A. D. 1764. 387 



tor fale in London or Weftminfter between the ill of May and 31 ft of 

 Auguft 1764. 



Since the eftabUlhrnent of this truely benevolent and generous fo- 

 ciety in the year 1755, they had expended almoft /^20,ooo in pubUc- 

 fpirited mealures for promoting the improvement and the happinefs of 

 the country. 



The EngUfh Eaft-India company, though originally merely a fociety 

 of merchants, by being obliged to maintain a body of troops for the 

 protedion of their fcttlements, and by their frequent contefts and al- 

 liances with the princes of Hindooftan, had gradually become a war- 

 like, as well as a commercial, commonwealth. Even at this time they 

 had gained fuch an afcendant in the affairs of India, that the court of 

 diredors in Leadenhall ftreet might with great propriety be compared 

 to the fenators of antient Rome fitting in judgment on, and determin- 

 ing the fate of, fuppliant princes : for the fovereigns of India, whofe 

 protedion the company ufed formerly to court, were now, by fome of 

 tliofe ftrange revolutions, which have in all ages decided the fate of 

 that country, funk into the lituation of dependents upon the company, 

 (or, perhaps, to fpeak more corredly, of their fervants in India) at 

 whofe pleafure they polTefled their precarious dignities. In order to 

 give the reader fome idea of the events, that in the courfe of a few 

 years placed the company, as territorial fovereigns, at leaft on a level 

 in refped to power and revenue with the greateft of the Oriental 

 princes, the emperor of China only excepted, it will be neceflary to 

 give a glance to the affairs of India for a few years back. 



The Englifh governor and council of Calcutta, provoked by the cap- 

 ture of their town by Surajah Dowlah nabob of Bengal, and fenfible 

 that, fince they were now at variance with that prince, their fafety 

 could only confift in a fuperiority of power, entered into a negotiation 

 with Mir Jaffier Aly Cawn, one of his favourite chiefs, to whom they 

 offered their affiftance to eftablifh him on the throne of his fovereign. 

 In confequence of their previous agreement Jaffier ftood neuter at the 

 battle of Plaffey, fought in June 1757, and Surajah was completely 

 routed by Colonel (afterwards Lord) Clive : and that battle may be faid 

 to have made the Engliffi Eaft-India company the arbiters of the deftiny 

 of the fovereigns of Bengal, befides giving them a preponderating in- 

 fluence throughout all the ftates of Hindooftan *. Jaflier was accord- 

 ingly made nabob : and in confideration of the aftiftance given him by 

 the Englifli company he paid them a great fum in ready money, and 

 rcligned to them a territory yielding a revenue of /?6oo,ooo a-year, re- 

 ferving to himlelf only the quit-rents amounting to ^^30, 000 a-year j 



* Tlic proper name, in tlic Pcifiaii langiiajjc, of boiindar)- of It. Tlic indigenous name is Bliarata. 

 ll»c country ufiially called India on this fide of tlio [Sec Rcnnel't Memoiri of a Wiip of HinJooflan, 

 Ganges, tliougli that river is hv no means the p. xx.l 



4 3C2 



