494 A* ^* I ^6 1. 



ed, and voted the company's petition to the houfe of commons to be 

 falfe and fcandalous. The commons thereupon refolved, that whoever 

 fhould execute the fentence of the lords in favour of Skinner fhould be 

 deemed a betrayer of the rights and hberties of the commons of Eng- 

 land, and an inifringer of the privileges of their houfe. Thofe violent 

 heats obliged the king to adjourn the parliament feven times, and the 

 quarrel reviving in the feflion of 1670, the king called both hoiifes to 

 Whitehall, and prevailed on them to erafe all the votes, &c. of both 

 houfes on this fubjed. Thus it ended, after many elaborate difquifitions 

 on the jurifdidlion of either houfe of parUament ; nor does it clearly ap- 

 pear, that Skinner ever had any redrefs at all. 



1 66 1 . — In the year 1 661 the king granted a new, or fupplemental, char- 

 ter to the Englilh Levant, or Turkey, company, which, after ratifying and 

 confirming that company's firfl charter, granted in 1605, directed, that 

 no perfon refiding within 20 miles of London, excepting noblemen and 

 gentlemen of quality, fhould be admitted into the freedom of the com- 

 pany, unlefs firfl made free of the city of London. So all perfons, who 

 from thenceforth defired to trade to Turkey, and were not free of the 

 city of London, were put to a confiderable additional expenfe in taking 

 up the freedom, which has been fince frequently found fault with. 



The Englifh Eafi: -India company, notwithflartding the diforders in it 

 of late years, being fuppofed flill to exifl, as eftablifhed by Queen Eliza- 

 beth, King James, and King Charles I, obtained of King Charles II a 

 new exclufive charter, dated the 3d of April 1661, by the old name of 

 the governor and company of merchants of London tradmg to the 

 Eafl-Indies. It was to confifl of a governor, a deputy governor, and 

 twenty-four committees, (fince called directors) to be annually eleded ; 

 the limits of their trade the fame as in the former charters. They, their 

 fons at twenty-one years of age, their apprentices, fadors, and fervants, 

 employed in this trade, might freely trade to India, in fuch manner on- 

 ly as a general court fhould direct. The company to have perpetual 

 fuccefhon, to make bye-laws, and impofe penalties not repugnant to the 

 laws of England ; might export only L50,ooo in foreign filver annually. 

 And in time of reflraint to be allowed fix good fhips, and fix good pin- 

 naces, with 500 mariners, to fail yearly to India, unlefs the king fhould 

 judge proper to ftop them from going, in order to reinforce his royal 

 navy for defence of the realm, on urgent occafions. None other fhould 

 trade to India without their licence, on pain of foi-feiting fhips and 

 goods, one half to the crown, one half to the company. They might 

 admit into their freedom all fuch apprentices, fadors, and lervants of 

 any freeman of the company, and all fuch others as a majority of their 

 general courts fiiould chufe- The company mufl import, within fix 

 months after every voyage, at leaf! as much filver as they carried out. 

 All their gold and filver exported muft be fliipped at London, Dart- - 



