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Charter of 1686.

civil law, and two assistants,' to be appointed by the Company. The court was to have power to hear and determine all cases of forfeiture of ships or goods trading contrary to the charter, and also all mercantile and maritime cases concerning persons coming to or being in the places aforesaid, and all cases of trespasses, injuries, and wrongs done or committed upon the high seas or in any of the regions, territories, countries or places aforesaid, concerning any persons residing, being, or coming within the limits of the Company's charter. These cases were to be adjudged and determined by the court, according to the rules of equity and good conscience, and according to the laws and customs of merchants, by such procedure as they might direct, and, subject to any such directions as the judges of the court should, in their best judgement and discretion, think meet and just.

The only person learned in the civil law who was sent out to India in pursuance of the charter of 1683 was Dr. John St. John. By a commission from the king, supplemented by a commission from the Company, he was appointed judge of the court at Surat. But he soon became involved in disputes with the governor, Sir John Child1, who limited his jurisdiction to maritime cases, and appointed a separate judge for civil actions.

At Madras, the president of the council was appointed to supply the place of judge-advocate till one should arrive. But this arrangement caused much dissatisfaction, and it was resolved that, instead of the president's accepting this appointment, the old court of judicature should be continued, and that, until the arrival of a judge-advocate, causes should be heard under it as formerly in accordance with the charter of 1661.

In 1686 James II granted the Company a charter by which he renewed and confirmed their former privileges, and authorized them to appoint admirals, vice-admirals, rearadmirals, captains, and other sea officers' in any of the

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1 A brother of Sir Josiah Child.

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Company's ships within the limits of their charter, with power for their naval officers to raise naval forces, and to exercise and use within their ships on the other side of the Cape of Good Hope, in the time of open hostility with some other nation, the law called the law martial for defence of their ships against the enemy.' By the same charter the Company were empowered to coin in their forts any species of money usually coined by native princes, and it was declared that these coins were to be current within the bounds of the charter.

The provisions of the charter of 1683 with respect to the Company's admiralty court were repeated with some modifications, and under these provisions Sir John Biggs, who had been recorder of Portsmouth, was appointed judge-advocate at Madras.

ment of

Madras.

Among the prerogatives of the Crown one of the most Establishimportant is the power of constituting municipal corporations munici. by royal charter. Therefore it was a signal mark of royal pality at favour when James II, in 1687, delegated to the East India Company the power of establishing by charter a municipality at Madras. The question whether this charter should be passed under the great seal or under the Company's seal was discussed at a cabinet council. The latter course was eventually adopted at the instance of the governor and deputy governor of the Company, and the reasons urged for its. adoption are curious and characteristic. The governor expressed his opinion that no persons in India should be employed under immediate commission from His Majesty, 'because the wind of extraordinary honour in their heads would probably render them so haughty and overbearing that the Company would be forced to remove them.' He was evidently thinking of the recent differences between Sir John Child and Dr. St. John, and was alive to the dangers arising from an independent judiciary which in the next century were to bring about the conflicts between Warren Hastings and the Calcutta supreme court.

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Charter of Accordingly the charter of 1687, which established a 1687. municipality and mayor's court at Madras, proceeds from the Company, and not from the Crown. It recites the approbation of the king, declared in His Majesty's Cabinet Council1 the eleventh day of this instant December,' and then goes on to constitute a municipality according to the approved English type. The municipal corporation is to consist of a mayor, twelve aldermen, and sixty or more burgesses. The mayor and aldermen are to have power to levy taxes for the building of a convenient town house or guild hall, of a public gaol, and of a school-house for the teaching of the Gentues or native children to speak, read, and write the English tongue, and to understand arethmetick and merchants' accompts, and for such further ornaments and edifices as shall be thought convenient for the honour, interest, ornament, security, and defence' of the corporation, and of the inhabitants of Madras, and for the payment of the salaries of the necessary municipal officers, including a schoolmaster. The mayor and aldermen are to be a court of record, with power to try civil and criminal causes, and the mayor and three of the aldermen are to be justices of the peace. There is to be an appeal in civil and criminal cases from the mayor's court to our supreme court of judicature, commonly called our court of admiralty.' There is to be a recorder, who must be a discreet person, skilful in the laws and constitutions of the place, and who is to assist the mayor in trying, judging, and sentencing causes of any considerable value or intricacy. And there is to be a town clerk and clerk of the peace, an able and discreet person, who must always be an Englishman born, but well skilled in the language of East India, and who is to be esteemed a notary public.

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Nor are the ornamental parts of municipal life forgotten.

For the greater solemnity and to attract respect and rever

This formal recognition of the existence of a cabinet council is of constitutional interest. But of course the cabinet council of 1687 was a very different thing from the cabinet council of the present day.

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ence from the common people,' the mayor is to always have carried before him when he goes to the guild hall or other place of assembly, two silver maces gilt, not exceeding three feet and a half in length,' and the mayor and aldermen may 'always upon such solemn occasions wear scarlet serge gowns, all made after one form or fashion, such as shall be thought most convenient for that hot country.' The burgesses are, on these occasions, to wear white ' pelong,' or other silk gowns. Moreover, the mayor and aldermen are 'to have and for ever enjoy the honour and privilege of having rundelloes and kattysols 1 born over them when they walk or ride abroad on these necessary occasions within the limits of the said corporation, and, when they go to the guild hall or upon any other solemn occasion, they may ride on horseback in the same order as is used by the Lord Mayor and aldermen of London, having their horses decently furnished with saddles, bridles, and other trimmings after one form and manner as shall be devised and directed by our President and Council of Fort St. George.'

1

resolution

of 1689.

The charter of 1687 was the last of the Stuart charters Comaffecting the East India Company. The constitutional pany's, history of the Company after the Revolution of 1688 may be appropriately ushered in by a reference to the resolution which was passed by them in that year.

'The increase of our revenue is the subject of our care as much as our trade; 'tis that must maintain our force when twenty accidents may interrupt our trade; 'tis that must make us a nation in India; without that we are but a great number of interlopers, united by His Majesty's royal charter, fit only to trade where nobody of power thinks it their interest to prevent us; and upon this account it is that the wise Dutch, in all their general advices that we have seen, write ten paragraphs concerning their government, their civil and military policy, warfare, and the increase of their revenue, for one paragraph they write concerning trade,'

1 Umbrellas and parasols,

Con

troversies

after Revolu

tion of 1688.

This famous resolution, which was doubtless inspired, if not penned, by Sir Josiah Child, announces in unmistakable terms the determination of the Company to guard their commercial supremacy on the basis of their territorial sovereignty and foreshadows the annexations of the next century. The Revolution of 1688 dealt a severe blow to the policy of Sir Josiah Child, and gave proportionate encouragement to his rivals. They organized themselves in an association which was popularly known as the New Company, and commenced an active war against the Old Company both in the City and in Parliament. The contending parties presented petitions to the Parliament of 1691, and the House of Commons passed two resolutions, first, that the trade of the East Indies was beneficial to the nation, and secondly, that the trade with the East Indies would be best carried on by a joint-stock company possessed of extensive privileges. The practical question, therefore, was, not whether the trade to the East Indies should be abolished, or should be thrown open, but whether the monopoly of the trade should be left in the hands of Sir Josiah Child and his handful of supporters. On this question the majority of the Commons wished to effect a compromise-to retain the Old Company, but to remodel it and to incorporate it with the New Company. Resolutions were accordingly carried for increasing the capital of the Old Company, and for limiting the amount of the stock which might be held by a single proprietor. A Bill based on these resolutions was introduced and read a second time, but was dropped in consequence of the refusal of Child to accept the terms offered to him. Thereupon the House of Commons requested the king to give the Old Company the three years' warning in pursuance of which their privileges might be determined.

Two years of controversy followed. The situation of the Old Company was critical. By inadvertently omitting to pay a tax which had been recently imposed on joint-stock companies, they had forfeited their charter and might at

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