Ebook wait

It must also be remembered that they
had from the beginning positively directed that the contract should be
put up to public auction; and this not having been done in Mr.
Mackenzie's case, they severely reprimanded the Governor-General and
Council in their letter of the 23rd December, 1778.
The Court of Directors were perfectly right in showing themselves
tenacious of this regulation,--not so much to secure the best
practicable revenue from their monopoly whilst it existed, but for a
much more essential reason, that is, from the corrective which this
method administered to that monopoly itself: it prevented the British
contractor from becoming doubly terrible to the natives, when they
should see that his contract was in effect _a grant_, and therefore
indicated particular favor and private influence with the ruling members
of an absolute government.
On the expiration of Mr. Mackenzie's term, and but a few months after
Mr. Sulivan's arrival, the Governor-General, as if the contract was a
matter of patronage, and not of dealing, pitched upon Mr.


Pages:
169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193