Lord Hollandpresented a Petition from the mayor and burgesses of Nottingham, for opening the East India Trade, which was ordered to lie on the table. His lordship also stated that there was a Petition from the same place to the executive government, against the Orders in Council, which he had had the honour of presenting that morning.
The Earl of Lauderdale,pursuant to notice, moved for the correspondence between the government and the East India Directors on the subject of the renewal of the Charter. As the papers had already been printed for the use of the East India Committee, and had been before the public through another channel, he presumed there would be no objection to this motion. 2d. He moved for a copy of the military plan of marquis Cornwallis, referred to in the correspondence, for consolidating the forces of the Company with the king's troops. This might be a most important document, and it was proper it should be on the table before the subject came to be discussed. 3d. His lordship next adverted to a statement made by the deputy chairman of the court of directors, in a letter (forming part of the correspondence) to the person who was lately President of the Board of Control, (lord Melville,) that there were papers in the archives of the company, which would be of great use in enabling the government to appreciate the effects of the monopoly with respect to the navigation laws. Whether these papers would make for or against the arguments of the directors, it was fitting that they should be produced; and he, therefore, proposed to move accordingly. 4th. Though it appeared from the negociation that it was intended in a great measure to open the trade with India, there might be such rules and regulations established in India with regard to private traders, as to render the privi- 247 lege nugatory. Of this description, he contended, were the regulations already existing in the company's settlements: but whether he was correct in this opinion or not, it was of great importance that their lordships should be acquainted with these regulations, lest they should only be conferring a privilege, which the company, by means of their local rules, might turn into a humbug on the public. He should therefore move, that they be laid on the table. As they were, or regularly ought to be, transmitted every year from the Indian presidencies to the court of directors, there could be no difficulty in producing them. His lordship, however, expressed his willingness to postpone the last two of these motions, if the noble lords opposite wished for time to consider them.
The Earls of Liverpool and Buckinghamshire expressed a wish that the last two should be postponed; and lord Lauderdale assented. The first two were agreed to.
§ The Earl of Warwickpresented a Petition from the manufacturers of Birmingham against the East India monopoly. It was signed, he understood, by about 16,000 persons.
The Duke of Norfolkstated, that as it might have been imagined that these manufacturers had been prompted by the merchants of Liverpool, and other places more immediately interested, perhaps, in putting an end to the monopoly, he had thought it his duty to make some enquiries, whether or not this was the case; and the result had been that he found this Petition to have arisen from the spontaneous feeling of the people of the town of Birmingham itself, who were convinced that if the trade to India were thrown open, they would be enabled to export much more of their manufactures than they did at present. The Petition was then read, and ordered to lie on the table.