ceffes. Much mifchief was done, and many lives were loft in different places. The magiftrates being at length obliged to call in the military force to the aid of the civil, the rioters were eafily dif perfed, and the jails filled with prifoners. Judges were foon after fent to the countries were the riots had happened, with fpecial commiffions to bring the prifoners to immediate trial; in confequence of which feveral of the leaders, and others the most outrageous of them, were condemned to die; moft of thefe were how ever afterwards reprieved, feveral were tranfported, fome got a free pardon, and fome examples were made. In the mean time Sept. 11th, a proclamation was 1766. iffued, for putting in force feveral ftatutes that had been formerly paffed against foreftallers, regrators, and engroffers of corn. But many doubted, whether this proclamation was well conceived, or well timed. It was, in fome fort, prejudging the queftion, and declaring the fcarcity to be artificial, which experience has fince fhewn to have been but too natural. Many of the old laws relative to provifions are not well fuited to the prefent fyftem of our affairs; nor are they quite confonant to latter regulations upon the fame fubject. The old laws are at prefent dark in the conftruction, and extremely difficult in the execution. It was apprehended that this measure would have an effect contrary to the intentions of the council, and by frightening dealers from the markets, would increase that scarcity it was defigned to remedy. This was fo well felt, that little was done towards enforcing that proclamation, and it foon fell to the ground. The fame day on which this proclamation was paffed, the parliament, which was to have met on the 16th of September, was prorogued to the 11th of the following November. The price of wheat ftill increafing, ano- Sept. 26th. ther proclamation was iffued, (better adapted to its end than the former, but more doubtful in point of law,) to prohibit the exportation of grain. Meffengers were difpatched to the feacoats, to fee that the terms of the proclamation were complied with, and to prevent fuch fhips as were loaded with wheat, or wheat-meal, at the feveral ports, from proceeding with their cargoes. At the fame time, the ufe of wheat was prohibited the diftillery. The former proclamation became afterwards a fubject of much altercation in parliament. We gave in our laft volume a particular account of the great acquifitions that had been gained by the Eaft India company; of the flourishing ftate of its affairs; and the appearances there were of a ftability proportioned to this greatnefs. The later advices not only confirmed, but enlarged the value of thefe acquifitions; as every day fhewed their greater importance, and difcovered fome new part of the immense property, which the company was poffeffed of in that part of the world. Immenfe fpoil, as it has often appeared too great for the minds of the conquerors, fo it has fometimes funk them to a worfe con dition than that in which they had left the vanquished. The amazing fucceffes of the company, and the vaft profits arifing from them, firft kindled diffenfion among their fervants in the Eaft, and then produced contentions of equal violence in the company itself. It had been long expected, and much wifhed by the proprietors of Eaft-India ftock, that they fhould enjoy a fhare of thofe fweets, which were the confequences of their foreign fuccefs; and which they faw hitherto entirely engroffed by their fervants, who came home every day incumbered with princely fortunes. As the profperous ftate of the company's affairs was now publicly known and afcertained, it was accordingly expected, by many proprietors, that the directors would have immediately declared a fuitable increase of dividend. This feemed to them the more reasonable, as the ftate of dividend then flood at the lowest point to which it ever had been reduced, having been lowered from eight to fix per cent. in the most critical period of the late war; when the company was in the moft diftreffed fituation, and a continuance even of its exiftence appeared more than doubtful. They thought that a great revenue and a flourishing trade ill agreed with a low dividend, and tended to fink, to an artificial lownefs, the price of ftock, to the great lofs of the prefent poffeffors, and the advantage of future deal ers. Thefe inclinations of the proprietors did not in any degree coincide with the opinion of the directors. While the greateft part of the former confidered only the fucceffes of the company, the directors faw nothing but its debts. Two factions arofe upon this fubject; one for increafing the dividend; the other, which was influenced by the direction, for keeping it at the then standard of fix per cent. At the midfummer court, it was intended, by the former, that if the directors did not voluntarily declare an increase of dividend, to put it to the queftion, and have it decided by the majority of proprietors prefent. As this intention was publicly known, fo its fuccefs was fufficiently guarded againft, and prevented. At June 18th. the opening of the court, a friend of the directors. made a motion for increafing the dividend to eight per cent.; the directors having declared their difapprobation of this motion, the maker immediately withdrew it. This adroit management put it entirely out of the power of the proprietors to bring it on again at that meeting, as it would have been contrary to the established rules and forms of the court. The addrefs that was fhewn in this tranfaction, did not protect it from cenfure: the conduct of the directors was fcrutinized with great feverity: the fuppofed motives to it were laid open, and the public papers became the common field for the difcuffion of India affairs, which were canvaffed with great animofity, each party accufing the other of the moft corrupt defigns, and of mifreprefenting, for private purpofes, the real ftate of the company's affairs. party for the directors admitted that the company had gained great advantages in the Eaft: but at The the advantages arifing from it. That the cautious economy of the directors was confined to the proprietors only, while motions for the most profufe private grants were eagerly adopted by them. As to the debts which the company owed; the reafons drawn from thence for not increafing the dividend were, they infifted, futile and abfurd. It was faid that the company, while ever it continued a commercial one, as well as every other company of merchants, muft always, in the nature of things, owe large fums of money. That, in the prefent cafe, the creditors looked upon their se. the fame time had plunged themfelves into great difficulties by the expence attending their extenfive military operations. That their profits were comparatively remote and precarious; their debts urgent and certain; and that juf. tice and good policy concurred in recommending, in the firft place, a difcharge of their incumbrances, before they thought of enjoying their profits. They recalled the tranfactions of the memorable South-fea year, and the fraudulent methods then used for the raifing of that ftock. They afferted that fuch a premature attempt to augment the dividend, would raife the price of their fund to an extra-curity to be fo good, and thought vagant height, at which it would be impoffible to fupport it, would add fresh fuel to the ardour for, gaming, encourage ftock-jobbing, and open a new field to all the myfterious tranfactions of 'Change Alley. On the other hand, it was reprefented as the greatest hardship, that many of thofe proprietors whofe property had lain in the hands of the company during the molt dangerous periods of the war, night now, through necef. fity, be obliged to difpofe of their ftock, without having the smallest compenfation made them for the great risks they had run. That, in this cafe, new men, whether natives or foreigners, would come in for the benefits to which the old proprietors were fo juftly entitled, as the marketable price of ftock always depended upon the dividend it yielded. That it was a novelty peculiar to the prefent time, to fee that the poffeffors of property were the only people who could not enjoy any of the their money fo well laid out, that there was nothing they feared more than the payment of it; a clear proof of which was, that the bonds bore a premium, fo that they could fell them for more than the original debt that was 'owing on them. The Dutch East India company was alfo introduced as a precedent, which divided 20 per cent. upon its capital, though the poffeffions and revenues of the Dutch, in that part of the world, were not at prefent, in any degree, equal to thofe of the English. As to the invidious mention of the South-fea bubble, they obferved, that it was no way applicable to the prefent cafe: that the high rate of that ftock was built upon an imaginary bafis, which had no real existence; fo that its fuccefs depended entirely upon the paffions and covetoufnefs of the people, which were the only engines it had to make ufe of. That, on the contrary, nothing could be better afcertained than the property of the company; and that nothing could could be more equitable, than that the poffeffors of this property fhould be able, whenever they thought fit, to difpofe of it at the full and real value. That when every man, buyer and feller, knew the intrinsic value of ftock, by the dividend which it yielded, there would be no further room for ftockjobbing; but that the uncertainty which the prefent mode of conduct occafioned, operated fo ftrongly and fo differently upon the minds of the public, that there was a greater fluctuation in the price, and the pernicious effects of stockjobbing were more fenfibly felt, than they had been at any other time. This courfe of diffenfion and al. tercation between the members of the fame company, was productive of confequences, which were then little foreseen or expected. Every thing relative to them was now laid before the public; the exact ftate of their immenfe property became known to all perfons; their moft private fecrets were unveiled; their charters, their rights, their poffeffions, their conduct at home and abroad; their difputes, and their utility to the nation, were now matters of eager and public difcuffion. The company became the ground for the moft abfurd projector to build his vifionary fcheme on; and its property was an object to exercife the invention of the idle, the needy, and the rapacious. As the quarterly meeting approached, at which it was expected that the great object of difpute between the oppofite parties would come again upon the carpet, it was for fome time whif. pered about, by the friends of one of them, that the government intended to interfere in fome man. ner in the difpofition of India af fairs. Such an interference had been fo unufual, that the report at firft gained no manner of credit. A few days before the meeting of the Michaelmas general court, a mes fage was, however, actually received by the directors from the miniftry; and it was immediately noifed about that the government had abfolutely forbidden any increafe of dividend, and had alfo denounced threats against the company, which ftruck at its very exiftence. The novelty of an English minifter of ftate venturing to interfere, as an officer of the crown, in a matter of private property, excited, in the highest degree, the attention of all forts of people.Many, however, ftill fuppofed that the report was calculated only to anfwer the particular purposes of a party, or, at leaft, that the terms were upon that account greatly exaggerated. The opening of the general Sept. 24th. court at length relieved this curiofity; a meffage in writing from the firft Lord of the Treafury, and fome other of the minifters, was read, fetting forth, Letters were at the fame time read from Lord Clive, and from the fecret committee at Bengal, which not only confirmed but exceeded the accounts that had been formerly received of the great opulence of the company, the extenfion of its trade, and the permanent bafis on which, as far as human forefight could judge, its fecurity was now eftablished. The directors, notwithstanding, ftill oppofed an increase of dividend; and upon a motion being made for that purpofe, they infifted on a ballot, by which the decifion was evaded for a day or two. Another general court being called, this longcontefted queftion was decided by ballot, and the dividend, which was to take place from the enfaing Chriftmas, was increased, by a prodigious majority, from fix to ten per cent. We fhall take no farther notice of the fquabbles between the members of the Eaft-India company; we have already feen that they had brought on them the attention of the miniftry: a little time more gave them an carneft of the confequences; and as the difpofition of their affairs was in a great measure taken out of their own hands, we are from that time to confider them not as a private but a public ob. ject. CHA P. Such was the fituation of affairs when the parliament met in the beginning of the winter 1766. The fpeech from the throne obferved that the high price of wheat, and the great demand for it from abroad, had occafioned their being affembled fo early. It took notice of the urgent neceffity that occafioned an exertion of the royal authority, for the prefervation of the public fafety, by laying an embargo on wheat and wheat flour going out of the kingdom. It expreffed a warm fenfe of the late daring infurrections; a refolution that the criminals fhould be punifhed, and obedience to govern ment and the laws restored. VIII. A bill of indemnity for thofe concerned in the late embargo, brought in; great debates thereon; the bill paffed. The bill for refraining all acts of the affembly of New-York, brought in and paffed. Land tax reduced to three billings in the pound. Great debates upon India affairs; propofals made by the company for an accommodation with government; the propofals accepted, and a bill paffed for that purpose. Bill for regulating India dividends; great debates thereon; the bill paffes, and the houje breaks up. E OVER fince the 15th of Charles the Second, corn, when under a certain price, might be legally exported. Whenever it had been thought proper to break in upon this principle, it was always done by act of parliament. But when the proclamation was iffued, corn had not reached the price within which the exportation had been permitted. To lay an em bargo, therefore, by any fuppofed authority legally exifting in the king and council, under fuch cir cum |