COMMITTEE ON THE EAST INDIA COMPANY’S CHARTER.
GEORGE IV. 1830—1831
At this period it was the public opinion that the monopoly of the East India Company imposed a mischievous restraint on the trade of the country, without any reasonable cause or counterbalancing advantage. One large portion of the community, indeed, wished to have the renewal of their charter refused in toto to any extent, or under any modification; while another professed themselves willing to be satisfied with reducing the company to the level of ordinary merchants in matters of trade, leaving them in the possession of their widely-extended territories. In this conflicting state of opinion government had determined not to take the responsibility of proposing any measure of its own; but had promised that in the present session a committee should be appointed to make the inquiries which ought to precede any arrangement affecting interests so varied and important. The appointment of this committee was moved in both houses on the 9th of February; in the upper house by Lord Ellenborough, and in the commons by Mr. Peel. In making this proposition, the latter said, that he had no plan to submit for the future government of India; no opinion of ministers to state as to the renewal or modification of the charter. He proposed the committee that the question in all its bearings might be examined; but the details should be left for future consideration, when that committee should have formed its opinion. He proposed it, he continued, with the plain and honest view of having a full, perfect, and unreserved investigation into the affairs of the East India Company. The house, he said, would feel the importance of such an inquiry. It would bear in mind that higher objects were involved than the mere extension of trade. They would have to consider the whole character of the government, ruling over an immense extent of territory, wielding a powerful force, and administering an ample revenue. They were bound to consider the various modes in which that government affected the people over whom it ruled, and how far any alteration might affect the influence of the crown. The present form of government extended over many millions of people, and it had existed for a great number of years. Whether another form of government might be devised from which equal benefits would flow, he was not prepared to say; but sufficient was known of the present system to induce them to pause before they rashly interfered with it. As regards the company’s commercial concerns, the documents which would be presented to the committee would contain full information on that subject; and at present he would only say that a reference to these returns would convince any unprejudiced mind that the sanguine expectations of great benefits, which some supposed would arise from throwing the trade entirely open, ought not to be entertained. The most interesting objects involved in the inquiry were the welfare and happiness of the Indian population placed under a government. He had seen a census, which made our native subjects in India amount to ninety millions. Looking at the extent of territory which in that country belonged to Great Britain, the vast population there subject to our sway, the great revolution by which they had come under our dominion, the immense distance at which they were removed from our shores, and the difference existing between the languages and usages of the natives and ours, the mind was almost lost in amazement. Whatever might be the wish of a British parliament to enlarge the rights and foster the interests of British citizens, there could be but one feeling as to the moral obligation which we had incurred to promote the improvement of these distant subjects, so far as the feelings, the institutions, and the prejudices of that country would allow. In the list of the committee proposed by Mr. Peel there were the names of three or four East India directors. Messrs. Hume and Baring objected to their being put on the committee, although they expressed an opinion that they would not act unfairly, and that there was a necessity of obtaining the information which they possessed. Mr. Astell, one of the directors named, declared that the company desired nothing more earnestly than the fullest inquiry. What the directors complained of most, was the ignorance which prevailed on this subject, and which, by deluding the country, was the greatest enemy they had to contend with. He courted inquiry; for the more the subject was investigated, the more likely would it be that the directors would have justice done them. Let the committee obtain the fullest evidence; let them examine all the documents that would be brought before them; and then they would be able to decide whether India could be better governed; whether justice could be more fairly administered; and whether the happiness of the natives could be more humanely consulted. He contended that the directors had done all they could, and that they had never lost sight of the interests of their country in the pursuit of their own. The committee was appointed as proposed, retaining the members of the East India Company.
DEBATE ON A PROPOSAL TO ALTER THE CURRENCY.
During this session Mr. Attwood brought the subject of the currency before the house, by proposing two resolutions; namely, to make silver a legal tender as, he contended, it had been before the Bank Restriction Act of 1797, and to restore small notes. This question underwent a full discussion but the motion of a double standard seemed so objectionable, and any scheme for depreciating the currency appeared pregnant with such dangerous consequences, that the motion was withdrawn without dividing the house. Several members, indeed, expressed an opinion that it was far from being certain that the standard adopted was the best; but the relief to be obtained by the double standard proposed was thought by them to be neither so great, nor so certain, as to justify the making of such an experiment. The motion was ably opposed by Mr. Herries, who said, that the proposal to introduce the silver standard was almost impracticable and unjust. The proposal was, in point of fact, to have the two precious metals in circulation at certain fixed proportions; a condition which rendered the execution of the scheme impossible. It was well known that the proportion in which these two metals interchanged now was different from the proportion which they held in 1798. The mover himself had admitted, indeed, that the difference was five per cent. It might not be quite so much, but assuming it to be so, to what did it lead? It made the proposed resolution a recommendation to the legislature to declare gold and silver equally a legal tender, although there was a difference of five per cent, in their relative values. What would this be, he asked, in practice? Every debtor, it was said, who had money to pay would be enabled to discharge his debt with five per cent, less than he was bound to pay at present; and no doubt, he would, if the opportunity was given to him. Suppose then that the resolutions should be agreed to; what would be the result? It would be proclaimed from one end of the country to the other that this house had come to a resolution the effect of which might be shortly stated thus:—namely, that every man who had claims payable on demand, every man who held notes of small or great value, every man who had outstanding debts, would, if he secured the amount of what was due to him before this resolution passed into a law, get the whole of his money; whereas, if he delayed beyond that period, he would only get ninety-five for every hundred pounds. What, he asked, would become of the Bank of England, or of every banking house in the kingdom, or of all debtors who were liable to pay upon demand all that they owed? Would not all transactions of commerce be suspended, and the whole country present one scene of confusion, and consternation, and ruin, when the house of commons proclaimed to all who had debts due to them, that if they did not collect them on the instant, they would assuredly be losers to the amount of five per cent.? Mr. Herries also contended that the alleged justice of the proposition was fallacious. Its justice was made to rest on this—that it was only fair to give the debtor the power of paying as he might have done in 1798; and it had been assumed, that up to that time men could discharge their debts in gold or silver, as they pleased. It was a great mistake, he argued, to suppose that silver had been the standard of this country throughout the last century. It had only been a legal tender by weight, but then it had become so depreciated, that, practically, there was no such thing as tender by weight, while by law the tender in coin was limited to twenty-five pounds; so that it was clear that in 1798 silver could not be the standard. He concluded by saying, that if a regulation could be made that a creditor should be obliged to take half his debt in one standard, at the will of the debtor, and that the debtor should not be obliged to pay more than half in one, and half in the other, it might, perhaps, be practicable to have the two; but he did not see how, otherwise, the two could exist together.
FINANCIAL STATEMENTS—BILL FOR REPEALING THE DUTY ON BEER, ETC.
On the 15th of March the chancellor of the exchequer produced his annual exposition of the finances, and of the financial measures to be adopted in raising the expenditure of the present year. His statements presented no remarkable features except the repeal of the beer, cider, and leather duties. By this measure ministers desired to show their wish of alleviating the pressure of taxation on the lower classes. With reference to the extent of the repeal, the chancellor of the exchequer said, that “the amount of the three duties which I thus propose to repeal will be, on freer, £3,000,000, on leather from £340,000 to £350,000, and on cider, £25,000. These reductions will give direct relief to the people, amounting, at least, to £3,400,000., and will give them relief indirectly to a further amount; so that in fact the whole relief cannot be estimated at less than £5,000,000 a year.” The remission of duty on beer was proposed to take place on the 10th of October following, and the reason given for such delay was, that the repeal should take place conjointly with an opening of the trade, when the time arrived for renewing the licences of public-houses. There can be no doubt that the measure proceeded from excellent motives; but it is certain that by encouraging the increase of public-houses to an indefinite extent, immorality and crime had been introduced into every nook and corner of the land. The picture which the poet Cowper drew of the evils of public-houses in his day have been increased a hundredfold by such a measure so that it is literally true, that,
“Pass where’er we may, through city or through town, Village or hamlet of this merry land, Though lean and beggar’d, every twentieth face, Conducts th’ unguarded nose to such a whiff Of state debauch, forth issuing from the sties That law has licensed, as makes temperance rec.”