1832, although
in this year there was a surplus. After a few words from Sir Robert
Peel, however, who questioned the reality of the reductions made by
government, the financial arrangements were carried without opposition.

COMMITTEE ON THE CHARTER OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY, ETC.

On the 27th of January the president of the board of control moved the
appointment of a committee upon the affairs of the East India Company,
and to inquire into the state of trade between Great Britain, the
East Indies, and China. This was, in fact, only the reappointment of
a committee which had sat during previous sessions; but the president
hinted that as the charter would expire in April, 1834, and the East
India Company had declined to make itself a party to the discussion,
it would be necessary that the government should take a more direct
management of the question, though without intimating its intentions, so
as not to disappoint expectations. It would be necessary to carry
this proposal into effect, he said, to have a considerable number of
sub-committees, at least six or seven, each taking a separate branch of
the inquiry. In the East India House, and in the board of control, the
business was divided into six departments, each division having its
separate functionaries; and he proposed, therefore, that there should be
at least six sub-committees, each taking one of these departments. As it
was necessary, he continued, to provide for the absence of members,
and as five or six members would be necessary in each subcommittee, he
should propose that there should be at least forty-eight or forty-nine
in the committee. The present committee, he added, would have this
advantage, that, the subject was not entirely new. A large mass of
testimony had been obtained; and though the evidence had not been
systematically collected, yet the materials were in preparation, and the
committee would be supplied with them. In addition to this the board
of control had for some time been preparing for the discussion, officers
having been employed in classifying the evidence laid before both
houses, and in separating the different branches of the evidence. The
committee was appointed without opposition. Subsequently, the chancellor
of the exchequer proposed the appointment of "a committee of secrecy,
to inquire into, and report upon the expediency of renewing the charter
of the Bank of England; and also on the existing system of banking by
banks of