Elizabeth, when she encouraged the dispatch of four or five small vessels for the spices of Java, probably little foresaw that these trifling commodities would be in fact symbols of the future possession of Hindostan. Still that policy is highly to be vindicated, which involved the contingency of so mighty an event.

We have now gained an empire in the East; but by what labours, hazards, and sufferings, at what expense of treasure, life, and courage, it is needless here to say. At one period we had to struggle under the merciless cruelties of the Dutch; at another, first to escape, and then to beat down, the daring ambition of France. Had England earlier appeared on the theatre of Indian commerce, the Dutch would at least have wanted the plea of pre-occupancy to justify their atrocious aggressions. Had she, on the other hand, waited for that theoretic maturity of which Dr. Smith speaks, it seems doubtful whether she might not have waited for ever. She would have been preceded in the race by nations less philosophical; and, without affecting to conjecture the endless and complicated combinations of results that might have sprung from a supposed case, it must at least be pronounced possible that the empire of Hindostan, either as a member, or as a dependent, might now have been annexed to that of France.

Should this supposition be cavilled at, as an idle deduction from premises confessedly imaginary,so much, at least, is certain, that, as things are,

England has acquired a vast extent of territorial dominion and revenue in the East; no despicable acquisition, surely, even in the eyes of those who may conceive that it has not been turned to the best account; and, by the terms of his own objection, the caviller has no right to assume that, under any other system of procedure, this territory and this revenue would, at the present moment, have been ours.

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SKETCH,

&c. &c.

CHAP. I.

Historical account of the Company, from their first institution to the commencement of their territorial and political character.

THE direct trade of England with the EastIndies originated in the enterprising spirit of the merchants of London and the patriotic policy of Queen Elizabeth.

The circumstance which more immediately led to the systematic establishment of this trade, was the stoppage of the supplies of Indian goods from Lisbon, during the war between England and Spain. The loss of this resource obliged England to buy her spices at very extravagant rates from her own Turkey Company, or from the Dutch; and the principal merchants of London at length determined to remedy the inconveniencies arising from this state of things, by opening a commercial intercourse directly with India. In this design, the Earl of Cumberland, well known in those days for his gallantry and love of maritime adventure, seems to have concurred.

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To risk the experiment individually, would have been imprudent: more than one voyage had already been made to the East on a private account; and the success of these was not such as to encourage a repetition of the attempt. The project of a chartered company was therefore formed, was discussed in large public meetings, at which the Lord Mayor and the most eminent citizens attended, and finally was submitted to the government. The proposal could not but be agreeable to Elizabeth, who saw with emulation the progress of the Dutch traders in the East, and who had, two years before, deputed an envoy, with the express purpose of obtaining, for her subjects, from the Emperor of Delhi, the privilege of trading in the Mogul dominions. Indeed, it seems probable that the plan had been originally suggested to the merchants by the Court. The Queen, however, being by this time engaged in a treaty with Spain respecting a peace, and thinking it likely that the Spaniards, who were now masters of Portugal and consequently of Portuguese India, might remonstrate against the direct interference of the English in the commerce of the East, postponed for a while the establishment of the proposed Company. The delay happily was not long, for the negotiation proved abortive; and, on the last day of the sixteenth century, a royal charter was issued, granting to George Earl of Cumberland, and two hundred and fifteen knights, aldermen, and merchants, for fifteen years, the exclusive liberty of trading in the East Indian