I have already fhewn the amount of the real value of the revenues of the Northern Circars.

In the next place, Mr. Ruffell confiders, as the Company's eftates,

1. Thofe poffeffed by the Company prior to 1755, as ftated in the Third Report of the Secret Committee, 1772.

2. The territories and revenues ceded to the Company by the Mogul, the Nabob of Arcot, and the Soubah of the Decan, viz. the Purgunnahs and Zemindary of Calcutta, the ceded lands Midnapore and Chittagong +. the diftrict of Massulipatam, the five Northern Circars, and the faggeer lands at Madras.

These are Mr. Ruffell's debatable lands.

3. The provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and part of Orissa, terminated by the Cattack,

* Vide page 240.

+ In the 2d edit. Mr. Ruffell inferted the ceded lands, which, I believe, he had forgot in his 1ft edition.

the district of Benares, the countries in the Carnatic, and on the Malabar coast, lately obtained by treaty from Tippoo Sultaun. All these territories, acquired by conqueft, according to Mr. Ruffell, are claims of the public, as property of the state, on a maxim of law, that all territories obtained by conqueft veft in the Crown.

To this arbitrary divifion I fubftitute

two.

1. All fettlements made for the purpose of trade, and for its fecurity, at any time, by the Company, under the authority of Royal Charters, whether granted by Sunnud, by native princes, or by their permiffion, purchased from native landholders adjoining to their fettlements, as in the inftance of thirty-feven villages contiguous to Calcutta, conftitute the territorial estate of the Company.

2. All territory not fpecially for the purposes of trade, obtained by conqueft, grant, or treaty; and all revenues arising therefrom, and to which acts of fove

reignty neceffarily attach, whether for the purposes of police, or protection of property, constitute the property of the crown in behalf of the state, subject to the control of the Legiflature; and the Executive Government and Parliament must be equally vigilant, when the rights of the Sovereign are attempted to be fequeftered or eluded, as when the Company, under permiffion either of British or native Government to purchase, fhall feize lands without the confent of its owners.

The whole of Mr. Ruffell's cafe rests on his distinguishing Maffulipatam from the Circars he has given a detailed narrative of the acquifition of those districts; and in another fection he has related the acquifition of the Circars. He admits the right of the King of England in the first case, founded on conquest *: "because Maffulipatam had been held as a Fief of the Indian Empire, and that the change of hands could not alter the rights of the Mogul or his Soubah, as the paramount Lords.

* Short History, p. 65.

We

are ready to admit, that the King, by his prerogative, muft, of neceffity, be the fummus Dominus fupra omnes over all territories held by him; that lands in his poffion are free from every tenure; that he can neither be a joint tenant with another, nor hold of another; but with this admiffion, and though in fact the Soubah had taken no part in the hoftilities between the English and, the French, they being feudatories of the Soubah, it must, to every legal intent, be held as levying war against that power alfo; and, that by the conqueft, the fovereignty, as well as the foil, became inftantly annexed to the Crown of England. If the French had themselves the fovereignty, the legal effect would have been the fame. The fubfequent agreement by Colonel Ford with Salabut Jung, could not change or vary the nature of the King's title to Mafulipatam once acquired; nor under the charter of 1757, could the Company restore it, because they were restrained from ceding back any acquifitions belonging to the European states. The treaty of peace in 1763 completely established the right of the King, the French having

thereby renounced all their acquifitions on the coaft, except their factories, which alone were reftored to them."

Mr. Ruffell admits, that Mr. Bully had cbtained from the Scubah, Salabut Jung, for the French, the Five Circars, as well as Majulipatam. It is not neceffary to argue that Colonel Ford, by his conquering the French at Maffalipatam, difpoffeffed the French of the Circars. Lord Clive told the Proprietors that "the reduction of Mafulipatam, the Four Northern Provinces, and the making all the French army there prifoners, greatly contributed to our fuccefs at Fort George ;" if any agreement was entered into by Colonel Ford with Salabut Jung to retain only Mafulipatam, on his own confeffion the agreement was void, it being contrary to the charter of 1757, to reftitute. The negociations of Mr. Alexander with Nizam Alli in 1760, and the rejection of his Sunnuds, cannot have any weight; if founded on political wisdom, it arofe from the Company not accepting

* Clive's Letter to the Proprietors, p. 8.