Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

The Reports of the Commiffioners of Public Accounts, the Reports of the Committee to inquire into the Abuses in the Revenue, and the Report of the Eaft-India Directors, are printed at the End of the Lords' Debates.

[blocks in formation]

The following are Copies of Mr. Fox and Mr. PITT'S EAST-INDIA BILLS.

A BILL for vefting the Affairs of the EAST-INDIA COMPANY in the Hands of certain COMMISSIONERS, for the Benefit of the PROPRIETORS and the PUBLIC.

WHEREAS diforders of an alarming nature and magnitude have long prevailed, and do ftill continue and increase, in the management of the territorial poffeffions, the revenues, and the commerce of this kingdom in the East Indies; by means whereof the profperity of the natives hath been greatly diminished, and the valuable interests of this nation in the faid territorial poffeffions, revenues, and commerce, have been materially impaired, and would probably fall into utter ruin if an immediate and fitting remedy were not provided:

Be it therefore enacted by the King's most excellent Majefty, by and with the advice and confent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, in this prefent Parliament affembled, and by the authority of the fame, that the government and management of the territorial poffeffions, revenues, and commerce of the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies, by the Directors and Proprietors of the faid Company, or either of them; and all and fingular the powers and authorities of the faid Directors and Proprietors, or of any fpecial, or general, or other Court thereof, in the or dering and managing the faid poffeffions, revenues, and commerce; and all elec tions of Directors of the faid United Company, be, and are hereby declared to be, difcontinued, for and during the continuance of this act; any charter, usage, law, or ftatute to the contrary notwithstanding.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforefaid, That for the better governing, ordering, and managing the faid territorial poffeffions, revenues, and commerce, the Right Honourable William Earl Fitzwilliam, the Right Honourable Frederick Montagu, the Right Honourable George Legge, commonly called Lord Viscount Lewisham, the Honourable George Auguftus North, Sir Gilbert Elliot, Baronet, Sir Henry Fletcher, Baronet, and Robert Gregory, Efquire, fhall be, and they are hereby constituted and appointed Directors of the faid United Company, and fhall be, and they are hereby conftituted members of the faid Company; and that the faid Directors hereby appointed, or any three of them, fhall have, ufe, poffefs, and exercise all and fingular the powers and authorities which have been at any time heretofore vested in, or lawfully exercised by, the faid Directors hereby difcontinued, or Proprietors, or by the General Court of Proprietors of the faid United Company, and all fuch farther and other powers and authorities, and under fuch directions, and fubject to fuch limitations and restrictions as in this act, or in any other act, the provisions whereof are not hereby altered or repealed, are contained, for the government and management of the faid territorial poffeffions, revenues, and commerce of the faid United Company, or in any wife relative thereto.

[ocr errors]

And be it further enacted by the authority aforefaid, That the said Directors hereby appointed fhall, and they are hereby authorised and empowered, immediately from and after the commencement of this act, to enter into and upon, and to poffefs themselves of all lands, tenements, houses, warehouses, and other buildings whatever, of or belonging to the faid United Company; and alfo to

take

take into their cuftody and poffeffion all books, records, documents, charters, acts, instruments, letters, and other papers whatsoever, and alfo all ships and veffels, goods, wares, merchandises, money, fecurities for money, and all other effects whatsoever, of or belonging to the faid United Company, in trust for, and for the benefit of, the Proprietors thereof, and to have, hold, and poffefs the fame, in like manner as they were held and poffeffed by the Directors hereby difcontinued, fubject to fuch charges, claims, and demands as do or may affect the fame; which Directors fo difcontinued, and all other officers and fervants of the faid United Company, are hereby enjoined, immediately upon the requifition of the faid Directors hereby appointed, fignified under their hands and feals, or the hands and feals of any three of them, to deliver to them, or to such person or perfons as they fhall for that purpose appoint, all fuch lands, tenements, houfes, warehouses, buildings, books, records, documents, charters, acts, inftruments, papers, fhips, veffels, goods, wares, and merchandifes, money, fecurities for money, and all other effects whatsoever.

And for the fole purpose of ordering and managing the commerce of the faid United Company, under and fubject to the orders and directions of the faid Directors hereby appointed, be it further enacted by the authority aforefaid, That Thomas Cheap, Efquire, George Cuming, Efquire, Richard Hall, Efquire, John Harrifon, Efquire, Jofeph Sharp, Efquire, John Michie, Efquire, John Smith, Efquire, George Tatem, Efquire, and James Moffat, Efquire, being Proprietors, each of them of two thoufand pounds capital stock in the faid United Company, at leaft, fhall be Affiftant Directors, for the purpose last aforefaid; and fhall, from time to time, without requifition, and alfo as often as they fhall be thereunto required, render an account of their proceedings to the faid Directors hereby appointed; and in all matters and things whatfoever, fhall purfue and follow fuch orders and directions as they shall from time to time receive from fuch Directors.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforefaid, That in cafe any vacancy or vacancies fhall happen in the office of the faid Directors hereby appointed, by death, refignation, removal, or otherwife, fuch vacancy or vacancies fhall be filled by His Majefty, under his fign manual, within twenty days after notice of fuch vacancy or vacancies shall have been given to one of His Majefty's principal Secretaries of State.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforefaid, That in cafe any vacancy or vacancies fhall happen in the office of the faid Affiftant Directors, by death, refignation, removal, or otherwife, fuch vacancy or vacancies fhall be filled by the majority of the Proprietors of the faid United Company, qualified in the manner required by an act of the thirteenth year of His prefent Majesty, intitled," An act for establishing certain regulations for the better management of the affairs of the East-India Company, as well in India as in Europe;" which Proprietors, at such election of any Affiftant Director, fhall not vote by ballot, or in any other covert or concealed manner, but in an open Court, for that purpose only fpecially fummoned; and every fuch Proprietor, in giving his or her vote, fhall fubfcribe his or her name in a book to be prepared for that purpose, under the name of the perfon for whom he or she fhall vote.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforefaid, That if five of the said Directors hereby appointed, who fhall be prefent at any meeting, fhall, upon enquiry, and after examination into the conduct and behaviour of the faid Affiftant Directors, find that any of them is guilty of neglect or misdemeanor in

the

the execution of his faid office, or of wilful disobedience of any order or orders of the faid Directors hereby appointed, they are hereby authorised and impowered to remove and difplace fuch Affiftant Directors; entering in their journals their reasons respectively for removing or difplacing fuch Affiftant Director, figned with their respective names.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforefaid, That the faid William Earl Fitzwilliam fall be, during his continuance as a Director by virtue of this act, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and the faid Right Honourable Frederick Montagu, Deputy Chairman thereof; and if the faid Chairman fhall die, refign, or be removed from fuch office of Director, at any time during the continuance of this act, then and in that cafe the faid Deputy Chairman fhall fucceed to the office of Chairman of the said Board of Directors; and if the faid Deputy Chairman, being become Chairman of the faid Board of Directors, fhall alfo die, refign, or be removed from the faid office of a Director, then and in that cafe, and alfo in every other cafe of a vacancy in the office of a Chairman of the faid Board of Directors, the faid Directors hereby appointed shall chufe and elect one of themselves to fupply fuch vacancy; and if a vacancy, either by fucceffion or otherwife, fhall at any time happen in the faid office of Deputy Chairman of the faid Board of Directors, eftablished by this act, the faid Directors hereby appointed shall, in like manner, chufe and elect one of themselves to fupply fuch vacancy.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforefaid, That the faid Chairman of the faid Board of Directors, or, in his abfence, the faid Deputy Chairman, fhall have power to call or fummons any extraordinary meeting of the faid Directors hereby appointed, at fuch time or times as he fhall think expedient; and may, at any meeting whatever of fuch Directors, if he shall think fit, propofe the bufinefs to be first confidered by fuch Directors at fuch meeting; and in cafe of an equal divifion of voices on any question whatever before the faid Board of Directors, fhall have the cafting voice: provided always, that nothing herein contained fhall prevent the majority of fuch Directors present at any meeting from adjourning their meetings to fuch time or times as they fhall think proper.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforefaid, That it shall not be fawful for the faid Directors hereby appointed, or any of them, upon any queftion whatever, to vote by ballot, or in any other covert manner; and that in any difference of opinion, except as to the election to offices of perfons not having before been in the fervice of the faid United Company, the said Directors (as well the majority as thofe who fhall diffent) fhall each of them enter, on the journals of the faid Directors, his reafons for his vote, figned with his name, or his adherence to the reafons entered by any other Di rector.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforefaid, That no perfon furnifhing the faid United Company with fhipping, or with any article of their investment outwards, either from Great Britain, or from fuch ports and places as the Company's fhips have occafion to touch at in their way to India, or with any naval or military ftores, or concerned in buying and felling any commodity of the faid United Company's importation, fhall be capable of being a Director or Affiftant Director for the execution of this act.

And be it alfo enacted by the authority aforefaid, That no perfon fhall be capable of being a Director, or Affiftant Director, for the execution of this act,

against

against whom the charge of any corrupt practice, peculation, or oppreffion in India, doth or shall appear in the records of the faid United Company within the space of two years before the time of his nomination, or fhall be madė upon oath before the faid Directors hereby appointed within the space of two years before the time of his nomination, until fuch Directors, or three of them, fhall have examined into the fame, and fhall have feverally declared that they have examined into the faid charge, and do in their confcience believe fuch perfon not guilty of the faid charge; or that they do, upon the said examination, find the faid charge not of fufficient importance to exclude the faid perfon from the faid office of Director or Affiftant Director, as the cafe may be; and that they have entered upon their journals their reasons for fuch their opinion.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforefaid, That no perfon who hath been, now is, or fhall hereafter be, in the fervice of the faid United Company in India, fhall be capable of being a Director, or Affiftant Director, for the execution of this act, within the space of two years from the time of his last return from India.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforefaid, That the faid Direc tors hereby appointed fhall, once in every fix months, lay before the Proprietors of the faid United Company, in a general court to be for that purpofe affembled, an exact state of the debts and credits of the faid United Company; the first coft and charges of their investments, outward and inward; with the fums of money in India applicable to an investment, according to the last accounts received thereform; an account of the shipping; an account of the produce of the fales; and the ftate of the warehoufes at home and abroad.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforefaid, That the faid Directors hereby appointed fhall, within twenty days after the commencement of every feffion of Parliament, lay before the Lords Commiffioners of his Majesty's Treasury (who are hereby authorised and required, without lofs of time, to lay the fame before both Houfes of Parliament) an account of the produce of the territorial and other revenues of the faid United Company in India; and alfo eftimates of the civil, military, and naval establishments there; together with a state of the bond and other debts due from the faid United Company in India, diftinguishing what belongs to each of the principal prefidencies and fettlements of the faid United Company in India; and alfo the ftate of the trade, laid by the faid Directors before the faid Proprietors at their then last general court.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforefaid, That the faid Directors hereby appointed, or the major part of them,' fhall have full power and authority to remove, difplace, fufpend, appoint, confirm, or reftore, all and every perfon or perfons whatsoever, from or to any office, ftation, or capa city whatfoever, civil or military, in the fervice of the faid United Company, or within the limits of the faid United Company's charters, or any of them, or any way concerned in the management of their affairs within this kingdom, or in India, whether any fuch perfon or perfons fhall have been nominated or appointed in and by any act or acts of Parliament, or howfoever otherwise nominated or appointed: except as herein provided and established, as to the appointment and removal of fuch Directors themselves, and of the said Assistant Directors,

And

« PreviousContinue »