presented as the causes which have produced the present embarrassments in the Company's affairs, and the grounds on which they pray for such relief as Parliament may think fit to grant

It will be evident from the examination of the several accounts contained in the appendix to this report, which exhibit a view of the Company's pecuniary concerns in England during the last ten years, when compared with the estimate for 1808-9, that the deficiencies of the last and present year have pro ceeded from causes which have been progressive in their operation, and that the state of affairs which those accounts now exhibit is to be traced to a combination of various circumstances connected with the wars in which the Company have been engaged in India, as well as with the general state of warfare in which a large portion of Europe has for a long period been involved. Your committee have selected from the annual accounts of the Company's affairs at home, which have been presented to Parliament during the last ten years, a comparative statement of receipts and payments in such articles as have experienced or admit of any considerable variation in their amount. It will appear from that account, that the present deficiency may be ascribed principally to the following causes:

and demorage of the Company's shipping; the estimated amount of the same for the year 1808-9, being £276,251 more than the average of the ten preceding years; £276,712 more than the average of the first five years of that period; and £275,790 more than the average of the last five years.

Whether the system new pursued by the Company, in the description of vessels which they have been accustomed to employ, is the most economical to them or the most beneficial to the country, or whether it is calculated to withstand the competition of foreign nations, are points on which your committee are not yet prepared to pronounce an opinion; but which they consider to be of the highest importance, as they affect not only the commercial prosperity of the Company, but the permanent interest of the British empire, in the preservation and exclusive enjoyment of a valuable portion of its trade. In estimating this charge, to which the commerce of the Company is exposed, from the rate of freight, it must be recollected that the means of defence and consequent security which the size and structure of their ships afford to their valuable cargoes, and to the transport of troops and military stores, must necessarily be included in any comparison between the present and any other system which may be suggested, 1st. To the diminished sale of the Com- Sdly. To the increased amount of bills of pany's goods; the sum estimated to be receiv-exchange drawn on the Company in England ed from such sales for the year 1808-9 being £1,394,589 less than the average of the ten preceding years; £2,200,996 less than the average of the first five years of that period; and £588,183 less than the average of the last five years.

from India and China; the estimated amount of which for the year 1808-9 being £725,409 more than the average of the ten preceding years; £521,970 inore than the average of the first five years of that period; and £928,845 more than the average of the last five years.

It would lead your committee much beyond the limits within which they propose to con It is unquestionably to those heavy drafts fine this report, if they were to enter upon the from India and China on the Company's trea discussion of all the causes to which the gra- surv at home, that the largest portion of the dual decrease in the amount of the Company's deficiency in their funds during the last and sales, during the last ten years, may possibly present year must be ascribed. Your coinbe ascribed. It will appear, however, frommittee have been informed, that in consethe account of sales during that period, that in the article of tea, which forms a large proportion of their whole trade, no diminution has taken place, but it has chicfy occurred in the imports from India, and particularly in the different descriptions of piece goods. The increased consumption of cotton stuffs manufactured in Britain, and the advantages derived to neutral nations from the expense at which the [British] trade to India must necessarily be carried on during war, as well as the obstructions inseparable from that state of war which has existed with little intermission since the renewal of the Company's charter in 1793, are the causes to which, in the opinion of your committee, the diminished sale of Indian imports may principally be attributed.

2dly. To the increased expense of freight

quence of arrangements which the Court of Directors have adopted, and of orders which they have transmitted to China, the amount of bills from thence is not likely to increase, and that in all probability it will fall considerably below the average of former years. Your committee have not been enabled to form any such expectation with regard to the amount of bills from India. Any interruption in the tranquillity of the Company's territories would create increased demands on their treasury at home, which can only be effectually avoided by a surplus revenue in India. The attainment of that object, either by a reduction of expenditure or by additional revenue, or by the operation of both those causes, is indis pensable to the maintenance of the Com pany's credit and power in India; and to

this important subject your committee will, without delay, direct their most serious at

tention.

Your committee have confined themselves in this report to a statement of the principal causes which have produced the present deficiency. There are others, however, of infe rior amount, which have contributed to augment it. The charge of payments to military and marine officers retired from the service, has been gradually increasing for several years, and amounts now to a sum much beyond the calculation which was formed of it when the system was first established.

The addition to the Company's bonded debt has also contributed to swell the deficit, by the increased charge of interest.

With the view of inquiring into the practicability of retrenchment in expenditure, your . committee have called for the detail of the articles comprehended under the head of "Charges General," which, in the aggregate, amounts annually to a very considerable

sum.

claims, and in which nothing is allowed for their property afloat, and which will arrive in England subsequently to that period, though a large portion of the charges affecting that property will be incurred and paid during the current year. Estimating the amount in that most unfavourable mode, there will remain a balance of £2,819,587 in favour of the Company. If credit however is given for the va lue of that property, and the sum due by the public is stated at the amount claimed by the Company, the estimated balance in their favour will be £9,050,587.

It will be apparent to the house, from the examination of those accounts, that the most accurate estimates which can be formed of such articles of receipt and expenditure as are comprehended in them, must be liable to uncertainty; but your committee have no reason to doubt, that every practicable degree of caution has been used in preparing them.

Your committee have already stated, that they are proceeding upon the detailed investi gation of the various matters comprehended As far as your committee have yet investiin the general object of their inquiry, and gated this account, hey have found no reason which embrace the whole of the financial and to believe that it is capable of any material re- commercial as well as political concerns of duction, but they propose to go into a more the Company. An examination into the cidetailed examination of the particular articles vil and military establishments in India will of which it consists. And, entertaining this form a material, branch of that inquiry; and intention, they forbear at present laying be your committee are already strongly impressfore the house any thing more than an ab-ed with the necessity of carrying into effect stract of the account, and of its principal sub-¦ divisions for the last three years, as it has been prepared by the Court of Directors.

The Company having stated in their petition, that they did not presume to request the interposition of the house to aid them "in their present emergency, without at the same time shewing their unquestionable ability to discharge all their present debts in England, and to repay whatever the house may in its wisdom think fit to assist them with ;" and having submitted to the house a statement in that petition, by which it appeared that a considerable balance would remain to them, after making provision for the payment of all their debts in England, but exclusive of their Indian debt; your committee felt it their duty carefully to investigate that part of the subject, and they have no difficulty in stating an opinion, that there will remain assets in this country to amount considerably beyond what the present exigency of the Company's affairs appears to demand, in security for any advance to that extent which parliament inay think fit to

grant.

an

Your committee have prepared an account of the probable assets of the Company on the 1st of March, 1809, in which the amount of debt due to them by the public, as the balance of their account, is taken only at £1,500,419, instead of £2,460,000, which the Company

reductions in the amount of those establishments to a very considerable extent. Your tant subject has also engaged the serious atcommittee are happy to add, that this importention of the Court of Directors, and of their governments abroad.

We have omitted that part of the Re-. port which refers to the Report made by a former Committee upon this subject on the 26th day of June, 1805."* An Appendix is added consisting of a variety of papers elucidating the state of the Company's affairs, from which we select the following for the farther information of our readers.

* It was divided into three classes, the first composed of such heads of charge as should fall, in the opinion of the committee framing that report, exclusively on the public; the second, of such as should be borne exclusively by the Company; and the third, consisting of charges to be divided equally between both parties. The principles on which some of the articles then investiga.ed, and reported as proper to fall wholly on the Company, do not appear satisfactory to the present Committee: and the probability is, that some of them may obtain either an entire revision, or an al lowance, or set-off, in some other shape, to the advantage of the Company.

Classification of Accounts between East-India Company and the Public.

26th June, 1805. The committee appointed to take into consideration the Account between the Public and the East India Com-jesty's navy, repairs to King's ships, &c.:

Average of the Receipts and Payments of the East India Company, in England, for the following Periods; with an Estimate of the same from 1st March, 1808, to 1st March, 1809.

L. 7,095,636

635] An Estimate of the Debts and Credits of the East-India Company, in England, [636 exclusive of their Capital Stock, as they will stand on the 1st March 1809.

1

An addition is made to the value of the EastIndia house and warehouses by reason of the sum of £27600, which will be expended for buildings in the course of this year, which is included in the estimate of receipts and disbursements to the 1st March 1809.

The estimated value of goods expected to be received from India and China in the year 1809-10 is £5271000, to purchase which large payments have been and will be made in England previous to the 1st March 1809. It is taken at the same amount as the preceding year, having no information from which a new estimate might be made.

Of the sum of £2450000 claimed to be due to the Company by the public on the 1st March 1808, only £1500000 is computed to be paid.

STATE OF EAST INDIA COTTON GOODS. The consumption of East-India cotton goods in this country has decreased very considerably.

Some few fabrics of East-India muslins have increased in their price, but speaking generally of East-India cotton goods, they are lower,

From 25 to 30 per-cent. lower than the average prices of six or seven years past.

The fall of the price of East-India goods for ` home consumption must be ascribed certainly to the interference of the British manufactures.

Dealers in East-India cotton goods, have been made under the necessity of keeping the Brifish muslins, within the last two years, to furnish the assortment for their own immediate connections.

The exportation of East-India cotton goods has diminished in a considerable degree: owing principally to the want of intercourse with the continent, but in a material degree to the improvements made in the British manufacture of cotton goods, which now supplant the India for many purposes upon the continent, and particularly in the printing manufactories, in which EastIndia cotton goods were formerly alone used.

The improved state of the cotton manufac tures upon the continent has not entirely prevented the exportation from this country, for when the duty on the continent was about 40 per-cent. very