National Guards.-2. To make a call of ment!-Deliberating on the proposition 100,000 men from the conscriptions of made by its Special Commission, charged 1809, 1810, 1811, and 1812.-3. To with the report of this projét; Ordain, raise 100,000 men of the conscription for that the Senatus Consultum of this day be 1814, which shall be formed in garrisons presented to his Majesty the Emperor and and camps, upon our frontiers and coasts, King by the Officers of the Senate, and that and ready to march wherever it may be ne- after such presentation, M. the Annual Precessary, to the assistance of your Majesty's sident shall express to his Majesty the sentiallies.By this immense developement ments of the Senate by an Address of the of forces, the interests, the consideration of following teuor:-SIRE-The Senate has France, and the safety of her allies, will the honour to present to your Imperial and be guaranteed against all events. -The Royal Majesty the homage of its fidelity, French people will feel the force of circum- its devotion, its respect, and the Senatus stances; it will render fresh homage to this Consultum which it has just adopted.truth, so frequently proclaimed by your It was its desire, Sire, to express at the Majesty from the height of your throne, foot of your Majesty's throne, the profound that there is no repose for Europe till Eng- indignation with which all the French are land shall have been forced to conclude a inspired, at the treason of a General of an peace.It is not in vain, Sire, that you Allied Power, placed under the orders of have given France the title of the Grand one of your Majesty's Marshals, and form"Nation'-no effort is painful to her when the ing a part of your armies. This violation object is to evince her love to your Majesty of the laws of honour and of war, is a new and her devotion to the glory of the French effect of the corrupt intrigues of the British name.—I join to this report the docu- Cabinet. It is a crime against the safety ments relative to the defection of General of Governments, the repose of nations, D'York. I am, with the most profound against public faith, and the order of sorespect, Sire, your Majesty's very humble, ciety. The Continent of Europe, Sire, is very obedient and faithful subject, menaced with these terrible commotions, which your Majesty alone has been able to annihilate in our own country. -But your Majesty has foreseen every thing; you have discovered that it was needful to employ the greatest power, in order to command events, or to direct their effects; you wished to have nothing that might turn you off from the object of your desires, of all your victories, and of the so frequently renewed sacrifice of your repose, of your affections, and of your dearest enjoyments. The nation adds to its numerous phalanxes 350,000 Frenchmen, the brave men of the immense army which your Majesty is going to put in motion, will be the Conquerors of Peace. (Signed) The DUKE OF BASSANO. "Paris, 9th Jan. 1813." Sitting of the 11th January. The Senate re-assembled at two o'clock, under the presidency of his Serene Highness the Prince Arch-Chancellor of the Empire. M. the Count de Lacepède, in the name of the Special Commission, nominated in the Sitting of yesterday, made the report of the projét of the Senatus Consultum. The Senate, after having deliberated on the projét of the Senatus Consultum, ordered it to be presented, with an Address to his Majesty. In consequence of which, at half past eight o'clock this evening, Messrs. the Counts de Lacepede, President, De Beaumont and De Laparens, Secretaries, had the honour of presenting the Senatus Consultum to his Majesty, with an Address, the contents of which are as follows: Extract from the Registers of the Conservative Senate. "On Monday, the 11th January, 1813, the Conservative Senate assembled to the number of members prescribed by the 90th article of the Act of Constitution of the 13th December, 1799.—Having adopted the projét of Senatus Consultum, which was presented to it in the sitting of yesterday, by which three hundred and fifty thousand men are placed at the disposal of Govern (Signed) The President and Secretaries. Count LAPLACE. (Seen and sealed) The Senate, after having heard the Orators of the Council of State, has decreed, and we ordain as follows: Extract from the Registers of the Conservative Senate of Monday, the 11th Jan. 1813. The Conservative Senate being assembled to the number of members prescribed by the 90th Article of the Act of Constitution, of the 13th December, 1799;Having seen the projét of Senatus Consultum drawn up, and in the form prescribed by the Act of Constitution of the 4th August, 1802;After having heard the Orators of the Council of State on the motives of the said projét, and the report of the Special Commission nominated in yesterday's sitting, the adoption having been deliberated by the number of voices prescribed by the 56th Article of the Act of Constitution of the 4th August, 1802;, DECREE. have Art. 1. 350,000 men are placed at the disposal of the Minister at War, to wit: -1st. 100,000 men forming the 100 cohorts of the first Ban of the National Guards. 2d. 100,000 men of the Conscription of 1809, 1810, 1811 and 1812, taken from among those who to make a part not been called upon of the active army.- -3d. 150,000 of the Conscription of 1812.-II. In the execution of the preceding Article, the hundred cohorts of the first Ban shall cease to form a part of the National Guard, and shall form a part of the active army.Such men as have married before the publication of this present Senatus Consultum, cannot be designated to make a part of the levies taken on the Conscriptions for the years 1809, 1810, 1811 and 1812. We command and ordain that these presents, sealed with the seals of the State, inserted in the Bulletin of the Laws, shall be addressed to the Courts, the Tribunals and other Administrative Authorities, to be by them inserted in their Registers, to observe them and cause them, to be ob- NAPOLEON. (Seen by us) We, Arch-Chancellor of the GAMBACERES. By order of the Emperor, The Minister Secretary of State, par inter. (Signed) Duke De GADORE. After the reading of the report, Messieurs the Councillors of State presented a project of a Senatus Consultum, (see the following sitting of the 11th,) the motives for which, were explained by M. the Count Regnaud de St. Jean d'Angely, in the manner following: Motives of the Senatus Consultum for putting 350,000 Men at the Disposal of the Minister of War. "Monseigneur and Senators,--The Treaty of Tilsit gave to the North of Europe a peace which it appeared would have been of duration. But England, menaced with a war with the United States of America, and dreading, with great reason, the bad issue for her which must, sooner or later, attend the flame kindled in Spain, occupied herself in giving birth to a new war against France, by obtaining the breach of the alliance lately sworn to by Russia, The 150,000 men of the Conscription of 1814 shall be levied in the course of the year, at such time as shall be designated All the efforts of the Emperor to keep by the Minister at War.-III. The present Senatus Consultum shall be transmitted by a Message to his Majesty the Empefor and King. The President and Secretaries. it, and to ensure the execution of the trea- (Signed and Sealed) The Chancellor of the of his allies.- The enemy, forced from (Signed) Senate, all his posts, repulsed in every combat, van(To be continued.) Published by R. BAGSHAW, Brydges-Street, Covent-Garden. a VOL. XXIII. No.5.] LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 1813. [Price 1s. 129] [130 1 much knowledge and advantage as you read, TỔ THE THINKING PEOPLE OF in Milton, about the Devils firing off can nons in heaven. Letter 1. ENGLAND, This being my firm persuasion, I shall On the Affairs of THE EAST INDIA endeavour to make the subject clearly un COMPANY. THINKING PEOPLE, Amongst all the numerous subjects upon which you have discovered your acuteness of perception and profundity of thought, I know of none (except that of Pitt's sinking fund) which has drawn forth so brilliant a display of these qualities as the subjects connected with India; and, when I reflect on your wise notions about the riches derived to the nation from our Empire in "the East," I cannot wonder at the alarm that many of you now feel lest the curbing of the power of the East India Company, through the means of the now-proposed measure, should bring ruin upon England. In plain language, you have so long been deceived; you have so long listened, and loved to listen, to falsehoods; you have so long been the almost willing dupes of designing knaves; that there is scarcely a pas sage left by which truth can find its way to your minds. Nevertheless, I shall endeavour to disentangle the question, which is now. so much agitating your wise and plod ding noddles; I shall endeavour to strip this grand humbug of its covering; and, when I have so done, I shall leave you to the tricks of the several classes of mountebanks, who are striving for the upper hand in deceiving you. Those, whose object is to deceive; who have falsehoods to make pass for truths; those persons generally endeavour to confuse and confound facts and circumstances as much as possible; and, in the present case, the real points at issue seem to have been wholly kept out of sight. Nay more, I would bet my life, that, if you were all examined one by one, not one out of 5,000 of you know what the words East India Company mean; that you have no more knowledge of the nature and effect of that Corporation than you have of what is passIng in the moon; and that, when you read derstood; and, when I have so done, p shall willingly leave, to be cheated still, every one who is fool enough to join in the clamours now raised and raising against the proposed measure of opening the trade to India. This measure, it is said, by the partisans of the Company, will ruin the Company that it will break up their power; that it will cause the loss of India as a Colony. I will not stop to dispute about this. I will take these propositions as granted; and, still I shall contend, that the measure ought to be adopted. It is useless, therefore, to enter into any details to show what the measure will do against the Company; for I am ready to assert, and to prove, and I trust that I shall prove, that the breaking up of the Company would be a great blessing to England; that Company being, and having long been, one of our greatest scourges, one of the chief causes of corrup tion and oppression. The outline of the proposed measure is this: that, whereas the trade to India is now exclusively in the hands of the Company, the Ministers mean to make such a change as shall open the trade to other merchants. At present, in consequence of an agreement, made with the Government 20 years ago (which agreement is called a Charter), no merchant of this kingdam, ex→ cept the Company, can trade with the East Indies; no ships but the East India Com pany's ships can go thither; but, the Ministers mean to introduce a measure (now that the Company's Charter is upon the point of expiring), which shall enable any merchant of this kingdom to trade to India. Of this proposed measure it is that the Company is complaining, and in opposition to it they are exciting the most violent clamours, representing it as an act of injustice as well as of impolicy, Faction is endeavouring to make the about the wars in India, it is with about as question a party one, and the City of Lon men otherwise well-informed. Now, however, the demands upon the taxes must, for the purposes of India, be such as will, I should imagine, open men's eyes, especially if the ministry make and promulgate an authentic statement of the nation's affairs. Thirteen years ago a charter, by the influ don, actuated by narrow self-interest, is abetting, in some degree, the opposition, and joining in the clamours. But, the people, if they have not been quite berelt of their reason by conflicting falsehoods, ought to consider the question as one in which they are opposed to this domineering Company. It is with the nation that that Com-ence of Mr. Pitt and his colleague Dundas, pany has made a bargain; it is from the nation that they hold their Charter; and, it is for the nation to consider, whether that Charter shall be renewed; whether it shall again grant a monopoly of trade to a select body of men, to the exclusion of all the rest of the King's subjects. It is not a little impudent in the Company to pretend that the nation is guilty of injustice in withholding this renewal. What would be thought of a tenant, who should set up a clamour against his landlord, because the latter refused to renew his lease? He would be called, at least, a very presumptuous man, and, if he endeavoured to show, that his landlord would lose by not renewing his lease, would not that landlord laugh in his face? The very endeavour to persuade the nation, that it will lose by not renewing the Charter, is enough to make any rational man distrust the views of those who make it. was granted to the East India Company, whereby were secured to the said company of merchants certain rights of sovereignty in, and, with some exceptions, an exclusive trade with, those countries in Asia, which we, taking them all together, call the East Indies. As the foundation of their firm, or partnership, of trade, this company were allowed by the Charter, to create a quantity of stock; that is to say, to make loans, in the same way that the ministry do, and to pay annually, or quarterly, in dividends, interest upon the amount of these loans. The company became, in fact, a sort of under government, having its loans, its scrip its debt, or, more properly speaking, its funds, or, still more properly, its engagements to pay interest to a number of individuals. The paper, of whatever form it may be, which entitles the holder to demand this interest, or these dividends, is called East India Stock, the principal of which has now been augmented to the sum of 12 millions sterling; and, the holders of this stock are called East India Proprietors. The sources, whence the means of regularly discharging the interest upon the stock were to be derived, were, of course, the profits of the trade which the company should carry, but, aided by the revenue which they were authorized to raise from their You hear of great fortunes being made territory, the defence and government of in the East; you hear of plunder enormous, which were, however, placed, in some sort, and you see the plunderers come and elbow under the control of the mother govern you from your homes; but, you never ap- ment at Westminster. Thus set out in the pear to perceive, that any part of this plun-world this company of sovereigns, furnishder is, either first or last, drawn from your own estates or their labour. You seem to think, that there are great quantities of goods, and of gold and precious stones in India; and, the only feeling which the acquirers of these excite, seems to be that of envy, and, in some instances, of emulation. But, that this proceeds from a gross error woulds in the two millions lately paid to the East India Company out of the taxes of the nation, have been clearly demonstrated, had not our system of finance been such as to keep in darkness, upon this point, In order to decide, whether a new Char er should be granted to the Company, we ought first to inquire how they have acted towards the nation in consequence of their last Charter. But, before we enter upon this inquiry, I will, in nearly the same words that I used seven years ago, give a brief description of that strange thing, called the East India Company. This was in 1806. There have been several millions granted in the same way since that time. ed, at once, with dominions, subjects, taxes, and a funded debt. But, supposing the measure (which I do only by way of illustration) to have been, in other respects, just and politic, it certainly would have been neither, not to have bound these sovereigns to pay the nation something, or, more properly speaking, to contribute something towards the taxes, by way of consideration for the immense advantages to be derived from the exclusive trade of a country, while the nation might be called upon, as it has been, to defend in a naval war, and which must, at any rate, be defended on the land-board by troops drawn, in part at least, from the population of the kingdom. more of money have, since that time, been It was, therefore, provided, that the Company, during the continuance of its charter, which was to be for twenty years (thirteen of which have now nearly expired,* should pay into the Exchequer £500,000 sterling a year, and that, upon all the money not so paid, an interest would arise and accumulate, at the rate of fifteen per centum. -Such were the principal engagements, on both sides, under which this Company started. The nation has fulfilled its engagements, and that, too, at an enormous expenditure both of men and of money; and, while the Company has been enjoying all the advantages of an exclusive trade, and all the receipts of a territorial revenue; while hundreds and thousands of persons, concerned in that trade, have amassed fortunes so great as to overshadow and bear down, not only the clergy and the country gentlemen, but even the ancient nobility of the kingdom, not one penny (since the first year) has the Company ever paid into the Exchequer of the stipulated half-million a year; and, what is still more glaringly unjust, and more galling to the burdened people, two millions of our taxes have already been granted to this Company, wherewith to pay the dividends upon their stock; and, such has been the management, and such is now the state, of the Company's affairs, that we need not be at all surprised if another million be called for from us, during this present session of parliament For the causes of this state of the Company's concerns; for the reasons why they have not been held to their engagements; why the act of parliament has thus been treated as if it had been passed merely as a job; why we have been called upon to pay to, instead of to receive from, this company of trading sovereigns; let the eulogists of Mr. Pitt's memory; let Mr. Canning and Old Rose let Lord Melville, with his £2,000 a year pension from the Company (who are so poor as to come to us for money); let the Directors, those managers of the Company's affairs, and those staunch advocates of the Minister that suffered the act to lie unenforced against them; let Lord Wellesley, who has so long been the Go-ture of the agreement between the nation vernor-General of India, why the act has not been enforced, why the law has been thus set at nought, let these persons tell. - It seems incredible, that these things should have been; but, not only were they so up to the year 1806, they are so up to this hour, except, that four millions The 20 years are now about to expire. and the Company; and it will, I imagine, require no very long time for any unbiassed man to decide, whether the na tion ought again to trust this Company with the advantages that it before enjoyed. I am not only for throwing open the trade, but for taking the sovereign authority wholly out of the hands of the Company. I am for not listening to them for a single |