________________
MARCH, 1918]
AUSTRIA'S COMMERCIAL VENTURE IN INDIA
65
whatsoever for so doing, notwithstanding the Lientenant Colonel and Director of the said Asiatick Company, William Bolts, repeatedly claimed it on the 2nd and 18th September following, declaring that he had paid the Duties due to the English Company on that article at Madras and that he was ready to satisfy all legal demands which could be made on the part of the said Government.
It being impossible that proceedings so unjust towards the subjects of a Power in amity, and so contrary to all that might be expected from the reciprocal sentiments of the two Courts can have had the approbation of His Britannick Majesty, the undersigned has orders to state them here as a sequel to the abovementioned Memorial transmitted by him to his Lordship on the 21st June last, and to demand the satisfaction which the honor of Her Imperial and Royal Majesty's Flag, as well as the interests of her commerce and of her Subjects require.
Her Imperial and Royal Majesty having both the one and the other so much at heart, the undersigned finds it his duty to pray that his Excellency will honor him with an answer in order that he may be enabled to give an account to his Court of this official step, which he has, by its express orders, taken in this Memorial and in the former one of the 21st June last.
(signerl) Louis COMTE DE BELGIOIOSO Portman Square, the 13th September 1781.
Letter from Lord Hillsborough to the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the
East India Company, dated St. James's, 24 November 1781.7 On the 22nd instant I transmitted to you copies of two Memorials which had been presented to me by Count Belgioioso, the Imperial Minister here, complaining of ill treatment which some of the Emperor's subjects are stated to have received from the Company's Governors and servants in India.
It is with concern that I now inclose to you copies of another Memorial from the same Minister with additional complaints of the like nature, as also of the two Papers accompanying it, marked No. 1 and 2, and I am to signify to you His Majesty's Pleasure that you do take the same into your Consideration and acquaint me, for His Majesty's information, with every Intelligence you may already have received from India relative to the Facts so repeatedly complained of, together with such information and observations as may enable me to give without delay as satisfactory an answer as possible to Count Belgioioso.
Enclosures. 4. Translation of a Memorial from the Count de Belgioioso to the
Earl of Hillsborough, dated 21 November 1781.8 It is with the most just regret that the undersigned Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from Her Imperial and Royal Apostolick Majesty once more finds it his duty to prefer complaints to His Britannick Majesty's Minister respecting an Act of violence offered by a British India ship at Madras on the 27th January last to the Imperial Snow, . . See ante, pp. 32-34.
1 Miscellaneous Letters Received, vol. 60, No. 201. 8 Minoellaneous Letters Received, vol. 69, No. 205.