§ A Petition from the provost, magistrates, and town council of the royal burgh of Stirling, North Britain, was presented and read; setting forth,
§ "That, in the prospect of the East India Company's Charter being soon expired, the petitioners beg leave to address the House on this very important subject, so highly interesting to the empire at large; and the petitioners humbly plead the natural right that every British subject has to exercise a free trade with every country dependent upon, or in amity with, the British empire; and that the experience of past ages sufficiently proves the general inexpediency of commercial monopolies; that the monopoly hitherto enjoyed by the East India Company, while it has excluded British subjects from any participation in the trade, so far from operating 408 to the advantage of the Company, has laid them under the necessity of frequently applying to government for enormous sum" of the public money to support their establishment, so that, even in this respect, it is a national grievance; and that it is extremely discouraging, and in itself unnatural, that the merchants of foreign nations should be allowed the benefit of a free trade to British possessions of such magnitude, which is denied to British merchants; and the circumstance of Americans and other foreign nations carrying on trade with the countries comprehended in the East India Company's Charter, completely refutes the arguments urged by those interested in the monopoly, of a free trade being prejudicial to private merchants; and the petitioners beg leave further to state, that the continuance of this monopoly bears peculiarly hard on British merchants at present, when our inveterate foe is exerting all his power to shut out this nation from commercial intercourse with the continent of Europe, which renders the continuation of that system peculiarly inexpedient; on the other hand, the admission of a free and unfettered trade with such a large proportion of the population of the globe, most fortunately presents a very seasonable substitute for the loss of European commerce, the vast extent of countries and variety of climates situated between the Cape of Good Hope' and Straits of Magellan, affording an extensive field for mercantile talents and capital, beyond the tyrannical grasp of the enemy, and such an opening cannot fail to prove highly gratifying and beneficial to the British empire at large, strengthen and secure its vital interests by reviving languishing commerce and manufactures at home, and most effectually defeat the grand object of our inveterate foe on the continent; and praying the House neither to renew nor continue the exclusive privileges of the East India Company, but to adopt such measures as may render it lawful for any of his Majesty's subjects, from and after the 1st of March, 1814, to carry on from all ports of the United Kingdom, a free and unlimited trade with the British possessions in India, and with all other countries situated to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, and to the west of Cape Horn."
§ Ordered to lie upon the table.