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1781.

BOOK V. country, a new office was established at the Presidency, under the immediate superintendence of the Governor-General. To this office, reports of proceedings, with lists of commitments and convictions, were to be transmitted every month; and an officer, under the Governor-General, with the title of Remembrancer of the Criminal Courts, was appointed for the transaction of its affairs. In November, 1782, in consequence of commands from the Court of Directors, the jurisdiction of the Sudder Duannee Adaulut was resumed by the GovernorGeneral and Council.*

A new plan for collecting

Provincial

lished; and

Board of Re

Upon these changes, in the judicial, followed close another change, in the rethe revenue; venue system. In 1773 the plan was adopted of performing the collection of the Councils abo- revenues by means of provincial Councils; but under the declared intention of its being only temporary, and preparatory to another plan; namely, that of a Board venue set up. of Revenue at the Presidency, by whom, with local officers, the whole business of realizing the revenue might be performed. Afterwards, when disputes with Mr. Francis, and other opposing members of the Council, arose, Mr. Hastings had maintained, that the expedient of provincial Councils was the most excellent which it was possible for him to devise. On the 20th of February, 1781, however, a very short time after the departure of Mr. Francis, he recurred to the plan which was projected in 1773; and decreed as follows, That a Committee of Revenue should be established at the Presidency, consisting of four covenanted servants of the Company; that the provincial Councils should be abolished, and all the powers with which they were vested transferred to the Committee; that the Committee should transact, with full authority, all the current business of revenue, and lay a monthly report of their proceedings before the Council; that the majority of votes, in the Committee, should determine all those points on which there should be a difference of opinion; that the record, however, of each dissentient opinion was not expected; that, even upon a reference to the Council, the execution of what the majority had determined should not be staid, unless to the majority themselves the suspension appeared to be requisite; and that a commission of two per cent. on all sums paid monthly into the treasury at Calcutta, and one per cent. on all sums paid monthly into the treasuries which remained under charge of the collectors, should be granted as the remuneration, according to certain proportions, of the members and their principal assistants. Against this arrangement it was afterwards urged, That it was an addition to

* Fifth Report of the Select Committee in 1810; Second Report of the Select Committee in

1781.

those incessant changes, which were attended with great trouble, uncertainty, CHAP. VI. and vexation to the people: That it was a wanton innovation, if the praises bestowed by Mr. Hastings on the provincial Councils were deserved: That it divested the Supreme Council of that power over the business of revenue, with which they solely were entrusted by the legislature, to lodge it in the hands of Mr. Hastings; as the members of the Committee were under his appointment, and the Council were deprived of the means of forming an accurate judgement on all disputed points; hearing the reasons of the majority alone, while those of the minority were suppressed. To these objections Mr. Hastings replied, that the inconveniences of change were no argument against any measure, provided the advantages of the measure surpassed them; that he was not bound by his declarations respecting the fitness of the provincial Councils, when the factious disputes which divided them, and the decline of the revenues, proved that they were ill adapted to their purpose; that the business of the revenue was necessarily transferred from the Supreme Council, because the time of the Council was inadequate to its demands; 'that the Committee of Revenue were not vested with the powers of the Council, in any other sense than the provincial Councils, or any other delegates; but, on the contrary, acted under its immediate control.

It was entrusted to the Committee to form a plan for the future assessment and collection of the revenues. And the following are the expedients of which they made choice: To form an estimate of the abilities of the several districts, from antecedent accounts, without recurring to local inspection and research : To let the revenues, without intermediate agents, to the Zemindars, where the Zemindary was of considerable extent: And, that they might save government the trouble of detail, in those places where the revenues were in the hands of a number of petty renters, to let them all together, upon annual contracts.*

The official documents are found in the Appendix, Sixth Report of the Select Committee, 1782; and in the papers printed for the House of Commons, on the question of the impeachment. See too the Fifteenth article of Charge against Hastings, and the answer.

1781.

Governor

vinces.

CHAP. VII.

Journey of the Governor-General to the Upper Provinces-History of the Company's Connexions with the Rajah of Benares-Requisitions upon the Rajah-Resolution to relieve the Company's Necessities by forcible Exaction on the Rajah-The Governor-General arrives at Benares-The Rajah put under Arrest—A tumultuous Assemblage of the People-An Affray between them and the Soldiers-The Rajah escapes-War made upon him, and the Country subdued-Condemnation of Mr. Hastings by the Directors -Double Negotiation with the Mahrattas of Poonah-Treaty of Peace.

BOOK V. It was immediately subsequent to these great changes in the financial and IT judiciary departments of the government, that the celebrated journey of the Journey of the Governor-General to the Upper Provinces took place. Important as was the General to the business, which at that time pressed upon the attention of the government, when Upper Prowar raged in the Carnatic, when the contest with the Mahrattas was carried on in two places at once, and when the Supreme Council was so greatly reduced in numbers that, upon the departure of the Governor-General, one member alone, Mr. Wheler, was left to conduct the machine of government, it was to be concluded, that matters of great concernment had withdrawn the GovernorGeneral from the principal scene of intelligence, of deliberation, and of action. The transactions which he had in view were chiefly those proceedings which he meditated with regard to the Rajah of Benares, and the Nabob of Oude. The government was distressed for money, and the intention was avowed of making those tributary Princes subservient to its supply. The Governor-General departed from Calcutta on the 7th of July, 1781, and arrived at Benares on the 14th of August. To understand the events which ensued, it is necessary to trace, from its origin, the connexion which subsisted between the English and the Rajah.

Its objects.

History of the
Company's

connexion.

After the shock which the empire of the Great Mogul sustained by the invasion of Nadir Shah, when the subahdars and other governors, freed from the with the Rajah restraint of a powerful master, added to the territory, placed under their command, as much as they were able of the adjacent country, the city and district of Benares were reduced under subjection to the Nabob of Oude. This city,

of Benares.

1781.

which was the principal seat of Brahmenical religion and learning, and to the CHAP. VII. native inhabitants an object of prodigious veneration and resort, appears, during the previous period of Mahomedan sway, to have remained under the immediate government of an Hindu. Whether, till the time at which it became an appanage to the Subah of Oude, it had ever been governed through the medium of any of the neighbouring viceroys, or had always paid its revenue immediately to the imperial treasury, does not certainly appear. With the exception of coining money, in his own name; a prerogative of majesty, which, as long as the throne retained its vigour, was not enfeebled by communication; and that of the administration of criminal justice, which the Nabob had withdrawn, the Rajah of Benares had always, it is probable, enjoyed and exercised all the powers of government, within his own dominions. In 1764, when the war broke out between the English and the Subahdar of Oude, Bulwant Sing was Rajah of Benares, and, excepting the payment of an annual tribute, was almost independent of that grasping chief, who meditated the reduction of Benares to the same species of dominion which he exercised over the province of Oude. The Rajah would gladly have seen the authority of the English substituted in Oude to that of the Vizir, whom he had so much occasion to dread. He offered to assist them with his forces; and, to anticipate all jealousy, from the idea of his aiming at independence, expressed his willingness to hold the country, subject to the same obligations under them, as it had sustained in the case of the Nabob; and so highly important was the service which he rendered to the Company, that the Directors expressed their sense of it in the strongest terms.* When peace was concluded, the Rajah was secured from the effects of the Nabob's resentment and revenge, by an express article in the treaty; upon which the English insisted, and the guarantee of which they solemnly undertook. Upon the death of Bulwant Sing, in the year 1770, the disposition of the Vizir to dispossess the family, and take the province into his own hands, was strongly displayed, but the English again interfered, and compelled the Vizir to confirm the succession to Cheyte Sing, the son of the late Rajah, and his posterity for ever, on the same terms, excepting a small rise in the annual payment, as those on which the country had been held by his father. In the year 1773, when Mr. Hastings paid his first visit to the Nabob of Oude, the preceding agreement was renewed and confirmed. "The Nabob," said Mr. Hastings, "pressed me, in very earnest terms, for my consent, that he should dispossess the Rajah of

In their Bengal Letter, 26th May, 1768.

1781.

Agreement with the Rajah for a fixed

tribute, and exemption

the forts of Leteefgur and Bidgegur, and take from him ten lacs of rupees, over and above the stipulated rents; and he seemed greatly dissatisfied at my refusal." Mr. Hastings, however, insisted that all the advantages which had been secured to Bulwant Sing, and confirmed by the Nabob's own deed to Cheyte Sing, should be preserved; and he expressed, in the same letter, his opinion both of the faith of the Vizir, and the independence of the Rajah, in the following terms: "I am well convinced that the Rajah's inheritance, and perhaps his life, are no longer safe than while he enjoys the Company's protection; which is his due, by the ties of justice, and the obligations of public faith: and which policy enjoins us to afford him ever most effectually: his country is a strong barrier to ours, without subjecting us to any expense; and we may depend upon him as a sure ally, whenever we may stand in need of his services." * It was established accordingly, that "no increase of revenue should ever thereafter be demanded."

When the Company's new government, established in 1774, resolved upon forming a new arrangement with the son and successor of the Vizir, lately deceased; the interest, whatever it was, which was possessed by the Vizir in the territory of the Rajah Cheyte Sing, was transferred from that chief to the Company. Upon this occasion, it was resolved, not only that no infringement should take place of the previous rights and privileges of the Rajah, but that other advantages should be annexed. Mr. Hastings took the lead in this determination; and earnestly maintained the policy of rendering the Rajah totally independent in the government of Benares, under nothing but the payment of a fixed and invariable tribute. To this, with only a nominal modification, the Council agreed. It was a primary object, professed by all, that the Rajah should be completely secured from all future encroachments, either upon his revenue, or his power; and an unanimous resolution was passed, that, so long as he discharged his engagements, "no more demands should be made upon him, by the Honourable Company, of any kind; nor, on any pretence whatsoever, should any person be allowed to interfere with his authority." To preclude all ground for such interference, the right of coining money, and of administering penal justice, was transferred to him. Mr. Hastings proposed that the Rajah should pay his tribute, not at his own capital of Benares, but at Patna, which was the nearest station for the business of government, within the terri

* Secret Consultations, Fort William, 4th Oct. 1773; Extract of the Governor-General's Report; Second Report of the Select Committee, 1782, p. 12.

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