1772. With regard to the second of the above-described portions, a minute, in the CHAP. I. Consultation, 11th July, 1772, signed Warren Hastings, says, "The President proposes Rajah Goordass, the son of Maha Rajah Nundcomar, for the office of Dewan to the Nabob's household. The inveterate and rooted enmity which has long subsisted between Mahomet Reza Cawn and Nundcomar, and the necessity of employing the vigilance and activity of so penetrating a rival to counteract the designs of Mahomet Reza Cawn, and to eradicate that influence which he still retains in the government of this province, and more especially in the family of the Nabob, are the sole motives for this recommendation.” * The revenue allowed to the use of the Nabob had hitherto been so great a sum as thirty-two lacs of rupees. Of this the Directors had already complained; The case would be the same were any other man placed in that station. The truth is, that the affairs of the Company stand at present, on a footing which can neither last as it is, nor be maintained on the rigid principles of private justice: You must establish your own power, or you must hold it dependant on a superior, which I deem to be impossible. "The Begum, as a woman, is incapable of passing the bounds assigned her. Her ambition cannot aspire to higher dignity. She has no children to provide for, or mislead her fidelity. Her actual authority rests on the Nabob's life, and therefore cannot endanger it; it must cease with his minority, when she must depend absolutely on the Company for support against her ward and pupil, who will then become her master." Fifth Report, Committee of Secrecy, 1781, Appendix, No. iv. * Minutes, ut supra, p. 994: The President goes on, "These reasons will justify the nomination of a man to supply the place of the late Naib Soobah, who is known to be his most violent opponent, and most capable of opposing him. It is not pretended that these ends are to be obtained merely from the abilities of Rajah Gourdass; his youth and inexperience render him, although unexceptionable in other respects, inadequate to the real purposes of his appointment; but his father hath all the abilities, perseverance, and temper, requisite for such ends, in a degree, perhaps, exceeding any man in Bengal. These talents, heretofore, made him obnoxious to government itself, and therefore it might be thought unsafe to trust him with an authority so near the Nabob;.... it is therefore proposed to confer it upon his son, who is of himself incapable of making a very bad use of it, and to allow of his acting under the influence and instruction of his father, who, holding no office under the Nabob, and being a subject of our government, may be removed without eclat, or the least appearance of violence, whenever he shall be proved, or even suspected, to abuse his trust." Messrs. Dacres, Lawrel, and Graham, dissented from the President and the majority, and objected to the appointment of Rajah Goordass, "Because," say they, "we esteem it, in effect, the appointment of Nundcomar, who, with respect to the various accusations against his political conduct, and the orders which have been in consequence received, stands in such a predicament as to preclude, in our opinion, an acquiescence in the President's proposition." Ib. 996. In his answer, the President vindicates the political conduct of Nuncomar, which he affirms to be without blemish, though he says he will “not take upon him to vindicate his moral character." Ib. 996, 997. BOOK V. and, agreeably to their directions, in January, 1772, on the allegation of the nonage of the Nabob, it was reduced to one half. Khan and Shitabroy to trial. 1772. Delay in Mahomed Reza Khan and Shitabroy were brought prisoners to Calcutta in bringing Mahomed Reza, the month of April. In his letter of the 1st of September, to the Court of Directors, Mr. Hastings says: "It may at first sight appear extraordinary, that Mahmud Rizza Cawn and Rajah Shitab Roy have been so long detained in confinement without any proofs having been obtained of their guilt, or measures taken to bring them to a trial." Among the causes of this, he first specifies the great load of business with which the time of the counsel had been consumed. He then says, "Neither Mahmud Rizza Cawn nor Rajah Shitab Roy complain of the delay as a hardship. Perhaps all parties, as is usual in most cases of a public concern, had their secret views, which, on this occasion, though opposite in their direction, fortunately concurred in the same points. These had conceived hopes of a relaxation of the Company's orders; Mahmud Rizza Cawn had even buoyed himself up with the hopes of a restoration to his former authority by the interests of his friends and a change in the Direction. I pretend not to enter into the views of others; my own were these: Mahmud Rizzą Cawn's influence still prevailed generally throughout the country; in the Nabob's household, and at the capital, it was scarce affected by his present disgrace; his favour was still courted, and his anger dreaded: Who, under such discouragements, would give information or evidence against him? His agents and creatures filled every office of the Nizamut and Dewannee; how was the truth of his conduct to be investigated by these? It would be superfluous to add other arguments to show the necessity of pressing the inquiry by breaking his influence, removing his dependants, and putting the directions of all the affairs which had been committed to his care, into the hands of the most powerful or active of his enemies. With this view, too, the institution of the new Dewannee obviously coincided. These were my real motives for postponing the inquiry."* With respect to the further progress of that inquiry, for facilitating which such extraordinary proceedings had been described as necessary, proceedings sufficient to procure the destruction, when required, of the most innocent men; it was nevertheless, after two years' confinement, degradation, and anxiety, judicially declared, that in Mahomed Reza Khan, and Rajah Shitabroy, no guilt had been proved. There is no proof that their destruction was at any time an object with Mr. Hastings; and their acquittal proves that certainly it was not * Committee of Secrecy, 1781, Fifth Report, Appendix, No. iv. 1772. so to the end. Of Mahomed Reza Khan, as connected with subsequent facts of CHAP. I. great importance, we shall afterwards have to speak. But the mind of Shitabroy, who was a man of a high spirit, was too deeply wounded for his health to escape; and he died of a broken heart a short time after his return to Patna. As some compensation for the ill-usage of Shitabroy, Mr. Hastings, on his visit to Patna, when travelling to meet the Vizir at Benares, in 1773, appointed his son Roy-royan, or chief native agent of finance, in the province of Bahar; "from an entire conviction," as he declared, "of the merits and faithful services, and in consideration of the late sufferings, of his deceased father."* Bengal with powers. During the time in which this great revolution was effecting in the govern- Situation of ment of Bengal, the situation of the neighbouring powers was preparing another respect to the field of action for the ambition and enterprise of the Company's servants. The neighbouring loss which the Mahrattas had sustained in their late contest with the Abdalees, and the dissensions which prevailed among their chiefs, had for several years preserved the northern provinces from their alarming incursions. Nujeeb ad Dowla, the Rohilla, in whom, as imperial deputy, the chief power, at Delhi, had been vested, upon the departure of the Abdalee Shah, had, by his wisdom and vigour, preserved order and tranquillity in that part of Hindustan. The Emperor, Shah Aulum, who resided at Allahabad, in the enjoyment of the districts of Allahabad and Corah, allotted as his dominion in the treaty lately concluded with him by the English and Vizir, his state being in some measure supported by the payment or expectation of the share which was due to him and which the English rulers had bound themselves to pay of the revenues of Bengal; had manifested great impatience, even before the conclusion of Mr. Verelst's government, to march to Delhi, and to mount the throne of his ancestors. Respect for the English, who laboured to repress this fond desire, and for the power of Nujeeb ad Dowla, who might not willingly retire from his command, delayed the execution of the Emperor's designs. Nujeeb ad Dowla died in the year 1770, about the very time when the ambition of Shah Aulum had stimulated him to the hazardous project of courting the Mahrattas to assist him in returning to Delhi. With or without the concert of the Emperor, three powerful chiefs, Tookagee, The MahratSindia, and Besagee, had taken a position to the northward of the river Chum- tas escort the Emperor to bal, and hovered over the adjoining provinces with 30,000 horse. The Em- Delhi. For the above scenes, beside the documents already quoted, see Scott's Hist. of Bengal, p. 453; and Seer Mutakhareen, ii. 418. 1772. Book V. peror, in the beginning of the year 1771, had dispatched his minister to Calcutta to obtain, if not the assistance, at least the approbation of the English, to his projected expedition; and was not restrained by their dissuasions. By the exertion of the Mogul nobles, and the assistance of the Vizir, who is said to have acted with more than his usual liberality,* he was enabled, in the month of May, 1771, to march from Allahabad at the head of an army of 16,000 men. At the town of Nabbee Gunge, about thirty miles beyond the city of Furookabad, on the high road to Delhi, where he was constrained, by the commencement of the rains, to canton his army, a Mahratta vakeel, or ambassador, awaited his arrival, and presented the demands of his masters. Whatever balance of chout was due from the time of Mahomed Shah, must be discharged: Whatever plunder should be taken, must be divided equally between the Mogul and Mahratta troops: The Mahratta leaders must be confirmed in their jaghires: And five lacs of rupees,† toward the expense of the war, must be immediately advanced to the Mahrattas from the imperial treasury. With whatever indignation these imperious terms might be heard, no reluctance was to be shown. When the season for marching returned, the Mahratta chiefs and the nobles of Delhi joined the retinue of the Emperor; and on the 25th of December he made his entrance into the capital, with all the display which his circumstances placed within the compass of his power. Zabita Khan, schief. The MahratThe Mahrattas afforded the Emperor but a few days to enjoy the dignity and tas and Empleasures of his capital; when they hurried him into the field. The country peror attack the country of of the Rohillas was the object of cupidity to both; to the Emperor, as an a Rohilla increase of his limited territory; to the Mahrattas, as a field of plunder, if not a permanent possession. Saharunpore, the jaghire of the late minister Nujeeb ad Dowla, the Rohilla chief, who had served the royal family with so much fidelity and talent, and, in the absence of the Emperor, had governed the city and province of Delhi for a number of years, lay most accessible. It was not, as the other possessions of the Rohillas, on the further side of the Ganges, but commenced under the Sewalic hills, at a distance of seventy miles from Delhi, and was terminated by the strong fortress of Ghose Ghur on the north, and by Francklin's Shah Aulum, p. 36. In the Seer Mutakhareen the Vizir is said to have exerted himself to deter the Emperor. The truth is, he acted insidiously; in appearance dissuading the Emperor from the projected expedition, to keep fair with the English; secretly encouraging him to it, from the hopes of profiting, as he did, by this improvident adventure. + Scott (Aurungzebe's Successors, p. 249) mentions ten lacs of rupees, without any other conditions or exactions. 1772. Sakertal on the east. The resumption of the government of Delhi, which had CHAP. I. been possessed by Nujeeb ad Dowla and transmitted to his son Zabita Khan, and the idea of the resentment which that chief must have conceived upon this retrenchment of his power, rendered him an object of apprehension to the Emperor, and recommended to his approbation the project of commencing operations with the reduction of Saharunpore. The Mogul forces, which the Emperor accompanied in person, were commanded by Mirza Nujeef Khan, a native of Persia, who accompanied to Delhi Mirza Mhosan, the brother of Suffder Jung, the Nabob of Oude, when he returned from the embassy on which he had been sent to Nadir Shah, after his invasion of Hindustan. Mirza Nujeef was of a family said to be related to the Sophi sovereigns of Persia, and was held in confinement by the jealousy of Nadir. He and his sister were released at the intercession of the Hindustan ambassador; when the sister became the wife of her deliverer; and the brother accompanied them on their departure to Hindustan. After the death of his benefactor, Mirza Nujeef adhered to the fortunes of his son, Mahomed Coollee Khan, Governor of Allahabad; and when that unfortunate Prince was treacherously put to death by his cousin Sujah Dowla, the son and successor of Suffder Jung, Nujeef Khan retired with a few followers into Bengal, and offered his services to Meer Causim. When that Nabob fled for protection to the Nabob of Oude, whom Nujeef Khan, as the friend of Mahomed Coollee Khan, was afraid to trust, he departed into Bundelcund, and was received into employment by one of the chiefs of that country. Upon the flight of Sujah Dowla, after the battle of Buxar, Mirza Nujeef offered his services to the English; advanced claims to the government of Allahabad; was favourably received; and put in possession of a part of the country. But when the transfer of that district to the Emperor came to be regarded as a politic arrangement, the pretensions of Nujeef Khan were set aside; and, in the way of compensation, he was allowed a pension of two lacs of rupees from the English revenues, and recommended warmly to the Emperor. His talents and address raised him to a high station in the service of that enfeebled Sovereign, whom he accompanied, as commander of the forces, on his ill-fated expedition to Delhi. The united power of the Emperor and Mahrattas, Zabita Khan, though he made a spirited defence, was unable to withstand. He was overcome in battle; and fled across the Ganges, in hopes to defend what territories he possessed on the opposite side. He stationed parties of troops at the different fords; but this weakened his main body; Nujeef Khan gallantly braved the stream; and was |
