Whilst the members of the House of Commons, under that security, were engaged in his Majesty’s and the national business, endeavors were industriously used to calumniate those whom it was found impracticable to corrupt.  The reputation of the members, and the reputation of the House itself, was undermined in every part of the kingdom.

In the speech from the throne relative to India, we are cautioned by the ministers “not to lose sight of the effect any measure may have on the Constitution of our country.”  We are apprehensive that a calumnious report, spread abroad, of an attack upon his Majesty’s prerogative by the late House of Commons, may have made an impression on his royal mind, and have given occasion to this unusual admonition to the present.  This attack is charged to have been made in the late Parliament by a bill which passed the House of Commons, in the late session of that Parliament, for the regulation of the affairs, for the preservation of the commerce, and for the amendment of the government of this nation, in the East Indies.

That his Majesty and his people may have an opportunity of entering into the ground of this injurious charge, we beg leave humbly to acquaint his Majesty, that, far from having made any infringement whatsoever on any part of his royal prerogative, that bill did, for a limited time, give to his Majesty certain powers never before possessed by the crown; and for this his present ministers (who, rather than fall short in the number of their calumnies, employ some that are contradictory) have slandered this House, as aiming at the extension of an unconstitutional influence in his Majesty’s crown.  This pretended attempt to increase the influence of the crown they were weak enough to endeavor to persuade his Majesty’s people was amongst the causes which excited his Majesty’s resentment against his late ministers.

Further, to remove the impressions of this calumny concerning an attempt in the House of Commons against his prerogative, it is proper to inform his Majesty, that the territorial possessions in the East Indies never have been declared by any public judgment, act, or instrument, or any resolution of Parliament whatsoever, to be the subject matter of his Majesty’s prerogative; nor have they ever been understood as belonging to his ordinary administration, or to be annexed or united to his crown; but that they are acquisitions of a new and peculiar description,[65] unknown to the ancient executive constitution of this country.

From time to time, therefore, Parliament provided for their government according to its discretion, and to its opinion of what was required by the public necessities.  We do not know that his Majesty was entitled, by prerogative, to exercise any act of authority whatsoever in the Company’s affairs, or that, in effect, such authority has ever been exercised.  His Majesty’s patronage was not taken away by that bill; because it is notorious that his Majesty