Sulivan to the contract itself, and to hand
it over to the assignees through all their successions. When the opium
was delivered, the duties and emoluments of the contractor ended; but
(it appears from Mr. Williamson's letter, 18th October, 1781, and it is
not denied by the Council-General) this new scheme _furnished them with
a pretext of making him broker for the China investment, with the profit
of a new commission_,--to what amount does not appear. But here their
constant and vigilant observer, the vendue-master, met them again:--they
seemed to live in no small terror of this gentleman. To satisfy him for
the loss of his fee to which he was entitled upon the public sale, they
gave _him_ also a commission of one per cent on the investment. Thus was
this object loaded with a double commission; and every act of partiality
to one person produced a chargeable compensation to some other for the
injustice that such partiality produced. Nor was this the whole. The
discontent and envy excited by this act went infinitely further than to
those immediately affected, and something or other was to be found out
to satisfy as many as possible.
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