r some time longer; the reasons for it being the good which
that government had done. That there were evils in the system of
administration in India he would admit; but he argued, that they were
more than counterbalanced by the security of life and property, which
had been secured to the natives by the rule of the company. The next
great question was, he said, the company's monopoly of the trade with
China. Public opinion had decided that it should no longer exist; and it
was only justice to the expression of the public opinion in this case to
state that it was not the clamour of the moment--that it was the voice
of an enlightened community formed during a succession of years. After
detailing various facts, to show that from the competition of private
traders the monopoly of the company could not long continue, even if
parliament did not interfere, Mr. Grant said that government proposed
the monopoly should cease in April, 1834, and that the trade to
China should then be open to all the merchants of this country. In
consideration of the East India Company surrendering all its rights and
privileges, Mr. Grant said it was proposed that the government of India
should be continued in the hands of the company for the period of twenty
years, and that an annuity of L630,000 per annum should be granted to
them, to be charged on the territory of India. At the end of twenty
years, he said, if the East India Company should be deprived of
the government of India, then the payment of their capital might be
demanded; and if not, the payment of the annuity was to be continued
for forty years. He explained further, that certain alterations were
likewise to be introduced in the frame of the government of India; and
he said that he should further have to call the attention of the house
to the state of the ecclesiastical establishments in that country. He
concluded by moving the following resolutions:--"That it is expedient
that all his majesty's subjects should be at liberty to repair to the
ports of the empire of China, and to trade in tea and in all other
productions in the said empire, subject to such regulations as
parliament shall enact for the protection of the commercial and
political interests of this country: That it is expedient that, in case
the East India Company shall transfer to the crown, on behalf of the
Indian territory, all assets and claims of every description belonging
to the said company, the crown on behalf of the In