The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

the appointment "was most likely to be fulfilled by a liberal consideration of it," and
therefore allowed the said Auriol a commission of fifteen per cent on the whole of his
disbursements, thereby rendering it the direct interest of the said Auriol to make his
disbursements as great as possible; that the chance of capture by the enemy, or danger of
the sea, was to be at the risk of the India Company, and not of the said Auriol; that the said
Warren Hastings declared personally to the said Auriol, "that this post was intended as a
reward for his long and faithful services." That the President and Council of Bombay did
remonstrate against what they called the enormous amount of the charges of the rice with
which they wore supplied, which they state to be nine rupees a bag at Calcutta, when they
themselves could have contracted for its delivery at Bombay, free of all risk and charges, at
five rupees and three sixteenths per bag; and that even at Madras, where the distress and
demand was greatest, the supplies of grain by private traders, charged to the Company,
were nineteen per cent cheaper than that supplied by the said Auriol, exclusive of the risk of
the sea and of capture by the enemy. That it is stated by the Court of Directors, that the
agent's commission on a supply of a single year (the said commission being not only
charged on the prime cost of the rice, but also on the freight and all other charges) would
amount to pounds sterling 26,873, and by the said Auriol himself is admitted to amount to
18,292l. That William Larkins, the Accountant-General at Port William, having been
ordered to examine the accounts of the said agent, did report to the Governor-General and
Council, that he found them to be correct in the additions and calculations; and that then
the said Larkins adds the following declaration: "The agent being upon honor with respect
to the sums charged in his accounts for the cost of the articles supplied, I did not think
myself authorized to require any voucher of the sums charged for the demurrage of sloops,
either as to the time of detention or the rate of the charge, or of those for the articles lost in

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