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1784.

authorized to proceed to Lucknow, vested with all the powers of the Board, to CHAP. VIII. regulate and determine the affairs both internal and external of the state, and for that purpose to command even the military resources of the English government without control. The proposition of the Governor-General was introduced on the 20th of January, 1784; the consultation was closed, and the authority of the Board conferred on the 16th of February; and on the following day, the 17th, the journey of the Governor-General began.

In proceeding to Lucknow, he passed through the province of Benares, which, in the time of Cheyte Sing and his father, manifested so great a degree of prosperity; and, there, witnessed the effects of his late proceedings. The first deputy whom he had appointed for the Rajah was dismissed for the offence of not making up his payments to the exacted amount. The second, as might well be expected, acted upon the "avowed principle, that the sum fixed for the revenue must be collected." The consequence was, that the population were plunged into misery; and desolation pervaded the country. "From the confines of Buxar," says Mr. Hastings, " to Benares, I was followed and fatigued by the clamours of the discontented inhabitants. The distresses which were produced by the long-continued drought unavoidably tended to heighten the general discontent. Yet, I have reason to fear, that the cause existed principally, in a defective, if not a corrupt and oppressive administration." "I am sorry to add, that from Buxar to the opposite boundary, I have seen nothing but traces of complete devastation in every village." "I cannot help remarking, that except the city of Benares, the province is in effect without a government. The administration of the province is misconducted, and the people oppressed; trade discouraged, and the revenue in danger of a rapid decline from the violent appropriation of its means." * It is remarkable, how few of the political arrangements of Mr. Hastings produced the effects which he expected from them; and how much his administration consisted in a perpetual change of ill-concerted measures. The arrangements for the government of Benares were his own; and for the effects of them he was responsible; but he enjoyed a happy faculty of laying the blame at any door rather than his own. He ascribed the existing evils to the deputy solely; and with the approbation of the Council removed him. The predecessor of that deputy, who transgressed in nothing but the extent of his exactions, met with a severer fate. To procure some redress of his grievances, he had even repaired in person to Calcutta, where, so far from receiving any attention, he

* Letter from the Governor-General to the Council Board, dated Lucknow, 2d April, 1784.

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Book V. received two peremptory orders from the Supreme Council to quit the city, and return. Nor was this all. Upon the arrival of Mr. Hastings at Benares, he ordered him into prison again; after which his vexations and hardships soon put a period to his life. His poverty was real, and he died insolvent.

1784.

Mr. Hastings resigns the go

vernment.

66

The Governor-General arrived at Lucknow on the 27th of March. He had some success in obtaining money from the minister into whose hands the government was transferred. In order still more to disburthen the revenues of the Vizir, he agreed to withdraw the English detachment commanded by Colonel Sir John Cummings, which still was stationed on the frontiers of Oude at the Nabob's expense; and upon this consideration, "That the Company would gain nothing by its continuance, since the Nabob had not the means of defraying the expense; and whether it remains," he added, " on account of the Company, or be continued to swell the Nabob's with an accumulating debt which he cannot pay, its effects on the Company's funds will prove the same, while it holds out a deception to the public." Mr. Hastings had eluded inquiry into the truth of the allegations on which the confiscation of the estates and treasures of the Begums, and others, had been ordered; and the commands of the Court of Directors had till this time remained without effect. The time, however, was now come, when at least a partial obedience was deemed expedient; and Mr. Hastings reported to the Board, that the jaghires of the Begums, and of the Nabob Salar Jung, the uncle of the Vizir, had been "restored, conformably to the Company's orders, and more so to the inclinations of the Nabob Vizir, who went to Fyzabad for the express purpose of making a respectful tender of them in person to the Begums." The restoration, however, tardy as it was, fell greatly short of completeness; for Mr. Hastings reported that the personages, in question, had made a voluntary concession of a large portion of their respective shares." The Governor-General was now so far from expressing any apprehension of disorder from the possession of jaghires by the Princesses and other principal persons of the Nabob's family, that he declared his expectation of their influence in supporting the arrangements which had taken place with the Vizir.*

The Governor-General departed from Lucknow on the 27th of August. He arrived at the Presidency on the 4th of November, resumed his seat at the Council Board on the 11th, and on the 22d reminded the Directors of his request, addressed to them on the 20th of March in the year 1783, to nominate

*Letter from the Governor-General to the Council Board, dated Benares, 20th September,

his successor. He now began to prepare for his departure. On the 8th of CHAP. VIII. February, 1785, he resigned his office, and embarked for England.*

1785.

ministration.

In India, the true test of the government, as affecting the interest of the Financial reEnglish nation, is found in its financial results. In 1772, when the administra-sults of his adtion of Mr. Hastings began, the net revenues of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, which being the principal branch of receipt will suffice for that general conception which I can attempt to convey, were 2,373,6501.; the civil and military changes of the government of Bengal were 1,705,2797.; difference 668,3717.; the whole of the bond and other debts in India were 1,850,1667.; and the debt in England, including capital-stock, and the sums due to the annuitants was 12,850,166. In 1785, the revenues of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, including the new revenue of Benares, and the subsidies from Oude, amounted to 5,315,1977.; the charges, deducting Clive's jaghire, 30,000l. per annum, which ceased in 1784, one half of the allowance to the Nabob of Bengal, and the tribute to the Mogul, amounted to 4,312,5197., the difference 1,002,6787., which is an improvement upon that of 1772 of 334,3071.; but, on the other hand, the debt in 1786, when the whole of the arrears of Mr. Hastings' administration were brought to account, was raised to 15,443,349/. in England; and in India, including China, to 10,464,955l.; a sum of 25,908,334.; to which should be joined 1,240,000. the sum which was yielded by the subscription, at 155 per cent. of 800,000%. added this year to the capital-stock. The administration of Mr. Hastings therefore added about twelve and a half millions to the debt of the East India Company; and the interest at five per cent. of this additional debt, is more than the amount of the additional revenue.†

Nor is this the only unhappy result in the financial administration of Mr. Hastings. The net territorial revenues of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, instead of increasing, had actually declined. In the year ending the 1st of May, 1772, they amounted to the sum of 2,126,7667., and in the year ending on the same

* For the preceding train of measures, the reader is referred to the Papers, relating to the province of Oude, presented to the House of Commons in the year 1786; to the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixteenth, and Twenty-second Articles of Charge, presented by Burke, with the Answers of Mr. Hastings, and the Appendix of Documents printed along with them; also to the Minutes of Evidence on the Trial, in which the Documents were printed again.

† For these statements see the accounts exhibited in the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Reports of the Committee of Secrecy in 1781; and the accounts presented to parliament for the several years. See also Bruce's Plans for British India, p. 323.

1785.

Book V. day in 1785, to that of 2,072, 9631.* In Lord Cornwallis's celebrated revenue letter, dated 16th November, 1786, it is allowed, that the state of the accounts exhibits a debt in India of 8,91,25,518 rupees, and assets valued at 5,81,24,567, with a balance against the Company of 3,10,00,950. But Lord Cornwallis observes, that the account of assets is so much made up for the sake of show, that is, delusion, that it presents a result widely distant from the truth; and that the balance between the debts, and such assets as are applicable to their extinction, would not, in his opinion, fall short of 7,50,00,000 rupees. "Of this debt something more than a crore of rupees was subscribed for transference

* An account presented to the House of Commons, March 30th, 1786. See also the following statement of the Bengal Revenues, taken from the printed Minutes of Evidence on Mr. Hastings' Trial, p. 1275.

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61

1782.

to England, leaving a debt of about 6 crore, "nearly the whole of which," he CHAP. VII. says, " is running at an average rate of interest of 8 per cent. per annum." "For the discharge of this," his Lordship adds, "your Bengal government alone can hereafter furnish a fund; which (under the limitations in the estimate), is stated at a gross sum of about 46,00,000 current rupees per annum. And the ordinary expenses of your different settlements, allowing for the provision of an European investment, at present exceed their resources."* That is to say; The revenue of the Indian government, at the close of the administration of Mr. Hastings, was not equal to its ordinary expense.

The incidents which had occurred under the Presidency of Madras, from the Madras Presidency. period of terminating the war with Tippoo, till the time when Mr. Hastings surrendered his office, remain to be produced.

The situation of the Nabob of Arcot, as it had long been, so continued to The Nabob made to assign be, a source of uneasiness and of difficulty to the English rulers in the southern the revenues Presidency. The wretched government, which that Nabob maintained, and of Carnatic. which his want of talents, his want of virtue, and the disadvantages of his situation, disqualified him for improving, not only sunk the people into the deepest wretchedness, but cut off the resources required for the defence of the country. The impossibility, which the Presidents had experienced, of obtaining, through his hands, the means which were necessary to provide for the security of the province; or their connivance, from unworthy motives, at his unwillingness to

Years.

Another View of the Collections under the Bengal Government.

Current Collec- Collected account
tions.
Balances.

Gross Collection. Charges Collec- Annual Receipts into
tion.
the Treasury.

2,56,17,989
2,56,17,989 41,56,970

2,14,61,019

2,10,80,460

1772-3 2,37,29,763 18,18,226
1773-4 2,35,77,528 18,05,528
1774-5 2,37,20,882 17,40,399
1775-6 2,40,33,296 12,18,176
1776-7 2,36,21,604 13,94,769
1777-8 2,24,30,527 20,79,450
1778-9 2,30,41,818 19,19,747
1779-80 2,37,01,863 15,66,321
1780-81 2,26,82,691 14,24,542 2,41,07,233 60,98,510

2,53,83,057 43,02,596
2,54,61,282 41,51,272 2,13,10,009
2,55,51,472 45,07,471 2,10,44,001
2,56,16,373 49,05,739 2,01,10,434
2,45,08,978 53,80,818
2,49,61,565 56,45,946
2,47,68,185 56,80,937

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1,91,28,160
1,93,15,618

1,90,83,547

1,80,08,723

1,95,78,993.

1,94,75,316

1,86,43,107

Mr. Stuart's Minute on the Revenues of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa; Minutes of printed evidence of Hastings' Trial, Appendix, Art. vi. No. 157, p. 904.

* Extract from Revenue Letter, printed by order of the House of Commons, 1787.

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