eir _oaths_, if they had made at all.

It is a fourth quality of a merchant to be exact in his accounts. What
will be thought, when you have fully before you the mode of accounting
made use of in the Treasury of Bengal? I hope you will have it soon.
With regard to one of their agencies, when it came to the material part,
the prime cost of the goods on which a commission of fifteen per cent
was allowed, to the astonishment of the factory to whom the commodities
were sent, the Accountant-General reports that he did not think himself
authorized to call for _vouchers_ relative to this and other
particulars,--because the agent was upon his _honor_ with regard to
them. A new principle of account upon honor seems to be regularly
established in their dealings and their treasury, which in reality
amounts to an entire annihilation of the principle of all accounts.

It is a fifth property of a merchant, who does not meditate a
fraudulent bankruptcy, to calculate his probable profits upon the money
he takes up to vest in business. Did the Company, when they bought goods
on bonds bearing eight per cent interest, at ten and even twenty per
cent discount, even ask themselves a question concerning the possibility
of advantage from dealing on these terms?

The last quality of a merchant I shall advert to is the taking care to
be properly prepared, in cash or goods in the ordinary course of sale,
for the bills which are drawn on them. Now I ask, whether they have ever
calculated the clear produce of any given sales, to make them tally with
the four million of bills which are come and coming upon them, so as at
the proper periods to enable the one to liquidate the other. No, they
have not. They are now obliged to borrow money of their own servants to
purchase their investment. The servants stipulate five per cent on the
capital they advance, if their bills should not be paid at the time when
they become due; and the value of the rupee on which they charge this
interest is taken at two shillings and a penny. Has the Company ever
troubled themselves to inquire whether their sales can bear the payment
of that interest, and at that rate of exchange? Have they once
considered the dilemma in which they are placed,--the ruin of their
credit in the East Indies, if they refuse the bills,--the ruin of their
credit and existence in England, if they accept them?

Indeed, no trace of equitable government is found in their politics, not
one trace of