THE FUTURE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

ALL parties who will take the trouble to bully the poor Whigs, appear to find their advantage in doing so. The Tories bullied them, in the very first days of the. session, into placing an Ultra Tory in the Speaker's chair. Soon after, the Court bullied them into a continuation of all Naval and Military Sinecures. Then the Orange faction in Ireland, aided by the Tory faction in England, bullied them- into the Turkish Edict called the Irish Coercion Bill. The money-changers of the Temple, the Bank Directors, bullied them into a twenty years' monopoly of the English money- market. The Slave-owners and mortgagees of the West'Indies, in ten short days, have bullied them into converting a loan of fifteen millions into a gift of twenty millions, without an equivalent or the semblance of an equivalent. Lastly, and this is the topic of our present consideration, the paltry Directors of the East India Company have hectored the Whigs into an enormous annuity and a twenty years' lease of the government of eighty millions of British subjects.

On former occasions, we have strongly animadverted on the ex- travagant terms granted by the Ministry to the East India Com- pany; and since the speech of the President of the Board of Con- tic] oil the 13th instant, our grounds of objection have become still stronger. The East India Company are to receive an annuity of 630,0001., being the amount of the dividend which the proprie- tors at present receive. This annuity is to continue for a period of forty years, being at the end of that time redeemable at the rate of 1001. sterling for every 51. 5s. To secure the payment of this .annuity, as well as for the final liquidation of the capital, a gua- rantee fund is to be formed in England amounting to two millions sterling. The Crown takes over the whole commercial assets of the Company on behalf of the people of India ; who become liable, in consideration of this bargain made for them, without their con- sent being asked or given, bargain the amount of the annuity. In short, twelve millions sterling, bearing an interest of 51 per cent. (equal to 21,000,000/. of 3 per cent. Consols), is added to the na- tional debt of India. Mr. GRANT assures us that the payment of the annuity is to be no additional burden upon the people of India; by which he would have us to believe, that the people of Indict receive a substantial equivalent,—or, in other terms, that the com- mercial assets handed over by the Company are at least equal' to the payment of the annuity of 630,0001. per annum, or the capital of twelve or twenty-one millions, according to the denomination in

which we estimate it. We shall briefly inquire, then, into the nature of the supposed assets; into the right of the East India Company to the annuity proposed to be granted to them ; and into the nature of the compromise which a spirited and prudent Government ought to have made for the people of India, in so fir as the pecuniary bargain alone is concerned.

Having already discussed the pretended value of the Company's commercial assets, we shall not-at present enter into any minute de- tail. On the 1st of May 1829, the net commercial assets of the Corn. pany are computed by themselves to have amounted to twenty-one millions sterling, in so far as England is concerned, or, including India, to better than 22,600,000/. Two or three samples will show the reader at a glance, the absurd and extravagant manner in which these assets are computed. Five millions and a half are put down for goods unsold in England,estimated at the market- prices. The goods here alluded to consist almost entirely of Tea; which is computed at double the price of the same commodity at Hamburg, or Havre, or Rotterdam. There is here an exaggera- tion, therefore, equal to at least two millions. The East India House and warehouses are estimated at very nearly 1,300,000/. This bears the aspect of impudent hyperbole upon its face. if put up to the hammer to-morrow, as they ought to be, they would not fetch the odd hundreds of thousands, and the million is a nett exaggeration. We have then a pretended debt exceeding 4,600,0001., said to be due by the Indian territory to the Company in its commercial ca- pacity. Of the possibility of such a balance against the territo- rial department in favour of the commercial, the reader may judge from the results of an account given in by the Accountant-Gene- ral of the India Board for a single year. From this, it appears that the ultimate surplus of the whole of the Company's commer- cial profits, after paying the dividend of 630,000., amounted to no more than 62,895/. The bond-debt, clearly a commercial one, and amounting to more than 3,800,0001., is not deducted from the Company's capital, in the account; and then the territory is to be burdened with the payment of enormous pensions and superannu- ations to the commercial servants. These pensions amounted in 1830 to above 45,0001.: but this is a small affair. There is now to be added to it, with the sanction of the Ministry, annuities and pensions to a variety of parties connected with the commercial de- partment, who are drawing, at present, salaries and allowances, according to the official statements, which amount to 309,8131. If these worthies be pensioned on the principle for which the Company has obtained a Parliamentary sanction,—that is, at the rate of two thirds of their present allowances, the people of India will be charged for many a year with a pension-list equal (in round numbers) to about 250,000/. per annum. Many of the parties who are to receive these pensions are young men, and even boys. If, then, we take their average ages at thirty-five, and the interest of money at 4 per cent., a perpetual burden of 3,500,000/. is laid on the shoulders of the unhappy Indians, to crown the long jobbing of the East India Company. So much for the fair com- promise of the Right Honourable the President of the Board of. Control.

And now as to the right or claim of the East India Company to the annuity of 630,000/. per annum which has been granted to them. Their original capital stock, or pretended capital stock, is six millions sterling; and upon this sum, with ludicrous uni- formity, they have paid themselves a dividend of 101 per cent., in

peace and in war, with high profits or low profits, or no profits at all, for forty long years. Two or three times over, they have received au- thority from Parliament to add to their capital, by borrowing, at the rate of 201)/. for every 100/. of nominal capital. In this manner, the

proprietors of stock have come to make themselves and the public believe that their capital has actually been doubled; indeed, a

good deal more than doubled, for instead of the present market rate of interest of 4 per cent., they have assumed profits at 10} per cent., and thus raised their 100/. to nearly 250/. Allowing them, at the termination of their monopoly, to be solvent, (no trifling concession, considering their prodigality), what the proprietors would have been entitled to from the public on a surrender of their assets, would have been six millions sterling ; which, at the mar- ket rate of interest, would have given them an annuity of about 240,000/. We have therefore given them, on the security of the Indian territory, 390,000/. more than they were strictly entitled to ; and we have burdened India with a debt exceeding ten mil- lions beyond what was absolutely necessary, not to mention the charge of three millions and a half to meet the commercial pen- sion-list.

We formerly admitted, and we still admit, that the proprietors of' India Stock have so long deluded themselves, or been deluded through the alliance of their executive body with the Tory Government of the country, into a belief that their 100/. of Stock was really worth 200/., that it was necessary to assume this prin- ciple as a matter of mere expediency in making a fair compromise with them. It was by no means necessary, however, that the in terest should be fixed, not only now, but for forty years—indeed, virtually in perpetuity—at the rate of 51 per cent. That rate of

interest might have been just and proper in a period of war, when the market rate of interest in this country was 5, 6, 7, and even 8 per cent: but it is, at present, unjustifiably extravagant; and to

fix it so in perpetuity, amounts to unpardonable prodigality. It is perfectly clear, that no such favourable terms were contemplated on the Stock Exchange by the proprietors or by the public. This is easily proved, by a reference to dates. In the months of June and July, and in the ble inning of August 1832, Bank of England Stock and India Steck were exactly the same price—viz. from 199 to 200 per Pent., &though the dividend on the one was but 8 per cent. and that on the other was 101 per cent. On the 20th of August, after the publ ication of the Commons' Report on the Bank, which was considered unfavourable, the Stock of the latter fell to 185, India Stock maintaining its price. On the 24th March, Bank Stock was at 198 and India Stock at 208. Had the latter, at this moment, been considered of equal value to the first, it ought to have been very nearly 260. It is clear, then, that. up to this time, nothing beyond the then market price of the Stock was ex- pected by the holders. Next day, the Government project was published, and India Stock rose, in half an hoar, from 208 to 223. As early as the 6th of April, our prediction was conveyed in the following terms—" The Stock will rise first to some 230, and in no long time, to not probably less than 259." This has nearly taken place, for the Stock has actually been at 249.

It is pretended by the Ministry and their friends, that the high rate at which they have calculated the annuity (101 per cent.), was no more than equivalent to the necessary difference between the Indian and European security offered to the Stockholders. There is not the slightest foundation fur this pretext. The very parties-who are now in the position of creditors, have been them- selves, at various times, borrowers, in. India, to the extent of no less than forty millions sterling, upon the simple security of the Indian territory,—or rather, the supposed security of the ter- ritory; for down to the present moment, Parliament has never given even this guarantee, and proposes only to do so in the bill which is now to be introduced. Of this Indian territorial debt, up- wards of eight millfons and a half have been borrowed at 6 per cent., the interest being demandable in England by such of the holders as reside in England. This part of the debt, bearing but one half per cent. more interest than is now given to the India Stockholders, was at a premium of 35 per cent. in January last. Not less than twenty millions of this debt have been borrowed at the rate of 5 per cent.; and although the interest is not of right payable in England to any party, even this was at a premium, in some cases. as high as 5 per cent. Of the Indian debt, a small portion (about 250,0001.) has been borrowed, of late years, at so low an interest as 4 per cent.; and even this by the last accounts was at a discount of no more than from one half to one per cents—which was, in fact, little more than a brokerage. It is most obvious from this circumstance, that the East India Company had no right to better terms as creditors than they gave to others as borrowers; and it will scarcely appear doubtful, that the demand of a guarantee fund of three millions in England (for that was the amount asked for) ma the part of those who never dreamt of obtaining for their Indian creditors a territorial security under Parliamentary sanction, is an example of modest assurance not easily paralleled.

The just and fair course towards all parties, permitting the Company to compute every 100/. of their capital Stock at 2001., would have been, to reduce the rate of dividend or interest from IN per Bent. to 8 per cent., on the same principle (and surely the

holder of Indian Stock had, to say the least, no better claim) as was pursued with the holders of Navy Five per Cents. in 1821. The In- dian Stocks would have maintained the prices which they bore be-

fore the promulgation of the Government scheme; and without in- jury to any party, an immediate saving to the State would have ac- crued, equal to 150,0001. per annum. But, as was the case with

the British fund alluded to, the 8 per cent. ought to have been re- duced to 7 after a period of seven years; and finally, should the 34 per cents. be at 100, to 6 per cent. This would have produced an annual saving, in the first case of 210,0001., and in the last of

270,0001.; a sum sufficient to defray all the charges of the Home Government of India, and to pay for all the incumbrances which have sprung out of the commercial mismanagement of two cen- turies. If we compare the rise which has taken place in East In- dia Stock, with that in the Public Funds,—in such heavy stocks, for instance, as the Four or the new Three-and-a-half,—we shall see at once that the rise in the first amounts to a clear excess of about 20 per cent. Without anticipating any further advance (which, however, by the way is quite certain—for we anticipate from 260-to 265,, should the Public Funds continue to advance), it will appear from this statement, that the Ministers have already agreed to give a check on the helpless Indians for about two mil- lions and a half sterling, as a bribe to the East India Company to hold their tongues —to be quiet and give them no trouble.

We have already denounced the absurd as well as shameful and impolitic part of the Government project, which grants to the pro-

prietors of East India Stock, a twenty years' lease of the adminis-

tration of eighty millions of people. Lord GREY might as well make a patent office of the Treasury, or Mr. CHARLES GRANT se-

cure to himself a life-interest in the Presidency of the Board of Control, as the Whig Ministry give a lease of the government of a people to the old men, old women, or young children, who have heretofore, according to the circumstances in which they have been placed, been only remarkable for their mismanagement or incapa- city when left to themselves, or their servility and subserviency to power when under control. Our Whig Conservatives no doubt flatter themselves that they have fixed the destinies of India for twenty _years Agether, by placing it in paper fetters; but they will find thentselves much deceived. The sea will roll on despite the Canutes of Cannon Row and Leadenhall Street.

In conclusion, we state, as a matter of common justice, that there are two portions of the Government project-extremely well accomplished. The Tea-trade and commerce of China are thrown open, in a spirit equally liberal and comprehensive; and the prin- ciples on which the colonization or settlement of Englishmen in India is proposed to be established, are of a similar character. The rest of the scheme, with the exception of an insulated detail here and there, is entitled only to our reprobation. It is poor in design, and clumsy and expensive in executi m.