es of Potosi and Mexico. It was found that the work was not
only very lucrative, but not at all difficult. Where Clive forded a deep
water upon an unknown bottom, he left a bridge for his successors, over
which the lame could hobble and the blind might grope their way. There
was not at that time a knot of clerks in a counting-house, there was not
a captain of a band of ragged _topasses_, that looked for anything less
than the deposition of subahs and the sale of kingdoms. Accordingly,
this revolution, which ought to have precluded other revolutions,
unfortunately became fruitful of them; and when Lord Clive returned to
Europe, to enjoy his fame and fortune in his own country, there arose
another description of men, who thought that a revolution might be made
upon his revolution, and as lucrative to them as his was to the first
projectors. Scarcely was Mir Jaffier, Lord Olive's nabob, seated on his
_musnud_, than they immediately, or in a short time, projected another
revolution, a revolution which was to unsettle all the former had
settled, a revolution to make way for new disturbances and new wars, and
which led to that long chain of peculation which ever since has
afflicted and oppressed Bengal.

If ever there was a time when Bengal should have had respite from
internal revolutions, it was this. The governor forced upon the natives
was now upon the throne. All the great lords of the country, both
Gentoos and Mahomedans, were uneasy, discontented, and disobedient, and
some absolutely in arms, and refusing to recognize the prince we had set
up. An imminent invasion of the Mahrattas, an actual invasion headed by
the son of the Mogul, the revenues on account of the late shock very ill
collected even where the country was in some apparent quiet, an hungry
treasury at Calcutta, an empty treasury at Moorshedabad,--everything
demanded tranquillity, and with it order and economy. In this situation
it was resolved to make a new and entirely mercenary revolution, and to
set up to sale the government, secured to its present possessor by every
tie of public faith and every sacred obligation which could bind or
influence mankind. This second revolution forms that period in the
Bengal history which had the most direct influence upon all the
subsequent transactions. It introduces some of the persons who were most
active in the succeeding scenes, and from that time to this has given
its tone and character to the British affairs and gov