PRINTED FOR PARBURY, ALLEN, & CO. BOOKSELLERS TO THE HONOURABLE EAST-INDIA COMPATT, LEADENHALL STREET. THE EAST-INDIA AND CHINA TRADE. THE antagonists of the East-India Company, fully sensible of the advantages of being early in the field, are already bestirring themselves. Cpan a question in which the bulk of the people of England must be admitted to be wonderfully ill-informed, there is abundant scope for every variety of misrepre sentation; and the sooner statements are promulgated throughout the country and rivetted upon men's minds, to suit any given object connected with a question so little understood, the greater is the probability of mecem in favour of a party which condescends to avail itself of such an expedient. Considering that the exclusive privileges, granted to the East-India Company by fe act of the 53d of his late Majesty, will not expire until the 19th Apri 1024* it is rather early for a host of pamphlets directed against the renewal of fer charter, to issue from the press-productions not likely to prave profcable speculations to the authors, in respect either to present pecuniary recompense or to posthumous reputation. In polemics, especially in all political controversies, a degree of artifice or dexterity is allowable, or at least is visited with mitigated censure, which, in the simple transactions of ordinary life, is reputed dishonourable. Ts enlist in one's cause the prejudices of the ignorant; to abuse the simplicity of people who implicitly confide in the veracity of allegations which they have no means of examining; to flatter the follies of one, the resentment of another, fe dishonest views of a third; these expedients to gain an end, are not, in pall tics, held to be fraudulent. In a contest with a great public body ike the East-India Company, supposed to be possessed of considerable weight and influence, which may counteract any irregular aempts upon their power, such expedients, on the part of their adversaries, may even be considered sy On the expiration of three year notice by Parliamen a fe after t payment of what is due from the public to the Cam ex.. some Apri. 1891, and to cease and determine. 53 Gen III & 16, § 1 Asiatic Journ. Vol. 26. No.: |