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who were taught to look upon this portion of the press as an unmixed source of disorder and immorality. Important advantages, however, it is clear, resulted from its labours; not merely were many valuable truths in political economy disseminated, and the prejudices of bigotry and intolerance rooted out, but property secured, and a prodigious change wrought in the moral and intellectual character of the people. On the revilers and slanderers of the Reformers, we are aware, these arguments will make little impression; we shall have rather excited their fears than conciliated their esteem: their security is in the slavery and ignorance of the population; and they look to the diffusion of the principles of liberty and knowledge through the great mass of society with the same horror the wicked await the day of judgment and retribution.

These calumniators represent the present struggle as one betwixt property and no-property; whereas, it is a struggle betwixt that importance the people are acquiring, and which they ought to acquire, and the unprincipled usurpations of their rulers. The people have become much too enlightened for the present system. They have discovered its abuses, defects, and injustice. Their resistance to the Oligarchy is not a feverish excitement; it is not a transitory burst of enthusiasm, resulting from some brutal outrage of arbitrary power, but a permanent feeling, originating in a deliberate investigation of the causes of their privations. Such being the nature of the present discontents, they are not likely to subside. Time will rather increase than abate their force. To attempt to stifle them is chimerical. Coercion, while it irritates and prejudices men against its authors, invariably strengthens and confirms them in their opinions. Ministers may narrow the channel of information; but they cannot recall that stream of light which has been shed into every village, hamlet, and workshop of the kingdom. The people have little more to learn in respect of the present government. There is now scarcely an individual any way connected with its abuses whose name is not familiarly known in every part of the country. No factious juggle; no pretended zeal for religion, social order, and the security of property can now deceive. All the different classes-legal or ecclesiastical, their motives, interests, and hypocritical professions, have been fully exposed. But this is not all: the people are not only acquainted with the vices of the system, but also the most safe and effectual remedies. Formerly, they were the victims of spies and informers; they were deluded into abortive attempts against a system too strong in its corruptions, in the fears of some and the venality of others, to be pulled down by open disorganized violence; but caution, perseverance, and indestructible hatred to boroughmongering, an unceasing hostility to every thing tending to its support, are now the maxims of reformers.

Reform may be delayed for a time by the apathy of the middling classes. Something may be said in extenuation of the backwardness of this part of the community. Many of them, in a great measure, have acquired their wealth and importance under what is denominated the Pitt System; and they look to that system, with a

sort of filial gratitude, as the author of their being. But it is an egregious error to suppose that they are indebted for their wealth and advantages to the policy of Mr. Pitt. To that minister England owes nothing but her wars, her debt, her taxes, and poor-rates. These were the distinguishing features of his system; and they cannot be considered conducive to commercial prosperity. In fact, it is to the people, not to the government,-it is to the discoveries of Watt, Arkwright, and Wedgewood, that the merchants and manufacturers are indebted for their wealth; and that they have been enabled, in spite of stamp-duties, excises, taxes, and imposts, to maintain an ascendancy in every market of the world.

To Church and State the people owe little but their calamities. Even for their religious and moral character they are indebted solely to themselves. Certainly it is not to the formularies, the ostentation, and the principles of the ecclesiastical establishment, that they would look for either the forms or precepts of Christianity; and as little would they expect to find examples of morality in the licentious lives of nonresident incumbents, or in the bribery, drunkenness, and perjury of our representative system.

We shall now conclude our observations on the newspaper stampduties and the efforts of the Aristocracy to stop reform by the Vandal expedient of taxing knowledge. All their endeavours will prove abortive. They might as well try to shut out the light of the sun as to prevent the diffusion of intelligence. Will they not learn even from experience? Did not the Holy Alliance, in the plenitude of their prosperity, adopt every precaution which short-sighted tyranny could suggest to prevent the spread of liberal ideas; and how well they succeeded is not the present state of France, of Belgium, Germany, and Italy a triumphant answer? But the futility of the attempt does not lessen its turpitude. It may be likened to the endeavour of the Catholic priests to interdict from their followers the reading of the Scriptures in a language they understood. These religionists, like the boroughmongers in respect to political information, affected to be apprehensive the Sacred Volume would be misunderstood or misapplied, unless its contents were passed through the crucible of accredited agents. But the real motive, as every one knows, was the fear their craft would be exposed; they knew their emoluments, their influence, and the veneration in which they were held depended on popular ignorance. But the truth was at length discovered, and then followed a terrible reformation; which is exactly the result we should anticipate from similar exertions on the part of our political monks. Efforts to prevent the exposition of abuses would do more to confirm men in a belief of their existence, and the unprincipled nature of the system, than could be done by cheap publications in a century; and they admit their criminality in shrinking from investigation.

Knowledge is the great instrument by which the rights of the people are to be acquired; and, of course, it is against this powerful engine all the efforts of tyranny are directed. The chief objects sought to be

attained in legislating against the Press are, to enfeeble the spirit of public discussion, and narrow the circle of political information, by the joint operation of fear and vexatious restrictions. According to the laws now in force, every printer is compelled to print his name and place of abode at the bottom of every thing he prints; he is compelled to keep a copy, in order to its being produced, if called for, to the secretary of state; the printers and proprietors of a newspaper, or political periodical, are compelled to go to the stamp-office, and swear that they are so; they are obliged also to make oath to their several places of abode; and the publisher is obliged to deposit one copy of every number of the paper in the stamp-office, where it is ready to be produced against all the parties, in case of any prosecution for a libel.

To these impediments, in the way of political publications, may be added, the arbitrary and tyrannical powers of the attorney-general. This officer can, at any time, file an information; he can bring a man to trial, or put the trial off, and may thus keep a prosecution hanging over a man for an indefinite period. When a man is brought into court, he can stop the proceedings, or go on with them. If two men are prosecuted and convicted for the same thing, he may bring one up for punishment, and suffer the other to escape without any punishment at all. In 1809, Sir Vicary Gibbs introduced the dangerous practice of holding to bail, or sending to prison in default of bail, immediately an ex-officio information is filed; and this may be done without bringing, or having any intention to bring, the party to trial.

Supposing our legislators ever so successful in an attempt to fetter the Press, what advantages would they derive from it? Would it ensure prosperity to commerce and manufactures? Would it reduce the debt or the poor-rates? Would it relieve the distress of the rural population, or fill the coffers of the Chancellor of the Exchequer? Unless it would accomplish some of these, it would do nothing. It would not stop the progress of reform. That cause must and will triumph. The truths disseminated cannot be rooted out by the hand of power. It is not now a problematical, but a demonstrated truth that the calamities of the country flow from overwhelming taxation, originating in non-representation; that they are the effect of a shameless waste of the public money, participated in and supported by a corrupt House of Commons. This is the conviction of at least nine-tenths of the community; and it cannot be destroyed by gagging-bills.

EAST-INDIA COMPANY.

AMONG the various monopolies and privileged communities which impede individual enterprise and national prosperity, the East-India Company and the Bank of England stand pre-eminent: these form the out-works, the strong holds, of the borough system; and, by their various connexions and interests, add greatly to that mass of influence by which the latter is supported. Both these powerful associations have become more like petty states, acknowledging a feudatory dependence on the sovereign chief, than companies of traders, originally incorporated for commercial purposes. Both have risen from very humble beginnings, and perhaps it would not be easy to strike the balance of turpitude by which their power has been respectively acquired. Both have been nurtured under the fostering care of the Oligarchy, to which, under particular emergencies, they have been indebted for assistance; and, probably, it is from a knowledge of this obligation, that these chartered bodies feel such a lively interest in the safety of the state, and that whenever any popular movement indicates proceedings hostile to the government, they are instantly alarmed, and the Bank and the India-House immediately placed in an attitude of defence.

Both the Bank and the East-India Company claim particular attention, from the period having arrived about which their charters expire; and the legislature will shortly have to determine their future immunities, and the relative position in which they are to stand to the government and the community.

Before entering on the exposition of the present state of the EastIndia Company, it will be proper to give a brief outline of the history of this powerful association, and briefly indicate those extraordinary events by which a few traders in mace, nutmegs, and ginger, have been able to extend their sway over 120 millions of inhabitants, whose happiness depends on their wisdom and justice. In giving this notice, we shall enter into no detail of Asiatic triumphs, of battles and sieges. We have little taste for these things at best, but still less when the

combatants are unequally matched,-when we should have to present a counterpart to the conquest of Peru and Mexico by the Spaniards,exhibit the conflicts of wolves and sheep, and show how a handful of crafty, hardy, and unprincipled Europeans wrested a mighty empire from the feeble grasp of the artless and effeminate Hindoos. Leaving out, therefore, with one or two exceptions, all military details, which in justice ought never to have formed a part of the history of the EastIndia Company, we shall confine ourselves principally to the civil transactions of this association.

The first attention to the India trade appears to have been attracted by the success of the Dutch merchants. These rapacious traders, having supplanted the Portuguese, in that part of the world, had an entire monopoly of the trade, and availing themselves of the exclusive possession of the market, exacted exorbitant prices for the productions of the East. To frustrate their avarice, and obtain some share in this lucrative traffic, the merchants of London despatched a mission to the Great Mogul, to obtain from him a grant of commercial privileges to the English. The success of this mission was not known till the year 1600; but, in the mean time, the lord mayor, aldermen, and other principal merchants of the city, to the number of 101, assembled at Founders' Hall, and established an association for trading to India, for which they subscribed a capital of £33,133. This may be considered the germ of our Indian empire.

Queen Elizabeth granted a charter of incorporation to several merchants of the city, with the privilege to trade, exclusively, to all parts of Asia, Africa, and America, for 15 years. The capital of this company amounted to about £70,000. They fitted out four ships, the best in England, of the burthen of 240, 260, 300, and 600 tons. The value of the ships' stores and provisions, of the merchandize forming the cargoes, and of the bullion, was estimated at £68,373.

This expedition was tolerably successful, brought home valuable cargoes of merchandize, and succeeded in establishing factories at Bantany, and on the Molucca Islands. But, notwithstanding the success of this undertaking, no great effort was made to follow it up, and for several years after, the trade and capital of the Company gradually declined. In 1606, only three ships were fitted out. In 1608, the Company having subscribed a capital of £33,000, for a fourth voyage, the whole of their ships were either wrecked in India, or on their voyage home. Next year they were more fortunate, and their ships bringing home a valuable cargo of mace and nutmegs, they divided a profit of 211 per cent. Encouraged by this success, the Company solicited the renewal of their charter, and seemed resolved to push the trade with spirit. They built the largest ship that had ever been constructed in England for commercial purposes, being no less than 1000 tons burthen. King James and his court attended the launch, and named her The Trade's Increase.

Unfortunately, this vessel was lost, and Sir Henry Middleton, her commander, soon after died of grief. The trade subsequently declined,

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