ifference,
been sent over to his masters.

The Governor-General and Council declare themselves apprehensive that
Mr. Sulivan might be a loser by his bargain, upon account of troubles
which they supposed existing in the country which was the object of it.
This was the more indulgent, because the contractor was tolerably
secured against all losses. He received a certain price for his
commodity; but he was not obliged to pay any certain price to the
cultivator, who, having no other market than his, must sell it to him at
his own terms. He was to receive half the yearly payment by _advance_,
and he was not obliged to advance to the cultivator more than what he
thought expedient; but if this should not be enough, he might, if he
pleased, draw the _whole_ payment before the total delivery: such were
the terms of the engagement with him. He is a contractor of a new
species, who employs no capital whatsoever of his own, and has the
market of compulsion at his entire command. But all these securities
were not sufficient for the anxious attention of the Supreme Council to
Mr. Sulivan's welfare: Mr. Hastings had before given him the contract
without any proposal on his part; and to make their gift perfect, in a
second instance they proceed a step beyond their former ill precedent,
and they contract with Mr. Sulivan for _four_ years.

Nothing appears to have been considered but the benefit of the
contractor, and for this purpose the solicitude shown in all the
provisions could not be exceeded. One of the first things that struck
Mr. Hastings as a blemish on his gift was the largeness of the penalty
which he had on former occasions settled as the sanction of the
contract: this he now discovered to be so great as to be likely to
frustrate its end by the impossibility of recovering so large a sum. How
a large penalty can prevent the recovery of any, even the smallest part
of it, is not quite apparent. In so vast a concern as that of opium, a
fraud which at first view may not appear of much importance, and which
may be very difficult in the discovery, may easily counterbalance the
reduced penalty in this contract, which was settled in favor of Mr.
Sulivan at about 20,000_l._

Monopolies were (as the House has observed) only tolerated evils, and at
best upon trial; a clause, therefore, was inserted in the contracts to
Mackenzie, annulling the obligation, if the Court of Directors should
resolve to abolish the monopoly; but at the req