1. THey did procure from the late King illegal. Com­missions to execute Martial Law on their Fellow-Subjects, whereby they put to death Five Persons in S. Helena, which has been voted Murther by the Honorable House of Commons; and several in like manner have been hang'd by such Commis­sion at Fort S. George. Moreover the Go­vernor of S. Helena caused to be put to death two of the Inhabitants of that Island, Subjects of this Realm, before any Commission was obtain'd.

II. They did procure a Ship of the late King, call'd the Phenix, to be sent to India at the Companies Charge, with a Commission to seize or destroy all the Ships and Goods of their Fellow Subjects in those Parts, and accordingly the said Man of War did seize, and occasion the Destru­ction of three English Ships and their Cargoes, to the Value of about 60000 l. sterl. And they did also give order to the Commanders of their own freighted Ships to wear the Ʋnion Flag, under which they seiz'd several of their Fellow Subjects Ships and Cargoes in India, carrying them to those places where they had erected unlawful Courts, which they call'd Courts of Admiralty; and made Prize of them, to the very great Loss and Damage of the Proprietors.

III. They did procure their late Majesties Proclamations, prohibiting their Fellow Subjects from Trading to India, and commanding all Persons from their Employments and Settlements in those Parts, to repair to the [Page 2]Companies Garrisons in India, or to return home, under severe Penal­ties, viz. Those who had been in their Service to be punish'd as Deserters, and forfeiture of Estates to all others.

IV. They did in the two last Reigns commence most vexatious and chargeable Suits against several of their Fellow Subjects, in Actions of 100000 l. and 200000 l. and some were illegally fined upon Informations of pretended Misdemeanors for Trading to India; which Informations were prosecuted in the King's Name by the Companies Procurement.

V. They have caus'd several Ships, which were fitted and design'd for India, to be illegally stopp'd, whereby they have lost their Voyages; and one Ship, after her return home, was, by their Procurement, forced to ransom her Cargoe at the Cost of the Fifth part of its Value. For the carrying on of which unlawful and exorbitant Oppression, they obtain'd a Letter from the late King, to the Judg of the Admiralty, which was deliver'd by one of their Agents, and read in open Court, commanding him to order the said Cargoe to be landed in the Garrison at Portsmouth; whereupon, tho sufficient Bail was tender'd, the same was refus'd, con­trary to the Practice of that Court, and thereby the Proprietors compell'd to the aforesaid Composition.

VI. For procuring these unlimited arbitrary Powers, which they have exercis'd over their Fellow Subjects, They have expended great Sums of the Companies Mony, which stands charg'd in their Books under the Title of Secret Services; besides the several 10000 Guineas which they did present to the two late Kings.

VII. Some of the prevailing Members in the Committee have lately in­troduced a new way of Selling a very great part of the Companies Goods to themselves, by private Contracts, to the great Prejudice of the usual Buyers at their publick Sales, and so in few Years have acquir'd vast Estates, by Defrauding all the other Adventurers, contrary to their Oaths and the Trust repos'd in them.

VIII. They have not for many Years past made up their Books, and valu'd their Stock; altho by the general Preamble, which is subscribed by every Adventurer at his Admission into the Company, they stand obliged so to do every seven Years; whereby the True Value of the Stock has been conceal'd from the Adventurers and all other Persons; which has given opportunity to the late Managers, to ingross so great a part thereof, and to set up an uncontrolable absolute Power in themselves, for car­rying on their own private Designs, in opposition to the Interest of the Publick, to the great Oppression and Damage of all those who have had Dealing with them, and of the Adventurers themselves: And from hence has sprung that fraudulent and mischievous Trade of Stock-Iobbing.

IX. They have of late, without any Regard to a Real Increase of their Stock by Trade; made such over-large Dividends as have exceeded what was formerly done when their Affairs were most flourishing; for notwith­standing the great Interruption of their Trade for several years past, They have divided since September 1689. double the Summ which was paid into their Original Stock; whereby it is evident they have not only di­vided their Profit, but also the Stock it self. And an Argument urged in their publick Court for so doing was this, That it was the only way to put themselves out of the power of a Parliament. By reason of which great and frequent Dividends, They have not left a Fund sufficient to carry [Page 3]on a Trade of so large extent, and have therefore been Necessitated to Farm it out to their Fellow Subjects, under the name of Permission Ships; and not only so, but likewise to Armenians, Subjects to the King of Persia, which in Time may be a means to induce those People to Import the Goods of India in the Shipping of that Country, as our Laws allow them to do, and so will prove of very fatal Consequence to our Navigation and Trade. And further They have permitted the Iews to establish themselves in In­dia, and made them a part of their Government there, which has in a manner given them the entire possession of the Diamond Trade, to the great Discouragement and Loss of the English Subjects.

X. They have for many years past carryed on Their Trade in an irregular manner, contrary to the Experience and Practice of all former Times, in sending out Ships at improper Seasons, and keeping them abroad much longer than the Trade required. By which Mismanagement, together with their War, They have occasion'd the loss of several considerable Ships, and the mortality of some Thousands of our ablest Seamen and Soldiers.

XI. Besides all these Their Arbitrary and Illegal Actions towards their Fellow Subjects, and Their indirect proceedings to the Prejudice of the Joint-Stock; Their late Dealings with the Natives in India have been also most Unjust and Scandalous; They having about six years past commenced an unjustifiable War with the Great Mogul, and under that Pretence, com­mitted many great Depredations on the Subjects of that Prince, which has rendred the English in all parts of India Odious and Contemptible, and made them to be esteem'd rather Pyrats than Merchants; for They have made Prize of the Ships and Goods of the Natives to the amount of above a Million Sterling, as appears by the Depositions on Record in their Ma­jesties Court of Exchequer. And They have also made Assaults on the Shoar, and destroy'd by Fire, several Houses, Goods and Ships, and have killed great numbers of the Inhabitants; and as a further Aggravation of Their unjust Proceedings, They have added a Notorious breach of Faith, by making Prize of divers Ships under the Protection of the Companies Pas­ses; as also by Seizing their Goods and Moneys which were laden on Freight, on Board the Companies own Ships, for which the Bills of Lading are still standing out. All which Outrages and Depredations have been committed without any Provocation to justifie them; nor did They ever make application to the Great Mogul for redress of those pretended Grievances whereon They grounded their War against so great a Prince, in all whose Dominions the Subjects of England have always been receiv'd with the greatest Marks of Friendship and Respect, and enjoy'd greater Privileges than any other Europeans, and beyond what the English have in any other part of the World.

XII. And preparatory to this design'd Violence, They first contriv'd to make an Advantage by the great Credit and Friendship, which till that time, our Nation had with the Natives, by ordering their Agents in India to borrow all the Money They possibly cou'd, which They accordingly did, to the Value of above 300000 l. Sterling at 9 per Cent. per annum in the Factory of Surrat. And now after They have by occasion of the said Rash and Unadvised War expended above 400000 l. Sterling, and lost a­bove a Million more to the Crown and Joint-Stock, by the interruption of Their Trade for several years past; They are at last become sensible of [Page 4]their unaccountable Folly, and having submitted themselves by an humble acknowledgment of their Faults, They have supplicated that great Prince for a Pardon, which he, out of his accustomed Clemency to the English Nation, hath condescended to grant them, upon condition that They re­store what They have taken from his Subjects, as appears by his Phir­maunds or Patents, wherein their Miscarriages are Recorded to the great Dishonor of this Nation.

XIII. They did also upon most unjust and frivolous Pretences make War on the King of Syam (a Prince who has always express'd a particular Favour for our Nation) which occasioned the Massacre of divers of their Majesties Subjects, and the Ruin of several Families.

These are brief Intimations of some of Their Illegal and Arbi­trary Proceedings, which have, in a great measure, been occasion'd by the Power that a small Number of the Committee have acquired to them­selves, through that pernicious Practice of Multiplying Votes according to their Stocks, which, together with 34 years continuance of the present Joint-Stock, hath put the entire management thereof into a very few hands, who have not only presum'd to act without the Concurrence of the Rest of the Committee, but directly contrary to what hath been agreed and appointed by their Court.

By all which the Abuses before mention'd, and many other Irregularities practised by the present East-India Company, 'Tis evident that they are become a Dishonor to this Nation, and a Great Grievance to their Majesties Subjects; And that any Conjoining or other Incorporating with them as has been pro­posed in a Book lately written by Mr. George White, is both unsafe, and impracticable; and nothing but a new National Joint-Stock Establish'd in Parliament can retrieve and preserve that Trade from being utterly lost to this Kingdom.