It would extend this notice to an un reasonable length if we attempted to trace the successive wars and conquests which mark the annals of the Company. All that it appears requisite to give under this head will be found in the following chronological table of the acquisitions of the British in India and other parts of Asia.
Date. Distriets.
1757 Twenty-four Pergunnahs 1759 Masulipatam, &c.
1760 Burdwan, Midnapore, and Chitta gong 1765 Bengal, Bahar, &c.
Company's Jaghire, near Madras 1766 Northern Circars 1775 Zamindary of Benares 1776 Island of Salsette 1778 Nagore Guntoor Circar 1786 Pulo Penang 1792 Malabar, Dundigul, Salem, Barra mahal, &c.
1799 Coimbatore, Canara, Wynaad, &c.
Tanjore 1800 Districts acquired by the Nizam in 1792 & 1799 from Sultan of Mysore 1802 The Carnatic Gorruckpore, Lower Doab, Bareilly - Districts in Bundelcund .804 Cuttack and Balasore Upper part of Doab, Delhi, &c.
1805 Districts in Gnjerat 1815 Kumaon and part of the Terraie 1817 Saugur and Huttah Darwar, &c.
Ahmedabad Farm 1818 Candeish Ajmeer Poonah,Concan, SouthernMaharatta Country, &c.
1820 Lands in Southern Concan 1822 Districts in Bejapore and Ahmed nuggar 1824 Singapore 1825 Malacca 1826 Assam, Aracan, Tarvi, Tenasserim 1828 Districts on the Nerbudda, Patna. Sumbhulpore, &c.
1832 Cachar 1834 Coorg, Loudhiana, &c 1835 Jyntceah 1839 Aden 1840 Kurnoul 1843 Scinde 1849 Punjaub.
It has always been felt to be highly anomalous than an association of indivi duals, the subjects of a sovereign state, should wage wars, make conquests, and hold possession of territory in foreign countries, independent of the government to which they owe allegiance. At a very early period of the Company's territorial acquisitions, this feeling was acted upon by parliament. By the act 7 Geo. III. c. 57 (1767), it was provided, that the Company should be allc wed to retain possession of the lands it had acquired in India for two years, in consideration of an annual payment to the country of 400,0001. This term was extended by the 9 Geo. HI. c. 24, to February, 1774. The sums paid to the public under these acts amounted to 2,169,3981. The last of these payments, which should have been made in 1773, was not received un til 1775, and could not then have been paid but for the receipt of 1,400,0001., which was lent to the Company by par liament. This loan was afterwards dis charged, and the possession of its terri tory was from year to year continued to the Company until 1781, and was then further continued for a period to termi nate upon three years' notice to be given after 1st March, 1791. Under this act
the Company paid to the public 400,0001.
in satisfaction of all claims then due. In 1793 the same privileges were extended until 1814, the Company engaging to pay to the public the sum of 500,000/. an nually, unless prevented by war expendi ture; but owing to the contests in which it was engaged throughout that period, two payments of 250, 000/. each, made in 1793 and 1794, were ,all that the public received under this agreement.
The act of 1813, by which the charter was renewed for twenty years from 1814, continued the Company in the possession of its territory, without stipulating for any immediate payment to the public. It contained provisions which established the right of parliament to assume posses sion of the Company's territories and of the revenues derived from them.
Throughout the whole of the territo ries held in absolute sovereignty by the East India Company, it exercises the right of ownership in the soil, not by re taining actual possession in its own bands, but by levying assessments.
The executive government of the Com pany's territories is administered at each of the presidencies by a governor and three councillors. The governor of Ben gal is also the governor-general of India, and has a control over the governors of the other presidencies, and if he sees fit to proceed to either of those presidencies, he there assumes the chief authority. The governors and their councils have each in their district the power of making and enforcing laws, subject in some cases to the concurrence of the supreme court of judicature, and in all cases to the ap proval of the court of directors and the board of control. Two concurrent sys tems of judicature exist in India, viz., the Company's courts, and the king's or supreme courts. In the Com pany's courts there is a mixture of European and native judges. The ju risdiction of the king's courts extends over Europeans generally throughout India, and affects the native inhabitants only in and within a certain distance around the several presidencies : it is in these courts alone that trial by jury is es tablished. Every regulation made by the local governments affecting the rights of individuals must be registered by the king's court in order to give it validity.