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 Chap. XII.] EUPTUliE WITH MEEU COSSIM. G7o

It is probable that the nabob, though he expressed disappointment at this ad. i762. notification, was not wliolly dissatisfied with it. He saw that the grievances of which he comphiined could not be effectually remedied by the arrangement ^^^'' cowim

decUirua the

concluded with Mr. Vansittart, and he was thei'efore not unwilling that the iniai.dtiudo whole question should once more be thrown open. He was thus at liberty to take the course which seemed to him most expedient. As the servants of the Company, backed by the council at Calcutta, insisted on trading free, he would no longer offer any opposition, but on the contrary would extend the privilege to all classes of the population, by announcing that in future no duties whatever would be levied on the inland trade. He had repeatedly threatened to take this step, but it was so obviously destructive of one of the main sources of the public revenue, that it was taken for granted he would never carry it into effect. Great then was the disappointment and consternation at Calcutta when it was known that the private trade monopoly under which so many fortunes had been made, and so much extortion practised, was cut up by the roots. The council showed on this occasion that there was no amount of extravagance and iniquity which they were not prepared to commit. No fewer than eight of the members, under the false and hypocritical pretext that the interests of their employers would be injuriously affected, recorded it as their opinion that the nabob was bound to exact duties from his own subjects and leave the Com- pany's servants free. Mi-. Vansittart and Mr. Hastings again stood alone in resisting this monstrous decision. After adopting it, they actually sent a deputation to the nabob in the hope of being able to persuade or terrify him into acquiescence. But the quarrel was now irreconcilable, and nothing but the sword could decide it.

While the deputies, Messrs. Amyatt and Hay, were vainh* endeavouring An open

. . . . . . rupture.

to accomplish the object of their extraordinary mission, some boats loaded with arms for the British troops at Patna were stopped by native officers. The deputies demanded their instant release, but the nabob positively refused unless Mr. Ellis was removed from his office as head-factor, or the troops of which in that capacity he had the control were withdrawn. This step was followed by another still more decided. When the deputies proposed to depart, Mr. Hay was told that he must remain as an hostage for the safety of some of the nabob's servants who had been imprisoned at Calcutta. It was vain to dream any longer of amicable accommodation, and both sides began to prepare for open war. The rashness of Mr. Ellis precipitated the event. He had for some time been alarming the presidency witii accounts of the dangers with which he con- ceived himself to be surrounded, and urging them to invest him with discretion- ary powers, in order that he might be able to act on any emergency without waiting for specific instructions from Calcutta. His request wsvs unfortunately granted, and he no sooner learned the reception which the deputies had met with, than regarding it as an open declaration of war, he ordered out the