Page:History of India Vol 8.djvu/225

ANARCHY IN BENGAL 185 behave in any age or country. Some of them lost all sense of honour, justice, and integrity; they plundered as Moghuls or Marathas had done before them, though in a more systematic and businesslike fashion; the eager pursuit of wealth and its easy acquisition had LORD CLIVE. blunted their consciences and produced general insub- ordination. As Clive wrote later to the Company, de- scribing the state of affairs that he found on his return in 1765, " In a country where money is plenty, where fear is the principle of government, and where your arms are ever victorious, it was no wonder that the lust of riches should readily embrace the proffered means of gratification/' or that corruption and extor- tion should prevail among men who were the uncon-