180 
“ That the conclusion they have drawn regarding the intentions 
of the Company, seems a very just one, and warrantable both 
from common justice, and the former state of the service; for it is 
certainly but reasonable to think, that in common with other gen- 
tlemen in their service, the Honourable Company always meant 
and understood, that their civil servants should possess adequate 
means of subsistence, proportionally to the rank they bear. I 
must also agree with them in another point, that by the course of 
the service it was in general so formerly. 
“ I think also, that the gentlemen have been very moderate in 
confining their request merely to a sufficiency for the real wants 
of life: the situation of the senior civil servants seems to me very 
hard, and so very disproportionate to that of the gentlemen on the 
other establishments, and even in the other lines of their service 
here, that common justice moves me to enter on this subject, and 
to point out some certain fact, which, by tending to convince the 
Honourable the Court of Directors of the truth of this, will at 
least induce their acquiescence to the relief we may now think fit 
to administer to the senior merchants, and I hope to some further 
consideration. 
“ There are only two methods by which a civil servant of the 
Company can possibly be imagined to benefit. I mean by the 
emoluments he receives from the Company, and by commerce: as 
to the latter, the list produced with the address, and our general 
knowledge, so strongly confirm the truth of their observations, 4 that 
to a servant of the Company this is rather a road to rain than to 
fortune/ that it renders any comment needless. And in the estimate 
of the service, I shall confine myself solely to their hopes from the 
benefit of it. 
