And whereas by the said original charter the Governor or Deputy-Governor for the time being was required to be present at the admission into the Company of servants, factors, and other persons: And whereas by the said original charter it was declared that it should be lawful in all elections and bye-laws to be made by the general court of the Adventurers of the said Company, that every person should have a number of votes according to his stock, that was to say, for every hundred pounds by him subscribed or brought into the present stock one vote, and that any of those who had subscribed less than one hundred pounds might join their respective sums to make up one hundred pounds and have one vote jointly for the same, and not otherwise: And whereas by a deed under the seal of the Company, dated the nineteenth November, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, certain rights of government and other rights and privileges granted, by the said original charter, but not affecting the subject matter of this our charter, were duly surrendered to Her Majesty, and such surrender was duly accepted by Her Majesty by an instrument under her sign manual: And whereas for many years the capital of the Company has comprised no stock, but has been and is now divided into shares of equal value, and it is desirable that the qualification for votes should be changed from the holding of stock in the Company to the holding of shares therein: And whereas many of the provisions contained in the original charter have been found very inconvenient in practice, and are not in accordance with the usual provisions regulating the affairs of modern companies, and in particular the following provisions have been found very inconvenient, that is to say: the provisions requiring the Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Committee to be elected every year, and fixing the date of the election between the first and last day of November; the provisions requiring the presence of the Governor or Deputy-Governor at the general courts for the elections of Governors or Members of the Committee, and at the general courts assembled for the purpose of making bye-laws, and on other occasions specified in the said original charter; the provisions requiring a corporal oath to be taken by the Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Committee, and by certain other persons on certain occasions. And whereas, in addition to the above provisions complained of, the absence of any power in the said original charter enabling the Governor, Deputy-Governor, or any member of the Committee, to resign office, or enabling votes to be taken by proxy, and the absence of several other powers usually given to trading companies for the better regulation of their internal affairs, has been found in practice to be very inconvenient and detrimental to the interests of the Company.