[182] It is plainly implied in the terms of this address that the Commons thought the King constitutionally competent to grant an exclusive privilege of trading to the East Indies.
The King replied that the subject was most important, that he would consider it maturely, and that he would, at a future time, give the House a more precise answer.

[183] In Parliament nothing more was said on the subject during that session; but out of Parliament the war was fiercer than ever; and the belligerents were by no means scrupulous about the means which they employed.

The chief weapons of the New Company were libels; the chief weapons of the Old Company were bribes.
In the same week in which the bill for the regulation of the Indian trade was suffered to drop, another bill which had produced great excitement and had called forth an almost unprecedented display of parliamentary ability, underwent the same fate.
During the eight years which preceded the Revolution, the Whigs had complained bitterly, and not more bitterly than justly, of the hard measure dealt out to persons accused of political offences.

Was it not monstrous, they asked, that a culprit should be denied a sight of his indictment?
Often an unhappy prisoner had not known of what he was accused till he had held up his hand at the bar.

The crime imputed to him might be plotting to shoot the King; it might be plotting to poison the King.