falsifying the facts, or adducing such others as may counteract their effect; and these are not to be found in any of the papers I have examined. When they are produced and verified, they will be received and allowed their due influence upon the account; and the only remaining subject of surprise will be, that they were not brought forward at an earlier period. In the above 52,172,1777. are not included two distinct loans received by the Honourable Company, which constitute an addition to the debt due by commerce to territorial revenue, viz. Loan from the Bank of England in 1812, charged with the interest to territorial revenue.... £2,500,000 Interest thereon...... 1,307,985 Loan from the Nabob of Oude, liquidated by a grant of territory.... 1,109,975 £4,917,960 There is in this amount much more than a sufficient set-off against any claim for loss sustained by the Company's commerce from being credited for stores when used in India, rather than at the time of shipment, and losses on the passage, as alluded to in their Exposition," (vide p. 674.) I have also to remark, that although the charges of Bencoolen, Prince of Wales's including St. Helena, to £5,069,114 Island, &c., 1808-9 And of St. Helena, separately, from 1809-10.... 1,887,462 Amounting together to £6,956,576 appear in my accounts of territorial revenue and charges, it by no means follows, that they ought ultimately to be left as a debit against that account.-These establishments, as I understand them, served especially, if not exclusively, commercial purposes, and commerce should finally account to territory for the whole, or the greater portion of the amount with interest; we have here, therefore, a sum of 11,874,5367. with which commerce has not been debited, and which, if adequate materials were at hand, might properly be considered in connexion with the particulars enumerated in the Appendix, No. 51, to the Fourth Report, and with the inquiry, not undertaken by me, whether the Indian debt in 1793-4, was territorial or commercial. It will be recollected that this sum of 52,172,1777. is not represented as the amount of Loss upon the Company's general affairs, with which it is by no means necessarily connected, but simply as a debt due from commerce to territorial revenue. The PROFITS or LOSSES of the Company constitute a perfectly distinct ground of consideration, and would be most properly ascertained for any given time, by a comparison between the real state at the commencement, and at the termination of the period, if the papers furnished sufficient information to afford the hope of a successful in vestigation. There are materials in the appendix to the Company's "Exposition," No. 6, page 22, and No. 25 of the Papers printed Feb. 1830, which, however fallacious in themselves, serve to indicate in the most intelligible and conclusive manner the Company's own views upon the subject. In the former they have given a general statement of their affairs, admitting a "deficiency" thereon, 1st March, 1808, of 12,313,1537. In the latter, we have the following particulars, constituting in like manner their view of the general state of their affairs on the 1st May, 1828. "Total territorial and political debts abroad, 1st May, 1827 "Total territorial and political debts at home, 1st May, 1828..... "Commercial debts abroad, 1st May, 1827.... £45,515,968 9,457,484 114,126 1,596,332 "Commercial debts at home, 1st May, 1826... "Company's home bond debt And it is remarkable, that the Company have in this document entirely omitted to charge their 3,795,892 concerns with the amount of their "CAPITAL." 7,780,000 Total debts and engagements, 1st May, 1828.. 68,259,802 "Total territorial and political credits abroad, 1st May, 1827 .... .£26,934,663 "Total commercial credits abroad, do. 2,451,892 "Commercial credits at home and afloat, 1st May, 1828 20,990,435 50,376,990 Avowed deficit, (including " capital,)" on the Company's general affairs, 1st May, 1828..£17,882,812 In this statement, the Company's dead stock in India is taken at 400,000/., including buildings and fortifications, plate, household furniture, plantations, farms, sloops, vessels, stores, and other articles of dead stock : "whereas the whole of the sums of money expended in buildings and fortifications, by "the latest advices from the Company's se veral settlements, for the acquisition and main"tenance of their possessions, and the nearest "estimated value of other articles of dead stock is 15,169,4261." The" buildings and fortifications," constituting by far the largest portion of this expenditure, however necessary "for the acquisition and maintenance of "their possessions," will hardly be considered as available assets: there was expended upon these, from 1793-4 to 1827-8 at the three presidencies, 9,565,1627., leaving 5,604,2647. of expenditure upon the other articles enumerated; and the real question, which has not been discussed, will be, what portion of this latter expenditure remains in good and disposable assets, beyond 400,000l. applicable to the creation of funds, to meet the above deficiency of 17,882,8127.? If there be not more than sufficient to make good any over estimate there may be in the "value of goods in Eng"land unsold," and "value of the East India "house and warehouses" taken together at 7,531,3257., and included in the above "com"mercial credits at home, and afloat outward," the deficiency before stated upon the general affairs of the Company on the 1st May, 1828, will remain unaffected by them. Now, if we compare the actual deficit on the 1st May 1828, 17,882,8127. with that of the 1st March 1808, 12,313,1537. the difference 5,569,6591. is of course the additional " deterioration," or Loss, during the intervening period. We have here, therefore, two or three very important results, from which there is no possibility of escape, as they are in effect attested by the authority of the Honourable Company. 1st. That the general state of their affairs in 1808 was so unprosperous, as to exhibit a deficit of. £12,313,153 |