2. The last right _alleged by the Company_ at the present crisis, which forms the CLIMAX of their pretensions, and is the _key_ to all their late proceedings, is that of a _perpetual union and incorporation with the Supreme Government of the Indian Empire_; so that the Indian trade and government must ever continue to be united _in them_, and cannot now be separated, without endangering "_the British Empire in India, and the British Constitution at home_." This pretension renders the question of a _temporary_ exclusive trade entirely nugatory, because it is the unqualified assertion of a _perpetual_ one; not to be received any more as _a grant_ from Parliament, as hitherto it has been, but to be extorted from Parliament through fear of the subversion of Parliament. This pretension is founded upon the Company's interpretation of an observation, made by a late eminent Minister to the Managers of the Company's affairs, in the year 1800; viz. that "_the Government and the trade of India are now so interwoven together_," as to establish an indissoluble "_connexion of government and trade_." This _dictum_, is assumed by the Company for an incontestable maxim of State, _as applicable to their own Corporation_; and for an eternal principle, connecting that Body Corporate with all future Indian Government. This they denominate, "THE SYSTEM, _by which the relations between Great Britain and the East Indies are now regulated_;" and, in their sanguine hopes of gaining _perpetuity_ for their _system_, they already congratulate themselves upon their Incorporation into the Sovereignty, as a NEW, and FOURTH ESTATE of the Empire. It is that maxim, evidently embraced for this construction at the present crisis, that has emboldened the conductors of the Company's concerns to assume so lofty a demeanour towards the King's servants; and to venture to represent the cautious proceedings of Government in a great political question (in which it appears only as _a moderator_ between two conflicting interests), to be an aggression against their indisputable rights. It has been asked in the Court of Proprietors, "whether the Ministers of the present day are become so far exalted above their predecessors, or the Company so newly fallen, that adequate communications should not be made to the latter, of the plans and intentions of the former?" It is neither the one nor the other; but it is, that _the Company_ are become so elated and intoxicated by the ambitious expectation of being incorporated as a perpetual Member of the Supreme Government, that they conceive they have no longer any measures to keep with the Ministers of the Crown.