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[India Office—Miscellanies, Vol. 50.

J. Bosanquet to W. Fawkner.

I have received and laid before the Court of Directors of the E. I. Company your letter of the 14th inst., stating that an application has been made to the Lords of the Committee of Council for Trade for an extension of the limits of the Southern Whale Fishery to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope between the longitude of 115 and 180 degrees east as far as 10 degrees of north latitude, and desiring the Court will take the same into their consideration and acquaint their Lordships whether the Court will have any objection to such an extension of the Southern Whale Fishery.

The Court trust that their Lordships will feel that it has ever been the wish of the Court to give every extension in their power to the commercial interests of the Kingdom.

The present limits of the Southern Whale Fishery were fixed under an idea that they would be fully sufficient for the purposes intended.

In the present instance the Court beg to observe that no circumstances have been stated to shew why the extension now proposed is necessary or advisable. They therefore flatter themselves that before they shall be expected to make any alterations therein their Lordships will have the goodness to call upon the parties now asking for this extension to point out whether any and what inconveniences have been experienced from the restrictions imposed by the present limits or what advantage they expect by the extension, as the Court imagine it cannot be the wish of their Lordships that these limits should be extended without a satisfactory cause being assigned for the alteration.