£
To what owing for silver and to sundrys, with interest thereon,581,756

The greatest part of this debt is due to the bank of England, as the price of silver bought from the bank for exportation, several years ago. The Company never granted any security under their seal for this debt, more than for the price of other goods bought on credit; and this debt stands at this day upon the footing of a simple entry in the Company's books, and in the books of the Bank, as a sum due for the price of silver, and the Bank have willingly accepted interest at 4 per cent. and have indulged the Company with a delay of payment.

£
To the amount of bills of exchange drawn from India, unpaid, with interest,338,000
To freight and demurage,305,000
To tradesmens bills in the department of the committee of shipping,155,909
To ditto, in the committee of buying,64,079
To dividends on stock not yet demanded,23,883
To dividend on stock, due at Midsummer, at the rate of 10 per cent.859,704
To interest on annuities to Midsummer, including interest not yet demanded,75,406
To interest on bonds to Midsummer, including interest not yet demanded,60,553
To commission due to supercargoes,30,000
To the proprietors of goods sold in private trade,75,900
To warrants passed the court unpaid,7,500
To alms-house at Poplar,13,503
To salaries of clerks, &c. and for tradesmens bills for work done to the house, &c.5,000

To ballance to government for naval and garrison stores received in India, 9,223l. but as government owes to our company 33,750l. as the price of salt-petre, this ought not to be stated.

These are the whole debts dated by the Directors themselves as due by this Company, besides their bonds and annuities, a great part of them are not payable in the common course of business for a considerable time, some of them not till the year 1769, and the Company are possessed of effects now in England, independent of the cargoes of this year daily expected, sufficient to pay them all; but at any rate none of these debts fall within the prohibition of the statutes by which the Company is restrained from borrowing under their common seal to a greater amount than six millions, for none of these debts have been borrowed under the Common seal, nor indeed have been borrowed at all in the sense meant by the act of parliament, but are merely book debts contracted as the price of goods, &c. in the common course of merchandise.

It further appears by a calculation made by one of the Directors themselves, a member of the committee of treasury, that by the sale of goods in the common course of the Company's sales, the Company will be in cash, to pay off all these debts and also to pay the dividend of 6¼ per cent. against the month of February 1768. A copy of this account is annexed.

But whatever may be in that matter, it is sufficient for the present argument, to shew that none of the debts due by the Company, over and above their bonds, fall within the prohibition of the statutes which have restrained the Company's power of borrowing under seal; none of the Company's creditors have complained of the late increase of dividend, the Directors alone and their faction have objected to it, and have pretended as their excuse that they deemed it illegal to make any increase of dividend while the Company owed any debts beyond the six millions in bonds and annuities. They have not urged the argument as a matter of inexpediency merely, for that argument would have appeared too groundless when the payment of all these creditors must in every way take place almost immediately, but they have put the argument on an objection of illegality, founded upon the statutes which restrain the Company's power of borrowing; and indeed if the objection of the Directors had arose from inexpediency alone, they could not have been justified in making so violent and obstinate an opposition to the sentiments of the Proprietors, nor could they be justified as honest men in endeavouring to shake the very foundation of the Company's credit, and to injure its stock, in order merely to save the Company from paying a sum of 40,000l. more or less, in February next. But indeed upon the footing of the Directors argument that the Company can never divide if they have other debts besides their bonds and annuities, no dividend can ever take place, for the Company cannot carry on their trade in a proper manner without contracting such debts as the price of goods purchased on credit, and the freights of ships employed by them.

It is proper therefore, after having premised this general view of the statutes which restrain the Company's power of borrowing, to consider these statutes more particularly one by one, to see if we can discover any pretence for that doubt which the Directors have affected to entertain concerning the Company's power of borrowing.

It is extremely remarkable, that when the Directors were asked in the general court whether they had taken any opinions of council to justify their pretended doubt as to the Company's power of contracting such debts, they declared that they had not, and the chairman said, he did not think they would have been justified if they had taken such opinions. Nothing can shew more clearly the unjustifiable motives of the Directors opposition than this answer: they opposed the dividend upon pretence of a doubt of the Company's power of incurring debts beyond six millions, and yet they did not take the opinion of council concerning the Company's real powers. They knew that no opinion could be procured to give a foundation for the doubt which they pretended to entertain, and therefore they took no opinions, but made use of their pretended doubt as a mask to cover the real motives which induced them to engage in their conspiracy against the interest of the proprietors whose servants they are.

The act 9 and 10 of king William, c. 44. contains no clauses which can any way restrain the Company's power of borrowing or extending its trade, except what is to be found in section 61, 62, 64, 75 and 86.—By sections 61, 62 and 64, there is no other restriction except that the Company shall not, in any one year, successively, send or cause to be sent to the East Indies from England or any other country, goods, bullion, or commodities to any greater value than their principal stock subscribed. And the fact is, that the Company never has sent in any one year, goods, bullion or commodities to the value of one-third of their principal stock, and therefore no argument can be founded on the limitations contained in these three clauses.