The trade was suspended; and, though great annual dividends were still paid in London, they were no longer paid out of annual profits.
Just at this conjuncture, while every Indiaman that arrived in the Thames was bringing unwelcome news from the East, all the politics of Sir Josiah were utterly confounded by the Revolution.

He had flattered himself that he had secured the body of which he was the chief against the machinations of interlopers, by uniting it closely with the strongest government that had existed within his memory.

That government had fallen; and whatever had leaned on the ruined fabric began to totter.

The bribes had been thrown away.

The connections which had been the strength and boast of the corporation were now its weakness and its shame.