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he had no share in the profits, and that little or none were made, alleged but CHAP. II. little in its defence.*

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1776. Reza Khan

tion and

For the affairs of the Nabob, and the business of government, still transacted Mahomed in his name, a substitute to Munny Begum, and to the plan superseded by her restored to his removal, was urgently required. In their letter of the 3d of March, 1775, the former situaDirectors had declared Mahomed Reza Khan so honourably cleared of the sus- power. picions and charges with which he had been clouded, and Nuncomar so disgraced by his unworthy attempts to destroy him, that they directed his son, who was no more than the tool of the father, to be removed from his office; and Mahomed Reza Khan to be appointed in his stead. It is remarkable, that the Directors were so ignorant of the government of India, which it belonged to them to conduct, that the name of the office of Gourdass, who was the agent for paying the Nabob's servants, and the substitute for Munny Begum, when any of the affairs was to be transacted to which the fiction of the Nabob's authority was still applied, they mistook for that of the officer who was no more than the head of the native clerks in the office of revenue at Calcutta. When they directed Gourdass to be replaced by Mahomed Reza, they distinguished him by the title of Roy Royan; and thence enlarged the ground of cavil and dispute between the contending parties in the Council. Clavering, Francis, and Monson, decided for uniting in the hands of Mahomed Reza Khan the functions which had been divided between Munny Begum and Rajah Gourdass; and as Rajah Gourdass, notwithstanding the prejudices against his father, was recommended by the Directors to some inferior office, the same party proposed to make him Roy Royan, and to remove Rajah Bullub, the son of Dooloob Ram, by whom that office had hitherto been held.

There was another subject of great importance. As the penal department of justice was ill administered in the present Fousdary courts, (that branch of the late arrangements had totally failed); and as the superintendance of criminal justice, entrusted to the Governor-General, as head of the Nizamut Adaulut, or Supreme Penal Court of Calcutta, loaded him with a weight of business, and of responsibility, from which he sought to be relieved, the majority agreed to restore to Mahomed Reza Khan, the superintendence of penal justice, and of the native penal courts throughout the country; and for that purpose to remove the seat of the Nizamut Adaulut from Calcutta back to

* Extract of Bengal Revenue Consultations, 17th March, 1775; Parliamentary Papers, printed in 1787; see also the Fifteenth of the Charges exhibited to Parliament against Warren Hastings, Esq. and his Answer to the same.

1776.

BOOK V. Moorshedabad. The Governor-General agreed that the orders of the Directors required the removal of Gourdass from the office which he held under Munny Begum, and the appointment to that office of Mahomed Reza Khan; but he dissented from all the other parts of the proposed arrangement; and treated the renewal of the title of Naib Subah, and the affectation of still recognizing the Nabob's government, as idle grimace. "All the arts of policy cannot," he said, "conceal the power by which these provinces are ruled, nor can all the arts of sophistry avail to transfer the responsibility to the Nabob; when it is as visible as the light of the sun, that every act originates from our own government, that the Nabob is a mere pageant without the shadow of authority, and even his most consequential agents receive their express nomination from the servants of the Company."* The opposing party, however, thought it would be still political, to uphold the pretext of "a country government," for managing all discussions with foreign factories. And if ultimately it should, they say, "be necessary to maintain the authority of the country government by force, the Nabob will call upon us for that assistance, which we are bound by treaty to afford him, and which may be effectually employed in his name." That party possessed the majority of votes, and their schemes, of course, were carried into execution. †

* How strange a language this from the pen of the man, who, but a few months before, had represented the power of the shadow of this shadow, the Naib Subah, as too great to exist with safety to the Company in the hands of any man.

+Fifth Report of the Select Committee in 1781; and the Bengal Consultations in the Appendix, No. 6.

CHAP. III.

Deliberations on a new Plan for collecting the Revenue, and administering
Justice Death of Colonel Monson, and recovery by Mr. Hastings of the
governing Power-Plan, by Mr. Hastings, for inquiring into the Sources
of Revenue-The Taxes levied by annual Settlements—Resignation of
Hastings, tendered by an Agent, whom he disowns-Transactions of Mr.
Hastings, in the Cases of Mr. Middleton, Mr. Fowke, and Munny
Begum-The Directors, ordering the Transactions to be reversed, are dis-
obeyed-Relations with the Mahrattas-A Detachment of the Bengal
Army sent across India to Surat-Expedition from Bombay against Poona
-Unsuccessful-Fruitless Negotiation with the Mahrattas-Goddard's
Campaign against the Mahrattas-Connexion with the Ranna of Gohud-
Mr. Francis fights a Duel with Mr. Hastings, and returns to Europe.

THE state of the regulations for collecting the revenue had for some time CHAP. III. pressed upon the attention of the government. The lease of five years, on 1776. which the revenues had been farmed in 1772, was drawing to a close, and it was New regulations required necessary to determine what sort of course should then be pursued. To remedy for collecting evils, which delayed not to make themselves perceived, in the regulations of 1772, the revenue. a considerable change had been introduced in 1773: The superintendence of the collectors was abolished: The provinces (Chittagong and Tipperah remaining under the original sort of management, that of a chief) were formed into six grand divisions, Calcutta, Burdwan, Moorshedabad, Dinagepore, Dacca, and Patna: In each of these divisions (Calcutta excepted, for which two members of the council and three superior servants, under the name of a committee of revenue, were appointed) a council was formed, consisting of a chief and four senior servants, to whom powers were confided, the same, in general, with those formerly enjoyed by the collectors: They exercised a command over all the officers and affairs of revenue, within the division: The members superintended in rotation the civil courts of justice, called Sudder Adaulut: The, councils appointed deputies, or naibs, to the subordinate districts of the division: These naibs, who were natives, and called also aumils, both superintended the

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1776.

Book V. work of realizing the revenue, and held courts of fiscal judicature, called Courts of Duanee Adaulut: The decisions of these courts were subject by appeal to the review of the provincial courts of Sudder Adaulut; which decided in the last resort to the value of 1000 rupees, but under appeal to the Court of Sudder Duanee Adaulut at Calcutta, in all cases which exceeded that amount. Even this scheme was declared to be only intermediate, and preparatory to an ultimate measure, according to which; while the local management, except in those districts which might be let entire to the Zemindars, or responsible farmers, should be performed by a duan, or aumil; a committee of revenue, sitting at the Presidency, should form a grand revenue office, and superintend the whole collections of the country.* Such were the alterations adopted in 1773.

Accusations brought against the

mode of col

lection adopted by Hastings in 1772 and 1773.

At an early period, under the five years' settlement, it was perceived that the farmers of the revenue had contracted for more than they were able to pay. The collections fell short of the engagements even for the first year; and the farms had been let upon a progressive rent. The Governor-General was now accused by his colleagues of having deceived his honourable masters by holding up to their hopes a revenue which could not be obtained. He defended himself by a plea which had, it cannot be denied, considerable weight: It was natural to suppose that the natives were acquainted with the value of the lands, and other sources of the revenue; and that a regard to their own interests would prevent them from engaging for more than those sources would afford. It was contended with no less justice on the other side, that there was a class of persons who had nothing to lose; to whom the handling of the revenues and power over those who paid them, though for a single year, was an object of desire; and whom, as they had no intention to pay what they promised, the extent of the promise could not restrain.

The failure of exaggerated hopes was not the only evil whereof the farm by auction was accused. The Zemindars; through whose agency the revenues of the districts had formerly been realized, and whose office and authority had generally grown into hereditary possessions, comprising both an estate and a magistracy, or even a species of sovereignty, when the territory and jurisdiction were large; were either thrown out of their possessions; or, from an ambition to hold the situation, which had given opulence and rank to their families, perhaps for generations, they bid for the taxes more than the taxes could enable them to pay; and reduced themselves by the bargain to poverty and ruin.

Sixth Report of the Select Committee, 1781, Appendix, No. 1.

1776.

When the révenues were farmed to the Zemindars, these contractors were CHAP. III. induced to turn upon the ryots, and others from whom their collections were levied, the same rack which was applied to themselves. When they were farmed to the new adventurer, who looked only to a temporary profit, and who had no interest in the permanent prosperity of a people with whom he had no permanent connexion, every species of exaction to which no punishment was attached, or of which the punishment could by artifice be evaded, was to him a fountain of gain.

After several acrimonious debates, the Governor-general proposed that the Two plans separate opinions of the Members of the Council, on the most eligible plan for proposed; levying the taxes of the country, should be sent to the Court of Directors. And on the 28th of March, 1775, a draught, signed by him and Mr. Barwell, One by Mr. Hastings, was prepared for transmission. The leading principle of this proposal was; that the several districts should be farmed on leases for life, or for two joint lives, allowing a preference to the Zemindar, as often as his offer was not greatly inferior either to that of other candidates, or the real value of the taxes to be let. The plan of the other Members of the Council was not yet prepared. They contented themselves with some severe reflections upon the imperfections of the existing system; an exaggerated representation of the evils which it was calculated to produce; * and an expression of the greatest astonishment at the inconsistency of the Governor-General, in praising and defending that system, while he yet recommended another, by which it would be wholly suppressed.

Mr. Francis.

On the 22d of January, 1776, Mr. Francis entered a voluminous minute, in Another by which he took occasion to record at length his opinions respecting the ancient government of the country, and the means of ensuring its future prosperity. Of the measures which he recommended, a plan for realizing the revenue constituted the greatest and most remarkable portion. Without much concern about the production of proof, he assumed as a basis two things; first, that the opinion was erroneous, which ascribed to the Sovereign the property of the land; and secondly, that the property in question belonged to the Zemindars. Upon the Zemindars, as proprietors, he accordingly proposed that a certain land-tax should be levied; that it should be fixed once for all; and held as perpetual and invariable.

"In the course of three years more, we think it much to be apprehended, that the continued operation of this system will have reduced the country in general to such a state of ruin and decay, as no future alteration will be sufficient to retrieve." Extract of a Minute from General Clavering, Col. Monson, and Mr. Francis, March 21, 1775.

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