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1774.

Shortly after this decisive affair, the army marched to the city of Bissouly, CHAP. I. which was near the centre of the Rohilla country, with the intention of passing in quarters the season of the rains. At this place had arrived before them Nujeef Khan, with the army of the Emperor. In obedience to the treaty between the Emperor and Vizir, they had marched from Delhi to assist in the reduction of the Rohillas; but before they reached the scene of action the rapidity and vigour of the English had terminated the war. Nujeef Khan demanded partition of the country and plunder, according to the conditions on which the countenance and co-operation of the Emperor had been procured. The Vizir did not dispute the treaty, a copy of which the Emperor had sent to Col. Champion; he alleged however that the counterpart, which was in his own possession, expressed a condition that his Majesty should take the field in person; and that the breach of that article annulled the contract. "But when the counterpart," says Col. Champion, which he put into the hands of my interpreter, came to be examined, it appeared there was no such stipulation, nor indeed did it ever exist even verbally." * The decision of the English govern

before his engagement to assist in them, sufficiently appears from his own letter to that chief, dated the 22d of April, 1773. "I have received," says he, "your Excellency's letter, mentioning that if, should the Rohillas be guilty of a breach of their agreement [viz. about the forty lacs], we will thoroughly exterminate them, and settle your Excellency in the country, you will in that case pay the Company fifty lacs of rupees, and exempt them from the King's tribute." Ibid. App. No. 21. In the Nabob's own letter to the President, of the 18th November, 1773, he says, "During our interview at Benares, it was agreed that I should pay, &c....... and that I should, with the assistance of the English forces, endeavour to punish and exterminate the Rohillas out of their country." Ibid. App. No. 22. Mr. Hastings only admits the atrocities in part, and then defends them in a curious manner; that is to say, not only by the example of Indian barbarity in general, but by the example of British barbarity, on the subjects of the Vizir. "I believe it to be a truth," says he, "that he [the Vizir] begun by sending detachments to plunder. This I pronounce to have been both barbarous and impolitic. But too much justified by the practice. of war established among all the nations of the East; and I am sorry to add, by our own; in an instance (which the Vizir has a right to quote in vindication of the charge against him), of a detachment employed in the war in which we were engaged with him in the year 1764, to burn and ravage his country." He then quotes a letter from Major Champion, who commanded the detachment, which says, "Two separate parties have been sent into the enemy's country, the one of which was as high up as Buxar, and (according to the directions given me) there are destroyed upwards of a thousand villages. Had not the rains, &c. prevented, we should have done very considerably more damage." Minute of the Governor-General, dated 10th Jan. 1775, in the Fifth Report, ut supra, App. No. 45.

* App. No. 45, ut supra.

1774.

66

BOOK V. ment is the next incident in the scene. Instructing on this subject the commander of their troops, when he had as yet only sent them a surmise, and the treaty had not been produced," our engagements (they say) with the Vizir are to aid him in the conquest of the Rohilla country; and if he is opposed by Nujeef Khan, or the King himself, you are to pay no regard to either. We cannot " (they add) " entertain so bad an opinion of the Vizir as to suppose him capable of acting in avowed breach of a treaty; but if any plea of that kind should be made for contesting our right to occupy any part of the Rohilla country yet unconquered, it will be proper to put to him the question, whether such treaty does exist or not? If he should acknowledge such a treaty, you must undoubtedly abstain from further hostilities in abetment of his breach of faith." Yet after they were fully satisfied of the existence of such a treaty; and not only of the capability, but the resolution of the Vizir to act in avowed breach of it, they laid their commands upon the English general, to abet and support him, because "it is our intention," say they, "to persevere in pursuit of the object which originally engaged us in the present enterprise, and to adhere strictly to our engagements with the Vizir, without suffering our attention to be diverted by foreign incidents or occurrences,"* that is, by solemn treaties, or the breach of them.

Agreement

Khan.

From Fyzoolla Khan an early application arrived, offering to come to the camp upon the faith of the English, and to hold the district which had belonged to his family as a dependent or renter of the Vizir. His offers variously modified were frequently repeated, with great earnestness. But the Vizir persisted in his declaration that he would allow no Rohilla chief to remain on the further side of the Ganges; and only offered him one of the districts in the Dooab, which had been recently conquered from the Mahrattas. Fyzoolla Khan, with justice, observed, that this the Mahrattas would take from him, the first time they returned to the country.

Towards the end of July, the united forces of the English and Vizir marched with Fyzoolla towards Fyzoolla Khan, who occupied a strong post on the skirts of the mountains, near Pattir Gur. At the beginning of September they came near the enemy, and as the Vizir began to exhibit a strong desire of an accommodation with the Rohillas, an active intercourse of letters and messengers ensued. Whether his mind was operated upon by the approaching arrival of the new counsellors at Calcutta, or the dread which he pretended of assistance to Fyzoolla Khan

* Letter of 23d May, and 14th July, App. ut supra, No. 27.

1774.

from the Mahrattas and Afghauns, he now made offer of terms to which a little CHAP. I. before he would not so much as listen. He proposed to make Fyzoolla collector of the revenues, or Zemindar, of the whole territory of Rohilcund, allowing six lacs of rupees per annum for his own expenses. But this offer, and even that of a jaghire of ten lacs of rupees in the Rohilcund country, were rejected. The Rohillas were so advantageously posted, with works thrown up in their front, that it was necessary to advance by regular approaches, and the army were so discontented, on account of hardship, arrears of pay, and ill usage, either real or supposed, that the General was doubtful of their steadiness and order. After several days, in which the approaches were carried on, and the scouting parties of both armies were frequently engaged, it was at last agreed that, Fyzoolla Khan should receive a jaghire of fourteen lacs and seventyfive thousand rupees in the Rohilcund territory, and should surrender one half of all his effects to the Vizir. Thus terminated the first Rohilla war.*

due to the

Before closing the account of the events to which the visit of Mr. Hastings The revenue to Benares gave birth, it is necessary to mention its effects with regard to the Emperor redeserted Emperor. Upon receiving from him the grant of the duannee, or the fused. receipt and management of the revenues of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, it was agreed that, as the royal share of those revenues, twenty-six lacs of rupees should be annually paid to him by the Company. His having accepted of the assistance of the Mahrattas to place him on the throne of his ancestors was now made use of as a reason for telling him, that the tribute of these provinces should be paid to him no more. Of the honour or the discredit, however, of this, transaction, the principal share belongs not to the Governor, but to the Directors themselves; who in their letter to Bengal of the 11th of November, 1768, had said, "If the Emperor flings himself into the hands of the Mahrattas, or any other power, we are disengaged from him, and it may open a fair opportunity of withholding the twenty-six lacs we now pay him."† Upon the whole, indeed, of the measure, dealt out to this unhappy sovereign; depriving him of the territories of Corah and Allahabad; depriving him of the tribute which was due to him from those provinces of his which they possessed; the Directors

See the correspondence, Fifth Report, ut supra, App. No. 27, and Col. Champion's long defensive letter, Ibid. App. No. 45. See also No. 28, of the Bengal Treaties, in the Collection of Treaties, &c. with the native Princes, printed in 1812. Rampore, and some dependent districts, formed the territory bestowed upon Fyzoolla Khan.

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Book V. bestowed unqualified approbation. And though they condemned the use which had been made of their troops in subduing the country of the Rohillas; they declare frankly, "We, upon the maturest deliberation, confirm the treaty of Benares." *

1774.

Financial con

gal.

The circumstance upon which, in summing up the account of his administradition of Ben- tion to his honourable masters, Hastings advanced the strongest claim to applause, was the alleviation of the pecuniary difficulties of the Indian government, and the improvement of the revenues. In the letters from the Bengal administration to the Court of Directors, under date 22d August, and 17th October, 1774, after presenting the most flattering picture of the financial situation to which the government was happily exalted, they advance a confident prediction, that in the course of the ensuing season, the whole of the bond debt would be discharged. And in that representation of the state of Bengal, which was published by Mr. Hastings in 1786, he declares, "When I took charge of the government of Bengal in April 1772, I found it loaded with a debt at interest of nearly the same amount as the present; and in less than two years I saw that debt completely discharged, and a sum in ready cash of the same amount actually accumulated in store in the public treasuries." This boasting exhibits some remarkable features, when the facts are sufficiently seen. No improvement had been made in the productive powers of the country, which is the only permanent and satisfactory source of an improved revenue. The gross revenues of the year ending in April 1772 were 313,63,894 current rupees; the gross revenues of that ending in April 1774 were only 276,10,556. Hardly had any improvement been made in the nett receipt. That for the year ending in April 1772, was 216,88,538 rupees equal to 2,373,6507.; that for the year ending 1774, was 220,56,919 rupees, or 2,481,4047. § In the next great department of financial administration, the expense of the civil and military services, instead of any retrenchment there had been an increase. In the year ending in 1772, the civil service is stated at 154,6201., the marine at 52,1617., the military at 1,164,3487., and the total expense, exclusive of buildings and fortifications, at 1,371,1297. || In the year ending in 1774, the civil service is stated at 159,5377., the marine at 53,700l., the military at 1,304,8837., and the total at 1,518,120/. ** In the year 1772, the proportion of the

* Company's Letter to Bengal, 3d March, 1775, Ibid. App. No. 46.
Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 37, and App. No. 43.

+ Memoirs relative to the state of India, by Warren Hastings, Esq. p. 21.
§ Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 7 and 35.
|| Ibid. p. 8.

** Ibid. p. 35.

In

military expense, defrayed by the Nabob of Oude, was 20,7661. *
the year 1774, the proportion defrayed by him was 131,4301. † In the
following year, that ending in April 1775, there was a slight improve-
ment in the collections, which may in part be ascribed to the measures of the
preceding administration; and there was a total cessation of war which pro-
duced a reduction of the military expenditure, remarkable only for its minute-
ness. The gross collections amounted to 287,20,760 rupees, the nett receipt to
251,02,090, or 2,823,9647.; the civil service to 231,7221., the marine to 36,510,
and the military to 1,080,3047.; total, 1,349,8367.: and the proportion this year
borne by the Nabob of Oude was 240,7507. ‡ It thus abundantly appears that
nothing so important as to deserve the name of improvement had arisen in the
financial administration of the Company. A pecuniary relief had indeed been
procured, but from sources of a temporary and very doubtful description; partly
from the produce of the bills drawn in such profusion upon the Company, by
the predecessor of Hastings; partly from the reduction of the allowance to the
Nabob of Bengal, from thirty-two to sixteen lacs; but chiefly from the plunder
of the unhappy Emperor of the Moguls, whose tribute of twenty-six lacs per
annum for the duannee of Bengal was withheld, and two provinces of Corah
and Allahabad sold for fifty lacs to the Vizir; from the sale of the Rohillas,
the extirpation of whom was purchased at forty of the same eagerly-coveted
lacs; and from the pay and maintenance of a third part of the troops, which
were employed in the wars and dominions of the Vizir. With regard even to
the payment of the debt, an inspection of the accounts exhibits other results
than those presented by the declarations of the President.

CHAP. I.

1774.

Year ending in April

1774....

1775...

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1772........ C. R. 65,09,041........ 107,84,520...... ..52,48,480.
21,62,994........ 117,71,486.. .. 95,41,795.

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.....

90,68,584........ 87,05,871.§

Upon this statement, if we compare the year in which Mr. Hastings began his administration, with that in which it ended, we see a prodigious deterioration. If we compare it even with that which follows, the total amount of debt in

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