t, they had chosen to have continued to trade as a joint stock
company, I would have allowed them; I would have adopted measures for
the purpose of inducing them to do so, and to carry on the government of
India. It is perfectly true, my Lords, that the people of this country
were, and are, desirous of participating in the trade to China; but I am
not aware that they ever expressed a desire to see the company deprived
of any branch of that trade. But then, my Lords, the noble Lord asks,
"how would you secure to them their dividends?" Why, my Lords, their
dividends, supposing the trade had turned out so ill as the noble Lord
expects it would have done, would have been secured to them, as they
must be at present, by saving all unnecessary expense in India--those
dividends would have been secured to them, as they still will be, and as
under all circumstances they must be, by bringing down the whole
expences of the Government of the country. But we had another
resource--we might have relieved the East India Company, trading to
China no longer as a monopolist, but as a joint stock company, from a
part of the burden of the provisions of the Commutation Act. I cannot
help thinking, if that course had been adopted--or even supposing,
according to the calculations of my noble Friend behind me, we had been
obliged to abandon that course, by desiring the East India Company to
withdraw from trading with China--that they still would have been in
possession of their capital, which might have been disposed of for their
advantage, and they might have been continued in the Government of
India. I entreat your Lordships to observe, that such an arrangement
would have been attended with this advantage, that they would not have
had to draw their dividends from India. One of the greatest
inconveniences attending this arrangement is, in my opinion, the
increased sum which must be annually brought home by remittance to this
country from India, to such an amount that the inconvenience is very
great, so great, that I very much doubt whether the process can be
carried on; and it must be most prejudicial to the commerce of the
country.

_June_ 5, 1833.

* * * * *

_Reform un fait accompli_.

Now that the Reform Bill has become the law of the land, I have
considered it my duty not only to submit to it, but to endeavour to
carry its provisions into execution by every means in my power.

_July_ 19, 1833.