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1782.

The Mahrattas also agreed, and to this the imaginations of the English CHAP. VII. attached a high importance, that with the exception of the ancient Portuguese establishments, they would permit no other nation, except the English, to open with them any friendly intercourse, or to erect a factory within their dominions. The terms of this agreement, the gentlemen of the Presidency of Bombay arraigned as inadequate, nay humiliating; and declared, that had the negotiation been left to them and to Goddard, who best knew the state of the Mahratta government, and with what facility it might have been induced to lower its tone, a far more favourable treaty might have certainly been obtained.

it should be opened again for the purpose of inserting the useless, if not mischievous, formality of an article, admitting as a party the Nabob of Arcot. These imputations receive all the confirmation, conveyed by an answer, which, passing them over in silence, appears to admit them.

1781. Situation of Oude.

CHAP. VIII.

Burdens sustained by the Nabob of Oude-His Complaints-How received by the English-Mr. Bristow removed from Oude-Agreement between Mr. Hastings and the Nabob-The Begums despoiled-Whether the Begums incited Insurrection-Alleged Oppressions of Colonel Hannay-The head Eunuchs of the Begums tortured-A Present of ten Lacs given to Mr. Hastings by the Nabob-Governor-General accuses Middleton, and replaces Bristow Treatment received by Fyzoolla Khan-Decision by the Court of Directors, relative to the Begums-Set at nought by Mr. Hastings -Governor-General's new Accusations against Mr. Bristow-GovernorGeneral's Plan to remove the Residency from Oude-Governor-General repeats his Visit to Oude-Resigns the Government-Financial Results of his Administration-Incidents at Madras.

BOOK V. THE next of the great transactions, to which the presence of the GovernorGeneral, in the upper provinces, gave immediate existence, was the memorable arrangement which he formed with the Nabob of Oude. In his payments to the Company, that Nabob had fallen deeply in arrear; and the extreme pecuniary distress endured by the Company,* rendered it necessary to devise the most effectual means for obtaining what he owed. His country, however, had, by misgovernment, fallen into the greatest disorder: The Zemindars were almost every where in a state of disobedience; the country was impoverished; and the disposition of the people; either deserting it, or pining with want; threatened the evils, or promised the blessings, of a general revolt. † Before the connexion between the English and Oude, its revenue had exceeded three millions sterling, and was levied without being accused of deteriorating the country. In the year 1779, it did not exceed one half of that sum, and in the subsequent years fell

* Even the pay of the troops was, every where, four and five months in arrear.

+ The Minute in which the Governor-General introduced the subject of his journey to the upper provinces, begins in these words; "The province of Oude having fallen into a state of great disorder and confusion, its resources being in an extraordinary degree diminished, and the Nabob Asoph ul Dowla," &c. Tenth Report of the Select Committee in 1781, App. No. 2.

far below it, while the rate of taxation was increased, and the country exhibited CHAP. VIII. every mark of oppressive exaction.

1781.

burthens laid

By the treaty of Fyzabad, formed with the late Nabob, at the conclusion of Progress of the the Rohilla war, it was agreed, that a regular brigade of the Company's troops upon the Nashould, at the expense of the Nabob, be kept within the dominions of Oude. bob by the English. Even this burthen was optional, not compulsory; and the Court of Directors gave their sanction to the measure, " 'provided it was done with the free consent of the Subah, and by no means without it." *

2

To the first was added, in the year 1777, a second, called the temporary brigade, because the express condition of it was, that the expense should be charged on the Nabob " for so long a time only as he should require the corps for his service." The Court of Directors were still more anxious, in this case than in the former, to determine, that the burthen should not be fastened upon the Nabob, contrary to his will: "If you intend" (say they, addressing the Governor-General and Council) "to exert your influence, first, to induce the Vizir to acquiesce in your proposal; and afterwards to compel him to keep the troops in his pay during your pleasure, your intents are unjust, and a correspondent conduct would reflect great dishonour on the Company."

Even the temporary brigade did not put a limit to the expense for English soldiers whom the Nabob was drawn to maintain. Several detached corps, in the Company's service, were also placed in his pay; and a great part of his own native troops were put under the command of British officers.

In the year 1779, the expense of the temporary brigade, and that of the country troops under British officers, increased, the one to the amount of more than eighty, the other of more than forty thousand pounds sterling, above the estimate. These particulars, however, constitued only the military part of his English expense. The civil expense resulted from an establishment under the resident, which, without any authority from the Court of Directors, or any record in the books of the Council, had gradually and secretly swelled to a great amount; along with this, from another establishment for another agent of the Company; and from pensions, allowances, and large occasional gifts, to various persons in the Company's service.

In that year, viz. 1779, the Nabob complained that the pressure was more The Nabob complains of than he was able to endure. "During three years past," said he, "the expense oppression. occasioned by the troops in brigade, and others commanded by European officers,

* Letter of Directors to the Governor-General and Council, dated 15th December, 1775. VOL. II.

4 L

1781.

Book V. has much distressed the support of my household: insomuch, that the allowances made to the seraglio and children of the deceased Nabob have been reduced to one fourth of what it had been, upon which they have subsisted in a very distressed manner for two years past. The attendants, writers, and servants, &c. of my court, have received no pay for two years past; and there is at present no part of the country that can be allotted to the payment of my father's private creditors, whose applications are daily pressing upon me. All these difficulties I have for these three years past struggled through, and found this consolation therein, that it was complying with the pleasure of the Honourable Company, and in the hope that the Supreme Council would make inquiry from impartial persons into my distressed situation; but I am now forced to a representation. From the great increase of expense, the revenues were necessarily farmed out at a high rate; and deficiences followed yearly. The country and cultivation is abandoned. And this year, in particular, from the excessive drought, deductions of many lacs have been allowed the farmers, who are still unsatisfied.-I have received but just sufficient to support my absolute necessities, the revenues being deficient, to the amount of fifteen lacs; † and for this reason, many of the old chieftains, with their troops, and the useful attendants of the court, were forced to leave it, and there is now only a few foot and horse for the collection of my revenues: and should the Zemindars be refractory, there is not left a sufficient number to reduce them to obedience." In consequence of these distressing circumstances, the Nabob prayed, that the assignments for the new brigade, and the other detached bodies of the Company's troops, might not be required, declaring that these troops were "not only quite useless to his government, but, moreover, the cause of much loss, both in the revenues and customs; and that the detached bodies of troops, under their European officers, brought nothing but confusion into the affairs of his government, and were entirely their own masters."

The complaint treated with indignation.

This representation, which events proved to be hardly an exaggeration, and the prayer by which it was followed, the Governor-General received, with tokens of the highest indignation and resentment. "These demands," he said, "the tone in which they are asserted, and the season in which they are made, are all equally alarming." In the letter which was dispatched in his words to the resident, the grounds on which the Nabob petitioned for relief are declared to

*Stated by the resident, in his letter, dated 13th December, 1779, to amount to twenty-five lacs, 250,000l.

† 150,000l.

Tenth Report, ut supra, Appendix, No. 7.

1781.

be "totally inadmissible.-He stands engaged," it is added, "to our govern- CHAP. VIII. ment, to maintain the English armies which, at his own request, have been formed for the protection of his dominions; and it is our part, not his, to judge and to determine, in what manner, and at what time, these shall be reduced or withdrawn." In his minute, in consultation, upon the subject, he says, that, by the treaty made with Asoph ul Dowla, upon the death of his father, "he became, eventually, and necessarily, a vassal of the Company." He affirmed that "the disorders of his state, and the dissipation of his revenues, were the effects of his own conduct, which had failed, not so much from the casual effects of incapacity, as from the detestable choice which he has made of the ministers of his power, and the participators of his confidence."* And to the Nabob himself he declared, "Your engagements with the Company are of such a nature as to oblige me to require and insist on your granting tuncaws for the full amount of their demands upon you for the current year, and on your reserving funds sufficient to answer them, even should the deficiency of your revenues compel you to leave your own troops unprovided for, or to disband a part of them to enable you to effect it."†

tain the bur

The difficulties, under which the Governor-General was placed, were severe Reasons of the English for and distressing. It is true, that the protection of the Nabob's dominions rested compelling the solely upon the British troops, and that without loss of time they would have Nabob to susbeen over-run by the Mahrattas, had these troops been withdrawn; it is true, then. that the debt due to the Company would, in that case, have been lost; that a dangerous people would have been placed upon the Company's frontier; that the Company's finances, always in distress, and then suffering intensely by war, could not maintain the same number of troops, if their pay was stopped by the Vizir. And the law of self-preservation supersedes that of justice. On the other hand, from the documents adduced, it is evident that the English had no right to compel the Nabob, if not agreeable to him, to maintain any part of those their troops; and the Governor-General was not entitled, as he did, to plead both, at once, the law of self-preservation, and the law of right. The truth also is, that * The words which follow sufficiently indicate the species of companions which he meant: "I forbear to expatiate further on his character; it is sufficient that I am understood by the Members of the Board, who must know the truth of my allusions." Lord Thurlow, his friend, and the fierce defender of him, on his trial, speaks out more plainly, and calls them, without reserve, the instruments of an unnatural passion. See "Debates in the House of Lords, on the Evidence delivered at the Trial of Warren Hastings," &c.; a quarto volume got up by Mr. Hastings, and distributed to his friends, but never published.

Tenth Report, ut supra, Appendix, No. 7.

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