Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/88

82 spirit of malevolence amongst those who could derive no benefit from their invectives, beyond the vanity of their temporary importance.

The conduct of the military operations was void of method, subordination, discipline, and skill. All the out-posts were at too great a distance from the fort; only the three or four nearest buildings should have been occupied: all beyond them blown up, or the floors of their upper stories ruined. The walls of all the inclosures within the aim of musket-shot from the fort, should have been demolished, and the rubbish removed. A ditch and palisade should have been carried on, if time admitted no more, at least in the weakest parts, round the fort, especially along the warehouses to the south. Shells should have been thrown wherever the enemy assembled or took post, and resolute sallies should have been made in the night into their open quarters, which in such a multitude must have been many. By these means the defence might have been protracted ten days, during which, if the Nabob could not be appeased, the arrival of the ships of the season would have secured the retreat of the defenders and their families without danger. Although nothing of these operations was executed, the neglect of them was not imputed; but cowardice in general was reproached to those who first left the shore, and with little decency, by those who accompanied, or followed their flight, and all assembled at Fulta, excepting three or four, were in one or other of these predicaments.

The causes to which the resentment of the Nabob was imputed, were more vague, but cast, if possible, more blame. The paper, which was signed by Mr. Watts immediately after he was made prisoner at Cossimbuzar, was urged as a proof that the government of Bengal had been defrauded of vast sums by the abuse which the company's agents had made of the dustucks or passports for trade, which, it is said, had been commonly sold to the Indian merchants residing in the settlement, who were not entitled to that privilege: but, although this fraud was sometimes committed by the indigent and profligate, the greatest part of the English commerce was carried on by men, whose character and fortune placed them beyond the necessity or suspicion of such a meanness: so that this practice could not have been either so frequent or injurious to the revenues of