112 THE FRENCH IN INDIA UNDER DUPLEIX

ture, concealed the real state of affairs 2 and endeav- oured to bolster up their credit by magnificent but ficti- tious dividends, until after 1746 their embarrassments compelled them to make sudden and startling reduc- tions. The remedy of the French ministers, whenever any- thing seemed to go wrong with their Company, was to appoint special commissioners to supervise the direc- tion, notwithstanding the Company's protests that all their misfortunes were due to overinterference. In England, the East India Company's administration was managed independently by great merchants, with a long traditional experience of Asiatic affairs, with a strong parliamentary connection, with a very extensive busi- ness all over the East, and with a large reserve of capi- tal on hand. In a comparison of the two systems, we have on the French side of the Channel a Company propped up by lottery privileges and tobacco monopolies, subsisting on grants in aid from the treasury. On the English side, we have a rich corporation making annual loans to the government in aid of war expenses, borrowing millions at a very low interest, and using this great financial leverage to obtain from the ministers exclu- sive privileges and the extension of their charter. In England, the superior wealth and naval instincts of the nation were directed with all the energy and active play of free institutions; in France, the natural ability and enterprise of a courageous and quick-witted people were fatally hampered by a despotic bureaucracy, by