ABSTRACT
The opening of the trade with India complicated the position at the India House by creating a new East India interest in the Proprietors' Court, namely, the Private Trade interest. The Government knew that the possibility of losing the support of the majority of the East India members in Parliament was remote ; a state of affairs which encouraged Buckinghamshire to take up an even more aggressive attitude towards the India House. However, Buckinghamshire's general attitude to the India House was so hostile that Charles Grant and Reid decided to discontinue their personal interviews with him. In July 1813, the "chairs" and Buckinghamshire privately discussed and agreed on the outline of a proposed draft-despatch to explain the provisions of the new Act to the Governments in India. Buckinghamshire's injudicious and unnecessarily harsh draft was probably devised to provoke the Directors, and it certainly threw them into angry confusion.
