the parade of sovereignty.  On this double foundation the government was happily settled.  The minds of the natives were quieted.  The Company’s territories and views were circumscribed.  The arm of force was put out of sight.  The imperial name covered everything.  The power of the purse was in the hand of the Company.  The power of the sword was in effect so, as they contracted for the maintenance of the army.  The Company had a revenue of a million and a half.  The Nabob had, indeed, fallen from any real and effective power, yet the dignity of the court was maintained.  The prejudices and interests of the Mahomedans, and particularly of their nobility, who had suffered more by this great revolution even than the old inhabitants of the country, were consulted; for by this plan a revenue of 500,000_l._ was settled on the viceroyalty, which was thus enabled to provide in some measure for those great families.  The Company likewise, by this plan, in order to enjoy their revenues securely, and to avoid envy and murmur, put them into the hands of Mahomed Reza Khan, whom Lord Clive found in the management of affairs, and did not displace; and he was now made deputy-steward to the Company, as he had been before lieutenant-viceroy to the Nabob.  A British Resident at Moorshedabad was established as a control.  The Company exercised their power over the revenue in the first instance through the natives, but the British Resident was in reality the great mover.

If ever this nation stood in a situation of glory throughout Asia, it was in that moment.  But, as I have said, some material errors and mistakes were committed.  After the formation of this plan, Lord Clive unfortunately did not stay long enough in the country to give consistency to the measures of reformation he had undertaken, but rapidly returned to England; and after his departure, the government that continued had not vigor or authority to support the settlement then made, and considerable abuses began to prevail in every quarter.  Another capital period in our history here commences.  Those who succeeded (though I believe one of them was one of the honestest men that ever served the Company, I mean Governor Verelst) had not weight enough to poise the system of the service, and consequently many abuses and grievances again prevailed.  Supervisors were appointed to every district, as a check on the native collectors, and to report every abuse as it should arise.  But they who were appointed to redress grievances were themselves accused of being guilty of them.  However, the disorders were not of that violent kind which preceded Mr. Hastings’s departure, nor such as followed his return:  no mercenary wars, no mercenary revolutions, no extirpation of nations, no violent convulsions in the revenue, no subversion of ancient houses, no general sales of any descriptions of men,—­none of these, but certainly such grievances as made it necessary for the Company to send out another commission in 1769,