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TRAVELS IN 
the management of the first political and commercial interests 
of the empire — Under what tenure it should be held? 
Whether the Cape should be considered as a foreign depen- 
dency of the crown, and subject to the same regulations as all 
the other colonies are ; or, as a post to be annexed to the 
possessions which are under the administration of the East 
India Company ? Those who held the latter opinion as a mat- 
ter of right quoted the charter granted by Queen Elizabeth, by 
which the Compan}^ ai'e allowed the privilege of a free and 
sole trade mto the countries of Asia, Africa, and America, 
br any of them beyond the Cape of Buona Esperanza, to the 
Streights of Magellan. Those, Avho were inclined to think 
that the charters of the East India Company gave them no 
claim to the Cape, brought forward the charter they received 
from Charles the Second, in which no mention whatever is 
made of Africa. 
While these questions were in agitation, two general plans 
floated in the mind of Mr. Dundas (tiow Lord Melville) ; 
both of which were so conceived as to combine the interests 
of the public with those of the East India Company. One 
of these plans supposed the Cape to be a foreign dependency 
of the Crown, and included such provisions and regulations 
as were compatible with the interests and the chartered pri- 
vileges of the East India Company : the other invested the 
territorial possession in the East India Company, but pro- 
posed such regulations as were calculated to promote the 
general commercial prosperity of the British empire. And, 
in the mean time, until one or other of these plans should be 
