upon which, as I am informed, the day instantly took a turn favourable to the proposition.

*

It must be some time before the directors can, in their committee, either name the persons out of their own body who are to act for them, or prepare for the opening of the business; but if it were not so, I should certainly decline all intercourse, separate from your Lordship, and wait the return of his Majesty's servants.

It is my sincere and earnest wish, for every motive public and private, which ought to influence an honest man, that this very important matter may come to a good issue; because, independent of my natural anxiety for my little chance of reputation which I may have dependent upon it, I see nothing so sure to establish the lustre of his Majesty's councils, and to give vigour and authority to every measure and plan of government at home and abroad, as the natural consequences of an amicable and happy conclusion of this vast subject.

I am, with the greatest regard, and most perfect consideration, my Lord,

Your Lordship's most obliged

and most faithful servant,

C. TOWNSHEND.

THE EARL OF CHATHAM TO THE RIGHT HON.
CHARLES TOWNSHEND.

SIR,

Burton Pynsent, January 2, 1767.

THE honour of your letter followed me to this place from Bath, whither I return to-morrow morning. I am impatient to express how sensibly I am obliged to you for so early a communication of the resolutions of the last general court. I need not tell you how entirely this transcendant object, India, possesses my heart and fixes my thoughts. It will not be hard, then, to judge of my sensations, on a dawn of reason and equity in the general court, so long delivered up to the grossest delusions of a mistaken self-interest, and shutting their eyes to the clearest principles of justice, and to a series of the most incontestible facts.

I can call it hitherto only the dawn, waiting anxiously for the more perfect day. The motion, (discreet enough in itself,) is so worded, that it may contain all that is right and desirable; it may also conceal, within a specious generality, certain narrow notions, that would frustrate national justice and public prosperity. I will, however, hope for the best side of the alternative, and am fully persuaded, my dear Sir, that you and I shall equally share the honest joy, if the desired success crowns the great work; and, indeed, by one and the same act, to do the nation justice, and to fix the ease and pre-emi

nence of England for ages, are plentiful sources of manly and noble joy.

Allow me then, with the addition of one descriptive epithet, to pray (in your own words) for all the natural consequences of an adequate, amicable, and happy conclusion of this vast subject. I am, with the greatest regard and consideration, dear Sir, Your most faithful and obedient

humble servant, CHATHAM.

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES TOWNSHEND TO THE EARL OF CHATHAM.

Downing Street, January 4, 1767.

MY DEAR LORD,

I HAVE this moment received the honour of your letter, and I flatter myself you will forgive me if I trouble you a second time, in consequence of some observations in your letter, which seem to me to call for an answer from me, and of proceedings which have since followed the resolution of the general court.

I cannot help thinking, that the words of the motion were conceived with great prudence, propriety, and judgment; because, in my opinion, they clearly extend to every consideration which one could wish to include in the result of the negotiation. Under the expression of "enlarging their

commerce," will naturally be considered every measure which the directors have to propose for the relief of their trade at home and abroad: under the next words, of "securing their possessions" (your Lordship will observe that it is possessions, not rights), will be introduced whatever they want, in recruiting their military, governing their servants, and establishing the revenue itself: and under the last general phrase of " perpetuating the prosperity of the Company," may be classed a variety of other points not yet started; all which, amicably given, will be so many reasons with the general court finally to acquiesce in an issue advantageous to the Company and adequate to the public.

Your Lordship will recollect, that in my letter I had the honour to assure you, that the motion was opened, supported, and carried in this extensive sense. I am now to inform you, that the directors have been with me to communicate the resolution; and from them I learn, that they receive their power and construe it in this manner, and that they will, without delay, collect every information, in order to prepare themselves for waiting upon your Lordship and the servants of the crown, upon their return to town; till which time, I told them I could not venture to advance one step. I have also seen other very leading men in the court, who speak of the temper of the day, the meaning of the motion, and the extent of the power given to the directors, as I have done to your Lordship; and therefore I should hope there

is no ground for doubting which side of the alternative stated by your Lordship, ought to be taken on the construction of the generality of the words; formed thus general, I am convinced, to secure unanimity in granting the power to treat, without the least secret wish thereby to frustrate national justice and public prosperity.

Your Lordship does me justice in supposing me equally anxious with yourself to see this delicate and important matter brought to an adequate, as well as amicable and happy issue. Perhaps I may have thought, more than others of sounder judgment than mine, that the only way of making the issue adequate was to make it amicable; which, if it has been an error, it was an honest one, proceeding from a sincere, though it should be thought an extreme, sense of the endless difficulties accompanying every idea of substituting the public in the place of the Company, in the collecting, investing, and remitting the revenue; and from a fear, that the knowledge of this impracticability might embolden a body of heated proprietors to stand the issue of such a measure, rather than submit to what they might deem severity in the manner, or in the plan.

I am to beg your Lordship's pardon for this interruption. Truly anxious to leave no doubt upon your mind, which I feel myself authorised to remove by the representation of any circumstances. within my knowledge, I could not resist the pleasure of assuring you more fully of the actual