No. V. Referred to from p. 336. CASE of certain Persons renting the assigned Lands under the authority of the East-India Company. Extract of a Letter from the President and Council of Fort St. George, 25th May, 1783. "ONE of them, [the renters,] Ram Chunder Raus, was indeed one of those unfortunate rajahs, whose country, by being near to the territories of the nabob, forfeited its title to independence, and became the prey of ambition and cupidity. This man, though not able to resist the company's arms, employed in such a deed at the nabob's instigation, had industry and ability. He acquired, by a series of services, even the confidence of the nabob; who suffered him to rent a part of the country of which he had deprived him of the property. This man had afforded no motive for his rejection by the nabob, but that of being ready to engage with the company; a motive most powerful indeed, but not to be avowed." [This is the person whom the English instruments of the nabob of Arcot have had the audacity to charge with a corrupt transaction with Lord Macartney, and, in support of that charge, to produce a forged letter from his lordship's steward. The charge and letter the reader may see in this appendix, under the proper head. It is asserted, by the unfortunate prince above mentioned, that the company first settled on the coast of Coromandel under the protection of one of his ancestors. If this be true (and it is far from unlikely) the world must judge of the return the descendant has met with. The case of another of the victims, given up by the ministry, though not altogether so striking as the former, is worthy of attention. It is that of the renter of the province of Nellore.] "It is with a wantonness of falsehood, and indifference to detection, asserted to you, in proof of the validity of the Nabob's objections, that this man's failures had already forced us to remove him; though in fact he has continued invariably in office; though our greatest supplies have been received from him; and that, in the disappointment of your remittances [the remittances from Bengal] and of other resources, the specie sent us from Nellore alone has sometimes enabled us to carry on the publick business; and that the present expedition against the French must, without this assistance from the assignment, have been laid aside, or delayed until it might have become too late." [This man is by the ministry given over to the mercy of persons capable of making charges on him," with a wantonness of falsehood, and indifference to detection." What is likely to happen to him and the rest of the victims, may appear by the following] Letter to the Governour General, and Council, March 13th, 1782. "The speedy termination to which the people were taught to look, of the company's interference in the revenues, and the vengeance denounced against those who, contrary to the mandate of the durbar, should be connected with them, as reported by Mr. Sulivan, may, as much as the former exactions and oppressions of the nabob in the revenue, as reported by the commander in chief, have deterred some of the fittest men from offering to be concerned in it. "The timid disposition of the Hindoo natives of this country was not likely to be insensible to the specimen of that vengeance given by his excellency the amur, who upon the mere rumour that a Bramin, of the name of Appagee Row, had given proposals to the company for the rentship of Vellore, had the temerity to send for him, and to put him in confinement. "A man thus seized by the nabob's seapoys within the walls of Madras gave a general alarm, and government found it necessary to promise the protection of the company, in order to calm the apprehensions of the people.' No. VI. Referred to from p. 43, and p. 344. Extract of a Letter from the Council and Select Committee at Fort St. George, to the Governour General and Council, dated 25th May, 1783. IN the prosecution of our duty, we beseech to consider as an act of strict and necessary justice, previous to reiteration of your orders for the surrender of the assignment, how far it would be likely to affect third persons, who do not appear to have committed any breach of their engagements. You command us to compel our aumils to deliver over their respective charges as shall be appointed by the nabob, or to retain their trust under his sole authority, if he shall choose to confirm them. These aumils are really renters, they were appointed in the room of the nabob's aumils, and contrary to his wishes; they have already been rejected by him, and are therefore not likely to be confirmed by him. They applied to this government, in consequence of publick advertisements. in our name, as possessing in this instance the joint authority of the nabob and the company, and have entered into mutual and strict covenants with us, and we with them, relative to the certain districts not actually in the possession of the enemy; by which covenants, as they are bound to the punctual payment of their rents, and due management of the country, so we, and our constituents, and the publick faith, are in like manner bound to maintain them in the enjoyment of their leases, during the continuance of the term; that term was for five years, agreeably to the words of the assignment, which declare that the time of renting shall be for three or five years, as the governour shall settle with the renters.-Their leases cannot be legally torn from them. Nothing but their previous breach of a part could justify our breach of the whole; such a stretch and abuse of power would indeed not only savour of the assumption of sovereignty, but of arbitrary and oppressive despotism. In the present contest, whether the nabob be guilty, or we be guilty, the renters are not guilty. Whichever of the contending parties has broken the condition of the assignment, the renters have not broken the condition of their leases. These men, in conducting the business of the assignment, have acted in opposition to the designs of the nabob, in despite of the menaces denounced against all who should dare to oppose the mandates of the durbar justice. Gratitude and humanity require that provision should be made by you, before you set the nabob's ministers loose on the country, for the protection of the victims devoted to their vengeance. communicates with the nabob his father, in the (IF ANY) BE THE SOUCAR SECURITY; Mr. Benfield, to secure the permanency of his power, and the perfection of his schemes, thought it necessary to render the nabob an absolute stranger to the state of his affairs. He assured his highness, that full justice was not done to the strength of his sentiments, and the keenness of his attacks, in the translations that were made by the company's servants from the original Persian of his letters. He therefore proposed to him, that they should for the future be transmitted in English.-Of the English|ment would in fact be surrendered. HE WILL language or writing his highness, or the ameer, cannot read one word, though the latter can converse in it with sufficient fluency. The Persian language, as the language of the Mahommedan conquerors, and of the court of Delhi, as an appendage or signal of authority, was at all times particularly affected by the nabob:-it is the language of all acts of state, and all publick trans-highness's management, his country declined, his actions, among the mussulman chiefs of Indostan. The nabob thought to have gained no inconsiderable point, in procuring the correspondence from our predecessors to the rajah of Tanjore to be changed from the Marattah language, which that Hindoo prince understands, to the Persian, which he disclaims understanding. To force the rajah to the nabob's language was gratifying the latter withnesses, but as executive officers, reporting to you, a new species of subserviency. He had formerly contended with considerable anxiety, and, it was thought, no inconsiderable cost, for particular forms of address to be used towards him in that language. But all of a sudden, in favour of Mr. Benfield, he quits his former affections, his habits, his knowledge, his curiosity, the encreasing mistrust of age, to throw himself upon the generous candour, the faithful interpretation, the grateful return and eloquent organ of Mr. Benfield !—Mr. Benfield relates and reads what he pleases to his excellency the Ameer-ul-Omrah-his excellency people emigrated, his revenues decreased, and his country was rapidly approaching to a state of political insolvency. Of Syed Assam Cawn, we judge only from the observations this letter already contains. But of the other two persons [Ameer-ulOmrah and Mr. Benfield] we undertake to declare, not as parties in a cause, or even as voluntary wit in the discharge of our duty, and under the impression of the sacred obligation which binds us to truth, as well as to justice, that, from every observation of their principles and dispositions, and every information of their character and conduct, they have prosecuted projects to the injury and danger of the company and individuals; that it would be improper to trust, and dangerous to employ them, in any publick or important situation; that the tranquillity of the Carnatick requires a restraint to the power of the ameer; and that the company, whose service and protection Mr. Benfield has repeatedly and recently forfeited, would be more secure against danger and confusion, if he were removed from their several presidencies. [After the above solemn declaration from so weighty an authority, the principal object of that awful and deliberate warning, instead of "being “removed from the several presidencies," is licensed to return to one of the principal of those presidencies, and the grand theatre of the operations on account of which the presidency recommends his total removal. The reason given is for the accommodation of that very debt which has been the chief instrument of his dangerous practices, and the main cause of all the confusions in the company's government.] No. VII. Referred to from p. 337, and p. 339. Extracts from the Evidence of Mr. Petrie, late Resident of the Company at Tanjore, given to the Select Committee, relative to the Revenues and State of the Country, &c. &c. 9th May, 1782. WILLIAM PETRIE, Esq. attending according to order, was asked, In what station he was in the company's service? he said, He went to India in the year 1765, a writer upon the Madras establishment; he was employed, during the former war with Hyder Ali, in the capacity of paymaster and commissary to part of the army, and was afterwards paymaster and commissary to the army in the first siege of Tanjore, and the subsequent campaigns; then secretary to the secret department from 1772 to 1775; he came to England in 1775, and returned again to Madras the beginning of 1778; he was resident at the durbar of the rajah of Tanjore from that time to the month of May; and from that time to January 1780 was chief of Nagore and Carrecal, the first of which was received from the rajah of Tanjore, and the second was taken from the French.-Being asked, Who sent him to Tanjore? he said, Sir Thomas Rumbold, and the Secret Committee.- -Being then asked, Upon what errand? he said, He went first up with a letter from the company to the rajah of Tanjore; he was directed to give the rajah the strongest assurances that he should be kept in possession of his country, and every privilege to which he had been restored; he was likewise directed to negociate with the rajah of Tanjore for the cession of the seaport and district of Nagore, in lieu of the town and district of Devicotta, which he had promised to Lord Pigot: these were the principal, and, to the best of his recollection at present, the only objects in view, when he was first sent up to Tanjore. In the course of his stay at Tanjore other matters of business occurred between the company and the rajah, which came under his management as resident at that durbar. Being asked, Whether the rajah did deliver up to him the town and the annexed districts of Nagore voluntarily, or whether he was forced to it? he said, When he made the first proposition to the rajah, agreeably to the directions he had received from the secret committee at Madras, in the most free, open, and liberal manner, the rajah told him the seaport of Nagore was entirely at the service of his benefactors the company, and that he was happy in having that opportunity of testifying his gratitude to them; these may be supposed to be words of course, but from every experience which he had of the rajah's mind and conduct, whilst he was at Tanjore, he has reason to believe that his declarations of gratitude to the company were perfectly sincere; he speaks of the town of Nagore at present, and a certain district, not of the districts to the amount of which they afterwards received. The rajah asked him, To what amount he expected a jaghire to the company? And the witness further said, That he acknowledged to the committee that he was not instructed upon that head; that he wrote for orders to Madras, and was directed to ask the rajah for a jaghire to a certain amount; that this gave rise to a long negociation, the rajah representing to him his inability to make such a gift to the company as the secret committee at Madras seemed to expect; while he (the witness) on the other hand, was directed to make as good a bargain as he could for the company. From the view that he then took of the rajah's finances, from the situation of his country, and from the load of debt which pressed hard upon him, he believes he at different times, in his correspondence with the government, represented the necessity of their being moderate in their demands, and it was at last agreed to accept of the town of Nagore, valued at a certain annual revenue, and a jaghire annexed to the town, the whole amounting to 250,000 rupees.-Being asked, Whether it did turn out so valuable? he said, He had not a doubt but it would turn out more, as it was let for more than that to farmers at Madras, if they had managed the districts properly, but they were strangers to the manners and customs of the people; when they came down they oppressed the inhabitants, and threw the whole district into confusion; the inhabitants, many of them, left the country, and deserted the cultivation of their lands, of course the farmers were disappointed of their collections, and they have since failed, and the company have lost a considerable part of what the farmers were to pay for the jaghire. Being asked, Who these farmers were? he said, One of them was the renter of the St. Thomé district, near Madras, and the other, and the most responsible, was a Madras dubash.-Being asked, Whom he was dubash to? he said, to Mr. Cassmajor. Being asked, Whether the lease was made upon higher terms, than the district was rated to him by the rajah? he said, It was.-Being then asked, What reason was assigned why the district was not kept under the former management by amildars, : of Madras take of the King of Tanjore's representations of the state of his affairs, and his inability to pay? he said, He does not recollect that, in their correspondence with him, there was any reasoning upon the subject; and in his correspondence with Sir Thomas Rumbold, upon the amount of the jaghire, he seemed very desirous of adapting the demand of government to the rajah's circumstances; but, whilst he staid at Tanjore, the rajah was not exonerated from any part of his bur the rajah to make up a statement of his accounts, disbursements, debts, and payments to the company, in order to ascertain whether the country was able to pay the encreasing demands upon it? he said, Through him he is certain they never did.-Being then asked, If he ever heard whether they did through any one else? he said, He never did. Being asked, Whether the rajah is not bound to furnish the cultivators of land with seed for their crops, according to the custom of the country? he said, The King of Tanjore, as proprietor of the land, always makes advances of money for seed for the cultivation of the land.-Being then asked, If money beyond his power of furnishing should be extorted from him, might it not prevent, in the first instance, the means of cultivating the country? he said, It certainly does, he knows it for a fact; and he knows that when he left the country there were several districts which were uncultivated from that cause. Being asked, Whether it is not necessary to be at a considerable expence in order to keep up the mounds and water-courses? he said, A very considerable one an or let to persons in the Tanjore country acquainted | with the district? he said, No reasons were assigned he was directed from Madras to advertise them to be let to persons of the country; but before he received any proposal, he received accounts that they were let at Madras in consequence of publick advertisements which had been made there he believes, indeed, there were very few men in those districts responsible enough to have been entrusted with the management of those lands. Being asked, Whether, at the time he was autho-thens.-Being asked, whether they ever desired rized to negociate for Nagore in the place of Devicotta, Devicotta was given up to the rajah? he said, No.-Being asked, Whether the rajah of Tanjore did not frequently desire that the districts of Arné and Hanymantygoodé should be restored to him agreeably to treaty, and the company's orders to Lord Pigot? he said, Many a time; and he transmitted his representations regularly to Madras. -Being then asked, Whether those places were restored to him? he said, Not while he was in India. Being asked, Whether he was not authorized and required by the presidency at Madras to demand a large sum of money over and above the four lacks of pagodas that were to be annually paid by a grant of the rajah, made in the time of Lord Pigot? he said, He was; to the amount, he believes, of four lacks of pagodas, commonly known by the name of deposit-money.-Being asked, Whether the rajah did not frequently plead his inability to pay that money? he said, He did every time he mentioned it, and complained loudly of the demand.-Being asked, Whether he thinks those complaints were well founded? he says, He thinks the rajah of Tanjore was not only not in anually.-Being asked, What would be the consestate of ability to pay the deposit-money, but that the annual payment of four lacks of pagodas was more than his revenues could afford.-Being asked, Whether he was not frequently obliged to borrow money, in order to pay the instalments of the annual payments, and such parts as he paid of the deposit? he said, Yes, he was.-Being asked, Where he borrowed the money? he said, He believes principally from soucars or native bankers, and some at Madras, as he told him.-Being asked, Whether he told him that his credit was very good, and that he borrowed upon moderate interest? he said, That he told him he found great difficulties in raising money, and was obliged to borrow at a most exorbitant interest, even some of it at 48 per cent. and he believes not a great deal under it he desired him (the witness) to speak to one of the soucars or bankers at Tanjore, to accommodate him with a loan of money: that man shewed him an account between him and the rajah, from which it appeared that he charged 48 per cent. besides compound interest.-Being asked, Whether the sums due were large? he said, Yes, they were considerable; though he does not recollect the amount.-Being asked, Whether the banker lent the money? he said, He would not, unless the witness could procure him payment of his old arrears. Being asked, What notice did the government quence if money should fail for that? he said, In the first instance the country would be partially supplied with water, some districts would be overflowed, and others would be parched.-Being asked, Whether there is not a considerable dam called the Anicut, on the keeping up of which the prosperity of the country greatly depends, and which requires a great expence? he said, Yes, there is; the whole of the Tanjore country is admirably well supplied with water, nor can he conceive any method could be fallen upon more happily adapted to the cultivation and prosperity of the country; but, as the Anicut is the source of that prosperity, any injury done to that must essentially affect all the other works in the country; it is a most stupendous piece of masonry; but from the very great floods frequently requiring repairs, which if neglected not only the expence of repairing must be greatly encreased, but a general injury done to the whole country.-Being asked, Whether that dam has been kept in as good preservation since the prevalence of the English government as before? he said, From his own knowledge he cannot tell, but from every thing he has read or heard of the former prosperity and opulence of the kings of Tanjore, he should suppose not.-Being asked, Whether he does not know of several attempts that have been made to prevent the repair, and even to damage the work? He said, The rajah himself frequently complained of that to him, and he has likewise heard it from others at Tanjore.-Being asked, Who it was that attempted those acts of violence? he said, He was told it was the inhabitants of the nabob's country adjoining to the Anicut.-Being asked, Whether they were not set on or instigated by the nabob? he answered, The rajah said so. And being asked, What steps the president and council took to punish the authors, and prevent those violences? he said, To the best of his recollection, the governour told him he would make enquiries into it, but he does not know that any enquiries were made: that Sir Thomas Rumbold, the governour, informed him that he had laid his representations with respect to the Anicut before the nabob, who denied that his people had given any interruption to the repairs of that work. 10th May. Being asked, What he thinks the real, clear receipt of the revenues of Tanjore were worth when he left it? he said, He cannot say what was the net amount, as he does not know the expence of the rajah's collection, but while he was at Tanjore he understood from the rajah himself, and from his ministers, that the gross collection did not exceed nine lacks of pagodas, (360,0007.)—Being asked, Whether he thinks the country could pay the eight lacks of pagodas which had been demanded to be paid in the course of one year? he said, Clearly not.-Being asked, Whether there was not an attempt made to remove the rajah's minister, upon some delay in payment of the deposit? he said, The governour of Madras wrote to that effect, which he represented to the rajah.-Being asked, Who was mentioned to succeed to the minister that then was, in case he should be removed? he said, When Sir Hector Munro came afterwards to Tanjore, the old daubiere was mentioned, and recommended to the rajah as successor to his then dewan.-Being asked, Of what age was the daubiere at that time? he said, Of a very great age, upwards of fourscore.-Being asked, Whether a person called Kanonga Saba Pilla was not likewise named? he said, Yes, he was, he was recommended by Sir Thomas Rumbold; and one recommendation, as well as I can recollect, went through me.-Being asked, What was the reason of his being recommended? he said, He undertook to pay off the rajah's debts, and to give security for the regular payment of the rajah's instalments to the company.-Being asked, Whether he offered to give any security for preserving the country from oppression, and for supporting the dignity of the rajah and his people? he said, He does not know that he did, or that it was asked of him. Being asked, Whether he was a person agreeable to the rajah? he said, He was not.Being asked, Whether he was not a person who had fled out of the country to avoid the resentment of the rajah? he said, He was.- Being asked, Whether he was not charged by the rajah with mal-practices, and breach of trust relative to his effects? he said, He was; but he told the governour that he would account for his conduct, and explain every thing to the satisfaction of the rajah.-Being asked, Whether the rajah did not consider this man as in the interest of his enemies, and particularly of the nabob of Arcot and Mr. Benfield? he said, He does not recollect that he did mention that to him; he remembers to have heard him complain of a transaction between Kenonga Saba Pilla and Mr. Benfield; but he told him he had been guilty of a variety of mal-practices in his administration, that he had oppressed the people, and defrauded him.—Being asked, In what branch of business the rajah had formerly employed him? he said, He was at one time, he believes, renter of the whole country, was supposed to have great influence with the rajah, and was in fact dewan some time.-Being asked, Whether the nomination of that man was not particularly odious to the rajah? he said, He found the rajah's mind so exceedingly averse to that man, that he believes he would almost as soon have submitted to his being deposed, as to submit to the nomination of that man to be hs prime minister. 13th May. MR. PETRIE being asked, Whether he was informed by the rajah, or by others, at Tanjore or Madras, that Mr. Benfield, whilst he managed the revenues at Tanjore, during the usurpation of the nabob, did not treat the inhabitants with great rigour? he said, He did hear from the rajah that Mr. Benfield did treat the inhabitants with rigour during the time he had any thing to do with the administration of the revenues of Tanjore.-Being asked, If he recollects in what particulars? he said, The rajah particularly complained, that grain had been delivered out to the inhabitants, for the purposes of cultivation, at a higher price than the market price of grain in the country; he cannot say the actual difference of price, but it struck him at the time as something very considerable. -Being asked, Whether that money was all recovered from the inhabitants? he said, The rajah of Tanjore told him, that the money was all recovered from the inhabitants.-Being asked, Whether he did not hear that the nabob exacted from the country of Tanjore, whilst he was in possession of it? he said, From the accounts which he received at Tanjore, of the revenues for a number of years past, it appeared, that the nabob collected from the country, while he was in possession, rather more than 16 lacks of pagodas annually; whereas when he was at Tanjore, it did not yield more than 9 lacks.-Being asked, From whence that difference arose ? he said, When Tanjore was conquered for the nabob, he has been told that many thousand of the native inhabitants fled from the country, some into the country of Mysore, and others into the dominions of the Marattas; he understood from the same authority, that while the nabob was in possession of the country, many inhabitants from the Carnatick, allured by the superiour fertility and opulence of Tanjore, |