Thus, since history renders it indisputable, that an import trade from India to the out-ports of the kingdom has been heretofore exercised under Acts of Parliament, and that it may be perfectly compatible with the highest prosperity of the East India Company; since the Executive Government can guard it against smuggling at the present day, as well as in the reigns of King William and Queen Anne; and since a great and urgent national interest reasonably demands it, both from Parliament and the Company; the present moment furnishes a most fit occasion for the Company to consider, Mr. Dundas's solemn call upon "their wisdom, policy, and liberality," made by him to them in the year 1800; and also, his weighty admonition, that "_if any thing can endanger their monopoly, it is_ AN UNNECESSARY ADHERENCE TO POINTS NOT ESSENTIAL TO THEIR EXISTENCE." It has been called _illiberal_, to question the motives of the Directors, in refusing their consent to an import trade to the out-ports. But, with the facts of history, which have been here produced, staring us and them in the face, it would be impossible not to question those motives. No man can entertain a higher respect for the East India Company, as a body politic and corporate, or contemplate with higher admiration the distinguished career which it has run, than Gracchus; but, at the same time, no one is better persuaded of the operation of _policy_, in a body circumstanced as they are. And it is more especially necessary to watch that policy, and to be free to interpret _political motives_, at the present crisis, because, at the eve of the expiration of the Company's _last_ Charter, in 1793, certain rights were anxiously alleged on their behalf, in a work entitled, "_A Short History of the East India Company_, &c." rights absolutely unmaintainable, and utterly incompatible with the sovereignty of the Empire, and the freedom of the Constitution; and the allegations then made, appear now to assume the form of _a practical assertion_. To those alleged rights, therefore, it will be advisable early to call the attention of Parliament and of the nation. GRACCHUS. FOOTNOTE: [4] A Short History of the East India Company. LETTER VII. _Wednesday, Jan. 27, 1813._