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cepting about fifteen, who escaped with difficulty.

You will have heard some time ago, that the Dutch issued a paper currency, which still keeps up its value, in consequence of there being offices constantly open for its exchange into silver at the option of the holder. I enclose you one of the notes as a curiosity; they were printed in Holland, and sent out ready made, perhaps to prevent an excessive issue, except with the permission of the mother country. The Dutch commis. sioners brought out with them 2,000,000 of guilders in specie, which has been set apart for the express purpose of meeting the paper money, as brought in for payment. By proclamation these guilders, intrinsically worth 20 d., pass here as Bombay and Arcot rupees, or two hundred of them to the hundred dollars; we find the consequence as might be expected all the foreign coin is leaving the colony, and we shall have nothing but guilders to bless ourselves with. It is obvious how injurious this will be to the island, unless some steps are taken to remedy the evil.

Previously to the sailing of the Hon. Company's cruizer Antelope from the Fort of Kema ou Celebes, a prow had arrived, bringing intelligence that an insurrection had broken out at the island of Ternate.

The attempt on the part of the local government at that settlement to circulate Dutch paper-money, is said to be the immediate cause of the insurrection, but it is alledged that the natives on Halmaheira, aud on Ternate and Tidore, have evinced a most decided aversion to their new (or rather to their old) masters.

Matters wear a most alarming aspect at Amboyna, where every negro is in a state of open rebellion. Allang Lilliboy, and even the villages in the vicinity of Fort Victoria, are in arms against the Dutch government.

The Amboynese have expressed their determination to emancipate themselves from foreign thraldom and servitude, or perish in the attempt.

It is reported, that a Mr. Burgraff, the resident at Hela, was so incautions as to beat the Prang Tua of the Negree for some trifling offence; an act for which he is likely to atone with his life, having been mortally wounded by the enraged inhabitauts. At Loricke, the gentleman in charge of the residency is shut up in his little fort, out of which he dare not shew his nose. It would appear that the natives of Ceram have supplied the people of Saparoa with fire arms, gun-powder and ammunition, in return for which they receive specie. It is understood that the Alfoors on Ceram, (than whom a more savage and blood-tlrirsty men does not exist), are collecting in great force for the purpose of making an attack, in conjunc tion with the people of Amboyna, Saparoa, and Harooka, upon Fort Victoria; the Dutch commissioners are consequently in a state of the greatest alarm, and they entertain apprehensions that the whole of the European inhabitants of Amboyna, civil and military, will ulti mately be obliged to seek refuge on board the ships of war in the harbour. Ad miral Boyskes left Java on the 28th of July, in the Prince Frederick (74), accompanied by two sloops of war of twen ty guns each, several gunboats and small brigs, likewise two merchantmen as transports, the whole fleet taking five hundred European, and the same number of native troops, but the admiral did not expect to reach Amboyna until the end of September.

The commissioners of his Netherland Majesty at Amboyna had deemed it prudent to ship all the public treasure on board the ships of war.

HOME INTELLIGENCE.

EAST-INDIA HOUSE.

April 8.-A Court of Directors was held at the East-India House, when the follow ing commanders took leave previous to departing for their respective destinations, viz. Capt. F. Cresswell, Astell, and Capt.T. White, Phoenix, for Bengal.-A Court of Directors was also held, when the thanks of the Court were voted unanimously to John Bebb and James Pattison, Esqrs. Chairman and Deputy-Chairman, for their zeal and attention to the Company's interest during the last year.

April 8.-A ballot was held at the East India House for the election of six Directors, in the room of Samuel Davis,

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Government Troops and Stores.

Buying and Warehouses,
Accounts.

Years to serve.

Correspondence.

Civil College.

Military Seminary.
Private Trade.

Law Suits.
Library.

Military Fund.

House.

Shipping.

Treasury.

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UNITED COMPANY OF MERCHANTS OF ENGLAND,
TRADING TO THE EAST-INDIES,

FOR THE YEAR 1818,

JAMES PATTISON, Esq. (Chairman) 37, Southampton Row, Bloomsbury.
CAMPBELL MARJORIBANKS, Esq. (Deputy) 3, Upper Wimpole Street.
T Jacob Bosanquet, Esq. Broxbournbury, Herts.

T Hon. William Fullarton Elphinstone, 2, Upper Harley Street.
T Joseph Cotton, Esq. Leytonstone, Essex.

T Charles Grant, Esq. M.P. 40, Russell Square.
TGeorge Smith, Esq. M.P. 1, Upper Harley Street.
T Edward Parry, Esq. 25, Gower Street.

TSweny Toone, Esq. 44, Mortimer Street.

William Astell, Esq. M.P. 8, Grosvenor Square.

Richard Chicheley Plowden, Esq. 8, Devonshire Place.
John Hudleston, Esq. 54, Margaret Street.
John Inglis, Esq. 27, Mark Lane.

Thomas Reid, Esq. 8, Broad Street Buildings.
John Bebb, Esq. 13, Gloucester Place.

Sir John Jackson, Bart. M.P. 9, New Broad Street.
George Abercrombie Robinson, Esq. M.P. 80, Pall Mall.
William Wigram, Esq. 31, Upper Harley Street.
James Daniell, Esq. 5, Fenchurch Street Buildings.
John Bladen Taylor, Esq. 40, Devonshire Place.

William Stanley Clarke, Esq. Elm Bank, Leatherhead.
John Thornhill, Esq. 38, Bloomsbury Square.

John Lumsden, Esq. 32, Bedford Square.

George Raikes, Esq. 17, Lower Berkeley Street, Manchester Square.

Orwell, Capt. T. W. Leech-for China Perseverance, Capt. H. Templer; and ple; Lady Melville, Capt. J. Stewart ; B. Sotheby; Cabalva, Capt. J. Dalryming ships, viz.-Scaleby Castle, Capt. J. and delivered to the pursers of the followApril 11.-The dispatches were closed

direct.

Colville.
Messrs.
Per Lady Melville, for Batavia, Mr. T.
supercargoes; and Mrs. C. Plowden.-
Bosanquet, Plowden, and Millett,
Passengers per Orwell,-for Canton,-

took leave of he Court, previous to de-
April 22.-A Court of Directors was
held, when the following commanders

gal; and Capt. T. Dormer, Lady Lush-
Capt. C. Tebbut, Northampton, for Ben-
vix.-Capt. J. Freeman, Lord Keith, and
parting for their respective destinations,
ington, for Bombay.

her.
to relieve the Magicienne. The artifi
cers for Trincomalee dock-yard go out in
Collier, C. B. is bound to the East Indies,
The Liverpool, 50 guns, Capt. F A.

Company's service, an officer who had
served with distinguished credit in all the
Lieut. General Pater, of the Honourable
We are sorry, to observe the death of

came thence to Portsmouth with fou winds. Providentially no lives were lost during all these perils.

wars under Sir Eyre Coote, and in many of the more recent actions fought by the Madras army. At one period he commanded the army in chief, on the coast of Coromandel. The decease of the Hon. Sir John Royds is also mentioned in these papers, late one of the judges of the Supreme Court at Bombay. He died on the 24th of October last, in the 65th year of his age.

Mr. Assey, secretary to the late govern. ment of Java, is expected home in the H. C. ship Carnatic, with the arrangements of that Island to be definitively settled between the two governments.

Joseph Hume, Esq. a proprietor of East India stock, and native of Montrose, arrived there 17th April, for the purpose of offering himself as a candidate to represent that district of burghs in parliament, in opposition to James Farquhar, Esq. the present member. A meeting of the guildry was called, when Mr. Hume was presented with the freedom of the burgh. A meeting of the council being afterwards convened, they gave Mr. Hume a written minute of the council, pledging their support at the first election. Mr. Hume, it is said, has also secured the votes of Arbroath and Brechin.

March 31.-The Cornwallis, Capt. Brown, which landed her cargo of rice at Portsmouth, from Calcutta, sailed on her return voyage to Madras and Calcutta, with 48 passengers; as did the Prince Regeut, Harris, Recovery, Fotherly, and General Graham, Wetherhead, for Bengal. The General Graham, on her passage from Gravesend to Portsmouth, experienced most remarkable escapes from being wrecked. It was so long since as the 18th February that she departed from Gravesend, and, after a stormy day, anchored in the Downs in the evening; passed Beachy Head on the 22d, when the weather became very tempestuous, and she was driven into Dungeness Roads, where, at midnight of that dreadful day, the 4th ultimo, she lost two anchors and was in the most imminent danger of being dashed to pieces. This was the unfortunate fate of many vessels around her. Compel led to remain in the Roads, on the following Saturday another dreadful gale came on, and it became indispensably neces sary to cut the only cable she had, as the waves were rolling over the ship, threatening immediate destruction. She was driven before the wind into the North Seas, and on the 10th was in 55 N. lat. and, on the next evening, near the dangerous coast of the Texel. After twenty-four days heavy storms of hail, snow, and waves running mountains high, she anchored again in the Downs, to refit, and

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Accounts from New South Wales to the 8th September last, announce the safe arrival at Port Jackson of the Almorah, Capt. M'Kessock, in the unusually short space of four months and one day from the Nore, with convicts and troops. Not a single instance of mortality had occur-red on board, and all the convicts were landed in health and spirits; and such had been the excellent regulations of the master and surgeon, that the necessity of inflicting punishment had not arisen. The colony was in the most flourishing condition.

The Pilot, with convicts from Cork, for whose safety some apprehensions had arisen, had arrived and would shortly proceed to Van Diemen's Land. There were also there, the Matilda, Canada, and Dick, which had recently arrived with troops from Cork. expected, having been parted with by the The Lord Eldon, Capt. Lamb, was daily

Almorah off the coast of Brazil, all well.

The Tottenham convict ship, which sailed on the 17th April for her destination, put into Plymouth, for the purpose of having new pintles or spills placed on her rudder. It may be considered fortu nate that the pintles were discovered to be broken before she finally quitted the English shore. The ship being built in India, the rudder is made of very heavy wood (teak), a quantity of which has been taken away from her, and lighter wood substituted. The captain of the Tottenham, whilst lying in Barnpool, was very anxious to get further from land, under an apprehension that the convicts might effect their escape with more ease than in a less favourable situation. Upward of 30 attempted to get off their

irons, and a convict swam from Barnpool to Mount Edgcumbe, having previously extricated himself from all his irons, excepting the rings attached to his legs. George Weightman, one of the Derby rioters is on board; he is a very fine young man, but appears much depressed in spirits. He declares he had no intention to subvert the constitution of this country; thinks his punishment severe; and grieves more, apparently, at his lot in being separated from his wife and children, than for any consciousness of bad designs.

April 18.-The ship Broxenbury, Capt. Pitcher, from Batavia, bound to London, put into Portsmouth by contrary winds. She left at Batavia, on the 5th of Decemher, the Experiment, Barnes, and several American and country ships; hove to off St. Helena on the 12th of February; the Conqueror (flag ship), Musquito, Elizabeth, Bethum, Cambridge, and Toussant, were lying there. Spoke, 27th Feb. the Thebe, from Calcutta, bound to London.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

April 10.-War in India.

Mr. Howorth rose to ask for information from gentlemen who sat opposite on a very important subject. He alluded to the hostilities said to be re commenced in India. In a letter that had lately appeared from that conntry, it was stated that the Peishwa had taken up arms against the Company's troops; that a Mahratta force of 40,000 men had made an attack on about 4,000 of the Company's subsidiary forces; that they had repulsed the attack, with the loss, however, of some officers and a severe slaughter; that the Company's troops, being a few days afterwards reinforced, in turn attacked the Peishwa, defeated him, took possession of his capital, and drove him into the interior of his territories; that two officers of our forces having fallen into his hands had been executed. In such cases it was usual to take the earliest opportunity of laying authentic information before the House, and communicating it to the public. For this reason he applied to know whether the statements were founded, in order to relieve the suspense under which the friends and relations of the forces in that part of the world laboured. If the facts were as stated, they inspired him with considerable alarm. Was he to consider they were?

Mr. Canning said, it was undoubtedly true the Peishwa had commenced wartrue that in two actions the British forces had had the advantage; but the Government was not in possession of such returus as they would be authorised in mak

ing public. While any doubt (as some did) remained on the subject, it would be wrong in the Government to sanction any account. The hon. gentleman knew better than he did, that from that part of the globe private intelligence frequently outstripped the public. As far as he knew, no life of an English officer was lost in action; a few (we believe seven) had been wounded. It was true that two had fallen, not in the conflicts. The intelligence rested on one letter without a date; were he asked did he believe the letter, he would say he did. The hon. member complained of the delay in making a communication to the House, but he was well aware that communications respecting that part of the empire were usually very slow in being made, and only made on particular occasions. However, if the hon. member would frame a motion to obtain such information as the Government could lay before the House, he would be most ready to bring it forward, and to assist in shaping the motion, so as best to attain its object.

Mr. Howorth said he would avail himself of the valuable assistance of the right. hon. gentleman.

A member, whose name we could not ascertain, agreed that the affairs of India did not receive that attention in the House they were entitled to. He thanked the hon. member who had introduced the subject before the House.

April 21.-East-India Dock Company.

Mr. Benj. Shaw rose for the purpose of moving for the accounts of a public body, which he hoped the house would see the propriety of calling for. He would shortly state the facts of the case. In the year 1803, an act was passed for the regulation of the East-India Dock Company, which provided, that all ships coming from the East-Indies should be discharged at the docks of this company. Some time after this act was in operation, a great change took place in the East-India trade, by the permission to smaller vessels than those heretofore employed to participate in it. The company were bound to render an annual account of their business. There was a clause in the act, that whenever shares bore a higher dividend than 10 per cent. the surplus should go in diminution of the rates payable in the docks. His object in calling for these accounts on the part of the ship-owners was, to enforce the effectual operation of this clause. In the accounts just laid on the table, very little information of a discriminative nature would be found. The charges were in round sums, without specific explanations of the items, some of which the ship owners though should be charged on the capital instead of upon the re

&c.

ceipts. In explaining the manner in which the accounts presented were made out, he enumerated one head of expenditure as follows:-" For loading and unloading, labourers' wages, &c. incidental expenditure, and for amount of extraordinary disbursements, £41,931. 13s. 2d." The hon. gentleman, after adverting to other parts of the expenditure, which he pronounced equally loose, said, that there existed a total of £68,000, which was not to be found among the credits of the Company. He did not mean to say but that it might have been properly expended-he only required a full and satisfactory statement of the manner of its disposal from year to year. The ship owners did not complain of the heavy charge for tonnage, considerable as it was; but they did intreat that the onus should not be made more burdensome on them-and they called, as they were entitled to do, for a just and true account of the annual expenses and balances of the company. The tonnage charged in the dock was 16s. per ton, which could be had for 4s. at the outports, and for 3s. in the port of London, were it not for the imperative terms of the act, which gave a monopoly to this company. He concluded by moving," that the Court of Directors of the East-India Dock Company be required to return an account of their business, distinguishing the extraordinary disbursements, and those not provided for in the increased capital, which are stated on the 2d March to be included in the sum of £41,931. 13s. 2d. and that they do return an account of the appropriation of the balances between the years 1808 and 1816,"

Mr. Astell complained of the mistatements in the speech of the hon. mover, who had said that the charges on tonnage were 16s. whereas, in fact, they were only 14s. with a drawback of 2s. if the vessel did not go into the outward bound dock-and this rate of tonnage was calculated, not on the real but on the chartered amount. The annual accounts had been regularly laid on the table according to the usual plan, and they were made out in the most satisfactory manner. The honourable gentleman was equally in error when he spoke of £41,931. 13s. 2d. the sum alluded to being only £13,000. The dividends, too, were over calculated, for the average was only at the rate of six per cent-five was at first paid, six after, and the present rate was seven per cent. on a capital of £400,000. There was no ground, however, for insinuating that the least irregularity prevailed in their mode of doing business. The expression of the hon. gentleman that there was something behind the curtain which the directors were unwilling to shew, Asiatic Journ.--No. 29.

was totally destitute of foundation. He was of opinion that there was no necessity for producing the accounts, and should object to the motion.

Mr. Marryatt said, that in the accounts of the Company for the last eight years, there was uniformly a balance stated at the foot, which was to be accounted for in the ensuing year, but in no one instance was this engagement, ever observed, so that there remained a sum of £68,000 still to be accounted for. By such a mode of proceeding, the Directors did not comply with the Act of Parliament that required them to present the annual accounts of their receipts and disbursements. The great amount of the duties was felt as a great grievance by all the ship-owners in the port of London, for they were charged at the rate of sixteen shillings a ton at the East India Docks, while their business would be transacted at Liverpool and other ports at the rate of two shillings and sixpence. The charge in the port of London, he was convinced, would be found equally moderate but for this monopoly of the East-India Dock Company. Such monopolies had the effect of driving away the trade of London, and the only chance of retaining or recovering it, was by bringing down the charges to the level of all their foreign and other competitors. Such monopolies had been permitted for a short time in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; but that wise Princess could not fail soon to see the evil results of such a system, and she accordingly put an end to it, and received in consequence an address of thanks from the House of Commons. He trusted that the same principle would be pursued now, and that on the expiration of these exclusive charters, they should not be renewed, by which alone London would be fairly enabled to compete with her rivals in all her commercial pursuits. He thought the accounts ought to be produced, and should, therefore vote for the motion.

Mr. Alderman Atkins defended the conduct of the Dock Company, of which he stated himself to be a Director, and said, that if any gentleman desired information respecting the proceedings of the Company, the books were open for his inspection.

Mr. Thompson contended in a few words for the necessity aud justice of producing the accounts.

After a few words in defence of the Company, from Mr. Protheroe, Mr. Money, and Sir William Curtis, who stated that he had been a Director last year, and hoped he would be one next year again,

Mr. B. Shaw spoke briefly in reply, and the question being put, the motion was decided in the affirmative, VOL V. 3 X

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