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Bengal, the collections from Oude being less than in the preceding year, at which period some extraordinary payments had been made; and in a great measure at Madras, from a considerable defalcation, in consequence of the unfavourable season of 1803-4. The collections in the Bombay districts were more considerable. Of the increased charge, £1,308,000 belongs to the military, from the continuance of the war expenses to an extent beyond what was expected when the estimate was framed. Of this sum above a million is in the increase at Madras. The sum of £394,000 is still to be accounted for: of this £192,000 is in the additional expense in the Oude provinces, and £91,000 chiefly in the settlement of Balambangan, not included in the estimate; the remainder in a variety of civil, judicial, and revenue expenses.

Actual surplus charge, 1803-4 £1,779,884 The estimate for 1804-5 1,734,184 Estimated more favourable than actual,

45,700

In this year a larger receipt of revenue is calculated by £285,000. The general charges are estimated less by nearly £20,000; but the interest calculated to be payable on additional debt reduces it to the amount just stated. The military expenditure is not estimated at so large a sum as that in the last year. I am sorry, however, to be under the necessity of observing, that doubts, infinitely too well founded, are entertained respecting the estimated charges. These doubts acquire additional strength, from the estimate for the year 1805-6. Excluding the commercial charges from this estimate, in order to carry on the comparison upon a principle similar to those already made, it will appear, that the result of 1805-6 shews a surplus charge of Adding amount of interest payable to commissioners of Sinking Fund

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2,456,151

195,788

2,651,939

The principles upon which this result is produced are as follow, viz.

Revenues.-Bengal, 8,763,920)

4,774,296 14,279,533 742,017 J 7,415,570) 5,650,182 14,645,844 1,580,292 J

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The revenues of 1805-6 are estimated at a larger amount by £721,024, by including revenues of conquered districts. The charges are greater by £1,638,779. A material part of this sum is in military expenses; but the precise amount is not distinctly stated in the estimate. The charges on revenues of conquered provinces must be supposed to make a considerable part in the increase, also the additional amount of interest payable on debt.

The home concern undoubtedly requires the attentive consideration of the house. The immense demands for the exigencies of the government in India must necessarily confine the commercial exertions in that part of the world; the investments must consequently be limited the sources of supply, therefore, for the home treasury are materially affected. In stating the home concern for 1804-5, after defraying the usual demands for dividends, territorial charges, &c. and taking credit for the profits of all descriptions, a deficit appears to the amount of £418,540; and it is presumed it cannot amount to less for the year corresponding with the Indian estimate for 1805-6, viz. 1806-7, or the current year.

On these principles the excess of charge abroad and at home, for the years last inentioned, must be computed at three millions sterling.

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From these remarks it is sufficiently obvious that funds must have been derived from loans raised abroad or at home. The increase in the foreign debt to April, 1804, has been noticed the additional account shews further increase to April, 1805. _The_general account is made up for Bengal to January 31st; for Madras and Bombay to April 30th, 1805. It appears by a memorandum, that the debt bearing interest at Bengal, 30th April, 1805, was more by £358,183. This amount was properly left out of the total of the gross debt, as the alteration that had taken place in the floating debt, or the part not bearing interest, between January and April, could not be ascertained, but as properly, included in the statement of the debt bearing interest on 30th April, 1805.

Comparative amount of debt, 1804 and 1805. Amount of debts, 30 April, 1804 22,536,207 Ditto, 1805

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365,311

Add-Supplies to Bencoolen,

Prince of Wales Island, &c. .

206,800

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25,046,434

2,510,227

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The debt outstanding in India bearing interest, in April 1805, has been stated to amount to 21,604,967. Of this sum it appears, that £17,567,162 may eventually become payable in England, at the option of the holders of the securities. It is difficult to say, in what manner they may exercise their option; but it is probable, that at no very distant period demands may fall upon the home treasury to a considerable amount: and though, under the terms of the loans, the Court of Directors are enabled to protract the payment, in some instances, for one or two years, yet extraordinary measures must probably be resorted to, for the purpose of meeting the obligations as they respectively become due. Although the amount of the optional loans is stated to exceed seventeen millions sterl., it does not by any means follow, that it will all of course fall upon the home treasury. The decennial loans becoming due in 1809 and 1810, amounting to £3,820,702, may perhans be made payable in England. The part of the eight per cent. loans subscribed sin 1800, may also be transferred home; For the mount is not exactly stated. The

I

r of the sum of £13,746,400, fois under the terms of the subscripnefer to Europe, authorised by orthe Court of Directors in 1795, by

Adays date, at the exchange of The current rupce, 7s. 8d. the star and 2s. 24d. the Bombay rupce, canshewn with perfect correctness. The i stitution of this plan took place in at a lower rate of exchange, which eftwards increased. The committee Te, i has been totally superseded by eat Sinking Fund. When the rate of e is compared with the other more rous modes of remitting the fortunes ...siduals to Europe which are now open, s not appear very probable that many vull selves of this mode of transfer. Moving stated the reverses which the financial system of the Company has experienced om encreased expenditure and additional debt, some information might be expected, as to the remedies proposed, and plans recommended, by which the overbearing expenses might be met, investments might be provid ed, and the great difliculties of the financial

situation of the Company might, in some degree, be obviated. That this is a subject of serious importance, not only t to the Court of Directors and to those to whom the administration of the government of India is delegated, but to parliament and the country, does not admit of contradiction. It is well known, that considerable retrenchments in expenditure, and reductions in various establishments in India, are now in progress. The more proper time, however, for bringing this subject before the House will arrive, when complete documents shall be received from India, from which more accurate calculations can be drawn, of the extent to which it may be practicable to carry into effect the various measures of retrenchment and reform. The farther consideration of this point is, therefore, proposed to be deferred till the next sessions, when the accounts due this year, of which a complete series is not yet arrived, shall be upon the table of the House, and when an early opportunity may be taken of bringing before parliament the most ample information upon these interesting and important topics.

If, in alluding to the political events which have lately occurred in India, I do not endeavour to occupy the time of the committee, I trust that I shall not be supposed to be insensible of their magnitude and importance: they are, however, so completely within the knowledge of every gentleman, that it is unnecessary to dwell upon them for any considerable time. It appears from the dispatches of Sir G. H. Barlow, that the treaty which was concluded with Scindia, in November, 1805, having been ratified by him, has been since ratified by Scindia. Its principal points consist in establishing the river Chumbul as the northern boundary of the territory of Scindia, in a line drawn from Kotah to Gohud; and in a renunciation, on our part, of all interference with the petty states on the western bank of the Jumna, that may have been formerly tributary to Scindia. The last event of considerable importance is the treaty concluded with Holkar. It appears that Lord Lake having reversed the line of march of the old conquerors of Hindostan, pursued the fugitive to the second river of Panjab, with a degree of vigor and energy which has marked all his military exertions, and placed him in a situation from which it was difficult for him to retreat, and impossible to advance, without almost the certainty of defeat. The consequence has been, the conclusion of a treaty of peace, by which Holkar is restored to a considerable part of his ancient territory. He has thus regained, by our generosity, what he had forfeited by persevering and determined hostility. I will not, at present, enter into any discussion of the treaties, as they are not regularly before the House; but will merely say, that though there may be

points that might justify observation and remark, they are advantageous and honorable to the English name, and calculated to place the pacification of India on a solid and permanent foundation.

In endeavouring to perform the duty I have undertaken, I am aware that the task is ungracious, and the prospect I have been under the necessity of exhibiting is by no means of a brilliant or animating appearance. My object has been, to give a correct statement of the affairs of the Company; and though I should be one of the last persons to endeavour to embody forms of visionary wealth and ideal prosperity, yet, on the other hand, I should be unwilling to give way to unmanly and unavailing despondency. The resources of India, as far as I have been able to examine the subject, appear to me great, powerful, and extensive. Much, I trust, may be affected by economy. I do not, however, mean that species, which would merely restrict and retrench the hard-earned provision of laborious merit, the wages of honest and honorable service, nor even that species which would materially affect and impair the dignity and representation of executive power: such reform, and such economy, might only have the effect of diminishing the respect that is due to government, and might enfeeble the administration of authority which it was intended to confirm and invigorate. Much, I trust, may be effected by a prudent and judicious system of economy, acting upon more enlarged and enlightened principles, which must be applied to the collection as well as the disbursement of revenues, and which in its equal, impartial, and unerring operation, must pervade all branches of the administration. But it is not economy alone that will have the desired effect; it must be combined with the mild and moderate, at the same time the firm, steady, and unrelaxed exercise of legitimate authority: it must be combined with the anxious and unremitting endeavour to consult the wants and conciliate the affections of that extended population, which as it owns the influence, as it acknowledges the ascendancy of this country, so it ought to experience the advantages of our alliance, and the benefit of our protection :-it must, in short, be combined with those principles of moderation and justice, which as the surest line of policy, and the most stable foundation of greatness, ought ever to be interwoven in the practice, and ever inherent in the name and character of Britain.

Our readers will have observed with concern the calamitous effect of the droughts on the East Indian Presidencies.-We are extremely sorry to report, that our last advices from India are not more favourable; as

appears by the following extracts from the Calcutta Gazettes.

Calcutta, Tuesday, 13th May, 1806, We understand that the want of rain, since the end of March, has been very detrimental to indigo planters in the southern districts of Bengal, viz. Jessore, Kilhengar, &c. How the season has turned out in Behar and Benares, we are not informed. The cultiva tion there being mostly by rattoon crops, the want of rain may not prove so injurious, as in the southern districts, where the crop is raised from spring sowing. The fall of rain has been so long protracted, that it is problematical whether the late sowing will produce a crop to cover charges; unless indeed, the remainder of the season is uncommonly propitious. The drought has occasioned much failure in lands sown in March, and the consequent demand for seed to re-sow, has enhanced the price greatly, as far we understand as 160 rupees per maund. We are inclined to conclude from present appearances, that the ge neral supply of the present season, will be scanty, and consequently, that indigo will support high prices. It is probable also, that indigo of the last crop, if any remains in hand, may shortly experience an advance, unless the prospects of the ensuing crop improve.

Tuesday, 20th May.

In confirmation of what we advanced in our last Tuesday's paper, we publish the fol lowing extract of a letter from Tirhoot.

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I believe we shall never get another shower of rain, and all indigo is much stint ed in its growth, in consequence of the drought."

Our information, as stated before, only extended to the district of Jessore and Bisnagar, and the country to the south of the great river. We are sorry to observe from the above, that the drought has extended to Tirhoot. Since the rain, near the time of the equinox, scarcely any had fallen for a period of forty days. Such an interval of drought, we know must be very detrimental to indigo crops, and considerably diminish the returns. It must cause a great part of the spring sowing to perish, and consequently make a re-sowing necessary, at this advanced period of the season. It is, we believe, a general rule with the planters, to prognosticate an indifferent season, if the generality of the crop is not sufficiently rooted by the end of April. The proper business after the 15th of April, is weeding, and not sowing, and if there is much land to sow after that date, sanguine expectations of a good crop, by those at all acquainted with the cultivation, cannot be entertained; and therefore in the first week in May, a general agricultural estimate of returns may be formed.

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE AT BOMBAY.

thoughts, these gentlemen conceived it quite
as proper to remain at home. Whether they
were informed of this defection from their
number or not, did not appear; certain it
was, that they themselves (accompanied by
one, whose youth and inexperience seemed
to have placed him under the complete con-
troul of persons anxious to reduce him to the
ceeded most gallantly to the woods, not only
degraded level of their own depravity) pro-
ormed with sticks and bludgeons, but with

The sentiments expressed in the following
address are so proper and suitable to the
occasion, and, besides, contain such gene-
ral principles of honour, that we take a
pleasure in publishing it at length. The
issue is extremely creditable to the justice
of the British nation in India, and espe-
cially to SIR JAMES MACINTOSH, the dig-fire-arms likewise; and that the King's and
nified minister of that justice at the Presi-
dency of Bombay.

(Bombay Courier, 3d May, 1806.)

Recorder's Court. April, 22. This day came on the trial of lieutenants Cautey and Macguire, for a conspiracy to waylay and ill-treat two Dutch gentlemen, named Vandersloot, on the night of the 21st of February last.

A jury having been chosen, the Honourable Company's counsel addressed them, at some length, on the part of the crown. He observed, that it could not fail to be an extremely painful discharge of his duty to the public, to be obliged to call their attention to the conduct of persons, whose profession placed them in the rank of gentlemen, while their actions degraded that character, and were a disgrace to the cloth which they had

the honor to wear.

Honourable Company's uniform might not,
for the first time, be worn by midnight assas-
sins, they had the grace, or, more properly
speaking, the precaution, to sally forth dis-
guised in coloured clothes.

To the last hour of their lives they, proba-
bly, would have reason to be thankful to Pro-
vidence, that, by some means or other, the
Dutchmen passed to their own home, with-
out being perceived; for if a rencontre had
taken place, nothing seemed more probable
than that blood would have been spilt. But
though such a fate had been averted, it would
be the duty of the jury, and their satisfaction
also, to shew their sense of what had actually
happened, by finding a verdict for the conspi-
racy to assault, if the case on that head was
made out against them. It would then be for
the Court to assert its insulted dignity, by its
sentence on such offenders.

The evidence fully confirmed every part of Mr. Threipland's opening. It particularly appeared that the defendants carried loaded fire-arms to the woods: and an expression of Mr. Macguire's was positively sworn to, that "if the Dutchmen proved obstropulous, he “had a pair of poppers at their service."

The persons mentioned in the indictment as the objects of brutal attack and violence, were also gentlemen, sons of an aged and respectable inhabitant of Cochin, who formerly held the rank of surgeon-major in the Dutch service. Their object in coming to Bombay, was to obtain redress, by legal means, for The defence attempted to shew, that wrongs which they and their family conceived though a purpose of the kind had been enterthemselves to have sustained, when the regi- tained in the early part of the evening, it had ment to which Lieutenant Cautey belongs been abandoned before the party set out for was quartered at Cochin-wrongs of a most the woods, where their only attraction was a outrageous nature, and in which they ac- punch-house, at which uncommon good ham counted that gentleman a principal actor. could be procured for supper, while the exThey had accordingly commenced a suit pected attacks of Pariar dogs, in their proagainst him, which was still pending; and it gress thither, afforded an excuse for proceedgreatly aggravated the guilt of the conducting armed. This defence altogether failed. charged in the indictment, that the defendants made no secret of its being in revenge of these proceedings that they had formed the resolution of assaulting the Messrs. Vandersloots in the dead of night, on the King's highway, and, for that purpose, to watch their return to their own house, which is situated in the woods, about a mile from the fort. To obtain an additional levy, they repaired to a tent, where some brother-officers were at dinner, and having dismissed the native attendants, proceeded to unfold their base and nefarious design, and to solicit aid in carrving it into execution. They at first obtained an assent to their proposal; but, on second

The jury, after an eloquent and most impres-
sive charge from the Honourable the Recorder,
returned a verdict of Guilty against both de-
fendants.

Mr. Threipland then moved that they
might stand committed, which was ordered
accordingly, and that they be brought up to
receive sentence on Wednesday the 30th.—
On which day, the Court being moved for
judgment on the part of the crown, and no-
thing having been alleged to arrest the same,
or in mitigation of punishment, except the
sentence of a court-martial, published the
day before, by which it appeared, that both
defendants were dismissed the service for a dif-

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ferent offence, the Honourable the Recorder addressed them to the following effect:

holds armies together. It is a violation of that prompt, eager, active obedience to authority, far more necessary in armies than any other bodies of men, and without which they must speedily degenerate into a ferocious rabble. One of the greatest and wisest of men has, in one comprehensive sentence, concentrated every thing that can be said on the relation of an army to the internal order of the state. "An armed disciplined body is dangerous to liberty: an armed undisciplin

Bryan Macguire and George Cautey, you have been convicted of the offence of conspiring to way-lay and assault by night, two unarmed foreigners, John and Jacob Vandersloot; and it appears that you lay in wait for them, to execute your design, with the assistance of two other persons, all of you armed with bludgeons, pistols, or muskets. Your avowed motive for this project of barbarous revenge was, that one of these foreigned body is dangerous to society itself." Much gentlemen had brought an action against one of you in this Court. The observations which you have now made on the evidence in support of this charge would have been too late, even if they had been new or important. I am not the judge of evidence-that is the province of the jury, and after their verdict, I can see only with their eyes, and hear only with their ears. But, in fact, you have only now repeated the observations which you made on your trial, which I then stated to the jury, and which, in my opinion, they did well to disregard.

It is now, therefore, my duty, to pronounce the judgment of this Court upon you, and I should content myself with the above short statement of the nature and circumstances of your offence, if I were not induced to make some observations, by some faint hope of being useful to you, and by a strong sense of the duty which any man of experience owes to the numerous inexperienced young men, such as. I see around ine, who are deprived so early of parental guidance, and who may see, in your deplorable, but most instructive example, how easily conviviality may degenerate into excess, and how infallibly habitual excess, with its constant attendant, bad society, leads to such unhappy situations, as those in which you now stand. I know that the brutish vice of drunkenness, with all the noisy and turbulent vices which follow in her train, has a false exterior of spirit and manliness, which sometimes seduces weak and ignorant boys.-Not that this can be said in this case. A plan for overpowering two defenceless men, under cover of darkness, with more than double their numbers, armed with deadly weapons, can have nothing attractive to any but such as are "the stain of manhood and of arms."

more is this turbulent disposition inconsistent with the peculiar character of a Briush soldier. That which distinguishes him, not only from a mere ruffian, but from a mercenary slave, is, that he has taken up arms to protect the rights of his fellow-citizens, and to preserve the public quiet. He is an armed minister of the laws, and we expect from him a peculiar affection and veneration for those unarmed laws and magistrates whom he has girt on his sword to protect. Every true soldier must have too great a reverence for the noble virtue of courage, to sully and degrade. it in the wretched frays of sottish ruffians. It is reserved for nobler objects; he will not prostitute it on such vile and ignoble occasions. True fortitude is too serious, too grave, too proud a quality to endure such degradation. Such vices are most unofficer-like, because they are most ungentleman-like. As long as courage continues to be one of the distinctive qualities of a gentleman, so long must the profession of arms be regarded as the depository and guardian of all the feelings and principles which constitute that charac

ter.

A gentleman is a man of more refined feelings and manners than his fellow-men.— An officer is, or ought to be, peculiarly and eminently a gentleman. But there is nothing so low and vulgar as the fame of a bully, and the renown of midnight brawls. They imply every quality of a highwayman but his cou rage, and they very often lead to his fate.

In considering the punishment to be inflicted on you, I observe that you build some hopes of mercy on your dismissal from the service, by the sentence of a court-martial, for other offences. As these offences have proceeded from the same wretched vice of dis position which has placed you at this bar, I am not unwilling to consider them as part of But I know that the mischievous character the visitation which your mischievous turbufrom which such acts spring, sometimes daz-lence has already brought upon you, and zles and allures inexperienced eyes. Let me therefore as some justification for mild punishrub off a little of the varnish which hides ment, to a Court which eagerly looks out for from them its deformity. A disposition to such justifications. It has been my fate, in engage in quarrels and broils, is not, as they this place, to be obliged to justify the lenity, may suppose, a mere excess of the martial rather than the severity of the penalties inspirit which is to actuate them on greater oc- flicted here. I think it is likely to continue casions: it is the very reverse of it. It is as so. I have more confidence in the certainunmilitary as it is unsocial and immoral. It ty than in the severity of punishment. I is an offence against the first principle which conceive it to be the first duty of a criminal

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