Note 1 — THE TRUE CAUSES OF EVIL AND ABUSE IN THE GOVERNMENT OF BENGAL, AND THE MEANS TO REMEDY THEM.

As it is impossible to exactly ascertain the annual amount of this private remittance made through various channels, it will no doubt be alledged, that we have exaggerated this article; and yet we have certain ground to affirm, that it is greatly underrated. Sure I am, if we can suppose that the amount of such remittance made from 1757 to 1770 hath been in any degree equal to that of the two following years, (which is ascertained,) and we have no reason to suppose that there hath been any considerable difference, the sum assigned by us will be greatly under mark. For no sooner did the English Company, in 1770, open her treasury, to receive money for remittance to Britain, than there was poured in at her three capital settlements above 1,400,000 l. for which bills were granted, presented, and accepted by the Company, and nearly two thirds of this sum was borrowed in Bengal. And in 1771 she hath borrowed in Bengal alone, under the promise of remittance, a sum perhaps exceeding the whole loan of the former year; though the bills have been postponed by her agents in Bengal, on account of the Company’s inability to answer them. Such was the remittance of British private fortunes for these two years, through the channel of the English Company alone: and we have good reason to suppose, that there may have been some made through other channels. And these enormous sums, borrowed by the Company, as sovereign, for the expence of Bengal, in these two years, will serve to show the mighty alteration of affairs in that country since 1765.