48 A. D. 1784. 



fubjedls, as well fcrvants of the company as others, are declared to be 

 amenable to the proper courts of juftice, either m India or Great Brit- 

 ain, for all crimes and offences committed in India, in the territories of 

 any of the native princes, or againft them or any of their fubjeds, as 

 much as if the crimes had been committed in the company's own ter- 

 ritories. — All perfons, demanding or receiving prefents, are declared 

 guilty of extortion, and liable to be punifhed, and to forfeit the whole 

 value of the prefent to the king : but perfons in the profeflion of the 

 law and phyfic, and clergymen, are allowed to accept their ufual fees. 

 — The company are upon no account to releafe, or compound with, 

 any perfon, on whom fentence or judgement has paiTed for any debt or 

 penalty, or extortion or mifdemeanour, nor to reltore any perfon, vv'ho 

 has been removed from office by the fentence of a court. — The gover- 

 nors are required to fecure any perfons fufpedled of illicit correfpond- 

 ence, or of any adion tending to infringe the peace or fafety of the fet- 

 tlement, and to bring them to trial in India, or to fend them to Eng- 

 land ' And for the better preventing, or more eafily punifliing, the 



' mifcondud of the fervants of the faid imited company, employed in 

 ' the fettlements or affairs of the faid company in India, by a difcovery 

 ' of their eftates and property on their return to Great Britain,' all per- 

 fons arriving from India, after the i" of January 1787, are required to 

 deliver upon oath in the court of exchequer within two months after 

 their Arrival, unlefs prevented by bad health, an inventory of their 

 whole property (one copy to remain in the court of exchequer, and an- 

 other to be kept by the Eaft-India company), in order to be anfwer- 

 able to any complaints to be made within three years by the board of 

 commiffioners, the court of diredors, or any ten proprietors holding 

 conjundly /^io,ooo of India flock; and any perfon, proved to have 

 concealed any part of his property, to the amount of ^{"2, 000, fhall for- 

 feit his whole property, one half to the king, and the other to the com- 

 pany — No perfon, having returned from India and refided five years 

 in Europe, fhall be capable of again ading in any capacity in the com- 

 pany's fervice, unlefs he has been detained by ficknefs, or unlefs he fhall 

 be re-appointed by the court of diredors and three fourths of a general 

 court of propeietors — Perfons, holding offices under the king or the 

 company in India, accufed of extortion or other mifdemeanours, are to 

 be tried by a court conflituted on purpofe, agreeable to rules prefcrib- 

 ed at large in the ad ; and the depofitions of witneffes taken in India 

 may be produced in evidence *. [24 Geo. HI, fejf. 2, c. 25.] 



Augufl 1 9"'-2o"' — This important ad was accompanied by another, 

 which indulged the company with permiffion to make payment of the 



* There were verj' keea debates in both houfes of the company, I have not chofen to fwell my 

 of parh'ament, while this bill was depending : but work with any detail of them, 

 as they threw no hght upon the commercial hiftory 



