a vast country of Asia, bounded by the kingdom of Assam and Arracan on the east; by several provinces belonging to the Great Mogul on the west; by frightful rocks on the north; and by the sea on the south. It extends on both sides the Ganges, which rises from different sources in Thibet; and, after several windings through Caucasus, penetrates into India, across the mountains on its frontier. This river, after having formed in its course a great number of large, fertile, and well-peopled islands, discharges itself into the sea, by several mouths, of which only two are known and frequented.

Towards the source of this river, was formerly a city called Pallibothra. Its antiquity was so great, that Diodorus Siculus makes no scruple of assuring us that it was built by that Hercules to whom the Greeks ascribed all the great and surprising actions which had been performed in the world. In Pliny's time, its opulence was celebrated through the whole universe; and it was looked upon as the general mart for the people inhabiting both sides of the river that washed its walls.

The history of the revolutions that have happened in Bengal, is intermixed with so many fables, that it does not deserve our attention. All we can discover, is, that the extent of this empire has been sometimes greater, and sometimes less; that it has had fortunate and unfortunate periods; and that it has alternately been formed into one single kingdom, or divided into several independent states. It was under the dominion of one master, when a more powerful tyrant Akbar, grandfather of Aurengzebe, undertook the conquest of it; which was begun in 1590, and completed in 1595. Since this era Bengal has always acknowledged the Mogul for its sovereign. At first, the governor to whom the administration of it was intrusted, held his court at Raja-Mahul, but afterwards removed it to Dacca. Ever since the year 1718, it has been fixed at Muxadavat, a large inland town two leagues distant from Cassimbugar. There are several Nabobs and Rajahs subordinate to this viceroy, who is called subah.

This important post was occupied for a long time by the sons of the Great Mogul; but they too frequently misemployed the forces and treasure at their disposal, to raise disturbances in the empire, that it was thought proper to commit that province to men who had less influence, and were more dependent. True it is, the new governors gave no alarm to the court of Delhi; but they were far from being punctual in remitting the tribute they collected to the royal treasury. These abuses gained further ground after the expedition of Kouli Kan; and matters were carried so far, that the emperor, who was unable to pay the Marattas what he owed them, authorized them, in 1740, to collect it in Bengal themselves. These banditti, to the number of 200,000, divided themselves into three armies, ravaged this fine country for 10 years together, and did not leave it till they had extorted immense sums.

During all these commotions, despotic government, which unhappily prevails all over India, maintained its influence in Bengal; the small district of Biffenpour excepted, which had preserved, and still continues to preserve, its independence. See BISSENPOUR.

Though the rest of Bengal is far from enjoying the same happiness, it is nevertheless the richest and most populous province in the whole empire. Besides its own consumption, which is necessarily considerable, its exports are immense. One part of its merchandise is carried into the inland country. Thibet takes off a quantity of its cottons, besides some iron and cloths of European manufacture. The inhabitants of those mountains fetch them from Patna themselves, and give musk and rhubarb in exchange.

But the trade of Thibet is nothing in comparison of that which Bengal carries on with Agra, Delhi, and the provinces adjacent to those superb capitals, in salt, sugar, opium, silk, silk-ruffs, and an infinite quantity of cottons, and particularly muslins. These articles, taken together, amounted formerly to more than 1,750,000 l. a-year. So considerable a sum was not conveyed to the banks of the Ganges; but it was the means of retaining one nearly equal, which must have issued from thence to pay the duties, or for other purposes. Since the viceroys of the Mogul have made themselves nearly independent, and fend him no revenues but such as they chuse to allow him, the luxury of the court is greatly abated, and the trade we have been speaking of is no longer so considerable.

The maritime trade of Bengal, managed by the natives of the country, has not suffered the same diminution, nor was it ever so extensive, as the other. It may be divided into two branches, of which Catek is in possession of the greater part.

Catek is a district of some extent, a little below the most western mouth of the Ganges. Balasore, situated upon a navigable river, serves it for a port. The navigation to the Maldives, which the English and French have been obliged to abandon on account of the climate, is carried on entirely from this road. Here they load their vessels with rice, coarse cottons, and some silk-stuffs, for these islands; and receive cowries in exchange, which are used for money in Bengal, and are sold to the Europeans.

The inhabitants of Catek, and some other people of the Lower Ganges, maintain a considerable correspondence with the country of Asham. This kingdom, which is thought to have formerly made a part of Bengal, and is only divided from it by a river that falls into the Ganges, deserves to be better known, if what is asserted here be true, that gun-powder has been discovered there, and that it was communicated from Asham to Pegu, and from Pegu to China. Its gold, silver, iron, and lead mines, would have added to its fame, if they had been properly worked. In the midst of these riches, which were of very little service to this kingdom, salt was an article of which the inhabitants were so much in want, that they were reduced to the expedient of procuring it from a decoction of certain plants.

In the beginning of the present century, some Brahmans of Bengal carried their superstitions to Asham, where the people were so happy as to be guided solely by the dictates of natural religion. The priests persuaded them, that it would be more agreeable to Brahma if they substituted the pure and wholesome salt of the sea to that which they used. The sovereign consented to this, on condition that the exclusive trade should be in his hands; that it should only be brought by the people of Bengal; and that the boats laden with it should stop at the frontiers of his dominions. Thus have all these false religions been introduced by the influence and for the advantage of the priests who teach, and of the kings who admit, them. Since this arrangement has taken place, 40 vessels from 500 to 600 tons burden each are annually sent from the Ganges to Asham laden with salt, which yields 200 per cent. profit. They receive in payment a small quantity of gold and silver, ivory, musk, eagle-wood, gum-lac, and a large quantity of silk.

Excepting these two branches of maritime trade, which, for particular reasons, have been confined to the natives of the country, all the rest of the vessels sent from the Ganges to the different sea-ports of India belong to the Europeans, and are built at Pegu.

A still more considerable branch of commerce, which the Europeans at Bengal carry on with the rest of India, is that of opium. Patna, situated on the Upper Ganges, is the most celebrated place in the world for the cultivation of opium. The fields are covered with it. Besides what is carried into the inland parts, there are annually 3000 or 4000 chests exported, each weighing 300 pounds. It sells upon the spot at the rate of between 24 and 25 l. a chest on an average. This opium is not purified like that of Syria and Persia, which we make use of in Europe; it is only a pale that has undergone no preparation, and has not a tenth part of the virtue of purified opium.

The Dutch send rice and sugar from their settlements to the coast of Coromandel, for which they are paid in specie, unless they have the good fortune to meet with some foreign merchandise at a cheap rate. They send out one or two vessels laden with rice, cottons, and silk: the rice is sold in Ceylon, the cottons at Malabar, and the silk at Surat; from whence they bring back cotton, which is usefully employed in the coarser manufactures of Bengal. Two or three ships laden with rice, gum-lac, and cotton stuffs, are sent to Bafora; and return with dried fruits, rose-water, and a quantity of gold. The rich merchandise carried to Arabia is paid for entirely in gold and silver. The trade of the Ganges with the other sea-ports of India brings 1,225,000l. annually into Bengal.

Though this trade passes through the hands of the Europeans, and is carried on under their protection, it is not entirely on their own account. The Moguls, indeed, who are usually satisfied with the places they hold under the government, have seldom any concern in these expeditions; but the Armenians, who, since the revolutions in Persia, are settled upon the banks of the Ganges, to which they formerly only made voyages, readily throw their capitals into this trade. The Indians employ still larger sums in it. The impossibility of enjoying their fortunes under an oppressive government does not deter the natives of this country from labouring incessantly to increase them. As they would run too great a risk by engaging openly in trade, they are obliged to have recourse to clandestine methods.

As soon as an European arrives, the Gentoo brokers, who know mankind better than is commonly supposed, study his character; and, if they find him frugal, active, and well informed, offer to act as his brokers and cashiers, and lend or procure him money upon bottomry, or at interest. This interest, which is usually nine per cent. at least, is higher when he is under a necessity of borrowing of the Cheyks.

These Cheyks are a powerful family of Indians, who Cheyks, have, time immemorial, inhabited the banks of the powerful Ganges. Their riches have long ago procured them the management of the bank belonging to the court, the farming of the public revenue, and the direction of the money, which they coin afresh every year in order to receive annually the benefit arising from the mint. By uniting so many advantages, they are enabled to lend the government 1,750,000l., 2,625,000l., or even 4,375,000l. at a time. When the government finds it impossible to refund the money, they are allowed to indemnify themselves by oppressing the people. That so prodigious a capital should be preserved in the centre of tyranny, and in the midst of revolutions, appears incredible. It is not possible to conceive how such a structure could be raised, much less how it could be supported for so long a time. To explain the mystery, it must be observed, that this family has always maintained a superior influence at the court of Delhi; that the Nabobs and Rajahs in Bengal are dependent upon it; that those who are about the person of the sultan have constantly been its creatures; and that the sultan himself has been maintained or dethroned by the intrigues of this family. To this we may add, that the different branches of it, and the wealth belonging to them, being dispersed, it has never been possible to ruin above one half of the family at a time, which would fill... still have left them more resources than were necessary to enable them to pursue their revenge to the utmost. The Europeans who frequent the Ganges have not been sufficiently alarmed at this despotic form, which ought to have prevented them from submitting to a dependence upon the Cheyks. They have fallen into the snare, by borrowing considerable sums of these avaricious financiers, apparently at nine, but in reality at thirteen, per cent, if we take into the account the difference between the money that is lent them, and that in which they are obliged to make their payments. The engagements entered into by the French and Dutch companies have been kept within some bounds; but those of the English company have been unlimited. In 1755, they were indebted to the Cheyks about 1,225,000l.

Such is the conduct of this considerable set of men, who are sole managers of the European trade at Bengal. The Portuguese, who first frequented this rich country, had the wisdom to establish themselves at Chatigan, a port situated upon the frontier of Arracan, not far from the most eastern branch of the Ganges. The Dutch, who, without incurring the resentment of an enemy at that time so formidable, were desirous of sharing in their good fortune, were engaged in searching for a port which, without obstructing their plan, would expose them the least to hostilities. In 1603, their attention was directed to Balasore; and all the companies, rather through imitation than in consequence of any well concerted schemes, followed their example. Experience taught them the propriety of fixing as near as possible to the markets from whence they had their merchandise; and they failed up that branch of the Ganges which, separating itself from the main river at Mowcha above Calcutta, falls into the sea near Balasore under the name of the river Hugly. The government of the country permitted them to erect warehouses wherever there was plenty of manufactures, and to fortify themselves upon this river.

The first town that is met with in passing up the river is Calcutta, the principal settlement of the English company. See Calcutta.

Six leagues higher is situated Frederic Nagore, founded by the Danes in 1756, in order to supply the place of an ancient settlement where they could not maintain their ground. This new establishment has not yet acquired any importance, and there is all the reason imaginable to believe that it will never become considerable.

Two leagues and an half higher, lies Chandernagore, a settlement belonging to the French.

At the distance of a mile from Chandernagore, is Chinsura, better known by the name of Dauli, being situated near the suburbs of that anciently renowned city. The Dutch have no other possessions there, but merely their fort; the territory round it depending on the government of the country, which hath frequently made it feel its power by its extortions. Another inconvenience attending this settlement is a land-bank that prevents ships from coming up to it: they proceed no further than Tulta, which is 20 miles below Calcutta; and this of course occasions an additional expense to the government.

The Portuguese had formerly made Bandel, which is eighty leagues from the mouth of the Ganges, and a quarter of a league above the Hugly, the principal seat of their commerce. Their flag is still displayed, and there are a few unhappy wretches remaining there, who have forgotten their country after having been forgotten by it. This factory has no other employment than that of supplying the Moors and the Dutch with miltreces.

The exports from Bengal to Europe consist of musk, gum-lac, nicaragua wood, pepper, cowries, and some other articles of less importance brought thither from other places. Those that are the immediate produce of the country are borax, salt-petre, silk-fluffs, muslins, and several different sorts of cottons.

It would be a tedious and useless task to enumerate all the places where ticken, and cottons, fit for table linen or intended to be worn, plain, painted, or printed, are manufactured. It will be sufficient to refer to Daca, which may be looked upon as the general mart of Bengal, where the greatest variety of finest cottons are to be met with, and in the greatest abundance. See Daca.

The sum total of the purchases made in Bengal by the European nations amounted, a few years ago, to no more than 870,000l. One third of this sum was paid in iron, lead, copper, woollens, and Dutch spices: the remainder was discharged in money. Since the English have made themselves masters of this rich country, its exports have been increased, and its imports diminished, because the conquerors have carried away a greater quantity of merchandise, and pay for it out of the revenues they receive from the country. There is reason to believe, that this revolution in the trade of Bengal has not arrived at its crisis, and that sooner or later it will be attended with more important consequences and effects.

The conquest of Bengal by the British, which we are now to relate, is an event scarce less remarkable for its splendour and importance, than for the peculiarity of the circumstances that gave it birth; circumstances which, far from promising to open such a field of glory and power, seemed to threaten them with the most fatal reverse of fortune.

A pernicious custom had for some time prevailed in this part of Asia. The governors of all the European settlements took upon them to grant an asylum to such of the natives of the country as were afraid of oppression or punishment. As they received very considerable sums in return for their protection, they overlooked the danger to which the interests of their principals were exposed by this proceeding. One of the chief officers of Bengal, who was apprised of this resource, took refuge among the English at Calcutta, to avoid the punishment due to his treachery. He was taken under their protection. The subah, justly irritated, put himself at the head of his army, attacked the place, and took it. He put the garrison into a close dungeon, where they were suffocated in the space of 12 hours. Three and twenty of them only remained alive. These wretched people offered large sums to the keeper of their prison, to prevail upon him to get their deplorable situation represented to the prince. Their cries and lamentations were sufficient informations to the people, who were touched with compassion; but no one would venture to address the despotic monarch upon the subject. The expiring English were told that he was asleep; and there was not, perhaps, a single person... person in Bengal who thought that the tyrant's slumber should be interrupted for one moment; even to preserve the lives of 150 unfortunate men.

Admiral Watson, who was just arrived in India with his squadron, and colonel Clive who had so remarkably distinguished himself in the war of the Carnatic, did not delay to avenge the cause of their country. They got together the English who had been dispersed, and were flying from place to place; they went up the Ganges in the month of December 1756, retook Calcutta, made themselves masters of several other places, and gained a complete victory over the subah.

Such a rapid and extensive success becomes in a manner inconceivable, when we consider that it was only with a body of 500 men that the British were to stand against the whole force of Bengal. But if their superiority was partly owing to their better discipline, and to other evident advantages that the Europeans have in battle over the Indian powers; the ambition of eastern chiefs, the avarice of their ministers, and the nature of a government whose only springs are fear and present interest, were of still more effectual service to them: they had experience enough to take advantage of the concurrence of these several circumstances in their first as well as in every succeeding enterprise. The subah was detested by all his own people, as tyrants generally are; the principal officers sold their interest to the English; he was betrayed at the head of his army, the greatest part of which refused to engage; and he himself fell into the hands of his enemies, who caused him to be strangled in prison.

They disdained of the subahship in favour of Jaffier-Ally-Khan, the ring-leader of the conspiracy; who ceded to the company some provinces, with a grant of every privilege, exemption, and favour, to which they could have any pretension. But soon growing weary of the yoke he had brought upon himself, he was secretly looking out for means to get rid of it. His designs were discovered, and he was confined in the centre of his own capital.

Coffin-Ally-Khan, his nephew, was proclaimed in his stead. He had purchased that usurpation with an immense sum of money. But he did not enjoy it long. Impatient of the yoke, as his predecessor had been, he gave some tokens of his disposition, and refused to submit to the laws the company imposed upon him. Upon this the war broke out again. The same Jaffier-Ally-Khan, whom the English kept in confinement, was again proclaimed subah of Bengal. They marched against Coffin-Ally-Khan. His general officers were corrupted; he was betrayed and entirely defeated: too happy, that, whilst he lost his dignity, he still preserved the immense treasures he had amassed.

Notwithstanding this revolution, Coffin-Ally did not drop his hopes of vengeance. Full of resentment, and loaded with treasure, he set out for the nabob of Benares, chief vizier in the Mogul's empire. He and all the neighbouring princes re-united in opposition to the common enemy, who threatened them all equally. But now the contest lay no longer between them and a handful of Europeans just arrived from the coast of Coromandel; they were to engage with the whole strength of Bengal, of which the British were masters. Elated with their successes, they did not wait to be attacked; they set out directly, and made head against formidable a league; marching on with all the confidence which Clive could inspire, a leader whose name seemed to have become the pledge of conquest. However, Clive did not care to hazard anything. Part of the campaign was spent in negotiations; but in time the treasuries which the English had already drawn from Bengal, served to ensure them new conquests. The heads of the Indian army were corrupted; and when the nabob of Benares was furious of coming to action, he was obliged to fly with his men without ever being able to engage.

By this victory, the country of Benares fell into the hands of the British; and it seemed as if nothing could hinder them from annexing this sovereignty to Benares that of Bengal; but, either from moderation or prudence, they were content to levy 8,000,000l. by contribution; and they offered peace to the nabob on conditions which would render him incapable of doing them any hurt; but such as they were, he most readily agreed to them, that he might regain the possession of his own provinces.

In the midst of these calamities, Coffin-Ally still found means to preserve part of his treasuries, and retired to the Cheyks, a people situated in the neighbourhood of Delhi, from whence he made an attempt to procure some allies, and to raise up a body of enemies to oppose the British.

While matters were thus circumstanced in Bengal, the Mogul having been driven out of Delhi by the Patans, by whom his son had been set up in his room, was wandering from one province to another in search of a place of refuge in his own territories, and requesting succour from his own vassals, but without success. Abandoned by his subjects, betrayed by his allies, without support, and without any army, he was assured by the power of the English, and implored their protection: they promised to conduct him to Delhi, and re-establish him on his throne; but they insisted that he should previously cede to them the absolute sovereignty over Bengal. This cession was made by an authentic act, and attended with all the formalities usually practised throughout the Mogul empire.

The English, possessed of this title, which was to give a kind of legitimacy to their usurpation, at least in the eyes of the vulgar, soon forgot the promises they had made. They gave the Mogul to understand, that particular circumstances would not suffer them to be concerned in such an enterprise; that some better opportunity was to be hoped for; and to make up for all his losses, they allotted him a pension of 262,500l. with the revenue of Illahabad, and Sha Ichanabad or Delhi; upon which that unfortunate prince was reduced to subsist himself in one of the principal towns of the province of Benares, where he had taken up his residence. Thus the Mogul empire comes to be shared between two governing powers, one of which is acknowledged in the several districts of India where the English company has any establishments and authority; the other in such provinces as border on Delhi, and in those parts to which the influence of that company does not extend.

The British, thus become sovereigns of Bengal, have Ancient thought it incumbent on them to keep up the shadow appearance of ancient forms, in a country where they have the lead, and, perhaps, the only power that is likely to be secure. and lasting. They govern the kingdom still under the name of a subah, who is of their nomination and in their pay, and seems to give his own orders. It is from him that all public acts seem to proceed and issue, tho' the decrees are in fact the result of the deliberations of the council at Calcutta; so that the people, notwithstanding their change of masters, have for a considerable time been induced to believe that they still submitted but to the same yoke.

If we should wish to know the amount of the public revenues of Bengal, we shall find, that at the period of its conquest it was equal to 3,500,000 l. The outgoings, either for the government or defence of the province, were stated at 1,797,750 l.; 262,500 l. were agreed to be given to the Mogul, and 134,250 l. to the nabob; so that the remainder to the company was 1,312,500 l. Their purchases in the different marts of India should absorb a great part of this sum; but still it has been thought there must after all remain a surplus of several millions to be carried into great Britain.

This new arrangement of matters, without having wrought any sensible change in the exterior form of the English company, has essentially changed their object. They are no longer a trading body; they are a territorial power which farm out their revenues in aid of a commerce that formerly was their sole existence, and which, notwithstanding the extension it has received, is no more than an additional object in the various combinations of their present real grandeur. The arrangements intended to give stability to a situation so prosperous are, perhaps, the most reasonable that can be. Britain has at present in India an establishment to the amount of 9,800 European troops, and 54,000 sipahis well armed and well disciplined. Three thousand of these Europeans and 25,000 sipahis are dispersed along the borders of the Ganges.

The most considerable body of these troops has been stationed in Benares, once the source of Indian science, and still the most famous academy of these rich countries, where European avarice pays no regard to anything. This situation is chosen, because it appeared favourable for stopping the progress of those warlike people who might descend from the mountains of the north; and in case of attack, the maintaining of a war in a foreign territory would be less ruinous than in the countries of which the company is to receive the revenues. On the south, as far as it has been found practicable, they have occupied all the narrow passes by which an enterprising and active adversary might attempt to penetrate into the province. Daca, which is in the centre of it, has under its walls a considerable force always ready to march wherever their presence may be necessary. All the nabobs and rajahs who are dependent on the subah of Bengal are disarmed, surrounded by spies in order to discover their conspiracies, and by troops to render them ineffectual.

The English company till these latter times had always held a conduct superior to that of the other settlements. Their agents, their factors, were well chosen. The most part of them were young men of good families, already instructed in the rudiments of commerce, and who were not afraid, when the service of their country called upon them, to cross those immense seas which Britain considers but as a part of her empire. The company had generally taken their commerce in a great point of view, and had almost always carried it on like an association of true politicians as well as a body of merchants. Upon the whole, their planters, merchants, and soldiers, had retained more honesty, more regularity, and more firmness, than those of the other nations.

Who would ever have imagined that this same company, by a sudden alteration of conduct and change of system, could possibly make the people of Bengal regret the despotism of their ancient masters? That fatal revolution has been but too sudden and too real. A settled plan of tyranny has taken the place of authority occasionally exerted. The exactions are become general and fixed, the oppression continual and absolute. The destructive arts of monopolies are carried to perfection, and new ones have been invented. In a word, the company have tainted and corrupted the public sources of confidence and happiness.

Under the government of the Mogul emperors, the subahs, who had the care of the revenues, were, from the nature of the business, obliged to leave the receipt of them to the Nabobs, Polygars, and Jemindars, who were a sort of under-security to other Indians, and these still to others; so that the produce of the lands passed on, and was partly sunk amidst a multitude of intermediate hands, before it came into the coffers of the subah, who, on his part, delivered but a very small portion of it to the emperor. This administration, faulty in many respects, had in it one favourable circumstance for the people, that the farmers never being changed, the rent of the farms remained always the same; because the least increase, as it disturbed the whole chain of advantage which every one received in his turn, would infallibly have occasioned a revolt: a terrible resource, but the only one left in favour of humanity in countries groaning under the oppressions of despotic rulers.

It is probable that in the midst of these regulations there were many injuries and partial difficulties. But, at least, as the receipt of the public moneys was made upon a fixed and moderate assessment, emulation was not wholly extinguished. The cultivators of the land, being sure of laying up the produce of their harvest after paying with exactness the rate of their farm, assisted the natural goodness of the soil by their labour; the weavers, masters of the price of their works, being at liberty to make choice of the buyer which best suited them, exerted themselves in extending and improving their manufactures. Both the one and the other, having no anxiety with regard to their subsistence, yielded with satisfaction to the most delightful inclinations of nature, or the prevailing propensity of these climates; and beheld in the increase of their family nothing more than the means of augmenting their riches. Such are evidently the reasons why industry, agriculture, and population, have been carried to such a height in the province of Bengal. One would think they might still be carried further under the government of a free people, friends to humanity; but the thirst of money, the most tormenting, the most cruel of all passions, has given rise to a pernicious and destructive government.

The English, become sovereigns of Bengal, not content to receive the revenues on the same footing as adopted by the ancient subahs, have been desirous at once to augment ment the produce of the farms, and to appropriate to themselves the rents. To accomplish both these objects, they are become the farmers to their own subah, that is, to a slave on whom they have just conferred that empty title, the more securely to impose upon the people. The consequence of this new plan has been to pillage the farmers, in order to substitute in their room the company's agents. They have also monopolized the sale of salt, tobacco, and betel, articles of immediate necessity in those countries; but they have done this under the name, and apparently on the account of, the subah. They have gone still further, and have obliged the very same subah to establish in their favour an exclusive privilege for the sale of cotton brought from any other province, in order to raise it to an exorbitant price. They have augmented the duties, and, to conclude all, have obtained an edict, which has been published, to forbid all Europeans, except the English, from trading freely in the interior parts of Bengal.

When we reflect on this cruel prohibition, it seems as if it had been contrived only to deprive of every power of mischief that unfortunate country, whose prosperity, for their own interest, ought to be the only object of the English company. Besides, it is easy to see, that the avarice of the members of the council at Calcutta has dictated that shameful law. Their design was to ensure to themselves the produce of all the manufactures, in order to compel the merchants of other nations, who choose to trade from one part of India to another, to purchase these articles of them at an exorbitant price, or to renounce their undertakings.

But still in the midst of this overbearing conduct, so contrary to the advantage of their constituents, these treacherous agents have attempted to disguise themselves under the mask of zeal. They have pretended, that as they were under the necessity of exporting to England a quantity of merchandise proportioned to the extent of her commerce, the competition of private traders was prejudicial to the purchases of the company.

Under the same pretence, and in order to extend this exclusion to the foreign settlements while they appear to respect their rights, they have of late years ordered more merchandise than Bengal could furnish. At the same time the weavers have been forbidden to work for other nations until the English orders were completed. Thus the workmen, not being any longer at liberty to chuse among the several purchasers, have been forced to deliver the fruits of their labour at any price they could get for them.

If to the picture of public distresses we were to add that of private extortions, we should find the agents of the company, almost everywhere, exacting their tribute with extreme rigour, and raising contributions for them with the utmost cruelty. We should see them carrying a kind of inquisition into every family, and fitting in judgment upon every fortune; robbing indiscriminately the artisan and the labourer, imputing it as a crime that he is not sufficiently rich, and punishing him accordingly. We should view them selling their favour and their credit, as well to oppress the innocent as to screen the guilty. We should find, in consequence of these irregularities, despair seizing every heart, and an universal dejection getting the better of every mind, and uniting to put a stop to the progress and activity of commerce, agriculture, and population.

It will be thought, without doubt, after these details, it was impossible that Bengal should have fresh evils to dread. But, however, as if the elements, in league with mankind, had intended to bring all at once distresses of upon the same people, every calamity that by turns lays the natives, waste the universe, a drought, of which there had never been an instance in those climates, came upon them, and prepared the way for a most dreadful famine in a country of all the most fertile.

In Bengal they have two harvests; one in April, the other in October. The first, called the little harvest, consists of the smaller grain; the second, styled the grand harvest, is largely of rice. The rains which commence regularly in the month of August, and end in the middle of October, are the occasion of these different productions; and it was by a drought which happened in 1769, at the season when the rains are expected, that there was a failure in the great harvest of 1769, and the last harvest of 1770. It is true, that the rice on the higher grounds did not suffer greatly by this disturbance of the seasons; but there was far from a sufficient quantity for the nourishment of all the inhabitants of the country: add to which, the English, who were engaged beforehand to take proper care of their subsistence, as well as of the stipends belonging to them, did not fail to keep locked up in their magazines a part of the grain, though the harvest was insufficient.

They have been accused of having made a very bad use of that necessary foresight, in order to carry on the most odious and the most criminal of all monopolies. It may be true, that such an infamous method of acquiring riches may have tempted some individuals; but that the chief agents of the company, that the council of Calcutta, could have adopted and ordered such a destructive scheme; that, to gain a few millions of rupees, the council should coolly have devoted to destruction several millions of their fellow creatures, and by the most cruel means; this is a circumstance we never can give credit to. We even venture to pronounce it impossible; because such wickedness could never enter at once into the minds and hearts of a set of men, whose business it is to deliberate and act for the good of others.

But still this scourge did not fail to make itself felt throughout the extent of Bengal. Rice, which is commonly sold at £4 per three pounds, was gradually raised till it came so high as to be sold at £2 per pound, and it was even up to about £3; neither indeed was there any to be found, except in such places where the Europeans had taken care to collect it for their own use.

The unhappy Indians were every day perishing by thousands under this want of sustenance, without any means of help and without any resource, not being able to procure themselves the least nourishment. They were to be seen in their villages, along the public ways, in the midst of our European colonies, pale, meagre, fainting, emaciated, consumed by famine; some stretched on the ground in expectation of dying, others scarce able to drag themselves on to seek for any nutriment, and throwing themselves at the feet of the Europeans, intreating them to take them in as their slaves.

To this description, which makes humanity shudder, let us add other objects equally shocking; let imagination enlarge upon them, if possible; let us represent to ourselves infants deserted, some expiring on the breast... of their mothers; every where the dying and the dead mingled together; on all sides the groans of sorrow, and the tears of despair; and we shall then have some faint idea of the horrible spectacle Bengal presented for the space of six weeks.

During this whole time the Ganges was covered with carcases; the fields and highways were choked up with them; infectious vapours filled the air, and diseases multiplied; and one evil succeeding another, it was likely to happen, that the plague might have carried off the remainder of the inhabitants of that unfortunate kingdom. It appears, by calculations pretty generally acknowledged, that the famine carried off a fourth part, that is to say, about 3,000,000.

But it is still more remarkable, and serves to characterize the gentleness, or rather the indolence, as well moral as natural, of the natives, that amidst this terrible distress, such a multitude of human creatures, pressed by the most urgent of all necessities, remained in an absolute inactivity, and made no attempts whatever for their self-preservation. All the Europeans, especially the English, were possessed of magazines, and even these were not touched; private houses were too so; no revolt, no massacre, nor the least violence prevailed. The unhappy Indians, resigned to despair, confined themselves to the request of succour they did not obtain, and peaceably waited the relief of death.

Let us now represent to ourselves any part of Europe afflicted by a similar calamity. What disorder! what fury! what atrocious acts! what crimes would ensue! How should we have seen, among us Europeans, some contending for their food with their dagger in hand, some pursuing, some flying, and without remorse massacring one another! how should we have seen men at last turn their rage on themselves, tearing and devouring their own limbs, and, in the blindness of despair, trampling under foot all authority, as well as every sentiment of nature and reason!

Had it been the fate of the English to have had the like events to dread on the part of the people of Bengal, perhaps the famine would have been less general and less destructive. For setting aside, as perhaps we ought, every charge of monopoly, no one will undertake to defend them against the reproach of negligence and infidelity. And in what crisis have they merited that reproach? in the very instant of time when the life or death of several millions of their fellow-creatures was in their power. One would think, that, in such an alternative, the very love of human-kind, that sentiment innate in all hearts, might have inspired them with resources. Certain it is, that by timely exertions much of the misery that ensued might have been prevented. The baronets had been announced by a drought; and it is not to be doubted, that if, instead of having solely a regard to themselves, and remaining in an entire negligence of every thing else, they had from the first taken every precaution in their power, they might have accomplished the preservation of many lives that were lost.

We must allow that the corruption to which the English have given themselves up from the first beginning of their power, the oppression which has succeeded it, the abuses every day multiplying, the entire loss of all principle; all these circumstances together form a contrast totally inconsistent with their past conduct in India, and the real constitution of their government in Europe. But this sort of problem in morals will be easily solved, upon considering with attention the natural effect of circumstances and events. Being now become absolute rulers in an empire where they were but traders, it was very difficult for the English not to make a bad use of their power. At a distance from home, men are no longer restrained by the fear of being ashamed to see their countrymen. In a warm climate where the body loses its vigour, the mind must lose some of its strength. In a country where nature and custom lead to indulgence, men are apt to be seduced. In countries where they come for the purpose of growing rich, they easily forget to be just.