which, even the easiest of construction, has yet been carried into practical operation beyond the insignificant distance stated.

Tribunal for Redress of Grievances.

One of the greatest evils of the East India Company's rule has been the exemption which they have hitherto been allowed to enjoy from responsibility to the jurisdiction of English Courts of Justice, for the most flagrant wrongs committed by their servants and under their authority in India. Cases are perpetually occurring in which such wrongs are inflicted; and by a rule of their own establishing, no Memorial even, complaining of the wrong or seeking redress, can ever be sent home to the Court of Directors, without its being transmitted open, through the local Government that has inflicted the wrong! The consequence is, that in some cases, the Memorial never reaches the Court at all, and there is no power of calling any one to account for this, either in India or in England. If sent, it is sure to be accompanied with such comments and explanations by the authority complained against, as to destroy all its force, while the complainant is not present to rebut them, and knows nothing even of their nature or existence. Added to this, the Company have a rule of their own, equally convenient to them and to their servants, that whatever is done by their authorities in India towards others, must be defended, however unjustifiable it may be: because to open the door to redress of grievances, would lead to endless complaints, and the shortest way, therefore, is to strangle them in the cradle!

Many native Indians, on learning this, have innocently come to England themselves to seek redress, and have applied in person to the Court of Directors. They have been gene

rally received with the greatest politeness, and sometimes flattered into submission by personal attentions and splendid hospitalities; but in default of this, they are told that the Directors can listen to no complaints except they are transmitted through the usual channels (meaning the local authorities in India, the very parties complained against). In their despair, the complainants appeal to the Board of Control, misled by the name to suppose that this is a Board to control, or correct the Directors when wrong, and by its overruling authority to compel redress when they refuse it; little dreaming that as the President of the Board has, by courtesy, as large a share of the Indian patronage as the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Company, and twice the amount of the ordinary members, he continually identifies his interest with theirs; and however he may compel them to sign despatches of his own, every line of which they disapprove, yet in any case in which they wrong an individual, the President is as sure to defend the Company in Parliament, as if the patronage they allow him by courtesy were regarded by him as a retaining fee to counsel.

The President therefore refers the complainant back again to the Court of Directors; and these have but one answer, which is, to refer him again to the local government in India. In his last effort for justice he gets some nine Proprietors of East India Stock, who feel for his wrongs, to summon a Court of their body at the India House for the discussion of his case. In due time they assemble with solemn form. The Directors themselves muster in full force, and sit within the bar as the dignitaries of the Court; though, in point of fact, they are the very parties whose acts are complained of, and who are therefore on their trial. The farce proceeds, by some independent member detailing the grievance at length,—

when a resolution for its redress is proposed and duly seconded. But as the proprietors are nearly all subservient to the Directors, to whose patronage they are constantly looking for rewards, and therefore dare not offend them; and as the Directors know that they can command their votes, they listen with the greatest complacency to the tale of wrongs detailed, permitting the speeches to go on till nearly all present are tired out; and then moving, as an amendment, "the previous question," or "that the Court do now adjourn,” which, being proposed by the Directors themselves as the easiest way of getting rid of the disagreeable subject, is sure to be carried by a large majority. The meeting is then dispersed; and the unhappy complainant is as much surprised as mortified to find that all this talk has ended in nothing; and that the redress he came to England to seek in person is just as far distant as ever!

This is not an imaginary picture. Four such cases of as flagrant wrong as ever was committed by the most despotic government on earth are now existing,-the injured parties or their Indian representatives being actually now in England seeking in vain for redress. The one is the case of the Nabob of the Carnatic; the other, the heir of the Rajah of Sattarah; the third, certain Parsee merchants of Bombay; and the fourth, the Rajah of Coorg, whose daughter has been recently baptized as a Christian under the sponsorship of her Majesty the Queen, but who has nevertheless been deprived of his private property by the Indian authorities, for which he can get no redress; and when he asks the India Company to grant him a prolonged leave of absence, that he may remain a little longer with his daughter who is to be left in this country, and whom he may never therefore see again, he is ordered forthwith to return to India, without the redress he came home to seek, under pain of their severe displeasure!

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Under the Imperial Government of India, such events as these should never be permitted to take place without redress. And to render this more secure, some public declaration should be made, that all parties in India, rulers as well as subjects, should be amenable to British Courts of Justice, both in that country and in this; as her Majesty and the highest authorities in the realm are in England. Or, if it be thought that the peculiarities of such cases would require a Special Tribunal for the Redress of Grievances, let one be established in India, and one in England, composed of competent persons wholly independent, like the English judges appointed for life, and furnished with all the necessary powers to hear evidence, examine witnesses, and enforce their judgment by the same process as the ordinary Courts of Law and Equity in the land, so that the maxim, "that there can be no wrong without a remedy," may no longer be a standing lie, as it has hitherto been frequently proved even in England, and still more frequently in India, but be made a solemn truth, and acted upon accordingly.

Finances of the Company.

The original Capital of the East India Company, as a Trading Association, was 6,000,000l. sterling; and in the early periods of their commerce they divided as much as 200 per cent. profit, which dwindled by slow degrees and progressive stages to 150-then to 100-and lastly to 80 per cent.; and if they had confined themselves to trading only, without forming territorial conquests, enjoying as they did an exclusive monopoly of the commerce with India and China, and all the other countries forming the richest half of the globe, lying between the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, and including more than half the population of

the world, they would in all probability have continued to realize at least 50 per cent. as their lowest dividend, as long as their exclusive Charter lasted. But, in an evil hour, they were tempted by the ambition of territorial acquisitions; and as this required the erection of forts, the organization of troops, and all the other expensive apparatus of war, their trading profits soon became absorbed in the cost of territorial government. Every new acquisition, notwithstanding the richness of the territory, and the large amount of plunder often yielded by the conquest, in addition to its annual produce, brought new and heavier charges, so that the Company's debt continually increased; and after two hundred years of exclusive enjoyment of the greatest commercial privileges ever granted to, or enjoyed by, any mercantile association since the world began, they have accumulated an avowed debt of 50,000,000l., and an increasing one of at least 10,000,000%. more; or ten times the amount of their original capital, with which they commenced their trade!

If this had been the career of any other mercantile association, it would of course have been declared bankrupt, and the shareholders in its stock would have been without the slightest claim to any further participation of capital or interest from such a shipwrecked concern. But, from the favour which, by means that may be more easily conceived than safely described, the Company's Directors have always succeeded in commanding from crowned heads, ministers, and members of both houses of Parliament (many of whom are large holders of their stock, and many, also, large participators in their patronage for the relatives of their families. and friends), they have not only escaped the fate which would have awaited any other Company not having such