THE ORIENTAL HERALD. No. 49.-JANUARY, 1828.-VOL. 16. CLAIM OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY TO THE RIGHT OF IMPOSING TAXES WITHOUT LIMITATION. Ir is now six months since we first drew the attention of the English public to the assumption of this monstrous privilege by the East India Company; * and we rejoice to see that the English Press, though rather tardily, has at length taken up the subject also. Since the publication of the first article which appeared in our pages on this question, we have from time to time printed all the documents connected with the discussion, accompanied with comments, in almost every Number of this Work that has passed from our hands; but a new circumstance gives us occasion to return again to the charge, for the purpose of following it up by other documents and other arguments bearing equally on the point still at issue. Mr. Crawfurd, the able and intelligent author of The History of the Indian Archipelago,' who has recently been employed by the Bengal Government on a mission to Siam, having occasion to return to England, has been deputed by the British inhabitants of Calcutta to act as their agent in England, for carrying into effect their wishes, as expressed in their petitions to both Houses of Parliament, on this subject. That to the House of Peers is confided to the Marquis of Lansdowne and Lord Darnley; that to the House of Commons is intrusted to Sir James Mackintosh and Mr. Brougham; and the sum of 3,000l. sterling has been raised by subscription to defray the expense of carrying these petitions through both Houses. When the choice of the distinguished individuals named was made in Calcutta, the change in the councils of the English Government was not known,—the parties named were then in Opposition: now, however, Lord Lansdowne is one of the principal Ministers of State, and Sir James Mackintosh a member of the Board of Control, as well as a Privy Councillor. This, we fear, will make a great alteration in the chances of the petitions being brought forward with effect, as their purport is to complain of that very Board of Control, of which the constitution is still nearly the same as ever, and which the Ministers for the time being, be See an article on this subject in The Oriental Herald' for June last, vol. xiii., p. 614. |