| Show dissolution OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY A letter from a london correspondent to the tile boston post has lias the following the last scene in the most splendid commercial drama which the world ever saw Is about to take place at the westminster palace A hill bill has been introduced edento into the house hoube of C commons ammons by mr nin grant duff and af air zin r ayrton finally winding up the abl aff lairs of the great east india c company kompany and transferring its properties a as s well aa as its unexampled powers to the british crown all those who go down to the sea in ships the merchants of every clime and engaged in every department of the worlds trade must witness the ex unction of this corporation with an interest not unconnected with a feeling of regret ree gr e t for the east india company in its something more than a century of existence showed above all to what heights of wealth and absolute authority it was possible for commercial spirit and enterprise to attain no such a history could ever have been imagined by the most enthusiastic merchants of ancient or modern modem it was displayed to the gaze of an astonished world the company became in time a sovereign more potent and magnificent than caesar or alexander it ruled an empire embracing not only many millions of subjects but treasures which are y yet e t so far from being exhausted that india 1 is a still the most precious and valued dependency of the british crown cong cone mercial ene energy y and not conquest lay at the founds foundation of this tola superstructure it was the sturdy british spirit of ot barter and trade which acquired the first footholds on the banks of the ganges and the conquest was to come after to supplement s U lelani and complete the priceless ae acquisition B son A few gentlemen met the other wal yli day aay y in one of the narrow streets of london city who represent the last remains of t the he directors of the east india company to settle the final aunts accounts and make the last preparations for turning over the effects to the G government vern ment they are to receive a hundred per percent c ent honus bonus on their stock and their M meeting t ing was so quiet and unno unnoticed deed a one that but for a paragraph in the papers nobody would have known how really mo mentions an event was occurring in the shades of pancras lane one cannot help thinking what a hubbub would have been created twenty years ago if it had hid been announced that the east india company the tery very pride and glory of british commerce was about to dissolve into thin airl eird but the dissolution as a it is hab has been boen gradual and now the end comes much as a foregone conclusion the acquisition ot of territory the reduction ot of native grandeas grandees gran dees who could trace their lineage back two thousand years to the condition ot of pensioned vassals tho subjection of the be jeweled begues begums the wars carried on against f rightful frightful odds and hordes of halt half savage and Muss ulmen in the remote interior the building of cale caie calcutta u t to what is to daylene of the noblest cit cities les ies to in the world the appointment of gover nors general compared with whose powers those of the grand turk and the shah are democratic the gorgeous luxury in which the tha other othor officials lived the noble docks and vast wa warehouses t they lle ile erected ted the conversion in short ot of 1 indian clr ell fil villages lages lates into oriental londona Lon dons and of indian inlets into harbors crowded with british chips ships mark a career which it would be absurd to compare with the achievements ot of tho the greatest commercial co companies les lea of phoe phoenicia nicia nicla etruria venice or gen a their Thew merchant ships fought and whipped french men of war a man who got an appointment in their bervice service was a predestined millionaire ifon lion lio ilo alre afre they carried to england hundreds of cargoes of silk tea cashmer cashmeres cash meres ess egg diamonds diamond sp yo arly indeed d what would england bo be today to day commercially merci ally tally had the east india company not existed their servants were almost all illustrious men few greater soldiers than Clive cuve appear in english annals few greater governors ot of men than W hastings wellesley dalhousie and mayo aref are t be found in la the history of this country the power and ostentation of the govern or general of india werm were always fin tin immeasurably measurably greater than that of the sovereign who sent him thither now howe however er the company passes away almost witheat a funeral oration two prosaic M P s are its undertakers the whole et ef its authority and property centres bentres in the hands of her Maje secretary of state tor for india and Hind hindostan hindustan for the future will be wholly governed f from rom whitehall the great drama is played placed to the end and on the first day of june 1874 the east past india company will disappear from the sight and ken of men forever never was there a more insignificant ending to so magnificent a romance |
