Why no action was taken on this proposal of the Company as modified by Sir Charles Hedges, is not clear. Possibly the Admiralty hesitated to hand over to the captains of the Company’s ships work which they thought more properly belonged to the King’s navy, and which when the French war was ended was very soon performed by Captain Warren’s squadron. Possibly they felt a delicacy in doing anything that might diminish the great ministers’ chances of gain from Kidd’s adventure. What seems to have happened is that the Company’s petition was officially shelved for nearly four years, when Captain Warren having in the meanwhile been sent out with five men-of-war to suppress the pirates, it was referred to the committee of the House of Commons, who had then been appointed to consider further the large question of the state and condition of the trade of England, by whom, if considered at all, it would have to run the gauntlet of many implacable enemies of the Company, and in particular of certain ardent protectionists of that day who never missed an opportunity of holding forth on the injuries to which English industries were exposed by the importation by the Company of Indian silks, calicoes, and muslins. Apart, however, from any question of the probable success of Kidd’s expedition, or the desirability of giving the Company a free hand to deal themselves with the pirates, the terms of the grant of the spoil to the adventurers, with which the Company had evidently made themselves familiar, were calculated to place them in a very awkward position with the Great Mogul. What they had to protect themselves against, was a summary expulsion from his dominions; and they must have realized that even if Kidd succeeded in catching his pirates, it would be a very unsatisfactory reply to the demands of that great potentate for the immediate restitution of the stolen properties, to assure him that the thieves had been carried to England, where it was to be hoped that some of them might in due course be convicted, and possibly hung; but that the stolen goods had in the meanwhile been appropriated by some of the King’s great ministers. It was not impossible that the next demand of the Great Mogul might be that these great gentlemen together with such of the directors of the Company as had acquiesced in this arrangement should at once be handed over to him to be dealt with according to their deserts. It is not, therefore, surprising to find that on the twentieth of August in that year, whilst Kidd was still at New York trying to pick up his crew, the Company presented a further petition to the Lords Justices, praying that “such of the species of gold, silver and jewels as have already been or shall hereafter be seized in the custody of any of the pirates or any other persons who cannot make a legal title thereunto, may not be disposed of, but put into the possession of the Company, in order to be preserved for the use of the proprietors in India, that the