LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 RIVERSIDE
 
 BARODA AND BOMBAY; 
 
 POLITICAL MORALITY. 
 
 A NARRATIVE 
 
 FROM THE PAPERS LAID BEFORE PARLIAMENT 
 a RELATION TO THE 
 
 REMOVAL OF LIEUT.-COL. OUTRAM, C.B., 
 
 FROM THE OFFICE OF 
 
 RESIDENT AT THE COURT OF THE GAEKWAR. 
 
 WITH 
 
 13iplanatorp Xotrs, 
 
 ATO 
 
 REMARKS ON THE LETTER OF L. R. REID, ESQ., 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY XEWS. 
 
 BY JOHN CHAPMAN, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE COTTOK ANT> COMMERCE OF IXDIA CONSIDERED rx 
 
 RELATIO.V TO GREAT BRITAIN." 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN CHAPMAN, 142, STRAND. 
 
 MDCCCLTII.
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY WOODFAT.L AND KINW.H, 
 
 ANGEL COURT, SKINNER 8TKK.KT.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE following narrative is drawn from the documents com- 
 prised in the return made by the East India Company, to an 
 order of the House of Commons, on the motion of Mr. Anstey, 
 " of all Correspondence and Papers on the subject of Colonel 
 Outram's removal from the office of Resident at the Court 
 of the Guicowar ; or on the subject of the alleged Corruption 
 of Officers of the Bombay Government with bribes from 
 Baroda." (June 30, 1852, No. 560.) 
 
 The bulk of these Blue Books, 1514 folio pages, and, still 
 more, the extraordinary Disarrangement of their contents, 
 render an abstract of some kind necessary to many who re- 
 quire to be acquainted with the complicated facts related in 
 them. One instance of the confusion which prevails throughout 
 must suffice to characterise the whole. 
 
 Part of the papers relating to the case of Nursoo Punt are 
 contained in a " collection " which begins at page 944. We 
 first come at page 960 to matters in serious discussion between 
 the Bombay Government and Colonel Outram respecting 
 this native officer; then at page 988 we have a mere note at 
 the date of Colonel Outram's transmission to the Government 
 of a " Statement of Facts " seriously inculpating him ; then 
 we have 65 folio pages of orders, proceedings, minutes, 
 petitions, judgments, objections of Government and replies to 
 them, and it is not until we have entered on another collection 
 of papers that we find, at page 1054, the very important 
 " Statement" which ought to have been given where the note 
 of its transmission is placed, on which " Statement " all these 
 discussions are founded, and without which a great part of 
 them is unintelligible. The Government, however, thus stated 
 their own case first, and involved the whole in perplexity. The
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 actual suppression of a highly important paper of this series 
 will be found noticed in its proper place. 
 
 The papers appear to have been laid before Parliament, 
 by the East India Directors, exactly as they came from the 
 Government of Bombay. The only index given is useless 
 until the book is almost known by heart. 
 
 Whether this universal disorder came of a routine unfit for 
 practical uses, or of a desire to conceal in confusion that 
 which feared the light, it is necessary that the intricacy be 
 disentangled as well as that the mutual relations of the chief 
 
 O 
 
 facts be exhibited. It was found that these objects could only 
 be accomplished by means of a narrative, the incidents of 
 which should be referred for authority to their singularly 
 scattered places in the papers. References to original docu- 
 ments have been generally preferred where such were available, 
 although Colonel Outram's several Reports frequently exhibit 
 the same facts to the reader more conveniently; the latter, how- 
 ever, will be more easily found by each person for himself than 
 the former. A single number in the margin refers to a page of 
 the Blue Books ; a second after it gives the paragraph, letter, 
 note, or other division of the page, as may happen. The first 
 or perhaps principal paragraph or letter is often alone referred 
 to ; the reader will follow on for himself as far as seems to 
 be required. 
 
 Many of the notes and observations are intended to afford 
 some such help as familiarity with Indian subjects would 
 render unnecessary. The treatment of the whole subject, as 
 well as the opinions expressed, are to be attributed to myself 
 alone, although I am happy to have had such aid from Colonel 
 Outram as has prevented, I trust, any serious misapprehension 
 on my part, of important facts. 
 
 I am sorry that Mr. Reid's pamphlet, lately published, has 
 compelled me to add a " Postscript " to my original design. 
 The Dissents of thirteen Directors of the East India Com- 
 pany (part of the majority who agreed in them) became 
 available for publication only at the last moment. 
 
 J. CHAPMAN. 
 
 March, 1853.
 
 BARODA AND BOMBAY. 
 
 " KHUTPUT " is a word employed in some of the lan- 
 guages of India to denote active, toilsome, vexatious 
 business ; it is conventionally and most frequently used 
 in the sense of endeavouring to accomplish private pur- 
 poses by means of corrupt and hidden interest ; chiefly 
 bribery is understood. 
 
 Under the native Governments of India the practice 
 of Khutput was universal and shameless. Where there 
 is no elevated standard of morality, whether of autho- 
 rity or usage, and no constitutional security against 
 wrong, the resort of men with purposes to accomplish 
 in which the Government is concerned must commonly 
 be to underhand arts. In a less advanced state of our 
 own national morality and polity it was with us as it is 
 now with them ; although we now attach to these arts 
 some measure of their due shame. The pressure and 
 danger which give prevalence to this practice in the 
 East under native rule, are so generally felt, that in- 
 digenous public opinion does not much censure those 
 who employ it. Success, there even more than here, 
 is held in most cases of moral obliquity to justify the 
 means, and especially so in matters connected with 
 Government or money-getting. 
 
 The rule of Britain in India is founded on moral in-
 
 6 EASTERN CORRUPTION. 
 
 fluence. Eighty thousand Europeans, army included, 
 cannot be imagined to keep in subjection 130,000,000 
 of people by means of physical strength. We rule 
 simply because the natives of India believe they can 
 trust us better than they can trust one another. 
 Whatever injures the confidence of the natives in the 
 integrity, impartiality, and good faith of our Govern- 
 ment, weakens in the same degree the foundation of 
 our rule. 
 
 This special reason for sternly repressing corruption 
 in our Indian Government, is scarcely more imperative 
 than that supplied by the evils which ever flow from 
 the relaxation, perversion, and unfaithfulness of any 
 system of administration in which clandestine private 
 interests are suffered to mingle themselves with corpo- 
 rate or national objects ; and those evils must reach 
 their height in a country where few men hesitate to 
 offer a bribe, and where the abuse of power is necessa- 
 rily subject to comparatively feeble checks. The East 
 India Company, taught by grievous experience, have 
 long maintained the most stringent regulations, forbid- 
 ding illicit advantages to their officers, in any form, 
 under the most serious penalties. 
 
 21 _ # On the 15th of May, 1850, the Govern- 
 ment of Bombay issued a circular to its 
 officers, desiring each of them to ascertain whether 
 there existed within his district a general belief, or a 
 belief entertained by particular classes, that improper 
 designs could be promoted by " making Khutput in 
 Bombay," i. e. by obtaining the secret and corrupt 
 favour of men in power at that seat of Government. 
 
 On the part of the Government the issuing of such 
 
 a circular at all was a singular step. Some of their 
 
 most experienced officers had long before drawn their 
 
 attention to the scandal ; they had themselves loftily 
 
 disdained to notice it ; the unflinching deter- 
 
 1360-33! miration of Sir George Arthur, then Governor, 
 
 had brought to light most extensive intrigues 
 
 of the foulest kind in 1842-3 only seven years before ; 
 
 and since that time two members of council had re-
 
 KHUTPUT CIRCULAR, MAY, 1850. 7 
 
 ceived private intimations that it would be to 
 their advantage to favour a certain wealthy 
 establishment at Baroda, which will figure prominently 
 in the following pages. What more could the Govern- 
 ment want to satisfy them that, whatever they really 
 were, the people believed them to be corrupt ? 
 
 The ostensible occasion of the circular was the 
 reception of certain reports from Mr. Albemarle Bet- 
 tington, magistrate at Ahmedabad, and Mr. Hart, 
 Enam Commissioner in the Southern Mahratta coun- 
 try, the two extremities of the Bombay presidency. 
 These reports are not, but should be, before Parliament ; 
 little more is publicly known of them than that they 
 so loudly complained of the difficulties occasioned by 
 the general belief that Government could not slight 
 them. Probably their effect was aided by the reite- 
 rated statements of Lieutenant-Colonel Outram, who 
 was then at Bombay ; this officer had long before and 
 often represented to the Government that both their 
 reputation and their measures had severely suffered 
 from this belief at Baroda, where, at times, for fourteen 
 years he had been intimately concerned in public affairs, 
 and where he was then " the Resident," representing 
 the British Government*. It became Colonel Outrain's 
 duty, in reply to the circular, to report on the subject 
 in reference to the affairs of Baroda, the capital of the 
 prince styled the Gaekwar ; whose dominions, much 
 intermingled with our own, form a great part of the 
 division of India called Guzerat. 
 
 The circular of the Government adverted to a " be- 
 lief," said to prevail " generally ;" to a belief " greatly 
 embarrassing" to the Government and its officers, and 
 " undermining the confidence of the ryots in the justice 
 of the system under which they are governed." It 
 also desired each officer to suggest measures which 
 
 * Under our peculiar engagements with most of the princes of 
 India, " the Resident" has to take a part in the management of the 
 country along with the Native Government, far exceeding any in- 
 terference which is exercised by diplomatic agents in Europe, or 
 which would he attempted by the boldest of them. 
 
 B 2
 
 8 BARODA. 
 
 might appear to him calculated to eradicate this dis- 
 honouring belief. 
 
 The consequent report of Colonel Outram, dated 
 31st October, 1851, embraced a long period ; 
 
 1279' f r > to adduce a f ew passing facts or surmises 
 would not have established the existence of 
 a belief which could possibly have " undermined the 
 confidence of the ryots ;" it embraced a large variety 
 of cases, for it was necessary to draw practical conclu- 
 sions which, on so delicate and important a subject, 
 single instances would not safely support ; it gave those 
 cases in detail, because the Government required sug- 
 gestions of remedial measures which could only be de- 
 duced from the nature of the transactions by which, if at 
 all, this " embarrassing " belief had been so long kept up. 
 
 All this, important everywhere, was peculiarly so at 
 Baroda, where not only is the prince, like other Indian 
 princes, subject to our general supremacy, but our 
 authority mingles in some sort with his in the actual 
 government of the country ; for, through former events, 
 most of his wealthy subjects hold our guarantee (bhan- 
 dree) against his oppression; and this guarantee lets 
 or drags us into many disputes with which elsewhere 
 in India we should not interfere. Both he (or the 
 party ruling in his name) and many of his subjects have 
 therefore unusually strong inducements to try to in- 
 fluence the measures of our Government by whatever 
 means ; practised agents in bribery, too, have every 
 reason for fomenting disputes which may keep their 
 vocation active. Prince, ministers, and subjects, all 
 have an interest in buying the aid of our officers, if 
 they can, sometimes in opposition to each other's 
 interests, and sometimes against those of our own 
 Government. 
 
 Corrupt intrigues had accordingly originated here, 
 which were still fresh in public recollection, and were 
 far "more flagrant in their character than any other 
 which had of late attempted the integrity of the 
 Western Government. The " Dackjee Dadajee " or- 
 ganization, for bribery on the largest scale, had been
 
 SUBJECT OF INVESTIGATION. 9 
 
 exposed only seven years before the date of the Go- 
 vernment circular, and the subsequent period had been 
 filled up with events scarcely less damaging to the re- 
 putation of the Government, at least while unexplained, 
 than they had been. Public attention was turned to 
 this quarter; here this belief in the easiness of our 
 virtue was known to have produced some of its worst 
 effects. 
 
 The subject of investigation, as defined by the cir- 
 cular, was the belief in the corruptibility of Govern- 
 ment, not the fact of Government having ever been, 
 or the probability of its being, corrupted : and this was 
 the true view of the matter ; for, if the Government 
 was believed by the people to be corruptible or cor- 
 rupted, nearly the same harm was done, as to embarrass- 
 ment and want of confidence, as if it had really been so. 
 
 We have then to place ourselves at the stand-point 
 of the natives, and to inquire what were the facts which 
 might foster a belief in the efficacy of " Khutput made 
 in Bombay," so general and long sustained as to be 
 " embarrassing " to the Government or its officers, and 
 " destructive of the confidence of the cultivators." We 
 may conclude such a belief not unreasonable if we find 
 men known amongst their countrymen as inveterate cor- 
 ruptionists are long maintained in offices against the re- 
 monstrances and exposure of their immediate European 
 superiors ; if we find such men succeeding for years 
 together in their objects ; if we find that anything to 
 be done in favour of known corruptionists, or in hin- 
 drance of proceedings against them, comes with prompt- 
 ness and decision from Government while an adverse 
 stroke, which must be struck, comes with hesitation and 
 delay ; if we find that others possessed of surreptitious 
 knowledge of the secret resolves of Government, boast 
 of that knowledge, and use it to their own profit in ad- 
 vance of the official communications of the Govern- 
 ment ; if at the inevitable end of a system of iniquity 
 the parties guilty in an unusual degree meet on convic- 
 tion with a punishment mitigated apparently for their 
 especial cases ; if those who have long been in-
 
 10 SARABHOY, 1835. 
 
 terested in these doings push the system further and at 
 greater cost, and those who have observed it engage in 
 it on their own account ; if, when a long-used machine 
 of iniquity breaks down, another is constructed of still 
 greater power ; and if, above all, while those univer- 
 sally known to have been the most active instigators 
 and agents of corruption escape with impunity, some- 
 times perhaps ill disguised (as it appeared to the 
 natives) by nominal punishment, those equally well 
 known to have aided zealously and faithfully in com- 
 bating the monstrous evil invariably suffered contumely, 
 oppression, and ruin. If these things appear, surely 
 the natives, at their point of view, had every reason 
 to believe that " Khutput " actually did its work in 
 Bombay, however incorruptible or even untempted the 
 Government or its members might really have been. 
 
 The following condensed abstract of the cases detailed 
 in the Parliamentary Papers relating to the dismissal of 
 Colonel Outram from the office of Resident of Baroda 
 should be read by the light of the foregoing remarks ; 
 and it must be noted that many of the documents of 
 the Government, although in form and purpose the 
 mere means of discussion or instruction within the 
 circle of the Government itself and its officers, often 
 really had the effect in many native quarters of the 
 most public measures; for it was afterwards proved 
 that the natives most implicated, long had faithful and 
 very prompt intelligence of everything which passed in 
 the highest and most private departments of the Go- 
 vernment at Bombay. 
 
 1341 We go back to 1835, when Lieutenant- 
 
 Colonel (then Captain) Outram assumed 
 charge of the office of Political Agent of the Mahee 
 Kanta, a semi-independent district of Guzerat, having 
 its own chiefs. The office was subordinate to that of 
 the Resident at Baroda, then held by Mr. Williams. 
 It is necessary to employ a confidential " Native Agent " 
 as the head of the Resident's establishment of clerks ; 
 and at that time Sarabhoy was so employed. This 
 man belonged to a class called the Nagur, or Snake
 
 THE THAKORE OF UMLEARA's WIDOWS. 11 
 
 Brahmins, noted even amongst their countrymen for 
 unscrupulous avarice and subtle craft : he had placed 
 many of his immediate personal connections in em- 
 ployment in the Resident's office, and others filled 
 important Government situations in other parts of 
 Guzerat. Moreover, he was closely leagued with the 
 Bank of Hurree Bhugtee, which possessed immense 
 wealth, which had the Gaekwar himself for one of its 
 partners, and which was known by many to negotiate 
 the bribes by which Sarabhoy and his associates pro- 
 fited. Unjust decisions, into which the British Govern- 
 ment had T)een betrayed, had already established a 
 general belief that this man and his connections had 
 the secret but effectual favour of men high in office, 
 when a case occurred to give weight and point to the 
 conviction. 
 
 The Thakore of Umleara died : he was a 
 chieftain, subordinate indeed to us, but in a 
 position not much unlike that of the Highland chiefs 
 of 150 years ago, whilst still possessed of their ancient 
 heritable jurisdictions. He left two widows, who dis- 
 puted the succession, each for her son : one of these 
 had been adopted according to the usage of India, and 
 was the successor in the absence of real issue ; the 
 other, born seven months after the father's death, was 
 entitled to the succession, if not spurious, in preference 
 to the other. The decision of the Government was in 
 favour of the former, on the ground that the child of 
 the latter was not her own offspring, but was brought 
 forward as hers in order to give herself the advantages 
 of the mother of the chief during and after the child's 
 minority. There seemed to the Government quite 
 evidence enough to establish the spuriousness of the 
 child. The country people, however, knowing more of 
 the case, were of a different opinion. 
 
 A few months afterwards, the affair came under the 
 official cognizance of Colonel Outram ; and finding reason 
 to believe that the Government was wrong and the 
 country people right, he obtained leave to re-investigate 
 the case. The Government reversed the decision, and
 
 12 PERJURY OF NATIVE OFFICIALS, 1837 AND 1838. 
 
 congratulated itself on having " escaped becoming 
 instrumental in the commission of an act of 
 
 13423. . . . ,, 
 
 great injustice. 
 
 But perjury and bribery came to light. Sarabhoy 
 had been succeeded in his confidential and highly im- 
 portant office by his brother-in-law Brijlal ; and it was 
 found that Brijlal and Dowlutram, another employe of 
 the Government, had received large bribes in the 
 affair, and both of them were members of the confe- 
 deracy which the people in Sarabhoy's time, just before, 
 had believed to have the corrupt favour of men high 
 in office. The perjured parties were 
 
 The THAKORE of GORASUR, a neighbouring chieftain, 
 possessing power of magistracy from the British 
 Government, 
 MOTEE GOVERDHUN, the Thakore of Gorasur's man 
 
 of business, 
 JEEBAWA, a native British officer, entrusted with 
 
 revenue management of a district, 
 ROOPRAM MEHTA and YOOLACHUND, men of busi- 
 ness to the elder of the litigant widows, 
 And some others. 
 
 It was necessary to bring these parties, or some of 
 them, to trial. The difficulty was to procure evidence 
 in opposition to the interests and influence of the Nagurs, 
 who were universally believed to have effectual secret 
 influence at the seat of power, and whose vengeance 
 was universally dreaded. The local British 
 officers recommended measures calculated to 
 overcome or diminish this difficulty ; the Government 
 decided on steps exactly the reverse. The local officers 
 recommended delay until the decision of the Govern- 
 ment on the case in which the parties had perjured them- 
 selves should have broken down to some extent their 
 prestige, and disappointed the parties who had given 
 the bribes ; the Government, which at first consented to 
 the postponement, suddenly hurried on the trial, to the 
 inevitable detriment of justice. A certain locality was 
 recommended for the trial, as tending to the procuring 
 of a true result ; the Government fixed the trial at
 
 OBSTRUCTIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT. 13 
 
 the head-quarters of the 'caste of the principal persons 
 accused, thus placing them in the midst of relatives, i 
 mates, and friends, many of them in office, and as deep in 
 bribery .y they. An inquiry, by officers who knew the 
 country, the people, and the influences likely to operate 
 for or against the truth, was recommended ; the Govern- 
 ment subjected the case to an investigation which, while 
 hampered with the forms of law, in. ichich the accused 
 expert, had not the binding effect of a trial; and 
 that investigation was had before judicial authorities 
 far from the scene of action. 
 
 Sarabhoy, really implicated, escaped conviction on 
 
 this charge, having meanwhile quitted his situation ; 
 
 90 but he might have been convicted at the same 
 
 time on another charge, had Government acted 
 
 with even ordinary delay on a letter which had been 
 
 some time before it. Brijlal escaped through efforts 
 
 of the same kind made by the former perjurers, but 
 
 i344-i~ was Declared " no * ; fr ee fr m suspicion." 
 Dowlutram was found guilty. 
 
 1344-1 * A practice had long been established, of 
 inserting in the Government Gazette a pro- 
 clamation declaring a native servant proved guilty of 
 corruption, incapable of serving the Government in 
 any capacity again : and of this practice an instance 
 had occurred but a few months before. The local 
 British officers implored the Government thus to pro- 
 claim Dowlutram, on the ground that that step would 
 tend to disabuse the natives as to the efficacy of 
 Khutput at Bombay. Government refused the mea- 
 sure, and contented itself with the mere private dis- 
 missal of Dowlutram from office. The people remarked 
 that this case, only the second in which the Govern- 
 ment had indulged itself in such leniency, related to a 
 caste-mate and confederate of Sarabhoy ; and that the 
 first, which had occurred not long before, 
 referred to Chotum Lall, Sarabhoy 's brother. 
 
 Brijlal escaped for a time through the new perjuries 
 of the Thakore of Gorasur, Motee Goverdhun, Jeebawa, 
 Juggabhoye, and the men of business of the elder
 
 14 BRIJLAL, MOTEE PURSHOTUM, AND DADOO PUNT. 
 
 litigant widow. When the British Judge in Guzerat 
 applied to his superiors in Bombay, for the depositions 
 in Brijlal's investigation, in order to try the above- 
 mentioned witnesses for perjury, Government replied 
 that the proceedings were not a trial but an 
 l \3Att iw^wzVj/, and as the oath had therefore been 
 1343-12. administered without sufficient authority, the 
 lying was not, in law, perjury. When it was 
 proposed to reinvestigate the same charges, Govern- 
 ment said it was not an inquiry but a trial, and so 
 decided that the accused could not be tried again. 
 
 These matters occupied the time from the beginning 
 of 1837 to the middle of 1838. Let us see what else 
 transpired during the same time. 
 
 Motee Lall Purshotum was the head na- 
 tive official employed by the British Govern- 
 ment in the district of Rajpeepla. He had oppressed 
 the people; but such is the terror, in India, of an 
 offended man in power (still more under native Go- 
 vernments than under ours), that the country suffered 
 in silence. Charges of corruption however were made 
 against him in Nov. 1836, by Lieut. Ramsay, his 
 British superior; Motee Purshotum offered to that 
 gentleman 10,000 rupees to suppress his charges. Go- 
 vernment ordered an investigation ; but just as it was 
 about to commence, a Government order so altered the 
 administrative arrangements of that part of the country, 
 that Lieut. Ramsay was displaced: being only re- 
 manded to his regiment, he applied for permission 
 to stay to finish the investigation; he was refused, 
 while another officer similarly situated in the district, 
 removed by the same change, was permitted to remain 
 for several months. 
 
 1353-8 ^ n tne ^sequent investigation, Motee 
 Purshotum was acquitted, and the Commis- 
 sioner, who conducted it, exclaimed against the extra- 
 ordinary perjury of those who had first accused him, 
 1354-10 an( ^ now con ^ ra dicted themselves. Govern- 
 ment congratulated itself that the character 
 of so eminent a public servant had been so vindicated.
 
 NO LAW AGAINST POLITICAL BRIBERY. 15 
 
 1355-12 ^ ^ ew mon t us afterwards, however, events 
 
 renewed the charge. It was then proved 
 that the wronged parties and the witnesses, struck with 
 consternation at the sudden and peremptory removal 
 of Lieutenant Ramsay, so evidently to them the result 
 of Khutput, denied the truth of all their former accusa- 
 tions, Motee Purshotum aiding the motives of some by 
 
 refunding the sums he had extorted from them. 
 
 When however these facts began to come to 
 light, and Motee's star appeared to wane, evidence 
 enough was obtained to show what a scourge he had been. 
 He was an accomplice of Brijlal, and was confined with 
 him, pending trial, by Mr. Sutherland, then the newly- 
 installed Political Commissioner. Government, how- 
 ever, desired these men to be suffered to reside at home 
 
 only under a surveillance, which really could 
 
 -i Oi?O "1 O * 
 
 _ 16 ' do nothing to prevent their subornation of 
 any perjury necessary for their further escape. 
 Dadoo Punt, a relative of Brijlal, was so clearly 
 1351-7 u ^ tv f Bribery that Mr. Malet, then Offi- 
 ciating Commissioner, confined him. Govern- 
 ment censured Mr. Malet for " inadvertence " in so 
 doing, and ordered him to be set at liberty. 
 Mr. Malet had however a far heavier charge 
 against him, that of falsifying recorded documents, and 
 so continued to keep him in hold, notwithstanding the 
 Government's order, until medical interference required 
 his liberation. He had expected, through confining 
 Dadoo Punt, to obtain evidence of the wide-spread cor- 
 ruption known to exist. Government quashed 
 the conviction on the greater charge, because 
 Brijlal, involved in it with him, was not present at the 
 1352-n investigation, and he escaped with simple un- 
 avoidable dismissal, for the smaller offence of 
 bribery. 
 
 In this case, and at this juncture in the in- 
 
 ... . / . i . f~t 
 
 qmries into native official corruption, Govern- 
 ment informed Mr. Malet that there was no law by which 
 a Government servant receiving bribes at Baroda could 
 be punished otherwise than by dismissal. The same of- 
 fences, however, if committed in the revenue or judicial
 
 16 BRIJRYE AND BABA FURKEY. 
 
 departments, were well known to subject the delin- 
 quent to dismissal, proclamation of disgrace, and seven 
 years' imprisonment. To what could the people of 
 Baroda, daily witnesses of inveterate corruption, attri- 
 bute this nice distinction between the services ? Nor 
 did Government bestir itself to remedy this defect in 
 the law; for it was not until 1850, more than twelve 
 years after this admission of the defect, that an Act 
 was passed to meet the case, and then, we believe, not 
 so much at the instance of the Government of Bombay, 
 which w T as particularly under the imputation of cor- 
 ruptibility, as of that of the Supreme Government, 
 which was comparatively free from it. 
 
 Brijrai, (or Brijrye, or Vrijrye, all one 
 name,) a British subject residing in the ter- 
 ritories of the Gaekwar, was capable of throwing much 
 light on the prevalent corruption, and especially on 
 that of Brijlal, then under inquiry by Mr. Malet. This 
 man was arrested, by the Gaekwar's authority, at the 
 instance of Anundrao, brother of Dadoo Punt, and a 
 relative of Brijlal, himself employed in the Commis- 
 sioner's establishment. Mr. Malet wrote to the Gaek- 
 war, asking how he came to imprison a British subject, 
 and to refuse the ample bail tendered for him. The 
 letter was kept back by Anundrao. For this offence 
 Mr. Malet suspended that bold subordinate. Govern- 
 ment ordered his restoration to his post. Brijrye re- 
 mained in confinement three or four months. The 
 
 1350-2 Graekwar refused him needful medical aid, 
 and he died in prison. 
 
 1381-11 Venaik Moreshwar Furkey, called alsoBaba 
 Furkey, or here simply Furkey, is a relative 
 of the Hurry Punt Furkey, who often led the Mahratta 
 armies. He went to Baroda in 1831, to prosecute 
 claims of the family and of his own, on the Gaekwar 
 and on the great bank of Hurree Bhugtee. The Gaek- 
 war, whether at his own suggestion or that of his 
 partners in the bank, drove him from the city of 
 Baroda in 1836, and applied to the British authorities 
 for his expulsion from the country altogether. His 
 house was entered and searched, and it was intended to
 
 SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 17 
 
 seize his person. The British Representative protected 
 him ; and Baba Furkey aided most zealously and effec- 
 tively in tracing the corruption then under investigation, 
 at a time when no other native dare brave the 
 
 lobo U. _ , . . _-- 
 
 vengeance of the swarming misdoers. Be- 
 fore many months had elapsed he was ordered by the 
 British authorities, at the urgent instance of the Gaek- 
 war, to leave the country, a measure, however, not 
 entirely carried out. Some time afterwards he was 
 1383-n a PP om t e( l by our Government to succeed 
 Motee Purshotum at Rajpeepla, who had at 
 length been too clearly convicted to be retained any 
 longer. 
 
 The period to which we have carried these cases is 
 that of the second quarter of the year 1838. Let us 
 review the results as they stood at that time. 
 SARABIIOY had escaped investigation. 
 BRIJLAL, long favoured and powerful, had been de- 
 clared " not free from suspicion ;" but, while under 
 other charges recently preferred, was placed, by 
 the orders of Government, in the very position 
 which most facilitated his corrupt arrangements 
 for securing impunity. 
 
 DOWLUTRAM had been convicted of bribery, bufe had 
 been sheltered from a disgraceful consequence of 
 conviction which had followed in every like case 
 but that of Sarabhoy's brother. 
 ANUNDRAO was again in office, restored to it, at the 
 express command of the Government, after gross 
 misconduct in favour of corrnptionists, which re- 
 sulted in the death of a British subject. 
 MOTEE PURSHOTUM, first favoured by the abrupt ab- 
 straction from the district of his British accuser, 
 had indeed been at last suspended from office, but 
 was not yet convicted, through inexplicable hesi- 
 tation and tenderness on the part of Government. 
 DADOO PUNT, accused of bribery and falsification of 
 documents, had been released by order of Govern- 
 ment, and his conviction on the chief charge 
 against him quashed on insufficient grounds.
 
 18 REPRESENTATIONS OF BRITISH OFFICERS, 1838. 
 
 The THAKORE of GORASUR, charged with perjury 
 and conspiracy along with those who follow, was 
 restored to his magistracy. 
 MOTEE GOVERDHUN was again the Thakore of Go- 
 
 rasur's man of business. 
 
 JEEBAWA was again entrusted with the revenue 
 
 affairs of his former district, the highest office 
 
 entrusted to a native, and he retains his post to 
 
 this day. 
 
 JAGGABHOYE seems, in like manner, to have been 
 
 remitted to his former employment. 
 And the two men of business of the elder litigant 
 widow remained unharmed in their former occupa- 
 tion. 
 
 These were all notoriously guilty, and some of them 
 were publicly convicted to every intent and purpose 
 but that of legal form. 
 
 But BRIJRYE died in unmerited imprisonment, and 
 Baba FURKEY long remained on bare sufferance, and at 
 length could hardly remain at all, where he was cou- 
 rageously rendering the British Government essential 
 service in opposition to the prevailing and deadly vice 
 of its own servants. 
 
 By this time Mr. Sutherland had succeeded Mr. 
 Williams as Political Commissioner for Guzerat, the 
 title then borne by the Resident at Baroda. He com- 
 plained that his native establishment was utterly un- 
 trustworthy and inefficient ; at the head of that esta- 
 blishment was now the Anundrao, of whom we have 
 just seen something a relative of Brijlal, who, declared 
 by Mr. Malet not long before unworthy of confidence, 
 had been replaced in office by Government, and now 
 was equally condemned by Mr. Sutherland ; the other 
 persons employed were notoriously under the influence 
 of Brijlal himself, although he was then subjected to 
 recent and heavy charges of bribery. 
 
 1348 ^ n *^ e m ^ 8 ^ f t- nese transactions Colonel 
 
 (then Captain) Outram had gone to Bombay, 
 
 to confer personally with the members of Government 
 
 on this most disgraceful and injurious state of things ;
 
 EFFECT ON THE NATIVE MIND. 19 
 
 but although he returned with instructions to consult 
 with the Commissioner on the subject, the whole pro- 
 ceeding must have seemed to the natives little better 
 than a farce ; for it was while Colonel 
 ntols' Outram was at Bombay, actually in consulta- 
 1350-3. tion with the Government, that orders were 
 sent by Government for the memorable rein- 
 statement of Anundrao, in face of the strong represen- 
 tations of his official superior on the spot. Colonel 
 Outram went to Bombay a second time, to 
 i350^> state the extreme difficulty of effective in- 
 vestigation, from the Gaekwar, the Bankers, 
 and the Nagurs, who were confederated against it, being 
 so dreaded by all possible witnesses ; and while he was 
 there, Brijrye, the victim of Anundrao, died in the 
 Gaekwar's prison. 
 
 So also Mr. Malet, while officiating as Commissioner 
 
 previous to the arrival of Mr. Sutherland, was directed, 
 
 in words, to institute " a rigid inquiry " into charges 
 
 against Dadoo Punt ; but when he thereupon confined 
 
 that proved delinquent, a measure at once 
 
 1 *l^O Q 
 
 1351-8. J ust towards the man himself, and prudent as 
 promoting disclosures, he received, nearly 
 as quickly as it could be returned from Bombay, a 
 censure for " inadvertence " in having done so. 
 
 Looking from a native point of view at facts as they 
 had occurred, or as they then stood, and taking into 
 account local circumstances of unquestioned notoriety, 
 it seems altogether impossible that a person at Baroda 
 should come to any other conclusion than that the open 
 boast of the corruptionists was substantially true, viz. 
 that secret influence at the seat of Government was 
 the real means of impunity to the evil-doers, and of 
 disappointment, disgust, and in some cases ruin, to those 
 who attempted to check them. 
 
 The complicated affairs next to be exhibited occupy 
 a year from the second quarter of 1839 ; they relate
 
 20 PRODUCTION OF BANKERS* BOOKS, 1839. 
 
 chiefly to some of the persons already introduced, and 
 require reference to some facts belonging to the former 
 period. 
 
 The principal character here again is Brijlal. 
 
 He had escaped full legal conviction on the 
 former trial or inquiry, partly through defect of evidence 
 occasioned by the Government itself. The banking firm 
 of Hurree Bhugtee before mentioned, was known to be 
 the principal agent in negotiating bribes with natives in 
 British employment ; of this Bechurbhoye was the head, 
 Baba Nafra the deputed manager, and the Gaekwar him- 
 self a partner. Bankers had frequently been summoned 
 to produce their books to British authorities as evidence, 
 and Mr. Malet wished to exercise the right here, as 
 one means both of discovering and of checking the de- 
 linquencies of which the effects were becoming every 
 day more apparent. He cited, therefore, Bechurbhoye 
 and Baba Nafra : they refused to produce their books 
 without the Gaekwar's consent, which of course was 
 refused. Their reluctance might have been overcome ; 
 for, strange as it may seem, this very firm held a 
 British guarantee against ill-usage by their own prince 
 and partner *, but they held it only during good beha- 
 viour, and they valued it as of great importance to 
 them. To refuse to show their books for evidence in 
 
 cases affecting the British Government itself 
 
 was evidently a breach of any good behaviour 
 which could entitle them to a continuance of the gua- 
 rantee. Mr. Malet therefore proposed to offer the 
 firm the alternative of relinquishing it or of showing 
 1371-8 tne ^ r bks: but this measure required the 
 
 support of the Government, and that was re- 
 fused. Meanwhile the bankers had dispatched agents 
 
 * These guarantees originated in the disturbed times, when we 
 
 entered on the occupation of some parts of Guzerat ; but although 
 
 both the public events have long past, and the specific obligations 
 
 have long been liquidated, in respect of which these 
 
 1370-3. engagements were originally entered into, the natives, 
 
 who possess the guarantees, are extremely unwilling to 
 
 relinquish them.
 
 LKOAL CIIAXOKS IX FAVOUR OF BRIBERY. 21 
 
 to Bombay express. The reasons of the refusal aggra- 
 vated its effect. Two cases were alleged in which it had 
 been decided that Government had no legal power to 
 enforce the production of bankers' books as 
 evidence. One occurred at a town several hun- 
 dreds of miles distant, and far beyond the knowledge of 
 the people of Baroda ; the other was the case 
 of Chotum Lall, the brother of Sarabhoy, in 
 which the people of Guzerat saw the new doctrine 
 applied for the first time, if, indeed, it were not devised 
 for the occasion. The Government further said, that 
 the circumstance of the party holding a 
 British guarantee ought to make no difference 
 unless the matter in question related to the affairs for 
 which it was originally given. But all Baroda knew 
 that those original affairs had long been settled, so 
 that the guarantee had been continued for many years 
 only as a general protection against the prince, held 
 during good behaviour. To give this reason, therefore, 
 seemed to them merely another way of saying that on 
 no account should the bankers' books ever be required ; 
 and this impression was confirmed when the Govern- 
 ment ordered their decision to be announced 
 to the guild of bankers through its head. 
 What could all this be held to mean, at Baroda, in 
 1843, a few years later, when in Bombay itself, under the 
 shadow of British law, the Government seized bankers' 
 books in the course of exactly similar investigations? 
 
 Just, therefore, as in the former period was esta- 
 blished the principle that the corruption of British 
 political servants, serving in native territories, although 
 they were often charged with judicial and revenue 
 duties, could only be punished by dismissal, while 
 judicial and revenue servants, and even political servants 
 in British territories, were liable to seven years' impri- 
 sonment, so we start in this period with the principle 
 that the production of bankers' books, often the only 
 means, and always the best, of proving corruption, can- 
 not be enforced. 
 
 The prestige of Brijlal and his confederates had been 
 
 c
 
 22 BRIJLAL, 1838. 
 
 somewhat impaired by the vigorous efforts of the local 
 British officers, although to appearance less supported 
 than thwarted by the Government ; and Brijlal himself, 
 suspended from office, was under accusation when Mr. 
 Sutherland, the new Commissioner, reported 
 18 ' in April, 1838, a new and "clear case" of 
 bribery against him, and gave the facts as much in detail 
 as usual. Motee Purshotum also was implicated he 
 who had been so triumphantly acquitted of having 
 extorted bribes in Rajpeepla, and had afterwards been 
 1364-19 conv i cte d- Government, contrary to custom, 
 called for full reports in both cases, a requi- 
 sition which bore hard on Mr. Sutherland, whose 
 establishment, diminished by suspensions under charges 
 of corruption, and enfeebled by the universal taint, 
 was declared by him utterly untrustworthy and in- 
 TW5 24 e ffi c i en k He furnished the report, however, 
 and within another month sent up three 
 more charges against the same offender, Brijlal, all 
 of which he considered fully proved ; and he declared 
 that, whether Government agreed with him or not, 
 he could never trust the man again. Government 
 refused to confirm the conviction in all the cases but 
 one, and on that at length assented to Brijlal's guilt, 
 and directed him to be dismissed. 
 
 We do not yet lose sight of Brijlal. In the case in 
 which he was implicated along with Motee Purshotum, 
 1373-17 *^ e ^ ac ^ s were established chiefly by means of 
 the books of a banker at Attersoomba, a town 
 under the authority of the Gaekwar, seventy miles from 
 Baroda. The banker, on citation, brought his books to 
 the capital for examination. Detained there, however, 
 on the business some months by the Gaekwar's obstruc- 
 tions to the inquiry, he not only suffered great inconve- 
 nience, but learned the new doctrine that a banker could 
 not be compelled to produce his books. Now, the only 
 charge then outstanding against Brijlal was that which 
 had been proved by means of this man's books ; the 
 Government had set aside the rest. To get rid of this 
 also would be to remove one principal obstacle to his
 
 THE ATTERSOOMBA BANKER'S BOOKS, 1838. 23 
 
 return to office. Accordingly, some time after the 
 return home of the Attersoomba banker, Brijlal peti- 
 tioned Government, denying the authenticity of the 
 books by means of which he had been con- 
 
 i o^o 01 * 
 
 1374-20 victed. Government directed the books to 
 be sent to Surat (130 miles further from the 
 banker's home than even Baroda), for a committee of 
 merchants there to report on their authenticity. But, 
 independently of any new notion of inviolability he 
 might now reasonably entertain, this tradesman justly 
 objected to the unreasonable expense and loss to which 
 such a proceeding might subject him. He declined, 
 therefore, to produce his books, and Government there- 
 upon declined to confirm the conviction. Mr. Suther- 
 land repeatedly and very strongly urged the 
 Government to degrade " this great culprit " 
 by proclamation. They denied that he had been proved 
 a great culprit, and refused to proclaim him. The natives 
 concluded that Government did not wish to convict him ; 
 for if they had, they would have directed the banker's 
 books to be examined at the large commercial city of 
 Ahmedabad, not twenty miles from the banker's home, 
 instead of at Surat, 200 miles distant. 
 
 In the East, when a dreaded oppressor in office is 
 once seen to be falling, the long pent-up discontent soon 
 discloses itself in accumulated accusations. Charges 
 accordingly continued to come in against Brijlal ; but of 
 these Mr. Sutherland would not notice any to the Go- 
 1369-3" vernment except one, a case in which Brijlal 
 was necessarily included as involved in it 
 with another person. He was clearly proved to have 
 taken money along with Dadoo Punt, and Government 
 were at last compelled to admit that he was not only 
 guilty of bribery, but of the far heavier crime of falsifying 
 recorded documents in his custody. But they still re- 
 fused to proclaim him, and, like his relative and prede- 
 cessor, Sarabhoy, he was suffered finally to retire on 
 a fortune far greater than he could have realized by the 
 honest fulfilment of his duty. 
 
 c 2
 
 24 MOTEE rURSHOTUM AND DADOO PUNT. 
 
 We left Motee Pursliotum, under accusation, in 
 company with Brijlal. Mr. Sutherland had confined 
 them to prevent their suborning witnesses. Govern- 
 ment directed that officer to permit them to reside at 
 home with only the surveillance of a common messenger ; 
 an arrangement which by no means prevented the access 
 of their confederates. Finding, however, that Motee 
 was preventing the arrival of witnesses against 
 himself, Mr. Sutherland confined him again. 
 Several offences were proved against him to the satis- 
 faction of Mr. Sutherland, some of direct 
 1357 bribery, others of refunding the bribes he had 
 formerly taken, as before noticed. Govern- 
 ment, however, with several charges at once in its hands, 
 took them by detail, found flaws in the evidence of 
 each, and so got rid of them, while their accumulative 
 effectwould have been far more than requisite for rational 
 conviction. Motee Pursliotum thus escaped 
 1360-33 w i fcn s i m pl e dismissal, while Mr. Sutherland 
 strongly urged Government to proclaim him ; 
 and twelve months afterwards, it is stated by the 
 Advocate-General, he was engaged in one of the most 
 celebrated modern intrigues of India, to be noticed 
 hereafter an attempt to bribe the Bombay Govern- 
 ment wholesale ; selected for the service by the 
 Durbar from his former striking success. 
 
 The Thakore of Gorasur, emboldened by 
 
 13467 
 
 impunity, perjured himself again in the Court 
 
 of Colonel Outram, and grossly insulted that officer in 
 
 the performance of his duty. Colonel Outram begged 
 
 for some measure which, promptly taken, should uphold 
 
 1347-10 ^ ne Dignity an d authority of the Government. 
 
 The Government, however, six months after- 
 wards, merely directed the Thakore to be reprimanded at 
 Baroda, 130 miles distant, and to be fined in an amount 
 "consistent with his circumstances." A journey to 
 receive the reprimand would easily be represented to 
 his foresters and mountaineers as a visit of honour ; and 
 the fine could only be taken as a punishment in pre-
 
 RESULTS UP TO OCTOBER, 1838. 25 
 
 tcnce, for his circumstances had been officially reported 
 1>\ a British Judge to be so bad "as to be against his 
 acting honestly in proceedings brought before him." 
 
 We need not pursue the course of the other persons 
 already introduced into this statement further. No- 
 thing is here omitted which would alter the appearance 
 of the facts, or the estimate to be formed of their 
 effect on the minds of the natives. Either impunity, 
 or punishment very like impunity in popular estima- 
 tion, was still the lot of the corruptionists ; labour, 
 vexation, and the miseries of distrust embittered the 
 efforts of the local British officers, and few were the 
 natives who ventured to expose the misdeeds of men 
 whom fortune, or the secret favour of Government, 
 seemed to them so evidently to prosper. 
 
 Colonel Outram left Guzerat in October, 
 
 1838, to join the army which invaded Af- 
 ghanistan ; he went first to Bombay, where he laid his 
 impressions and opinions on the subject fully before his 
 _ superiors, and showed by actual instances 
 
 what were the consequences of the steps the 
 Government had taken. He returned to Guzerat as 
 Resident at the court of the Gaekwar in May, 1847. 
 In September, 1848, ill health compelled him to leave 
 Baroda for a time, and he went to Egypt, where his 
 life was said in India, at one time, to be despaired of. 
 Captain French was " Acting Resident " in his absence. 
 Early in 1850, however, he resumed charge of the 
 Residency ; and to the date of this resumption our next 
 division extends. 
 
 We have said that Motee Purshotum was dismissed 
 from his office in Rajpeepla, where (December, 1837) 
 1383-n Baba Furkey was appointed by Mr. Malet 
 to succeed him. Motee had learned enough 
 to be convinced that bribery could be made gainful, 
 while the principles of late established by the Govern- 
 ment rendered detection far more difficult than ever. 
 He found ere long new and congenial employment.
 
 26 THE DACKJEE DADAJEE INTRIGUES, 1840-2. 
 
 Baba Nafra, agent of Hurree Blmgtee's bank*, too, 
 had profited by observation. Events soon encouraged 
 him to speculate more largely than ever on the chances 
 of escape which he saw so well exemplified in the case 
 of his confederate Brijlal and their common friends. 
 
 The Gaekwar, a partner in the house in which Baba 
 Nafra was manager, as well as the sovereign of the 
 country, was under certain treaty engagements with 
 the British Government for the maintenance, out of his 
 revenues, of a body of cavalry called "the Guzerat 
 Irregular Horse." The abolition of this engagement 
 had long been an object with the then reigning prince, 
 on whom, for misconduct, it had been originally im- 
 posed. Intrigues were therefore set on foot at Bom- 
 bay at considerable cost, with a view to obtaining its 
 abrogation through the corrupt favour of the several 
 members of the Government. Motee Purshotum, whom 
 the Gaekwar believed to be secretly in favour with 
 members of the Government, was one of the principal 
 agents in the business ; he was sent to Bombay. Go- 
 pallrow Myral, the virtual minister of the Gaekwar, 
 was the soul of it ; Baba Nafra also was deeply con- 
 cerned, and was afterwards interdicted the Residency 
 for his share in it. The sums allotted by the bribers, 
 to the different members and officers of Government, 
 but never alleged to have been received by 
 
 1300 o3. , {ii 
 
 them, were as follows : 
 
 Kupees. 
 
 To Sir James Carnac . . . 1,000,000 
 
 Mr. Willoughby . . . 250,000 
 
 Mr. Reid .... 60,000 
 
 Shree Crustna .... 36,000 
 Dr. Brown and all the minor 
 
 parties 110,000 
 
 1,456,000 
 a total equivalent to 120,000/. sterling. 
 
 * This bank, one of the most celebrated and important iu 
 Western India, will come frequently under notice. It seems to 
 have existed, at the date of these events, about 76 years ; and it is
 
 THE WIDOWS OF BECHER SAMULDASS. 27 
 
 It is extremely difficult to imagine that parties who 
 had been so long in communication with the Govern- 
 ment of Bombay should have ventured on an attempt 
 of this character, of which even the machinery must 
 have been very costly, and the danger in case of repulse 
 or detection great, if they had not believed, from what 
 they had seen, that notwithstanding all the professions 
 of the British Government, their object could really be 
 effected by Khutput. 
 
 These intrigues, begun in 1840, were detected and 
 frustrated in 1842. To Baba Nafra himself, two or 
 three years later, a still higher chance presented itself. 
 His master, Becher Samuldass, the head of the house 
 
 323-2 ^ Hurree Bhugtee, died in September, 1845, 
 leaving two widows. Mahaluxmeebaee Set- 
 tanee, the elder of these, had one child, a sou, then 
 three years old, of weakly constitution and apparently 
 of somewhat feeble mind. Joitabaee Settanee, the 
 younger widow, was enceinte at the time of her hus- 
 band's death, and gave birth to a son in the following 
 month of December. The child, whether genuine, 
 as proved by evidence afterwards, or spurious, as Baba 
 Nafra a year subsequently and then first alleged, was 
 at least treated as the true posthumous child of the 
 wealthy banker ; it was named and soon after be- 
 trothed in the presence of the prince, and with all the 
 ceremonies of the caste, observed in the costly manner 
 befitting an affluent parentage. The unquestioning 
 concurrence in these ceremonies of the relations of 
 Becher Samuldass' other widow, the fortune of whose 
 son was so seriously affected by the advent of this equal 
 sharer, seems to testify still more strongly to the 
 
 referred to in Grant Duffs " History of the Mabrattas," iii. 215, as 
 one of the two banks in Baroda which had gained great wealth by 
 advances, made at exorbitant interest, to the Arabs and other mer- 
 cenaries of the Gaekwar, paid as they were, like all other native 
 soldiery, with miserable irregularity. At the beginning of the 
 present century, and before the giving of our guarantees, this bank, 
 often opposed to the other, divided with it great part of the powers 
 of the State such was the influence of both these banks with the 
 Gaekwar and the mercenaries, whom they at once supplied and 
 beggared.
 
 28 ABDUCTION OF JOlTABAEE's SON, 1847. 
 
 absence of suspicion at any time near to the alleged 
 birth of the child. 
 
 Baba Nafra was not only manager of the bank ; he 
 
 had himself become wealthy and influential ; and it is 
 
 moreover testified of him, by one who was 
 
 350^84 n t ms enem y> that he was at the head of a 
 party of bankers who despotically ruled the 
 Gaekwar, his prince, and a partner in the bank he 
 managed. This powerful servant soon assumed a de- 
 gree of control to which he was not entitled, and seems, 
 moreover, to have formed designs in which the other 
 widow and her weakly child were not likely to stand 
 much in his way, if only he could rid himself of Joita- 
 baee and her son. 
 
 Accordingly, in February, 1847, when the 
 
 sou &c y un g er widow's child was more than a year 
 old, its parentage was brought into question* 
 by a plot craftily contrived on the plan of suborning 
 persons from a village in the interior to claim either the 
 child, or else payment of the price for which it was 
 alleged to be sold to pass for Joitabaee's own. 
 
 Joitabaee, and her father, Bhauabee, were 
 
 326-7. confined by Baba Nafra under guards of 
 
 507-9. armed men, the former in a dark room, 
 
 51^13 secm ' e d by iron bars ; the mother, Larbaee, 
 however escaped in the confusion occasioned 
 by the seizure of her daughter and husband ; she first 
 resorted for justice to the Durbar (the open daily court 
 of the prince), and failing there to gain even attention, 
 she hid herself to avoid confinement, escaped after a time 
 into the British territory, and went eventually to lay 
 her daughter's case before the supreme authorities at 
 Bombay. The son of Joitabaee, alleged to be spurious, 
 was separated from her, and sent to a village under 
 Baba Nafra's control, where he died in about two months. 
 
 The false documents necessary to support this case 
 on the part of Baba Nafra, and' to sustain him in the 
 position to which he aspired, were of course soon 
 
 It is fair to add, in estimating the motives of the parties, that 
 the question whether or not she had given birth to a son still living, 
 made to Joitabaee all the difference between wealth and station on 
 one supposition, and obscurity with diminished means on the other.
 
 JOITABAEE'S PETITION. 29 
 
 forthcoming. One of these was an unattested 
 *4S-<L W *H f u * s master's, by which he himself was 
 
 appointed sole manager of the bank, and 
 trustee of the family interests, which, if not altogether 
 forged, must have been obtained from the dying man 
 
 while insensible, and in the absence of all 
 
 530-37 th er persons ; another was a pretended con- 
 
 722. fession of Joitabaee, dated while she was in 
 
 actual durance, that she had never borne a 
 child. 
 
 We have stated these facts, as many of them were 
 currently spoken of at the time in Baroda, and as evi- 
 dence subsequently established them to the conviction 
 of judges not too easy to be satisfied of their truth. 
 Baba Nafra, however, had much to say for himself at 
 the time; for no man would commit himself to such an 
 enterprise without something to say, at least to those 
 who would willingly hear him. 
 
 These things happened in February and March, 
 1847. In the following May, Colonel Outram entered 
 on the duties of the Residency of Baroda, and within 
 the next two months the petitions of Joitabaee Set- 
 tanee, and her mother Larbaee, to the Government 
 of Bombay, stated the case, and were referred by Go- 
 vernment to Colonel Outram for report *. The petition 
 
 * It is well worth noting, as illustrative of the practical defective- 
 ness in working of our system in India, that on the 
 
 403--54. 4th May, 1847, that is, within a few weeks of the chief 
 events, it. petition was presented to the Government in 
 Bombay, which, as Lord Falkland said long after, " contained a very 
 clear account of intrigues stated to have been put in motion by 
 Baba Nafra to ruin his mistress ; " but this petition was returned, 
 as not being from a party directly interested. If, however, in the 
 system of our government in India, there had been a public 
 assembly of any kind, in which a person entitled to British protec- 
 tion could present a grievance, and have it openly discussed as a 
 matter of right, it is clear that the knowledge of the case possessed 
 at this early perio'l by the author of that petition might have been 
 made available for preventing all the miseries which followed. 
 England has such a place in her Parliament. India under native 
 Governments has it in the public daily Durbar of the prince, however 
 that institution may be practically perverted and debased. Our 
 Indian Governments, retaining still the forms of private commer- 
 cial consultations, have no equivalent : neither now has France, nor 
 has Russia.
 
 30 BRITISH PROCEEDINGS IN JOITABAEE's CASE. 
 
 of the mother bore every appearance of truth, and pro- 
 posed measures which recommended themselves, by 
 their equity and moderation, both for investigation and 
 for the management of the property mean- 
 while. It however expressed great fears that- 
 right would be prejudiced by the native establishment 
 of the Residency, which was under the control of, and 
 in confederacy with, Nursoo Punt, the Native Agent, 
 Baba Nafra's confederate, of whom we shall have much 
 to say hereafter. 
 
 These parties were all subjects of the Gaekwar. 
 Their right to petition the Government rested on the 
 guarantee before mentioned, which clearly included 
 the widows with their sons, and was held, by usage, 
 to extend also to Baba Nafra, as a servant of the 
 guaranteed firm. But then the British authorities 
 could only deal with the case on its coming before them 
 on complaint of some decision had under the Gaekwar's 
 403-55 a-^hority. The Government on two occa- 
 sions, if no more, urged Colonel Outram to 
 report on the case ; but in the first instance that officer 
 could do nothing more than urge the proceedings of the 
 Gaekwar's Government, and wait the result. Meanwhile 
 at least this was known, that at various times, from 
 1837 onwards, Baba Nafra had been proved guilty of 
 great crimes in matters of which the British Government 
 had a right to judge ; besides the like wrongs he had no- 
 toriously done beyond their official knowledge. Nothing 
 was known against the widow whom he had imprisoned. 
 328-17 ^ n November a native court * (Punchayet) 
 was organized by the Gaekwar's Government 
 for the trial of the case ; but both Joitabaee and her 
 
 * It is difficult to convey by English terms a just idea of native 
 Indian judicial institutions and procedure. Judges, secured in their 
 independence by being made irremovable during good behaviour, 
 are unknown in the native system. Disputes are investigated 
 either by the officers appointed primarily for revenue purposes, or 
 by a body formed extemporaneously, a kind of jury of arbitration, 
 called "a Punchayet;" perhaps, indeed, at times by a Punchayet 
 under presidency of a Government officer. The " court " referred to 
 in the text is a " Punchayet " appointed for the occasion by the prince, 
 and selected, in part at least, from the advisory and executive body
 
 NATIVE COURT. 31 
 
 mother Larbaee at first refused to recognize it, on the 
 ground of the glaring partiality of its constitution. 
 Larbaee had taken refuge at Bombay, and she long 
 refused to leave that place to attend its proceedings. 
 At length, however, after much shuffling on the part 
 
 of the court, much reluctance from Larbaee, 
 j^i' (from fear of foul play in the depositions and 
 
 from the indignity of the mode in which it was 
 proposed to examine her,) and no little persuasion from 
 Colonel Outram, it was hoped that the evidence would 
 be completed ; ill health, however, drove Colonel 
 Outram away before this was done. Joitabaee and 
 her relatives felt they were left without a friend, while 
 Baba Nafra, with the wealth of the bank at his dis- 
 posal, with influence almost irresistible in the councils 
 of the prince, and with his confederate and kinsman, 
 Nursoo Punt, to poison the mind of the yet unknown 
 future Resident, was seen to have all chances in his 
 favour, while his unscrupulous and resolute character 
 left no doubt he would avail himself to the utmost of 
 
 them. Larbaee with sagacity and courage 
 335. which do her infinite credit, and with reliance 
 404 on British honour, which ought to engage 
 
 our most earnest efforts to maintain its purity, 
 looked forwards for eventual justice to the investigation 
 at the Residency, which would take place on appeal from 
 the decision of the native court ; and, accordingly, she 
 firmly resisted the cross-examinations by which it was 
 intended to extract from her the names of the wit- 
 nesses on whom she should then rest her daughter's 
 case ; for she well knew that in the interval between 
 the trial before the Gaekwar's court and the hearing by 
 the Resident, the wealth and power of Baba Nafra 
 would be remorselessly employed to bribe and intimi- 
 date them all. 
 
 The court appointed to try her case were baffled, 
 and they found they could only serve their friend Baba 
 
 of officers called his "Durbar." This "Durbar" was much under 
 the influence of Baba Xafra : and so must have been the court, or 
 Punchayet, drawn from it, or, in the prince's name, selected by it.
 
 32 PROPOSED ARBITRATION. 
 
 Nafra by declaring that they could not close their pro- 
 ceedings, although the completion of the evidence as 
 far as each of the parties interested chose to give that 
 in its own favour, clearly called for their decision. 
 
 Unhappily Captain French, the pro tempore 
 40G-73 successor of Colonel Outram, allowed himself 
 to make a recommendation in twelve days 
 after his arrival, (Nov. 15, 1847,) which seemed to 
 prejudice the widow's cause more deeply than ever ; it 
 was, that as .the case seemed interminably perplexed 
 with evasions and contradictions, and as it required in- 
 vestigations of great difficulty, and some, indeed, of offen- 
 sive indelicacy, the parties on both sides should be called 
 on for bonds to submit without appeal to the decision 
 of a court of arbitration, to be composed of two members 
 to be chosen on each side, with a fifth agreed 
 337-39 ou ^7 both as their head ; and in this the 
 341-54. Bombay Government concurred. But neither 
 was the case so perplexed as Captain French 
 had been told, (doubtless by Baba Nafra's firm but secret 
 friend Nursoo Punt,) nor did the offensive im- 
 putations and investigations yet remain to be 
 made. The decision of the Court before which the case 
 was pending had indeed been delayed for several weeks, 
 but only by the contrivance of Baba Nafra's friend, on 
 the speculation that something might be made of 
 Colonel Outram's yet unknown successor. 
 
 The object of the suggestion which Captain French 
 was thus entrapped into making, may easily be ex- 
 plained. In this case, which was one of persons pos- 
 sessing the British guarantee, the decision of a court 
 acting under the ordinary authority of the Gaekwar, 
 would be subject to a review by British authorities; 
 but that of a court to which the parties had previously 
 bound themselves to submit, would be liable to no such 
 disturbance ; where Baba Nafra was all powerful, and 
 Joitabaee was a distressed and imprisoned widow, there 
 was little doubt on which side such a court would de- 
 termine. Bribe-proof and fear-proof Judges are not 
 plentiful at Baroda.
 
 TEMPORARY FAILURE OF BRITISH PROTECTION. 33 
 
 Joitabaee however submitted ; only, she 
 V-'. 1 , ','i' desired professional assistance, copies of the 
 
 papers in the case, money from the bank in 
 which she Mas part proprietor for her own support 
 (since she was destitute) and for the customary ex- 
 penses of entertaining the arbitrators, and informa- 
 tion of the persons her adversary had selected as his 
 members of the court. She appealed on these points 
 to Captain French (Dec. 30, 1848), on the ground, 
 (too truly alleged, as he knew,) that justice was 
 not to be expected from the Gaekwar's Durbar or its 
 452 13 mem bers; but this resort to the Resident 
 
 seems to have failed her; and moreover it 
 brought down on her a threat from the Acting Resident 
 of the withdrawal of that very protection of which she 
 had now more need than ever, and which was indeed 
 her last hope. 
 
 True to its policy of deceit as directed by 
 
 Baba Nafra, the Gaekwar's Durbar falsely 
 represented Joitabaee as contumaciously and definitively 
 refusing to agree to the proposed final arbitration. How 
 far they may have speculated on the chance of Captain 
 French being willing to let Nursoo Punt direct the pen 
 held officially by himself, can only be conjectured ; but 
 
 it is certain that the letters were afterwards 
 
 489, <fec. ,. . T i i i t i 
 
 found to exist, by which the harassed widow 
 had done her full part towards the proceedings, and 
 which Captain French himself might have seen, had 
 not his suspicions been too deeply lulled to permit him 
 to seek them. The carelessness with which he mis- 
 stated the case even contrary to the sense of letters 
 
 addressed by Joitabaee to himself, is severely 
 
 censured in the final minute of Lord Falkland 
 on this business. 
 346-72 Strangely enough, Captain French was led 
 
 to believe that Baba Nafra was originally an 
 accomplice in the fraud of importing a fictitious child, 
 which he now charged on Joitabaee ; a fraud by which 
 the other son of his deceased master would have been 
 deprived of half his fortune. Still more strangely,
 
 34 NURSOO AND NAFRA AT THE RESIDENCY. 
 
 while he must have believed either that on one sup- 
 position this man was then a great scoundrel in the first 
 fraud on the widow, or that he was a scoundrel equally 
 ,_ ,. great in the present persecutions of the 
 
 other, he removed the interdict to visiting 
 the Residency which, by order of Government, had ex- 
 cluded Baba Nafra ever since the memorable intrigues of 
 
 1843, and which had moreover been enforced 
 
 anew in May 1844, on the express ground of 
 the connection of Nursoo with these parties, then re- 
 cently discovered ; and, although Capt. French might 
 have been told, contrary to fact, that this formal ex- 
 clusion had long been practically disregarded, the re- 
 moval of it at such a juncture did not the less appear 
 to the people of Baroda a favour gained by their 
 notorious neighbour, through means they knew he was 
 much accustomed to use. Nor when Captain French 
 suffered this man to approach him as a welcome visitor, 
 it is not wonderful that his own statements are marked 
 by glaring misapprehensions of facts. Joitabaee is 
 blamed by him for going to Bombay to complain, at 
 
 the very time she was a close prisoner in 
 
 772. ' Baroda, in a dark room ; and her mother 
 
 446-1. ig equally blamed for the same cause, who 
 
 ' fled in fact from violence justly apprehended. 
 
 347-77. Nursoo Punt contributed his share of the 
 
 637-2. misleading, under the disguise of enmity to 
 
 Baba Nafra, his kinsman, and really his close 
 s ally. His false insinuation to the new-come 
 
 Acting Resident, that Sir R. Arbuthnot, 
 while holding the same office, had acted in certain 
 ceremonial matters on the ground of the child's spu- 
 riousness, while it was really on the ground of propriety 
 and usage, aided his purposes with Captain French, 
 although contrariwise it had awoke at a previous period 
 the earliest suspicions of Colonel Outram, and of an 
 officer of the civil service, who was little prepared to 
 believe anything evil of this old man. 
 
 Nursoo's well-acted antagonism to Baba Nafra gave 
 the best possible cover to another proposal, by which
 
 DANGER OF JOITABAEE. 35 
 
 the latter still hoped to get rid of the only cause of 
 fear he had, viz. British revision of the native sen- 
 tence. This device was to abrogate the gua- 
 rantee of Hurree Bhugtee's firm. Captain 
 French urged this measure, on the ground that the 
 Court of Directors had often desired a riddance of 
 these anomalous engagements ; that the Gaekwar's 
 Government, so far from being able to oppress Baba 
 Nafra, or the bankers generally, was, in reality, des- 
 potically ruled by them ; and that the uses of the 
 guarantee, which could have at any time existed, were 
 therefore obsolete, and the original obligations, for 
 the sake of which it had been given, had long since 
 been discharged. The proposed measure, justifiable 
 and even advisable on general grounds and with proper 
 precautions, was at the moment extremely unjust to the 
 parties immediately affected. Had this manoeuvre suc- 
 ceeded, Joitabaee would have been left entirely to the 
 tender mercies of her spoiler, acting through the Gaek- 
 war's Government. Joitabaee expected no- 
 thing less than her own death from the 
 measure. How little she had to expect, 
 even with the advantage of the guarantee, 
 455-23. ma ) r be judged of from the fact, that the 
 458-27. Acting Resident represented to her that the 
 guards set over her were for her protection, 
 at a time when she could not move from one corner of 
 the house to another, without a messenger in charge, 
 appointed by Baba Nafra, moving along with her ; when 
 she had neither clothes, jewels, nor money ; and while 
 hundreds of wealthy natives had no guards, either of 
 their prince's or adversary's, about them. The heaviest 
 censure of Lord Falkland fell in the end on Captain 
 French's conduct in this part of the case. 
 
 A.~\ A 1 A*7 
 
 458-28 Joitabaee herself spoke of it with a sarcastic 
 
 warmth no more than natural. Her petition 
 
 to the Acting Resident was returned to her 
 
 465-30. half 1>ea d ; but its justice seems to have been 
 
 \nr> .-si. j n some sense admitted, for the surveillance 
 
 3 ' over her was relaxed. But still, when she
 
 36 JOITABAEE AT BOMBAY, FEBRUARY, 1850. 
 
 asked for copies of papers in her case, they 
 3CKM29 were re f usec l- When she wished to employ 
 assistance for the management of her case, 
 she was blamed for troubling Government with agents 
 interested in fomenting quarrels. When she begged 
 that her petitions might be read, her letters were 
 returned again. She reiterated her request for equi- 
 table arrangements for the care of the property pend- 
 ing investigation ; but no notice was taken of so 
 reasonable a proposal. Baba Nafra had removed all 
 the old servants of the banking-house, and replaced 
 them by creatures of his own ; he was also in favour at 
 the Residency. The widow was in despair. Colonel 
 Outram was expected soon to return from his sick- 
 leave in Egypt ; it therefore behoved Baba Nafra to 
 consummate his schemes quickly. Accord- 
 ingly, through the Resident, and by the for- 
 mality of a petition of the elder widow to the Gaek- 
 war's authorities, he tried to induce or force 
 Joitabaee to return to the house of her late 
 husband, which was under his own absolute control in 
 4"i-40 a ^ ^ s Details. She refused, unless arrange- 
 ments were made for obviating secret attempts 
 on her life. She appealed to the Government of Bombay ; 
 
 358-13 kut ^ er re P resen tations an d documents were 
 very imperfectly, if not carelessly, transmitted 
 by the Acting Resident to that authority ; and as she 
 361-123. declined to bind herself absolutely to the 
 362-129. adjudication of a tribunal she could not trust, 
 under circumstances which, if left unremedied, left her 
 no chance of justice, she was represented by Captain 
 French as refusing a settlement by arbitration in any 
 way, whereupon the Government of Bombay refused its 
 472-41 farther interference. She repaired to Bom- 
 bay, where her mother lay sick, whither the 
 Gaekwar himself was about to proceed on a visit of 
 state, accompanied by Captain French, and where 
 Colonel Outram was expected daily to arrive from 
 Egypt, We leave her there in February, 1850, until 
 we resume her story.
 
 INFERENCES AT BARODA. 37 
 
 The facts we have stated, as well as many more after- 
 wards fully substantiated, must have been well known 
 to the numerous persons involved in, or witnesses of, so 
 desperate and extensive a plot. Moreover, the people 
 of Baroda knew that Baba Nafra's general character was 
 well understood by the British functionaries from former 
 transactions. It was, therefore, impossible that the 
 renewal of his admission to the Residency, and the 
 general success of his schemes, as far as they appeared to 
 depend on the favour or inaction of the British Govern- 
 ment, should not be popularly attributed to the hidden 
 influences he had been accustomed, as they believed, to 
 employ. His mission of a confidential servant, Jotesh- 
 
 wur Echaram, to Bombay in July, 1847,* 
 
 1415 74. that is, as soon as the aftair put on an ap- 
 
 1232. pearance of unexpected difficulty, must have 
 
 strengthened their belief, and would have 
 done more so had they known, what was afterwards 
 proved, that that servant spent a large sum in attempts 
 at bribery, of which no distinct account could ever be 
 obtained. Nor could the contrasts afforded by nearly 
 contemporaneous events escape them. Blameless to 
 all appearance from the first in comparison with her 
 antagonist, (and afterwards proved to have been really 
 so,) the widow, without his means of buying favour, 
 had her petitions returned half read, very soon after 
 Baba Nafra had been officially restored by the Acting 
 Resident to the privilege of resorting to the Residency, 
 from which he had been expressly interdicted by Govern- 
 ment in 1843, in consequence of his connection with the 
 intrigues of that day. Still deeper must have been the 
 
 impression when it was known that Baba 
 
 Nafra despatched again to Bombay, in August 
 
 * Some of the papers state this journey to have taken place in 
 1^47; others in 1*48. The difference seems to arise from the 
 native year of computation, which is of a different length from ours, 
 dividing about the time of the journey. The date given in the text 
 is probably the true one ; but, if not, it is only necessary to add. that 
 in July. 1848, Nafra had a reason of the same kind, almost equally 
 cogent, for such a mission to Bombay. 
 
 D
 
 38 NURSOO PUNT, 1843. 
 
 1849, with a letter to Mr. Willoughby, the same 
 
 person, Joteshwur Echaram, who had been employed 
 
 101 m 1847 to endeavour to bribe Mr. Reid ; and 
 
 861-123! this at the very time that Captain French 
 
 358-115. was urging the Government to refuse fur- 
 
 4 TO !^ft 
 
 ther interference, by means of representations 
 which the Government themselves afterwards pro- 
 nounced "unwarranted by the facts." The effect of 
 the refusal could not but be to leave Joitabaee to the 
 power of Nafra, exercised through the Durbar. The 
 interference was refused. 
 
 We will now follow more particularly the course of 
 another individual already mentioned, viz. Nursoo Punt. 
 This talented officer, a native of Guzerat, had served 
 the Government for 25 years as a Revenue officer in 
 
 the Deccan ; he was probably one of the 
 
 most able native assistants in that depart- 
 ment ever employed, and his merits had been sub- 
 stantially rewarded. Nor does it appear that any 
 charge had been made against him in that part of the 
 Presidency which was calculated to awake unfavourable 
 anticipations of his future service. Whether this ab- 
 sence of blame arose from absence of fault, or from 
 that dread of the enmity of men in power which stifles 
 so many complaints in the East, it is now difficult to 
 judge. If the former be the truth, then Nursoo, after 
 a long life of creditable service elsewhere, fell under 
 the stronger and fouler temptations of Baroda ; if the 
 latter, we need not a more vivid illustration of one of 
 the great evils of Oriental rule, which it ought to be 
 our earnest ambition to remedy. 
 
 In July, 1843, on a vacancy in the highly con- 
 fidential post of Native Agent of the Baroda Resi- 
 dency, there were two candidates Baba Furkey, of 
 whom we have seen something, and must see much 
 1054-4 moi> e anon, and Nursoo Punt. The latter 
 
 applied for the situation on the score of 
 health, since, although the Deccan, where he was 
 serving, was more salubrious, Baroda was in his native 
 country. But the new situation was of smaller emolu-
 
 NURSOO'S CONNECTIONS. 39 
 
 ment than the old one by 100 rupees per mensem, or 
 by at least one-fourth; and Nursoo, with whatever 
 motive, asked to retain his old salary in the new 
 situation, but without success. If health had really 
 been his motive he would probably have preferred 
 Ahmedabad, his native city, to which his transfer would 
 have been at least equally easy. 
 
 Very soon after his appointment, Govern- 
 W55-8 ment were told that Nursoo had taken bribes 
 at Baroda so long since as 1 832, when there on 
 occasion of the visit of Lord Clare ; but, either through 
 the length of the time elapsed, or unwillingness to 
 entertain such a charge against an old servant, nothing 
 was done in the matter. It seems, however, that he 
 did not enter on his office without at least one trans- 
 action which was very questionable, as events after- 
 wards showed. 
 
 Nothing, then, had appeared up to this time which 
 would have materially diminished the confidence of 
 Nursoo's employers in him if his own future course 
 at Baroda had nearly answered to his reputation in the 
 Deccan. More important, however, in their bearing 
 on his reputation, as well probably as on his 
 945-6. own moral strength and tendencies, were his 
 904!*. family connections. He himself had married 
 the aunt of Baba Nafra, his sister was married 
 into the Baba's family, his niece married the Baba's 
 son, his first cousin the Baba's brother: his own sister 
 is married into the family of Dadoo Punt, who, we 
 have seen, was expelled from office for corruption ; one 
 of his daughters is married to a son, and another to 
 a nephew, of Venaik Punt, who had been dismissed 
 from the service of the Gaekwar and confined for mis- 
 conduct, but was released in 1833 through Nursoo's 
 influence, and who, through the same influence, was not 
 long since appointed to a confidential and lucrative 
 office in the Gaekwar's service. Government learned 
 the extent and closeness of his connections 
 with corrupt parties at Baroda, only soon 
 
 D 2
 
 40 NURSOO DISINGENUOUS. 
 
 enough to regret that they had not been equally well 
 informed before his appointment, which, however, his 
 high character induced them not to cancel. They 
 confined themselves to renewing the exclusion from 
 the Residency of Baba Nafra and others, which had 
 been imposed on them some time before. 
 
 This all appeared on the surface. But, 
 from a letter found some years afterwards, he 
 appears to have confirmed or established a corrupt con- 
 nection at Bombay, at the time he passed. through that 
 city in going from the Deccan to take up his appoint- 
 ment at Baroda ; a connection with parties afterwards 
 proved to have been the chief agents of corruption. 
 
 Unapprised of this man's antecedents and 
 1403^20 connections, Colonel Outram found him in 
 office, on his own assumption of the duties of 
 the Baroda Residency in May, 1847. His skill, his me- 
 thodical habits, his exact and extensive knowledge of the 
 records of the office, together with his quiet and unobtru- 
 sive manners, gained the respect of the new Resident. 
 Suspicion was excited only by events as they occurred. 
 The first of these events was the attempt, to which 
 we have before adverted, to put a false construction 
 on Sir R. Arbutlmot's conduct unfavourable to the 
 genuineness of Joitabaee's child. Then came 
 a case m w hi cn Baba Nafra endeavoured to 
 substantiate a claim against a British ward* of 
 three lacks of rupees by means of the substitution of 
 one document for another. Nursoo knew of the fraudu- 
 lent nature of the claim, and had official papers in his 
 own care which clearly showed it ; but never produced 
 them until compelled to do so. Another case was not 
 immediately connected, like the foregoing, with Baba 
 Nafra, but was a repetition, by other parties, of a device 
 of his to ruin the Gorajee Pol, which had been defeated 
 
 f The term " ward" is here used to denote a person possessing 
 the guarantee of the British Government. In this case the " ward " 
 was Govind Row Gaekwar, a relative of the reigning prince, living 
 under British protection at Ahmedabad.
 
 COLONEL OUTRAM LEAVES BARODA, 1848. 41 
 
 by Mr. Malet in 1837; and here again Nursoo, ever 
 ready, methodical, and exact on all other subjects, 
 failed to produce the information he possessed, which 
 would have proved the case conclusively against the 
 plotters. 
 
 Thus, before he was aware that Nursoo and Baba 
 Nafra had close family ties, Colonel Outram became 
 convinced of their collusion. Alarmed, it seems, at an 
 unexpected strictness of supervision, and at 
 962* Colonel Outram's vigorous measure of em- 
 ploying Baba Furkey to unravel the intrigues 
 of Nafra in which he was himself involved, Nursoo ap- 
 plied in June to be removed to employment elsewhere. 
 140^-* Colonel Outram, not aware of this applica- 
 tion, had reported unfavourably of his con- 
 duct in the cases above mentioned, and had shown that 
 he must have been guilty either of corrupt collusion 
 with Nafra, or of culpable neglect. He recommended, 
 however, that Nursoo should be permitted to profit by 
 any doubt the Government might entertain, by being 
 allowed to retire on the pension due to his length of 
 service, for which he had then applied. Colonel Outram 
 I40-_t Da( ^> nowever 5 charged Nursoo himself person- 
 ally with his faults, who thereupon sent a 
 958-20 Potion by a private channel to Bombay 
 without the knowledge of his superior, pray- 
 ing that he might not be condemned unheard ; which 
 petition was recoived by the Government, although 
 presented in so irregular a manner. 
 
 In this state of things ill health necessitated Colonel 
 Outram's departure for Bombay (12th September, 
 1848), where he stayed six weeks, and where he re- 
 peatedly offered any personal explanation required by 
 the reports above mentioned, which he had 
 
 140b l/. , , i i_ i- 
 
 sent to the Government some weeks betore. 
 He had no opportunity, however, of discussing the 
 reports, for they were always " in Mr. Reid's hands." 
 Nursoo's irregular petition for a hearing was not 
 bn.-athed of to him then, and a ropy of it, when its
 
 42 NURSOO AIDS NAFRA. 
 
 existence had come to his knowledge long 
 1062-36. after, was refused him. Having apprized his 
 
 acting successor, Captain French, of the state 
 877-75. o f things at Baroda, and in particular of the 
 765-42. estimation he had been compelled to form of 
 
 Nursoo Punt, Colonel Outram left Bombay 
 for Egypt in November, 1848. He went away im- 
 pressed with the belief that his unfaithful Native Agent 
 would be permitted to retire on his pension, according 
 . to his own ostensible application, but really 
 
 to return early in 1850 to a final struggle 
 with him. 
 
 The events of that interval now claim our attention, 
 one topic, however, being first noticed. The fraud 
 attempted on British subjects by the bank of Hurree 
 Bhugtee through Baba Nafra, its manager, seemed to 
 Colonel Outram amply sufficient, independent of its 
 known complicity with corruptions of former dates, to 
 justify the cancelling of the guarantee which in fact 
 
 it held only during good behaviour. That 
 
 measure, which in a more general form had 
 been repeatedly pressed by the Court of Directors, he 
 strongly urged on the Bombay Government, but with- 
 out effect. Happily, in this case, the success of the 
 Baroda corruptionists, if they really influenced the 
 question, preserved the very authority which afterwards 
 brought them to justice. 
 
 It will be remembered that at the period of Colonel 
 Outram's departure from Baroda on sick leave, 12th 
 September, 1848, the proceedings of the native court in 
 the case of the widow Joitabaee awaited apparently only 
 a formal conclusion, which seemed to be delayed merely 
 for the chances which the coming change at the Resi- 
 dency might afford in Baba Nafra's favour. A period 
 of about seven weeks elapsed before the new Acting 
 Resident, Captain French, arrived. On an early day in 
 
 this interval Nursoo surreptitiously obtained 
 
 1 4-OQ "t* 
 
 1013^15 *ke s ig na t ure of the First Assistant in Charge 
 to a statement that the British Government
 
 BRIBES AND BOASTING. 43 
 
 would interfere no further in Joitabaee's affairs. To 
 Baba Nafta the importance of such an intimation to 
 the harrassed widow consisted in its being calculated to 
 induce her to give up the contest in despair. But the 
 Assistant had no authority to make such a declaration, 
 nor would " he have dared " to commit himself to an 
 act which transcended the powers even of the Resident, 
 his superior, had he been present. His signature was 
 obtained by fraud. 
 
 Little more than a fortnight after this 
 
 1409-t. achievement, a sum of 28,070 rupees seems to 
 
 1067-1 have been received by Nursoo from Baba 
 
 Nafra, a part of a much larger sum agreed 
 
 on between them, whether for Nursoo's own benefit, or 
 
 under the pretence of bribes in higher quarters, seems 
 
 uncertain. The curious discovery of this transaction 
 
 three years afterwards, and the trial on which this was 
 
 one of the charges, will be noticed hereafter. The 
 
 facts just stated failed of legal proof, but were held by 
 
 1022 v ^ e Commissioner who tried the case to attach 
 
 " great suspicion " to Nursoo, in which opinion 
 
 the Government found itself obliged to concur. 
 
 Captain French arrived at Baroda on the 
 2nd of November, 1848, with but little dis- 
 position to suspect his Native Assistant. The warnings 
 of Colonel Outram as to both Nursoo and Baba Nafra 
 had small weight with him, and the records of the very 
 recent cases in which Nursoo's conduct had lost him 
 the confidence of one superior seemed to be fruitless 
 even of caution to the other. 
 
 With incaution apparently induced by 
 
 9 5i-J. recent and evident success, Nursoo seems at 
 
 1023-46. t ms juncture to have boasted openly of the 
 
 favour and support of Mr. Reid, to have 
 
 expressed his contempt for the opposition of Colonel 
 
 Outram, and is even said to have vaunted the sums he 
 
 would spend in procuring the assistance of European 
 
 gentlemen at Bombay. This conduct was denounced to 
 
 Government at the time, 25th November, 1848 ; and if 
 
 the pseudonymous authority on which the accusation
 
 44 NURSOO MISLEADS CAPTAIN FRENCH, 1848. 
 
 rested, was no better than such as in most instances in 
 
 India first timorously brings oppression and abuses to 
 
 light, it ought at least to have been held good enough to 
 
 require instant and urgent inquiry. Any such inquiry 
 
 was, however, omitted, if not stifled, for the 
 
 time, and was effected at last without the 
 
 good-will of the Government of Bombay. 
 
 With such an adviser and informant as 
 33 76Q 6 ' Nursoo at his elbow, Captain French found 
 means to report on Joitabaee's case on the 
 twelfth day after his arrival at the important and busy 
 station of Baroda; and, as already stated, he was 
 betrayed into recommending that the inquiry into it by 
 the native Court, then far advanced towards a conclu- 
 sion, should be re-opened in the form most of all 
 favourable to the success of Nursoo's secret and most 
 unscrupulous friend. No doubt, however, 
 Captain French was persuaded that he could 
 give the affair a different turn ; an opinion in which his 
 4H-H3 on ^ c ^ a ^ superiors afterwards greatly disagreed 
 
 with him. 
 
 Recollecting that our principal object is to estimate 
 the effect of facts as they occurred on the public mind 
 at Baroda, it is now important to note in detail the 
 events of December, 1848, and the following month. 
 
 Government already knew Nursoo's intimate connec- 
 tion with Baba Nafra; Baba Nafra had himself long 
 been well known to them as an inveterate corrup- 
 tionist ; Nursoo had just been denounced to them by 
 Colonel Outram as untrustworthy, and as probably in 
 deep actual collusion with Baba Nafra; and he had 
 also been accused, in a petition then before them, of 
 openly boasting, in Baroda, of his reliance on Mr. 
 Reid, and of indicating, not obscurely, the means by 
 which he could and would extend his influence at 
 Bombay. 
 
 Under these circumstances, Government, while it 
 confirmed the conclusion of Colonel Outram, that the 
 firm of which Baba Nafra was manager had endea- 
 voured to defraud Govind Row Gaekwar, a British
 
 GOVERNMENT FAVOURS NURSOO. 45 
 
 ward, of a very large sum, took no notice of 
 
 ^ ie f railc ^ amounting to constructive forgery, 
 
 by which it had been attempted, nor did they 
 of two letters to Members of Council, intimating, in no 
 ambiguous terms, that they would find their advantage in 
 
 favouring the house of Hurree Bhugtee ; they 
 960-25 censured Colonel Outram, in his absence, for 
 
 employing Baba Furkey in a case for which 
 that native was especially fitted, when he could no 
 
 longer trust Nursoo in it ; they acquiesced in 
 409 6 99 Captain French's proposal for a new inquiry 
 
 into Joitabaee's case, which (although doubt- 
 less they did not then know it) would have deprived that 
 lady of her best chance of justice ; and they censured 
 
 Colonel Outram's treatment of Nursoo, defend- 
 
 * n S tnafc nat i ve official against the conclusions 
 
 of the Colonel, on the strange ground, that 
 since it was the Resident's duty to ask questions, it was 
 no crime in this confidential agent to omit to state what 
 he knew, however vitally it affected the case, if only he 
 were not asked about it. Moreover, the Government 
 virtually asked Nursoo to withdraw his application for 
 pension and to remain at his post, on the ground 
 
 that while Colonel Outram's charges against 
 9 96i 39 hi m "did not require explanation" from 
 
 Nursoo " on any single point," Nursoo might 
 have applied to retire, " from feeling it impossible to 
 serve under Colonel Outram, after what he may con- 
 sider the unjust treatment he has received at his 
 hands," a difficulty then for the present removed by 
 Colonel Outram's absence on sick-leave. 
 
 More strange still, however, were the following oc- 
 currences : 
 
 On the 3rd of January, 1849, some person 
 1411-52 m Bombay, never clearly identified, wrote to 
 
 Nursoo the following letter : 
 
 " The Honorable Mr. Reid desires me to inform you 
 " that your petition, dated 18th September last, has 
 " been received by Government, and, after carefully 
 " reading it, and taking into consideration your services
 
 46 THE "MAURRICE" LETTER, 1849. 
 
 " for thirty years, Mr. Reid wrote a minute, strongly 
 " recommending your case to the merciful considera- 
 " tion of Government. Accordingly, an order will be 
 " issued in a few days to Captain French, desiring him 
 " to tell you, that as Colonel Outram is gone from 
 " Baroda, if you wish to continue as Native Agent, 
 " Government will have no objection to your with- 
 " drawing your application for pension. Captain French 
 " will also be informed that Baba Furkey is not to be 
 " allowed to have any thing to do with Government 
 " business. 
 
 " Mr. Reid says when he goes out of council he will 
 " recommend you to the protection of Mr. Wil- 
 " loughby*, but that you should be very careful how 
 " you conduct yourself: you must not on any account 
 " allow your private feelings of enmity against Baba 
 " Nafra to interfere with the business of the house of 
 " Hurree Bhugtee at the Residency. That firm is an 
 " old firm, and in consideration of the services which 
 " that firm rendered in former years to the Gaekwar 
 " Government, the Bombay Government treats them 
 " with respect ; and though Colonel Outrarn strongly 
 " recommended that their bhandree (guarantee) should 
 " be cancelled, still, by the favour of Mr. Reid and Mr. 
 " Willoughby, this has not been done ; therefore you 
 " must not try from bad feelings to injure that firm. 
 
 " Yours, &c. 
 (Signed) " J. R. MAURRICE." 
 
 " P.S. Keep the contents of this letter secret, and 
 " as soon as you read it write an answer to me, and 
 " thank Mr. Reid for his kindness to you. Address me 
 " by post, at Mr. Reid's house, Bombay." t 
 
 * Baba Nafra sent one of his known emissaries of 
 1412-63. corruption to Bombay with a letter for Mr. Willoughby 
 
 in the following month of August. 
 
 f The reference to Nursoo's enmity to Hurree Bhugtee's firm, 
 that is, to Baba Nafra, its manager, is only to be accounted for by 
 remembering that, at this time, Nursoo kept up a feigned appearance 
 of enmity to his real confederate Baba Nafra. If this letter were 
 obtained from Bombay by some mere trick of Nursoo, and at his 
 own dictation, in order to keep up his importance at Baroda at this
 
 PETITION AGAINST NURSOO. 47 
 
 This letter, it was afterwards found, faithfully pre- 
 informed Nursoo of the impending resolution of the 
 Government in his favour in every particular. He re- 
 ceived it on the 7th of January, and not 
 long after showed it about, so far at least 
 that a copy of it subsequently reached the Resident. 
 Whoever the writer, it was written while Government 
 had before it, as we have seen, 
 
 1. A petition of Nursoo, not yet disposed of by them. 
 
 2. A charge of Colonel Outram's of two attempted 
 frauds on the part of JBaba Nafra and others. 
 
 3. A charge of Colonel Outram's against Nursoo of 
 collusion with Baba Nafra in those frauds. 
 
 4. An application of Nursoo's to be permitted to 
 retire on a pension. 
 
 Government had also just before fallen into Captain 
 French's views as to a new court in the Joitabaee case. 
 
 Now let us see what are the accompanying oc- 
 currences. 
 
 This letter reached Baroda on the 7th. Govern- 
 ment dispatches, exactly corresponding in substance 
 with its contents, arrived at the Residency on the 8th 
 and 15th. On the 4th, Government, assuming that 
 Nursoo had been induced to apply for his pension in 
 consequence of Colonel Outram's treatment of him, 
 told him, as we have before shown, that they had no 
 objection to his withdrawing his application. 
 
 The pseudonymous petition presented to 
 them on the 25th of November, accusing 
 
 o 
 
 1408-J. Nursoo of boasting of Khutput influence in 
 
 1014-24. Bombay, was only referred by Government to 
 
 Baroda for inquiry on the very same day 
 
 particular juncture of Joitabaee 's case, we may easily suppose him to 
 have used this expression to aid him in keeping up the false appear- 
 ance of disagreement. But this supposition that the letter might 
 possibly be concocted by Nursoo himself, only lets in the harsher 
 inference that he believed an imputation of corruptibility would 
 be of little prejudice to himself at Bombay. If the letter were 
 really written by some person in Bombay, deceived as Captain French 
 at one time seems to have been as to the relations between Nursoo 
 and Baba Nafra, that person could only be one who had long been 
 in communication with both, and who wished to serve both his old 
 friends, now apparently at variance
 
 48 COINCIDENCES. 
 
 (January 4th) that they asked Nursoo to withdraw his 
 application for retirement. The latter despatch arrived 
 first at Baroda. The answer to the reference of the ac- 
 cusatory petition was -sent, after a single day's inquiry at 
 # Baroda, a city of 80,000 inhabitants, and was 
 to the effect that no such person as the osten- 
 sible petitioner could be found. On the 17th, that is, 
 within ten days of the appearance of these 
 documents at Baroda, Joitabaee, then in dur- 
 ance, was threatened that if she complained again of the 
 probability of injustice at the hands of the Gaekwar's 
 authorities her petitions would be returned 
 unread, a threat soon afterwards carried into 
 effect. 
 
 What possibility remained but that coincidences, 
 preferences, anticipations, and information so extra- 
 ordinary, should be universally attributed to Khutput? 
 The explanations afforded of these facts long after- 
 wards are not of a nature to relieve very greatly the 
 impression thus produced by them. They are, chiefly, 
 that the petition against Nursoo, being in 
 1083. a nat i ve language, was long in the trans- 
 lator's office, and that Government never 
 could find out who wrote the " Maurrice " letter. It 
 is clear, however, from the Chief Secretary's statement, 
 that the pseudonymous petition which charged Nursoo 
 with openly boasting of the corrupt favour of Mr. 
 Reid, was actually in circulation amongst the members 
 of the Government at the time they wrote the letter 
 inviting Nursoo to remain in the service. 
 
 Amongst the unaccountable facts of the subsequent 
 part of Captain French's incumbency is the letter he 
 wrote to Government on the 22nd of February, the 
 month following the occurrences above mentioned. 
 347-75 ^ e sa ^ ^ na ^ Baba Nafra is one of a party of 
 bankers who rule the Gaekwar and his court 
 despotically. On the 28th of the same month he offi- 
 cially informed the Durbar that he had re-admitted 
 Baba Nafra to the access to the Residency, which had 
 been forbidden to him originally in 1843, and again in 
 the following year. In April he returns a petition of
 
 BABA FURKEY, 1837- 49 
 
 Joitabaee's half read ; and from the twelfth day after 
 his arrival, through all the term occupied by these 
 transactions, down to the following May, he urges the 
 constitution of a new court of arbitration under the 
 authority of the Gaekwar, ruled despotically as he had 
 described him to be by Baba Nafra and his friends. 
 These facts are here adverted to a second time only to 
 show the connection with the Khutput proceedings in 
 Bombay, in which they necessarily appeared to stand in 
 the eyes of the people of Baroda. 
 
 Let us now review the very different course 
 of Baba Furkey. In December, 1837, Motee 
 Purshotum was suspended from the office of head carkoon 
 of the Rajpeepla district, under the charges of ex- 
 tortion and bribery already stated. Baba Furkey, who 
 had greatly assisted the inquiries into corrupt practices 
 prosecuted by Mr. Malet and Colonel Outram, and had 
 been much persecuted for that and other reasons by 
 the then Gaekwar, was appointed to the situation by 
 the first-named functionary. During the twenty months 
 that he served in this office, under Mr. Malet 
 himself, he earned a highly honourable testi- 
 monial, and he seems to have continued to afford such 
 assistance in the exposure of corrupt intrigues as either 
 the fears or the interests of almost every other native 
 rendered it impossible to obtain from any other quarter. 
 The Nagurs had been unearthed mainly by his digging, 
 and if he had been vulnerable to their fangs he would 
 not have been spared. 
 
 He appears to have fulfilled the duties of his office 
 to the satisfaction of Mr. Malet's successor, when 
 suddenly the appointment he had held for 
 more than five years was, in March, 1843, 
 broken up into four smaller ones ; the displaced Baba, 
 with or without his own concurrence, was left out of the 
 new arrangements. Not a single fault was attributed 
 to him ; his six years of office did not afford his many 
 enemies the means of advancing one single accusation, 
 and surely, if there is one native of India deserving 
 respectful consideration, it is a member of a noble
 
 50 TURKEY DISPLACED, 1844. 
 
 house, fulfilling with honourable fidelity the service he 
 had sought in the subordinate ranks of the Govern- 
 ment which had supplanted the power of his ancestral 
 race. If there is one man in India to whom the heart 
 of a British officer should warm, it must be to such 
 a man, honestly and courageously fulfilling such a trust, 
 when all was corruption, either in its temptations or its 
 rage, around him. But, shame to say, it was 
 afterwards avowed that the office filled by 
 Baba Furkey was to be broken up for the mere purpose 
 of getting rid of him. The reasons given were his 
 great influence and his large expenditure. The first, 
 an honest man in office is sure to have where honesty 
 in office is rare ; the second was proved to 
 be entirely a misapprehension, in as far as it 
 was not a misrepresentation. The Baba, too, 
 was charged with having an independent 
 bearing ; a crime, surely, only in the eyes of those who 
 look forward to the future of India as a perpetuity of 
 degradation. But the officer who for such reasons at 
 last effected his removal never reported his faults until 
 the opportunity of action served the turn. 
 
 1054-1 ^ u *^ e mont h f J u ty following, the situa- 
 tion of Native Agent to the Baroda Resi- 
 dency became vacant by the dismissal of Hurreelal, who 
 had been concerned in the Dackjee Dadajee intrigues. 
 Baba Furkey, as we have seen, was one of the candi- 
 dates for the situation, another being Nursoo Punt, who 
 obtained it. The then officiating Political Commis- 
 sioner, Mr. Remington, was required to report on his 
 qualifications, and this chanced to be the very same 
 officer who had successfully contrived a few months 
 before to get the Baba dismissed from employment by 
 the costly and circuitous device of re-constructing the 
 official arrangements. The substance of his report we 
 have already given, for it was on that occasion that he 
 avowed the motives and purpose of his former pro- 
 
 1389-40 ceea "ings. On the report of Mr. Remington, 
 
 the Government resolved, 20th May, 1844, 
 
 that Baba Furkey was " a very unfit person to be em-
 
 TURKEY DISGRACED, 1847. 51 
 
 ployed in any political capacity." That is to say, at 
 the very time that Government had just learned that 
 Nursoo, known to be most intimately connected with 
 the men who at that time were excluded from the 
 Residency for recent and scandalous corruption, ob- 
 tained the vacant appointment, while the man who had 
 served the Government so faithfully for nearly six 
 years, that a fault was not to be found by means of 
 which to get rid of him, was not only refused the post, 
 but branded as unfit for employment. Moreover, this 
 man, who, while as yet he was no servant of the Govern- 
 ment, had aided it as no other native could or would aid 
 it, in exposing and defeating corruption, had this stain 
 affixed on him, promptly and certainly, without an 
 opportunity of explanation or self-defence ; but un- 
 faithful officials had been discarded only after accumu- 
 lated accusations and formal trials, and when apparently 
 every device had failed to screen them. To what pos- 
 sible conclusion must these notorious facts have led 
 the Prince and people of Baroda ? 
 
 The Baba, however, residing yet at Baroda on 
 account of the unsettled claims of his family on 
 the Gaekwar, still sought to be reinstated, at least 
 in eligibility for employment. His antagonists op- 
 posed to him a fictitious petition, which, on reference 
 1389-41 ^ ^ r * Andrews, tuei) Officiating Resident, 
 was found to contain statements of which no 
 proof could be discovered ; and this was his position in 
 May, 1847, when Colonel Outram entered on the 
 duties of the Residency. He sought to see his old 
 superior, now returned to fill the highest British official 
 situation at Baroda ; but he was repulsed by 
 him as under an official stigma. He then 
 petitioned the Government of Bombay for employment, 
 and happily so far succeeded as to have leave, " on a 
 vacancy occurring, to apply to the local authorities." 
 The date of this permission is July 5, 1847, 
 about six weeks after Colonel Outram as- 
 sumed his office. It was during the next twelvemonths 
 that the Resident, in investigating the affairs of the
 
 52 COLONEL OUTRAM EMPLOYS FURKEY. 
 
 Gorajee Pol and of Govind Row Guicowar, found rea- 
 son, as we have already said, to distrust the 
 
 1390-43. integrity of his native agent, Nursoo. Casting 
 
 1056-19. a ]3 OU t for the means of effecting his investi- 
 gations, which especially required the aid of 
 native experience, he could think of nobody at once 
 competent to such a task, and sufficiently independent 
 of the corrupt or menacing influence of Baba Nafra 
 and his associates, but his former able and courageous 
 assistant, Baba Furkey. Turning, with more of regret 
 than of hope, to the records of the office, he found not 
 only that the ban was originally put on Furkey for 
 most insufficient or fallacious reasons, but that even, 
 such as it was, it had been rescinded by the permission 
 to apply for employment subsequently given. This 
 discovery, while it deepened his impression of the disin- 
 genuousness of Nursoo, who had misrepresented the 
 case by his former trick of omission, left him free to 
 seek the aid of Furkey. 
 
 962-A ^y *^ a ^ a id these intricate cases were un- 
 ravelled ; the attempted frauds were made 
 clear ; and the complicity of Nursoo with those frauds 
 was established by proofs which, three years later, pro- 
 cured his conviction on the most important charge, in 
 which Nafra also was concerned, and subjected him to 
 " animadversion " in respect of the other. The reports 
 of Colonel Outram, founded on these proceedings, were 
 duly forwarded to Bombay ; he followed in search of 
 health, and, before he proceeded to Egypt, offered every 
 explanation both of the cases themselves and of the 
 grounds of his opinion of Nursoo. No opportunity was 
 
 962 &c S lveTi mm - Yet, four months after his depar- 
 ture, Government sent a letter to Baroda, 
 dated 12th January, 1849, to which we have already ad- 
 verted, in which, while they confirmed his conclusions, 
 they censured him for expressing suspicion (and it was 
 no more) of Nursoo, and for employing Baba Furkey, by 
 whose aid alone he could have established those con- 
 clusions; they justified the proceedings of Nursoo Punt, 
 who, let alone, would have effectually falsified them ;
 
 TURKEY V. THE KHUTPUTISTS. 53 
 
 and they erroneously blamed the Resident for knowing 
 the records of his office so little as to suppose 
 Furkey was eligible for employment, while 
 in reality they so far overlooked their own as to forget 
 that the unmerited exclusion of him had been repealed. 
 When Colonel Outram first applied to Baba Furkey 
 to aid in these inquiries, that experienced native de- 
 clined the employment, on the ground that any aid of 
 his, if successful, would infallibly draw down 
 on him the ruinous vengeance of powerful 
 and unscrupulous persons whose frauds might be ex- 
 posed. On the assurance of the Resident, however, 
 that no harm would be permitted to reach him for 
 faithful service to the British Government, he under- 
 took the task : how well he fulfilled it we have seen ; 
 how he suffered for it we have yet to see. 
 
 It will be recollected that it was just at the date of 
 Colonel Outram's departure, and of his Report of the 
 cases in which Nursoo had misled, and Furkey had 
 assisted him, that a crisis occurred in the far greater 
 game of Joitabaee's child and property, which Baba 
 Nafra was then playing. An inquiry was all but con- 
 cluded, which would pass on appeal into the hands of 
 the Resident. If either the impending decision could 
 be prevented, or the new Resident be sufficiently 
 biassed, the game might be won. But the most dan- 
 gerous man to them, in the absence of Colonel Outram, 
 was Furkey, known pre-eminently for his hostility to 
 the party of corruptionists, and recently employed 
 with searching effect against them. He had passed 
 into the service of the Gaekwar, probably not without 
 contrivance of his enemies, since he was thus, to a 
 certain extent, stripped of his advantages as a British 
 subject. The Gaekwar, a young and inexperienced 
 prince, who had very recently succeeded his 
 father, was ruled by Nafra and his confede- 
 rates, as Captain French soon after testified. If the 
 Gaekwar and the coming Resident could be made to 
 distrust Furkey, the means of detection most likely to 
 be used with effect against them would be set aside. A 
 
 E
 
 54 FURKEY DISPLACED AGAIN. 
 
 character attested by years of honourable service did 
 not seem a formidable difficulty, when a feeble prince 
 and an unsuspecting Resident were to be misled. The 
 
 Government of Bombay were already suffi- 
 5 ' cieutly prejudiced against him; for at the 
 very date of the " Maurrice " letter, and of the invita- 
 tion to Nursoo to remain in the service, Government 
 directed the Acting Resident not to allow the inter- 
 ference of this person (Furkey) " in any Government 
 business whatever." The only danger was that of a 
 revision by Colonel Outram on his expected return from 
 his twelve months' leave in Egypt ; the fear of which, 
 however, was much diminished about the middle of the 
 year, as we have already mentioned, by reports, but too 
 well founded, of his increasing sickness. 
 
 Accordingly, about the end of May, 1849, not many 
 
 weeks after Captain French had returnee! 
 461-29. Joitabaee's petition half read, and had in- 
 407-79. duced Government to adopt his resolution of 
 
 interfering no further in her behalf, that 
 officer found, or rather made, an opportunity of in- 
 sinuating into the mind of the Gaekwar, the dislike of 
 Furkey, which he himself had been misled to indulge. 
 Captain French had failed to induce the Gaekwar to 
 
 adopt one of his plans of improvement, very 
 
 237-8. laudable in itself, that of general vaccination ; 
 
 29i. and the ostensible objection, though probably 
 
 not the real one, was that of expense ; where- 
 upon he said to the prince, that if he could not afford 
 such improvements for such a reason, there was little 
 wisdom in employing Baba Furkey at 200/. per annum, 
 a man whom his father had expelled from the city. 
 Here was in fact a suppression of an essential part of 
 the matter, into which none had such an opportunity 
 of leading the Acting Resident as Nursoo Punt : for 
 while it was quite true that the Gaekwar's father had 
 expelled Furkey from the city, it was equally so, and 
 much more to the purpose of Captain French's guid- 
 ance, that the Resident of that day had so judged of 
 the case as to do his best to protect and befriend him,
 
 OUTRAGE ON TURKEY. 55 
 
 and that the animosity of the reigning Gaekwar of that 
 day was in great part occasioned by Turkey's aid in 
 exposing the intrigues for corrupting the servants of the 
 British Government, in which that prince himself was 
 deeply engaged. 
 
 The insinuation had, however, another sting. The 
 blame of the opposition to his well-intentioned plans 
 was laid by Captain French on the Killeedar, or trea- 
 surer, one of the Gaekwar's chief officers ; and although 
 0<r _ q the young prince was induced to take it on 
 
 himself, the imputation (for it was meant to 
 be such) was soon after made to take effect. At pre- 
 sent, the only consequence was Furkey's loss of his 
 appointment in the Gaekwar's service. 
 
 In a native State there always exist schemes, more 
 
 or less visionary or real, for displacing the reigning 
 
 prince in favour of some other issue of the polygamitic 
 
 connections of the previous ruler. Not long after the 
 
 - 1() dismissal of Furkey, on the insinuation just 
 
 mentioned, the Gaekwar became alarmed at 
 a fancied or actual discovery of such a plot, in which 
 he was made to suppose that his Killeedar and Baba 
 Furkey were concerned. He resorted in trepidation to 
 the Acting Resident, who thereupon referred to his 
 former hint in the vaccination affair that the Killeedar 
 and Furkey were in collusion, and he expressly told 
 the prince, that as neither of them was a British sub- 
 ject the remedy Ir.v in his own hand. Accordingly, a 
 
 few days afterwards, the Baba's house was 
 
 surrounded by fifty or sixty armed men, his 
 139-2^54. papers were searched, some of importance to 
 
 bis old family claim on the Gaekwar's Govern- 
 ment were abstracted, others tending to implicate him 
 were introduced, his house was placed permanently under 
 a guard of ten men, the ample securities he offered for 
 1394-63 ms a PP e '' irailce were refused, and he himself 
 
 was kept in close confinement two months 
 
 and a half. Captain French says he in no way in- 
 
 1396-71. terfered, and doubtless he meant his con- 
 
 238. duct to be neutral ; yet there are traces of at 
 
 E 2
 
 56 BRITISH ALLEGIANCE WITHOUT PROTECTION. 
 
 least so much encouragement of his to the 
 
 202 
 
 1393-58. nne f conduct of which this outrage was 
 part, as to fairly account for the Baba after- 
 wards attributing the outrage itself to his influence. 
 Only two papers were found or placed in the Baba's 
 house which could be made in any way to 
 implicate him, and on those no steps were 
 taken against him, whether from his peculiar hand- 
 writing having rendered a passable forgery too difficult, 
 1394-62 or fr m the P a P ers themselves being insuf- 
 ficient to sustain a charge. Nor does it ap- 
 pear that any pains were taken to preserve the papers 
 or copies of them, or to prevent substitution, afterwards 
 292 strongly suspected. Furkey petitioned the 
 Bombay Government, 13th November, 1849, 
 for protection and redress : his petition was 
 
 l<39z 55. . * _ , - _ 
 
 six days afterwards referred to Captain 
 French, who answered in three days more, that Baba 
 Furkey was not then a British subject, although he 
 might formerly have been so*. Government at once 
 adopted this conclusion, on what was afterwards declared 
 33_8 ky the Court of Directors to be " most insuf- 
 ficient grounds;" and they endeavoured to 
 strengthen their case by alleging, that Furkey, having 
 1394-64 * a ken employment with the Gaekwar, must 
 be held as liable, without their interference, 
 to the usual incidents of such a service, and " His 
 Lordship in Council did not deem it necessary to inter- 
 fere to prevent injustice." But since it was admitted 
 on all hands that Furkey had been at one time a 
 British subject, and since, according to our maxims, he 
 could not divest himself of the responsibilities of one, 
 it ought to follow that he could not be deprived of his 
 right of protection, except in matters relating to the 
 
 * This petition appears to have been written in English, and that 
 maybe said to account for its quick dispatch. But the natives could 
 not fail to remark, that a petition against Nursoo lay two months or 
 more before it was sent for reference, of which time nearly one 
 month was consumed in the same official round of circulation that 
 was accomplished in this case in six days.
 
 TURKEY'S PETITIONS. 57 
 
 foreign service, which, with its incidents, he had under- 
 taken ; and it nowhere appears that the charges against 
 him were connected with that foreign service. Nor can 
 we forbear to ask, how it happens that Britain, which 
 so strongly, and almost alone in the world, maintains 
 the doctrine of an indefeasible allegiance, should be 
 able, in India, to shake off the converse responsibility 
 of sovereignty, viz. protection, as in this and other 
 cases, where the fulfilment of such converse obligations 
 have chanced to be inconvenient. 
 
 1394-66 ^ ^ tt ^ e was *k e Baba m favour, that the 
 English clerk in the Residency Office, the 
 only available person, was afterwards fined a month's 
 pa}\ and was sternly rebuked for writing a petition in 
 English for him. Furkey, however, peti- 
 tioned the British Government again on the 
 4th and 21st December for release under securities ; and 
 on the 10th of that month, his brother showed clearly 
 that he was a British subject. Of these representa- 
 tions no further notice was taken than his release on bail, 
 an advantage which he probably owed, in at least an 
 equal degree, to the approach of Colonel Outram's re- 
 turn to Baroda, then beginning to be generally known. 
 Baba Furkey wrote to Colonel Outram at 
 1395-68 Bombay; the letter was sent to Captain 
 French for reply, but nothing was elicited. 
 One of the conditions of his release was, that he 
 should not leave Baroda for three months, the object of 
 which was doubtless to prevent his presenting himself 
 at Bombay to lay his case before Colonel Outram 
 there, during the then impending visit of the Gaek- 
 war to the Presidency under the guidance of Captain 
 French. In the following spring, that of 1850, we 
 find in Bombay most of the personages of our history, 
 viz. the Gaekwar, Colonel Outram, just returned from, 
 Egypt, and about to resume his duties at Baroda, Cap- 
 tain French, Nursoo Punt, the lady Joitabaee, and her 
 mother Larbaee. Thus is introduced the final section 
 of our story, with its strange and complicated changes. 
 In the events ; ust narrated, is it possible that the
 
 58 SUMMARY OF RESULTS, MARCH, 1850. 
 
 people of Baroda should not have believed they saw 
 the plain and certain effects of Khutput ? The party 
 known to be deeply active in its intrigues were in 
 favour and power. The Gaekwar was known by the 
 Resident to be ruled despotically by them; the 
 Resident nevertheless rescinded the exclusion of their 
 chief (Baba Nafra) from the Residency, and took 
 exactly the measures most likely to promote their 
 great object, the plunder of the Hurree Bhugtee bank ; 
 of the principal proprietesses of the bank, one was re- 
 duced to insignificance, the other was robbed, 
 imprisoned, maligned, and deprived of her 
 child; Nursoo Punt and Baba Nafra swelled and 
 basked in the plenitude and security of fortune ; Baba 
 Furkey, the old and staunch opponent of Khutput, was 
 disgraced, imprisoned, and ruined, and the earnest 
 avowal of the Gaekwar, two years later, of a 
 930-17. full belief that he was innocent, and had 
 934-1. been deeply wronged, was not yet available 
 for either his justification or his comfort. To 
 support this view in the eyes of the observing natives, 
 it was by no means necessary to make out Furkey, or 
 even Joitabaee, altogether blameless in every particular 
 of their lives : it was enough that they were evidently 
 wronged ; that the wrong could not have been effected 
 without the aid, active or passive, of the British 
 authorities ; that the wrong doers prospered ; and that 
 no motive comprehensible to the natives could be 
 assigned for the strange and unvarying uniformity of 
 these results, but the damning influence of Khutput. 
 
 Appearances little indicated the storm about to rage 
 amongst the persons assembled in April, 1850, at 
 Bombay. Colonel Outram, ignorant of much that had 
 passed at Baroda during his absence in Egypt, seems to 
 
 764-32. kave ex P res sed to Nursoo, in Bombay, a wil- 
 lingness, since " Government considered him 
 innocent, that bygones should be bygones," and a hope
 
 TURKEY'S RIGHTS. 59 
 
 (by no means unreasonable, considering Nursoo's reputa- 
 tion with others) that he would give no further 
 occasion for complaint. The Native Agent, however, 
 seems, for whatever reason, to have thought it expedient 
 999-60 to ^ tam ms own removal to an equally im- 
 portant office at Ahmedabad his native city. 
 Baba Furkey had written to his old superior in 
 1396-71 -^5^ on ^ e ^rongs he had suffered ; and 
 Colonel Outram handed the letter to Govern- 
 ment, when at Bombay. Captain French, when referred 
 to, merely gave a general denial that Furkey had ex- 
 perierfeed any enmity from his native establishment ; 
 his letter, however, clearly showed that the Gaekwar 
 habitually consulted him about this disliked native. 
 Colonel Outram seems to have had his attention engaged 
 to this case, as a principal subject of inquiry, very soon 
 1397 after his arrival at Baroda by a petition of 
 Furkey's to the Government. He asked 
 both Government and Captain French what share the 
 latter had in the proceedings of the Gaekwar's Go- 
 vernment against Furkey ; but Government thought 
 it inexpedient to re-open the question, and Captain 
 French declined to answer, on the ground that he was 
 responsible to Government alone. Within the first 
 month of his renewed residence at Baroda, 
 IQQ Colonel Outram defended the right of Furkey 
 ' to the designation and privileges of a British 
 subject to the subsequent satisfaction of the 
 Court of Directors, and traced his sufferings to the 
 vengeance of Nafra and Nursoo, operating through the 
 unsuspecting agency of the late Acting Resi- 
 dent. The Bombay Government gave Colo- 
 nel Outram " a virtual rebuke for bringing forward the 
 subject ; " for which, and for omitting to call on Captain 
 French for explanations, they were themselves rebuked 
 by the Court of Directors. 
 
 Joitabaee, then also in Bombay, addressed to 
 the Government a petition which may be 
 referred to as a clear and truthful state- 
 ment of facts as they were afterwards established by
 
 60 JOITABAEE PETITIONS AT BOMBAY. 
 
 evidence, as a remarkable picture of the grievous de- 
 fects of Oriental government, and a striking instance 
 of the solicitude with which the principles of Eng- 
 lish justice are invoked even by those who have but 
 little conventional right to their protection. Govern- 
 ment, however, guided by Captain French's 
 409 representations, still believed her only a de- 
 397. feated impostor, and again refused to inter- 
 f ere m uer behalf. Colonel Outram himself, 
 although he had a somewhat different opinion 
 of her case, was, as yet, labouring under a belief, from 
 the Acting Resident's representations, of Joitabaee's 
 contumacy, and could see at this time no means left 
 of settling a dispute which wore so strange and compli- 
 cated an appearance, but such an arbitration as Captain 
 French had already proposed. 
 
 The causes of a change were, however, already in 
 operation. During the first month of his renewed 
 incumbency, Colonel Outram received, through the 
 Government of Bombay, the remarks of the Court of 
 Directors on two important cases. The first 
 was that of Joitabaee, then almost closed, in 
 the estimation of the Home Authorities, by Captain 
 French's confident assertions of the spuriousness of the 
 child; the other that of the fraud attempted by the 
 Hurree Bhugtee Bank, that is, by Baba 
 Nafra, on Govind Row Gaekwar, by the sub- 
 stitution of a false bond. 
 
 Induced, and indeed required, by the opinions ex- 
 pressed by the Court, to re-investigate these matters, 
 Colonel Outram was no doubt further stimulated by 
 finding in the office at Baroda, on his return, the letter 
 of 12th January, 1849, which the Government had 
 addressed to the Acting Resident in his absence, in 
 which, while the conclusions he had arrived at by the 
 962. a ^ f Furkey were adopted, the dishonesty 
 of Nafra (necessarily admitted in fact) was 
 passed over in silence, the conduct of Nursoo was 
 zealously excused, and his own proceedings subjected 
 to a very strong implied censure.
 
 NAFRA'S ARREST. 61 
 
 Thus forced to resume his old investigations, other 
 occurrences afforded unexpected facilities to his efforts, 
 and gave them the vigour which arises from the dis- 
 tinctness of immediate purpose. 
 
 The dreaded influence of Nafra was indeed active 
 and intense, but it was only of that unsubstantial 
 kind which is acquired by mere audacity of resolve, 
 associated with cleverness of device. Like all other men 
 who succeed by means of such qualities, Nafra lacked 
 the wider and safer views, and the just principles of 
 management, which lead, if anything can, to permanent 
 success. Accordingly the affairs of the bank began to 
 show symptoms of disorder and decline, which were 
 attributed to his reckless unskilfulness, even before 
 men dared to speak openly of the sums he lavished on 
 bribes in all directions, and of his embezzlements for 
 his own direct profit. 
 
 As, however, vast wealth still remained, Nafra and 
 the bank might have held together some time longer, 
 but that he ventured, in the security of success, on 
 extreme ill-usage of some dependents who had been 
 his accomplice^ (from fear, they said) in his oppression 
 of Joitabaee and his abduction of her son. These 
 men, whether from present suffering (for they were 
 imprisoned by him. and had been for four months), or 
 from revenge, or from remorse on seeing their late 
 master's family ruined, made such statements 
 to Colonel Outrun, 3rd July, 1850, as to re- 
 quire the arrest of Nafra by the Gaekwar's 
 Government at the Resident's instance, on 
 a charge of abduction of the child, and suspicion of 
 having compassed the murder of it. Mahaluxmee, 
 who had been intimidated into silence from 
 the first by Nafra's treatment of her fellow- 
 j . widow, Joitabaee. was released at the same 
 time from the thraldom in which that usurping 
 steward had lately held her. 
 
 Nafra seems to have betaken himself at once to 
 measures of defence. The day after lii* arrest he pro-
 
 62 NAFRA'S EFFORTS. 
 
 cured by misrepresentation Mahaluxmee's 
 ^2Q signature to a petition containing false alle- 
 gations, which he despatched to the Govern- 
 ment of Bombay, who sent it to Colonel Outram " for 
 his immediate attention." Joitabaee, let it be remarked, 
 against whom no single wrong act had been established, 
 was then living friendless and repulsed in Bombay, 
 while they bestowed this speedy care on a man proved 
 years before, as they knew, to have been steeped in 
 corruption (for their predecessors had excluded him 
 from the Residency for it), in which corruption native 
 public opinion associated themselves with him. 
 
 The stricken delinquent next pursued with 
 vigour his attempt to bribe Nursoo's succes- 
 sor, Soorujram, which he had commenced on that 
 native officer's appointment, a few weeks before. Nor 
 was he too soon; for Colonel Outram had already 
 caused the books of Hurree Bhugtee's firm to be seized 
 and brought to the Residency, when Nafra sent 20,000 
 rupees to Soorujram, who had been instructed by his 
 superior to entertain the offer, in order to the more 
 effectual defeat of the present and discouragement of 
 future attempts. The money was seized, under the 
 information of Soorujram, while actually on its way to 
 him, and indubitable evidence of its sender, progress, 
 and destination was secured*. 
 
 _ 87 It was not until things had reached this 
 
 pass, and much confirmatory evidence had 
 
 ,_ q * Colonel Outram urged that the decision of Govern- 
 
 14 3J ment in this case should be given at once, in order that 
 the difficulty in procuring evidence might be diminished, 
 which arose from the long-standing and general belief in Baroda 
 that Government really at heart favoured the makers of Khutput. 
 Since the Governor and Mr. Will oughby thought the case "very 
 clear," and, singularly enough, proposed to expend the impounded 
 money on a bridge, to be called Baba Nafra's(!) Bridge, it would 
 seem that there could not have been much difficulty in an immediate 
 decision. Mr. Blane, \vho did not deny the bribery, proposed, how- 
 ever, to postpone the matter until after Nafra's trial on the heavier 
 charges ; the Government agreed, and thus left the difficulties of the
 
 THE TRACKS OF KHUTPUT. 63 
 
 been obtained, that, on July llth, Colonel 
 Outram reported to the Government of Bom- 
 bay, the arrest of Nafra, eight days before ; for, after 
 his experience, he seems to have feared, that until this 
 damning case was put beyond the possibility of retrac- 
 tion or spoiling, some unexpected or unaccountable 
 turn at Bombay might take all vigour out of his pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 Another inquiry, however, now forced itself on his 
 attention. On examination of the books of Hurree 
 Bhugtee's house which had been seized, it was found 
 that as many erasures and alterations had been made as 
 the time permitted ; this time was afforded by the 
 collusive delays of the Gaekwar's officials, and the 
 treacherous warnings conveyed to Baba Nafra from the 
 Resident's own office. Yet from the books, 
 however falsified, it still was left to appear, 
 that from 30 to 40,000/. sterling had been disbursed at 
 different times for Khutput in Joitabaee's affair ; and 
 amongst the items was one of 8000/. which had been 
 placed at the disposal of Joteshwur Echaram, who had 
 been dispatched from Baroda to Bombay in July 1847 
 or 48, as has been stated before, to see to its application. 
 On the first examination of this man, it appeared that 
 more exact information might be obtained from the 
 books of Bulwuntrow, his brother-in-law, residing at 
 Bombay. But Colonel Outram's suggestion to the Go- 
 vernment to that effect was met with the objection, that 
 in the town of Bombay, under modified English law, 
 such a seizure would be illegal ; and while explanations 
 passed, that an information on oath (which could have 
 121g easily been ,supplied) would have justified 
 the step in law, the opportunity of securing 
 the books previous to falsification was lost. 
 
 It was learned at the time, however, as it was after- 
 trial undinainished. This is one of the cases in -which the ultimate 
 resolution of the Government was never made known to Colonel 
 Outram, and which were not reported to the Home Authorities until 
 the period for any use in reporting was long past.
 
 (54 NAFRA'S FURTHER EFFORTS. 
 
 wards more fully established, that Joteshwur 
 had been sent to Bombay, at the suggestion, 
 1232! it was affirmed, of Nursoo, to bribe Mr. Reid ; 
 that he had given two sums of 2000 and 
 
 1 997 
 
 10,000 rupees for that purpose to Craig, an 
 Assistant of some standing in the Secretariate ; and as 
 Craig soon after left Bombay for Calcutta, in disgrace 
 on other accounts, it was supposed he had kept the 
 money himself. Other persons were also 
 concerned in the affair, but in an inferior 
 way. The subsequent proceedings in this case, to 
 which we shall again have occasion to refer, ran on 
 contemporaneously with those which more directly re- 
 lated to Nafra himself, to which we now return. 
 
 Fairly in the toils, Nafra bestirred himself, according 
 to his wont. He endeavoured to turn the 
 main odium of the recent attempt at bribery 
 on Soorujram, by getting Motee Heerachund, the go- 
 between, to assert that the proposal came from the native 
 official. He tried to discredit Furkey, whom, no doubt, 
 he believed to be in the midst of so much activity di- 
 rected against himself, but with whom, in fact, the Resi- 
 dent had had no personal communication 
 493-176 smce ms return. He continued to use the 
 name of his mistress Mahaluxmee, in pe- 
 784 - titions of which that lady had no sufficient 
 
 7Q-4 
 
 4 9 6 ' knowledge if she had any at all ; and, although 
 fallen, he still contrived that his judges 
 should be chosen from amongst his confederates and 
 friends. 
 
 On the ground that the house of Hurree Bhugtee 
 
 371-15 P ossesse d the British guarantee, the Resident 
 
 held a separate inquiry into the charges 
 
 375-29 a amst Nafra ; and, notwithstanding treachery 
 
 in his own native establishment, and want 
 
 of good faith in the Gaekwar's officers, it is to this 
 
 measure that the eventual success of the investigation 
 
 is entirely due. Shame, however, as it is to say it, while 
 
 witnesses, the Gaekwar's subjects, were readily and
 
 NAFRA'S TRIAL, 1850. 65 
 
 372-17 s P ee( Wy produced to the Resident, those who 
 
 were British subjects were only forthcoming 
 
 after much prejudicial delay, and the most important of 
 
 them was never produced at all. The evasion seems 
 
 to have been favoured, if not effected, by the 
 
 native subordinates in the British districts, 
 
 some of whom were connected with Nursoo and 
 
 through him with the chief delinquent. 
 
 The preliminary inquiry at the Residency com- 
 
 menced about the 5th of July, and ended on 
 
 377-Hst. the 15th August. Immediately on its close, 
 
 the proceedings of the native court began, 
 
 >.->:3- -list, which continued till the 2nd of October, on 
 
 the 22nd of which month the award was 
 
 given, and sentence pronounced, subject to 
 
 the confirmation of both the Governments. 
 
 In dealing with the case, the native court 
 383-12. took both the depositions in the unfinished 
 proceedings of 1847-8, and those just made 
 before the Resident. Most of the former, it will be 
 remembered, were given before the native authorities, 
 and while Nafra was in the height of his 
 P owei "> some of them even were taken by 
 Nafra himself; Nursoo, too, was yet Native 
 Agent to the Resident. The latter were made before 
 the Resident and after the arrest of Nafra. The dis- 
 crepancies between the two sets of depositions are 
 enormous ; the witnesses accounted for them 
 518, <fec. by reference to the means of intimidation 
 unsparingly employed by Nafra in the days 
 of his power. Moreover, the former depo- 
 384, <fec. sitions were afterwards clearly shown to have 
 been vitiated by the substitution in many 
 parts of fresh sheets ; and there is much reason to con- 
 clude they were falsely recorded in the first 
 32 ' instance. 
 
 The story eventually established is this: Nafra, either 
 grasping at greater power, or feeling the pressure on 
 4 the bank occasioned by his reckless manage- 
 ment, wished to open the great treasury of
 
 66 REVELATIONS. 
 
 772 the bank, which was kept locked and under 
 678. guard of armed men, was never opened but 
 *J08- on special occasions, and had not been opened 
 since the death of the husband of the two 
 widows. Joitabaee refused her consent, and, moreover, 
 resisted and resented the undue assumption of autho- 
 rity which Nafta had carried to a most offensive pitch. 
 She was in his way ; to remove her child was to get 
 rid of her power. An emissary of his, one of 
 the three men who afterwards revealed the 
 facts, found in Meetapore, persons British subjects 
 who were willing, on terms, to pass for the parents of 
 the child. The persons thus obtained were brought to 
 Baroda, and lodged in Nafra's garden under Arab guards. 
 Nafra got a false deed prepared, which 
 purported that Joitabaee's father had bought 
 the child of these people for 200 rupees per 
 annum during their lives. This deed he brought to 
 these people in his own garden ; and, with 
 some chaffering, bargained with them to go 
 through with the personation for 1700 rupees, a sum 
 which, with the secret in their possession, they took 
 care afterwards considerably to augment. Under his 
 instructions they first went to the house of 
 520-25. Joitabaee's father, and claimed payment ac- 
 522^27! cording to the deed, or the return of the 
 523-28. child ; and being repulsed, as they expected, 
 they noised the matter as much as they could, 
 both in the city and at the bank. Nafra took down 
 their depositions with all due form and gravity, gave 
 them 100 rupees, which they asserted to be due to 
 them, took from them the alleged deed of Joitabaee's 
 father, and sent them away. He then confined Joitabaee, 
 and took her child away from her father's house, break- 
 ing locks for the latter purpose; a degree of violence, on 
 private authority, beyond even that permitted 
 516^20. kv the loose and inefficient law of the Gaek- 
 
 war's Government. 
 
 The plot was afterwards doubled. A dependent was 
 required to join with certain persons brought from
 
 JOITABAEE'S CHILD. 67 
 
 Amleeara, another village, in asserting that the child 
 was theirs; and, on his refusal, he "was put 
 384-14. iu irons until he consented. Amleeara was 
 37<>-32. chosen because the place and its inhabitants 
 were entirely under Nafra's control; he could 
 command the testimony of its people, and he could there 
 dispose of the child or the child's life at his pleasure, 
 which he could not do with equal safety at Meetapoor, 
 a place under British authority. To meet the change 
 of plan, the story was concocted that the child pro- 
 cured from Meetapoor had died, and had been replaced 
 by Joitabaee's father with one from Amleeara. The 
 wretched villagers of the latter place, who in fact held 
 ^ their possessions and lives at Nafra's mercy, 
 and seem to have been amongst the poorest 
 of their class, were brought to Baroda to claim the 
 child. Nafra forged a document in which 
 51 ^- Joitabaee is made to confess that she never 
 5^1' had a child, and to beg that that which 
 passed as hers might be given up to the 
 Amleeara people, from whom she understood her father 
 had obtained it. The infant was then de- 
 spoiled of its ornaments, and delivered the 
 same night to the Amleeara villagers, in Nafra's garden ; 
 not without some repugnance on their part, 
 they took it home, under escort of Nafra's 
 Arab mercenaries. Two days after their arrival, the 
 child and its spurious mother were lodged in 
 a separate and secluded house under a strict 
 610-12. guard of Arabs who prevented access to 
 them ; and here, in three months, the child 
 died, as alleged, of cholera. Joitabaee was imprisoned 
 in a dark room secured with iron bars, until 
 771. she was released at the demand of Col. 
 Outram, after whose departure for Egypt 
 she was again imprisoned by Nafra, her actual 
 confinement within walls being perhaps at times 
 changed for a rigorous guard in the house, until her 
 repeated and indignant remonstrances to Captain French
 
 68 EVIDENCE ON NAFRA's TRIAL. 
 
 extorted first relaxation, and then release, after two 
 years' incarceration. 
 
 For this account of the matter the evidence on almost 
 every point was direct, probable, and complete. The 
 only defects, and these were amply supplied, were those 
 occasioned by the death of the midwife, by the absence 
 of the man, (a British subject,) who had personated the 
 child's father in the first instance, and by the abstrac- 
 
 _ r tiou of those particular books of the bank 
 in which the payments on this account were 
 entered, and which were taken away by Nafra in the 
 night previous to his arrest, in consequence of a warn- 
 ing treacherously given him from the Resident's office. 
 
 Of course Nafra had a story to account for facts 
 
 which could not be denied. But, of the 
 
 536. witnesses who in 1847-8 had sworn falsely in 
 
 fil ft 
 
 629 ' his favour, for very dread of him, very few, 
 634. now that the spell of his power was, for a 
 time, broken, failed to withstand the threats 
 and cajolery of Nafra and of his friends in the Gaek- 
 war's service, by which it was sought to make them 
 retract the evidently truthful statements they 
 " had made before the Resident. These few 
 consisted of a pensioner of Nafra's, and of the miserable 
 villagers of Amleeara ; the latter dreading 
 bis vengeance, however distant the period at 
 which he might resume his power, said and 
 unsaid at the Residency and the Gaekwar's court, just 
 as their fears at the moment dictated. Their true tale, 
 however, was easily recognized by the consistency and 
 corroboratious which the other lacked. The Gaekwar's 
 minister and Nafra's other judges, associates though 
 378-43 <kc some f them had been in many of his mis- 
 ' doings, and disposed to screen him, as they 
 had all unsparingly showed themselves, could not resist 
 the evidence against him : yet even in convicting and 
 punishing they continued to favour him. 
 
 537 The charges were framed by the Gaekwar's 
 
 court into these three specific questions :
 
 NAFRA'S SENTENCE, OCTOBER, 1850. 69 
 
 1. Had Joitabaee borne a child ? 
 
 2. Was a strange child of an inferior caste pro- 
 cured, and passed off for a genuine son of Joi- 
 tabaee, and a false deed produced by Nafra, in 
 testimony of the substitution ? 
 
 tt 
 
 3. Was the child which Nafra delivered to the 
 Amleeara people their own? 
 
 On the first of these points the court professed to 
 doubt ; but they fined Nafra 500 rupees for negligence, 
 as the confidential manager of the house, in not ascer- 
 taining the fact at the time. 
 
 On the second, they say that Joitabaee did not pro- 
 543. cure a child, but that Nafra did ; and that he 
 54 8. forged a deed by which it was alleged to be 
 purchased. For this, as Nafra was a Brahmin, 
 and therefore could not be put to death, and as banish- 
 ment would be inappropriate, they sentenced the cri- 
 minal to a fine of 10,000 rupees, and imprisonment, in 
 irons, for seven years. 
 
 On the third question they concluded that Nafra had 
 given the child to the Amleeara people, without ascer- 
 taining whether it was really their own ; and for this 
 they fined him 5,000 rupees. 
 
 The whole punishment amounted to a fine of 15,500 
 rupees (about 1300/.) and seven years' imprisonment in 
 irons. The date of the sentence is 22nd 
 October, 1850. 
 
 It will be observed, that this verdict leaves one main 
 question unsettled, viz. whether Joitabaee had ever 
 borne a child. The court professed to doubt whether 
 there was disinterested evidence enough to establish 
 the fact, although there was as much as is usual in 
 such cases ; and yet they not only convicted Nafra 
 on the other points in terms which cannot be sustained 
 on any other supposition, but they passed sen- 
 352' tences on the other parties concerned, for 
 offences which equally required the genuine- 
 ness of Joitabaee's child to justify the expressions by 
 which they are described. This formal defect 
 in the verdict was evidently designed to permit
 
 70 MEDICAL COMMITTEE. 
 
 Nafra to escape the heavier punishment of imprison- 
 ment for life, for abstraction of a high-caste child. 
 Since, too, the verdict entirely avoided the real cha- 
 racter of the child given to the Amleeara people, it 
 avoided also the necessity for inquiring into the facts 
 of the child's death, which must otherwise have come 
 under review, and might have resulted in a still more 
 penal sentence. But it had also another effect, which 
 seemed to Colonel Outram too serious to be neglected, 
 considering the position at that time of the general 
 question of Khutput ; the doubt left a chance of the 
 mitigation of the sentence, and that mitigation might 
 come, as so many had unaccountably come, from 
 Bombay; for the final confirmation of the sentence 
 rested, through the guarantee, with the British Govern- 
 ment. Discoveries arising from the examination of 
 the books of the Hurree Bhugtee Bank, showed 
 that heavy work was yet to be undertaken, and any 
 apparent favour to Nafra, at Bombay, would have 
 weakened the Resident's hands for the task. At once, 
 therefore, to establish the fair fame of Joitabaee, 
 whom he believed to be deeply wronged, and to pre- 
 vent the possible errors of his own superiors, he pur- 
 ^ &c sued the investigation still further, and by 
 
 means of a Committee of British medical 
 officers, which sat in January, February, and March 
 following, he obtained a conclusive professional opinion 
 that Joitabaee had at some time given birth to a child, 
 
 after the usual period of gestation, and an 
 
 expression, by the same committee, of a 
 
 strong conviction, founded on consistent and varied 
 
 692-1 circumstantial evidence, that that child was 
 
 born at the time she had herself alleged. 
 654-30 Here we leave the case for the present, 
 
 with Nafra in prison and Joitabaee restored 
 
 to her caste, to the public favour of the prince, and to 
 
 379-50. a P ort i n f tn e comforts she had a right to 
 
 expect as one of the proprietresses of a long- 
 798. established bank, reputed to be of enormous 
 
 wealth. She was, however, still left bur-
 
 JOTESHWAR'S PAPERS. 71 
 
 862-H dened ^'fth debts, incurred in the penniless 
 state in which she had been compelled to 
 bear her persecutions and withstand her spoilers. 
 
 Several matters, which at any other time would have 
 
 seemed of more than ordinary importance, were on 
 
 foot during the three or four months which Nafra's 
 
 1216 trial occupied. The discovery of Joteshwar's 
 
 mission to Bombay for purposes of bribery, 
 
 and the check which the consequent investigation met 
 
 with in the legal difficulty of seizing Bulwuntrow's 
 
 1218 books in Bombay, have already been adverted 
 
 to. Without waiting for this obstruction 
 
 and answer from the Government, Colonel Outram 
 
 had already obtained further confessions from 
 
 222. Joteshwar, when anonymous communications 
 
 were received, both in Bombay and Baroda, 
 
 pointing out more distinctly than Joteshwar had done, 
 
 the persons implicated in his proceedings. The Gaek- 
 
 war's Government seized his papers at Colonel Outram's 
 
 request ; on which he became much agitated, 
 
 and declared that they contained nothing re- 
 
 lating to the present matters, but only documents con- 
 
 nected with the former servants of the Residency, 
 
 Sarabhoy and Brijlal, to whom he had been Gooroo, or 
 
 spiritual adviser ; whereupon they were sealed up, and 
 
 he was promised, that if he told the truth on the pre- 
 
 sent occasion, they would be returned to him intact, 
 
 the slight examination already made of them having 
 
 satisfied Colonel Outram that his account of them was: 
 
 nearly correct. It was, however, from other quarters 
 
 1230 that Colonel Outram obtained evidence of 
 
 some facts which Joteshwar had denied, and 
 
 in particular of the transmission of 2500 rupees to 
 
 Bombay, to be at the disposal of Joteshwar himself, 
 
 but a few days before Nafra's arrest. It is however 
 
 1233 remarkable, that on Colonel Outram report- 
 
 ing that Joteshwar had evidently not told the 
 
 whole truth, and asking what he should do with these 
 
 papers, he W 7 as directed by Government to return them 
 
 1236 unopened, " unless they referred to charges 
 
 F 2
 
 72 INVESTIGATIONS IN BOMBAY. 
 
 now under investigation, or establish fraud and corrup- 
 tion against any person now in the service of Govern- 
 ment." The emphatic " now " of these instructions was 
 intended to ensure the return of the papers unopened to 
 Joteshwar. Surely Sarabhoy and Brijlal had the faculty 
 of securing the lasting attachment of their friends : or 
 if not, then the only possible conclusion is, that the offi- 
 cial body of this part of India was in such a condition 
 that its responsible chiefs did not dare to permit a dis- 
 tinguished and experienced officer of theirs to probe it. 
 Finding that little aid was to be had from Govern- 
 ment, and that the confessions of Joteshwar were not 
 likely to be sufficiently complete, Col. Outram 
 obtained assistance in Bombay of Captain 
 Barr, Paymaster-General, whom he furnished with a 
 letter from Hurree Bhugtee's Bank (just delivered from 
 Nafra's dominance), directing their Agent in Bombay 
 to show their books to him. In those books 
 were found entries strongly confirmatory of 
 Joteshwar's confessions as far as he had gone. But all 
 that could eventually be learned was, that Joteshwar 
 had given large sums to Craig ; that Cole, a European 
 subordinate in one office, and Ragoba, a native em- 
 ployed in another, were implicated ; that Mr. Smith, 
 the brother-in-law of Craig, was suspected ; and that 
 the money paid by Joteshwar to Craig could not be 
 traced, from the numbers of the notes in which it 
 was paid not having been preserved. Captain Barr, 
 who assisted Colonel Outram in his Bombay in- 
 
 1238 &c ( l mr ^ es as hi s P r i va te friend, gave up the 
 attempt on finding that all the papers passed 
 through the hands of Craig's brother-in-law, Smith ; 
 and the Government gave him little thanks for his 
 1259 extra official pains, and much blame for 
 his withdrawing from this disgusting volun- 
 tary service when it seemed so very unlikely to produce 
 any effect. Furthermore, the Government appointed 
 their Secretaries a Committee on this subject, in the 
 1259 to 1276 k e gi nnm o f 1852, after further very startling 
 'revelations, and some weeks after the dis-
 
 NAFRA'S FRIEND THE KOTWAL. 73 
 
 missal of Colonel Outram, which succeeded no better 
 than its predecessors in the investigation. 
 
 The private books of Nafra, in Baroda, were seized, 
 as well as those of the bank he managed. It was 
 necessary to effect this seizure through the 
 Gaekwar's Government. More delay taking 
 place than was thought necessary, Colonel Outram sent 
 to learn the cause, and the Gaekwar instantly dispatched 
 one of his own officers, along with the one deputed by 
 Colonel Outram, to Nafra's house. There the Gaek- 
 war's chief of police, Sumbhooram, whose duty it was 
 to make the seizure, was found sitting quietly 
 with Nafra, in a room full of the papers of 
 the latter, who was actually engaged at the 
 time in destroying, erasing, altering, and otherwise pre- 
 paring them for examination. They were, however, 
 then summarily seized, sealed up, and sent to the Resi- 
 dency, and a committee of native officers, of both 
 Governments, of bankers and bankers' servants, was ap- 
 pointed to examine them, over which Colonel Outram 
 himself presided. 
 
 In the course of this examination, surreptitious 
 ( copies of papers in the Residency records 
 
 were found, and several matters of import- 
 ance, evidently intended for concealment, were brought 
 to light. Amongst the latter was a memorandum 
 which, as soon as discovered, was so inter- 
 ui-i 4 P re ^ e( ^ ky the native committee, from corre- 
 2-28-3. spending circumstances of perfect notoriety, 
 to fix a stigma on the character of Mr. W. C. 
 Andrews, who filled, at that time, a high judicial office 
 at Surat, and who, just before the professed date of the 
 transactions noted in the paper, had vacated the tem- 
 porary appointment of Acting Resident at Baroda. 
 Reading, as the natives read, through the disguise of 
 erasures and fictitious entries, this memorandum, ascer- 
 tained to have been written at Nafra's dictation by 
 his nephew, seemed to import that considerable sums 
 had been paid by Nafra to natives who were supposed 
 to have influence with Mr. Andrews. The object was
 
 74 MR. ANDREWS. 
 
 variously guessed to be either the obtaining some 
 favour from him while at Baroda, or the influencing 
 his decision in a case before him at Surat. On the 
 former supposition the date must be supposed to be 
 purposely disguised. It may be added that any pro- 
 bable date falls near to that of the first pressure of 
 Joitabaee's case on Nafra's anxiety, that is, just after the 
 abduction of the child. Finding that the matter, at its 
 first emergence to light, was already beyond his own 
 keeping, Colonel Outram sent it at once to Mr. 
 Andrews, in order that he might protect himself against 
 such an use of his name. That gentleman, however, 
 unhappily betook himself rather to defending his native 
 friends, and to blaming the manner in which Colonel 
 Outram had dealt with the case, than to contemptuously 
 disregarding or clearly disproving the imputation. He 
 endeavoured, however, to invalidate the interpretation 
 the examining Committee gave to Nafra's memorandum, 
 and lie sent his chief native officer to Baroda to obtain 
 exculpatory information. The latter was a measure 
 which, at the least, was very irregular, and of which, in 
 the opinion of Government given at a later 
 date, Colonel Outram ought to have pre- 
 vented the execution : the conduct of the native official 
 232-12 Dispatched on this business, appears, more- 
 over, to have been such as to deprive himself 
 of promotion, and to have required an apology from our 
 Government to the Gaekwar. The correspondence 
 between Colonel Outram and Mr. Andrews, friendly in 
 its beginning, became official in its form, and acri- 
 monious in its spirit. Soon after its conclusion Mr. 
 227 Andrews died, and Government was thereby 
 relieved of the necessity of judging of more 
 than the conduct of the two parties to the difference. 
 230 After an attempt of Mr. Bell, one of the 
 Members of Council, to cast severe blame on 
 Colonel Outram (an attempt in exact accordance with 
 the animus of most of his proceedings), the late Mr. 
 Andrews was seriously censured, and Colonel Outrani 
 blamed for not examining this allegation (which had
 
 FRESH ATTEMPTS AGAINST TURKEY. 75 
 
 already got beyond Iris own power of restraining its 
 circulation) before he sent it to Mr. Andrews. He got 
 232-12 &c crec ^ t ' however, for " having been actuated by 
 perfect purity of motive, and an earnest 
 zeal, however misdirected it may, in some respects, 
 have been, for the vindication of the honour of the 
 Government and its servants." It was some- 
 thing for Colonel Outram to obtain even so 
 12g7 much as this on the very day preceding his 
 removal from Baroda ; and its value was after- 
 g_ 2 wards enhanced by the Court of Directors 
 going so much further in approving his con- 
 duct in this case as to adopt all the credit given to him 
 by the Bombay Government without joining in their 
 censure. 
 
 The true facts in this case would probably be of little 
 importance if they were known ; but the correspondence 
 which arose out of them renders it strikingly evident 
 that the natives universally believe in the efficacy of 
 Khutput ; the whole depends on that supposition. 
 
 In the struggles of Nafra, it was not likely that 
 Furkey should escape a blow. It is true the Resident 
 held no intercourse with him, nor had he employed 
 him : but that was more than Nafra knew, or was likely 
 to believe, especially as Colonel Outram had, soon 
 after his return, been at much trouble to 
 establish the rights of Furkey as a British 
 subject, which had been denied by Captain 
 French. To discredit Furkey seemed to Nafra to be the 
 disarming of one of his chief antagonists ; accordingly, as 
 soon as possible after his arrest, petitions were 
 % 7 - addressed to Government against Furkey in 
 
 520-24. ,. ,, , , . , i -i L i 
 
 796. the name or Mahaluxmee, which that lady 
 afterwards disavowed, and attributed to Nafra 
 himself. 
 
 Furkey had repeatedly petitioned the British Govern- 
 ment for their interference with the Gaek- 
 2 <24i 1 wa1 ' * n k* s Behalf, and had been as often 
 244! answered with their refusal. He attributed 
 his present exclusion from employment, the
 
 76 PERJURIES, 1851. 
 
 wrongs he had sustained from the Gaek war's Govern- 
 ment, and the animosity against him of the 
 officers of the native Government, to the aid 
 he had formerly given to the Resident in opposition to 
 the favoured cause of Klmtput. He was discredited to 
 this extent in the estimation of the Government, when, 
 about six weeks after Nafra's arrest, a charge of bribery 
 was made against him by a chieftainess of the district 
 in which he had been employed a charge in- 
 248-4. stigated, as more than suspected, by the 
 253. Gaekwar's minister. The alleged offence 
 933 ~ 5< was dated some ten years before the com- 
 plaint. Furkey had taken refuge under 
 British law, at Bombay, from the further vio- 
 250-n. lence he apprehended at Baroda. He wil- 
 2^- Hugly returned to Baroda, however, to meet 
 247-3. the charge, encouraged by the conviction which 
 the Gaekwar had by this time expressed, that 
 Furkey had been the victim of a foul conspiracy, 
 in the treatment he had received at the 
 nan( ^ s f his* the Gaekwar's, Government. 
 Major Fulljames, on whom the investigation 
 devolved after the death of Major Brown, before whom 
 the accusation had been originally preferred, reported 
 not only that there was no credible evidence in sup- 
 260 port of the accusation, but that Furkey 's 
 accusers had attempted to sustain it by means 
 of " perjury " and of " recent and gross fabrications ; " 
 and, moreover, " it appeared that a deep-laid plot had 
 been entered into, to effect his ruin, by the present 
 complainant, urged on either in the hope of extorting 
 money from him, or by the ill advice of some of his 
 numerous enemies in this place." He adds that he be- 
 lieves, from the rough notes left by him, his predecessor 
 would have come to the same conclusion. This report 
 is dated 13th November, 1851. Government 
 3 14 ; found themselves compelled to adopt and act 
 on it in December and January following, im- 
 mediately after their recall of Colonel Outram from 
 Baroda, and to add to it protection for Furkey during
 
 THE FOUR NATIVE CLERKS. 77 
 
 his stay in the Gaekwar's territories. We shall yet see 
 Turkey's troubles are not at an end : fitting 
 fate at British hands for an opponent of Khut- 
 
 put, as far as conformity to usage goes, however the 
 
 usage is to be accounted for. 
 
 It is not necessary to narrate at any length the case 
 
 lflM of four native clerks in the Residency of 
 
 Baroda, deemed unfaithful by Col. Outram, 
 
 and suspended by him from pay and office in April. 
 
 1851, immediately after he made the grave charges 
 
 against Nursoo, on which we are about to enter. Go- 
 vernment allowed their suspension, and in 
 
 1 ( i^< \ 
 
 1092 ' February of the following year, after Nursoo 
 was convicted, and Colonel Outram had been 
 
 () _ 8 removed, these inferior servants, strongly sus- 
 pected of being agents of corruption in a 
 sphere where obscurity of rank scarcely diminishes the 
 power of mischief, were dismissed indeed from the 
 service of Government, in the Residency at Baroda, but 
 in a manner which left them at liberty to obtain em- 
 ployment in any other Government office. Strange 
 contrast to Furkey's fate, who, without charge or hearing. 
 was absolutely and repeatedly forbidden Government 
 employment in any capacity whatever ! 
 
 It will be remembered, that very shortly before 
 Colonel Outram left Baroda for Egypt, on sick-leave, 
 he found it necessary to resort to the aid of Furkey, to 
 investigate some ca>es in which he had reason to sus- 
 pect vehemently the fidelity of his Native Agent 
 Nursoo, that in his Report of 7th September, 1848, 
 he noticed strongly the conduct of Nursoo, and that 
 in his absence, the Government of Bombay sent a 
 letter, dated 12th January, 1849, to be recorded in the 
 office of the Resident at Baroda, in which Nursoo wa 
 defended and Colonel Outram censured. It will also 
 be recollected, that Colonel Outram, who must have 
 found this letter in the office on his return, undertook, 
 7th December, 1850, to reply to it. It is 
 true, that a year and three quarters had 
 elapsed since the date of the letter of Government, and
 
 78 NURSOO'S CONDUCT EXAMINED AGAIN. 
 
 that some months before this time, Nursoo had been 
 removed from Baroda to an equally deniable office 
 elsewhere. Under ordinary circumstances, these con- 
 siderations might have induced most men to let the 
 letter of Government drop, however incorrect the con- 
 clusions or unjust the censure it conveyed. But it 
 must be remembered, that Nafra's papers and those of 
 the Hurree Bhugtee Bank had been seized ; that the 
 examination of them had produced important revela- 
 tions ; that the prestige of Khutput was for a moment 
 stricken in Baroda ; that there was not only the duty of 
 very grave investigations before him, but a better 
 chance than had yet appeared of succeeding in that 
 duty; that the chief risk of failure seemed to lie in the 
 tenacious faith in Nursoo and his associates, which still 
 possessed the Government of Bombay ; and that accord- 
 ingly it would prove one of the most effectual strokes in 
 his power, if he could disabuse the Government of its 
 unfounded confidence, and by that means dispose it to 
 a co-operation, without which a battle with corruption 
 must at best be a doubtful enterprize. Nor WTIS he 
 without a just desire that the archives which held the 
 censure of Government on himself, should contain also 
 his justification, however that document might fail of 
 its immediate effect *. 
 
 * The subject of one of these disputes affords an example, on a 
 small scale, of the regime \vhich prevails over much of India under 
 native Governments. The contrast of the case with the condition 
 and practice of Government in England will supply an approximate 
 mode of estimating the principles from and towards which India is 
 changing under British rule. 
 
 A person, here called the Gorajee Pol, held the public 
 
 1405. revenues of certain villages, and the Government rights 
 
 966. over them, on condition of his maintaining twenty-one 
 
 981. armed horsemen : he appears, besides, to have had cer- 
 
 322. tain direct allowances from the Government. Having 
 
 got into debt, he pledged his rights in these villages to a 
 
 banker, on condition that the banker should manage them, and 
 
 should pay himself a stipulated income out of them. Previous to 
 
 this pledge, the revenues were leased to the patells, or hereditary 
 
 head-men of the villages, and the lease was transferred from the 
 
 Pol to the banker. The patells thus became possessed of the right 
 
 of exacting all they could from their neighbours, subject, however,
 
 NATIVE REGIME (NOTE). 79 
 
 Government, as we have said, defended Nursoo (12th 
 966. January, 1849,) parti von the ground that he 
 968 - informed his superior as far as he was ques- 
 tioned by him. But in an office where the chief is 
 often removed, and a confidential subordinate is long 
 stationary, it is obvious that the knowledge of facts 
 must rest with the permanent subordinate, however 
 the chief may be responsible for the use to be made of 
 those facts ; and if it be permitted, on authority, for a 
 subordinate so placed, to limit the information he 
 affords to that which may be actually required of him, 
 he has it in his power, by the simplest process of conceal- 
 ment, transposition, or delay, to bring his chief to 
 almost any conclusion he may wish for. The subject 
 is far too extensive for discussion here, but it may be 
 remarked, that the tendency of offices so constituted is 
 necessarily, to a Government really of clerks, screened 
 towards the public by great names : perhaps an able, 
 
 to the overpowering strain which could at any time be put on them 
 by the banker, who held the villages in mortgage. To all this, the 
 British Government, in accordance with the singular arrangements of 
 Guzerat, was guarantee ; but by the terms of the arrangement our 
 authority could not be interposed, so long as the conditions of it 
 were fulfilled by the respective parties. But the object of the 
 banker was to ruin the Pol, to incapacitate him from maintaining the 
 stipulated body of horse, and so, on his failure to fulfil the terms of 
 his tenure, to give the Gaekwar's Government a right to resume 
 them. 
 
 To effect this object, fictitious statements and suppressions of 
 facts were resorted -o, so as to make it appear that the Pol was in 
 debt much more than he could have been if the terms had been 
 observed. Moreover, the lease to the patells was attempted to be 
 set aside practically, by merely avoiding mention of it, and so 
 inducing the consent of the Piesideut to a new bargain on lower and 
 less binding terms. 
 
 One of the two charges against Nursoo, referred to in the text, 
 was his complicity in these misrepresentations, by means of the con- 
 cealment of papers with which he must have been perfectly familiar. 
 The other, much more serious in its amount, was his connivance at 
 the fraudulent substitution by Xafra of an old superseded bond for 
 a newer obligation of much smaller amount, and the attempt to 
 
 1011-3 exact far too much, interest ; and 011 this latter charge 
 Xursoo was subsequently convicted by Mr. Frere ; on 
 the former he escaped with " animadversion." On both the Govern- 
 ment had zealously defended him
 
 80 FURTHER REVELATIONS. 
 
 but really an irresponsible Government, and, in some 
 important senses, a sham. If this tendency is to be 
 checked, it can only be by requiring the permanent 
 subordinate to give the temporary superior the fullest 
 information on every subject, and not by limiting his 
 duty to the production of the particulars which may 
 happen to be required of him. 
 
 The reply of Colonel Outram to the letter of Go- 
 vernment, (7th September, 1850,) goes into 
 the whole case, paragraph by paragraph, and 
 fact by fact ; and it was accompanied by a statement of 
 _ the facts connected with Joteshwar's corrupt 
 mission, which had been ascertained, in Bom- 
 bay, by Captain Ban*, and by a Report on the 
 anonymous petition respecting Nursoo, which 
 had been presented nearly two years before. The 
 facts communicated by Captain Ban*, already given, 
 we need not here repeat. The Report on 
 the petition stated that the author of it had 
 1012-8. avowed himself, and had produced witnesses, 
 who asserted that they were present when 
 Nursoo (Colonel Outram then on sick-leave and Nafra 
 in his glory) boasted of the favour of Mr. Reid, of his 
 contempt for any hostility of Colonel Outram, of his 
 determination to spend as much money at Bombay as 
 was necessary for his own designs, and of the power by 
 which he himself had protected Nafra and ruined 
 Joitabaee. 
 
 These communications, together with the conviction 
 of Nafra, which took place while they were under re- 
 view, seem to have made some impression on the 
 Government; for the Governor's minute, dated 15th 
 9g7 November, 1850, is not so much a defence of 
 the previous decision, as a discussion of the 
 relative duties of Resident and Native Agent, (in which 
 duties as to opinions are strongly confounded with 
 duties as to records and facts,) and a showing that Go- 
 vernment had acted according to the information it 
 possessed ; that of Mr. Blane goes somewhat further in 
 Colonel Outram's favour, and Mr. Willoughby (who in
 
 NAFRA'S BRIBES TO NURSOO SI 
 
 those questions is commonly to be found on the side of 
 moderation and right feeling) thought the Resident 
 deserved, in so irksome and painful a duty, all the sup- 
 port the Government could give him, consistently with 
 perfect justice to the accused. The coldness, however, 
 with which the accusations against Nursoo of using 
 
 o ~ 
 
 958 Mr. Reid's name improperly were received 
 
 was well expressed in the dispatch of 5th 
 
 November, which directs that no further steps be taken 
 
 in the matter. Nafra himself, convicted and impri- 
 
 soned, might well cherish hope from such an order, a* 
 
 seen from his point of view ; and so much the more, as 
 
 it was dated on the same day (5th November, 
 
 1850) as the order to return Joteshwar's 
 
 papers unopened, which were known to contain re- 
 
 velations deeply affecting his old confederates, Sarab- 
 
 hoy and Brijlal. New and greater debates, however, 
 
 were soon to be set on foot. 
 
 Among the private papers, which the fa- 
 
 1068 vour f Nafra's friends in office had not 
 
 given him quite time enough to destroy, was 
 
 a memorandum of a sum of 20,000 rupees, paid in 1845, 
 
 to Nursoo. The books of Hurree Bhugtee's Bank were 
 
 found to confirm, though with some disguise, this more 
 
 secret memorandum, and personal evidence showed 
 
 , that the money was actually paid. The ob- 
 
 ject appears to have been, to gain the aid of 
 
 Nursoo, in an important case, which does not fall within 
 
 the limits of the present review. 
 
 Colonel Outram sent in 
 
 315 &C 
 
 his Report on Joitabaee's case, and with it 
 
 the evidence at length. He there clearly and strongly 
 
 traces Nafra's enormities, as far as opportunity and 
 
 long impunity contributed to them, to the corrupt col- 
 
 lusion of Nursoo, and the mistaken views of Captain 
 
 French. The Government were evidently 
 
 shocked by the discoveries thus made to 
 
 them, and sought partly to invalidate the 
 
 evidence, partly to screen themselves, under the plea 
 
 that they had acted according to the information given
 
 82 SINGULAR DISCOVERY. 
 
 to them from time to time, and partly to lay the blame 
 on Captain French and Colonel Outram. We shall 
 have to return to these papers. 
 
 It has been stated that the bank of Hurree Bhugtee 
 possessed a treasure-house, locked and guarded, which 
 had not been opened since the death of the late chief 
 proprietor. Besides this principal, "jamdar khana," 
 there was a smaller one for the current convenience of 
 the business. In February, 1851, (Nafra 
 
 802, &c. -i v . j /i r\ 
 
 having been convicted in the previous Oc- 
 tober,) it was proposed to submit this smaller treasury 
 to an official examination, partly with a view to ascer- 
 tain whether, as was generally reported, the embezzle- 
 ments of Nafra had materially diminished its contents. 
 Singular as it may seem, from an English point of view, 
 both the Gaekwar's and the British Governments were 
 made necessary parties to this examination into the 
 affairs of a private firm, by the British guarantee, which 
 the firm held ; they had even to be consulted as to the 
 measures for the future management of the concern. 
 
 The keys of this treasury had been kept by 
 
 Nafra. This unfaithful steward, soon after his 
 
 1066-1. 
 
 -. . 
 
 832-5. conviction, rerused to give them up, and they 
 mained with him until the examination, 
 ich was made on the 7th April, 1851, 
 a committee, of which some of the mem- 
 
 1071 
 
 bers were relatives and old associates of 
 
 Nursoo and himself. In the midst of the contents of 
 a large chest, a silver vessel was found, in which, with 
 other small parcels which had been carefully wrapped 
 up, and had evidently long been undisturbed, was one 
 which contained a memorandum in Nafra's own writing 
 and two notes in that of Nursoo. They referred to a 
 bribe of 28,070 rupees " agreeably to agreement," and 
 " on account of the dispute about the boy." The me- 
 morandum is dated October, 1848, and contains a 
 reference to a total sum of 78,070 rupees ; it states, 
 also, that the sums of 5,000 and 23,070 rupees had 
 been paid to Nursoo on the 19th and 20th of that 
 month. The notes of Nursoo are complaints that the
 
 "A STATEMENT OF FACTS. 83 
 
 money bad not yet been paid him. The date is imme- 
 diately before the arrival of Captain French 
 at Baroda, -just after Nafra had surrep- 
 titiously obtained the signature of the Assistant Resi- 
 dent in charge, to an unauthorized declaration 
 that the British Government would interfere 
 no more in behalf of Joitabaee, very soon after Go- 
 194 _ vernment, attributing Nursoo's intention to 
 retire on his pension to Colonel Outram's 
 treatment of him, asked him to forego it, within a 
 950 & short time of his boast of the friendship of 
 Mr. Reid, and of his own power of Khutput 
 in Bombay, just when the first court on Joitabaee's 
 case was perplexed and defeated by the firm- 
 334 i&c ness * herself and her mother, and of 
 course, just when Nafra found that help 
 would be needed to neutralize the British justice on 
 which his widowed victim relied. 
 
 This discovery was made just when Colonel Outram 
 had already prepared " A Statement of Facts 
 relating to Nursoo Punt, late Native Agent 
 of the Baroda Residency, and now Dufturdar at Ahme- 
 dabad," and it forms the subject of a postscript to that 
 report, the date of which is 10th April, 1851, 
 315 ' ten days after that of his voluminous report 
 of Joitabaee's history and Nafra's conviction. 
 Ten days still later, Colonel Outram went to Bom- 
 bay, and finding that his report on Joitabaee's case, and 
 his "Statement of Facts" respecting Nursoo had made 
 an impression on the authorities, such as he had long 
 desired to see, and such, indeed, as he now hoped would 
 1427-9 ^ e su ffi c i cn t f r future progress, he consented 
 to modify the last-mentioned document, so that 
 it might be recorded in a form less distasteful to his official 
 superiors, without detriment to its intended purpose. 
 
 Colonel Outram was called on immediately 
 
 OQOQJ. 
 
 990-35. to frame his accusations into distinct charges 
 991-40. on which Nursoo could be tried. He objected 
 *kat some f tn e misdeeds of Nursoo were 
 not legal delinquencies, but matters of con-
 
 84 THE DIFFICULTIES OF JUSTICE. 
 
 fidence, and of fitness for his post ; and on these, he 
 called for the judgment of the Government in its 
 administrative capacity." He specified, however, two 
 cases of legal guilt, (bribery,) in which he believed he 
 could produce evidence sufficient for judicial conviction, 
 if Government first removed the erroneous impressions 
 which prevented the production of evidence, by first 
 disposing of the other accusations. He said, " I con- 
 sider such measures absolutely necessary to 
 aid me in neutralizing the corruption and 
 intrigue which will be set on foot immediately 
 the intention of Government to appoint a Commission is 
 known." This measure, however, was refused. Govern- 
 ment immediately framed all the cases into legal charges, 
 and selected Mr. W. E. Frere, then judge at Surat, to 
 try them. They appointed Colonel Outram prosecutor, 
 a measure which, as the law was then understood, pre- 
 cluded him from giving his testimony in two cases 
 where it was essential. Nursoo thus had the whole 
 apparatus of legal form and chicanery provided for his es- 
 cape from all accusations, legal and non-legal alike ; and 
 these he was left at liberty to use (apparently to the 
 natives, with the favour of Government) in that hot- 
 bed of proved corruption, Baroda. 
 
 The chief difficulty, however, in this as in so many 
 
 former cases, still remaining, viz. that of obtaining 
 
 willing and truthful witnesses, while the people believed 
 
 that the Government secretly favoured Khutput, Colonel 
 
 Outram asked for a decision of Government on other 
 
 cases of the like character, then pending, in which 
 
 Nursoo was not concerned, so as to disabuse public 
 
 opinion at Baroda, previous to the investigations, and 
 
 995-48 increase ti 16 chances of justice. He says it is 
 
 his duty, " as their representative at Baroda, 
 
 to place before them the consequences which will 
 
 inevitably result from any further delay in disposing 
 
 of those questions." Government, however, said the 
 
 996-50 P a P ers were toD voluminous for them to 
 
 arrive at a speedy conclusion (although one 
 
 was the "clear" and curious "Baba Nafra's Bridge"
 
 NURSOO'S TRIAL. 85 
 
 case, which they had before them ten months) ; and so 
 the trial had to proceed under the old disad- 
 
 ^ T Q1_*5Q 
 
 995-48 vantage. Colonel Outram recorded a protest 
 against the whole policy of the trial, and the 
 circumstances which endangered justice ; a protest, how- 
 ever, which the results of the trial, although imperfect, 
 1441-56. wer e sufficient to render in some degree 
 
 useless. 
 
 993-42. Nursoo was suspended from his office at Ah- 
 
 ' medabad, and sent to Baroda, where, however, 
 
 he arrived and remained with some sort of show, and by 
 
 no means as a person on trial. The proceedings were 
 
 authorized and regulated by an Act of the 
 
 1 44*^1 A 
 
 1016-37 Legislature of India, which had just been 
 passed, (XXXVII. of 1850,) that is, some 
 years after the necessity for it had been so clearly illus- 
 trated by the cases of Sarabhoy, Brijlal, and Dowlutram. 
 The charges on which Nursoo was to be tried were 
 as follows : 
 
 992 1. That he took a bribe of 20,000 rupees 
 
 from Nafra in May, 1845. 
 2. That he took another bribe of 28,078 rupees 
 from Nafra in 1848. 
 
 3 & 4. That he withheld information in connec- 
 tion with the cases of the Gorajee Pol and Govind 
 Row Gaekwar. 
 
 5. That he furnished false information to his 
 superiors in Joitabaee's case. 
 
 6. That he instigated Nafra to send a person to 
 Bombay for corrupt purposes. 
 
 7. That he made an improper and unauthorized 
 use of Mr. Reid's name, and promoted a belief in 
 Baroda that he had his corrupt favour. 
 
 The charges had been drawn by Colonel 
 Outram, rather with a view to substantial 
 accuracy than to legal form : some of the misdoings 
 alleged were capable, from their nature, of little more 
 than inferential proof; the Act which regulated the pro- 
 ceedings had not before been acted upon in Bombay, so 
 that its machinery was untried, and its interpretation, 
 
 o
 
 86 NURSOO FOUND GUILTY. 
 
 in some respects, uncertain ; and it was thought, errone- 
 ously, as afterwards appeared, that Colonel Outram, as 
 prosecutor, was precluded from giving evidence. These 
 difficulties considerably enhanced others which were 
 inseparable from an investigation, limited by legal forms 
 and demanding conformity to a legal standard, into 
 matters in which conviction was mainly dependent on 
 the accumulative moral effect of many concurrent cir- 
 cumstances. Neither the Gaekwar's officers nor Nursoo's 
 1004, &c. other friends failed to render such aid as they 
 1430-22 cou ^ to the accused by intimidation and 
 actual injury of witnesses, and by refusal to 
 give evidence themselves encouraged in part, it seems, 
 by a notion that had been some time afloat amongst 
 them, that " a commission " would be sent from Bombay 
 to defeat Colonel Outram's efforts. 
 
 The proceedings, which commenced llth of June, 
 were terminated on the 22nd of October, by 
 
 1 AAl 
 
 1012 ' a Report of the Commissioner, in which it 
 
 was declared 
 
 1. & 2. That Nursoo had not been legally proved 
 guilty of taking either of the bribes, but that 
 great suspicion attached to him. 
 
 3. That he was guilty of " betraying his trust, by 
 allowing a false claim against Govind Row Gaekwar 
 to be prosecuted before the Resident, knowing it 
 to be so, and withholding from the Resident, docu- 
 ments which would have proved the charge unjust." 
 
 4. That on the Gorajee Pol case, he was ac- 
 quitted. 
 
 5. That, in Joitabaee's case, he had not been 
 proved guilty of misleading Captain French (who 
 had taken alt the blame on himself), but would 
 have been convicted, if the charge had included 
 his attempting to mislead Colonel Outram. 
 
 6. That he knew of Nafra's mission of a person 
 to Bombay, with a corrupt design, and connived 
 at it ; but it was not proved that he instigated it. 
 
 7. That he did make an improper use of Mr. 
 Reid's name.
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF NURSOO's TRIAL. 87 
 
 Previous to the date of this finding, Nursoo 
 addressed to Government a petition and state- 
 ment in which he endeavours to weaken the 
 force of the evidence against him. He alleges that he 
 was powerless, friendless, and dejected, while 
 the prosecutor was high in office ; that Colonel 
 Outrani was misled by his great enemy Furkey ; that 
 much art had been employed in concocting 
 charges against him ; that much of the evi- 
 1039-9 dence was untrustworthy ; and that the new 
 Act under which he had been tried bore un- 
 fairly in some respects on the accused person. It is 
 1037-12 remar kable that, in dealing with the two 
 1016. charges of bribery, he alleges chiefly that he 
 had not fair and sufficient means of testing the evidence, 
 and in respect of one of them that Nafra must have 
 embezzled the money himself. When he includes in 
 1038-3. the persons intimidated into silence against 
 1012-10. him, the very officer, Sumbhooram, who so 
 quietly sat by while Nafra was doctoring the papers he 
 was sent to seize, it is impossible not to place on all 
 his representations a value as low as Mr. Frere evidently 
 did in forming his final judgment. 
 
 The difficulties of the investigation were really in 
 favour of the accused. The general opinion at Baroda 
 was, that Nursoo, not Colonel Outram, was favoured 
 by our Government, and that the Native 
 Agent, not the Resident, would remain in 
 power ; and the removal of Colonel Outram in a month 
 after the termination of the trial, shows that the na- 
 tives had tolerably correct intelligence. It seemed to 
 them safest, therefore, to assist the accused, and the 
 Commissioner testifies to the extreme improbability of 
 Nursoo having had any difficulty in working out the 
 plan of defence he had chosen to adopt. Moreover, it 
 was the impression of Mr. Frere, that under this new 
 Act the prosecutor could not give evidence ; a con- 
 struction of it which has since been said, on the best 
 authority, not to have been intended by its framers, but 
 which at the time prevented Colonel Outram, both from 
 
 G 2
 
 88 GOVERNMENT REVIEW OF NURSOo's CASE. 
 
 constructing these charges as he might have done, and 
 from giving his most important testimony on them as 
 they were. We need not adduce further difficulties to 
 show that Colonel Outram had, from the first, little 
 chance of technical success against Nursoo, however he 
 might have the substantial truth in his possession ; nor 
 was it likely to do much service either to the cause of 
 justice at the time, or to the sound and efficient work- 
 ing in future of the administrative body of Western 
 India, to pitch the responsible head of an executive 
 office against a suspected subordinate, in the subtleties 
 and chances of a merely legal strife, on questions of 
 confidence and co-operation utterly beyond the coarse 
 and rigid processes of judicial inquiry. 
 
 It is most worthy of remark, however, that on both 
 sides the assertion is distinctly and emphatically made 
 that natives of India, in general, will speak according 
 to their hopes or fears from men in power. When a 
 native of respectable station and long ex- 
 perience, on his trial, makes this statement 
 as one of the chief supports of his defence, and makes 
 it more especially in reference to the subjects of native 
 States, it is impossible not to give a degree of weight to 
 it which we should willingly withhold from the opinions, 
 possibly prejudiced, of a foreigner. Here, however, is a 
 fact which suggests the very gravest considerations, as 
 to its causes, its operation, and its remedy, to all who 
 are concerned for the elevation of India. 
 
 The Governor's minute, in review of Mr. 
 Frere's judgment, is dated the 6th Decem- 
 ber, 1851, that is, ten days after the removal of Colonel 
 Outram from his office. The final decision of the Go- 
 vernment is dated the 20th of the same month, the other 
 members of council having in the meantime 
 1024! recorded their opinion. The Governor and Mr. 
 Blane, although they diminished the extent of 
 the legal conviction, left so much of it established, and 
 admitted so much " of the gravest suspicions" to attach 
 to the accused in regard of the rest, that they thought 
 it necessary to dismiss Nursoo from the public service,
 
 GOVERNMENT REVIEW OF NURSOO*S CASE 89 
 
 without a claim for pension. Mr. Bell deemed the 
 result "a great failure" on the part of Colonel Outram, 
 and would have pronounced Nursoo legally 
 innocent of all the charges together, reserving 
 only some " grave suspicions," against which might be 
 set thirty years of previous good service. He wished 
 to " remove " not " dismiss " Nursoo, a course which 
 would have saved his pension. All agree in Nursoo 
 retaining the village, whose revenues had been given 
 him some time before, for three lives, as a reward for 
 good service as a revenue officer. The formal decision 
 of the Government is much in accordance with the 
 Governor's minute ; but how far the reduction by the 
 Government of the extent of Mr. Frere's conviction is 
 justified by the evidence, we have no means of judging, 
 except generally from Colonel Outram's strong com- 
 plaints of their constant leaning to Nursoo, 
 and from their unsuccessful attempt to prevail 
 on Mr. Frere to modify his finding. For, the Commis- 
 sioner s full Report is suppressed. We have things of 
 slight importance given in the minutest detail, and 
 many papers are inserted two or three times over. 
 That this important document, of all others, should not 
 appear on the requisition of Parliament, can give occa- 
 sion to but one surmise, viz. that Mr. Frere, although 
 he entered on the inquiry with feelings in favour of 
 Nursoo, honestly recorded evidence and his own deduc- 
 tions from it, sudi as, in the interests of his superiors, 
 would not bear the light. If this is an incorrect in- 
 ference, the proper authorities can easily show it to be 
 so, by producing the Report. 
 
 The Court of Directors, on review of the case, went 
 
 ranch further than the Bombay Government 
 
 in condemning Nursoo, noticed the fact that 
 
 the culprit had been convicted on a charge which 
 
 Colonel Outram had made against him long before, 
 
 but which the Government of Bombay had then set 
 
 aside, and directed that Government to review their 
 
 decision as to leaving Nursoo in possession of his enani 
 
 village.
 
 90 THE "TREASONABLE NOTE." 
 
 We now enter on a matter which, although of a 
 different form, agrees with all that has gone before in 
 illustrating the corruptions of Baroda, and the discords 
 of Bombay. It appears that a clerk named Umrutrow 
 Bulwunt, who had long been in the personal employ- 
 ment of the Gaekwar's minister, Bhow Tam- 
 927. beykur*, seems to have brought to Furkey, 
 93-' in April, 1851, a letter, in which the minister 
 933. traitorously promises to the Gaekwar's brother, 
 Appa Sahib, his assistance in supplanting the 
 reigning prince. The man professed to have been en- 
 trusted by the minister himself to deliver the letter 
 to Appa Sahib, and instead, to have secreted under 
 pretence of having lost it. The date he assigns to it 
 agrees with that of strong suspicions of some such in- 
 trigue. Being dismissed by the minister, and professing 
 great horror at his enormities, he sought Furkey, who 
 seems to have been at first distrustful of him, and at 
 length to have consented to take the treasonable letter 
 from him, with the precaution of exacting from him an 
 oath to its truth, and a copy of it, written at the time 
 by the man himself. Perplexed by the possession of a 
 930-17 document, which after all might be but a 
 trap laid for him, and desirous, if he could, 
 of using it for his own protection against his invete- 
 rate enemy the minister, who had instigated the late 
 false charge of bribery against him, Furkey sent the 
 note to his friend Mr. Gregor Grant, one of the highest 
 judicial functionaries in Bombay, in the native depart- 
 
 * Bhow Tambeykur, just at this time, feared temporarily the 
 success of a domestic party against his own power. The Gaekwar, 
 a young and inexperienced prince, disliked him, but felt 
 934-6. compelled to submit to him from a belief of his vast 
 1168-13. influence at Bombay, partly exercised through Nursoo, 
 who was not yet put on his trial. This belief was con- 
 firmed by the disfavour of Colonel Outram with the Government, 
 known through secret channels. The prince believed that the 
 minister could raise his brothers against him without much opposi- 
 tion from Bombay ; the minister provided for the continuance of his 
 own power by being prepared, if things came to the worst, to bring 
 another brother to the throne.
 
 THE GOVERNOR, MR. GREGOR GRANT, AND TURKEY. 91 
 
 ment of the law, with a request for advice as to the use 
 he should make of it. It was not long before 
 Govincl Row Roria, an agent of the Gaekwar 
 in Bombay, asked Mr. Grant for a sight of the note, on 
 which it was shown him. He declared it the genuine 
 handwriting of the minister. Shortly after, Mr. Grant 
 sent it to Colonel Outram at Baroda, who 
 however remained for some time ignorant of 
 its origin. Two months afterwards, the Gaekwar him- 
 self asked privately and confidentially to see it : and 
 also requested assistance in tracing its author. The 
 Resident reported the circumstance to Government, 
 whose anxiety, and even wrath, was there- 
 upon turned, not on the traitor or the forger, 
 but on Mr. Gregor Grant, for presuming to meddle 
 with an affair out of his line. The Governor insisted, 
 with some dissent of his colleagues, on Mr. Grant 
 giving up the name of the person from whom he 
 received it, although he had declared that his doing 
 so would place that person in danger ; however, this 
 peremptory requisition forced from him 
 the name of Furkey, and along with it his 
 emphatic testimony, the result of long acquaintance, 
 to his high character and the great value of his public 
 services to the British Government. The Governor 
 would have removed Mr. Gregor Grant from his post 
 of Judicial Commissioner in Guzerat ; but 
 his colleagues thought it sufficient to censure 
 him, and to forbid him to visit Baroda on his circuits. 
 His real offence seems to have been his friendship for 
 Furkey. 
 
 It is to be noted, that on the very day after the 
 
 Secretary of Government in Bombay wrote to Mr. Grant, 
 
 for the first time, about this treasonable letter, 
 
 U QZ4 ~ 1 ' tne minister's secret agent in Bombay apprized 
 
 933. him of it. Immediately on finding that the 
 
 l ^' minister was aware of what had been done, 
 
 1185. Umrutrow took refuge for his life in the 
 
 1182. British Camp ; and Furkey, who had gone to 
 
 reside at Baroda, on the invitation of the
 
 92 NATIVE INTELLIGENCERS. 
 
 Gaekwar himself, found it necessary to follow him to 
 the same place of safety. The minister seems to have 
 betaken himself to energetic measures, imprisoning 
 persons until they would give false exculpatory deposi- 
 tions in his favour, and attempting to obtain a forgery 
 of the letter which might be produced as another ex- 
 emplar of the fabrication to which the letter itself was 
 to be attributed. 
 
 The Bombay Government rested on the 
 
 subject, and left it for Colonel Outram's suc- 
 cessor. Rumour unhappily says that, in dudgeon at 
 their ill success in these questions with the Home 
 Authorities, and desirous of establishing their own bad 
 opinion of Furkey, they have directed the new Resident 
 to re-open the inquiry as to the origin of the letter. If 
 so, the responsibility must be their own ; for Colonel 
 
 Outram has already shown what stratagems, 
 933-24. violence, and perjuries may be expected while 
 1182^3! Tambeykur is minister, (far more than ever 
 
 indeed, now that Colonel Outram is removed 
 for opposition to the minister,) and what Furkey may 
 expect as the result. 
 
 While these events were occurring, and Nursoo's 
 fate, at the hands of Government, was not yet declared, 
 Colonel Outram seems to have received informa- 
 tion which decided him to a bold but successful 
 
 measure. On the 27th September, 1851, he 
 
 directed the clerk of the British post-office at 
 Baroda to stop all the letters directed for certain per- 
 sons in Baroda and Bombay, to keep the matter secret, 
 and to bring the letters to the Resident when ordered. 
 Of these persons, the principal were Dajee Dhondeo 
 1163 & 3 Sattey, m Bombay, his brother Wamun Row 
 
 Dhondeo Sattey, in Baroda, and Govind Row 
 Mullar Josee, all of whom were afterwards proved to 
 be in close connection with the minister. In ten days 
 the requisite letters were caught, were delivered to the 
 persons to whom they were addressed, in the presence 
 of the Resident, and were there opened by them. The 
 enclosures showed a system of concealment, and the
 
 INTERCEPTED LETTERS. 93 
 
 contents proved clearly, not only that very extensive 
 and accurate information was given to the minister of 
 such things as might fairly be reported, but correct 
 statements of the latest secret movements and inten- 
 tions of Government, in important affairs, together 
 with actual copies (making allowance for translations) 
 of the minutes of the Governor and the other members 
 of council. Moreover, there were letters whose calcu- 
 lated obscurity showed that they referred to intrigues 
 in progress, and one amongst them contained careful 
 advice as to the mode of meeting at Baroda the inquiry 
 respecting the treasonable note. The later letters show 
 the effect of the interruption of the earlier, and so 
 establish the authenticity of the whole, in spite of some 
 denials attempted in the first instance. 
 
 The Government was vexed at this disclosure, as its 
 measures too clearly showed. It was not to remedies, 
 or even to co-operation in further inquiries, that it 
 directed its chief attention. Its first acts were to 
 insist peremptorily on Mr. Gregor Grant giving up the 
 name of the person who sent him the trea- 
 sonable note, to call on Colonel Outram to 
 justify an expression in his letter, by giving the in- 
 1116-10 s ^ ances m which, his predecessors and himself 
 had apprized Government that their secrets 
 were betrayed at Baroda, and to assure that officer that 
 they were not aware of the interests of their Govern- 
 ment having ever suffered by any such betrayal. 
 
 Other disclosures followed, from which it appeared 
 
 that arrangements existed for equally correct and early 
 
 intelligence from. Poona, when the Governor re- 
 
 H22-B ma i ne d at the residence near that city; and 
 
 one seemed to show that this branch of the 
 
 secret service had existed from the date of Nursoo's 
 
 leaving the Deccan for Baroda. 
 
 But, further : Govind Row Roria, who had been the 
 
 Gaekwar's agent in Bombay, was in possession, as it 
 
 will be remembered, of the minister's secret as to 
 
 H25-26 his " treasonable note." He was, therefore, 
 
 1144-15. kept under strict surveillance from the time
 
 94 REFUSAL OF MEANS OF INQUIRY. 
 
 of his return to Baroda, and at length put into close 
 confinement, where he would probably soon be induced 
 to subscribe any statement the minister required. 
 He sent to Colonel Outrani an offer to make a full 
 disclosure of the intrigues which had been prose- 
 cuted at Bombay, supported by sufficient proofs, pro- 
 vided the Resident would assure him of protection 
 from the ill usage he must infallibly expect if he 
 substantiated the facts. Colonel Outram applied to 
 the Government for authority to give him the necessary 
 assurances, as the only means of bringing the truth to 
 1126-27 light > an d ne quoted a precedent exactly in 
 point. The answer received was, that Go- 
 vernment did not think it advisable to follow the course 
 recommended, but that Colonel Outram was " at liberty 
 to pursue, in this instance, his own investigations at 
 Baroda, by every legal means in his power." The feel- 
 ings which dictated this answer will be best estimated 
 
 o 
 
 by remembering that it was given him immediately 
 after the receipt of his " Khutput Report" and its object 
 will be shown by the fact that its date \sfour days 
 before his dismissal from his post at Baroda. The 
 Court of Directors judged very differently of 
 what ought to have been done. They say, 
 " We cannot approve of your having thus arrested in 
 limine an inquiry which might have furnished a clue 
 for the detection of mal-practices of the existence of 
 which there is no doubt. It would have been easy to 
 make the pledge of safety to Govind Row conditional 
 on its being found that his information was both correct 
 and of substantial value." 
 
 The remaining month of Colonel Outram's stay was 
 marked by further revelations. On the 23rd of November 
 he apprized the Government that a mass of 
 original documents had fallen into his hands, 
 which proved that a plot had existed to bribe him- 
 self with 50,000 rupees, on his return from Egypt, 
 and Mr. Malet with 10,000 rupees at the same time ; 
 that the Gaekwar's minister was its instigator, but that 
 the prince himself knew nothing of it. Government
 
 MORE INTRIGUES EXPOSED. 95 
 
 refused to take any steps in the matter, on the ground 
 that the information given by Colonel Outram was too 
 1137 va o ue f r legal proceedings; and that the 
 minister was not legally amenable to us for 
 such an intrigue. Colonel Outram wished for security 
 to be taken from him against quitting Baroda, with 
 inimical purposes, as a former minister had done. The 
 Government, however, declined this suggestion also. 
 The chief object of these, as of the celebrated Dack- 
 jee Dadajee intrigues of 1843, was the abolition of the 
 Guzerat Irregular Horse*. Here, again, the views of 
 
 * The maintenance of this body by the Gaekwar is an obligation 
 to which the State of Baroda is bound by treaty with the British ; the 
 cost seems to be about three lacks of rupees, or 28,OOOZ. per annum. 
 It must not be supposed that to remit this charge would be so much 
 gained by the people of the Gaekwar's territories. The measure of 
 taxation in India is not the necessary expense of State purposes, 
 either under native Government or our own ; the rule is, to take all 
 the people can be made to give. In our own territories this rule is 
 applied with more consideration for permanent results and general 
 contentment than at present, or perhaps usually in past times, in 
 most native States ; but still the essential rule, as distinguished from 
 our own rule of taxation at home, is the same. So, also, the produce 
 of the taxes is spent, under native rule, on many purposes the 
 pomp or pleasures of the prince, the support and aggrandisement of 
 favourites, &c. amongst which, objects of public utility, or the ful- 
 filment of the true duties of a Government, have to take their 
 chance. Under the British despotism in India, the objects on 
 which the taxes ought to be spent are somewhat more carefully kept 
 in view in principle, however the actual administration of affairs 
 may be open to censure in detail. 
 
 From this it will be seen, that to obtain the relief of the Baroda 
 State from the obligation of maintaining this body of horse, would 
 be, in fact, to obtain the additional sum of 28,000. per annum for 
 any purposes in which the prince, or minister, or minister's party, 
 might choose to spend it, amongst which purposes the public ad- 
 vantage would stand little chance of attention, and a reduction of 
 taxation would not be admitted at all. Hence the persistent solici- 
 tude for the abolition of the Guzerat Horse, and the many succes- 
 sive intrigues to effect it. 
 
 Where, as in Guzerat, personal security is so low, that few per- 
 sons travel, even in the day-time, and for short distances, without 
 arms, it is obvious tbat a much more prolific source of economy to 
 the people would be their effectual protection by law, and by the force 
 of the Government.
 
 96 KHUTPUT UNBLAMED. 
 
 the Court of Directors are strongly opposed to those of 
 the Government of Bombay, and in favour 
 of those of Colonel Outram. 
 
 Passing by other communications which showed how 
 1139 false replies to expected interrogations, in 
 these mischievous but shallow schemes, were 
 concocted, the only one requiring further 
 notice is that of a set of minutes of the mem- 
 bers of the Bombay Government, on one particular 
 subject, correct enough to give the gist of opinions re- 
 corded by the several members of Council, and to show 
 the differences amongst them. The possession of these 
 occasioned ill feeling and difficulties for a period of three 
 years; the Governor, however, insisted that these in- 
 trigues, and others which he admitted to have been well 
 proved to exist, had done little or no harm ; and that we 
 had no right to find fault with Bhow Tambeykur, the 
 Gaek war's minister, for he had only done the best he could 
 nee-si ^ or n ^ s mas ^ er - Moreover, the correspondent 
 who resided at Baroda was no subject of ours, 
 and so we could not even arraign him ; and he who 
 lived at Bombay we could not punish, because, although 
 we have a law against taking a bribe, we have none 
 against giving one. All we could do was to take 
 better care of our papers in our own offices. Better 
 excuses for Khutput, in the mouth of a Governor, it is 
 hardly possible to imagine. 
 
 Colonel Outram had to feel, in some of his very last 
 acts at Baroda, the effect of the system he was endea- 
 vouring to destroy. He had asked the Gaekwar's 
 Government for the attendance of certain witnesses he 
 required, and the sending of them seemed likely to pro- 
 ceed in the usual way, when suddenly the Gaekwar him- 
 self, evidently under the minister's dictation, assumed 
 an entirely new tone, and required that Furkey, who 
 could have had nothing to do with the ques- 
 1169 ^ on ' s h ou ld t e given up to him, as a Gaek- 
 war's subject, or at least removed to a distance 
 from the British camp. The object was evidently either
 
 COLONEL OUTRAM QUITS BARODA, 1851. 97 
 
 that the minister might rid himself by violent 
 C ' meaus f Furkey, or that the damaging 
 1176. revelations then in progress might be stopped 
 by Colonel Outram's refusal to surrender 
 Furkey. The opportunity and the courage to venture 
 on such a course were supplied by the information 
 which the minister received on the night of 
 the 27th, of the determination of the Govern- 
 ment to remove Colonel Outram, which was only ex- 
 pressed in minutes at the earliest on the 22nd, 
 1169-17. and only carried into effect by an official act 
 
 1 9& J. 
 
 1285! on ^ ie 27th, the very day the minister was 
 1287. informed of the resolve : the clandestine in- 
 telligence evidently was founded on the pri- 
 vate minutes, not on the public act. It is quite in 
 keeping with such a policy that the minister threatened, 
 coerced, and imprisoned all who were required, 
 either by silence, forgery, or falsehood, to 
 screen himself from the charges of bribery which Colonel 
 Outram, in consequence of the evidence recently ob- 
 tained, openly made against him to the Gaek- 
 war himself, as well as to his own superiors. 
 
 The last letter of Colonel Outram before quit- 
 ting his post of the 15th December, was to 
 warn Government of the coming intrigues of the minister 
 by describing the preparations for them, and to record 
 his conviction of the integrity of Furkey and of Soo- 
 rujram, which in respect of both had been often and most 
 severely tried. He describes Furkey as left 
 1188 * n i mmmen t personal danger from the ven- 
 geance of the minister; and Soorujram as 
 living in continual dread of false accusations which were 
 known to be always in preparation against him in some 
 form or other, and as seriously ill under a conviction 
 (reasonable in the eyes of a native of India) that he 
 1184-n was su ff* erm g from witchcraft*. Colonel 
 Outram solemnly places them, in his final 
 
 * A firm belief in the power of witchcraft is sufficient to produce 
 all the injurious physical effects on the natives of India, \vhich are
 
 98 FINAL CONDITION OF ALL PARTIES. 
 
 paragraph, under the protection of the Government he 
 believed they had so faithfully served. 
 
 The Resident left Baroda after an interview with 
 
 the Gaekwar, in which that prince declared, as he had 
 
 done a few days before, his unfeigned regard 
 
 for, and reliance on, him, distinctly separating 
 
 his own personal feelings and wishes from the conduct 
 
 of his ministers and advisers. 
 
 Let us now briefly review the facts which made up 
 the general aspect of Khutput to the people of Baroda, 
 at the date of the fall of its untiring opponent, and of 
 his departure from amongst them. 
 
 The Government, immediately after Colonel Outram's 
 dismissal, appointed a committee in Bombay, which, 
 after an unsuccessful pursuit of the trace afforded a year 
 before by Colonel Outram and Captain Barr, luckily 
 fell on a document in the box of a Mr. 
 Marston, an assistant in the Secretariate, on 
 a salary of about 80/. per annum, who was proved by 
 independent evidence to be guilty, if at all, of corre- 
 spondence with the very parties, whom Colonel Outram 
 had been enabled to point out by means of the letters 
 intercepted at Baroda. The proof against him is by no 
 means clear: but suspicion in his case was deemed 
 enough for dismissal, (and indeed justly so,) while the 
 severest legal test of guilt was required in the cases we 
 have narrated, when the great dealers in Khutput were 
 concerned. There is an inference to be drawn from 
 the comparison, which the people of India could hardly 
 be expected to avoid. 
 
 ascribed to the incantations themselves. Accordingly those persons 
 who maintain their influence with their countrymen by pretending 
 to this power, seldom resort to stronger means with natives than 
 such as deal with the imagination. But when Europeans are to be 
 operated on, who are not under the influence of such a belief, fre- 
 quent small doses of secret poison are employed. Probably very 
 few such cases actually occur. Colonel Outram himself has twice 
 suffered in this way ; and it is said that Mr. Bettington, whose 
 report contributed to the issuing of the Khutput circular, has been 
 permanently and seriously injured by this diabolical means.
 
 NAFRA, JOITABAEE. 99 
 
 Nafra was indeed in prison; but with a 
 
 nr^4 fraudulent mitigation of his sentence by his 
 
 90(i-note. friends in the Gaekwar's Government. He had 
 
 been proved by the books to be indebted to 
 
 the firm he so mismanaged little short of 40,000/.; 
 
 besides valuables he had taken without stint 
 
 or record, and moreover besides a deficiency in 
 
 the treasury he jealously kept under his own charge, 
 
 which, in the absence of accounts known to 
 
 833> have been abstracted by him, could not be 
 
 859. estimated at less than 70,000/. in jewels, and 
 
 860. 50,000/. in money. Yet he was still bold 
 83 5 ] enough, even in his prison, to refuse accounts, 
 
 explanations, and the keys of his former 
 1446 ~ 33 - charge : he was honoured by the Gaekwar's 
 minister with usages applying only to the 
 principal native gentry; he sent large sums of money to 
 Bombay for Khutput purposes ; he was free and hope- 
 ful enough to engage in fresh schemes for swearing 
 away Joitabaee's rights, by affirming on pur- 
 chased oaths, that the child the medical com- 
 mittee declared she must have had was born in Bombay; 
 his neighbours still held a faith nearly as strong as ever 
 in the power of his Khutput in that city; 
 and when either "compunctious visitings," or 
 some hopes of future advantage, led him to contemplate 
 a full confession, he was still cheered and 
 rendered firm again by hopeful intelligence 
 from his friends in Bombay. 
 
 Joitabaee, childless, was left with a scanty 
 maintenance for a person possessed of such 
 rights as hers, and she remained burthened 
 with debts incurred in her support and de- 
 fence. Her fellow- wife and herself are left by our 
 864 Government, which professes to guarantee 
 them, and has so often interfered in their 
 affairs, to recover the defalcations and abstractions of 
 Nafra by the ordinary practice in respect of 
 unguaranteed persons in Baroda ; even the 
 promise of the eventual review to which the guarantee
 
 100 NURSOO, TURKEY, SOORUJRAM. 
 
 and usage entitle them, being expressly omitted ; that 
 is, they are left to apply without appeal, to a body com- 
 posed of, and ruled by, Nafra's firm, powerful, 
 and now triumphant friends. 
 
 Nursoo, after conviction, was dismissed to the retire- 
 ment he had himself purposed to apply for, befriended 
 to the last by a strong attempt by Mr. Bell to save his 
 pension for him, and a successful one, for a time at 
 least, by the whole Government, to preserve his vil- 
 lage. 
 
 Furkey, after taking refuge in the British camp from 
 the vengeance of the Gaekwar's minister, excited by 
 his services to the British Government in the detec- 
 tion of Khutput and the defeat of its objects, and 
 after being honourably acquitted of every charge which 
 at intervals had been most perse veri ugly made against 
 him, seems to have followed Colonel Outram to Bom- 
 1400 ^ av ' where " his manly but melancholy air " 
 ought to have seconded the still stronger 
 consideration that he was now ruined for his faithful- 
 ness, according to his own prediction some 
 years before. His only remaining protection 
 seems to have been a letter from the Court 
 of Directors, establishing his right as a 
 British subject. 
 
 Soorujram, dejected, harassed, and sick, awaited with 
 fear the machinations of the friends of Khutput, unless 
 he could remove from beyond their range. 
 
 Govind Row Roria, who was in possession of the 
 minister's secret as to the treasonable note, and had 
 offered revelations to Colonel Outram, was in prison. 
 Umrutrow, who had given important facts, was a re- 
 fugee, in fear of his life. 
 
 The minister was in full enjoyment of power, his 
 
 prince being evidently greatly under his control ; the 
 
 administrative body (the Durbar) was composed, for 
 
 the greater part, of persons who had been discarded 
 
 isos w ^ disgrace from the employment of the 
 
 British Government. 
 Colonel Outram, one of the most distinguished po-
 
 COLONEL OUTRAM. NATIVE INFERENCES. 101 
 
 litical officers the Government had at its disposal, was 
 dismissed, not only to the triumph of the corrupt 
 minister he was opposing at the moment with unpre- 
 cedented effect, but at the very juncture when the 
 clearing up of those disgraceful mysteries, so long 
 sought by him, was just within his reach. 
 
 In estimating the force with which this contrast 
 would strike the public of India, it must be remem- 
 bered that there appears to have been little suspicion 
 amongst the natives that corruption could be made to 
 influence the local British officers the reliance was 
 always on Khutput at Bombay ; and the coincidence is 
 remarkable, that while, on the one hand, every success- 
 ful effort to bring corruptionists to justice was made by 
 local officers, often without authority from Government, 
 and almost always without their encouragement, so, on 
 the other, almost every measure, whether for the dis- 
 couragement of investigation, the palliation of evidence, 
 or the mitigation of punishment, came for years to- 
 gether from Bombay. The ultimate conviction of 
 Brijlal, Nursoo, and Nafra, the natives would deem ex- 
 ceptional cases, to be attributed, as they attribute all 
 reverses, to the ill-luck of circumstances. Not a whit 
 the less do they retain their belief in the normal and 
 abiding influence of Khutput ; nay, that belief has 
 been confirmed by the total effect of all recent events. 
 
 Before confining ourselves to the questions between 
 the Government and Colonel Outram, we must here 
 review the controversy which arose on the case of 
 Joitabaee. The Report of the Resident is dated 31st 
 March, 1851, six months after the conviction 
 HI of Nafra (October 22nd, 1850), after much 
 confirmation of Joitabaee's pretensions to 
 maternity had been obtained by a committee of medi- 
 cal officers, and after much foul play on the 
 part of Nafra and his friends in the Durbar, 
 had been exposed by the Reports of Mr 
 
 H
 
 102 THE "JOITABAEE" CONTROVERSY. 
 
 Gregor Grant and his Sheristadar on the falsification 
 of the depositions. 
 
 Colonel Outram's Report exhibits the entire history 
 of the case : it reviews the conduct of all the parties 
 in it, the British and Gaekwar's Governments included ; 
 it quotes at length the most important papers ; and it 
 shows how great was the apparent reason the people at 
 Baroda had to believe that British justice had been 
 hoodwinked by Khutput. We have already given, at 
 as great length as our limits allow, the substance of 
 this voluminous paper, with references to the original 
 evidence for the facts it embodies. 
 
 Mr. Willoughby, in a minute dated on the 
 very day of his resigning his seat in the 
 Council (28th April, 1851), expresses, with evident 
 concern, the grave opinions which, in the brief time 
 permitted for his perusal of this Report, he had felt him- 
 self compelled to form. With all his experience of 
 Guzerat, he seems amazed at the extent of the villany 
 revealed ; and he calls on the Government he is leaving 
 to show by what means they had all been led to treat 
 as " a wicked impostor " and " an impudent deceiver," 
 a woman who now seemed to be " the injured victim 
 of perhaps as foul and nefarious a conspiracy as was 
 ever hatched." He can only conclude that Colonel 
 Outram and Captain French kept them in ignorance; 
 laying much the greater blame, hypothetically, on the 
 last-named officer, and clearing himself as much as 
 possible by reminding his colleagues that he had at 
 the first objected to the appointment of Captain French 
 to the post of Resident at Baroda. His brief but 
 expressive annotations on Colonel Outram's report not 
 393 &c on ^ Betray a strong conviction of the truth 
 of the Resident's conclusions, (on the reserved 
 hypothesis, indeed, that the accompanying depositions 
 were accurately represented in the Report,) but go 
 much further than Colonel Outram had done as to the 
 right of the British Government to control the 
 inquiry, and even to carry on an original and indepen-
 
 MR. WILLOUGHBY'S MINUTE. 103 
 
 dent investigation into so serious a case *. In every 
 respect, these annotations strongly contrast with the 
 querulous complaints, and timid but cunning casuistry, 
 
 * The guarantees on which is founded any right of the British 
 Government to interfere to the extent Mr. Willoughby would have 
 advised, or, indeed, to interfere at all, are evidently much prized, 
 even yet, by subjects of the State of Baroda, although their original 
 objects have long passed away. The immediate occasion of these 
 singular engagements was as follows. The Gaekwar of that day 
 was deeply and hopelessly in debt ; and amongst the most serious 
 of his obligations were the arrears to the Arab mercenaries, who 
 at once impoverished the country, and starved from the poverty 
 they created. The prince, like many Indian pinnces, had little credit, 
 even with his own subjects ; and the bankers, although wealthy 
 enough for the purpose, would not advance the sums necessary for 
 the pay and discharge of the Arabs, except under such a guarantee 
 of the British Government as we have already described. The 
 necessity for that guarantee arose in this way; so long as the 
 Arabs were dependent on the bankers for advances of money in 
 absence of their pay, they were as much the soldiers of the money- 
 lenders as of the prince ; but if once these needy foreign swordsmen 
 were got rid of, the bankers would have no protection against the 
 prince's will : and to supply this protection they required the British 
 guarantee. 
 
 It is obvious, however, that this could be only one particular in a 
 more general condition of things. The state of the country when 
 the guarantees were first given, is shown by the resistance then 
 commonly made by villages to the levying of the taxes of the year, 
 until the native Government had given formal security not to op- 
 press them, by the prevalence of raids from the neighbouring 
 mountains and forests, by which black mail, often to two or more 
 disputing parties over the same ground, had been established as 
 customary right, and by the arrangements made by Sir John 
 Malcolm for paying stipulated sums to these recognised freebooters 
 through the British authorities, in preference to suffering them to 
 overrun the land with their indefinite demands. 
 
 It seems strange to us that, on any consideration, a Sovereign 
 should permit, such a participation in his sovereign powers, as is 
 involved in the operation of these guarantees. But in truth, the 
 Gaekwar practically gained much more of sovereignty than he lost, 
 as the total effect of the arrangements which so let in our inter- 
 ference. And even more ; the fundamental idea of Oriental sove- 
 reignty, that of property, not of office, was by no means violated in 
 principle, but only diminished in the amount of its practical result, 
 by the standing disorders which formerly kept down the revenues, 
 and resisted the power of the prince. The change from such 
 troublesome and costly disorders, to the permanent and regular in- 
 terference of the British, was, on the whole, a great gain to the 
 
 H 2
 
 104 THE GOVERNOR'S "JOITABAEE" MINUTE. 
 
 of the minutes of the remaining members of the 
 Government. His chief anxiety is to know how 
 Government was so lamentably misled. 
 
 The Governor's minute is dated 10th November, 
 1851, six months later than Mr. Willoughby's. In the 
 interval, Nursoo had been convicted ; Mr. Andrews had 
 been involved in a discreditable suspicion perhaps, 
 however, not very well sustained ; Furkey, who had 
 warm friends in Bombay, and equally warm enemies 
 in the Government, had been most honourably ac- 
 quitted of new charges; and Colonel Outram, by a 
 " vigour beyond the law," had obtained vexatious evi- 
 dence of high play in Khutput. Nafra himself had active 
 friends at the Presidency. The minutes on Colonel 
 Outram's Joitabaee Report are dated within a few days 
 of his removal from the office of Resident at Baroda. 
 The Governor's minute complains that Colonel Out- 
 ram openly " proclaims his fears that Nafra's 
 influence should be exercised on the Govern- 
 ment, and lead to their mitigating his sentence ; " and, 
 while he cannot refrain from according to Colonel 
 Outram the unqualified approbation of Go- 
 vernment, for the sympathy he has shown for 
 a " persecuted woman, for the protection which he has 
 extended to her, and for the contest which he has sus- 
 tained in her behalf, with all the corrupt influences of a 
 native court," he complains of the terms in 
 400-21 wmcn Colonel Outram has addressed the 
 Government; of the inferences which may 
 
 Gaekwar at that time, however distasteful the interference may 
 have become in these quieter times. 
 
 The present narrative leaves no doubt as to the reasons for 
 which the persons who possess these guarantees desire to retain 
 them. It seems clear that their value lies in their mitigating the 
 tyranny which is elsewhere the ordinary consequence of our protect- 
 ing an Indian prince against its common corrective, rebellion. They 
 thus involve us in duties of which we cannot easily divest ourselves 
 until the same effect can be provided for in some other way ; and we 
 have other considerations to take into account, besides our own 
 inconvenience, before we withdraw from obligations of this nature, 
 which we have taken on ourselves, and from which the beneficiaries 
 are evidently unwilling to release us.
 
 THE GOVERNOR'S "JOITABAEE" MINUTE. 105 
 
 be drawn from his statements ; and of his having put 
 400 _ Government on its defence. He says that 
 Colonel Outram has, moreover, sought to in- 
 fluence Government in a purely judicial proceeding, 
 by a consideration foreign from justice, viz. 
 a regard for their own endangered reputa- 
 401-31 tions ; that he is altogether wrong when he 
 complains that Government have not sup- 
 ported him ; and that Government have always acted 
 correctly according to the information they 
 possessed at the time, Colonel Outram him- 
 self, as well as Captain French, having failed to inform 
 them as he ought. 
 
 As to the belief in Khutput, he treats it as a 
 notion so thoroughly Asiatic that it is in vain to 
 struggle with it ; but he does not show how it happens, 
 even on Asiatic principles, that large sums should be 
 spent on Khutput, for many years together, if it always 
 seemed to fail ; nor does he show that the fixity of the 
 native belief in Khutput exempts the Government 
 from taking care of their own measures and reputation 
 in respect of it. 
 
 His Lordship mistakingly blames Colonel 
 Outram for leaving India without a caution on 
 the case to the Government, or a summary to guide 
 Captain French ; he blames Larbaee for re- 
 fusing her full evidence to the Gaekwar's 
 Court which she so deeply distrusted ; he gives a narra- 
 395-22 ^ ve ^ ^ ne case ' Ay ith comments, to show 
 that Government had always acted up to its 
 40009 knowledge ; he blames Captain French se- 
 verely on grounds to which we have already 
 411-100 adverted, and partly excuses him for shrinking 
 from a dictatorial duty towards " the favoured 
 and trusted of the prince," to whom, however, in 
 fact, the prince was in bondage all the time. He says 
 that but for the lucky revelations made to 
 him, Colonel Outram might have succeeded . 
 no better than Captain French ; not remarking, however, 
 that the fault of the latter was his so neglecting to use
 
 106 THE GOVERNOR'S "JOITABAEE" MINUTE. 
 
 the means within his reach, that, but for these revela- 
 tions, even Colonel Outram could not have remedied the 
 consequences; and then follow these two remarkable 
 paragraphs, which, as if still to show how little Govern- 
 ment was disposed to support an officer fighting with 
 corruption, were communicated to Colonel Outram only 
 through the Blue Books. 
 
 " I now turn to the case itself, which, the 
 
 411-114. ., . ,. , i 
 
 more it is studied, must, more and more, 
 impress the mind with admiration of the extraordinary 
 ability and patience displayed by Colonel Outram, in 
 investigating the obscure and secret conspiracies which 
 are the subject of his Report, dated 30th March, 1851, 
 in baffling native intrigue upon its own ground, and in 
 unravelling with much ingenuity, if not always success- 
 fully, the frauds, perjuries, and the mass of contradictory 
 depositions which have been taken and committed, 
 from the period when Larbaee's first petition was pre- 
 sented to Government in 1847, up to the date of Baba 
 Nafra's trial and conviction in August, 1850. 
 
 " The task he undertook to perform may indeed be 
 termed an extraordinary one. Once persuaded that 
 Joitabaee's tale was true, and that she was the victim 
 of a foul conspiracy, he has, alone and unaided, stood by 
 her, has opposed the active machinations of her power- 
 ful enemy, deriving a strong support, as they must 
 have done, from their success with the Acting Resident, 
 and through him with this Government, has openly 
 met the secret hostility of the Baroda Durbar (for the 
 Gaekwar himself, however well meaning he may have 
 been, has been evidently and wholly passive in the 
 matter), and finally unveiled and exposed the domestic 
 treachery of the Native Agent, which would appear to 
 be but too clearly established by the facts and reasoning 
 of this report. The Commissioner's proceedings will, 
 however, enable us to decide this point with certainty." 
 412 The whole question is made to turn, both 
 
 by Lord Falkland and Mr. Willoughby, on 
 the single point of Joitabaee's maternity, to which his 
 Lordship next addresses himself. He admits the veri-
 
 THE GOVERNOR'S "JOITABAEE" MINUTE. 107 
 
 similitude and consistency of Joitabaee's story, as well 
 as the apparent title to credence afforded by the at- 
 tendant circumstances ; but he assigns six reasons for 
 doubting its truth, none of which seem to be of force, 
 and some of which it is strange should be advanced at 
 all after the report of the medical committee. Let it 
 be remembered, that in the interval between the recep- 
 tion of the Report and the date of the mi- 
 g^' nutes on it, the Government had sought and 
 obtained a still more emphatic opinion, with 
 facts, from Dr. Davey, on whom the personal examina- 
 tion of Joitabaee devolved. 
 
 The six reasons of his Lordship, with our remarks on 
 them, are as follows : 
 
 1. Joitabaee, married at eleven or twelve 
 77i| years of age, lived with her husband till about 
 
 the age of seventeen without having a child ; it 
 is thereupon inferred to be improbable that she should 
 have been a mother at last. But surely there are like 
 instances enough within the knowledge of almost every 
 person, even where youth and immaturity do not, as 
 here, postpone the probability of maternity ; and, sin- 
 gularly enough, the incidents of Joitabaee's married 
 life are paralleled, as nearly as possible, by those of 
 her fellow-wife, Mahaluxmeebaee. 
 
 2. Joitabaee had a strong interest in 
 making out a story, true or false, that she 
 
 bore a child to her late husband. No doubt she had ; 
 but this only shows that she might have told a false- 
 hood, not that she did tell one. How would it have 
 been possible for Joitabaee really to bear a child under 
 the circumstances, without having this strong interest in 
 the fact ? The argument would have applied just as 
 much to her fellow-wife as to herself; for be it ob- 
 served, that the age of the child, and the recognition of 
 it for three years, \vould have been no defence against 
 a perjured allegation that it was originally spurious. 
 Mahaluxmee, according to this reasoning, may have 
 imposed a spurious child on her husband. She had as
 
 108 THE GOVERNOR'S "JOITABAEE" MINUTE. 
 
 great an interest in doing so as Joitabaee had. To 
 such absurdities does this argument conduct us. 
 
 3. There were peculiarities, which do not 
 often occur, in Joitabaee's health during her 
 
 period of pregnancy. But the medical committee 
 showed beyond doubt that they were only 
 peculiarities, and not facts inconsistent with 
 
 actual child-bearing. 
 
 4. Her husband was in a state of health 
 for some time before his death, which ren- 
 dered it unlikely that his wife should bear a child to 
 
 him. This argument the medical committee, 
 for medical reasons, wholly reject. Besides, 
 if we may for a moment subject Joitabaee's good 
 name to an hypothetical scandal (which we believe 
 would be utterly without support from her own con- 
 duct), the question is not as to her husband, but herself. 
 An adulterine child is as good as a legitimate one, for 
 all legal purposes, until the adultery is proved ; and 
 nobody has attempted to prove adultery against her, 
 although Nafra, at two different periods, seemed to 
 have contemplated a perjured resort to the device. We 
 do Joitabaee some wrong in using her name in connec- 
 tion with such an argument. 
 
 5. Joitabaee was brought to bed at her 
 
 At O 
 
 ggg father's house. But this was clearly accord- 
 ing to the custom of her caste. The only 
 inference drawn from this by his Lordship is, that the 
 place was favourable for imposition ; it will not bear 
 the inference, without which the fact is wholly imma- 
 terial, that imposition was actually practised. But what 
 if she had resorted to any other place for her accouch- 
 ment? Would it not then have been said that the 
 departure from usage was to facilitate imposture? 
 What is any person to do, who is equally accused, 
 whether he takes a given course or that directly op- 
 posite ? 
 
 412 6. Joitabaee's husband, it is said, did not know 
 that she was enceinte; and Joitabaee was
 
 THE GOVERNOR'S "JOITABAEE" MINUTE. 109 
 
 afterwards excluded from caste for having surreptitiously 
 brought in a low caste child. The evidence to show 
 that the husband did not know it, is confined to two 
 considerations ; the first is presumption from certain 
 provisions in his pretended will, a document of which it 
 is highly probable he never knew the contents ; and 
 the second, a certain symbolical placing of 
 Mahaluxmee's son on Joitabaee's knees, which 
 may easily be accounted for by the uncertainty 
 of her having a son, and that to survive, although she 
 were known to be enceinte at the time. A miscarriage, 
 (as had previously happened to her,) the birth of a 
 daughter, or the early death of a son, must all have 
 been probable contingencies in the mind of the dying 
 banker, and would naturally lead him to wish that, in 
 any case, his only son should care for both his widows. 
 The affection of Joitabaee, evidently the stronger-minded 
 woman, he might well wish to gain for the advantage 
 of Mahaluxmee's son. As to expulsion from the caste, 
 Lord Falkland argues as though people at Baroda went 
 about their business as safely and independently as in 
 Bombay, and as though nobody had had experience of 
 Nafra's qualities, and of his means of exercising them ; 
 and surely the account given by the caste 
 324-* people themselves, of the strong-handed man- 
 ner in which Nafra gave them just what re- 
 presentation he pleased as to Joitabaee's child, and then 
 took their conclusion on it, is quite enough to show that 
 no argument was to be founded on the widow's exclu- 
 sion from caste, even if her subsequent restoration had 
 not fully admitted the error of the expul- 
 
 0*70- li/Z. , 
 
 si on. 
 
 It is worth remarking, parenthetically, that if Maha- 
 luxmeebaee had been the stronger-minded woman of 
 the two, so that Nafra had had a greater interest in 
 getting rid of her than of Joitabaee, most of his devices 
 would have suited the case of Mahaluxmee as well as 
 they were made to apply to that of the other widow. 
 
 Lord Falkland then goes into the arguments in favour
 
 110 OTHER "JOITABAEE" MINUTES. 
 
 of Joitabaee, giving less weight to them than Colonel 
 
 Outram had done ; but admitting at last " that if it were 
 
 his own duty to decide judicially upon the evidence 
 
 which has been transmitted to them, and no other were 
 
 procurable, his verdict would be in her favour." The 
 
 remainder of his minute is occupied with disparaging 
 
 the evidence, and with suggesting a theory of the case 
 
 which assumes both Joitabaee and Nafra to be guilty; the 
 
 latter first conniving at, then imitating, and at 
 
 last exposing the imposition of the former, as 
 
 his interests at the time seemed to dictate. He says 
 
 that this is quite as probable as that Joitabaee 
 
 421-167. , , , , , . 
 
 bore a son to her husband ! yet he is com- 
 pelled to admit in the next few lines that even the 
 
 Gaekwar's minister, Nafra's firm friend and 
 
 confederate, had been forced by evidence to 
 confess his belief that Joitabaee had had a son. 
 
 422-4 ^ r ' Blane echoes the Governor's doubts, 
 
 and limits the proved guilt of Nafra to the 
 abduction of a child of some sort. He censures Captain 
 French, and would not interfere to mitigate Nafra's 
 sentence. 
 
 422-5 ^ r * ^ e ^ concurs on tne ground that the 
 
 Gaekwar's court were the best judges. 
 But we cannot so dismiss the case. The medical 
 committee say that Joitabaee had certainly borne a 
 child. Nobody of credibility accuses Joitabaee of 'licen- 
 tious conduct, much less of having actually borne a 
 child other than as she herself alleges, and as the 
 persons ordinarily most likely to know affirm. The 
 550-2 Gaekwar's Punchayet say that Joitabaee did 
 not procure a child from Meetapore. The 
 last-mentioned body say that Baba Nafra " laid a 
 544 most villainous and diabolical plot against 
 the wife of his master who had been so kind 
 to him." The village of Amleeara was so completely 
 506 _ 8 under Nafra's control (even to the death, 
 if its inhabitants be credited), that it would 
 have been madness for Joitabaee to resort there for
 
 JOITABAEE DEFENDED. Ill 
 
 a spurious child, in the face of the power of Nafra 
 and of the jealous interests of the son of her fellow- 
 widow, and vet, after the emphatic decision of the 
 reluctant Punchayet that she did not procure a spurious 
 child from Meetapore, it must have been from this 
 impossible Amleeara she procured one, if at all. 
 
 Lord Falkland had before him these strong reasons for 
 concluding that she could not have procured either from 
 one village or the other a spurious child. They were 
 remarkable corroborations of the natural probability 
 that the child which she possessed for twelve months 
 was the genuine product of her own maternity, corrobo- 
 rations obtained by means of searching, and, for the most 
 part, very hostile investigations. And yet his Lordship, 
 in the entire principle of his minute, insists on putting 
 Joitabaee's case on merits of positive proofs; he calls 
 upon her in fact, as far as he can, to prove that her child 
 was her husband's, and he but reluctantly admits any evi- 
 dence in her favour which is short of that. But is it not 
 clear that the burden of proof rests here with the accuser? 
 Why should Joitabaeebe called on to prove that which, 
 in the case of every other well-conducted woman all 
 over the world, is taken as true, and is rightly so taken ? 
 For, of the hundreds of ladies in England who have 
 borne posthumous children, how would any one of 
 them fulfil the requisitions of Lord Falkland's justice? 
 Why was this strange measure dealt out to Joitabaee ? 
 Was it because she is only a native, or because she was 
 an opponent of Nafra? Was it the pride of European 
 caste, or was the Government earwigged by the sub- 
 tleties of some emissary of Khutput *. 
 
 * Lord Falkland thanks Mr. Grant Lumsden, the Judicial Secre- 
 tary, for " his important assistance" in this case, that is, in draw- 
 ing up this lawyer-like minute. The business rightly belonged to 
 the department of Mr. Malet, whose long experience in the affairs 
 of Guzerat might have been supposed to qualify him especially for its 
 consideration. Mr. Malet's signature authenticates the letter founded 
 on the minute. These facts may show how acceptable counsels 
 may sometimes be obtained, and how incorrect it may be to attri- 
 bute the opinions of an official document to the functionary whose 
 only concern with it may have been to sign it.
 
 112 COLONEL OUTRAM'S " JOITABAEE " VINDICATION. 
 
 The Secretary's letter to the Resident is 
 
 of course nothing more than the minutes in 
 another form ; with this exception, however, that the 
 commendatory paragraphs before mentioned are omitted. 
 It is dated 1st December, 1851, that is, five days after 
 the letter removing Colonel Outram from Baroda. 
 
 The late Resident did not sit down quietly 
 
 under this letter, either as to the censures on 
 himself, or as to the faint conclusion in Joitabaee's 
 favour, which might easily let in future doubts, to be 
 stimulated by new perjuries into a reversal of the present 
 unwilling decision. In the midst of the vexation and 
 fatigue of his removal, he prepared a vindication of his 
 Report, addressed to the Government, 12th June, 1852, 
 in which he reviews their arguments, proves how mis- 
 taken had been their apprehension of the facts, and 
 shows how inconsistent with each other are their 
 admissions and conclusions. 
 
 We need not here give an analysis of this document, 
 
 nor of the reply of the Government, since 
 
 they do not materially add to the facts already 
 exhibited. The occasion drew from Colonel Outram 
 a full re-statement of the case, which, being made after 
 objection taken by Government, meets successfully the 
 difficulties most likely to be raised, and doubtless did 
 much to obtain the subsequent adoption by the Court 
 of Directors of his views in this case, notwithstanding 
 the reply of the Government. 
 
 The postscript to this Vindication must be 
 855 ' noticed for its exposure of Nafra's peculations, 
 
 to which we have already referred ; for the 
 statement it makes, that Nafra's punishment was greatly 
 mitigated surreptitiously ; and for the warning it gives, 
 
 that the letter by which the Government 
 RfiiH*' had stripped the widows of the customary 
 864-6. aid of British protection in recovering Nafra's 
 
 abstractions, left them exposed to the will of 
 their unfaithful steward's now unchecked confederates, 
 and satisfied the people more than ever of Nafra's power 
 of Khutput in Bombay.
 
 THE "KHUTPUT" CONTROVERSY. 113 
 
 And as to the incidental facts, Colonel Outram af- 
 firms that he did no more than his duty when he used 
 the strong language to which Government object, and 
 that he gave Captain French ample information of the 
 state of the case on his leaving for Egypt, which the 
 Government do not admit. From the whole tenor 
 and spirit of the minutes of the members of the Go- 
 vernment, indeed, it may be concluded, that if Colonel 
 Outram had not employed strong language, as well as 
 vast labour and careful arguments, Nafra would have 
 had an excellent chance of a mitigation of his sen- 
 tence, to be popularly attributed again to Khutput ; 
 and, moreover, while it is doubtful whether Captain 
 French would have made any use of such a re.sume of 
 the case as Government censured Colonel Outram for 
 omitting to leave behind him (which, by the way, must 
 have then passed through the hands of his treacherous 
 Native Agent to Nafra himself), it is certain that 
 Captain French did not himself use the records of the 
 office with even ordinary effect, nor did he the letters 
 and petitions which he himself received. 
 
 9 _ 5 The Court of Directors (2nd June, 1852) 
 
 express a strong conviction of the innocence 
 of Joitabaee, and of the enormity of the injustice done 
 her. They add, it is greatly to be regretted that oppres- 
 sion, so odious and long continued, should have been 
 practised without our interference where our protection 
 was due ; that the Government of Bombay, however, 
 with their information, could not have interfered more 
 than they did ; yet, nevertheless, that Colonel Outram 
 has cleared himself of all blame connected with the 
 early stages of the inquiry (that blame which the Bom- 
 bay Government had laid on him), while " the ultimate 
 success is wholly attributable to his exertions." 
 
 We now follow chiefly the course of Colonel Outram, 
 and of his controversies with the Government. The 
 dismissal of that officer from his post at Baroda took 
 place on the 27th of Nov., 1851, within six or seven
 
 114 COLONEL OUTRAM'S "KHUTPUT" LETTER. 
 
 weeks of the conclusion of the trial of Nursoo, and in 
 less than a fortnight from the reception by the Govern- 
 ment of his Khutput Report. His dismissal is attri- 
 buted by the Government not to the Report itself 
 (which, however, they had evidently read), but to the 
 letter which accompanied it. Colonel Outram defended 
 his letter, as well as his Report on the case of Joitabaee, 
 which the Governor had also assailed. On 
 the 12th of February, the late Resident me- 
 1315. morialized the Court of Directors against the 
 censures of the Government ; at the end of that month 
 1319 *^ e Governor and his colleagues recorded 
 minutes on the memorial ; and by the middle 
 of the following month the whole case was dispatched 
 to the supreme authorities in London. 
 
 Of the contents of the Khutput Report, a judgment 
 may be formed from the present abstracted 
 narration of the events which it more co- 
 piously details and discusses. The letter which accom- 
 panied it, and on which the dismissal of Colonel Outram 
 was ostensibly based, is in substance as follows. 
 
 1279 The Resident states that the Report has 
 
 been delayed by his waiting the issue of cir- 
 cumstances which were strongly confirming the belief 
 in the efficacy of Khutput, and which to a certain ex- 
 tent he had already reported on; that he completes the 
 narrative to the date of the Report, and has incorporated 
 in the document his original protest against the mode 
 of dealing with the case of Nursoo, on the ground of 
 the probability of its want of effect ; that he has en- 
 deavoured to be at once faithful to his duty and re- 
 spectful to the Government ; that the point reached 
 by the evil demands from him very decided language ; 
 that his difficulties at Baroda have been greatly in- 
 creased by the conviction, universal at that place, that he 
 was in disgrace with and opposed by the Government, and 
 that the object of the course taken towards him by the 
 Government was to get rid of him ; that an influence 
 so diminished was ill fitted to cope with the bold and 
 unscrupulous minister, who, possessing a most injurious
 
 COLONEL OUTRAM'S "KHUTPUT" LETTER. 115 
 
 influence over the prince, opposed effectually all plans 
 of reform promoted by the Resident ; that collusion 
 existed between this Minister and Nursoo, which was 
 concealed by artful appearances; that, had he possessed 
 the confidence of his superiors which he once enjoyed, 
 he should have advised the Gaekwar at an early period 
 of his residency to select another minister ; that, feel- 
 ing such a course would probably not be supported, he 
 had been obliged to be content with what he could ac- 
 complish by means of outward appearances of cordiality 
 and content ; that he conceives he has a right to be 
 allowed to relieve himself from this position by an ex- 
 ercise of authority with the native prince, such as few 
 other Residents in India would hesitate to exercise ; 
 that, if Government will not give him authority to 
 do this, he will nevertheless remain at his post, although 
 from climate, as well as from repeated tampering with 
 his life, it is one of danger to him as well as difficulty ; 
 that, while sick and weak in Egypt, the intelligence he 
 had from Baroda, although little exact or definite, to- 
 gether with the steps taken by the Government of 
 Bombay, led him to apply to the Governor-General for 
 employment elsewhere, in order that he might be in 
 direct communication with the Supreme Government 
 as he had been aforetime ; that he afterwards withdrew 
 his request as inconsistent with that unflinching de- 
 votedness to duty, which on every occasion had been 
 his rule of action ; that he is more than ever resolved 
 to labour for the vindication of great principles ; that, 
 knowing his departure would be the signal for great 
 intrigues and oppressions, he will remain at his post, 
 although Government should not give him the power 
 which he thinks needful for removing its difficulties ; 
 that, if Government have sufficient confidence in his 
 political qualifications and his honesty to credit his 
 statement, he will transmit a memorandum exhibiting 
 the hostile proceedings of the Minister, which, however, 
 the apprehension or cupidity of all who could give testi- 
 mony obliges him to refuse to prove while the Minister 
 is in power ; that his embarrassments with the Govern-
 
 116 THE GOVERNOR'S MINUTE. 
 
 ment of the Gaekwar are not of his own seeking ; and 
 that to what they are owing will best be judged of from 
 the accompanying Report. 
 
 On this letter, the Governor, in about a 
 week after its arrival, recorded a minute, in 
 which, after noting the bulk of the Report, and deferring 
 the consideration of it, he says the letter which accom- 
 panied it was " so extraordinary in its style and tenor 
 as to require immediate notice ;" that Colonel Outram 
 had formed a very erroneous idea of his duties as Re- 
 sident and of the relations of the British Government 
 with regard " to the independent sovereign and friendly 
 neighbour" the Gaekwar; that he proposes the re- 
 moval of the Minister, without definite charges, and 
 merely because he does not like him ; and that such 
 a step would be regarded as " a most wanton and cruel 
 act of aggression." The Governor further says, that 
 Colonel Outram overstepped the intention of the cir- 
 cular of the 15th May, 1850, to which his Khutput 
 Report relates ; that his " honest ardour " in pursuit 
 of the eradication of Khutput would not have been 
 blamed if he had stopped there, however strong the 
 doubts of his success ; and that, but for other things 
 he has said, it would have been sufficient to caution 
 him that his course was likely to embroil him with the 
 Gaekwar for an object which could best be effected by 
 means of better care at home. He says that Colonel 
 Outram seems to charge the Government with having 
 failed to support him ; to complain that he is thus 
 made a mark of calumny and reproach ; that he ne- 
 vertheless remains at his post ; that he assumes he 
 has lost the confidence of his superiors, and that he bit- 
 terly complains of his position ; that, since it now 
 appears that Colonel Outram has ceased to identify 
 himself with the objects and policy of the Government, 
 and seems to suppose he has some independent autho- 
 rity of his own, the Governor is convinced he cannot 
 with advantage continue in his post of Resident at 
 Baroda ; and, moreover, it appears that he is labouring 
 under impressions incompatible with " the tact, calm-
 
 COL. OUTRAM'S REMOVAL (15iH DEC. 1851). 117 
 
 ness of mind, and discretion, indispensable to the main- 
 tenance, on a satisfactory footing, of our political 
 relations with the Baroda Government ;" " that much 
 embarrassment will ensue if he be permitted to remain 
 there ;" that he " would therefore inform him that 
 the letter under review, taken in connection with pre- 
 vious correspondence, has convinced us that it will not 
 be for the advantage of the interests of Government 
 that he should continue to represent them in Baroda." 
 Mr. Blane agrees with the Governor, and anticipates 
 evil "from the Quixotic design Colonel 
 Outram has conceived of eradicating what he 
 imagines to be the popular belief of the efficacy of in- 
 direct influence through the corruptibility of Govern 
 ment officials, though in reality, it is to be feared, undei 
 the instigation of Baba Furkey and other wily in- 
 triguers, who are seeking to turn his monomania to 
 advantage in the attainment of their own ends." 
 12g5 Mr. Bell " fully concurs." 
 
 The Resident was accordingly desired to 
 resign. 
 
 To the letter founded on these minutes, 
 Colonel Outram replied, (15th December, 
 1851,) in the same letter that conveyed the resignation 
 which had been required of him. He showed that, 
 contrary to the allegations of the Government, he had 
 acted on a correct knowledge of the relations of the 
 British and Gaekwar Governments; that the views he 
 had expressed as to the removal of the minister were 
 in accordance with those relations ; and that he had 
 brought distinct and specific charges against the mi- 
 nister. He showed that the Honourable Mountstuart 
 Elphinstone, in 1821, and Sir James Carnac, in 1841, 
 had insisted on the expenditure of the revenues, the 
 choice of a minister, and the general course of the 
 Government, being always subject to the approval of 
 the Resident. He cited the letter of Sir George 
 Arthur to the Gaekwar, in July, 1843, on occasion of 
 the Dackjee Dadajee intrigues, in which he reproves 
 that prince with some sharpness, for having thought 
 
 I
 
 118 COLONEL OUTRAM'S REPLY. 
 
 that reports prejudicial to a high character for in- 
 tegrity were unworthy a great Government, and assures 
 him that the British Government is so jealous of its 
 honour in this respect, that it had instituted rigid 
 inquiries, and would punish- the guilty parties ; and still 
 further, charging the Gaekwar with being backward in 
 aiding these investigations, he told him he should lay 
 the case before higher authorities, the effect of which 
 step it was impossible to foresee ; and he exhorted him 
 to avert the consequences by the fullest disclosures, 
 and by excluding from his councils the men who, for 
 their participation in these intrigues, had already been 
 excluded from the Residency, amongst whom, we may 
 incidentally notice, was this very Baba Nafra, the hero 
 of so much of our story. Colonel Outram further 
 quoted the reprimand given at the same time to Mr. 
 Boyd, the Resident, for not having taken steps, under 
 very similar circumstances, more vigorous than those 
 Colonel Outram had asked and been refused authority 
 to take ; and he forbears to quote other opinions and 
 precedents exactly supporting the course he had taken. 
 He proceeded to state the specific charges which he 
 had at various times made against the minister, and 
 which he had stated with all the plainness he could, 
 although always with the caution inspired by the cer- 
 tainty that the minister could obtain all or any of his 
 reports if he pleased ; that he had placed in the hands 
 of Government, proofs of the complicity of the mi- 
 nister with the treachery in their own secretariate; 
 and he assured them he could obtain further proofs, 
 if only a sufficient precedefit, which he adduced, were 
 followed in affording the needful security to the infor- 
 mant ; that, directly in breach of treaty, the minister 
 had associated with himself, in official capacities, per- 
 sons who had been discharged in disgrace from the 
 British service, and that these persons constitute a 
 majority of the official body. He argues, that neither 
 a just interpretation of our treaty relations with the 
 Gaekwar, nor an accurate knowledge of the facts of 
 the case, nor a due reference to his own official
 
 COLONEL OUTRAM'S REPLY. 119 
 
 career, would have led the Government to stigmatize 
 his proposal as " a most wanton and tyrannical act of 
 aggression against a compliant and unoffending ally;" 
 and he says, that while, on the one hand, he hoped that 
 his earlier exposures of the misconduct of the minister 
 would have led the Government to milder measures, 
 which, taken in time, would have saved the minister 
 from direct censure, he was, on the other, compelled at 
 a later period, by the course of the Government itself, 
 to recommend a dismissal of the minister as the only 
 means of stopping a career which might, at no distant 
 period, require and justify the absorption of the Baroda 
 State. As to the censures on his Khutput Report, he 
 says that the materials of that document are merely 
 the details and results of investigations which neces- 
 sarily occupied him in the course of his other official 
 duties ; that the composition of it was effected in 
 hours abstracted from recreation and repose; and that 
 only an intense conviction of its being his duty, led 
 him to place again before Government such a mass of 
 disagreeable revelations. He says he never entertained a 
 Quixotic design of rooting out corruption from amongst 
 the natives of India ; but he did hope to be supported 
 by Government, in showing that high British function- 
 aries were incorruptible; that failing, however, like 
 some of his predecessors, to receive that support, he 
 was deprived of his just and necessary influence, made 
 an object of adverse boastings, treated with rough dis- 
 respect even by British officials, and put in danger of 
 his life. For the truth of all this he refers to his 
 Khutput Report, and his Report on the case of Joita- 
 baee ; the Government, too, had long known it, and yet 
 had given no sign of help or approval. He defends 
 himself against the accusation of having supposed he 
 had an independent authority, while he claims to have 
 apprized the Government, in the strongest possible 
 terms, that owing to their own measures he had in fact 
 neither influence nor authority at Baroda, except as far 
 as he could personally command it. He declares his 
 intention of appealing to the higher authorities, not 
 
 I 2
 
 120 THE GOVERNOR'S MINUTE (AFTER REMOVAL). 
 
 
 against his removal, but against the reasons given for 
 it ; and stating again how confident had been the pre- 
 dictions of the corruptionists of his recall or death, and 
 how great their triumph now the former had been 
 accomplished, he foretells their deep revenge (already 
 in preparation) on those who had escaped or thwarted 
 them, to be followed, he believed, in the course of 
 God's good providence, by a signal and perhaps not 
 tardy retribution. As an Appendix, he gives 
 a list of the individuals, discarded for bribery 
 and misconduct by the British Government, who were 
 then, contrary to treaty, employed as the principal ad- 
 ministrators of the Baroda State*. 
 
 The Governor's minute, on this letter, is 
 dated 26th January. It denies that the pre- 
 cedents quoted by Colonel Outram are applicable ; 
 asserts that the question between them was not whether 
 the Gaekwar was under obligation to appoint a minister 
 in accordance with our wishes, but whether the Resi- 
 dent had a right to call on him to do so without having 
 special directions to that effect from his own superiors ; 
 that if proofs were supplied to the satisfaction of 
 Government, that the minister was acting in a manner 
 dangerous to the welfare of the Gaekwar State, or inimi- 
 cal to British interests, there would be no hesitation in 
 calling for his removal ; that Government never in- 
 tended to impugn the diligence or good faith of Colonel 
 Outram in the slightest degree ; that the censure of 
 Government on Mr/ Boyd in 1843 is not an appli- 
 cable precedent, ^inasmuch as that was occasioned by 
 his want of decision? in fulfilling specific instructions 
 
 * The superintendent of military and police, the superintendent 
 
 of finance, the law adviser, the chief of the city police (Nafra's friend 
 
 Sumbhooram), the minister's personal assistant, and several others, 
 
 had been discharged from the British service for misconduct, and, 
 
 in the majority of cases, for bribery. Among them are Dadoo 
 
 Punt, of whom we have seen something ; Hurreelal, the immediate 
 
 3 predecessor of Nursoo, as Native Agent at Baroda ; and 
 
 Madhoolal, once Native Agent at Sadra, of whom the 
 
 Court of Directors wrote in 1842, that he had been far too leniently 
 
 treated.
 
 MINUTES (AFTER REMOVAL). 121 
 
 from his superiors ; that Colonel Outram's dismissal was 
 not occasioned by his Khutput Report or its contents, but 
 by his avowal of his want of similarity of feeling and 
 objects with the Government he served, by the position 
 in which he had placed himself with the Gaekwar's 
 Government and its members, and by the consequent 
 loss of the tact, calmness, and discretion which his post 
 required ; that although Colonel Outram never said he 
 did not regard the Government with respect, it is im- 
 possible to draw any other conclusion from his corre- 
 spondence ; that the plain meaning of his words was, 
 that he had an independent right to advise the Gaek- 
 war to dismiss his minister ; that his removal, whatever 
 evil may result from it, is of his own procuring ; that 
 he hopes Colonel Outram's representation of the state 
 of things at Baroda is exaggerated ; that, whether so or 
 not, they may have confidence in his successor ; and 
 that it is not necessary to communicate further 
 with him. 
 
 Mr. Blane, the next day, says that the 
 
 letter of Colonel Outram shows the unfitness 
 of his remaining; adverts in the same sense as the 
 Governor to the case of Mr. Boyd ; says that " supposing 
 him to believe in the origin he assigns to the popular 
 conviction of the efficacy of Khutput, it ought to be 
 evident to him that his placing himself in direct and 
 unbecoming opposition to Government could only result 
 in his exposure of such want of concert as inevitably 
 to afford strength to what he pretends to be seeking to 
 eradicate ; " and that Colonel Outram's real motive was 
 his vexation at the censure passed by the Government 
 on his proceedings in the Gorajee Pol and Govind Row 
 Gaekwar cases, and the approval then given by Govern- 
 ment to the conduct of Nursoo, which, however it may 
 since have been shown to be mistaken, did not justify 
 Colonel Outram's "tone of attack and exaggeration." 
 He then recommends that a summary of the whole case 
 be prepared for the use of the Court of Directors. 
 
 Mr. Bell concurs, while Sir John Grey, 
 
 Commander-in-Chief, disclaims participation
 
 COLONEL OUTRAMS MEMORIAL. 
 
 in the proceedings or opinion on the case, on the ground 
 of his absence from Council. 
 
 On the 12th of February Colonel Outram 
 
 memorialized the Court of Directors. After 
 stating that his former experience had deeply impressed 
 him with the evils arising from the belief in Khutput, 
 and that he had hoped that the Government at Bombay 
 were at length prepared to support measures for disabus- 
 ing the native mind of that pernicious persuasion, he 
 says that he entered on his duties at Baroda with a 
 fervid hope that he should be able to achieve much 
 good for the people and their sovereign ; that his plans 
 proved to be useless so long as it was believed they 
 could be frustrated by corruption at the Presidency; 
 that the vindication of the purity of the British 
 name thus became one of the earliest and most impera- 
 tive of his duties ; that he failed in convincing the 
 people of Baroda that the Government of Bombay 
 could not be bought ; that occurrences which strength- 
 ened the native belief are detailed in his Khutput 
 Report ; that that Report did not awaken the Govern- 
 ment to the necessity of giving aid to the vindication 
 of their character ; that soon after the delivery of that 
 Report he was removed from his post ; that he believed 
 he was following out the policy which had been marked 
 out by former Governors, and which remained unchanged 
 on the records ; that while his Report necessarily dealt 
 with strong and disagreeable facts, he endeavoured, 
 both by himself and by the aid of experienced friends, 
 to divest them of everything which could be deemed 
 offensive or disrespectful ; that if he had failed in doing 
 so, he begs it may be attributed " to its true cause, a 
 strong sense of duty, and an inability to soften without 
 diluting truths, which he deemed it his bounden duty 
 to present in unweakened force." 
 
 The Governor recorded his sentiments on 
 
 this memorial, on 28th February, to the 
 following effect: He recapitulates in brief Colonel 
 Outram's statements ; admits Colonel Outram's former 
 services and merits; says that the state of the hill
 
 MINUTES ON THE MEMORIAL. 123 
 
 country of Barocla, fifteen or twenty years ago, has 
 nothing to do with the present question ; that whatever 
 the corruption at the court of the Gaekwar, we had 
 nothing to do with it; that the Resident's duty was 
 mere advice, the effect of which must be derived from 
 moral weight, without the exercise of active control ; 
 that, at any rate, he ought to have consulted Govern- 
 ment, without whose authorization, for all his acts, he 
 had no power ; that his Khutput Report will be consi- 
 dered in due time ; yet that it was not for that Report 
 he was dismissed, but for the letter accompanying it; 
 that Colonel Outram makes an inadmissible distinc- 
 tion between appealing against his removal and ap- 
 pealing against the reasons assigned for it ; that the 
 Government were under no obligation to render a rea- 
 son to him at all; that the whole is now to be left, as 
 it safely may be, to the judgment of the higher autho.- 
 rities ; and that if Colonel Outran and his friends tried 
 to divest his reports and letters of everything disre- 
 spectful, they did not succeed. 
 
 13 ., To this Mr. Blane (28th February) adds, 
 
 " I consider Lieutenant-Colonel Outram's re- 
 moval to have been forced upon us by his persisting in 
 proceedings dictated by the sentiments evinced in the 
 letter attached to his Khutput Report, and not solely 
 by the inditing of that letter." 
 Mr. Bell " most fully concurs." 
 
 These various documents were sent to the 
 2g] Court on the 3rd February and loth March, 
 
 1852 ; the letters and summaries transmitting 
 them added nothing to the expression of opinion or the 
 statement of facts. 
 
 Q _ The Court of Directors, on the 26th June, 
 
 1852, replied in a letter which, setting aside 
 Mr. Blane's addition to the reasons for the removal 
 (1322 : 28th February), on the ground that Colonel 
 Outram does not appear ever to have " persisted " in 
 measures he had been instructed to discontinue, states 
 that he had over-estimated his powers in supposing 
 himself entitled to advise a native prince to dismiss his
 
 124 REASONS FOR THE REMOVAL DISCUSSED. 
 
 minister on his own responsibility, and without refer- 
 ence to his own Government, and would have been 
 liable to severe displeasure if he had done so * ; that 
 the general tone of his correspondence, and not exclu- 
 sively the letter accompanying the Report, had no 
 doubt occasioned the Government to determine on his 
 removal ; that he had believed himself unsupported 
 by Government in his exertions to detect corruption, 
 and the supposition that his exertions were viewed 
 with dislike, appeared to him to defeat his efforts ; 
 that he had failed in respect to the Government in his 
 correspondence ; that the Government ought to have 
 called on him at an early period to retract improper 
 expressions ; and, " in conclusion, we give to Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Outram credit for the zeal, energy, ability, and 
 success, with which he prosecuted inquiries attended 
 with great difficulty ; and taking this view of the case, 
 we express our hope, that when Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Outram shall return to India, you will find a suitable 
 opportunity of employing him where his talents and 
 experience may prove useful to the public service." 
 
 Reduced to their elements, four reasons are here 
 assigned for the removal of Colonel Outram : 
 
 1. That that officer pursued a course, in respect of 
 corruption at Baroda and Bombay, different from that 
 approved by Government. 
 
 2. That he had incorrect views respecting his powers 
 as Resident, and had acted in pursuance of those views. 
 
 3. That he had embroiled himself to such an extent 
 with the minister and other officers of the Gaekwar's 
 Government, as to have lost the tact, calmness, and 
 discretion necessary to the fulfilment of the duties of 
 his post at Baroda. 
 
 4. That his language to the Government, his supe- 
 riors, was disrespectful. 
 
 These reasons require examination. 
 Where a habit of dishonesty of any kind prevails, 
 two courses are open in respect of it : 1st, to resist 
 
 * Which he never did ; he expressly asked leave so to advise the 
 prince.
 
 CHANGE IN GOVERNMENT COUNSELS. 125 
 
 and expose it whenever it affects our own interests or 
 proceedings ; or, 2ndly, to bear with it, satisfied with 
 the total result, although that result be diminished by 
 this adverse influence. Colonel Outram, when he first 
 went to Baroda, had nothing but the previous proceed- 
 ings, as recorded in the office, to show him which of 
 these lines of policy the Government had adopted ; for 
 it does not appear that he was officially informed of any 
 change in the views of his superiors, if such a change had 
 then taken place ; the only guide given to him by the 
 Government was the spirit of the past transactions. If he 
 had been apprized of a change, it might have been a ques- 
 tion with him whether he would accept the appointment. 
 Now, from the conduct of Sir George Arthur's Govern- 
 ment, in the recent and notorious case of the Dackjee 
 Dadajee intrigues, as well as from all that had 
 previously taken place, it seems impossible to 
 come to any other conclusion than that the established 
 policy was that of tracing out and exposing corruption 
 in all cases where it affected ourselves, and not the 
 contrary one of conniving at and enduring it. 
 
 The chief error of the Government seems to have 
 lain in not perceiving, or probably in being unwilling 
 to confess even to themselves, the change in their own 
 counsels which had really taken place. The evidence 
 of such a change is to be found in the remarkable con- 
 trast of Sir George Arthur's letter of 18th July, 1843, 
 with the minutes of Lord Falkland and his colleagues, 
 dated 7th December, 1851. The former says, that as 
 to the alleged insignificance of reports tend- 
 ing to cast doubt on the purity of the British 
 character, " it is my duty to undeceive your Highness. 
 The British Government is extremely jealous of its 
 high character for honour and integrity, and its com- 
 plete freedom from all taint of corruption ; hence it 
 regards the offence of Dackjee Dadajee as one of the 
 greatest magnitude, its effect being to create a belief 
 that justice was to be bought and sold, and that cor- 
 ruption prevails at the very gates of Government. It 
 behoved Government, therefore, when his wicked ma-
 
 126 NO CHANGE IN COLONEL OUTRAM. 
 
 chinations were discovered, to institute the most rigid 
 inquiries, with the view of dispelling the false accusa- 
 tions he had disseminated, and, if possible, of punishing 
 all parties implicated in the transactions." Sir George 
 Arthur then proceeded to say, that he should lay the 
 whole case before the superior authorities, and to ad- 
 vise the Gaekwar, most earnestly, to dismiss from his 
 councils all persons concerned in these intrigues, and 
 to reveal all he knew of them, as the best means of 
 averting the possible extreme consequences of such 
 attempts to represent the highest British functionaries, 
 " as capable of being influenced in their official acts 
 by pecuniary considerations." 
 
 Lord Falkland, on the other hand, who had 
 
 before him, at the time, an accusation against 
 
 the minister, of an offence not a whit less grave than that 
 
 of DackjeeDadajee, and related to the very same object, 
 
 1127 &c an accusa ti n supported by evidence which 
 would have ensured conviction from any Bri- 
 tish jury, and following upon others as serious as this, 
 deems the possession by him of surreptitious copies of 
 private minutes of Government, no ground whatever 
 " for proceeding against him ;" he thinks it not neces- 
 sary to call on the prince, after the example of Sir 
 George Arthur, for aid in obtaining additional informa- 
 tion, but contents himself w r ith saying, " it will at all 
 times, I imagine, be extremely difficult for us to attempt 
 to define the exact point at which the conduct of a 
 minister acting (ostensibly at all events) in the interest 
 of his sovereign, with whom we are intimately con- 
 nected, becomes criminal towards us, by endeavouring, 
 by indirect means, to make himself acquainted with 
 our wishes and intentions." 
 
 Mr. Blane is equally ready to excuse the minister ; 
 and Mr. Bell, as usual, concurs *. 
 
 * It is only just to the Government to state, that at a later period 
 
 they did enunciate somewhat different views ; but this 
 
 908 27. -was after the Nursoo, Joitabaee, and Khutput Reports 
 
 had done their work, and much too late, either to guide 
 
 Colonel Outram, or to save themselves, for it was after that officer's 
 
 removal.
 
 COLONEL OUTRAM NOT BEYOND HIS DUTY. 127 
 
 If, then, connivance, or, at least, quiescence, were 
 to be the new policy, the change ought to have been 
 made known to the Resident, before he was blamed for 
 departing from the views of Government ; and the 
 more so, as such a change was one of the last a British 
 officer, who had had long experience in dealing with 
 the natives of India, would have expected. 
 
 Moreover, neither did Colonel Outram, at any time, 
 hesitate to fulfil the wishes of the Government when 
 made known to him, nor did he, in anyone instance, go 
 out of his way to seek occasions of contravening their 
 policy. Whenever the powers which he applied for 
 were refused, he dropped such of his plans as were de- 
 pendent on them ; and he certainly applied oftener and 
 on smaller occasions than any officer would have done 
 who felt himself supported by his superiors. So, also, 
 every case which he followed up had first met him in 
 the direct path of his duty, without his going aside to 
 seek it. Nursoo was a public servant whose unfaith- 
 fulness came under his own eye and affected his own 
 duties. Joitabaee was under British guarantee, and had 
 vehemently invoked its protection. Nafra's papers, 
 seized in Joitabaee's case, made the inquiries in the case 
 of Mr. Andrews and of Nursoo imperative. The stoppage 
 of the letters at the post-office was in consequence of 
 information spontaneously sent to him ; and so of all 
 the rest. There is not a single accusation either 
 officiously sought out, or beyond the duty of a respon- 
 sible British officer. Colonel Outram had done nothing 
 more than he was bound to do ; only, however, with this 
 to be said about it an officer, content so to act, might 
 have done it in form only : he did it in spirit. The 
 first reason, then, assigned by the Government, is 
 plainly contradicted by the facts, if Colonel Outram is 
 to be judged either by the inherent proprieties of the 
 case, or by the means he had of judging of the views of 
 the Government. 
 
 The second reason, viz. that he held incorrect views 
 of the extent of his powers as Resident, is justified 
 almost exclusively by the following paragraphs in his
 
 128 POWERS OF A RESIDENT. 
 
 letter transmitting the Khutput Report: "Had 
 I been on those terms with my own superiors 
 to which in former days I had the honour to be ad- 
 mitted, as well by the local as the supreme Govern- 
 ments, I should, at a very early date of my intercourse 
 with the minister, have pointed out to his Highness the 
 necessity, for the honour of his own Raj, of selecting 
 another adviser ; in doing this, I should have done no 
 more than any other Resident in India, in a similar 
 position, would have deemed himself justified in doing. 
 I should have been rendering an essential service to the 
 Gaekwar, and I should have diminished that intrigue 
 and corruption which tends so much to compromise the 
 character of the British Government in the eyes of the 
 natives. 
 
 " But I felt keenly that I was not admitted to that 
 confidence and kindly consideration on the part of 
 Government which it was once my honour to enjoy. I 
 feared that my conduct might be censured, and that my 
 recommendation might be unsupported ; and in such a 
 case I was well aware that intrigues would multiply, 
 and attempts be made to involve me in a dispute with 
 the Durbar, with a view to lead to my removal from a 
 post where I am a source of inconvenience and alarm 
 to the traders in corruption." 
 
 These expressions and those of the following de- 
 pendent paragraphs, which are no stronger 
 
 izoo-o. , i i /^i 
 
 than these, the Government interpret to mean 
 that Colonel Outram believed himself endowed with an 
 independent power ; and it is somewhat strange, con- 
 sidering the natural construction which the words 
 evidently bear, and the general fairness with which the 
 Court of Directors have treated the whole controversy, 
 that that body should have admitted this charge into 
 the slight and qualified censure with which they ac- 
 companied their acknowledgment of Colonel 
 Outram's merits in this particular service. 
 The real sense of the passage is easily shown. 
 
 It is clearly understood in our Indian policy, that the 
 influence of a Resident of ours at the Court of a native
 
 COLONEL OUTRAM ASKS FOR POWERS. 129 
 
 prince is to be exerted, in ordinary circumstances, and 
 always in the first instance, only in the way of sea- 
 sonable advice, enforced by such moral weight as the 
 character of the Resident, and of the Government he 
 serves, can supply. The object is, to render all acts 
 both really and ostensibly the acts of the native Govern- 
 ment ; and only to prevent mistakes or suggest good 
 measures by the quiet and private influence of the 
 Resident, his influence being guided, of course, in its 
 exercise, by the views of his superiors. Lord Falkland 
 1321-10 ex P resses the same thing in these words. 
 " The British Resident is not placed at Baroda 
 as a governing power, nor is it consistent with his duty 
 to interfere with the actual Government of the country, 
 further than by exercising a personal influence, which 
 may enable him, without direct and visible interference, 
 to sway the councils of the Durbar for the benefit of 
 the people and the interests of the British power which 
 he represents." Only when the native court is bent on 
 measures prejudicial to its own interests, or to ours, 
 and will not listen to the Resident, is the Government 
 called on for its interference; an interference neces- 
 sarily official and peremptory whenever exerted at all. 
 
 But the Resident cannot suppose his mere advice 
 will have any practical effect, adversely to the inclina- 
 tions of the native Government, unless he can rely on 
 the Government he serves for the adoption both of his 
 advice and of all its consequences, if necessity should 
 arise for a formal appeal to their authority. 
 
 Now, Colonel Outram plainly tells the Government 
 of Bombay, in the extract above given, that he could 
 not venture on the first premonitory step of privately 
 advising the Gaekwar to dismiss his delinquent 
 minister, because, judging from their own recent acts, 
 and not a few of them, he could not rely on their ulti- 
 mate support of him in doing so ; and because, if they 
 disavowed or counteracted that advice after it was given, 
 matters would be in a worse condition than before. 
 He then goes on to say that he has met this difficulty, 
 for the time, in the best way he could ; he urgently
 
 130 TACT, CALMNESS, AND DISCRETION. 
 
 asks from the Government the needful authority to 
 make this recommendation, with the security against 
 counteraction to be derived from an assurance of their 
 concurrence ; and he finishes by saying " that should 
 Government not concur with me in this view of the 
 case, I shall respectfully submit to their decision ; for 
 I feel that it is my duty to remain at my post, one of 
 difficulty as well as of danger as it is." 
 
 So far, then, from this being a declaration that he 
 possessed any independent authority, it is an express 
 avowal of deference, carried further than any other 
 Resident in India would have carried it, in a case 
 where, as here, such a Resident might see that the 
 prince's own interest, independent of ours, was involved 
 in the measures he intended to recommend. 
 
 The real offence of these paragraphs probably lay in 
 the opposite direction, although the Bombay Govern- 
 ment might be but obscurely aware of the nature of 
 the impression made by them on their own minds. They 
 expressly lay the state of things at Baroda, in as far as 
 no effectual remedy for it was attempted, at the door 
 of the Bombay Government itself. 
 
 The third reason assigned for the removal of Colonel 
 Outram is, that, while labouring under his avowed im- 
 pressions, as to the corruption of the native Government 
 at Baroda, and the want of support from his own Govern- 
 ment in combating it he was likely to experience, " he 
 could not possess the tact, calmness, and dis- 
 cretion indispensable to the maintenance, on 
 a satisfactory footing, of the political relations of this 
 Government with the Baroda Durbar, and that much 
 embarrassment would ensue if he were permitted to 
 remain there." 
 
 It was easy for the Government, in the comparative 
 quietude of Bombay, to set up a standard of " calmness " 
 altogether unfit for the very different circumstances 
 of Baroda. It requires but little discernment to see 
 that whoever may, at any time, make much impression 
 on the corruption of that city, by any kind of means 
 left in the power of the Resident, must do so by an
 
 PROPOSAL TO REMOVE THE MINISTER. 131 
 
 energy as little compatible with a reputation for calm- 
 ness, as that here ascribed to Colonel Outram ; and the 
 happiest thing of the kind that can take place will be, 
 that some man should chance to be appointed, whose 
 just indignation at what he must necessarily witness, 
 should be so combined with " tact " and " discretion " 
 as to give him the means of carrying some sense of 
 right and wrong, or, at least, some dread of retribution, 
 as far as we are bound to interfere, into that far-gone 
 city. Be it remarked, however, that it is not said that 
 Colonel Outram has ever been actually deficient in 
 either ''tact" or "discretion," nor would it be easy to find 
 proof from his acts that he had been. It is only said 
 that he must be so ; and because it is so inferred, he is 
 removed : and, more strange still, in Lord Falkland's 
 minute, on the Joitabaee Report, dated but a fort- 
 night before the removal, that nobleman, the Governor, 
 411-114 ex P resses "hi s admiration of the extraordi- 
 nary skill and patience displayed by Colonel 
 Outram, in investigating the obscure and secret con- 
 spiracies which are the subject of his Report, in baffling 
 native intrigue on its own ground, and in unravelling, 
 with much ingenuity, if not always successfully, the 
 frauds, perjuries, and mass of extraordinary depositions" 
 which had occupied and polluted the three previous 
 years. Surely the qualities which form the topics of 
 this eulogy are altogether incompatible with the want 
 of tact, calmness, and discretion alleged a fortnight 
 afterwards as the reason of removal ; and if this refers 
 to proceedings then some time past, those proceedings 
 were of a kind quite as likely as those which followed, 
 to exhibit any real want of the necessary qualities of a 
 Resident, nor were those later proceedings any other 
 than such as might be expected from a beginning like 
 the Joitabaee investigation. 
 
 The particular practical difference which drew this 
 remark from the Bombay Government was Colonel 
 Outram's proposition to call for the removal of the 
 Gaekwar's minister. To this the Government made 
 two untenable objections: 1st, That Colonel Outram
 
 132 CHARGES AGAINST THE MINISTER. 
 
 advised it only because he had " a bad opinion" of the 
 minister, while, however, he had " not brought 
 specific charges, even assumed to be capable 
 of proof, against him ;" 2ndly, Such a measure, when 
 directed against " a compliant and unoffending ally, 
 could but be regarded as a most wanton and tyrannical 
 aggression" on the " independent sovereign and friendly 
 neighbour, at whose court Colonel Outram was Resi- 
 dent." 
 
 Now, although it is true that in the particular letter 
 then under review, Colonel Outram did not bring spe- 
 cific charges against Bhow Tambeykur the minister, it 
 surely ought not to have escaped the Government that 
 the Resident's letters and reports had, for a long time, 
 been full of charges against him some very explicit, 
 and others clearly implied. From amongst more general 
 accusations, we may take the following as too precise to 
 be deemed insufficient for further action, and too impor- 
 tant to be easily forgotten : 
 
 1. An attempt to bribe Mr. Malet and Colonel 
 Outram himself for the abolition of the Guzerat Horse, 
 
 112 7 sent in with ample evidence on the 23rd 
 November, 1851 ; followed up and confirmed 
 48< on the 2nd of the next month. 
 
 2. An intrigue to effect the same object by bribery 
 in Bombay ; in fact, a repetition of the Dackjee Dada- 
 jee intrigue. This was stated and pursued, with offers 
 of evidence and suggestions of measures for obtaining 
 further evidence, in communications of the four follow- 
 ing dates: 13th October, 1851, para. 18, page 1101 ; 
 8th November, page 1125 ; 2nd December, paras. 2, 
 3, 4, and 5, page 1167 ; and 13th December, page 
 1143. The last document, indeed, was sent in after 
 Colonel Outram's dismissal, but it is fairly included 
 here, since it refers to an investigation which, in the 
 
 words conveying the censure of the Court 
 of Directors, " was arrested in limine" but 
 which would otherwise have amply convicted the 
 minister. The first three communications are, however, 
 quite sufficient for the present argument.
 
 CHARGES AGAINST THE MINISTER. 133 
 
 3. The conspiracy to ruin Joitabaee Settanee, a lady 
 entitled to British protection. This conspiracy extended 
 to the members of the Gaekwar's governing body ; the 
 minister was the chief of that body, and without him 
 nothing could have been done. These things were 
 asserted over and over again by Colonel Outram, in his 
 papers and in his final Report on the case ; they were 
 even fully admitted at length by Lord Falkland, in his 
 
 411-115 mmute f 10th November, 1851 a fortnight 
 or so before Colonel Outram's dismissal, in 
 the following words : " The task " Colonel Outram 
 " undertook to perform, may indeed be termed an ex- 
 traordinary one. Once persuaded that Joitabaee's tale 
 was true, and that she was the victim of a foul con- 
 spiracy, he has, alone and unaided, stood by her ; has 
 opposed the active machinations of her powerful enemy, 
 deriving a strong support as they must have done from 
 their success with the Acting Resident, and through him 
 with this Government ; has openly met the secret hos- 
 tility of the Baroda Durbar (for the Gaekwar himself, 
 however well meaning he may have been, has been evi- 
 dently and wholly passive in the matter); and, finally, he 
 seems to have unveiled and exposed the domestic trea- 
 chery of the Native Agent, which would appear to be but 
 too clearly established by the facts and reasoning of this 
 Report." It must be observed that the " Baroda Dur- 
 bar," i. e. the Gaekwar's governing body, could not 
 have been concerned in any " conspiracy " or have 
 indulged in any " secret hostility " without its chief, 
 the minister. 
 
 4. The oppressing and intimidating of the witnesses 
 against Nursoo Punt, when the case of that native 
 official was investigated by Mr. Commissioner Frere. 
 Several distinct acts of oppression were stated by the 
 Resident to the Gaekwar personally, (June, 1851,) and 
 
 afterwards reported officially to the Govern- 
 ment of Bombay, who acted on the Report. 
 Let it be remembered, this was a charge, with circum- 
 stantial instances, of an attempt to obstruct justice in 
 
 K
 
 134 PROOFS TENDERED. 
 
 an inquiry into the conduct of one of our own subjects, 
 confidentially employed by our own Government. 
 
 5. The systematic corrupting of the Bom- 
 bay Secretariate, proved by means of the 
 letters seized at the Baroda post-office and 
 other evidence. 
 
 6. Besides the above, which were stated with dis- 
 tinctness equal to that on which Colonel Outram was 
 called on to frame charges against Nursoo Punt, there 
 was another and last accusation, which Lord Falkland 
 singularly enough made the means of ignoring all the 
 rest. In his letter of 31st October, 1851, 
 that which accompanied his Khutput Report, 
 and was made the ground of his removal, Colonel Out- 
 ram explicitly charges the minister with proceedings 
 hostile to his investigations ; he says he can prove the 
 facts, but he will not do so while that minister remains 
 in power; because, however the witnesses may be able 
 or willing to tell the truth if left to themselves, they 
 will not do it if left exposed to the minister's ven- 
 geance by his remaining in power ; nor did he feel 
 himself justified in calling on them to incur the risk. 
 This fear, we may remark, was not only reasonable, 
 from what the minister had already done of the same 
 kind, and such as universal experience in the East 
 would inspire, but it was in this case made more in- 
 tense and efficacious than usual by the unanimous 
 belief, at Baroda, that Colonel Outram was acting in 
 opposition to the secret wishes of his own superiors, 
 and would soon be set aside, or in some way deprived 
 of power to protect any witnesses he might call. These 
 considerations were so much the more urgent, as they 
 applied to subjects of the Gaekwar who had no British 
 guarantee, and who were therefore exposed, without 
 remedy at our hands, to any degree or kind of intimi- 
 dation or revenge the minister might choose to employ. 
 The avowed indefiniteness of accusation and with- 
 holding of proof, which clearly applied only to this last 
 charge, were made by Lord Falkland and his colleagues
 
 IMPOSSIBLE CALMNESS. 135 
 
 to apply to all those which had been advanced before, 
 of which proofs had been pressed on them for weeks, 
 and in some cases for months, together. If it be not 
 fair to say that this was a trick of the Government, let 
 it at least be admitted, that some officer should be 
 accountable for reading up their papers for them, in 
 order that errors so glaring as this may be prevented. 
 
 The practical weight of this allegation, that the Re- 
 sident called for the removal of the minister without 
 distinct charges, was made to fall on the fact it was 
 adduced to prove, viz. that the Resident was embroiled 
 with the Gaekwar's Government. But taking the word 
 Government in the sense of the governing body, without 
 including the prince, it is important to ask, whether any 
 man can fulfil the duties, or ought to occupy the post, 
 of Resident at Baroda, without becoming embroiled 
 with such a minister and Government as Colonel Outram 
 found there? We venture to affirm, that the difficulty 
 arising from being on ill terms with the Durbar was 
 much more chargeable to the Government, which 
 failed to end it by supporting the Resident in the dis- 
 charge of undoubted British obligations, and equally 
 undoubted duties of his own, than to the Resident, 
 who laboured to fulfil both one and the other, at the 
 necessary risk of the embroilment. 
 
 2. The other reason of the Government for object- 
 ing to the proposal to require the dismissal of the mi- 
 nister is equally unfounded. That dismissal, which 
 treaty authorized us on occasion to require, would have 
 been as real a relief to the Gaekwar himself, as 
 to any of the victims of oppression, his subjects. The 
 sources of the minister's power were his own natural 
 strength of will, his close connection with the party of 
 bankers and others, who, as Captain French had said, 
 ruled the Gaekwar's Government ; but far more than all, 
 the Gaekwar's confirmed belief that his minister had a 
 great secret influence at Bombay. Nothing could have 
 so strengthened the prince's persuasion and have so 
 straitened his bondage, as to learn, through secret 
 emissaries, that, after all the accusations and proofs sent 
 
 K 2
 
 136 DANGER TO THE GAEKWAR. 
 
 against his minister to the Government of Bombay, 
 that high but (to him) suspected authority had deter- 
 mined to let him remain. Had the minister been 
 removed at the behest of the Bombay Government, the 
 Gaekwar would have rejoiced in his own liberation, 
 while the British character would have been vindicated, 
 and the Khutputists, for a time at least, disarmed. 
 
 Nor let it be overlooked that the offences charged 
 against the minister were precisely of the kind which 
 Lord Falkland said would have been considered, by the 
 Government, to justify them in calling on " their 
 compliant and unoffending ally," "the independent 
 sovereign and friendly neighbour," the Gaekwar, " to 
 dismiss his obnoxious servant, and to conform 
 to the advice of the British representative in 
 appointing another." For, as we have already seen, 
 they were just such " as to compromise our interests 
 and those of his prince, and to endanger the welfare 
 and safety of the Gaekwar State," to the greatest extent 
 that the position of the minister permitted, by any 
 means short of actual hostilities. They were offences 
 against that integrity and good name of our own 
 highest officers which are the very foundation of our 
 power; they were desperate attempts on the security, 
 wealth, and life of persons we were bound to protect ; 
 and they comprehended the actual corrupting of our 
 own native civil officers, and the defeat of justice when 
 the conduct of those officers was under investigation. 
 As if, too, this was not enough, this minister was charged 
 with effecting much of it through the debasement of 
 the Gaekwar's own courts of justice. Now surely no- 
 thing could be more inimical to the continuance of the 
 Gaekwar's rule, than to show it to the public of Eng- 
 land in the character of a Government so thoroughly 
 demoralized that our protection, on which its existence 
 depends, could no longer be afforded to it without our 
 perpetuating the most revolting wrongs. The danger 
 in which the minister thus placed his prince, was, indeed, 
 far greater than his offences against ourselves. 
 
 We pass now to the last reason assigned by Govern-
 
 WANT OF RESPECT. 137 
 
 ment for this removal of their Resident, viz. the want 
 
 of respect in his language to them, more particularly 
 
 in his Khutput letter, but also in his other 
 
 1 T 1 
 
 correspondence. In this they are supported 
 
 by the Court of Directors, "with however the most im- 
 
 27-9 portant reservation, that reproof and a call 
 
 for retractation at an early period would have 
 been the proper remedy, and not dismissal. 
 
 Mr. Blane attributes this disrespect to Col. Outram's 
 
 vexation at the erroneous censure by the Government, 
 
 of his early complaints against Nursoo. But that officer 
 
 137 had used quite as strong language, years 
 
 before, on the escape of Khutputists, when 
 there had been no previous censure to bear the blame 
 of inspiring it, and when he had not yet acquired a 
 reputation on which he might rely for obtaining credit 
 for his views against the preconceptions of Government ; 
 but then the Government of Sir Robert Grant, to which 
 that language was addressed, was so occupied with 
 public views as to give little heed to the incidental 
 irregularities of an " honest " care for the purity of the 
 British name ; and accordingly Colonel, then Captain, 
 Outram was neither censured nor removed. It is, how- 
 ever, still more remarkable that in this very matter of 
 Nursoo's misconduct, adduced by Mr. Blane as the 
 1426-1 stimulating cause of this disrespect, Colonel 
 
 Outram, not many months before, had shown 
 his desire to say what his duty bound him to say, in 
 the softest terms the case admitted, by withdrawing 
 disagreeable expressions when he saw that his public 
 objects were likely to be accomplished without them. 
 It was only at last that energetic, perhaps irregular, 
 remonstrances, required by facts still more galling than 
 they, were forced from him by continued frustrations 
 of his efforts to vindicate the honour of the service, and 
 by sickening denial of the support of his own superiors 
 against the corruption which openly boasted of having 
 bought them *. But why was Government so sensitive 
 
 * The Government frequently say, in their later minutes, that 
 they did give Colonel Outram due support ; but they never show 
 when and how they gave it. Now, to say nothing of the manner in
 
 138 DELAYS. 
 
 to the strong language of their own officer, when still 
 stronger was constantly applied to them bj the public 
 press? why care so much for that which need not have 
 passed beyond their own knowledge but for the treachery 
 which he combated in Baroda, and they let alone in 
 Bombay ? 
 
 Here, again, we may ask, was it possible, consistently 
 with his duty, for Colonel Outram to make such state- 
 ments as he had to make, in a manner not liable to be 
 mistaken for disrespect ? He had to show his superiors 
 the consequences of errors they had fallen into for years 
 together, to exhibit the corruption which had fattened 
 in an important native State on their imputed cor- 
 ruptibility, and to describe the grievous oppressions 
 
 which important cases were disposed of, let the effect of the follow- 
 ing instances of delay be considered. 
 
 1. A charge of fraud against Hurree Bhugtee's Bank, reported 
 30th July, 1850, was not replied to at all by the Government up to 
 the date of Colonel Outram's removal, sixteen months afterwards. 
 This is one of the cases in which the Resident had appealed to the 
 Court of Directors ; the papers were sent to the Court after a delay 
 of thirteen and a half months, when appeal was practically useless. 
 
 2. Nursoo's complicity with Nafra's attempted fraud, re-stated by 
 Colonel Outram to the Government, 7th September, 1850, with 
 an earnest request, on public grounds, for early consideration, and 
 an alternative appeal to the Court of Directors ; not replied to at 
 all before fresh statements forced on the trial and conviction of 
 Nursoo; nor sent to the Court of Directors before February, 1852 
 a delay of seventeen months. 
 
 3. Nafra's attempt to bribe Soorujram was reported 10th July, 
 1850, and was never replied to. It was reported to the Court 
 seventeen months afterwards, that is, a week after " the removal." 
 
 4. The case of Mr. Andrews was replied to subsequently to his 
 death, after eleven months' delay, that is, five days before " the 
 removal," and was sent to the Court at the same time. 
 
 5. The case of Joitabaee was replied to after eight months' delay, 
 and was sent to the Court at the same time, that is, a week after 
 " the removal." 
 
 These are only instances which might be easily extended, both as 
 to the withholding of supporting decisions from the Resident, and 
 the long-delayed transmission of cases to the Court, in which Colonel 
 Outram had expressly appealed to that authority. It has already 
 been shown that the mere inaction of the Government (suspected, as 
 it was, by the people, of Khutput tendencies) was quite enough 
 always to discourage and often to defeat justice. It might amply 
 excuse any outburst of " honest ardour," even in the unwilling form 
 of constructive disrespect.
 
 "HONEST ARDOUR." 139 
 
 which had been ventured on through reliance on the 
 oft-tried support of that corruption. Surely the utmost 
 ingenuity of official complaisance might be held excused 
 in failing to deal acceptably with such a theme ; much 
 more, may he be held blameless who has to speak of 
 it from the midst of its harrowing results. 
 
 We need not here pursue the remark that the capa- 
 bility of quiet and calculating thought, however precious 
 for its foresight and its grasp, is but one of the twin 
 qualifications for great services, of which the other 
 is the ardent, outbursting energy of moral principles ; 
 and that he who in such services tames down all his 
 agents to the chilling accuracy of the one, fails just as 
 surely as he who precipitates on unconsidered obstacles 
 the fiery undisciplined strength of the other. Colonel 
 Outram's defence, however, does not need the aid of 
 this principle ; for be it observed, there is no disrespect- 
 ful passage actually adduced from any paper dated pre- 
 viously to his removal, except his statement, that he 
 was at one time so discouraged by the want of support 
 from the Bombay Government, as to have wished and 
 endeavoured to place himself under the orders of the 
 supreme Government of India, a wish afterwards aban- 
 doned. The charge of disrespect is mainly made out 
 in this way : Colonel Out ram states facts and advances 
 arguments which, if true, lead to the inference that this 
 Government is unworthy of respect ; he says he believes 
 them to be true ; therefore he has, in fact, no respect for 
 the Government although he does not say so in words. 
 This summary statement of the question would of itself 
 be defence enough against the charge of disrespect. 
 
 Let it be admitted however that, in the "honest 
 ardour " with which Lord Falkland himself says 
 Colonel Outram prosecuted his anti-Khutput efforts, 
 he had failed of the conventional respect which highly- 
 organised administrative bodies require from subordi- 
 nates to superiors, and that in consequence it had really 
 become necessary to displace him from his post, even 
 then the question is changed by but one remove. It 
 is then to be asked, in a court far higher than that
 
 140 ESTIMATED CAUSES OF REMOVAL. 
 
 formed of the official circle in which the debate origi- 
 nated, who occasioned that necessity ? The subordinate 
 may be sacrificed to an artificial exigency of office ; and 
 yet the superiors may suffer the vastly heavier condem- 
 nation of having both failed in their own proper duty, 
 and of having so failed in it as to destroy the utility of 
 their worthier agent besides. It would not close the 
 question to show that Colonel Outram had been guilty 
 of disrespect ; it would only carry the whole case to a 
 new and more searching investigation in the light of 
 public opinion ; and the withering sentence awarded, if 
 found guilty on such a trial, is not the less surely 
 executed because no constituted voice proclaims it. The 
 materials for such a trial are before the reader. 
 
 If we now attempt to account for the removal of 
 Colonel Outram, by considerations more accurate and 
 sufficient than those supplied by these official papers, 
 it is hot with a view to charge the members of the 
 Government of Bombay with insincerity. The best 
 observers of their own feelings can rarely tell with 
 perfect exactness, on any given occasion, from what 
 motives they act ; and, in an exciting crisis, the real 
 causes of the movement are commonly hid by the 
 dust and turmoil from the chief actors themselves. 
 
 Let us briefly recapitulate the events of a few 
 months, and those principally of the last few weeks. 
 
 Official Reports had been coming in from nearly all 
 other parts of the Presidency, affirming the general 
 prevalence of this belief in their corruptibility. Mr. 
 Andrews had just died, suffering from, if not killed by, 
 the anxiety following on the finding of Nafra's memo- 
 randum. Nursoo, their long cherished favourite, had 
 just been convicted; the cruel wrongs of Joitabaee, 
 whom they had long despised, had been exposed ; Nafra, 
 whom they had latterly regarded with little or no dis- 
 favour, had been shown to be a monster, and was in 
 reluctant chains ; Nafra's enormous plunder of the bank 
 had just been officially reported ; Furkey, whom they 
 hated, had just been shown to have been maligned and 
 injured for years together ; the rank untrustworthiness
 
 THE CRISIS. 141 
 
 of their own Secretariate had just been established; 
 the minister of the Gaekwar had been shown to be 
 deeply involved in corrupt conspiracies ; every new fact 
 was a new proof of their own errors; the frightful 
 consequences of their errors were brought to light by 
 every Report; the Court of Directors adopted, in 
 general, the views established in those Reports, as far 
 as they had yet been submitted to that authority ; to 
 form the climax, Colonel Outram brought home distinct 
 evidence of arrangements for systematic corruption, so 
 extensive and so long sustained, that assuredly nothing 
 but past experience of success would be alleged by 
 the public voice to have kept them up. He sent them, 
 a Report, in which the history, encouragements, and ap- 
 parent success of corruption were laboriously traced, 
 and its consequences charged on the mistakes of Govern- 
 ment itself, through inferences which could only be 
 parried by resentment on mere official and conven- 
 tional grounds; he transmitted to them revelations 
 which, however vaguely supported, were sufficient to 
 affect reputations very near to their own ; and he told 
 them that much more (how much or what they did not 
 know) was already within his grasp, waiting only their 
 own authority to receive it. 
 
 Here then was a crisis ; the whole fabric of their 
 beliefs and prepossessions had broken down : a great 
 and undefined danger still further threatened their own 
 credit, and, possibly, the course of the policy committed 
 to them. Nothing could stop the torrent of disclosures, 
 true or false, surmised or substantiated as they might 
 be, but the removal of the officer who, although ever 
 within the line of his duty, would not let the subject 
 rest ; and Colonel Outram was accordingly removed. 
 
 The minutes of the different members of the Go- 
 vernment bear marks of 'the state of feeling at the 
 time. Colonel Outram's course is attributed to per- 
 sonal dislike of the Gaekwar's minister; 
 1285 t\ien * ^ e "instigation of Baba Furkey 
 and other wily intriguers ; " and then, when 
 Turkey's clear acquittal permitted that phrase no
 
 142 CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 longer, to resentment at the treatment he 
 received from Government in the cases of the 
 Gorajee Pol and of Govind Row Gaekvvar. The 
 " honest ardour " attributed to him by the Governor is a 
 " monomania " and a " Quixotic design " in the mouth 
 of Mr. Blane. Surely these shifting accusations are 
 much more consistent with the flurried state of mind 
 supposed, than with the calm consideration of the case, 
 and the clear view of its relations which befitted a Go- 
 vernment displacing one of its most important agents. 
 
 The effect of this "removal" on the professional and 
 official standing of the distinguished officer who was 
 the subject of it, is too obvious to need remark here ; 
 nor is this the place to descant on the loss to him, for 
 only doing his duty, of the dignity and emoluments of 
 a station conferred on him as the reward and attesta- 
 tion of a life of most remarkable public service. It is, 
 moreover, a wrong done him, which no public judg- 
 ment can redress, that efforts sincerely intended to vin- 
 dicate the official purity of his fellow countrymen 
 ruling India should have been so met as to convert 
 friendships into enmities, and to embitter life with un- 
 sought and most repugnant disagreements. The true 
 estimate of his proceedings at Baroda will, however, 
 easily be formed by disinterested judges ; and whoever 
 may review hereafter the course of the British power 
 in India will have to point to this struggle as one of 
 those by which that rule was purified and so confirmed, 
 or its downfall accelerated and foreshadowed. 
 
 The person to complain of permanent and irreme- 
 diable injury is Mr. Reid, however little the pamphlet 
 issued by that gentleman while these sheets were at 
 press may exhibit any present sense of the true magni- 
 tude or nature of the infliction. His name is associ- 
 ated in one way or another, with several cases of Khut- 
 put both of earlier and later date, which are given in 
 Colonel Outram 's Report, and in these pages ; unfor- 
 tunately, also, the positive interference of Government 
 stopped on two different occasions the examination of 
 two different agents, Joteshwar and Govind Row Roria,
 
 CONTRASTS. 143 
 
 through whom alleged communications with Mr. Reid 
 had been carried on. The first of these was a direction 
 not to examine papers fairly in Colonel Outram's power, 
 and, consequently, a removal of the only inducement to 
 the confession, which was righteously exacted of their 
 owner ; the second was a refusal to give a needful 
 assurance of protection on telling the truth. Now 
 although they who know Mr. Reid will reject the 
 inferences to be drawn from these facts with a deci- 
 sion and confidence proportioned to his established 
 character, yet the future Mill of our Indian history, 
 as well as the bulk of our contemporaries, cannot 
 possess this advantage in forming their judgment on. 
 the case. Many a man has been "damned to ever- 
 lasting fame" on evidence less plausibly conclusive than 
 this. The injury to Mr. Reid is, that this process of 
 investigation, cut short just where it was of vital im- 
 portance to himself, can never again be resumed, with 
 any probability of arriving at the truth. 
 
 Still more important, however, is it to estimate the 
 effect of the removal on the native mind. It has been 
 shown in these pages that every native official charged 
 with corrupt practices had all advantages of tardy and 
 precise accusation, of legal defence, of a careful if not 
 partial review of the evidence against him, and, in 
 case of conviction after all, he had the further advan- 
 tage of the most lenient sentence which circumstances 
 would permit. On the other hand, the persistent 
 denunciator of corruption, after seeing every one of 
 his native assistants shamefully persecuted, was dis- 
 missed on charges neither precise, nor carefully con- 
 sidered, nor supported by evidence, nor after defence 
 called for, nor even sufficient, under the circumstances, 
 to warrant the measure, had they been true ; but merely 
 on a loose and mistaken allegation of that want of 
 concurrence in the feelings and purposes of Govern- 
 ment, which, on the supposition Government were 
 honest, he had repeatedly urged in vain as a sufficient 
 reason for the discharge of dishonest political servants. 
 Let it be remembered that all this was as well known
 
 144 POST-REMOVAL DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 in its detail in the offices of the native Government 
 at Baroda as in those of ours at Bombay, and that it 
 fell on minds already possessed with a full belief in the 
 efficacy of Khutput ; we may then judge what were the 
 opinions which had been formed before Colonel Outram 
 turned his back on the scene of his ungrateful labours. 
 Colonel Outram was dismissed ostensibly in conse- 
 quence of the letter accompanying his Khutput Report ; 
 the Report itself was reserved for future consideration. 
 On the 29th of April the Governor recorded 
 a minute, in which, after describing the dif- 
 ferent sections of the document, he remarks that its 
 general tenor is a series of charges against all Govern- 
 ments of Bombay for twenty years past ; that he attri- 
 butes, in no slight degree, the general belief in the 
 efficacy of Khutput to the acts of the Government 
 itself; that he, the Governor, does not agree in that 
 conclusion ; that everything has been reported as it 
 occurred to the Court of Directors*, by whom the 
 Government of Bombay is content to be judged ; that 
 as Colonel Outram has not impugned the integrity or 
 honour of the present or any former Government, the 
 whole is resolved into differences of opinion between 
 the Government and its local officers, in which the 
 Government, as it had a right to do, took its own 
 course ; that such differences did not justify Colonel 
 Outram in attacking the Government ; and that his 
 having so attacked it without justification was a proof 
 of his unfitness for his post ; that the guarantees given 
 by us to subjects of the Gaekwar ought not to be so 
 interpreted as to infringe on that prince's just authority 
 as secured by treaty ; that the guarantees have nothing 
 to do with transactions between parties in the Baroda 
 State, but only protect certain Gaekwar subjects against 
 oppression by the prince f ; that he, the Governor, had 
 
 * See, however, note, page 137. 
 
 t This is hardly consistent with their urging Colonel Outram to 
 report on Joitabaee's case in its early stages, or with their participa- 
 tion in the appointment of a manager for Hurree Bhugtee's Bank, 
 and the taking of securities from him.
 
 PLAYERS AND LOOKERS-ON. 145 
 
 given assurances to the Gaekwar's agent, of suitable 
 apologies for the misconduct of Mr. Andrews' native 
 officer ; that he, the Governor, viewed the " disparaging 
 insinuations" against Mr. Reid, with "the utmost dis- 
 satisfaction," and that the best way of vindicating 
 Mr. Reid's character might well be left with the Court. 
 Mr. Warden, a temporary member of 
 
 Council, who had just joined it, deferred his 
 intended remarks "on the great impediment to good 
 government which this Khutput presents," and hints 
 that Colonel Outram had apparently drawn the distinc- 
 tion between the natives' belief respecting Mr. Reid 
 and his own. 
 
 The Governor, Mr. Blane, and Mr. Bell, 
 
 then express their pleasure that Mr. Warden 
 is to give them his thoughts on Khutput ; say that 
 Khutput, in one form or another, prevails everywhere, 
 both east and west ; and refuse to admit that Colonel 
 Outram does not suspect, along with the natives, the 
 corruptibility of Mr. Reid. 
 
 It will be observed that, in these papers, the Govern- 
 ment evade the real questions, viz. whether the acts of 
 the Government, for a series of years (justifiable on 
 other grounds or not), had been of a character to im- 
 press the natives with the belief in the corruptibility 
 of the Government? And whether Colonel Outram 
 was justified in laying before Government the proofs 
 he had accumulated through years of official life, that 
 such had been the effect of their acts ? The separate 
 and entirely subordinate question, whether he had per- 
 formed that duty in a manner respectful towards them- 
 selves, they settle in these last papers, as in all their 
 preceding ones, chiefly by assumption, without once 
 considering whether his failure, if he had failed, was 
 not under the circumstances quite venial, or whether 
 the vast weight of the subject-matters of discussion 
 ought not to have led them to postpone, till they were 
 settled, all questions which could possibly be deemed 
 personal to themselves. 
 
 It is to be remarked that Mr. Willoughby, who was
 
 146 WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH KIIUTPUT? 
 
 in Council during the first part of the time, Sir John 
 Grey, the Commander-in-Chief, and Mr. Warden, who 
 came in late, avoid committing themselves to the 
 opinions or acts of their colleagues. These bye- 
 standers probably saw the game more truly than 
 those who were involved in the excitement of playing 
 it*. 
 
 In this state the closely-connected ques- 
 tions of Khutput and of Colonel Outram's 
 removal were (29th November, 1851), sent to the 
 Court of Directors. The Court, answered 
 26th June, 1852 f, that they had not yet 
 received the " Khutput Report," except from Colonel 
 Outram himself ; that they would consider it when it 
 was officially transmitted; that Colonel Outram had 
 misconceived the extent of his powers ; that he had 
 failed to express himself respectfully to the Govern- 
 ment ; that the Court regret an early opportunity was 
 not taken of calling his attention to this failure, and of 
 requiring its correction ; that the Court gives him 
 " credit for the zeal, energy, ability, and success, with 
 which he prosecuted inquiries attended with great diffi- 
 culty ; and, taking this view of the case, express their 
 hope that when Lieutenant-Colonel Outram shall return 
 to India," the Government of Bombay " will find a suit- 
 able opportunity of employing him where his talents 
 and experience may prove useful to the public service." 
 Here, as far as is publicly known, the question now 
 stands. It is understood that the Reports of all the 
 
 * It is but due to Mr. Willoughby to note, that on its being com- 
 municated to him early in 1838, that in Guzerat, where he had long 
 resided, many people attributed the success of Khutput, in Bombay, 
 to him, he avoided all participation in the affairs of that quarter, 
 and only signed, for conformity of office, the papers prepared by 
 others. His minutes, so long as he remained in Council, exhibit 
 an evident desire to support Colonel Outram's investigations, and 
 to promote the interests of justice, however they may occasionally 
 dissent from Colonel Outram's mode of effecting those objects. 
 
 Mr. Malet, too, it should be remembered, is not always to be 
 judged by the official papers in the Blue Books, which he had to 
 sign in a merely ministerial capacity. 
 
 f See the annexed " Dissent" of Colonel Sykes.
 
 BRITISH GLORIFICATION OF KIIUTPUT. 147 
 
 officers to whom the Khutput circular was addressed, 
 except one or two, affirmed the existence, in every 
 district, of the same belief -which Colonel Outram had 
 so laboriously investigated at Baroda. Whether this 
 belief be merely a continuation of that which prevailed 
 all over India under its native sovereigns, or whether it 
 be really kept up by secret occasional acts of corrup- 
 tion on the part of any of those entrusted with the high 
 offices of our Indian administration, no duty can be 
 plainer or more imperative than that of showing, by 
 effective deeds, that the British rule is truly and essen- 
 tially incorruptible. So long, however, as a Khut- 
 putist can point to the unredressed removal of Colonel 
 Outram, and the unrebuked mistakes of the Bombay 
 Government, words and regulations, be they as em- 
 phatic or as stringent as they may, will be all in vain ; 
 they will only be taken for a new screen to cherished, 
 though shameful, abuse. 
 
 The materials for this extraordinary story have been 
 derived almost exclusively from one single official 
 source, viz. the bulky and misarranged volumes fa- 
 miliarly known as " The Khutput Blue Books." But 
 what will the reader think when he is told, on uncon- 
 tradicted authority*, that Tambeykur, the Gaekwar's 
 minister, not, however, minister by our official recogni- 
 tion, which treaty requires, Tambeykur, proved to be 
 the corrupter of our own native civil officers; proved 
 to be the soul of intrigues for bribing our highest re- 
 presentatives ; known to have been, and still to be, in 
 league with a man branded by our own Government 
 for corruption, and now suffering an ignominious 
 punishment for atrocious crimes, that this Tambey- 
 kur, who is credibly charged with being a traitor to 
 his own prince, that this Tambeykur, for opposition 
 to whom Colonel Outram was removed in what was 
 meant to be disgrace, that this Tambeykur has been 
 received by the present British representative at Baroda 
 with honours given only to reigning princes? Is it 
 
 * The "Bombay Overland Telegraph and Courier," of 17th 
 December, 1852.
 
 143 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 
 
 any wonder that the Gaekwar, sunk in the sensuality 
 which seems to have become his refuge from inglorious 
 inaction and galling thraldom, immediately ordered 
 that the same royal honours should be paid to his 
 minister at his own court, on witnessing this new and 
 splendid demonstration to him, of the irresistible power 
 of Tambeykur's " Khutput in Bombay ?" 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 REPLY TO MR. REID.] 
 
 MR. REID'S " Letter to the Editor of the Daily News," in 
 answer to the strictures of " Indus," was published while the 
 foregoing sheets were at press. I sit down with extreme 
 reluctance to the task that publication imposes on me. For 
 Mr. Reid I have entertained great respect from September, 
 1845, the date of my arrival in Bombay on the preliminary 
 investigations of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway Com- 
 pany which I had commenced in England. He was then in 
 Council. His constant and earnest advocacy of public im- 
 provements, and the reliance I found I might always place on 
 his best efforts to promote my public objects, afforded me 
 reasons for entertaining sentiments towards him which such 
 intercourse as circumstances have required since his return to 
 England has not diminished. 
 
 In the reduction of the contents of the bulky and most 
 disorderly Blue Books to some generally useful dimensions 
 and form, I determined to admit nothing of a personal nature 
 which was not in the Blue Books themselves. Mr. Reid 
 accordingly appears in these pages with no greater promi- 
 nence than in the original documents, and I should have been 
 much better pleased if fidelity would have permitted me to 
 sink his name altogether in more general designations. I 
 may add that Col. Outram, for the part he has had in 
 the preparation of this narrative, that of mere occasional 
 correction of misapprehensions, has fully shared my views 
 in respect of the treatment of individual names, and of Mr. 
 Reid's amongst them. 
 
 How far Mr. Reid may have felt that his own defence 
 necessarily required an attack on Col. Outram, it is not pos- 
 sible for me to judge. His pamphlet, however, does in fact 
 contain representations at variance with those I have given
 
 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 149 
 
 from the Blue Books, and it is chiefly by means of these 
 differing representations that his strictures on Col. Outrani 
 are supported. Explanations are thus required of me, which 
 I should gladly avoid but cannot. I shall endeavour to admit 
 into them as little as possible which is not already public, but 
 I shall not be able to keep this rule so completely as here- 
 tofore. 
 
 Mr. Reid nowhere denies the general belief of the natives in 
 the venality of the Bombay Government, neither does he attempt 
 to account for it, or to show how it may be corrected. He equally 
 avoids defending the proceedings of that Government in respect 
 of Col. Outrani' s removal. Nothing in his pamphlet goes to 
 disturb materially the estimate to be formed of the main facts 
 by which any general questions arising out of the case must 
 be ultimately determined. According to him, no less than 
 others, (page 24,) Baroda is "a vile sink of corruption," and 
 the Secretariate of Bombay has long maintained a corrupt 
 connection with Baroda. 
 
 The errors into which he has fallen, in so far as they affect 
 his attack on Col. Outrani, I will now try to show, quoting as 
 far as possible his own words*. 
 
 The following extract from pa;e 9, refers to the Nagur cases : 
 " During two of the four years," (1835-1838,) 
 Nar 10 &c " ^ ^ ne ^ r progress, I was absent at the Cape of 
 " Good Hope. Even when in Bombay, I was 
 " neither a member of the Government, nor Secretary of the 
 " department in which they were considered. I never was 
 " consulted in respect to them ; nor, had I been so, could I 
 " have given advice, for I was ignorant of every particular 
 " connected with them, and am so to this day, except so far as 
 " I have very recently heard them spoken of, and seen them 
 " alluded to in the cursory view which I have taken of those 
 " parts of the Blue Book in which my name is not specifically 
 " mentioned." 
 
 The facts are these : On 29th June, 1837, Col. Outram 
 first reported his suspicions of Brijlal and Dow- 
 lutram, both subsequently convicted. On 29th 
 September following, Mr. Secretary Wathen com- 
 Nar. 12. municated the orders of Government for their 
 trial in a mode opposed to the judgment of the 
 local officers. On the 27th November Mr. Reid returned 
 to Bombay from the Cape, and resumed his former office 
 of Secretary. In January following Mr. Willoughby was 
 
 * The references to the preceding pages of this pamphlet are distin- 
 guished by the letters " Nar." Those from Mr. Reid's pamphlet by 
 " B. ;" those from the Blue Book will be easily understood. 
 
 L
 
 150 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 
 
 apprised, by a letter from Col. Outram, that the people in 
 Guzerat attributed the favour shown these Nagur delinquents 
 to their corrupt influence with him; whereupon he obtained 
 permission from Sir Robert Grant to stand aloof from the 
 cases which related to Guzerat, which cases, I am informed, 
 rested thereafter with Mr. Reid, or his department. 
 
 1 Tj 43 ~ 1 f ^ was wnu " e they so rested that these delinquents 
 
 ft' 5 ' escaped twice on contradictory pretences ; first, 
 
 because the investigation to which their conduct 
 
 had already been subjected was not a trial but an inquiry, and 
 
 then because it was not an inquiry but a trial. Mr. Reid says 
 
 that ordinarily the Secretary drafts the minutes of the Governor. 
 
 Did he himself do so in these cases ? or had some Khutput- 
 
 fed subordinate the opportunity of doing it ? 
 
 Mr. Reid says, at page 8, that Col. Outram does not under- 
 stand Mahrattee or Guzerattee, the languages of the court 
 and people of Baroda respectively. What then ? Col. (then 
 Captain) Outram, no professed linguist, was selected, without 
 his own solicitation, to tranquillise the wild districts in the 
 north of Guzerat, then much disorganized and disturbed. He 
 so succeeded that his work has remained unshaken to this 
 day. Since that time all the world has seen his course a 
 course of political employment which always sought him. He 
 was selected for the Baroda Residency with a full knowledge 
 of his qualifications. There have been linguists whose acquire- 
 ments have been useless for want of the higher requisites 
 to their useful employment : there have been British rulers in 
 India whose eminent qualifications have forced themselves 
 into play, and into vast public utility, in spite of the great dis- 
 advantage of not having language at ready command. In 
 any case, when a man has already done his work well, it is too 
 late to find fault with his tools. 
 
 Page 14. " But what should be especially remarked is 
 " this : of all the sweeping assertions of rumours to my 
 " prejudice in Baroda, not one was noticed to the Government 
 " while I was in India; not one was known to me until, after 
 " the publication of the ' Chapters,' I read them lately in the 
 " Blue Book." 
 
 Mr. Reid returned to office as Secretary in November, 
 
 1837. He remained in Bombay as Secretary, 
 
 v -\v* & Member of Council, and Acting Governor until 
 
 1348 3rd March, 1849. Now, in 1838, Mr. Malet, and 
 
 Col. Outram, as well as others, forcibly told the 
 
 Government of the estimation as to venality in which the 
 
 natives held them. The last-mentioned officer went twice to
 
 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 151 
 
 Bombay to urge the Government to take measures for eradi- 
 cating this belief. During all this time Mr. Reid was the 
 Secretary with whom the business rested. It is true these 
 were, for the most part, popular accusations against the 
 Government corporately, not as distinguished into indi- 
 viduals. 
 
 But Nursoo's boast of Mr. Reid's favour was 
 loatir stated to Government in November, 1848, four 
 Nar. 34. months before he left India ; and if the charge was 
 conveyed in a pseudonymous petition, such as Mr. 
 Reid contemns, it must be remembered that these very Blue 
 Books show that such petitions often contain truth ; in India, 
 indeed, it is often the only form in which truth can at first 
 appear. Mr. Reid left intimate friends in high office in Bom- 
 bay when he came to England. In June or July, 1851, Col. 
 Outram forwarded to Mr. Reid's intimate connections in 
 England his "Statement of Facts" respecting Nursoo, and 
 parts of all such papers as contained anything relating to Mr. 
 Reid himself. Finally, Mr. Reid has friends amongst the 
 Directors, through whom it would be strange if he was not 
 informed of the reports sent home in 1852. Mr. Reid himself 
 says (page 65) that Col. Outram told him, on his return to 
 England in the summer of last year, that " he ought to be 
 most thankful to him for bringing to justice the scoundrels 
 who had made so infamous a use of his name." 
 
 Page 20. The next extract relates to the anonymous letters 
 to Mr. Reid and Mr. Willoughby, stating it would be to their 
 advantage to favour Hurree Bhugtee's Bank in a dispute then 
 before the Government. 
 
 " There was, as stated by the Chief Secretary, no clue what- 
 " ever to trace their origin. To Col. Outram, however, nothing 
 " was impossible. He at once ' had no doubt from whom it 
 " came,' that is, the letter sent to my house ; and he probably 
 " had no greater doubt in respect to that sent to Mr. Wil- 
 " loughby ; although my name is here, as elsewhere, for obvious 
 " reasons, prominently brought to notice. He decides peremp- 
 " torily that Baba Nafra had ' caused it to be written,' and 
 " treats this throughout as an indisputable fact. Now, even 
 " on this point, it is just as likely that he may be in error, as 
 " that he may be right." 
 
 The letter to Mr. Willoughby was dated 10th April, 1848, 
 and was brought to his house by Baba Nafra's Gomashta, 
 with a present of fruit, which is customary on occasion of 
 natives from the country calling on high functionaries in 
 Bombay. The fact was stated by Mr. Willoughby to Colonel 
 
 L 2
 
 152 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 
 
 Outram as exhibiting Nafra's impudence. Mr. Willoughby 
 
 circulated this note on the 17th July, 1850, as Mr. Reid states; 
 
 but Mr. Reid does not go on to say, as the fact is, 
 
 1082. that Mr. Willoughby circulated it on occasion of 
 
 N 21 4'5 a P r P se d inquiry into Nafra's corruptions, with 
 
 ' which this anonymous note could have had no 
 
 connection but through Mr. Willoughby 's belief as to its 
 
 origin. 
 
 Pages 21 and 22. Colonel Outram's letters of 31st August 
 and 7th Sept., 1848, "contain no allusion to the fact, since 
 " so prominently adduced, of Nursoo Punt's family connection 
 " with Baba Nafra, the managing partner of Huree Bhugtee's 
 " firm, and others at Baroda; of which, indeed, he tells us he 
 " was not cognizant till about the middle of October, 1 850. It 
 " is somewhat strange that though Colonel Outram was Resi- 
 " dent from May, 1847, he had not, till nearly three and a 
 " half years subsequently, ascertained that there was anycon- 
 " nection between his native agent and any parties at Baroda, 
 " although a former Resident in reporting to Government on 
 " the anonymous petition of March, 1844 (to which so much 
 " importance has been since attached), had stated the par- 
 " ticulars of such connection." 
 
 Be it so ; then clearly Colonel Outram's strongly-expressed 
 convictions of Nursoo's complicity with Nafra were not a 
 mere prejudice founded on their connection, which he did not 
 then know. Be it so ; but Government were informed of 
 it (those particular members of the Government most likely 
 to be impressed with a recollection of the fact, and Mr. Reid 
 amongst them), who might therefore have been expected to 
 regard Colonel Outram's early suspicions of Nursoo as better 
 founded than he himself had supposed. Be it so ; but then, 
 of the three years and a half which elapsed before he came 
 to a knowledge of the fact, one and a half was occupied by 
 his first stay at Baroda before he went to Egypt, and it was 
 only in the latter part of that time, July, 1 848, that Nursoo's 
 conduct had given so much consistence to the suspicions he 
 had begun to entertain some time before, as to lead him to 
 anticipate anything more against him than what openly ap- 
 peared. During the next period of more than a year and a 
 half, Colonel Outram was absent from Baroda ; it was the 
 month of October following his return in May, 1850, that 
 Colonel Outram first learned the extent and character of 
 Nursoo's family connections, that native officer being in the 
 meantime not at Baroda but at Ahmedabad, and Colonel 
 Out ram having therefore no further interest in him than
 
 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 153 
 
 to exhibit his misdoings for the sake of future reforms. Be 
 it so ; what, then, must be the condition of an establishment 
 in which the intimate connection of the first confidential ser- 
 vant of the Government with the notorious and convicted 
 chief and agent of a body of corruptionists long leagued to- 
 gether, could be concealed even for a month from the re- 
 sponsible European chief ? and why was the constant favour 
 of Government shown, as we have seen, to the members of 
 such an establishment in opposition to the declared distrust of 
 its head ? 
 
 Page 2-2. When, on the 9th Sept., 1848, Colonel Outram 
 " forwarded Nursoo Punt's application for permission to 
 " retire, and, in consideration of his eminent services, for 
 " some pension beyond what the ordinary rules awarded to 
 " him, he did so with his 'recommendation.' Not a word was 
 " then said of suspicion not a word of warning to the Go- 
 (f verameut not to decide on the request for extra pension 
 " till the case of Pol had been disposed of. It is clear that 
 " at that time Colonel Outram had no very strong opinion 
 " of Nursoo Punt's guilt. He brought against him no dis- 
 " tinct charge of criminality, and admits that all he desired 
 " was to get rid of him from his office, and this no doubt 
 " was all that his protege, Furke, cared for also." 
 
 Literally, something of this is true ; substantially, the facts 
 are as follows : 
 
 1848, July. Colonel Outram, distrusting Nur- 
 soo, sought the aid of Furkey in the Govind 
 Row Gaekwar and Gorajee Pol cases. 
 140"-^* *^*' August. Colonel Outram took a deposi- 
 Nar! 4l! t ' on f ^ urso as t his conduct in one of those 
 ca 
 
 3 Is/ August. \ Colonel Outram forwarded these 
 1405-30 ~^ 1 Sept. ) cases to Government, and in 
 
 both the letters he charged Nursoo with miscon- 
 duct, as Mr. Reid himself says at page 21 ; and he did this 
 so plainly and seriously that Government thought it neces- 
 sary, in the following January, to enter on his full defence, 
 Mr. Reid himself (page 29) writing the minute, afterwards 
 adopted by the Governor, on which the exonerating des- 
 patch was founded. 
 
 9th September. Colonel Outram forwarded Nursoo's ap- 
 plication for his retiring pension, and Mr. Reid is literally 
 correct in saying that in thij part icitlar paper the Resident 
 did not accuse Nursoo, or caution the Government, having 
 done so only two days before.
 
 154 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 
 
 12th September. Colonel Outram left Baroda for Bom- 
 bay. 
 
 18//t September. Nursoo petitioned Govern- 
 
 fj 1 raent to be heard against Colonel Outram's 
 
 JM cir. -ii . * 
 
 charges. 
 
 962 1849, 12th January. Government replied to 
 
 Ear. 60. Colonel Outram's charges against Nursoo, as 
 stated above. 
 
 And yet Mr. Reid says, " not a word was then said of sus- 
 picion," he himself having said only in the previous page that 
 Colonel Outram had "noticed what he deemed his discredit- 
 able conduct,'' viz., " culpable collusion" or " gross neglect." 
 
 The " pension beyond what the ordinary rules awarded 
 to him" was his claim on Warden's Official Fund, to which 
 Colonel Outram had nothing to say. The " recommendation" 
 was an ordinary matter of routine, seeing that not so much 
 had then come to the knowledge of the Resident against this 
 old and famous servant as prevented him from suggesting 
 that Nursoo should have the benefit of any doubt the Govern- 
 ment might entertain ; nor indeed had Nursoo yet committed 
 some of the chief offences which afterwards so ruined his long- 
 established reputation. 
 
 Mr. Reid here and elsewhere alleges that Colonel Outram's 
 object was to displace Nursoo as Native Agent, in favour of 
 Furkey. Let this be admitted, although so put as to be 
 somewhat beyond the truth. What then ? The Resident's 
 confidence, cordially given him at first, Nursoo had lost, 
 through signs of his complicity with the Khutputists ; Furkey 
 had earned the hatred of those very Khutputists by his for- 
 mer success in exposing them. To retain Nursoo, as was 
 afterwards proved, was to give these men access to all 
 records, and the means of employing any kind of foul in- 
 fluence; to employ Furkey was to place in this highly con- 
 fidential post the man the least likely, from old animosities, 
 to be won over to unfaithfulness. Colonel Outram's early 
 estimate of Nursoo was shown afterwards to be correct. 
 Furkey, at a later period, became so deeply involved in 
 differences with the Gaekwar's officers, originating in the aid 
 he had given to what should have been the cause of our 
 Government, that Colonel Outram found it necessary to refuse 
 his countenance to his being employed in Guzerat by either 
 Government, and desired to obtain employment for him 
 in his native country, the Deccan. I have not been able to 
 find a sufficient reason for Furkey having so many enemies in 
 official circles in Bombay. At first I supposed that his good 
 qualities might be marred by disagreeable peculiarities of
 
 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 155 
 
 manner, or some objectionable speciality of connection, private 
 conduct, or circumstance; but I can hear of nothing of that 
 kind, and the matter is left at present to rest on the disgrace- 
 ful inference that he is hated in Bombay, as in Baroda, for 
 having so well aided Mr. Malet and Colonel Outram in 
 bringing -ouie of the Nagurs to justice. Nor, since it has 
 been so often thought worth while by his enemies to attack 
 him by accusations, proved by our own officers to be based 
 on perjury and falsifications, can we fail to conclude, that if 
 he had been guilty of any real offence the same parties would 
 have been eager to bring it to light. After all this, the credit 
 in England of the British officials in Bombay clearly requires 
 that their position towards Furkey should be explained. I 
 assume that explanation is quite possible. 
 
 Page 25. a I now learn from the Blue Book, that in March, 
 " 1844, a petition had been sent to Government against Nur- 
 " soo Punt, which proved to be fictitious; to such, I am sorry 
 " to perceive that Colonel Outram has an extraordinary par- 
 " tiality. I cannot say I did not see this petition, for I entered 
 " Council in that month ; but it certainly made no impres- 
 " sion on my memory, and I may conscientiously use, in 
 " reference to my knowledge of him in 1848, the words of 
 " Colonel Outram, ' I never heard a word whispered to his 
 " disadvantage.'" 
 
 O 
 
 The minute on this petition, and the signatures to it, are as 
 follows : it will be remembered that " D. Dadajee" was the 
 chief agent of the great intrigues of the immediately pre- 
 ceding years, and of the " persons" Xafra is chiefly meant. 
 
 .. " Minute by tJie Honourable the Governor, 
 
 ^ ar ~39 concurred in by ihe Board. 
 
 " I observe that Xursoo Punt is connected with 
 persons who were implicated in the case of D. Dadajee. 
 
 " It is to be regretted that Mr. Boyd did not ascertain and 
 report this when he recommended him to be his native agent. 
 
 " Considering, however, the high character and respecta- 
 bility of Nursoo Punt, I do not think his connections with 
 those persons should be held to be a disqualification for the 
 situation, though Mr. Boyd must take care that the orders 
 already issued for their exclusion from the Residency are 
 strictly attended to. 
 
 " The above observations should be communicated to the 
 Political Commissioner for Guzerat. 
 
 (Signed) " G. Arthur. 
 
 " J. H. Crawford. 
 
 24th May, 1844. " L. R. REID."
 
 156 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 
 
 Page 26. The following refers to the letters of Colonel 
 Outram, of the 31st August and 7th September, which charged 
 Nursoo with misconduct, as said above : 
 
 " Seeing so deliberate a charge of delay in answering these 
 " letters brought against me, and being unable from the Blue 
 " Book to ascertain the real facts of the case, I was disposed 
 " at first to think that there might be some grounds for the 
 " imputation, and, while most distinctly and unreservedly 
 " declaring that such delay, whatever it might have been, was 
 " no more than was usual in hundreds of instances, where 
 * matters requiring special consideration were allowed to lie 
 ' over until time could be found, under the pressure of other 
 ' business, to write upon them, to disclaim all notice or design 
 ' in not bringing the matter at once to a conclusion, so far 
 ' as I was concerned, especially as there was nothing ap- 
 ' parent on the face of Colonel Outram's letters calling for 
 ' extreme or unusual haste.'" 
 
 This quotation compels me to go more fully than before 
 into these cases ; a wearisomeness of repetition for which I 
 can only plead necessity. 
 
 The following are the facts, in order of date, with the au- 
 thorities for them. The years are 1848 and 1849 : 
 
 1th September. Colonel Outram handed up 
 14 qft4 31 ' ^ lese cases > drew further attention to Nursoo's 
 Nar 40 misconduct, and asked for lenient consideration 
 
 for him. 
 1390-47 l^th September. Colonel Outram left Baroda, 
 
 in ill-health, to go to Egypt by way of Bombay. 
 1405-32 13th September. Colonel Outram arrived in 
 Bombay, and pressingly offered any personal ex- 
 planations which his Reports on these cases might be deemed 
 to require. 
 
 18/7i September. Nursoo petitioned to be heard 
 against Colonel Outram's representations ; his pe- 
 tition was transmitted privately, and kept a secret from Co- 
 lonel Outram, then and long afterwards. 
 - ZQth September. Nursoo's irregular petition 
 
 ' was circulated to the members of Government. 
 
 1th October. The Governor recorded a minute 
 ' in which Nursoo is exculpated from Colonel Ou- 
 tram's charges, and is desired to retract his application for a 
 retiring pension. 
 
 1391-49 ^ r ^ November. Colonel Outram sailed for 
 
 1405-35! Egypt, having stayed in Bombay seven weeks; 
 
 having repeatedly pressed for decision in these
 
 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 157 
 
 cases, he offered not only any further information deemed 
 requisite, but to postpone his departure, if requisite to a 
 sufficient explanation. He was always told the papers were 
 in Mr. Reid's hands, which Mr. Reid himself now renders 
 probable, by saying, page 30, that he wrote one (if no more) 
 of the Governor's minutes on these questions. Nursoo's pe- 
 tition was still kept secret from Colonel Outram. 
 
 "20th November. } Government receive a peti- 
 25th November. I tion which informs them of 
 Nursoo's high boastings of Mr. Reid's corrupt 
 favour, of which boastings Nursoo is afterwards convicted. 
 
 15//i December. The orders of Government 
 b ~~ ' issued on these cases, in which Nursoo was im- 
 plicated, on minutes dated from the 20th November onwards. 
 2lst December. The petition of 25th Novem- 
 ' ber, against Nursoo, circulated to the members of 
 Government. 
 
 3rd January. The date of the " Maurrice 
 ll ~ 34 ' Letter," which gave Nursoo exact information of 
 the intentions of Government in his favour. 
 
 4th January. The Governor's minute of 7th 
 ' October, exonerating Nursoo, and desiring him to 
 retract his application for his retiring pension, concurred in 
 1083-9 k v tne Board, and dispatched to Baroda. On the 
 same day, Government sent to the Acting Re- 
 sident, Captain French, for report, the petition of the 25th 
 November, which apprised them of Nursoo's scandalous use 
 of Mr. Reid's name ; the Acting Resident returned for answer, 
 after one day's inquiry, that no such man as the petitioner 
 could be found. 
 
 12th January. The Government wrote a letter, 
 
 the production of Mr. Reid (page 30), defending 
 
 Nursoo's conduct in these cases, in matters of which he was 
 
 subsequently convicted, and censuring Colonel Outram for 
 
 distrusting him. 
 
 1245-14 13f/t January. Captain French reported that 
 Nursoo did not then wish to retire; on which Go- 
 vernment was pleased to permit him to remain. 
 
 The interdict against Nafra's entering the Residency was 
 removed soon after, and in three months Joitabaee's peti- 
 tions were returned unread. 
 
 Nursoo, then, was acquitted, praised, and confirmed in his 
 post without reference to his superior, who had complained of 
 him, and who for seven weeks was standing ready to sub- 
 stantiate his complaints. And although Colonel Outram's 
 departure in search of health depended on the decision, and
 
 158 POSTSCRIPT. EEPLY TO MR. REID. 
 
 was known to do so, Mr. Reid thinks himself at liberty to 
 state only that there was " nothing apparent on the face of 
 Colonel Outranks letters calling for extreme haste." All this 
 time Mr. Reid was " on terms of intimacy" with Colonel 
 Outram*. 
 
 The petition of Nursoo was forwarded to Government in a 
 manner so irregular, that had it come from any other person 
 it would have been returned without notice. Now the pseu- 
 donymous petition of Jezram Hybutrow, of 25th November, 
 noticed above, which was afterwards found under judicial 
 inquiry to have stated the truth substantially in all other 
 respects, says expressly that Nursoo declared, " I have the 
 support of Mr. Reid, the councillor. / have sent him a pe- 
 tition, together with a memorandum of kulumbundee (in- 
 structions or particulars)." I believe Mr. Reid will not deny 
 that this irregular petition was sent to him, and that, irregular 
 as it was, he himself put it in train. 
 
 Mr. Reid disapproves Colonel Outram's seeking investiga- 
 tion into these cases after he had officially reported on them, 
 and calls his doing so a species of Khutput. Nursoo's secret 
 
 * In consequence of the statements of Mr. Reid, at page 32, Colonel 
 Outram applied to the Court of Directors for access to the unpublished 
 papers in the Govind Row Gaekwar case. His request was immediately 
 granted, and he has thus been enabled to furnish me with the following 
 extract from a letter of his own to the Chief Secretary, dated 30th July, 
 1850, which states the nature of his verbal communications to the Go- 
 vernment at the time referred to. It will be observed that the Governor 
 in his despatch, quoted page 160, agrees in the same representation ; a 
 matter, indeed, of which no doubt has been expressed, except by Mr. 
 Reid. The extract is as follows : " I cannot but express my deep regret 
 " that so heavy a charge as that of fraud having been brought against a 
 " firm enjoying the favour and protection of the British Government, / 
 " was not called on to amend my Report, and supply such explanations as 
 " might have been found necessary to the thorough understanding of the 
 " case. For this there was ample time. I remained in Bombay nearly 
 " two months after dispatching that report, prior to my departure to 
 " Egypt ; during the whole of which period I was a frequent visitor at 
 " your office, and I was in constant communication with the members of 
 " Government" (of whom Mr. Reid was one). "And as you, Sir, must well 
 " remember, / repeatedly declared that if there were the slightest doubts on 
 " the part of Government as to the commission of the atteaed frauds, OR AS 
 " REGARDED THE MISCONDUCT OF THE NATIVE AGENT (Nursoo) in reference 
 " to them, or the Gorajee Pol case, which formed the subject of my 
 " Report dated 7th September, 1848, I was ready to clear them up, to ex- 
 " plain what was obscure, and supply what was deficient ; nay, so anxious 
 " was I that truth should be reached, that I was ready to delay my departure 
 " to Egypt, were such a step requisite for the due investigation of the case. 
 " Such having been the case, and no explanations having been demanded 
 " of me, I was certainly astonished to find, on my return to India, that a 
 " transaction had been passed over in silence, which was to my mind 
 " grossly and transparently fraudulent," tc. &c.
 
 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 159 
 
 petition, however, was at least as far from rule, even on Mr. 
 Reid's principle, as Colonel Outratn's offer of further aid in 
 the discussion, with this difference, however, that Colonel 
 Outram's representations were open and distinct, and not of 
 such a nature as to preclude any reference to Nursoo which 
 justice might require. Nursoo's petition was converted into 
 Khutput by being kept secret, with an effect we soon shall 
 see*. 
 
 The pseudonymous petition was received, says the title to 
 the translation, on the 25th November; Mr. Frere, 
 in his judicial Report, says, on 20th November; 
 probably his suppressed paper would show where it was dur- 
 ing the interval. On the former date, it was passed to the 
 department of translation, and was kept there nearly a month, 
 that is, until after the cases in which Nursoo had been charged 
 with misconduct by Colonel Outram had been disposed of. 
 
 But more than all this, the Governor exonerated Nursoo 
 by a minute dated 7th October ; while the Governor's earliest 
 minute on the Govind Row Gaekwar and Gorajee Pol cases, 
 in which Nursoo's conduct was questioned by Colonel Ou- 
 traro, is dated 20th November, six weeks afterwards. Mr. 
 Reid himself says, page 31, " It is impossible to suppose the 
 Governor could have written this, or that his Council would 
 have concurred in it (it does indeed appear when they con- 
 curred), had they not all had under their consideration the 
 whole of the papers connected with the charge of misconduct 
 brought against Nursoo Punt, in the two cases submitted by 
 Colonel Outram. This, be it observed, was about a month 
 before Colonel Outram left for Egypt." 
 
 Now on the 15th November, 1850, that is, a year afterwards, 
 Lord Falkland says, of these very matters, " I 
 may state that Colonel Outram's letter being in 
 circulation at the time he was in Bombay, no advantage 
 could be taken of the offer made by him to the chief secre- 
 tary, as noticed in his letter, as the decision of Government 
 as to the guilt or innocence of Nursoo could not be antici- 
 pated ; indeed I have, in my minute of the 28th December, 
 stated, in paragraph 12, that my opinion was at first UNFA- 
 VOURABLE to the native functionary, so that at the period to 
 
 * There is here involved a principle of great importance in practical 
 administration. When the responsible head of an executive department 
 declares his entire mistrust of a subordinate, it is clear that if the supe- 
 rior authorities maintain the subordinate in his post, they relieve the ex- 
 ecutive head of all responsibility for the results. The question is too large 
 for discussion here ; but at any rate Mr. Reid's support of Nursoo, after 
 the declaration of Colonel Outram's opinion of him, must have rendered 
 the Baroda Residency establishment wholly inefficient.
 
 160 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 
 
 which Colonel Outram alludes I could not have supposed any 
 further communication from him on the subject necessary."* 
 
 That is, while the minutes and Mr. Reid show that Nursoo 
 was exculpated in fact, although not in complete official form, 
 on the 7th October,' " a month before Colonel Outram left for 
 Egypt," Lord Falkland says, a year after, that he did not 
 ask Colonel Outram's opinion while he was in Bombay, be- 
 cause the papers were in circulation, and the decision of the 
 Government could not be anticipated ; and moreover, although 
 the minute of 7th October (afterwards concurred in on the 
 7th January following) shows that Nursoo was already ex- 
 onerated, while Colonel Outram was yet in Bombay, Lord 
 Falkland says he did not ask Colonel Outram's opinion, 
 because it then seemed unnecessary, his own opinion being 
 then against Nursoo. 
 
 In attempting an explanation of these singular contra- 
 dictions, we must resort, in part, to Mr. Reid's own account 
 at page 5, of the manner in which the Governor's minutes 
 are usually prepared for him. It seems that " when a Go- 
 vernor himself possesses Indian or practical knowledge which 
 enables him to propose measures without consulting any other 
 party," he prepares the minutes himself; but when it is not so, 
 or where the cases are not of extraordinary importance, 
 " they are brought to him in draft for his consideration by the 
 secretary of the department." Mr. Reid says, however, 
 page 29, that in this case he wrote the minute himself, which 
 afterwards became the Governor's, and was then made the 
 foundation of the letter of the 12th January. 
 
 First, then, Mr. Reid receives and circulates an irregular 
 petition from Nursoo, and a fortnight after he writes a 
 minute wholly exculpating him of matters of which he was 
 subsequently convicted on much the same evidence ; and all 
 this time, Colonel Outram, anxiously alive to the subject, and 
 continually pressing it, was, by somebody or other, kept com- 
 pletely in the dark, and led to suppose the whole matter was 
 delayed. 
 
 Although this conduct of Mr. Reid's is too much open to 
 question, yet it exhibits nothing which might not have arisen 
 from a sincere conviction in Nursoo's favour. But in looking 
 at the conduct of the entire governing body of Bombay, we 
 have to take all the events of the time together. The 
 manoeuvre, whether directed by principals, or managed by 
 underlings in Nursoo's own fashion, of sly suppressions or 
 postponements, seems to have been this. 
 
 * The italics are not in the original.
 
 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. Id 
 
 The Governor was first got to commit himself to an ac- 
 quittal and approval of Nursoo on the 7th October, while 
 Colonel Outram was yet in Bombay, waiting to discuss the 
 case; then the minute in which this was done, together with 
 the petition against Nursoo, was kept secret until after Colonel 
 Outram's departure for Egypt, lest discussions should be 
 raised, and the Colonel go back to Baroda to spoil the scheme; 
 the Gorajee Pol and Govind Row Gaekwar cases seem to 
 have been kept back in like manner for the same reason. As 
 soon as he was gone these matters were all taken up, and 
 Nursoo was refixed in his place, to what effect Joitabaee best 
 can tell. A year afterwards, (Mr. Reid having left for Eng- 
 land meanwhile,) when all was to be explained, and the un- 
 accountable favour to Nursoo defended, Lord Falkland was 
 induced to sign the minute, prepared probably by some sub- 
 ordinate, which contains the extraordinary contradictions to 
 recorded facts which I have quoted above. 
 
 Whatever else is left in doubt here, two things are plain : 
 Nursoo by private favours gained that consideration of his 
 side of the case by the Government, which Colonel Outram 
 could not gain for his by open solicitation and on public 
 grounds; and, while the Bombay Government cannot keep 
 their documents, or even their private resolves, from any who 
 chooses to pay for a knowledge of them, they can contrive 
 to keep them effectually from their own confidential officers 
 who are directly concerned in them, but who will not pay. 
 Nor is it less clear, that at this particular time, that of the 
 riddance of Colonel Outram, of the accession of Captain 
 French, and of fresh appearances of success in Nafra's en- 
 terprize against Joitabaee, there was extraordinary care in 
 management at Bombay, and irrepressible elation at Baroda. 
 
 I go now to the mode in which the subject-matter of these 
 984. cases was disposed of. Govind Row Gaekwar, a 
 962 relative of the reigning Gaekwar, but possessed 
 
 Kar. 40. o f the British guarantee, had a claim made on him 
 by the Hurree Bhugtee bank, under Nafra's direction, for a 
 large sum, of which as much as 30,000/. was for interest. 
 To support this claim, an old and cancelled bond was produced, 
 and the interest, at greatly erroneous rates, calculated on it. 
 Nursoo supplied to the Resident a Report which counte- 
 nanced the claim, and withheld from his knowledge docu- 
 ments showing its dishonesty : he said nothing to indi- 
 cate either fraud or error. But Colonel Outram found 
 reason for suspicion, and in the end clearly detected the 
 attempt to mislead him ; and then it was, that Nursoo made 
 the suggestion for which Mr. Reid gives him credit at pages
 
 162 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 
 
 27 and 56, without saying a word of this suggestion having 
 been made by him after his attempt to carry through Nafra's 
 fraud had been frustrated. The sum eventually awarded for 
 interest was about 6000J. instead of 30,000/. 
 
 Mr. Reid denies, page 45, that in this matter the Govern- 
 ment solemnly ignored a charge of forgery well supported 
 by proof. He says that Colonel Outram never made more 
 of it than a charge of constructive forgery against Nafra, 
 and that although the Court of Directors in differing in opinion 
 from the Government, directed further inquiries, yet they say, 
 " that the case was not very clearly brought before them in 
 Colonel Outram's letter." They go on, however, beyond Mr. 
 Reid's quotation, to say in continuation of it, " But we should 
 " have expected that, if his conclusion was not admitted, 
 " the insufficiency of his reasons would have been shown, or 
 " the subject referred to him for further explanations," the 
 very explanations he had offered. There is, however, more 
 in it than this. Colonel Outram was seven weeks in Bombay, 
 waiting to explain, if needful, this very business, and then he 
 was very carefully not listened to; Mr. Reid now takes 
 advantage of the obscurity, if any, which he might then very 
 easily have obviated in a case where the facts were afterwards 
 proved strongly enough for conviction : and afterwards, when 
 Colonel Outram forwarded a further account of the matter, 
 that account was withheld from the Court for sixteen months, 
 and the only notice of it which has yet appeared is, that its 
 title is the first item of the list in page 24 of the Blue Books. 
 
 For the " constructive forgery," which Colonel Outram 
 deemed this offence, he proposed the withdrawal of the gua- 
 rantee from the firm ; a measure quite in consonance both 
 with the terms of the guarantee itself, and with the repeated 
 instances of the Court of Directors to curtail these em- 
 barrassing engagements. It was afterwards well for Joita- 
 baee that this advice was not acceded to by the Govern- 
 ment. Mr. Reid says, that the proposal is proof that Co- 
 lonel Outram " up to this date could not think Joitabaee the 
 injured person he has since declared her to be." True; the 
 facts which thoroughly convinced him of her right were not 
 known to him till long after; up to this time he had only a 
 conviction that she was ill-used as to investigation, that she 
 had not had a fair hearing, and that Khutput was striving 
 and hoping to prevent her having one'. 
 
 But neither can Mr. Reid nor the Government claim to 
 have considered Joitabaee when they refused to annul the 
 guarantee; for it was on the 15th December that they came 
 to that resolution, and on the 18th, three days afterwards,
 
 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 163 
 
 they agreed to Captain French's suggestion, of a mode of 
 adjudication which would have deprived her of our pro- 
 tection as effectually as though the guarantee had been with- 
 drawn. Nar. 32. 
 
 Before finally dismissing the guarantee, thus incidentally 
 introduced here, I ought to advert to Mr. Reid's argument at 
 page 56, that since " Captain French, whom Colonel Outram 
 describes as a mere tool in his native agent's hands, recom- 
 mended to Government the entire withdrawal of the British 
 guarantee," therefore there was no collusion between Nafra 
 and Nursoo, and that their hostility, if any appeared, was not 
 simulated, but real. The interest, however, of Nafra and his 
 confederates in the guarantee was this ; when there appeared 
 a probability of their succeeding in their schemes of plunder, 
 then it seemed their interest to strip the widows of the gua- 
 rantee, although Nafra might lose it at the same time himself; 
 but when there appeared no such probability, then the gua- 
 rantee was invaluable as against the prince. Attention to 
 these facts will easily show, contrary to Mr. Reid's argument, 
 that Nursoo really served his friend Nafra (i. e. after such 
 fashion of serving), when he proposed to Captain French to 
 rescind the guarantee. 
 
 The subject-matter of the other case, that of Gorajee Pol, 
 I do not here repeat, having already given it at page 78. In 
 character it is very like the other, and in its history, as 
 to Nursoo, it is very much mixed up with it. That Mr. Reid 
 should still vindicate Nursoo in either of these affairs, after 
 the legal scrutiny of Mr. Frere, and the unwilling:; degradation 
 of Xursoo by the Government, is amongst the remarkable 
 things of the book. 
 
 Page 35. " The result was entirely exculpatory of Nursoo 
 " Punt; and i; established in my mind a conviction that this 
 lt was an attempt to make him the victim of an ordinary 
 " party struggle, in which Furk6 had succeeded in involving 
 " Colonel Outram." 
 
 This could not be so. It was not Furkey who sought 
 Colonel Outram, but Colonel Outram who sought Furkey on 
 finding he could not trust Nursoo. Had Nursoo been faith- 
 ful, Furkey would never have had access to the Resident at 
 985-6 a ^' Lord Falkland afterwards admitted that the 
 reason for employing Furkey was satisfactory. 
 The exculpatory result in Mr. Reid's mind relates to matters 
 of which Nursoo was afterwards convicted. 
 
 Page 39. " The petition itself, that of Dec. 21, which de- 
 " scribed Nursoo's boasting of Mr. Reid's favour, is found in
 
 164 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 
 
 " p. 951 of the Blue Book. It bears no date. Its very sub- 
 " stance at once proclaimed it to be fictitious, as it finally 
 " proved to be. It would be monstrous if the Government 
 " ever placed the smallest reliance on such petitions, so as 
 " to allow them to influence its decisions. The petition bore 
 " a signature, and therefore was sent to the Acting Resident 
 " on the 4th January, 1 849, in order that he might ascertain 
 " whether it came bond fide from the party whose name it 
 " bore. Captain French reported on the 9th January, 1849, 
 " that no such person was known at Baroda, and the petition 
 " was in consequence filed, under a minute of the 16th 
 " January, 1849." 
 
 The petition was sent for report on the very same day that 
 the letter was dispatched which cleared Nursoo, and asked 
 him to remain in office. If the petition were to have any 
 weight, why was not the letter to Nursoo held back the few 
 days required for scrutiny? If it were to have no weight, the 
 reference was a mere form, as indeed Captain French seems 
 to have understood it, when after one day's inquiry in a town 
 of 80,000 souls he reported such a man as the petitioner could 
 not be found. Nor did he resort to the usual practice of a 
 posted notice. But the petition was " fictitious" only in the 
 name appended to it; and it "finally proved. to be" not 
 only genuine in substance, but important. The real petitioner 
 (a man of bad character, and an enemy of Nursoo, as Colonel 
 Outram had reported) avowed himself after Nursoo had re- 
 moved from Baroda to Ahmedabad. The evidence produced 
 in support of its allegations was judged by Mr. Frere suffi- 
 cient to convict Nursoo. 
 
 In page 41 Mr. Reid speaks of his " having prevented 
 Nursoo being driven from office unjustly" just as though 
 there had been no conviction of him by Mr. Frere, on evi- 
 dence (not yet published) which wrung from the Government 
 an unwilling confirmation. Of what avail is it to carp at the 
 character of Jezram Hybutrow, and at his petition with a 
 sham name according to the fashion of the country, now that 
 the evidence ultimately adduced has superseded the original 
 information ? 
 
 It is not necessary to follow Mr. Reid in detail through 
 the pages from 46 to 60, which he has devoted to the 
 " Maurrice Letter ; " the story has been given at page 45 
 of the present sheets. That Nursoo received that letter, 
 that it was dispatched from Bombay to his address, Ja- 
 nuary 4, 1849, and that it is correctly given in the Blue 
 Books, are facts not disputed. The questions are, what use
 
 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 165 
 
 did he make of it? and what inferences follow? This is im- 
 portant to Mr. Reid only as he chooses to defend Nursoo; 
 for any person's name may be used in roguery by others, 
 whether he will or no. Nursoo was convicted of having 
 shown the letter, soon after he received it, to Muncherjee, a 
 known friend of Turkey's, and indeed on the trial he admitted 
 having done so. His object appears to have been to dis- 
 courage his opponents at the juncture when Nafra's designs 
 on Joitabaee most wanted support, and he himself was suc- 
 ceeding in affording that support. That he should have shown 
 it to a known enemy, even to daunt him, just when he was 
 also vaunting Mr. Reid's favour and his own designs, argues 
 that he little feared any harm to himself in high quarters at 
 Bombay, from his avowing himself a Khutputist; and herein, 
 whether right or wrong, he only shared the belief of his 
 neighbours. 
 
 Page 65. " Nursoo Punt may be the greatest villain that the 
 " corrupt soil of Baroda has ever generated ; Baba Nafra may 
 " be in the same category ; all their friends and supporters 
 " may be rightly placed in the same schedule ; Jethabaee 
 " may be an injured angel; Furk6, a persecuted saint. But 
 " when I consider the nature of the plots in the series of 
 ** dramas presented to us the characters of the performers, 
 *' from His Highness the Guikwar and Colonel Outram down 
 " to the lowest kolee and the locality of the scene of action 
 *' I am constrained to the conclusion that the justice of the 
 " catastrophes has not yet been shown, and that the whole of 
 " the matters treated under such circumstances remain still 
 " involved in a deep shade of darkness and of doubt." 
 
 It is remarkable that throughout Mr. Reid's pamphlet there 
 is not the slightest mention of the trial of Nafra by the 
 Gaekwar's Court, of the Resident's investigation into that 
 case, of the trial of Nursoo by Mr. Frere, of the evidence 
 taken on any of those occasions, or of any of the findings or 
 sentences. It cannot but be deemed an unhappy mistake, 
 that after all those inquiries, conducted under judicial forms, 
 and followed by sentences sanctioned by most unwilling 
 authorities, Mr. Reid should speak as he does of the several 
 parties mentioned in this quotation. Nothing could have 
 given greater countenance in India to the constant boast in 
 Baroda, that the reputation of Europeans of the 
 highest standing are at the mercy of Khut- 
 putists. 
 
 This error is the more to be lamented, because the fair pro- 
 babilities of the case, if they had been let alone, would have 
 
 M
 
 POSTSCRIPT. REPLY TO MR. REID. 
 
 afforded ample inferences for Mr. Reid's protection. In the 
 complication and often the haste of the business of an Indian 
 Government, carried on in too many instances by unfaithful 
 or incompetent agents, and under vast disadvantages both of 
 a physical and social nature, that many errors should be com- 
 mitted is only to be expected ; and no candid reader would 
 have hesitated to admit that, in such circumstances, Mr. Reid 
 might have done many things with the uncertain and im- 
 perfect information of the time, which on the fuller revelation 
 and more connected statements now made, and with time for 
 comparison and reflection, he might well regret, although he 
 could not censure himself for them. It is, I conceive, only 
 when he volunteers a defence of parties already condemned 
 as well in judicial form as in universal opinion parties who 
 have paraded their reliance on him, that he requires such a 
 defence for himself as his pamphlet, vitiated with more than 
 the errors I have pointed out, does not seem to supply. 
 
 It is, perhaps, most to be remarked that Mr. Reid never 
 denies the general belief in the venality of the Bombay 
 Government; he never accounts for that belief; he never 
 denies that wrong has been done; and, if he ventures to 
 speak for Nafra, he does not attempt to vindicate the later acts 
 of the Government of Bombay. He says chiefly that if 
 wrong has been done, he did not do it. But if wrong has 
 really been done so great as appears to have been established 
 by judicial proofs, and if the Bombay Government have been 
 led, however innocently on their part, to aid or to permit it, 
 the question is only removed a step by Mr. Reid's disclaimer 
 or theirs. By what contrivance is it that a responsible chief 
 of such an administrative system, if innocent, feels himself 
 reduced to the necessity of defence, while the real wrong-doers 
 lie safely concealed for many years together ? 
 
 N.B. The following "Dissents" are amongst the papers 
 ordered by Parliament, and are here given in anticipation of 
 their publication by authority, which will probably be de- 
 layed by their being associated with a large mass of other 
 documents. The despatch of 26th June, 1852, to which 
 27 they so strongly object, was originally passed in a 
 Nar. i46. mucn stronger form by a very large majority of the 
 Court, but was subsequently made such as it now 
 appears by the overruling authority of the Board of Control.
 
 DISSENT OF W. B. BAYLEY, ESQ. 167 
 
 DISSENTS of various DIRECTORS of the EAST INDIA COM- 
 PANY from the Despatch of the Court, dated 26th June, 
 1852, to the Government of Bombay, on the Removal of 
 LIEUTENANT-COLONEL OUTRAM, C.B., from the Office of 
 Resident at Baroda. 
 
 DISSENT OF W. B. BAYLEY, ESQ., AND EIGHT OTHER 
 DIRECTORS. 
 
 We dissent from the Court's resolution of the 26th ult., ordering the 
 Draft No. 482 to Bombay, in the political department, on the subject of 
 the removal of Lieutenant-Colonel Outram from the Residency at Baroda, 
 to be signed as altered by the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of 
 India, 
 
 Because we consider that the words in paragraph 9, quoted in the 
 margin,* which were approved by the Court on the 23rd ult., and subse- 
 quently cancelled by the Board, are essential to the complete exposition 
 of the views of the Court on this important subject. 
 
 (Signed) W. B. BAYLEY. 
 
 CHARLES MILLS. 
 H. SHANK. 
 HENRY WILLOCK. 
 J. A. MOORE. 
 J. C. WHITEMAN. 
 E. MACNAGHTEN. 
 R. CAMPBELL. 
 W. H. SYKES. 
 
 I sign this Dissent because I object to the omission of the passage 
 above quoted, whi< h appears to me to take a correct view of the particular 
 point to which it relates, although, for the reasons stated in my separate 
 Dissent, I think that the Court has come to a wrong conclusion on the 
 whole matter under its consideration. 
 
 (Signed) R. D. MANGLES. 
 
 I agree with the above sentiments, 
 
 W. J. EASTWICK. 
 
 India House, 
 1st July, 1852. 
 
 * " But we regret that you did not take an early opportunity of pointing out to 
 him the objectionable expressions which rendered him justly liable to your censure, 
 and of enabling him to withdraw or modify those expressions. Such a course might 
 have probably rendered the removal unnecessary, and might have secured the prose- 
 cution to a more complete and satisfactory issue, of the very important inquiries on 
 which he was engaged."
 
 168 DISSENT OF R. D. MANGLES, ESQ. 
 
 DISSENT OF R. D. MANGLES, ESQ., 
 Concurred in by three other Directors. 
 
 I dissent from the despatch to the Governor of Bombay in the political 
 department (No. 20) which passed the Court on Saturday last, the 25th 
 January, 
 
 1st. Because it appears to me that Colonel Outram rendered to the 
 Government of Bombay, and through it to the Government of India, a 
 service of the greatest value, by denouncing, and, as far as he was per- 
 mitted, by exposing a system of corruption, which, though in reality not 
 extending beyond the underlings of the public offices, has, beyond doubt, 
 deeply compromised the character of that Government in the estimation 
 of its native subjects. 
 
 2ndly. Because although I strongly condemn the intemperate and dis- 
 respectful language which Colonel Outram allowed himself to use in ad- 
 dressing the Government of which he was the servant, I cannot but re- 
 gard even his culpability in this respect as light in the balance when 
 weighed against the zeal, ability, and fearless energy which that officer 
 was bringing to bear upon the important object of his investigations, and 
 which it was the bounden duty, as assuredly it was the interest, of the 
 Government of Bombay to encourage and support, 
 
 3rdly. Because the circumstances of the case in general, and particu- 
 larly the instances of Govind Row Roria and Nursoo Punt, commented on 
 in our despatch, No. 19, of the 23rd ultimo, demonstrate to my mind 
 that Colonel Outram did not receive from the Government of Bombay all 
 the confidence and support which he deserved, and which a right view 
 of the great importance of vindicating the purity of our administration 
 in the opinion of the native community ought to have led the Govern- 
 ment to extend to him. 
 
 4thly. Because it appears to me that a sufficiently generous allowance 
 was not made by the Government of Bombay for the feelings of a zealous 
 and high-spirited public officer engaged in a keen and arduous conflict 
 with the crafty and unscrupulous agents and supporters of an inveterate 
 system of corruption ; and that this want of sympathy and consideration 
 is manifested by the whole tenor of Lord Falkland's minutes, and more 
 especially by the application by Mr. Blane of the expression " mono- 
 mania " to those feelings. 
 
 5thly. Because I consider the proceedings of the Government of Bom- 
 bay in removing Colonel Outram from an office where he was engaged in 
 exposing the system of corruption spoken of in the foregoing reason, on 
 the very spot where that system had its origin, and where its principal 
 agents and abettors lived and acted, to have been eminently ill-timed 
 and injudicious, inasmuch as that proceeding must necessarily have given 
 a triumph to those persons whose malpractices Colonel Outram was en- 
 deavouring to bring to light and to punishment ; and as it could not fail 
 at the same time to generate a not unreasonable suspicion in the minds 
 of the native community that the Government was not sincere in its 
 professed desire to expose and put down the system in question. 
 
 6thly. Because, fully admitting the necessity of checking the disre- 
 spectful tone of Colonel Outram's correspondence, and of correcting his 
 very erroneous view of the power and privileges of a Resident at the 
 Court of a Native Ally of the British Government, it would appear to 
 have been an easy and obvious matter to effect these objects without 
 subjecting a most meritorious officer to severe loss and humiliation, and 
 the public service itself to the heavy detriment pointed out in the fore-
 
 DISSENT OF R. D. MANGLES, ESQ. 169 
 
 going Reason, and inseparable from the course actually taken by the 
 Government of Bombay. 
 
 Tthly. Because, with the exceptions which I have stated, I consider 
 that Colonel Outrani acted rightly and in furtherance of the true honour 
 and interests of the British Government of India, in all essential respects 
 (to which category, in comparison with the vital importance of the real 
 objects at stake, I cannot think that the admitted exceptions belong) ; 
 and that with regard to whatever differences arose between that officer 
 and the Government of Bombay in such essential respects, the superior 
 authority was wrong. 
 
 8thly. Finally, because it appears to me that in the case before us the 
 general policy and duty of supporting the Government falls into a secon- 
 dary place in comparison with the paramount obligation upon the Court 
 to take no step, and to allow no step to be taken, calculated to damp the 
 spirit with which officers of high station and trust ought to be encou- 
 raged to maintain the honour and vindicate the character cf our admi- 
 nistration, when labouring under suspicion, or tending to afford even 
 plau^ble ground for the continued prevalence of such suspicion in the 
 minds of our native subjects. 
 
 Wherefore I am compelled to dissent from a despatch which appears 
 to me to lose sight in a great measure of the great interest at stake, 
 namely, the honour of the British Government of India ; to censure 
 heavily the zealous and honest public servant who was doing his utmost 
 to vindicate that honour, for the lapses of respect and for an error of 
 judgment, which, however gravely to be condemned, are of little import- 
 ance, when compared with the vast moment of the one grand object in 
 view ; and to give at least implied approbation to proceedings on the 
 part of the Government of Bombay, which appear to me to be of very 
 questionable policy, and to be fraught with consequences most injurious 
 to the character of our administration of British India. 
 
 (Signed) R. D. MANGLES. 
 
 'i'i House, 
 1st July, 1852. 
 
 I concur in this Dissent, 
 
 W. J. EASTWICK. 
 
 I concur in this Dissent, 
 
 JOHN COTTON. 
 
 I concur also in this Dissent, 
 
 W. H. C. PLOWDEN. 
 
 DISSENT OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL SYKES. 
 
 1. I dissent from the Draft No. 4>2, dated 24th June, 1852, on Colonel 
 Outram's case, not less on account of the alterations made in it by the 
 Board of Control against the sense of the majority of the Court, than on 
 account of the feeble and inadequate expression, even in the original 
 draft, of those vivid feelings and sentiments necessarily expected from 
 the Court upon matters affecting the honour of the British name ; 
 equally also on account of the indisposition manifest in the draft to give 
 due weight to Colonel Outram's explanations of his offensive bearing to- 
 wards the Bombay Government, which explanations, if they do not 
 justify his conduct, give a less offensive character to it.
 
 170 DISSENT OF COL. SYKES. 
 
 2. A foul scandal had long pervaded the public press in India and the 
 native mind, that parties connected with the Bombay Government were 
 open to bribery by the Guickwar, his agents, or by the agents of Bankers, 
 or others in Baroda and in Goozrat, for the purpose of effecting political 
 or personal objects at the seat of power. It seemed, therefore, to be the 
 imperative duty of the Bombay Government, conscious in the rectitude 
 of the high officials connected with it, and jealous of the British name 
 for purity in administration, to have taken the initiative in establishing 
 the truth or falsehood of the degrading scandal which dated as far back 
 as 1835. Nevertheless, Colonel Outram (then Captain Outram), Mr. 
 Malet, Acting Resident at Baroda, and subsequently Mr. Sutherland, the 
 Resident, in their arduous struggles to expose corruption, (if it existed,) 
 felt that they laboured under great difficulties ; and Colonel Outram, in 
 his Khutput Report, now before the Court, Sect. ii. par. 3, says : " The 
 belief appeared to have its origin in certain decisions of Government re- 
 specting disputed successions which it was thought could only have been 
 effected by bribery ; and the leniency with which parties who were 
 accused and were convicted, were treated by Government, strengthened 
 the impression." 
 
 3. The various cases in which this leniency is supposed to be manifest, 
 are arranged in chronological order in the Khutput Report ; and it will 
 suffice to give a passing reference to some of them. First, in the Um- 
 leara Succession case, when Colonel Outram took charge of the political 
 agency in the Mahee Caunta, in 1835 ; then in Motee's case of perjury, 
 7th April, 1838 ; then in the Thakoor of Gorasur's case ; then in a list 
 of cases of bribery, forwarded to Government in a memorandum of Mr. 
 H. Malet, in which the names of European gentlemen were used, 31st 
 December, 1837. In this memorandum, and in a letter of Colonel 
 Outram's to Sir Robert Grant, 1st January, 1838, nearly similar language 
 is used : " Odium has in consequence (of bribery) been heaped on the 
 British name, and a stigma has been attempted to be cast on the reputa- 
 tion of some of the most honourable and distinguished servants of Go- 
 vernment." Sect. v. par. 8. In the case of Anund Row, of the Political 
 Agents' Office, who was suspended by Mr. Malet and restored by Go- 
 vernment, 29th October, 1837, Sect. vi. par. 1 ; in the case of Dadoo 
 Punt, 25th November, 1837, in which Mr. Malet was informed by Govern- 
 ment, " nor is there any law by which native servants employed in the 
 political department, guilty of receiving bribes, can be punished other- 
 wise than by dismissal from the public service," 19th December, 1837 ; 
 in the case of Motee Lall Purshotum, head Karkoon of Rajpeempla, 28th 
 January, 1836, in which Mr. Courtenay is commended for the man's 
 acquittal, and Mr. Malet is subsequently commended for his conviction ; 
 in the case of Brijlall, native agent, Baroda Residency, Sect, viii., impli- 
 cated with Dadoo Punt, 25th November, 1837, and charged with bribery, 
 in which the Government set aside the arrangements of Mr. Sutherland, 
 the Resident at Baroda, which he thought necessary to insure the con- 
 viction of Brijlall, 28th March, 1838, and when he was ultimately con- 
 victed of receiving 4000 rupees, Government declined, 29th October, 
 1838, adopting Mr. Sutherland's urgent request that Brijlall should be 
 publicly declared incapable of serving the Government in future ; Go- 
 vernment also prohibited further investigations : but in prosecuting 
 Dadoo Punt, Brijlall was found to be implicated, 26th December, 1838, 
 and was again convicted of bribery, and again Mr. Sutherland begged he 
 might be proclaimed in the Gazette, and again the Government refused ; 
 in the case of the firm of Hurree Bugtee at Baroda, with British guaran- 
 tee during good behaviour, but which lent itself to all the corruptions, 
 Sect. ix. par. 4, et seq. The Government refused to sanction, 30th De-
 
 DISSENT OF COL. SYKES. 171 
 
 cember, 1837, Mr. Mulct's application to be allowed to insist upon the 
 firm producing their books for examination, and censured his conduct 
 at the same time, the Government under Sir George Arthur doing the 
 very reverse in a similar case, in 1843, when Mr. Bojd was Resident, 
 13th July, 1843. On 20th October, 1838, Colonel Outram, then Captain 
 Outram, wrote, Sect. x. par. 6, to Government, " All the exertions of the 
 local officers to perfect the regeneration of Goozrat now in progress, and 
 for the reform of abuses, mu.-t prove abortive so long as the Bombay Go- 
 vernment is looked upon, a-g it now is, throughout this country, as 
 patronising and encouraging a class of persons so notoriously and 
 thoroughly proved culpable. Until Government has cleared itself from 
 that imputation, the power to thwart our measures remains in the hands 
 of a body of men" (the Nagur Brahmin family) "the most powerful, 
 wealthy, and unprincipled in Goozrat, and that power to do evil can only 
 now be stemmed by an immediate, distinct, and public declaration of the 
 abhorrence with which Government regards the practices which have 
 come to light, and of its determination to punish such offences with the 
 utmost rigor in fnture.'' And he concluded : " I implore Government, if 
 it consider I have by my former services established any claims to its 
 consideration, as the only favour I have to ask at its hands, to receive 
 my most earnest appeal by attending to its requests and overlooking 
 aught that I have written, in the fervour of my feelings, that could in 
 any way be deemed presumptuous or disrespectful." And he finally 
 pledged himself to prove fifteen cases in which a strong bias on the part 
 of Government appeared in favour of parties accused of bribery, Sect. x. 
 par. 7. This was as far back as 1838. 
 
 The Guickwar, judging from these cases, followed in the same steps 
 in 1840, in the notorious Dackjee Dadajee affair, and the very Motee 
 Purshotum, previously convicted and dismissed, was employed in his cor- 
 rupt practices. The Advocate-General, in his report to Government, 
 31st January. 1^43, stated that the following sums were to be appro- 
 priated by the Guickwar to effect his objects : 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 To Sir Jas. Carnn.c, 10 lacs 10,00,000 
 
 Mr. Willoughby 250,000 
 
 Mr. Reid 60,000 
 
 Shree Crustna 36,000 
 
 Dr. Browne and minor parties .... 100,000 
 
 Total 14,56,000 
 
 In 1838, Captain Outram left Goozrat, and joined the force proceeding 
 to Afghanistan, and only returned to Baroda as Resident, when ap- 
 pointed by Sir George Clerk, in 1847. The former Residency agents 
 of the Xagur family had been convicted and removed, but had not been 
 proclaimed; and the feeling in the efficacy of Khutput remaining, it was 
 soon found the new servants were as bad as the former, and parties who 
 lent their aid to detect corruptions experienced their malice. In the case 
 of Venaick Moreshwur Furkey, otherwise Baba Furkey, a servant of some 
 years' standing, who had assisted Mr. Malet in his struggles against the 
 corruption of his day, this rnau. instead of progressive reward, had his 
 office broken up, and a portion of its duties only offered to him on a dimi- 
 nished salary ; and subsequently applying for the vacant office of native 
 agent at the Residency at Baroda, being recommended by Colonel Outram, 
 it was intimated by Government that he was not " a fit person to be em- 
 ployed in a political capacity," Part xi. Sect. xi. par. 15, although Colonel 
 Outram found him almost the only man courageous and able enough to 
 give him assistance in his inquiries into the practices of the Residency
 
 172 DISSENT OF COL. SYKES. 
 
 agent, Nursoo Punt. Baba Furkey had been arrested and confined in 
 his house by the Guickwar, with the knowledge of Captain French, the 
 Acting Resident, and was only released on its being known that Colonel 
 Outram was returning to Baroda. In consequence of these inquiries, 
 Nursoo Punt proposed to resign on his pension, and Colonel Outram re- 
 commended Baba Furkey to Government as his successor ; but Colonel 
 Outram being obliged to leave Baroda on the 12th September, 1848, for 
 Egypt, on account of health, on his return to Baroda, fifteen months 
 afterwards, he found Nursoo Punt had withdrawn his resignation, and 
 he himself had been reprimanded by Government during his absence for 
 doubting Nursoo Punt's integrity, and for recommending Baba Furkey 
 as his successor, 18th January, 1849. Colonel Outram, 22nd June, 1850, 
 then asked Government to be allowed to investigate Baba Furkey's case, 
 and was told, 6th October, 1850, that a previous decision of the Govern- 
 ment was final ; and even after a reference to the Court of Directors, the 
 Bombay Government still refused, 28th June, 1851, to consider Baba 
 Furkey's complaints. Then follow the details of the case of Nursoo 
 Luximon, otherwise Nursoo Punt, late native agent at Baroda Re- 
 sidency. In 1843, Nursoo Punt gave up 400 rupees a month, as an 
 assistant in the revenue branch of the Deccan, and obtained the ofiice 
 of Residency native agent at Baroda, on 300 rupees a month, quitting 
 the best climate of Western India (the Deccan) for the worst (Baroda). 
 Nursoo Punt was connected by family ties with several parties at Baroda, 
 his sister being married into the family of Baba Nafra, and another into 
 that of Dadoo Punt, whose misconduct has occasioned the notice of Go- 
 Note. Baba Nafra, the manager of the Baroda 
 
 vernment. Nursoo Punt 
 concealed these family ties 
 from the Resident and 
 from Government. On the 
 21st March, 1844, Nursoo 
 was charged with corrup- 
 tion on petition. It was 
 referred by Government to 
 
 banking firm of Hurree Bugtee, had been con- 
 victed by Mr. Malet of nefarious practices ', he 
 had been mixed up in the conspiracy to bribe Sir 
 James Carnac, and has since been convicted of 
 the abduction of a son and heir of his late master, 
 and of a foul conspiracy ngainst one of his mas- 
 ter's widows, Joitabaee. 
 
 Mr. Remington, Acting Resident, who said it was too late in the day to 
 inquire into it. In 1847, Colonel Outram was appointed Resident at 
 Baroda ; Ids first impressions of Nursoo Punt were decidedly favourable, 
 and for some time after his appointment he was ignorant of the family 
 ties between Nursoo Punt and Baba Nafra. But bis suspicions were 
 raised in the cases of Govind Row Guickwar and Gorajee Pol, both 
 against Nursoo Punt and Baba Nafra, in the first case by Nursoo Punt 
 asserting ignorance of an important document in his possession, which 
 he afterwards produced, and in the second case by his conniving at 
 embezzlement of the Pol's revenues. Nursoo Punt, as previously stated, 
 applied to be employed elsewhere, Colonel Outiam having got the 
 assistance of Baba Furkey, which aid, then given, has ended in his own 
 ruin. Colonel Outram being obliged to leave Baroda on sick certificate 
 for Egypt, Nursoo Punt withdrew his application for pension or other 
 provision, and Colonel Outram still found him at Baroda on his return. 
 The subsequent misconduct, conviction, and dismissal of this man, are 
 discussed in the Court's despatch in the Political Department, No. 479, 
 dated 23rd June, 1852. Then follows the Hurree Bugtee Guarantee 
 question, in which Colonel Outram, on reaching Bombay, 17th Septem- 
 ber, 1848, personally urged on the Secretary to Government, and on one 
 of the members of Government, that advantage should be taken of the 
 frauds committed by the Hurree Bugtee firm to withdraw the British 
 guarantee from it. This was not attended to, nor was a despatch of the 
 Court on the same subject, 13th February, 1850. The subsequent ex-
 
 DISSENT OF COL. SYKES. 173 
 
 posure of the atrocious proceedings in the Widow Joitabaee's case, the 
 seizure of the papers of the banking firm of Hurree Bugtee, which led 
 to the knowledge of the betrayal of Government and the Baroda Re- 
 sidency, by clerks communicating secret records ; the tracing money to 
 the hands of Government clerks in Bombay, particularly to Mr. Craig, of 
 the Secret and Political Department ; Government letting the matter 
 lie from October, 1850, to the receipt of the Khutput Report, in No- 
 vember, 1851, and the trial and condemnation of Nursoo Punt, have 
 been so lately discussed by the Court, that nothing more than mention 
 of them is necessary. 
 
 On the 10th April, 1851, Colonel Outram (Part ii., Sec. iv. par. 11) 
 wrote to Government that he had suspended four of his Karkoons, that 
 he could prove that Nursoo Punt had received 28,000 rupees in Joitabaee's 
 case, and accompanied the letter with a strong remonstrance. On his 
 arrival in Bombay, he had an interview with the Governor, Lord Falk- 
 land, and stated his perfect readiness to withdraw every statement or expres- 
 sion that might be regarded in the slightest degree as appearing to arraign 
 the proceedings of his superiors, and he assured his Lordship that nothing 
 was further from his intentions than to treat himself or his Government 
 with disrespect, and he expressed his desire to erase from his statement 
 and letter every passage calculated to give offence. Lord Falkland in- 
 timated his approval of this resolution, and his hope that Baroda affairs 
 would be settled to the satisfaction of all parties. Again, in the still 
 unfinished investigation of the suspicions against the Baroda Minister 
 for a purpose to bribe parties to get the charge for the Goozrat Horse 
 withdrawn, Government refused to sanction a guarantee being given to 
 Govind Row Roria, 23rd November, 1851, in case he gave evidence on 
 the subject. 
 
 4. Because the Draft does not notice Colonel Outram's paper of sug- 
 gestions of measures to guard against future corruptions, , nor does it 
 notice the rejection by Government of the whole of them. Sec. vi. 
 par. 11, concluding sections. 
 
 5. As Colonel Outram's Khutput Report was the necessary result of 
 the Government Circular of the 15th May, 1850, calling for information 
 from subordinates, on the supposed belief in the native mind of the 
 efficacy of bribery with Government officials, it was Colonel Outram's 
 duty to trace the belief at Baroda from its origin. The terms, therefore, 
 in the Minute of Council, 22nd November, 1851, applied to the Report and 
 to Colonel Outram personally, of "Monster Report," "Monomania," and 
 " it is impossible Colonel Outram in his right mind would persist," <fec., 
 seem misplaced and gratuitously offensive, and ought to have been 
 noticed in my opinion, in the Court's Draft. 
 
 6. Because Lord Falkland, in his Minute of the 28th February, 1852, 
 having said " we have not charged Colonel Outram with disrespect in any 
 of his Reports, though I am far from deeming that we had no grounds 
 for doing so, but only in his letter of the 31st October, 1851," it would 
 seem the decision of the Court, on this branch of the subject, should be 
 confined to this letter. 
 
 7. Because the Draft omits all mention of the present critical position 
 of the parties who gave their assistance to Colonel Outram in the pro- 
 curing the conviction of offenders, and does not suggest any measures to 
 guard them against the sure prospect of persecution, and consequent 
 personal damage to which they will be exposed. 
 
 8. Finally. Sufficient notice has been taken of cases, facts, and dates, 
 without entering into elaborate details, to demonstrate in the clearest 
 manner the comparatively eminent success of Colonel Outram, under the 
 most embarrassing difficulties, in the praiseworthy and honourable efforts
 
 174 DISSENT OF COL. SYKES. 
 
 to relieve the British Government from the scandal attached to its name, 
 of being indifferent to the corruptions of its servants and agents, and to 
 discriminate and to fix upon the proper parties not only criminality, but 
 the punishment due to criminality. It appears to me, therefore, that 
 the Draft does not sufficiently dwell upon the eminent services and per- 
 severing zeal of Colonel Outram ; that it does not make a natural and 
 reasonable allowance for the irritation consequent upon finding his efforts 
 for a great public object through a course of years constantly thwarted 
 or inadequately supported ; and above all, that it does not take that 
 elevated tone befitting the character of a great Government in reproba- 
 tion of corrupt conduct on the part of any of its servants, and in reproof 
 of parties, however high their stations, whose apathy, prejudices, or mis- 
 judgment, may have led to the continuance of an odium and a scandal, 
 which a vigorous manifestation, at an early period, might have either 
 obviated or crushed at once. For the above reasons, I dissent from the 
 Draft. 
 
 (Signed) W. H. SYKES. 
 
 India House, 
 
 1th My, 1852. 
 
 \Voodfall and Kinder, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 GAYLORC 
 
 PKINTEOIN U S A