They were imposed
upon a visionary theory, formed in his own closet, and the result was
exactly what might have been anticipated. Was it not an abominable thing
in Mr. Hastings to withhold from the Council the means of ascertaining
the real operation of his taxes? He had no knowledge of trade himself;
he cannot keep an account; he has no memory. In fact, we find him a man
possessed of no one quality fit for any kind of business whatever. We
find him pursuing his own visionary projects, without knowing anything
of the nature or [of?] the circumstances under which the trade of the
country was carried on. These projects might have looked very plausible:
but when you come to examine the actual state of the trade, it is not
merely a difference between five and two per cent, but it becomes a
different mode of estimating the commodity, and it amounts to five times
as much as was paid before. We bring this as an exemplification of this
cursed mode of arbitrary proceeding, and to show you his total ignorance
of the subject, and his total indifference about the event of the
measure he was pursuing. When he began to perceive his blunders, he
never took any means whatever to put the new regulations which these
blunders had made necessary into execution, but he left all this
mischievous project to rage in its full extent.
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