tance
in this business that comes across here, and will tend to show another
grievance that vexed that country, which vexed it long, and is one of
the causes of its chief disasters, and which, I fear, is not so
perfectly extirpated but that some part of its roots may remain in the
ground at this moment.

Commerce, which enriches every other country in the world, was bringing
Bengal to total ruin. The Company, in former times, when it had no
sovereignty or power in the country, had large privileges under their
_dustuck_, or permit: their goods passed, without paying duties, through
the country. The servants of the Company made use of this dustuck for
their own private trade, which, while it was used with moderation, the
native government winked at in some degree; but when it got wholly into
private hands, it was more like robbery than trade. These traders
appeared everywhere; they sold at their own prices, and forced the
people to sell to them at their own prices also. It appeared more like
an army going to pillage the people, under pretence of commerce, than
anything else. In vain the people claimed the protection of their own
country courts. This English army of traders in their march ravaged
worse than a Tartarian conqueror. The trade they carried on, and which
more resembled robbery than commerce, anticipated the resources of the
tyrant, and threatened to leave him no materials for imposition or
confiscation. Thus this miserable country was torn to pieces by the
horrible rapaciousness of a double tyranny. This appeared to be so
strong a case, that a deputation was sent to him at his new capital,
Monghir, to form a treaty for the purpose of giving some relief against
this cruel, cursed, and oppressive trade, which was worse even than the
tyranny of the sovereign. This trade Mr. Vansittart, the President about
this time, that is, in 1763, who succeeded to Mr. Holwell, and was in
close union of interests with the tyrant Cossim Ali Khan, by a treaty
known by the name of the treaty of Monghir, agreed very much to suppress
and to confine within something like reasonable bounds. There never was
a doubt on the face of that treaty, that it was a just, proper, fair
transaction. But as nobody in Bengal did then believe that rapine was
ever forborne but in favor of bribery, the persons who lost every
advantage by the treaty of Monghir, when they thought they saw corrupt
negotiation carrying away the prizes of unlawful commerce,