this very scuffle, arising from defending his property, to be blown off from the mouth of a cannon.  In short, I am not able to tell your Lordships of all the nefarious transactions of this man, whom the intrigues of Mr. Holwell and Mr. Hastings had set upon the throne of Bengal.  But there is a circumstance 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, and were likely to see their trade crippled by Cossim Ali Khan, fell into a most violent fury at this treaty; and as the treaty was made without the concurrence of the rest of the Council, the Company’s servants grew