g great and deserved
discredit on the British government. The English are a people who
appear in India as a conquering nation; all dealing with them is
therefore, more or less, a dealing with power. It is such when they
trade on a private account; and it is much more so in any authorized
monopoly, where the hand of government, which ought never to appear but
to protect, is felt as the instrument in every act of oppression. Abuses
must exist in a trade and a revenue so constituted, and there is no
effectual cure for them but to entirely cut off their cause.

Things continued in this train, until the great revolution in the
Company's government was wrought by the Regulating Act of the thirteenth
of the king. In 1775 the new Council-General appointed by the act took
this troublesome business again into consideration. General Clavering,
Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis expressed such strong doubts of the
propriety of this and of all other monopolies, that the Directors, in
their letter of the year following, left the Council at liberty to throw
the trade open, under a duty, if they should find it practicable. But
General Clavering, who most severely censured monopoly in general,
thought that this monopoly ought to be retained,--but for a reason which
shows his opinion of the wretched state of the country: for he supposed
it impossible, with the power and influence which must attend British
subjects in all their transactions, that monopoly could be avoided; and
he preferred an avowed monopoly, which brought benefit to government, to
a virtual engrossing, attended with profit only to individuals. But in
this opinion he did not seem to be joined by Mr. Francis, who thought
the suppression of this and of all monopolies to be practicable, and
strongly recommended their abolition in a plan sent to the Court of
Directors the year following.[6]

The Council, however, submitting to the opinion of this necessity,
endeavored to render that dubious engagement as beneficial as possible
to the Company. They began by putting up the contract to the highest
bidder. The proposals were to be sealed. When the seals came to be
opened, a very extraordinary scene appeared. Every step in this business
develops more and more the effect of this junction of public monopoly
and private influence. Four English and eight natives were candidates
for the contract; three of the English far overbid the eight natives.
They who consider that the natives, from