comes a

the massacre of Amboyna finally put an end to this system of united traffic. In 1616 we find the English holding factories at Sûrat, at Calicut, Masulipatam, and Ajmîr on the continent, with Bantam in the island of Java as their acknowledged head. In 1622 took place the expedition againt Ormuz, which from that time gradually sank till it became a place of entire insignificance. But the year 1624 The Comwas rendered remarkable by an event of far pany begreater importance in the history of the ruler. Company. The power to punish its servants even by death was granted to it; and the body of joint-stock traders thus became a body of rulers; a body with laws and crimes of its own; an independent power in the Eastern world. Nor was the permission to trade with Bengal, which was granted in this year, an event of slight moment, even though the traffic was restricted to the one port of Piplî, in Midnâpûr. In 1625, to avoid the rivalry of the Dutch and the oppressions of the native government, Pulicat was abandoned, and a factory stationed at Armogam, between Pulicat and Nellore. But in 1639 the situation of this new emporium being considered unfitted for increasing the Company's commerce, Mr. Francis Day, one of the council at Masulipatam, selected Madras- Madras, patam in its stead, as better fitted for the 1639. purchase of "piece goods," muslins from Dacca and cottons from the Dakhan; while the Naig of the district offered to erect a fort at his own cost, and to exempt the English from all customs on trade, if they would only settle there. The fort when erected was called St. George; the town retained its native desig

nation of Madras, and became in 1653 the head of a separate presidency. We should not forget to mention, in passing, the name of Mr. Boughton, a surgeon and the English resident at Sûrat, who by his skilful treatment of the daughter of the Emperor Shâh Jehân in 1636 and his patriotism in choosing his reward, gained for his countrymen several valuable privileges. In 1640 a factory was erected at Hûglî, situated on that branch of the Ganges which has always been considered the principal channel for the trade of the river. In 1657 and 1661 respectively, Cromwell and Charles II. granted the Company renewed charters, the former, characteristically enough, objecting to the monopoly, and being with difficulty persuaded. Strangely too do these names remind us that, while our merchants and "gentlemen adventurers" were slowly and unconsciously laying the foundations of our great empire in the East, at home our merchants and country gentlemen were fighting out for themselves and for Europe the cause of liberty and right government. Well may we be proud of such a proof of indomitable pluck and energy.

The defence of Sûrat in 1664 against Sivaji and his Mahrattas by Sir G. Oxenden, governor of Bombay (which Charles II. had obtained with his wife in 1662), tended greatly to raise the reputation of the English arms, and so far excited the admiration and gratitude of the Emperor Aurungzib, that in 1667 he remitted certain duties and charges, which had been payable

Rombay, 1668.

by our traders to the imperial treasury. In 1668 Bombay was made over by the King of England to the Company, and became a separate

presidency, and fifteen years later the chief seat of British government in India,-an honour which had previously been held by Sûrat. In 1691, Fort St. David was established at Tegnapatam; in 1696 the villages of Chuttanatti, Calcutta, and Govindpûr were purchased from Azîm-u-Shân, the grandson of Aurungzîb; and two years afterwards, at the second of these posts, a fort was ordered to be built, Calcutta, and called Fort William in honour of King 1698. William III. In 1698 the "English" East India Company was started as a rival to the old "London" Company; but after a disastrous competition of four years it was amalgamated by King William with the older Company under the title of "the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies ;" and this continued to be the designation down to the year 1833.

For many years, and indeed until 1756, Calcutta suffered greatly from the exactions of the Nuwâb of Mûrshedâbâd, and its history is the record of the repeated efforts of British merchants to resist them. But in 1715 a deputation was sent to the Emperor Farokhshîr to secure a greater degree of protection; and it was so far successful, that Calcutta was immediately declared a separate presidency. The empe

It may be as well to explain here the meaning of the term presidency. The establishment of each principal and independent seat of trade consisted of merchants, senior and junior, who conducted the trade; factors, who ordered goods, inspected and dispatched them; and writers, who were clerks and book-keepers. A writer after five years became a factor, after three years more a merchant. From the senior merchants

ror moreover made the Company a grant of territory, the expediency of accepting which was very doubtful in the eyes of the directors; for, said they, 66 as our business is trade, it is not politic for us to be encumbered with much territory." At the same time, however, the heads of the presidencies were encouraged to proceed with all works of a defensive character-all offensive warfare being quite foreign to their plans. Injunctions, we find, were continually given to the Company's servants to be just, humane, unostentatious, and economical; but, as Lord Macaulay points out, the directors, from the salaries they paid their servants, too often drove them into a course of conduct in which economy became impossible, or at least a serious trial, while the fulfilment of the expectations, which they took care to let their servants know they entertained, often rendered the setting aside of justice and humanity unavoidable. Indeed, their advice to avoid private extravagance seems to have been chiefly prompted by the selfish fear that "in some manner or other they would have to pay for it." Mr. Mill gives it as his opinion that, as early as 1689, dominion and the increase of revenue were aimed at as much as trade; but in this, we think, he is mistaken. Yet there are sure enough signs of this aim twenty or thirty years later; and, in spite of professions, or perhaps unconsciously, presidencies became provinces; merchants gave way to governors; and profits were replaced by revenue.

the members of council were chosen, and one of these last was selected as president of the factory. Soldiers, sepoys, and peons (native labourers) completed the establishment-See Dr. Pope's Text-Book of Indian History, p. 247.

In 1725 died Jaftîr Khân, the Nuwâb of Bengal, and was succeeded by his son Shuja ud-dîn-Khân, one of whose omrahs, or nobles, was the celebrated AlîVardî-Khân. In 1742, the Mahrattas attacked Bengal, demanding chout, and the "Mahratta Ditch" was dug to afford protection against a repetition of the attack. But we have now arrived at the period at which Lord Macaulay takes up his masterly narrative, and so, without proceeding further, we turn to consider the growth of that power in India, our struggle with which he so admirably describes.

As early as the year 1604, and during the next sixty years, various French companies were formed, and various expeditions were made, to trade The French with the East. But the first real establish- in India. ment of a French East India Company took place in 1664, and was due to the exertions of the celebrated Colbert. It was prompted by the ambition First French of Louis XIV., who declared that to trade East Inda Company, with India was not beneath the dignity of a 1664. noble. This company, which was destined to flourish 105 years, was founded on principles which had little relation to the principles of political economy. State subvention to trade is not yet obsolete in France; but in the year 1664 it assumed the extravagant form of the government engaging to make good all losses which the company might sustain in the first ten years-an engagement which in fact subjected the state to the payment of a large sum. Moreover the traders were exempted from all taxes, and received an exclusive charter for fifty years. The first attempt,

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