Such is the state of the question, or, as it has been called, by some strange perversion of ideas, the _negotiation_, between the Company, as applicants for a renewal of their Charter which is about to expire, and the Government, through whose aid it is to be solicited, or at least, without whose concurrence it is certainly very questionable, whether they would be able to obtain it. These are the circumstances, under which the affairs of the East India Company must necessarily, and speedily, be brought forward, for the consideration of Parliament. Can it, then, be considered an exaggerated view of the hazards of such a situation, to suppose, that some guardian of the public purse may deem it requisite to inquire, whether the application for pecuniary aid from Parliament ought not to be preceded by a substantial proof, not of concession, for they have in fact nothing to concede, but of something like accommodation on the part of the Proprietors? And in that event, might it not be questioned, whether, since the dividend of 10 per cent. was sanctioned upon an assumption, that the revenue of the Company yielded a _surplus_ of upwards of a million; now, when instead of a surplus, a _deficit_ is admitted to exist, the dividend ought not to be reduced, not merely to the standard from which it had been raised under the supposed prosperous state of the Company's affairs, but to a standard to be regulated by the amount of the ascertained profits upon their own trade, under whatever circumstances it may hereafter be conducted? It is not meant to insinuate, that any condition of the kind alluded to is likely to be imposed, in granting the relief so pressingly required by the present exigencies of the Company; but if a necessity for the winding up of their affairs, as an exclusive Company, should arrive, and if their own resources, with the profits they may derive from their commerce as a Corporate Body, should not be adequate to the payment of a dividend of 10½ per cent.; could it reasonably be expected, that Parliament would, in _all future times_, extend its liberality towards the Proprietors of India stock, to the extent of _securing to them_ a continuance of their present dividend? It is to be feared, that those who may have calculated upon such a result, have taken a false measure of their _prospective situation_; and it is on account of this apprehension, that it appears highly important to call the attention of the Proprietors to the care of their own substantial interest in the dividend; an interest, which to them is, and must be paramount. GRACCHUS. LETTER III. _Thursday, January 14, 1813._