It is equally manifest, from the correspondence of the Court of Directors with Government, that, in agreeing to the proposition of opening the Export Trade to the out-ports of the United Kingdom, they were free from any apprehension, that the continuance of the present dividend could be endangered by their conceding that point. And, therefore, although the Proprietors were precluded from entertaining any reasonable expectation of _an increase_ to their dividends, they were perfectly warranted to consider the continuance of that which they now receive, as free from any hazard, in consequence of the extension proposed to be granted to the Export Trade.
Whether they may remain in the same confidence, under _all_ existing circumstances, is a question which the Proprietors are now earnestly solicited to examine. The point at issue (if I may apply that expression to a case, in which the Company are upon the disadvantageous ground of petitioning for the renewal of a privilege, now about to expire) is, whether the ships which shall be permitted to clear out from the out-ports of the United Kingdom, ought to be allowed to return to any given description of those ports, or whether they should all be compelled to enter at the Port of London? And upon _this point_ is made to hinge a question, which may affect (not the _British Empire and Constitution_, but) the main interest of the Proprietors, namely, _their dividends_. For no man can be so inconsiderately sanguine as to suppose, that the Company, under the present pressure of their pecuniary embarrassments, (whatever may have been the causes from whence they have arisen;) embarrassments proceeding from a debt, in India and in England, of _more than forty-two millions_; nearly four millions of which are in accepted bills on England, which will shortly become due, and for the payment of which there are not funds at the India House; no man can be so inconsiderately sanguine as to suppose, that the dividend may not become a little precarious, under such circumstances. It must be evident to the most superficial observer, that the credit of the Company with the Public can only be sustained by the prompt and liberal aid of Parliament; and it will hardly be maintained, that it is a _propitious_ mode of soliciting that aid, to connect with the solicitation an avowed determination to oppose a measure, which Government represent it to be their duty to recommend to Parliament, for the general benefit of the community; a measure, founded on, and growing out of, the principle of the Charter of 1793, which first opened the private trade between India and this country; the provisions respecting which trade have been progressively extended at subsequent periods, and of which trade the Public will now call for a further enlargement and participation, as a just and necessary qualification to the proposed renewal of the Company's Charter.