1772.

Book V. harmony can subsist in society where he has the opportunity of interfering. We therefore most readily concur with you, that Nundcomar is a person improper to be trusted with his liberty in our settlements; and capable of doing mischief, if he is permitted to go out of the province, either to the northward, or to the Deccan. We shall therefore depend upon your keeping such a watch over all his actions, as may be means of preventing his disturbing the quiet of the public, or injuring individuals for the future."*

Office of Mahomed Reza

In a letter of Mr. Hastings, dated 1st September, 1772, he gave the Directors a history of the operations already performed, and of the views from which they had sprung. "As your commands were peremptory, and addressed to myself alone, I carefully concealed them from every person, except Mr. Middleton, whose assistance was necessary for their execution, until I was informed by him that Mahmud Rizza Cawn was actually in arrest, and on his way to Calcutta." Beside these alleged commands of the Directors," I will confess," he says, “that there were other cogent reasons for this reserve;" and giving these reasons, he describes the importance of the office which was filled by Mahomed Reza Khan, and the susceptibility of corruption which marked the situation of his fellowservants in India. "I was yet but a stranger to the character and disposition of the Members of your administration. I knew that Mahmud Rizza Cawn had enjoyed the sovereignty of this province for seven years past, had possessed an annual stipend of nine lacs of rupees, the uncontrouled disposal of thirty-two lacs entrusted to him for the use of the Nabob, the absolute command of every branch of the Nizamut, and the chief authority in the Dewannee. To speak more plainly; he was, in every thing but the name, the Nazim of the province, and in real authority more than the Nazim.-I could not suppose him so inattentive to his own security; nor so ill-versed in the maxims of Eastern policy, as to have neglected the due means of establishing an interest with such of the Company's agents as, by actual authority, or by representation to the Honourable Company, might be able to promote or obstruct his views."†

The office of Mahomed Reza Khan consisted of two parts; the one was the Khan consist- office of Naib Duan, in which he represented the Company, as Duan or Master ed of two parts. of the Revenues; the other was the office of Naib Subah, as it was called by the President and Council, more properly the Naib Nazim, in which he represented the Nabob in his office of Nazim, that department of the Subahdaree,

* Company's Letter to their President and Council, dated 22d February, 1764; Minutes, ut supra, p. 996.

† Committee of Secrecy, 1781, Fifth Report, Appendix, No. iv.

1772.

the name and ministerial functions of which were still reserved to the native CHAP. I. Prince. The functions of the Naib Duan were indeed supplied by the new scheme for levying the revenue. But for those of the Naib Subah, as they called him, no provision as yet was made. The duties and importance of that office, are thus described by Mr. Hastings and Committee; "The office of Naib Subah, according to its original constitution, comprehends the superintendance of the Nabob's education, the management of his household, the regulation of his expenses, the representation of his person, the chief administration of justice; the issuing of all orders, and direction of all measures which respect the government and police of the provinces; the conduct of all public negotiations, and execution of treaties; in a word, every branch of executive government.” *

of

government in

Nothing can afford a more vivid conception of what I may perhaps be allowed Style, or to call the style of government which then existed in Bengal, the temper with tempefti which the difference between some performance and no performance of the Bengal. duties of government was regarded, than this; that the officer on whom " every branch of the executive government" depended, was arrested some days before the 28th of April; and that it was not till the 11th of July, that a proposition was brought forward to determine what should be done with the office he had filled. A letter signed by the Company's principal servants at Moorshedabad, and received at Fort William on the 21st of May, declared; "We must also observe to you the necessity there is for speedily appointing a Naib to the Nizamut, as the business of that department, particularly the courts of justice, is suspended for want of a person properly authorized to confirm the decrees of the several courts of justice, and to pass sentence on criminals, besides various other matters of business, wherein the interposition of the Subah [Subahdar] is immediately necessary." Why was not some arrangement taken; or rather, is it necessary to ask, why some arrangement was not taken, to prevent the suspension of the judicial and every branch of the executive government, before the officer was arrested on whom all these great operations depended!

The Rajah Shitabroy held the same office at Patna, for the province of Rajah Shitabroy. Bahar, as was held by Mahomed Reza Khan at Moorshedabad, for that of Bengal. Because Mahomed. Reza Khan was arrested, and sent to Calcutta for

*Consultation 11th July, 1772; Minutes of Evidence, ut supra, p. 972.

+ Comp. Consultation, 28th April, 1772, Minutes, ut supra, p. 972; and Consultation, 11th July, 1772, Ibid. p. 978, 994.

See the Letter, Minutes, ut supra, p. 974.

Book V. his trial, and because, as holding the same office, it seemed proper that they should both share the same fate, Shitabroy was in like fashion arrested, and sent to his trial.

1772.

The office of Naib Subah abolished,

without an

vernment.

Ahteram al Dowlah was a surviving brother of Jaffier Ali Khan the deceased Subahdar, the uncle of the young Nabob, the eldest existing male, and hence the natural guardian, of the family: On this ground he presented a petition to "the Gentlemen," praying that he might be appointed to the vacant office of Neabut Nizamut; in other words be chosen Naib under the Nazim.

The Directors, though resolved not to be any longer Duan under a cloak; were yet eager to preserve the supposed benefit of clandestinity, in the other adequate sub- department of the Subahdaree, the Nizamut.* The servants in India declared stitute to dis- their full concurrence in the wisdom of that policy. But they conceived that charge the duties of go for this purpose such an officer as the Naib Subah (so they styled the Naib of the Nazim) was neither necessary nor desirable; first, on account of the expense, next the delegation of power, which could never be without a portion of danger. They resolved, therefore, that the office of Naib Subah should be abolished. ‡ That is to say, they resolved, that the main instrument of government; that on which the administration of justice, the whole business of police, and every branch of the executive government, depended; should be taken away: And what did they substitute, for answering the same ends? The Courts of Review established at Calcutta might be expected to supply the place of the Naib of the

* "Though we have not a doubt but that by the exertion of your abilities, and the care and assiduity of our servants in the superintendancy of the revenues, the collections will be conducted with more advantage to the Company, and ease to the natives, than by means of a Naib Duan; we are fully sensible of the expediency of supporting some ostensible minister in the Company's interest at the Nabob's court, to transact the political affairs of the Circar, and interpose between the Company and the subjects of any European power, in all cases wherein they may thwart our interest, or encroach on our authority." Letter from the Court of Directors to the President and Council at Fort William, 28th August, 1771; Minutes, ut supra, p. 973.

+ "The Committee are fully sensible of the expediency remarked by the Honourable Court of Directors, of holding out the authority of the country government to the European powers, in all cases wherein their interests may interfere with those of the Company." Consultation, 11th July, 1772, Minutes, ut supra, p. 978. Mr. Hastings in his letter, 24th March, 1774, seems to have questioned altogether the wisdom of clandestinity: "There can be but one government, and one power in this province. Even the pretensions of the Nabob may prove a source of great embarrassment, when he is of age to claim his release from the present state of pupillage which prevents his asserting them." Ibid. p. 999.

+ Ibid. p. 978.

1772.

"Nazim, in respect to the administration of justice: With respect to all the other CHAP. I. branches of government, answerable for the happiness of between twenty and thirty millions of human beings, no substitution whatsoever was made; so profound, for I acquit them on the score of intention, was the ignorance which then distinguished the English rulers of India, of what they owed to the people, over whom they ruled, and the fruit of whose labour, under the pretence of rendering to them the services of government, they took from them, and disposed of as they pleased! No doubt the duties of government, thus left without an organ, were in part, and irregularly, when they pressed upon them, and could not be avoided, performed both by the President and Council, and by the servants distributed in the different parts of the country. But how imperfectly those services of government must have been rendered, for which no provision was made, and which, as often as they were rendered, were rendered as works of supererogation, by those who had other obligations to fulfil, it is unnecessary to observe.

This was a

of the Nabob's money not

ed.

Though so little was done for rendering to the people the services of govern- Disbursement ment, there was another branch of the duties of the Naib Nazim, which met with a very different sort and style of attention. That was, in name, the thus neglect. superintendance of the education and household of the Nabob; in reality, the disbursement of the money, allotted for his state and support. matter of prime importance; and was met with a proportional intensity of consideration and care. It would be unjust, however, to impute to the individuals the defect in point of virtue which this contrast seems to hold forth. The blame is due to their education, the sort of education which their country bestows. They had been taught to consider the disbursement of a very large sum of money, as a matter of prodigious consequence; they had never been taught to consider the rendering of the services of government to the people, provided the people would be quiet, as a matter of any consequence at all. They must, therefore, have been superior to ordinary men; they must have belonged to that small number who rise above the mental level which their country and its institutions are calculated to form, had they displayed a higher measure, than they did, of wisdom and virtue.

even Munny Begum and RaOne jah Gourdass.

This high-prized department of the functions of the Naib Nazim was divided into two portions; the latter subject to the control of the former. portion was made to consist, in "the guardianship of the Nabob, and the care and rule of his family:" the other in "regulating and paying the salaries of the Nabob's servants, and keeping the account of his expenses, to be monthly

Book V. transmitted to the Board, according to the orders of the Honourable Court of Directors."*

1772.

To execute the first of these portions (the pretensions of Ahteram ul Dowla, and if a woman was to be chosen, those of the mother of the Nabob, the wife of Meer Jaffier, being set aside) Munny Begum, a second wife, or rather concubine of Meer Jaffier, a person who had been originally a dancing girl, was preferred and appointed. The reasons are thus assigned by the majority of the council, in their minute of the 11th of July, 1772: "We know no person so fit for the trust of guardian to the Nabob, as the widow of the late Nabob Jaffier Ally Cawn, Minnee Begum; her rank may give her a claim to this pre eminence, without hazard to our own policy; nor will it be found incompatible with the rules prescribed to her sex by the laws and manners of her country, as her authority will be confined to the walls of the Nabob's palace, and the Dewan" (meaning the person who should hold the secondary office, the paymaster, and accountant)" will act of course in all cases in which she cannot personally appear. Great abilities are not to be expected in a Zennana, but in these she is very far from being deficient, nor is any extraordinary reach of understanding requisite for so limited an employ. She is said to have acquired a great ascendant over the spirit of the Nabob, being the only person of whom he stands in any kind of awe; a circumstance highly necessary for fulfilling the chief part of her duty, in directing his education and conduct, which appear to have been hitherto much neglected." †

* Consultation, 11th July, 1772, Minutes, ut supra, p. 978.

+ Minutes, ut supra, p. 979. It is curious enough that Hastings, in his letter to the Nabob, calls her, "The rightful Head of his Family;" and tells him, that "She stands in the place of his deceased Father." Ib. 980. In a private account to the Secret Committee of Directors, Mr. Hastings states other reasons: The first was, that she was "the declared enemy of Mahomed Reza Khan," and that it was necessary, in order to obtain evidence of his guilt, to fill every department with the enemies of that prisoner, who was arrested without warning, and whose papers were secured. He adds, "the only man," he says nothing of a woman, "who could pretend to such a trust, was the Nabob Yeteram O'Dowla, the brother of Meer Jaffier; a man indeed of no dangerous abilities, nor apparent ambition, but the father of a numerous family; who, by his being brought so nigh to the Musnud, would have acquired a right of inheritance to the Subahship; and if only one of his sons, who are all in the prime of life, should have raised his hopes to the succession, it would have been in his power at any time to remove the single obstacle which the Nabob's life opposed to advancement of the family. The guardian, at least, would have been the Nazim, while the minority lasted; and all the advantages which the Company may hope to derive from it, in the confirmation of their power, would have been lost, or could only have been maintained, by a contention hurtful to their rights, or by a violence yet more exceptionable.