s nation, in
the East Indies.

That his Majesty and his people may have an opportunity of entering into
the ground of this injurious charge, we beg leave humbly to acquaint his
Majesty, that, far from having made any infringement whatsoever on any
part of his royal prerogative, that bill did, for a limited time, give
to his Majesty certain powers never before possessed by the crown; and
for this his present ministers (who, rather than fall short in the
number of their calumnies, employ some that are contradictory) have
slandered this House, as aiming at the extension of an unconstitutional
influence in his Majesty's crown. This pretended attempt to increase the
influence of the crown they were weak enough to endeavor to persuade his
Majesty's people was amongst the causes which excited his Majesty's
resentment against his late ministers.

Further, to remove the impressions of this calumny concerning an attempt
in the House of Commons against his prerogative, it is proper to inform
his Majesty, that the territorial possessions in the East Indies never
have been declared by any public judgment, act, or instrument, or any
resolution of Parliament whatsoever, to be the subject matter of his
Majesty's prerogative; nor have they ever been understood as belonging
to his ordinary administration, or to be annexed or united to his crown;
but that they are acquisitions of a new and peculiar description,[65]
unknown to the ancient executive constitution of this country.

From time to time, therefore, Parliament provided for their government
according to its discretion, and to its opinion of what was required by
the public necessities. We do not know that his Majesty was entitled,
by prerogative, to exercise any act of authority whatsoever in the
Company's affairs, or that, in effect, such authority has ever been
exercised. His Majesty's patronage was not taken away by that bill;
because it is notorious that his Majesty never originally had the
appointment of a single officer, civil or military, in the Company's
establishment in India: nor has the least degree of patronage ever been
acquired to the crown in any other manner or measure than as the power
was thought expedient to be granted by act of Parliament,--that is, by
the very same authority by which the offices were disposed of and
regulated in the bill which his Majesty's servants have falsely and
injuriously represented as infringing upon the prerogative of the crown.

Be