All these funds proving inadequate to the estimates, the commons brought in a bill to impose stamp duties upon all vellum, parchment, and paper, used in almost every kind of intercourse between man and man; and they crowned the oppression of the year with another grievous tax upon carriages, under the name of a bill for licensing and regulating hackney and stage coaches.
EAST INDIA COMPANY'S CHArTER.
The commons, in a clause of the bill for taxing several joint-stocks, provided, that in case of a default in the payment of that tax, within the time limited by the act, the charter of the company so failing should be deemed void and forfeited.

The East India company actually neglected their payment, and the public imagined the ministry would seize this opportunity of dissolving a monopoly against which so many complaints had been made; but the directors understood their own strength; and, instead of being broken, obtained the promise of a new charter.

This was no sooner known, than the controversy between them and their adversaries was revived with such animosity, that the council thought proper to indulge both parties with a hearing.

As this produced no resolution, the merchants who opposed the company petitioned, that, in the meanwhile, the new charter might be suspended.

Addresses of the same kind were presented by a great number of clothiers, linen-drapers, and other dealers.