ing of all trade between India and England, the authors of it
state, that it will "_open a new channel_ of remittance, and abolish the
practice, by precluding the necessity, of remitting _private fortunes_
by _foreign bottoms_, and that it may lead to some _permanent mode_ for
remittance of private fortunes, and of combining it with the regular
provision of the Company's investment,--that it will yield _some_ profit
to the Company without risk, and the national gain will be the same as
upon the regular trade."

As to the combination of this mode of remittance with the Company's
investment, nothing can be affirmed concerning it until some
satisfactory assurance can be held out that such an investment can ever
be realized. Mr. Hastings and the gentlemen of the Council have not
afforded any ground for such an expectation. That the Indian trade may
become a permanent vehicle of the private fortunes of the Company's
servants is very probable,--that is, as permanent as the means of
acquiring fortunes in India; but that _some profit_ will accrue to the
Company is absolutely impossible. The Company are to bear all the charge
outwards, and a very great part of that homewards; and their only
compensation is the surplus commission on the sale of other people's
goods. The nation will undoubtedly avoid great loss and detriment, which
would be the inevitable consequence of the total cessation of the trade
with Bengal and the ships returning without cargoes. But if this
temporary expedient should be improved into a system, no occasional
advantages to be derived from it would be sufficient to balance the
mischiefs of finding a great Parliamentary corporation turned into a
vehicle for remitting to England the private fortunes of those for whose
benefit the territorial possessions in India are in effect and substance
under this project to be _solely_ held.

By this extraordinary scheme the Company is totally overturned, and all
its relations inverted. From being a body concerned in trade on their
own account, and employing their servants as factors, the servants have
at one stroke taken the whole trade into their own hands, on their own
capital of 800,000_l._, at their own risk, and the Company are become
agents and factors to them, to sell by commission _their_ goods for
_their_ profit.

To enable your Committee to form some judgment upon the profit which may
accrue to the Company from its new relation and employment, they
directed t