When the first, or London East India Company, had incurred the forfeiture of their Charter in 1693, by the non-payment of a stipulated sum of money, their privileges were immediately restored to them, and confirmed by letters patent, granted by King William III. upon this express ground:--"Considering how highly it imports the honour and welfare of this our kingdom, and our subjects thereof, that a trade and traffic to the East Indies should be continued; and being well satisfied that the same may be of great and public advantage; and being also desirous to render the same, as much as in us lies, _more national, general, and extensive, than hitherto it hath been_," &c. This principle, of promoting a more national, general, and extensive trade to India than had subsisted under the then existing Company's exclusive Charter, gave rise to _a new measure_ in the year 1698, in an Act passed in the 9th and 10th year of the same king, entitled, _An Act for raising a sum not exceeding two millions, &c. and for settling the trade to the East Indies_. The parties subscribing towards that loan, were formed into a Society, called _The General Society of Merchants, &c._; and such of them as chose to unite their subscriptions, and to form a joint-stock, were incorporated under the name of _The English East India Company, &c._ The General Society possessed the privilege of an export and import trade with India, with the power of _bringing their import cargoes from India to the_ OUT-PORTS _of the kingdom_, in the same manner as is proposed by Government at the present day; with this only difference, that the General Society of Merchants were not restricted as to the ports at which they should enter, whereas Government have _now_ proposed, that merchants _should be restricted to such ports as can best afford the means of guarding against the depredations of smuggling_. The regulations, which were adopted for ships importing from India to the out-ports, are to be found in the Act 9 and 10 William III. c. 44. s. 69. and were as follows:--