fly the abuses of the Company's
government,--to show you what Mr. Hastings was expected to do for their
reformation, and what he actually did do; I shall then show your
Lordships the effects of the whole.

I shall begin by reading to your Lordships an extract from the
Directors' letter to Bengal, of the 10th April, 1773.

"We wish we could refute the observation, that almost every attempt
made by us and our administrations at your Presidency for the
reforming of abuses has rather increased them, and added to the
miseries of the country we are so anxious to protect and cherish.
The truth of this observation appears fully in the late appointment
of supervisors and chiefs. Instituted as they were, to give relief
to the industrious tenants, to improve and enlarge our investments,
to destroy monopolies and retrench expenses, the end has by no
means been answerable to the institution. Are not the tenants more
than ever oppressed and wretched? Are our investments improved?
Have not the raw silk and cocoons been raised upon us fifty per
cent in price? We can hardly say what has not been made a monopoly.
And as to the expenses of your Presidency, they are at length
swelled to a degree we are no longer able to support. These facts
(for such they are) should have been stated to us as capital
reasons why neither our orders of 1771, nor indeed any regulations
whatever, could be carried into execution. But, perhaps, as this
would have proved too much, it was not suggested to us; for nothing
could more plainly indicate a state of anarchy, and that there was
no government existing in our servants in Bengal."

"And therefore, when oppression pervades the whole country, when
youths have been suffered with impunity to exercise sovereign
jurisdiction over the natives, and to acquire rapid fortunes by
monopolizing of commerce, it cannot be a wonder to us or
yourselves, that dadney merchants do not come forward to contract
with the Company, that the manufactures find their way through
foreign channels, or that our investments are at once enormously
dear and of a debased quality.

"It is evident that the evils which have been so destructive to us
lie too deep for any partial plans to reach or correct; it is
therefore our resolution to aim at the root of these evils: and we
are happ