LAWS. 1821. 1 and 2 Geo. 4, c. 61, § 9. $10. $11. sons, who shall pay over to the said Company, or to any other person or persons, by their order or for their use, any sum or sums of money under the provisions of this act, shall, from and after such payment, be absolutely acquitted and discharged from all claims and demands whatsoever of all and every other person and persons to the same monies which shall be so paid over. Application of Prize-Monies in Hands of the East-India Company. (10) And be it further enacted, that all unclaimed shares of booty, prize-money, head-money, bounty-money, and salvage-money, and of money arisen from or distributable in respect of any capture or other warlike service whatsoever, belonging to officers and soldiers in the service of the said Company, and to commanders, officers, sailors, and other persons serving on board such ships as aforesaid, in the service of the said United Company, and which now remain in the hands of the said United Company, or in any of their treasuries abroad, shall forthwith be carried over by order of the Court of Directors of the said Company, to the credit of the said respective funds, called "Lord Clive's Fund," and "Poplar Hospital;" to be applied to and for the purposes and objects of the said funds respectively, in like manner as the nfonies herein-before directed to be paid to them are to be applied; and in case at any time the person or persons originally entitled to the same, or their representatives, shall establish their claims thereto to the satisfaction of the said Court of Directors, or of the Governor and Council of the settlement where the same money shall now remain, then the said Court of Directors shall cause the said money to be refunded accordingly, and the same shall be brought back from the fund to which it shall have been carried, as herein-before is mentioned. Expenses of carrying this Act into Execution to be defrayed out of the Monies recovered. Persons employ pany not to act as (11) And be further enacted, that all expenses incurred or to be incurred in executing this act, and ed by the Comthe sums paid in remunerating the officers or persons agents. Penalty employed on behalf of the said United Company, £500. for their care, pains, and trouble in performing the regulations and directions thereof, shall, so far as the same relate to those officers or persons, be subject to the discretion of the Court of Directors for managing the affairs of the said Company, and shall be paid out of the principal monies to be recovered and discovered as aforesaid, on account of such shares respectively: provided nevertheless, that no person employed by the said United Company in executing the regulations of this act, shall act as an agent for prizes, or be concerned directly or indirectly in the business thereof, under the penalty of five hundred pounds. Not Not to prevent Persons trying Rights to Prize-Money. (12) Provided always, and be it further enacted, that nothing in this act contained shall extend or be construed to extend to prevent any person or persons from resorting to any remedy at law or in equity, against the said Company, for the recovery of the principal, without interest, of any money to which he, she, or they may be entitled, and which shall have been paid to the said United Company, or which shall have been carried over by the said Company to the credit of either of the funds herein-before mentioned, under the directions of this act; provided such person or persons shall have preferred his or their claim thereto to the said Court of Directors, if such money shall have been paid over to the said Company in England, or shall have been carried over from their funds at home, or to the Governor in Council of the presidency where the same shall have been paid or carried over, if paid over to the said Company, or carried over from their funds in India, within six years after the same shall have been so paid or carried over; any thing herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding. LAWS. 1821. 1 and 2 Geo. 4, c. 61, § 12. ROYAL NAVY. THE subject of this head should properly have been inserted under that of "Naval Force in India," but the bill upon which it is founded was not printed until the 26th April. The object of the act is to provide that the charges and expenses of any naval force sent out by his Majesty to the East-Indies on the representation of the Court of Directors, with the approbation of the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, for the purpose of being employed in hostilities against any of the native powers in the East-Indies, shall be borne by the Company as part of their political charges. It is understood that the charge to the Company shall cease so soon as there shall have been sufficient time for the recall and return of the ships, after due notice that their services are no longer required; such notice to be given by the Court of Directors to the Lords of the Admiralty. LAWS. 1826. 7 Geo. 4, c. § 1. LAWS. (1) Whereas by an act passed in the fifty-third year Preamble. of the reign of his late Majesty King George III, provision is made for defraying all the charges and expenses of raising and maintaining the forces, as well European as native, military, artillery, and marine, on the establishments in the East-Indies and parts within the limits aforesaid, and of maintaining the forts and garrisons there, and providing warlike and naval stores; (2) And whereas it is expedient that similar provision should be made for payment by the said Company of the expenses of any naval force which now is, or at any time hereafter may be sent to the EastIndies or parts aforesaid, for the purpose of being employed in hostilities with of the native powers; any (3) Be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this Charges and expenses of naval force sent out on representation of present East-India Company, to be defrayed by the Company. LAWS. 1826. C. §. 1. Directors of present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that all the charges and expenses of sending out and employing, in the East-Indies and parts afore- 7 Geo. 4, said, the naval force which hath been lately sent out by his Majesty, upon the representation of the Court of Directors of the said United Company, with the approbation of the Commissioners for the Affairs of India, and also all the charges and expenses of any naval force which may hereafter be sent out by his Majesty, his heirs or successors, upon the representation of the Court of Directors of the said United Company, and with the approbation of the said Commissioners, for the purpose of being employed in hostilities against any of the native powers in the East-Indies or parts aforesaid, shall be borne by the said United Company as part of their political charges, and the amount thereof shall from time to time, as the same shall be ascertained, be paid into the receipt of the Exchequer, in such manner as the Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland shall direct. ST. HELENA. THE Island of St. Helena is situated in the sixteenth degree of south latitude, and the sixth degree of west longitude from Greenwich. The nearest continent is Africa, from whence it is distant four hundred leagues. Its extreme length is ten miles and a-half, its breadth six and three-quarters, its circumference about twenty-eight miles, and its surface encloses 30,000 acres.* The island appears to have been first discovered by John De Nova, the commodore of some Portuguese ships returning from India on the 21st May 1502, the anniversary of Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, from which circumstance the island takes its name. The English first touched there in 1588. The Dutch, who had succeeded the Portuguese in the possession of the island about the middle of the seventeeth century, abandoned it for the Cape of Good Hope. In June 1658, some homewardbound ships of the London East-India Company touched at St. Helena, when it was taken possession of in the name of the English, and was confirmed by the charter of his Majesty Charles II. to the Company, 3d April 1661. In 1671-2, the Dutch surprised and took the island it was recovered in 1673, when his Majesty was pleased to regrant it to the Company by another charter, bearing date the 16th December in that year, constituting them lords pro prietors of St. Helena, reserving to the crown the due faith and allegiance of the Company and inhabitants. The Company's legislative powers extended to taking away life and limb: but they were not to be exercised contrary to the spirit of the laws of England. The Company were also empowered to appoint |