Company is placed, have joined in the said recommendation, and therefore beg to take this opportunity of recording my opinion accordingly.

East-India House, 12th June 1833.

(Signed) JOHN MASTERman.

Dissent by HENRY ST. GEORGE TUCKER, Esq.

The respect which I feel for the judgment of my Colleagues, impels me to explain the grounds on which I declined to concur in the resolution of a great majority of the Court, passed on the 7th instant, and having for its object to recommend the propositions of his Majesty's Ministers to the favourable attention of the Court of Proprietors. No resolution could well have been more cautiously worded, and no recommendation could well have been conveyed in terms better calculated to place the whole question before the Proprietors, in a way to leave them at liberty to deal with it at their own good pleasure in its progress to Parliament, by whom the final decision must be pronounced.

But I had been previously called upon to vote on a proposition of the Chairs for declining to recommend the plan of his Majesty's Government to the acceptance of the Proprietors, on two grounds:

First. That the proposed Guarantee Fund of two millions was insufficient; and,

Secondly. That we should have no satisfactory assurance of good government without publicity; and as I concurred in this opinion, I voted accordingly, although highly appreciating the praiseworthy endeavours of my colleagues to bring this great question to an early and amicable settlement with his Majesty's Government,

I will state concisely the grounds of the vote which I gave, and which I thought precluded me from concurring in the Resolution subsequently proposed and adopted by a great majority of the Court.

We have, I admit, obtained some very important concessions from his Majesty's Ministers, for which we owe them our cordial acknowledgments. The Guarantee Fund has been extended from £1,200,000 to £2,000,000:-it has been made applicable to the payment of the Annuity of £630,000 under certain circumstances:-we are allowed to raise money by the issue of Bonds, or other securities, to supply any temporary deficiency in our remittances from India-the Dividends are to take precedence of all other territorial demands on the Home Treasury; and the Proprietors are to be at liberty, at the expiration of twenty years, to demand payment of the principal of twelve millions on giving three years' notice. These are valuable concessions certainly; and his Majesty's Ministers, in continuing to us the power of recalling the public Functionaries from India, have given another proof of their readiness to acquiesce in our just pretensions.

But I attach very great importance to the object of obtaining English Security for our Indian Annuity; and it appears to me not only that three millions must be regarded as the very smallest sum which ought to be taken from our Commercial Assets for that purpose, but I am prepared to maintain that a much larger sum might be set apart without public inconvenience.

I will not insist on the possibility of insurrections and internal convulsion, which might, for a time at least, destroy the very sources of our Indian revenue. The occurrence of war (no very uncommon event) must absorb the local revenue, and perhaps exhaust even our credit. This has actually happened in repeated instances, and it may happen again, notwithstanding all our prudence and all our care. A state of war must not, then, be put out of sight in looking forward to the future; and if war supervene, it would be impossible to avail ourselves of our right to priority of payment when demands of a more urgent nature should come upon the Home Treasury. Nor, indeed, would it be just to the present Territorial Creditors, while any of them may be entitled to receive their interest in this country, to set them aside, and to claim a preference of payment on occasions when the public Treasury may not be in a condition to satisfy all the various demands upon it.

To the English capitalist security and punctuality of payment are, or ought

I think to be, the main object; and it has always appeared to me that the term of the Annuity, the period for continuing to us the Territorial Administration, and the period at which the Guarantee Fund might be expected to reach its maximum of twelve millions, ought all to have been regulated with reference to each other.

Admitting, however, that the Territory furnishes sufficient security for the Annuity, I cannot yet satisfy myself that the means of a safe remittance to this country will be provided by the plan of his Majesty's Ministers. Not a word has yet been said with respect to the question of our being continued as the organ of remittance by means of the Tea trade, and we are left to conclude that our commercial functions will cease altogether in April next, when we must depend upon the private trade as the channel for realizing the Territorial Surplus in this country. Now we have actually made the experiment which Mr. Grant points at in the course of his correspondence, and which is much insisted upon by some gentlemen who have given their evidence before the two Houses of Parliament. We have advanced money in India for Bills upon the security of goods, but this expedient has already exposed us to much embarrassment. Impressed, then, with the conviction that no means of effecting with safety the political remittance from India to this country to the extent of three millions annually have yet been devised, or are likely to be within our reach, I could not, in a state of ignorance on this and other points, venture. to recommend unreservedly to the Proprietors an unqualified acquiescence in the proposals of his Majesty's Government, although fully admitting, at the same time, that their plan has been greatly improved.

I do not ask his Majesty's Ministers to abandon the doctrine of free-trade as an abstract proposition; but, I submit, that it cannot be received for practical purposes as a rule of commercial policy without certain conditions and limitations.

First. The parties dealing together must act upon the principle of perfect reciprocity. This is not likely to be the case in China.

Second. There must be on both sides security for person and property. This is not the case in Japan, nor indeed in China, at all times.

Third. There must not be a great inequality between the quantity of labour brought into action in the course of producing the commodities interchanged, or the benefit will not be equal. Fifty years ago labour was held to be the source of national wealth; but we have now a redundancy of manual labour, creating individual poverty and distress; and it is one great and most difficult part of the business of legislation and government, to find the means of employing labour innocently if not usefully, and to make it applicable to the purpose of distributing the general produce. If this distribution cannot be effected in such manner as to admit that labour can command food, the people will take by violence that which is necessary to their subsistence.

Fourth. There is something in distance or the remoteness of countries trading together, which may produce some disturbance in applying the doctrine of Free Trade.

In a very few days we learn the variations in the principal commercial markets of the Continent, and the supply may be adjusted to the demand with a great degree of accuracy, so as to prevent any material loss from the violent fluctuation of prices; but six months, or twelve months, may elapse before we obtain certain information of what is passing in China, and different merchants, proceeding in ignorance and without concert, may engage in the most hazardous speculations.

This happened to the inconsiderate adventurers who first embarked in the trade to Buenos Ayres, although the distance was comparatively small!

This happened to the Free-Traders who have prosecuted the commerce with India since 1813; and to an extent which has spread ruin throughout the Indian community, as well as in some of the manufacturing districts of this country!

An attempt was made by us to open a trade with Japan while we held possession of Java, and it ended in total disappointment, entailing upon the Government a heavy loss. This was not to be referred to distance alone, but

to the jealous feeling of an arbitrary Government. And does not the Government of China act in that arbitrary, capricious, and unsteady manner, which is calculated to create uncertainty in the management of commercial operations? The trade in that country exists only by sufferance from day to day.

I contend, that sufficient allowance is not made for the disadvantage of distance and uncertainty in applying the doctrine of free-trade to China. It was the risk and uncertainty attending long voyages, and the necessity for a large capital, which first led to the incorporation of our own and other Public Companies. Exclusive privileges were necessary for their encouragement; but with these privileges they were enabled to supply remote markets, whose wants they could generally estimate with a great degree of certainty, and supply with regularity and without extraordinary risk; but individuals, who run a race of competition, cannot guard themselves against the imprudence of each other.

On the second point of difference with his Majesty's Ministers, I shall confine myself to a very few remarks. We do not yet know the exact plan which is to be submitted to Parliament. A change in the constitution of the Court has been proposed, and that change may materially affect its power and efficiency. I am willing to hope that his Majesty's Ministers intend to render the Court a useful and efficient organ of administration; but, at present, I cannot perceive how that object is to be accomplished while all real power is reserved to the Board. We shall only, I fear, become a skreen interposed between the Government and the British people. The Government will not have the direct responsibility which ought to attach to the exercise of power, and we shall have the discredit of measures which we may have disapproved and opposed.

It is not easy, I admit, to point out a safe and unobjectionable course, for there are difficulties inherent in the nature of the thing to be obtained :-good government, by a mixed agency and a judicious distribution of powers. The Court were of opinion, that publicity would afford the best security against maladministration, since men acting under the public eye may be expected generally to act with caution and correctness. The right to appeal to another tribunal may be expected to produce good, although rarely exercised. All we have contended for is the privilege of laying our Protests before Parliament in particular cases. This could only be done on great and important occasions; and if the privilege should ever be abused by factious men, the remedy would rest with Parliament itself. A vote of censure would strip them of all credit, and render it impossible for them to retain their places. An appeal to the Court of Proprietors could scarcely produce the same effect, although I am sensible that an appeal to the public through this channel would not be without its

use.

I repeat, that we have gained much in the course of our negotiation with his Majesty's Ministers; but more might have been conceded to us without public inconvenience, and not only with advantage to the Proprietors, but with benefit to the national interests, which, I am persuaded, would have been best consulted by continuing the East-India Company as the organ of the Territorial remittance, and as the instrument of supplying the British consumer with the article of Tea. But we are now in the hands of Parliament, and must submit to the wisdom of the Legislature, the guardian of the national welfare. I still hope that the two points at issue may be conceded to us. The extension of the Guarantee Fund, although of importance to us, cannot be matter of importance to his Majesty's Government. The privilege of resorting to Parliament where two authorities are supposed to exercise a concurrent jurisdiction, might no doubt produce inconvenience if abused, but there is no reason to apprehend abuse; and as the Court of Directors will be stripped of all that influence which their commercial character gave them, as they have now little connection with Parliament, and as their Patronage, which also conferred influence, will probably be placed on a different footing, it appears to me that the independence of the Court ought to be better secured, and its power to be strengthened rather than curtailed, if it is to perform any useful office in the administration of India. I cannot lift up the veil which hangs

over the future; it may conceal from us sunshine or storms. The plan of his Majesty's Ministers has not been fully disclosed to us, and it may not yet have received its last finish; but viewing it, as I must do, in the form in which it has been presented to us, my impression is, that it must fail, and that its failure will produce financial, commercial, and perhaps political derangement. His Majesty's Government have been urged forward by the popular voice to take from the East-India Company every part of the China trade; but public opinion on this subject appears to me already to have undergone a change. The merchant is already calling for our protecting shield, and the manufacturer for our fostering care. Let not truth and reason come too late. I do feel a most anxious solicitude on this subject, and it is that strong feeling which has impelled me to place my opinions upon record.

Thine eyes are like two crystal fountains,

Hidden in some pleasant place,

Upon whose stream the April flowers
Pour the beauty of their face;
For so upon thy lucid eyes,

Gleams thy young heart's timid grace.

Thy face upon my soul doth shine
Like sun-light upon cloudy skies,
And like the dews of magic wine
Falleth thy breath upon mine eyes,
Steeping them in a trance divine

Till every thought of sorrow dies.

Speak to me with thy voice of love!
The south wind in the spicy leaves,
That rustle round the sleeping dove,
In the quiet balmy eves,

Hath no sound softer-while above
The sun his red pavilion weaves.

When all without is dark and drear,
And foes are nigh, and friends do flee,
No gentle voice my heart doth cheer,
No pitying face I see :

Still, dearest, thou art ever near,

In tears and mourning still with me!

W.

SKETCHES OF INDIAN SOCIETY.

No. V. TRAVELLING BY DAK.

A GREAT number of persons, who go out to India to seek their fortunes in the various departments of commerce, or who practise at the supreme courts either as counsel or attornies, or who have obtained permanent employments at Calcutta, Madras, or Bombay, frequently spend their whole lives in the Company's territories, without penetrating farther than the presidency to which they may be attached. But it is otherwise with the civil and military servants of the state: a more unfixed, unsettled, floating community cannot be imagined. If not compelled to change their abodes. by virtue of government-orders, the pursuit of health, or the urgency of private affairs, occasions frequent journies, and with the exception of a few hardy individuals, who actually appear to take root in the soil to which they have been transplanted in early youth, a propensity to rove seems to characterize the whole body of Anglo-Indians.

The three modes of travelling in India are, by dák (post), by marching, and by water in a pinnace or budgerow. The cold season is the only period of the year in which a march can be performed without great inconvenience. The rains offer the most favourable time for a voyage, the rivers being very low in the dry weather, while it is generally practicable to travel by dák, except when the country is completely under water, in which case this method is subject to much discomfort and considerable delay. In a dák journey, the traveller must apply to the postmaster of the place of his residence to furnish him with relays of bearers to a given point, a preliminary which is called "laying the dák :" the time of starting is specified, and the different places at which it may be expedient to rest. Three or four days' notice is usually required to enable the dak-master to apprise the public functionaries of the different villages of the demand for bearers: the traveller must be provided with his own palanquin, and his own banghies (boxes), ropes, and bamboos. Will it be necessary, in these enlightened times, to describe a palanquin? It would be an affront to the reading public to suppose it ignorant of the shape and construction of the conveyances employed in Lapland, Greenland, Kamschatka, or Timbuctoo, but it is content with very superficial information respecting the EastIndies, which usually presents itself to the mind in an indistinct and gorgeous vision, seas of gold and minarets of pearl, or shining in all the variegated hues of Aladdin's gem-decked garden. Some writer of an Eastern tale, in an Annual, has represented a native prince travelling with his daughter in her magnificent palanquin, a vehicle in which there is scanty accommodation for one, even when formed upon the most roomy plan. An oblong chest will convey the truest idea which can be given of this conveyance; the walls are of double canvas, painted and varnished on the outside, and lined within with chintz or silk; it is furnished on either side with sliding wooden doors, fitted into grooves, and when unclosed disappearing between the canvas walls; the roof projects about an inch all round, and is sometimes double, to keep off the heat of the sun. In front, there are two small Asiat.Journ.N.S.VOL.11.No.43. 2 B