"It should feem, the many lies, difcernible in books of travels, may be owing to accounts collected from improper people. Were cae to give a character of the English from what the vulgar act and believe, it would convey* a ftrange idea of the English underftanding.

"Might not the poem On the Sea-, fons have been rendered more uni, by giving out the defign of nature in the beginning of winter, and afterwards confidering all the varieties of feason as means aiming at one end?

"Criticks must excufe me, if I compare them to certain animals called Af fes; who, by gnawing vines, originally taught the great advantage of pruning

them.

"Every good poet includes a critic; the reverse will not hold.

"It is idle to be much affiduous in the perusal of inferior poetry. Homer, Virgil, and Horace, give the true tafte in compofition; and a perfon's own imagination fhould be able to fupply the reft.

"In the fame manner it is fuperfluous to purfue inferior degrees of fame. One truly fplendid action, or one wellfinished compofition, includes more than all the results from more trivial performances. I mean this for perfons who make fame their only motive.

"Very few fentiments are proper to be put in a perfon's mouth, during the first attack of grief. Every thing dif gufts, but mere fimplicity; the fcriptural writers defcribe their heroes ufing only fome fuch phrase as this: Alas my brother, O Abíalon my fon! my fon! &c, The lamentation of Saul over Jonathan is more diffufive, but at the fame time entirely fimple

"Neceffity may be the mother of lucrative invention; but is the death of poetical.

"If a perfon fufpects his phrafe to be fomewhat too familiar and abject, it were proper he thould accustom himself to compofe in blank verfe: but let him

be much upon his guard against antient Pittol's phraseology.

"Lord Shaftesbury, in the genteel management of fome familiar ideas, feems to have no equal. He discovers an eloignment from vulgar phrafes, much becoming a perfon of quality.

"His sketches fhould be ftudied like thofe of Raphael. His Enquiry is one of the fhorteft and clearest systems of morality.

"How different appears antient and modern dialogue, on account of the fuperficial fubjects upon which we nowgenerally converfe! add to this, the ceremonial of modern times, and the number of titles with which fome kings clog and encumber converfation.

"The celebrated boldness of an eastern metaphor, is, I believe, fometimes allowed it, for the inconfiderable fimilitude it bears to its fubject.

"The ftyle of letters, perhaps, fhould not rife higher than the style of refined converfation.

"Love-verfes, written without real paffion, are often the moft naufeous of all conceits. Those written from the heart will ever bring to mind that delightful feafon of youth, and poetry, and love.

by

by them from the place of purchase to the place of export, and from thence by fea wherever we pleafed, free from fubfidy or duty; but notwithstanding the general words of the phirmaund, if our people, or their agents, engaged in any branch of the inland trade, they were to pay the fame duties that were paid by the natives. This was the ftate of our trade in Bengal, Bahar, and Orixa, before Mhir Jaffeir was, by our means, made Nabob, when our people, by themselves or their agents, not only engaged deeply in the inland trade, but infifted that the company's duftuck should free them from paying any duties even in that trade; and the inland duties paid by the natives being then raifed from four to nine per cent. our people, by this means, foon ingrossed a great part of the inland trade.

That this was the cafe during the whole reign of Mhir Jaffeir, we may gather from the difputes that afterwards happened between us and his fucceffor; and I am perfuaded, that it was the original cause of all the distress brought upon the former; for it so much diminished his usual revenue, that he was unable to pay the chout, or tribute, usually paid to the Morattoes, which of courfe brought them to plunder, and lay wafte the fouthern part of his dominions; and this adding a new diminution to his revenue, rendered him unable to pay his troops, which made them mutinous and disregardless of his commands, the confequence of which was, that several of the rajahs, or lords of particular diftricts, neglected to pay the annual tribute or quit-rent, due to the subah of the province; and fome of them broke out into actual rebellion, or joined the Shah Zadda against him. Thus every diftrefs brought on another, and during the whole year 1760, we did nothing effectually for his affiftance: whereas, as foon as we had got him removed, and a new Subah placed in his room, we began to exert ourfelves with the ufual courage and conduct: before the end of the year 1760 major Yorke was fent, at

the head of a body of our troops, against the Morattoes, and the rebellious rajahs of Burdomaan and Beerboon; and he reduced both these rajahs, and drove the Morattoes to the southward, without the affistance of the new subah; for even Mr. Holwell tells us, that Coffim Aly stayed at Boodgaam, the first frontier town of Beerboon, and the first that was attacked by major Yorke *. About the fame time we fent major Carnack, at the head of the main body of our troops against the Shah Zadda; and the major, in January 1761, defeated the Shah, without the affistance of our new Subah; I fay defeated; for there must have been fome fort of battle, otherwife how could the major have made prifoners of Mr. Law, and all the French troops, that were in the Shah's army? Or how could the major have obliged or induced the Shah, then actually declared Mogul emperor, to furrender himself to our army, and so to put himself absolutely into our power, which power we, it seems, made so weak an ufe of, that we allowed our new Subah to reconcile himself entirely to the Shah, upon conditions to which, upon what appears, we were, and still are, abfolute ftrangers; and if Major Carnack made fuch an answer to his imperial majesty, as Mr. Holwell has told us, we may expect, that he will never be a fincere friend to the English.

In fhort, from the conduct of the war before Mhir Jaffeir's abdication, and the conduct of it presently after that revolution, one would be apt to fuppofe, that our fucceffors to lord Clive had, from his good luck, found out, that the trade of nabob-making was the most profitable trade they could carry on; and that the war, during Mhir Jaffeir's reign, was some way or other mismanag. ed on purpose, to have a pretence for difmiffing him, and placing fome other rich grandee upon his musnud; for, in a few months after his abdication, every enemy was, I may fay folely by our means, driven out, and a perfect tran. quillity restored throughout the three

pro

provinces of Bahar, Bengal and Orixa. But our late accounts from thence are fo dark and intricate, and fo contradictory, that there is no judging of any man's conduct, much lefs forming a probable conjecture as to his motives. In general, however, I believe, it will be allowed, that, Coffim Aly is a man of more fenfe, more cunning, and more courage than Mhir Jaffeir could ever pretend to; and for that very reafon more unfit for our purpose. He from experience knew, what diftrefs his predeceffor and father-in law had been thrown into, by the privilege we pretended to, of carrying on the inland trade of his country without being fubject to any duties, and by the extenfive use we had made of that privilege, therefore, from the moment he was fet upon the musnud, he had probably refolved to put an end to it; but he forefaw, that he could not do this without coming to an open breach with us, for which reafon, he refolved not to attempt it, till he had provided for his defence.

For this purpose, as foon as the peace of his country was by our means eftablished, he removed the feat of his government from Muckfadabad to Mongheer, near 200 miles up the river, that our people might not be perpetually eye-witnelles to his preparations: here, he began to fortify the town with the utmost expedition: he fet numbers of his people to work in making fire-locks instead of match-locks, which they had always before made use of; and in preparing a field artillery, according to the model of one of our beft cannon, which governor Vanfittart had made him a prefent of, contrary to the advice of major Carnarck: he took as many of our feapoys into his fervice as he could meet with, and employed them in teaching his people the European military difcipline for infantry, which experience among us, and his own good fenfe, had fhewn him to be of much more fervice in war than cavalry: he also completed the fortifications of Patna, on the fide of our factory:* and laftly he, on fome pretence or other, had cut off, or imVOL. III.

prifoned, every grandee in his dominions, that had fhewn any warm affection for our people, all which preparations he had carried on without its being taken the least notice of by our governor, who, it feems, continued to court his favour, inftead of providing means for commanding his justice.

As the Subah met with no oppofition, nor fo much as a remonstrance, against his preparing for war in the time of profound peace, and as we had disbanded molt of the feapoys we had in our pay, before the end of 1762, he thought himself in a condition not to fear any thing we could do against him; and therefore he began to carry his defign. against our freedom of trade into execution, by stopping our peoples goods at the barriers, and infifting upon their paying the customary duties. Perhaps, he began fooner than he would otherwise have done, because he had an assurance of being fupported, in cafe of need, by the Mogul emperor: this is not unlike ly, if the fact lately mentioned, and not contradicted, at one of our general courts, be true: It was faid, that one of the commanders of our troops im 1760, had jointly with Mhir Jaffeir's fon, figned a paper, by which they mutually engaged to concert measures for getting the Shah Zadda assassinated, and of which each had an original counterpart. If this be true, the paper came probably into the poffeffion of Coffim Aly, the now Subah, and by fhewing, or delivering it to the Shah Zadda, he not only reconciled himself to that prince, but made him fecretly our fworn enemy. It may be true, and I believe, that our commander had no design to perform fuch a covenant; and figned it only to induce Mhir Jaffeir's fon to co-operate vigorously in driving the Shah Zadda out of the province of Bahar, where he then was with his army. But it will be difficult to make a mullelman believe, that a man would give a promife under his hand in writing, which he was at the fame time refolved not to perform; and therefore if the Shah Zadda be now firmly feated upon

D d

the

the throne, by the name of Shah Allum, I am much afraid, we shall have the whole force of the Mogul empire to contend with.

Be this as it will, it is certain that before the end of 1762, the Subah we had made began to interrupt our trade, of which fuch a number of complaints came to Calcutta, that governor Vanfittart, accompanied by Mr. Haltings, thought it neceffary to go up to Mongheer, to have a conference with the Subah, in order to obtain redress, and to fettle regulations of trade for the future: It does not appear that these two gentlemen fo much as asked any redress for past grievances, or any fatisfaction for paft injuries or loffes, but after converfing with the Subah upon future regulations, they sent a letter, dated December 15, 1762, to the council at Calcutta, containing the heads of the regulations, which they thought the Subah would agree to, and we ought to accept of, in which letter, there is this remarkable paragraph:

In the course of our conferences upon the fubject, the Nabob obferved, that if the English Gomafthas were permitted to trade in all parts and in all commodities, custom-free, as many of them now pretend, they muft of courfe draw all the trade into their own hands, and his custom would be of so little value to him, that it would be much more for his intereft to lay trade entirely open, and collect no customs from any perfon whatever, upon any kind of merchandize: which would draw a number of merchants into his country, and encrease his revenues, by encouraging the cultivation and manufacture of a large quantity of goods for fale; at the fame time that (he added) it would effectually cut off the principal fubject of disputes which had disturbed the good understanding between us, an object he had more than any other at heart. This fcheme we difcouraged all in our power, as it would immediately render the dustuck ufelefs, and prejudice our honourabie mafters bufinefs, by

enhancing the number of purchasers ; and it is an argument why we ought readily to confent to the regulations now propofed, not to rifque hurting the company's interefts for our own private advantage."

But as to the heads of regulations in this letter propofed, the council at Calcutta were fo far from being of their opinion, that they immediately sent an anfwer, unanimously defiring, that they would not agree to any fuch terms, especially as to that of rendering our people, and their agents or brokers, fubject to the country magiftrates, with refpect to every dispute they might have with the country merchants or revenue officers. This answer the governor fays he never received, and upon not hearing any thing to the contrary from them, he agreed to write the following letter to the Subah, as containing the fubftance of the regulations he had agreed to, viz.

"Your gracions perwannah is arrived, and has greatly honoured me. I am informed of all the particulars of your high commands.

It shall be written to the chiefs of our factories, that they are to give a duftuck for the buying and felling of fhip-merchandize; and merchandize that they buy and fell, in every district for traffic in this country, they are to do according to custom of other traders and merchants, and not to give the company's duftuck. They are to take a duftuck from Backshbander, or Shahbundar, paying in upon the coft of the merchandize 9 per cent. including wharfs and other receipts of custom; nor shall they use any manner of force or violence, extortion or unfair dealing.

It is hoped that your excellency's perwannah will be iffued out to the Fowj'dârs and other officers of the government, that the company's duftuck is to go along with the purchase and fale of fhip-merchandize, and they are by no means to top it, or demand the finalleft cuftom; nor fhall they hinder the purchase and fale of country-com

modities i