English functionaries in India; but no single functionary makes a very large fortune, and 'what is made is slowly, hardly, and honestly earned. Only four or five high political offices are reserved for public men from England. The residencies, the secretaryships, the seats in the boards of revenue and in the Sudder courts are all filled by men who have given the best years of life to the service of the Company; nor can any talents, however splendid, nor any connexions, however powerful, obtain those lucrative posts for any person who has not entered by the regular door and mounted by the regular gradations. Seventy years ago much less money was brought home than in our time, but it was divided among a very much smaller number of persons, and immense sums were often accumulated in a few months. Any Englishman, whatever his age, might hope to be one of the lucky emigrants." A new class of men sprung up at this period, to whom the appellation of Nabobs' was given: the ephemeral literature of that day is filled with the popular conceptions of the character, and the nabob is usually represented as "a man with an immense fortune, a tawny complexion, a bad liver, and a worse heart." The public mind for thirty years was filled with impressions of their wealth and supposed crimes.

The progress of good government is nowhere more evident at the present time than in the administration of India. Even if the misgovernment now existed by which individuals could amass immense wealth, other circumstances would be entirely wanting to render the retired Indian a veritable Nabob of the old school, as he exists, somewhat caricatured of course, in the play and novel of seventy years ago. At that period the voyage to or from India was seldom accomplished in less than six months, and often occupied a much longer time: a year and a half was calculated as the average period between the dispatch of a report from Calcutta and the receipt of the adjudication thereon by the Directors in Leadenhall Street. Slow, tedious, uncertain, and unfrequent as was the intercourse of the servants of the East India Company with the mind of England in those days, what could be expected but that it should produce strong effects on those who went out in youth and spent thirty years of their life in India, and that at their return they should exhibit some rich peculiarities of character, easily assailable by the light shafts of ridicule, if not open to the violent attacks of those who suspected them of dark crimes committed in their distant pro-consulships while amassing their wealth? Even Warren Hastings, so consummate a politician in India, was at fault when he had to deal with party interests and feelings at home: he had lost that fine and delicate appreciation of things which is gained by observation from day to day. Steam navigation has done and will do much to elevate the character and objects of our Indian policy, and to imbue its functionaries with more enlarged views of their duties; for rapidity and certainty of communication is gradually bringing the eyes of the people upon this distant part of our empire. Steam has placed Bombay within five weeks' distance of London,* and the seat of the supreme government in India has been reached in six weeks from the seat of the imperial government. Private intercourse is rapidly increasing in consequence of these great improvements. Before the

*In August, 1841, the London mail reached Bombay in thirty-one days and five hours.

establishment of lines of steam-communication with India in 1836, the number of letters annually received and dispatched from the several presidencies and from Ceylon was 300,000. In 1840, the number had risen to 616,796, and to 840,070 in 1841. The number of newspapers sent from India to Europe in 1841 was about 80,000; and 250,000 were sent to India; and in 1842 it is believed that 400,000 were sent both ways, each cover being counted as one, though it might contain several newspapers. A man in the jungles may now be as well informed on the leading topics of the day in England, as if he were the daily frequenter of a news-room here. The peculiarities which seemed unavoidable at one period have scarcely ground now on which to take root.

It was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth that the capture of a Portuguese ship laden with gold, pearls, spices, silks, and ivory called forth a body of merchant adventurers, who subscribed a fund amounting to something above 30,000l., and petitioned Her Majesty for a warrant to fit out three ships, the liberty of exporting bullion (then deemed wealth, instead of its representative), and a charter of incorporation excluding from the trade all parties not licensed by themselves. While the discussions were pending the petitioners stated, in reply to an application from the government, who wished to employ Sir Edward Michelbourne on the expedition, that they were resolved "not to employ any gentleman in any place of charge," and requested " that they may be allowed to sort theire business with men of their own qualitye, lest the suspicion of the employment of gentlemen being taken hold uppon by the generalitie do dryve a great number of the adventurers to withdraw their contributions." A Charter was granted on the last day of the sixteenth century to George, Earl of Cumberland, and 215 knights, aldermen, and merchants, under the title of the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies," with exclusive liberty of trading for fifteen years, and a promise of renewal at the end of that term, if the plan should be found "not prejudicial or hurtful to this our realm." A century later the English had made such little progress in India, in comparison with the Portuguese, that, in 1698, it was compulsory on the ministers and schoolmasters sent to the English establishments in India to learn the Portuguese language.

The exclusive Charter of Queen Elizabeth was not at first respected by her successor, who, in 1604, issued a licence to Sir Edward Michelbourne and other persons to trade to the East, but he was subsequently persuaded to adopt a different policy; and on the 31st of May, 1609, he renewed the Company's Charter "for ever," but providing that it might be recalled on three years' notice being given, with some additional privileges, which encouraged the Company to build the largest merchant-ship that England had hitherto possessed: she was named the Trades Encrease,' and measured eleven hundred tons: at her launch the King and several of the nobility dined on board, and were served entirely upon china-ware, which was then a very costly rarity, and appropriate to the destination of the vessel. The direction of the Company was put under twenty-four committees; the word committee signifying then, as we believe it does still in Scotland, a person to whom any matter is intrusted. It was at first hardly a Company each adventure was managed by associations of individual members

on their own account, acting generally according to their own pleasure, but conforming to certain established regulations made for the benefit of the whole body. But in 1612, after twelve voyages had been made to the East Indies, the whole capital subscribed, amounting to 429,000l., was united, the management of the business was committed to a few principal parties, and the great body maintained such a general control as in recent times has been exercised by the Court of Proprietors. During the whole of the century the history of the Company is chiefly a narrative of mercantile transactions, but somewhat more interesting than those of our days from their adventurous character, and diversified by the accounts of quarrels, battles, and occasional treaties with the Portuguese and Dutch, who were very unwilling to admit a commercial rival.

Turning to the London history of the Company, we find the seventeenth century marked by several events which deserve to be briefly noticed as illustrative of the times. In 1623, just before the departure of a fleet for India, the Duke of Buckingham, then Lord High-Admiral, extorted the sum of 10,000l. before he would allow it to sail: the bribe was given to avoid a claim for droits of Admiralty on prize-money alleged to have been obtained at Ormuz and other places. A like sum was demanded for the King, but it does not appear to have been paid. In 1635 Charles I. granted to Captain John Weddell and others a licence to trade for five years: the inducement to this violation of the Charter was probably the share which the King was to receive of the profits. In 1640 Charles I. being in want of money, bought upon credit the whole stock of pepper in the Company's warehouses, amounting to 607,522 lbs., and sold it again for ready money at a lower price. Four bonds were given to the Company for the amount, payable at intervals of six months, but none of them were paid. In 1642 13,000l. was remitted of the duties owing by the Company, but the remaining sum of about 50,000/. was never received. In 1655 the Republican Government threw the trade to India entirely open. The experiment of a free trade was not fairly tried, as the Company was reinstated in its monopoly only two years afterwards. In 1661 Charles II. granted the Company a new Charter, conferring larger privileges-the power of making peace and war. The year 1667-8 is the first in which tea became an article of the Company's trade. The agents were desired to send home" 100 lb. weight of the best tey that you can gett." In 1836 the quantity of tea consumed in the United Kingdom amounted to fifty million pounds within a fraction--the duty on which was 4,674,535l., or more than one-twelfth of the whole revenue. In this same year 1667-8 the Company dispatched sixteen ships to India with the largest investment which had yet been sent out, the value of bullion and stock being 245,000l. In 1681 the Spitalfields weavers, thinking themselves injured by the importation of wrought silks, chintzes, and calicoes from India, riotously assembled about the India House, using violent threats against the directors.

From 1690 to 1693 a dispute existed as to whether the right of conferring a Charter for exclusive privileges of trade devolved upon the Sovereign or the Parliament. In the former year the House of Commons decided the question in their own favour, and addressed the King upon the subject, but in 1693 the King granted a new Charter for twenty-one years, upon which the House again

affirmed its right, and not only passed a resolution to that effect, but directed an inquiry into the circumstances attending the renewal, when it was ascertained that it had been procured by a distribution of 90,000l. to some of the highest officers in the State. Sir Thomas Cooke, a member, and governor of the Company, was committed to the Tower for refusing to answer the questions put to him; and the Duke of Leeds, who filled the office of President of the Council, was impeached on a charge of having received a bribe of 5000l. Further exposures were put a stop to by the prorogation of Parliament. Five years afterwards, in 1698, without much show of reason or justice, the Old Company, which had now been in existence nearly a century, was dissolved, three years being allowed for winding up its business. A New Company, incorporated by the name of the "English Company," was invested with the privileges of exclusive trade. The members composing the new body had outbid the older one by offering to lend the Government a larger sum of money. In 1700 the Old Company obtained an act authorising them to trade under the Charter of the New Company. The existence of two trading bodies led to disputes and rivalry, which benefited neither, and exposed them both to the tyranny of the native princes. The capital of the English Company was absorbed by the loan which it had made to Government as a bonus for its privileges, but the older body naturally profited from the greater experience of its members. In 1702 an act was passed for uniting the two Companies, which was completely effected in 1708, seven years having been allowed to make the preparatory arrangements. The united bodies were entitled "The United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies," a title which was borne until the abolition of its trading privileges in 1834. The exclusive privileges of the Company were successively renewed in 1712, 1730, 1744, 1781, 1793, and 1813. Very important changes were made on the renewal of the Charter in 1781. The Government stipulated that all dispatches for India should be communicated to the Cabinet before being sent off; and they obtained a decisive voice in questions of peace and war. This was a prelude to the establishment of the Board of Control in 1784, by which, in everything but patronage and trade, the Court of Directors were rendered subordinate to the Government. In 1794 a slight infringement was made on the Company's Charter by a clause enabling private merchants to export goods to or from India in the Company's ships, according to a rate of freight fixed by act of Parliament, the Company being required to furnish shipping to the amount of three thousand tons annually to the private traders. In 1813 the rights of the private traders were still further extended. In the twenty years from 1813 to 1833, the value of goods exported by the private trade increased from about one million sterling per annum to three and a-half millions, a much larger amount than had ever been exported by the Company.

In 1833 the act was passed by which the Company is now governed. This act has made greater changes in the state of affairs than all the former ones. It continues the government of India in the hands of the Company until 1854, but takes away the China monopoly and all trading whatever. As the proprietors were no longer a body of merchants, their name was necessarily changed, and it was enacted that "The East India Company" should be their future appella

tion. Their warehouses, and the greatest part of their property, were directed to be sold: the dividend was to be 103 per cent., chargeable on the revenues of India, and redeemable by Parliament after the year 1874. The amount of dividends guaranteed by the act is 630,000l., being 10 per cent. on a nominal capital of 6,000,000l. The real capital of the Company in 1832 was estimated at upwards of 21,000,000l., including cash, goods, buildings, and 1,294,7687. as the estimated value of the East India House and the Company's warehouses, the prime cost of the latter having been 1,100,000. The act directs that accounts of the Company's revenues, expenditure, and debts are to be laid before Parliament every year in May; also lists of their establishments, with salaries and allowances paid on all accounts. Englishmen were allowed to purchase lands and to reside in all parts of India, with some exceptions, which were removed in 1837. These, and several other enactments relating to India only, have altered in a great measure the character of the Company.

For some time after the English began to trade to the East, no footing was obtained on the Continent of India. The first factory was at Bantam, in Java, which was established in 1602; a few years afterwards there were factories in Siam; and in 1612, after many attempts, a firman was obtained from the Great Mogul allowing certain privileges at Surat, which was a long time the head of all our trade in India. This firman was granted, or at least accelerated, by the success of the English in four naval fights with the Portuguese, whom the natives had believed to be invincible. In the same year the English received several commercial privileges from the Sultan of Achin, in Sumatra, who requested in return that two English ladies might be sent to him, to add to the number of his wives! In the following year they established a factory at Firando, in Japan; and by 1615 the number of factories in the East amounted to nineteen. In 1618 the Company placed agents at Gombroon in Persia, and Mocha in Arabia. In 1639 they received from the native chief of the territory around Madras power to exercise judicial authority over the inhabitants of that place, and to erect a fort there. This was Fort St. George; it was the first establishment possessed in India that was destined to become a place of importance: it was raised to the rank of a Presidency in 1653. The first footing in Bengal, the source of all the subsequent power of England in India, was obtained in 1652. The immediate means of this privilege are curious. In the year 1645 a daughter of Shah Jehan, the Great Mogul, had been' severely burnt, and an express was sent to Surat to procure an English surgeon. A Mr. Broughton was sent, who cured the princess and attained to great favour at court: from Delhi he passed into the service of Prince Shujah, with whom he resided when the prince entered upon the Governorship of Bengal, and Mr. Broughton's influence there obtained for his countrymen the privilege of trading custom-free, which was confirmed by a firman of Aurungzebe in 1680. Bombay, which had been ceded by Portugal to Charles II. as part of the marriage portion of the Princess Catherine, was made over by him to the Company in 1668. Calcutta was founded in 1692 on the site of a village named Govindpore, and the possession received an important increase in 1717, when the Mogul granted a patent enabling the English to purchase thirty-seven towns in the vicinity. This accession was obtained by the