HIGH COURT OF MADRAS. 



43 



as a Court of Appeal ; and in 1726 we find Governor Macrae 

 engaged upon a long list of appeals from the Mayor's Court, 

 some of which were sent home to be adjudicated on by the 

 Directors, and even to be tried in Westminster Hall. 30 



Mr. Pitt was the last Governor of Madras appointed by 

 the " Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading 

 into the East Indies." Before the end of the reign of Charles. 

 II attacks had begun to be made on their monopoly of the 

 Indian trade, and the Eevolution of 1688 stimulated the 

 Interlopers, as the Company's commercial rivals were called, 

 to increased activity. In 1693 an accidental failure by the 

 Company to make the first quarterly payment of a tax 

 imposed on their General Joint Stock by the Statute 4 & 5 

 W. and M., c. 15, ss. 10, 12, gave rise to the question 

 whether all their Charters had not thereby become void. 

 This was got over by the Company's obtaining two Charters 

 dated the 7th October 1693 (5th W. and M.) and the 11th 

 November in the same year, by which all persons who were 

 members of the Company on the 24th March then last were 

 established and confirmed as a Body Corporate and Politic 

 under the same name, with all powers, privileges and advan- 

 tages which were held or enjoyed by the said Governor and 

 Company, or late Governor and Company of Merchants of 

 London trading into the East Indies, on or before the said 

 24th day of March then last ; and a number of provisions 

 were made for the management of the Company's business in 

 England, subsequently modified to some extent by Charters 

 dated 28th September 1694 (6th W. and M.) and 13th April 

 1698 (10th W. III). The Interlopers however appear to have 

 been the stronger party in Parliament, which now began to 

 exercise an authority unknown in former reigns, and on the 

 11th January 1694 the House of Commons passed a Eesolu- 



30 Wheeler's Madras, vol. ii, p. 399, 



