For I know not how we can form an estimate of its powers, but from its visible effects; and those are everywhere the same, from Cabool to Assam.

The whole history of Asia is nothing more than precedents to prove the invariable exercise of arbitrary power.

To all this I strongly alluded in the minutes I delivered in Council, when the treaty with the new Vizier was on foot in 1775; and I wished to make Cheyt Sing independent, because in India dependence included a thousand evils, many of which I enumerated at that time, and they are entered in the ninth clause of the first section of this charge.

I knew the powers with which an Indian sovereignty is armed, and the dangers to which tributaries are exposed.

I knew, that, from the history of Asia, and from the very nature of mankind, the subjects of a despotic empire are always vigilant for the moment to rebel, and the sovereign is ever jealous of rebellious intentions.