pelled to punish him, by prohibiting him from continuing his profession in the Court of Calcutta. Several months afterwards, the attorney penned his old client a letter detailing his many grievances. The latter person was in England, the former at Chittagong, and he thus adverts to the state of Anglo-Indian life as it then, according to his mind, existed ;-" Public spirit is un'known among us. We are all slaves: and far the greater 'part servilely hug the chains which gall them.-Fawning, cringing, abject, sycophant slaves-dogs that will lick the foot that spurns them. Trade and navigation is no more; and ' inland commerce is carried on in the old way, only more tyran'nically and oppressively. We are all bankrupts. He is rec'koned a monied man, and an excellent paymaster who can dis'charge a bill of 1000 rupees in a month after it is due. The gaol is considerably enlarged, and yet insufficient to hold the debtors who are daily thrust into it. If we were bad when you were here, we are now miserable, yet the inhuman causers of our distress can, unmoved, behold the dire effects of their iniquity, and steadily pursue the same destructive measures."

It is a simple transition from the gaol of Calcutta to a low "sponging house" in Holborn, London, kept by a man of the name of Vere, a Sheriff's officer; and there, twelve months after his exportation to England, we will find Mr. Alderman Bolts, louder in his speech and longer in his letters. The East India House was inundated with his literature, and the directors began to feel anxious to release their fretful captive. He did possess, of his own and others' property a sum like one hundred and thirty thousand pounds, and there is no doubt that a great deal of it was lost during his banishment, and he was placed in the Sheriff's custody merely because the directors had cancelled the sentence, and bade him return to his old functions in the Honorable the Mayor's Court of Calcutta. He had no means in London to pay his current expenses with, and his creditors would not allow him to depart, hence his intimacy with Mr. Vere. But that troublesome point was settled, and the refractory Alderman returned to Calcutta, and in 1772 the printing office which was founded by the author of Sir Charles Grandison, and Pamela, gave forth to those readers interested in private feuds, eight hundred annotated quarto pages of the dreariest rhapsody of which Mr. Bolts was the unhappy conceiver. We have noticed that the best bred racer is bled by the smallest gnat, and we presume that Mr. Verelst's concern in this feud was the result of a too thin skin, and a too sensible nature. It is not recorded that Mr. Bolts misbehaved himself upon his return.

It was during Mr. Verelst's rule that the new gold coinage

was first issued. It was considered the only practicable method of abolishing the pernicious system of reducing the Batta or Sicca Rupees annually, but it was also quite evident that the Government must meet in some way or other the increasing scarcity of specie. Appeals were made to Mr. Verelst, praying for his assistance, and merchants-European and Armenian-respectfully offered suggestions. It will be seen from the annexed letters that the scheme of the Armenians was the one carried out.

To the Honorable HARRY VERELST,

GENTLEMEN,-The universal distress of the settlement at present for specie, will, we hope, excuse our troubling you with this address requesting in our names, and those of the inhabitants of Calcutta in general, the assistance of your Government and authority to remedy this evil, which grows every day more severely felt by every merchant in Bengal.

We are highly sensible of your care and attention to the welfare of the inhabitants, from your late orders regarding the Gold Mohurs; and flatter ourselves that this application, as it equally merits, will equally meet with your regard.

Before the Gold Mohurs were called in, the shroffs had so far taken the advantage of the necessity of individuals, that they had made the changing of money, from a bare livelihood, to a most advantageous trade to themselves, and a distressful tax upon every man who wanted money beyond the bounds of Caleutta; yet, at that very time, any sum might have been had in silver, by paying a high premium to those people who had it in their possession. From this we are led to believe that there is still specie sufficient for the trade of Bengal, though perhaps not enough to answer the currency of this extensive town; and that if any method could be fallen upon to keep shroffs, to their proper sphere, and prevent their taking advantage of the necessities of those who carry on trade to the Durungs, a gold coin might still be made convenient and useful currency for this settlement, though not for the trade of Bengal in general; whereas at present the distress is so great, that every merchant in Calcutta is in danger of becoming bankrupt, or running a risk of ruin by attachments on his goods, which would not sell for half their value, it being impossible to raise a large sum at any premium or bond.

As many of us have severely felt the late inconveniences, we have often reflected on the various methods by which it appeared to us possible to remedy them, and we hope you will excuse our subjoining one for your superior judgment, which appears

to us most reasonable; that is, to coin mohurs, half mohurs, and quarter mohurs, equal in value to those commonly called Delhi; forbidding by your authority, any shroff, under pain of severe fine and imprisonment, to exact more than one per cent. for exchanging them into silver, for the purposes of merchants trading out of Calcutta; with which allowance we are persuaded they will become satisfied in the course of a few months; since, before there was any gold coin sufficient in Calcutta, they subsisted by exchanging Sicca Rupees, into Arcotts, Sunnauts, &c. for the Durung trade; and we do not remember the exchange ever exceeded two per cent., and was in general only fromto per cent. Praying your pardon for this long trespass on your patience, we beg leave to subscribe ourselves with the utmost respect,

SHEWETH, That the scarcity of coin now felt in this capital, amongst the many intolerable evils arising from it, affects every individual to that degree, that the best houses, with magazines full of goods, are distressed for daily provisions, and that not only a general bankruptcy is to be feared, likely to involve every soul in the settlement, but a real famine in the midst of wealth and plenty. That to prevent those evils from coming to a destructive crisis, your petitioners, prompted by that zeal incumbent upon them as ancient British subjects, and by their own heartfelt distresses, humbly beg leave to submit to your wisdom how far an immediate coinage of mohurs, with all their divisions and sub-divisions to one anna, sixteen Siccas value of pure gold, to be lawfully tendered in payment universally all over these British dominions, and admitted at the Treasury of both capitals, might be an adequate means to ward off the impending ruin; since any coin whatever is better than no coin at all, a measure brought on by the artificial scarcity of silver coin, strongly pointed out by the combinations evidently entered upon by the bankers, and warranted by the large quantity of gold lately imported into this place; a measure for the rectitude of which your petitioners can account to their own consciences, and in

the support whereof they hereby beg leave to pledge their good faith and honour. Your petitioners humbly hope, honorable Sir, and Sirs, that your goodness will take the premises into consideration, or give them whatever relief your wisdom shall think fit.

And your petitioners bound in gratitude and duty shall ever pray, &c.

To the Hon'ble HARRY VERELST, ESQ.,

President, &c.

Council at Fort William.

HON'BLE SIR AND SIRS,-The Honorable the Mayor's Court of the town of Calcutta, beg leave to represent, that in the practice of their Court they have for some time past observed the growth of an evil, which has daily increased, in so much that the sufferings of many will thereby become intolerable, unless a speedy relief be afforded them. The evil of which they speak, is the very great decrease of specie, so that there remains not sufficient for the occasions and intercourse of commerce, and scarcely for the private economy of the inhabitants of Calcutta. It is felt by all ranks of people in the loss of credit and confidence; the fair and honest dealer is every day prosecuted to judgment in their Court without remedy, from the impossibility of obtaining payment from his debtors, to satisfy the claim of his creditors, but by a course of law. is thus urged by his necessity to involve himself in expensive suits; he is forced to defend, in order to gain time, though sensible of the justness, and desirous to pay the demand; and he is drove to a hasty prosecution, in hopes to recover, before judgment passeth against himself, though fully convinced of his debtor's willingness to pay as soon as he is able; his substance is in this manner wasted, and the distress which follows to obvious and moving to need description.

He

They are unable to express what they feel in the discharge of their duty; but the daily instances of the melancholy consequences of this calamity, call upon them to lay this faithful representation before you, in full confidence, from the experienced tenderness and zeal for the public prosperity and welfare, which has so particularly distinguished your administration, of such effectual remedy as in your wisdom you shall judge most.

meet,

By order of the Honorable the Mayor's Court.
(Signed) JOHN HOLME,

Town Hall, Calcutta,

March 14, 1769.

Register.

The Board being fully sensible, from daily observation and experience, of the truth of the facts alleged in these letters and petition, and convinced of the fatal consequences, which must speedily and unavoidably accrue from them to the Company's affairs both at home and in India,

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Resolved." We immediately take this affair into consideration, and endeavour, as far as possible, to find out some safe, or at least temporary remedy, for this growing evil, till the orders of 'the Honorable the Court of Directors shall enable us to remove it entirely. Upon a strict and impartial enquiry, we find that this scarcity of specie, so severely felt by the merchants here, is not 'an accidental or fictitious one, nor confined to Calcutta alone, 'but that the same indigence is spread over the whole country, so that the ministers have made no secret of their apprehensions, 'that either the revenue must fall short, or be collected in kind, 'from a want of a sufficient currency for sales and purchases. We can expect no relief in this, from any sums brought into the country, for the purpose of trade inland, because all the commerce for'merly to the Northwest and westward by Guzerat, Cashmere, Mogul Merchants, &c. is now precluded by the vast increase of our own and foreign investments, whose advance we see with concern, but where the strictness of the Company's orders will not permit us to interfere, though ever so indirectly. We can expect no silver from home, and a mere trifle from the foreign Companies. The French Treasury has been amply supplied ( this year by bills for above twenty lakhs on this settlement from England, besides vast sums paid into their cash by individuals. The Dutch imports of bullion have, for several years past, not 'exceeded eight or ten lakhs per annum, and the Danes bring "not in above two lakhs more. The country's distress must also 'yearly increase. Its whole revenues are divested into our Treasury, and only the sums necessary for the investment, and our current expenses, return again into the channel of circulation. The difference, therefore, between the amount of the revenues, ' and the sum of the investment and disbursements, is an annual loss to the currency, and must, in the end, swallow up the 'whole, unless a proportional import of specie is made, or till the aggregate of the investment and disbursements shall become equal to the whole revenues. This will explain the unavoidable 'increase of poverty in the country; and as the Treasury is a continual drain upon that, so the immense exports to China, Madras, Bombay, with the King's tribute, aud the expense of 'a brigade out of our provinces, will but too well account for the low ebb to which it has, in its turn, been reduced. If we con'sider the state of the provinces in this point of view, and reflect,

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