ractors in their own houses,--a severity which answers no useful
purpose. Such persons are so many hands detached from the improvement
and added to the burden of the country. They are persons of skill drawn
from the future supply of that monopoly in favor of which they are
prosecuted. In case of the death of the debtor, this rigorous demand
falls upon the ruined houses of widows and orphans, and may be easily
converted into a means either of cruel oppression or a mercenary
indulgence, according to the temper of the exactors. Instead of thus
having recourse to imprisonment, the old balance is sometimes deducted
from the current produce. This, in these circumstances, is a grievous
discouragement. People must be discouraged from entering into a
business, when, the commodity being fixed to one invariable standard and
confined to one market, the best success can be attended only with a
limited advantage, whilst a defective produce can never be compensated
by an augmented price. Accordingly, very little of these advances has
been recovered, and after much vexation the pursuit has generally been
abandoned. It is plain that there can be no life and vigor in any
business under a monopoly so constituted; nor can the true productive
resources of the country, in so large an article of its commerce, ever
come to be fully known.

The supply for the Company's demand in England has rarely fallen short
of two thousand tons, nor much exceeded two thousand five hundred. A
discretionary allowance of this commodity has been made to the French,
Dutch, and Danes, who purchase their allotted shares at some small
advance on the Company's price. The supply destined for the London
market is proportioned to the spare tonnage; and to accommodate that
tonnage, the saltpetre is sometimes sent to Madras and sometimes even to
Bombay, and that not unfrequently in vessels expressly employed for the
purpose.

Mr. Law, Chief of Patna, being examined on the effect of that monopoly,
delivered his opinion, that with regard to the Company's _trade_ the
monopoly was advantageous, but as sovereigns of the country they must be
losers by it. These two capacities in the Company are found in perpetual
contradiction. But much doubt may arise whether this monopoly will be
found advantageous to the Company either in the one capacity or the
other. The gross commodity monopolized for sale in London is procured
from the revenues in Bengal; the certain is given for the ha