by the directions of your Committee, and the result must
have been equally clear to them,--which is, that, instead of realizing
two shillings and twopence the rupee on their subscription, as they
proposed, they could never hope to see more than one shilling and
ninepence. This calculation probably shook the main pillar of the
project of April. But, on the other hand, as the subscribers to the
second scheme can have no certain assurance that the Company will accept
bills so far exceeding their allowance in this particular, the necessity
of remitting their fortunes may beat them back to their old ground. The
Danish Company was the only means of remitting which remained. Attempts
have been made with success to revive a Portuguese trade for that
purpose. It is by no means clear whether Mr. Hastings and his colleagues
will adhere to either of the foregoing plans, or, indeed, whether any
investment at all to that amount can be realized; because nothing but
the convenience of remitting the gains of British subjects to London can
support any of these projects.

The situation of the Company, under this perpetual variation in the
system of their investment, is truly perplexing. The manner in which
they arrive at any knowledge of it is no less so. The letter to Lord
Macartney, by which the variation is discovered, was not intended for
transmission to the Directors. It was merely for the information of
those who were admitted to a share of the subscription at Madras. When
Mr. Hastings sent this information to those subscribers, he might well
enough have presumed an event to happen which did happen,--that is,
that a vessel might be dispatched from Madras to Europe: and indeed, by
that, and by every devisable means, he ought not only to have apprised
the Directors of this most material change in the plan of the
investment, but to have entered fully into the grounds and reasons of
his making it.

It appears to your Committee that the ships which brought to England the
plan of the 8th of April did not sail from Bengal until the 1st of May.
If the change had been in contemplation for any time before the 30th of
April, two days would have sufficed to send an account of it, and it
might have arrived along with the plan which it affected. If, therefore,
such a change was in agitation before the sailing of the ships, and yet
was concealed when it might have been communicated, the concealment is
censurable. It is not improbable that some c