neral) this new scheme _furnished them with
a pretext of making him broker for the China investment, with the profit
of a new commission_,--to what amount does not appear. But here their
constant and vigilant observer, the vendue-master, met them again:--they
seemed to live in no small terror of this gentleman. To satisfy him for
the loss of his fee to which he was entitled upon the public sale, they
gave _him_ also a commission of one per cent on the investment. Thus was
this object loaded with a double commission; and every act of partiality
to one person produced a chargeable compensation to some other for the
injustice that such partiality produced. Nor was this the whole. The
discontent and envy excited by this act went infinitely further than to
those immediately affected, and something or other was to be found out
to satisfy as many as possible.

As soon as it was discovered that the Council entertained a design of
opening a trade on those principles, it immediately engaged the
attention of such as had an interest in speculations of freight.

A memorial seems to have been drawn early, as it is dated on the 29th of
March, though it was not the first publicly presented to the board. This
memorial was presented on the 17th of September, 1781, by Mr. Wheler,
conformably (as he says) to the desire of the Governor-General; and it
contained a long and elaborate dissertation on the trade to China,
tending to prove the advantage of extending the sale of English
manufactures and other goods to the North of that country, beyond the
usual emporium of European nations. This ample and not ill-reasoned
theoretical performance (though not altogether new either in speculation
or attempt) ended by a practical proposition, very short, indeed, of the
ideas opened in the preliminary discourse, but better adapted to the
immediate effect. It was, that the Company should undertake the sale of
its own opium in China, and commit the management of the business to the
memorialist, who offered to furnish them with a strong armed ship for
that purpose. The offer was accepted, and the agreement made with him
for the transport of two thousand chests.

A proposal by another person was made the July following the date of
this project: it appears to have been early in the formal delivery at
the board: this was for the export of one thousand four hundred and
eighty chests. This, too, was accepted, but with new conditions and
restrictions: for in