That mix'd in hasty graves unnotic'd lie.” Edmund, who succeeded to the earl. dom of Cornwall on the death of his father, presented to the monks of Hailes a small portion of the blood of our Saviour, which had been found among the stores of the ancient emperors. This proved an inestimable acquisition, and was productive of great profit by the vast concourse of pilgrims which it attracted. It was inclosed in a richly-adorned crystal cabinet, one side of which by its thickness and opacity intercepted the view of this sacred treasure, while the other, purposely prepared, exposed it to the sight of the enraptured devotee, who had paid for a sufficient number of masses to wipe away his crimes. This miraculous blood was reported by the visitors at the dissolution of the abbey to be merely that of some animal frequently renewed; but the bishop of Rochester, who exhibited it in the course of a sermon which he preached upon the subject at St. Paul's cross, described it as being clarified honey coloured with saffron.

The feeling excited by these ruins is rather that of desolation than of grandeur: "Inexorably calm-with silent pace Here Time hath passed. What ravage marks his way:

This pile now crumbling o'er its hallow'd base

Turn'd not his step, nor could his course

delay."

around, whose smile was the signal of joy! A thousand masses chaunted for the peace of your souls, could not secure your moul❤ dering bones one little spot in which they might silently decay. How unstable is greatness, how uncertain is power! We build, but we know not who will destroy-we consecrate, but we know not who will prophane-we endow, but we know not who will enjoy.

1,309,080 1,191,213

The unsold goods in their warehouses in London on the 1st of March, 1808, and expected in the course of the season, at prime cost, amounted to 1.7,148,440: valued at the selling prices at l.13,086,305.

The India debt, according to the best estimate that can be formed of its amount on the 1st of May, 1808, stood at 1.31,895,000.

There had been, on the whole, no di◄ minution of civil and military expenditures to compensate for the heavier charge of interest; but, on the contrary, while the revenues had from different acquisitions and annexations, been greatly enhanced, the expenditure kept pace with the increase, and had even outrun it; so that

Debt.

£

although when in 1793-4 the revenues were only eight millions per annum, there was a surplus of 1.1,600,000, now that the revenues are fifteen millions per annum, there is a deficit of l.1,019,097. "What is most obvious and striking in this statement, is the increase not of the charges only but also of the debt, as the revenues increased, and not merely in proportion to the increase of the reve hues; for, whilst from the year 1793-4 to the year 1805-6, the amount of the revenues has not been quite doubled, that of the charges has been increased as five to two, and that of the debt nearly quadrupled, besides a very large sum of debt transferred in the course of that period to England.

"After all allowances and adjustments, which, according to the best knowledge of the court, comprehend every thing the account ought to contain, the balance is in favour of England, or of the Company at home, 1.5,691,689.

"Before concluding, the executive body of the Company think it may be proper for them to declare, that they are not conscious of having, by improvidence or mismanagement, contributed to bring the Company's affairs into the embarrassments in which they are now involved. They may be placed in a very material degree to the vast increase of the Indian debt the consequence of various measures adopted abroad under the administration of controul exercised by his Majesty's government since the year 1784. Those embarrassments proceed also in part from causes which it has not been in the power of this country to controul. An unexampled European war, which has already continued fourteen years, has in every way aggravated the expences, and diminished the profits, of the Company at home and abroad. The increased charges of freight and demorage alone, occasioned by this war, have amounted, since its commencement, to more than seven millions sterling. Whenever Great Britain is involved in European war, the effects are always felt in India in increased military expences, even when no European enemy appears in the field there; but that war has been carried into India; and, at the desire of his Majesty's government, the Company have had to sustain the expence of various foreign expeditions against the French, Dutch, and Spanish posses sions in India, and to Egypt, all chiefly on the national account, in which, as is

All

well known, the Company expended very large sums, borrowed at high Indian interest, to the prejudice of their general credit and affairs, in ways which cannoţ be made matter of account. This war moreover has occasioned a gradual rise in the cost of home manufactures and metals, which the Company, consulting the national interest, have continued to export for many years to the extent of 1.2,200,000 annually, notwithstanding the known disadvantage under which they prosecuted that trade; for the increased cost could not be compensated by a corresponding increase in the selling prices abroad, nor by a decrease in the prices of goods purchased for Europe, and has therefore been attended with positive and considerable loss to the Company. The progressive diminutions of profit on their Indian importations here, have been already shewn. these evils are now followed by a stagnation in the home sales of the Company. In this they suffer with the nation, and with Europe at large, but the consequences, as already described, fall with peculiar severity upon them in the other circumstances of their affairs; for the Indian finances, which are become of immense importance in the system of the Company, instead of affording relief, are in a state that imperiously calls for in stant and effectual regulation. It is by no means to be concluded, however, that affairs would now have been better under any other supposable mode of Indian administration; it is perfectly within the power of this country to afford the aids which are now required for the relief of the Company's finances, both at home and abroad, for consolidating the credit of the Company, and strengthening the hauds of the authorities at home, so necessary to the well-being of the Company's affairs.

"The expected deficit for 1808.9, of 1.2,433,185, was supplied by receipts beyond the estimate from the following sources, viz.

Sales of imports - 1851,345
Charges and freight

on private trade 168,813

Received on account of Com

7.1,020,158

pany's claims on the public, on report of the committee 1,500,000.

1.2,520,158

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