that
private adventurers had often, in defiance of the royal charter, fitted
out ships for the Eastern seas. But the competition of these interlopers
did not become really formidable till the year 1680. The nation was then
violently agitated by the dispute about the Exclusion Bill. Timid men
were anticipating another civil war. The two great parties, newly named
Whigs and Tories, were fiercely contending in every county and town of
England; and the feud soon spread to every corner of the civilised world
where Englishmen were to be found.

The Company was popularly considered as a Whig body. Among the members
of the directing committee were some of the most vehement Exclusionists
in the City. Indeed two of them, Sir Samuel Barnardistone and Thomas
Papillon, drew on themselves a severe persecution by their zeal against
Popery and arbitrary power. [162] Child had been originally brought into
the direction by these men; he had long acted in concert with them; and
he was supposed to hold their political opinions. He had, during many
years, stood high in the esteem of the chiefs of the parliamentary
opposition, and had been especially obnoxious to the Duke of York. [163]
The interlopers therefore determined to affect the character of loyal
men, who were determined to stand by the throne against the insolent
tribunes of the City. They spread, at all the factories in the East,
reports that England was in confusion, that the sword had been drawn
or would immediately be drawn, and that the Company was forward in the
rebellion against the Crown. These rumours, which, in truth, were not
improbable, easily found credit among people separated from London by
what was then a voyage of twelve months. Some servants of the Company
who were in ill humour with their employers, and others who were zealous
royalists, joined the private traders. At Bombay, the garrison and the
great body of the English inhabitants declared that they would no longer
obey any body who did not obey the King; they imprisoned the Deputy
Governor; and they proclaimed that they held the island for the Crown.
At Saint Helena there was a rising. The insurgents took the name of
King's men, and displayed the royal standard. They were, not without
difficulty, put down; and some of them were executed by martial law.
[164]

If the Company had still been a Whig Company when the news of these
commotions reached England, it is probable that the government would
have approve