The Gentlemen entrusted with the Direction of Affairs, saw plainly the Tendency of the Suba's Proceedings. Indeed they were so evident, as to fill all the Inhabitants of _Calcutta_ with Alarms, that were but too well founded. Experience had already taught them, how far the Caprice of the Suba might go; and it was no way improbable, that if they were so unhappy as to fall again under his Power, they might, if possible, meet with still worse Treatment, which induced them to make the best Provision they could for their Defence; and to put the Troops into such Condition, as that, whenever Necessity required, they might be able to repel Force by Force. At the same time, however, it was resolved, not to precipitate any thing, to act with the utmost Caution, and to lay hold of any favourable Opportunity that might offer, towards furnishing Means to extricate them from these Perplexities. _Calcutta_ was not the only Place where Doubts and Apprehensions reigned. They were to the full as strong in _Muxadavad_, with this additional and distinguishing Circumstance, that Discord spread itself through the Suba's Court, where the only Oracle that every Man consulted was his own Interest. Reverses of Fortune were equally sudden and frequent. The Courtiers that were in the highest Favour To-day, were To-morrow in the very Depth of Disgrace. No Man was secure, and therefore no Man was contented; and which is, and will be always the Case in corrupt Courts, the worst Men had the best Chance. Those who had nothing to lose, had all Things to expect; and by flattering their Prince's Humour, and complying blindly with all his Commands, the meanest and basest People about him grew quickly the most considerable. Those who had been in the Old Suba's Councils and Confidence, who were Men of Rank and Family, and who had both Estates and Reputations to risque, were, from those very Circumstances, Malecontents. They saw that this System could not last long; that a general Confusion must ensue; and that a Man, governed entirely by his Passions, could never carry on public Affairs with any Degree of Success. But these Reflections, which their own good Sense and long Experience suggested to them, served only to disturb and to distract, without affording them the least Glance of extricating either him or themselves from that impending Ruin, which his rash and raw Measures rendered inevitable. They perceived plainly enough each other's Sentiments, from that Tincture which they naturally gave to every One's Language and Behaviour; but they had no Confidence at all amongst themselves, and every Man was afraid of hastening his own particular Fall, by disclosing or lamenting the Approach of that common Destruction, which, however visible to their Understandings, was by no means a fit Subject for their Conversation.