as profit, for the cost was so augmented by their expensive establishments-the length of time occupied in their voyages (two years generally, while it is made in little more than one by the private trader) and other circumstances, that their profit was perhaps moderate enough. But, because they traded as Princes, it was rather too much that we should be called upon to pay the expence of keeping up their state. There were a great many other points to which he might allude; but he would not occupy more of the time of the Company. He begged to propose :~~

"That, in the opinion of this Company, the removal of restrictions impeding the trade between this country and India, and the opening of a free trade to China, would be productive of much advantage to the country at large.

"That it be remitted to the Masters and Assistants to consider of the best time and manner of giving effect to this expression of the Company's opinion."

Mr. ARCHIBALD ANDERSON expressed a wish, that the resolutions should lie on the table till another meeting, as he believed many members did not then possess the requisite information to enable them to make up their minds on the subject; and it was one of great importance, and should be well and deliberately considered before any opinion was expressed. The trade with China he admitted to be a question of the utmost consequence to the shipping interest. Mr. Anderson, in reference to the statute referred to by Mr. Macfarlan as repealed, said it was part of the Company's charter, that tea should be exposed for sale at one penny a pound beyond the original cost, and he was not aware that this clause had been repealed; but their expenses were so great, and the trade so mixed up with other matters, that the clause had become in effect of little importance. The Company were entitled to somewhat high prices, otherwise they could not maintain their establishments in India: and if we took their charter from them, we must then pay it in another manner for the Indian Government and armies.

Mr. ANDREW SCOTT was against the Company coming to any resolution at that meeting, conceiving that after the notice which had been taken of the subject, it should be left to the Master and Assistants, to be brought forward as they thought proper. With that view he should second the second resolution, but he thought the first should be withdrawn.

Mr. GEORGE BROWN said, it would perhaps be the most advisable mode, that Mr. Macfarlan should withdraw his resolutions, and give notice of a motion for a future day.

Mr. SPITTAL thought the resolution should lie on the table till the next meeting of the Company. This was a subject on which the whole country felt a deep interest; why then, should Edinburgh appear lukewarm, or keep back? Therefore, he thought Mr.

Macfarlan deserved great credit for the manly manner in which he had brought the matter under the notice of the Company. He had already said the citizens of Edinburgh ought not to keep back the expression of their sentiments. Why should they keep back? The opinion was general that the renewal of the charter, as it at present stands, was altogether out of the question-the Company itself did not even expect it. The tea trade was a strong and invincible evidence against the revival of monopoly; but there was also the export trade in cloths and calicoes. Had not the export trade, restricted as it now is, extended from a few thousand yards to several millions of yards annually? With respect to the tea trade, he would refer to the speech of Mr. Huskisson, who was of opinion that the market was under-stocked. That right honourable gentleman did not see the use of keeping teas two years in the Company's warehouses.

Mr. Anderson and Mr. W. Blackwood both rose to order. Mr. ANDERSON said, the Company, by their charter, were bound to have by them a quantity of tea, equal to three years consumption.

Mr. SPITTAL, in continuation, remarked, he was not aware that he was out of order in referring to statements made by the best informed commercial Minister this country could boast of; but he felt obliged to Mr. Anderson, for he had informed him of a fact of which he was not before aware. He would with pleasure second the resolutions of Mr. Macfarlan, if they were allowed to lie over till next meeting.

The LORD PROVOST was against adopting at that meeting an expression of opinion, tending to pledge the Company, before discussion. He thought it would be more advisable to enter on the consideration of the subject on a motion made for the special purpose.

Mr. MACFARLAN had no objection to withdraw his resolutions, and gave notice of a motion for next meeting, having no wish to press them, because he was convinced the more the subject was considered, the more would its performance be felt and acknowledged. The clause in the charter, alluded to by Mr. Anderson, he believed remained the same, but what he referred to was an act of Parliament, which had been repealed. The delay, however, would be of advantage, by enabling such as wanted information to acquire it from Mr. Buckingham, who, he believed, was to be in this city very soon; but he (Mr. M.) had brought the general question before the Company at this meeting, that the idea might not go abroad that the merchants of Edinburgh were quite indifferent to it till tutored by Mr. Buckingham.

Mr. MACFARLAN then withdrew his resolutions, and gave notice that he would, at the next meeting of the Company, submit a motion on the subject of opening the trade to India and China.-Adjourned.

PROGRESS OF MR. BUCKINGHAM'S LABOURS IN THE COUNTRY.

In the early part of the last month, Mr. Buckingham left town for Scotland, intending to follow up his successful career in this country, by a visit to the other portions of the British kingdom: retaining, however, his unintermitted communication with this journal, to which all the labours of his pen are now exclusively devoted. The result of his visit to Scotland has already been most satisfactory, the sensation occasioned by his Lectures in Edinburgh being so powerful as to oblige him to remove from the Hopetoun Rooms, where they were first commenced-to the Great Room of the Waterloo Hotel, one of the most capacious in the metropolis of Scotland. Even this was so crowded as to afford scarcely any room for additional numbers; and such was the desire of the auditors to secure places, that seats were generally occupied an hour before the Lectures began. All the rank, wealth, and talent of the Scottish capital, were assembled on these occasions, and the audiences were among the most numerous and brilliant that have for some time been seen in Edinburgh, notwithstanding that the season was considered unfavourable, as the Courts of Law had risen, and many of the principal inhabitants had gone to the watering places, or their country seats. The question is evidently exciting intense interest throughout every part of Scotland, and the following is published in the Edinburgh papers, as the order and date of Mr. Buckingham's future route :

At each of which places he is to deliver one or more Lectures on the India and China Trade, and the Government and Revenues of the East. The following extracts from the Edinburgh papers, will convey a pretty accurate notion of the impression made in that capital-as they are taken from writers of very opposite political bias, and may therefore be regarded as sincere and impartial.

MR. BUCKINGHAM'S LECTURES ON THE EASTERN WORLD.

From The Caledonian Mercury,' July 16.

FEW men in our day have made a greater figure in the world than Mr. Buckingham. In one way or other his name has been almost continually before the public. The arbitrary and tyrannical act of oppression which drove him from India, and ruined his rising fortunes in that country, first engaged the attention, and we may truly

add, enlisted in his behalf the sympathies of the people of England. Persecution of every kind invariably defeats its own object. When the strong, merely because they are strong, in the very wantonness of conscious power, employ their strength against the weak, and convert the authority with which they have been clothed for the benefit of a great community into an instrument of undisguised oppression against an individual, the generous feelings of our nature are immediately awakened in behalf of the victim of injustice, and the public at once take him under their protection. Hence the very means which were taken to crush Mr. Buckingham, and to ruin for ever his prospects in life, at once marked him out as a person of consideration, and excited universal indignation against the petty tyrants who had attempted his destruction. His first introduction to our notice, therefore, was by means of a passport signed and counter-signed, if we may so express ourselves, by his Indian persecutors. And since that time we have been rendered familiar with his name in a great variety of aspects; as an enterprising and intelhigent traveller, who had indefatigably explored and ably described some of the most interesting countries on the face of the earth; as a sturdy claimant for justice aud reparation, thundering at the gates of the India House, and disturbing the slumbers of the merchant princes of Leadenhall-Street; as the triumphant defender of his literary reputation against the ungenerous and unmanly attack which had been made upon it by Mr. Bankes; as the parent of a whole generation of periodicals, political and literary; and, lastly, as the preacher of a general crusade against the East India Company's monopoly. We confess, therefore, that we felt no ordinary degree of curiosity to see and hear a person who had made so much noise in the world, and connected his name with so many great interests, remarkable occurrences, and distinguished individuals; and that with expectations considerably excited, we repaired on Monday night to the Hopetoun Rooms, where it was announced that Mr. Buckingham would deliver the first of a short course of Lectures on the Eastern World. Nor were these expectations in any degree dis

appointed.

Of the subject of the Lecture we shall speak presently. With regard to the Lecturer himself we must say that he appears to us admirably qualified for the task he has undertaken. Full of the subject, on which he evidently possesses the most abundant information, he spoke from the printed heads of his lecture, which are exceedingly brief, with the greatest ease and fluency, and in a style of elocution equally simple, graceful, and unpretending, displayed a talent for communicating knowledge in a clear, vivid, interesting, and popular manner, far surpassing any thing of the kind we have lately witnessed. The best proof of this we can mention is the fact, that for nearly three hours he kept the attention of a numerous and most respectable audience so rivetted by his graphic descrip

;

tions and illustrative anecdotes, told frequently with an archness and effect peculiarly frappant and felicitous, that, forgetting to take any note of time, his auditors, at the conclusion, seemed actuated only by a feeling of regret that the lecture had so soon been brought to a close. As a conteur, indeed, Mr. Buckingham might almost rival some of his friends in the Desert, of whom he cherishes so many pleasing recollections; nor is it possible to conceive any thing more engaging than the style in which he brings before his audience the scenes, the manners, the characters of the gorgeous East not in frigid description, but in full presentment, as it were, touching our own imaginations by the happy power he possesses, and enabling us almost to see what, in fact, he only after all describes. But never for one moment did he lose sight of his main object, namely, to demonstrate the expediency or rather the necessity of breaking up the Company's monopoly, and opening a free trade with the East. To this almost all his numerous illustrations were skilfully made to converge; and many of the facts and circumstances which he adduced in support of the measure he recommends, were unquestionably calculated to make a deep impression upon the minds of his hearers. Beyond all question, Mr. Buckingham is the most formidable enemy with whom the sovereign monopolists of Leadenhall-Street have yet had to contend. Commercial or political reasonings and speculations, when read in the closet, make but a faint impression; and many will not even read them at all. But when truths of the very highest importance to the interests of the nation, are clothed in so fascinating a garb, and surrounded with so many accessary attractions, their force is immediate and irresistible. They sink deep into the mind, and become at once, as it were, part and parcel of itself; while, in this way, the ignorant are informed, at the same time that the instructed and intelligent have their opinions confirmed, and the desire to reduce them into practice stimulated and awakened. Hence, we anticipate the very greatest benefits to arise from the progress that Mr. Buckingham is now making through the kingdom, teaching and preaching antimonopolist doctrines, in a style and manner so captivating and attractive. By this, in conjunction with other means that have been employed, the mind of the country will be thoroughly awakened; and, in due time, public opinion will acquire a consistency and force sufficient to surmount every obstacle, and to overcome all opposition, founded on old errors, and anti-national interests.

The subject of the first lecture was Egypt, its geography, climate, minerals, vegetables, animals, antiquities, chief towns, population, religion, manners, government, and commerce; on all of which Mr. Buckingham discoursed with the ease, clearness, and fluency of a man thoroughly conversant with his subject in all its details. To persons who have made the ancient and present state of this country a study, indeed, the lecture coumunicated little or nothing that was