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1778.

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BOOK V. the province. The yoke, however, which he had placed upon the neck of the Rajah was galling, and sustained with great uneasiness. Jaggernaut Râz, a connexion of the family, united by marriage with the Rajah, who had superintended the details of government, as Duan, or financial minister, and was universally respected as a man of understanding and virtue,' had been recently. deprived of his office, through the machinations of Sitteram Râz. The points which required adjustment between Vizeram Râz and the Company had suggested a use, or afforded a pretext, for calling him to the Presidency before Sir Thomas Rumbold arrived. Against this order he remonstrated, on the ground of his poverty, and of the detriment to his affairs which absence would induce. He offered to settle with the Council at Vizigapatam for any reasonable tribute or rent; and complained of his brother Sitteram Râz, whom he described as engaged in machinations for his ruin. Sitteram had obeyed the very first summons to repair to Madras, and had negotiated successfully for the farm of one principal division of the lands. He carried another point of still greater importance; which was to receive from the Presidency the appointment of Duan to the Rajah. To this regulation the Rajah manifested the greatest aversion. The President addressed him in the following words: "We are convinced that it is a measure which your own welfare and the interest of the Company render indispensably necessary. But should you continue obstinately to withstand the pressing instances that have repeatedly been made to you by the Board, conjunctively as well as separately, we shall be under the necessity of taking such resolutions as will in all probability be extremely painful to you, but which, being once passed, can never be recalled." To this Vjzeram Râz made the following answer: "I shall consider myself henceforward as divested of all power and consequence whatever, seeing that the Board urge me to do that which is contrary to my fixed determination, and that the result of it is to be the losing of my country." The reason which was urged by the President for this arbitrary proceeding was, the necessity of having a man of abilities to preserve the order of the country, and ensure the revenues. The Court of Directors, however, say, in their general letter to the Presidency of Madras, dated the 10th of January, 1781, "Our surprise and concern were great, on observing the very injurious treatment which the ancient Rajah of Vizianagaram received at the Presidency; when, deaf to his representations and entreaties, you, in the most arbitrary and unwarrantable manner, appointed his ambitious and intriguing brother, Sitteram Râz, Duan of the Circar, and thereby put him in possession of the revenues of his elder brother, who had just informed you that he sought his ruin: For, however necessary it

1778.

might be to adopt measures for securing payment of the Company's tribute, no CHAP. IV. circumstance, except actual and avowed resistance of the Company's authority, could warrant such treatment of the Rajah."* And in one of the resolutions which was moved in the House of Commons by Mr. Dundas, afterwards Lord Melville, on the 25th of April, 1782, it was declared, "That the Governor and majority of the Council of Fort St. George did, by menaces and harsh treatment, compel Vizeram Râz, the Rajah of Visianagrum, to employ Sitteram Raz as the Duan, or Manager of his Zemindary, in the room of Jaggernaut, a man of probity and good character; that the compulsive menaces made use of towards the Rajah, and the gross ill treatment which he received at the Presidency, were humiliating, unjust, and cruel in themselves, and highly derogatory to the interests of the East India Company, and to the honour of the British nation."

Nor was this the only particular in which the Presidency and Council contributed to promote the interest and gratify the ambition of Sitteram Râz. They not only prevailed upon the Rajah to be reconciled to his brother; they confirmed his adoption of that brother's son; and "agreed," say the Secret Committee of the House of Commons, "that all under-leases should for the future be made in the adopted Rajah's name; that his name should be used in all acts of government; and that Sitteram Râz his father, who was in reality to enjoy the power, should be accepted of by the Board as a security for this young man." †

tion of the

In the opinion of the Directors, even this was not all. They accused the DisapprobaPresidency of underselling the lands by a corrupt connivance with Sitteram Râz. Directors. "The report," they said, " of the Committee of Circuit, and the positive evidence of Sitteram Râz, warrant us in asserting that more than double the amount of the tribute for which you have agreed, might and ought to have been obtained for the Company. We are in possession," they add," of one fact, which, so far as it extends, seems to convey an idea, that the Zemindars have been abused, and their money misapplied at the Presidency." ‡

The Directors alluded to the following fact; that Mr. Redhead, private secretary to Sir Thomas Rumbold, the Governor, had actually received from Sitteram Râz a bond for one lac of rupees, on condition of his services in procuring for the donor, the duanship of the Zemindary, a reconciliation with his brother, a confirmation of his son's adoption, the Zemindary of Ancapilly, and the fort of Vizinagaram; advantages, the whole of which Sitteram Raz obtained;

* Second Report, Committee of Secrecy, 1781; Appendix, No. 153. See Letter of 10th of January, 1781, quoted above.

† Ibid. p. 16.

BOOK V. and corruption, of which, though made known to the President and Council by the proceedings of a court of justice, they afforded to the Court of Directors no information.*

1778.

Another fact was; that to the same Mr. Redhead, as appeared by a codicil to his will, Ameer ul Omra, son of the Nabob, had an order from his father to pay a lac of rupees.

Another fact was; that two lacs and one thousand rupees had been transmitted to Sitteram Râz, while at Madras; of which money, though he was greatly in arrear, no part was paid to the Company.

It further appeared; that, according to one of the checks devised by the Company upon the corruption of their servants, Sir Thomas Rumbold, if he possessed in India any money on loan or merchandize on hand at the time of entering upon his office was by his covenant bound, before he proceeded to recover the money, or dispose of the goods, to deliver to the Board a particular account of such property upon oath: that upon an accurate examination of the records of the Council during the whole of Sir Thomas Rumbold's administration, no proceedings to that effect could be found: that Sir Thomas Rumbold, nevertheless, had remitted to Europe, between the 8th of February the day of his arrival at Madras, and the beginning of August in the same year, the sum of 45,000, and, during the two subsequent years, a further sum of 119,000%., the whole amounting to 164,000, although the annual amount of his salary and emoluments did not exceed 20,000l.

Sir Thomas opposed the evidence of corruption which these transactions imported, by asserting, that he had property in India at the time of his return, sufficient to account for the remittances which he afterwards made. The evidence which he produced consisted in certain papers and books of account, which exhibited upon the face of them sums to a great amount. And one of the witnesses, examined before the Secret Committee of the House of Commons, stated his having heard in conversation from Sir Thomas Rumbold, that he had in Bengal, at the time of his last arrival in India, about 90,000l.; part in Company's cash; part in bonds, and mortgages at interest, on some of which three or four years interest was due.†

The lands or taxes in the circars were let, some for ten years, some for five.

*Third Report, Committee of Secrecy, 1781, p. 13, 14. Twelfth Resolution of Mr. Dundas, moved in the House of Commons, 25th April, 1782.

+ Second Report, ut supra, p. 21, 22.

The jaghire about Madras was re-let to the Nabob, not for one, but for three CHAP. IV. years. And in no case was any satisfactory inquiry performed.

The Directors, complaining that their orders, and the interests of the Company, had been equally disregarded; and that, while the dignity and feelings of the Zemindars were violated, the rights of the immediate cultivators were left without protection; pronounced upon the whole of these proceedings their strongest condemnation.

1778.

with the

toor.

In the agreements formed with the Subahdar, or Nizam, respecting the five Transactions northern circars, in 1766 and 1768, it was arranged, that Guntoor, which was Nizam reone of them, should be granted in jaghire to Bazalut Jung, his brother; to be specting Gunenjoyed by that Prince during his life, or so long as the Subahdar should be satisfied with his conduct; and upon expiration of the interest of Bazalut Jung, to revert to the Company. About the latter end of the year 1774, the Governor and Council were informed by letters from the chief of Masulipatam, that a body of French troops, under the command of M. Lally, were retained in the service of Bazalut Jung, and received reinforcements and stores by the port of Mootapilly. The mention of a French force in the service of a native prince was sure to kindle the jealousy of the English. The Presidency of Madras held the affair of sufficient importance to communicate with the Supreme Council of Bengal on the propriety of using measures to procure the removal of the French from the territories of Bazalut Jung; and received the authority of that Board, not only to insist with Bazalut Jung upon their immediate dismissal; but to prepare a body of troops for marching to his frontiers, and to threaten him, that "they would take possession of his country, and negotiate with the Nizam, even by an entire renunciation of the revenues, for the cession of it to the Company." It was deemed adviseable to treat with the Nizam, as principal in the treaty of 1768, and a party to every agreement between the Company and Bazalut Jung; and they desired his co-operation for compelling his brother, either, 1st, to dismiss the Europeans from his service, and trust to the English the defence of Guntoor, which was their own; or, 2dly, to let that Circar to them at a rent determined by amicable valuation. The Nizam replied in friendly terms; declaring that he had sent a person of distinction to procure the removal of the French from the service of his brother; and that " every article of the treaty should remain fixed to a hair's breadth." From the date of these transactions, which extended to the beginning of the year 1776, though several representations had been received of the continuance of the French in the territory of Bazalut Jung, no ulterior measures were adopted by the Board until the

1779.

Book V. 10th of July, 1778, when the President and Select Committee entered a minute, expressing a conviction of danger from the presence, in such a situation, of such a body of men. A negotiation, through the medium of the Nabob without the intervention of the Nizam, was commenced with Bazalut Jung. That prince was now alarmed with the prospect presented by the probable designs of Hyder Ali, and well disposed to quiet his apprehensions by the benefit of English protection. On the 30th of November, the President presented to the Board a proposal, tendered by Bazalut Jung, in which that Prince agreed to cede the Guntoor district for a certain annual payment, to dismiss the French from his service, and to accept the engagement of the English to afford him troops for the defence of his country. On the 27th of January, 1779, when the treaty was concluded with Bazalut Jung, it was thought expedient to send to the court of the Nizam a resident; who should ascertain as far as possible the views of that Prince, and his connexions with the Indian powers or the French; obviate any unfavourable impressions which he might have received; and transact any business to which the relations of the two states might give birth. And on the 19th of April a force, under General Harpur, was ordered to proceed to the protection of the territory of Bazalut Jung.

The Nizam offended.

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In the contest with the Mahrattas, in which, at the Presidencies of Bengal and Bombay, the English were engaged, the Nizam had expressed a desire to remain neutral; though he had frankly declared his hatred of Ragoba, and his connexion by treaty with Pundit Purdaun, the infant Peshwa, that is, with the prevailing party of the Poona council; and though an alliance with the Berar government had been attempted by the Supreme Council, on the condition of recovering for that government some countries which had been wrested from it by the Subahdar of Deccan. When Mr. Holland, who was sent as resident by the Presidency of Madras, arrived at Hyderabad, the capital of the Nizam, on the 6th of April, he was received with every mark of respect, and with the strongest assurances of a desire to cultivate the friendship of the English. But when, at his audience, the resident proceeded to explain the transactions which, without the participation of the Nizam, had taken place between the Company and his brother, the painful emotions of his Highness were visible; he read over the articles of the treaty of 1768; affirmed that it was violated by the conduct of the Presidency; disavowed the right of the English to interfere in the concerns of his family; declared that, if the treaty was to be regarded, the troops which without his leave were about to march into the country possessed by Bazalut Jung, a dependant of the Subah, ought to be stopped; if the treaty was not to

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