r was now on the point of
expiring, it was for the government to frame terms of renewal which
might satisfy the growing demand for free trade. Their scheme, which few
were competent to criticise, met with general approval, and the only
determined opposition to it was offered in the house of lords by
Ellenborough, who lived to come into sharp collision with the court of
directors as governor-general. It was embodied in three simple
resolutions, the first of which recommended the legislature to open the
China trade without reserve, the second provided for the assumption by
the crown of all the company's assets and liabilities but with the
obligation of paying the company a fixed subsidy, while the last
affirmed the expediency of entrusting the company with the political
government of India. Grant, who moved these resolutions, as president of
the board of control, had no occasion to defend the policy of setting
free the China trade which no one disputed; but he undertook to show
that it had declined in the hands of the company, and that private
competition had already crept in on a large scale. He also dwelt on the
advantage of bringing the political relations arising out of commercial
intercourse more directly under the control of the government. His
reasoning was sound, and the China trade rapidly developed, nor could he
be expected to foresee the course of events whereby the government
afterwards became embroiled with the Chinese empire, on the importation
of opium, and other economical questions. As compensation for the loss
of its exclusive privileges, the company was to receive an annuity of
L630,000, charged on the territorial revenues of India.

The policy of continuing the company's rule in India for twenty years
longer would have excited more earnest discussion in a session less
crowded with legislative projects. The way had been paved for the
concession of complete free trade in the eastern seas by the reports of
select committees and parliamentary debates under former governments.
The consumers of tea, numbered by millions, promised themselves a better
quality at a lower price, and a keen spirit of enterprise was kindled by
the idea of breaking into the unknown resources of China. But public
interest in the administration of India was languid. It might well have
appeared that a board sitting in Leadenhall Street was fitter to conduct
shipping and mercantile operations than to govern an imperial dependency
like