that they threatened the most horrible things to him if he dared to interfere. The officer then added, "Now, sir, I am to inform you what I have obstructed them in. This place, Backergunge, was formerly of great trade; it is now ruined, and in this manner:—A gentleman sends a gomastah here to buy or sell, he immediately looks upon himself as sufficient to force every inhabitant either to buy his goods, or to force them to sell him theirs. If they refuse, they are flogged and thrown into prison.
BANKS OF THE GANGES.
They compel the people to buy or sell, just at what rate they please. These, and many other oppressions, are daily practised. Before, justice was administered in the public cutcheree; but now every gomastah is become a judge; they even pass sentence on the zemindars themselves, and draw money from them on pretended injuries." Such continued to our own time the system by which all over India the natives, and even men of the highest stations were ground by our traders and collectors, and tortured in pretended courts of justice when they resisted. Sir Henry Strachey says, "The great men formerly were the Mussulman rulers and the Hindoo zemindars. These two classes are now ruined and destroyed. Exaction of revenue is now, I presume, and always was, the most prevailing crime throughout the country; and I know not how it is that extortioners appear to us in any other light than that of the worst species of robbers." But, when speaking of the government of Warren Hastings, we shall have again to touch on this point.
The reader may now see why such a storm of vengeance was raised against Clive, because he had endeavoured to set some bounds to this unexampled system of robbery. Clive, though he had done things disgraceful enough, had also done magnificent things for the nation, and without him these cormorants would not have had an India to ravage. Clive had his virtues and his sense of honour; he had served himself, but he was desirous to serve his country too. The great tribe, now up in arms against him, had done nothing but help themselves at the cost of the reputation of their country, without one pang of remorse or shame for the rapine and insult which they had heaped on the natives of Hindostan. "Worst of all, Clive had dared to declare to the king and lord North, the prime minister, that the directors at home sanctioned all this, and that every reform was useless, unless it commenced with them. For this, they spared no means to blacken his character, and exasperate the country against him.
Sullivan, in moving for an inquiry, announced that the company had received heavy charges against Clive's administration in India. These papers were anonymous, and
