House of Commons Journal Volume 10: 17 November 1692

Jovis, 17die Novembris ; 4° Gulielmi et Mariæ.

Prayers.

Wyeand Lugg Navigation.

ORDERED, That Leave be given to bring in a Bill for making the Rivers of Wye and Lugg navigable.

Bankrupts.

Ordered, That Leave be given to bring in a Bill for the better Ordering and Distributing of Bankrupts Estates, and Relief of their Creditors: And that Mr. Serjeant Wogan do prepare and bring in the same.

London Orphans.

The House being informed, that the Sheriffs, and several Aldermen of the City of London, attended, in order to present a Petition touching the Orphans of the said City;

They were called in: And, at the Bar, they, by the Common Serjeant of the said City, presented the said Petition to the House.

And being withdrawn;

The Petition was read; setting forth, That, by the general Troubles in and after the Reign of King Charles the First, by Payment of Interest to the said Orphans formerly, by the dreadful Conflagration, and by reason of the late Quo Warranto, their Debts due to the said Orphans amounted to a Sum vastly greater than they were able to pay.

That, after many serious Considerations, the Petitioners in Common Council have agreed, That Eight thousand Pounds per Annum shall be charged upon the Estate, and all other the Revenues, belonging to the City, towards paying the Orphans the Sum of Four Pounds per Cent. per Annum.

But, since so vast a Debt cannot be satisfied by all the Estate or Powers of the said City, nor the Government of the City supported, unless some further Provision be made;

They prayed the Assistance of the House in the Premises, for raising and settling a sufficient Fund for an annual Payment to be made to the Orphans, in lieu of the Debts due to them from the said City.

Resolved, That this House will, upon Thursday Morning next, at Ten a Clock, resolve itself into a Committee of the whole House, to consider of the said Petition.

Tryals for Treason.

Ordered, That the Bill for Regulating of Tryals, in Cases of High Treason, be read To-morrow Morning at Eleven a Clock: And that all the Members of the Long Robe do then attend the Service of the House.

East India Company.

Then the House, according to the Order of the Day, proceeded to take into Consideration the Matter relating to the East India Company.

And the Message from his Majesty was again read.

The Papers relating to it were also read; viz. the Judges Opinion; the Submission of the Company; and the Proposals to the Company; an Answer of the Commitee of the Company thereunto: And are as followeth; viz.

The Judges Opinion.

PROVIDED also, That if it shall hereafter appear to Us, Our Heirs or Successors, That this Grant, or the Continuance thereof, in the Whole, or in any Part thereof, shall not be profitable to Us, Our Heirs and Successors, or to this Our Realm; that then and from thenceforth, upon and after Three Years Warning to be given to the said Company, by Us, Our Heirs and Successors, under Our or their Privy Seal, or Sign Manual, this present Grant shall cease, be void, and determined, to all Intents, Constructions, and Purposes.

We are of Opinion, That, by this Clause, the East India Company cannot be determined, until after Three Years Warning given them under the Privy Seal, or Sign Manual; and that they will continue a Company during the said Three Years, and may trade and act in the mean time.

The Submission of the Company at a General Court of Adventurers, for the General Joint Stock, to East India, holden the 18th March 169½.

THE Governor having communicated unto us what your Lordships were pleased, on the Seventh Instant, to signify unto himself, the Deputy Governor, and Committees, as to the Offering of Proposals for the Regulation of the East India Trade; on serious Consideration thereof had, this Court are unanimously of Opinion, That the Constitution of this Company, and the Authorities granted them by their Charter, are the same in all substantial Parts, as the Dutch, French, and Danish Grants; and that all of them are refined to the present System, by the Wisdom of several Ages: Nevertheless this Court have, and still do, humbly submit themselves to his Sacred Majesty, to make such Regulations or Additions therein, as his Majesty, in his great Wisdom, shall think fit.

Signed, by Order of the General Court,

Ro. Blackborn, Secr.

The Proposals to the Company; and Answer of the Committee of the Company thereunto.

First Prop. THE Fund to be made up One Million Five hundred Thousand Pounds, at least; and not to exceed Two Millions.

Answer. The Company do humbly aver, and are ready to prove to the King's most Excellent Majesty's Satisfaction, That their present quick and dead Stock and Revenue is of more real Value than the said Sum of One Million Five hundred thousand Pounds.

Second Prop. The Stock of the present Company to be Part of this Fund, and to be rated at Seven hundred forty-four thousand Pounds, if they can give Security, that it shall effectively produce that Sum; or else at so much less as they will engage to make good, after all Debts paid, and Satisfaction made, to the Mogull, and his Subjects; against whose Pretensions the new Stock to be indemnified by like Security.

Answer. The Company, recommending their righteous Cause to God, and his Majesty's known and famous Justice in the whole Course of his happy Life, say, That the Value of every thing is what it will sell for; and their Stock, under all the Calumnies and Persecutions of their Adversaries, now currently sells for about One hundred and Fifty Pounds per Cent.; and they know, and can prove it to be intrinsically more worth than that current Price: But they know no Law or Reason why they should be dispossessed of their Estates at any less Value than they are really worth in ready Money, by all the Measures any thing is valued in any Part of the World. They humbly say, as to Security, they know no Reason why they should be obliged to give Security for their own Estates.

They affirm, That they owe not a Peny to the Great Mogull, or any of his Subjects, other than their Running Accompts with their own Banyans and Brokers, which are changing daily, like Merchants Running Cash in a Goldsmith's Hands.

Although the Company owe nothing to the Mogull, as aforesaid; yet the bare mentioning any such thing by a publick Act of his Majesty, would be enough to persuade him to invent Demands upon the Company for Transactions and Pretences done in Ages past, before any of the present Adventurers were born: and therefore that Part of the Proposition seems manifestly impolitick, as well as unjust; neither the Mogul, nor any of his Subjects, having made any Complaint to his Majesty, of the Company's being in Debt to him or them; That being only a Suggestion of the Interlopers, and their Adherents, not now only, but for many Years past.

As to that Hypothesis, "if they can give Security;" it will not become the Company to say, What they might of their own Ability, or the Ability or Disability of their Adversaries; they are on both Sides well known upon the Exchange.

Third Prop. That the said Stock of the present Company shall be brought home any time within Years in the Ships abroad, or those to be sent on Account of the new Stock, paying the same Freight, and disposed of at publick Sales by the Members of the present Company; and the net Proceed thereof to be taken as Part of the Seven hundred and Forty-four thousand Pounds, as shall also the Value of their Forts, &c. to be estimated by indifferent Persons, and put into the Hands of the new Charter Company; but, after Day, no Goods to be exported to the East Indies, on Account of the old Stock.

Answer. The Company say, they have as real a Right to all their Forts, Cities, Towns, and Territories, in India, to them and their Successors for ever, as they have to their purchased Lands and Warehouses in England belonging to the Company's Joint Stock, or other private Lands or Manors belonging to the particular Adventurers; Rex, Dei gratia, being originally the Title by which very many Manors and Lands, Court Leets, and Courts Baron, are held in England: And the Company are not willing to be dispossessed of their said real Estate, until they are paid for them; which, they believe in their Conscience, hath cost them, at several times, above a Million of Money Sterling, besides the Interest: But, for the Price that should be paid them for their said real Estates, if it were come to that single Point, they would refer themselves to, and rely upon, his Majesty's Justice, as aforesaid.

Fourth Prop. That, whatever the quick and dead Stock shall thus produce, more than Seven hundred and Forty-four thousand Pounds, shall be divided, wholly between the Members of the present Company, proportionably to their respective Stocks.

Fifth Prop. Books to be provided for new Subscriptions within, and then the Books to be closed.

Sixth Prop. If the Subscriptions exceed Two Millions, each Subscriber to be reduced proportionably, till the Whole make but Two Millions.

Seventh Prop. That every Subscriber pay in his Money upon Pain.

To the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh, the Company humbly answer, That they do as little understand the new Subscribers, as they suppose most of those Subscribers knows the Affairs of India; but the Company know, the late new Way of Subscribing, without Authority from his Majesty, is an old Practice of Interlopers, and others, emulous of the Company's Prosperity; and hath formerly been debated upon the like voluntary Subscriptions, several times, and many Years since, in the Reign of King Charles the Second, when some of the Lords of his now Majesty's most honourable Council were present; but it always ended in only giving unnecessary Trouble to his Majesty and the Company.

Eighth Prop. No one Person to have above Ten thousand Pounds in this Stock, in his own or others Name, in Trust for him: And every Subscriber shall make Oath accordingly; and that it is his own Money.

Answer. This Proposition, in Duty to his Majesty, and in Love to our native Country, the Company must freely declare against, as being notoriously prejudicial to the Nation, whoever the Adventurers are.

First, Because Trade is a free Agent, and must not be limited or bounded: If it be so in any Nation it will never prosper.

Secondly, It is against the Laws and Customs of England, and all Nations upon the Face of the Earth, That any Man that buys a Commodity, and pays honestly for it in ready Money, should be compelled to swear it is his own Money, or whose it is; This being only a Trick of the first Proposers, to serve their particular Turn, without any National or other Regard to Right, or publick Good.

Thirdly, If such a Limitation were advisable, certainly some Nation or other would have hit upon that Expedient, before this time; whereas, on the contrary, the wise Dutch indulge and favour the very Jews; and the more, for buying the greater Stock; of whom one Man, by Name Swasso, had at one time about Seventy-five thousand Pounds Stock: The French king likewise, for the Encouragement of large Subscriptions in that Stock, propounded many considerable Privileges and Immunities, both to Natives and Foreigners, proportionable to the Greatness of their Subscriptions. The Danes likewise, it is said, made a Law not long since, That such as would not add a certain Proportion to their Stock, already wrote, should forfeit their Stock; which was a Constraint on the other hand, and as erroneous as that in the aforesaid Proposition.

Fourthly, Such kind of Leveling, or limiting Personal Estates, was never known in Common wealths, much less in Monarchies: Our Levelers in England, and anciently the Tribunes of Rome, never pretended to the Limitation of Personal Estates, but of Possessions in Land, and not of all Lands (not in their Provinces), but only the Lands of Italy, which was the Seat or Centre of the Commonwealth.

Fifth, No considerable Man of Fortune or Experience will ever endure the Fatigue of continual Study in the East India Company's arduous Affairs, but he will find his Account some way; and that must be either by a great Reward, or by a great Stock, or by other and worse Ways of paying himself: The most the English Company give a Committee Man, is about Fifty Pounds per Annum; whereas, we have heard, the Dutch allow Mr. Peter Van Dam about Eight hundred Pounds, and about Four hundred Pounds a Year to his Son: But such an active able Man, having a great Stock of his own, is better for the publick Society, than any Reward can be allowed him; because such a Man, that is obliged by Reward only so to intend the Company's Business, is tied only by one Cord; but he that expects all Satisfaction to arise from the Profit of his own Stock, is tied with the Two great Cords, which do almost the whole Business of the World; viz. Reward, by the Profit of his own great Stock; and Fear of great Loss, if his Stock should miscarry by ill Conduct.

Ninth Prop. That every Member of the present Company, who hath above Ten thousand Pounds Stock, shall sell forthwith the Overplus, at the Rate of One hundred Pounds, for One hundred Pounds; but so, that, if the whole net Proceed of the present Stock exceeds Seven hundred and Forty-four thousand Pounds, this Overplus shall go to the Person that hath sold his Overplus Stock, proportionably to the Share he had before such Sale.

Answer. The Company can see no Shadow of Reason or Equity in this Proposition; but a direct Contradiction to common Right, and the admirable Laws of this Kingdom, for Preservation of Property.

Tenth Prop. No Person to have a Vote that hath, in his own Right, and not in Trust, less than Five hundred Pounds Stock, nor more than One Vote; unless he hath Four thousand Pounds, and then Two Votes; and, if Six thousand Pounds, Three Votes; Eight thousand Pounds, Four Votes; and Ten thousand Pounds, Five Votes.

Answer. The Company are humbly of Opinion, this is more justly and equally provided for already in their present Charter; this Proposal of giving Advantage to the small Stock being but a Hysteron proteron never known before in any Part of the World in Mercantile Affairs, and Shipping; wherein, as far as the Sun shines, all Men vote according to their proper Shares in Shipping, &c. as they are interested more or less; and not otherwise.

Eleventh Prop. All Members of the present Company, and new Subscribers, to be incorporated by the Name of . . . . . . .

Twelfth Prop. All who have, or subscribe, Five hundred Pounds Stock, to meet, and chuse a Governor, Deputy, and Twenty-four of Committees, to manage the Trade; none to be Governor, or Deputy, who hath, or hath subscribed less than Two thousand Pounds Stock; nor Committee, One thousand Pounds Stock.

Thirteenth Prop. The Governor, Deputy, and Committees, to be chosen every Year; and, if any die within the Year, others to be chosen by a General Court.

Fourteenth Prop. The Governor, Deputy, and Committees, to take the Oaths of Fidelity, &c. and also an Oath for the faithful Discharge of their Trust.

Fifteenth Prop. That every one, purchasing any Stock, shall take his Freedom; and, before his

Admittance, pay for a Fine, and take the Oaths appointed.

Answer. In the Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth, the Company can see nothing new; but all is already provided for, in the same manner, or better, by their present Charters.

Sixteenth Prop. That all free of the former Company, or capable to be so, and all subscribing to the present Stock, shall be admitted gratis.

Answer. In this there is but a trivial Difference from the Company's present Charter, which enjoins all new Adventurers, except the Sons or Servants of Freemen, to pay Five Pounds each for their first Admittance: The old Adventurers have paid their respective Five Pounds; and we can see no Reason, if new Men be admitted, why they should not pay the same.

Seventeenth Prop. That the Company hereby established may make By Laws for their better Government: That no By Laws shall be binding to the Company, but such as are approved by a General Court of Adventurers; and are not repugnant to the Laws of the Land.

Eighteenth Prop. That every general Court and Committee be called by the Governor or Deputy; at all which the Governor or Deputy shall be present; and, in Case of Equality of Voices, shall have a casting Voice.

Nineteenth Prop. That the Company shall enjoy the sole Trade to the East Indies, in the several Countries lying between the Cape D' Bona Esperanza, and the Streights of Magellan.

Twentieth Prop. That it shall not be lawful for any, save the said Company only, directly or indirectly to trade within the Limits granted to the said Company, on Pain of forfeiting.

Answer. As to the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth; the Company can observe nothing in them that is not already in the same manner in their Charters.

Twenty-first Prop. That no Licence or Permission shall be granted to any Persons or Ships, to trade to the East Indies on any private Account: And that all such Permissions shall be void.

Answer. This is an unreasonable Proposition, and against the Sense of all Charters; and ought, for the publick Good, to be left to the Company's Discretion; for sometimes (as in the late War with the Mogull) permissive Ships have been of great Use, and publick Benefit: At this time, now Peace is restored; they are of no Use, except in some particular Instances, which might be given, and in Settling of new Plantations, &c., which the Company best know when and how to effect; and no East India Company in any Part of Europe have any such Shackles imposed upon them, which would but hinder their Progress for the publick Good, and Honour of their Country, in many Cases.

Two-and-twentieth Prop. That there shall be no private Contract for the Sale of any Goods; but they shall all be sold in publick, by Inch of Candle, for the Company's Account.

Twenty-third Prop. That no Lot of any Goods to be sold shall exceed the Value of Five hundred Pounds.

Answer. These Two are Novelties, and such as never were imposed upon any East India Company in Europe, and are against natural Right; and, if established, would tend to the National Prejudice of England, as the Company doubt not to make evident to his Majesty, by irrefragable Instances and Examples: Trade must be free for the publick Good; otherwise it will die, or fly away.

Twenty-fourth Prop. Every Year the Company shall deliver, to their Majesties Use, Five hundred Tons of Saltpetre, at per Ton, if required, the Refraction not exceeding per Cent.

Answer. The Company will always serve their Majesties with Saltpetre as cheap as they can afford it; and doubt not but to please their Majesties therein, as they have done all their Royal Predecessors; but to be limited to a certain Price, or Quantity, or Refraction is a Novelty that was never imposed upon this or any East India Company: And it had been an unhappy Accident for England, if such a Constraint or Imposition had been lain upon the Company Ten or Twenty Years past; for, if that had been done, there could not have been one Fourth Part of the Petre in England, as the Company had in Store (which was about Three thousand Tons,) when this War with France began. There is a famous Story, confirming the Truth of this, in the Reign of King James the First: There was at that Time a great Dearth of Corn; which occasioned his Majesty to send for the Eastland Company; and his Majesty told them, That, in regard of the present Dearth of Corn, and for Relief of the Poor, they must load all their Ships homeward-bound with Corn; which they promised faithfully to do, and were so dismissed: But one of the Lords, then of the Counsel, told his Majesty, Such a Promise signified nothing; because they had not promised at what Rate they would sell their Wheat, when it came: On which they were called in again; and told, The King was not satisfied with that Answer: To which the Deputy, who was a famous Hunter, replied; Sir, we will freight our Ships and buy our Corn, as cheap as we can, and sell it here as cheap as we can afford it: But, to be confined to any certain Price, we cannot. That Lord pressed the Deputy for a more certain Answer: On which the Deputy said further to the King, Sir, Your Majesty is a Lover of the noble Sport of Hunting; and so am I; and I keep a few Dogs; but, if my Dogs did not love the Sport as well as I, I might as well hunt with Hogs as with Dogs: The King replied, Say no more, Man; thou art in the Right: Go, and do as well as thou canst; but, be sure, bring Corn.

Twenty-fifth Prop. That the Company shall yearly export to the East Indies not less than the Value of One hundred Thousand Pounds, in Goods of the Product and Manufacture of England.

Answer. The Company may do this in some Years and sometimes more; and sometimes not so much, when their Cloth lies unsold, and is eaten up with Moths and white Ants in India: This ought, for the publick Good, to be left to the Company's Discretion.

Twenty-sixth Prop. That all Dividends be made in Money.

Answer. This is commonly done here, and beyond Sea, in other Companies; but some Instances may be given, wherein it would be highly prejudicial to make this Confinement of the Company's Liberty: So it ought to be left at Discretion, as it is now here, and in all other Nations.

Twenty-seventh Prop. That no Dividends be made, without leaving the original Fund, or, at least, One Million Five hundred Thousand Pounds, besides what is necessary to pay their Debts.

Answer. This is a discretionary Rule, the Company do now observe; but it was never enjoined them by any Charter, neither is there any Company in the World so circumscribed, nor ought to be, for the publick Good: It is against natural Right, that any Men should be barred from doing what they think fit with their own Estates.

Twenty-eighth Prop. That the said Company's Accomptant keep a Book, to enter the Value of the Stock, upon Oath; to lie open for the Perusal of all Persons concerned.

Twenty-ninth Prop. That all Transferrers of Stock shall be registered and entered in a Book; to lie open for all Persons concerned.

Answer. The Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Propositions are provided for in the same Manner already by the Company.

Thirtieth Prop. That the said Joint Stock shall continue for Twenty-one Years and no longer.

Thirty-first Prop. That a Book of new Subscriptions be laid open for a succeeding new General Joint Stock before the Expiration of the said Twenty-one Years appointed for this Stock.

Answer. This is so strange, that, if it should be admitted, would make the Company ridiculous all the World over; and is as much as to say, A Man shall be obliged to plant a great Orchard, and remove his Trees, or depart from his Possession, at the End of Twenty-one Years; or to build a famous Mansion-house, a Town or City upon such Terms. The Dutch Company have spent, within Thirty or Forty Years past, above Seven hundred thousand Pounds Sterling upon Ceilon; and have not yet seen their Principal, by about Four hundred Thousand Pounds Sterling, to this Day. This Company have been building and fortifying at Bencoolen about Ten or Eleven Years; and they must proceed in building and fortifying there for Twenty or Thirty Years to come; and, in that chargeable and dangerous Work, they have spent, by the nearest Computation between Two hundred and Fifty and Three hundred Thousand Pounds Sterling: And though indeed, by that necessary Work, they have preserved the Pepper Trade to this Nation; yet they have not received any thing towards the Charge of their Disbursements; and that Place will cost the Company Two hundred Thousand Pounds more, before it be made a complete, secure, and, morally speaking, an impregnable, lasting Asylum to the English Nation. It is a most impolitick Notion, that any Company can thrive by frequent Changes of Conduct and Counsel, any more than a Nation by often changing the fundamental Laws: The Dutch Company stands as it did from the Beginning; and the English have never been changed, that the Company know of, but once, in Oliver Cromwell's time; and then it was done with their own Consent. The Company, by the true Rules of Policy, ought never to alter, nor no Man be forced to sell his Stock, any more than he can be forced to buy a Stock that hath none; or any Gentleman, that hath an over-great Estate of Land in any County, can be forced to sell Part, to make Way for some new Purchasers, that pretend they will buy Land in that County.

Two-and-thirtieth Prop. That the Company be obliged, for the better and more secure Carrying on of this Trade, to have Ships of their own.

Answer. This is such a constraining Proposition . . was never made to any Company; all Companies, having Ships of their own, and hired Ships, and best know when to use the one or the other; and there are few Merchants considerable in Europe, that have not both: And it was never thought or found political, to put Trade in such streight-laced Bodice, which, instead of making it grow upright, and prosper, will either kill it, or force it to grow awry.

Having answered the aforesaid Propositions, the Company humbly desire, that the following Particulars may be considered:

First, If any Alteration should be made of the present Constitution, by his Majesty; the same Men, viz. Interlopers, and their Adherents, and such as have sold their Stocks at high Rates, and then cry down the Company, to fright the Adventurers, and come in again at low Rates; whether such Sort of Men, after his Majesty hath granted a new Charter, will not, to serve another Turn, exclaim against it, in Defamation of his Majesty's just Prerogative.

Secondly, Whether any thing such Men have said, that carries any Appearance of Truth, be not the same again, which was said above Twenty Years past, and many times since in the Two last Reigns, and as often answered and confuted.

Thirdly, Whether the Spirit of the Clamour and Opposition against the Company, which centres in some few known Persons; whether those Persons be Men of better Fortunes, or more regular Lives, or greater Prudence, or otherwise preferable to the present Adventurers in the East India Company's Stock.

Fourthly, Whether, considering the Two Wars this Company have grappled with in India, and a worse kind of Civil Broil the Interlopers forced them to, more pernicious to the Company than both the Wars in India; whether this Company, notwithstanding their said Pressures, hath not managed their Affairs to as much National Advantage, and Profit to their Fellow Adventurers, as any East India Company in Europe.

Fifthly, That, without Restraint, Cramping, or taking care for Rotations or Changes in the East India Company, the whole Stock, without such forced, political Restriction or Limitation, is in a kindly, natural, and continual changing Motion; insomuch that the Value of the whole Stock, once in Two Years, or thereabouts, changes Owners; and there is not now, in the present Committee, above Three Men that were of the Committee above Twenty Years past.

Sixthly, That the present Governor Sir Thom. Cook, about Nine Years past, had no Stock at all; nor Sir Joseph Herne, the late Governor, about Twenty Years past; nor Sir William Langhorne, now one of the greatest Adventurers, Four Years since; and several other considerable Adventurers, not above Two Years past: They came in by several Purchases, and many at much dearer Rates than the present Price current of the Stock: And there is now, of the present Committee, Five worthy Persons, very late Purchasers, which never were of the Committee before this Year.

Seventhly, if there be some of the present Adventurers, that had Courage enough to keep their Stocks, and never sold any Part thereof during all those violent and unreasonable Attempts that have been made against the Company; whether such Persons do not rather deserve the Thanks which the Roman Senate gave Terentius Varro, Quod non desperâsset de republica, than any Blame.

Eighthly, If it be thought, by any that envy the Company's good Fortune, that some few of the Company are too rich and too powerful in the Committee; the Company answer, That, to cure That, if it be a Fault, there needs no Law, nor new Article in any Charter; for a very few Years will cure That, without such preternatural Force: For that the Sons of such Men were never known to succeed their Fathers in the painful Fatigue of the Company's Affairs: but did always settle themselves upon an easier Course of Life, by a Revenue in Land.

Ninthly, The Company, nor peradventure any great Business in the World, did ever thrive, where some One or Two Men, or very few, did not arrive to so much Reputation, as Machiavell calls it, as to be able to moderate the Counsels of the Commonwealth or Society: So it is now in the Netherlands East India Company, and so it was ever in the English East India Company, except for the first Seven Years after the last Change; in which Seven Years the Stock, and the Company's Affairs, dwindled almost to nothing; until Sir William Thompson, deceased (a Gentlemen of famous Prudence and Integrity), arrived at that Reputation, that, in effect, he governed the whole Affairs of the Company until the Day of his Death: And, under his said Conduct the Company's Affairs did revive and prosper; and have, since his Death, more increased by happy Methods derived originally from his Wisdom. His worthy Son and Posterity are now settled upon Estates in Land, and have no Concerns in the Company.

East-India House,

20th May 1692.

Signed, by Order of the Court of Committees,

Ro. Blackborne, Secr.

Resolved, Nemine contradicente, That a Bill be brought in for the regulating, preserving, and establishing the East India Trade to this Kingdom.

Resolved, That this House, will, upon Wednesday Morning next, at Ten of the Clock, resolve itself into a Committee of the whole House, to consider of Heads for the said Bill.

Ordered, That the said Message from his Majesty, and the Papers relating thereunto, be referred to the said Committee.

Leave for Members to give Evidence at King's Bench.

Ordered, That Sir Math. Andrewes, Mr. Bowyer, Sir Francis Blake, Mr. Arnold, Sir Robert Cotton, Mr. Chase, and Mr. Hutchinson, have Leave to appear at the King's Bench Bar, to give Evidence at the Tryal of Mr. Fuller.

Leave for Clerk to attend at King's Bench.

Ordered, That the Clerk of this House have Leave to attend the said Tryal, with the Papers, formerly delivered in to this House, relating to Mr. Fuller.

Papers from Ordnance Office.

Sir Thomas Littleton presented to the House several Papers, from the Office of Ordnance, relating to the Descent.

And the Titles thereof were read.

Ordered, That the Examination of the said Papers be referred to the Committee to whom the Examination of the Papers presented to the House by the Commissioners for Transportation, is referred.

Perjury.

Ordered, That Leave be given to bring in a Bill, That Perjury, and Subornation of Perjury, in capital Cases, shall be Felony, without Benefit of Clergy: And that Sir Joseph Tredenham do prepare and bring in the said Bill.

And then the House adjourned till To-morrow Morning, Nine a Clock.