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deceived. I foon found there was no original Adminiftration to be fuffered in this country. A long train of infidious practices at length unwillingly convinced me that there is fomething behind the throne GREATER than the THRONE ITSELF." On another occafion he affirmed, " that the late good old King poffeffed the feelings of humanity—and, amongst many other princely virtues, was endowed with juftice, truth, and SINCERITY, in an eminent degree. He had fomething about him by which it was poffible for you to know whether he liked you or disliked you.”

Matters being in this ftatc, a bill was in the courfe of the prefent feffion introduced and paffed, with the appearance, it must be confeffed, of general approbation, for the impofition of certain duties on glafs, tea, paper, and painters' colors, imported from Great Britain into the Colonics; for though by the repeal of the ftamp act the exercise of the right of internal taxation was allowed to be virtually relinquifhed, the claim of external taxation was affirmed ftill to remain in full force. The Americans by this act were reduced to a moft grievous and vexatious political embarraffinent. It had been ever uniformly acknowledged that Great Britain poffeffed the right of commercial regulation and control-it could not be denied that port duties had been at former periods impofed for the purpofe of commercial regulation,

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gulation, particularly by the act paffed in the fixth year of the reign of the late king, on the importation of foreign rums, fugars, and melaffes, from the West Indies. It could not be pretended with confiftency and plaufibility that the fame power did not now inhere in the British Parliament; but it was at the fame time impoffible not to difcern that this power was in the prefent inftance exercised with a very different intention, and for the accomplishment of a very different object; and that, by a species of artifice unworthy of a great nation, an attempt was now made to inveigle them into the payment of that revenue, which could not be extorted by means more direct and unequivocal. When the intelligence of this new plan of state policy reached America, a fudden and angry gloom instantly and univerfally took place of the hilarity and good humour which had predominated fince the fuppofed relinquifhment of the plan of American taxation; and the intrigues of Courts being to the Americans happily unknown myfteries, it was to them inconceivable how fuch men as those who compofed the prefent Administration could now act in a manner fo diametrically oppofite to their former profeffions. Mercantile combinations immediately became general, not to import those articles on which the new duties were laid-the trivial amount of which did not diminish the odium attending them-the Americans comparing these

duties to an entering wedge, defigned to make way for others which would be greater and heavier.

The last business of national importance which occupied the attention of Parliament during this long and interefting feffion, related to the affairs of the Eaft India Company. The prodigious acquifitions recently made by the Company in the Eaft, and the princely fortunes accumulated by thofe who occupied the higher departments in its fervice, ftrongly attracted the attention, as may easily be fuppofed, both of the Proprietary and the Parlia

ment.

At a General Court held at the India House, it was affirmed by many of the Proprietors to be highly reasonable, that a larger dividend fhould be declared by the Directors, and that the whole body should participate in the advantages of their late fucceffes; infifting, that fo low a dividend as fix per cent. agreed but ill with the present flourishing ftate of the Company's finances. It was plaufibly urged, that the Dutch East India Company divided twenty per cent. upon its capital, though their poffeffions and revenues were in no degree equal to those of the English. The Directors, who, by the superior fagacity of their conduct, have frequently expofed the dangerous fallacy of a confident reliance on the collective wisdom of a popular Affembly, combined as it must neceffarily be

with their collective ignorance and folly, replied with much good fenfe and prudence, " that although great advantages had certainly been gained, it was not lefs true, that vaft expences had been incurred by the unexampled extent and duration of their military operations. The profits of the Company, they faid, were comparatively remote and precarious; their debts urgent and certain. Juftice and good policy, therefore, concurred in recommending the previous discharge of incumbrances ere they thought of appropriating the profits. Recall, faid they, the tranfactions of the South Sea year, and confider the pernicious effects of the fraudulent arts then ufed for raifing the value of that ftock. Will not this premature attempt be attended with fimilar confequences? A confiderable augmentation of dividend will raife the price of our fund to an extraordinary height, at which it cannot poffibly be fupported. Thus fresh fuel will be added to the ardor for gaming, a wider field will be opened for stock-jobbing, and all the myfterious iniquities of 'Change-Alley. By your precipitance you will create a new South Sea bubble, which will ultimately burft upon your own heads."

The Proprietary, far from being fatisfied with these reasonings, greatly resented what they styled "the invidious mention of the South Sea bubble,” and reproached the Directors with an intention to monopolife the riches of the Company, and, by

their futile and abfurd cavils, prevent all increafe of dividend, to fwell their own enormous heaps. A dividend of twelve and a half per cent. was ac cordingly declared; when the Parliament, in confequence of an application from the Company for the renewal of their charter, entered into a serious investigation of the ftate of the Company's affairs. It was without hesitation afferted, that a commercial company could not legally acquire territorial rights; and that the revenues annexed to those rights appertained folely to the Crown. The Company, dreading the confequences of a competition fo formidable, voluntarily offered an annual fum of 400,000l. to the Government, in lieu of all other claims; and a temporary agreement for two years only was concluded upon these terms, the queftion of right remaining undecided. A bill, which the urgency of the case only could warrant, was at the same time brought into the House, RESCINDING, by an high exertion of legiflative authority, the late refolution of the General Court, and confining the dividends of the Company to ten per cent. during the continuance of the agreement made with the Government, which paffed with much oppofition; the Secretary of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on this occafion, to the astonishment of the public, voting in the minority. This important bill originated with, and fupported by the powerful patronage of the Noble

Duke

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