings, Visitor of the College of Fort William, for the Public Disputations in the Oriental Languages, the President of the College Council, the Officers, Professors, and Students of the College, met at ten o'clock in the forenoon at the Government House, where the Honorable the Chief Justice, the Lord Bishop of Calcutta, the Honorable N. B. Edmonstone, the Honorable A. Seton, and the Honorable G. Dowdeswell, Members of the Supreme Council, the Honorable Sir Francis Macnaghten and the Honorable Sir Anthony Buller, Judges of the Supreme Court, with the Honorable M. Dayott, Governor of Chandernagore, Major General Wood, and many of the Civil and Military officers of the Presidency, as well as several respectable Natives were assembled.

When the Visitor had taken his seat, the disputations commenced in the following order.

PERSIAN.

"The science of general or philosophi"cal grammar, is more successfully cul"tivated, and better understood, by the "eastern, than by the western gramma "rians." Respondent, 1st Opponent, 2d Ditto, Moderator,

Mr. W. Dundas.
Mr. F. Millett.

Lieut. J. Macdonald.
Dr. M. Lumsden.
HINDOOSTANEE.

"It is easier to diffuse the literature "and science of the western nations "among the natives of India, by transla"ting European books into their own "tongue, than by instructing them in the "European languages." Respondent, 1st Opponent, 2d Ditto, Moderator,

Mr. F. Millett.
Mr. W. Dundas.
Mr. R. H. Scott.
Capt. J. W. Taylor.
BENGALEE.

"The advantage of the oriental me"thod of conveying instruction, by means "of parables or tales, is peculiarly conspicuous in the Bengalee language."

Respondent, 1st Opponent, 2d Ditto, Moderator,

Mr. T. Clarke. Mr. D. McFarlan. Mr. E. W. Cockerell. Rev. Dr. W. Carey.

When the disputations were concluded, the President of the College Council presented to his Excellency the Visitor the several students of the college, who were entitled to receive degrees of honor, medals of merit, or other honorary rewards, adjudged to them at the public examinations of the past year; as well as the students, who, at the examination held in June,had been found qualified to enter upon the public service, by their knowledge of two languages, and had consequently obtained permission to quit the college. The President read the certificates granted by the council of the college to each student, in pursuance of the statutes, specifying the proficiency which he had made in the. prescribed studies of the college, and the general tenor of his conduct.

When the certificates had been read, the Visitor presented to each student, entitled to receive a degree of honor, the usual diploma inscribed on vellum, and at the same time expressed the satisfaction which he felt in conferring it.

The prizes and medals, which had been awarded to the several students, were also distributed to them respectively, after which his excellency the Visitor read the following discourse :

"Gentlemen of the College of Fort William; It any just account of the late examinations at the college have gone abroad, all whom I have the honor to meet on this occasion must have come impressed with the same sentiment which animates me. This is a day in which we may well exult.-Our satisfaction, however, ought to be indulged with discrimination. -We have but to ask ourselves to what we owe it, and our minds will immeately point to the quarter whence the obligation has flowed. Upon great publie questions, all men come to think nearly alike at last; that is, when the fleeting prejudices or interests of the day have passed away, their judgments act, and they discern uniformly what is beneficial. But there is a main difference between him who perceives and recommends what is useful while it is yet time to secure the advantage, and those who come to a tardy sluggish conviction when the opportunity has gone by, or when at least much indisputable good has been lost in the delay of recognizing it. To the wise and extensive forecast of the Marquis Wellesley let us, therefore, pay a grateful tribute on a day like this.Let us recollect what objections assailed the noble institution which his genius planned: and let us feel with triumph how experience has overthrown the cavil.

The present exhibition, and the circumstances which I am about to detail, are uncommonly gratifying. In contempla ting the realization of those generous and comprehensive views which dictated the establishment of the college, one has to rejoice in the full success of so elevated a purpose. The acknowledged practical benefits already experienced from this institution, attest at once the wisdom of the plan and the merit of the college officers and instructors. Those gentlemen have a proud reward in the applause which they must be sensible general opinion offers to them.

"In my last address to you from this chair, I took occasion to congratulate the institution on the happy diffusion among the students of a greater inclination to study than I had been able to trace in the returns of any preceding examination. You will recollect that I looked upon the more general prevalence of this disposition, not as the casual variety of the year, but as radical and, I trusted, a lasting improvement effected in the character of the great body of the students. I hailed the occasion on which this had first shown itself, as an epochwhence to date a new era in the history of the college; one in which it would be the boast of his members to be studious, and in which an individual of contrary propensities would be avoided by his fellows as an uncongenial spirit.)

"When I drew in anticipation this pic ture of what the college was henceforward to exhibit, I told you that I was taking a sanguine view, but that my hopes were by no means indulged without due calculation. The result of the examination of this year has verified my prediction, to an extent even beyond what I had ventured to imagine. The reports laid before me clearly show, not only that the application of the students has been greater this year than it was in the last, but further, that there has not been a single individual whose conduct is an exception to this general character. It is truly pleasing to me to say, that some who had before shown a blameable indifference have in the course of this year manifested a generous self-correction.

"The relative proportion of students who may be found qualified at an examination to the whole number that have entered the lists, affords an unerring indication of the degree in which habits of diligence or of inattention have prevailed during the term. Applying this criterion to the reports of last year, I found, that out of thirty-eight students examined, twenty-five had been reported qualified, whereas in no former year had half the number examined been declared competent. This was such an indisputa