ANARCHY IN BENGAL 185
behave in any age or country. Some of them lost all
sense of honour, justice, and integrity; they plundered
as Moghuls or Marathas had done before them, though
in a more systematic and businesslike fashion; the
eager pursuit of wealth and its easy acquisition had
LORD CLIVE.
blunted their consciences and produced general insub-
ordination. As Clive wrote later to the Company, de-
scribing the state of affairs that he found on his return
in 1765, " In a country where money is plenty, where
fear is the principle of government, and where your
arms are ever victorious, it was no wonder that the
lust of riches should readily embrace the proffered
means of gratification/' or that corruption and extor-
tion should prevail among men who were the uncon-
