INTRIGUES AT THE INDIA HOUSE.

Tits intrigue. at the India House, alluded to in our last publication, still go on. Ex-Governors, Ex-Generals, and Ex-Members of Parlia- ment, are busying themselves exceedingly in order to support the in- terests of the Directors or owners of less than 100,000/. worth of Stock, against the substantial interests of the great mass of the Pro- prietors, the owners of 5,900,000/. worth. Let the reader but recollect that the thirty worthy Directors are interested in the annuity of 630,000/. to the extent of very little more than 10,000/. a year, but that their interest in Indian patronage is to the yearly extent of more than 700,000/., and he will easily understand the nature of that noisy agita- tion which is at present shaking the India House to its centre. The Directors are stirring heaven and earth to prevail upon the Proprietors to conceive themselves a very ill-used set of men, and that the proposal of Government is very little better than spoliation. The Directors and their friends would have the Proprietors of Stock and the public to be- lieve that the Company has commercial assets quite sufficient to pay a perpetual annuity of 630,000/. per annum. IT a commercial body, that for two centuries has been conducting itself like a sheer spendthrift, had any such funds, it would be a matter of singular curiosity. Let us take a rapid glance at their own statement, and we shalt see at once the monstrous character of the delusion which they are either practising on themselves or attempting to practise on the public.

In a "View of the component parts of the Company's Commercial Capital, as computed on the let of May 1829," the Company's credits are made to exceed twenty-two millions and a half stirling,-while their debts do not much exceed a million and a half; leaving a balance in their favour of about twenty-one millions. Among the credits, we have cash in the Home or Indian Treasuries, with funds in the public Stocks, or in the hands of the Government, amounting in round num- bers to three millions four hundred thousand pounds. We shall suppose, for argument sake, that these are good assets, and that the territorial revenue has no claim upon them ; although even this be a disputed matter. This is the only sum in the whole account that has even a plausible aspect, or which, at any rate, does not admit of the largest deductions. All the other items have even the most monstrous aspect of exaggeration ; of which the following are samples.

"Value of goods in England,:unsoId (market price)," in round nura-

hers 5,600,000/. The greater part of this consists of tea, estimated at the monopoly price—that is, Bohea at Is. 6d., when it is selling at Rotterdam and Hamburgh at 9d. ; and Congou at 3s., when free-trade would supply it, fresher and of better quality, at Is. 6d. From this Item, therefore, must be atruck off at once 50 per cent., or 2,800,000/. Among the other assets, we find, " Debts owing to the Company in India, China, &c." We have here a lumping sum exceeding 1,300,000!.; and not one word said of bad debts, although it is notorious to every one at all acquainted with the mode in which the Company's business is done in India, that there are enormous irrecoverable debts arising from advances made to the peasantry for the investment of silk, piece- goods, &c. ; we may safely strike off half a million on this head. The next item is a most palpable thumper; and every intelligent person who has an opportunity of ocular demonstration will confess it to be so at once. " Value of the East India House and Warehouses." This is made within a fraction of 1,300,000/. The warehouses are in the midst of the city, and not within the walls of wet-docks; the latter being the only description of public warehouses now of much value. As to the India House itself, supposing the Government to be trans- ferred to the Crown, and of course the Indian offices removed, as they must in any case be, to the West end of the town, what value can it have beyond that of the ground on which it stands ? In common sense, one million at least must be struck off this item. In 1829, the India House and Warehouses are reckoned 150,000/. more valuable than in 1814,--although in the first year the value of all fixed property was much smaller, and in the latter year the currency was depreciated 25 per cent. • no additions of the least moment having in the meanwhile been made to the property. "Value of Ships, Sloops, and Vessels, exclusive of those stationed abroad." This item is put down at above 170,000/. One hundred and seventy thousand for a few river craft, and for seven or eight worn-out ships, of so inconvenient a size, even had they not been worn-out, that when the trade is opened they will be utterly unsaleable except for breaking-up ! The last item in the ac- count is the most monstrous of all. "Balance due from the Territorial -branch." This, which exceeds a sum of 4,600,000/., is a disputed ac- count; and the counter charges by the Territory against the commerce are far more numerous ; but these, of course, are not alluded to. Of the Home Bond Debt of the Company, amounting to about 3,800,000/., not a word is said in the column of debts, with the exception of a small sum of 30,000/. of interest, because the Directors have thought proper

• of late years to foist this debt, plainly of a commercial character, upon the Territory ; though the India Board of course has never al- lowed it.

Now as to the Dead-Stock in India, the Company modestly witholds this from their statement, trusting that the vagueness of the demand will be more useful to them than stating particulars. Here is a note, however, showing the valiie of the Dead-Stock "in the actual occupation of the Commercial department." In 1814, this amounted for all India, ex- elusive of China, exactly to the sum of 467,1711.; and in 1821, to 556,2061.; that is to say, at the expiration of fifteen years, after the Company had been beaten out of almost every branch of its Indian commerce, and after they had actually abandoned every part of it with the exception of the production of Raw-silk, their Conimercial Dead- Stock miraculously rises near 20 per cent. It is obvious, there must be either folly or hocus-pocus in this proceeding. We believe the fact -to be this—the monies laid out in necessary repairs from year to year are considered as so many additions to the value of the property ; and of the depreciation of a property, or even of its total disappearance altogether, no account is taken. In this manner, estates and planta- tions under the appellation of lodges, parks, and other fine aristocratic English names, were to be found upon the Commercial books of the ‘Company, at high valuations, of which in nature there were no traces— they had been swallowed up in the Indian jungles. But then, the Company insist that they have a right to forts, estates, territories, and the Lord knows what all. They claim, for example, the towns of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, the Madras Jaghire, and Lord Olive's Jaghire, or the twenty-four Pergunnahs. It is very difficult .indeed to know what in this case the worthy Company would be at. First and-foremost, by the law of nations, no territory can be acquired by conquest or otherwise, by king or subject, except on behalf of the people or nation. Then for the last forty years, to make assurance doublysure,the Legislature has expressly declared that its lease of the Indian Government is given to the Company "without prejudice to the undoubted sovereignty of the Crown of the United Kingdom." With the -sovereignty the Company have nothing to do after April 1834: what then can .they have ? Nothing, of course, but private property. In- the towns -of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, all lands and houses -are as completely the property of private individuals, as in London, Eklinburgh, or Dublin, and generally worth twenty-five years' purchase.

The small quit-rents and assessments which are levied, most of them

-under sanction of Acts of Parliament, go of course to the Crown' and - not to a joint-stock company. As to the landed estates which have been claimed, the land is as much private property in these, as in the

cities and towns. Not only this, but in these very estates, the Company themselves, in virtue of their delegated sovereignty, and at the very time that Parliament proclaimed the right of the Crown to the sove- reignty, in.1793, conferred upon the owners of the land a more perfect -right of private property than had existed before by fixing in perpetuity the quit-rent to be paid to the State. The owners of the land are in this case natives of India ; and the Company, in any one shape or form Whatsoever, will not have a single farthing's interest in it after the conclusion of their lease in 1834. So much for the Company's "Assets in India." ' 'From the Company's twenty-one million of assets,--or twenty-one millions and a half, allowing for their Dead-Stock in 'India and in Cbina,—we have struck off upwards of twelve millions, leaving a very

dubious balance of about nine millions for the payment of a perpetual dividend of 630,0001. At the present price of 3 per cent. Consols, it

would take upwards of eighteen millions sterling to purchase such an annuity: and the Company can muster but nine millions, to meet a .charge of double the amount. But this is not all, the nine millions,

—or whatever else it may turn out to be,—besides paying the dividends, would have to meet "all claims," as the Directors themselves express it,'in their corresoendence with Mr. GlANT, in England and in India for Commercial Pensions, &c. The annuitants and pensioners of the Commercial Department at present cost about 46,000/. per annum ; and the Commercial establishments, at the India House only,—which, ac- cording to the Directors, would require pensions, estimated at about two-thirds of their present salaries,—amount to upwards of 300,0001. per annum. We have to add, however the Indian Commercial este- blishments, which, according to the Company's own returns, amount to 130,0001. per annum. In short, it is pretty iear, that were the Codepany left to what they are facetiously pleased to call " their own resources,' there would be but a Flemish account of their " own resources." The truth is, that the Company's pretended capital of twenty-one millions is for the most part, if not altogether, after paying legitimate demands upon it, an illusion,—the creation of much skilful mystification on the part of Honourable Directors, and of much stupid ignoranee on the part of the public. One striking fact will set this in a clear light. According to the Company's own showing, the total amount of their profits for fifteen years together, ending with 1829, little exceeded twenty millions sterling; which does not much exceed 6 per cent. per annum, including their monopoly of the Tea-trade, from which more than ten millions of their profits are admitted to have been derived,—a sum which there is no one now so ignorant as not to be aware is so much that the people of England, and especially the middle and lower classes of them, are periodically fleeced of through the instrumentality of the monopoly. But for this fleecing of their countrymen, there would have been no profits at all,—no, not even enough to yield the common market-rate of interest.

The proposition of the Government to the Directors, is one of the most liberal, we are indeed afraid one of the most prodigal, which a Government ever made. The territory of India has been gained by British blood or money, and maintained by funds yielded by laud-rents in India, and the industry of Indians, assisted very materially by the British capital and enterprise, which has found its way into the country as it were by stealth. The name of a company of merchants only has been used in making the conquest, and in maintaining it. Under that name, things illegal and unconstitutional have been (cone, which could not so easily hate been perpetrated by more responsible agents. This has tended to mystify the public mind on the subject. The public has a vague notion, that it owes to the East India Company a kind of debt of gratitude; although it cannot well tell what, or why, or where- fore. For God's sake then, let the Proprietors of Stock have the benefit of the delusion,—for they have been not less deluded than the rest of the public.

The Directors 'complain that they have not British security for the payment of their annuity of 630,000/. This is neither modest nor de- cent. The security offered to them is that of the Indian territory. With some considerable improvement, it is the very security on which they themselves, in the exercise of their delegated sovereignty, have been borrowing for the last half century, and upon which they have actually borrowed upwards of forty millions. That that security is a good one, is pretty evident, from a few facts which which we shall now mention. The whole amount of the debt is but two years' purchase of the Indian revenue. The whole of the above forty millions are borrowed at an in- terest of from 4 to .5 per cent. Even the "4 per cent. loan," as it is called, is by the last accounts at no greater discount than from I to 1 per cent.,—a mere brokerage. The .5 per cent. loans, of which -there are several, are, if the dividends be not payable in England, at a premium of from l to Sin per cent. The only .5 percent. loan Of the Indian Go- vernment of which the dividends are payable in England, is at a very high premium, we think not less than 28 per cent. At the very height of the unprosperous and lingering contest carried on with the Birmans, many millions sterling were borrowed at 5, and very considerable sums at even 4 per cent. ; private borrowers being compelled then, as they are now, to pay from 8 to 12 per cent. interest. The Government has offered, beyond this security (foolishly enough, in our opinion), the formation of a guarantee fund of .1,200,0001. Parliament is to acknow- ledge the provincial security given, which was never done with respect to the Indian debt; the interest is made payable in England, "on the day it falls due ;" and the annuity is paid off at the rate of 100/. for 51. Sr. of annuity,—which in reality is giving the stockholders 2001. for every 100/. of capital stock. The very hour that the project was known at the Stock Exchange, the value of India Stock rose from 208 to ; and, with slight fluct:ations, it has pretty well maintained its price ever since. Nay, more than this—Sortie months back, India Stock was as low as 190; and even Bank Stock, bearing a dividend of but 8 per cent., while Indian bore-a slividend of 10-i per cent., was absolutely higher. The Government project, however, oozed out somehow ; and India Stock rose, Very much to the astonishment of all who were not in the secret, to 208; so that, in reality, up to the present day, the Government proposal, has improved the value of this Stock by 15 per cent. Compare this with the rapid fall in the value of Bank of Eng- land Stock, immediately upon the publication *of the Report of the Se- lect Committee. In a word, those who purchased India Stock a few months back at 190, are likely to enjoy in perpetuity an interest of full 54 per cent, for their capital: Surely the Directors themselves cannot be supposed to be very ill pleased with the scheme, when we see them insisting upon making the annuity irredeemable. . It is a redeeming portion of the Government scheme (a. part from the dabbling of proprietors in its administration, for we consider that a nuisance), that so considerable a class as the holders of India Stock are made to take an-interest in the peace, order; and *good government of India upon. which the punctual payment . Of their dividends is to

depend. . .

In 'conclusion' we must inform the reader, that probably not less than one-half of the East India Directors—of the very men who object to the security of the India territory, for the payment of the annuity of 630,000/. under so many additional advantages--are themselves to a large extent creditors of the State upon the inferior security. which the Local Onvernment alone W8S enabled on its own authority to give. This is amusing enough ; but the fact is, that the Directors are sore at the prospect of losing power and patronage,—vexed to the soul, that they can no longer quarter sons and nephews to the tune of 100,0001. per annum, upon the profits of Congo and Bohea; and, as good stanch Tories—such for the most part they are—very meritoriously determined to drive as hard a bargain as they can with the Whig Ministers.