Men thus actuated, or rather unactuated, must, in the discharge of their sovereign office, be perfectly torpid and listless; the machine of political government stops in their hands, and stands stock still: their minds being incapable of application, they withdraw themselves as much as possible from attention, and leave the trouble of governing to others, still less qualified than themselves; these inferior agents being chosen, not for their abilities or virtue, but for their fitness to serve the private purpose of the governors, otherwise by chance; but they give themselves no trouble to inspect the conduct of these agents, who in general are unprincipled miscreants; on the contrary, they promiscuously approve and support every action; so that, wherever the power of this government acts, it is only to oppress; and all beside is left to chance. However, the power of governing, or rather of oppressing, is not confined to the persons vested with the charge of government: the numerous servants whom this Company disperses over the face of the country, for the purpose of carrying on her trade, do each of them, in his own district, assume the authority of a despot; and communicates a like authority to all his servants and dependants, who, it must be allowed, are far more unrelenting than their masters; and thus tyranny is extended into every corner; oppression becomes general; and the oppressed are excluded from the very prospect of redress; for, on appeal to the superior, the plaintiff is ever remanded to the very oppressor, who punishes him for having dared to complain. And thus justice and protection are no where to be found; vice goes unpunished, and innocence unsupported; therefore every man becomes a villain in his own defence; and faith, confidence, truth, and honesty are banished the land. In short, it may with strict propriety be said by these wretched people, _Terras astræa reliquit_; and tyranny and anarchy have here set up their throne. And to this inaction or non-exertion of the powers of government we are to impute the ruin of those countries, rather than to the avarice or rapine of the persons deputed by the Company to execute that government. For the power of governing being vested in only a few, the extortion of these few might have been long supported by a rich commercial country, provided they had exerted themselves to restrain and prevent all others from plundering and oppressing. The avarice, profusion and bloody tyranny of even Nero, and Domitian, was felt by only a few of their subjects at Rome; every where else the empire flourished; because these imperial monopolizers of vice would suffer none in power to be wicked but themselves; they narrowly inspected the conduct of their governors and officers, and severely punished their injustice or oppression. But where the government doth not only plunder itself, but suffers every one under it to plunder, that country must in time be completely ruined.