THE ORIENTAL HERALD. Page. 19. Emigration, and the East India Company's Monopoly. 20. Introduction of Trial by Jury, and Abolition of Slavery, by Sir Alexander 21. Services of King's and Company's Troops at the Siege of Bhurtpore 22. Determination of the Dimensions of the Ancient Egyptian Cubit.. 32. Discontinuance of The Shems al Akhbar,' a Native Newspaper 33. Monument to the Marquis of Hastings at Calcutta.. 34. Shipwreck of the John on her entry into the River Hooghley THE ORIENTAL HERALD. No. 49.—JANUARY, 1828.-VOL. 16. CLAIM OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY TO THE RIGHT OF IMPOSING TAXES WITHOUT LIMITATION. It 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. they who they may, will deem it their duty to support. But this is the unfortunate position in which all petitioners for redress of wrongs are placed. If their complaints against the evil-doers are placed in the hands of Opposition, they may be heard, but will never be attended to by those in power. If they are sent direct to those in authority, they are either not brought forward at all, or so coldly as to ensure their subsequent neglect. Unless the whole question of the East India Company's Monopoly can be brought into discussion,and this can only be done through the mercantile and manufacturing interests of England,-no question for reform of Indian abuses will be listened to with patience in either House of Parliament; though we rejoice at every circumstance, bearing upon this Monopoly, that may arise for public discussion, because it serves to keep the public mind alive on this subject, and increases the store of facts and arguments to be brought up in judgment against it when the day of reckoning, now fast approaching, shall arrive. The people of England, generally, think of India only as a vast and rich country, from the interior of which they are now shut out by the odious monopoly of the East India Company; and their chief hope and desire is, to see that country and China thrown open, as South America, New Holland, and other distant parts of the world now are, to increase the number of markets for consuming their productions. That desire was considered to be in some degree gratified by the partial opening of the East India trade, which took place at the last renewal of the charter, by which ships were allowed to visit the three principal ports of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, though they could not touch at intermediate ones, nor send agents or supercargoes to sell their goods in the interior, where the great consumption must always be. But, if the claim now set up by the East India Company, of a right to levy what taxes they please, without license or limitation, on every British subject visiting India for the purpose of residence or trade, be admitted,—they will have it in their power to retain their commercial monopoly in spite of all that Parliament has done, or can do, towards its amelioration for being themselves exempt from any tax, as they are the tax-imposers as well as tax-collectors, they have only to tax all their trading rivals up to the proper limit, and they can at once destroy all competition, and drive every other trader, but themselves, from the market. : Any notion of a free trade under such a power as this, is perfect mockery; it is worse than even the arbitary exactions of a Turkish Pasha, or a Bedouin robber; because these are but occasional, and for a season at least may be escaped: whereas the unlimited taxation of the East India Company being managed upon the most approved models of more enlightened fiscal regulations, reach every individual, and no man can hope to elude its rapacious grasp. If any thing could rouse the people of India to resistance, it ought to be this; and as we lost America by the same line of conduct, |