28 



THE PREDECESSORS OF THE 



vice, and for the increase of our revenue in that great city of 

 Madras, we have much confidence ; and therefore for his greater 

 honour we appoint him to be of our Council, notwithstanding 

 he is not named in our last commission, and to take place next 

 after our second of the Council for the time being ; desiring you 

 to give him such a publique reception as be fit to his quality 

 and the trust we have reposed in him." 



In the same year the Company determined to assume the 

 rank of an Indian power, and as such to negotiate and act 

 for the interests of England. Bombay was declared a 

 Regency and the same plan was followed at Fort St. George. 

 The King's Union Flag was ordered to be always used at 

 the Fort, the fortifications were to be extended and strength- 

 ened, and the garrison increased ; and, that the internal 

 administration of the town might correspond with its new 

 character of a Regency, it was erected into a Corporation by a 

 Charter under the Company's larger seal, bearing date the 

 30th day of December 1687 (3rd James II). The question 

 had been agitated in the Privy Council whether such Charter 

 should proceed from the King, under the Great Seal of Eng- 

 land, or from the Company, under its Broad Seal, from 

 being vested with a right to exercise a delegated sovereignty 

 in India, and the conclusion arrived at is thus described in 

 the Court's letter to President Yale of the 12th December 

 1687 :— 



" The Governor and Deputy were commanded last night, 

 being Sunday, to attend His Majestie at the Cabinet Council, 

 when our intended Charter for incorporating Fort St. George 

 into a body politique, consisting of Mayor, Aldermen and Bur- 

 gesses, was largely debated before His Majestie ; — One of the 

 Council (being a lawyer) 9 seemed to be of opinion that it was 



9 Probably Sir Thomas Powis, who about this time succeeded Sir Robert 

 Sawyer as Attorney- General, Sir William Williams being appointed Solicitor- 

 General in succession to Powis. Macaulay's History of England, vol. iii, 

 p. 77. 



