E N G 1 
derive vaft emoluments, not only without prejudice to 
their principals, but with great advantage to the com¬ 
pany’s revenue. This was no other than the eftablifh- 
ment of a commercial alfociation, for the purpofe of car¬ 
rying on an inland traffic in the important articles of fait, 
betel-nut, and tobacco. Thefe are articles of general 
confumption in India, and confidered as amongft the ab¬ 
solute neceffaries of life; and they had under the ancient 
government been Subject to the trifling duty of the for¬ 
tieth penny. But in order to obtain the fanftion of the 
company to the commercial fyftem now eftabliihed, a duty 
•of thirty-five per cent, was impofed on fait, which, with 
fifteen per cent, on betel-nut, and twenty-five per cent, 
on tobacco, produced an annual additional revenue of 
i6o,oool. to the company. This, however, was regarded 
by the natives as a trivial grievance, in comparifon of the 
mode i-n which the traffic was condudted : for the Servants 
of the company, adting at once in the two-fold capacity 
of merchants and Sovereigns, “in order (as they expreffed 
themfelves) to affift this infant branch of commerce,” 
the council decreed to the affiociation, i.e. to themfelves 
and their copartners, “the free and exclufive purchafe 
and Sale or, in other words, the complete monopoly, of 
the above articles ; and their governing rule of trade ap¬ 
pears invariably to have been to reduce to the loweft ex¬ 
treme of depreffion the price in the purchafe, and to en¬ 
hance it in the fame extravagant proportion in the Sale. 
When this plan was communicated to the directors, they 
expreffed much difpleafure that Such extortion Should be 
pradtifed under their authority. “We leave (fay they 
to the council) the adjuflment of the duties on thefe. 
commodities, to your judgment and consideration: but 
we think the vaft fortunes acquired by the inland trade, 
have been obtained by a Scene of the mod oppreffive and 
tyrannic conduit ever known in any age or country. 
Were we to allow it, we Should confider ourfelves'as ab¬ 
senting and Subscribing to all the mifchiefs which Bengal 
has preSented to us for four years paft.” They approved, 
therefore, the oppreffion of the natives So far as they 
themfelves were benefited by it, and no further. But 
thefe feeble and inconfiftent remonstrances were little re¬ 
garded. 
Another device or project of legal plunder was, to de¬ 
clare void at once, to the inexpreffible consternation of 
the zemindars and polygars, who constitute the great 
landed interest of the country, all the leafes held by them 
under the government, on very low and beneficial terms, 
by a kind of feudal tenure. The pretext for this was, 
that many of thefe leafes had been collufively obtained ; 
and it was faid, that impartiality required that they Should 
be now relet, without diftindtion, to the higheft bidder. 
By this enormous adt of defpotifm, many individuals of 
very elevated Situations in life were entirely ruined, im- 
menfe fortunes were made by the favoured few, and the 
landed revenue of the company, after all, was acknow¬ 
ledged to be very little improved. Notwithstanding, in¬ 
deed, every expedient that could be put in practice for 
the accumulation of wealth, the aggregate receipts of 
the company’s treafury alarmingly decreafed ; the natives, 
reduced to poverty, and almoft defpair, by perpetual ex¬ 
actions, could *no longer purchafe their favourite articles 
at the extravagant prices demanded by the monopolists. 
Thofe that cultivated the foil, planted in doubt, and 
reaped in uncertainty. A large proportion of land was 
left untilled, and a general Scarcity of provisions, parti¬ 
cularly of rice, the great Staple of Indian Sustenance, un¬ 
avoidably enfued. It was poffible to exist without betel- 
nut and tobacco, but not without their daily food. The 
commercial monopolists feized with avidity the opportu¬ 
nity _of collecting the rice into (tores. As the Gentoos 
would in no extremity violate the precepts of their reli¬ 
gion by eatiflg fleffi, they had no other alternative than to 
part with the regains of their property, or die with hun¬ 
ger. The people being thus reduced to a wretched Sub¬ 
sidence 0V1 unwholefome and unaccuftomed roots, a dread- 
Vol. VIy-Nov^SS. 
.AND. 743 
fill ficknefs and mortality enfued.. In Some districts, the 
living Scarcely Sufficed to bury the dead ; and jleftilence 
and famine in horrid combination defolated the land. 
The waters of the Ganges were infected by the multitude 
of carcaffes caSt into the river; whilst flights of vultures 
and other birds of prey, attracted in aftonifhing numbers 
by the putrefcent effluvia, completed the Shocking pic¬ 
ture. See the article Hindoostan. 
In the courfe of the feflion, a report was prefented to 
the houfe by general Burgoyne, containing heavy charges 
againSt individuals in very exalted Stations, and in which 
the character and conduCt of lord Clive in particular, un¬ 
derwent a moft Severe investigation. The deposition and 
consequent death of fu-rajah Dowla, the direful refuit of a 
conspiracy between the Servants of the company and t’ne 
Subjects of the fubah, was represented as an aCt replete 
with treachery and cruelty. The inextinguishable third of 
lucre was affirmed to be the real and primary caufe of this 
revolution, which proved the Source of infinite mifehief, ' 
and the means corresponded in balenefs and turpitude 
with the end. It appeared in evidence, that Omichund, 
one of the chief of the confpirators at the court of Moor- 
Shedabad, infilled upon five percent, on all the nabob’s 
treasures, and thirty lacks in money, for his nefarious Ser¬ 
vices ; and that this condition was expreSsly inSerted in a 
formal treaty, concluded and Signed by the parties pre¬ 
vious to the attempt: that another treaty was framed 
and Signed by the Several parties, Omichund excepted, n 
order to defraud him of the reward he had ftipulated for 
his villainy : that admiral Walfon, a man of ftridt probity 
and honour, had absolutely refufed to Sign the fictitious 
treaty; but that lord Clive had caufed the admiral’s 
name to be affixed without his knowledge to this instru¬ 
ment: that, on the Subsequent accomplishment of the 
revolution, a conference wms held at Moorfhedabad, in 
prefence of the new fubah Meer Jaffier, and the real 
treaty, Signed by the fubah and the English council, pub¬ 
licly read ; on which occafion lord Clive himfelf declared 
to the committee, that the refentment and indignation 
expreffed in the countenance of Omichund baffled all de¬ 
scription. He faid, “This cannot be the treaty; it was 
a red treaty that I Saw.” On which his lordShip replied, 
“Yes, Omichund, but this is a white treaty.” It was 
affirmed, that lord Clive acquired, in confequence of the 
deposition of fu-rajah Dowla, vaft Sums under various 
pretexts, amounting in English money to no lefs than 
234,000!. exclufive of a jaghire or life-annuity of 30,0001. 
charged on the revenue of the diftridts ceded by Meer 
Jaffier to the company. That lord Clive declared, “he 
had never made the leaft Secret of thefe tranfadtions; 
that his lordShip held prefents So received to be not disho¬ 
nourable; that the fubah, agreeably to the cuftoms of 
the Eaft, had, in a manner Suitable to his rank and dig¬ 
nity, rewarded thofe who had been, happily, instrumental 
to the fuccefs of So hazardous an enterprize; adding, 
that it was well known to every gentleman in Bengal, 
that the honour of his country, and the intereft of the pro¬ 
prietary, were the principles that governed all hisadttions.” 
Colonel Barre, on the debate which arofe on reading 
the report, obferved, “that the fortunes amaffed by the 
company’s Servants, were, no doubt, all honourably ac¬ 
quired. If the property of the natives was taken with¬ 
out their confent, it was military plunder; if otherwise, 
it was compensation for Services: if by a commercial 
monopoly, it was inland trade. The nice and ingenious 
diftinotions made by the noble lord between bribes and 
prefents, exactions and gratuities, reminded him of a 
certain Spanish governor of Gibraltar, who, amongft other 
perquisites of office, had been accuftomed to receive an 
annual donation from the Jews. This people bringing 
him, on one of their anniversaries, only a thoufand Se¬ 
quins, the governor indignantly declared, “that the Jews 
Should not have audience, as they were Sprung from an¬ 
cestors who crucified our Lord Jefus Christ.” The Jews 
went back dii’confolate; but, on further consideration, 
9 D returned 
